"Why should I? No, I will not laugh."
"We resolved to make a river in the K---- province fit for navigation,"
said Rudin with an embarra.s.sed smile.
"Really! This Kurbyev was a capitalist, then?"
"He was poorer than I," responded Rudin, and his grey head sank on his breast.
Lezhnyov began to laugh, but he stopped suddenly and took Rudin by the hand.
"Pardon me, brother, I beg," he said, "but I did not expect that. Well, so I suppose your enterprise did not get further than paper?"
"Not so. A beginning was made. We hired workmen, and set to work. But then we were met by various obstacles. In the first place the millowners would not meet us favourably at all; and more than that, we could not turn the water out of its course without machinery, and we had not money enough for machinery. For six months we lived in mud huts. Kurbyev lived on dry bread, and I, too, had not much to eat. However, I don"t complain of that; the scenery there is something magnificent. We struggled and struggled on, appealing to merchants, writing letters and circulars. It ended in my spending my last farthing on the project."
"Well!" observed Lezhnyov, "I imagine to spend your last farthing, Dmitri, was not a difficult matter?"
"It was not difficult, certainly."
Rudin looked out of the window.
"But the project really was not a bad one, and it might have been of immense service."
"And where did Kurbyev go to?" asked Lezhnyov.
"Oh, he is now in Siberia, he has become a gold-digger. And you will see he will make himself a position; he will get on."
"Perhaps; but then you will not be likely to make a position for yourself, it seems."
"Well, that can"t be helped! But I know I was always a frivolous creature in your eyes."
"Hush, brother; there was a time, certainly, when I saw your weak side; but now, believe me, I have learnt to value you. You will not make yourself a position. And I love you, Dmitri, for that, indeed I do!"
Rudin smiled faintly.
"Truly?"
"I respect you for it!" repeated Lezhnyov. "Do you understand me?"
Both were silent for a little.
"Well, shall I proceed to number three?" asked Rudin.
"Please do."
"Very well. The third and last. I have only now got clear of number three. But am I not boring you, Mihail?"
"Go on, go on."
"Well," began Rudin, "once the idea occurred to me at some leisure moment--I always had plenty of leisure moments--the idea occurred to me; I have knowledge enough, my intentions are good. I suppose even you will not deny me good intentions?"
"I should think not!"
"In all other directions I had failed more or less... why should I not become an instructor, or speaking simply a teacher... rather than waste my life?"
Rudin stopped and sighed.
"Rather than waste my life, would it not be better to try to pa.s.s on to others what I know; perhaps they may extract at least some use from my knowledge. My abilities are above the ordinary anyway, I am a master of language. So I resolved to devote myself to this new work. I had difficulty in obtaining a post; I did not want to give private lessons; there was nothing I could do in the lower schools. At last I succeeded in getting an appointment as professor in the gymnasium here."
"As professor of what?" asked Lezhnyov.
"Professor of literature. I can tell you I never started on any work with such zest as I did on this. The thought of producing an effect upon the young inspired me. I spent three weeks over the composition of my opening lecture."
"Have you got it, Dmitri?" interrupted Lezhnyov.
"No! I lost it somewhere. It went off fairly well, and was liked. I can see now the faces of my listeners--good young faces, with an expression of pure-souled attention and sympathy, and even of amazement. I mounted the platform and read my lecture in a fever; I thought it would fill more than an hour, but I had finished it in twenty minutes. The inspector was sitting there--a dry old man in silver spectacles and a short wig--he sometimes turned his head in my direction. When I had finished, he jumped up from his seat and said to me, "Good, but rather over their heads, obscure, and too little said about the subject." But the pupils followed me with appreciation in their looks--indeed they did. Ah, that is how youth is so precious! I gave a second written lecture, and a third. After that I began to lecture extempore."
"And you had success?" asked Lezhnyov.
"I had a great success. I gave my audience all that was in my soul.
Among them were two or three really remarkable boys; the rest did not understand me much. I must confess though that even those who did understand me sometimes embarra.s.sed me by their questions. But I did not lose heart. They all loved me; I gave them all full marks in examinations. But then an intrigue was started against me--or no! it was not an intrigue at all; it simply was, that I was not in my proper place. I was a hindrance to the others, and they were a hindrance to me.
I lectured to the gymnasium pupils in a way lectures are not given every day, even to students; they carried away very little from my lectures.... I myself did not know the facts enough. Besides, I was not satisfied with the limited sphere a.s.signed to me--you know that is always my weakness. I wanted radical reforms, and I swear to you that these reforms were both sensible and easy to carry out. I hoped to carry them through the director, a good and honest man, over whom I had at first some influence. His wife aided me. I have not, brother, met many women like her in my life. She was about forty; but she believed in goodness, and loved everything fine with the enthusiasm of a girl of fifteen, and was not afraid to give utterance to her convictions before any one whatever. I shall never forget her generous enthusiasm and goodness. By her advice I drew up a plan.... But then my influence was undermined, I was misrepresented to her. My chief enemy was the professor of mathematics, a little sour, bilious man who believed in nothing, a character like Pigasov, but far more able than he was.... By the way, how is Pigasov, is he living?"
"Oh, yes; and only fancy, he is married to a peasant woman, who, they say, beats him."
"Serve him right! And Natalya Alexyevna--is she well?"
"Yes."
"Is she happy?"
"Yes."
Rudin was silent for a little.
"What was I talking about?... Oh yes! about the professor of mathematics. He perfectly hated me; he compared my lectures to fireworks, pounced upon every expression of mine that was not altogether clear, once even put me to confusion over some monument of the sixteenth century.... But the most important thing was, he suspected my intentions; my last soap-bubble struck on him as on a spike, and burst.
The inspector, whom I had not got on with from the first, set the director against me. A scene followed. I was not ready to give in; I got hot; the matter came to the knowledge of the authorities; I was forced to resign. I did not stop there; I wanted to prove that they could not treat me like that.... But they could treat me as they liked.... Now I am forced to leave the town."
A silence followed. Both the friends sat with bowed heads.
Rudin was the first to speak.
"Yes, brother," he began, "I can say now, in the words of Koltsov, "Thou hast led me astray, my youth, till there is nowhere I can turn my steps."... And yet can it be that I was fit for nothing, that for me there was, as it were, no work on earth to do? I have often put myself this question, and, however much I tried to humble myself in my own eyes, I could not but feel the existence of faculties within me which are not given to every one! Why have these faculties remained fruitless?
And let me say more; you know, when I was with you abroad, Mihail, I was conceited and full of erroneous ideas.... Certainly I did not then realise clearly what I wanted; I lived upon words, and believed in phantoms. But now, I swear to you, I could speak out before all men every desire I feel. I have absolutely nothing to hide; I am absolutely, in the fullest meaning of the word, a well-intentioned man. I am humble, I am ready to adapt myself to circ.u.mstances; I want little; I want to do the good that lies nearest, to be even a little use. But no! I never succeed. What does it mean? What hinders me from living and working like others?... I am only dreaming of it now. But no sooner do I get into any definite position when fate throws the dice from me. I have come to dread it--my destiny.... Why is it so? Explain this enigma to me!"
"An enigma!" repeated Lezhnyov. "Yes, that"s true; you have always been an enigma for me. Even in our young days, when, after some trifling prank, you would suddenly speak as though you were pierced to the heart, and then you would begin again... well you know what I mean... even then I did not understand. That is why I grew apart from you.... You have so much power, such unwearying striving after the ideal."
"Words, all words! There was nothing done!" Rudin broke in.