"You are right, dear granny. That is where I am going." (To the other world.)
"Then take him these kisses—and a hundred more! See, I cannot cry. Old eyes are forever weeping—that is, when one does not want to weep; when one fain would, there are no tears to shed."
Ivan Maximovitch wept in her stead. He was such an "affectionate boy."
"Now, you see, you are going away and leaving me here. And going without having married, without being able to leave me your wife here in your stead."
"But I have married, granny dear," returned Ivan. "And I came purposely to-night to present my wife to you."
"Oh, what a happy day! You are married—you have a little wife! A dear, charming little angel of a wife! And I shall see her soon? That I call indeed a Christmas present!"
But then the old lady must needs temper the joyful news with a little reproach.
"But why have you kept this to yourself until after your wedding, when I have so often told you that I specially wished that your wife should receive her bridal tiara from my hands? That was not right of you! I hope she is of noble blood."
"She is a Princess Narishkin."
"I suppose you sought the Czar's permission to your marriage?"