“Oh, I would have gone away from here, joined the Hussars, have contracted debts, and gone to wrack and ruin.”
“Now he threatens! You should not be so bent on your own way, young man.”
“Give me Marfa Vassilievna, and I will be more tranquil than water, humbler than the grass.”
“Shall we give him Marfinka, Marfa Egorovna?”
“He hasn’t deserved it, Tatiana Markovna. And it is really too early. Perhaps in two years’ time....”
He flew to his mother and shut her mouth with a kiss. Then he received from Tatiana Markovna the sign of the cross, and a kiss on the forehead.
“Where is Marfa Vassilievna?” he shouted joyfully.
“You must have patience,” admonished his grandmother, “we will fetch her.”
Tatiana Markovna and Marfa Egorovna found Marfinka hidden in the corner behind the curtains of her bed, close by the ikons. She covered her blushing face in her hands.
Vera received the news from her aunt with quiet pleasure, saying that she had expected it for a long time.