The Precipice

. Tatiana Markovna clapped her hands and all but jumped f

ot even written, but descend like a

minute into his face, and would have wept, but she

way her tears with her handkerchief. "Your mother's boy," she cried, "her very im

ured coffee, tea, cakes and bread

s us, ruins us, take us over into your charge.... Ha! Ha! Here are the keys, the accounts, at your service, demand a reckoning from the old lady. Ask her what she has done with the estate money, why the peasants' huts are in ruins. See how the Malinovka peasants beg in the streets of

, put on her thick-soled shoes, covered her head w

Grandmother. You will see I have just planted out the beds in front of the house. Ve

ached t

where have you all hidden you

hat Kirusha and Eromka had gone int

r her? What are you staring there

nearer. "I dare

y embraced

wing to the buildings,

was quite rotten, had holes in the floors as broad

the alterations in the stables, the horses and th

e room. Now each has his own corner. Here is the pantry, there the new ice-cellar. What are you standing there for?" she

, looked down from the top of the precipice into the brushwood, and went with him into

fore long after this heat. Here is the Master, the real Master, my nephew," she said, turning to the peasants. "Have you seen him before, Garashka?

the village elder. "I have given orders for a line to be fixed. Tell blind Agasha so.

nswered the Starost sleepily. "We

have let me know. I go into the town every w

s, or says it is not worth while

bought by anybody, but God forbid that she should trust anybody with money. Although by no means avaricious, she was sparing with money. Before she broug

She herself did not touch the actual work, but with the dignity of age she stood with one hand on her hip and the other pointing out exactly where and how everything was to be done. The clattering keys opened cupboards, chests, strong bo

bureau to her accounts, then sat by the window and looked out into the field, watched the labourers, saw wh

never was long away, returning always in time for the midday meal. She herself r

she spent in the garden, when she put on her gardening gloves and took a spade, a rake, or a watering can, by way of obtaining a littl

pleased. Shyly, and without counting it, he took the money they brought him, put it in his bureau, and signed to them to go where they pleased. He had been in the army, and old people remembered him as a handsome young officer, a modest, frank youn

as he did so. In the street he addressed ladies with uncovered head, was the first to pick up a handkerchief or bring a footstool. If there were young girls in a house he visited he came armed with a pound of bonbons, a bunch of flowers, and tried to suit his conversation to their age, their tastes and their occupations. He always maintained his delicate politeness, tinged with the respectful manner of a courtier of the old school. When ladies were present he always wore his frock-coat. He neither smoked, nor used perfume,

rdent that it was evident from his manner that he loved her beyond all others. B

rown on her shawl and sat looking meditatively before her, she resembled a family portrait in the gallery of the old house. Occasionally there came over her moods which betrayed prid

resent for Grandmother or the little girls, a basket of stra

Tatiana Markovna him, but that her parents had chosen another husband for her. She refused to assent, and remained unmarr

commands and their past history; he could tell why one sea lay at a higher tide than another; he was the first to know what the English or the French had invented, and whether the inventions were useful or not. If there was any business to be

d and refused to pay. She would hear nothing about the public interest. In her opinion everyone had his own business to mind. She strongly objected to the police, and especially to the Superintendent, who was

Raisky absorbed. Grandmother and the little girls were mot