Next morning he went to fetch Lesha. The boy met him at the gate and
showed him where he lived. Lesha’s black mamma was drinking coffee, and
was quarrelling with her red-nosed lodger. Saksaoolov learnt something
about Lesha from her.
The lad lost his mother when he was three. His father married this
black woman, and himself died within a year. The black woman, Irina
Ivanovna, had her own son, now a year old. She was about to marry
again. The wedding would take place in a few days and after the
ceremony she would go with her husband to the provinces. Lesha was a
stranger to her and she would rather do without him.
“Give him to me,” suggested Saksaoolov.
“With great pleasure,” said Irina Ivanovna with unconcealed and
malignant joy.
She added after a short silence: “Only you will pay for his clothes.”
And so Lesha was presently installed at Saksaoolov’s. The Gorodischeva
girl helped in the finding of a governess and in other details of
Lesha’s comfort. This required her to visit Saksaoolov’s apartments.
She assumed a different appearance in Saksaoolov’s eyes as she busied
herself in these various cares. It was as though the door to her soul
opened itself to him. Her eyes had become beaming and gentle, and she
was permeated with almost the same tranquillity that breathed from
Tamar.