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96
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
priest’s son created, not in our house alone, but in the
whole district.
But the most startling thing was that Aniuta, when
she heard what had happened, ran insubordinately
into father’s study, and, with crimson cheeks, and
panting with excitement, exclaimed: " Why have you
insulted Alexéi Philippovitch, papa? It is horrible,
it is unworthy of you, thus to insult a well-bred man!"
Papa stared at her with astonished eyes. His
amazement was so great that at first he could not tell what
reply to make to his audacious little girl. Moreover,
Aniuta’s sudden fit of temerity had already
evaporated, and she made haste to run away to her own
room.
When he had recovered from his astonishment, and
had thought the whole affair over thoroughly, my
father decided that it was better not to attribute any
great importance to his daughter’s sally, but to treat
the whole matter as a joke. At dinner, in Aniuta’s
presence, he related the story of a Tzar’s daughter
who had taken it into her head to champion a groom.
Naturally, the Tzarevna and her protégé were
represented in the most ridiculous light. My father was
a master hand in the use of witticism, and we were
terribly afraid of his ridicule. But to-day Aniuta
listened to papa’s story without being in the least
troubled, but on the contrary, with an irritable and
challenging aspect.
Aniuta expressed her protest against the insult to
which the priest’s son had been subjected, by seeking
every occasion to meet him at our neighbors’ or in her
walks.
Stepån, the coachman, narrated one day at supper,
in the servants’ hall, how their dreadful young
mistress had been walking alone in the forest with the
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