splendidly, he
is clever, well, and a Junior Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and if it be
God's will.... I, on my side, as a mother, shall be very glad. It is a
great responsibility, of course: up to the present time, whether it be
for good or evil, you see, I am always, everywhere, entirely alone: I
have reared my children, I have taught them, I have done everything ...
and now I have ordered a governess from Mme. Bolius...."

Marya Dmitrievna launched out into a description of her toils, her
efforts, and her maternal feelings. Lavretzky listened to her in
silence, and twirled his hat in his hands. His cold, heavy gaze
disconcerted the loquacious lady.

"And how do you like Liza?"--she asked.

"Lizaveta Mikhailovna is an extremely beautiful girl,"--replied
Lavretzky, rose, bowed, and went to Marfa Timofeevna. Marya Dmitrievna
gazed after him with displeasure, and said to herself: "What a dolt, what a
peasant! Well, now I understand why his wife could not remain faithful to
him."

Marfa Timofeevna was sitting in her own room, surrounded by her suite.
It consisted of five beings, almost equally near to her heart: a
fat-jowled trained bullfinch, which she loved because he had ceased to
whistle and draw water; a tiny, very timorous and peaceable dog, Roska;
an angry cat Matros (Sailor); a black-visaged nimble little girl of
nine, with huge eyes and a sharp little nose, who was named Schurotchka;
and an elderly woman, fifty years of age, in a white cap, and a light
brown, bob-tailed jacket over a dark gown, by name Nastasya Karpovna
Ogarkoff. Schurotchka was of the petty burgher class, a full orphan.
Marfa Timofeevna had taken charge of her out of pity, as she had of
Roska: she had picked up both the dog and the girl in the street; both
were thin and hungry, both were being drenched by the autumnal rain, no
one had hunted up Roska, and Schurotchka's uncle, a drunken shoemaker,
who had not enough to eat himself, and who did not feed his niece, though
he beat her over the head with his last, gladly surrendered her to Marfa
Timofeevna. With Nastasya Karpovna, Marfa Timofeevna had made
acquaintance on a pilgrimage, in a monastery; she herself had gone up to
her in church (Marfa Timofeevna liked her because, to use her own
words, "she prayed tastily"), had herself begun the conversation, and had
invited her to come to her for a cup of tea. From that day forth, she had
never parted with her. Nastasya Karpovna was a woman of the