person
Petya
also: Петя, Petya
The unnamed frame narrator's childhood self, recalled at a hunting camp decades later: an eight-year-old who follows his governess Zinochka to a secret rendezvous with his elder brother Sasha, then -- not understanding the consequences -- lets the secret slip to his mother, resulting in Zinochka's dismissal from the household.
Reading notes
- Zinochka §42 I complained to maman
The narrator, still a child, does not understand what reporting the kiss will cost Zinochka -- he says so explicitly ("I did not know the consequences, or else I would have kept the secret to myself"). The adult narrator telling this hunting-camp story, by contrast, recounts her dismissal with detached amusement, never revisiting the asymmetry: Sasha marries her and the matter is closed for him, while she alone paid the price of the household finding out.