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Show 122 With a start, he noticed Yulyona turn onto Chestnut Street -- Karl's street! Maybe she was going to visit the Stulaks, where the house was still filled with guests who were staying for a few extra days after the wedding. No! She passed the Stulak house and opened the gate to the Kerner front yard. She was going into Karl's house! He raced around the block to Pine Alley, ran through his back yard, and eased himself silently through the kitchen door. Standing still to catch his breath, he listened to the voices in the parlor: his mother's, his father's, and Yulyona's, making small talk. "Here's our Karl now, back from his walk," Maggie Rose said when he'd gathered enough courage to enter the parlor. "Look, Karl, your teacher has come to pay us a call." "How do, Miss Petrov," he said. His heart banged inside him as he wondered what could have possibly brought her to his house. Had she seen him following her, and come to complain to his mother and his father? "I'm so glad you've returned, Karl," she said. "I want to talk to your parents about you, and I hoped you'd be here." "Ab..about me?" Sweat broke out on his upper lip; he lowered himself into a straight chair opposite the couch where she sat. "Yes, because next month is your birthday. November twentieth, isn't it? That's only six weeks away. I was wondering if you've reached a decision about staying in school." "Yes," he said. "What is your decision?" "No." |