CHAPTER IX.He had heard all—all.He did not actually enter the room, but stood at the door, pale with excitement and fury. Zina looked at him in amazement.“So that's the sort of person you are!”he cried panting.“At last I have found you out, have I?”“Found me out?”repeated Zina, looking at him as though he were a madman. Suddenly her eyes flashed with rage.“How dare you address me like that?”she cried, advancing towards him.“I have heard all!”said Mosgliakoff solemnly, but involuntarily taking a step backwards.“You heard? I see—you have been eavesdropping!”cried Zina, looking at him with disdain.“Yes, I have been eavesdropping! Yes—I consented to do a mean action, and my reward is that I have found out that you, too, are——I don't know how to express to you what I think you!”he replied, looking more and more timid under Zina's eyes.“And supposing that youhaveheard all: what right have you to blame me? What right have you to speak to me so insolently, in any case?”“I!—I?what right haveI? andyoucan ask me this? You are going to marry this prince, and I have no right to say a word! Why, you gave me your promise—is that nothing?”“When?”“How, when?”“Did not I tell you that morning, when you came to me with your sentimental nonsense—did I not tell you that I could give you no decided answer?”“But you did not reject me; you did not send me away. I see—you kept me hanging in reserve, in case of need! You lured me into your net! I see, I see it all!”An expression of pain flitted over Zina's careworn face, as though someone had suddenly stabbed her to the heart; but she mastered her feelings.“If I didn't turn you out of the house,”she began deliberately and very clearly, though her voice had a scarcely perceptible tremor in it,“I refrained from such a course purely out of pity. You begged me yourself to postpone, to give you time, not to say you‘No,’to study you better, and‘then,’you said,‘then, when you know what a fine fellow I am, perhaps you will not refuse me!’These were your own words, or very like them, at the very beginning of your courtship!—you cannot deny them! And now you dare to tell me that I‘lured you into my net,’just as though you did not notice my expression of loathing when you made your appearance this morning! You came a fortnight sooner than I expected you, and I did not hide my disgust; on the contrary, I made it evident—you must have noticed it—I know you did; because you asked me whether I was angry because you had come sooner than you promised! Let me tell you that people who do not, and do notcareto, hide their loathing for a man can hardly be accused of luring that man into their net! You dare to tell me that I was keeping you in reserve! Very well; my answer to that is, that I judged of you like this:‘Though he may not be endowed with much intellect, still he may turn out to be a good enough fellow; and if so, it might be possible to marry him.’However, being persuaded, now, that you are a fool, and amischievousfool into the bargain,—having found out this fact, to my great joy,—it only remains for me now to wish you every happiness and a pleasant journey. Good-bye!”With these words Zina turned her back on him, and deliberately made for the door.Mosgliakoff, seeing that all was lost, boiled over with fury.“Oh! so I'm a fool!”he yelled;“I'm a fool, am I? Very well, good-bye! But before I go, the whole town shall know of this! They shall all hear how you and your mother made the old man drunk, and then swindled him! I shall let the whole world know it! You shall see what Mosgliakoff can do!”Zina trembled and stopped, as though to answer; but on reflection, she contented herself by shrugging her shoulders; glanced contemptuously at Mosgliakoff, and left the room, banging the door after her.At this moment Maria Alexandrovna made her appearance. She heard Mosgliakoff's exclamation, and, divining at once what had happened, trembled with terror. Mosgliakoff still in the house, and near the prince! Mosgliakoff about to spread the news all over the town! At this moment, when secrecy, if only for a short time, was essential! But Maria Alexandrovna was quick at calculations: she thought, with an eagle flight of the mind, over all the circumstances of the case, and her plan for the pacification of Mosgliakoff was ready in an instant!“What is it,mon ami?”she said, entering the room, and holding out her hand to him with friendly warmth.“How—‘mon ami?’”cried the enraged Mosgliakoff.“Mon ami, indeed! the moment after you have abused and reviled me like a pickpocket! No, no! Not quite so green, my good lady! I'm not to be so easily imposed upon again!”“I am sorry, extremely sorry, to see you in such astrangecondition of mind, Paul Alexandrovitch! What expressions you use! You do not take the trouble to choose your words before ladies—oh, fie!”“Before ladies? Ho ho! You—you are—you are anything you like—but not a lady!”yelled Mosgliakoff.I don't quite know what he meant, but it was something very terrible, you may be sure!Maria Alexandrovna looked benignly in his face:“Sit down!”she said, sorrowfully, showing him a chair, the same that the old prince had reclined in a quarter of an hour before.“But listen,willyou listen, Maria Alexandrovna? You look at me just as though you were not the least to blame; in fact, as thoughIwere the guilty party! Really, Maria Alexandrovna, this is a littletoomuch of a good thing! No human being can stand that sort of thing, Maria Alexandrovna! You must be aware of that fact!”“My dear friend,”replied Maria Alexandrovna—“you will allow me to continue to call you by that name, for you have no better friend than I am!—my friend, you are suffering—you are amazed and bewildered; your heart is sore, and therefore the tone of your remarks to me is perhaps not surprising. But I have made up my mind to open my heart to you, especially as I am, perhaps, in some degree to blame before you. Sit down; let us talk it over!”Maria Alexandrovna's voice was tender to a sickly extent. Her face showed the pain she was suffering. The amazed Mosgliakoff sat down beside her in the arm-chair.“You hid somewhere, and listened, I suppose?”she began, looking reproachfully into his face.“Yes I did, of course I did; and a good thing too! What a fool I should have looked if I hadn't! At all events now I know what you have been plotting against me!”replied the injured man, rudely; encouraging and supporting himself by his own fury.“And you—and you—with your principles, and with your bringing up, could condescend to such an action—Oh, oh!”Mosgliakoff jumped up.“Maria Alexandrovna, this is a little too much!”he cried.“Consider whatyoucondescend to do, withyourprinciples, andthenjudge of other people.”“One more question,”she continued, without replying to his outburst:“who recommended you to be an eavesdropper; who told you anything; who is the spy here? That's what I wish to know!”“Oh, excuse me; that I shallnottell you!”“Very well; I know already. I said, Paul, that I was in some degree to blame before you. But if you look into the matter you will find that if I am to blame it is solely in consequence of my anxiety to do you a good turn!”“What?a good turn—me? No, no, madam! I assure you I am not to be caught again! I'm not quite such a fool!”He moved so violently in his arm-chair that it shook again.“Now, do be cool, if you can, my good friend. Listen to me attentively, and you will find that what I say is only the bare truth. In the first place I was anxious to inform you of all that has just taken place, in which case you would have learned everything, down to the smallest detail, without being obliged to descend to eavesdropping! If I did not tell you all before, it was simply because the whole matter was in an embryo condition in my mind. It was then quite possible that whathashappened would never happen. You see, I am quite open with you.“In the second place, do not blame my daughter. She loves you to distraction; and it was only by the exercise of my utmost influence that I persuaded her to drop you, and accept the prince's offer.”“I have just had the pleasure of receiving convincing proof of her‘love to distraction!’”remarked Mosgliakoff, ironically and bitterly.“Very well. But how did you speak toher? As a lover should speak? Again, oughtanyman of respectable position and tone to speak like that? You insulted and wounded her!”“Never mind about my‘tone’now! All I can say is that this morning, when I went away with the prince, in spite of both of you having been as sweet as honey to me before, you reviled me behind my back like a pickpocket!Iknow all about it, you see!”“Yes, from the same dirty source, I suppose?”said Maria Alexandrovna, smiling disdainfully.“Yes, Paul, Ididrevile you: I pitched into you considerably, and I admit it frankly. But it was simply that I wasboundto blacken you before her. Why? Because, as I have said, I required her to consent to leave you, and this consent was so difficult to tear from her! Short-sighted man that you are! If she had not loved you, why should I have required so to blacken your character? Why should I have been obliged to take this extreme step? Oh! you don't know all! I was forced to use my fullest maternal authority in order to erase you from her heart; and with all my influence and skill I only succeeded in erasing your dear image superficially and partially! If you saw and heard all just now, it cannot have escaped you that Zina did not once, by either word or gesture, encourage or confirm my words to the prince? Throughout the whole scene she said not one word. She sang, but like an automaton! Her whole soul was in anguish, and at last, out of pity for her, I took the prince away. I am sure, she cried, when I left her alone! When you entered the room you must have observed tears in her eyes?”Mosgliakoff certainly did recall the fact that when he rushed into the room Zina was crying.“But you—you—why wereyouso against me, Maria Alexandrovna?”he cried.“Why did you revile me and malign me, as you admit you did?”“Ah, now that's quite a different question. Now, if you had only asked me reasonably at the beginning, you should have had your answer long ago! Yes, you are right. It was I, and I alone, who did it all. Do not think of Zina in the matter. Now,whydid I do it? I reply, in the first place, for Zina's sake. The prince is rich, influential, has great connections, and in marrying him Zina will make a brilliant match. Very well; then if the prince dies—as perhaps he will die soon, for we are all mortal,—Zina is still young, a widow, a princess, and probably very rich. Then she can marry whom she pleases; she may make another brilliant match if she likes. But of course she will marry the man she loves, and loved before, the man whose heart she wounded by accepting the prince. Remorse alone would be enough to make her marry the man whom she had loved and so deeply injured!”“Hem!”said Paul, gazing at his boots thoughtfully.“In the second place,”continued Maria,“and I will put this shortly, because, though you read a great deal of your beloved Shakespeare, and extract his finest thoughts and ideals, yet you are very young, and cannot, perhaps, apply what you read. You may not understand my feelings in this matter: listen, however.Iam giving my Zina to this prince partly for the prince's own sake, because I wish to save him by this marriage. We are old friends; he is the dearest and best of men, he is a knightly, chivalrous gentleman, and he lives helpless and miserable in the claws of that devil of a woman at Donchanovo! Heaven knows that I persuaded Zina into this marriage by putting it to her that she would be performing a great and noble action. I represented her as being the stay and the comfort and the darling and the idol of a poor old man, who probably would not live another year at the most! I showed her that thus his last days should be made happy with love and light and friendship, instead of wretched with fear and the society of a detestable woman. Oh! do not blame Zina. She is guiltless. I am not—I admit it; for if there have been calculations it is I who have made them! But I calculated for her, Paul; for her, not myself! I have outlived my time; I have thought but for my child, and what mother could blame me for this?”Tears sparkled in the fond mother's eyes. Mosgliakoff listened in amazement to all this eloquence, winking his eyes in bewilderment.“Yes, yes, of course! You talk well, Maria Alexandrovna, but you forget—you gave me your word, you encouraged me, you gave me my hopes; and where am I now? I have to stand aside and look a fool!”“But, my dear Paul, you don't surely suppose that I have not thought of you too! Don't you see the huge, immeasurable gain to yourself in all this? A gain so vast that I was bound in your interest to act as I did!”“Gain for me! How so?”asked Paul, in the most abject state of confusion and bewilderment.“Gracious Heavens! do you mean to say you are really so simple and so short-sighted as to be unable to seethat?”cried Maria Alexandrovna, raising her eyes to the ceiling in a pious manner.“Oh! youth, youth! That's what comes of steeping one's soul in Shakespeare! You ask me, my dear friend Paul, where is the gain to you in all this. Allow me to make a little digression. Zina loves you—that is an undoubted fact. But I have observed that at the same time, and in spite of her evident love, she is not quite sure of your good feeling and devotion to her; and for this reason she is sometimes cold and self-restrained in your presence. Have you never observed this yourself, Paul?”“Certainly; I did this very day; but go on, what do you deduce from that fact?”“There, you see! you have observed it yourself; then of course I am right. She is not quite sure of thelastingquality of your feeling for her! I am a mother, and I may be permitted to read the heart of my child. Now, then, supposing that instead of rushing into the room and reproaching, vilifying, evenswearingat and insulting this sweet, pure, beautiful, proud being, instead of hurling contempt and vituperation at her head—supposing that instead of all this you had received the bad news with composure, with tears of grief, maybe; perhaps even with despair—but at the same time with noble composure of soul——”“H'm!”“No, no—don't interrupt me! I wish to show you the picture as it is. Very well, supposing, then, that you had come to her and said,‘Zina, I love you better than my life, but family considerations must separate us; I understand these considerations—they are devised for your greater happiness, and I dare not oppose them. Zina, I forgive you; be happy, if you can!’—think what effect such noble words would have wrought upon her heart!”“Yes—yes, that's all very true, I quite understand that much! but if Ihadsaid all this, I should have had to go all the same, without satisfaction!”“No, no, no! don't interrupt me! I wish to show you thewholepicture in all its detail, in order to impress you fully and satisfactorily. Very well, then, imagine now that you meet her in society some time afterwards: you meet perhaps at a ball—in the brilliant light of a ball-room, under the soothing strains of music, and in the midst of worldly women and of all that is gay and beautiful. You alone are sad—thoughtful—pale,—you lean against some pillar (where you are visible, however!) and watch her. She is dancing. You hear the strains of Strauss, and the wit and merriment around you, but you are sad and wretched.“What, think you, will Zina make of it? With what sort of eyes will she gaze on you as you stand there?‘And I could doubt this man!’she will think,‘this man who sacrificed all, all, for my sake—even to the mortal wounding of his heart!’Of course the old love will awake in her bosom and will swell with irresistible power!”Maria Alexandrovna stopped to take breath. Paul moved violently from side to side of his chair.“Zina now goes abroad for the benefit of the prince's health—to Italy—to Spain,”she continued,“where the myrtle and the lemon tree grow, where the sky is so blue, the beautiful Guadalquiver flows! to the land of love, where none can live without loving; where roses and kisses—so to speak—breathe in the very air around. You follow her—you sacrifice your business, friends, everything, and follow her. And so your love grows and increases with irresistible might. Of course that love is irreproachable—innocent—you will languish for one another—you will meet frequently; of course others will malign and vilify you both, and call your love by baser names—but your love is innocent, as I have purposely said; I am her mother—it is not for me to teach you evil, but good. At all events the prince is not in the condition to keep a very sharp look-out upon you; but if he did, as if there would be the slightest ground for base suspicion? Well, the prince dies at last, and then, who will marry Zina, if not yourself? You are so distant a relative of the prince's that there could be no obstacle to the match; you marry her—she is young still, and rich. You are a grandee in an instant! you, too, are rich now! I will take care that the prince's will is made as it should be; and lastly, Zina, now convinced of your loyalty and faithfulness, will look on you hereafter as her hero, as her paragon of virtue and self-sacrifice! Oh! you must be blind,—blind, not to observe and calculate your own profit when it lies but a couple of strides from you, grinning at you, as it were, and saying,‘Here, I am yours, take me! Oh, Paul, Paul!’”“Maria Alexandrovna!”cried Mosgliakoff, in great agitation and excitement,“I see it all! I have been rude, and a fool, and a scoundrel too!”He jumped up from his chair and tore his hair.“Yes, and unbusinesslike, that's the chief thing—unbusinesslike, and blindly so!”added Maria Alexandrovna.“I'm an ass! Maria Alexandrovna,”he cried in despair.“All is lost now, and I loved her to madness!”“Maybe all is not lost yet!”said this successful orator softly, and as though thinking out some idea.“Oh! if only it could be so! help me—teach me. Oh! save me, save me!”Mosgliakoff burst into tears.“My dear boy,”said Maria Alexandrovna, sympathetically, and holding out her hand,“you acted impulsively, from the depth and heat of your passion—in fact, out of your great love for her; you were in despair, you had forgotten yourself; she must understand all that!”“Oh! I love her madly! I am ready to sacrifice everything for her!”cried Mosgliakoff.“Listen! I will justify you before her.”“Oh, Maria Alexandrovna!”“Yes, I will. I take it upon myself! You come with me, and you shall tell her exactly what I said!”“Oh, how kind, how good you are! Can't we go at once, Maria Alexandrovna?”“Goodness gracious, no! What a very green hand you are, Paul! She's far too proud! she would take it as a new rudeness and impertinence! To-morrow I shall arrange it all comfortably for you: but now, couldn't you get out of the way somewhere for a while, to that godfather of yours, for instance? You could come back in the evening, if you pleased; but my advice would be to stay away!”“Yes, yes! I'll go—of course! Good heavens, you've made a man of me again!—Well, but look here—one more question:—What if the prince doesnotdie so soon?”“Oh, my dear boy, how delightfully naïve you are! On the contrary, we must pray for his good health! We must wish with all our hearts for long life to this dear, good, and chivalrous old man! I shall be the first to pray day and night for the happiness of my beloved daughter! But alas! I fear the prince's case is hopeless; you see, they must visit the capital now, to bring Zina out into society.—I dreadfully fear that all this may prove fatal to him; however, we'll pray, Paul, we can't do more, and the rest is in the hands of a kind Providence. You see what I mean? Very well—good-bye, my dear boy, bless you! Be a man, and wait patiently—be a man, that's the chief thing! I never doubted your generosity of character; but be brave—good-bye!”She pressed his hand warmly, and Mosgliakoff walked out of the room on tip-toes.“There goesonefool, got rid of satisfactorily!”observed Maria Alexandrovna to herself,—“but there are more behind——!”At this moment the door opened, and Zina entered the room. She was paler than usual, and her eyes were all ablaze.“Mamma!”she said,“be quick about this business, or I shall not be able to hold out. It is all so dirty and mean that I feel I must run out of the house if it goes on. Don't drive me to desperation! I warn you—don't weary me out—don't weary me out!”“Zina—what is it, my darling? You—you've been listening?”cried Maria Alexandrovna, gazing intently and anxiously at her daughter.“Yes, I have; but you need not try to make me ashamed of myself as you succeeded in doing with that fool. Now listen: I solemnly swear that if you worry and annoy me by making me play various mean and odious parts in this comedy of yours,—I swear to you that I will throw up the whole business and put an end to it in a moment. It is quite enough that I have consented to be a party in the main and essence of the base transactions; but—but—I did not know myself, I am poisoned and suffocated with the stench of it!”—So saying, she left the room and banged the door after her.Maria Alexandrovna looked fixedly after her for a moment, and reflected.“I must make haste,”she cried, rousing herself;“sheis the greatest danger and difficulty of all! If these detestable people do not let us alone, instead of acting the town-criers all over the place (as I fear they are doing already!)—all will be lost! She won't stand the worry of it—she'll drop the business altogether!—At all hazards, I must get the prince to the country house, and that quickly, too! I shall be off there at once, first, and bring my fool of a husband up: he shall be made useful for once in his life! Meanwhile the prince shall have his sleep out, and when he wakes up I shall be back and ready to cart him away bodily!”She rang the bell.“Are the horses ready?”she inquired of the man.“Yes, madam, long ago!”said the latter.She had ordered the carriage the moment after she had taken the prince upstairs.Maria Alexandrovna dressed hurriedly, and then looked in at Zina's room for a moment, before starting, in order to tell her the outlines of her plan of operations, and at the same time to give Zina a few necessary instructions. But her daughter could not listen to her. She was lying on her bed with face hidden in the pillows, crying, and was tearing her beautiful hair with her long white hands: occasionally she trembled violently for a moment, as though a blast of cold had passed through all her veins. Her mother began to speak to her, but Zina did not even raise her head!Having stood over her daughter in a state of bewilderment for some little while, Maria Alexandrovna left the room; and to make up for lost time bade the coachman drive like fury, as she stepped into the carriage.“I don't quite like Zina having listened!”she thought as she rattled away.“I gave Mosgliakoff very much the same argument as to herself: she is proud, and may easily have taken offence! H'm! Well, the great thing is to be in time with all the arrangements,—before people know what I am up to! Good heavens, fancy, if my fool of a husband were to be out!!”And at the very thought of such a thing, Maria Alexandrovna's rage so overcame her that it was clear her poor husband would fare badly for his sins if he proved to be not at home! She twisted and turned in her place with impatience,—the horses almost galloped with the carriage at their heels.CHAPTER X.On they flew.I have said already that this very day, on her first drive after the prince, Maria Alexandrovna had been inspired with a great idea! and I promised to reveal this idea in its proper place. But I am sure the reader has guessed it already!—It was, to“confiscate”the prince in her turn, and carry him off to the village where, at this moment, her husband Afanassy Matveyevitch vegetated alone.I must admit that our heroine was growing more and more anxious as the day went on; but this is often the case with heroes of all kinds, just before they attain their great ends! Some such instinct whispered to her that it was not safe to remain in Mordasoff another hour, if it could be avoided;—but once in the country house, the whole town might go mad and stand on its head, for all she cared!Of course she must not lose time, even there! All sorts of things might happen—even the police might interfere. (Reader, I shall never believe, for my part, that my heroine really had the slightest fear of the vulgar police force; but as it has been rumoured in Mordasoff that at this moment such a thoughtdidpass through her brain, why, I must record the fact.)In a word she saw clearly that Zina's marriage with the prince must be brought about at once, without delay! It was easily done: the priest at the village should perform the ceremony; why not the day after to-morrow? or indeed, in case of need, to-morrow? Marriages had often been brought about in less time than this—in two hours, she had heard! It would be easy enough to persuade the prince that haste and simplicity would be in far better taste than all the usual pomps and vanities of common everyday weddings. In fact, she relied upon her skill in putting the matter to the old man as a fitting dramatic issue to a romantic story of love, and thus to touch the most sensitive string of his chivalrous heart.In case of absolute need there was always the possibility of making him drunk, or rather ofkeepinghim perpetually drunk. And then, come what might, Zina would be a princess! And if this marriage were fated to produce scandal among the prince's relations and friends in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Maria Alexandrovna comforted herself with the reflection that marriages in high life nearly alwayswereproductive of scandal; and that such a result might fairly be looked upon as“good form,”and as peculiar to aristocratic circles.Besides, she felt sure that Zina need only show herself in society, with her mamma to support her, and every one of all those countesses and princes should very soon either acknowledge her of their own accord, or yield to the head-washing that Maria Alexandrovna felt herself so competent to give to any or all of them, individually or collectively.It was in consequence of these reflections that Maria Alexandrovna was now hastening with all speed towards her village, in order to bring back Afanassy Matveyevitch, whose presence she considered absolutely necessary at this crisis. It was desirable that her husband should appear and invite the prince down to the country: she relied upon the appearance of the father of the family, in dress-coat and white tie, hastening up to town on the first rumours of the prince's arrival there, to produce a very favourable impression upon the old man's self-respect: it would flatter him; and after such a courteous action, followed by a polite and warmly-couched invitation to the country, the prince would hardly refuse to go.At last the carriage stopped at the door of a long low wooden house, surrounded by old lime trees. This was the country house, Maria Alexandrovna's village residence.Lights were burning inside.“Where's my old fool?”cried Maria Alexandrovna bursting like a hurricane into the sitting-room.“Whats this towel lying here for?—Oh!—he's been wiping his head, has he. What, the baths again! and tea—of course tea!—always tea! Well, what are you winking your eyes at me for, you old fool?—Here, why is his hair not cropped? Grisha, Grisha!—here; why didn't you cut your master's hair, as I told you?”Maria Alexandrovna, on entering the room, had intended to greet her husband more kindly than this; but seeing that he had just been to the baths and that he was drinking tea with great satisfaction, as usual, she could not restrain her irritable feelings.She felt the contrast between her own activity and intellectual energy, and the stolid indifference and sheep-like contentedness of her husband, and it went to her heart!Meanwhile the“old fool,”or to put it more politely, he who had been addressed by that title, sat at the tea-urn, and stared with open mouth, in abject alarm, opening and shutting his lips as he gazed at the wife of his bosom, who had almost petrified him by her sudden appearance.At the door stood the sleepy, fat Grisha, looking on at the scene, and blinking both eyes at periodical intervals.“I couldn't cut his hair as you wished, because he wouldn't let me!”he growled at last.“‘You'd better let me do it!’—I said,‘or the mistress'll be down one of these days, and then we shall both catch it!’”“No,”he says,“I want it like this now, and you shall cut it on Sunday. I like it long!”“What!—So you wish to curl it without my leave, do you! What an idea—as if you could wear curls with your sheep-face underneath! Good gracious, what a mess you've made of the place; and what's the smell—what have you been doing, idiot, eh!”cried Maria Alexandrovna, waxing more and more angry, and turning furiously upon the wretched and perfectly innocent Afanassy!“Mam—mammy!”muttered the poor frightened master of the house, gazing with frightened eyes at the mistress, and blinking with all his might—“mammy!”“How many times have I dinned into your stupid head that I amnotyour‘mammy.’How can I be your mammy, you idiotic pigmy? How dare you call a noble lady by such a name; a lady whose proper place is in the highest circles, not beside an ass like yourself!”“Yes—yes,—but—but, youaremy legal wife, you know, after all;—so I—it was husbandly affection you know——”murmured poor Afanassy, raising both hands to his head as he spoke, to defend his hair from the tugs he evidently expected.“Oh, idiot that you are! did anyone ever hear such a ridiculous answer as that—legal wife, indeed! Who ever heard the expression‘legalwife,’in good society—nasty low expression! And how dare you remind me that I am your wife, when I use all my power and do all I possibly can at every moment to forget the fact, eh? What are you covering your head with your hands for? Look at his hair—now: wet, as wet as reeds! it will take three hours to dry that head! How on earth am I to take him like this? How can he show his face among respectable people? What am I to do?”And Maria Alexandrovna bit her finger-nails with rage as she walked furiously up and down the room.It was no very great matter, of course; and one that was easily set right; but Maria Alexandrovna required a vent for her feelings and felt the need of emptying out her accumulated wrath upon the head of the wretched Afanassy Matveyevitch; for tyranny is a habit recallable at need.Besides, everyone knows how great a contrast there is between the sweetness and refinement shown by many ladies of a certain class on the stage, as it were, of society life, and the revelations of character behind the scenes at home; and I was anxious to bring out this contrast for my reader's benefit.Afanassy watched the movements of his terrible spouse in fear and trembling; perspiration formed upon his brow as he gazed.“Grisha!”she cried at last,“dress your master this instant! Dress-coat, black trousers, white waistcoat and tie, quick! Where's his hairbrush—quick, quick!”“Mam—my! Why, I've just been to the bath. I shall catch cold if I go up to town just now!”“You won't catch cold!”“But—mammy, my hair's quite wet!”“We'll dry it in a minute. Here, Grisha, take this brush and brush away till he's dry,—harder—harder—much harder! There, that's better!”Grisha worked like a man. For the greater convenience of his herculean task he seized his master's shoulder with one hand as he rubbed violently with the other. Poor Afanassy grunted and groaned and almost wept.“Now, then, lift him up a bit. Where's the pomatum? Bend your head, duffer!—bend lower, you abject dummy!”And Maria Alexandrovna herself undertook to pomade her husband's hair, ploughing her hands through it without the slightest pity. Afanassy heartily wished that his shock growth had been cut. He winced, and groaned and moaned, but did not cry out under the painful operation.“You suck my life-blood out of me—bend lower, you idiot!”remarked the fond wife—“bend lower still, I tell you!”“How have I sucked your life blood?”asked the victim, bending his head as low as circumstances permitted.“Fool!—allegorically, of course—can't you understand? Now, then, comb it yourself. Here, Grisha, dress him, quick!”Our heroine threw herself into an arm-chair, and critically watched the ceremony of adorning her husband. Meanwhile the latter had a little opportunity to get his breath once more and compose his feelings generally; so that when matters arrived at the point where the tie is tied, he had even developed so much audacity as to express opinions of his own as to how the bow should be manufactured.At last, having put his dress-coat on, the lord of the manor was his brave self again, and gazed at his highly ornate person in the glass with great satisfaction and complacency.“Where are you going to take me to?”he now asked, smiling at his reflected self.Maria Alexandrovna could not believe her ears.“What—what? Howdareyou ask me where I am taking you to, sir!”“But—mammy—I must know, you know——”“Hold your tongue! You let me hear you call me mammy again, especially where we are going to now! you sha'n't have any tea for a month!”The frightened consort held his peace.“Look at that, now! You haven't got a single 'order' to put on—sloven!”she continued, looking at his black coat with contempt.“The Government awards orders, mammy; and I am not a sloven, but a town councillor!”said Afanassy, with a sudden excess of noble wrath.“What, what—what! So you've learned to argue now, have you—you mongrel, you? However, I haven't time to waste over you now, or I'd——but I sha'n't forget it. Here, Grisha, give him his fur coat and his hat—quick; and look here, Grisha, when I'm gone, get these three rooms ready, and the green room, and the corner bedroom. Quick—find your broom; take the coverings off the looking-glasses and clocks, and see that all is ready and tidy within an hour. Put on a dress coat, and see that the other men have gloves: don't lose time. Quick, now!”She entered the carriage, followed by Afanassy. The latter sat bewildered and lost.Meanwhile Maria Alexandrovna reflected as to how best she could drum into her husband's thick skull certain essential instructions with regard to the present situation of affairs. But Afanassy anticipated her.“I had a very original dream to-day, Maria Alexandrovna,”he observed quite unexpectedly, in the middle of a long silence.“Tfu! idiot. I thought you were going to say something of terrific interest, from the look of you. Dream, indeed! How dare you mention your miserable dreams to me! Original, too! Listen here: if you dare so much as remind me of the word‘dream,’or say anything else, either, where we are going to-day, I—I don't knowwhatI won't do to you! Now, look here: Prince K. has arrived at my house. Do you remember Prince K.?”“Oh, yes, mammy, I remember; and why has he done us this honour?”“Be quiet; that's not your business. Now, you are to invite him, with all the amiability you can, to come down to our house in the country, at once! That is what I am taking you up for. And if you dare so much as breathe another word of any kind, either to-day or to-morrow, or next day, without leave from me, you shall herd geese for a whole year. You're not to say a single word, mind! and that's all you have to think of. Do you understand, now?”“Well, but if I'm asked anything?”“Hold your tongue all the same!”“Oh, but I can't do that—I can't do——”“Very well, then; you can say‘H'm,’or something of that sort, to give them the idea that you are very wise indeed, and like to think well before answering.”“H'm.”“Understand me, now. I am taking you up because you are to make it appear that you have just heard of the prince's visit, and have hastened up to town in a transport of joy to express your unbounded respect and gratitude to him, and to invite him at once to your country house! Do you understand me?”“H'm.”“I don't want you to say‘H'm’now, you fool! You must answermewhen I speak!”“All right—all right, mammy. All shall be as you wish; but why am I to ask the prince down?”“What—what! arguing again. What business is it of yourswhyyou are to invite him? How dare you ask questions!”“Why it's all the same thing, mammy. How am I to invite him if I must not say a word?”“Oh, I shall do all the talking. All you have to do is to bow. Do you hear?Bow; and hold your hat in your hand and look polite. Do you understand, or not?”“I understand, mam—Maria-Alexandrovna.”“The prince is very witty, indeed; so mind, if he says anything either to yourself or anyone else, you are to laugh cordially and merrily. Do you hear me?”“H'm.”“Don't say‘H'm’tome, I tell you. You are to answer me plainly and simply. Do you hear me, or not?”“Yes, yes; I hear you, of course. That's all right. I only say‘H'm,’for practice; I want to get into the way of saying it. But look here, mammy, it's all very well; you say I'm not to speak, and if he speaks to me I'm to look at him and laugh—but what if he asks me a question?”“Oh—you dense log of a man! I tell you again, you are to be quiet.I'llanswer for you. You have simply got to look polite, and smile!”“But he'll think I am dumb!”said Afanassy.“Well, and what if he does. Let him! You'll conceal the fact that you are a fool, anyhow!”“H'm, and ifotherpeople ask me questions?”“No one will; there'll be no one to ask you. But if thereshouldbe anyone else in the room, and they ask you questions, all you have to do is to smile sarcastically. Do you know what a sarcastic smile is?”“What, a witty sort of smile, is it, mammy?”“I'll let you know about it!Witty, indeed! Why, who would think of expecting anything witty from a fool like you. No, sir, a jesting smile—jestingandcontemptuous!”“H'm.”“Good heavens. I'm afraid for this idiot,”thought Maria Alexandrovna to herself.“I really think it would have been almost better to leave him behind, after all.”So thinking, nervous and anxious, Maria Alexandrovna drove on. She looked out of the window, and she fidgeted, and she bustled the coachman up. The horses were almost flying through the air; but to her they appeared to be crawling. Afanassy sat silent and thoughtful in the corner of the carriage, practising his lessons. At last the carriage arrived at the town house.Hardly, however, had Maria Alexandrovna mounted the outer steps when she became aware of a fine pair of horses trotting up—drawing a smart sledge with a hood to it. In fact, the very“turn-out”in which Anna Nicolaevna Antipova was generally to be seen.Two ladies sat in the sledge. One of these was, of course, Mrs. Antipova herself; the other was Natalia Dimitrievna, of late the great friend and ally of the former lady.Maria Alexandrovna's heart sank.But she had no time to say a word, before another smart vehicle drove up, in which there reclined yet another guest. Exclamations of joy and delight were now heard.“Maria Alexandrovna! and Afanassy Matveyevitch! Just arrived, too! Where from? How extremely delightful! And here we are, you see, just driven up at the right moment. We are going to spend the evening with you. What a delightful surprise.”The guests alighted and fluttered up the steps like so many swallows.Maria Alexandrovna could neither believe her eyes nor her ears.“Curse you all!”she said to herself.“This looks like a plot—it must be seen to; but it takes more than a flight of magpies likeyouto get to windward ofme. Wait a little!!”
CHAPTER IX.He had heard all—all.He did not actually enter the room, but stood at the door, pale with excitement and fury. Zina looked at him in amazement.“So that's the sort of person you are!”he cried panting.“At last I have found you out, have I?”“Found me out?”repeated Zina, looking at him as though he were a madman. Suddenly her eyes flashed with rage.“How dare you address me like that?”she cried, advancing towards him.“I have heard all!”said Mosgliakoff solemnly, but involuntarily taking a step backwards.“You heard? I see—you have been eavesdropping!”cried Zina, looking at him with disdain.“Yes, I have been eavesdropping! Yes—I consented to do a mean action, and my reward is that I have found out that you, too, are——I don't know how to express to you what I think you!”he replied, looking more and more timid under Zina's eyes.“And supposing that youhaveheard all: what right have you to blame me? What right have you to speak to me so insolently, in any case?”“I!—I?what right haveI? andyoucan ask me this? You are going to marry this prince, and I have no right to say a word! Why, you gave me your promise—is that nothing?”“When?”“How, when?”“Did not I tell you that morning, when you came to me with your sentimental nonsense—did I not tell you that I could give you no decided answer?”“But you did not reject me; you did not send me away. I see—you kept me hanging in reserve, in case of need! You lured me into your net! I see, I see it all!”An expression of pain flitted over Zina's careworn face, as though someone had suddenly stabbed her to the heart; but she mastered her feelings.“If I didn't turn you out of the house,”she began deliberately and very clearly, though her voice had a scarcely perceptible tremor in it,“I refrained from such a course purely out of pity. You begged me yourself to postpone, to give you time, not to say you‘No,’to study you better, and‘then,’you said,‘then, when you know what a fine fellow I am, perhaps you will not refuse me!’These were your own words, or very like them, at the very beginning of your courtship!—you cannot deny them! And now you dare to tell me that I‘lured you into my net,’just as though you did not notice my expression of loathing when you made your appearance this morning! You came a fortnight sooner than I expected you, and I did not hide my disgust; on the contrary, I made it evident—you must have noticed it—I know you did; because you asked me whether I was angry because you had come sooner than you promised! Let me tell you that people who do not, and do notcareto, hide their loathing for a man can hardly be accused of luring that man into their net! You dare to tell me that I was keeping you in reserve! Very well; my answer to that is, that I judged of you like this:‘Though he may not be endowed with much intellect, still he may turn out to be a good enough fellow; and if so, it might be possible to marry him.’However, being persuaded, now, that you are a fool, and amischievousfool into the bargain,—having found out this fact, to my great joy,—it only remains for me now to wish you every happiness and a pleasant journey. Good-bye!”With these words Zina turned her back on him, and deliberately made for the door.Mosgliakoff, seeing that all was lost, boiled over with fury.“Oh! so I'm a fool!”he yelled;“I'm a fool, am I? Very well, good-bye! But before I go, the whole town shall know of this! They shall all hear how you and your mother made the old man drunk, and then swindled him! I shall let the whole world know it! You shall see what Mosgliakoff can do!”Zina trembled and stopped, as though to answer; but on reflection, she contented herself by shrugging her shoulders; glanced contemptuously at Mosgliakoff, and left the room, banging the door after her.At this moment Maria Alexandrovna made her appearance. She heard Mosgliakoff's exclamation, and, divining at once what had happened, trembled with terror. Mosgliakoff still in the house, and near the prince! Mosgliakoff about to spread the news all over the town! At this moment, when secrecy, if only for a short time, was essential! But Maria Alexandrovna was quick at calculations: she thought, with an eagle flight of the mind, over all the circumstances of the case, and her plan for the pacification of Mosgliakoff was ready in an instant!“What is it,mon ami?”she said, entering the room, and holding out her hand to him with friendly warmth.“How—‘mon ami?’”cried the enraged Mosgliakoff.“Mon ami, indeed! the moment after you have abused and reviled me like a pickpocket! No, no! Not quite so green, my good lady! I'm not to be so easily imposed upon again!”“I am sorry, extremely sorry, to see you in such astrangecondition of mind, Paul Alexandrovitch! What expressions you use! You do not take the trouble to choose your words before ladies—oh, fie!”“Before ladies? Ho ho! You—you are—you are anything you like—but not a lady!”yelled Mosgliakoff.I don't quite know what he meant, but it was something very terrible, you may be sure!Maria Alexandrovna looked benignly in his face:“Sit down!”she said, sorrowfully, showing him a chair, the same that the old prince had reclined in a quarter of an hour before.“But listen,willyou listen, Maria Alexandrovna? You look at me just as though you were not the least to blame; in fact, as thoughIwere the guilty party! Really, Maria Alexandrovna, this is a littletoomuch of a good thing! No human being can stand that sort of thing, Maria Alexandrovna! You must be aware of that fact!”“My dear friend,”replied Maria Alexandrovna—“you will allow me to continue to call you by that name, for you have no better friend than I am!—my friend, you are suffering—you are amazed and bewildered; your heart is sore, and therefore the tone of your remarks to me is perhaps not surprising. But I have made up my mind to open my heart to you, especially as I am, perhaps, in some degree to blame before you. Sit down; let us talk it over!”Maria Alexandrovna's voice was tender to a sickly extent. Her face showed the pain she was suffering. The amazed Mosgliakoff sat down beside her in the arm-chair.“You hid somewhere, and listened, I suppose?”she began, looking reproachfully into his face.“Yes I did, of course I did; and a good thing too! What a fool I should have looked if I hadn't! At all events now I know what you have been plotting against me!”replied the injured man, rudely; encouraging and supporting himself by his own fury.“And you—and you—with your principles, and with your bringing up, could condescend to such an action—Oh, oh!”Mosgliakoff jumped up.“Maria Alexandrovna, this is a little too much!”he cried.“Consider whatyoucondescend to do, withyourprinciples, andthenjudge of other people.”“One more question,”she continued, without replying to his outburst:“who recommended you to be an eavesdropper; who told you anything; who is the spy here? That's what I wish to know!”“Oh, excuse me; that I shallnottell you!”“Very well; I know already. I said, Paul, that I was in some degree to blame before you. But if you look into the matter you will find that if I am to blame it is solely in consequence of my anxiety to do you a good turn!”“What?a good turn—me? No, no, madam! I assure you I am not to be caught again! I'm not quite such a fool!”He moved so violently in his arm-chair that it shook again.“Now, do be cool, if you can, my good friend. Listen to me attentively, and you will find that what I say is only the bare truth. In the first place I was anxious to inform you of all that has just taken place, in which case you would have learned everything, down to the smallest detail, without being obliged to descend to eavesdropping! If I did not tell you all before, it was simply because the whole matter was in an embryo condition in my mind. It was then quite possible that whathashappened would never happen. You see, I am quite open with you.“In the second place, do not blame my daughter. She loves you to distraction; and it was only by the exercise of my utmost influence that I persuaded her to drop you, and accept the prince's offer.”“I have just had the pleasure of receiving convincing proof of her‘love to distraction!’”remarked Mosgliakoff, ironically and bitterly.“Very well. But how did you speak toher? As a lover should speak? Again, oughtanyman of respectable position and tone to speak like that? You insulted and wounded her!”“Never mind about my‘tone’now! All I can say is that this morning, when I went away with the prince, in spite of both of you having been as sweet as honey to me before, you reviled me behind my back like a pickpocket!Iknow all about it, you see!”“Yes, from the same dirty source, I suppose?”said Maria Alexandrovna, smiling disdainfully.“Yes, Paul, Ididrevile you: I pitched into you considerably, and I admit it frankly. But it was simply that I wasboundto blacken you before her. Why? Because, as I have said, I required her to consent to leave you, and this consent was so difficult to tear from her! Short-sighted man that you are! If she had not loved you, why should I have required so to blacken your character? Why should I have been obliged to take this extreme step? Oh! you don't know all! I was forced to use my fullest maternal authority in order to erase you from her heart; and with all my influence and skill I only succeeded in erasing your dear image superficially and partially! If you saw and heard all just now, it cannot have escaped you that Zina did not once, by either word or gesture, encourage or confirm my words to the prince? Throughout the whole scene she said not one word. She sang, but like an automaton! Her whole soul was in anguish, and at last, out of pity for her, I took the prince away. I am sure, she cried, when I left her alone! When you entered the room you must have observed tears in her eyes?”Mosgliakoff certainly did recall the fact that when he rushed into the room Zina was crying.“But you—you—why wereyouso against me, Maria Alexandrovna?”he cried.“Why did you revile me and malign me, as you admit you did?”“Ah, now that's quite a different question. Now, if you had only asked me reasonably at the beginning, you should have had your answer long ago! Yes, you are right. It was I, and I alone, who did it all. Do not think of Zina in the matter. Now,whydid I do it? I reply, in the first place, for Zina's sake. The prince is rich, influential, has great connections, and in marrying him Zina will make a brilliant match. Very well; then if the prince dies—as perhaps he will die soon, for we are all mortal,—Zina is still young, a widow, a princess, and probably very rich. Then she can marry whom she pleases; she may make another brilliant match if she likes. But of course she will marry the man she loves, and loved before, the man whose heart she wounded by accepting the prince. Remorse alone would be enough to make her marry the man whom she had loved and so deeply injured!”“Hem!”said Paul, gazing at his boots thoughtfully.“In the second place,”continued Maria,“and I will put this shortly, because, though you read a great deal of your beloved Shakespeare, and extract his finest thoughts and ideals, yet you are very young, and cannot, perhaps, apply what you read. You may not understand my feelings in this matter: listen, however.Iam giving my Zina to this prince partly for the prince's own sake, because I wish to save him by this marriage. We are old friends; he is the dearest and best of men, he is a knightly, chivalrous gentleman, and he lives helpless and miserable in the claws of that devil of a woman at Donchanovo! Heaven knows that I persuaded Zina into this marriage by putting it to her that she would be performing a great and noble action. I represented her as being the stay and the comfort and the darling and the idol of a poor old man, who probably would not live another year at the most! I showed her that thus his last days should be made happy with love and light and friendship, instead of wretched with fear and the society of a detestable woman. Oh! do not blame Zina. She is guiltless. I am not—I admit it; for if there have been calculations it is I who have made them! But I calculated for her, Paul; for her, not myself! I have outlived my time; I have thought but for my child, and what mother could blame me for this?”Tears sparkled in the fond mother's eyes. Mosgliakoff listened in amazement to all this eloquence, winking his eyes in bewilderment.“Yes, yes, of course! You talk well, Maria Alexandrovna, but you forget—you gave me your word, you encouraged me, you gave me my hopes; and where am I now? I have to stand aside and look a fool!”“But, my dear Paul, you don't surely suppose that I have not thought of you too! Don't you see the huge, immeasurable gain to yourself in all this? A gain so vast that I was bound in your interest to act as I did!”“Gain for me! How so?”asked Paul, in the most abject state of confusion and bewilderment.“Gracious Heavens! do you mean to say you are really so simple and so short-sighted as to be unable to seethat?”cried Maria Alexandrovna, raising her eyes to the ceiling in a pious manner.“Oh! youth, youth! That's what comes of steeping one's soul in Shakespeare! You ask me, my dear friend Paul, where is the gain to you in all this. Allow me to make a little digression. Zina loves you—that is an undoubted fact. But I have observed that at the same time, and in spite of her evident love, she is not quite sure of your good feeling and devotion to her; and for this reason she is sometimes cold and self-restrained in your presence. Have you never observed this yourself, Paul?”“Certainly; I did this very day; but go on, what do you deduce from that fact?”“There, you see! you have observed it yourself; then of course I am right. She is not quite sure of thelastingquality of your feeling for her! I am a mother, and I may be permitted to read the heart of my child. Now, then, supposing that instead of rushing into the room and reproaching, vilifying, evenswearingat and insulting this sweet, pure, beautiful, proud being, instead of hurling contempt and vituperation at her head—supposing that instead of all this you had received the bad news with composure, with tears of grief, maybe; perhaps even with despair—but at the same time with noble composure of soul——”“H'm!”“No, no—don't interrupt me! I wish to show you the picture as it is. Very well, supposing, then, that you had come to her and said,‘Zina, I love you better than my life, but family considerations must separate us; I understand these considerations—they are devised for your greater happiness, and I dare not oppose them. Zina, I forgive you; be happy, if you can!’—think what effect such noble words would have wrought upon her heart!”“Yes—yes, that's all very true, I quite understand that much! but if Ihadsaid all this, I should have had to go all the same, without satisfaction!”“No, no, no! don't interrupt me! I wish to show you thewholepicture in all its detail, in order to impress you fully and satisfactorily. Very well, then, imagine now that you meet her in society some time afterwards: you meet perhaps at a ball—in the brilliant light of a ball-room, under the soothing strains of music, and in the midst of worldly women and of all that is gay and beautiful. You alone are sad—thoughtful—pale,—you lean against some pillar (where you are visible, however!) and watch her. She is dancing. You hear the strains of Strauss, and the wit and merriment around you, but you are sad and wretched.“What, think you, will Zina make of it? With what sort of eyes will she gaze on you as you stand there?‘And I could doubt this man!’she will think,‘this man who sacrificed all, all, for my sake—even to the mortal wounding of his heart!’Of course the old love will awake in her bosom and will swell with irresistible power!”Maria Alexandrovna stopped to take breath. Paul moved violently from side to side of his chair.“Zina now goes abroad for the benefit of the prince's health—to Italy—to Spain,”she continued,“where the myrtle and the lemon tree grow, where the sky is so blue, the beautiful Guadalquiver flows! to the land of love, where none can live without loving; where roses and kisses—so to speak—breathe in the very air around. You follow her—you sacrifice your business, friends, everything, and follow her. And so your love grows and increases with irresistible might. Of course that love is irreproachable—innocent—you will languish for one another—you will meet frequently; of course others will malign and vilify you both, and call your love by baser names—but your love is innocent, as I have purposely said; I am her mother—it is not for me to teach you evil, but good. At all events the prince is not in the condition to keep a very sharp look-out upon you; but if he did, as if there would be the slightest ground for base suspicion? Well, the prince dies at last, and then, who will marry Zina, if not yourself? You are so distant a relative of the prince's that there could be no obstacle to the match; you marry her—she is young still, and rich. You are a grandee in an instant! you, too, are rich now! I will take care that the prince's will is made as it should be; and lastly, Zina, now convinced of your loyalty and faithfulness, will look on you hereafter as her hero, as her paragon of virtue and self-sacrifice! Oh! you must be blind,—blind, not to observe and calculate your own profit when it lies but a couple of strides from you, grinning at you, as it were, and saying,‘Here, I am yours, take me! Oh, Paul, Paul!’”“Maria Alexandrovna!”cried Mosgliakoff, in great agitation and excitement,“I see it all! I have been rude, and a fool, and a scoundrel too!”He jumped up from his chair and tore his hair.“Yes, and unbusinesslike, that's the chief thing—unbusinesslike, and blindly so!”added Maria Alexandrovna.“I'm an ass! Maria Alexandrovna,”he cried in despair.“All is lost now, and I loved her to madness!”“Maybe all is not lost yet!”said this successful orator softly, and as though thinking out some idea.“Oh! if only it could be so! help me—teach me. Oh! save me, save me!”Mosgliakoff burst into tears.“My dear boy,”said Maria Alexandrovna, sympathetically, and holding out her hand,“you acted impulsively, from the depth and heat of your passion—in fact, out of your great love for her; you were in despair, you had forgotten yourself; she must understand all that!”“Oh! I love her madly! I am ready to sacrifice everything for her!”cried Mosgliakoff.“Listen! I will justify you before her.”“Oh, Maria Alexandrovna!”“Yes, I will. I take it upon myself! You come with me, and you shall tell her exactly what I said!”“Oh, how kind, how good you are! Can't we go at once, Maria Alexandrovna?”“Goodness gracious, no! What a very green hand you are, Paul! She's far too proud! she would take it as a new rudeness and impertinence! To-morrow I shall arrange it all comfortably for you: but now, couldn't you get out of the way somewhere for a while, to that godfather of yours, for instance? You could come back in the evening, if you pleased; but my advice would be to stay away!”“Yes, yes! I'll go—of course! Good heavens, you've made a man of me again!—Well, but look here—one more question:—What if the prince doesnotdie so soon?”“Oh, my dear boy, how delightfully naïve you are! On the contrary, we must pray for his good health! We must wish with all our hearts for long life to this dear, good, and chivalrous old man! I shall be the first to pray day and night for the happiness of my beloved daughter! But alas! I fear the prince's case is hopeless; you see, they must visit the capital now, to bring Zina out into society.—I dreadfully fear that all this may prove fatal to him; however, we'll pray, Paul, we can't do more, and the rest is in the hands of a kind Providence. You see what I mean? Very well—good-bye, my dear boy, bless you! Be a man, and wait patiently—be a man, that's the chief thing! I never doubted your generosity of character; but be brave—good-bye!”She pressed his hand warmly, and Mosgliakoff walked out of the room on tip-toes.“There goesonefool, got rid of satisfactorily!”observed Maria Alexandrovna to herself,—“but there are more behind——!”At this moment the door opened, and Zina entered the room. She was paler than usual, and her eyes were all ablaze.“Mamma!”she said,“be quick about this business, or I shall not be able to hold out. It is all so dirty and mean that I feel I must run out of the house if it goes on. Don't drive me to desperation! I warn you—don't weary me out—don't weary me out!”“Zina—what is it, my darling? You—you've been listening?”cried Maria Alexandrovna, gazing intently and anxiously at her daughter.“Yes, I have; but you need not try to make me ashamed of myself as you succeeded in doing with that fool. Now listen: I solemnly swear that if you worry and annoy me by making me play various mean and odious parts in this comedy of yours,—I swear to you that I will throw up the whole business and put an end to it in a moment. It is quite enough that I have consented to be a party in the main and essence of the base transactions; but—but—I did not know myself, I am poisoned and suffocated with the stench of it!”—So saying, she left the room and banged the door after her.Maria Alexandrovna looked fixedly after her for a moment, and reflected.“I must make haste,”she cried, rousing herself;“sheis the greatest danger and difficulty of all! If these detestable people do not let us alone, instead of acting the town-criers all over the place (as I fear they are doing already!)—all will be lost! She won't stand the worry of it—she'll drop the business altogether!—At all hazards, I must get the prince to the country house, and that quickly, too! I shall be off there at once, first, and bring my fool of a husband up: he shall be made useful for once in his life! Meanwhile the prince shall have his sleep out, and when he wakes up I shall be back and ready to cart him away bodily!”She rang the bell.“Are the horses ready?”she inquired of the man.“Yes, madam, long ago!”said the latter.She had ordered the carriage the moment after she had taken the prince upstairs.Maria Alexandrovna dressed hurriedly, and then looked in at Zina's room for a moment, before starting, in order to tell her the outlines of her plan of operations, and at the same time to give Zina a few necessary instructions. But her daughter could not listen to her. She was lying on her bed with face hidden in the pillows, crying, and was tearing her beautiful hair with her long white hands: occasionally she trembled violently for a moment, as though a blast of cold had passed through all her veins. Her mother began to speak to her, but Zina did not even raise her head!Having stood over her daughter in a state of bewilderment for some little while, Maria Alexandrovna left the room; and to make up for lost time bade the coachman drive like fury, as she stepped into the carriage.“I don't quite like Zina having listened!”she thought as she rattled away.“I gave Mosgliakoff very much the same argument as to herself: she is proud, and may easily have taken offence! H'm! Well, the great thing is to be in time with all the arrangements,—before people know what I am up to! Good heavens, fancy, if my fool of a husband were to be out!!”And at the very thought of such a thing, Maria Alexandrovna's rage so overcame her that it was clear her poor husband would fare badly for his sins if he proved to be not at home! She twisted and turned in her place with impatience,—the horses almost galloped with the carriage at their heels.CHAPTER X.On they flew.I have said already that this very day, on her first drive after the prince, Maria Alexandrovna had been inspired with a great idea! and I promised to reveal this idea in its proper place. But I am sure the reader has guessed it already!—It was, to“confiscate”the prince in her turn, and carry him off to the village where, at this moment, her husband Afanassy Matveyevitch vegetated alone.I must admit that our heroine was growing more and more anxious as the day went on; but this is often the case with heroes of all kinds, just before they attain their great ends! Some such instinct whispered to her that it was not safe to remain in Mordasoff another hour, if it could be avoided;—but once in the country house, the whole town might go mad and stand on its head, for all she cared!Of course she must not lose time, even there! All sorts of things might happen—even the police might interfere. (Reader, I shall never believe, for my part, that my heroine really had the slightest fear of the vulgar police force; but as it has been rumoured in Mordasoff that at this moment such a thoughtdidpass through her brain, why, I must record the fact.)In a word she saw clearly that Zina's marriage with the prince must be brought about at once, without delay! It was easily done: the priest at the village should perform the ceremony; why not the day after to-morrow? or indeed, in case of need, to-morrow? Marriages had often been brought about in less time than this—in two hours, she had heard! It would be easy enough to persuade the prince that haste and simplicity would be in far better taste than all the usual pomps and vanities of common everyday weddings. In fact, she relied upon her skill in putting the matter to the old man as a fitting dramatic issue to a romantic story of love, and thus to touch the most sensitive string of his chivalrous heart.In case of absolute need there was always the possibility of making him drunk, or rather ofkeepinghim perpetually drunk. And then, come what might, Zina would be a princess! And if this marriage were fated to produce scandal among the prince's relations and friends in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Maria Alexandrovna comforted herself with the reflection that marriages in high life nearly alwayswereproductive of scandal; and that such a result might fairly be looked upon as“good form,”and as peculiar to aristocratic circles.Besides, she felt sure that Zina need only show herself in society, with her mamma to support her, and every one of all those countesses and princes should very soon either acknowledge her of their own accord, or yield to the head-washing that Maria Alexandrovna felt herself so competent to give to any or all of them, individually or collectively.It was in consequence of these reflections that Maria Alexandrovna was now hastening with all speed towards her village, in order to bring back Afanassy Matveyevitch, whose presence she considered absolutely necessary at this crisis. It was desirable that her husband should appear and invite the prince down to the country: she relied upon the appearance of the father of the family, in dress-coat and white tie, hastening up to town on the first rumours of the prince's arrival there, to produce a very favourable impression upon the old man's self-respect: it would flatter him; and after such a courteous action, followed by a polite and warmly-couched invitation to the country, the prince would hardly refuse to go.At last the carriage stopped at the door of a long low wooden house, surrounded by old lime trees. This was the country house, Maria Alexandrovna's village residence.Lights were burning inside.“Where's my old fool?”cried Maria Alexandrovna bursting like a hurricane into the sitting-room.“Whats this towel lying here for?—Oh!—he's been wiping his head, has he. What, the baths again! and tea—of course tea!—always tea! Well, what are you winking your eyes at me for, you old fool?—Here, why is his hair not cropped? Grisha, Grisha!—here; why didn't you cut your master's hair, as I told you?”Maria Alexandrovna, on entering the room, had intended to greet her husband more kindly than this; but seeing that he had just been to the baths and that he was drinking tea with great satisfaction, as usual, she could not restrain her irritable feelings.She felt the contrast between her own activity and intellectual energy, and the stolid indifference and sheep-like contentedness of her husband, and it went to her heart!Meanwhile the“old fool,”or to put it more politely, he who had been addressed by that title, sat at the tea-urn, and stared with open mouth, in abject alarm, opening and shutting his lips as he gazed at the wife of his bosom, who had almost petrified him by her sudden appearance.At the door stood the sleepy, fat Grisha, looking on at the scene, and blinking both eyes at periodical intervals.“I couldn't cut his hair as you wished, because he wouldn't let me!”he growled at last.“‘You'd better let me do it!’—I said,‘or the mistress'll be down one of these days, and then we shall both catch it!’”“No,”he says,“I want it like this now, and you shall cut it on Sunday. I like it long!”“What!—So you wish to curl it without my leave, do you! What an idea—as if you could wear curls with your sheep-face underneath! Good gracious, what a mess you've made of the place; and what's the smell—what have you been doing, idiot, eh!”cried Maria Alexandrovna, waxing more and more angry, and turning furiously upon the wretched and perfectly innocent Afanassy!“Mam—mammy!”muttered the poor frightened master of the house, gazing with frightened eyes at the mistress, and blinking with all his might—“mammy!”“How many times have I dinned into your stupid head that I amnotyour‘mammy.’How can I be your mammy, you idiotic pigmy? How dare you call a noble lady by such a name; a lady whose proper place is in the highest circles, not beside an ass like yourself!”“Yes—yes,—but—but, youaremy legal wife, you know, after all;—so I—it was husbandly affection you know——”murmured poor Afanassy, raising both hands to his head as he spoke, to defend his hair from the tugs he evidently expected.“Oh, idiot that you are! did anyone ever hear such a ridiculous answer as that—legal wife, indeed! Who ever heard the expression‘legalwife,’in good society—nasty low expression! And how dare you remind me that I am your wife, when I use all my power and do all I possibly can at every moment to forget the fact, eh? What are you covering your head with your hands for? Look at his hair—now: wet, as wet as reeds! it will take three hours to dry that head! How on earth am I to take him like this? How can he show his face among respectable people? What am I to do?”And Maria Alexandrovna bit her finger-nails with rage as she walked furiously up and down the room.It was no very great matter, of course; and one that was easily set right; but Maria Alexandrovna required a vent for her feelings and felt the need of emptying out her accumulated wrath upon the head of the wretched Afanassy Matveyevitch; for tyranny is a habit recallable at need.Besides, everyone knows how great a contrast there is between the sweetness and refinement shown by many ladies of a certain class on the stage, as it were, of society life, and the revelations of character behind the scenes at home; and I was anxious to bring out this contrast for my reader's benefit.Afanassy watched the movements of his terrible spouse in fear and trembling; perspiration formed upon his brow as he gazed.“Grisha!”she cried at last,“dress your master this instant! Dress-coat, black trousers, white waistcoat and tie, quick! Where's his hairbrush—quick, quick!”“Mam—my! Why, I've just been to the bath. I shall catch cold if I go up to town just now!”“You won't catch cold!”“But—mammy, my hair's quite wet!”“We'll dry it in a minute. Here, Grisha, take this brush and brush away till he's dry,—harder—harder—much harder! There, that's better!”Grisha worked like a man. For the greater convenience of his herculean task he seized his master's shoulder with one hand as he rubbed violently with the other. Poor Afanassy grunted and groaned and almost wept.“Now, then, lift him up a bit. Where's the pomatum? Bend your head, duffer!—bend lower, you abject dummy!”And Maria Alexandrovna herself undertook to pomade her husband's hair, ploughing her hands through it without the slightest pity. Afanassy heartily wished that his shock growth had been cut. He winced, and groaned and moaned, but did not cry out under the painful operation.“You suck my life-blood out of me—bend lower, you idiot!”remarked the fond wife—“bend lower still, I tell you!”“How have I sucked your life blood?”asked the victim, bending his head as low as circumstances permitted.“Fool!—allegorically, of course—can't you understand? Now, then, comb it yourself. Here, Grisha, dress him, quick!”Our heroine threw herself into an arm-chair, and critically watched the ceremony of adorning her husband. Meanwhile the latter had a little opportunity to get his breath once more and compose his feelings generally; so that when matters arrived at the point where the tie is tied, he had even developed so much audacity as to express opinions of his own as to how the bow should be manufactured.At last, having put his dress-coat on, the lord of the manor was his brave self again, and gazed at his highly ornate person in the glass with great satisfaction and complacency.“Where are you going to take me to?”he now asked, smiling at his reflected self.Maria Alexandrovna could not believe her ears.“What—what? Howdareyou ask me where I am taking you to, sir!”“But—mammy—I must know, you know——”“Hold your tongue! You let me hear you call me mammy again, especially where we are going to now! you sha'n't have any tea for a month!”The frightened consort held his peace.“Look at that, now! You haven't got a single 'order' to put on—sloven!”she continued, looking at his black coat with contempt.“The Government awards orders, mammy; and I am not a sloven, but a town councillor!”said Afanassy, with a sudden excess of noble wrath.“What, what—what! So you've learned to argue now, have you—you mongrel, you? However, I haven't time to waste over you now, or I'd——but I sha'n't forget it. Here, Grisha, give him his fur coat and his hat—quick; and look here, Grisha, when I'm gone, get these three rooms ready, and the green room, and the corner bedroom. Quick—find your broom; take the coverings off the looking-glasses and clocks, and see that all is ready and tidy within an hour. Put on a dress coat, and see that the other men have gloves: don't lose time. Quick, now!”She entered the carriage, followed by Afanassy. The latter sat bewildered and lost.Meanwhile Maria Alexandrovna reflected as to how best she could drum into her husband's thick skull certain essential instructions with regard to the present situation of affairs. But Afanassy anticipated her.“I had a very original dream to-day, Maria Alexandrovna,”he observed quite unexpectedly, in the middle of a long silence.“Tfu! idiot. I thought you were going to say something of terrific interest, from the look of you. Dream, indeed! How dare you mention your miserable dreams to me! Original, too! Listen here: if you dare so much as remind me of the word‘dream,’or say anything else, either, where we are going to-day, I—I don't knowwhatI won't do to you! Now, look here: Prince K. has arrived at my house. Do you remember Prince K.?”“Oh, yes, mammy, I remember; and why has he done us this honour?”“Be quiet; that's not your business. Now, you are to invite him, with all the amiability you can, to come down to our house in the country, at once! That is what I am taking you up for. And if you dare so much as breathe another word of any kind, either to-day or to-morrow, or next day, without leave from me, you shall herd geese for a whole year. You're not to say a single word, mind! and that's all you have to think of. Do you understand, now?”“Well, but if I'm asked anything?”“Hold your tongue all the same!”“Oh, but I can't do that—I can't do——”“Very well, then; you can say‘H'm,’or something of that sort, to give them the idea that you are very wise indeed, and like to think well before answering.”“H'm.”“Understand me, now. I am taking you up because you are to make it appear that you have just heard of the prince's visit, and have hastened up to town in a transport of joy to express your unbounded respect and gratitude to him, and to invite him at once to your country house! Do you understand me?”“H'm.”“I don't want you to say‘H'm’now, you fool! You must answermewhen I speak!”“All right—all right, mammy. All shall be as you wish; but why am I to ask the prince down?”“What—what! arguing again. What business is it of yourswhyyou are to invite him? How dare you ask questions!”“Why it's all the same thing, mammy. How am I to invite him if I must not say a word?”“Oh, I shall do all the talking. All you have to do is to bow. Do you hear?Bow; and hold your hat in your hand and look polite. Do you understand, or not?”“I understand, mam—Maria-Alexandrovna.”“The prince is very witty, indeed; so mind, if he says anything either to yourself or anyone else, you are to laugh cordially and merrily. Do you hear me?”“H'm.”“Don't say‘H'm’tome, I tell you. You are to answer me plainly and simply. Do you hear me, or not?”“Yes, yes; I hear you, of course. That's all right. I only say‘H'm,’for practice; I want to get into the way of saying it. But look here, mammy, it's all very well; you say I'm not to speak, and if he speaks to me I'm to look at him and laugh—but what if he asks me a question?”“Oh—you dense log of a man! I tell you again, you are to be quiet.I'llanswer for you. You have simply got to look polite, and smile!”“But he'll think I am dumb!”said Afanassy.“Well, and what if he does. Let him! You'll conceal the fact that you are a fool, anyhow!”“H'm, and ifotherpeople ask me questions?”“No one will; there'll be no one to ask you. But if thereshouldbe anyone else in the room, and they ask you questions, all you have to do is to smile sarcastically. Do you know what a sarcastic smile is?”“What, a witty sort of smile, is it, mammy?”“I'll let you know about it!Witty, indeed! Why, who would think of expecting anything witty from a fool like you. No, sir, a jesting smile—jestingandcontemptuous!”“H'm.”“Good heavens. I'm afraid for this idiot,”thought Maria Alexandrovna to herself.“I really think it would have been almost better to leave him behind, after all.”So thinking, nervous and anxious, Maria Alexandrovna drove on. She looked out of the window, and she fidgeted, and she bustled the coachman up. The horses were almost flying through the air; but to her they appeared to be crawling. Afanassy sat silent and thoughtful in the corner of the carriage, practising his lessons. At last the carriage arrived at the town house.Hardly, however, had Maria Alexandrovna mounted the outer steps when she became aware of a fine pair of horses trotting up—drawing a smart sledge with a hood to it. In fact, the very“turn-out”in which Anna Nicolaevna Antipova was generally to be seen.Two ladies sat in the sledge. One of these was, of course, Mrs. Antipova herself; the other was Natalia Dimitrievna, of late the great friend and ally of the former lady.Maria Alexandrovna's heart sank.But she had no time to say a word, before another smart vehicle drove up, in which there reclined yet another guest. Exclamations of joy and delight were now heard.“Maria Alexandrovna! and Afanassy Matveyevitch! Just arrived, too! Where from? How extremely delightful! And here we are, you see, just driven up at the right moment. We are going to spend the evening with you. What a delightful surprise.”The guests alighted and fluttered up the steps like so many swallows.Maria Alexandrovna could neither believe her eyes nor her ears.“Curse you all!”she said to herself.“This looks like a plot—it must be seen to; but it takes more than a flight of magpies likeyouto get to windward ofme. Wait a little!!”
CHAPTER IX.He had heard all—all.He did not actually enter the room, but stood at the door, pale with excitement and fury. Zina looked at him in amazement.“So that's the sort of person you are!”he cried panting.“At last I have found you out, have I?”“Found me out?”repeated Zina, looking at him as though he were a madman. Suddenly her eyes flashed with rage.“How dare you address me like that?”she cried, advancing towards him.“I have heard all!”said Mosgliakoff solemnly, but involuntarily taking a step backwards.“You heard? I see—you have been eavesdropping!”cried Zina, looking at him with disdain.“Yes, I have been eavesdropping! Yes—I consented to do a mean action, and my reward is that I have found out that you, too, are——I don't know how to express to you what I think you!”he replied, looking more and more timid under Zina's eyes.“And supposing that youhaveheard all: what right have you to blame me? What right have you to speak to me so insolently, in any case?”“I!—I?what right haveI? andyoucan ask me this? You are going to marry this prince, and I have no right to say a word! Why, you gave me your promise—is that nothing?”“When?”“How, when?”“Did not I tell you that morning, when you came to me with your sentimental nonsense—did I not tell you that I could give you no decided answer?”“But you did not reject me; you did not send me away. I see—you kept me hanging in reserve, in case of need! You lured me into your net! I see, I see it all!”An expression of pain flitted over Zina's careworn face, as though someone had suddenly stabbed her to the heart; but she mastered her feelings.“If I didn't turn you out of the house,”she began deliberately and very clearly, though her voice had a scarcely perceptible tremor in it,“I refrained from such a course purely out of pity. You begged me yourself to postpone, to give you time, not to say you‘No,’to study you better, and‘then,’you said,‘then, when you know what a fine fellow I am, perhaps you will not refuse me!’These were your own words, or very like them, at the very beginning of your courtship!—you cannot deny them! And now you dare to tell me that I‘lured you into my net,’just as though you did not notice my expression of loathing when you made your appearance this morning! You came a fortnight sooner than I expected you, and I did not hide my disgust; on the contrary, I made it evident—you must have noticed it—I know you did; because you asked me whether I was angry because you had come sooner than you promised! Let me tell you that people who do not, and do notcareto, hide their loathing for a man can hardly be accused of luring that man into their net! You dare to tell me that I was keeping you in reserve! Very well; my answer to that is, that I judged of you like this:‘Though he may not be endowed with much intellect, still he may turn out to be a good enough fellow; and if so, it might be possible to marry him.’However, being persuaded, now, that you are a fool, and amischievousfool into the bargain,—having found out this fact, to my great joy,—it only remains for me now to wish you every happiness and a pleasant journey. Good-bye!”With these words Zina turned her back on him, and deliberately made for the door.Mosgliakoff, seeing that all was lost, boiled over with fury.“Oh! so I'm a fool!”he yelled;“I'm a fool, am I? Very well, good-bye! But before I go, the whole town shall know of this! They shall all hear how you and your mother made the old man drunk, and then swindled him! I shall let the whole world know it! You shall see what Mosgliakoff can do!”Zina trembled and stopped, as though to answer; but on reflection, she contented herself by shrugging her shoulders; glanced contemptuously at Mosgliakoff, and left the room, banging the door after her.At this moment Maria Alexandrovna made her appearance. She heard Mosgliakoff's exclamation, and, divining at once what had happened, trembled with terror. Mosgliakoff still in the house, and near the prince! Mosgliakoff about to spread the news all over the town! At this moment, when secrecy, if only for a short time, was essential! But Maria Alexandrovna was quick at calculations: she thought, with an eagle flight of the mind, over all the circumstances of the case, and her plan for the pacification of Mosgliakoff was ready in an instant!“What is it,mon ami?”she said, entering the room, and holding out her hand to him with friendly warmth.“How—‘mon ami?’”cried the enraged Mosgliakoff.“Mon ami, indeed! the moment after you have abused and reviled me like a pickpocket! No, no! Not quite so green, my good lady! I'm not to be so easily imposed upon again!”“I am sorry, extremely sorry, to see you in such astrangecondition of mind, Paul Alexandrovitch! What expressions you use! You do not take the trouble to choose your words before ladies—oh, fie!”“Before ladies? Ho ho! You—you are—you are anything you like—but not a lady!”yelled Mosgliakoff.I don't quite know what he meant, but it was something very terrible, you may be sure!Maria Alexandrovna looked benignly in his face:“Sit down!”she said, sorrowfully, showing him a chair, the same that the old prince had reclined in a quarter of an hour before.“But listen,willyou listen, Maria Alexandrovna? You look at me just as though you were not the least to blame; in fact, as thoughIwere the guilty party! Really, Maria Alexandrovna, this is a littletoomuch of a good thing! No human being can stand that sort of thing, Maria Alexandrovna! You must be aware of that fact!”“My dear friend,”replied Maria Alexandrovna—“you will allow me to continue to call you by that name, for you have no better friend than I am!—my friend, you are suffering—you are amazed and bewildered; your heart is sore, and therefore the tone of your remarks to me is perhaps not surprising. But I have made up my mind to open my heart to you, especially as I am, perhaps, in some degree to blame before you. Sit down; let us talk it over!”Maria Alexandrovna's voice was tender to a sickly extent. Her face showed the pain she was suffering. The amazed Mosgliakoff sat down beside her in the arm-chair.“You hid somewhere, and listened, I suppose?”she began, looking reproachfully into his face.“Yes I did, of course I did; and a good thing too! What a fool I should have looked if I hadn't! At all events now I know what you have been plotting against me!”replied the injured man, rudely; encouraging and supporting himself by his own fury.“And you—and you—with your principles, and with your bringing up, could condescend to such an action—Oh, oh!”Mosgliakoff jumped up.“Maria Alexandrovna, this is a little too much!”he cried.“Consider whatyoucondescend to do, withyourprinciples, andthenjudge of other people.”“One more question,”she continued, without replying to his outburst:“who recommended you to be an eavesdropper; who told you anything; who is the spy here? That's what I wish to know!”“Oh, excuse me; that I shallnottell you!”“Very well; I know already. I said, Paul, that I was in some degree to blame before you. But if you look into the matter you will find that if I am to blame it is solely in consequence of my anxiety to do you a good turn!”“What?a good turn—me? No, no, madam! I assure you I am not to be caught again! I'm not quite such a fool!”He moved so violently in his arm-chair that it shook again.“Now, do be cool, if you can, my good friend. Listen to me attentively, and you will find that what I say is only the bare truth. In the first place I was anxious to inform you of all that has just taken place, in which case you would have learned everything, down to the smallest detail, without being obliged to descend to eavesdropping! If I did not tell you all before, it was simply because the whole matter was in an embryo condition in my mind. It was then quite possible that whathashappened would never happen. You see, I am quite open with you.“In the second place, do not blame my daughter. She loves you to distraction; and it was only by the exercise of my utmost influence that I persuaded her to drop you, and accept the prince's offer.”“I have just had the pleasure of receiving convincing proof of her‘love to distraction!’”remarked Mosgliakoff, ironically and bitterly.“Very well. But how did you speak toher? As a lover should speak? Again, oughtanyman of respectable position and tone to speak like that? You insulted and wounded her!”“Never mind about my‘tone’now! All I can say is that this morning, when I went away with the prince, in spite of both of you having been as sweet as honey to me before, you reviled me behind my back like a pickpocket!Iknow all about it, you see!”“Yes, from the same dirty source, I suppose?”said Maria Alexandrovna, smiling disdainfully.“Yes, Paul, Ididrevile you: I pitched into you considerably, and I admit it frankly. But it was simply that I wasboundto blacken you before her. Why? Because, as I have said, I required her to consent to leave you, and this consent was so difficult to tear from her! Short-sighted man that you are! If she had not loved you, why should I have required so to blacken your character? Why should I have been obliged to take this extreme step? Oh! you don't know all! I was forced to use my fullest maternal authority in order to erase you from her heart; and with all my influence and skill I only succeeded in erasing your dear image superficially and partially! If you saw and heard all just now, it cannot have escaped you that Zina did not once, by either word or gesture, encourage or confirm my words to the prince? Throughout the whole scene she said not one word. She sang, but like an automaton! Her whole soul was in anguish, and at last, out of pity for her, I took the prince away. I am sure, she cried, when I left her alone! When you entered the room you must have observed tears in her eyes?”Mosgliakoff certainly did recall the fact that when he rushed into the room Zina was crying.“But you—you—why wereyouso against me, Maria Alexandrovna?”he cried.“Why did you revile me and malign me, as you admit you did?”“Ah, now that's quite a different question. Now, if you had only asked me reasonably at the beginning, you should have had your answer long ago! Yes, you are right. It was I, and I alone, who did it all. Do not think of Zina in the matter. Now,whydid I do it? I reply, in the first place, for Zina's sake. The prince is rich, influential, has great connections, and in marrying him Zina will make a brilliant match. Very well; then if the prince dies—as perhaps he will die soon, for we are all mortal,—Zina is still young, a widow, a princess, and probably very rich. Then she can marry whom she pleases; she may make another brilliant match if she likes. But of course she will marry the man she loves, and loved before, the man whose heart she wounded by accepting the prince. Remorse alone would be enough to make her marry the man whom she had loved and so deeply injured!”“Hem!”said Paul, gazing at his boots thoughtfully.“In the second place,”continued Maria,“and I will put this shortly, because, though you read a great deal of your beloved Shakespeare, and extract his finest thoughts and ideals, yet you are very young, and cannot, perhaps, apply what you read. You may not understand my feelings in this matter: listen, however.Iam giving my Zina to this prince partly for the prince's own sake, because I wish to save him by this marriage. We are old friends; he is the dearest and best of men, he is a knightly, chivalrous gentleman, and he lives helpless and miserable in the claws of that devil of a woman at Donchanovo! Heaven knows that I persuaded Zina into this marriage by putting it to her that she would be performing a great and noble action. I represented her as being the stay and the comfort and the darling and the idol of a poor old man, who probably would not live another year at the most! I showed her that thus his last days should be made happy with love and light and friendship, instead of wretched with fear and the society of a detestable woman. Oh! do not blame Zina. She is guiltless. I am not—I admit it; for if there have been calculations it is I who have made them! But I calculated for her, Paul; for her, not myself! I have outlived my time; I have thought but for my child, and what mother could blame me for this?”Tears sparkled in the fond mother's eyes. Mosgliakoff listened in amazement to all this eloquence, winking his eyes in bewilderment.“Yes, yes, of course! You talk well, Maria Alexandrovna, but you forget—you gave me your word, you encouraged me, you gave me my hopes; and where am I now? I have to stand aside and look a fool!”“But, my dear Paul, you don't surely suppose that I have not thought of you too! Don't you see the huge, immeasurable gain to yourself in all this? A gain so vast that I was bound in your interest to act as I did!”“Gain for me! How so?”asked Paul, in the most abject state of confusion and bewilderment.“Gracious Heavens! do you mean to say you are really so simple and so short-sighted as to be unable to seethat?”cried Maria Alexandrovna, raising her eyes to the ceiling in a pious manner.“Oh! youth, youth! That's what comes of steeping one's soul in Shakespeare! You ask me, my dear friend Paul, where is the gain to you in all this. Allow me to make a little digression. Zina loves you—that is an undoubted fact. But I have observed that at the same time, and in spite of her evident love, she is not quite sure of your good feeling and devotion to her; and for this reason she is sometimes cold and self-restrained in your presence. Have you never observed this yourself, Paul?”“Certainly; I did this very day; but go on, what do you deduce from that fact?”“There, you see! you have observed it yourself; then of course I am right. She is not quite sure of thelastingquality of your feeling for her! I am a mother, and I may be permitted to read the heart of my child. Now, then, supposing that instead of rushing into the room and reproaching, vilifying, evenswearingat and insulting this sweet, pure, beautiful, proud being, instead of hurling contempt and vituperation at her head—supposing that instead of all this you had received the bad news with composure, with tears of grief, maybe; perhaps even with despair—but at the same time with noble composure of soul——”“H'm!”“No, no—don't interrupt me! I wish to show you the picture as it is. Very well, supposing, then, that you had come to her and said,‘Zina, I love you better than my life, but family considerations must separate us; I understand these considerations—they are devised for your greater happiness, and I dare not oppose them. Zina, I forgive you; be happy, if you can!’—think what effect such noble words would have wrought upon her heart!”“Yes—yes, that's all very true, I quite understand that much! but if Ihadsaid all this, I should have had to go all the same, without satisfaction!”“No, no, no! don't interrupt me! I wish to show you thewholepicture in all its detail, in order to impress you fully and satisfactorily. Very well, then, imagine now that you meet her in society some time afterwards: you meet perhaps at a ball—in the brilliant light of a ball-room, under the soothing strains of music, and in the midst of worldly women and of all that is gay and beautiful. You alone are sad—thoughtful—pale,—you lean against some pillar (where you are visible, however!) and watch her. She is dancing. You hear the strains of Strauss, and the wit and merriment around you, but you are sad and wretched.“What, think you, will Zina make of it? With what sort of eyes will she gaze on you as you stand there?‘And I could doubt this man!’she will think,‘this man who sacrificed all, all, for my sake—even to the mortal wounding of his heart!’Of course the old love will awake in her bosom and will swell with irresistible power!”Maria Alexandrovna stopped to take breath. Paul moved violently from side to side of his chair.“Zina now goes abroad for the benefit of the prince's health—to Italy—to Spain,”she continued,“where the myrtle and the lemon tree grow, where the sky is so blue, the beautiful Guadalquiver flows! to the land of love, where none can live without loving; where roses and kisses—so to speak—breathe in the very air around. You follow her—you sacrifice your business, friends, everything, and follow her. And so your love grows and increases with irresistible might. Of course that love is irreproachable—innocent—you will languish for one another—you will meet frequently; of course others will malign and vilify you both, and call your love by baser names—but your love is innocent, as I have purposely said; I am her mother—it is not for me to teach you evil, but good. At all events the prince is not in the condition to keep a very sharp look-out upon you; but if he did, as if there would be the slightest ground for base suspicion? Well, the prince dies at last, and then, who will marry Zina, if not yourself? You are so distant a relative of the prince's that there could be no obstacle to the match; you marry her—she is young still, and rich. You are a grandee in an instant! you, too, are rich now! I will take care that the prince's will is made as it should be; and lastly, Zina, now convinced of your loyalty and faithfulness, will look on you hereafter as her hero, as her paragon of virtue and self-sacrifice! Oh! you must be blind,—blind, not to observe and calculate your own profit when it lies but a couple of strides from you, grinning at you, as it were, and saying,‘Here, I am yours, take me! Oh, Paul, Paul!’”“Maria Alexandrovna!”cried Mosgliakoff, in great agitation and excitement,“I see it all! I have been rude, and a fool, and a scoundrel too!”He jumped up from his chair and tore his hair.“Yes, and unbusinesslike, that's the chief thing—unbusinesslike, and blindly so!”added Maria Alexandrovna.“I'm an ass! Maria Alexandrovna,”he cried in despair.“All is lost now, and I loved her to madness!”“Maybe all is not lost yet!”said this successful orator softly, and as though thinking out some idea.“Oh! if only it could be so! help me—teach me. Oh! save me, save me!”Mosgliakoff burst into tears.“My dear boy,”said Maria Alexandrovna, sympathetically, and holding out her hand,“you acted impulsively, from the depth and heat of your passion—in fact, out of your great love for her; you were in despair, you had forgotten yourself; she must understand all that!”“Oh! I love her madly! I am ready to sacrifice everything for her!”cried Mosgliakoff.“Listen! I will justify you before her.”“Oh, Maria Alexandrovna!”“Yes, I will. I take it upon myself! You come with me, and you shall tell her exactly what I said!”“Oh, how kind, how good you are! Can't we go at once, Maria Alexandrovna?”“Goodness gracious, no! What a very green hand you are, Paul! She's far too proud! she would take it as a new rudeness and impertinence! To-morrow I shall arrange it all comfortably for you: but now, couldn't you get out of the way somewhere for a while, to that godfather of yours, for instance? You could come back in the evening, if you pleased; but my advice would be to stay away!”“Yes, yes! I'll go—of course! Good heavens, you've made a man of me again!—Well, but look here—one more question:—What if the prince doesnotdie so soon?”“Oh, my dear boy, how delightfully naïve you are! On the contrary, we must pray for his good health! We must wish with all our hearts for long life to this dear, good, and chivalrous old man! I shall be the first to pray day and night for the happiness of my beloved daughter! But alas! I fear the prince's case is hopeless; you see, they must visit the capital now, to bring Zina out into society.—I dreadfully fear that all this may prove fatal to him; however, we'll pray, Paul, we can't do more, and the rest is in the hands of a kind Providence. You see what I mean? Very well—good-bye, my dear boy, bless you! Be a man, and wait patiently—be a man, that's the chief thing! I never doubted your generosity of character; but be brave—good-bye!”She pressed his hand warmly, and Mosgliakoff walked out of the room on tip-toes.“There goesonefool, got rid of satisfactorily!”observed Maria Alexandrovna to herself,—“but there are more behind——!”At this moment the door opened, and Zina entered the room. She was paler than usual, and her eyes were all ablaze.“Mamma!”she said,“be quick about this business, or I shall not be able to hold out. It is all so dirty and mean that I feel I must run out of the house if it goes on. Don't drive me to desperation! I warn you—don't weary me out—don't weary me out!”“Zina—what is it, my darling? You—you've been listening?”cried Maria Alexandrovna, gazing intently and anxiously at her daughter.“Yes, I have; but you need not try to make me ashamed of myself as you succeeded in doing with that fool. Now listen: I solemnly swear that if you worry and annoy me by making me play various mean and odious parts in this comedy of yours,—I swear to you that I will throw up the whole business and put an end to it in a moment. It is quite enough that I have consented to be a party in the main and essence of the base transactions; but—but—I did not know myself, I am poisoned and suffocated with the stench of it!”—So saying, she left the room and banged the door after her.Maria Alexandrovna looked fixedly after her for a moment, and reflected.“I must make haste,”she cried, rousing herself;“sheis the greatest danger and difficulty of all! If these detestable people do not let us alone, instead of acting the town-criers all over the place (as I fear they are doing already!)—all will be lost! She won't stand the worry of it—she'll drop the business altogether!—At all hazards, I must get the prince to the country house, and that quickly, too! I shall be off there at once, first, and bring my fool of a husband up: he shall be made useful for once in his life! Meanwhile the prince shall have his sleep out, and when he wakes up I shall be back and ready to cart him away bodily!”She rang the bell.“Are the horses ready?”she inquired of the man.“Yes, madam, long ago!”said the latter.She had ordered the carriage the moment after she had taken the prince upstairs.Maria Alexandrovna dressed hurriedly, and then looked in at Zina's room for a moment, before starting, in order to tell her the outlines of her plan of operations, and at the same time to give Zina a few necessary instructions. But her daughter could not listen to her. She was lying on her bed with face hidden in the pillows, crying, and was tearing her beautiful hair with her long white hands: occasionally she trembled violently for a moment, as though a blast of cold had passed through all her veins. Her mother began to speak to her, but Zina did not even raise her head!Having stood over her daughter in a state of bewilderment for some little while, Maria Alexandrovna left the room; and to make up for lost time bade the coachman drive like fury, as she stepped into the carriage.“I don't quite like Zina having listened!”she thought as she rattled away.“I gave Mosgliakoff very much the same argument as to herself: she is proud, and may easily have taken offence! H'm! Well, the great thing is to be in time with all the arrangements,—before people know what I am up to! Good heavens, fancy, if my fool of a husband were to be out!!”And at the very thought of such a thing, Maria Alexandrovna's rage so overcame her that it was clear her poor husband would fare badly for his sins if he proved to be not at home! She twisted and turned in her place with impatience,—the horses almost galloped with the carriage at their heels.
He had heard all—all.
He did not actually enter the room, but stood at the door, pale with excitement and fury. Zina looked at him in amazement.
“So that's the sort of person you are!”he cried panting.“At last I have found you out, have I?”
“Found me out?”repeated Zina, looking at him as though he were a madman. Suddenly her eyes flashed with rage.“How dare you address me like that?”she cried, advancing towards him.
“I have heard all!”said Mosgliakoff solemnly, but involuntarily taking a step backwards.
“You heard? I see—you have been eavesdropping!”cried Zina, looking at him with disdain.
“Yes, I have been eavesdropping! Yes—I consented to do a mean action, and my reward is that I have found out that you, too, are——I don't know how to express to you what I think you!”he replied, looking more and more timid under Zina's eyes.
“And supposing that youhaveheard all: what right have you to blame me? What right have you to speak to me so insolently, in any case?”
“I!—I?what right haveI? andyoucan ask me this? You are going to marry this prince, and I have no right to say a word! Why, you gave me your promise—is that nothing?”
“When?”
“How, when?”
“Did not I tell you that morning, when you came to me with your sentimental nonsense—did I not tell you that I could give you no decided answer?”
“But you did not reject me; you did not send me away. I see—you kept me hanging in reserve, in case of need! You lured me into your net! I see, I see it all!”
An expression of pain flitted over Zina's careworn face, as though someone had suddenly stabbed her to the heart; but she mastered her feelings.
“If I didn't turn you out of the house,”she began deliberately and very clearly, though her voice had a scarcely perceptible tremor in it,“I refrained from such a course purely out of pity. You begged me yourself to postpone, to give you time, not to say you‘No,’to study you better, and‘then,’you said,‘then, when you know what a fine fellow I am, perhaps you will not refuse me!’These were your own words, or very like them, at the very beginning of your courtship!—you cannot deny them! And now you dare to tell me that I‘lured you into my net,’just as though you did not notice my expression of loathing when you made your appearance this morning! You came a fortnight sooner than I expected you, and I did not hide my disgust; on the contrary, I made it evident—you must have noticed it—I know you did; because you asked me whether I was angry because you had come sooner than you promised! Let me tell you that people who do not, and do notcareto, hide their loathing for a man can hardly be accused of luring that man into their net! You dare to tell me that I was keeping you in reserve! Very well; my answer to that is, that I judged of you like this:‘Though he may not be endowed with much intellect, still he may turn out to be a good enough fellow; and if so, it might be possible to marry him.’However, being persuaded, now, that you are a fool, and amischievousfool into the bargain,—having found out this fact, to my great joy,—it only remains for me now to wish you every happiness and a pleasant journey. Good-bye!”
With these words Zina turned her back on him, and deliberately made for the door.
Mosgliakoff, seeing that all was lost, boiled over with fury.
“Oh! so I'm a fool!”he yelled;“I'm a fool, am I? Very well, good-bye! But before I go, the whole town shall know of this! They shall all hear how you and your mother made the old man drunk, and then swindled him! I shall let the whole world know it! You shall see what Mosgliakoff can do!”
Zina trembled and stopped, as though to answer; but on reflection, she contented herself by shrugging her shoulders; glanced contemptuously at Mosgliakoff, and left the room, banging the door after her.
At this moment Maria Alexandrovna made her appearance. She heard Mosgliakoff's exclamation, and, divining at once what had happened, trembled with terror. Mosgliakoff still in the house, and near the prince! Mosgliakoff about to spread the news all over the town! At this moment, when secrecy, if only for a short time, was essential! But Maria Alexandrovna was quick at calculations: she thought, with an eagle flight of the mind, over all the circumstances of the case, and her plan for the pacification of Mosgliakoff was ready in an instant!
“What is it,mon ami?”she said, entering the room, and holding out her hand to him with friendly warmth.
“How—‘mon ami?’”cried the enraged Mosgliakoff.“Mon ami, indeed! the moment after you have abused and reviled me like a pickpocket! No, no! Not quite so green, my good lady! I'm not to be so easily imposed upon again!”
“I am sorry, extremely sorry, to see you in such astrangecondition of mind, Paul Alexandrovitch! What expressions you use! You do not take the trouble to choose your words before ladies—oh, fie!”
“Before ladies? Ho ho! You—you are—you are anything you like—but not a lady!”yelled Mosgliakoff.
I don't quite know what he meant, but it was something very terrible, you may be sure!
Maria Alexandrovna looked benignly in his face:
“Sit down!”she said, sorrowfully, showing him a chair, the same that the old prince had reclined in a quarter of an hour before.
“But listen,willyou listen, Maria Alexandrovna? You look at me just as though you were not the least to blame; in fact, as thoughIwere the guilty party! Really, Maria Alexandrovna, this is a littletoomuch of a good thing! No human being can stand that sort of thing, Maria Alexandrovna! You must be aware of that fact!”
“My dear friend,”replied Maria Alexandrovna—“you will allow me to continue to call you by that name, for you have no better friend than I am!—my friend, you are suffering—you are amazed and bewildered; your heart is sore, and therefore the tone of your remarks to me is perhaps not surprising. But I have made up my mind to open my heart to you, especially as I am, perhaps, in some degree to blame before you. Sit down; let us talk it over!”
Maria Alexandrovna's voice was tender to a sickly extent. Her face showed the pain she was suffering. The amazed Mosgliakoff sat down beside her in the arm-chair.
“You hid somewhere, and listened, I suppose?”she began, looking reproachfully into his face.
“Yes I did, of course I did; and a good thing too! What a fool I should have looked if I hadn't! At all events now I know what you have been plotting against me!”replied the injured man, rudely; encouraging and supporting himself by his own fury.
“And you—and you—with your principles, and with your bringing up, could condescend to such an action—Oh, oh!”
Mosgliakoff jumped up.
“Maria Alexandrovna, this is a little too much!”he cried.“Consider whatyoucondescend to do, withyourprinciples, andthenjudge of other people.”
“One more question,”she continued, without replying to his outburst:“who recommended you to be an eavesdropper; who told you anything; who is the spy here? That's what I wish to know!”
“Oh, excuse me; that I shallnottell you!”
“Very well; I know already. I said, Paul, that I was in some degree to blame before you. But if you look into the matter you will find that if I am to blame it is solely in consequence of my anxiety to do you a good turn!”
“What?a good turn—me? No, no, madam! I assure you I am not to be caught again! I'm not quite such a fool!”
He moved so violently in his arm-chair that it shook again.
“Now, do be cool, if you can, my good friend. Listen to me attentively, and you will find that what I say is only the bare truth. In the first place I was anxious to inform you of all that has just taken place, in which case you would have learned everything, down to the smallest detail, without being obliged to descend to eavesdropping! If I did not tell you all before, it was simply because the whole matter was in an embryo condition in my mind. It was then quite possible that whathashappened would never happen. You see, I am quite open with you.
“In the second place, do not blame my daughter. She loves you to distraction; and it was only by the exercise of my utmost influence that I persuaded her to drop you, and accept the prince's offer.”
“I have just had the pleasure of receiving convincing proof of her‘love to distraction!’”remarked Mosgliakoff, ironically and bitterly.
“Very well. But how did you speak toher? As a lover should speak? Again, oughtanyman of respectable position and tone to speak like that? You insulted and wounded her!”
“Never mind about my‘tone’now! All I can say is that this morning, when I went away with the prince, in spite of both of you having been as sweet as honey to me before, you reviled me behind my back like a pickpocket!Iknow all about it, you see!”
“Yes, from the same dirty source, I suppose?”said Maria Alexandrovna, smiling disdainfully.“Yes, Paul, Ididrevile you: I pitched into you considerably, and I admit it frankly. But it was simply that I wasboundto blacken you before her. Why? Because, as I have said, I required her to consent to leave you, and this consent was so difficult to tear from her! Short-sighted man that you are! If she had not loved you, why should I have required so to blacken your character? Why should I have been obliged to take this extreme step? Oh! you don't know all! I was forced to use my fullest maternal authority in order to erase you from her heart; and with all my influence and skill I only succeeded in erasing your dear image superficially and partially! If you saw and heard all just now, it cannot have escaped you that Zina did not once, by either word or gesture, encourage or confirm my words to the prince? Throughout the whole scene she said not one word. She sang, but like an automaton! Her whole soul was in anguish, and at last, out of pity for her, I took the prince away. I am sure, she cried, when I left her alone! When you entered the room you must have observed tears in her eyes?”
Mosgliakoff certainly did recall the fact that when he rushed into the room Zina was crying.
“But you—you—why wereyouso against me, Maria Alexandrovna?”he cried.“Why did you revile me and malign me, as you admit you did?”
“Ah, now that's quite a different question. Now, if you had only asked me reasonably at the beginning, you should have had your answer long ago! Yes, you are right. It was I, and I alone, who did it all. Do not think of Zina in the matter. Now,whydid I do it? I reply, in the first place, for Zina's sake. The prince is rich, influential, has great connections, and in marrying him Zina will make a brilliant match. Very well; then if the prince dies—as perhaps he will die soon, for we are all mortal,—Zina is still young, a widow, a princess, and probably very rich. Then she can marry whom she pleases; she may make another brilliant match if she likes. But of course she will marry the man she loves, and loved before, the man whose heart she wounded by accepting the prince. Remorse alone would be enough to make her marry the man whom she had loved and so deeply injured!”
“Hem!”said Paul, gazing at his boots thoughtfully.
“In the second place,”continued Maria,“and I will put this shortly, because, though you read a great deal of your beloved Shakespeare, and extract his finest thoughts and ideals, yet you are very young, and cannot, perhaps, apply what you read. You may not understand my feelings in this matter: listen, however.Iam giving my Zina to this prince partly for the prince's own sake, because I wish to save him by this marriage. We are old friends; he is the dearest and best of men, he is a knightly, chivalrous gentleman, and he lives helpless and miserable in the claws of that devil of a woman at Donchanovo! Heaven knows that I persuaded Zina into this marriage by putting it to her that she would be performing a great and noble action. I represented her as being the stay and the comfort and the darling and the idol of a poor old man, who probably would not live another year at the most! I showed her that thus his last days should be made happy with love and light and friendship, instead of wretched with fear and the society of a detestable woman. Oh! do not blame Zina. She is guiltless. I am not—I admit it; for if there have been calculations it is I who have made them! But I calculated for her, Paul; for her, not myself! I have outlived my time; I have thought but for my child, and what mother could blame me for this?”Tears sparkled in the fond mother's eyes. Mosgliakoff listened in amazement to all this eloquence, winking his eyes in bewilderment.
“Yes, yes, of course! You talk well, Maria Alexandrovna, but you forget—you gave me your word, you encouraged me, you gave me my hopes; and where am I now? I have to stand aside and look a fool!”
“But, my dear Paul, you don't surely suppose that I have not thought of you too! Don't you see the huge, immeasurable gain to yourself in all this? A gain so vast that I was bound in your interest to act as I did!”
“Gain for me! How so?”asked Paul, in the most abject state of confusion and bewilderment.
“Gracious Heavens! do you mean to say you are really so simple and so short-sighted as to be unable to seethat?”cried Maria Alexandrovna, raising her eyes to the ceiling in a pious manner.“Oh! youth, youth! That's what comes of steeping one's soul in Shakespeare! You ask me, my dear friend Paul, where is the gain to you in all this. Allow me to make a little digression. Zina loves you—that is an undoubted fact. But I have observed that at the same time, and in spite of her evident love, she is not quite sure of your good feeling and devotion to her; and for this reason she is sometimes cold and self-restrained in your presence. Have you never observed this yourself, Paul?”
“Certainly; I did this very day; but go on, what do you deduce from that fact?”
“There, you see! you have observed it yourself; then of course I am right. She is not quite sure of thelastingquality of your feeling for her! I am a mother, and I may be permitted to read the heart of my child. Now, then, supposing that instead of rushing into the room and reproaching, vilifying, evenswearingat and insulting this sweet, pure, beautiful, proud being, instead of hurling contempt and vituperation at her head—supposing that instead of all this you had received the bad news with composure, with tears of grief, maybe; perhaps even with despair—but at the same time with noble composure of soul——”
“H'm!”
“No, no—don't interrupt me! I wish to show you the picture as it is. Very well, supposing, then, that you had come to her and said,‘Zina, I love you better than my life, but family considerations must separate us; I understand these considerations—they are devised for your greater happiness, and I dare not oppose them. Zina, I forgive you; be happy, if you can!’—think what effect such noble words would have wrought upon her heart!”
“Yes—yes, that's all very true, I quite understand that much! but if Ihadsaid all this, I should have had to go all the same, without satisfaction!”
“No, no, no! don't interrupt me! I wish to show you thewholepicture in all its detail, in order to impress you fully and satisfactorily. Very well, then, imagine now that you meet her in society some time afterwards: you meet perhaps at a ball—in the brilliant light of a ball-room, under the soothing strains of music, and in the midst of worldly women and of all that is gay and beautiful. You alone are sad—thoughtful—pale,—you lean against some pillar (where you are visible, however!) and watch her. She is dancing. You hear the strains of Strauss, and the wit and merriment around you, but you are sad and wretched.
“What, think you, will Zina make of it? With what sort of eyes will she gaze on you as you stand there?‘And I could doubt this man!’she will think,‘this man who sacrificed all, all, for my sake—even to the mortal wounding of his heart!’Of course the old love will awake in her bosom and will swell with irresistible power!”
Maria Alexandrovna stopped to take breath. Paul moved violently from side to side of his chair.
“Zina now goes abroad for the benefit of the prince's health—to Italy—to Spain,”she continued,“where the myrtle and the lemon tree grow, where the sky is so blue, the beautiful Guadalquiver flows! to the land of love, where none can live without loving; where roses and kisses—so to speak—breathe in the very air around. You follow her—you sacrifice your business, friends, everything, and follow her. And so your love grows and increases with irresistible might. Of course that love is irreproachable—innocent—you will languish for one another—you will meet frequently; of course others will malign and vilify you both, and call your love by baser names—but your love is innocent, as I have purposely said; I am her mother—it is not for me to teach you evil, but good. At all events the prince is not in the condition to keep a very sharp look-out upon you; but if he did, as if there would be the slightest ground for base suspicion? Well, the prince dies at last, and then, who will marry Zina, if not yourself? You are so distant a relative of the prince's that there could be no obstacle to the match; you marry her—she is young still, and rich. You are a grandee in an instant! you, too, are rich now! I will take care that the prince's will is made as it should be; and lastly, Zina, now convinced of your loyalty and faithfulness, will look on you hereafter as her hero, as her paragon of virtue and self-sacrifice! Oh! you must be blind,—blind, not to observe and calculate your own profit when it lies but a couple of strides from you, grinning at you, as it were, and saying,‘Here, I am yours, take me! Oh, Paul, Paul!’”
“Maria Alexandrovna!”cried Mosgliakoff, in great agitation and excitement,“I see it all! I have been rude, and a fool, and a scoundrel too!”He jumped up from his chair and tore his hair.
“Yes, and unbusinesslike, that's the chief thing—unbusinesslike, and blindly so!”added Maria Alexandrovna.
“I'm an ass! Maria Alexandrovna,”he cried in despair.“All is lost now, and I loved her to madness!”
“Maybe all is not lost yet!”said this successful orator softly, and as though thinking out some idea.
“Oh! if only it could be so! help me—teach me. Oh! save me, save me!”
Mosgliakoff burst into tears.
“My dear boy,”said Maria Alexandrovna, sympathetically, and holding out her hand,“you acted impulsively, from the depth and heat of your passion—in fact, out of your great love for her; you were in despair, you had forgotten yourself; she must understand all that!”
“Oh! I love her madly! I am ready to sacrifice everything for her!”cried Mosgliakoff.
“Listen! I will justify you before her.”
“Oh, Maria Alexandrovna!”
“Yes, I will. I take it upon myself! You come with me, and you shall tell her exactly what I said!”
“Oh, how kind, how good you are! Can't we go at once, Maria Alexandrovna?”
“Goodness gracious, no! What a very green hand you are, Paul! She's far too proud! she would take it as a new rudeness and impertinence! To-morrow I shall arrange it all comfortably for you: but now, couldn't you get out of the way somewhere for a while, to that godfather of yours, for instance? You could come back in the evening, if you pleased; but my advice would be to stay away!”
“Yes, yes! I'll go—of course! Good heavens, you've made a man of me again!—Well, but look here—one more question:—What if the prince doesnotdie so soon?”
“Oh, my dear boy, how delightfully naïve you are! On the contrary, we must pray for his good health! We must wish with all our hearts for long life to this dear, good, and chivalrous old man! I shall be the first to pray day and night for the happiness of my beloved daughter! But alas! I fear the prince's case is hopeless; you see, they must visit the capital now, to bring Zina out into society.—I dreadfully fear that all this may prove fatal to him; however, we'll pray, Paul, we can't do more, and the rest is in the hands of a kind Providence. You see what I mean? Very well—good-bye, my dear boy, bless you! Be a man, and wait patiently—be a man, that's the chief thing! I never doubted your generosity of character; but be brave—good-bye!”She pressed his hand warmly, and Mosgliakoff walked out of the room on tip-toes.
“There goesonefool, got rid of satisfactorily!”observed Maria Alexandrovna to herself,—“but there are more behind——!”
At this moment the door opened, and Zina entered the room. She was paler than usual, and her eyes were all ablaze.
“Mamma!”she said,“be quick about this business, or I shall not be able to hold out. It is all so dirty and mean that I feel I must run out of the house if it goes on. Don't drive me to desperation! I warn you—don't weary me out—don't weary me out!”
“Zina—what is it, my darling? You—you've been listening?”cried Maria Alexandrovna, gazing intently and anxiously at her daughter.
“Yes, I have; but you need not try to make me ashamed of myself as you succeeded in doing with that fool. Now listen: I solemnly swear that if you worry and annoy me by making me play various mean and odious parts in this comedy of yours,—I swear to you that I will throw up the whole business and put an end to it in a moment. It is quite enough that I have consented to be a party in the main and essence of the base transactions; but—but—I did not know myself, I am poisoned and suffocated with the stench of it!”—So saying, she left the room and banged the door after her.
Maria Alexandrovna looked fixedly after her for a moment, and reflected.
“I must make haste,”she cried, rousing herself;“sheis the greatest danger and difficulty of all! If these detestable people do not let us alone, instead of acting the town-criers all over the place (as I fear they are doing already!)—all will be lost! She won't stand the worry of it—she'll drop the business altogether!—At all hazards, I must get the prince to the country house, and that quickly, too! I shall be off there at once, first, and bring my fool of a husband up: he shall be made useful for once in his life! Meanwhile the prince shall have his sleep out, and when he wakes up I shall be back and ready to cart him away bodily!”
She rang the bell.
“Are the horses ready?”she inquired of the man.
“Yes, madam, long ago!”said the latter.
She had ordered the carriage the moment after she had taken the prince upstairs.
Maria Alexandrovna dressed hurriedly, and then looked in at Zina's room for a moment, before starting, in order to tell her the outlines of her plan of operations, and at the same time to give Zina a few necessary instructions. But her daughter could not listen to her. She was lying on her bed with face hidden in the pillows, crying, and was tearing her beautiful hair with her long white hands: occasionally she trembled violently for a moment, as though a blast of cold had passed through all her veins. Her mother began to speak to her, but Zina did not even raise her head!
Having stood over her daughter in a state of bewilderment for some little while, Maria Alexandrovna left the room; and to make up for lost time bade the coachman drive like fury, as she stepped into the carriage.
“I don't quite like Zina having listened!”she thought as she rattled away.“I gave Mosgliakoff very much the same argument as to herself: she is proud, and may easily have taken offence! H'm! Well, the great thing is to be in time with all the arrangements,—before people know what I am up to! Good heavens, fancy, if my fool of a husband were to be out!!”
And at the very thought of such a thing, Maria Alexandrovna's rage so overcame her that it was clear her poor husband would fare badly for his sins if he proved to be not at home! She twisted and turned in her place with impatience,—the horses almost galloped with the carriage at their heels.
CHAPTER X.On they flew.I have said already that this very day, on her first drive after the prince, Maria Alexandrovna had been inspired with a great idea! and I promised to reveal this idea in its proper place. But I am sure the reader has guessed it already!—It was, to“confiscate”the prince in her turn, and carry him off to the village where, at this moment, her husband Afanassy Matveyevitch vegetated alone.I must admit that our heroine was growing more and more anxious as the day went on; but this is often the case with heroes of all kinds, just before they attain their great ends! Some such instinct whispered to her that it was not safe to remain in Mordasoff another hour, if it could be avoided;—but once in the country house, the whole town might go mad and stand on its head, for all she cared!Of course she must not lose time, even there! All sorts of things might happen—even the police might interfere. (Reader, I shall never believe, for my part, that my heroine really had the slightest fear of the vulgar police force; but as it has been rumoured in Mordasoff that at this moment such a thoughtdidpass through her brain, why, I must record the fact.)In a word she saw clearly that Zina's marriage with the prince must be brought about at once, without delay! It was easily done: the priest at the village should perform the ceremony; why not the day after to-morrow? or indeed, in case of need, to-morrow? Marriages had often been brought about in less time than this—in two hours, she had heard! It would be easy enough to persuade the prince that haste and simplicity would be in far better taste than all the usual pomps and vanities of common everyday weddings. In fact, she relied upon her skill in putting the matter to the old man as a fitting dramatic issue to a romantic story of love, and thus to touch the most sensitive string of his chivalrous heart.In case of absolute need there was always the possibility of making him drunk, or rather ofkeepinghim perpetually drunk. And then, come what might, Zina would be a princess! And if this marriage were fated to produce scandal among the prince's relations and friends in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Maria Alexandrovna comforted herself with the reflection that marriages in high life nearly alwayswereproductive of scandal; and that such a result might fairly be looked upon as“good form,”and as peculiar to aristocratic circles.Besides, she felt sure that Zina need only show herself in society, with her mamma to support her, and every one of all those countesses and princes should very soon either acknowledge her of their own accord, or yield to the head-washing that Maria Alexandrovna felt herself so competent to give to any or all of them, individually or collectively.It was in consequence of these reflections that Maria Alexandrovna was now hastening with all speed towards her village, in order to bring back Afanassy Matveyevitch, whose presence she considered absolutely necessary at this crisis. It was desirable that her husband should appear and invite the prince down to the country: she relied upon the appearance of the father of the family, in dress-coat and white tie, hastening up to town on the first rumours of the prince's arrival there, to produce a very favourable impression upon the old man's self-respect: it would flatter him; and after such a courteous action, followed by a polite and warmly-couched invitation to the country, the prince would hardly refuse to go.At last the carriage stopped at the door of a long low wooden house, surrounded by old lime trees. This was the country house, Maria Alexandrovna's village residence.Lights were burning inside.“Where's my old fool?”cried Maria Alexandrovna bursting like a hurricane into the sitting-room.“Whats this towel lying here for?—Oh!—he's been wiping his head, has he. What, the baths again! and tea—of course tea!—always tea! Well, what are you winking your eyes at me for, you old fool?—Here, why is his hair not cropped? Grisha, Grisha!—here; why didn't you cut your master's hair, as I told you?”Maria Alexandrovna, on entering the room, had intended to greet her husband more kindly than this; but seeing that he had just been to the baths and that he was drinking tea with great satisfaction, as usual, she could not restrain her irritable feelings.She felt the contrast between her own activity and intellectual energy, and the stolid indifference and sheep-like contentedness of her husband, and it went to her heart!Meanwhile the“old fool,”or to put it more politely, he who had been addressed by that title, sat at the tea-urn, and stared with open mouth, in abject alarm, opening and shutting his lips as he gazed at the wife of his bosom, who had almost petrified him by her sudden appearance.At the door stood the sleepy, fat Grisha, looking on at the scene, and blinking both eyes at periodical intervals.“I couldn't cut his hair as you wished, because he wouldn't let me!”he growled at last.“‘You'd better let me do it!’—I said,‘or the mistress'll be down one of these days, and then we shall both catch it!’”“No,”he says,“I want it like this now, and you shall cut it on Sunday. I like it long!”“What!—So you wish to curl it without my leave, do you! What an idea—as if you could wear curls with your sheep-face underneath! Good gracious, what a mess you've made of the place; and what's the smell—what have you been doing, idiot, eh!”cried Maria Alexandrovna, waxing more and more angry, and turning furiously upon the wretched and perfectly innocent Afanassy!“Mam—mammy!”muttered the poor frightened master of the house, gazing with frightened eyes at the mistress, and blinking with all his might—“mammy!”“How many times have I dinned into your stupid head that I amnotyour‘mammy.’How can I be your mammy, you idiotic pigmy? How dare you call a noble lady by such a name; a lady whose proper place is in the highest circles, not beside an ass like yourself!”“Yes—yes,—but—but, youaremy legal wife, you know, after all;—so I—it was husbandly affection you know——”murmured poor Afanassy, raising both hands to his head as he spoke, to defend his hair from the tugs he evidently expected.“Oh, idiot that you are! did anyone ever hear such a ridiculous answer as that—legal wife, indeed! Who ever heard the expression‘legalwife,’in good society—nasty low expression! And how dare you remind me that I am your wife, when I use all my power and do all I possibly can at every moment to forget the fact, eh? What are you covering your head with your hands for? Look at his hair—now: wet, as wet as reeds! it will take three hours to dry that head! How on earth am I to take him like this? How can he show his face among respectable people? What am I to do?”And Maria Alexandrovna bit her finger-nails with rage as she walked furiously up and down the room.It was no very great matter, of course; and one that was easily set right; but Maria Alexandrovna required a vent for her feelings and felt the need of emptying out her accumulated wrath upon the head of the wretched Afanassy Matveyevitch; for tyranny is a habit recallable at need.Besides, everyone knows how great a contrast there is between the sweetness and refinement shown by many ladies of a certain class on the stage, as it were, of society life, and the revelations of character behind the scenes at home; and I was anxious to bring out this contrast for my reader's benefit.Afanassy watched the movements of his terrible spouse in fear and trembling; perspiration formed upon his brow as he gazed.“Grisha!”she cried at last,“dress your master this instant! Dress-coat, black trousers, white waistcoat and tie, quick! Where's his hairbrush—quick, quick!”“Mam—my! Why, I've just been to the bath. I shall catch cold if I go up to town just now!”“You won't catch cold!”“But—mammy, my hair's quite wet!”“We'll dry it in a minute. Here, Grisha, take this brush and brush away till he's dry,—harder—harder—much harder! There, that's better!”Grisha worked like a man. For the greater convenience of his herculean task he seized his master's shoulder with one hand as he rubbed violently with the other. Poor Afanassy grunted and groaned and almost wept.“Now, then, lift him up a bit. Where's the pomatum? Bend your head, duffer!—bend lower, you abject dummy!”And Maria Alexandrovna herself undertook to pomade her husband's hair, ploughing her hands through it without the slightest pity. Afanassy heartily wished that his shock growth had been cut. He winced, and groaned and moaned, but did not cry out under the painful operation.“You suck my life-blood out of me—bend lower, you idiot!”remarked the fond wife—“bend lower still, I tell you!”“How have I sucked your life blood?”asked the victim, bending his head as low as circumstances permitted.“Fool!—allegorically, of course—can't you understand? Now, then, comb it yourself. Here, Grisha, dress him, quick!”Our heroine threw herself into an arm-chair, and critically watched the ceremony of adorning her husband. Meanwhile the latter had a little opportunity to get his breath once more and compose his feelings generally; so that when matters arrived at the point where the tie is tied, he had even developed so much audacity as to express opinions of his own as to how the bow should be manufactured.At last, having put his dress-coat on, the lord of the manor was his brave self again, and gazed at his highly ornate person in the glass with great satisfaction and complacency.“Where are you going to take me to?”he now asked, smiling at his reflected self.Maria Alexandrovna could not believe her ears.“What—what? Howdareyou ask me where I am taking you to, sir!”“But—mammy—I must know, you know——”“Hold your tongue! You let me hear you call me mammy again, especially where we are going to now! you sha'n't have any tea for a month!”The frightened consort held his peace.“Look at that, now! You haven't got a single 'order' to put on—sloven!”she continued, looking at his black coat with contempt.“The Government awards orders, mammy; and I am not a sloven, but a town councillor!”said Afanassy, with a sudden excess of noble wrath.“What, what—what! So you've learned to argue now, have you—you mongrel, you? However, I haven't time to waste over you now, or I'd——but I sha'n't forget it. Here, Grisha, give him his fur coat and his hat—quick; and look here, Grisha, when I'm gone, get these three rooms ready, and the green room, and the corner bedroom. Quick—find your broom; take the coverings off the looking-glasses and clocks, and see that all is ready and tidy within an hour. Put on a dress coat, and see that the other men have gloves: don't lose time. Quick, now!”She entered the carriage, followed by Afanassy. The latter sat bewildered and lost.Meanwhile Maria Alexandrovna reflected as to how best she could drum into her husband's thick skull certain essential instructions with regard to the present situation of affairs. But Afanassy anticipated her.“I had a very original dream to-day, Maria Alexandrovna,”he observed quite unexpectedly, in the middle of a long silence.“Tfu! idiot. I thought you were going to say something of terrific interest, from the look of you. Dream, indeed! How dare you mention your miserable dreams to me! Original, too! Listen here: if you dare so much as remind me of the word‘dream,’or say anything else, either, where we are going to-day, I—I don't knowwhatI won't do to you! Now, look here: Prince K. has arrived at my house. Do you remember Prince K.?”“Oh, yes, mammy, I remember; and why has he done us this honour?”“Be quiet; that's not your business. Now, you are to invite him, with all the amiability you can, to come down to our house in the country, at once! That is what I am taking you up for. And if you dare so much as breathe another word of any kind, either to-day or to-morrow, or next day, without leave from me, you shall herd geese for a whole year. You're not to say a single word, mind! and that's all you have to think of. Do you understand, now?”“Well, but if I'm asked anything?”“Hold your tongue all the same!”“Oh, but I can't do that—I can't do——”“Very well, then; you can say‘H'm,’or something of that sort, to give them the idea that you are very wise indeed, and like to think well before answering.”“H'm.”“Understand me, now. I am taking you up because you are to make it appear that you have just heard of the prince's visit, and have hastened up to town in a transport of joy to express your unbounded respect and gratitude to him, and to invite him at once to your country house! Do you understand me?”“H'm.”“I don't want you to say‘H'm’now, you fool! You must answermewhen I speak!”“All right—all right, mammy. All shall be as you wish; but why am I to ask the prince down?”“What—what! arguing again. What business is it of yourswhyyou are to invite him? How dare you ask questions!”“Why it's all the same thing, mammy. How am I to invite him if I must not say a word?”“Oh, I shall do all the talking. All you have to do is to bow. Do you hear?Bow; and hold your hat in your hand and look polite. Do you understand, or not?”“I understand, mam—Maria-Alexandrovna.”“The prince is very witty, indeed; so mind, if he says anything either to yourself or anyone else, you are to laugh cordially and merrily. Do you hear me?”“H'm.”“Don't say‘H'm’tome, I tell you. You are to answer me plainly and simply. Do you hear me, or not?”“Yes, yes; I hear you, of course. That's all right. I only say‘H'm,’for practice; I want to get into the way of saying it. But look here, mammy, it's all very well; you say I'm not to speak, and if he speaks to me I'm to look at him and laugh—but what if he asks me a question?”“Oh—you dense log of a man! I tell you again, you are to be quiet.I'llanswer for you. You have simply got to look polite, and smile!”“But he'll think I am dumb!”said Afanassy.“Well, and what if he does. Let him! You'll conceal the fact that you are a fool, anyhow!”“H'm, and ifotherpeople ask me questions?”“No one will; there'll be no one to ask you. But if thereshouldbe anyone else in the room, and they ask you questions, all you have to do is to smile sarcastically. Do you know what a sarcastic smile is?”“What, a witty sort of smile, is it, mammy?”“I'll let you know about it!Witty, indeed! Why, who would think of expecting anything witty from a fool like you. No, sir, a jesting smile—jestingandcontemptuous!”“H'm.”“Good heavens. I'm afraid for this idiot,”thought Maria Alexandrovna to herself.“I really think it would have been almost better to leave him behind, after all.”So thinking, nervous and anxious, Maria Alexandrovna drove on. She looked out of the window, and she fidgeted, and she bustled the coachman up. The horses were almost flying through the air; but to her they appeared to be crawling. Afanassy sat silent and thoughtful in the corner of the carriage, practising his lessons. At last the carriage arrived at the town house.Hardly, however, had Maria Alexandrovna mounted the outer steps when she became aware of a fine pair of horses trotting up—drawing a smart sledge with a hood to it. In fact, the very“turn-out”in which Anna Nicolaevna Antipova was generally to be seen.Two ladies sat in the sledge. One of these was, of course, Mrs. Antipova herself; the other was Natalia Dimitrievna, of late the great friend and ally of the former lady.Maria Alexandrovna's heart sank.But she had no time to say a word, before another smart vehicle drove up, in which there reclined yet another guest. Exclamations of joy and delight were now heard.“Maria Alexandrovna! and Afanassy Matveyevitch! Just arrived, too! Where from? How extremely delightful! And here we are, you see, just driven up at the right moment. We are going to spend the evening with you. What a delightful surprise.”The guests alighted and fluttered up the steps like so many swallows.Maria Alexandrovna could neither believe her eyes nor her ears.“Curse you all!”she said to herself.“This looks like a plot—it must be seen to; but it takes more than a flight of magpies likeyouto get to windward ofme. Wait a little!!”
On they flew.
I have said already that this very day, on her first drive after the prince, Maria Alexandrovna had been inspired with a great idea! and I promised to reveal this idea in its proper place. But I am sure the reader has guessed it already!—It was, to“confiscate”the prince in her turn, and carry him off to the village where, at this moment, her husband Afanassy Matveyevitch vegetated alone.
I must admit that our heroine was growing more and more anxious as the day went on; but this is often the case with heroes of all kinds, just before they attain their great ends! Some such instinct whispered to her that it was not safe to remain in Mordasoff another hour, if it could be avoided;—but once in the country house, the whole town might go mad and stand on its head, for all she cared!
Of course she must not lose time, even there! All sorts of things might happen—even the police might interfere. (Reader, I shall never believe, for my part, that my heroine really had the slightest fear of the vulgar police force; but as it has been rumoured in Mordasoff that at this moment such a thoughtdidpass through her brain, why, I must record the fact.)
In a word she saw clearly that Zina's marriage with the prince must be brought about at once, without delay! It was easily done: the priest at the village should perform the ceremony; why not the day after to-morrow? or indeed, in case of need, to-morrow? Marriages had often been brought about in less time than this—in two hours, she had heard! It would be easy enough to persuade the prince that haste and simplicity would be in far better taste than all the usual pomps and vanities of common everyday weddings. In fact, she relied upon her skill in putting the matter to the old man as a fitting dramatic issue to a romantic story of love, and thus to touch the most sensitive string of his chivalrous heart.
In case of absolute need there was always the possibility of making him drunk, or rather ofkeepinghim perpetually drunk. And then, come what might, Zina would be a princess! And if this marriage were fated to produce scandal among the prince's relations and friends in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Maria Alexandrovna comforted herself with the reflection that marriages in high life nearly alwayswereproductive of scandal; and that such a result might fairly be looked upon as“good form,”and as peculiar to aristocratic circles.
Besides, she felt sure that Zina need only show herself in society, with her mamma to support her, and every one of all those countesses and princes should very soon either acknowledge her of their own accord, or yield to the head-washing that Maria Alexandrovna felt herself so competent to give to any or all of them, individually or collectively.
It was in consequence of these reflections that Maria Alexandrovna was now hastening with all speed towards her village, in order to bring back Afanassy Matveyevitch, whose presence she considered absolutely necessary at this crisis. It was desirable that her husband should appear and invite the prince down to the country: she relied upon the appearance of the father of the family, in dress-coat and white tie, hastening up to town on the first rumours of the prince's arrival there, to produce a very favourable impression upon the old man's self-respect: it would flatter him; and after such a courteous action, followed by a polite and warmly-couched invitation to the country, the prince would hardly refuse to go.
At last the carriage stopped at the door of a long low wooden house, surrounded by old lime trees. This was the country house, Maria Alexandrovna's village residence.
Lights were burning inside.
“Where's my old fool?”cried Maria Alexandrovna bursting like a hurricane into the sitting-room.
“Whats this towel lying here for?—Oh!—he's been wiping his head, has he. What, the baths again! and tea—of course tea!—always tea! Well, what are you winking your eyes at me for, you old fool?—Here, why is his hair not cropped? Grisha, Grisha!—here; why didn't you cut your master's hair, as I told you?”
Maria Alexandrovna, on entering the room, had intended to greet her husband more kindly than this; but seeing that he had just been to the baths and that he was drinking tea with great satisfaction, as usual, she could not restrain her irritable feelings.
She felt the contrast between her own activity and intellectual energy, and the stolid indifference and sheep-like contentedness of her husband, and it went to her heart!
Meanwhile the“old fool,”or to put it more politely, he who had been addressed by that title, sat at the tea-urn, and stared with open mouth, in abject alarm, opening and shutting his lips as he gazed at the wife of his bosom, who had almost petrified him by her sudden appearance.
At the door stood the sleepy, fat Grisha, looking on at the scene, and blinking both eyes at periodical intervals.
“I couldn't cut his hair as you wished, because he wouldn't let me!”he growled at last.“‘You'd better let me do it!’—I said,‘or the mistress'll be down one of these days, and then we shall both catch it!’”
“No,”he says,“I want it like this now, and you shall cut it on Sunday. I like it long!”
“What!—So you wish to curl it without my leave, do you! What an idea—as if you could wear curls with your sheep-face underneath! Good gracious, what a mess you've made of the place; and what's the smell—what have you been doing, idiot, eh!”cried Maria Alexandrovna, waxing more and more angry, and turning furiously upon the wretched and perfectly innocent Afanassy!
“Mam—mammy!”muttered the poor frightened master of the house, gazing with frightened eyes at the mistress, and blinking with all his might—“mammy!”
“How many times have I dinned into your stupid head that I amnotyour‘mammy.’How can I be your mammy, you idiotic pigmy? How dare you call a noble lady by such a name; a lady whose proper place is in the highest circles, not beside an ass like yourself!”
“Yes—yes,—but—but, youaremy legal wife, you know, after all;—so I—it was husbandly affection you know——”murmured poor Afanassy, raising both hands to his head as he spoke, to defend his hair from the tugs he evidently expected.
“Oh, idiot that you are! did anyone ever hear such a ridiculous answer as that—legal wife, indeed! Who ever heard the expression‘legalwife,’in good society—nasty low expression! And how dare you remind me that I am your wife, when I use all my power and do all I possibly can at every moment to forget the fact, eh? What are you covering your head with your hands for? Look at his hair—now: wet, as wet as reeds! it will take three hours to dry that head! How on earth am I to take him like this? How can he show his face among respectable people? What am I to do?”
And Maria Alexandrovna bit her finger-nails with rage as she walked furiously up and down the room.
It was no very great matter, of course; and one that was easily set right; but Maria Alexandrovna required a vent for her feelings and felt the need of emptying out her accumulated wrath upon the head of the wretched Afanassy Matveyevitch; for tyranny is a habit recallable at need.
Besides, everyone knows how great a contrast there is between the sweetness and refinement shown by many ladies of a certain class on the stage, as it were, of society life, and the revelations of character behind the scenes at home; and I was anxious to bring out this contrast for my reader's benefit.
Afanassy watched the movements of his terrible spouse in fear and trembling; perspiration formed upon his brow as he gazed.
“Grisha!”she cried at last,“dress your master this instant! Dress-coat, black trousers, white waistcoat and tie, quick! Where's his hairbrush—quick, quick!”
“Mam—my! Why, I've just been to the bath. I shall catch cold if I go up to town just now!”
“You won't catch cold!”
“But—mammy, my hair's quite wet!”
“We'll dry it in a minute. Here, Grisha, take this brush and brush away till he's dry,—harder—harder—much harder! There, that's better!”
Grisha worked like a man. For the greater convenience of his herculean task he seized his master's shoulder with one hand as he rubbed violently with the other. Poor Afanassy grunted and groaned and almost wept.
“Now, then, lift him up a bit. Where's the pomatum? Bend your head, duffer!—bend lower, you abject dummy!”And Maria Alexandrovna herself undertook to pomade her husband's hair, ploughing her hands through it without the slightest pity. Afanassy heartily wished that his shock growth had been cut. He winced, and groaned and moaned, but did not cry out under the painful operation.
“You suck my life-blood out of me—bend lower, you idiot!”remarked the fond wife—“bend lower still, I tell you!”
“How have I sucked your life blood?”asked the victim, bending his head as low as circumstances permitted.
“Fool!—allegorically, of course—can't you understand? Now, then, comb it yourself. Here, Grisha, dress him, quick!”
Our heroine threw herself into an arm-chair, and critically watched the ceremony of adorning her husband. Meanwhile the latter had a little opportunity to get his breath once more and compose his feelings generally; so that when matters arrived at the point where the tie is tied, he had even developed so much audacity as to express opinions of his own as to how the bow should be manufactured.
At last, having put his dress-coat on, the lord of the manor was his brave self again, and gazed at his highly ornate person in the glass with great satisfaction and complacency.
“Where are you going to take me to?”he now asked, smiling at his reflected self.
Maria Alexandrovna could not believe her ears.
“What—what? Howdareyou ask me where I am taking you to, sir!”
“But—mammy—I must know, you know——”
“Hold your tongue! You let me hear you call me mammy again, especially where we are going to now! you sha'n't have any tea for a month!”
The frightened consort held his peace.
“Look at that, now! You haven't got a single 'order' to put on—sloven!”she continued, looking at his black coat with contempt.
“The Government awards orders, mammy; and I am not a sloven, but a town councillor!”said Afanassy, with a sudden excess of noble wrath.
“What, what—what! So you've learned to argue now, have you—you mongrel, you? However, I haven't time to waste over you now, or I'd——but I sha'n't forget it. Here, Grisha, give him his fur coat and his hat—quick; and look here, Grisha, when I'm gone, get these three rooms ready, and the green room, and the corner bedroom. Quick—find your broom; take the coverings off the looking-glasses and clocks, and see that all is ready and tidy within an hour. Put on a dress coat, and see that the other men have gloves: don't lose time. Quick, now!”
She entered the carriage, followed by Afanassy. The latter sat bewildered and lost.
Meanwhile Maria Alexandrovna reflected as to how best she could drum into her husband's thick skull certain essential instructions with regard to the present situation of affairs. But Afanassy anticipated her.
“I had a very original dream to-day, Maria Alexandrovna,”he observed quite unexpectedly, in the middle of a long silence.
“Tfu! idiot. I thought you were going to say something of terrific interest, from the look of you. Dream, indeed! How dare you mention your miserable dreams to me! Original, too! Listen here: if you dare so much as remind me of the word‘dream,’or say anything else, either, where we are going to-day, I—I don't knowwhatI won't do to you! Now, look here: Prince K. has arrived at my house. Do you remember Prince K.?”
“Oh, yes, mammy, I remember; and why has he done us this honour?”
“Be quiet; that's not your business. Now, you are to invite him, with all the amiability you can, to come down to our house in the country, at once! That is what I am taking you up for. And if you dare so much as breathe another word of any kind, either to-day or to-morrow, or next day, without leave from me, you shall herd geese for a whole year. You're not to say a single word, mind! and that's all you have to think of. Do you understand, now?”
“Well, but if I'm asked anything?”
“Hold your tongue all the same!”
“Oh, but I can't do that—I can't do——”
“Very well, then; you can say‘H'm,’or something of that sort, to give them the idea that you are very wise indeed, and like to think well before answering.”
“H'm.”
“Understand me, now. I am taking you up because you are to make it appear that you have just heard of the prince's visit, and have hastened up to town in a transport of joy to express your unbounded respect and gratitude to him, and to invite him at once to your country house! Do you understand me?”
“H'm.”
“I don't want you to say‘H'm’now, you fool! You must answermewhen I speak!”
“All right—all right, mammy. All shall be as you wish; but why am I to ask the prince down?”
“What—what! arguing again. What business is it of yourswhyyou are to invite him? How dare you ask questions!”
“Why it's all the same thing, mammy. How am I to invite him if I must not say a word?”
“Oh, I shall do all the talking. All you have to do is to bow. Do you hear?Bow; and hold your hat in your hand and look polite. Do you understand, or not?”
“I understand, mam—Maria-Alexandrovna.”
“The prince is very witty, indeed; so mind, if he says anything either to yourself or anyone else, you are to laugh cordially and merrily. Do you hear me?”
“H'm.”
“Don't say‘H'm’tome, I tell you. You are to answer me plainly and simply. Do you hear me, or not?”
“Yes, yes; I hear you, of course. That's all right. I only say‘H'm,’for practice; I want to get into the way of saying it. But look here, mammy, it's all very well; you say I'm not to speak, and if he speaks to me I'm to look at him and laugh—but what if he asks me a question?”
“Oh—you dense log of a man! I tell you again, you are to be quiet.I'llanswer for you. You have simply got to look polite, and smile!”
“But he'll think I am dumb!”said Afanassy.
“Well, and what if he does. Let him! You'll conceal the fact that you are a fool, anyhow!”
“H'm, and ifotherpeople ask me questions?”
“No one will; there'll be no one to ask you. But if thereshouldbe anyone else in the room, and they ask you questions, all you have to do is to smile sarcastically. Do you know what a sarcastic smile is?”
“What, a witty sort of smile, is it, mammy?”
“I'll let you know about it!Witty, indeed! Why, who would think of expecting anything witty from a fool like you. No, sir, a jesting smile—jestingandcontemptuous!”
“H'm.”
“Good heavens. I'm afraid for this idiot,”thought Maria Alexandrovna to herself.“I really think it would have been almost better to leave him behind, after all.”So thinking, nervous and anxious, Maria Alexandrovna drove on. She looked out of the window, and she fidgeted, and she bustled the coachman up. The horses were almost flying through the air; but to her they appeared to be crawling. Afanassy sat silent and thoughtful in the corner of the carriage, practising his lessons. At last the carriage arrived at the town house.
Hardly, however, had Maria Alexandrovna mounted the outer steps when she became aware of a fine pair of horses trotting up—drawing a smart sledge with a hood to it. In fact, the very“turn-out”in which Anna Nicolaevna Antipova was generally to be seen.
Two ladies sat in the sledge. One of these was, of course, Mrs. Antipova herself; the other was Natalia Dimitrievna, of late the great friend and ally of the former lady.
Maria Alexandrovna's heart sank.
But she had no time to say a word, before another smart vehicle drove up, in which there reclined yet another guest. Exclamations of joy and delight were now heard.
“Maria Alexandrovna! and Afanassy Matveyevitch! Just arrived, too! Where from? How extremely delightful! And here we are, you see, just driven up at the right moment. We are going to spend the evening with you. What a delightful surprise.”
The guests alighted and fluttered up the steps like so many swallows.
Maria Alexandrovna could neither believe her eyes nor her ears.
“Curse you all!”she said to herself.“This looks like a plot—it must be seen to; but it takes more than a flight of magpies likeyouto get to windward ofme. Wait a little!!”