The beautiful stranger
A random traveler, who did not give her name. the author focuses on her appearance description of the woman: she is attractive, tanned and her body is firm, which all together tempts the lieutenant. They both are swept by a sudden passion. She said it happened with her for the first time, such feelings are more like a sunstroke, she has never done anything like it before. After spending a night with the lieutenant, she asks him to leave a day after her, on another steamer, which proves that she can think clearly. She returns home, where her husband and three-year-old daughter are waiting for her. On further thoughts and feelings of the heroine the author does not say anything.
The Lieutenant
He is a passenger on a steamer on the Volga river, who meets during a trip a wonderful woman. Between heroes erupts sudden passion, and they decide to go ashore to spend the night together in a hotel. First, the hero does not take this travel adventure seriously, which proves it is not new to him, he is used to such things. He makes an attempt to persuade the stranger to continue the journey together, but she does not agree. He takes her rejection lightly. But when he arrives at the hotel he feels acute pain because the woman is not around. With every minute the lieutenant realizes that he falls in love with this woman, but there is nothing he can do: he knows neither her name nor her address, only the town she is from, and the fact that she is married and has a little daughter. This random meeting becomes crucial for the hero, it changes him completely. This passion grows into deep and meaningful feeling, and manages in one day change him so greatly that it takes ten years to leave such a mark on a person’s heart.
