Petersburg promenades to the Strelka, used to ride to the Dnieper
to contemplate the sun setting on the other side of the river, in
the Chernigovskaya district--had he not seen how mamma's bosom
went, and how her cheeks glowed under the powder; had he not
detected at these moments many new and strange things; had he not
heard her voice, an altogether unknown voice, like an actor's;
nervously breaking off, mercilessly malicious to those of the
family and the servants, and suddenly soft, like velvet, like a
green meadow under the sun, when Paul Edwardovich would arrive?
Ah, if we people who have been made wise by experience would know
how much, and even too much, the urchins and little girls
surrounding us know, of whom we usually say:
"Well, why mind Volodya (or Petie, or Katie)? ... Why, they are
little. They don't understand anything! ..."
So also not in vain passed for Gladishev the history of his elder
brother, who had just come out of a military school into one of
the conspicuous grenadier regiments; and, being on leave until
such time when it would be possible for him to spread his wings,
lived in two separate rooms with his family.
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