"Torment! my murderer! get out of my sight!"
"Maman, don't be angry; I am not in the least to blame!"
"Marry such a wench, and not to blame!"
"Now, maman, I am going to leave you. I do not want you to call her such names in my presence."
"My murderer!"
Anna Petrovna fell in a swoon, and Michel went off, satisfied with the courageous way in which he had carried out the first scene, which was the most important of all.
Seeing that her son was gone, Anna Petrovna recovered from her swoon. Her son has absolutely escaped from her power! In response to her "I forbid" he explains that the house is his! Anna Petrovna thought and thought; she poured out her grief before the senior chambermaid, who in these circumstances shared absolutely in the khozyáïka's feelings of contempt for the manager's daughter; she consulted with her and sent for the manager.
"Hitherto I have been very well satisfied with you, Pavel Konstantinuitch; but now these intrigues, in which possibly you have had no share, may compel me to quarrel with you."
"Your ladyship,[1] I am not to blame in the slightest degree, 'fore God!"
"I knew long ago that Michel was hanging around your daughter. I did not put a stop to it, because a young man cannot live without recreation. I am willing to make allowances for the mischief of young men, but I cannot endure that my family should be degraded. How did your daughter dare to think of entertaining such an ambition?"
"Your ladyship, she has not dared to entertain any such ambition. She is a modest girl; we have brought her up respectably."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Your ladyship, she would never dare to do anything against your will."
Anna Petrovna did not believe her ears. Can it be possible that this good news is true?
"You must be aware what my will is. I cannot consent to such an unnatural and, I may say, disreputable marriage."
"We are sensible of that, your ladyship, and Viérotchka
- ↑ Váshe Prevoskhoditelstvo, literally, your eminence.
