On the following day, the bombardment proceeded with the same vigor.
At eleven o'clock in the morning, Volodya Kozeltzoff was seated in
a circle of battery officers, and, having already succeeded to some
extent in habituating himself to them, he was surveying the new faces,
taking observations, making inquiries, and telling stories.
The discreet conversation of the artillery officers, which made some
pretensions to learning, pleased him and inspired him with respect.
Volodya's shy, innocent, and handsome appearance disposed the officers
in his favor.
The eldest officer in the battery, the captain, a short,
sandy-complexioned man, with his hair arranged in a topknot, and smooth
on the temples, educated in the old traditions of the artillery, a
squire of dames, and a would-be learned man, questioned Volodya as to
his acquirements in artillery and new inventions, jested caressingly
over his youth and his pretty little face, and treated him, in
general, as a father treats a son, which was extremely agreeable to
Volodya.
Sub-Lieutenant Dyadenko, a young officer, who talked with a Little
Russian accent, had a tattered cloak and dishevelled hair, although
he talked very loudly, and constantly seized opportunities to dispute
acrimoniously over some topic, and was very abrupt in his movements,
pleased Volodya, who, beneath this rough exterior, could not help
detecting in him a very fine and extremely good man. Dyadenko was
incessantly offering his services to Volodya, and pointing out to him
that not one of the guns in Sevastopol was properly placed, according
to rule.
Lieutenant Tchernovitzky, with his brows elevated on high, though he
was more courteous than any of the rest, and dressed in a coat that
was tolerably clean, but not new, and carefully patched, and though
he displayed a gold watch-chain on a satin waistcoat, did not please
Volodya. He kept inquiring what the Emperor and the minister of war
were doing, and related to him, with unnatural triumph, the deeds of
valor which had been performed in Sevastopol, complained of the small
number of true patriots, and displayed a great deal of learning, and
sense, and noble feeling in general; but, for some reason, all this
seemed unpleasant and unnatural to Volodya. The principal thing which
he noticed was that the other officers hardly spoke to Tchernovitzky.
Yunker Vlang, whom he had waked up on the preceding evening, was also
there. He said nothing, but, seated modestly in a corner, laughed when
anything amusing occurred, refreshed their memories when they forgot
anything, handed the vodka, and made cigarettes for all the officers.
Whether it was the modest, courteous manners of Volodya, who treated
him exactly as he did the officers, and did not torment him as though
he were a little boy, or his agreeable personal appearance which
captivated Vlang_a_, as the soldiers called him, declining his name,
for some reason or other, in the feminine gender, at all events, he
never took his big, kind eyes from the face of the new officer. He
divined and anticipated all his wishes, and remained uninterruptedly in
a sort of lover-like ecstasy, which, of course, the officers perceived,
and made fun of.
Before dinner, the staff-captain was relieved from the battery, and
joined their company. Staff-Captain Kraut was a light-complexioned,
handsome, dashing officer, with a heavy, reddish moustache, and
side-whiskers; he spoke Russian capitally, but too elegantly and
correctly for a Russian. In the service and in his life, he had been
the same as in his language; he served very well, was a capital
comrade, and the most faithful of men in money matters; but simply
as a man something was lacking in him, precisely because everything
about him was so excellent. Like all Russian-Germans, by a strange
contradiction with the ideal German, he was “praktisch” to the highest
degree.
“Here he is, our hero makes his appearance!” said the captain, as
Kraut, flourishing his arms and jingling his spurs, entered the room.
“Which will you have, Friedrich Krestyanitch, tea or vodka?”
“I have already ordered my tea to be served,” he answered, “but I may
take a little drop of vodka also, for the refreshing of the soul.
Very glad to make your acquaintance; I beg that you will love us, and
lend us your favor,” he said to Volodya, who rose and bowed to him.
“Staff-Captain Kraut.... The gun-sergeant on the bastion informed me
that you arrived last night.”
“Much obliged for your bed; I passed the night in it.”
“I hope you found it comfortable? One of the legs is broken; but no one
can stand on ceremony—in time of siege—you must prop it up.”
“Well, now, did you have a fortunate time on your watch?” asked
Dyadenko.
“Yes, all right; only Skvortzoff was hit, and we mended one of the
gun-carriages last night. The cheek was smashed to atoms.”
He rose from his seat, and began to walk up and down; it was plain that
he was wholly under the influence of that agreeable sensation which a
man experiences who has just escaped a danger.
“Well, Dmitri Gavrilitch,” he said, tapping the captain on the knee,
“how are you getting on, my dear fellow? How about your promotion?—no
word yet?”
“Nothing yet.”
“No, and there will be nothing,” interpolated Dyadenko: “I proved that
to you before.”
“Why won't there?”
“Because the story was not properly written down.”
“Oh, you quarrelsome fellow, you quarrelsome fellow!” said Kraut,
smiling gayly; “a regular obstinate Little Russian! Now, just to
provoke you, he'll turn out your lieutenant.”
“No, he won't.”
“Vlang! fetch me my pipe, and fill it,” said he, turning to the yunker,
who at once hastened up obligingly with the pipe.
Kraut made them all lively; he told about the bombardment, he inquired
what had been going on in his absence, and entered into conversation
with every one.