portfolio again as quickly as
possible, but it seemed as though on this unlucky day I was destined to
experience every possible kind of adversity. I put the key back into the
padlock and turned it round, but not in the right direction. Thinking
that the portfolio was now locked, I pulled at the key and, oh horror!
found my hand come away with only the top half of the key in it! In vain
did I try to put the two halves together, and to extract the portion
that was sticking in the padlock. At last I had to resign myself to the
dreadful thought that I had committed a new crime--one which would be
discovered to-day as soon as ever Papa returned to his study! First of
all, Mimi's accusation on the staircase, and then that one mark, and
then this key! Nothing worse could happen now. This very evening
I should be assailed successively by Grandmamma (because of Mimi's
denunciation), by St. Jerome (because of the solitary mark), and by Papa
(because of the matter of this key)--yes, all in one evening!
'What on earth is to become of me? What have I done?' I exclaimed as
I paced the soft carpet. 'Well,' I went on with sudden determination,
'what MUST come, MUST--that's all;' and, taking up the bonbons and the
cigars, I ran back to the other part of the house.
The fatalistic formula with which I had concluded (and which was one
that I often heard Nicola utter during my childhood) always produced
in me, at the more difficult crises of my life, a momentarily soothing,
beneficial effect. Consequently, when I re-entered the drawing-room,
I was in a rather excited, unnatural mood, yet one that was perfectly
cheerful.
XIII. THE TRAITRESS
After luncheon we began to play at round games, in which I took a lively
part. While indulging in 'cat and mouse', I happened to cannon rather
awkwardly against the Kornakoffs' governess, who was playing with us,
and, stepping on her dress, tore a large hole in it. Seeing that the
girls--particularly Sonetchka--were anything but displeased at the
spectacle of the governess angrily departing to the maidservants' room
to have her dress mended, I resolved to procure them the satisfaction
a second time. Accordingly, in pursuance of this amiable resolution, I
waited until my victim returned, and then began to gallop madly round
her, until a favourable moment occurred for once more planting my
heel upon her dress and reopening the rent. Sonetchka and the young
princesses had much ado to restrain their laughter, which excited my
conceit the more, but St. Jerome, who had probably divined my tricks,
came up to me with the frown which I could never abide in him, and said
that, since I seemed disposed to mischief, he would have to send me away
if I did not moderate my behaviour.
However, I was in the desperate position of a person who, having staked
more than he has in his pocket, and feeling that he can never make up
his account, continues to plunge on unlucky cards--not because he hopes
to regain his losses, but because it will not do for him to stop and
consider. So, I merely laughed in an impudent fashion and flung away
from my monitor.
After 'cat and mouse', another game followed in which the gentlemen sit
on one row of chairs and the ladies on another, and choose each other
for partners. The youngest princess always chose the younger Iwin,
Katenka either Woloda or Ilinka, and Sonetchka Seriosha--nor, to my
extreme astonishment, did Sonetchka seem at all embarrassed when her
