Page 28 of 470
Snya and fat little Ptya doubled up with laughter.
“You see! I have asked,” whispered Natsha to her little brother and to Pierre, glancing at him again.
“Ice pudding, but you won’t get any,” said Mrya Dmtrievna.
Natsha saw there was nothing to be afraid of and so she braved even Mrya Dmtrievna.
“Mrya Dmtrievna! What kind of ice pudding? I don’t like ice cream.”
“Carrot ices.”
“No! What kind, Mrya Dmtrievna? What kind?” she almost screamed; “I want to know!”
Mrya Dmtrievna and the countess burst out laughing, and all the guests joined in. Everyone laughed, not at Mrya Dmtrievna’s answer but at the incredible boldness and smartness of this little girl who had dared to treat Mrya Dmtrievna in this fashion.
Natsha only desisted when she had been told that there would be pineapple ice. Before the ices, champagne was served round. The band again struck up, the count and countess kissed, and the guests, leaving their seats, went up to “congratulate” the countess, and reached across the table to clink glasses with the count, with the children, and with one another. Again the footmen rushed about, chairs scraped, and in the same order in which they had entered but with redder faces, the guests returned to the drawing room and to the count’s study.
The card tables were drawn out, sets made up for boston, and the count’s visitors settled themselves, some in the two drawing rooms, some in the sitting room, some in the library.
The count, holding his cards fanwise, kept himself with difficulty from dropping into his usual after-dinner nap, and laughed at everything. The young people, at the countess’ instigation, gathered round the clavichord and harp. Julie by general request played first. After she had played a little air with variations on the harp, she joined the other young ladies in begging Natsha and Nicholas, who were noted for their musical talent, to sing something. Natsha, who was treated as though she were grown up, was evidently very proud of this but at the same time felt shy.
“What shall we sing?” she said.
“‘The Brook,’” suggested Nicholas.
“Well, then, let’s be quick. Bors, come here,” said Natsha. “But where is Snya?”
She looked round and seeing that her friend was not in the room ran to look for her.
Running into Snya’s room and not finding her there, Natsha ran to the nursery, but Snya was not there either. Natsha concluded that she must be on the chest in the passage. The chest in the passage was the place of mourning for the younger female generation in the Rostv household. And there in fact was Snya lying face downward on Nurse’s dirty feather bed on the top of the chest, crumpling her gauzy pink dress under her, hiding her face with her slender fingers, and sobbing so convulsively that her bare little shoulders shook. Natsha’s face, which had been so radiantly happy all that saint’s day, suddenly changed: her eyes became fixed, and then a shiver passed down her broad neck and the corners of her mouth drooped.
“Snya! What is it? What is the matter?... Oo... Oo... Oo...!” And Natsha’s large mouth widened, making her look quite ugly, and she began to wail like a baby without knowing why, except that Snya was crying. Snya tried to lift her head to answer but could not, and hid her face still deeper in the bed. Natsha wept, sitting on the blue-striped feather bed and hugging her friend. With an effort Snya sat up and began wiping her eyes and explaining.
“Nicholas is going away in a week’s time, his... papers... have come... he told me himself... but still I should not cry,” and she showed a paper she held in her hand—with the verses Nicholas had written, “still, I should not cry, but you can’t... no one can understand... what a soul he has!”
And she began to cry again because he had such a noble soul.
“It’s all very well for you... I am not envious... I love you and Bors also,” she went on, gaining a little strength; “he is nice... there are no difficulties in your way.... But Nicholas is my cousin... one would have to... the Metropolitan himself... and even then it can’t be done. And besides, if she tells Mamma” (Snya looked upon the countess as her mother and called her so) “that I am spoiling Nicholas’ career and am heartless and ungrateful, while truly... God is my witness,” and she made the sign of the cross, “I love her so much, and all of you, only Vra... And what for? What have I done to her? I am so grateful to you that I would willingly sacrifice everything, only I have nothing....”
Snya could not continue, and again hid her face in her hands and in the feather bed. Natsha began consoling her, but her face showed that she understood all the gravity of her friend’s trouble.
“Snya,” she suddenly exclaimed, as if she had guessed the true reason of her friend’s sorrow, “I’m sure Vra has said something to you since dinner? Hasn’t she?”
“Yes, these verses Nicholas wrote himself and I copied some others, and she found them on my table and said she’d show them to Mamma, and that I was ungrateful, and that Mamma would never allow him to marry me, but that he’ll marry Julie. You see how he’s been with her all day... Natsha, what have I done to deserve it?...”
And again she began to sob, more bitterly than before. Natsha lifted her up, hugged her, and, smiling through her tears, began comforting her.
“Snya, don’t believe her, darling! Don’t believe her! Do you remember how we and Nicholas, all three of us, talked in the sitting room after supper? Why, we settled how everything was to be. I don’t quite remember how, but don’t you remember that it could all be arranged and how nice it all was? There’s Uncle Shinshn’s brother has married his first cousin. And we are only second cousins, you know. And Bors says it is quite possible. You know I have told him all about it. And he is so clever and so good!” said Natsha. “Don’t you cry, Snya, dear love, darling Snya!” and she kissed her and laughed. “Vra’s spiteful; never mind her! And all will come right and she won’t say anything to Mamma. Nicholas will tell her himself, and he doesn’t care at all for Julie.”
Natsha kissed her on the hair.
Snya sat up. The little kitten brightened, its eyes shone, and it seemed ready to lift its tail, jump down on its soft paws, and begin playing with the ball of worsted as a kitten should.
