what keen scent he had! Apparently, he must have made up his mind long ago that he would find a rich bride; and how he must have flattered her. Nu! this young man, I may say, knows how to manage his affairs. And he set to work by getting hold of the documents. How sensibly he talks about it! he says that no one in his right mind can do such things without documents. He's a young man of rare good sense."
Viérotchka could hardly restrain herself from smiling too frankly; but gradually it seemed to her—but how did it seem to her? No; it can't be so! Yes; it must be! he must be speaking, not to Marya Alekséyevna, though he answers her questions, but to her, Viérotchka; that he is making fun of Marya Alekséyevna; that the seriousness and the truth which underlies what he says is meant only for her, Viérotchka.
Whether it only seemed so to Viérotchka, or whether it was really so, who can say? He knew, and she afterwards found out. But for the rest of us, perhaps there is no need of knowing; for we want only facts. And the fact was that Viérotchka, as she listened to Lopukhóf, at first smiled, but afterwards became serious, and imagined that he was speaking, not with Marya Alekséyevna, but with her, not in jest, but in earnest; and Marya Alekséyevna, who had taken in solemn earnest all that Lopukhóf said from the beginning, turned to Viérotchka, and said:—
"Viérotchka, my dear, what's become of your thoughts?[1] You are acquainted now with Dmitri Sergéitch; you'd better ask him to play your accompaniment for you, and give us a song."
By this she meant to intimate: "We have great respect for you, Dmitri Sergéitch, and we want you to be a good friend in our family. And you, Viérotchka, don't be coy to Dmitri Sergéitch; I am going to tell Mikhaïl Ivanuitch that he's got a bride of his own, and Mikhaïl Ivanuitch will not be jealous of him."
This was what was meant to be understood by Viérotchka and Dmitri Sergéitch; he was now in Marya Alekséyevna's thoughts not the tutor but Dmitri Sergéitch. But for Marya Alekséyevna herself, these words had a third interpretation which was very natural and real: "We must flatter him a little; his acquaintance may be of some use to us by and by
- ↑ Literally, "Why are you sitting like a buka?" that is, why are you bent over like the Slavonic letter B? a popular idiom.
