understand my question.

"Yes, who would ever have thought of it?" I repeated.

"Ah, my darling," she said with a glance of tender compassion, "it is
not only 'Who would ever have thought of it?' but 'Who, even now, would
ever believe it?' I am old, and my bones should long ago have gone to
rest rather than that I should have lived to see the old master, your
Grandpapa, of blessed memory, and Prince Nicola Michaelovitch, and his
two brothers, and your sister Amenka all buried before me, though all
younger than myself--and now my darling, to my never-ending sorrow, gone
home before me! Yet it has been God's will. He took her away because she
was worthy to be taken, and because He has need of the good ones."

This simple thought seemed to me a consolation, and I pressed closer to
Natalia, She laid her hands upon my head as she looked upward with eyes
expressive of a deep, but resigned, sorrow. In her soul was a sure and
certain hope that God would not long separate her from the one upon whom
the whole strength of her love had for many years been concentrated.

"Yes, my dear," she went on, "it is a long time now since I used to
nurse and fondle her, and she used to call me Natasha. She used to come
jumping upon me, and caressing and kissing me, and say, 'MY Nashik, MY
darling, MY ducky,' and I used to answer jokingly, 'Well, my love, I
don't believe that you DO love me. You will be a grown-up young
lady soon, and going away to be married, and will leave your Nashik
forgotten.' Then she would grow thoughtful and say, 'I think I had
better not marry if my Nashik cannot go with me, for I mean never to
leave her.' Yet, alas! She has left me now! Who was there in the world
she did not love? Yes, my dearest, it must never be POSSIBLE for you to