364
BORIS PASTERNAK
and breathed on the lamps, bringing with it the distant tinkle
of a sleigh-bell. The sound sank
in
the vast snow-field and,
gasp–
ing for breath, called to the rescue.
It
was carried to the house
by the overwhelming onrush of the blizzard, which had gripped
the door in its clutches, and by the dips in the sleigh-track which
had been caught up in some demoniac movement and was
slithering under the runners, throwing up swirling columns of
choking snow for all to see for miles around.
When the door had been caught and shut they all got up
to meet the specter in the hall; in his high boots of reindeer
skin
he was like a wild animal standing on its hind legs.
-"Is it coming?" Kovalevsky asked.
-"Yes, they're on the way. You
must
get ready." He licked
his
lips and wiped his nose. There was pandemonium as bundles
and baskets were brought out; the children had sulked since
nightfall-till then, for want of something better to do and on
learning that everything was packed, and that there would still
be a long wait and nothing to talk about, they had pointlessly
weighed out raisins on the bare table-and now they set up a
great wail, putting the blame on each other:-"It's not me–
it's Petya who's howling because papa's going away"-and,
seeking fair play and a refuge from the night, the raisins, the
blizzard, the chaos, their papas about to depart, the traveling
baskets, the oil-lamps and the fur coats, they tried to bury their
heads in their mothers' aprons.
But instead they were snatched up, as though on a signal,
by their nurses and mothers and carried with a sudden gust of
feeling into the passage, and
in
the hall, which echoed the voices
of the coachmen through the folding door, they were held up
to
their fathers. They all stood bare-headed and, crossing them–
selves with emotion, exchanged hurried kisses and said it was
time to go.
Meanwhile the Tartar coachmen (they were three
in
num–
ber, but there seemed to be ten), carrying lights which splashed
the snow without spilling into it altogether, dashed up
to
the
