Forgive an old man with a pepper pot, gentleman! We have stolen
together!' he shouted suddenly; 'stolen together, stolen together!' he
repeated, with evident satisfaction that his tongue had obeyed him at
last.
Everyone in the room was silent. 'And where is ... the ikon here,' he
asked, throwing back his head and turning up his eyes; 'we must
cleanse ourselves a bit.'
He fell to praying to one of the corners, crossing himself fervently
several times in succession, tapping first one shoulder and then the
other with his fingers and hurriedly repeating:
'Have mercy me, oh, Lor ... me, oh, Lor ... me, oh, Lor ...' My
father, who had not taken his eyes off Latkin, and had not uttered a
word, suddenly started, stood beside him and began crossing himself,
too. Then he turned to him, bowed very low so that he touched the
floor with one hand, saying, 'You forgive me, too, Martinyan
Gavrilitch,' kissed him on the shoulder. Latkin in response smacked
his lips in the air and blinked: I doubt whether he quite knew what he
was doing. Then my father turned to everyone in the room, to David, to
Raissa and to me:
'Do as you like, act as you think best,' he brought out in a soft and
mournful voice, and he withdrew.
My aunt was running up to him, but he cried out sharply and gruffly to
her. He was overwhelmed.
'Me, oh, Lor ... me, oh, Lor ... mercy!' Latkin repeated. 'I am a
man.'
'Good-bye, Davidushka,' said Raissa, and she, too, went out of the
room with the old man.
'I will be with you tomorrow,' David called after her, and, turning
his face to the wall, he whispered: 'I am very tired; it will be as
well to have some sleep now,' and was quiet.
It was a long while before I went out of the room. I kept in hiding. I
could not forget my father's threats. But my apprehensions turned out
to be unnecessary. He met me and did not utter a word. He seemed to
feel awkward himself. But night soon came on and everything was quiet
in the house.
XXIV
Next morning David got up as though nothing were the matter and not
long after, on the same day, two important events occurred: in the
morning old Latkin died, and towards evening my uncle, Yegor, David's
father, arrived in Ryazan. Without sending any letter in advance,
without warning anyone, he descended on us like snow on our heads. My
father was completely taken aback and did not know what to offer to
his dear guest and where to make him sit. He rushed about as though
delirious, was flustered as though he were guilty; but my uncle did
not seem to be much touched by his brother's fussy solicitude; he kept
repeating: 'What's this for?' or 'I don't want anything.' His manner
with my aunt was even colder; she had no great liking for him, indeed.
In her eyes he was an infidel, a heretic, a Voltairian ... (he had in
fact learnt French to read Voltaire in the original). I found my Uncle
Yegor just as David had described him. He was a big heavy man with a
broad pock-marked face, grave and serious. He always wore a hat with
feathers in it, cuffs, a frilled shirt front and a snuff-coloured vest
and a sword at his side. David was unspeakably delighted to see him--he
actually looked brighter in the face and better looking, and his
eyes looked different: merrier, keener, more shining; but he did his
