The soil is even better than at Golovliovo.
And you have money, too, I suppose. Of course, I don't know anything about your affairs.
I only know that you received a lump sum on freeing your serfs, but exactly how much, I never cared to know.
To-day, for instance, as I was coming here, I said to myself, 'I suppose brother Pavel has money.' 'But then,' I thought, 'if he has capital, he must have decided already how to dispose of it.'"
The patient turned away and sighed heavily.
"You have not made any disposition? Well, so much the better, my friend.
It's even more just, according to the law.
It won't be inherited by strangers, but by your own kind.
Take me, for example, I am old, with one foot in the grave, but still I think, 'Why should I make disposition of my property if the law will do it all for me, after I am dead?'
And it's really the right way, my friend.
There will be no quarrels, no envy, no lawsuits. It's the law."
That was unbearable.
Pavel Vladimirych felt as if he were lying in a coffin, fettered, in lethargy, unable to move a limb, and forced to hear the Bloodsucker revile his dead body.
"Get out—for Christ's sake, get out!" he finally implored his torturer.
"All right, you just be quiet, I'll go.
I know you don't like me. It's a shame, my friend, a real shame, to dislike your own brother.
You see, I do love you.
And I've always been telling my children, 'Though Pavel Vladimirych has sinned against me, yet I love him.'
So you did not make any disposition? Well, that's fine, my friend.
Sometimes, though, one's money is stolen while one is yet alive, especially when one is without relatives, all alone. But I'll take care of it. Eh? What? Am I annoying you?
Well, well, let it be as you wish. I'll go.
Let me offer up a prayer."
He rose, placed his palms together, and whispered a prayer hurriedly.
"Good-by, friend, don't worry.
Take a good rest, and perhaps with God's help you will get better.
I will talk the matter over with mother dear. Maybe we'll think something up.
I have ordered a fish meal for myself, some salt-fish, some mushrooms and cabbage. So you'll pardon me.
What? Am I annoying you again?
Ah, brother dear! Well, well, I'm going.
Above all, don't be alarmed, don't be excited, sleep well and take a good rest," he said, and finally made his departure.
"Bloodsucker!" The word came after him in such a piercing shriek that even he felt as if he had been branded with a hot iron.
_____ CHAPTER VI
While Porfiry Vladimirych was holding forth in the entresol, grandmother Arina Petrovna had gathered the young folks around her downstairs, and was talking to them, not without the hope of getting something out of them.
"Well, how are you?" she asked, turned to her eldest grandson, Petenka.
"I'm pretty well, granny. Next month I'll graduate as an officer."
"Really? How many years have you been promising that?
Are the examinations so hard? Or what?"
"At the last examination, granny, he failed in his catechism.
The priest asked him, 'What is God?' and he answered, 'God is Spirit—is Spirit—and Holy Spirit.'"
"Oh, you poor thing! How is that?
Look at those little orphans. I'm sure even they know that."
"Why, certainly. God is invisible Spirit." Anninka hurried to show off her knowledge.
"Whom none ever beheld," Lubinka put in.
"Omniscient, most Gracious, Omnipotent, Omnipresent," Anninka continued.
"Whither can I go from Thy spirit and whither can I flee from Thy face? Should I rise to Heaven, there wouldst Thou be, should I descend to Hell, there wouldst Thou be."
"I wish you would have answered like that. You would have epaulets by this time.
And how about you, Volodya, what are you going to do?"
Volodya flushed and remained silent.
"Apparently, you go no further than your brother with his 'Spirit—Holy Spirit,' Ah, children, children!
You seem to be so bright and yet somehow you can't master your studies at all.