she could no longer rise from her bed, she told her husband in the
presence of the priest, while her dying eyes swam with timid tears,
that she wished to see her daughter-in-law, and to bid her farewell,
and to bless her grandson. The old man, who was greatly moved, bade
her set her mind at rest, and immediately sent his own carriage
for his daughter-in-law, calling her, for the first time, Malania
Sergievna.[A] Malania arrived with her boy, and with Marfa Timofeevna,
whom nothing would have induced to allow her to go alone, and who was
determined not to allow her to meet with any harm. Half dead with
fright, Malania Sergievna entered her father-in-law's study, a nurse
carrying Fedia behind her. Peter Andreich looked at her in silence.
She drew near and took his hand, on which her quivering lips could
scarcely press a silent kiss.

[Footnote A: That is to say, no longer speaking of her as if she were
still a servant.]

"Well, noble lady,"[A] he said at last,--"Good-day to you; let's go to
my wife's room."

[Footnote A: Literally "thrashed-while-damp noblewoman," _i.e._,
hastily ennobled. Much corn is thrashed in Russia before it has had
time to get dry.]

He rose and bent over Fedia; the babe smiled and stretched out its
tiny white hands towards him. The old man was touched.

"Ah, my orphaned one!" he said. "You have successfully pleaded your
father's cause. I will not desert you, little bird."