XXI. KATENKA AND LUBOTSHKA
Katenka was now sixteen years old--quite a grown-up girl; and
although at that age the angular figures, the bashfulness, and
the gaucherie peculiar to girls passing from childhood to youth
usually replace the comely freshness and graceful, half-developed
bloom of childhood, she had in no way altered. Still the blue
eyes with their merry glance were hers, the well-shaped nose with
firm nostrils and almost forming a line with the forehead, the
little mouth with its charming smile, the dimples in the rosy
cheeks, and the small white hands. To her, the epithet of it
girl," pure and simple, was pre-eminently applicable, for in her
the only new features were a new and "young-lady-like"
arrangement of her thick flaxen hair and a youthful bosom--the
latter an addition which at once caused her great joy and made
her very bashful.
Although Lubotshka and she had grown up together and received the
same education, they were totally unlike one another. Lubotshka
was not tall, and the rickets from which she had suffered had
shaped her feet in goose fashion and made her figure very bad.
The only pretty feature in her face was her eyes, which were
indeed wonderful, being large and black, and instinct with such
an extremely pleasing expression of mingled gravity and naivete
that she was bound to attract attention. In everything she was
simple and natural, so that, whereas Katenka always looked as
though she were trying to be like some one else, Lubotshka looked
people straight in the face, and sometimes fixed them so long
with her splendid black eyes that she got blamed for doing what
was thought to be improper. Katenka, on the contrary, always cast
her eyelids down, blinked, and pretended that she was short-
sighted, though I knew very well that her sight was excellent.
Lubotshka hated being shown off before strangers, and when a
visitor offered to kiss her she invariably grew cross, and said
that she hated "affection"; whereas, when strangers were present,
Katenka was always particularly endearing to Mimi, and loved to
walk about the room arm in arm with another girl. Likewise,
though Lubotshka was a terrible giggler, and sometimes ran about
the room in convulsions of gesticulating laughter, Katenka always
covered her mouth with her hands or her pocket-handkerchief when
she wanted to laugh. Lubotshka, again, loved to have grown-up men
to talk to, and said that some day she meant to marry a hussar,
but Katenka always pretended that all men were horrid, and that
she never meant to marry any one of them, while as soon as a male
visitor addressed her she changed completely, as though she were
nervous of something. Likewise, Lubotshka was continually at
loggerheads with Mimi because the latter wanted her to have her
stays so tight that she could not breathe or eat or drink in
comfort, while Katenka, on the contrary, would often insert her
finger into her waistband to show how loose it was, and always
ate very little. Lubotshka liked to draw heads; Katenka only
flowers and butterflies. The former could play Field's concertos
and Beethoven's sonatas excellently, whereas the latter indulged
in variations and waltzes, retarded the time, and used the pedals
continuously--not to mention the fact that, before she began, she
invariably struck three chords in arpeggio.
Nevertheless, in those days I thought Katenka much the grander
person of the two, and liked her the best.
