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He laid on a chair with his hat a bunch of cornflowers and a packet carefully done up in a handkerchief. "Good-day, Tatiana Markovna; Good-day, Marfa Vassilievna," he cried. He kissed the old lady's hand, and would have raised Marfinka's to his lips, but she pulled it away, though he found time to snatch a hasty kiss from it.
The sunshine insinuating itself everywhere, his aunt's kind face, Marfinka's friendliness, and the willing attention of the servants made up a pleasant, friendly environment.
She chatted volubly with Paulina Karpovna, who had turned up unexpectedly and was displaying the pattern of a dress intended for Marfinka's trousseau. That lady's visit was really directed towards Raisky, of whose return she had heard.
At the third she got up, glanced in the glass, and was terrified by the sight of her own face. She pushed her hair into order, threw a shawl over her shoulders, picked up Marfinka's bouquet from the floor, and laid it on the table. There was another knock and she opened the door. Marfinka, gay and lovely, gleaming like a rainbow in her pretty clothes, flew into the room.
The finest partie in this neighbourhood," he said in a confidential tone, "is Ivan Ivanovich Tushin, who is absolutely devoted to her, as he well may be." Raisky repressed a sigh and went home where he found Vikentev and his mother, who had arrived for Marfinka's birthday, with Paulina Karpovna and other guests from the town, who stayed until nearly seven o'clock.
When the second bouquet was ready he paid lavishly. He returned to the house cautiously, carrying the two bouquets. As he did not know whether Vera had returned in his absence, he had Marina called, and sent her to see if her mistress was at home or had already gone out walking. On hearing she was out he ordered Marfinka's bouquet to be put on Vera's table and the window to be opened.
From the cupboards of the house were brought old lace, silver and gold plate, glass, linen, furs, pearls, diamonds and all sorts of treasures, to be divided by Tatiana Markovna with Jew-like exactness into two equal shares, with the aid of jewellers, workers in gold, and others. "That is yours, Vera, and there is Marfinka's share. You are not to receive a pearl or on ounce more than the other.
He wandered about like a drunken man, silent and listening for the noise of any carriage in the street, when he would rush to the window to look if it bore his fugitive wife. He would come to them in a few weeks, he said, after Marfinka's wedding, as Vera suggested. Then he became aware of Vera's presence. "Vera Vassilievna!" he cried in surprise, staring at her as he addressed Raisky.
She handed over her dear child to Marfa Egorovna's charge, at the same time pointing out to Marfinka's fiance that he must take the greatest care of her, and that in order not to give strangers a wrong impression, he must be more dignified and must not chase about the garden and the woods with her as he did in Malinovka.
When he watched the towering crests of the waves at sea or the snow-clad mountain tops his imagination brought before him his aunt's noble grey head; her eyes looked at him from the portraits of Velasquez and Gerard Dow, just as Murillo's women reminded him of Vera, and he recalled Marfinka's charming face as he looked at the masterpieces of Greuze, or even at the women of Raphael.
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