“Excuse me, sister, but this won’t do at all,” my uncle grumbled, wrinkling up his face. “I introduced the governor to you, and you didn’t offer to shake hands. You covered him with confusion, poor fellow! No, that won’t do.… Simplicity is a very good thing, but there must be limits to it.… Upon my soul! And then that dinner! How can one give people such things? What was that mess, for instance, that they served for the fourth course?”

“That was duck with sweet sauce…” mother anwered softly.

“Duck! Forgive me, sister, but… here I’ve got heartburn! I am ill!”

My uncle made a sour, tearful face, and went on:

“It was the devil sent that governor! As though I wanted his visit! Pff!… heartburn! I can’t work or sleep… I am completely out of sorts.…And I can’t understand how you can live here without anything to do…in this boredom! Here I’ve got a pain coming under my shoulder-blade!.…”

My uncle frowned, and walked about more rapidly than ever.

“Brother,” my mother inquired softly, “what would it cost to go abroad?”

“At least three thousand…” my uncle answered in a tearful voice. “I would go, but where am I to get it? I haven’t a farthing.Pff!.…heartburn!”

My uncle stopped to look dejectedly at the grey, overcast prospect from the window, and began pacing to and fro again.

A silence followed.…Mother looked a long while at the ikon, pondering something, then she began crying, and said:

“I’ll give you the three thousand, brother.…”

Three days later the majestic boxes went off to the station, and the privy councillor drove off after them. As he said good-bye to mother he shed tears, and it was a long time before he took his lips from her hands, but when he got into his carriage his face beamed with child-like pleasure.…Radiant and happy, he settled himself comfortably, kissed his hand to my mother, who was crying, and all at once his eye was caught by me. A look of the utmost astonishment came into his face.

“What boy is this?” he asked.

My mother, who had declared my uncle’s coming was a piece of luck for which I must thank God, was bitterly mortified at this question. I was in no mood for questions. I looked at my uncle’s happy face, and for some reason I felt fearfully sorry for him. I could not resist jumping up to the carriage and hugging that frivolous man, weak as all men are. Looking into his face and wanting to say something pleasant, I asked:

“Uncle, have you ever been in a battle?”

“Ah, the dear boy…” laughed my uncle, kissing me. “A charming boy, upon my soul! How natural, how living it all is, my soul!.…”

The carriage set off.…I looked after him, and long afterwards that farewell “upon my soul” was ringing in my ears.