Interrupted Stories

a glutton, he has no conscience at all, he will drink a couple of pairs of tea with French vodka as is proper, and then demand a bottle of white wine, fish, caviar, as much as his belly can carry, though he is already in his sixties, mind you, and what a heartless man he is, he will even bring his own son and expect you to treat him as well. Well, he will end up under the red cap referring to forced conscription into the army yet, the son is a troublemaker. As long as that old dog is alive, everything is kept under wraps, but when God calls his soul away, we will bring everything to light, and as for how the blue banknote went missing from the coachman".....

The long speech in Titum against Tit remained unfinished; a young man of about thirteen, slender, sweet, and pale from inner emotion, threw himself, without saying a word, onto Marya Valerianovna's neck and hid his head on her breast; she stroked his hair, laughed, wept, kissed him: "Well, God has brought us together, God has brought us together," she said; "Oh, let me look at you..." and she gazed for a long time, with that devoted, holy rapture with which only a mother's love can look. She was happy; he was so handsome, his features were so innocently pure and open; she prayed over him: "My dear boy, how thin you are," she said to him, "are you healthy?" "I am healthy, Mother," replied the young man, "I am only afraid that Father will find out; will he question me?" "Oh, my dear," the nurse intervened, "he is such a clever boy, and you do not know how to give an answer. To tell the truth, it is only your father who imagines that no one in the world can trick him, but all the servants deceive him." The young man did not answer, but made a movement that all nervous people make when a knife screeches against a plate.

II.

UNCLE LEV STEPANOVICH

It seems I began my story well, yet I have to retreat again, retreat far back, otherwise I cannot explain the scene occurring in Nastya's little room.

Let us begin where Efimka's memories end; he drove the young master in a hand-sled while "Uncle" was still alive. Uncle Lev Stepanovich deserves to be started with, if only because, despite all his patriarchal savagery, he is the first civilized representative of the Stolygin family. For this, he is indebted to his parents' blind love for his