And now I see what it all meant."
"Well, it is good at least the lamps have been burning.
It is some relief to the soul.
Where will you sit? Will you be my partner, or will you join your queen?"
"But, mother dear, I don't know if it's proper."
"Yes, it is.
Sit down.
God will forgive you. It wasn't done on purpose, with evil intentions. It was just because you forgot.
It may happen even to saints.
To-morrow, you see, we'll rise with the sun, and stand throughout the mass and have the requiem sung—all as it should be.
His soul will rejoice that good people remembered him, and we will be at peace because we did our duty.
That's the way to do, my friend.
No use worrying. I'll always say, in the first place, worry will not bring back your son, and, in the second place, it is a sin before God."
Yudushka yielded to the persuasiveness of these words, and kissed his mother's hands.
"Ah, mother, mother, you have a golden soul, really!
If not for you what would I do now?
It would be the end of me, that's all. I just wouldn't know what to do and would go under."
Porfiry Vladimirych gave orders for to-morrow's ceremony, and all sat down to play.
They played one hand out, then another. Arina Petrovna became heated and denounced Yudushka because he had been handing Yevpraksia only one card at a time.
In the intervals between the deals, Yudushka abandoned himself to reminiscences of his dead son.
"And how kind he was," he said. "He wouldn't take a thing without permission.
If he needed paper, 'May I have some paper, papa?'
'Yes, you may, my friend,' Or,
'Won't you be so kind, father dear, as to order carps for breakfast?'
'If you wish it, my friend.'
Ah, Volodya, my son, you were a good lad in every way, but it was not good of you to leave your father."
A few more hands were played, and Yudushka again gave vent to his reminiscences.
"And, pray, what in the world happened to him? I really can't understand it.
He lived quietly and nicely, was a joy to me—it couldn't have been better. And all of a sudden—bang!
What a sin, what a sin! Just think of it, mother dear, what a deed! His very life, the gift of the Heavenly Father.
Why? What for? What did he lack?
Was it money?
I think I never held back his allowance. Even my enemies will not dare say that about me.
Well, and if his allowance was not enough, I couldn't help it.
Your father's money wasn't stolen money.
If you haven't enough money, well, learn to restrain yourself.
You can't always be eating cookies, you must sometimes be content with simpler fare.
Yes, you must.
Your father, for example, expected some money the other day, and then the manager comes and says, 'The Torpenlovskoye peasants won't pay their rent.'
Well, I couldn't help it, I wrote a complaint to the Justice of the Peace.
Ah, Volodya, Volodya!
No, you were not a good boy. You deserted your poor father.
Left him an orphan."
The livelier the game the more copious and sentimental Yudushka's reminiscences.
"And how bright he was!
I remember once, he was laid up with the measles.
He was no more than seven years old. My late Sasha came over to him, and he says, 'Mother, mother, is it true that only angels have wings?'
'Well,' she said, 'yes, only angels.'
'Why?' he asked. 'Did father have wings when he came here a while ago?'"
Yudushka remained the fool with as many as eight cards on his hands, among them the ace, king and queen of trumps.