My Childhood - Maxim Gorky [87]
"Varvara screamed out 'What have they done to you?'
"The Inspector, scenting the truth, began to ask questions, and I felt in my heart that something very bad had happened.
"I put Varia off on to the Inspector, and I tried to get the truth out of Maxim quietly. 'What has happened?'
"'The first thing you must do,' he whispered, 'is to lie in wait for Jaakov and Michael and tell them that they are to say that they parted from me at Yamski Street and went to Pokrovski Street, while I turned off at Pryadilni Lane. Don't mix it up now, or we shall have trouble with the police.'
"I went to grandfather and said: 'Go and talk to the Inspector while I go and wait for our sons to tell them what evil has befallen us.'
"He dressed himself, all of a tremble, muttering: 'I knew how it would be! This is what I expected.'
"All lies! He knew nothing of the kind. Well, I met my children with my hands before my face. Fear sobered Mischka at once, and Jaashenka, the dear boy, let the cat out of the bag by babbling: 'I don't know anything about it. It is all Michael's doing. He is the eldest.'
"However, we made it all right with the Inspector. He was a very nice gentleman. 'Oh,' he says, 'but you had better take care; if anything bad happens in your house I shall know who is to blame.' And with that he went away.
"And grandfather went to Maxim and said: 'Thank you! Any one else in your place would not have acted as you have done--that I know! And thank you, daughter, for bringing such a good man into your father's house.' Grandfather could speak very nicely when he liked. It was after this that he began to be silly, and keep his heart shut up like a castle.
"We three were left together. Maxim Savatyevitch began to cry, and became almost delirious. 'Why have they done this to me? What harm have I done them? Mama . . . why did they do it?' He never called me 'mamasha,' but always 'mama,' like a child . . . and he was really a child in character. 'Why ... ?' he asked.
"I cried too--what else was there for me to do? I was so sorry for my children. Your mother tore all the buttons off her bodice, and sat there, all dishevelled as if she had been fighting, calling out: 'Let us go away, Maxim. My brothers are our enemies; I am afraid of them. Let us go away!'
"I tried to quieten her. 'Don't throw rubbish on the fire,' I said. 'The house is full of smoke without that.'
"At that very moment that fool of a grandfather must go and send those two to beg forgiveness; she sprang at Mischka and slapped his face. 'There 's your forgiveness!' she said. And your father complained: 'How could you do such a thing, brothers? You might have crippled me. What sort of a workman shall I be without hands?'
"However, they were reconciled. Your father was ailing for some time; for seven weeks he tossed about, and got no better, and he kept saying: 'Ekh! Mama, let us go to another town; I am weary of this place.'
"Then he had a chance of going to Astrakhan; they expected the Emperor there in the summer, and your father was entrusted with the building of a triumphal arch. They sailed on the first boat. It cut me to the heart to part from them, and he was grieved about it too, and kept saying to me that I ought to go with them to Astrakhan; but Varvara rejoiced, and did not even try to hide her joy--the hussy! And so they went away . . . and that is all!"
She drank a drop of vodka, took a pinch of snuff, and added, gazing out of the window at the dark blue sky:
"Yes, your father and I were not of the same blood, but in soul we were akin."
Sometimes, while she was telling me this, grandfather came in with his face uplifted, sniffed the air with his sharp nose, and looking suspiciously at grandmother, listened to what she was saying and muttered:
"That's not true! That's not true!"
Then he would ask, without warning:
"Lexei, has she been drinking brandy here?"
"No."
"That's a lie, for I saw her with my own eyes!" And he would go out in an undecided manner.
Grandmother would wink at him behind his back and utter some quaint saying:
"Go along, Avdye,