On Sunday Tatiana Markovna had guests for the second breakfast. The
covers had been removed from the purple damask-covered chairs in the
reception room. Yakob had rubbed the eyes of the family portraits with a
damp rag, and they appeared to look forth more sharply than on ordinary
days. The freshly waxed floors shone. Yakob himself paraded in a dress
coat and a white necktie, while Egorka, Petrushka and Stepka, the latter
of whom had been fetched from the village and had not yet found his legs,
had been put into old liveries which did not fit them and smelt of moth.
The dining-room and the reception room had been fumigated just before
the meal.
Tatiana Markovna herself, in a silk dress and shawl, with her cap on the
back of her head, sat on the divan. Near her the guests had taken their
places in accordance with their rank and dignity. The place of honour
was occupied by Niel Andreevich Tychkov, in a dress coat with an order,
an important old gentleman whose eyebrows met in his great fat face,
while his chin was lost in his cravat. The consciousness of his dignity
appeared in every gesture and in his condescending speech. Next him sat
the invariably modest Tiet Nikonich, also in a dress coat, with a glance
of devotion for Tatiana Markovna, and a smile for all. Then followed the
priest in a silk gown with a broad embroidered girdle, the councillors
of the local court, the colonel of the garrison, ladies from the town;
young officials who stood talking in undertones in a corner; young girls,
friends of Marfinka, who timidly clasped their damp hands and
continually changed colour; finally a proprietor from the neighbourhood
with three half-grown sons.
When the company had already been assembled for some little time at the
breakfast-table, Raisky entered. He felt that he was playing the rôle of
an actor, fresh to the place, making his first appearance on the
provincial stage after the most varying reports had been spread about
him.
Tatiana Markovna introduced him as “My nephew, the son of my late niece
Sfonichka,” though everybody knew who he was. Several people stood up to
greet him. Niel Andreevich, who expected that he would come and speak to
him, gave him a friendly smile; the ladies pulled their dresses straight
and glanced at the mirror; the young officials who were standing eating
off their plates in the corner shifted from one foot to the other; and
the young girls blushed still more and pressed their hands as if danger
threatened.
Raisky bowed to the assembled guests, and sat down beside his aunt on
the divan.
“Look how he throws himself down,” whispered a young official to his
neighbour. “His Excellency is looking at him.”
“Niel Andreevich has been wanting to see you for a long time,” said
Tatiana Markovna aloud, adding under her breath, “His Excellency, don’t
forget.” In the same low tone Raisky asked who the little lady was with
the fine teeth and the well-developed figure.
“Shame, Boris Pavlovich,” and aloud, “Niel Andreevich, Borushka has been
desiring to present himself to you for a long time.”
Raisky was about to reply when Tatiana Markovna pressed his hand,
enjoining silence.
“Why have you not given me the pleasure of a visit from you before,”
said Niel Andreevich with a kindly air. “Good men are always welcome.
But it is not amusing to visit us old people, and the new generation do
not care for us, do they? And you hold with the young people. Answer
frankly.”
“I do not divide mankind into the old and the new generation,” said
Raisky, helping himself to a slice of cake.
“Don’t hurry about eating; talk to him,” whispered Tatiana Markovna.
“I will eat and talk at the same time,” he returned aloud.
Tatiana Markovna looked confused, and turned her back on him.
“Don’t disturb him,” continued Niel Andreevich. “Young people are like
that. I am curious to know how you judge men, Boris Pavlovich.”
“By the impression they produce on me.”
“Admirable. I like you for your candour. Let us take an example. What is
your opinion of me?”
“I am afraid of you.”
Niel Andreevich laughed complacently.
“Tell me why. You may speak quite plainly.”
“Why I am afraid of you? They say you find fault with everybody,” he
went on, heedless of Tatiana Markovna’s efforts to interrupt. “My
Grandmother tells me that you lectured one man for not having attended
Mass.”
Tatiana Markovna went hot all over, and taking off her cap, put it down
behind her.
“I am glad she told you that. I like to have my doings correctly
reported. Yes, I do lecture people sometimes. Do you remember?” he
appealed to the young men at the door.
“At your service, your Excellency,” answered one of them quickly,
putting one foot forward and his hands behind his back. “I once received
one.”
“And why?”
“I was unsuitably dressed.”
“You came to me one Sunday after Mass. I was glad to see you, but
instead of appearing in a dress coat, you came in a short jacket.”
At this point Paulina Karpovna rustled in, wearing a muslin dress with
wide sleeves so that her white arms were visible almost to the shoulder.
She was followed by a cadet.
“What heat! _Bonjour, Bonjour_,” she cried, nodding in all
directions, and then sat down on the divan beside Raisky.
“There is not room here,” he said, and sat down on a chair beside her.
“Ah, Dalila Karpovna,” remarked Niel Andreevich. “Good-day. How are
you?”
“Good-day,” she answered drily, turning away.
“Why don’t you bestow a kind glance on me, and let me admire your
swanlike neck!”
The young officials in the corner giggled, the ladies smiled, and
Paulina Karpovna whispered to Raisky: “The rude creature. The first word
he speaks is folly.”
“Ah, you despise an old man. But if I were to seek for your hand? Do I
look like a bridegroom, or am I too old for you?”
“I decline the honour. _Bonjour_, Natalie Ivanovna, where did you
buy that pretty hat, at Madame Pichet’s?”
“My husband ordered it from Moscow, as a surprise for me.”
“Very pretty.”
“But listen seriously,” cried Niel Andreevich insistently. “I am going
to woo you in earnest. I need a housekeeper, a modest woman, who is no
coquette, and has no taste for finery, who never glances at another man,
and you are an example.”
Paulina Karpovna pretended not to hear, but fanned herself and attempted
to draw Raisky into a conversation.
“In our esteem,” went on Niel Andreevich, pitilessly, “you are a model
for our mothers and daughters. At church your eyes remain fixed on the
sacred picture without a moment’s diversion, and never even perceive the
presence of young men....”
The giggling in the corner increased, the ladies made faces in their
efforts to restrain their laughter, and Tatiana Markovna tried to divert
Niel Andreevich’s attention from her guest, by herself addressing her,
but he returned to the attack.
“You are as retiring as a nun,” he went on, “never display your arms and
shoulders, but bear yourself in accordance with your years.”
“Why don’t you leave me alone?” returned Paulina Karpovna, and turning
to Raisky she added: “_Est-il bête, grossier_.”
“Because I wish to marry you, we are a suitable pair.”
“It will be difficult to find a wife for you.”
“We are well matched. I was still an assessor when you married the late
Ivan Egorovich. And that must be--”
“How hot it is! Stifling! Let us go into the garden. Please give me my
mantilla, Michel,” she said turning to the cadet who had come with her.
At this moment Vera appeared, and the company rose and crowded round her,
so that the conversation took another turn. Raisky was bored by the
guests, and by the exhibition he had just witnessed. He would have left
the room, but that Vera’s presence provided a strong incentive to remain.
Vera looked quickly round at the guests, said a few words here and there,
shook hands with the young girls, smiled at the ladies, and sat down on
a chair by the stove. The young officials smoothed their coats, Niel
Andreevich kissed her hand with evident pleasure, and the girls fixed
their eyes on her. Meanwhile Marfinka was busily employed in pouring out
time, handing dishes and particularly in entertaining her friends.
“Vera Vassilievna, my dear, do take my part,” cried Niel Andreevich.
“Is any one offending you?”
“Indeed there is. There is Dalila, no, Pelageia Karpovna--”
“Impertinent creature,” said that lady aloud, as she rose and went
quickly towards the door.
Tatiana Markovna also rose. “Where are you going, Paulina Karpovna?” she
cried. “Marfinka, do not let her go.”
“No, no, Tatiana Markovna,” came Paulina Karpovna’s voice from the hall,
“I am always grateful to you, but I do not wish to meet such a loon. If
my husband were alive, no man would dare....”
“Do not be vexed; he means nothing by it, but is in reality a decent old
gentleman.”
“Please let me go. I will come again and see you when he is not here,”
she said as she left the house in tears.
In the room she had left everyone was in gay humour, and Niel Andreevich
condescended to share the general laughter, in which however, neither
Raisky nor Vera joined. Paulina Karpovna might be eccentric, but that
did not excuse either the loonish amusement of the people assembled or
the old man’s attacks. Raisky remained gloomily silent, and shifted his
feet ominously.
“She is offended and has departed,” remarked Niel Andreevich, as Tatiana
Markovna, visibly agitated returned, and resumed her seat in silence.
“It won’t do her any harm, but will be good for her health. She
shouldn’t appear naked in society. This is not a bathing establishment.”
At this point the ladies lowered their eyes, and the young girls grew
crimson, and pressed their hands nervously together.
“Neither should she stare about her in church and have young men
following her footsteps. Come, Ivan Ivanovich, you were once her
indefatigable cavalier. Do you still visit her?” he asked a young man
severely.
“Not for a long time, your Excellency. I got tired of forever exchanging
compliments.”
“It’s a good thing you have given it up. What an example she sets to
women and young girls, going about dressed in pink with ribbons and
frills, when she is over forty. How can anybody help reading her a
lecture? You see,” he added turning to Raisky, “that I am only a terror
to evildoers. Who has made you fear me?”
“Mark,” answered Raisky, to the excitement of all present.
“What Mark?” asked Niel Andreevich, frowning.
“Mark Volokov, who is in exile here.”
“Ah! that thief. Do you know him?”
“We are friends.”
“Friends!” hissed the old man. “Tatiana Markovna, what do I hear?”
“Don’t believe him, Niel Andreevich. He does not know what he is talking
about. What sort of a friend of yours is he?”
“Why, Grandmother, did he not sup here with me and spend the night?
Didn’t you yourself give orders to have a soft bed made up for him?”
“Boris Pavlovich, for pity’s sake, be silent,” whispered his aunt
angrily.
But Tychkov was already looking at her with amazement, the ladies with
sympathy, while the men stared and the young girls drew closer to one
another. Vera looked round the company, thanking Raisky by a friendly
glance, and Marfinka hid behind her aunt.
“What a confession! You admitted this Barabbas under your roof,” said
Niel Andreevich.
“Not I, Niel Andreevich. Borushka brought him in at night, and I did not
even know who was sleeping in his room.”
“You go round with him at night? Don’t you know that he is a suspicious
character, an enemy of the administration, a renegade from Church and
Society. So he has been telling you about me?”
“Yes,” Raisky said.
“By his description I am a wild beast, a devourer of men.”
“No, you do not devour them, but you allow yourself, by what right God
only knows, to insult them.”
“And did you believe that?”
“Until to-day, no.”
“And to-day?”
“To-day, I believe it,” agreed Raisky to the terror and agitation of the
company. Most of the officials present escaped to the hall, and stood
near the door listening.
“How so,” asked Niel Andreevich haughtily.
“Because you have just insulted a lady.”
“You hear, Tatiana Markovna.”
“Boris Pavlovich, Borushka,” she said, seeking to restrain him.
“That old fashion-plate, that frivolous, dangerous woman!”
“What do her faults matter to you. Who gave you the right to judge other
people?”
“Who gave you the right, young man, to reproach me? Do you know that I
have been in the service for forty years, and that no minister has ever
made the slightest criticism to me.”
“My right is that you have insulted a lady in my house. I should be a
miserable creature to permit that. If you don’t understand that, the
worse for you.”
“If you receive a person who is, to the knowledge of the whole town,
a frivolous butterfly, dressing in a way unsuited to her age, and
leaving unfulfilled her duties to her family....”
“Well, what then?”
“Then both you and Tatiana Markovna deserve to hear the truth. Yes, I
have been meaning to tell you for a long time, Matushka.”
“Frivolity, flightiness and the desire to please are not such terrible
crimes. But the whole town knows that you have accumulated money through
bribery that you robbed your own nieces and had them locked up in an
asylum. Yet my Grandmother and I have received you in our house, and you
take it upon yourself to lecture us.”
The guests who heard this indictment were horror-stricken. The ladies
hurried out into the hall without taking leave of their hostess, the
rest followed them like sheep, and soon all were gone. Tatiana Markovna
motioned Marfinka and Vera to the door, but Marfinka alone obeyed the
indication. As for Niel Andreevich he had become deadly pale.
“Who,” he cried, “who has brought you these tales? Speak! That brigand
Mark? I am going straight to the Governor. Tatiana Markovna, if this
young man again sets foot in your house, you and I are strangers.
Otherwise within twenty four hours, both he and you and your whole
household shall be transferred to a place where not even a raven can
penetrate with food. Who? Who told him? I will know. Who? Speak,” he
hissed, gasping for breath, and hardly knowing what he said.
“Stop talking rubbish, Niel Andreevich,” commanded Tatiana Markovna,
rising suddenly from her place. “You will explode with fury. Better
drink some water. You ask who has said it. There is no secret about it,
for I have said it, and it is common knowledge in the town.”
“Tatiana Markovna!” shrieked Niel Andreevich.
“You have your deserts. Why make so much noise about it? In another
person’s house you attack a woman, and that is not the action of a
gentleman.”
“How dare you speak like that to me?”
Raisky would have thrown himself on him if his aunt had not waved him
aside. Then with the commanding dignity she knew how to assume, she put
on her cap, wrapt herself in her shawl, and went right up to Niel
Andreevich, while Raisky looked on in amazement, with a sense of his own
smallness in her majestic presence.
“Who are you?” she began. “A clerk in the chancellery, an upstart. And
yet you dare to address a noblewoman with violence. You have too good an
opinion of yourself, and have asked for your lesson, which you shall
have from me once and for all. Have you forgotten the days when you used
to bring documents from the office to my father, and did not dare to sit
down in my presence, when you used to receive gifts from my hand on
feast-days? If you were an honest man no one would reproach you. But you
have, as my nephew says, accumulated stolen wealth, and it has been
endured out of weakness. You should hold your tongue, and repent in your
old age of your evil life. But you are bursting, intoxicated with pride.
Sober yourself and bow your head. Before you stands Tatiana Markovna
Berezhkov, and also my nephew Boris Pavlovich Raisky. If I had not
restrained him he would have thrown you out of the house, but I prefer
that he should not soil his hands with you; the lackeys are good
enough.”
As she stood there with blazing eyes, she bore a close resemblance to a
portrait of one of her ancestors that hung on the wall. Tychkov turned
his eyes this way and that seemingly beside himself with rage.
“I shall write to St. Petersburg,” he gasped, “the town is in danger.”
Then he slunk out, so agitated by her furious aspect that he dared not
raise his eyes to her face.
Tatiana Markovna maintained her proud bearing, though her fingers
grasped nervously at her shawl. Raisky approached her hesitatingly,
seeing in her, not his aunt, but another, and to him an almost unknown
woman.
“I did not understand the majesty of your temperament. But I make my bow,
not as a grandson before to an honoured grandmother, but as man to woman.
I offer you my admiration and respect, Tatiana Markovna, best of women,”
he said, kissing her hand.
“I accept your courtesy, Boris Pavlovich, as an honour which I have
deserved. Do you accept for your honourable championship the kiss, not
of a grandmother, but of a woman.”
As she kissed him on the cheek, he received another kiss from the other
side.
“This kiss is from another woman,” said Vera in a low voice as she left
the room, before Raisky’s outstretched arms could reach her.
“Vera and I have not spoken to one another, but we have both understood
you. We do, in fact, talk very little, but we resemble one another,”
said Tatiana Markovna.
“Granny, you are an extraordinary woman!” cried Raisky, looking at her
with as much enthusiasm as if he saw her for the first time.
“Drive to the Governor’s, Borushka, and tell him exactly what has
happened so that the other party may not be first with his lying
nonsense. I am going to beg Paulina Karpovna’s pardon.”