I left
them and flew off to find my tutor, that I might share my impressions
with him. Pobyedimsky was standing in the middle of the yard, looking
majestically at the heavens.

"One can see he is a man of culture!" he said, twisting his head round.
"I hope we shall get on together."

An hour later mother came to us.

"I am in trouble, my dears!" she began, sighing. "You see brother has
brought a valet with him, and the valet, God bless him, is not one you
can put in the kitchen or in the hall; we must give him a room apart.
I can't think what I am to do! I tell you what, children, couldn't you
move out somewhere--to Fyodor's lodge, for instance--and give your room
to the valet? What do you say?"

We gave our ready consent, for living in the lodge was a great deal more
free than in the house, under mother's eye.

"It's a nuisance, and that's a fact!" said mother. "Brother says he
won't have dinner in the middle of the day, but between six and seven,
as they do in Petersburg. I am simply distracted with worry! By seven
o'clock the dinner will be done to rags in the oven. Really, men
don't understand anything about housekeeping, though they have so much
intellect. Oh, dear! we shall have to cook two dinners every day! You
will have dinner at midday as before, children, while your poor old
mother has to wait till seven, for the sake of her brother."

Then my mother heaved a deep sigh, bade me try and please my uncle,
whose coming was a piece of luck for me for which we must thank God, and
hurried off to the kitchen. Pobyedimsky and I moved into the lodge the
same day. We were installed in a room which formed the passage from the
entry to the bailiff's bedroom.

Contrary to my expectations, life went on just as before, drearily
and monotonously, in spite of my uncle's arrival and our move into
new quarters. We were excused lessons "on account of the visitor."
Pobyedimsky, who never read anything or occupied himself in any way,
spent most of his time sitting on his bed, with his long nose thrust
into the air, thinking. Sometimes he would get up, try on his new suit,
and sit down again to relapse into contemplation and silence. Only
one thing worried him, the flies, which he used mercilessly to squash
between his hands. After dinner he usually "rested," and his snores were
a cause of annoyance to the whole household. I ran about the garden from
morning to night, or sat in the lodge sticking my kites together. For
the