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By Root 2312 0

law-courts with them, while he himself made use of his connexions to bring about a satisfactory issue to the legal proceedings. He thought there was good reason to hope that everything would soon end happily. This put an end to the malicious gossip, and people grew accustomed to look upon the baron as a member of the family. He was nearly fifty, but he looked younger than his age, except that he dyed his moustache and had a slight limp. He was exquisitely polite, never smoked in the presence of ladies, never crossed his legs, and severely criticized the young men when during a visit they allowed themselves to lean back in an arm-chair or raise their knees and boots on a level with their noses. He kept his gloves on even indoors, removing them only when he sat down to dinner. He dressed in the latest fashion and wore several ribbons in his buttonhole. He always drove in a carriage and pair and took great care of his horses: before stepping into the carriage, he first walked round it, examined the harness and even the horses’ hoofs, and sometimes took out a white handkerchief and rubbed their flanks and backs to see whether they had been well groomed. He greeted acquaintances with a polite and affable smile, and strangers coldly at first, but his coldness was replaced by a smile as soon as they had been introduced to him, and his new acquaintance could always count on it in future. He discussed everything: virtue, high cost of living, science and society – and with equal precision; he expressed his views in clear-cut and well-balanced sentences, as though speaking in ready-made maxims written down in some textbook and circulated among society people for general guidance.

Olga’s relations with her aunt had so far been very simple and calm; they never transgressed against the limits of moderation in their expressions of affection for each other and there was never a shadow of displeasure between them. This was partly due to the character of Maria Mikhailovna, Olga’s aunt, and partly to the absence of any reason for them to behave differently. It never occurred to the aunt to demand anything to which Olga would have strongly objected; Olga would never have dreamt of refusing to comply with her aunt’s preferences or to follow her advice. And what was the nature of those preferences? They concerned the choice of her clothes, the style of arranging her hair, or whether they should go to the French theatre or the opera. Olga obeyed in so far as her aunt expressed a preference or gave advice, but no more than that – and her aunt always expressed her wishes with a moderation that amounted to dryness, never exceeding her rights as an aunt. Their relations were so colourless that it was quite impossible to say whether her aunt made any claims on Olga’s obedience or demanded any special tenderness, and whether Olga would dream of disobeying her aunt or felt any tenderness towards her. On the other hand, one could tell at once that they were aunt and niece and not mother and daughter.

‘I’m going shopping; is there anything you want?’ the aunt asked.

‘Yes, Auntie, I have to change my lilac dress,’ Olga said, and they went together. Or: ‘No, Auntie,’ Olga said, ‘I went there the other day.’

The aunt touched her cheek with two fingers, kissed her on the forehead, and she kissed her aunt’s hand, and one went and the other one stayed behind.

‘Shall we take the same country cottage again?’ the aunt would say, neither affirmatively nor questioningly, but just as though she were debating the question with herself and could not make up her mind.

‘Yes,’ Olga replied, ‘it’s very nice there.’

And the country cottage was taken.

And if Olga said, ‘Goodness, Auntie, aren’t you tired of that forest and sand? Hadn’t we better go somewhere else?’

‘Very well,’ said the aunt, ‘let us.’

‘Shall we go to the theatre, Olga?’ the aunt said. ‘Everybody has been talking about this play for weeks.’

‘With pleasure,’ answered Olga, but without any particular desire to please her aunt or any expression of obedience.

Sometimes they had