of him!'
A nd she drop ped her spoon with a loud clank into the slop-5asin. ' * * ' Agrafena !' broke in suddenly from the other room,
S sk ' are ^° u °^ °^ Y9 u L se J???s_? Q on>t y ou H? ow l ^ at Sashenka '** i s resfingj^ TTave you come to blows, or what is it, at parting with your sweetheart ? '
'Mustn't stir for you—have to sit like the dead!' Agrafena hissed like a snake, wiping a cup with both hands as though she would have liked to have broken it to pieces.
' Good-bye, good-bye,' said Yevsay, with a colossal sigh, 'it's the last day, Agrafena Ivanovna!'
'And thank God for it! The devil's welcome to you for all I care, there will be more room. There—get along, one can't stir a step; you straddle your long legs all over the place!'
He touched her on the shoulder; how she answered him ! He sighed again, but did not move from his place, and it would have been quite needless if he had; Agrafena did not really wish him to go. Yevsay knew this, and was not uneasy.
' Who will take my place, I wonder ? ' he asked always with a sigh.
' The devil!' she answered abruptly.
' So long as it's not Proshka. But who will play cards with you ? '
' Well, if it were Proshka, what does it matter to you ? ' she asked angrily.
Yevsay got up.
' Don't play with Proshka, for mercy's sake, don't,' he said anxiously, and almost menacingly.
' But who can prevent me ? You, pray, you scarecrow ? '
'My darling, Agrafena Ivanovna!' he began imploringly, seizing her round the waist, I should have said, if there had been any sign of a waist about her.
She responded to his embrace by a sharp elbow in his chest.
' My darling, Agrafena Ivanovna !' he repeated, ' will Proshka love you as I do ? Look at him; what an impudent fellow he is; not a woman in the house he does not make up to. But me—ah! you are the only woman in the world for me. If it were not the master's will—oh ! '
He choked at this point, and waved his hand in the air.
Agrafena could hold out no longer; even her sorrow at last found vent in tears.
' But will you go away from me, you villain ? ' she said, weeping. ' What are you chattering about, stupid ? Me keep company with Proshka! Can't you see for yourself that you can never get a word of sense out of him ? He can do nothing but try to put his stupid arms round one.'
' Did he do that ? Oh, the brute ! And you never told me ! I'd have shown him.'
' Let him try it on! Am I the only petticoat in the house ? Me keep company with Proshka! What an idea! Even to sit by him makes me sick, the pig! And you have always to be on the look out with him, or he's trying to gobble up something on the sly; but you don't notice it, of course! '
' If such a thing should happen, Agrafena Ivanovna— the devil's too strong for us, you know—better let Grishka have my place here; at least he's a civil fellow and hard working; he didn't sneer '
' There's an idea now!' Agrafena fell upon him. ' Why do you foist some one on me, as if I were like—like that! Go away, I say. It's not the likes of me to go and throw myself into any one else's arms. Only with you, you wretch, the devil truly led me into temptation, and I repent it. The very idea!'
' God bless you for your goodness ! it's a weight off my heart!' Yevsay cried.
'You're glad!' she shrieked savagely again; 'it is a good thing you're glad at something—be as glad as you like.'
And her lips grew white with anger. Both were silent.
' Agrafena Ivanovna,' said Yevsay timidly, after a short pause.
' Well, what now ? '
' Why, I was quite forgetting; not a drop nor a morsel of anything have I tasted this morning.'
' Oh, that's what you're after.'
' I couldn't eat for sorrow, my dear.'
She took from the bottom shelf of the cupboard, from behind a loaf of sugar, a glass of vodka and two huge slices of bread and ham. All this had long before been made ready for him by her own careful hand.
She threw them to him, as one would hardly throw a bone to a dog.
One piece fell on the floor.
' Here, then, ready for you ! yes! for you, may it choke you. But hush, don't munch for all the house to hear!'
She turned away from him with an expression of simulated aversion, but he slowly began to eat, looking doubtfully at Agrafena and covering his mouth with one hand.
Meanwhile the coachman appeared at the gates with the three horses, and took them under the shelter of the stable. Removing his cap, he took out of it a dirty towel and rubbed the sweat off his face. Anna Pavlovna saw him from the window, and she turned pale. Her knees trembled under her, and her arms hung limp, although she had been expecting it. Recovering herself with an effort, she called for Agrafena.
' Go on tiptoe, quietly, and see whether Sashenka is asleep,' she said. ' He will sleep too long, dear heart,
pei haps, and it is the last day; so I shall see nothing of him. But no! you can't do it. You'll be sure to thump into the room like a cow. I had better go myself/'
And she went.
' Go on, then, you're not a cow, I suppose' grumbled Agrafena to herself. ' A cow, indeed ! you'd be glad of a few more such cows ! '
Alexandr Fedoritch himself met Anna Pavlovna on her way, a fair young man in all the bloom of youth, health and strength. He said good-morning cheerfully to his mother, but suddenly catching sight of the trunk and packages he seemed rather disturbed, walked away to the window in silence, and began to draw with his finger on the window-pane. After a minute he spoke again to his mother and looked unconcernedly, even with pleasure, at the preparations for the journey.
' What made you sleep so late, dearie ?' said Anna Pavlovna, 'isn't your face a little swollen? Let me moisten your eyes and cheeks with some rose-water.
' No, I don't want any, mamma.' r ' What will you like for breakfast ? Would tea be best or ' coffee ? I have ordered some beef cutlets and sour cream fritters—what will you have ? '
' It's all the same to me, mamma.'
Anna Pavlovna went on packing the linen, then stopped and gazed at her son with a look of anguish.
' Sasha! ' she said, after a pause.
'What do you want, mamma?'
She hesitated to speak, as if she were afraid of something.
' Where are you going, my dear one, and why ? ' she asked at last in a low voice.
'How, where, mamma? To Petersburg—why?—why to w
' Listen, Sasha,' she said with great emotion, placing her hand on his shoulder, evidently with the intention of making a last appeal; ' it is not too late ; think again, and stop.'
'Stop! but how is it possible? Look, my clothes are packed,' he said, not knowing what to say.
'Yourclothes packed, but there!—there!—see, now they are unpacked.'
In three armfuls she had emptied all out of the trunk.
' How can it be so, mamma ? I am all ready—and to change so suddenly—what will they say ? '
He looked distressed.
' It is not so much for my own sake as for yours, that I persuade you not to go. Why are you going ? To try and find happiness. But have you not been happy here, I wonder? Does not your mother think of nothing_.elsfi.3lL, day long but how'to gratif^every_wish of yours ? Of course, at your age now, your mother's devotion alone is not enough for your happiness : and I don't expect it. Well, * look round you; every one is eager to please you. And Maria 'Karpovna's daughter/ Sonushta?* There—you blusKecT Ah, my darling, how shejoves jou—God bless her! They say she has not slept foFthree nights 1'
' There! Mamma! how you talk ! She is so '
' Yes, yes ! as though I don't see. Ah, and, by-the-by, she has taken your handkerchiefs to hem. * I won't let
