yed, but very calm, sat beside her
sister, whose face also bore traces of recent tears. Both of the ladies
continually pressed food upon the boy, who, as he ate with boyish
heartiness, talked to them with the pleasant and wonderful
unconsciousness of childhood. The difficult hour was nearly over before
sounds of the affair below first began to be audible to them. But at the
first, muffled scream of laughter, Madame Gregoriev started, violently,
all the color flying from her face, and a ghastly pallor taking its
place. The Countess Dravikine, after one instant of puzzled
consideration, leaned forward, and began a hastily animated conversation
with her nephew, upon all sorts of boyish affairs. Fortunately the
effort was needed only for a moment or two, for presently, Alexei,
Ivan's special serf, a combination of playfellow and valet, who had been
summoned by the tactful Masha appeared in the doorway, waiting an order
to remove his young master. It was time. Madame Dravikine's voice could
no longer override the noise from below. Moreover, Ivan had now ceased
to eat, and was sitting motionless, his mouth drawn into a pitiful line,
a spot of vivid red flaming from each pale cheek, his great eyes
wistfully, anxiously, seeking those of his mother, which as persistently
avoided them. Suddenly there came from below a piercing scream: a scream
holding in it a note at which Caroline, forgetting everything else,
sprang suddenly to her feet, crying:

"Sophia, the thing is unbearable! How can you possibly permit yourself
to endure it? For God's sake, pull yourself up, and leave this--"

"Ivan! Alexei is waiting for you. Go at once!" broke in the Princess,
sharply, her eyes fixed upon her sister with a light of bitter reproof
in their weary depths. At the same time, she held out both hands to her
son.

Without a word, the boy rose and went to his mother. A kiss passed
between them. Then he turned and walked straight to the door. He did not
once look back. But neither woman failed to perceive that his delicate
hands were clinched so tightly that the bloodless knuckles were tinged
with blue.

When the door closed behind him, Sophia Ivanovna answered her sister's
unfinished question: "You think I should leave this house. Do you for an
instant imagine that he would permit his son to go with me? Am I then to
leave my child here--to _that_?"

With a low exclamation, Caroline went forward and fell upon her knees
beside her sister, aski