"Oh! to a journalist I know. I think of joining the staff of his paper."
"So you write for the papers?"
Sanine smiled. "I do everything."
"But why do you want to go there?"
"Because I"m tired of living here with you, mother," said Sanine frankly.
Maria Ivanovna felt somewhat hurt.
"Thank you," she said.
Sanine looked attentively at her, and felt inclined to tell her not to be so silly as to imagine that a man, especially one who had no employment, could care to remain always in the same place. But it irked him to have to say such a thing; and he was silent.
Maria Ivanovna took out her pocket-handkerchief and crumpled it nervously in her fingers. If it had not been for Sarudine"s letter and her consequent distress and anxiety, she would have bitterly resented her son"s rudeness. But, as it was, she merely said:
"Ah! yes, the one slinks out of the house like a wolf, and the other..."
A gesture of resignation completed the sentence.
Sanine looked up quickly, and put down his pen.
"What do you know about it?" he asked.
Suddenly Maria Ivanovna felt ashamed that she had read the letter to Lida. Turning very red, she replied unsteadily, but with some irritation:
"Thank G.o.d, I am not blind! I can see."
"See? You can see nothing," said Sanine, after a moment"s reflection, "and, to prove it allow me to congratulate you on the engagement of your daughter. She was going to tell you herself, but, after all, it comes to the same thing."
"What!" exclaimed Maria Ivanovna, drawing herself up. "Lida is going to be married!"
"To whom?"
"To Novikoff, of course."
"Yes, but what about Sarudine?"
"Oh! he can go to the devil!" exclaimed Sanine angrily. "What"s that to do with you? Why meddle with other people"s affairs?"
"Yes, but I don"t quite understand, Volodja!" said his mother, bewildered, while yet in her heart she could hear the joyous refrain, "Lida"s going to be married, going to be married!"
Sanine shrugged his shoulders.
"What is that you don"t understand? She was in love with one man, and now she"s in love with another; and to-morrow she"ll be in love with a third. Well, G.o.d bless her!"
"What"s that you say?" cried Maria Ivanovna indignantly.
Sanine leant against the table and folded his arms.
"In the course of your life did you yourself only love one man?" he asked angrily.
Maria Ivanovna rose. Her wrinkled face wore a look of chilling pride.
"One shouldn"t speak to one"s mother like that," she said sharply.
"Who?"
"How do you mean, who?"
"Who shouldn"t speak?" said Sanine, as he looked at her from head to foot. For the first time he noticed how dull and vacant was the expression in her eyes, and how absurdly her cap was placed upon her head, like a c.o.c.k"s comb.
"n.o.body ought to speak to me like that!" she said huskily.
"Anyhow, I"ve done so!" replied Sanine, recovering his good temper, and resuming his pen.
"You"ve had your share of life," he said, "and you"ve up right to prevent Lida from having hers."
Maria Ivanovna said nothing, but stared in amazement at her son, while her cap looked droller than ever.
She hastily checked all memories of her past youth with its joyous nights of love, fixing upon this one question in her mind. "How dare he speak thus to his mother?" Yet before she could come to any decision, Sanine turned round, and taking her hand said kindly:
"Don"t let that worry you, but, you must keep Sarudine out of the house, for the fellow"s quite capable of playing us a dirty trick."
Maria Ivanovna was at once appeased.
"G.o.d bless you, my boy," she said. "I am very glad, for I have always liked Sacha Novikoff. Of course, we can"t receive Sarudine; it wouldn"t do, because of Sacha."
"No, just that! Because of Sacha," said Sanine with a humorous look in his eyes.
"And where is Lida?" asked his mother.
"In her room."
"And Sacha?" She p.r.o.nounced the pet name lovingly.
"I really don"t know. He went to ..." At that moment Dounika appeared in the doorway, and said:
"Victor Sergejevitsch is here, and another gentleman."
"Turn them out of the house," said Sanine.
Dounika smiled sheepishly.
"Oh! Sir, I can"t do that, can I?"
"Of course you can! What business brings them here?"