The twinkle in his eyes discomfited her, and she thought to herself, with a slight feeling of offense: "If you laugh at me, then why do you ask me to read with you ?" He noticed that the mother began to ask him with increasing frequency for the meaning of this or that book word.

She always looked aside when asking for such information, and spoke in a monotonous tone of indifference.

He divined that she was studying by herself in secret, understood her bashfulness, and ceased to invite her to read with him.
Shortly afterwards she said to him: "My eyes are getting weak, Andriusha.

I guess I need glasses." "All right! Next Sunday I'll take you to a physician in the city, a friend of mine, and you shall have glasses!" She, had already been three times in the prison to ask for a meeting with Pavel, and each time the general of the gendarmes, a gray old man with purple cheeks and a huge nose, turned her gently away.
"In about a week, little mother, not before! A week from now we shall see, but at present it's impossible!" He was a round, well-fed creature, and somehow reminded her of a ripe plum, somewhat spoiled by too long keeping, and already covered with a downy mold.

He kept constantly picking his small, white teeth with a sharp yellow toothpick.