The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories Part 15

"'Hold thy tongue!' says he; 'hold thy tongue!' and he crawled up on the oven-bench.

"'Well,' thinks I to myself,--"t will be better for me not to speak to him; he surely must be feeling ill to-day.' So I went and lay down on the oven-bench myself, too. And a night-light was burning in a corner.

So, I am lying there, and just dozing, you know ... when suddenly I hear the door creaking softly ... and it opens--so, a little. And my uncle was lying with his back to the door, and, as you may remember, he was always a little hard of hearing. But this time he sprang up suddenly...

"'Who 's calling me, hey? who is it? hast come for me, for me?!' and out he ran into the yard without his hat....

"I thought: 'What 's the matter with him?' and, sinful man that I am, I fell asleep immediately. The next morning I woke up .... and Lukyanitch was not there.

"I went out of doors and began to call him--he was nowhere. I asked the watchman:

"'Has n't my uncle come out?' says I.

"'No,' says he, 'I have n't seen him.'...

"'Has n't something happened to him, brother?'.... says I...

"'O!'.... We were both fairly frightened.

"'Come, Feodosyeitch,' says I, 'come on,' says I,--'let 's see whether he is n't in the house.'

"'Come on,'--says he, 'Vasily Timofyeitch!' but he himself was as white as clay.

"We entered the house... I was about to pa.s.s the store-room, but I glanced and the padlock was hanging open on the hasp, and I pushed the door, but the door was fastened inside.... Feodosyeitch immediately ran round, and peeped in at the window.

"'Vasily Timofyeitch!' he cries;--'his legs are hanging, his legs ...'

"I ran to the window. And they were his legs, Lukyanitch's legs. And he had hanged himself in the middle of the room.--Well, we sent for the judge.... They took him down from the rope; the rope was tied with twelve knots."

"Well, what did the court say?"

"What did the court say? Nothing. They pondered and pondered what the cause might be. There was no cause. And so they decided that he must have been out of his mind. His head had been aching of late, he had been complaining very frequently of his head...."

I chatted for about half an hour longer with the young fellow, and went away, at last, completely disconcerted. I must confess that I could not look at that rickety house without a secret, superst.i.tious terror.... A month later I quitted my country-seat, and little by little all these horrors, these mysterious encounters, vanished from my mind.

II

Three years pa.s.sed. The greater part of that time I spent in Petersburg and abroad; and even when I did run down to my place in the country, it was only for a few days at a time, so that I never chanced to be in Glinnoe or in Mikhailovskoe on a single occasion. Nowhere had I seen my beauty nor the man. One day, toward the end of the third year, in Moscow, I chanced to meet Madame Shlkoff and her sister, Pelageya Badaeff--that same Pelageya whom I, sinful man that I am, had hitherto regarded as a mythical being--at an evening gathering in the house of one of my acquaintances. Neither of the ladies was any longer young, and both possessed pleasing exteriors; their conversation was characterised by wit and mirth: they had travelled a great deal, and travelled with profit; easy gaiety was observable in their manners. But they and my acquaintance had positively nothing in common. I was presented to them.

Madame Shlkoff and I dropped into conversation (her sister was being entertained by a pa.s.sing geologist). I informed her that I had the pleasure of being her neighbour in *** county.

"Ah! I really do possess a small estate there,"--she remarked,--"near Glinnoe."

"Exactly, exactly,"--I returned:--"I know your Mikhailovskoe. Do you ever go thither?"

"I?--Rarely."

"Were you there three years ago?"

"Stay! I think I was. Yes, I was, that is true."

"With your sister, or alone?"

She darted a glance at me.

"With my sister. We spent about a week there. On business, you know.

However, we saw no one."

"H'm.... I think there are very few neighbours there."

"Yes, very few. I 'm not fond of neighbours."

"Tell me,"--I began;--"I believe you had a catastrophe there that same year. Lukyanitch ...."

Madame Shlkoff's eyes immediately filled with tears.

"And did you know him?"--she said with vivacity.--"Such a misfortune! He was a very fine, good old man ... and just fancy, without any cause, you know ...."

Madame Shlkoff's sister approached us. She was, in all probability, beginning to be bored by the learned disquisitions of the geologist about the formation of the banks of the Volga.

"Just fancy, Pauline,"--began my companion;--"monsieur knew Lukyanitch."

"Really? Poor old man!"

"I hunted more than once in the environs of Mikhailovskoe at that period, when you were there three years ago,"--I remarked.

"I?"--returned Pelageya, in some astonishment.

"Well, yes, of course!"--hastily interposed her sister; "is it possible that thou dost not recall it?"

And she looked her intently in the eye.

"Akh, yes, yes ... that is true!"--replied Pelageya, suddenly.

"Ehe--he!" I thought: "I don't believe you were in Mikhailovskoe, my dear."

"Will not you sing us something, Pelageya Feodorovna?"--suddenly began a tall young man, with a crest of fair hair and turbidly-sweet little eyes.

"Really, I don't know,"--said Miss Badaeff.

"And do you sing?"--I exclaimed with vivacity, springing up briskly from my seat. "For heaven's sake .... akh, for heaven's sake, do sing us something."

"But what shall I sing to you?"

"Don't you know,"--I began, using my utmost endeavours to impart to my face an indifferent and easy expression,--"an Italian song ... it begins this way: _'Pa.s.sa quei colli'_?"

"Yes," replied Pelageya with perfect innocence. "Do you want me to sing that? Very well."

And she seated herself at the piano. I, like Hamlet, riveted my eyes on Madame Shlkoff. It seemed to me that at the first note she gave a slight start; but she sat quietly to the end. Miss Badaeff sang quite well. The song ended, the customary plaudits resounded. They began to urge her to sing something else; but the two sisters exchanged glances, and a few minutes later they took their departure. As they left the room I overheard the word "_importun_."