"Take an umbrella with you."
"Oh, no, I have a leather coat. And I am only going as far as the boiling-room."
He put on his boots and his leather coat and went to the factory; but he had not gone twenty steps before, coming towards him, he met her with her skirts tucked up high above her white calves. She was walking, holding down the shawl in which her head and shoulders were wrapped.
"Where are you going?" said he, not recognizing her the first instant. When he recognized her it was already too late. She stopped, smiling, and looked long at him.
"I am looking for a calf. Where are you off to in such weather?" said she, as if she were seeing him every day.
"Come to the shed," said he suddenly, without knowing how he said it. It was as if someone else had uttered the words.
She bit her shawl, winked, and ran in the direction which led from the garden to the shed, but he continued his path, intending to turn off beyond the lilac-bush and go there too.
"Master," he heard a voice behind him. "The mistress is calling you, and wants you to come back for a minute."
This was Misha, his man-servant.
"My God! This is the second time you have saved me," thought Eugene, and immediately turned back. His wife reminded him that he had promised to take some medicine at the dinner-hour to a sick woman, and he had better take it with him.