Maria Dmitrievna was alone in her boudoir. She was sitting in a large
easy-chair, sniffing Eau-de-Cologne, with a little table by her side,
on which was a glass containing orange-flower water. She was evidently
excited, and seemed nervous about something.
Lavretsky came into the room.
"You wanted to see me," he said, bowing coldly.
"Yes," answered Maria Dmitrievna, and then she drank a little water.
"I heard that you had gone straight up-stairs to my aunt, so I told
the servants to ask you to come and see me. I want to have a talk with
you. Please sit down."
Maria Dmitrievna took breath. "You know that your wife has come," she
continued.
"I am aware of that fact," said Lavretsky.
"Well--yes--that is--I meant to say that she has been here, and I have
received her. That is what I wanted to have the explanation about with
you, Fedor Ivanovich, I have deserved, I may say, general respect,
thank God! and I wouldn't, for all the world, do any thing unbecoming.
But, although I saw beforehand that it would be disagreeable to you,
Fedor Ivanich, yet I couldn't make up my mind to refuse her. She is
a relation of mine--through you. Only put yourself into my position.
What right had I to shut my door in her face? Surely you must agree
with me."
"You are exciting yourself quite unnecessarily, Maria Dmitrievna,"
replied Lavretsky. "You have done what is perfectly right. I am not in
the least angry. I never intended to deprive my wife of the power of
seeing her acquaintances. I did not come to see you to-day simply
because I did not wish to meet her. That was all."
"Ah! how glad I am to hear you say that, Fedor Ivanich!" exclaimed
Maria Dmitrievna. "However, I always expected as much from your noble
feelings. But as to my being excited, there's no wonder in that. I am
a woman and a mother. And your wife--of course I cannot set myself up
as a judge between you and her, I told her so herself; but she is such
a charming person that no one can help being pleased with her."
Lavretsky smiled and twirled his hat in his hands.
"And there is something else that I wanted to say to you, Fedor
Ivanich," continued Maria Dmitrievna, drawing a little nearer to him.
"If you had only seen how modestly, how respectfully she behaved!
Really it was perfectly touching. And if you had only heard how she
spoke of you! 'I,' she said, 'am altogether guilty before him.' 'I,'
she said, 'was not able to appreciate him.' 'He,' she said, 'is an
angel, not a mere man,' I can assure you that's what she said--'an
angel.' She is so penitent--I do solemnly declare I have never seen
any one so penitent."
"But tell me, Maria Dmitrievna," said Lavretsky, "if I may be allowed
to be so inquisitive. I hear that Varvara Pavlovna has been singing
here. Was it in one of her penitent moments that she sang, or how--?"
"How can you talk like that and not feel ashamed of yourself? She
played and sang simply to give me pleasure, and because I particularly
entreated her, almost ordered her to do so. I saw that she was
unhappy, so unhappy, and I thought how I could divert her a little;
and besides that, I had heard that she had so much talent. Do show
her some pity, Fedor Ivanich--she is utterly crushed--only ask
Gedeonovsky--broken down entirely, _tout-a-fait_. How can you say such
things of her?"
Lavretsky merely shrugged his shoulders.
"And besides, what a little angel your Adochka is! What a charming
little creature! How pretty she is! and how good! and how well she
speaks French! And she knows Russian too. She called me aunt in
Russian. And then as to shyness, you know, almost all children of her
age are shy; but she is not at all so. It's wonderful how like you she
is, Fedor Ivanich--eyes, eyebrows, in fact you all over--absolutely
you. I don't usually like such young children, I must confess, but I
am quite in love with your little daughter."
"Maria Dmitrievna," abruptly said Lavretsky, "allow me to inquire why
you are saying all this to me?"
"Why?"--Maria Dmitrievna again had recourse to her Eau-de-Cologne
and drank some water--"why I say this to you, Fedor Ivanich, is
because--you see I am one of your relations, I take a deep interest in
you. I know your heart is excellent. Mark my words, _mon cousin_--at
all events I am a woman of experience, and I do not speak at random.
Forgive, do forgive your wife!". (Maria Dmitrievna's eyes suddenly
filled with tears.) "Only think--youth, inexperience, and perhaps also
a bad example--hers was not the sort of mother to put her in the right
way. Forgive her, Fedor Ivanich! She has been punished enough."
The tears flowed down Maria Dmitrievna's cheeks. She did not wipe
them away; she was fond of weeping. Meanwhile Lavretsky sat as if on
thorns. "Good God!" he thought, "what torture this is! What a day this
has been for me!"
"You do not reply," Maria Dmitrievna recommenced: "how am I to
understand you? Is it possible that you can be so cruel? No, I cannot
believe that. I feel that my words have convinced you. Fedor Ivanich,
God will reward you for your goodness! Now from my hands receive your
wife!"
Lavretsky jumped up from his chair scarcely knowing what he was doing.
Maria Dmitrievna had risen also, and had passed rapidly to the
other side of the screen, from behind which she brought out Madame
Lavretsky. Pale, half lifeless, with downcast eyes, that lady seemed
as if she had surrendered her whole power of thinking or willing for
herself, and had given herself over entirely into the hands of Maria
Dmitrievna.
Lavretsky recoiled a pace.
"You have been there all this time!" he exclaimed.
"Don't blame her," Maria Dmitrievna hastened to say. "She wouldn't
have stayed for any thing; but I made her stay; I put her behind the
screen. She declared that it would make you angrier than ever; but I
wouldn't even listen to her. I know you better than she does. Take
then from my hands your wife! Go to him, Varvara; have no fear; fall
at your husband's feet" (here she gave Varvara's arm a pull), "and may
my blessing--"
"Stop, Maria Dmitrievna!" interposed Lavretsky, in a voice shaking
with emotion. "You seem to like sentimental scenes." (Lavretsky was
not mistaken; from her earliest school-days Maria Dmitrievna had
always been passionately fond of a touch of stage effect.) "They
may amuse you, but to other people they may prove very unpleasant.
However, I am not going to talk to you. In _this_ scene you do not
play the leading part."
"What is it _you_ want from me, Madame?" he added, turning to his
wife. "Have I not done for you all that I could? Do not tell me that
it was not you who got up this scene. I should not believe you. You
know that I cannot believe you. What is it you want? You are clever.
You do nothing without an object. You must feel that to live with you,
as I used formerly to live, is what I am not in a position to do--not
because I am angry with you, but because I have become a different
man. I told you that the very day you returned; and at that time
you agreed with me in your own mind. But, perhaps, you wish to
rehabilitate yourself in public opinion. Merely to live in my house is
too little for you; you want to live with me under the same roof. Is
it not so?"
"I want you to pardon me," replied Varvara Pavlovna, without lifting
her eyes from the ground.
"She wants you to pardon her," repeated Maria Dmitrievna.
"And not for my own sake, but for Ada's," whispered Varvara.
"Not for her own sake, but for your Ada's," repeated Maria Dmitrievna.
"Very good! That is what you want?" Lavretsky just managed to say.
"Well, I consent even to that."
Varvara Pavlovna shot a quick glance at him. Maria Dmitrievna
exclaimed, "Thank God!" again took Varvara by the arm, and again
began, "Take, then, from my hands--"
"Stop, I tell you!" broke in Lavretsky. "I will consent to live with
you, Varvara Pavlovna," he continued; "that is to say, I will take you
to Lavriki, and live with you as long as I possibly can. Then I will
go away; but I will visit you from time to time. You see, I do not
wish to deceive you; only do not ask for more than that. You would
laugh yourself, if I were to fulfil the wish of our respected
relative, and press you to my heart--if I were to assure you
that--that the past did not exist, that the felled tree would again
produce leaves. But I see this plainly--one must submit. These words
do not convey the same meaning to you as to me, but that does not
matter. I repeat, I will live with you--or, no, I cannot promise that;
but I will no longer avoid you; I will look on you as my wife again--"
"At all events, give her your hand on that," said Maria Dmitrievna,
whose tears had dried up long ago.
"I have never yet deceived Varvara Pavlovna," answered Lavretsky. "She
will believe me as it is. I will take her to Lavriki. But remember
this, Varvara Pavlovna. Our treaty will be considered at an end, as
soon as you give up stopping there. And now let me go away."
He bowed to both of the ladies, and went out quickly.
"Won't you take her with you?" Maria Dmitrievna called after him.
"Let him alone," said Varvara to her in a whisper, and then began to
express her thanks to her, throwing her arms around her, kissing her
hand, saying she had saved her.
Maria Dmitrievna condescended to accept her caresses, but in reality
she was not contented with her; nor was she contented with Lavretsky,
nor with the whole scene which she had taken so much pains to arrange.
There had been nothing sentimental about it.
According to her ideas Varvara Pavlovna ought to have thrown herself
at her husband's feet.
"How was it you didn't understand what I meant?" she kept saying.
"Surely I said to you, 'Down with you!'"
"It is better as it is, my dear aunt. Don't disturb yourself--all has
turned out admirably," declared Varvara Pavlovna.
"Well, anyhow he is--as cold as ice," said Maria Dmitrievna. "It is
true you didn't cry, but surely my tears flowed before his eyes. So he
wants to shut you up at Lavriki. What! You won't be able to come out
even to see me! All men are unfeeling," she ended by saying, and shook
her head with an air of deep meaning.
"But at all events women can appreciate goodness and generosity," said
Varvara Pavlovna. Then, slowly sinking on her knees, she threw her
arms around Maria Dmitrievna's full waist, and hid her face in that
lady's lap. That hidden face wore a smile, but Maria Dmitrievna's
tears began to flow afresh.
As for Lavretsky, he returned home, shut himself up in his valet's
room, flung himself on the couch, and lay there till the morning.