 | Reminiscences of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy |  |
XXVII
He likes putting difficult and malicious questions:
What do you think of yourself?
Do you love your wife?
Do you think my son, Leo, has talent?
How do you like Sophie Andreyavna? [Tolstoy's wife].
To lie to him is impossible.
22
Once he asked: "Are you fond of me, Alexey Maximovitch?"
This is the maliciousness of a "bogatyr" [a hero in Russian legend, brave but wild and self-willed, like a child]: Vaska Buslayev played just such pranks in his youth, mischievous fellow. He is experimenting, all the time testing something, as if he were going to fight. It is interesting, but not much to my liking. He is the devil, and I am still a babe, and he should leave me alone.
| Reminiscences of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy | |