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RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD 95
from the ecclesiastical seminary, the priest’s young
son had never allowed a single family festival at our
house to pass without presenting himself to offer his
congratulations, and at the festival dinner he sat at
the lower end of the table, as befitted a young man of
his rank in life, devouring the festival cake, but not
mingling in the conversation.
But this summer, on the occasion of the first
name-day which occurred after his arrival, the young man
shone by his absence. On the other hand, he
presented himself once on a day when we were not
receiving, and when the servant asked him " what he
wanted," he replied that he had come simply to call
upon the General.
My father had already heard not a little about the
" nihilist" son of the priest; he had not failed to
notice his absence at his name-day, though, of course, he
pretended to pay no attention to such an insignificant
circumstance. But now he flew into a rage at the idea
of the young upstart taking it into his head to preseut
himself simply as a guest, as an equal, and he made
up his mind to give him a good lesson; therefore he
ordered the lackey to say to him, "The General
receives people who come to him on business, and
petitioners, in the morning only, before one o’clock."
Faithful Ilya, who always understood his master’s
faintest hints, executed his order in precisely the
spirit in which it had been given to him. But the
young popovitch1 was not in the least confused, and,
as he took his departure, he remarked in a very free
and easy way: " Tell your master that from this day
forth I shall never set foot in his house again."
Ilya fulfilled this commission also, and it is not
difficult to imagine what an uproar the prank of the
1 The son of a priest.
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