‘I knew it, I knew it!’ He repeated his favourite phrase and, seizing her hand, which was caressing his hair, he pressed her palm to his mouth and began to kiss it.
XXX
Meanwhile Vassily Lukich, who did not understand at first who this lady was, and learning from the conversation that she was the same mother who had left her husband and whom he did not know because he had come to the house after she left, was in doubt whether to go in or to inform Alexei Alexandrovich. Considering finally that his duty was to get Seryozha up at a certain time and that therefore he had no need to determine who was sitting there, the mother or someone else, but had to fulfil his duty, he got dressed, went to the door and opened it.
But the caresses of the mother and son, the sounds of their voices, and what they were saying - all this made him change his mind. He shook his head and closed the door with a sigh. ‘I’ll wait another ten minutes,’ he said to himself, clearing his throat and wiping away his tears.
Just then there was great commotion among the domestic servants. Everyone had learned that the mistress had come, that Kapitonych had let her in, and that she was now in the nursery; and meanwhile the master always went to the nursery himself before nine o‘clock, and everyone realized that a meeting between the spouses was impossible and had to be prevented. Kornei, the valet, went down to the porter’s lodge and began asking who had let her in and how, and on learning that Kapitonych had met her and shown her in, he reprimanded the old man. The porter remained stubbornly silent; but when Kornei told him that he deserved to be sacked for it, Kapitonych leaped towards him and, waving his arms in front of Kornei’s face, said:
‘Yes, and you wouldn’t have let her in! Ten years’ service, seeing nothing but kindness from her, and then you’d go and say: “Kindly get out!” Subtle politics you’ve got! Oh, yes! You mind yourself, robbing the master and stealing racoon coats!’
‘Old trooper!’ Kornei said contemptuously and turned to the nanny, who had just arrived. ‘Look at that, Marya Efimovna: he let her in, didn’t tell anybody,’ Kornei went on. ‘Alexei Alexandrovich will come out presently and go to the nursery.’
‘Such goings-on!’ said the nanny. ‘Listen, Kornei Vassilyevich, why don’t you delay somehow — the master, I mean - while I go and somehow lead her away. Such goings-on!’
When the nanny went into the nursery, Seryozha was telling his mother how he and Nadenka fell while they were sliding and rolled over three times. She listened to the sound of his voice, saw his face and the play of its expression, felt his hand, but did not understand what he was saying. She had to go, she had to leave him - that was all she thought and felt. She heard the steps of Vassily Lukich as he came to the door and coughed, she also heard the steps of the nanny approaching; but she sat as if turned to stone, unable either to begin talking or to get up.
‘Mistress, dearest!’ the nanny started to say, going up to Anna and kissing her hand and shoulders. ‘What a God-sent joy for our little one’s birthday! You haven’t changed at all.’
‘Ah, nanny, dear, I didn’t know you were in the house,’ said Anna, coming to her senses for a moment.
‘I don’t live here, I live with my daughter, I came to wish him a happy birthday, Anna Arkadyevna, dearest!’
The nanny suddenly wept and started kissing her hand again.
Seryozha, with radiant eyes and smile, holding his mother with one hand and his nanny with the other, stamped his fat little bare feet on the rug. He was delighted with his beloved nanny’s tenderness towards his mother.
‘Mama! She often comes to see me, and when she comes ...’he began, but stopped, noticing that the nanny was whispering something to his mother, and that his mother’s face showed fear and something like shame, which was so unbecoming to her.
She went up to him.
‘My dear one!’ she said.
She could not say
How many words she thought of later that she might have said to him! But now she did not and could not say anything. Yet Seryozha understood all that she wanted to tell him. He understood that she was unhappy and that she loved him. He even understood what the nanny had said to her in a whisper. He had heard the words ‘always before nine’ and understood that this referred to his father and that his mother and father must not meet. But one thing he could not understand: why did fear and shame appear on her face? ... She was not guilty, but she was afraid of him and ashamed of something. He wanted to ask the question that would have cleared up this doubt, but did not dare to do it: he saw that she was suffering and he pitied her. He silently pressed himself to her and said in a whisper:
‘Don’t go yet. He won’t come so soon.’
