More than a year had passed. Yulia and Yartsev were lying on the
grass at Sokolniki not far from the embankment of the Yaroslav
railway; a little distance away Kotchevoy was lying with hands under
his head, looking at the sky. All three had been for a walk, and
were waiting for the six o'clock train to pass to go home to tea.
"Mothers see something extraordinary in their children, that is
ordained by nature," said Yulia. "A mother will stand for hours
together by the baby's cot looking at its little ears and eyes and
nose, and fascinated by them. If any one else kisses her baby the
poor thing imagines that it gives him immense pleasure. And a mother
talks of nothing but her baby. I know that weakness in mothers, and
I keep watch over myself, but my Olga really is exceptional. How
she looks at me when I'm nursing her! How she laughs! She's only
eight months old, but, upon my word, I've never seen such intelligent
eyes in a child of three."
"Tell me, by the way," asked Yartsev: "which do you love most--
your husband or your baby?"
Yulia shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know," she said. "I never was so very fond of my husband,
and Olga is in reality my first love. You know that I did not marry
Alexey for love. In old days I was foolish and miserable, and thought
that I had ruined my life and his, and now I see that love is not
necessary--that it is all nonsense."
"But if it is not love, what feeling is it that binds you to your
husband? Why do you go on living with him?"
"I don't know. . . . I suppose it must be habit. I respect him, I
miss him when he's away for long, but that's--not love. He is a
clever, honest man, and that's enough to make me happy. He is very
kind and good-hearted. . . ."
"Alyosha's intelligent, Alyosha's good," said Kostya, raising his
head lazily; "but, my dear girl, to find out that he is intelligent,
good, and interesting, you have to eat a hundredweight of salt with
him. . . . And what's the use of his goodness and intelligence? He
can fork out money as much as you want, but when character is needed
to resist insolence or aggressiveness, he is faint-hearted and
overcome with nervousness. People like your amiable Alyosha are
splendid people, but they are no use at all for fighting. In fact,
they are no use for anything."
At last the train came in sight. Coils of perfectly pink smoke from
the funnels floated over the copse, and two windows in the last
compartment flashed so brilliantly in the sun, that it hurt their
eyes to look at it.
"Tea-time!" said Yulia Sergeyevna, getting up.
She had grown somewhat stouter of late, and her movements were
already a little matronly, a little indolent.
"It's bad to be without love though," said Yartsev, walking behind
her. "We talk and read of nothing else but love, but we do very
little loving ourselves, and that's really bad."
"All that's nonsense, Ivan Gavrilitch," said Yulia. "That's not
what gives happiness."
They had tea in the little garden, where mignonette, stocks, and
tobacco plants were in flower, and spikes of early gladiolus were
just opening. Yartsev and Kotchevoy could see from Yulia's face
that she was passing through a happy period of inward peace and
serenity, that she wanted nothing but what she had, and they, too,
had a feeling of peace and comfort in their hearts. Whatever was
said sounded apt and clever; the pines were lovely--the fragrance
of them was exquisite as it had never been before; and the cream
was very nice; and Sasha was a good, intelligent child.
After tea Yartsev sang songs, accompanying himself on the piano,
while Yulia and Kotchevoy sat listening in silence, though Yulia
got up from time to time, and went softly indoors, to take a look
at the baby and at Lida, who had been in bed for the last two days
feverish and eating nothing.
"My friend, my tender friend," sang Yartsev. "No, my friends, I'll
be hanged if I understand why you are all so against love!" he said,
flinging back his head. "If I weren't busy for fifteen hours of the
twenty-four, I should certainly fall in love."
Supper was served on the verandah; it was warm and still, but Yulia
wrapped herself in a shawl and complained of the damp. When it got
dark, she seemed not quite herself; she kept shivering and begging
her visitors to stay a little longer. She regaled them with wine,
and after supper ordered brandy to keep them from going. She didn't
want to be left alone with the children and the servants.
"We summer visitors are getting up a performance for the children,"
she said. "We have got everything--a stage and actors; we are
only at a loss for a play. Two dozen plays of different sorts have
been sent us, but there isn't one that is suitable. Now, you are
fond of the theatre, and are so good at history," she said, addressing
Yartsev. "Write an historical play for us."
"Well, I might."
The men drank up all the brandy, and prepared to go.
It was past ten, and for summer-villa people that was late.
"How dark it is! One can't see a bit," said Yulia, as she went with
them to the gate. "I don't know how you'll find your way. But, isn't
it cold?"
She wrapped herself up more closely and walked back to the porch.
"I suppose my Alexey's playing cards somewhere," she called to them.
"Good-night!"
After the lighted rooms nothing could be seen. Yartsev and Kostya
groped their way like blind men to the railway embankment and crossed
it.
"One can't see a thing," said Kostya in his bass voice, standing
still and gazing at the sky. "And the stars, the stars, they are
like new three-penny-bits. Gavrilitch!"
"Ah?" Yartsev responded somewhere in the darkness.
"I say, one can't see a thing. Where are you?"
Yartsev went up to him whistling, and took his arm.
"Hi, there, you summer visitors!" Kostya shouted at the top of his
voice. "We've caught a socialist."
When he was exhilarated he was always very rowdy, shouting, wrangling
with policemen and cabdrivers, singing, and laughing violently.
"Nature be damned," he shouted.
"Come, come," said Yartsev, trying to pacify him. "You mustn't.
Please don't."
Soon the friends grew accustomed to the darkness, and were able to
distinguish the outlines of the tall pines and telegraph posts.
From time to time the sound of whistles reached them from the station
and the telegraph wires hummed plaintively. From the copse itself
there came no sound, and there was a feeling of pride, strength,
and mystery in its silence, and on the right it seemed that the
tops of the pines were almost touching the sky. The friends found
their path and walked along it. There it was quite dark, and it was
only from the long strip of sky dotted with stars, and from the
firmly trodden earth under their feet, that they could tell they
were walking along a path. They walked along side by side in silence,
and it seemed to both of them that people were coming to meet them.
Their tipsy exhilaration passed off. The fancy came into Yartsev's
mind that perhaps that copse was haunted by the spirits of the
Muscovite Tsars, boyars, and patriarchs, and he was on the point
of telling Kostya about it, but he checked himself.
When they reached the town gate there was a faint light of dawn in
the sky. Still in silence, Yartsev and Kotchevoy walked along the
wooden pavement, by the cheap summer cottages, eating-houses,
timber-stacks. Under the arch of interlacing branches, the damp air
was fragrant of lime-trees, and then a broad, long street opened
before them, and on it not a soul, not a light. . . . When they
reached the Red Pond, it was daylight.
"Moscow--it's a town that will have to suffer a great deal more,"
said Yartsev, looking at the Alexyevsky Monastery.
"What put that into your head?"
"I don't know. I love Moscow."
Both Yartsev and Kostya had been born in Moscow, and adored the
town, and felt for some reason antagonistic to every other town.
Both were convinced that Moscow was a remarkable town, and Russia
a remarkable country. In the Crimea, in the Caucasus, and abroad,
they felt dull, uncomfortable, and ill at ease, and they thought
their grey Moscow weather very pleasant and healthy. And when the
rain lashed at the window-panes and it got dark early, and when the
walls of the churches and houses looked a drab, dismal colour, days
when one doesn't know what to put on when one is going out--such
days excited them agreeably.
At last near the station they took a cab.
"It really would be nice to write an historical play," said Yartsev,
"but not about the Lyapunovs or the Godunovs, but of the times of
Yaroslav or of Monomach. . . . I hate all historical plays except
the monologue of Pimen. When you have to do with some historical
authority or even read a textbook of Russian history, you feel that
every one in Russia is exceptionally talented, gifted, and interesting;
but when I see an historical play at the theatre, Russian life
begins to seem stupid, morbid, and not original."
Near Dmitrovka the friends separated, and Yartsev went on to his
lodging in Nikitsky Street. He sat half dozing, swaying from side
to side, and pondering on the play. He suddenly imagined a terrible
din, a clanging noise, and shouts in some unknown language, that
might have been Kalmuck, and a village wrapped in flames, and forests
near covered with hoarfrost and soft pink in the glow of the fire,
visible for miles around, and so clearly that every little fir-tree
could be distinguished, and savage men darting about the village
on horseback and on foot, and as red as the glow in the sky.
"The Polovtsy," thought Yartsev.
One of them, a terrible old man with a bloodstained face all scorched
from the fire, binds to his saddle a young girl with a white Russian
face, and the girl looks sorrowful, understanding. Yartsev flung
back his head and woke up.
"My friend, my tender friend . . ." he hummed.
As he paid the cabman and went up his stairs, he could not shake
off his dreaminess; he saw the flames catching the village, and the
forest beginning to crackle and smoke. A huge, wild bear frantic
with terror rushed through the village. . . . And the girl tied to
the saddle was still looking.
When at last he went into his room it was broad daylight. Two candles
were burning by some open music on the piano. On the sofa lay Polina
Razsudin wearing a black dress and a sash, with a newspaper in her
hand, fast asleep. She must have been playing late, waiting for
Yartsev to come home, and, tired of waiting, fell asleep.
"Hullo, she's worn out," he thought.
Carefully taking the newspaper out of her hands, he covered her
with a rug. He put out the candles and went into his bedroom. As
he got into bed, he still thought of his historical play, and the
tune of "My friend, my tender friend" was still ringing in his
head. . . .
Two days later Laptev looked in upon him for a moment to tell him
that Lida was ill with diphtheria, and that Yulia Sergeyevna and
her baby had caught it from her, and five days later came the news
that Lida and Yulia were recovering, but the baby was dead, and
that the Laptevs had left their villa at Sokolniki and had hastened
back to Moscow.