dged me gently by the
elbow, and beckoned me towards the salon.

"You know, I suppose, what the secret is of which Lubotshka was
speaking?" he said when he was sure that we were alone. It was seldom
that he and I spoke together in confidence: with the result that,
whenever it came about, we felt a kind of awkwardness in one another's
presence, and "boys began to jump about" in our eyes, as Woloda
expressed it. On the present occasion, however, he answered the
excitement in my eyes with a grave, fixed look which said: "You need not
be surprised, for we are brothers, and we have to consider an important
family matter." I understood him, and he went on:

"You know, I suppose, that Papa is going to marry Avdotia Epifanov?"

I nodded, for I had already heard so. "Well, it is not a good thing,"
continued Woloda.

"Why so?"

"Why?" he repeated irritably. "Because it will be so pleasant, won't
it, to have this stuttering 'colonel' and all his family for relations!
Certainly she seems nice enough, as yet; but who knows what she will
turn out to be later? It won't matter much to you or myself, but
Lubotshka will soon be making her debut, and it will hardly be nice
for her to have such a 'belle mere' as this--a woman who speaks French
badly, and has no manners to teach her."

Although it seemed odd to hear Woloda criticising Papa's choice so
coolly, I felt that he was right.

"Why is he marrying her?" I asked.

"Oh, it is a hole-and-corner business, and God only knows why,"
he answered. "All I know is that her brother, Peter, tried to make
conditions about the marriage, and that, although at first Papa would
not hear of them, he afterwards took some fancy or knight-errantry or
another into his head. But, as I say, it is a hole-and-corner business.
I am only just beginning to understand my father "--the fact that Woloda
called Papa "my father" instead of "Papa" somehow hurt me--"and though I
can see that he is kind and clever, he is irresponsible and frivolous to
a degree that--Well, the whole thing is astonishing. He cannot so much
as look upon a woman calmly. You yourself know how he falls in love with
every one that he meets. You know it, and so does Mimi."

"What do you mean?" I said.

"What I say. Not long ago I learnt that he used to be in love with Mimi
herself when he was a young man, and that he used to send her poetry,
and that there really was something between them. Mimi is heart-sore
about it to this day"-