Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/124

 108 at the sitting-room door. But only the floor creaked slightly there.

"I am reading the life of my guardian angel, Saint Theodor Stratelates, auntie. How well he served God."

Katerina Lvovna stood there silent.

"Auntie, won't you sit down and let me read it to you again," said her nephew coaxingly.

"Wait a moment—directly. I must just trim the icon lamp in the drawing-room," answered Katerina Lvovna, and left the room with hasty steps.

In the drawing-room the very faintest whispers could be heard, but, in the general silence, they reached the sharp ears of the child.

"Auntie, what is this? With whom are you whispering there?" cried the boy, with tears in his voice. "Come here, auntie, I am afraid," he cried again a second later, even more tearfully and he heard Katerina Lvovna say in the drawing-room "Well!" which he thought was addressed to him.

"What are you afraid of?" asked Katerina Lvovna, in a somewhat hoarse voice, as she came into the room with a firm, decided step, and stopped before his bed in such a position that the door to the drawing-room was hidden from the invalid by her body. Then she said, "Lie down!"