"Come straight home and I'll make everything clear to you," I cried, turning him by force towards home.
"It's he!
Stepan Trofimovitch, it's you?
You?" A fresh, joyous young voice rang out like music behind us.
We had seen nothing, but a lady on horseback suddenly made her appearance beside us—Lizaveta Nikolaevna with her invariable companion.
She pulled up her horse.
"Come here, come here quickly!" she called to us, loudly and merrily.
"It's twelve years since I've seen him, and I know him, while he.... Do you really not know me?"
Stepan Trofimovitch clasped the hand held out to him and kissed it reverently.
He gazed at her as though he were praying and could not utter a word.
"He knows me, and is glad!
Mavriky Nikolaevitch, he's delighted to see me!
Why is it you haven't been to see us all this fortnight?
Auntie tried to persuade me you were ill and must not be disturbed; but I know Auntie tells lies.
I kept stamping and swearing at you, but I had made up my mind, quite made up my mind, that you should come to me first, that was why I didn't send to you.
Heavens, why he hasn't changed a bit!" She scrutinised him, bending down from the saddle. "He's absurdly unchanged.
Oh, yes, he has wrinkles, a lot of wrinkles, round his eyes and on his cheeks some grey hair, but his eyes are just the same.
And have I changed?
Have I changed?
Why don't you say something?"
I remembered at that moment the story that she had been almost ill when she was taken away to Petersburg at eleven years old, and that she had cried during her illness and asked for Stepan Trofimovitch.
"You... I..." he faltered now in a voice breaking with joy.
"I was just crying out 'who will comfort me?' and I heard your voice. I look on it as a miracle et je commence a croire."
"En Dieu!
En Dieu qui est la-haut et qui est si grand et si bon!
You see, I know all your lectures by heart.
Mavriky Nikolaevitch, what faith he used to preach to me then, en Dieu qui est si grand et si bon!
And do you remember your story of how Columbus discovered America, and they all cried out,
'Land! land!'?
My nurse Alyona Frolovna says I was light-headed at night afterwards, and kept crying out 'land! land!' in my sleep.
And do you remember how you told me the story of Prince Hamlet?
And do you remember how you described to me how the poor emigrants were transported from Europe to America?
And it was all untrue; I found out afterwards how they were transited. But what beautiful fibs he used to tell me then, Mavriky Nikolaevitch! They were better than the truth.
Why do you look at Mavriky Nikolaevitch like that?
He is the best and finest man on the face of the globe and you must like him just you do me!
Il fait tout ce que je veux.
But, dear Stepan Trofimovitch, you must be unhappy again, since you cry out in the middle of the street asking who will comfort you.
Unhappy, aren't you?
Aren't you?"
"Now I'm happy...."
"Aunt is horrid to you?" she went on, without listening. "She's just the same as ever, cross, unjust, and always our precious aunt!
And do you remember how you threw yourself into my arms in the garden and I comforted you and cried—don't be afraid of Mavriky Nikolaevitch; he has known all about you, everything, forever so long; you can weep on his shoulder as long as you like, and he'll stand there as long as you like! ...
Lift up your hat, take it off altogether for a minute, lift up your head, stand on tiptoe, I want to kiss you on the forehead as I kissed you for the last time when we parted.
Do you see that young lady's admiring us out of the window? Come closer, closer!
Heavens! How grey he is!"
And bending over in the saddle she kissed him on the forehead.
"Come, now to your home!
I know where you live.
I'll be with you directly, in a minute.
I'll make you the first visit, you stubborn man, and then I must have you for a whole day at home.