Almost stumbling against the prince, the young wife precipitately set down
the tub, showed a little embarrassment, dropped a courtesy, and then with
shining eyes glanced up at him, and, endeavoring to hide a slight smile
behind the sleeve of her embroidered shirt, ran up the steps, clattering in
her wooden shoes.
"Mother,[20] you take the water-yoke to aunt Nastásia," said she, pausing
at the door, and addressing the old woman.
[Footnote 20: _mátushka._]
The modest young proprietor looked sternly but scrutinizingly at the rosy
woman, frowned, and turned to the old dame, who, seizing the yoke with her
crooked fingers, submissively lifted it to her shoulder, and was about to
direct her steps to the adjacent hut.
"Your son at home?" asked the prince.
The old woman, her bent form bent more than usual, made an obeisance, and
tried to say something in reply, but, suddenly putting her hand to her
mouth, was taken with such a fit of coughing, that Nekhliudof without
waiting went into the hut.
Yukhvanka, who had been sitting on the bench in the "red corner,"[21] when
he saw the prince, threw himself upon the oven, as though he were anxious
to hide from him, hastily thrust something away in the loft, and, with
mouth and eyes twitching, squeezed himself close to the wall, as though to
make way for the prince.
[Footnote 21: Where the holy images and the lighted taper are to be found.]
Yukhvanka was a light-complexioned fellow, thirty years of age, spare, with
a young, pointed beard. He was well proportioned, and rather handsome, save
for the unpleasant expression of his hazel eyes, under his knitted brow,
and for the lack of two front teeth, which immediately attracted one's
attention because his lips were short and constantly parted.
He wore a Sunday shirt with bright red gussets, striped print drawers, and
heavy boots with wrinkled legs.
The interior of Vanka's hut was not as narrow and gloomy as that of
Churis's, though it was fully as stifling, as redolent of smoke and
sheep-skin, and showing as disorderly an array of peasant garments and
utensils.
Two things here strangely attracted the attention,--a small damaged samovár
standing on the shelf, and a black frame near the _ikon_, with the remains
of a dirty mirror and the portrait of some general in a red uniform.
Nekhliudof looked with distaste on the samovár, the general's portrait, and
the loft, where stuck out, from under some rags, the end of a
copper-mounted pipe. Then he turned to the peasant.
"How do you do, Yepifán?" said he, looking into his eyes.
Yepifán bowed low, and mumbled, "Good-morning, 'slency,"[22] with a
peculiar abbreviation of the last word, while his eyes wandered restlessly
from the prince to the ceiling, and from the ceiling to the floor, and not
pausing on any thing. Then he hastily ran to the loft, dragged out a coat,
and began to put it on.
[Footnote 22: _vaciaso_ for _vashe siátelstvo_ (your excellency).]
"Why are you putting on your coat?" asked Nekhliudof, sitting down on the
bench, and evidently endeavoring to look at Yepifán as sternly as possible.
"How can I appear before you without it, 'slency? You see we can
understand"....
"I have come to ask you why you need to sell a horse? Have you many horses?
What horse do you wish to sell?" said the prince without wasting words, but
propounding questions that he had evidently pre-considered.
"We are greatly beholden to you, 'slency, that you do not think it beneath
you to visit me, a mere peasant," replied Yukhvanka, casting hasty glances
at the general's portrait, at the stove, at the prince's boots, and every
thing else except Nekhliudof's face. "We always pray God for your 'slency."
"Why sell the horse?" repeated Nekhliudof, raising his voice, and coughing.
Yukhvanka sighed, tossed back his hair (again his glance roved about the
hut), and noticing the cat that lay on the bench contentedly purring, he
shouted out to her, "Scat, you rubbish!" and quickly addressed himself to
the bárin. "A horse, 'slency, which ain't worth any thing. If the beast was
good for any thing, I shouldn't think of selling him, 'slency."
"How many horses have you in all?"
"Three horses, 'slency."
"No colts?"
"Of course, 'slency. There is one colt."