nteroom attached to the bathroom, but was very snug and
clean. At last Tanyusha came in and announced that dinner was ready.

Vassily Ivanovitch was the first to get up. 'Come, gentlemen. You must
be magnanimous and pardon me if I've bored you. I daresay my good wife
will give you more satisfaction.'

The dinner, though prepared in haste, turned out to be very good, even
abundant; only the wine was not quite up to the mark; it was almost
black sherry, bought by Timofeitch in the town at a well-known
merchant's, and had a faint coppery, resinous taste, and the flies were
a great nuisance. On ordinary days a serf-boy used to keep driving them
away with a large green branch; but on this occasion Vassily Ivanovitch
had sent him away through dread of the criticism of the younger
generation. Arina Vlasyevna had had time to dress: she had put on a
high cap with silk ribbons and a pale blue flowered shawl. She broke
down again directly she caught sight of her Enyusha, but her husband
had no need to admonish her; she made haste to wipe away her tears
herself, for fear of spotting her shawl. Only the young men ate
anything; the master and mistress of the house had dined long ago.
Fedka waited at table, obviously encumbered by having boots on for the
first time; he was assisted by a woman of a masculine cast of face and
one eye, by name Anfisushka, who performed the duties of housekeeper,
poultry-woman, and laundress. Vassily Ivanovitch walked up and down
during the whole of dinner, and with a perfectly happy, positively
beatific countenance, talked about the serious anxiety he felt at
Napoleon's policy, and the intricacy of the Italian question. Arina
Vlasyevna took no notice of Arkady. She did not press him to eat;
leaning her round face, to which the full cherry-coloured lips and the
little moles on the cheeks and over the eyebrows gave a very simple
good-natured expression, on her little closed fist, she did not take
her eyes off her son, and kept constantly sighing; she was dying to
know for how long he had come, but she was afraid to ask him.

'What if he says for two days,' she thought, and her heart sank. After
the roast Vassily Ivanovitch disappeared for an instant, and returned
with an opened half-bottle of champagne. 'Here,' he cried, 'though we
do live in the wilds, we have something to make merry with on festive
occasions!' He filled three champagne glasses and a little wineglass,
proposed the health of 'our inestim