When the key was in the lock, she put her hands to her heart, as if she were awaiting some message about the death of a close relative. Oh, dear God, she mumbled, skipping out with quick, tiny steps, tilting from side to side on her short legs, to the kitchen to turn off the tea kettle, which had been put on the gas an hour before and was almost boiled dry. The kitchen was full of steam. Moaning quietly to herself as if there were a fire, she hitched up her dress and crawled up onto a kitchen chair, then stretched the broom handle over the counter to push open the window, even though she knew she couldn’t reach to hook the window latch, and she had already broken several panes this way –

He followed her into the dim room awaiting them, and her clear, cool eyes whisked away any creepiness or melancholy. Old junk, they noted, apart from a pretty olive-green corner sofa and a finely carved sewing table. God knows if she would part with any of it if we get married, she thought. What does an old woman like her need all this furniture for?

Suddenly his mother was on her like a cold draft. With embarrassing cordiality she pulled her down and gave her a damp kiss on both cheeks. ‘Hello and welcome. I hope you will make yourself at home.’ But her voice was plaintive and sad, as if she already foresaw that this person would not only be miserable in the subsequent hours, but that her visit could even cause new problems of unpredictable consequence.

The young woman, who otherwise was rarely embarrassed, felt immediately awkward as she stood there towering over the little old woman, whose brown gaze crept slowly up her youthful form from below, like a wingless insect, slightly diminishing her youthfulness as it made its way up, until the two pairs of eyes met, giving the young woman a vague, overwhelming feeling of anxiety, while a strange attempt at a smile dissolved the mother’s heavy, changeable expression. ‘Yes, yes,’ she sighed. ‘It’s probably best we use the familiar form of address. Sit right down and I’ll make us a cup of tea’ (even though we doubtless will die first, before we get that far).