Chapter 42 - Page 2

definite relations
between us. In later life I often had occasion to remark, in the
case of other families whose members anticipated among themselves
relations not altogether harmonious, the sort of provisional,
burlesque relations which they formed for daily use; and it was
just such relations as those which now became established between
ourselves and our stepmother. We scarcely ever strayed beyond
them, but were polite to her, conversed with her in French, bowed
and scraped before her, and called her "chere Maman"--a term to
which she always responded in a tone of similar lightness and
with her beautiful, unchanging smile. Only the lachrymose
Lubotshka, with her goose feet and artless prattle, really liked
our stepmother, or tried, in her naive and frequently awkward
way, to bring her and ourselves together: wherefore the only
person in the world for whom, besides Papa, Avdotia had a spark
of affection was Lubotshka. Indeed, Avdotia always treated her
with a kind of grave admiration and timid deference which greatly
surprised me.

From the first Avdotia was very fond of calling herself our
stepmother and hinting that, since children and servants usually
adopt an unjust and hostile attitude towards a woman thus
situated, her own position was likely to prove a difficult one.
Yet, though she foresaw all the unpleasantness of her
predicament, she did nothing to escape from it by (for instance)
conciliating this one, giving presents to that other one, and
forbearing to grumble--the last a precaution which it would have
been easy for her to take, seeing that by nature she was in no
way exacting, as well as very good-tempered. Yet, not only did
she do none of these things, but her expectation of difficulties
led her to adopt the defensive before she had been attacked. That
is to say, supposing that the entire household was designing to
show her every kind of insult and annoyance, she would see plots
where no plots were, and consider that her most dignified course
was to suffer in silence--an attitude of passivity as regards
winning AFfection which of course led to DISaffection. Moreover,
she was so totally lacking in that faculty of "apprehension" to
which I have already referred as being highly developed in our
household, and all her customs were so utterly opposed to those
which had long been rooted in our establishment, that those two
facts alone were bound to go against her. From the first, her mode
of life in our tidy, methodical household was that of a person
only just arrived there. Sometimes she went to bed late,
sometimes early; sometimes she appeared at luncheon, sometimes
she did not; sometimes she took supper, sometimes she dispensed
with it. When we had no