God gave me a nosegay and in the nosegay was Andryusha with a little
knife,' he calls our Lyubotchka, Andryusha; 'now we shall both be
quite well,' he says. 'We need only one stroke with the little knife,
like this!' and he points to his throat. I don't understand him, but I
say, 'All right, dear, all right,' but he gets angry and tries to
explain what he means. He even bursts into tears.'
'But you should have said something to him,' I put in; 'you should
have made up some lie.'
'I can't tell lies,' answered Raissa, and even flung up her hands.
And indeed she could not tell lies.
'There is no need to tell lies,' observed David, 'but there is no need
to kill yourself, either. No one will say thank you for it, you know.'
Raissa looked at him intently.
'I wanted to ask you something, Davidushka; how ought I to spell
'while'?'
'What sort of 'while'?'
'Why, for instance: I hope you will live a long
'Spell: w-i-l-e.'
'No,' I put in, 'w-h-i-l-e.'
'Well, it does not matter. Spell it with an h, then! What does matter
is, that you should live a long while.'
'I should like to write correctly,' observed Raissa, and she flushed a
little.
When she flushed she was amazingly pretty at once.
'It may be of use.... How father wrote in his day ... wonderfully! He
taught me. Well, now he can hardly make out the letters.'
'You only live, that's all I want,' David repeated, dropping his voice
and not taking his eyes off her. Raissa glanced quickly at him and
flushed still more.
'You live and as for spelling, spell as you like.... Oh, the devil,
the witch is coming!' (David called my aunt the witch.) 'What ill-luck
has brought her this way? You must go, darling.'
Raissa glanced at David once more and ran away.
David talked to me of Raissa and her family very rarely and
unwillingly, especially from the time when he began to expect his
father's return. He thought of nothing but him and how we should live
together afterwards. He had a vivid memory of him and used to describe
him to me with particular pleasure.
'He is big and strong; he can lift three hundred-weight with one
hand.... When he shouted: 'Where's the lad?' he could be heard all
over the house. He's so jolly and kind ... and a brave man! Nobody can
intimidate him. We lived so happily together before we were ruined.
They say he has gone quite grey, and in old days his hair was as red
as mine. He was a strong man.'
David would never admit that we might remain in Ryazan.
'You will go away,' I observed, 'but I shall stay.'
'Nonsense, we shall take you with us.'
'And how about my father?'
'You will cast off your father. You will be ruined if you don't.'
'How so?'
David made me no answer but merely knitted his white brows.
'So when we go away with father,' he began again, 'he will get a good
situation and I shall marry.'
'Well, that won't be just directly,' I said.
'No, why not? I shall marry soon.'
'You?'
'Yes, I; why not?'
'You haven't fixed on your wife, I suppose.'
'Of course, I have.'
'Who is she?'
David laughed.
'What a senseless fellow you are, really? Raissa, of course.'
'Raissa!' I repeated in amazement; 'you are joking!'
'I am not given to joking, and don't like it.'
'Why, she is a year older than you are.'
'What of it? but let's drop the subject.'
'Let me ask one question,' I said. 'Does she know that you mean to
marry her?'
'Most likely.'
'But haven't you declared your feelings?'
'What is there to declare? When the time comes I shall tell her. Come,
