Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 02.djvu/94

76 activity of his imagination, which at that time brought up before him, disconnectedly and fragmentarily, but with wonderful clearness, the most varied, mixed, and absurd images and pictures from the past and future. Now he saw the bloated form of Davýdka the White timidly blinking with his white eyelashes at the sight of his mother's black, venous fist; his curved back, and immense hands covered with white hair, answering to all tortures and deprivations with patience and submission to fate. Then he saw the nimble nurse, emboldened through her association with the manor, and he imagined her visiting the villages and preaching to the peasants that they must conceal their money from the proprietors; and he unconsciously repeated to himself, "Yes, it is necessary to conceal the money from the proprietors!" Then suddenly presented itself to him the blonde head of his future wife, for some reason in tears, and in great anguish leaning upon his shoulder. Then he saw Churís's kindly blue eyes, tenderly looking down upon his only thick-bellied little son. Yes, he saw in him not only a son, but a helper and saviour. "This is love!" he whispered. Then he recalled Yukhvánka's mother, and the expression of long-suffering and forgiveness which he had noticed upon her aged face, in spite of her prominent tooth and abhorrent features. "No doubt, I am the first one to have noticed this, in the seventy years of her life," he thought; and he whispered, "It is strange," and continued unconsciously to run his fingers over the keys and to listen to the sounds they made. Then he vividly recalled his flight from the apiary, and the expression of the faces of Ignát and Karp, who evidently wanted to laugh, but pretended that they did not see him. He blushed, and involuntarily looked at his nurse, who