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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Liza, by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Liza
+       "A nest of nobles"
+
+Author: Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
+
+Release Date: April 29, 2004 [EBook #12194]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIZA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Josephine Paolucci and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+(_Leisure Hour Series_.)
+
+FATHERS AND SONS.
+SMOKE.
+LIZA.
+ON THE EVE.
+DIMITRI ROUDINE.
+SPRING FLOODS; LEAR.
+VIRGIN SOIL.
+ANNALS OF A SPORTSMAN.
+
+
+
+
+_LEISURE HOUR SERIES_
+
+
+LIZA
+
+OR
+
+"A NEST OF NOBLES"
+
+_A NOVEL_
+
+BY IVAN S. TURGÉNIEFF
+
+_TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN_
+
+BY W.R.S. RALSTON
+
+
+1873
+
+
+DEDICATED TO THE AUTHOR BY HIS FRIEND THE TRANSLATOR.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The author of the _Dvoryanskoe Gnyezdo_, or "Nest of Nobles," of which
+a translation is now offered to the English reader under the title of
+"Liza," is a writer of whom Russia may well be proud.[A] And that, not
+only because he is a consummate artist,--entitled as he is to take
+high rank among those of European fame, so accurate is he in his
+portrayal of character, and so quick to seize and to fix even its most
+fleeting expression; so vividly does he depict by a few rapid touches
+the appearance of the figures whom he introduces upon his canvas, the
+nature of the scenes among which they move,--he has other and even
+higher claims than these to the respect and admiration of Russian
+readers. For he is a thoroughly conscientious worker; one who, amid
+all his dealings with fiction, has never swerved from his regard for
+what is real and true; one to whom his own country and his own people
+are very dear, but who has neither timidly bowed to the prejudices of
+his countrymen, nor obstinately shut his eyes to their faults.
+
+[Footnote A: Notwithstanding the unencouraging opinion expressed by
+Mr. Ralston in this preface, of the probable fate of "Fathers and
+Children," and "Smoke," with the English public, both have been
+translated in America and have met with very fair success. Of course,
+even more may be hoped for the author's other works.]
+
+His first prose work, the "Notes of a Sportsman" (_Zapiski
+Okhotnika_), a collection of sketches of country life, made a deep and
+lasting impression upon the minds of the educated classes in Russia,
+so vigorous were its attacks upon the vices of that system of slavery
+which was then prevalent. Those attacks had all the more weight,
+inasmuch as the book was by no means exclusively devoted to them. It
+dealt with many other subjects connected with provincial life; and
+the humor and the pathos and the picturesqueness with which they were
+treated would of themselves have been sufficient to commend it to the
+very favorable attention of his countrymen. But the sad pictures he
+drew in it, occasionally and almost as it were accidentally, of the
+wretched position occupied by the great masses of the people, then
+groaning under the weight of that yoke which has since been removed,
+stirred the heart of Russian society with a thrill of generous horror
+and sympathy; and the effect thus produced was all the more permanent
+inasmuch as it was attained by thoroughly legitimate means. Far
+from exaggerating the ills of which he wrote, or describing them in
+sensational and declamatory language, he treated them in a style
+that sometimes seemed almost cold in its reticence and freedom from
+passion. The various sketches of which the volume was composed
+appeared at intervals in a Russian magazine, called the _Contemporary
+(Sovremennik)_, about three-and-twenty years ago, and were read in it
+with avidity; but when the first edition of the collected work was
+exhausted, the censors refused to grant permission to the author to
+print a second, and so for many years the complete book was not to be
+obtained in Russia without great difficulty. Now that the good fight
+of emancipation has been fought, and the victory--thanks to the
+present Emperor--has been won, M. Turgénieff has every reason for
+looking back with pride upon that phase of the struggle; and his
+countrymen may well have a feeling of regard, as well as of respect,
+for him--the upper-classes as for one who has helped them to recognize
+their duty; the lower, as for a very generous supporter in their time
+of trouble.
+
+M. Turgénieff has written a great number of very charming short
+stories, most of them having reference to Russia and Russian life; for
+though he has lived in Germany for many years, his thoughts, whenever
+he takes up his pen, almost always seem to go back to his native land.
+Besides these, as well as a number of critical essays, plays, and
+poems, he has brought out several novels, or rather novelettes, for
+none of them have attained to three-volume dimensions. Of these, the
+most remarkable are the one I have now translated, which appeared
+about eleven years ago, and the two somewhat polemical stories, called
+"Fathers and Children" (_Otsui i Dyeti_) and "Smoke" (_Duim_). The
+first of the three I may leave to speak for itself, merely adding that
+I trust that--although it appears under all the disadvantages by
+which even the most conscientious of translations must always be
+attended--it may be looked upon by English readers with somewhat of
+the admiration which I have long felt for the original, on account of
+the artistic finish of its execution, the purity of its tone, and the
+delicacy and the nobleness of the sentiment by which it is pervaded.
+
+The story of "Fathers and Children" conveys a vigorous and excessively
+clever description of the change that has taken place of late years in
+the thoughts and feelings of the educated classes of Russian society
+One of the most interesting chapters in "Liza"--one which may
+be skipped by readers who care for nothing but incident in a
+story--describes a conversation which takes place between the hero
+and one of his old college friends. The sketch of the disinterested
+student, who has retained in mature life all the enthusiasm of his
+college days, is excellent, and is drawn in a very kindly spirit.
+But in "Fathers and Children" an exaggeration of this character is
+introduced, serving as a somewhat scare-crow-like embodiment of the
+excessively hard thoughts and very irreverent speculations in which
+the younger thinkers of the new school indulge. This character is
+developed in the story into dimensions which must be styled inordinate
+if considered from a purely artistic point of view; but the story
+ought not to be so regarded. Unfortunately for its proper appreciation
+among us, it cannot be judged aright, except by readers who possess a
+thorough knowledge of what was going on in Russia a few years ago, and
+who take a keen and lively interest in the subjects which were then
+being discussed there. To all others, many of its chapters will
+seem too unintelligible and wearisome, both linked together into
+interesting unity by the slender thread of its story, beautiful as
+many of its isolated passages are. The same objection may be made
+to "Smoke." Great spaces in that work are devoted to caricatures of
+certain persons and opinions of note in Russia, but utterly unknown
+in England--pictures which either delight or irritate the author's
+countrymen, according to the tendency of their social and political
+speculations, but which are as meaningless to the untutored English
+eye as a collection of "H.B."'s drawings would be to a Russian who had
+never studied English politics. Consequently neither of these stories
+is likely ever to be fully appreciated among us[A].
+
+[Footnote A: A detailed account of both of these stories, as well as
+of several other works by M. Turgénieff, will be found in the number
+of the _North British Review_ for March, 1869.]
+
+The last novelette which M. Turgénieff has published, "The Unfortunate
+One" (_Neschastnaya_) is free from the drawbacks by which, as far as
+English readers are concerned, "Fathers and Children" and "Smoke,"
+are attended; but it is exceedingly sad and painful. It is said to be
+founded on a true story, a fact which may account for an intensity
+of gloom in its coloring, the darkness of which would otherwise seem
+almost unartistically overcharged.
+
+Several of M. Turgénieff's works have already been translated into
+English. The "Notes of a Sportsman" appeared about fourteen years
+ago, under the title of "Russian Life in the Interior[A];" but,
+unfortunately, the French translation from which they were (with all
+due acknowledgment) rendered, was one which had been so "cooked" for
+the Parisian market, that M. Turgénieff himself felt bound to protest
+against it vigorously. It is the more unfortunate inasmuch as an
+admirable French translation of the work was afterwards made by M.
+Delaveau[B].
+
+[Footnote A: "Russian Life in the Interior." Edited by J.D.
+Meiklejohn. Black, Edinburg, 1855.]
+
+[Footnote B: "Récits d'un Chasseur." Traduits par H. Delavea, Paris,
+1858.]
+
+Still more vigorously had M. Turgénieff to protest against an English
+translation of "Smoke," which appeared a few months ago.
+
+The story of "Fathers and Children" has also appeared in English[A];
+but as the translation was published on the other side of the
+Atlantic, it has as yet served but little to make M. Turgénieff's name
+known among us.
+
+[Footnote A: "Fathers and Sons." Translated from the Russian by Eugene
+Schuyler. New York 1867.]
+
+The French and German translations of M. Turgénieff's works are
+excellent. From the French versions of M. Delaveau, M. Xavier Marmier,
+M. Prosper Mérimée, M. Viardot, and several others, a very good idea
+may be formed by the general reader of M. Turgénieffs merits. For
+my own part, I wish cordially to thank the French and the German
+translators of the _Dvoryanskoe Gnyezdo_ for the assistance their
+versions rendered me while I was preparing the present translation of
+that story. The German version, by M. Paul Fuchs,[A] is wonderfully
+literal. The French version, by Count Sollogub and M.A. de Calonne,
+which originally appeared in the _Revue Contemporaine_, without being
+quite so close, is also very good indeed.[B]
+
+[Footnote A: Das adelige Nest. Von I.S. Turgénieff. Aus dem Russicher
+ubersetzt von Paul Fuchs. Leipzig, 1862.]
+
+[Footnote B: Une Nichée de Gentilshommes. Paris, 1862]
+
+I, too, have kept as closely as I possibly could to the original.
+Indeed, the first draft of the translation was absolutely literal,
+regardless of style or even idiom. While in that state, it was revised
+by the Russian friend who assisted me in my translation of Krilofs
+Fables--M. Alexander Onegine--and to his painstaking kindness I am
+greatly indebted for the hope I venture to entertain that I have not
+"traduced" the author I have undertaken to translate. It may be as
+well to state that in the few passages in which my version differs
+designedly from the ordinary text of the original, I have followed the
+alterations which M. Turgénieff made with his own hand in the copy
+of the story on which I worked, and the title of the story has been
+altered to its present form with his consent.
+
+I may as well observe also, that while I have inserted notes where
+I thought their presence unavoidable, I have abstained as much as
+possible from diverting the reader's attention from the story by
+obtrusive asterisks, referring to what might seem impertinent
+observations at the bottom of the page. The Russian forms of name I
+have religiously preserved, even to the extent of using such a form as
+Ivanich, as well as Ivanovich, when it is employed by the author.
+
+INNER TEMPLE, June 1, 1869.
+
+
+
+
+LIZA.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+A beautiful spring day was drawing to a close. High aloft in the clear
+sky floated small rosy clouds, which seemed never to drift past, but
+to be slowly absorbed into the blue depths beyond.
+
+At an open window, in a handsome mansion situated in one of the
+outlying streets of O., the chief town of the government of that
+name--it was in the year 1842--there were sitting two ladies, the one
+about fifty years old, the other an old woman of seventy.
+
+The name of the first was Maria Dmitrievna Kalitine. Her husband, who
+had formerly occupied the post of Provincial Procurator, and who was
+well known in his day as a good man of business--a man of bilious
+temperament, confident, resolute, and enterprising--had been dead
+ten years. He had received a good education, and had studied at the
+university, but as the family from which he sprang was a poor one, he
+had early recognized the necessity of making a career for himself and
+of gaining money.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna married him for love. He was good-looking, he had
+plenty of sense, and, when he liked, he could be very agreeable. Maria
+Dmitrievna, whose maiden name was Pestof, lost her parents while she
+was still a child. She spent several years in an Institute at Moscow,
+and then went to live with her brother and one of her aunts at
+Pokrovskoe, a family estate situated fifteen versts from O. Soon
+afterwards her brother was called away on duty to St. Petersburgh, and,
+until a sudden death put an end to his career, he kept his aunt and
+sister with only just enough for them to live upon. Maria Dmitrievna
+inherited Pokrovskoe, but she did not long reside there. In the second
+year of her marriage with Kalitine, who had succeeded at the end of
+a few days in gaining her affections, Pokrovskoe was exchanged for
+another estate--one of much greater intrinsic value, but unattractive
+in appearance, and not provided with a mansion. At the same time
+Kalitine purchased a house in the town of O., and there he and his
+wife permanently established themselves. A large garden was attached
+to it, extending in one direction to the fields outside the town, "so
+that," Kalitine, who was by no means an admirer of rural tranquillity,
+used to say, "there is no reason why we should go dragging ourselves
+off into the country." Maria Dmitrievna often secretly regretted her
+beautiful Pokrovskoe, with its joyous brook, its sweeping meadows, and
+its verdant woods, but she never opposed her husband in any thing,
+having the highest respect for his judgment and his knowledge of the
+world. And when he died, after fifteen years of married life, leaving
+behind him a son and two daughters, Maria Dmitrievna had grown
+so accustomed to her house and to a town life, that she had no
+inclination to change her residence.
+
+In her youth Maria Dmitrievna had enjoyed the reputation of being a
+pretty blonde, and even in her fiftieth year her features were not
+unattractive, though they had lost somewhat of their fineness and
+delicacy. She was naturally sensitive and impressionable, rather than
+actually good-hearted, and even in her years of maturity she continued
+to behave in the manner peculiar to "Institute girls;" she denied
+herself no indulgence, she was easily put out of temper, and she would
+even burst into tears if her habits were interfered with. On the other
+hand, she was gracious and affable when all her wishes were fulfilled,
+and when nobody opposed her in any thing. Her house was the
+pleasantest in the town; and she had a handsome income, the greater
+part of which was derived from her late husband's earnings, and the
+rest from her own property. Her two daughters lived with her; her son
+was being educated in one of the best of the crown establishments at
+St. Petersburgh.
+
+The old lady who was sitting at the window with Maria Dmitrievna was
+her father's sister, the aunt with whom she had formerly spent so many
+lonely years at Pokrovskoe. Her name was Marfa Timofeevna Pestof.
+She was looked upon as an original, being a woman of an independent
+character, who bluntly told the truth to every one, and who, although
+her means were very small, behaved in society just as she would have
+done had she been rolling in wealth. She never could abide the late
+Kalitine, and as soon as her niece married him she retired to her own
+modest little property, where she spent ten whole years in a peasant's
+smoky hut. Maria Dmitrievna was rather afraid of her. Small in
+stature, with black hair, a sharp nose, and eyes which even in old age
+were still keen, Marfa Timofeevna walked briskly, held herself
+bolt upright, and spoke quickly but distinctly, and with a loud,
+high-pitched voice. She always wore a white cap, and a white
+_kofta_[A] always formed part of her dress.
+
+[Footnote A: A sort of jacket.]
+
+"What is the matter?" she suddenly asked. "What are you sighing
+about?"
+
+"Nothing," replied Maria Dmitrievna. "What lovely clouds!"
+
+"You are sorry for them, I suppose?"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna made no reply.
+
+"Why doesn't Gedeonovsky come?" continued Marfa Timofeevna, rapidly
+plying her knitting needles. (She was making a long worsted scarf.)
+"He would have sighed with you. Perhaps he would have uttered some
+platitude or other."
+
+"How unkindly you always speak of him! Sergius Petrovich is--a most
+respectable man."
+
+"Respectable!" echoed the old lady reproachfully.
+
+"And then," continued Maria Dmitrievna, "how devoted he was to my dear
+husband! Why, he can never think of him without emotion."
+
+"He might well be that, considering that your husband pulled him out
+of the mud by the ears," growled Marfa Timofeevna, the needles moving
+quicker than ever under her fingers. "He looks so humble," she began
+anew after a time. "His head is quite grey, and yet he never opens his
+mouth but to lie or to slander. And, forsooth, he is a councillor of
+state! Ah, well, to be sure, he is a priest's son."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: _Popovich_, or son of a pope; a not over respectful
+designation in Russia.]
+
+"Who is there who is faultless, aunt? It is true that he has this
+weakness. Sergius Petrovich has not had a good education, I admit--he
+cannot speak French--but I beg leave to say that I think him
+exceedingly agreeable."
+
+"Oh, yes, he fawns on you like a dog. As to his not speaking French,
+that's no great fault. I am not very strong in the French 'dialect'
+myself. It would be better if he spoke no language at all; he wouldn't
+tell lies then. But of course, here he is, in the very nick of time,"
+continued Marfa Timofeevna, looking down the street. "Here comes
+your agreeable man, striding along. How spindle-shanked he is, to be
+sure--just like a stork!"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna arranged her curls. Marfa Timofeevna looked at her
+with a quiet smile.
+
+"Isn't that a grey hair I see, my dear? You should scold Pelagia.
+Where can her eyes be?"
+
+"That's just like you, aunt," muttered Maria Dmitrievna, in a tone of
+vexation, and thrumming with her fingers on the arm of her chair.
+
+"Sergius Petrovich Gedeonovsky!" shrilly announced a rosy-cheeked
+little Cossack,[A] who suddenly appeared at the door.
+
+[Footnote A: A page attired in a sort of Cossack dress.]
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+A tall man came into the room, wearing a good enough coat, rather
+short trousers, thick grey gloves, and two cravats--a black one
+outside, a white one underneath. Every thing belonging to him was
+suggestive of propriety and decorum, from his well-proportioned face,
+with locks carefully smoothed down over the temples, to his heelless
+and never-creaking boots. He bowed first to the mistress of the house,
+then to Marfa Timofeevna, and afterwards, having slowly taken off his
+gloves, he approached Maria Dmitrievna and respectfully kissed her
+hand twice. After that he leisurely subsided into an easy-chair, and
+asked, as he smilingly rubbed together the tips of his fingers--
+
+"Is Elizaveta quite well?"
+
+"Yes," replied Maria Dmitrievna, "she is in the garden."
+
+"And Elena Mikhailovna?"
+
+"Lenochka is in the garden also. Have you any news?"
+
+"Rather!" replied the visitor, slowly screwing up his eyes, and
+protruding his lips. "Hm! here is a piece of news, if you please, and
+a very startling one, too. Fedor Ivanovich Lavretsky has arrived."
+
+"Fedia!" exclaimed Marfa Timofeevna. "You're inventing, are you not?"
+
+"Not at all. I have seen him with my own eyes."
+
+"That doesn't prove any thing."
+
+"He's grown much more robust," continued Gedeonovsky, looking as if
+he had not heard Marfa Timofeevna's remark; "his shoulders have
+broadened, and his cheeks are quite rosy."
+
+"Grown more robust," slowly repeated Maria Dmitrievna. "One would
+think he hadn't met with much to make him robust."
+
+"That is true indeed," said Gedeonovsky. "Any one else, in his place,
+would have scrupled to show himself in the world."
+
+"And why, I should like to know?" broke in Marfa Timofeevna. "What
+nonsense you are talking! A man comes back to his home. Where else
+would you have him betake himself? And, pray, in what has he been to
+blame?"
+
+"A husband is always to blame, madam, if you will allow me to say so,
+when his wife behaves ill."
+
+"You only say that, _batyushka_,[A] because you have never been
+married."
+
+[Footnote A: Father.]
+
+Gedeonovsky's only reply was a forced smile. For a short time he
+remained silent, but presently he said, "May I be allowed to be so
+inquisitive as to ask for whom this pretty scarf is intended?"
+
+Marfa Timofeevna looked up at him quickly.
+
+"For whom is it intended?" she said. "For a man who never slanders,
+who does not intrigue, and who makes up no falsehoods--if, indeed,
+such a man is to be found in the world. I know Fedia thoroughly well;
+the only thing for which he is to blame is that he spoilt his wife. To
+be sure he married for love; and from such love-matches no good ever
+comes," added the old lady, casting a side glance at Maria Dmitrievna.
+Then, standing up, she added: "But now you can whet your teeth on whom
+you will; on me, if you like. I'm off. I won't hinder you any longer."
+And with these words she disappeared.
+
+"She is always like that," said Maria Dmitrievna following her aunt
+with her eyes--"always."
+
+"What else can be expected of her at her time of life?" replied
+Gedeonovsky. "Just see now! 'Who does not intrigue?' she was pleased
+to say. But who is there nowadays who doesn't intrigue? It is the
+custom of the present age. A friend of mine--a most respectable man,
+and one, I may as well observe, of no slight rank--used to say,
+'Nowadays, it seems, if a hen wants a grain of corn she approaches it
+cunningly, watches anxiously for an opportunity of sidling up to it.'
+But when I look at you, dear lady, I recognize in you a truly angelic
+nature. May I be allowed to kiss your snow-white hand?"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna slightly smiled, and held out her plump hand to
+Gedeonovsky, keeping the little finger gracefully separated from the
+rest; and then, after he had raised her hand to his lips, she drew her
+chair closer to his, bent a little towards him, and asked, in a low
+voice--
+
+"So you have seen him? And is he really well and in good spirits?"
+
+"In excellent spirits," replied Gedeonovsky in a whisper.
+
+"You haven't heard where his wife is now?"
+
+"A short time ago she was in Paris; but she is gone away, they say,
+and is now in Italy."
+
+"Really it is shocking--Fedia's position. I can't think how he manages
+to bear it. Every one, of course, has his misfortunes; but his
+affairs, one may say, have become known all over Europe."
+
+Gedeonovsky sighed.
+
+"Quite so, quite so! They say she has made friends with artists and
+pianists; or, as they call them there, with lions and other wild
+beasts. She has completely lost all sense of shame--"
+
+"It's very, very sad," said Maria Dmitrievna; "especially for a
+relation. You know, don't you, Sergius Petrovich, that he is a
+far-away cousin of mine?"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure! You surely don't suppose I could be ignorant
+of any thing that concerns your family."
+
+"Will he come to see us? What do you think?"
+
+"One would suppose so; but afterwards, I am told, he will go and live
+on his estate in the country."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna lifted her eyes towards heaven.
+
+"Oh, Sergius Petrovich, Sergius Petrovich! how often I think how
+necessary it is for us women to behave circumspectly!"
+
+"There are women and women, Maria Dmitrievna. There are,
+unfortunately, some who are--of an unstable character; and then there
+is a certain time of life--and, besides, good principles have not been
+instilled into them when they were young."
+
+Here Sergius Petrovich drew from his pocket a blue handkerchief, of a
+check pattern, and began to unfold it.
+
+"Such women, in fact, do exist."
+
+Here Sergius Petrovich applied a corner of the handkerchief to each of
+his eyes in turn.
+
+"But, generally speaking, if one reflects--that is to say--The dust in
+the streets is something extraordinary," he ended by saying.
+
+"_Maman, maman_," exclaimed a pretty little girl of eleven, who
+came running into the room, "Vladimir Nikolaevich is coming here on
+horseback."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna rose from her chair. Sergius Petrovich also got up
+and bowed.
+
+"My respects to Elena Mikhailovna," he said; and, discreetly retiring
+to a corner, he betook himself to blowing his long straight nose.
+
+"What a lovely horse he has!" continued the little girl. "He was at
+the garden gate just now, and he told me and Liza that he would come
+up to the front door."
+
+The sound of hoofs was heard, and a well appointed cavalier, mounted
+on a handsome bay horse, rode up to the house, and stopped in front of
+the open window.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+"Good-evening, Maria Dmitrievna!" exclaimed the rider's clear and
+pleasant voice. "How do you like my new purchase?"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna went to the window.
+
+"Good-evening, Woldemar! Ah, what a splendid horse! From whom did you
+buy it?"
+
+"From our remount-officer. He made me pay dear for it, the rascal."
+
+"What is it's name?"
+
+"Orlando. But that's a stupid name. I want to change it. _Eh bien, eh
+bien, mon garçon_. What a restless creature it is!"
+
+The horse neighed, pawed the air, and tossed the foam from its
+nostrils.
+
+"Come and stroke it, Lenochka; don't be afraid."
+
+Lenochka stretched out her hand from the window, but Orlando suddenly
+reared and shied. But its rider, who took its proceedings very
+quietly, gripped the saddle firmly with his knees, laid his whip
+across the horse's neck, and forced it, in spite of its resistance, to
+return to the window, "_Prenez garde, prenez garde_," Maria Dmitrievna
+kept calling out.
+
+"Now then, stroke him, Lenochka," repeated the horseman; "I don't mean
+to let him have his own way."
+
+Lenochka stretched out her hand a second time, and timidly touched
+the quivering nostrils of Orlando, who champed his bit, and kept
+incessantly fidgeting.
+
+"Bravo!" exclaimed Maria Dmitrievna; "but now get off, and come in."
+
+The rider wheeled his horse sharply round, drove the spurs into its
+sides, rode down the street at a hand gallop, and turned into the
+court-yard. In another minute he had crossed the hall and entered the
+drawing-room, flourishing his whip in the air.
+
+At the same moment there appeared on the threshold of another doorway
+a tall, well-made, dark-haired girl of nineteen--Maria Dmitrievna's
+elder daughter, Liza.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+The young man whom we have just introduced to our readers was
+called Vladimir Nikolaevich Panshine. He occupied a post at St.
+Petersburg--one devoted to business of a special character--in the
+Ministry of the Interior. He had come to O. about certain affairs of
+a temporary nature, and was placed there at the disposal of the
+governor, General Zonnenberg, to whom he was distantly related.
+
+Panshine's father, a retired cavalry officer,[A] who used to be well
+known among card-players, was a man of a worn face, with weak eyes,
+and a nervous contraction about the lips. Throughout his life he
+always revolved in a distinguished circle, frequenting the English
+Clubs[B] of both capitals, and being generally considered a man
+of ability and a pleasant companion, though not a person to be
+confidently depended upon. In spite of all his ability, he was almost
+always just on the verge of ruin, and he ultimately left but a small
+and embarrassed property to his only son. About that son's education,
+however, he had, after his own fashion, taken great pains.
+
+[Footnote A: A _Shtabs-Rotmistr_, the second captain in a cavalry
+regiment.]
+
+[Footnote B: Fashionable clubs having nothing English about them but
+their name.]
+
+The young Vladimir Nikolaevich spoke excellent French, good English,
+and bad German. That is just as it should be. Properly brought-up
+people should of course be ashamed to speak German really well; but
+to throw out a German word now and then, and generally on facetious
+topics--that is allowable; "_c'est même très chic_," as the Petersburg
+Parisians say. Moreover, by the time Vladimir Nikolaevich was fifteen,
+he already knew how to enter any drawing-room whatsoever without
+becoming nervous, how to move about it in an agreeable manner, and how
+to take his leave exactly at the right moment.
+
+The elder Panshine made a number of useful connections for his son;
+while shuffling the cards between two rubbers, or after a lucky "Great
+Schlemm,"[A] he never lost the opportunity of saying a word about
+his young "Volodka" to some important personage, a lover of games of
+skill. On his part, Vladimir Nikolaevich, during the period of his
+stay at the university, which he left with the rank of "effective
+student,"[B] made acquaintance with several young people of
+distinction, and gained access into the best houses. He was cordially
+received everywhere, for he was very good looking, easy in manner,
+amusing, always in good health, and ready for every thing. Where he
+was obliged, he was respectful; where he could, he was overbearing.
+Altogether, an excellent companion, _un charmant garçon_. The Promised
+Land lay before him. Panshine soon fathomed the secret of worldly
+wisdom, and succeeded in inspiring himself with a genuine respect
+for its laws. He knew how to invest trifles with a half-ironical
+importance, and to behave with the air of one who treats all
+serious matters as trifles. He danced admirably; he dressed like an
+Englishman. In a short time he had gained the reputation of being one
+of the pleasantest and most adroit young men in St. Petersburg.
+
+[Footnote A: "A bumper."]
+
+[Footnote B: A degree a little inferior to that of Bachelor of Arts.]
+
+Panshine really was very adroit--not less so than his father had been.
+And besides this, he was endowed with no small talent; nothing was too
+difficult for him. He sang pleasantly, drew confidently, could write
+poetry, and acted remarkably well.
+
+He was now only in his twenty eighth year, but he was already a
+Chamberlain, and he had arrived at a highly respectable rank in the
+service. He had thorough confidence in himself, in his intellect,
+and in his sagacity. He went onwards under full sail, boldly and
+cheerfully; the stream of his life flowed smoothly along. He was
+accustomed to please every one, old and young alike; and he imagined
+that he thoroughly understood his fellow-creatures, especially
+women--that he was intimately acquainted with all their ordinary
+weaknesses.
+
+As one who was no stranger to Art, he felt within him a certain
+enthusiasm, a glow, a rapture, in consequence of which he claimed for
+himself various exemptions from ordinary rules. He led a somewhat
+irregular life, he made acquaintance with people who were not received
+into society, and in general he behaved in an unconventional and
+unceremonious manner. But in his heart of hearts he was cold and
+astute; and even in the midst of his most extravagant rioting, his
+keen hazel eye watched and took note of every thing. It was impossible
+for this daring and unconventional youth ever quite to forget himself,
+or to be thoroughly carried away. It should be mentioned to his
+credit, by the way, that he never boasted of his victories. To Maria
+Dmitrievna's house he had obtained access as soon as he arrived in
+O., and he soon made himself thoroughly at home in it. As to Maria
+Dmitrievna herself, she thought there was nobody in the world to be
+compared with him.
+
+Panshine bowed in an engaging manner to all the occupants of the room;
+shook hands with Maria Dmitrievna and Elizaveta Mikhailovna, lightly
+tapped Gedeonovsky on the shoulder, and, turning on his heels, took
+Lenochka's head between his hands and kissed her on the forehead.
+
+"Are not you afraid to ride such a vicious horse?" asked Maria
+Dmitrievna.
+
+"I beg your pardon, it is perfectly quiet. No, but I will tell you
+what I really am afraid of. I am afraid of playing at preference with
+Sergius Petrovich. Yesterday, at the Bielenitsines', he won all the
+money I had with me."
+
+Gedeonovsky laughed a thin and cringing laugh; he wanted to gain the
+good graces of the brilliant young official from St. Petersburg, the
+governor's favorite. In his conversations with Maria Dmitrievna, he
+frequently spoke of Panshine's remarkable faculties. "Why, really now,
+how can one help praising him?" he used to reason. "The young man is
+a success in the highest circles of society, and at the same time he
+does his work in the most perfect manner, and he isn't the least bit
+proud." And indeed, even at St. Petersburg, Panshine was looked upon
+as an efficient public servant; the work "burnt under his hands;" he
+spoke of it jestingly, as a man of the world should, who does not
+attach any special importance to his employment; but he was a "doer."
+Heads of departments like such subordinates; he himself never doubted
+that in time, supposing he really wished it, he would be a Minister.
+
+"You are so good as to say that I won your money," said Gedeonovsky;
+"but who won fifteen roubles from me last week? And besides--"
+
+"Ah, rogue, rogue!" interrupted Panshine, in a pleasant tone, but with
+an air of indifference bordering on contempt, and then, without paying
+him any further attention, he accosted Liza.
+
+"I cannot get the overture to Oberon here," he began. "Madame
+Bielenitsine boasted that she had a complete collection of classical
+music; but in reality she has nothing but polkas and waltzes. However,
+I have already written to Moscow, and you shall have the overture in a
+week."
+
+"By the way," he continued, "I wrote a new romance yesterday; the
+words are mine as well as the music. Would you like me to sing it to
+you? Madame Bielenitsine thought it very pretty, but her judgment is
+not worth much. I want to know your opinion of it. But, after all, I
+think I had better sing it by-and-by."
+
+"Why by-and-by?" exclaimed Maria Dmitrievna, "why not now?"
+
+"To hear is to obey," answered Panshine, with a sweet and serene
+smile, which came and went quickly; and then, having pushed a chair up
+to the piano, he sat down, struck a few chords, and began to sing the
+following romance, pronouncing the words very distinctly
+
+  Amid pale clouds, above the earth,
+    The moon rides high,
+  And o'er the sea a magic light
+    Pours from the sky.
+
+  My Spirit's waves, as towards the moon,
+    Towards thee, love, flow:
+  Its waters stirred by thee alone
+    In weal or woe.
+
+  My heart replete with love that grieves
+    But yields no cry,
+  I suffer--cold as yonder moon
+    Thou passest by.
+
+Panshine sang the second stanza with more than usual expression and
+feeling; in the stormy accompaniment might be heard the rolling of the
+waves. After the words, "I suffer!" he breathed a light sigh, and with
+downcast eyes let his voice die gradually away. When he had finished;
+Liza praised the air, Maria Dmitrievna said, "Charming!" and
+Gedeonovsky exclaimed, "Enchanting!--the words and the music are
+equally enchanting!" Lenochka kept her eyes fixed on the singer
+with childish reverence. In a word, the composition of the young
+_dilettante_ delighted all who were in the room. But outside the
+drawing-room door, in the vestibule, there stood, looking on the
+floor, an old man who had just come into the house, to whom, judging
+from the expression of his face and the movements of his shoulders,
+Panshine's romance, though really pretty, did not afford much
+pleasure. After waiting a little, and having dusted his boots with
+a coarse handkerchief, he suddenly squeezed up his eyes, morosely
+compressed his lips, gave his already curved back an extra bend, and
+slowly entered the drawing-room.
+
+"Ah! Christophor Fedorovich, how do you do?" Panshine was the first to
+exclaim, as he jumped up quickly from his chair. "I didn't suspect you
+were there. I wouldn't for any thing have ventured to sing my romance
+before you. I know you are no admirer of the light style in music."
+
+"I didn't hear it," said the new-comer, in imperfect Russian. Then,
+having bowed to all the party, he stood still in an awkward attitude
+in the middle of the room.
+
+"I suppose, Monsieur Lemm," said Maria Dmitrievna, "you have come to
+give Liza a music lesson."
+
+"No; not Lizaveta Mikhailovna, but Elena Miknailovna."
+
+"Oh, indeed! very good. Lenochka, go up-stairs with Monsieur Lemm."
+
+The old man was about to follow the little girl, when Panshine stopped
+him.
+
+"Don't go away when the lesson is over, Christopher Fedorovich," he
+said. "Lizaveta Mikhailovna and I are going to play a duet--one of
+Beethoven's sonatas."
+
+The old man muttered something to himself, but Panshine continued in
+German, pronouncing the words very badly--
+
+"Lizaveta Mikhailovna has shown me the sacred cantata which you have
+dedicated to her--a very beautiful piece! I beg you will not suppose
+I am unable to appreciate serious music. Quite the reverse. It is
+sometimes tedious; but, on the other hand, it is extremely edifying."
+
+The old man blushed to the ears, cast a side glance at Liza, and went
+hastily out of the room.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna asked Panshine to repeat his romance; but he declared
+that he did not like to offend the ears of the scientific German,
+and proposed to Liza to begin Beethoven's sonata. On this, Maria
+Dmitrievna sighed, and, on her part, proposed a stroll in the garden
+to Gedeonovsky.
+
+"I want to have a little more chat with you," she said, "about our
+poor Fedia, and to ask for your advice."
+
+Gedeonovsky smiled and bowed, took up with two fingers his hat, on the
+brim of which his gloves were neatly laid out, and retired with Maria
+Dmitrievna.
+
+Panshine and Eliza remained in the room. She fetched the sonata, and
+spread it out. Both sat down to the piano in silence. From up-stairs
+there came the feeble sound of scales, played by Lenochka's uncertain
+fingers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Note to p_. 36.
+
+It is possible that M. Panshine may have been inspired by Heine's
+verses:--
+
+  Wie des Mondes Abbild zittert
+    In den wilden Meereswogen,
+  Und er selber still und sicher
+    Wandelt an dem Himmelshogen.
+
+  Also wandelst du, Geliebte,
+    Still und sicher, und es zittert
+  Nur dein Abbild mir im Herzen,
+    Weil mein eignes Herz erschüttert.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+Christoph Theodor Gottlieb Lemm was born in 1786, in the kingdom of
+Saxony, in the town of Chemnitz. His parents, who were very poor, were
+both of them musicians, his father playing the hautboy, his mother
+the harp. He himself, by the time he was five years old, was already
+practicing on three different instruments. At the age of eight, he was
+left an orphan, and at ten, he began to earn a living by his art.
+For a long time he led a wandering life, playing in all sorts of
+places--in taverns, at fairs, at peasants' marriages, and at balls.
+At last he gained access to an orchestra, and there, steadily rising
+higher and higher, he attained to the position of conductor. As a
+performer he had no great merit, but he understood music thoroughly.
+In his twenty-eighth year, he migrated to Russia. He was invited there
+by a great seigneur, who, although he could not abide music himself,
+maintained an orchestra from a love of display. In his house Lemm
+spent seven years as a musical director, and then left him with empty
+hands. The seigneur, who had squandered all his means, first offered
+Lemm a bill of exchange for the amount due to him; then refused to
+give him even that; and ultimately never paid him a single farthing.
+Lemm was advised to leave the country, but he did not like to go home
+penniless from Russia--from the great Russia, that golden land of
+artists. So be determined to remain and seek his fortune there.
+
+During the course of ten years, the poor German continued to seek
+his fortune. He found various employers, he lived in Moscow, and in
+several county towns, he patiently suffered much, he made acquaintance
+with poverty, he struggled hard.[A] All this time, amidst all the
+troubles to which he was exposed, the idea of ultimately returning
+home never quitted him. It was the only thing that supported him. But
+fate did not choose to bless him with this supreme and final piece of
+good fortune.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "like a fish out of ice:" as a fish, taken out
+of a river which has been frozen over, struggles on the ice.]
+
+At fifty years of age, in bad health and prematurely decrepid, he
+happened to come to the town of O., and there he took up his permanent
+abode, managing somehow to obtain a poor livelihood by giving lessons.
+He had by this time entirely lost all hope of quilting the hated soil
+of Russia.
+
+Lemm's outward appearance was not in his favor. He was short and
+high-shouldered, his shoulder-blades stuck out awry, his feet were
+large and flat, and his red hands, marked by swollen veins, had hard,
+stiff fingers, tipped with nails of a pale blue color. His face was
+covered with wrinkles, his cheeks were hollow, and he had pursed-up
+lips which he was always moving with a kind of chewing action--one
+which, joined with his habitual silence, gave him an almost malignant
+expression. His grey hair hung in tufts over a low forehead. His very
+small and immobile eyes glowed dully, like coals in which the flame
+has just been extinguished by water. He walked heavily, jerking his
+clumsy frame at every step. Some of his movements called to mind the
+awkward shuffling of an owl in a cage, when it feels that it is being
+stared at, but can scarcely see anything itself out of its large
+yellow eyes, blinking between sleep and fear. An ancient and
+inexorable misery had fixed its ineffaceable stamp on the poor
+musician, and had wrenched and distorted his figure--one which, even
+without that, would have had but little to recommend it; but in spite
+of all that, something good and honest, something out of the common
+run, revealed itself in that half-ruined being, to any one who was
+able to get over his first impressions.
+
+A devoted admirer of Bach and Handel, thoroughly well up to his work,
+gifted with a lively imagination, and that audacity of idea which
+belongs only to the Teutonic race, Lemm might in time--who can
+tell?--have been reckoned among the great composers of his country,
+if only his life had been of a different nature. But he was not born
+under a lucky star. He had written much in his time, and yet he had
+never been fortunate enough to see any of his compositions published.
+He did not know how to set to work, how to cringe at the right moment,
+how to proffer a request at the fitting time. Once, it is true, a very
+long time ago, one of his friends and admirers, also a German, and
+also poor, published at his own expense two of Lemm's sonatas. But
+they remained untouched on the shelves of the music shops; silently
+they disappeared and left no trace behind, just as if they had been
+dropped into a river by night.
+
+At last Lemm bade farewell to every thing Old age gained upon him, and
+he hardened, he grew stiff in mind, just as his fingers had stiffened.
+He had never married, and now he lived alone in O., in a little
+house not far from that of the Kalitines, looked after by an old
+woman-servant whom he had taken out of an alms-house. He walked a
+great deal, and he read the Bible, also a collection of Protestant
+hymns, and Shakspeare in Schlegel's translation. For a long time he
+had composed nothing; but apparently Liza, his best pupil, had been
+able to arouse him. It was for her that he had written the cantata to
+which Panshine alluded. The words of this cantata were borrowed by him
+from his collection of hymns, with the exception of a few verses which
+he composed himself. It was written for two choruses: one of the
+happy, one of the unhappy. At the end the two united and sang
+together, "Merciful Lord, have pity upon us, poof sinners, and keep us
+from all evil thoughts and worldly desires." On the title-page, very
+carefully and even artistically written, were the words, "Only the
+Righteous are in the Right. A Sacred Cantata. Composed, and dedicated
+to Elizaveta Kalitine, his dear pupil, by her teacher, C.T.G, Lemm."
+The words "Only the Righteous are in the Right." and "To Elizaveta
+Kalitine" were surrounded by a circle of rays. Underneath was written,
+"For you only. Für Sie allein." This was why Lemm grew red and looked
+askance at Liza; he felt greatly hurt when Panshine began to talk to
+him about his cantata.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+Panshine struck the first chords of the sonata, in which he played the
+bass, loudly and with decision, but Liza did not begin her part. He
+stopped and looked at her--Liza's eyes, which were looking straight
+at him, expressed dissatisfaction; her lips did not smile, all her
+countenance was severe, almost sad.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked.
+
+"Why have you not kept your word?" she said. "I showed you Christopher
+Fedorovich's cantata only on condition that you would not speak to him
+about it."
+
+"I was wrong, Lizaveta Mikhailovna--I spoke without thinking."
+
+"You have wounded him and me too. In future he will distrust me as
+well as others."
+
+"What could I do, Lizaveta Mikhailovna? From my earliest youth I have
+never been able to see a German without feeling tempted to tease him."
+
+"What are you saying, Vladimir Nikolaevich? This German is a poor,
+lonely, broken man; and you feel no pity for him! you feel tempted to
+tease him!"
+
+Panshine seemed a little disconcerted.
+
+"You are right, Lizaveta Mikhailovna," he said "The fault is entirely
+due to my perpetual thoughtlessness. No, do not contradict me. I know
+myself well. My thoughtlessness has done me no slight harm. It makes
+people suppose that I am an egotist."
+
+Panshine made a brief pause. From whatever point he started a
+conversation, he generally ended by speaking about himself, and then
+his words seemed almost to escape from him involuntarily, so softly
+and pleasantly did he speak, and with such an air of sincerity.
+
+"It is so, even in your house," he continued. "Your mamma, it is true,
+is most kind to me. She is so good. You--but no, I don't know what you
+think of me. But decidedly your aunt cannot abide me. I have vexed her
+by some thoughtless, stupid speech. It is true that she does not like
+me, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," replied Liza, after a moment's hesitation. "You do not please
+her."
+
+Panshine let his fingers run rapidly over the keys; a scarcely
+perceptible smile glided over his lips.
+
+"Well, but you," he continued, "do you also think me an egotist?".
+
+"I know so little about you," replied Liza; "but I should not call you
+an egotist. On the contrary, I ought to feel grateful to you--"
+
+"I know, I know what you are going to say," interrupted Panshine,
+again running his fingers over the keys, "for the music, for the
+books, which I bring you, for the bad drawings with which I ornament
+your album, and so on, and so on. I may do all that, and yet be an
+egotist. I venture to think that I do not bore you, and that you do
+not think me a bad man; but yet you suppose that I--how shall I say
+it?--for the sake of an epigram would not spare my friend, my father
+him self."
+
+"You are absent and forgetful, like all men of the world," said Liza,
+"that is all."
+
+Panshine slightly frowned.
+
+"Listen," he said; "don't let's talk any more about me; let us begin
+our sonata. Only there is one thing I will ask of you," he added, as
+he smoothed the sheets which lay on the music-desk with his hand;
+"think of me what you will, call me egotist even, I don't object to
+that; but don't call me a man of the world, that name is insufferable.
+_Anch'io sono pittore_. I too am an artist, though but a poor one, and
+that--namely, that I am a poor artist--I am going to prove to you on
+the spot. Let us begin."
+
+"Very good, let us begin," said Liza.
+
+The first adagio went off with tolerable success, although Panshine
+made several mistakes. What he had written himself, and what he had
+learnt by heart, he played very well, but he could not play at sight
+correctly. Accordingly the second part of the sonata--tolerably quick
+allegro--would not do at all. At the twentieth bar Panshine, who was
+a couple of bars behind, gave in, and pushed back his chair with a
+laugh.
+
+"No!" he exclaimed, "I cannot play to-day. It is fortunate that Lemm
+cannot hear us; he would have had a fit."
+
+Liza stood up, shut the piano, and then turned to Panshine.
+
+"What shall we do then?" she asked.
+
+"That question is so like you! You can never sit with folded hands for
+a moment. Well then, if you feel inclined, let's draw a little
+before it becomes quite dark. Perhaps another Muse--the Muse of
+painting--what's her name? I've forgotten--will be more propitious to
+me. Where is your album? I remember the landscape I was drawing in it
+was not finished."
+
+Liza went into another room for the album, and Panshine, finding
+himself alone, took a cambric handkerchief out of his pocket, rubbed
+his nails and looked sideways at his hands. They were very white and
+well shaped; on the second finger of the left hand he wore a spiral
+gold ring.
+
+Liza returned; Panshine seated himself by the window and opened the
+album.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, "I see you have begun to copy my landscape--and
+capitally--very good indeed--only--just give me the pencil--the
+shadows are not laid in black enough. Look here."
+
+And Panshine added some long strokes with a vigorous touch. He always
+drew the same landscape--large dishevelled trees in the foreground, in
+the middle distance a plain, and on the horizon an indented chain of
+hills. Liza looked over his shoulder at his work.
+
+"In drawing, as also in life in general," said Panshine, turning his
+head now to the right, now to the left, "lightness and daring--those
+are the first requisites."
+
+At this moment Lemm entered the room, and after bowing gravely, was
+about to retire; but Panshine flung the album and pencil aside, and
+prevented him from leaving the room.
+
+"Where are you going, dear Christoph Fedorovich? Won't you stay and
+take tea?"
+
+"I am going home," said Lemm, in a surly voice; "my head aches."
+
+"What nonsense! do remain. We will have a talk about Shakspeare."
+
+"My head aches," repeated the old man.
+
+"We tried to play Beethoven's sonata without you," continued Panshine,
+caressingly throwing his arm over the old man's shoulder and smiling
+sweetly; "but we didn't succeed in bringing it to a harmonious
+conclusion. Just imagine, I couldn't play two consecutive notes
+right."
+
+"You had better have played your romance over again," replied Lemm;
+then, escaping from Panshine's hold he went out of the room.
+
+Liza ran after him, and caught him on the steps.
+
+"Christopher Fedorovich, I want to speak to you," she said in German,
+as led him across the short green grass to the gate. "I have done you
+a wrong--forgive me."
+
+Lemm made no reply.
+
+"I showed your cantata to Vladimir Nikolaevich; I was sure he would
+appreciate it, and, indeed, he was exceedingly pleased with it."
+
+Lemm stopped still.
+
+"It's no matter," he said in Russian, and then added in his native
+tongue,--"But he is utterly incapable of understanding it. How is it
+you don't see that? He is a _dilettante_--that is all."
+
+"You are unjust towards him," replied Liza. "He understands every
+thing, and can do almost every thing himself."
+
+"Yes, every thing second-rate--poor goods, scamped work. But that
+pleases, and he pleases, and he is well content with that. Well, then,
+bravo!--But I am not angry. I and that cantata, we are both old fools!
+I feel a little ashamed, but it's no matter."
+
+"Forgive me, Christopher Fedorovich!" urged Liza anew.
+
+"It's no matter, no matter," he repeated a second time in Russian.
+"You are a good girl.--Here is some one coming to pay you a visit.
+Good-bye. You are a very good girl."
+
+And Lemm made his way with hasty steps to the gate, through which
+there was passing a gentleman who was a stranger to him, dressed in a
+grey paletot and a broad straw hat. Politely saluting him (he bowed
+to every new face in O., and always turned away his head from his
+acquaintances in the street--such was the rule he had adopted), Lemm
+went past him, and disappeared behind the wall.
+
+The stranger gazed at him as he retired with surprise, then looked at
+Liza, and then went straight up to her.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+"You won't remember me," he said, as he took off his hat, "but I
+recognized you, though it is seven years since I saw you last. You
+were a child then. I am Lavretsky. Is your mamma at home? Can I see
+her?"
+
+"Mamma will be so glad," replied Liza. "She has heard of your
+arrival."
+
+"Your name is Elizaveta, isn't it?" asked Lavretsky, as he mounted the
+steps leading up to the house.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I remember you perfectly. Yours was even in those days one of the
+faces which one does not forget. I used to bring you sweetmeats then."
+
+Liza blushed a little, and thought to herself, "What an odd man!"
+Lavretsky stopped for a minute in the hall.
+
+Liza entered the drawing-room, in which Panshine's voice and laugh
+were making themselves heard. He was communicating some piece of town
+gossip to Maria Dmitrievna and Gedeonovsky, both of whom had by this
+time returned from the garden, and he was laughly loudly at his own
+story. At the name of Lavretsky, Maria Dmitrievna became nervous and
+turned pale, but went forward to receive him.
+
+"How are you? how are you, my dear cousin?" she exclaimed, with an
+almost lachrymose voice, dwelling on each word she uttered. "How glad
+I am to see you!"
+
+"How are you, my good cousin?" replied Lavretsky, with a friendly
+pressure of her outstretched hand. "Is all well with you?"
+
+"Sit clown, sit down, my dear Fedor Ivanovich. Oh, how delighted I am!
+But first let me introduce my daughter Liza."
+
+"I have already introduced myself to Lizaveta Mikhailovna,"
+interrupted Lavretsky.
+
+"Monsieur Panshine--Sergius Petrovich Gedeonovsky. But do sit down. I
+look at you, and, really, I can scarcely trust my eyes. But tell me
+about your health; is it good?"
+
+"I am quite well, as you can see. And you, too, cousin--if I can say
+so without bringing you bad luck[A]--you are none the worse for these
+seven years."
+
+[Footnote A: A reference to the superstition of the "evil eye," still
+rife among the peasants in Russia. Though it has died out among the
+educated classes, yet the phrase, "not to cast an evil eye," is still
+made use of in conversation.]
+
+"When I think what a number of years it is since we last saw one
+another," musingly said Maria Dmitrievna. "Where do you come from now?
+Where have you left--that's to say, I meant"--she hurriedly corrected
+herself--"I meant to say, shall you stay with us long?"
+
+"I come just now from Berlin," replied Lavretsky, "and to-morrow I
+shall go into the country--to stay there, in all probability, a long
+time."
+
+"I suppose you are going to live at Lavriki?"
+
+"No, not at Lavriki; but I have a small property about five-and-twenty
+versts from here, and I am going there."
+
+"Is that the property which Glafira Petrovna left you?"
+
+"Yes, that's it."
+
+"But really, Fedor Ivanovich, you have such a charming house at
+Lavriki."
+
+Lavretsky frowned a little.
+
+"Yes--but I have a cottage on the other estate too; I don't require
+any more just now. That place is--most convenient for me at present."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna became once more so embarrassed that she actually sat
+upright in her chair, and let her hands drop by her side. Panshine
+came to the rescue, and entered into conversation with Lavretsky.
+Maria Dmitrievna by degrees grew calm, leant back again comfortably
+in her chair, and from time to time contributed a word or two to the
+conversation. But still she kept looking at her guest so pitifully,
+sighing so significantly, and shaking her head so sadly, that at last
+he lost all patience, and asked her, somewhat brusquely, if she was
+unwell.
+
+"No, thank God!" answered Maria Dmitrievna; "but why do you ask?"
+
+"Because I thought you did not seem quite yourself."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna assumed a dignified and somewhat offended expression.
+
+"If that's the way you take it," she thought, "it's a matter of
+perfect indifference to me; it's clear that every thing slides off
+you like water off a goose. Any one else would have withered up with
+misery, but you've grown fat on it."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna did not stand upon ceremony when she was only
+thinking to herself. When she spoke aloud she was more choice in her
+expressions.
+
+And in reality Lavretsky did not look like a victim of destiny. His
+rosy-cheeked, thoroughly Russian face, with its large white forehead,
+somewhat thick nose, and long straight lips, seemed to speak of robust
+health and enduring vigor of constitution. He was powerfully built,
+and his light hair twined in curls, like a boy's, about his head. Only
+in his eyes, which were blue, rather prominent, and a little wanting
+in mobility, an expression might be remarked which it would be
+difficult to define. It might have been melancholy, or it might have
+been fatigue; and the ring of his voice seemed somewhat monotonous.
+
+All this time Panshine was supporting the burden of the conversation.
+He brought it round to the advantages of sugar making, about which he
+had lately read two French pamphlets; their contents he now proceeded
+to disclose, speaking with an air of great modesty, but without saying
+a single word about the sources of his information.
+
+"Why, there's Fedia!" suddenly exclaimed the voice of Marfa Timofeevna
+in the next room, the door of which had been left half open.
+"Actually, Fedia!" And the old lady hastily entered the room.
+Lavretsky hadn't had time to rise from his chair before she had caught
+him in her arms. "Let me have a look at you," she exclaimed, holding
+him at a little distance from her. "Oh, how well you are looking!
+You've grown a little older, but you haven't altered a bit for the
+worse, that's a fact. But what makes you kiss my hand. Kiss my face,
+if you please, unless you don't like the look of my wrinkled cheeks. I
+dare say you never asked after me, or whether your aunt was alive or
+no. And yet it was my hands received you when you first saw the light,
+you good-for-nothing fellow! Ah, well, it's all one. But it was a good
+idea of yours to come here. I say, my dear," she suddenly exclaimed,
+turning to Maria Dmitrievna, "have you offered him any refreshment?"
+
+"I don't want any thing," hastily said Lavretsky.
+
+"Well, at all events, you will drink tea with us, _batyushka_.
+Gracious heavens! A man comes, goodness knows from how far off, and
+no one gives him so much as a cup of tea. Liza, go and see after it
+quickly. I remember he was a terrible glutton when he was a boy, and
+even now, perhaps, he is fond of eating and drinking."
+
+"Allow me to pay my respects, Maria Timofeevna," said Panshine, coming
+up to the excited old lady, and making her a low bow.
+
+"Pray excuse me, my dear sir," replied Marfa Timofeevna, "I overlooked
+you in my joy. You're just like your dear mother," she continued,
+turning anew to Lavretsky, "only you always had your father's nose,
+and you have it still. Well, shall you stay here long?"
+
+"I go away to-morrow, aunt."
+
+"To where?".
+
+"To my house at Vasilievskoe."
+
+"To-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow."
+
+"Well, if it must be to-morrow, so be it. God be with you! You know
+what is best for yourself. Only mind you come and say good-bye." The
+old lady tapped him gently on the cheek. "I didn't suppose I should
+live to see you come back; not that I thought I was going to die--no,
+no; I have life enough left in me for ten years to come. All we
+Pestofs are long-lived--your late grandfather used to call us
+double-lived; but God alone could tell how long you were going to
+loiter abroad. Well, well! You are a fine fellow--a very fine fellow.
+I dare say you can still lift ten poods[A] with one hand, as you
+used to do. Your late father, if you'll excuse my saying so, was as
+nonsensical as he could be, but he did well in getting you that Swiss
+tutor. Do you remember the boxing matches you used to have with him?
+Gymnastics, wasn't it, you used to call them? But why should I go on
+cackling like this? I shall only prevent Monsieur Pan_shine_ (she
+never laid the accent on the first syllable of his name, as she ought
+to have done) from favoring us with his opinions. On the whole, we had
+much better go and have tea. Yes, let's go and have it on the terrace.
+We have magnificent cream--not like what they have in your Londons and
+Parises. Come away, come away; and you, Fediouchka, give me your arm.
+What a strong arm you have, to be sure! I shan't fall while you're by
+my side."
+
+[Footnote A: The pood weighs thirty-six pounds.]
+
+Every one rose and went out on the terrace, except Gedeonovsky, who
+slipped away stealthily. During the whole time Lavretsky was talking
+with the mistress of the house, with Panshine and with Marfa
+Timofeevna, that old gentleman had been sitting in his corner,
+squeezing up his eyes and shooting out his lips, while he listened
+with the curiosity of a child to all that was being said. When he
+left, it was that he might hasten to spread through the town the news
+of the recent arrival.
+
+Here is a picture of what was taking place at eleven o'clock that same
+evening in the Kalitines' house. Down stairs, on the threshold of the
+drawing-room, Panshine was taking leave of Liza, and saying, as he
+held her hand in his:--
+
+"You know who it is that attracts me here; you know why I am always
+coming to your house. Of what use are words when all is so clear?"
+
+Liza did not say a word in reply--she did not ever smile. Slightly
+arching her eyebrows, and growing rather red, she kept her eyes fixed
+on the ground, but did not withdraw her hand. Up stairs, in Marfa
+Timofeevna's room, the light of the lamp, which hung in the corner
+before the age-embrowned sacred pictures, fell on Lavretsky, as he sat
+in an arm-chair, his elbows resting on his knees, his face hidden in
+his hands. In front of him stood the old lady, who from time to time
+silently passed her hand over his hair. He spent more than an hour
+with her after taking leave of the mistress of the house, he scarcely
+saying a word to his kind old friend, and she not asking him any
+questions. And why should he have spoken? what could she have asked?
+She understood all so well, she so fully sympathized with all the
+feelings which filled his heart.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+Fedor Ivanovich Lavretsky (we must ask our reader's permission to
+break off the thread of the story for a time) sprang from a noble
+family of long descent. The founder of the race migrated from Prussia
+during the reign of Basil the Blind,[A] and was favored with a grant
+of two hundred _chetverts_[B] of land in the district of Biejetsk.
+Many of his descendants filled various official positions, and were
+appointed to governorships in distant places, under princes and
+influential personages, but none of them obtained any great amount of
+property, or arrived at a higher dignity, than that of inspector of
+the Czar's table.
+
+[Footnote A: In the fifteenth century.]
+
+[Footnote B: An old measure of land, variously estimated at from two
+to six acres.]
+
+The richest and most influential of all the Lavretskys was Fedor
+Ivanovich's paternal great-grandfather Andrei, a man who was harsh,
+insolent, shrewd, and crafty. Even up to the present day men have
+never ceased to talk about his despotic manners, his furious temper,
+his senseless prodigality, and his insatiable avarice. He was very
+tall and stout, his complexion was swarthy, and he wore no beard. He
+lisped, and he generally seemed half asleep. But the more quietly he
+spoke, the more did all around him tremble. He had found a wife not
+unlike himself. She had a round face, a yellow complexion, prominent
+eyes, and the nose of a hawk. A gypsy by descent, passionate and
+vindictive in temper, she refused to yield in any thing to her
+husband, who all but brought her to her grave, and whom, although she
+had been eternally squabbling with him, she could net bear long to
+survive.
+
+Andrei's son, Peter, our Fedor's grandfather, did not take after his
+father. He was a simple country gentleman; rather odd, noisy in voice
+and slow in action, rough but not malicious, hospitable, and devoted
+to coursing. He was more than thirty years old when he inherited from
+his father two thousand souls,[A] all in excellent condition; but he
+soon began to squander his property, a part of which he disposed of by
+sale, and he spoilt his household. His large, warm, and dirty rooms
+were full of people of small degree, known and unknown, who swarmed in
+from all sides like cockroaches. All these visitors gorged themselves
+with whatever came in their way, drank their fill to intoxication, and
+carried off what they could, extolling and glorifying their affable
+host. As for their host, when he was out of humor with them, he called
+them scamps and parasites; but when deprived of their company, he soon
+found himself bored.
+
+[Footnote A: Male serfs.]
+
+The wife of Peter Andreich was a quiet creature whom he had taken from
+a neighboring family in acquiescence with his father's choice and
+command. Her name was Anna Pavlovna. She never interfered in any
+thing, received her guests cordially, and went out into society
+herself with pleasure--although "it was death" to her, to use her own
+phrase, to have to powder herself. "They put a felt cap on your head,"
+she used to say in her old age; "they combed all your hair straight up
+on end, they smeared it with grease, they strewed it with flour, they
+stuck it full of iron pins; you couldn't wash it away afterwards. But
+to pay a visit without powdering was impossible. People would have
+taken offence. What a torment it was!" She liked to drive fast, and
+was ready to play at cards from morning until evening. When her
+husband approached the card-table, she was always in the habit of
+covering with her hand the trumpery losses scored up against her; but
+she had made over to him, without reserve, all her dowry, all the
+money she had. She brought him two children--a son named Ivan, our
+Fedor's father, and a daughter, Glafira.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: The accent should be on the second syllable of this
+name.]
+
+Ivan was not brought up at home, but in the house of an old and
+wealthy maiden aunt, Princess Kubensky. She styled him her heir (if it
+had not been for that, his father would not have let him go), dressed
+him like a doll, gave him teachers of every kind, and placed him
+under the care of a French tutor--an ex-abbé, a pupil of Jean Jacques
+Rousseau--a certain M. Courtin de Vaucelles an adroit and subtle
+intriguer--"the very _fine fleur_ of the emigration," as she expressed
+herself; and she ended by marrying this _fine fleur_ when she was
+almost seventy years old. She transferred all her property to
+his name, and soon afterwards, rouged, perfumed with amber _á la
+Richelieu_, surrounded by negro boys, Italian grey-hounds, and noisy
+parrots, she died, stretched on a crooked silken couch of the style of
+Louis the Fifteenth, with an enamelled snuff-box of Petitot's work
+in her hands--and died deserted by her husband. The insinuating M.
+Courtin had preferred to take himself and her money off to Paris.
+
+Ivan was in his twentieth year when this unexpected blow struck him.
+We speak of the Princess's marriage, not her death. In his aunt's
+house, in which he had suddenly passed from the position of a wealthy
+heir to that of a hanger-on, he would not slay any longer. In
+Petersburg, the society in which he had grown up closed its doors upon
+him. For the lower ranks of the public service, and the laborious and
+obscure life they involved, he felt a strong repugnance. All this, it
+must be remembered, took place in the earliest part of the reign of
+the Emperor Alexander I[A]. He was obliged, greatly against his will,
+to return to his father's country house. Dirty, poor, and miserable
+did the paternal nest seem to him. The solitude and the dullness of a
+retired country life offended him at every step. He was devoured by
+ennui; besides, every one in the house, except his mother, regarded
+him with unloving eyes. His father disliked his metropolitan
+habits, his dress-coats and shirt-frills, his books, his flute, his
+cleanliness--from which he justly argued that his son regarded him
+with a feeling of aversion. He was always grumbling at his son, and
+complaining of his conduct.
+
+[Footnote A: When corruption was the rule in the public service.]
+
+"Nothing we have here pleases him," he used to say. "He is so
+fastidious at table, he eats nothing. He cannot bear the air and the
+smell of the room. The sight of drunken people upsets him; and as to
+beating anyone before him, you musn't dare to do it. Then he won't
+enter the service; his health is delicate, forsooth! Bah! What an
+effeminate creature!--and all because his head is full of Voltaire!"
+The old man particularly disliked Voltaire, and also the "infidel"
+Diderot, although he had never read a word of their works. Reading was
+not in his line.
+
+Peter Andreich was not mistaken. Both Diderot and Voltaire really
+were in his son's head; and not they alone. Rousseau and Raynal and
+Helvetius also, and many other similar writers, were in his head; but
+in his head only. Ivan Petrovich's former tutor, the retired Abbé and
+encyclopaedist, had satisfied himself with pouring all the collective
+wisdom of the eighteenth century over his pupil; and so the pupil
+existed, saturated with it. It held its own in him without mixing with
+his blood, without sinking into his mind, without resolving into fixed
+convictions. And would it be reasonable to ask for convictions from a
+youngster half a century ago, when we have not even yet acquired any?
+
+Ivan Petrovich disconcerted the visitors also in his father's house.
+He was too proud to have anything to do with them; they feared him.
+With his sister Glafira, too, who was twelve years his senior, he did
+not at all agree. This Glafira was a strange being. Plain, deformed,
+meagre--with staring and severe eyes, and with thin, compressed
+lips--she, in her face and her voice, and in her angular and quick
+movements, resembled her grandmother, the gipsy Andrei's wife.
+Obstinate, and fond of power, she would not even hear of marriage.
+Ivan Petrovich's return home was by no means to her taste. So long as
+the Princess Kubensky kept him with her, Glafira had hoped to obtain
+at least half of her father's property; and in her avarice, as well as
+in other points, she resembled her grandmother. Besides this, Glafira
+was jealous of her brother. He had been educated so well; he spoke
+French so correctly, with a Parisian accent; and she scarcely knew how
+to say "_Bonjour_" and "_Comment vous portez vous_?" It is true that
+her parents were entirely ignorant of French, but that did not make
+things any better for her.
+
+As to Ivan Petrovich, he did not know what to do with himself for
+vexation and ennui; he had not spent quite a year in the country, but
+even this time seemed to him like ten years. It was only with his
+mother that he was at ease in spirit; and for whole hours he used to
+sit in her low suite of rooms listening to the good lady's simple,
+unconnected talk, and stuffing himself with preserves. It happened
+that among Anna Pavlovna's maids there was a very pretty girl named
+Malania. Intelligent and modest, with calm, sweet eyes, and finely-cut
+features, she pleased Ivan Petrovich from the very first, and he soon
+fell in love with her. He loved her timid gait, her modest replies,
+her gentle voice, her quiet smile. Every day she seemed to him more
+attractive than before. And she attached herself to Ivan Petrovich
+with the whole strength of her soul--as only Russian girls know how
+to devote themselves--and gave herself to him. In a country house no
+secret can be preserved long; in a short time almost every one knew
+of the young master's fondness for Malania. At last the news reached
+Peter Andreich himself. At another time it is probable that he would
+have paid very little attention to so unimportant an affair; but he
+had long nursed a grudge against his son, and he was delighted to have
+an opportunity of disgracing the philosophical exquisite from St.
+Petersburg. There ensued a storm, attended by noise and outcry.
+Malania was locked up in the store-room.[A] Ivan Petrovich was
+summoned into his father's presence. Anna Pavlovna also came running
+to the scene of confusion, and tried to appease her husband; but he
+would not listen to a word she said. Like a hawk, he pounced upon his
+son charging him with immorality, atheism, and hypocrisy. He eagerly
+availed himself of so good an opportunity of discharging on him all
+his long-gathered spite against the Princess Kubensky, and overwhelmed
+him with insulting expressions.
+
+[Footnote A: A sort of closet under the stairs.]
+
+At first Ivan Petrovich kept silence, and maintained his hold over
+himself; but when his father thought fit to threaten him with a
+disgraceful punishment, he could bear it no longer. "Ah!" he thought,
+"the infidel Diderot is going to be brought forward again. Well, then,
+I will put his teaching in action." And so with a quiet and even
+voice, although with a secret shuddering in all his limbs, he told his
+father that it was a mistake to accuse him of immorality; that he had
+no intention of justifying his fault, but that he was ready to make
+amends for it, and that all the more willingly, inasmuch as he felt
+himself superior to all prejudices; and, in fact--that he was ready
+to marry Malania. In uttering these words Ivan Petrovich undoubtedly
+attained the end he had in view. Peter Andreich was so confounded that
+he opened his eyes wide, and for a moment was struck dumb; but he
+immediately recovered his senses, and then and there, just as he was,
+wrapped in a dressing-gown trimmed with squirrels' fur, and with
+slippers on his bare feet, he rushed with clenched fists at his son,
+who, as if on purpose, had dressed his hair that day _a la Titus_,
+and had put on a blue dress-coat, quite new and made in the English
+fashion, tasselled boots, and dandified, tight-fitting buckskin
+pantaloons. Anna Pavlovna uttered a loud shriek, and hid her face in
+her hands; meanwhile her son ran right through the house, jumped into
+the court-yard, threw himself first into the kitchen garden and then
+into the flower garden, flew across the park into the road, and ran
+and ran, without once looking back, until at last he ceased to hear
+behind him the sound of his father's heavy feet, the loud and broken
+cries with which his father sobbed out, "Stop, villain! Stop, or I
+will curse you!"
+
+Ivan Petrovich took refuge in the house of a neighbor,[A] and his
+father returned home utterly exhausted, and bathed in perspiration.
+There he announced, almost before he had given himself time to recover
+breath, that he withdrew his blessing and his property from his son,
+whose stupid books he condemned to be burnt; and he gave orders to
+have the girl Malania sent, with out delay, to a distant village.
+Some good people found out where Ivan Petrovich was, and told him
+everything. Full of shame and rage, he swore vengeance upon his
+father; and that very night, having lain in wait for the peasant's
+cart on which Malania was being sent away, he carried her off by
+force, galloped with her to the nearest town, and there married
+her. He was supplied with the necessary means by a neighbor, a
+hard-drinking, retired sailor, who was exceedingly good-natured, and a
+very great lover of all "noble histories," as he called them.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "of a neighboring _Odnodvorets_." That word
+signifies one who belongs by descent to the class of nobles and
+proprietors, but who has no serfs belonging to him, and is really a
+moujik, or peasant. Some villages are composed of inhabitants of this
+class, who are often intelligent, though uneducated.]
+
+The next day Ivan Petrovich sent his father a letter, which was
+frigidly and ironically polite, and then betook himself to the estate
+of two of his second cousins,--Dmitry Pestof, and his sister Marfa
+Timofeevna, with the latter of whom the reader is already acquainted.
+He told them everything that had happened, announced his intention of
+going to St. Petersburg to seek an appointment, and begged them to
+give shelter to his wife, even if only for a time. At the word "wife"
+he sobbed bitterly; and, in spite of his metropolitan education, and
+his philosophy, he humbly, like a thorough Russian peasant, knelt down
+at the feet of his relations, and even touched the floor with his
+forehead.
+
+The Pestofs, who were kind and compassionate people, willingly
+consented to his request. With them he spent three weeks, secretly
+expecting an answer from his father. But no answer came; no answer
+could come. Peter Andreich, when he received the news of the marriage,
+took to his bed, and gave orders that his son's name should never
+again be mentioned to him; but Ivan's mother, without her husband's
+knowledge, borrowed five hundred paper roubles from a neighboring
+priest,[A] and sent them to her son, with a little sacred picture for
+his wife. She was afraid of writing, but she told her messenger, a
+spare little peasant who could walk sixty versts in a day, to say to
+Ivan that he was not to fret too much; that please God, all would yet
+go right, and his father's wrath would turn to kindness--that she,
+too, would have preferred a different daughter-in-law; but that
+evidently God had willed it as it was, and that she sent her paternal
+benediction to Malania Sergievna. The spare little peasant had a
+rouble given him, asked leave to see the new mistress, whose gossip[B]
+he was, kissed her hand, and returned home.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "from the _Blagochinny_" an ecclesiastic who
+exercises supervision over a number of churches or parishes, a sort of
+Rural Dean.]
+
+[Footnote A: The word is used in its old meaning of fellow-sponsor.]
+
+So Ivan Petrovich betook himself to St. Petersburg with a light heart.
+An unknown future lay before him. Poverty might menace him; but he had
+broken with the hateful life in the country, and, above all, he had
+not fallen short of his instructors; he had really "put into action,"
+and indeed done justice to, the doctrines of Rousseau, Diderot, and
+the "Declaration of the Rights of Man." The conviction of having
+accomplished a duty, a sense of pride and of triumph, filled his soul;
+and the fact of having to separate from his wife did not greatly alarm
+him; he would far sooner have been troubled by the necessity of having
+constantly to live with her. He had now to think of other affairs. One
+task was finished.
+
+In St. Petersburg, contrary to his own expectations, he was
+successful. The Princess Kubensky--whom M. Courtin had already flung
+aside, but who had not yet contrived to die--in order that she might
+at least to some extent, make amends for her conduct towards her
+nephew, recommended him to all her friends, and gave him five thousand
+roubles--almost all the money she had left--and a watch, with his
+crest wrought on its back surrounded by a wreath of Cupids.
+
+
+Three months had not gone by before he received an appointment on the
+staff of the Russian embassy in London, whither he set sail (steamers
+were not even talked about then) in the first homeward bound English
+vessel he could find. A few months later he received a letter from
+Pestof. The kind-hearted gentleman congratulated him on the birth of a
+son, who had come into the world at the village of Pokrovskoe, on the
+20th of August, 1807, and had been named Fedor, in honor of the holy
+martyr Fedor Stratilates. On account of her extreme weakness, Malania
+Sergievna could add only a few lines. But even those few astonished
+Ivan Petrovich; he was not aware that Marfa Timofeevna had taught his
+wife to read and write.
+
+It must not be supposed that Ivan Petrovich gave himself up for any
+length of time to the sweet emotion caused by paternal feeling. He was
+just then paying court to one of the celebrated Phrynes or Laises of
+the day--classical names were still in vogue at that time. The peace
+of Tilset was only just concluded,[A] and every one was hastening to
+enjoy himself, every one was being swept round by a giddy whirlwind.
+The black eyes of a bold beauty had helped to turn his head also. He
+had very little money, but he played cards luckily, made friends,
+joined in all possible diversions--in a word, he sailed with all sail
+set.
+
+[Footnote A: In consequence of which the Russian embassy was withdrawn
+from London, and Ivan Petrovich probably went to Paris.]
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+For a long time the old Lavretsky could not forgive his son for his
+marriage. If, at the end of six months, Ivan Petrovich had appeared
+before him with contrite mien, and had fallen at his feet, the old
+man would, perhaps, have pardoned the offender--after having soundly
+abused him, and given him a tap with his crutch by way of frightening
+him. But Ivan Petrovich went on living abroad, and, apparently,
+troubled himself but little about his father. "Silence! don't dare to
+say another word!" exclaimed Peter Andreich to his wife, every time
+she tried to mollify him. "That puppy ought to be always praying
+to God for me, since I have not laid my curse upon him, the
+good-for-nothing fellow! Why, my late father would have killed him
+with his own hands, and he would have done well." All that Anna
+Pavlovna could do was to cross herself stealthily when she heard such
+terrible words as these. As to his son's wife, Peter Andreich would
+not so much as hear of her at first; and even when he had to answer
+a letter in which his daughter-in-law was mentioned by Pestof, he
+ordered a message to be sent to him to say that he did not know of any
+one who could be his daughter-in-law, and that it was contrary to the
+law to shelter runaway female serfs, a fact of which he considered
+it a duty to warn him. But afterwards, on learning the birth of his
+grandson, his heart softened a little; he gave orders that inquiries
+should be secretly made on his behalf about the mother's health, and
+he sent her--but still, not as if it came from himself--a small sum of
+money.
+
+Before Fedor was a year old, his grandmother, Anna Pavlovna, was
+struck down by a mortal complaint. A few days before her death, when
+she could no longer rise from her bed, she told her husband in the
+presence of the priest, while her dying eyes swam with timid tears,
+that she wished to see her daughter-in-law, and to bid her farewell,
+and to bless her grandson. The old man, who was greatly moved, bade
+her set her mind at rest, and immediately sent his own carriage
+for his daughter-in-law, calling her, for the first time, Malania
+Sergievna.[A] Malania arrived with her boy, and with Marfa Timofeevna,
+whom nothing would have induced to allow her to go alone, and who was
+determined not to allow her to meet with any harm. Half dead with
+fright, Malania Sergievna entered her father-in-law's study, a nurse
+carrying Fedia behind her. Peter Andreich looked at her in silence.
+She drew near and took his hand, on which her quivering lips could
+scarcely press a silent kiss.
+
+[Footnote A: That is to say, no longer speaking of her as if she were
+still a servant.]
+
+"Well, noble lady,"[A] he said at last,--"Good-day to you; let's go to
+my wife's room."
+
+[Footnote A: Literally "thrashed-while-damp noblewoman," _i.e._,
+hastily ennobled. Much corn is thrashed in Russia before it has had
+time to get dry.]
+
+He rose and bent over Fedia; the babe smiled and stretched out its
+tiny white hands towards him. The old man was touched.
+
+"Ah, my orphaned one!" he said. "You have successfully pleaded your
+father's cause. I will not desert you, little bird."
+
+As soon as Malania Sergievna entered Anna Pavlovna's bed-room, she
+fell on her knees near the door. Anna Pavlovna, having made her a sign
+to come to her bedside, embraced her, and blessed her child. Then,
+turning towards her husband a face worn by cruel suffering, she would
+have spoken to him, but he prevented her.
+
+"I know, I know what you want to ask," he said; "don't worry yourself.
+She shall remain with us, and for her sake I will forgive Vanka."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: A diminutive of Ivan, somewhat expressive of contempt
+Vanya is the affectionate form.]
+
+Anna Pavlovna succeeded by a great effort in getting hold of her
+husband's hand and pressing it to her lips. That same evening she
+died.
+
+Peter Andreich kept his word. He let his son know that out of respect
+to his mother's last moments, and for the sake of the little Fedor, he
+gave him back his blessing, and would keep Malania Sergievna in his
+house. A couple of small rooms up-stairs were accordingly given to
+Malania, and he presented her to his most important acquaintances,
+the one-eyed Brigadier Skurekhine and his wife. He also placed two
+maid-servants at her disposal, and a page to run her errands.
+
+After Marfa Timofeevna had left her--who had conceived a perfect
+hatred for Glafira, and had quarrelled with her three times in the
+course of a single day--the poor woman at first found her position
+difficult and painful. But after a time she attained endurance, and
+grew accustomed to her father-in-law. He, on his part, grew accustomed
+to her, and became fond of her, though he scarcely ever spoke to her,
+although in his caresses themselves a certain involuntary contempt
+showed itself. But it was her sister-in-law who made Malania suffer
+the most. Even during her mother's lifetime, Glafira had gradually
+succeeded in getting the entire management of the house into her own
+hands. Every one, from her father downwards, yielded to her. Without
+her permission not even a lump of sugar was to be got. She would have
+preferred to die rather than to delegate her authority to another
+housewife--and such a housewife too! She had been even more irritated
+than Peter Andreich by her brother's marriage, so she determined
+to read the upstart a good lesson, and from the very first Malania
+Sergievna became her slave. And Malania, utterly without defence, weak
+in health, constantly a prey to trouble and alarm--how could she have
+striven against the proud and strong-willed Glafira? Not a day passed
+without Glafira reminding her of her former position, and praising her
+for not forgetting herself. Malania Sergievna would willingly have
+acquiesced in these remindings and praisings, however bitter they
+might be--but her child had been taken away from her. This drove her
+to despair. Under the pretext that she was not qualified to see after
+his education, she was scarcely ever allowed to go near him. Glafira
+undertook the task. The child passed entirely into her keeping.
+
+In her sorrow, Malania Sergievna began to implore her husband in her
+letters to return quickly. Peter Andreich himself wished to see his
+son, but Ivan Petrovich merely sent letters in reply. He thanked his
+father for what had been done for his wife, and for the money which
+had been sent to himself, and he promised to come home soon--but he
+did not come.
+
+At last the year 1812 recalled him from abroad. On seeing each other
+for the first time after a separation of six years, the father and the
+son met in a warm embrace, and did not say a single word in reference
+to their former quarrels. Nor was it a time for that. All Russia was
+rising against the foe, and they both felt that Russian blood flowed
+in their veins, Peter Andreich equipped a whole regiment of volunteers
+at his own expense. But the war ended; the danger passed away. Ivan
+Petrovich once more became bored, once more he was allured into the
+distance, into that world in which he had grown up, and in which he
+felt himself at home. Malania could not hold him back; she was valued
+at very little in his eyes. Even what she really had hoped had not
+been fulfilled. Like the rest, her husband thought that it was
+decidedly most expedient to confide Fedia's education to Glafira.
+Ivan's poor wife could not bear up against this blow, could not endure
+this second separation. Without a murmur, at the end of a few days,
+she quietly passed away.
+
+In the course of her whole life she had never been able to resist any
+thing; and so with her illness, also, she did not struggle. When she
+could no longer speak, and the shadows of death already lay on her
+face, her features still retained their old expression of patient
+perplexity, of unruffled and submissive sweetness. With her usual
+silent humility, she gazed at Glafira; and as Anna Pavlovna on her
+death-bed had kissed the hand of Peter Andreich, so she pressed her
+lips to Glafira's hand, as she confided to Glafira's care her only
+child. So did this good and quiet being end her earthly career. Like a
+shrub torn from its native soil, and the next moment flung aside, its
+roots upturned to the sun, she withered and disappeared, leaving no
+trace behind, and no one to grieve for her. It is true that her maids
+regretted her, and so did Peter Andreich. The old man missed her
+kindly face, her silent presence. "Forgive--farewell--my quiet one!"
+he said, as he took leave of her for the last time, in the church. He
+wept as he threw a handful of earth into her grave.
+
+He did not long survive her--not more than five years. In the winter
+of 1819, he died peacefully in Moscow, whither he had gone with
+Glafira and his grandson. In his will he desired to be buried by the
+side of Anna Pavlovna and "Malasha."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Diminutive of Malania.]
+
+Ivan Petrovich was at that time amusing himself in Paris, having
+retired from the service soon after the year 1815. On receiving the
+news of his father's death, he determined to return to Russia. The
+organization of his property had to be considered. Besides, according
+to Glafira's letter, Fedia had finished his twelfth year; and the time
+had come for taking serious thought about his education.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+Ivan Petrovich returned to Russia an Anglomaniac. Short hair, starched
+frills, a pea-green, long-skirted coat with a number of little
+collars; a soar expression of countenance, something trenchant and
+at the same time careless in his demeanor, an utterance through
+the teeth, an abrupt wooden laugh, an absence of smile, a habit of
+conversing only on political or politico-economical subjects, a
+passion for under-done roast beef and port wine--every thing in him
+breathed, so to speak, of Great Britain. He seemed entirely imbued by
+its spirit. But strange to say, while becoming an Anglomaniac, Ivan
+Petrovich had also become a patriot,--at all events he called himself
+a patriot,--although he knew very little about Russia, he had not
+retained a single Russian habit, and he expressed himself in Russian
+oddly. In ordinary talk, his language was colorless and unwieldy,
+and absolutely bristled with Gallicisms. But the moment that the
+conversation turned upon serious topics, Ivan Petrovich immediately
+began to give utterance to such expressions as "to render manifest
+abnormal symptoms of enthusiasm," or "this is extravagantly
+inconsistent with the essential nature of circumstances," and so
+forth. He had brought with him some manuscript plans, intended to
+assist in the organization and improvement of the empire. For he was
+greatly discontented with what he saw taking place. It was the absence
+of system which especially aroused his indignation.
+
+At his interview with his sister, he informed her in the first words
+he spoke that he meant to introduce radical reforms on his property,
+and that for the future all his affairs would be conducted on a new
+system. Glafira made no reply, but she clenched her teeth and thought,
+"What is to become of me then?" However, when she had gone with her
+brother and her nephew to the estate, her mind was soon set at
+ease. It is true that a few changes were made in the house, and the
+hangers-on and parasites were put to immediate flight. Among their
+number suffered two old women, the one blind, the other paralyzed, and
+also a worn-out major of the Ochakof[A] days, who, on account of his
+great voracity, was fed upon nothing but black bread and lentiles. An
+order was given also not to receive any of the former visitors; they
+were replaced by a distant neighbor, a certain blonde and scrofulous
+baron, an exceedingly well brought-up and remarkably dull man. New
+furniture was sent from Moscow; spittoons, bells, and washhand basins
+were introduced; the breakfast was served in a novel fashion; foreign
+wines replaced the old national spirits and liquors; new liveries were
+given to the servants, and to the family coat of arms was added the
+motto, "_In recto virtus_."
+
+[Footnote A: Ochakof is a town which was taken from the Turks by the
+Russians in 1788.]
+
+In reality, however, the power of Glafira did not diminish; all
+receipts and expenditures were settled, as before, by her. A Valet,
+who had been brought from abroad, a native of Alsace, tried to compete
+with her, and lost his place, in spite of the protection which his
+master generally afforded him. In all that related to house-keeping,
+and also to the administration of the estate (for with these things
+too Glafira interfered)--in spite of the intention often expressed by
+Ivan Petrovich "to breathe new life into the chaos,"--all remained on
+the old footing. Only the _obrok_[A] remained on the old footing, and
+the _barshina_[B] became heavier, and the peasants were forbidden
+to go straight to Ivan Petrovich. The patriot already despised his
+fellow-citizens heartily. Ivan Petrovich's system was applied in its
+full development only to Fedia. The boy's education really underwent
+"a radical reform." His father undertook the sole direction of it
+himself.
+
+[Footnote A: What the peasant paid his lord in money.]
+
+[Footnote B: What the peasant paid his lord in labor.]
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+Until the return of Ivan Petrovich from abroad, Fedia remained, as we
+have already said, in the hands of Glafira Petrovna. He was not yet
+eight years old when his mother died. It was not every day that he had
+been allowed to see her, but he had become passionately attached to
+her. His recollections of her, especially of her pale and gentle face,
+her mournful eyes, and her timid caresses, were indelibly impressed
+upon his heart. It was but vaguely that he understood her position
+in the house, but he felt that between him and her there existed a
+barrier which she dared not and could not destroy. He felt shy of
+his father, who, on his part, never caressed him. His grandfather
+sometimes smoothed his hair and gave him his hand to kiss, but called
+him a savage and thought him a fool. After Malania's death, his aunt
+took him regularly in hand. Fedia feared her, feared her bright sharp
+eyes, her cutting voice; he never dared to make the slightest noise in
+her presence; if by chance he stirred ever so little on his chair, she
+would immediately exclaim in her hissing voice, "Where are you going?
+sit still!"
+
+On Sundays, after mass, he was allowed to play--that is to say, a
+thick book was given to him, a mysterious book, the work of a certain
+Maksimovich-Ambodik, bearing the title of "Symbols and Emblems." In
+this book there were to be found about a thousand, for the most part,
+very puzzling pictures, with equally puzzling explanations in five
+languages. Cupid, represented with a naked and chubby body, played a
+great part in these pictures. To one of them, the title of which was
+"Saffron and the Rainbow," was appended the explanation, "The effect
+of this is great." Opposite another, which represented "A Stork,
+flying with a violet in its beak," stood this motto, "To thee they
+are all known;" and "Cupid, and a bear licking its cub," was styled
+"Little by Little." Fedia used to pore over these pictures. He was
+familiar with them all even to their minutest details. Some of
+them--it was always the same ones--made him reflect, and excited his
+imagination: of other diversions he knew nothing.
+
+When the time came for teaching him languages and music, Glafira
+Petrovna hired an old maid for a mere trifle, a Swede, whose eyes
+looked sideways, like a hare's, who spoke French and German more
+or less badly, played the piano so so, and pickled cucumbers to
+perfection. In the company of this governess, of his aunt, and of an
+old servant maid called Vasilievna, Fedia passed four whole years.
+Sometimes he would sit in a corner with his "Emblems"--there he would
+sit and sit. A scent of geraniums filled the low room, one tallow
+candle burnt dimly, the cricket chirped monotonously as if it were
+bored, the little clock ticked busily on the wall, a mouse scratched
+stealthily and gnawed behind the tapestry; and the three old maids,
+like the three Fates, knitted away silently and swiftly, the shadows
+of their hands now scampering along, now mysteriously quivering in
+the dusk; and strange, no less dusky, thoughts were being born in the
+child's mind.
+
+No one would have called Fedia an interesting child. He was rather
+pale, but stout, badly built, and awkward--a regular moujik, to use
+the expression employed by Glafira Petrovna. The pallor would soon
+have vanished from his face if they had let him go out more into the
+fresh air. He learnt his lessons pretty well, though he was often
+idle. He never cried, but he sometimes evinced a savage obstinacy. At
+those times no one could do any thing with him. Fedia did not love a
+single one of the persons by whom he was surrounded. Alas for that
+heart which has not loved in youth!
+
+Such did Ivan Petrovich find him when he returned; and, without losing
+time he at once began to apply his system to him.
+
+"I want, above all, to make a man of him--_un homme_," he said to
+Glafira Petrovna "and not only a man, but a Spartan." This plan he
+began to carry out by dressing his boy in Highland costume. The
+twelve-year-old little fellow had to go about with bare legs, and with
+a cock's feather in his cap. The Swedish governess was replaced by a
+young tutor from Switzerland, who was acquainted with all the niceties
+of gymnastics. Music was utterly forbidden, as an accomplishment
+unworthy of a man. Natural science, international law, and
+mathematics, as well as carpentry, which was selected in accordance
+with the advice of Jean Jacques Rousseau; and heraldry, which was
+introduced for the maintenance of chivalrous ideas--these were the
+subjects to which the future "man" had to give his attention. He had
+to get up at four in the morning and take a cold bath immediately,
+after which he had to run round a high pole at the end of a cord. He
+had one meal a day, consisting of one dish; he rode on horseback, and
+he shot with a cross-bow. On every fitting occasion he had to exercise
+himself, in imitation of his father, in gaining strength of will; and
+every evening he used to write, in a book reserved for that purpose,
+an account of how he had spent the day, and what were his ideas on the
+subject. Ivan Petrovich, on his side, wrote instructions for him
+in French, in which he styled him _mon fils_, and addressed him as
+_vous_. Fedia used to say "thou" to his father in Russian, but he did
+not dare to sit down in his presence.
+
+The "system" muddled the boy's brains, confused his ideas, and cramped
+his mind; but, as far as his physical health was concerned, the new
+kind of life acted on him beneficially. At first he fell ill with a
+fever, but he soon recovered and became a fine fellow. His father grew
+proud of him, and styled him in his curious language, "the child of
+nature, my creation." When Fedia reached the age of sixteen, Ivan
+Petrovich considered it a duty to inspire him in good time with
+contempt for the female sex--and so the young Spartan, with the first
+down beginning to appear upon his lips, timid in feeling, but with a
+body full of blood, and strength, and energy, already tried to seem
+careless, and cold, and rough.
+
+Meanwhile time passed by. Ivan Petrovich spent the greater part of the
+year at Lavriki--that was the name of his chief hereditary estate; but
+in winter he used to go by himself to Moscow, where he put up at a
+hotel, attended his club assiduously, aired his eloquence freely,
+explained his plans in society, and more than ever gave himself out as
+an Anglomaniac, a grumbler, and a statesman. But the year 1825 came
+and brought with it much trouble[A]. Ivan Petrovich's intimate friends
+and acquaintances underwent a heavy tribulation. He made haste to
+betake himself far away into the country, and there he shut himself up
+in his house. Another year passed and Ivan Petrovich suddenly broke
+down, became feeble, and utterly gave way. His health having deserted
+him, the freethinker began to go to church, and to order prayers to be
+said for him[B]; the European began to steam himself in the Russian
+bath, to dine at two o'clock, to go to bed at nine, to be talked to
+sleep by the gossip of an old house-steward; the statesman burnt all
+his plans and all his correspondence, trembled before the governor,
+and treated the _Ispravnik_[C] with uneasy civility; the man of iron
+will whimpered and complained whenever he was troubled by a boil, or
+when his soup had got cold before he was served with it. Glafira again
+ruled supreme in the house; again did inspectors, overseers[D],
+and simple peasants begin to go up the back staircase to the rooms
+occupied by the "old witch"--as she was called by the servants of the
+house.
+
+[Footnote A: Arising from the conspiracy of the "Decembrists" and
+their attempts at a revolution, on the occasion of the death of
+Alexander I., and the accession of Nicholas to the throne.]
+
+[Footnote B: _Molebni_: prayers in which the name of the person who
+has paid for them is mentioned.]
+
+[Footnote C: Inspector of rural police.]
+
+[Footnote D: _Prikashchiki_ and _Burmistrui_: two classes of
+overseers, the former dealing with economical matters only, the latter
+having to do with the administrative department also.]
+
+The change which had taken place in Ivan Petrovich, produced a strong
+impression on the mind of his son. He had already entered on his
+nineteenth year; and he had begun to think for himself, and to shake
+off the weight of the hand which had been pressing him down. Even
+before this he had remarked how different were his father's deeds from
+his words; the wide and liberal theories he professed from the hard
+and narrow despotism he practiced; but he had not expected so abrupt
+a transformation. In his old age the egotist revealed himself in his
+full nature. The young Lavretsky was just getting ready to go to
+Moscow, with a view to preparing himself for the university, when a
+new and unexpected misfortune fell on the head of Ivan Petrovich. In
+the course of a single day the old man became blind, hopelessly blind.
+
+Distrusting the skill of Russian medical men, he did all he could to
+get permission to travel abroad. It was refused. Then, taking his son
+with him, he wandered about Russia for three whole years, trying one
+doctor after another, incessantly journeying from place to place, and,
+by his impatient fretfulness, driving his doctors, his son, and his
+servants to the verge of despair. Utterly used up[A], he returned to
+Lavriki a weeping and capricious infant. Days of bitterness ensued,
+in which all suffered at his hands. He was quiet only while he was
+feeding. Never had he eaten so much, nor so greedily. At all other
+moments he allowed neither himself nor any one else to be at peace. He
+prayed, grumbled at fate, found fault with himself, with his system,
+with politics, with all which he used to boast of, with all that he
+had ever set up as a model for his son. He would declare that he
+believed in nothing, and then he would betake himself again to prayer;
+he could not bear a single moment of solitude, and he compelled
+his servants constantly to sit near his bed day and night, and to
+entertain him with stories, which he was in the habit of interrupting
+by exclamations of, "You're all telling lies!" or, "What utter
+nonsense!"
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "a regular rag."]
+
+Glafira Petrovna had the largest share in all the trouble he gave. He
+was absolutely unable to do without her; and until the very end she
+fulfilled all the invalid's caprices, though sometimes she was unable
+to reply immediately to what he said, for fear the tone of her voice
+should betray the anger which was almost choking her. So he creaked
+on for two years more, and at length one day in the beginning of the
+month of May, he died. He had been carried out to the balcony, and
+planed there in the sun. "Glasha! Glashka! broth, broth, you old
+idi--," lisped his stammering tongue; and then, without completing the
+last word, it became silent forever. Glafira, who had just snatched
+the cup of broth from the hands of the major-domo, stopped short,
+looked her brother in the face, very slowly crossed herself, and went
+silently away. And his son, who happened also to be on the spot, did
+not say a word either, but bent over the railing of the balcony, and
+gazed for a long time into the garden, all green and fragrant, all
+sparkling in the golden sunlight of spring. He was twenty-three years
+old; how sadly, how swiftly had those years passed by unmarked! Life
+opened out before him now.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+After his father's burial, having confided to the never-changing
+Glafira Petrovna the administration of his household, and the
+supervision of his agents, the young Lavretsky set out for Moscow,
+whither a vague but powerful longing attracted him. He knew in what
+his education had been defective, and he was determined to supply its
+deficiencies as far as possible. In the course of the last five years
+he had read much, and he had see a good deal with his own eyes. Many
+ideas had passed through his mind, many a professor might have envied
+him some of his knowledge; yet, at the same time, he was entirely
+ignorant of much that had long been familiar to every school-boy.
+Lavretsky felt that he was not at his ease among his fellow-men;
+he had a secret inkling that he was an exceptional character. The
+Anglomaniac had played his son a cruel trick; his capricious education
+had borne its fruit. For many years he had implicitly obeyed his
+father; and when at last he had learned to value him aright, the
+effects of his father's teaching were already produced. Certain habits
+had become rooted in him. He did not know how to comport himself
+towards his fellow-men; at the age of twenty-three, with an eager
+longing after love in his bashful heart, he had not yet dared to look
+a woman in the face. With his clear and logical, but rather sluggish
+intellect, with his stubbornness, and his tendency towards inactivity
+and contemplation, he ought to have been flung at an early age into
+the whirl of life, instead of which he had been deliberately kept
+in seclusion. And now the magic circle was broken, but he remained
+standing on the same spot, cramped in mind and self-absorbed.
+
+At his age it seemed a little ridiculous to put on the uniform of a
+student[A], but he did not fear ridicule. His Spartan education had at
+all events been so far useful, inasmuch as it had developed in him a
+contempt for the world's gossiping. So he donned a student's uniform
+without being disconcerted, enrolling himself in the faculty of
+physical and mathematical science. His robust figure, his ruddy
+face, his sprouting beard, his taciturn manner, produced a singular
+impression on his comrades. They never suspected that under the rough
+exterior of this man, who attended the lectures so regularly, driving
+up in a capacious rustic sledge, drawn by a couple of horses,
+something almost childlike was concealed. They thought him an
+eccentric sort of pedant, and they made no advances towards him, being
+able to do very well without him. And he, for his part, avoided them.
+During the first two years he passed at the university, he became
+intimate with no one except the student from whom she took lessons in
+Latin. This student, whose name was Mikhalevich, an enthusiast, and
+somewhat of a poet, grew warmly attached to Lavretsky, and quite
+accidentally became the cause of a serious change in his fortunes.
+
+[Footnote A: The students at the Russian universities used to wear a
+uniform, but they no longer do so.]
+
+One evening, when Lavretsky was at the theatre--he never missed a
+single representation, for Mochalof was then at the summit of his
+glory--he caught sight of a young girl in a box on the first tier.
+Never before had his heart beaten so fast, though at that time no
+woman ever passed before his stern eyes without sending its pulses
+flying. Leaning on the velvet border of the box, the girl sat very
+still. Youthful animation lighted up every feature of her beautiful
+face; artistic feeling shone in her lovely eyes, which looked out with
+a soft, attentive gaze from underneath delicately pencilled eyebrows,
+in the quick smile of her expressive lips, in the bearing of her head,
+her arms, her neck. As to her dress, it was exquisite. By her side sat
+a sallow, wrinkled woman of five-and-forty, wearing a low dress and a
+black cap, with an unmeaning smile on her vacant face, to which she
+strove to give an aspect of attention. In the background of the box
+appeared an elderly man in a roomy coat, and with a high cravat. His
+small eyes had an expression of stupid conceit, modified by a kind of
+cringing suspicion; his mustache and whiskers were dyed, he had an
+immense meaningless forehead, and flabby cheeks: his whole appearance
+was that of a retired general.
+
+Lavretsky kept his eyes fixed on the girl who had made such an
+impression on him. Suddenly the door of the box opened, and
+Mikhalevich entered. The appearance of the man who was almost his only
+acquaintance in all Moscow--his appearance in the company of the very
+girl who had absorbed his whole attention, seemed to Lavretsky strange
+and significant. As he continued looking at the box, he remarked that
+all its occupants treated Mikhalevich like an old friend. Lavretsky
+lost all interest in what was going on upon the stage; even Mochalof,
+although he was that evening "in the vein," did not produce his wonted
+impression upon him. During one very pathetic passage, Lavretsky
+looked almost involuntarily at the object of his admiration. She was
+leaning forward, a red glow coloring her cheeks. Her eyes were bent
+upon the stage, but gradually, under the influence of his fixed look,
+they turned and rested on him. All night long those eyes haunted him.
+At last, the carefully constructed dam was broken through. He
+shivered and he burnt by turns, and the very next day he went to see
+Mikhalevich. From him he learned that the name of the girl he admired
+so much was Varvara Pavlovna Korobine, that the elderly people who
+were with her in the box were her father and her mother, and that
+Mikhalevich had become acquainted with them the year before, during
+the period of his stay as tutor in Count N.'s family, near Moscow. The
+enthusiast spoke of Varvara Pavlovna in the most eulogistic terms.
+"This girl, my brother," he exclaimed, in his peculiar, jerking kind
+of sing-song, "is an exceptional being, one endowed with genius, an
+artist in the true sense of the word, and besides all that, such an
+amiable creature." Perceiving from Lavretsky's questions how great an
+impression Varvara Pavlovna had made upon him, Mikhalevich, of his own
+accord, proposed to make him acquainted with her, adding that he was
+on the most familiar terms with them, that the general was not in the
+least haughty, and that the mother was as unintellectual as she well
+could be.
+
+Lavretsky blushed, muttered something vague, and took himself off.
+For five whole days he fought against his timidity; on the sixth, the
+young Spartan donned an entirely new uniform, and placed himself at
+the disposal of Mikhalevich, who, as an intimate friend of the
+family, contented himself with setting his hair straight--and the two
+companions set off together to visit the Karobines.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+Varvara Pavlovna's father, Pavel Petrovich Korobine, a retired
+major-general, had been on duty at St. Petersburg during almost the
+whole of his life. In his early years he had enjoyed the reputation of
+being an able dancer and driller; but as he was very poor he had
+to act as aide-de-camp to two or three generals of small renown in
+succession, one of whom gave him his daughter in marriage, together
+with a dowry of 25,000 roubles. Having made himself master of all the
+science of regulations and parades, even to their subtlest details,
+he "went on stretching the girth" until at last, after twenty years
+service, he became a general, and obtained a regiment. At that point
+he might have reposed, and have quietly consolidated his fortune. He
+had indeed counted upon doing so, but he managed his affairs rather
+imprudently. It seems he had discovered a new method of speculating
+with the public money. The method turned out an excellent one, but he
+must needs practise quite unreasonable economy,[A] so information was
+laid against him, and a more than disagreeable, a ruinous scandal
+ensued. Some how or other the general managed to get clear of the
+affair; but his career was stopped, and he was recommended to retire
+from active service. For about a couple of years he lingered on at St.
+Petersburg, in hopes that a snug civil appointment might fall to
+his lot; but no such appointment did fall to his lot. His daughter
+finished her education at the Institute; his expenses increased day by
+day. So he determined, with suppressed indignation, to go to Moscow
+for economy's sake; and there, in the Old Stable Street, he hired a
+little house with an escutcheon seven feet high on the roof, and began
+to live as retired generals do in Moscow on an income of 2,700 roubles
+a year[B].
+
+[Footnote A: In other words, he stole, but he neglected to bribe.]
+
+[Footnote B: Nearly £400, the roubles being "silver" ones. The
+difference in value between "silver" and "paper" roubles exists no
+longer.]
+
+Moscow is an hospitable city, and ready to welcome any one who appears
+there, especially if he is a retired general. Pavel Petrovich's form,
+which, though heavy, was not devoid of martial bearing, began to
+appear in the drawing-rooms frequented by the best society of Moscow.
+The back of his head, bald, with the exception of a few tufts of dyed
+hair, and the stained ribbon of the Order of St. Anne, which he wore
+over a stock of the color of a raven's wing, became familiar to all
+the young men of pale and wearied aspect, who were wont to saunter
+moodily around the card tables while a dance was going on.
+
+Pavel Petrovich understood how to hold his own in society. He said
+little, but always, as of old, spoke through the nose--except, of
+course, when he was talking to people of superior rank. He played at
+cards prudently, and when he was at home he ate with moderation. At a
+party he seemed to be feeding for six. Of his wife scarcely anything
+more can be said than that her name was Calliope Carlovna--that a
+tear always stood in her left eye, on the strength of which Calliope
+Carlovna, who to be sure was of German extraction, considered
+herself a woman of feeling--that she always seemed frightened about
+something--that she looked as if she never had enough to eat--and that
+she always wore a tight velvet dress, a cap, and bracelets of thin,
+dull metal.
+
+As to Varvara Pavlovna, the general's only daughter, she was but
+seventeen years old when she left the Institute in which she had been
+educated. While within its walls she was considered, if not the most
+beautiful, at all events the most intelligent of the pupils, and the
+best musician, and before leaving it she obtained the Cipher[A]. She
+was not yet nineteen when Lavretsky saw her for the first time.
+
+[Footnote A: The initial letter of the name of the Empress, worn as a
+kind of decoration by the best pupils in the Imperial Institutes.]
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+The Spartan's legs trembled when Mikhalevich led him into the
+Korobines' not over-well furnished drawing-room, and introduced him to
+its occupants. But he overcame his timidity, and soon disappeared. In
+General Korobine that kindliness which is common to all Russians, was
+enhanced by the special affability which is peculiar to all persons
+whose fair fame has been a little soiled. As for the General's wife,
+she soon became as it were ignored by the whole party. But Varvara
+Pavlona was so calmly, so composedly gracious, that no one could be,
+even for a moment, in her presence without feeling himself at his
+ease. And at the same time from all her charming form, from her
+smiling eyes, from her faultlessly sloping shoulders, from the
+rose-tinged whiteness of her hands, from her elastic, but at the same
+time as it were, irresolute gait, from the very sound of her sweet and
+languorous voice--there breathed, like a delicate perfume, a subtle
+and incomprehensible charm--something which was at once tender and
+voluptuous and modest--something which it was difficult to express
+in words, which stirred the imagination and disturbed the mind, but
+disturbed it with sensations which were not akin to timidity.
+
+Lavretsky introduced the subject of the theatre and the preceding
+night's performance; she immediately began to talk about Mochalof
+of her own accord, and did not confine herself to mere sighs and
+exclamations, but pronounced several criticisms on his acting, which
+were as remarkable for sound judgment as for womanly penetration.
+Mikhalevich mentioned music; she sat down to the piano without
+affectation, and played with precision several of Chopin's mazurkas,
+which were then only just coming into fashion. Dinner time came.
+Lavretsky would have gone away, but they made him stop, and the
+General treated him at table with excellent Lafitte, which the footman
+had been hurriedly sent out to buy at Depre's.
+
+It was late in the evening before Lavretsky returned home; and then
+he sat for a longtime without undressing, covering his eyes with his
+hand, and yielding to the torpor of enchantment. It seemed to him that
+he had not till now understood what makes life worth having. All his
+resolutions and intentions, all the now valueless ideas of other days,
+had disappeared in a moment. His whole soul melted within him into one
+feeling, one desire; into the desire of happiness, of possession, of
+love, of the sweetness of a woman's love.
+
+From that day he began to visit the Korobines frequently. After six
+months had passed, he proposed to Varvara Pavlovna, and his offer
+was accepted. Long, long before, even if it was not the night before
+Lavretsky's first visit, the General had asked Mikhalevich how many
+serfs[A] his friend had. Even Varvara Pavlona, who had preserved her
+wonted composure and equanimity during the whole period of her
+young admirer's courtship, and even at the very moment of his
+declaration--even Varvara Pavlovna knew perfectly well that her
+betrothed was rich. And Calliope Carlovna thought to herself, "_Meine
+Tochter macht eine schöne Partie_[B]"--and bought herself a new cap.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "souls," _i.e._, male peasants.]
+
+[Footnote B: My daughter is going to make a capital match.]
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+And so his offer was accepted, but under certain conditions. In the
+first place, Lavretsky must immediately leave the university. Who
+could think of marrying a student? And what an extraordinary idea,
+a landed proprietor, a rich man, at twenty-six years of age, to be
+taking lessons like a schoolboy! In the second place, Varvara Pavlovna
+was to take upon herself the trouble of ordering and buying her
+trousseau. She even chose the presents the bridegroom was to give.
+She had very good taste, and a great deal of common sense, and she
+possessed a great liking for comfort, and no small skill in getting
+herself that comfort. Lavretsky was particularly struck by this talent
+when, immediately after the wedding, he and his wife set off for
+Lavriki, travelling in a convenient carriage which she had chosen
+herself. How carefully all their surroundings had been meditated over
+by Varvara Pavlovna! what prescience she had shown in providing them!
+What charming travelling contrivances made their appearance in
+the various convenient corners! what delicious toilet boxes! what
+excellent coffee machines! and how gracefully did Varvara Pavlovna
+herself make the coffee in the morning! But it must be confessed that
+Lavretsky was little fitted for critical observation just then. He
+revelled in his happiness, he was intoxicated by his good fortune, he
+abandoned himself to it like a child--he was, indeed, as innocent as a
+child, this young Hercules. Not in vain did a charmed influence attach
+itself to the whole presence of his young wife; not in vain did she
+promise to the imagination a secret treasure of unknown delights. She
+was even better than her promise.
+
+When she arrived at Lavriki, which was in the very hottest part of the
+summer, the house seemed to her sombre and in bad order, the servants
+antiquated and ridiculous; but she did not think it necessary to say
+a word about this to her husband. If she had intended to settle at
+Lavriki, she would have altered every thing there, beginning of course
+with the house; but the idea of staying in that out-of-the-way corner
+never, even for an instant, came into her mind. She merely lodged
+in it, as she would have done in a tent, putting up with all its
+discomforts in the sweetest manner, and laughing at them pleasantly.
+
+When Marfa Timofeevna came to see her old pupil, she produced a
+favorable impression on Varvara Pavlovna. But Varvara was not at all
+to the old lady's liking. Nor did the young mistress of the house get
+on comfortably with Glafira Petrovna. She herself would have been
+content to leave Glafira in peace, but the general was anxious to get
+his hand into the management of his son-in-law's affairs. To see after
+the property of so near a relative, he said, was an occupation that
+even a general might adopt without disgrace. It is possible that Pavel
+Petrovich would not have disdained to occupy himself with the affairs
+of even an utter stranger.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna carried out her plan of attack very skillfully.
+Although never putting herself forward, but being to all appearance
+thoroughly immersed in the bliss of the honeymoon, in the quiet life
+of the country, in music, and in books, she little by little worked
+upon Glafira, until that lady, one morning, burst into Lavretsky's
+study like a maniac, flung her bunch of keys on the table, and
+announced that she could no longer look after the affairs of the
+household, and that she did not wish to remain on the estate. As
+Lavretsky had been fitly prepared for the scene, he immediately gave
+his consent to her departure. This Glafira Petrovna had not expected.
+"Good," she said, and her brow grew dark. "I see that I am not wanted
+here. I know that I am expelled hence, driven away from the family
+nest. But, nephew, remember my words--nowhere will you be able to
+build you a nest; your lot will be to wander about without ceasing.
+There is my parting legacy to you." That same day she went off to her
+own little property: a week later General Korobine arrived, and, with
+a pleasantly subdued air, took the whole management of the estate into
+his own hands.
+
+In September Varvara Pavlovna carried off her husband to St.
+Petersburg. There the young couple spent two winters--migrating in
+the summer to Tsarskoe Selo. They lived in handsome, bright,
+admirably-furnished apartments; they made numerous acquaintances in
+the upper and even the highest circles of society; they went out a
+great deal and received frequently, giving very charming musical
+parties and dances. Varvara Pavlovna attracted visitors as a light
+does moths.
+
+Such a distracting life did not greatly please Fedor Ivanich. His
+wife wanted him to enter the service; but, partly in deference to his
+father's memory, partly in accordance with his own ideas, he would
+not do so, though he remained in St. Petersburg to please his wife.
+However, he soon found out that no one objected to his isolating
+himself, that it was not without an object that his study had been
+made the quietest and the most comfortable in the whole city, that his
+attentive wife was ever ready to encourage him in isolating himself;
+and from that time all went well. He again began to occupy himself
+with his as yet, as he thought, unfinished education. He entered upon
+anew course of reading; he even began the study of English. It was
+curious to see his powerful, broad-shouldered figure constantly
+bending over his writing-table, his full, ruddy, bearded face,
+half-hidden by the leaves of a dictionary or a copy-book. His mornings
+were always spent over his work; later in the day he sat down to an
+excellent dinner--for Varvara Pavlovna always managed her household
+affairs admirably; and in the evening he entered an enchanted,
+perfumed, brilliant world, all peopled by young and joyous beings, the
+central point of their world being that extremely attentive manager of
+the household, his wife.
+
+She made him happy with a son; but the poor child did not live long.
+It died in the spring; and in the summer, in accordance with the
+advice of the doctors, Lavretsky and his wife went the round of the
+foreign watering-places. Distraction was absolutely necessary for her
+after such a misfortune; and, besides, her health demanded a warmer
+climate. That summer and autumn they spent in Germany and Switzerland;
+and in the winter, as might be expected, they went to Paris.
+
+In Paris Varvara Pavlovna bloomed like a rose; and there, just as
+quickly and as skilfully as she had done in St. Petersburg, she learnt
+how to build herself a snug little nest. She procured a very pretty
+set of apartments in one of the quiet but fashionable streets, she
+made her husband such a dressing-gown as he had never worn before; she
+secured an elegant lady's maid, an excellent cook, and an energetic
+footman; and she provided herself with an exquisite carriage, and a
+charming cabinet piano. Before a week was over she could already cross
+a street, put on a shawl, open a parasol, and wear gloves, as well as
+the most pure-blooded of Parisian women.
+
+She soon made acquaintances also. At first only Russians used to
+come to her house; then Frenchmen began to show themselves--amiable
+bachelors, of polished manners, exquisite in demeanor, and bearing
+high-sounding names. They all talked a great deal and very fast,
+they bowed gracefully, their eyes twinkled pleasantly. All of them
+possessed teeth which gleamed white between rosy lips; and how
+beautifully they smiled! Each of them brought his friends; and before
+long _La belle Madame de Lavretski_ became well known from the
+_Chausée d' Antin_ to the _Rue de Lille_. At that time--it was in
+1836--the race of _feuilletonists_ and journalists, which now swarms
+everywhere, numerous as the ants one sees when a hole is made in an
+ant-hill, had not yet succeeded in multiplying in numbers. Still,
+there used to appear in Varvara Pavlovna's drawing-room a certain M.
+Jules, a gentleman who bore a very bad character, whose appearance
+was unprepossessing, and whose manner was at once insolent and
+cringing--like that of all duellists and people who have been
+horsewhipped. Varvara disliked this M. Jules very much; but she
+received him because he wrote in several newspapers, and used to be
+constantly mentioning her, calling her sometimes Madame de L ... tski,
+sometimes Madame de * * *, _cette grande dame Russe si distinguée, qui
+demeure rue de P----_, and describing to the whole world, that is to
+say to some few hundreds of subscribers, who had nothing whatever to
+do with Madame de L ... tski, how loveable and charming was that lady,
+_une vraie française par l'esprit_,--the French have no higher
+praise than this,--what an extraordinary musician she was, and how
+wonderfully she waltzed. (Varvara Pavlovna did really waltz so as to
+allure all hearts to the skirt of her light, floating robe.) In fact,
+he spread her fame abroad throughout the world; and this we know,
+whatever people may say, is pleasant.
+
+Mademoiselle Mars had by that time quitted the stage, and Mademoiselle
+Rachel had not yet appeared there; but for all that Varvara Pavlovna
+none the less assiduously attended the theatres. She went into
+raptures about Italian music, and laughed over the ruins of Odry,
+yawned in a becoming manner at the legitimate drama, and cried at the
+sight of Madame Dorval's acting in some ultra-melodramatic piece.
+Above all, Liszt played at her house twice, and was so gracious, so
+unaffected! It was charming!
+
+Amid such pleasurable sensations passed the winter, at the end of
+which Varvara Pavlovna was even presented at Court. As for Fedor
+Ivanovich, he was not exactly bored, but life began to weigh heavily
+on his shoulders at times--heavily because of its very emptiness. He
+read the papers, he listened to the lectures at the _Sorbonne_ and
+the _College de France_, he followed the debates in the Chambers,
+he occupied himself in translating a famous scientific work on
+irrigation. "I am not wasting my time," he thought; "all this is of
+use; but next winter I really must return to Russia, and betake myself
+to active business." It would be hard to say if he had any clear idea
+of what were the special characteristics of that business, and only
+Heaven could tell whether he was likely to succeed in getting back to
+Russia in the winter. In the meanwhile he was intending to go with his
+wife to Baden. But an unexpected occurrence upset all his plans.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+One day when he happened to go into Varvara Pavlovna's boudoir during
+her absence, Lavretsky saw a carefully folded little piece of paper
+lying on the floor. Half mechanically he picked it up and opened
+it--and read the following lines written in French:--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"MY DEAR ANGEL BETTY,
+
+"(I really cannot make up my mind to call you Barbe or Varvara). I
+have waited in vain for you at the corner of the Boulevard. Come to
+our rooms to-morrow at half-past one. That excellent husband of yours
+is generally absorbed in his books at that time--we will sing over
+again that song of your poet Pushkin which you taught me, 'Old
+husband, cruel husband!' A thousand kisses to your dear little hands
+and feet. I await you.
+
+"ERNEST."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At first Lavretsky did not comprehend the meaning of what he had read.
+He read it a second time--and his head swam, and the ground
+swayed beneath his feet like the deck of a ship in a storm, and a
+half-stifled sound issued from his lips, that was neither quite a cry
+nor quite a sob.
+
+He was utterly confounded. He had trusted his wife so blindly; the
+possibility of deceit or of treachery on her part had never entered
+into his mind. This Ernest, his wife's lover, was a pretty boy of
+about three-and-twenty, with light hair, a turned-up nose, and a small
+moustache--probably the most insignificant of all his acquaintances.
+
+Several minutes passed; a half hour passed. Lavretsky still stood
+there, clenching the fatal note in his hand, and gazing unmeaningly on
+the floor. A sort of dark whirlwind seemed to sweep round him, pale
+faces to glimmer through it.
+
+A painful sensation of numbness had seized his heart. He felt as if he
+were falling, falling, falling--into a bottomless abyss.
+
+The soft rustle of a silk dress roused him from his torpor by its
+familiar sound. Varvara Pavlovna came in hurriedly from out of doors.
+Lavretsky shuddered all over and rushed out of the room. He felt that
+at that moment he was ready to tear her to pieces, to strangle her
+with his own hands, at least to beat her all but to death in peasant
+fashion. Varvara Pavlovna, in her amazement, wanted to stay him. He
+just succeeded in whispering "Betty"--and then he fled from the house.
+
+Lavretsky took a carriage and drove outside the barriers. All the rest
+of the day, and the whole of the night he wandered about, constantly
+stopping and wringing his hands above his head. Sometimes he was
+frantic with rage, at others every thing seemed to move him to
+laughter, even to a kind of mirth. When the morning dawned he felt
+half frozen, so he entered a wretched little suburban tavern, asked
+for a room, and sat down on a chair before the window. A convulsive
+fit of yawning seized him. By that time he was scarcely able to keep
+upright, and his bodily strength was utterly exhausted. Still he was
+not conscious of fatigue. But fatigue had its own way. He continued
+sitting there and gazing vacantly, but he comprehended nothing. He
+could not make out what had happened to him, why he found himself
+there, alone, in an empty, unknown room, with numbed limbs, with a
+sense of bitterness in his mouth, with a weight like that of a great
+stone on his heart. He could not understand what had induced her, his
+Varvara, to give herself to that Frenchman, and how, knowing herself
+to be false to him, she could have remained as calm as ever in his
+presence, as confiding and caressing as ever towards him. "I cannot
+make it out," whispered his dry lips. "And how can I be sure now that
+even at St. Petersburg--?" but he did not complete the question; a
+fresh gaping fit seized him, and his whole frame shrank and shivered.
+Sunny and sombre memories equally tormented him. He suddenly
+recollected how a few days before, she had sat at the piano, when both
+he and Ernest were present, and had sung "Old husband, cruel husband!"
+He remembered the expression of her face, the strange brilliance of
+her eyes, and the color in her cheeks--and he rose from his chair,
+longing to go to them and say, "You were wrong to play your tricks on
+me. My great grandfather used to hang his peasants on hooks by their
+ribs, and my grandfather was a peasant himself,"--and then kill them
+both. All of a sudden it would appear to him as if every thing that
+had happened were a dream, even not so much as a dream, but just some
+absurd fancy; as if he had only to give himself a shake and take a
+look round--and he did look round; and as a hawk claws a captured
+bird, so did his misery strike deeper and deeper into his heart. What
+made things worse was that Lavretsky had hoped, in the course of a few
+months, to find himself once more a father. His past, his future, his
+whole life was poisoned.
+
+At last he returned to Paris, went to a hotel, and sent Varvara
+Pavlovna M. Ernest's note with the following letter:--
+
+"The scrap of paper which accompanies this will explain every thing to
+you. I may as well tell you that you do not seem to have behaved in
+this matter with your usual tact. You, so careful a person, to drop
+such important papers (poor Lavretsky had been preparing this phrase,
+and fondling it, as it were, for several hours). I can see you no
+more, and I suppose that you too can have no wish for an interview
+with me. I assign you fifteen thousand roubles a year. I cannot give
+you more. Send your address to the steward of my estate. And now do
+what you like; live where you please. I wish you all prosperity. I
+want no answer."
+
+Lavretsky told his wife that he wanted no answer; but he did expect,
+he even longed for an answer--an explanation of this strange, this
+incomprehensible affair. That same day Varvara Pavlovna sent him
+a long letter in French. It was the final blow. His last doubts
+vanished, and he even felt ashamed of having retained any doubts.
+Varvara Pavlovna did not attempt to justify herself. All that
+she wanted was to see him; she besought him not to condemn her
+irrevocably. The letter was cold and constrained, though marks of
+tears were to be seen on it here and there. Lavretsky smiled bitterly,
+and sent a message by the bearer, to the effect that the letter needed
+no reply.
+
+Three days later he was no longer in Paris; but he went to Italy, not
+to Russia. He did not himself know why he chose Italy in particular.
+In reality, it was all the same to him where he went--so long as
+he did not go home. He sent word to his steward about his wife's
+allowance, ordering him, at the same time, to withdraw the whole
+management of the estate from General Korobine immediately, without
+waiting for any settlement of accounts, and to see to his Excellency's
+departure from Lavriki. He indulged in a vivid picture of the
+confusion of the expelled general, the useless airs which he would
+put on, and, in spite of his sorrow, he was conscious of a certain
+malicious satisfaction. At the same time he wrote to Glafira Petrovna,
+asking her to return to Lavriki, and drew up a power-of-attorney in
+her name. But Glafira Petrovna would not return to Lavriki; she
+even advertised in the newspapers that the power-of-attorney was
+cancelled,--a perfectly superfluous proceeding on her part.
+
+Lavretsky hid himself in a little Italian town; but for a long time
+he could not help mentally following his wife's movements. He learned
+from the newspapers that she had left Paris for Baden, as she had
+intended. Her name soon appeared in a short article signed by the M.
+Jules of whom we have already spoken. The perusal of that article
+produced a very unpleasant effect on Lavretsky's mind. He detected in
+it, underneath the writer's usual sprightliness, a sort of tone of
+charitable commiseration. Next he learned that a daughter had been
+born to him. Two months later he was informed by his steward that
+Varvara Pavlovna had drawn her first quarter's allowance. After that,
+scandalous reports about her began to arrive; then they became more
+and more frequent; at last a tragicomic story, in which she played a
+very unenviable part, ran the round of all the journals, and created
+a great sensation. Affairs had come to a climax. Varvara Pavlovna was
+now "a celebrity."
+
+Lavretsky ceased to follow her movements. But it was long before he
+could master his own feelings. Sometimes he was seized by such a
+longing after his wife, that he fancied he would have been ready to
+give every thing he had--that he could, perhaps, even have forgiven
+her--if only he might once more have heard her caressing voice, have
+felt once more her hand in his. But time did not pass by in vain. He
+was not born for suffering. His healthy nature claimed its rights.
+Many things became intelligible for him. The very blow which had
+struck him seemed no longer to have come without warning. He
+understood his wife now. We can never fully understand persons with
+whom we are generally in close contact, until we have been separated
+from them. He was able to apply himself to business again, and
+to study, although now with much less than his former ardor; the
+scepticism for which both his education and his experience of life
+had paved the way, had taken lasting hold upon his mind. He became
+exceedingly indifferent to every thing. Four years passed by, and he
+felt strong enough to return to his home, to meet his own people.
+Without having stopped either at St. Petersburg or at Moscow, he
+arrived at O., where we left him, and whither we now entreat the
+reader to return with us.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+About ten o'clock in the morning, on the day after that of which
+we have already spoken, Lavretsky was going up the steps of the
+Kalitines' house, when he met Liza with her bonnet and gloves on.
+
+"Where are you going?" he asked her.
+
+"To church. To-day is Sunday."
+
+"And so you go to church?"
+
+Liza looked at him in silent wonder.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Lavretsky. "I--I did not mean to say that.
+I came to take leave of you. I shall start for my country-house in
+another hour."
+
+"That isn't far from here, is it?" asked Liza.
+
+"About five-and-twenty versts."
+
+At this moment Lenochka appeared at the door, accompanied by a
+maid-servant.
+
+"Mind you don't forget us," said Liza, and went down the steps.
+
+"Don't forget me either. By the way," he continued, "you are going to
+church; say a prayer for me too, while you are there."
+
+Liza stopped and turned towards him.
+
+"Very well," she said, looking him full in the face. "I will pray for
+you, too. Come, Lenochka."
+
+Lavretsky found Maria Dmitrievna alone in the drawing-room, which was
+redolent of Eau de Cologne and peppermint. Her head ached, she said,
+and she had spent a restless night.
+
+She received him with her usual languid amiability, and by degrees
+began to talk.
+
+"Tell me," she asked him, "is not Vladimir Nikolaevich a very
+agreeable young man?"
+
+"Who is Vladimir Nikolaevich?"
+
+"Why Panshine, you know, who was here yesterday. He was immensely
+delighted with you. Between ourselves I may mention, _mon cher
+cousin_, that he is perfectly infatuated with my Liza. Well, he is of
+good family, he is getting on capitally in the service, he is clever,
+and besides he is a chamberlain; and if such be the will of God--I,
+for my part, as a mother, shall be glad of it. It is certainly a great
+responsibility; most certainly the happiness of children depends upon
+their parents. But this much must be allowed. Up to the present time,
+whether well or ill, I have done every thing myself, and entirely by
+myself. I have brought up my children and taught them every thing
+myself--and now I have just written to Maclame Bulous for a
+governess--"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna launched out into a description of her cares, her
+efforts, her maternal feelings. Lavretsky listened to her in silence,
+and twirled his hat in his hands. His cold, unsympathetic look at last
+disconcerted the talkative lady.
+
+"And what do you think of Liza?" she asked.
+
+"Lizaveta Mikhailovna is an exceedingly handsome girl," replied
+Lavretsky. Then he got up, said good-bye, and went to pay Marfa
+Timofeevna a visit. Maria Dmitrievna looked after him with an
+expression of dissatisfaction, and thought to herself, "What a bear!
+what a moujik! Well, now I understand why his wife couldn't remain
+faithful to him."
+
+Marfa Timofeevna was sitting in her room, surrounded by her court.
+This consisted of five beings, almost equally dear to her heart--an
+educated bullfinch, to which she had taken an affection because it
+could no longer whistle or draw water, and which was afflicted with a
+swollen neck; a quiet and exceedingly timid little dog, called Roska;
+a bad-tempered cat, named Matros; a dark-complexioned, lively little
+girl of nine, with very large eyes and a sharp nose, whose name was
+Shurochka[A]; and an elderly lady of about fifty-five, who wore a
+white cap and a short, cinnamon-colored _katsaveika_[B] over a dark
+gown, and whose name was Nastasia Carpovna Ogarkof.
+
+[Footnote A: One of the many diminutives of Alexandrina.]
+
+[Footnote B: A kind of jacket worn by women.]
+
+Shurochka was a fatherless and motherless girl, whose relations
+belonged to the lowest class of the bourgeoisie. Marfa Timofeevna had
+adopted her, as well as Roska, out of pity. She had found both the dog
+and the girl out in the streets. Both of them were thin and cold; the
+autumn rain had drenched them both. No one ever claimed Roska, and as
+to Shurochka, she was even gladly given up to Marfa Timofeevna by her
+uncle, a drunken shoemaker, who never had enough to eat himself, and
+could still less provide food for his niece, whom he used to hit over
+the head with his last.
+
+As to Nastasia Carpovna, Marfa Timofeevna had made acquaintance with
+her on a pilgrimage, in a monastery. She went up to that old lady in
+church one day,--Nastasia Carpovna had pleased Marfa Timofeevna by
+praying as the latter lady said, "in very good taste"--began to talk
+to her, and invited her home to a cup of tea. From that day she parted
+with her no more. Nastasia Carpovna, whose father had belonged to the
+class of poor gentry, was a widow without children. She was a woman of
+a very sweet and happy disposition; she had a round head, grey hair,
+and soft, white hands. Her face also was soft, and her features,
+including a somewhat comical snub nose, were heavy, but pleasant. She
+worshipped Marfa Timofeevna, who loved her dearly, although she teased
+her greatly about her susceptible heart. Nastasia Carpovna had a
+weakness for all young men, and never could help blushing like a girl
+at the most innocent joke. Her whole property consisted of twelve
+hundred paper roubles.[A] She lived at Marfa Timofeevna's expense, but
+on a footing of perfect equality with her. Marfa Timofeevna could not
+have endured any thing like servility.
+
+[Footnote A: About _£50_.]
+
+"Ah, Fedia!" she began, as soon as she saw him
+
+"You didn't see my family last night. Please to admire them now; we
+are all met together for tea. This is our second, our feast-day tea.
+You may embrace us all. Only Shurochka wouldn't let you, and the cat
+would scratch you. Is it to-day you go?"
+
+"Yes," said Lavretsky, sitting down on a low chair. "I have just taken
+leave of Maria Dmitrievna. I saw Lizaveta Mikhailovna too."
+
+"Call her Liza, my dear. Why should she be Mikhailovna for you? But do
+sit still, or you will break Shurochka's chair."
+
+"She was on her way to church," continued Lavretsky. "Is she seriously
+inclined?"
+
+"Yes, Fedia, very much so. More than you or I, Fedia."
+
+"And do you mean to say you are not seriously inclined?" lisped
+Nastasia Carpovna. "If you have not gone to the early mass to-day, you
+will go to the later one."
+
+"Not a bit of it. Thou shalt go alone. I've grown lazy, my mother,"
+answered Marfa Timofeevna. "I am spoiling myself terribly with tea
+drinking."
+
+She said _thou_ to Nastasia Carpovna, although she lived on a footing
+of equality with her--but it was not for nothing that she was a
+Pestof. Three Pestofs occur in the Sinodik[A] of Ivan the Terrible.
+Marfa Timofeevna was perfectly well aware of the fact.
+
+[Footnote A: "_I.e._, in the list of the nobles of his time, in the
+sixteenth century.]
+
+"Tell me, please," Lavretsky began again. "Maria Dmitrievna was
+talking to me just now about that--what's his name?--Panshine. What
+sort of a man is he?"
+
+"Good Lord! what a chatter-box she is!" grumbled Marfa Timofeevna.
+"I've no doubt she has communicated to you as a secret that he hangs
+about here as a suitor. She might have been contented to 'Whisper
+about it with her _popovich_[A] But no, it seems that is not enough
+for her. And yet there is nothing settled so far, thank God! but she's
+always chattering."
+
+[Footnote A: The priest's son. _i.e._, Gedeonovsky.]
+
+"Why do you say 'Thank God?'" asked Lavretsky.
+
+"Why, because this fine young man doesn't please me. And what is there
+in the matter to be delighted about, I should like to know?"
+
+"Doesn't he please you?"
+
+"No; he can't fascinate every one. It's enough for him that Nastasia
+Carpovna here is in love with him."
+
+The poor widow was terribly disconcerted.
+
+"How can you say so, Marfa Timofeevna? Do not you fear God?" she
+exclaimed, and a blush instantly suffused her face and neck.
+
+"And certainly the rogue knows how to fascinate her," broke in Marfa
+Timofeevna. "He has given her a snuff-box. Fedia, ask her for a pinch
+of snuff. You will see what a splendid snuff-box it is. There is
+a hussar on horseback on the lid. You had much better not try to
+exculpate yourself, my mother."
+
+Nastasia Carpovna could only wave her hands with a deprecatory air.
+
+"Well, but about Liza?" asked Lavretsky. "Is he indifferent to her?"
+
+"She seems to like him--and as to the rest, God knows. Another
+person's heart, you know, is a dark forest, and more especially a
+young girl's. Look at Shurochka there! Come and analyze her's. Why has
+she been hiding herself, but not going away, ever since you came in?"
+
+Shurochka burst into a laugh she was unable to stifle, and ran out of
+the room. Lavretsky also rose from his seat.
+
+"Yes," he said slowly; "one cannot fathom a girl's heart."
+
+As he was going to take leave.
+
+"Well; shall we see you soon?" asked Marfa Timofeevna.
+
+"Perhaps, aunt. It's no great distance to where I'm going."
+
+"Yes; you're going, no doubt, to Vasilievskoe. You won't live at
+Lavriki. Well, that's your affair. Only go and kneel down at your
+mother's grave, and your grandmother's, too, while you are there. You
+have picked up all kinds of wisdom abroad there, and perhaps, who can
+tell, they may feel, even in their graves, that you have come to visit
+them. And don't forget, Fedia, to have a service said for Glafira
+Petrovna, too. Here is a rouble for you. Take it, take it please; it
+is I who wish to have the service performed for her. I didn't love
+her while she lived, but it must be confessed that she was a girl of
+character. She was clever. And then she didn't hurt you. And now go,
+and God be with you--else I shall tire you."
+
+And Marfa Timofeevna embraced her nephew.
+
+"And Liza shall not marry Panshine; don't make yourself uneasy about
+that. He isn't the sort of man she deserves for a husband."
+
+"But I am not in the least uneasy about it," remarked Lavretsky as he
+retired.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+Four hours later he was on his way towards his home. His tarantass
+rolled swiftly along the soft cross-road. There had been no rain for
+a fortnight. The atmosphere was pervaded by a light fog of milky hue,
+which hid the distant forests from sight, while a smell or burning
+filled the air. A number of dusky clouds with blurred outlines stood
+out against a pale blue sky, and lingered, slowly drawn. A strongish
+wind swept by in an unbroken current, bearing no moisture with it, and
+not dispelling the great heat. His head leaning back on the cushions,
+his arms folded across his breast, Lavretsky gazed at the furrowed
+plains which opened fanwise before him, at the cytisus shrubs, at the
+crows and rooks which looked sideways at the passing carriage with
+dull suspicion, at the long ridges planted with mugwort, wormwood, and
+mountain ash. He gazed--and that vast level solitude, so fresh and
+so fertile, that expanse of verdure, and those sweeping slopes, the
+ravines studded with clumps of dwarfed oaks, the grey hamlets, the
+thinly-clad birch trees--all this Russian landscape, so-long by him
+unseen, filled his mind with feelings which were sweet, but at the
+same time almost sad, and gave rise to a certain heaviness of heart,
+but one which was more akin to a pleasure than to a pain. His thoughts
+wandered slowly past, their forms as dark and ill-defined as those
+of the clouds, which also seemed vaguely wandering there on high. He
+thought of his childhood, of his mother, how they brought him to her
+011 her death-bed, and how, pressing his head to her breast, she
+began to croon over him, but looked up at Glafira Petrovna and became
+silent. He thought of his father, at first robust, brazen-voiced,
+grumbling at every thing--then blind, querulous, with white,
+uncared-for beard. He remembered how one day at dinner, when he had
+taken a little too much wine, the old man suddenly burst out laughing,
+and began to prate about his conquests, winking his blind eyes
+the while, and growing red in the face. He thought of Varvara
+Pavlovna--and his face contracted involuntarily, like that of a man
+who feels some sudden pain, and he gave his head an impatient toss.
+Then his thoughts rested on Liza. "There," he thought, "is a new life
+just beginning. A good creature! I wonder what will become of her. And
+she's pretty, too, with her pale, fresh face, her eyes and lips so
+serious, and that frank and guileless way she has of looking at you.
+It's a pity she seems a little enthusiastic. And her figure is good,
+and she moves about lightly, and she has a quiet voice. I like her
+best when she suddenly stands still, and listens attentively and
+gravely, then becomes contemplative and shakes her hair back. Yes, I
+agree, Panshine isn't worthy of her. Yet what harm is there in him?
+However, as to all that, why am I troubling my head about it? She will
+follow the same road that all others have to follow. I had better go
+to sleep." And Lavretsky closed his eyes.
+
+He could not sleep, but he sank into a traveller's dreamy reverie.
+Just as before, pictures of by-gone days slowly rose and floated
+across his mind, blending with each other, and becoming confused with
+other scenes. Lavretsky began to think--heaven knows why--about Sir
+Robert Peel; then about French history; lastly, about the victory
+which he would have gained if he had been a general. The firing and
+the shouting rang in his ears. His head slipped on one side; he opened
+his eyes--the same fields stretched before him, the same level views
+met his eyes. The iron shoes of the outside horses gleamed brightly by
+turns athwart the waving dust, the driver's yellow[A] shirt swelled
+with the breeze. "Here I am, returning virtuously to my birth-place,"
+suddenly thought Lavretsky, and he called out, "Get on there!" drew
+his cloak more closely around him, and pressed himself still nearer
+to the cushion. The tarantass gave a jerk. Lavretsky sat upright
+and opened his eyes wide. On the slope before him extended a small
+village. A little to the right was to be seen an old manor house of
+modest dimensions, its shutters closed, its portico awry. On one
+side stood a barn built of oak, small, but well preserved. The wide
+court-yard was entirely overgrown by nettles, as green and thick as
+hemp. This was Vasilievskoe.
+
+[Footnote A: Yellow, with red pieces let in under the armpits.]
+
+The driver turned aside to the gate, and stopped his horses.
+Lavretsky's servant rose from his seat, ready to jump down, and
+shouted "Halloo!" A hoarse, dull barking arose in reply, but no dog
+made its appearance. The lackey again got ready to descend, and
+again cried "Halloo!" The feeble barking was repeated, and directly
+afterwards a man, with snow-white hair, dressed in a nankeen caftan,
+ran into the yard from one of the comers. He looked at the tarantass,
+shielding his eyes from the sun, then suddenly struck both his hands
+upon his thighs, fidgeted about nervously for a moment, and finally
+ran to open the gates. The tarantass entered the court-yard, crushing
+the nettles under its wheels, and stopped before the portico. The
+white-headed old man, who was evidently of a very active turn, was
+already standing on the lowest step, his legs spread awkwardly apart.
+He unbuttoned the apron of the carriage, pulling up the leather with a
+jerk, and kissed his master's hand while assisting him to alight.
+
+"Good day, good day, brother," said Lavretsky. "Your name is Anton,
+isn't it. So you're still alive?"
+
+The old man bowed in silence, and then ran to fetch the keys. While he
+ran, the driver sat motionless, leaning sideways and looking at the
+closed door; and Lavretsky's man-servant remained in the picturesque
+attitude in which he found himself after springing clown to the
+ground, one of his arms resting on the box seat. The old man brought
+the keys and opened the door, lifting his elbows high the while, and
+needlessly wriggling his body--then he stood on one side, and again
+bowed down to his girdle.
+
+"Here I am at home, actually returned!" thought Lavretsky, as he
+entered the little vestibule, while the shutters opened, one after
+another, with creak and rattle, and the light of day penetrated into
+the long-deserted rooms.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+The little house at which Lavretsky had arrived, and in which Glafira
+Petrovna had died two years before, had been built of solid pine
+timber in the preceding century. It looked very old, but it was good
+for another fifty years or more. Lavretsky walked through all the
+rooms, and, to the great disquiet of the faded old flies which clung
+to the cornices without moving, their backs covered with white dust,
+he had the windows thrown open everywhere. Since the death of Glafira
+Petrovna, no one had opened them. Every thing had remained precisely
+as it used to be in the house. In the drawing-room the little white
+sofas, with their thin legs, and their shining grey coverings, all
+worn and rumpled, vividly recalled to mind the times of Catharine. In
+that room also stood the famous arm-chair of the late proprietress, a
+chair with a high, straight back, in which, even in her old age, she
+used always to sit bolt upright. On the wall hung an old portrait
+of Fedor's great-grandfather, Andrei Lavretsky. His dark, sallow
+countenance could scarcely be distinguished against the cracked and
+darkened background. His small, malicious eyes looked out morosely
+from beneath the heavy, apparently swollen eyelids. His black hair,
+worn without powder, rose up stiff as a brush above his heavy,
+wrinkled forehead. From the corner of the portrait hung a dusky wreath
+of _immortelles_. "Glafira Petrovna deigned to weave it herself,"
+observed Anthony. In the bed-room stood a narrow bedstead, with
+curtains of some striped material, extremely old, but of very good
+quality. On the bed lay a heap of faded cushions and a thin, quilted
+counterpane; and above the bolster hung a picture of the Presentation
+of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple, the very picture which the old
+lady, when she lay dying, alone and forgotten, pressed for the last
+time with lips which were already beginning to grow cold. Near the
+window stood a toilet table, inlaid with different kinds of wood and
+ornamented with plates of copper, supporting a crooked mirror in
+a frame of which the gilding had turned black. In a line with the
+bed-room was the oratory, a little room with bare walls; in the corner
+stood a heavy case for holding sacred pictures, and on the floor lay
+the scrap of carpet, worn threadbare, and covered with droppings from
+wax candles, on which Glafira Petrovna used to prostrate herself when
+she prayed.
+
+Anton went out with Lavretsky's servant to open the stable and
+coach-house doors. In his stead appeared an old woman, almost as old
+as himself, her hair covered by a handkerchief, which came down to her
+very eyebrows. Her head shook and her eyes seemed dim; but they wore,
+also, an expression of zealous obedience, habitual and implicit, and,
+at the same time, of a kind of respectful condolence. She kissed
+Lavretsky's hand, and then remained near the door, awaiting his
+orders. He could not remember what her name was, nor even whether he
+had ever seen her before. It turned out that her name was Apraxia.
+Some forty years previously, Glafira Petrovna had struck her off the
+list of the servants who lived in the house, and had ordered her to
+become a poultry-maid. She seldom spoke, seemed half idiotic, and
+always wore a servile look. Besides this old couple, and three paunchy
+little children in long shirts, Anton's great-grandchildren, there
+lived also in the seigniorial household an untaxable[A] moujik, who
+had only one arm. He cackled like a black-cock, and was fit for
+nothing. Of very little more use was the infirm old hound which had
+saluted Lavretsky's return by its barking. For ten whole years it
+had been fastened to a heavy chain, purchased by order of Glafira
+Petrovna, a burden under which it was now scarcely able to move.
+
+[Footnote A: One who had not received the usual grant of land from the
+community, and was not subject to rates like the rest.]
+
+Having examined the house, Lavretsky went out into the garden, and was
+well pleased with it. It was all overgrown with steppe grass, with
+dandelions, and with gooseberry and raspberry bushes; but there was
+plenty of shade in it, a number of old lime-trees growing there, of
+singularly large stature, with eccentrically ordered branches. They
+had been planted too close together, and a hundred years seemed to
+have elapsed since they were pruned. At the end of the garden was a
+small, clear lake, surrounded by a fringe of high, reddish-colored
+rushes. The traces of a human life that is past soon disappear.
+Glafira's manor-house had not yet grown wild, but it seemed to have
+become already immersed in that quiet slumber which all that is
+earthly sleeps, whenever it is not affected by the restlessness of
+humanity.
+
+Lavretsky also went through the village. The women looked at him from
+the door-ways of their cottages, each resting her cheek upon her hand.
+The men bowed low from afar, the children ran Out of sight, the dogs
+barked away at their ease. At last he felt hungry, but he did not
+expect his cook and the other servants till the evening. The waggon
+bringing provisions from Lavriki had not yet arrived. It was
+necessary to have recourse to Anton. The old man immediately made his
+arrangements. He caught an ancient fowl, and killed and plucked it.
+Apraxia slowly squeezed and washed it, scrubbing it as if it had been
+linen for the wash, before putting it into the stewpan. When at
+last it was ready, Anton laid the table, placing beside the dish a
+three-footed plated salt-cellar, blackened with age, and a cut glass
+decanter, with a round glass stopper in its narrow neck. Then, in a
+kind of chant, he announced to Lavretsky that dinner was ready, and
+took his place behind his master's chair, a napkin wound around
+his right hand, and a kind of air of the past, like the odor of
+cypress-wood hanging about him. Lavretsky tasted the broth, and took
+the fowl out of it. The bird's skin was covered all over with round
+blisters, a thick tendon ran up each leg, and the flesh was as tough
+as wood, and had a flavor like that which pervades a laundry. After
+dinner Lavretsky said that he would take tea if--
+
+"I will bring it in a moment," broke in the old man, and he kept his
+promise. A few pinches of tea were found rolled up in a scrap of red
+paper. Also a small, but very zealous and noisy little _samovar_[A]
+was discovered, and some sugar in minute pieces, which looked as if
+they had been all but melted away. Lavretsky drank his tea out of a
+large cup. From his earliest childhood he remembered this cup, on
+which playing cards were painted, and from which only visitors were
+allowed to drink; and now he drank from it, like a visitor.
+
+[Footnote A: Urn.]
+
+Towards the evening came the servants. Lavretsky did not like to sleep
+in his aunt's bed, so he had one made up for him in the dining-room.
+After putting out the candle, he lay for a long time looking around
+him, and thinking what were not joyous thoughts. He experienced the
+sensations which every one knows who has had to spend the night
+for the first time in a long uninhabited room. He fancied that the
+darkness which pressed in upon him from all sides could not accustom
+itself to the new tenant--that the very walls of the house were
+astonished at him. At last he sighed, pulled the counterpane well over
+him, and went to sleep. Anton remained on his legs long after every
+one else had gone to bed. For some time he spoke in a whisper to
+Apraxia, sighing low at intervals, and three times he crossed himself.
+The old servants had never expected that their master would settle
+down among them at Vasilievskoe, when he had such a fine estate, with
+a well-appointed manor-house close by. They did not suspect what was
+really the truth, that Lavriki was repugnant to its owner, that
+it aroused in his mind too painful recollections. After they had
+whispered to each other enough, Anton took a stick, and struck the
+watchman's board, which had long hung silently by the barn. Then
+he lay down in the open yard, without troubling himself about any
+covering for his white head. The May night was calm and soothing, and
+the old man slept soundly.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+The next day Lavretsky rose at a tolerably early hour, chatted with
+the _starosta_,[A] visited the rick-yard, and had the chain taken off
+the yard dog, which just barked a little, but did not even come out
+of its kennel. Then, returning home, he fell into a sort of quiet
+reverie, from which he did not emerge all day. "Here I am, then, at
+the very bottom of the river!"[B] he said to himself more than once.
+He sat near the window without stirring, and seemed to listen to the
+flow of the quiet life which surrounded him, to the rare sounds which
+came from the village solitude. Behind the nettles some one was
+singing with a thin, feeble voice; a gnat seemed to be piping a second
+to it The voice stopped, but the gnat still went on piping. Through
+the monotonous and obtrusive buzzing of the flies might be heard the
+humming of a large humble bee, which kept incessantly striking its
+head against the ceiling. A cock crowed in the street, hoarsely
+protracting its final note, a cart rattled past, a gate creaked in the
+village. "What?" suddenly screeched a woman's voice. "Ah, young lady!"
+said Anton to a little girl of two years old whom he was carrying in
+his arms. "Bring the _kvass_ here," continued the same woman's voice.
+Then a death-like silence suddenly ensued.
+
+[Footnote A: The head of the village.]
+
+[Footnote B: A popular phrase, to express a life quiet as the depths
+of a river are.]
+
+Nothing stirred, not a sound was audible. The wind did not move the
+leaves. The swallows skimmed along he ground one after another without
+a cry, and their silent flight made a sad impression upon the heart of
+the looker-on. "Here I am, then, at the bottom of the river," again
+thought Lavretsky. "And here life is always sluggish and still;
+whoever enters its circle must resign himself to his fate. Here there
+is no use in agitating oneself, no reason why one should give oneself
+trouble. He only will succeed here who traces his onward path as
+patiently as the plougher traces the furrow with his plough. And what
+strength there is in all around; what robust health dwells in the
+midst of this inactive stillness! There under the window climbs the
+large-leaved burdock from the thick grass. Above it the lovage extends
+its sappy stalk, while higher still the Virgin's tears hang out their
+rosy tendrils. Farther away in the fields shines the rye, and the oats
+are already in ear, and every leaf or its tree, every blade of grass
+on its stalk, stretches itself out to its full extent. On a woman's
+love my best years have been wasted!" (Lavretsky proceeded to think.)
+"Well, then, let the dulness here sober me and calm me down; let it
+educate me into being able to work like others without hurrying." And
+he again betook himself to listening to the silence, without expecting
+anything, and yet, at the same time, as if incessantly expecting
+something. The stillness embraced him on all sides; the sun went down
+quietly in a calm, blue sky, on which the clouds floated tranquilly,
+seeming as if they knew why and whither they were floating. In the
+other parts of the world, at that very moment, life was seething,
+noisily bestirring itself. Here the same life flowed silently along,
+like water over meadow grass. It was late in the evening before
+Lavretsky could tear himself away from the contemplation of this life
+so quietly welling forth--so tranquilly flowing past. Sorrow for the
+past melted away in his mind as the snow melts in spring; but, strange
+to say, never had the love of home exercised so strong or so profound
+an influence upon him.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+
+In the course of a fortnight Lavretsky succeeded in setting Glafira
+Petrovna's little house in order, and in trimming the court-yard
+and the garden. Its stable became stocked with horses; comfortable
+furniture was brought to it from Lavriki; and the town supplied it
+with wine, and with books and newspapers. In short, Lavretsky provided
+himself with every thing he wanted, and began to lead a life which was
+neither exactly that of an ordinary landed proprietor, nor exactly
+that of a regular hermit. His days passed by in uniform regularity,
+but he never found them dull, although he had no visitors. He occupied
+himself assiduously and attentively with the management of his estate;
+he rode about the neighborhood, and he read. But he read little. He
+preferred listening to old Anton's stories.
+
+Lavretsky generally sat at the window, over a pipe and a cup of cold
+tea. Anton would stand at the door, his hands crossed behind his back,
+and would begin a deliberate narrative about old times, those fabulous
+times when oats and rye were sold, not By measure, but in large sacks,
+and for two or three roubles the sack; when on all sides, right up to
+the town, there stretched impenetrable forests and untouched steppes.
+"But now," grumbled the old man, over whose head eighty years had
+already passed, "everything has been so cut down and ploughed up that
+one can't drive anywhere." Anton would talk also at great length
+about his late mistress, Glafira Petrovna, saying how judicious
+and economical she was, how a certain gentleman, one of her young
+neighbors, had tried to gain her good graces for a time, and had begun
+to pay her frequent visits; and how in his honor she had deigned even
+to put on her gala-day cap with massacas ribbons, and her yellow dress
+made of _tru-tru-lévantine_; but how, a little later, having become
+angry with her neighbor, that gentleman, on account of his indiscreet
+question, "I suppose, madam, you doubtless have a good sum of money
+in hand?" she told her servants never to let him enter her house
+again--and how she then ordered that, after her death, every thing,
+even to the smallest rag, should be handed over to Lavretsky. And, in
+reality, Lavretsky found his aunt's property quite intact, even down
+to the gala-day cap with the massacas ribbons, and the yellow dress of
+_tru-tru-lévantine_.
+
+As to the old papers and curious documents on which Lavretsky had
+counted, he found nothing of the kind except one old volume in which
+his grandfather, Peter Andreich, had made various entries. In one
+place might be read, "Celebration in the city of St. Petersburg, of
+the Peace concluded with the Turkish Empire by his Excellency, Prince
+Alexander Alexandrovich Prozorovsky". In another, "Recipe of a
+decoction for the chest," with the remark. "This prescription
+was given the Generaless Prascovia Fedorovna Saltykof, by the
+Archpresbyter of the Life-beginning Trinity, Fedor Avksentevich."
+Sometimes there occurred a piece of political information, as
+follows:--
+
+"About the French tigers there is somehow silence"--and close by, "In
+the _Moscow Gazette_ there is an announcement of the decease of the
+First-Major Mikhail Petrovich Kolychef. Is not this the son of Peter
+Vasilievich Kolychef?"
+
+Lavretsky also found some old calendars and dream-books, and the
+mystical work of M. Ambodik. Many a memory did the long-forgotten but
+familiar "Symbols and Emblems" recall to his mind. In the furthest
+recess of one of the drawers in Glafira's toilette-table, Lavretsky
+found a small packet, sealed with black wax, and tied with a narrow
+black ribbon. Inside the packet were two portraits lying face to face,
+the one, in pastel, of his father as a young man, with soft curls
+falling over his forehead, with long, languid eyes, and with a
+half-open mouth; the other an almost obliterated picture of a pale
+woman, in a white dress, with a white rose in her hand--his mother. Of
+herself Glafira never would allow a portrait to be taken.
+
+"Although I did not then live in the house," Anton would say to
+Lavretsky, "yet I can remember your great grandfather, Andrei
+Afanasich. I was eighteen years old when he died. One day I met him
+in the garden--then my very thighs began to quake. But he didn't do
+anything, only asked me what my name was, and sent me to his bed-room
+for a pocket-handkerchief. He was truly a seigneur--every one must
+allow that; and he wouldn't allow that any one was better than
+himself. For I may tell you, your great grandfather had such a
+wonderful amulet--a monk from Mount Athos had given him that
+amulet--and that monk said to him, 'I give thee this, O Boyar, in
+return for thy hospitality. Wear it, and fear no judge.' Well, it's
+true, as is well known, that times were different then. What a
+seigneur wanted to do, that he did. If ever one of the gentry took it
+into his head to contradict him, he would just look at him, and say,
+'Thou swimmest in shallow water'[A]--that was a favorite phrase with
+him. And he lived, did your great grandfather of blessed memory, in
+small, wooden rooms. But what riches he left behind him! What silver,
+what stores of all kinds! All the cellars were crammed full of them.
+He was a real manager. That little decanter which you were pleased to
+praise was his. He used to drink brandy out of it. But just see! your
+grandfather, Peter Andreich, provided himself with a stone mansion,
+but he lived worse than his father, and got himself no satisfaction,
+but spent all his money, and now there is nothing to remember him
+by--not so much as a silver spoon has come down to us from him; and
+for all that is left, one must thank Glafira Petrovna's care."
+
+[Footnote A: Part of a Russian proverb.]
+
+"But is it true," interrupted Lavretsky, "that people used to call her
+an old witch?"
+
+"But, then, who called her so?" replied Anton, with an air of
+discontent.
+
+"But what is our mistress doing now, _batyushka_?" the old man
+ventured to ask one day. "Where does she please to have her
+habitation?"
+
+"I am separated from my wife," answered Lavretsky, with an effort.
+"Please don't ask me about her."
+
+"I obey," sadly replied the old man.
+
+At the end of three weeks Lavretsky rode over to O., and spent the
+evening at the Kalitines' house. He found Lemm there, and took a great
+liking to him. Although, thanks to his father, Lavretsky could not
+play any instrument, yet he was passionately fond of music--of
+classical, serious music, that is to say. Panshine was not at the
+Kalitines' that evening, for the Governor had sent him somewhere into
+the country. Liza played unaccompanied, and that with great accuracy.
+Lemm grew lively and animated, rolled up a sheet of paper, and
+conducted the music. Maria Dmitrievna looked at him laughingly for a
+while, and then went off to bed. According to her, Beethoven was too
+agitating for her nerves.
+
+At midnight Lavretsky saw Lemm home, and remained with him till three
+in the morning. Lemm talked a great deal. He stooped less than usual,
+his eyes opened wide and sparkled, his very hair remained pushed off
+from his brow. It was so long since any one had shown any sympathy
+with him, and Lavretsky was evidently interested in him, and
+questioned him carefully and attentively. This touched the old man. He
+ended by showing his music to his guest, and he played, and even sang,
+in his worn-out voice, some passages from his own works; among others,
+an entire ballad of Schiller's that he had set to music--that of
+Fridolin. Lavretsky was loud in its praise, made him repeat several
+parts, and, on going away, invited him to spend some days with him.
+Lemm, who was conducting him to the door, immediately consented,
+pressing his hand cordially. But when he found himself alone in the
+fresh, damp air, beneath the just-appearing dawn, he looked round,
+half-shut his eyes, bent himself together, and crept back, like a
+culprit, to his bed-room. "_Ich bin wohl nicht klug_"--("I must be out
+of my wits"), he murmured, as he lay down on his short, hard bed.
+
+He tried to make out that he was ill when, a few days later,
+Lavretsky's carriage came for him. But Lavretsky went up into his
+room, and persuaded him to go. Stronger than every other argument with
+him was the fact that Lavretsky had ordered a piano to be sent out to
+the country-house on purpose for him. The two companions went to the
+Kalitines' together, and spent the evening there, but not quite so
+pleasantly as on the previous occasion. Panshine was there, talking a
+great deal about his journey, and very amusingly mimicking the various
+proprietors he had met, and parodying their conversation. Lavretsky
+laughed, but Lemm refused to come out of his corner, where he remained
+in silence, noiselessly working his limbs like a spider, and wearing
+a dull and sulky look. It was not till he rose to take leave that he
+became at all animated. Even when sitting in the carriage, the old man
+at first seemed still unsociable and absorbed in his own thoughts. But
+the calm, warm air, the gentle breeze, the dim shadows, the scent of
+the grass and the birch buds, the peaceful light of the moonless,
+starry sky, the rhythmical tramp and snorting of the horses, the
+mingled fascinations of the journey, of the spring, of the night--all
+entered into the soul of the poor German, and he began to talk with
+Lavretsky of his own accord.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+
+He began to talk about music, then about Liza, and then again about
+music. He seemed to pronounce his words more slowly when he spoke
+of Liza. Lavretsky turned the conversation to the subject of his
+compositions, and offered, half in jest, to write a libretto for him.
+
+"Hm! a libretto!" answered Lemm. "No; that is beyond me. I no longer
+have the animation, the play of fancy, which are indispensable for an
+opera. Already my strength has deserted me. But if I could still do
+something, I should content myself with a romance. Of course I should
+like good words."
+
+He became silent, and sat for a long time without moving, his eyes
+fixed on the sky.
+
+"For instance," he said at length, "something in this way--'O stars,
+pure stars!'"
+
+Lavretsky turned a little, and began to regard him attentively.
+
+"'O stars, pure stars!'" repeated Lemm, "'you look alike on the just
+and the unjust. But only the innocent of heart'--or something of that
+kind--'understand you'--that is to say, no--'love you.' However, I
+am not a poet. What am I thinking about! But something of that
+kind--something lofty."
+
+Lemm pushed his hat back from his forehead. Seen by the faint twilight
+of the clear night, his face seemed paler and younger.
+
+"'And you know also,'" he continued, in a gradually lowered voice,
+"'you know those who love, who know how to love; for you are pure, you
+alone can console.' No; all that is not what I mean. I am not a poet.
+But something of that kind."--
+
+"I am sorry that I am not a poet either," remarked Lavretsky.
+
+"Empty dreams!" continued Lemm, as he sank into the corner of the
+carriage. Then he shut his eyes as if he had made up his mind to go to
+sleep;
+
+Several minutes passed. Lavretsky still listened.
+
+"Stars, pure stars ... love'" whispered the old man.
+
+"Love!" repeated Lavretsky to himself. Then he fell into a reverie,
+and his heart grew heavy within him.
+
+"You have set 'Fridolin' to charming music, Christopher Fedorovich,"
+he said aloud after a time. But what is your opinion? This Fridolin,
+after he had been brought into the presence of the countess by her
+husband, didn't he then immediately become her lover--eh?"
+
+"You think so," answered Lemm, "because, most likely, experience--"
+
+He stopped short, and turned away in confusion.
+
+Lavretsky uttered a forced laugh. Then he too turned away from his
+companion, and began looking out along the road.
+
+The stars had already begun to grow pale, and the sky to turn grey,
+when the carriage arrived before the steps of the little house at
+Vasilievskoe. Lavretsky conducted his guest to his allotted room, then
+went to his study, and sat down in front of the window. Out in the
+garden a nightingale was singing its last song before the dawn.
+Lavretsky remembered that at the Kalitines' also a nightingale had
+sung in the garden. He remembered also the quiet movement of Liza's
+eyes when, at its first notes, she had turned toward the dark
+casement. He began to think of her, and his heart grew calm.
+
+"Pure maiden," he said, in a half-whisper, "pure stars," he added,
+with a smile, and then quietly lay down to sleep.
+
+But Lemm sat for a long time on his bed, with a sheet of music on his
+knees. It seemed as if some sweet melody, yet unborn, were intending
+to visit him. He already underwent the feverish agitation, he already
+felt the fatigue and the delight, of its vicinity; but it always
+eluded him.
+
+"Neither poet nor musician!" he whispered at last; and his weary head
+sank heavily upon the pillow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning Lavretsky and his guest drank their tea in the
+garden, under an old lime-tree.
+
+"Maestro," said Lavretsky, among other things, "you will soon have to
+compose a festal cantata."
+
+"On what occasion?"
+
+"Why, on that of Mr. Panshine's marriage with Liza. Didn't you observe
+what attention he paid her yesterday? All goes smoothly with them
+evidently."
+
+"That will never be!" exclaimed Lemm.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it's impossible. However," he added after pausing awhile,
+"in this world everything is possible. Especially in this country of
+yours--in Russia."
+
+"Let us leave Russia out of the question for the present. But what do
+you see objectionable in that marriage?"
+
+"Every thing is objectionable--every thing. Lizaveta Mikhailovna is a
+serious, true-hearted girl, with lofty sentiments. But he--he is, to
+describe him by one word, a _dil-le-tante_"
+
+"But doesn't she love him?"
+
+Lemm rose from his bench.
+
+"No, she does not love him. That is to say, she is very pure of heart,
+and does not herself know the meaning of the words, 'to love.' Madame
+Von Kalitine tells her that he is an excellent young man; and she
+obeys Madame Von Kalitine because she is still quite a child, although
+she is now nineteen. She says her prayers every morning; she says her
+prayers every evening--and that is very praiseworthy. But she does not
+love him. She can love only what is noble. But he is not noble; that
+is to say, his soul is not noble."
+
+Lemm uttered the whole of this speech fluently, and with animation,
+walking backwards and forwards with short steps in front of the
+tea-table, his eyes running along the ground meanwhile.
+
+"Dearest Maestro!" suddenly exclaimed Lavretsky, "I think you are in
+love with my cousin yourself."
+
+Lemm suddenly stopped short.
+
+"Please do not jest with me in that way," he began, with faltering
+voice. "I am not out of my mind. I look forward to the dark grave, and
+not to a rosy future."
+
+Lavretsky felt sorry for the old man, and begged his pardon. After
+breakfast Lemm played his cantata, and after dinner, at Lavretsky's
+own instigation, he again began to talk about Liza. Lavretsky listened
+to him attentively and with curiosity.
+
+"What do you say to this, Christopher Fedorovitch?" he said at last.
+"Every thing seems in order here now, and the garden is in full bloom.
+Why shouldn't I invite her to come here for the day, with her mother
+and my old aunt--eh? Will that be agreeable to you?"
+
+Lemm bowed his head over his plate.
+
+"Invite her," he said, in a scarcely audible voice.
+
+"But we needn't ask Panshine."
+
+"No, we needn't," answered the old man, with an almost childlike
+smile.
+
+Two days later Lavretsky went into town and to the Kalatines'.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+
+He found them all at home, but he did not tell them of his plan
+immediately. He wanted to speak to Liza alone first. Chance favored
+him, and he was left alone with her in the drawing-room. They began to
+talk. As a general rule she was never shy with any one, and by this
+time she had succeeded in becoming accustomed to him. He listened to
+what she said, and as he looked at her face, he musingly repeated
+Lemm's words, and agreed with him. It sometimes happens that
+two persons who are already acquainted with each other, but not
+intimately, after the lapse of a few minutes suddenly become familiar
+friends--and the consciousness of this familiarity immediately
+expresses itself in their looks, in their gentle and kindly smiles, in
+their gestures themselves. And this happened now with Lavretsky and
+Liza. "Ah, so that's what's you're like!" thought she, looking at him
+with friendly eyes. "Ah, so that's what's you're like!" thought he
+also; and therefore he was not much surprised when she informed him,
+not without some little hesitation, that she had long wanted to say
+something to him, but that she was afraid of vexing him.
+
+"Don't be afraid, speak out," he said, standing still in front of her.
+
+Liza raised her clear eyes to his.
+
+"You are so good," she began--and at the same time she thought, "yes,
+he is really good"--"I hope you will forgive me. I scarcely ought to
+have ventured to speak to you about it--but how could you--why did you
+separate from your wife?"
+
+Lavretsky shuddered, then looked at Liza, and sat down by her side.
+
+"My child," he began to say, "I beg you not to touch upon that wound.
+Your touch is light, but--in spite of all that, it will give me pain."
+
+"I know," continued Liza, as if she had not heard him, "that she is
+guilty before you. I do not want to justify her. But how can they be
+separated whom God has joined together?"
+
+"Our convictions on that score are widely different, Lizaveta
+Mikhailovna," said Lavretsky, somewhat coldly. "We shall not be able
+to understand one another."
+
+Liza grew pale. Her whole body shuddered slightly, but she was not
+silenced.
+
+"You ought to forgive," she said quietly, "if you wish also to be
+forgiven."
+
+"Forgive!" cried Lavretsky; you ought first to know her for whom
+you plead. Forgive that woman, take her back to my house, her, that
+hollow, heartless, creature! And who has told you that she wants to
+return to me? Why, she is completely satisfied with her position. But
+why should we talk of her? Her name ought never to be uttered by you.
+You are too pure, you are not in a position even to understand such a
+being."
+
+"Why speak so bitterly?" said Liza, with an effort. The trembling of
+her hands began to be apparent. "You left her of your own accord,
+Fedor Ivanich."
+
+"But I tell you," replied Lavretsky, with an involuntary burst of
+impatience, "you do not know the sort of creature she is."
+
+"Then why did you marry her?" whispered Liza, with downcast eyes.
+
+Lavretsky jumped up quickly from his chair.
+
+"Why did I marry her? I was young and inexperienced then. I was taken
+in. A beautiful exterior fascinated me. I did not understand women;
+there was nothing I did understand. God grant you may make a happier
+marriage! But take my word for it, it is impossible to be certain
+about anything."
+
+"I also may be unhappy," said Liza, her voice beginning to waver, "but
+then I shall have to be resigned. I cannot express myself properly,
+but I mean to say that if we are not resigned--"
+
+Lavretsky clenched his hands and stamped his foot.
+
+"Don't be angry; please forgive me," hastily said Liza. At that moment
+Maria Dmitrievna came into the room. Liza stood up and was going away,
+when Lavretsky unexpectedly called after her:
+
+"Stop a moment. I have a great favor to ask of your mother and you. It
+is that you will come and pay me a visit in my new home. I've got a
+piano, you know; Lemm is stopping with me; the lilacs are in bloom.
+You will get a breath of country air, and be able to return the same
+day. Do you consent?"
+
+Liza looked at her mother, who immediately assumed an air of
+suffering. But Lavretsky did not give Madame Kalatine time to open her
+mouth. He instantly took both of her hands and kissed them, and Maria
+Dmitrievna, who always responded to winning ways, and had never for
+a moment expected such a piece of politeness from "the bear," felt
+herself touched, and gave her consent. While she was considering
+what day to appoint, Lavretsky went up to Liza, and, still under the
+influence of emotion, whispered aside to her, "Thanks. You are a good
+girl. I am in the wrong." Then a color came into her pale face, which
+lighted up with a quiet but joyous smile. Her eyes also smiled. Till
+that moment she had been afraid that she had offended him.
+
+"M. Panshine can come with us, I suppose?" asked Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+"Of course," replied Lavretsky. "But would it not be better for us to
+keep to our family circle?"
+
+"But I think--" began Maria Dmitrievna, adding, however, "Well, just
+as you like."
+
+It was settled that Lenochka and Shurochka should go. Marfa Timofeevna
+refused to take part in the excursion.
+
+"It's a bore to me, my dear," she said, "to move my old bones; and
+there's nowhere, I suppose, in your house where I could pass the
+night; besides, I never can sleep in a strange bed. Let these young
+folks caper as they please."
+
+Lavretsky had no other opportunity of speaking with Liza alone, but he
+kept looking at her in a manner that pleased her, and at the same time
+confused her a little. She felt very sorry for him. When he went away,
+he took leave of her with a warm pressure of the hand. She fell into a
+reverie as soon as she found herself alone.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Omitted in the French translation.]
+
+
+On entering the drawing-room, after his return home, Lavretsky met
+a tall, thin man, with a wrinkled but animated face, untidy grey
+whiskers, a long, straight nose, and small, inflamed eyes. This
+individual, who was dressed in a shabby blue surtout, was Mikhalevich,
+his former comrade at the University. At first Lavretsky did not
+recognize him, but he warmly embraced him as soon as he had made
+himself known. The two friends had not seen each other since the old
+Moscow days. Then followed exclamations and questions. Memories long
+lost to sight came out again into the light of day. Smoking pipe after
+pipe in a hurried manner, gulping down his tea, and waving his long
+hands in the air, Mikhalevich related his adventures. There was
+nothing very brilliant about them, and he could boast of but little
+success in his various enterprises; but he kept incessantly laughing a
+hoarse, nervous laugh. It seemed that about a month previously he
+had obtained a post in the private counting-house of a rich
+brandy-farmer,[A] at about three hundred versts from O., and having
+heard of Lavretsky's return from abroad, he had turned out of his
+road for the purpose of seeing his old friend again. He spoke just
+as jerkingly as he used to do in the days of youth, and he became as
+noisy and as warm as he was in the habit of growing then. Lavretsky
+began to speak about his own affairs, but Mikhalevich stopped him,
+hastily stammering out, "I have heard about it, brother; I have heard
+about it. Who could have expected it?" and then immediately turned the
+conversation on topics of general interest.
+
+[Footnote A: One of the contractors who used to purchase the right of
+supplying the people with brandy.]
+
+"I must go away again to-morrow, brother," he said. "To-day, if you
+will allow it, we will sit up late. I want to get a thoroughly
+good idea of what you are now, what your intentions are and your
+convictions, what sort of man you have become, what life has taught
+you" (Mikhalevich still made use of the phraseology current in the
+year 1830). "As for me, brother, I have become changed in many
+respects. The waters of life have gone over my breast. Who was it
+said that? But in what is important, what is substantial, I have not
+changed. I believe, as I used to do, in the Good, in the True. And
+not only do I believe, but I feel certain now--yes, I feel certain,
+certain. Listen; I make verses, you know. There's no poetry in them,
+but there is truth. I will read you my last piece. I have expressed in
+it my most sincere convictions. Now listen."
+
+Mikhalevich began to read his poem, which was rather a long one. It
+ended with the following lines:--
+
+  "With my whole heart have I given myself up to new feelings;
+    In spirit I have become like unto a child,
+  And I have burnt all that I used to worship,
+    I worship all that I used to burn."
+
+Mikhalevich all but wept as he pronounced these last two verses. A
+slight twitching, the sign of a strong emotion, affected his large
+lips; his plain face lighted up. Lavretsky went on listening until
+at last the spirit of contradiction was roused within him. He became
+irritated by the Moscow student's enthusiasm, so perpetually on the
+boil, so continually ready for use. A quarter of an hour had not
+elapsed before a dispute had been kindled between the two friends, one
+of those endless disputes of which only Russians are capable. They
+two, after a separation which had lasted for many years, and those
+passed in two different worlds, neither of them clearly understanding
+the other's thoughts, not even his own, holding fast by words, and
+differing in words alone, disputed about the most purely abstract
+ideas--and disputed exactly as if the matter had been one of life and
+death to both of them. They shouted and cried aloud to such an extent
+that every one in the house was disturbed, and poor Lemm, who had shut
+himself up in his room the moment Mikhalevich arrived, felt utterly
+perplexed, and even began to entertain some vague form of fear.
+
+"But after all this, what are you? _blasé_!"[A] cried Mikhalevich at
+midnight.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "disillusioned."]
+
+"Does a _blasé_ man ever look like me?" answered Lavretsky. "He is
+always pale and sickly; but I, if you like, will lift you off the
+ground with one hand."
+
+"Well then, if not _blasé_, at least a sceptic,[A] and that is still
+worse. But what right have you to be a sceptic? Your life has not been
+a success, I admit. That wasn't your fault. You were endowed with a
+soul full of affection, fit for passionate love, and you were kept
+away from women by force. The first woman you came across was sure to
+take you in."
+
+[Footnote A: He says in that original _Skyeptuik_ instead of
+_Skeptik_, on which the author remarks, "Mikhalevich's accent
+testified to his birth-place having been in Little Russia."]
+
+"She took you in, too," morosely remarked Lavretsky.
+
+"Granted, granted. In that I was the tool of fate. But I'm talking
+nonsense. There's no such thing as fate. My old habit of expressing
+myself inaccurately! But what does that prove?"
+
+"It proves this much, that I have been distorted from childhood."
+
+"Well, then, straighten yourself. That's the good of being a man.
+You haven't got to borrow energy. But, however that may be, is it
+possible, is it allowable, to work upwards from an isolated fact, so
+to speak, to a general law--to an invariable rule?"
+
+"What rule?" said Lavretsky, interrupting him. "I do not admit--"
+
+"No, that is your rule, that is your rule," cried the other,
+interrupting him in his turn.
+
+"You are an egotist, that's what it is!" thundered Mikhalevich an hour
+later. "You wanted self-enjoyment; you wanted a happy life; you wanted
+to live only for yourself--"
+
+"What is self-enjoyment?"
+
+"--And every thing has failed you; everything has given way under your
+feet."
+
+"But what is self-enjoyment, I ask you?"
+
+"--And it ought to give way. Because you looked for support there,
+where it is impossible to find it; because you built your house on the
+quicksands--"
+
+"Speak plainer, without metaphor, _because_ I do not understand you."
+
+"--Because--laugh away if you like--because there is no faith in you,
+no hearty warmth--and only a poor farthingsworth of intellect;[A]
+you are simply a pitiable creature, a behind--your--age disciple of
+Voltaire. That's what you are."
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "intellect, in all merely a copeck
+intellect."]
+
+"Who? I a disciple of Voltaire?"
+
+"Yes, just such a one as your father was; and you have never so much
+as suspected it."
+
+"After that," exclaimed Lavretsky, "I have a right to say that you are
+a fanatic."
+
+"Alas!" sorrowfully replied Mikhalevich, "unfortunately, I have not
+yet in any way deserved so grand a name--"
+
+"I have found out now what to call you!" cried the self-same
+Mikhalevich at three o'clock in the morning.
+
+"You are not a sceptic, nor are you a _blasé_, nor a disciple of
+Voltaire; you are a marmot,[A] and a culpable marmot; a marmot with a
+conscience, not a naïve marmot. Naïve marmots lie on the stove[B]
+and do nothing, because they can do nothing. They do not even think
+anything. But you are a thinking man, and yet you lie idly there. You
+could do something, and you do nothing. You lie on the top with full
+paunch and say, 'To lie idle--so must it be; because all that people
+ever do--is all vanity, mere nonsense that conduces to nothing.'"
+
+[Footnote A: A _baibak_, a sort of marmot or "prairie dog."]
+
+[Footnote B: The top of the stove forms the sleeping place in a
+Russian peasant's hut.]
+
+"But what has shown you that I lie idle?" insisted Lavretsky. "Why do
+you suppose I have such ideas?"
+
+"--And, besides this, all you people, all your brotherhood," continued
+Mikhalevich without stopping, "are deeply read marmots. You all
+know where the German's shoe pinches him; you all know what faults
+Englishmen and Frenchmen have; and your miserable knowledge only
+serves to help you to justify your shameful laziness, your abominable
+idleness. There are some who even pride themselves on this, that 'I,
+forsooth, am a learned man. I lie idle, and they are fools to give
+themselves trouble.' Yes! even such persons as these do exist among
+us; not that I say this with reference to you; such persons as will
+spend all their life in a certain languor of ennui, and get accustomed
+to it, and exist in it like--like a mushroom in sour cream"
+(Mikhalevich could not help laughing at his own comparison). "Oh, that
+languor of ennui! it is the ruin of the Russian people. Throughout all
+time the wretched marmot is making up its mind to work--"
+
+"But, after all, what are you scolding about?" cried Lavretsky in his
+turn. "To work, to do. You had better say what one should do, instead
+of scolding, O Demosthenes of Poltava."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Poltava is a town of Little Russia. It will be remembered
+that Mikhalovich is a Little Russian.]
+
+"Ah, yes, that's what you want! No, brother, I will not tell you that.
+Every one must teach himself that," replied Demosthenes in an ironical
+tone. "A proprietor, a noble, and not know what to do! You have no
+faith, or you would have known. No faith and no divination."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: _Otkrovenie_, discovery or revelation.]
+
+"At all events, let me draw breath for a moment, you fiend," prayed
+Lavretsky. "Let me take a look round me!"
+
+"Not a minute's breathing-time, not a second's," replied Mikhalevich,
+with a commanding gesture of the hand. "Not a single second. Death
+does not tarry, and life also ought not to tarry."
+
+"And when and where have people taken it into their heads to make
+marmots of themselves?" he cried at four in the morning, in a voice
+that was now somewhat hoarse, "Why, here! Why, now! In Russia! When on
+every separate individual there lies a duty, a great responsibility,
+before God, before the nation, before himself! We sleep, but time goes
+by. We sleep--"
+
+"Allow me to point, out to you," observed Lavretsky, "that we do
+not at all sleep at present, but rather prevent other persons from
+sleeping. We stretch our throats like barn-door cocks. Listen, that
+one is crowing for the third time."
+
+This sally made Mikhalevich laugh, and sobered him down. "Good night,"
+he said with a smile, and put away his pipe in its bag. "Good night,"
+said Lavretsky also. However, the friends still went on talking for
+more than an hour. But their voices did not rise high any longer, and
+their talk was quiet, sad, kindly talk.
+
+Mikhalevich went away next day, in spite of all his host could do to
+detain him. Lavretsky did not succeed in persuading him to stay, but
+he got as much talk as he wanted out of him.
+
+It turned out that Mikhalevich was utterly impecunious. Lavretsky had
+already been sorry to see in him, on the preceding evening, all the
+characteristics of a poverty of long standing. His shoes were trodden
+down, his coat wanted a button behind, his hands were strangers to
+gloves, one or two bits of feather were sticking in his hair. When he
+arrived, he did not think of asking for a wash; and at supper he ate
+like a shark, tearing the meat to pieces with his fingers, and noisily
+gnawing the bones with his firm, discolored teeth.
+
+It turned out, also, that he had not thriven in the civil service, and
+that he had pinned all his hopes on the brandy-farmer, who had given
+him employment simply that he might have an "educated man" in his
+counting-house. In spite of all this, however, Mikhalevich had not
+lost courage, but kept on his way leading the life of a cynic, an
+idealist, and a poet; fervently caring for, and troubling himself
+about, the destinies of humanity and his special vocation in life--and
+giving very little heed to the question whether or no he would die of
+starvation.
+
+Mikhalevich had never married; but he had fallen in love countless
+times, and he always wrote poetry about all his loves: with especial
+fervor did he sing about a mysterious, raven-haired "lady." It was
+rumored, indeed, that this "lady" was nothing more than a Jewess, and
+one who had numerous friends among cavalry officers; but, after all,
+if one thinks the matter over, it is not one of much importance.
+
+With Lemm, Mikhalevich did not get on well. His extremely loud way of
+talking, his rough manners, frightened the German, to whom they
+were entirely novel. One unfortunate man immediately and from afar
+recognizes another, but in old age he is seldom willing to associate
+with him. Nor is that to be wondered at. He has nothing to share with
+him--not even hopes.
+
+Before he left, Mikhalevich had another long talk with Lavretsky, to
+whom he predicted utter ruin if he did not rouse himself, and whom
+he entreated to occupy himself seriously with the question of the
+position of his serfs. He set himself up as a pattern for imitation,
+saying that he had been purified in the furnace of misfortune; and
+then he several times styled himself a happy man, comparing himself to
+a bird of the air, a lily of the valley.
+
+"A dusky lily, at all events," remarked Lavretsky.
+
+"Ah, brother, don't come the aristocrat," answered Mikhalevich
+good-humoredly; "but rather thank God that in your veins also there
+flows simple plebeian blood. But I see you are now in need of some
+pure, unearthly being, who might rouse you from your apathy."
+
+"Thanks, brother," said Lavretsky; "I have had quite enough of those
+unearthly beings."
+
+"Silence, cyneec!"[A] exclaimed Mikhalevich.
+
+[Footnote A: He says _Tsuinnik_ instead of _Tsinik_.]
+
+"Cynic," said Lavretsky, correcting him.
+
+"Just so, cyneec," repeated the undisconcerted Mikhalevich.
+
+Even when he had taken his seat in the tarantass, in which his flat
+and marvellously light portmanteau had been stowed away, he still
+went on talking. Enveloped in a kind of Spanish cloak, with a collar
+reddened by long use, and with lion's claws instead of hooks, he
+continued to pour forth his opinions on the destinies of Russia,
+waving his swarthy hand the while in the air, as if he were sowing the
+seeds of future prosperity. At last the horses set off.
+
+"Remember my last three words!" he exclaimed, leaning almost entirely
+out of the carriage, and scarcely able to keep his balance. "Religion,
+Progress, Humanity! Farewell!" His head, on which his forage cap was
+pressed down to his eyes, disappeared from sight. Lavretsky was left
+alone at the door, where he remained gazing attentively along the
+road, until the carriage was out of sight. "And perhaps he is right,"
+he thought, as he went back into the house. "Perhaps I am a marmot."
+Much of what Mikhalevich had said had succeeded in winning its way
+into his heart, although at the time he had contradicted him and
+disagreed with him. Let a man only be perfectly honest--no one can
+utterly gainsay him.
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+
+Two days later, Maria Dmitrievna arrived at Vasilievskoe, according
+to her promise, and all her young people with her. The little girls
+immediately ran into the garden, but Maria Dmitrievna languidly walked
+through the house, and languidly praised all she saw. She looked upon
+her visit to Lavretsky as a mark of great condescension, almost a
+benevolent action. She smiled affably when Anton and Apraxia came to
+kiss her hand, according to the old custom of household serfs, and in
+feeble accents she asked for tea.
+
+To the great vexation of Anton, who had donned a pair of knitted white
+gloves, it was not he who handed the tea to the lady visitor, but
+Lavretsky's hired lackey, a fellow who, in the old man's opinion, had
+not a notion of etiquette. However, Anton had it all his own way
+at dinner. With firm step, he took up his position behind Madame
+Kalitine's chair, and he refused to give up his post to any one. The
+apparition of visitors at Vasilievskoe--a sight for so many years
+unknown there--both troubled and cheered the old man. It was a
+pleasure for him to see that his master was acquainted with persons of
+some standing in society.
+
+Anton was not the only person who was agitated that day. Lemm was
+excited too. He had put on a shortish snuff-colored coat with pointed
+tails, and had tied his cravat tight, he coughed incessantly, and made
+way for every one with kindly and affable mien. As for Lavretsky,
+he remarked with satisfaction that he remained on the same friendly
+footing with Liza as before. As soon as she arrived she cordially held
+out her hand to him.
+
+After dinner, Lemm took a small roll of music-paper out of the
+tail-pocket of his coat, into which he had been constantly putting his
+hand, and silently, with compressed lips, placed it upon the piano.
+It contained a romance, which he had written the day before to some
+old-fashioned German words, in which mention was made of the stars.
+Liza immediately sat down to the piano, and interpreted the romance.
+Unfortunately the music turned out to be confused and unpleasantly
+constrained. It was evident that the composer had attempted to express
+some deep and passionate idea, but no result had been attained. The
+attempt remained an attempt, and nothing more. Both Lavretsky and Liza
+felt this, and Lemm was conscious of it too. Without saying a word, he
+put his romance back into his pocket; and, in reply to Liza's proposal
+to play it over again, he merely shook his head, and said, in a tone
+of meaning, "For the present--_basta_!" then bent his head, stooped
+his shoulders, and left the room.
+
+Towards evening they all went out together to fish. In the little lake
+at the end of the garden there were numbers of carp and groundling.
+Madame Kalitine had an arm-chair set in the shade for her, near the
+edge of the water, and a carpet was spread out under her feet. Anton,
+as an old fisherman of great experience, offered her his services.
+Zealously did he fasten on the worms, slap them with his hand, and
+spit upon them, and then fling the line into the water himself,
+gracefully bending forwards the whole of his body. Maria Dmitrievna
+had already that day spoken about him to Fedor Ivanovich, using the
+following phrase of Institute-French:--"_Il n'y a plus maintenant de
+ces gens comme ça autre fois_."
+
+Lemm and the two little girls went on to the dam at the end of the
+lake. Lavretsky placed himself near Liza. The fish kept continually
+nibbling. Every minute a captured carp glistened in the air with its
+sometimes golden, sometimes silver, sides. The little girls kept up a
+ceaseless flow of joyful exclamations. Madame Kalitine herself two or
+three times uttered a plaintive cry. Lavretsky and Liza caught fewer
+fish than the others; probably because they paid less attention to
+their fishing, and let their floats drift up against the edge of the
+lake. The tall, reddish reeds murmured quietly around them; in front
+quietly shone the unruffled water, and the conversation they carried
+on was quiet too.
+
+Liza stood on the little platform [placed there for the use of the
+washerwomen;] Lavretsky sat on the bent stem of a willow. Liza wore a
+white dress, fastened round the waist by a broad, white ribbon. From
+one hand hung her straw hat; with the other she, not without some
+effort, supported her drooping fishing-rod. Lavretsky gazed at her
+pure, somewhat severe profile--at the hair turned back behind her
+ears--at her soft cheeks, the hue of which was like that of a young
+child's--and thought: "How charming you look, standing there by my
+lake!" Liza did not look at him, but kept her eyes fixed on the water,
+something which might be a smile lurking about their corners. Over
+both Lavretsky and Liza fell the shadow of a neighboring lime-tree.
+
+"Do you know," he began, "I have thought a great deal about our
+last conversation, and I have come to this conclusion, that you are
+exceedingly good."
+
+"It certainly was not with that intention that I--" replied Liza, and
+became greatly confused.
+
+"You are exceedingly good," repeated Lavretsky. "I am a rough-hewn
+man; but I feel that every one must love you. There is Lemm, for
+instance: he's simply in love with you."
+
+Liza's eyebrows did not exactly frown, but they quivered. This always
+happened with her when she heard anything she did not like.
+
+"I felt very sorry for him to-day, with his unsuccessful romance,"
+continued Lavretsky. "To be young and to want knowledge--that is
+bearable. But to have grown old and to fail in strength--that is
+indeed heavy. And the worst of it is, that one doesn't know when one's
+strength has failed. To an old man such blows are hard to bear. Take
+care! you've a bite--I hear," continued Lavretsky, after a short
+pause, "That M. Panshine has written a very charming romance."
+
+"Yes," replied Liza, "it is a small matter; but it isn't bad."
+
+"But what is your opinion about him himself?" asked Lavretsky. "Is he
+a good musician?"
+
+"I think he has considerable musical faculty. But as yet he has not
+cultivated it as he ought."
+
+"Just so. But is he a good man?"
+
+Liza laughed aloud, and looked up quickly at Fedor Ivanovich.
+
+"What a strange question!" she exclaimed, withdrawing her line from
+the water, and then throwing it a long way in again.
+
+"Why strange? I ask you about him as one who has been away from here a
+long time--as a relation."
+
+"As a relation?"
+
+"Yes. I believe I am a sort of uncle of yours."
+
+"Vladimir Nikolaevich has a good heart," said Liza. "He is clever.
+Mamma likes him very much."
+
+"But you--do you like him?"
+
+"He is a good man. Why shouldn't I like him?"
+
+"Ah!" said Lavretsky, and became silent. A half-sad, half-mocking
+expression played upon his face. The fixed look with which he regarded
+her troubled Liza; but she went on smiling.
+
+"Well, may God grant them happiness!" he murmured at last, as if to
+himself, and turned away his head.
+
+Liza reddened.
+
+"You are wrong, Fedor Ivanovich," she said; "you are wrong in
+thinking--But don't you like Vladimir Ivanovich?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"No."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I think he has no heart."
+
+The smile disappeared from Liza's lips.
+
+"You are accustomed to judge people severely," she said, after a long
+silence.
+
+"I don't think so. What right have I to judge others severely, I
+should like to know, when I stand in need of indulgence myself? Or
+have you forgotten that it is only lazy people who do not mock me? But
+tell me," he added, "have you kept your promise?"
+
+"What promise?"
+
+"Have you prayed for me?"
+
+"Yes, I prayed for you; and I pray every day. But please do not talk
+lightly about that."
+
+Lavretsky began to assure Liza that he had never dreamt of doing
+so--that he profoundly respected all convictions. After that he took
+to talking about religion, about its significance in the history of
+humanity, of the meaning of Christianity.
+
+"One must be a Christian," said Liza, not without an effort, "not in
+order to recognize what is heavenly, or what is earthly, but because
+every one must die."
+
+With an involuntary movement of surprise, Lavretsky raised his eyes to
+Liza's, and met her glance.
+
+"What does that phrase of yours mean?" he said.
+
+"It is not my phrase," she replied.
+
+"Not yours? But why did you speak about death?"
+
+"I don't know. I often think about it."
+
+"Often?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"One wouldn't say so, looking at you now. Your face seems so happy, so
+bright, and you smile--"
+
+"Yes. I feel very happy now," replied Liza simply.
+
+Lavretsky felt inclined to seize both her hands and press them warmly.
+
+"Liza, Liza!" cried Madame Kalitine, "come here and see what a carp I
+have caught."
+
+"Yes, mamma," answered Liza, and went to her.
+
+But Lavretsky remained sitting on his willow stem.
+
+"I talk to her just as if I still had an interest in life," he
+thought.
+
+Liza had hung up her hat on a bough when she went away. It was with a
+strange and almost tender feeling that Lavretsky looked at the hat,
+and at its long, slightly rumpled ribbons.
+
+Liza soon came back again and took up her former position on the
+platform.
+
+"Why do you think that Vladimir Nikolaevich has no heart?" she asked,
+a few minutes afterwards.
+
+"I have already told you that I may be mistaken. However, time will
+reveal all."
+
+Liza became contemplative. Lavretsky began to talk about his mode
+of life al Vasilievskoe, about Mikhalevich, about Anton. He felt
+compelled to talk to Liza, to communicate to her all that went on in
+his heart. And she listened to him so attentively, with such kindly
+interest; the few remarks and answers she made appeared to him so
+sensible and so natural. He even told her so.
+
+Liza was astonished. "Really?" she said. "As for me, I thought I was
+like my maid, Nastasia, and had no words 'of my own.' She said one day
+to her betrothed, 'You will be sure to be bored with me. You talk to
+me so beautifully about every thing, but I have no words of my own.'"
+
+"Heaven be praised!" thought Lavretsky.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+
+In the meantime the evening had arrived, and Maria Dmitrievna evinced
+a desire to return home. With some difficulty the little girls were
+torn away from the lake, and got ready for the journey. Lavretsky said
+he would accompany his guests half-way home, and ordered a horse to be
+saddled for him. After seeing Maria Dmitrievna into her carriage he
+looked about for Lemm; but the old man could nowhere be found. He
+had disappeared the moment the fishing was over, Anton slammed the
+carriage door to, with a strength remarkable at his age, and cried
+in a stern voice, "Drive on, coachman!" The carriage set off. Maria
+Dmitrievna and Liza occupied the back seats; the two girls and the
+maid sat in front.
+
+The evening was warm and still, and the windows were open on both
+sides. Lavretsky rode close by the carriage on Liza's side, resting a
+hand on the door--he had thrown the reins on the neck of his easily
+trotting horse--and now and then exchanged two or three words with the
+young girl. The evening glow disappeared. Night came on, but the air
+seemed to grow even warmer than before. Maria Dmitrievna soon went to
+sleep; the little girls and the maid servant slept also. Smoothly and
+rapidly the carriage rolled on. As Liza bent forwards, the moon, which
+had only just made its appearance, lighted up her face, the fragrant
+night air breathed on her eyes and cheeks, and she felt herself
+happy. Her hand rested on the door of the carriage by the side of
+Lavretsky's. He too felt himself happy as he floated on in the calm
+warmth of the night, never moving his eyes away from the good young
+face, listening to the young voice, clear even in its whispers, which
+spoke simple, good words.
+
+It even escaped his notice for a time that he had gone more than half
+of the way. Then he would not disturb Madame Kalitine, but he pressed
+Liza's hand lightly and said, "We are friends now, are we not?" She
+nodded assent, and he pulled up his horse. The carriage rolled on its
+way quietly swinging and curtseying.
+
+Lavretsky returned home at a walk. The magic of the summer night took
+possession of him. All that spread around him seemed so wonderfully
+strange, and yet at the same time so well known and so dear. Far and
+near all was still--and the eye could see very far, though it could
+not distinguish much of what it saw--but underneath that very
+stillness a young and flowering life made itself felt.
+
+Lavretsky's horse walked on vigorously, swinging itself steadily to
+right and left. Its great black shadow moved by its side. There was a
+sort of secret charm in the tramp of its hoofs, something strange and
+joyous in the noisy cry of the quails. The stars disappeared in a kind
+of luminous mist. The moon, not yet at its full, shone with steady
+lustre. Its light spread in a blue stream over the sky, and fell in
+a streak of vaporous gold on the thin clouds which went past close at
+hand.
+
+The freshness of the air called a slight moisture into Lavretsky's
+eyes, passed caressingly over all his limbs, and flowed with free
+current into his chest. He was conscious of enjoying, and felt glad
+of that enjoyment. "Well, we will live on still; she has not entirely
+deprived us--" he did not say who, or of what.--Then he began to think
+about Liza; that she could scarcely be in love with Panshine; that if
+he had met her under other circumstances--God knows what might have
+come of it; that he understood Lemm's feelings about her now, although
+she had "no words of her own." And, moreover, that that was not true;
+for she had words of her own. "Do not speak lightly about that,"
+recurred to Lavretsky's memory. For a long time he rode on with bent
+head, then he slowly drew himself up repeating,--
+
+  "And I have burnt all that I used to worship,
+  I worship all that I used to burn--"
+
+then he suddenly struck his horse with his whip and and galloped
+straight away home.
+
+On alighting from his horse he gave a final look round, a thankful
+smile playing involuntarily on his lips. Night--silent, caressing
+night--lay on the hills and dales. From its fragrant depths
+afar--whether from heaven or from earth could not be told--there
+poured a soft and quiet warmth. Lavretsky wished a last farewell to
+Liza--and hastened up the steps.
+
+The next day went by rather slowly, rain setting in early in the
+morning. Lemm looked askance, and compressed his lips even tighter
+and tighter, as if he had made a vow never to open them again. When
+Lavretsky lay down at night he took to bed with him a whole bundle of
+French newspapers, which had already lain unopened on his table for
+two or three weeks. He began carelessly to tear open their covers and
+to skim the contents of their columns, in which, for the matter of
+that, there was but little that was new. He was just on the point
+of throwing them aside, when he suddenly bounded out of bed as if
+something had stung him. In the _feuilleton_ of one of the papers our
+former acquaintance, M. Jules, communicated to his readers a "painful
+piece of intelligence." "The fascinating, fair Muscovite," he wrote,
+"one of the queens of fashion, the ornament of Parisian salons, Madame
+de Lavretski," had died almost suddenly. And this news, unfortunately
+but too true, had just reached him, M. Jules. He was, so he continued,
+he might say, a friend of the deceased--
+
+Lavretsky put on his clothes, went out into the garden, and walked up
+and down one of its alleys until the break of day.
+
+At breakfast, next morning, Lemm asked Lavretsky to let him have
+horses in order to get back to town.
+
+"It is time for me to return to business, that is to lessons,"
+remarked the old man. "I am only wasting my time here uselessly."
+
+Lavretsky did not reply at once. He seemed lost in a reverie.
+
+"Very good," he said at last; "I will go with you myself."
+
+Refusing the assistance of a servant, Lemm packed his little
+portmanteau, growing peevish the while and groaning over it, and then
+tore up and burnt some sheets of music paper. The carriage came to the
+door. As Lavretsky left his study he put in his pocket the copy of
+the newspaper he had read the night before. During the whole of
+the journey neither Lavretsky nor Lemm said much. Each of them was
+absorbed in his own thoughts, and each was glad that the other did not
+disturb him. And they parted rather coldly, an occurrence which, for
+the matter of that, often occurs among friends in Russia. Lavretsky
+drove the old man to his modest dwelling. Lemm took his portmanteau
+with him as he got out of the carriage, and, without stretching out
+his hand to his friend, he held the portmanteau before him with both
+hands, and, without even looking at him, said in Russian, "Farewell!"
+"Farewell!" echoed Lavretsky, and told the coachman to drive to his
+apartments; for he had taken lodgings in O.
+
+After writing several letters, and making a hasty dinner, he went
+to the Kalitines'. There he found no one in the drawing-room but
+Panshine, who told him that Maria Dmitrievna would come directly, and
+immediately entered into conversation with him in the kindest and most
+affable manner. Until that day Panshine had treated Lavretsky, not
+with haughtiness exactly, but with condescension; but Liza, in
+describing her excursion of the day before, had spoken of Lavretsky as
+an excellent and clever man. That was enough; the "excellent" man must
+be captivated.
+
+Panshine began by complimenting Lavretsky, giving him an account of
+the rapture with which, according to him, all the Kalitine family
+had spoken of Vasilievskoe; then, according to his custom, adroitly
+bringing the conversation round to himself, he began to speak of his
+occupations, of his views concerning life, the world, and the service;
+said a word or two about the future of Russia, and about the
+necessity of holding the Governors of provinces in hand; joked
+facetiously about himself in that respect, and added that he, among
+others, had been entrusted at St. Petersburg with the commission _de
+populariser l'idée du cadastre_. He spoke at tolerable length, and
+with careless assurance, solving all difficulties, and playing with
+the most important administrative and political questions as a juggler
+does with his balls. Such expressions as, "That is what I should do if
+I were the Government," and, "You, as an intelligent man, doubtless
+agree with me," were always at the tip of his tongue.
+
+Lavretsky listened coldly to Panshine's eloquence. This handsome,
+clever, and unnecessarily elegant young man, with his serene smile,
+his polite voice, and his inquisitive eyes, was not to his liking.
+Panshine soon guessed, with the quick appreciation of the feelings of
+others which was peculiar to him, that he did not confer any special
+gratification on the person he was addressing, so he disappeared under
+cover of some plausible excuse, having made up his mind that Lavretsky
+might be an excellent man, but that he was unsympathetic, "_aigri_"
+and, _en somme_, somewhat ridiculous.
+
+Madame Kalitine arrived, accompanied by Gedeonovsky. Then came Marfa
+Timofeevna and Liza, and after them all the other members of the
+family. Afterwards, also, there arrived the lover of music, Madame
+Belenitsine, a thin little woman, with an almost childish little face,
+pretty but worn, a noisy black dress, a particolored fan, and thick
+gold bracelets. With her came her husband, a corpulent man, with red
+cheeks, large hands and feet, white eyelashes, and a smile which never
+left his thick lips. His wife never spoke to him in society; and at
+home, in her tender moments, she used to call him her "sucking pig."
+
+Panshine returned; the room became animated and noisy. Such an
+assemblage of people was by no means agreeable to Lavretsky. He was
+especially annoyed by Madame Belenitsine, who kept perpetually staring
+at him through her eye-glass. If it had not been for Liza he would
+have gone away at once. He wanted to say a few words to her alone, but
+for a long time he could not obtain a fitting opportunity of doing so,
+and had to content himself with following her about with his eyes It
+was with a secret joy that he did so. Never had her face seemed to
+him more noble and charming. She appeared to great advantage in the
+presence of Madame Belenitsine. That lady was incessantly fidgeting
+on her chair, working her narrow shoulders, laughing affectedly, and
+either all but closing her eyes or opening them unnaturally wide. Liza
+sat still, looked straight before her, and did not laugh at all.
+
+Madame Kalitine sat down to cards with Marfa Timofeevna, Belenitsine,
+and Gedeonovsky, the latter of whom played very slowly, made continual
+mistakes, squeezed up his eyes, and mopped his face with his
+handkerchief. Panshine assumed an air of melancholy, and expressed
+himself tersely, sadly, and significantly--altogether after the
+fashion of an artist who has not yet had any opportunity of showing
+off--but in spite of the entreaties of Madame Belenitsine, who
+coquetted with him to a great extent he would not consent to sing his
+romance. Lavretsky's presence embarrassed him.
+
+Lavretsky himself spoke little, but the peculiar expression his face
+wore struck Liza as soon as he entered the room. She immediately felt
+that he had something to communicate to her; but, without knowing
+herself why, she was afraid of asking him any questions. At last,
+as she was passing into the next room to make the tea, she almost
+unconsciously looked towards him. He immediately followed her.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" she asked, putting the teapot on the
+_samovar_.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Urn.]
+
+"You have remarked something, then?" he said.
+
+"You are different to-day from what I have seen you before."
+
+Lavretsky bent over the table.
+
+"I wanted," he began, "to tell you a piece of news, but just now it is
+impossible. But read the part of this _feuilleton_ which is marked in
+pencil," he added, giving her the copy of the newspaper he had
+brought with him. "Please keep the secret; I will come back to-morrow
+morning."
+
+Liza was thoroughly amazed. At that moment Panshine appeared in the
+doorway. She put the newspaper in her pocket.
+
+"Have you read Obermann,[A] Lizaveta Mikhailovna?" asked Panshine with
+a thoughtful air.
+
+[Footnote A: The sentimental romance of that name, written by E.
+Pivert de Sénancour.]
+
+Liza replied vaguely as she passed out of the room, and then went
+up-stairs. Lavretsky returned into the drawing room and approached the
+card table. Marfa Timofeevna flushed, and with her cap-strings untied,
+began to complain to him of her partner Gedeonovsky, who, according
+to her, had not yet learnt his steps. "Card-playing," she said,
+"is evidently a very different thing from gossiping." Meanwhile
+Gedeonovsky never left off blinking and mopping himself with his
+handkerchief.
+
+Presently Liza returned to the drawing-room and sat down in a corner.
+Lavretsky looked at her and she at him, and each experienced a painful
+sensation. He could read perplexity on her face, and a kind of secret
+reproach. Much as he wished it, he could not get a talk with her, and
+to remain in the same room with her as a mere visitor among other
+visitors was irksome to him, so he determined to go away.
+
+When taking leave of her, he contrived to repeat that he would come
+next day, and he added that he counted on her friendship. "Come," she
+replied, with the same perplexed look still on her face.
+
+After Lavretsky's departure, Panshine grew animated. He began to give
+advice to Gedeonovsky, and to make mock love to Madame Belenitsine,
+and at last he sang his romance. But when gazing at Liza, or talking
+to her, he maintained the same air as before, one of deep meaning,
+with a touch of sadness in it.
+
+All that night also, Lavretsky did not sleep. He was not unhappy, he
+was not agitated; on the contrary, he was perfectly calm; but he could
+not sleep. He was not even recalling the past. He simply looked at his
+present life. His heart beat firmly and equably, the hours flew by, he
+did not even think about sleeping. Only at times there came into his
+head the thought, "Surely this is not true, this is all nonsense." And
+then he would stop short, and presently let his head fall back and
+again betake himself to gazing into the stream of his life.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+
+Madame Kalitine did not receive Lavretsky over cordially, when he paid
+her a visit next day. "Ah! he's making a custom of it," she thought.
+She was not of herself disposed to like him very much, and Panshine,
+who had got her thoroughly under his influence, had praised him the
+evening before in a very astutely disparaging manner. As she did not
+treat him as an honored guest, nor think it necessary to trouble
+herself about one who was a relation, almost a member of the family
+circle, before half an hour had elapsed he went out into the garden.
+There he and Liza strolled along one of the alleys, while Lenochka
+and Shurochka played around the flower-pots at a little distance from
+them.
+
+Liza was as quiet as usual, but more than usually pale. She took
+the folded leaf of the newspaper from her pocket, and handed it to
+Lavretsky.
+
+"That is terrible news," she said.
+
+Lavretsky made no reply.
+
+"But, after all, perhaps it may not be true."
+
+"That is why I asked you not to mention it to any one."
+
+Liza walked on a little farther.
+
+"Tell me," she began, "are not you sorry?--not at all sorry?"
+
+"I don't know myself what I feel," answered Lavretsky.
+
+"But you loved her once?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Very much?"
+
+--"Yes."
+
+"And yet you are not sorry for her death?"
+
+"It is not only now that she has become dead for me."
+
+"You are saying what is sinful. Don't be angry with me. You have
+called me your friend. A friend may say anything. And it really seems
+terrible to me. The expression on your face yesterday was not good to
+see. Do you remember your complaining about her not long ago? And at
+that very time, perhaps, she was already no longer among the
+living. It is terrible. It is just as if it had been sent you as a
+punishment."
+
+Lavretsky laughed bitterly.
+
+"You think so?--at all events I am free now."
+
+Liza shuddered.
+
+"Do not speak so any more. What use is your freedom to you? You should
+not be thinking of that now, but of forgiveness--"
+
+"I forgave her long ago," interrupted Lavretsky, with an impatient
+gesture.
+
+"No, I don't mean that," answered Liza, reddening; "you have not
+understood me properly. It is you who ought to strive to get
+pardoned."
+
+"Who is there to pardon me?"
+
+"Who? Why God. Who can pardon us except God?"
+
+Lavretsky grasped her hand.
+
+"Ah! Lizaveta Mikhailovna!" he exclaimed, "believe me, I have already
+been punished enough--I have already expiated all, believe me."
+
+"You cannot tell that," said Liza, in a low voice. "You forget. It was
+not long ago that you and I were talking, and you were not willing to
+forgive her."
+
+Both of them walked along the alley for a time in silence.
+
+"And about your daughter?" suddenly asked Liza, and then stopped
+short.
+
+Lavretsky shuddered.
+
+"Oh! don't disturb yourself about her. I have already sent off letters
+in all directions. The future of my daughter, as you--as you say--is
+assured. You need not trouble yourself on that score."
+
+Liza smiled sadly.
+
+"But you are right," continued Lavretsky. "What am I to do with my
+freedom--what use is it to me?"
+
+"When did you get this paper?" asked Liza, without answering his
+question.
+
+"The day after your visit."
+
+"And have not you--have not you even shed a tear?"
+
+"No; I was thunderstruck. But whither should I look for tears? Should
+I cry over the past? Why, all mine has been, as it were, consumed with
+fire. Her fault did not actually destroy my happiness; it only proved
+to me that for me happiness had never really existed. What, then, had
+I to cry for? Besides--who knows?--perhaps I should have been more
+grieved if I had received this news a fortnight sooner."
+
+"A fortnight!" replied Liza. "But what can have happened to make such
+a difference in that fortnight?"
+
+Lavretsky make no reply at first, and Liza suddenly grew still redder
+than before.
+
+"Yes, yes! you have guessed it!" unexpectedly cried Lavretsky. "In the
+course of that fortnight I have learnt what a woman's heart is like
+when it is pure and clear; and my past life seems even farther off
+from me than it used to be."
+
+Liza became a little uncomfortable, and slowly turned to where
+Lenochka and Shurochka were in the flower-garden.
+
+"But I am glad I showed you that newspaper," said Lavretsky, as he
+followed her. "I have grown accustomed to conceal nothing from you,
+and I hope you will confide in me equally in return."
+
+"Do you really?" said Liza, stopping still. "In that case, I ought.
+But, no! it is impossible."
+
+"What is it? Tell me--tell me!"
+
+"I really think I ought not.--However," added Liza, turning to
+Lavretsky with a smile, "what is the good of a half-confidence? Do you
+know, I received a letter to-day?"
+
+"From Panshine?"
+
+"Yes, from him. How did you guess that?"
+
+"And he asks for your hand?"
+
+"Yes," replied Liza, looking straight at Lavretsky with serious eyes.
+
+Lavretsky, in his turn, looked seriously at Liza.
+
+"Well, and what answer have you made him?" he said at last.
+
+"I don't know what to answer," replied Liza, unfolding her arms, and
+letting them fall by her side.
+
+"Why? Do you like him?"
+
+"Yes, I like him; I think he is a good man."
+
+"That is just what you told me three days ago, and in the very same
+words. But what I want to know is, do you love him--love him with that
+strong, passionate feeling which we usually call 'love'?"
+
+"In the sense in which you understand the word--No."
+
+"You are not in love with him?"
+
+"No. But is that necessary?"
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Mamma likes him," continued Liza. "He is good: I have no fault to
+find with him."
+
+"But still you waver?"
+
+"Yes--and, perhaps--you, your words are the cause of that. Do you
+remember what you said the day before yesterday? But all that is
+weakness--"
+
+"Oh, my child!" suddenly exclaimed Lavretsky, and his voice trembled
+as he spoke, "don't be fatally wise--don't stigmatize as weakness the
+cry of your heart, unwilling to give itself away without love! Do not
+take upon yourself so fearful a responsibility towards that man, whom
+you do not love, and yet to whom you would be about to belong."
+
+"I shall only be obeying; I shall be taking nothing upon myself,"
+began Liza.
+
+"Obey your own heart, then. It only will tell you the truth," said
+Lavretsky, interrupting her. "Wisdom, experience--all that is mere
+vanity and vexation. Do not deprive yourself of the best, the only
+real happiness upon earth."
+
+"And do you speak in that way. Fedor Ivanovich? You married for love
+yourself--and were you happy?"
+
+Lavretsky clasped his hands above his head.
+
+"Ah! do not talk about me. You cannot form any idea of what a young,
+inexperienced, absurdly brought-up boy may imagine to be love.
+However, why should one calumniate one's self? I told you just now I
+had never known happiness. No! I have been happy."
+
+"I think, Fedor Ivanovich," said Liza, lowering her voice--she always
+lowered her voice when she differed from the person she was speaking
+to; besides, she felt considerably agitated just then--"our happiness
+upon earth does not depend upon ourselves--"
+
+"It does depend upon ourselves--upon ourselves:" here he seized both
+her hands. Liza grew pale and looked at him earnestly, but almost with
+alarm--"at least if we do not ruin our own lives. For some people a
+love match may turn out unhappily, but not for you, with your calmness
+of temperament; with your serenity of soul. I do beseech you not to
+marry without love, merely from a feeling of duty, self-denial, or
+the like. All that is sheer infidelity, and moreover a matter of
+calculation--and worse still. Trust my words. I have a right to say
+this; a right for which I have paid dearly. And if your God--"
+
+At that moment Lavretsky became aware that Lenochka and Shurochka
+were standing by Liza's side, and were staring at him with intense
+astonishment. He dropped Liza's hands, saying hastily, "Forgive me,"
+and walked away towards the house.
+
+"There is only one thing I have to ask you," he said, coming back to
+Liza. "Don't make up your mind directly, but wait a little, and think
+over what I have said to you. And even if you don't believe my words,
+but are determined to marry in accordance with the dictates of mere
+prudence--even, in that case, Mr. Panshine is not the man you ought
+to marry. He must not be your husband. You will promise me not to be
+hasty, won't you?"
+
+Liza wished to reply, but she could not utter a single word. Not that
+she had decided on being "hasty"--but because her heart beat too
+strongly, and a feeling resembling that of fear impeded her breathing.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+
+As Lavretsky was leaving the Kalitines' house he met Panshine, with
+whom he exchanged a cold greeting. Then he went home and shut himself
+up in his room. The sensations he experienced were such as he had
+hardly ever known before. Was it long ago that he was in a condition
+of "peaceful torpor?" Was it long ago that he felt himself, as he had
+expressed it, "at the very bottom of the river?" What then had changed
+his condition? What had brought him to the surface, to the light of
+day? Was the most ordinary and inevitable, though always unexpected,
+of occurrences--death? Yes. But yet it was not so much his wife's
+death, his own freedom, that he was thinking about, as this--what
+answer will Liza give to Panshine?
+
+He felt that in the course of the last three days he had begun to look
+on Liza with different eyes. He remembered how, when he was returning
+home and thinking of her in the silence of the night, he said to
+himself "If!--" This "if," by which at that time he had referred to
+the past, to the impossible, now applied to an actual state of things,
+but not exactly such a one as he had then supposed. Freedom by itself
+was little to him now. "She will obey her mother," he thought. "She
+will marry Panshine. But even if she refuses him--will it not be just
+the same as far as I am concerned?" Passing at that moment in front of
+a looking-glass, he just glanced at his face in it, and then shrugged
+his shoulders.
+
+Amid such thoughts as these the day passed swiftly by. The evening
+arrived, and Lavretsky went to the Kalitines. He walked fast until he
+drew near to the house, but then he slackened his pace. Panshine's
+carriage was standing before the door. "Well," thought Lavretsky,
+as he entered the house, "I will not be selfish." No one met him
+in-doors, and all seemed quiet in the drawing-room. He opened the
+door, and found that Madame Kalitine was playing piquet with Panshine.
+That gentleman bowed to him silently, while the lady of the house
+exclaimed, "Well, this is an unexpected pleasure," and slightly
+frowned. Lavretsky sat down beside her and began looking at her cards.
+
+"So you can play piquet?" she asked, with a shade of secret vexation
+in her voice, and then remarked that she had thrown away a wrong card.
+
+Panshine counted ninety, and began to take up the tricks calmly and
+politely, his countenance the while wearing a grave and dignified
+expression. It was thus, he thought, that diplomatists ought to play.
+It was thus, in all probability, that he used to play with some
+influential dignitary at St. Petersburg, whom he wished to impress
+with a favorable idea of his solidity and perspicacity. "One hundred
+and one, hundred and two, heart, hundred and three," said the
+measured tones of his voice, and Lavretsky could not tell which it
+expressed--dislike or assurance.
+
+"Can't I see Marfa Timofeevna?" asked Lavretsky, observing that
+Panshine, with a still more dignified air than before, was about to
+shuffle the cards; not even a trace of the artist was visible in him
+now.
+
+"I suppose so. She is up-stairs in her room," answered Maria
+Dmitrievna. "You can ask for her."
+
+Lavretsky went up-stairs. He found Marfa Timofeevna also at cards. She
+was playing at _Durachki_ with Nastasia Carpovna. Roska barked at
+him, but both the old ladies received him cordially. Marfa Timofeevna
+seemed in special good humor.
+
+"Ah, Fedia!" she said, "do sit down, there's a good fellow. We shall
+have done our game directly. Will you have some preserves? Shurochka,
+give him a pot of strawberries. You won't have any? Well, then, sit
+there as you are. But as to smoking, you mustn't. I cannot abide your
+strong tobacco; besides, it would make Matros sneeze."
+
+Lavretsky hastened to assure her that he had not the slightest desire
+to smoke.
+
+"Have you been down-stairs?" asked the old lady. "Whom did you find
+there? Is Panshine always hanging about there? But did you see Liza?
+No? She was to have come here. Why there she is--as soon as one
+mentions her."
+
+Liza came into the room, caught sight of Lavretsky and blushed.
+
+"I have only come for a moment, Marfa Timofeevna," she was beginning.
+
+"Why for a moment?" asked the old lady. "Why are all you young people
+so restless? You see I have a visitor there. Chat a little with him,
+amuse him."
+
+Liza sat down on the edge of a chair, raised her eyes to Lavretsky,
+and felt at once that she could not do otherwise than let him know how
+her interview with Panshine had ended. But how was that to be managed?
+She felt at the same time confused and ashamed. Was it so short a time
+since she had become acquainted with that man, one who scarcely ever
+went to church even, and who bore the death of his wife so equably?
+and yet here she was already communicating her secrets to him. It
+was true that he took an interest in her; and that, on her side she
+trusted him, and felt herself drawn towards him. But in spite of all
+this, she felt a certain kind of modest shame--as if a stranger had
+entered her pure maiden chamber.
+
+Marfa Timofeevna came to her rescue.
+
+"Well, if you will not amuse him," she said, "who is to amuse him,
+poor fellow? I am too old for him; he is too clever for me; and as to
+Nastasia Carpovna, he is too old for her. It's only boys she cares
+for."
+
+"How can I amuse Fedor Ivanovich?" said Liza. "I would rather play him
+something on the piano, if he likes," she continued irresolutely.
+
+"That's capital. You're a clever creature," replied Marfa Timofeevna.
+"Go down-stairs, my dears. Come back again when you've clone; but just
+now, here I'm left the _durachka_,[A] so I'm savage. I must have my
+revenge."
+
+[Footnote A: In the game of _durachki_, the player who remains the
+last is called the _durachok_ or _durachka_, diminutive of _durak_,
+a fool. The game somewhat resembles our own "Old Bachelor" or "Old
+Maid."]
+
+Liza rose from her chair, and so did Lavretsky. As she was going
+down-stairs, Liza stopped.
+
+"What they say is true," she began. "The human heart is full of
+contradictions. Your example ought to have frightened me--ought to
+have made me distrust marrying for love, and yet I--".
+
+"You've refused him?" said Lavretsky, interrupting her.
+
+"No; but I have not accepted him either. I told him every thing--all
+my feelings on the subject--and I asked him to wait a little. Are you
+satisfied?" she asked with a sudden smile: and letting her hand skim
+lightly along the balustrade, she ran down-stairs.
+
+"What shall I play you?" she asked, as she opened the piano.
+
+"Whatever you like," answered Lavretsky, taking a seat where he could
+look at her.
+
+Liza began to play, and went on for some time with-out lifting her
+eyes from her fingers. At last she looked at Lavretsky, and stopped
+playing. The expression of his face seemed so strange and unusual to
+her.
+
+"What is the, matter?" she asked.
+
+"Nothing," he replied. "All is well with me at present. I feel happy
+on your account; it makes me glad to look at you--do go on."
+
+"I think," said Liza, a few minutes later, "if he had really loved me
+he would not have written that letter; he ought to have felt that I
+could not answer him just now."
+
+"That doesn't matter," said Lavretsky; "what does matter is that you
+do not love him."
+
+"Stop! What is that you are saying? The image of your dead wife is
+always haunting me, and I feel afraid of you."
+
+"Doesn't my Liza play well, Woldemar?" Madame Kalitine was saying at
+this moment to Panshine.
+
+"Yes," replied Panshine, "exceedingly well."
+
+Madame Kalitine looked tenderly at her young partner; but he assumed a
+still more important and pre-occupied look, and called fourteen kings.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+
+Lavretsky was no longer a very young man. He could not long delude
+himself as to the nature of the feeling with which Liza had inspired
+him. On that day he became finally convinced that he was in love with
+her. That conviction did not give him much pleasure.
+
+"Is it possible," he thought, "that at five-and-thirty I have nothing
+else to do than to confide my heart a second time to a woman's
+keeping? But Liza is not like _her_. She would not have demanded
+humiliating sacrifices from me. She would not have led me astray from
+my occupations. She would have inspired me herself with a love for
+honorable hard work, and we should have gone forward together towards
+some noble end. Yes," he said, bringing his reflections to a close,
+"all that is very well. But the worst of it is that she will not go
+anywhere with me. It was not for nothing that she told me she was
+afraid of me. And as to her not being in love with Panshine--that is
+but a poor consolation!"
+
+Lavretsky went to Vasilievskoe; but he could not manage to spend even
+four days there--so wearisome did it seem to him. Moreover, he was
+tormented by suspense. The news which M. Jules had communicated
+required confirmation, and he had not yet received any letters. He
+returned to town, and passed the evening at the Kalitines'. He could
+easily see that Madame Kalitine had been set against him; but he
+succeeded in mollifying her a little by losing some fifteen roubles to
+her at piquet. He also contrived to get half-an-hour alone with Liza,
+in spite of her mother having recommended her, only the evening
+before, not to be too intimate with a man "_qui a tin si grand
+ridicule_."
+
+He found a change in her. She seemed to have become more
+contemplative. She blamed him for stopping away; and she asked him if
+he would not go to church the next day--the next day being Sunday.
+
+"Do come," she continued, before he had time to answer. "We will pray
+together for the repose of _her_ soul." Then she added that she did
+not know what she ought to do--that she did not know whether she had
+any right to make Panshine wait longer for her decision.
+
+"Why?" asked Lavretsky.
+
+"Because," she replied, "I begin to suspect by this time what that
+decision will be."
+
+Then she said that she had a headache, and went to her room, after
+irresolutely holding out the ends of her fingers to Lavretsky.
+
+The next day Lavretsky went to morning service. Liza was already in
+the church when he entered. He remarked her, though she did not look
+towards him. She prayed fervently; her eyes shone with a quiet light;
+quietly she bowed and lifted her head.
+
+He felt that she was praying for him also, and a strange emotion
+filled his soul. The people standing gravely around, the familiar
+faces, the harmonious chant, the odor of the incense, the long rays
+slanting through the windows, the very sombreness of the walls and
+arches--all appealed to his heart. It was long since he had been in
+church--long since he had turned his thoughts to God. And even now he
+did not utter any words of prayer--he did not even pray without words;
+but nevertheless, for a moment, if not in body, at least in mind, he
+bowed clown and bent himself humbly to the ground. He remembered how,
+in the days of his childhood, he always used to pray in church till he
+felt on his forehead something like a kind of light touch. "That" he
+used then to think, "is my guardian angel visiting me and pressing
+on me the seal of election." He looked at Liza. "It is you who have
+brought me here," he thought. "Touch me--touch my soul!" Meanwhile,
+she went on quietly praying. Her face seemed to him to be joyous,
+and once more he felt softened, and he asked, for another's soul,
+rest--for his own, pardon. They met outside in the porch, and she
+received him with a friendly look of serious happiness. The
+sun brightly lit up the fresh grass in the church-yard and the
+many-colored dresses and kerchiefs of the women. The bells of the
+neighboring churches sounded on high; the sparrows chirped on the
+walls. Lavretsky stood by, smiling and bare-headed; a light breeze
+played with his hair and Liza's, and with the ends of Liza's bonnet
+strings. He seated Liza and her companion Lenochka, in the carriage,
+gave away all the change he had about him to the beggars, and then
+strolled slowly home.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+
+The days which followed were days of heaviness for Lavretsky. He felt
+himself in a perpetual fever. Every morning he went to the post, and
+impatiently tore open his letters and newspapers; but in none of them
+did he find anything which could confirm or contradict that rumor, on
+the truth of which he felt that so much now depended. At times he grew
+disgusted with himself. "What am I," he then would think, "who am
+waiting here, as a raven waits for blood, for certain intelligence of
+my wife's death?"
+
+He went to the Kalitines' every day; but even there he was not more at
+his ease. The mistress of the house was evidently out of humor with
+him, and treated him with cold condescension. Panshine showed him
+exaggerated politeness; Lemm had become misanthropical, and scarcely
+even returned his greeting; and, worst of all, Liza seemed to avoid
+him. Whenever she happened to be left alone with him, she manifested
+symptoms of embarrassment, instead of the frank manner of former days.
+On such occasions she did not know what to say to him; and even he
+felt confused. In the course of a few days Liza had become changed
+from what he remembered her to have been. In her movements, in her
+voice, even in her laugh itself, a secret uneasiness manifested
+itself--something different from her former evenness of temper. Her
+mother, like a true egotist, did not suspect anything; but Marfa
+Timofeevna began to watch her favorite closely.
+
+Lavretsky often blamed himself for having shown Liza the newspaper
+he had received; he could not help being conscious that there was
+something in his state of feeling which must be repugnant to a very
+delicate mind. He supposed, moreover, that the change which had taken
+place in Liza arose from a struggle with herself, from her doubt as to
+what answer she should give to Panshine.
+
+One day she returned him a book--one of Walter Scott's novels--which
+she had herself asked him for.
+
+"Have you read it?" he asked.
+
+"No; I am not in a mood for books just now," she answered, and then
+was going away.
+
+"Wait a minute," he said. "It is so long since I got a talk with you
+alone. You seem afraid of me. Is it so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Lavretsky said nothing for a time.
+
+"Tell me," he began again presently; "haven't you made up your mind
+yet?"
+
+"What do you mean?" she replied, without lifting her eyes from the
+ground.
+
+"Surely you understand me?"
+
+Liza suddenly reddened.
+
+"Don't ask me about anything!" she exclaimed with animation. "I know
+nothing. I don't know myself."
+
+And she went hastily away.
+
+The next day Lavretsky arrived at the Kalitines' after dinner, and
+found all the preparations going on there for an evening service. In
+a corner of the dining-room, a number of small icons[A] in golden
+frames, with tarnished little diamonds in the aureolas, were already
+placed against the wall on a square table, which was covered with a
+table-cloth of unspotted whiteness. An old servant, dressed in a grey
+coat and wearing shoes, traversed the whole room deliberately and
+noiselessly, placed two slender candle-sticks with wax tapers in them
+before the icons, crossed himself, bowed, and silently left the room.
+
+[Footnote A: Sacred Pictures.]
+
+The drawing-room was dark and empty. Lavretsky went into the
+dining-room, and asked if it was any one's name-day.[A] He was told in
+a whisper that it was not, but that a service was to be performed
+in accordance with the request of Lizaveta Mikhailovna and Marfa
+Timofeevna. The miracle-working picture was to have been brought, but
+it had gone to a sick person thirty versts off.
+
+[Footnote A: A Russian keeps, not his birthday, but his name-day--that
+is, the day set apart by the church in honor of the saint after whom
+he is called.]
+
+Soon afterwards the priest arrived with his acolytes--a middle-aged
+man, with a large bald spot on his head, who coughed loudly in the
+vestibule. The ladies immediately came out of the boudoir in a row,
+and asked him for his blessing. Lavretsky bowed to them in silence,
+and they as silently returned his greeting. The priest remained a
+little longer where he was, then coughed again, and asked, in a low,
+deep voice--
+
+"Do you wish me to begin?"
+
+"Begin, reverend father," replied Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+The priest began to robe. An acolyte in a surplice humbly asked for a
+coal from the fire. The scent of the incense began to spread around.
+The footmen and the maid-servants came in from the ante-chamber and
+remained standing in a compact body at the door. The dog Roska, which,
+as a general rule, never came down-stairs from the upper story, now
+suddenly made its appearance in the dining room. The servants tried
+to drive it out, but it got frightened, first ran about, and then lay
+down. At last a footman got hold of it and carried it off.
+
+The service began. Lavretsky retired into a corner. His feelings were
+strange and almost painful. He himself could not well define what it
+was that he felt. Maria Dmitrievna stood in front of the rest, with an
+arm-chair behind her. She crossed herself carelessly, languidly, like
+a great lady. Sometimes she looked round, at others she suddenly
+raised her eyes towards the ceiling. The whole affair evidently bored
+her.
+
+Marfa Timofeevna seemed pre-occupied. Nastasia Carpovna bowed down
+to the ground, and raised herself up again, with a sort of soft and
+modest sound. As for Liza, she did not stir from the spot where she
+was standing, she did not change her position upon it; from the
+concentrated expression of her face, it was evident that she was
+praying uninterruptedly and fervently.
+
+At the end of the service she approached the crucifix, and kissed both
+it and the large red hand of the priest. Maria Dmitrievna invited him
+to take tea. He threw off his stole, assumed a sort of mundane air,
+and went into the drawing-room with the ladies. A conversation began,
+not of a very lively nature. The priest drank four cups of tea, wiping
+the bald part of his head the while with his handkerchief, stated
+among other things that the merchant Avoshnikof had given several
+hundred roubles towards the gilding of the church's "cumpola," and
+favored the company with an unfailing cure for freckles.
+
+Lavretsky tried to get a seat near Liza, but she maintained her
+grave, almost austere air, and never once looked at him. She seemed
+intentionally to ignore him. A kind of serious, cold enthusiasm
+appeared to possess her. For some reason or other Lavretsky felt
+inclined to smile, and to utter words of jesting; but his heart was
+ill at ease, and at last he went away in a state of secret perplexity.
+There was something, he felt, in Liza's mind, which he could not
+understand.
+
+On another occasion, as Lavretsky was sitting in the drawing-room,
+listening to the insinuating tones of Gedeonovsky's wearisome
+verbiage, he suddenly turned round, he knew not why, and caught the
+deep, attentive, inquiring look of Liza's eyes. That enigmatical look
+was directed towards him. The whole night long Lavretsky thought of
+it. His love was not like that of a boy, nor was it consistent with
+his age to sigh and to torment himself; and indeed it was not with a
+feeling of a merely passionate nature that Liza had inspired him.
+But love has its sufferings for every age--and he became perfectly
+acquainted with them.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+
+One day Lavretsky was as usual at the Kalitines'. An overpoweringly
+hot afternoon had been followed by such a beautiful evening that
+Madame Kalitine, notwithstanding her usual aversion to a draught,
+ordered all the windows and the doors leading into the garden to be
+opened. Moreover, she announced that she was not going to play cards,
+that it would be a sin to do so in such lovely weather, and that it
+was a duty to enjoy the beauties of nature.
+
+Panshine was the only stranger present. Influenced by the evening,
+and feeling a flow of artistic emotion, but not wishing to sing in
+Lavretsky's presence, he threw himself into poetry He read--and read
+well, only with too much consciousness, and with needlessly subtle
+distinctions--some of Lermontof's poems (Pushkin had not then
+succeeded in getting back into fashion). Suddenly, as if ashamed of
+his emotion, he began in reference to the well-known _Duma_,[A] to
+blame and attack the new generation, not losing the opportunity which
+the subject afforded him of setting forth how, if the power lay in his
+hands, he would alter everything his own way.
+
+[Footnote A: For the poem, so-called, see note at end of chapter.]
+
+"Russia," he said, "has lagged behind Europe, and must be driven up
+alongside of it. We are told that ours is a young country. That is all
+nonsense. Besides, we have no inventive power. Khomakof[A] himself
+admits that we have never invented so much as a mousetrap.
+Consequently we are obliged to imitate others, whether we like it or
+no."
+
+[Footnote A: A poet, who was one of the leaders of the Slavophile
+party.]
+
+"'We are ill,' says Lermontof, and I agree with him. But we are ill
+because we have only half become Europeans. With that which has
+wounded us we must be cured." ("_Le cadastre_" thought Lavretsky.)
+"Among us," he continued, "the best heads, _les meilleures têtes_,
+have long been convinced of this. In reality, all peoples are alike;
+only introduce good institutions, and the affair is settled. To be
+sure, one may make some allowance for the existing life of the nation;
+that is our business, the business of the people who are" (he all but
+said "statesmen") "in the public service; but if need arises, don't be
+uneasy. Those institutions will modify that life itself."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna admiringly agreed with him. "What a clever man to
+have talking in my house!" she thought. Liza kept silence, leaning
+back in the recess of the window. Lavretsky kept silence too. Marfa
+Timofeevna, who was playing cards in a corner with her friend,
+grumbled something to herself. Panshine walked up and down the room,
+speaking well, but with a sort of suppressed malice. It seemed as if
+he was blaming, not so much a whole generation, as some individuals
+of his acquaintance. A nightingale had made its home in a large lilac
+bush which stood in the Kalitines' garden, and the first notes of its
+even-song made themselves heard during the pauses in the eloquent
+harangue; the first stars began to kindle in the rose-stained sky
+above the motionless tops of the lime trees. Presently Lavretsky rose
+and began to reply to Panshine. A warm dispute soon commenced.
+
+Lavretsky spoke in defence of the youth of Russia, and of the capacity
+of the country to suffice for itself. He surrendered himself and his
+contemporaries, but he stood up for the new generation, and their
+wishes and convictions. Panshine replied incisively and irritably,
+declared that clever people were bound to reform every thing, and
+at length was carried away to such an extent that, forgetting his
+position as a chamberlain, and his proper line of action as a member
+of the civil service, he called Lavretsky a retrogade conservative,
+and alluded--very distantly it is true--to his false position in
+society. Lavretsky did not lose his temper, nor did he raise
+his voice; he remembered that Mikhalevich also had called him a
+retrograde, and, at the same time a disciple of Voltaire; but he
+calmly beat Panshine on every point. He proved the impracticability
+of reforming by sudden bounds, and of introducing changes haughtily
+schemed on the heights of official self-complacency--changes which
+were not justified by any intimate acquaintance with the country, nor
+by a living faith in any ideal, not even in one of negation, and in
+illustration of this he adduced his own education. He demanded
+before every thing else that the true spirit of the nation should be
+recognized, and that it should be looked up to with that humility
+without which no courage is possible, not even that wherewith to
+oppose falsehood. Finally he did not attempt to make any defence
+against what he considered a deserved reproach, that of giving way to
+a wasteful and inconsiderate expenditure of both time and strength.
+
+"All that is very fine!" at last exclaimed Panshine with vexation.
+"But here are you, just returned to Russia; what do you intend to do?"
+
+"To cultivate the soil," replied Lavretsky; "and to cultivate it as
+well as possible."
+
+"No doubt that is very praiseworthy," answered Panshine, "and I hear
+you have already had great success in that line; but you must admit
+that every one is not fitted for such an occupation--"
+
+"_Une nature poétique_," said Maria Dmitrievna, "certainly cannot
+go cultivating the soil--_et puis_, it is your vocation, Vladimir
+Nikolaevich, to do every thing _en grand_."
+
+This was too much even for Panshine, who grew confused, and changed
+the conversation. He tried to turn it on the beauty of the starry
+heavens, on Schubert's music, but somehow his efforts did not prove
+successful. He ended by offering to play at piquet with Maria
+Dmitrievna. "What! on such an evening as this?" she feebly objected;
+but then she ordered the cards to be brought.
+
+Panshine noisily tore open a new pack; and Liza and Lavretsky, as if
+by mutual consent, both rose from their seats and placed themselves
+near Marfa Timofeevna. They both suddenly experienced a great feeling
+of happiness, mingled with a sense of mutual dread, which made them
+glad of the presence of a third person; at the same time, they both
+felt that the uneasiness from which they had suffered during the last
+few days had disappeared, and would return no more.
+
+The old lady stealthily tapped Lavretsky on the cheek, screwed up her
+eyes with an air of pleasant malice, and shook her head repeatedly,
+saying in a whisper, "You've done for the genius--thanks!" Then all
+became still in the room. Nothing was to be heard but the faint
+crackling of the wax lights, and sometimes the fall of a hand on the
+table, or an exclamation on the score of points, and the song of the
+nightingale which, powerful, almost insolently loud, flowed in a great
+wave through the window, together with the dewy freshness of the
+night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--The following is a tolerably literal translation of the poem of
+Lermontof's to which allusion is made on p. 208, and which created no
+slight sensation when it first appeared, in the year 1838:--
+
+
+A THOUGHT.
+
+Sorrowfully do I look upon the present generation! Its future seems
+either gloomy or meaningless, and meanwhile, whether under the burden
+of knowledge or of doubt, it grows old in idleness.
+
+When scarcely out of the cradle, we reap the rich inheritance of the
+errors of our fathers, and the results of their tardy thoughts. Life
+soon grows wearisome for us, like a banquet at a stranger's festival,
+like a level road leading nowhere.
+
+In the commencement of our career, we fall away without a struggle,
+shamefully careless about right and wrong, shamefully timid in the
+face of danger.
+
+So does a withered fruit which has prematurely ripened--attractive
+neither to the eye nor to the palate--hang like an alien orphan among
+blossoms; and the hour of their beauty is that of its fall.
+
+Our intellect has dried up in the pursuit of fruitless science, while
+we have been concealing the purest of hopes from the knowledge of
+those who are near and dear to us, and stifling the noble utterance of
+such sentiments as are ridiculed by a mocking spirit.
+
+We have scarcely tasted of the cup of enjoyment, but for all that we
+have not husbanded our youthful strength. While we were always in
+dread of satiety, we have contrived to drain each joy of its best
+virtues.
+
+No dreams of poetry, no creations of art, touch our hearts with a
+sweet rapture. We stingily hoard up within our breasts the last
+remnants of feeling--a treasure concealed by avarice, and which
+remains utterly unprofitable.
+
+We love and we hate capriciously, sacrificing nothing either to our
+animosity or to our affection, a certain secret coldness possessing
+our souls, even while a fire is raging in our veins.
+
+The sumptuous pleasures of our ancestors weary us, as well as their
+simple, childish diversions. Without enjoying happiness, without
+reaping glory, we hasten onwards to the grave, casting naught but
+unlucky glances behind us.
+
+A saturnine crowd, soon to be forgotten, we silently pass away from
+the world and leave no trace behind, without having handed down to the
+ages to come a single work of genius, or even a solitary thought laden
+with meaning.
+
+And our descendants, regarding our memory with the severity of
+citizens called to sit in judgment on an affair concerning the state,
+will allude to us with the scathing irony of a ruined son, when he
+speaks of the father who has squandered away his patrimony.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+
+Liza had not uttered a single word during the dispute between
+Lavretsky and Panshine, but she had followed it attentively, and had
+been on Lavretsky's side throughout. She cared very little about
+politics; but she was repelled by the self-sufficient tone of the
+worldly official, who had never shown himself in that light before,
+and his contempt for Russia offended her. It had never occurred to
+Liza to imagine that she was a patriot. But she was thoroughly at her
+ease with the Russian people. The Russian turn of mind pleased her.
+She would chat for hours, without thinking anything of it, with the
+chief of the village on her mother's estate, when he happened to come
+into town, and talk with him as if he were her equal, without any
+signs of seigneurial condescension. All this Lavretsky knew well. For
+his own part, he never would have cared to reply to Panshine; it was
+only for Liza's sake that he spoke.
+
+They said nothing to each other, and even their eyes but rarely met.
+But they both felt that they had been drawn closer together that
+evening, they knew that they both had the same likes and dislikes. On
+one point only were they at variance; but Liza secretly hoped to bring
+him back to God. They sat down close by Marfa Timofeevna, and seemed
+to be following her game; nay, more, did actually follow it. But,
+meantime, their hearts grew full within them, and nothing escaped
+their senses--for them the nightingale sang softly, and the stars
+burnt, and the trees whispered, steeped in slumberous calm, and lulled
+to rest by the warmth and softness of the summer night.
+
+Lavretsky gave himself up to its wave of fascination, and his heart
+rejoiced within him. But no words can express the change that was
+being worked within the pure soul of the maiden by his side. Even for
+herself it was a secret; let it remain, then, a secret for all others
+also. No one knows, no eye has seen or ever will see, how the grain
+which has been confided to the earth's bosom becomes instinct with
+vitality, and ripens into stirring, blossoming life.
+
+Ten o'clock struck, and Marfa Timofeevna went up-stairs to her room
+with Nastasia Carpovna. Lavretsky and Liza walked about the room,
+stopped in front of the open door leading into the garden, looked
+first into the gloaming distance and then at each other--and smiled.
+It seemed as if they would so gladly have taken each other's hands and
+talked to their hearts' content.
+
+They returned to Maria Dmitrievna and Panshine, whose game dragged
+itself out to an unusual length. At length the last "king" came to an
+end, and Madame Kalitine rose from her cushioned chair, sighing, and
+uttering sounds of weariness the while. Panshine took his hat, kissed
+her hand, remarked that nothing prevented more fortunate people from
+enjoying the night or going to sleep, but that he must sit up till
+morning over stupid papers, bowed coldly to Liza--with-whom he was
+angry, for he had not expected that she would ask him to wait so
+long for an answer to his proposal--and retired. Lavretsky went away
+directly after him, following him to the gate, where he took leave of
+him. Panshine aroused his coachman, poking him in the neck with the
+end of his stick, seated himself in his droshky, and drove away. But
+Lavretsky did not feel inclined to go home, so he walked out of the
+town into the fields.
+
+The night was still and clear, although there was no moon. For a long
+time Lavretsky wandered across the dewy grass. A narrow footpath lay
+in his way, and he followed it. It led him to a long hedge, in which
+there was a wicket gate. Without knowing why he did so, he tried to
+push it open; with a faint creak it did open, just as if it had been
+awaiting the touch of his hand. Lavretsky found himself in a garden,
+took a few steps along a lime-tree alley, and suddenly stopped short
+in utter amazement. He saw that he was in the Kalitines' garden.
+
+A thick hazel bush close at hand flung a black patch of shadow on the
+ground. Into this he quickly passed, and there stood for some time
+without stirring from the spot, inwardly wondering and from time to
+time shrugging his shoulders. "This has not happened without some
+purpose," he thought.
+
+Around all was still. From the house not the slightest sound reached
+him. He began cautiously to advance. At the corner of an alley all the
+house suddenly burst upon him with its dusky façade. In two windows
+only on the upper story were lights glimmering. In Liza's apartment a
+candle was burning behind the white blind, and in Marfa Timofeevna's
+bed-room glowed the red flame of the small lamp hanging in front of
+the sacred picture, on the gilded cover of which it was reflected in
+steady light. Down below, the door leading on to the balcony gaped
+wide open.
+
+Lavretsky sat down on a wooden bench, rested his head on his hand, and
+began looking at that door, and at Liza's window. Midnight sounded
+in the town; in the house a little clock feebly struck twelve. The
+watchman beat the hour with quick strokes on his board. Lavretsky
+thought of nothing, expected nothing. It was pleasant to him to feel
+himself near Liza, to sit in her garden, and on the bench where she
+also often sat.
+
+The light disappeared from Liza's room.
+
+"A quiet night to you, dear girl," whispered Lavretsky, still sitting
+where he was without moving, and not taking his eyes off the darkened
+window.
+
+Suddenly a light appeared at one of the windows of the lower story,
+crossed to another window, and then to a third. Some one was carrying
+a candle through the room. "Can it be Liza? It cannot be," thought
+Lavretsky. He rose. A well-known face glimmered in the darkness, and
+Liza appeared in the drawing-room, wearing a white dress, her hair
+hanging loosely about her shoulders. Quietly approaching the table,
+she leant over it, put down the candle and began looking for
+something. Then she turned towards the garden, and crossed to the open
+door; presently her light, slender, white-robed form stood still on
+the threshold.
+
+A kind of shiver ran over Lavretsky's limbs, and the word "Liza!"
+escaped all but inaudibly from his lips.
+
+She started, and then began to peer anxiously into the darkness.
+
+"Liza!" said Lavretsky louder than before, and came out from the
+shadow of the alley.
+
+Liza was startled. For a moment she bent forward; then she shrank
+back. She had recognized him. For the third time he called her, and
+held out his hands towards her. She passed out from the doorway and
+came into the garden.
+
+"You!" she said. "You here!"
+
+"I--I--Come and hear what I have to say," whispered Lavretsky; and
+then, taking her hand, he led her to the bench.
+
+She followed him without a word; but her pale face, her fixed look,
+and all her movements, testified her unutterable astonishment.
+Lavretsky made her sit down on the bench, and remained standing in
+front of her.
+
+"I did not think of coming here," he began. "I was led here--I--I--I
+love you," he ended by saying, feeling very nervous in spite of
+himself.
+
+Liza slowly looked up at him. It seemed as if it had not been till
+that moment that she understood where she was, and what was happening
+to her. She would have risen, but she could not. Then she hid her face
+in her hands.
+
+"Liza!" exclaimed Lavretsky; "Liza!" he repeated, and knelt down at
+her feet.
+
+A slight shudder ran over her shoulders; she pressed the fingers of
+her white hands closer to her face.
+
+"What is it?" said Lavretsky. Then he heard a low sound of sobbing,
+and his heart sank within him. He understood the meaning of those
+tears.
+
+"Can it be that you love me?" he whispered, with a caressing gesture
+of the hand.
+
+"Stand up, stand up, Fedor Ivanovich," she at last succeeded in
+saying. "What are we doing?"
+
+He rose from his knees, and sat down by her side on the bench. She was
+no longer crying, but her eyes, as she looked at him earnestly, were
+wet with tears.
+
+"I am frightened! What are we doing?" she said again.
+
+"I love you," he repeated. "I am ready to give my whole life for you."
+
+She shuddered again, just as if something had stung her, then she
+raised her eyes to heaven.
+
+"That is entirely in the hands of God," she replied.
+
+"But you love me, Liza? We are going to be happy?"
+
+She let fall her eyes. He softly drew her to himself, and her head
+sank upon his shoulder. He bent his head a little aside, and kissed
+her pale lips.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Half an hour later Lavretsky was again standing before the garden
+gate. He found it closed now and was obliged to get over the fence.
+He returned into the town, and walked along its sleeping streets. His
+heart was full of happiness, intense and unexpected; all misgiving
+was dead within him. "Disappear, dark spirit of the Past!" he said to
+himself. "She loves me. She will be mine."
+
+Suddenly he seemed to hear strange triumphal sounds floating in the
+air above his head. He stopped. With greater grandeur than before the
+sounds went clanging forth. With strong, sonorous stream did they flow
+along--and in them, as it seemed to him, all his happiness spoke and
+sang. He looked round. The sounds came from the two upper windows of a
+small house.
+
+"Lemm!" he exclaimed, and ran up to the door of the house. "Lemm,
+Lemm!" he repeated loudly.
+
+The sounds died away, and the form of the old man, wrapped in a
+dressing-gown, with exposed chest and wildly floating hair, appeared
+at the window.
+
+"Ha! it is you," he said, with an air of importance.
+
+"Christopher Fedorovich, what wonderful music! For heaven's sake let
+me in!"
+
+The old man did not say a word, but with a dignified motion of the
+hand he threw the key of the door out of the window into the street.
+Lavretsky hastily ran up-stairs, entered the room, and was going to
+fling himself into Lemm's arms. But Lemm, with a gesture of command,
+pointed to a chair, and said sharply in his incorrect Russian, "Sit
+down and listen," then took his seat at the piano, looked round with a
+proud and severe glance, and began to play.
+
+Lavretsky had heard nothing like it for a long time indeed. A sweet,
+passionate melody spoke to the heart with its very first notes. It
+seemed all thoroughly replete with sparkling light, fraught with
+inspiration, with beauty, and with joy. As it rose and sank it seemed
+to speak of all that is dear, and secret, and holy, on earth. It spoke
+too of a sorrow that can never end, and then it went to die away in
+the distant heaven.
+
+Lavretsky had risen from his seat and remained standing, rooted to the
+spot, and pale with rapture. Those sounds entered very readily into
+his heart; for it had just been stirred into sensitiveness by the
+touch of a happy love, and they themselves were glowing with love.
+
+"Play it again," he whispered, as soon as the last final chord had
+died away.
+
+The old man looked at him with an eagle's glance, and said slowly, in
+his native tongue, striking his breast with his hand, "It is I who
+wrote that, for I am a great musician," and then he played once more
+his wonderful composition.
+
+There were no lights in the room, but the rays of the rising moon
+entered obliquely through the window. The listening air seemed to
+tremble into music, and the poor little apartment looked like a
+sanctuary, while the silvery half-light gave to the head of the old
+man a noble and spiritual expression.
+
+Lavretsky came up to him and embraced him. At first Lemm did not
+respond to his embrace--even put him aside with his elbow. Then he
+remained rigid for some time, without moving any of his limbs, wearing
+the same severe, almost repellent, look as before, and only growling
+out twice, "Aha!" But at last a change came over him, his face grew
+calm, and his head was no longer thrown back. Then, in reply to
+Lavretsky's warm congratulations, he first smiled a little, and
+afterwards began to cry, sobbing faintly, like a child.
+
+"It is wonderful," he said, "your coming just at this very moment. But
+I know every thing--I know all about it."
+
+"You know every thing?" exclaimed Lavretsky in astonishment.
+
+"You have heard what I said," replied Lemm. "Didn't you understand
+that I knew every thing?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lavretsky did not get to sleep till the morning. All night long he
+remained sitting on the bed. Neither did Liza sleep. She was praying.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII.
+
+
+The reader knows how Lavretsky had been brought up and educated. We
+will now say a few words about Liza's education. She was ten years old
+when her father died, who had troubled himself but little about her.
+Overwhelmed with business, constantly absorbed in the pursuit of
+adding to his income, a man of bilious temperament and a sour and
+impatient nature, he never grudged paying for the teachers and tutors,
+or for the dress and the other necessaries required by his children,
+but he could not bear "to nurse his squallers," according to his own
+expression--and, indeed, he never had any time for nursing them. He
+used to work, become absorbed in business, sleep a little, play cards
+on rare occasions, then work again. He often compared himself to a
+horse yoked to a threshing machine. "My life has soon been spent," he
+said on his death-bed, a bitter smile contracting his lips.
+
+As to Maria Dmitrievna, she really troubled herself about Liza very
+little more than her husband did, for all that she had taken credit to
+herself, when speaking to Lavretsky, for having educated her children
+herself. She used to dress her like a doll, and when visitors were
+present, she would caress her and call her a good child and her
+darling, and that was all. Every continuous care troubled that
+indolent lady.
+
+During her father's lifetime, Liza was left in the hands of a
+governess, a Mademoiselle Moreau, from Paris; but after his death she
+passed under the care of Marfa Timofeevna. That lady is already known
+to the reader. As for Mademoiselle Moreau, she was a very small woman,
+much wrinkled, and having the manners of a bird, and the character of
+a bird also. In her youth she had led a very dissipated life; in her
+old age she retained only two passions--the love of dainties and the
+love of cards. When her appetite was satiated, and when she was not
+playing cards or talking nonsense, her countenance rapidly assumed an
+almost death-like expression. She would sit and gaze and breathe, but
+it was plain that there was not a single idea stirring in her mind.
+She could not even be called good; goodness is not an attribute of
+birds. In consequence either of her frivolous youth or of the air of
+Paris, which she had breathed from her childhood's days, there was
+rooted in her a kind of universal scepticism, which usually found
+expression in the words, "_Tout ça c'est des bêtises_." She spoke an
+incorrect, but purely Parisian jargon, did not talk scandal, and had
+no caprices--what more could one expect from a governess? Over Liza
+she had but little influence. All the more powerful, then, was the
+influence exercised over the child by her nurse, Agafia Vlasievna.
+
+That woman's story was a remarkable one. She sprang from a family of
+peasants, and was married at sixteen to a peasant; but she stood out
+in sharp relief against the mass of her peasant sisters. As a child,
+she had been spoilt by her father, who had been for twenty years the
+head of his commune, and who had made a good deal of money. She was
+singularly beautiful, and for grace and taste she was unsurpassed in
+the whole district, and she was intelligent, eloquent, and courageous.
+Her master, Dmitry Pestof, Madame Kalitine's father, a quiet and
+reserved man, saw her one day on the threshing-floor, had a talk with
+her, and fell passionately in love with her. Soon after this she
+became a widow. Pestof, although he was a married man, took her into
+his house, and had her dressed like one of the household. Agafia
+immediately made herself at home in her new position, just as if she
+had never led a different kind of life. Her complexion grew fairer,
+her figure became more rounded, and her arms, under their muslin
+sleeves, showed "white as wheat-flour," like those of a wealthy
+tradesman's wife. The _samovar_ never quitted her table; she would
+wear nothing but silks and velvets; she slept on feather-beds of down.
+
+This happy life lasted five years; then Dmitry Pestof died. His widow,
+a lady of a kindly character, respected the memory of her late husband
+too much to wish to treat her rival with ignominy, especially as
+Agafia had never forgotten herself in her presence; but she married
+her to a herdsman, and sent her away from her sight. Three years
+passed by. One hot summer day the lady happened to pay a visit to the
+cattle-yard. Agafia treated her to such a cool dish of rich cream,
+behaved herself so modestly, and looked so clean, so happy, so
+contented with every thing, that her mistress informed her that she
+was pardoned, and allowed her to return into the house. Before six
+months had passed, the lady had become, so attached to her that she
+promoted her to the post of housekeeper, and confided all the domestic
+arrangements to her care. Thus Agafia came back into power, and again
+became fair and plump. Her mistress trusted her implicitly.
+
+So passed five more years. Then misfortune came a second time on
+Agafia. Her husband, for whom she had obtained a place as footman,
+took to drink, began to absent himself from the house, and ended by
+stealing half-a-dozen of his mistress's silver spoons and hiding them,
+till a fitting opportunity should arise for carrying them off in his
+wife's box. The theft was found out. He was turned into a herdsman
+again, and Agafia fell into disgrace. She was not dismissed from the
+house, but she was degraded from the position of housekeeper to that
+of a needle-woman, and she was ordered to wear a handkerchief on her
+head instead of a cap. To every one's astonishment, Agafia bore the
+punishment inflicted on her with calm humility. By this time she was
+about thirty years old, all her children were dead, and her husband
+soon afterwards died also. The season of reflection had arrived for
+her, and she did reflect. She became very silent and very devout,
+never once letting matins or mass go unheeded by, and she gave away
+all her fine clothes. For fifteen years she led a quiet, grave,
+peaceful life, quarrelling with no one, giving way to all. If any one
+spoke to her harshly, she only bent her head and returned thanks for
+the lesson. Her mistress had forgiven her long ago, and had taken the
+ban off her--had even given her a cap off her own head to wear. But
+she herself refused to doff her handkerchief, and she would never
+consent to wear any but a sombre-colored dress. After the death of her
+mistress she became even more quiet and more humble than before. It is
+easy to work upon a Russian's fears and to secure his attachment, but
+it is difficult to acquire his esteem; that he will not readily give,
+nor will he give it to every one. But the whole household esteemed
+Agafia. No one even so much as remembered her former faults; it was as
+if they had been buried in the grave with her old master.
+
+When Kalitine married Maria Dmitrievna, he wanted to entrust the
+care of his household to Agafia; but she refused, "on account of
+temptation." He began to scold her, but she only bowed low and left
+the room. The shrewd Kalitine generally understood people; so he
+understood Agafia's character, and did not lose sight of her. When he
+settled in town, he appointed her, with her consent, to the post of
+nurse to Liza, who was then just beginning her fifth year.
+
+At first Liza was frightened by the serious, even severe, face of her
+new nurse; but she soon became accustomed to her, and learned to
+love her warmly. The child was of a serious disposition herself. Her
+features called to mind Kalitine's regular and finely-moulded face,
+but her eyes were not like those of her father; they shone with a
+quiet light, expressive of an earnest goodness that is rarely seen in
+children. She did not care about playing with dolls; she never laughed
+loudly nor long, and a feeling of self-respect always manifested
+itself in her conduct. It was not often that she fell into a reverie,
+but when she did so there was almost always good reason for it; then
+she would keep silence for a time, but generally ended by addressing
+to some person older than herself a question which showed that her
+mind had been working under the influence of a new impression. She
+very soon got over her childish lisp, and even before she was four
+years old she spoke with perfect distinctness. She was afraid of her
+father. As for her mother, she regarded her with a feeling which she
+could scarcely define, not being afraid of her, but not behaving
+towards her caressingly. As for that, she did not caress even her
+nurse, although she loved her with her whole heart. She and Agafia
+were never apart. It was curious to see them together. Agafia, all in
+black, with a dark handkerchief on her head, her face emaciated and of
+a wax-like transparency, but still beautiful and expressive, would
+sit erect on her chair, knitting stockings. At her feet Liza would be
+sitting on a little stool, also engaged in some work, or, her clear
+eyes uplifted with a serious expression, listening to what Agafia was
+telling her. Agafia never told her nursery tales. With a calm and even
+voice, she used to tell her about the life of the Blessed Virgin, or
+the lives of the hermits and people pleasing to God, or about the
+holy female martyrs. She would tell Liza how the saints lived in the
+deserts; how they worked out their salvation, enduring hunger and
+thirst; and how they did not fear kings, but confessed Christ; and how
+the birds of the air brought them food, and the wild beasts obeyed
+them; how from those spots where their blood had fallen flowers sprang
+up. ("Were they carnations?" once asked Liza, who was very fond of
+flowers.) Agafia spoke about these things to Liza seriously and
+humbly, as if she felt that it was not for her to pronounce such
+grand and holy words; and as Liza listened to her, the image of the
+Omnipresent, Omniscient God entered with a sweet influence into her
+very soul, filling her with a pure and reverend dread, and Christ
+seemed to her to be close to her, and to be a friend, almost, as
+it were, a relation. It was Agafia, also, who taught her to pray.
+Sometimes she awoke Liza at the early dawn, dressed her hastily, and
+secretly conveyed her to matins. Liza would follow her on tiptoe,
+scarcely venturing to breathe. The cold, dim morning light, the raw
+air pervading the almost empty church, the very secrecy of those
+unexpected excursions, the cautious return home to bed--all that
+combination of the forbidden, the strange, the holy, thrilled the
+young girl, penetrated to the inmost depths of her being.
+
+Agafia never blamed any one, and she never scolded Liza for any
+childish faults. When she was dissatisfied about anything, she merely
+kept silence, and Liza always understood that silence. With a child's
+quick instinct, she also knew well when Agafia was dissatisfied
+with others, whether it were with Maria Dmitrievna or with Kalitine
+himself.
+
+For rather more than three years Agafia waited upon Liza. She was
+replaced by Mademoiselle Moreau; but the frivolous Frenchwoman, with
+her dry manner and her constant exclamation, _Tout ça c'est des
+bêtises_! could not expel from Liza's heart the recollection of her
+much-loved nurse. The seeds that had been sown had pushed their roots
+too far for that. After that Agafia, although she had ceased to attend
+Liza, remained for some time longer in the house, and often saw her
+pupil, and treated her as she had been used to do.
+
+But when Marfa Timofeevna entered the Kalitines' house, Agafia did not
+get on well with her. The austere earnestness of the former "wearer of
+the coarse petticoat." [Footnote: The _Panovnitsa_, or wearer of the
+_Panovna_, a sort of petticoat made of a coarse stuff of motley hue.]
+did not please the impatient and self-willed old lady. Agafia obtained
+leave to go on a pilgrimage, and she never came back. Vague rumors
+asserted that she had retired into a schismatic convent. But the
+impression left by her on Liza's heart did not disappear. Just as
+before, the girl went to mass, as if she were going to a festival; and
+when in church prayed with enthusiasm, with a kind of restrained and
+timid rapture, at which her mother secretly wondered not a little.
+Even Marfa Timofeevna, although she never put any constraint upon
+Liza, tried to induce her to moderate her zeal, and would not let her
+make so many prostrations. It was not a lady-like habit, she said.
+
+Liza was a good scholar, that is, a persevering one; she was not
+gifted with a profound intellect, or with extraordinarily brilliant
+faculties, and nothing yielded to her without demanding from her no
+little exertion. She was a good pianiste, but no one else, except
+Lemm, knew how much that accomplishment had cost her. She did not read
+much, and she had no "words of her own;" but she had ideas of her
+own, and she went her own way. In this matter, as well as in personal
+appearance, she may have taken after her father, for he never used to
+ask any one's advice as to what he should do.
+
+And so she grew up, and So did her life pass, gently and tranquilly,
+until she had attained her nineteenth year. She was very charming, but
+she was not conscious of the fact. In all her movements, a natural,
+somewhat unconventional, grace, revealed itself; in her voice there
+sounded the silver notes of early youth. The slightest pleasurable
+sensation would bring a fascinating smile to her lips, and add a
+deeper light, a kind of secret tenderness, to her already lustrous
+eyes. Kind and soft-hearted, thoroughly penetrated by a feeling of
+duty, and a fear of injuring any one in any way, she was attached to
+all whom she knew, but to no one person in particular. To God
+alone did she consecrate her love--loving Him with a timid, tender
+enthusiasm. Until Lavretsky came, no one had troubled the calmness of
+her inner life.
+
+Such was Liza.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV.
+
+
+About the middle of the next day Lavretsky went to the Kalitines'. On
+his way there he met Panshine, who galloped past on horseback, his
+hat pulled low over his eyes. At the Kalitines', Lavretsky was not
+admitted, for the first time since he had made acquaintance with the
+family. Maria Dmitrievna was asleep, the footman declared; her head
+ached, Marfa Timofeevna and Lizaveta Mikhailovna were not at home.
+
+Lavretsky walked round the outside of the garden in the vague hope of
+meeting Liza, but he saw no one. Two hours later he returned to the
+house, but received the same answer as before; moreover, the footman
+looked at him in a somewhat marked manner. Lavretsky thought it would
+be unbecoming to call three times in one day, so he determined to
+drive out to Vasilievskoe, where, moreover, he had business to
+transact.
+
+On his way there he framed various plans, each one more charming than
+the rest. But on his arrival at his aunt's estate, sadness took hold
+of him. He entered into conversation with Anton; but the old man, as
+if purposely, would dwell on none but gloomy ideas. He told Lavretsky
+how Glafira Petrovna, just before her death, had bitten her own hand.
+And then, after an interval of silence, he added with a sigh, "Every
+man, _barin batyushka_,[A] is destined to devour himself."
+
+[Footnote A: Seigneur, father.]
+
+It was late in the day before Lavretsky set out on his return. The
+music he had heard the night before came back into his mind, and the
+image of Liza dawned on his heart in all its sweet serenity. He was
+touched by the thought that she loved him; and he arrived at his
+little house in the town, tranquillized and happy.
+
+The first thing that struck him when he entered the vestibule, was a
+smell of patchouli, a perfume he disliked exceedingly. He observed
+that a number of large trunks and boxes were standing there, and he
+thought there was a strange expression on the face of the servant who
+hastily came to meet him. He did not stop to analyze his impressions,
+but went straight into the drawing-room.
+
+A lady, who wore a black silk dress with flounces, and whose pale face
+was half hidden by a cambric handkerchief, rose from the sofa, took
+a few steps to meet him, bent her carefully-arranged and perfumed
+locks--and fell at his feet. Then for the first time, he recognized
+her. That lady was his wife!
+
+His breathing stopped. He leaned against the wall.
+
+"Do not drive me from you, Theodore!" she said in French; and her
+voice cut him to the heart like a knife. He looked at her without
+comprehending what he saw, and yet, at the same time, he involuntarily
+remarked that she had grown paler and stouter.
+
+"Theodore!" she continued, lifting her eyes from time to time towards
+heaven, her exceedingly pretty fingers, tipped with polished nails of
+rosy hue, writhing the while in preconcerted agonies--"Theodore, I am
+guilty before you--deeply guilty. I will say more--I am a criminal;
+but hear what I have to say. I am tortured by remorse; I have become a
+burden to myself; I can bear my position no longer. Ever so many times
+I have thought of addressing you, but I was afraid of your anger. But
+I have determined to break every tie with the past--_puis, j'ai été si
+malade_. I was so ill," she added, passing her hand across her brow
+and cheek, "I took advantage of the report which was spread abroad
+of my death, and I left everything. Without stopping anywhere, I
+travelled day and night to come here quickly. For a long time I was in
+doubt whether to appear before you, my judge--_paraitre devant vous
+man juge_; but at last I determined to go to you, remembering your
+constant goodness. I found out your address in Moscow. Believe me,"
+she continued, quietly rising from the ground and seating herself upon
+the very edge of an arm-chair, "I often thought of death, and I
+could have found sufficient courage in my heart to deprive myself of
+life--ah! life is an intolerable burden to me now--but the thought of
+my child, my little Ada, prevented me. She is here now; she is asleep
+in the next room, poor child. She is tired out You will see her,
+won't you? She, at all events, is innocent before you; and so
+unfortunate--so unfortunate!" exclaimed Madame Lavretsky, and melted
+into tears.
+
+Lavretsky regained his consciousness at last. He stood away from the
+wall, and turned towards the door.
+
+"You are going away?" exclaimed his wife, in accents of despair. "Oh,
+that is cruel! without saying a single word to me--not even one of
+reproach! This contempt kills me; it is dreadful!"
+
+Lavretsky stopped.
+
+"What do you want me to say to you?" he said in a hollow tone.
+
+"Nothing--nothing!" she cried with animation. "I know that I have no
+right to demand anything. I am no fool, believe me. I don't hope, I
+don't dare to hope, for pardon. I only venture to entreat you to tell
+me what I ought to do, where I ought to live. I will obey your orders
+like a slave, whatever they may be."
+
+"I have no orders to give," replied Lavretsky in the same tone as
+before. "You know that all is over between us--and more than ever now.
+You can live where you like; and if your allowance is too small--"
+
+"Ah, don't say such terrible things!" she said, interrupting him.
+"Forgive me, if only--if only for the sake of this angel."
+
+And having uttered these words, Varvara Pavlovna suddenly rushed
+into the other room, and immediately returned with a very
+tastefully-dressed little girl in her arms. Thick flaxen curls fell
+about the pretty little rosy face and over the great black, sleepy
+eyes of the child, who smilingly blinked at the light, and held on to
+her mother's neck by a chubby little arm.
+
+"_Ada, vois, c'est ton père_," said Varvara Pavlovna, removing
+the curls from the child's eyes, and kissing her demonstratively.
+"_Prie-le avec moi_."
+
+"_C'est là, papa_?" the little girl lispingly began to stammer.
+
+"_Oui, mon enfant, n'est-ce pas que tu l'aimes_?"
+
+But the interview had become intolerable to Lavretsky. ;'
+
+"What melodrama is it just such a scene occurs; in?" he muttered, and
+left the room.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna remained standing where she was for some time, then
+she slightly shrugged her shoulders, took the little girl back into
+the other room, undressed her, and put her to bed. Then she took a
+book and sat down near the lamp. There she waited about an hour, but
+at last she went to bed herself.
+
+"_Eh bien, madame_?" asked her maid,--a Frenchwoman whom she had
+brought with her from Paris,--as she unlaced her stays.
+
+"_Eh bien_, Justine!" replied Varvara Pavlovna. "He has aged a great
+deal, but I think he is just as good as ever. Give me my gloves for
+the night, and get the gray dress, the high one, ready for to-morrow
+morning--and don't forget the mutton cutlets for Ada. To be sure it
+will be difficult to get them here, but we must try."
+
+"_A la guerre comme à la guerre_!" replied Justine as she put out the
+light.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.
+
+
+For more than two hours Lavretsky wandered about the streets. The
+night he had spent in the suburbs of Paris came back into his mind.
+His heart seemed rent within him, and his brain felt vacant and as it
+were numbed, while the same set of evil, gloomy, mad thoughts went
+ever circling in his mind. "She is alive; she is here," he whispered
+to himself with constantly recurring amazement. He felt that he had
+lost Liza. Wrath seemed to suffocate him. The blow had too suddenly
+descended upon him. How could he have so readily believed the foolish
+gossip of a _feuilleton_, a mere scrap of paper? "But if I had not
+believed it," he thought, "what would have been the difference? I
+should not have known that Liza loves me. She would not have known it
+herself." He could not drive the thought of his wife out of his mind;
+her form, her voice, her eyes haunted him. He cursed himself, he
+cursed every thing in the world.
+
+Utterly tired out, he came to Lemm's house before the dawn. For a
+long time he could not get the door opened; at last the old man's
+nightcapped head appeared at the window. Peevish and wrinkled, his
+face bore scarcely any resemblance to that which, austerely inspired,
+had looked royally down upon Lavretsky twenty-four hours before, from
+all the height of its artistic grandeur.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Lemm. "I cannot play every night. I have
+taken a _tisane_."
+
+But Lavretsky's face wore a strong expression which could not escape
+notice. The old man shaded his eyes with his hand, looked hard at his
+nocturnal visitor, and let him in.
+
+Lavretsky came into the room and dropped on a chair. The old man
+remained standing before him, wrapping the skirts of his motley old
+dressing-gown around him, stooping very much, and biting his lips.
+
+"My wife has come," said Lavretsky, with drooping head, and then he
+suddenly burst into a fit of involuntary laughter.
+
+Lemm's face expressed astonishment, but he preserved a grave silence,
+only wrapping his dressing-gown tighter around him.
+
+"I suppose you don't know," continued Lavretsky. "I supposed--I saw in
+a newspaper that she was dead."
+
+"O--h! Was it lately you saw that?" asked Lemm.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"O--h!" repeated the old man, raising his eyebrows, "and she has come
+here?"
+
+"Yes. She is now in my house, and I--I am a most unfortunate man."
+
+And he laughed again.
+
+"You are a most unfortunate man," slowly repeated Lemm.
+
+"Christopher Fedorovich," presently said Lavretsky, "will you
+undertake to deliver a note?"
+
+"Hm! To whom, may I ask?"
+
+"To Lizav--"
+
+"Ah! yes, yes, I understand. Very well. But when must the note be
+delivered?"
+
+"To-morrow, as early as possible."
+
+"Hm! I might send my cook, Katrin. No, I will go myself."
+
+"And will you bring me back the answer?"
+
+"I will."
+
+Lemm sighed.
+
+"Yes, my poor young friend," he said, "you certainly are--a most
+unfortunate young man."
+
+Lavretsky wrote a few words to Liza, telling her of his wife's
+arrival, and begging her to make an appointment for an interview. Then
+he flung himself on the narrow sofa, with his face to the wall.
+The old man also lay down on his bed, and there long tossed about,
+coughing and swallowing mouthfuls of his _tisane_.
+
+The morning came; they both arose--strange were the looks they
+exchanged. Lavretsky would have liked to kill himself just then.
+Katrin the cook brought them some bad coffee, and then, when eight
+o'clock struck, Lemm put on his hat and went out saying that he was
+to have given a lesson at the Kalitines' at ten o'clock, but that he
+would find a fitting excuse for going there sooner.
+
+Lavretsky again threw himself on the couch, and again a bitter laugh
+broke out from the depths of his heart. He thought of how his wife had
+driven him out of the house; he pictured to himself Liza's position,
+and then he shut his eyes, and wrung his hands above his head.
+
+At length Lemm returned and brought him a scrap of paper, on which
+Liza had traced the following words in pencil: "We cannot see each
+other to-day; perhaps we may to-morrow evening. Farewell." Lavretsky
+thanked Lemm absently and stiffly, and then went home.
+
+He found his wife at breakfast. Ada, with her hair all in curl-papers,
+and dressed in a short white frock with blue ribbons, was eating
+a mutton cutlet. Varvara Pavlovna rose from her seat the moment
+Lavretsky entered the room, and came towards him with an expression of
+humility on her face. He asked her to follow him into his study, and
+when there he shut the door and began to walk up and down the room.
+She sat down, folded her hands, and began to follow his movements with
+eyes which were still naturally beautiful, besides having their lids
+dyed a little.
+
+For a long time Lavretsky could not begin what he had to say, feeling
+that he had not complete mastery over himself. As for his wife, he saw
+that she was not at all afraid of him, although she looked as if she
+might at any moment go off into a fainting fit.
+
+"Listen, Madame," at last he began, breathing with difficulty, and at
+times setting his teeth hard. "There is no reason why we should be
+hypocritical towards each other. I do not believe in your repentance;
+but even if it were genuine, it would be impossible for me to rejoin
+you and live with you again."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna bit her lips and half closed her eyes. "That's
+dislike," she thought. "It's all over. I'm not even a woman for him."
+
+"Impossible," repeated Lavretsky, and buttoned his coat. "I don't know
+why you have been pleased to honor me by coming here. Most probably
+you are out of funds."
+
+"Don't say that--you wound my feelings," whispered Varvara Pavlovna.
+
+"However that may be, you are still, to my sorrow, my wife. I
+cannot drive you away, so this is what I propose. You can go to
+Lavriki--to-day if you like--and live there! There is an excellent
+house there, as you know. You shall have every thing you can want,
+besides your allowance. Do you consent?"
+
+Varvara Pavlovna raised her embroidered handkerchief to her face.
+
+"I have already told you," she said, with a nervous twitching of her
+lips, "that I will agree to any arrangement you may please to make for
+me. At present I have only to ask you--will you at least allow me to
+thank you for your generosity?"
+
+"No thanks, I beg of you--we shall do much better without them,"
+hastily exclaimed Lavretsky. "Then, he added, approaching the door, I
+may depend upon--"
+
+"To-morrow I will be at Lavriki," replied Varvara Pavlovna, rising
+respectfully from her seat. "But Fedor Ivanich--" ("She no longer
+familiarly called him Theodore).
+
+"What do you wish to say?"
+
+"I am aware that I have not yet in any way deserved forgiveness. But
+may I hope that, at least, in time--"
+
+"Ah, Varvara Pavlovna," cried Lavretsky, interrupting her, "you are a
+clever woman; but I, too, am not a fool. I know well that you have no
+need of forgiveness. Besides, I forgave you long ago; but there has
+always been a gulf between you and me."
+
+"I shall know how to submit," answered Varvara Pavlovna, and bowed her
+head. "I have not forgotten my fault. I should not have wondered if I
+had learnt that you had even been glad to hear of my death," she added
+in a soft voice, with a slight wave of her hand towards the newspaper,
+which was lying on the table where Lavretsky had forgotten it.
+
+Lavretsky shuddered. The _feuilleton_ had a pencil mark against it.
+Varvara Pavlovna gazed at him with an expression of even greater
+humility than before on her face. She looked very handsome at that
+moment. Her grey dress, made by a Parisian milliner, fitted closely
+to her pliant figure, which seemed almost like that of a girl of
+seventeen. Her soft and slender neck, circled by a white collar, her
+bosom's gentle movement under the influence of her steady breathing,
+her arms and hands, on which she wore neither bracelets nor rings,
+her whole figure, from her lustrous hair to the tip of the scarcely
+visible _bottine_, all was so artistic!
+
+Lavretsky eyed her with a look of hate, feeling hardly able to
+abstain from crying _brava_, hardly able to abstain from striking her
+down--and went away.
+
+An hour later he was already on the road to Vasilievskoe, and two
+hours later Varvara Pavlovna ordered the best carriage on hire in the
+town to be got for her, put on a simple straw hat with a black veil,
+and a modest mantilla, left Justine in charge of Ada, and went to the
+Kalitines'. From the inquiries Justine had made, Madame Lavretsky had
+learnt that her husband was in the habit of going there every day.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.
+
+
+The day on which Lavretsky's wife arrived in O.--sad day for
+him--was also a day of trial for Liza. Before she had had time to go
+down-stairs and say good morning to her mother, the sound of a horse's
+hoofs was heard underneath the window, and, with a secret feeling of
+alarm, she saw Panshine ride into the court-yard. "It is to get a
+definite answer that he has come so early," she thought; and she
+was not deceived. After taking a turn through the drawing-room, he
+proposed to go into the garden with her; and when there he asked her
+how his fate was to be decided.
+
+Liza summoned up her courage, and told him that she could not be his
+wife. He listened to all she had to say, turning himself a little
+aside, with his hat pressed down over his eyes. Then, with perfect
+politeness, but in an altered tone, he asked her if that was her final
+decision, and whether he had not, in some way or other, been the cause
+of such a change in her ideas. Then he covered his eyes with his hand
+for a moment, breathed one quick sigh, and took his hand away from his
+face.
+
+"I wanted to follow the beaten track," he said sadly; "I wanted to
+choose a companion for myself according to the dictates of my heart.
+But I see that it is not to be. So farewell to my fancy!"
+
+He made Liza a low bow, and went back into the house.
+
+She hoped he would go away directly; but he went to her mother's
+boudoir, and remained an hour with her. As he was leaving the house he
+said to Liza, "_Votre mère vous appelle: Adieu à jamais_!" then he got
+on his horse, and immediately set off at full gallop.
+
+On going to her mother's room, Liza found her in tears. Panshine had
+told her about his failure.
+
+"Why should you kill me? Why should you kill me?" Thus did the
+mortified widow begin her complaint. "What better man do you want? Why
+is he not fit to be your husband? A chamberlain! and so disinterested
+Why, at Petersburg he might marry any of the maids of honor! And I--I
+had so longed for it. And how long is it since you changed your mind
+about him? Wherever has this cloud blown from?--for it has never come
+of its own accord. Surely it isn't that wiseacre? A pretty adviser you
+have found, if that's the case!"
+
+"And as for him, my poor, dear friend," continued Maria Dmitrievna,
+"how respectful he was, how attentive, even in the midst of his
+sorrow! He has promised not to desert me. Oh, I shall never be able to
+bear this! Oh, my head is beginning to ache dreadfully! Send Palashka
+here. You will kill me, if you don't think better of it. Do you hear?"
+And then, after having told Liza two or three times that she was
+ungrateful, Maria Dmitrievna let her go away.
+
+Liza went to her room. But before she had had a moment's
+breathing-time after her scene with Panshine and with her mother,
+another storm burst upon her, and that from the quarter from which she
+least expected it.
+
+Marfa Timofeevna suddenly came into her room, and immediately shut the
+door after her. The old lady's face was pale; her cap was all
+awry; her eyes were flashing, her lips quivering. Liza was lost in
+astonishment. She had never seen her shrewd and steady aunt in such a
+state before.
+
+"Very good, young lady!" Marfa Timofeevna began to whisper, with a
+broken and trembling voice. "Very good! Only who taught that, my
+mother--Give me some water; I can't speak."
+
+"Do be calm, aunt. What is the matter?" said Liza, giving her a glass
+of water. "Why, I thought you didn't like M. Panshine yourself."
+
+Marfa Timofeevna pushed the glass away. "I can't drink it. I should
+knock out my last teeth, if I tried. What has Panshine to do with it?
+Whatever have we to do with Panshine? Much better tell me who taught
+you to make appointments with people at night. Eh, my mother!"
+
+Liza turned very pale.
+
+"Don't try to deny it, please," continued Marfa Timofeevna. "Shurochka
+saw it all herself, and told me. I've had to forbid her chattering,
+but she never tells lies.".--
+
+"I am not going to deny it, aunt," said Liza, in a scarcely audible
+voice.
+
+"Ah, ah! Then it is so, my mother. You made an appointment with him,
+that old sinner, that remarkably sweet creature!"
+
+"No."
+
+"How was it, then?"
+
+"I came down to the drawing-room to look for a book. He was in the
+garden; and he called me."
+
+"And you went? Very good, indeed! Perhaps you love him, then?"
+
+"I do love him," said Liza quietly.
+
+"Oh, my mothers! She does love him!" Here Marfa Timofeevna took off
+her cap. "She loves a married man! Eh? Loves him!"
+
+"He had told me--" began Liza.
+
+"What he had told you, this little hawk? Eh, what?"
+
+"He had told me that his wife was dead."
+
+Marfa Timofeevna made the sign of the cross. "The kingdom of heaven be
+to her," she whispered. "She was a frivolous woman. But don't let's
+think about that. So that's how it is. I see, he's a widower. Oh yes,
+he's going ahead. He has killed one wife, and now he's after a second.
+A nice sort of person he is, to be sure. But, niece, let me tell you
+this, in my young days things of this kind used to turn out very badly
+for girls. Don't be angry with me, my mother. It's only tools who are
+angry with the truth. I've even told them not to let him in to see me
+to-day. I love him, but I shall never forgive him for this. So he is
+a widower! Give me some water. But as to your putting Panshine's nose
+out of joint, why I think you're a good girl for that. But don't go
+sitting out at night with men creatures. Don't make me wretched in my
+old age, and remember that I'm not altogether given over to fondling.
+I can bite, too--A widower!"
+
+Marfa Timofeevna went away, and Liza sat down in a corner, and cried a
+long time. Her heart was heavy within her. She had not deserved to be
+so humiliated. It was not in a joyous manner that love had made itself
+known to her. It was for the second time since yesterday morning that
+she was crying now. This new and unlooked-for feeling had only just
+sprung into life within her heart, and already how deafly had she had
+to pay for it, how roughly had other hands dealt with her treasured
+secret! She felt ashamed, and hurt, and unhappy; but neither doubt nor
+fear troubled her, and Lavretsky became only still dearer to her. She
+had hesitated so long as she was not sure of her own feelings; but
+after that interview, after that kiss--she could no longer hesitate.
+She knew now that she loved, and that she loved earnestly, honestly;
+she knew that her's was a firm attachment, one which would last for
+her whole life. As for threats, she did not fear them. She felt that
+this tie was one which no violence could break.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.
+
+
+Maria Dmitrievna was greatly embarrassed when she was informed that
+Madame Lavretsky was at the door. She did not even know whether she
+ought to receive her, being afraid of offending Lavretsky; but at last
+curiosity prevailed. "After all," she thought, "she is a relation,
+too." So she seated herself in an easy chair, and said to the footman,
+"Show her in."
+
+A few minutes went by, then the door was thrown open, and Varvara
+Pavlovna, with a swift and almost noiseless step, came up to Maria
+Dmitrievna, and, without giving her time to rise from her chair,
+almost went down upon her knees before her.
+
+"Thank you, aunt," she began in Russian, speaking softly, but in a
+tone of deep emotion. "Thank you; I had not even dared to hope that
+you would condescend so far. You are an angel of goodness."
+
+Having said this, Varvara Pavlovna unexpectedly laid hold of one of
+Maria Dmitrievna's hands, gently pressed it between her pale-lilac
+Jouvin's gloves, and then lifted it respectfully to her pouting, rosy
+lips. Maria Dmitrievna was entirely carried away by the sight of such
+a handsome and exquisitely dressed woman almost at her feet, and did
+not know what position to assume. She felt half inclined to draw back
+her hand, half inclined to make her visitor sit down, and to say
+something affectionate to her. She ended by rising from her chair and
+kissing Varvara's smooth and perfumed forehead.
+
+Varvara appeared to be totally overcome by that kiss.
+
+"How do you do? _bonjour_," said Maria Dmitrievna. "I never
+imagined--however, I'm really delighted to see you. You will
+understand, my dear, it is not my business to be judge between a man
+and his wife."
+
+"My husband is entirely in the right," said Varvara Pavlovna,
+interrupting her, "I alone am to blame."
+
+"Those are very praiseworthy sentiments, very," said Maria Dmitrievna.
+"Is it long since you arrived? Have you seen him? But do sit down."
+
+"I arrived yesterday," answered Varvara Pavlovna, seating herself on a
+chair in an attitude expressive of humility. "I have seen my husband,
+and I have spoken with him."
+
+"Ah! Well, and what did he say?"
+
+"I was afraid that my coming so suddenly might make him angry,"
+continued Varvara Pavlovna; "but he did not refuse to see me."
+
+"That is to say, he has not--Yes, yes, I understand," said Maria
+Dmitrievna. "It is only outwardly that he seems a little rough; his
+heart is really soft."
+
+"Fedor Ivanovich has not pardoned me. He did not want to listen to me.
+But he has been good enough to let me have Lavriki to live in."
+
+"Ah, a lovely place!"
+
+"I shall set off there to-morrow, according to his desire. But I
+considered it a duty to pay you a visit first."
+
+"I am very, very much obliged to you my dear. One ought never to
+forget one's relations. But do you know I am astonished at your
+speaking Russian so well. _C'est étonnant_."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna smiled.
+
+"I have been too long abroad, Maria Dmitrievna, I am well aware of
+that. But my heart has always been Russian, and I have not forgotten
+my native land."
+
+"Yes, yes. There's nothing like that. Your husband certainly didn't
+expect you in the least. Yes, trust my experience--_la patrie avant
+tout_. Oh! please let me! What a charming mantilla you have on!"
+
+"Do you like it?" Varvara took it quickly off her shoulders. "It is
+very simple; one of Madame Baudran's."
+
+"One can see that at a glance. How lovely, and in what exquisite
+taste! I feel sure you've brought a number of charming things with
+you. How I should like to see them!"
+
+"All my toilette is at your service, dearest aunt. I might show your
+maid something if you liked. I have brought a maid from Paris, a
+wonderful needle-woman."
+
+"You are exceedingly good, my dear. But, really, I haven't the
+conscience--"
+
+"Haven't the conscience!" repeated Varvara Pavlovna, in a reproachful
+tone. "If you wish to make me happy, you will dispose of me as if I
+belonged to you."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna fairly gave way.
+
+"_Vous êtes charmante_," she said. But why don't you take off your
+bonnet and gloves?"
+
+"What! You allow me?" asked Varvara Pavlovna, gently clasping her
+hands with an air of deep emotion.
+
+"Of course. You will dine with us, I hope. I--I will introduce my
+daughter to you." (Maria Dmitrievna felt embarrassed for a moment, but
+then, "Well, so be it," she thought.) "She happens not to be quite
+well to-day.'
+
+"Oh! _ma tante_, how kind you are!" exclaimed Varvara Pavlovna,
+lifting her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+At this moment the page announced Gedeonovsky's arrival, and the
+old gossip came in smiling, and bowing profoundly. Maria Dmitrievna
+introduced him to her visitor. At first he was somewhat abashed, but
+Varvara Pavlovna behaved to him with such coquettish respectfulness
+that his ears soon began to tingle, and amiable speeches and gossiping
+stories began to flow uninterruptedly from his lips.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna listened to him, slightly smiling at times, then by
+degrees she too began to talk. She spoke in a modest way about Paris,
+about her travels, about Baden; she made Maria Dmitrievna laugh two or
+three times, and each time she uttered a gentle sigh afterwards, as if
+she were secretly reproaching herself for her unbecoming levity; she
+asked leave to bring Ada to the house; she took off her gloves, and
+with her smooth white hands she pointed out how and where flounces,
+ruches, lace, and so forth, were worn; she promised to bring a bottle
+of new English scent--the Victoria essence--and was as pleased as a
+child when Maria Dmitrievna consented to accept it as a present;
+and she melted into tears at the remembrance of the emotion she had
+experienced when she heard the first Russian bells.
+
+"So profoundly did they sink into my very heart," she said.
+
+At that moment Liza came into the room.
+
+All that day, ever since the moment when, cold with dismay, Liza had
+read Lavretsky's note, she had been preparing herself for an interview
+with his wife. She foresaw that she would see her, and she determined
+not to avoid her, by way of inflicting upon herself a punishment for
+what she considered her culpable hopes. The unexpected crisis which
+had taken place in her fate had profoundly shaken her. In the course
+of about a couple of hours her face seemed to have grown thin. But
+she had not shed a single tear. "It is what you deserve," she said to
+herself, repressing, though not without difficulty, and at the cost
+of considerable agitation, certain bitter thoughts and evil impulses
+which frightened her as they arose in her mind. "Well, I must go," she
+thought, as soon as she heard of Madame Lavretsky's arrival, and she
+went.
+
+She stood outside the drawing-room door for a long time before she
+could make up her mind to open it At last, saying to herself, "I am
+guilty before her," she entered the room, and forced herself to look
+at her, even forced herself to smile. Varvara Pavlovna came forward to
+meet her as soon as she saw her come in, and made her a slight, but
+still a respectful salutation.
+
+"Allow me to introduce myself," she began, in an insinuating tone."
+Your mamma has been so indulgent towards me that I hope that you too
+will be--good to me."
+
+The expression of Varvara Pavlovna's face as she uttered these last
+words, her cunning smile, her cold and, at the same time, loving look,
+the movements of her arms and shoulders, her very dress, her whole
+being, aroused such a feeling of repugnance in Liza's mind that she
+absolutely could not answer her, and only by a strong effort could
+succeed in holding out her hand to her. "This young lady dislikes me,"
+thought Varvara Pavlovna, as she squeezed Liza's cold fingers, then,
+turning to Maria Dmitrievna, she said in a half whisper. "_Mais elle
+est délicieuse_!"
+
+Liza faintly reddened. In that exclamation she seemed to detect a tone
+of irony and insult. However, she determined not to trust to that
+impression, and she took her seat at her embroidery frame near the
+window.
+
+Even there Varvara Pavlovna would not leave her in peace. She came to
+her, and began to praise her cleverness and taste. Liza's heart began
+to beat with painful force. Scarcely could she master her feelings,
+scarcely could she remain sitting quietly in her place. It seemed to
+her as if Varvara Pavlovna knew all and were mocking her with secret
+triumph. Fortunately for her, Gedeonovsky began to talk to Varvara
+and diverted her attention. Liza bent over her frame and watched her
+without being observed. "That woman," she thought, "was once loved by
+_him_." But then she immediately drove out of her mind even so much as
+the idea of Lavretsky. She felt her head gradually beginning to swim,
+and she was afraid of losing command over herself. Maria Dmitrievna
+began to talk about music.
+
+"I have heard, my dear," she began, "that you are a wonderful
+_virtuosa_."
+
+"I haven't played for a long time," replied Varvara Pavlovna, but she
+immediately took her seat at the piano and ran her fingers rapidly
+along the keys. "Do you wish me to play?"
+
+"If you will do us that favor."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna played in a masterly style a brilliant and difficult
+study by Herz. Her performance was marked by great power and rapidity.
+
+"_A sylphide_!" exclaimed Gedeonovsky.
+
+"It is wonderful!" declared Maria Dmitrievna. "I must confess you have
+fairly astonished me, Varvara Pavlovna," calling that lady by her name
+for the first time. "Why you might give concerts. We have a musician
+here, an old German, very learned and quite an original. He gives Liza
+lessons. You would simply make him go out of his mind."
+
+"Is Lizaveta Mikhailovna also a musician?" asked Madame Lavretsky,
+turning her head a little towards her.
+
+"Yes; she doesn't play badly, and she is very fond I of music. But
+what does that signify in comparison with you? But we have a young man
+here besides. You really must make his acquaintance. He is a thorough
+artist in feeling, and he composes charmingly. He is the only person
+here who can fully appreciate you"
+
+"A young man?" said Varvara Pavlovna. "What is he? Some poor fellow?"
+
+"I beg your pardon. He is the leading cavalier here, and not here
+only--_et à Pétersbourg_--a chamberlain, received in the best society.
+You surely must have heard of him--Vladimir Nikolaevich Panshine. He
+is here on government business--a future minister!"
+
+"And an artist too?"
+
+"An artist in feeling, and so amiable. You shall see him. He has
+been here a great deal for some time past. I asked him to come this
+evening. I _hope_ he will come," added Maria Dmitrievna with a slight
+sigh and a bitter smile.
+
+Liza understood the hidden meaning of that smile, but she had other
+things to think about then.
+
+"And he's young?" repeated Varvara Pavlovna, lightly modulating from
+key to key.
+
+"Twenty-eight years old--and a most pleasing exterior. _Un jeune homme
+accompli_."
+
+"A model young man, one may say," remarked Gedeonovsky.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna suddenly began to play a noisy waltz by Strauss,
+beginning with so loud and quick a trill that Gedeonovsky fairly
+started. Right in the middle of the waltz she passed abruptly into a
+plaintive air, and ended with the _Fra poco_ out of _Lucia_. She had
+suddenly remembered that joyful music was not in keeping with her
+position.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna was deeply touched by the air from _Lucia_, in which
+great stress was laid upon the sentimental passages.
+
+"What feeling!" she whispered to Gedeonovsky.
+
+"_A Sylphide_!" repeated Gedeonovsky, lifting his eyes to heaven.
+
+The dinner hour arrived. Marfa Timofeevna did not come down from
+up-stairs until the soup was already placed on the table. She behaved
+very coldly to Varvara Pavlovna, answering her amiable speeches with
+broken phrases, and never even looking at her. Varvara soon perceived
+that there was no conversation to be got out of that old lady, so she
+gave up talking to her. On the other hand Madame Kalitine became still
+more caressing in her behavior towards her guest. She was vexed by her
+aunt's rudeness.
+
+After all, it was not only Varvara that the old lady would not look
+at. She did not once look at Liza either, although her eyes almost
+glowed with a meaning light. Pale, almost yellow, there she sat, with
+compressed lips, looking as if she were made of stone, and would eat
+nothing.
+
+As for Liza, she seemed calm, and was so in reality. Her heart was
+quieter than it had been. A strange callousness, the callousness of
+the condemned, had come over her.
+
+During dinner Varvara Pavlovna said little. She seemed to have become
+timid again, and her face wore an expression of modest melancholy.
+Gedeonovsky was the only person who kept the conversation alive,
+relating several of his stories, though from time to time he looked
+timidly at Marfa Timofeevna and coughed. That cough always seized him
+whenever he was going to embellish the truth in her presence. But this
+time she did not meddle with him, never once interrupted him.
+
+After dinner it turned out that Varvara Pavlovna was very fond of the
+game of preference. Madame Kalitine was so pleased at this that she
+felt quite touched and inwardly thought, "Why, what a fool Fedor
+Ivanovich must be! Fancy not having been able to comprehend such a
+woman!"
+
+She sat down to cards with Varvara and Gedeonov sky; but Marfa
+Timofeevna carried off Liza to her room up-stairs, saying that the
+girl "had no face left," and she was sure her head must be aching.
+
+"Yes, her head aches terribly," said Madame Kalitine, addressing
+Varvara Pavlovna, and rolling her eyes. "I often have such headaches
+myself."
+
+"Really!" answered Varvara Pavlovna.
+
+Liza entered her aunt's room, and sank on a chair perfectly worn out.
+For a long time Marfa Timofeevna looked at her in silence, then she
+quietly knelt down before her, and began, still quite silently, to
+kiss her hands--first one, and then the other.
+
+Liza bent forwards and reddened--then she began to cry; but she did
+not make her aunt rise, nor did she withdraw her hands from her. She
+felt that she had no right to withdraw them--had no right to prevent
+the old lady from expressing her sorrow, her sympathy--from asking
+to be pardoned for what had taken place the day before. And Marfa
+Timofeevna could not sufficiently kiss those poor, pale, nerveless
+hands; while silent tears poured down from her eyes and from Liza's
+too. And the cat, Matros, purred in the large chair by the side of the
+stocking and the ball of worsted; the long, thin flame of the little
+lamp feebly wavered in front of the holy picture; and in the next
+room, just the other side of the door, stood Nastasia Carpovna, and
+furtively wiped her eyes with a check pocket-handkerchief, rolled up
+into a sort of ball.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.
+
+
+Down-stairs, meanwhile, the game of preference went on. Maria
+Dmitrievna was winning, and was in a very good humor. A servant
+entered and announced Panshine's arrival. Maria Dmitrievna let fall
+her cards, and fidgeted in her chair. Varvara Pavlovna looked at her
+with a half-smile, and then turned her eyes towards the door.
+
+Panshine appeared in a black dress-coat, buttoned all the way up, and
+wearing a high English shirt-collar. "It was painful for me to obey;
+but, you see, I have come;" that was what was expressed by his serious
+face, evidently just shaved for the occasion.
+
+"Why, Valdemar!" exclaimed Maria Dmitrievna, "you used always to come
+in without being announced."
+
+Panshine made no other reply than a look, and bowed politely to Maria
+Dmitrievna, but did not kiss her hand. She introduced him to Varvara
+Pavlovna. He drew back a pace, bowed to her with the same politeness
+and with an added expression of respectful grace, and then took a seat
+at the card-table. The game soon came to an end. Panshine asked after
+Lizaveta Mikhailovna, and expressed his regret at hearing that she
+was not quite well. Then he began to converse with Varvara Pavlovna,
+weighing every word carefully and emphasizing it distinctly in true
+diplomatic style, and, when she spoke, respectfully hearing her
+answers to the end. But the seriousness of his diplomatic tone
+produced no effect upon Varvara Pavlovna, who would have nothing to do
+with it. On the contrary, she looked him full in the face with a sort
+of smiling earnestness, and in talking with him seemed thoroughly at
+her ease, while her delicate nostrils lightly quivered, as though with
+suppressed laughter.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna began to extol Varvara's cleverness. Panshine bent
+his head politely, as far as his shirt-collar permitted him, declared
+that he had already been convinced of the exceptional nature of her
+talents, and all but brought round the conversation to the subject of
+Metternich himself. Varvara Pavlovna half-closed her velvety eyes,
+and, having said in a low voice, "But you are an artist also, _un
+confrère_," added still lower, "_Venez_!" and made a sign with her
+head in the direction of the piano. This single word, "_Venez_!" so
+abruptly spoken, utterly changed Panshine's appearance, as if by
+magic, in a single moment. His care-worn air disappeared, he began to
+smile, he became animated, he unbuttoned his coat, and, saying "I am
+an artist! Not at all; but you, I hear, are an artist indeed," he
+followed Varvara Pavlovna to the piano.
+
+"Tell him to sing the romance, 'How the moon floats,'" exclaimed Maria
+Dmitrievna.
+
+"You sing?" asked Varvara Pavlovna, looking at him with a bright and
+rapid glance. "Sit down there."
+
+Panshine began to excuse himself.
+
+"Sit down," she repeated, tapping the back of the chair in a
+determined manner.
+
+He sat down, coughed, pulled up his shirt-collar, and sang his
+romance.
+
+"_Charmant_," said Varvara Pavlovna. "You sing admirably--_vous avez
+du style_. Sing it again."
+
+She went round to the other side of the piano, and placed herself
+exactly opposite Panshine. He repeated his romance, giving a
+melodramatic variation to his voice. Varvara looked at him steadily,
+resting her elbows on the piano, with her white hands on a level with
+her lips. The song ended, "_Charmant! Charmante idée_," she said, with
+the quiet confidence of a connoisseur. "Tell me, have you written
+anything for a woman's voice--a mezzo-soprano?"
+
+"I scarcely write anything," answered Panshine. "I do so only now and
+then--between business hours. But do you sing?"
+
+"Oh yes! do sing us something," said Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna tossed her head, and pushed her hair back from her
+flushed cheeks. Then, addressing Panshine, she said--
+
+"Our voices ought to go well together. Let us sing a duet. Do you know
+'_Son geloso_,' or '_La ci darem_,' or '_Mira la bianca luna_?'"
+
+"I used to sing '_Mira la bianca luna_,'" answered Panshine; but it
+was a long time ago. I have forgotten it now."
+
+"Never mind, we will hum it over first by way of experiment. Let me
+come there."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna sat down to the piano. Panshine stood by her side.
+They hummed over the duet, Varvara Pavlovna correcting him several
+times; then they sang it out loud, and afterwards repeated it
+twice--"_Mira la bianca lu-u-una_." Varvara's voice had lost its
+freshness, but she managed it with great skill. At first Panshine
+was nervous, and sang rather false, but afterwards he experienced an
+artistic glow; and, if he did not sing faultlessly, at all events he
+shrugged his shoulders, swayed his body to and fro, and from time to
+time lifted his hand aloft, like a genuine vocalist.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna afterwards played two or three little pieces by
+Thalberg, and coquettishly chanted a French song. Maria Dmitrievna
+did not know how to express her delight, and several times she felt
+inclined to send for Liza. Gedeonovsky, too, could not find words
+worthy of the occasion, and could only shake his head. Suddenly,
+however, and quite unexpectedly, he yawned, and only just contrived to
+hide his mouth with his hand.
+
+That yawn did not escape Varvara's notice. She suddenly turned her
+back upon the piano, saying, "_Assez de musique comme ça_; let us talk
+a little," and crossed her hands before her.
+
+"_Oui, asses de musique_," gladly repeated Panshine, and began a
+conversation with her--a brisk and airy conversation, carried on
+in French. "Exactly as if it were in one of the best Paris
+drawing-rooms," thought Maria Dmitrievna, listening to their quick and
+supple talk.
+
+Panshine felt completely happy. He smiled, and his eyes shone. At
+first, when he happened to meet Maria Dmitrievna's eyes, he would pass
+his hand across his face and frown and sigh abruptly, but after a time
+he entirely forgot her presence, and gave himself up unreservedly to
+the enjoyment of a half-fashionable, half-artistic chat.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna proved herself a great philosopher. She had an answer
+ready for everything; she doubted nothing; she did not hesitate at
+anything. It was evident that she had talked often and much with all
+kinds of clever people. All her thoughts and feelings circled around
+Paris. When Panshine made literature the subject of the conversation,
+it turned out that she, like him, had read nothing but French books.
+George Sand irritated her; Balzac she esteemed, although he wearied
+her; to Eugène Sue and Scribe she ascribed a profound knowledge of the
+human heart; Dumas and Féval she adored. In reality she preferred Paul
+de Kock to all the others; but, as may be supposed, she did not even
+mention his name. To tell the truth, literature did not interest her
+overmuch.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna avoided with great skill every thing that might, even
+remotely, allude to her position. In all that she said, there was not
+even the slightest mention made of love; on the contrary, her language
+seemed rather to express an austere feeling with regard to the
+allurements of the passions, and to breathe the accents of
+disillusionment and resignation.
+
+Panshine replied to her, but she refused to agree with him. Strange
+to say, however, at the very time when she was uttering words which
+conveyed what was frequently a harsh judgment, the accents of those
+very words were tender and caressing, and her eyes expressed--What
+those charming eyes expressed it would be hard to say, but it was
+something which had no harshness about it, rather a mysterious
+sweetness. Panshine tried to make out their hidden meaning, tried to
+make his own eyes eloquent, but he was conscious that he failed. He
+acknowledged that Varvara Pavlovna, in her capacity as a real lioness
+from abroad, stood on a higher level than he; and, therefore, he was
+not altogether master of himself.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna had a habit of every now and then just touching the
+sleeve of the person with whom she was conversing. These light touches
+greatly agitated Panshine. She had the faculty of easily becoming
+intimate with any one. Before a couple of hours had passed, it seemed
+to Panshine as if he had known her an age, and as if Liza--that very
+Liza whom he had loved so much, and to whom he had proposed the
+evening before--had vanished in a kind of fog.
+
+Tea was brought; the conversation became even more free from restraint
+than before. Madame Kalitine rang for the page, and told him to ask
+Liza to come down if her headache was better. At the sound of Liza's
+name, Panshine began to talk about self-sacrifice, and to discuss the
+question as to which is the more capable of such sacrifice--man or
+woman. Maria Dmitrievna immediately became excited, began to affirm
+that the woman is the more capable, asserted that she could prove
+the fact in a few words, got confused over them, and ended with a
+sufficiently unfortunate comparison. Varvara Pavlovna took up a sheet
+of music, and half-screening her face with it, bent over towards
+Panshine, and said in a whisper, while she nibbled a biscuit, a quiet
+smile playing about her lips and her eyes, "_Elle n'a pas inventé la
+poudre, la bonne dame_."
+
+Panshine was somewhat astonished, and a little alarmed by Varvara's
+audacity, but he did not detect the amount of contempt for himself
+that lay hid in that unexpected sally, and--forgetting all Maria
+Dmitrievna's kindness and her attachment towards him, forgetting the
+dinners she had given him, the money she had lent him--he replied
+(unhappy mortal that he was) in the same tone, and with a similar
+smile, "_Je crois bien_!" and what is more he did not even say "_Je
+crois bien_!" but "_J'crois ben_!"
+
+Varvara Pavlovna gave him a friendly look, and rose from her seat.
+At that moment Liza entered the room. Marfa Timofeevna had tried to
+prevent her going but in vain. Liza was resolved to endure her trial
+to the end. Varvara Pavlovna advanced to meet her, attended by
+Panshine, whose face again wore its former diplomatic expression.
+
+"How are you now?" asked Varvara.
+
+"I am better now, thank you," replied Liza.
+
+"We have been passing the time with a little music," said Panshine.
+"It is a pity you did not hear Varvara Pavlovna. She sings charmingly,
+_en artiste consommée_."
+
+"Come here, _ma chère_," said Madame Kalitine's voice.
+
+With childlike obedience, Varvara immediately went to her, and sat
+down on a stool at her feet. Maria Dmitrievna had called her away, in
+order that she might leave her daughter alone with Panshine, if only
+for a moment. She still hoped in secret that Liza would change her
+mind. Besides this, an idea had come into her mind, which she wanted
+by all means to express.
+
+"Do you know," she whispered to Varvara Pavlovna, "I want to try and
+reconcile you and your husband. I cannot promise to succeed, but I
+will try. He esteems me very much, you know."
+
+Varvara slowly looked up at Maria Dmitrievna, and gracefully clasped
+her hands together.
+
+"You would be my saviour, _ma tante_," she said, with a sad voice. "I
+don't know how to thank you properly for all your kindness; but I am
+too guilty before Fedor Ivanovich. He cannot forgive me."
+
+"But did you actually--in reality--?" began Maria Dmitrievna, with
+lively curiosity.
+
+"Do not ask me," said Varvara, interrupting her, and then looked
+down. "I was young, light headed--However, I don't wish to make
+excuses for myself."
+
+"Well, in spite of all that, why not make the attempt? Don't give way
+to despair," replied Maria Dmitrievna, and was going to tap her on
+the cheek, but looked at her, and was afraid. "She is modest and
+discreet," she thought, "but, for all that, a _lionne_ still!"
+
+"Are you unwell?" asked Panshine, meanwhile.
+
+"I am not quite well," replied Liza.
+
+"I understand," he said, after rather a long silence, "Yes, I
+understand."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I understand," significantly repeated Panshine, who simply was at a
+loss for something to say.
+
+Liza felt confused, but then she thought, "What does it matter?"
+
+Meanwhile Panshine assumed an air of mystery and maintained silence,
+looking in a different direction with a grave expression on his face.
+
+"Why I fancy it must be past eleven!" observed Maria Dmitrievna.
+Her guests understood the hint and began to take leave. Varvara was
+obliged to promise to come and dine to-morrow, and to bring Ada with
+her. Gedeonovsky, who had all but gone to sleep as he sat in a corner,
+offered to escort her home. Panshine bowed gravely to all the party;
+afterwards, as he stood on the steps after seeing Varvara into her
+carriage, he gave her hand a gentle pressure, and exclaimed, as
+she drove away, "_Au revoir_!" Gedeonovsky sat by her side in the
+carriage, and all the way home she amused herself by putting the tip
+of her little foot, as if by accident, on his foot. He felt abashed,
+and tried to make her complimentary speeches. She tittered, and made
+eyes at him when the light from the street lamps shone Into the
+carriage. The waltz she had played rang in her ears and excited her.
+Wherever she might be she had only to imagine a ballroom and a blaze
+of light, and swift circling round to the sound of music, and her
+heart would burn within her, her eyes would glow with a strange
+lustre, a smile would wander around her lips, a kind of bacchanalian
+grace would seem to diffuse itself over her whole body.
+
+When they arrived at her house Varvara lightly bounded from the
+carriage, as only a _lionne_ could bound, turned towards Gedeonovsky,
+and suddenly burst out laughing in his face.
+
+"A charming creature," thought the councillor of state, as he made his
+way home to his lodgings, where his servant was waiting for him with a
+bottle of opodeldoc. "It's as well that I'm a steady man--But why did
+she laugh?"
+
+All that night long Marfa Timofeevna sat watching by Liza's bedside.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX.
+
+
+Lavretsky spent a day and a half at Vasilievskoe, wandering about the
+neighborhood almost all the time. He could not remain long in any one
+place. His grief goaded him on. He experienced all the pangs of a
+ceaseless, impetuous, and impotent longing. He remembered the feeling
+which had come over him the day after his first arrival. He remembered
+the resolution he had formed then, and he felt angrily indignant with
+himself. What was it that had been able to wrest him aside from that
+which he had acknowledged as his duty, the single problem of his
+future life? The thirst after happiness--the old thirst after
+happiness. "It seems that Mikhalevich was right after all," he
+thought. "You wanted to find happiness in life once more," he said to
+himself. "You forgot that for happiness to visit a man even once is
+an undeserved favor, a steeping in luxury. Your happiness was
+incomplete--was false, you may say. Well, show what right you have to
+true and complete happiness! Look around you and see who is happy, who
+enjoys his life! There is a peasant going to the field to mow. It may
+be that he is satisfied with his lot. But what of that? Would you
+be willing to exchange lots with him? Remember your own mother. How
+exceedingly modest were her wishes, and yet what sort of a lot fell to
+her share! You seem to have only been boasting before Panshine, when
+you told him that you had come into Russia to till the soil. It was to
+run after the girls in your old age that you came. Tidings of freedom,
+reached you, and you flung aside every thing, forgot every thing, ran
+like a child after a butterfly."
+
+In the midst of his reflections the image of Liza constantly haunted
+him. By a violent effort he tried to drive it away, and along with it
+another haunting face, other beautiful but ever malignant and hateful
+features.
+
+Old Anton remarked that his master was not quite himself; and after
+sighing several times behind the door, and several times on the
+threshold, he ventured to go up to him, and advised him to drink
+something hot. Lavretsky spoke to him harshly, and ordered him out of
+the room: afterwards he told the old man he was sorry he had done so;
+but this only made Anton sadder than he had been before.
+
+Lavretsky could not stop in the drawing-room. He fancied that his
+great grandfather, Andrei, was looking out from his frame with
+contempt on his feeble descendant. "So much for you! You float in
+shallow water!"[A] the wry lips seemed to be saying to him. "Is it
+possible," he thought, "that I cannot gain mastery over myself; that
+I am going to yield to this--this trifling affair!" (Men who are
+seriously wounded in a battle always think their wounds "a mere
+trifle;" when a man can deceive himself no longer, it is time to give
+up living). "Am I really a child? Well, yes I have seen near at
+hand, I have almost grasped, the possibility of gaining a life-long
+happiness--and then it has suddenly disappeared. It is just the same
+in a lottery. Turn the wheel a little more, and the pauper would
+perhaps be rich. If it is not to be, it is not to be--and all is over.
+I will betake me to my work with set teeth, and I will force myself to
+be silent; and I shall succeed, for it is not for the first time that
+I take myself in hand. And why have I run away? Why do I stop here,
+vainly hiding my head, like an ostrich? Misfortune a terrible thing to
+look in the face! Nonsense!"
+
+[Footnote A: See note to page 142.]
+
+"Anton!" he called loudly, "let the tarantass be got ready
+immediately."
+
+"Yes," he said to himself again. "I must compel myself to be silent; I
+must keep myself tightly in hand."
+
+With such reflections as these Lavretsky sought to assuage his sorrow;
+but it remained as great and as bitter as before. Even Apraxia, who
+had outlived, not only her intelligence, but almost all her faculties,
+shook her head, and followed him with sad eyes as he started in
+the tarantass for the town. The horses galloped. He sat erect and
+motionless, and looked straight along the road.
+
+
+
+
+XL.
+
+
+Liza had written to Lavretsky the night before telling him to come and
+see her on this evening; but he went to his own house first. He did
+not find either his wife or his daughter there; and the servant told
+him that they had both gone to the Kalitines'! This piece of news both
+annoyed and enraged him. "Varvara Pavlovna seems to be determined not
+to let me live in peace," he thought, an angry feeling stirring in
+his heart. He began walking up and down the room, pushing away every
+moment, with hand or foot, one of the toys or books or feminine
+belongings which fell in his way. Then he called Justine, and told her
+to take away all that "rubbish."
+
+"_Oui, monsieur_," she replied, with a grimace, and began to set the
+room in order, bending herself into graceful attitudes, and by each
+of her gestures making Lavretsky feel that she considered him an
+uncivilized bear. It was with a sensation of downright hatred that he
+watched the mocking expression of her faded, but still _piquante_,
+Parisian face, and looked at her white sleeves, her silk apron, and
+her little cap. At last he sent her away, and, after long hesitation,
+as Varvara Pavlovna did not return, he determined to go to the
+Kalitines', and pay a visit, not to Madame Kalitine (for nothing would
+have induced him to enter her drawing-room--that drawing-room in which
+his wife was), but to Marfa Timofeevna. He remembered that a back
+staircase, used by the maid-servants, led straight to her room.
+
+Lavretsky carried out his plan. By a fortunate chance he met Shurochka
+in the court-yard, and she brought him to Marfa Timofeevna. He found
+the old lady, contrary to her usual custom, alone. She was without her
+cap, and was sitting in a corner of the room in a slouching attitude,
+her arms folded across her breast. When she saw Lavretsky, she was
+much agitated, and jumping up hastily from her chair, she began going
+here and there about the room, as if she were looking for her cap.
+
+"Ah! so you have come, then," she said, fussing about and avoiding his
+eyes. "Well, good day to you! Well, what's--what's to be done? Where
+were you yesterday? Well, she has come. Well--yes. Well, it must
+be--somehow or other."
+
+Lavretsky sank upon a chair.
+
+"Well, sit down, sit down," continued the old lady. "Did you come
+straight up-stairs? Yes, of course. Eh! You came to see after me? Many
+thanks."
+
+The old lady paused. Lavretsky did not know what to say to her; but
+she understood him.
+
+"Liza--yes; Liza was here just now," she continued tying and untying
+the strings of her work-bag. "She isn't quite well. Shurochka, where
+are you? Come here, my mother; cannot you sit still a moment? And I
+have a headache myself. It must be that singing which has given me it,
+and the music."
+
+"What singing, aunt?"
+
+"What? don't you know? They have already begun--what do you
+call them?--duets down there. And all in Italian--chi-chi and
+cha-cha--regular magpies. With their long drawn-out notes, one would
+think they were going to draw one's soul out. It's that Panshine, and
+your wife too. And how quickly it was all arranged! Quite without
+ceremony, just as if among near relations. However, one must say that
+even a dog will try to find itself a home somewhere. You needn't die
+outside if folks don't chase you away from their houses."
+
+"I certainly must confess I did not expect this," answered Lavretsky.
+"This must have required considerable daring."
+
+"No, my dear, it isn't daring with her, it is calculation. However,
+God be with her! They say you are going to send her to Lavriki. Is
+that true?"
+
+"Yes; I am going to make over that property to her."
+
+"Has she asked you for money?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Well, that request won't be long in coming. But--I haven't looked at
+you till now--are you well?"
+
+"Quite well."
+
+"Shurochka!" suddenly exclaimed the old lady. "Go and tell Lizaveta
+Mikhailovna--that is--no--ask her--Is she down-stairs?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, yes. Ask her where she has put my book She will know all about
+it."
+
+"Very good."
+
+The old lady commenced bustling about again, and began to open the
+drawers in her commode. Lavretsky remained quietly sitting on his
+chair.
+
+Suddenly light steps were heard on the staircase--and Liza entered.
+
+Lavretsky stood up and bowed. Liza remained near the door.
+
+"Liza, Lizochka," hurriedly began Marfa Timofeevna, "where have
+you--where have you put my book?"
+
+"What book, aunt?"
+
+"Why, good gracious! that book. However, I didn't send for you--but
+it's all the same. What are you all doing down-stairs? Here is Fedor
+Ivanovich come. How is your headache?"
+
+"It's of no consequence."
+
+"You always say, 'It's of no consequence.' What are you all doing down
+below?--having music again?"
+
+"No--They are playing cards."
+
+"Of course; she is ready for anything. Shurochka, I see you want to
+run out into the garden. Be off!"
+
+"No, I don't Marfa Timofeevna--"
+
+"No arguing, if you please. Be off. Nastasia Carpovna has gone into
+the garden by herself. Go and keep her company. You should show the
+old lady respect."
+
+Shurochka left the room.
+
+"But where is my cap? Wherever can it have got to?"
+
+"Let me look for it," said Liza.
+
+"Sit still, sit still! My own legs haven't dropped off yet. It
+certainly must be in my bed-room."
+
+And Marfa Timofeevna went away, after casting a side-glance at
+Lavretsky. At first she left the door open, but suddenly she returned
+and shut it again from the outside.
+
+Liza leant back in her chair and silently hid her face in her hands.
+
+Lavretsky remained standing where he was.
+
+"This is how we have had to see each other!" he said at last.
+
+Liza let her hands fall from before her face.
+
+"Yes," she replied sadly, "we have soon been punished."
+
+"Punished!" echoed Lavretsky. "For what have you, at all events, been
+punished?"
+
+Liza looked up at him. Her eyes did not express either sorrow or
+anxiety; but they seemed to have become smaller and dimmer than they
+used to be. Her face was pale; even her slightly-parted lips had lost
+their color.
+
+Lavretsky's heart throbbed with pity and with love.
+
+"You have written to me that all is over," he whispered. "Yes, all is
+over--before it had begun."
+
+"All that must be forgotten," said Liza. "I am glad you have come. I
+was going to write to you; but it is better as it is. Only we must
+make the most of these few minutes. Each of us has a duty to fulfil.
+You, Fedor Ivanovich, must become reconciled with your wife."
+
+"Liza!"
+
+"I entreat you to let it be so. By this alone can expiation be made
+for--for all that has taken place. Think over it, and then you will
+not refuse my request."
+
+"Liza! for God's sake! You ask what is impossible. I am ready to do
+every thing you tell me; but to be reconciled with her _now_!--I
+consent to every thing, I have forgotten every thing; but I cannot do
+violence to my heart. Have some pity; this is cruel!"
+
+"But I do not ask you to do what is impossible. Do not live with her
+if you really cannot do so. But be reconciled with her," answered
+Liza, once more hiding her face in her hands. "Remember your daughter;
+and, besides, do it for my sake."
+
+"Very good," said Lavretsky between his teeth. "Suppose I do this--in
+this I shall be fulfilling my duty; well, but you--in what does your
+duty consist?"
+
+"That I know perfectly well."
+
+Lavretsky suddenly shuddered.
+
+"Surely you have not made up your mind to many Panshine?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Liza, with an almost imperceptible smile.
+
+"Ah! Liza, Liza!" exclaimed Lavretsky, "how happy we might have been!"
+
+Liza again looked up at him.
+
+"Now even you must see, Fedor Ivanovich, that happiness does not
+depend upon ourselves, but upon God."
+
+"Yes, because you--"
+
+The door of the next room suddenly opened, and Marfa Timofeevna came
+in, holding her cap in her hand.
+
+"I had trouble enough to find it," she said, standing between Liza and
+Lavretsky; "I had stuffed it away myself. Dear me, see what old age
+comes to! But, after all, youth is no better. Well, are you going to
+Lavriki with your wife?" she added, turning to Fedor Ivanovich.
+
+"To Lavriki with her? I?--I don't know," he added, after a short
+pause.
+
+"Won't you pay a visit down stairs?"
+
+"Not to-day."
+
+"Well, very good; do as you please. But you, Liza, ought to go
+down-stairs, I think. Ah! my dears. I've forgotten to give any seed to
+my bullfinch too. Wait a minute; I will be back directly."
+
+And Marfa Timofeevna ran out of the room without even having put on
+her cap.
+
+Lavretsky quickly drew near to Liza.
+
+"Liza," he began, with an imploring voice, "we are about to part for
+ever, and my heart is very heavy. Give me your hand at parting."
+
+Liza raised her head. Her wearied, almost lustre less eyes looked at
+him steadily.
+
+"No," she said, and drew back the hand she had half held out to him.
+"No, Lavretsky" (it was the first time that she called him by this
+name), "I will not give you my hand. Why should I? And now leave me,
+I beseech you. You know that I love you--Yes, I love you!" she added
+emphatically. "But no--no;" and she raised her handkerchief to her
+lips.
+
+"At least, then, give me that handkerchief--"
+
+The door creaked. The handkerchief glided down to Liza's knees.
+Lavretsky seized it before it had time to fall on the floor, and
+quickly hid it away in his pocket; then, as he turned round, he
+encountered the glance of Marfa Timofeevna's eyes.
+
+"Lizochka, I think your mother is calling you," said the old lady.
+
+Liza immediately got up from her chair, and left the room.
+
+Marfa Timofeevna sat down again in her corner, Lavretsky was going to
+take leave of her.
+
+"Fedia," she said, abruptly.
+
+"What, Aunt?"
+
+"Are you an honorable man?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"I ask you--Are you an honorable man?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"Hm! Well, then, give me your word that you are going to behave like
+an honorable man."
+
+"Certainly. But why do you ask that?"
+
+"I know why, perfectly well. And so do you, too, my good friend.[A] As
+you are no fool, you will understand why I ask you this, if you will
+only think over it a little. But now, good-bye, my dear. Thank you for
+coming to see me; but remember what I have said, Fedia; and now give
+me a kiss. Ah, my dear, your burden is heavy to bear, I know that. But
+no one finds his a light one. There was a time when I used to envy the
+flies. There are creatures, I thought, who live happily in the world.
+But one night I heard a fly singing out under a spider's claws. So,
+thought I, even they have their troubles. What can be done, Fedia?
+But mind you never forget what you have said to me. And now leave
+me--leave me."
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "my foster father," or "my benefactor."]
+
+Lavretsky left by the back door, and had almost reached the street,
+when a footman ran after him and said, "Maria Dmitrievna told me to
+ask you to come to her."
+
+"Tell her I cannot come just now," began Lavretsky.
+
+"She told me to ask you particularly," continued the footman. "She
+told me to say that she was alone."
+
+"Then her visitors have gone away?" asked Lavretsky.
+
+"Yes," replied the footman, with something like a grin on his face.
+
+Lavretsky shrugged his shoulders, and followed him into the house.
+
+
+
+
+XLI.
+
+
+Maria Dmitrievna was alone in her boudoir. She was sitting in a large
+easy-chair, sniffing Eau-de-Cologne, with a little table by her side,
+on which was a glass containing orange-flower water. She was evidently
+excited, and seemed nervous about something.
+
+Lavretsky came into the room.
+
+"You wanted to see me," he said, bowing coldly.
+
+"Yes," answered Maria Dmitrievna, and then she drank a little water.
+"I heard that you had gone straight up-stairs to my aunt, so I told
+the servants to ask you to come and see me. I want to have a talk with
+you. Please sit down."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna took breath. "You know that your wife has come," she
+continued.
+
+"I am aware of that fact," said Lavretsky.
+
+"Well--yes--that is--I meant to say that she has been here, and I have
+received her. That is what I wanted to have the explanation about with
+you, Fedor Ivanovich, I have deserved, I may say, general respect,
+thank God! and I wouldn't, for all the world, do any thing unbecoming.
+But, although I saw beforehand that it would be disagreeable to you,
+Fedor Ivanich, yet I couldn't make up my mind to refuse her. She is
+a relation of mine--through you. Only put yourself into my position.
+What right had I to shut my door in her face? Surely you must agree
+with me."
+
+"You are exciting yourself quite unnecessarily, Maria Dmitrievna,"
+replied Lavretsky. "You have done what is perfectly right. I am not in
+the least angry. I never intended to deprive my wife of the power of
+seeing her acquaintances. I did not come to see you to-day simply
+because I did not wish to meet her. That was all."
+
+"Ah! how glad I am to hear you say that, Fedor Ivanich!" exclaimed
+Maria Dmitrievna. "However, I always expected as much from your noble
+feelings. But as to my being excited, there's no wonder in that. I am
+a woman and a mother. And your wife--of course I cannot set myself up
+as a judge between you and her, I told her so herself; but she is such
+a charming person that no one can help being pleased with her."
+
+Lavretsky smiled and twirled his hat in his hands.
+
+"And there is something else that I wanted to say to you, Fedor
+Ivanich," continued Maria Dmitrievna, drawing a little nearer to him.
+"If you had only seen how modestly, how respectfully she behaved!
+Really it was perfectly touching. And if you had only heard how she
+spoke of you! 'I,' she said, 'am altogether guilty before him.' 'I,'
+she said, 'was not able to appreciate him.' 'He,' she said, 'is an
+angel, not a mere man,' I can assure you that's what she said--'an
+angel.' She is so penitent--I do solemnly declare I have never seen
+any one so penitent."
+
+"But tell me, Maria Dmitrievna," said Lavretsky, "if I may be allowed
+to be so inquisitive. I hear that Varvara Pavlovna has been singing
+here. Was it in one of her penitent moments that she sang, or how--?"
+
+"How can you talk like that and not feel ashamed of yourself? She
+played and sang simply to give me pleasure, and because I particularly
+entreated her, almost ordered her to do so. I saw that she was
+unhappy, so unhappy, and I thought how I could divert her a little;
+and besides that, I had heard that she had so much talent. Do show
+her some pity, Fedor Ivanich--she is utterly crushed--only ask
+Gedeonovsky--broken down entirely, _tout-a-fait_. How can you say such
+things of her?"
+
+Lavretsky merely shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"And besides, what a little angel your Adochka is! What a charming
+little creature! How pretty she is! and how good! and how well she
+speaks French! And she knows Russian too. She called me aunt in
+Russian. And then as to shyness, you know, almost all children of her
+age are shy; but she is not at all so. It's wonderful how like you she
+is, Fedor Ivanich--eyes, eyebrows, in fact you all over--absolutely
+you. I don't usually like such young children, I must confess, but I
+am quite in love with your little daughter."
+
+"Maria Dmitrievna," abruptly said Lavretsky, "allow me to inquire why
+you are saying all this to me?"
+
+"Why?"--Maria Dmitrievna again had recourse to her Eau-de-Cologne
+and drank some water--"why I say this to you, Fedor Ivanich, is
+because--you see I am one of your relations, I take a deep interest in
+you. I know your heart is excellent. Mark my words, _mon cousin_--at
+all events I am a woman of experience, and I do not speak at random.
+Forgive, do forgive your wife!". (Maria Dmitrievna's eyes suddenly
+filled with tears.) "Only think--youth, inexperience, and perhaps also
+a bad example--hers was not the sort of mother to put her in the right
+way. Forgive her, Fedor Ivanich! She has been punished enough."
+
+The tears flowed down Maria Dmitrievna's cheeks. She did not wipe
+them away; she was fond of weeping. Meanwhile Lavretsky sat as if on
+thorns. "Good God!" he thought, "what torture this is! What a day this
+has been for me!"
+
+"You do not reply," Maria Dmitrievna recommenced: "how am I to
+understand you? Is it possible that you can be so cruel? No, I cannot
+believe that. I feel that my words have convinced you. Fedor Ivanich,
+God will reward you for your goodness! Now from my hands receive your
+wife!"
+
+Lavretsky jumped up from his chair scarcely knowing what he was doing.
+Maria Dmitrievna had risen also, and had passed rapidly to the
+other side of the screen, from behind which she brought out Madame
+Lavretsky. Pale, half lifeless, with downcast eyes, that lady seemed
+as if she had surrendered her whole power of thinking or willing for
+herself, and had given herself over entirely into the hands of Maria
+Dmitrievna.
+
+Lavretsky recoiled a pace.
+
+"You have been there all this time!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Don't blame her," Maria Dmitrievna hastened to say. "She wouldn't
+have stayed for any thing; but I made her stay; I put her behind the
+screen. She declared that it would make you angrier than ever; but I
+wouldn't even listen to her. I know you better than she does. Take
+then from my hands your wife! Go to him, Varvara; have no fear; fall
+at your husband's feet" (here she gave Varvara's arm a pull), "and may
+my blessing--"
+
+"Stop, Maria Dmitrievna!" interposed Lavretsky, in a voice shaking
+with emotion. "You seem to like sentimental scenes." (Lavretsky was
+not mistaken; from her earliest school-days Maria Dmitrievna had
+always been passionately fond of a touch of stage effect.) "They
+may amuse you, but to other people they may prove very unpleasant.
+However, I am not going to talk to you. In _this_ scene you do not
+play the leading part."
+
+"What is it _you_ want from me, Madame?" he added, turning to his
+wife. "Have I not done for you all that I could? Do not tell me that
+it was not you who got up this scene. I should not believe you. You
+know that I cannot believe you. What is it you want? You are clever.
+You do nothing without an object. You must feel that to live with you,
+as I used formerly to live, is what I am not in a position to do--not
+because I am angry with you, but because I have become a different
+man. I told you that the very day you returned; and at that time
+you agreed with me in your own mind. But, perhaps, you wish to
+rehabilitate yourself in public opinion. Merely to live in my house is
+too little for you; you want to live with me under the same roof. Is
+it not so?"
+
+"I want you to pardon me," replied Varvara Pavlovna, without lifting
+her eyes from the ground.
+
+"She wants you to pardon her," repeated Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+"And not for my own sake, but for Ada's," whispered Varvara.
+
+"Not for her own sake, but for your Ada's," repeated Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+"Very good! That is what you want?" Lavretsky just managed to say.
+"Well, I consent even to that."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna shot a quick glance at him. Maria Dmitrievna
+exclaimed, "Thank God!" again took Varvara by the arm, and again
+began, "Take, then, from my hands--"
+
+"Stop, I tell you!" broke in Lavretsky. "I will consent to live with
+you, Varvara Pavlovna," he continued; "that is to say, I will take you
+to Lavriki, and live with you as long as I possibly can. Then I will
+go away; but I will visit you from time to time. You see, I do not
+wish to deceive you; only do not ask for more than that. You would
+laugh yourself, if I were to fulfil the wish of our respected
+relative, and press you to my heart--if I were to assure you
+that--that the past did not exist, that the felled tree would again
+produce leaves. But I see this plainly--one must submit. These words
+do not convey the same meaning to you as to me, but that does not
+matter. I repeat, I will live with you--or, no, I cannot promise that;
+but I will no longer avoid you; I will look on you as my wife again--"
+
+"At all events, give her your hand on that," said Maria Dmitrievna,
+whose tears had dried up long ago.
+
+"I have never yet deceived Varvara Pavlovna," answered Lavretsky. "She
+will believe me as it is. I will take her to Lavriki. But remember
+this, Varvara Pavlovna. Our treaty will be considered at an end, as
+soon as you give up stopping there. And now let me go away."
+
+He bowed to both of the ladies, and went out quickly.
+
+"Won't you take her with you?" Maria Dmitrievna called after him.
+
+"Let him alone," said Varvara to her in a whisper, and then began to
+express her thanks to her, throwing her arms around her, kissing her
+hand, saying she had saved her.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna condescended to accept her caresses, but in reality
+she was not contented with her; nor was she contented with Lavretsky,
+nor with the whole scene which she had taken so much pains to arrange.
+There had been nothing sentimental about it.
+
+According to her ideas Varvara Pavlovna ought to have thrown herself
+at her husband's feet.
+
+"How was it you didn't understand what I meant?" she kept saying.
+"Surely I said to you, 'Down with you!'"
+
+"It is better as it is, my dear aunt. Don't disturb yourself--all has
+turned out admirably," declared Varvara Pavlovna.
+
+"Well, anyhow he is--as cold as ice," said Maria Dmitrievna. "It is
+true you didn't cry, but surely my tears flowed before his eyes. So he
+wants to shut you up at Lavriki. What! You won't be able to come out
+even to see me! All men are unfeeling," she ended by saying, and shook
+her head with an air of deep meaning.
+
+"But at all events women can appreciate goodness and generosity," said
+Varvara Pavlovna. Then, slowly sinking on her knees, she threw her
+arms around Maria Dmitrievna's full waist, and hid her face in that
+lady's lap. That hidden face wore a smile, but Maria Dmitrievna's
+tears began to flow afresh.
+
+As for Lavretsky, he returned home, shut himself up in his valet's
+room, flung himself on the couch, and lay there till the morning.
+
+
+
+
+XLII.
+
+
+The next day was Sunday. Lavretsky was not awakened by the bells which
+clanged for early Mass, for he had not closed his eyes all night; but
+they reminded him of another Sunday, when he went to church at Liza's
+request. He rose in haste. A certain secret voice told him that to-day
+also he would see her there. He left the house quietly, telling the
+servant to say to Varvara Pavlovna, who was still asleep, that he
+would be back to dinner, and then, with long steps, he went where the
+bell called him with its dreary uniformity of sound.
+
+He arrived early; scarcely any one was yet in the church. A Reader was
+reciting the Hours in the choir. His voice, sometimes interrupted by
+a cough, sounded monotonously, rising and falling by turns. Lavretsky
+placed himself at a little distance from the door. The worshippers
+arrived, one after another, stopped, crossed themselves, and bowed in
+all directions. Their steps resounded loudly through the silent and
+almost empty space, and echoed along the vaulted roof. An infirm old
+woman, wrapped in a threadbare hooded cloak, knelt by Lavretsky's side
+and prayed fervently. Her toothless, yellow, wrinkled face expressed
+intense emotion. Her bloodshot eyes gazed upwards, without moving, on
+the holy figures displayed upon the iconostasis. Her bony hand kept
+incessantly coming out from under her cloak, and making the sign of
+the cross--with a slow and sweeping gesture, and with steady pressure
+of the fingers on the forehead and the body. A peasant with a morose
+and thickly-bearded face, his hair and clothes all in disorder,
+came into the church, threw himself straight down on his knees, and
+immediately began crossing and prostrating himself, throwing back his
+head and shaking it after each inclination. So bitter a grief showed
+itself in his face and in all his gestures, that Lavretsky went up to
+him and asked him what was the matter. The peasant sank back with an
+air of distrust; then, looking at him coldly, said in a hurried voice,
+"My son is dead," and again betook himself to his prostrations.
+
+"What sorrow can they have too great to defy the consolations of the
+Church?" thought Lavretsky, and he tried to pray himself. But his
+heart seemed heavy and hardened, and his thoughts were afar off. He
+kept waiting for Liza; but Liza did not come. The church gradually
+filled with people, but he did not see Liza among them. Mass began,
+the deacon read the Gospel, the bell sounded for the final prayer.
+Lavretsky advanced a few steps, and suddenly he caught sight of Liza.
+She had come in before him, but he had not observed her till now.
+Standing in the space between the wall and the choir, to which she had
+pressed as close as possible, she never once looked round, never moved
+from her place. Lavretsky did not take his eyes off her till the
+service was quite finished; he was bidding her a last farewell. The
+congregation began to disperse, but she remained standing there. She
+seemed to be waiting for Lavretsky to go away. At last, however, she
+crossed herself for the last time, and went out without turning round.
+No one but a maid-servant was with her.
+
+Lavretsky followed her out of the church, and came up with her in the
+street. She was walking very fast, her head drooping, her veil pulled
+low over her face.
+
+"Good-day, Lizaveta Mikhailovna," he said in a loud voice, with
+feigned indifference. "May I accompany you?"
+
+She made no reply. He walked on by her side.
+
+"Are you satisfied with me?" he asked, lowering his voice. "You have
+heard what took place yesterday, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, yes," she answered in a whisper; "that was very good;" and she
+quickened her pace.
+
+"Then you are satisfied?"
+
+Liza only made a sign of assent.
+
+"Fedor Ivanovich," she began, presently, in a calm but feeble voice,
+"I wanted to ask you something. Do not come any more to our house. Go
+away soon. We may see each other by-and-by--some day or other--a year
+hence, perhaps. But now, do this for my sake. In God's name, I beseech
+you, do what I ask!"
+
+"I am ready to obey you in every thing, Lizaveta Mikhailovna. But can
+it be that we must part thus? Is it possible that you will not say a
+single word to me?"
+
+"Fedor Ivanovich, you are walking here by my side. But you are already
+so far, far away from me; and not only you, but--"
+
+"Go on, I entreat you!" exclaimed Lavretsky. "What do you mean?"
+
+"You will hear, perhaps--But whatever it may be, forget--No, do not
+forget me--remember me."
+
+"I forget you?"
+
+"Enough. Farewell. Please do not follow me."
+
+"Liza--" began Lavretsky.
+
+"Farewell, farewell!" she repeated, and then, drawing her veil still
+lower over her face, she went away, almost at a run.
+
+Lavretsky looked after her for a time, and then walked down the street
+with drooping head. Presently he ran against Lemm, who also was
+walking along with his hat pulled low over his brows, and his eyes
+fixed on his feet.
+
+They looked at each other for a time in silence.
+
+"Well, what have you to say?" asked Lavretsky at last.
+
+"What have I to say?" replied Lemm, in a surly voice. "I have nothing
+to say. 'All is dead and we are dead.' ('_Alles ist todt und wir sind
+todt_.') Do you go to the right?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I am going to the left. Good-bye."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the following morning Lavretsky took his wife to Lavriki. She went
+in front in a carriage with Ada and Justine. He followed behind in a
+tarantass. During the whole time of the journey, the little girl never
+stirred from the carriage-window. Every thing astonished her: the
+peasant men and women, the cottages, the wells, the arches over the
+horses' necks, the little bells hanging from them, and the numbers of
+rooks. Justine shared her astonishment. Varvara Pavlovna kept laughing
+at their remarks and exclamations. She was in excellent spirits; she
+had had an explanation with her husband before leaving O.
+
+"I understand your position," she had said to him; and, from the
+expression of her quick eyes, he could see that she did completely
+understand his position. "But you will do me at least this
+justice--you will allow that I am an easy person to live with. I shall
+not obtrude myself on you, or annoy you. I only wished to ensure Ada's
+future; I want nothing more."
+
+"Yes, you have attained all your ends," said Lavretsky.
+
+"There is only one thing I dream of now; to bury myself for ever in
+seclusion. But I shall always remember your kindness--"
+
+"There! enough of that!" said he, trying to stop her.
+
+"And I shall know how to respect your tranquillity and your
+independence," she continued, bringing her preconcerted speech to a
+close.
+
+Lavretsky bowed low. Varvara understood that her husband silently
+thanked her.
+
+The next day they arrived at Lavriki towards evening. A week later
+Lavretsky went away to Moscow, having left five thousand roubles at
+his wife's disposal; and the day after Lavretsky's departure, Panshine
+appeared, whom Varvara Pavlovna had entreated not to forget her in her
+solitude. She received him in the most cordial manner; and, till late
+that night, the lofty rooms of the mansion and the very garden itself
+were enlivened by the sounds of music, and of song, and of joyous
+French talk. Panshine spent three days with Varvara Pavlovna. When
+saying farewell to her, and warmly pressing her beautiful hands, he
+promised to return very soon--and he kept his word.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII.
+
+
+Liza had a little room of her own on the second floor of her mother's
+house, a bright, tidy room, with a bedstead with white curtains in it,
+a small writing-table, several flower-pots in the corners and in front
+of the windows, and fixed against the wall a set of bookshelves and a
+crucifix. It was called the nursery; Liza had been born in it.
+
+After coming back from the church where Lavretsky had seen her, she
+set all her things in order with even more than usual care, dusted
+every thing, examined all her papers and letters from her friends,
+and tied them up with pieces of ribbon, shut up all her drawers, and
+watered her flowers, giving each flower a caressing touch. And all
+this she did deliberately, quietly, with a kind of sweet and tranquil
+earnestness in the expression of her face. At last she stopped still
+in the middle of the room and looked slowly around her; then she
+approached the table over which hung the crucifix, fell on her knees,
+laid her head on her clasped hands, and remained for some time
+motionless. Presently Marfa Timofeevna entered the room and found her
+in that position. Liza did not perceive her arrival. The old lady went
+out of the room on tiptoe, and coughed loudly several times outside
+the door. Liza hastily rose and wiped her eyes, which shone, with
+gathered but not fallen tears.
+
+"So I see you have arranged your little cell afresh," said Marfa
+Timofeevna, bending low over a young rose-tree in one of the
+flower-pots. "How sweet this smells!"
+
+Liza looked at her aunt with a meditative air.
+
+"What was that word you used?" she whispered.
+
+"What word--what?" sharply replied the old lady. "It is dreadful," she
+continued, suddenly pulling off her cap and sitting down on Liza's
+bed. "It is more than I can bear. This is the fourth day I've been
+just as if I were boiling in a cauldron. I cannot any longer pretend I
+don't observe any thing. I cannot bear to see you crying, to see how
+pale and withered you are growing. I cannot--I cannot."
+
+"But what makes you say that aunt?" said Liza. "There is nothing the
+matter with me, I--"
+
+"Nothing?" exclaimed Marfa Timofeevna. "Tell that to some one else,
+not to me! Nothing! But who was on her knees just now? Whose eyelashes
+are still wet with tears? Nothing! Why, just look at yourself, what
+have you done to your face? where are your eyes gone? Nothing, indeed!
+As if I didn't know all!"
+
+"Give me a little time, aunt. All this will pass away."
+
+"Will pass away! Yes, but when? Good heavens! is it possible you have
+loved him so much? Why, he is quite an old fellow, Lizochka! Well,
+well! I don't deny he is a good man; will not bite; but what of that?
+We are all good people; the world isn't shut up in a corner, there
+will always be plenty of this sort of goodness."
+
+"I can assure you all this will pass away--all this has already passed
+away."
+
+"Listen to what I am going to tell you, Lizochka," suddenly said Marfa
+Timofeevna, making Liza sit down beside her on the bed, smoothing down
+the girl's hair, and setting her neckerchief straight while she spoke.
+"It seems to you, in the heat of the moment, as if it were impossible
+for your wound to be cured. Ah, my love, it is only death for which
+there is no cure. Only say to yourself, 'I won't give in--so much
+for him!' and you will be surprised yourself to see how well and how
+quickly it will all pass away. Only have a little patience."
+
+"Aunt," replied Liza, "it has already passed away. All has passed
+away."
+
+"Passed away! how passed away? Why your nose has actually grown peaky,
+and yet you say--'passed away.' Passed away indeed!"
+
+"Yes, passed away, aunt--if only you are willing to help me," said
+Liza, with unexpected animation, and then threw her arms round Marfa
+Timofeevna's neck. "Dearest aunt, do be a friend to me, do help me,
+don't be angry with me, try to understand me--"
+
+"But what is all this, what is all this, my mother? Don't frighten me,
+please. I shall cry out in another minute. Don't look at me like that:
+quick, tell me what is the meaning of all this!"
+
+"I--I want--" Here Liza hid her face on Marfa Timofeevna's breast. "I
+want to go into a convent," she said in a low tone.
+
+The old lady fairly bounded off the bed.
+
+"Cross yourself, Lizochka! gather your senses together! what ever are
+you about? Heaven help you!" at last she stammered out. "Lie down and
+sleep a little, my darling. And this comes of your want of sleep,
+dearest."
+
+Liza raised her head; her cheeks glowed.
+
+"No, aunt," she said, "do not say that. I have prayed, I have asked
+God's advice, and I have made up my mind. All is over. My life with
+you here is ended. Such lessons are not given to us without a purpose;
+besides, it is not for the first time that I think of it now.
+Happiness was not for me. Even when I did indulge in hopes of
+happiness, my heart shuddered within me. I know all, both my sins and
+those of others, and how papa made our money. I know all, and all that
+I must pray away, must pray away. I grieve to leave you, I grieve for
+mamma and for Lenochka; but there is no help for it. I feel that it is
+impossible for me to live here longer. I have already taken leave of
+every thing, I have greeted every thing in the house for the last
+time. Something calls me away. I am sad at heart, and I would fain
+hide myself away for ever. Please don't hinder me or try to dissuade
+me; but do help me, or I shall have to go away by myself."
+
+Marfa Timofeevna listened to her niece with horror.
+
+"She is ill," she thought. "She is raving. We must send for a doctor;
+but for whom? Gedeonovsky praised some one the other day; but then he
+always lies--but perhaps he has actually told the truth this time."
+
+But when she had become convinced that Liza was not ill, and was not
+raving--when to all her objections Liza had constantly made the same
+reply, Marfa Timofeevna was thoroughly alarmed, and became exceedingly
+sorrowful.
+
+"But surely you don't know, my darling, what sort of life they lead in
+convents!" thus she began, in hopes of dissuading her. "Why they will
+feed you on yellow hemp oil, my own; they will dress you in coarse,
+very coarse clothing; they will make you go out in the cold; you will
+never be able to bear all this Lizochka. All these ideas of yours are
+Agafia's doing. It is she who has driven you out of your senses. But
+then she began with living, and with living to her own satisfaction.
+Why shouldn't you live too? At all events, let me die in peace, and
+then do as you please. And who on earth has ever known any one go into
+a convent for the sake of such-a-one--for a goat's beard--God forgive
+me--for a man! Why, if you're so sad at heart, you should pay a visit
+to a convent, pray to a saint, order prayers to be said, but don't put
+the black veil on your head, my _batyushka_, my _matyushka_."
+
+And Marfa Timofeevna cried bitterly.
+
+Liza tried to console her, wiped the tears from her eyes, and cried
+herself, but maintained her purpose unshaken. In her despair, Marfa
+Timofeevna tried to turn threats to account, said she would reveal
+every thing to Liza's mother; but that too had no effect. All that
+Liza would consent to do in consequence of the old lady's urgent
+entreaties, was to put off the execution of her plan for a half year.
+In return Marfa Timofeevna was obliged to promise that, if Liza had
+not changed her mind at the end of the six months, she would herself
+assist in the matter, and would contrive to obtain Madame Kalitine's
+consent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As soon as the first cold weather arrived, in spite of her promise to
+bury herself in seclusion, Varvara Pavlovna, who had provided herself
+with sufficient funds, migrated to St. Petersburg. A modest, but
+pretty set of rooms had been found for her there by Panshine, who had
+left the province of O. rather earlier than she did. During the latter
+part of his stay in O., he had completely lost Madame Kalitine's good
+graces. He had suddenly given up visiting her, and indeed scarcely
+stirred away from Lavriki. Varvara Pavlovna had enslaved--literally
+enslaved him. No other word can express the unbounded extent of the
+despotic sway she exercised over him.
+
+Lavretsky spent the winter in Moscow. In the spring of the ensuing
+year the news reached him that Liza had taken the veil in the B.
+convent, in one of the most remote districts of Russia.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+Eight years passed away. The spring had come again--
+
+But we will first of all say a few words about the fate of
+Mikhalevich, Panshine, and Madame Lavretsky, and then take leave of
+them forever.
+
+Mikhalevich, after much wandering to and fro, at last hit upon the
+business he was fitted for, and obtained the post of Head Inspector
+in one of the Government Educational Institutes. His lot thoroughly
+satisfies him, and his pupils "adore" him, though at the same time
+they mimic him. Panshine has advanced high in the service, and already
+aims at becoming the head of a department. He stoops a little as he
+walks; it must be the weight of the Vladimir Cross which hangs from
+his neck, that bends him forward. In him the official decidedly
+preponderates over the artist now. His face, though still quite young,
+has grown yellow, his hair is thinner than it used to be, and he
+neither sings nor draws any longer. But he secretly occupies himself
+with literature. He has written a little comedy in the style of a
+"proverb;" and--as every one who writes now constantly brings on
+the stage some real person or some actual fact--he has introduced a
+coquette into it, and he reads it confidentially to a few ladies who
+are very kind to him. But he has never married, although he has had
+many excellent opportunities for doing so. For that Varvara Pavlovna
+is to blame.
+
+As for her, she constantly inhabits Paris, just as she used to do.
+Lavretsky has opened a private account for her with his banker, and
+has paid a sufficient sum to ensure his being free from her--free from
+the possibility of being a second time unexpectedly visited by
+her. She has grown older and stouter, but she is still undoubtedly
+handsome, and always dresses in taste. Every one has his ideal.
+Varvara Pavlovna has found hers--in the plays of M. Dumas _fils_.
+She assiduously frequents the theatres in which consumptive and
+sentimental Camelias appear on the boards; to be Madame Doche seems to
+her the height of human happiness. She once announced that she could
+not wish her daughter a happier fate. It may, however, be expected
+that destiny will save Mademoiselle Ada from that kind of happiness.
+From being a chubby, rosy child, she has changed into a pale,
+weak-chested girl, and her nerves are already unstrung. The number
+of Varvara Pavlovna's admirers has diminished, but they have not
+disappeared. Some of them she will, in all probability, retain to the
+end of her days. The most ardent of them in recent times has been a
+certain Zakurdalo-Skubyrnikof, a retired officer of the guard, a
+man of about thirty-eight years of age, wearing long mustaches, and
+possessing a singularly vigorous frame. The Frenchmen who frequent
+Madame Lavretsky's drawing-room call him _le gros taureau de
+l'Ukraine_. Varvara Pavlovna never invites him to her fashionable
+parties, but he is in full possession of her good graces.
+
+And so--eight years had passed away. Again spring shone from heaven in
+radiant happiness. Again it smiled on earth and on man. Again, beneath
+its caress, all things began to love, to flower, to sing.
+
+The town of O. had changed but little in the course of these eight
+years, but Madame Kalitine's house had, as it were, grown young again.
+Its freshly-painted walls shone with a welcome whiteness, while the
+panes of its open windows flashed ruddy to the setting sun. Out of
+these windows there flowed into the street mirthful sounds of ringing
+youthful voices, of never-ceasing laughter. All the house seemed
+teeming with life and overflowing with irrepressible merriment. As for
+the former mistress of the house, she had been laid in the grave long
+ago. Maria Dmitrievna died two years after Liza took the veil. Nor did
+Marfa Timofeevna long survive her niece; they rest side by side in
+the cemetery of the town. Nastasia Carpovna also was no longer alive.
+During the course of several years the faithful old lady used to go
+every day to pray at her friend's grave. Then her time came, and her
+bones also were laid in the mould.
+
+But Maria Dmitrievna's house did not pass into the hands of strangers,
+did not go out of her family--the nest was not torn to pieces.
+Lenochka, who had grown into a pretty and graceful girl; her
+betrothed, a flaxen locked officer of hussars; Maria Dmitrievna's son,
+who had only recently married at St. Petersburg, and had now arrived
+with his young bride to spend the spring in O.; his wife's sister, a
+sixteen-year-old Institute-girl, with clear eyes and rosy cheeks; and
+Shurochka, who had also grown up and turned out pretty--these were the
+young people who made the walls of the Kalitine house resound with
+laughter and with talk. Every thing was altered in the house, every
+thing had been made to harmonize with its new inhabitants. Beardless
+young servant-lads, full of fun and laughter, had replaced the grave
+old domestics of former days. A couple of setters tore wildly about
+and jumped upon the couches, in the rooms up and down which Roska,
+after it had grown fat, used to waddle seriously. In the stable many
+horses were stalled--clean-limbed canterers, smart trotters for the
+centre of the _troika_, fiery gallopers with platted manes for the
+side places, riding horses from the Don. The hours for breakfast,
+dinner, and supper, were all mixed up and confounded together. In the
+words of neighbors, "Such a state of things as never had been known
+before" had taken place.
+
+On the evening of which we are about to speak, the inmates of the
+Kalitine house, of whom the eldest, Lenochka's betrothed, was not more
+than four-and-twenty, had taken to playing a game which was not of a
+very complicated nature, but which seemed to be very amusing to them,
+to judge by their happy laughter,--that of running about the rooms,
+and trying to catch each other. The dogs, too, ran about and barked;
+and the canaries which hung up in cages before the windows, straining
+their throats in rivalry, heightened the general uproar by the
+piercing accents of their shrill singing. Just as this deafening
+amusement had reached its climax, a tarantass, all splashed with mud,
+drew up at the front gate, and a man about forty-five years old,
+wearing a travelling dress, got out of it and remained standing as if
+bewildered.
+
+For some time he stood at the gate without moving, but gazing at the
+house with observant eyes; then he entered the court-yard by the
+wicket-gate, and slowly mounted the steps. He encountered no one in
+the vestibule; but suddenly the drawing-room door was flung open, and
+Shurochka, all rosy red, came running out of the room; and directly
+afterwards, with shrill cries, the whole of the youthful band rushed
+after her. Suddenly, at the sight of an unknown stranger, they stopped
+short, and became silent; but the bright eyes which were fixed on him
+still retained their friendly expression, the fresh young faces
+did not cease to smile. Then Maria Dmitrievna's son approached the
+visitor, and politely asked what he could do for him.
+
+"I am Lavretsky," said the stranger.
+
+A friendly cry of greeting answered him--not that all those young
+people were inordinately delighted at the arrival of a distant and
+almost forgotten relative, but simply because they were ready to
+rejoice and make a noise over every pleasurable occurrence. They all
+immediately surrounded Lavretsky. Lenochka, as his old acquaintance,
+was the first to name herself, assuring him that, if she had had a
+very little more time, she would most certainly have recognized him;
+and then she introduced all the rest of the company to him, giving
+them all, her betrothed included, their familiar forms of name. The
+whole party then went through the dining-room into the drawing-room.
+The paper on the walls of both rooms had been altered, but the
+furniture remained just as it used to be. Lavretsky recognized the
+piano. Even the embroidery-frame by the window remained exactly as it
+had been, and in the very same position as of old; and even seemed
+to have the same unfinished piece of work on it which had been there
+eight years before. They placed him in a large arm-chair, and sat
+down gravely around him. Questions, exclamations, anecdotes, followed
+swiftly one after another.
+
+"What a long time it is since we saw you last!" naïvely remarked
+Lenochka; "and we haven't seen Varvara Pavlovna either."
+
+"No wonder!" her brother hastily interrupted her--"I took you away
+to St. Petersburg; but Fedor Ivanovich has lived all the time on his
+estate."
+
+"Yes, and mamma too is dead, since then."
+
+"And Marfa Timofeevna," said Shurochka.
+
+"And Nastasia Corpovna," continued Lenochka, "and Monsieur Lemm."
+
+"What? is Lemm dead too?" asked Lavretsky.
+
+"Yes," answered young Kalitine. "He went away from here to Odessa.
+Some one is said to have persuaded him to go there, and there he
+died."
+
+"You don't happen to know if he left any music behind?"
+
+"I don't know, but I should scarcely think so."
+
+A general silence ensued, and each one of the party looked at the
+others. A shade of sadness swept over all the youthful faces.
+
+"But Matros is alive," suddenly cried Lenochka.
+
+"And Gedeonovsky is alive," added her brother.
+
+The name of Gedeonovsky at once called forth a merry laugh.
+
+"Yes, he is still alive; and he tells stories just as he used to
+do," continued the young Kalitine--"only fancy! this mad-cap here"
+(pointing to his wife's sister the Institute-girl) "put a quantity of
+pepper into his snuff-box yesterday."
+
+"How he did sneeze!" exclaimed Lenochka--and irrepressible laughter
+again broke out on all sides.
+
+"We had news of Liza the other day," said young Kalitine. And again
+silence fell upon all the circle. "She is going on well--her health is
+gradually being restored now."
+
+"Is she still in the same convent?" Lavretsky asked, not without an
+effort.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Does she ever write to you?"
+
+"No, never. We get news of her from other quarters."
+
+A profound silence suddenly ensued. "An angel has noiselessly flown
+past," they all thought.
+
+"Won't you go into the garden?" said Kalitine, addressing Lavretsky.
+"It is very pleasant now, although we have neglected it a little."
+
+Lavretsky went into the garden, and the first thing he saw there was
+that very bench on which he and Liza had once passed a few happy
+moments--moments that never repeated themselves. It had grown black
+and warped, but still he recognized it, and that feeling took
+possession of his heart which is unequalled as well for sweetness as
+for bitterness--the feeling of lively regret, for vanished youth, for
+once familiar happiness.
+
+He walked by the side of the young people along the alleys. The
+lime-trees looked older than before, having grown a little taller
+during the last eight years, and casting a denser shade. All the
+underwood, also, had grown higher, and the raspberry-bushes had spread
+vigorously, and the hazel copse was thickly tangled. From every side
+exhaled a fresh odor from the forest and the wood, from the grass and
+the lilacs.
+
+"What a capital place for a game at Puss in the Corner!" suddenly
+cried Lenochka, as they entered upon a small grassy lawn surrounded by
+lime-trees. "There are just five of us."
+
+"But have you forgotten Fedor Ivanovich?" asked her brother; "or is it
+yourself you have not counted?"
+
+Lenochka blushed a little.
+
+"But would Fedor Ivanovich like--at his age--" she began stammering.
+
+"Please play away," hastily interposed Lavretsky; "don't pay any
+attention to me. I shall feel more comfortable if I know I am not
+boring you. And there is no necessity for your finding me something to
+do. We old people have a resource which you don't know yet, and which
+is better than any amusement--recollection."
+
+The young people listened to Lavretsky with respectful, though
+slightly humorous politeness, just as if they were listening to a
+teacher who was reading them a lesson--then they all suddenly left
+him, and ran off to the lawn. One of them stood in the middle, the
+others occupied the four corners by the trees, and the game began.
+
+But Lavretsky returned to the house, went into the dining-room,
+approached the piano, and touched one of the notes. It responded with
+a faint but clear sound, and a shudder thrilled his heart within him.
+With that note began the inspired melody, by means of which, on that
+most happy night long ago, Lemm, the dead Lemm, had thrown him into
+such raptures. Then Lavretsky passed into the drawing-room, and did
+not leave it for a long time.
+
+In that room, in which he had seen Liza so often, her image floated
+more distinctly before him; the traces of her presence seemed to make
+themselves felt around him there. But his sorrow for her loss became
+painful and crushing; it bore with it none of the tranquillity which
+death inspires. Liza was still living somewhere, far away and lost to
+sight. He thought of her as he had known her in actual life; he could
+not recognize the girl he used to love in that pale, dim, ghostly
+form, half-hidden in a nun's dark robe, and surrounded by waving
+clouds of incense.
+
+Nor would Lavretsky have been able to recognize himself, if he could
+have looked at himself as he in fancy was looking at Liza. In
+the course of those eight years his life had attained its final
+crisis--that crisis which many people never experience, but without
+which no man can be sure of maintaining his principles firm to the
+last. He had really given up thinking about his own happiness, about
+what would conduce to his own interests. He had become calm, and--why
+should we conceal the truth?--he had aged; and that not in face
+alone or frame, but he had aged in mind; for, indeed, not only is
+it difficult, but it is even hazardous to do what some people speak
+of--to preserve the heart young in bodily old age. Contentment, in old
+age, is deserved by him alone who has not lost his faith in what
+is good, his persevering strength of will, his desire for active
+employment. And Lavretsky did deserve to be contented; he had really
+become a good landlord; he had really learnt how to till the soil; and
+in that he labored, he labored not for himself alone, but he had, as
+far as in him lay the power, assured, and obtained guarantees for, the
+welfare of the peasantry on his estates.
+
+Lavretsky went out of the house into the garden, and sat down on the
+bench he knew so well. There--on that loved spot, in sight of that
+house in which he had fruitlessly, and for the last time, stretched
+forth his hands towards that cup of promise in which foamed and
+sparkled the golden wine of enjoyment,--he, a lonely, homeless
+wanderer, while the joyous cries of that younger generation which had
+already forgotten him came flying to his ears, gazed steadily at his
+past life.
+
+His heart became very sorrowful, but it was free now from any crushing
+sense of pain. He had nothing to be ashamed of; he had many sources
+of consolation. "Play on, young vigorous lives!" he thought--and his
+thoughts had no taint of bitterness in them--"the future awaits you,
+and your path of life in it will be comparatively easy for you. You
+will not be obliged, as we were, to seek out your path, to struggle,
+to fall, to rise again in utter darkness. We had to seek painfully
+by what means we might hold out to the end--and how many there were
+amongst us who did not hold out!--but your part is now to act, to
+work--and the blessing of old men like me shall be with you. For my
+part, after the day I have spent here, after the emotions I have here
+experienced, nothing remains for me but to bid you a last farewell;
+and, although sadly, yet without a tinge of envy, without a single
+gloomy feeling, to say, in sight of death, in sight of my awaiting
+God, 'Hail, lonely old age! Useless life, burn yourself out!'"
+
+Lavretsky rose up quietly, and quietly went away. No one observed him,
+no one prevented him from going. Louder than ever sounded the joyous
+cries in the garden, behind the thick green walls of the lofty
+lime-trees. Lavretsky got into his tarantass, and told his coachman to
+drive him home without hurrying the horses.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"And is that the end?" the unsatisfied reader may perhaps ask. "What
+became of Lavretsky afterwards? and of Liza?" But what can one say
+about people who are still alive, but who have already quitted the
+worldly stage? Why should we turn back to them? It is said that
+Lavretsky has visited the distant convent in which Liza has hidden
+herself--and has seen her. As she crossed from choir to choir, she
+passed close by him--passed onwards steadily, with the quick but
+silent step of a nun, and did not look at him. Only an almost
+imperceptible tremor was seen to move the eyelashes of the eye which
+was visible to him; only still lower did she bend her emaciated face;
+and the fingers of her clasped hands, enlaced with her rosary, still
+more closely compressed each other.
+
+Of what did they both think? what did they both feel? Who can know?
+who shall tell? Life has its moments--has its feelings--to which we
+may be allowed to allude, but on which it is not good to dwell.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Liza, by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Liza, by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Liza
+       "A nest of nobles"
+
+Author: Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
+
+Release Date: April 29, 2004 [EBook #12194]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIZA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Josephine Paolucci and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+(_Leisure Hour Series_.)
+
+FATHERS AND SONS.
+SMOKE.
+LIZA.
+ON THE EVE.
+DIMITRI ROUDINE.
+SPRING FLOODS; LEAR.
+VIRGIN SOIL.
+ANNALS OF A SPORTSMAN.
+
+
+
+
+_LEISURE HOUR SERIES_
+
+
+LIZA
+
+OR
+
+"A NEST OF NOBLES"
+
+_A NOVEL_
+
+BY IVAN S. TURGENIEFF
+
+_TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN_
+
+BY W.R.S. RALSTON
+
+
+1873
+
+
+DEDICATED TO THE AUTHOR BY HIS FRIEND THE TRANSLATOR.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The author of the _Dvoryanskoe Gnyezdo_, or "Nest of Nobles," of which
+a translation is now offered to the English reader under the title of
+"Liza," is a writer of whom Russia may well be proud.[A] And that, not
+only because he is a consummate artist,--entitled as he is to take
+high rank among those of European fame, so accurate is he in his
+portrayal of character, and so quick to seize and to fix even its most
+fleeting expression; so vividly does he depict by a few rapid touches
+the appearance of the figures whom he introduces upon his canvas, the
+nature of the scenes among which they move,--he has other and even
+higher claims than these to the respect and admiration of Russian
+readers. For he is a thoroughly conscientious worker; one who, amid
+all his dealings with fiction, has never swerved from his regard for
+what is real and true; one to whom his own country and his own people
+are very dear, but who has neither timidly bowed to the prejudices of
+his countrymen, nor obstinately shut his eyes to their faults.
+
+[Footnote A: Notwithstanding the unencouraging opinion expressed by
+Mr. Ralston in this preface, of the probable fate of "Fathers and
+Children," and "Smoke," with the English public, both have been
+translated in America and have met with very fair success. Of course,
+even more may be hoped for the author's other works.]
+
+His first prose work, the "Notes of a Sportsman" (_Zapiski
+Okhotnika_), a collection of sketches of country life, made a deep and
+lasting impression upon the minds of the educated classes in Russia,
+so vigorous were its attacks upon the vices of that system of slavery
+which was then prevalent. Those attacks had all the more weight,
+inasmuch as the book was by no means exclusively devoted to them. It
+dealt with many other subjects connected with provincial life; and
+the humor and the pathos and the picturesqueness with which they were
+treated would of themselves have been sufficient to commend it to the
+very favorable attention of his countrymen. But the sad pictures he
+drew in it, occasionally and almost as it were accidentally, of the
+wretched position occupied by the great masses of the people, then
+groaning under the weight of that yoke which has since been removed,
+stirred the heart of Russian society with a thrill of generous horror
+and sympathy; and the effect thus produced was all the more permanent
+inasmuch as it was attained by thoroughly legitimate means. Far
+from exaggerating the ills of which he wrote, or describing them in
+sensational and declamatory language, he treated them in a style
+that sometimes seemed almost cold in its reticence and freedom from
+passion. The various sketches of which the volume was composed
+appeared at intervals in a Russian magazine, called the _Contemporary
+(Sovremennik)_, about three-and-twenty years ago, and were read in it
+with avidity; but when the first edition of the collected work was
+exhausted, the censors refused to grant permission to the author to
+print a second, and so for many years the complete book was not to be
+obtained in Russia without great difficulty. Now that the good fight
+of emancipation has been fought, and the victory--thanks to the
+present Emperor--has been won, M. Turgenieff has every reason for
+looking back with pride upon that phase of the struggle; and his
+countrymen may well have a feeling of regard, as well as of respect,
+for him--the upper-classes as for one who has helped them to recognize
+their duty; the lower, as for a very generous supporter in their time
+of trouble.
+
+M. Turgenieff has written a great number of very charming short
+stories, most of them having reference to Russia and Russian life; for
+though he has lived in Germany for many years, his thoughts, whenever
+he takes up his pen, almost always seem to go back to his native land.
+Besides these, as well as a number of critical essays, plays, and
+poems, he has brought out several novels, or rather novelettes, for
+none of them have attained to three-volume dimensions. Of these, the
+most remarkable are the one I have now translated, which appeared
+about eleven years ago, and the two somewhat polemical stories, called
+"Fathers and Children" (_Otsui i Dyeti_) and "Smoke" (_Duim_). The
+first of the three I may leave to speak for itself, merely adding that
+I trust that--although it appears under all the disadvantages by
+which even the most conscientious of translations must always be
+attended--it may be looked upon by English readers with somewhat of
+the admiration which I have long felt for the original, on account of
+the artistic finish of its execution, the purity of its tone, and the
+delicacy and the nobleness of the sentiment by which it is pervaded.
+
+The story of "Fathers and Children" conveys a vigorous and excessively
+clever description of the change that has taken place of late years in
+the thoughts and feelings of the educated classes of Russian society
+One of the most interesting chapters in "Liza"--one which may
+be skipped by readers who care for nothing but incident in a
+story--describes a conversation which takes place between the hero
+and one of his old college friends. The sketch of the disinterested
+student, who has retained in mature life all the enthusiasm of his
+college days, is excellent, and is drawn in a very kindly spirit.
+But in "Fathers and Children" an exaggeration of this character is
+introduced, serving as a somewhat scare-crow-like embodiment of the
+excessively hard thoughts and very irreverent speculations in which
+the younger thinkers of the new school indulge. This character is
+developed in the story into dimensions which must be styled inordinate
+if considered from a purely artistic point of view; but the story
+ought not to be so regarded. Unfortunately for its proper appreciation
+among us, it cannot be judged aright, except by readers who possess a
+thorough knowledge of what was going on in Russia a few years ago, and
+who take a keen and lively interest in the subjects which were then
+being discussed there. To all others, many of its chapters will
+seem too unintelligible and wearisome, both linked together into
+interesting unity by the slender thread of its story, beautiful as
+many of its isolated passages are. The same objection may be made
+to "Smoke." Great spaces in that work are devoted to caricatures of
+certain persons and opinions of note in Russia, but utterly unknown
+in England--pictures which either delight or irritate the author's
+countrymen, according to the tendency of their social and political
+speculations, but which are as meaningless to the untutored English
+eye as a collection of "H.B."'s drawings would be to a Russian who had
+never studied English politics. Consequently neither of these stories
+is likely ever to be fully appreciated among us[A].
+
+[Footnote A: A detailed account of both of these stories, as well as
+of several other works by M. Turgenieff, will be found in the number
+of the _North British Review_ for March, 1869.]
+
+The last novelette which M. Turgenieff has published, "The Unfortunate
+One" (_Neschastnaya_) is free from the drawbacks by which, as far as
+English readers are concerned, "Fathers and Children" and "Smoke,"
+are attended; but it is exceedingly sad and painful. It is said to be
+founded on a true story, a fact which may account for an intensity
+of gloom in its coloring, the darkness of which would otherwise seem
+almost unartistically overcharged.
+
+Several of M. Turgenieff's works have already been translated into
+English. The "Notes of a Sportsman" appeared about fourteen years
+ago, under the title of "Russian Life in the Interior[A];" but,
+unfortunately, the French translation from which they were (with all
+due acknowledgment) rendered, was one which had been so "cooked" for
+the Parisian market, that M. Turgenieff himself felt bound to protest
+against it vigorously. It is the more unfortunate inasmuch as an
+admirable French translation of the work was afterwards made by M.
+Delaveau[B].
+
+[Footnote A: "Russian Life in the Interior." Edited by J.D.
+Meiklejohn. Black, Edinburg, 1855.]
+
+[Footnote B: "Recits d'un Chasseur." Traduits par H. Delavea, Paris,
+1858.]
+
+Still more vigorously had M. Turgenieff to protest against an English
+translation of "Smoke," which appeared a few months ago.
+
+The story of "Fathers and Children" has also appeared in English[A];
+but as the translation was published on the other side of the
+Atlantic, it has as yet served but little to make M. Turgenieff's name
+known among us.
+
+[Footnote A: "Fathers and Sons." Translated from the Russian by Eugene
+Schuyler. New York 1867.]
+
+The French and German translations of M. Turgenieff's works are
+excellent. From the French versions of M. Delaveau, M. Xavier Marmier,
+M. Prosper Merimee, M. Viardot, and several others, a very good idea
+may be formed by the general reader of M. Turgenieffs merits. For
+my own part, I wish cordially to thank the French and the German
+translators of the _Dvoryanskoe Gnyezdo_ for the assistance their
+versions rendered me while I was preparing the present translation of
+that story. The German version, by M. Paul Fuchs,[A] is wonderfully
+literal. The French version, by Count Sollogub and M.A. de Calonne,
+which originally appeared in the _Revue Contemporaine_, without being
+quite so close, is also very good indeed.[B]
+
+[Footnote A: Das adelige Nest. Von I.S. Turgenieff. Aus dem Russicher
+ubersetzt von Paul Fuchs. Leipzig, 1862.]
+
+[Footnote B: Une Nichee de Gentilshommes. Paris, 1862]
+
+I, too, have kept as closely as I possibly could to the original.
+Indeed, the first draft of the translation was absolutely literal,
+regardless of style or even idiom. While in that state, it was revised
+by the Russian friend who assisted me in my translation of Krilofs
+Fables--M. Alexander Onegine--and to his painstaking kindness I am
+greatly indebted for the hope I venture to entertain that I have not
+"traduced" the author I have undertaken to translate. It may be as
+well to state that in the few passages in which my version differs
+designedly from the ordinary text of the original, I have followed the
+alterations which M. Turgenieff made with his own hand in the copy
+of the story on which I worked, and the title of the story has been
+altered to its present form with his consent.
+
+I may as well observe also, that while I have inserted notes where
+I thought their presence unavoidable, I have abstained as much as
+possible from diverting the reader's attention from the story by
+obtrusive asterisks, referring to what might seem impertinent
+observations at the bottom of the page. The Russian forms of name I
+have religiously preserved, even to the extent of using such a form as
+Ivanich, as well as Ivanovich, when it is employed by the author.
+
+INNER TEMPLE, June 1, 1869.
+
+
+
+
+LIZA.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+A beautiful spring day was drawing to a close. High aloft in the clear
+sky floated small rosy clouds, which seemed never to drift past, but
+to be slowly absorbed into the blue depths beyond.
+
+At an open window, in a handsome mansion situated in one of the
+outlying streets of O., the chief town of the government of that
+name--it was in the year 1842--there were sitting two ladies, the one
+about fifty years old, the other an old woman of seventy.
+
+The name of the first was Maria Dmitrievna Kalitine. Her husband, who
+had formerly occupied the post of Provincial Procurator, and who was
+well known in his day as a good man of business--a man of bilious
+temperament, confident, resolute, and enterprising--had been dead
+ten years. He had received a good education, and had studied at the
+university, but as the family from which he sprang was a poor one, he
+had early recognized the necessity of making a career for himself and
+of gaining money.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna married him for love. He was good-looking, he had
+plenty of sense, and, when he liked, he could be very agreeable. Maria
+Dmitrievna, whose maiden name was Pestof, lost her parents while she
+was still a child. She spent several years in an Institute at Moscow,
+and then went to live with her brother and one of her aunts at
+Pokrovskoe, a family estate situated fifteen versts from O. Soon
+afterwards her brother was called away on duty to St. Petersburgh, and,
+until a sudden death put an end to his career, he kept his aunt and
+sister with only just enough for them to live upon. Maria Dmitrievna
+inherited Pokrovskoe, but she did not long reside there. In the second
+year of her marriage with Kalitine, who had succeeded at the end of
+a few days in gaining her affections, Pokrovskoe was exchanged for
+another estate--one of much greater intrinsic value, but unattractive
+in appearance, and not provided with a mansion. At the same time
+Kalitine purchased a house in the town of O., and there he and his
+wife permanently established themselves. A large garden was attached
+to it, extending in one direction to the fields outside the town, "so
+that," Kalitine, who was by no means an admirer of rural tranquillity,
+used to say, "there is no reason why we should go dragging ourselves
+off into the country." Maria Dmitrievna often secretly regretted her
+beautiful Pokrovskoe, with its joyous brook, its sweeping meadows, and
+its verdant woods, but she never opposed her husband in any thing,
+having the highest respect for his judgment and his knowledge of the
+world. And when he died, after fifteen years of married life, leaving
+behind him a son and two daughters, Maria Dmitrievna had grown
+so accustomed to her house and to a town life, that she had no
+inclination to change her residence.
+
+In her youth Maria Dmitrievna had enjoyed the reputation of being a
+pretty blonde, and even in her fiftieth year her features were not
+unattractive, though they had lost somewhat of their fineness and
+delicacy. She was naturally sensitive and impressionable, rather than
+actually good-hearted, and even in her years of maturity she continued
+to behave in the manner peculiar to "Institute girls;" she denied
+herself no indulgence, she was easily put out of temper, and she would
+even burst into tears if her habits were interfered with. On the other
+hand, she was gracious and affable when all her wishes were fulfilled,
+and when nobody opposed her in any thing. Her house was the
+pleasantest in the town; and she had a handsome income, the greater
+part of which was derived from her late husband's earnings, and the
+rest from her own property. Her two daughters lived with her; her son
+was being educated in one of the best of the crown establishments at
+St. Petersburgh.
+
+The old lady who was sitting at the window with Maria Dmitrievna was
+her father's sister, the aunt with whom she had formerly spent so many
+lonely years at Pokrovskoe. Her name was Marfa Timofeevna Pestof.
+She was looked upon as an original, being a woman of an independent
+character, who bluntly told the truth to every one, and who, although
+her means were very small, behaved in society just as she would have
+done had she been rolling in wealth. She never could abide the late
+Kalitine, and as soon as her niece married him she retired to her own
+modest little property, where she spent ten whole years in a peasant's
+smoky hut. Maria Dmitrievna was rather afraid of her. Small in
+stature, with black hair, a sharp nose, and eyes which even in old age
+were still keen, Marfa Timofeevna walked briskly, held herself
+bolt upright, and spoke quickly but distinctly, and with a loud,
+high-pitched voice. She always wore a white cap, and a white
+_kofta_[A] always formed part of her dress.
+
+[Footnote A: A sort of jacket.]
+
+"What is the matter?" she suddenly asked. "What are you sighing
+about?"
+
+"Nothing," replied Maria Dmitrievna. "What lovely clouds!"
+
+"You are sorry for them, I suppose?"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna made no reply.
+
+"Why doesn't Gedeonovsky come?" continued Marfa Timofeevna, rapidly
+plying her knitting needles. (She was making a long worsted scarf.)
+"He would have sighed with you. Perhaps he would have uttered some
+platitude or other."
+
+"How unkindly you always speak of him! Sergius Petrovich is--a most
+respectable man."
+
+"Respectable!" echoed the old lady reproachfully.
+
+"And then," continued Maria Dmitrievna, "how devoted he was to my dear
+husband! Why, he can never think of him without emotion."
+
+"He might well be that, considering that your husband pulled him out
+of the mud by the ears," growled Marfa Timofeevna, the needles moving
+quicker than ever under her fingers. "He looks so humble," she began
+anew after a time. "His head is quite grey, and yet he never opens his
+mouth but to lie or to slander. And, forsooth, he is a councillor of
+state! Ah, well, to be sure, he is a priest's son."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: _Popovich_, or son of a pope; a not over respectful
+designation in Russia.]
+
+"Who is there who is faultless, aunt? It is true that he has this
+weakness. Sergius Petrovich has not had a good education, I admit--he
+cannot speak French--but I beg leave to say that I think him
+exceedingly agreeable."
+
+"Oh, yes, he fawns on you like a dog. As to his not speaking French,
+that's no great fault. I am not very strong in the French 'dialect'
+myself. It would be better if he spoke no language at all; he wouldn't
+tell lies then. But of course, here he is, in the very nick of time,"
+continued Marfa Timofeevna, looking down the street. "Here comes
+your agreeable man, striding along. How spindle-shanked he is, to be
+sure--just like a stork!"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna arranged her curls. Marfa Timofeevna looked at her
+with a quiet smile.
+
+"Isn't that a grey hair I see, my dear? You should scold Pelagia.
+Where can her eyes be?"
+
+"That's just like you, aunt," muttered Maria Dmitrievna, in a tone of
+vexation, and thrumming with her fingers on the arm of her chair.
+
+"Sergius Petrovich Gedeonovsky!" shrilly announced a rosy-cheeked
+little Cossack,[A] who suddenly appeared at the door.
+
+[Footnote A: A page attired in a sort of Cossack dress.]
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+A tall man came into the room, wearing a good enough coat, rather
+short trousers, thick grey gloves, and two cravats--a black one
+outside, a white one underneath. Every thing belonging to him was
+suggestive of propriety and decorum, from his well-proportioned face,
+with locks carefully smoothed down over the temples, to his heelless
+and never-creaking boots. He bowed first to the mistress of the house,
+then to Marfa Timofeevna, and afterwards, having slowly taken off his
+gloves, he approached Maria Dmitrievna and respectfully kissed her
+hand twice. After that he leisurely subsided into an easy-chair, and
+asked, as he smilingly rubbed together the tips of his fingers--
+
+"Is Elizaveta quite well?"
+
+"Yes," replied Maria Dmitrievna, "she is in the garden."
+
+"And Elena Mikhailovna?"
+
+"Lenochka is in the garden also. Have you any news?"
+
+"Rather!" replied the visitor, slowly screwing up his eyes, and
+protruding his lips. "Hm! here is a piece of news, if you please, and
+a very startling one, too. Fedor Ivanovich Lavretsky has arrived."
+
+"Fedia!" exclaimed Marfa Timofeevna. "You're inventing, are you not?"
+
+"Not at all. I have seen him with my own eyes."
+
+"That doesn't prove any thing."
+
+"He's grown much more robust," continued Gedeonovsky, looking as if
+he had not heard Marfa Timofeevna's remark; "his shoulders have
+broadened, and his cheeks are quite rosy."
+
+"Grown more robust," slowly repeated Maria Dmitrievna. "One would
+think he hadn't met with much to make him robust."
+
+"That is true indeed," said Gedeonovsky. "Any one else, in his place,
+would have scrupled to show himself in the world."
+
+"And why, I should like to know?" broke in Marfa Timofeevna. "What
+nonsense you are talking! A man comes back to his home. Where else
+would you have him betake himself? And, pray, in what has he been to
+blame?"
+
+"A husband is always to blame, madam, if you will allow me to say so,
+when his wife behaves ill."
+
+"You only say that, _batyushka_,[A] because you have never been
+married."
+
+[Footnote A: Father.]
+
+Gedeonovsky's only reply was a forced smile. For a short time he
+remained silent, but presently he said, "May I be allowed to be so
+inquisitive as to ask for whom this pretty scarf is intended?"
+
+Marfa Timofeevna looked up at him quickly.
+
+"For whom is it intended?" she said. "For a man who never slanders,
+who does not intrigue, and who makes up no falsehoods--if, indeed,
+such a man is to be found in the world. I know Fedia thoroughly well;
+the only thing for which he is to blame is that he spoilt his wife. To
+be sure he married for love; and from such love-matches no good ever
+comes," added the old lady, casting a side glance at Maria Dmitrievna.
+Then, standing up, she added: "But now you can whet your teeth on whom
+you will; on me, if you like. I'm off. I won't hinder you any longer."
+And with these words she disappeared.
+
+"She is always like that," said Maria Dmitrievna following her aunt
+with her eyes--"always."
+
+"What else can be expected of her at her time of life?" replied
+Gedeonovsky. "Just see now! 'Who does not intrigue?' she was pleased
+to say. But who is there nowadays who doesn't intrigue? It is the
+custom of the present age. A friend of mine--a most respectable man,
+and one, I may as well observe, of no slight rank--used to say,
+'Nowadays, it seems, if a hen wants a grain of corn she approaches it
+cunningly, watches anxiously for an opportunity of sidling up to it.'
+But when I look at you, dear lady, I recognize in you a truly angelic
+nature. May I be allowed to kiss your snow-white hand?"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna slightly smiled, and held out her plump hand to
+Gedeonovsky, keeping the little finger gracefully separated from the
+rest; and then, after he had raised her hand to his lips, she drew her
+chair closer to his, bent a little towards him, and asked, in a low
+voice--
+
+"So you have seen him? And is he really well and in good spirits?"
+
+"In excellent spirits," replied Gedeonovsky in a whisper.
+
+"You haven't heard where his wife is now?"
+
+"A short time ago she was in Paris; but she is gone away, they say,
+and is now in Italy."
+
+"Really it is shocking--Fedia's position. I can't think how he manages
+to bear it. Every one, of course, has his misfortunes; but his
+affairs, one may say, have become known all over Europe."
+
+Gedeonovsky sighed.
+
+"Quite so, quite so! They say she has made friends with artists and
+pianists; or, as they call them there, with lions and other wild
+beasts. She has completely lost all sense of shame--"
+
+"It's very, very sad," said Maria Dmitrievna; "especially for a
+relation. You know, don't you, Sergius Petrovich, that he is a
+far-away cousin of mine?"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure! You surely don't suppose I could be ignorant
+of any thing that concerns your family."
+
+"Will he come to see us? What do you think?"
+
+"One would suppose so; but afterwards, I am told, he will go and live
+on his estate in the country."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna lifted her eyes towards heaven.
+
+"Oh, Sergius Petrovich, Sergius Petrovich! how often I think how
+necessary it is for us women to behave circumspectly!"
+
+"There are women and women, Maria Dmitrievna. There are,
+unfortunately, some who are--of an unstable character; and then there
+is a certain time of life--and, besides, good principles have not been
+instilled into them when they were young."
+
+Here Sergius Petrovich drew from his pocket a blue handkerchief, of a
+check pattern, and began to unfold it.
+
+"Such women, in fact, do exist."
+
+Here Sergius Petrovich applied a corner of the handkerchief to each of
+his eyes in turn.
+
+"But, generally speaking, if one reflects--that is to say--The dust in
+the streets is something extraordinary," he ended by saying.
+
+"_Maman, maman_," exclaimed a pretty little girl of eleven, who
+came running into the room, "Vladimir Nikolaevich is coming here on
+horseback."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna rose from her chair. Sergius Petrovich also got up
+and bowed.
+
+"My respects to Elena Mikhailovna," he said; and, discreetly retiring
+to a corner, he betook himself to blowing his long straight nose.
+
+"What a lovely horse he has!" continued the little girl. "He was at
+the garden gate just now, and he told me and Liza that he would come
+up to the front door."
+
+The sound of hoofs was heard, and a well appointed cavalier, mounted
+on a handsome bay horse, rode up to the house, and stopped in front of
+the open window.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+"Good-evening, Maria Dmitrievna!" exclaimed the rider's clear and
+pleasant voice. "How do you like my new purchase?"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna went to the window.
+
+"Good-evening, Woldemar! Ah, what a splendid horse! From whom did you
+buy it?"
+
+"From our remount-officer. He made me pay dear for it, the rascal."
+
+"What is it's name?"
+
+"Orlando. But that's a stupid name. I want to change it. _Eh bien, eh
+bien, mon garcon_. What a restless creature it is!"
+
+The horse neighed, pawed the air, and tossed the foam from its
+nostrils.
+
+"Come and stroke it, Lenochka; don't be afraid."
+
+Lenochka stretched out her hand from the window, but Orlando suddenly
+reared and shied. But its rider, who took its proceedings very
+quietly, gripped the saddle firmly with his knees, laid his whip
+across the horse's neck, and forced it, in spite of its resistance, to
+return to the window, "_Prenez garde, prenez garde_," Maria Dmitrievna
+kept calling out.
+
+"Now then, stroke him, Lenochka," repeated the horseman; "I don't mean
+to let him have his own way."
+
+Lenochka stretched out her hand a second time, and timidly touched
+the quivering nostrils of Orlando, who champed his bit, and kept
+incessantly fidgeting.
+
+"Bravo!" exclaimed Maria Dmitrievna; "but now get off, and come in."
+
+The rider wheeled his horse sharply round, drove the spurs into its
+sides, rode down the street at a hand gallop, and turned into the
+court-yard. In another minute he had crossed the hall and entered the
+drawing-room, flourishing his whip in the air.
+
+At the same moment there appeared on the threshold of another doorway
+a tall, well-made, dark-haired girl of nineteen--Maria Dmitrievna's
+elder daughter, Liza.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+The young man whom we have just introduced to our readers was
+called Vladimir Nikolaevich Panshine. He occupied a post at St.
+Petersburg--one devoted to business of a special character--in the
+Ministry of the Interior. He had come to O. about certain affairs of
+a temporary nature, and was placed there at the disposal of the
+governor, General Zonnenberg, to whom he was distantly related.
+
+Panshine's father, a retired cavalry officer,[A] who used to be well
+known among card-players, was a man of a worn face, with weak eyes,
+and a nervous contraction about the lips. Throughout his life he
+always revolved in a distinguished circle, frequenting the English
+Clubs[B] of both capitals, and being generally considered a man
+of ability and a pleasant companion, though not a person to be
+confidently depended upon. In spite of all his ability, he was almost
+always just on the verge of ruin, and he ultimately left but a small
+and embarrassed property to his only son. About that son's education,
+however, he had, after his own fashion, taken great pains.
+
+[Footnote A: A _Shtabs-Rotmistr_, the second captain in a cavalry
+regiment.]
+
+[Footnote B: Fashionable clubs having nothing English about them but
+their name.]
+
+The young Vladimir Nikolaevich spoke excellent French, good English,
+and bad German. That is just as it should be. Properly brought-up
+people should of course be ashamed to speak German really well; but
+to throw out a German word now and then, and generally on facetious
+topics--that is allowable; "_c'est meme tres chic_," as the Petersburg
+Parisians say. Moreover, by the time Vladimir Nikolaevich was fifteen,
+he already knew how to enter any drawing-room whatsoever without
+becoming nervous, how to move about it in an agreeable manner, and how
+to take his leave exactly at the right moment.
+
+The elder Panshine made a number of useful connections for his son;
+while shuffling the cards between two rubbers, or after a lucky "Great
+Schlemm,"[A] he never lost the opportunity of saying a word about
+his young "Volodka" to some important personage, a lover of games of
+skill. On his part, Vladimir Nikolaevich, during the period of his
+stay at the university, which he left with the rank of "effective
+student,"[B] made acquaintance with several young people of
+distinction, and gained access into the best houses. He was cordially
+received everywhere, for he was very good looking, easy in manner,
+amusing, always in good health, and ready for every thing. Where he
+was obliged, he was respectful; where he could, he was overbearing.
+Altogether, an excellent companion, _un charmant garcon_. The Promised
+Land lay before him. Panshine soon fathomed the secret of worldly
+wisdom, and succeeded in inspiring himself with a genuine respect
+for its laws. He knew how to invest trifles with a half-ironical
+importance, and to behave with the air of one who treats all
+serious matters as trifles. He danced admirably; he dressed like an
+Englishman. In a short time he had gained the reputation of being one
+of the pleasantest and most adroit young men in St. Petersburg.
+
+[Footnote A: "A bumper."]
+
+[Footnote B: A degree a little inferior to that of Bachelor of Arts.]
+
+Panshine really was very adroit--not less so than his father had been.
+And besides this, he was endowed with no small talent; nothing was too
+difficult for him. He sang pleasantly, drew confidently, could write
+poetry, and acted remarkably well.
+
+He was now only in his twenty eighth year, but he was already a
+Chamberlain, and he had arrived at a highly respectable rank in the
+service. He had thorough confidence in himself, in his intellect,
+and in his sagacity. He went onwards under full sail, boldly and
+cheerfully; the stream of his life flowed smoothly along. He was
+accustomed to please every one, old and young alike; and he imagined
+that he thoroughly understood his fellow-creatures, especially
+women--that he was intimately acquainted with all their ordinary
+weaknesses.
+
+As one who was no stranger to Art, he felt within him a certain
+enthusiasm, a glow, a rapture, in consequence of which he claimed for
+himself various exemptions from ordinary rules. He led a somewhat
+irregular life, he made acquaintance with people who were not received
+into society, and in general he behaved in an unconventional and
+unceremonious manner. But in his heart of hearts he was cold and
+astute; and even in the midst of his most extravagant rioting, his
+keen hazel eye watched and took note of every thing. It was impossible
+for this daring and unconventional youth ever quite to forget himself,
+or to be thoroughly carried away. It should be mentioned to his
+credit, by the way, that he never boasted of his victories. To Maria
+Dmitrievna's house he had obtained access as soon as he arrived in
+O., and he soon made himself thoroughly at home in it. As to Maria
+Dmitrievna herself, she thought there was nobody in the world to be
+compared with him.
+
+Panshine bowed in an engaging manner to all the occupants of the room;
+shook hands with Maria Dmitrievna and Elizaveta Mikhailovna, lightly
+tapped Gedeonovsky on the shoulder, and, turning on his heels, took
+Lenochka's head between his hands and kissed her on the forehead.
+
+"Are not you afraid to ride such a vicious horse?" asked Maria
+Dmitrievna.
+
+"I beg your pardon, it is perfectly quiet. No, but I will tell you
+what I really am afraid of. I am afraid of playing at preference with
+Sergius Petrovich. Yesterday, at the Bielenitsines', he won all the
+money I had with me."
+
+Gedeonovsky laughed a thin and cringing laugh; he wanted to gain the
+good graces of the brilliant young official from St. Petersburg, the
+governor's favorite. In his conversations with Maria Dmitrievna, he
+frequently spoke of Panshine's remarkable faculties. "Why, really now,
+how can one help praising him?" he used to reason. "The young man is
+a success in the highest circles of society, and at the same time he
+does his work in the most perfect manner, and he isn't the least bit
+proud." And indeed, even at St. Petersburg, Panshine was looked upon
+as an efficient public servant; the work "burnt under his hands;" he
+spoke of it jestingly, as a man of the world should, who does not
+attach any special importance to his employment; but he was a "doer."
+Heads of departments like such subordinates; he himself never doubted
+that in time, supposing he really wished it, he would be a Minister.
+
+"You are so good as to say that I won your money," said Gedeonovsky;
+"but who won fifteen roubles from me last week? And besides--"
+
+"Ah, rogue, rogue!" interrupted Panshine, in a pleasant tone, but with
+an air of indifference bordering on contempt, and then, without paying
+him any further attention, he accosted Liza.
+
+"I cannot get the overture to Oberon here," he began. "Madame
+Bielenitsine boasted that she had a complete collection of classical
+music; but in reality she has nothing but polkas and waltzes. However,
+I have already written to Moscow, and you shall have the overture in a
+week."
+
+"By the way," he continued, "I wrote a new romance yesterday; the
+words are mine as well as the music. Would you like me to sing it to
+you? Madame Bielenitsine thought it very pretty, but her judgment is
+not worth much. I want to know your opinion of it. But, after all, I
+think I had better sing it by-and-by."
+
+"Why by-and-by?" exclaimed Maria Dmitrievna, "why not now?"
+
+"To hear is to obey," answered Panshine, with a sweet and serene
+smile, which came and went quickly; and then, having pushed a chair up
+to the piano, he sat down, struck a few chords, and began to sing the
+following romance, pronouncing the words very distinctly
+
+  Amid pale clouds, above the earth,
+    The moon rides high,
+  And o'er the sea a magic light
+    Pours from the sky.
+
+  My Spirit's waves, as towards the moon,
+    Towards thee, love, flow:
+  Its waters stirred by thee alone
+    In weal or woe.
+
+  My heart replete with love that grieves
+    But yields no cry,
+  I suffer--cold as yonder moon
+    Thou passest by.
+
+Panshine sang the second stanza with more than usual expression and
+feeling; in the stormy accompaniment might be heard the rolling of the
+waves. After the words, "I suffer!" he breathed a light sigh, and with
+downcast eyes let his voice die gradually away. When he had finished;
+Liza praised the air, Maria Dmitrievna said, "Charming!" and
+Gedeonovsky exclaimed, "Enchanting!--the words and the music are
+equally enchanting!" Lenochka kept her eyes fixed on the singer
+with childish reverence. In a word, the composition of the young
+_dilettante_ delighted all who were in the room. But outside the
+drawing-room door, in the vestibule, there stood, looking on the
+floor, an old man who had just come into the house, to whom, judging
+from the expression of his face and the movements of his shoulders,
+Panshine's romance, though really pretty, did not afford much
+pleasure. After waiting a little, and having dusted his boots with
+a coarse handkerchief, he suddenly squeezed up his eyes, morosely
+compressed his lips, gave his already curved back an extra bend, and
+slowly entered the drawing-room.
+
+"Ah! Christophor Fedorovich, how do you do?" Panshine was the first to
+exclaim, as he jumped up quickly from his chair. "I didn't suspect you
+were there. I wouldn't for any thing have ventured to sing my romance
+before you. I know you are no admirer of the light style in music."
+
+"I didn't hear it," said the new-comer, in imperfect Russian. Then,
+having bowed to all the party, he stood still in an awkward attitude
+in the middle of the room.
+
+"I suppose, Monsieur Lemm," said Maria Dmitrievna, "you have come to
+give Liza a music lesson."
+
+"No; not Lizaveta Mikhailovna, but Elena Miknailovna."
+
+"Oh, indeed! very good. Lenochka, go up-stairs with Monsieur Lemm."
+
+The old man was about to follow the little girl, when Panshine stopped
+him.
+
+"Don't go away when the lesson is over, Christopher Fedorovich," he
+said. "Lizaveta Mikhailovna and I are going to play a duet--one of
+Beethoven's sonatas."
+
+The old man muttered something to himself, but Panshine continued in
+German, pronouncing the words very badly--
+
+"Lizaveta Mikhailovna has shown me the sacred cantata which you have
+dedicated to her--a very beautiful piece! I beg you will not suppose
+I am unable to appreciate serious music. Quite the reverse. It is
+sometimes tedious; but, on the other hand, it is extremely edifying."
+
+The old man blushed to the ears, cast a side glance at Liza, and went
+hastily out of the room.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna asked Panshine to repeat his romance; but he declared
+that he did not like to offend the ears of the scientific German,
+and proposed to Liza to begin Beethoven's sonata. On this, Maria
+Dmitrievna sighed, and, on her part, proposed a stroll in the garden
+to Gedeonovsky.
+
+"I want to have a little more chat with you," she said, "about our
+poor Fedia, and to ask for your advice."
+
+Gedeonovsky smiled and bowed, took up with two fingers his hat, on the
+brim of which his gloves were neatly laid out, and retired with Maria
+Dmitrievna.
+
+Panshine and Eliza remained in the room. She fetched the sonata, and
+spread it out. Both sat down to the piano in silence. From up-stairs
+there came the feeble sound of scales, played by Lenochka's uncertain
+fingers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Note to p_. 36.
+
+It is possible that M. Panshine may have been inspired by Heine's
+verses:--
+
+  Wie des Mondes Abbild zittert
+    In den wilden Meereswogen,
+  Und er selber still und sicher
+    Wandelt an dem Himmelshogen.
+
+  Also wandelst du, Geliebte,
+    Still und sicher, und es zittert
+  Nur dein Abbild mir im Herzen,
+    Weil mein eignes Herz erschuettert.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+Christoph Theodor Gottlieb Lemm was born in 1786, in the kingdom of
+Saxony, in the town of Chemnitz. His parents, who were very poor, were
+both of them musicians, his father playing the hautboy, his mother
+the harp. He himself, by the time he was five years old, was already
+practicing on three different instruments. At the age of eight, he was
+left an orphan, and at ten, he began to earn a living by his art.
+For a long time he led a wandering life, playing in all sorts of
+places--in taverns, at fairs, at peasants' marriages, and at balls.
+At last he gained access to an orchestra, and there, steadily rising
+higher and higher, he attained to the position of conductor. As a
+performer he had no great merit, but he understood music thoroughly.
+In his twenty-eighth year, he migrated to Russia. He was invited there
+by a great seigneur, who, although he could not abide music himself,
+maintained an orchestra from a love of display. In his house Lemm
+spent seven years as a musical director, and then left him with empty
+hands. The seigneur, who had squandered all his means, first offered
+Lemm a bill of exchange for the amount due to him; then refused to
+give him even that; and ultimately never paid him a single farthing.
+Lemm was advised to leave the country, but he did not like to go home
+penniless from Russia--from the great Russia, that golden land of
+artists. So be determined to remain and seek his fortune there.
+
+During the course of ten years, the poor German continued to seek
+his fortune. He found various employers, he lived in Moscow, and in
+several county towns, he patiently suffered much, he made acquaintance
+with poverty, he struggled hard.[A] All this time, amidst all the
+troubles to which he was exposed, the idea of ultimately returning
+home never quitted him. It was the only thing that supported him. But
+fate did not choose to bless him with this supreme and final piece of
+good fortune.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "like a fish out of ice:" as a fish, taken out
+of a river which has been frozen over, struggles on the ice.]
+
+At fifty years of age, in bad health and prematurely decrepid, he
+happened to come to the town of O., and there he took up his permanent
+abode, managing somehow to obtain a poor livelihood by giving lessons.
+He had by this time entirely lost all hope of quilting the hated soil
+of Russia.
+
+Lemm's outward appearance was not in his favor. He was short and
+high-shouldered, his shoulder-blades stuck out awry, his feet were
+large and flat, and his red hands, marked by swollen veins, had hard,
+stiff fingers, tipped with nails of a pale blue color. His face was
+covered with wrinkles, his cheeks were hollow, and he had pursed-up
+lips which he was always moving with a kind of chewing action--one
+which, joined with his habitual silence, gave him an almost malignant
+expression. His grey hair hung in tufts over a low forehead. His very
+small and immobile eyes glowed dully, like coals in which the flame
+has just been extinguished by water. He walked heavily, jerking his
+clumsy frame at every step. Some of his movements called to mind the
+awkward shuffling of an owl in a cage, when it feels that it is being
+stared at, but can scarcely see anything itself out of its large
+yellow eyes, blinking between sleep and fear. An ancient and
+inexorable misery had fixed its ineffaceable stamp on the poor
+musician, and had wrenched and distorted his figure--one which, even
+without that, would have had but little to recommend it; but in spite
+of all that, something good and honest, something out of the common
+run, revealed itself in that half-ruined being, to any one who was
+able to get over his first impressions.
+
+A devoted admirer of Bach and Handel, thoroughly well up to his work,
+gifted with a lively imagination, and that audacity of idea which
+belongs only to the Teutonic race, Lemm might in time--who can
+tell?--have been reckoned among the great composers of his country,
+if only his life had been of a different nature. But he was not born
+under a lucky star. He had written much in his time, and yet he had
+never been fortunate enough to see any of his compositions published.
+He did not know how to set to work, how to cringe at the right moment,
+how to proffer a request at the fitting time. Once, it is true, a very
+long time ago, one of his friends and admirers, also a German, and
+also poor, published at his own expense two of Lemm's sonatas. But
+they remained untouched on the shelves of the music shops; silently
+they disappeared and left no trace behind, just as if they had been
+dropped into a river by night.
+
+At last Lemm bade farewell to every thing Old age gained upon him, and
+he hardened, he grew stiff in mind, just as his fingers had stiffened.
+He had never married, and now he lived alone in O., in a little
+house not far from that of the Kalitines, looked after by an old
+woman-servant whom he had taken out of an alms-house. He walked a
+great deal, and he read the Bible, also a collection of Protestant
+hymns, and Shakspeare in Schlegel's translation. For a long time he
+had composed nothing; but apparently Liza, his best pupil, had been
+able to arouse him. It was for her that he had written the cantata to
+which Panshine alluded. The words of this cantata were borrowed by him
+from his collection of hymns, with the exception of a few verses which
+he composed himself. It was written for two choruses: one of the
+happy, one of the unhappy. At the end the two united and sang
+together, "Merciful Lord, have pity upon us, poof sinners, and keep us
+from all evil thoughts and worldly desires." On the title-page, very
+carefully and even artistically written, were the words, "Only the
+Righteous are in the Right. A Sacred Cantata. Composed, and dedicated
+to Elizaveta Kalitine, his dear pupil, by her teacher, C.T.G, Lemm."
+The words "Only the Righteous are in the Right." and "To Elizaveta
+Kalitine" were surrounded by a circle of rays. Underneath was written,
+"For you only. Fuer Sie allein." This was why Lemm grew red and looked
+askance at Liza; he felt greatly hurt when Panshine began to talk to
+him about his cantata.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+Panshine struck the first chords of the sonata, in which he played the
+bass, loudly and with decision, but Liza did not begin her part. He
+stopped and looked at her--Liza's eyes, which were looking straight
+at him, expressed dissatisfaction; her lips did not smile, all her
+countenance was severe, almost sad.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked.
+
+"Why have you not kept your word?" she said. "I showed you Christopher
+Fedorovich's cantata only on condition that you would not speak to him
+about it."
+
+"I was wrong, Lizaveta Mikhailovna--I spoke without thinking."
+
+"You have wounded him and me too. In future he will distrust me as
+well as others."
+
+"What could I do, Lizaveta Mikhailovna? From my earliest youth I have
+never been able to see a German without feeling tempted to tease him."
+
+"What are you saying, Vladimir Nikolaevich? This German is a poor,
+lonely, broken man; and you feel no pity for him! you feel tempted to
+tease him!"
+
+Panshine seemed a little disconcerted.
+
+"You are right, Lizaveta Mikhailovna," he said "The fault is entirely
+due to my perpetual thoughtlessness. No, do not contradict me. I know
+myself well. My thoughtlessness has done me no slight harm. It makes
+people suppose that I am an egotist."
+
+Panshine made a brief pause. From whatever point he started a
+conversation, he generally ended by speaking about himself, and then
+his words seemed almost to escape from him involuntarily, so softly
+and pleasantly did he speak, and with such an air of sincerity.
+
+"It is so, even in your house," he continued. "Your mamma, it is true,
+is most kind to me. She is so good. You--but no, I don't know what you
+think of me. But decidedly your aunt cannot abide me. I have vexed her
+by some thoughtless, stupid speech. It is true that she does not like
+me, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," replied Liza, after a moment's hesitation. "You do not please
+her."
+
+Panshine let his fingers run rapidly over the keys; a scarcely
+perceptible smile glided over his lips.
+
+"Well, but you," he continued, "do you also think me an egotist?".
+
+"I know so little about you," replied Liza; "but I should not call you
+an egotist. On the contrary, I ought to feel grateful to you--"
+
+"I know, I know what you are going to say," interrupted Panshine,
+again running his fingers over the keys, "for the music, for the
+books, which I bring you, for the bad drawings with which I ornament
+your album, and so on, and so on. I may do all that, and yet be an
+egotist. I venture to think that I do not bore you, and that you do
+not think me a bad man; but yet you suppose that I--how shall I say
+it?--for the sake of an epigram would not spare my friend, my father
+him self."
+
+"You are absent and forgetful, like all men of the world," said Liza,
+"that is all."
+
+Panshine slightly frowned.
+
+"Listen," he said; "don't let's talk any more about me; let us begin
+our sonata. Only there is one thing I will ask of you," he added, as
+he smoothed the sheets which lay on the music-desk with his hand;
+"think of me what you will, call me egotist even, I don't object to
+that; but don't call me a man of the world, that name is insufferable.
+_Anch'io sono pittore_. I too am an artist, though but a poor one, and
+that--namely, that I am a poor artist--I am going to prove to you on
+the spot. Let us begin."
+
+"Very good, let us begin," said Liza.
+
+The first adagio went off with tolerable success, although Panshine
+made several mistakes. What he had written himself, and what he had
+learnt by heart, he played very well, but he could not play at sight
+correctly. Accordingly the second part of the sonata--tolerably quick
+allegro--would not do at all. At the twentieth bar Panshine, who was
+a couple of bars behind, gave in, and pushed back his chair with a
+laugh.
+
+"No!" he exclaimed, "I cannot play to-day. It is fortunate that Lemm
+cannot hear us; he would have had a fit."
+
+Liza stood up, shut the piano, and then turned to Panshine.
+
+"What shall we do then?" she asked.
+
+"That question is so like you! You can never sit with folded hands for
+a moment. Well then, if you feel inclined, let's draw a little
+before it becomes quite dark. Perhaps another Muse--the Muse of
+painting--what's her name? I've forgotten--will be more propitious to
+me. Where is your album? I remember the landscape I was drawing in it
+was not finished."
+
+Liza went into another room for the album, and Panshine, finding
+himself alone, took a cambric handkerchief out of his pocket, rubbed
+his nails and looked sideways at his hands. They were very white and
+well shaped; on the second finger of the left hand he wore a spiral
+gold ring.
+
+Liza returned; Panshine seated himself by the window and opened the
+album.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, "I see you have begun to copy my landscape--and
+capitally--very good indeed--only--just give me the pencil--the
+shadows are not laid in black enough. Look here."
+
+And Panshine added some long strokes with a vigorous touch. He always
+drew the same landscape--large dishevelled trees in the foreground, in
+the middle distance a plain, and on the horizon an indented chain of
+hills. Liza looked over his shoulder at his work.
+
+"In drawing, as also in life in general," said Panshine, turning his
+head now to the right, now to the left, "lightness and daring--those
+are the first requisites."
+
+At this moment Lemm entered the room, and after bowing gravely, was
+about to retire; but Panshine flung the album and pencil aside, and
+prevented him from leaving the room.
+
+"Where are you going, dear Christoph Fedorovich? Won't you stay and
+take tea?"
+
+"I am going home," said Lemm, in a surly voice; "my head aches."
+
+"What nonsense! do remain. We will have a talk about Shakspeare."
+
+"My head aches," repeated the old man.
+
+"We tried to play Beethoven's sonata without you," continued Panshine,
+caressingly throwing his arm over the old man's shoulder and smiling
+sweetly; "but we didn't succeed in bringing it to a harmonious
+conclusion. Just imagine, I couldn't play two consecutive notes
+right."
+
+"You had better have played your romance over again," replied Lemm;
+then, escaping from Panshine's hold he went out of the room.
+
+Liza ran after him, and caught him on the steps.
+
+"Christopher Fedorovich, I want to speak to you," she said in German,
+as led him across the short green grass to the gate. "I have done you
+a wrong--forgive me."
+
+Lemm made no reply.
+
+"I showed your cantata to Vladimir Nikolaevich; I was sure he would
+appreciate it, and, indeed, he was exceedingly pleased with it."
+
+Lemm stopped still.
+
+"It's no matter," he said in Russian, and then added in his native
+tongue,--"But he is utterly incapable of understanding it. How is it
+you don't see that? He is a _dilettante_--that is all."
+
+"You are unjust towards him," replied Liza. "He understands every
+thing, and can do almost every thing himself."
+
+"Yes, every thing second-rate--poor goods, scamped work. But that
+pleases, and he pleases, and he is well content with that. Well, then,
+bravo!--But I am not angry. I and that cantata, we are both old fools!
+I feel a little ashamed, but it's no matter."
+
+"Forgive me, Christopher Fedorovich!" urged Liza anew.
+
+"It's no matter, no matter," he repeated a second time in Russian.
+"You are a good girl.--Here is some one coming to pay you a visit.
+Good-bye. You are a very good girl."
+
+And Lemm made his way with hasty steps to the gate, through which
+there was passing a gentleman who was a stranger to him, dressed in a
+grey paletot and a broad straw hat. Politely saluting him (he bowed
+to every new face in O., and always turned away his head from his
+acquaintances in the street--such was the rule he had adopted), Lemm
+went past him, and disappeared behind the wall.
+
+The stranger gazed at him as he retired with surprise, then looked at
+Liza, and then went straight up to her.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+"You won't remember me," he said, as he took off his hat, "but I
+recognized you, though it is seven years since I saw you last. You
+were a child then. I am Lavretsky. Is your mamma at home? Can I see
+her?"
+
+"Mamma will be so glad," replied Liza. "She has heard of your
+arrival."
+
+"Your name is Elizaveta, isn't it?" asked Lavretsky, as he mounted the
+steps leading up to the house.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I remember you perfectly. Yours was even in those days one of the
+faces which one does not forget. I used to bring you sweetmeats then."
+
+Liza blushed a little, and thought to herself, "What an odd man!"
+Lavretsky stopped for a minute in the hall.
+
+Liza entered the drawing-room, in which Panshine's voice and laugh
+were making themselves heard. He was communicating some piece of town
+gossip to Maria Dmitrievna and Gedeonovsky, both of whom had by this
+time returned from the garden, and he was laughly loudly at his own
+story. At the name of Lavretsky, Maria Dmitrievna became nervous and
+turned pale, but went forward to receive him.
+
+"How are you? how are you, my dear cousin?" she exclaimed, with an
+almost lachrymose voice, dwelling on each word she uttered. "How glad
+I am to see you!"
+
+"How are you, my good cousin?" replied Lavretsky, with a friendly
+pressure of her outstretched hand. "Is all well with you?"
+
+"Sit clown, sit down, my dear Fedor Ivanovich. Oh, how delighted I am!
+But first let me introduce my daughter Liza."
+
+"I have already introduced myself to Lizaveta Mikhailovna,"
+interrupted Lavretsky.
+
+"Monsieur Panshine--Sergius Petrovich Gedeonovsky. But do sit down. I
+look at you, and, really, I can scarcely trust my eyes. But tell me
+about your health; is it good?"
+
+"I am quite well, as you can see. And you, too, cousin--if I can say
+so without bringing you bad luck[A]--you are none the worse for these
+seven years."
+
+[Footnote A: A reference to the superstition of the "evil eye," still
+rife among the peasants in Russia. Though it has died out among the
+educated classes, yet the phrase, "not to cast an evil eye," is still
+made use of in conversation.]
+
+"When I think what a number of years it is since we last saw one
+another," musingly said Maria Dmitrievna. "Where do you come from now?
+Where have you left--that's to say, I meant"--she hurriedly corrected
+herself--"I meant to say, shall you stay with us long?"
+
+"I come just now from Berlin," replied Lavretsky, "and to-morrow I
+shall go into the country--to stay there, in all probability, a long
+time."
+
+"I suppose you are going to live at Lavriki?"
+
+"No, not at Lavriki; but I have a small property about five-and-twenty
+versts from here, and I am going there."
+
+"Is that the property which Glafira Petrovna left you?"
+
+"Yes, that's it."
+
+"But really, Fedor Ivanovich, you have such a charming house at
+Lavriki."
+
+Lavretsky frowned a little.
+
+"Yes--but I have a cottage on the other estate too; I don't require
+any more just now. That place is--most convenient for me at present."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna became once more so embarrassed that she actually sat
+upright in her chair, and let her hands drop by her side. Panshine
+came to the rescue, and entered into conversation with Lavretsky.
+Maria Dmitrievna by degrees grew calm, leant back again comfortably
+in her chair, and from time to time contributed a word or two to the
+conversation. But still she kept looking at her guest so pitifully,
+sighing so significantly, and shaking her head so sadly, that at last
+he lost all patience, and asked her, somewhat brusquely, if she was
+unwell.
+
+"No, thank God!" answered Maria Dmitrievna; "but why do you ask?"
+
+"Because I thought you did not seem quite yourself."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna assumed a dignified and somewhat offended expression.
+
+"If that's the way you take it," she thought, "it's a matter of
+perfect indifference to me; it's clear that every thing slides off
+you like water off a goose. Any one else would have withered up with
+misery, but you've grown fat on it."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna did not stand upon ceremony when she was only
+thinking to herself. When she spoke aloud she was more choice in her
+expressions.
+
+And in reality Lavretsky did not look like a victim of destiny. His
+rosy-cheeked, thoroughly Russian face, with its large white forehead,
+somewhat thick nose, and long straight lips, seemed to speak of robust
+health and enduring vigor of constitution. He was powerfully built,
+and his light hair twined in curls, like a boy's, about his head. Only
+in his eyes, which were blue, rather prominent, and a little wanting
+in mobility, an expression might be remarked which it would be
+difficult to define. It might have been melancholy, or it might have
+been fatigue; and the ring of his voice seemed somewhat monotonous.
+
+All this time Panshine was supporting the burden of the conversation.
+He brought it round to the advantages of sugar making, about which he
+had lately read two French pamphlets; their contents he now proceeded
+to disclose, speaking with an air of great modesty, but without saying
+a single word about the sources of his information.
+
+"Why, there's Fedia!" suddenly exclaimed the voice of Marfa Timofeevna
+in the next room, the door of which had been left half open.
+"Actually, Fedia!" And the old lady hastily entered the room.
+Lavretsky hadn't had time to rise from his chair before she had caught
+him in her arms. "Let me have a look at you," she exclaimed, holding
+him at a little distance from her. "Oh, how well you are looking!
+You've grown a little older, but you haven't altered a bit for the
+worse, that's a fact. But what makes you kiss my hand. Kiss my face,
+if you please, unless you don't like the look of my wrinkled cheeks. I
+dare say you never asked after me, or whether your aunt was alive or
+no. And yet it was my hands received you when you first saw the light,
+you good-for-nothing fellow! Ah, well, it's all one. But it was a good
+idea of yours to come here. I say, my dear," she suddenly exclaimed,
+turning to Maria Dmitrievna, "have you offered him any refreshment?"
+
+"I don't want any thing," hastily said Lavretsky.
+
+"Well, at all events, you will drink tea with us, _batyushka_.
+Gracious heavens! A man comes, goodness knows from how far off, and
+no one gives him so much as a cup of tea. Liza, go and see after it
+quickly. I remember he was a terrible glutton when he was a boy, and
+even now, perhaps, he is fond of eating and drinking."
+
+"Allow me to pay my respects, Maria Timofeevna," said Panshine, coming
+up to the excited old lady, and making her a low bow.
+
+"Pray excuse me, my dear sir," replied Marfa Timofeevna, "I overlooked
+you in my joy. You're just like your dear mother," she continued,
+turning anew to Lavretsky, "only you always had your father's nose,
+and you have it still. Well, shall you stay here long?"
+
+"I go away to-morrow, aunt."
+
+"To where?".
+
+"To my house at Vasilievskoe."
+
+"To-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow."
+
+"Well, if it must be to-morrow, so be it. God be with you! You know
+what is best for yourself. Only mind you come and say good-bye." The
+old lady tapped him gently on the cheek. "I didn't suppose I should
+live to see you come back; not that I thought I was going to die--no,
+no; I have life enough left in me for ten years to come. All we
+Pestofs are long-lived--your late grandfather used to call us
+double-lived; but God alone could tell how long you were going to
+loiter abroad. Well, well! You are a fine fellow--a very fine fellow.
+I dare say you can still lift ten poods[A] with one hand, as you
+used to do. Your late father, if you'll excuse my saying so, was as
+nonsensical as he could be, but he did well in getting you that Swiss
+tutor. Do you remember the boxing matches you used to have with him?
+Gymnastics, wasn't it, you used to call them? But why should I go on
+cackling like this? I shall only prevent Monsieur Pan_shine_ (she
+never laid the accent on the first syllable of his name, as she ought
+to have done) from favoring us with his opinions. On the whole, we had
+much better go and have tea. Yes, let's go and have it on the terrace.
+We have magnificent cream--not like what they have in your Londons and
+Parises. Come away, come away; and you, Fediouchka, give me your arm.
+What a strong arm you have, to be sure! I shan't fall while you're by
+my side."
+
+[Footnote A: The pood weighs thirty-six pounds.]
+
+Every one rose and went out on the terrace, except Gedeonovsky, who
+slipped away stealthily. During the whole time Lavretsky was talking
+with the mistress of the house, with Panshine and with Marfa
+Timofeevna, that old gentleman had been sitting in his corner,
+squeezing up his eyes and shooting out his lips, while he listened
+with the curiosity of a child to all that was being said. When he
+left, it was that he might hasten to spread through the town the news
+of the recent arrival.
+
+Here is a picture of what was taking place at eleven o'clock that same
+evening in the Kalitines' house. Down stairs, on the threshold of the
+drawing-room, Panshine was taking leave of Liza, and saying, as he
+held her hand in his:--
+
+"You know who it is that attracts me here; you know why I am always
+coming to your house. Of what use are words when all is so clear?"
+
+Liza did not say a word in reply--she did not ever smile. Slightly
+arching her eyebrows, and growing rather red, she kept her eyes fixed
+on the ground, but did not withdraw her hand. Up stairs, in Marfa
+Timofeevna's room, the light of the lamp, which hung in the corner
+before the age-embrowned sacred pictures, fell on Lavretsky, as he sat
+in an arm-chair, his elbows resting on his knees, his face hidden in
+his hands. In front of him stood the old lady, who from time to time
+silently passed her hand over his hair. He spent more than an hour
+with her after taking leave of the mistress of the house, he scarcely
+saying a word to his kind old friend, and she not asking him any
+questions. And why should he have spoken? what could she have asked?
+She understood all so well, she so fully sympathized with all the
+feelings which filled his heart.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+Fedor Ivanovich Lavretsky (we must ask our reader's permission to
+break off the thread of the story for a time) sprang from a noble
+family of long descent. The founder of the race migrated from Prussia
+during the reign of Basil the Blind,[A] and was favored with a grant
+of two hundred _chetverts_[B] of land in the district of Biejetsk.
+Many of his descendants filled various official positions, and were
+appointed to governorships in distant places, under princes and
+influential personages, but none of them obtained any great amount of
+property, or arrived at a higher dignity, than that of inspector of
+the Czar's table.
+
+[Footnote A: In the fifteenth century.]
+
+[Footnote B: An old measure of land, variously estimated at from two
+to six acres.]
+
+The richest and most influential of all the Lavretskys was Fedor
+Ivanovich's paternal great-grandfather Andrei, a man who was harsh,
+insolent, shrewd, and crafty. Even up to the present day men have
+never ceased to talk about his despotic manners, his furious temper,
+his senseless prodigality, and his insatiable avarice. He was very
+tall and stout, his complexion was swarthy, and he wore no beard. He
+lisped, and he generally seemed half asleep. But the more quietly he
+spoke, the more did all around him tremble. He had found a wife not
+unlike himself. She had a round face, a yellow complexion, prominent
+eyes, and the nose of a hawk. A gypsy by descent, passionate and
+vindictive in temper, she refused to yield in any thing to her
+husband, who all but brought her to her grave, and whom, although she
+had been eternally squabbling with him, she could net bear long to
+survive.
+
+Andrei's son, Peter, our Fedor's grandfather, did not take after his
+father. He was a simple country gentleman; rather odd, noisy in voice
+and slow in action, rough but not malicious, hospitable, and devoted
+to coursing. He was more than thirty years old when he inherited from
+his father two thousand souls,[A] all in excellent condition; but he
+soon began to squander his property, a part of which he disposed of by
+sale, and he spoilt his household. His large, warm, and dirty rooms
+were full of people of small degree, known and unknown, who swarmed in
+from all sides like cockroaches. All these visitors gorged themselves
+with whatever came in their way, drank their fill to intoxication, and
+carried off what they could, extolling and glorifying their affable
+host. As for their host, when he was out of humor with them, he called
+them scamps and parasites; but when deprived of their company, he soon
+found himself bored.
+
+[Footnote A: Male serfs.]
+
+The wife of Peter Andreich was a quiet creature whom he had taken from
+a neighboring family in acquiescence with his father's choice and
+command. Her name was Anna Pavlovna. She never interfered in any
+thing, received her guests cordially, and went out into society
+herself with pleasure--although "it was death" to her, to use her own
+phrase, to have to powder herself. "They put a felt cap on your head,"
+she used to say in her old age; "they combed all your hair straight up
+on end, they smeared it with grease, they strewed it with flour, they
+stuck it full of iron pins; you couldn't wash it away afterwards. But
+to pay a visit without powdering was impossible. People would have
+taken offence. What a torment it was!" She liked to drive fast, and
+was ready to play at cards from morning until evening. When her
+husband approached the card-table, she was always in the habit of
+covering with her hand the trumpery losses scored up against her; but
+she had made over to him, without reserve, all her dowry, all the
+money she had. She brought him two children--a son named Ivan, our
+Fedor's father, and a daughter, Glafira.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: The accent should be on the second syllable of this
+name.]
+
+Ivan was not brought up at home, but in the house of an old and
+wealthy maiden aunt, Princess Kubensky. She styled him her heir (if it
+had not been for that, his father would not have let him go), dressed
+him like a doll, gave him teachers of every kind, and placed him
+under the care of a French tutor--an ex-abbe, a pupil of Jean Jacques
+Rousseau--a certain M. Courtin de Vaucelles an adroit and subtle
+intriguer--"the very _fine fleur_ of the emigration," as she expressed
+herself; and she ended by marrying this _fine fleur_ when she was
+almost seventy years old. She transferred all her property to
+his name, and soon afterwards, rouged, perfumed with amber _a la
+Richelieu_, surrounded by negro boys, Italian grey-hounds, and noisy
+parrots, she died, stretched on a crooked silken couch of the style of
+Louis the Fifteenth, with an enamelled snuff-box of Petitot's work
+in her hands--and died deserted by her husband. The insinuating M.
+Courtin had preferred to take himself and her money off to Paris.
+
+Ivan was in his twentieth year when this unexpected blow struck him.
+We speak of the Princess's marriage, not her death. In his aunt's
+house, in which he had suddenly passed from the position of a wealthy
+heir to that of a hanger-on, he would not slay any longer. In
+Petersburg, the society in which he had grown up closed its doors upon
+him. For the lower ranks of the public service, and the laborious and
+obscure life they involved, he felt a strong repugnance. All this, it
+must be remembered, took place in the earliest part of the reign of
+the Emperor Alexander I[A]. He was obliged, greatly against his will,
+to return to his father's country house. Dirty, poor, and miserable
+did the paternal nest seem to him. The solitude and the dullness of a
+retired country life offended him at every step. He was devoured by
+ennui; besides, every one in the house, except his mother, regarded
+him with unloving eyes. His father disliked his metropolitan
+habits, his dress-coats and shirt-frills, his books, his flute, his
+cleanliness--from which he justly argued that his son regarded him
+with a feeling of aversion. He was always grumbling at his son, and
+complaining of his conduct.
+
+[Footnote A: When corruption was the rule in the public service.]
+
+"Nothing we have here pleases him," he used to say. "He is so
+fastidious at table, he eats nothing. He cannot bear the air and the
+smell of the room. The sight of drunken people upsets him; and as to
+beating anyone before him, you musn't dare to do it. Then he won't
+enter the service; his health is delicate, forsooth! Bah! What an
+effeminate creature!--and all because his head is full of Voltaire!"
+The old man particularly disliked Voltaire, and also the "infidel"
+Diderot, although he had never read a word of their works. Reading was
+not in his line.
+
+Peter Andreich was not mistaken. Both Diderot and Voltaire really
+were in his son's head; and not they alone. Rousseau and Raynal and
+Helvetius also, and many other similar writers, were in his head; but
+in his head only. Ivan Petrovich's former tutor, the retired Abbe and
+encyclopaedist, had satisfied himself with pouring all the collective
+wisdom of the eighteenth century over his pupil; and so the pupil
+existed, saturated with it. It held its own in him without mixing with
+his blood, without sinking into his mind, without resolving into fixed
+convictions. And would it be reasonable to ask for convictions from a
+youngster half a century ago, when we have not even yet acquired any?
+
+Ivan Petrovich disconcerted the visitors also in his father's house.
+He was too proud to have anything to do with them; they feared him.
+With his sister Glafira, too, who was twelve years his senior, he did
+not at all agree. This Glafira was a strange being. Plain, deformed,
+meagre--with staring and severe eyes, and with thin, compressed
+lips--she, in her face and her voice, and in her angular and quick
+movements, resembled her grandmother, the gipsy Andrei's wife.
+Obstinate, and fond of power, she would not even hear of marriage.
+Ivan Petrovich's return home was by no means to her taste. So long as
+the Princess Kubensky kept him with her, Glafira had hoped to obtain
+at least half of her father's property; and in her avarice, as well as
+in other points, she resembled her grandmother. Besides this, Glafira
+was jealous of her brother. He had been educated so well; he spoke
+French so correctly, with a Parisian accent; and she scarcely knew how
+to say "_Bonjour_" and "_Comment vous portez vous_?" It is true that
+her parents were entirely ignorant of French, but that did not make
+things any better for her.
+
+As to Ivan Petrovich, he did not know what to do with himself for
+vexation and ennui; he had not spent quite a year in the country, but
+even this time seemed to him like ten years. It was only with his
+mother that he was at ease in spirit; and for whole hours he used to
+sit in her low suite of rooms listening to the good lady's simple,
+unconnected talk, and stuffing himself with preserves. It happened
+that among Anna Pavlovna's maids there was a very pretty girl named
+Malania. Intelligent and modest, with calm, sweet eyes, and finely-cut
+features, she pleased Ivan Petrovich from the very first, and he soon
+fell in love with her. He loved her timid gait, her modest replies,
+her gentle voice, her quiet smile. Every day she seemed to him more
+attractive than before. And she attached herself to Ivan Petrovich
+with the whole strength of her soul--as only Russian girls know how
+to devote themselves--and gave herself to him. In a country house no
+secret can be preserved long; in a short time almost every one knew
+of the young master's fondness for Malania. At last the news reached
+Peter Andreich himself. At another time it is probable that he would
+have paid very little attention to so unimportant an affair; but he
+had long nursed a grudge against his son, and he was delighted to have
+an opportunity of disgracing the philosophical exquisite from St.
+Petersburg. There ensued a storm, attended by noise and outcry.
+Malania was locked up in the store-room.[A] Ivan Petrovich was
+summoned into his father's presence. Anna Pavlovna also came running
+to the scene of confusion, and tried to appease her husband; but he
+would not listen to a word she said. Like a hawk, he pounced upon his
+son charging him with immorality, atheism, and hypocrisy. He eagerly
+availed himself of so good an opportunity of discharging on him all
+his long-gathered spite against the Princess Kubensky, and overwhelmed
+him with insulting expressions.
+
+[Footnote A: A sort of closet under the stairs.]
+
+At first Ivan Petrovich kept silence, and maintained his hold over
+himself; but when his father thought fit to threaten him with a
+disgraceful punishment, he could bear it no longer. "Ah!" he thought,
+"the infidel Diderot is going to be brought forward again. Well, then,
+I will put his teaching in action." And so with a quiet and even
+voice, although with a secret shuddering in all his limbs, he told his
+father that it was a mistake to accuse him of immorality; that he had
+no intention of justifying his fault, but that he was ready to make
+amends for it, and that all the more willingly, inasmuch as he felt
+himself superior to all prejudices; and, in fact--that he was ready
+to marry Malania. In uttering these words Ivan Petrovich undoubtedly
+attained the end he had in view. Peter Andreich was so confounded that
+he opened his eyes wide, and for a moment was struck dumb; but he
+immediately recovered his senses, and then and there, just as he was,
+wrapped in a dressing-gown trimmed with squirrels' fur, and with
+slippers on his bare feet, he rushed with clenched fists at his son,
+who, as if on purpose, had dressed his hair that day _a la Titus_,
+and had put on a blue dress-coat, quite new and made in the English
+fashion, tasselled boots, and dandified, tight-fitting buckskin
+pantaloons. Anna Pavlovna uttered a loud shriek, and hid her face in
+her hands; meanwhile her son ran right through the house, jumped into
+the court-yard, threw himself first into the kitchen garden and then
+into the flower garden, flew across the park into the road, and ran
+and ran, without once looking back, until at last he ceased to hear
+behind him the sound of his father's heavy feet, the loud and broken
+cries with which his father sobbed out, "Stop, villain! Stop, or I
+will curse you!"
+
+Ivan Petrovich took refuge in the house of a neighbor,[A] and his
+father returned home utterly exhausted, and bathed in perspiration.
+There he announced, almost before he had given himself time to recover
+breath, that he withdrew his blessing and his property from his son,
+whose stupid books he condemned to be burnt; and he gave orders to
+have the girl Malania sent, with out delay, to a distant village.
+Some good people found out where Ivan Petrovich was, and told him
+everything. Full of shame and rage, he swore vengeance upon his
+father; and that very night, having lain in wait for the peasant's
+cart on which Malania was being sent away, he carried her off by
+force, galloped with her to the nearest town, and there married
+her. He was supplied with the necessary means by a neighbor, a
+hard-drinking, retired sailor, who was exceedingly good-natured, and a
+very great lover of all "noble histories," as he called them.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "of a neighboring _Odnodvorets_." That word
+signifies one who belongs by descent to the class of nobles and
+proprietors, but who has no serfs belonging to him, and is really a
+moujik, or peasant. Some villages are composed of inhabitants of this
+class, who are often intelligent, though uneducated.]
+
+The next day Ivan Petrovich sent his father a letter, which was
+frigidly and ironically polite, and then betook himself to the estate
+of two of his second cousins,--Dmitry Pestof, and his sister Marfa
+Timofeevna, with the latter of whom the reader is already acquainted.
+He told them everything that had happened, announced his intention of
+going to St. Petersburg to seek an appointment, and begged them to
+give shelter to his wife, even if only for a time. At the word "wife"
+he sobbed bitterly; and, in spite of his metropolitan education, and
+his philosophy, he humbly, like a thorough Russian peasant, knelt down
+at the feet of his relations, and even touched the floor with his
+forehead.
+
+The Pestofs, who were kind and compassionate people, willingly
+consented to his request. With them he spent three weeks, secretly
+expecting an answer from his father. But no answer came; no answer
+could come. Peter Andreich, when he received the news of the marriage,
+took to his bed, and gave orders that his son's name should never
+again be mentioned to him; but Ivan's mother, without her husband's
+knowledge, borrowed five hundred paper roubles from a neighboring
+priest,[A] and sent them to her son, with a little sacred picture for
+his wife. She was afraid of writing, but she told her messenger, a
+spare little peasant who could walk sixty versts in a day, to say to
+Ivan that he was not to fret too much; that please God, all would yet
+go right, and his father's wrath would turn to kindness--that she,
+too, would have preferred a different daughter-in-law; but that
+evidently God had willed it as it was, and that she sent her paternal
+benediction to Malania Sergievna. The spare little peasant had a
+rouble given him, asked leave to see the new mistress, whose gossip[B]
+he was, kissed her hand, and returned home.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "from the _Blagochinny_" an ecclesiastic who
+exercises supervision over a number of churches or parishes, a sort of
+Rural Dean.]
+
+[Footnote A: The word is used in its old meaning of fellow-sponsor.]
+
+So Ivan Petrovich betook himself to St. Petersburg with a light heart.
+An unknown future lay before him. Poverty might menace him; but he had
+broken with the hateful life in the country, and, above all, he had
+not fallen short of his instructors; he had really "put into action,"
+and indeed done justice to, the doctrines of Rousseau, Diderot, and
+the "Declaration of the Rights of Man." The conviction of having
+accomplished a duty, a sense of pride and of triumph, filled his soul;
+and the fact of having to separate from his wife did not greatly alarm
+him; he would far sooner have been troubled by the necessity of having
+constantly to live with her. He had now to think of other affairs. One
+task was finished.
+
+In St. Petersburg, contrary to his own expectations, he was
+successful. The Princess Kubensky--whom M. Courtin had already flung
+aside, but who had not yet contrived to die--in order that she might
+at least to some extent, make amends for her conduct towards her
+nephew, recommended him to all her friends, and gave him five thousand
+roubles--almost all the money she had left--and a watch, with his
+crest wrought on its back surrounded by a wreath of Cupids.
+
+
+Three months had not gone by before he received an appointment on the
+staff of the Russian embassy in London, whither he set sail (steamers
+were not even talked about then) in the first homeward bound English
+vessel he could find. A few months later he received a letter from
+Pestof. The kind-hearted gentleman congratulated him on the birth of a
+son, who had come into the world at the village of Pokrovskoe, on the
+20th of August, 1807, and had been named Fedor, in honor of the holy
+martyr Fedor Stratilates. On account of her extreme weakness, Malania
+Sergievna could add only a few lines. But even those few astonished
+Ivan Petrovich; he was not aware that Marfa Timofeevna had taught his
+wife to read and write.
+
+It must not be supposed that Ivan Petrovich gave himself up for any
+length of time to the sweet emotion caused by paternal feeling. He was
+just then paying court to one of the celebrated Phrynes or Laises of
+the day--classical names were still in vogue at that time. The peace
+of Tilset was only just concluded,[A] and every one was hastening to
+enjoy himself, every one was being swept round by a giddy whirlwind.
+The black eyes of a bold beauty had helped to turn his head also. He
+had very little money, but he played cards luckily, made friends,
+joined in all possible diversions--in a word, he sailed with all sail
+set.
+
+[Footnote A: In consequence of which the Russian embassy was withdrawn
+from London, and Ivan Petrovich probably went to Paris.]
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+For a long time the old Lavretsky could not forgive his son for his
+marriage. If, at the end of six months, Ivan Petrovich had appeared
+before him with contrite mien, and had fallen at his feet, the old
+man would, perhaps, have pardoned the offender--after having soundly
+abused him, and given him a tap with his crutch by way of frightening
+him. But Ivan Petrovich went on living abroad, and, apparently,
+troubled himself but little about his father. "Silence! don't dare to
+say another word!" exclaimed Peter Andreich to his wife, every time
+she tried to mollify him. "That puppy ought to be always praying
+to God for me, since I have not laid my curse upon him, the
+good-for-nothing fellow! Why, my late father would have killed him
+with his own hands, and he would have done well." All that Anna
+Pavlovna could do was to cross herself stealthily when she heard such
+terrible words as these. As to his son's wife, Peter Andreich would
+not so much as hear of her at first; and even when he had to answer
+a letter in which his daughter-in-law was mentioned by Pestof, he
+ordered a message to be sent to him to say that he did not know of any
+one who could be his daughter-in-law, and that it was contrary to the
+law to shelter runaway female serfs, a fact of which he considered
+it a duty to warn him. But afterwards, on learning the birth of his
+grandson, his heart softened a little; he gave orders that inquiries
+should be secretly made on his behalf about the mother's health, and
+he sent her--but still, not as if it came from himself--a small sum of
+money.
+
+Before Fedor was a year old, his grandmother, Anna Pavlovna, was
+struck down by a mortal complaint. A few days before her death, when
+she could no longer rise from her bed, she told her husband in the
+presence of the priest, while her dying eyes swam with timid tears,
+that she wished to see her daughter-in-law, and to bid her farewell,
+and to bless her grandson. The old man, who was greatly moved, bade
+her set her mind at rest, and immediately sent his own carriage
+for his daughter-in-law, calling her, for the first time, Malania
+Sergievna.[A] Malania arrived with her boy, and with Marfa Timofeevna,
+whom nothing would have induced to allow her to go alone, and who was
+determined not to allow her to meet with any harm. Half dead with
+fright, Malania Sergievna entered her father-in-law's study, a nurse
+carrying Fedia behind her. Peter Andreich looked at her in silence.
+She drew near and took his hand, on which her quivering lips could
+scarcely press a silent kiss.
+
+[Footnote A: That is to say, no longer speaking of her as if she were
+still a servant.]
+
+"Well, noble lady,"[A] he said at last,--"Good-day to you; let's go to
+my wife's room."
+
+[Footnote A: Literally "thrashed-while-damp noblewoman," _i.e._,
+hastily ennobled. Much corn is thrashed in Russia before it has had
+time to get dry.]
+
+He rose and bent over Fedia; the babe smiled and stretched out its
+tiny white hands towards him. The old man was touched.
+
+"Ah, my orphaned one!" he said. "You have successfully pleaded your
+father's cause. I will not desert you, little bird."
+
+As soon as Malania Sergievna entered Anna Pavlovna's bed-room, she
+fell on her knees near the door. Anna Pavlovna, having made her a sign
+to come to her bedside, embraced her, and blessed her child. Then,
+turning towards her husband a face worn by cruel suffering, she would
+have spoken to him, but he prevented her.
+
+"I know, I know what you want to ask," he said; "don't worry yourself.
+She shall remain with us, and for her sake I will forgive Vanka."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: A diminutive of Ivan, somewhat expressive of contempt
+Vanya is the affectionate form.]
+
+Anna Pavlovna succeeded by a great effort in getting hold of her
+husband's hand and pressing it to her lips. That same evening she
+died.
+
+Peter Andreich kept his word. He let his son know that out of respect
+to his mother's last moments, and for the sake of the little Fedor, he
+gave him back his blessing, and would keep Malania Sergievna in his
+house. A couple of small rooms up-stairs were accordingly given to
+Malania, and he presented her to his most important acquaintances,
+the one-eyed Brigadier Skurekhine and his wife. He also placed two
+maid-servants at her disposal, and a page to run her errands.
+
+After Marfa Timofeevna had left her--who had conceived a perfect
+hatred for Glafira, and had quarrelled with her three times in the
+course of a single day--the poor woman at first found her position
+difficult and painful. But after a time she attained endurance, and
+grew accustomed to her father-in-law. He, on his part, grew accustomed
+to her, and became fond of her, though he scarcely ever spoke to her,
+although in his caresses themselves a certain involuntary contempt
+showed itself. But it was her sister-in-law who made Malania suffer
+the most. Even during her mother's lifetime, Glafira had gradually
+succeeded in getting the entire management of the house into her own
+hands. Every one, from her father downwards, yielded to her. Without
+her permission not even a lump of sugar was to be got. She would have
+preferred to die rather than to delegate her authority to another
+housewife--and such a housewife too! She had been even more irritated
+than Peter Andreich by her brother's marriage, so she determined
+to read the upstart a good lesson, and from the very first Malania
+Sergievna became her slave. And Malania, utterly without defence, weak
+in health, constantly a prey to trouble and alarm--how could she have
+striven against the proud and strong-willed Glafira? Not a day passed
+without Glafira reminding her of her former position, and praising her
+for not forgetting herself. Malania Sergievna would willingly have
+acquiesced in these remindings and praisings, however bitter they
+might be--but her child had been taken away from her. This drove her
+to despair. Under the pretext that she was not qualified to see after
+his education, she was scarcely ever allowed to go near him. Glafira
+undertook the task. The child passed entirely into her keeping.
+
+In her sorrow, Malania Sergievna began to implore her husband in her
+letters to return quickly. Peter Andreich himself wished to see his
+son, but Ivan Petrovich merely sent letters in reply. He thanked his
+father for what had been done for his wife, and for the money which
+had been sent to himself, and he promised to come home soon--but he
+did not come.
+
+At last the year 1812 recalled him from abroad. On seeing each other
+for the first time after a separation of six years, the father and the
+son met in a warm embrace, and did not say a single word in reference
+to their former quarrels. Nor was it a time for that. All Russia was
+rising against the foe, and they both felt that Russian blood flowed
+in their veins, Peter Andreich equipped a whole regiment of volunteers
+at his own expense. But the war ended; the danger passed away. Ivan
+Petrovich once more became bored, once more he was allured into the
+distance, into that world in which he had grown up, and in which he
+felt himself at home. Malania could not hold him back; she was valued
+at very little in his eyes. Even what she really had hoped had not
+been fulfilled. Like the rest, her husband thought that it was
+decidedly most expedient to confide Fedia's education to Glafira.
+Ivan's poor wife could not bear up against this blow, could not endure
+this second separation. Without a murmur, at the end of a few days,
+she quietly passed away.
+
+In the course of her whole life she had never been able to resist any
+thing; and so with her illness, also, she did not struggle. When she
+could no longer speak, and the shadows of death already lay on her
+face, her features still retained their old expression of patient
+perplexity, of unruffled and submissive sweetness. With her usual
+silent humility, she gazed at Glafira; and as Anna Pavlovna on her
+death-bed had kissed the hand of Peter Andreich, so she pressed her
+lips to Glafira's hand, as she confided to Glafira's care her only
+child. So did this good and quiet being end her earthly career. Like a
+shrub torn from its native soil, and the next moment flung aside, its
+roots upturned to the sun, she withered and disappeared, leaving no
+trace behind, and no one to grieve for her. It is true that her maids
+regretted her, and so did Peter Andreich. The old man missed her
+kindly face, her silent presence. "Forgive--farewell--my quiet one!"
+he said, as he took leave of her for the last time, in the church. He
+wept as he threw a handful of earth into her grave.
+
+He did not long survive her--not more than five years. In the winter
+of 1819, he died peacefully in Moscow, whither he had gone with
+Glafira and his grandson. In his will he desired to be buried by the
+side of Anna Pavlovna and "Malasha."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Diminutive of Malania.]
+
+Ivan Petrovich was at that time amusing himself in Paris, having
+retired from the service soon after the year 1815. On receiving the
+news of his father's death, he determined to return to Russia. The
+organization of his property had to be considered. Besides, according
+to Glafira's letter, Fedia had finished his twelfth year; and the time
+had come for taking serious thought about his education.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+Ivan Petrovich returned to Russia an Anglomaniac. Short hair, starched
+frills, a pea-green, long-skirted coat with a number of little
+collars; a soar expression of countenance, something trenchant and
+at the same time careless in his demeanor, an utterance through
+the teeth, an abrupt wooden laugh, an absence of smile, a habit of
+conversing only on political or politico-economical subjects, a
+passion for under-done roast beef and port wine--every thing in him
+breathed, so to speak, of Great Britain. He seemed entirely imbued by
+its spirit. But strange to say, while becoming an Anglomaniac, Ivan
+Petrovich had also become a patriot,--at all events he called himself
+a patriot,--although he knew very little about Russia, he had not
+retained a single Russian habit, and he expressed himself in Russian
+oddly. In ordinary talk, his language was colorless and unwieldy,
+and absolutely bristled with Gallicisms. But the moment that the
+conversation turned upon serious topics, Ivan Petrovich immediately
+began to give utterance to such expressions as "to render manifest
+abnormal symptoms of enthusiasm," or "this is extravagantly
+inconsistent with the essential nature of circumstances," and so
+forth. He had brought with him some manuscript plans, intended to
+assist in the organization and improvement of the empire. For he was
+greatly discontented with what he saw taking place. It was the absence
+of system which especially aroused his indignation.
+
+At his interview with his sister, he informed her in the first words
+he spoke that he meant to introduce radical reforms on his property,
+and that for the future all his affairs would be conducted on a new
+system. Glafira made no reply, but she clenched her teeth and thought,
+"What is to become of me then?" However, when she had gone with her
+brother and her nephew to the estate, her mind was soon set at
+ease. It is true that a few changes were made in the house, and the
+hangers-on and parasites were put to immediate flight. Among their
+number suffered two old women, the one blind, the other paralyzed, and
+also a worn-out major of the Ochakof[A] days, who, on account of his
+great voracity, was fed upon nothing but black bread and lentiles. An
+order was given also not to receive any of the former visitors; they
+were replaced by a distant neighbor, a certain blonde and scrofulous
+baron, an exceedingly well brought-up and remarkably dull man. New
+furniture was sent from Moscow; spittoons, bells, and washhand basins
+were introduced; the breakfast was served in a novel fashion; foreign
+wines replaced the old national spirits and liquors; new liveries were
+given to the servants, and to the family coat of arms was added the
+motto, "_In recto virtus_."
+
+[Footnote A: Ochakof is a town which was taken from the Turks by the
+Russians in 1788.]
+
+In reality, however, the power of Glafira did not diminish; all
+receipts and expenditures were settled, as before, by her. A Valet,
+who had been brought from abroad, a native of Alsace, tried to compete
+with her, and lost his place, in spite of the protection which his
+master generally afforded him. In all that related to house-keeping,
+and also to the administration of the estate (for with these things
+too Glafira interfered)--in spite of the intention often expressed by
+Ivan Petrovich "to breathe new life into the chaos,"--all remained on
+the old footing. Only the _obrok_[A] remained on the old footing, and
+the _barshina_[B] became heavier, and the peasants were forbidden
+to go straight to Ivan Petrovich. The patriot already despised his
+fellow-citizens heartily. Ivan Petrovich's system was applied in its
+full development only to Fedia. The boy's education really underwent
+"a radical reform." His father undertook the sole direction of it
+himself.
+
+[Footnote A: What the peasant paid his lord in money.]
+
+[Footnote B: What the peasant paid his lord in labor.]
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+Until the return of Ivan Petrovich from abroad, Fedia remained, as we
+have already said, in the hands of Glafira Petrovna. He was not yet
+eight years old when his mother died. It was not every day that he had
+been allowed to see her, but he had become passionately attached to
+her. His recollections of her, especially of her pale and gentle face,
+her mournful eyes, and her timid caresses, were indelibly impressed
+upon his heart. It was but vaguely that he understood her position
+in the house, but he felt that between him and her there existed a
+barrier which she dared not and could not destroy. He felt shy of
+his father, who, on his part, never caressed him. His grandfather
+sometimes smoothed his hair and gave him his hand to kiss, but called
+him a savage and thought him a fool. After Malania's death, his aunt
+took him regularly in hand. Fedia feared her, feared her bright sharp
+eyes, her cutting voice; he never dared to make the slightest noise in
+her presence; if by chance he stirred ever so little on his chair, she
+would immediately exclaim in her hissing voice, "Where are you going?
+sit still!"
+
+On Sundays, after mass, he was allowed to play--that is to say, a
+thick book was given to him, a mysterious book, the work of a certain
+Maksimovich-Ambodik, bearing the title of "Symbols and Emblems." In
+this book there were to be found about a thousand, for the most part,
+very puzzling pictures, with equally puzzling explanations in five
+languages. Cupid, represented with a naked and chubby body, played a
+great part in these pictures. To one of them, the title of which was
+"Saffron and the Rainbow," was appended the explanation, "The effect
+of this is great." Opposite another, which represented "A Stork,
+flying with a violet in its beak," stood this motto, "To thee they
+are all known;" and "Cupid, and a bear licking its cub," was styled
+"Little by Little." Fedia used to pore over these pictures. He was
+familiar with them all even to their minutest details. Some of
+them--it was always the same ones--made him reflect, and excited his
+imagination: of other diversions he knew nothing.
+
+When the time came for teaching him languages and music, Glafira
+Petrovna hired an old maid for a mere trifle, a Swede, whose eyes
+looked sideways, like a hare's, who spoke French and German more
+or less badly, played the piano so so, and pickled cucumbers to
+perfection. In the company of this governess, of his aunt, and of an
+old servant maid called Vasilievna, Fedia passed four whole years.
+Sometimes he would sit in a corner with his "Emblems"--there he would
+sit and sit. A scent of geraniums filled the low room, one tallow
+candle burnt dimly, the cricket chirped monotonously as if it were
+bored, the little clock ticked busily on the wall, a mouse scratched
+stealthily and gnawed behind the tapestry; and the three old maids,
+like the three Fates, knitted away silently and swiftly, the shadows
+of their hands now scampering along, now mysteriously quivering in
+the dusk; and strange, no less dusky, thoughts were being born in the
+child's mind.
+
+No one would have called Fedia an interesting child. He was rather
+pale, but stout, badly built, and awkward--a regular moujik, to use
+the expression employed by Glafira Petrovna. The pallor would soon
+have vanished from his face if they had let him go out more into the
+fresh air. He learnt his lessons pretty well, though he was often
+idle. He never cried, but he sometimes evinced a savage obstinacy. At
+those times no one could do any thing with him. Fedia did not love a
+single one of the persons by whom he was surrounded. Alas for that
+heart which has not loved in youth!
+
+Such did Ivan Petrovich find him when he returned; and, without losing
+time he at once began to apply his system to him.
+
+"I want, above all, to make a man of him--_un homme_," he said to
+Glafira Petrovna "and not only a man, but a Spartan." This plan he
+began to carry out by dressing his boy in Highland costume. The
+twelve-year-old little fellow had to go about with bare legs, and with
+a cock's feather in his cap. The Swedish governess was replaced by a
+young tutor from Switzerland, who was acquainted with all the niceties
+of gymnastics. Music was utterly forbidden, as an accomplishment
+unworthy of a man. Natural science, international law, and
+mathematics, as well as carpentry, which was selected in accordance
+with the advice of Jean Jacques Rousseau; and heraldry, which was
+introduced for the maintenance of chivalrous ideas--these were the
+subjects to which the future "man" had to give his attention. He had
+to get up at four in the morning and take a cold bath immediately,
+after which he had to run round a high pole at the end of a cord. He
+had one meal a day, consisting of one dish; he rode on horseback, and
+he shot with a cross-bow. On every fitting occasion he had to exercise
+himself, in imitation of his father, in gaining strength of will; and
+every evening he used to write, in a book reserved for that purpose,
+an account of how he had spent the day, and what were his ideas on the
+subject. Ivan Petrovich, on his side, wrote instructions for him
+in French, in which he styled him _mon fils_, and addressed him as
+_vous_. Fedia used to say "thou" to his father in Russian, but he did
+not dare to sit down in his presence.
+
+The "system" muddled the boy's brains, confused his ideas, and cramped
+his mind; but, as far as his physical health was concerned, the new
+kind of life acted on him beneficially. At first he fell ill with a
+fever, but he soon recovered and became a fine fellow. His father grew
+proud of him, and styled him in his curious language, "the child of
+nature, my creation." When Fedia reached the age of sixteen, Ivan
+Petrovich considered it a duty to inspire him in good time with
+contempt for the female sex--and so the young Spartan, with the first
+down beginning to appear upon his lips, timid in feeling, but with a
+body full of blood, and strength, and energy, already tried to seem
+careless, and cold, and rough.
+
+Meanwhile time passed by. Ivan Petrovich spent the greater part of the
+year at Lavriki--that was the name of his chief hereditary estate; but
+in winter he used to go by himself to Moscow, where he put up at a
+hotel, attended his club assiduously, aired his eloquence freely,
+explained his plans in society, and more than ever gave himself out as
+an Anglomaniac, a grumbler, and a statesman. But the year 1825 came
+and brought with it much trouble[A]. Ivan Petrovich's intimate friends
+and acquaintances underwent a heavy tribulation. He made haste to
+betake himself far away into the country, and there he shut himself up
+in his house. Another year passed and Ivan Petrovich suddenly broke
+down, became feeble, and utterly gave way. His health having deserted
+him, the freethinker began to go to church, and to order prayers to be
+said for him[B]; the European began to steam himself in the Russian
+bath, to dine at two o'clock, to go to bed at nine, to be talked to
+sleep by the gossip of an old house-steward; the statesman burnt all
+his plans and all his correspondence, trembled before the governor,
+and treated the _Ispravnik_[C] with uneasy civility; the man of iron
+will whimpered and complained whenever he was troubled by a boil, or
+when his soup had got cold before he was served with it. Glafira again
+ruled supreme in the house; again did inspectors, overseers[D],
+and simple peasants begin to go up the back staircase to the rooms
+occupied by the "old witch"--as she was called by the servants of the
+house.
+
+[Footnote A: Arising from the conspiracy of the "Decembrists" and
+their attempts at a revolution, on the occasion of the death of
+Alexander I., and the accession of Nicholas to the throne.]
+
+[Footnote B: _Molebni_: prayers in which the name of the person who
+has paid for them is mentioned.]
+
+[Footnote C: Inspector of rural police.]
+
+[Footnote D: _Prikashchiki_ and _Burmistrui_: two classes of
+overseers, the former dealing with economical matters only, the latter
+having to do with the administrative department also.]
+
+The change which had taken place in Ivan Petrovich, produced a strong
+impression on the mind of his son. He had already entered on his
+nineteenth year; and he had begun to think for himself, and to shake
+off the weight of the hand which had been pressing him down. Even
+before this he had remarked how different were his father's deeds from
+his words; the wide and liberal theories he professed from the hard
+and narrow despotism he practiced; but he had not expected so abrupt
+a transformation. In his old age the egotist revealed himself in his
+full nature. The young Lavretsky was just getting ready to go to
+Moscow, with a view to preparing himself for the university, when a
+new and unexpected misfortune fell on the head of Ivan Petrovich. In
+the course of a single day the old man became blind, hopelessly blind.
+
+Distrusting the skill of Russian medical men, he did all he could to
+get permission to travel abroad. It was refused. Then, taking his son
+with him, he wandered about Russia for three whole years, trying one
+doctor after another, incessantly journeying from place to place, and,
+by his impatient fretfulness, driving his doctors, his son, and his
+servants to the verge of despair. Utterly used up[A], he returned to
+Lavriki a weeping and capricious infant. Days of bitterness ensued,
+in which all suffered at his hands. He was quiet only while he was
+feeding. Never had he eaten so much, nor so greedily. At all other
+moments he allowed neither himself nor any one else to be at peace. He
+prayed, grumbled at fate, found fault with himself, with his system,
+with politics, with all which he used to boast of, with all that he
+had ever set up as a model for his son. He would declare that he
+believed in nothing, and then he would betake himself again to prayer;
+he could not bear a single moment of solitude, and he compelled
+his servants constantly to sit near his bed day and night, and to
+entertain him with stories, which he was in the habit of interrupting
+by exclamations of, "You're all telling lies!" or, "What utter
+nonsense!"
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "a regular rag."]
+
+Glafira Petrovna had the largest share in all the trouble he gave. He
+was absolutely unable to do without her; and until the very end she
+fulfilled all the invalid's caprices, though sometimes she was unable
+to reply immediately to what he said, for fear the tone of her voice
+should betray the anger which was almost choking her. So he creaked
+on for two years more, and at length one day in the beginning of the
+month of May, he died. He had been carried out to the balcony, and
+planed there in the sun. "Glasha! Glashka! broth, broth, you old
+idi--," lisped his stammering tongue; and then, without completing the
+last word, it became silent forever. Glafira, who had just snatched
+the cup of broth from the hands of the major-domo, stopped short,
+looked her brother in the face, very slowly crossed herself, and went
+silently away. And his son, who happened also to be on the spot, did
+not say a word either, but bent over the railing of the balcony, and
+gazed for a long time into the garden, all green and fragrant, all
+sparkling in the golden sunlight of spring. He was twenty-three years
+old; how sadly, how swiftly had those years passed by unmarked! Life
+opened out before him now.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+After his father's burial, having confided to the never-changing
+Glafira Petrovna the administration of his household, and the
+supervision of his agents, the young Lavretsky set out for Moscow,
+whither a vague but powerful longing attracted him. He knew in what
+his education had been defective, and he was determined to supply its
+deficiencies as far as possible. In the course of the last five years
+he had read much, and he had see a good deal with his own eyes. Many
+ideas had passed through his mind, many a professor might have envied
+him some of his knowledge; yet, at the same time, he was entirely
+ignorant of much that had long been familiar to every school-boy.
+Lavretsky felt that he was not at his ease among his fellow-men;
+he had a secret inkling that he was an exceptional character. The
+Anglomaniac had played his son a cruel trick; his capricious education
+had borne its fruit. For many years he had implicitly obeyed his
+father; and when at last he had learned to value him aright, the
+effects of his father's teaching were already produced. Certain habits
+had become rooted in him. He did not know how to comport himself
+towards his fellow-men; at the age of twenty-three, with an eager
+longing after love in his bashful heart, he had not yet dared to look
+a woman in the face. With his clear and logical, but rather sluggish
+intellect, with his stubbornness, and his tendency towards inactivity
+and contemplation, he ought to have been flung at an early age into
+the whirl of life, instead of which he had been deliberately kept
+in seclusion. And now the magic circle was broken, but he remained
+standing on the same spot, cramped in mind and self-absorbed.
+
+At his age it seemed a little ridiculous to put on the uniform of a
+student[A], but he did not fear ridicule. His Spartan education had at
+all events been so far useful, inasmuch as it had developed in him a
+contempt for the world's gossiping. So he donned a student's uniform
+without being disconcerted, enrolling himself in the faculty of
+physical and mathematical science. His robust figure, his ruddy
+face, his sprouting beard, his taciturn manner, produced a singular
+impression on his comrades. They never suspected that under the rough
+exterior of this man, who attended the lectures so regularly, driving
+up in a capacious rustic sledge, drawn by a couple of horses,
+something almost childlike was concealed. They thought him an
+eccentric sort of pedant, and they made no advances towards him, being
+able to do very well without him. And he, for his part, avoided them.
+During the first two years he passed at the university, he became
+intimate with no one except the student from whom she took lessons in
+Latin. This student, whose name was Mikhalevich, an enthusiast, and
+somewhat of a poet, grew warmly attached to Lavretsky, and quite
+accidentally became the cause of a serious change in his fortunes.
+
+[Footnote A: The students at the Russian universities used to wear a
+uniform, but they no longer do so.]
+
+One evening, when Lavretsky was at the theatre--he never missed a
+single representation, for Mochalof was then at the summit of his
+glory--he caught sight of a young girl in a box on the first tier.
+Never before had his heart beaten so fast, though at that time no
+woman ever passed before his stern eyes without sending its pulses
+flying. Leaning on the velvet border of the box, the girl sat very
+still. Youthful animation lighted up every feature of her beautiful
+face; artistic feeling shone in her lovely eyes, which looked out with
+a soft, attentive gaze from underneath delicately pencilled eyebrows,
+in the quick smile of her expressive lips, in the bearing of her head,
+her arms, her neck. As to her dress, it was exquisite. By her side sat
+a sallow, wrinkled woman of five-and-forty, wearing a low dress and a
+black cap, with an unmeaning smile on her vacant face, to which she
+strove to give an aspect of attention. In the background of the box
+appeared an elderly man in a roomy coat, and with a high cravat. His
+small eyes had an expression of stupid conceit, modified by a kind of
+cringing suspicion; his mustache and whiskers were dyed, he had an
+immense meaningless forehead, and flabby cheeks: his whole appearance
+was that of a retired general.
+
+Lavretsky kept his eyes fixed on the girl who had made such an
+impression on him. Suddenly the door of the box opened, and
+Mikhalevich entered. The appearance of the man who was almost his only
+acquaintance in all Moscow--his appearance in the company of the very
+girl who had absorbed his whole attention, seemed to Lavretsky strange
+and significant. As he continued looking at the box, he remarked that
+all its occupants treated Mikhalevich like an old friend. Lavretsky
+lost all interest in what was going on upon the stage; even Mochalof,
+although he was that evening "in the vein," did not produce his wonted
+impression upon him. During one very pathetic passage, Lavretsky
+looked almost involuntarily at the object of his admiration. She was
+leaning forward, a red glow coloring her cheeks. Her eyes were bent
+upon the stage, but gradually, under the influence of his fixed look,
+they turned and rested on him. All night long those eyes haunted him.
+At last, the carefully constructed dam was broken through. He
+shivered and he burnt by turns, and the very next day he went to see
+Mikhalevich. From him he learned that the name of the girl he admired
+so much was Varvara Pavlovna Korobine, that the elderly people who
+were with her in the box were her father and her mother, and that
+Mikhalevich had become acquainted with them the year before, during
+the period of his stay as tutor in Count N.'s family, near Moscow. The
+enthusiast spoke of Varvara Pavlovna in the most eulogistic terms.
+"This girl, my brother," he exclaimed, in his peculiar, jerking kind
+of sing-song, "is an exceptional being, one endowed with genius, an
+artist in the true sense of the word, and besides all that, such an
+amiable creature." Perceiving from Lavretsky's questions how great an
+impression Varvara Pavlovna had made upon him, Mikhalevich, of his own
+accord, proposed to make him acquainted with her, adding that he was
+on the most familiar terms with them, that the general was not in the
+least haughty, and that the mother was as unintellectual as she well
+could be.
+
+Lavretsky blushed, muttered something vague, and took himself off.
+For five whole days he fought against his timidity; on the sixth, the
+young Spartan donned an entirely new uniform, and placed himself at
+the disposal of Mikhalevich, who, as an intimate friend of the
+family, contented himself with setting his hair straight--and the two
+companions set off together to visit the Karobines.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+Varvara Pavlovna's father, Pavel Petrovich Korobine, a retired
+major-general, had been on duty at St. Petersburg during almost the
+whole of his life. In his early years he had enjoyed the reputation of
+being an able dancer and driller; but as he was very poor he had
+to act as aide-de-camp to two or three generals of small renown in
+succession, one of whom gave him his daughter in marriage, together
+with a dowry of 25,000 roubles. Having made himself master of all the
+science of regulations and parades, even to their subtlest details,
+he "went on stretching the girth" until at last, after twenty years
+service, he became a general, and obtained a regiment. At that point
+he might have reposed, and have quietly consolidated his fortune. He
+had indeed counted upon doing so, but he managed his affairs rather
+imprudently. It seems he had discovered a new method of speculating
+with the public money. The method turned out an excellent one, but he
+must needs practise quite unreasonable economy,[A] so information was
+laid against him, and a more than disagreeable, a ruinous scandal
+ensued. Some how or other the general managed to get clear of the
+affair; but his career was stopped, and he was recommended to retire
+from active service. For about a couple of years he lingered on at St.
+Petersburg, in hopes that a snug civil appointment might fall to
+his lot; but no such appointment did fall to his lot. His daughter
+finished her education at the Institute; his expenses increased day by
+day. So he determined, with suppressed indignation, to go to Moscow
+for economy's sake; and there, in the Old Stable Street, he hired a
+little house with an escutcheon seven feet high on the roof, and began
+to live as retired generals do in Moscow on an income of 2,700 roubles
+a year[B].
+
+[Footnote A: In other words, he stole, but he neglected to bribe.]
+
+[Footnote B: Nearly L400, the roubles being "silver" ones. The
+difference in value between "silver" and "paper" roubles exists no
+longer.]
+
+Moscow is an hospitable city, and ready to welcome any one who appears
+there, especially if he is a retired general. Pavel Petrovich's form,
+which, though heavy, was not devoid of martial bearing, began to
+appear in the drawing-rooms frequented by the best society of Moscow.
+The back of his head, bald, with the exception of a few tufts of dyed
+hair, and the stained ribbon of the Order of St. Anne, which he wore
+over a stock of the color of a raven's wing, became familiar to all
+the young men of pale and wearied aspect, who were wont to saunter
+moodily around the card tables while a dance was going on.
+
+Pavel Petrovich understood how to hold his own in society. He said
+little, but always, as of old, spoke through the nose--except, of
+course, when he was talking to people of superior rank. He played at
+cards prudently, and when he was at home he ate with moderation. At a
+party he seemed to be feeding for six. Of his wife scarcely anything
+more can be said than that her name was Calliope Carlovna--that a
+tear always stood in her left eye, on the strength of which Calliope
+Carlovna, who to be sure was of German extraction, considered
+herself a woman of feeling--that she always seemed frightened about
+something--that she looked as if she never had enough to eat--and that
+she always wore a tight velvet dress, a cap, and bracelets of thin,
+dull metal.
+
+As to Varvara Pavlovna, the general's only daughter, she was but
+seventeen years old when she left the Institute in which she had been
+educated. While within its walls she was considered, if not the most
+beautiful, at all events the most intelligent of the pupils, and the
+best musician, and before leaving it she obtained the Cipher[A]. She
+was not yet nineteen when Lavretsky saw her for the first time.
+
+[Footnote A: The initial letter of the name of the Empress, worn as a
+kind of decoration by the best pupils in the Imperial Institutes.]
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+The Spartan's legs trembled when Mikhalevich led him into the
+Korobines' not over-well furnished drawing-room, and introduced him to
+its occupants. But he overcame his timidity, and soon disappeared. In
+General Korobine that kindliness which is common to all Russians, was
+enhanced by the special affability which is peculiar to all persons
+whose fair fame has been a little soiled. As for the General's wife,
+she soon became as it were ignored by the whole party. But Varvara
+Pavlona was so calmly, so composedly gracious, that no one could be,
+even for a moment, in her presence without feeling himself at his
+ease. And at the same time from all her charming form, from her
+smiling eyes, from her faultlessly sloping shoulders, from the
+rose-tinged whiteness of her hands, from her elastic, but at the same
+time as it were, irresolute gait, from the very sound of her sweet and
+languorous voice--there breathed, like a delicate perfume, a subtle
+and incomprehensible charm--something which was at once tender and
+voluptuous and modest--something which it was difficult to express
+in words, which stirred the imagination and disturbed the mind, but
+disturbed it with sensations which were not akin to timidity.
+
+Lavretsky introduced the subject of the theatre and the preceding
+night's performance; she immediately began to talk about Mochalof
+of her own accord, and did not confine herself to mere sighs and
+exclamations, but pronounced several criticisms on his acting, which
+were as remarkable for sound judgment as for womanly penetration.
+Mikhalevich mentioned music; she sat down to the piano without
+affectation, and played with precision several of Chopin's mazurkas,
+which were then only just coming into fashion. Dinner time came.
+Lavretsky would have gone away, but they made him stop, and the
+General treated him at table with excellent Lafitte, which the footman
+had been hurriedly sent out to buy at Depre's.
+
+It was late in the evening before Lavretsky returned home; and then
+he sat for a longtime without undressing, covering his eyes with his
+hand, and yielding to the torpor of enchantment. It seemed to him that
+he had not till now understood what makes life worth having. All his
+resolutions and intentions, all the now valueless ideas of other days,
+had disappeared in a moment. His whole soul melted within him into one
+feeling, one desire; into the desire of happiness, of possession, of
+love, of the sweetness of a woman's love.
+
+From that day he began to visit the Korobines frequently. After six
+months had passed, he proposed to Varvara Pavlovna, and his offer
+was accepted. Long, long before, even if it was not the night before
+Lavretsky's first visit, the General had asked Mikhalevich how many
+serfs[A] his friend had. Even Varvara Pavlona, who had preserved her
+wonted composure and equanimity during the whole period of her
+young admirer's courtship, and even at the very moment of his
+declaration--even Varvara Pavlovna knew perfectly well that her
+betrothed was rich. And Calliope Carlovna thought to herself, "_Meine
+Tochter macht eine schoene Partie_[B]"--and bought herself a new cap.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "souls," _i.e._, male peasants.]
+
+[Footnote B: My daughter is going to make a capital match.]
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+And so his offer was accepted, but under certain conditions. In the
+first place, Lavretsky must immediately leave the university. Who
+could think of marrying a student? And what an extraordinary idea,
+a landed proprietor, a rich man, at twenty-six years of age, to be
+taking lessons like a schoolboy! In the second place, Varvara Pavlovna
+was to take upon herself the trouble of ordering and buying her
+trousseau. She even chose the presents the bridegroom was to give.
+She had very good taste, and a great deal of common sense, and she
+possessed a great liking for comfort, and no small skill in getting
+herself that comfort. Lavretsky was particularly struck by this talent
+when, immediately after the wedding, he and his wife set off for
+Lavriki, travelling in a convenient carriage which she had chosen
+herself. How carefully all their surroundings had been meditated over
+by Varvara Pavlovna! what prescience she had shown in providing them!
+What charming travelling contrivances made their appearance in
+the various convenient corners! what delicious toilet boxes! what
+excellent coffee machines! and how gracefully did Varvara Pavlovna
+herself make the coffee in the morning! But it must be confessed that
+Lavretsky was little fitted for critical observation just then. He
+revelled in his happiness, he was intoxicated by his good fortune, he
+abandoned himself to it like a child--he was, indeed, as innocent as a
+child, this young Hercules. Not in vain did a charmed influence attach
+itself to the whole presence of his young wife; not in vain did she
+promise to the imagination a secret treasure of unknown delights. She
+was even better than her promise.
+
+When she arrived at Lavriki, which was in the very hottest part of the
+summer, the house seemed to her sombre and in bad order, the servants
+antiquated and ridiculous; but she did not think it necessary to say
+a word about this to her husband. If she had intended to settle at
+Lavriki, she would have altered every thing there, beginning of course
+with the house; but the idea of staying in that out-of-the-way corner
+never, even for an instant, came into her mind. She merely lodged
+in it, as she would have done in a tent, putting up with all its
+discomforts in the sweetest manner, and laughing at them pleasantly.
+
+When Marfa Timofeevna came to see her old pupil, she produced a
+favorable impression on Varvara Pavlovna. But Varvara was not at all
+to the old lady's liking. Nor did the young mistress of the house get
+on comfortably with Glafira Petrovna. She herself would have been
+content to leave Glafira in peace, but the general was anxious to get
+his hand into the management of his son-in-law's affairs. To see after
+the property of so near a relative, he said, was an occupation that
+even a general might adopt without disgrace. It is possible that Pavel
+Petrovich would not have disdained to occupy himself with the affairs
+of even an utter stranger.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna carried out her plan of attack very skillfully.
+Although never putting herself forward, but being to all appearance
+thoroughly immersed in the bliss of the honeymoon, in the quiet life
+of the country, in music, and in books, she little by little worked
+upon Glafira, until that lady, one morning, burst into Lavretsky's
+study like a maniac, flung her bunch of keys on the table, and
+announced that she could no longer look after the affairs of the
+household, and that she did not wish to remain on the estate. As
+Lavretsky had been fitly prepared for the scene, he immediately gave
+his consent to her departure. This Glafira Petrovna had not expected.
+"Good," she said, and her brow grew dark. "I see that I am not wanted
+here. I know that I am expelled hence, driven away from the family
+nest. But, nephew, remember my words--nowhere will you be able to
+build you a nest; your lot will be to wander about without ceasing.
+There is my parting legacy to you." That same day she went off to her
+own little property: a week later General Korobine arrived, and, with
+a pleasantly subdued air, took the whole management of the estate into
+his own hands.
+
+In September Varvara Pavlovna carried off her husband to St.
+Petersburg. There the young couple spent two winters--migrating in
+the summer to Tsarskoe Selo. They lived in handsome, bright,
+admirably-furnished apartments; they made numerous acquaintances in
+the upper and even the highest circles of society; they went out a
+great deal and received frequently, giving very charming musical
+parties and dances. Varvara Pavlovna attracted visitors as a light
+does moths.
+
+Such a distracting life did not greatly please Fedor Ivanich. His
+wife wanted him to enter the service; but, partly in deference to his
+father's memory, partly in accordance with his own ideas, he would
+not do so, though he remained in St. Petersburg to please his wife.
+However, he soon found out that no one objected to his isolating
+himself, that it was not without an object that his study had been
+made the quietest and the most comfortable in the whole city, that his
+attentive wife was ever ready to encourage him in isolating himself;
+and from that time all went well. He again began to occupy himself
+with his as yet, as he thought, unfinished education. He entered upon
+anew course of reading; he even began the study of English. It was
+curious to see his powerful, broad-shouldered figure constantly
+bending over his writing-table, his full, ruddy, bearded face,
+half-hidden by the leaves of a dictionary or a copy-book. His mornings
+were always spent over his work; later in the day he sat down to an
+excellent dinner--for Varvara Pavlovna always managed her household
+affairs admirably; and in the evening he entered an enchanted,
+perfumed, brilliant world, all peopled by young and joyous beings, the
+central point of their world being that extremely attentive manager of
+the household, his wife.
+
+She made him happy with a son; but the poor child did not live long.
+It died in the spring; and in the summer, in accordance with the
+advice of the doctors, Lavretsky and his wife went the round of the
+foreign watering-places. Distraction was absolutely necessary for her
+after such a misfortune; and, besides, her health demanded a warmer
+climate. That summer and autumn they spent in Germany and Switzerland;
+and in the winter, as might be expected, they went to Paris.
+
+In Paris Varvara Pavlovna bloomed like a rose; and there, just as
+quickly and as skilfully as she had done in St. Petersburg, she learnt
+how to build herself a snug little nest. She procured a very pretty
+set of apartments in one of the quiet but fashionable streets, she
+made her husband such a dressing-gown as he had never worn before; she
+secured an elegant lady's maid, an excellent cook, and an energetic
+footman; and she provided herself with an exquisite carriage, and a
+charming cabinet piano. Before a week was over she could already cross
+a street, put on a shawl, open a parasol, and wear gloves, as well as
+the most pure-blooded of Parisian women.
+
+She soon made acquaintances also. At first only Russians used to
+come to her house; then Frenchmen began to show themselves--amiable
+bachelors, of polished manners, exquisite in demeanor, and bearing
+high-sounding names. They all talked a great deal and very fast,
+they bowed gracefully, their eyes twinkled pleasantly. All of them
+possessed teeth which gleamed white between rosy lips; and how
+beautifully they smiled! Each of them brought his friends; and before
+long _La belle Madame de Lavretski_ became well known from the
+_Chausee d' Antin_ to the _Rue de Lille_. At that time--it was in
+1836--the race of _feuilletonists_ and journalists, which now swarms
+everywhere, numerous as the ants one sees when a hole is made in an
+ant-hill, had not yet succeeded in multiplying in numbers. Still,
+there used to appear in Varvara Pavlovna's drawing-room a certain M.
+Jules, a gentleman who bore a very bad character, whose appearance
+was unprepossessing, and whose manner was at once insolent and
+cringing--like that of all duellists and people who have been
+horsewhipped. Varvara disliked this M. Jules very much; but she
+received him because he wrote in several newspapers, and used to be
+constantly mentioning her, calling her sometimes Madame de L ... tski,
+sometimes Madame de * * *, _cette grande dame Russe si distinguee, qui
+demeure rue de P----_, and describing to the whole world, that is to
+say to some few hundreds of subscribers, who had nothing whatever to
+do with Madame de L ... tski, how loveable and charming was that lady,
+_une vraie francaise par l'esprit_,--the French have no higher
+praise than this,--what an extraordinary musician she was, and how
+wonderfully she waltzed. (Varvara Pavlovna did really waltz so as to
+allure all hearts to the skirt of her light, floating robe.) In fact,
+he spread her fame abroad throughout the world; and this we know,
+whatever people may say, is pleasant.
+
+Mademoiselle Mars had by that time quitted the stage, and Mademoiselle
+Rachel had not yet appeared there; but for all that Varvara Pavlovna
+none the less assiduously attended the theatres. She went into
+raptures about Italian music, and laughed over the ruins of Odry,
+yawned in a becoming manner at the legitimate drama, and cried at the
+sight of Madame Dorval's acting in some ultra-melodramatic piece.
+Above all, Liszt played at her house twice, and was so gracious, so
+unaffected! It was charming!
+
+Amid such pleasurable sensations passed the winter, at the end of
+which Varvara Pavlovna was even presented at Court. As for Fedor
+Ivanovich, he was not exactly bored, but life began to weigh heavily
+on his shoulders at times--heavily because of its very emptiness. He
+read the papers, he listened to the lectures at the _Sorbonne_ and
+the _College de France_, he followed the debates in the Chambers,
+he occupied himself in translating a famous scientific work on
+irrigation. "I am not wasting my time," he thought; "all this is of
+use; but next winter I really must return to Russia, and betake myself
+to active business." It would be hard to say if he had any clear idea
+of what were the special characteristics of that business, and only
+Heaven could tell whether he was likely to succeed in getting back to
+Russia in the winter. In the meanwhile he was intending to go with his
+wife to Baden. But an unexpected occurrence upset all his plans.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+One day when he happened to go into Varvara Pavlovna's boudoir during
+her absence, Lavretsky saw a carefully folded little piece of paper
+lying on the floor. Half mechanically he picked it up and opened
+it--and read the following lines written in French:--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"MY DEAR ANGEL BETTY,
+
+"(I really cannot make up my mind to call you Barbe or Varvara). I
+have waited in vain for you at the corner of the Boulevard. Come to
+our rooms to-morrow at half-past one. That excellent husband of yours
+is generally absorbed in his books at that time--we will sing over
+again that song of your poet Pushkin which you taught me, 'Old
+husband, cruel husband!' A thousand kisses to your dear little hands
+and feet. I await you.
+
+"ERNEST."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At first Lavretsky did not comprehend the meaning of what he had read.
+He read it a second time--and his head swam, and the ground
+swayed beneath his feet like the deck of a ship in a storm, and a
+half-stifled sound issued from his lips, that was neither quite a cry
+nor quite a sob.
+
+He was utterly confounded. He had trusted his wife so blindly; the
+possibility of deceit or of treachery on her part had never entered
+into his mind. This Ernest, his wife's lover, was a pretty boy of
+about three-and-twenty, with light hair, a turned-up nose, and a small
+moustache--probably the most insignificant of all his acquaintances.
+
+Several minutes passed; a half hour passed. Lavretsky still stood
+there, clenching the fatal note in his hand, and gazing unmeaningly on
+the floor. A sort of dark whirlwind seemed to sweep round him, pale
+faces to glimmer through it.
+
+A painful sensation of numbness had seized his heart. He felt as if he
+were falling, falling, falling--into a bottomless abyss.
+
+The soft rustle of a silk dress roused him from his torpor by its
+familiar sound. Varvara Pavlovna came in hurriedly from out of doors.
+Lavretsky shuddered all over and rushed out of the room. He felt that
+at that moment he was ready to tear her to pieces, to strangle her
+with his own hands, at least to beat her all but to death in peasant
+fashion. Varvara Pavlovna, in her amazement, wanted to stay him. He
+just succeeded in whispering "Betty"--and then he fled from the house.
+
+Lavretsky took a carriage and drove outside the barriers. All the rest
+of the day, and the whole of the night he wandered about, constantly
+stopping and wringing his hands above his head. Sometimes he was
+frantic with rage, at others every thing seemed to move him to
+laughter, even to a kind of mirth. When the morning dawned he felt
+half frozen, so he entered a wretched little suburban tavern, asked
+for a room, and sat down on a chair before the window. A convulsive
+fit of yawning seized him. By that time he was scarcely able to keep
+upright, and his bodily strength was utterly exhausted. Still he was
+not conscious of fatigue. But fatigue had its own way. He continued
+sitting there and gazing vacantly, but he comprehended nothing. He
+could not make out what had happened to him, why he found himself
+there, alone, in an empty, unknown room, with numbed limbs, with a
+sense of bitterness in his mouth, with a weight like that of a great
+stone on his heart. He could not understand what had induced her, his
+Varvara, to give herself to that Frenchman, and how, knowing herself
+to be false to him, she could have remained as calm as ever in his
+presence, as confiding and caressing as ever towards him. "I cannot
+make it out," whispered his dry lips. "And how can I be sure now that
+even at St. Petersburg--?" but he did not complete the question; a
+fresh gaping fit seized him, and his whole frame shrank and shivered.
+Sunny and sombre memories equally tormented him. He suddenly
+recollected how a few days before, she had sat at the piano, when both
+he and Ernest were present, and had sung "Old husband, cruel husband!"
+He remembered the expression of her face, the strange brilliance of
+her eyes, and the color in her cheeks--and he rose from his chair,
+longing to go to them and say, "You were wrong to play your tricks on
+me. My great grandfather used to hang his peasants on hooks by their
+ribs, and my grandfather was a peasant himself,"--and then kill them
+both. All of a sudden it would appear to him as if every thing that
+had happened were a dream, even not so much as a dream, but just some
+absurd fancy; as if he had only to give himself a shake and take a
+look round--and he did look round; and as a hawk claws a captured
+bird, so did his misery strike deeper and deeper into his heart. What
+made things worse was that Lavretsky had hoped, in the course of a few
+months, to find himself once more a father. His past, his future, his
+whole life was poisoned.
+
+At last he returned to Paris, went to a hotel, and sent Varvara
+Pavlovna M. Ernest's note with the following letter:--
+
+"The scrap of paper which accompanies this will explain every thing to
+you. I may as well tell you that you do not seem to have behaved in
+this matter with your usual tact. You, so careful a person, to drop
+such important papers (poor Lavretsky had been preparing this phrase,
+and fondling it, as it were, for several hours). I can see you no
+more, and I suppose that you too can have no wish for an interview
+with me. I assign you fifteen thousand roubles a year. I cannot give
+you more. Send your address to the steward of my estate. And now do
+what you like; live where you please. I wish you all prosperity. I
+want no answer."
+
+Lavretsky told his wife that he wanted no answer; but he did expect,
+he even longed for an answer--an explanation of this strange, this
+incomprehensible affair. That same day Varvara Pavlovna sent him
+a long letter in French. It was the final blow. His last doubts
+vanished, and he even felt ashamed of having retained any doubts.
+Varvara Pavlovna did not attempt to justify herself. All that
+she wanted was to see him; she besought him not to condemn her
+irrevocably. The letter was cold and constrained, though marks of
+tears were to be seen on it here and there. Lavretsky smiled bitterly,
+and sent a message by the bearer, to the effect that the letter needed
+no reply.
+
+Three days later he was no longer in Paris; but he went to Italy, not
+to Russia. He did not himself know why he chose Italy in particular.
+In reality, it was all the same to him where he went--so long as
+he did not go home. He sent word to his steward about his wife's
+allowance, ordering him, at the same time, to withdraw the whole
+management of the estate from General Korobine immediately, without
+waiting for any settlement of accounts, and to see to his Excellency's
+departure from Lavriki. He indulged in a vivid picture of the
+confusion of the expelled general, the useless airs which he would
+put on, and, in spite of his sorrow, he was conscious of a certain
+malicious satisfaction. At the same time he wrote to Glafira Petrovna,
+asking her to return to Lavriki, and drew up a power-of-attorney in
+her name. But Glafira Petrovna would not return to Lavriki; she
+even advertised in the newspapers that the power-of-attorney was
+cancelled,--a perfectly superfluous proceeding on her part.
+
+Lavretsky hid himself in a little Italian town; but for a long time
+he could not help mentally following his wife's movements. He learned
+from the newspapers that she had left Paris for Baden, as she had
+intended. Her name soon appeared in a short article signed by the M.
+Jules of whom we have already spoken. The perusal of that article
+produced a very unpleasant effect on Lavretsky's mind. He detected in
+it, underneath the writer's usual sprightliness, a sort of tone of
+charitable commiseration. Next he learned that a daughter had been
+born to him. Two months later he was informed by his steward that
+Varvara Pavlovna had drawn her first quarter's allowance. After that,
+scandalous reports about her began to arrive; then they became more
+and more frequent; at last a tragicomic story, in which she played a
+very unenviable part, ran the round of all the journals, and created
+a great sensation. Affairs had come to a climax. Varvara Pavlovna was
+now "a celebrity."
+
+Lavretsky ceased to follow her movements. But it was long before he
+could master his own feelings. Sometimes he was seized by such a
+longing after his wife, that he fancied he would have been ready to
+give every thing he had--that he could, perhaps, even have forgiven
+her--if only he might once more have heard her caressing voice, have
+felt once more her hand in his. But time did not pass by in vain. He
+was not born for suffering. His healthy nature claimed its rights.
+Many things became intelligible for him. The very blow which had
+struck him seemed no longer to have come without warning. He
+understood his wife now. We can never fully understand persons with
+whom we are generally in close contact, until we have been separated
+from them. He was able to apply himself to business again, and
+to study, although now with much less than his former ardor; the
+scepticism for which both his education and his experience of life
+had paved the way, had taken lasting hold upon his mind. He became
+exceedingly indifferent to every thing. Four years passed by, and he
+felt strong enough to return to his home, to meet his own people.
+Without having stopped either at St. Petersburg or at Moscow, he
+arrived at O., where we left him, and whither we now entreat the
+reader to return with us.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+About ten o'clock in the morning, on the day after that of which
+we have already spoken, Lavretsky was going up the steps of the
+Kalitines' house, when he met Liza with her bonnet and gloves on.
+
+"Where are you going?" he asked her.
+
+"To church. To-day is Sunday."
+
+"And so you go to church?"
+
+Liza looked at him in silent wonder.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Lavretsky. "I--I did not mean to say that.
+I came to take leave of you. I shall start for my country-house in
+another hour."
+
+"That isn't far from here, is it?" asked Liza.
+
+"About five-and-twenty versts."
+
+At this moment Lenochka appeared at the door, accompanied by a
+maid-servant.
+
+"Mind you don't forget us," said Liza, and went down the steps.
+
+"Don't forget me either. By the way," he continued, "you are going to
+church; say a prayer for me too, while you are there."
+
+Liza stopped and turned towards him.
+
+"Very well," she said, looking him full in the face. "I will pray for
+you, too. Come, Lenochka."
+
+Lavretsky found Maria Dmitrievna alone in the drawing-room, which was
+redolent of Eau de Cologne and peppermint. Her head ached, she said,
+and she had spent a restless night.
+
+She received him with her usual languid amiability, and by degrees
+began to talk.
+
+"Tell me," she asked him, "is not Vladimir Nikolaevich a very
+agreeable young man?"
+
+"Who is Vladimir Nikolaevich?"
+
+"Why Panshine, you know, who was here yesterday. He was immensely
+delighted with you. Between ourselves I may mention, _mon cher
+cousin_, that he is perfectly infatuated with my Liza. Well, he is of
+good family, he is getting on capitally in the service, he is clever,
+and besides he is a chamberlain; and if such be the will of God--I,
+for my part, as a mother, shall be glad of it. It is certainly a great
+responsibility; most certainly the happiness of children depends upon
+their parents. But this much must be allowed. Up to the present time,
+whether well or ill, I have done every thing myself, and entirely by
+myself. I have brought up my children and taught them every thing
+myself--and now I have just written to Maclame Bulous for a
+governess--"
+
+Maria Dmitrievna launched out into a description of her cares, her
+efforts, her maternal feelings. Lavretsky listened to her in silence,
+and twirled his hat in his hands. His cold, unsympathetic look at last
+disconcerted the talkative lady.
+
+"And what do you think of Liza?" she asked.
+
+"Lizaveta Mikhailovna is an exceedingly handsome girl," replied
+Lavretsky. Then he got up, said good-bye, and went to pay Marfa
+Timofeevna a visit. Maria Dmitrievna looked after him with an
+expression of dissatisfaction, and thought to herself, "What a bear!
+what a moujik! Well, now I understand why his wife couldn't remain
+faithful to him."
+
+Marfa Timofeevna was sitting in her room, surrounded by her court.
+This consisted of five beings, almost equally dear to her heart--an
+educated bullfinch, to which she had taken an affection because it
+could no longer whistle or draw water, and which was afflicted with a
+swollen neck; a quiet and exceedingly timid little dog, called Roska;
+a bad-tempered cat, named Matros; a dark-complexioned, lively little
+girl of nine, with very large eyes and a sharp nose, whose name was
+Shurochka[A]; and an elderly lady of about fifty-five, who wore a
+white cap and a short, cinnamon-colored _katsaveika_[B] over a dark
+gown, and whose name was Nastasia Carpovna Ogarkof.
+
+[Footnote A: One of the many diminutives of Alexandrina.]
+
+[Footnote B: A kind of jacket worn by women.]
+
+Shurochka was a fatherless and motherless girl, whose relations
+belonged to the lowest class of the bourgeoisie. Marfa Timofeevna had
+adopted her, as well as Roska, out of pity. She had found both the dog
+and the girl out in the streets. Both of them were thin and cold; the
+autumn rain had drenched them both. No one ever claimed Roska, and as
+to Shurochka, she was even gladly given up to Marfa Timofeevna by her
+uncle, a drunken shoemaker, who never had enough to eat himself, and
+could still less provide food for his niece, whom he used to hit over
+the head with his last.
+
+As to Nastasia Carpovna, Marfa Timofeevna had made acquaintance with
+her on a pilgrimage, in a monastery. She went up to that old lady in
+church one day,--Nastasia Carpovna had pleased Marfa Timofeevna by
+praying as the latter lady said, "in very good taste"--began to talk
+to her, and invited her home to a cup of tea. From that day she parted
+with her no more. Nastasia Carpovna, whose father had belonged to the
+class of poor gentry, was a widow without children. She was a woman of
+a very sweet and happy disposition; she had a round head, grey hair,
+and soft, white hands. Her face also was soft, and her features,
+including a somewhat comical snub nose, were heavy, but pleasant. She
+worshipped Marfa Timofeevna, who loved her dearly, although she teased
+her greatly about her susceptible heart. Nastasia Carpovna had a
+weakness for all young men, and never could help blushing like a girl
+at the most innocent joke. Her whole property consisted of twelve
+hundred paper roubles.[A] She lived at Marfa Timofeevna's expense, but
+on a footing of perfect equality with her. Marfa Timofeevna could not
+have endured any thing like servility.
+
+[Footnote A: About _L50_.]
+
+"Ah, Fedia!" she began, as soon as she saw him
+
+"You didn't see my family last night. Please to admire them now; we
+are all met together for tea. This is our second, our feast-day tea.
+You may embrace us all. Only Shurochka wouldn't let you, and the cat
+would scratch you. Is it to-day you go?"
+
+"Yes," said Lavretsky, sitting down on a low chair. "I have just taken
+leave of Maria Dmitrievna. I saw Lizaveta Mikhailovna too."
+
+"Call her Liza, my dear. Why should she be Mikhailovna for you? But do
+sit still, or you will break Shurochka's chair."
+
+"She was on her way to church," continued Lavretsky. "Is she seriously
+inclined?"
+
+"Yes, Fedia, very much so. More than you or I, Fedia."
+
+"And do you mean to say you are not seriously inclined?" lisped
+Nastasia Carpovna. "If you have not gone to the early mass to-day, you
+will go to the later one."
+
+"Not a bit of it. Thou shalt go alone. I've grown lazy, my mother,"
+answered Marfa Timofeevna. "I am spoiling myself terribly with tea
+drinking."
+
+She said _thou_ to Nastasia Carpovna, although she lived on a footing
+of equality with her--but it was not for nothing that she was a
+Pestof. Three Pestofs occur in the Sinodik[A] of Ivan the Terrible.
+Marfa Timofeevna was perfectly well aware of the fact.
+
+[Footnote A: "_I.e._, in the list of the nobles of his time, in the
+sixteenth century.]
+
+"Tell me, please," Lavretsky began again. "Maria Dmitrievna was
+talking to me just now about that--what's his name?--Panshine. What
+sort of a man is he?"
+
+"Good Lord! what a chatter-box she is!" grumbled Marfa Timofeevna.
+"I've no doubt she has communicated to you as a secret that he hangs
+about here as a suitor. She might have been contented to 'Whisper
+about it with her _popovich_[A] But no, it seems that is not enough
+for her. And yet there is nothing settled so far, thank God! but she's
+always chattering."
+
+[Footnote A: The priest's son. _i.e._, Gedeonovsky.]
+
+"Why do you say 'Thank God?'" asked Lavretsky.
+
+"Why, because this fine young man doesn't please me. And what is there
+in the matter to be delighted about, I should like to know?"
+
+"Doesn't he please you?"
+
+"No; he can't fascinate every one. It's enough for him that Nastasia
+Carpovna here is in love with him."
+
+The poor widow was terribly disconcerted.
+
+"How can you say so, Marfa Timofeevna? Do not you fear God?" she
+exclaimed, and a blush instantly suffused her face and neck.
+
+"And certainly the rogue knows how to fascinate her," broke in Marfa
+Timofeevna. "He has given her a snuff-box. Fedia, ask her for a pinch
+of snuff. You will see what a splendid snuff-box it is. There is
+a hussar on horseback on the lid. You had much better not try to
+exculpate yourself, my mother."
+
+Nastasia Carpovna could only wave her hands with a deprecatory air.
+
+"Well, but about Liza?" asked Lavretsky. "Is he indifferent to her?"
+
+"She seems to like him--and as to the rest, God knows. Another
+person's heart, you know, is a dark forest, and more especially a
+young girl's. Look at Shurochka there! Come and analyze her's. Why has
+she been hiding herself, but not going away, ever since you came in?"
+
+Shurochka burst into a laugh she was unable to stifle, and ran out of
+the room. Lavretsky also rose from his seat.
+
+"Yes," he said slowly; "one cannot fathom a girl's heart."
+
+As he was going to take leave.
+
+"Well; shall we see you soon?" asked Marfa Timofeevna.
+
+"Perhaps, aunt. It's no great distance to where I'm going."
+
+"Yes; you're going, no doubt, to Vasilievskoe. You won't live at
+Lavriki. Well, that's your affair. Only go and kneel down at your
+mother's grave, and your grandmother's, too, while you are there. You
+have picked up all kinds of wisdom abroad there, and perhaps, who can
+tell, they may feel, even in their graves, that you have come to visit
+them. And don't forget, Fedia, to have a service said for Glafira
+Petrovna, too. Here is a rouble for you. Take it, take it please; it
+is I who wish to have the service performed for her. I didn't love
+her while she lived, but it must be confessed that she was a girl of
+character. She was clever. And then she didn't hurt you. And now go,
+and God be with you--else I shall tire you."
+
+And Marfa Timofeevna embraced her nephew.
+
+"And Liza shall not marry Panshine; don't make yourself uneasy about
+that. He isn't the sort of man she deserves for a husband."
+
+"But I am not in the least uneasy about it," remarked Lavretsky as he
+retired.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+Four hours later he was on his way towards his home. His tarantass
+rolled swiftly along the soft cross-road. There had been no rain for
+a fortnight. The atmosphere was pervaded by a light fog of milky hue,
+which hid the distant forests from sight, while a smell or burning
+filled the air. A number of dusky clouds with blurred outlines stood
+out against a pale blue sky, and lingered, slowly drawn. A strongish
+wind swept by in an unbroken current, bearing no moisture with it, and
+not dispelling the great heat. His head leaning back on the cushions,
+his arms folded across his breast, Lavretsky gazed at the furrowed
+plains which opened fanwise before him, at the cytisus shrubs, at the
+crows and rooks which looked sideways at the passing carriage with
+dull suspicion, at the long ridges planted with mugwort, wormwood, and
+mountain ash. He gazed--and that vast level solitude, so fresh and
+so fertile, that expanse of verdure, and those sweeping slopes, the
+ravines studded with clumps of dwarfed oaks, the grey hamlets, the
+thinly-clad birch trees--all this Russian landscape, so-long by him
+unseen, filled his mind with feelings which were sweet, but at the
+same time almost sad, and gave rise to a certain heaviness of heart,
+but one which was more akin to a pleasure than to a pain. His thoughts
+wandered slowly past, their forms as dark and ill-defined as those
+of the clouds, which also seemed vaguely wandering there on high. He
+thought of his childhood, of his mother, how they brought him to her
+011 her death-bed, and how, pressing his head to her breast, she
+began to croon over him, but looked up at Glafira Petrovna and became
+silent. He thought of his father, at first robust, brazen-voiced,
+grumbling at every thing--then blind, querulous, with white,
+uncared-for beard. He remembered how one day at dinner, when he had
+taken a little too much wine, the old man suddenly burst out laughing,
+and began to prate about his conquests, winking his blind eyes
+the while, and growing red in the face. He thought of Varvara
+Pavlovna--and his face contracted involuntarily, like that of a man
+who feels some sudden pain, and he gave his head an impatient toss.
+Then his thoughts rested on Liza. "There," he thought, "is a new life
+just beginning. A good creature! I wonder what will become of her. And
+she's pretty, too, with her pale, fresh face, her eyes and lips so
+serious, and that frank and guileless way she has of looking at you.
+It's a pity she seems a little enthusiastic. And her figure is good,
+and she moves about lightly, and she has a quiet voice. I like her
+best when she suddenly stands still, and listens attentively and
+gravely, then becomes contemplative and shakes her hair back. Yes, I
+agree, Panshine isn't worthy of her. Yet what harm is there in him?
+However, as to all that, why am I troubling my head about it? She will
+follow the same road that all others have to follow. I had better go
+to sleep." And Lavretsky closed his eyes.
+
+He could not sleep, but he sank into a traveller's dreamy reverie.
+Just as before, pictures of by-gone days slowly rose and floated
+across his mind, blending with each other, and becoming confused with
+other scenes. Lavretsky began to think--heaven knows why--about Sir
+Robert Peel; then about French history; lastly, about the victory
+which he would have gained if he had been a general. The firing and
+the shouting rang in his ears. His head slipped on one side; he opened
+his eyes--the same fields stretched before him, the same level views
+met his eyes. The iron shoes of the outside horses gleamed brightly by
+turns athwart the waving dust, the driver's yellow[A] shirt swelled
+with the breeze. "Here I am, returning virtuously to my birth-place,"
+suddenly thought Lavretsky, and he called out, "Get on there!" drew
+his cloak more closely around him, and pressed himself still nearer
+to the cushion. The tarantass gave a jerk. Lavretsky sat upright
+and opened his eyes wide. On the slope before him extended a small
+village. A little to the right was to be seen an old manor house of
+modest dimensions, its shutters closed, its portico awry. On one
+side stood a barn built of oak, small, but well preserved. The wide
+court-yard was entirely overgrown by nettles, as green and thick as
+hemp. This was Vasilievskoe.
+
+[Footnote A: Yellow, with red pieces let in under the armpits.]
+
+The driver turned aside to the gate, and stopped his horses.
+Lavretsky's servant rose from his seat, ready to jump down, and
+shouted "Halloo!" A hoarse, dull barking arose in reply, but no dog
+made its appearance. The lackey again got ready to descend, and
+again cried "Halloo!" The feeble barking was repeated, and directly
+afterwards a man, with snow-white hair, dressed in a nankeen caftan,
+ran into the yard from one of the comers. He looked at the tarantass,
+shielding his eyes from the sun, then suddenly struck both his hands
+upon his thighs, fidgeted about nervously for a moment, and finally
+ran to open the gates. The tarantass entered the court-yard, crushing
+the nettles under its wheels, and stopped before the portico. The
+white-headed old man, who was evidently of a very active turn, was
+already standing on the lowest step, his legs spread awkwardly apart.
+He unbuttoned the apron of the carriage, pulling up the leather with a
+jerk, and kissed his master's hand while assisting him to alight.
+
+"Good day, good day, brother," said Lavretsky. "Your name is Anton,
+isn't it. So you're still alive?"
+
+The old man bowed in silence, and then ran to fetch the keys. While he
+ran, the driver sat motionless, leaning sideways and looking at the
+closed door; and Lavretsky's man-servant remained in the picturesque
+attitude in which he found himself after springing clown to the
+ground, one of his arms resting on the box seat. The old man brought
+the keys and opened the door, lifting his elbows high the while, and
+needlessly wriggling his body--then he stood on one side, and again
+bowed down to his girdle.
+
+"Here I am at home, actually returned!" thought Lavretsky, as he
+entered the little vestibule, while the shutters opened, one after
+another, with creak and rattle, and the light of day penetrated into
+the long-deserted rooms.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+The little house at which Lavretsky had arrived, and in which Glafira
+Petrovna had died two years before, had been built of solid pine
+timber in the preceding century. It looked very old, but it was good
+for another fifty years or more. Lavretsky walked through all the
+rooms, and, to the great disquiet of the faded old flies which clung
+to the cornices without moving, their backs covered with white dust,
+he had the windows thrown open everywhere. Since the death of Glafira
+Petrovna, no one had opened them. Every thing had remained precisely
+as it used to be in the house. In the drawing-room the little white
+sofas, with their thin legs, and their shining grey coverings, all
+worn and rumpled, vividly recalled to mind the times of Catharine. In
+that room also stood the famous arm-chair of the late proprietress, a
+chair with a high, straight back, in which, even in her old age, she
+used always to sit bolt upright. On the wall hung an old portrait
+of Fedor's great-grandfather, Andrei Lavretsky. His dark, sallow
+countenance could scarcely be distinguished against the cracked and
+darkened background. His small, malicious eyes looked out morosely
+from beneath the heavy, apparently swollen eyelids. His black hair,
+worn without powder, rose up stiff as a brush above his heavy,
+wrinkled forehead. From the corner of the portrait hung a dusky wreath
+of _immortelles_. "Glafira Petrovna deigned to weave it herself,"
+observed Anthony. In the bed-room stood a narrow bedstead, with
+curtains of some striped material, extremely old, but of very good
+quality. On the bed lay a heap of faded cushions and a thin, quilted
+counterpane; and above the bolster hung a picture of the Presentation
+of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple, the very picture which the old
+lady, when she lay dying, alone and forgotten, pressed for the last
+time with lips which were already beginning to grow cold. Near the
+window stood a toilet table, inlaid with different kinds of wood and
+ornamented with plates of copper, supporting a crooked mirror in
+a frame of which the gilding had turned black. In a line with the
+bed-room was the oratory, a little room with bare walls; in the corner
+stood a heavy case for holding sacred pictures, and on the floor lay
+the scrap of carpet, worn threadbare, and covered with droppings from
+wax candles, on which Glafira Petrovna used to prostrate herself when
+she prayed.
+
+Anton went out with Lavretsky's servant to open the stable and
+coach-house doors. In his stead appeared an old woman, almost as old
+as himself, her hair covered by a handkerchief, which came down to her
+very eyebrows. Her head shook and her eyes seemed dim; but they wore,
+also, an expression of zealous obedience, habitual and implicit, and,
+at the same time, of a kind of respectful condolence. She kissed
+Lavretsky's hand, and then remained near the door, awaiting his
+orders. He could not remember what her name was, nor even whether he
+had ever seen her before. It turned out that her name was Apraxia.
+Some forty years previously, Glafira Petrovna had struck her off the
+list of the servants who lived in the house, and had ordered her to
+become a poultry-maid. She seldom spoke, seemed half idiotic, and
+always wore a servile look. Besides this old couple, and three paunchy
+little children in long shirts, Anton's great-grandchildren, there
+lived also in the seigniorial household an untaxable[A] moujik, who
+had only one arm. He cackled like a black-cock, and was fit for
+nothing. Of very little more use was the infirm old hound which had
+saluted Lavretsky's return by its barking. For ten whole years it
+had been fastened to a heavy chain, purchased by order of Glafira
+Petrovna, a burden under which it was now scarcely able to move.
+
+[Footnote A: One who had not received the usual grant of land from the
+community, and was not subject to rates like the rest.]
+
+Having examined the house, Lavretsky went out into the garden, and was
+well pleased with it. It was all overgrown with steppe grass, with
+dandelions, and with gooseberry and raspberry bushes; but there was
+plenty of shade in it, a number of old lime-trees growing there, of
+singularly large stature, with eccentrically ordered branches. They
+had been planted too close together, and a hundred years seemed to
+have elapsed since they were pruned. At the end of the garden was a
+small, clear lake, surrounded by a fringe of high, reddish-colored
+rushes. The traces of a human life that is past soon disappear.
+Glafira's manor-house had not yet grown wild, but it seemed to have
+become already immersed in that quiet slumber which all that is
+earthly sleeps, whenever it is not affected by the restlessness of
+humanity.
+
+Lavretsky also went through the village. The women looked at him from
+the door-ways of their cottages, each resting her cheek upon her hand.
+The men bowed low from afar, the children ran Out of sight, the dogs
+barked away at their ease. At last he felt hungry, but he did not
+expect his cook and the other servants till the evening. The waggon
+bringing provisions from Lavriki had not yet arrived. It was
+necessary to have recourse to Anton. The old man immediately made his
+arrangements. He caught an ancient fowl, and killed and plucked it.
+Apraxia slowly squeezed and washed it, scrubbing it as if it had been
+linen for the wash, before putting it into the stewpan. When at
+last it was ready, Anton laid the table, placing beside the dish a
+three-footed plated salt-cellar, blackened with age, and a cut glass
+decanter, with a round glass stopper in its narrow neck. Then, in a
+kind of chant, he announced to Lavretsky that dinner was ready, and
+took his place behind his master's chair, a napkin wound around
+his right hand, and a kind of air of the past, like the odor of
+cypress-wood hanging about him. Lavretsky tasted the broth, and took
+the fowl out of it. The bird's skin was covered all over with round
+blisters, a thick tendon ran up each leg, and the flesh was as tough
+as wood, and had a flavor like that which pervades a laundry. After
+dinner Lavretsky said that he would take tea if--
+
+"I will bring it in a moment," broke in the old man, and he kept his
+promise. A few pinches of tea were found rolled up in a scrap of red
+paper. Also a small, but very zealous and noisy little _samovar_[A]
+was discovered, and some sugar in minute pieces, which looked as if
+they had been all but melted away. Lavretsky drank his tea out of a
+large cup. From his earliest childhood he remembered this cup, on
+which playing cards were painted, and from which only visitors were
+allowed to drink; and now he drank from it, like a visitor.
+
+[Footnote A: Urn.]
+
+Towards the evening came the servants. Lavretsky did not like to sleep
+in his aunt's bed, so he had one made up for him in the dining-room.
+After putting out the candle, he lay for a long time looking around
+him, and thinking what were not joyous thoughts. He experienced the
+sensations which every one knows who has had to spend the night
+for the first time in a long uninhabited room. He fancied that the
+darkness which pressed in upon him from all sides could not accustom
+itself to the new tenant--that the very walls of the house were
+astonished at him. At last he sighed, pulled the counterpane well over
+him, and went to sleep. Anton remained on his legs long after every
+one else had gone to bed. For some time he spoke in a whisper to
+Apraxia, sighing low at intervals, and three times he crossed himself.
+The old servants had never expected that their master would settle
+down among them at Vasilievskoe, when he had such a fine estate, with
+a well-appointed manor-house close by. They did not suspect what was
+really the truth, that Lavriki was repugnant to its owner, that
+it aroused in his mind too painful recollections. After they had
+whispered to each other enough, Anton took a stick, and struck the
+watchman's board, which had long hung silently by the barn. Then
+he lay down in the open yard, without troubling himself about any
+covering for his white head. The May night was calm and soothing, and
+the old man slept soundly.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+The next day Lavretsky rose at a tolerably early hour, chatted with
+the _starosta_,[A] visited the rick-yard, and had the chain taken off
+the yard dog, which just barked a little, but did not even come out
+of its kennel. Then, returning home, he fell into a sort of quiet
+reverie, from which he did not emerge all day. "Here I am, then, at
+the very bottom of the river!"[B] he said to himself more than once.
+He sat near the window without stirring, and seemed to listen to the
+flow of the quiet life which surrounded him, to the rare sounds which
+came from the village solitude. Behind the nettles some one was
+singing with a thin, feeble voice; a gnat seemed to be piping a second
+to it The voice stopped, but the gnat still went on piping. Through
+the monotonous and obtrusive buzzing of the flies might be heard the
+humming of a large humble bee, which kept incessantly striking its
+head against the ceiling. A cock crowed in the street, hoarsely
+protracting its final note, a cart rattled past, a gate creaked in the
+village. "What?" suddenly screeched a woman's voice. "Ah, young lady!"
+said Anton to a little girl of two years old whom he was carrying in
+his arms. "Bring the _kvass_ here," continued the same woman's voice.
+Then a death-like silence suddenly ensued.
+
+[Footnote A: The head of the village.]
+
+[Footnote B: A popular phrase, to express a life quiet as the depths
+of a river are.]
+
+Nothing stirred, not a sound was audible. The wind did not move the
+leaves. The swallows skimmed along he ground one after another without
+a cry, and their silent flight made a sad impression upon the heart of
+the looker-on. "Here I am, then, at the bottom of the river," again
+thought Lavretsky. "And here life is always sluggish and still;
+whoever enters its circle must resign himself to his fate. Here there
+is no use in agitating oneself, no reason why one should give oneself
+trouble. He only will succeed here who traces his onward path as
+patiently as the plougher traces the furrow with his plough. And what
+strength there is in all around; what robust health dwells in the
+midst of this inactive stillness! There under the window climbs the
+large-leaved burdock from the thick grass. Above it the lovage extends
+its sappy stalk, while higher still the Virgin's tears hang out their
+rosy tendrils. Farther away in the fields shines the rye, and the oats
+are already in ear, and every leaf or its tree, every blade of grass
+on its stalk, stretches itself out to its full extent. On a woman's
+love my best years have been wasted!" (Lavretsky proceeded to think.)
+"Well, then, let the dulness here sober me and calm me down; let it
+educate me into being able to work like others without hurrying." And
+he again betook himself to listening to the silence, without expecting
+anything, and yet, at the same time, as if incessantly expecting
+something. The stillness embraced him on all sides; the sun went down
+quietly in a calm, blue sky, on which the clouds floated tranquilly,
+seeming as if they knew why and whither they were floating. In the
+other parts of the world, at that very moment, life was seething,
+noisily bestirring itself. Here the same life flowed silently along,
+like water over meadow grass. It was late in the evening before
+Lavretsky could tear himself away from the contemplation of this life
+so quietly welling forth--so tranquilly flowing past. Sorrow for the
+past melted away in his mind as the snow melts in spring; but, strange
+to say, never had the love of home exercised so strong or so profound
+an influence upon him.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+
+In the course of a fortnight Lavretsky succeeded in setting Glafira
+Petrovna's little house in order, and in trimming the court-yard
+and the garden. Its stable became stocked with horses; comfortable
+furniture was brought to it from Lavriki; and the town supplied it
+with wine, and with books and newspapers. In short, Lavretsky provided
+himself with every thing he wanted, and began to lead a life which was
+neither exactly that of an ordinary landed proprietor, nor exactly
+that of a regular hermit. His days passed by in uniform regularity,
+but he never found them dull, although he had no visitors. He occupied
+himself assiduously and attentively with the management of his estate;
+he rode about the neighborhood, and he read. But he read little. He
+preferred listening to old Anton's stories.
+
+Lavretsky generally sat at the window, over a pipe and a cup of cold
+tea. Anton would stand at the door, his hands crossed behind his back,
+and would begin a deliberate narrative about old times, those fabulous
+times when oats and rye were sold, not By measure, but in large sacks,
+and for two or three roubles the sack; when on all sides, right up to
+the town, there stretched impenetrable forests and untouched steppes.
+"But now," grumbled the old man, over whose head eighty years had
+already passed, "everything has been so cut down and ploughed up that
+one can't drive anywhere." Anton would talk also at great length
+about his late mistress, Glafira Petrovna, saying how judicious
+and economical she was, how a certain gentleman, one of her young
+neighbors, had tried to gain her good graces for a time, and had begun
+to pay her frequent visits; and how in his honor she had deigned even
+to put on her gala-day cap with massacas ribbons, and her yellow dress
+made of _tru-tru-levantine_; but how, a little later, having become
+angry with her neighbor, that gentleman, on account of his indiscreet
+question, "I suppose, madam, you doubtless have a good sum of money
+in hand?" she told her servants never to let him enter her house
+again--and how she then ordered that, after her death, every thing,
+even to the smallest rag, should be handed over to Lavretsky. And, in
+reality, Lavretsky found his aunt's property quite intact, even down
+to the gala-day cap with the massacas ribbons, and the yellow dress of
+_tru-tru-levantine_.
+
+As to the old papers and curious documents on which Lavretsky had
+counted, he found nothing of the kind except one old volume in which
+his grandfather, Peter Andreich, had made various entries. In one
+place might be read, "Celebration in the city of St. Petersburg, of
+the Peace concluded with the Turkish Empire by his Excellency, Prince
+Alexander Alexandrovich Prozorovsky". In another, "Recipe of a
+decoction for the chest," with the remark. "This prescription
+was given the Generaless Prascovia Fedorovna Saltykof, by the
+Archpresbyter of the Life-beginning Trinity, Fedor Avksentevich."
+Sometimes there occurred a piece of political information, as
+follows:--
+
+"About the French tigers there is somehow silence"--and close by, "In
+the _Moscow Gazette_ there is an announcement of the decease of the
+First-Major Mikhail Petrovich Kolychef. Is not this the son of Peter
+Vasilievich Kolychef?"
+
+Lavretsky also found some old calendars and dream-books, and the
+mystical work of M. Ambodik. Many a memory did the long-forgotten but
+familiar "Symbols and Emblems" recall to his mind. In the furthest
+recess of one of the drawers in Glafira's toilette-table, Lavretsky
+found a small packet, sealed with black wax, and tied with a narrow
+black ribbon. Inside the packet were two portraits lying face to face,
+the one, in pastel, of his father as a young man, with soft curls
+falling over his forehead, with long, languid eyes, and with a
+half-open mouth; the other an almost obliterated picture of a pale
+woman, in a white dress, with a white rose in her hand--his mother. Of
+herself Glafira never would allow a portrait to be taken.
+
+"Although I did not then live in the house," Anton would say to
+Lavretsky, "yet I can remember your great grandfather, Andrei
+Afanasich. I was eighteen years old when he died. One day I met him
+in the garden--then my very thighs began to quake. But he didn't do
+anything, only asked me what my name was, and sent me to his bed-room
+for a pocket-handkerchief. He was truly a seigneur--every one must
+allow that; and he wouldn't allow that any one was better than
+himself. For I may tell you, your great grandfather had such a
+wonderful amulet--a monk from Mount Athos had given him that
+amulet--and that monk said to him, 'I give thee this, O Boyar, in
+return for thy hospitality. Wear it, and fear no judge.' Well, it's
+true, as is well known, that times were different then. What a
+seigneur wanted to do, that he did. If ever one of the gentry took it
+into his head to contradict him, he would just look at him, and say,
+'Thou swimmest in shallow water'[A]--that was a favorite phrase with
+him. And he lived, did your great grandfather of blessed memory, in
+small, wooden rooms. But what riches he left behind him! What silver,
+what stores of all kinds! All the cellars were crammed full of them.
+He was a real manager. That little decanter which you were pleased to
+praise was his. He used to drink brandy out of it. But just see! your
+grandfather, Peter Andreich, provided himself with a stone mansion,
+but he lived worse than his father, and got himself no satisfaction,
+but spent all his money, and now there is nothing to remember him
+by--not so much as a silver spoon has come down to us from him; and
+for all that is left, one must thank Glafira Petrovna's care."
+
+[Footnote A: Part of a Russian proverb.]
+
+"But is it true," interrupted Lavretsky, "that people used to call her
+an old witch?"
+
+"But, then, who called her so?" replied Anton, with an air of
+discontent.
+
+"But what is our mistress doing now, _batyushka_?" the old man
+ventured to ask one day. "Where does she please to have her
+habitation?"
+
+"I am separated from my wife," answered Lavretsky, with an effort.
+"Please don't ask me about her."
+
+"I obey," sadly replied the old man.
+
+At the end of three weeks Lavretsky rode over to O., and spent the
+evening at the Kalitines' house. He found Lemm there, and took a great
+liking to him. Although, thanks to his father, Lavretsky could not
+play any instrument, yet he was passionately fond of music--of
+classical, serious music, that is to say. Panshine was not at the
+Kalitines' that evening, for the Governor had sent him somewhere into
+the country. Liza played unaccompanied, and that with great accuracy.
+Lemm grew lively and animated, rolled up a sheet of paper, and
+conducted the music. Maria Dmitrievna looked at him laughingly for a
+while, and then went off to bed. According to her, Beethoven was too
+agitating for her nerves.
+
+At midnight Lavretsky saw Lemm home, and remained with him till three
+in the morning. Lemm talked a great deal. He stooped less than usual,
+his eyes opened wide and sparkled, his very hair remained pushed off
+from his brow. It was so long since any one had shown any sympathy
+with him, and Lavretsky was evidently interested in him, and
+questioned him carefully and attentively. This touched the old man. He
+ended by showing his music to his guest, and he played, and even sang,
+in his worn-out voice, some passages from his own works; among others,
+an entire ballad of Schiller's that he had set to music--that of
+Fridolin. Lavretsky was loud in its praise, made him repeat several
+parts, and, on going away, invited him to spend some days with him.
+Lemm, who was conducting him to the door, immediately consented,
+pressing his hand cordially. But when he found himself alone in the
+fresh, damp air, beneath the just-appearing dawn, he looked round,
+half-shut his eyes, bent himself together, and crept back, like a
+culprit, to his bed-room. "_Ich bin wohl nicht klug_"--("I must be out
+of my wits"), he murmured, as he lay down on his short, hard bed.
+
+He tried to make out that he was ill when, a few days later,
+Lavretsky's carriage came for him. But Lavretsky went up into his
+room, and persuaded him to go. Stronger than every other argument with
+him was the fact that Lavretsky had ordered a piano to be sent out to
+the country-house on purpose for him. The two companions went to the
+Kalitines' together, and spent the evening there, but not quite so
+pleasantly as on the previous occasion. Panshine was there, talking a
+great deal about his journey, and very amusingly mimicking the various
+proprietors he had met, and parodying their conversation. Lavretsky
+laughed, but Lemm refused to come out of his corner, where he remained
+in silence, noiselessly working his limbs like a spider, and wearing
+a dull and sulky look. It was not till he rose to take leave that he
+became at all animated. Even when sitting in the carriage, the old man
+at first seemed still unsociable and absorbed in his own thoughts. But
+the calm, warm air, the gentle breeze, the dim shadows, the scent of
+the grass and the birch buds, the peaceful light of the moonless,
+starry sky, the rhythmical tramp and snorting of the horses, the
+mingled fascinations of the journey, of the spring, of the night--all
+entered into the soul of the poor German, and he began to talk with
+Lavretsky of his own accord.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+
+He began to talk about music, then about Liza, and then again about
+music. He seemed to pronounce his words more slowly when he spoke
+of Liza. Lavretsky turned the conversation to the subject of his
+compositions, and offered, half in jest, to write a libretto for him.
+
+"Hm! a libretto!" answered Lemm. "No; that is beyond me. I no longer
+have the animation, the play of fancy, which are indispensable for an
+opera. Already my strength has deserted me. But if I could still do
+something, I should content myself with a romance. Of course I should
+like good words."
+
+He became silent, and sat for a long time without moving, his eyes
+fixed on the sky.
+
+"For instance," he said at length, "something in this way--'O stars,
+pure stars!'"
+
+Lavretsky turned a little, and began to regard him attentively.
+
+"'O stars, pure stars!'" repeated Lemm, "'you look alike on the just
+and the unjust. But only the innocent of heart'--or something of that
+kind--'understand you'--that is to say, no--'love you.' However, I
+am not a poet. What am I thinking about! But something of that
+kind--something lofty."
+
+Lemm pushed his hat back from his forehead. Seen by the faint twilight
+of the clear night, his face seemed paler and younger.
+
+"'And you know also,'" he continued, in a gradually lowered voice,
+"'you know those who love, who know how to love; for you are pure, you
+alone can console.' No; all that is not what I mean. I am not a poet.
+But something of that kind."--
+
+"I am sorry that I am not a poet either," remarked Lavretsky.
+
+"Empty dreams!" continued Lemm, as he sank into the corner of the
+carriage. Then he shut his eyes as if he had made up his mind to go to
+sleep;
+
+Several minutes passed. Lavretsky still listened.
+
+"Stars, pure stars ... love'" whispered the old man.
+
+"Love!" repeated Lavretsky to himself. Then he fell into a reverie,
+and his heart grew heavy within him.
+
+"You have set 'Fridolin' to charming music, Christopher Fedorovich,"
+he said aloud after a time. But what is your opinion? This Fridolin,
+after he had been brought into the presence of the countess by her
+husband, didn't he then immediately become her lover--eh?"
+
+"You think so," answered Lemm, "because, most likely, experience--"
+
+He stopped short, and turned away in confusion.
+
+Lavretsky uttered a forced laugh. Then he too turned away from his
+companion, and began looking out along the road.
+
+The stars had already begun to grow pale, and the sky to turn grey,
+when the carriage arrived before the steps of the little house at
+Vasilievskoe. Lavretsky conducted his guest to his allotted room, then
+went to his study, and sat down in front of the window. Out in the
+garden a nightingale was singing its last song before the dawn.
+Lavretsky remembered that at the Kalitines' also a nightingale had
+sung in the garden. He remembered also the quiet movement of Liza's
+eyes when, at its first notes, she had turned toward the dark
+casement. He began to think of her, and his heart grew calm.
+
+"Pure maiden," he said, in a half-whisper, "pure stars," he added,
+with a smile, and then quietly lay down to sleep.
+
+But Lemm sat for a long time on his bed, with a sheet of music on his
+knees. It seemed as if some sweet melody, yet unborn, were intending
+to visit him. He already underwent the feverish agitation, he already
+felt the fatigue and the delight, of its vicinity; but it always
+eluded him.
+
+"Neither poet nor musician!" he whispered at last; and his weary head
+sank heavily upon the pillow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning Lavretsky and his guest drank their tea in the
+garden, under an old lime-tree.
+
+"Maestro," said Lavretsky, among other things, "you will soon have to
+compose a festal cantata."
+
+"On what occasion?"
+
+"Why, on that of Mr. Panshine's marriage with Liza. Didn't you observe
+what attention he paid her yesterday? All goes smoothly with them
+evidently."
+
+"That will never be!" exclaimed Lemm.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it's impossible. However," he added after pausing awhile,
+"in this world everything is possible. Especially in this country of
+yours--in Russia."
+
+"Let us leave Russia out of the question for the present. But what do
+you see objectionable in that marriage?"
+
+"Every thing is objectionable--every thing. Lizaveta Mikhailovna is a
+serious, true-hearted girl, with lofty sentiments. But he--he is, to
+describe him by one word, a _dil-le-tante_"
+
+"But doesn't she love him?"
+
+Lemm rose from his bench.
+
+"No, she does not love him. That is to say, she is very pure of heart,
+and does not herself know the meaning of the words, 'to love.' Madame
+Von Kalitine tells her that he is an excellent young man; and she
+obeys Madame Von Kalitine because she is still quite a child, although
+she is now nineteen. She says her prayers every morning; she says her
+prayers every evening--and that is very praiseworthy. But she does not
+love him. She can love only what is noble. But he is not noble; that
+is to say, his soul is not noble."
+
+Lemm uttered the whole of this speech fluently, and with animation,
+walking backwards and forwards with short steps in front of the
+tea-table, his eyes running along the ground meanwhile.
+
+"Dearest Maestro!" suddenly exclaimed Lavretsky, "I think you are in
+love with my cousin yourself."
+
+Lemm suddenly stopped short.
+
+"Please do not jest with me in that way," he began, with faltering
+voice. "I am not out of my mind. I look forward to the dark grave, and
+not to a rosy future."
+
+Lavretsky felt sorry for the old man, and begged his pardon. After
+breakfast Lemm played his cantata, and after dinner, at Lavretsky's
+own instigation, he again began to talk about Liza. Lavretsky listened
+to him attentively and with curiosity.
+
+"What do you say to this, Christopher Fedorovitch?" he said at last.
+"Every thing seems in order here now, and the garden is in full bloom.
+Why shouldn't I invite her to come here for the day, with her mother
+and my old aunt--eh? Will that be agreeable to you?"
+
+Lemm bowed his head over his plate.
+
+"Invite her," he said, in a scarcely audible voice.
+
+"But we needn't ask Panshine."
+
+"No, we needn't," answered the old man, with an almost childlike
+smile.
+
+Two days later Lavretsky went into town and to the Kalatines'.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+
+He found them all at home, but he did not tell them of his plan
+immediately. He wanted to speak to Liza alone first. Chance favored
+him, and he was left alone with her in the drawing-room. They began to
+talk. As a general rule she was never shy with any one, and by this
+time she had succeeded in becoming accustomed to him. He listened to
+what she said, and as he looked at her face, he musingly repeated
+Lemm's words, and agreed with him. It sometimes happens that
+two persons who are already acquainted with each other, but not
+intimately, after the lapse of a few minutes suddenly become familiar
+friends--and the consciousness of this familiarity immediately
+expresses itself in their looks, in their gentle and kindly smiles, in
+their gestures themselves. And this happened now with Lavretsky and
+Liza. "Ah, so that's what's you're like!" thought she, looking at him
+with friendly eyes. "Ah, so that's what's you're like!" thought he
+also; and therefore he was not much surprised when she informed him,
+not without some little hesitation, that she had long wanted to say
+something to him, but that she was afraid of vexing him.
+
+"Don't be afraid, speak out," he said, standing still in front of her.
+
+Liza raised her clear eyes to his.
+
+"You are so good," she began--and at the same time she thought, "yes,
+he is really good"--"I hope you will forgive me. I scarcely ought to
+have ventured to speak to you about it--but how could you--why did you
+separate from your wife?"
+
+Lavretsky shuddered, then looked at Liza, and sat down by her side.
+
+"My child," he began to say, "I beg you not to touch upon that wound.
+Your touch is light, but--in spite of all that, it will give me pain."
+
+"I know," continued Liza, as if she had not heard him, "that she is
+guilty before you. I do not want to justify her. But how can they be
+separated whom God has joined together?"
+
+"Our convictions on that score are widely different, Lizaveta
+Mikhailovna," said Lavretsky, somewhat coldly. "We shall not be able
+to understand one another."
+
+Liza grew pale. Her whole body shuddered slightly, but she was not
+silenced.
+
+"You ought to forgive," she said quietly, "if you wish also to be
+forgiven."
+
+"Forgive!" cried Lavretsky; you ought first to know her for whom
+you plead. Forgive that woman, take her back to my house, her, that
+hollow, heartless, creature! And who has told you that she wants to
+return to me? Why, she is completely satisfied with her position. But
+why should we talk of her? Her name ought never to be uttered by you.
+You are too pure, you are not in a position even to understand such a
+being."
+
+"Why speak so bitterly?" said Liza, with an effort. The trembling of
+her hands began to be apparent. "You left her of your own accord,
+Fedor Ivanich."
+
+"But I tell you," replied Lavretsky, with an involuntary burst of
+impatience, "you do not know the sort of creature she is."
+
+"Then why did you marry her?" whispered Liza, with downcast eyes.
+
+Lavretsky jumped up quickly from his chair.
+
+"Why did I marry her? I was young and inexperienced then. I was taken
+in. A beautiful exterior fascinated me. I did not understand women;
+there was nothing I did understand. God grant you may make a happier
+marriage! But take my word for it, it is impossible to be certain
+about anything."
+
+"I also may be unhappy," said Liza, her voice beginning to waver, "but
+then I shall have to be resigned. I cannot express myself properly,
+but I mean to say that if we are not resigned--"
+
+Lavretsky clenched his hands and stamped his foot.
+
+"Don't be angry; please forgive me," hastily said Liza. At that moment
+Maria Dmitrievna came into the room. Liza stood up and was going away,
+when Lavretsky unexpectedly called after her:
+
+"Stop a moment. I have a great favor to ask of your mother and you. It
+is that you will come and pay me a visit in my new home. I've got a
+piano, you know; Lemm is stopping with me; the lilacs are in bloom.
+You will get a breath of country air, and be able to return the same
+day. Do you consent?"
+
+Liza looked at her mother, who immediately assumed an air of
+suffering. But Lavretsky did not give Madame Kalatine time to open her
+mouth. He instantly took both of her hands and kissed them, and Maria
+Dmitrievna, who always responded to winning ways, and had never for
+a moment expected such a piece of politeness from "the bear," felt
+herself touched, and gave her consent. While she was considering
+what day to appoint, Lavretsky went up to Liza, and, still under the
+influence of emotion, whispered aside to her, "Thanks. You are a good
+girl. I am in the wrong." Then a color came into her pale face, which
+lighted up with a quiet but joyous smile. Her eyes also smiled. Till
+that moment she had been afraid that she had offended him.
+
+"M. Panshine can come with us, I suppose?" asked Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+"Of course," replied Lavretsky. "But would it not be better for us to
+keep to our family circle?"
+
+"But I think--" began Maria Dmitrievna, adding, however, "Well, just
+as you like."
+
+It was settled that Lenochka and Shurochka should go. Marfa Timofeevna
+refused to take part in the excursion.
+
+"It's a bore to me, my dear," she said, "to move my old bones; and
+there's nowhere, I suppose, in your house where I could pass the
+night; besides, I never can sleep in a strange bed. Let these young
+folks caper as they please."
+
+Lavretsky had no other opportunity of speaking with Liza alone, but he
+kept looking at her in a manner that pleased her, and at the same time
+confused her a little. She felt very sorry for him. When he went away,
+he took leave of her with a warm pressure of the hand. She fell into a
+reverie as soon as she found herself alone.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Omitted in the French translation.]
+
+
+On entering the drawing-room, after his return home, Lavretsky met
+a tall, thin man, with a wrinkled but animated face, untidy grey
+whiskers, a long, straight nose, and small, inflamed eyes. This
+individual, who was dressed in a shabby blue surtout, was Mikhalevich,
+his former comrade at the University. At first Lavretsky did not
+recognize him, but he warmly embraced him as soon as he had made
+himself known. The two friends had not seen each other since the old
+Moscow days. Then followed exclamations and questions. Memories long
+lost to sight came out again into the light of day. Smoking pipe after
+pipe in a hurried manner, gulping down his tea, and waving his long
+hands in the air, Mikhalevich related his adventures. There was
+nothing very brilliant about them, and he could boast of but little
+success in his various enterprises; but he kept incessantly laughing a
+hoarse, nervous laugh. It seemed that about a month previously he
+had obtained a post in the private counting-house of a rich
+brandy-farmer,[A] at about three hundred versts from O., and having
+heard of Lavretsky's return from abroad, he had turned out of his
+road for the purpose of seeing his old friend again. He spoke just
+as jerkingly as he used to do in the days of youth, and he became as
+noisy and as warm as he was in the habit of growing then. Lavretsky
+began to speak about his own affairs, but Mikhalevich stopped him,
+hastily stammering out, "I have heard about it, brother; I have heard
+about it. Who could have expected it?" and then immediately turned the
+conversation on topics of general interest.
+
+[Footnote A: One of the contractors who used to purchase the right of
+supplying the people with brandy.]
+
+"I must go away again to-morrow, brother," he said. "To-day, if you
+will allow it, we will sit up late. I want to get a thoroughly
+good idea of what you are now, what your intentions are and your
+convictions, what sort of man you have become, what life has taught
+you" (Mikhalevich still made use of the phraseology current in the
+year 1830). "As for me, brother, I have become changed in many
+respects. The waters of life have gone over my breast. Who was it
+said that? But in what is important, what is substantial, I have not
+changed. I believe, as I used to do, in the Good, in the True. And
+not only do I believe, but I feel certain now--yes, I feel certain,
+certain. Listen; I make verses, you know. There's no poetry in them,
+but there is truth. I will read you my last piece. I have expressed in
+it my most sincere convictions. Now listen."
+
+Mikhalevich began to read his poem, which was rather a long one. It
+ended with the following lines:--
+
+  "With my whole heart have I given myself up to new feelings;
+    In spirit I have become like unto a child,
+  And I have burnt all that I used to worship,
+    I worship all that I used to burn."
+
+Mikhalevich all but wept as he pronounced these last two verses. A
+slight twitching, the sign of a strong emotion, affected his large
+lips; his plain face lighted up. Lavretsky went on listening until
+at last the spirit of contradiction was roused within him. He became
+irritated by the Moscow student's enthusiasm, so perpetually on the
+boil, so continually ready for use. A quarter of an hour had not
+elapsed before a dispute had been kindled between the two friends, one
+of those endless disputes of which only Russians are capable. They
+two, after a separation which had lasted for many years, and those
+passed in two different worlds, neither of them clearly understanding
+the other's thoughts, not even his own, holding fast by words, and
+differing in words alone, disputed about the most purely abstract
+ideas--and disputed exactly as if the matter had been one of life and
+death to both of them. They shouted and cried aloud to such an extent
+that every one in the house was disturbed, and poor Lemm, who had shut
+himself up in his room the moment Mikhalevich arrived, felt utterly
+perplexed, and even began to entertain some vague form of fear.
+
+"But after all this, what are you? _blase_!"[A] cried Mikhalevich at
+midnight.
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "disillusioned."]
+
+"Does a _blase_ man ever look like me?" answered Lavretsky. "He is
+always pale and sickly; but I, if you like, will lift you off the
+ground with one hand."
+
+"Well then, if not _blase_, at least a sceptic,[A] and that is still
+worse. But what right have you to be a sceptic? Your life has not been
+a success, I admit. That wasn't your fault. You were endowed with a
+soul full of affection, fit for passionate love, and you were kept
+away from women by force. The first woman you came across was sure to
+take you in."
+
+[Footnote A: He says in that original _Skyeptuik_ instead of
+_Skeptik_, on which the author remarks, "Mikhalevich's accent
+testified to his birth-place having been in Little Russia."]
+
+"She took you in, too," morosely remarked Lavretsky.
+
+"Granted, granted. In that I was the tool of fate. But I'm talking
+nonsense. There's no such thing as fate. My old habit of expressing
+myself inaccurately! But what does that prove?"
+
+"It proves this much, that I have been distorted from childhood."
+
+"Well, then, straighten yourself. That's the good of being a man.
+You haven't got to borrow energy. But, however that may be, is it
+possible, is it allowable, to work upwards from an isolated fact, so
+to speak, to a general law--to an invariable rule?"
+
+"What rule?" said Lavretsky, interrupting him. "I do not admit--"
+
+"No, that is your rule, that is your rule," cried the other,
+interrupting him in his turn.
+
+"You are an egotist, that's what it is!" thundered Mikhalevich an hour
+later. "You wanted self-enjoyment; you wanted a happy life; you wanted
+to live only for yourself--"
+
+"What is self-enjoyment?"
+
+"--And every thing has failed you; everything has given way under your
+feet."
+
+"But what is self-enjoyment, I ask you?"
+
+"--And it ought to give way. Because you looked for support there,
+where it is impossible to find it; because you built your house on the
+quicksands--"
+
+"Speak plainer, without metaphor, _because_ I do not understand you."
+
+"--Because--laugh away if you like--because there is no faith in you,
+no hearty warmth--and only a poor farthingsworth of intellect;[A]
+you are simply a pitiable creature, a behind--your--age disciple of
+Voltaire. That's what you are."
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "intellect, in all merely a copeck
+intellect."]
+
+"Who? I a disciple of Voltaire?"
+
+"Yes, just such a one as your father was; and you have never so much
+as suspected it."
+
+"After that," exclaimed Lavretsky, "I have a right to say that you are
+a fanatic."
+
+"Alas!" sorrowfully replied Mikhalevich, "unfortunately, I have not
+yet in any way deserved so grand a name--"
+
+"I have found out now what to call you!" cried the self-same
+Mikhalevich at three o'clock in the morning.
+
+"You are not a sceptic, nor are you a _blase_, nor a disciple of
+Voltaire; you are a marmot,[A] and a culpable marmot; a marmot with a
+conscience, not a naive marmot. Naive marmots lie on the stove[B]
+and do nothing, because they can do nothing. They do not even think
+anything. But you are a thinking man, and yet you lie idly there. You
+could do something, and you do nothing. You lie on the top with full
+paunch and say, 'To lie idle--so must it be; because all that people
+ever do--is all vanity, mere nonsense that conduces to nothing.'"
+
+[Footnote A: A _baibak_, a sort of marmot or "prairie dog."]
+
+[Footnote B: The top of the stove forms the sleeping place in a
+Russian peasant's hut.]
+
+"But what has shown you that I lie idle?" insisted Lavretsky. "Why do
+you suppose I have such ideas?"
+
+"--And, besides this, all you people, all your brotherhood," continued
+Mikhalevich without stopping, "are deeply read marmots. You all
+know where the German's shoe pinches him; you all know what faults
+Englishmen and Frenchmen have; and your miserable knowledge only
+serves to help you to justify your shameful laziness, your abominable
+idleness. There are some who even pride themselves on this, that 'I,
+forsooth, am a learned man. I lie idle, and they are fools to give
+themselves trouble.' Yes! even such persons as these do exist among
+us; not that I say this with reference to you; such persons as will
+spend all their life in a certain languor of ennui, and get accustomed
+to it, and exist in it like--like a mushroom in sour cream"
+(Mikhalevich could not help laughing at his own comparison). "Oh, that
+languor of ennui! it is the ruin of the Russian people. Throughout all
+time the wretched marmot is making up its mind to work--"
+
+"But, after all, what are you scolding about?" cried Lavretsky in his
+turn. "To work, to do. You had better say what one should do, instead
+of scolding, O Demosthenes of Poltava."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Poltava is a town of Little Russia. It will be remembered
+that Mikhalovich is a Little Russian.]
+
+"Ah, yes, that's what you want! No, brother, I will not tell you that.
+Every one must teach himself that," replied Demosthenes in an ironical
+tone. "A proprietor, a noble, and not know what to do! You have no
+faith, or you would have known. No faith and no divination."[A]
+
+[Footnote A: _Otkrovenie_, discovery or revelation.]
+
+"At all events, let me draw breath for a moment, you fiend," prayed
+Lavretsky. "Let me take a look round me!"
+
+"Not a minute's breathing-time, not a second's," replied Mikhalevich,
+with a commanding gesture of the hand. "Not a single second. Death
+does not tarry, and life also ought not to tarry."
+
+"And when and where have people taken it into their heads to make
+marmots of themselves?" he cried at four in the morning, in a voice
+that was now somewhat hoarse, "Why, here! Why, now! In Russia! When on
+every separate individual there lies a duty, a great responsibility,
+before God, before the nation, before himself! We sleep, but time goes
+by. We sleep--"
+
+"Allow me to point, out to you," observed Lavretsky, "that we do
+not at all sleep at present, but rather prevent other persons from
+sleeping. We stretch our throats like barn-door cocks. Listen, that
+one is crowing for the third time."
+
+This sally made Mikhalevich laugh, and sobered him down. "Good night,"
+he said with a smile, and put away his pipe in its bag. "Good night,"
+said Lavretsky also. However, the friends still went on talking for
+more than an hour. But their voices did not rise high any longer, and
+their talk was quiet, sad, kindly talk.
+
+Mikhalevich went away next day, in spite of all his host could do to
+detain him. Lavretsky did not succeed in persuading him to stay, but
+he got as much talk as he wanted out of him.
+
+It turned out that Mikhalevich was utterly impecunious. Lavretsky had
+already been sorry to see in him, on the preceding evening, all the
+characteristics of a poverty of long standing. His shoes were trodden
+down, his coat wanted a button behind, his hands were strangers to
+gloves, one or two bits of feather were sticking in his hair. When he
+arrived, he did not think of asking for a wash; and at supper he ate
+like a shark, tearing the meat to pieces with his fingers, and noisily
+gnawing the bones with his firm, discolored teeth.
+
+It turned out, also, that he had not thriven in the civil service, and
+that he had pinned all his hopes on the brandy-farmer, who had given
+him employment simply that he might have an "educated man" in his
+counting-house. In spite of all this, however, Mikhalevich had not
+lost courage, but kept on his way leading the life of a cynic, an
+idealist, and a poet; fervently caring for, and troubling himself
+about, the destinies of humanity and his special vocation in life--and
+giving very little heed to the question whether or no he would die of
+starvation.
+
+Mikhalevich had never married; but he had fallen in love countless
+times, and he always wrote poetry about all his loves: with especial
+fervor did he sing about a mysterious, raven-haired "lady." It was
+rumored, indeed, that this "lady" was nothing more than a Jewess, and
+one who had numerous friends among cavalry officers; but, after all,
+if one thinks the matter over, it is not one of much importance.
+
+With Lemm, Mikhalevich did not get on well. His extremely loud way of
+talking, his rough manners, frightened the German, to whom they
+were entirely novel. One unfortunate man immediately and from afar
+recognizes another, but in old age he is seldom willing to associate
+with him. Nor is that to be wondered at. He has nothing to share with
+him--not even hopes.
+
+Before he left, Mikhalevich had another long talk with Lavretsky, to
+whom he predicted utter ruin if he did not rouse himself, and whom
+he entreated to occupy himself seriously with the question of the
+position of his serfs. He set himself up as a pattern for imitation,
+saying that he had been purified in the furnace of misfortune; and
+then he several times styled himself a happy man, comparing himself to
+a bird of the air, a lily of the valley.
+
+"A dusky lily, at all events," remarked Lavretsky.
+
+"Ah, brother, don't come the aristocrat," answered Mikhalevich
+good-humoredly; "but rather thank God that in your veins also there
+flows simple plebeian blood. But I see you are now in need of some
+pure, unearthly being, who might rouse you from your apathy."
+
+"Thanks, brother," said Lavretsky; "I have had quite enough of those
+unearthly beings."
+
+"Silence, cyneec!"[A] exclaimed Mikhalevich.
+
+[Footnote A: He says _Tsuinnik_ instead of _Tsinik_.]
+
+"Cynic," said Lavretsky, correcting him.
+
+"Just so, cyneec," repeated the undisconcerted Mikhalevich.
+
+Even when he had taken his seat in the tarantass, in which his flat
+and marvellously light portmanteau had been stowed away, he still
+went on talking. Enveloped in a kind of Spanish cloak, with a collar
+reddened by long use, and with lion's claws instead of hooks, he
+continued to pour forth his opinions on the destinies of Russia,
+waving his swarthy hand the while in the air, as if he were sowing the
+seeds of future prosperity. At last the horses set off.
+
+"Remember my last three words!" he exclaimed, leaning almost entirely
+out of the carriage, and scarcely able to keep his balance. "Religion,
+Progress, Humanity! Farewell!" His head, on which his forage cap was
+pressed down to his eyes, disappeared from sight. Lavretsky was left
+alone at the door, where he remained gazing attentively along the
+road, until the carriage was out of sight. "And perhaps he is right,"
+he thought, as he went back into the house. "Perhaps I am a marmot."
+Much of what Mikhalevich had said had succeeded in winning its way
+into his heart, although at the time he had contradicted him and
+disagreed with him. Let a man only be perfectly honest--no one can
+utterly gainsay him.
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+
+Two days later, Maria Dmitrievna arrived at Vasilievskoe, according
+to her promise, and all her young people with her. The little girls
+immediately ran into the garden, but Maria Dmitrievna languidly walked
+through the house, and languidly praised all she saw. She looked upon
+her visit to Lavretsky as a mark of great condescension, almost a
+benevolent action. She smiled affably when Anton and Apraxia came to
+kiss her hand, according to the old custom of household serfs, and in
+feeble accents she asked for tea.
+
+To the great vexation of Anton, who had donned a pair of knitted white
+gloves, it was not he who handed the tea to the lady visitor, but
+Lavretsky's hired lackey, a fellow who, in the old man's opinion, had
+not a notion of etiquette. However, Anton had it all his own way
+at dinner. With firm step, he took up his position behind Madame
+Kalitine's chair, and he refused to give up his post to any one. The
+apparition of visitors at Vasilievskoe--a sight for so many years
+unknown there--both troubled and cheered the old man. It was a
+pleasure for him to see that his master was acquainted with persons of
+some standing in society.
+
+Anton was not the only person who was agitated that day. Lemm was
+excited too. He had put on a shortish snuff-colored coat with pointed
+tails, and had tied his cravat tight, he coughed incessantly, and made
+way for every one with kindly and affable mien. As for Lavretsky,
+he remarked with satisfaction that he remained on the same friendly
+footing with Liza as before. As soon as she arrived she cordially held
+out her hand to him.
+
+After dinner, Lemm took a small roll of music-paper out of the
+tail-pocket of his coat, into which he had been constantly putting his
+hand, and silently, with compressed lips, placed it upon the piano.
+It contained a romance, which he had written the day before to some
+old-fashioned German words, in which mention was made of the stars.
+Liza immediately sat down to the piano, and interpreted the romance.
+Unfortunately the music turned out to be confused and unpleasantly
+constrained. It was evident that the composer had attempted to express
+some deep and passionate idea, but no result had been attained. The
+attempt remained an attempt, and nothing more. Both Lavretsky and Liza
+felt this, and Lemm was conscious of it too. Without saying a word, he
+put his romance back into his pocket; and, in reply to Liza's proposal
+to play it over again, he merely shook his head, and said, in a tone
+of meaning, "For the present--_basta_!" then bent his head, stooped
+his shoulders, and left the room.
+
+Towards evening they all went out together to fish. In the little lake
+at the end of the garden there were numbers of carp and groundling.
+Madame Kalitine had an arm-chair set in the shade for her, near the
+edge of the water, and a carpet was spread out under her feet. Anton,
+as an old fisherman of great experience, offered her his services.
+Zealously did he fasten on the worms, slap them with his hand, and
+spit upon them, and then fling the line into the water himself,
+gracefully bending forwards the whole of his body. Maria Dmitrievna
+had already that day spoken about him to Fedor Ivanovich, using the
+following phrase of Institute-French:--"_Il n'y a plus maintenant de
+ces gens comme ca autre fois_."
+
+Lemm and the two little girls went on to the dam at the end of the
+lake. Lavretsky placed himself near Liza. The fish kept continually
+nibbling. Every minute a captured carp glistened in the air with its
+sometimes golden, sometimes silver, sides. The little girls kept up a
+ceaseless flow of joyful exclamations. Madame Kalitine herself two or
+three times uttered a plaintive cry. Lavretsky and Liza caught fewer
+fish than the others; probably because they paid less attention to
+their fishing, and let their floats drift up against the edge of the
+lake. The tall, reddish reeds murmured quietly around them; in front
+quietly shone the unruffled water, and the conversation they carried
+on was quiet too.
+
+Liza stood on the little platform [placed there for the use of the
+washerwomen;] Lavretsky sat on the bent stem of a willow. Liza wore a
+white dress, fastened round the waist by a broad, white ribbon. From
+one hand hung her straw hat; with the other she, not without some
+effort, supported her drooping fishing-rod. Lavretsky gazed at her
+pure, somewhat severe profile--at the hair turned back behind her
+ears--at her soft cheeks, the hue of which was like that of a young
+child's--and thought: "How charming you look, standing there by my
+lake!" Liza did not look at him, but kept her eyes fixed on the water,
+something which might be a smile lurking about their corners. Over
+both Lavretsky and Liza fell the shadow of a neighboring lime-tree.
+
+"Do you know," he began, "I have thought a great deal about our
+last conversation, and I have come to this conclusion, that you are
+exceedingly good."
+
+"It certainly was not with that intention that I--" replied Liza, and
+became greatly confused.
+
+"You are exceedingly good," repeated Lavretsky. "I am a rough-hewn
+man; but I feel that every one must love you. There is Lemm, for
+instance: he's simply in love with you."
+
+Liza's eyebrows did not exactly frown, but they quivered. This always
+happened with her when she heard anything she did not like.
+
+"I felt very sorry for him to-day, with his unsuccessful romance,"
+continued Lavretsky. "To be young and to want knowledge--that is
+bearable. But to have grown old and to fail in strength--that is
+indeed heavy. And the worst of it is, that one doesn't know when one's
+strength has failed. To an old man such blows are hard to bear. Take
+care! you've a bite--I hear," continued Lavretsky, after a short
+pause, "That M. Panshine has written a very charming romance."
+
+"Yes," replied Liza, "it is a small matter; but it isn't bad."
+
+"But what is your opinion about him himself?" asked Lavretsky. "Is he
+a good musician?"
+
+"I think he has considerable musical faculty. But as yet he has not
+cultivated it as he ought."
+
+"Just so. But is he a good man?"
+
+Liza laughed aloud, and looked up quickly at Fedor Ivanovich.
+
+"What a strange question!" she exclaimed, withdrawing her line from
+the water, and then throwing it a long way in again.
+
+"Why strange? I ask you about him as one who has been away from here a
+long time--as a relation."
+
+"As a relation?"
+
+"Yes. I believe I am a sort of uncle of yours."
+
+"Vladimir Nikolaevich has a good heart," said Liza. "He is clever.
+Mamma likes him very much."
+
+"But you--do you like him?"
+
+"He is a good man. Why shouldn't I like him?"
+
+"Ah!" said Lavretsky, and became silent. A half-sad, half-mocking
+expression played upon his face. The fixed look with which he regarded
+her troubled Liza; but she went on smiling.
+
+"Well, may God grant them happiness!" he murmured at last, as if to
+himself, and turned away his head.
+
+Liza reddened.
+
+"You are wrong, Fedor Ivanovich," she said; "you are wrong in
+thinking--But don't you like Vladimir Ivanovich?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"No."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I think he has no heart."
+
+The smile disappeared from Liza's lips.
+
+"You are accustomed to judge people severely," she said, after a long
+silence.
+
+"I don't think so. What right have I to judge others severely, I
+should like to know, when I stand in need of indulgence myself? Or
+have you forgotten that it is only lazy people who do not mock me? But
+tell me," he added, "have you kept your promise?"
+
+"What promise?"
+
+"Have you prayed for me?"
+
+"Yes, I prayed for you; and I pray every day. But please do not talk
+lightly about that."
+
+Lavretsky began to assure Liza that he had never dreamt of doing
+so--that he profoundly respected all convictions. After that he took
+to talking about religion, about its significance in the history of
+humanity, of the meaning of Christianity.
+
+"One must be a Christian," said Liza, not without an effort, "not in
+order to recognize what is heavenly, or what is earthly, but because
+every one must die."
+
+With an involuntary movement of surprise, Lavretsky raised his eyes to
+Liza's, and met her glance.
+
+"What does that phrase of yours mean?" he said.
+
+"It is not my phrase," she replied.
+
+"Not yours? But why did you speak about death?"
+
+"I don't know. I often think about it."
+
+"Often?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"One wouldn't say so, looking at you now. Your face seems so happy, so
+bright, and you smile--"
+
+"Yes. I feel very happy now," replied Liza simply.
+
+Lavretsky felt inclined to seize both her hands and press them warmly.
+
+"Liza, Liza!" cried Madame Kalitine, "come here and see what a carp I
+have caught."
+
+"Yes, mamma," answered Liza, and went to her.
+
+But Lavretsky remained sitting on his willow stem.
+
+"I talk to her just as if I still had an interest in life," he
+thought.
+
+Liza had hung up her hat on a bough when she went away. It was with a
+strange and almost tender feeling that Lavretsky looked at the hat,
+and at its long, slightly rumpled ribbons.
+
+Liza soon came back again and took up her former position on the
+platform.
+
+"Why do you think that Vladimir Nikolaevich has no heart?" she asked,
+a few minutes afterwards.
+
+"I have already told you that I may be mistaken. However, time will
+reveal all."
+
+Liza became contemplative. Lavretsky began to talk about his mode
+of life al Vasilievskoe, about Mikhalevich, about Anton. He felt
+compelled to talk to Liza, to communicate to her all that went on in
+his heart. And she listened to him so attentively, with such kindly
+interest; the few remarks and answers she made appeared to him so
+sensible and so natural. He even told her so.
+
+Liza was astonished. "Really?" she said. "As for me, I thought I was
+like my maid, Nastasia, and had no words 'of my own.' She said one day
+to her betrothed, 'You will be sure to be bored with me. You talk to
+me so beautifully about every thing, but I have no words of my own.'"
+
+"Heaven be praised!" thought Lavretsky.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+
+In the meantime the evening had arrived, and Maria Dmitrievna evinced
+a desire to return home. With some difficulty the little girls were
+torn away from the lake, and got ready for the journey. Lavretsky said
+he would accompany his guests half-way home, and ordered a horse to be
+saddled for him. After seeing Maria Dmitrievna into her carriage he
+looked about for Lemm; but the old man could nowhere be found. He
+had disappeared the moment the fishing was over, Anton slammed the
+carriage door to, with a strength remarkable at his age, and cried
+in a stern voice, "Drive on, coachman!" The carriage set off. Maria
+Dmitrievna and Liza occupied the back seats; the two girls and the
+maid sat in front.
+
+The evening was warm and still, and the windows were open on both
+sides. Lavretsky rode close by the carriage on Liza's side, resting a
+hand on the door--he had thrown the reins on the neck of his easily
+trotting horse--and now and then exchanged two or three words with the
+young girl. The evening glow disappeared. Night came on, but the air
+seemed to grow even warmer than before. Maria Dmitrievna soon went to
+sleep; the little girls and the maid servant slept also. Smoothly and
+rapidly the carriage rolled on. As Liza bent forwards, the moon, which
+had only just made its appearance, lighted up her face, the fragrant
+night air breathed on her eyes and cheeks, and she felt herself
+happy. Her hand rested on the door of the carriage by the side of
+Lavretsky's. He too felt himself happy as he floated on in the calm
+warmth of the night, never moving his eyes away from the good young
+face, listening to the young voice, clear even in its whispers, which
+spoke simple, good words.
+
+It even escaped his notice for a time that he had gone more than half
+of the way. Then he would not disturb Madame Kalitine, but he pressed
+Liza's hand lightly and said, "We are friends now, are we not?" She
+nodded assent, and he pulled up his horse. The carriage rolled on its
+way quietly swinging and curtseying.
+
+Lavretsky returned home at a walk. The magic of the summer night took
+possession of him. All that spread around him seemed so wonderfully
+strange, and yet at the same time so well known and so dear. Far and
+near all was still--and the eye could see very far, though it could
+not distinguish much of what it saw--but underneath that very
+stillness a young and flowering life made itself felt.
+
+Lavretsky's horse walked on vigorously, swinging itself steadily to
+right and left. Its great black shadow moved by its side. There was a
+sort of secret charm in the tramp of its hoofs, something strange and
+joyous in the noisy cry of the quails. The stars disappeared in a kind
+of luminous mist. The moon, not yet at its full, shone with steady
+lustre. Its light spread in a blue stream over the sky, and fell in
+a streak of vaporous gold on the thin clouds which went past close at
+hand.
+
+The freshness of the air called a slight moisture into Lavretsky's
+eyes, passed caressingly over all his limbs, and flowed with free
+current into his chest. He was conscious of enjoying, and felt glad
+of that enjoyment. "Well, we will live on still; she has not entirely
+deprived us--" he did not say who, or of what.--Then he began to think
+about Liza; that she could scarcely be in love with Panshine; that if
+he had met her under other circumstances--God knows what might have
+come of it; that he understood Lemm's feelings about her now, although
+she had "no words of her own." And, moreover, that that was not true;
+for she had words of her own. "Do not speak lightly about that,"
+recurred to Lavretsky's memory. For a long time he rode on with bent
+head, then he slowly drew himself up repeating,--
+
+  "And I have burnt all that I used to worship,
+  I worship all that I used to burn--"
+
+then he suddenly struck his horse with his whip and and galloped
+straight away home.
+
+On alighting from his horse he gave a final look round, a thankful
+smile playing involuntarily on his lips. Night--silent, caressing
+night--lay on the hills and dales. From its fragrant depths
+afar--whether from heaven or from earth could not be told--there
+poured a soft and quiet warmth. Lavretsky wished a last farewell to
+Liza--and hastened up the steps.
+
+The next day went by rather slowly, rain setting in early in the
+morning. Lemm looked askance, and compressed his lips even tighter
+and tighter, as if he had made a vow never to open them again. When
+Lavretsky lay down at night he took to bed with him a whole bundle of
+French newspapers, which had already lain unopened on his table for
+two or three weeks. He began carelessly to tear open their covers and
+to skim the contents of their columns, in which, for the matter of
+that, there was but little that was new. He was just on the point
+of throwing them aside, when he suddenly bounded out of bed as if
+something had stung him. In the _feuilleton_ of one of the papers our
+former acquaintance, M. Jules, communicated to his readers a "painful
+piece of intelligence." "The fascinating, fair Muscovite," he wrote,
+"one of the queens of fashion, the ornament of Parisian salons, Madame
+de Lavretski," had died almost suddenly. And this news, unfortunately
+but too true, had just reached him, M. Jules. He was, so he continued,
+he might say, a friend of the deceased--
+
+Lavretsky put on his clothes, went out into the garden, and walked up
+and down one of its alleys until the break of day.
+
+At breakfast, next morning, Lemm asked Lavretsky to let him have
+horses in order to get back to town.
+
+"It is time for me to return to business, that is to lessons,"
+remarked the old man. "I am only wasting my time here uselessly."
+
+Lavretsky did not reply at once. He seemed lost in a reverie.
+
+"Very good," he said at last; "I will go with you myself."
+
+Refusing the assistance of a servant, Lemm packed his little
+portmanteau, growing peevish the while and groaning over it, and then
+tore up and burnt some sheets of music paper. The carriage came to the
+door. As Lavretsky left his study he put in his pocket the copy of
+the newspaper he had read the night before. During the whole of
+the journey neither Lavretsky nor Lemm said much. Each of them was
+absorbed in his own thoughts, and each was glad that the other did not
+disturb him. And they parted rather coldly, an occurrence which, for
+the matter of that, often occurs among friends in Russia. Lavretsky
+drove the old man to his modest dwelling. Lemm took his portmanteau
+with him as he got out of the carriage, and, without stretching out
+his hand to his friend, he held the portmanteau before him with both
+hands, and, without even looking at him, said in Russian, "Farewell!"
+"Farewell!" echoed Lavretsky, and told the coachman to drive to his
+apartments; for he had taken lodgings in O.
+
+After writing several letters, and making a hasty dinner, he went
+to the Kalitines'. There he found no one in the drawing-room but
+Panshine, who told him that Maria Dmitrievna would come directly, and
+immediately entered into conversation with him in the kindest and most
+affable manner. Until that day Panshine had treated Lavretsky, not
+with haughtiness exactly, but with condescension; but Liza, in
+describing her excursion of the day before, had spoken of Lavretsky as
+an excellent and clever man. That was enough; the "excellent" man must
+be captivated.
+
+Panshine began by complimenting Lavretsky, giving him an account of
+the rapture with which, according to him, all the Kalitine family
+had spoken of Vasilievskoe; then, according to his custom, adroitly
+bringing the conversation round to himself, he began to speak of his
+occupations, of his views concerning life, the world, and the service;
+said a word or two about the future of Russia, and about the
+necessity of holding the Governors of provinces in hand; joked
+facetiously about himself in that respect, and added that he, among
+others, had been entrusted at St. Petersburg with the commission _de
+populariser l'idee du cadastre_. He spoke at tolerable length, and
+with careless assurance, solving all difficulties, and playing with
+the most important administrative and political questions as a juggler
+does with his balls. Such expressions as, "That is what I should do if
+I were the Government," and, "You, as an intelligent man, doubtless
+agree with me," were always at the tip of his tongue.
+
+Lavretsky listened coldly to Panshine's eloquence. This handsome,
+clever, and unnecessarily elegant young man, with his serene smile,
+his polite voice, and his inquisitive eyes, was not to his liking.
+Panshine soon guessed, with the quick appreciation of the feelings of
+others which was peculiar to him, that he did not confer any special
+gratification on the person he was addressing, so he disappeared under
+cover of some plausible excuse, having made up his mind that Lavretsky
+might be an excellent man, but that he was unsympathetic, "_aigri_"
+and, _en somme_, somewhat ridiculous.
+
+Madame Kalitine arrived, accompanied by Gedeonovsky. Then came Marfa
+Timofeevna and Liza, and after them all the other members of the
+family. Afterwards, also, there arrived the lover of music, Madame
+Belenitsine, a thin little woman, with an almost childish little face,
+pretty but worn, a noisy black dress, a particolored fan, and thick
+gold bracelets. With her came her husband, a corpulent man, with red
+cheeks, large hands and feet, white eyelashes, and a smile which never
+left his thick lips. His wife never spoke to him in society; and at
+home, in her tender moments, she used to call him her "sucking pig."
+
+Panshine returned; the room became animated and noisy. Such an
+assemblage of people was by no means agreeable to Lavretsky. He was
+especially annoyed by Madame Belenitsine, who kept perpetually staring
+at him through her eye-glass. If it had not been for Liza he would
+have gone away at once. He wanted to say a few words to her alone, but
+for a long time he could not obtain a fitting opportunity of doing so,
+and had to content himself with following her about with his eyes It
+was with a secret joy that he did so. Never had her face seemed to
+him more noble and charming. She appeared to great advantage in the
+presence of Madame Belenitsine. That lady was incessantly fidgeting
+on her chair, working her narrow shoulders, laughing affectedly, and
+either all but closing her eyes or opening them unnaturally wide. Liza
+sat still, looked straight before her, and did not laugh at all.
+
+Madame Kalitine sat down to cards with Marfa Timofeevna, Belenitsine,
+and Gedeonovsky, the latter of whom played very slowly, made continual
+mistakes, squeezed up his eyes, and mopped his face with his
+handkerchief. Panshine assumed an air of melancholy, and expressed
+himself tersely, sadly, and significantly--altogether after the
+fashion of an artist who has not yet had any opportunity of showing
+off--but in spite of the entreaties of Madame Belenitsine, who
+coquetted with him to a great extent he would not consent to sing his
+romance. Lavretsky's presence embarrassed him.
+
+Lavretsky himself spoke little, but the peculiar expression his face
+wore struck Liza as soon as he entered the room. She immediately felt
+that he had something to communicate to her; but, without knowing
+herself why, she was afraid of asking him any questions. At last,
+as she was passing into the next room to make the tea, she almost
+unconsciously looked towards him. He immediately followed her.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" she asked, putting the teapot on the
+_samovar_.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: Urn.]
+
+"You have remarked something, then?" he said.
+
+"You are different to-day from what I have seen you before."
+
+Lavretsky bent over the table.
+
+"I wanted," he began, "to tell you a piece of news, but just now it is
+impossible. But read the part of this _feuilleton_ which is marked in
+pencil," he added, giving her the copy of the newspaper he had
+brought with him. "Please keep the secret; I will come back to-morrow
+morning."
+
+Liza was thoroughly amazed. At that moment Panshine appeared in the
+doorway. She put the newspaper in her pocket.
+
+"Have you read Obermann,[A] Lizaveta Mikhailovna?" asked Panshine with
+a thoughtful air.
+
+[Footnote A: The sentimental romance of that name, written by E.
+Pivert de Senancour.]
+
+Liza replied vaguely as she passed out of the room, and then went
+up-stairs. Lavretsky returned into the drawing room and approached the
+card table. Marfa Timofeevna flushed, and with her cap-strings untied,
+began to complain to him of her partner Gedeonovsky, who, according
+to her, had not yet learnt his steps. "Card-playing," she said,
+"is evidently a very different thing from gossiping." Meanwhile
+Gedeonovsky never left off blinking and mopping himself with his
+handkerchief.
+
+Presently Liza returned to the drawing-room and sat down in a corner.
+Lavretsky looked at her and she at him, and each experienced a painful
+sensation. He could read perplexity on her face, and a kind of secret
+reproach. Much as he wished it, he could not get a talk with her, and
+to remain in the same room with her as a mere visitor among other
+visitors was irksome to him, so he determined to go away.
+
+When taking leave of her, he contrived to repeat that he would come
+next day, and he added that he counted on her friendship. "Come," she
+replied, with the same perplexed look still on her face.
+
+After Lavretsky's departure, Panshine grew animated. He began to give
+advice to Gedeonovsky, and to make mock love to Madame Belenitsine,
+and at last he sang his romance. But when gazing at Liza, or talking
+to her, he maintained the same air as before, one of deep meaning,
+with a touch of sadness in it.
+
+All that night also, Lavretsky did not sleep. He was not unhappy, he
+was not agitated; on the contrary, he was perfectly calm; but he could
+not sleep. He was not even recalling the past. He simply looked at his
+present life. His heart beat firmly and equably, the hours flew by, he
+did not even think about sleeping. Only at times there came into his
+head the thought, "Surely this is not true, this is all nonsense." And
+then he would stop short, and presently let his head fall back and
+again betake himself to gazing into the stream of his life.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+
+Madame Kalitine did not receive Lavretsky over cordially, when he paid
+her a visit next day. "Ah! he's making a custom of it," she thought.
+She was not of herself disposed to like him very much, and Panshine,
+who had got her thoroughly under his influence, had praised him the
+evening before in a very astutely disparaging manner. As she did not
+treat him as an honored guest, nor think it necessary to trouble
+herself about one who was a relation, almost a member of the family
+circle, before half an hour had elapsed he went out into the garden.
+There he and Liza strolled along one of the alleys, while Lenochka
+and Shurochka played around the flower-pots at a little distance from
+them.
+
+Liza was as quiet as usual, but more than usually pale. She took
+the folded leaf of the newspaper from her pocket, and handed it to
+Lavretsky.
+
+"That is terrible news," she said.
+
+Lavretsky made no reply.
+
+"But, after all, perhaps it may not be true."
+
+"That is why I asked you not to mention it to any one."
+
+Liza walked on a little farther.
+
+"Tell me," she began, "are not you sorry?--not at all sorry?"
+
+"I don't know myself what I feel," answered Lavretsky.
+
+"But you loved her once?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Very much?"
+
+--"Yes."
+
+"And yet you are not sorry for her death?"
+
+"It is not only now that she has become dead for me."
+
+"You are saying what is sinful. Don't be angry with me. You have
+called me your friend. A friend may say anything. And it really seems
+terrible to me. The expression on your face yesterday was not good to
+see. Do you remember your complaining about her not long ago? And at
+that very time, perhaps, she was already no longer among the
+living. It is terrible. It is just as if it had been sent you as a
+punishment."
+
+Lavretsky laughed bitterly.
+
+"You think so?--at all events I am free now."
+
+Liza shuddered.
+
+"Do not speak so any more. What use is your freedom to you? You should
+not be thinking of that now, but of forgiveness--"
+
+"I forgave her long ago," interrupted Lavretsky, with an impatient
+gesture.
+
+"No, I don't mean that," answered Liza, reddening; "you have not
+understood me properly. It is you who ought to strive to get
+pardoned."
+
+"Who is there to pardon me?"
+
+"Who? Why God. Who can pardon us except God?"
+
+Lavretsky grasped her hand.
+
+"Ah! Lizaveta Mikhailovna!" he exclaimed, "believe me, I have already
+been punished enough--I have already expiated all, believe me."
+
+"You cannot tell that," said Liza, in a low voice. "You forget. It was
+not long ago that you and I were talking, and you were not willing to
+forgive her."
+
+Both of them walked along the alley for a time in silence.
+
+"And about your daughter?" suddenly asked Liza, and then stopped
+short.
+
+Lavretsky shuddered.
+
+"Oh! don't disturb yourself about her. I have already sent off letters
+in all directions. The future of my daughter, as you--as you say--is
+assured. You need not trouble yourself on that score."
+
+Liza smiled sadly.
+
+"But you are right," continued Lavretsky. "What am I to do with my
+freedom--what use is it to me?"
+
+"When did you get this paper?" asked Liza, without answering his
+question.
+
+"The day after your visit."
+
+"And have not you--have not you even shed a tear?"
+
+"No; I was thunderstruck. But whither should I look for tears? Should
+I cry over the past? Why, all mine has been, as it were, consumed with
+fire. Her fault did not actually destroy my happiness; it only proved
+to me that for me happiness had never really existed. What, then, had
+I to cry for? Besides--who knows?--perhaps I should have been more
+grieved if I had received this news a fortnight sooner."
+
+"A fortnight!" replied Liza. "But what can have happened to make such
+a difference in that fortnight?"
+
+Lavretsky make no reply at first, and Liza suddenly grew still redder
+than before.
+
+"Yes, yes! you have guessed it!" unexpectedly cried Lavretsky. "In the
+course of that fortnight I have learnt what a woman's heart is like
+when it is pure and clear; and my past life seems even farther off
+from me than it used to be."
+
+Liza became a little uncomfortable, and slowly turned to where
+Lenochka and Shurochka were in the flower-garden.
+
+"But I am glad I showed you that newspaper," said Lavretsky, as he
+followed her. "I have grown accustomed to conceal nothing from you,
+and I hope you will confide in me equally in return."
+
+"Do you really?" said Liza, stopping still. "In that case, I ought.
+But, no! it is impossible."
+
+"What is it? Tell me--tell me!"
+
+"I really think I ought not.--However," added Liza, turning to
+Lavretsky with a smile, "what is the good of a half-confidence? Do you
+know, I received a letter to-day?"
+
+"From Panshine?"
+
+"Yes, from him. How did you guess that?"
+
+"And he asks for your hand?"
+
+"Yes," replied Liza, looking straight at Lavretsky with serious eyes.
+
+Lavretsky, in his turn, looked seriously at Liza.
+
+"Well, and what answer have you made him?" he said at last.
+
+"I don't know what to answer," replied Liza, unfolding her arms, and
+letting them fall by her side.
+
+"Why? Do you like him?"
+
+"Yes, I like him; I think he is a good man."
+
+"That is just what you told me three days ago, and in the very same
+words. But what I want to know is, do you love him--love him with that
+strong, passionate feeling which we usually call 'love'?"
+
+"In the sense in which you understand the word--No."
+
+"You are not in love with him?"
+
+"No. But is that necessary?"
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Mamma likes him," continued Liza. "He is good: I have no fault to
+find with him."
+
+"But still you waver?"
+
+"Yes--and, perhaps--you, your words are the cause of that. Do you
+remember what you said the day before yesterday? But all that is
+weakness--"
+
+"Oh, my child!" suddenly exclaimed Lavretsky, and his voice trembled
+as he spoke, "don't be fatally wise--don't stigmatize as weakness the
+cry of your heart, unwilling to give itself away without love! Do not
+take upon yourself so fearful a responsibility towards that man, whom
+you do not love, and yet to whom you would be about to belong."
+
+"I shall only be obeying; I shall be taking nothing upon myself,"
+began Liza.
+
+"Obey your own heart, then. It only will tell you the truth," said
+Lavretsky, interrupting her. "Wisdom, experience--all that is mere
+vanity and vexation. Do not deprive yourself of the best, the only
+real happiness upon earth."
+
+"And do you speak in that way. Fedor Ivanovich? You married for love
+yourself--and were you happy?"
+
+Lavretsky clasped his hands above his head.
+
+"Ah! do not talk about me. You cannot form any idea of what a young,
+inexperienced, absurdly brought-up boy may imagine to be love.
+However, why should one calumniate one's self? I told you just now I
+had never known happiness. No! I have been happy."
+
+"I think, Fedor Ivanovich," said Liza, lowering her voice--she always
+lowered her voice when she differed from the person she was speaking
+to; besides, she felt considerably agitated just then--"our happiness
+upon earth does not depend upon ourselves--"
+
+"It does depend upon ourselves--upon ourselves:" here he seized both
+her hands. Liza grew pale and looked at him earnestly, but almost with
+alarm--"at least if we do not ruin our own lives. For some people a
+love match may turn out unhappily, but not for you, with your calmness
+of temperament; with your serenity of soul. I do beseech you not to
+marry without love, merely from a feeling of duty, self-denial, or
+the like. All that is sheer infidelity, and moreover a matter of
+calculation--and worse still. Trust my words. I have a right to say
+this; a right for which I have paid dearly. And if your God--"
+
+At that moment Lavretsky became aware that Lenochka and Shurochka
+were standing by Liza's side, and were staring at him with intense
+astonishment. He dropped Liza's hands, saying hastily, "Forgive me,"
+and walked away towards the house.
+
+"There is only one thing I have to ask you," he said, coming back to
+Liza. "Don't make up your mind directly, but wait a little, and think
+over what I have said to you. And even if you don't believe my words,
+but are determined to marry in accordance with the dictates of mere
+prudence--even, in that case, Mr. Panshine is not the man you ought
+to marry. He must not be your husband. You will promise me not to be
+hasty, won't you?"
+
+Liza wished to reply, but she could not utter a single word. Not that
+she had decided on being "hasty"--but because her heart beat too
+strongly, and a feeling resembling that of fear impeded her breathing.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+
+As Lavretsky was leaving the Kalitines' house he met Panshine, with
+whom he exchanged a cold greeting. Then he went home and shut himself
+up in his room. The sensations he experienced were such as he had
+hardly ever known before. Was it long ago that he was in a condition
+of "peaceful torpor?" Was it long ago that he felt himself, as he had
+expressed it, "at the very bottom of the river?" What then had changed
+his condition? What had brought him to the surface, to the light of
+day? Was the most ordinary and inevitable, though always unexpected,
+of occurrences--death? Yes. But yet it was not so much his wife's
+death, his own freedom, that he was thinking about, as this--what
+answer will Liza give to Panshine?
+
+He felt that in the course of the last three days he had begun to look
+on Liza with different eyes. He remembered how, when he was returning
+home and thinking of her in the silence of the night, he said to
+himself "If!--" This "if," by which at that time he had referred to
+the past, to the impossible, now applied to an actual state of things,
+but not exactly such a one as he had then supposed. Freedom by itself
+was little to him now. "She will obey her mother," he thought. "She
+will marry Panshine. But even if she refuses him--will it not be just
+the same as far as I am concerned?" Passing at that moment in front of
+a looking-glass, he just glanced at his face in it, and then shrugged
+his shoulders.
+
+Amid such thoughts as these the day passed swiftly by. The evening
+arrived, and Lavretsky went to the Kalitines. He walked fast until he
+drew near to the house, but then he slackened his pace. Panshine's
+carriage was standing before the door. "Well," thought Lavretsky,
+as he entered the house, "I will not be selfish." No one met him
+in-doors, and all seemed quiet in the drawing-room. He opened the
+door, and found that Madame Kalitine was playing piquet with Panshine.
+That gentleman bowed to him silently, while the lady of the house
+exclaimed, "Well, this is an unexpected pleasure," and slightly
+frowned. Lavretsky sat down beside her and began looking at her cards.
+
+"So you can play piquet?" she asked, with a shade of secret vexation
+in her voice, and then remarked that she had thrown away a wrong card.
+
+Panshine counted ninety, and began to take up the tricks calmly and
+politely, his countenance the while wearing a grave and dignified
+expression. It was thus, he thought, that diplomatists ought to play.
+It was thus, in all probability, that he used to play with some
+influential dignitary at St. Petersburg, whom he wished to impress
+with a favorable idea of his solidity and perspicacity. "One hundred
+and one, hundred and two, heart, hundred and three," said the
+measured tones of his voice, and Lavretsky could not tell which it
+expressed--dislike or assurance.
+
+"Can't I see Marfa Timofeevna?" asked Lavretsky, observing that
+Panshine, with a still more dignified air than before, was about to
+shuffle the cards; not even a trace of the artist was visible in him
+now.
+
+"I suppose so. She is up-stairs in her room," answered Maria
+Dmitrievna. "You can ask for her."
+
+Lavretsky went up-stairs. He found Marfa Timofeevna also at cards. She
+was playing at _Durachki_ with Nastasia Carpovna. Roska barked at
+him, but both the old ladies received him cordially. Marfa Timofeevna
+seemed in special good humor.
+
+"Ah, Fedia!" she said, "do sit down, there's a good fellow. We shall
+have done our game directly. Will you have some preserves? Shurochka,
+give him a pot of strawberries. You won't have any? Well, then, sit
+there as you are. But as to smoking, you mustn't. I cannot abide your
+strong tobacco; besides, it would make Matros sneeze."
+
+Lavretsky hastened to assure her that he had not the slightest desire
+to smoke.
+
+"Have you been down-stairs?" asked the old lady. "Whom did you find
+there? Is Panshine always hanging about there? But did you see Liza?
+No? She was to have come here. Why there she is--as soon as one
+mentions her."
+
+Liza came into the room, caught sight of Lavretsky and blushed.
+
+"I have only come for a moment, Marfa Timofeevna," she was beginning.
+
+"Why for a moment?" asked the old lady. "Why are all you young people
+so restless? You see I have a visitor there. Chat a little with him,
+amuse him."
+
+Liza sat down on the edge of a chair, raised her eyes to Lavretsky,
+and felt at once that she could not do otherwise than let him know how
+her interview with Panshine had ended. But how was that to be managed?
+She felt at the same time confused and ashamed. Was it so short a time
+since she had become acquainted with that man, one who scarcely ever
+went to church even, and who bore the death of his wife so equably?
+and yet here she was already communicating her secrets to him. It
+was true that he took an interest in her; and that, on her side she
+trusted him, and felt herself drawn towards him. But in spite of all
+this, she felt a certain kind of modest shame--as if a stranger had
+entered her pure maiden chamber.
+
+Marfa Timofeevna came to her rescue.
+
+"Well, if you will not amuse him," she said, "who is to amuse him,
+poor fellow? I am too old for him; he is too clever for me; and as to
+Nastasia Carpovna, he is too old for her. It's only boys she cares
+for."
+
+"How can I amuse Fedor Ivanovich?" said Liza. "I would rather play him
+something on the piano, if he likes," she continued irresolutely.
+
+"That's capital. You're a clever creature," replied Marfa Timofeevna.
+"Go down-stairs, my dears. Come back again when you've clone; but just
+now, here I'm left the _durachka_,[A] so I'm savage. I must have my
+revenge."
+
+[Footnote A: In the game of _durachki_, the player who remains the
+last is called the _durachok_ or _durachka_, diminutive of _durak_,
+a fool. The game somewhat resembles our own "Old Bachelor" or "Old
+Maid."]
+
+Liza rose from her chair, and so did Lavretsky. As she was going
+down-stairs, Liza stopped.
+
+"What they say is true," she began. "The human heart is full of
+contradictions. Your example ought to have frightened me--ought to
+have made me distrust marrying for love, and yet I--".
+
+"You've refused him?" said Lavretsky, interrupting her.
+
+"No; but I have not accepted him either. I told him every thing--all
+my feelings on the subject--and I asked him to wait a little. Are you
+satisfied?" she asked with a sudden smile: and letting her hand skim
+lightly along the balustrade, she ran down-stairs.
+
+"What shall I play you?" she asked, as she opened the piano.
+
+"Whatever you like," answered Lavretsky, taking a seat where he could
+look at her.
+
+Liza began to play, and went on for some time with-out lifting her
+eyes from her fingers. At last she looked at Lavretsky, and stopped
+playing. The expression of his face seemed so strange and unusual to
+her.
+
+"What is the, matter?" she asked.
+
+"Nothing," he replied. "All is well with me at present. I feel happy
+on your account; it makes me glad to look at you--do go on."
+
+"I think," said Liza, a few minutes later, "if he had really loved me
+he would not have written that letter; he ought to have felt that I
+could not answer him just now."
+
+"That doesn't matter," said Lavretsky; "what does matter is that you
+do not love him."
+
+"Stop! What is that you are saying? The image of your dead wife is
+always haunting me, and I feel afraid of you."
+
+"Doesn't my Liza play well, Woldemar?" Madame Kalitine was saying at
+this moment to Panshine.
+
+"Yes," replied Panshine, "exceedingly well."
+
+Madame Kalitine looked tenderly at her young partner; but he assumed a
+still more important and pre-occupied look, and called fourteen kings.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+
+Lavretsky was no longer a very young man. He could not long delude
+himself as to the nature of the feeling with which Liza had inspired
+him. On that day he became finally convinced that he was in love with
+her. That conviction did not give him much pleasure.
+
+"Is it possible," he thought, "that at five-and-thirty I have nothing
+else to do than to confide my heart a second time to a woman's
+keeping? But Liza is not like _her_. She would not have demanded
+humiliating sacrifices from me. She would not have led me astray from
+my occupations. She would have inspired me herself with a love for
+honorable hard work, and we should have gone forward together towards
+some noble end. Yes," he said, bringing his reflections to a close,
+"all that is very well. But the worst of it is that she will not go
+anywhere with me. It was not for nothing that she told me she was
+afraid of me. And as to her not being in love with Panshine--that is
+but a poor consolation!"
+
+Lavretsky went to Vasilievskoe; but he could not manage to spend even
+four days there--so wearisome did it seem to him. Moreover, he was
+tormented by suspense. The news which M. Jules had communicated
+required confirmation, and he had not yet received any letters. He
+returned to town, and passed the evening at the Kalitines'. He could
+easily see that Madame Kalitine had been set against him; but he
+succeeded in mollifying her a little by losing some fifteen roubles to
+her at piquet. He also contrived to get half-an-hour alone with Liza,
+in spite of her mother having recommended her, only the evening
+before, not to be too intimate with a man "_qui a tin si grand
+ridicule_."
+
+He found a change in her. She seemed to have become more
+contemplative. She blamed him for stopping away; and she asked him if
+he would not go to church the next day--the next day being Sunday.
+
+"Do come," she continued, before he had time to answer. "We will pray
+together for the repose of _her_ soul." Then she added that she did
+not know what she ought to do--that she did not know whether she had
+any right to make Panshine wait longer for her decision.
+
+"Why?" asked Lavretsky.
+
+"Because," she replied, "I begin to suspect by this time what that
+decision will be."
+
+Then she said that she had a headache, and went to her room, after
+irresolutely holding out the ends of her fingers to Lavretsky.
+
+The next day Lavretsky went to morning service. Liza was already in
+the church when he entered. He remarked her, though she did not look
+towards him. She prayed fervently; her eyes shone with a quiet light;
+quietly she bowed and lifted her head.
+
+He felt that she was praying for him also, and a strange emotion
+filled his soul. The people standing gravely around, the familiar
+faces, the harmonious chant, the odor of the incense, the long rays
+slanting through the windows, the very sombreness of the walls and
+arches--all appealed to his heart. It was long since he had been in
+church--long since he had turned his thoughts to God. And even now he
+did not utter any words of prayer--he did not even pray without words;
+but nevertheless, for a moment, if not in body, at least in mind, he
+bowed clown and bent himself humbly to the ground. He remembered how,
+in the days of his childhood, he always used to pray in church till he
+felt on his forehead something like a kind of light touch. "That" he
+used then to think, "is my guardian angel visiting me and pressing
+on me the seal of election." He looked at Liza. "It is you who have
+brought me here," he thought. "Touch me--touch my soul!" Meanwhile,
+she went on quietly praying. Her face seemed to him to be joyous,
+and once more he felt softened, and he asked, for another's soul,
+rest--for his own, pardon. They met outside in the porch, and she
+received him with a friendly look of serious happiness. The
+sun brightly lit up the fresh grass in the church-yard and the
+many-colored dresses and kerchiefs of the women. The bells of the
+neighboring churches sounded on high; the sparrows chirped on the
+walls. Lavretsky stood by, smiling and bare-headed; a light breeze
+played with his hair and Liza's, and with the ends of Liza's bonnet
+strings. He seated Liza and her companion Lenochka, in the carriage,
+gave away all the change he had about him to the beggars, and then
+strolled slowly home.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+
+The days which followed were days of heaviness for Lavretsky. He felt
+himself in a perpetual fever. Every morning he went to the post, and
+impatiently tore open his letters and newspapers; but in none of them
+did he find anything which could confirm or contradict that rumor, on
+the truth of which he felt that so much now depended. At times he grew
+disgusted with himself. "What am I," he then would think, "who am
+waiting here, as a raven waits for blood, for certain intelligence of
+my wife's death?"
+
+He went to the Kalitines' every day; but even there he was not more at
+his ease. The mistress of the house was evidently out of humor with
+him, and treated him with cold condescension. Panshine showed him
+exaggerated politeness; Lemm had become misanthropical, and scarcely
+even returned his greeting; and, worst of all, Liza seemed to avoid
+him. Whenever she happened to be left alone with him, she manifested
+symptoms of embarrassment, instead of the frank manner of former days.
+On such occasions she did not know what to say to him; and even he
+felt confused. In the course of a few days Liza had become changed
+from what he remembered her to have been. In her movements, in her
+voice, even in her laugh itself, a secret uneasiness manifested
+itself--something different from her former evenness of temper. Her
+mother, like a true egotist, did not suspect anything; but Marfa
+Timofeevna began to watch her favorite closely.
+
+Lavretsky often blamed himself for having shown Liza the newspaper
+he had received; he could not help being conscious that there was
+something in his state of feeling which must be repugnant to a very
+delicate mind. He supposed, moreover, that the change which had taken
+place in Liza arose from a struggle with herself, from her doubt as to
+what answer she should give to Panshine.
+
+One day she returned him a book--one of Walter Scott's novels--which
+she had herself asked him for.
+
+"Have you read it?" he asked.
+
+"No; I am not in a mood for books just now," she answered, and then
+was going away.
+
+"Wait a minute," he said. "It is so long since I got a talk with you
+alone. You seem afraid of me. Is it so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Lavretsky said nothing for a time.
+
+"Tell me," he began again presently; "haven't you made up your mind
+yet?"
+
+"What do you mean?" she replied, without lifting her eyes from the
+ground.
+
+"Surely you understand me?"
+
+Liza suddenly reddened.
+
+"Don't ask me about anything!" she exclaimed with animation. "I know
+nothing. I don't know myself."
+
+And she went hastily away.
+
+The next day Lavretsky arrived at the Kalitines' after dinner, and
+found all the preparations going on there for an evening service. In
+a corner of the dining-room, a number of small icons[A] in golden
+frames, with tarnished little diamonds in the aureolas, were already
+placed against the wall on a square table, which was covered with a
+table-cloth of unspotted whiteness. An old servant, dressed in a grey
+coat and wearing shoes, traversed the whole room deliberately and
+noiselessly, placed two slender candle-sticks with wax tapers in them
+before the icons, crossed himself, bowed, and silently left the room.
+
+[Footnote A: Sacred Pictures.]
+
+The drawing-room was dark and empty. Lavretsky went into the
+dining-room, and asked if it was any one's name-day.[A] He was told in
+a whisper that it was not, but that a service was to be performed
+in accordance with the request of Lizaveta Mikhailovna and Marfa
+Timofeevna. The miracle-working picture was to have been brought, but
+it had gone to a sick person thirty versts off.
+
+[Footnote A: A Russian keeps, not his birthday, but his name-day--that
+is, the day set apart by the church in honor of the saint after whom
+he is called.]
+
+Soon afterwards the priest arrived with his acolytes--a middle-aged
+man, with a large bald spot on his head, who coughed loudly in the
+vestibule. The ladies immediately came out of the boudoir in a row,
+and asked him for his blessing. Lavretsky bowed to them in silence,
+and they as silently returned his greeting. The priest remained a
+little longer where he was, then coughed again, and asked, in a low,
+deep voice--
+
+"Do you wish me to begin?"
+
+"Begin, reverend father," replied Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+The priest began to robe. An acolyte in a surplice humbly asked for a
+coal from the fire. The scent of the incense began to spread around.
+The footmen and the maid-servants came in from the ante-chamber and
+remained standing in a compact body at the door. The dog Roska, which,
+as a general rule, never came down-stairs from the upper story, now
+suddenly made its appearance in the dining room. The servants tried
+to drive it out, but it got frightened, first ran about, and then lay
+down. At last a footman got hold of it and carried it off.
+
+The service began. Lavretsky retired into a corner. His feelings were
+strange and almost painful. He himself could not well define what it
+was that he felt. Maria Dmitrievna stood in front of the rest, with an
+arm-chair behind her. She crossed herself carelessly, languidly, like
+a great lady. Sometimes she looked round, at others she suddenly
+raised her eyes towards the ceiling. The whole affair evidently bored
+her.
+
+Marfa Timofeevna seemed pre-occupied. Nastasia Carpovna bowed down
+to the ground, and raised herself up again, with a sort of soft and
+modest sound. As for Liza, she did not stir from the spot where she
+was standing, she did not change her position upon it; from the
+concentrated expression of her face, it was evident that she was
+praying uninterruptedly and fervently.
+
+At the end of the service she approached the crucifix, and kissed both
+it and the large red hand of the priest. Maria Dmitrievna invited him
+to take tea. He threw off his stole, assumed a sort of mundane air,
+and went into the drawing-room with the ladies. A conversation began,
+not of a very lively nature. The priest drank four cups of tea, wiping
+the bald part of his head the while with his handkerchief, stated
+among other things that the merchant Avoshnikof had given several
+hundred roubles towards the gilding of the church's "cumpola," and
+favored the company with an unfailing cure for freckles.
+
+Lavretsky tried to get a seat near Liza, but she maintained her
+grave, almost austere air, and never once looked at him. She seemed
+intentionally to ignore him. A kind of serious, cold enthusiasm
+appeared to possess her. For some reason or other Lavretsky felt
+inclined to smile, and to utter words of jesting; but his heart was
+ill at ease, and at last he went away in a state of secret perplexity.
+There was something, he felt, in Liza's mind, which he could not
+understand.
+
+On another occasion, as Lavretsky was sitting in the drawing-room,
+listening to the insinuating tones of Gedeonovsky's wearisome
+verbiage, he suddenly turned round, he knew not why, and caught the
+deep, attentive, inquiring look of Liza's eyes. That enigmatical look
+was directed towards him. The whole night long Lavretsky thought of
+it. His love was not like that of a boy, nor was it consistent with
+his age to sigh and to torment himself; and indeed it was not with a
+feeling of a merely passionate nature that Liza had inspired him.
+But love has its sufferings for every age--and he became perfectly
+acquainted with them.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+
+One day Lavretsky was as usual at the Kalitines'. An overpoweringly
+hot afternoon had been followed by such a beautiful evening that
+Madame Kalitine, notwithstanding her usual aversion to a draught,
+ordered all the windows and the doors leading into the garden to be
+opened. Moreover, she announced that she was not going to play cards,
+that it would be a sin to do so in such lovely weather, and that it
+was a duty to enjoy the beauties of nature.
+
+Panshine was the only stranger present. Influenced by the evening,
+and feeling a flow of artistic emotion, but not wishing to sing in
+Lavretsky's presence, he threw himself into poetry He read--and read
+well, only with too much consciousness, and with needlessly subtle
+distinctions--some of Lermontof's poems (Pushkin had not then
+succeeded in getting back into fashion). Suddenly, as if ashamed of
+his emotion, he began in reference to the well-known _Duma_,[A] to
+blame and attack the new generation, not losing the opportunity which
+the subject afforded him of setting forth how, if the power lay in his
+hands, he would alter everything his own way.
+
+[Footnote A: For the poem, so-called, see note at end of chapter.]
+
+"Russia," he said, "has lagged behind Europe, and must be driven up
+alongside of it. We are told that ours is a young country. That is all
+nonsense. Besides, we have no inventive power. Khomakof[A] himself
+admits that we have never invented so much as a mousetrap.
+Consequently we are obliged to imitate others, whether we like it or
+no."
+
+[Footnote A: A poet, who was one of the leaders of the Slavophile
+party.]
+
+"'We are ill,' says Lermontof, and I agree with him. But we are ill
+because we have only half become Europeans. With that which has
+wounded us we must be cured." ("_Le cadastre_" thought Lavretsky.)
+"Among us," he continued, "the best heads, _les meilleures tetes_,
+have long been convinced of this. In reality, all peoples are alike;
+only introduce good institutions, and the affair is settled. To be
+sure, one may make some allowance for the existing life of the nation;
+that is our business, the business of the people who are" (he all but
+said "statesmen") "in the public service; but if need arises, don't be
+uneasy. Those institutions will modify that life itself."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna admiringly agreed with him. "What a clever man to
+have talking in my house!" she thought. Liza kept silence, leaning
+back in the recess of the window. Lavretsky kept silence too. Marfa
+Timofeevna, who was playing cards in a corner with her friend,
+grumbled something to herself. Panshine walked up and down the room,
+speaking well, but with a sort of suppressed malice. It seemed as if
+he was blaming, not so much a whole generation, as some individuals
+of his acquaintance. A nightingale had made its home in a large lilac
+bush which stood in the Kalitines' garden, and the first notes of its
+even-song made themselves heard during the pauses in the eloquent
+harangue; the first stars began to kindle in the rose-stained sky
+above the motionless tops of the lime trees. Presently Lavretsky rose
+and began to reply to Panshine. A warm dispute soon commenced.
+
+Lavretsky spoke in defence of the youth of Russia, and of the capacity
+of the country to suffice for itself. He surrendered himself and his
+contemporaries, but he stood up for the new generation, and their
+wishes and convictions. Panshine replied incisively and irritably,
+declared that clever people were bound to reform every thing, and
+at length was carried away to such an extent that, forgetting his
+position as a chamberlain, and his proper line of action as a member
+of the civil service, he called Lavretsky a retrogade conservative,
+and alluded--very distantly it is true--to his false position in
+society. Lavretsky did not lose his temper, nor did he raise
+his voice; he remembered that Mikhalevich also had called him a
+retrograde, and, at the same time a disciple of Voltaire; but he
+calmly beat Panshine on every point. He proved the impracticability
+of reforming by sudden bounds, and of introducing changes haughtily
+schemed on the heights of official self-complacency--changes which
+were not justified by any intimate acquaintance with the country, nor
+by a living faith in any ideal, not even in one of negation, and in
+illustration of this he adduced his own education. He demanded
+before every thing else that the true spirit of the nation should be
+recognized, and that it should be looked up to with that humility
+without which no courage is possible, not even that wherewith to
+oppose falsehood. Finally he did not attempt to make any defence
+against what he considered a deserved reproach, that of giving way to
+a wasteful and inconsiderate expenditure of both time and strength.
+
+"All that is very fine!" at last exclaimed Panshine with vexation.
+"But here are you, just returned to Russia; what do you intend to do?"
+
+"To cultivate the soil," replied Lavretsky; "and to cultivate it as
+well as possible."
+
+"No doubt that is very praiseworthy," answered Panshine, "and I hear
+you have already had great success in that line; but you must admit
+that every one is not fitted for such an occupation--"
+
+"_Une nature poetique_," said Maria Dmitrievna, "certainly cannot
+go cultivating the soil--_et puis_, it is your vocation, Vladimir
+Nikolaevich, to do every thing _en grand_."
+
+This was too much even for Panshine, who grew confused, and changed
+the conversation. He tried to turn it on the beauty of the starry
+heavens, on Schubert's music, but somehow his efforts did not prove
+successful. He ended by offering to play at piquet with Maria
+Dmitrievna. "What! on such an evening as this?" she feebly objected;
+but then she ordered the cards to be brought.
+
+Panshine noisily tore open a new pack; and Liza and Lavretsky, as if
+by mutual consent, both rose from their seats and placed themselves
+near Marfa Timofeevna. They both suddenly experienced a great feeling
+of happiness, mingled with a sense of mutual dread, which made them
+glad of the presence of a third person; at the same time, they both
+felt that the uneasiness from which they had suffered during the last
+few days had disappeared, and would return no more.
+
+The old lady stealthily tapped Lavretsky on the cheek, screwed up her
+eyes with an air of pleasant malice, and shook her head repeatedly,
+saying in a whisper, "You've done for the genius--thanks!" Then all
+became still in the room. Nothing was to be heard but the faint
+crackling of the wax lights, and sometimes the fall of a hand on the
+table, or an exclamation on the score of points, and the song of the
+nightingale which, powerful, almost insolently loud, flowed in a great
+wave through the window, together with the dewy freshness of the
+night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--The following is a tolerably literal translation of the poem of
+Lermontof's to which allusion is made on p. 208, and which created no
+slight sensation when it first appeared, in the year 1838:--
+
+
+A THOUGHT.
+
+Sorrowfully do I look upon the present generation! Its future seems
+either gloomy or meaningless, and meanwhile, whether under the burden
+of knowledge or of doubt, it grows old in idleness.
+
+When scarcely out of the cradle, we reap the rich inheritance of the
+errors of our fathers, and the results of their tardy thoughts. Life
+soon grows wearisome for us, like a banquet at a stranger's festival,
+like a level road leading nowhere.
+
+In the commencement of our career, we fall away without a struggle,
+shamefully careless about right and wrong, shamefully timid in the
+face of danger.
+
+So does a withered fruit which has prematurely ripened--attractive
+neither to the eye nor to the palate--hang like an alien orphan among
+blossoms; and the hour of their beauty is that of its fall.
+
+Our intellect has dried up in the pursuit of fruitless science, while
+we have been concealing the purest of hopes from the knowledge of
+those who are near and dear to us, and stifling the noble utterance of
+such sentiments as are ridiculed by a mocking spirit.
+
+We have scarcely tasted of the cup of enjoyment, but for all that we
+have not husbanded our youthful strength. While we were always in
+dread of satiety, we have contrived to drain each joy of its best
+virtues.
+
+No dreams of poetry, no creations of art, touch our hearts with a
+sweet rapture. We stingily hoard up within our breasts the last
+remnants of feeling--a treasure concealed by avarice, and which
+remains utterly unprofitable.
+
+We love and we hate capriciously, sacrificing nothing either to our
+animosity or to our affection, a certain secret coldness possessing
+our souls, even while a fire is raging in our veins.
+
+The sumptuous pleasures of our ancestors weary us, as well as their
+simple, childish diversions. Without enjoying happiness, without
+reaping glory, we hasten onwards to the grave, casting naught but
+unlucky glances behind us.
+
+A saturnine crowd, soon to be forgotten, we silently pass away from
+the world and leave no trace behind, without having handed down to the
+ages to come a single work of genius, or even a solitary thought laden
+with meaning.
+
+And our descendants, regarding our memory with the severity of
+citizens called to sit in judgment on an affair concerning the state,
+will allude to us with the scathing irony of a ruined son, when he
+speaks of the father who has squandered away his patrimony.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+
+Liza had not uttered a single word during the dispute between
+Lavretsky and Panshine, but she had followed it attentively, and had
+been on Lavretsky's side throughout. She cared very little about
+politics; but she was repelled by the self-sufficient tone of the
+worldly official, who had never shown himself in that light before,
+and his contempt for Russia offended her. It had never occurred to
+Liza to imagine that she was a patriot. But she was thoroughly at her
+ease with the Russian people. The Russian turn of mind pleased her.
+She would chat for hours, without thinking anything of it, with the
+chief of the village on her mother's estate, when he happened to come
+into town, and talk with him as if he were her equal, without any
+signs of seigneurial condescension. All this Lavretsky knew well. For
+his own part, he never would have cared to reply to Panshine; it was
+only for Liza's sake that he spoke.
+
+They said nothing to each other, and even their eyes but rarely met.
+But they both felt that they had been drawn closer together that
+evening, they knew that they both had the same likes and dislikes. On
+one point only were they at variance; but Liza secretly hoped to bring
+him back to God. They sat down close by Marfa Timofeevna, and seemed
+to be following her game; nay, more, did actually follow it. But,
+meantime, their hearts grew full within them, and nothing escaped
+their senses--for them the nightingale sang softly, and the stars
+burnt, and the trees whispered, steeped in slumberous calm, and lulled
+to rest by the warmth and softness of the summer night.
+
+Lavretsky gave himself up to its wave of fascination, and his heart
+rejoiced within him. But no words can express the change that was
+being worked within the pure soul of the maiden by his side. Even for
+herself it was a secret; let it remain, then, a secret for all others
+also. No one knows, no eye has seen or ever will see, how the grain
+which has been confided to the earth's bosom becomes instinct with
+vitality, and ripens into stirring, blossoming life.
+
+Ten o'clock struck, and Marfa Timofeevna went up-stairs to her room
+with Nastasia Carpovna. Lavretsky and Liza walked about the room,
+stopped in front of the open door leading into the garden, looked
+first into the gloaming distance and then at each other--and smiled.
+It seemed as if they would so gladly have taken each other's hands and
+talked to their hearts' content.
+
+They returned to Maria Dmitrievna and Panshine, whose game dragged
+itself out to an unusual length. At length the last "king" came to an
+end, and Madame Kalitine rose from her cushioned chair, sighing, and
+uttering sounds of weariness the while. Panshine took his hat, kissed
+her hand, remarked that nothing prevented more fortunate people from
+enjoying the night or going to sleep, but that he must sit up till
+morning over stupid papers, bowed coldly to Liza--with-whom he was
+angry, for he had not expected that she would ask him to wait so
+long for an answer to his proposal--and retired. Lavretsky went away
+directly after him, following him to the gate, where he took leave of
+him. Panshine aroused his coachman, poking him in the neck with the
+end of his stick, seated himself in his droshky, and drove away. But
+Lavretsky did not feel inclined to go home, so he walked out of the
+town into the fields.
+
+The night was still and clear, although there was no moon. For a long
+time Lavretsky wandered across the dewy grass. A narrow footpath lay
+in his way, and he followed it. It led him to a long hedge, in which
+there was a wicket gate. Without knowing why he did so, he tried to
+push it open; with a faint creak it did open, just as if it had been
+awaiting the touch of his hand. Lavretsky found himself in a garden,
+took a few steps along a lime-tree alley, and suddenly stopped short
+in utter amazement. He saw that he was in the Kalitines' garden.
+
+A thick hazel bush close at hand flung a black patch of shadow on the
+ground. Into this he quickly passed, and there stood for some time
+without stirring from the spot, inwardly wondering and from time to
+time shrugging his shoulders. "This has not happened without some
+purpose," he thought.
+
+Around all was still. From the house not the slightest sound reached
+him. He began cautiously to advance. At the corner of an alley all the
+house suddenly burst upon him with its dusky facade. In two windows
+only on the upper story were lights glimmering. In Liza's apartment a
+candle was burning behind the white blind, and in Marfa Timofeevna's
+bed-room glowed the red flame of the small lamp hanging in front of
+the sacred picture, on the gilded cover of which it was reflected in
+steady light. Down below, the door leading on to the balcony gaped
+wide open.
+
+Lavretsky sat down on a wooden bench, rested his head on his hand, and
+began looking at that door, and at Liza's window. Midnight sounded
+in the town; in the house a little clock feebly struck twelve. The
+watchman beat the hour with quick strokes on his board. Lavretsky
+thought of nothing, expected nothing. It was pleasant to him to feel
+himself near Liza, to sit in her garden, and on the bench where she
+also often sat.
+
+The light disappeared from Liza's room.
+
+"A quiet night to you, dear girl," whispered Lavretsky, still sitting
+where he was without moving, and not taking his eyes off the darkened
+window.
+
+Suddenly a light appeared at one of the windows of the lower story,
+crossed to another window, and then to a third. Some one was carrying
+a candle through the room. "Can it be Liza? It cannot be," thought
+Lavretsky. He rose. A well-known face glimmered in the darkness, and
+Liza appeared in the drawing-room, wearing a white dress, her hair
+hanging loosely about her shoulders. Quietly approaching the table,
+she leant over it, put down the candle and began looking for
+something. Then she turned towards the garden, and crossed to the open
+door; presently her light, slender, white-robed form stood still on
+the threshold.
+
+A kind of shiver ran over Lavretsky's limbs, and the word "Liza!"
+escaped all but inaudibly from his lips.
+
+She started, and then began to peer anxiously into the darkness.
+
+"Liza!" said Lavretsky louder than before, and came out from the
+shadow of the alley.
+
+Liza was startled. For a moment she bent forward; then she shrank
+back. She had recognized him. For the third time he called her, and
+held out his hands towards her. She passed out from the doorway and
+came into the garden.
+
+"You!" she said. "You here!"
+
+"I--I--Come and hear what I have to say," whispered Lavretsky; and
+then, taking her hand, he led her to the bench.
+
+She followed him without a word; but her pale face, her fixed look,
+and all her movements, testified her unutterable astonishment.
+Lavretsky made her sit down on the bench, and remained standing in
+front of her.
+
+"I did not think of coming here," he began. "I was led here--I--I--I
+love you," he ended by saying, feeling very nervous in spite of
+himself.
+
+Liza slowly looked up at him. It seemed as if it had not been till
+that moment that she understood where she was, and what was happening
+to her. She would have risen, but she could not. Then she hid her face
+in her hands.
+
+"Liza!" exclaimed Lavretsky; "Liza!" he repeated, and knelt down at
+her feet.
+
+A slight shudder ran over her shoulders; she pressed the fingers of
+her white hands closer to her face.
+
+"What is it?" said Lavretsky. Then he heard a low sound of sobbing,
+and his heart sank within him. He understood the meaning of those
+tears.
+
+"Can it be that you love me?" he whispered, with a caressing gesture
+of the hand.
+
+"Stand up, stand up, Fedor Ivanovich," she at last succeeded in
+saying. "What are we doing?"
+
+He rose from his knees, and sat down by her side on the bench. She was
+no longer crying, but her eyes, as she looked at him earnestly, were
+wet with tears.
+
+"I am frightened! What are we doing?" she said again.
+
+"I love you," he repeated. "I am ready to give my whole life for you."
+
+She shuddered again, just as if something had stung her, then she
+raised her eyes to heaven.
+
+"That is entirely in the hands of God," she replied.
+
+"But you love me, Liza? We are going to be happy?"
+
+She let fall her eyes. He softly drew her to himself, and her head
+sank upon his shoulder. He bent his head a little aside, and kissed
+her pale lips.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Half an hour later Lavretsky was again standing before the garden
+gate. He found it closed now and was obliged to get over the fence.
+He returned into the town, and walked along its sleeping streets. His
+heart was full of happiness, intense and unexpected; all misgiving
+was dead within him. "Disappear, dark spirit of the Past!" he said to
+himself. "She loves me. She will be mine."
+
+Suddenly he seemed to hear strange triumphal sounds floating in the
+air above his head. He stopped. With greater grandeur than before the
+sounds went clanging forth. With strong, sonorous stream did they flow
+along--and in them, as it seemed to him, all his happiness spoke and
+sang. He looked round. The sounds came from the two upper windows of a
+small house.
+
+"Lemm!" he exclaimed, and ran up to the door of the house. "Lemm,
+Lemm!" he repeated loudly.
+
+The sounds died away, and the form of the old man, wrapped in a
+dressing-gown, with exposed chest and wildly floating hair, appeared
+at the window.
+
+"Ha! it is you," he said, with an air of importance.
+
+"Christopher Fedorovich, what wonderful music! For heaven's sake let
+me in!"
+
+The old man did not say a word, but with a dignified motion of the
+hand he threw the key of the door out of the window into the street.
+Lavretsky hastily ran up-stairs, entered the room, and was going to
+fling himself into Lemm's arms. But Lemm, with a gesture of command,
+pointed to a chair, and said sharply in his incorrect Russian, "Sit
+down and listen," then took his seat at the piano, looked round with a
+proud and severe glance, and began to play.
+
+Lavretsky had heard nothing like it for a long time indeed. A sweet,
+passionate melody spoke to the heart with its very first notes. It
+seemed all thoroughly replete with sparkling light, fraught with
+inspiration, with beauty, and with joy. As it rose and sank it seemed
+to speak of all that is dear, and secret, and holy, on earth. It spoke
+too of a sorrow that can never end, and then it went to die away in
+the distant heaven.
+
+Lavretsky had risen from his seat and remained standing, rooted to the
+spot, and pale with rapture. Those sounds entered very readily into
+his heart; for it had just been stirred into sensitiveness by the
+touch of a happy love, and they themselves were glowing with love.
+
+"Play it again," he whispered, as soon as the last final chord had
+died away.
+
+The old man looked at him with an eagle's glance, and said slowly, in
+his native tongue, striking his breast with his hand, "It is I who
+wrote that, for I am a great musician," and then he played once more
+his wonderful composition.
+
+There were no lights in the room, but the rays of the rising moon
+entered obliquely through the window. The listening air seemed to
+tremble into music, and the poor little apartment looked like a
+sanctuary, while the silvery half-light gave to the head of the old
+man a noble and spiritual expression.
+
+Lavretsky came up to him and embraced him. At first Lemm did not
+respond to his embrace--even put him aside with his elbow. Then he
+remained rigid for some time, without moving any of his limbs, wearing
+the same severe, almost repellent, look as before, and only growling
+out twice, "Aha!" But at last a change came over him, his face grew
+calm, and his head was no longer thrown back. Then, in reply to
+Lavretsky's warm congratulations, he first smiled a little, and
+afterwards began to cry, sobbing faintly, like a child.
+
+"It is wonderful," he said, "your coming just at this very moment. But
+I know every thing--I know all about it."
+
+"You know every thing?" exclaimed Lavretsky in astonishment.
+
+"You have heard what I said," replied Lemm. "Didn't you understand
+that I knew every thing?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lavretsky did not get to sleep till the morning. All night long he
+remained sitting on the bed. Neither did Liza sleep. She was praying.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII.
+
+
+The reader knows how Lavretsky had been brought up and educated. We
+will now say a few words about Liza's education. She was ten years old
+when her father died, who had troubled himself but little about her.
+Overwhelmed with business, constantly absorbed in the pursuit of
+adding to his income, a man of bilious temperament and a sour and
+impatient nature, he never grudged paying for the teachers and tutors,
+or for the dress and the other necessaries required by his children,
+but he could not bear "to nurse his squallers," according to his own
+expression--and, indeed, he never had any time for nursing them. He
+used to work, become absorbed in business, sleep a little, play cards
+on rare occasions, then work again. He often compared himself to a
+horse yoked to a threshing machine. "My life has soon been spent," he
+said on his death-bed, a bitter smile contracting his lips.
+
+As to Maria Dmitrievna, she really troubled herself about Liza very
+little more than her husband did, for all that she had taken credit to
+herself, when speaking to Lavretsky, for having educated her children
+herself. She used to dress her like a doll, and when visitors were
+present, she would caress her and call her a good child and her
+darling, and that was all. Every continuous care troubled that
+indolent lady.
+
+During her father's lifetime, Liza was left in the hands of a
+governess, a Mademoiselle Moreau, from Paris; but after his death she
+passed under the care of Marfa Timofeevna. That lady is already known
+to the reader. As for Mademoiselle Moreau, she was a very small woman,
+much wrinkled, and having the manners of a bird, and the character of
+a bird also. In her youth she had led a very dissipated life; in her
+old age she retained only two passions--the love of dainties and the
+love of cards. When her appetite was satiated, and when she was not
+playing cards or talking nonsense, her countenance rapidly assumed an
+almost death-like expression. She would sit and gaze and breathe, but
+it was plain that there was not a single idea stirring in her mind.
+She could not even be called good; goodness is not an attribute of
+birds. In consequence either of her frivolous youth or of the air of
+Paris, which she had breathed from her childhood's days, there was
+rooted in her a kind of universal scepticism, which usually found
+expression in the words, "_Tout ca c'est des betises_." She spoke an
+incorrect, but purely Parisian jargon, did not talk scandal, and had
+no caprices--what more could one expect from a governess? Over Liza
+she had but little influence. All the more powerful, then, was the
+influence exercised over the child by her nurse, Agafia Vlasievna.
+
+That woman's story was a remarkable one. She sprang from a family of
+peasants, and was married at sixteen to a peasant; but she stood out
+in sharp relief against the mass of her peasant sisters. As a child,
+she had been spoilt by her father, who had been for twenty years the
+head of his commune, and who had made a good deal of money. She was
+singularly beautiful, and for grace and taste she was unsurpassed in
+the whole district, and she was intelligent, eloquent, and courageous.
+Her master, Dmitry Pestof, Madame Kalitine's father, a quiet and
+reserved man, saw her one day on the threshing-floor, had a talk with
+her, and fell passionately in love with her. Soon after this she
+became a widow. Pestof, although he was a married man, took her into
+his house, and had her dressed like one of the household. Agafia
+immediately made herself at home in her new position, just as if she
+had never led a different kind of life. Her complexion grew fairer,
+her figure became more rounded, and her arms, under their muslin
+sleeves, showed "white as wheat-flour," like those of a wealthy
+tradesman's wife. The _samovar_ never quitted her table; she would
+wear nothing but silks and velvets; she slept on feather-beds of down.
+
+This happy life lasted five years; then Dmitry Pestof died. His widow,
+a lady of a kindly character, respected the memory of her late husband
+too much to wish to treat her rival with ignominy, especially as
+Agafia had never forgotten herself in her presence; but she married
+her to a herdsman, and sent her away from her sight. Three years
+passed by. One hot summer day the lady happened to pay a visit to the
+cattle-yard. Agafia treated her to such a cool dish of rich cream,
+behaved herself so modestly, and looked so clean, so happy, so
+contented with every thing, that her mistress informed her that she
+was pardoned, and allowed her to return into the house. Before six
+months had passed, the lady had become, so attached to her that she
+promoted her to the post of housekeeper, and confided all the domestic
+arrangements to her care. Thus Agafia came back into power, and again
+became fair and plump. Her mistress trusted her implicitly.
+
+So passed five more years. Then misfortune came a second time on
+Agafia. Her husband, for whom she had obtained a place as footman,
+took to drink, began to absent himself from the house, and ended by
+stealing half-a-dozen of his mistress's silver spoons and hiding them,
+till a fitting opportunity should arise for carrying them off in his
+wife's box. The theft was found out. He was turned into a herdsman
+again, and Agafia fell into disgrace. She was not dismissed from the
+house, but she was degraded from the position of housekeeper to that
+of a needle-woman, and she was ordered to wear a handkerchief on her
+head instead of a cap. To every one's astonishment, Agafia bore the
+punishment inflicted on her with calm humility. By this time she was
+about thirty years old, all her children were dead, and her husband
+soon afterwards died also. The season of reflection had arrived for
+her, and she did reflect. She became very silent and very devout,
+never once letting matins or mass go unheeded by, and she gave away
+all her fine clothes. For fifteen years she led a quiet, grave,
+peaceful life, quarrelling with no one, giving way to all. If any one
+spoke to her harshly, she only bent her head and returned thanks for
+the lesson. Her mistress had forgiven her long ago, and had taken the
+ban off her--had even given her a cap off her own head to wear. But
+she herself refused to doff her handkerchief, and she would never
+consent to wear any but a sombre-colored dress. After the death of her
+mistress she became even more quiet and more humble than before. It is
+easy to work upon a Russian's fears and to secure his attachment, but
+it is difficult to acquire his esteem; that he will not readily give,
+nor will he give it to every one. But the whole household esteemed
+Agafia. No one even so much as remembered her former faults; it was as
+if they had been buried in the grave with her old master.
+
+When Kalitine married Maria Dmitrievna, he wanted to entrust the
+care of his household to Agafia; but she refused, "on account of
+temptation." He began to scold her, but she only bowed low and left
+the room. The shrewd Kalitine generally understood people; so he
+understood Agafia's character, and did not lose sight of her. When he
+settled in town, he appointed her, with her consent, to the post of
+nurse to Liza, who was then just beginning her fifth year.
+
+At first Liza was frightened by the serious, even severe, face of her
+new nurse; but she soon became accustomed to her, and learned to
+love her warmly. The child was of a serious disposition herself. Her
+features called to mind Kalitine's regular and finely-moulded face,
+but her eyes were not like those of her father; they shone with a
+quiet light, expressive of an earnest goodness that is rarely seen in
+children. She did not care about playing with dolls; she never laughed
+loudly nor long, and a feeling of self-respect always manifested
+itself in her conduct. It was not often that she fell into a reverie,
+but when she did so there was almost always good reason for it; then
+she would keep silence for a time, but generally ended by addressing
+to some person older than herself a question which showed that her
+mind had been working under the influence of a new impression. She
+very soon got over her childish lisp, and even before she was four
+years old she spoke with perfect distinctness. She was afraid of her
+father. As for her mother, she regarded her with a feeling which she
+could scarcely define, not being afraid of her, but not behaving
+towards her caressingly. As for that, she did not caress even her
+nurse, although she loved her with her whole heart. She and Agafia
+were never apart. It was curious to see them together. Agafia, all in
+black, with a dark handkerchief on her head, her face emaciated and of
+a wax-like transparency, but still beautiful and expressive, would
+sit erect on her chair, knitting stockings. At her feet Liza would be
+sitting on a little stool, also engaged in some work, or, her clear
+eyes uplifted with a serious expression, listening to what Agafia was
+telling her. Agafia never told her nursery tales. With a calm and even
+voice, she used to tell her about the life of the Blessed Virgin, or
+the lives of the hermits and people pleasing to God, or about the
+holy female martyrs. She would tell Liza how the saints lived in the
+deserts; how they worked out their salvation, enduring hunger and
+thirst; and how they did not fear kings, but confessed Christ; and how
+the birds of the air brought them food, and the wild beasts obeyed
+them; how from those spots where their blood had fallen flowers sprang
+up. ("Were they carnations?" once asked Liza, who was very fond of
+flowers.) Agafia spoke about these things to Liza seriously and
+humbly, as if she felt that it was not for her to pronounce such
+grand and holy words; and as Liza listened to her, the image of the
+Omnipresent, Omniscient God entered with a sweet influence into her
+very soul, filling her with a pure and reverend dread, and Christ
+seemed to her to be close to her, and to be a friend, almost, as
+it were, a relation. It was Agafia, also, who taught her to pray.
+Sometimes she awoke Liza at the early dawn, dressed her hastily, and
+secretly conveyed her to matins. Liza would follow her on tiptoe,
+scarcely venturing to breathe. The cold, dim morning light, the raw
+air pervading the almost empty church, the very secrecy of those
+unexpected excursions, the cautious return home to bed--all that
+combination of the forbidden, the strange, the holy, thrilled the
+young girl, penetrated to the inmost depths of her being.
+
+Agafia never blamed any one, and she never scolded Liza for any
+childish faults. When she was dissatisfied about anything, she merely
+kept silence, and Liza always understood that silence. With a child's
+quick instinct, she also knew well when Agafia was dissatisfied
+with others, whether it were with Maria Dmitrievna or with Kalitine
+himself.
+
+For rather more than three years Agafia waited upon Liza. She was
+replaced by Mademoiselle Moreau; but the frivolous Frenchwoman, with
+her dry manner and her constant exclamation, _Tout ca c'est des
+betises_! could not expel from Liza's heart the recollection of her
+much-loved nurse. The seeds that had been sown had pushed their roots
+too far for that. After that Agafia, although she had ceased to attend
+Liza, remained for some time longer in the house, and often saw her
+pupil, and treated her as she had been used to do.
+
+But when Marfa Timofeevna entered the Kalitines' house, Agafia did not
+get on well with her. The austere earnestness of the former "wearer of
+the coarse petticoat." [Footnote: The _Panovnitsa_, or wearer of the
+_Panovna_, a sort of petticoat made of a coarse stuff of motley hue.]
+did not please the impatient and self-willed old lady. Agafia obtained
+leave to go on a pilgrimage, and she never came back. Vague rumors
+asserted that she had retired into a schismatic convent. But the
+impression left by her on Liza's heart did not disappear. Just as
+before, the girl went to mass, as if she were going to a festival; and
+when in church prayed with enthusiasm, with a kind of restrained and
+timid rapture, at which her mother secretly wondered not a little.
+Even Marfa Timofeevna, although she never put any constraint upon
+Liza, tried to induce her to moderate her zeal, and would not let her
+make so many prostrations. It was not a lady-like habit, she said.
+
+Liza was a good scholar, that is, a persevering one; she was not
+gifted with a profound intellect, or with extraordinarily brilliant
+faculties, and nothing yielded to her without demanding from her no
+little exertion. She was a good pianiste, but no one else, except
+Lemm, knew how much that accomplishment had cost her. She did not read
+much, and she had no "words of her own;" but she had ideas of her
+own, and she went her own way. In this matter, as well as in personal
+appearance, she may have taken after her father, for he never used to
+ask any one's advice as to what he should do.
+
+And so she grew up, and So did her life pass, gently and tranquilly,
+until she had attained her nineteenth year. She was very charming, but
+she was not conscious of the fact. In all her movements, a natural,
+somewhat unconventional, grace, revealed itself; in her voice there
+sounded the silver notes of early youth. The slightest pleasurable
+sensation would bring a fascinating smile to her lips, and add a
+deeper light, a kind of secret tenderness, to her already lustrous
+eyes. Kind and soft-hearted, thoroughly penetrated by a feeling of
+duty, and a fear of injuring any one in any way, she was attached to
+all whom she knew, but to no one person in particular. To God
+alone did she consecrate her love--loving Him with a timid, tender
+enthusiasm. Until Lavretsky came, no one had troubled the calmness of
+her inner life.
+
+Such was Liza.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV.
+
+
+About the middle of the next day Lavretsky went to the Kalitines'. On
+his way there he met Panshine, who galloped past on horseback, his
+hat pulled low over his eyes. At the Kalitines', Lavretsky was not
+admitted, for the first time since he had made acquaintance with the
+family. Maria Dmitrievna was asleep, the footman declared; her head
+ached, Marfa Timofeevna and Lizaveta Mikhailovna were not at home.
+
+Lavretsky walked round the outside of the garden in the vague hope of
+meeting Liza, but he saw no one. Two hours later he returned to the
+house, but received the same answer as before; moreover, the footman
+looked at him in a somewhat marked manner. Lavretsky thought it would
+be unbecoming to call three times in one day, so he determined to
+drive out to Vasilievskoe, where, moreover, he had business to
+transact.
+
+On his way there he framed various plans, each one more charming than
+the rest. But on his arrival at his aunt's estate, sadness took hold
+of him. He entered into conversation with Anton; but the old man, as
+if purposely, would dwell on none but gloomy ideas. He told Lavretsky
+how Glafira Petrovna, just before her death, had bitten her own hand.
+And then, after an interval of silence, he added with a sigh, "Every
+man, _barin batyushka_,[A] is destined to devour himself."
+
+[Footnote A: Seigneur, father.]
+
+It was late in the day before Lavretsky set out on his return. The
+music he had heard the night before came back into his mind, and the
+image of Liza dawned on his heart in all its sweet serenity. He was
+touched by the thought that she loved him; and he arrived at his
+little house in the town, tranquillized and happy.
+
+The first thing that struck him when he entered the vestibule, was a
+smell of patchouli, a perfume he disliked exceedingly. He observed
+that a number of large trunks and boxes were standing there, and he
+thought there was a strange expression on the face of the servant who
+hastily came to meet him. He did not stop to analyze his impressions,
+but went straight into the drawing-room.
+
+A lady, who wore a black silk dress with flounces, and whose pale face
+was half hidden by a cambric handkerchief, rose from the sofa, took
+a few steps to meet him, bent her carefully-arranged and perfumed
+locks--and fell at his feet. Then for the first time, he recognized
+her. That lady was his wife!
+
+His breathing stopped. He leaned against the wall.
+
+"Do not drive me from you, Theodore!" she said in French; and her
+voice cut him to the heart like a knife. He looked at her without
+comprehending what he saw, and yet, at the same time, he involuntarily
+remarked that she had grown paler and stouter.
+
+"Theodore!" she continued, lifting her eyes from time to time towards
+heaven, her exceedingly pretty fingers, tipped with polished nails of
+rosy hue, writhing the while in preconcerted agonies--"Theodore, I am
+guilty before you--deeply guilty. I will say more--I am a criminal;
+but hear what I have to say. I am tortured by remorse; I have become a
+burden to myself; I can bear my position no longer. Ever so many times
+I have thought of addressing you, but I was afraid of your anger. But
+I have determined to break every tie with the past--_puis, j'ai ete si
+malade_. I was so ill," she added, passing her hand across her brow
+and cheek, "I took advantage of the report which was spread abroad
+of my death, and I left everything. Without stopping anywhere, I
+travelled day and night to come here quickly. For a long time I was in
+doubt whether to appear before you, my judge--_paraitre devant vous
+man juge_; but at last I determined to go to you, remembering your
+constant goodness. I found out your address in Moscow. Believe me,"
+she continued, quietly rising from the ground and seating herself upon
+the very edge of an arm-chair, "I often thought of death, and I
+could have found sufficient courage in my heart to deprive myself of
+life--ah! life is an intolerable burden to me now--but the thought of
+my child, my little Ada, prevented me. She is here now; she is asleep
+in the next room, poor child. She is tired out You will see her,
+won't you? She, at all events, is innocent before you; and so
+unfortunate--so unfortunate!" exclaimed Madame Lavretsky, and melted
+into tears.
+
+Lavretsky regained his consciousness at last. He stood away from the
+wall, and turned towards the door.
+
+"You are going away?" exclaimed his wife, in accents of despair. "Oh,
+that is cruel! without saying a single word to me--not even one of
+reproach! This contempt kills me; it is dreadful!"
+
+Lavretsky stopped.
+
+"What do you want me to say to you?" he said in a hollow tone.
+
+"Nothing--nothing!" she cried with animation. "I know that I have no
+right to demand anything. I am no fool, believe me. I don't hope, I
+don't dare to hope, for pardon. I only venture to entreat you to tell
+me what I ought to do, where I ought to live. I will obey your orders
+like a slave, whatever they may be."
+
+"I have no orders to give," replied Lavretsky in the same tone as
+before. "You know that all is over between us--and more than ever now.
+You can live where you like; and if your allowance is too small--"
+
+"Ah, don't say such terrible things!" she said, interrupting him.
+"Forgive me, if only--if only for the sake of this angel."
+
+And having uttered these words, Varvara Pavlovna suddenly rushed
+into the other room, and immediately returned with a very
+tastefully-dressed little girl in her arms. Thick flaxen curls fell
+about the pretty little rosy face and over the great black, sleepy
+eyes of the child, who smilingly blinked at the light, and held on to
+her mother's neck by a chubby little arm.
+
+"_Ada, vois, c'est ton pere_," said Varvara Pavlovna, removing
+the curls from the child's eyes, and kissing her demonstratively.
+"_Prie-le avec moi_."
+
+"_C'est la, papa_?" the little girl lispingly began to stammer.
+
+"_Oui, mon enfant, n'est-ce pas que tu l'aimes_?"
+
+But the interview had become intolerable to Lavretsky. ;'
+
+"What melodrama is it just such a scene occurs; in?" he muttered, and
+left the room.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna remained standing where she was for some time, then
+she slightly shrugged her shoulders, took the little girl back into
+the other room, undressed her, and put her to bed. Then she took a
+book and sat down near the lamp. There she waited about an hour, but
+at last she went to bed herself.
+
+"_Eh bien, madame_?" asked her maid,--a Frenchwoman whom she had
+brought with her from Paris,--as she unlaced her stays.
+
+"_Eh bien_, Justine!" replied Varvara Pavlovna. "He has aged a great
+deal, but I think he is just as good as ever. Give me my gloves for
+the night, and get the gray dress, the high one, ready for to-morrow
+morning--and don't forget the mutton cutlets for Ada. To be sure it
+will be difficult to get them here, but we must try."
+
+"_A la guerre comme a la guerre_!" replied Justine as she put out the
+light.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.
+
+
+For more than two hours Lavretsky wandered about the streets. The
+night he had spent in the suburbs of Paris came back into his mind.
+His heart seemed rent within him, and his brain felt vacant and as it
+were numbed, while the same set of evil, gloomy, mad thoughts went
+ever circling in his mind. "She is alive; she is here," he whispered
+to himself with constantly recurring amazement. He felt that he had
+lost Liza. Wrath seemed to suffocate him. The blow had too suddenly
+descended upon him. How could he have so readily believed the foolish
+gossip of a _feuilleton_, a mere scrap of paper? "But if I had not
+believed it," he thought, "what would have been the difference? I
+should not have known that Liza loves me. She would not have known it
+herself." He could not drive the thought of his wife out of his mind;
+her form, her voice, her eyes haunted him. He cursed himself, he
+cursed every thing in the world.
+
+Utterly tired out, he came to Lemm's house before the dawn. For a
+long time he could not get the door opened; at last the old man's
+nightcapped head appeared at the window. Peevish and wrinkled, his
+face bore scarcely any resemblance to that which, austerely inspired,
+had looked royally down upon Lavretsky twenty-four hours before, from
+all the height of its artistic grandeur.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Lemm. "I cannot play every night. I have
+taken a _tisane_."
+
+But Lavretsky's face wore a strong expression which could not escape
+notice. The old man shaded his eyes with his hand, looked hard at his
+nocturnal visitor, and let him in.
+
+Lavretsky came into the room and dropped on a chair. The old man
+remained standing before him, wrapping the skirts of his motley old
+dressing-gown around him, stooping very much, and biting his lips.
+
+"My wife has come," said Lavretsky, with drooping head, and then he
+suddenly burst into a fit of involuntary laughter.
+
+Lemm's face expressed astonishment, but he preserved a grave silence,
+only wrapping his dressing-gown tighter around him.
+
+"I suppose you don't know," continued Lavretsky. "I supposed--I saw in
+a newspaper that she was dead."
+
+"O--h! Was it lately you saw that?" asked Lemm.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"O--h!" repeated the old man, raising his eyebrows, "and she has come
+here?"
+
+"Yes. She is now in my house, and I--I am a most unfortunate man."
+
+And he laughed again.
+
+"You are a most unfortunate man," slowly repeated Lemm.
+
+"Christopher Fedorovich," presently said Lavretsky, "will you
+undertake to deliver a note?"
+
+"Hm! To whom, may I ask?"
+
+"To Lizav--"
+
+"Ah! yes, yes, I understand. Very well. But when must the note be
+delivered?"
+
+"To-morrow, as early as possible."
+
+"Hm! I might send my cook, Katrin. No, I will go myself."
+
+"And will you bring me back the answer?"
+
+"I will."
+
+Lemm sighed.
+
+"Yes, my poor young friend," he said, "you certainly are--a most
+unfortunate young man."
+
+Lavretsky wrote a few words to Liza, telling her of his wife's
+arrival, and begging her to make an appointment for an interview. Then
+he flung himself on the narrow sofa, with his face to the wall.
+The old man also lay down on his bed, and there long tossed about,
+coughing and swallowing mouthfuls of his _tisane_.
+
+The morning came; they both arose--strange were the looks they
+exchanged. Lavretsky would have liked to kill himself just then.
+Katrin the cook brought them some bad coffee, and then, when eight
+o'clock struck, Lemm put on his hat and went out saying that he was
+to have given a lesson at the Kalitines' at ten o'clock, but that he
+would find a fitting excuse for going there sooner.
+
+Lavretsky again threw himself on the couch, and again a bitter laugh
+broke out from the depths of his heart. He thought of how his wife had
+driven him out of the house; he pictured to himself Liza's position,
+and then he shut his eyes, and wrung his hands above his head.
+
+At length Lemm returned and brought him a scrap of paper, on which
+Liza had traced the following words in pencil: "We cannot see each
+other to-day; perhaps we may to-morrow evening. Farewell." Lavretsky
+thanked Lemm absently and stiffly, and then went home.
+
+He found his wife at breakfast. Ada, with her hair all in curl-papers,
+and dressed in a short white frock with blue ribbons, was eating
+a mutton cutlet. Varvara Pavlovna rose from her seat the moment
+Lavretsky entered the room, and came towards him with an expression of
+humility on her face. He asked her to follow him into his study, and
+when there he shut the door and began to walk up and down the room.
+She sat down, folded her hands, and began to follow his movements with
+eyes which were still naturally beautiful, besides having their lids
+dyed a little.
+
+For a long time Lavretsky could not begin what he had to say, feeling
+that he had not complete mastery over himself. As for his wife, he saw
+that she was not at all afraid of him, although she looked as if she
+might at any moment go off into a fainting fit.
+
+"Listen, Madame," at last he began, breathing with difficulty, and at
+times setting his teeth hard. "There is no reason why we should be
+hypocritical towards each other. I do not believe in your repentance;
+but even if it were genuine, it would be impossible for me to rejoin
+you and live with you again."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna bit her lips and half closed her eyes. "That's
+dislike," she thought. "It's all over. I'm not even a woman for him."
+
+"Impossible," repeated Lavretsky, and buttoned his coat. "I don't know
+why you have been pleased to honor me by coming here. Most probably
+you are out of funds."
+
+"Don't say that--you wound my feelings," whispered Varvara Pavlovna.
+
+"However that may be, you are still, to my sorrow, my wife. I
+cannot drive you away, so this is what I propose. You can go to
+Lavriki--to-day if you like--and live there! There is an excellent
+house there, as you know. You shall have every thing you can want,
+besides your allowance. Do you consent?"
+
+Varvara Pavlovna raised her embroidered handkerchief to her face.
+
+"I have already told you," she said, with a nervous twitching of her
+lips, "that I will agree to any arrangement you may please to make for
+me. At present I have only to ask you--will you at least allow me to
+thank you for your generosity?"
+
+"No thanks, I beg of you--we shall do much better without them,"
+hastily exclaimed Lavretsky. "Then, he added, approaching the door, I
+may depend upon--"
+
+"To-morrow I will be at Lavriki," replied Varvara Pavlovna, rising
+respectfully from her seat. "But Fedor Ivanich--" ("She no longer
+familiarly called him Theodore).
+
+"What do you wish to say?"
+
+"I am aware that I have not yet in any way deserved forgiveness. But
+may I hope that, at least, in time--"
+
+"Ah, Varvara Pavlovna," cried Lavretsky, interrupting her, "you are a
+clever woman; but I, too, am not a fool. I know well that you have no
+need of forgiveness. Besides, I forgave you long ago; but there has
+always been a gulf between you and me."
+
+"I shall know how to submit," answered Varvara Pavlovna, and bowed her
+head. "I have not forgotten my fault. I should not have wondered if I
+had learnt that you had even been glad to hear of my death," she added
+in a soft voice, with a slight wave of her hand towards the newspaper,
+which was lying on the table where Lavretsky had forgotten it.
+
+Lavretsky shuddered. The _feuilleton_ had a pencil mark against it.
+Varvara Pavlovna gazed at him with an expression of even greater
+humility than before on her face. She looked very handsome at that
+moment. Her grey dress, made by a Parisian milliner, fitted closely
+to her pliant figure, which seemed almost like that of a girl of
+seventeen. Her soft and slender neck, circled by a white collar, her
+bosom's gentle movement under the influence of her steady breathing,
+her arms and hands, on which she wore neither bracelets nor rings,
+her whole figure, from her lustrous hair to the tip of the scarcely
+visible _bottine_, all was so artistic!
+
+Lavretsky eyed her with a look of hate, feeling hardly able to
+abstain from crying _brava_, hardly able to abstain from striking her
+down--and went away.
+
+An hour later he was already on the road to Vasilievskoe, and two
+hours later Varvara Pavlovna ordered the best carriage on hire in the
+town to be got for her, put on a simple straw hat with a black veil,
+and a modest mantilla, left Justine in charge of Ada, and went to the
+Kalitines'. From the inquiries Justine had made, Madame Lavretsky had
+learnt that her husband was in the habit of going there every day.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.
+
+
+The day on which Lavretsky's wife arrived in O.--sad day for
+him--was also a day of trial for Liza. Before she had had time to go
+down-stairs and say good morning to her mother, the sound of a horse's
+hoofs was heard underneath the window, and, with a secret feeling of
+alarm, she saw Panshine ride into the court-yard. "It is to get a
+definite answer that he has come so early," she thought; and she
+was not deceived. After taking a turn through the drawing-room, he
+proposed to go into the garden with her; and when there he asked her
+how his fate was to be decided.
+
+Liza summoned up her courage, and told him that she could not be his
+wife. He listened to all she had to say, turning himself a little
+aside, with his hat pressed down over his eyes. Then, with perfect
+politeness, but in an altered tone, he asked her if that was her final
+decision, and whether he had not, in some way or other, been the cause
+of such a change in her ideas. Then he covered his eyes with his hand
+for a moment, breathed one quick sigh, and took his hand away from his
+face.
+
+"I wanted to follow the beaten track," he said sadly; "I wanted to
+choose a companion for myself according to the dictates of my heart.
+But I see that it is not to be. So farewell to my fancy!"
+
+He made Liza a low bow, and went back into the house.
+
+She hoped he would go away directly; but he went to her mother's
+boudoir, and remained an hour with her. As he was leaving the house he
+said to Liza, "_Votre mere vous appelle: Adieu a jamais_!" then he got
+on his horse, and immediately set off at full gallop.
+
+On going to her mother's room, Liza found her in tears. Panshine had
+told her about his failure.
+
+"Why should you kill me? Why should you kill me?" Thus did the
+mortified widow begin her complaint. "What better man do you want? Why
+is he not fit to be your husband? A chamberlain! and so disinterested
+Why, at Petersburg he might marry any of the maids of honor! And I--I
+had so longed for it. And how long is it since you changed your mind
+about him? Wherever has this cloud blown from?--for it has never come
+of its own accord. Surely it isn't that wiseacre? A pretty adviser you
+have found, if that's the case!"
+
+"And as for him, my poor, dear friend," continued Maria Dmitrievna,
+"how respectful he was, how attentive, even in the midst of his
+sorrow! He has promised not to desert me. Oh, I shall never be able to
+bear this! Oh, my head is beginning to ache dreadfully! Send Palashka
+here. You will kill me, if you don't think better of it. Do you hear?"
+And then, after having told Liza two or three times that she was
+ungrateful, Maria Dmitrievna let her go away.
+
+Liza went to her room. But before she had had a moment's
+breathing-time after her scene with Panshine and with her mother,
+another storm burst upon her, and that from the quarter from which she
+least expected it.
+
+Marfa Timofeevna suddenly came into her room, and immediately shut the
+door after her. The old lady's face was pale; her cap was all
+awry; her eyes were flashing, her lips quivering. Liza was lost in
+astonishment. She had never seen her shrewd and steady aunt in such a
+state before.
+
+"Very good, young lady!" Marfa Timofeevna began to whisper, with a
+broken and trembling voice. "Very good! Only who taught that, my
+mother--Give me some water; I can't speak."
+
+"Do be calm, aunt. What is the matter?" said Liza, giving her a glass
+of water. "Why, I thought you didn't like M. Panshine yourself."
+
+Marfa Timofeevna pushed the glass away. "I can't drink it. I should
+knock out my last teeth, if I tried. What has Panshine to do with it?
+Whatever have we to do with Panshine? Much better tell me who taught
+you to make appointments with people at night. Eh, my mother!"
+
+Liza turned very pale.
+
+"Don't try to deny it, please," continued Marfa Timofeevna. "Shurochka
+saw it all herself, and told me. I've had to forbid her chattering,
+but she never tells lies.".--
+
+"I am not going to deny it, aunt," said Liza, in a scarcely audible
+voice.
+
+"Ah, ah! Then it is so, my mother. You made an appointment with him,
+that old sinner, that remarkably sweet creature!"
+
+"No."
+
+"How was it, then?"
+
+"I came down to the drawing-room to look for a book. He was in the
+garden; and he called me."
+
+"And you went? Very good, indeed! Perhaps you love him, then?"
+
+"I do love him," said Liza quietly.
+
+"Oh, my mothers! She does love him!" Here Marfa Timofeevna took off
+her cap. "She loves a married man! Eh? Loves him!"
+
+"He had told me--" began Liza.
+
+"What he had told you, this little hawk? Eh, what?"
+
+"He had told me that his wife was dead."
+
+Marfa Timofeevna made the sign of the cross. "The kingdom of heaven be
+to her," she whispered. "She was a frivolous woman. But don't let's
+think about that. So that's how it is. I see, he's a widower. Oh yes,
+he's going ahead. He has killed one wife, and now he's after a second.
+A nice sort of person he is, to be sure. But, niece, let me tell you
+this, in my young days things of this kind used to turn out very badly
+for girls. Don't be angry with me, my mother. It's only tools who are
+angry with the truth. I've even told them not to let him in to see me
+to-day. I love him, but I shall never forgive him for this. So he is
+a widower! Give me some water. But as to your putting Panshine's nose
+out of joint, why I think you're a good girl for that. But don't go
+sitting out at night with men creatures. Don't make me wretched in my
+old age, and remember that I'm not altogether given over to fondling.
+I can bite, too--A widower!"
+
+Marfa Timofeevna went away, and Liza sat down in a corner, and cried a
+long time. Her heart was heavy within her. She had not deserved to be
+so humiliated. It was not in a joyous manner that love had made itself
+known to her. It was for the second time since yesterday morning that
+she was crying now. This new and unlooked-for feeling had only just
+sprung into life within her heart, and already how deafly had she had
+to pay for it, how roughly had other hands dealt with her treasured
+secret! She felt ashamed, and hurt, and unhappy; but neither doubt nor
+fear troubled her, and Lavretsky became only still dearer to her. She
+had hesitated so long as she was not sure of her own feelings; but
+after that interview, after that kiss--she could no longer hesitate.
+She knew now that she loved, and that she loved earnestly, honestly;
+she knew that her's was a firm attachment, one which would last for
+her whole life. As for threats, she did not fear them. She felt that
+this tie was one which no violence could break.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.
+
+
+Maria Dmitrievna was greatly embarrassed when she was informed that
+Madame Lavretsky was at the door. She did not even know whether she
+ought to receive her, being afraid of offending Lavretsky; but at last
+curiosity prevailed. "After all," she thought, "she is a relation,
+too." So she seated herself in an easy chair, and said to the footman,
+"Show her in."
+
+A few minutes went by, then the door was thrown open, and Varvara
+Pavlovna, with a swift and almost noiseless step, came up to Maria
+Dmitrievna, and, without giving her time to rise from her chair,
+almost went down upon her knees before her.
+
+"Thank you, aunt," she began in Russian, speaking softly, but in a
+tone of deep emotion. "Thank you; I had not even dared to hope that
+you would condescend so far. You are an angel of goodness."
+
+Having said this, Varvara Pavlovna unexpectedly laid hold of one of
+Maria Dmitrievna's hands, gently pressed it between her pale-lilac
+Jouvin's gloves, and then lifted it respectfully to her pouting, rosy
+lips. Maria Dmitrievna was entirely carried away by the sight of such
+a handsome and exquisitely dressed woman almost at her feet, and did
+not know what position to assume. She felt half inclined to draw back
+her hand, half inclined to make her visitor sit down, and to say
+something affectionate to her. She ended by rising from her chair and
+kissing Varvara's smooth and perfumed forehead.
+
+Varvara appeared to be totally overcome by that kiss.
+
+"How do you do? _bonjour_," said Maria Dmitrievna. "I never
+imagined--however, I'm really delighted to see you. You will
+understand, my dear, it is not my business to be judge between a man
+and his wife."
+
+"My husband is entirely in the right," said Varvara Pavlovna,
+interrupting her, "I alone am to blame."
+
+"Those are very praiseworthy sentiments, very," said Maria Dmitrievna.
+"Is it long since you arrived? Have you seen him? But do sit down."
+
+"I arrived yesterday," answered Varvara Pavlovna, seating herself on a
+chair in an attitude expressive of humility. "I have seen my husband,
+and I have spoken with him."
+
+"Ah! Well, and what did he say?"
+
+"I was afraid that my coming so suddenly might make him angry,"
+continued Varvara Pavlovna; "but he did not refuse to see me."
+
+"That is to say, he has not--Yes, yes, I understand," said Maria
+Dmitrievna. "It is only outwardly that he seems a little rough; his
+heart is really soft."
+
+"Fedor Ivanovich has not pardoned me. He did not want to listen to me.
+But he has been good enough to let me have Lavriki to live in."
+
+"Ah, a lovely place!"
+
+"I shall set off there to-morrow, according to his desire. But I
+considered it a duty to pay you a visit first."
+
+"I am very, very much obliged to you my dear. One ought never to
+forget one's relations. But do you know I am astonished at your
+speaking Russian so well. _C'est etonnant_."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna smiled.
+
+"I have been too long abroad, Maria Dmitrievna, I am well aware of
+that. But my heart has always been Russian, and I have not forgotten
+my native land."
+
+"Yes, yes. There's nothing like that. Your husband certainly didn't
+expect you in the least. Yes, trust my experience--_la patrie avant
+tout_. Oh! please let me! What a charming mantilla you have on!"
+
+"Do you like it?" Varvara took it quickly off her shoulders. "It is
+very simple; one of Madame Baudran's."
+
+"One can see that at a glance. How lovely, and in what exquisite
+taste! I feel sure you've brought a number of charming things with
+you. How I should like to see them!"
+
+"All my toilette is at your service, dearest aunt. I might show your
+maid something if you liked. I have brought a maid from Paris, a
+wonderful needle-woman."
+
+"You are exceedingly good, my dear. But, really, I haven't the
+conscience--"
+
+"Haven't the conscience!" repeated Varvara Pavlovna, in a reproachful
+tone. "If you wish to make me happy, you will dispose of me as if I
+belonged to you."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna fairly gave way.
+
+"_Vous etes charmante_," she said. But why don't you take off your
+bonnet and gloves?"
+
+"What! You allow me?" asked Varvara Pavlovna, gently clasping her
+hands with an air of deep emotion.
+
+"Of course. You will dine with us, I hope. I--I will introduce my
+daughter to you." (Maria Dmitrievna felt embarrassed for a moment, but
+then, "Well, so be it," she thought.) "She happens not to be quite
+well to-day.'
+
+"Oh! _ma tante_, how kind you are!" exclaimed Varvara Pavlovna,
+lifting her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+At this moment the page announced Gedeonovsky's arrival, and the
+old gossip came in smiling, and bowing profoundly. Maria Dmitrievna
+introduced him to her visitor. At first he was somewhat abashed, but
+Varvara Pavlovna behaved to him with such coquettish respectfulness
+that his ears soon began to tingle, and amiable speeches and gossiping
+stories began to flow uninterruptedly from his lips.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna listened to him, slightly smiling at times, then by
+degrees she too began to talk. She spoke in a modest way about Paris,
+about her travels, about Baden; she made Maria Dmitrievna laugh two or
+three times, and each time she uttered a gentle sigh afterwards, as if
+she were secretly reproaching herself for her unbecoming levity; she
+asked leave to bring Ada to the house; she took off her gloves, and
+with her smooth white hands she pointed out how and where flounces,
+ruches, lace, and so forth, were worn; she promised to bring a bottle
+of new English scent--the Victoria essence--and was as pleased as a
+child when Maria Dmitrievna consented to accept it as a present;
+and she melted into tears at the remembrance of the emotion she had
+experienced when she heard the first Russian bells.
+
+"So profoundly did they sink into my very heart," she said.
+
+At that moment Liza came into the room.
+
+All that day, ever since the moment when, cold with dismay, Liza had
+read Lavretsky's note, she had been preparing herself for an interview
+with his wife. She foresaw that she would see her, and she determined
+not to avoid her, by way of inflicting upon herself a punishment for
+what she considered her culpable hopes. The unexpected crisis which
+had taken place in her fate had profoundly shaken her. In the course
+of about a couple of hours her face seemed to have grown thin. But
+she had not shed a single tear. "It is what you deserve," she said to
+herself, repressing, though not without difficulty, and at the cost
+of considerable agitation, certain bitter thoughts and evil impulses
+which frightened her as they arose in her mind. "Well, I must go," she
+thought, as soon as she heard of Madame Lavretsky's arrival, and she
+went.
+
+She stood outside the drawing-room door for a long time before she
+could make up her mind to open it At last, saying to herself, "I am
+guilty before her," she entered the room, and forced herself to look
+at her, even forced herself to smile. Varvara Pavlovna came forward to
+meet her as soon as she saw her come in, and made her a slight, but
+still a respectful salutation.
+
+"Allow me to introduce myself," she began, in an insinuating tone."
+Your mamma has been so indulgent towards me that I hope that you too
+will be--good to me."
+
+The expression of Varvara Pavlovna's face as she uttered these last
+words, her cunning smile, her cold and, at the same time, loving look,
+the movements of her arms and shoulders, her very dress, her whole
+being, aroused such a feeling of repugnance in Liza's mind that she
+absolutely could not answer her, and only by a strong effort could
+succeed in holding out her hand to her. "This young lady dislikes me,"
+thought Varvara Pavlovna, as she squeezed Liza's cold fingers, then,
+turning to Maria Dmitrievna, she said in a half whisper. "_Mais elle
+est delicieuse_!"
+
+Liza faintly reddened. In that exclamation she seemed to detect a tone
+of irony and insult. However, she determined not to trust to that
+impression, and she took her seat at her embroidery frame near the
+window.
+
+Even there Varvara Pavlovna would not leave her in peace. She came to
+her, and began to praise her cleverness and taste. Liza's heart began
+to beat with painful force. Scarcely could she master her feelings,
+scarcely could she remain sitting quietly in her place. It seemed to
+her as if Varvara Pavlovna knew all and were mocking her with secret
+triumph. Fortunately for her, Gedeonovsky began to talk to Varvara
+and diverted her attention. Liza bent over her frame and watched her
+without being observed. "That woman," she thought, "was once loved by
+_him_." But then she immediately drove out of her mind even so much as
+the idea of Lavretsky. She felt her head gradually beginning to swim,
+and she was afraid of losing command over herself. Maria Dmitrievna
+began to talk about music.
+
+"I have heard, my dear," she began, "that you are a wonderful
+_virtuosa_."
+
+"I haven't played for a long time," replied Varvara Pavlovna, but she
+immediately took her seat at the piano and ran her fingers rapidly
+along the keys. "Do you wish me to play?"
+
+"If you will do us that favor."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna played in a masterly style a brilliant and difficult
+study by Herz. Her performance was marked by great power and rapidity.
+
+"_A sylphide_!" exclaimed Gedeonovsky.
+
+"It is wonderful!" declared Maria Dmitrievna. "I must confess you have
+fairly astonished me, Varvara Pavlovna," calling that lady by her name
+for the first time. "Why you might give concerts. We have a musician
+here, an old German, very learned and quite an original. He gives Liza
+lessons. You would simply make him go out of his mind."
+
+"Is Lizaveta Mikhailovna also a musician?" asked Madame Lavretsky,
+turning her head a little towards her.
+
+"Yes; she doesn't play badly, and she is very fond I of music. But
+what does that signify in comparison with you? But we have a young man
+here besides. You really must make his acquaintance. He is a thorough
+artist in feeling, and he composes charmingly. He is the only person
+here who can fully appreciate you"
+
+"A young man?" said Varvara Pavlovna. "What is he? Some poor fellow?"
+
+"I beg your pardon. He is the leading cavalier here, and not here
+only--_et a Petersbourg_--a chamberlain, received in the best society.
+You surely must have heard of him--Vladimir Nikolaevich Panshine. He
+is here on government business--a future minister!"
+
+"And an artist too?"
+
+"An artist in feeling, and so amiable. You shall see him. He has
+been here a great deal for some time past. I asked him to come this
+evening. I _hope_ he will come," added Maria Dmitrievna with a slight
+sigh and a bitter smile.
+
+Liza understood the hidden meaning of that smile, but she had other
+things to think about then.
+
+"And he's young?" repeated Varvara Pavlovna, lightly modulating from
+key to key.
+
+"Twenty-eight years old--and a most pleasing exterior. _Un jeune homme
+accompli_."
+
+"A model young man, one may say," remarked Gedeonovsky.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna suddenly began to play a noisy waltz by Strauss,
+beginning with so loud and quick a trill that Gedeonovsky fairly
+started. Right in the middle of the waltz she passed abruptly into a
+plaintive air, and ended with the _Fra poco_ out of _Lucia_. She had
+suddenly remembered that joyful music was not in keeping with her
+position.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna was deeply touched by the air from _Lucia_, in which
+great stress was laid upon the sentimental passages.
+
+"What feeling!" she whispered to Gedeonovsky.
+
+"_A Sylphide_!" repeated Gedeonovsky, lifting his eyes to heaven.
+
+The dinner hour arrived. Marfa Timofeevna did not come down from
+up-stairs until the soup was already placed on the table. She behaved
+very coldly to Varvara Pavlovna, answering her amiable speeches with
+broken phrases, and never even looking at her. Varvara soon perceived
+that there was no conversation to be got out of that old lady, so she
+gave up talking to her. On the other hand Madame Kalitine became still
+more caressing in her behavior towards her guest. She was vexed by her
+aunt's rudeness.
+
+After all, it was not only Varvara that the old lady would not look
+at. She did not once look at Liza either, although her eyes almost
+glowed with a meaning light. Pale, almost yellow, there she sat, with
+compressed lips, looking as if she were made of stone, and would eat
+nothing.
+
+As for Liza, she seemed calm, and was so in reality. Her heart was
+quieter than it had been. A strange callousness, the callousness of
+the condemned, had come over her.
+
+During dinner Varvara Pavlovna said little. She seemed to have become
+timid again, and her face wore an expression of modest melancholy.
+Gedeonovsky was the only person who kept the conversation alive,
+relating several of his stories, though from time to time he looked
+timidly at Marfa Timofeevna and coughed. That cough always seized him
+whenever he was going to embellish the truth in her presence. But this
+time she did not meddle with him, never once interrupted him.
+
+After dinner it turned out that Varvara Pavlovna was very fond of the
+game of preference. Madame Kalitine was so pleased at this that she
+felt quite touched and inwardly thought, "Why, what a fool Fedor
+Ivanovich must be! Fancy not having been able to comprehend such a
+woman!"
+
+She sat down to cards with Varvara and Gedeonov sky; but Marfa
+Timofeevna carried off Liza to her room up-stairs, saying that the
+girl "had no face left," and she was sure her head must be aching.
+
+"Yes, her head aches terribly," said Madame Kalitine, addressing
+Varvara Pavlovna, and rolling her eyes. "I often have such headaches
+myself."
+
+"Really!" answered Varvara Pavlovna.
+
+Liza entered her aunt's room, and sank on a chair perfectly worn out.
+For a long time Marfa Timofeevna looked at her in silence, then she
+quietly knelt down before her, and began, still quite silently, to
+kiss her hands--first one, and then the other.
+
+Liza bent forwards and reddened--then she began to cry; but she did
+not make her aunt rise, nor did she withdraw her hands from her. She
+felt that she had no right to withdraw them--had no right to prevent
+the old lady from expressing her sorrow, her sympathy--from asking
+to be pardoned for what had taken place the day before. And Marfa
+Timofeevna could not sufficiently kiss those poor, pale, nerveless
+hands; while silent tears poured down from her eyes and from Liza's
+too. And the cat, Matros, purred in the large chair by the side of the
+stocking and the ball of worsted; the long, thin flame of the little
+lamp feebly wavered in front of the holy picture; and in the next
+room, just the other side of the door, stood Nastasia Carpovna, and
+furtively wiped her eyes with a check pocket-handkerchief, rolled up
+into a sort of ball.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.
+
+
+Down-stairs, meanwhile, the game of preference went on. Maria
+Dmitrievna was winning, and was in a very good humor. A servant
+entered and announced Panshine's arrival. Maria Dmitrievna let fall
+her cards, and fidgeted in her chair. Varvara Pavlovna looked at her
+with a half-smile, and then turned her eyes towards the door.
+
+Panshine appeared in a black dress-coat, buttoned all the way up, and
+wearing a high English shirt-collar. "It was painful for me to obey;
+but, you see, I have come;" that was what was expressed by his serious
+face, evidently just shaved for the occasion.
+
+"Why, Valdemar!" exclaimed Maria Dmitrievna, "you used always to come
+in without being announced."
+
+Panshine made no other reply than a look, and bowed politely to Maria
+Dmitrievna, but did not kiss her hand. She introduced him to Varvara
+Pavlovna. He drew back a pace, bowed to her with the same politeness
+and with an added expression of respectful grace, and then took a seat
+at the card-table. The game soon came to an end. Panshine asked after
+Lizaveta Mikhailovna, and expressed his regret at hearing that she
+was not quite well. Then he began to converse with Varvara Pavlovna,
+weighing every word carefully and emphasizing it distinctly in true
+diplomatic style, and, when she spoke, respectfully hearing her
+answers to the end. But the seriousness of his diplomatic tone
+produced no effect upon Varvara Pavlovna, who would have nothing to do
+with it. On the contrary, she looked him full in the face with a sort
+of smiling earnestness, and in talking with him seemed thoroughly at
+her ease, while her delicate nostrils lightly quivered, as though with
+suppressed laughter.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna began to extol Varvara's cleverness. Panshine bent
+his head politely, as far as his shirt-collar permitted him, declared
+that he had already been convinced of the exceptional nature of her
+talents, and all but brought round the conversation to the subject of
+Metternich himself. Varvara Pavlovna half-closed her velvety eyes,
+and, having said in a low voice, "But you are an artist also, _un
+confrere_," added still lower, "_Venez_!" and made a sign with her
+head in the direction of the piano. This single word, "_Venez_!" so
+abruptly spoken, utterly changed Panshine's appearance, as if by
+magic, in a single moment. His care-worn air disappeared, he began to
+smile, he became animated, he unbuttoned his coat, and, saying "I am
+an artist! Not at all; but you, I hear, are an artist indeed," he
+followed Varvara Pavlovna to the piano.
+
+"Tell him to sing the romance, 'How the moon floats,'" exclaimed Maria
+Dmitrievna.
+
+"You sing?" asked Varvara Pavlovna, looking at him with a bright and
+rapid glance. "Sit down there."
+
+Panshine began to excuse himself.
+
+"Sit down," she repeated, tapping the back of the chair in a
+determined manner.
+
+He sat down, coughed, pulled up his shirt-collar, and sang his
+romance.
+
+"_Charmant_," said Varvara Pavlovna. "You sing admirably--_vous avez
+du style_. Sing it again."
+
+She went round to the other side of the piano, and placed herself
+exactly opposite Panshine. He repeated his romance, giving a
+melodramatic variation to his voice. Varvara looked at him steadily,
+resting her elbows on the piano, with her white hands on a level with
+her lips. The song ended, "_Charmant! Charmante idee_," she said, with
+the quiet confidence of a connoisseur. "Tell me, have you written
+anything for a woman's voice--a mezzo-soprano?"
+
+"I scarcely write anything," answered Panshine. "I do so only now and
+then--between business hours. But do you sing?"
+
+"Oh yes! do sing us something," said Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna tossed her head, and pushed her hair back from her
+flushed cheeks. Then, addressing Panshine, she said--
+
+"Our voices ought to go well together. Let us sing a duet. Do you know
+'_Son geloso_,' or '_La ci darem_,' or '_Mira la bianca luna_?'"
+
+"I used to sing '_Mira la bianca luna_,'" answered Panshine; but it
+was a long time ago. I have forgotten it now."
+
+"Never mind, we will hum it over first by way of experiment. Let me
+come there."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna sat down to the piano. Panshine stood by her side.
+They hummed over the duet, Varvara Pavlovna correcting him several
+times; then they sang it out loud, and afterwards repeated it
+twice--"_Mira la bianca lu-u-una_." Varvara's voice had lost its
+freshness, but she managed it with great skill. At first Panshine
+was nervous, and sang rather false, but afterwards he experienced an
+artistic glow; and, if he did not sing faultlessly, at all events he
+shrugged his shoulders, swayed his body to and fro, and from time to
+time lifted his hand aloft, like a genuine vocalist.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna afterwards played two or three little pieces by
+Thalberg, and coquettishly chanted a French song. Maria Dmitrievna
+did not know how to express her delight, and several times she felt
+inclined to send for Liza. Gedeonovsky, too, could not find words
+worthy of the occasion, and could only shake his head. Suddenly,
+however, and quite unexpectedly, he yawned, and only just contrived to
+hide his mouth with his hand.
+
+That yawn did not escape Varvara's notice. She suddenly turned her
+back upon the piano, saying, "_Assez de musique comme ca_; let us talk
+a little," and crossed her hands before her.
+
+"_Oui, asses de musique_," gladly repeated Panshine, and began a
+conversation with her--a brisk and airy conversation, carried on
+in French. "Exactly as if it were in one of the best Paris
+drawing-rooms," thought Maria Dmitrievna, listening to their quick and
+supple talk.
+
+Panshine felt completely happy. He smiled, and his eyes shone. At
+first, when he happened to meet Maria Dmitrievna's eyes, he would pass
+his hand across his face and frown and sigh abruptly, but after a time
+he entirely forgot her presence, and gave himself up unreservedly to
+the enjoyment of a half-fashionable, half-artistic chat.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna proved herself a great philosopher. She had an answer
+ready for everything; she doubted nothing; she did not hesitate at
+anything. It was evident that she had talked often and much with all
+kinds of clever people. All her thoughts and feelings circled around
+Paris. When Panshine made literature the subject of the conversation,
+it turned out that she, like him, had read nothing but French books.
+George Sand irritated her; Balzac she esteemed, although he wearied
+her; to Eugene Sue and Scribe she ascribed a profound knowledge of the
+human heart; Dumas and Feval she adored. In reality she preferred Paul
+de Kock to all the others; but, as may be supposed, she did not even
+mention his name. To tell the truth, literature did not interest her
+overmuch.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna avoided with great skill every thing that might, even
+remotely, allude to her position. In all that she said, there was not
+even the slightest mention made of love; on the contrary, her language
+seemed rather to express an austere feeling with regard to the
+allurements of the passions, and to breathe the accents of
+disillusionment and resignation.
+
+Panshine replied to her, but she refused to agree with him. Strange
+to say, however, at the very time when she was uttering words which
+conveyed what was frequently a harsh judgment, the accents of those
+very words were tender and caressing, and her eyes expressed--What
+those charming eyes expressed it would be hard to say, but it was
+something which had no harshness about it, rather a mysterious
+sweetness. Panshine tried to make out their hidden meaning, tried to
+make his own eyes eloquent, but he was conscious that he failed. He
+acknowledged that Varvara Pavlovna, in her capacity as a real lioness
+from abroad, stood on a higher level than he; and, therefore, he was
+not altogether master of himself.
+
+Varvara Pavlovna had a habit of every now and then just touching the
+sleeve of the person with whom she was conversing. These light touches
+greatly agitated Panshine. She had the faculty of easily becoming
+intimate with any one. Before a couple of hours had passed, it seemed
+to Panshine as if he had known her an age, and as if Liza--that very
+Liza whom he had loved so much, and to whom he had proposed the
+evening before--had vanished in a kind of fog.
+
+Tea was brought; the conversation became even more free from restraint
+than before. Madame Kalitine rang for the page, and told him to ask
+Liza to come down if her headache was better. At the sound of Liza's
+name, Panshine began to talk about self-sacrifice, and to discuss the
+question as to which is the more capable of such sacrifice--man or
+woman. Maria Dmitrievna immediately became excited, began to affirm
+that the woman is the more capable, asserted that she could prove
+the fact in a few words, got confused over them, and ended with a
+sufficiently unfortunate comparison. Varvara Pavlovna took up a sheet
+of music, and half-screening her face with it, bent over towards
+Panshine, and said in a whisper, while she nibbled a biscuit, a quiet
+smile playing about her lips and her eyes, "_Elle n'a pas invente la
+poudre, la bonne dame_."
+
+Panshine was somewhat astonished, and a little alarmed by Varvara's
+audacity, but he did not detect the amount of contempt for himself
+that lay hid in that unexpected sally, and--forgetting all Maria
+Dmitrievna's kindness and her attachment towards him, forgetting the
+dinners she had given him, the money she had lent him--he replied
+(unhappy mortal that he was) in the same tone, and with a similar
+smile, "_Je crois bien_!" and what is more he did not even say "_Je
+crois bien_!" but "_J'crois ben_!"
+
+Varvara Pavlovna gave him a friendly look, and rose from her seat.
+At that moment Liza entered the room. Marfa Timofeevna had tried to
+prevent her going but in vain. Liza was resolved to endure her trial
+to the end. Varvara Pavlovna advanced to meet her, attended by
+Panshine, whose face again wore its former diplomatic expression.
+
+"How are you now?" asked Varvara.
+
+"I am better now, thank you," replied Liza.
+
+"We have been passing the time with a little music," said Panshine.
+"It is a pity you did not hear Varvara Pavlovna. She sings charmingly,
+_en artiste consommee_."
+
+"Come here, _ma chere_," said Madame Kalitine's voice.
+
+With childlike obedience, Varvara immediately went to her, and sat
+down on a stool at her feet. Maria Dmitrievna had called her away, in
+order that she might leave her daughter alone with Panshine, if only
+for a moment. She still hoped in secret that Liza would change her
+mind. Besides this, an idea had come into her mind, which she wanted
+by all means to express.
+
+"Do you know," she whispered to Varvara Pavlovna, "I want to try and
+reconcile you and your husband. I cannot promise to succeed, but I
+will try. He esteems me very much, you know."
+
+Varvara slowly looked up at Maria Dmitrievna, and gracefully clasped
+her hands together.
+
+"You would be my saviour, _ma tante_," she said, with a sad voice. "I
+don't know how to thank you properly for all your kindness; but I am
+too guilty before Fedor Ivanovich. He cannot forgive me."
+
+"But did you actually--in reality--?" began Maria Dmitrievna, with
+lively curiosity.
+
+"Do not ask me," said Varvara, interrupting her, and then looked
+down. "I was young, light headed--However, I don't wish to make
+excuses for myself."
+
+"Well, in spite of all that, why not make the attempt? Don't give way
+to despair," replied Maria Dmitrievna, and was going to tap her on
+the cheek, but looked at her, and was afraid. "She is modest and
+discreet," she thought, "but, for all that, a _lionne_ still!"
+
+"Are you unwell?" asked Panshine, meanwhile.
+
+"I am not quite well," replied Liza.
+
+"I understand," he said, after rather a long silence, "Yes, I
+understand."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I understand," significantly repeated Panshine, who simply was at a
+loss for something to say.
+
+Liza felt confused, but then she thought, "What does it matter?"
+
+Meanwhile Panshine assumed an air of mystery and maintained silence,
+looking in a different direction with a grave expression on his face.
+
+"Why I fancy it must be past eleven!" observed Maria Dmitrievna.
+Her guests understood the hint and began to take leave. Varvara was
+obliged to promise to come and dine to-morrow, and to bring Ada with
+her. Gedeonovsky, who had all but gone to sleep as he sat in a corner,
+offered to escort her home. Panshine bowed gravely to all the party;
+afterwards, as he stood on the steps after seeing Varvara into her
+carriage, he gave her hand a gentle pressure, and exclaimed, as
+she drove away, "_Au revoir_!" Gedeonovsky sat by her side in the
+carriage, and all the way home she amused herself by putting the tip
+of her little foot, as if by accident, on his foot. He felt abashed,
+and tried to make her complimentary speeches. She tittered, and made
+eyes at him when the light from the street lamps shone Into the
+carriage. The waltz she had played rang in her ears and excited her.
+Wherever she might be she had only to imagine a ballroom and a blaze
+of light, and swift circling round to the sound of music, and her
+heart would burn within her, her eyes would glow with a strange
+lustre, a smile would wander around her lips, a kind of bacchanalian
+grace would seem to diffuse itself over her whole body.
+
+When they arrived at her house Varvara lightly bounded from the
+carriage, as only a _lionne_ could bound, turned towards Gedeonovsky,
+and suddenly burst out laughing in his face.
+
+"A charming creature," thought the councillor of state, as he made his
+way home to his lodgings, where his servant was waiting for him with a
+bottle of opodeldoc. "It's as well that I'm a steady man--But why did
+she laugh?"
+
+All that night long Marfa Timofeevna sat watching by Liza's bedside.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX.
+
+
+Lavretsky spent a day and a half at Vasilievskoe, wandering about the
+neighborhood almost all the time. He could not remain long in any one
+place. His grief goaded him on. He experienced all the pangs of a
+ceaseless, impetuous, and impotent longing. He remembered the feeling
+which had come over him the day after his first arrival. He remembered
+the resolution he had formed then, and he felt angrily indignant with
+himself. What was it that had been able to wrest him aside from that
+which he had acknowledged as his duty, the single problem of his
+future life? The thirst after happiness--the old thirst after
+happiness. "It seems that Mikhalevich was right after all," he
+thought. "You wanted to find happiness in life once more," he said to
+himself. "You forgot that for happiness to visit a man even once is
+an undeserved favor, a steeping in luxury. Your happiness was
+incomplete--was false, you may say. Well, show what right you have to
+true and complete happiness! Look around you and see who is happy, who
+enjoys his life! There is a peasant going to the field to mow. It may
+be that he is satisfied with his lot. But what of that? Would you
+be willing to exchange lots with him? Remember your own mother. How
+exceedingly modest were her wishes, and yet what sort of a lot fell to
+her share! You seem to have only been boasting before Panshine, when
+you told him that you had come into Russia to till the soil. It was to
+run after the girls in your old age that you came. Tidings of freedom,
+reached you, and you flung aside every thing, forgot every thing, ran
+like a child after a butterfly."
+
+In the midst of his reflections the image of Liza constantly haunted
+him. By a violent effort he tried to drive it away, and along with it
+another haunting face, other beautiful but ever malignant and hateful
+features.
+
+Old Anton remarked that his master was not quite himself; and after
+sighing several times behind the door, and several times on the
+threshold, he ventured to go up to him, and advised him to drink
+something hot. Lavretsky spoke to him harshly, and ordered him out of
+the room: afterwards he told the old man he was sorry he had done so;
+but this only made Anton sadder than he had been before.
+
+Lavretsky could not stop in the drawing-room. He fancied that his
+great grandfather, Andrei, was looking out from his frame with
+contempt on his feeble descendant. "So much for you! You float in
+shallow water!"[A] the wry lips seemed to be saying to him. "Is it
+possible," he thought, "that I cannot gain mastery over myself; that
+I am going to yield to this--this trifling affair!" (Men who are
+seriously wounded in a battle always think their wounds "a mere
+trifle;" when a man can deceive himself no longer, it is time to give
+up living). "Am I really a child? Well, yes I have seen near at
+hand, I have almost grasped, the possibility of gaining a life-long
+happiness--and then it has suddenly disappeared. It is just the same
+in a lottery. Turn the wheel a little more, and the pauper would
+perhaps be rich. If it is not to be, it is not to be--and all is over.
+I will betake me to my work with set teeth, and I will force myself to
+be silent; and I shall succeed, for it is not for the first time that
+I take myself in hand. And why have I run away? Why do I stop here,
+vainly hiding my head, like an ostrich? Misfortune a terrible thing to
+look in the face! Nonsense!"
+
+[Footnote A: See note to page 142.]
+
+"Anton!" he called loudly, "let the tarantass be got ready
+immediately."
+
+"Yes," he said to himself again. "I must compel myself to be silent; I
+must keep myself tightly in hand."
+
+With such reflections as these Lavretsky sought to assuage his sorrow;
+but it remained as great and as bitter as before. Even Apraxia, who
+had outlived, not only her intelligence, but almost all her faculties,
+shook her head, and followed him with sad eyes as he started in
+the tarantass for the town. The horses galloped. He sat erect and
+motionless, and looked straight along the road.
+
+
+
+
+XL.
+
+
+Liza had written to Lavretsky the night before telling him to come and
+see her on this evening; but he went to his own house first. He did
+not find either his wife or his daughter there; and the servant told
+him that they had both gone to the Kalitines'! This piece of news both
+annoyed and enraged him. "Varvara Pavlovna seems to be determined not
+to let me live in peace," he thought, an angry feeling stirring in
+his heart. He began walking up and down the room, pushing away every
+moment, with hand or foot, one of the toys or books or feminine
+belongings which fell in his way. Then he called Justine, and told her
+to take away all that "rubbish."
+
+"_Oui, monsieur_," she replied, with a grimace, and began to set the
+room in order, bending herself into graceful attitudes, and by each
+of her gestures making Lavretsky feel that she considered him an
+uncivilized bear. It was with a sensation of downright hatred that he
+watched the mocking expression of her faded, but still _piquante_,
+Parisian face, and looked at her white sleeves, her silk apron, and
+her little cap. At last he sent her away, and, after long hesitation,
+as Varvara Pavlovna did not return, he determined to go to the
+Kalitines', and pay a visit, not to Madame Kalitine (for nothing would
+have induced him to enter her drawing-room--that drawing-room in which
+his wife was), but to Marfa Timofeevna. He remembered that a back
+staircase, used by the maid-servants, led straight to her room.
+
+Lavretsky carried out his plan. By a fortunate chance he met Shurochka
+in the court-yard, and she brought him to Marfa Timofeevna. He found
+the old lady, contrary to her usual custom, alone. She was without her
+cap, and was sitting in a corner of the room in a slouching attitude,
+her arms folded across her breast. When she saw Lavretsky, she was
+much agitated, and jumping up hastily from her chair, she began going
+here and there about the room, as if she were looking for her cap.
+
+"Ah! so you have come, then," she said, fussing about and avoiding his
+eyes. "Well, good day to you! Well, what's--what's to be done? Where
+were you yesterday? Well, she has come. Well--yes. Well, it must
+be--somehow or other."
+
+Lavretsky sank upon a chair.
+
+"Well, sit down, sit down," continued the old lady. "Did you come
+straight up-stairs? Yes, of course. Eh! You came to see after me? Many
+thanks."
+
+The old lady paused. Lavretsky did not know what to say to her; but
+she understood him.
+
+"Liza--yes; Liza was here just now," she continued tying and untying
+the strings of her work-bag. "She isn't quite well. Shurochka, where
+are you? Come here, my mother; cannot you sit still a moment? And I
+have a headache myself. It must be that singing which has given me it,
+and the music."
+
+"What singing, aunt?"
+
+"What? don't you know? They have already begun--what do you
+call them?--duets down there. And all in Italian--chi-chi and
+cha-cha--regular magpies. With their long drawn-out notes, one would
+think they were going to draw one's soul out. It's that Panshine, and
+your wife too. And how quickly it was all arranged! Quite without
+ceremony, just as if among near relations. However, one must say that
+even a dog will try to find itself a home somewhere. You needn't die
+outside if folks don't chase you away from their houses."
+
+"I certainly must confess I did not expect this," answered Lavretsky.
+"This must have required considerable daring."
+
+"No, my dear, it isn't daring with her, it is calculation. However,
+God be with her! They say you are going to send her to Lavriki. Is
+that true?"
+
+"Yes; I am going to make over that property to her."
+
+"Has she asked you for money?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Well, that request won't be long in coming. But--I haven't looked at
+you till now--are you well?"
+
+"Quite well."
+
+"Shurochka!" suddenly exclaimed the old lady. "Go and tell Lizaveta
+Mikhailovna--that is--no--ask her--Is she down-stairs?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, yes. Ask her where she has put my book She will know all about
+it."
+
+"Very good."
+
+The old lady commenced bustling about again, and began to open the
+drawers in her commode. Lavretsky remained quietly sitting on his
+chair.
+
+Suddenly light steps were heard on the staircase--and Liza entered.
+
+Lavretsky stood up and bowed. Liza remained near the door.
+
+"Liza, Lizochka," hurriedly began Marfa Timofeevna, "where have
+you--where have you put my book?"
+
+"What book, aunt?"
+
+"Why, good gracious! that book. However, I didn't send for you--but
+it's all the same. What are you all doing down-stairs? Here is Fedor
+Ivanovich come. How is your headache?"
+
+"It's of no consequence."
+
+"You always say, 'It's of no consequence.' What are you all doing down
+below?--having music again?"
+
+"No--They are playing cards."
+
+"Of course; she is ready for anything. Shurochka, I see you want to
+run out into the garden. Be off!"
+
+"No, I don't Marfa Timofeevna--"
+
+"No arguing, if you please. Be off. Nastasia Carpovna has gone into
+the garden by herself. Go and keep her company. You should show the
+old lady respect."
+
+Shurochka left the room.
+
+"But where is my cap? Wherever can it have got to?"
+
+"Let me look for it," said Liza.
+
+"Sit still, sit still! My own legs haven't dropped off yet. It
+certainly must be in my bed-room."
+
+And Marfa Timofeevna went away, after casting a side-glance at
+Lavretsky. At first she left the door open, but suddenly she returned
+and shut it again from the outside.
+
+Liza leant back in her chair and silently hid her face in her hands.
+
+Lavretsky remained standing where he was.
+
+"This is how we have had to see each other!" he said at last.
+
+Liza let her hands fall from before her face.
+
+"Yes," she replied sadly, "we have soon been punished."
+
+"Punished!" echoed Lavretsky. "For what have you, at all events, been
+punished?"
+
+Liza looked up at him. Her eyes did not express either sorrow or
+anxiety; but they seemed to have become smaller and dimmer than they
+used to be. Her face was pale; even her slightly-parted lips had lost
+their color.
+
+Lavretsky's heart throbbed with pity and with love.
+
+"You have written to me that all is over," he whispered. "Yes, all is
+over--before it had begun."
+
+"All that must be forgotten," said Liza. "I am glad you have come. I
+was going to write to you; but it is better as it is. Only we must
+make the most of these few minutes. Each of us has a duty to fulfil.
+You, Fedor Ivanovich, must become reconciled with your wife."
+
+"Liza!"
+
+"I entreat you to let it be so. By this alone can expiation be made
+for--for all that has taken place. Think over it, and then you will
+not refuse my request."
+
+"Liza! for God's sake! You ask what is impossible. I am ready to do
+every thing you tell me; but to be reconciled with her _now_!--I
+consent to every thing, I have forgotten every thing; but I cannot do
+violence to my heart. Have some pity; this is cruel!"
+
+"But I do not ask you to do what is impossible. Do not live with her
+if you really cannot do so. But be reconciled with her," answered
+Liza, once more hiding her face in her hands. "Remember your daughter;
+and, besides, do it for my sake."
+
+"Very good," said Lavretsky between his teeth. "Suppose I do this--in
+this I shall be fulfilling my duty; well, but you--in what does your
+duty consist?"
+
+"That I know perfectly well."
+
+Lavretsky suddenly shuddered.
+
+"Surely you have not made up your mind to many Panshine?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Liza, with an almost imperceptible smile.
+
+"Ah! Liza, Liza!" exclaimed Lavretsky, "how happy we might have been!"
+
+Liza again looked up at him.
+
+"Now even you must see, Fedor Ivanovich, that happiness does not
+depend upon ourselves, but upon God."
+
+"Yes, because you--"
+
+The door of the next room suddenly opened, and Marfa Timofeevna came
+in, holding her cap in her hand.
+
+"I had trouble enough to find it," she said, standing between Liza and
+Lavretsky; "I had stuffed it away myself. Dear me, see what old age
+comes to! But, after all, youth is no better. Well, are you going to
+Lavriki with your wife?" she added, turning to Fedor Ivanovich.
+
+"To Lavriki with her? I?--I don't know," he added, after a short
+pause.
+
+"Won't you pay a visit down stairs?"
+
+"Not to-day."
+
+"Well, very good; do as you please. But you, Liza, ought to go
+down-stairs, I think. Ah! my dears. I've forgotten to give any seed to
+my bullfinch too. Wait a minute; I will be back directly."
+
+And Marfa Timofeevna ran out of the room without even having put on
+her cap.
+
+Lavretsky quickly drew near to Liza.
+
+"Liza," he began, with an imploring voice, "we are about to part for
+ever, and my heart is very heavy. Give me your hand at parting."
+
+Liza raised her head. Her wearied, almost lustre less eyes looked at
+him steadily.
+
+"No," she said, and drew back the hand she had half held out to him.
+"No, Lavretsky" (it was the first time that she called him by this
+name), "I will not give you my hand. Why should I? And now leave me,
+I beseech you. You know that I love you--Yes, I love you!" she added
+emphatically. "But no--no;" and she raised her handkerchief to her
+lips.
+
+"At least, then, give me that handkerchief--"
+
+The door creaked. The handkerchief glided down to Liza's knees.
+Lavretsky seized it before it had time to fall on the floor, and
+quickly hid it away in his pocket; then, as he turned round, he
+encountered the glance of Marfa Timofeevna's eyes.
+
+"Lizochka, I think your mother is calling you," said the old lady.
+
+Liza immediately got up from her chair, and left the room.
+
+Marfa Timofeevna sat down again in her corner, Lavretsky was going to
+take leave of her.
+
+"Fedia," she said, abruptly.
+
+"What, Aunt?"
+
+"Are you an honorable man?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"I ask you--Are you an honorable man?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"Hm! Well, then, give me your word that you are going to behave like
+an honorable man."
+
+"Certainly. But why do you ask that?"
+
+"I know why, perfectly well. And so do you, too, my good friend.[A] As
+you are no fool, you will understand why I ask you this, if you will
+only think over it a little. But now, good-bye, my dear. Thank you for
+coming to see me; but remember what I have said, Fedia; and now give
+me a kiss. Ah, my dear, your burden is heavy to bear, I know that. But
+no one finds his a light one. There was a time when I used to envy the
+flies. There are creatures, I thought, who live happily in the world.
+But one night I heard a fly singing out under a spider's claws. So,
+thought I, even they have their troubles. What can be done, Fedia?
+But mind you never forget what you have said to me. And now leave
+me--leave me."
+
+[Footnote A: Literally, "my foster father," or "my benefactor."]
+
+Lavretsky left by the back door, and had almost reached the street,
+when a footman ran after him and said, "Maria Dmitrievna told me to
+ask you to come to her."
+
+"Tell her I cannot come just now," began Lavretsky.
+
+"She told me to ask you particularly," continued the footman. "She
+told me to say that she was alone."
+
+"Then her visitors have gone away?" asked Lavretsky.
+
+"Yes," replied the footman, with something like a grin on his face.
+
+Lavretsky shrugged his shoulders, and followed him into the house.
+
+
+
+
+XLI.
+
+
+Maria Dmitrievna was alone in her boudoir. She was sitting in a large
+easy-chair, sniffing Eau-de-Cologne, with a little table by her side,
+on which was a glass containing orange-flower water. She was evidently
+excited, and seemed nervous about something.
+
+Lavretsky came into the room.
+
+"You wanted to see me," he said, bowing coldly.
+
+"Yes," answered Maria Dmitrievna, and then she drank a little water.
+"I heard that you had gone straight up-stairs to my aunt, so I told
+the servants to ask you to come and see me. I want to have a talk with
+you. Please sit down."
+
+Maria Dmitrievna took breath. "You know that your wife has come," she
+continued.
+
+"I am aware of that fact," said Lavretsky.
+
+"Well--yes--that is--I meant to say that she has been here, and I have
+received her. That is what I wanted to have the explanation about with
+you, Fedor Ivanovich, I have deserved, I may say, general respect,
+thank God! and I wouldn't, for all the world, do any thing unbecoming.
+But, although I saw beforehand that it would be disagreeable to you,
+Fedor Ivanich, yet I couldn't make up my mind to refuse her. She is
+a relation of mine--through you. Only put yourself into my position.
+What right had I to shut my door in her face? Surely you must agree
+with me."
+
+"You are exciting yourself quite unnecessarily, Maria Dmitrievna,"
+replied Lavretsky. "You have done what is perfectly right. I am not in
+the least angry. I never intended to deprive my wife of the power of
+seeing her acquaintances. I did not come to see you to-day simply
+because I did not wish to meet her. That was all."
+
+"Ah! how glad I am to hear you say that, Fedor Ivanich!" exclaimed
+Maria Dmitrievna. "However, I always expected as much from your noble
+feelings. But as to my being excited, there's no wonder in that. I am
+a woman and a mother. And your wife--of course I cannot set myself up
+as a judge between you and her, I told her so herself; but she is such
+a charming person that no one can help being pleased with her."
+
+Lavretsky smiled and twirled his hat in his hands.
+
+"And there is something else that I wanted to say to you, Fedor
+Ivanich," continued Maria Dmitrievna, drawing a little nearer to him.
+"If you had only seen how modestly, how respectfully she behaved!
+Really it was perfectly touching. And if you had only heard how she
+spoke of you! 'I,' she said, 'am altogether guilty before him.' 'I,'
+she said, 'was not able to appreciate him.' 'He,' she said, 'is an
+angel, not a mere man,' I can assure you that's what she said--'an
+angel.' She is so penitent--I do solemnly declare I have never seen
+any one so penitent."
+
+"But tell me, Maria Dmitrievna," said Lavretsky, "if I may be allowed
+to be so inquisitive. I hear that Varvara Pavlovna has been singing
+here. Was it in one of her penitent moments that she sang, or how--?"
+
+"How can you talk like that and not feel ashamed of yourself? She
+played and sang simply to give me pleasure, and because I particularly
+entreated her, almost ordered her to do so. I saw that she was
+unhappy, so unhappy, and I thought how I could divert her a little;
+and besides that, I had heard that she had so much talent. Do show
+her some pity, Fedor Ivanich--she is utterly crushed--only ask
+Gedeonovsky--broken down entirely, _tout-a-fait_. How can you say such
+things of her?"
+
+Lavretsky merely shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"And besides, what a little angel your Adochka is! What a charming
+little creature! How pretty she is! and how good! and how well she
+speaks French! And she knows Russian too. She called me aunt in
+Russian. And then as to shyness, you know, almost all children of her
+age are shy; but she is not at all so. It's wonderful how like you she
+is, Fedor Ivanich--eyes, eyebrows, in fact you all over--absolutely
+you. I don't usually like such young children, I must confess, but I
+am quite in love with your little daughter."
+
+"Maria Dmitrievna," abruptly said Lavretsky, "allow me to inquire why
+you are saying all this to me?"
+
+"Why?"--Maria Dmitrievna again had recourse to her Eau-de-Cologne
+and drank some water--"why I say this to you, Fedor Ivanich, is
+because--you see I am one of your relations, I take a deep interest in
+you. I know your heart is excellent. Mark my words, _mon cousin_--at
+all events I am a woman of experience, and I do not speak at random.
+Forgive, do forgive your wife!". (Maria Dmitrievna's eyes suddenly
+filled with tears.) "Only think--youth, inexperience, and perhaps also
+a bad example--hers was not the sort of mother to put her in the right
+way. Forgive her, Fedor Ivanich! She has been punished enough."
+
+The tears flowed down Maria Dmitrievna's cheeks. She did not wipe
+them away; she was fond of weeping. Meanwhile Lavretsky sat as if on
+thorns. "Good God!" he thought, "what torture this is! What a day this
+has been for me!"
+
+"You do not reply," Maria Dmitrievna recommenced: "how am I to
+understand you? Is it possible that you can be so cruel? No, I cannot
+believe that. I feel that my words have convinced you. Fedor Ivanich,
+God will reward you for your goodness! Now from my hands receive your
+wife!"
+
+Lavretsky jumped up from his chair scarcely knowing what he was doing.
+Maria Dmitrievna had risen also, and had passed rapidly to the
+other side of the screen, from behind which she brought out Madame
+Lavretsky. Pale, half lifeless, with downcast eyes, that lady seemed
+as if she had surrendered her whole power of thinking or willing for
+herself, and had given herself over entirely into the hands of Maria
+Dmitrievna.
+
+Lavretsky recoiled a pace.
+
+"You have been there all this time!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Don't blame her," Maria Dmitrievna hastened to say. "She wouldn't
+have stayed for any thing; but I made her stay; I put her behind the
+screen. She declared that it would make you angrier than ever; but I
+wouldn't even listen to her. I know you better than she does. Take
+then from my hands your wife! Go to him, Varvara; have no fear; fall
+at your husband's feet" (here she gave Varvara's arm a pull), "and may
+my blessing--"
+
+"Stop, Maria Dmitrievna!" interposed Lavretsky, in a voice shaking
+with emotion. "You seem to like sentimental scenes." (Lavretsky was
+not mistaken; from her earliest school-days Maria Dmitrievna had
+always been passionately fond of a touch of stage effect.) "They
+may amuse you, but to other people they may prove very unpleasant.
+However, I am not going to talk to you. In _this_ scene you do not
+play the leading part."
+
+"What is it _you_ want from me, Madame?" he added, turning to his
+wife. "Have I not done for you all that I could? Do not tell me that
+it was not you who got up this scene. I should not believe you. You
+know that I cannot believe you. What is it you want? You are clever.
+You do nothing without an object. You must feel that to live with you,
+as I used formerly to live, is what I am not in a position to do--not
+because I am angry with you, but because I have become a different
+man. I told you that the very day you returned; and at that time
+you agreed with me in your own mind. But, perhaps, you wish to
+rehabilitate yourself in public opinion. Merely to live in my house is
+too little for you; you want to live with me under the same roof. Is
+it not so?"
+
+"I want you to pardon me," replied Varvara Pavlovna, without lifting
+her eyes from the ground.
+
+"She wants you to pardon her," repeated Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+"And not for my own sake, but for Ada's," whispered Varvara.
+
+"Not for her own sake, but for your Ada's," repeated Maria Dmitrievna.
+
+"Very good! That is what you want?" Lavretsky just managed to say.
+"Well, I consent even to that."
+
+Varvara Pavlovna shot a quick glance at him. Maria Dmitrievna
+exclaimed, "Thank God!" again took Varvara by the arm, and again
+began, "Take, then, from my hands--"
+
+"Stop, I tell you!" broke in Lavretsky. "I will consent to live with
+you, Varvara Pavlovna," he continued; "that is to say, I will take you
+to Lavriki, and live with you as long as I possibly can. Then I will
+go away; but I will visit you from time to time. You see, I do not
+wish to deceive you; only do not ask for more than that. You would
+laugh yourself, if I were to fulfil the wish of our respected
+relative, and press you to my heart--if I were to assure you
+that--that the past did not exist, that the felled tree would again
+produce leaves. But I see this plainly--one must submit. These words
+do not convey the same meaning to you as to me, but that does not
+matter. I repeat, I will live with you--or, no, I cannot promise that;
+but I will no longer avoid you; I will look on you as my wife again--"
+
+"At all events, give her your hand on that," said Maria Dmitrievna,
+whose tears had dried up long ago.
+
+"I have never yet deceived Varvara Pavlovna," answered Lavretsky. "She
+will believe me as it is. I will take her to Lavriki. But remember
+this, Varvara Pavlovna. Our treaty will be considered at an end, as
+soon as you give up stopping there. And now let me go away."
+
+He bowed to both of the ladies, and went out quickly.
+
+"Won't you take her with you?" Maria Dmitrievna called after him.
+
+"Let him alone," said Varvara to her in a whisper, and then began to
+express her thanks to her, throwing her arms around her, kissing her
+hand, saying she had saved her.
+
+Maria Dmitrievna condescended to accept her caresses, but in reality
+she was not contented with her; nor was she contented with Lavretsky,
+nor with the whole scene which she had taken so much pains to arrange.
+There had been nothing sentimental about it.
+
+According to her ideas Varvara Pavlovna ought to have thrown herself
+at her husband's feet.
+
+"How was it you didn't understand what I meant?" she kept saying.
+"Surely I said to you, 'Down with you!'"
+
+"It is better as it is, my dear aunt. Don't disturb yourself--all has
+turned out admirably," declared Varvara Pavlovna.
+
+"Well, anyhow he is--as cold as ice," said Maria Dmitrievna. "It is
+true you didn't cry, but surely my tears flowed before his eyes. So he
+wants to shut you up at Lavriki. What! You won't be able to come out
+even to see me! All men are unfeeling," she ended by saying, and shook
+her head with an air of deep meaning.
+
+"But at all events women can appreciate goodness and generosity," said
+Varvara Pavlovna. Then, slowly sinking on her knees, she threw her
+arms around Maria Dmitrievna's full waist, and hid her face in that
+lady's lap. That hidden face wore a smile, but Maria Dmitrievna's
+tears began to flow afresh.
+
+As for Lavretsky, he returned home, shut himself up in his valet's
+room, flung himself on the couch, and lay there till the morning.
+
+
+
+
+XLII.
+
+
+The next day was Sunday. Lavretsky was not awakened by the bells which
+clanged for early Mass, for he had not closed his eyes all night; but
+they reminded him of another Sunday, when he went to church at Liza's
+request. He rose in haste. A certain secret voice told him that to-day
+also he would see her there. He left the house quietly, telling the
+servant to say to Varvara Pavlovna, who was still asleep, that he
+would be back to dinner, and then, with long steps, he went where the
+bell called him with its dreary uniformity of sound.
+
+He arrived early; scarcely any one was yet in the church. A Reader was
+reciting the Hours in the choir. His voice, sometimes interrupted by
+a cough, sounded monotonously, rising and falling by turns. Lavretsky
+placed himself at a little distance from the door. The worshippers
+arrived, one after another, stopped, crossed themselves, and bowed in
+all directions. Their steps resounded loudly through the silent and
+almost empty space, and echoed along the vaulted roof. An infirm old
+woman, wrapped in a threadbare hooded cloak, knelt by Lavretsky's side
+and prayed fervently. Her toothless, yellow, wrinkled face expressed
+intense emotion. Her bloodshot eyes gazed upwards, without moving, on
+the holy figures displayed upon the iconostasis. Her bony hand kept
+incessantly coming out from under her cloak, and making the sign of
+the cross--with a slow and sweeping gesture, and with steady pressure
+of the fingers on the forehead and the body. A peasant with a morose
+and thickly-bearded face, his hair and clothes all in disorder,
+came into the church, threw himself straight down on his knees, and
+immediately began crossing and prostrating himself, throwing back his
+head and shaking it after each inclination. So bitter a grief showed
+itself in his face and in all his gestures, that Lavretsky went up to
+him and asked him what was the matter. The peasant sank back with an
+air of distrust; then, looking at him coldly, said in a hurried voice,
+"My son is dead," and again betook himself to his prostrations.
+
+"What sorrow can they have too great to defy the consolations of the
+Church?" thought Lavretsky, and he tried to pray himself. But his
+heart seemed heavy and hardened, and his thoughts were afar off. He
+kept waiting for Liza; but Liza did not come. The church gradually
+filled with people, but he did not see Liza among them. Mass began,
+the deacon read the Gospel, the bell sounded for the final prayer.
+Lavretsky advanced a few steps, and suddenly he caught sight of Liza.
+She had come in before him, but he had not observed her till now.
+Standing in the space between the wall and the choir, to which she had
+pressed as close as possible, she never once looked round, never moved
+from her place. Lavretsky did not take his eyes off her till the
+service was quite finished; he was bidding her a last farewell. The
+congregation began to disperse, but she remained standing there. She
+seemed to be waiting for Lavretsky to go away. At last, however, she
+crossed herself for the last time, and went out without turning round.
+No one but a maid-servant was with her.
+
+Lavretsky followed her out of the church, and came up with her in the
+street. She was walking very fast, her head drooping, her veil pulled
+low over her face.
+
+"Good-day, Lizaveta Mikhailovna," he said in a loud voice, with
+feigned indifference. "May I accompany you?"
+
+She made no reply. He walked on by her side.
+
+"Are you satisfied with me?" he asked, lowering his voice. "You have
+heard what took place yesterday, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, yes," she answered in a whisper; "that was very good;" and she
+quickened her pace.
+
+"Then you are satisfied?"
+
+Liza only made a sign of assent.
+
+"Fedor Ivanovich," she began, presently, in a calm but feeble voice,
+"I wanted to ask you something. Do not come any more to our house. Go
+away soon. We may see each other by-and-by--some day or other--a year
+hence, perhaps. But now, do this for my sake. In God's name, I beseech
+you, do what I ask!"
+
+"I am ready to obey you in every thing, Lizaveta Mikhailovna. But can
+it be that we must part thus? Is it possible that you will not say a
+single word to me?"
+
+"Fedor Ivanovich, you are walking here by my side. But you are already
+so far, far away from me; and not only you, but--"
+
+"Go on, I entreat you!" exclaimed Lavretsky. "What do you mean?"
+
+"You will hear, perhaps--But whatever it may be, forget--No, do not
+forget me--remember me."
+
+"I forget you?"
+
+"Enough. Farewell. Please do not follow me."
+
+"Liza--" began Lavretsky.
+
+"Farewell, farewell!" she repeated, and then, drawing her veil still
+lower over her face, she went away, almost at a run.
+
+Lavretsky looked after her for a time, and then walked down the street
+with drooping head. Presently he ran against Lemm, who also was
+walking along with his hat pulled low over his brows, and his eyes
+fixed on his feet.
+
+They looked at each other for a time in silence.
+
+"Well, what have you to say?" asked Lavretsky at last.
+
+"What have I to say?" replied Lemm, in a surly voice. "I have nothing
+to say. 'All is dead and we are dead.' ('_Alles ist todt und wir sind
+todt_.') Do you go to the right?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I am going to the left. Good-bye."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the following morning Lavretsky took his wife to Lavriki. She went
+in front in a carriage with Ada and Justine. He followed behind in a
+tarantass. During the whole time of the journey, the little girl never
+stirred from the carriage-window. Every thing astonished her: the
+peasant men and women, the cottages, the wells, the arches over the
+horses' necks, the little bells hanging from them, and the numbers of
+rooks. Justine shared her astonishment. Varvara Pavlovna kept laughing
+at their remarks and exclamations. She was in excellent spirits; she
+had had an explanation with her husband before leaving O.
+
+"I understand your position," she had said to him; and, from the
+expression of her quick eyes, he could see that she did completely
+understand his position. "But you will do me at least this
+justice--you will allow that I am an easy person to live with. I shall
+not obtrude myself on you, or annoy you. I only wished to ensure Ada's
+future; I want nothing more."
+
+"Yes, you have attained all your ends," said Lavretsky.
+
+"There is only one thing I dream of now; to bury myself for ever in
+seclusion. But I shall always remember your kindness--"
+
+"There! enough of that!" said he, trying to stop her.
+
+"And I shall know how to respect your tranquillity and your
+independence," she continued, bringing her preconcerted speech to a
+close.
+
+Lavretsky bowed low. Varvara understood that her husband silently
+thanked her.
+
+The next day they arrived at Lavriki towards evening. A week later
+Lavretsky went away to Moscow, having left five thousand roubles at
+his wife's disposal; and the day after Lavretsky's departure, Panshine
+appeared, whom Varvara Pavlovna had entreated not to forget her in her
+solitude. She received him in the most cordial manner; and, till late
+that night, the lofty rooms of the mansion and the very garden itself
+were enlivened by the sounds of music, and of song, and of joyous
+French talk. Panshine spent three days with Varvara Pavlovna. When
+saying farewell to her, and warmly pressing her beautiful hands, he
+promised to return very soon--and he kept his word.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII.
+
+
+Liza had a little room of her own on the second floor of her mother's
+house, a bright, tidy room, with a bedstead with white curtains in it,
+a small writing-table, several flower-pots in the corners and in front
+of the windows, and fixed against the wall a set of bookshelves and a
+crucifix. It was called the nursery; Liza had been born in it.
+
+After coming back from the church where Lavretsky had seen her, she
+set all her things in order with even more than usual care, dusted
+every thing, examined all her papers and letters from her friends,
+and tied them up with pieces of ribbon, shut up all her drawers, and
+watered her flowers, giving each flower a caressing touch. And all
+this she did deliberately, quietly, with a kind of sweet and tranquil
+earnestness in the expression of her face. At last she stopped still
+in the middle of the room and looked slowly around her; then she
+approached the table over which hung the crucifix, fell on her knees,
+laid her head on her clasped hands, and remained for some time
+motionless. Presently Marfa Timofeevna entered the room and found her
+in that position. Liza did not perceive her arrival. The old lady went
+out of the room on tiptoe, and coughed loudly several times outside
+the door. Liza hastily rose and wiped her eyes, which shone, with
+gathered but not fallen tears.
+
+"So I see you have arranged your little cell afresh," said Marfa
+Timofeevna, bending low over a young rose-tree in one of the
+flower-pots. "How sweet this smells!"
+
+Liza looked at her aunt with a meditative air.
+
+"What was that word you used?" she whispered.
+
+"What word--what?" sharply replied the old lady. "It is dreadful," she
+continued, suddenly pulling off her cap and sitting down on Liza's
+bed. "It is more than I can bear. This is the fourth day I've been
+just as if I were boiling in a cauldron. I cannot any longer pretend I
+don't observe any thing. I cannot bear to see you crying, to see how
+pale and withered you are growing. I cannot--I cannot."
+
+"But what makes you say that aunt?" said Liza. "There is nothing the
+matter with me, I--"
+
+"Nothing?" exclaimed Marfa Timofeevna. "Tell that to some one else,
+not to me! Nothing! But who was on her knees just now? Whose eyelashes
+are still wet with tears? Nothing! Why, just look at yourself, what
+have you done to your face? where are your eyes gone? Nothing, indeed!
+As if I didn't know all!"
+
+"Give me a little time, aunt. All this will pass away."
+
+"Will pass away! Yes, but when? Good heavens! is it possible you have
+loved him so much? Why, he is quite an old fellow, Lizochka! Well,
+well! I don't deny he is a good man; will not bite; but what of that?
+We are all good people; the world isn't shut up in a corner, there
+will always be plenty of this sort of goodness."
+
+"I can assure you all this will pass away--all this has already passed
+away."
+
+"Listen to what I am going to tell you, Lizochka," suddenly said Marfa
+Timofeevna, making Liza sit down beside her on the bed, smoothing down
+the girl's hair, and setting her neckerchief straight while she spoke.
+"It seems to you, in the heat of the moment, as if it were impossible
+for your wound to be cured. Ah, my love, it is only death for which
+there is no cure. Only say to yourself, 'I won't give in--so much
+for him!' and you will be surprised yourself to see how well and how
+quickly it will all pass away. Only have a little patience."
+
+"Aunt," replied Liza, "it has already passed away. All has passed
+away."
+
+"Passed away! how passed away? Why your nose has actually grown peaky,
+and yet you say--'passed away.' Passed away indeed!"
+
+"Yes, passed away, aunt--if only you are willing to help me," said
+Liza, with unexpected animation, and then threw her arms round Marfa
+Timofeevna's neck. "Dearest aunt, do be a friend to me, do help me,
+don't be angry with me, try to understand me--"
+
+"But what is all this, what is all this, my mother? Don't frighten me,
+please. I shall cry out in another minute. Don't look at me like that:
+quick, tell me what is the meaning of all this!"
+
+"I--I want--" Here Liza hid her face on Marfa Timofeevna's breast. "I
+want to go into a convent," she said in a low tone.
+
+The old lady fairly bounded off the bed.
+
+"Cross yourself, Lizochka! gather your senses together! what ever are
+you about? Heaven help you!" at last she stammered out. "Lie down and
+sleep a little, my darling. And this comes of your want of sleep,
+dearest."
+
+Liza raised her head; her cheeks glowed.
+
+"No, aunt," she said, "do not say that. I have prayed, I have asked
+God's advice, and I have made up my mind. All is over. My life with
+you here is ended. Such lessons are not given to us without a purpose;
+besides, it is not for the first time that I think of it now.
+Happiness was not for me. Even when I did indulge in hopes of
+happiness, my heart shuddered within me. I know all, both my sins and
+those of others, and how papa made our money. I know all, and all that
+I must pray away, must pray away. I grieve to leave you, I grieve for
+mamma and for Lenochka; but there is no help for it. I feel that it is
+impossible for me to live here longer. I have already taken leave of
+every thing, I have greeted every thing in the house for the last
+time. Something calls me away. I am sad at heart, and I would fain
+hide myself away for ever. Please don't hinder me or try to dissuade
+me; but do help me, or I shall have to go away by myself."
+
+Marfa Timofeevna listened to her niece with horror.
+
+"She is ill," she thought. "She is raving. We must send for a doctor;
+but for whom? Gedeonovsky praised some one the other day; but then he
+always lies--but perhaps he has actually told the truth this time."
+
+But when she had become convinced that Liza was not ill, and was not
+raving--when to all her objections Liza had constantly made the same
+reply, Marfa Timofeevna was thoroughly alarmed, and became exceedingly
+sorrowful.
+
+"But surely you don't know, my darling, what sort of life they lead in
+convents!" thus she began, in hopes of dissuading her. "Why they will
+feed you on yellow hemp oil, my own; they will dress you in coarse,
+very coarse clothing; they will make you go out in the cold; you will
+never be able to bear all this Lizochka. All these ideas of yours are
+Agafia's doing. It is she who has driven you out of your senses. But
+then she began with living, and with living to her own satisfaction.
+Why shouldn't you live too? At all events, let me die in peace, and
+then do as you please. And who on earth has ever known any one go into
+a convent for the sake of such-a-one--for a goat's beard--God forgive
+me--for a man! Why, if you're so sad at heart, you should pay a visit
+to a convent, pray to a saint, order prayers to be said, but don't put
+the black veil on your head, my _batyushka_, my _matyushka_."
+
+And Marfa Timofeevna cried bitterly.
+
+Liza tried to console her, wiped the tears from her eyes, and cried
+herself, but maintained her purpose unshaken. In her despair, Marfa
+Timofeevna tried to turn threats to account, said she would reveal
+every thing to Liza's mother; but that too had no effect. All that
+Liza would consent to do in consequence of the old lady's urgent
+entreaties, was to put off the execution of her plan for a half year.
+In return Marfa Timofeevna was obliged to promise that, if Liza had
+not changed her mind at the end of the six months, she would herself
+assist in the matter, and would contrive to obtain Madame Kalitine's
+consent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As soon as the first cold weather arrived, in spite of her promise to
+bury herself in seclusion, Varvara Pavlovna, who had provided herself
+with sufficient funds, migrated to St. Petersburg. A modest, but
+pretty set of rooms had been found for her there by Panshine, who had
+left the province of O. rather earlier than she did. During the latter
+part of his stay in O., he had completely lost Madame Kalitine's good
+graces. He had suddenly given up visiting her, and indeed scarcely
+stirred away from Lavriki. Varvara Pavlovna had enslaved--literally
+enslaved him. No other word can express the unbounded extent of the
+despotic sway she exercised over him.
+
+Lavretsky spent the winter in Moscow. In the spring of the ensuing
+year the news reached him that Liza had taken the veil in the B.
+convent, in one of the most remote districts of Russia.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+Eight years passed away. The spring had come again--
+
+But we will first of all say a few words about the fate of
+Mikhalevich, Panshine, and Madame Lavretsky, and then take leave of
+them forever.
+
+Mikhalevich, after much wandering to and fro, at last hit upon the
+business he was fitted for, and obtained the post of Head Inspector
+in one of the Government Educational Institutes. His lot thoroughly
+satisfies him, and his pupils "adore" him, though at the same time
+they mimic him. Panshine has advanced high in the service, and already
+aims at becoming the head of a department. He stoops a little as he
+walks; it must be the weight of the Vladimir Cross which hangs from
+his neck, that bends him forward. In him the official decidedly
+preponderates over the artist now. His face, though still quite young,
+has grown yellow, his hair is thinner than it used to be, and he
+neither sings nor draws any longer. But he secretly occupies himself
+with literature. He has written a little comedy in the style of a
+"proverb;" and--as every one who writes now constantly brings on
+the stage some real person or some actual fact--he has introduced a
+coquette into it, and he reads it confidentially to a few ladies who
+are very kind to him. But he has never married, although he has had
+many excellent opportunities for doing so. For that Varvara Pavlovna
+is to blame.
+
+As for her, she constantly inhabits Paris, just as she used to do.
+Lavretsky has opened a private account for her with his banker, and
+has paid a sufficient sum to ensure his being free from her--free from
+the possibility of being a second time unexpectedly visited by
+her. She has grown older and stouter, but she is still undoubtedly
+handsome, and always dresses in taste. Every one has his ideal.
+Varvara Pavlovna has found hers--in the plays of M. Dumas _fils_.
+She assiduously frequents the theatres in which consumptive and
+sentimental Camelias appear on the boards; to be Madame Doche seems to
+her the height of human happiness. She once announced that she could
+not wish her daughter a happier fate. It may, however, be expected
+that destiny will save Mademoiselle Ada from that kind of happiness.
+From being a chubby, rosy child, she has changed into a pale,
+weak-chested girl, and her nerves are already unstrung. The number
+of Varvara Pavlovna's admirers has diminished, but they have not
+disappeared. Some of them she will, in all probability, retain to the
+end of her days. The most ardent of them in recent times has been a
+certain Zakurdalo-Skubyrnikof, a retired officer of the guard, a
+man of about thirty-eight years of age, wearing long mustaches, and
+possessing a singularly vigorous frame. The Frenchmen who frequent
+Madame Lavretsky's drawing-room call him _le gros taureau de
+l'Ukraine_. Varvara Pavlovna never invites him to her fashionable
+parties, but he is in full possession of her good graces.
+
+And so--eight years had passed away. Again spring shone from heaven in
+radiant happiness. Again it smiled on earth and on man. Again, beneath
+its caress, all things began to love, to flower, to sing.
+
+The town of O. had changed but little in the course of these eight
+years, but Madame Kalitine's house had, as it were, grown young again.
+Its freshly-painted walls shone with a welcome whiteness, while the
+panes of its open windows flashed ruddy to the setting sun. Out of
+these windows there flowed into the street mirthful sounds of ringing
+youthful voices, of never-ceasing laughter. All the house seemed
+teeming with life and overflowing with irrepressible merriment. As for
+the former mistress of the house, she had been laid in the grave long
+ago. Maria Dmitrievna died two years after Liza took the veil. Nor did
+Marfa Timofeevna long survive her niece; they rest side by side in
+the cemetery of the town. Nastasia Carpovna also was no longer alive.
+During the course of several years the faithful old lady used to go
+every day to pray at her friend's grave. Then her time came, and her
+bones also were laid in the mould.
+
+But Maria Dmitrievna's house did not pass into the hands of strangers,
+did not go out of her family--the nest was not torn to pieces.
+Lenochka, who had grown into a pretty and graceful girl; her
+betrothed, a flaxen locked officer of hussars; Maria Dmitrievna's son,
+who had only recently married at St. Petersburg, and had now arrived
+with his young bride to spend the spring in O.; his wife's sister, a
+sixteen-year-old Institute-girl, with clear eyes and rosy cheeks; and
+Shurochka, who had also grown up and turned out pretty--these were the
+young people who made the walls of the Kalitine house resound with
+laughter and with talk. Every thing was altered in the house, every
+thing had been made to harmonize with its new inhabitants. Beardless
+young servant-lads, full of fun and laughter, had replaced the grave
+old domestics of former days. A couple of setters tore wildly about
+and jumped upon the couches, in the rooms up and down which Roska,
+after it had grown fat, used to waddle seriously. In the stable many
+horses were stalled--clean-limbed canterers, smart trotters for the
+centre of the _troika_, fiery gallopers with platted manes for the
+side places, riding horses from the Don. The hours for breakfast,
+dinner, and supper, were all mixed up and confounded together. In the
+words of neighbors, "Such a state of things as never had been known
+before" had taken place.
+
+On the evening of which we are about to speak, the inmates of the
+Kalitine house, of whom the eldest, Lenochka's betrothed, was not more
+than four-and-twenty, had taken to playing a game which was not of a
+very complicated nature, but which seemed to be very amusing to them,
+to judge by their happy laughter,--that of running about the rooms,
+and trying to catch each other. The dogs, too, ran about and barked;
+and the canaries which hung up in cages before the windows, straining
+their throats in rivalry, heightened the general uproar by the
+piercing accents of their shrill singing. Just as this deafening
+amusement had reached its climax, a tarantass, all splashed with mud,
+drew up at the front gate, and a man about forty-five years old,
+wearing a travelling dress, got out of it and remained standing as if
+bewildered.
+
+For some time he stood at the gate without moving, but gazing at the
+house with observant eyes; then he entered the court-yard by the
+wicket-gate, and slowly mounted the steps. He encountered no one in
+the vestibule; but suddenly the drawing-room door was flung open, and
+Shurochka, all rosy red, came running out of the room; and directly
+afterwards, with shrill cries, the whole of the youthful band rushed
+after her. Suddenly, at the sight of an unknown stranger, they stopped
+short, and became silent; but the bright eyes which were fixed on him
+still retained their friendly expression, the fresh young faces
+did not cease to smile. Then Maria Dmitrievna's son approached the
+visitor, and politely asked what he could do for him.
+
+"I am Lavretsky," said the stranger.
+
+A friendly cry of greeting answered him--not that all those young
+people were inordinately delighted at the arrival of a distant and
+almost forgotten relative, but simply because they were ready to
+rejoice and make a noise over every pleasurable occurrence. They all
+immediately surrounded Lavretsky. Lenochka, as his old acquaintance,
+was the first to name herself, assuring him that, if she had had a
+very little more time, she would most certainly have recognized him;
+and then she introduced all the rest of the company to him, giving
+them all, her betrothed included, their familiar forms of name. The
+whole party then went through the dining-room into the drawing-room.
+The paper on the walls of both rooms had been altered, but the
+furniture remained just as it used to be. Lavretsky recognized the
+piano. Even the embroidery-frame by the window remained exactly as it
+had been, and in the very same position as of old; and even seemed
+to have the same unfinished piece of work on it which had been there
+eight years before. They placed him in a large arm-chair, and sat
+down gravely around him. Questions, exclamations, anecdotes, followed
+swiftly one after another.
+
+"What a long time it is since we saw you last!" naively remarked
+Lenochka; "and we haven't seen Varvara Pavlovna either."
+
+"No wonder!" her brother hastily interrupted her--"I took you away
+to St. Petersburg; but Fedor Ivanovich has lived all the time on his
+estate."
+
+"Yes, and mamma too is dead, since then."
+
+"And Marfa Timofeevna," said Shurochka.
+
+"And Nastasia Corpovna," continued Lenochka, "and Monsieur Lemm."
+
+"What? is Lemm dead too?" asked Lavretsky.
+
+"Yes," answered young Kalitine. "He went away from here to Odessa.
+Some one is said to have persuaded him to go there, and there he
+died."
+
+"You don't happen to know if he left any music behind?"
+
+"I don't know, but I should scarcely think so."
+
+A general silence ensued, and each one of the party looked at the
+others. A shade of sadness swept over all the youthful faces.
+
+"But Matros is alive," suddenly cried Lenochka.
+
+"And Gedeonovsky is alive," added her brother.
+
+The name of Gedeonovsky at once called forth a merry laugh.
+
+"Yes, he is still alive; and he tells stories just as he used to
+do," continued the young Kalitine--"only fancy! this mad-cap here"
+(pointing to his wife's sister the Institute-girl) "put a quantity of
+pepper into his snuff-box yesterday."
+
+"How he did sneeze!" exclaimed Lenochka--and irrepressible laughter
+again broke out on all sides.
+
+"We had news of Liza the other day," said young Kalitine. And again
+silence fell upon all the circle. "She is going on well--her health is
+gradually being restored now."
+
+"Is she still in the same convent?" Lavretsky asked, not without an
+effort.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Does she ever write to you?"
+
+"No, never. We get news of her from other quarters."
+
+A profound silence suddenly ensued. "An angel has noiselessly flown
+past," they all thought.
+
+"Won't you go into the garden?" said Kalitine, addressing Lavretsky.
+"It is very pleasant now, although we have neglected it a little."
+
+Lavretsky went into the garden, and the first thing he saw there was
+that very bench on which he and Liza had once passed a few happy
+moments--moments that never repeated themselves. It had grown black
+and warped, but still he recognized it, and that feeling took
+possession of his heart which is unequalled as well for sweetness as
+for bitterness--the feeling of lively regret, for vanished youth, for
+once familiar happiness.
+
+He walked by the side of the young people along the alleys. The
+lime-trees looked older than before, having grown a little taller
+during the last eight years, and casting a denser shade. All the
+underwood, also, had grown higher, and the raspberry-bushes had spread
+vigorously, and the hazel copse was thickly tangled. From every side
+exhaled a fresh odor from the forest and the wood, from the grass and
+the lilacs.
+
+"What a capital place for a game at Puss in the Corner!" suddenly
+cried Lenochka, as they entered upon a small grassy lawn surrounded by
+lime-trees. "There are just five of us."
+
+"But have you forgotten Fedor Ivanovich?" asked her brother; "or is it
+yourself you have not counted?"
+
+Lenochka blushed a little.
+
+"But would Fedor Ivanovich like--at his age--" she began stammering.
+
+"Please play away," hastily interposed Lavretsky; "don't pay any
+attention to me. I shall feel more comfortable if I know I am not
+boring you. And there is no necessity for your finding me something to
+do. We old people have a resource which you don't know yet, and which
+is better than any amusement--recollection."
+
+The young people listened to Lavretsky with respectful, though
+slightly humorous politeness, just as if they were listening to a
+teacher who was reading them a lesson--then they all suddenly left
+him, and ran off to the lawn. One of them stood in the middle, the
+others occupied the four corners by the trees, and the game began.
+
+But Lavretsky returned to the house, went into the dining-room,
+approached the piano, and touched one of the notes. It responded with
+a faint but clear sound, and a shudder thrilled his heart within him.
+With that note began the inspired melody, by means of which, on that
+most happy night long ago, Lemm, the dead Lemm, had thrown him into
+such raptures. Then Lavretsky passed into the drawing-room, and did
+not leave it for a long time.
+
+In that room, in which he had seen Liza so often, her image floated
+more distinctly before him; the traces of her presence seemed to make
+themselves felt around him there. But his sorrow for her loss became
+painful and crushing; it bore with it none of the tranquillity which
+death inspires. Liza was still living somewhere, far away and lost to
+sight. He thought of her as he had known her in actual life; he could
+not recognize the girl he used to love in that pale, dim, ghostly
+form, half-hidden in a nun's dark robe, and surrounded by waving
+clouds of incense.
+
+Nor would Lavretsky have been able to recognize himself, if he could
+have looked at himself as he in fancy was looking at Liza. In
+the course of those eight years his life had attained its final
+crisis--that crisis which many people never experience, but without
+which no man can be sure of maintaining his principles firm to the
+last. He had really given up thinking about his own happiness, about
+what would conduce to his own interests. He had become calm, and--why
+should we conceal the truth?--he had aged; and that not in face
+alone or frame, but he had aged in mind; for, indeed, not only is
+it difficult, but it is even hazardous to do what some people speak
+of--to preserve the heart young in bodily old age. Contentment, in old
+age, is deserved by him alone who has not lost his faith in what
+is good, his persevering strength of will, his desire for active
+employment. And Lavretsky did deserve to be contented; he had really
+become a good landlord; he had really learnt how to till the soil; and
+in that he labored, he labored not for himself alone, but he had, as
+far as in him lay the power, assured, and obtained guarantees for, the
+welfare of the peasantry on his estates.
+
+Lavretsky went out of the house into the garden, and sat down on the
+bench he knew so well. There--on that loved spot, in sight of that
+house in which he had fruitlessly, and for the last time, stretched
+forth his hands towards that cup of promise in which foamed and
+sparkled the golden wine of enjoyment,--he, a lonely, homeless
+wanderer, while the joyous cries of that younger generation which had
+already forgotten him came flying to his ears, gazed steadily at his
+past life.
+
+His heart became very sorrowful, but it was free now from any crushing
+sense of pain. He had nothing to be ashamed of; he had many sources
+of consolation. "Play on, young vigorous lives!" he thought--and his
+thoughts had no taint of bitterness in them--"the future awaits you,
+and your path of life in it will be comparatively easy for you. You
+will not be obliged, as we were, to seek out your path, to struggle,
+to fall, to rise again in utter darkness. We had to seek painfully
+by what means we might hold out to the end--and how many there were
+amongst us who did not hold out!--but your part is now to act, to
+work--and the blessing of old men like me shall be with you. For my
+part, after the day I have spent here, after the emotions I have here
+experienced, nothing remains for me but to bid you a last farewell;
+and, although sadly, yet without a tinge of envy, without a single
+gloomy feeling, to say, in sight of death, in sight of my awaiting
+God, 'Hail, lonely old age! Useless life, burn yourself out!'"
+
+Lavretsky rose up quietly, and quietly went away. No one observed him,
+no one prevented him from going. Louder than ever sounded the joyous
+cries in the garden, behind the thick green walls of the lofty
+lime-trees. Lavretsky got into his tarantass, and told his coachman to
+drive him home without hurrying the horses.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"And is that the end?" the unsatisfied reader may perhaps ask. "What
+became of Lavretsky afterwards? and of Liza?" But what can one say
+about people who are still alive, but who have already quitted the
+worldly stage? Why should we turn back to them? It is said that
+Lavretsky has visited the distant convent in which Liza has hidden
+herself--and has seen her. As she crossed from choir to choir, she
+passed close by him--passed onwards steadily, with the quick but
+silent step of a nun, and did not look at him. Only an almost
+imperceptible tremor was seen to move the eyelashes of the eye which
+was visible to him; only still lower did she bend her emaciated face;
+and the fingers of her clasped hands, enlaced with her rosary, still
+more closely compressed each other.
+
+Of what did they both think? what did they both feel? Who can know?
+who shall tell? Life has its moments--has its feelings--to which we
+may be allowed to allude, but on which it is not good to dwell.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Liza, by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
+
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