“If you’d only try something else—say soap-bubbles.”
Volodya smiled sadly.
“No sooner do the bubbles fly up than the shadows follow them on the wall.”
“Volodya, unless you take care your nerves will be shattered. Already you have grown thinner because of this.”
“Mamma, you exaggerate.”
“No, Volodya.... Don’t I know that you’ve begun to sleep badly and to talk nonsense in your sleep. Now, just think, suppose you die!”
“What are you saying!”
“God forbid, but if you go mad, or die, I shall suffer horribly.”
Volodya laughed and threw himself on his mother’s neck.
“Mamma dear, I shan’t die. I won’t do it again.”