The sun was setting when Raisky returned home, and was received at the
door by Marfinka.
“Where did you get lost, Cousin?” she asked him. “Grandmother is very
angry, and is grumbling....”
“I was with Leonti,” returned Raisky indifferently.
“I thought so, and told Grandmother so, but she won’t listen and will
hardly speak even to Tiet Nikonich. He is with her now and Paulina
Karpovna too. Go to Grandmother, and it will be all right. Are you
afraid. Does your heart beat fast?”
Raisky had to laugh.
“She is very angry. We had prepared so many dishes.”
“We will eat them up for supper.”
“Will you? Grandmother, Grandmother,” she cried happily, “Cousin has
come and wants his supper.”
His aunt sat severely there, and did not look up when Raisky entered.
Tiet Nikonich embraced him. He received an elegant bow from Paulina
Karpovna, an elaborately got-up person of forty-five in a low cut muslin
gown, with a fine lace handkerchief and a fan, which she kept constantly
in motion although there was no heat.
“What a man you have grown! I should hardly have known you,” said Tiet
Nikonich, beaming with kindness and pleasure.
“He has grown very, very handsome,” said Paulina Karpovna Kritzki.
“You have not altered, Tiet Nikonich,” remarked Raisky. “You have hardly
aged at all, and are as gay, as fresh, as kind and amiable....”
“Thank God! there is nothing worse than rheumatism the matter with me,
and my digestion is no longer quite as good as it was. That is age, age.
But how glad I am that you, our guest, have arrived in such good spirits.
Tatiana Markovna was anxious about you. You will be staying here for
some time?”
“Of course you will spend the summer with us,” said Paulina Karpovna.
“Here is nature, and fine air, and so many people are interested in
you.”
He looked at her askance, and said nothing.
“Do you remember me?” she asked. Boris’s aunt noticed with displeasure
that Paulina Karpovna was ogling her nephew.
“No, I must confess I forgot.”
“Yes, impressions are quickly forgotten in the capital,” she said in
a languishing tone. She looked him up and down and then added, “What an
admirable travelling suit.”
“That reminds me I am still in my travelling clothes. Egor must be sent
for and must take my clothes and linen out of the trunk. For you, Granny,
and for you, my dear sisters, I have brought some small things for
remembrance.”
Marfinka grew crimson with pleasure.
“Granny, where are you going to put me up?”
“The house belongs to you. Where you will,” she returned coldly.
“Don’t be angry, Granny,” he laughed. “It won’t happen twice.”
“You may laugh, you may laugh, Boris Pavlovich. Here, in the presence of
our guests, I tell you you have behaved badly. You have hardly put your
nose inside the house, and straightway vanish. That is an insult to your
Grandmother.”
“Surely, Granny, we shall be together every day. I have been visiting an
old friend, and we forgot ourselves in talking.”
“Cousin Boris did not do it on purpose, Granny,” said Marfinka. “Leonti
Ivanovich is so good.”
“Please be silent when you are not addressed. You are too young to
contradict your Grandmother, who knows what she is saying.”
Smilingly Marfinka drew back into her corner.
“No doubt Juliana Andreevna was able to entertain you better, and knows
better than I how to entertain a Petersburger. What friccassee did she
give you?” asked his aunt, not without a little real curiosity.
“Vermicelli soup, pastry with cabbage, then beef and potatoes.”
Tatiana Markovna laughed ironically, “Vermicelli soup and beef!”
“And groats in the pan....”
“It’s a long time since you tasted such delicacies.”
“Excellent dishes,” said Tiet Nikonich kindly, “but heavy for the
digestion.”
“To-morrow, Marfinka,” said the old lady, “we will entertain our guest
with a gosling, pickled pork, carrots, and perhaps with a goose.”
“A goose, stuffed with groats, would be acceptable,” put in Raisky.
“Indigestible!” protested Tiet Nikonich. “The best is a light soup, with
pearl barley, a cutlet, pastries and jelly; that is the proper midday
meal.”
“But I should like groats.”
“Do you like mushrooms too, Cousin?” asked Marfinka. “Because we have so
many.”
“Rather! Can’t we have them for supper tonight?”
In spite of Tiet Nikonich’s caution against this heavy food, Tatiana
Markovna sent Marfinka to Peter and to the cook to order mushrooms for
supper.
“If there is any champagne in the cellar, Granny, let us have a bottle
up. Tiet Nikonich and I would like to drink your health. Isn’t that so,
Tiet Nikonich?”
“Yes, to celebrate your arrival, though mushrooms and champagne are
indigestible.”
“Tell the cook to bring champagne on ice, Marfinka,” said the old lady.
_“Ce que femme veut,”_ said Tiet Nikonich amiably, with a slight
bow.
“Supper is a special occasion, but one ought to dine at home too. You
have vexed your Grandmother by going out on the very day of your
return.”
“Ah, Tatiana Markovna,” sighed Paulina Karpovna, “our ways here are so
bourgeois, but in the capital....”
The old lady’s eyes blazed, as she pointed to the wall where hung the
portraits of Raisky’s and the young girls’ parents, and exclaimed:
“There was nothing bourgeois about those, Paulina Karpovna.”
“Granny,” said Raisky, “let us allow one another absolute freedom. I am
now making up for my absence at midday, and shall be here all night. But
I can’t tell where I shall dine to-morrow, or where I shall sleep.”
Paulina Karpovna could not refrain from applauding, but his aunt looked
at him with amazement, and inquired if he were really a gipsy.
“Monsieur Raisky is a poet, and poets are as free as air,” remarked
Paulina Karpovna. Again she made play with her eyes, shifted the pointed
toes of her shoes in an effort to arouse Raisky’s attention. The more
she twisted and turned, the more icy was his indifference, for her
presence made an uncomfortable impression on him. Marfinka observed the
by-play and smiled to herself.
“You have two houses, land, peasants, silver and glass, and talk of
wandering about from one shelter to another like a beggar, like
Markushka, the vagrant.”
“Markushka again! I must certainly make his acquaintance.”
“No, don’t do that and add to your Grandmother’s anxieties. If you see
him, make your escape.”
“But why?”
“He will lead you astray.”
“That’s of no consequence, Grandmother. It looks as if he were an
interesting individual, doesn’t it, Tiet Nikonich?”
“He is a riddle to everybody,” Tiet Nikonich answered with a smile. “He
must have gone astray very early in life, but he has apparently good
brains and considerable knowledge, and might have been a useful member
of society.”
Paulina Karpovna turned her head away, and dismissed Mark with the
criticism, “No manners.”
“Brains! You bought his brains for three hundred roubles. Has he repaid
them?” asked Tatiana Markovna.
“I did not remind him of his debt. But to me he is, for the matter of
that, almost polite.”
“That is to say he does not strike you, or shoot in your direction. Just
imagine, Boris, that he nearly shot Niel Andreevich.”
“His dogs tore my train,” complained Paulina Karpovna.
“Did he never visit you unceremoniously at dinner again?” Tatiana
Markovna asked Tiet Nikonich.
“No, you don’t like me to receive him, so I refuse him admission. He
once came to me at night,” he went on, addressing Raisky. “He had been
out hunting, and had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours. I gave him
food, and we passed the time very pleasantly.”
“Pleasantly!” exclaimed Tatiana Markovna. “How can you say such things?
If he came to me at that hour, I would settle him. No, Boris Pavlovich,
live like other decent people. Stay with us, have dinner with us, go out
with us, keep suspicious people at a distance, see how I administer your
estate, and find fault if I do anything wrong.”
“That is so monotonous, Grandmother. Let us rather live each one after
his own ideas and inclinations.”
“You are an exception,” sighed his aunt.
“No, Grandmother, it is you who are an exceptional woman. Why should we
bother about one another.”
“To please your Grandmother.”
“Why don’t you want to please your Grandson? You are a despot,
Grandmother.”
“A despot! Boris Pavlovich, I have waited anxiously for you, I have
hardly slept, have tried to have everything as you liked it.”
“But you did all that because activity is a pleasure to you. All this
care and trouble is a pleasant stimulant, keeps you busy. If Markushka
came to you, you would receive him in the same fashion.”
“You are right, Cousin,” broke in Marfinka. “Grandmother is kindness
itself, but she tries to disguise it.”
“Don’t give your opinion when it is not asked. She contradicts her
Grandmother only when you are here, Boris Pavlovich; at other times she
is modest enough. And now the ideas she suddenly takes into her head. I?
entertain Markushka!”
“You did as you pleased,” continued Raisky. “And then when it entered my
head too to do as I pleased, I disturbed your arrangements and made a
breach in your despotism. Isn’t that so, Granny? And now kiss me, and we
will give one another full liberty.”
“What a strange boy? Do you hear, Tiet Nikonich, what nonsense he
talks.”
On that evening Tatiana Markovna and Raisky concluded, if not peace, at
least a truce. She was assured that Boris loved and esteemed her; she
was, in truth, easily convinced. After supper Raisky unpacked his trunk,
and brought down his gifts; for his aunt, a few pounds of excellent tea,
of which she was a connoisseur, a coffee machine of a new kind, with a
coffee-pot, and a dark brown silk dress; bracelets with monograms for
his cousins; and for Tiet Nikonich vest and hose of Samian leather, as
his aunt had desired.
Tatiana Markovna, with tears in her eyes, sat down beside him, and
putting her hand on his shoulder said, “And you remembered me?”
“Whom else should I remember? You are my nearest and dearest,
Grandmother.”
When Tiet Nikonich and Paulina Karpovna took leave, the lady said that
she had left orders with no one to fetch her, and that she hoped someone
would accompany her, looking towards Raisky as she spoke. Tiet Nikonich
expressed himself ready to see her home.
“Egorka could have taken her,” whispered Tatiana Markovna. “Why didn’t
she stay at home; she was not invited.”
“Thank you, thank you,” said Paulina Karpovna to Raisky as she passed
him.
“What for?” asked Raisky in amazement.
“For the pleasant, witty conversation, although it was not directed to
me. What pleasure it gave me!”
“A practical conversation about groats, a goose, and a quarrel with
Grandmother.”
“Ah, I understand,” she continued, “but I caught two glances, which were
intended for me, confess they were. I am filled with hope and
expectation.”
As she went out Raisky asked Marfinka what she was talking about.
“She’s always like that,” laughed Marfinka.
Tatiana Markovna followed Raisky to his room, smoothed the sheets of his
bed once more, drew the curtains so that the sun should not awaken him
in the morning, felt the feather bed to test its softness, and had a jug
of water placed on the table beside him. She came back three times to
see if he were asleep or wanted anything. Touched by so much kindly
thought he recognised that his grandmother’s activity was not only
exerted to gratify herself.