and bid her farewell, and to give her grand-child her blessing.  The heart-broken old man soothed her, and at once sent off his own carriage for his daughter-in-law, for the first time giving her the title of Malanya Sergyevna.  Malanya came with her son and Marfa Timofyevna, who would not on any consideration allow her to go alone, and was unwilling to expose her to any indignity.  Half dead with fright, Malanya Sergyevna went into Piotr Andreitch’s room.  A nurse followed, carrying Fedya.  Piotr Andreitch looked at her without speaking; she went up to kiss his hand; her trembling lips were only just able to touch it with a silent kiss.

“Well, my upstart lady,” he brought out at last, “how do you do? let us go to the mistress.”

He got up and bent over Fedya:  the baby smiled and held out his little white hands to him.  This changed the old man’s mood.

“Ah,” he said, “poor little one, you were pleading for your father; I will not abandon you, little bird.”

Directly Malanya Sergyevna entered Anna Pavlovna’s bedroom, she fell on her knees near the door.  Anna Pavlovna beckoned her to come to her bedside, embraced her, and blessed her son; then turning a face contorted by cruel suffering to her husband she made an effort to speak.

“I know, I know, what you want to ask,” said Piotr Andreitch; “don’t fret yourself, she shall stay with us, and I will forgive Vanka for her sake.”

With an effort Anna Pavlovna took her husband’s hand and pressed it to her lips.  The same evening she breathed her last.

Piotr Andreitch kept his word.  He informed his son that for the sake of his mother’s dying hours, and for the sake of the little Fedor, he sent him his blessing and was keeping Malanya Sergyevna in his house.  Two rooms on the ground floor were devoted to her; he presented her to his most honoured guests, the one-eyed brigadier Skurchin, and his wife, and bestowed on her two waiting-maids and a page for errands.  Marfa Timofyevna took leave of her; she detested Glafira, and in the course of one day had fallen out with her three times.

It was a painful and embarrassing position at first for poor Malanya, but, after a while, she learnt to bear it, and grew used to her father-in-law.  He, too, grew accustomed to her, and even fond of her, though he scarcely ever spoke to her, and a certain involuntary contempt was perceptible even in his signs of affection to her.  Malanya Sergyevna had most to put up with from her sister-in-law.  Even during her mother’s lifetime, Glafira had succeeded by degrees in getting the whole household into her hands; every one from her father downwards, submitted to her rule; not a piece of sugar was given out without her sanction; she would rather have died than shared her authority with another mistress—­and with such a mistress!  Her brother’s marriage had incensed her even more than Piotr Andreitch; she set herself to give the upstart a lesson, and Malanya