When Tatiana Markovna returned from the ferry she sat down to work at
her accounts, but soon laid them aside, and dismissed the servants. She
asked for Raisky, who had gone over to see Koslov because he did not
want to be left alone with his aunt. She sent across to ask Vera whether
she was coming to dinner. Vera said that she would rather stay in her
room and go to bed early.
In the courtyard a scene by no means unusual was being enacted. Savili
had nearly broken Marina’s back with a severe beating because he had
seen her slipping out at dawn from the room in which Vikentev’s servant
was quartered. She hid herself in the fields and the vegetable garden,
but at last she emerged, thinking that he would have forgotten. He
struck her with the whip while she sought refuge in one corner after
another, swearing by all that was sacred that the devil had taken on her
figure and had made a fool of him. But when he exchanged the whip for
the stick she cried out aloud at the first blow and fell at his feet. “I
am guilty,” she cried, begging for mercy. She promised not to transgress
again, calling God to witness of her sincerity. Thereupon Savili threw
away the stick and wiped his face with his sleeve.
“You may go this time,” he said, “since you have confessed, and since
you call God to witness.”
Tatiana Markovna was informed of this proceeding, but she only wrinkled
her forehead, and made a sign to Vassilissa not to be too severe with
Marina.
There were visitors to dinner who had heard of Vera’s indisposition and
had come to inquire. Tatiana Markovna spoke of a chill, suffering all
the time from her insincerity, since she did not know what was the truth
that lay behind this feigned illness. She had not dared to send for the
doctor, who would have immediately seen that it was a moral, not a
physical malady.
She ate no supper; Tiet Nikonich politely said that he had no appetite
either. Then came Raisky, who also wanted no supper, but sat silently at
table pretending not to notice the glances which Tatiana Markovna
directed towards him from time to time.
When Tiet Nikonich had made his bow and departed, Tatiana Markovna
prepared to retire. She hardly looked at Raisky when she bade him
good-night, because her affections and her self-esteem were both too
deeply wounded. A secret and serious misfortune had befallen the family,
but she was left on one side like a stranger, as if she were a useless,
incapable woman. Raisky said in a low voice that he must speak with her.
“Bad news?” she whispered, shivering and looking fixedly at him before
she passed with him into her own room. She dropped into her old chair
and pushed the lamp farther away, first covering it with a shade, so
that the room was dimly lighted. Raisky began his tale as cautiously as
possible, but his lips trembled and now and again his tongue refused its
office, but he collected all his strength and went on, although towards
the end of his story his voice was hardly audible.
Dawn had come, but throughout the long hours Tatiana Markovna had sat
motionless and speechless with bowed head, giving vent now and then to a
low moan. Raisky fell on his knees before her and implored her, “Go to
Vera’s help.”
“She has sent too late for Grandmother. God will go to her help. Spare
her and console her as you know how to do. She no longer has a
Grandmother,” she said, going towards the door.
“Grandmother, what is the matter with you?” cried Raisky barring her way.
“You have no longer a Grandmother,” she said absently. “Go, go.” As he
did not obey, she cried angrily, “Don’t come here. I will see no one.
You must all of you leave me in peace.” He would have replied, but she
made an impatient gesture with her hand. “Go to her,” she continued.
“Help her as far as you can. Grandmother can do nothing: you have no
longer a Grandmother.”
She made another gesture with her hand, so imperious this time that he
went without further parley, but he concealed himself in the yard and
watched her window. Tatiana Markovna sank back in her chair and closed
her eyes, and for a long time she remained there, cold and stiff as if
she were a dead woman. Raisky, who had not gone to bed, and Vassilissa
and Yakob as well, saw Tatiana Markovna with her head uncovered and her
Turkish shawl thrown round her shoulders leave the house in the early
morning and go out into the garden. It was as if a bronze figure had
descended from its pedestal and had begun to walk.
She passed through the flower garden and then through the avenue to the
precipice; then, striding slowly along, with her head held high and
without looking round, she went down the face of the cliff, and
disappeared. Concealing his presence in the trees, Raisky hurried after
her, following her as she passed deeper and deeper down the precipice
and until she reached the arbour, where she paused. Raisky came closer,
and held his breath as he listened to Tatiana Markovna’s heavy sighs,
and then heard her whisper, “My sin.” With her hands above her head she
walked hastily on, until she came to the bank of the river and stood
still. The wind wound her dress round her ankles, disordered her hair,
and tugged at her shawl, but she noticed nothing. A terrible idea dawned
on Raisky that she intended to drown herself. But his aunt turned back
as she had come, with slow strides which left deep prints in the damp
sand. Raisky breathed more freely; but when, following her track in a
parallel direction, he caught sight of her face, he held his breath in
horror at the agony he saw written there. She had spoken truly, their
grandmother existed no longer. This was not grandmother, not Tatiana
Markovna, the warm-hearted mistress of Malinovka, where the life and
prosperity of the whole place depended on her, the wise and happy ruler
of her little kingdom. It was as if she were not walking of her own
accord but was driven on by an impulse exterior to herself, as
unconscious of her movements she climbed the steep hill through the
brushwood, with her shawl hanging down from her shoulders dragging its
corners in the dust; her eyes, from which stony horror looked forth,
were unwinking; her manner was that of a moonstruck woman. Raisky found
it difficult to follow her. She paused once, leaning both hands on a
tree. “My sin,” she exclaimed again. “How heavy is the burden! If it is
not lightened, I can bear it no longer.” She began again to climb
quickly up the hill, surmounting the difficulties of the steep path
with unnatural strength and leaving tags of her dress and her shawl
behind her in the bushes.
Overcome with amazement and horror, Raisky watched this new strange
woman. He knew that only great souls conquer heavy trouble with strength
like hers. They have wings like eagles to soar into the clouds and eagle
eyes to gaze into the abyss. This was not his grandmother; she seemed to
him to be one of those feminine figures which emerge from the family
circle in the supreme moments of life under the heavy blows of fate, who
bear great misfortunes majestically and are not overwhelmed. He saw in
her a Jewess of the olden days, a noble woman of Jerusalem, who scorns
the prophecy that her people will lose their fame and their honour to
the Romans, but when the hour of fate has arrived, when the men of
Jerusalem are watering its walls with their tears and beating their
heads against the stones, then she takes the ornaments from her hair,
puts on mourning garments, and goes on her pilgrimage wherever the hand
of Jehovah leads. His mind went back to another queen of misfortune, to
the Russian Marfa, the enemy of the city of Moscow, who maintained her
defiance even in her chains, and, dying, directed the destiny of free
Novgorod. Before his imagination there passed a procession of other
suffering women, Russian Tsaritsas, who, at the wish of their husbands,
had adopted the dress of the nun and had maintained their intellect and
their strength of character in the cloister....
Raisky diverted his attention from these unsummoned apparitions, and
looked attentively at the suffering woman before him. Tatiana Markovna’s
kingdom was perishing. Her house was left desolate; her dearest treasure,
her pride, her pearl, had been taken from her, and she wandered lonely
among the ruins. When she paused in her walk in order to collect her
strength, she tottered and would have fallen but for an inner whisper
which assured her she would yet reach her goal. She pulled herself
together, and wandered on until evening. Half asleep, terrified by her
crowding fancies, she spent the night on the sofa. At dawn she rose, and
went once more to the precipice. With her head resting on the bare
boards she sat for a long time on the crumbling threshold of the arbour,
then she went through the fields, and was lost in the thicket on the
bank of the river. By chance her steps led her to the chapel, where new
terror seized her at the sight of the picture of the Christ. She fell on
her knees like a wounded animal, covered her face with her shawl, and
moaned, “My sin! my sin!”
Tatiana Markovna’s servants had lost their heads in terror. Vassilissa
and Yakob hardly stirred from the church. She intended, if her mistress
recovered, to make her pilgrimage on foot to Kiev in order to venerate
the miracle worker; he promised to the patron saint of the village a
thick wax candle ornamented with gold. The rest of the servants hid
themselves, and only looked shyly out after their mistress as she
wandered distraught through the fields and the woods.
For two days already Tatiana Markovna had eaten nothing. Raisky indeed
tried to restrain her from leaving the house again, but she waved him
imperiously away. Then with decision he took a jug of water, came up to
her, and took her hand. She looked at him as if she did not know who he
was, then mechanically seized the jug in her trembling hand, and drank
greedily in big mouthfuls.
“Grandmother, come home again, and do not make both yourself and us
wretched,” he begged. “You will kill yourself.”
“It is God’s will; I shall not lose my reason, for I am upheld by His
strength. I must endure to the end. Do you raise me if I fall. My sin!”
she murmured and went on her way. After she had gone a few steps, she
turned round and he ran to her.
“If I do not survive,” she began, signing to him to bow his head. Raisky
knelt down, and she pressed his head to her breast, laid her hands on it
and kissed him. “Accept my blessing, deliver it to Marfinka, and to her,
to my poor Vera. Do you understand, to her also.”
“Grandmother!” he cried, kissing her hand.
She tore her hand away, and set out to wander once more through the
thicket, by the river bank, and in the fields. A devout soul obeys its
own laws, thought Raisky, as he dried his tears; only a saint could
suffer like this for the object of her love.
Things were not going any better with Vera. Raisky made haste to tell
her of his conversation with their aunt; when she sent for him early
next morning, in her anxiety to have news of Tatiana Markovna, he
pointed out of the window, and Vera saw how Tatiana Markovna was
drifting, urged on by the heavy hand of misfortune. For a moment she
caught sight of her expression, and sank horrified on the floor, but she
pulled herself up again, ran from one window to the other, and stretched
her hands out towards her grandmother. Then she rushed through the wide
empty hall of the old house in a wild desire to follow Tatiana Markovna,
but she realised in time that it would have killed her aunt if she
approached her just now. Vera was conscious now how deeply she had
wounded another life so close to her own, as she saw the tragic figure
of her aunt, so happy until recently and now bearing the punishment of
another’s sin. Raisky brought her Tatiana Markovna’s blessing, and Vera
fell on his neck and wept for a long time.
On the evening of the second day, Vera was found sitting in a corner of
the great hall, half dressed. Raisky and the priest’s wife, who had just
arrived, led her almost by force into her room and laid her down on the
bed. Raisky sent for the doctor, to whom he tried to explain her
indisposition. The doctor prescribed a sedative, which Vera drank
without being any calmer for it; she often waked in her sleep to ask
after her grandmother.
“Give me something to drink ... don’t say a word. Do not let anyone come
to see me. Find out what Grandmother is doing.” It was just the same in
the night. When she awoke, she would whisper, “Grandmother doesn’t come,
Grandmother doesn’t love me any more. She has not forgiven me.”
On the third day Tatiana Markovna left the house without being observed.
After two sleepless nights, Raisky had lain down and had given
instructions to wake him if she left the house, but Yakob and Vassilissa
had gone to early Mass, and the other servants had paid no attention.
Later on Savili saw that his mistress, catching hold of the trees as she
went, was making her way from the precipice to the fields. Raisky
hurried after her and watched her slow return to the house; she stood
still, looked round as if she were saying goodbye to the group of houses,
groped with her hands, and swayed violently. Then he rushed up to her,
brought her back to the house with Vassilissa’s help, put her in her
armchair and sent for the doctor. Vassilissa fell on her knees before
her mistress.
“Little mother! Tatiana Markovna,” she begged, “come back to us. Make
the sign of the Cross.”
Tatiana Markovna crossed herself, sighed, and signed that she could not
speak and wanted something to drink. Vassilissa undressed her, wrapped
her in warm sheets, rubbed her hands and feet with spirit, and then gave
her some warm wine to drink. The doctor prescribed for her, but said
that it was most important of all that she should not be disturbed, but
should be allowed to sleep.
An incautious word that Tatiana Markovna was ill reached Vera’s ears.
She pushed past Natalie Ivanovna, and wanted to go over to the new house;
Raisky had great difficulty in persuading her to abandon her intention
as Tatiana Markovna lay in a deep sleep. In the evening Vera was worse,
she had fever and was delirious, and during the night she flung herself
from one side to another, calling on her grandmother in her sleep, and
weeping. Raisky wanted to call the old doctor; he waited impatiently
till the morning and spent his time in going from Vera to Tatiana
Markovna, and from Tatiana Markovna back to Vera.
As Vera’s condition had not improved next morning, Raisky went with
Vassilissa into Tatiana Markovna’s bedroom, where they found the old
lady in the same state as she had been in the whole of the day before.
“I am afraid of going near her in case I alarm her,” he whispered.
“Should I awaken the mistress?”
“She must be awakened. Vera Vassilievna is ill, and I don’t know whether
I ought to send for the old doctor.”
The words were hardly out of his mouth when Tatiana Markovna sat up. “Is
Vera ill?” she said in a low voice.
Raisky breathed more freely, for his aunt, in her present anxiety, had
lost the stony expression of yesterday. She signed to him to leave the
room. Half an hour later she was walking across the courtyard to the old
house with trouble plainly depicted on her face, but apparently without
a trace of weariness. She entered Vera’s room cautiously, and when she
saw the pale sleeping face, whispered to Raisky, “Send for the old
doctor.” She now noticed for the first time the priest’s wife and her
weary eyes; she embraced Natalie Ivanovna, and advised her kindly to go
and get a whole day’s rest.
When the doctor arrived, Tatiana Markovna gave him an ingenious
explanation of Vera’s indisposition. He discovered symptoms of a nervous
fever and prescribed medicine; but on the whole he did not think that
serious consequences need be expected if the patient could be kept quiet.
Vera was half asleep when she took the medicine and towards evening fell
fast asleep. Tatiana Markovna sat down at the head of the bed, watching
her movements and listening to her breathing. Presently Vera woke up and
asked, “Are you asleep, Natasha?”
As she received no answer she closed her eyes, but she could not go to
sleep again, and the darkness seemed to her to be a dark and terrible
prison. After a time she asked for something to drink. Someone handed
her a cup.
“How is Grandmother?” asked Vera, opening her eyes only to close them
again immediately. “Natasha, where are you? Come here. Why are you
hiding?” she sighed and fell asleep again. Presently she woke again and
whispered pitifully, “Grandmother doesn’t come. Grandmother loves me no
longer, and has not forgiven me.”
“Grandmother is here. She loves you and has forgiven you.”
Vera sprang from the bed and rushed up to Tatiana Markovna.
“Grandmother,” she cried, half fainting and hiding her head on her
breast.
Tatiana Markovna put her to bed again, leaned her grey head by Vera’s
white suffering face, while the girl in a low voice, with sighs and
tears, made her confession on her breast. Her aunt listened without
speaking, and presently wiped away Vera’s tears with her handkerchief,
and kissed her warmly and affectionately.
“Do not waste your caresses on me, Grandmother; only do not leave me. I
do not deserve your caresses. Keep your kisses for my sister.”
“Your sister is no longer in need of my caresses. But I need your love.
If you forsake me, Vera, I shall be a desolate old woman.” Tatiana
Markovna wept.
“Mother, forgive me,” whispered Vera, embracing her with her whole
strength. “I have not been obedient to you, and God has punished me,”
she went on, but Tatiana Markovna shut her mouth with a kiss.
“Do not talk like that, Vera,” interrupted her grandmother, who had
turned pale with horror and once more wore the aspect of the old woman
who had been wandering about in the thicket by the precipice.
“Yes, I thought that my own brain and will were self-sufficing, that I
was wiser than you all.”
“You are wiser than I and have more learning,” said Tatiana Markovna,
breathing more freely. “God has given you a clear understanding, but you
have not my experience.”
Vera thought that she had more experience also, but she merely said,
“Take me away from here. There is no Vera any longer. I want to be your
Marfinka. Take me away from this old house over there to you.”
The two heads rested side by side on the pillow. They lay in a close
embrace and fell asleep.