On that early morning when Lichonin so suddenly, and, perhaps,
unexpectedly even to himself, had carried off Liubka from the gay
establishment of Anna Markovna it was the height of summer. The trees
still remained green, but in the scent of the air, the leaves, and the
grass there was already to be felt, as though from afar, the tender,
melancholy, and at the same time bewitching scent of the nearing
autumn. With wonder the student gazed at the trees, so clean, innocent
and quiet, as though God, imperceptibly to men, had planted them about
here at night; and the trees themselves were looking around with wonder
upon the calm blue water, that still seemed slumbering in the pools and
ditches and under the wooden bridge thrown across the shallow river;
upon the lofty, as though newly washed sky, which had just awakened,
and, in the glow of dawn, half asleep, was smiling with a rosy, lazy,
happy smile in greeting to the kindling sun.
The heart of the student expanded and quivered; both from the beauty of
the beatific morning, and from the joy of existence, and from the sweet
air, refreshing his lungs after the night, passed without sleep, in a
crowded and smoke-filled compartment. But the beauty and loftiness of
his own action moved him still more.
Yes, he had acted like a man, like a real man, in the highest sense of
that word! Even now he is not repenting of what he had done. It’s all
right for them (to whom this “them” applied, Lichonin did not properly
understand even himself), it’s all right for them to talk about the
horrors of prostitution; to talk, sitting at tea, with rolls and
sausage, in the presence of pure and cultured girls. But had any one of
his colleagues taken some actual step toward liberating a woman from
perdition? Eh, now? And then there is also—the sort that will come to
this same Sonechka Marmeladova, will tell her all sorts of taradiddles,
describe all kinds of horrors to her, butt into her soul, until he
brings her to tears; and right off will start in crying himself and
begin to console her, embrace her, pat her on the head, kiss her at
first on the cheek, then on the lips; well, and everybody knows what
happens next! Faugh! But with him, with Lichonin, the word and the deed
were never at odds.
He clasped Liubka around the waist, and looked at her with kindly,
almost loving, eyes; although, the very same minute, he himself thought
that he was regarding her as a father or a brother.
Sleep was fearfully besetting Liubka; her eyes would close, and she
with an effort would open them wide, so as not to fall asleep again;
while on her lips lay the same naive, childish, tired smile, which
Lichonin had noticed still there, in the cabinet. And out of one corner
of her mouth ran a thin trickle of saliva.
“Liubka, my dear! My darling, much-suffering woman! Behold how fine it
is all around! Lord! Here it’s five years that I haven’t seen the
sunrise. Now play at cards, now drinking, now I had to hurry to the
university. Behold, my dearest, over there the dawn has burst into
bloom. The sun is near! This is your dawn, Liubochka! This is your new
life beginning. You will fearlessly lean upon my strong arm. I shall
lead you out upon the road of honest toil, on the way to a brave combat
with life, face to face with it!”
Liubka eyed him askance. “There, the fumes are still playing in his
head,” she thought kindly. “But that’s nothing—he’s kind and a good
sort. Only a trifle homely.” And, having smiled with a half-sleepy
smile, she said in a tone of capricious reproach:
“Ye—es! You’ll fool me, never fear. All of you men are like that. You
just gain yours at first, to get your pleasure, and then—no attention
whatsoever!”
“I? Oh? That I should do this!” Lichonin exclaimed warmly and even
smote himself on the chest with his free hand. “Then you know me very
badly! I’m too honest a man to be deceiving a defenseless girl. No!
I’ll exert all my powers and all my soul to educate your mind, to widen
your outlook, to compel your poor heart, which has suffered so, to
forget all the wounds and wrongs which life has inflicted upon it. I
will be a father and a brother to you! I shall safeguard your every
step! And if you will come to love somebody with a truly pure, holy
love, then I shall bless that day and hour when I had snatched you out
of this Dantean hell!”
During the continuation of this flaming tirade the old cabby with great
significance, although silently, began laughing, and from this
inaudible laughter his back shook. Old cabbies hear very many things,
because to the cabby, sitting in front, everything is readily audible,
which is not at all suspected by the conversing fares; and many things
do the old cabbies know of that which takes place among people. Who
knows, perhaps he had heard more than once even more disordered, more
lofty speeches?
It seemed to Liubka for some reason that Lichonin had grown angry at
her, or that he was growing jealous beforehand of some imaginary rival.
He was declaiming with entirely too much noise and agitation. She
became perfectly awake, turned her face to Lichonin with wide open,
uncomprehending, and at the same time submissive eyes, and slightly
touched his right hand, lying on her waist, with her fingers.
“Don’t get angry, my sweetie. I’ll never exchange you for another.
Here’s my word of honour, honest to God! My word of honour, that I
never will! Don’t you think I feel you’re wanting to take care of me?
Do you think I don’t understand? Why, you’re such an attractive, nice
little young fellow. There, now, if you were an old man and homely...”
“Ah! You haven’t got the right idea!” shouted Lichonin, and again in
high-flown style began to tell her about the equal rights of women,
about the sacredness of toil, about human justice, about freedom, about
the struggle against reigning evil.
Of all his words Liubka understood exactly not a one. She still felt
herself guilty of something and somehow shrank all up, grew sad, bowed
her head and became quiet. A little more and she, in all probability,
would have burst out crying in the middle of the street; but
fortunately, they by this time had driven up to the house where
Lichonin was staying.
“Well, here we are at home,” said the student. “Stop, driver!”
And when he had paid him, he could not refrain from declaiming with
pathos, his hand extended theatrically straight before him:
“And into my house, calm and fearless,
As its full mistress walk thou in!”
And again the unfathomable, prophetic smile wrinkled the aged brown
face of the cabby.