"
Then he went to the church to serve the mass for the dead, and,
having prayed for the repose of the late Aquilina's soul, he
began to think that it was necessary for him to marry as soon as
possible.
He was then forty-three years old, tall, broad-shouldered, with a
heavy bass voice, like an arch-deacon; his large eyes looked bold
and wise from under his dark eyebrows; in his sunburnt face,
overgrown with a thick, black beard, and in all his mighty figure
there was much truly Russian, crude and healthy beauty; in his
easy motions as well as in his slow, proud walk, a consciousness
of power was evident--a firm confidence in himself. He was liked
by women and did not avoid them.
Ere six months had passed after the death of his wife, he courted
the daughter of an Ural Cossack. The father of the bride,
notwithstanding that Ignat was known even in Ural as a "pranky"
man, gave him his daughter in marriage, and toward autumn Ignat
Gordyeeff came home with a young Cossack-wife. Her name was
Natalya. Tall, well-built, with large blue eyes and with a long
chestnut braid, she was a worthy match for the handsome Ignat.
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