Every nerve in his body sang. Life, thought, emotion broke in waves in
the seething sea of his consciousness. The notes strike a chord of
memory. A cloud of recollection hovers before him, shaping the figure of
a woman who holds him to her breast. He gropes in his consciousness--it
was thus that his mother's arms cradled him, his face pressed to her
breast ... her figure grows in distinctness, as if she had risen from
the grave....

He had begun to take lessons from Vassyvkov. For a whole week he had
been moving the bow up and down, but its scratching set his teeth on
edge. He caught two strings at once, and his hand trembled with weakness.
It was clearly no use. When Vassyvkov played his hand seemed to play of
itself. Tired of the torment, Raisky begged his guardian to allow him to
take piano lessons.

"It will be easier on the pianoforte," he thought.

His guardian engaged a German master, but took the opportunity of saying
a few words to his nephew.

"Boris," he said, "for what are you preparing yourself? I have been
intending to ask you for a long time."

Boris did not understand the question, and made no answer.

"You are nearly sixteen years old, and it is time you began to think of
serious things. It is plain that you have not yet considered what
faculty you will follow in the University, and to which branch of the
service you will devote yourself. You cannot well go into the army,