ing his
sword, as he always did, placed it in a corner in the hallway as a cane.
But even in the corner the sword stood out alone--one could see at once
that it was a sword. Another thing that displeased Yura was that another
officer came with Mitenka, an officer whom Yura knew and whose name was
also Yura Mikhailovich. Yura thought that the officer must have been
named so for fun. That wrong Yura Mikhailovich had visited them several
times; he even came once on horseback; but most of the time he came just
before little Yura had to go to bed. And little Yura went to bed, while
the unreal Yura Mikhailovich remained with mamma, and that caused him
to feel alarmed and sad; he was afraid that mamma might be deceived. He
paid no attention to the real Yura Mikhailovich: and now, walking
beside Mitenka, he did not seem to realise his guilt; he adjusted his
moustaches and maintained silence. He kissed mamma's hand, and that
seemed repulsive to little Yura; but the stupid Mitenka also kissed
mamma's hand, and thereby set everything aright.

But soon the guests arrived in such numbers, and there was such a
variety of them, as if they had fallen straight from the sky. And some
of them seemed to have fallen near the table, while others seemed
to have fallen into the garden. Suddenly several students and ladies
appeared in the path. The ladies were ordinary, but the students had
holes cut at the left side of their white coats--for their swords.
But they did not bring their swords along, no doubt because of their
pride--they were all very proud. And the ladies rushed over to Yura and
began to kiss him. Then the most beautiful of the ladies, whose name was
Ninochka, took Yura to the swing and swung him until she threw him down.
He hurt his left leg near the knee very painfully and even stained
his little white pants in that spot, but of course he did not cry, and
somehow his pain had quickly disappeared somewhere. At this time father
was leading an important-looking bald-headed old man in the garden, and
he asked Yurochka,

"Did you get hurt?"

But as the old man also smiled and also spoke, Yurochka did not kiss
father and did not even answer him; but suddenly he seemed to have lost
his mind--he commenced to squeal for joy and to run around. If he had a
bell as large as the whole city he would have rung that bell; but as
he had no such bell he climbed the linden tree, which stood near the
terrace, and began to show off. The guests