cquey--since she
herself, they say, possesses a pile of money, and lends it on interest,
and makes a good thing out of it. However, it is not you, Prascovia,
that I am blaming; it was not you who sent those telegrams. Nor, for
that matter, do I wish to recall old scores. True, I know that you are
a vixen by nature--that you are a wasp which will sting one if one
touches it--yet, my heart is sore for you, for I loved your mother,
Katerina. Now, will you leave everything here, and come away with me?
Otherwise, I do not know what is to become of you, and it is not right
that you should continue living with these people. Nay," she
interposed, the moment that Polina attempted to speak, "I have not yet
finished. I ask of you nothing in return. My house in Moscow is, as you
know, large enough for a palace, and you could occupy a whole floor of
it if you liked, and keep away from me for weeks together. Will you
come with me or will you not?"

"First of all, let me ask of YOU," replied Polina, "whether you are
intending to depart at once?"

"What? You suppose me to be jesting? I have said that I am going, and I
AM going. Today I have squandered fifteen thousand roubles at that
accursed roulette of yours, and though, five years ago, I promised the
people of a certain suburb of Moscow to build them a stone church in
place of a wooden one, I have been fooling away my money here! However,
I am going back now to build my church."

"But what about the waters, Grandmamma? Surely you came here to take
the waters?"

"You and your waters! Do not anger me, Prascovia. Surely you are trying
to? Say, then: will you, or will you not, come with me?"

"Grandmamma," Polina replied with deep feeling, "I am very, very
grateful to you for the shelter which you have so kindly offered me.
Also, to a certain extent you have guessed my position aright, and I am
beholden to you to such an extent that it may be that I will come and
live with you, and that very soon; yet there are important reasons
why--why I cannot make up my mind just yet. If you would let me have,
say, a couple of weeks to decide in--?"

"You mean that you are NOT coming?"

"I mean only that I cannot come just yet. At all events, I could not
well leave my little brother and sister here, since, since--if I were
to leave them--they would be abandoned altogether. But if, Grandmamma,
you would take the little ones AND myself, then, of course, I could
come with you, and would do all