<Several days later Lieutenant Drobotenko met me in the anteroom.

"I pray you to baptise my children!" he fired off. "Properly! With a certificate! I'll send the certificates to my mother! She will be delighted! But please do it i secret so that the party organiser wouldn't know! Do it here, at home, in the old woman's half".>

The ritual was very solemn. Old Emma Yakovlevna despite being a Lutheran confessed and communicated too. Kotya and Lyuda were amazingly decorous and serious, they diligently kissed the cross! I held little Yurka in my arms.