At home I betook myself for further information to Narkiz. He, as I
might have anticipated, was somewhat unapproachable, stood a little on
his dignity, expressed his surprise that such paltry matters could
‘interest’ me, and, finally, told me what he knew. I heard the
following details.
Vassily Fomitch Guskov had become acquainted with Agrafena Ivanovna
Teliegin at Moscow soon after the suppression of the Polish
insurrection; her husband had had a post under the governor-general, and
Vassily Fomitch was on furlough. He fell in love with her there and
then, but did not leave the army at once; he was a man of forty with no
family, with a fortune. Her husband soon after died. She was left
without children, poor, and in debt.... Vassily Fomitch heard of her
position, threw up the service (he received the rank of brigadier on his
retirement) and sought out his charming widow, who was not more than
five-and-twenty, paid all her debts, redeemed her estate.... From that
time he had never parted from her, and finished by living altogether in
her house. She, too, seems to have cared for him, but would not marry
him. ‘She was froward, the deceased lady,’ was Narkiz’s comment on this:
‘My liberty,’ she would say, ‘is dearer to me than anything.’ But as for
making use of him--she made use of him ‘in every possible way,’ and
whatever money he had, he dragged to her like an ant. But the
frowardness of Agrafena Ivanovna at times assumed extreme proportions;
she was not of a mild temper, and somewhat too ready with her hands....
Once she pushed her page-boy down the stairs, and he went and broke two
of his ribs and one leg.... Agrafena Ivanovna was frightened ... she
promptly ordered the page to be shut up in the lumber-room, and she did
not leave the house nor give up the key of the room to any one, till the
moans within had ceased.... The page was secretly buried.... ‘And had it
been in the Empress Catherine’s time,’ Narkiz added in a whisper,
bending down, ‘maybe the affair would have ended there--many such deeds
were hidden under a bushel in those days, but as ...’ here Narkiz drew
himself up and raised his voice:’ as our righteous Tsar Alexander the
Blessed was reigning then ... well, a fuss was made.... A trial
followed, the body was dug up ... signs of violence were found on it ...
and a great to-do there was. And what do you think? Vassily Fomitch took
it all on himself. “I,” said he, “am responsible for it all; it was I
pushed him down, and I too shut him up.” Well, of course, all the judges
then, and the lawyers and the police ... fell on him directly ... fell
on him and never let him go ... I can assure you ... till the last
farthing was out of his purse. They’d leave him in peace for a while,
and then attack him again. Down to the very time when the French came
into Russia they were worrying at him, and only dropped him then. Well,
he managed to provide for Agrafena Ivanovna--to be sure, he saved
her--that one must say. Well, and afterwards, up to her death, indeed,
he lived with her, and they do say she led him a pretty dance--the
brigadier, that is; sent him on foot from Moscow into the country--by
God, she did--to get her rents in, I suppose. It was on her account, on
account of this same Agrafena Ivanovna--he fought a duel with the
English milord Hugh Hughes; and the English milord was forced to make a
formal apology too. But later on the brigadier went down hill more and
more.... Well, and now he can’t be reckoned a man at all.’
‘Who was that Alexey Ivanitch the Jew,’ I asked, ‘through whom he was
brought to ruin?’
‘Oh, the brother of Agrafena Ivanovna. A grasping creature, Jewish
indeed. He lent his sister money at interest, and Vassily Fomitch was
her security. He had to pay for it too ... pretty heavily!’
‘And Fedulia Ivanovna the plunderer--who was she?’
‘Her sister too ... and a sharp one too, as sharp as a lance. A
terrible woman!’