"I am well aware, my dearest friend and mother, that you bear the heaviest burdens for the sake of us, your unworthy children. I know that often our behavior does not justify your motherly solicitude, and what is worse, erring humans that we are, we often forget it, for which I apologize most devotedly and sincerely, in the hope that in the course of time I will overcome my weakness and be more prudent in my expenditure of the funds that you send, my adorable friend and mother, for my maintenance and for other purposes."
Pavel would answer back:
"Dearest mother, though you have not as yet paid any of my debts, I accept most submissively the name of spendthrift which you choose to bestow upon me, whereof I beg most sincerely to accept my assurance."
Even the replies that the brothers made to the letter announcing the death of their sister, Anna Vladimirovna, were quite different from each other.
Porfiry Vladimirych said:
"The news of the death of my dear sister and good playmate, Anna Vladimirovna, has filled my heart with sorrow, a sorrow aggravated by the thought that a new cross has been given you to bear, dearest little mother, in the shape of two little orphans.
Is it not sufficient that you, common benefactress to us all, deny yourself everything and, without sparing your health, concentrate all your power on the sole object of assuring the family not only the necessaries of life but also the luxuries?
Believe me, it is a wicked thing to do, but now and then, I confess, I cannot refrain from grumbling.
As far as I can see, the only solace for you, my dearest, in this state of affairs is to remember as often as you can all that Christ himself had to undergo."
Pavel's reply ran:
"The news of my sister, who has fallen a victim, I have received.
I hope, however, that the Most High will rest her in His celestial tent, although this is uncertain."
Arina Petrovna reading these letters would try to guess which of the two sons would be her destruction.
At times she felt certain the danger was coming from Porfiry Vladimirych.
"Look how he wags his tongue, a regular fiend at writing!" she would exclaim. "Simple Simon's nickname suits to a tee—Yudushka!
Not a word of truth in all this stuff about my burdens, my cross, and the rest. Sheer lies! Not an ounce of feeling in his heart!"
At other times Pavel Vladimirych seemed to be her real enemy.
"A fool, and yet look how deftly he tries to make love to mother on the sly.
'Whereof I beg most sincerely to accept my assurance!'
Wait a while! I'll teach you what 'accept assurances' means!
I shall deal with you as I did with Simple Simon, and you'll find out what I mean by your 'assurances'!"
In the end a truly tragical cry would burst from her lips.
"And for whom am I hoarding all this wealth? For whom am I gathering all this? I deny myself sleep and food—for whom?"
Such were the domestic circumstances of the Golovliovs at the time that the bailiff, Anton Vasilyev, reported to Arina Petrovna that Simple Simon had dissipated "the bone" flung to him, which, in view of its loss, might now be called with especial significance the "parental blessing."
Arina Petrovna sat in her bedroom, all her senses dazed.
A vague, unaccountable feeling stirred within her, whether pity, born suddenly and miraculously, for her hated offspring, who, after all, was her son, or whether merely thwarted despotism, the most expert psychologist would have been unable to decide. Her sensations were utterly confused and succeeded each other with bewildering swiftness.
Finally, out of the welter of her thoughts there crystallized one emotion, the fear that "the horrid creature" would again be hanging round her neck.
"Aniutka has forced her whelps on me, and now this dunderhead is coming here," she pondered deeply.
Long she sat silent, her eyes fixed and intent.
Dinner was brought in, but she hardly touched it; a servant came and said the master wanted brandy. Without looking up she threw him the keys of the store-room.
After the meal she ordered the bath to be prepared for her. Then she went into the oratory, ordered all the image lamps to be lit, and shut herself in.
These were all clear signs that the mistress was "in a temper," and so the house turned as quiet as a churchyard.
The chambermaids walked on tiptoe; Akulina, the housekeeper, ran back and forth like a lunatic. The preparations for preserving had been set for after dinner; the berries had been rinsed and made ready, but the mistress gave no orders either to go ahead or to wait. The gardener, Matvey, came to ask whether it was time to gather the peaches, but such was his reception in the maids' room that he fled precipitately.
Prayers and bath over, Arina Petrovna felt almost reconciled with the world and had the bailiff summoned again.
"Now tell me, what is the numskull doing?" she asked.
"Well, Moscow is big, it would take more than a year to walk through it."
"But he needs something to fill his stomach with, doesn't he?"
"Our peasants feed him.
He eats with one, gets money for tobacco from another."
"And who permits them to give him anything?"
"Goodness me, madam!
The people don't complain.
They give alms to strangers. Should they refuse a mite to their own master's son?"
"I'll teach them to give mites!
I'll have the blockhead deported to your estate, and the community will have to maintain him at its own expense."
"As you command, madam."
"What? What did you say?"
"As you command, my lady.
If you order it, we shall feed him."
"That's better. But talk sensibly."