"... Only fancy, Varvara Petrovna," he pattered on, "I came in expecting to find he"d been here for the last quarter of an hour; he arrived an hour and a half ago; we met at Kirillov"s: he set off half an hour ago meaning to come straight here, and told me to come here too, a quarter of an hour later...."
"But who? Who told you to come here?" Varvara Petrovna inquired.
"Why, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch! Surely this isn"t the first you"ve heard of it! But his luggage must have been here a long while, anyway. How is it you weren"t told? Then I"m the first to bring the news. One might send out to look for him; he"s sure to be here himself directly though. And I fancy, at the moment that just fits in with some of his expectations, and is far as I can judge, at least, some of his calculations."
At this point he turned his eyes about the room and fixed them with special attention on the captain.
"Ach, Lizaveta Nikolaevna, how glad I am to meet you at the very first step, delighted to shake hands with you." He flew up to Liza, who was smiling gaily, to take her proffered hand, "and I observe that my honoured friend Praskovya Ivanovna has not forgotten her "professor," and actually isn"t cross with him, as she always used to be in Switzerland. But how are your legs, here, Praskovya Ivanovna, and were the Swiss doctors right when at the consultation they prescribed your native air? What? Fomentations? That ought to do good. But how sorry I was, Varvara Petrovna" (he turned rapidly to her) "that I didn"t arrive in time to meet you abroad, and offer my respects to you in person; I had so much to tell you too. I did send word to my old man here, but I fancy that he did as he always does..."
"Petrusha!" cried Stepan Trofimovitch, instantly roused from his stupefaction. He clasped his hands and flew to his son. "Pierre, mon enfant! Why, I didn"t know you!" He pressed him in his arms and the tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Come, be quiet, be quiet, no flourishes, that"s enough, that"s enough, please," Petrusha muttered hurriedly, trying to extricate himself from his embrace.
"I"ve always sinned against you, always!"
"Well, that"s enough. We can talk of that later. I knew you"d carry on. Come, be a little more sober, please."
"But it"s ten years since I"ve seen you."
"The less reason for demonstrations."
"Mon enfant!..."
"Come, I believe in your affection, I believe in it, take your arms away. You see, you"re disturbing other people.... Ah, here"s Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch; keep quiet, please."
Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch was already in the room; he came in very quietly and stood still for an instant in the doorway, quietly scrutinising the company.
I was struck by the first sight of him just as I had been four years before, when I saw him for the first time. I had not forgotten him in the least. But I think there are some countenances which always seem to exhibit something new which one has not noticed before, every time one meets them, though one may have seen them a hundred times already. Apparently he was exactly the same as he had been four years before. He was as elegant, as dignified, he moved with the same air of consequence as before, indeed he looked almost as young. His faint smile had just the same official graciousness and complacency. His eyes had the same stern, thoughtful and, as it were, preoccupied look. In fact, it seemed as though we had only parted the day before. But one thing struck me. In old days, though he had been considered handsome, his face was "like a mask," as some of our sharp-tongued ladies had expressed it. Now-now, I don"t know why he impressed me at once as absolutely, incontestably beautiful, so that no one could have said that his face was like a mask. Wasn"t it perhaps that he was a little paler and seemed rather thinner than before? Or was there, perhaps, the light of some new idea in his eyes?
"Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch!" cried Varvara Petrovna, drawing herself up but not rising from her chair. "Stop a minute!" She checked his advance with a peremptory gesture.
But to explain the awful question which immediately followed that gesture and exclamation-a question which I should have imagined to be impossible even in Varvara Petrovna, I must ask the reader to remember what that lady"s temperament had always been, and the extraordinary impulsiveness she showed at some critical moments. I beg him to consider also, that in spite of the exceptional strength of her spirit and the very considerable amount of common sense and practical, so to say business, tact she possessed, there were moments in her life in which she abandoned herself altogether, entirely and, if it"s permissible to say so, absolutely without restraint. I beg him to take into consideration also that the present moment might really be for her one of those in which all the essence of life, of all the past and all the present, perhaps, too, all the future, is concentrated, as it were, focused. I must briefly recall, too, the anonymous letter of which she had spoken to Praskovya Ivanovna with so much irritation, though I think she said nothing of the latter part of it. Yet it perhaps contained the explanation of the possibility of the terrible question with which she suddenly addressed her son.
"Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch," she repeated, rapping out her words in a resolute voice in which there was a ring of menacing challenge, "I beg you to tell me at once, without moving from that place; is it true that this unhappy cripple-here she is, here, look at her-is it true that she is... your lawful wife?"
I remember that moment only too well; he did not wink an eyelash but looked intently at his mother. Not the faintest change in his face followed. At last he smiled, a sort of indulgent smile, and without answering a word went quietly up to his mother, took her hand, raised it respectfully to his lips and kissed it. And so great was his invariable and irresistible ascendancy over his mother that even now she could not bring herself to pull away her hand. She only gazed at him, her whole figure one concentrated question, seeming to betray that she could not bear the suspense another moment.
But he was still silent. When he had kissed her hand, he scanned the whole room once more, and moving, as before, without haste went towards Marya Timofyevna. It is very difficult to describe people"s countenances at certain moments. I remember, for instance, that Marya Timofyevna, breathless with fear, rose to her feet to meet him and clasped her hands before her, as though beseeching him. And at the same time I remember the frantic ecstasy which almost distorted her face-an ecstasy almost too great for any human being to bear. Perhaps both were there, both the terror and the ecstasy. But I remember moving quickly towards her (I was standing not far off), for I fancied she was going to faint.
"You should not be here," Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch said to her in a caressing and melodious voice; and there was the light of an extraordinary tenderness in his eyes. He stood before her in the most respectful att.i.tude, and every gesture showed sincere respect for her. The poor girl faltered impulsively in a half-whisper.
"But may I... kneel down... to you now?"
"No, you can"t do that."
He smiled at her magnificently, so that she too laughed joyfully at once. In the same melodious voice, coaxing her tenderly as though she were a child, he went on gravely.
"Only think that you are a girl, and that though I"m your devoted friend I"m an outsider, not your husband, nor your father, nor your betrothed. Give me your arm and let us go; I will take you to the carriage, and if you will let me I will see you all the way home."
She listened, and bent her head as though meditating.
"Let"s go," she said with a sigh, giving him her hand.
But at that point a slight mischance befell her. She must have turned carelessly, resting on her lame leg, which was shorter than the other. She fell sideways into the chair, and if the chair had not been there would have fallen on to the floor. He instantly seized and supported her, and holding her arm firmly in his, led her carefully and sympathetically to the door. She was evidently mortified at having fallen; she was overwhelmed, blushed, and was terribly abashed. Looking dumbly on the ground, limping painfully, she hobbled after him, almost hanging on his arm. So they went out. Liza, I saw, suddenly jumped up from her chair for some reason as they were going out, and she followed them with intent eyes till they reached the door. Then she sat down again in silence, but there was a nervous twitching in her face, as though she had touched a viper.
While this scene was taking place between Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch and Marya Timofyevna every one was speechless with amazement; one could have heard a fly; but as soon as they had gone out, every one began suddenly talking.
VI It was very little of it talk, however; it was mostly exclamation. I"ve forgotten a little the order in which things happened, for a scene of confusion followed. Stepan Trofimovitch uttered some exclamation in French, clasping his hands, but Varvara Petrovna had no thought for him. Even Mavriky Nikolaevitch muttered some rapid, jerky comment. But Pyotr Stepanovitch was the most excited of all. He was trying desperately with bold gesticulations to persuade Varvara Petrovna of something, but it was a long time before I could make out what it was. He appealed to Praskovya Ivanovna, and Lizaveta Nikolaevna too, even, in his excitement, addressed a pa.s.sing shout to his father-in fact he seemed all over the room at once. Varvara Petrovna, flushing all over, sprang up from her seat and cried to Praskovya Ivanovna:
"Did you hear what he said to her here just now, did you hear it?"
But the latter was incapable of replying. She could only mutter something and wave her hand. The poor woman had troubles of her own to think about. She kept turning her head towards Liza and was watching her with unaccountable terror, but she didn"t even dare to think of getting up and going away until her daughter should get up. In the meantime the captain wanted to slip away. That I noticed. There was no doubt that he had been in a great panic from the instant that Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch had made his appearance; but Pyotr Stepanovitch took him by the arm and would not let him go.
"It is necessary, quite necessary," he pattered on to Varvara Petrovna, still trying to persuade her. He stood facing her, as she was sitting down again in her easy chair, and, I remember, was listening to him eagerly; he had succeeded in securing her attention.
"It is necessary. You can see for yourself, Varvara Petrovna, that there is a misunderstanding here, and much that is strange on the surface, and yet the thing"s as clear as daylight, and as simple as my finger. I quite understand that no one has authorised me to tell the story, and I dare say I look ridiculous putting myself forward. But in the first place, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch attaches no sort of significance to the matter himself, and, besides, there are incidents of which it is difficult for a man to make up his mind to give an explanation himself. And so it"s absolutely necessary that it should be undertaken by a third person, for whom it"s easier to put some delicate points into words. Believe me, Varvara Petrovna, that Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch is not at all to blame for not immediately answering your question just now with a full explanation, it"s all a trivial affair. I"ve known him since his Petersburg days. Besides, the whole story only does honour to Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, if one must make use of that vague word "honour.""
"You mean to say that you were a witness of some incident which gave rise... to this misunderstanding?" asked Varvara Petrovna.
"I witnessed it, and took part in it," Pyotr Stepanovitch hastened to declare.
"If you"ll give me your word that this will not wound Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch"s delicacy in regard to his feeling for me, from whom he ne-e-ver conceals anything... and if you are convinced also that your doing this will be agreeable to him..."
"Certainly it will be agreeable, and for that reason I consider it a particularly agreeable duty. I am convinced that he would beg me to do it himself."
The intrusive desire of this gentleman, who seemed to have dropped on us from heaven to tell stories about other people"s affairs, was rather strange and inconsistent with ordinary usage.
But he had caught Varvara Petrovna by touching on too painful a spot. I did not know the man"s character at that time, and still less his designs.
"I am listening," Varvara Petrovna announced with a reserved and cautious manner. She was rather painfully aware of her condescension.
"It"s a short story; in fact if you like it"s not a story at all," he rattled on, "though a novelist might work it up into a novel in an idle hour. It"s rather an interesting little incident, Praskovya Ivanovna, and I am sure that Lizaveta Nikolaevna will be interested to hear it, because there are a great many things in it that are odd if not wonderful. Five years ago, in Petersburg, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch made the acquaintance of this gentleman, this very Mr. Lebyadkin who"s standing here with his mouth open, anxious, I think, to slip away at once. Excuse me, Varvara Petrovna. I don"t advise you to make your escape though, you discharged clerk in the former commissariat department; you see, I remember you very well. Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch and I know very well what you"ve been up to here, and, don"t forget, you"ll have to answer for it. I ask your pardon once more, Varvara Petrovna. In those days Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch used to call this gentleman his Falstaff; that must be," he explained suddenly, "some old burlesque character, at whom every one laughs, and who is willing to let every one laugh at him, if only they"ll pay him for it. Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch was leading at that time in Petersburg a life, so to say, of mockery. I can"t find another word to describe it, because he is not a man who falls into disillusionment, and he disdained to be occupied with work at that time. I"m only speaking of that period, Varvara Petrovna. Lebyadkin had a sister, the woman who was sitting here just now. The brother and sister hadn"t a corner* of their own, but were always quartering themselves on different people. He used to hang about the arcades in the Gostiny Dvor, always wearing his old uniform, and would stop the more respectable-looking pa.s.sers-by, and everything he got from them he"d spend in drink. His sister lived like the birds of heaven. She"d help people in their "corners," and do jobs for them on occasion. It was a regular Bedlam. I"ll pa.s.s over the description of this life in "corners," a life to which Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch had taken,"
* In the poorer quarters of Russian towns a single room is often let out to several families, each of which occupies a "corner."
"at that time, from eccentricity. I"m only talking of that period, Varvara Petrovna; as for "eccentricity," that"s his own expression. He does not conceal much from me. Mlle. Lebyadkin, who was thrown in the way of meeting Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch very often, at one time, was fascinated by his appearance. He was, so to say, a diamond set in the dirty background of her life. I am a poor hand at describing feelings, so I"ll pa.s.s them over; but some of that dirty lot took to jeering at her once, and it made her sad. They always had laughed at her, but she did not seem to notice it before. She wasn"t quite right in her head even then, but very different from what she is now. There"s reason to believe that in her childhood she received something like an education through the kindness of a benevolent lady. Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch had never taken the slightest notice of her. He used to spend his time chiefly in playing preference with a greasy old pack of cards for stakes of a quarter-farthing with clerks. But once, when she was being ill-treated, he went up (without inquiring into the cause) and seized one of the clerks by the collar and flung him out of a second-floor window. It was not a case of chivalrous indignation at the sight of injured innocence; the whole operation took place in the midst of roars of laughter, and the one who laughed loudest was Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch himself. As it all ended without harm, they were reconciled and began drinking punch. But the injured innocent herself did not forget it. Of course it ended in her becoming completely crazy. I repeat I"m a poor hand at describing feelings. But a delusion was the chief feature in this case. And Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch aggravated that delusion as though he did it on purpose. Instead of laughing at her he began all at once treating Mlle. Lebyadkin with sudden respect. Kirillov, who was there (a very original man, Varvara Petrovna, and very abrupt, you"ll see him perhaps one day, for he"s here now), well, this Kirillov who, as a rule, is perfectly silent, suddenly got hot, and said to Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, I remember, that he treated the girl as though she were a marquise, and that that was doing for her altogether. I must add that Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch had rather a respect for this Kirillov. What do you suppose was the answer he gave him: "You imagine, Mr. Kirillov, that I am laughing at her. Get rid of that idea, I really do respect her, for she"s better than any of us." And, do you know, he said it in such a serious tone. Meanwhile, he hadn"t really said a word to her for two or three months, except "good morning" and "good-bye." I remember, for I was there, that she came at last to the point of looking on him almost as her betrothed who dared not "elope with her," simply because he had many enemies and family difficulties, or something of the sort. There was a great deal of laughter about it. It ended in Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch"s making provision for her when he had to come here, and I believe he arranged to pay a considerable sum, three hundred roubles a year, if not more, as a pension for her. In short it was all a caprice, a fancy of a man prematurely weary on his side, perhaps-it may even have been, as Kirillov says, a new experiment of a blase man, with the object of finding out what you can bring a crazy cripple to." (You picked out on purpose, he said, the lowest creature, a cripple, for ever covered with disgrace and blows, knowing, too, that this creature was dying of comic love for you, and set to work to mystify her completely on purpose, simply to see what would come of it.) "Though, how is a man so particularly to blame for the fancies of a crazy woman, to whom he had hardly uttered two sentences the whole time. There are things, Varvara Petrovna, of which it is not only impossible to speak sensibly, but it"s even nonsensical to begin speaking of them at all. Well, eccentricity then, let it stand at that. Anyway, there"s nothing worse to be said than that; and yet now they"ve made this scandal out of it. ... I am to some extent aware, Varvara Petrovna, of what is happening here."
The speaker suddenly broke off and was turning to Lebyadkin. But Varvara Petrovna checked him. She was in a state of extreme exaltation.
"Have you finished?" she asked.
"Not yet; to complete my story I should have to ask this gentleman one or two questions if you"ll allow me... you"ll see the point in a minute, Varvara Petrovna."
"Enough, afterwards, leave it for the moment I beg you. Oh, I was quite right to let you speak!"
"And note this, Varvara Petrovna," Pyotr Stepanovitch said hastily. "Could Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch have explained all this just now in answer to your question, which was perhaps too peremptory?"
"Oh, yes, it was."