“Why laugh? I am speaking seriously when I tell you what a joy it would have been for your Grandmother. Then you would have wanted the lace and the silver, and not be flinging it away.”
“But as I am not marrying, I don’t need these things. Therefore it is settled that Veroshka and Marfinka shall have them.”
“Your decision is final?”
“It is final. And it is further settled that if you do not like this arrangement, everything passes into the hands of strangers. You have my word for it.”
“Your word for it,” cried his aunt. “You are a lost man. Where have you lived, and what have you done. Tell me, for Heaven’s sake, what your purpose in life is, and what you really are?”
“What I am, Grandmother? The unhappiest of men!” He leaned his head back on the cushion as he spoke.
“Never say such a thing,” she interrupted. “Fate hears and exacts the penalty, and you will one day be unhappy. Either be content or feign content.”
She looked anxiously round, as if Fate were already standing at her shoulder.
Raisky rose from the divan.
“Let us be reconciled,” he said. “Agree to keep this little corner of God’s earth under your protection.”