- Neither Nabokov's mother nor father have much interest in running the household, so his mother's former nurse, who lives with the family, does what needs doing, as best she can, in her mid-seventies by the time Vladimir is around.
- In her old age, the former nurse has developed a great amount of "stinginess," such that the rest of the household has to plot to use no-longer-that-precious sugar and jam.
- The Nabokov household employs over fifty staff members, between the country home in Vyra and the town home in St. Petersburg, and theft is the most popular mode of misbehavior. Even Vladimir's father, a lawyer, prefers not to do anything when these crimes are discovered, "some legal doubt or scruple prevented him from doing anything about it. (2.4.1)
- Because no one seems to care that much, everyone lets Mom's former nurse feel like she's heading everything up, when in reality it's a series of coincidences and turns of luck that keep the household running at all.
- Nabokov understands that this type of kind illusion can be important, and was important to his mother, because it's just like the time he opened the Christmas stocking early and had to pretend to be surprised later, so he wouldn't get caught.
- Here, in the middle of the section, Nabokov makes a big jump: "A decade passed. World War One started."
- He continues: his Uncle Ruka stones the German embassy in protest, his mother sets up a private hospital for wounded soldiers.
- Later, his mother confesses that she felt less affected by the wounded men than by the marks man made on the world, the way we use it up.
- His mother also really liked dachshunds, and dogs of all sorts. Nabokov describes a dog his father purchased when he was five, in 1904. The dog's name was Trainy, because he was long, low, and dark, like a train car.
- In 1923, Vladimir's mother moves to Prague, and Vladimir doesn't get to see her much after that, and isn't with her when she passes away right before World War Two gets started.
- In Prague, she is surrounded by the family's ex-governesses and small pieces of the life in Russia, mostly books and art.
- Nabokov takes a moment to think about those from his past who are gone: "Whenever in my dreams I see the dead, they always appear silent, bothered, strangely depressed, quite unlike their dear, bright selves." (2.4.7)