On the third day Tatiana Markovna left the house without being observed. After two sleepless nights, Raisky had lain down and had given instructions to wake him if she left the house, but Yakob and Vassilissa had gone to early Mass, and the other servants had paid no attention. Later on Savili saw that his mistress, catching hold of the trees as she went, was making her way from the precipice to the fields. Raisky hurried after her and watched her slow return to the house; she stood still, looked round as if she were saying goodbye to the group of houses, groped with her hands, and swayed violently. Then he rushed up to her, brought her back to the house with Vassilissa’s help, put her in her armchair and sent for the doctor. Vassilissa fell on her knees before her mistress.
“Little mother! Tatiana Markovna,” she begged, “come back to us. Make the sign of the Cross.”
Tatiana Markovna crossed herself, sighed, and signed that she could not speak and wanted something to drink. Vassilissa undressed her, wrapped her in warm sheets, rubbed her hands and feet with spirit, and then gave her some warm wine to drink. The doctor prescribed for her, but said that it was most important of all that she should not be disturbed, but should be allowed to sleep.
An incautious word that Tatiana Markovna was ill reached Vera’s ears. She pushed past Natalie Ivanovna, and wanted to go over to the new house; Raisky had great difficulty in persuading her to abandon her intention as Tatiana Markovna lay in a deep sleep. In the evening Vera was worse, she had fever and was delirious, and during the night she flung herself from one side to another, calling on her grandmother in her sleep, and weeping. Raisky wanted to call the old doctor; he waited impatiently till the morning and spent his time in going from Vera to Tatiana Markovna, and from Tatiana Markovna back to Vera.
As Vera’s condition had not improved next morning, Raisky went with Vassilissa into Tatiana Markovna’s bedroom, where they found the old lady in the same state as she had been in the whole of the day before.
“I am afraid of going near her in case I alarm her,” he whispered.
“Should I awaken the mistress?”
“She must be awakened. Vera Vassilievna is ill, and I don’t know whether I ought to send for the old doctor.”
The words were hardly out of his mouth when Tatiana Markovna sat up. “Is Vera ill?” she said in a low voice.
Raisky breathed more freely, for his aunt, in her present anxiety, had lost the stony expression of yesterday. She signed to him to leave the room. Half an hour later she was walking across the courtyard to the old house with trouble plainly depicted on her face, but apparently without a trace of weariness. She entered Vera’s room cautiously, and when she saw the pale sleeping face, whispered to Raisky, “Send for the old doctor.” She now noticed for the first time the priest’s wife and her weary eyes; she embraced Natalie Ivanovna, and advised her kindly to go and get a whole day’s rest.