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The ROAD to CALVARY
The
Road
to Calvary
BY
ALEXEY TOLSTOY
Translated by
Mrs. R. S. Townsend
“py
BONI anvpd LIVERIGHT
PUBLISHERS 23 New YorK
Copyright, 1923
by
BONI & LIVERIGHT, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
I
|
| |
“Oh, Russian Land!”
| The Word of Igor’s Armament.
A stranger from some Moscow side street overhung
with lime trees, finding himself in Petersburg, would, in
the first moments of observation, have experienced a
complex feeling of mental excitement and spiritual op-
pression.
Wandering through the straight and foggy streets past
the solemn, box-like houses with their dark windows and
drowsing yard-porters at the gates, gazing long at the
watery stretch of the Neva, at the blue line of bridges
with their lamps lighted before dusk, at the colonnade of
comfortless, joyless palaces, at the piercing height of the
non-Russian cathedral of Peter and Paul, at the poor
little boats flitting over the dark water and the countless
barges with dry wood ranged along the stone embank-
ment, and gazing into the faces of the passers-by, pale
and worried, with eyes as murky as a town, the stranger,
observing all this, if kindly disposed, would have muffled
his head still deeper into his collar; if unkindly disposed,
would. have felt a desire to strike out with all his might
and shatter to fragments this cold, oppressive enchant-
ment. |
In the days of Peter I., even, the deacon of Trinity
Church, which to this day stands by Trinity Bridge,
“coming down from the belfry in the dark saw the ghost
of a lean peasant woman and was greatly affrighted
[1]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
thereby. He said in the tavern afterwards, “Petersburg
to be sure, will be empty,” for the saying of which he
was seized, tortured in the secret chancellery and beater
mercilessly with the knout.
It was thus, no doubt, that it came to be believed that
some evil lurked about Petersburg. There were eye-
witnesses who claim to have seen the devil riding in a
cab in a street of Vasiliev Island, and one midnight
during a storm and at high water the Bronze Emperor was
said to have wrenched himself from the granite rocks and
torn over the stones. And a privy-councillor driving
home in his carriage saw glued against the window
thereof a corpse, the body of a dead civil-servant. Many
such stories were current in the town.
Also quite recently the poet Alexis Alexeyevitch Bezso-
nov, driving one night over the arched bridge on
his way to the island, caught sight of a star in the depths
of the heavens through a dispersing cloud. Gazing long
at the star with tears in his eyes, he reflected that the cab,
the bridge, the thread of lamps and the whole of Peters-
burg asleep behind him were nothing but an illusion, a
spectre of delirium registered on his brain, befogged with
wine, love and boredom.
And it was as in a delirium, and in a hurry that Peters-
burg was built. As a dream two centuries passed,
Strange to all things living the city stood at the end of
the earth in swamps and weeds, raving about universal
glory and power. As spectres in delirium court revolu-_
tions flashed by, assassinations of emperors, triumphs and
bloody executions. Frail women assumed semi-divine
power; out of warm, crumpled beds the fate of peoples
was resolved ; strong fellows came, of powerful build and
hands black with soil, and boldly they walked up to the —
throne to share the power, bed and the Byzantine luxury.
[2]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
The surrounding country gazed in horror at this
frenzied outburst of fantasy. In fear and dejection the
Russian people looked on at the ravings of the capital.
The country drank and could never drink its fill of its
own blood and the spirit of the Petersburg phantoms.
Petersburg lived a midnight life, turbulently cold and
satiated. Phosphorescent summer nights, mad and
sensual, sleepless winter nights with green tables and
clink of gold, music, whirling couples behind windows,
furious troikas, gipsies, duels, and at daybreak a shrill
icy wind, the piercing blast of a bugle, a parade of troops
before the petrifying gaze of the Emperor’s protruding
eyes. Thus the city lived.
In the last few dozen years huge undertakings sprang
up with amazing rapidity. Millions’ worth of property
rose as out of air. From crystal and cement, banks were
built and music-halls, skating-rinks, gorgeous drinking-
houses with deafening music, reflecting mirrors, half-
naked women, light and champagne. Gambling clubs
were quickly opened, meeting-houses, theatres, cinemato-
graphs, moonlight gardens with American attractions.
Engineers and capitalists were engaged on a plan of a
new city of unparalleled luxury, to be built on a desert
island not far from Petersburg.
In the city an epidemic of suicide was rife. The law
courts were filled with crowds of hysterical women
greedily listening to the bloody details of the sensational
cases. All was attainable—luxury and women. Depravity
permeated everything; like a contagion, it spread to the
court.
And to the court, to the very throne of the most un-
fortunate of erors, came an illiterate peasant with
wild eyes ek asculine strength, and in derision
and scorn he beeal to defame Russia.
[3]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
Petersburg, like every other town, lived its own life,
strained and worried. A central force guided its motion,
but this force had nothing in common with what might
have been called the spirit of the town. The force tried
to create order, calmness and fitness, the spirit of the
town tried to destroy the force. The spirit of destruc-
tion was in everything; like a putrid poison it permeated
the extensive Bourse machinations of the famous Sashka
Sakelman, the dull rancour of the workman at the steel
foundry, the disjointed fancies of the popular poetess
sitting at five in the morning in the artistic basement of
“The Red Bells’; it permeated those who should have
fought against it, but, not understanding, did all to
sharpen and strengthen it.
It was a time when love, and good wholesome feeling,
were held to be commonplace and out of date. No one
loved, all thirsted; and as though poisoned, they seized
on any acrid thing that would tear their vitals.
Girls concealed their innocence, the married their faith-
fulness. Destruction was held to be good taste, neuras-
thenia a sign of refinement. This was taught by the new
writers who sprang to fame in a season out of nothing.
People feigned sins and vices they possessed not for
fear of being thought dull.
To breathe the air of the grave, to feel near one the
trembling body of a woman consumed with a devilish
curiosity, this was the pathos of the poetry si the last
years—death and sensuality.
Such was Petersburg in the year 1914. tron out with
sleepless nights, drowning its despair in wine, gold, love-
less love, in the insistent strains of the tango—the death
hymn—it lived as if in expectancy of the terrible and
fatal day. There were those who predicted it. The
new and incomprehensible crept in through every crevice.
[4]
il
“We don’t want to remember anything. We say,
Enough, turn your back on the past! What is there in
the past for me? Milo’s Venus? What use is she to
me? You can’t eat her! She doesn’t even make the hair
grow! What do I want with the stone carcass? But
you must have art! art! You like to tickle your heels
with the word. Look to the side of you! look before you!
look under your feet! Aren’t those American boots you
have on? Three cheers for American boots! A red
motor-car, rubber tires,a pool of petrol,a hundred miles
an hour, there you have art! It makes you want to devour
space. Or a poster ten yards long with a young man
on it in a top-hat as brilliant as the sun, that’s art! It’s
your tailor who’s your artist, your present-day genius!
I want to devour life and you offer me some sweetened
water, good for the sexually impotent. . . .”
A burst of laughter and applause came from the back
of the narrow hall, where a crowd of undergraduates from
the universities were gathered behind the chairs. The
speaker, Peter Petrovitch Sapojkov, smiled with his moist
mouth. He steadied the wobbling glasses on his big nose
and quickly walked down the steps of the wooden ros-
trum.
To one side of it, at a long table lighted by two five-
candled sconces, sat the members of the Philosophical
Evenings Society. There was the President, Antinovsky,
a professor of theology, and the lecturer of the evening,
the historian Veliaminov; the philosopher Borsky, who
: [5 ]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
had been expelled from the Theological Academy for
leanings toward socialism and had in turn abandoned the
socialists and been reviled by them; there was the crafty
writer, Sakunin, author of some cynical and remarkable
books.
The Philosophical Evenings Society had this winter
sustained an onslaught from pugnacious youngsters whom
no one knew. They attacked venerable writers and
esteemed philosophers with such audacity and said such
impudently smart things that the detached old house on
the Fontanka, where the meetings were held, was packed
on Saturdays, the days of public meetings.
It was packed this evening. When Sapojkov disap-
peared in the crowd amidst spasmodic hand-clapping,
there got up on the platform a little man with a knobby
shaven head, a young face, yellow skin and high cheek-
bones. His name was Akundin. He had made his ap-
pearance there quite recently, and his success, especially
among the audience at the back of the hall, was enormous.
When one asked who he was and where he came from,
sensible people smiled mysteriously. His name was not
Akundin, in any case. He had come from abroad; it was
for no idle purpose that he had appeared there.
Akundin stroked his thin beard, looked round at the
silenced audience, smiled and began to speak.
In the third row by the middle gangway, her chin
supported on her closed hand, sat a young girl, in a black
cloth dress cut high at the neck. Her fine, ash-coloured
hair, drawn over the ears and rolled in a large knot, was
caught with a comb. Without a movement or a smile
she gazed at the men sitting at the green table ; sometimes
her eyes became fixed on the candles. |
When Akundin, with a bang of his dry fist on the
wooden rostrum, cried out, “World economics will strike
[6]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
the first blow of the iron fist on the dome of the Church?
‘The fight against the Church is purely a question of eco-
nomics!” the girl sighed slightly and, taking her hand
from her reddened chin, she put a caramel in her mouth.
_ Akundin went on.
| “And you are still dreaming your muddled dreams ot
the Kingdom of God on earth! Here you are Snoring
and seeing visions and mumbling Messiahism in your
sleep. Yet for all your efforts the people are still asleep.
Or do you hope they’ll wake up and speak like Balaam’s .
ass? They'll wake up, to be sure, but it won’t be the
sweet voices of your poets that'll wake them, nor the
smoke of your incense. It will be the factory whistle
that’ll wake them! The people will wake and speak, not
of Messiahism, but of justice, and their voices will grate
on your ears. Or do you still put faith in your rubbish
and your bogs? You could go on sleeping here for an-
other half a century, I believe, but don’t call it Messiah-
ism. It is not coming; it is passing like a shadow over the
earth! It was here in Petersburg, in this beautiful hall,
that the Russian peasant was invented. Hundreds of
books have been written about him, operas have been
composed about him. It is like a game of shadows on a
wall. I only fear that the game will end in blood-
shed. ae
At ate eitit the President interposed. Ate iri gave
a faint smile. He took a large dirty pocket-handkerchief
and with an habitual gesture, wiped his head and fore-
head. From the back of the hall voices called out.
“Let him speak !”
“A shame to stop him!”
“Tt’s disgraceful!”
“Shut up, you there!”
“Shut up yourself!”
CFI
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
Akundin went on.
“The Russian peasant is a peg on which to hang idea:
But if these ideas are organically opposed to his instinct:
to his age-long desires, to his primitive idea of justice
his understanding of humanity, your ideas will fall as
seed on a stone. Until the peasant is regarded as a ma
with an empty stomach, with a spine bent with toil, unt
you get rid of those Messianic qualities invented for hir
by some gentleman or other, until then will you have tw
tragically opposite poles—your excellent theories, born i
dim studies, and a greedy, half bestial life. We are no
really criticizing you. It would be a waste of time t
examine all your mass of human fantasy. No. We sa
to you, turn your ideas into reality! Don’t sit and phi
losophize! Experiment! Let your experiments b
desperate, but you'll prove the value of your ideas; you’
know how to live... .”
The girl in the black cloth dress did not think it wort
while to reflect on the speaker’s words. Their argument
were, no doubt, impressive, but the important fact abou
them all was—well, for instance—and she was quit
convinced of this—Akundin loved no one on earth bu
himself and would have felt no compunction in shootin;
a man if it were necessary to prove his theories. |
While she was thinking this another man approache
the green table. He sat slowly down near the President
Abdded to right and to left, passed his reddened hand ove
his fair hair, wet from the snow, wiped his fingers on hi
pocket- -handkerchief, put his hands beneath the table amt
pulled himself up in his narrow black jacket. He hat
a swarthy face, arched eyebrows, large grey eyes amt
hair falling over his forehead like a skull-cap. It wa
Alexis Alexeyevitch Bezsonov, just as he was pictured it
the current number of a weekly journal.
[8]
Dittman Sooribetin
‘
t
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
The girl could see nothing now but his almost repul-
sively handsome face. In a kind of terror she regarded
the strange features of which she had dreamt so often
in the stormy Petersburg nights.
There he was bending to his neighbor’s ear; he smiled
and his smile was simple, but in the line of his nostrils,
-in the somewhat feminine brows, in some quiet force
in his face there was treachery, conceit, and something
else which she could not understand, but which excited
her more than the rest.
At this moment the lecturer, Veliaminov, red-faced
-and bearded, with gold spectacles and tufty golden-grey
hair around his large head, rose to answer Akundin.
“You are as right as the avalanche crashing down the
mountains. We have long been expecting the advent of
_your terrible age and prophesied the triumph of your truth.
It is you who control the elements, not we. We do not
prop up your avalanche with our shoulders. We know
that when it has rolled to the bottom, to the earth, its
strength will be broken, and your higher truth, for the
conquest of which you shriek with your factory hooters,
will be a mass of broken fragments—chaos—amidst
which man will wander stunned. Take care,” Velia-
minov raised a finger as long as a pencil and looked
severely through his spectacles at the audience. “In the
paradise of which you dream, in the name of which you
want to convert a living man into a syllogism, dressed in
a hat and coat and with a rifle over his shoulder, in your
terrible paradise a new revolution is preparing, more
terrible perhaps than any revolution—the revolution of
the Spirit——”
Akundin interjected coldly from his place:
“That has been foreseen.”
Veliaminov stretched out his hands across the table.
[9]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
The candles threw a light on the bald patch on his head.
He spoke of the sin into which the world had fallen
and of the future terrible reckoning. In the hall people
began to cough.
During the interval the girl went into the refreshment-
room and stood by the door, frowning and apart. Sev-
eral advocates and their wives were drinking tea and talk-
ing more loudly than most people. By the stove stood
Chernobilin, the famous writer, eating fish and bilberries ©
and glancing now and then with resentful and drunken
eyes at the new-comers. Two middle-aged literary
women with broad ribbons round their hair were munch-
ing sandwiches by the counter. Several priests stood
staidly aside, not mixing with the laymen. Under the
chandelier, his hands behind the tails of his long coat
and balancing himself on his heels, was a greyish man
with matted hair. This was Chirva, the critic, waiting
for some one to come and talk to him. Veliaminov ap-
peared. One of the literary women rushed up to him
and grabbed his sleeve, which he carefully tried to extri-_
cate during their conversation. The other literary wo-
man also stopped munching and shook off the crumbs;
she bent her head and opened her eyes wide. Bezsonov —
came up to her, bowing to right and to left with a humble
inclination of the head. .
The girl in black felt in her bones how the literary
woman straightened herself in her corsets and assumed
an affected air. Bezsonov said something to her with an
indolent smile. She clapped her hands and laughed, roll-
ing her eyes.
“Horrible, dirty creature,” thought the girl and went
out of the refreshment-room. Some one called to her.
Pushing his way through the crowd was a dark, tired-look-
ing youth in a velveteen jacket; he nodded joyfully, screw-
[10]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
ing up his nose with pleasure. He took her hand. His
palm was clammy, on his forehead was a clammy tuft of
hair and his oval watery eyes gazed at her with a watery
tenderness. It was Alexander Ivanovitch Jirov.
“Well, now, what are you doing here, Dasha Dmitriev-
na?” he said.
“Just what you are doing,” she replied, withdrawing
her hand, which she put into her muff and wiped on her
pocket-handkerchief.
He laughed, and looking at her still more tenderly, said:
“How did you like Sapojkov tonight? He spoke like
a prophet. His severity of expression is irritating, but
his ideas . . . At bottom, aren’t they what we all want?
Only we’re afraid to say so, he isn’t. Have you seen his
latest verse?
Young, young, young are we all
With devilishly hungry stomachs.
Let us swallow the void... .
Very strong and original. Don’t you feel, Daria Dmi-
trievna, that the new, the new is coming witha rush? It’s
our very own, bold, greedy! There’s Akundin, now.
There may be too much logic about him, but he hits the
nail on the head every time. Another two or three winters
like this and the whole thing will crumble; it'll burst at
the seams. Won't that be good!” He spoke quietly,
with a soft smile. Dasha felt him trembling all over as
with some horrible excitement. She did not stop to
listen, but nodded to him and pushed her way to the
cloakroom.
The morose, medal-bedecked porter, who was dragging
a bundle of coats and galoshes, paid no heed to Dasha’s
proffered ticket. She had to wait long in the draught of
the swinging door, where without, in the deserted vesti-
bule, tall peasant-cabmen, in their wet blue coats, were
fi}
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
gaily and impudently offering their services to the people
coming out.
“T’ve a fast horse, Your ’Cellency !”
“Tt’s on your way, on the Peski!”
Suddenly behind her Bezsonov’s voice was heard in a
cold staccato: “Porter, my coat, hat and stick.”
Dasha had a sensation of pins and needles running
down her back. She turned her head quickly and looked
straight into Bezsonov’s eyes. He met her gaze calmly
and indifferently, then his eyelids quivered ; his grey eyes
lighted up, yielding, and Dasha felt her heart beat fast.
“Tf I am not mistaken,” he said, “we have met at your
sister’s.”
“We have,”’ Dasha replied boldly.
She snatched her coat from the porter and hastened
to the door. In the street a damp cold wind caught her
dress, dashing the stinging drops against her. Dasha
muffled herself to her eyes in her fur collar. Some one
catching up with her whispered near her ear: “What
eyes! my pretty!”
Dasha walked quickly over the wet asphalt, along the
purple quivering lines of electric light. From the swing-
ing doors of a restaurant a sound of violins was heard
playing a waltz. And Dasha, without turning round,
hummed into her shaggy fur muff, “It’s not so easy, easy,
easy !”
[12]
III
Unfastening her coat in the hall, Dasha asked the maid,
“Is no one at home?”
The Great Mogul—it was thus the maid Lusha was
nicknamed, for her bepowdered face with the high cheek-
bones was very like the face of an idol—took a peep at
the looking-glass, and in a thin voice replied that the
mistress was not at home, but that the master was at
home, and in his study, and that supper would be served
in half an hour.
Dasha went into the drawing-room, where she sat down
by the piano, crossed her legs and embraced her knees.
Her brother-in-law, Nikolai Ivanovitch, was at home,
which meant that he had quarrelled with his wife; he
would be feeling injured and would complain. It was
only eleven now and there was nothing to do until three
when she would fall asleep. Should she read? But
what? Besides, she did not want to. Think? But that,
if anything, would be worse for her. How comfortless
‘life was at times!
Dasha sighed. She opened the piano and sitting side-
ways at it, began to play something of Scriabin’s with
one hand. It was hard for any one at the awkward age
of nineteen, especially for a girl, and not a stupid girl,
by any means, and one who, moreover, from some absurd
sense of purity was so very severe with all—and these
were not few—who expressed a desire to dispel a maiden’s
melancholy.
The year before Dasha had come from Samara to
[13]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
Petersburg for a course in law and had settled with her
elder sister Ekaterina Dmitrievna Smokovnikov. Her
husband was a well-known advocate and they lived bois-
terously and in grand style.
Dasha was five years younger than her sister. When
Ekaterina Dmitrievna married Dasha was still a child.
For the last few years the sisters had seen little of each
other and now a new relationship had sprung up between
them, an attitude of adoration on the part of Dasha and
gentle affection on the part of Ekaterina Dmitrievna.
At first Dasha imitated her sister in everything, admired
her beauty, her taste, her manner with people. She was
shy of her sister’s friends and in her nervousness said
rude things to some. Ekaterina Dmitrievna tried to make
her house a model of taste and modernity, of the kind
that had not yet become popular. She did not miss a
single exhibition and bought futurist pictures. On this
account, during the last year, there had been stormy
scenes with her husband, who liked paintings of the ideal-
istic kind, while Ekaterina Dmitrievna, with all her femi-
nine enthusiasm, resolved to suffer for the new art rather
than be thought old-fashioned.
Dasha, too, admired these strange pictures which had
been hung about the drawing-room, though she thought
sometimes in sorrow that the square figures with their
geometrical faces and superfluous quantity of arms and
legs, and the thickly laid on paint which was like a head-
ache—in fact the whole of the manufacturing, cast-iron,
cynical poetry which had risen against the Lord God, was
rather beyond her dull imagination.
Every Tuesday in the Smokovnikovs’ dining-room, a
gay and noisy company was gathered to supper. There
were talkative advocates, admirers of the opposite sex,
and two or three journalists who carefully followed the
[14]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
new literary tendencies and knew well what attitude to
adopt in home and foreign politics; there was the highly
strung critic Chirva, who was working on one of his
usual literary catastrophes. Sometimes, very early, young
poets came, leaving manuscripts of their verses in the
hall, in their coat pockets. Just before supper some
celebrity would appear in the drawing-room, would walk
slowly up to the hostess, bend over her hand and sit
down with dignity in an armchair. Half way through
supper one would hear some one in the hall noisily taking
off his leather galoshes and a velvety voice would say “I
greet you, O Great Mogul!” and then over the hostess’s
chair would bend the clean-shaven face of the resigned
stage-lover.
“Katusha,”’ he would say every time, “from today I’ve
sworn not to drink any more. Really I have.”
For Dasha the most important person at these suppers
was her sister. Dasha was angry with those who were
not sufficiently attentive to the dear, kind, simple-hearted
Ekaterina Dmitrievna and was jealous of those who were
too attentive, casting angry glances at the culprits.
By degrees she grew accustomed to the crowds, so
confusing to the inexperienced. Advocates’ assistants she
now despised; besides their rough morning-coats, lilac
neckties and partings in the middle of the hair, there
was nothing else in them. The resigned stage-lover she
hated. He had no right to call her sister Katie, or the
Great Mogul, Great Mogul, nor had he any right what-
ever, when he finished a glass of vodka, to wink a pro-
truding eye at Dasha and to say “I drink to the blossom-
ing almond!”
Every time this happened Dasha choked with rage.
Her cheeks were certainly rosy and do what she
would she could not get rid of the almond-blossom
[15]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
color. But at table Dasha’s face felt as red as a beetroot.
In the summer Dasha did not go to her father’s in
hot, dusty Samara, but gladly agreed to stay by the sea
with her sister in Sestroretska. The same people were
there that one saw in the winter, only one met them more
often, went boating with them, ate ices in the pine woods,
listened to music in the evenings and supped noisily on
the verandas of the boarding-houses beneath the stars.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna ordered Dasha a white embroi-
dered dress, a pink gauze hat, trimmed with a black ribbon,
and a broad silk sash to be tied in a large bow at the
back, and suddenly, as though his eyes were only just
opened, Kulichok, her brother-in-law’s assistant, fell in
love with Dasha.
But he belonged to the “despised.’’ Dasha was furious.
She took him for a walk in the woods and without giv-
ing him an opportunity to say a word in self-defence (he
was merely able to wipe his brow with his pocket-hand-
kerchief, rolled into a ball) she told him that she was
not a bourgeois and would not allow herself to be re-
garded as a “female,” that she was annoyed and insulted,
and considered him disgusting, and that she would that
very day complain to her brother-in-law.
And complain to her brother-in-law she did that very
evening. Nikolai Ivanovitch let her finish to the end while
he stroked his thin beard and gazed in wonder at Dasha’s
almond-blossom cheeks, grown a deeper shade with in-
dignation, at her furiously agitated hat, at the whole of
Dasha’s slim white figure; then he sat down on the sand
by the water and began to laugh. He pulled out his
handkerchief and wiped his eyes, saying, “Go away,
Daria, go away, or I’ll die!’
Dasha went, comprehending nothing, confused and dis-
turbed. Kulichok now dared not look at her; he grew
[16 ]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
thin and retired. Dasha’s honour was saved. But the
whole incident unexpectedly aroused in her dormant feel-
ings. Broken was that subtle calmness; it seemed as
though into the whole of Dasha’s body, from her head
to her heels, there had entered another being, suffocating,
illusive, formless and disgusting. Dasha felt this being
in her very bones; she was tormented by it as by some-
thing unclean: she wanted to wash off this invisible web,
to be again fresh, cool and light-hearted.
She now played tennis for hours at a time, bathed
twice a day, rose early in the morning, when large dew-
drops were still shining on the leaves and vapour rose
from the purple sea, as smooth as a mirror, and the wet
tables were being placed on the deserted veranda, and
the wet gravel paths were being swept.
But, when heated by the sun, or at night in her soft
bed the other being revived from all these repressions ;
carefully it found its way to her heart and squeezed it
with its warm paw.
It could not be shaken off, nor, like the blood from Blue
Beard’s key, could it be washed off.
All their friends, and most of all her sister, found that
Dasha had improved this summer, in fact that she was
growing prettier every day.
One day Ekaterina Dmitrievna, going into her sister’s
room, said, ‘““What’s going to happen to us next?”
“What do you mean, Katia?’
Dasha, in her chemise, was sitting on the bed, twisting
her ash-coloured hair into a large knot.
“You're getting too pretty. It’s quite frightening to
think what you’ll do next.”
Dasha with her severe ‘‘thick-dashed” eyes looked at her
sister and turned away. Her cheeks and ears went a
bright red.
[17]
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“Katia, I wish you wouldn’t talk like that; I don’t
like it.”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna sat down on the bed, put her
cheek against Dasha’s bare back and, laughing, kissed her
between the shoulder blades.
“What a horned monster we are; not like a frog or a
hedgehog or a wildcat.”
And her sister began to laugh just as Nikolai Ivano-
vitch had done. They did not care to understand what had
happened to Dasha, or it seemed to them just as it should
be and quite natural.
One day an Englishman appeared on the crowded
tennis-court. He was thin, clean-shaven, had a protrud-
ing chin and childlike eyes. He was so immaculately
dressed that certain of Ekaterina Dmitrievna’s younger
followers grew quite depressed. He asked Dasha for a
game and played like a machine. It seemed to Dasha the
whole time they were playing that he did not look at her
once, but stared past her. She lost and suggested an-
other game. For greater freedom she rolled up the
sleeves of her white blouse. A lock of hair came down
from beneath her piqué cap; she did not stop to tidy it.
Returning the ball with a strong drive by the net he
thought :
“Here is a clever Russian girl with an inexplicable
grace in her every movement and a flush on her cheek.”
The Englishman won this time, too. He bowed to Dasha
and, putting on his blazer—he was quite unfeeling—
lighted a fragrant cigarette, and sitting down near by,
asked for a glass of lemonade.
Playing a third set with a distinguished schoolboy,
He was sitting at the little table, nursing his foot, in
a silk sock; his hat was pushed to the back of his
head, and without moving, he was gazing at the sea.
[18 ]
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At night, lying in bed, Dasha recalled all this. She
could see herself rushing about the lawn with flushed
_ face and hair coming down and she cried for very shame,
from a feeling of self-pity and from some other cause
that was stronger than herself.
From that day Dasha left off playing tennis. Once her
sister said to her, “Dasha, Mr. Bales asks after you every
day. Why don’t you play now?”
Dasha opened her mouth wide—she was so startled.
Then she said angrily that she had no wish to listen to
_ “Gdle gossip,” that she did not know a Mr. Bales and had
no wish to know him, and that, anyhow, it was just like
his impudence to think that she did not play at “the stupid
game” because of him. Dasha refused to have any din-
ner. She took some bread and gooseberries and went
into the woods, and there, amidst the sweet-smelling,
warm resinous pines, wandering among the tall red trunks
with their rustling tops, she decided that it was useless
any longer to hide the truth; she was in love with the
Englishman, was miserable and did not want to live.
Thus, raising its head little by little, this second being
grew up in Dasha. The presence was revolting at first;
it was like something unclean, unwholesome, or like decay.
Then she grew accustomed to the dual position as, when
‘the summer had gone by, she would get used to cold
winds, cold water, tightening herself in her corsets and
to putting on a cloth dress.
Her “monstrous” love for the Englishman lasted for
two weeks. Dasha. hated herself and was furious with
the man. On several occasions she saw him playing
tennis, lazily but well; at other times she saw him run-
ning races on the sands, or supping with Russian sailors,
and in her despair she thought that he was the most
fascinating man in the world.
[19 ]
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And then she saw him about with a tall thin girl
dressed in white flannel. She was English and his fiancée ~
—and then they went away. Dasha did not sleep the
whole of that night. She loathed and hated herself and
by morning resolved that this would be the last mis-
take she would make in her life.
With this she grew calmer and then wondered how |
quickly and easily the whole incident had passed. But
not everything had passed. Dasha felt how the second
being seemed to be merged in her, dissolved in her—to
disappear. She had grown different—fresh and light-
hearted as of old, but more tender and gentle and in-
comprehensible; her skin even seemed to be finer; she
scarcely knew her face in the glass; her eyes in particu-
lar were different—those wonderful eyes; if you looked
into them, your head began to swim.
In the middle of August the Smokovnikovs and Dasha —
returned to Petersburg to their large flat on the Znamen- —
ska. Again there were the Tuesday at-homes, picture —
exhibitions, stormy first nights in the theatres, sensational
law cases, buying of pictures, hunting for antiques, —
night excursions to the gipsies in Samarkand. Again |
there appeared the resigned stage-lover, who had lost —
twenty-three pounds in weight during his mineral-water —
treatment, and, added to all these thrilling pleasures,
there were vague, disturbing and joyous rumours that
some change was in preparation.
Dasha now had little time to think or to feel. In the ©
morning there were lectures; in the afternoon shopping
with her sister and in the evening theatres, suppers, —
people—not a moment to be alone.
On one of the Tuesday at-homes, after supper, when
they were all drinking liqueurs, Alexis Alexeyevitch Bez-
sonov came into the drawing-room. Catching sight of —
[ 20 ]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
him in the doorway, Ekaterina Dmitrievna flushed a deep
red. General conversation ceased. Bezsonov sat down
on the couch and Ekaterina Dmitrievna handed him a
cup of coffee.
He was joined by two connoisseurs of literature—two
advocates—but with a strange long glance at the hostess,
Bezsonov unexpectedly announced that in general there
was no art, that all we had was charlatanism, the fakir’s
trick of making a monkey climb to heaven up a rope.
“The trick in itself is harmless; in art it is subtle,
devilish deception. You’ve come to hear poetry. What
does that mean, now? Some family man of thirty-five
will suddenly get up and pretend that there is something
in him that others haven’t got—something not human—
and he’ll tell you in rhyme how he wants to corrupt a
girl and you'll think it very exalted. I hate it. There’s
no poetry in it. Everything has long been dead, art as
well as people. Russia has fallen and a flock of crows
are feasting on her body. All who write poetry will
go to hell.”
He spoke quietly, in a deep voice. Two bright red
spots appeared on his pale, sullen face. His soft collar
was crumpled; his coat was covered with ash; the coffee
in the cup he was holding was trickling on to the carpet.
The literary connoisseurs were ready to argue, but
Bezsonov paid no attention to them; with bedimmed eyes
he was watching Ekaterina Dmitrievna. He rose and
went over to her, and Dasha heard him say, “I can’t
stand people. Can I go?’
Timidly she asked him to read something. He shook
his head and in taking leave, held her hand so long that
Ekaterina Dmitrievna went red all over.
When he had gone a discussion arose. The men all
agreed that “there are limits,” and “you can’t so openly
[21]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
despise our society.” Chirva, the critic, went from one
to another saying that “he was dead drunk.” The ladies |
concluded that “whether Bezsonov was drunk or merely
in one of his moods, was no matter; he was a most ex-
citing person and they would have them all know it.”
At dinner the next day, Dasha announced that Bez-
sonov seemed to her one of those rare “real” personal-
ities, whose experiences, passions, sins, tastes, as a re-
flection of light, were reflected in the lives of all the
people surrounding Ekaterina Dmitrievna, who live by
them alone. “I can understand, Katia, how you can lose
your head over such a man.” |
Nikolai Ivanovitch objected. “You are influenced,
Dasha, by the fact of his being a celebrity.” Ekaterina
Dmitrievna was silent. Bezsonov did not come again to
the Smokovnikovs. There was a rumour that he was fre-
quently behind the scenes with the actress, Charodeieva.
Kulichok and his friends went to see this actress and ©
were disappointed. She was as thin as a bone; nothing
of her but lace petticoats.
One day Dasha met Bezsonov at an exhibition. He
was standing by the window indifferently turning over |
the leaves of the catalogue and in front of him, as though
standing before a wax image, were two sturdy girl stu-
dents gazing at him with petrified smiles. Dasha walked
past quickly and in the next room she sat down on a
chair. Her legs suddenly gave way beneath her and
she felt miserable without knowing why.
After this she bought Bezsonov’s photograph and put
it on her table. His poems—there were three little white
volumes—at first had the effect of poison on her. She
went about for days distraught, as though she had be- —
come a participant in some evil, mysterious rite. But
rereading them again and again she began to enjoy the
[ 22]
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unwholesome feverish sensations; some one seemed to
whisper to her to forget, to slacken, to trample on some
precious thing, to long for something which never was.
It was on account of Bezsonov that she took to going
to the meetings of the Philosophical Evenings Society.
He used to come late and rarely spoke, but each time,
Dasha returned home in a state of excitement and was
glad if she found visitors there. Her pride was quies-
cent.
Tonight she had to play Scriabin in solitude. Like
little balls of ice the notes fall on the heart, in the depths
of a bottomless lake; falling they disturb the water and
sink, and the water flows in and recedes, and in the
burning darkness, the heart beats loudly and fast, and
it seems that soon, now, this very moment, some im-
possible thing must happen.
Dasha let her hands fall on her knees and raised her
head. In the soft light cast by the orange lamp-shade
there stared at her from the walls purple, swollen, grin-
ning faces with bulging eyes, looking like the ghosts of
protoplasmic chaos greedily stuck in the garden of the
Lord God on the first day of creation.
“Yes, my dear ladies, things are bad with us,” Dasha
said. Then she played a scale, quietly shut the lid of the
piano; from a little Japanese box standing on a small
table by a couch, she took a cigarette, which she lighted,
but it made her cough, so she crumpled it up on the
_ash-tray.
“Nikolai Ivanovitch, what time is it?” Dasha called,
loudly enough to be heard through four rooms. Some-
thing fell over in the study, but there was no reply. The
Great Mogul appeared and taking a peep in the looking-
glass, announced that supper was ready.
At the table she sat near a vase of fading flowers;
[23]
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she pulled them to pieces and put the petals on the table-
cloth. The Mogul served tea, cold meat and an omelette.
Nikolai Ivanovitch appeared at last. He wore a new
suit of blue clothes, but no collar. His hair was unkempt
and on his beard, which was crushed on one side, there
hung a piece of fluff from the sofa cushions.
Nikolai Ivanovitch nodded sullenly to Dasha, sat down
at the end of the table, pulled the omelette dish over to
himself and began to eat greedily.
Having finished, he leaned his elbow on the edge of
the table, rested his cheek on his large, hairy fist, and
fixing his eyes vacantly on the heap of torn petals, he
said in a low, almost unnatural voice:
“Last night your sister was unfaithful to me.”
[ 24 ]
IV
Her own sister, Katia, had committed some incompre-
hensible, dark, terrible deed. Last night her head had
lain on the pillow, averted from all things living dear
and affectionate, and now her body was crushed and
hidden. Shuddering, this is how she visualized what
Nikolai Ivanovitch had called unfaithfulness. And
_added to all, Katia was not at home, as though she no
lenger existed on earth.
For the first few moments Dasha was stunned and
her eyes grew dim. Without a movement she sat ex-
-pecting to hear Nikolai Ivanovitch burst out screaming
or sobbing. But he did not add a word after his an-
“nouncement ; he kept toying with a fork-rest lying on the
‘table. Dasha dared not look him in the face.
After a long silence, he moved his chair back with a
clatter and went into his study. ‘“He’ll shoot himself,”
Dasha thought. But this, too, did not happen. In a
momentary feeling of acute pity she recalled how his
large, hairy arm rested on the table, but then he faded
from her vision and Dasha kept on repeating to herself:
“What is to be done? What is to be done?” There was
-a ringing sound in her brain; everything, everything was
shattered and mutilated.
From behind the heavy curtains the Great Mogul ap-
_ peared with atray. Dasha looked into her powdered face
and suddenly realized that there was no Great Mogul
now, nor would there ever be. ‘Tears came into her
eyes. She clenched her teeth and rushed into the draw-
_ ing-room.
[25]
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There, every little thing had been placed and every
picture had been hung by Katia’s loving hand. But
Katia’s soul had gone out of the room and everything in
it was barren and desolate. Dasha sat down on the sofa.
By degrees her gaze grew fixed on a recently acquired
picture, which was hanging on the wall above the piano.
For the first time she saw and understood its meaning.
It represented a naked woman, of a blear-red colour,
like raw skin. The mouth was on one side; instead of a
nose there was a triangular hole; the head was square
with a piece of real stuff stuck on it; the legs and knees
were in jointed sections; in the hand she held a flower.
The other details were horrible. Most horrible of all was
the corner in which she sat, bow-legged—a dull, brown-
coloured spot—such spots, no doubt, as there are in
hell. The picture was called “Love,” but Katia used to
call it “The Modern Venus.”
“T see now why Katia was so delighted with the aban-
doned woman. She is like that herself now, with a
flower in some corner.” Dasha lay face downwards on
the cushion, digging her teeth into it to prevent herself
from screaming. She burst into tears. After a time,
Nikolai Ivanovitch came into the room. He stood with
his legs apart, snapped his cigarette-lighter viciously
and blew out a cloud of smoke. Then he walked over
to the piano and began to strum on it with one finger,
unexpectedly strumming out the tune of “Chaffinch.”
He banged down the lid of the piano and said, “It
was to be expected.”
Dasha repeated the words to herself several times to
comprehend their meaning. A loud ring was heard
in the hall. Nikolai Ivanovitch raised his hand to
stroke his beard, but with a smothered exclamation of
“Q-o-o!”? he dropped it and walked quickly out of the
[ 26 ]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
room into his study. Along the passage came the
sound of the Great Mogul’s footsteps, like horse-hoofs,
Dasha sprang up from the sofa with bedimmed eyes
and fast-beating heart and rushed out into the hall.
There stood Ekaterina Dmitrievna with her nose
screwed up, clumsily trying to untie the mauve bow of
her hood with reddened, cold fingers. She offered her
cheek to Dasha, but receiving no kiss, she threw off
her hood with a shake of the head and with her grey
eyes looked intently at her sister.
“Has anything happened here? Have you quarrelled?”’
she asked in a deep, low voice, always so charmingly sweet.
Dasha’s gaze was fixed on Nikolai Ivanovitch’s leather
galoshes, about which they used to say at home that
they walked of themselves ; they now stood like a couple
of orphans. Dasha’s chin quivered.
“It’s nothing. Nothing has happened.”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna slowly unfastened the large
buttons of her squirrel coat, which she threw off, re-
_vealing her bare shoulders. She looked so warm and
soft and tired. Bending down to undo her gaiters, she
said: ‘““We couldn’t find a motor at first and I got my
feet wet!”
Dasha, still staring at Nikolai Ivanovitch’s galoshes,
‘asked coldly, ““Where have you been, Katia?’
“At some literary supper, my dear, but I don’t know
in whose honour it was given, upon my word. ‘The
usual thing. And I’m dead tired and sleepy.”
She went into the dining-room, where she threw her
leather handbag on to the table and, wiping her nose,
asked, ““Who’s been tearing the flowers? And where’s
Nikolai Ivanovitch ?”
Dasha was nonplussed. No matter from what angle
she regarded her sister, she did not seem a whit like the
[27]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
abandoned woman in the picture. She did not seem
strange to her; on the contrary, she was so particularly
dear and sweet tonight that she wanted to caress her all
over. But gathering all her courage and digging her
nails into the tablecloth at the exact spot where Nik-
olai Ivanovitch had eaten his omelette, she said:
‘Katia?
“What is it, my dear?”
“T know everything.”
“What do you know? What has happened, in God’s
name ?”’ | |
Ekaterina Dmitrievna sat down by the table, her
knees touching Dasha’s legs, and looked her curiously
up and down.
“Nikolai Ivanovitch has told me all.”
She did not see her sister’s face, did not know what
was passing within her.
After a silence which seemed so long that one must
die of it, Ekaterina Dmitrievna said angrily:
“What shocking thing has Nikolai Ivanovitch been
saying about me?’
“You know, Katia.”
ha don't.’
The words fell from her like an icicle.
Dasha threw herself at her feet. )
“Then it’s not true? Katia, my dear, beautiful sister,
it isn’t true, is it?’ And she began to shower kisses
on Katia’s warm, scented hands with the tiny blue
veins running along them like rivulets.
“Of course, it’s not true,’ Ekaterina Dmitrievna re-
plied, closing her eyes wearily. ‘You're going to cry
now and your eyes will be red tomorrow and your nose
swollen.” |
She lifted Dasha and ra a long time pressed her
[28 ]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
lips against her hair. “I’m so stupid,” Dasha mumbled
into her breast. But at this moment, from behind the
study door, Nikolai Ivanovitch’s voice said loudly and
deliberately :
“She is lying.”
The sisters turned round quickly, but the door was
shut.
“Go to bed, my child,” Ekaterina Dmitrievna said.
“V’ll go and clear up the situation. A pleasant job,
when I can barely stand.”
She led Dasha to her room and made the sign of the
cross over her, then she returned to the dining-room,
snatched up her handbag, rearranged the combs in her
hair and with her finger knocked softly on the study
door.
“Open the door, Nikolai.”
There was a sinister silence, then a snort and a turn
of the key. Ekaterina Dmitrievna entered to see her
husband’s broad back moving towards the table, near
which he sat down on a leather armchair, rested his
elbows on the arms of it, and taking up an ivory paper-
knife, he savagely passed it along the back of a book
(a novel by Wassermann entitled “A Man of Forty’’).
All this was done as though Ekaterina Dmitrievna
‘were not in the room.
She sat down on the couch, pulled her skirt over her
legs, put her handkerchief into her handbag, which she
shut with a snap. At the sound the tuft of hair on the
top of Nikolai Ivanovitch’s head trembled.
“There is one thing I don’t understand,” she said.
“You are free to think what you choose, but please
don’t initiate Dasha into your moods.”
_ At this he turned quickly in his chair and stretching
out his neck and beard, said, barely moving his lips:
[ 29]
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“You have the impertinence to call this my mood?”
“T don’t understand you.”
“Hm! You don’t understand! You understand well
enough how to behave like a woman of the streets!”
At these words Ekaterina Dmitrievna opened her lips
slightly. She looked at her husband’s purple, perspiring
face, distorted with rage, and said quietly:
“Since when did you learn to speak to me disrespect-
fully °’-
“T humbly beg your pardon, but I can’t talk in any
other way. I want to know the details.”
“What details?”
“Don’t lie to me, to my face.”
“Oh, it’s about that, is it?” From exhaustion Ekate-
rina Dmitrievna rolled her large eyes. “The other day
I said some absurd thing or other to you. . . . I had for-
gotten all about it.”
“With whom did it happen?”
“T don’t know.”
“For the second time, don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying. There’s no fun in lying to you. I did
say something; I’d say anything when I’m angry, but
I’d forgotten all about it.” |
Though Nikolai Ivanovitch’s face was stony at these
words, his heart leapt with joy. “Thank God! She
was lying about herself.” He was now safe to believe
nothing, to ease his mind.
He got up from his chair, walked up and down the
room, then stopped in the middle of the carpet, and
flourishing the ivory paper-knife in the air, he began
a tirade about the decline of the family, loose morals,
and now forgotten sacred duties of women, wives,
mothers of children and husbands’ helpmates. He re-
proached Ekaterina Dmitrievna with lack of spiritual
[ 30 ]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
interests, with wanton spending of money, which he
earned with his blood (“not the blood, but the wagging
of the tongue,” thought Ekaterina Dmitrievna), nay,
more than blood, with the whole of his nervous energy.
He reproached her with her careless way of choosing
her friends, with disorder in the house, with her passion
for “that idiot” the Great Mogul and with “those dis-
gusting pictures in your bourgeois drawing-room, that
make me sick.”
Nikolai Ivanovitch completely unburdened himself.
It was four o’clock in the morning. When her husband
had ceased, Ekaterina Dmitrievna said:
“There is nothing more loathsome than a fat, hysterical
man.”
She rose and went into her bedroom.
Nikolai Ivanovitch was not even hurt by these words.
He undressed slowly and hung his clothes on the back
of a chair; then he wound his watch and crept into his
_ clean bed, made for him on the couch since yesterday.
_ “We live badly. We must alter our way of life. It’s
not well, not well,’ he thought and then opened a book
to calm his nerves for the coming sleep, but instantly
put it down and listened. All was still in the house.
Then he heard some one blow her nose. At the sound
his heart beat fast. “She is crying,” he thought. “I
suppose I said too much.”
And when he recalled the scene and how Katia had sat
and listened to him, he grew immeasurably sorry for her.
_ He raised himself on his elbow about to get out of bed,
but a dreadful weariness crept over his body as though
from many days’ exhaustion. His head dropped on the
pillow and he fell fast asleep.
Alone in her neat room, Dasha took the combs out of
her hair and shook her head so that all the pins flew
[31]
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out at once. She scattered her clothes over the chairs,
jumped into her white bed and tucked the clothes right
up to her chin. She half closed her eyes. “How nice!”
she thought, “there’s nothing to worry about now; I
can sleep.” She could see a hobgoblin face from out
of the corner of her eye. She curled up and embraced
the pillow. A sweet sleep was about to descend on her,
when suddenly she could hear Katia’s voice saying quite
distinctly, “Of course, it’s not true!’ Dasha opened
her eyes. “I never breathed a word to Katia. I only
asked her if it were true or not, but she replied as if
she knew what I was referring to.” The consciousness
“Katia has deceived me” cut through her like a knife.
Then recalling all the details of their conversation, she
was convinced that she had been deceived. She was very
upset. Katia had been untrue to her husband, but de-
ceiving, sinning, lying had made her even more fasci-
nating. The blind only would fail to see that new curious,
weary gentleness about her. And her lies are enough to
make one mad or to fall in love with her. But she is
a sinner! “Oh, God, I can’t understand it!” z:
Dasha was confused and excited. She drank some
water, lighted the lamp and put it out again, and until |
morning she tossed about in bed, feeling that she could
not blame Katia, nor could she understand what she had
done.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna, too, could not sleep that night.
She was lying on her back, helpless, her arms stretched
out on the silk counterpane, and without wiping her
tears, she wept copiously. Things were not well with
her ; she felt confused and unclean and could do nothing
to alter it. She would never be like Dasha—spirited
and severe. She wept, too, because Nikolai Ivanovitch
had called her a woman of the streets and her drawing-
[ 32 ]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
room bourgeois. And she wept still more bitterly when
she remembered how last night Alexis Alexeyevitch
Bezsonov had taken her in a fast-driven cab to some
hotel outside the town, and there, without knowing or
loving her, without feeling in any way near and dear
to her, he had shamelessly and leisurely possessed himself
of her, as though she had been a dummy, one of those
pink dummies exhibited in the window of Madame Du-
clet’s Parisian hat shop on the Morskaya.
[ 33 J
V
In a newly built house on the Vasiliev Island, on the —
fifth floor, in a flat belonging to Ivan Ilyitch Teliegin,
an engineer, were the premises of the so-called Central
Station for Combating the Commonplace.
Teliegin had taken the flat for a year, at the end of a
lease, at a cheap rent. He had reserved one room for
himself, and the others, furnished with iron bedsteads,
pine tables and chairs, he had let to other lively bachelors.
These had been found for him by his friend and school
chum, Peter Petrovitch Sapojkov.
They included Alexander Ivanovitch Jirov, a law
student; Antoshka Arnoldov, a journalist; Valet, an art-
ist, and a young girl, Elisaveta Kievna by name, who
had not yet found a vocation in life to suit her taste.
The lodgers rose late, at the hour when Teliegin usu-
ally came home for luncheon, and each would leisurely
begin the daily round. Arnold Arnoldov would take
a tram to the Nevsky to a certain café where he picked up
news and wrote his “copy,” Valet would usually proceed
to work on his own portrait, while Sapojkov would lock
himself in to work, that is, to pace the room with ex-
clamations, being the preparations for his speeches and
articles on the new art. Jirov would go in to Elisaveta —
Kievna to discuss the problems of life in a soft, purring
voice. Jirov wrote verses, but was too conceited to let
any one see them. Elisaveta Kievna considered him a
genius. i
Besides conversing with Jirov and the other lodgers,
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
Elisaveta Kievna knitted squares in different coloured
wools, which were not intended for any special purpose,
and sang Little Russian songs, out of tune and in a
deep, powerful voice, or she dressed her hair in some
wonderful way, or, tired of singing and dressing her
hair, she would let it loose down her back and lie down
on her bed with a book, which she devoured until her
head ached. |
Elisaveta Kievna was a tall, good-looking girl with
rosy cheeks and short-sighted eyes that seemed almost
as if they had been pencilled. She dressed so badly that
even Teliegin’s lodgers remonstrated.
When a new person came to the house, she would in-
vite him to her room and a conversation would begin,
reaching to such heights and abysses as to make the head
go round. Had not her interlocutor a strong desire
to commit some crime? she would ask. Could he not
for the mere sensation of the thing, kill her, Elisaveta
Kievna? Had he not that feeling of “self-provocation,”
a quality she held all remarkable people possessed?
Teliegin’s lodgers even fixed a list of these questions
on her door, which gratified her and caused her to
laugh a great deal. She was a girl dissatisfied with
everything, who expected “revolutions” to happen and
“terrible events” that would make life so interesting
that one would live with every part of one’s being and not
go about bored with one’s hair down one’s back.
Teliegin was greatly amused by his lodgers, whom
he thought worthy people, but cranks, and for lack of
time he entered little into their diversions. At any rate,
he was quite satisfied even when they borrowed small
sums of money from him (he had not much himself)
or paid for their rooms by verses, portraits, or simply by
a heart-to-heart talk.
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One day, at Christmas, Peter Petrovitch Sapojkov
gathered the lodgers together and said to them:
“Comrades, the time has come to act. There are many
of us, but we are scattered. Until now we have acted
separately and timidly. We must now close up the
ranks and strike a blow at bourgeois society. First of
all we must form ourselves into an executive group and
then we must. issue a proclamation. I have it here.
“We are the new Columbuses! We are the ingenious in-
stigators! We are the seed of the new humanity! We
demand from the bloated bourgeois society that it cast
away all its prejudices. Henceforth there are no vir-
tues. The family, social respectability and marriage
must go. We demand it. Men and women must be
naked, free and happy. Sexual relationship is the inher-
itance of society. Boys and girls, men and women, come
out of your cramped dens, go naked and happy, and
sing and dance beneath the sun of the wild beast!”
Then Sapojkov said that it was necessary to issue a
futurist journal under the title of “The Dish of the
Gods,” the money for which would be given partly by
Teliegin, and the rest—some three thousand—they must —
snatch from the jaws of the bourgeoisie.
This is how there came to be formed “The Central Sta-_
tion for Combating the Commonplace,” a title invented »
by Teliegin, who, returning from the works, laughed till
the tears came when he heard of Sapojkov’s scheme.
Soon after they set to work to bring out the first number
of “The Dish of the Gods.” Several rich patrons—ad-
vocates—and Sashka Sakelman himself even, as though in —
fear of being considered behind the times, supplied the ©
required three thousand. Linen note-paper was ordered
with the incomprehensible heading “Centrifugue” printed —
on it, then invitations were sent out to contributors and
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
a general request made for material. Valet, the artist,
suggested that Sapojkov’s room, which had been turned
into the editorial room, should be decorated with carica-
tures. He accordingly drew on the walls twelve por-
traits of himself. The question of furniture required
long consideration. Elisaveta Kievna suggested that the
editorial staff should lie on rugs. In the end it was de-
cided to remove from the room everything but a large
table, which was pasted over with golden paper ; visitors
were expected to stand.
With the advent of the first number “The Dish of the
Gods” was the talk of the town. Some were amazed,
others maintained that there was some deeper significance
in it and that in the near future Pushkin would have to be
consigned to the archives. Chirva, the critic, was beside
himself; in ‘“The Dish of the Gods” he had been called a
scoundrel. Ekaterina Dmitrievna immediately took out a
subscription for a whole year and decided to invite the
futurists to her Tuesday at-homes.
The “Central Station” sent Peter Petrovitch to sup
with the Smokovnikovs. He appeared in a dirty coat
of green fustian, hired from a theatrical shop, from the
play “Manon Lescaut.” Sapojkov purposely ate a great
deal at supper and laughed so loudly that the sound was
unpleasant to his own ears; he sought to insult Chirva,
but under the influence of his “magnetic” eye, he re-
frained and contented himself by being unpleasant to the
hostess, saying, “Your fish had’ a very ‘soul in it.”
Then he threw himself back and began to smoke, steady-
ing his pince-nez on his perspiring nose.
On the whole, more had been expected of him and
when he had gone Ekaterina Dmitrievna said, ‘Well,
what do you think? There is something clever about
him, I feel sure.”
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After the publication of the second number it was re-
solved to hold at-homes called “Splendid Blasphemies.”
To one of these “blasphemies” Dasha had come.
The front door was opened by Jirov, who instantly
busied himself taking off Dasha’s galoshes, coat, even
picking a thread off her cloth dress. Dasha wondered
why everything smelt of cabbage in the hall and why the
corners were unswept. Slipping sideways along the cor-
ridor to the room where the “blasphemy” was held, he
asked Dasha, “What perfume do you use? It has an
extraordinarily pleasant smell.”
Then Dasha wondered at the blatancy of it all. It is
true that the walls were covered with eyes, noses, hands,
ignominious figures, falling sky-scrapers, in a word, all
that comprised a portrait of Vasili Veniamovitch Valet,
who was standing there silently with zigzags and patches
drawn on his cheeks. It is true that verses were read
in exaggeratedly passionate voices about motor cars glid-
ing along the vaulted skies, about “spitting on the heaven-
ly old syphilitic,” about young jaws which the author
had cracked like nuts, about church domes and some
head-splitting, incomprehensible grasshopper in an over-
coat, with a Baedeker and field-glasses, who jumped out.
of the window into the street. To Dasha all these ter-,
rors seemed poor and too obvious. She was only at-
tracted to Teliegin. During the interval he went up to
Dasha and asked her with a timid smile whether she
would like some tea and sandwiches.
“Our tea and sausage are unusually good.”
his kindly, blue eyes squinted slightly from nervousness.
Dasha, to give him pleasure, got up and went into)
the dining-room. There on the table, amidst dirty dishes,
was a plate of sandwiches and a bent samovar. Teliegin
[ 38 ]
|
|
:
|
He had a sunburnt face, clean-shaven and simple, and’
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instantly collected the plates and put them on the floor
in a corner of the room; he looked around for a cloth,
then wiped the table with his pocket-handkerchief, poured
Dasha out a cup of tea, and selected the “thinnest”’
sandwich. He did all this slowly, talking the while,
as though anxious to make Dasha feel comfortable amid
the mess. josh glee
“Our housekeeping is in thorough disorder, but our
tea and sausage are first rate, from Eliseiev’s. There
were some sweets, but they are all gone,’ he compressed
his lips and looked at Dasha; fear appeared in his blue
eyes and then a resolve, “unless you'll allow me?” and
he pulled two caramels out of his waistcoat pocket.
“One wouldn’t be lost with a man like that,’’ Dasha
thought, and again to give him pleasure, said:
“They are my favourite caramels.”
Teliegin sat down sideways opposite Dasha and fixed
his gaze on the mustard-pot. His broad forehead wrinkled
with the strain. He carefully pulled out his pocket-hand-
kerchief and with a corner of it wiped the sides of his
nose, not daring, evidently, to wipe the whole of his face.
Dasha’s lips smiled involuntarily. This big, handsome
man was so shy and uncertain of himself that he was
teady to hide behind the mustard-pot. Somewhere—in
Arzamas, she imagined—he must have a sweet little old
mother, who wrote him severe letters about not letting
the town laundresses lose his linen, about his “incorri-
gible habit of lending money to any fool that asked for
it,’ about how it was only “through modesty and dili-
gence, my dear child, that you will gain the respect of
people.” And he, no doubt, sighed over these letters,
thinking how far off he was from perfection. Dasha
felt a tenderness for him.
“Where do you work?” she asked. Teliegin raised his
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eyes, saw her smile and smiled, too. “He understands,”
Dasha thought.
“At the Obukhovsky works,” he said. “We make cyl-
inders for motors and other complicated things.”
“Ts your work interesting ?”
“T can’t say. To my mind, all work is interesting.”
“T think the workmen must like you very much.”
“T’ve never thought about it, but I don’t suppose they
do. Why should they? I am very severe with them. We
get on capitally, for all that.”
“Do tell me, did you like all that went on in the other
room P” |
Ivan Ilyitch’s lips spread into a broad smile; wrinkles
disappeared from his forehead and he laughed aloud.
“Scamps! hooligans! wonderful scamps! I’m very
pleased with my lodgers, Daria Dmitrievna. You come
home worried from the works and some nonsense or
other is sure to greet you here. . . . It’s amusing to
think of the next day.”
“I hate these ‘blasphemies,’”’ Dasha said solemnly. “I
think they are horrid and disgusting.”
He looked her wonderingly in the eyes. “I very much ©
dislike them,” she reiterated.
“Of course, I’m more to blame than any one,” Ivan —
Ilyitch said pensively. “I encouraged them. To invite |
people and make them listen to indecencies all the eve-
ning, is certainly. . . . I must thank you, Daria Dmit@ |
rievna, for being so File about it. I am sorry it was so
unpleasant for you.”
Dasha smiled, looking straight into his face. She
could say anything to this man, who was almost a stranger
to her, so at ease did she feel with him. |
“It seems to me, Ivan Ilyitch, that you ought to kell |
quite other things. I think you are quite a good sort. f
[ 40 ] it
134
i]
a
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You are much better than you think you are, really.”
Dasha’s elbow was on the table, her chin supported on
her hand, her little finger touching her lips. Her eyes
laughed ; they seemed to him terrifying, so disturbingly
beautiful were they, grey and large and cold. Ivan
Ilyitch, in great confusion, bending and unbending a tea-
spoon, tried to efface himself altogether.
Fortunately for him Elisaveta Kievna came into the
room just then. She wore a Turkish shawl and her
plaited hair was twisted over the ears into two horns.
She gave Dasha a long soft hand, introduced herself and
sat down.
“T have heard a lot about you from Jirov,” she said.
“This evening I have been studying your face. You
look as if you have been spoiled, which is good.”
“Would you like some cold tea, Lisa?” Teliegin hastily
intervened.
“No, Teliegin; you know I never take tea. Well, you
are, no doubt, asking yourself what strange creature is
this talking to you. I am nobody, nothing; not even a
female. Stupid and unpleasant in ordinary life.”
Ivan Ilyitch, standing by the table, turned away in
despair. Dasha lowered her eyes. Elisaveta Kievna, ob-
serving her with a smile, continued. |
.“You are smart, well-off and pretty. You need not
deny it, for you know you are. Dozens of men are in
love with you. How dreadful to think that it will end in
such a commonplace way. Some base man will walk
you off and you will bear him children and die. How
very dull!”
Dasha’s lips trembled at the affront.
“I do not intend to be other than commonplace,” she
said, “and I fail to understand why you are so interested
in my future.”
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Elisaveta Kievna gave a broader smile, but her eyes
were sad and compassionate.
“I should have warned you that I am nobody as a
human being and loathsome as a woman. Very few
people can stand me and those only out of pity, like
Teliegin.”
“What damned nonsense you are talking, Lisa,” he
muttered, not raising his head.
“T make no demands on you, Teliegin. Calm yourself.”
And again she turned to Dasha. “Have you ever seen
a storm on the Black Sea? I have lived through a storm.
There was a man whom I loved and he hated me, nat-
urally. When the storm began I said to him ‘Come’ and
sprang into the boat. Out of spite he jumped in after
me. We were carried out to the open sea. How jolly
it was! damnably jolly! He sat there all green. I
undressed quite naked and said to him, ‘Tie me to the
MASUEM PCO L
“Look here, -Lisa,” Teliegin interposed, screwing up
his lips and nose, “you know it is not true. None of this
happened. I know it didn’t.”
Elisaveta Kievna looked at him with an incomprehen-—
sible smile and suddenly began to laugh. She put her
arms on the table, hid her face in them and laughed, so —
that her full shoulders shook.
It seemed to Dasha that the whole absurd conversation
had been like a scratching upon glass. She rose and
told Teliegin that she wanted to go home, if possible,
without taking leave of any one.
Ivan Ilyitch helped Dasha into her coat as carefully
as though the coat, too, formed part of her being; he
kept striking matches as he accompanied her down the
dark staircase, and apologized that it was so dark, slip-
pery and draughty. He walked with her as far as the
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street corner, put her into a cab, driven by an old man
and drawn by an old horse, both of whom were cov-
ered with snow. For a long while he stood there, without
coat or hat, watching the low sleigh with the severe
maiden inside it, fade away in the yellow fog. Then
slowly he walked back to the house and into the din-
ing-room. By the table, just as he had left her, with
her face on her arm, was Elisaveta Kievna. Teliegin
scratched his chin and said with a frown: “Lisa.”
She quickly, too quickly, raised her head and looked
him straight in the eyes.
“Lisa, I’m sorry, but why do you always say fe that
make one ashamed and uncomfortable ?”
“You’ve fallen in love,” Elisaveta Kievna said quietly,
still looking at him with her sad, short-sighted eyes that
seemed almost as if they had been pencilled. “I can see
the signs. What a bore!”
“It’s absolutely untrue. And I find your remarks
extremely offensive.”
“T’m sorry. People who’ve done wrong are beaten
and told not to cry.” She rose slowly and walked out,
dragging the Turkish shawl behind her on the dusty
floor.
Ivan Ilyitch went into his room, which he paced to
_and fro for some time. Then he returned to the dining-
room, poured himself out some cold tea and was about
to sit down, when suddenly he recollected himself and
_ gazed at the chair in horror. It was the chair on which
al
Daria Dimitrievna had only just been sitting. It might
be absurd and sentimental, but the chair must be re-
moved from that place. Teliegin shrugged his shoulders
and carried the chair into his own room, where he put
it in acorner. Then he took hold of his nose with the
whole palm of his hand and laughed aloud.
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“What nonsense! What utter nonsense!” |
To Dasha the encounter had been one among many;
she had met a very nice man and that was all. She was
at an age when people see nor hear well, sound being
drowned by the quick rush of the blood, while the eyes,
as in a mirror, can see in anything, be it a human face
or a glossy leaf on a tree, only their own reflection. At
such an age only deformity can strike the imagination,
whereas handsome people, alluring landscapes, the hum-
ble beauty of art are looked upon as the usual retinue of
a queen of nineteen.
It was not thus with Ivan [lyitch. Now that more
than a week had gone by since Dasha’s visit, he won-
dered how imperceptibly (he had not shaken hands with
her at first) and simply (she had come in, sat down and
placed her muff on her knees) she had come to their
bare flat, this girl with the soft, rosy complexion, in her
dark dress and her ash-coloured hair, dressed high on
the head, and -her proud, childlike mouth. It seemed
incomprehensible that he had talked to her calmly of
sausages from Eliseiev’s. And he had given her the
warm caramels which had lain in his pocket to eat.
Brute that he was!
Ivan Ilyitch had, during his life (he had recently
reached his twenty-ninth year), been in love six times.
The first, while he was still a realist, in Kazan, was a
buxom girl—Marusia Khvoyeva, the daughter of a vet-—
erinary surgeon, who for some time now fruitlessly paced
the main street at four o’clock in the afternoon in her
plush coat. But Marusia had had no time to waste;
Ivan Ilyitch was thrown over, and without any of the
intermediate stages, he transferred his affection to the
star, Ada Tilly, who astonished the natives of Kazan
by appearing in all the operettas, no matter to what period -
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they belonged, in a bathing-costume. The management
even announced this feature in their posters, ‘“The Fa-
mous Ada Tilly with her beautiful legs.”
Ivan Ilyitch was so carried away that he even went
to her house with a bunch of flowers, which he had
picked in the town garden. Ada Tilly gave the flowers
to some shaggy dog to smell and remarked that the local
food had upset her digestion, and would Ivan wants
mind going to the chemist’s for her?
Then, when a student in Petersburg. he was at-
tracted to a medical student, a Miss Vilbushevitch, and
used to meet her in the anatomy theatre, but nothing
came of the affair and Miss Vilbushevitch eventually
went away to a post in the Zemstvo.
On one occasion Ivan Ilyitch fell in love with a
shopgirl from some big establishment—Zinotchka was
her name—and in his tenderness and agitation he did
everything she asked him to do, but on the whole he
sighed with relief when Zinotchka, together with the
department of her firm, went away to Moscow. With
her departure there passed away that continuous feel-
ing of unfulfilled obligations.
His last feeling of sentiment took place in the sum-
mer of last year, in the month of June. On the op-
posite side of the courtyard on which his window
looked out was another window, at which every day be-
fore sunset a thin, pale girl would stand, brushing her
one and only dress, of a reddish colour. She would
put it on afterwards and go and sit in the park.
————
It was in the park, on the Petersburg side, that Ivan
Ilyitch first spoke to her and from that day, every
evening they would walk together, admiring the Peters-
burg sunsets and talking about things in general.
The girl, Olia Komarova, worked in a notary’s of-
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fice; she was lonely and ailing and coughed all the
time. They would talk about this cough, about her
illness, about how miserable it was for a person to be
alone in the evenings, about her friend Kira, who fell
in love with a nice man and went away to the Crimea.
Their conversations were dull. Olia Komarova had so
little faith in her fortune that without any restraint she
would tell Ivan Ilyitch her most intimate thoughts, even
saying that she looked forward to his falling in love
with her and taking her away to the Crimea.
Ivan Ilyitch was sorry for the girl and respected her,
but he could not love her, though sometimes, after their
talks, when lying on his couch in the twilight, he would
think what an egoist he was, how sensual and brutal
and bad.
In the autumn, Olia Komarova caught a chill and fell
ill with pneumonia. Ivan Ilyitch took her to a hospital
and from thence to the cemetery. Before her death
she asked him: .
“Tf I get well, will you marry me?”
“On my honour, I will,” he had replied.
His feelings for Dasha had nothing in common with
his former sentiments. Elisaveta Kievna had said that
he had fallen in love. But you can fall in love only with
an object possible of attainment; you cannot fall in love
with a statue, with a cloud or with Pushkin’s poetry.
You can only dream about these things.
He could not be in love with Dasha because he felt —
how unattainable she was. He could not even dream /
about Dasha because she was a living being who drank
tea, ate sausage and shook hands in a firm, hearty kind
of way. For Dasha he experienced a third, peculiar
feeling, which he was unable to analyze; it was the more
[ 46 ]
|
|
incomprehensible in that there was so little reason for
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it—just a few moments’ conversation and a chair in
the corner of his room.
The feeling was not even very strong or great, but
Ivan Ilyitch now wanted to be different, more particular,
and he began to take careful stock of himself.
“Tf you only think of it, I shall soon be thirty and
so far I’ve lived as the grass grows. Terrible neglect,
egoism and lack of discrimination of people. A filthy
business, on the whole. I must reform before it’s too
late.”
At the end of March, on one of those early spring
days, which had dawned over the town, white and warm
in its covering of snow, when from early morning the
water could be heard dripping from roofs and gutters,
and rushing down drain-pipes, making the green water-
barrels beneath them overflow, when the snow was be-
ing cleared from the streets and vapour rose from the
asphalt, on which dry patches appeared, your winter’s
coat hung heavily on your shoulders and you looked
around and saw some man with a pointed beard, walk-
ing along in his jacket only, and every one looked at
him and smiled, and you raised your head, and above,
the sky was bottomless and blue, as though it had just
been washed with water—it was on such a day, at half
past three, that Ivan Ilyitch left the engineering office of
Simens and Galske, unbuttoned his skunk coat, blinked
his eyes from the sun and thought:
“Tt’s good to be alive on such a day.”
It was at that moment that he saw Dasha. She was
in a blue spring coat, walking at the edge of the pave-
ment, swinging her left arm, which held a parcel; on
her blue hat some white daisies bobbed up and down;
the expression of her face was pensive and sad. She
was coming from the direction where the puddles, the
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tram-lines, the glass, the backs of the passers-by and the
ground beneath their feet, the spokes of the carriage
wheels were shining from the blue depths of the huge
sun, rugged and sparkling in all its spring brilliancy.
Dasha seemed to have emerged from the blue and
the light, and passed and disappeared in the crowd.
Ivan Ilyitch stood for a long time staring in the direc-
tion in which she had gone. His heart beat like a ham-
mer. The air was heavy, scented, intoxicating.
Ivan Ilyitch walked slowly to the corner of the street
and putting his hands behind his back, stood for a long
while looking at the posters on the hoarding. “New.
and exciting adventures of Jack the Ripper of stomachs
of 2400 metres,” he read, feeling that he understood noth-
ing but was happy as he had never been happy in his life
before. |
As he left the hoarding, for the second time he saw
Dasha. She had turned and was walking towards him, |
just as before, with her bobbing daisies and her parcel
at the edge of the pavement. He approached her, raised ©
his hat and said: ;
“Daria Dmitrievna, I shan’t be detaining you, I hope, ©
by saying how do you do?” :
She almost stared. Then she looked up at him
with her cold, blue eyes, in which the green pupils —
sparkled in the light. She smiled sweetly, held out her —
hand in a white kid glove and gave his a firm and
friendly pressure. , i
“How lucky to meet you! I was thinking of you ©
today, I was really!’ Dasha shook her head and the
little white daisies bobbed to and fro. |
“T had some business on the Nevsky, but now I’ve the
whole day free. What a day it is!” . . . Ivan Ilyitch
pursed up his lips and tried his hardest-not to smile.
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“Could you walk home with me, Ivan Ilyitch?” Dasha
asked.
“Of course, I can.”
They turned down a side street and walked in the
shade.
“Ivan Ilyitch, you won’t think it strange if I were
to ask you something? But I know I can ask you
anything. Only you must answer me at once, without
consideration and frankly. As I ask, you must reply.”
Her face was troubled and her brows were drawn.
“It had always seemed to me like this,” she waved
her hand in the air. “There are thieves and liars and
murderers and women of the streets and they exist
just like snakes and spiders and mice—I’m afraid of
mice—and that all people are a little funny, with their
weaknesses and crankiness, but that all are good and
true. Now look at that girl coming towards us. Just
as she seems so she must be. The whole world seems
to me to be painted in wonderful colours. Do you under-
stand what I mean?”
“It’s most interesting, Daria Dmitrievna. . . .
“Wait a moment. Now the picture seems to have
tumbled about me and I’m suffocating in darkness. A
person may be charming and lovable, yet at the same
99
time may sin in a terrible way. It’s not merely a
question of stealing cakes from a counter, but to commit
a real sin—to lie.” Dasha turned away; her chin
trembled. “To commit adultery, and a married woman,
too. May one sin, then, Ivan Ilyitch?”’
“No. One mustn't.”
“Why not?”
“One can’t say off-hand, but I feel one shouldn’t.”
“And don’t you think I feel so, too? Since two
o’clock I’ve been wandering about the streets in despair.
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It’s such a beautiful day, so clear, and I can’t help feel-
ing that in all these houses, behind the curtains, unen-
lightened people are hidden, and I must go in to them,
don’t you see?”
“I don’t,” he replied hastily.
“T must and will go to them, because life is there,
behind the curtains and not here. Oh, how wretched
I am! I suppose I’m still a stupid little girl and this
town was not meant for little girls, but for grown people.”
Dasha stopped at the steps of the house and with the
tip of her shoe, began to move over the asphalt a cig-
arette box some one had thrown away, on which was the
picture of a green woman with smoke coming out of
her mouth. Ivan Ilyitch, looking at the patent leather
tip of Dasha’s foot, felt how Dasha was dissolving like
a snowflake, was disappearing like a mist. He wanted
to keep her, but how could he? The force by which
he could have kept her was crushing his heart and grip-
ping his throat. But to Dasha this feeling of his had
no more significance than the shadow on the wall, for
he himself was no more than dear, kind Ivan Ilyitch.
“Well, good-bye, and thank you so much, Ivan [lyitch.
You’re very kind. I do not feel any better for our con-—
versation, but thank you, all the same. You did under-
stand me, didn’t you? What things there are in the
world! One can’t do anything, though; I suppose one
must be grown-up. Do come and see us when you
can.” She smiled, shook his hand, went up the steps
and disappeared in the darkness.
Dasha opened the door of her room and stopped in~
astonishment. ‘There was a smell of fresh flowers and
she instantly noticed on her dressing-table a basket with
a tall handle and a blue bow and rushed up and buried
her face in it. They were Parma violets, several large
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bunches, somewhat squashed and damp, with a tender
smell of earth and spring about them.
_ Dasha was excited. Since the morning she had
longed for something but did not know what, and now
she realized that it had been violets. But who could have
Bent them? He had thought about her so much that
he knew what she wanted even better than herself?
The bow, though, seemed out of place. Untying it, Dasha
thought :
“She may be restless, but she’s not a bad girl. No
matter what little sins you may be planning for your-
selves, she’ll go her own way. You may think she
holds her head too high. But there are some people
who like it and would think the better of her.”
Inside the bow there was a note written on thick
paper in a large, unfamiliar handwriting, containing
the two words, “Love, Love.” On the other side was
printed “The Nice Flower Nursery.” Some one must
have written in the shop “Love, love.” Dasha, with
the basket in her hand, went out into the passage and
called:
“Mogul, who brought me these flowers?”
The Great Mogul looked at the basket and sighed,
as though none of those things concerned her.
_“A boy from the shop brought them to Ekaterina
Dmitrievna and she asked me to put them in your
room.”
“Did the boy say who sent them?”
“He didn’t say anything, but only asked me to give
them to the mistress.”
Dasha went back to her room and stood by the
window with her hands behind her. Through the glass
she could see the sunset; behind the brick house op-
posite it spread over the sky in green streaks. A star
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URBANA
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appeared in the green void, glistening as though newly
washed. Below, in the narrow street, now misty, along
the whole length of it, simultaneously, the electric lamps
lit up, the light of which did not yet show much. Near
by came the hoot of a motor-car and she saw it dis-
appearing down the street in the gloom.
It was quite dark in the room and the violets smelt
sweet. He had sent them, the man whom Katia had
sinned with. That was quite clear. Dasha stood there
thinking how like a fly she had fallen into the net of a
subtle and alluring sin. It was in the fragrant scent
of the flowers, in the two words, “Love, love,” disturb-
ing and exciting, in the gentle charm of the evening.
Suddenly her heart began to beat fast. Dasha felt
something tangible, something she could almost see and
hear and touch, something forbidden and mysterious,
that scorched her with its intense sweetness. She had
suddenly solved the question of herself, had assumed —
freedom. There was no gainsaying that she knew what
had happened; in that moment she was already on the
other, side. Her severity, her icy barrier, had dissolved —
like a mist, just like the mist at the bottom of the
street, where the motor-car had disappeared, bearing —
away the two ladies in white hats. |
Only her heart beat fast and her head was slightly —
dizzy and over her body delicious cold shivers crept
and something seemed to sing within her, “I am alive, ©
I love, the whole world is mine, mine, mine.” |
“Now listen, my friend,” Dasha said aloud, “you are ©
a virgin, and you’re simply a bad character.”
She walked over to a corner of the room, where she
sat down in a soft armchair, and, slowly taking off the —
wrapper from a cake of chocolate, she tried to recall —
all the events of the last two weeks since Katia’s sin.
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In the house nothing was changed. Katia had been
even peculiarly gentle with Nikolai Ivanovitch. He
went about in a happy state and was planning to build
-a country house in Finland. Dasha alone had had to
bear “the tragedy” of these two blind people. To be the
first to broach the subject with her sister she dared not,
and Katia, who had always been so sensitive to Dasha’s
moods, on this occasion, seemed to notice nothing.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna ordered for herself and Dasha new
spring costumes for Easter, spent a great deal of time
at tailors’ and dressmakers’, helped to arrange charitable
bazaars, at Nikolai Ivanovitch’s request, organized a
literary entertainment for the unproclaimed purpose of
raising ‘money for the left section of the Social Dem-
ocratic party, the so-called Bolsheviks, who were starv-
ing in Paris, received visitors on Thursdays as well as
Tuesdays—in a word, had not a spare moment to herself.
“And you’ve been a coward all the while, too timid
to decide on anything; you’ve only been worrying about
the moral problem, about which you understand
nothing and never will understand until you singe your
own wings,” Dasha thought, laughing softly to herself.
In the dark lake into which the icy balls had fallen and
from whence no good could be expected, there rose up,
as often happened these days, the corrosive, sinister
image of Bezsonov. She had solved the riddle of her-
self and he dominated her thoughts. Dasha grew quiet.
In the dark room a clock ticked.
Somewhere in the house a distant door banged and
she heard her sister’s voice ask: “Has she been back
long?” | !
Dasha rose and went into the hall. Ekaterina Dmit-
rievna instantly said to her: “Why are you so flushed ?”
Nikolai Ivanovitch rubbed his hands hard and dropped
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some witty remark about the resigned stage lover's
store. Dasha looked at his soft thick lips with hatred
and followed her sister into her bedroom. There, sitting
by the dressing-table, which was elegant and beautiful,
like everything in her sister’s room, she listened to the
gossip about the people they had met during their walk.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna, as she talked, tidied the mirror
cupboard, in which were gloves, pieces of lace, veils, silk
slippers, all sorts of small nothings, that smelt of her
perfumes. It appeared that Rosa Abramovna did not
have her dresses made at Madame Duclet’s but at home
and very badly made they were, too, that Vedrensky
had again spoilt a case and had no money; she had
met his wife, who complained that they found it hard
to live. At the Timiriasevs’ they had the measles.
Sheinberg had again parted from that hysterical creature
of his; it was said that she tried to shoot herself in his
flat. “And the spring has come, the spring! What a
day it has been! People are swarming in the streets
like intoxicated flies. Oh, yes, and whom do you think
’ve met? Akundin. He assured me that before very
long we shall have a revolution. You see, the factories
and the country are ina ferment. If only it would come
soon! Nikolai Ivanovitch was so elated that he took
me into the Pivato and we had a bottle of champagne
for no other cause than in honour of the future revo-
lution.”
Dasha listened to her sister in silence, stopping and
unstopping the crystal bottles on the table.
“Katia,” she said suddenly, “as I am I’m no use to
any one, don’t you see?” Ekaterina Dmitrievna, her
hand inside a silk stocking, turned and looked intently
at her sister. “And what is more, I’m no use to myself
as Iam. It is as though a person had taken to eating
[ 54]
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raw carrots and thought that thereby he became supe-
rior to others.”
“I don’t understand you,” Ekaterina Dmitrievna said.
Dasha looked at her sister’s back and sighed.
“All are bad, every one I must be judging. One is
stupid, another is horrid, a third is dirty. Only I am
all right. I am out of place here and it worries me.
I judge you, too, Katia.”
“Why?” asked Ekaterina Dmitrievna softly, without
turning.
“Just think of it. I go about with my nose in the
air, that’s the sum total of my superiority. It’s merely
foolish and I’m tired of being a stranger among you
all. Don’t you see, Katia, I’m very much attracted to a
certain man.” ;
Dasha had spoken with her head down; she had
thrust a finger into one of the little crystal bottles and
could not pull it out again.
“T’m glad to hear it, my dear, if you like him. You'll
be happy. Who should be happy, if not you?” Ekate-
rina Dmitrievna gave a slight sigh.
“But you see, Katia, it’s not so simple as all that.
According to my idea, I’m not in love with him.”
“Tf you like him, you will love him.”
_ “The whole trouble is that I don’t like him.”
“But you've only just said that you are attracted to
him. You're really %
“Don’t quibble, Katia, dear. Do you remember the
Englishman in Sestroretsk? I was attracted to him,
even in love with him. But then I was more myself.
. I used to be angry and hide myself and cry at
night, but it all flowed off me like water. But this
man... I cannot even tell whether it is he... . Yes,
itis he... . Yes, itis he. . . . He has turned my head.
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. I am quite different now. I feel as though I had
inhaled some vapour. . . . If he were to come into my
room now, 1 wouldn’t stir... .”
“My God, Dasha, what are you saying?”
“Tsn’t that what is called sin, Katia? I feel it.”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna sat down on the edge of her
sister’s chair and drawing her close to herself, took her
hot hand and kissed the palm, but Dasha gently dis-
engaged herself, sighed, and resting her head on her
hand, stared out of the dark window at the stars.
“Who is he, Dasha?”
“Alexis Alexeyevitch Bezsonov.”
At this Katia sat down on the chair near by, clutched
her throat and remained immovable. Dasha could not
see her sister’s face, which was hidden in the shadow,
but she felt that she had said something terrible.
“So much the better,” she thought, turning away,
and with this “‘so much the better,” she felt both re-
lieved and desolate.
“Why can’t I do what others do? For two years I
have listened to the tale of some six hundred and sixty-
six love affairs and in the whole of my life I have only —
been kissed once by a schoolboy in a hut on the skating —
rink,”
She sighed heavily and ceased. Ekaterina Dmitrievna_
now sat bent, her hands dropped on her knees.
“Bezsonov is a very wicked man,” she said. “He’s a —
terrible man, Dashenka. Do you hear me?”
“Ves,”
“He will break you completely.”
“But what can I do now?”
“T won't allow it! Let others . . . let me perish,
but not you, not you, my dear!”
“A crow is bad; it is black in body and soul,’ Dasha
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
said laughing. “What is there. bad about Bezsonov?
Tell me.”
Mecca t tell. you. . acuneevdon tt know.) sien eee d
shudder when I think of him.”
“But I thought that you, too, rather liked him.”
“Never! I hate him! The Lord preserve you from
him!”
“Now, Katia, my dear, you’ve really fired my curi-
osity. Now I shall certainly fall into his net.” |
“What are you saying? Have you gone mad?”
Dasha was pleased by the conversation; she seemed
_to be walking the plank on tiptoe. She was gratified
by Katia’s excitement. She hardly thought of Bezsonov,
but purposely began talking of her feeling towards him,
about the occasions on which they had met, about his
face. She so exaggerated everything as to make it
appear that all her nights were spent in sinful thoughts
and that she was ready to run to Bezsonov that very
moment. At last she herself was amused. She wanted
to take Katia by the shoulders and kiss her and say,
“Tf there is a little fool, it is you, Katusha,” but Ekat-
erina Dmitrievna suddenly slipped from her chair to the
floor and seizing Dasha, she pressed her face against
her knees, and trembling violently, she cried:
“Forgive me! Forgive me! Dasha, forgive me!”
Dasha was alarmed. Bending down to her sister, from
fear and pity she, too, began to cry, and sobbing, asked
Katia what she meant and what there was to forgive.
But Ekaterina Dmitrievna merely clenched her teeth
and fondled and kissed Dasha’s hands.
[ 57 ]
VI
At dinner, observing the two sisters, Nikolai Ivano-
vitch said: “Hm! Can I not be informed of the cause
of these tears?” .
“The cause is my own vicious mood,” Dasha in-
stantly rejoined. “Don’t worry yourself, please. I know
quite well, without your aid, that the whole of me, this
fork included, is not worth your wife’s little finger.”
After dinner some visitors arrived to coffee. In view
of the family mood, Nikolai Ivanovitch decided that they
should all go to some drinking place. Kulchok tele-
_ phoned to a garage; Katia and Dasha were sent to
change their dresses. Chirva arrived and hearing where
the company was going, lost his temper.
“After all, what suffers most from these continuous
drinking bouts? Russian literature.”
But he, too, was taken in the motor with the others.
The “Northern Palmera” was noisy and packed with
people. It was a large, low basement hall, brilliantly
illuminated by six crystal chandeliers. The chandeliers,
the tobacco smoke, which met them at the door, the men
in evening dress, the bare shoulders of the women, their
coloured wigs of green, purple and grey, the fine sprays
of osprey, the precious stones, shimmering on throats
and ears in clusters of orange, blue and ruby rays, the
waiters, slipping in and out among the crowd, the lean
man with the clump of clammy hair sticking to his. fore-_
head, his uplifted arms, his magic baton, cutting the air
by the red velvet curtains, the gleam of the brass trum-
[ 58 ]
§
;
-
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
pets were all repeated and multiplied in the walls of
mirrors, until it seemed that in endless perspective the
whole human race, the whole world was gathered there.
Dasha, drawing her champagne up through a straw,
observed the tables meanwhile. By a steaming pail
and some fruit peel sat a clean-shaven man with pow-
dered cheeks. His eyes were half closed, his lips cyni-
cally compressed. He was sitting there reflecting, no
doubt, that the time would come when the electric light
would go out and all the people would be dead. Over
there were a man and wife. They had probably quar-
relled at home and were still snapping at each other
in whispers, though there was a smile on the woman’s
fat face and the man was lazily shifting his cigar from
one corner of his mouth to the other.
The curtains trembled and parted on either side and
a little Japanese, as small as a child, with a tragically
wrinkled face, appeared on the platform and began to
manipulate in the air various coloured balls, plates and
torches. As she watched him, Dasha thought:
“What did Katia mean by ‘Forgive me, forgive me’?”’
And suddenly a band of iron seemed to grip her head,
her heart stopped beating. “Could it be?” She shook
her head and sighed deeply, and without giving herself
' time to consider the significance of her “Could it be?”
she looked across at her sister.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna was sitting at the other end of
the table, looking so weary and sad and beautiful that
Dasha’s eyes filled with tears. She raised her finger
to her lips and blew on it imperceptibly. It was a sign
agreed upon between them. Katia noticed it and gave
a slow, gentle smile.
_ About two o’clock a dispute arose as to where they
should go next. Ekaterina Dmitrievna suggested home,
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but Nikolai Ivanovitch ruled that he would go where ©
the others went and the “others” decided to go “further
afield.”
Just then, through the dispersing crowd, Dasha caught
sight of Bezsonov. He was sitting with his elbow rest-
ing far on the table, listening intently to Akundin, who,
with a half-gnawed cigarette in his mouth, was saying
something and drawing rapidly with his finger-nail on
the tablecloth. It was on Akundin’s flying finger-nail
that Bezsonov’s gaze was fixed. It seemed to Dasha
that above the din she heard the words “An end, an
end to everything,” but they were both hidden from
view by a stout Tartar waiter. Katia and Nikolai Ivan-
ovitch rose and Dasha called out; she stood for some
moments, her curiosity aroused, excited and dishevelled.
When they came out into the street the frosty air smelt
unexpectedly keen and sweet. The stars twinkled in the
dark purple sky. Some one behind Dasha said, laugh-
ing, “It’s a devilishly fine night!’ A motor glided up
to the pavement and from behind it, out of the petrol
fumes, there stepped a ragged individual, who pulled off
his cap and with a flourish, opened the door of the car.
Dasha stood to look at him as she stepped in. He was
thin, had a growth of bristles on his unshaven face and
a bitter mouth. He was shivering and pressed his elbows
against his sides.
“A pleasant evening, spent in the temple of luxury
‘and emotional delights!” he called out bitterly in a
hoarse ‘voice, adroitly catching the forty-kopeck piece
some one had thrown to him. Dasha felt that his dark,
angry eyes had pierced through her.
They returned home late. Dasha lay on her back in
bed. She did not fall asleep, but seemed to lose con-
sciousness of her body, so exhausted was she.
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Suddenly, with a groan, she pushed the clothes off
her chest, sat up and opened her eyes. The sun shone
in through the window on the floor. “Heavens! What
a horrible thing it was!” She was so frightened that
she nearly cried, but when she came to herself, she
seemed to have forgotten what it was all about. Only
in her heart there remained a pain, as from some hor-
rible nightmare.
After luncheon, Dasha went to her lectures, entered
her name for the examination, bought some books and
until dinner time was severe and industrious, learning by
heart a boring course in Roman law. In the evening
she again had to put on silk stockings (in the morn-
ings it had been decided to wear cotton ones), to powder
her arms and shoulders and to redress her hair. “I
should like to make a bun on the nape of the neck, but
people are all for a fashionable headdress. How can
I make one, when my hair won’t stay up?” It was all
very troublesome. On her new blue silk dress there
was a stain from champagne, on the very front of it.
Dasha. grew suddenly so grieved about her dress, so
‘grieved at her wasted life that she sat down and burst
into tears with the spoilt skirt in her hand. Nikolai
Ivanovitch was about to come in at the door, but catch-
- ing sight of Dasha in her chemise and in tears, he called
his wife. Katia rushed in, seized the dress, exclaiming,
“We will soon get rid of this!” She called the Great
Mogul, who came in with some benzine and hot water.
The dress was cleaned, Dasha was helped to dress,
while Nikolai Ivanovitch kept pacing up and down the
hall saying, “It’s a first night, you must remember, we
mustn’t be late!’ Of course, they arrived at the theatre
late.
Sitting in a box beside her sister, Dasha watched a
[61 ]
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man with a false beard and unnaturally wide-open eyes,
who stood by a flat tree, talking to a girl in bright pink.
“Sophia Ivanovna, I love you, I love you!” And he
held her hand. Though the play was not at all sad,
Dasha wanted to cry. She was sorry for the girl in
bright pink and annoyed that the plot did not work out
to her liking. The girl, it appeared, loved and did not
love and when the man embraced her, she laughed like
a mermaid and ran away to the villain, whose white
trousers gleamed higher up the stage among the tree
trunks. The man clutched his head and swore to de-—
stroy some manuscript, the work of his life, and the
first act was finished.
Some friends came into the box and there began the
usual hastily started conversation.
Little Sheinberg with his bald head and clean-shaven,
wrinkled face which seemed to jump out of his stiff
collar said that the play was interesting.
“The sex problem again, but cleverly presented. Man
must, after all, make an end to this cursed question.
To which Burov, a tall man, a Liberal and prominent
examining magistrate, whose wife had run away the
Christmas before with the owner of some racing stables,
replied :
“Who must? As far as I am concerned, the ques-
tion is settled. A woman deceives by the very fact of
her existence, a man deceives by the help of art. The
sex question is an abomination and art is merely one of
the aspects of capital crime.”
Nikolai Ivanovitch laughed and glanced at his wife.
Burov continued gloomily.
“When the time comes for the bird to lay an egg, the
male puts on a brightly coloured tail. That’s a lie,
because naturally his tail is grey, not bright. When a
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
flower blooms on the tree that is also a lie, a delusion,
because the essence is in the ugly root beneath the
ground. A man lies most of all. Flowers do not bloom
on him and he has no tail, so he takes refuge in his
tongue and invents love and all the things connected with
it—a twofold and horrible lie. It’s a thing enigmatic
for young ladies.only of tender age,” he looked askance
at Dasha, “but in our dull times, unfortunately, the
most serious-minded people are amused by it. Yes,
Russia is suffering from indigestion.”
With a grimace he bent over a box of chocolates, and
rummaging about in it with his fingers, picked out one
filled with rum, put it in his mouth, then looked through
his opera glasses that were hanging on a strap across his
shoulder. |
The conversation turned on political stagnation and
reaction. Kulchok, working his eyebrows, related the
latest court scandal in an excited whisper.
“It’s like a nightmare!’ Sheinberg said hastily. Nik-
olai Ivanovitch slapped himself on the knee.
“It’s a revolution we want, a revolution immediately;
otherwise we'll simply perish. I have information”—he
lowered his voice—“that the factories are in a very dis-
turbed state.”
In his excitement the whole of Sheinberg’s ten clas
flew into the air.
“But when, when? One can’t wait indefinitely.”
“We'll live to see it, Yakov Alexandrovitch, you wait,”
Nikolai Ivanovitch said cheerfully, “and Your Excel-
lency shall have the portfolio of the Minister of Justice.”
Dasha was tired of listening’ to these problems of
revolutions and portfolios. With an elbow resting on
the velvet ledge of the box and an arm round Katia’s
waist she looked down into the body of the house, now
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and again smiling to an acquaintance. Dasha saw and
knew that she and her sister were admired and the
glances distinguished in the crowd—tender on the part
of the men and spiteful on the part of the women—
the fragments of sentences and the smiles, excited her
like the spring air. Her tearful mood had passed. One
of her cheeks, near the ear, was tickled by Katia’s
hair.
“T do love you, Katia!’ Dasha said in a whisper.
“And I you.”
“Are you pleased that I live with your”
“Very.”
Dasha tried to think of something else pleasant to
say to Katia, when suddenly she caught sight of Telie-
gin. He was in a black coat, with his hat and pro-
gramme in his hand and had for long been standing un-
observed, staring at the Smokovnikovs’ box. His strong,
sunburnt face stood out from amidst the pale and thin
faces about him: His hdir was lighter than Dasha had
imagined; it was like corn.
When his eye met Dasha’s he bowed, then turned
away, and in doing so dropped his stick. Bending down
to pick it up, he bumped against a stout lady sitting in
the stalls; he apologized and again looked askance at the
box, but seeing that Dasha was laughing, he blushed and
stepped back, treading on the toes of the publisher of
an aesthetic journal entitled “The Chorus of Muses,”
and with a wave of his hand, he walked towards the
exit. Dasha turned to her sister.
“Katia, that’s Teliegin.”
“I know. Isn’t he a dear?”
*“‘He’s such a dear that I feel I could kiss him. And
you don’t know how clever he is, Katia!”
“There now, Dasha... .”
[ 64]
|
|
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“What ?”
But her sister was silent. Dasha understood and also
ceased. Again her heart was oppressed. There, within
her shell, all was not well; she had forgotten for a mo-
ment, but looking within again, it was dark, disturbing
and stifling.
When the lights went out and the curtains parted, it
seemed to Dasha that she had been banished from home
and had nowhere to take refuge from herself. She
sighed and turned her attention to the stage.
The man with the false beard still went on threatening
to burn his manuscript, while the girl, who was sitting
by the piano, kept on teasing him. It was evident that
the best thing to do was to get the girl married as soon
as possible rather than drag out another three acts.
All this mental aberration was merely stupid.
Dasha looked up at the painted ceiling of the theatre
and there, among clouds, a beautiful nude woman was
flying with a clear joyous smile on her lips. “Heavens,
isn’t she like me!” Dasha thought. Then instantly she
regarded herself from a detached point of view. There
was a creature in a box, eating chocolates, lying, mud-
dling, waiting for something extraordinary to happen, but
nothing happened. “And there is no life for me until I go
to him, until I hear his voice, until I feel the whole of him.
The rest is a lie. One must simply be honest.”
From that evening Dasha stopped asking herself
whether she loved Bezsonov or was attracted to him by
some wicked, unwholesome curiosity. She now knew
that she would go to him and feared the hour. Once
she had almost decided to go to her father in Samara,
but reflected that a distance of twelve hundred miles
would not save her from temptation and put the idea
aside.
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Her healthy maidenliness was outraged, but what
could you do with “the other person” when everything
in the world helped her? Besides, it was unbearably
humiliating to suffer and think so long about this Bez-
sonov, who would have none of her, and lived for his
own pleasure somewhere near the Kamennoostrovsky
Prospect, writing verses about an actress with lace petti-
coats. And Dasha was every inch of her immersed in
him, absorbed by him. 7
Dasha felt an aversion for herself. She purposely
dressed her hair plainly, in a knot on the nape of the
neck, put on an old school dress, which she had brought
from Samara, and in despair learnt Roman law by
heart, refused to go out visiting and renounced all
amusements. It was not easy to be honest. Dasha was
simply afraid.
Early in April, in the cool of the evening, when the
sunset had died down and ‘the faded green sky ‘was
illumined by a phosphorescent light that cast no shadows,
Dasha was returning home from the islands on foot.
She had told them at home that she was going to a
lecture, but instead she had taken a tram to the Elagina
Bridge and wandered the whole evening along the bare
avenues, across little bridges, gazing now at the water,
now at the purple lines in the orange sunset, at the faces
of the passers-by, at the carriage lights floating over the
mossy tree trunks. She was not thinking of anything
and did not hurry.
Her soul was calm and the whole of her being was
filled with the spring, salt sea air. Her feet ached, but
she did not want to return home to her room, which
was filled with so many stifling thoughts.
Along the broad Kamennoostrovsky Prospect car-
riages rolled quickly by and long motor-cars, while with
| 66 J
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
jests and laughter groups of pedestrians passed. Dasha
turned down a back street. |
Here it was still and deserted. There was the green
sky above the roofs. Out of every house almost, from
behind the curtained windows, strains of music could
be heard. Here some one was practising a sonata, there
a familiar waltz, there again, from a dark window of
‘an attic with the red sunset reflected in it, the clear
sounds of four voices mingled together. It seemed as
‘though in the stillness of the blue evening the very
air sang.
And in Dasha too, affected as she was by the sounds,
everything seemed to sing and to despair. Her body
seemed light and pure, without the least stain.
_ Dasha turned a corner, read the number of the house
‘on the wall, smiled, and going up to the front door
where, above a lion’s head of brass, there was a visiting
card with “A. Bezsonov” written on it, she loudly rang
the bell.
[ 67 |
VII
Some one knocked on the iron gate. On a stone seat
within the shadow of the gateway a sheepskin coat
was seen to move, a hand was held up with a bunch of
rattling keys, some one snorted. The sheepskin coat
moved, the lock creaked and the heavy gate opened.
Two men came out into the street, their chins muffled
in the collars of their coats. They were Bezsonov and
Akundin. From out the sheepskin coat the blear-eyed
face of the night watchman peered and asked for a tip,
Bezsonov thrust a twenty-kopeck piece into the end of
his sleeve and turned to the right of the deserted street.
Akundin followed somewhat behind, then caught him up
and took his arm.
“Well, Alexis Alexeyevitch, what do you think of
our prophet, Elijah?” Bezsonov immediately stopped.
“Now, look here, I think it madness! In a stuffy
little room up a backyard and up a back stairs amidst
his books and smoke to think the way he does! .
And did you notice his face? It seemed bloodless. Only
his lips were curiously red, as though he sucks them —
with words. I wonder what will happen now, if all he
says comes to pass?”
“There would be much fun in the world, Alexis Alex-
eyevitch.”
“It’s madness! To expect to set the world on fire
from that old sofa of his, amidst the tobacco smoke.
It is no use your talking to me. . . . Here it is raining,
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and it will go on raining to the end of time. You can’t
move mountains.”
They were standing by a street-lamp. Bezsonov
watched the greenish patches of light disappearing in
the gloomy drizzle.
The few passers-by, reflected in the dark asphalt, were
hurrying to their homes, their hands in their pockets,
their noses in their collars. Akundin, in a large grey hat,
looked Bezsonov up and down and smiled, stroking his
beard.
“We'll sound such a blast on our trumpets of Jericho
that not only the walls, but everything will crumble,
Alexis Alexeyevitch. Our stunts are devilishly good.
We’ve got the formula. A good deal depends on the
formula. “Open Sesame.’ And ours is such a tricky
formula that whatever you may apply it to will rot and
fall to pieces. And you talk of not being able to move
mountains. For the prosperity, let us say, of the Alaun-
sky hills, we must go and fight the Germans and burn
their towns. Hurrah, boys, for the Faith, the Tsar and
the Fatherland! But try and apply our formula to that.
Comrades, Russians, Germans and so on, you are naked
and poor, you, who are the lowest of the low, enough
of your blood has been drunk by your oppressors!
Come, let us build universal justice. We do not ask less
of you. It is you only who are human beings, the rest
are parasites. What does it mean? What parasites?
What is universal justice? Don’t you see, Alexis Alexe-
yevitch, the kind of gesture that is necessary—the same
kind with which Jesus Christ from the mount testified
to the earthly kingdom. It’s essential to go on repeating.
You must explain by examples what universal justice
is, so that it can be comprehended by the Kashirsky
district, by the village of Brukhin, by the peasant Likse
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Ivanov Sedmoi, who from the age of twelve has been
working at some brickyard for fifty-five kopecks a day,
providing his own food. Example: Do you see that
stone house over there? We do. The brick manufac-|
turer is sitting inside it, with a watch-chain across his
stomach, do you see? We do. He’s got a cupboard full
of money and there’s a severe-looking policeman walk-|
ing up and down by his windows, do you see him? We
do. By universal justice it is all yours, comrades. Do
you understand? And you, Alexis Alexeyevitch, accuse
- us of being theorists. We are like the early Christians.
They prostrated themselves before the poor and we
before the humble and wronged before the torn and ta
)
tered who scarcely look human; we bow down low be-
fore them on behalf of the five continents. The early
Christians had a formula and we have a formula; they
went on crusades and we go on crusades. . . .”
Akundin laughed; he tried to make out Bezsonov’s
face, which was over-shadowed by his hat. Then, look-
ing at his watch, he added hastily: |
“You'll kick against it, but you’ll come to us, Alexis
Alexeyevitch. We want men like you. . . . The time
is near; we are living through the last days... . ” He
laughed to still his excitement and, with a jerk, firmly
pressed Bezsonov’s hand and disappeared round the
corner. For some time the assured sound of his heels:
along the pavement could still be heard. Bezsonov hailed
a cab. Somewhere in the wet gloom some one smacked’
his lips and a vehicle rattled up. A woman stopped by.
the lamp-post and also began to watch the disappearing
lights. Then she spoke, hardly moving her tongue. |
“T will never forgive.”
Bezsonov started and looked at her. Her face, :
wrinkled and drunken, was laughing all over. An izvoz-
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chik drove up—a tall peasant with a small horse. ‘Wo!’
he said in a thin voice. Getting into the wet cab Bez-
sonov remembered that he had an appointment with a
woman. It would probably be dull and commonplace.
So much the better. He gave the izvozchik the address
and putting up his collar, he swam past the hazy out-
lines of the houses, the diffusing lights from the win-
dows, the little clouds of yellow fog around each street-
lamp.
As he drew up at the restaurant the izvozchik said in
a broken voice, used only for the gentry:
“You’re the fourth I’ve brought here today. Is the
food so good? One of them was in a mighty hurry.
‘Tl give you a rouble,’ he said, ‘if you'll whip up.’ And
my horse is not a good one.”
Bezsonov, without noticing how much, thrust a hand-
ful of change into his hand and ran up the broad
staircase of the restaurant. The porter, when taking off
his coat, said:
“Alexis Alexeyevitch, some one is waiting for you.”
“Who is it?”
“A lady whom we don’t know.”
Bezsonov, with his head raised high and staring be-
fore him with glassy eyes, walked across the low hall,
which was packed with people, to his own little table.
The maitre d’hotel, Loskutkin, a gentle old man, leant
over the tablecloth and observed that there was a good
leg of mutton today, but Bezsonov said:
“T don’t want anything to eat. Give me some white
wine. The kind I like.”
He.sat straight and severe, ‘his hands on the table-
cloth. At that hour and in that place there descended
on him his habitual condition of gloomy inspiration.
All the impressions of the day seemed to link them-
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selves into one harmonious, comprehensive form and,
into the very depths of him, moved as he was by the
wail of the Rumanian fiddler, the scent of the women’s
perfumes, the hot atmosphere of the crowded hall, there
entered that spirit emanating from outward forms—the
spirit of inspiration. With some blind inner sense he
felt himself penetrate to the mysterious meaning of
things and words—a laughing face in tears by the lamp-
post, the music, the sensuous ecstasy of this dark night,
the fantastic wanderings of the prophet Elijah (Uri
Davidovitch Aliseyev, the publicist and sociologist, to
whom Akundin had taken him that day) and all the
strange comparisons and examples and laughter at the
street corner by the lamp-post.
Bezsonov raised his glass and drank the wine without
opening his lips. Huis heart beat evenly. There was an
unutterable sense of pleasure in feeling the whole of
himself penetrated by sounds and voices.
At the table opposite, beneath the mirror, there were
supping together Sapojkov, Antoshka Arnoldov, a gaunt
individual with tragic eyes, and Elisaveta Kievna. Yes-
terday she had written Bezsonov a long letter appoint-—
ing a meeting with him here and now she was sitting
flushed and excited. She wore a dress of some striped
material of black and yellow and the same kind of band
in her hair. When Bezsonov came in, she felt suffo-
cated. Sapojkov said:
“T bet you are afraid.”
“Be careful,” Arnoldov whispered with a broad smile,
exposing his rotten and golden teeth, “he has left his
actress; he has no woman now and is as dangerous as
a tiger.”
Elisaveta Kievna laughed, shaking the striped ribbon
in her hair and walked over between the tables to Bez- —
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sonov. Every one looked at her and chairs were moved
to make way for her.
Lately Elisaveta Kievna’s life had been very dull.
Day followed day with nothing to do, with no hope
in the future—she was in despair. Teliegin plainly did
not love her. He treated her kindly, but avoided seeing
her alone. In desperation she knew that it was he that
she wanted. When she heard his voice in the corridor,
Elisaveta Kievna raised her eyes from her book and
fixed them on the door. He walked along the corridor
on tiptoe as usual. She waited, the beating of her heart
ceasing, the door swimming before her eyes, but again
he had gone past. If only he had knocked and asked
for some matches. Besides, it was all so senselessly
humiliating.
A few days ago, to spite Jirov, who with cat-like
caution abused everything on earth, she bought Bez-
sonov’s book, the pages of which she cut with some
curling tongs. She read it through several times, upset
some coffee over it, crumpled the pages in bed and at
dinner announced that Bezsonov was a genius. . . . Tel-
iegin’s lodgers were shocked. Sapojkov said that Bez-
sonov was a fungus growing on the decomposing body
of the bourgeoisie. The veins on Jirov’s forehead stood
out. He said:
“Tt seems to me that you don’t sufficiently understand
the kind of poetry it is. It is weak and without back-
bone.” |
The artist, Valet, flung down his fork. Only Teliegin
remained unconcerned. Then she experienced what she
called ‘“‘a moment of self-provocation.” She laughed and
went into her room, wrote Bezsonov an enthusiastic,
ridiculous letter, in which she asked to see him, re-
turned to the dining-room and silently threw the letter
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on the table. The lodgers read the letter aloud and dis-
cussed it for a long time. Teliegin said:
“It’s very boldly written.”
Then Elisaveta Kievna sent the cook to post it and
felt that she was making headlong for the abyss.
As she now approached Bezsonov, Elisaveta Kievna
said resolutely, “I wrote to you. You have come. Thank
you.”
And she immediately sat down opposite him, side-
ways; she crossed her legs, rested her elbow on the
table and began to stare at him with her pencilled eyes.
He was silent. Loskutkin put down a second glass
and poured out some wine for Elisaveta Kievna. She
said:
“You will, no doubt, ask why I wanted to see you.”
“TI will not ask. Have some wine.”
“You are right. I have nothing to tell you. You
live, Bezsonov, and I do not. If I had the money I
would race over Europe in a motor-car until I had
fallen down an abyss. To put it shortly, I am bored.”
“What do you do?” ;
“T was asked to join the party to carry out acts of |
terrorism, but I hate discipline. I’m too squeamish to
become a courtesan, and as for some useful occupation, —
I would sooner hang myself. What can one do just
now when everything is decaying and rotting? I do
nothing. Are you horrified? Disgusted? I ask you, ©
what shall I do?”
“People like you will have to wait a bit,’ he replied,
holding his glass up to the light. “The time is coming |
soon, very soon, when thousands of fossilized chimeras
like you will flock to get their prey. You have the eyes —
of a chimera.” And he slowly sucked the wine through ©
his teeth. | 3 |
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Elisaveta Kievna did not quite understand what he
meant, but she flushed with pleasure. Feeling a ready
listener in her, Bezsonov’s “style” changed automatically.
He resolved to indulge in the pleasure of) casting a
charm ‘over this woman, so pacified by his attention, of
enveloping her in the obscure fog of fantasy. He spoke
of the night descending on Russia that would bring ful-
fillment and a terrible reckoning. He could see this by
mysterious and sinister signs. On the hoardings and
on the walls of the houses, in the form of trade adver-
tisements, the image of the devil had begun to appear.
Yesterday, for instance, the firm “Cosmos” had posted
up a huge poster representing an endless staircase, down
which, on a motor tire, flew a laughing devil, flaming
red, like blood. And on a hoarding in Denejni Street
_he had seen a poster showing a cloud from which a
hand pointed down to the terrible inscription “In the
near future.” !
“Do you realize what it means? There will soon be
_ great scope for you, Elisaveta Kievna.”
While he spoke he filled the glasses. Elisaveta Kiev-
na looked at his cold eyes, his feminine mouth, at his
raised thin eyebrows, at the slight trembling of his
fingers as he held the glass, at the way he drank, eagerly
and slowly. Her head went pleasantly round. From
where he sat Sapojkov began to make signs to her.
Suddenly Bezsonov stopped, turned round and asked
with a frown:
“Who are these people?”
“Friends of mine.”
“T don’t like their making signs.”
Then Elisaveta Kievna said without thinking:
“Shall we go somewhere else?”
Bezsonov looked at her intently. Her eyes squinted
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slightly, her lips smiled feebly, small beads of perspi-
ration appeared on her temples. He was suddenly seized
with a desire to possess this strong, short-sighted girl. He
took her large, hot hand resting on the table and said:
.“You. must either leave me immediately, or be silent.
Let us. go.) Tt nrastibe. ..../
Elisaveta Kievna merely gave a little gasp and her
cheeks turned pale. She did not know how she got
up from her chair, nor how she took Bezsonov’s arm,
nor how her coat was put on in the cloakroom. And
when they got into the cab even the wind did not cool
her burning skin. The cab rattled over the stones.
Bezsonov leant with both hands on his walking-stick,
rested his chin on them and said:
“You said just now that I live.. I have lived. I am
thirty-eight, but my life is finished. I am no longer
deceived by love. What can be sadder than to realize
suddenly that the noble steed is no more than a miser-
able hobby-horse? And there is a long time yet to drag
out this life, like a corpse... .”
He turned; his upper lip curled into a smile.
“It. seems that like you I must wait for the blast of
the trumpets of Jericho. How nice it would be if the
sound were to break out suddenly over this graveyard
33
and the sky were to turn a flaming red... .
They drove up to a hotel outside the town. A sleepy
waiter led them down a long corridor to the only vacant
room. It was a low room with a red wall-paper, torn
and dirty. Against the wall, beneath a large, jaded can-
opy, stood a bed, at the foot of which was an iron
washstand. There was a smell of mustiness and stale
tobacco smoke.
few years ago I would have believed that I could still -
drink of eternal youth. I would not have let you go
from me. I would have fastened on the cup. ia |
Dasha felt that he was digging needles into tee. His |
words were protracted torture. :
“Niow I can only spill the precious wine. You must
realize what this means to me. To stretch out my hand —
ag stakes) tei.
“No, no!” Dasha said in a hurried whisper. i
“But it is so. . . . And you feel it. There is no |
sweeter sin than to squander and to spill. That is why —
you have come to me. Otherwise you would have —
guarded forever behind your white curtains the cup of ©
honey God has given you. You have brought it to
THEE ie tans .
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He half closed his eyes slowly. Dasha, holding her
breath, looked in horror at his face.
“Daria Dmitrievna, may I be frank with you? You
are so like your sister that at first Pr
“What?” Dasha cried. “What did you say?”
“T feared that under the circumstances, it would be
too hard to conquer myself.”
Dasha jumped up from her chair and stood before
him. Bezsonov did not understand the reason of her
excitement. He felt that he was losing his head. His
nostrils smelt fragrant perfumes and that inexplicable,
overwhelming scent of a woman’s skin.
“This is madness . . . I know. . . I cannot .
he murmured, blindly ey: to take. her hand. But
Dasha tore it back and ran away. On the threshold she
looked back with wild eyes, then disappeared. The front
door banged. Bezsonov walked slowly to the table and
drummed with his fingers on a crystal cigarette-box.
He pressed his hand over his eyes. With all the grue-
some force of his imagination it seemed to him that the
White Order, making ready for a decisive battle, had
sent this spirited, gentle, alluring girl to attract him, to
direct and to save him. But he was hopelessly in the
hands of the Black and beyond salvation. Slowly, like
a poison coursing through his blood, they excited his
unquenchable thirst and pity.
99
[387]
Vill
“Is that you, Dasha? Come in.”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna was standing by the wardrobe
mirror putting on her corsets. She smiled absently at
Dasha and continued her absorbed twistings by the mir-
ror, dancing about on the carpet in her tight slippers.
On a low little table near by was a cup of hot water,
and all about were nail-scissors, files, pencils and pow-
der-puffs. This was a free evening and Ekaterina
Dmitrievna was “cleaning her feathers,” as they called it
at home.
“Do you know,” she said, pulling on a stocking, “they
no longer wear corsets with straight busks. Look at
this one; it’s a’new one, from Madame Duclet’s. The ©
stomach is much freer and is even a little accentuated. —
Do you like it?”
“T don’t,” Dasha said. She was standing by the wall,
her hands crossed behind her. Ekaterina Dmitrievna
raised her brows in wonder.
“Don’t you? I’m sorry. It’s so comfortable.”
“What is comfortable, Katia?”
“Ts it the lace you don’t like? It can easily be changed. —
It’s funny that you don’t like it.”
And she again turned to right and left by the mirror.
Dasha said: |
“You needn’t ask me if I like your corsets.”
“Oh, well, Nikolai Ivanovitch doesn’t understand
these things.” .
“T don’t see where Nikolai Ivanovitch comes in.”
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“Dasha, what is the matter?”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna stood open-mouthed in wonder.
She only now remarked that Dasha could scarcely con-
tain herself, that she spoke through clenched teeth and
_ that there were red patches on her cheeks.
“T think you might stop dancing before the mirror.”
“But I must make myself tidy.”
“For whom?”
“Well, really . . . For myself, of course.”
“You lie.”
For long after this the sisters were silent. Ekaterina
Dmitrievna took from the back of a chair a camel-hair
dressing gown lined with blue silk; she put it on and
slowly tied the girdle. Dasha watched her movements
intently, then said:
“Go to Nikolai Ivanovitch and tell him everything,
honestly.”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna continued to stand there, fid-
dling with her girdle. A lump could be seen to rise in
her throat as though she were swallowing something.
“Dasha, have you heard anything?” she asked softly.
“I have just come from Bezsonov’s.” Ekaterina
Dmitrievna looked up quickly with her bedimmed eyes
and turned deadly pale. Her shoulders twitched. “You
need have no fear; nothing happened to me there. He
told me in time that my charms were enhanced by’ my
resemblance to you.”
Dasha stepped from one foot to the other.
“T have long suspected that it was with him. . . . But
it was too disgusting to believe. You were a coward
and you lied, and it seems that you are now resigned.
. . . But I tell you I won't live in this filth. . . . Go
to your husband and tell him and then disentangle your-
self as best you know how... .”
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Dasha could say no more. Her sister was standing
before her with bowed head. Dasha had expected any-
thing but this submissive bowed head.
“Shall I go now?” Katia asked. ‘
‘Yes. This'imoment.... yD demand’... Yom
must understand yourself... .”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna gave a gentle sigh and walked
towards the door. She hesitated for a moment and
said :
“T can’t, Dasha.” But Dasha was silent. “Very well,
I will tell him.” |
Nikolai Ivanovitch was sitting in the drawing-room >
scratching his beard with a bone paper-knife and read-
ing Akundin’s article in “The Russian Review,’ which
he had only just received.
The subject of the article was the commemoration of
the anniversary of Bakunin’s death. Nikolai Ivano-
vitch was enjoying himself.
“Katia, my dear, sit down. Just listen to what he
says here... . ‘It is not so much in his mode of thought,
nor in his untiring devotion to the cause that the fas- —
cination of the man lies’—that is, Bakunin—‘as in the
pathos of his translation of ideas into real life, which
could be seen in every action of his—in his night-long
discussions with Proudhon, in the gallantry with which —
he fought in the very heat of the battle, even in his ro- ©
mantic gesture when, merely passing through the coun- ©
try, he directed the guns of the Austrian rebels, with- —
out quite knowing whom and what they were fighting
for. Bakunin’s pathos is the symbol of the fury with
which the new classes enter the fight. The materialization
of ideas is the problem of the coming age. Not the ab-
straction from the mass of facts, which are subjected
to the blind inertia of life, not the withdrawal into the
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world of ideals, but a contrary process—the conquest of
the physical world by the ideal world. Reality is an
inflammable mass, ideas are the sparks. The two
worlds are separate and hostile. They must be welded
together in the flame of the world revolution.’ Just
think, Katia. . . . It’s as plain as a pike-staff. Hurrah
for the revolution! A splendid fellow, Akundin! We
are certainly living in a time void of big ideas and deep
feeling. The government is only guided by its insane
fear of the future. The intellectuals spend their time
eating and drinking; it is time to open the windows.
We do nothing but talk and talk, Katia, and are up to
our ears in the swamp. The people are rotting alive.
The whole of Russia is steeped in syphilis and vodka.
Russia is like a rotted mass; if you were to blow on it,
it would go into dust. We need the self-sacrificial pyre,
purification by fire... .”
Nikolai Ivanovitch spoke in an excited velvety voice;
his eyes grew round, the paper-knife he held cut the
air. Ekaterina Dmitrievna was standing near by, her
hand resting on the back of a chair. When he stopped
speaking and began to cut the pages of the review, she
went up to him and put her hand on his hair.
“Kolenko, what I am going to say will cause you
great pain. I had wanted to keep it from you, but
things have so happened that I must speak... .”
“Nikolai Ivanovitch disengaged his head from her hand
and looked at her intently.
“T am listening, Katia.”
“When we quarrelled, if you remember, I said, in
spite, that you need not be so sure of me . . . And
then I denied it. . . .”
“TI remember quite well.” He put down his book and
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swung round in his chair. His eyes, meeting Katia’s
quiet, calm gaze, were full of alarm.
“Well, I lied to you . . . I had been unfaithful to
MOEN ous
He screwed up his lips pitifully, trying to smile. His
mouth was parched. When he could no longer be silent,
he said in a hoarse voice:
“You have done well to tell me . . . Thank you,
Katia.”
She took his hand, touched it with her lips and
pressed it against her breast. But the hand slipped away
and she made no attempt to keep it. Then Ekaterina
Dmitrievna sank softly on the carpet and put her head
on the leather arm of the chair.
“Have you nothing else to say to me?”
“No, Katia, you can go.”
She rose and went out. In the dining-room doorway
she was seized unexpectedly by Dasha, who embraced
her and showered kisses on her hair, her neck, her
hands.
“Forgive me! Forgive me she whispered. “You
are wonderful, amazing! JI heard everything . . . Can
you ever forgive me, can you ever forgive me, Katia?”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna freed herself gently and went
over to the table where she straightened a crease in the
tablecloth.
“I have done what you told me to do, Dasha.”
“Katia, can you ever forgive me?”
“You were right, Dasha. It is better as it is.”
“I wasn’t right; I only said those horrible things to
you out of spite! I see now that no one is fit to judge
you. It doesn’t matter if we are all miserable, if we
all suffer, but you are in the right! I feel that you are
right in everything. Forgive me, Katia.”
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Large tears as round as peas fell down Dasha’s
cheeks. She was standing behind Katia, a step or two
away from her and said in a loud whisper:
“If you won’t forgive me, I don’t want to live. Any-
how, I don’t know how to live now . . . And if you
will treat me like this ‘:
Ekaterina Dmitrievna turned to her sharply.
“Like what, Dasha? Did you expect everything to
be as easy and affectionate as before? You must know
. . I lied because I knew that it was only by doing
so that I could go on living with Nikolai Ivanovitch a
little longer. And now there is an ending to everything.
. Do you understand? I ceased to love Nikolai
Ivanovitch long ago and have long been unfaithful to
him. I don’t know whether Nikolai Ivanovitch loves me
or not; at any rate, he is no husband to me. Do you
understand? He may have another family somewhere
or he may have no need of a woman, or perhaps he has
acute neurasthenia, I don’t know. And there you are
_hiding your head under your wing so as not to see ugly
things. I could see them all the time and I knew and
I went on living in this filth because I was a weak
woman. I could see that you, too, were being drawn
into this life. I tried to protect you and forbade Bez-
sonov the house . . . That was before he . . . How-
ever, it doesn’t matter . . . Now everything is at an
end: sop kh?
Ekaterina Dmitrievna suddenly raised her head and
listened. In between the curtains of the doorway, stand-
ing sideways, was Nikolai Ivanovitch. ‘He kept his
hands behind his back.
“Bezsonov?” he asked with a smile, shaking his head.
He came into the dining-room.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna did not reply. Red patches ap-
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peared on her cheeks; her eyes were dry; her lips tightly
compressed.
“You are mistaken if you think that our conversation is
finished, Katia.” |
He continued to smile. “Dasha, leave us alone,
please.”
“T won’t go.” And Dasha stood beside her sister.
“But you will go if I ask you.”
“IT won't go.”
“In that case, I shall have to leave this house.”
“Leave it then,” Dasha said, looking at him with.
hatred.
Nikolai Ivanovitch turned purple, but instantly his
former expression of light-hearted madness appeared in
his eyes.
“So much the better, you can stay. Now look here,
Katia . . . I stayed where you left me and, to speak the
truth, I went through some very hard moments... .I
have come to the conclusion that I must kill you. . .
PRES ik ih .
At these words Dasha pressed against her sister and ~
put both arms about her. Ekaterina Dmitrievna’s lips
trembled disdainfully.
“You are hysterical, Nikolai Ivanovitch; you must
take some valerian.”
“No, Katia, it is not hysteria this time... .
“Then do what you have come to do,” she cried, push-
ing Dasha aside and going right up to Nikolai Ivano-
vitch. “Do it! I tell you to your face, I don’t love
you!”
He stepped back, produced the revolver which had
been concealed behind his back and put it on the table.
He then put his fingers in his mouth and bit them and
turned towards the door.
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“Tt hurts! It hurts!’
Then Ekaterina Dmitrievna rushed up to him, seized
his shoulders and turned his face to hers.
“It’s a lie! You know it’s a lie! . . . You are lying
this moment! . . .” But he shook his head and went
out. Ekaterina Dmitrievna sat down by the table.
“Well, Dashenka, we have had the shooting scene
from the third act. You can see for yourself what a
woman must come to with a weakling like that... I
shall leave him.”
“Heavens! Katia!”
“T shall go away; I can’t live like this. In five years
I shall be old; it will be too late then. I can’t live like
this any longer . . . It’s horrible, horrible!” She cov-
ered her face with her hands, then buried it in her arm
on the table. Dasha sat down beside her and gently
kissed her shoulder. Ekaterina Dmitrievna raised her
head. |
“Don’t think that I am not sorry for him. I am al-
ways sorry for him. If I were to go to him now we
should start a long conversation which would be false
through and through. It seems as if a demon were al-
ways between us, twisting our words. To talk to him
is like playing on a piano that is out of tune. I shall go
' away. Dasha, my dear, if only you knew how miserable
I feel! I want something so different. All my life I
have been aching to love. To love in such a way that
every moment, with every thought, with the whole of
my body, with my skin, I; should be conscious that I
loved .. . As] am I hate myself.”
Nevertheless, late in the evening, Ekaterina Dmitri-
evna went into her husband’s study.
They talked for a long time, quietly and sadly, each
trying to be honest with the other, and not sparing them-
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selves. Both, however, were left with the impression
that nothing had been accomplished by the talk; they
had failed to understand each other and had not been
brought any closer by it.
When left alone Nikolai Ivanovitch sat sighing at the
table until daybreak.
“During those hours, so Katia learnt later, he had re-
viewed the whole course of his life. The result was a
long epistle to his wife which ended in this way: “Yes,
Katia, morally we are in a blind alley. For the past
five years I have not experienced a single deep feeling
nor have I done anything worth while. Even my love
for you and our marriage have gone by unnoticed, as it
were. An existence petty and half hysterical, perpetually
under the narcotic of the deliberate artificialities of our
life. There are only two issues, to put an end to myself
or to tear the stifling shroud that is wrapped around my
thoughts, my feelings, my consciousness . . . I am not
in a condition to.do the one or the other... .”
The family misfortune had come about so suddenly -
and the domestic world had collapsed so easily and ir-
revocably that Dasha was too overwhelmed to dream of
worrying about herself. What was there in those girl-
ish moods of hers, anyway? They reminded her of the
terrible goat on the wall which their nurse, Lukeria, used
to show her and Katia long ago. She would take a lighted
candle and put her hands together and on the wall there
would appear a goat eating cabbage-leaves and wagging
its horns.
Several times during the course of the day Dasha
would go to Katia’s door and knock gently with her
fingers, but Katia would say:
“Dasha, dear, if possible, do leave me alone.”
During those days Nikolai Ivanovitch had to appear ©
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in court. He left home early, lunched and dined in a
restaurant and returned late at night. His defence of an
excise official’s wife, Zoya Ivanovna Ladnikova, who
had murdered her sleeping lover in Gorokhova Street,
a student, Shlippe by name, the son of a Petersburg
landlord, astounded the whole court. The women pres-
ent wept. The accused, Zoya Ivanovna, who had dashed
her head against the railings, was acquitted.
Nikolai Ivanovitch, pale and weary-eyed, was besieged
by a crowd of women at the exit; they threw flowers
at him, shrieked and kissed his hands. From the court
he went home and had an explanation with Katia in
which he showed genuine tenderness.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna, it turned out, had her trunks
packed. He honestly advised her to go to the south of
France and gave her twelve thousand for expenses. As
for himselfi—this also came out during the conversation
—he had decided to entrust his practice to his assistant
and to go away to the Crimea there to rest and take
stock of himself.
It was really very vague and indefinite as to whether
they were parting for a time or forever and as to who
had left whom. These poignant questions were kept
carefully in the background in the general bustle of de-
' parture.
Both had forgotten Dasha. Ekaterina Dmitrievna
remembered only at the last moment, when, dressed in
a grey travelling costume, tired and wan and sweet, she
caught sight of Dasha sitting on a trunk in the hall.
Dasha was swinging her legs and eating bread and mar-
malade, for dinner had been overlooked that day.
“Dasha, my dear,” Ekaterina Dmitrievna said, kissing
her through her veil, “what will you do? Would you
like to come with me?”
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But Dasha announced her intention of staying on in
the flat with the Great Mogul and entering for her ex-
amination, after which she would go to her father’s for
the summer. :
[98 ]
IX
Dasha remained alone in the house. The large rooms
seemed to lose their coziness and the things in them ap-
peared superfluous. With the departure of host and
hostess even the cubist portraits began to fade and lose
their terror. The door-curtains hung in dead folds.
The lifeless arabesques of distorted flowers and figures
stood out in woeful monotony. Though the Great Mo-
gul, ghostlike, moved about the rooms each morning
flicking off the dust with a feather brush, some other in-
visible dust seemed to settle as fast again on the house.
Surrounded by this accumulation of utterly useless
and superfluous objects it struck Dasha for the first
time that her sister and brother-in-law, so to speak, nailed
themselves to life with these things, filling up the empty
places with them, not having the strength or the stick-
ing-power to hold on of themselves.
Her sister’s room spoke as a book of what she
Jived by. Here in one corner stood a small wooden
easel with an unfinished drawing on it of a girl in pro-
file in a white wreath. Ekaterina Dmitrievna had seized
on this easel in the hope of extricating herself from the
general turmoil, but had not been able to hold out. There
stood an antique work-table in disorder, filled with un-
finished pieces of work—unripped hats, bits of coloured
stuff—all begun and abandoned. Equally untidy was
her wardrobe, though it showed traces of an attempt at
orderliness, which was subsequently abandoned. And
all over the place were flung and thrust half cut books
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on Yoga, popular lectures on \anthroposophy, poetry,
novels. What many fruitless endeavours to begin a vir-
tuous life! On the dressing table Dasha found a silver-
cased memorandum block on which was jotted: “24
chemises, 8 slips, 8 lace slips. . . . Tickets for the Ved-
rinskys for ‘Uncle Vanya.’ ” And then in a round, child-
ish hand, “Dasha likes apple-tart.”
Dasha remembered that the apple-tart was never
bought. She felt so sorry for her sister that the tears
came. Affectionate and kindly, too gentle for this life,
she seized on trifle after trifle to fortify herself, to.
shield herself from destruction, but there was nothing and
no one to help her.
Dasha rose early and sat down at her books. The
result of her examination was good in almost everything.
To the telephone, which kept on ringing incessantly in
the study, she would send the Great Mogul, who invari-
ably said, “The Master and the Mistress have gone
away; the young lady cannot come to the telephone.”
On many occasions the whole evening long Dasha
would play the piano. Music did not excite her as be-
fore; it no longer aroused vague desires in her, nor
made the heart tremble strangely. Sitting quietly and
solemnly at her music-book with a candle on either side
of it, Dasha seemed to purify herself with the majestic
sounds that penetrated into every corner of that in-
iquitous house.
Sometimes during the music small foes would ap-
pear—uninvited recollections. Dasha would drop her
hands and frown. And the house would grow so still
that the guttering of the candles could be heard. Then
Dasha would sigh deeply and once more her fingers
forcefully touched the keys and the small foes, like
dust and leaves driven by the wind, fled from the big
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room somewhere into the dark corridor, behind ward-
robes and cardboard boxes. .. . She had finished for-
ever with the Dasha who had rung Bezsonov’s bell ten
days ago and had spoken those spiteful words to de-
fenceless Katia. The crude, half-crazy girl had nearly
done great harm. What an extraordinary thing it was!
As if love were the only thing in the world. And it
had not been love even, but mere curiosity, stimulated
by the general turmoil of life in the house which was
her home.
At eleven o’clock, Dasha closed the piano, blew out
the candles and went to bed. It was all done in a
resolute and business-like manner. It was in these days
that she decided to begin an independent life as soon as
possible, to earn her own living and get Katia to come
and live with her. She would surround her sister with
such loving care that never again would she have need
to weep in sorrow.
At the end of May, after the Be rirations Dasha
went to her father, by way of Rininsk, along the Volga.
She went straight from the train on board a white
steamer, brilliantly illuminated in the dark night and
black water, unpacked her things in a clean little cabin,
teflecting that the independent life had not begun so
badly, and, with her head on her elbow and smiling with
pleasure, she fell asleep, lulled by the measured throb-
bing of the engines.
She was awakened by heavy footsteps and running
about on deck. Through the Venetian shutters the sun-
light streamed in, playing in liquid rays on the ma-
hogany wash-stand. The breeze, which caught the can-
vas blinds, smelt of honey flowers and wormwood. She
opened the shutters. The ship stood near a deserted
shore, where, beneath a recent landslide, strewn with
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roots and clumps of earth, was a low bank, on which
were some loads of pine boxes. A chestnut foal, sprawl-
ing with its thin legs and thick knees, was drinking by
the water. On the bank, in the form of a large red
cross, the lighthouse beacon stuck out. Dasha jumped
down from her berth and putting a tub on the floor, she
filled a sponge with water and squeezed it over herself.
It made her shiver so with cold that she huddled her
knees to her chest. Then she put on some white stock-
ings, a white dress and white cap, which had all been
prepared overnight and sat on her with a severe smart-.
ness, and feeling independent, composed and frightfully
happy, she went on deck.
Liquid reflections of the sun danced about the whole
of the white ship; it was painful to look at the water;
the river shimmered and shone. On the further bank,
hilly and wooded, old belfries, belted by silver birches,
gleamed white. |
When the ship left the shore and making a circle
steamed away down the river, coming to meet it were
the banks of meadows and bare places and hills
and woods and patches of various coloured green and
stone.
From among the hills, looking as though they were
tumbling over, the thatched roofs of cottages could be
seen here and there. In the sky heaped clouds with blue
bases cast white shadows in the blue and yellow depths ~
of the river.
Dasha was sitting in a wicker chair, one leg crossed
over the other, embracing her knee. The sparkling
curves of the river, the clouds and their white reflec-
tions, the birch-covered hills, the meadows and gusts of
wind, which now smelt of swamp grasses, now of dry
ploughed earth, of clover and wormwood, seemed to go
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through and through her and filled her heart with a
gentle triumph.
Some man came up and stood sideways by the rail-
ing. He appeared to be staring at her. Dasha forgot
his existence now and again, but he still stood there.
She took a firm resolve not to turn round, but being too
hot-tempered to endure it calmly, she turned round
sharply and angrily. Before her stood Teliegin, his hand
on a rail, unable to make up his mind to approach her,
to speak or to go away. Dasha laughed unexpectedly ;
he made her think vaguely of something pleasant and
good. And the whole of the man, clumsy and strong
and shy, seemed like a fitting completion to the beauti-
ful river calm. She extended her hand. After exchang-
ing greetings, Teliegin said:
“I saw you come on board. We travelled in the
same carriage from Petersburg, but I didn’t want to
bother you; you looked so worried . . . I’m not in the
way, am [?” |
“Do sit down.” She moved a chair for him. “I am
going to my father’s. Where are you going?”
“To tell the truth, I don’t know yet. For the time
being I am going to Kineshma, to my people.”
Teliegin sat down beside her and took off his hat.
His eyebrows moved; wrinkles appeared on his fore-
head. With eyes half closed he looked at the water,
a foaming track cut by the ship. Above it, like midges,
keen-winged gulls sought for food, dashing down on the
water, flying up with hoarse, pitiful cries, and left far
behind, circled and fought about a floating crust.
“What a nice day it is, Daria Dmitrievna,” Teliegin
said.
“What a day, indeed, Ivan Ilyitch! On my word, I
sit here wondering how I have come out of hell alive.
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Do you remember our conversation in the street?”
“I remember every word of it, Daria Dmitrievna.”
“Since then terrible things have happened. I will tell
you all about it some day.” She shook her head pen-
sively. “You seemed to me to be the only sane man in
Petersburg. That is why I like being with you.” She
smiled gently and put her hand on his sleeve. Ivan
Ilyitch’s eyelids twitched nervously and his lips com-
pressed. “I trust you absolutely, Ivan Ilyitch. You are
very strong, aren’t you?”
“Far from it.” :
“And reliable.” Dasha felt all her thoughts to be
kindly and straightforward and loving and that Ivan
Ilyitch’s must likewise be good and true and strong.
There was a special joy in being able to express freely
and frankly all the bright emotions that filled her heart.
“TI believe, Ivan Ilyitch, that if you were to love, it would —
be in a manly way, tenderly and truly. And if you~
wanted something you would not let it go.” :
Ivan Ilyitch did not reply. He slowly pulled a piece
of bread out of his pocket and began to throw it to
the birds. A flock of white sea-gulls with excited cries
made a dash to catch the crumbs. Dasha and Ivan II-
yitch walked over to the side of the ship.
“Throw a piece to that one,’ Dasha said, “it looks
hungry.”
Teliegin threw the remaining piece of bread high in
the air. A fat sea-gull with a large head glided on
motionless wings, split in two like a skin, then shook |
them, and instantly a dozen others dived after the fall-
ing piece of bread to the water, which rushed from be-
neath the ship in a warm foam. Dasha said:
“Do you know the kind of woman I would like to be?
I should like to give up bothering about myself. Whom |
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did I love and worry about? No one but myself. I was
restless and stifled and miserable. I should like to be
the kind of woman who wears a spotlessly clean apron
and is over head and ears happily in love, and I want my
life to feel like running barefoot over the dewy ground.
I shall finish my course next year and I hope to earn
lots of money and have Katia to live with me. I am
going to be a different person. You will see, Ivan
Ilyitch. You won’t despise me any more.”
While she spoke Teliegin frowned and tried to con-
tain himself, but at last he opened his mouth, showing
a set of strong white teeth, and laughed aloud so heartily
that his lashes grew wet. Dasha flushed with annoy-
ance, but involuntarily her chin, too, began to dance,
and she laughed with Teliegin, without in the least
knowing what she was laughing at.
“Daria Dmitrievna,” he said at last, “you are wonder-
ful. . . . At first I was mortally afraid of you... .
But you are really wonderful. . . .”
“What an idea! Let us go to lunch,” Dasha said
angrily.
“With pleasure.”
Ivan Ilyitch ordered a table to be placed on deck and
began to study the wine-list, anxiously stroking his
clean-shaven chin.
“What would you say to a bottle of light white wine,
Daria Dmitrievna?”
“T should enjoy a little.”
“Chablis or Barsac?”
Dasha replied in an equally business-like way.
“T don’t mind which.”
“In that case let us have something sparkling.”
Past them floated the hilly bank with its silky green
rows of wheat and green-blue rye, and pink flowering
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buckwheat. Round a bend, above clay cliffs and rub-
bish, beneath their hats of straw, stood dwarfed little
huts with glittering windows. Further on were ten crosses
or so of the village cemetery and a six-winged mill with
a broken side. A crowd of boys were running after
the ship along the bank, throwing stones, which barely
reached as far as the water. The ship turned. On
the deserted bank was a low bush with some kites on it.
A gust of warm wind blew under the tablecloth and
under Dasha’s dress. The golden wine in large, cut
glasses seemed like a gift of the gods. Dasha re-.
marked that she envied Ivan Ilyitch. He had his own —
work to do, was sure of life, while she had to pore
for another eighteen months over her books with the
additional misfortune of being a woman.
Teliegin replied, laughing:
“They have turned me out of the Obukhovsky works.”
“You don’t mean it!”
“T had twenty-four hours in which to clear out. I
shouldn’t have been on the ship otherwise. Haven’t you
heard what has happened at the works?”
shy’ ah
Ne eOe Ose, cheaply. °. Yes), He stopped and
rested his elbows on the table. “You’ve no idea how
stupidly and inefficiently everything is done with us.
The devil knows how we get our reputation, we Rus-
sians. It’s a shame and a disgrace to think of it. Here
we are, a capable people with a’ rich country, and how
far do we see? About as far as the cheeky, grimy face
of an office clerk. Instead of life we get ink and
9
paper. You can’t think how much ink and paper we —
make. Since they started writing about Peter the Great |
they haven’t been able to stop. And there can be
blood in ink, you know.”
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Ivan Ilyitch moved away his glass of wine and
lighted a cigarette. He was evidently reluctant to con-
tinue.
“But what is the use of thinking about it? We must
hope that some day things will be better, no worse than
with other people.”
The whole of the day Dasha spent on deck. Toa
stranger it would have seemed that they talked the mer-
est nonsense, but that was because they spoke in code.
The most ordinary words, mysteriously and incompre-
hensibly, assumed a double meaning. When Dasha with
a motion of her eyes towards a short plump girl with
round, surprised-looking eyes and no brows and her
pink scarf blowing out behind her round-shouldered
back and the second mate of the ship walking intently
beside her, remarked, “Observe, the affair is going
splendidly, Ivan Ilyitch,’ what she really meant was,
“If that had been you and I, things wouldn’t have gone
quite so smoothly.” Neither of them could honestly
have remembered what each had said, but Ivan Ilyitch
was left with the impression that Dasha was more
clever, subtle and observant than himself and to Dasha
it seemed that Ivan Ilyitch was kinder, better and a
thousand times more intelligent than she was.
Dasha tried to collect her courage on several occasions
to tell him about Bezsonov, but changed her mind. The
sun scorched her knees, the wind, as with round caress-
ing fingers, touched her cheeks, her shoulders, her neck,
and the flapping flag on the front of the ship, the rope
railing of the sides, the sparkling grey deck all seemed
to float with her and Ivan Ilyitch among the clouds, past
the low, gentle banks. Dasha thought:
“T will tell him tomorrow. When it rains, I will tell
him.”
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Dasha, who, like most women, was a keen observer,
at the end of the day knew more or less everything about
their fellow passengers. To Ivan Ilyitch it seemed al-
most miraculous.
She decided that the rector of the Petersburg Uni-
versity, a morose-looking man in smoked spectacles and
an Inverness cape, must be a sharper, and though Ivan
Tlyitch knew that he was the rector of the Petersburg
University, he also began to entertain suspicions about
him. On the whole his ideas of reality were a little
shaken that day. He felt dazed or in a waking dream.
and now and again was unable to contain the onrush
of a feeling of love towards everything that he saw
and heard about him. He would gaze around and think
how delightful it would be to throw oneself ‘into the
water after that girl with the bobbed hair if she were
to bend still lower over the side with the crumbs she
was throwing to the birds and fall in.
At one o'clock at night such a sudden and delightful
feeling of sleepiness came over Dasha that she could
hardly walk to her cabin. Bidding him good night by
the door, she said with a yawn:
“Good-bye; mind you keep a lookout for that
sharper.”
Ivan Ilyitch instantly went into the first-class smok-
ing-room, where the rector, who suffered from insomnia,
was reading a book of Dumas’s. He watched him for ~
some time thinking what an excellent man he appeared,
even though he was a sharper. He returned to the
brightly illuminated corridor, which smelt of machin-
ery and varnished wood and Dasha’s perfumes. He
walked past her door on tiptoe and once in his own
cabin threw himself on his back on the bunk and closed
his eyes. He was agitated and filled with sounds and
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perfumes and the heat of the sun, but above it all he
felt an incomprehensible, poignant sadness.
At seven o’clock he was awakened by the ship’s siren.
They had reached Kineshma. Ivan Ilyitch dressed hast-
ily and peered out into the corridor. All the doors
were closed; every one was still asleep. Dasha, too,
slept. “I must get off here, or it will be damned awk-
ward,” Ivan Ilyitch thought, and went on deck. He
looked at Kineshma, reached so inconveniently soon, at
its steep high bank and its wooden steps and its medley
of tumble-down wooden houses and roofs and fences,
at the yellow-green limes of the town garden, so bright
_ in the early morning, and at the clouds of dust hanging
motionless above the carts moving down the slope. A
broad-faced sailor, treading with firm, bare feet along
the deck, appeared with Teliegin’s brown trunk... .
“No, no, take it back; I’ve changed my mind,” Ivan
Ilyitch said excitedly. “I’ve decided to go on to Nijni.
I find I needn’t go to Kineshma. Put it there under the
bunk. Thank you.”
Ivan Ilyitch remained in his cabin for three hours
trying to make up his mind how to explain to Dasha
what he considered a vulgar and intrusive thing to do.
It was clear that he could not explain it; he could
neither lie nor tell the truth.
At eleven o’clock, contrite, hating and despising him-
self, he appeared on deck, his hands behind his back,
his gait jaunty, his face deceitful; looking for all the
world like some bounder. But when he had gone all
over the deck and not been able to find Dasha, he grew
alarmed and searched for her everywhere. Dasha was
nowhere to be found. His mouth grew parched. Some-
thing had evidently happened. But suddenly he came
upon her. Dasha was sitting in the same spot as yes-
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terday, in a wicker chair, sad and quiet. On her lap
was a book and a pear. She slowly turned her head
towards him; her eyes opened wide as though with
fear and filled with joy; the colour rose on her cheeks;
the pear rolled from her lap.
“You here? Didn’t you get off?” she asked softly.
Ivan Ilyitch swallowed his emotion, )sat down, be-
side her and said in a hoarse voice:
“I don’t know what you will think of me, but I
purposely did not get off at Kineshma.”
“T won't tell you what I think of you.’ Dasha —
laughed and suddenly put her hand in his, simply and
gently, making Ivan Ilyitch’s head go round that day
even more than yesterday. |
[110]
X
As a matter of fact this is what had happened in the
Obukhovsky works.; On a rainy evening, when the
phosphorescent sky was covered with wind-swept clouds,
in a narrow street, stinking and dirty, with that partic-
ular coal and iron dirt with which the neighbouring
streets of a big works are habitually covered, there ap-
peared among the crowd of workmen, who were re-
turning to their homes after the hooter had gone, a
stranger in a rubber coat with the hood up.
For some time he followed them all, then he stopped
and began to distribute leaflets to right and left, say-
ing in a hoarse voice:
“From the Central Committee. Read it, comrade.”
The workmen took the leaflets as they walked and
hid them in their pockets or in their caps. Of late
among the sullen and angered mass of workmen, so
jealously guarded by the authorities, through every pos-
_ sible crevice there crept such young people, sent by in-
visible friends. They appeared in the guise of ser-
vants, unskilled labourers, hawkers, or like the present
one, in a cloak and hood. They would give away leaf-
lets and books, send forth rumours, explain the abuses
of the management, and all would reiterate, “If you
want to be human beings and not beasts, learn to hate
those for whom you work.” The workmen felt and
realized that on the Tsar’s government, which compelled
them to work twelve hours a day and kept them from
a full and happy life by this town of dirty streets and
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night watchmen, which forced them to eat bad food and
to dress in grimy clothes, to live with slovenly women
who grew old while they were still young, who made
them send their daughters into the streets and their
boys into loathsome factories, there had come a judg-
ment in the form of the Central Committee of the
Workers’ Party. The committee was elusive and in-
visible. The workmen hated the government because of
their monotonous life at the foundry, the Central Com-
mittee hated it in a bitter and business-like way. It
kept on repeating incessantly, “Demand, shout, revolt. |
You are taught to be good, that is mere provocation.
The proletariat’s virtue is to hate. You are told to be
patient and forgiving, that is treason! You are not
slaves. Hate and organize! You are enjoined to love
your neighbour, but your neighbour uses your love to
put you to the yoke. The only love that is worthy of
man is the love for freedom. Remember, Russia was
built by your hands. You alone are the lawful masters
of the Russian State.”
When the man in the rubber coat had nearly finished
distributing all his leaflets a night-watchman forced a
way through the crowd with his shoulders, saying hur-
riedly, “You wait there,’ and seized the man behind
by his coat. But the man was wet and slippery. He
wrenched himself free and bending to the ground, got
away. ‘There was a shrill whistle; from the distance an
answering call came. A murmur arose among the dis-
persing crowd, but the thing was done; the man in the
rubber coat had disappeared.
Some two days later the turners at the Obukhovsky
works struck, quite unexpectedly to the management.
They formulated demands which were not so serious as
insistent.
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Throughout the whole factory, which was badly
lighted by dirty windows and grimy sky-lights, vague
phrases and angry words flew about like sparks. The
men standing at the lathes looked curiously at their
superiors as they passed; they were evidently restrain-
ing some terrific excitement and were waiting for some
kind of order.
Old Pavlov, a skilled man, a tell-tale and gossip, who
was fidgeting about near a hydraulic press, had his foot
accidentally crushed by a red-hot mould. He screamed
wildly and the rumour instantly went about the works
that some one had already been killed. At nine o’clock
the black limousine car of the chief engineer dashed
into the yard like a storm.
Ivan Ilyitch arrived at the works at the usual hour.
It was a huge structure built in the form of a circus.
The windows were broken here and there; long chains
hung down from the cranes; there were smelting fur-
naces by the walls and the floor was of earth. Ivan
_llyitch stopped by the door. He shuddered from the
morning cold and bid an amiable good morning to an
incoming mechanic, Punko by name, whom he shook
by the hand.
_ They were busy on an urgent order for motor cheeks
and Ivan Ilyitch discussed the work with Punko, con-
sulting him in a thoughtful and business-like way. This
small consideration gratified Punko. He had come to
the works some fifteen years earlier as an unskilled
labourer and had risen to be chief mechanic, thinking
no end of his own knowledge and experience. Teli-
egin knew that if Punko was satisfied the work would
go quickly and well.
As he went the round of the works Ivan LIlyitch ex-
changed pleasantries with the moulders and smelters,
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in that friendly, bantering kind of tone which more
:
than anything defined their true relationship. It seemed —
to say, “You and I do the same work and are therefore
comrades, but inasmuch as I am an engineer and you
are a workman, we are actually enemies ; however, since
we like and respect each other, we may as well be
friendly.”
A’ crane moved towards one of the furnaces, its de-
scending chain clanging as it went. Philipp Shubin and
Ivan Oreshnikov, tall, muscular men, one of whom re-
sembled Pugatchev, dark, with slightly grey hair and in
round spectacles, the other, Ivan Ilyitch’s favourite, with
curly beard, fair hair fastened by a strap, blue-eyed and
athletic, began, the one to tear away the plate from the
front of the furnace, the other to shove a claw into the
high white-hot melting-pot. The chain clanged, the pot
moved forward, and, hissing and gleaming and dropping
bits of clinker, it floated away in the air to the middle
of the room.
“Stop,” called Oreshnikov, “lower it.”
Once more the crane groaned; the melting-pot came >
down and a blinding stream of bronze, emitting bursting
green stars, and sending an orange glow over the can-
vas ceiling, poured out into the ground. There was a —
heavy, sickly smell of copper fumes.
Just then the folding-doors leading into the next build-
ing swung wide open and quickly and resolutely there
walked in a young workman with a pale and angry
face; he was in a black shirt and wore a iP pulled
low over the eyes.
“Stop work and get out!’ he bucited) in a cruel
voice, looking askance at Teliegin and pulling his black
moustache. “Do you hear, or don’t you?”
“We hear, don’t shout,’ Oreshnikov said quietly,
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raising his head to the crane. “Wake up, Dmitri, let it
down.”
“If you’ve heard, then you know what to do; we
won't ask a second time,” the workman said, and turn-
ing sharply, walked out of the building.
Ivan Ilyitch, sitting near some freshly poured molten
metal, began to dig the ground carefully with a piece of
wire. Punko, sitting on a high bench by the desk at
the door, passed his hand quickly over his grey, goat-
like beard and said, blinking his eyes:
“You’ve got to stop work whether you like it or not.
The fellows don’t care who’s to feed the young ones
when they kick you out of the works.”
“You had better not talk, Vasili Stepanitch,” Oresh-
nikov said in a thick voice.
“What do you mean?”
“This is our mess. It won’t be your children who
will go hungry . . . You will soon be running to the
‘managers . . . On this occasion you had better hold
your tongue.”
“What is the strike about?” Teliegin asked at last.
“What do they want?” Oreshnikov, at whom Teliegin
was looking, turned his eyes away. Punko answered
for him.
“Tt is the locksmiths who have struck. Sixty of their
benches were put on piece work last week as an ex-
periment and it happened that the men did not earn
as much and had to put in overtime. There is a whole
list of demands put up on the door of the sixth build-
ing, but they are not serious ones.”
He dug the pen fiercely into the pot and set to writing
his report. Teliegin put his hands behind his back and
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walked the length of the furnaces, then said, with a |
motion of the eyes towards a round hole beyond which,
in an insufferable white heat, there danced and writhed
in snake-like coils the boiling bronze:
“Oreshnikov, couldn’t we manage so that this
shouldn’t spoil, eh?”
Without replying Oreshnikov took off his leathern
apron, which he hung on a nail, put on his sheepskin
cap and long thick coat and said in a heavy bass voice
that resounded throughout the building:
“Come away, comrades. Any of you who want to
can go to the sixth building through the middle door.”
And he walked towards the exit. The men silently
threw down their tools, one climbing down from the
crane, another crawling out from a hole in the ground,
and in a crowd they followed Oreshnikov. Suddenly
something occurred at the door. A shrieking, angry
voice broke out:
“Writing! Writing! You dirty cur! There, you
report about me! Go on, tell the managers!” It was
Alexis Nosov, a moulder, who was thus shouting at —
Punko. His worn unshaven face with the dim, sunken
eyes danced and writhed; a vein stood out on his thin
neck. As he shouted he banged his fist on the edge
of the desk. “Bloodsuckers! Torturers! We'll find
a knife even for the likes of you!”
Just then Oreshnikov seized Nosov round the middle
and pulled him away from the desk to the door. The
latter instantly grew quiet. The workshop was empty. -
By mid-day the whole of the works was on strike. —
There were rumours that all was not quiet at the Baltic
and Nevsky shipyards. The men stood about in big
groups in the yard, waiting to hear the results of the
conference between the management and the strike com-
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)
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mittee, which, it turned out, had long been in existence.
The conduct of the strike was left in its hands.
A meeting was going on in the office. The manage-
ment were prepared for concessions. The only hitch
now was the question of a gate in the wooden fence
which the men demanded should be opened as otherwise
they were compelled to plough through the mud for a
‘quarter of a mile. Actually no one attached any im-
portance to this gate, the matter was now merely one of
prestige; the management grew obstinate and a long
dispute arose. The strike committee placed this ques-
tion of the gate on the social plane. At this moment,
however, some one from the Ministry of the Interior
rang up on the telephone to say that the demands of
the strike committee were not to be conceded and that
until special instructions had been given no conference
was to be entered into with the committee. This order
so prejudiced the whole affair that the senior engineer
quickly dashed down to the town for an explanation.
The men wondered; on the whole they were in a peace-
ful mood. Several of the engineers went out among
the crowd and explained the situation to them, per-
plexed. Laughter could be heard here and there. No
one could believe that because of some stupid door the
whole of the works should be held up. At last, a big,
burly, grey-haired engineer, Bulbin by name, appeared
on the steps leading to the office and shouted out to the
men in the yard that the conversations had been post-
poned until tomorrow. |
_ Ivan Ilyitch stayed in the workshop until the evening
and seeing that the furnaces would go out in any case,
he went home in disgust.
In the dining-room the futurists were gathered and
appeared immensely interested in what was happening
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at the works. Ivan Ilyitch did not tell them anything,
however ; he thoughtfully munched the sandwiches which
Elisaveta Kievna had placed before him, then he departed
to his own room, locked the door and went to bed. Go-
ing to the works next day he could see even from a dis-
tance that something was wrong. All over the street,
groups of workingmen, were standing talking together. —
Near the gates was a crowd of several hundred men who
were humming like excited bees.
Ivan Ilyitch was in a soft hat and civilian overcoat
and so no one paid any attention to him. He listened to
the various groups and was able to gather that the night
before the strike committee had been arrested, that ar-
rests were still going on from among the men, that a new
committee had been formed which was meeting secretly
in some public-house and that the demands which they
now formulated were of a political kind, that the yard
of the works was full of Cossacks, and, it was said, they
had been ordered to disperse the crowd but had refused |
and that the Baltic and Nevsky shipyards and the
French and several smaller works had joined in the
strike. ’
This was all so improbable that Ivan Ilyitch resolved
to get to the office to learn the news, but with the great-
est difficulty he managed to push his way only as far
as the gates. Next to the familiar porter, Bakin, a sul-
len man in a huge sheepskin coat, stood two tall Cos- _
sacks with their caps drawn over their ears and red side-
whiskers. They looked cheerfully and impudently at the
unhealthy faces of the workmen, worn from lack of
sleep; their own faces were red and their uniforms were
smart and they were adepts, no doubt, at quarrelling and ~
sneering.
“These peasants won’t stand on ceremony,” thought
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Ivan Ilyitch and was going into the yard when the near-
est Cossack barred his way, and looking at him steadily
with his clear, merry eyes, he said:
“Where are you going to? Back, there!”
“T have to go to the office; I am an engineer.”
“Back there, I say!”
Then voices were heard in the crowd.
“Infidels! Hounds!”
“You've spilt enough of our blood!’
“Sated devils! Landlords!’
At this moment, a short pimply youth pushed his way
to the front of the crowd. He had a large crooked nose,
wore a coat much too large for him and a tall brownish
cap clumsily thrust on his curly hair. Waving an un-
developed white hand, he began, in a lisping voice:
“Comrades, Cossacks, are we not all Russians?
Against whom are you raising your arms? Against
your own brothers: Are we your enemies that you
should shoot us? What do we want? We want all
Russians to be happy. We want every man to be free
. . . We want to put an end to license. . . .”
The Cossack compressed his lips, looked the young
man up and down contemptuously, turned and walked
through the gate. The other one said in a commanding
and haughty voice:
“We can’t allow any mutiny because we have taken
the oath.”
Then the first, who had evidently thought of a re-
joinder, called out to the curly-haired youth:
“Brothers, brothers . . . You hitch your trousers up,
or they'll fall down!”
The two Cossacks laughed.
Ivan Ilyitch moved away from the gates and the surge
of the crowd pushed him to the side against the fence,
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where there were some rusty cog-wheels. He got on
them and caught sight of Oreshnikov, who with his
sheepskin cap at the back of his head, was calmly
munching some bread. He gave a motion of the brows
in Teliegin’s direction and said in his bass voice:
“A pretty business this, Ivan Ilyitch.”
“Good morning, Oreshnikov. How do you think it
will all end?”
“We shall go on shouting for a time and then touch
our caps. Every revolt ends like that. They have
brought out their Cossacks. With what can we fight
them? Unless I throw this onion at the two of them and
kill them. Queer devils.”
Just then there was a murmur in the crowd and then
silence. At the gate an abrupt commanding voice was
heard in the stillness.
“I ask you to go to your homes. Your grievances will
be seen into. Please go away quietly.”
The crowd became excited ; it moved backwards andi to
the side. Some walked away altogether, others moved
further back. The talk grew louder. Oreshnikov said:
“This is the third time they have asked us.”
“Who was it spoke?”
“Esau.”
“Comrades, don’t go away,” some one said in an ex-
cited voice, and on the cog-wheels, behind Ivan Ilyitch,
there jumped up a pale, agitated man in a large hat and
with a black tangled beard, beneath which his smart
jacket was fastened with a safety-pin at the neck. His
face seemed familiar to Ivan Ilyitch.
“Comrades, don’t go away on any account”; he ges-
ticulated with his clenched fists; “we know for certain
that the Cossacks have refused to fire. The manage-_
ment is negotiating indirectly with the strike committee.
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Besides which, the railwaymen are at this moment con-
sidering the question of a general strike. The govern-
ment is in a panic.”
“Hurrah!” some one called joyfully. The crowd be-
gan to murmur and to shout as it surged forward. Men
could be seen running up the street.
Ivan Ilyitch sought Oreshnikov with his eyes, but the
latter had moved on some distance and now stood by the
gate. From time to time his ear caught the word, “Rev-
olution, revolution.”
A frightened joyous thrill went all over Ivan Ilyitch.
Climbing up on the cog-wheels he looked upon the
crowd, which was now bigger, and suddenly he saw
Akundin standing about two steps away by the fence.
He did not recognize him at first. Ivan Avvakumovitch
Akundin wore spectacles, a cap with a large peak and a
black cape. With head bent, he was viciously gnawing
his thumb-nail. Pushing his way towards him was a
man with trembling lips and in a top-hat. Teliegin heard
him call to Akundin.
“Go, Ivan Avvakumovitch, they are expecting you.”
“T will not go,’ Akundin bit off a piece of nail and
stared with vacant eyes at the man approaching him.
“The whole committee has met. They do not want
to come to a decision without you.”
“T stay here for a particular reason, that is clear,”
Akundin replied.
“Are you mad? You see what is going on. They'll
begin to fire at any moment, I tell you. . . .” The
cheeks and lips of the man in the top-hat trembled vio-
lently.
“First, J must ask you not to shout,’ Akundin said,
“and then to go and take your attitude of compromise
away with you. I won’t take back my word... .”
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“The devil knows what madness this all is!” said the
man in the top-hat, pushing his way through the crowd.
To Akundin there walked up the workman who had
taken the men off their work in Teliegin’s workshop yes-
terday. Akundin said something to him and the former
nodded and disappeared. The same short sentence and
the nod of the head were repeated with another man,
whom Teliegin did not know. It was clear that Akundin
was giving some order. The crowd on the further side
of the gate became agitated again and shouting was
heard. Suddenly three sharp volleys were fired in suc-
cession and immediately there was silence. “A-a-h!’
groaned a stifled voice, as though intentionally. The
crowd parted and backed away from the gate. In the
trampled mud, face downwards and knees under him,
lay a Cossack. Instantly a protest arose from the crowd,
“Don’t, don’t!” The gates were opened. From behind
somewhere a fourth revolver report was heard and some
stones were flung which hit against the iron palings.
Just then Teliegin caught sight of Oreshnikov, who was
standing hatless and open-mouthed in the very front
of the fast dispersing crowd. In his horror he seemed
to have grown into the ground with his huge boots.
At this moment a rifle shot rent the air like a crack of
a whip, another, and Oreshnikov sank quietly to his
knees, then fell flat on the ground.
Within a week the investigation into the disturbances ©
at the Obukhovsky was finished. Ivan Ilyitch was one
of the people who were suspected of sympathizing with
the workmen. He was summoned to the office and,
surprising every one, he said some sharp things to the
directors, expressed his disapproval of the existing ar-
rangements and signed his resignation.
[ 122 ]
XI
Doctor Dmitri Stepanovitch Bulavin, Dasha’s father,
was sitting in the dining-room at a bent, steaming
samovar reading ‘““The Samara News.” When his cig-
arette had burned down to the end, he took another
from a flat cigarette-case, and lighted it at the end of the ~
first. He coughed, turned purple in the face and put
his hand in at his unfastened shirt and scratched his
hairy chest. His starched shirt-front and neck-tie were
lying beside him on the table. As he read he kept
dropping cigarette-ash on the newspaper, on his shirt
and on the tablecloth. | |
The creaking of a bed was heard from the other side
of the door, then footsteps, and Dasha came into the
room, a white dressing-gown flung over her nightdress.
She was still rosy and half sleepy. Dmitri Stepanovitch
looked at his daughter over the top of his pince-nez
with those cold, grey, humorous eyes of his—like Dasha’s
—and offered her his cheek. Dasha kissed him and sat
down opposite, reaching out for the bread and butter.
“Another windy day; what a bore!” she said. For
the past two days a strong hot wind had been blowing.
Limey dust hung in clouds over the town, obscuring
the sun. These thick clouds of stinging dust blew in
gusts about the streets and the few passers-by could
be seen turning their backs on it and shutting their
eyes painfully. The dust crept in everywhere and one
felt it scrunch between the teeth. The wind shook the
windows and rattled the iron roof and withal it was
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hot and stuffy and even the rooms smelt of the street.
“There is an epidemic of eye disease in the town,”
Dmitri Stepanovitch observed. Dasha did not reply;
she merely sighed. Her father was interested in epi-
demics and politics, while she, oh God! what difference
did it make how many epidemics of eye diseases there
were in the town when her own affairs were in such
vague and unsatisfactory condition?
It was a fortnight now since Dasha had taken leave
of Teliegin at the ship’s gangway—he had gone with
her as far as Samara—and she had been living with
her father with nothing to do in that new and unfa-
miliar house, where boxes of unpacked books were still
standing in the drawing-room since the winter and the
curtains had not yet been put up. Not a comfortable
corner was to be found; it was like living in an inn.
As she stirred her tea, Dasha, in despair, stared
through the window at the whirling clouds of dust.
The last two years seemed to have gone as a dream and
there she was at home again, and of all the hopes and
fears and the many people she had met in noisy Peters-
burg nothing seemed to ‘remain but these clouds of
dust.
“The Archduke has been killed,’ Dmitri Stepanovitch
observed, turning over a fresh sheet of his paper.
“Which one?”
“How, which one? The Austrian Archduke has been
assassinated in Sarayevo.” |
“Was he young?”
“I don’t know. Pour me out some more tea, please.”
Dmitri Stepanovitch put a tiny piece of sugar in
his mouth—he always drank tea with the sugar in his
mouth—and looked good-humouredly at Dasha, who was
standing by the samovar.
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“Tell me,” he said, “has Ekaterina definitely parted
from her husband? I don’t quite understand.”
“I have coed told you, father.”
“Never mind. . .
And again hel grew absorbed in his paper. Dasha
went over to the window. How depressing! She re-
called the white ship and above all, the sun, which was
everywhere, in the blue sky, on the clean deck; every-
thing was full of sunshine, moisture and freshness.
It had seemed to her then that the shining road that
wound slowly over the broad river was leading to hap-
piness, that the expanse of water and the ship, “Fedor
Dostoievski,’ and herself and Teliegin were all pour-
ing into that blue, shoreless sea of light and joy which
was happiness.
Ivan Ilyitch suffered greatly. As they neared Sam-
ara he grew despondent, lost his liveliness and mixed
things up, somehow. Dasha imagined they were float-
ing in towards happiness; she felt his gaze on her,
like the gaze of a strong man who had been crushed
by wheels. She was sorry for him and consequently
tender and grateful, but how could she break down the
barrier even ever so little when she realized that there
would instantly come about that which must only hap-
pen at the end of the journey? They would not be
floating into happiness, but would be stealing it, im-
patiently and foolishly. It was for this reason that she
was gentle with Ivan Ilyitch as a sister would be and
no more. To him it seemed that he would mortally
offend her if he even hinted by so much as a word at
‘what had been keeping him awake for the past four
nights and placed him in that strange half visionary
kind of world, where all external objects glided by like
shadows in a blue haze, and where Dasha’s challenging
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and disturbing grey eyes scorched him and where he
was conscious only of scents and sunlight and an in-
cessant pain in his heart.
At Samara Ivan Ilyitch had boarded another vessel
and gone back, and Dasha’s shining sea, towards which
she had drifted, vanished, fell to pieces, and outside the
shaking windows, clouds of dust rose up.
“The Austrians will give these Serbians what for,”
said Dmitri Stepanovitch, taking off his pince-nez and
_ throwing down his paper.
“And what do you think of the Slav question, Kit-.
ten?’
“Will you be home to dinner, Father?’ Dasha asked,
returning to the table.
“Quite impossible. I have a case of scarlet fever in
the country at the Postnikovs’.”
“You must be mad to drive into the country through
this dust.”
Dmitri Stepanovitch slowly put on his shirt-front,
buttoned his coat, felt in his pockets to make sure that
everything necessary should be there and combed the
grey hair on his forehead with a broken comb.
“Well, and what do you think of the Slav question,
Kitten?”
“T really don’t know. Why do you want to bother
me ?”
“T have my own ideas about it, anyhow, Daria Dmit-
rievna’—he evidently had no desire to set out on his
drive and on the whole he liked to discuss politics in the
morning over the samovar—“the Slav question—mark
my words, the Slav question is the peg of world politics.
Many nations have broken their necks over it. That is
why the place where the Slavs originated—the Balkans —
—is the appendix of Europe. But why, you will ask.
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Let me explain.” And he bent his fat fingers. “First,
the Slavs number more than two hundred millions and
they breed like rabbits. Secondly, the Slavs succeeded
in creating a powerful military state like the Russian
Empire. Thirdly, the small Slav groups, notwithstand-
ing the process of assimilation, are organizing into in-
dependent units and are striving toward what is known
as Slav federation. Fourthly, and this is most impor-
tant of all, morally the Slavs represent something quite
new and in a sense highly dangerous to European civ-
ilization, the type of a seeker of God. And God-seek-
ing—mark my words, Kitten—is a negation and de-
struction of our modern civilization. I seek God, that
is, the truth within myself. For this purpose I must
be free, so I destroy the moral foundations beneath
which I am buried and I destroy the state that keeps
me in chains. Why can’t I lie? steal? kill? Tell
me? You think that truth lies only in the good. But
I will go and kill purposely and cross that most painful
thing of all, conscience, and will find truth in despair.”
“You had better start, Father,” Dasha said dejectedly.
“T will seek truth there’”—Dmitri Stepanovitch pointed
with his finger as though indicating the cellar, but
stopped suddenly and turned to the door. A bell was
ringing in the hall.
“Dasha, open the door.”
“T can’t. I’m not dressed.”
“Matrena!” Dmitri Stepanovitch called. “Oh, that
wretched woman, Ill wring her neck one of these days!”
He went to the door himself and came back with a letter
in his hand.
“From Katia,” he said; “wait, don’t snatch it out of
my hand. I will finish first. . . . You see, God-seek-
ing begins, first of all, by destroying. That is a very
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dangerous period and contagious as well. Russia is
going through that aspect of the disease just now... .
Everything is falling to pieces, you see, Kitten. When
you go out in the evening along the main street you
constantly hear some one crying aloud for help. Hot-
heads saunter about the streets, working fellows from
the outskirts and the factories. They won’t let any one
pass. The police are quite unable to cope with their
insolence. They’ve got no moral sense, and these hooli-
gans, blackguards and scoundrels are God-seekers.
Today they behave in this disgusting fashion in the.
main street, tomorrow they will do it throughout the-
whole of Russia. And it is all done for the sake of
destruction. They have no other conscious purpose.
In the mass the people are going through the first phase
of God-seeking—the destruction of foundations.”
Dmitri Stepanovitch sniffed and smoked his ciga-
rette. Dasha seized Katia’s letter and went into her own
room. He went on expounding for some time longer,
walking about and banging doors in that large, half-
empty and dusty house with its painted floors. Then
he set out on his drive.
“Dasha, dear,’ Katia wrote, “all this time I have no
news of you and Nikolai. I am living in Paris. The
season here is at its height. Skirts are being worn very
narrow at the bottom. I do not know where I shall
go at the end of June. Paris is very beautiful. I wish
you could see it. Absolutely every one dances the
tango. At lunch between the dishes people get up and
dance and at five o’clock and at dinner and so on
through the night. I cannot get away from the music,
which is somehow so sad and painful and sweet. I
feel as if I am burying my youth, something that I.
can never recall. When I look at the women here with —
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their low-cut dresses and their painted eyes and their
smart men, I feel frightened and sad. I feel wretchedly
miserable. I keep thinking that some one is going to
die. I am anxious about father; he is no longer young.
The place here is full of Russians, mostly people we
know. We meet somewhere or other every day. It is
just as if we had never left Petersburg. By the way,
some one here told me that Nikolai was very friendly
with some woman.
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and all the stormy nights, had gone forever, and Bez-
sonov, who for some unknown reason had kindled her
imagination, was completely forgotten.
But at a single glance in the moment when his dark
silhouette crossed the moonlight there sprang up in her
with renewed force, not a something vague and indef-
inite, but a fierce desire, burning as the sun at noonday.
She longed to feel this man. Not to love him or to
worry over him, but to feel him.
Sitting near the window in her white room, bathed
in moonlight, she kept on repeating in a feeble voice:
“Oh, my God, my God, what does this mean?”
At seven in the morning Dasha went down to the sea,
undressed and got into the water to the knees. She
looked round. The sea was a pale blue and only in
the distance was it covered with ripples. The bottom
was visible and the water kept rising gently above the »
knees and falling lower. Dasha stretched out her hands
and plunged into the delightful coolness and swam away.
Then, refreshed and covered with the salt water, she
wrapped herself in a rough dressing-gown and lay down
on the sand, which was already warm from the sun.
“T love only Ivan Ilyitch,” she thought as she lay with
her head on her elbow, rosy and fresh. “I love, I love
Ivan Ilyitch. God be thanked that I love Ivan [lyitch.
I feel clean and fresh and glad when I am with him.
I shall marry him.”
She shut her eyes and fell asleep, conscious of the
motion of the sea near by and how its breathing kept
in measure with her own.
It was a great sleep. She could feel her body lying
lightly on the warm sand. Asleep, she loved herself
with a curiously agitated love. At sunset, when the flat
_ disc of the sun descended into the cloudless orange glow,
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Dasha met Bezsonov. He was sitting on a stone on a° ©
winding path that led through a flat field of wormwood.
\
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‘
{
¥
Dasha had wandered there in her walk, but as she caught —
sight of Bezsonov, she wanted to turn and run; but the
former lightness had left her; her legs grew heavy and
seemed rooted to the spot. She looked up and watched
him approach her, in a manner that scarcely showed
surprise at the meeting. He raised his straw hat and
bowed humbly like a monk.
“T was not mistaken, Daria Dmitrievna, it was you
whom I saw on the front last night?”
Veo
He was silent and lowered his eyes, then he looked
past Dasha at the darkening steppes and said:
“At the hour of sunset you might be in the desert
on this field. About you there is nothing but worm-
wood and stones. When it begins to get dark, you feel
that there is no one left on earth but yourself.”
Bezsonov laughed, slowly exposing his white teeth. —
Dasha gave him a furtive look, like a bird, then she i
walked by his side along the path. On either side and ©
over the whole field were low-growing bushes of bitter- ©
smelling wormwood. Each bush cast a pale shadow —
on the ground, for the moon was not yet bright. Two —
bats circled above their heads, showing clearly against
the streak of sunset.
“Seduction, seduction, you cannot get away with it,” —
Bezsonov observed; “it lures and entices you and again
you fall into illusion. Look, how beautifully that is
fashioned,” he pointed with his cane to the disc of
the moon. “Throughout the night it will weave its web —
4
be alive ; even a corpse will seem beautiful and a woman’s ©
and this path will turn into a brook and every bush will
}
|
face mysterious. And perhaps, it is all as it should be. |
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Wisdom itself may lie in this illusion . . . You are for-
tunate, Daria Dmitrievna, very fortunate. . . .”
“But why illusion? I do not think it iTusian, It is
simply the moon shining,” Dasha said stubbornly.
“Certainly, Daria Dmitrievna, certainly ... “Be as
children... The illusion lies in that I have no faith
in any of this.. ‘Be as the snakes... .’ How would
you reconcile these opposite points of view? What is
needed? They say love reconciles. What do you
think P”
“T don’t know; I don’t think anything.”
“From what lands does she hail? How shall I lure
her? With what words adjure her? Shall I grovel in
the dust and cry: ‘Oh, God, give me love!’ ?”
He laughed softly, showing his teeth.
“T don’t want to go any further,” Dasha said. “I want
to be by the sea.”
They turned and now walked through the wormwood
on a sandy rise. Suddenly, Bezsonov began, in a soft,
cautious voice:
“TJ remember every word you said in my house in
Petersburg. I scared you. And yet you came like a bird
with glad tidings.”
_ Dasha was silent. She stared straight before her and
walked quickly.
“But I knew, somehow, that we should one day con-
tinue our talk. I remember one keen sensation. . . . It
was not your special beauty that struck me, it was the
wonderful music of your voice. Once—it was a long
time ago—I heard an orchestra play a symphony, I for-
get whose it was, and from all the volume of sound, one
sound emerged, the clear, sad note of a cornet, and it
seemed that it must be heard in every corner of the earth.
Such will be the voice of the archangel in the last hour.”
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“Heaven knows what you are talking about!’ Dasha
exclaimed. She stopped and looked at him, then walked r
on again.
“A more terrible trial I have never had in my life. I
looked at you then, thinking, ‘This is holy ground.’ Here-
in lies my salvation; to give you my heart, to become a ~ |
humble beggar, to melt in your light. . . . Or perhaps,
to take your heart and become infinitely rich? Only ©
think, Daria Dmitrievna, you have come and I must solve
the riddle.”
Dasha got ahead of him, running over a sand dune,
The broad path of moonlight, shimmering like scales on
the heavy water, was cut short at the edge of the sea in
a long, clear line, and over this light there hung a sombre
radiance. Dasha’s heart beat so fast that she shut her
eyes.
“Oh God, save me from him!” she thought. Bez-
sonov stuck his stick into the sand several times.
“But we must decide, Daria Dmitrievna.... Some ~
one must be consumed on this fire. . . Whether you or
ie aro Refect and answerimer vite 7
“T don’t understand,” Dasha said abruptly.
“When you are a beggar, wasted and consumed, Daria
Dmitrievna, then will your life really begin. Without
the moonlight the temptation would not be worth three
kopecks. It will be a life of terrible wisdom and a feel-
ing of pride, immeasurably great. And all that is needed
is to cast aside the cloak of maidenhood. . . .”
With an icy hand Bezsonov took Dasha’s and looked
into her eyes. All that Dasha could do was to close
hers slowly. A long silence ensued, after which he said:
“However, we had better be going home to our beds.
We have talked and weighed the question from all sides,
and the hour is getting late.”
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He walked with Dasha to her hotel, took leave of her
politely, shoved his hat at the back of his head and
walked along by the sea, peering at the indistinct forms
of the passers-by. Bezsonov stopped and turned; he
went up to a tall woman in a white silk shawl, who was
standing motionless. Bezsonov flourished his stick and
said:
“Good evening, Nina.”
“Good evening.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Just standing.”
“Why are you alone?”
“T am alone because I am alone,’ Charodeyeva said
quietly and angrily.
“Are you still angry with me?’
“No, my dear, I have long been reconciled. Don’t
you worry about me.”
“Nina, come to me.”
At this she threw back her head and was silent for
some time ; then she said in a trembling voice:
“Have you gone mad?”
“Didn’t you know that?”
He took her arm, but she pulled it sharply away and
walked slowly beside him, past the reflections of moon-
light that crept along the oily-black water.
In the morning Nikolai Ivanovitch woke Dasha by
knocking gently on her door.
“Dasha, get up, my dear; let us go and have coffee.”
Dasha put her feet out of bed and looked at her scat-
tered stockings and shoes, covered with grey dust. Some-
thing must have happened. Was it that horrible dream
again? No, it was worse than any dream. Dasha threw
on her clothes and ran out to bathe.
But the sea made her tired and the sun scorched her
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skin. As she sat wrapped in her rough dressing-gown,
huddling her bare knees, she kept thinking that nothing
good could happen in that place.
“Stupid, a coward and an idler. An imagination that
exaggerates everything. I don’t know myself what I
want. One thing in the morning, another in the eve-
ning. The type of person I most despise.”
Dasha bent her head and looked at the sea. The tears
came into her eyes, she was so perplexed and sad.
“A wonderful pleasure is this shore. But who wants
it? Nobody on earth. I don’t love any one really, and
I hate myself. And it seems that he is right. It is better
to burn everything, to be consumed and become sober.
He asked me to go to him this evening; supposing I do
Bi iG Oh nol”
Dasha buried her face in her lap; it was so hot.
Plainly, this dual existence could not go on. A deliver-
ance must come at last from this condition of maiden-
hood, no longer bearable. Or, let the worst happen.
Sitting thus in dejection, she thought:
“Supposing I go away from here, that I go back to
Father and the dust and the flies, and the autumn will
come and studies begin, and I shall work twelve hours
a day. I shall get withered and ugly. I shall know in-
ternational law by heart. Wear flannelette petticoats.
The honourable lawyer, the spinster Bulavina. Very
grand’, .'0)Oh, my God, my Godley o27
Dasha shook the sand from her skin and went into the
house. Nikolai Ivanovitch was lying on the terrace in
silk pajamas, reading a prohibited novel by Anatole
France. Dasha sat down on the arm of his rocking-
chair and swinging her slipper, she said, pensively:
“We wanted to talk about Katia.”
“Oh, yes.”
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“You see, Nikolai, a woman’s life is very hard at
times. At nineteen even, you don’t know what to do
with yourself.”
“At your age, Dasha, one should live without hesitat-
ing. If you hesitate too much, you will be left in the
lurch. Look at you now, you have grown awfully pretty
Of late.’’
“I knew it was useless talking to you, Nikolai. You
always say the wrong thing and are so tactless. That
is why Katia left you.”
Nikolai Ivanovitch laughed. He laid his book on his
stomach and put his fat hands at the back of his head.
“When the rainy season begins the bird will fly home
of itself. Do you remember how she used to clean her
feathers? In spite of everything, I am very fond of
Katia. Well, we have both sinned and are quits.”
“So that is how you talk now! Had I been Katia I
would have treated you just the same.”
“Oh, this is something new, isn’t it?”
“Tt is, indeed.” She now gave him a hostile look.
“You love a man and worry yourself over him and don’t
know what to do with yourself, while he is quite satisfied
and confident... .”
She walked away to the balcony rails, angry, not so
much with Nikolai Ivanovitch as with some one else.
“When you are older you will see that it doesn’t do
to take life’s reverses too much to heart. It is foolish and
does you harm,” Nikolai Ivanovitch said. “However, that
is the peculiar kink with you Bulavins, to make things
more complicated than they are. You ought to be sim-
pler, more natural.”
He sighed and was silent, examining his finger-nails.
A perspiring schoolboy rode past the terrace on a bicycle,
bringing the post from the town.
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“T shall go to see the village school-teacher,” Dasha
said miserably.
“Whom?” Nikolai Ivanovitch asked.
But Dasha did not reply and walked away to her own
room. The post had brought her two letters, one from
Katia and the other from her father. Dmitri Stepano-
vitch wrote:
“IT am sending you a letter from Katia, which I have
read and did not like at all. However, you had better
dovas you like... .. ‘Things are:the same here;?y ihe
weather is very hot. And yesterday Semion Semiono- -
vitch Goviadin was beaten by some hot-heads in the
public park, but he does not say why. There is no other
news. Oh, yes, a postcard came for you from a certain
Teliegin, but I have lost it. I think he is also in the
Crimea or somewhere. . . .”
Dasha carefully reread the last lines. Her heart be-
gan to beat fast. She stamped her foot in rage. How de-
lightful! “He is also in the Crimea or somewhere. . . .”
Her father, to be sure, was impossible, slovenly and an
egoist. She crumpled up his letter and sat for some time
at the writing-table, her chin resting on her fist. Then
she read the letter from Katia:
“Do you remember, Dasha, my telling you about a
man who followed me about? Last evening, when in the
Luxembourg garden, he sat down beside me. I was
frightened at first, but did not move. After a while he
said to me: ‘I have been following you. I know your
name and who you are. But beyond that a great mis-
fortune has happened to me. I am in love with you.’ I —
looked at him. He sat as though in church, his face sol-
emn and severe and drawn, somehow. ‘You need not be
afraid of me. I am an old man and lonely. I suffer
from heart disease and may die at any moment. And
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
then, there is this misfortune.’ The tears rolled down
his cheeks. Then he exclaimed, shaking his head, ‘What
a sweet, beautiful face you have!’ I said, ‘Please don’t
follow me any more,’ and wanted to go away, but I grew
sorry for him and stopped to talk to him. He listened
with eyes shut, nodding his head. And just think, Dasha,
today I received a letter from some woman, I believe
the concierge of the house in which he lived, and she
writes, ‘on his instructions’ to inform me that he died
in the night. . . . Isn’t it awful! I walked over to the
window just now and looked at the thousands and thou- |
sands of lights in the street and the vehicles rolling past
and the people strolling among the trees. It has been
raining and there is a mist now. It seemed to me that
everything I saw was of the past, that all the people were
dead, done with. I do not see what is happening just
now. I know that all is finished. A man came by and
turned to look at my window, and though I am clearly
conscious that he turned and looked at me, it seemed that
it happened a long, long time ago. . . . I must be very
ill. I lie and cry sometimes over my wasted life. There
used to be something—it may not have been real—but, at
any rate, it was happiness, and then there were people one
liked, but now nothing is left . . . and my heart has
grown dry within me. I feel that some great sorrow is
in store, a punishment for the bad way in which we lived.
Dasha, my dear, God give you happiness. . . .”
Dasha showed the letter to Nikolai Ivanovitch. He
sighed as he read it and began to tell her how he blamed
himself about Katia. “I could see that we lived badly and
that the incessant pleasure-seeking would end in despair.
But what could I do when the main occupation of my life,
and that of Katia’s and of all our friends, was enjoy-
ment? When I look at the sea here sometimes, I can’t
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help reflecting that there is some Russia where they till
the land and rear cattle and hew coal and weave and
hammer and build, and that there are people who cause all
these things to be done, and that we, some third party,
the enlightened aristocracy of the country, the intellec-
tuals, have no concern in any part of this Russia. It sup-
ports us. We are butterflies. It’s a tragedy. Now, if
I were to try to grow vegetables or to build a factory,
nothing whatever would come of it. I am doomed to a
butterfly existence to the end of my days. It is true that
. we write books and make speeches and politics, but this
is also a pastime with us, even when conscience gnaws.
This perpetual pleasure-seeking created spiritual havoc in
Katia. Nothing else could have been expected. If only
you knew what a sweet and charming woman she was!
I have spoiled and corrupted her, . . . You are right,
I ought to goto her... .”
It was decided that they should go to Paris together,
as soon as they could get foreign passports. After dinner
Nikolai Ivanovitch went into the town and Dasha be-
gan to alter a large straw hat for the journey, but she
only spoiled it and gave it to the housemaid. Then she
wrote a letter to her father and at dusk she lay down
on her bed, such a sudden feeling of tiredness had come
over her. She put her hand under her cheek and lis-
tened to the sound of the sea, which seemed more and
more remote and pleasant.
Then she felt some one bend over her, push away a
lock of hair from her face and kiss her on the eyes, the
cheeks, the corners of her mouth, a kiss as light as a
breath. The sweetness of it coursed through the whole
of her body. Dasha began to wake slowly. The stars
could be seen through the open window and the breeze
blowing in fluttered the pages of the letter. From behind
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the wall a human form emerged, leant its elbows on the
window-sill and stared at Dasha.
Dasha woke up wide. She sat up in bed and put her
hand on her bosom, at her unfastened dress.
“What do you want?” she asked in a scarcely audible
voice. The man at the window spoke in Bezsonov’s
voice.
“T waited for you on the shore. Why didn’t you
come? Were you afraid?”
“Yes,” Dasha said, after a pause.
Then he climbed in at the window, pushed away the
table and came up to the bed.
“T spent a horrible night,” he said; “a little more and
I would have hanged myself. Have you no feeling for
me ?P”
Dasha shook her head, but did not open her lips.
“Listen, Daria Dmitrievna, this is bound to happen,
whether today or tomorrow or a year hence. I cannot
live without you. Do not make me lose all likeness to a
human being.” He spoke softly, in a hoarse voice, and
came quite close to Dasha. She sighed deeply and con-
tinued to stare at his face. “Everything I said yesterday
was a horrible lie. I suffer cruelly. I haven’t the
strength to wipe out the memory of you. . . Will you
beimy wife? .. .”
He bent over Dasha, inhaling her perfume. He put >
his arms round her neck and fastened on her lips. Dasha
tried to push him away, but her hands bent. Then, in
her stupor, came the clear thought, “This is what I
fear and wanted, but it’s like murder. . . .” She
turned her face away; she could hear Bezsonov, whose
breath smelt of wine, muttering something in her ear.
And Dasha thought, “I suppose he was the same with
Katia,” A cold shiver ran over her body; the smell
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of wine grew stronger, the muttering more disgusting.
“Let me go!” she said and with an effort, pushed
Bezsonov away. She walked over to the door and man-
aged to fasten her dress at the throat.
Then a fury seized Bezsonov. He clutched Dasha’s
hands, pulled her over to himself and began to kiss her
throat. She fought silently with compressed lips. But
when he lifted her off her feet and carried her, Dasha
said in a hurried whisper:
“Never in my life, not if you die!”
She pushed him forcibly away. He dropped into a _
chair and sat motionless. Dasha rubbed the places on
her hands where his finger-marks showed.
“T ought not to have been in such a hurry,” Bezsonov
said.
“T find you disgusting,’ Dasha replied.
At this he leant the side of his head against the back —
of the chair. |
“You are mad’. . .” Dasha said. ‘Go away.”
She repeated this several times. He understood at ©
last, rose and climbed heavily and clumsily out of the
window. Dasha closed the shutters and began to pace
the dark room. The night was spent badly.
Towards the morning Nikolai Ivanovitch slopped —
along with his bare feet and knocked at her door, asking
in a sleepy voice:
“Have you got a toothache, Dasha?”
No!’
“Then what was that noise in your room in the night?”
“T don’t know.”
“A funny thing,” he muttered, and went away. Dasha ~
could neither sit nor lie down. She could only pace the
room from window to door, trying to drown that acute —
feeling of disgust with herself that gnawed like a tooth-
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ache. There had happened a most horrible thing; some-
thing that had never been foreseen. It was as if a dog
had torn a corpse in the churchyard at night. ... And
she—Dasha—had done this. Had Bezsonov possessed
her, she would not have felt it so badly, it seemed. With
a pang of despair she recalled the white, sun-bathed ship
and another thing, the deserted lover in the copse, who
cooed and muttered and lied when he assured Dasha
that she was in love.
So it had all ended in this. Dasha felt, as she looked
at the bed, gleaming white in the dimness, and saw the
spot where but now a human face had assumed the like-
ness of a dog, that she could not live with the con-
sciousness of it. Any kind of suffering would have
been more bearable than this loathing of everything, of
people, of the earth, of herself. . . . She covered her
face with her hands and thought, “Oh, Father, if Thou
art in heaven, save me.” . . . But the words had no
power to reach Him. . . . Her face was burning; she
wanted to tear the web from her neck, from her body.
At last the clear daylight peeped through the closed
shutters. A sound of banging doors was heard in the
house and some loud voice, calling, “Matriosha, bring
me some water.” . . . Dasha sluiced her face, thrust a
cap over her eyes and went out on to the shore. The
sea was like milk, the sand was damp. There was a
smell of seaweed. Dasha turned to the fields and wan-
dered down the road. Coming towards her was a rustic
cart, drawn by one horse, which raised a cloud of dust.
A Tartar sat on the box and beside him was a broad-.
shouldered man dressed completely in white. She looked
at him as if in a dream (her eyes stuck together from
the sun and weariness) and thought: “There goes a
nice, happy man. Well, let him, nice and happy as he
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is.’ And she stepped off the road. Suddenly a fright-
ened voice called from the cart:
“Daria Dmitrievna!”
Some one jumped from the cart and ran. At the —
sound of his voice Dasha’s heart leapt and fell some-
where low down; her knees gave way under her. She
turned. Teliegin ran up to her, sunburnt, excited and
blue-eyed and so unexpectedly dear to her that Dasha
impetuously put her hands on his breast, pressed her
face against him and burst out crying, loudly, like a
child.
Teliegin held her firmly round the shoulders. When ©
Dasha, in a broken voice, attempted to explain some- ©
thing or other, he said:
“Please, Daria Dmitrievna, not now. It isn’t im- ©
portant.” . . . The front of his linen jacket was wet te
with Dasha’s eeares But Dasha felt relieved.
“Were you coming to us?” she asked.
“Yes. I was coming to say good-bye, Daria Dmitri- i
evna. I heard only yesterday that you were here and ©
so . . . I wanted to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye ?”
“I’ve been called up. It can’t be helped.”
“Called up?”
“Haven't you heard?”
"NOt;
“It’s war; that’s what it is.” He smiled and looked
into Dasha’s face with a new assurance.
[164 ]
XIV
In the editor’s room of a big liberal newspaper—‘‘The
Word of the People”—an extraordinary editorial meet-
ing was in progress, and as alcoholic drinks were for-
bidden by law yesterday, in addition to the editorial
tea, brandy and rum were served. Stout, bearded lib-
erals were sitting in deep armchairs, smoking tobacco
and feeling lost. The young members of the staff were
‘seated on window-sills and on the famous leather-cov-
ered sofa about which a celebrated writer had let drop
the inadvertent remark that it contained bugs.
_ The editor, grey-haired and red-cheeked, a man of
English habits, was pronouncing in a deliberate voice,
word by word, one of his remarkable speeches that
would give the lead to the whole of the liberal press.
“The complexity of our problems lies in the fact that
while not receding one step from our Opposition to the
E.. government, in the face of the danger threaten-
ing the integrity of Russian territory, we must hold out
our hand to that government. Our gesture must be
honest and sincere. The question of the guilt of the
Tsar’s government, which has brought Russia to the
point of war, is, at the moment, one of secondary con-
sideration. We must conquer first and then judge the
guilty. Today, at this very hour, a bloody battle is in
Progress at Krasnostaw. Our guards have been thrown
into the broken front. The result of the battle is not
known as yet, but we must remember that Kiev is
threatened. The war cannot last more than two or
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three months at most and no matter what its issue, with’
our heads held high, we shall be able to say to the Tsar’s ©
government, ‘In a difficult hour we were beside you, now
we must hold you to account.’ 4
One of the oldest members of the staff, a man named
Belosvetov, who wrote about Zemstvo matters, unable
to contain himself any longer, exclaimed:
“Tf it is the Tsar’s government that’s at war, why the
extended hand? For the life of me I don’t understand.”
“Well, really, to extend a hand to Nicholas II., say
what you will, gentlemen, but it goes against the grain,”
muttered Alfa, a leader writer, as he selected a cake —
from the dish. “It makes one break into a cold sweat
even in sleep.”
Instantly several voices broke out.
“No, on no condition can we enter into agree-
ment! (fh), 7.”
“Is this capitulation, I ask?”
“An ignominious end to the whole of our progres-
sive movement.”
“But gentlemen, I would like some one to explain to
me the aims of the war.”
“You will know them when the Germans break your
neck.”
“So, sir, it seems you are a Nationalist!”
“I merely don’t wish to be beaten.”
“Tt is not we who will be beaten, but Nicholas II.”
“But what about Poland and Volhynia and Kiev?”
Fe SS Sage Biting Eh ann A
“The more completely we are beaten the sooner will —
the revolution come.”
“For no revolution in the world would I give up ©
Kew at) ker
“For shame, Peter Petrovitch. . .
Order was restored with difficulty, The editor Mh
[ 166 ]
33
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on to explain that according to a circular on the military
position the censorship would suppress any newspaper
that made the slightest attack on the government and
that there would thus be destroyed the beginning of
the freedom of the press, for the attainment of which
so much energy had been spent.
“Tt is for this reason that I would suggest to this
worthy assembly the advisability of finding a more ad-
missible standpoint. For myself, I will express the
paradoxical view that we must accept this war completely
with all its consequences. Do not forget that the war is
popular in our society. In Moscow it has been termed
the second war of the Fatherland.’ He smiled subtly
and lowered his eyes. ‘“The Emperor was received in
Moscow almost with enthusiasm. Mobilization among
the common people is proceeding in a way which they
dared not and could not have expected.”
“Vasili Vasilevitch, are you joking, pray?” exclaimed
Belosvetov in a plaintive voice. “You are making the
foundations of our faith tumble about us like a house
of cards. We to help the government? And what of the
ten thousand of our best people rotting in Siberia? And
the shooting of workmen? The stones are still wet with
PAeIT DIOOd:: .... 2°"
The opinions expressed were all excellent and most
worthy, but each could see clearly that an agreement
with the government would have to be reached, and so,
when the proofs of a leader were brought from the
printers, beginning with the words, “In the face of the
German invasion we must close our ranks in a single
front,” the assembly silently examined the slips. Some
one gave a smothered sigh, another remarked: “So this
is what we have come to!” Belosvetov fastened every
button on his black coat covered with cigarette ash,
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but he did not go away ; he sat down again in his armchair
and the next issue of the paper was made up with the
headline, “The Country Is in Danger. To Arms!”
For all that the heart of every one was full of con-
fusion and alarm. How the firm peace of Europe had
come to be blown into the air within twenty-four hours
and why the benevolent European civilization, which
“The Word of the People” had daily cast into the gov-
ernment’s teeth and by means of which it had aroused
the consciences of public organizations, had been so com-
pletely wrong (printing and electricity and even radium »
had been imaginary then, and when the hour came, be-
neath the frock-coat and top hat was the hairy savage
with a club), the editorial staff could not fathom; it was
too bitter to have to acknowledge it.
Silently and sadly the conference broke up. Vener-
able writers retired to the Club for luncheon and the
younger men gathered in the room of the news editor.
It was resolved to make a most minute investigation of
the moods of the most varied sections and societies.
Antoshka Arnoldov was entrusted to deal with the mil-
itary censorship. With a hot hand he took an advance
on his pay and set out on a fast horse along the Nevsky
to the General Staff.
He was received by the head of the press section, a
> oe 7 z
— xan sat ee =
ERE > ‘3
colonel of the general staff, Solntsev by name, who lis- _
tened to him politely and looked him in the eyes with —
his own clear, protruding and humorous eyes. Arnoldov —
had expected to meet some wonder hero, a purple-faced —
leonine general, a scourge of a free press, but before him —
sat an elegant, rosy-cheeked, educated man, who had no ~
intention of scourging or oppressing and who did not ©
shout in a hoarse bass voice. It fitted in badly with his
general conception of a hireling of the Tsar.
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“Well, Colonel, I hope you will not withhold your
authoritative views on the questions I have noted.” Ar-
noldov gave a sidelong glance at the sombre, life-size
portrait of the Emperor Nicholas I., who stared with in-
exorable eyes at the representative of the press, as much
as to say: “A short, miserable jacket, brown shoes, a per-
spiring nose, a wretched appearance. You are afraid.
.” “T do not doubt, Colonel, that by the New Year
Russian troops will be in Berlin, but our paper is chiefly
interested in certain special matters... .”
Colonel Solntsev politely interrupted him.
“To my mind, Russian society has not clearly ap-
prehended the immensities of this war, nor the conse-
quences that must follow it. Of course, I cannot but
welcome your excellent desire that our glorious troops
should be in Berlin, but I fear that it will be more dif-
ficult to accomplish it than to wish it. I would suggest
that the most important function of the press at the
present moment is to prepare society for the very serious
danger that is threatening our realm and for the extraor-
dinary sacrifices that we shall have to make if we are
to escape from the undesired consequences of an enemy
invasion into Russian boundaries.”
_Antoshka Arnoldov dropped his notebook and looked
in perplexity at the colonel. Behind him rose up the
‘sombre form of Nicholas I. Both men had the same
kind of eyes, but the latter’s were cruel, while the eyes
of the colonel were good-humoured. The large room
was clean, severe and monumental and smelt of the
centuries. Solntsev continued.
“We did not seek this war and at present we are
merely on the defensive. Germany has the advantage
over us in artillery, in the thick network of foreign rail-
ways and consequently in the speed with which she can
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move troops. Nevertheless, we will do our utmost to
prevent the enemy from crossing our frontiers. Rus-
sian troops will carry out the heavy duty that has been
laid upon them. Society must have faith in the high
authorities and in the army. It would be desirable that
society should also be inculcated with a feeling of duty
to the country.” Colonel Solntsev raised his eyebrows
and drew a square on a sheet of paper that lay before
him. “I realize that the feeling of patriotism among’
certain sections of the community is somewhat compli-—
cated. But the danger is so great that I am convinced
that all disagreements and accounts will be put off until”
a more propitious moment. The All-Russian empire,
even in 1812, has never been through a harder time. This ‘
is about all that I would like you to emphasize. Then,
it must also be made public that the military hospitals
at the disposal of the government are insufficient to ac-_
commodate the.many wounded and that in-this respect,
society must be prepared for extensive help. is #
“T am sorry, Colonel, but I do not understand : what”
can be the number of wounded?” 4
Solntsev again raised his eyebrows and drew a circle”
inside the square. WV
“I think that in the next weeks we may expect
about one thousand two hundred and fifty or three
hundred.” iay
Antoshka jArnoldov swallowed his saliva, jotted down |
the figures and asked with a new respect : i
“How many killed do you expect in that case?” h
“We usually reckon about ten per cent of the
wounded.” f
“Oh, thank you.” i
Solntsev rose. Antoshka shook him hastily by the
hand. He opened the oak door and collided with Atlant, ¥
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consumptive and shabby journalist, in a crushed jacket,
who had not had any vodka since yesterday.
“Colonel, I have come about the war,” said Atlant,
covering his dirty shirt-front with his hand.
“You are welcome.”
Arnoldov came out into the square, put on his hat
and stood for some time with half closed eyes. “War
till victory,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “Just
wait, you old galoshes, we will teach you to talk about
defeat.”
About the big, cleanly-swept square with its dirty
granite column of Alexander, small groups of bearded,
bewildered peasants moved to and fro. Shouts of com-
mand were heard. The peasants arranged themselves,
ran across and formed into line. In one spot, some
fifty of them shouted discordantly “Hurrah” as they
rose from the pavement and set off at a stumbling trot.
... “Stop! Attention! You rascals, you dogs!’’ some
hoarse voice shouted at them. In another spot they
were standing in a circle, and some one was saying,
“When you run up, stick him through the body; if
your bayonet is broken, strike him with the butt end.”
They were the same rugged peasants with halos of
beards, in best shoes and shirts and with the salt on
their spades who, two hundred years ago, had come to
that swampy shore to build a city. Now, they had been
summoned to stay with their shoulders the tottering pil-
lar of the Empire.
Antoshka turned down the Nevsky, thinking all the
while of his article. In the middle, marching to the .
sound of a flute moaning like. the wind, came two com-
panies in full marching uniform, with kit bags and ket-
‘tles and shovels. The high cheek-boned faces of the
‘soldiers were weary and covered with dust. A little
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officer in a green shirt with new straps raised himself
on tiptoe now and again and turning, rolled his eyes.
“Right! Right!” As in a dream came the roar of the
smart, sparkling carriages on the Nevsky. “Right!
Right! Right!” Swaying in measure behind the little
officer, they walked to death, these submissive, heavy-
footed peasants. A black, fiery horse caught up with
them, foaming at the mouth. A broad-backed coachman
reined him in. A beautiful lady rose in the carriage and
looked at the passing soldiers. Suddenly her white-
gloved hand began to make the sign of the cross over |
them and the tears rolled down her cheeks.
The soldiers passed, screened from view by a stream
of carriages. It was crowded and hot on the pavement; :
every one seemed to be expecting something. Passers-by
stopped, listened to the talk and shouting, pushed their —
way through, asked questions, and then, in excitement, —
went to join another group. All over the place there ©
was a whirlpool of people. A crush began; people —
crossed the street.
The disorderly movement gradually became defined;
people were turning from the Nevsky to the Morskaya.
There the crowd walked frankly in the middle of the
street. -Some short fellows ran past, in silent concentra-
tion. At the crossways there was a waving of hats and
umbrellas and a shout of “Hurrah! Hurrah!’ filled the
Morskaya. Street boys whistled shrilly. Smart women
stood up in their carriages. The crowd poured into the
Isaac Square and began to climb the railings. Win- —
dows and roofs were filled with people. Heads swarmed —
beneath the Isaac columns like ants. And these tens of —
thousands of people were all straining to the top win-
dows of a dull red, heavy house—the German embassy— _
from. whence clouds of smoke issued. Behind broken
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windows people flitted about, casting to the crowd
bundles of papers, which flew up in the air and fell
slowly. At each volume of smoke and each thing thrown
from the windows the crowd roared. At the front of
the house were two bronze giants holding horses by the
bridle. The busy little fellows appeared about them.
The crowd grew quiet; a metallic striking of hammers
could be heard. The giant to the right swayed and fell on
the pavement. The crowd yelled. The crush began.
People rushed up from everywhere. “Into the Moika
with them! Into the Moika, the devils!’ The second
statue fell. Antoshka Arnoldov was seized by the shoul-
ders by some stout lady in glasses, who shouted at him,
“We'll drown them all, young man!” The crowd surged
towards the Moika. The sound of firemen’s horns could
_be heard; brass helmets gleamed in the distance. From
the corners mounted police appeared. And suddenly,
among the rushing, shrieking crowd Arnoldov caught
sight of the horribly pale face of a man without a hat,
who was staring with glassy eyes, wide-open and motion-
less. It was only by the hair and the eyebrows, that
seemed drawn on the face, that he recognized Bezsonov.
He approached him.
“Have you been there?” Bezsonov asked. “I heard
them kill him.”
“Has there been murder? Who has been killed?”
“T don’t know.”
Bezsonov turned away and staggered down the square
as one blind, his hands thrust in his pockets. The re-
maining crowd rushed in separate groups to the Nevsky,
_ where a pogrom had begun on Reiter’s café.
.
That evening Antoshka Arnoldov, standing at the
desk of one of the editorial rooms, which was filled with
tobacco smoke, wrote rapidly on narrow slips of paper.
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“Today we have witnessed all the force and beauty of
the national anger. We must observe that not a single
bottle of wine was drunk in the cellar of the German
embassy. Everything was broken and cast into the
Moika. Reconciliation is impossible. We must fight ©
until we achieve victory, no matter what the sacrifices
may be. The Germans expected to find Russia asleep,
but at the thundering words ‘The Country is in danger!’
the people have risen as one man. ‘Their anger is ter-
rific. The Country is a mighty word, but one which we
have forgotten. The first boom of a German gun has ©
made it come to life in all its virgin beauty and in fiery
letters it shines in the heart of each of us... .” i
Antoshka frowned; a sensation of pins and needles ©
went down his back. What words to write! Not as it ©
was a fortnight ago, when he was told to make a sur- ~
vey of summer entertainments. He recalled how at the :
Bouffe a man had come on the stage, got up like a pig ©
and had sung, “A pigling am I and not ashamed, a pig- ©
ling am I and proud to be so named. My mother was
a sow and I am like her, somehow... .”
“We are entering an heroic era. For too long have
we been rotting alive. War is our purification. Fire,
blood and victory!” Thus wrote Antoshka, paisa
his pen.
Notwithstanding the opposition on the part of the
defeatists, led by Belosvetov, Arnoldov’s article was
printed, with the concession to the former of having it
placed on the third page under the pedantic headline “In
War Time.” Soon letters from readers began to arrive ; :
at the office, some expressing themselves with enthusiasm
about the article, others with bitter irony. But the —
former were by far the more numerous. Antoshka’s
pay was increased and within a week he was summoned 4
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to the chief editor’s room, where grey-haired, red-faced
Vasili Vasilevitch, who smelt of English eau-de-Cologne, |
offered Antoshka an armchair and said:
“You must go into the country.”
Ves) sir.”
“We ought to know what the peasants think and say.
It is expected of us.” The palm of his hand came down
on a pile of letters. ‘The intellectuals have been aroused
to a great interest in the country. We must give them
a vivid, direct impression of this sphinx.”
“The results jof mobilization Ihave shown a great
patriotic outburst, Vasili Vasilevitch.”
“T know. But how the devil did they come by it?
You can go where you please, but keep your ears open
and ask questions. By Saturday I shall expect five hun-
dred words from you on your impressions of the coun-
ity.
From the office Antoshka went to the Nevsky, where
he bought a travelling suit of a military cut, brown
‘leggings and a flask; then he had luncheon at Albert’s
and came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was
to go to Khlibi, where Elisaveta Kievna was spending
the summer with her brother Kie. In the evening he
booked a place on the international train.
The village of Khlibi consisted of some fifty yards,
‘overgrown with gooseberry bushes, vegetables and old
lime trees, growing in the middle of the road. The large
‘school building, which was once the squire’s house, stood
on a hillock. The village lay in a valley, between a
swamp and the river Svinukha and was thickly over-
grown with nettles and burdock. The village lands were
not large, the soil was poor, and the peasants nearly all
went into Moscow to work at some trade.
Towards the evening, when Arnoldov drove into the
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village on a rustic cart, he was amazed at the stillness
thereof. Only a stupid hen cackled as it rushed out
from beneath the horse’s feet and an ancient dog barked
in a shed, and somewhere along the river, there was a
sound of felling, and two rams were butting at each
other in the middle of the road.
Arnoldov climbed down by some stone gates, where
some lions, with the plaster peeling off them, stood in
the middle of a lawn. He settled with the deaf old man,
who had brought him from the station and walked up
a path, whence, through the transparent green of the
birches, he could see the white pillars of the school-
house, tumbling down on one side. On the porch, sitting
on a half rotten step, were the schoolmaster, Kie Kie-
vitch, and Elisaveta Kievna, who were leisurely con-
versing together. Long shadows from the tall willows
fell on the meadow below. Starlings flew in dark clouds
above. A horn sounded in the distance, calling together
the flock. Several red cows came out of the rushes and
one lifted its head and mooed. Kie Kievitch was very
like his sister; he had the same kind of pencilled eyes,
but they were not kindly; he wore spectacles and chewed
a straw as he spoke.
“Added te everything, Lisa, you are extraordinarily
unversed in the sexual sphere. Types like you are the
sickening outcasts of a bourgeois civilization. For rev-
olutionary work you are utterly useless.”’
Elisaveta Kievna gazed with an indolent smile at the
meadow, where the setting sun had turned the grass and
the shadows golden.
“T shall go to Africa,” she said. “Mind, Kie, I shall
go to Africa. They have long been asking me to come.”
“T don’t believe in it and consider it untimely and
ridiculous to urge the Negroes to revolt.”
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“Well, we can judge of that there.”
“The present European war is bound to end with the
international proletariat taking into its own hands the
initiative of the social revolution. We must be prepared
for this and should not waste our energies on purely
political work. The more so as it is all nonsense about
the Negroes.”
“It’s an awful bore to listen to you, Kie. You seem
to have learnt everything by heart. All is plain as a
book to you.”
_ “Every person, Lisa, must try to put his ideas into some
systematic order and not worry as to whether what he
says is boring.”
“Try then, and may it do you good.”
Similar conversations took place between brother and
sister every day, neither having anything to do. When
Elisaveta Kievna wanted something sensational, she
would say unfair things about the party to which Kie
Kievitch belonged. He would frown and restrain him-
self for a time, then he would burst out at his sister in a
choking voice. She would listen to his reproaches, weep-
ing silently and then go to bathe in the river.
The evening was still. Motionless hung the green
transparent branches of the drooping birches before the
porch. The rasping of a crake was heard from the grass
on the hill. Kie Kievitch was saying that it was time
that Lisa settled down and devoted herself to some use-
ful work. Lisa gazed with her short-sighted eyes at
the swaying outlines of the trees in the orange sunset,
thinking of how she would live among the liberated
Negroes, alone and worshipped by them, and of how it
would come to the ears of Ivan Ilyitch Teliegin and how
he would come to her and say, “I never understood you,
Lisa. You are a wonderfully fascinating woman.”
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At this moment Antoshka Arnoldov approached the
porch and putting down his bag, said:
“Here I am, Lisa. You didn’t expect me, did you?
How do you do, my splendid woman?” He kissed her
on the cheek. “In the first place, I want something to
eat and then want lots of material. I must send a feu-
illeton by Saturday. Is that your brother? ‘He is the
very man I want.”
Antoshka sat down on the steps, stretched out his
legs in brown gaiters and lighted a pipe.
“Tell me, Kie Kievitch, what do they say and think *
about the war in this village of yours?”
Kie Kievitch assumed a hurt and bored air, so that
it should not by any chance be suspected that he could
be impressed by’ any authorities, such as writers from
the capital. He munched a straw and puckered the skin
on his forehead.
“To my mind,” he replied, “the war has been cyni-
cally staged by international capitalists. Germany alone
cannot be held to blame. The proletariat was compelled,
for a time, at all events, to take its stand on the patriotic
platform.”
wT should like to know what the peasants themselves
say.”
“The devil knows them. I attempted to explain to
them the social and economic under-currents of the war,
but what was the use? Such ignorance that it makes
one despair of the class!”’ |
“Still, they must say something, I suppose.”
“Go into the village and hear for yourself. It may be
of some use for verses or stories.”
Kie Kievitch was annoyed and ceased speaking. The
setting sun sank into a long blue-purple cloud. The
shadows cast by the willows in the meadow died out.
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And in the mist, that rose gently in the river valley,
the moaning and sighing of the sad voices of frogs
spread and grew friendly.
“We have wonderful frogs,” Elisaveta Kievna re-
marked. Kie Kievitch looked at her askance and
shrugged his shoulders. The August stars were sprinkled
over the sky, now cold. Below in Khlibi, it was damp
and smelt of unsettled dust, raised by the flocks, and
of new milk. Ata yard, here and there, stood an un-
‘harnessed cart. Under the limes, where it was quite
dark, the wheel of a well squeaked, a horse neighed and
drank, breathing hard. On an open space near a barn,
which had a thatched roof like a nightcap, three girls
were sitting on logs, singing softly.
Elisaveta Kievna and Arnoldov came up and also sat
down on a log near by.
Khlibi our village
Is adorned with all,
Chairs and posies
And pictures of girls. . .
the girls sang. The one at the end turned to the new-
comers and said quietly:
“Well, girls, shall we go to bed?” But they did not
move. Some one was fidgeting about within the barn,
then a door creaked and out came a short, bald-headed
peasant, groaning. He fumbled for some time with the
padlock, then he came up to the girls, put his hand on
his loins and stroked his goat-like beard.
“Still singing, nightingales ?”
“We are, Uncle Fedor, but not about you.”
“T’ll get the whip to you in a minute. What trick
is this to be singing at night?”
“Do you envy us?”
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Another remarked with a sigh:
“We’ve nothing else left us, Uncle Fedor, but to sing
about our Khlibi.”
“Things are in a bad way with you. You are quite
orphans now.’
Fedor sat down by the girls. The one nearest him
said:
“The Kosmodemianskia women are saying that they
are taking such a lot of people to the war lately, half the ©
world.”
“Tt will soon be our turn, girls.”
“Will they take us to the war?”
“An order has been given that all women are to have
their hair shorn like soldiers. Only, they say that you ‘
smell too strong when on the march.” .
:
;
;
4
:
The girls laughed. The furthest one again asked:
“Uncle Fedor, with whom is our Tsar at war?”
“With the European.”
“Where does he live, Uncle Fedor ?”
“By the sea, most of them.” é
At this a shaggy head rose from a stump hidden in the ~
grass and pulling a coat over itself with a groan, said:
“Hold your nonsense, do. What is that about a Euro-
pean? It’s with the German we are at war.”
“Everything is possible,” Fedor replied. 4
The head disappeared once again. Antoshka Arnol- é
dov took out his cigarette-case and offering Fedor a
cigarette, asked cautiously: f
“Do tell me, did your men go willingly to the war?” 4
“Many went eagerly, sir.” _ %
“Then there was enthusiasm?” i
“There was. There is plenty to eat in the army, they
say. Why shouldn’t they go? At any rate, they would —
see what it was like there. And if you are killed, well,
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you have to die here just the same. Our land is wretch-
edly poor, extra work is bad. We eke out a living on
bread and kvas. There, they say, the food is good. You
get meat twice a day and State sugar and tea and to-
bacco, which you can smoke as much as you like.”
“But isn’t fighting horrible?”
“Horrible? Of course, it is. Nineteen reserves were
taken from our village and three others went voluntarily.
Can you lend me a cigarette, sir?”
[181]
AV
Tarpaulin-covered carts, loads of hay and straw, am-
bulances, a huge trough of pontoons, moved, jolting and
creaking, along the wide road, covered with liquid mud.
A fine, driving rain came down ceaselessly. The ruts and
ditches on either side of the road were filled with water.
The dim forms of trees and thickets could be seen in the
distance. A keen wind blew, and scattered, rolling clouds
sped over the stormy, sodden fields.
Amidst yells and curses and cracking of whips and
jarring of axle on axle, the heavy baggage-train of the
advancing Russian army moved in the mud and rain. ©
On either side of the road lay dead and dying horses
and wheels of upturned carts. Now and again a military
motor-car would dash into the stream. There were
shouts and groans; the horses reared; the loads on the
inclining carts came down and the men on top of them
followed with a clatter.
Further along, where there was a break in the stream,
soldiers stretched far in the distance, ploughing through
the mud with bags and tents slung over their shoulders.
Through the disorderly crowd came the baggage-carts,
with rifles sticking out on all sides and orderlies huddled
on top. Now and again a man would run into the fields,
put aside his rifle and squat down.
Still further on there were more jolting carts and
pontoons and gun-carriages and carriages with drenched
figures in officers’ cloaks inside them. The rumbling 4
stream would now bear down into the open valley, q
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crowding together, yelling, fighting at the bridges, now
stretch slowly up the hills and disappear over the top.
From either side still other loads poured in, of bread
and hay and shells. Small cavalry units passed them
in the fields.
With a clang and clatter of iron, artillery would break
into the stream now and then. Big, broad-chested horses,
whose riders with bearded, angry faces, cracked their
whips at horses and men, ploughed through the road,
dragging the jolting, flat-nozzled guns behind them. And
once more the stream came together and flowed into the
wood, which smelt strongly of mushrooms and dead
leaves and was filled with the soft sounds of the falling
rain.
Further along, on either side of the road, chimneys
stuck out from heaps of rubbish and charred wood; a
broken lantern swung to and fro; on the brick wall of
a house, split by a shell, a gaily coloured poster of a
cinematograph flapped about. And here too, in a cart
without its front wheels, lay a wounded Austrian in
a blue coat, probably dying, with a drawn yellow face,
dim desperate eyes.
About twenty miles from the spot there was a dull
rumbling of guns on the smoky horizon. Thither troops
and baggage flowed day and night. Thither from every
corner of Russia sped trains bearing bread and men and
shells.
The whole country was shaken by the thunder of the
guns. At last there would be set free all that was for-
bidden and smothered, the amassed store of greed, in-
satiability, iniquity and evil.
The population of the town, satiated, slack and cor-
rupted as they were by an evil life, seemed to awake
from a suffocating sleep. In the rumble of the guns the
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refreshing voice of the world storm was heard. They
began to feel that the old life was no longer bearable,
that Russia would rot alive. And with a malicious joy
the people welcomed the war. }
In the country they did not trouble much as to why
and with whom there was a war. What did it matter?
Had not anger and hate like a bloody mist for long be-
dimmed the eyes? A time of terrible deeds had come.
Young fellows and young peasants left their women
and girls and crowded eagerly into the goods-carriages ©
and were borne whistling and singing ribald songs past
the towns. The old life had ended. Russia, like a large
spoon, began to stir up the mud. All stirred, all moved,
drunk with the strong liquor of war.
‘Within about eight miles of the battle lines the bag-
gage and troop units dispersed and vanished. Here
everything human and living ended. Every one was al-
lotted a place in the earth, in a trench. There one had
to sleep, to eat, and kill lice and “crack” one’s rifle at the
line of rainy mist until one was sick. -
At night the whole horizon would grow a flaming red;
slowly the burning houses blazed; the red strings of a
rocket would make a line through the sky and come
down again in stars; with piercing shrieks shells flew
and crashed to the earth, exploding in pillars of fire,
smoke and dust.
There was'a gnawing in the stomach and one was sick
with fear; the skin crept and the fingers clenched. About
midnight signals would be given. Trembling officers
would come running up. With curses and oaths and
blows the men would be aroused, puffed from sleep and
dampness. Stumbling and swearing and yelling, a dis-
orderly group of men would run across the field, now
lying down, now springing up, and deafened and mad, ~
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with memories lost in their terror and wrath, they would
spring into the enemy trenches.
Afterwards, no one ever remembered what took place
in those trenches.
If a man boasted of heroic deeds, of the way in which
he plunged his bayonet, or how at a blow from the butt
end of his rifle, a head split open and brains came out,
he would simply be lying.
After the business of the night there were corpses and
the taking of their tobacco, blankets and coffee.
A, new day dawned; the kitchens arrived. The men,
sleepy and starved, ate and smoked. Afterwards they
talked nonsense of women and also lied freely. They
caught lice and slept. They slept for days in that bare
spot of thunder and death, befouled by excrement and
dlood.
Thus too, in the dirt and dampness, without taking his
clothes and boots off for weeks at a time, lived Teliegin,
lhe army regiment in which he had enrolled as ensign
was attacking. More than half the strength of officers
ind men had been put out of action. No reinforce-
nents had come and every one merely longed for the
noment when he would be moved to the rear, so worn
ind exhausted was he.
But the higher command was anxious to press into
\ustria through the Carpathians before the winter came
nd to lay the country waste, it being necessary to make
he Austrians starve. People were not spared; the sup-
ily of humans was plentiful. It seemed that the sus-
ained effort of three months’ ceaseless fighting must
reak the resistance of the Austrian army, which was
etreating in disorder, that Krakow and Vienna would
all and that the left wing of the Russians would attack
ye German rear.
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In pursuance of this plan, the Russian troops marched —
to the west without stopping, taking thousands upon —
thousands of prisoners, huge stores of provisions, shells,
guns and clothing. In former wars but a part of such
booty, or one only of those long, bloody battles, in
which whole corps were wiped out, would have decided
the campaign. Yet, notwithstanding the fact that the
regular army had perished in the early fighting, deter-
mination hardened. Hatred became the highest manifes- §
tation of virtue. Voluntarily or involuntarily, all joined
the war, children and old men, the whole people. Some-—
thing in this war surpassed human understanding. It
would seem that the enemy was crushed, bled out, that —
one more effort would bring decisive victory. The effort
was made and in place of the vanishing enemy army an-
other grew up, that with a hopeless determination,
marched on death and destruction. Neither Tartar nor —
Persian hordes could have fought so cruelly or died
so readily as did these spoiled Europeans of frail phy-
sique, or the cunning Russian peasants who knew them-_
selves to be dumb beasts—meat in the butchery arranged —
by their masters. It was this determination on the part
of the peoples that spoiled all the plans of the higher —
command and made one think that in this war there wae
some other aim than the victory of this or that side. But
the aim was, so far, hidden from the understanding.
The remnant of Teliegin’s regiment was entrenched _
on the bank of a narrow, deep river. The position was —
a bad one, being exposed, while the trenches were small.
The regiment was hourly expecting an order to advance, —
but for the time being all were pleased to be able to
sleep, change boots and rest, although from the other
side of the river, where the Austrians were strongly en-
trenched, sharp gunfire was in progress. =
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In the evening, when for some three hours the firing
usually ceased, Ivan Ilyitch set out to visit the regimental
staff, quartered in a deserted castle about a mile and a
half from the position.
A white, fleecy mist lay on the winding, weed-cov-
ered river and wound about the bushes on the bank. It
was still and damp and the air smelt of moist leaves.
‘Now and then, from across the water, came the dull
‘solitary boom of a gun.
Ivan Ilyitch jumped across a ditch into the road,
stopped and lighted a cigarette. On either side of him, |
from out of the mist, rose tall, bare trees, that seemed
monstrously high. Beyond them, a low-lying swamp
looked as if it had been filled with milk. A bullet
whizzed plaintively in the stillness. Ivan Ilyitch sighed
deeply. He walked along the scrunching gravel, gazing
upwards at the shadowy treetops and branches. The
quietness and the fact that. he was alone and able to
think, had a soothing effect on him. Gone was the split-
ting noise of the day, and his heart grew filled with a
gentle, poignant sadness. Once more he sighed. He
threw away his cigarette, put his hands at the back of
his head and walked along in another world, filled only
with the shadows of trees, his warm, love-laden heart
and Dasha’s invisible charm.
- Dasha was with him in that hour of quiet and rest.
‘He felt himself in contact with her every time the metal-
lic shriek of the shells ceased, the booming of the guns,
the yelling and the oaths and all the sounds so foreign
to this God-created world, when he would creep into
some dugout and bury his head in his coat. At those
moments an indescribable gentleness permeated him and
filled his heart. Dasha was with him always, true and
severe.
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It seemed to Ivan Ilyitch that when he came to die, he ©
would feel the joy of this contact to the last moment and
that when liberated from himself, he would be sub--
merged and resurrected in it. He did not think of death,
nor was he afraid of it. Nothing could now tear him
from that wonderful condition of life, not even death.
i
That summer, when he had come to Evpatoriya to see
Dasha, he was frightened and anxious and tried to in-
vent all manner of excuses. But the meeting on the
roadside, Dasha’s unexpected tears, her fair head pressed
against him, her hair, her arms, her shoulders, which
all smelt of the sea, her tear-stained mouth, which said,
as she raised her face to him with half-closed, wet eye-
lids, “I did so want to see you, dear Ivan Ilyitch!” and
all those unspoken things which seemed to have dropped ©
from the skies into that road by the sea, had, in a few
minutes, changed Ivan Ilyitch’s life. Instead of offering
excuses, he said softly and resolutely, gazing at her be-
loved face, which trembled in fear and agitation:
“T will love you always, Dasha.”
Afterwards, he wondered whether he had spoken the ~
words at all, or had merely thought them, Dasha under-
standing. She had dropped her head, and taking her
hands from his shoulders, said:
“T have a lot to tell you. Come.”
They had gone and sat down by the water on the +
sand. Dasha had picked up a handful of stones and
leisurely threw them into the water.
[ 188 ]
4
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
_ pressed his lips. “It doesn’t matter, however; you can
treat me as you like.”
_ She sighed and leaned her chin on her hands. Her
eyes again filled with tears, but she wiped them angrily
_ with her bare hand.
“Without you I have lived very badly, Ivan Ilyitch.
If you can, forgive me.”
And she told him everything, frankly and in detail.
She told him about Samara and how she had come to this
place and met Bezsonov, how she had lost desire to
live in her disgust at the Petersburg poison, which had
come to life again and affected her blood, fired her
tiniositys ss)...
“Until what age must I wait to know? I was twenty,
thank God, a woman like other women. I wanted to
wallow in dirt—a fit place for me. But I was fright-
ened at the last moment . . . I hate myself . . . Ivan
Ilyitch, my dear. . . .” Dasha clasped her hands. “Help
me. I won't, I can’t hate myself any more... .Iama
bad, wicked girl . . . But it can’t be that everything
“in me is lost . . . I want to love, my dear . . . Not
myself ono a i.
After this, Dasha lay on the sand without speaking
for a long time. Ivan Ilyitch gazed intently at the sun-
lit mirror of blue water; in spite of everything his soul
was filled with gladness. When he dared to look at
Dasha, she was sleeping, her mouth slightly open, like
a child’s.
The fact that the war had begun and that Teliegin
had to join his regiment on the morrow, Dasha realized
only later, when a gust of wind caused a wave to splash
her feet and she sighed and opened her eyes and sat up
and looked at Ivan Llyitch with a gentle, astonished smile.
“Tvan Ilyitch!”
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Yes)
“Do you like me?”
Ves?
“Very much?e”
“Ves”? }
Then she started to crawl towards him in the sand, —
on her knees, sat down beside him and turning, put her ~
hand in his, as she had once done on the steamer, i
“And\Dalso .°. . Ivan Dyitch,”
She pressed his fingers and asked after a pause:
“What was that you were telling me in the road about |
a war?” She wrinkled her forehead. “With whom is —
there a war?”
“With the Germans.”
“And your”
“T am going tomorrow.”
Dasha gave a little cry and was silent.
Running towards them by the sea, in his crumpled —
striped pajamas, that looked as if he had just got out ©
of bed, was Nikolai Ivanovitch, He was red in the
face, shouting something and waving a newspaper. $.
He took not the slightest notice of Ivan Ilyitch. When ~
Dasha said, “Nikolai, this is my best friend,” Nikolai _
Ivanovitch seized Teliegin by the coat and shaking him,
bawled into his face: 4
“Remember, my friend, I’m a patriot above everything. ©
I won’t give your Germans an inch of our land... .”
The whole of that day Dasha did not leave Ivan Tae
yitch’s side. She was quiet and pensive. To him the
day was filled with the blue light of the sun and the
sound of the sea, incredibly vast. Every moment was
like a separate lifetime.
Teliegin and Dasha wandered along the shore in al
dazed condition, or lay on the sand or sat on the terrace, —
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
perpetually followed by Nikolai Ivanovitch, who ha-
rangued largely about the cause of the war and German
aggression. Teliegin listened, nodding his head, while
he thought “Dasha, Dasha, darling. . . .”
“You've no backbone at all, my friend,’ and he turned
* Dasha. “I could strangle Wilhelm with my own
hands.” |
_ Dasha looked at his flushed face and thought, “O,
God, take care of Ivan Ilyitch.. . .”
In the evening, however, they managed to escape from
Nikolai Ivanovitch and took a long walk by the bay.
They walked in silence, stepping on each other’s feet,
touching each other’s elbows. It suddenly occurred to
Ivan Ilyitch that he must speak some kind of words to
Dasha. She must be expecting him to make a passionate
and moreover a definite declaration. But what words
could his wooden tongue frame? an words express
the emotions that filled him, the sunlight that had en-
tered his heart? Oh, no!
Ivan Ilyitch grew sad. “It would be a shame to speak
to her,’ he thought. “She cannot love me, but like
the good, true girl she is, she will consent if I propose.
That would be forcing her. Moreover, I have no right
to speak. We are parting for who knows how long;
I may never come back from the war . . . It would
make her wait uselessly to keep her word . . . It can-
mot be. ....."
It was one of those attempts at self-effacement, so
characteristic of Ivan Ilyitch. Dasha stopped suddenly
and supporting herself against his shoulder, took off
Her shoe... .
“Oh, Lord, oh, Lord,” she said, shaking the sand from
her shoe. She put it on, drew herself up and sighed
deeply.
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“I know I shall love you very much when you are
gone, Ivan Ilyitch.”
' She put her hands on his shoulders and looking at
him with her clear, almost severe grey eyes without a
smile in them, she sighed again lightly.
“Even there we will be together, won’t we?”
Ivan Ilyitch drew her gently to himself and kissed her
soft, trembling lips. Dasha shut her eyes. When their
breath gave out, Dasha drew back. She took his arm
and they walked along by the heavy, dark water, which
in purple flashes lapped the shore at their feet.
In every moment of quiet Ivan Ilyitch recalled these
incidents with an unfailing emotion. Strolling along the
road with his hands at the back of his head, in the mist,
among the trees, he once more saw Dasha’s fixed gaze,
felt her kiss, the breath of life.
In that hour he had ceased to be alone and would
never be alone again. A girl in a white dress had kissed
him one evening by the sea and the leaden ring of loneli-
ness had melted. He, Ivan Ilyitch Teliegin, had ceased
to be. In that wonderful moment, a completely new Ivan
Ilyitch had come to life. The first was subject to de-
struction, the second would never cease to exist. The
first was solitary as a devil on a waste, the second longed
to expand, to increase, to take to his warm, palpitating
heart men and beasts and the earth and everything.
“Who goes there?” a starved, coarse voice asked from
out the fog.
“One of us,” Ivan Ilyitch replied. He put his hands
in the pockets of his coat and turned down by some
oak trees towards the dark, heavy outline of the castle,
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in several windows of which a yellow light burned.
On catching sight of Teliegin, some one at the en-
trance threw away a cigarette and drew himself erect.
“Has the post come?”
“No, Your Honour, we are expecting it.”
Ivan Ilyitch walked into a hall. A large, black piano
with a leg gone, was supported against a wall. At the
top of a wide, winding oak staircase hung a Gobelin
tapestry, probably very old. It depicted Adam and Eve
standing beneath some thin trees. Eve held an apple in
her hand, a symbol of the sweets of life, Adam held a
flowering branch, a symbol of the fall and the redemp-
tion. Their faded faces and elongated bodies were dimly
lighted by a candle, which was stuck in a bottle standing
on the banister.
Ivan Ilyitch opened a door to the right and entered a
bare room with a moulded ceiling, tumbled down at one
end, the result of a shell hitting the wall outside the day
before. On a bunk, by a blazing fire, sat Lieutenant
Prince Belsky and Sub-Lieutenant Martinov. Ivan Il-
yitch greeted them, asked when they expected the car
from the army staff and sat down near by, on some car-
tridge tins, his eyes blinking at the light.
“Are they still firing on you, eh?” Martinov asked de-
risively for some reason.
Ivan Ilyitch did not reply; he shrugged his shoulders.
Prince Belsky went on speaking in a low voice.
“Tt’s the stink that’s the worst. As I wrote to my
people, I’m not afraid to die. I’m ready enough to give
my life for my country. In fact, that’s why I transferred
to the infantry and am sitting in the trenches. But the
stink’s killing me.”
“The stink’s nothing. If you don’t like it, you needn’t
smell,’ said Martinov, arranging his shoulder-strap.
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“What gets me is that there are no women. Perfectly
ridiculous! It can’t lead to any good. There’s the army
commander, an old sandbox. MHe’s arranged a kind of
monastery for us. No vodka, no women. Is this the
way of looking after the army? Is this war? I have
been at the front for three months, for the fourth I’ll
try and get back to the rear, somehow. Why, eh? Give
me a woman and damn the rear. I’ve always said you've
got to be jolly when you’re fighting.”
Martinov got up from the bunk and began to poke the |
logs with his boot. Prince Belsky smoked pensively,
staring at the fire.
“Five million men in this stink,’ he said, “and all the
rotting corpses and horses. I shall always remember the
war as a stench. Augh!”
Outside, the throbbing of a car was heard.
“Gentlemen, the post!” an excited voice called from
the door. The officers went outside. Dark figures moved
about the car; several men ran across the yard. A hoarse
voice said, “Gentlemen, don’t snatch!”
At last the bags of letters and parcels were brought into
the hall and unpacked on the stairs, beneath Adam and
Eve. It was the post for a whole month. The dirty can-
vas bags contained a sea of love and longing, all that
was dear and clean in the life that had been left behind.
“Gentlemen, don’t snatch!” said Captain Babkin, a
stout, red-faced man. “Ensign Teliegin, six letters and
a parcel for you. Lieutenant Nejny, two letters... .”
“Nejny was killed, gentlemen.”
“When P”
“This morning.”
Ivan Ilyitch walked over to the fireplace. All the six
letters were from Dasha. The addresses on the envelopes
were written in a large, rather childish hand. Ivan Il-
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yitch loved the dear hand that had written the letters so
large, to make sure they would be legible and that there
would be no mistake. Bending to the fire, he carefully
tore open one of the envelopes. The letter brought him
such memories that he was forced to shut his eyes. Then
he read:
“After we had seen you off, Nikolai Ivanovitch and
I that same day went to Simferopol and caught the
Petersburg train that evening. We are now living in our
old flat. Nikolai Ivanovitch is very anxious; there is
no news from Katia and we don’t know where she is.
What happened between us is so big and unexpected that
I have hardly come to myself yet. Don’t be angry with
me for addressing you as ‘you.’ I love you. I shall be
true to you and will love you very much. At present
everything is so confusing. Troops are passing in the
street and the band is playing. It is so sad. It seems
as if gladness were going away with the drums and the
troops. I know I ought not to write like this to you,
but still, you will be careful at the front... .” a
“Your Honour. Your Honour.” ‘Teliegin turned with
difficulty. A messenger stood in the doorway. “A tele-
phone message for you, Your Honour.”
“What is it?”
“You are wanted in the battalion.”
“Who wants me?”
“Sub-Lieutenant Rosanov. He said, “Tell him to come
as soon as possible.’ ”
Teliegin folded up the unfinished letter and put it in-
side his shirt with the others, then he pulled his cap
over his eyes and went out.
The fog had grown thicker; the trees were now in-
visible; one walked in the milky mist, keeping to the
road only by the sound of the scrunching gravel beneath
[195 ]
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the feet. Ivan Ilyitch scrunched over the gravel, repeat-
ing, “I shall be true to you and will love you very much.”
Suddenly he stopped and listened. No sound could be
heard in the fog, only the heavy drops that fell from
the trees now and then. Soon a gurgling and soft rus-
tling were borne to him from some short distance ahead.
As he went the gurgling sound grew louder. Suddenly
his foot came down an empty space. A clump of earth
had broken off beneath it and fallen with a heavy splash
into the water.
It must have been the place by the burnt bridge, where
the road ended by the river. On the opposite bank, about
a hundred steps from where he stood, he knew were the
Austrian trenches, which came right up to the water.
And in fact, immediately after the splash, like the crack
of a whip, a rifle report came rolling down the river,
followed by another and a third until, like the bursting
of iron, came a long boom and answering it, through
the fog, came rapid reports, Louder and louder it
banged and boomed and shrieked from every part of the
river and in the midst of the fiendish noise the quick,
hurried report of a machine gun could be heard, sounding
like the cracking of nuts. A shell burst in the wood.
Broken, the fog hung over the earth like a heavy veil,
screening the usual, horrible scene. Several bullets hit
against a tree near by, bringing down the branches. Ivan
Ilyitch turned into the fields and groped his way to the
bushes. The firing stopped just as suddenly as it had
begun. Ivan Ilyitch took off his cap and wiped his wet
forehead. Once more it was still, with the sound only
of the falling drops from the bushes. Thank God, he ©
would be able to read Dasha’s letters that night. Ivan
Ilyitch laughed and jumped across a ditch. At last he
heard some one yawn near by and say:
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“There, you’ve got your letter. Vasily, you’ve got your
letter.”
“Be quiet,” an abrupt voice said, “some one is coming.”
“Who is there?” |
“One of us, one of us,” Teliegin said hurriedly as he
caught sight of a breastwork trench and two bearded
faces sticking out of it.
“What company are you?”
“The third, Your Honour, ours. You should not walk
up there, Your Honour, you may be hit.”
Teliegin jumped into the trench and walked to the
entrance of the officers’ dugout. The men, who had been
awakened by the firing, were talking among themselves.
“They could easily cross the river in a fog like this.”
“We'd never let them.”
“What a row to kick up all of a sudden! What a
life! Did they think they’d scare us, or were they scared
themselves ?”
“Aren’t you scared?”
“To be sure, I am.”
“Gavril has had his finger blown off, boys.”
“Has he gone to get it bandaged?”
“You would have laughed; he gave a howl and held it
up like this.”
“Lucky devil; they’ll send him home now.”
“No fear! If he’d had his arm off they’d have sent
him home, but not for a finger. They’ll keep him rotting
around here and then back to the company he’ll come.”
“I wonder when the war’s going to end.”
“Chuck it.”
“It'll end some day, but we shan’t be there to see it.”
“If we’d only take Vienna.”
“What do you want with Vienna, eh?”
“We could look at the place, at any rate.”
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“If the war’s not finished by the spring, the men’ll
make off, all the same. Who’s to do the ploughing? The
women? We’ve had enough of being chopped about.
And what’s it for? It’s time it stopped. If you drink
long enough, you’ll fall away on your own account.”
“The generals won’t stop the war.”
“What do you know about it?, Has some one told
you? IJ’ll smash you in the jaw, you i
“The generals won’t stop the war.”
“He’s right, boys. It suits them; they draw double pay
and get crosses and honours into the bargain. A fellow
told me that for every recruit the English pay our gen-
erals thirty-seven and a half roubles.”
“The dirty dogs! They sell us like beasts.”
“Stop this talk, do. What good does it do?”
“All right. If we hold out, we'll see.”
When Teliegin entered the dugout the battalion com-
mander, Sub-Lieutenant Rosanov, an indolent, kindly, in- |
telligent man, stout and short-winded, in spectacles, with a
large head and thin hair, said from where he sat in a
corner on some horse-cloths: “So you’ve come at last!”
“I’m sorry, Fedor Kusmitch; I got lost in the fog.”
“All right. Look here, my dear fellow, we’ve got to
be busy tonight.” He put a crust of bread in his mouth,
which he had been holding in his dirty hand. Teliegin
shut his jaws tight and pulled himself together. .. . .
“The fact is, my dear fellow, we’ve been ordered to
cross to the other side. We must do the business as
simply as possible. Sit down here by me. Shall we
have a glass of brandy, eh? Now this is my idea. . .
We must put a bridge across by the big laburnum. Not
more than seventy men must be sent across. You'll do
the best you can, God bless you . . . At daybreak we'll
Follow .)/.)405),
[198 ]
XVI
““Sussov ?”
“Here, Your Honour.”
“Dig gently ; don’t throw into the water. That’s right.
Forward, boys, forward. Zubtsov!”
“Here, Your Honour.”
“Lend a hand here. Put it there. A little more dig-
Org. wee lower 10S pentivavae enc.
“Careful, boys; you'll. take the skin from my shoulder
Be iinliet sae te x”
“Come on there, throw!”
“Don’t make such a row, you swine!”
“Fix the other side . . . Shall we lift, Your Honour?”
“Are the ends fixed?”
“Tt’s all ready.”
“Up iY
In the clouds of mist, bathed in moonlight, two long
stakes connected by cross-beams, a suspension bridge,
rose with a groan. The dim figures of the volunteers
moved about the bank, speaking and swearing in low
hurried tones.
“Ts it in place?”
“It’s gone in well.”
“Lower it. Mind!”
“Gently, boys, gently. . .
The stakes, fixed at fia ie to the bank of the river,
at its narrowest point, leant slowly forward and the
bridge was suspended over the water in the fog.
“Does it reach the bank?”
Tats
[199 ]
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“Lower gently.”
“Stop ("
The end of the bridge, however, dropped into the
water with a loud splash. Teliegin threw up his hands.
“Lie down!”
The men lay down silently on the bank and were hid-
den in the grass. The fog had begun to lift, but the
night was darker and the air sharper before the dawn.
All was still on the other side.
“Zubtsov!” Teliegin called.
Vilere.;;
“Get in and lay the planks.”
The tall figure of one of the men who had volunteered,
Vasili Zubtsov, slipped past Teliegin to the water. Tel-
iegin saw his large trembling hands clutch the grass,
let it go, then disappear.
“Deep enough,” Zubtsov said to some one below, in
a chilled whisper.
“Hand up the boards, boys.”
“The boards, hand up the boards. .
Quickly and silently the boards passed along from
hand to hand. They could not be fixed for fear of noise.
Having put down the first row, Zubtsov got out of the
water on to the bridge. His teeth chattered as he said
in a whisper, “Hurry up, there; don’t go to sleep. . at
The icy water gurgled nuickty under the bridge ; the
stakes swayed. Teliegin distinguished the dim forms of
bushes on the opposite bank and though they were the
same bushes as on this side, they took on a sinister ap-
pearance. The bushes had to be possessed. Ivan II-
yitch returned to the bank where his men lay.
“Up!” he said sharply.
Exaggeratedly tall, dissolving figures rose instantly in
the white mist.
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“Run, in single file.”
Teliegin turned to the bridge. Just then a ray of
sunlight seemed to fall on the cloud of mist, lighting up
the yellow boards, thrown down by the black-bearded
Zubtsov in terror. The light of a projector swept to the
side and fell on the hitherto unseen bare, rugged
branches, then came back again to the boards. Teliegin
held his breath as before plunging into cold water and
ran across the bridge. Suddenly the dark stillness was
broken by a loud thundering in the head. From the
Austrian side, rifle and machine-gun fire was directed
on the bridge. Teliegin jumped on the bank, lay down
and turned. A tall man was running across the bridge
—he could not make out who it was—with rifle pressed
to his breast. The rifle dropped, up went his arms as
though he were laughing, and sideways he fell into the
water. The machine-gun beat upon the bridge, the
water, the bank. Another man ran across and lay down
by Teliegin.
“T’ll tear the bloody swine.”
A second and a third and a fourth ran across. An-
other threw up his hands with a groan and crashed into
me water, 64)...
_ All had now crossed. They lay down and piled up the
earth with their shovels. The firing raged all over the
river. You could not raise your head. The machine-
gun rained down on the spot where the men lay. Sud-
denly, there was a whiz overhead, once, twice, six times
and six deafening explosions followed. It was our side,
firing at the machine-gun nest.
- Teliegin and Zubtsov sprang up and ran some forty
paces ahead, then again they lay down. The machine-
gun had again opened fire from out the darkness on the
deft. The firing on our side was clearly stronger; the
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Austrians were driven underground. Taking advantage ~
of the lull in the firing, the men ran to the place where
our artillery had broken the wire entanglements by the
Austrian trenches. An attempt had evidently been made
to repair them at night, for a corpse hung on the wire.
Zubtsov: cut the wire and the corpse fell like a sack at
Teliegin’s feet. A volunteer named Laptev, without
his rifle, got ahead of the others on all fours. He lay
right down by the breastwork.
Zubtsov called to him.
“Get up and throw a bomb!” |
But Laptev was silent. He did not move or stir; his
heart had evidently failed him in his fright. The firing
grew stronger; the men could only keep close to the
ground and entrench.
“Get up and throw a bomb, you !” Zubtsov yelled. ©
“Throw a bomb!” and he stretched out his rifle and
shoved Laptev in the back of his bulging coat. Laptev
turned his frightened face, took a grenade from his belt
and throwing himself against the breastwork, he hurled
it in. When it had exploded, he jumped into the trench.
“Kall, kill!’ Zubtsov yelled in an unnatural voice.
About ten men ran ahead and disappeared under-
ground; rending, tearing sounds of explosions followed.
Teliegin flung himself against the breastwork, so
blinded by the blood that rushed to his head and he
could not detach a grenade. He jumped into the trench, ~
hitting his shoulders against the clay. He stumbled
against some soft thing and clenched his teeth to keep —
himself from screaming outright. He could see a white —
mask—the face of a man—pressing against the slope of
the trench. He seized him by the shoulders and the
man kept on muttering and muttering, as in sleep. . . .
“Stop that, you devil; I’m not going to touch you!”
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Teliegin bawled at the mask, almost in tears, and he
fled, springing over the corpses. But the fighting had
now finished. A crowd of grey figures, having thrown
down their arms, were climbing out of the trench into
the field. They were shoved with the butt ends of rifles,
grenades were flung near by to scare them. And still
the hidden machine-gun kept on its firing at the cross-
ing. Ivan Ilyitch pushed his way through men and pris-
oners, crying: ;
“What are you staring at, eh? Zubtsov! Where’s
Zubtsov ?”
“Here.”
“Why do you stand staring, you damned fool?”
“But how can we get at him?”
“T’ll get you in the jaw! Come!”
They ran forward. Zubtsov pulled Teliegin by the
sleeve. “Stop! There he is!”
From the trench a narrow entrance led to a machine-
gun emplacement. Teliegin rushed into it and every-
thing shook in the darkness with the unbearable noise.
He seized a man by the elbow and pulled him out. In-
stant quiet followed. Nothing was heard but the heavy
breathing of the man struggling.
“You swine! You won't let go alive, won’t you?”
Zubtsov muttered at the back and struck him three
heavy blows on the head with the butt end of his rifle.
The man shuddered, groaned and was still. Teliegin
dropped him and rushed out.
“Your Honour, he’s chained!” Zubtsov called after
him.
Soon it grew light. The yellow clay was spattered
with blood and calfskins, tins, frying-pans and corpses
were strewn everywhere, the latter huddled like sacks.
The starved and sleepy men were some of them lying
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down and snoring, others eating jam and others rum-
maging among the scattered Austrian bags.
The prisoners had long since been driven across the
river. The regiment had crossed over and occupied
the position. The artillery was bombing the second
Austrian lines, which were replying feebly.
Modern civilization had come to this monstrous pass.
The state,consumed itself for the sake of equality, which
was universal slavery. There was only one issue: to
destroy to the roots our present world civilization and
on the liberated and desolate earth, to begin to live for
the sake of oneself.
These ideas seemed miraculous to Elisaveta Kievna.
She had at last met a man who had fired her imagination.
For hours on end, with burning cheeks, she stared at
Jadov’s lean and cynical face and listened to his ravings.
When her leave was over and she was compelled to
return to the “flying” hospital, Jadov said, “It would be
absurd of you to leave me.”
“But they won’t extend my leave.”
“We must be married.”
Elisaveta Kievna nodded her consent. They were mar-
ried in the hospital. In December Jadov was moved to
Moscow, where he had another operation performed and
early in the spring he came with Elisaveta Kievna to Anap
and settled in the “Chateau Caberné.” They had very little
money and kept no servants, except an old porter, who
used to do their shopping in the town. A long period of
hopeless idleness began in that cold, bare, half-ruined
house. There was nothing left to talk about and in front
of them lay boredom and poverty. A dark door seemed
to have slammed behind them.
Elisaveta Kievna tried to fill the emptiness of those
terribly long days with her own personality, but in this
she succeeded badly. She was ridiculous when she tried
to charm, with her untidiness and incapacity. Jadov
would taunt her with it and she would think in despair
that, notwithstanding her broadness of view, she was
very sensitive as a woman.
[271 ]
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Lately he had become cruel and would be silent for
days, while she found consolation in imagining how he
would kill and then, in his, hopeless loneliness, would
come to love her at last. And yet, she knew that she
would not have exchanged for any other life, this life of
torment, anxiety and pain, of submission to her husband
and rare moments of joy.
Elisaveta Kievna took up the heavy jug when she had
filled it and went upstairs. The lamp had not yet been
lighted in the room, but visitors were there. Alexander |
Ivanovitch Jirov and Filka were sitting on the window-
sill and Gvosdik, a tall man with a weak back, was pacing
from door to window, angrily talking to Jadov.
“The French Revolution let loose individuality and in
the fever of romanticism, bourgeois civilization was born.
At the end of the century a few individualities, some
score of millionaires, attained perfect freedom, but at
the price of enslaving the whole world. Your idea of in-
dividuality, your king of kings, has been exploded like a
soap-bubble. It led nowhere, merely lighting up the
dungeons of the penal prisons where we forged our
chains. The light of that pernicious torch has been
broken. ... We must uproot the very instinct of separate
individuality, the I as I. ... We must let mankind go back
to the herd and we will become its leaders. We must
destroy any one who is an inch above the herd.” He
pointed a bony hand at Jadov: “The whole idea is in that
inch and we must lop it off. In the terrible sunset of the
age in which we have started on our way, we are envel-
oped in night. A war was arranged for us. We have
been set against each other once more. For the last time
they have tried to deceive us damnably. But there are
many millions of us and we will survive this war.”
(272)
—————e
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He doubled up suddenly and began to cough, a dry, in-
ternal cough, which sounded like a bark. He dropped
into a chair and shook his hairy head. Filka, who was
sitting on the window-sill, began to speak in a thin, soft
voice.
“At our works it is only the fools who do not see why
the people are shedding their blood and why we are
straining our stomachs with overtime. It is an adventure
of world capitalism. The people were driven into the
war; the chief ring-leaders, the German Emperor, the
King of England, the French President, the Austrian
Francis Joseph, and our own fool have long settled it
among themselves.”
_ “Nonsense,” said Gvosdik, breathing hard. ‘Don’t
talk such nonsense! But if you mean that their aim is
the same, there I agree with you.”
“T have every reason for what I say.”
Gvosdik rose and poured himself out a glass of wine.
His Adam’s apple moved up and down as he drank it.
Once more he began to pace the room with his flat feet.
“You have come back a stranger, Jadov,” he said.
“We no longer understand one another. Hear me out.
- Your analysis is a correct one. In the first place, capi-
talism had to make a clearance of its accumulated goods;
in the second place, capitalism had to crush with a
single blow proletarian democracy, which was becoming
too dangerous. They have attained their first object with
even more success than anticipated. The demands of the
war were a hundredfold more than the peace demands.
Wagon-loads of goods can be cast into that furnace. As
for their second object, they will be broken on that. The
ace of hearts will be beaten. It won't be capital that will
triumph, but the masses of the people, the ants, social-
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ism. A milliard people are living under conditions of
military operations and the military socialization of in-
dustry. Fifty million men, from the ages of seventeen to
forty-five, are in possession of arms. The separation of
the working masses of Europe is an artificial one. The
workers have learnt to make arms and at a given sign
they will stretch out their hands to each other across the
trenches. The war will end in revolution, in a world
conflagration; the bayonets will be turned on the coun-
tries’ interiors. And now you come out with your retro-.
grade deduction which is both false and foolish. What
is the use of your individual freedom? It is anarchism,
madness. The pathos of equality is the issue of the war.
You understand what that means. It means a reconstruc-
tion of the whole world, of the state and morality. The
globe must be turned inside out in order to come but a
little nearer to the truth, which is burning in a bloody
flame among the masses of the people. Justice! A scabby
beggar will rise up on an emperor’s throne and cry, “The
world for all!’ and the people will bow down before him
and kiss his scabs. From cellar and sewer they will drag
out a creature, in the last stages of degradation, a creature
barely resembling a human being, and according to his
pattern they will cut the general level. Where do you
come in with your individuality, with your king of kings?
They will cut off your head if it sticks up above the -
others.”
Jadov was sprawling on the couch, shifting his ciga-
rette from one side of his mouth to the other. The glow it
cast lighted up his sneering lips and his cold nose. Elisa-
veta Kievna gazed at him from the dark corner in which
she sat.
“Drunk and tired as you are,” she thought. “I will
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undress you and put you to bed. Nobody but I under-
stands your soul. Even though you hate, I shall be true
to you till death.” Her heart beat fast.
“Supposing,” Jadov began, in a low, icy voice, “suppos-
ing that your rickety Mitruka, with his jaw smashed at
the war, does get up at last and bawl about equality;
supposing that he kills his officers, abolishes parliaments
and councils of ministers and chops off the head of any
one who uses a handkerchief and so on, and that every-
thing in the world is made equal. Supposing it is as you
say. But what will you leaders be doing all the time?
Will you be brought down to the level of Mitruka, the
syphilitic from the sewer, eh?”
Gvosdik replied quickly. :
“To pass from war to mutiny, from mutiny to political
revolution and further on to social revolution, we must ©
bring out a fourth class, the armed proletariat, which must
bear the responsibility for the revolution, assume the
dictatorship.”
“Then you abandon your idea of levelling down to
Mitruka ?”
“During the revolution there will not be equality; there
_ will be dictatorship. Revolutionary ideas are implanted
in fire and blood, as you ought to know.”
“And what will you do with your revolutionary prole-
tariat when the revolution is over? Will you level the
whole class to Mitruka, or will you allow your worthy
revolutionary aristocracy to remain somehow or other?”
Gvosdik stopped and scratched his beard.
“The proletariat will return to its lathes. . . . Of
course you are bound to come in conflict here with hu-
man nature, but what are you to do? The tops must
be lopped off.”
. [ 275 ]
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“On one fine day, then, realizing that the revolution
is finished, your revolutionary proletariat with the com-
rade dictators at the head will decree to have itself
abolished,” Jadov said, “‘so you would have us believe.
But that is not my idea. There is a curious law of na-
ture according to which, the more abstract an idea, the
bloodier is its incarnation to life, and it incarnates math-
ematically, feet upwards. In Jewish cabalistics our
world is supposed to be an overturned shadow of God.
It is a very old law. When you come to the idea of
love and freedom, it is quite clear to what they will
lead. You have only to apply such an idea to man-
kind and fountains of blood will rush to meet you. The
time has gone by for your idea of equality. You ad-
mit that it must bring bloodshed, and in that, I am at
one with you; I give you my hand on it, comrades; I
believe in your dictatorship, too, but as to how it will
end, about that’ we had better keep silent. Your son
of a dog, your rickety Mitruka, the syphilitic, I loathe
and despise from the bottom of my heart. I agree to
level him under the rake and to knock him on the head
when he cries out. I am ready to make revolution to-
morrow morning, if you like, but not for the sake of
levelling myself to Mitruka, but for the levelling of
Mitruka. . . . I shall be a good master, I promise you.”
Jadov lifted his legs and got up. He finished his
glass of wine at a gulp and began to pace the room with
a light, jerky tread. Elisaveta Kievna watched him
from her corner with a beating heart.
“Look at him, the king of kings, the great man, my
husband !”
The wind, which had risen with thg might, shook the
shutters, blew in at every crevice, arid howled wildly
in the attic. |
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The friends were silent. Filka got off the window- sill,
poured himself out some wine, and turning with the glass
in his hand, said to Jadov, in a wheedling tone:
“We want more men like you, Comrade Jadov. God
only knows when the revolution will begin or when it
will end, and we have no fighters. The people are very
ignorant. They only know how to hate, but when it
comes to business, they are ready to stab each other in
the back. Itisa risky business to begin, of course, and
there is no one to begin it.”
“To begin it, the devil! To begin with three ko-
pecks!” Jadov said, throwing himself down on the couch
again. Suddenly he asked in a different tone:
“Alexander Ivanovitch, well now? .
All heads turned to the dark, narrow- Paeeied form
of Jirov, sitting on the window-sill. He began to fidg-
et. Gvosdik spoke excitedly.
“Comrades, I haven’t the party’s permission; I can’t
hex
_ take part in this business.”
“T take the responsibility of it myself,” said Jadov;
“that’s settled and has nothing to do with the party.
“Are you satisfied ?” |
-Gvosdik was silent. Filka spoke in a still more
wheedling voice.
“It is a public affair. We agree absolutely, but as
for the party, it is doubtful.”
Gvosdik drummed his fingers on the table.
“T shall take part in the deliberations as a private
person only. I must warn you again that I can’t take
_ the responsibility. You must act without me. Filka
can do as he likes.”
“But will you take the money?” Jadov cried.
“Yes.” !
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“That’s all right, then; it’s settled, Lisa, bring some
more wine.”
Elisaveta Kievna took up the jug and walked out.
She knew that something important was going on just
now, a thing they had been deliberating for five nights.
It began soon after Alexander Jirov had told them
about a new acquaintance he had made, Colonel Bris-
sov, the commandant of the Anap garrison, a Vladi-
vostok man, whom he discovered to be an unexpected
admirer of the new poetry. A few days later, in a room
at the Anap Greek hotel there had been a meeting with
the colonel. Jadov, Jirov and Elisaveta Kievna were
there. Brissov gave them some genuine crown vodka,
read them futurist poems and laughed loudly, stroking
his half grey beard on each cheek. There was no end
to his good-nature and muddle-headedness.
“I am the last of the Lantsepoups,” Brissov had
cried, unfastening his sweating khaki coat. “I’ve got
the will in my possession. After the Japanese war, the
modern style came into vogue and the Lantsepoups grew
degenerate. There used to be a club at Vladivostok
at one time. They’d have a glass of vodka for you at
every step on the staircase. You ought to have tried
the walking up; ha, ha; with thirty-seven steps to get
u i
The colonel, evidently, had no secrets whatever. He
told them about “the phenomenal looting that was go-
ing on in the newly occupied Turkish regions,’ and that
“a felucca with stolen gold would be coming there in a
day or two from Trebizond. I am told they are carry-
ing rice; ha, ha! Rice! And why, may I ask, should
they order me to place a military guard for the ar-
rival of a private vessel carrying rice?”
Elisaveta Kievna had guessed that the nocturnal gath-
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erings related to the felucca. When she returned with
the wine, the visitors had already gone. Jadov was
standing by the window.
“They can all talk,” he said in a low voice, without
turning, “but when it comes to jumping from the word
mormenre deed: 3.4... Yous try tye.’ He’ turnedito
his wife. His face was distorted. ‘The essence is in
the jump, not the idea of it. I may break my neck, but
I shall jump. The jump is the brave thing. . . . Ideas
are ideas. Gvosdik says I am an anarchist. He talks
nonsense, like a fool. . . . I want to live. That is the
sum total of my philosophy. Quite enough reason to spit
on all your laws, God-made and man-made. . . . Why do
you stare at me? Yes, I] am brave because. . .”’
He put out his hand to push Elisaveta Kievna aside,
for she had come quite close to him, but she caught
at his cold fingers. He suddenly drooped his head.
“What have you decided to do?”
“To rob the felucca with rice tomorrow night.”
He repeated the sentence more calmly and with a
sneer, then he began to stare at the dark window. Elis-
aveta Kievna put her arms round his shoulders and
pressed her cheek against him. He spoke more quietly.
“There is no justification for the robbery, that is the
whole force of it. Had there been I would have re-
fused to have anything to do with it. It is unjustifi-
able, that’s the whole essence, don’t you see?”
“Can I come with you tomorrow ?”
“Yes. The business is only a beginning, Lisa. It
will help me to turn around. I will raise a cry. We shall
find friends. We will open the cellars and let man’s hatred
loose. That will do for the present. Let us go to bed.”
The whole of the day a strong, cold wind blew.
Jadov went into the town and returned in the evening,
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excited and cheerful. At dusk, he walked with Elisa-
veta Kievna down the hills to the rough, noisy sea.
Elisaveta Kievna’s teeth chattered. The shore was de-
serted. The twilight grew thicker. At the place where
the dunes came right up to the water, two figures rose
from a bush. They were Filka and Alexander Jirov.
“We have left the sloop by the bathing place; it was
too shallow to bring it here,” Filka said in a whisper.
Jadov did not reply. He walked over the sticky
sand, against which the waves were lapping. Walking
was difficult, the water coming up higher than the knees.
Elisaveta Kievna stumbled against a stump and caught
hold of Jirov, who staggered, terrified. His face and thick
lips were as white as chalk.
“It’s a mad, astounding night,” she said.
“Aren’t you afraid?” he asked in a whisper.
“What nonsense! On the contrary.”
“Do you know that Filka threatened to kill me?’
“Why “sd
“Tf I refused to come with you.”
“He was right.”
“But, you know. . .
By a crooked, érbatiny bathing-hut, which smelt of
sea-weed and decay, a steep-sided sloop rocked to and
fro. Jadov was the first to jump into it. He sat down
by the rudder.
“Jirov to the prow; Lisa and Filka take the oars!”
It was difficult to get away from the bank; huge
breakers kept dashing the sloop on the sands. They
were all soaked through. Jirov gave a low cry, hold-|
ing on to his hat and made a sudden attempt to leave
the boat. Jadov stood up and said, “Filka, knock him
! and Jirov again huddled up, trem-—
ey
down with the oar!
bling at the boat’s prow.
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Elisaveta Kievna pulled strongly at the oars, lean-
ing back with every stroke. Had it not been for her
husband she would have cried aloud with joy. The
boat now rose at the crest of the noisy waves, now fell
between the walls of black water.
Jadov again rose in the stern and looked about him.
Some twenty sagenes ahead there rocked the black form
of a two-masted felucca. Jadov turned leeward and
called to Jirov, “Catch hold of the rope!”
The sloop came close to the body of the felucca,
which smelt strongly of hot tar and creaked as it rose
and fell with the waves. The wind whistled through
the rigging. Alexander Jirov caught hold of the rope
with both hands. Filka caught at the rope ladder with
the boat-hook. Light as a cat Jadov ran up the ladder
and sprang on deck. Filka sprang after him. Elisa-
veta Kievna put down the oars and looked up. A min-
ute passed, not more, and three sharp reports were
heard. Alexander Jirov pressed against the rope and
dropped his head. Above, a strange voice cried slowly,
son, ‘they ve killed me, ..\..\.77
Instantly a bustling began. Three locked figures ap-
peared at the ship’s side. One of them hung over. An
-arm was raised and came down with a heavy blow and
a body fell with a heavy thud into the water by the
sloop. Elisaveta Kievna, dazed, looked and _ listened.
Jadov came to the ship’s side and called:
“Alexander Jirov, come up!”
Jirov hung limp on the rope-ladder. Jadov stretched
out a hand and pulled him on deck.
“Lisa, you look after the boat,” he said. ‘We shall
soon be through.”
In an hour, the sloop pushed away from the felucca,
Filka being the only one to row. A small trunk stood
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at Elisaveta Kievna’s feet. They had found it in a
sack of rice. At the bottom of the boat, too, sat Jirov,
his face huddled between his raised knees.
They left the sloop by the bathing place and the four
of them set out to the “Chateau Caberné” along the edge
of the water, which covered their traces. About half
way, red shadows were cast on the sand by their mov-
ing figures and the foam of the breakers grew blood-
red. Elisaveta Kievna turned. In the distance, among
rolling clouds of smoke, the felucca was burning, cast-
ing a round glow. Jadov bent forward and shouted,
“Run, run! . Ay 4
[ 282 ]
XXIV
At the beginning of the winter of 1916, at a time
of deep depression and disappointed hopes, the Russian
troops unexpectedly attacked and captured the fort of
Erzerum. It was a time when the English had under-
gone military reverses in Mesopotamia and Constan-
tinople and on the western front desperate fighting was
going on for the possession of the ferryman’s little
house of the Yser, when a few metres of blood-stained
land captured was held to be a victory, about which
the electric currents from the Eiffel Tower were busy
sending messages throughout the world.
Under most cruel conditions, the Russian army, in
mountain snowstorms and frost, scrambling up frozen
rocks, attacked Erzerum and spread throughout the big
district of ancient towns abandoned by the Turks.
There was international consternation. A book was
hastily published in England about the mysteries of the
Russian soul. And in fact, contrary to all logical rea-
soning, after eighteen months of war, defeat and the
loss of seventeen governments, the low morale, eco-
nomic collapse and political chaos, Russia once more
began an advance on the whole of her three thousand
versts of front. There was a reaction of new and
seemingly inexhaustible strength. Hundreds of thou-
sands of prisoners were moved to the interior of Rus-
sia. Austria had received a death-blow, after which
she easily fell to pieces. Germany made a secret offer
of peace. The value of the ruble rose. Again hopes
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were revived that the war would be ended by military
force. The “Russian soul” grew popular. Ships were
filled with Russian divisions. Peasants from Orlov,
Tula and Riasan sang “Nightingale, little bird” in the
streets of Salonica, Marseilles and Paris and went into
the fight with coarse oaths to save European civiliza-
tion.
It entered many of their heads at the time that lackeys
and dogs and superior officers might knock them about,
but that they could not be dispensed with.
Throughout the summer there was an advance-in-
the south to Mesopotamia, Armenia and Asiatic Tur-
key and in the west to the interior of Galicia. All re-
serves were called up. Men of forty were taken from
field and workshop. In every town supplementary for-
mations were going on. The number of men mobilized
approached twenty-four millions. There hung over
Germany and the whole of Europe the time-old terror
of multitudes of Asiatic hordes.
\
Moscow was deserted that summer. Like a pump,
the war had sucked up all the masculine population.
Nikolai Ivanovitch had gone to the front, to Minsk, in
the spring and Dasha and Katia lived in the town in
a quiet, retired way. There was a great deal of work
to do. Sometimes short, sad letters would come from
Teliegin. He had made an attempt to escape from
captivity, but was caught and removed to a fortress.
At one time a pleasant young man used to call on
the sisters. His name was Roshchin; he had only just
been made an ensign. He came of a good professorial
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family and had known the Smokovnikovs in Peters-
burg.
Every evening at dusk, a ring ‘would be heard at
the front door. Ekaterina Dmitrievna would sigh
guardedly and go over to the sideboard to put jam in
the dishes and to cut up the lemon for tea. Dasha
noticed that when Roshchin came in after the ring,
Katia would not immediately turn her head toward him,
but would wait a moment and smile in her usual sad
and gentle way. Roshchin would bow silently. He was
a tall man, with large hands and slow movements. He
would sit down slowly by the table and in a calm, low
voice, would relate the war news. Katia would sit quietly
by the samovar, gazing at his face, and from the solem-
nity of her eyes and her large pupils, it was clear
that she was not listening to his words. When his gaze
met hers, Roshchin would immediately bury his clean-
shaven face in his large glass and a bead of perspira-
tion would begin to roll down his cheek. Sometimes
there would be a long silence at table and Katia would
sigh, “Oh, heavens!’ and she would colour and smile
apologetically. At seven o’clock Roshchin would rise,
kiss Katia’s hand carefully and Dasha’s absently and
depart, hitting his shoulder against the doorpost as he
went out. His footsteps would long be echoed down
the deserted street. Katia would wash the cups, lock
the sideboard, and without a word, would go into her
own room and turn the key in the lock.
Once, at sunset, Dasha was sitting by the open win-
dow. Martins were flying high above the street. Dasha
listened to their shrill, crystal-clear voices, thinking that
tomorrow would be a hot, fine day, since the martins
flew so high. The martins knew nothing about the war,
happy birds!
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The sun sank. The whole town was bathed in a
golden dust, through which the narrow crescent of the
moon grew clearer and clearer. People were sitting
at gateway and porch. Dasha felt sad and apprehen-
sive. Near by a street-organ struck up in the eternal
evening dullness of the lower orders. Dasha leant her
elbow on the window-sill. A woman’s high voice, which
seemed to reach to the very garrets, began to sing “I
lived on dry crusts and drank cold water.”
Katia approached the back of Dasha’s chair and
seemed also to be listening, motionless. ;
“How well she sings that, Katia.”
“Why?” Katia burst out in a low, agitated voice;
“why have we been afflicted like this? Is it my fault?
When will it all end? I shall be an old woman soon.
I can’t bear it any longer! I can’t! .. .” She choked.
She was standing by the wall near the curtains, pale,
with wrinkles round her mouth, staring at Dasha with
dry, clear eyes.
“T can’t bear it any more! I can’t!” she repeated in
a quiet, hoarse voice. “It is never going to end! We
shall all be dead! We shall never be happy again. Do
you hear her singing? She is burying me alive!”
Dasha put her arms about her sister. She caressed
and wanted to soothe her, but Katia stuck out her el-
bows and repulsed her. She was like stone.
“What is the matter, Katia? My dear, do calm your-
self!’ But Dasha heard Katia clench her teeth; her
hands were like ice. “What has happened? Why are
you like this?”
Just then a bell rang in the hall. Katia put her sister
aside and stared at the door. Roshchin entered with
shaven head. He greeted Dasha with a crooked smile,
gave his hand to Katia and frowned when he looked
| 286 ]
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at her face. Dasha immediately went into the dining-
room. As she put the tea things on the table, she heard
Katia ask in a restrained, hoarse voice:
“Are you going away?”
“Yes.”
“Tomorrow ?”
“Yes. Tomorrow morning.”
“Where to?”
“To the third army.” After a pause, he said:
“The fact is, Ekaterina Dmitrievna, that as we are
meeting for the last time I have decided to tell you a
“No, don’t. I know everything. . . . And you know
aboutime, 2.5”
“Ekaterina Dmitrievna, you?”
Katia cried desperately.
“You can see for yourself! Do go, I implore you!”
The jam jar in Dasha’s hand trembled. There was
silence in the drawing-room. At last Katia said quietly:
“God will guard you. . . . Go, Vadim Petrovitch.”
“Good-bye.”
He sighed gently, then his footsteps were heard and
the door banged. Katia came into the dining-room and
sat down by the table. She covered her face with her
hands and the tear-drops fell between her fingers.
From that day she never spoke a word about the man
who had gone. And there was nothing to talk about.
Had she the strength she would have wrenched from her
heart and forgotten the needless pain, which at twilight
had entered her foolish, lovesick heart at such an incon-
venient time.
Katia bore her pain bravely, though she would rise in
the morning with red eyes and swollen mouth. Roshchin
sent a postcard on his journey, giving the sisters his kind
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regards. The postcard was put on the mantel-piece,
where it became covered with fly marks.
Every evening the sisters would go for a walk in the
Tverskaya Boulevard to listen to the music. They would
sit down on a bench and watch the boys and the girls
in pink dresses and the women and children all strolling
beneath the trees. A man in uniform with a bandaged
arm would be seen here and there or an invalid on
crutches. The Dukhov band would play the waltz “On
the Hills of Manchuria.” “Tu, tu, tu,” a cornet sang
sadly, and the sound was borne into the evening sky.
Dasha took Katia’s hand and kissed it gently.
“Katia,” she said, gazing at the setting sun that peeped
through the branches, “do you remember the poem,
‘Love o’ mine unfulfilled, Cooling in my heart’? I believe
that if we are brave enough, we shall live to a time when
we can love with eyes shut, without thinking and troub-
ling. . . . We know now that there is nothing better
on earth than love. I sometimes feel that if Ivan Il-
yitch were to come home, he would be a stranger to me.
Now I love him in a kind of immaterial way, but I love
him well and truly. We shall meet, however, as though
we had loved each other in another life. We shall seem
kindred and strange to each other at the same time.
Don’t you think it’s a little terrifying? Something is
going to happen, I know. I feel at times as if my heart
were quite transparent.”
Ekaterina Dmitrievna pressed her cheek against
Dasha’s shoulder and said:
“And my heart is so full of grief and pain that it
seems to me quite old. My bloom is over and sterile.”
“It’s a shame to talk like that, Katia!”
“But we must be brave, my child.”
It was on such an evening that a man in uniform sat
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down at the other end of their bench. The band was
playing an old waltz. The lamps were lighted behind
the trees and shone dimly as yet in the half light. The
man on the bench stared so hard at Dasha that her
neck grew uncomfortable. She turned and suddenly
gave a low, frightened cry.
“Tt can’t be!” :
Bezsonov was sitting beside her. He was thin and
drawn and his leather coat hung on him like a sack.
On his cap was a red cross. He rose and bowed silently.
Dasha said, “How do you do?” and compressed her lips.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna leaned back against the seat in
the shadow of Dasha’s hat and shut her eyes. Bezsonov
stared at the gravel beneath his feet. He seemed either
dusty or unwashed, so grey did he look.
“I saw you in the boulevard yesterday and the day
before,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “but I dared not
come near you. . . . I am going to the front to fight
tomorrow. You see they’ve come even to taking me.”
“How can you be going to fight when you are in the
_ Red Cross?” Dasha said with sudden irritation.
“T allow the danger is comparatively less. But it’s
all the same to me whether I am killed or not killed.
life is dull, Daria Dmitrievna.” He raised his feat aud
looked at her lips with a heavy, dull gaze. “It’s so dull
with nothing but corpses, corpses and corpses. . . .”
“Do you find that dull?’ asked Katia without open-
ing her eyes.
“Very, Ekaterina Dmitrievna. I still retained some
sorry hopes. . . . But with all these corpses and corpses,
everything has gone to the devil. The civilization we
created has turned out futile and illusive. Reality
consists of corpses and blood—chaos. To be quite
frank with you, Daria Dmitrievna, I sat down here with
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the object of asking you to spare me half an hour.”
“What for?” Dasha looked at his face, strange and
unwholesome with the loose and cynical mouth. It
struck her with a force that made her head go round
that she was seeing the man for the first time.
“T have thought a great deal about what happened in
the Crimea,’ Bezsonoy said, frowning, “and I wanted
to talk to you.” He slowly felt in the pocket of his
leather coat for his cigarette-case. “I wanted to re-
move certain prejudicial impressions. . . .”
Dasha half closed her eyes. There was no sign of
magic attraction in the face. He was simply a man in
the street. And she said resolutely:
“T don’t think you and I can have anything to talk
about.”
She turned away. Katia’s arm trembled behind her
back. Dasha coloured and frowned.
“Good-bye, Alexis Alexeyevitch.”
Bezsonov twisted his chapped, tobacco-stained lips into
a smile, raised his cap and walked away. Dasha looked
at his weak back, at his loose trousers, which seemed to
be falling off him, at his heavy dusty boots. Was that
indeed Bezsonov, the demon of her girlish nights? She
felt a sudden intense pity for him. “Katia, wait for
me; I’ll be back in a moment.” And she ran after Bez-
sonov. He had turned down a side path. Panting,
Dasha caught up with him and touched his sleeve. He
turned round and compressed his lips.
“Don’t be angry with me, Alexis Alexeyevitch.”
“T am not angry. It was you who refused to talk
to me.”
“Tt was not that. . . . You misunderstood. I am
quite kindly disposed towards you. . . . I wish you all
good things. . . . As for what happened between us,
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it is not worth bringing that back, is it? There is noth-
ing left of the former. . . . I was much to blame. I
am so sorry for you... .”
He shrugged his shoulders and stared beyond Dasha
at the passers-by with a smile.
“T thank you for your pity.”
Dasha sighed. Had Bezsonov been a little boy, she
would have taken him home and washed him in warm
water and given him sweets to eat and not have let him
go until pleasure had shone in his eyes. But as he was,
what could she do with him? . . . Inventing his own
pain and miserable and hurt and angry.
“Alexis Alexeyevitch, if you would care to, do write
to me every day. I will be sure to reply regularly,”
Dasha said, looking up in his face with the kindliest ex-
pression.
He threw back his head and laughed a wooden, cyni-
cal laugh.
“Thank you. . . . It is a year now since I’ve got to
hate ink and paper.”
He clenched his teeth with a frown, as though he had
swallowed some sour substance.
“You must either be a saint or a fool, Daria Dmit-
-rievna. . . . Don’t mind what I say. . . . Like an in-
fernal pain you have been sent to torment me in life.
. For two years now I have lived like a monk.
You have it now!”
He made an effort to go, but could not move his
feet from the spot. Dasha was standing with bent
head. She had understood everything and was sad,
but her heart was unclouded. Bezsonov gazed at her
bent neck, at her virgin breast, visible through the open-
ing of her white dress. He felt that this must be death.
“Be merciful!’ he said, in a soft human voice. “Yes,
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yes,” she murmured without raising her head, and walked
away among the trees. For the last time, Bezsonov,
with piercing glance, sought her fair head among the
crowd. She did not turn. He rested a hand on a
tree and his fingers dug into the green bark. The earth,
that last resting place, was giving way beneath his feet.
[292]
XXV
The dull disc of the moon hung above the desert peat
bogs. The mist curled above the holes and ditches of
abandoned trenches. Tree stumps projected everywhere
and low-growing charred fir trees. It was damp and
still, Across the narrow dam, in single file, horse fol-
lowing horse, the hospital baggage-train trundled along.
The front, which was their destination, lay some three
versts from the jagged outline of the wood, from whence
no sound came.
In one of the carts Beuarar lay on his back. He was
covered with a horse-cloth that smelt of horse sweat.
Every evening when the sun set his fever would begin.
He shivered and his teeth chattered. The whole of his
body seemed to dry up and with a cold effervescence,
flitting, changing thoughts whirled clearly in his brain.
He felt a wonderful sensation of losing physical sub-
stance.
He tucked the horse-cloth up to his chin and gazed at
the misty, feverish sky. It was there that his earthly
journey ended. Mist and moonlight and the rocking of
the wagon like a cradle. Completing the cycle of a
century, once more the creaking of Scythian chariots
could be heard. Everything that had gone before was
a dream, the Petersburg lights, the music in the hot, bril-
liant halls, a woman’s hair flung over a pillow, the dark
pupils of her eyes, the mortal despair of her gaze. . .
The dullness, the loneliness. . . . The dim light of his
study, the tobacco smoke, the agitated beating of the
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heart and intoxication at the birth of words. ...A
girl with white daisies fatally coming in from the lighted
hall into his dark room, into his life. . . . And despair,
despair, which covered his heart with a sald FST: 1%.
They were all dreams. . . . The wagon rocks. Beside
him walks a bearded peasant with a cap over his eye; he
has walked beside that cart for two thousand years.
‘ . There it lay, the endless stretch of time, in the
mist of the moon. . . . Shadows move from the dark-
ness of the ages, carts creak and the world is furrowed |
in black lines. Once more the Huns are walking over
the earth. And in the dim mist, burning columns and
smoke stretching to the sky and the creaking and jolt-
ing of wheels. And the creaking grows louder and
spreads, until the whole sky is filled with the rumbling
noise. .
Suddenly, the cart stopped. Above the noise which
filled the white night, the voices of the men on the
baggage-train were heard. Bezsonov raised himself on
his elbow. Low above the wood a long body floated. It
gleamed and shone in the moonlight. The throbbing of |
engines grew nearer and louder. A narrow shaft of
light shot from its belly and ran across the bog, the
stumps, the shattered trees and the fir-bush and struck
the road by the wagons.
Above the din, ta, ta, ta, came fainter sounds like the ©
banging of a machine-gun. . . . Men came out of their
wagons. The ambulance wagon swerved and rolled over
in the bog. . . . About a hundred paces from Bezsonov,
on the road, a blinding mass of light shot up. In a
dark mass, horse and wagon rose in the air. A huge |
volume of smoke, a thundering crash and whirlwind and
the whole baggage-train pitched forward. Horses with
the foreparts of carriages galloped across the bog and |
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men ran ‘wildly. The wagon on which Bezsonov lay
swerved and fell and Bezsonov rolled into a ditch. A
heavy sack struck his back; he was completely covered
with straw.
The airship dropped another bomb and then the sound
of its engines retreated and stopped altogether. Groan-
ing, Bezsonov tried to dig his way out of the straw.
With difficulty he crawled from beneath the baggage
that had fallen on him. He shook himself and scrambled
to the road. A few wagons were standing there with
their foreparts gone. On the bog lay a horse in the
shaft with its head thrown back, automatically twitch-
ing its hind leg. Bezsonov touched his face and fore-
head. There was a sticky place by his ear. He put his
handkerchief on the scratch and walked away down the
road towards the wood. From the shock of the fall
and the fright his legs trembled so that he soon had to
sit down on a rubbish heap. He would have liked some
brandy, but the flask had been left with the baggage in
the cart. After some difficulty Bezsonov pulled some
matches and a pipe out of his pocket and lighted up.
The tobacco smoke tasted bitter and nasty. He remem-
bered that he had a fever. He was in a bad plight. At
any cost he must reach the wood where he had been
told a battery was stationed. He rose, but his legs gave
way beneath him. They felt so wooden that they would not
move below the knees. He sat down again and rubbed
and stretched and pinched them and when he felt them
ache, he rose, and walked on.
The moon now stood high and the road, winding
through the desert bog, seemed endless. He put his
hands on the small of his back and staggered on, with
difficulty lifting his heavy boots. Bezsonov began to
talk to himself.
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“They take you and chuck you out. . . . There, drag
yourself along, you dog, until the wheels go over you.
. . . And how did I interfere with you, may I ask? All
I did was to write verses and seduce stupid women... .
But they would run after me. ... And life was so dull.
. . . still, that was my own affair. . . . They take you
and chuck you out. . . . Go, drag yourself along the
bog and perish. . . . You can protest if you have a
mind) to... Go on, protest, ‘scream. ",) 4." Screany
scream louder. . . .”
Bezsonov turned suddenly. A grey shadow crept
along the road. A cold shiver passed down his spine.
He smiled and, shouting detached, incoherent phrases,
he walked on in the middle of the road. After a while
he turned again. Some fifty paces away a big-headed,
long-legged dog slouched after him.
“Damnation!” Bezsonov muttered and walked the
faster, casting a glance over his shoulder again. There
were five dogs in all, walking in single file, grey, with
hanging jaws and backs. Bezsonov threw some stones
at them. “I'll. . . Get away, you filthy beasts!’
The animals slouched down to the bog. Bezsonov
filled his pockets with stones and threw them from time
to time. He walked on whistling and yelling, “Hi! Hi!”
The animals came on to the road again and walked in
file, without coming any nearer.
On either side of the road a low-growing fir wood
commenced and at the bend, Bezsonov caught sight of
a human figure in front of him. The figure stopped,
glanced around and walked slowly away into the wood.
“Damnation!” Bezsonov swore under his breath and
also stepped into the shadow of the wood. He stood
still for some time, trying to restrain the violent beating
of his heart. The animals, too, stopped some distance
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away. The foremost of them lay down with its jaws
resting on its paws. The man in front made no move-
ment. Bezsonov saw a white foam-like cloud pass across
_ the moon, then there was a sound like a needle piercing
his brain; it was the snap of a dry twig beneath the feet
of the man. Bezsonov clenched his hands and in des-
peration walked out quickly into the middle of the road.
A tall soldier was standing to the right of him; he wore
a long coat and his long face without any eyebrows
seemed dead; it was grey and its mouth was half open.
“Hi! you there!’ Bezsonov cried; “what regiment
are you from?”
“From the second battery.”
“Take me to the battery.”
The soldier was silent and made no movement. He
looked dully at Bezsonov and turned his face to the
left.
“What are those things down there?”
“Dogs,” Bezsonov replied impatiently.
“Those aren’t dogs.”
“Come on, show me the way.”
“T won't.”
“Look here. I’ve got a fever. Do show me the way.
ll give you some money.”
“T won't.” The soldier raised his voice. “I can’t go
back; I’m a deserter.”
“They'll catch you anyhow, you fool.”
“Perhaps.”
Bezsonov looked over his shoulder. The animals had
gone, probably into the wood.
“Is it a long way to the battery?”
The soldier did not reply. Bezsonov turned to go,
but the man seized his sleeve by the elbow in fingers
as stiff as pincers.
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39
HY ou ré mot going there, 215.2%
“Let me go!”
“T shan’t let you go!’ Without releasing his arm,
the soldier glanced to the side over the wood. “I haven’t
eaten a bite for three days. . . . I was asleep in a ditch
a short while ago, when I heard some one coming. I
thought it must be the patrol, so I lay still. They kept
on coming, many of them, coming and coming; they
rumbled all along the road. What could it be? I crawled
out of the ditch and looked. ‘They walked in shrouds
all over the road, no end of them. . . . They swayed |
like the mist and the ground shook beneath them. . .”
“What are you talking about?’ Bezsonov shouted in
a wild voice and tried to tear himself away.
“Tt’s the truth I’m telling you and you must believe
me, you swine!”
Bezsonov tore his arm away and ran, but his legs
_ seemed to be made of cotton-wool. The soldier ran
after him with his heavy boots and panting, seized him
by the shoulder. Bezsonov fell and covered his head and
neck with his hands. Panting, the soldier bore down
on him, extending his stiff fingers to his throat and
squeezed it, till it grew silent and cold.
_ “So that’s what you are, are you?” the soldier hissed,
The body on the ground shuddered, stretched itself, col-
lapsed and flattened in the dust. The soldier let it go.
He got up and put on his cap. Without looking at what
he had done, he walked away down the road. He stag- —
gered and shaking his head, sat down, his legs dangling ©
in a ditch. 4
“Oh, death!” he exclaimed slowly. ‘Oh, God, let me
Ol ei. MVE SCOTT, 4.0 3 U
[ 298 ]
XXVI
After an unlucky attempt to escape from the con-
centration camp, Ivan Ilyitch was removed to a fortress
and placed in solitary confinement. There he planned
another escape and for six weeks filed the gratings of
his window. At the beginning of the summer, however,
the fortress was unexpectedly evacuated and Teliegin
found himself in what was known as “The Rotten Hole.”
It was a horrible, miserable place. On a peat field in a
wide valley stood a square of four barracks, surrounded
by barbed wire. In the distance, by the hills, where the
brick chimneys stood out, there began a single-track
railway, the rusty lines of which stretched throughout
the marsh and ended near the barracks in a deep hol-
low, the work of the year before, on which over five
thousand Russian soldiers had perished of typhoid and
dysentery. On the other side of the dirty yellow valley,
the uneven peaks of the purple Carpathians rose high,
To the north of the barracks, immediately on the other
side of the wire, numerous pine crosses stretched far
in the distance across the marsh. The barracks were
surrounded by a big yard with a well in the middle of
it. Boards were thrown about the place, beneath which
the brown liquid mud oozed.
On hot days, steam rose from the valley, gadflies
hummed, midges stuck to the face and the red, hazy
sun steamed and decomposed that hopeless, desolate
place.
The Austrian military authorities intended to clear
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“The Rotten Hole” of war prisoners after the epidemic,
but pressed as they were by General Brusilov, they evacu-
ated several camps and shoved into the deserted barracks
a group of officers, about fifteen hundred men, who had
been guilty of insubordination and attempted escape.
The conditions were hard and the food was scarce.
At six in the morning a loud drum would be sounded
for rising, at seven bread was brought round and coffee
made of acorns served without sugar. For lunch and
dinner cooked vegetables were allowed. There was a
roll-call three times a day and three times during the
night. Half the officers were ill with stomach troubles,
fevers, ulcers and rashes. In spite of everything, hope
ran high in the camp. Brusilov, fighting stubbornly, was
advancing, the French were beating the Germans in the
Champagne district and at Verdun, and Asia Minor was
cleared of Turks. The end of the war seemed to be
really in sight. The prisoners in “The Rotten Hole”
clenched their teeth and bore their privations.
In the new year they would all be at home.
But the summer had gone and the rains had come;
Brusilov had stopped without taking Krakow or Lvov,
the fierce battles on the French front had ceased. Alli-
ance and Entente were licking their wounds. Clearly —
the end of the war had been put off till next autumn.
A. period of despair began in “The Rotten Hole.” |
Teliegin’s neighbor, Viskoboinikov, left off washing :
and shaving, lay for days at a time on his bunk with
half shut eyes, refusing to answer questions. Now and |
4
again he would get up in exasperation and scratch him- ©
self viciously with his nails. Red spots would appear —
and disappear on his body. One night he awoke Ivan Il-
yitch and asked in a hushed voice:
“Are you married, Teliegin.”
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“Wo,”
“I’ve got a wife and daughter in Tver. You will let
them know, won’t you?”
“Don’t, Jakov Ivanovitch; go to sleep.”
At three in the morning Viskoboinikoy did not answer
the roll-call. He was found in the water-closet, hanging
on a thin, leather strap. The whole barrack rose up.
The officers crowded round the body, which was lying
on its back on the floor. The lantern, which stood at
the head, shone on the bony face, distorted by the hor-
rible pain and on his chest, on which, beneath the torn
shirt, bloody scratches could be seen. A dirty light fell
from the lantern, the faces of the living, bending over
the corpse, were swollen and yellow and twisted. One
man, Ensign Melshin, turned suddenly in the darkness
of the barrack and said aloud, “Are we going to stand
this, comrades ?”
A murmur rose from the crowd and from the bunks.
The entrance door flew open and a sleepy Austrian of-
ficer came in, the commandant of the camp. The crowd
parted and allowed him to pass to the body. And in-
stantly loud voices were raised.
“We are not going to stand this!”
“The man was tortured.”
“That’s their system.”
“T am also rotting alive.”
“We won’t stand it, we must be moved from here.”
“We are not criminals.”
“The devils haven’t been beaten enough.”
“Silence! To your places!” shouted the commandant,
raising himself on tiptoe.
“What? What does he say? Are we to be silent?”
“To your places, you Russian swine!”
Instantly, Sub-Captain Jukov, a short, thick-set man
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with a tangled beard, pushed forward and poking a
short finger at the Austrian’s nose, cried in a wailing
voice :
“Do you see this finger, you son of a dog? Do you
see it?” And shaking his shaggy head he seized the
commandant by the shoulders and shook him viciously.
He knocked him down and fell on top of him.
The officers crowded silently round the struggling
men. The footsteps of soldiers could be heard running
along the boards and the commandant cried for help.
Teliegin, who had so far been standing at the back of
the crowd, pushed forward saying, “Are you mad?
He'll choke him!” and seizing Jukov by the shoulders
he tore him away from the Austrian.
“You blackguard!” Teliegin said to the commandant
in German. Jukov was panting with wide open mouth.
“Let me go! Tl show the swine!” he said hoarse-
ly. The commandant got up and casting a quick search-
ing glance at the faces of Jukov, Teliegin, Melshin and
two or three of the other officers standing near by, he
clinked his spurs and walked out of the barrack. The
officers wandered about the bunks, some lay down. All
was still.
It was clearly a question of mutiny and would be
followed by a court martial.
Ivan Ilyitch, as usual, began the day without omitting
a single of his self-appointed tasks, which he had been
observing now for over a year. At six in the morning
he undressed naked, pumped some brownish, muddy
water into a pail, sluiced and rubbed himself, did a hun-
dred and one gymnastic exercises, taking care that his
muscles cracked, then he dressed and shaved and as
there was no coffee that day, he sat down on a hungry
stomach to his German grammar. Afterwards he would
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usually take a walk, have luncheon, then half an hour’s
rest, then study English and French, then dinner, then
half an hour’s game of preference or chess, then another
hundred and one gymnastic exercises, then sleep.
Such a regulation of time filled the whole day and left
not a spare moment in which to give way to depression.
His body and will were hardened, every softening of
the spirit he resolutely crushed. |
The hardest and most devastating thing of all for the
prisoners to bear was continence. Many a man came
to grief over it. One man would begin to powder him-
self and to paint his eyes and eyebrows and go about
for days whispering with another fellow powdered like
himself. Another man would avoid all contact with his
fellows, lie with covered head among the rags, unwashed
and unkempt. Another would use filthy language, an-
noy people with disgusting stories and in the last stages,
make such an obscene display that he would be removed
to the hospital.
Strictness was the only salvation against these things.
During his captivity Teliegin grew very taciturn. His
muscular body grew wiry, his movements angular. His
eyes lost their lustre and seemed to be paler, animated
only by a cold, determined light. In moments of anger
they looked terrible.
On that day, Teliegin repeated the German words he
had copied more diligently than usual, then he opened
a tattered volume of Spielhagen. Jukov came up and sat
down beside him on the bunk. Ivan Llyitch continued to
read softly to himself without turning. Jukov sighed.
“T want to make out that I’m mad at the trial, Ivan
Ilyitch,” he said.
Teliegin gave him a quick look. Jukov’s rosy, kindly
face, with the broad nose and curly beard and soft warm
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lips seen through his big moustache, was hanging guiltily.
His fair eyelids blinked.
“What the devil made me go and poke my finger at
him? I don’t know what I expected to get by it! If
you fellows would only curse me instead of being silent!
I know it’s my fault, Ivan Ilyitch. I would go and poke
that finger of mine. I shall say that I’m mad. What
do you think?”
“Now look here, Jukov,”’ Teliegin said, shutting his
book with a finger inside it, “some of us are bound to
be shot. You know that, don’t you?”
io § doc
“Then would it not be as well not to play the fool at
the trial, eh?”
“You are right.”
“We none of us blame you. Only the price to be paid
for the pleasure of hitting an Austrian in the jaw is
rather a high one.”
“And what must I feel about it, Ivan Ilyitch, to have
brought this on you?” Jukov waved a clenched fist and
shook his hairy head. “If only the swine would bowl
me over alone, I shouldn’t mind it so much.”
Jukov went on talking in this strain for a long time,
but Teliegin took no further notice of him and went on
reading Spielhagen. After a time he got up and stretched
himself, cracking his muscles. The door flew wide open —
and four soldiers with fixed bayonets came in and placed
themselves on either side of the doorway, clinking the
bars of their rifles. Immediately there entered a ser-
geant-major, a gloomy man with a bandaged eye, who
stared round the barrack and curled the ends of his
moustache. He called out in a hoarse, angry voice,
“Sub-Captain Jukov! Lieutenant Melshin! Sub-Lieuten-
ant Ivanov! Sub-Lieutenant Ubeiko! Ensign Teliegin!”
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The men whose names had been called came up. The
sergeant-major examined them carefully. The soldiers
surrounded them and led them across the barrack yard
to a small wooden house, where the commandant lived.
A newly arrived military car was standing by the door.
The spikes covering the entrance of the barbed wire en-
closure were removed. A sentry stood by a striped
sentry-box. Lounging on the seat at the wheel of the
car was a young officer with a swarthy, ape-like face,
the large peak of his cap pulled low over one eye. Tel-
iegin touched Melshin’s elbow. Melshin was walking
beside him.
“Can you drive a car?” Teliegin asked.
“Yes. Why?”
Aeoah a elisa
They were brought to the commandant’s house. At a
pine-wood table, covered with clean, pink blotting paper,
sat three Austrian senior officers, who had just arrived
for the trial. One of them, a clean-shaven man with
purple patches on his thick neck, was smoking a cigar.
Teliegin noticed that he did not even look at the incom-
ing men. His hands were on the table with locked fin-
gers, fat and hairy; his eyes were half closed to shield
‘them from the smoke, his collar dug into his neck. “This
man has already made up his mind,” Teliegin thought.
The presiding judge was a thin old man with a long,
sad face, a few well smoothed wrinkles and a thick,
grey moustache. One eyebrow was raised by a mon-
ocle. He looked intently at the accused men and, through
the monocle, fixed his large grey eye on Teligin. The
eye was clear, intelligent and kindly. His moustache
trembled and he lowered his head.
“That looks bad,” Ivan Ilyitch thought and turned to
- the third judge, before whom lay a pair of tortoise-
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shell spectacles and several square sheets of closely writ-
ten paper. He was a short man with a yellowish skin,
a receding forehead, stubbly hair like a hedgehog’s and
ears as large as dumplings. He was frowning as from
acute indigestion. This officer looked as if he had been
unlucky in everything.
When the accused men were placed round the table,
he put on his round spectacles, smoothed the sheets of
paper with a withered hand, coughed, exposing thereby
his false, yellow teeth, and began to read the indictment.
On one side of the table, with twitching eyebrows and —
compressed lips, sat the commandant. Teliegin strained
every effort to follow the words of the indictment, but
contrary to his will, his thoughts were working in an-
other direction.
“When the body of the suicide was taken into the
barrack, some of the Russians, making this a pretext, in-
cited the others to open rebellion. They swore and used
filthy language and shook their fists. Lieutenant Mel-
shin had an open penknife in his hand.”
Teliegin could see the boy chauffeur through the win-
dow. He was picking his nose, then he turned on the
seat and completely covered his face with his cap. Two
short soldiers in blue coats approached the car and be-
gan to examine it; one man, sittting down, poked the
tires with his fingers. They both turned. A kitchen
was wheeled into the yard, the smoke rising from its
chimney. The kitchen was turned to the barrack and
the soldiers lazily followed it. The chauffeur neither
moved nor turned. He was probably asleep. Teliegin
bit his nails in his impatience. Once more he turned his
attention to the prosecutor’s rasping voice.
“The said Sub-Captain Jukov, with the obvious in-
tention of threatening the life of the commandant, first
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attempted to seize the commandant’s nose between his
fingers, which act could have had no other purpose than
that of casting dishonour on the Imperial Royal uni-
ya ial
At these words, the commandant rose, red in the face,
and began to explain the rather incomprehensible tale of
Jukov’s finger. Jukov attempted to put in a word,
looking with a kindly guilty smile at his comrades, but
unable to contain himself any longer, he turned to the
prosecutor and burst out in Russian:
“Will you allow me to explain, sir? . . . I said to
him: ‘Why do you treat us like this? Why? I’m sorry
I can’t explain in German. . . . And I pointed my
BES go 3th
“Do shut up, Jukov!” Ivan Ilyitch hissed. The presi-
dent knocked on the table with his pencil. The prose-
cutor went on reading.
He described how Jukov had seized the commandant
and in what particular part of his body and “knocking
him on his back, he squeezed his throat with large fin-
gers with intent to cause death.” The colonel then went
on to the more doubtful part of the indictment. “The
Russians, pushing and shouting, egged the murderer on
and one of them, Ensign Ivan Teliegin, on hearing the
soldiers come running up, dashed with bloodthirsty impa-
tience to the spot, shoved Jukov aside, and but a moment
separated the commandant from death,” At this point the
prosecutor stopped, unable to keep back a smile of self-
satisfaction. “But the guard came in just then’’—their
names followed—‘‘and Teliegin could only shout ‘Black-
guard!’ to his victim.”
After this there followed an amusing psychological
examination of Teliegin’s conduct, “a man who had
twice attempted to escape and had not stopped even at
filing the bars of his window.”
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The colonel charged Jukov and Teliegin uncondition-
ally and Melshin, “according to the testimony of the wit-
nesses,” with incitement to murder and with flourishing
his penknife, and, to give more point to the indictment,
he stated that Ivanov and Ubeiko had “acted while in
a condition of insanity.”
When the prosecutor had finished reading, the com-
mandant confirmed all his statements. The soldiers were
examined. In their opinion, the three first charged were
guilty, but they did not know about the other two. The
president rubbed his hands and suggested that Ivanov >
and Ubeiko should be acquitted, owing to lack of evi-
dence against them. The red-faced officer, who had by
now smoked his cigar down to the very end, nodded his
approval, and after some hesitation, the prosecutor also
agreed. Two of the convoys shouldered arms.
Teliegin said, “Good-bye, comrades.” Ivanov turned
green and dropped his head and Ubeiko gazed at Ivan
Ilyitch in silent horror. When they had been led out
the president turned to the men charged.
“Are you guilty of inciting to mutiny and of attempt-
ing to kill the commandant of the camp?” he asked
Teliegin.
ING
“What have you to say in your defence?’
“The indictment is false from beginning to end.”
“Have you anything more to say?”
“Nothing.”
As he walked away from the table, Teliegin looked in-
tently at Jukov. The latter coloured, but when he was
questioned, he replied word for word as Teliegin had done.
Melshin also replied in a similar way. The president lis-
tened to them, shutting his eyes wearily. The judge at
last rose and went into the next room. As he reached
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the door, the red-faced officer who was the last to go
_ out, spat out his cigar and stretched himself agreeably.
“There is no doubt that we shall be found guilty. I
saw that as soon as we came in,” Teliegin whispered and
turning to the convoy, asked him for a glass of water.
The soldier walked quickly up to the table, put down
his rifle and poured some dirty-looking water from a
bottle. Ivan Ilyitch whispered hastily into Melshin’s
ear.
“When we are led past the car, try and set the engine
going. Say something or other to the convoy in Rus-
sian and don’t mind any untoward movement.”
“I follow,’ Melshin whispered in reply and shut his
eyes.
The judges immediately appeared and seated them-
selves in their former places. The president slowly took
off his monocle and holding a crumpled piece of paper
which trembled slightly close to his eye, he read the brief
sentence, by which Jukov, Teliegin and Melshin were
condemned to death by shooting.
Ivan Ilyitch, though he felt sure what the sentence
would be beforehand, yet when the words were pro-
nounced, felt sick and the blood rushed from. his heart.
_Jukov dropped his head and Melshin, a tall, big-boned,
blue-eyed youth, licked his lips slowly and stepped from
one foot to the other,
The president wiped his weary eyes and covered them
with the palm of his hand; then he said slowly and
distinctly: “The commandant is to carry out the sen-
tence immediately.”
The judges rose. The commandant sat for a moment
or two longer, green in the face, with outstretched legs;
then he, too, rose, and pulling down his spotless uni-
form, in an exaggeratedly harsh voice, he ordered the
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remaining convoys to lead out the condemned men.
Teliegin managed to linger in the doorway so as to
allow Melshin to pass out first. Melshin, seeming to
collapse entirely, caught the convoy by the sleeve and
began to jabber to him in Russian:
“Come, please come over there, a little turther’, vie
I’ve got the stomach-ache, I can’t stand it.”
The soldier stared at him in Beserialtnent He gave
a frightened glance over his shoulder, at a lossi what to
do in such a contingency. Melshin, however, had man-_
aged to drag him to the front of the car, where he
squatted down and made faces and groaned and tore
with trembling fingers first at the buttons of his clothes,
then at the handle of the car. The convoy’s face ex-
pressed pity and disgust.
“Got the stomach-ache? Sit down, then!” he said
angrily. “Look sharp!”
But Melshin seemed doubled up with the gripes. He
ground his teeth and gave a furious turn of the engine
handle. The soldier was alarmed and tried to pull him
away. The boy chauffeur awoke and jumped out of the
car, cursing furiously. Teliegin kept close to the second
convoy, keeping a keen lookout on all Melshin’s doings.
At last the engine began to throb and his own heart beat
violently in measure.
“Jukov, you get the rifle!” Teliegin yelled, seizing his
convoy round the middle and hurling him to the ground.
With a bound he reached the car, where Melshin was
struggling with the soldier for the possession of the
rifle. Ivan Ilyitch, with the full force of his bound,
struck the soldier’s neck with his fist. The man groaned
and sat down. Melshin dashed to the wheel and pressed
the lever. Ivan Ilyitch could see Jukov climbing into the
car with the rifle and the chauffeur stealing along the
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wall to the commandant’s door. A long, distorted face
with a monocle appeared at the window, the stubby fig-
ure of the commandant dashed out with a revolver in his
hand. Then came flash, report, flash, report. :
“Missed! Missed! Missed!” The heart stopped beating,
The wheels of the car seemed to have grown into the
ground. At last the engine throbbed, the car moved,
Teliegin fell back on the leather seat. They were cut-
ting through the wind more quickly; they had reached
the striped sentry-box; the sentry was aiming. Like a
storm the car dashed past him. Soldiers rushed out and
fell on their knees. “Bang! bang! bang!” came the faint
sound of firing. Jukov turned and shook his fist at
them. The glocmy square of barracks grew smaller,
lower, and the camp was hidden from view at the bend.
Posts and trees and the figures on the milestones came
rushing toward them.
Melshin turned. His forehead, eyes and cheeks were
covered with blood.
“Straight on?” he asked Teliegin.
“Straight across the bridge, then to the left, to the
hills.”
[311 ]
7
XXVII
Gloomy and desolate are the Carpathians on a windy
autumn evening. Troubled and anxious were the hearts
of the fugitives when they reached the crest along the
white, ramn-washed road. Some three or four pine trees,
bare to their topmost branches, were swaying above a
ravine. In the mist below a faint murmur rose from a
barely visible wood. Lower still, at the very bottom of
the ravine water roared and splashed among the stones.
Through the trunks of the pines, far beyond the
wooded, desert mountain tops, a long streak of purple
sunset glowed among the leaden clouds. A strong wind
blew freely on that height; forgotten memories whistled
in the ears; the apron of the car flapped to and fro.
The fugitives were silent. Teliegin studied a map and
Melshin, his elbows resting on the wheel, stared in the
direction of the setting sun. His head was bandaged
with a rag. —
“What are we to do with the car?” he asked quietly.
“There is no more petrol.” |
“We can’t leave it here, by God!” Teliegin replied.
“We can pitch it down the ravine.” Melshin jumped
to the ground with a groan and stamped up and down
to stretch his legs, then he shook Jukov by the shoulders.
“Wake up, Captain, we’ve arrived!”
Without opening his eyes Jukov jumped into the road,
stumbled and sat down on the stones. Again he nodded
his head. They gave him a dose of brandy. From the
car Ivan Ilyitch took out some leather cloaks and a
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basket of provisions, which had been intended for the
judges’ dinner at “The Rotten Hole.” They filled their
pockets with the provisions, put on the cloaks and taking
hold of the wings of the car they pushed it to the edge
of the ravine.
“You've served your turn, my dear,” Melshin said.
“Forward! Together! Again!”
The front wheels were suspended above the ravine.
The long, dusty car, covered with leather and mounted
with bronze, obedient like a living creature, heeled over
and crashed below with the stones and rubble. For a
moment it caught on a projecting rock, trembled, and
then, amid the thunder of flying stones and broken iron,
it crashed to the torrents below.
The fugitives turned into the woods and walked along
parallel to the road. It was now quite dark. The
pines overhead rustled solemnly with a sound like that
of a distant waterfall, sad and eternal.
Teliegin moved to the road from time to time to
look at the milestones. They skirted one place, where
they supposed there was a militia station, climbing over
ravines, striking against fallen trees, stumbling into
mountain streams and getting soaked and torn. They
walked the whole of the night.
Once, it was almost at dawn, they heard the sound
of a car and hid in a ditch, as it passed so close that
they could hear the voices of the people inside.
In the morning the fugitives chose a place to rest in a
densely wooded ravine by a stream. They half emptied
the flask of brandy and Jukov asked to be shaved with
a razor which they had found in the car. When they
had divested him of his beard and moustache, he was
found to have a childish chin and full, big lips, which
pouted like the mouth of a jug. Teliegin and Melshin
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pointed their fingers at him and laughed for a long time.
Jukov was delighted. He bellowed and shook his head.
He was a little drunk from the brandy. They covered
him up with leaves and bade him go to sleep.
Teliegin and Melshin afterwards spread the map on
the grass and each made a small topographical copy for
himself. They had made up their minds to separate on
the morrow, Melshin and Jukov to go to Roumania and
Teliegin to Galicia. The big map was buried in the
ground. They collected a pile of leaves and nestled
down among them, falling asleep immediately.
It was three o’clock in the afternoon. At the top of
the ravine, on a high rock, a man stood leaning on his
rifle. It was the sentry guarding the bridge. Around
him and in the wooded waste at his feet it was still; the
silence was broken only by a heavy woodcock flying
across the field and striking its wing against a tree and
by the distant sound of slowly falling water. After a
time the sentry walked away, shouldering his rifle.
It was night when Ivan Ilyitch opened his eyes.
Through the still, black branches of the trees, the stars
shimmered, big and clear.
He raised himself and looked about him and once
more lay down on his back. He recalled the events of
yesterday, but the mental strain of the trial and the flight
was so great that he tried to banish all thoughts of them.
Overhead, in a small constellation, a star shone with
a blue light. The blue ray had left it a thousand years
ago, and now entered the eye and heart of Ivan Ilyitch.
This star and the Milky Way and the countless constel-—
lations were but a grain of sand in the heavenly sea.
And in the distance were dark chasms looking like sacks
of coal—depths leading to eternity. And the stars and
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
the black chasms were in Ivan Ilyitch’s warm heart that
beat among the dry leaves.
It may be that the star dust of a million worlds went
to the making of the small atom of a heart that lived by
the sheer will to love. As the mysterious, insensible
starlight bathed the earth, so the heart sent out its in-
visible light—the longing for love—to meet it, refusing
to believe that it was small and mortal. It was a divine
moment.
“Are you asleep, Ivan Ilyitch?’”’ Melshin asked quietly.
“No; I have been awake a long time. We must get
up. You wake the Captain. We ought to be making a
move.”
Within an hour Ivan Ilyitch was walking alone down
the white road, in the darkness.
[ 315]
XXVIII
On the tenth day Ivan Ilyitch had reached the lines
near the front. He was only able to walk at night then.
As soon as it was light he would go into the woods
and when he was forced to walk in the valleys he would
choose for a night shelter a place as far as possible
removed from habitation. He lived on vegetables, which
he stole from kitchen gardens.
The night was rainy and cold. Ivan Ilyitch was walk-
ing along the road among the hospital wagons, loaded
with wounded going west and carts with household goods
and crowds of women and old men, who carried babies
and bundles and utensils in their arms.
Coming east to meet them were the military baggage-
train and the troop units. It was strange to reflect that
the years 1914, 1915 had gone and that 1916 was drawing
to a close and still the baggage-carts rumbled over the
rough road and the population of burnt villages wandered
in meek despair. Only now the military horses could
scarcely move their legs, the troops looked tattered and
shrunken and the crowd of homeless were silent and in-
different. And in the east, whence a strong wind was
sweeping the low clouds, fighting was still going on, men
fighting men who had ceased to be enemies, unable to
exterminate one another.
In the swampy valley, a mob of people and carts
moved in the darkness over the bridge across the swell-
ing river. Wheels rumbled, whips cracked, orders were ©
shouted, numerous lanterns swung, their light falling on
the dark water, rushing between the stakes.
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Gliding along the slope by the road, Ivan Ilyitch
reached the bridge.
A military cart went past him. He would not have
thought of crossing to the other side earlier in the day.
At the bridge-head the horses strained against the shafts,
digging their hoofs into the sopping boards, unable to
drag out their heavy loads. * By the bridge was a man on
horseback, in a cloak which flapped in the wind. He car-
ried a lantern and yelled in a hoarse voice. An old man
approached him and touched his cap, wanting to ask him
something, no doubt. Instead of replying, the horseman
struck him in the face with the hilt of his sword and
the man rolled over among the wheels. The other end
of the bridge was lost in the darkness, but by the nu-
merous moving lanterns thousands of refugees must have
been walking there. The baggage-train moved slowly.
Ivan Ilyitch was pressed against a cart, in which sat a
thin woman, wrapped in a blanket, with hair hanging
over her eyes. In one hand she held a bird cage, in the
other she held the reins. The stream of carts came to a
sudden standstill. The woman turned her head in horror.
From the other end of the bridge a sound of voices was
_ heard, and lanterns swung quickly. Something must have
happened. A horse screamed wildly, as only an animal
can. Some one cried: “Save yourselves!” and a rifle
report rent the air. Horses reared, carts shook, women
and children howled and screamed.
Intermittent flashes came from the distance to the
right, it was the counter firing. The heart beat like a
hammer.
They seemed to be firing all over the river. The
woman with the bird cage scrambled out of the cart.
Her skirt caught on something and she fell, crying in a
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deep voice: “Save me!” The bird with the cage rolled
down the slope.
Amidst cries and jolting the baggage-train moved on
again across the bridge. Ivan Ilyitch saw a large cart
heel over at the edge of the bridge and crash through
the railings into the river. At that moment he jumped
from the wheel on which he had been sitting, dashed over
the scattered bundles and catching up a moving cart he
threw himself into it on his back. Instantly the scent of
baked bread reached his nostrils. He put his hand under
the tarpaulin and broke off a chunk from the end of a
round loaf. He nearly choked in his eagerness to eat it.
In the confusion which followed the firing, the bag-
gage-train crossed the bridge to the other side of the
river. Ivan Ilyitch got out of the cart and wound his way
among the refugees and vehicles to the fields, through
which he walked parallel to the road. From bits of con-
versation he had’ caught in the darkness, he gathered
that the firing had come from the enemy, that is, Russian
scouts.
The front was no more than ten versts away.
Now and again Ivan Ilyitch stopped to take breath.
It was hard walking against the wind and rain. His
knees wobbled, his face burned, his eyes were red and
swollen. He sat down at last on the edge of a ditch
and put his head in his hands. Cold raindrops fell down
his neck, his body ached as though crushed by wheels.
Suddenly a muffled sound reached him, which seemed
like the opening of the earth in the distance. In a mo-
ment a similar sigh broke the night. Ivan Ilyitch raised
his head and listened. Between the sighs a muffled
murmuring was borne to him, which now lessened, now
increased to an angry rumble. The sounds came from
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the left, almost from the opposite direction to that in
which Ivan Ilyitch was going.
He seated himself on the other side of the ditch. He
could now see clearly low-hanging, broken clouds flying
over the iron-grey sky. It was the dawn. The east.
Russia was over there.
Ivan Ilyitch rose and tightened his belt. He stretched
his legs in the mud and set out in an easterly direction,
walking through wet stubble, ditches and the partly cov-
ered remains of last year’s trenches. When it was light
at the end of the field he again saw the road full of peo-
ple and carts. He stopped and looked about him. On
one side, beneath a tall half-bare tree stood a white
chapel.
The door was open; the roof and ground were strewn
with dead leaves.
Ivan Ilyitch resolved to stay there until it was dark.
He went in and lay down on the moss-covered floor with
his face to the wall. The rumbling of wheels and crack-
ing of whips were borne from the distance. The sounds
were strangely pleasant, but were suddenly broken off.
Fingers seemed to press his eyelids. In his heavy sleep
_ a living point gradually grew. It tried to turn into the
image of a dream, but could not. So great was his ex-
haustion that Ivan Ilyitch groaned and turned his head,
sinking deeper into the soft abysses of sleep. The point
appeared again, troubled, as though at something that
had happened. His heart was full of tears. Sleep was
lighter now and the rumbling of distant wheels heard
once more. Ivan Ilyitch sat up and looked around.
Through the doorway, dull, heavy clouds could be seen
and the sun, setting in the west, cast broad rays, beneath
their leaden, watery bases. A liquid patch of light shone
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on the crumbling chapel wall, lighting up the bent head
of a faded wooden figure of the Virgin Mother sur-
rounded by a halo. The Holy Child, wrapped in faded
chrism-cloth, lay on her knees and His hand, extended
in blessing, was broken off.
Ivan Ilyitch made the sign of the cross quickly and
walked out of the chapel. On a stone step at the entrance
sat a young, fair-haired woman with a baby on her lap.
She wore a white mud-bespattered overcoat. One hand
supported her cheek, the other rested on the gaily col- |
oured blanket wrapped around the baby. She raised her
head slowly and looked at Ivan Ilyitch—her glance was
strangely bright—and her tear-stained face twitched as
though with a smile. In a soft voice she said simply
in Russian: “The boy is dead.” And again she leaned
her head on her hand.
Teliegin bent over her and caressed her hair. She
sighed and the tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Come; I will carry him for you,” he said kindly. But
the woman shook her head.
“Where can I go? You go alone, kind sir, and God
be with you.”
Ivan Ilyitch regarded her for a moment, then pulled
his cap over his eyes and walked away. Just then, from
the back of the chapel, two Austrian field gendarmes gal-
loped up. They were big-whiskered, dark men, in soaked,
dirty coats. As they passed Ivan Ilyitch they looked at
him and reined in their horses. The one in front called
in a hoarse voice: “Come here!”
Ivan Ilyitch came up. The gendarme leant from the
saddle and looked at him searchingly with piercing eyes,
swollen from the wind and lack of sleep. They sud-
denly kindled merrily.
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“A Russian!” he cried, seizing Teliegin by the collar.
Ivan Ilyitch made no attempt to get away. He smiled a
crooked smile.
Teliegin was locked in a shed some three versts away.
It was already night. From the distance came a sound
of gun firing, Through the cracks in the wall of wood
a dull red glow could be seen in the east. Ivan Ilyitch
ate up the remaining piece of bread which he had taken
from the cart, then he made the round of the walls to
find a place through which he could get out. He stum-
bled against a bundle of hay, yawned and lay down. He
was not able to sleep, though. Four guns began to boom
soon after midnight at no great distance away. Flashes
of red came through the crevices. Ivan Llyitch got up
and listened. The intervals between the booms of each
gun grew less and the walls of the shed shook. Sud-
denly, quite close, single rifle reports rang out.
The fighting was clearly drawing nearer. Outside, agi-
tated voices could be heard and the throbbing of a motor-
car. There was a stampede of many feet. Ivan Ilyitch
then realized that they were firing on the shed. He lay
- down on the floor behind a bundle of straw.
There was a smell of powder smoke in the shed. The
firing went on incessantly. The Russians were apparently
advancing with great speed. The volume of sound that
rent the heart did not last long, however. The bursting
of hand grenades was heard, which sounded like a crack-
ing of nuts. Ivan Ilyitch sprang up and groped along the
wall. They were not going to kill him, were they? At
last came a piercing shriek, a roar and a stampede of feet.
The firing ceased. A few grenades exploded. In the
long moment’s lull iron blows were heard on something
[ 821 ]
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soft. Then came frightened cries: “We surrender, Rus-
sians, Russians!’
Ivan Ilyitch tore away a splinter of wood and could
see running figures, some covering their heads with their
hands. From the right huge masses of cavalry dashed
among the crowd. “Stop! stop! we surrender!” the run-
ning figures cried. Three men turned towards the shed.
After them came a horseman, hatless, with a big Cau-
casian cowl flying behind him. He was mounted on a
huge beast, which snorted and reared heavily. Like a
man drunk, the horseman flourished his sword, open-
mouthed. With a swish, he lunged out, but the horse
made a forward movement and the blade split.
“Let me out!” Teliegin cried in a strange voice, bang-
ing on the door. The man reined in the horse.
“Who is that?”
“A prisoner. A Russian officer.”
“One moment.” The horseman bent down and with
the hilt of his sword drew back the bolts. Ivan Ilyitch
came out and the man who had opened the door, the
officer of the savage division. said with a sarcastic smile:
“What a place to meet in, to be sure!”
Ivan Ilyitch looked at him.
“T don’t know you.”
“IT am Sapojkov, Sergei Sergeyevitch.” He laughed a
hoarse, rasping laugh. ‘Hang it, it would have been a
splendid thing, eh? A pity my sword was broken.”
[ 322 ]
XXIX
For the last hour of the journey to Moscow the train
rolled shrieking past deserted country houses. The smoke
from the engine mingled with the autumn leaves, with
the transparent yellow of the birch, with the purple of
the aspen tree, from the neighbourhood of which a smell
of mushrooms was wafted. The red branches of the
maple, here and there, hung over the very railway. Seen
through a bare bush were glass balls on a flower bed; the
country cottages had their shutters closed and the paths
and the steps were strewn with leaves.
They were now passing an intermediate station, where
two soldiers with kit-bags stared open-mouthed at the
carriage windows and a forlorn, God-forsaken girl, in a
shabby check coat, was tracing a pattern on the wet plat-
form with the end of her umbrella. Here, at the bend,
was a wooden hoarding, depicting a large bottle, beneath
which was printed “Matchless Riabinovaya Shustova.”
The woods ended and long lines of bright green cabbages
stretched to right and left. At a turnpike stood a hay
cart and women and peasants in short coats were tugging
a grey, obstinate horse by the’ bridle. And in the distance,
beneath the long clouds, sharp-pointed spires were visible
and high above the town were the five shining balls of
St. Savior’s.
Teliegin was lounging by the carriage window, breath-
ing in the laden October air, the scent of leaves, the
smell of decaying mushrooms, the smoke of burning
straw and the fragrance of the earth on a frosty dawn.
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Behind him lay the hard road of two years of suffer-
ing, and he felt that the end of it lay in this wonderful
hour of expectancy. Ivan Llyitch reckoned that sharp on
the stroke of three he would press the bell of the only
door (he imagined it to be of light oak, with two windows
over the top). Had he been dead, he would have dragged
himself to that door.
The fields of vegetables ended. They were flying by
the mud-bespattered houses of a suburb, past the roughly
paved streets with the rumbling carts, past the fences and
gardens of old lime trees, which stretched their branches —
to the middle of the road, past the medley of sign boards
and the passers-by, who were bent on their own silly busi-
ness, and paid no heed to the rolling train, nor to Ivan
Ilyitch at the carriage window. Below, a toylike tram- —
car was running up the street, and then there was a little
church, hemmed in by houses. Ivan Ilyitch crossed him-
self quickly. The wheels rattled over a siding. At last,
after two long years of absence, he was gliding by the
windows of the asphalt platform of the Moscow railway
station. Well-kempt and indifferent old men in clean ©
white aprons dashed into the carriages. Ivan Ilyitch put
his head far out of the window. How foolish of him!
He had not informed them of his arrival.
With a cheap-looking suit-case, purchased in Kiev,
Ivan Ilyitch walked out of the station and could not
keep himself from laughing aloud. In the square, some
fifty paces away, stood a long line of izvozchiks. They
gesticulated with their long sleeves, crying:
“I can take you! I can take you! I can take you!”
“What do you want with a piebald beast, sir, when
here is a fine black one?” __
“T’ll take you, sir! I'll take you!”
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“Where are you going to, you damned fool? Whoa,
back!” Dot pega
“Mine’s a fast horse, sir!”
Reined back, the horses stamped and snorted. The
square was filled with cries. In one more moment it
seemed the whole line of izvozchiks would dash into the
railway station.
Ivan Ilyitch mounted a high trap with a high seat,
driven by a smart driver, an insolent peasant with a
handsome face, who asked the address with kindly indul-
gence and for greater “swank” started off at a gallop, sit-
ting sideways with the reins loose in his left hand. The
tires jolted over the cobblestones.
“Just back from the war, sir?”
“T was a priscner and escaped.”
“Really? How are things with them? Some say
they’ve got nothing to eat. Mind, Granny! .. . You're
a national hero. . . . Many of our men run away be-
cause there is nothing to eat there. . . . Look out, car-
ter! . . . Ah, the boor! He’s filled himself with home-
made vodka. . . . Have you heard of Ivan Trifonitch?”
“Which one?”
“The one from Rasgulia, who deals in carbolic or sul-
phur. . . . He came to me complaining yesterday. . . .
What a business, to be sure! He’s made such a pile on
contracting, he doesn’t know what to do with his money
and his wife ran away with a little Pole three days ago.
She didn’t run far, either. Only to the Petersburg Park,
to Jan. The next day the izvozchiks had got the story
all over the town and Ivan Trifonitch can’t so much as
show himself in the street, for everyone laughs at him.
... That’s what you get when you rob and get rich... .”
“Do go faster, my dear fellow,” Ivan Ilyitch urged,
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though the fine cob was tearing like the wind through
the streets as it was, tugging viciously at the reins with
his mouth. |
“Flere we are, sir. The second door. Whoa Vasia!”
In trepidation Ivan Ilyitch looked up at the six win-
dows of a detached house, covered peacefully by lace
curtains. He jumped out at the door. It was an old
carved door, with a lion’s head for the handle. There
was an ordinary bell, not an electric one. For some sec-
onds, Ivan Ilyitch was unable to raise his hand to it.
His heart beat violently.
“Of course, I’m all in the dark. They mayn’t be at
home, or perhaps they won’t see me,” he thought, as he
pulled the brass handle.
“A bell rang within. “I’m sure no one is at home.”
Immediately the quick footsteps of a woman were heard.
Ivan Ilyitch looked about in perplexity. The black-
bearded, cheery face of the smart driver winked at him.
A chain clanged; the door opened and the pock-marked
face of a maid appeared.
“Does Daria Dmitrievna Bulavina live here?” Teliegin
asked with a cough.
“She is at home. Come in, sir,” the pock-marked girl
said in a kindly sing-song. “The mistress and the young
lady are both at home.”
As in a dream Ivan Ilyitch entered the hall, where by
a glass wall stood a striped ottoman, and there was a smell
of coats. The maid opened another door to the right,
which was covered with black oilcloth. In the small,
dimly lighted passage hung a woman’s coat and in front
of a looking-glass lay a pair of gloves, a kerchief with a
red cross on it and a down shawl. A familiar, faint scent
of amazing perfumes came from those innocent things.
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Without asking the visitor’s name, the maid went in
to announce him. With his fingers, Ivan Ilyitch touched
the down shawl. Coming from that bloody mess he felt
that he had no connection with this pure, refined life.
“Some one to see you, miss,” he heard the maid’s voice
from the depths of the house. Ivan Llyitch shut his eyes.
A divine thunder-clap would burst instantly. He trem-
bled from head to foot as he heard a clear voice ask:
“To see me? Who is it?”
Steps were heard walking through the rooms. They
seemed to come from the depths of two years of waiting.
Coming from the light of the windows, Dasha appeared
in the doorway. There was a golden light on her fair
hair. She looked taller and thinner. She was dressed
in a knitted blouse and a blue skirt.
“Have you come to see me?”
Dasha gasped. Her face twitched, her brows went up,
her mouth opened. She threw her arms impetuously
round Ivan Ilyitch’s neck and kissed him on the lips.
Then she stepped back and touched her eyes with her
fingers.
“Come in here, Ivan Ilyitch.” Dasha led the way into
the drawing-room and sank into a chair. She covered
-her face with her hands and bending to her knees,
-she wept.
“How stupid of me. It will soon pass,” she said, wip-
ing her eyes energetically. Ivan Ilyitch stood before her,
his cap pressed against his chest. Dasha suddenly leaned
her arms on the arms of the chair and raised her head.
“Did you escape, Ivan llyitch : te
. “Ves. 99
“Good heavens! Well?”
“Well . . . and here I am.”
ad
we
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He sat down in a chair opposite her, put his cap on a
table and stared at his feet.
“How did you manage it?’ Dasha stammered.
“It was very ordinary, on the whole.”
“Was there danger?”
“There was. That is, nothing unusual.”
Both were gradually caught in a kind of spider’s web.
Dasha, too, dropped her eyes.
“How long have you been in Moscow?”
“I have just come from the station.”
“I will have some coffee made.” ...
“Please don’t trouble. I am just going to my hotel.”
“Will you come in the evening?” Dasha asked in a
scarcely audible voice.
Ivan Ilyitch nodded with compressed lips. He wanted
air. He rose to go.
“Then I shall come back in the evening.”
Dasha extended her hand. He took her soft, firm
hand and the contact made him feel hot. The blood
rushed to his face. He pressed her finger and turned to
the hall, but stopped in the doorway. Dasha stood with
her back to the light, looking askance at him, in a strange,
unfriendly way.
“May I come at seven, Daria Dmitrievna?”
She nodded. Ivan Ilyitch rushed out of doors.
“Drive to a good hotel,” he said to the driver; “the
best in the place.”
Leaning back in the seat of the trap, his hands drawn
up in the sleeves of his coat, Ivan Ilyitch smiled broadly
to himself. Blue shadows of people and trees and car-
riages flew past his eyes. A cold wind, which smelt of
a Russian town, beat against his face. Ivan Ilyitch took
his nose in the palm of his hand, which still burned with
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Dasha’s touch, and laughed aloud. “Sheer witchery!”
Dasha was at that moment standing by the drawing-
room window with a ringing sound in her head. She
could not collect her thoughts, could not make out what
had happened. She shut her eyes with a groan and ran
into her sister’s room.
Ekaterina Dmitrievna was sitting by the window sew-
ing and thinking. On hearing Dasha enter she asked,
without raising her head:
“Who was your visitor, Dasha?”
“He.”
Katia looked up, her face twitched.
“Who?”
‘He. 5... Cant you understand’) Hey)... 2 Ivan
Ilyitch.”
Katia let fall her work and clapped her hands slowly.
“Only think, Katia; I am not even glad. I am only
frightened,” Dasha eid in a hushed voice.
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XXX.
When it began to get dark Dasha trembled at every
sound. She kept rushing into the drawing-room and
listening. Now and again she tried to read a book, a
supplement of “The Neva,” beginning always at the same
page. ‘“Marousia liked chocolates, which her husband >
would bring her from Krapt.” . . . She threw the book
down and went to the window. Two windows in a house
opposite were lighted up in the frosty twilight. It was
the house where Charodeyeva, the actress, lived. A maid
in a cap could be seen quietly laying the table. Charo-
deyeva, as thin as a skeleton, came in with a velvet coat
thrown round her shoulders. She sat down by the table
and yawned, looking as if she had been asleep on the
couch. She served herself some soup and suddenly grew
lost in thought, staring at a little vase containing a with-
ered rose. “Marousia liked chocolates . . .”’ Dasha said
under her breath. The bell rang. The blood rushed from
Dasha’s heart. It was only the evening paper, however.
“He is not coming,’ Dasha thought, and went into the
dining-room, where a single lamp burned over the white
tablecloth and a clock ticked. Dasha sat down by the
table. “So at every second life goes by. A time will
come when there will be only a few seconds left. One,
two) tiree yi.
There was another ring at the front door. Dasha
choked and ran into the hall. It was a porter from the
hospital with a packet of papers. Dasha at last went into ©
her own room and lay down on the couch. |
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“Tvan Ilyitch won’t come and he is perfectly right. I
waited two years and when I got him I hadn’t a word to
say. There was emptiness in place of love.” . .
Dasha pulled a pocket-handkerchief from) beneath the
cushion and applied it to her eyes. She knew that that
was how it would all end. In the two years she had
forgotten Ivan Ilyitch. She had loved some one of her
own imagination and he had come back strange and new,
with not a trace in his face to engage her former feelings.
“Terrible, terrible!’ Dasha thought. She would have
to pretend to love him, just the same; no one would
excuse her perfidy.
Dasha sat up on the couch and dangled her legs. . . .
“He must never know. And as for you, don’t you dare
think of it. Love him. Even if you can’t, you must love
him all the same.”
She bit the corner of her handkerchief, thinking: “TI
must have no will of my own now; I am all his, thoughts
and feelings and body. He can do as he likes with me.”
Suddenly she grew calm. “I will submit and he must
love me as I am.” Dasha sighed. She got up from the
couch and went over to the looking-glass, where she
tidied her hair and powdered her face to remove the
traces of tears. She leant her elbow on the dressing-
table and looked at herself in the glass. A pretty girl
with fair hair, a sad, childish face with slightly swollen
lips stared at her from the oval frame. The nose was
small, the eyes large and clear. Too clear, somehow.
As she looked, Dasha moved nearer to the glass.
“Nothing might have happened to look at you. Every-
thing might be serene and as it should be. A veritable
angel. Arms, bare neck, charms hidden and exposed. .
You couldn’t have done anything wrong.” . . . Dasha
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smiled ; the glass became covered with steam. “You are
going through the supreme moment. Good-bye. You will
be taken out into fresh _water. Your eyes will be
darker.) ie
Dasha listened. A hot stream seemed to flow fifeted
her body. She was both hot and calm. She did not no-
tice the door open, nor the pock-marked Liza come in.
“A visitor for you, miss.”
Dasha gave a deep sigh. She rose as lightly as though
her feet had not touched the floor and went into the
dining-room. Katia was the first to see Dasha, whom she ©
greeted with a smile. Ivan Ilyitch jumped up. He
blinked as from a strong light and held himself erect.
He was dressed in a new woollen shirt, with a new shoul-
der-strap on one shoulder. His hair was cut and his
face shaven. It was only now that one could see how tall
and broad-shouldered he had become. Of course, he was
another man. The gaze of his blue eyes was steady, the
corners of his straight-cut mouth had two wrinkles, two
tiny points. Dasha’s heart beat. She knew that it meant
contact with death and horror and suffering. His hand
was strong and cold as ice.
“Sit down, Ivan Ilyitch,” she said, going up to the
table. “Tell us about yourself.” |
She sat down on a chair beside him. Teliegin put his
hands on the tablecloth and clenched them. He began
to tell them about his captivity and flight. Dasha, who
sat close to him, watched his face, open-mouthed.
It seemed to Ivan Ilyitch that his voice came from
afar. The words came of themselves. He was bewil-
dered and agitated by the fact that beside him, her dress
touching his knees, sat this indescribable girl, who was
both dear and strange to him, quite incomprehensible,
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who smelt of forest glades and flowers and of something
warm that made the head go round.
The whole evening Ivan Ilyitch related his experiences.
Dasha questioned and interrupted him, clapped her
hands and appealed to her sister:
“Only think, Katia, he was condemned to be shot!
Just imagine it!”
When Teliegin came to the fight for the car, the mo-
ment that divided them from death, describing how the
car moved at last and the wind beat against their faces
and there was liberty and life, Dasha turned pale and
seized his hand.
“We are not going to let you go again!”
Teliegin laughed.
“There won’t be any help for it when I am called up
again. My only hope is to be listed on a munition
works.”
He gently pressed her hand. Dasha looked into his
eyes intently ; her cheeks flushed a slight red; she let go
his hand.
“Won't you smoke? I will bring you some matches.”
She went out quickly and returned with a box of
/matches. She stood before Ivan Ilyitch, striking one
match after another and all broke. What matches Liza
bought, indeed! At last one struck and Dasha brought
the flame to the end of Ivan Ilyitch’s cigarette. The light
shone on the end of her delicate chin. Teliegin lighted
his cigarette with his eyes shut. He did not know that
so much pleasure could be experienced in the lighting of
a cigarette.
Katia watched the two of them. She felt immeasurably
sad. She could hardly keep back the tears. Her mind
was full of that never-to-be-forgotten dear youth, Rosh-
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
chin. He, too, used to sit with them at the table and she,
too, used to bring him matches and strike a light. But
she never broke a single one.
Teliegin went away at midnight. Dasha embraced and
kissed her sister and shut herself in her own room. As
she lay on the bed with her arms thrown above her head,
she reflected that at last she had broken through her spir-
itual fog. Everything about her was desolate and empty
and strange, but, at any rate, there was the-blue sky,
there was happiness.
[ 334]
XXXI
On the fifth day after his arrival, Ivan Ilyitch received
a government intimation from Petrograd, commanding
him to present himself at the Ibukhovsky works and
put himself at the disposal of the chief engineer.
The joy over this, the remainder of the day spent with
Dasha busily in the town, the hasty farewell at the
Nicholas Station, the second class well heated compart-
ment, the packet he found in his pocket, tied with a rib-
bon and containing two apples, chocolates and some cakes,
were all like a dream. Ivan Ilyitch unfastened his woollen
shirt, stretched out his legs, and unable to banish a stupid
smile from his lips, he stared at his neighbour opposite,
an old man in spectacles.
“Are you from Moscow?” the old man asked.
“Yes.” God! What a sweet word it was! Moscow!
. . Lhe streets bathed in sunshine, the dry leaves be-
neath the feet, Dasha, light and slender stepping over
_them, her clear, intelligent voice (he could not recall her
words), the constant smell of apples when he bent over
her or kissed her hand.
“Sodom! A veritable Sodom!” the old man said. “I
spent three days in the Kokorev Inn and I did see things,
I tell you.” . . . He parted his feet, in boots and high
galoshes, and spat on the floor. “If you go out in the
street there are people, people, crowding everywhere.
What for? They tear about the shops, drive about furi-
ously, and are always in a hurry. What is the reason of it
all? And at night there isa twisting and whirling of illumi-
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
nated signs. What a noise and bustle! People crowding
in thousands. . . . They are quite mad. It seems to me
nothing but a devilish, shameless, stupid hurry-scurry.
Now you are a young man; you’ve been wounded at the
war; I can see that at a glance; I should like you to tell
an old fellow like me, is it really for this damned hurly-
burly that the men are shedding their blood at the front?
Where’s the country? Where religion? Where the
Tsar? Tell me. Now I’m going to Petersburg to buy
some sewing cotton, be damned to it. . . . That we
should have come to this! It will not be sewing cotton |
that I shall bring back to Tumen. It’s a message that
I'll bring. I shall tell them we have all gone to the devil.
. . . Mark my words, young man. We shall pay for this
rushing past thirty times when a man has to go quietly
once.” ‘The old man leant on his knees, got up and pulled
down the window blind to keep out the lines of flying
sparks from the engine. “We have forgotten God and
God has forgotten us. . . . A reckoning will come, I tell
you, acruel reckoning.” ...
“Do you mean the Germans will beat us?” Ivan Ilyitch
asked.
“Who knows? Whomever the Lord sends to chastise
us, from him shall we receive our punishment. . . . Now
look here, supposing the young fellows in my shop begin
to misbehave themselves, I may bear it for a time, but
then I'll give this one a knock on the head, another a
blow in the neck, a third a punch in the jaw. Russia,
however, is not a shop. God is merciful, but when peo-
ple have defiled the way to Him, mustn’t that way be
cleared? That is my meaning. It is not merely a ques-
tion, young man, of abstaining from meat on Wednes-
days and Fridays, it’s a question of something more seri-
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THE ROAD TO CALVARY
ous. God has gone from the world; there is nothing more |
terrible than that.” ...
The old man folded his hands over his stomach and
closed his eyes. His spectacles sparkled severely as he
bobbed up and down in his corner on the grey bunk.
Ivan Ilyitch left the carriage and stood by the corridor
window with his face almost touching the glass. The
fresh, keen air blew in through a crack. Without, in the
darkness, lines of fire flew and interlaced and dropped to
the ground. A cloud of smoke was borne past now and
again. The carriage wheels clanked loudly, the engine
gave a prolonged shriek and turning, the fire from its
furnace lighted up the dark fir cones, making them stand
out and disappear in the darkness. A signal dropped; the
carriages gave a slight jerk; a green lantern flashed out
and once more sheets of fire rained past the windows.
As he watched them Ivan Ilyitch, with a sudden, over-
whelming joy, realized the force of what had happened in
the past five days. Had he been able to tell some one
what he felt, he would have been counted a madman.
There was nothing strange or mad in it for him, how-
ever ; everything was unusually clear.
In the darkness of the night, he felt, there moved and
suffered and died millions upon millions of people. And
all the millions imagined themselves to be living beings.
But they lived only conditionally, and everything that
took place on earth was merely conditional, fanciful al-
most. It seemed to him fanciful to such a degree that
were he to make a single effort, the whole world would
be changed and assume a different aspect. And amidst
the fantasy there beat a living heart. His own heart,
belonging to the bent figure at the window. It had left
the world of shadows and was flying over the dark world
; [ 337 ]
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in a rain of fire. His heart beat with divine joy and
living blood—the sap of love flowed through it.
This strange feeling of love for himself lasted for
some seconds. He went back to his carriage, climbed
on to the upper bunk and as he undressed he looked at his
big hands, reflecting for the first time in his life that they
were beautiful. He put them behind his head and shut
his eyes and instantly he saw Dasha. She was gazing
into his eyes in loving agitation. (It was the same day,
in the dining-room. Dasha was turning over some cakes.
Ivan Ilyitch walked round the table and kissed her warm |
shoulder. She turned quickly. “Dasha, will you be my
wife?” he asked. She merely looked at him without re-
plying.)
Lying on the bunk he could see Dasha’s face now and
was unable to feast enough on the vision. For the first
time he felt a joyous exultation in the thought that Dasha
loved him and that he had big and beautiful hands. His
heart beat violently.
When he arrived in Petersburg Ivan Ilyitch imme-
diately presented himself at the Obukhovsky works and
was listed on night duty in one of the workshops.
A great many things had changed at the works in the
last three years. There were three times as many work-
ers, some of them quite young fellows; some had been
brought from the Urals and some had been taken from
the operating army. Nota trace remained of the former
half-starved, half-drunken workman, who was bitter and
timid. The men earned good wages, read newspapers,
abused the war, the Tsar, the Tsarina, Rasputin and the
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generals. They were all enraged and believed in a revolu-
tion after the war.
They were particularly enraged that the bread in the
town bakeries was mixed with chaff and that for days
there would be no meat in the market, and that when
there was any it would be bad. Potatoes, too, were rot-
ten, sugar was dirty. and to add to everything food was
very dear and shopkeepers were profiteering. As much
as fifty roubles would be charged for a box of chocolates
and a hundred for a bottle of champagne. And nothing
would they hear of making peace with the Germans.
Ivan Ilyitch was allowed three days to arrange his per-
sonal affairs and spent the time rushing about the town
to ldk for a flat. He had no clear notion as to why he
wanted a flat, but when he had stood by the carriage win-
dow he had thought it necessary to take a nice flat hay-
ing white rooms and blue curtains and clean windows
showing a view of the islands.
He went over dozens of houses, but found nothing to
please him. In one there was a wall opposite, in another
the furniture was too rough or depressing. On the last
day, however, he succeeded in finding the very thing he
-had pictured to himself in the railway carriage. It was a
flat of five tiny white rooms with clean windows facing
west. It was situated at the end of Kamen Island and
was very inconvenient and expensive, but he took it im-
mediately and wrote to inform Dasha about it.
On the fourth night he went on duty at the works. In
the yard, black with coal-dust, were tall lamp-posts with
lighted lamps. The smoke from the brick chimneys was
beaten by the damp wind to the ground; yellow, stifling
fumes filled the air. Through the big, semi-circular,
dirty windows of the workshops numberless whirling
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transmission straps could be seen turning the iron cheeks
of the lathes and boring mills, planing and turning steel
and bronze. The vertical discs of stamping machines
came down. Cranes flew high in the darkness. The fur-
naces blazed with a red and white light. Vibrating the
ground with its rapid strokes was a huge steam hammer.
From the low smelting chimneys, columns of flame rose
in the dark-grey sky. The figures of men moved leisurely
through the deafening noise and the gleam of iron-bound
demons... . ; )
Ivan Ilyitch entered the workshop where they stamped
shrapnel shells. Strukov, an engineer and old acquaint-
ance, conducted him through the shop, explaining certain
characteristics of the work with which Teliegin was not
acquainted. He afterwards took him into a little office,
partitioned off from the shop, and showed him the books
and reports. He then handed him the keys and putting
on his overcoat, said: “Twenty-three per cent of the
goods turned out are duds. Try and keep to the figure.”
By the way he talked and the manner in which he had
given over the workshop, Teliegin gathered how indiffer-
ent Strukov was to the work, and Strukov, as he had
known him of old, was an excellent engineer and a great
enthusiast. He was troubled and asked: “Isn’t it possi-
ble to reduce the percentage of duds?”
Strukov yawned and shook his head. He pulled his
cap low over his unkempt head and went back to the
lathes with Ivan Ilyitch.
“Drop that, my dear fellow. What is the difference?
Twenty-three per cent less men will be mown down. Be-
sides, you can’t alter anything. The lathes are completely
worn out. Let them go to the devil!”
He stopped by a press. A short-legged old workman
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in a leather apron put a red-hot pig of ore under the
stamp; the frame came down, the rod entered the soft
red steel, a hot flame shot up, the frame rose and a
three-inch shrapnel shell fell to the ground. The old man
immediately brought up another pig of ore. Another
man, a tall young fellow with a curled black moustache,
was busy by the furnace. Strukov turned to the old man.
“Well, Rublev, are all the shells dud?”
The old man smiled and with the slits of eyes gave a
cunning, furtive look at Teliegin.
“Of course, they’re dud. See how the thing works.”
He put his hand on the post, green with grease, on which
the frame of the press glided. “You can see the damned
thing shake. It ought to have been chucked out long ago.”
The young fellow at the furnace, Ivan Rublev’s son,
Vaska, gave a short laugh.
“A lot of things ought to be chucked out of here. The
machine’s grown rusty.”
“Easier, Vaska,” Strukov said cheerfully.
“Easier! That’s just it!’ Vaska shook his curly head
and his broad, handsome face with the black moustache
_and fierce eyes smiled sarcastically in a self-assured kind
of way. |
“The two best hands in the shop,” Strukov said softly
to Ivan Ilyitch as they walked away. “Good-bye. I am
going to ‘The Red Bells’ tonight. Ever been there? An
excellent cabaret and they give you good drink. I must
take you there some time.”
‘one e ie” WE ze
"Ivan Tyitet tia! to study. the Rublevs, both father
and son. During that first conversation he was struck by
the similarity of word and smile and glance that Strukov
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had exchanged with them. All three seemed to be trying
to discover whether he, Teliegin, was “one of us” or an —
enemy. By the ease with which Rublev talked to him, ©
;
he came to understand that he had been put down as —
“fone of us.”
The term had no relation to Ivan Ilyitch’s political |
views, which were exceedingly vague, nor to his past work |
in the place, but rather to a comfortable feeling of happi- ~
ness, of which every one was conscious. The source of ©
a great, attainable happiness was contained in Ivan Ilyitch ©
and for this reason he was held to be “one of us” by —
every one who came in contact with him.
When on duty one night Ivan Ilyitch went up to the :
Rublevs and listened to the father and son arguing, They
made occasional appeals to him.
Vaska Rublev was a socialist, well read and embittered.
He talked only of class war, of the dictatorship of the
proletariat, and expressed himself in a smart, bookish
way. Ivan Rublev was an Old Believer, cunning, re- —
ligious, but on the whole, not a God-fearing man.
“At our place, in the Perm forests,” he said, “in the
books at the hermitages everything is set down, the pres-
ent war and how we shall be ruined afterwards. The
whole of our land will be ruined and the number of peo-
ple who will be left, and those will be few.... And how a
man as strong as a beast will come out of a hermitage
j
and will rule the land according to the terrible word of -
God.”
“A mystic,” Vaska said with a wink.
“There’s a word for you, you rascal! Calls himself a
socialist. What sort of a socialist are you, eh? You are —
a turner by trade; that is what you are, you dog. I was —
just like him. He must be tearing about with his cap
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over his ear, his shirt torn, his eyes bulging out and be
singing, ‘Arise to battle. . . . Against whom? What
for? You silly ass!”
" “Hear how this old man talks?’ Vaska said, pointing
with his thumb at his father. “He’s a dangerous anar-
chist. He hasn’t a notion of what socialism is, yet always
abuses me for the way I talk.”
“No, my friends,” said Rublev, interrupting him as he
seized a pig of ore and, executing a circle with it, placed
it adroitly by the stamping rod, “you read books, but not
the right books. Vaska has learned a single word e
heart and that is, freedom. He must have freedom. . .
You try and take it. It is like trying to hold smoke in
your hand! There is no humility left. They don’t un-
derstand that they must be poor in spirit according to
the times.”
“What a muddle-head you are, Father!” Vaska said
with annoyance. “Not long ago he declared himself a
revolutionary.”
“And so I did. What is that to you? If anything
were to happen, my dear fellow, I’d be the first to seize
a pitchfork. Why should I hold on to the Tsar? I am
a peasant. How much land have I ploughed in the past
thirty years? I can’t eat freedom with my porridge. I
want land and not those damned nuts of yours to crack!”
He kicked his boot against a heap of shrapnel shells on the
floor. ‘Revolutionary! Of course, I’m a revolutionary!
Don’t I prize my soul’s salvation?”
Vaska spat in disgust. Ivan Ilyitch laughed. He got up
and stretched himself. The night was drawing to a close.
Teliegin wrote to Dasha every day, but she did not
reply so often. Her letters were strange and icy and Ivan
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Ilyitch felt slightly chilled when he read them. He would —
sit down by the window with Dasha’s sheet of note-
paper written in a sloping hand and read it again and ~
again. Then he would gaze at the grey, purple woods ~
on the islands and at the clouded sky, as muddy as the
water in the canal. He leant his chin on the window-sill
and stared out, reflecting that it was just as well perhaps
that Dasha’s letters were not warm as he had foolishly
hoped them to be and that Dasha wrote them honestly
and sincerely. Her heart was true, calm and stern like —
the Great Festival before the forgiveness of sin.
“My dear Friend,” she wrote, “why have you taken a
flat of five rooms? Think of the expense you are incur-
ring! It is bad enough if you live alone. Five rooms!
And then the service—you must keep two women and
in these days, too! One should be content to creep into
a hole and sit there with bated breath. . . . In Moscow
the autumn is cold and rainy; there is no light... . We
must wait for the spring. . . .”
Just as on the day of his departure, when he had
asked her to be his wife and she had answered merely
by a glance, so now in her letter she never referred directly
to their marriage nor to their future life together. He
must wait until the spring.
This waiting for the spring in vague and desperate
hope of some miracle happening was common to every
one. Life had stopped, people had burrowed into the
winter to lick their paws. Outwardly it seemed that there
was no more vitality to bear this new waiting for a
bloody spring. On one occasion, Dasha wrote:
“I had not meant to speak nor to write of Bezsonov’s
death, but yesterday I again heard the details of his ter-
rible end. Not long before he left for the front, I met
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him in the Tversky Boulevard. He was pitiful then.
Had I not repulsed him he would not have died perhaps.
But I did repulse him; I could not do otherwise. I
should do the same again if the past were repeated. His
death lies at my door; I accept that. You must under-
stand it. You are right when you say that man cannot
live for himself alone... .”
Teliegin spent half the day answering the letter. “How
can you imagine that I do not accept everything that
concerns you?” . . . He wrote slowly, trying hard to
keep all the letters straight. “I sometimes ask myself
what I would do if you were to fall in love with another
man ; that is, if the worst thing of all were to happen. I
should accept that, too . . . I would not resign myself,
oh, no; my heart would be dark within me. . . . But my
love for you does not consist only in pleasure. You
sometimes feel that you want to die because you love too
deeply. That is how Bezsonov must have felt when he
went to the front. . . . Let his name be sacred... .
And you must feel that you are absolutely free, Dasha.
. . 1 ask nothing of you, not even love. . . . I have
come to realize this lately... . I really want to be hum-
ble in spirit. . . . Oh, God, what a hard time it is that
we have to love in!”
Two days later Ivan Ilyitch returned at daybreak from
the works, had a bath and went to bed, but he was awak-
ened by a telegram:
“All is well. I love you horribly. Your Dasha.”
One Sunday evening, Strukov, the engineer, called for
Ivan Ilyitch and took him to “The Red Bells.”
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It was a cabaret in a basement and smelt of tobacco .
and alcohol and the sweat of human beings. The arched
ceiling and the walls were decorated with brightly col-
oured birds, naked women, unnatural in hue and form,
infants with distorted faces and many significant scrolls.
The place was filled with noise and smoke. On a plat-
form sat a wrinkled, painted little man in an army shirt,
his hands wandering about the keys of a pianoforte. The
tables were packed. A group of officers sat drinking
:
é
cocktails and staring uneasily at the women passing by. q
Advocates, interested in art, argued loudly. The queen
of the place, a black-haired beauty with puffed eyes, was
laughing at the top of her voice. At a corner of a table
sat Antoshka Arnoldov, twirling a tuft of hair while
writing his correspondence from the front. On a raised
place, drunk and with hanging head, slumbered the pro-
genitor of futurism, a veterinary surgeon with hollow,
consumptive cheeks. Three young poets sitting in a cor-
ner yelled out, “Sing something indecent, Kostia!” The
painted old man at the piano, without turning round, tried
to sing something in an unsteady voice, but no one heard
him. The proprietor, an ex-actor, long-haired and har-
rowed, appeared at a side door now and again, stared at
his guests with wild eyes and disappeared. At dawn,
three days back, his wife had run away from the place
with a young composer straight to the Finnish railway
station. He had not slept for three days and had been
drinking heavily.
Strukov, somewhat intoxicated. with the cocktail he
was having, said to Ivan Ilyitch: ““No wonder I like this
place. It would be hard to find a rottener hole any-
where. . . . It does you good to look at it. Look at
that creature sitting by herself in the corner! She’s so
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thin she can hardly move. The last degree of hysteria.
. . . Yet she has a great success among women... .
And that man over there with the horselike jaw, that’s
the famous poet, Semesvetov. He knocked out his front
teeth to avoid going to the war and writes his verses... .
‘The war will not end till Russian bayonets are wiped on
the silk drawers of Vienna prostitutes.’ That’s a pub-
lished one, and there are unpublished ones, too. ‘Chew
with iron jaw, burst human flesh, bourgeois! Our prole-
tarian bayonet will slit your fat belly.’”
Strukov laughed loudly and emptied the cocktail down
his throat. Without wiping his lips, shaded by a Tar-
tar moustache, he kept on telling Ivan Ilyitch the names
of the different guests. He pointed out a sleepy, un-
healthy-looking man with a wild face.
“There is the very core of the contagion, the very »
cancer”; he spoke the words with pleasure; “from that
spot the decay spreads over Mother Russia. I know you
are a patriot, Ivan Llyitch, a nationalist, an intellectual.
. . . How would it be to splash and spatter the blood
on this putrefaction? Ha, ha... . They'd chase over the
earth and bite like mad things. . . . But you wait, the
time will come when they will lick the blood; they will
come to life again, these swine, these death-heads; they
will be conscious of their power, they will believe in
their right. . . . And they'll turn everything upside
down like mad things. . . . Our Mother Russia, the
accursed, will burst and the decay will flow throughout
the world. . . . Curse you!”
Strukov was very drunk indeed. His dry eyes glis-
tened merrily and his oaths were pronounced with a
gentle smile. Teliegin frowned. His head went round
from the medley and the noise of Strukov’s incompre-
hensible outburst.
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At first several people and then every one in the room
turned their’ gaze to the entrance door. The veterinary
surgeon’s yellow eyes bulged; the wild face of the pro-
prietor popped out of the wall; the half-dead woman
sitting at the side raised her heavy eyelids and her eyes
grew suddenly bright; with unexpected vivacity, she
jumped from her chair and stared in the direction of
the; door) out A) glassfell;
At the door stood an oldish man of middle height, with
shoulders thrust slightly forward and hands in his
pockets. His narrow face with the long beard was smil-
ing cheerfully with the two deep habitual wrinkles, and
standing out of the whole face were two intelligent,
piercing eyes, which shone with a grey light. Thus a
minute passed. From out the darkness of the doorway
another face approached his; it was the face of a civil-
servant, who with a crooked, anxious smile whispered
something in his ‘ear. The man unwillingly wrinkled
his large nose and said: “There you go again with your
foolishness! I’m sick of you!” And looking round at
the guests, still more cheerfully, he shook his head
and said in a big voice, “Well, good-bye, my jolly
friends.,. . .”’
He went out and the door banged behind him. The
whole room began to hum like a beehive. Strukov dug
his nails into Ivan Ilyitch. “Did you see? Did you
see?” he asked, gasping. “That was Rasputin!”
?
[ 348 ]
XXXIT
It was four o’clock in the morning and Ivan [lyitch
was walking home from the works. It was a frosty,
December night. He could not find an izvozchik; they
were hard to find at that time even in the centre of the
town. Teliegin walked briskly in the middle of the
deserted street, breathing steam into his raised collar.
In the light of the few lamps, falling frost needles could
be seen in the air. The snow crunched loudly beneath
the feet. Red reflections danced on the flat, yellow fa-
cade of a house. Teliegin turned the corner and saw
the flame of a fire in a pail, around which were chilled
figures enveloped in steam. Higher up the pavement
was a long, motionless line. About a hundred people—
women, old men and boys—were standing in a queue at
a provision shop. At the side was a night-porter stamp-
ing his feet and banging his arms to keep warm.
Ivan Ilyitch walked the length of the queue and
looked at the huddled figures, wrapped in shawls and
pressed against the wall.
“Three shops were looted yesterday on the Viborsky,”
a voice said.
“What else can you do?”
“T asked for half a pound of kerosene yesterday,”
another voice said, ‘and they told me they hadn’t got
any and there was the Dmitrievs’ cook buying five
pounds before my eyes at a free price.”
“What did she pay?”
“Two and a half roubles a pound, my girl.”
“For kerosene?”
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“We'll remember it against the shopkeeper when the
time comes.”
“At Okhta, my sister says, they caught a shopkeeper
at a trick like that and shoved his head into a pickle-
barrel. He begged to be let off, but he was drowned.”
“Serves him right. They deserve worse.”
“Meanwhile we've got to freeze.”
“While he’s drinking his tea.”
“Who’s drinking tea?” a hoarse voice asked. |
“They’re all swilling it. My mistress, a general’s wife,
gets up at twelve o’clock and keeps on swilling tea till
you think she’ll burst, the image.”
“And you can stand here and freeze and get con-
sumption.”
“You're right. Ive got a cough already.”
“My mistress is a cocotte. When I get back from
market the place is full of men, all in their pants and
drunk. Immediately they ask you for an omelette,
or black bread or vodka, anything that’s coarse.”
“Tt’s English money they drink on,” a voice said.
“Now, really!”
“Everything is sold, believe me. You stand ‘here
and don’t know anything, but you’ve been sold in
bondage for fifty years to come. The army, too, is
sold. This is what we’ve come to, my God!”
“What is the use of invoking God? You must demand
to be told why you are freezing here while they are in the
feather-beds. Are there more of you or of them? Go,
pull them out of their feather-beds, lie down in their
places and let them come and stand in the queue!”
When these words had been spoken by the same mas-
culine, assured voice, a silence ensued.
“Porter! I say, porter!’ some one called with chat-
tering teeth.
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“What’s happened ?”
“Will there be salt today?”
“Probably not.”
“Then why am I standing here catching my death of
cold?”
“Be damned to them!”
“This is the fifth day that we’ve had no salt!”
“They drink the blood of the people, the swine!”
“Stop it now, you women. You'll catch a cold in
the throat if you talk so much,” the porter said in a
thick voice.
Teliegin had gone past the queue. The angry voices
were still.
Again the straight streets were empty, lost in the
leaden, frosty mist.
Ivan Ilyitch reached the embankment and walked on
the bridge. The wind blew the tails of his coat aside.
He recollected that he had to find an izvozchik, but
soon forgot it again. Far on the other bank, a line
of shadowy lights twinkled. A line of dim lights on
the footpath stretched across the ice. A cold wind
blew over the waste of the Neva; the snow crunched,
the tramway cables and the cast-iron railings of the
_ bridge vibrated plaintively.
Ivan Ilyitch stopped and looked at the gloomy dark-
ness, thinking, as he often thought now, of one and the
same thing, of the moment when, in the railway-car-
riage, happiness and the consciousness of himself had
come to him like a fire from within.
His sensation of happiness was like a light in the dark-
ness. Around him all was troubled and confused and
hostile to his happiness. An effort had to be made every
time he said to himself, “I live, I am happy, my life
will be bright and beautiful.”
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At the window that night, amidst the sparks of the
flying train, it had been easy to say that, but it needed
an effort now to detach himself from the half starved fig-
ures in the queue, from the howling despair of the Decem-
ber wind, from the touch of the ruin that threatened.
Ivan Ilyitch was convinced that his love for Dasha,
her charm, the glad consciousness of himself he had ex-
perienced at the carriage-window, was the highest good.
There was nothing greater than that in life. However,
to detach one of the good things in life from life as a
whole was treachery. He could not say to himself:
“Let other people be murdered, let them perish of cold
and hunger, but Dasha and I will be happy. Let only
the two of us remain on earth and we shall still be
happy.” Such were corrupt and evil thoughts.
In an early letter, Ivan Ilyitch had written to Dasha:
“What a hard time it is we have to love in.” It was
hard because the old, comfortable, rather narrow, but
amazing temple of life was shaken; it crumbled at the
blows dealt by the war; its columns swayed; its wide
dome was broken, the old stones were scattered and
amidst the dust of the ruins, two beings, Ivan Ilyitch
and Dasha, in the madness of their oe desired to be
happy despite everything.
He looked at the gloomy darkness of the night, at the
twinkling lights; he heard the wind howl desperately
and thought: “It is not wrong; the desire for happiness
is higher than everything. I am made in the image and
likeness of God. I don’t want the image to be destroyed,
I want it transformed, and that is happiness. I want
happiness in spite of everything. Can I abolish queues,
feed the hungry, stop the war? I cannot. And as I
cannot, must I renounce happiness and merge in the
misery? No. But can I, shall I be happy? .. .”
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Ivan Ilyitch crossed the bridge and without noticing
the way, he reached the Palace Embankment. Tall elec-
tric lamps, shaken by the wind, burned brightly. Snow-
dust flew with a rustling sound over the bare paving-
blocks. The windows of the Winter Palace were dark
and desolate. At a striped sentry-box near a snow-heap
stood a giant guard in a big coat. His rifle was pressed
against his chest by folded arms.
Ivan Ilyitch pulled himself up suddenly.
“The fact that I think about it means that there can’t
be any happiness for me. We want to live by love and
the whole world lives by hate... .”
He walked faster, battling with the wind at first,
then turning his back on it. He went round the palace
and walked in the square. Had the square been full
of people, it seemed to him that he would have got up
on the plinth of the Alexander column and told them
all the plain truth and every one would have believed
him.
“You cannot live like this any longer,’ he would
have said; “the state is built on hatred, frontiers are de-
termined in hatred, every one of us is a small fortress
with aiming guns. Life is limited and terrible. All the
world is stifling in hate; people are exterminating each
other, rivers of blood flow. Is it not enough for you?
Are you still blind? Must you have man kill man in
every house? Come to yourselves, throw down your
arms, break the boundaries, open the doors and windows
to the free wind. Let the way of the cross pass through-
out the earth and strengthen it with the water of life
in the name of the Holy Ghost. That is the way we
can live. We have land enough for corn, meadows for
cattle, hilly slopes for vineyards; the inexhaustible womb
of the earth is ours. There is room enough for all.
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Don’t you realize that you are still living in the igno-
rance of the Middle Ages? . . .” .
Ivan Ilyitch came out on the Moika, caught his breath
and laughed aloud. What a walk indeed! He looked
at his watch. It was five o'clock. Crunching over the ©
snow, a big car with extinguished lamps came round a
corner. At the steering-wheel sat an officer in an open ©
cloak. His narrow, clean-shaven face was pale and his —
eyes were glassy like the eyes of a drunken man. Be- ©
hind him sat another officer with his cap pushed to the
back of his head. His face was invisible. In both’
hands he held a mat bundle. The third man in the.car ©
was a civilian in a tall caracal cap with the collar of
his coat raised. He stood up and shook the shoulders of
the man at the steering-wheel. The car drew up by the
bridge. Ivan Ilyitch saw the three of them jump out
on the snow, they pulled out the bundle and dragged it a
few paces along the snow, then with difficulty they lifted
it and carried it to the middle of the bridge and dropped
it over the railing. The two officers immediately went
back to the car, the civilian bent over and looked after it —
for some time, then he put up the collar of his coat and
ran after the others. The car set off at full speed and
disappeared.
“What a dirty thing to do!” Ivan Ilyitch said; he
had watched the proceedings with bated breath. He
went on to the bridge, but stare as hard as he would at
the big black hole in the ice, he could not see anything;
there was only a gurgling of stinking, warm water from
a sewer.
The lamps burned brightly on the deserted Moika em-
bankment; desolation was reflected in the darkened win-
dows; the misty sky was just the same, leaden and frosty.
“What a dirty thing to do!” Ivan Ilyitch muttered again,
[ 354 ]
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
scowling as he walked along the railings of the canal.
On the Nevsky he at last found an izvozchik, a starved
old man with a heavy-jawed horse. Ivan Ilyitch closed
his eyes as he fastened the apron. His whole body ached
with weariness.
“T love, that is vital, real,” he thought. “It doesn’t
matter what I do, if it comes from my love, it must be
good.”
[ 355 ]
XXXII
\
The bundle which had been dropped by the three men
into the hole of the ice was the body of Rasputin. In
order to kill this superhuman, strong peasant he was first
made drunk with wine, mixed with potassium cyanide;
then he was shot in the breast and in the head and back.
of the neck and his head was at last smashed open with
a castette. Yet for all that, when his body was dis-
covered twenty-four hours later, a medical examination
established that Rasputin had only ceased to breathe
when under the ice in the Moika.
The murder became a license for all that happened.
two months later—the license of blood. Rasputin had
on more than one occasion declared that with his death
the throne would crumble and the Romanov dynasty
would collapse. This savage and violent man must have —
had a presentiment of evil, such as dogs feel before a
death in the house, and he died unwillingly, this last sup-
porter of the throne, peasant, horse-thief and wandering
fanatic.
His death brought a sinister depression on the court
and rejoicing throughout the land; people congratulated
each other over it. Nikolai Ivanovitch wrote to his
wife from Minsk, “The night the news arrived, the of-
ficers of the Commander-in-Chief’s staff ordered seven
dozen bottles of champagne for the mess and the sol-
diers yelled ‘Hurrah’ throughout the whole front.”
After a few days the murder was forgotten by the
country, but not by the court. At the court they believed
in his prophecy and with gloomy forebodings made
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ready for the revolution. Petersburg was secretly di-
vided into sectors. Machine-guns were demanded from
the Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovitch and when he re-
fused them, they were ordered from Archangel and four
hundred and twenty-two of them were placed in attics
on the street-crossings. The press was still more re-
stricted; newspapers appeared with half their columns
bare, but proprietors, not to be outdone, printed significant
headlines on the bare columns which had a greater effect
on the angry readers than the screaming articles.
The Empress wrote her husband desperate letters to
Stimulate his will and spirit. Once more she demanded
the complete abolition of the Imperial Duma. The Em-
peror, like one bewitched, stayed at Mogilov among his
faithful (there was no doubt of this) tens of millions of
bayonets. Women rioters and howling Petersburg queues
were more terrible to face than an army of three empires,
pressing on the Russian front. In Mogilov, at the same
time, unknown to the Emperor, the Head of Staff of the
Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Alexeiev, a
clever man and ardent patriot, was preparing a plan to
arrest the Empress and destroy the German party.
_In January, to anticipate a spring offensive, an order
was signed for an attack on the Northern Front. At the
opening of artillery fire, a snowstorm began. The men
advanced through deep snow amid a howling storm and
the hurricane of bursting shells. Dozens of aéroplanes
that had gone up to help the advancing units were beaten
down by the wind and in the darkness were mown down
by our own as well as the enemy machine-gun fire. For
the last time Russia was making an attempt to break
the iron ring that hemmed her in, for the last time Rus-
sian peasants in white shrouds, driven by a polar storm,
were fighting for an Empire embracing one-sixth part
[ 357 J
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of the world, for the autocracy, dangerous at one time to
the world, but now become a lost conception, unfriendly
and incomprehensible.
The battle raged for ten days; thousands of the liv-
ing were buried under the snow. The offensive stopped
and froze. The front had once again congealed in the
snow.
[ 358 J
XXXIV
Ivan Ilyitch had counted on the holidays to pay a visit
to Moscow but the works commissioned him to go to
Sweden, from whence he returned only in February.
He immediately set about arranging a three weeks’ leave
and telegraphed to Dasha to say that he was coming on
the 26th.
For a week before his departure he was on duty at the
workshops. Ivan Ilyitch was struck by the change that
had come over the place in his absence. The manage-
ment was polite and solicitous as it had never been be-
fore and the workers showed their teeth. The men were
so savage that at any moment it seemed some one would
shout :
“Stop work! Smash the lathes!’
The men were particularly incensed by the proceedings
in the Imperial Duma, where a debate was in progress
on the food question. The proceedings showed that the
government could hardly preserve its dignity; it parried
the attack with its last efforts. The Tsar’s ministers
no longer talked like fairy heroes, but in human speech,
which was a little whining. The men knew that the
speeches of ministers were not true and that the truth
was on, every one’s lips. There were dark and sinister
rumours of a near collapse of the front and rear from
starvation.
On his last duty Ivan Ilyitch observed a peculiar ex-
citement among the men. They would leave their lathes
every moment and confer together. When he asked
Vasili Rublev what these conferences were about, Vaska
[359 ]
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angrily put on his wadding coat and left the shop, bang-
ing the door behind him.
“He’s got vicious, the rascal Vasili,”’ Ivan Rublev said.
“He’s managed to get a revolver from somewhere and
keeps it in his pocket.”
Vasili soon returned and the men left their lathes and
surrounded him. “ ‘Statement of Lieut.-General Kha-
balov, Commander of the troops of the Petersburg Mili-
tary District,’ ’”’ Vaska read aloud with emphasis, holding
a white bill in his hand. ‘‘“During the last few days the
amount of flour allowed to the bakeries and the quantity
of bread baked have been the same as formerly.’ ”
“That's a lie!” voices were instantly raised. “There’s
been no bread at all for three days.”
“*There ought not to be a shortage of bread,’” Vaska
read on.
“He’s proposed and disposed,” voices laughed sar-
castically.
“If there has not been enough bread in some shops
that is because people fearing a shortage, have hoarded
bread to make rusks.. . .’” |
“Who’s made rusksP Let him show us the rusks!” |
voices yelled. “We ought to jam a rusk down that lieu-
tenant-general’s throat!”
“Silence, comrades!’ Vaska commanded. “Let |
Khabalov be made to show us those rusks. We must
go out into the street, comrades. . . . From the Baltic
Works four thousand men are marching on the Nevsky.
And the women are coming out from the Viborg Works.
They’ve fed us on statements long enough!” .
“He’s right. Let them show us bread! We want bread!” |
“They won’t show you any bread, comrades. There
isn’t enough flour in the town to last for more than
three days. Trains are standing still in the Urals... ,_
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Elevators there are filled with corn! In Cheliabinsk
three million poods of meat are rotting at the station!
In Siberia they are making candles of butter. . . . And
the Tsar’s government expects the workers to eat
ea
There stepped out from the crowd surrounding Rub-
lev a fellow with crooked shoulders, whose grimy face
twitched. He scowled and beat his breast and shook
his head.
“Why are you saying that to me? Why are you say-
ing that to me?”
“Arise! Throw down your work! Put out the fur-
naces!’’ came shouts from all sides and the men rushed
about the shop.
Vaska Rublev went up to Ivan Ilyitch. His long
eyelashes covered his eyes, his lips trembled.
“Go!” he said audibly. “Go, while you are yet
whole!”
Ivan Ilyitch slept badly for the remainder of that
night and awoke with a feeling of restlessness in every
part of his body. The morning was cloudy; drops fell
on the gutter without. Ivan Ilyitch tried to collect his
thoughts. His restlessness would not leave him and the
drops fell irritatingly, into his very brain, as it were.
“T ought not to wait till the 26th, I ought to go to-
day,” he thought. He took off his nightshirt and went
into the bathroom where he turned on the douche and
stood under the icy, cutting spray.
There was a great deal to be done before his departure.
Ivan Ilyitch had some coffee and went out. He jumped
into a tram-car, which was full of people, and here, too,
he felt restless. The passengers sat in their usual gloomy
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silence, their knees pressed close together and angrily
pulling the skirts of their clothing from beneath a neigh-
bour. It was sticky underfoot; the raindrops rolled
down the windows and the bell jingled irritatingly on
the front platform.
Opposite Ivan Ilyitch sat a war civil-servant with a
patchy, yellowish face; his clean-shaven mouth was set
in a crooked smile and his tin-coloured eyes, with an
animation clearly unusual to them, looked round wonder-
ingly. When he observed them, Ivan Ilyitch noticed
that all the passengers were looking round in dismay —
and wonder.
The car stopped at the corner of Bolshoi Prospect.
The passengers immediately began to fidget and to look
about them; a few jumped off the platform. The driver
took the key and put it in the breast of his blue coat and
opening the door in front, he said in anger and alarm:
“The car is not going any further.”
Over the whole of the Kamennoostrovsky and the
Bolshoi Prospect, as far as the eye could see, tram-cars
stood. The pavements were black with people. Rowdy
boys, products of the war, tore about wildly. The iron
shutters of a shop now and again came down with a
bang. A thin, wet snow fell.
A man appeared on top of one of the cars. His long
coat was unfastened; he pulled his cap off his head and ~
was shouting something below. ‘“O-o-o-o!” a sigh went
through the crowd. The man tied a rope to the roof of
the car, then he stood up and again tore off his cap.
“Q-o-o-o” went through the crowd. The man jumped
on the road. The crowd rolled back and then a group
of people could be seen slipping over the snow as they
i
*
tugged at a rope tied to the car. The car leant over; ©
the crowd moved back; boys whistled. The car rocked,
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but remained standing; the wheels crashed. The group
tugging at the rope were joined by other people who
came running silently from all sides. The car swayed
and crashed over; there was a sound of broken glass.
The silent crowd surged to the overturned car.
“There are going to be some doings now!” a voice
remarked behind Ivan Ilyitch cheerfully, and then sev-
eral voices sarcastically took up the refrain, “You fell
a victim in the fatal war... .”
On the way to the Nevsky Ten Ilyitch noticed the same
wondering glances, the same anxious faces. All over the
place, like small whirlpools, eager listeners seethed round
news-bearers. Fat porters stood in doorways, house-
maids stuck their noses out and peeped up the street,
where a crowd surged at the top. Some man with a
portfolio, a well-kept beard and an unfastened coat—
an advocate evidently—asked a porter: “Tell me, good
fellow, what is that crowd? What is happening there?”
“They are asking for bread. It’s a riot, sir.”
“Ah tee j
Higher up the street, at the crossing, stood a pale,
tear-stained lady with a sick dog in her arms, whose
hanging back trembled. The lady kept asking every
one who passed, “What is the crowd for? What do
they want?”
“Tt looks like revolution, madam,” the man in the
fur coat answered tearfully as he passed.
Walking along the pavement with the skirt of his
short coat flapping smartly was a workman with an un-
wholesome lynx-like face which twitched. “Comrades,”
he whined, turning suddenly, “how much longer will
they drink our blood?”
A fat-cheeked boy officer stopped an izvozchik and,
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clutching his girdle, stared at the crowd as at an eclipse
of the sun.
“Look! look!’ sobbed a passing workman.
The crowd had grown denser and now filled the whole
street; it hummed excitedly and moved in the direction
of the bridge. In three places white flags had been put
out. Like shavings passers-by were gathered up and q
taken along with the stream. Ivan Ilyitch followed the
crowd across the bridge. Several horsemen were com-
ing across the misty, snow-covered Marsov Square, but
on seeing the crowd, they pulled up their horses and drew
near slowly. One of them, a ruddy-complexioned colonel
with a divided beard, saluted with a smile. Some people
in the crowd began to sing mournfully. From the mist
of the Summer Garden, from the dark bare branches
of the trees, like pieces of stuff there rose up the crows
that had at one time frightened the murderer of the
Emperor Paul.
Ivan Ilyitch was walking in front. He felt a spasm
in his throat. He coughed, but his agitation merely in-
creased and the tears were ready to come to his eyes.
When he reached the Engineers’ castle, he turned down
the left to the Liteini Prospect.
\
On the Petersburg side of the Liteini Prospect there
was another crowd which stretched far across the bridge.
All along its way at the gates stood curious onlookers
and at every window excited faces were seen.
Ivan Ilyitch stopped at the gate beside an old civil-
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servant, whose hanging cheeks shook. Further on to the
right, a chain of soldiers stood motionless across the
street, leaning on their rifles.
The crowd drew near and slackened speed. From the
midst of it, frightened voices cried, “Stop! stop!’ Im-
mediately thousands of women’s shrill voices yelled,
“Bread! bread! bread!”
“This can’t be allowed!” said the civil-servant with
a severe look at Ivan Ilyitch over the tops of his spec-
tacles. Just then two yard-porters issued from the gate
and began to push the onlookers away with their shoul-
ders. The civil-servant’s cheeks trembled, some girl in
pince-nez exclaimed, “How dare you, you fool!’ The
gate was nevertheless closed. All the way down the street
gates and doors were being shut and frightened voices
cried, “Don’t! don’t!”
The screaming crowd moved onwards. A youth with
a womanish, pimply face in a broad-brimmed hat, sprang
out in front.
“The banners in front! The banners in front!”
voices shouted.
At this moment, in front of the chain of soldiers,
there appeared a tall, small-waisted officer in a fur cap.
He held his hand on his hip by his pistol-case and
cried aloud: “There is an order to fire. . . . I don't
Want. ploodshed. ."". \; Dispersemass 0
“Bread! bread! bread!” voices cried. And the crowd
moved on the soldiers. People with maddened eyes
squeezed past Ivan Ilyitch.
“Bread! Down with the dogs!” One man fell and
caught Ivan Ilyitch by the leg. His wrinkled face con-
torted pitifully and he cried senselessly, “I hate! I hate!’
Slowly, throughout the street came a sound like the
tearing of calico. The crowd was stilled. Some school-
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boy seized his cap and dived into the crowd. . . . The
civil-servant raised his sinewy hand to make the sign
of the cross.
The volley had been fired in the air and it was not
followed by a second. The crowd, however, retreated.
A part of it dispersed and the remainder moved with
the flag to the Znamensky Square. Some caps and 3
galoshes were left in the yellowish snow in, the street.
When he came out on the Nevsky Ivan Ilyitch again
heard the roar of numerous voices. It came from
a second crowd which was crossing the Neva from
the Vasilov Island. The pavements were packed with
well-dressed women, officers, students and foreigners.
An English officer, with a ruddy childlike face, stood
like a post with the usual stony expression on his
face. Shopgirls with powdered faces and black rib-
bons in their hair were glued to the shop-windows.
A tattered, dirty and angry crowd of working men
and women walked in the middle of the broad, misty
street, yelling, “Bread! bread! bread!”
By the pavement, an izvozchik, leaning over the front
of his sleigh, was saying amiably to a scared, red-faced
woman, “You can see for yourself that I can’t goon. A
fly couldn’t get by.”
“Go on, you fool, and don’t dare talk to me!”
“T’m not to be called a fool now. . . . Get out of
the ‘sleigh. .02.””
On the pavement, passers-by poked their heads into
the groups standing about and listened and talked ex-
citedly.
“A hundred people have been killed on the Liteini. .. .”
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“It’s not true. They’ve only killed a pregnant woman
and an old man.”
“Why did they kill an old man?”
“It’s Protopopov who does everything. He’s mad.”
“You're right. . . . Progressive paralysis.”
“I’ve heard some impossible news. . . .”
“What is it? What is it?”
“There’s a general strike.”
“What? Water and electric light?”
“I wish to God it were true. . .
“They’re splendid fellows, the workers! Ie
“Don’t rejoice too soon. It may be crushed... .
“Mind you are not crushed with that expression on
easace fo?
Ivan Ilyitch, Banbyed at the loss of time, pushed his
way through the crowds, called at three addresses on
business without finding one of the people he wanted
at home, and in an angry state of mind, walked back
along the Nevsky.
The street had assumed its former aspect. Sleighs
flew past, yard-porters came out to clear away the
snow and at the crossing, a tall man appeared in a
‘long, black coat. Above the heads of the excited crowd
and the muddled thoughts of the inhabitants, he raised
his white club aloft, that magic sceptre of order. As
they crossed the street, the passers-by thought, “All
right, my dear fellow, you wait till the time comes!”
But no one dreamed that the time had already come,
and the pillar of a man with the big moustache and
the club was no more than a shadow which would dis-
appear tomorrow from the street-crossing, disappear from
life, from the minds of men... .
“Teliegin, Teliegin! Stop, you deaf grouse!”
Ivan Ilyitch turned round. Strukov, the engineer, with
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ane
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his cap at the back of his head and eyes sparkling, was —
running towards him,
“Where are you off to? Angry? Let us go to a café.” ~
He took Ivan Ilyitch by the arm and dragged him up ©
the first floor of a café. The room was filled with cigar ©
smoke, which made the eyes smart. Men in top hats, in ©
fur caps, in hastily thrown on coats were arguing, shout- —
ing and jumping up from their chairs. Strukov pushed —
his way to the window and sat down opposite Ivan Ilyitch,
laughing.
“The ruble is falling!” he exclaimed, clutching the
table with both hands. “Paper money is going to the
devil! Now we know where the power lies! Tell
me what you’ve seen!”
“T was on the Liteini; they fired there, but I think
39
PT eGA IE. ss
“What do you think of it all?”
“T think today’s events will make the government tackle
the transport of provisions seriously.” .
“It’s too late now!” Strukov bawled, banging the
palm of his hand on the glass table-top. “Too late!
: . We've eaten our own bowels! There’s an end
to the war; it’s finished! There’s an end to everything!
Everything will go to the devil. . . . Do you know
what they are demanding in the factories? ‘They in-
sist on the formation of soviets of workers’ deputies.
They’ve no faith in anything but soviets! And they de-
mand immediate demobilization. . . .”
“You must be drunk,” Ivan Ilyitch said. “When I
was at the works at night, I heard nothing at all... . If
any demands are made, it must be you alone who are
makine thems)...
Strukov threw back his head and laughed. He kept
his eyes fixed on Teliegin,
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“It would be well to smash the machine. The very
time, eh?”
“I don’t think so. . . . I don’t see anything good in
i ety Ses
“No government, no troops, no policemen, none of
these swine in top hats. . . . To reduce to primeval
chaos.” Strukov suddenly clenched his tobacco-stained
teeth and the pupils of his eyes became like points.
“To let loose horror, more horrible than the war... .
Everything is damned and defiled and hideous. What if
we destroy it all, like Sodom and Gomorrah . . . and
leave a clean place?’ Beneath the sweat on his forehead
a vein stood out. “That is what everybody wants and
you want it too. Only I say it and you dare not.”
“You've been in the rear throughout the war,” Telie-
gin said angrily, looking at Strukov with disgust, “but
I was at the front and know that in 1914 we also wanted
to fight and to destroy. Now we don’t want it. We de-
stroyed, but we fought. Whereas you who have stayed
behind in the rear are only now getting a taste for war.
You've got the souls of marauders and hooligans; your
idea is to plunder, burn! I’ve studied you for some
time. You want to destroy, but when you yourself have
‘to touch blood, you find it horrible... .”
“Vou’re a small man, Teliegin; you’ve got a lower
middle-class mind.”
“Perhaps, perhaps. . . .«
99
Ivan Ilyitch returned home early and immediately
went to bed. He went to sleep for a moment only,
however, then he sighed, turned over on his back and
opened his eyes, wide awake. On the ceiling of his
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bedroom the light of a street-lamp was reflected. There
was a smell of leather; an open trunk stood on the
table. In the trunk, which he had bought in Stockholm,
was a beautiful leather and silver dressing-case, a present
for Dasha. Ivan Ilyitch experienced a tender feeling for
it and every day he took it out of its silky paper wrap-
pings and looked at it. He could see a picture of
Dasha in a railway carriage with long windows, as in
all Russian trains, sitting on the seat in a travelling
dress and on her lap, this thing, smelling of leather and
perfumes, this token of carefree happiness, of wonder-
ful journeys with unfamiliar landscapes without and
Dasha’s pensive face within. If he could but lift the
end of her veil, tied in a knot at the nape of her neck,
and press it to his lips... .
“Oh, dear! Something irreparable has happened to-
day!” Ivan Ilyitch thought, and his memory, recalling
everything he had seen, replied confidently: “In the town
there is a sinister non-resistance to anything that may
happen.
men were digging a long black bed in the soft green
grass. One of them was an old man in a neat white
apron. He placed his foot on the spade leisurely and
giving it a push with bent knee, he threw up the
purple earth. The other was a man in an army shirt,
gathered at the back. He wore a broad-brimmed cap
with the peak pulled over his eyes. He was working
hurriedly, evidently not used to it. He bent down and
took out a handkerchief from the pocket of his
breeches tucked into his boots and drove away the
flies that were sticking to his face.
“Look now, he doesn’t mind it!” a sneering voice
said. Teliegin turned and saw standing beside him a
blinking old man in a new cap and warm waistcoat
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over an embroidered shirt. The man gave a nod in
the direction of the two men digging. “Transplant-
ing cabbages from a loam bed. There’s work for you,
now! ... Funny!” ... The man laughed merrily.
Dasha turned to him in astonishment. She took Ivan
Ilyitch’s arm and they walked away from the railings.
At this moment, the man in the army shirt turned on —
hearing the laughter, with his foot resting on the
spade. His cheeks were sunken and dark with bags
under the eyes. With a gesture familiar to the whole ©
of Russia, he passed the hollow of his left hand over
his big red moustache.
The man outside the railings took off his cap and
bowed to the former Emperor with a crooked smile.
He shook his long hair and pulling his cap low over
his eyes, went on his way, his beard in the air, treading
noisily with his new boots.
[ 430 ]
XLII
Ekaterina Dmitrievna settled near Dasha in a little
wooden house with a small garden belonging to two
old ladies. One of them, Klavdia Ivanovna, had, at
one time, been a singer, the other, Sophia Ivanovna,
was a kind of attendant and friend. In the morning
Klavdia Ivanovna would paint her eyebrows, put on
a raven-black wig and sit down to patience. Sophia
Ivanovna looked after the house and when angry
would speak in a masculine voice. The house was
clean and overcrowded in the old-fashioned way with
numerous table-cloths and screens and faded _ por-
traits of by-gone days. In the morning the rooms
smelt of good coffee, but when dinner was being
cooked, Klavdia Ivanovna complained of the smell of
the food and sniffed her smelling salts, while Sophia
Ivanovna would call in a deep voice from the kitchen:
_ “What can Ido with the smell? You can’t fry potatoes
with patchouli scent!” In the evening the paraffin-oil
lamps with full globes would be lighted. The old women
were solicitous in their care of Katia, notwithstanding
that Klavdia Ivanovna held there was something
demoniacal in every young woman. Katia lived
quietly in that old-world retreat untouched by time.
She got up early in the morning, swept and dusted her
own room and seated herself at the window to mend
underclothes or darn stockings, or to alter one of her
old smart dresses into one of a simpler style. (She
had not bought or made anything since the Paris days
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and money was very scarce now.) After breakfast
Katia would go for a walk on the island, taking a book
with her or some embroidery. She would go to a
favourite spot and sit down on a seat near a pond and
watch the children playing on a sand heap, or the car-
riages, sparkling in the sun, rolling by through the
tree trunks. She would read and embroider and
think. At six o’clock she would go to Dasha’s for
dinner. At eleven Dasha and Teliegin would see her
home, when the sisters walked arm and arm in front,
while Teliegin walked behind, whistling, “covering the
rear,’ for it was now not altogether safe to walk at
night in the street.
Every day Katia wrote to Vadim Petrovitch Rosh-
chin, who was away at the front. With great care she
honestly set down everything that had happened dur-
ing the day and all that she had been thinking about.
Roshchin had requested her to do this and in his
replies expressed his gratitude. “When you write me,
Ekaterina Dmitrievna, that you are miserable because
a dress you had counted on altering was coming to
pieces, or that when you crossed the Elagin Bridge it
commenced to rain and you took shelter under the trees
because you had no umbrella, and that while you were
waiting you decided to give Daria Dmitrievna a white
sunshade with cherries on it for a birthday present,
it gives me great pleasure. . . . All these trifles are
dear to me; I feel that I could not live without these
trifles in your life.” ...
A remote corner of Katia’s brain was conscious that
Roshchin exaggerated; he could very well have lived
without her trifles, but the idea of being alone by her-
self for a single day, was so alarming that Katia tried
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not to question, but to believe that everything in her
life was necessary and dear to Vadim Petrovitch. In
consequence whatever she did assumed a special sig-
nificance. “I lost my thimble and looked for it for a
whole hour and then found it on my finger.” Vadim
Petrovitch, no doubt, would laugh at her having be-
come so stupid.
Katia’s attitude to herself was as to something that
did not wholly belong to her. One day as she sat
working and thinking at the window, she noticed that
her fingers trembled. She raised her head and stuck
her needle into her skirt on the knee and sat looking
before her for a long time. Her gaze fell on a cup-
board mirror and she caught sight of a frail face with
large, sad eyes and hair dressed simply in a knot at
the back; it was a sweet, gentle face.... “Is that really
my face?” Katia thought. She went on with her sew-
ing, but her heart beat fast. She pricked her finger
and put it in her mouth and once again looked at the
glass, but this time she could see herself and she was
not so nice as the other person... . That evening she
wrote to Vadim Petrovitch: “I was thinking of you
the whole day. I miss you very much, my friend.
I sit at the window and wait. Something is tak-
ing place within me, some long-forgotten girlish
moods.” ...
Even Dasha, who was absent and absorbed in her
complex (according to her view) and unique relation
to Ivan Ilyitch, could not help noticing a change in
Katia and one evening, at tea, when she had been argu-
ing the question for a long time said, “Katia must
always wear plain, black dresses with deep collars.
You can’t see yourself,” she said, striking her chest
with the tips of three fingers, “but I assure you that you
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look about nineteen. . . . She looks younger than I,
Ivan, doesn’t she?”
“Ves... thatiis, not quite, butiiuy ys
“Oh, you don’t understand anything!” Dasha said.
“Now look here, please, you are a man. There is no
virtue in being young when a woman is really nine-
teen....A woman’s youthfulness does not depend on
her age, it depends on quite other things; age has
nothing to do with it.” ...
The small amount of money left to Katia on Nikolai
Ivanovitch’s death had come to an end. Teliegin ad-
vised her to sell up her old flat on the Znamenskaya,
which had been standing empty since March. Any-
how, it was a sensible thing to do. Katia agreed and
she and Dasha went to the flat to collect a few things
she valued for old association’s sake.
When she got up to the second floor and saw the
familiar oak door with the brass plate bearing “N. I.
Smokovnikov,” she felt as if a cycle of life had been
completed. The old porter, who, muffled and grum-
bling at being disturbed in his sleep, would come to .
open the door for her at midnight and turn out the
light before she had time to get upstairs, unlocked
the door and took off his cap. He allowed Katia and
Dasha to walk in first and said to comfort them:
“You may be sure, Ekaterina Dmitrievna, that a
crumb has not been lost. I kept an eye on the tenants
day and night. They lost a son in France or they
would have been here now. They liked the flat very
Much wil
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The hall was damp and smelt as if it had not been
lived in for some time; the blinds in all the rooms
were drawn. Katia went into the dining-room and
turned on the switch. The crystal chandelier blazed
out brightly above the table covered with grey cloth,
in the middle of which, just as of old, there stood a
porcelain flower-basket; but the sprig of mimosa in
it had long been withered. The high-backed, leather-
seated chairs—indifferent spectators of by-gone
gaiety—were ranged along the walls. One panel of
the carved side-board as big as an organ stood open,
exposing the up-turned champagne glasses. On the
Venetian oval mirror, covered with dust, the, golden
boy slept on top, just as before, his hand stretched
out to the scroll of the frame.
Katia was standing motionless by the door. “My
God!” she said softly. “Do you remember, Dasha?
No one here now!”
She went into the drawing-room and turned on the
big chandelier. She looked around and shrugged her
shoulders. The cubist and futurist pictures, which at
one time had seemed so brazen and difficult to under-
_ stand, now looked pitiful and faded and seemed like
so much discarded clothing after a carnival.
“Do you remember, Katia?” asked Dasha, indicat-
ing the bow-legged Venus holding a flower in her yel-
‘low corner; “I used to imagine she was the cause of
all our misfortunes; I had a superstitious horror of her.”
_ Dasha laughed and began to sort out the music.
Katia went into her old bedroom. It was just as it
had been left three years ago, when, in her travelling
dress and veil, she had run in to take her forgotten
gloves from her dressing-table and had turned to look
back when going out.
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Now everything seemed dull and of smaller propor-
tions than formerly. Katia opened a cupboard full of
ee
little bits of lace and silk and stuff and shoes and
stockings. They had all seemed so essential at the
time; a faint odour of perfume still clung about them.
Aimlessly Katia began to sort them out. Some mem-
ory of the life gone by forever clung to every little
thing.
The stillness of the house was suddenly broken and
filled with clear, majestic sounds of music. It was.
Dasha playing the sonata she used to practise three
years ago when preparing for her examination. Katia
shut the cupboard door and went back to the drawing-
room, where she sat down near her sister.
“Isn’t it splendid, Katia?’ Dasha said, half turning
round. “Just listen to this passage. It is like a voice
thundering throughout the universe: Live all of you for
Miysake.?) yc:
Dasha played a few more bars, then took up an-
other book.
“Come, Dasha,” Katia said, “my head aches.”
“But how about the things?”
-“T don’t want anything from here; Ill only have the
piano moved to my place; as for the rest, they can
Soh
Katia had come to dinner, excited by her quick
walk, happy and in a new black straw hat and blue
veil. “Just in time,” she said, touching Dasha’s cheek
with her warm lips. “I’ve got my feet wet though.
Let me change.” She took off her gloves and went
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over to the window. The rain, which had been trying
to come down several times that day, now poured
down, whirled about by the wind and streaming down
the gutters. Far down below umbrellas hurried past.
The dark air outside the window flashed with a white
light and immediately there was a thunder-clap that
made Dasha cross herself.
“Do you know who is coming to see us this eve-
ning?’ Katia asked, her lips puckering into a smile.
“Who ?” said Dasha, but that moment there was a ring
in the hall and Dasha rushed out to open the door.
Ivan Ilyitch’s jolly laugh was heard in the hall and his
feet scraping on the mat, then he and Dasha went
into the bedroom, talking and laughing the while.
Katia took off her gloves and hat; she took a comb
from the back of her head and tidied her hair, while a
gentle, enigmatical smile played about her lips.
At dinner, Ivan [Ilyitch, rosy-cheeked and happy,
changed into dry clothes, related the happenings of
the day. At the Obukhovsky works, as in all other
works and factories, the workers had gone mad. They
first declared that they would work eight hours, then
seven, then six. The soviets invariably supported these
demands. Private enterprises were beginning to close
down and the government factories were working at
a loss. Profits, however, were not to be thought of now
with the war and revolution. There had been another
meeting at the works that day at which the Bolshe-
vists had spoken and one and all had echoed in chorus,
no compromise with the bourgeois government, no
agreement with the employers; all power to the
soviets who will introduce order... .
“T got up to speak, but it was no use; they pulled
me off the platform.” Ivan Ilyitch snapped off the
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stalk of a radish, dipped it in salt and crunched it be-
tween his teeth. “It’s a problem, I can tell you.
‘Comrades,’ I said to them, ‘if you turn everything
upside down, the factories will close down because
they can’t work at a loss whether they belong to you
or to the employers. The government in that case
will have to feed the unemployed. As you want to
be in the government—in the soviets—you will have
to feed yourselves, and if you do not produce any-
thing, you will have to obtain money and bread from
outside, that is, from the peasants. As you cannot
give the peasants anything for their money or their
‘bread, you will have to take it from them by force,
‘which means war. But there are fifteen times the
number of peasants that there are of you and they
will have bread and you none. ... It will end by the
peasants conquering you and they will take the ma-
chinery from thé factories and sell it and you will
have to go begging for a bit of work in Christ’s name,
but there won’t be any one to give it to you.’ ... I
painted them such a picture, Dasha, that I was amused
at it myself. You should have heard the row they
kicked up! ‘Hireling!’ shouted the Bolshevists. ‘“Com-
rades, don’t be influenced by his provocation. Millions of
workers the world over are anxiously waiting your
triumph over the hateful system. .. . Capitalism must
be wiped off the face of the earth.” . . . I can’t blame
our workers, Dasha, when men are shouting at them,
‘Down with individual interest! down with reason!
down with slave work! your country is the universe,
your aim, the conquest of happiness for all workers;
you are not men of the Obukhovsky works, you are
the vanguard of the world revolution.” . . . Vaska
Rublev’s eyes were glinting like a beast’s.... They
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wouldn’t let me finish; Vaska pulled me off the plat-
form. ... ‘I know you are not an enemy,’ he said to
me, ‘then why do you talk like that? You had bet-
ter hold your peace; we can manage without you.’...
When we were all going out afterwards, I said to
him: ‘You are a clever fellow, Vaska. How is it you
don’t see that the Bolshevists don’t care a hang for
your All they want is to climb to power on your neck!’
‘And I can see, Comrade Teliegin,’ he replied, ‘the whole
of the land and the factories belonging to the workers by
the New Year. There won’t be a single bourgeois left in
our republic; we won’t let them breed. . . . And there
won't be any money. . . . People will work and live,
everything will be theirs. . . . I was promised that that
is what will happen by the New Year!’” ...
Ivan Ilyitch would have laughed, but he shook his
head and began to scrape together the crumbs on the
table-cloth with his fingers. Dasha smothered a sigh.
Katia said after a pause:
“T am certain we have great trials in front of us.”
“Yes,” Ivan Ilyitch said, “and the war is not over,
that is the worst of it. Everything is going to pieces.
| There is no backbone. The workers think that the
soviets are the backbone.”. . .
Dasha brought the coffee in a china coffee-pot and
poured a cup out for her husband first. She then took
a brush and scoop and went round the table to sweep
off the crumbs. When she got to Ivan Ilyitch she put
down the brush and scoop quickly and pressed close to
her husband with her face on his breast.
“There, there, Dasha, don’t be alarmed,” Ivan II-
yitch said, patting her hair. “Nothing terrible has hap-
pened yet; we have been in tighter corners. . . . Now
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listen to this: I remember when we came to Rotten
LAM eu Ve wins
He began to relate some of his army hardships.
Katia looked at the clock on the wall and went out of
the dining-room. Dasha looked at her husband’s
strong face with the gleaming teeth and laughing eyes
and felt reassured somewhat; she had nothing to fear
with a man like him. When she had heard the story
of Rotten Lime, she wiped her eyes with her table-
napkin and went into her bedroom to powder her face.
She found Katia sitting by the dressing-table mirror
doing something to her face.
“Dasha,” she said in a thin voice, “you haven’t any
more of that scent left; you know, the warm kind.”
Dasha sat down opposite her sister and stared at
her in the greatest astonishment.
“Katia, are you “cleaning your wings’ ?”
Katia blushed and threw back her head with a
smile.
“What is the matter with you today, Katia?”
“IT have been trying to tell you, but you wouldn’t
listen to me,” she said. “Vadim Petrovitch is arriving
this eyenile by an army train and he is coming to
us straight from the station. . . . I couldn’t ask him
to my place, it’s too late.”
At half past nine there was a ring and Katia, Dasha
and Teliegin rushed out into the hall. Teliegin opened
the door and Roshchin came in. He was in a crumpled
coat thrown over his shoulders and a cap drawn low
over his face. His haggard, solemn, sun-burnt face
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‘softened into a smile when he saw Katia. She was
looking at him, confused and happy. When he had
thrown his coat and cap on a chair and greeted them,
saying, “I am sorry to have dropped on you so late,
but I wanted to see you tonight, Ekaterina Dmitrievna,
and you, Daria Dmitrievna,” Katia’s eyes lighted up.
“T am glad you have come, Vadim Petrovitch,” she
said, and when he bent over her hand, she kissed him
on the temple, her lips quivering with a smile. ;
“It’s a pity you didn’t bring your things,” said Ivan
Ilyitch, “because we’ll make you stay the night just
the same.” . .
“We can put him in the drawing-room on the Turk-
ish divan and if it’s too short, he can put a chair against
it,’ Dasha said. “Of course, he must stay with us,
mustn’t he, Ivan?”
As in a dream Roshchin listened to what these kind,
elegant people were saying to him. He was all on
edge after the sleepless night of his journey, hanging
‘out of carriage windows for food, struggling perpetu-
ally for the few inches of space in the carriage, with
coarse oaths ringing in his ears. It was still strange
to him to see the three of them, incredibly beautiful
and clean and perfumed, standing on the sparkling
parquet floor in the brilliantly lighted hall, pleased that
he, Roshchin, had come. As in a dream he could see
Katia’s beautiful grey eyes saying, I am glad, glad,
glad. . . . He pulled his belt straight, stood erect and
gave a deep sigh.
“Thank you,” he said. “Where am I to go?”
They led him into the dining-room and gave him
some food. Without noticing what it was, he ate
everything that was put before him; he was soon satis-
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fied and pushed away his plate. He lighted a cigarette. |
His thin, grave, clean-shaven face, which had alarmed
Katia when she had first seen it in the hall, was now
softened and looked more tired. His big hands, with
the light of the orange shade falling on them, trembled —
as he lighteda match. Katia was sitting in the shadow
of the lamp-shade, watching Vadim Petrovitch eager-
ly. She felt that she loved every little hair on his
hands, every button on his dark brown leather tunic,
crumpled from lying in his suit-case. She noticed,
too, that he clenched his jaws as he talked and spoke
through his teeth. His sentences were short and
muddled. He evidently felt this himself and tried —
to control some anger that had been raging in him
for a long time. . . . Dasha exchanged glances with
her sister and her husband and suggested to Roshchin
that if he were tired, he might perhaps like to go to
bed.
He sat straight up in his chair and burst out unex-
pectedly: “Really, I did not come back for the purpose |
QOL.ecoime to sleep. 474. Oh mor ius
He went out on the balcony and stood under the
fine rain. Dasha gave a motion of the eyes towards
the balcony and shook her head. Roshchin said from
the balcony: 7
“Iam sorry, Daria Dmitrievna. . . . This is the re-
sult of four nights of lost sleep.” . . .
He came back, smoothing his hair on the top of his
head and sat down in his place.
“T have come straight from the staff,” he said, “and
am bringing very uncomfortable news to the War
Minister. . . . When I first saw you all a mortal pain
came over me... . . I must tell you everything. There
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is no one dearer to me in the world than you are, Eka-
terina Dmitrievna.” Katia turned pale. Ivan Ilyitch
put his hands behind his back and Dasha, from her
place by the wall, looked at Roshchin with eyes full of
horror. “If a miracle does not happen,” he said with
a cough, “we are lost. The army does not exist any
more. . . . The front is in flight. . . . The soldiers
are fleeing on the roofs of the trains. It is beyond
human power to stay the disintegration on the front.
. . It is like trying to stay the ebb of the ocean.
You can control the fear of death in a soldier—I have
myself turned back half a company to the attack with
nothing more than a stick, but now the Russian sol-
dier has lost the sense of what he is fighting for. He
has lost respect for the war, respect for everything
connected wtih the war, the government, the country,
Russia. . . . The soldier is convinced that we have
only to cry ‘Peace’ and the war will stop the same day.
-, . . And it is only we who won’t make peace. You
see, the soldier despises the place where he has been de-
ceived for three years. He has thrown down his rifle and
you can’t make him fight any more. . . . When the
whole ten millions of them rush away in the au-
oh hed
“But we can’t stop the war! We can’t open the
front with a hundred and seventy-five German divisions
there!” said Ivan Ilyitch, restraining a tremor in his
voice. A cold obstinacy appeared in his bright eyes,
an expression Dasha knew so well and which always
alarmed her so. “I can’t understand the way you
talk, Vadim Petrovitch.” ...
“I am bringing a plan to the War Minister, but I
have no hope that it will be approved,’ Roshchin
said. “This is the plan: we must declare a complete
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is, we must organize the flight. By that means we
|
A
can save the railways, the artillery and stores of
shells and provisions. We must tell the allies definitely
that we are not going out of the war. At the same
time, in the Volga basin, we must put a defence force
‘l
demobilization at the earliest possible moment; that
of trusted units which can still be found. Along the
Volga we must commence the formation of a new
army, the mainstay of which must be voluntary units.
We must support and form partisan detachments. ...
Depending on the factories in the Urals and coal and
corn from Siberia, we must begin the war afresh... .
There is no other issue. We must understand the
nature of the times. The Russian people have no
more reason or will; they are acting from the darkest
recesses of their aroused instinct of a man of the soil.
That instinct is to plough and to sow. Russia will be
a state of ploughmen. . . . The land will be ploughed
beautifully. . . . Let them begin it as soon as may
be 399?
“Open the front to the enemy? Give up our country
to the savage hordes? No, Vadim Petrovitch; a good
{9
many people will not agree to that
“We have no country now,” said Roshchin. “There
was a place which used to be our .country’”—he
clenched his fists on the table so violently that the
fingers turned blue—“but Great Russia ceased to exist
the moment the people laid down their arms. You
may not want to realize it but there it is... .Can St.
Nicholas help you? People have forgotten to pray to
him. Great Russia is now manure beneath the plough.
. . . We must begin everything afresh, the formation
of troops, the state; we must squeeze a different soul
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into ourselves. The Russian people are no more; there
are inhabitants, folks like me.” .
He struck his breast, dropped his head into his
hands on the table and burst into smothered sobs.
Katia did not go home that night. She and Dasha
slept in the same bed, while Ivan Ilyitch had a bed
hastily improvised in the study. After the painful
scene Roshchin had gone out on the balcony, where he
got soaked, and coming back into the dining-room,
asked to be excused. The most sensible thing to do
was to go to bed. He had barely time to undress
when he fell asleep. When Ivan Ilyitch went in on
tiptoe to turn out his light, Roshchin was sleeping on
his back, this big hands clasped on his chest. His thin
face with the eyes tightly shut and the wrinkles, which
showed sharply in the morning light, were like those
of a man who was controlling pain. Ivan I[lyitch bent
over him and made the isgn of the cross. Roshchin
‘did not wake; he sighed and turned over on his right
side.
Katia and Dasha, lying under one blanket, talked for
a long time in whispers. Dasha listened from time
to time; Ivan Ilyitch was not able to settle down in
the study. “He is still up,” Dasha said, “and he must
go to the works at seven.” She put her feet out of
bed and felt about for her slippers. She did not find
them, however, and went in barefoot to her husband.
Ivan Ilyitch, in his trousers and braces, was sitting
on the bed made for him on the couch, reading a big
book, which he held in both hands on his knees.
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“Aren’t you asleep?” he asked Dasha, looking up
with shining eyes that saw nothing. “Sit down. I
have made a discovery. Listen...” He turned back a
page and began to read softly:
“*Three hundred years ago the wind marched un-
hindered through the woods and the plains of the
steppes, cross the big graveyard known as the Rus-
sian land. There were burnt walls of towns, ashes in
place of population, crosses and bones on the grass-
grown roads, flocks of crows and the howl of the wolf
at night. Here and there, along the forest tracks,
robber bands wandered. They had long squandered
on drink the boyar coats, stolen ten years back, and
the costly vessels and pearl ornaments of the ikons.
Everything in Russia had been pillaged and cleared.
Robbers and Cossacks in tattered garments, were hunt-
ing for their last prey... .
“Russia was ravaged and depeopled. Even the
Crimean Tartars no longer descended to the wild
steppes, for there was nothing more to plunder. For
the ten years of the Great Insurrection, imposters,
thieves, Cossacks and Polish raiders went with sword
and fire from end to end of the Russian land. There
was a terrible famine. People ate horse manure and
pickled human flesh. Black plague was rampant. The
remnants of the population wandered along the Lithu-
anian borders to the White Sea, along the Urals to
Stroganov, to Siberia.
“In those bad times, to the walls of Moscow, laid
waste and desolate, cleared with difficulty of thieves
—to that big ash-heap, a sledge was brought along the
dirty March road, containing the frightened boy
Michael Romanov. On the advice of the Patriarch,
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he had been elected Tsar of Muscovy by the impover-
ished boyars, tradeless merchant guests and grave
peasants from the north and the Volga. The new
Tsar could only weep and pray. And he wept and
prayed, in terror and misery looking out of the carriage
window at the tattered, wild crowds of Russians, who
had come out of the Moscow gates to meet him. The
Russian people had no great faith in the new Tsar,
but they had to live. And somehow or other, they be-
gan to live. They borrowed money from Stroganov
merchants. The townspeople began to build and the
peasants to till the waste land. They sent out trusted
people, mounted and on foot, to attack the robbers
on the highways. They lived poorly and strictly.
They bowed low to the Crimea, Lithuania and Sweden.
They defended the faith. They knew it was their one
power; though thievish at times, they were a strong,
alert, easy-going people. They hoped to live through
it and they lived through it. Once more the waste
places, overgrown with tall grass, became peopled.’” ...
Ivan Ilyitch closed the book with a bang.
“You see what it was like. ... We won’t perish
/ now... . Great Russia lost! The grandchildren of
those ragged peasants, who with their staffs set out to
rescue Moscow, defeated Karl XII., drove the Tartars
beyond Perekop, captured Lithuania and on their rafts
began to haunt the shores of the Pacific Ocean... .
And the grandchild of the boy who was brought to
Moscow in a sleigh, built Petersburg... . Great Russia
lost! If only a district is left after us, Russia will
grow from that.” ...
He gave a snort and looked out of the window at
the grey, morning light. Dasha hid her head on his
shoulder; he stroked it and kissed her hair.
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“Go to bed, you little coward.”
Dasha laughed, bid him good sak and went away,
but turned in the doorway.
“Ivan, isn’t Katia fond of him!”
“He’s a splendid fellow.”
Dasha went out. Ivan Ilyitch turned over the pages
of the book, put it down and lighted a cigarette. He
leaned against the leather back of the sofa, thinking.
The whole of that evening he had been worried by a
feeling of his own blameworthiness. Now that every
one in the house was asleep, he saw pitilessly what had
been tormenting him. “I am happy and in order to
go on living in this happiness, I shut my eyes and
ears to what is going on around me. I deceive myself
and deceive Dasha. I am angry when I am told that
Russia is perishing and I do nothing to prevent her
perishing. I must either live dishonestly, or .. .”
The issue of the “or” was so unexpected and Ivan
Ilyitch was so little prepared for it that after a time
he thought it better to postpone issues and resolu-
tions to the morrow. He pulled down the window-
blind and went to bed.
The evening was still and hot. The air smelt of
petrol fumes and tar from the wooden paving blocks.
Windows were brilliantly lighted. Along the Nevsky,
amid the petrol fumes and tobacco smoke and the dust
raised by people’s feet, a disorderly, motley crowd
moved. Puffing and groaning, government cars
went by waving flags. Shrill voices of newspaper
boys were calling out the startling news, which no
one believed. Hawkers of cigarettes and matches and
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stolen goods pushed among the crowd. In the squares
of Katerine and Nicholas, on the grass plots, by the
bushes, soldiers loafed around, nibbling seeds and ex-
changing jokes with well-fed street girls.
Katia was coming from the Nevsky. Vadim Petro-
vitch had arranged'to meet her at seven o’clock on the
quay. Katia turned down the Palace Square. The
big windows on the second floor of the blood-red,
sombre palace were lighted up. Motor-cars stood at
the main entrance and soldiers and chauffeurs strolled
about, exchanging jokes. Puffing, a motor-bicycle
dashed up, bringing a courier, a pale, angry boy in
a motor cap, a shirt blown out by the wind and in
puttees. On a corner balcony of the palace, some
grey-haired man in a jacket was leaning on his elbows,
sad and motionless. Skirting the palace, Katia turned.
Above the arch of the General Staff, just as of old, the
four bronze horses of a chariot were flying to meet
the sunset. Katia crossed the embankment and sat
down near the water on a stone, semi-circular seat.
The transparent blue outlines of bridges were sus-
pended above the gently flowing river. In the golden
dust there shone the outstretched sword of the Peter
Paul Cathedral. A wretched little boat moved over
the reflections on the water. To the left, beyond the
roofs and the smoke, the huge disc of the dying sun
sank in the orange glow.
Folding her hands on her knees, Katia gazed at the
dying sun, patiently waiting for Vadim Petrovitch. He
came up unobserved and leaning on the stone, he
looked down at Katia from above. She could feel his
presence and turned with a smile. She stood up. He
was gazing at her with a strange, astonished look.
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She went up the stairs to the embankment and took
his arm. They walked on.
“Well?” Katia asked softly.
“Well? ...I was coming along and saw an angel |
from heaven sitting on a seat.”
Katia. gently squeezed his arm. She asked him how
he had got on with his affairs that day. He told her,
but there was little comfort in what he said. They
crossed Trinity Bridge and at the top of Kamennoos-
trovsky Roshchin stopped and gave a nod in the direc-
tion of a private house, decorated with Dutch tiles,
which stood at the bottom of a garden enclosed by
railings. The broad windows and the glass walls of
the conservatory were brilliantly illuminated. A few
motor-bicycles stood at the entrance.
‘There’ s that rece nest,” Roshchin said. “All
right .
It was ihe peivate residence of a famous dancer,
where, having evicted the owner, the central commit-
tee of one of the parties fighting for power, popularly
called the Bolsheviks, had quartered themselves. Type-
writers clicked throughout the night and in the morn-
ing, when some rough, ragged individuals gathered
before the house and some gaping passers-by, the head
of the party came out on the balcony and began to
speak to the crowd. He told them it was essential to
overthrow the Provisional Government immediately,
to give all power to the soviets, to make peace with
the Germans, to abolish capital punishment, private
property, money and enforced labour. All this he
promised to accomplish through the medium of his
party.
“Next week we are going to liquidate this nest,”
Roshchin said. They walked on leisurely down the
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Kamennoostrovsky. A stooping man passed them.
He was in a ragged coat, an old hat with low-hang-
ing brim; he carried a pail in one hand and a bundle
of papers in the other.
“T don’t know if I have a right to... . But it doesn’t
matter, however,” said Roshchin, “the main thing is
. you.”. Katia looked up at him with raised eye-
brows. “I can’t leave you, Ekaterina Dmitrievna.”
She immediately dropped her eyes. “We can’t part
at a time like this.”
“I dared not say that to you,” Katia replied softly.
“How can we part, my friend?”
They came to the place where the man with the
pail had just posted a small white poster on the wall
and as they were both excited, they stopped for a
moment. They read by the light of the street-lamp,
“To all! To all! To all! Long live the Third Inter-
national! Comrades, the Revolution is in danger!” ...
“Ekaterina Dmitrievna,”’ said Roshchin, taking her
thin hand in his own as they walked slowly along the
broad, now deserted street, at the end of which the
evening glow had not yet died down, “the years will
' pass, the war will stop, the revolution will cease to rage
and your gentle, loving heart alone will remain un-
corrupt: :\',
The light streamed from the open windows of the
big houses; sounds of music were borne, gay, careless
voices and feuighter and talk. . . . The stooping man
with the pail crossed the street and again appeared
before Katia and Roshchin. He put up a poster on the
stone wall and turned. In the shadow of his hat, drawn
over his eyes, Katia could see a gaping hollow of a
_nose and a black tufted beard.
THE END
[ 451 ]
he! ea
ipo
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