Summary

Chapter 37 features Varinka’s perspective in 1918, having reached Paris after a year and a half of travel “with the constant changes of plans from Taras’s bosses in Petrograd” (294). Varinka takes Mamka and Max, who is now four and a half, to Lanvin, a luxury store. The woman is impressed by Mamka’s work and hurries to show Madame Lanvin. Mamka repeats her urge for Varinka to return Max to his mother. They meet Radimir on the street and Varinka tells him that she is looking after Max while his mother works. Mamka warns Varinka about associating with Radi because he is Jewish and they would “have a hard life together” (298).

Varinka and Taras visit L’Ecole Cygne Royal to enrol Max in school. Madame Fournier, the headmistress, tells them that there is a long waiting list. Taras threatens Madame Fournier: “I don...