Al llegar la mañana la ventisca seguía furiosa. En aquella tempestad gris y arremolinada no se veía ni Durnovka ni el molino del promontorio.
De vez en cuando la luz se hacía más clara, de vez en cuando la luz se volvía como la del anochecer. El huerto era todo blanco, y su bramido se mezclaba con el bramido del viento, en el cual uno se imaginaba sin cesar el repique de las campanas.
Las cúspides agudas de los ventisqueros echaban humo. Desde el porche, en el que, con los ojos entrecerrados, olfateando a través del frío de la ventisca el sabroso aroma procedente de la chimenea del ala de los sirvientes, se sentaban los perros guardianes, todos cubiertos de nieve.
Kuzma was barely able to make out the dark, misty forms of the peasants, their horses, sledges, the jingling of the sleighbells.
Two horses had been hitched to the bridegroom’s sledge; one horse was allotted to that of the bride. The sledges were covered with kazan felt lap robes with black patterns on the ends.
The participants in the ceremonial procession had girt themselves with sashes of divers hues. The women, who had donned wadded coats and wrapped their heads in shawls, walked to the sledges circumspectly, taking tiny steps, ceremoniously remarking:
“Heavens, God’s daylight is not visible!”
Rarely was a woman garbed in her own clothes: everything had been collected among the neighbours. Accordingly, special caution was needed not to fall, and they lifted their long skirts as high as possible.