There was the report of four shots, and like swallows the snipe turned swift somersaults in the air and vanished from sight.

The stand-shooting was capital.

Stepan Arkadyevitch shot two more birds and Levin two, of which one was not found.

It began to get dark.

Venus, bright and silvery, shone with her soft light low down in the west behind the birch trees, and high up in the east twinkled the red lights of Arcturus.