Uncle's dream; And The Permanent Husband Part 5

"Speak, then!" repeated Zina, cursing the necessity for her mother's eloquence from the very bottom of her heart.

"I continue then, Zina!--This tutor, a master of the parish school, almost a boy, makes upon you what is, to me, a totally inexplicable impression. I built too much upon my confidence in your good sense, or your n.o.ble pride, and princ.i.p.ally upon the fact of his insignificance-(I must speak out!)-to allow myself to harbour the slightest suspicion of you! And then you suddenly come to me, one fine day, and state that you intend to marry the man! Zina, it was putting a knife to my heart! I gave a shriek and lost consciousness.

"But of course you remember all this. Of course I thought it my duty to use all my power over you, which power you called tyranny. Think for yourself-a boy, the son of a deacon, receiving a salary of twelve roubles a month-a writer of weak verses which are printed, out of pity, in the 'library of short readings.' A man, a boy, who could talk of nothing but that accursed Shakespeare,-this boy to be the husband of Zenaida Moskaloff! Forgive me, Zina, but the very thought of it all makes me _wild_!

"I rejected him, of course. But no power would stop _you_; your father only blinked his eyes, as usual, and could not even understand what I was telling him about. You continue your relations with this boy, even giving him rendezvous, and, worst of all, you allow yourself to correspond with him!

"Rumours now begin to flit about town: I am a.s.sailed with hints; they blow their trumpets of joy and triumph; and suddenly all my fears and antic.i.p.ations are verified! You and he quarrel over something or other; he shows himself to be a boy (I can't call him a man!), who is utterly unworthy of you, and threatens to show your letters all over the town! On hearing this threat, you, beside yourself with irritation, boxed his ears.

Yes, Zina, I am aware of even that fact! I know all, all! But to continue-the wretched boy shows one of your letters the very same day to that ne'er-do-well Zans.h.i.+n, and within an hour Natalie Dimitrievna holds it in her hands-my deadly enemy! The same evening the miserable fellow attempts to put an end to himself, in remorse. In a word, there is a fearful scandal stirred up. That s.l.u.t, Nastasia, comes panting to me with the dreadful news; she tells me that Natalie Dimitrievna has had your letter for a whole hour. In a couple of hours the whole town will learn of your foolishness! I bore it all. I did not fall down in a swoon; but oh, the blows, the blows you dealt to my heart, Zina! That shameless sc.u.m of the earth, Nastasia, says she will get the letter back for two hundred roubles! I myself run over, in thin shoes, too, through the snow to the Jew Baumstein, and pledge my diamond clasps-a keepsake of my dear mother's! In a couple of hours the letter is in my hands! Nastasia had stolen it; she had broken open a desk, and your honour was safe!

"But what a dreadful day you had sentenced me to live! I noticed some grey hairs among my raven locks for the first time, next morning! Zina, you have judged this boy's action yourself now! You can admit now, and perhaps smile a bitter smile over the admission, that it was beyond the limits of good sense to wish to entrust your fate to this youth.

"But since that fatal time you are wretched, my child, you are miserable!

You cannot forget him, or rather not him-for he was never worthy of you,-but you cannot forget the phantom of your past joy! This wretched young fellow is now on the point of death-consumption, they say; and you, angel of goodness that you are! you do not wish to marry while he is alive, because you fear to hara.s.s him in his last days; because to this day he is miserable with jealousy, though I am convinced that he never loved you in the best and highest sense of the word! I know well that, hearing of Mosgliakoff's proposal to you, he has been in a flutter of jealousy, and has spied upon you and your actions ever since; and you-you have been merciful to him, my child. And oh! G.o.d knows how I have watered my pillow with tears for you!"

"Oh, mother, do drop all this sort of thing!" cried Zina, with inexpressible agony in her tone. "Surely we needn't hear all about your pillow!" she added, sharply. "Can't we get on without all this declamation and pirouetting?"

"You do not believe me, Zina! Oh! do not look so unfriendly at me, my child! My eyes have not been dry these two years. I have hidden my tears from you; but I am changed, Zina mine, much changed and in many ways! I have long known of your feelings, Zina, but I admit I have only lately realized the depth of your mental anguish. Can you blame me, my child, if I looked upon this attachment of yours as romanticism-called into being by that accursed Shakespeare, who shoves his nose in everywhere where he isn't wanted?

"What mother would blame me for my fears of that kind, for my measures, for the severity of my judgment? But now, understanding as I do, and realizing your two years' sufferings, I can estimate the depth of your real feelings. Believe me, I understand you far better than you understand yourself! I am convinced that you love not him-not this unnatural boy,-but your lost happiness, your broken hopes, your cracked idol!

"I have loved too-perhaps more deeply than yourself; I, too, have suffered, I, too, have lost my exalted ideals and seen them levelled with the earth; and therefore who can blame me now-and, above all, can _you_ blame me now,-if I consider a marriage with the prince to be the one saving, the one _essential_ move left to you in your present position"?

Zina listened to this long declamation with surprise. She knew well that her mother never adopted this tone without good reason. However this last and unexpected conclusion fairly amazed her.

"You don't mean to say you seriously entertain the idea of marrying me to this prince?" she cried bewildered, and gazing at her mother almost with alarm; "that this is no mere idea, no project, no flighty inspiration, but your deliberate intention? I _have_ guessed right, then? And pray, _how_ is this marriage going to save me? and _why_ is it essential to me in my present position? And-and what has all this to do with what you have been talking about?--I cannot understand you, mother,-not a bit!"

"And _I_ can't understand, angel mine, how you _cannot_ see the connection of it all!" cried Maria Alexandrovna, in her turn. "In the first place, you would pa.s.s into new society, into a new world. You would leave for ever this loathsome little town, so full of sad memories for you; where you meet neither friends nor kindness; where they have bullied and maligned you; where all these-these _magpies_ hate you because you are good looking! You could go abroad this very spring, to Italy, Switzerland, Spain!-to Spain, Zina, where the Alhambra is, and where the Guadalquiver flows-no wretched little stream like this of ours!"

"But, one moment, mother; you talk as though I were married already, or at least as if the prince had made me an offer!"

"Oh, no-oh dear, no! don't bother yourself about that, my angel! I know what I'm talking about! Let me proceed. I've said my 'firstly;' now, then, for my 'secondly!' I understand, dear child, with what loathing you would give your hand to that Mosgliakoff!--"

"I know, without your telling me so, that I shall never be _his_ wife!"

cried Zina, angrily, and with flas.h.i.+ng eyes.

"If only you knew, my angel, how I understand and enter into your loathing for him! It is dreadful to vow before the altar that you will love a man whom you _cannot_ love-how dreadful to belong to one whom you cannot esteem! And he insists on your _love_-he only marries you for love. I can see it by the way he looks at you! Why deceive ourselves? I have suffered from the same thing for twenty-five years; your father ruined me-he, so to speak, sucked up my youth! You have seen my tears many a time!--"

"Father's away in the country, don't touch _him_, please!" said Zina.

"I know you always take his part! Oh, Zina, my very heart trembled within me when I thought to arrange your marriage with Mosgliakoff for financial reasons! I trembled for the consequences. But with the prince it is different, you need not deceive him; you cannot be expected to give him your _love_, not your _love_-oh, no! and he is not in a state to ask it of you!"

"Good heavens, what nonsense! I do a.s.sure you you are in error from the very first step-from the first and most important step! Understand, that I do not care to make a martyr of myself for some unknown reason! Know, also, that I shall not marry anyone at all; I shall remain a maid. You have bitten my head off for the last two years because I would not marry.

Well, you must accept the fact, and make the best of it; that's all I can say, and so it shall be!"

"But Zina, darling-my Zina, don't be so cross before you have heard me out! What a hot-headed little person you are, to be sure! Let me show you the matter from my point of view, and you'll agree with me-you really will! The prince will live a year-two at most; and surely it is better to be a young widow than a decayed old maid! Not to mention the fact that you will be a princess-free, rich, independent! I dare say you look with contempt upon all these calculations-founded upon his death; but I am a mother, and what mother will blame me for my foresight?

"And if you, my angel of kindness, are unwilling to marry, even now, out of tenderness for that wretched boy's feelings, oh, think, think how, by marrying this prince, you will rejoice his heart and soothe and comfort his soul! For if he has a single particle of commonsense, he must understand that jealousy of this old man were _too_ absurd-_too_ ridiculous! He will understand that you marry him-for money, for convenience; that stern necessity compels you to it!

"And lastly, he will understand that-that,-well I simply wish to say, that, upon the prince's death, you will be at liberty to marry whomsoever you please."

"That's a truly simple arrangement! All I have to do is to marry this prince, rob him of his money, and then count upon his death in order to marry my lover! You are a clever arithmetician, mamma; you do your sums and get your totals nicely. You wish to seduce me by offering me this! Oh, I understand you, mamma-I understand you well! You cannot resist the expression of your n.o.ble sentiments and exalted ideas, even in the manufacture of a nasty business. Why can't you say simply and straightforwardly, 'Zina, this is a dirty affair, but it will pay us, so please agree with me?' at all events, that would be candid and frank on your part."

"But, my dear child, why, _why_ look at it from this point of view? Why look at it under the light of suspicion as _deceit_, and low cunning, and covetousness? You consider my calculations as meanness, as deceit; but, by all that is good and true, where is the meanness? Show me the deceit. Look at yourself in the gla.s.s: you are so beautiful, that a kingdom would be a fair price for you! And suddenly you, you, the possessor of this divine beauty, sacrifice yourself, in order to soothe the last years of an old man's life! You would be like a beautiful star, shedding your light over the evening of his days. You would be like the fresh green ivy, twining in and about his old age; not the stinging nettle that this wretched woman at his place is, fastening herself upon him, and thirstily sucking his blood!

Surely his money, his rank are not worthy of being put in the scales beside _you_? Where is the meanness of it; where is the deceit of all this? You don't know what you are saying, Zina."

"I suppose they _are_ worthy of being weighed against me, if I am to marry a cripple for them! No, mother, however you look at it, it is deceit, and you can't get out of _that_!"

"On the contrary, my dear child, I can look at it from a high, almost from an exalted-nay, Christian-point of view. You, yourself, told me once, in a fit of temporary insanity of some sort, that you wished to be a sister of charity. You had suffered; you said your heart could love no more. If, then, you cannot love, turn your thoughts to the higher aspect of the case. This poor old man has also suffered-he is unhappy. I have known him, and felt the deepest sympathy towards him-akin to love,-for many a year.

Be his friend, his daughter, be his plaything, even, if you like; but warm his old heart, and you are doing a good work-a virtuous, kind, n.o.ble work of love.

"He may be funny to look at; don't think of that. He's but half a man-pity him! You are a Christian girl-do whatever is right by him; and this will be medicine for your own heart-wounds; employment, action, all this will heal you too, and where is the deceit here? But you do not believe me.

Perhaps you think that I am deceiving myself when I thus talk of duty and of action. You think that I, a woman of the world, have no right to good feeling and the promptings of duty and virtue. Very well, do not trust me, if you like: insult me, do what you please to your poor mother; but you will have to admit that her words carry the stamp of good sense,-they are saving words! Imagine that someone else is talking to you, not I. Shut your eyes, and fancy that some invisible being is speaking. What is worrying you is the idea that all this is for money-a sort of sale or purchase. Very well, then _refuse_ the money, if it is so loathsome to your eyes. Leave just as much as is absolutely necessary for yourself, and give the rest to the poor. Help _him_, if you like, the poor fellow who lies there a-dying!"

"He would never accept my help!" muttered Zina, as though to herself.

"He would not, but his mother would!" said Maria Alexandrovna. "She would take it, and keep her secret. You sold your ear-rings, a present from your aunt, half a year or so ago, and helped her; _I_ know all about it! I know, too, that the woman washes linen in order to support her unfortunate son!"

"He will soon be where he requires no more help!"

"I know, I understand your hints." Maria Alexandrovna sighed a real sigh.

"They say he is in a consumption, and must die.

"But _who_ says so?

"I asked the doctor the other day, because, having a tender heart, Zina, I felt interested in the poor fellow. The doctor said that he was convinced the malady was _not_ consumption; that it was dangerous, no doubt, but still _not_ consumption, only some severe affection of the lungs. Ask him yourself! He certainly told me that under different conditions-change of climate and of his style of living,-the sick man might well recover. He said-and I have read it too, somewhere, that off Spain there is a wonderful island, called Malaga-I think it was Malaga; anyhow, the name was like some wine, where, not only ordinary sufferers from chest maladies, but even consumptive patients, recover entirely, solely by virtue of the climate, and that sick people go there on purpose to be cured.

"Oh, but Spain-the Alhambra alone-and the lemons, and the riding on mules.

All this is enough in itself to impress a poetical nature. You think he would not accept your help, your money-for such a journey? Very well-deceit is permissible where it may save a man's life.

"Give him hope, too! Promise him your love; promise to marry him when you are a widow! Anything in the world can be said with care and tact! Your own mother would not counsel you to an ign.o.ble deed, Zina. You will do as I say, to save this boy's life; and with this object, everything is permissible! You will revive his hope; he will himself begin to think of his health, and listen to what the doctor says to him. He will do his best to resuscitate his dead happiness; and if he gets well again, even if you never marry him, you will have saved him-raised him from the dead!

"I can look at him with some sympathy. I admit I can, now! Perhaps sorrow has changed him for the better; and I say frankly, if he should be worthy of you when you become a widow, marry him, by all means! You will be rich then, and independent. You can not only cure him, but, having done so, you can give him position in the world-a career! Your marriage to him will then be possible and pardonable, not, as now, an absolute impossibility!

"For what would become of both of you were you to be capable of such madness _now_? Universal contempt, beggary; smacking little boys, which is part of his duty; the reading of Shakespeare; perpetual, hopeless life in Mordasoff; and lastly his certain death, which will undoubtedly take place before long unless he is taken away from here!

"While, if you resuscitate him-if you raise him from the dead, as it were, you raise him to a good, useful, and virtuous life! He may then enter public life-make himself rank, and a name! At the least, even if he must die, he will die happy, at peace with himself, in your arms-for he will be by then a.s.sured of your love and forgiveness of the past, and lying beneath the scent of myrtles and lemons, beneath the tropical sky of the South. Oh, Zina, all this is within your grasp, and all-all is _gain_.

Yes, and all to be had by merely marrying this prince."

Maria Alexandrovna broke off, and for several minutes there was silence; not a word was said on either side: Zina was in a state of indescribable agitation. I say indescribable because I will not attempt to describe Zina's feelings: I cannot guess at them; but I _think_ that Maria Alexandrovna had found the road to her heart.

Not knowing how her words had sped with her daughter, Maria Alexandrovna now began to work her busy brain to imagine and prepare herself for every possible humour that Zina might prove to be in; but at last she concluded that she had happened upon the right track after all. Her rude hand had touched the sorest place in Zina's heart, but her crude and absurd sentimental twaddle had not blinded her daughter. "However, that doesn't matter"-thought the mother. "All I care to do is to make her _think_; I wish my ideas to stick!" So she reflected, and she gained her end; the effect was made-the arrow reached the mark. Zina had listened hungrily as her mother spoke; her cheeks were burning, her breast heaved.

"Listen, mother," she said at last, with decision; though the sudden pallor of her face showed clearly what the decision had cost her. "Listen mother--" But at this moment a sudden noise in the entrance hall, and a shrill female voice, asking for Maria Alexandrovna, interrupted Zina, while her mother jumped up from her chair.

"Oh! the devil fly away with this magpie of a woman!" cried the latter furiously. "Why, I nearly drove her out by force only a fortnight ago!"

she added, almost in despair. "I can't, I can't receive her now. Zina, this question is too important to be put off: she must have news for me or she never would have dared to come. I won't receive the old -- Oh! _how_ glad I am to see you, dear Sophia Petrovna. What lucky chance brought _you_ to see me? What a _charming_ surprise!" said Maria Alexandrovna, advancing to receive her guest.