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Updated: June 1, 2025
And, in fact, during my last visit I found that Alexyéi Sergyéitch had aged very greatly; even the pupils of his eyes had acquired a milky hue like that in infants and on his lips there appeared not the discerning smile of former days, but that strainedly-sweet, unconscious smirk which never leaves the faces of very old people even in their sleep. I imparted Alexyéi Sergyéitch's decision to Iván.
Alexyéi Sergyéitch was lavish beyond his means; but he did not like to be called "benefactor." "What sort of a benefactor am I to you, sir?... I'm doing myself a favour, not you, my good sir!" "Uncle," I used to ask him, "what if the beggar should return for the fifth time after that?" "Why, then, do thou give to him for the fifth time."
Alexyéi Sergyéitch could not endure smoking tobacco, nor dogs, especially small dogs. "Come, if thou art a Frenchman, then keep a lap-dog. Thou runnest, thou skippest hither and thither, and it follows thee, with its tail in the air ... but of what use is it to fellows like me?" He was very neat and exacting.
Formerly Alexyéi Sergyéitch had gone into everything himself: he had ridden out into the fields, and to the flour-mill, and to the oil-mill and the storehouses, and looked in to the peasants' cottages; every one was familiar with his racing-drozhky, upholstered in crimson plush and drawn by a well-grown horse with a broad blaze extending clear across its forehead, named "Lantern" from that same famous breeding establishment.
This alarm, which revealed itself after a lapse of nearly half a century, induced in me reflections which were not altogether cheerful. Alexyéi Sergyéitch died in his eighty-eighth year, in the year 1848, which evidently disturbed even him. And his death was rather strange. That morning he had felt well, although he no longer quitted his arm-chair at all.
Malánya Pávlovna was as lavish as Alexyéi Sergyéitch; but she never gave money she did not wish to soil her pretty little hands but kerchiefs, ear-rings, gowns, ribbons, or she would send a patty from the table, or a bit of the roast, or if not that, a glass of wine. She was also fond of regaling the peasant-women on holidays.
"I shall pray to God that we may, Alexis." And the old woman burst into tears. "Come, don't cry, silly one; perchance the Lord God will make us young again there and we shall again be a fine young pair!" "He will make us young, Alexis!" "Everything is possible to Him, to the Lord," remarked Alexyéi Sergyéitch. "He is a worker of wonders!
You yourself probably flirted with divers little ladies in your youth and so you take it for granted...." "Come, that will do, that will do, Malániushka," Alexyéi Sergyéitch interrupted her, with a smile; "thy gown is white, and thy soul is whiter still!" "It is whiter, Alexis; it is whiter!"
Alexyéi Sergyéitch was extremely fond of choral songs and dances, as I have already said; he could never refrain from shouting: 'Send hither Vániushka! the little coachman! Give us 'the fish, be lively! and a minute later he would whisper in ecstasy: 'Akh, what a devil of a man he is!"
"Thrash!" he yelled hoarsely, choking and coughing with laughter, "scourge, spare not, thrash, thrash, thrash the monsters my malefactors! That's right! That's right!" Just before he died he greatly amazed and frightened Alexyéi Sergyéitch.
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