IX.

For a long time the old Lavretsky could not forgive his son for his
marriage. If, at the end of six months, Ivan Petrovich had appeared
before him with contrite mien, and had fallen at his feet, the old
man would, perhaps, have pardoned the offender--after having soundly
abused him, and given him a tap with his crutch by way of frightening
him. But Ivan Petrovich went on living abroad, and, apparently,
troubled himself but little about his father. "Silence! don't dare to
say another word!" exclaimed Peter Andreich to his wife, every time
she tried to mollify him. "That puppy ought to be always praying
to God for me, since I have not laid my curse upon him, the
good-for-nothing fellow! Why, my late father would have killed him
with his own hands, and he would have done well." All that Anna
Pavlovna could do was to cross herself stealthily when she heard such
terrible words as these. As to his son's wife, Peter Andreich would
not so much as hear of her at first; and even when he had to answer
a letter in which his daughter-in-law was mentioned by Pestof, he
ordered a message to be sent to him to say that he did not know of any
one who could be his daughter-in-law, and that it was contrary to the
law to shelter runaway female serfs, a fact of which he considered
it a duty to warn him. But afterwards, on learning the birth of his
grandson, his heart softened a little; he gave orders that inquiries
should be secretly made on his behalf about the mother's health, and
he sent her--but still, not as if it came from himself--a small sum of
money.

Before Fedor was a year old, his grandmother, Anna Pavlovna, was
struck down by a mortal complaint. A few days before her death, when
she could no longer rise from her bed, she told her husband in the
presence of the priest, while her dying eyes swam with timid tears,
that she wished to see her daughter-in-law, and to bid her farewell,
and to bless her grandson. The old man, who was greatly moved, bade
her set her mind at rest, and immediately sent his own carriage
for his daughter-in-law, calling her, for the first time, Malania
Sergievna.[A] Malania arrived with her boy, and with Marfa Timofeevna,
whom nothing would have induced to allow her to go alone, and who was
determined not to allow her to meet with any harm. Half dead with
fright, Malania Sergievna entered her father-in-law's study, a nurse
carrying Fedia behind her. Peter Andreich looked at her in silence.
She d