REMINISCENCES OF BABEL
399
flSCated Gronfein's plant. The old industrialist fell so low that he
would go out into the street unshaven, without
his
collar, and with
just one gold stud holding
his
shirt
closed.
And then, one day, an extraordinary piece of news reached the
Gronfeins: that whippersnapper Babel had turned out to be a
famous writer and, just imagine, was on familiar terms with none
other than
Maxim
Gorky himself.... It seems that the Gronfeins
had made a mistake and it was time to make peace....
Their change of heart was followed by the sudden arrival of
Babel's mother-in-law at his Fontan summer house...• Apparently
unsure
that she could clinch the reconciliation by herself, she
brought along with her from Kiev her eight-year-old grandson, a
boy called Lusya....
The mother-in-law tried hard to live down her past attitude
towards
Babel. ...
We often had breakfast at Babel's house, and
the same scene would occur again and again.
When the boiled eggs were brought in, the old woman would
watch Babel very closely and if he didn't help himself to an egg,
she would ask in a pained voice:
"Babel," she would say-she always addressed
him
thus-–
"why don't you eat your eggs? You don't like them?"
"Thanks,
I
just don't feel like it now."
"So
you don't like your mother-in-law?" she would go on,
playfully rolling her eyes.
"I
cooked them specially for you."
Babel, choking, would bolt down the rest of
his
breakfast
and rush out. . . .
The
boy
Lusya's ears burned unbearably with curiosity from
morning
till night, as though somebody were constantly tweaking
them. That kid wanted to know everything. He would spy on
Babel and on
alI
of us; he
was
diabolically watchful and there
was no escaping his scrutiny. Wherever we might
go
we would
very
soon catch sight of Lusya's ears, translucent in the sun, stick–
ing
up from behind a tamarisk shrub, or a rock on the seashore.
Apparently because of the curiosity which consumed him, Lusya
was
incredibly thin and bony.
His
olive-black eyes darted about
with
uncanny speed. At the same
time, be
would
ask
up to
thirty
questions a minute without ever
waiting
for an answer.
Lusya was a
monstrously
tiresome child
with
a
grushopper
