Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/105

 powders for. I have brought some. (Unties the knot in her handkerchief and takes out some powders in a piece of paper.) What is good for me, I see; and what I ought not to know, I neither see nor hear. That's the way it is with me. Aunt Matréna was once young herself. You see, one must know how to get along with a fool. I know all the ropes. I see, my dear, your old man is pretty far gone. What strength has he? Stick a fork into him, and no blood will come out. I think you will bury him by spring. You will have to take somebody on your farm. And is not my son as good a peasant as any? Then, what advantage could I gain from driving him away from a good thing? You do not suppose I am my son's enemy?

. If he only would not leave us.

. He will not, my birdie. That is all nonsense. You know my old man. His brain is all cracked. At times he fills it up, and braces it with a post that you can't knock out from under him.

. What caused all this?

. You see, my dear, my boy has a weakness for women, and, it must be said, he is a fine-looking fellow. So, you see, he has worked on the railroad. At that time a certain orphan girl was serving there as a cook, and she was all the time after him.

. Marína?

. The same,—may she be paralyzed. I do not know whether anything happened or not, only my old man found it out. He heard it from others, or she herself told him—

. But she was bold,—that accursed one!

. So my old man—the stupid fellow he is—insists upon my son's marrying her so as to cover the sin. "We will take our boy home," says he, "and get him married." I tried every way to dissuade him, but all in vain. Well, thought I, let it be. I will try in a dif-