The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories Part 20

"Tell me, please,"--she began, as soon as the latter, not without some inward quaking, had crossed the threshold of her boudoir,--"why that dog was barking in our courtyard all night long? It prevented my getting to sleep!"

"A dog, ma'am .... which one, ma'am?... Perhaps it was the dumb man's dog,"--he uttered in a voice that was not altogether firm.

"I don't know whether it belongs to the dumb man or to some one else, only it interfered with my sleep. And I am amazed that there is such a horde of dogs! I want to know about it. We have a watch-dog, have we not?"

"Yes, ma'am, we have, ma'am, Peg-top, ma'am."

"Well, what need have we for any more dogs? They only create disorder.

There 's no head to the house,--that 's what 's the matter. And what does the dumb man want of a dog? Who has given him permission to keep a dog in my courtyard? Yesterday I went to the window, and it was lying in the garden; it had brought some nasty thing there, and was gnawing it,--and I have roses planted there...."

The lady paused for a while.

"See that it is removed this very day .... dost hear me?"

"I obey, ma'am."

"This very day. And now, go. I will have thee called for thy report later."

Gavrila left the room.

As he pa.s.sed through the drawing-room, the major-domo transferred a small bell from one table to another, for show, softly blew his duck's-bill nose in the hall, and went out into the anteroom. In the anteroom, on a locker, Stepan was sleeping in the att.i.tude of a slain warrior in a battalion picture, with his bare legs projecting from his coat, which served him in lieu of a coverlet.

The major-domo nudged him, and imparted to him in an undertone some order, to which Stepan replied with a half-yawn, half-laugh. The major-domo withdrew, and Stepan sprang to his feet, drew on his kaftan and his boots, went out and came to a standstill on the porch. Five minutes had not elapsed before Gerasim made his appearance with a huge f.a.got of firewood on his back, accompanied by his inseparable Mumu. (The mistress had issued orders that her bedroom and boudoir were to be heated even in summer.) Gerasim stood sideways to the door, gave it a push with his shoulder, and precipitated himself into the house with his burden. Mumu, according to her wont, remained behind to wait for him.

Then Stepan, seizing a favourable moment, made a sudden dash at her, like a hawk pouncing on a chicken, crushed her to the ground with his breast, gathered her up in his arms, and without stopping to don so much as his cap, ran out into the street with her, jumped into the first drozhky that came to hand, and galloped off to the Game Market. There he speedily hunted up a purchaser, to whom he sold her for half a ruble, stipulating only that the latter should keep her tied up for at least a week, and immediately returned home; but before he reached the house, he alighted from the drozhky, and making a circuit of the house, he leaped over the fence into the yard from a back alley; he was afraid to enter by the wicket, lest he should encounter Gerasim.

But his anxiety was wasted; Gerasim was no longer in the courtyard. On coming out of the house he had instantly bethought himself of Mumu; he could not remember that she had ever failed to await his return, and he began to run in every direction to hunt for her, to call her after his own fashion ... he dashed into his little chamber, to the hay-loft; he darted into the street,--hither and thither.... She was gone! He appealed to the domestics, with the most despairing signs inquired about her; pointing fourteen inches from the ground, he drew her form with his hands.... Some of them really did not know what had become of Mumu, and only shook their heads; others did know and grinned at him in reply, but the major-domo a.s.sumed a very pompous mien and began to shout at the coachmen. Then Gerasim fled far away from the courtyard.

Twilight was already falling when he returned. One was justified in a.s.suming, from his exhausted aspect, from his unsteady gait, from his dusty clothing, that he had wandered over the half of Moscow. He halted in front of the mistress's windows, swept a glance over the porch on which seven house-serfs were gathered, turned away, and bellowed once more: "Mumu!"--Mumu did not respond. He went away. All stared after him, but no one smiled, no one uttered a word ... and the curious postilion, Antipka, narrated on the following morning in the kitchen, that the dumb man had moaned all night long.

All the following day Gerasim did not show himself, so that Potap the coachman was obliged to go for water in his stead, which greatly displeased coachman Potap. The mistress asked Gavrila whether her command had been executed. Gavrila replied that it had. The next morning Gerasim emerged from his chamber to do his work. He came to dinner, ate and went off again, without having exchanged greetings with any one. His face, which was inanimate at the best of times, as is the case with all deaf and dumb persons, now seemed to have become absolutely petrified.

After dinner he again quitted the courtyard, but not for long, returned and immediately directed his steps to the hay-barn. Night came, a clear, moonlight night. Sighing heavily and incessantly tossing from side to side, Gerasim was lying there, when he suddenly felt as though something were tugging at the skirts of his garments; he trembled all over, but did not raise his head, nevertheless, and even screwed his eyes up tight; but the tugging was repeated, more energetically than before; he sprang to his feet .... before him, with a fragment of rope about her neck, Mumu was capering about. A prolonged shriek of joy burst from his speechless breast; he seized Mumu and clasped her in a close embrace; in one moment she had licked his nose, his eyes, and his beard... He stood still for a while, pondering, cautiously slipped down from the hay-mow, cast a glance round him, and having made sure that no one was watching him, he safely regained his little chamber.

Even before this Gerasim had divined that the dog had not disappeared of her own volition; that she must have been carried away by the mistress's command; for the domestics had explained to him by signs how his Mumu had snapped at her--and he decided to take precautions of his own. First he fed Mumu with some bread, caressed her, and put her to bed; then he began to consider how he might best conceal her. At last he hit upon the idea of leaving her all day in his room, and only looking in now and then to see how she was getting along, and taking her out for exercise at night. He closed the opening in his door compactly by stuffing in an old coat of his, and as soon as it was daylight he was in the courtyard, as though nothing had happened, even preserving (innocent guile!) his former dejection of countenance. It could not enter the head of the poor deaf man that Mumu would betray herself by her whining; as a matter of fact, every one in the house was speedily aware that the dumb man's dog had come back and was locked up in his room; but out of compa.s.sion for him and for her, and partly, perhaps, out of fear of him, they did not give him to understand that his secret had been discovered.

The major-domo alone scratched the back of his head and waved his hand in despair, as much as to say: "Well, I wash my hands of the matter!

Perhaps the mistress will not get to know of it!" And never had the dumb man worked so zealously as on that day; he swept and sc.r.a.ped out the entire courtyard, he rooted up all the blades of gra.s.s to the very last one, with his own hand pulled up all the props in the garden-fence, with a view to making sure that they were sufficiently firm, and then hammered them in again,--in a word, he fussed and bustled about so, that even the mistress noticed his zeal.

Twice in the course of the day Gerasim went stealthily to his captive; and when night came, he lay down to sleep in her company, in the little room, not in the hay-barn, and only at one o'clock did he go out to take a stroll with her in the fresh air. Having walked quite a long time with her in the courtyard, he was preparing to return, when suddenly a noise resounded outside the fence in the direction of the alley. Mumu p.r.i.c.ked up her ears, began to growl, approached the fence, sniffed, and broke forth into a loud and piercing bark. Some drunken man or other had taken it into his head to nestle down there for the night. At that very moment, the mistress had just got to sleep after a prolonged "nervous excitement"; she always had these excited fits after too hearty a supper. The sudden barking woke her; her heart began to beat violently, and to collapse.

"Maids, maids!"--she moaned.--"Maids!"

The frightened maids flew to her bedroom.

"Okh, okh, I'm dying!"--said she, throwing her hands apart in anguish.--"There 's that dog again, again!... Okh, send for the doctor!

They want to kill me... The dog, the dog again! Okh!"

And she flung back her head, which was intended to denote a swoon.

They ran for the doctor, that is to say, for the household medical man, Khariton. The whole art of this healer consisted in the fact that he wore boots with soft soles, understood how to feel the pulse delicately, slept fourteen hours out of the twenty-four, spent the rest of the time in sighing, and was incessantly treating the mistress to laurel drops. This healer immediately hastened to her, fumigated with burnt feathers, and when the mistress opened her eyes, immediately presented to her on a silver tray a wine-gla.s.s with the inevitable drops.

The mistress took them, but immediately, with tearful eyes, began to complain of the dog, of Gavrila, of her lot, that she, a poor old woman, had been abandoned by every one, that no one had any pity on her, and that every one desired her death. In the meantime the unlucky Mumu continued to bark, while Gerasim strove in vain to call her away from the fence.

"There ... there .... it goes again!..." stammered the mistress, and again rolled up her eyes. The medical man whispered to one of the maids; she rushed into the anteroom, and explained matters to Stepan; the latter ran to awaken Gavrila, and Gavrila, in a pa.s.sion, gave orders that the whole household should be roused.

Gerasim turned round, beheld the twinkling lights and shadows in the windows, and, foreboding in his heart a catastrophe, he caught up Mumu under his arm, ran into his room and locked the door. A few moments later, five men were thumping at his door, but feeling the resistance of the bolt, desisted. Gavrila ran up in a frightful hurry, ordered them all to remain there until morning and stand guard, while he himself burst into the maids' hall and gave orders through the eldest companion, Liuboff[31] Liubimovna,--together with whom he was in the habit of stealing and enjoying tea, sugar, and other groceries,--that the mistress was to be informed that the dog, unfortunately, had run home again from somewhere or other, but that it would not be alive on the morrow, and that the mistress must do them the favour not to be angry, and must calm down. The mistress probably would not have calmed down very speedily, had not the medical man, in his haste, poured out forty drops instead of twelve. The strength of the laurel took its effect--in a quarter of an hour the mistress was sleeping soundly and peacefully, and Gerasim was lying, all pale, on his bed, tightly compressing Mumu's mouth.

On the following morning the mistress awoke quite late. Gavrila was waiting for her awakening in order to make a decisive attack upon Gerasim's asylum, and was himself prepared to endure a heavy thunder-storm. But the thunder-storm did not come off. As she lay in bed, the mistress ordered the eldest dependent to be called to her.

"Liuboff Liubimovna,"--she began in a soft, weak voice; she sometimes liked to pretend to be a persecuted and defenceless sufferer; it is needless to state that at such times all the people in the house felt very uncomfortable:--"Liuboff Liubimovna, you see what my condition is; go, my dear, to Gavrila Andreitch, and have a talk with him; it cannot be possible that some nasty little dog or other is more precious to him than the tranquillity, the very life of his mistress! I should not like to believe that,"--she added, with an expression of profound emotion:--"Go, my dear, be so good, go to Gavrila Andreitch."

Liuboff Liubimovna betook herself to Gavrila's room. What conversation took place between them is not known; but a while later a whole throng of domestics marched through the courtyard in the direction of Gerasim's little den; in front walked Gavrila, holding on his cap with his hand, although there was no wind; around him walked footmen and cooks; Uncle Tail gazed out of the window, and issued orders--that is to say, he merely spread his hands apart; in the rear of all, the small urchins leaped and capered, one half of them being strangers who had run in. On the narrow stairway leading to the den sat one sentry; at the door stood two others with clubs. They began to ascend the staircase, and occupied it to its full length. Gavrila went to the door, knocked on it with his fist, and shouted:

"Open!"

A suppressed bark made itself audible; but there was no reply.

"Open, I say!"--he repeated.

"But, Gavrila Andreitch,"--remarked Stepan from below:--"he 's deaf, you know--he does n't hear."

All burst out laughing.

"What is to be done?"--retorted Gavrila from the top of the stairs.

"Why, he has a hole in his door,"--replied Stepan;--"so do you wiggle a stick around in it a bit."

Gavrila bent down.

"He has stuffed it up with some sort of coat, that hole."

"But do you poke the coat inward."

At this point another dull bark rang out.

"See there, see there, she 's giving herself away!"--some one remarked in the crowd, and again there was laughter.

Gavrila scratched behind his ear.

"No, brother,"--he went on at last;--"do thou poke the coat through thyself, if thou wishest."

"Why, certainly!"

And Stepan scrambled up, took a stick, thrust the coat inside, and began to wiggle the stick about in the opening, saying: "Come forth, come forth!" He was still wiggling the stick when the door of the little chamber flew suddenly and swiftly open--and the whole train of menials rolled head over heels down the stairs, Gavrila in the lead. Uncle Tail shut the window.

"Come, come, come, come!"--shouted Gavrila from the courtyard;--"just look out, look out!"

Gerasim stood motionless on the threshold. The crowd a.s.sembled at the foot of the staircase. Gerasim stared at all these petty folk in their foreign kaftans from above, with his arms lightly set akimbo; in his scarlet peasant shirt he seemed like a giant in comparison with them.

Gavrila advanced a pace.