160 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



For four months everything went on as well as 

 heart could wish. Fetch orin, as I believe I told you 

 before, was uncommonly fond of the chase. For- 

 merly all his delight was in the woods, after the wild 

 boars and the deer, but now he hardly ever went out- 

 side the gates of the fort. All at once, however, I 

 observed he was grown pensive, and would walk up and 

 down the room with his hands behind his back. Then 

 he went out one morning to shoot, without saying a 

 word to any one, and stayed out the whole morning. 

 Presently this happened a second time, and then 

 again and again. There's something wrong, thought 

 I, I'll lay my life on it ; a black cat has jumped be- 

 tween the pair. 



[It was so. Petchorin's passion was beginning to 

 cool, and Bela was growing unhappy. One day, 

 when Petchorin was away hunting, she walked out 

 with the captain on the ramparts.] 



Our fort stood on high ground, and the view from 

 the ramparts was very fine. On the one side was an 

 open tract, bounded by ravines, beyond which was a 

 wood, stretching up to the crest of the mountain ; 

 here and there hamlets were seen smoking, and horses 

 grazing. On the other side ran a small stream scat- 

 tering its spray over the thick copse that clothed a 

 rocky hill, an offshoot from the main chain of the Cau- 

 casus. We sat on the angle Of a bastion, so that we 

 had a full view on both sides. Suddenly I saw a 



