Besides, he had to assume a care-free look before his comrades and to talk of something else!
His comrades! Volodya was convinced that they were all very glad because of his “one.”
XIX
Volodya’s mother looked at the “one” and turned her uncomprehending eyes on her son. Then again she glanced at the report and exclaimed quietly:
“Volodya!”
Volodya stood before her, and he felt intensely small. He looked at the folds of his mother’s dress and at his mother’s pale hands; his trembling eyelids were conscious of her frightened glances fixed upon them.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Don’t you worry, mamma,” burst out Volodya suddenly; “after all, it’s my first!”
“Your first!”
“It may happen to any one. And really it was all an accident.”