Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 01.djvu/127

Rh two fingers sticking out of the soiled glove, and speaking in a voice which expressed a condition bordering on despair, "Volódya, you did not think of this!"

"Of what?" he said, impatiently. "Ah! Of the gloves," he added, quite indifferently, as he noticed my hand; "that is so, we have none, and we shall have to ask grandmother what she has to say about it." And, without reflecting a moment, he ran down-stairs.

The indifference with which he had referred to a subject that had seemed so important to me, calmed me, and I hastened into the drawing-room, entirely forgetful of the monstrous glove which was drawn over my left hand.

Cautiously approaching grandmother's chair, and lightly touching her mantilla, I said in a whisper to her:

"Grandmother, what are we to do? We have no gloves!"

"What is it, my dear?"

"We have no gloves," I repeated, coming nearer and nearer, and placing both my hands on the arm of the chair.

"What is this?" she said, seizing my left hand. "Voyez, ma chère," she continued, turning to Madame Valákhin, "voyez comme ce jeune homme s'est fait élégant pour danser avec votre fille!"

Grandmother held my hand tightly, and with an inviting, though serious, glance looked at the persons present, until the curiosity of all the guests was satisfied, and the laughter had become universal.

I should have been very much aggrieved if Serézha had seen me, as I, shrinking from shame, was trying to pull away my hand; but I did not feel in the least ashamed before Sónichka, who was laughing so heartily that tears stood in her eyes and all her locks kept bobbing about her heated face. I understood that her laughter was too