"Does the world go so hard with you?" asked Tatiana Markovna. "You are
indeed weighed down with work."
He looked at Vera, who was mixing red wine with water. She emptied her
glass, rose, kissed her aunt's hand, and went out.
Raisky too rose, and went to his room. His aunt, Marfinka, and Vikentev,
who had just happened to turn up, drove to the hay harvest, and the
afternoon peace soon reigned over the house. One man crawled into the
hayrick, another in the outhouse, another slept in the family carriage
itself, while others took advantage of the mistress's absence to go into
the outskirts of the town.
Raisky's thoughts were filled with Vera. Although he had sworn to
himself to think of her no more, he could not conquer his thoughts.
Where was she? He would go to her and talk it all over. He was inspired
only with curiosity, he assured himself. He took his cap and hurried out.
Vera was neither in the room nor in the old house; he searched for her
in vain on the field, in the vegetable garden, in the thicket on the
cliff, and went to look for her down along the bank of the Volga. When
he found no one he turned homewards, and suddenly came across her a few
steps from him, not far from the house.
"Ah!" he cried, "there you are. I have been hunting for you everywhere."
"And I have been waiting for you here," she returned.
He felt as if he were suddenly enveloped in winter in the soft airs of
the South.
"You--waiting for me," he said in a strange voice, and looked at her in
astonishment.
"I wanted to ask you why you pursue me?"
Raisky looked at her fixedly.
"I hardly ever speak to you."
"It is true that you rarely talk to me, but you look at me in such a
wild and extraordinary fashion that it constitutes a kind of pursuit.
And that is not all; you quietly follow my steps. You get up earlier
than I do, and wait for me to wake, draw my curtains back, and open the
window; whatever way I take in the park, and wherever I sit down, I must
meet you."
"Very rarely."
"Three or four times a week. It would not be often and would not annoy
me, quite the reverse, if it occurred without intention. But in your
eyes and steps I see only one thing, the continual effort to give me no
peace, to master my every glance, word and thought."
He was amazed at her boldness and independence, at the freedom of her
speech. He saw before him, as he imagined, the little girl who had
nervously concealed herself from him for fear that her egoism might
suffer through the inequality of her brains, her ideas and her education.
This was a new figure, a new Vera.
"What if all this exists only in your imagination?" he said undecidedly.
"Don't lie to me," she interrupted. "If you are successful in observing
my every footstep, my every moment, at least permit me to be conscious
of the discomfort of such observation. I tell you plainly that it
oppresses me; it is slavery; I feel like a prisoner."
"What do you ask of me?"
"My freedom."
"Freedom--I am your chevalier--therefore...."
"Therefore you will not leave a poor girl room to breathe. Tell me, what
reason have I given you to regard me differently from any other girl?"
"Beauty adores admiration; it is her right."
"Beauty has also a right to esteem and freedom. Is it an apple hanging
on the other side of the hedge, that every passer-by can snatch at?"
"Don't agitate yourself, Vera!" he begged, taking her hands. "I confess
my guilt. I am an artist, have a susceptible temperament, and perhaps
abandoned myself too much to my impressions. Then I am no stranger. Let
us be reconciled, Vera. Tell me your wishes, and they shall be sacredly
fulfilled. I will do what pleases you, will avoid what offends you, in
order to deserve your friendship."
"I told you from the beginning, you remember, how you could show me your
sympathy, by not observing me, by letting me go my way and taking no
notice of me. Then I will come of myself, and we will fix the hours that
we will spend together, reading or walking."
"You ask me, Vera, to be utterly indifferent to you?"
"Yes."
"Not to notice how lovely you are? To look at you as if you were
Grandmother. But even if I adore your beauty in silence from a distance,
you would know it, and can you forbid me that? Passion may melt the
surface and there may steal into your heart an affection for me. Don't
let me leave you without any hope. Can you not give me any?"
"I cannot!"
"How can you tell? There may come a time."
"No, Cousin, never."
Unmanned by terror, he collected his strength to say breathlessly:
"You are no longer free? You love?"
She knit her brow and looked down on the Volga.
"And is there any sin if I do? Will you not permit it, Cousin?" she
asked ironically.
"I! I, who bring you the lofty philosophy of freedom, how should I not
permit you to love. Love independently of everybody, conceal nothing,
fear neither Granny nor anyone else. The dawn of freedom is red in the
sky, and shall woman alone be enslaved? You love. Say so boldly, for
passion is happiness, and allow others at least to envy you."
"I concede no one the right to call me to account; I am free."
"But you are afraid of Grandmother."
"I am afraid of no one. Grandmother knows it, and respects my freedom.
And my wish is that you should follow her example. That is all I wanted
to say," she concluded as she rose from the bench.
"Yes, Vera, now I understand, and am in accord with you," he replied,
rising also. "Here is my hand on it, that from to-day you will neither
hear nor notice my presence."
She gave her hand, but drew it rapidly back as he pressed it to his lips.
"We will see," she said. "But if you don't keep your word, we will see--"
"Say all you have to say, Vera, or my head will go to pieces."
Vera looked long at the prospect before her before she ended with
decision:
"Then however dearly I love this place, I will leave it."
"To go where?"
"God's world is wide. Au revoir, Cousin!"
A few days later Raisky got up about five o'clock. The sun was already
full on the horizon, a wholesome freshness rose from garden and park,
flowers breathed a deeper perfume, and the dew glittered on the grass.
He dressed quickly and went out into the garden, when he suddenly met
Vera.
"It is not intentional, not intentional, I swear," he stammered in his
first surprise.
They both laughed. She picked a flower, threw it to him, and gave him
her hand; and in reply to the kiss he gave she kissed him on the
forehead.
"It was not intentional, Vera," he repeated. "You see yourself."
"I see you are good and kind."
"Generous," he added.
"We have not got to generosity yet," she said laughing, and took his arm.
"Let us go for a walk; it's a lovely morning."
He felt unspeakably happy.
"What coat are you wearing?" she asked in surprise as they walked. "It
is not yours."
"Ah, it is Mark's."
"Is he here? How did you come by his coat?"
"Are you frightened? The whole house fears him like fire?" And he
explained how he got the coat. She listened absently as they went
silently down the main path of the garden, Vera with her eyes on the
ground.
Against his will he felt impelled to seek another argument with her.
"You seem to have something on your mind," she began, "which you do not
wish to tell."
"I did wish to, but I feared the storm I might draw upon myself."
"You did not wish to discuss beauty once more?"
"No, no, I want to explain what my feeling for you is. I am convinced
that this time I am not in error. You have opened to me a special door
of your heart, and I recognise that your friendship would bring great
happiness, and that its soft tones would bring colour into my dull life.
Do you think, Vera, that friendship is possible between a man and a
woman?"
"Why not? If two such friends can make up their minds to respect one
another's freedom, if one does not oppress the other, does not seek to
discover the secret of the other's heart, if they are in constant,
natural intercourse, and know how to respect secrets...."
His eyes blazed. "Pitiless woman," he broke in.
She had seen the glance, and lowered her eyes.
"We will go in to Grandmother. She has just opened the window, and will
call us to tea?"
"One word more, Vera. You have wisdom, lucidity, decision...."
"What is wisdom?" she asked mischievously.
"Observation and experience, harmoniously applied to life."
"I have hardly any experience."
"Nature has bestowed on you a sharp eye and a clear brain."
"Is not such a possession disgraceful for a girl?"
"Your wholesome ideas, your cultivated speech...."
"You are surprised that a drop of village wisdom should have descended
on your poor sister. You would have preferred to find a fool in my place,
wouldn't you, and now you are annoyed?"
"No, Vera, you intoxicate me. You do indeed forbid me to mention your
beauty by so much as a syllable, and will not hear why I place it so
high. Beauty is the aim and at the same time the driving power of art,
and I am an artist. The beauty of which I speak is no material thing,
she does not kindle her fires with the glow of passionate desire alone;
more especially she awakens the man in man, arouses thought, inspires
courage, fertilises the creative power of genius, even when that genius
stands at the culmination of its dignity and power; she does not scatter
her beams for trifles, does not besmirch purity--she is womanly wisdom.
You are a woman, Vera, and understand what I mean. Your hand will not be
raised to punish the man, the artist, for this worship of beauty."
"According to you wisdom lies in keeping these rules before one's eyes
as the guiding thread of life, in which case I am not wise, I have not
'received this baptism.'"
An emotion closely related to sadness shone in her eyes, as she gazed
upwards for a moment before she entered the house. Raisky anxiously told
himself that she was as enigmatic as night itself, and he wondered what
was the origin of these foreign ideas and whether her young life was
already darkened.
CHAPTER XII
On Sunday Tatiana Markovna had guests for the second breakfast. The
covers had been removed from the purple damask-covered chairs in the
reception room. Yakob had rubbed the eyes of the family portraits with a
damp rag, and they appeared to look forth more sharply than on ordinary
days. The freshly waxed floors shone. Yakob himself paraded in a dress
coat and a white necktie, while Egorka, Petrushka and Stepka, the latter
of whom had been fetched from the village and had not yet found his legs,
had been put into old liveries which did not fit them and smelt of moth.
The dining-room and the reception room had been fumigated just before
the meal.
Tatiana Markovna herself, in a silk dress and shawl, with her cap on the
back of her head, sat on the divan. Near her the guests had taken their
places in accordance with their rank and dignity. The place of honour
was occupied by Niel Andreevich Tychkov, in a dress coat with an order,
an important old gentleman whose eyebrows met in his great fat face,
while his chin was lost in his cravat. The consciousness of his dignity
appeared in every gesture and in his condescending speech. Next him sat
the invariably modest Tiet Nikonich, also in a dress coat, with a glance
of devotion for Tatiana Markovna, and a smile for all. Then followed the
priest in a silk gown with a broad embroidered girdle, the councillors
of the local court, the colonel of the garrison, ladies from the town;
young officials who stood talking in undertones in a corner; young girls,
friends of Marfinka, who timidly clasped their damp hands and
continually changed colour; finally a proprietor from the neighbourhood
with three half-grown sons.
When the company had already been assembled for some little time at the
breakfast-table, Raisky entered. He felt that he was playing the role of
an actor, fresh to the place, making his first appearance on the
provincial stage after the most varying reports had been spread about
him.
Tatiana Markovna introduced him as "My nephew, the son of my late niece
Sfonichka," though everybody knew who he was. Several people stood up to
greet him. Niel Andreevich, who expected that he would come and speak to
him, gave him a friendly smile; the ladies pulled their dresses straight
and glanced at the mirror; the young officials who were standing eating
off their plates in the corner shifted from one foot to the other; and
the young girls blushed still more and pressed their hands as if danger
threatened.
Raisky bowed to the assembled guests, and sat down beside his aunt on
the divan.
"Look how he throws himself down," whispered a young official to his
neighbour. "His Excellency is looking at him."
"Niel Andreevich has been wanting to see you for a long time," said
Tatiana Markovna aloud, adding under her breath, "His Excellency, don't
forget." In the same low tone Raisky asked who the little lady was with
the fine teeth and the well-developed figure.
"Shame, Boris Pavlovich," and aloud, "Niel Andreevich, Borushka has been
desiring to present himself to you for a long time."
Raisky was about to reply when Tatiana Markovna pressed his hand,
enjoining silence.
"Why have you not given me the pleasure of a visit from you before,"
said Niel Andreevich with a kindly air. "Good men are always welcome.
But it is not amusing to visit us old people, and the new generation do
not care for us, do they? And you hold with the young people. Answer
frankly."
"I do not divide mankind into the old and the new generation," said
Raisky, helping himself to a slice of cake.
"Don't hurry about eating; talk to him," whispered Tatiana Markovna.
"I will eat and talk at the same time," he returned aloud.
Tatiana Markovna looked confused, and turned her back on him.
"Don't disturb him," continued Niel Andreevich. "Young people are like
that. I am curious to know how you judge men, Boris Pavlovich."
"By the impression they produce on me."
"Admirable. I like you for your candour. Let us take an example. What is
your opinion of me?"
"I am afraid of you."
Niel Andreevich laughed complacently.
"Tell me why. You may speak quite plainly."
"Why I am afraid of you? They say you find fault with everybody," he
went on, heedless of Tatiana Markovna's efforts to interrupt. "My
Grandmother tells me that you lectured one man for not having attended
Mass."
Tatiana Markovna went hot all over, and taking off her cap, put it down
behind her.
"I am glad she told you that. I like to have my doings correctly
reported. Yes, I do lecture people sometimes. Do you remember?" he
appealed to the young men at the door.
"At your service, your Excellency," answered one of them quickly,
putting one foot forward and his hands behind his back. "I once received
one."
"And why?"
"I was unsuitably dressed."
"You came to me one Sunday after Mass. I was glad to see you, but
instead of appearing in a dress coat, you came in a short jacket."
At this point Paulina Karpovna rustled in, wearing a muslin dress with
wide sleeves so that her white arms were visible almost to the shoulder.
She was followed by a cadet.
"What heat! _Bonjour, Bonjour_," she cried, nodding in all
directions, and then sat down on the divan beside Raisky.
"There is not room here," he said, and sat down on a chair beside her.
"Ah, Dalila Karpovna," remarked Niel Andreevich. "Good-day. How are
you?"
"Good-day," she answered drily, turning away.
"Why don't you bestow a kind glance on me, and let me admire your
swanlike neck!"
The young officials in the corner giggled, the ladies smiled, and
Paulina Karpovna whispered to Raisky: "The rude creature. The first word
he speaks is folly."
"Ah, you despise an old man. But if I were to seek for your hand? Do I
look like a bridegroom, or am I too old for you?"
"I decline the honour. _Bonjour_, Natalie Ivanovna, where did you
buy that pretty hat, at Madame Pichet's?"
"My husband ordered it from Moscow, as a surprise for me."
"Very pretty."
"But listen seriously," cried Niel Andreevich insistently. "I am going
to woo you in earnest. I need a housekeeper, a modest woman, who is no
coquette, and has no taste for finery, who never glances at another man,
and you are an example."
Paulina Karpovna pretended not to hear, but fanned herself and attempted
to draw Raisky into a conversation.
"In our esteem," went on Niel Andreevich, pitilessly, "you are a model
for our mothers and daughters. At church your eyes remain fixed on the
sacred picture without a moment's diversion, and never even perceive the
presence of young men...."
The giggling in the corner increased, the ladies made faces in their
efforts to restrain their laughter, and Tatiana Markovna tried to divert
Niel Andreevich's attention from her guest, by herself addressing her,
but he returned to the attack.
"You are as retiring as a nun," he went on, "never display your arms and
shoulders, but bear yourself in accordance with your years."
"Why don't you leave me alone?" returned Paulina Karpovna, and turning
to Raisky she added: "_Est-il bete, grossier_."
"Because I wish to marry you, we are a suitable pair."
"It will be difficult to find a wife for you."
"We are well matched. I was still an assessor when you married the late
Ivan Egorovich. And that must be--"
"How hot it is! Stifling! Let us go into the garden. Please give me my
mantilla, Michel," she said turning to the cadet who had come with her.
At this moment Vera appeared, and the company rose and crowded round her,
so that the conversation took another turn. Raisky was bored by the
guests, and by the exhibition he had just witnessed. He would have left
the room, but that Vera's presence provided a strong incentive to remain.
Vera looked quickly round at the guests, said a few words here and there,
shook hands with the young girls, smiled at the ladies, and sat down on
a chair by the stove. The young officials smoothed their coats, Niel
Andreevich kissed her hand with evident pleasure, and the girls fixed
their eyes on her. Meanwhile Marfinka was busily employed in pouring out
time, handing dishes and particularly in entertaining her friends.
"Vera Vassilievna, my dear, do take my part," cried Niel Andreevich.
"Is any one offending you?"
"Indeed there is. There is Dalila, no, Pelageia Karpovna--"
"Impertinent creature," said that lady aloud, as she rose and went
quickly towards the door.
Tatiana Markovna also rose. "Where are you going, Paulina Karpovna?" she
cried. "Marfinka, do not let her go."
"No, no, Tatiana Markovna," came Paulina Karpovna's voice from the hall,
"I am always grateful to you, but I do not wish to meet such a loon. If
my husband were alive, no man would dare...."
"Do not be vexed; he means nothing by it, but is in reality a decent old
gentleman."
"Please let me go. I will come again and see you when he is not here,"
she said as she left the house in tears.
In the room she had left everyone was in gay humour, and Niel Andreevich
condescended to share the general laughter, in which however, neither
Raisky nor Vera joined. Paulina Karpovna might be eccentric, but that
did not excuse either the loonish amusement of the people assembled or
the old man's attacks. Raisky remained gloomily silent, and shifted his
feet ominously.
"She is offended and has departed," remarked Niel Andreevich, as Tatiana
Markovna, visibly agitated returned, and resumed her seat in silence.
"It won't do her any harm, but will be good for her health. She
shouldn't appear naked in society. This is not a bathing establishment."
At this point the ladies lowered their eyes, and the young girls grew
crimson, and pressed their hands nervously together.
"Neither should she stare about her in church and have young men
following her footsteps. Come, Ivan Ivanovich, you were once her
indefatigable cavalier. Do you still visit her?" he asked a young man
severely.
"Not for a long time, your Excellency. I got tired of forever exchanging
compliments."
"It's a good thing you have given it up. What an example she sets to
women and young girls, going about dressed in pink with ribbons and
frills, when she is over forty. How can anybody help reading her a
lecture? You see," he added turning to Raisky, "that I am only a terror
to evildoers. Who has made you fear me?"
"Mark," answered Raisky, to the excitement of all present.
"What Mark?" asked Niel Andreevich, frowning.
"Mark Volokov, who is in exile here."
"Ah! that thief. Do you know him?"
"We are friends."
"Friends!" hissed the old man. "Tatiana Markovna, what do I hear?"
"Don't believe him, Niel Andreevich. He does not know what he is talking
about. What sort of a friend of yours is he?"
"Why, Grandmother, did he not sup here with me and spend the night?
Didn't you yourself give orders to have a soft bed made up for him?"
"Boris Pavlovich, for pity's sake, be silent," whispered his aunt
angrily.
But Tychkov was already looking at her with amazement, the ladies with
sympathy, while the men stared and the young girls drew closer to one
another. Vera looked round the company, thanking Raisky by a friendly
glance, and Marfinka hid behind her aunt.
"What a confession! You admitted this Barabbas under your roof," said
Niel Andreevich.
"Not I, Niel Andreevich. Borushka brought him in at night, and I did not
even know who was sleeping in his room."
"You go round with him at night? Don't you know that he is a suspicious
character, an enemy of the administration, a renegade from Church and
Society. So he has been telling you about me?"
"Yes," Raisky said.
"By his description I am a wild beast, a devourer of men."
"No, you do not devour them, but you allow yourself, by what right God
only knows, to insult them."
"And did you believe that?"
"Until to-day, no."
"And to-day?"
"To-day, I believe it," agreed Raisky to the terror and agitation of the
company. Most of the officials present escaped to the hall, and stood
near the door listening.
"How so," asked Niel Andreevich haughtily.
"Because you have just insulted a lady."
"You hear, Tatiana Markovna."
"Boris Pavlovich, Borushka," she said, seeking to restrain him.
"That old fashion-plate, that frivolous, dangerous woman!"
"What do her faults matter to you. Who gave you the right to judge other
people?"
"Who gave you the right, young man, to reproach me? Do you know that I
have been in the service for forty years, and that no minister has ever
made the slightest criticism to me."
"My right is that you have insulted a lady in my house. I should be a
miserable creature to permit that. If you don't understand that, the
worse for you."
"If you receive a person who is, to the knowledge of the whole town,
a frivolous butterfly, dressing in a way unsuited to her age, and
leaving unfulfilled her duties to her family...."
"Well, what then?"
"Then both you and Tatiana Markovna deserve to hear the truth. Yes, I
have been meaning to tell you for a long time, Matushka."
"Frivolity, flightiness and the desire to please are not such terrible
crimes. But the whole town knows that you have accumulated money through
bribery that you robbed your own nieces and had them locked up in an
asylum. Yet my Grandmother and I have received you in our house, and you
take it upon yourself to lecture us."
The guests who heard this indictment were horror-stricken. The ladies
hurried out into the hall without taking leave of their hostess, the
rest followed them like sheep, and soon all were gone. Tatiana Markovna
motioned Marfinka and Vera to the door, but Marfinka alone obeyed the
indication. As for Niel Andreevich he had become deadly pale.
"Who," he cried, "who has brought you these tales? Speak! That brigand
Mark? I am going straight to the Governor. Tatiana Markovna, if this
young man again sets foot in your house, you and I are strangers.
Otherwise within twenty four hours, both he and you and your whole
household shall be transferred to a place where not even a raven can
penetrate with food. Who? Who told him? I will know. Who? Speak," he
hissed, gasping for breath, and hardly knowing what he said.
"Stop talking rubbish, Niel Andreevich," commanded Tatiana Markovna,
rising suddenly from her place. "You will explode with fury. Better
drink some water. You ask who has said it. There is no secret about it,
for I have said it, and it is common knowledge in the town."
"Tatiana Markovna!" shrieked Niel Andreevich.
"You have your deserts. Why make so much noise about it? In another
person's house you attack a woman, and that is not the action of a
gentleman."
"How dare you speak like that to me?"
Raisky would have thrown himself on him if his aunt had not waved him
aside. Then with the commanding dignity she knew how to assume, she put
on her cap, wrapt herself in her shawl, and went right up to Niel
Andreevich, while Raisky looked on in amazement, with a sense of his own
smallness in her majestic presence.
"Who are you?" she began. "A clerk in the chancellery, an upstart. And
yet you dare to address a noblewoman with violence. You have too good an
opinion of yourself, and have asked for your lesson, which you shall
have from me once and for all. Have you forgotten the days when you used
to bring documents from the office to my father, and did not dare to sit
down in my presence, when you used to receive gifts from my hand on
feast-days? If you were an honest man no one would reproach you. But you
have, as my nephew says, accumulated stolen wealth, and it has been
endured out of weakness. You should hold your tongue, and repent in your
old age of your evil life. But you are bursting, intoxicated with pride.
Sober yourself and bow your head. Before you stands Tatiana Markovna
Berezhkov, and also my nephew Boris Pavlovich Raisky. If I had not
restrained him he would have thrown you out of the house, but I prefer
that he should not soil his hands with you; the lackeys are good
enough."
As she stood there with blazing eyes, she bore a close resemblance to a
portrait of one of her ancestors that hung on the wall. Tychkov turned
his eyes this way and that seemingly beside himself with rage.
"I shall write to St. Petersburg," he gasped, "the town is in danger."
Then he slunk out, so agitated by her furious aspect that he dared not
raise his eyes to her face.
Tatiana Markovna maintained her proud bearing, though her fingers
grasped nervously at her shawl. Raisky approached her hesitatingly,
seeing in her, not his aunt, but another, and to him an almost unknown
woman.
"I did not understand the majesty of your temperament. But I make my bow,
not as a grandson before to an honoured grandmother, but as man to woman.
I offer you my admiration and respect, Tatiana Markovna, best of women,"
he said, kissing her hand.
"I accept your courtesy, Boris Pavlovich, as an honour which I have
deserved. Do you accept for your honourable championship the kiss, not
of a grandmother, but of a woman."
As she kissed him on the cheek, he received another kiss from the other
side.
"This kiss is from another woman," said Vera in a low voice as she left
the room, before Raisky's outstretched arms could reach her.
"Vera and I have not spoken to one another, but we have both understood
you. We do, in fact, talk very little, but we resemble one another,"
said Tatiana Markovna.
"Granny, you are an extraordinary woman!" cried Raisky, looking at her
with as much enthusiasm as if he saw her for the first time.
"Drive to the Governor's, Borushka, and tell him exactly what has
happened so that the other party may not be first with his lying
nonsense. I am going to beg Paulina Karpovna's pardon."
CHAPTER XIII
For three days the impression of this Sunday morning breakfast remained
with Raisky. He had been surprised by this sudden transformation of
Tatiana Markovna from grandmother and kindly hostess into a lioness, but
he had been still more agitated by Vera's kiss. He could have wept for
emotion, and would like to have built new hopes on it, but it was a kiss
that led no further, a flash of lightning immediately extinguished.
Raisky kept his promise, and neither went to Vera's room, nor followed
her; he saw her only at meals and then rarely talked to her. He
succeeded in hiding from her the fact that she still occupied his
thoughts; he would like to have wiped out of her recollection his hasty
revelation of himself to her.
Then he began a portrait of Tatiana Markovna, and occupied himself
seriously with the plan of his novel. With Vera as the central figure,
and the scene his own estate and the bank of the Volga his fancy took
shape and the secret of artistic creation became clear to him.
It chanced once or twice that he found himself walking with Vera. Gaily
and almost indifferently he poured out for her his store of thought and
knowledge, even of anecdote, as he might do to any amiable, clever
stranger, without second thoughts or any wish to reap an advantage. He
led in fact a peaceful, pleasant life, demanding nothing and regretting
nothing. He perceived with satisfaction that Vera no longer avoided him,
that she confided in him and drew closer to him; she would herself come
to his room to fetch books, and he made no effort to retain her.
They often spent the afternoon with Tatiana Markovna. Vera apparently
liked to hear him talk, and smiled at his jokes, though from time to
time she would get up suddenly in the middle of a sentence when he was
reading aloud or talking, and with some slight excuse, go out and not
appear again for hours. He made no effort to follow her.
He found recreation with friends in the town, driving occasionally with
the Governor or taking part with Marfinka and Vera in some rural
entertainment.
The month which Mark had set as a limit for their wager, was nearly over,
and Raisky felt himself free from passion. At least he thought so, and
put down all his symptoms to the working of his imagination and to
curiosity. On some days even Vera appeared to him in the same light as
Marfinka. He saw in them two charming young girls, only late left school
with all the ideas and adorations of the schoolgirl, with the
schoolgirl's dream-theory of life, which is only shattered by experience.
He told himself that he was absolutely cold and indifferent, and in a
position truthfully to call himself her friend. He would shortly leave
the place, but before that he must visit "Barabbas," take his last pair
of trousers, and warn him against making a wager.
He went to Leonti to ask where Mark was to be found and discovered them
both at breakfast.
"You might develop into a decent individual," cried Mark to him, "if you
were a little bolder."
"You mean if I had the boldness to shoot my neighbour or to storm an inn
by night."
"How will you take an inn by storm? Besides, there is no need, since
your aunt has her own guesthouse. Many thanks for having chased that old
swine from your house, I am told in conjunction with Tatiana Markovna.
Splendid!"
"Where did you hear that?"
"The whole town is talking of it. I wanted to come and show my respect
to you, when I suddenly heard that you were on friendly terms with the
Governor, had invited him to your house, and that you and your aunt had
stood on your hind paws before him. That is abominable, when I thought
you had only invited him to show him the door."
"That is what is called bourgeois courage, I believe."
"I don't know what it is called, but I can best give you an example of
the kind of courage. For some time the police inspector has been
sniffing round our vegetable garden, so probably his Excellency has been
kind enough to show an interest in me, and to enquire after my health
and amusements. Well, I am training a couple of bull-dogs, and I hadn't
had them a week before the garden was clear of cats. I have them ready
at dark, and if the Colonel or his suite arrive, I shall let my beasts
loose. Of course it will happen by accident."
"I have come to say goodbye, for I am leaving here shortly."
"You are going away?" asked Mark in astonishment, then added in a low,
serious voice, "I should like to have a word with you."
"Speak, by all means. Is it a question of money again?"
"Money as far as I am concerned, but it is not of that I wish to speak
to you. I will come to you later. I cannot speak of that now," he said
looking significantly at Koslov's wife to indicate that he could not
explain himself in her presence.
"No one will let you go?" whispered Juliana Andreevna. "I have not once
spoken to you out of hearing of my husband."
"Have you brought the money with you," asked Mark suddenly, "the three
hundred roubles for the wager?"
"Where is the pair of trousers?" asked Raisky ironically.
"I am not joking; you must pay me my three hundred roubles."
"Why? I am not in love as you see."
"I see that you are head over ears in love."
"How do you see that."
"In your face."
"The month is past, and with it the wager at an end. As I don't need the
trousers I will make you a present of them to go with the coat."
"How can you go away?" complained Leonti. "And the books--"
"What books?"
"Your books. See for yourself by the catalogue that they are all right."
"I have made you a present of them."
"Be serious for a moment. Where shall I send them?"
"Goodbye. I have no time to spare. Don't come to me with the books, or I
will burn them. And you, wise man, who can tell a lover by his face,
farewell. I don't know whether we shall meet again."
"Where is the money? It isn't honest not to surrender it. I see the
presence of love, which like measles has not yet come out, but soon will.
Your face is already red. How tiresome that I fixed a limit, and so lose
three hundred roubles by my own stupidity."
"Goodbye."
"You will not go," said Mark with decision.
"I shall have another opportunity of seeing you, Koslov. I am not
starting until next week."
"You will not go," repeated Mark.
"What about your novel?" asked Leonti. "You intended to finish it here."
"I am already near the end of it, though there is still some arranging
to be done, which I can do in St. Petersburg."
"You will not end your romance either, neither the paper one nor the
real one." said Mark.
Raisky was about to answer, but thought better of it, and was quickly gone. |
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