IN CAMP
It cannot be denied that, on that momentous evening, the marked interest
of the Grand-Duchess in Ivan and his general success, were out of all
proportion to a performance which, as a matter of fact, any one in the
room could probably have duplicated. True, Princess Helena's unerring
judgment had at once marked the originality, the distinctiveness, of the
young man's improvisation; though she did not fail also to mark his
numberless transgressions of the rigid laws of harmony. And Ivan
himself, when all was over, began to feel some little mortification that
he had so openly betrayed his pleasure in his accomplishment; and he
presently discovered that de Windt himself could teach him points in
progression and modification of which he knew nothing: whereupon, behold
him once again on fire to get to work at his long-delayed,
vaguely-foreshadowed profession.
His rendering of the now celebrated _barcarolle_, had given him an
unquestioned place in the _salon_ of the Grand-Duchess, which henceforth
he frequented regularly. And there he met with both adulation and
opposition. To his secret surprise, Rubinstein, together with his
co-adjutor Zaremba, professed great enthusiasm concerning him, and
unceasingly urged him to enter the Conservatoire. This, at length, he,
in the company of de Windt, tentatively did: taking his place in one of
Zaremba's classes of composition, and undertaking the study of
orchestration under Serov. Here Ivan showed himself phenomenally
prolific in the production of exercises; and he grasped the difficult
principles of composition in a remarkably short space of time.
Unfortunately, however, formal work did not content him; and one day he
carried to Rubinstein two or three eccentric little pieces, on which he
had expended both energy and admiration. Here, at last, the great Anton
found his opportunity. He whipped Ivan's work to rags with sarcastic
criticism; leaving not one measure untouched by his caustic and rather
brutal wit. Next day he received his young pupil's resignation from his
classes; and the gay world regained its pet. For Ivan, in a fit of
childish anger, left his work behind him, and plunged into a furious
round of dissipations, of which gambling now formed the chief. Dawn
after dawn saw him leaving the green tables of either the "Nobility" or
the Yacht clubs; and, as if to applaud his defection, fate decreed that
Ivan could not lose. Baccarat, roulette, piquet, even whist,--Ivan won
at them all, till one drawer in his escritoire was stuffed full of
lightly won notes.
The Countess Dravikine, it seemed, was highly pleased at her nephew's
return to what she considered the only proper society for a member of
her family. And it was probably through some communication of hers that,
during the second week in April, Ivan was astonished at the receipt of a
very good-humored letter from his father, containing much specious
advice upon his conduct, together with the intelligence that,
henceforth, his allowance should be doubled. At this time of his life,
indeed, Ivan might have thrown money into the street by handsful and
still have felt no want. But, as if to add mockery to the situation,
this Ivan was the least extravagant of young men. His wants were
singularly few; and the chief items in his expenditure consisted in the
lending of money to his brother officers; all of whom eventually paid
their debts.
There was one thing, one brief but delightful incident, indirectly
brought about by Madame Dravikine, which Ivan had to cherish during the
long months that ensued.
During the whole of this winter of her cousin's introduction to the
great world, Mademoiselle Nathalie Alexeiovna had remained shut away
from any possible encounter, in the Catherine Institute. As the spring
advanced, however, Mademoiselle Nathalie's mother began to receive
rather disturbing reports concerning the health of the young girl. She
was neither eating nor sleeping; she looked pale and worn; and she lay
on her bed during all the hours of recreation. So Madame la Comtesse
finally sacrificed a charming luncheon and a musical, and went, one
afternoon, to see her daughter for herself. The sight did not prove
reassuring. Nathalie was certainly not well. And the outcome was that,
upon the advice of a doctor, the young lady obtained one month's leave
from her studies and returned home to amuse herself, agreeably, under
the wing of her mother, in the house in the Serghievskaia.
In spite of these things, the details of home life proved less diverting
than the young lady had hoped. To her, accustomed for so many years to a
regular routine of life and the continual companionship of girls of her
own age, the fashionable mode of existence in her father's house was
confusing and unpleasant. Her slight illness did not confine her to her
room. On the contrary, the doctors had prescribed much open-air
exercise, together with early hours. These things not being in the least
in her mother's line of occupations, Mademoiselle Nathalie was driven to
her own resources, and to arrange some sort of programme for herself.
Among the many serfs of the household there was one, Ekaterina
Nicolaievna, who had been her nurse in infancy, and, since the departure
of her demoiselle to the Institute, had become a kind of _chargé
d'affaires_ of the serfs' house. Thus the old woman was accustomed,
quite on her own responsibility, to leave the house every morning, some
hours before her ladyship was awake, and betake herself to the various
markets to buy food for the serfs' quarters, stopping, on the way home,
to say her prayers before Our Lady of Kazan, and regaining the
Serghievskaia before the Countess had rung for the first time. These
excursions, of which, as a matter of fact, her mother was ignorant,
Nathalie now joined, and they soon became a delight to the young girl,
who was still child enough to enjoy early morning rising. It was to her
an excitement to find herself abroad in the quiet streets, to study the
men and women hurrying to their work, to watch the quaint sights of the
hour, listen to the hoarse cries of the innumerable basket-vendors, and
stand by, half terrified, half ashamed, while old Ekaterina bargained
and haggled and quarrelled over her regular purchases of fish, _casha_,
buckwheat flour and _kvass_, which was never made in the Dravikine
household, but bought by each servant for himself out of the inevitable
"tea-money."
On a certain morning in April, a few days before Easter, all the street
merchants were abroad unusually early, and in great numbers. Two days
before there had been a thaw; but now the streets were a sheet of
glittering ice, and walking was a precarious business. Nathalie and her
companion, their day's buying over, had just finished their devotions:
which the girl went through with a reverence quite as deep as that of
the old woman. Emerging upon the Nevskiy Prospekt, they had gone but a
few steps from the famous little chapel, when Nathalie felt a light
touch upon her arm, and lifted her eyes to behold a slender figure,
wrapped in a fur-lined military coat, bending before her. As his head
was raised, the young girl gave a little cry, upon which her guardian
seized her arm protectingly, glaring, the while, at the presumptuous
one:
"Let me go, Katrina! It is my cousin--from Moscow--Ivan
Mikhailovitch!--I knew that you were in Petersburg, Ivan. But--you are
out very early!"
Ivan gave a joyous laugh. He was, as a matter of fact, just returning
from a night of festivity at the Nobility Club. But this, naturally, was
not to be confessed.
"No earlier than you, at least, mademoiselle," he returned. "And will
you accept my escort to wherever you are going?"
Nathalie gave one, quick glance into the old woman's scowling face. Then
the demon of mischief entered into her, and she accepted Ivan's offer.
That fifteen-minute walk to the Serghievskaia, with the lynx-eyed
guardian tramping at his heels, wrought new havoc with Ivan. It took
sixty seconds to perceive that the closely cherished ideal of his
boyhood had been worthy of every moment of adulation expended on it. Two
minutes more, and the intensity of past emotions was quite swallowed up
in the joy of the present. In just what light the maiden regarded him,
she made it difficult enough for him to guess. But the interpretation of
his own feelings,--this furious throbbing of his heart, the awkward
hesitancy of his speech,--was no very difficult matter. When at last he
left her, at her mother's door, he made himself an inward promise that
this should be the first of many such meetings. And when he reached his
own quarters, it was to amaze de Windt by the radiance of his expression
and his apparent lack of fatigue. Though he retired presently to his
room and lay down there, he found sleep to be a thing entirely
undesirable, considering the subject of his waking dreams.
Next morning, somewhat earlier than on the previous day, he entered the
church of the Virgin of Kazan. But though for an hour and a half he saw
every soul that entered there, his cousin did not come. That morning
was a black one. In the afternoon, driven by his folly, he presented
himself, at an absurd hour, at the house of his aunt. There he was
received, promptly. But he was not long left in doubt about the nature
of his welcome. Madame Dravikine, it appeared, had learned the whole
tale of yesterday's walk from the dragoness-serf; and her nephew had to
endure a short and sarcastic sermon upon the nature of etiquette for
young girls which finally sent him from the house, white-faced and
furious. Truly, if his aunt had vented upon him her preposterous species
of jealousy, she had gained thereby no good-will from the young man, who
worshipped her daughter from afar as a creature scarcely to be treated
as a mortal being.
Blindly persistent, Ivan refused to be discouraged by his misadventure.
For a month, at every hour of the day, he watched the door of the
Dravikine residence; but failed, by any strategy, to catch a single
glimpse of his pretty cousin. Nay--one exception there was! Upon a
reception-day he did find her in her mother's drawing-room, seated
before a samovar, prepared to answer "_oui_" or "_non_" to any remark
addressed to her. But Ivan had kept his place beside her for less than
ten minutes when he was superseded by a deprecating envoy from the
Countess. Fifteen minutes later he left the house and went raging home,
to endure, for the first time, serious pangs of jealousy. And, as he sat
listening to de Windt's calm prophecies of Nathalie's success, next
winter, as a débutante, he cursed volubly, under his breath, to think
how soon every wretched _roué_ in the city would be free to pollute the
spotless child with glances, with words, even, in dances, with a clasp
of her waist! De Windt, watching him covertly, said to himself that by
that time, should this madness continue, Ivan would be fit only for an
asylum.
Meantime, the season advanced. The great thaw came; and there would be
no more snow for months. Russia was a sea of mud. All young things were
harkening to the call of the spring: and youthful blood, like sap,
flowed fast. Ivan, vindictively acknowledging that, for the present, his
ideal was quite beyond him, became, to a certain extent, interested in
another woman, whose future career was destined, indeed, to touch his at
points many and strange.
This young person was called Irina Petrovna; and she was a recent
graduate of the Government School of Singing. Her father was one of the
violins in the opera orchestra. And it was a great day for him when his
daughter made her début on the boards over his head. She made her first
appearance in a small rôle of a Mozart opera; achieving precisely the
success predicted for her by her ironic master: a success of form, of
face, above all, of manner. She had but a moderate voice, this
remarkable young person. But she suffered no stage-fright; and though
the ladies of the audience regarded her with no enthusiasm, it was to be
observed that the vast majority of the men in the house, gave her brisk
applause: hailing with delight this legitimate member of the troupe whom
it would certainly be worth while to ask out to supper.
Ivan, rarely enough attracted by women of her type, was in a dangerously
susceptible mood. And de Windt was hardly more displeased than surprised
at the invariable attendance of Ivan on those evenings when Mademoiselle
Petrovna was billed to appear. Ivan himself made no great effort to
analyze the appeal she made to him: an appeal to the baser side of his
nature. But, though he met the young woman more than once, it soon
became evident, even to his friend, that he had no intention of
attaching himself seriously to her following. What it was that held him
back, he did not know: the memory of two sad, gray eyes, a voice raised
for him in warning at the moment when it was about to die into eternal
silence; or the nearer vision of a slender, dark-crowned maid, clad in
whitest draperies;--who shall say? At any rate, Ivan was evidently
determined to keep this latter picture unrivalled in his heart, let
richly dangerous fascinations call to him as they might.
But the young singer herself, it would appear, cherished no such
protective vision. Her professional career in Petersburg was a brief
one. By mid-May, a fortnight before the opera season came to an end,
Mademoiselle Petrovna had left the company and was no longer available
for pleasant little suppers at the Bellevue or the Courteliain. The
matter of her going--and more especially its manner--formed a week's
subject of surmise at the three great clubs. But the retreat of the
charming débutante was not discovered. And if she had taken with her a
companion, the identity of that person was a matter rather of surmise
than of knowledge. For which reasons, probably, the gossip about the
affair gradually ceased, though the subject that replaced it was common
enough, neither spiced nor salted, but found, by more people than one,
to be as indigestible as it was unsavory.
To be plain, June was at hand; and every officer in that capital of
officers, was preparing for his ten weeks of annual drill and roasting
in the camp at Krasnoë-Selo.
In considering the peculiarity of the army regulations in Russia, it
becomes necessary, first of all, to take brief survey of that greatest
and most dread factor of all the life in that Empire, neglected though
it has been by every commentator and critic of civilized nations: a
factor which stands first in the life of every Russian, from the highest
official of the cumbrous governmental machine down to the humblest
descendant of the serfs; both of whom, with every member of every class
between them, lives, and for ten centuries _have_ lived, at the mercy
of that grim and terrible,--_climate_.
It has for some years been the custom among certain foreign nations,
notably the great English-speaking mother and her rebellious offspring,
to set forth, in various forms of print, many individual opinions of
Russia, its people, and its government. Here all the scribbling of the
quasi-authoritative, statistical variety has lately focussed itself,
bursting forth in a very tornado of long-winded, vilificacious
ignorance. Certain subjects may be suitable vehicles for the exploiting
of this species of personal vanity. But of them the most incongruous,
and the most abused, has been the great, white, silent, unprotesting
land. Nothing about it, from its origin to its beverages, but has had to
bear the brunt of outrageous comment, for which the justification
proffered is usually some six weeks' summer residence in the capital,
and perhaps one or two brief "arranged" conversations (by means of an
interpreter), with an official of the third or fourth grade. Such the
source of many a book; though the few English-speaking foreigners who
have enjoyed ten or more years of residence among the Russian people,
would be slow to make a single generalization anent that remarkable
race.
In this class of writings, however, and even among articles of a better
type, there is, strangely enough, nowhere to be found so much as a
straw's weight of stress laid upon the relentless, indestructible cause
of so many of the woes of a country whose struggle for the bare means of
subsistence has been Titanic. Nowhere is there any analysis of the power
that has won so many victories against the one implacable enemy of
Russia: nowhere any suggestion of the million strategic _coups_ by which
a handful of feeble human beings have again and again defeated this
gigantic force. Above all, has no one ever given pause to the
unquestionable fact that, supposing Russia to be (what she is not) five
hundred years behind the rest of European civilization, she has had but
one month out of the other nations' two, in which to progress. If her
armies be worse drilled, less hardy, than those of her enemies, it is
because they live their soldier-lives for scarcely one-third of the
year. And finally, the half-brutal, half-savage, wholly ignorant
condition of her one hundred and forty million peasants, is due, not in
any wise to the tyranny of mere kings and overlords, but to the
relentless, never-dying, never-staying cruelty of that unconquerable
ruler, whose abuse of power is to be stopped by neither rebellion nor
assassination; and whose heart is to be warmed to humanity by no tears,
by no appeal; by the lashes of whose frozen knouts a great people has
been beaten into apathy, their brains deadened through physical
suffering, their children's children bearing a hopeless heritage down to
generation after generation of those who wage, from birth to death,
their dreary, dragging warfare with the real tyrant of Russia, monarch
unlimited and unapproachable, the Winter of the North.
It is, then, in this grim fact, that there is to be found the origin of
the curious custom of the Russian army to take all its lessons in the
art of warfare, together with all discipline, drill, and general
training, during those ten weeks of summer when the daily parade will
not produce a hospitalful of frozen ears, hands and feet. During the
winter, indeed, only the guard regiments, quartered in the large cities,
are kept at anything like full complement, the whole army of the line
dispersing to village and farm, country estate and smaller town, whence,
in the first weeks in June, they come pouring into the half-dozen huge
camps stationed at various points of the Empire. These camps had all of
them been designed by Nicholas I., and they serve his purpose to this
day. Of them all, the most important is naturally that nearest the
capital and, therefore, under royal supervision: Krasnoë-Selo, distant
from Petersburg between fifteen and eighteen miles, and about half a
mile from the little town of that name. Thither, therefore, Ivan and
Vladimir were about to proceed, with their regiment.
Naturally enough every cadet, before leaving his Corps, was made aware
of many of the facts of this camp-life. But its more intimate details,
those making the existence tolerable or intolerable, were to be
discovered only by experience; and, moreover, depended largely upon the
name and the reputation of the individual, and the standing of his
regiment.
Ivan himself obtained considerable information from de Windt, to whom
camp life was by no means a novelty. Certainly the work would be hard,
the days long, and the quarters the opposite of luxurious. At the same
time Ivan, rather weary of his idle existence, looked forward with some
enthusiasm to aiding his captain in whipping their company into shape.
Despite the fact that their regiment was one of the few that remained in
barracks during the winter, it was in anything but "crack" condition.
Indeed, as its under-officers admitted, sadly, among themselves, they
were living now upon their past reputation, gained in a year when they
had led the camp in marching, and won the medals for drill and the
spotless nattiness of their arms and uniforms. They had fairly earned
their nickname of the "Imperial Dandies." But that had been in the time
of Mezéntsoff. Since the day when his promotion had brought his
adjutant, Brodsky, to the colonelcy, the regiment had retrograded
steadily. And now, it appeared, they were about to reach their climax of
disgrace. Already there were whispers in the air concerning the utter
incompetency of their leader. But it was left for the first month at
Krasnoë to reveal to the whole army the dire truth of the whispers.
Meantime, as the northern days lengthened till the night was a bare two
hours in length, the great houses of the Admiralty quarter were closing,
one by one. The city was filling with merchants, come down from
Helsingfors and the various Finnish towns, for their annual holiday; and
there was the usual invasion of ubiquitous tourists, whose dread of the
Russian winter led them to visit the city at the dismal season when
brown holland covers and fast-boarded windows shroud and coffin the
corpse of the dead winter. In short, the season, Ivan's first season,
was over. The imperial family were at Peterhoff. Tsarskoë-Selo was
brilliant with arrivals from the cream of the court society, among whom,
naturally, the Dravikines occupied a foremost place. The Grand-Duchess
Helena, with both Rubinsteins in her train, had gone to Baden-Baden to
drink the waters and listen to half a dozen summer concerts which the
brothers were to conduct. Lastly, two young officers, Ivan and de Windt,
were closing their snug apartment, and preparing kits suitable for tent
accommodation. The younger of the two men, looking back over the
happenings of his first winter in the great world, that first winter of
his happiness, felt in his heart a pang of regret that those bright
months were gone, carrying with them the great beautiful freshness which
was so soon to pass out of his life forever. There might--nay, there
should, be a hundred more winters, some one of which should bring with
it events greater than any he had known. But never again would one of
them hold for him a touch of the same unlooked-for delight, the same
exquisite joy at the welcome of the world for him, that he had known
this year. He wondered, vaguely, if his mother knew how all that
bitterness of his birth, the sting of his father's whispered reputation,
had been removed from him. And as he prayed that this might be, he
yearned for one hour of her presence, of that unselfish interest in all
that interested him; for but a dozen words of her gentle but unerring
council, as he had scarcely yearned for her through the first days after
her death. But Ivan was, at this time, little given to melancholies; and
a laughing question from Vladimir in the next room, brought him back to
realities and his man's work.
Thus, finally, on the second Monday in June, the regiment began its
two-day march to camp; and bore the hours of unaccustomed walking badly
enough to draw upon it the immediate attention of every colonel in the
Corps. But its own colonel was not there to see. The senior Major led
the men to their quarters; and it was not till they had encamped for
four-and-twenty hours that Brodsky made his appearance in the luxurious
double tent prepared for him at a little distance from the end of the
officers' row.
A few days later, upon the evening of the eighteenth of the month, an
erect, smartly uniformed young officer entered a tent midway down the
narrow, canvas-lined street and flung himself, wearily, upon one of the
two camp-beds that flanked the little room. It was several moments
before he rose to remove his accoutrements, his boots and his clothes,
wrap himself in a most unmilitary dressing-gown, and throw himself down
once more with a sigh of relief.
It was past nine o'clock; but the sun was still above the edge of the
horizon, and its beams had that soft, whitish, unnatural light of the
northern summer night. A faint breeze came down from the waters of the
gulf, lifting away the fetid odors of the huge camp, and bringing relief
to the thousands of wet and dirty men who were half prostrated by heat
and unwonted exercise. Ivan, who had lain gazing moodily through the
lifted flap of the tent, had fallen into a light doze before de Windt,
more than ever his companion, came quietly in, and repeated the actions
of his comrade. Finally, when he was comfortably abed and puffing away
at a short meerschaum, he turned to his comrade, stared at him for an
instant, and then called him by name, twice.
At the second summons Ivan started, shook himself, and turned towards
the other bed: "What did you say? When did you come in, Vladimir? How
long since you left the mess?"
"Twenty minutes, about."
"And--?" Ivan paused, for an instant, while a frown appeared between his
brows, "they are--discussing the usual theme?"
"All evening.--It seems there are developments.--But where were you for
dinner?"
The frown deepened. "Potapoff of the engineers had asked me over to
their mess--very civilly.--You know I've seen a good deal of him lately,
because of that survey I've been working out.--I went, suspecting
nothing. But I soon discovered it was only to see how much they could
pump me with regard to--to this d---- situation of ours. I tell you,
it's all through the camp."
De Windt sat up, with an ejaculation of deep disgust. "Well--you
didn't--they didn't get anything out of you, did they?"
"Holy Virgin!--D'ye think I'm _proud_ of the fix? D'ye think the
regiment doesn't mean as much to me as to you?--I left them the minute
tea came in; and I lay here thinking about it when I dozed off."
"Vladimir Vassilyitch, the thing can't go on. It _can't_! We'll be
degraded for good. Two years hence, the report that a fellow's been in
this regiment will come near ruining him.--And yet--what Brodsky's
about, I simply can't fathom. He's been on parade exactly twice since we
pitched tent; and both times, if the men hadn't known his general habits
at manoeuvre, they'd have been stumped to obey. Zedarovsky said he
could barely mumble.--Vladimir, the man's an animal.--But, I say, what
are the developments you spoke of?"
De Windt was silent for an instant, studying the open expression of the
clear-eyed, clean-cut young face before him. During the past winter the
older man had conceived a friendship for Ivan such as he would hardly
have believed himself capable of. Above all things, de Windt was proud
of Ivan's scrupulous morality, and the almost incredible chivalry with
which he regarded all women. Few men attempted to fathom the extent of
his innocence. But it was a fact that conversations of a certain type
were instinctively stopped when this young fellow entered a room--though
it were the lounging-room of the notorious Yacht club itself. It was for
this reason that de Windt paused for a full five minutes, and that
Ivan's impatience was becoming visible, before he answered, gravely:
"Ivan Mikhailovitch, you've seen a good deal of our 'manly' existence
this winter, in Petersburg. I imagine you've got your own opinion of it.
We won't discuss that. But see here, when a man is seen continually
neglecting his duty; when he is constantly rushing off, without a word
to a soul, and is always seen in the same locality; when he's always
half-drunk but refuses companionship, and threatens his servant with the
knout if he examines the address on the letters he writes every few
hours; when he seems to have lost any sense of duty or decency or
position that he has attained to; what is the infallible explanation of
that man's behavior?"
Ivan sprang to his feet. "You mean it's a woman?--Brodsky can't have
married again, surely?"
De Windt smiled. In his mind he marvelled a little, even while he
rejected the idea of either guile or idiocy in Ivan's simple question.
"Why the secrecy, then?--and the ill-temper?--All the same it _is_ a
woman, though. We've all come to that conclusion.--As a matter of fact,
Ivan, Zedarovsky swears he _saw_ her, walking down officers' row,
probably on her way to the village, two nights ago. By his watch, she
had just time to catch the last train,--the eleven-twenty-five, for
Petersburg. She was going rapidly, with her head down. She wore a thick
white veil, too. And yet he swears also that--he recognized her."
"_Recognized her!_ Great God, Vladimir, it's not--it can't be--any one
we know?"
"Why not?"
"Oh!--Oh because--that brute!--It would be sickening to think of a
woman's even dining with him!"
"That is probably precisely what she had been doing.--He's certainly
getting rather reckless. But we compared notes; and nobody saw him that
day after five-thirty; and Féodor, his orderly, was on guard at the tent
door all evening, the officer of the watch says.--By Heavens, he'll have
her--"
"But you haven't told me whom they say she is, Vladimir. Tell me!"
De Windt hesitated, and then, lifting his eyes to Ivan's, said, in a
grave voice: "Why should you know, old chap?"
"Because I'm not the fool you take me for.--You've thought me
effeminate, de Windt, I suppose, because I have never--cared to go in
for certain things. But it's not effeminacy, believe me. It's--"
"Don't, Ivan! For Heaven's sake don't dream I want your confidence about
any private matter. All I've ever thought was that you were infinitely
more decent than the rest of us."
A faint flush crept over Ivan's face; but he waived the speech gravely,
and renewed the question. "I do want to know, Vladimir; because I have a
suspicion as to her identity. And--and if it should be the one I
fear,--by Heaven--I've a plan that may help us! Tell me her name!"
"Zedarovsky says that it was--Irina Petrovna, the singer."
Ivan's face paled slightly as he said, in a low voice: "I had a
presentiment it was she.--Well, Vladimir, wish me success! I'm going,
to-morrow evening, when I've arranged matters a little, to Brodsky's
tent to protest, in the name of the regiment, about his behavior."
"Ivan! Good God! He'll have you court-martialled and dismissed from the
regiment!"
"He will do nothing of the sort. And if he does--better that, than have
the old Second go to utter ruin."
"But--but--if you will be foolhardy, at least wait till you've given
some one of the others an opportunity. One of the majors, or the
Adjutant, might do it with less danger. Give them a chance, Ivan!"
"If all things were equal, Vladimir, I'd never dream of arrogating the
interview to myself. But I have a certain power--at least, my father
has, that may, perhaps, properly used, influence Brodsky.--At least, if
it does not, nothing else in the world will!"
After this, though de Windt's curiosity was roused and he was eager to
learn the unsuspected means the use of which had been so long delayed,
he could get nothing but monosyllables out of Ivan, who soon showed
plainly that he would say nothing more concerning it. And, indeed, when
a young and honorable officer has come to the determination to use
blackmail upon his Colonel, be the purpose never so laudable, it is not
a matter that he is likely to talk of, even with his best friend.
Amazing though it may seem, and contrary to every rule of novelistic
heroism, Ivan was determined to do a thing that he had been
contemplating for a week: to bring the terrible, unknown, but accurately
estimated power of his father's map of men to bear upon Colonel Brodsky
of the Grenadier Guards; to return a sobered and battered leader to a
regiment in want; and to rescue--for so Ivan put it to himself--a damsel
in distress from the power of a brutal man, for whom she could not
possibly have any real affection.
In the officers' mess of the Second Grenadiers, the head of the table
was habitually occupied by the senior Major. From the first day of camp
life, Colonel Brodsky had taken his meals in his tent--ostensibly alone.
And, even when every officer and servant in the regiment could see
Brodsky's orderly running back and forth from the mess-kitchen to his
tent, carrying bottle after bottle of sparkling golden wine, the reason
given was still the same: "The Colonel is too much occupied with
regimental affairs to appear at mess."
Many a laugh had gone round the table at this excuse. But by now the
joke was growing bitter; for every private in the camp spluttered in his
_kvass_ at the mere mention of the leader of that once gallant regiment.
Within the month, the whole Second was suffering, keenly, under their
disgrace. And for this reason the youngest lieutenant, when he entered
the mess-room on the evening after his talk with de Windt, found himself
the hero of the table. For Vladimir had taken pains, that day, to
intimate pretty clearly to one or two comrades Ivan's expressed purpose.
Throughout the meal the prospect was discussed, indirectly, or in
whispers, between man and man; but even Ivan was a little startled when,
supper ended, there came a sudden lifting of glasses to him, and a toast
was drunk which, though silent, was unanimous. A moment or two later the
young officer, with a visible straightening of his body, rose, bowed,
and walked out of the tent. None followed him; for it was instinctively
understood that he should return to report his failure or success,
before retiring for the night.
The ranked order of the table was now broken up. The men pulled their
chairs into informal groups, and sat together puffing at cigarettes,
sipping tea, and talking, in a desultory fashion, while the underlying
tension increased, and more than one man wondered a little at the
weakness of his knees and the slight unsteadiness of the hand upholding
glass or match. Vladimir de Windt, Ivan's acknowledged chum, was doubly
concerned and doubly restless. He shuffled his chair from group to
group, his eyes asking anxious and unanswerable questions of each
comrade with whom he discussed the state of the weather. And, indeed,
the great doubt in his mind was echoed in that of every man present:
what would be the outcome of Ivan's audacity? If Brodsky took the
remonstrance in bad part--and who doubted that he would?--what would be
the fate of Gregoriev? Poor fellow! He had undertaken a quixotic task;
and more than one of his fellow-officers regretted that they had not had
the generosity to warn him of what he certainly should himself have
realized--the strong possibility of disgrace.
In such wise there passed a quarter of an hour--twenty minutes--half an
hour--finally, three-quarters. De Windt, now on his feet, was on the
point of starting towards the Colonel's quarters, when--the suspense
ended, and Ivan came quietly in. The young man's face was white and
scowling as he seated himself at the table, poured himself a large drink
of _vodka_ and drank it off, amid the breathless attention of the whole
mess. For three or four minutes they waited, patiently. But at last de
Windt, who could restrain himself no longer, burst forth with:
"Ivan Mikhailovitch, for Heaven's sake tell us what has happened! What
did he say to you? How did he answer your accusation?"
Ivan broke out into an unpleasant laugh. "He tried swearing me out of
his presence," said he. "But that didn't quite do. My visit was--well,
timely, or untimely, whichever way you regard it. It was a curious
scene; but I'm afraid I can't explain it very fully. It was--well, too
intimate. What good I've done, I can't tell, just yet. But, at least,
Fóma Vassilyitch is fully aware of our feelings in regard to his--his
recent mode of existence. Now I must go, gentlemen.--Vladimir, may I
speak to you, for a few minutes, on a private matter?"
With a formal bow, Ivan ended his most unsatisfactory explanation, and
left the tent again, followed eagerly by de Windt.
Outside, however, Ivan's behavior was unexpected. De Windt began, at
once, with a flood of eager, anxious questions; but, when they were a
few hundred feet away from the mess-tent, Gregoriev turned to him,
saying, in a low tone: "Wait a little, Vladimir. The thing has more in
it than you suspect--thank God!--You will be able to guess all that I
can't explain; but you must wait, before I tell you anything, till I've
read--this!" And Ivan drew, from the breast of his uniform, a bit of
crumpled paper, which, smoothing out, he paused in the white twilight to
read. The note, written in a half-formed, feminine hand, ran thus:
"LIEUTENANT GREGORIEV:--You behold me in an unbearable and
misleading position. I am the most unhappy woman in Petersburg;
but, if you will, you can save my whole life for me. I shall get
this to you in some way; and, if you have any pity, any charity, in
your heart, for a woman helpless and friendless, wait up in your
tent, alone, to-night. I know which it is, and I shall come there
as soon as I can get away and walk through the camp, without
observation. All I ask is a brief talk with you.
"With unhappiest salutations, I am
"IRINA PETROVNA."
Ivan read the note through twice. Then, without a word, he handed it to
his companion, and waited till the latter's ejaculation announced that
he also had grasped its significance. Then, leading the way rapidly to
their own tent, Ivan seated himself opposite his companion, and said, in
a low voice:
"Mademoiselle Petrovna was with Brodsky to-night, when I forced my way
past the orderly. She wrote this note and threw it upon the floor at my
feet while Brodsky was facing me. From what I saw, Vladimir, I'm certain
the Colonel hasn't prospered in his siege. For, in spite of all
appearances, I'm convinced that the woman neither belongs to him nor
wishes to yield to him. But for the life of me I can't understand her
continual presence here--in this camp, where--"
The sentence died away. De Windt shook his head, but forbore to utter
his incredulity. Presently he said:
"You'll see her, of course.--And you'll want me to be getting out of
here. I can sleep with Deroiev, easily."
"Thanks, Vladimir.--But, by the way, you'll--that is, I'd prefer, my
good friend, that you should say nothing at all of this incident. I'll
let you know, in the morning, the result of the interview. And I believe
that, through her, we can reach Brodsky and force what we want. I had no
opportunity, to-night, to say what I had planned. He is enraged with me,
just now. But I have no fear of to-morrow. Before he attempts to
court-martial me I shall have a little private interview with him,
and--you shall see that the matter will blow over; and the Second may
take its right place again in the army."
De Windt sprang to his feet, with an exclamation: "Pardieu, Ivan
Mikhailovitch! I begin to think I have never known you, before! You--in
your first year out of the Corps--doing what not one of us dare do! You
make one ashamed--"
"Nonsense, Vladimir Vassilyitch! I tell you, I'd be in the same case as
the rest of you if it were not for--my father. And now, help me to get
the place here in some sort of state to receive--the lady!"
So, laughing, the two fell silently to work.
An hour and a half later the great camp was still and the brief night
had fallen. Ivan, sitting alone in the unwontedly neat little tent, had
ceased to smoke, and had begun, as a matter of fact, to nod, when he was
roused by the hurried entrance of some one whose garments brushed his
knees. He rose, hastily; stared about him in the darkness; and then,
bethinking himself of the probable situation, hurriedly took a
match-safe from his pocket and lighted the night-lamp which stood on the
tiny table. Then he turned to greet the young woman, who had thrown an
enshrouding veil back from her face, and stood before him, waiting.
She was a girl whose face and form were sufficient to excuse the
infatuation of a man of Brodsky's type. Surmounting a figure built on
heroic lines, her noble head seemed as if it must be drawn backward by
the weight of her hair; which she wore without any of the elaborate
side-curls then in fashion, but parted, and coiled low upon her neck, in
unconscious harmony with her classic type. Her creamy skin, her great,
blue eyes, and generously-moulded features, gave one the impression of a
soul similar in size. And, indeed, at this period of her career, there
was little in Irina Petrovna to suggest the sordid, selfish, degraded
woman of later years. To-night she and Ivan, standing close together in
the candle-light, made a noble picture of youth.
Just now, however, appearance was the last thought in either mind. And,
as Ivan remained nervously silent, the girl presently began:
"First of all--let me thank you for doing--what I asked. I have very
little time, now. I must catch the train at one o'clock.--It has just
been put on, you know: and I believe Fóma Vassilyitch got it done
for--for me. He doesn't know, of course, that I am in this tent.
Grigory, his orderly, is always sent to Krasnoë with me. But Grigory is
my friend; and has always let me go and come alone.--I cannot endure
the--the stares, the whispers of the men; and the awful scandal! But I
came here, Lieutenant Gregoriev, to tell you the truth about myself."
"Sit down, mademoiselle, I beg of you! And let me take your cloak.--So.
Now may I offer you anything?--A glass of claret?"
"Nothing, thank you! I must tell you--about myself, and ask your advice
before I go. For I have no one in the world to help me. Listen:
"You think, of course, that I am--a dreadful woman. But I swear to you,
by the Virgin, by the spirit of my mother, that I am--as yet---
absolutely innocent of the wrong I am being forced into! You do not know
the struggle I have made! You don't know what I endured before I
consented to receive Colonel Brodsky's help, two years ago; and again,
before I would let him visit me in Petersburg; and then before I came
here--_here_, to this place, where every man in the camp thinks me--Oh!
I believe, now, that _that_ is why my father insisted:--that, knowing
what every one thought of me, I might become reckless, and--let go. But
I will not--never!--for _that_ creature!" Irina's eyes blazed and her
voice grew vibrant with passionate anger.
"Pardon, Lieutenant. I will try to tell the story quietly, now. You must
know that we are very poor. My mother is dead; my brother in Moscow; and
I was left to keep the three rooms that my father could afford to rent
with his wages from the orchestra and the few lessons he gives. Two
years ago, when I was sixteen, they discovered that I had a voice. My
father, delighted, first gave me lessons himself; and then took me to
the Conservatoire, to Zaremba, I hoped there to get a scholarship. But
somehow my voice didn't develop as they hoped; and, at the competition,
I failed. I was in despair. We already owed money for my lessons; and
there was no hope of my earning anything. All my work seemed wasted. It
was then, of course, that Colonel Brodsky--he had just had his
promotion--came to my father about me.--He had been watching me for
months, he says.--At that time, I knew nothing about it:--about the
horrible promises my father made him, when he proposed to finish my
musical education, and secure me a début at the opera.--They say now
that my voice isn't nearly big enough for great parts. But at that time,
I never knew this. I planned all sorts of splendid things that I was to
do as a prima-donna; and I never dreamed that I couldn't pay everything
I owed to--_him_!
"And now--" she gave a dreary little laugh--"now, look at me! I've not
only ruined myself and my father, but even a whole regiment!--My God,
Monsieur Gregoriev, what can I do? I have refused and refused and
refused that hideous man. But my father owes him nearly five thousand
roubles for my lessons and my theatrical wardrobe; and we cannot
possibly pay him. He is willing to cancel the debt in another way:--the
way you know. In fact, that is what he has intended all along. My father
cares nothing for my feelings. He is as furious with me as is Brodsky.
And I can't imagine how I have managed to keep away from him for so
long.--Ah! If it were--if it were only easier to _die_!--But I'm a
coward, you see."
"I do not think you are a coward, mademoiselle," replied Ivan, gravely.
"Ah, monsieur, you do not know! Months ago I understood that the world
has no room for a young woman who is poor and yet--not ugly. We should
be better out of it."
"If you are sure that your case is as serious as this, you will not
refuse me the pleasure you can give--"
"Monsieur!" Irina sprang to her feet, her eyes brilliant with anger.
"You misunderstand me, mademoiselle, entirely!" cried Ivan, horrified at
her interpretation of his words. "What I mean is this. Your father is in
debt, on your account, to a man who has proved himself dishonorable. I
propose to free you from persecution by transferring that debt to one
who will take nothing but honorable payment--at any convenient time, in
amounts of any size that you or your father find yourselves able to pay.
Here, at once, Mademoiselle Irina, I will give you five thousand roubles
in notes, with which you can discharge your obligations to Brodsky, and
repay me at your leisure."
The ensuing five minutes proved even more distressing than Ivan,
anticipating them, had feared. The young lady was of a temperament both
emotional and dramatic. And her behavior, to a man to whom scenes were
abhorrent, proved trying in the extreme. In the end, after the amount of
protestation and rather affected timidity which she evidently thought
proper, Ivan's offer was accepted; and the expression of her gratitude
that followed, caused Ivan to terminate the business somewhat brusquely
by calling the lady's attention to the time, and then escorting her to
within a hundred yards of the station. That her relief was genuine and
deep she proved, by persisting in explanations of what Ivan's act must
mean to her; but he regained a certain amount of his usual
unconsciousness, upon perceiving that she was really talking as much to
herself as to him, as she laid out her plans of payment and magnificent
schemes for her own subsequent career. It was to his own astonishment
that her benefactor, finally bidding her good-bye, found himself asking
for her Petersburg address--which proved to be a humble street on
Vassily Island--and found himself thinking with some pleasure of seeing
her again.
Upon his return to his quarters, moreover, Ivan might have gone further
than he did in his little analysis of the adventures of the evening. A
man more versed in feminine ways than he, might have read much in the
manner of the lady's farewell to him. For her attitude was ingenuous
enough to have suggested the fact that had Lieutenant Gregoriev and not
Colonel Brodsky been the original holder of her debt, the damsel's
attitude might have been less unyielding. But Ivan had still his boyish
belief in the perfection of all woman nature. And certainly that part of
Mademoiselle Petrovna's career which he knew best, was of a nature to
increase the strength of his faith.
It was nearly morning before the young officer could banish the subject
from his thoughts--thoughts which had now returned to the disagreeable
certainty of an approaching scene with his redoubtable Colonel. But when
de Windt, agog with curiosity, re-entered his own quarters, his comrade
was sleeping so peacefully that he could not find it in his heart to
disturb Ivan till the _reveille_ roused the camp.
While Ivan dressed, he and de Windt held a hurried conversation. A few
words sufficed to inform the other of the mission of the lady; but Ivan
was as amazed as he was displeased at de Windt's frankly expressed
surprise at the undeniable uprightness of the young lady's attitude.
There followed a consultation as to any possible retaliation on the part
of Brodsky. On this point de Windt, ignorant of the nature of Ivan's
power, was not sanguine. Thus it was that as he hurried off to review,
Ivan's courage was at low ebb; and for the first time he began, in his
secret heart, to doubt the possible efficacy of his father's knowledge.
As it happened, that doubt proved unfounded. Once again, as a hundred
times before, the powers of Prince Gregoriev were put to the test and
not found wanting. Perfect knowledge of the universal corruption, the
gigantic systems of graft which, then as now, ate into the very
foundation of that ill-arranged bureaucracy which governed the country,
was at the finger-ends of Gregoriev, himself so besmirched by that black
evil by which he had risen to power. And in his notes of the deeds of
possible victims, the writing below the name of Brodsky--who, though his
official position was not high, was a man of large fortune and,
therefore, valuable to Gregoriev's purpose--occupied a surprising amount
of space.
The second interview between the Colonel and his Lieutenant took place
three days after that first one, in which the unexpected presence of a
lady had prevented Ivan from giving his opponent so much as a suggestion
of his vantage-point. It came about thus. When Brodsky, already in a
state of impotent wrath at the audacity of his officer's reproof,
received from Ivan's orderly the full sum of Petrovna's debt, together
with a highly imprudent letter from Mademoiselle Irina, who did not
scruple to mention the name of her benefactor, the man's rage became
physically dangerous to himself. It did not however prevent him from
realizing the certainty of exposure of his own criminal folly which must
follow any attempt of his to disgrace Ivan on a trumped-up charge. But
an interview with the Lieutenant in which he could vent some of his
spleen in abusive threats, would be perfectly safe, and also a source of
relief. Wherefore, a half-hour after the receipt of the foolish woman's
letter, Lieutenant Gregoriev and Colonel Brodsky stood face to face in
the Colonel's tent.
It was an hour before Ivan emerged, his figure erect, his face calm,
save for a rather bitter little smile which played round the corners of
his mouth. At some yards from the closed tent, he paused to speak to
Grigory, Brodsky's orderly, who stood, as usual, on guard, but at a
prescribed distance.
"Grigory, I think the Colonel needs your assistance. He is indisposed;
and you would do well to get him a drink of _vodka_."
The man, to whom the whole progress of recent events was perfectly well
known, forgot his salute, and stood, open-mouthed, staring after this
incomprehensible young man. It was five minutes before he entered his
chief's tent with the liquor, and found there matter enough to double
his perturbation. What in the world had been done to change that
bawling, swearing, furious and malignant man, who had ordered a
subordinate to his tent with a manner spelling disgrace to the unhappy
offender, into this broken, white-faced, tremulous, sweating creature,
who actually thanked his servant for service done: a thing which, during
Grigory's four years of service, had never happened before?
If the Colonel's orderly asked himself this question and found no answer
to it, how much more did the matter puzzle the other men and officers of
the Second Grenadiers, and, gradually, as the change in Brodsky and his
regiment became known, the entire camp? To the Colonel's relieved
astonishment, he met with neither avoidance nor taunts from his
superiors; nor yet any special disdain from his inferiors. Ivan, acting
up to his own standard, had told the secret of that interview to no one,
not even de Windt, who, however, brooded over his silence as an
injustice. Indeed, if the truth were known, Gregoriev was strangely
regretful of his behavior towards his chief. True, he had had no choice;
and he had saved a woman from infamy. But his shame at the deeds of his
father had marred his life for so many years, that the consciousness of
having adopted his father's method, though in an unselfish cause,
depressed him unaccountably. And, even had he known, at the time, how
bitterly he was afterwards to rue his silence, it is probable that he
would have acted again in precisely the same fashion.
From this time forth, however, his standing in the regiment rivalled
that of its former commander, now General of their brigade. Not a man
nor an officer there but gave him the whole credit for that change for
the better which had begun in the Colonel on the day after his first,
plucky interview, and which grew, steadily, throughout the summer, till,
at a last dress-parade, held in the presence of the Czar, the Second
actually captured the Iron Medal for drill--which gave them the third
place in their army division. Brodsky, when he had nothing else on hand
to occupy him, was a good officer, and strict to a point of tyranny with
regard to dress and the appearance of his regiment. By the time of the
grand reviews he should, had he had the least particle of generosity in
his nature, have forgiven Ivan's victory in his satisfaction over his
renewed standing in the army and at his clubs.
Meantime, the remaining weeks of camp life proved to be monotonously
dreary. Ivan was not of the type of man to press his popularity and
batten upon it. Rather, flattery, and the inevitable toadyism of weaker
natures, revolted him; and he began once more to retire into himself,
and to live again with dreams, which now formed themselves round any one
of three topics: first and highest, his music, at which he had begun
again to work; secondly, the sweetest of the three, Nathalie, of whom he
thought as of some rare and lovely flower, not to be plucked by human
hands; lastly, at first rarely, later far more often, round that girl
whom he had come to regard in a measure as his protégée--Irina, whom he
saw twice during the summer, and whose father, though he had paid two
small instalments on his debt, had begun, (to Irina's secret delight,
and Ivan's persistent blindness), to regard the handsome young officer
("whose father was a millionaire prince") as an excellent successor to
the fallen Brodsky.
The one important fact of these weeks, however, and the one having most
to do with the young man's subsequent career, was the time which he
spent, in his solitary evenings, over his musical note-books. The
absence of a piano sharpened his faculties amazingly; till, by the time
of his return to civilization, an instrument was no longer necessary to
him in composing. Ivan was beginning, at last, to know the faces of his
secret gods; and to be not a little troubled at the anomalous position
of an army officer, whose dreams and ambitions were all towards the arts
of peace. How, indeed, was he now to reach the realm of these heavenly
beings? For always, in the midst of his highest flights, there lowered
above him, blotting out the gleaming spires of his Parnassus, the dark
forms of those demi-gods into whose service he had been forced. And more
than once, in his high solitude, Ivan heard, in the secret chamber of
his soul, a strong voice of command bidding him leave this present life,
drop every vanity of his existence, and set out boldly along that steep
path that should lead him at last, through hardship and labor, to
summits of the highest joy that can be known to human heart and brain.
Then, puzzled and disturbed by his sense of the responsibility of his
solitude, Ivan would perform by day his mechanical duties, and then
hurry away, at evening, to labor undisturbed through the strange
northern twilights, at his chosen task.