The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories Part 28

"Good heavens!"--screamed Avdotya;--"but what 's the meaning of this?

What is it? But how am I to show myself in my husband's sight after this? Thou villain!"--she added, gazing with hatred at Naum's young, fresh face;--"have n't I ruined my soul for thee, have n't I become a thief for thy sake, hast not thou turned us out of doors, thou abominable villain?! After this there is nothing left for me but to put a noose about my neck, villain, deceiver, thou destroyer of me...."

And she wept in torrents....

"Pray, don't worry, Avdotya Arefyevna,"--said Naum;--"I 'll tell you one thing; a fellow must look out for number one; moreover, that 's what the pike is in the sea for, Avdotya Arefyevna--to keep the carp from getting drowsy."

"Where are we to go now, what is to become of us?"--stammered Avdotya through her tears.

"That 's more than I can tell, ma'am."

"But I 'll cut thy throat, thou villain; I will, I will!..."

"No, you won't do that, Avdotya Arefyevna; what 's the use of saying that? But I see that it will be better for me to go away from here for a while, or you will be much upset.... I will bid you good day, ma'am, and to-morrow I shall return without fail.... And you will be so good as to permit me to send my hired men to you to-day,"--he added, while Avdotya continued to repeat, through her tears, that she would cut his throat and her own also.

"And yonder they come, by the way,"--he remarked, looking out of the window. "Otherwise, some catastrophe might happen, which G.o.d forbid....

Matters will be more tranquil so. Do me the favour to get your belongings together to-day, ma'am, while they will stand guard over you and help you, if you like. I bid you good day, ma'am."

He bowed, left the room and called his men to him....

Avdotya sank down on the wall-bench, then laid herself breast down on the table, and began to wring her hands, then suddenly sprang to her feet, and ran after her husband.... We have described their meeting.

When Akim drove away from her in company with Efrem, leaving her alone in the fields, she first wept for a long time, without stirring from the spot. Having wept her fill, she directed her course to the mistress's manor. It was a bitter thing for her to enter the house, and still more bitter to show herself in the maids'-hall. All the maids flew to greet her with sympathy and expressions of regret. At the sight of them, Avdotya could not restrain her tears; they fairly gushed forth from her red and swollen eyes. Completely unnerved, she dropped down on the first chair she came to. They ran for Kirillovna. Kirillovna came, treated her very affectionately, but would not admit her to see the mistress, any more than she had admitted Akim. Avdotya herself did not insist very strongly on seeing Lizaveta Prokhorovna; she had come to the manor-house solely because she positively did not know where to lay her head.

Kirillovna ordered the samovar to be prepared. For a long time Avdotya refused to drink tea, but yielded, at last, to the entreaties and persuasions of all the maids, and after the first cup drank four more.

When Kirillovna perceived that her visitor was somewhat pacified, and only shuddered from time to time, sobbing faintly, she asked her whither they intended to remove, and what they wished to do with their things.

This question set Avdotya to crying again, and she began to a.s.severate that she wanted nothing more, except to die; but Kirillovna, being a woman of brains, immediately stopped her and advised her to set about transferring her things that very day, without useless waste of time, to Akim's former cottage in the village, where dwelt his uncle, that same old man who had tried to dissuade him from marrying; she announced that, with the mistress's permission, they would be furnished with transportation, and the aid of people and horses; "and as for you, my dearest,"--added Kirillovna, compressing her cat-like lips in a sour smile,--"there will always be a place for you in our house, and it will be very agreeable to us if you will be our guest until you recover yourself and get settled in your house. The princ.i.p.al thing is--you must not get downcast. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, and He will give again: everything depends on His will. Lizaveta Prokhorovna, of course, was obliged to sell your house, according to her calculations, but she will not forget you, and will reward you; she bade me say so to Akim Semyonitch... Where is he now?"

Avdotya replied that, on meeting her, he had grossly insulted her, and had driven off to Chanter Efrem's.

"To that creature's!"--replied Kirillovna, significantly.--"Well, I understand that it is painful for him now, and I don't believe you can hunt him up to-day. What is to be done? We must take measures, Malashka,"--she added, turning to one of the chambermaids. "Just ask Nikanor ilitch to step here; I will have a talk with him."

Nikanor ilitch, a man of very paltry appearance, who served somewhat in the capacity of overseer, immediately presented himself, obsequiously listened to everything which Kirillovna said to him,--remarked: "It shall be executed," left the room and issued his orders. Avdotya was furnished with three carts and three peasants; these were voluntarily joined by a fourth, who said of himself that he would be "more intelligent than they," and she set off in company with them for the inn, where she found her former hired men and her maid-servant, Fetinya, in great terror and excitement....

Naum's recruits, three extremely robust young fellows, had arrived in the morning, and had gone nowhere since, but had maintained a very zealous guard over the inn, according to Naum's promise--so zealous, that one cart speedily proved to be devoid of tires...

Bitter, very bitter was it for poor Avdotya to pack up her things.

Despite the a.s.sistance of the "intelligent" man, who, by the way, knew how to do nothing but stalk about with a staff in his hand, and watch the others, and spit to one side, she did not succeed in moving out that day, and remained to spend the night in the inn, having first requested Fetinya not to leave her room; but it was not until daybreak that she fell into a feverish doze, and the tears streamed down her cheeks even in her sleep.

In the meantime, Efrem awoke earlier than was his wont in his lumber-room, and began to thump and demand his release. At first his wife would not let him out, declaring to him through the door that he had not yet had enough sleep; but he excited her curiosity by promising to tell her about the remarkable thing which had happened to Akim; she undid the latch.--Efrem imparted to her everything he knew, and wound up with the question: "Was he awake or not?"

"Why, the Lord knows,"--replied his wife;--"go and see for thyself; he has not climbed down from the oven yet.--You both got pretty drunk last night; thou shouldst just see thyself--thy face has no semblance of a face; 't is like some sort of ladle; and what a lot of hay has got into thy hair!"

"Never mind if it has,"--returned Efrem,--and pa.s.sing his hand over his head, he entered the house.--Akim was no longer asleep; he was sitting on the oven with his legs dangling; his face also was very strange and discomposed. It appeared all the more distorted because Akim was not in the habit of drinking heavily.

"Well, how now, Akim Semyonitch, how have you slept?"--began Efrem....

Akim looked at him with a turbid gaze.

"Come, brother Efrem,"--he said hoa.r.s.ely,--"can't we do it again--thou knowest what?"

Efrem darted a swift glance at Akim .... at that moment he felt a sort of thrill; that is the kind of sensation a sportsman experiences when standing on the skirt of the woods, at the sudden yelping of his hound in the forest, from which, apparently, all the wild beasts have already fled.

"What--more?"--he asked at last.

"Yes; more."

"My wife will see,"--thought Efrem,--"and I don't believe she will allow it."--"All right, it can be done,"--he said aloud;--"have patience."--He went out and, thanks to artfully conceived measures, succeeded in smuggling in a huge bottle unperceived beneath the skirt of his coat....

Akim seized the bottle ... But Efrem did not start to drink with him as on the preceding evening--he was afraid of his wife, and,--having told Akim that he would go and see how things were progressing at his house, and how his belongings were being packed, and whether he were not being robbed,--he immediately set off for the inn astride of his unfed little nag,--not forgetting himself, however, if we may take into consideration his projecting bosom.

Soon after his departure, Akim fell asleep again, and lay like one dead on the oven.... He did not even wake up--at all events, he showed no signs of being awake--when Efrem, returning four hours later, began to shove him and try to rouse him, and whisper over him some extremely indistinct words to the effect that everything was gone and transported and the holy pictures were gone too, and everything was already over--and that every one was hunting for him, but that he, Efrem, had taken due measures, and had prohibited ... and so forth. But he did not whisper long. His wife led him off to the lumber-room again, and herself lay down in the house, on the platform over the oven, in great indignation at her husband and at the guest, thanks to whom her husband had got drunk.... But when, on awakening very early, according to her wont, she cast a glance at the oven, Akim was no longer on it.... The c.o.c.ks had not yet crowed for the second time, and the night was still so dark that the sky was barely turning grey directly overhead, and at the rim was still completely drowned in vapour, when Akim emerged from the gate of the chanter's house. His face was pale, but he darted a keen glance around him, and his gait did not betray the drunkard.... He walked in the direction of his former dwelling--the inn, which had already definitively become the property of its new owner, Naum.

Naum was not sleeping either, at the time when Akim stealthily quitted Efrem's house. He was not asleep; he was lying completely dressed on the wall-bench, with his sheepskin coat rolled up under his head. It was not that his conscience was tormenting him--no! he had been present with astounding cold-bloodedness, from the morning on, at the packing and transportation of Akim's household goods, and had more than once spoken to Avdotya, who was downcast to such a degree that she did not even upbraid him.... His conscience was at ease, but divers surmises and calculations occupied his mind. He did not know whether he was going to make a success of his new career; up to that time, he had never kept an inn--and, generally speaking, had never even had a nook of his own; and so he could not get to sleep.--"This little affair has been begun well,"--he thought;--"what will the future be?"... When the last cart-load of Akim's effects had set off just before night-fall (Avdotya had followed it weeping), he had inspected the entire inn, all the stables, cellars, and barns; he had crawled up into the attic, had repeatedly ordered his labourers to maintain a strict watch, and, when he was left alone after supper, he had not been able to get to sleep. It so happened that on that day none of the travellers stopped to pa.s.s the night; and this pleased him greatly. "I must buy a dog without fail to-morrow,--the worst-tempered dog I can get, from the miller; for they have carried off theirs,"--he said to himself, as he tossed from side to side, and, all of a sudden, he raised his head hastily.... It seemed to him as though some one had stolen past under the window... He listened... Not a sound. Only a gra.s.shopper shrilled behind the oven, from time to time, and a mouse was gnawing somewhere, and his own breath was audible. All was still in the empty room, dimly illuminated by the yellow rays of a tiny gla.s.s shrine-lamp, which he had found time to suspend and light in front of a small holy picture in the corner... He lowered his head; and now again he seemed to hear the gate squeaking .... then the wattled hedge crackled faintly.... He could not endure it, leaped to his feet, opened the door into the next room, and called in a low tone: "Feodor, hey, Feodor!"--No one answered him.... He went out into the anteroom and nearly fell p.r.o.ne, as he stumbled over Feodor, who was sprawling on the floor. The labourer stirred, growling in his sleep; he shook him.

"Who 's there? What 's wanted?"--Feodor was beginning....

"What art thou yelling for? Hold thy tongue!"--articulated Naum in a whisper.--"The idea of your sleeping, you d.a.m.ned brutes! Hast thou not heard anything?"

"No,"--replied the man.... "Why?"

"And where are the others sleeping?"

"The others are sleeping where they were ordered to.... But has anything happened?..."

"Silence!--Follow me."

Naum softly opened the door leading from the anteroom into the yard....

Out of doors everything was very dark;... it was possible to make out the sheds with their pillars only because they stood out still more densely black in the midst of the black mist....

"Sha'n't I light a lantern?"--said Feodor in a low voice.

But Naum waved his hand and held his breath.... At first he could hear nothing except those nocturnal sounds which one can almost always hear in inhabited places: a horse was munching oats, a pig grunted once faintly in its sleep, a man was snoring somewhere; but suddenly there reached his ear a suspicious sort of noise, proceeding from the extreme end of the yard, close to the fence....

It seemed as though some one was moving about, and breathing or blowing.... Naum looked over Feodor's shoulder, and, cautiously descending the steps, walked in the direction of the sound.... A couple of times he halted, and listened, then continued to creep stealthily onward.... Suddenly he gave a start.... Ten paces from him, in the dense gloom, a point of light suddenly glimmered brightly: it was a red-hot coal, and beside the coal there showed itself for a brief instant the front part of some one's face, with lips puffed out.... Swiftly and silently Naum darted at the light, as a cat darts at a mouse.... Hastily rising from the ground, a long body rushed to meet him, and almost knocked him from his feet, almost slipped through his hands, but he clung to it with all his might....

"Feodor! Andrei! Petrushka!"--he shouted, at the top of his lungs;--"come here quick, quick! I 've caught a thief, an incendiary!"

The man whom he had captured struggled and resisted .... but Naum did not release him.... Feodor immediately darted to his a.s.sistance.

"A lantern, quick, a lantern! Run for a lantern! wake the others, be quick!"--Naum shouted to him,--"and I 'll manage him alone meanwhile--I 'll sit on him... Be quick! and fetch a belt to bind him with!"

Feodor flew to the cottage.... The man whom Naum was holding suddenly ceased his resistance....

"So, evidently, 't is not enough for thee to have taken my wife and my money, and my house, but thou art bent on destroying me also,"--he said in a dull tone....

Naum recognised Akim's voice.

"So 't is thou, dear little dove,"--said he;--"good, just wait a bit!"