{"product_id":"2940013762206","title":"The Kiss","description":"At eight o'clock on the evening of the twentieth of May all the six\u003cbr\u003ebatteries of the N---- Reserve Artillery Brigade halted for the night in\u003cbr\u003ethe village of Myestetchki on their way to camp. When the general\u003cbr\u003ecommotion was at its height, while some officers were busily occupied\u003cbr\u003earound the guns, while others, gathered together in the square near the\u003cbr\u003echurch enclosure, were listening to the quartermasters, a man in\u003cbr\u003ecivilian dress, riding a strange horse, came into sight round the\u003cbr\u003echurch. The little dun-coloured horse with a good neck and a short tail\u003cbr\u003ecame, moving not straight forward, but as it were sideways, with a sort\u003cbr\u003eof dance step, as though it were being lashed about the legs. When he\u003cbr\u003ereached the officers the man on the horse took off his hat and said:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"His Excellency Lieutenant-General von Rabbek invites the gentlemen to\u003cbr\u003edrink tea with him this minute...\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe horse turned, danced, and retired sideways; the messenger raised his\u003cbr\u003ehat once more, and in an instant disappeared with his strange horse\u003cbr\u003ebehind the church.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What the devil does it mean?\" grumbled some of the officers, dispersing\u003cbr\u003eto their quarters. \"One is sleepy, and here this Von Rabbek with his\u003cbr\u003etea! We know what tea means.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe officers of all the six batteries remembered vividly an incident of\u003cbr\u003ethe previous year, when during manoeuvres they, together with the\u003cbr\u003eofficers of a Cossack regiment, were in the same way invited to tea by a\u003cbr\u003ecount who had an estate in the neighbourhood and was a retired army\u003cbr\u003eofficer: the hospitable and genial count made much of them, fed them,\u003cbr\u003eand gave them drink, refused to let them go to their quarters in the\u003cbr\u003evillage and made them stay the night. All that, of course, was very\u003cbr\u003enice--nothing better could be desired, but the worst of it was, the old\u003cbr\u003earmy officer was so carried away by the pleasure of the young men's\u003cbr\u003ecompany that till sunrise he was telling the officers anecdotes of his\u003cbr\u003eglorious past, taking them over the house, showing them expensive\u003cbr\u003epictures, old engravings, rare guns, reading them autograph letters from\u003cbr\u003egreat people, while the weary and exhausted officers looked and\u003cbr\u003elistened, longing for their beds and yawning in their sleeves; when at\u003cbr\u003elast their host let them go, it was too late for sleep.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMight not this Von Rabbek be just such another? Whether he were or not,\u003cbr\u003ethere was no help for it. The officers changed their uniforms, brushed\u003cbr\u003ethemselves, and went all together in search of the gentleman's house. In\u003cbr\u003ethe square by the church they were told they could get to His\u003cbr\u003eExcellency's by the lower path--going down behind the church to the\u003cbr\u003eriver, going along the bank to the garden, and there an avenue would\u003cbr\u003etaken them to the house; or by the upper way--straight from the church\u003cbr\u003eby the road which, half a mile from the village, led right up to His\u003cbr\u003eExcellency's granaries. The officers decided to go by the upper way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What Von Rabbek is it?\" they wondered on the way. \"Surely not the one\u003cbr\u003ewho was in command of the N---- cavalry division at Plevna?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No, that was not Von Rabbek, but simply Rabbe and no 'von.'\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145904898288,"sku":"2940013762206","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013762206_p0.jpg?v=1763589919","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013762206","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}