“We’ll settle indoors, walk in,” the peasant invited him.

“It’s comfortable inside,” the woman said reassuringly.

Stepan Trofimovitch mounted the shaky steps. “How can it be?” he murmured in profound and apprehensive perplexity. He went into the cottage, however. “ Elle l’a voulu ” he felt a stab at his heart and again he became oblivious of everything, even of the fact that he had gone into the cottage.