Virgin Soil Part 16

"Ah! how well I did to tell you everything!" He was scarcely able to articulate the words.

"Yes, how well--how well!" she repeated, also in a whisper. She imitated him unconsciously--her voice, too, gave way. "And it means," she continued, "that I am at your disposal, that I want to be useful to your cause, that I am ready to do anything that may be necessary, go wherever you may want me to, that I have always longed with my whole soul for all the things that you want--"

She also ceased. Another word--and her emotion would have dissolved into tears. All the strength and force of her nature suddenly softened as wax. She was consumed with a thirst for activity, for self-sacrifice, for immediate self-sacrifice.

A sound of footsteps was heard from the other side of the door--light, rapid, cautious footsteps.

Mariana suddenly drew herself up and disengaged her hands; her mood changed, she became quite cheerful, a certain audacious, scornful expression flitted across her face.

"I know who is listening behind the door at this moment," she remarked, so loudly that every word could be heard distinctly in the corridor; "Madame Sipiagina is listening to us... but it makes no difference to me."

The footsteps ceased.

"Well?" Mariana asked, turning to Nejdanov. "What shall I do? How shall I help you? Tell me... tell me quickly! What shall I do?"

"I don't know yet," Nejdanov replied. "I have received a note from Markelov--"

"When did you receive it? When?"

"This evening. He and I must go and see Solomin at the factory tomorrow."

"Yes... yes.... What a splendid man Markelov is! Now he's a real friend!"

"Like me"

"No--not like you."

"How?"

She turned away suddenly.

"Oh! Don't you understand what you have become for me, and what I am feeling at this moment?"

Nejdanov's heart beat violently; he looked down. This girl who loved him--a poor, homeless wretch, who trusted him, who was ready to follow him, pursue the same cause together with him--this wonderful girl--Mariana--became for Nejdanov at this moment the incarnation of all earthly truth and goodness--the incarnation of the love of mother, sister, wife, all the things he had never known; the incarnation of his country, happiness, struggle, freedom!

He raised his head and encountered her eyes fixed on him again.

Oh, how this sweet, bright glance penetrated to his very soul!

"And so," he began in an unsteady voice, "I am going away tomorrow...

And when I come back, I will tell... you--" (he suddenly felt it awkward to address Mariana as "you") "tell you everything that is decided upon.

From now on everything that I do and think, everything, I will tell thee first."

"Oh, my dear!" Mariana exclaimed, seizing his hand again. "I promise thee the same!"

The word "thee" escaped her lips just as simply and easily as if they had been old comrades.

"Have you got the letter?"

"Here it is."

Mariana scanned the letter and looked up at him almost reverently.

"Do they entrust you with such important commissions?" He smiled in reply and put the letter back in his pocket. "How curious," he said, "we have come to know of our love, we love one another--and yet we have not said a single word about it."

"There is no need," Mariana whispered, and suddenly threw her arms around his neck and pressed her head closely against his breast. They did not kiss--it would have seemed to them too commonplace and rather terrible--but instantly took leave of one another, tightly clasping each other's hands.

Mariana returned for the candle which she had left on the window-sill of the empty room. Only then a sort of bewilderment came over her; she extinguished the candle and, gliding quickly along the dark corridor, entered her own room, undressed and went to bed in the soothing darkness.

XVI

ON awakening the following morning, Nejdanov did not feel the slightest embarra.s.sment at what had taken place the previous night, but was, on the contrary, filled with a sort of quiet joy, as if he had fulfilled something which ought to have been done long ago. Asking for two days'

leave from Sipiagin, who consented readily, though with a certain amount of severity, Nejdanov set out for Markelov's. Before his departure he managed to see Mariana. She was also not in the least abashed, looked at him calmly and resolutely, and called him "dear" quite naturally.

She was very much concerned about what he might hear at Markelov's, and begged him to tell her everything.

"Of course!" he replied. "After all," he thought, "why should we be disturbed? In our friendship personal feeling played only... a secondary part, and we are united forever. In the name of the cause? Yes, in the name of the cause!"

Thus Nejdanov thought, and he did not himself suspect how much truth and how much falsehood there lay in his reflections.

He found Markelov in the same weary, sullen frame of mind. After a very impromptu dinner they set out in the well-known carriage to the merchant Falyeva's cotton factory where Solomin lived. (The second side horse harnessed to the carriage was a young colt that had never been in harness before. Markelov's own horse was still a little lame.)

Nejdanov's curiosity had been aroused. He very much wanted to become closer acquainted with a man about whom he had heard so much of late.

Solomin had been informed of their coming, so that as soon as the two travellers stopped at the gates of the factory and announced who they were, they were immediately conducted into the hideous little wing occupied by the "engineering manager." He was at that time in the main body of the building, and while one of the workmen ran to fetch him, Nejdanov and Markelov managed to go up to the window and look around.

The factory was apparently in a very flourishing condition and over-loaded with work. From every corner came the quick buzzing sound of unceasing activity; the puffing and rattling of machines, the creaking of looms, the humming of wheels, the whirling of straps, while trolleys, barrels, and loaded carts were rolling in and out. Orders were shouted out at the top of the voice amidst the sound of bells and whistles; workmen in blouses with girdles round their waists, their hair fastened with straps, work girls in print dresses, hurried quickly to and fro, harnessed horses were led about.

It represented the hum of a thousand human beings working with all their might. Everything went at full speed in fairly regular order, but not only was there an absence of smartness and neatness, but there was not the smallest trace or cleanliness to be seen anywhere. On the contrary, in every corner one was struck by neglect, dirt, grime; here a pane of gla.s.s was broken, there the plaster was coming off; in another place the boards were loose; in a third, a door gaped wide open. A large filthy puddle covered with a coating of rainbow-coloured slime stood in the middle of the main yard; farther on lay a heap of discarded bricks; sc.r.a.ps of mats and matting, boxes, and pieces of rope lay scattered here and there; s.h.a.ggy, hungry-looking dogs wandered to and fro, too listless to bark; in a corner, under the fence, sat a grimy little boy of about four, with an enormous belly and dishevelled head, crying hopelessly, as if he had been forsaken by the whole world; close by a sow likewise besmeared in soot and surrounded by a medley of little suckling-pigs was devouring some cabbage stalks; some ragged clothes were stretched on a line--and such stuffiness and stench! In a word, just like a Russian factory--not like a French or a German one.

Nejdanov looked at Markelov.

"I have heard so much about Solomin's superior capabilities," he began, "that I confess all this disorder surprises me. I did not expect it."

"This is not disorder, but the usual Russian slovenliness," Markelov replied gloomily. "But all the same, they are turning over millions.

Solomin has to adjust himself to the old ways, to practical things, and to the owner himself. Have you any idea what Falyeva is like?"

"Not in the least."

"He is the biggest skinflint in Moscow. A regular bourgeois."

At this moment Solomin entered the room. Nejdanov was just as disillusioned about him as he had been about the factory. At the first glance he gave one the impression of being a Finn or a Swede. He was tall, lean, broad-shouldered, with colourless eyebrows and eyelashes; had a long sallow face, a short, rather broad nose, small greenish eyes, a placid expression, coa.r.s.e thick lips, large teeth, and a divided chin covered with a suggestion of down. He was dressed like a mechanic or a stoker in an old pea-jacket with baggy pockets, with an oil-skin cap on his head, a woollen scarf round his neck, and tarred boots on his feet.

He was accompanied by a man of about forty in a peasant coat, who had an extraordinarily lively gipsy-like face, coal-black piercing eyes, with which he scanned Nejdanov as soon as he entered the room. Markelov was already known to him. This was Pavel, Solomin's factotum.

Solomin approached the two visitors slowly and without a word, pressed the hand of each in turn in his own hard bony one. He opened a drawer, pulled out a sealed letter, which he handed to Pavel, also without a word, and the latter immediately left the room. Then he stretched himself, threw away his cap with one wave of the hand, sat down on a painted wooden stool and, pointing to a couch, begged Nejdanov and Markelov to be seated.

Markelov first introduced Nejdanov, whom Solomin again shook by the hand, then he went on to "business," mentioning Va.s.sily Nikolaevitch's letter, which Nejdanov handed to Solomin. And while the latter was reading it carefully, his eyes moving from line to line, Nejdanov sat watching him. Solomin was near the window and the sun, already low in the horizon, was shining full on his tanned face covered with perspiration, on his fair hair covered with dust, making it sparkle like a ma.s.s of gold. His nostrils quivered and distended as he read, and his lips moved as though he were forming every word. He held the letter raised tightly in both hands, and when he had finished returned it to Nejdanov and began listening to Markelov again. The latter talked until he had exhausted himself.