valued my attachment more, was prouder of me, wanted to agree with
me, but could not, and remained just the same as he had always
been; namely, something quite apart, only himself, handsome,
aristocratic, proud, and, above all, truthful and sincere to a
degree that I never met in any other man.

"He was what he was; he concealed nothing, and did not wish to
appear anything different."

Uncle Seryozha never treated children affectionately;
on the contrary, he seemed to put up with us rather than to like
us. But we always treated him with particular reverence. The
result, as I can see now, partly of his aristocratic appearance,
but chiefly because of the fact that he called my father
"Lyovotchka" and treated him just as my father treated us.

He was not only not in the least afraid of him, but was always
teasing him, and argued with him like an elder person with a
younger. We were quite alive to this.

Of course every one knew that there were no faster dogs in the
world than our black-and-white Darling and her daughter Wizard.
Not a hare could get away from them. But Uncle Seryozha
said that the gray hares about us were sluggish creatures, not at
all the same thing as steppe hares, and neither Darling nor Wizard
would get near a steppe hare.

We listened with open mouths, and did not know which to
believe, papa or Uncle Seryozha.