"O-hoy!" came at that moment, that inimitable huntsman's callwhich unites the deepest bass with the shrillest tenor, and roundthe corner came Daniel the head huntsman and head kennelman, a gray,wrinkled old man with hair cut straight over his forehead, Ukrainianfashion, a long bent whip in his hand, and that look of independenceand scorn of everything that is only seen in huntsmen. He doffed hisCircassian cap to his master and looked at him scornfully. Thisscorn was not offensive to his master. Nicholas knew that this Daniel,disdainful of everybody and who considered himself above them, was allthe same his serf and huntsman.

　　"Daniel!" Nicholas said timidly, conscious at the sight of theweather, the hounds, and the huntsman that he was being carried awayby that irresistible passion for sport which makes a man forget allhis previous resolutions, as a lover forgets in the presence of hismistress.

　　"What orders, your excellency?" said the huntsman in his deepbass, deep as a proto-deacon's and hoarse with hallooing- and twoflashing black eyes gazed from under his brows at his master, whowas silent. "Can you resist it?" those eyes seemed to be asking.

　　"It's a good day, eh? For a hunt and a gallop, eh?" askedNicholas, scratching Milka behind the ears.

　　Daniel did not answer, but winked instead.

　　"I sent Uvarka at dawn to listen," his bass boomed out after aminute's pause. "He says she's moved them into the Otradnoe enclosure.They were howling there." (This meant that the she-wolf, about whomthey both knew, had moved with her cubs to the Otradnoe copse, a smallplace a mile and a half from the house.)

　　"We ought to go, don't you think so?" said Nicholas. "Come to mewith Uvarka."

　　"As you please."

　　"Then put off feeding them."

　　"Yes, sir."

　　Five minutes later Daniel and Uvarka were standing in Nicholas'big study. Though Daniel was not a big man, to see him in a room waslike seeing a horse or a bear on the floor among the furniture andsurroundings of human life. Daniel himself felt this, and as usualstood just inside the door, trying to speak softly and not move, forfear of breaking something in the master's apartment, and hehastened to say all that was necessary so as to get from under thatceiling, out into the open under the sky once more.