yegor semiónovitch and tánya often quarrelled and said disagreeable things to one another. this morning they had both been irritated, and tánya burst out crying and went to her room, coming down neither to dinner nor to tea at first yegor semiónovitch marched about, solemn and dignified, as if wishing to give everyone to understand that for him justice and order were the supreme interests of life. but he was unable to keep this up for long; his spirits fell, and he wandered about the park and sighed, "akh, my god!" at dinner he ate nothing, and at last, tortured by his conscience, he knocked softly at the closed door, and called timidly:
"tánya! tánya!"
through the door came a weak voice, tearful but determined:
"leave me alone!... i implore you."
the misery of father and daughter reacted on the whole household, even on the labourers in the garden. kovrin, as usual, was immersed in his own interesting work, but at last even he felt tired and uncomfortable. he determined to interfere, and disperse the cloud before evening. he knocked at tánya's door, and was admitted.
"come, come! what a shame!" he began jokingly; and then looked with surprise at her tear-stained and afflicted face covered with red spots. "is it so serious, then? well, well!"
"but if you knew how he tortured me!" she said, and a flood of tears gushed out of her big eyes. "he tormented me!" she continued, wringing her hands. "i never said a word to him.... i only said there was no need to keep unnecessary labourers, if ... if we can get day workmen.... you know the men have done nothing for the whole week. i ... i only said this, and he roared at me, and said a lot of things ... most offensive ... deeply insulting. and all for nothing."
"never mind!" said kovrin, straightening her hair. "you have had your scoldings and your cryings, and that is surely enough. you can't keep up this for ever ... it is not right ... all the more since you know he loves you infinitely."
"he has ruined my whole life," sobbed tánya. "i never hear anything but insults and affronts. he regards me as superfluous in his own house. let him! he will have cause! i shall leave here to-morrow, and study for a position as telegraphist.... let him!"
"come, come. stop crying, tánya. it does you no good.... you are both irritable and impulsive, and both in the wrong. come, and i will make peace!"
kovrin spoke gently and persuasively, but tánya continued to cry, twitching her shoulders and wringing her hands as if she had been overtaken by a real misfortune. kovrin felt all the sorrier owing to the smallness of the cause of her sorrow. what a trifle it took to make this little creature unhappy for a whole day, or, as she had expressed it, for a whole life! and as he consoled tánya, it occurred to him that except this girl and her father there was not one in the world who loved him as a kinsman; and had it not been for them, he, left fatherless and motherless in early childhood, must have lived his whole life without feeling one sincere caress, or tasting ever that simple, unreasoning love which we feel only for those akin to us by blood. and he felt that his tired, strained nerves, like magnets, responded to the nerves of this crying, shuddering girl. he felt, too, that he could never love a healthy, rosy-cheeked woman; but pale, weak, unhappy tánya appealed to him.
he felt pleasure in looking at her hair and her shoulders; and he pressed her hand, and wiped away her tears.... at last she ceased crying. but she still continued to complain of her father, and of her insufferable life at home, imploring kovrin to try to realise her position. then by degrees she began to smile, and to sigh that god had cursed her with such a wicked temper; and in the end laughed aloud, called herself a fool, and ran out of the room. a little later kovrin went into the garden. yegor semiónovitch and tánya, as if nothing had happened, we were walking side by side up the alley, eating rye-bread and salt, we both were very hungry.
