An early love--A schoolfellow's sister--A pretty sister-in-law.
In spite of his precocious vocation, Elie was in no wise indifferent
to his surroundings. His mind was sensitive and impressionable and his
affections deep and tender, especially where his mother was concerned.
He never undertook anything without consulting her, a sweet habit which
he preserved even in his maturity.
It was already at the age of six that he received his first love
impression: a lady came on a visit to Panassovka with her little girl
of eight, a lovely curly-headed child, sweet and graceful, a living
floweret. Ilia could not admire her enough, and was most lavish in his
attentions, offering her flowers and fruit, inventing games to amuse
her and trying by every means to make himself agreeable to her. The
presence of this charming little girl caused him great joy and tender
emotion; he wished that she might never go away.... But the visit soon
ended, and this first idyll was short-lived; new impressions were not
long in replacing it. Nevertheless the picture of the pretty child was
so deeply impressed in his mind that he never forgot her.
The second time he fell in love was when he was already at the Lycée;
one of his schoolfellows had a very pretty sister whom Elie used to
meet on half-holidays. He admired her from afar, and tried to contrive
opportunities of meeting her; she was the object of his dreams for the
whole of one term.
But he was presently to be seized by a more serious feeling. When he
was in the third class at the Lycée he came as usual to Panassovka
for the summer holidays and found there a new inmate, his elder
brother's young wife. Soon, to his own astonishment, he found that the
image of his last winter's passion was being effaced by that of his
sister-in-law. She, a pretty, fashionable girl, was bored with country
life; she criticised the simple habits at Panassovka which formed a
sharp contrast with her tastes; she soon became very unpopular and,
feeling lonely and bored, tried to attract her young brother-in-law.
Elie, at first a willing comrade, soon found himself harbouring a more
tender feeling for his sister-in-law; she complained to him of the
family's hostility, declared herself misunderstood, and easily excited
the pity and sympathy of the sensitive boy. He became her ardent
defender and went so far as to fight her battles, even with his mother,
whom he reproached with fancied injustice. For nearly four years he
remained under his sister-in-law's sentimental influence. He afterwards
freed himself completely from it, but the fact remains that she was the
first woman who inspired real sentiment in his youthful manhood.