IX.


For a long time the old Lavretsky could not forgive his son for his
marriage. If, at the end of six months, Ivan Petrovich had appeared
before him with contrite mien, and had fallen at his feet, the old
man would, perhaps, have pardoned the offender--after having soundly
abused him, and given him a tap with his crutch by way of frightening
him. But Ivan Petrovich went on living abroad, and, apparently,
troubled himself but little about his father. "Silence! don't dare to
say another word!" exclaimed Peter Andreich to his wife, every time
she tried to mollify him. "That puppy ought to be always praying
to God for me, since I have not laid my curse upon him, the
good-for-nothing fellow! Why, my late father would have killed him
with his own hands, and he would have done well." All that Anna
Pavlovna could do was to cross herself stealthily when she heard such
terrible words as these. As to his son's wife, Peter Andreich would
not so much as hear of her at first; and even when he had to answer
a letter in which his daughter-in-law was mentioned by Pestof, he
ordered a message to be sent to him to say that he did not know of any
one who could be his daughter-in-law, and that it was contrary to the
law to shelter runaway female serfs, a fact of which he considered
it a duty to warn him. But afterwards, on learning the birth of his
grandson, his heart softened a little; he gave orders that inquiries
should be secretly made on his behalf about the mother's health, and
he sent her--but still, not as if it came from himself--a small sum of
money.

Before Fedor was a year old, his grandmother, Anna Pavlovna, was
struck down by a mortal complaint. A few days before her death, when