' No, it's clearly useless now to expect him to-day,' she said with a sigh,' he will put up somewhere to avoid the storm, and perhaps for the night.'
Suddenly there was a sound of wheels only not from the forest but from the other direction. Someone had come into the court. Madame Adouev's heart stood still.
' What is that ? ' she thought, ' could he have planned to arrive unexpectedly ? But no, there is no road that way.'
She did not know what to think; but soon everything was explained. A minute later Anton Ivanitch came in. His hair was somewhat grizzled, he himself had grown stouter; his cheeks were fat from indolence and good-living. He wore the same surtout, the same loose pantaloons.
' I've been expecting and expecting you, Anton Ivanitch,' began Anna Pavlovna. ' I thought you were not coming. I had begun to despair of you.'
' It's very wrong of you to think such a thing! with any one else, ma'am, I daresay! You can't iiecoy me to see every one, but with you it's another thing ! I was delayed not through my own fault; I have just driven here with only one horse.'
' How was that ? ' asked Anna Pavlovna absently, as she moved towards the window.
' Because, ma'am, at the christening at Pavl Savitch's my little piebald fell lame; some evil spirit induced the
coachman to lay an old door from the barn over the old ditch ; they're poor folk, you see! They hadn't any new planks! And on the door there was some hook or something sticking out; so the horse stumbled and fell over the side, and I was within an ace of having my neck broken—such a shock! So from that time he's gone lame. They are such stingy creatures, to be sure. You wouldn't believe, ma'am, what their house is like; it would be better to keep people in some almshouse. And yet every winter at Moscow they will waste their thousand roubles.'
Anna Pavlovna listened absent-mindedly to him, and gave a slight shake of the head as he concluded.
'You know I have received a letter from Sashenka, Anton Ivanitch!' she interposed, 'he writes he will be here about the 20th; so I am hardly knowing what I am doing for joy.'
'I have heard of it, ma'am; Proshka told me, but I didn't understand what he was saying at first; I imagined he had arrived already; threw it me into a perspiration with joy!»
' God bless you, Anton Ivanitch, for loving us so.'
' Could any one love you more ? Why, I have dandled Alexandr Fedoritch in my arms; he is just like one of my own kin.'
. ' Thank you, Anton Ivanitch; God reward you for it! /And the last two nights I hardly slept, and did not let the servants sleep either; the idea of his arriving, and all of us asleep—that would be a pretty thing ! Yesterday and the day before I walked as far as the forest, and I should have gone to-day, but the burden of old age is too much for me. I have been worn out by a sleepless night. Sit down, Anton Ivanitch. Why you've got quite wet; won't you like a little breakfast and something to drink ? Dinner '11 very likely be late; we shall be waiting for the arrival of our dear one.'
' Well, then, just a snack! though I must own I have had some breakfast already.'
' Where did you have time for that ? '
' I stopped half way at Maria Karpovna's. I was passing that way, you know, and stopped, more for the mare than for myself; I gave her a little breathing space. It's no joking matter to trot twelve miles in this heat! While I
was there I just had a morsel of breakfast. It's as well I didn't listen to them; I would not stop in spite of their trying to keep me; if I had, the storm would have detained me there all day.'
' Well, and how is Maria Karpovna getting on ? '
' Very well, thank God; she sent her greetings to you.'
' I thank you kindly; and her daughter Sophia Vassi-lievna, and her husband; what news of them ? '
' No news, ma'am; the sixth baby will soon be on its way now. They expect it in a fortnight. They asked me to be with them about that time. But there's a poverty in their house it's painful to see. One would fancy they shouldn't think of any more children. But there—there's no end to it! '
' You don't say so !'
u Yes, indeed! in their rooms everything's topsy-turvy ; the windows are dropping out; the rain comes through the roof. And they haven't the means to repair things, and cheesecakes and mutton is what they put before you—that's all you'll get! And yet how pressing they are in asking one!'
' And she tried to catch my Sashenka, a draggle-tail like that!'
' Fancy her, ma'am, trying to net such an eagle! I can't contain my impatience to see him; what a handsome fellow, I declare! I've a notion of my own, Anna Pavlovna; how if he's got engaged, proposed to some princess or countess up there, and is coming now to ask your blessing and invite you to the wedding ? '
' How you talk, Anton Ivanitch! ' said Anna Pavlovna, beside herself with delight.
' I warrant you!'
' Ah ! my dear friend, God bless you ! There! it had gone right out of my head; I meant to tell you and had forgotten it; I keep thinking and thinking what it was and had it on the tip of my tongue; so you see I was afraid it had gone altogether. But won't you have some breakfast first, or shall I tell you now ? '
' It's just the same to me, ma'am, even if you tell me during breakfast time; I won't miss a morsel of it—a word of it, I mean ? '
' Well, then,' began Anna Pavlovna, when the breakfast
had been brought in and Anton Ivanitch had taken his seat
at the table, ' I saw '
' But why don't you take a little yourself? ' said Anton Ivanitch.
' Oh, do you suppose I can eat now ? I can't swallow a morsel; I haven't even drunk a cup of tea for ever so long. Well, I dreamt in my sleep that I was sitting like this, and facing me Agrafena was standing with the tray. And I thought I said to her, ' Why is your tray empty, pray,' said I, ' Agrafena ?' but she did not answer but kept looking at the door. ' My gracious !' I think to myself in my dream, ' why does she keep her eyes fixed on it ?' So I began to look. I look, and suddenly Sashenka comes in so mournful looking, and he came up to me and said, quite clearly as if it were not in a dream, * Good-bye, mamma,' said he ;' I am going that way,' and he pointed to the lake; ' and I shall not come back again,' he said. ' Where are you going, my dearie ?' I asked, but my heart seemed breaking. He did not answer, but looked so strangely and pitifully at me. 'But where have you come from, darling?' I thought I asked him again. And he heaved a deep sigh and pointed again to the lake. 'From the abyss,' he murmured, scarcely audibly, 'from the water-spirits.' I shivered all over and woke up. My pillow was all wet with tears; and I could not come to my waking senses; I sat up in bed, and wept streams of tears. Directly I was up, I had a lamp lighted before our Holy Mother of Kazan; may She, who mercifully intercedes for us, protect him from every trouble and sorrow. It's put me in such a state of perplexity; my Goodness, I can't make out what this ought to mean. Something must have happened to him, do you think ? Now a storm like this '
' That's a good thing, ma'am, weeping in one's sleep; it's a good omen !' said Anton, breaking an egg on to his plate. ' He will be here to-morrow without fail.'
' I was thinking whether we couldn't go after breakfast as far as the forest to meet him; we could drag ourselves up somehow, but see how muddy it has become all at once!'
' No, he will not be here to-day; I have had a forewarning !'
At that instant the sound of a troika bell in the distance
was borne upon the wind and suddenly sank away. Anna Pavlovna held her breath.
' Ah !' she said, relaxing her throat with a sigh, ' and I fancied '
Suddenly it came again.
' My God ! is it not a troika ? ' she said, and rushed on to the balcony.
'No,' answered Anton Ivanitch, 'it's the colt grazing near with a bell on its neck; I saw it on the road. I scared it just now, or it would have strayed into the rye. Why don't you have it hobbled ? '
Suddenly the bell tinkled as though it were just under the balcony and kept ringing louder and louder.
' Ah, my goodness ! so it is; here, here he comes. It is he, he !' cried Anna Pavlovna. ' Oh, oh ! Run, Anton Ivanitch ! Where are the servants ? Where is Agrafena ? No one . . . . just as if he were arriving at a strange house ; my goodness !'
She was quite beside herself. And the bell was ringing now as if it were in the room.
