"Yes, as a beggar, even! When I look at you, I think: there is a man who in order to give the Russian Empire a const.i.tution would let himself be shut up in Schlusselburg [Footnote: A fortress for political prisoners.] for the rest of his life, losing all his rights, and his liberty as well. After all, what is a const.i.tution to him? But when it is a question of altering his own tedious mode of life, and of going elsewhere to find new interests, he at once asks, "how should I get a living? Strong and healthy as I am, should I not come to grief if I had not got my fixed salary, and consequently cream in my tea, my silk shirts, stand-up collars, and all the rest of it?" It"s funny, upon my word it is!"
"I cannot see anything funny in it at all. In the first case, it is the question of a cause, an idea, whereas in the other--"
"Well?"
"Oh! I don"t know how to express myself!" And Novikoff snapped his fingers.
"There now!" said Sanine, interrupting. "That"s how you always evade the point. I shall never believe that the longing for a const.i.tution is stronger in you than the longing to make the most of your own life."
"That is just a question. Possibly it is."
Sanine waved his hand, irritably.
"Oh! don"t, please! If somebody were to cut off your finger, you would feel it more than if it were some other Russian"s finger. That is a fact, eh?"
"Or a cynicism," said Novikoff, meaning to be sarcastic when he was merely foolish.
"Possibly. But, all the same, it is the truth. And now though in Russia and in many other States there is no const.i.tution, nor the slightest sign of one, it is your own unsatisfactory life that worries you, not the absence of a const.i.tution. And if you say it isn"t, then you"re telling a lie. What is more," added Sanine, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, "you are worried not about your life but because Lida has not yet fallen in love with you. Now, isn"t that so?"
"What utter nonsense you"re talking!" cried Novikoff, turning as red as his silk shirt. So confused was he, that tears rose to his calm, kindly eyes.
"How is it nonsense, when besides Lida you can see nothing else in the whole world? The wish to possess her is written in large letters on your brow."
Novikoff winced perceptibly and began to walk rapidly up and down the path. If anyone but Lida"s brother had spoken to him in this way it would have pained him deeply, but to hear such words from Sanine"s mouth amazed him; in fact at first he scarcely understood them.
"Look here," he muttered, "either you are posing, or else--"
"Or else--what?" asked Sanine, smiling.
Novikoff looked aside, shrugged his shoulders, and was silent. The other inference led him to regard Sanine as an immoral, bad man. But he could not tell him this, for, ever since their college days, he had always felt sincere affection for him, and it seemed to Novikoff impossible that he should have chosen a wicked man as his friend. The effect on his mind was at once bewildering and unpleasant. The allusion to Lida pained him, but, as the G.o.ddess whom he adored, he could not feel angry with Sanine for speaking of her. It pleased him, and yet he felt hurt, as if a burning hand had seized his heart and had gently pressed it.
Sanine was silent, and smiled good-humouredly.
After a pause he said:
"Well, finish your statement; I am in no hurry!"
Novikoff kept walking up and down the path, as before. He was evidently hurt. At this moment the terrier came running back excitedly and rubbed against Sanine"s knees, as if wishful to let every one know how pleased he was.
"Good dog!" said Sanine, patting him.
Novikoff strove to avoid continuing the discussion, being afraid that Sanine might return to the subject which for personally was the most interesting in the whole world. Anything that did not concern Lida seemed le to him--dull.
"And--where is Lidia Petrovna?" he asked mechanically, albeit loth to utter the question that was uppermost in his mind.
"Lida? Where should she be? Walking with officers on the boulevard, where all our young ladies are to be found at this time of day."
A look of jealousy darkened his face, as Novikoff asked:
"How can a girl so clever and cultivated as she waste her time with such empty-headed fools?"
"Oh! my friend," exclaimed Sanine, smiling, "Lida is handsome, and young, and healthy, just as you are; more so, in fact, because she has that which you lack--keen desire for everything. She wants to know everything, to experience everything--why, here she comes! You"ve only got to look at her to understand that. Isn"t she pretty?"
Lida was shorter and much handsomer than her brother. Sweetness combined with supple strength gave to her whole personality charm and distinction. There was a haughty look in her dark eyes, and her voice, of which she was proud, sounded rich and musical. She walked slowly down the steps, moving with the lithe grace of a thoroughbred, while adroitly holding up her long grey dress. Behind her, clinking their spurs, came two good-looking young officers in tightly-fitting riding- breeches and shining top-boots.
"Who is pretty? Is it I?" asked Lida, as she filled the whole garden with the charm of her voice, her beauty and her youth. She gave Novikoff her hand, with a side-glance at her brother, about whose att.i.tude she did not feel quite clear, never knowing whether he was joking or in earnest. Grasping her hand tightly, Novikoff grew very red, but his emotions were unnoticed by Lida, used as she was to his reverent, bashful glance that never troubled her.
"Good evening, Vladimir Petrovitch," said the elder, handsomer and fairer of the two officers, rigid, erect as a spirited stallion, while his spurs clinked noisily.
Sanine knew him to be Sarudine, a captain of cavalry, one of Lida"s most persistent admirers. The other was Lieutenant Tanaroff, who regarded Sarudine as the ideal soldier, and strove to copy everything he did. He was taciturn, somewhat clumsy, and not so good-looking as Sarudine. Tanaroff rattled his spurs in his turn, but said nothing.
"Yes, you!" replied Sanine to his sister, gravely.
"Why, of course I am pretty. You should have said indescribably pretty!" And, laughing gaily, Lida sank into a chair, glancing again at Sanine. Raising her arms and thus emphasizing the curves of her shapely bosom, she proceeded to remove her hat, but, in so doing, let a long hat-pin fall on the gravel, and her veil and hair became disarranged.
"Andrei Pavlovitch, do please help me!" she plaintively cried to the taciturn lieutenant.
"Yes, she"s a beauty!" murmured Sanine, thinking aloud, and never taking his eyes off her. Once more Lida glanced shyly at her brother.
"We"re all of us beautiful here," said she.
"What"s that? Beautiful? Ha! Ha!" laughed Sarudine, showing his white, shining teeth. "We are at best but the modest frame that serves to heighten the dazzling splendour of your beauty."
"I say, what eloquence, to be sure!" exclaimed Sanine, in surprise.
There was a slight shade of irony in his tone.
"Lidia Petrovna would make anybody eloquent," said Tanaroff the silent, as he tried to help Lida to take off her hat, and in so doing ruffled her hair. She pretended to be vexed, laughing all the while.
"What?" drawled Sanine. "Are you eloquent too?"
"Oh! let them be!" whispered Novikoff, hypocritically, though secretly pleased.
Lida frowned at Sanine, to whom her dark eyes plainly said:
"Don"t imagine that I cannot see what these people are. I intend to please myself. I am not a fool any more than you are, and I know what I am about."
Sanine smiled at her.
At last the hat was removed, which Tanaroff solemnly placed on the table.
"Look! Look what you"ve done to me, Andrei Pavlovitch!" cried Lida half peevishly, half coquettishly. "You"ve got my hair into such a tangle!
Now I shall have to go indoors."
"I"m so awfully sorry!" stammered Tanaroff, in confusion.
Lida rose, gathered up her skirts, and ran indoors laughing, followed by the glances of all the men. When she had gone they seemed to breathe more freely, without that nervous sense of restraint which men usually experience in the presence of a pretty young woman. Sarudine lighted a cigarette which he smoked with evident gusto. One felt, when he spoke, that he habitually took the lead in a conversation, and that what he thought was something quite different from what he said.
"I have just been persuading Lidia Petrovna to study singing seriously.
With such a voice, her career is a.s.sured."