Jakoff about the best places to find plover and
snipe. As I have said, there was nothing in the world he so much feared
as to be suspected of any affection for his father, brother, and sister;
so that, to escape any expression of that feeling, he often fell into
the other extreme, and affected a coldness which shocked people who did
not comprehend its cause. In the hall, I collided with Papa, who was
hurrying towards the carriage with short, rapid steps. He had a new and
fashionable Moscow greatcoat on, and smelt of scent. On seeing me, he
gave a cheerful nod, as much as to say, "Do you remark my splendour?"
and once again I was struck with the happy expression of face which I
had noted earlier in the morning.

The drawing-room looked the same lofty, bright room as of Yore, with its
brown English piano, and its large open windows looking on to the green
trees and yellowish-red paths of the garden. After kissing Mimi and
Lubotshka, I was approaching Katenka for the same purpose when it
suddenly struck me that it might be improper for me to salute her in
that fashion. Accordingly I halted, silent and blushing. Katenka, for
her part, was quite at her ease as she held out a white hand to me and
congratulated me on my passing into the University. The same thing took
place when Woloda entered the drawing-room and met Katenka. Indeed,
it was something of a problem how, after being brought up together and
seeing one another daily, we ought now, after this first separation, to
meet again. Katenka had grown better-looking than any of us, yet Woloda
seemed not at all confused as, with a slight bow to her, he crossed over
to Lubotshka, made a jesting remark to her, and then departed somewhere
on some solitary expedition.

XXIX. RELATIONS BETWEEN THE GIRLS AND OURSELVES

OF the girls Woloda took the strange view that, although he wished that
they should have enough to eat, should sleep well, be well dressed,
and avoid making such mistakes in French as would shame him before
strangers, he would never admit that they could think or feel like human
beings, still less that they could converse with him sensibly about
anything. Whenever they addressed to him a serious question (a thing, by
the way, which he always tried to avoid), such as asking his opinion on
a novel or inquiring about his doings at the University, he invariably
pulled a grimace, and either turned away without speaking or answered
with some nonsensical French phr