Masha and I drove to Kurilovka to the dedication of the school.
"Autumn, autumn, autumn, . . ." said Masha softly, looking away.
"Summer is over. There are no birds and nothing is green but the
willows."
Yes, summer was over. There were fine, warm days, but it was fresh
in the morning, and the shepherds went out in their sheepskins
already; and in our garden the dew did not dry off the asters all
day long. There were plaintive sounds all the time, and one could
not make out whether they came from the shutters creaking on their
rusty hinges, or from the flying cranes--and one's heart felt
light, and one was eager for life.
"The summer is over," said Masha. "Now you and I can balance our
accounts. We have done a lot of work, a lot of thinking; we are the
better for it--all honour and glory to us--we have succeeded
in self-improvement; but have our successes had any perceptible
influence on the life around us, have they brought any benefit to
anyone whatever? No. Ignorance, physical uncleanliness, drunkenness,
an appallingly high infant mortality, everything remains as it was,
and no one is the better for your having ploughed and sown, and my
having wasted money and read books. Obviously we have been working
only for ourselves and have had advanced ideas only for ourselves."
Such reasonings perplexed me, and I did not know what to think.
"We have been sincere from beginning to end," said I, "and if anyone
is sincere he is right."
"Who disputes it? We were right, but we haven't succeeded in properly
accomplishing what we were right in. To begin with, our external
methods themselves--aren't they mistaken? You want to be of use
to men, but by the very fact of your buying an estate, from the
very start you cut yourself off from any possibility of doing
anything useful for them. Then if you work, dress, eat like a peasant
you sanctify, as it were, by your authority, their heavy, clumsy
dress, their horrible huts, their stupid beards. . . . On the other
hand, if we suppose that you work for long, long years, your whole
life, that in the end some practical results are obtained, yet what
are they, your results, what can they do against such elemental
forces as wholesale ignorance, hunger, cold, degeneration? A drop
in the ocean! Other methods of struggle are needed, strong, bold,
rapid! If one really wants to be of use one must get out of the
narrow circle of ordinary social work, and try to act direct upon
the mass! What is wanted, first of all, is a loud, energetic
propaganda. Why is it that art--music, for instance--is so
living, so popular, and in reality so powerful? Because the musician
or the singer affects thousands at once. Precious, precious art!"
she went on, looking dreamily at the sky. "Art gives us wings and
carries us far, far away! Anyone who is sick of filth, of petty,
mercenary interests, anyone who is revolted, wounded, and indignant,
can find peace and satisfaction only in the beautiful."
When we drove into Kurilovka the weather was bright and joyous.
Somewhere they were threshing; there was a smell of rye straw. A
mountain ash was bright red behind the hurdle fences, and all the
trees wherever one looked were ruddy or golden. They were ringing
the bells, they were carrying the ikons to the school, and we could
hear them sing: "Holy Mother, our Defender," and how limpid the air
was, and how high the doves were flying.
The service was being held in the classroom. Then the peasants of
Kurilovka brought Masha the ikon, and the peasants of Dubetchnya
offered her a big loaf and a gilt salt cellar. And Masha broke into
sobs.
"If anything has been said that shouldn't have been or anything
done not to your liking, forgive us," said an old man, and he bowed
down to her and to me.
As we drove home Masha kept looking round at the school; the green
roof, which I had painted, and which was glistening in the sun,
remained in sight for a long while. And I felt that the look Masha
turned upon it now was one of farewell.