I did not know why I had gone in to my father, but I remember that
when I saw his lean face, his red neck, and his shadow on the wall,
I wanted to throw myself on his neck, and as Axinya had told me,
bow down at his feet; but the sight of the summer villa with the
Gothic windows, and the fat turret, restrained me.

"Good evening," I said.

He glanced at me, and at once dropped his eyes on his drawing.

"What do you want?" he asked, after waiting a little.

"I have come to tell you my sister's very ill. She can't live very
long," I added in a hollow voice.

"Well," sighed my father, taking off his spectacles, and laying
them on the table. "What thou sowest that shalt thou reap. What
thou sowest," he repeated, getting up from the table, "that shalt
thou reap. I ask you to remember how you came to me two years ago,
and on this very spot I begged you, I besought you to give up your
errors; I reminded you of your duty, of your honour, of what you
owed to your forefathers whose traditions we ought to preserve as
sacred. Did you obey me? You scorned my counsels, and obstinately
persisted in clinging to your false ideals; worse still you drew
your sister into the path of error with you, and led her to lose
her moral principles and sense of shame. Now you are both in a bad
way. Well, as thou sowest, so shalt thou reap!"

As he said this he walked up and down the room. He probably imagined
that I had come to him to confess my wrong doings, and he probably