Dounika hid her face, and went out.
Drawing herself up to her full height, Maria Ivanovna seemed almost younger, though her eyes looked malevolent. With astonishing ease her point of view had undergone a complete change, as if by playing a trump card she had suddenly scored. Kindly as her feelings for Sarudine had been while she hoped to have him as a son-in-law, they swiftly cooled when she realized that another was to marry Lida, and that Sarudine had only made love to her.
As his mother turned to go, Sanine, who noticed her stony profile and forbidding expression, said to himself, "There"s an old hen for you!"
Folding up his letter he followed her out, curious to see what turn matters would take.
With exaggerated politeness Sarudine and Volochine rose to salute the old lady, yet the former showed none of his wonted ease of manner when at the Sanines". Volochine indeed felt slightly uncomfortable, because he had come expressly to see Lida, and was obliged to conceal his intention.
Despite his simulated ease, Sarudine looked obviously anxious. He felt that he ought not to have come. He dreaded meeting Lida, yet he could on no account let Volochine see this, to whom he wished to pose as a gay Lothario.
"Dear Maria Ivanovna," began Sarudine, smiling affectedly, "allow me to introduce to you my good friend, Paul Lvovitch Volochine."
"Charmed!" said Maria Ivanovna, with frigid politeness, and Sarudine observed the hostile look in her eyes, which somewhat unnerved him. "We ought not to have come," he thought, at last aware of the fact, which in Volochine"s society he had forgotten. Lida might come in at any moment, Lida, the mother of his child; what should he say to her? How should he look her in the face? Perhaps her mother knew all? He fidgeted nervously on his chair; lit a cigarette, shrugged his shoulders, moved his legs, and looked about him right and left.
"Are you making a long stay?" asked Maria Ivanovna of Volochine, in a cold, formal voice.
"Oh! no," he replied, as he stared complacently at this provincial person, thrusting his cigar into the corner of his mouth so that the smoke rose right into her face.
"It must be rather dull for you, here, after Petersburg."
"On the contrary, I think it is delightful. There is something so patriarchal about this little town."
"You ought to visit the environs, which are charming for excursions and picnics. There"s boating and bathing, too."
"Of course, madam, of course!" drawled Volochine, who was already somewhat bored.
The conversation languished, and they all seemed to be wearing smiling masks behind which lurked hostile eyes. Volochine winked at Sarudine in the most unmistakable manner; and this was not lost upon Sanine, who from his corner was watching them closely.
The thought that Volochine would no longer regard him as a smart, dashing, dare-devil sort of fellow gave Sarudine some of his old a.s.surance.
"And where is Lidia Petrovna?" he asked carelessly.
Maria Ivanovna looked at him in surprise and anger. Her eyes seemed to say: "What is that to you, since you are not going to marry her?"
"I don"t know. Probably in her room," she coldly replied.
Volochine shot another glance at his companion.
"Can"t you manage to make Lida come down quickly?" it said. "This old woman"s becoming a bore."
Sarudine opened his mouth and feebly twisted his moustache.
"I have heard so many flattering things about your daughter," began Volochine, smiling, and rubbing his hands, as he bent forward to Maria Ivanovna, "that I hope to have the honour of being introduced to her."
Maria Ivanovna wondered what this insolent little _roue_ could have heard about her own pure Lida, her darling child, and again she had a terrible presentiment of the latter"s downfall. It utterly unnerved her, and for the moment her eyes had a softer, more human expression.
"If they are not turned out of the house," thought Sanine, at this juncture, "they will only cause further distress to Lida and Novikoff."
"I hear that you are going away?" he suddenly said, looking pensively at the floor.
Sarudine wondered that so simple an expedient had occurred to him before. "That"s it! A good idea. Two months" leave!" he thought, before hastily replying.
"Yes, I was thinking of doing so. One wants a change you know. By stopping too long in one place, you are apt to get rusty."
Sanine laughed outright. The whole conversation, not one word of which expressed their real thoughts and feelings, all this deceit, which deceived n.o.body, amused him immensely; and with a sudden sense of gaiety and freedom he got up, and said:
"Well, I should think that the sooner you went, the better!"
In a moment as if from each a stiff, heavy garb had fallen off, the other three persons became changed. Maria Ivanovna looked pale and shrunken, Volochine"s eyes expressed animal fear, and Sarudine slowly and irresolutely rose.
"What do you mean?" he asked in a hoa.r.s.e voice.
Volochine t.i.ttered, and looked about nervously for his hat.
Sanine did not reply to the question, but maliciously handed Volochine the hat. From the latter"s open mouth a stifled sound escaped like a plaintive squeak.
"What do you mean by that?" cried Sarudine angrily, aware that he was losing his temper. "A scandal!" he thought to himself.
"I mean what I say," replied Sanine. "Your presence here is utterly unnecessary, and we shall all be delighted to see the last of you."
Sarudine took a step forward. He looked extremely uncomfortable, and his white teeth gleamed threateningly, like those of a wild beast.
"Aha! That"s it, is it?" he muttered, breathing hard.
"Get out!" said Sanine contemptuously, yet in so terrible a tone that Sarudine glared, and voluntarily drew back.
"I don"t know what the deuce it all means!" said Volochine, under his breath, as with shoulders raised he hurried to the door.
But there, in the door-way, stood Lida. She was dressed in a style quite different from her usual one. Instead of a fashionable coiffure, she wore her hair in a thick plait hanging down her back. Instead of an elegant costume she was wearing a loose gown of diaphanous texture, the simplicity of which alluringly heightened the beauty of her form.
As she smiled, her likeness to Sanine became more remarkable, and, in her sweet, girlish voice she said calmly:
"Here I am. Why are you hurrying away? Victor Sergejevitsch, do put down your cap!"
Sanine was silent, and looked at his sister in amazement. "Whatever does she mean?" he thought to himself.
As soon as she appeared, a mysterious influence, at once irresistible and tender, seemed to make itself felt. Like a lion-tamer in a cage filled with wild beasts, Lida stood there, and the men at once became gentle and submissive.
"Well, do you know, Lidia Petrovna ..." stammered Sarudine.
At the sound of his voice, Lida"s face a.s.sumed a plaintive, helpless expression, and as she glanced swiftly at him there was great grief at her heart not unmixed with tenderness and hope. Yet in a moment such feelings were effaced by a fierce desire to show Sarudine how much he had lost in losing her; to let him see that she was still beautiful, in spite of all the sorrow and shame that he had caused her to endure.
"I don"t want to know anything," she replied in an imperious, almost a stagy voice, as for a moment she closed her eyes.
Upon Volochine, her appearance produced an extraordinary effect, as his sharp little tongue darted out from his dry lips, and his eyes grew smaller and his whole frame vibrated from sheer physical excitement.
"You haven"t introduced us," said Lida, looking round at Sarudine.
"Volochine ... Pavel Lvovitsch ..." stammered the officer.