Virgin Soil Part 41

Our friend Va.s.sily, who gave us shelter here, is a lucky man. He belongs to our camp, but is so calm and quiet. He doesn't want to hurry over things. I should have quarrelled with another, but I can't with him. The secret lies not in his convictions, but in the man himself. Va.s.sily has a character that you can't kindle, but he's all right nevertheless. He is with us a good deal, with Mariana. What surprises me is that although I love her and she loves me (I see you smiling at this, but the fact remains!) we have nothing to talk about, while she is constantly discussing and arguing with him and listening too. I am not jealous of him; he is trying to find a place for her somewhere, at any rate, she keeps on asking him to do so, but it makes me feel bitter to look at them both. And would you believe it--I have only to drop a hint about marrying and she would agree at once and the priest Zosim would put in an appearance, "Isaiah, rejoice!" and the rest of it. But this would not make it any easier for me and NOTHING WOULD BE CHANGED BY IT... Whatever you do, there is no way out of it! Life has cut me short, my dear Vladimir, as our little drunken tailor used to say, you remember, when he used to complain about his wife.

I have a feeling that it can't go on somehow, that something is preparing.

Have I not again and again said that the time has come for action? Well, so here we are in the thick of it.

I can't remember if I told you anything about another friend of mine--a relative of the Sipiagins. He will get himself into such a mess that it won't be easy for him to get out of it.

I quite meant finishing this letter and am still going on. It seems to me that nothing matters and yet I scribble verses. I don't read them to Mariana and she is not very anxious to hear them, but you have sometimes praised my poor attempts and most of all you'll keep them to yourself.

I have been struck by a common phenomenon in Russia... But, however, let the verses speak for themselves--

SLEEP

After long absence I return to my native land, Finding no striking change there.

The same dead, senseless stagnation; crumbling houses, crumbling walls, And the same filth, dirt, poverty, and misery.

Unchanged the servile glance, now insolent, now dejected.

Free have our people become, and the free arm Hangs as before like a whip unused.

All, all as before. In one thing only may we equal Europe, Asia, and the World!

Never before has such a fearful sleep oppressed our land.

All are asleep, on all sides are they; Through town and country, in carts and in sledges, By day or night, sitting or standing, The merchant and the official, and the sentinel at his post In biting snow and burning heat--all sleep.

The judged ones doze, and the judge snores, And peasants plough and reap like dead men, Father, mother, children; all are asleep.

He who beats, and he who is beaten.

Alone the tavern of the tsar ne'er closes a relentless eye.

So, grasping tight in hand the bottle, His brow at the Pole and his heel in the Caucasus, Holy Russia, our fatherland, lies in eternal sleep.

I am sorry, Vladimir. I never meant to write you such a melancholy letter without a few cheering words at the end. (You will no doubt tumble across some defects in the lines!) When shall I write to you again? Shall I ever write? But whatever happens to me I am sure you will never forget,

Your devoted friend,

A. N.

P.S.--Our people are asleep... But I have a feeling that if anything does wake them, it will not be what we think.

After writing the last line, Nejdanov flung down the pen. "Well, now you must try and sleep and forget all this nonsense, scribbler!" he exclaimed, and lay down on the bed. But it was long before he fell asleep.

The next morning Mariana woke him pa.s.sing through his room on her way to Tatiana. He had scarcely dressed when she came back. She seemed excited, her face expressing delight and anxiety at the same time.

"Do you know, Aliosha, they say that in the province of T., quite near here, it has already begun!"

"What? What has begun? Who said so?"

"Pavel. They say the peasants are rising, refusing to pay taxes, collecting in mobs."

"Have you heard that yourself?"

"Tatiana told me. But here is Pavel himself. You had better ask him."

Pavel came in and confirmed what Mariana had said.

"There is certainly some disturbance in T.," he began, shaking his beard and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up his bright black eyes. "Sergai Mihailovitch must have had a hand in it. He hasn't been home for five days."

Nejdanov took his cap.

"Where are you off to?" Mariana asked.

"Why there of course," he replied, not raising his eyes and frowning, "I am going to T."

"Then I will come with you. You'll take me, won't you? Just let me get a shawl."

"It's not a woman's work," Nejdanov said irritably with his eyes still fixed on the floor.

"No, no! You do well to go, or Markelov would think you a coward ... but I'm coming with you."

"I am not a coward," Nejdanov observed gloomily.

"I meant to say that he would have thought us both cowards. I am coming with you."

Mariana went into her own room to get a shawl, while Pavel gave an inward ha, ha, and quickly vanished. He ran to warn Solomin.

Mariana had not yet appeared, when Solomin came into Nejdanov's room.

The latter was standing with his face to the window, his forehead resting on the palm of his hand and his elbow on the window-pane.

Solomin touched him on the shoulder. He turned around quickly; dishevelled and unwashed, Nejdanov had a strange wild look. Solomin, too, had changed during the last days. His face was yellow and drawn and his upper front teeth showed slightly--he, too, seemed agitated as far as it was possible for his well-balanced temperament to be so.

"Markelov could not control himself after all," he began. "This may turn out badly both for him and for others."

"I want to go and see what's going on there," Nejdanov observed.

"And I too," Mariana added as she appeared in the doorway.

Solomin turned to her quickly.

"I would not advise you to go, Mariana. You may give yourself away--and us, without meaning to, and without the slightest necessity. Let Nejdanov go and see how the land lies, if he wants to--and the sooner he's back the better! But why should you go?"

"I don't want to be parted from him."

"You will be in his way."

Mariana looked at Nejdanov. He was standing motionless with a set sullen expression on his face.

"But supposing there should be danger?" she asked.

Solomin smiled.

"Don't be afraid... when there's danger I will let you go."

Mariana took off her shawl without a word and sat down. Solomin then turned to Nejdanov.