We sat down to dine. Vassilissa Egorovna was not silent for a single moment, and she overwhelmed me with questions. Who were my parents? Were they living? Where did they live? How much were they worth? On hearing that my father owned three hundred souls:[8]
“Really now!” she exclaimed; “well, there are some rich people in the world! As for us, my little father, we have only our one servant-girl, Palashka; but, thank God, we manage to get along well enough! There is only one thing that we are troubled about. Masha is an eligible girl, but what has she got for a marriage portion? A clean comb, a hand-broom, and three copecks—Heaven have pity upon her!—to pay for a bath. If she can find a good man, all very well; if not, she will have to be an old maid.”
I glanced at Maria Ivanovna; she was blushing all over, and tears were even falling into her plate. I began to feel pity for her, and I hastened to change the conversation.
“I have heard,” said I, as appropriately as I could, “that the Bashkirs are assembling to make an attack upon your fortress.”
“And from whom did you hear that, my little father?” asked Ivan Kouzmitch.
“They told me so in Orenburg,” I replied.
“All nonsense!” said the Commandant; “we have heard nothing about them for a long time. The Bashkirs are a timid lot, and the Kirghises have learnt a lesson. Don’t be alarmed, they will not attack us; but if they should venture to do so, we will teach them such a lesson that they will not make another move for the next ten years.”
“And are you not afraid,” continued I, turning to the Captain’s wife, “to remain in a fortress exposed to so many dangers?”
“Habit, my little father,” she replied. “It is twenty years ago since they transferred us from the regiment to this place, and you cannot imagine how these accursed heathens used to terrify me. If I caught a glimpse of their hairy caps now and then, or if I heard their yells, will you believe it, my father, my heart would leap almost into my mouth. But now I am so accustomed to it that I would not move out of my place if anyone came to tell me that the villains were prowling round the fortress.”
“Vassilissa Egorovna is a very courageous lady,” observed Shvabrin earnestly; “Ivan Kouzmitch can bear witness to that.”