the gander was to mother,
were sacrificed. It was a long while before I could forgive the governor
their death.

In the evening, when the governor and his suite, after a sumptuous
dinner, had got into their carriages and driven away, I went into
the house to look at the remains of the feast. Glancing into the
drawing-room from the passage, I saw my uncle and my mother. My uncle,
with his hands behind his back, was walking nervously up and down close
to the wall, shrugging his shoulders. Mother, exhausted and looking much
thinner, was sitting on the sofa and watching his movements with heavy
eyes.

"Excuse me, sister, but this won't do at all," my uncle grumbled,
wrinkling up his face. "I introduced the governor to you, and you didn't
offer to shake hands. You covered him with confusion, poor fellow! No,
that won't do.... Simplicity is a very good thing, but there must be
limits to it.... Upon my soul! And then that dinner! How can one give
people such things? What was that mess, for instance, that they served
for the fourth course?"

"That was duck with sweet sauce..." mother answered softly.

"Duck! Forgive me, sister, but... but here I've got heartburn! I am
ill!"

My uncle made a sour, tearful face, and went on:

"It was the devil sent that governor! As though I wanted his visit!
Pff!... heartburn! I can't work or sleep... I am completely out of
sorts.... And I can't understand how you can live here without
anything to do... in this boredom! Here I've got a pain coming under my
shoulder-blade!..."

My uncle frowned, and walked about more rapidly than ever.

"Brother," my mother inquired softly, "what would it cost to go abroad?"

"At least three thousand..." my uncle answered in a tearful voice.
"I would go, but where am I to get it? I haven't a farthing. Pff!...
heartburn!"

My uncle stopped to look dejectedly at the grey, overcast prospect from
the window, and began pacing to and fro again.

A silence followed.... Mother looked a long while at the ikon, pondering
something, then she began crying, and said:

"I'll give you the three thousand, brother...."

Three days later the majestic boxes went off to the station, and the
privy councillor drove off after them. As he said good-bye to mother
he shed tears, and it was a long time before he took his lips from her
hands, but when he got into his carriage his face beamed with childlike
pleasure.... Radiant and happy, he settled himself comfortably, ki