Sanin woke up very early. He found himself at the highest pinnacle of
human happiness; but it was not that prevented him from sleeping; the
question, the vital, fateful question—how he could dispose of his
estate as quickly and as advantageously as possible—disturbed his rest.
The most diverse plans were mixed up in his head, but nothing had as
yet come out clearly. He went out of the house to get air and freshen
himself. He wanted to present himself to Gemma with a project ready
prepared and not without.
What was the figure, somewhat ponderous and thick in the legs, but
well-dressed, walking in front of him, with a slight roll and waddle in
his gait? Where had he seen that head, covered with tufts of flaxen
hair, and as it were set right into the shoulders, that soft cushiony
back, those plump arms hanging straight down at his sides? Could it be
Polozov, his old schoolfellow, whom he had lost sight of for the last
five years? Sanin overtook the figure walking in front of him, turned
round…. A broad, yellowish face, little pig’s eyes, with white lashes
and eyebrows, a short flat nose, thick lips that looked glued together,
a round smooth chin, and that expression, sour, sluggish, and
mistrustful—yes; it was he, it was Ippolit Polozov!
“Isn’t my lucky star working for me again?” flashed through Sanin’s
mind.
“Polozov! Ippolit Sidorovitch! Is it you?”
The figure stopped, raised his diminutive eyes, waited a little, and
ungluing his lips at last, brought out in a rather hoarse falsetto,
“Dimitri Sanin?”
“That’s me!” cried Sanin, and he shook one of Polozov’s hands; arrayed
in tight kid-gloves of an ashen-grey colour, they hung as lifeless as
before beside his barrel-shaped legs. “Have you been here long? Where
have you come from? Where are you stopping?”
“I came yesterday from Wiesbaden,” Polozov replied in deliberate tones,
“to do some shopping for my wife, and I’m going back to Wiesbaden
to-day.”
“Oh, yes! You’re married, to be sure, and they say, to such a beauty!”
Polozov turned his eyes away. “Yes, they say so.”
Sanin laughed. “I see you’re just the same … as phlegmatic as you were
at school.”
“Why should I be different?”
“And they do say,” Sanin added with special emphasis on the word “do,”
“that your wife is very rich.”
“They say that too.”
“Do you mean to say, Ippolit Sidorovitch, you are not certain on that
point?”
“I don’t meddle, my dear Dimitri … Pavlovitch? Yes, Pavlovitch!—in my
wife’s affairs.”
“You don’t meddle? Not in any of her affairs?”
Polozov again shifted his eyes. “Not in any, my boy. She does as she
likes, and so do I.”
“Where are you going now?” Sanin inquired.
“I’m not going anywhere just now; I’m standing in the street and
talking to you; but when we’ve finished talking, I’m going back to my
hotel, and am going to have lunch.”
“Would you care for my company?”
“You mean at lunch?”
“Yes.”
“Delighted, it’s much pleasanter to eat in company. You’re not a great
talker, are you?”
“I think not.”
“So much the better.”
Polozov went on. Sanin walked beside him. And Sanin
speculated—Polozov’s lips were glued together, again he snorted
heavily, and waddled along in silence—Sanin speculated in what way had
this booby succeeded in catching a rich and beautiful wife. He was not
rich himself, nor distinguished, nor clever; at school he had passed
for a dull, slow-witted boy, sleepy, and greedy, and had borne the
nickname “driveller.” It was marvellous!
“But if his wife is very rich, they say she’s the daughter of some sort
of a contractor, won’t she buy my estate? Though he does say he doesn’t
interfere in any of his wife’s affairs, that passes belief, really!
Besides, I will name a moderate, reasonable price! Why not try?
Perhaps, it’s all my lucky star…. Resolved! I’ll have a try!”
Polozov led Sanin to one of the best hotels in Frankfort, in which he
was, of course, occupying the best apartments. On the tables and chairs
lay piles of packages, cardboard boxes, and parcels. “All purchases, my
boy, for Maria Nikolaevna!” (that was the name of the wife of Ippolit
Sidorovitch). Polozov dropped into an arm-chair, groaned, “Oh, the
heat!” and loosened his cravat. Then he rang up the head-waiter, and
ordered with intense care a very lavish luncheon. “And at one, the
carriage is to be ready! Do you hear, at one o’clock sharp!”
The head-waiter obsequiously bowed, and cringingly withdrew.
Polozov unbuttoned his waistcoat. From the very way in which he raised
his eyebrows, gasped, and wrinkled up his nose, one could see that
talking would be a great labour to him, and that he was waiting in some
trepidation to see whether Sanin was going to oblige him to use his
tongue, or whether he would take the task of keeping up the
conversation on himself.
Sanin understood his companion’s disposition of mind, and so he did not
burden him with questions; he restricted himself to the most essential.
He learnt that he had been for two years in the service (in the Uhlans!
how nice he must have looked in the short uniform jacket!) that he had
married three years before, and had now been for two years abroad with
his wife, “who is now undergoing some sort of cure at Wiesbaden,” and
was then going to Paris. On his side too, Sanin did not enlarge much on
his past life and his plans; he went straight to the principal
point—that is, he began talking of his intention of selling his estate.
Polozov listened to him in silence, his eyes straying from time to time
to the door, by which the luncheon was to appear. The luncheon did
appear at last. The head-waiter, accompanied by two other attendants,
brought in several dishes under silver covers.
“Is the property in the Tula province?” said Polozov, seating himself
at the table, and tucking a napkin into his shirt collar.
“Yes.”
“In the Efremovsky district … I know it.”
“Do you know my place, Aleksyevka?” Sanin asked, sitting down too at
the table.
“Yes, I know it.” Polozov thrust in his mouth a piece of omelette with
truffles. “Maria Nikolaevna, my wife, has an estate in that
neighbourhood…. Uncork that bottle, waiter! You’ve a good piece of
land, only your peasants have cut down the timber. Why are you selling
it?”
“I want the money, my friend. I would sell it cheap. Come, you might as
well buy it … by the way.”
Polozov gulped down a glass of wine, wiped his lips with the napkin,
and again set to work chewing slowly and noisily.
“Oh,” he enunciated at last…. “I don’t go in for buying estates; I’ve
no capital. Pass the butter. Perhaps my wife now would buy it. You talk
to her about it. If you don’t ask too much, she’s not above thinking of
that…. What asses these Germans are, really! They can’t cook fish. What
could be simpler, one wonders? And yet they go on about ‘uniting the
Fatherland.’ Waiter, take away that beastly stuff!”
“Does your wife really manage … business matters herself?” Sanin
inquired.
“Yes. Try the cutlets—they’re good. I can recommend them. I’ve told you
already, Dimitri Pavlovitch, I don’t interfere in any of my wife’s
concerns, and I tell you so again.”
Polozov went on munching.
“H’m…. But how can I have a talk with her, Ippolit Sidorovitch?”
“It’s very simple, Dimitri Pavlovitch. Go to Wiesbaden. It’s not far
from here. Waiter, haven’t you any English mustard? No? Brutes! Only
don’t lose any time. We’re starting the day after to-morrow. Let me
pour you out a glass of wine; it’s wine with a bouquet—no vinegary
stuff.”
Polozov’s face was flushed and animated; it was never animated but when
he was eating—or drinking.
“Really, I don’t know, how that could be managed,” Sanin muttered.
“But what makes you in such a hurry about it all of a sudden?”
“There is a reason for being in a hurry, brother.”
“And do you need a lot of money?”
“Yes, a lot. I … how can I tell you? I propose … getting married.”
Polozov set the glass he had been lifting to his lips on the table.
“Getting married!” he articulated in a voice thick with astonishment,
and he folded his podgy hands on his stomach. “So suddenly?”
“Yes … soon.”
“Your intended is in Russia, of course?”
“No, not in Russia.”
“Where then?”
“Here in Frankfort.”
“And who is she?”
“A German; that is, no—an Italian. A resident here.”
“With a fortune?”
“No, without a fortune.”
“Then I suppose your love is very ardent?”
“How absurd you are! Yes, very ardent.”
“And it’s for that you must have money?”
“Well, yes … yes, yes.”
Polozov gulped down his wine, rinsed his mouth, and washed his hands,
carefully wiped them on the napkin, took out and lighted a cigar. Sanin
watched him in silence.
“There’s one means,” Polozov grunted at last, throwing his head back,
and blowing out the smoke in a thin ring. “Go to my wife. If she likes,
she can take all the bother off your hands.”
“But how can I see your wife? You say you are starting the day after
to-morrow?”
Polozov closed his eyes.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said at last, rolling the cigar in his lips,
and sighing. “Go home, get ready as quick as you can, and come here. At
one o’clock I am going, there’s plenty of room in my carriage. I’ll
take you with me. That’s the best plan. And now I’m going to have a
nap. I must always have a nap, brother, after a meal. Nature demands
it, and I won’t go against it. And don’t you disturb me.”
Sanin thought and thought, and suddenly raised his head; he had made up
his mind.
“Very well, agreed, and thank you. At half-past twelve I’ll be here,
and we’ll go together to Wiesbaden. I hope your wife won’t be angry….”
But Polozov was already snoring. He muttered, “Don’t disturb me!” gave
a kick, and fell asleep, like a baby.
Sanin once more scanned his clumsy figure, his head, his neck, his
upturned chin, round as an apple, and going out of the hotel, set off
with rapid strides to the Rosellis’ shop. He had to let Gemma know.