Konstantin Diomiditch took his seat at the piano, and played the etude very fairly well. Natalya Alexyevna at first listened attentively, then she bent over her work again.
"_Merci, c"est charmant_," observed Darya Mihailovna, "I love Thalberg.
_Il est si distingue_. What are you thinking of, African s.e.m.e.nitch?"
"I thought," began African s.e.m.e.nitch slowly, "that there are three kinds of egoists; the egoists who live themselves and let others live; the egoists who live themselves and don"t let others live; and the egoists who don"t live themselves and don"t let others live. Women, for the most part, belong to the third cla.s.s."
"That"s polite! I am very much astonished at one thing, African s.e.m.e.nitch; your confidence in your convictions; of course you can never be mistaken."
"Who says so? I make mistakes; a man, too, may be mistaken. But do you know the difference between a man"s mistakes and a woman"s? Don"t you know? Well, here it is; a man may say, for example, that twice two makes not four, but five, or three and a half; but a woman will say that twice two makes a wax candle."
"I fancy I"ve heard you say that before. But allow me to ask what connection had your idea of the three kinds of egoists with the music you have just been hearing?"
"None at all, but I did not listen to the music."
"Well, "incurable I see you are, and that is all about it,"" answered Darya Mihailovna, slightly altering Griboyedov"s line. "What do you like, since you don"t care for music? Literature?"
"I like literature, only not our contemporary literature."
"Why?"
"I"ll tell you why. I crossed the Oka lately in a ferry boat with a gentleman. The ferry got fixed in a narrow place; they had to drag the carriages ash.o.r.e by hand. This gentleman had a very heavy coach. While the ferrymen were straining themselves to drag the coach on to the bank, the gentleman groaned so, standing in the ferry, that one felt quite sorry for him.... Well, I thought, here"s a fresh ill.u.s.tration of the system of division of labour! That"s just like our modern literature; other people do the work, and it does the groaning."
Darya Mihailovna smiled.
"And that is called expressing contemporary life," continued Pigasov indefatigably, "profound sympathy with the social question and so on.
... Oh, how I hate those grand words!"
"Well, the women you attack so--they at least don"t use grand words."
Pigasov shrugged his shoulders.
"They don"t use them because they don"t understand them."
Darya Mihailovna flushed slightly.
"You are beginning to be impertinent, African s.e.m.e.nitch!" she remarked with a forced smile.
There was complete stillness in the room.
"Where is Zolotonosha?" asked one of the boys suddenly of Ba.s.sistoff.
"In the province of Poltava, my dear boy," replied Pigasov, "in the centre of Little Russia." (He was glad of an opportunity of changing the conversation.) "We were talking of literature," he continued, "if I had money to spare, I would at once become a Little Russian poet."
"What next? a fine poet you would make!" retorted Darya Mihailovna. "Do you know Little Russian?"
"Not a bit; but it isn"t necessary."
"Not necessary?"
"Oh no, it"s not necessary. You need only take a sheet of paper and write at the top "A Ballad," then begin like this, "Heigho, alack, my destiny!" or "the Cossack Nalivaiko was sitting on a hill and then on the mountain, under the green tree the birds are singing, grae, voropae, gop, gop!" or something of that kind. And the thing"s done. Print it and publish it. The Little Russian will read it, drop his head into his hands and infallibly burst into tears--he is such a sensitive soul!"
"Good heavens!" cried Ba.s.sistoff. "What are you saying? It"s too absurd for anything. I have lived in Little Russia, I love it and know the language... "grae, grae, voropae" is absolute nonsense."
"It may be, but the Little Russian will weep all the same. You speak of the "language."... But is there a Little Russian language? Is it a language, in your opinion? an independent language? I would pound my best friend in a mortar before I"d agree to that."
Ba.s.sistoff was about to retort.
"Leave him alone!" said Darya Mihailovna, "you know that you will hear nothing but paradoxes from him."
Pigasov smiled ironically. A footman came in and announced the arrival of Alexandra Pavlovna and her brother.
Darya Mihailovna rose to meet her guests.
"How do you do, Alexandrine?" she began, going up to her, "how good of you to come!... How are you, Sergei Pavlitch?"
Volintsev shook hands with Darya Mihailovna and went up to Natalya Alexyevna.
"But how about that baron, your new acquaintance, is he coming to-day?"
asked Pigasov.
"Yes, he is coming."
"He is a great philosopher, they say; he is just br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with Hegel, I suppose?"
Darya Mihailovna made no reply, and making Alexandra Pavlovna sit down on the sofa, established herself near her.
"Philosophies," continued Pigasov, "are elevated points of view! That"s another abomination of mine; these elevated points of view. And what can one see from above? Upon my soul, if you want to buy a horse, you don"t look at it from a steeple!"
"This baron was going to bring you an essay?" said Alexandra Pavlovna.
"Yes, an essay," replied Darya Mihailovna, with exaggerated carelessness, "on the relation of commerce to manufactures in Russia.
... But don"t be afraid; we will not read it here.... I did not invite you for that. _Le baron est aussi aimable que savant_. And he speaks Russian beautifully! _C"est un vrai torrent... il vous entraine_!
"He speaks Russian so beautifully," grumbled Pigasov, "that he deserves a eulogy in French."
"You may grumble as you please, African s.e.m.e.nitch.... It"s in keeping with your ruffled locks.... I wonder, though, why he does not come. Do you know what, _messieurs et mesdames_" added Darya Mihailovna, looking round, "we will go into the garden. There is still nearly an hour to dinner-time and the weather is glorious."
All the company rose and went into the garden.
Darya Mihailovna"s garden stretched right down to the river. There were many alleys of old lime-trees in it, full of sunlight and shade and fragrance and glimpses of emerald green at the ends of the walks, and many arbours of acacias and lilacs.
Volintsev turned into the thickest part of the garden with Natalya and Mlle. Boncourt. He walked beside Natalya in silence. Mlle. Boncourt followed a little behind.
"What have you been doing to-day?" asked Volintsev at last, pulling the ends of his handsome dark brown moustache.
In features he resembled his sister strikingly; but there was less movement and life in his expression, and his soft beautiful eyes had a melancholy look.
"Oh! nothing," answered Natalya, "I have been listening to Pigasov"s sarcasms, I have done some embroidery on canvas, and I"ve been reading."