In the day nursery Seryozha, leaning on the table with his legs on a chair, was drawing and chatting away merrily.

The English governess, who had during Anna's illness replaced the French one, was sitting near the boy knitting a shawl.

She hurriedly got up, curtseyed, and pulled Seryozha.

Alexey Alexandrovitch stroked his son's hair, answered the governess's inquiries about his wife, and asked what the doctor had said of the baby.