Chapter 87: An Incident

An Incident Morning. Brilliant sunshine is piercing through the frozen lacework on the windowpanes into the nursery. Vanya, a boy of six, with a cropped head and a nose like a button, and his sister Nina, a short, chubby, curly-headed girl of four, wake up and look crossly at each other through the bars of their cots. “Oo-oo-oo! naughty children!” grumbles their nurse. “Good people have had their breakfast already, while you can’t get your eyes open.” The sunbeams frolic over the rugs, …