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Pavel threw another handful of twigs on to the fire. 'Perhaps, he said at last. 'But tell us, please, Pavlusha, began Fedya, 'what was seen in your parts at Shalamovy at the heavenly portent? 'When the sun could not be seen? Yes, indeed. 'Were you frightened then? 'Yes; and we weren't the only ones.
He began to bring books home with him. At first he tried to escape attention when reading them; and after he had finished a book, he hid it. Sometimes he copied a passage on a piece of paper, and hid that also. "Aren't you well, Pavlusha?" the mother asked once. "I'm all right," he answered. "You are so thin," said the mother with a sigh. He was silent.
Suddenly a white dove flew straight into the bright light, fluttered round and round in terror, bathed in the red glow, and disappeared with a whirr of its wings. 'It's lost its home, I suppose, remarked Pavel. 'Now it will fly till it gets somewhere, where it can rest till dawn. 'Why, Pavlusha, said Kostya, 'might it not be a just soul flying to heaven?
Pavlusha grew up, began driving over to call on Ivan Andreevitch on his own account, fell in love with Olga Ivanovna, and offered her his hand and heart not to her personally, but to her benefactors. Her benefactors gave their consent. They never even thought of asking Olga Ivanovna whether she liked Rogatchov.
"Pavlusha, darling," she said; "my own, my darling son! . . . Why are you like this? Pavlusha, answer me!" Katya, pale and severe, stood beside her, unable to understand what was the matter with her uncle, why there was such a look of suffering on her grandmother's face, why she was saying such sad and touching things.
'Boys, he began, after a short silence, 'something bad happened. 'Oh, what? asked Kostya hurriedly. 'I heard Vasya's voice. They all seemed to shudder. 'What do you mean? what do you mean? stammered Kostya. 'I don't know. Only I went to stoop down to the water; suddenly I hear my name called in Vasya's voice, as though it came from below water: "Pavlusha, Pavlusha, come here." I came away.
By now he could not utter a word, he could understand nothing, and he imagined he was a simple ordinary man, that he was walking quickly, cheerfully through the fields, tapping with his stick, while above him was the open sky bathed in sunshine, and that he was free now as a bird and could go where he liked! "Pavlusha, my darling son, answer me," the old woman was saying. "What is it? My own!"
'No, I didn't see him, and no one ever can see him, answered Ilyusha, in a weak hoarse voice, the sound of which was wonderfully in keeping with the expression of his face; 'I heard him.... Yes, and not I alone. 'Where does he live in your place? asked Pavlusha. 'In the old paper-mill. 'Why, do you go to the factory? 'Of course we do. My brother Avdushka and I, we are paper-glazers.
The boy who was telling the story had hardly uttered this last word, when suddenly both dogs got up at once, and, barking convulsively, rushed away from the fire and disappeared in the darkness. All the boys were alarmed. Vanya jumped up from under his rug. Pavlusha ran shouting after the dogs.
When the guests, replete and satisfied, trooped into the hall, looking for their coats and sticks, there bustled about them the footman Pavlusha, or, as he was called in the family, Pava a lad of fourteen with shaven head and chubby cheeks. "Come, Pava, perform!" Ivan Petrovitch said to him. Pava struck an attitude, flung up his arm, and said in a tragic tone: "Unhappy woman, die!"
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