"Wait, I'll show you something," he said at last, took a folded note from his pocket and gave it to Anninka. "Here, read this."
Anninka read:
"I was praying to-day, and I asked my good, kind God to leave me my good little Anninka. And the good, kind God said, 'Put your arm around good little Anninka's plump waist and press her close to your heart.'"
"Yes?" he asked turning slightly pale.
"Fi, how nasty!" she answered, looking at him in bewilderment.
Porfiry Vladimirych turned still paler and hissed through his teeth:
"I suppose, we must have hussars!" then crossed himself and shuffled out of the room.
In about fifteen minutes he returned and resumed his jesting as if nothing had happened.
"Well?" he asked. "Are you going to stop at Voplino? Will you go and say good-by to your old granny? Do, my dear, do. It is very good of you to have thought of your grandma. Never forget your kinsfolk, my dear, especially those who, in a manner of speaking, were willing to die for us."
They attended the mass and requiem services, ate some kutya in the church, then came home, ate some more kutya and sat down at the tea table. Porfiry Vladimirych, as if to spite her, sipped his tea more slowly than usual, and dragged his words out wearisomely, discoursing in the intervals between gulps. About ten o'clock they finished tea, and Anninka said imploringly: