Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/66

 Gerásim went up to him.

"Lift me up. It is hard for me to do it all alone, and I have sent Dmítri away."

Gerásim went up to him: with his strong arms he embraced him as lightly as he stepped, raised him skilfully and softly, held him up, with one hand pulled up his trousers, and wanted to put him down again in the chair. But Iván Ilích asked to be taken to the divan. Gerásim without an effort, and as though without pressing against him, took him, almost carried him, to the divan, and seated him on it.

"Thank you. How skilfully and well you do everything."

Gerásim smiled again, and was on the point of leaving. But Iván Ilích felt so well with him that he did not want to dismiss him.

"Be so kind as to push that chair up to me. No, that,—under my feet. I feel more at ease when my legs are raised."

Gerásim brought him the chair, which he put down evenly on the floor without making a noise with it, and raised Iván Ilích's feet on the chair. It seemed to Iván Ilích that he felt more at ease while Gerásim was raising up his legs.

"I feel more at ease when my legs are higher," said Iván Ilích. "Put that pillow under me."

Gerásim did so. He raised the legs and put the pillow down. Again Iván Ilích felt better while Gerásim was holding his legs. When Gerásim put them down, he thought he felt worse.

"Gerásim," he said to him, "are you busy now?"

"Not at all, sir," said Gerásim, who had learned from city folk how to talk to gentlemen.

"What else have you to do?"

"What else have I to do? I have done everything, and have only to chop some wood for to-morrow."