Anninka could bear it no longer. She had had to listen to such speeches all day long.
"Fedulych!" she shouted in pain. "What have I done to you? Why do you take pleasure in insulting me?"
It was all she could stand. She felt as if something was strangling her. Another word—and she would break down.
[BOOK V]
FORBIDDEN FAMILY JOYS
CHAPTER I
Not long before the catastrophe that befell Petenka, Arina Petrovna, on one of her visits to Golovliovo, noticed a change in Yevpraksia. Brought up in the practices of serfdom, where the pregnancy of a domestic was the subject of a detailed and not uninteresting investigation, and was even considered an item of income, Arina Petrovna had a keen eye for such matters. She merely looked at Yevpraksia, and the girl, without saying a word, turned away her flushed face in full cognizance of her guilt.
"Come now, come now, my lady. Look at me. Pregnant, eh?" the experienced old woman asked the young culprit. However, there was no reproach in her voice, on the contrary, it sounded jocose, almost gay, as if the old woman scented a whiff of the dear, good, old times.