"I don"t mean-I should be delighted, you know-but the thing is, I have my own accounts to settle with him!"
"I knew you weren"t his friend, and that he was lying. I shall never marry him-never! You may rely on that! I don"t understand how he could dare-at all events, you really _must_ give him back this horrid bracelet. What am I to do if you don"t? I _must_ have it given back to him this very day.
He"ll catch it if he interferes with father about me!"
At this moment the spectacled young gentleman issued from the shrubs at their elbow.
"You are bound to return the bracelet!" he burst out furiously, upon Velchaninoff, "if only out of respect to the rights of woman--"
He did not finish the sentence, for Nadia pulled him away from beside Velchaninoff with all her strength.
"How stupid you are," she cried; "go away. How dare you listen? I told you to stand a long way off!" She stamped her foot with rage, and for some while after the young fellow had slunk away she continued to walk along with flashing eyes, furious with indignation. "You wouldn"t believe how stupid he is!" she cried at last. "You laugh, but think of my feelings!"
"That"s not _he_, is it?" laughed Velchaninoff.
"Of course not. How could you imagine such a thing! It"s only his friend, and how he can choose such friends I can"t understand! They say he is a "future motive-power," but I don"t see it. Alexey Ivanovitch, for the last time-I have no one else to ask-will you give the bracelet back or not?"
"Very well, I will. Give it to me!"
"Oh, you dear, good Alexey Ivanovitch, thanks!" she cried, enthusiastic with delight. "I"ll sing all the evening for that! I sing beautifully, you know! I was telling you a wicked story before dinner. Oh, I _wish_ you would come down here again; I"d tell you _all_, then, and lots of other things besides-for you are a dear, kind, good fellow, like-like Katia!"
And sure enough when they reached home she sat down and sang a couple of songs in a voice which, though entirely untrained, was of great natural sweetness and considerable strength.
When the party returned from the garden they had found Pavel Pavlovitch drinking tea with the old folks on the balcony. He had probably been talking on serious topics, as he was to take his departure the day after to-morrow for nine months. He never so much as glanced at Velchaninoff and the rest when they entered; but he evidently had not complained to the authorities, and all was quiet as yet. But, when Nadia began to sing, he came in. Nadia did not answer a single one of his questions, but he did not seem offended by this, and took his stand behind her chair. Once there, his whole appearance gave it to be understood that that was his own place by right, and that he allowed none to dispute it.
"It"s Alexey Ivanovitch"s turn to sing now!" cried the girls, when Nadia"s song was finished, and all crowded round to hear Velchaninoff, who sat down to accompany himself. He chose a song of Glinke"s, too much neglected nowadays; it ran:-
"When from your merry lips Tenderness flows," &c.
Velchaninoff seemed to address the words to Nadia exclusively, but the whole party stood around him. His voice had long since gone the way of all flesh, but it was clear that he must have had a good one once, and it so happened that Velchaninoff had heard this particular song many years ago, from Glinkes" own lips, when a student at the university, and remembered the great effect that it had made upon him when he first heard it. The song was full of the most intense pa.s.sion of expression, and Velchaninoff sang it well, with his eyes fixed upon Nadia.
Amid the applause that followed the completion of the performance, Pavel Pavlovitch came forward, seized Nadia"s hand and drew her away from the proximity of Velchaninoff; he then returned to the latter at the piano, and, with every evidence of frantic rage, whispered to him, his lips all of a tremble,
"One moment with you!"
Velchaninoff, seeing that the man was capable of worse things in his then frame of mind, took Pavel"s hand and led him out through the balcony into the garden-quite dark now.
"Do you understand, sir, that you must come away at once-_this very minute_?" said Pavel Pavlovitch.
"No, sir, I do not!"
"Do you remember," continued Pavel in his frenzied whisper, "do you remember that you begged me to tell you _all_, _everything_-down to the smallest details? Well, the time has come for telling you all-come!"
Velchaninoff considered a moment, glanced once more at Pavel Pavlovitch, and consented to go.
"Oh! stay and have another cup of tea!" said Mrs. Zachlebnikoff, when this decision was announced.
"Pavel Pavlovitch, why are you taking Alexey Ivanovitch away?" cried the girls, with angry looks. As for Nadia, she looked so cross with Pavel, that the latter felt absolutely uncomfortable; but he did not give in.
"Oh, but I am very much obliged to Pavel Pavlovitch," said Velchaninoff, "for reminding me of some most important business which I must attend to this very evening, and which I might have forgotten," laughed Velchaninoff, as he shook hands with his host and made his bow to the ladies, especially to Katia, as the family thought.
"You must come again soon!" said the host; "we have been so glad to see you; it was so good of you to come!"
"Yes, _so_ glad!" said the lady of the house.
"Do come again soon!" cried the girls, as Pavel Pavlovitch and Velchaninoff took their seats in the carriage; "Alexey Ivanovitch, _do_ come back soon!" And with these voices in their ears they drove away.
CHAPTER XIII.
In spite of Velchaninoff"s apparently happy day, the feeling of annoyance and suffering at his heart had hardly actually left him for a single moment. Before he sang the song he had not known what to do with himself, or suppressed anger and melancholy-perhaps that was the reason why he had sung with so much feeling and pa.s.sion.
"To think that I could so have lowered myself as to forget everything!" he thought-and then despised himself for thinking it; "it is more humiliating still to cry over what is done," he continued. "Far better to fly into a pa.s.sion with someone instead."
"Fool!" he muttered-looking askance at Pavel Pavlovitch, who sat beside him as still as a mouse. Pavel Pavlovitch preserved a most obstinate silence-probably concentrating and ranging his energies. He occasionally took his hat off, impatiently, and wiped the perspiration from his forehead.
Once-and once only-Pavel spoke, to the coachman, he asked whether there was going to be a thunder-storm.
"Wheugh!" said the man, "I should think so! It"s been a steamy day-just the day for it!"
By the time town was reached-half-past ten-the whole sky was overcast.
"I am coming to your house," said Pavel to Velchaninoff, when almost at the door.
"Quite so; but I warn you, I feel very unwell to-night!"
"All right-I won"t stay too long."
When the two men pa.s.sed under the gateway, Pavel Pavlovitch disappeared into the "dvornik"s" room for a minute, to speak to Mavra.
"What did you go in there for?" asked Velchaninoff severely as they mounted the stairs and reached his own door.
"Oh-nothing-nothing at all,-just to tell them about the coachman.--"
"Very well. Mind, I shall not allow you to drink!"
Pavel Pavlovitch did not answer.
Velchaninoff lit a candle, while Pavel threw himself into a chair;-then the former came and stood menacingly before him.
"I may have told you I should have _my_ last word to say to-night, as well as you!" he said with suppressed anger in his voice and manner: "Here it is. I consider conscientiously that things are square between you and me, now; and therefore there is no more to be said, understand me, about _anything_. Since this is so, had you not better go, and let me close the door after you?"
"Let"s cry "quits" first, Alexey Ivanovitch," said Pavel Pavlovitch, gazing into Velchaninoff"s eyes with great sweetness.
"Quits?" cried the latter, in amazement; "you strange man, what are we to cry quits about? Are you harping upon your promise of a "last word"?"