"But what am I to do? Tell me, what ... what ..." she murmured huskily.
"For you there are two ways open: you must get rid of this child that n.o.body wants, and whose birth, as you must see yourself, will only bring trouble."
Lida"s eyes expressed wild horror.
"To kill a being that knows the joy of living and the terror of death is a grave injustice," he continued; "but a germ, an unconscious ma.s.s of flesh and blood ..."
Lida experienced a strange sensation. At first shame overwhelmed her, such shame as if she were completely stripped, while brutal fingers touched her. She dared not look at her brother, fearing that for very shame they would both expire. But Sanine"s grey eyes wore a calm expression, and his voice was firm and even in tone, as if he were talking of ordinary matters. It was this quiet strength of utterance and the profound truth of his words that removed Lida"s shame and fear.
Yet suddenly despair prevailed, as she clasped her forehead, while the flimsy sleeves of her dress fluttered like the wings of a startled bird.
"I cannot, no, I cannot!" she faltered, "I dare say you"re right, but I cannot! It is so awful!"
"Well, well, if you can"t," said Sanine, as he knelt down, and gently drew away her hands from her face, "we must contrive to hide it, somehow. I will see to it that Sarudine has to leave the town, and you --well, you shall marry Novikoff, and be happy. I know that if you had never met this dashing young officer, you would have accepted Sascha Novikoff. I am certain of it." At the mention of Novikoff"s name Lida saw light through the gloom. Because Sarudine had made her unhappy, and she was convinced that Novikoff would never have done so, for an instant it seemed to her that all could easily be set right. She would at once get up, go back, say something or other, and life in all its radiant beauty would again lie before her. Again she would live, again she would love, only this time it would be a better life, a deeper, purer love. Yet immediately afterwards she recollected that this was impossible, for she had been soiled and degraded by an ign.o.ble, senseless amour.
A gross word, which she scarcely knew and had never uttered, suddenly came into her mind. She applied it to herself. It was as if she had received a box on the ears.
"Great heavens! Am I really a ...? Yes, yes, of course, I am!"
"What did you say?" she murmured, ashamed of her own resonant voice.
"Well, what is it to be?" asked Sanine, as he glanced at her pretty hair falling in disorder about her white neck flecked by sunlight breaking through the network of leaves. A sudden fear seized him that he would not succeed in persuading her, and that this young, beautiful woman, fitted to bestow such joy upon others, might vanish into the dark, senseless void. Lida was silent. She strove to repress her longing to live, which, despite her will, had mastered her whole trembling frame. After all that had occurred, it seemed to her shameful not only to live, but to wish to live. Yet her body, strong and full of vitality, rejected so distorted an idea as if it were poison.
"Why this silence?" asked Sanine.
"Because it is impossible.... It would be a vile thing to do!... I...."
"Don"t talk such nonsense!" retorted Sanine impatiently.
Lida looked up at him again, and in her tearful eyes there was a glimmer of hope.
Sanine broke off a twig, which he bit and then flung away.
"A vile thing!" he went on, "A vile thing! My words amaze you. Yet why?
The question is one that neither you nor I can ever rightly answer.
Crime! What is a crime? If a mother"s life is in danger when giving birth to a child, and that living child, to save its mother, is destroyed that is not a crime, but an unfortunate necessity! But to suppress something that does not yet exist, that is called a crime, a horrible deed. Yes, a horrible deed, even though the mother"s life, and, what is more, her happiness, depends upon it! Why must it be so?
n.o.body knows, but everybody loudly maintains that view, crying, "Bravo!"" Sanine laughed sarcastically. "Oh! you men, you men! Men create for themselves phantoms, shadows, illusions, and are the first to suffer by them. But they all exclaim, "Oh! Man is a masterpiece, n.o.blest of all; man is the crown, the King of creation;" but a king that has never yet reigned, a suffering king that quakes at his own shadow."
For a moment, Sanine paused.
"After all, that is not the main point. You say that it is a vile thing. I don"t know; perhaps it is. If Novikoff were to hear of your trouble, it would grieve him terribly; in fact, he might shoot himself, but yet he would love you, just the same. In that case, the blame would be his. But if he were a really intelligent man, he would not attach the slightest importance to the fact that you had already (excuse the expression!) slept with somebody else. Neither your body nor your soul have suffered thereby. Good Lord! Why, he might marry a widow himself, for instance! Therefore it is not that which prevents him, but the confused notions with which his head is filled. And, as regards yourself, if it were only possible for human beings to love once in their lives, then, a second attempt to do so would certainly prove futile and unpleasant. But this is not so. To fall in love, or to be loved, is just as delightful and desirable. You will get to love Novikoff, and, if you don"t, well, we"ll travel together, my Lidotschka; one can live, can"t one, anywhere, after all?"
Lida sighed and strove to overcome her final scruples.
"Perhaps ... everything will come right again," she murmured.
"Novikoff... he"s so good and kind ... nice-looking, too, isn"t he?
Yes ... no... I don"t know what to say."
"If you had drowned yourself, what then? The powers of good and evil would have neither gained nor lost thereby. Your corpse, bloated, disfigured, and covered with slime, would have been dragged from the river, and buried. That would have been all!"
Lida had a lurid vision of greenish, turbid water with slimy, trailing weeds and gruesome bubbles floating round her.
"No, no, never!" she thought, turning pale. "I would rather bear all the shame of it ... and Novikoff ... everything ... anything but that."
"Ah! look how scared you are!" said Sanine, laughing.
Lida smiled through her tears, and her very smile consoled her.
"Whatever happens, I mean to live!" she said with pa.s.sionate energy.
"Good!" exclaimed Sanine, as he jumped up. "Nothing is more awful than the thought of death. But so long as you can bear the burden without losing perception of the sights and sounds of life, I say live! Am I not right? Now, give me your paw!"
Lida held out her hand. The shy, feminine gesture betokened childish grat.i.tude.
"That"s right ... What a pretty little hand you"ve got."
Lida smiled and said nothing.
But Sanine"s words had not proved ineffectual. Hers was a vigorous, buoyant vitality; the crisis through which she had just pa.s.sed had strained that vitality to the utmost. A little more pressure, and the string would have snapped. But the pressure was not applied, and her whole being vibrated once more with an impetuous, turbulent desire to live. She looked above, around her, in ecstasy, listening to the immense joy pulsating on every side; in the sunlight, in the green meadows, the shining stream, the calm, smiling face of her brother, and in herself. It was as if she now could see and hear all this for the first time. "To be alive!" cried a gladsome voice within her.
"All right!" said Sanine. "I will help you in your trouble, and stand by you when you fight your battles. And now, as you"re such a beauty, you must give me a kiss."
Lida smiled; a smile mysterious as that of a wood-nymph. Sanine put his arms round her waist, and, as her warm supple form thrilled at his touch, his fond embrace became almost vehement. A strange, indefinable sense of joy overcame Lida, as she yearned for life ampler and more intense. It mattered not to her what she did. She slowly put both arms round her brother"s neck and, with half-closed eyes, set her lips tight to give the kiss.
She felt unspeakably happy beneath Sanine"s burning caress, and in that moment cared not who it was that kissed her, just as a flower warmed by the sun never asks whence comes such warmth.
"What is the matter with me?" she thought, pleasurably alarmed. "Ah!
yes! I wanted to drown myself ... how silly! And for what? Oh! that"s nice! Again! Again! Now, I"ll kiss you! It"s lovely! And I don"t care what happens so long as I"m alive, alive!"
"There, now, you see," said Sanine, releasing her. "All good things are just good, and one mustn"t make them out to be anything else."
Lida smiled absently, and slowly re-arranged her hair. Sanine handed her the parasol and glove. To find the other glove was missing at first surprised her, but instantly recollecting the reason, she felt greatly amused at the absurd importance which she had given to that trifling incident.
"Ah! well, that"s over!" she thought, and walked with her brother along the river-bank. Fiercely the sun"s rays beat upon her round, ripe bosom.
CHAPTER XX.
Novikoff, when he opened the door himself to Sanine, looked far from pleased at the prospect of such a visit. Everything that reminded him of Lida and of his shattered dream of bliss caused him pain.
Sanine noticed this, and came into the room smiling affably. All there was in disorder, as if scattered by a whirlwind. Sc.r.a.ps of paper, straw, and rubbish of all sorts covered the floor. On the bed and the chairs lay books, linen, surgical instruments and a portmanteau.
"Going away?" asked Sanine, in surprise. "Where?" Novikoff avoided the other"s glance and continued to overhaul the things, vexed at his own confusion. At last he said:
"Yes, I"ve got to leave this place. I"ve had my official notice."
Sanine looked at him and then at the portmanteau. After another glance his features relaxed in a broad smile.