Trirodov returned home. Like one returned from a grave, he felt happy
and light-hearted. His heart was consumed with exultation and
resolution. He recalled the talk he had had that day with Elisaveta.
There rose before him the proud joyous vision of life transfigured by
the force of creative art, of life created by the proud will.
If love, or what seemed like love, came to him, why should he resist
it? Whether it was a true emotion, or an illusion, was it not all the
same? The will, exulting above the world, would determine everything
as it wanted. It would have the power to erect a beautiful love over
the helplessness of the exhausted senses.
That which has so long weighed in the scales of consciousness, that
which has so long and so desperately wrestled in the dark region of
the unconscious now stood at a clear decision. Let the word “Yes” be
said. Once more Yes. For a new grief? For a glorious triumph? It was
all the same. If only he believed in her--and she in him. So much did
one mean to the other now.
Trirodov sat down at the table. He smiled, and for a few moments
seemed lost in thought. Then he wrote quickly upon a light blue sheet
of paper:
“Elisaveta, I want your love. Love me, dear one, love me. I forget my
knowledge, I reject my doubts, I become again as simple and as humble
as a communicant of a radiant kingdom, like my dear children--and I
only want your nearness and your kisses. Upon the earth, dear to our
heart, I will pass by, in simple and joyous humility, with bare feet,
like you--in order that I may come to you as you come to me. Love me.
“Your GIORGIY.”
There was a slight rustle behind the door. It seemed as if the whole
house were filled with the quiet children.
Trirodov sealed the letter. He wished to take it at once and leave it
on the sill of her open window. He walked quietly, immersed in the
wood’s darkness--and his feet felt the contact of warm moss, the
dew-wet grass, and the simple, rough, beloved earth. A refreshing
breeze blew from the river in the night coolness, but now and then
there came a sickly, pungent gust of the forest fire.
* * * * *
Elisaveta could not fall asleep. She rose from her bed. She stood by
the window, and yielded her naked body to the transparent embraces of
the nocturnal breeze. She thought of something, mused of something.
And all her thoughts and musings joined in one dancing circle around
Trirodov.
Should she wait? He was a weary, sad man, and he would not say the
sweet words for fear of appearing ridiculous, and of receiving a cold
answer.
“Why should I wait?” she thought. “Or don’t I dare decide my fate like
a queen, to call him to me, and to demand his love? Why should I
remain silent?”
And she decided:
“I will tell him myself--I love you, I love you, come to me, love me.”
Elisaveta whispered the delicious words, entrusting her passionate
reveries to the nocturnal silence. The dark eyes of the nocturnal
guest who brought tempting reveries were aflame. The quiet splashing
laughter of the water-nymph behind the reeds under the moon mingled
with the quiet, delicious laughter of the nocturnal enchantress who
had flaming eyes, burning lips, and a naked body formed from the coils
of white flame. Her flaming body was like Elisaveta’s body, and the
black lightnings of the invisible sorceress were like the blue
lightnings of Elisaveta’s eyes. She tempted Elisaveta, and called to
her:
“Go to him, go. Fall naked at his feet, kiss his feet, laugh for him,
dance for him, tire yourself out for his sake, be a slave to him, be a
thing in his hands--cling to him, and kiss him, and look into his
eyes, and yield yourself up to him. Go, go, hurry, run, he is
approaching even now--do you see him? It is he who has just come out
of the wood--do you see? It is his feet that show white in the grass.
Fling the door wide open and run as you are to meet him.”
Elisaveta saw Trirodov coming. Her heart began to beat with such pain
and such delight. She walked away from the window. She waited. She
heard his footsteps on the sand under the window. Something flashed
through the window and fell on the floor. The footsteps retreated.
Elisaveta picked up the letter, lit a candle, and read the beloved
blue sheet of paper. The nocturnal enchantress whispered to her:
“He’s going away. Hurry. You will know how sweet are the first kisses
of love. Go to him, run after him, don’t look for tiresome robes.”
Elisaveta impetuously flung the door open on the veranda, and ran down
the broad steps into the garden. She ran after Trirodov and shouted:
“Giorgiy!”
It was like the outcry of passionate desire. Trirodov paused, saw her,
impetuously white and clear in the moonlight. Elisaveta fell into his
arms and kissed him and laughed, and kept on repeating without end:
“I love you, I love you, I love you.”
And they kissed, and they laughed, and said something to one another.
The red and white roses of her strong, graceful body were chaste and
uncrumpled. The words they said to one another were chaste and sacred.
The chaste moon looked down on them, and the stars also, as they spoke
the words that bound them to one another. There were vows and rites
not less durable than any other kind. There were smiles, kisses,
tender words--in these consist the eternal rite and the eternal
mystery.
The sky began to lighten and a new dew fell on a new dawn, and when
the sunrise had extended its rapturous flames the sun rose--only then
they parted.
Elisaveta returned to her room. But she could not sleep. She went into
Elena’s room. Elena had only just awakened. Elisaveta lay down at her
side under the bed-cover, and told her about her great love, her great
joy. Elena rejoiced and laughed and kissed her sister without end.
Then Elisaveta put on her morning dress, and went to her father--to
tell him about her joy, her happiness.
As for Trirodov, oppressed by morning fatigue, he walked home across
the moist grass--and his soul was filled with perplexity and dread.
Later in the day he drove to the Rameyevs. He brought as a gift to
Elisaveta a photograph he had taken of his first wife--upon her nude
body was a bronze belt, its ends coming down to the knees being joined
up in the front; upon her dark hair was a narrow round strip of gold.
A slender, graceful body--a melancholy smile--intense dark eyes.
“Father knows,” said Elisaveta. “Father is glad. Let us go to him.”
When Elisaveta and Trirodov were once more alone, a dark thought came
into Elisaveta’s mind. She became pensively sad, and asked:
“What of the sleeper in the grave?”
“He has awakened,” replied Trirodov. “He’s in my house. We’ve dug up
his grave just in time to save his mother from having any qualms of
conscience.”
“What do you mean?”
Trirodov explained:
“Early this morning the coroner had the grave dug up. They found the
empty coffin. Luckily, I found out about this in time, before new
stupid talk might arise, and gave them the necessary explanation.”
“What of the boy?” asked Elisaveta.
“He will remain with me. He does not wish to go to his mother, and he
is not particularly necessary to her--she will receive money for him.”
Trirodov said all this in a dry, cold voice.
The news that Elisaveta would become Trirodov’s wife acted differently
on her relatives. Rameyev liked Trirodov, and was glad because of the
closer connexion; he was a little sorry for Piotr, but thought it was
well that the matter had come to a decision, and Piotr would no longer
torment himself by entertaining false hopes. Nevertheless Rameyev was
disturbed for some unknown reason.
Elena loved Elisaveta and shared her joy. She loved Piotr, and was,
therefore, even more glad; she pitied him--and, therefore, loved him
even more. She loved him so deeply, and entertained such hopes of his
love, that her pity for him became serene and radiant. She looked at
Piotr with loving eyes.
Piotr was in a state of despair. But Elena’s eyes aroused in him a
sweet agitation for a new love. His wearied heart thirsted, and
suffered intensely from deceived hopes.
Misha was strangely distraught. He flushed, and ran off more than
usual with his fishing-rod to the river; there he wept. Now he
impetuously embraced Elisaveta, now Trirodov. He felt ashamed and
bitter. He knew that Elisaveta did not even suspect his love, and that
she looked at him as at an infant. Sometimes in his helplessness he
hated her. He said to Piotr:
“I shouldn’t walk about with a long face if I were you. She is not
worthy of your love. She puts on airs. Elena is much better. Elena is
a dear, while the other fancies all sorts of things.”
Piotr walked away from him in silence. And it was well that there was
some one who did not scold, and with whom it was possible to ease his
soul. Misha, too, wanted to be with Elisaveta, and it made him feel
ashamed and depressed.
Miss Harrison did not express her opinion. Many things had already
shocked her, and she grew accustomed to bear herself indifferently to
everything that happened here. Trirodov, in her opinion, was an
adventurer, a man with a doubtful reputation, and a dark past.
Elisaveta was the most tranquil of all.
Piotr’s gloomy appearance disturbed Rameyev. He wanted to comfort him
if only with words. Luckily, people believe even in words! They must
believe in something.
Rameyev and Piotr happened to find themselves alone. Rameyev said:
“I must confess that I once thought Elisaveta loved you. Or that she
might love you, if you wished it strongly.”
Piotr said with a gloomy smile:
“I too may be pardoned for the error. All the more since M. Trirodov
does not lack lovers.”
“Any one may be pardoned for mistakes,” answered Rameyev calmly,
“though they may be painful enough sometimes.”
Piotr grumbled something. Rameyev continued:
“I have been observing Elisaveta very attentively of late. And listen
to what I say--pardon me for my frankness--I have come to the
conclusion that you’d be better off with Elena. Perhaps you have also
erred in your feelings.”
Piotr replied with a bitter smile:
“Why, of course--Elena is more simple. She doesn’t read philosophic
books, she doesn’t wear over-classical frocks; and doesn’t detest any
one.”
“Why drag self-love into everything?” asked Rameyev. “Elena is not as
simple as you think. She is a very intelligent girl, though without
pretensions to a deep and broad outlook--and she is good, attractive,
and cheerful.”
“In fact, quite a match for me,” observed Piotr with an ironic smile.
“As for that,” said Rameyev, “you are not limited to choosing a
charming wife from among my daughters.”
“That’s not so easy,” said Piotr with dejected irony. “But I see no
need of insisting. Besides, the same thing might happen with Elena.
She might come across a more brilliant match. And there are not a few
charlatans in this world of the Trirodov brand.”
“Elena loves you,” said Rameyev. “Surely you have noticed it?”
Piotr laughed. He assumed a gaiety--or did he actually feel gay and
joyous at the sudden thought of the charming Elena? Of course she
loved him! But he asked:
“Why do you think, my dear uncle, that I need a wife at all costs? May
God be with her!”
“You are in love generally, as is common in your years,” said Rameyev.
“Perhaps,” said Piotr, “but Elisaveta’s choice revolts me.”
“Why should it?” asked Rameyev.
“For many reasons,” replied Piotr. “For one thing, he presented her
with a photograph of his dead wife, a naked beauty. Why? Is it right
to make universal that which is intimate?[27] She revealed her body to
her husband, and not for Elisaveta and for us.”
“You would do away with many fine pictures if you had your way,” said
Rameyev.
“I am not so simple as not to be able to make a distinction,” replied
Piotr animatedly. “In the one case it is pure art, always sacred; in
the other there is an effort to inflame the feelings with pornographic
pictures. And don’t you notice it yourself, uncle, that Elisaveta has
poisoned herself with this sweet poison, and has become terribly
passionate and insufficiently modest?”
“I do not find this at all,” said Rameyev dryly.
“She is in love--so what’s to be done? If there is sensuality in
people, what is to be done with nature? Shall the whole world be
maimed in order to gratify a decrepit morality?”
“Uncle, I did not suspect you of being such an amoralist,” said Piotr
in vexation.
“There is morality and morality,” replied Rameyev, not without some
confusion. “I do not uphold depravity, but nevertheless demand freedom
of thought and feeling. A free feeling is always innocent.”
“And what will you say of those naked girls in his woods--is that also
innocent?” asked Piotr rather spitefully.
“Of course,” replied Rameyev. “His problem is to lull to sleep the
beast in man, and to awaken the man.”
“I have heard his discourses,” said Piotr, showing his annoyance, “and
I do not believe them in the slightest. I’m only astonished that
others can believe such nonsense. And I don’t believe either in his
poetry or in his chemistry. He has too many secrets and mysteries, too
many cunning mechanisms in his doors and his corridors. Then there are
his quiet children--that I do not understand at all. Where have they
come from? What does he do with them? There is something nasty behind
it all.”
“That’s a work of the imagination,” answered Rameyev. “We see him
often, we can always go to him, and we haven’t seen or heard anything
in his house or in his colony to confirm the town tattle about him.”
Piotr recalled the evening that he met Trirodov on the river-bank. His
sad but determined eyes suddenly flared up in Piotr’s memory--and the
poison of his spite grew weaker. He seemed affected as by a strange
bewitchment, as if some one persistently yet quietly urged him to
believe that the ways of Trirodov were fair and clean. Piotr closed
his eyes--and the radiant vision appeared before him of the semi-nude
girls of the wood, who filed past him, and sanctified him by the
serenity and the peace of their chaste eyes. Piotr sighed and said
quietly, as if fatigued:
“I have no cause to say these malicious words. Perhaps you are right.
But it is so hard for me!”
Nevertheless this conversation did much to soothe Piotr. Thoughts
about Elena returned to him oftener and oftener, and became more and
more tender.
It so happened that, acting upon some unspoken yet understood
agreement, every one tried to direct Piotr’s attention to Elena. Piotr
submitted to this general influence, and was affectionate and gentle
with Elena. Elena expectantly waited for his love; and at night,
turning her blazing face and loosened locks in the direction of the
nymph’s laughter, she would whisper:
“I love you, I love you, I love you!”
And when left alone with Piotr, she would look at him with
love-frightened eyes, all rosy like the spring, and pulsating with
expectancy; and with every sigh of her tender breast, and with all the
life of her passionate body she would repeat the same unspoken words:
“I love you, I love you, I love you.” And Piotr began to understand
that he had met his fate in Elena, and that whether he willed it or
not he would grow to love her. This presentiment of a new love was
like a sweet gnawing in a heart wounded by treacherous love.