To my surprise, on the bank of earth around one of the first huts of
the village, I saw Andrey Ivanovich, with his long legs reaching almost
to the very middle of the street. As I approached, he looked utterly
unconcerned.
“What are you doing, Andrey Ivanovich?”
“Drinking tea. Did you think I was waiting for you? Don’t flatter
yourself. When the cloud passes, I’m going on.”
“Fine.”
“And your adored——”
“Who?”
“Those wanderers, people of God.... Please see what they’re doing in that
hut! Go, look: it’s nothing; don’t be ashamed....”
I walked up to the window. The hut was full. The peasants of the village
were all away on business and so there were only women present. A few
young women and girls were still running back and forth past me. The
windows were open and illuminated, and I could hear within the even voice
of Avtonomov. He was teaching the dissenters.
“Come, join us,” I suddenly heard the low voice of Ivan Ivanovich. He was
standing in a dark corner near the gate.
“What are you doing?”
“Fooling the people. That’s what they’re doing,” interrupted Andrey
Ivanovich.
The little wanderer coughed, and, squinting at Andrey Ivanovich, he said:
“What can we do, sir?”
He bent toward me and whispered:
“The old dissenters think Gennady Sergeich is a runaway priest. It’s
dark. What can we do? We may not get anything. And, besides, there’s
nothing else to do. Won’t you come in?”
“Let’s go in, Andrey Ivanovich.”
“What I haven’t seen there?” he answered, turning away. “Go,—kiss them. I
think enough of myself not to do this, for I wear a cross.”
“So do we,” Ivan Ivanovich spoke with a mild tone of reproach.
Andrey Ivanovich whistled suspiciously, and then, with a serious look on
his face, he called to me:
“Do you know this disreputable crowd?”
With an enigmatic glance at me, he added in a lower tone:
“Did you understand?”
“No, I didn’t. Good-bye. If you want to, wait for me.”
“We’ve nothing to wait for. Some people don’t understand....”
I didn’t hear the rest of the sentence, because I went into the hut with
Ivan Ivanovich.
Our entrance caused some excitement. The preacher noticed me and stopped.
“Oh! We thank you,” he said, pushing the women aside. “Please. Won’t
you have a little cup of tea? Here’s the samovar, even though it’s a
dissenting village.”
“Did I disturb you?”
“What nonsense. Woman, bring the samovar! Quick!”
“Do you use that weed, too?” asked a young woman with a full bosom and
bashful, coal-black eyes, who was standing in the front.
“If the gentleman will permit,—it will give me pleasure, ... and I’ll
drink another....”
“If you please,” I said.
“Please give me a cigarette.”
I gave it to him. He lighted it and looked laughingly at the surprised
women. A murmur of dissatisfaction ran through the hut.
“Do you suck that?” asked the young woman spitefully.
“Of course.... According to the Scriptures, it is permitted.”
“In what part?—teach us, please.”
He smoked on and then he threw the cigarette over the heads of the women
into a basin of water.
“He’s thrown it away,” said the hostess, fussing around the samovar.
“Don’t throw it away, fool; you’ll set the place on fire,” interrupted
another.
“Afire? If the well won’t stop that, you’d better put out the fire in the
kitchen.”
“What are you thinking of? Everything is done nowadays. Even the priests
smoke.”
“Of course, of course. You’ve a voice like a bell. You ought to be in a
convent choir. Come with me.”
He reached for her. She cleverly turned aside, bending her beautiful
form, while the other women, laughing and spitting, ran out of the hut.
“W-what a priest,” said a thin woman with childishly open eyes. She was
in evident terror. “T-teacher!”
“Yes, he’ll teach us.”
“Teach us,” laughed a soldier’s wife, coming forward and resting her
cheek on her fat hand. “Teach us something easy and sweet.”
“Yes! We’ll sigh for you.”
“I’ll teach you. What is your name, beauty?”
“I’m called what I’m called and nicknamed Gray Duck. What do you want?”
“You, Gray Duck. Give us some vodka,—heavens, they’ll pay up.”
“Get what? We’ll get it.”
She looked at me questioningly and cunningly.
“Please, a little,” I said.
The soldier’s wife hurried from the hut. Laughing and pushing, two or
three women ran out after her. The hostess looked displeased but she put
the samovar on the table and without a word she sat down on the bench and
commenced to work. The children watched us curiously from their plank
beds.
Laughing and panting, the soldier’s wife put on the table a bottle
of some sort of greenish liquid. Then she walked away from the table
and looked at us laughingly and boldly. Ivan Ivanovich coughed from
embarrassment and the temporary widows still in the hut gazed at us in
secret expectation. After the first cups, the preacher of the evening
lifted the skirts of his cassock and stamped around the Gray Duck, who
avoided his caresses.
“Go away!” She waved her hand, and, with a provokingly challenging glance
at me, she walked up to the table.
“Why don’t you drink? Look at them,—they’ll finish it, I bet. Go ahead
and drink.”
Smiling and shrugging her shoulders, she filled a glass and brought it to
me.
“Don’t drink!” These words, in an unexpectedly venomous tone, came
through the window, and out of the darkness appeared the bony face of
Andrey Ivanovich.
“Don’t drink the vodka, I tell you!” he repeated, still more sternly, and
again disappeared in the darkness.
The soldier’s wife let the glass tremble and spill. Thoroughly frightened
she looked out of the window.
“May the power of the cross help us,—what was that?”
Everyone felt ill at ease. The vodka was exhausted and the question was
whether to get more and continue, or to end now. Ivan Ivanovich looked
at me in timid sorrow, but I had not the slightest desire to continue
this feast. Avtonomov suddenly understood this.
“Really,—it’s time to be going,” he said, walking towards the window.
“But it’s raining outdoors,” said the soldier’s wife, glancing to one
side.
“No. The clouds are all right; ... they look dry.... Get ready, Ivan
Ivanovich.”
We began to get ready. Ivan Ivanovich went out first. When I followed him
into the dark, closed yard, he took my hand and said in a low tone:
“There’s that long-legged fellow waiting by the gate.”
In very truth I made out Andrey Ivanovich by the entrance. Avtonomov,
with his wallet and staff, came out on the porch, holding the soldier’s
wife by the hand. Both figures could be seen in the lighted doorway. The
soldier’s wife did not withdraw her hand.
“Are you going to leave us?” she said in despair. “We thought—you’d
carouse around here.”
“Wait, I’ll be back,—I’ll get rich.”
She looked at him and shook her head.
“Where? You’ll never get rich. You’ll get along, empty....”
“Don’t caw, you crow.... Tell me this: does Irina’s clerk still live by
the cemetery?”
“Stchurovskaya? Yes. He just went to the bazaar. What do you want?”
“This. Let’s see.... He had a daughter, Grunyushka.”
“She’s married.”
“Nearby?”
“To a deacon in the village of Voskresenskoye. The old woman’s there
alone.”
“You say Irina’s husband hasn’t come back?”
“He hasn’t been seen.”
“Is he rich?”
“No, he lives like everyone else.”
“Good-bye!... Glasha-a!”
“Now, now! Don’t call.... You know Glasha is good and not yours. Go
along. There’s nothing to hang around for.”
Kindly pity could be heard in the voice of the village beauty.
Outside the dark figure of Andrey Ivanovich left the gate and hurried
towards us, while at the same time Avtonomov overtook us and silently
went ahead of us.
“You should have stayed till morning,” remarked Andrey Ivanovich grimly.
“I could have waited here!”
“That’s foolish,” I answered coldly.
“How so? Why?”
“Why?—you could have gone on if you didn’t like it.”
“No, thanks for your kindness, I’m not willing to leave a companion....
I’d rather suffer myself than leave him.... We’ve been together three
years, Ivan Anisimovich. Trifles don’t count, I’ve drunk so often in good
company....”
“Yes?”
“They took off my vest; three rubles twenty.... A new pocket book....”
“If you’re blaming Gennady and me for this,” began Ivan Ivanovich,
hurriedly and excitedly, “that’s so mean. Why?... If you have any doubts,
we can go ahead or stay behind....”
“Please don’t pay any attention,” I said, wishing to quiet the poor
fellow.
“What’s the matter?” asked Avtonomov, stopping. “What are you talking
about?”
“They’re so suspicious. Lord, have mercy upon us! Are we really robbers,
the Lord forgive the word?”
Gennady gazed in the darkness into the face of Andrey Ivanovich.
“Oh, the lanky gentleman!... I see!” he said drily. “The man who never
trusts has pleasure, if all he judges by his measure.’ ... The road is
broad....”
He again walked forward quickly and his timid little companion ran after
him. Andrey Ivanovich waited for several seconds. He was surprised that
the stranger had answered in rhythm. He almost started after him, but I
caught his hand.
“What’s the matter with you?” I said angrily.
“You’re sorry for your good companions?” he said spitefully. “Please,
don’t be uneasy. They won’t go far....”
In very truth we caught sight of a black figure near the last houses. It
was Ivan Ivanovich, alone.
He was standing in the road, panting and coughing and holding on to his
breast.
“What’s the matter?” I asked sympathetically.
“Oh, oh! My death!... He went off.... Gennady.... He ordered me not to go
with him.... To go with you. I can’t catch him.”
“That’s all right. Do you know the road?”
“It’s the broad road. He hurried on some place or other.”
“Fine.”
We walked along in the darkness.... A dog barked behind us; I looked
around and saw in the darkness two or three lights in the village, but
they soon disappeared.