The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories Part 22

Twenty years previous to the date at which we have set the beginning of our story, an inn existed on that same site upon the highway. Truth to tell, it had not that dark-red plank roof which imparted to Naum Ivanoff's house the aspect of a n.o.bleman's manor-house; and it was poorer in its construction, and the sheds in the stable-yard were thatched, and the walls were made of wattled boughs instead of boards; neither was it distinguished by a triangular Greek pediment on turned columns; but it was a very decent sort of inn, nevertheless,--s.p.a.cious, solid, and warm,--and travellers gladly frequented it. Its landlord at that time was not Naum Ivanoff, but a certain Akim Semyonoff, the serf of a neighbouring landed proprietress, Lizaveta Prokhorovna Kuntze--the widow of a staff-officer. This Akim was an intelligent peasant, with good business capacity, who, having started with two wretched little nags as a carrier, in his youth, returned a year later with three good horses, and from that time forth spent the greater part of his life in roaming along the highways, visited Kazan and Odessa, Orenburg and Warsaw, and went abroad to "Lipetzk,"[32] and travelled toward the last with two trokas of huge and powerful stallions harnessed to two enormous carts. Whether it was that he became bored by this homeless, roving life, or whether he was seized with the desire to set up a family (in one of his absences his wife had died; the children which he had had died also), at all events he decided, at last, to abandon his former avocation and set up an inn.

With the permission of his mistress, he established himself on the highway, purchased in her name half a _desyatina_[33] of land, and erected thereon an inn. The venture proved a success. He had more than enough money for the installation; the experience which he had acquired in his prolonged wanderings to all parts of Russia was of the greatest advantage to him: he knew how to please travellers, especially men of his own former calling,--three-horse-team carriers,--with many of whom he was personally acquainted, and whose patronage is particularly valued by the tavern-keepers: so much do these people eat and consume for themselves and their robust horses. Akim's inn became known for hundreds of versts round about.... People were even fonder of patronising him than they were of patronising Naum, who afterward succeeded him, although Akim was far from being comparable to Naum in his knowledge of the landlord's business.

Akim had everything established on the old-fashioned footing,--warm but not quite clean; and it sometimes happened that his oats turned out to be light, or damp, and the food also was prepared in rather indifferent fashion; such victuals were sometimes served on his table as had been better left in the oven for good, and that not because he was stingy with material, but just because it happened so--his wife had not looked after things. On the other hand, he was ready to deduct from the price, and he would even not refuse to give credit. In a word, he was a good man and an amiable landlord. He was liberal also with his conversation and standing treat; over the samovar he would sometimes get to babbling so that you would p.r.i.c.k up your ears, especially when he began to talk about Peter,[34] about the Tcherkessian steppes, or about foreign parts; well, and as a matter of course, he was fond of drinking with a nice man, only not to excess, and more for the sake of sociability--so travellers said of him.

Merchants bore great good-will toward him, as, in general, did all those people who call themselves old-fashioned--those people who do not set out on a journey without having girded themselves and who do not enter a room without crossing themselves,[35] and who will not enter into conversation with a man without having preliminarily bidden him "good morning." Akim's mere personal appearance disposed one in his favour; he was tall, rather gaunt, but very well built, even in his mature years; he had a long, comely and regular face, a high, open brow, a thin, straight nose, and small lips. The glance of his prominent brown eyes fairly beamed with gentle cordiality, his thin, soft hair curled in rings about his neck: very little of it remained on the crown of his head. The sound of Akim's voice was very agreeable, although weak; in his youth he had been a capital singer, but his long journeys in the open air, in winter, had impaired his lungs. On the other hand, he spoke very fluently and sweetly. When he laughed, ray-like wrinkles, very pleasant to behold, spread themselves out around his eyes;--such wrinkles are to be seen only in kind people. Akim's movements were generally slow and not devoid of a certain self-confidence and sedate courtesy, as was befitting a man of experience who had seen much in his day.

In fact, Akim would have been all right,--or, as they called him even in the manor-house, whither he was wont to go frequently, as well as unfailingly on Sundays after the morning service in church, Akim Semyonovitch,[36]--would have been all right in every respect had he not had one failing, which has ruined many men on this earth, and in the end ruined him also--a weakness for the female s.e.x. Akim's amorousness went to extremes: his heart was utterly unable to resist a feminine glance; he melted in it, as the first autumnal snow melts in the sun .... and he had to pay dearly for his superfluous sensibility.

In the course of the first year after he had settled down upon the highway, Akim was so occupied with the building of his inn, with the installation of his establishment, and with all the worries which are inseparable from all new households, that he positively had not time to think of women, and if any sinful thoughts did enter his head, he promptly expelled them by the perusal of divers holy books, for which he cherished a great respect (he had taught himself to read and write during his first trip as carrier), by chanting the Psalms in an undertone, or by some other pious occupation. Moreover, he was already in his forty-sixth year,--and at that age all pa.s.sions sensibly calm down and grow cool; and the time for marrying was past. Akim himself had begun to think that that folly, as he expressed it, had broken loose from him ... but evidently no man can escape his fate.

Akim's former owner, Lizaveta Prokhorovna Kuntze, who had been left a widow by her husband, a staff-officer of German extraction, was herself a native of the town of Mittau, where she had pa.s.sed the early days of her childhood, and where she still had a very numerous and needy family, concerning whom, however, she troubled herself very little, especially since one of her brothers, an officer in an army infantry regiment, had unexpectedly presented himself at her house and on the following day had raised such an uproar that he had all but thrashed the mistress of the house herself, and had addressed her, into the bargain, as "_du Lumpenmamsell!_" while on the preceding evening he had himself called her in broken Russian: "sister and benefactress." Lizaveta Prokhorovna hardly ever left the nice little estate acquired by the efforts of her spouse, who had been an architect;[37] she herself managed it, and managed it far from badly. Lizaveta Prokhorovna did not let slip the smallest source of profit; she derived advantage to herself from everything; and in this point, as well as in that of remarkable cleverness in making one kopek serve instead of two, her German nationality betrayed itself; in everything else she had become extremely Russified. She had a considerable number of domestic serfs; in particular, she kept a great many maids, who, however, did not eat the bread of idleness: from morning until night their backs were bowed over work.[38] She was fond of driving out in her carriage with liveried lackeys on the foot-board; she was fond of having people retail gossip to her and play the sycophant; and she herself was a first-rate gossip; she was fond of loading a man down with her favours, and suddenly stunning him with disgrace--in a word, Lizaveta Prokhorovna conducted herself exactly like a n.o.bly-born dame.--She favoured Akim,--he paid her a good round quit-rent with punctuality,--she chatted graciously with him, and even, in jest, invited him to be her guest ... but it was precisely in the manor-house that calamity awaited Akim.

Among the number of Lizaveta Prokhorovna's maids, there was one young girl of twenty, an orphan, Dunyasha by name. She was not ill-favoured, was well formed and clever; her features, although not regular, were calculated to please; her fresh complexion, her thick, fair hair, her red lips, and a certain dashing, half-sneering, half-challenging expression of face, were all quite charming in their way. Moreover, in spite of her orphaned state, she bore herself staidly, almost haughtily; she was descended from an ancient line of house-serfs; her late father, Arefy, had been major-domo for thirty years, and her grandfather, Stepan, had served as valet to a gentleman long since deceased, a sergeant of the Guards and a prince. She dressed neatly, and was proud of her hands, which really were extremely handsome. Dunyasha showed great disdain for all her admirers, listened to their sweet sayings with a conceited smile, and if she answered them, it was chiefly by exclamation only, in the nature of: "Yes! certainly! catch me doing that! the idea!"... These exclamations scarcely ever left her tongue.

Dunyasha had spent about three years in Moscow, under instruction, where she had acquired those peculiar grimaces and manners which characterise chambermaids who have sojourned in the capitals. People spoke of her as a conceited girl (a great encomium in the mouths of domestics) who, although she had seen much of life, had not lowered her dignity. She sewed far from badly, moreover; but, nevertheless, Lizaveta Prokhorovna had no particular liking for her, thanks to the head maid, Kirillovna, a woman no longer young, sly, and fond of intrigue. Kirillovna profited by her great influence over her mistress, and contrived very artfully to keep rivals out of the way.

And it was with this Dunyasha that Akim fell in love! And in a way such as he had never loved before. He beheld her for the first time in church; she had only just returned from Moscow;.... then he met her several times in the manor-house; at last he spent a whole evening with her at the overseer's, whither he had been invited to tea, along with other honourable personages. The house-serfs did not look down on him, although he did not belong to their social cla.s.s, and wore a beard;[39]

but he was a cultured man, could read and write, and--chief thing of all--he had money; moreover, he did not dress in peasant fashion, but wore a long kaftan of black cloth, boots of dressed calf-leather, and a small kerchief round his neck. To tell the truth, some of the house-serfs did make remarks among themselves to the effect, "'t is plain, nevertheless, that he is not one of us," but to his face they almost flattered him. That evening at the overseer's, Dunyasha completed the conquest of Akim's amorous heart, although she positively did not reply by a single word to all his ingratiating speeches, and only now and then cast a side-long glance at him, as though astonished at seeing that peasant there. All this only inflamed Akim the more. He went off home, thought, and thought, and made up his mind to obtain her hand....

So thoroughly had she "bewitched" him. But how shall we describe Dunyasha's wrath and indignation when, five days later, Kirillovna, affectionately calling her into her room, announced to her that Akim (and evidently he had understood how to set about the business),--that that beard-wearer and peasant Akim, to sit beside whom she had regarded as an insult,--was courting her!

At first Dunyasha flushed hot all over, then she emitted a forced laugh, then fell to weeping; but Kirillovna conducted the attack so artfully, so clearly made her feel her position in the house, so cleverly hinted at Akim's decent appearance, wealth, and blind devotion, and, in conclusion, so significantly alluded to the mistress's own wishes, that Dunyasha left the room with hesitation depicted on her face, and encountering Akim, merely gazed intently into his eyes, but did not turn away. The fabulously lavish gifts of this enamoured man dispelled her last doubts.... Lizaveta Prokhorovna, to whom Akim, in his joy, had presented a hundred peaches on a large silver salver, gave her consent to his marriage with Dunyasha, and the wedding took place. Akim spared no expense--and the bride, who on the eve of the wedding had sat in the maids' room like one on the verge of expiring, and had done nothing but cry on the very morning of the wedding, while Kirillovna was dressing her for the ceremony, was speedily comforted.... Her mistress gave her her own shawl to wear in church--and that very same day Akim gave her another of the same sort, only almost better.

So then Akim married, and transported his young wife to his inn.... They began to live. Dunyasha proved to be a bad housekeeper, a poor helpmeet for her husband. She never looked after anything, she grieved, was bored, unless some pa.s.sing officer was attentive to her and paid court to her, as he sat behind the capacious samovar; she frequently absented herself, sometimes going to the town to shop, sometimes to the mistress's manor-house, which lay four versts distant from the inn. In the manor-house she refreshed herself; there people of her own sort surrounded her; the maids envied her smart attire; Kirillovna treated her to tea; Lizaveta Prokhorovna herself chatted with her.... But even these visits did not pa.s.s off without bitter emotions for Dunyasha....

For instance, being a house-serf, she was not allowed to wear a bonnet, and was obliged to m.u.f.fle her head up in a kerchief .... "like a merchant's wife," as the crafty Kirillovna said to her.... "Like the wife of a petty burgher," thought Dunyasha to herself.

More than once there recurred to Akim's mind the words of his only relative, an aged uncle, an inveterate peasant, a man without family or land: "Well, brother, Akimushka," he had said to him, when he met him in the street, "I have heard that thou 'rt a-courting...."

"Well, yes, I am; what of it?"

"Ekh, Akim, Akim! Thou 'rt no mate for us peasants now, there 's no denying it; neither is she a mate for thee."

"But why is n't she a mate for me?"

"Why, for this reason, at least,"--returned the other, pointing to Akim's beard, which he, to please his bride, had begun to clip close--he would not consent to shave it off entirely.... Akim dropped his eyes; and the old man turned away, wrapped about him the skirts of his sheepskin coat, which was ragged on the shoulders, and went his way, shaking his head.

Yes, more than once did Akim grow pensive, grunt and sigh.... But his love for his pretty wife did not diminish; he was proud of her, especially when he compared her, not only with the other peasant women, or with his former wife, whom he had married at the age of sixteen, but with the other maids of the house-serf cla.s.s: as much as to say: "Just see what sort of a bird we 've captured!".... Her slightest caress afforded him great pleasure... "Perhaps," he thought to himself, "she 'll get used to me, she 'll grow accustomed to her new life..."

Moreover, she conducted herself very well, and no one could say an evil word concerning her.

Several years pa.s.sed in this manner. Dunyasha really did end by becoming used to her existence. The older Akim grew, the more attached he became to her, and the more he trusted her; her friends, who had married men not of the peasant cla.s.s, suffered dire need, or were in distress, or had fallen into evil hands.... But Akim continued to wax richer and richer. He succeeded in everything--he was lucky; only one thing grieved him: G.o.d had not given him any children. Dunyasha was already in her twenty-fifth year; every one had come to call her Avdotya Arefyevna.[40]

Nevertheless, she had not become a good housewife.--But she had come to love her home, she attended to the stores of provisions, she looked after the servant-maids.... Truth to tell, she did all this in an indifferent way, and did not exercise the proper oversight as to cleanliness and order; but, on the other hand, in the princ.i.p.al room of the inn, alongside the portrait of Akim, hung her portrait, painted in oils and ordered by her from a home-bred artist, the son of the parish deacon.--She was represented in a white gown and a yellow shawl, with six rows of large pearls on her neck, long earrings in her ears, and rings on every finger... It was possible to recognise her,--although the painter had depicted her as extremely corpulent and rosy-cheeked, and had painted her eyes black instead of grey, and even a trifle squinting... He had not succeeded at all with Akim: the latter had, somehow, turned out very dark--_a la Rembrandt_,--so that a traveller would sometimes step up and stare at it, and merely bellow a bit.

Avdotya had begun to dress with a good deal of carelessness; she would throw a large kerchief over her shoulders, and the gown under it would fit anyhow; indolence had taken possession of her, that sighing, languid, sleepy indolence to which Russians are but too greatly inclined, especially when their existence is a.s.sured.....

Nevertheless, the affairs of Akim and his wife throve very well; they lived in concord, and bore the reputation of being an exemplary married pair. But, like the squirrel which is cleaning its nose at the very moment when the arrow is aimed at it, a man has no foreboding of his own disaster--and suddenly down he crashes, as though on the ice....

One autumn evening a merchant with dry-goods stopped at Akim's inn. He was making his way, by devious roads, with two loaded kibitkas, from Moscow to Kharkoff; he was one of those peddlers whom the wives and daughters of landed proprietors sometimes await with so much impatience.

With this peddler, already an elderly man, were travelling two comrades, or, to put it more accurately, two workmen--one pale, thin, hump-backed, the other a stately, handsome young fellow of twenty. They ordered supper, then sat down to drink tea; the peddler invited the landlord and landlady to drink a cup with him--and they did not refuse. A conversation was speedily under way between the two old men (Akim had seen his fifty-sixth birthday); the peddler was making inquiries concerning the neighbouring landed proprietors,--and no one could impart to him all necessary details about them better than could Akim.

The hump-backed labourer kept continually going out to look at the carts, and at last took himself off to sleep; Avdotya was left to chat with the other labourer.... She sat beside him and talked little, and chiefly listened to what he narrated to her; but evidently his remarks pleased her; her face grew animated, a flush played over her cheeks, and she laughed quite often and readily. The young labourer sat almost motionless, with his curly head bent toward the table; he spoke softly without raising his voice, and without haste; on the other hand his eyes, not large, but audaciously bright and blue, fairly bored into Avdotya; at first she turned away from them, then she began to gaze into his face. The young fellow's face was as fresh and smooth as a Crimean apple; he smiled frequently and drummed his white fingers on his white chin, already covered with spa.r.s.e, dark down. He expressed himself after the merchant fashion, but with great ease, and with a certain careless self-confidence--and kept staring at her all the while with the same insistent and insolent look.... Suddenly he moved a little closer to her, and without changing the expression of his face in the least, he said to her: "Avdotya Arefyevna, there 's n.o.body in the world nicer than you; I 'm ready to die for you, I do believe."

Avdotya laughed loudly.

"What 's the matter with thee?"--Akim asked her.

"Why, this man here is telling such absurd things,"--she said, but without any special confusion.

The old peddler grinned.

"He, he, yes, ma'am; that Naum of mine is such a joker, sir. But you must n't listen to him, ma'am."

"Yes, certainly! as if I would listen to him,"--she replied, and shook her head.

"He, he, of course, ma'am,"--remarked the old man.--"Well, but,"--he added in a drawl,--"good-bye, I 'm much obliged, ma'am, but now 't is time to go to roost, ma'am...." And he rose to his feet.

"And we are much obliged, sir, too, sir,"--said Akim also,--"for the entertainment, that is to say; but now we wish you good night, sir.

Rise, Avdotyushka."

Avdotya rose, as though reluctantly, and after her Naum rose also ....

and all dispersed.

The landlord and landlady betook themselves to the small, closet-like room which served them as a bedroom. Akim set to snoring instantly.

Avdotya could not get to sleep for a long time.... At first she lay still, with her face turned to the wall, then she began to toss about on the hot feather-bed, now throwing off, now drawing up the coverlet ....

then she fell into a light doze. All of a sudden, a man's loud voice resounded in the yard; it was singing some slow but not mournful song, the words of which could not be distinguished. Avdotya opened her eyes, raised herself on her elbow, and began to listen.... The song still went on.... It poured forth sonorously on the autumnal air.

Akim raised his head.

"Who 's that singing?"--he inquired.

"I don't know,"--she replied.

"He sings well,"--he added, after a brief pause.--"Well. What a strong voice. I used to sing in my day,"--he continued,--"and I sang well, but my voice is ruined. But that 's a fine singer. It must be that young fellow singing. Naum is his name, I think."--And he turned over on his other side--drew a deep breath, and fell asleep again.

The voice did not cease for a long time thereafter.... Avdotya continued to listen and listen; at last it suddenly broke off short, as it were, then uttered one more wild shout, and slowly died away. Avdotya crossed herself, and laid her head on the pillow.... Half an hour elapsed....

She raised herself and began softly to get out of bed....

"Whither art thou going, wife?"--Akim asked her through his sleep.

She stopped short.

"To adjust the shrine-lamp,"[41]--she answered; "somehow or other I can't sleep."

"Thou hadst better say thy prayers,"--stammered Akim as he fell asleep.

Avdotya went to the shrine-lamp, began to adjust it, and incautiously extinguished it; she returned and lay down in bed. Silence reigned.

Early on the following morning the merchant set out on his way with his companions. Avdotya was sleeping. Akim escorted them for about half a verst; he was obliged to go to the mill. On returning home he found his wife already dressed, and no longer alone; with her was the young fellow of the previous evening, Naum. They were standing by the table, near the window, and talking together. On catching sight of Akim, Avdotya silently left the room, but Naum said that he had returned for his master's mittens, which the latter had forgotten on the bench, and he also left the room.

We shall now inform our readers of that which they, no doubt, have already divined without our aid: Avdotya had fallen pa.s.sionately in love with Naum. How this could come to pa.s.s so quickly, it is difficult to explain; it is all the more difficult, in that, up to that time, she had behaved in an irreproachable manner, notwithstanding numerous opportunities and temptations to betray her marital vows. Later on, when her relations with Naum became public, many persons in the countryside declared that on that very first evening he had put some magic herb into her tea (people with us still believe firmly in the efficacy of this method), and that this was very readily to be discerned in Avdotya, who, they said, very soon thereafter began to grow thin and bored.

However that may be, at all events Naum began to be frequently seen at Akim's inn. First, he journeyed past with that same merchant, but three months later he made his appearance alone, with his own wares; then a rumour became current that he had taken up his residence in one of the near-by towns of the county, and from that time forth not a week pa.s.sed that his stout, painted cart, drawn by a pair of plump horses which he drove himself, did not make its appearance on the highway.