There was no adoption or anything of that sort.
The mother owed her money, and so she got hold of the child.
Though the Bubnov woman’s a sly hag and a wicked wretch, she’s a silly woman like all women.
The dead woman had a good passport and so everything was all right.
Elena can live with you, though it would be a very good thing if some benevolent people with a family would take her for good and bring her up.
But meanwhile, let her stay with you.
That’s all right. I’ll arrange it all for you. The Bubnov woman won’t dare to stir a finger.
I’ve found out scarcely anything certain about Elena’s mother.
She was a woman of the name of Salzmann.”
“Yes, so Nellie told me.”
“Well, so there the matter ends.
Now, Vanya,” he began with a certain solemnity, “I’ve one great favour to ask of you.
Mind you grant it.
Tell me as fully as you can what it is you’re busy about, where you’re going, and where you spend whole days at a time.
Though I have heard something, I want to know about it much more fully.”
Such solemnity surprised me and even made me uneasy.
“But what is it?
Why do you want to know?
You ask so solemnly.”
“Well, Vanya, without wasting words, I want to do you a service.
You see, my dear boy, if I weren’t straight with you I could get it all out of you without being so solemn.
But you suspect me of not being straight – just now, those fruitdrops; I understood.
But since I’m speaking with such seriousness, you may be sure it’s not my interest but yours I’m thinking of.
So don’t have any doubts, but speak out the whole truth.”
“But what sort of service?
Listen, Masloboev, why won’t you tell me anything about the prince?
That’s what I want.
That would be a service to me.”
“About the prince? H’m! Very well, I’ll tell you straight out. I’m going to question you in regard to the prince now.”
“How so?”
“I’ll tell you how. I’ve noticed, my boy, that he seems to be somehow mixed up in your affairs; for instance, he questioned me about you.
How he found out that we knew each other is not your business.
The only thing that matters is that you should be on your guard against that man.
He’s a treacherous Judas, and worse than that too.
And so, when I saw that he was mixed up in your affairs I trembled for you.
But of course I knew nothing about it; that’s why I asked you to tell me, that I may judge. . . . And that’s why I asked you to come her today.
That’s what the important business is. I tell you straight out.”
“You must tell me something, anyway, if only why I need to be afraid of the prince.”
“Very good, so be it. I am sometimes employed, my boy, in certain affairs.
But I’m trusted by certain persons just because I’m not a chatterbox.
Judge for yourself whether I should talk to you.
So you mustn’t mind if I speak somewhat generally, very generally in fact, simply to show what a scoundrel he is.
Well, to begin with, you tell your story.”
I decided there was really no need to conceal anything in my affairs from Masloboev.
Natasha’s affairs were not a secret; moreover I might expect to get some help for her from Masloboev.
Of course I passed over certain points as far as possible in my story.
Masloboev listened particularly attentively to all that related to Prince Valkovsky; he stopped me in many places, asked me about several points over again, so that in the end I told him the story rather fully.
The telling of it lasted half an hour.
“H’m! That girl’s got a head,” Masloboev commented.
“If she hasn’t guessed quite correctly about the prince, it’s a good thing anyway that she recognized from the first the sort of man she had to deal with, and broke off all relations with him.