At last the sound of Glasha’s feet dies away in the echoing silence of
the long corridor. The old lady lies, waiting, thinking. She is once
more straight and motionless under her bed-cover, and very yellow and
very still. Her whole life seems to be concentrated in the living
sparkle of her keen eyes.
The sun, still low, throws a subdued rosy light on the wall facing her.
The bedroom is lit-up and quiet. Swift atoms of dust are dancing about
in the air. There is a glitter on the glass of the photographic
portraits which hang on the wall, as well as on the narrow gilt rims of
their black frames.
Elena Kirillovna looks at the portraits. Her keen, youthfully sparkling
eyes carefully scrutinize the beloved faces. Many of these are no
longer upon the earth.
Borya’s portrait is a large one, in a broad dark frame. It is a young
face, the face of a seventeen-year-old lad, quite smooth and with dark
eyes. The upper lip shows a small but vigorous growth of hair. The lips
are tightly compressed and the entire face gives the impression of an
indomitable will.
Elena Kirillovna looks long at the portrait, and recalls Borya. Of all
her grandsons she loved him best. And now she is recalling him. She
sees him as he had once looked. Where is he now? Before long Borya will
return. She will be overjoyed, her eyes will have their fill of him.
But how soon?
It comforts the old woman to think, “It can’t be very long.”
Some one has just run past her window, giving a shrill cry.
Elena Kirillovna, turning in her bed, looks out of the window.
The white acacia trees before the window, gaily rustling their leaves,
smile innocently, naïvely and cheerily. Behind them, looming densely,
are the tops of the birches and of the limes. Some of the branches lean
toward the window. Their harsh rustle evokes a memory in Elena
Kirillovna.
If Borya were but to cry out like that! He had loved this garden. He
had loved the white bloom of the acacia trees, and he had loved to
gather the little field flowers. He used to bring her some. He liked
cornflowers specially.