It was long before old Lavretzky could forgive his son for his marriage; if, after the lapse of half a year, Ivan Petrovitch had presented himself in contrition, and had flung himself at his feet, he would, probably, have pardoned him, after first scolding him roundly, and administering a few taps with his crutch, by way of inspiring awe; but Ivan Petrovitch was living abroad, and, evidently, cared not a rap.--"Hold your tongue! Don't dare!" Piotr Andreitch kept repeating to his wife, as soon as she tried to incline him to mercy: "He ought to pray to God for me forever, the pup, for not having laid my curse upon him; my late father would have slain him with his own hands, the good-for-nothing, and he would have done right." At such terrible speeches, Anna Pavlovna merely crossed herself furtively. As for Ivan Petrovitch's wife, Piotr Andreitch, at first, would not allow her to be mentioned, and even in reply to a letter of Pestoff, wherein the latter alluded to his daughter-in-law, he gave orders to say to him, that he knew nothing whatever about any daughter-in-law of his, and that it was prohibited by the laws to harbour runaway maids, on which point he regarded it as his duty to warn him; but later on, when he learned of the birth of a grandson, he softened, gave orders that inquiries should be made on the sly concerning the health of the young mother, and sent her, also as though it did not come from him, a little money. Fedya had not reached his first birthday, when Anna Pavlovna was seized with a fatal illness. A few days before her end, when she could no longer leave her bed, she declared to her husband, in the presence of the priest, that she wished to see and bid farewell to her daughter-in-law, and to bestow her blessing on her grandchild. The afflicted old man soothed her, and immediately sent his own equipage for his daughter-in-law, for the first time calling her Malanya Sergyeevna.[3] She came with her son and with Marfa Timofeevna, who would not let her go alone on any terms, and would not have allowed her to be affronted. Half dead with terror, Malanya entered Piotr Andreitch's study. The nurse carried Fedya after her. Piotr Andreitch gazed at her in silence; she approached to kiss his hand; her quivering lips hardly met in a noiseless kiss. "Well, new-ground, undried noblewoman,"--he said at last:--"how do you do; let us go to the mistress." He rose and bent over Fedya; the baby smiled, and stretched out his little, white arms. The old man was completely upset. "Okh," he said,--"thou orphan! Thou hast plead thy father's cause with me; I will not abandon thee, my birdling!" As soon as Malanya Sergyeevna entered the bedchamber of Anna Pavlovna, she knelt down near the door. Anna Pavlovna beckoned her to the bed, embraced her, blessed her son; then, turning her countenance, ravaged by disease, to her husband, she tried to speak....