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The culprit was sitting at the window in the corner of the

drawing-room; beside him was standing Tanya with a plate. On the

pretext of wanting to give some dinner to her dolls, she had

asked the governess's permission to take her share of tart to the

nursery, and had taken it instead to her brother. While still

weeping over the injustice of his punishment, he was eating the

tart, and kept saying through his sobs, "Eat yourself; let's eat

it together ... together."

Tanya had at first been under the influence of her pity for

Grisha, then of a sense of her noble action, and tears were

standing in her eyes too; but she did not refuse, and ate her

share.

On catching sight of their mother they were dismayed, but,

looking into her face, they saw they were not doing wrong. They

burst out laughing, and, with their mouths full of tart, they

began wiping their smiling lips with their hands, and smearing

their radiant faces all over with tears and jam.