mitrievna, he wished to
entrust the housekeeping to Agafya; but she declined, "because of the
temptation"; he roared at her, she made him a lowly reverence, and left
the room. The clever Kalitin understood people; and he also understood
Agafya, and did not forget her. On removing his residence to the town,
he appointed her, with her own consent, as nurse to Liza, who had just
entered her fifth year.

At first, Liza was frightened by the serious and stern face of her new
nurse; but she speedily became accustomed to her, and conceived a strong
affection for her. She herself was a serious child; her features recalled
the clear-cut, regular face of Kalitin; only, she had not her father's
eyes; hers beamed with a tranquil attention and kindness which are rare
in children. She did not like to play with dolls, her laughter was
neither loud nor long, she bore herself with decorum. She was not often
thoughtful, and was never so without cause; after remaining silent for a
time, she almost always ended by turning to some one of her elders, with
a question which showed that her brain was working over a new impression.
She very early ceased to lisp, and already in her fourth year she spoke
with perfect distinctness. She was afraid of her father; her feeling
toward her mother was undefined,--she did not fear her, neither did she
fondle her; but she did not fondle Agafya either, although she loved
only her alone. Agafya and she were never separated. It was strange to
see them together. Agafya, all in black, with a dark kerchief on her
head, with a face thin and transparent as wax, yet still beautiful and
expressive, would sit upright, engaged in knitting a stocking; at her
feet, in a little arm-chair, sat Liza, also toiling over some sort of
work, or, with her bright eyes uplifted gravely, listening to what
Agafya was relating to her, and Agafya did not tell her fairy-stories;
in a measured, even voice, she would narrate the life of the Most-pure
Virgin, the lives of the hermits, the saints of God, of the holy martyrs;
she would tell Liza how the holy men lived in the deserts, how they
worked out their salvation, endured hunger and want,--and, fearing not
kings, confessed Christ; how the birds of heaven brought them food, and
the wild beasts obeyed them; how on those spots where their blood fell,
flowers sprang up.--"Yellow violets?"--one day asked Liza, who was very
fond of flowers.... Agafya talked gravely and meekly to Liza, as thou