"Where have you been without your cap, Semyonitch?" he asked Akim suddenly and, without waiting for an answer, went on, "You"ve left it at some tavern, that"s what you"ve done. You are a drinking man; I know you and I like you for it, that you are a drinker; you are not a murderer, not a rowdy, not one to make trouble; you are a good manager, but you are a drinker and such a drinker, you ought to have been pulled up for it long ago, yes, indeed; for it"s, a nasty habit.... Hurrah!" he shouted suddenly at the top of his voice, "Hurrah! Hurrah!"
"Stop! Stop!" a woman"s voice sounded close by, "Stop!"
Akim looked round. A woman so pale and dishevelled that at first he did not recognise her, was running across the field towards the cart.
"Stop! Stop!" she moaned again, gasping for breath and waving her arms.
Akim started: it was his wife.
He s.n.a.t.c.hed up the reins.
"What"s the good of stopping?" muttered Yefrem. "Stopping for a woman?
Gee-up!"
But Akim pulled the horse up sharply. At that instant Avdotya ran up to the road and flung herself down with her face straight in the dust.
"Akim Semyonitch," she wailed, "he has turned me out, too!"
Akim looked at her and did not stir; he only gripped the reins tighter.
"Hurrah!" Yefrem shouted again.
"So he has turned you out?" said Akim.
"He has turned me out, Akim Semyonitch, dear," Avdotya answered, sobbing. "He has turned me out. The house is mine, he said, so you can go."
"Capital! That"s a fine thing ... capital," observed Yefrem.
"So I suppose you thought to stay on?" Akim brought out bitterly, still sitting in the cart.
"How could I! But, Akim Semyonitch," went on Avdotya, who had raised her head but let it sink to the earth again, "you don"t know, I ...
kill me, Akim Semyonitch, kill me here on the spot."
"Why should I kill you, Arefyevna?" said Akim dejectedly, "you"ve been your own ruin. What"s the use?"
"But do you know what, Akim Semyonitch, the money ... your money ...
your money"s gone.... Wretched sinner as I am, I took it from under the floor, I gave it all to him, to that villain Naum.... Why did you tell me where you hid your money, wretched sinner as I am? ... It"s with your money he has bought the house, the villain."
Sobs choked her voice.
Akim clutched his head with both hands.
"What!" he cried at last, "all the money, too ... the money and the house, and you did it.... Ah! You took it from under the floor, you took it.... I"ll kill you, you snake in the gra.s.s!" And he leapt out of the cart.
"Semyonitch, Semyonitch, don"t beat her, don"t fight," faltered Yefrem, on whom this unexpected adventure began to have a sobering effect.
"No, Akim Semyonitch, kill me, wretched sinner as I am; beat me, don"t heed him," cried Avdotya, writhing convulsively at Akim"s feet.
He stood a moment, looked at her, moved a few steps away and sat down on the gra.s.s beside the road.
A brief silence followed. Avdotya turned her head in his direction.
"Semyonitch! hey, Semyonitch," began Yefrem, sitting up in the cart, "give over ... you know ... you won"t make things any better. Tfoo, what a business," he went on as though to himself. "What a d.a.m.nable woman.... Go to him," he added, bending down over the side of the cart to Avdotya, "you see, he"s half crazy."
Avdotya got up, went nearer to Akim and again fell at his feet.
"Akim Semyonitch!" she began, in a faint voice.
Akim got up and went back to the cart. She caught at the skirt of his coat.
"Get away!" he shouted savagely, and pushed her off.
"Where are you going?" Yefrem asked, seeing that he was getting in beside him again.
"You were going to take me to my home," said Akim, "but take me to yours ... you see, I have no home now. They have bought mine."
"Very well, come to me. And what about her?"
Akim made no answer.
"And me? Me?" Avdotya repeated with tears, "are you leaving me all alone? Where am I to go?"
"You can go to him," answered Akim, without turning round, "the man you have given my money to.... Drive on, Yefrem!"
Yefrem lashed the horse, the cart rolled off, Avdotya set up a wail....
Yefrem lived three-quarters of a mile from Akim"s inn in a little house close to the priest"s, near the solitary church with five cupolas which had been recently built by the heirs of a rich merchant in accordance with the latter"s will. Yefrem said nothing to Akim all the way; he merely shook his head from time to time and uttered such e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns as "Dear, dear!" and "Upon my soul!" Akim sat without moving, turned a little away from Yefrem. At last they arrived. Yefrem was the first to get out of the cart. A little girl of six in a smock tied low round the waist ran out to meet him and shouted,
"Daddy! daddy!"
"And where is your mother?" asked Yefrem.
"She is asleep in the shed."
"Well, let her sleep. Akim Semyonitch, won"t you get out, sir, and come indoors?"
(It must be noted that Yefrem addressed him familiarly only when he was drunk. More important persons than Yefrem spoke to Akim with formal politeness.)
Akim went into the sacristan"s hut.
"Here, sit on the bench," said Yefrem. "Run away, you little rascals,"
he cried to three other children who suddenly came out of different corners of the room together with two lean cats covered with wood ashes. "Get along! Sh-sh! Come this way, Akim Semyonitch, this way!"
he went on, making his guest sit down, "and won"t you take something?"
"I tell you what, Yefrem," Akim articulated at last, "could I have some vodka?"
Yefrem p.r.i.c.ked up his ears.
"Vodka? You can. I"ve none in the house, but I will run this minute to Father Fyodor"s. He always has it.... I"ll be back in no time."