It was long before old Lavretzky could forgive his son for his marriage;
if, after the lapse of half a year, Ivan Petrovitch had presented himself
in contrition, and had flung himself at his feet, he would, probably, have
pardoned him, after first scolding him roundly, and administering a few
taps with his crutch, by way of inspiring awe; but Ivan Petrovitch was
living abroad, and, evidently, cared not a rap.--"Hold your tongue! Don't
dare!" Piotr Andreitch kept repeating to his wife, as soon as she tried
to incline him to mercy: "He ought to pray to God for me forever, the pup,
for not having laid my curse upon him; my late father would have slain him
with his own hands, the good-for-nothing, and he would have done right." At
such terrible speeches, Anna Pavlovna merely crossed herself furtively. As
for Ivan Petrovitch's wife, Piotr Andreitch, at first, would not allow
her to be mentioned, and even in reply to a letter of Pestoff, wherein the
latter alluded to his daughter-in-law, he gave orders to say to him, that
he knew nothing whatever about any daughter-in-law of his, and that it was
prohibited by the laws to harbour runaway maids, on which point he regarded
it as his duty to warn him; but later on, when he learned of the birth of a
grandson, he softened, gave orders that inquiries should be made on the sly
concerning the health of the young mother, and sent her, also as though it
did not come from him, a little money. Fedya had not reached his first
birthday, when Anna Pavlovna was seized with a fatal illness. A few days
before her end, when she could no longer leave her bed, she declared to her
husband, in the presence of the priest, that she wished to see and bid
farewell to her daughter-in-law, and to bestow her blessing on her
grandchild. The afflicted old man soothed her, and immediately sent his own
equipage for his daughter-in-law, for the first time calling her Malanya
Sergyeevna.[3] She came with her son and with Marfa Timofeevna, who
would not let her go alone on any terms, and would not have allowed her to
be affronted. Half dead with terror, Malanya entered Piotr Andreitch's
study. The nurse carried Fedya after her. Piotr Andreitch gazed at her
in silence; she approached to kiss his hand; her quivering lips hardly met
in a noiseless kiss.
"Well, new-ground, undried noblewoman,"--he said at last:--"how do you
do; let us go to the mistress."
He rose and bent over Fedya; the baby smiled, and stretched out his
little, white arms. The old man was completely upset.
"Okh," he said,--"thou orphan! Thou hast plead thy father's cause with
me; I will not abandon thee, my birdling!"
As soon as Malanya Sergyeevna entered the bedchamber of Anna Pavlovna,
she knelt down near the door. Anna Pavlovna beckoned her to the bed,
embraced her, blessed her son; then, turning her countenance, ravaged by
disease, to her husband, she tried to speak....
"I know, I know what entreaty thou desirest to make,"--said Piotr
Andreitch:--"do not worry: she shall stay with us, and I will pardon
Vanka for her sake."
Anna Pavlovna, with an effort, grasped her husband's hand, and pressed
it to her lips. On that same evening she died.
Piotr Andreitch kept his word. He informed his son, that, for the sake
of his mother's dying hour, for the sake of baby Feodor, he restored to
him his blessing, and would keep Malanya Sergyeevna in his own house.
Two rooms were set apart for her use in the entresol, he introduced her
to his most respected visitor, one-eyed Brigadier Skuryokhin, and to his
wife; he presented her with two maids and a page-boy for errands. Marfa
Timofeevna bade her farewell; she detested Glafira, and quarrelled with
her thrice in the course of one day.
At first the poor woman found her situation painful and awkward; but
afterward, she learned to bear things patiently, and became accustomed to
her father-in-law. He, also, became accustomed to her, he even grew to
love her, although he almost never spoke to her, although in his caresses
a certain involuntary disdain toward her was perceptible. Malanya
Sergyeevna had most of all to endure from her sister-in-law. Glafira,
already during her mother's lifetime, had succeeded in getting gradually
the entire house into her hands: every one, beginning with her father,
was subject to her; not a lump of sugar was given out without her
permission; she would have consented to die, rather than to share the
power with any other mistress of the house! Her brother's marriage had
angered her even more than it had Piotr Andreitch: she took it upon
herself to teach the upstart a lesson, and from the very first hour
Malanya Sergyeevna became her slave.
And how could she contend with the self-willed, arrogant Glafira, she
who was mild, constantly agitated, and terrified, and also weak in
health? Not a day passed, that Glafira did not remind her of her former
position, did not praise her for not forgetting her place. Malanya
Sergyeevna would gladly have reconciled herself to these reminders and
praises, however bitter they might be ... but they took Fedya away from
her: that was what broke her heart. Under the pretext that she was not
competent to take charge of his education, she was hardly permitted to
see him; Glafira took this matter upon herself; the child passed under
her full control. Malanya Sergyeevna began, out of grief, to entreat
Ivan Petrovitch, in her letters, to come home as speedily as possible;
Piotr Andreitch himself wished to see his son; but he merely wrote in
reply, thanking his father about his wife, and for the money sent, and
promising to come soon,--and did not come. The year '12 recalled him, at
last, to his fatherland from abroad.
On meeting again, for the first time, after their six years' separation,
the father and son exchanged embraces, and did not allude, by so much as
a word, to their former dissensions; they were not in the mood for it
then: all Russia had risen against the enemy, and both of them felt that
Russian blood was flowing in their veins. Piotr Andreitch, at his own
expense, clothed an entire regiment of soldiers. But the war came to an
end, the danger passed; again Ivan Petrovitch began to feel bored,
again he longed for far-away places, for the world to which he had grown
fast, and where he felt himself at home. Malanya Sergyeevna could not
hold him back; she counted for too little with him. Even her hopes had
not been realised: her husband, also, deemed it much more fitting that
Fedya's education should be entrusted to Glafira. Ivan Petrovitch's
poor wife could not withstand this blow, could not endure this second
parting: without a murmur, in a few days she expired. During the whole
course of her life, she had never been able to offer resistance, and she
did not combat her malady. She could no longer speak, the shadows of the
tomb had already descended upon her face, but her features, as of old,
expressed patient perplexity, and the steadfast gentleness of submission;
with the same dumb humility she gazed at Glafira, and, like Anna
Pavlovna on her deathbed, she kissed the hand of Piotr Andreitch, and
pressed her lips to Glafira's hand also, entrusting to her, Glafira,
her only son. Thus ended its earthly career a kind and gentle being,
torn, God alone knows why, from its native soil and immediately flung
aside, like an uprooted sapling, with its roots to the sun; it faded
away, it vanished, without a trace, that being, and no one mentioned it.
Those who grieved for Malanya Sergyeevna were her maid and Piotr
Andreitch. The old man missed her silent presence. "Forgive--farewell,
my patient one!" he whispered, as he made her the parting reverence in
church. He wept as he threw a handful of earth into the grave.
He did not long survive her--not more than five years. In the winter of
1819, he died peacefully in Moscow, whither he had removed with Glafira
and his grandson, and left orders in his will, that he should be buried
by the side of Anna Pavlovna and "Malasha." Ivan Petrovitch was in
Paris at the time, for his pleasure; he had resigned from the service
soon after 1815. On hearing of his father's death, he decided to return
to Russia. It was necessary to consider the organisation of the estate
... and Fedya, according to Glafira's letter, had reached the age of
twelve years, and the time had arrived for occupying himself seriously
with the boy's education.
-----
[3] Serfs were not addressed with their patronymic by their superiors.
--Translator.
X
Ivan Petrovitch returned to Russia an Anglomaniac. His closely-clipped
hair, starched neckcloth, long-skirted, yellowish-gray overcoat with a
multitude of capes, his sour expression of visage, a certain harshness
and also indifference of demeanour, his manner of talking through his
teeth, a wooden, abrupt laugh, the absence of smiles, a conversation
exclusively political and politico-economical, a passion for bloody roast
beef and port wine,--everything about him fairly reeked of Great Britain;
he seemed thoroughly imbued with her spirit. But--strange to say! while
he had turned into an Anglomaniac, Ivan Petrovitch had simultaneously
become a patriot; at all events, he called himself a patriot, although he
was but badly acquainted with Russia, was not wedded to a single Russian
habit, and expressed himself queerly in Russian: in ordinary
conversation, his speech was clumsy and pithless, studded all over with
Gallicisms; but no sooner did the discussion touch upon important topics,
than Ivan Petrovitch instantly brought out such expressions as: "to
show new proofs of self-zeal,"[4] "that doth not agree with the nature of
the circumstances," and so forth. Ivan Petrovitch brought with him
several manuscript plans touching the organisation and amelioration of
the empire; he was extremely dissatisfied with everything he saw,--the
absence of system, in particular, stirred up his bile. On meeting his
sister, he announced to her, with his very first words, that he intended
to introduce radical reforms, that henceforth everything on his estate
should proceed upon a new system. Glafira Petrovna made no reply to
Ivan Petrovitch, but merely set her teeth, and said to herself: "And
what is to become of me?"--But when she reached the country estate, in
company with her brother and her nephew, she speedily regained her
composure. In the house, several changes actually took place: the female
hangers-on and drones were subjected to instant expulsion; among their
number two old women suffered, one who was blind and the other crippled
with paralysis, also a decrepit Major of the Otchakoff period, who, on
account of his truly astonishing voracity, was fed on nothing but black
bread and lentils. A decree was also issued, that the former guests were
not to be received: they were superseded by a distant neighbour, a
fair-haired, scrofulous baron, a very well educated and very stupid man.
New furniture from Moscow made its appearance; cuspidors, and bells, and
wash-stands were introduced and they began to serve the noon breakfast
differently; foreign wines took the place of vodka and homemade
liqueurs; new liveries were made for the servants; the motto, "in recto
virtus," was added to the family coat of arms.... But, in reality,
Glafira's power was not diminished: all the disbursements and purchases
depended on her, as before; the imported Alsatian valet made an attempt
to vie with her--and lost his place, in spite of the fact that his master
took his side. So far as the management, the administration, of the
estates was concerned (Glafira Petrovna entered into all these
matters), despite Ivan Petrovitch's frequently expressed intention "to
infuse new life into this chaos," everything remained as of yore, except
that, here and there, the quit-rents were augmented, and the
husbandry-service became more oppressive, and the peasants were forbidden
to apply directly to Ivan Petrovitch. The patriot heartily despised his
fellow-citizens. Ivan Petrovitch's system was applied, in its full
force, to Fedya only: his education actually was subjected to "radical
reform"; his father had exclusive charge of it.
-----
[4] That is to say, he used such fundamentally national words as occur
only in the Old Church Slavonic, well-nigh untranslatable here, also
employed upon occasions of ceremony.--Translator.