he old man,--and he
kept his promise. A pinch of tea was hunted up, wrapped in a scrap of red
paper, a small but very mettlesome and noisy samovar was searched out,
also sugar, in very tiny bits, that seemed to have been melted around the
edges. Lavretzky drank his tea out of a large cup; he remembered that
cup in his childhood: playing-cards were depicted on it, only visitors
drank out of it,--and he now drank out of it, like a visitor. Toward
evening, his servants arrived; Lavretzky did not wish to sleep in his
aunt's bed; he gave orders that a bed should be made up for him in the
dining-room. Extinguishing the candle, he stared about him for a long
time, and meditated on cheerless thoughts; he experienced the sensation
familiar to every man who chances to pass the night, for the first time,
in a place which has long been uninhabited; it seemed to him that the
darkness which surrounded him on all sides could not accustom itself to
the new inhabitant, that the very walls of the house were waxing
indignant. At last he sighed, drew the coverlet up over him, and fell
asleep. Anton remained afoot longer than the rest; for a long time he
whispered with Apraxyeya, groaned in a low tone, and crossed himself a
couple of times. Neither of them expected that the master would settle
down among them at Vasilievskoe, when, near at hand, he owned such a
magnificent estate, with a capitally-organised manor-house; they did not
even suspect that it was precisely that manor-house which was repugnant
to Lavretzky: it evoked in him oppressive memories. After having
whispered his fill, Anton took his staff, and beat upon the board at the
store-house which had long been hanging silent,[8] and immediately lay
down for a nap in the yard, without covering up his grey head with
anything. The May night was tranquil and caressing--and the old man
slumbered sweetly.

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[8] It is the duty of the night-watchman to beat upon the board at
regular intervals, to show that he is vigilant.--Translator.

XX

The next morning Lavretzky rose quite early, had a talk with the
overseer, visited the threshing-floor, ordered the chain to be removed
from the watch-dog, who only barked a little, but did not even move away
from his kennel;--and on his return home, sank into a sort of peaceful
torpor, from which he did not emerge all day. "I have sunk down to the
very bottom of the river now," he said to him