question. "Just see! These two are sitting on the seat; they are passengers; and there is one man trying to stand on the seat; and they are all going, and by means of our arms and our belts we go through the whole length of the hall, and the doors open in front. And I tell you it's very hard here for the conductor."
"Is that the one standing?" asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, amused.
"Yes. He has to be bold and skilful, because the train comes to a very sudden stop, and he might get thrown over."
"Well, that is no joke," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, sadly, as he looked at the boy's bright eyes, which were like his mother's, and which had already lost their childish look of innocence. And, although he had promised Alekseï Aleksandrovitch not to speak of Anna, he could not resist.
"Do you remember your mother?" he asked suddenly.
"No, I do not," Serozha answered quickly, turning red; and his uncle could not make him talk any more.
When the Russian tutor found Serozha on the stairs, half an hour after, he could not make out whether he was crying or was sulky.
"Did you hurt yourself when you fell?" he asked. "I said this was a dangerous game, and I shall have to tell your father?"
"If I had, no one should find it out," answered the boy.
"Well, what's the matter, then?"
"Let me alone!.... What is it to him whether I remember or not? .... Why did he remind me? .... Let me be ...." and the boy seemed to defy not only his tutor, but the whole world.
CHAPTER XX
Stepan Arkadyevitch, as usual, did not waste his time at Petersburg. He had not only his business to attend to: his sister's divorce and his new position to look after; but, moreover, as he said, to refresh himself after musty Moscow.
