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was speaking, the young aunt landed a crumb right in Father’s mouth. His mother remained silent. Suddenly after the second course she got up, trying to conceal her face twitching with restrained tears and repeating under her breath “It’s nothing, nothing, it’ll pass in a moment,” hastily left the dining room. Father threw his napkin on the table and followed her. Luzhin never discovered exactly what had happened, but passing along the corridor with his aunt he heard subdued sobs from his mother’s room and his father’s voice remonstrating and loudly repeating the phrase “imagining things.”
    “Let’s go away somewhere,” whispered his aunt in anembarrassed and nervous manner, and they entered the study where a band of sunbeams, in which spun tiny particles of dust, was focused on an overstuffed armchair. She lit a cigarette and folds of smoke started to sway, soft and transparent, in the sunbeams. This was the only person in whose presence he did not feel constrained, and now it was especially pleasant: a strange silence in the house and a kind of expectation of something. “Well, let’s play some game,” said his aunt hurriedly and took him by the neck from behind. “What a thin little neck you have, one can clasp it with one hand.…” “Do you know how to play chess?” asked Luzhin stealthily, and freeing his head he rubbed his cheek against the delightful bright blue silk of her sleeve. “A game of Snap would be better,” she said absentmindedly. A door banged somewhere. She winced and turned her face in the direction of the noise, listening. “No, I want to play chess,” said Luzhin. “It’s complicated, my dear, you can’t learn it in an instant.” He went to the desk and found the box, which was standing behind a desk photograph. His aunt got up to take an ashtray, ruminatively crooning in conclusion of some thought of hers: “That would be terrible, that would be terrible …” “Here,” said Luzhin and put the box down on a low, inlaid Turkish table. “You need the board as well,” she said. “And you know, it would be better for me to teach you checkers, it’s simpler.” “No, chess,” said Luzhin and unrolled an oilcloth board.
    “First let’s place the pieces correctly,” began his aunt with a sigh. “White here, black over there. King and Queen next to each other. These here are the Officers. These are the Horses. And these, at each corner, are theCannons. Now …” Suddenly she froze, holding a piece in mid-air and looking at the door. “Wait,” she said anxiously. “I think I left my handkerchief in the dining room. I’ll be right back.” She opened the door but returned immediately. “Let it go,” she said and again sat down. “No, don’t set them out without me, you’ll do it the wrong way. This is called a Pawn. Now watch how they all move. The Horse gallops, of course.” Luzhin sat on the carpet with his shoulder against her knee and watched her hand with its thin platinum bracelet picking up the chessmen and putting them down. “The Queen is the most mobile,” he said with satisfaction and adjusted the piece with his finger, since it was standing not quite in the center of the square. “And this is how one piece eats another,” said his aunt. “As if pushing it out and taking its place. The Pawns do this obliquely. When you can take the King but he can move out of the way, it’s called check; and when he’s got nowhere to go it’s mate. So your object is to take my King and I have to take yours. You see how long it all takes to explain. Perhaps we can play another time, eh?” “No, now,” said Luzhin and suddenly kissed her hand. “That was sweet of you,” said his aunt softly, “I never expected such tenderness … You are a nice little boy after all.” “Please let’s play,” said Luzhin, and moving in a kneeling position on the carpet, reached the low table. But at that moment she got up from her seat so abruptly that she