And grandmamma smothers baby withkisses, and tears of pride and tenderness rise to her eyes, when baby, drawing himself up straight in front of her, says to her, "I wish you good health, your excellency!" And Spiridon Ivanovitch enfolds Mimotchka in his ample embrace.
A week after their arrival they were all assembled at Aunt Julia's. She was in a state of great jubiliation. Her son Vova was engaged, and hisfiancéewas in every way most suitable. She was both wealthy and well connected.... The engagement was not yet formally announced, but the affair was quite settled. Thefiancéewas not pretty and she was no longer very young, but she was over head and ears in love with Vova. Aunt Julia liked her very much, and in speaking to her sisters of the young lady she said: "Elle n'est pas futile."
Aunt Julia thanked mamma very warmly for her care of Vava. Not to speak of Vava's having much improved physically, she had also morally changed, for the better; she was more self-controlled, gentler, and more obedient. And so she was given a separate room all to herself, where she could sleep, write, and study without Mdme. Lambert.
"Well, so altogether you had a pleasant trip?" says Aunt Julia in conclusion.
"Delightful, delightful. I am so glad Variashski sent us there."
"But how much prettier Mimotchka has grown! Why, she is simply unrecognisable."
"It's striking!" says Aunt Mary. "Next summer I shall go to Kislovodsk to get young and beautiful again."
Mimotchka smiles modestly and composedly.
"And that Netty!" says Aunt Sophy. "Haven't you heard what a scandal there was?"
"No, what is it? Zina wrote something or other about it, but we could not make out what she meant."
"She is separated from her husband, and has now disappeared from Petersburg and gone off to Paris, where she changes her lovers as often as her gloves. It's awful! She always did behave like a fool. Just before her husband had to go to sea her conscience began to get uneasy. If it had only kept quiet until he came back! No, she goes to confession and tells everything to the priest, this and that, and says she has committed a sin against her husband. The priest directly says: 'And does your husband know of it? 'No,' she says. 'Well then, don't tell him of it.' And he explained to her why she was to keepsilence, that as she had sinned, she must suffer, but that he must not suffer for it."
"They always say that," puts in Aunt Mary thoughtlessly, and meeting Aunt Julia's inquiring gaze, she adds, "I have heard of many such cases where the priests said that."
"Well she comes straight home from confession and says to her husband, 'I went to the priest and told him all about my sin.' 'What sin?' And there it was. What!... Scenes and explanations. He wants to shoot himself and she wants to shoot herself. He wants to kill her, to kill the other man, to kill himself.... A la fin des finshe goes to sea, and she, after throwing all the children on the old Poltavsteffs' hands, goes off to her beloved and sets about getting a divorce. After two months the other man cannot stand her any longer and runs away fromher. She takes poison, the doctors save her life, and then she goes off to Paris. She has been there now already three weeks, and there are very very ugly rumours about her." ...
"Oh, how sorry I am far the old Poltavsteffs!" says mamma: "how dreadful it is for them!"
"I said a long time ago that she was in a dangerous way," says Aunt Julia.
Mimotchka nods her head affirmatively.
"Well,à proposof love affairs," says Aunt Sophy, "is it true that in the Caucasus, at the springs, there is so much flirting going on?"
"Ah, don't mention it!" answers mamma, smiling. "What things we saw and what things we heard! And Variashski, too, just imagine!" ...
"And wasn't there anyone after Mimi?Est-ce qu'il y a eu quelqu'un pour te faire la cour?... Et personne ne t'a donné dans l'œil?" ...
"Quelle idée, ma tante!... Why, there was no one there. At least, there were many sympathetic, agreeable people, but nobody of that sort." ...
And Mimotchka, smiling her old Petersburg smile, shakes her head in denial.
"And is nature really so beautiful there?" asks Aunt Julia; "Vava goes into ecstasies about the mountains."
"But they didn't see anything," said Spiridon Ivanovitch regretfully. "How was it you never went to Bermamout? Why, I wrote and told you to go. To be at Kislovodsk and not go to Bermamout! Oh, you!... you were among the real mountains and never went to see them."
"But there was no one to go with," said Mimotchka, defending herself."The X—— 's had left before our arrival, and somehow we three never managed it alone. I really did so try to go and see everything."
"Yes, it must be very lovely there," says Aunt Mary, looking through the stereoscope at some views of the Caucasus that Vava had brought back. "How beautiful this is! What is it?"
"This?" says Mimotchka, bending over Aunt Mary to look through the stereoscope. "This is the 'Castle of Love and Treachery.' They are rocks that look like a castle, and that is what they are called."
"And is it really as beautiful? Did you go there?"
"Yes, I went there on horseback.... It's very beautiful, especially by moon-light—c'est féerique."