Part 5

‘Here,’ pursued Shubin, ‘is a gentleman, not young to judge by appearances, but what blissful, child-like faith is still hidden in him! Respect! And do you know, you primitive creature, what Nikolai Artemyevitch was in a rage with me for? Why I spent the whole of this morning with him at his German woman’s; we were singing the three of us--“Do not leave me.” You should have heard us--that would have moved you. We sang and sang, my dear sir--and well, I got bored; I could see something was wrong, there was an alarming tenderness in the air. And I began to tease them both. I was very successful. First she was angry with me, then with him; and then he got angry with her, and told her that he was never happy except at home, and he had a paradise there; and she told him he had no morals; and I murmured “Ach!” to her in German. He walked off and I stayed behind; he came here, to his paradise that’s to say, and he was soon sick of paradise, so he set to grumbling. Well now, who do you consider was to blame?’

‘You, of course,’ replied Uvar Ivanovitch.

Shubin stared at him. ‘May I venture to ask you, most reverend knight-errant,’ he began in an obsequious voice, ‘these enigmatical words you have deigned to utter as the result of some exercise of your reflecting faculties, or under the influence of a momentary necessity to start the vibration in the air known as sound?’

‘Don’t tempt me, I tell you,’ groaned Uvar Ivanovitch.

Shubin laughed and ran away. ‘Hi,’ shouted Uvar Ivanovitch a quarter of an hour later, ‘you there... a glass of spirits.’

A little page brought the glass of spirits and some salt fish on a tray. Uvar Ivanovitch slowly took the glass from the tray and gazed a long while with intense attention at it, as though he could not quite understand what it was he had in his hand. Then he looked at the page and asked him, ‘Wasn’t his name Vaska?’ Then he assumed an air of resignation, drank off the spirit, munched the herring and was slowly proceeding to get his handkerchief out of his pocket. But the page had long ago carried off and put away the tray and the decanter, eaten up the remains of the herring and had time to go off to sleep, curled up in a great-coat of his master’s, while Uvar Ivanovitch still continued to hold the handkerchief before him in his opened fingers, and with the same intense attention gazed now at the window, now at the floor and walls.

IX

Shubin went back to his room in the lodge and was just opening a book, when Nikolai Artemyevitch’s valet came cautiously into his room and handed him a small triangular note, sealed with a thick heraldic crest. ‘I hope,’ he found in the note, ‘that you as a man of honour will not allow yourself to hint by so much as a single word at a certain promissory note which was talked of this morning. You are acquainted with my position and my rules, the insignificance of the sum in itself and the other circumstances; there are, in fine, family secrets which must be respected, and family tranquillity is something so sacred that only _êtres sans coeur_ (among whom I have no reason to reckon you) would repudiate it! Give this note back to me.--N. S.’

Shubin scribbled below in pencil: ‘Don’t excite yourself, I’m not quite a sneak yet,’ and gave the note back to the man, and again began upon the book. But it soon slipped out of his hands. He looked at the reddening sky, at the two mighty young pines standing apart from the other trees, thought ‘by day pines are bluish, but how magnificently green they are in the evening,’ and went out into the garden, in the secret hope of meeting Elena there. He was not mistaken. Before him on a path between the bushes he caught a glimpse of her dress. He went after her, and when he was abreast with her, remarked:

‘Don’t look in my direction, I’m not worth it.’

She gave him a cursory glance, smiled cursorily, and walked on further into the depths of the garden. Shubin went after her.

‘I beg you not to look at me,’ he began, ‘and then I address you; flagrant contradiction. But what of that? it’s not the first time I’ve contradicted myself. I have just recollected that I have never begged your pardon as I ought for my stupid behaviour yesterday. You are not angry with me, Elena Nikolaevna, are you?’

She stood still and did not answer him at once--not because she was angry, but because her thoughts were far away.

‘No,’ she said at last, ‘I am not in the least angry.’ Shubin bit his lip.

‘What an absorbed... and what an indifferent face!’ he muttered. ‘Elena Nikolaevna,’ he continued, raising his voice, ‘allow me to tell you a little anecdote. I had a friend, and this friend also had a friend, who at first conducted himself as befits a gentleman but afterwards took to drink. So one day early in the morning, my friend meets him in the street (and by that time, note, the acquaintance has been completely dropped) meets him and sees he is drunk. My friend went and turned his back on him. But he ran up and said, “I would not be angry,” says he, “if you refused to recognise me, but why should you turn your back on me? Perhaps I have been brought to this through grief. Peace to my ashes!”’

Shubin paused.

‘And is that all?’ inquired Elena.

‘Yes that’s all.’

‘I don’t understand you. What are you hinting at? You told me just now not to look your way.’

‘Yes, and now I have told you that it’s too bad to turn your back on me.’

‘But did I?’ began Elena.

‘Did you not?’

Elena flushed slightly and held out her hand to Shubin. He pressed it warmly.

‘Here you seem to have convicted me of a bad feeling,’ said Elena, ‘but your suspicion is unjust. I was not even thinking of avoiding you.’

‘Granted, granted. But you must acknowledge that at that minute you had a thousand ideas in your head of which you would not confide one to me. Eh? I’ve spoken the truth, I’m quite sure?’

‘Perhaps so.’

‘And why is it? why?’

‘My ideas are not clear to myself,’ said Elena.

‘Then it’s just the time for confiding them to some one else,’ put in Shubin. ‘But I will tell you what it really is. You have a bad opinion of me.’

‘I?’

‘Yes you; you imagine that everything in me is half-humbug because I am an artist, that I am incapable not only of doing anything--in that you are very likely right--but even of any genuine deep feeling; you think that I am not capable even of weeping sincerely, that I’m a gossip and a slanderer,--and all because I’m an artist. What luckless, God-forsaken wretches we artists are after that! You, for instance, I am ready to adore, and you don’t believe in my repentance.’

‘No, Pavel Yakovlitch, I believe in your repentance and I believe in your tears. But it seems to me that even your repentance amuses you--yes and your tears too.’

Shubin shuddered.

‘Well, I see this is, as the doctors say, a hopeless case, _casus incurabilis_. There is nothing left but to bow the head and submit. And meanwhile, good Heavens, can it be true, can I possibly be absorbed in my own egoism when there is a soul like this living at my side? And to know that one will never penetrate into that soul, never will know why it grieves and why it rejoices, what is working within it, what it desires--whither it is going... Tell me,’ he said after a short silence, ‘could you never under any circumstances love an artist?’

Elena looked straight into his eyes.

‘I don’t think so, Pavel Yakovlitch; no.’

‘Which was to be proved,’ said Shubin with comical dejection. ‘After which I suppose it would be more seemly for me not to intrude on your solitary walk. A professor would ask you on what data you founded your answer no. I’m not a professor though, but a baby according to your ideas; but one does not turn one’s back on a baby, remember. Good-bye! Peace to my ashes!’

Elena was on the point of stopping him, but after a moment’s thought she too said:

‘Good-bye.’

Shubin went out of the courtyard. At a short distance from the Stahov’s house he was met by Bersenyev. He was walking with hurried steps, his head bent and his hat pushed back on his neck.

‘Andrei Petrovitch!’ cried Shubin.

He stopped.

‘Go on, go on,’ continued Shubin, ‘I only shouted, I won’t detain you--and you’d better slip straight into the garden--you’ll find Elena there, I fancy she’s waiting for you... she’s waiting for some one anyway.... Do you understand the force of those words: she is waiting! And do you know, my dear boy, an astonishing circumstance? Imagine, it’s two years now that I have been living in the same house with her, I’m in love with her, and it’s only just now, this minute, that I’ve, not understood, but really seen her. I have seen her and I lifted up my hands in amazement. Don’t look at me, please, with that sham sarcastic smile, which does not suit your sober features. Well, now, I suppose you want to remind me of Annushka. What of it? I don’t deny it. Annushkas are on my poor level. And long life to all Annushkas and Zoyas and even Augustina Christianovnas! You go to Elena now, and I will make my way to--Annushka, you fancy? No, my dear fellow, worse than that; to Prince Tchikurasov. He is a Maecenas of a Kazan-Tartar stock, after the style of Volgin. Do you see this note of invitation, these letters, R.S.V.P.? Even in the country there’s no peace for me. Addio!’ Bersenyev listened to Shubin’s tirade in silence, looking as though he were just a little ashamed of him. Then he went into the courtyard of the Stahovs’ house. And Shubin did really go to Prince Tchikurasov, to whom with the most cordial air he began saying the most insulting things. The Maecenas of the Tartars of Kazan chuckled; the Maecenas’s guests laughed, but no one felt merry, and every one was in a bad temper when the party broke up. So two gentlemen slightly acquainted may be seen when they meet on the Nevsky Prospect suddenly grinning at one another and pursing up their eyes and noses and cheeks, and then, directly they have passed one another, they resume their former indifferent, often cross, and generally sickly, expression.

X

Elena met Bersenyev cordially, though not in the garden, but the drawing-room, and at once, almost impatiently, renewed the conversation of the previous day. She was alone; Nikolai Artemyevitch had quietly slipped away. Anna Vassilyevna was lying down upstairs with a wet bandage on her head. Zoya was sitting by her, the folds of her skirt arranged precisely about her, and her little hands clasped on her knees. Uvar Ivanovitch was reposing in the attic on a wide and comfortable divan, known as a ‘samo-son’ or ‘dozer.’ Bersenyev again mentioned his father; he held his memory sacred. Let us, too, say a few words about him.

The owner of eighty-two serfs, whom he set free before his death, an old Gottingen student, and disciple of the ‘Illuminati,’ the author of a manuscript work on ‘transformations or typifications of the spirit in the world’--a work in which Schelling’s philosophy, Swedenborgianism and republicanism were mingled in the most original fashion--Bersenyev’s father brought him, while still a boy, to Moscow immediately after his mother’s death, and at once himself undertook his education. He prepared himself for each lesson, exerted himself with extraordinary conscientiousness and absolute lack of success: he was a dreamer, a bookworm, and a mystic; he spoke in a dull, hesitating voice, used obscure and roundabout expressions, metaphorical by preference, and was shy even of his son, whom he loved passionately. It was not surprising that his son was simply bewildered at his lessons, and did not advance in the least. The old man (he was almost fifty, he had married late in life) surmised at last that things were not going quite right, and he placed his Andrei in a school. Andrei began to learn, but he was not removed from his father’s supervision; his father visited him unceasingly, wearying the schoolmaster to death with his instructions and conversation; the teachers, too, were bored by his uninvited visits; he was for ever bringing them some, as they said, far-fetched books on education. Even the schoolboys were embarrassed at the sight of the old man’s swarthy, pockmarked face, his lank figure, invariably clothed in a sort of scanty grey dresscoat. The boys did not suspect then that this grim, unsmiling old gentleman, with his crane-like gait and his long nose, was at heart troubling and yearning over each one of them almost as over his own son. He once conceived the idea of talking to them about Washington: ‘My young nurslings,’ he began, but at the first sounds of his strange voice the young nurslings ran away. The good old Gottingen student did not lie on a bed of roses; he was for ever weighed down by the march of history, by questions and ideas of every kind. When young Bersenyev entered the university, his father used to drive with him to the lectures, but his health was already beginning to break up. The events of the year 1848 shook him to the foundation (it necessitated the re-writing of his whole book), and he died in the winter of 1853, before his son’s time at the university was over, but he was able beforehand to congratulate him on his degree, and to consecrate him to the service of science. ‘I pass on the torch to you,’ he said to him two hours before his death. ‘I held it while I could; you, too, must not let the light grow dim before the end.’

Bersenyev talked a long while to Elena of his father. The embarrassment he had felt in her presence disappeared, and his lisp was less marked. The conversation passed on to the university.

‘Tell me,’ Elena asked him, ‘were there any remarkable men among your comrades?’

Bersenyev was again reminded of Shubin’s words.

‘No, Elena Nikolaevna, to tell you the truth, there was not a single remarkable man among us. And, indeed, where are such to be found! There was, they say, a good time once in the Moscow university! But not now. Now it’s a school, not a university. I was not happy with my comrades,’ he added, dropping his voice.

‘Not happy,’ murmured Elena.

‘But I ought,’ continued Bersenyev, ‘to make an exception. I know one student--it’s true he is not in the same faculty--he is certainly a remarkable man.’

‘What is his name?’ Elena inquired with interest.

‘Insarov Dmitri Nikanorovitch. He is a Bulgarian.’

‘Not a Russian?’

‘No, he is not a Russian,’

‘Why is he living in Moscow, then?’

‘He came here to study. And do you know with what aim he is studying? He has a single idea: the liberation of his country. And his story is an exceptional one. His father was a fairly well-to-do merchant; he came from Tirnova. Tirnova is now a small town, but it was the capital of Bulgaria in the old days when Bulgaria was still an independent state. He traded with Sophia, and had relations with Russia; his sister, Insarov’s aunt, is still living in Kiev, married to a senior history teacher in the gymnasium there. In 1835, that is to say eighteen years ago, a terrible crime was committed; Insarov’s mother suddenly disappeared without leaving a trace behind; a week later she was found murdered.’

Elena shuddered. Bersenyev stopped.

‘Go on, go on,’ she said.

‘There were rumours that she had been outraged and murdered by a Turkish aga; her husband, Insarov’s father, found out the truth, tried to avenge her, but only succeeded in wounding the aga with his poniard.... He was shot.’

‘Shot, and without a trial?’

‘Yes. Insarov was just eight years old at the time. He remained in the hands of neighbours. The sister heard of the fate of her brother’s family, and wanted to take the nephew to live with her. They got him to Odessa, and from there to Kiev. At Kiev he lived twelve whole years. That’s how it is he speaks Russian so well.’

‘He speaks Russian?’

‘Just as we do. When he was twenty (that was at the beginning of the year 1848) he began to want to return to his country. He stayed in Sophia and Tirnova, and travelled through the length and breadth of Bulgaria, spending two years there, and learning his mother tongue over again. The Turkish Government persecuted him, and he was certainly exposed to great dangers during those two years; I once caught sight of a broad scar on his neck, from a wound, no doubt; but he does not like to talk about it. He is reserved, too, in his own way. I have tried to question him about everything, but I could get nothing out of him. He answers by generalities. He’s awfully obstinate. He returned to Russia again in 1850, to Moscow, with the intention of educating himself thoroughly, getting intimate with Russians, and then when he leaves the university----’

‘What then?’ broke in Elena.

‘What God wills. It’s hard to forecast the future.’

For a while Elena did not take her eyes off Bersenyev.

‘You have greatly interested me by what you have told me,’ she said. ‘What is he like, this friend of yours; what did you call him, Insarov?’

‘What shall I say? To my mind, he’s good-looking. But you will see him for yourself.’

‘How so?’

‘I will bring him here to see you. He is coming to our little village the day after tomorrow, and is going to live with me in the same lodging.’

‘Really? But will he care to come to see us?’

‘I should think so. He will be delighted.’

‘He isn’t proud, then?’

‘Not the least. That’s to say, he is proud if you like, only not in the sense you mean. He will never, for instance, borrow money from any one.’

‘Is he poor?’

‘Yes, he isn’t rich. When he went to Bulgaria he collected some relics left of his father’s property, and his aunt helps him; but it all comes to very little.’

‘He must have a great deal of character,’ observed Elena.

‘Yes. He is a man of iron. And at the same time you will see there is something childlike and frank, with all his concentration and even his reserve. It’s true, his frankness is not our poor sort of frankness--the frankness of people who have absolutely nothing to conceal.... But there, I will bring him to see you; wait a little.’

‘And isn’t he shy?’ asked Elena again.

‘No, he’s not shy. It’s only vain people who are shy.’

‘Why, are you vain?’

He was confused and made a vague gesture with his hands.

‘You excite my curiosity,’ pursued Elena. ‘But tell me, has he not taken vengeance on that Turkish aga?’

Bersenyev smiled

‘Revenge is only to be found in novels, Elena Nikolaevna; and, besides, in twelve years that aga may well be dead.’

‘Mr. Insarov has never said anything, though, to you about it?’

‘No, never.’

‘Why did he go to Sophia?’

‘His father used to live there.’

Elena grew thoughtful.

‘To liberate one’s country!’ she said. ‘It is terrible even to utter those words, they are so grand.’

At that instant Anna Vassilyevna came into the room, and the conversation stopped.

Bersenyev was stirred by strange emotions when he returned home that evening. He did not regret his plan of making Elena acquainted with Insarov, he felt the deep impression made on her by his account of the young Bulgarian very natural... had he not himself tried to deepen that impression! But a vague, unfathomable emotion lurked secretly in his heart; he was sad with a sadness that had nothing noble in it. This sadness did not prevent him, however, from setting to work on the _History of the Hohenstaufen_, and beginning to read it at the very page at which he had left off the evening before.

XI

Two days later, Insarov in accordance with his promise arrived at Bersenyev’s with his luggage. He had no servant; but without any assistance he put his room to rights, arranged the furniture, dusted and swept the floor. He had special trouble with the writing table, which would not fit into the recess in the wall assigned for it; but Insarov, with the silent persistence peculiar to him succeeded in getting his own way with it. When he had settled in, he asked Bersenyev to let him pay him ten roubles in advance, and arming himself with a thick stick, set off to inspect the country surrounding his new abode. He returned three hours later; and in response to Bersenyev’s invitation to share his repast, he said that he would not refuse to dine with him that day, but that he had already spoken to the woman of the house, and would get her to send him up his meals for the future.

‘Upon my word!’ said Bersenyev, ‘you will fare very badly; that old body can’t cook a bit. Why don’t you dine with me, we would go halves over the cost.’

‘My means don’t allow me to dine as you do,’ Insarov replied with a tranquil smile.

There was something in that smile which forbade further insistence; Bersenyev did not add a word. After dinner he proposed to Insarov that he should take him to the Stahovs; but he replied that he had intended to devote the evening to correspondence with his Bulgarians, and so he would ask him to put off the visit to the Stahovs till next day. Bersenyev was already familiar with Insarov’s unbending will; but it was only now when he was under the same roof with him, that he fully realised at last that Insarov would never alter any decision, just in the same way as he would never fail to carry out a promise he had given; to Bersenyev--a Russian to his fingertips--this more than German exactitude seemed at first odd, and even rather ludicrous; but he soon got used to it, and ended by finding it--if not deserving of respect--at least very convenient.