This is the maliciousness of a "bogatyr"[2]: Vaska Buslayev played
such pranks in his youth, mischievous fellow. He is experimenting,
all the time testing something, as if he were going to fight. It is
interesting, but not much to my liking. He is the devil, and I am still
a babe, and he should leave me alone.
[Footnote 1: Tolstoi's wife.]
[Footnote 1: A hero in Russian legend, brave, but wild and self-willed
like a child.]