Chapter 8 chapter eight

"Mabonneamie," said the little Duchess after breakfast on the morning of the nineteenth of March.Her hairy lips were still turned up as usual, but all the people in this house, not only smiling, but talking, even walking , are full of sadness, and so is the smile of the little Duchess, though she does not know why, but because it is governed by a common emotion, her smile is more reminiscent of a common sorrow. -------- ①French: Dear friend. "Mabonneamie, jecrainsquele frusch Atique—(comedit) decematinnem'aiepasfaitdumal."① "My darling, what is the matter with you? You are pale. Oh, you are too pale," said Princess Marya anxiously, and she ran towards her with heavy, gentle steps.

"Princess, would you like to send for Marya Bogdanovna?" said a maid who was waiting here. (Maria Bogdanovna, the county obstetrician, has been in Bald Mountain for more than a week.) "That's true," echoed Princess Marya, "perhaps it is true. I must go. Couragemonange!" She kissed Lisa and tried to leave the room. "Oh, no, no!" The little princess turned pale, and, moreover, expressed childish horror at the inevitable physical pain. "Nonc'estl'estomac... ditesquec'estl'es Atomac, dites, Marie, dites..." Then the little Duchess wept capriciously, even a little falsely, like a child, twisting own little hands.The princess ran out and called Marya Bogdanovna.

-------- ①French: Good friend, I am afraid that I will feel dizzy after eating this breakfast today (as Chef Foca said). ② French: My angel, don't be afraid! ③ French: No, this is the stomach... Martha, please tell me, it is the stomach... "Oh! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!" She heard a cry behind her. -------- ①French: Oh my God!God! The female obstetrician came towards her. She rubbed her small white and fat hands with a very calm expression on her face. "Marya Bogdanovna! I seem to be beginning to relax," said Princess Marya, who opened her eyes in horror and looked at the old woman.

"Oh, thank God, princess," said Marya Bogdanovna, without hastening her pace, "you little girls shouldn't know about such things." "Why hasn't the doctor come from Moscow?" said the princess. (The obstetrician was sent to Moscow for an obstetrician before she gave birth, as Lisa and Prince Andrei intended, and she is now expected every hour of the day.) "It's all right, princess, you don't have to worry," said Marya Bogdanovna, "everything will be all right without a doctor." Five minutes later the princess heard something heavy being carried from her room.She looked and saw that for some reason some waiters had carried the leather sofa from Prince Andrew's study into the bedroom.There was a look of excitement and calm on the faces of the people who were carrying things.

Princess Marya sat alone in her room, listening to the noises coming from the house, and sometimes opened the door when someone passed by, and carefully observed what was happening in the corridor.Several women walked slowly up and down, looked back at the princess, and then turned away from her.Not daring to inquire about the situation, she closed the door and went back to her room, where she sometimes sat in an easy chair, sometimes held a "prayer book," and sometimes knelt down before the shrine.To her misfortune and surprise, she felt that prayer could not quell her agitation.Suddenly her door was pushed open gently, and on the threshold appeared her old turbaned nurse, Praskovya Savishna, who, in view of the prince's prohibition, almost never entered her to the room.

"Mashenka (Maria's pet name), I have come here to sit with you for a while," said the nurse, "Look, light the wedding candles of the prince before the servants of the Lord, my angel, these candles I brought it," she said with a sigh. "Oh, nurse, how happy I am." "My dear, God is merciful." The nurse lit some gold-painted candles in front of the shrine, and sat down by the door to knit stockings.Princess Maria picked up a book to read.It was only when she heard steps or voices that the princess looked at the nurse in horror and doubt, and the nurse looked at the princess reassuringly.In every corner of the house the same emotion that the princess experienced in her own room was seized upon by it.According to superstition, the fewer people who know about the pain of childbirth, the less she suffers, so everyone tried their best to pretend that they didn't know anything about it, and no one talked about it except in the Duke's house. In addition to the prudence and humility of the good demeanor, on the faces of all the people, one can see a common worry, a gentleness in the heart, and an understanding of an incredible event at that time.

No laughter could be heard in the great room where the maid lived.All the people in the waiter's lounge were sitting, silent, getting ready.Pine lamps and candles were lit in the servants' lounge, and no one went to bed.The old prince was pacing up and down the study, on tiptoe and heel, and sent Tikhon to Marya Bogdanovna to ask: what is the matter? "Just say: the duke bids you come and ask: how is it? Come back and tell me what to say." "Tell the prince that labor is beginning," said Marya Bogdanovna, looking meaningfully at the servant who had been sent.Tikhon went and told the prince.

"Good," said the prince, and closed the door behind him, after which Tikhon never heard a sound from the study.After a while Tikhon entered the study, as if to watch over the candles.Seeing the prince lying on the sofa, Tikhon looked at the prince, at his disturbed face, shook his head involuntarily, went up to him in silence, kissed him on the shoulder, and did not remove the candle, nor He walked out without saying why he came.The most solemn mystery in the world goes on.Evening passed, and night came.The anticipation of the unthinkable and the tenderness of the heart were not dulled, but sharpened.No one slept that night.

It was a night in March, as though winter was still in season, with the last snowflakes falling furiously and the wind blowing.They were waiting for the German doctor coming from Moscow at any time, and they had already dispatched spare horses to the main road to meet them, and at the corner leading to the dirt road in the country, they sent riders with lanterns. On the road where the snow has not yet completely melted, lead the way for the coming German doctors. Princess Marya, who had put her book down for a long time, sat in silence, fixed her shining eyes on the wrinkled face of the nurse she knew so well, on the little girl peeking out from under her kerchief. Locks of grizzled hair stare at the pouch of loose flesh hanging under his chin.

The nurse Savishna, holding a stocking in her hand, knits and speaks in such a low voice that she cannot hear herself, nor understand what she has said hundreds of times: the late prince The lady gave birth to Princess Marya in Kishnevo, and a peasant woman, a Moldavian, took the place of the midwife. "God willing, a doctor is never needed," she said.Suddenly a gust of wind came upon one of the unsashed windows of the house (as the old prince had intended, one was to be unsashed in every room during the lark season), and blew the bar open. The loose window frames fluttered the silk curtains, and a gust of snowy cold air hit, blowing out the candles.Princess Marya shuddered; the nurse put down the stocking, went to the window, leaned out, and grabbed the window frame, which had been blown away by the wind.The cold wind blew the corners of her turban and the white locks that were exposed.

"Princess, by heaven, someone is coming along the road!" she said, holding the window frame with her hands, and leaving the window open. "Someone is carrying a lantern. It must be a doctor..." "Oh, my God! Thank God!" said Princess Marya, "you must go and meet him, he doesn't understand Russian." Princess Marya put on her shawl and ran to meet the visitor.As she passed through the ante-room, she saw from the window a buggy standing at the gate, brightly lit.She went to the stairs.A tallow candle stood on a baluster post, the wind blowing the candle's oil downward.Philip, the waiter, looked horrified, and stood lower down, on the first landing of the stairs, with another candle in his hand.Lower down, at the corner where the stairs turned, the approaching footsteps of a man in thick leather boots could be heard.Princess Mary seemed to hear the voice of an acquaintance. "Thank goodness!" a voice can be heard saying, "Where's Dad?" "He's asleep." The butler Jamian, who was already standing below, could be heard answering. Later, he heard someone say something, and Demian responded, and the sound of footsteps in thick leather boots came closer and closer along the turning of the invisible stairs. "This is Andre!" Princess Maria thought for a while. "No, that's impossible, that's too extraordinary." She thought for a while, and while she was thinking, Andre's face and figure appeared on the landing where the waiter was standing with a candle, dressed in a A leather jacket, the collar is covered with snow.Yes, that was him, but pale and thin, with a changed expression, strangely soft and restless.He came in, climbed the stairs, and put his arms around his sister. "Have you not received my letter?" he asked, and he did not wait for an answer from her, nor could he get an answer from her, for the princess could hardly speak, and he was with the man who came in after him. Returning with his obstetrician (they met at the last stop), he walked briskly upstairs again, holding his sister in his arms again. "What a changing fate!" said he. "My dear Martha!" He took off his leather jacket and boots, and went to the princess's residence.