Vassilissa, he has sketched you and me, like life! When Tiet Nikonich
comes, hide yourself and make a sketch of him, and next day we will send
it him, and it can hang on the study wall. What a boy you are! And you
play as well as the French emigre who used to live with your Aunt. Only
it is impossible to talk to you about the farm; you are still too
young."

She always wished to go through the accounts with him. "The accounts for
Veroshka and Marfinka are separate, you see," she said. "You need not
think that a penny of your money goes to them. See...."

But he never listened. He merely watched how his aunt wrote, how she
looked at him over her spectacles, observed the wrinkles in her face,
her birthmark, her eyes, her smile, and then burst out laughing, and,
throwing himself into her arms, kissed her, and begged to go and look at
the old house. She could refuse him nothing; so she unwillingly gave him
the keys and he went to look at the rooms where he was born and had
spent his childhood, of which he retained only a confused memory.

"I am going with Cousin Boris," said Marfinka.

"Where, my darling? It is uncanny over there," said Tatiana Markovna.

Marfinka was frightened. Veroshka said nothing, but when Boris reached
the old house, she was already standing at the door, with her hand on
the latch, as if she feared she might be driven away.

Boris shuddered as he entered the ante-room, and cast an anxious glance
into the neighbouring hall, supported by pillars. Veroshka had run on in
front.