He waited a long time for her at the station. It was a frosty sunny day, and he liked the abundance of skiers, the creak of fresh snow and the coming two days: first, an electric train, and then twenty kilometers through the forests and fields to ski to the village in which he had a small cottage, and after spending the night they Ride and return home will be in the evening. She was a little late, but it was almost her only weakness. When he finally saw her, out of breath, in a red cap, with strands of hair curled out, he thought how beautiful she was, how well dressed, and that she was late, probably because she wanted to be always beautiful. In the train, the train was noisy, cramped with backpacks and skis. He went out to smoke in the vestibule. I thought about how strange a person is. Here he is - a lawyer, and he is already thirty years old, but he didn’t accomplish anything special, as he dreamed of in his youth, and he has many reasons to be sad, but he doesn’t feel sad - he’s good.

They came almost the last at a distant station. The snow creaked loudly under their footsteps. “What a winter! She said, squinting. “It hasn't been like this for a long time.” The forest was riddled with smoky slanting rays. Snow shrouded every now and then hung between the trunks, and the spruce, freed from the load, rocked its paws. They walked from block to block and sometimes saw roofed villages from above. They walked up the snowy hills and rolled down, resting on fallen trees, smiling at each other. Sometimes he took her neck from behind, attracted and kissed her cold weathered lips. I almost didn’t want to speak, only - “Look!” or "Listen!". But at times he noticed that she was sad and distracted. And when, finally, they came to his wooden house, and he began to carry firewood and flood the cast-iron German stove, she, without undressing, lay on the bed and closed her eyes. "Tired?" - he asked. “I’m terribly tired. Let's sleep. - She got up, stretched, not looking at him. - Today I will lie down alone. Can I have it here, by the stove? Don’t be angry, ”she said hastily and lowered her eyes. "What are you?" - He was surprised and immediately remembered all of her sad, alienated appearance today. His heart was beating painfully. He suddenly realized that she didn’t know her at all - how she was studying there at her university, with whom she knew what she was talking about. He switched to another bed, sat down, lit a cigarette, then put out the lamp and lay down. He felt bitter because he understood: she was leaving him. A minute later he heard that she was crying.

Why did she suddenly feel so sad and unhappy today? She did not know. She only felt that the time of first love had passed, and now something new was coming and she was not interested in her former life. She was tired of being nobody in front of his parents, his friends and her friends, she wanted to become a wife and mother, but he does not see this and is quite happy like that. But mortally sorry was the first, alarming and hot, full of novelty, the time of their love. Then she began to fall asleep, and when she woke up at night, she saw him squatting near the stove. His face was sad, and she felt sorry for him.

In the morning they had breakfast in silence, drank tea. But then they cheered up, took the skis and went for a drive. And when it began to get dark, they gathered, locked the cottage and went to the station on skis. They approached Moscow in the evening. Burning rows of windows appeared in the darkness, and he thought that it was time for them to part, and suddenly imagined her with his wife. Well, the first youth has passed, it’s already thirty, and when you know that she’s next to you, and she’s good, and all that, and you can always leave her to be with the other, because you are free, - in this feeling in fact, there is no joy. When they went to the station square, they felt somehow mundane, calm, easy, and they said goodbye, as they always said goodbye, with a hasty smile. He did not accompany her.