LITMIR.BIZ

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in the next room. Katya was called to go to her mother. She kissed me for the last time, quietly, silently, warmly, and flew from me at Nastya’s call. I ran upstairs as though I had risen from the dead, flung myself on the sofa, hid my face in the pillow and sobbed with rapture. My heart was thumping as though it would burst my chest. I don’t know how I existed until the night. At last it struck eleven and I went to bed. Katya did not come back till twelve; she smiled at me from a distance but did not say a word. Nastya began undressing her slowly as though on purpose.

      “Make haste, make haste, Nastya,” Katya muttered.

      “What’s the matter with you, princess? Have you been running upstairs that your heart beats so?...” Nastya inquired.

      “Oh, dear, how tiresome you are, Nastya! Make haste, make haste!” And Katya stamped on the floor in her vexation.

      “Ah, what a little heart!” said Nastya, kissing the little foot from which she was taking off the shoe.

      At last everything was done, Katya got into bed and Nastya went out of the room. Instantly Katya jumped out of bed and flew to me. I cried out as she came to me.

      “Get into my bed, sleep with me!” she said, pulling me out of bed. A minute later I was in her bed. We embraced and hugged each other eagerly. Katya kissed and kissed me.

      “Ah, I remember how you kissed me in the night,” she said, flushing as red as a poppy.

      I sobbed.

      “Netochka!” whispered Katya through her tears, “my angel, I have loved you for so long, for so long! Do you know since when?”

      “Since when?”

      “Ever since father told me to beg your pardon that time when you stood up for your father, Netochka... my little for—lorn one,” she said, showering kisses on me again. She was crying and laughing together.

      “Oh, Katya!”

      “Oh, what—oh, what?”

      “Why have we waited so long... so long...” and I could not go on. We hugged each other and said nothing for three minutes.

      “Listen, what did you think of me?” asked Katya.

      “Oh, what a lot I thought about you, Katya. I have been thinking about you all the time, I thought about you day and night.”

      “And at night you talked about me.”

      “Really?”

      “You cried ever so many times.”

      “I say, why were you so proud all the time?”

      “I was stupid, you know, Netochka. It comes upon me, and then it’s all over with me. I was angry with you.”

      “What for?”

      “Because I was horrid. First, because you were better than I was; and then because father loves you more than me! And father is a kind man, Netochka, isn’t he?”

      “Oh, yes,” I said, thinking with tears of the prince.

      “He’s a good man,” said Katya gravely. “But what am I to do with him? He’s always so... Well, then I asked your forgiveness, and I almost cried, and that made me cross again.”

      “And I saw, I saw that you wanted to cry.”

      “Well, hold your tongue, you little silly, you’re a cry-baby yourself,” Katya exclaimed, putting her hand over my mouth. “Listen. I very much wanted to like you, and then all at once began to want to hate you; and I did hate you so, I did hate you so!...

      “What for?”

      “Oh, because I was cross with you. I don’t know what for! And then I saw that you couldn’t live without me, and I thought, ‘I’ll torment her, the horrid thing!’”

      “Oh, Katya!”

      “My darling!” said Katya, kissing my hand. “Then I wouldn’t speak to you, I wouldn’t for anything. But do you remember how I stroked Falstaff?”

      “Ah, you fearless girl!”

      “Wasn’t I fri-ight-ened!” Katya drawled. “Do you know why I went up to him?”

      “Why?”

      “Why, you were looking at me. When I saw that you were looking... Ah, come what may, I would go up to him. I gave you a fright, didn’t I? Were you afraid for me?”

      “Horribly!”

      “I saw. And how glad I was that Falstaff went away! Goodness, how frightened I was afterwards when he had gone, the mo-on-ster!”

      And the little princess broke into an hysterical laugh; then she raised her feverish head and looked intently at me. Tears glistened like little pearls on her long eyelashes.

      “Why, what is there in you that I should have grown so fond of you? Ah, you poor little thing with your flaxen hair; you silly little thing, such a cry-baby, with your little blue eyes; my little or-phan girl!”

      And Katya bent down to give me countless kisses again. A few drops of her tears fell on my cheeks. She was deeply moved.

      “How I loved you, but still I kept thinking, ‘No, no! I won’t tell her.’ And you know how obstinate I was! What was I afraid of, why was I ashamed of you? See how happy we are now!”

      “Katya! How it hurt me!” I said in a frenzy of joy. “It broke my heart!”

      “Yes, Netochka, listen... Yes, listen: who gave you your name Netochka?”

      “Mother.”

      “You must tell me about your mother.”

      “Everything, everything,” I answered rapturously.

      “And where have you put those two handkerchiefs of mine with lace on them? And why did you carry off my ribbon? Ah, you shameless girl! I know all about it.”

      I laughed and blushed till the tears came.

      “‘No,’ I thought, ‘I will torment her, let her wait.’ And at other times I thought, ‘I don’t like her a bit, I can’t bear her.’ And you are always such a meek little thing, my little lamb! And how frightened I was that you would think me stupid. You are clever, Netochka, you are very clever, aren’t you?”

      “What do you mean, Katya?” I answered, almost offended.

      “No, you are clever,” said Katya, gravely and resolutely. “I know that. Only I got up one morning and felt awfully fond of you. I had been dreaming of you all night. I thought I would ask mother to let me live downstairs. ‘I don’t want to like her, I don’t want to!’ And the next night I woke up and thought, ‘If only she would come as she did last night!’ And you did come! Ah, how I pretended to be asleep... Ah, what shameless creatures we are, Netochka?”

      “But why did you want not to like me?”

      “I don’t know. But what nonsense I am talking, I liked you all the time, I always liked you. It was only afterwards I could not bear you; I thought, ‘I will kiss her one day, or else I will pinch her to death.’ There’s one for you, you silly!”

      And the little princess pinched me.

      “And do you remember my tying up your shoe?”

      “Yes, I remember.”

      “I remember. Were you pleased? I looked at you. ‘What a sweet darling,’ I thought. ‘If I tie up her shoe, what will she think?’ But I was happy too. And do you know, really I wanted to kiss you... but I didn’t kiss you. And then it seemed so funny, so funny! And when we were out on our walk together, all the way I kept wanting to laugh. I couldn’t look at you it was so funny. And how glad I was that you went into the black hole for me.”

      The empty room was called the “black hole”.

      “And

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