His breathing was short and interrupted, and when he laid his hand upon his broad breast to feel the beating of his heart, he felt it throbbing3 like that of a quail4 in a cage.
"Oh! what a regular shower-bath! How could I ever expect that of the fellow!" Such exclamations5 were followed by a variety of difficult and strong wishes for the future of Nosdrieff, and were concluded by epithets6 certainly not of the choicest language.
"Say what I may," Tchichikoff remarked confidentially7 to himself, "without the sudden appearance of the commissioner8 of the military police, I might at this present moment be one less among the living in this world! I should have disappeared like a bubble on the ocean, without leaving a trace behind me, no heirs or children to inherit my honourable9 name, my modest fortune!" Our hero seemed very anxious and concerned about his successors.
"What a nasty gentleman!" thought Selifan. "I have never seen such an ill-disposed man before. He deserves to be despised. I could rather see a man without food, but a horse must be fed because a horse likes oats. That is the proper food for his maintenance. What meat is to us, so is oats to the horse, and that is the proper food for horses."
The horses also seemed to have a bad opinion of Nosdrieff; not only the leader and the brown horse, but even the tiger-spotted idler seemed to be in bad humour. Although the idler was used to receive less good oats generally, and was also accustomed never to have them given to him by Selifan, without being previously10 called a rogue11, yet in this instance he seemed quite disgusted; for notwithstanding the scolding he received his fair portion of oats, and not as now, common hay; he used to eat his bad oats with pleasure, and after, even put his enormous head into the crib of his comrades to see what good things they were enjoying. This he did especially when Selifan was not in the stable; but now they had had nothing else but hay, that was bad; all three were dissatisfied.
But soon after, the whole batch13 of malcontents were suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted in the effusion of their wrath14 against Nosdrieff in an unexpected manner. All, not excluding even the coachman, recovered and came to their senses again, when they felt themselves in contact with a travelling-carriage, drawn15 by six powerful horses, and heard the shrieks16 of ladies sitting inside, and the scolding and swearing of the strange coachman.
"Oh, you scoundrel! did I not shout to you as loudly as possible! Turn to the right, you crow! Are you drunk, or what else is the matter with you?"
Selifan felt at once that he was on the wrong side, but as a Russian does not like to acknowledge his error before another, he therefore shouted forth17 his reply with an air of importance:
"And what do you mean by driving like a madman? Have you, perhaps, left your eyes in pawn18 at a dram-shop?"
After having spoken thus, he endeavoured to back his britchka, trying to liberate19 his horses, which had become entangled20 with those of the other carriage; however, he only succeeded in making things worse.
The ladies sitting in the carriage looked at the scene of confusion before them with the utmost terror expressed upon their faces. The one was an elderly lady; the other, a young person about sixteen years of age, with golden ringlets, very tastefully arranged around a pretty face and head. The charming oval of her face was as evenly formed as a new-laid egg, and, like it, it possessed21 that peculiar22 transparent23 whiteness which is only to be seen in a new-laid egg, when held up towards the light by the gentle hand of a clever housekeeper24, who is examining its freshness by allowing the rays of the sun to shine through it; her finely-shaped ears seemed also equally transparent, and were intersected by warmly-flowing veins25. From the sudden fright, her rosy26 lips had opened to display a range of ivory teeth, and tears were sparkling in her eyes. All this was so charming in her, that our hero glanced at her for some moments quite motionless, and paying no attention whatever to the dispute which had arisen between the two coachmen and their horses.
"Will you back your horses, you Novgorodian crow?" shouted the strange coachman.
Selifan tugged27 at his reins28; the strange driver did as much, and the horses, in obedience29 to the impulse, retreated a little, and then came into contact again, were anew entangled, and the confusion was greater than before.
While the confusion was thus growing worse confounded, some peasants began to gather round the carriages and horses; they came running as fast as they could from an adjoining village; and as such a sight is for a Russian peasant like a Christmas-box, or like a newspaper and a glass of stout30 would be to an Englishman, so but little time elapsed before the carriages were both surrounded by a few hundred gaping31 mouzhiks, and the village was left to the care of only old women and young children. The entangled traces were soon cut; a few heavy blows applied32 to the head of the tiger-spotted idler made him retreat; in a word, the horses were soon separated and led aside.
The interest and the curiosity of the gaping peasants rose to an incredible degree. Every one of them was anxious to give an advice or a suggestion:
"You go, Andrushka, and lead that front horse a little about, the one that is standing12 on the right-hand side from us; and Uncle Mitja would do well to mount the tiger-spotted animal! Get on his back, Mitja!"
During the time that Selifan and the strange coachman were arranging the traces of their respective horses, Tchichikoff had continued to look very attentively33 at the young lady stranger. He made an attempt to address her several times, but, somehow or another, he thought there was no favourable34 opportunity. Meanwhile, the ladies drove off, the pretty head, and face with the fine outlines, the slender figure, all disappeared like an apparition35; and there remained nothing but the high-road, the britchka, the three horses already familiar to our reader, Selifan, and the level and empty fields surrounding them.
"A charming little woman!" said he, whilst opening his snuff-box, and taking a pinch of snuff. "But what is the most handsome thing about her? It is pleasant to see, that she seems just to have left a boarding-school, or some such institution, and that there is yet nothing womanly, or rather matronly about her, and that is one of the most unpleasing features in the sex. She is still like a child, all in her is still natural, she will speak what she thinks, she will laugh at every thing that pleases her. She might yet be taught any thing and every thing, she might become an accomplished36 and virtuous37 woman, and she might also turn out the very contrary. If she now happens to come under the control and advice of her mother or aunts, then farewell natural innocence38! In a year they will have changed her so completely by instilling39 into her, what they are pleased to term the dignities of a woman, that her own father will have every difficulty to recognise, in that young person, his own daughter.
"From the elder ladies, she will derive40 conceitedness41 and affected42 manners, move about according to the dictates43 of fashion, torment44 her brains to know, with whom, about what, and how much she might venture to speak, and especially how to look at them; every moment she will be alarmed least she should speak more than is strictly45 necessary. At last, she will become confused from so much unnatural46 exertion47, and dissimulation48 will become natural to her, and then—heaven knows what she may come to next!"
Having spoken thus much to himself, Tchichikoff remained silent for some moments, and then he added:
"It would be rather satisfactory to know who she is? Yes, what her father might be? Is he perhaps a rich landed proprietor49 of high respectability, or simply a respectable man with a large fortune acquired in serving his country? Because, let me suppose, that this pretty little girl receives but five thousand roubles as a marriage gift, she would become a most acceptable, nay50 a very enticing51 little woman. And this would constitute, so to say, the happiness of a respectable man."
The sum of five thousand roubles represented itself so attractively to his mind, that he began to scold himself inwardly for not having obtained some information about who the ladies were from their coachman, during the time that the confusion among the horses lasted. Soon after, however, the appearance of Sobakevitch's village began to distract his attention from the ladies, and he returned to his friend and more serious purposes.
The village seemed to him tolerably large, and even of importance; there were two forests, the one of birch-trees, the other of pines, the one of a gay colour, the other dark, spread out like wings on the right and left of the village; in the centre of it stood a large wooden building with a balcony, a roof with red tiles, and dark grey painted walls, the style of architecture reminding one of a barrack, or the primitive52 buildings of German emigrants53.
It was evident that the builder of this house must have been in continual opposition54 to the taste of the owner. The builder was a pedant55, and adhered to symmetry, the owner preferred conformity56 to the purpose, and, thus it seemed that in consequence of the differences of taste, the lawful57 lord of the mansion58 had blocked up the windows of the whole of one of the fronts of the house, and left only a small aperture59 instead, no doubt to serve as a skylight to some lumber-room.
The principal entrance to the house stood by no means in the centre, notwithstanding the good intents of the architect, because the owner of it had ordered one of the side columns to be removed and thus the principal entrance did not display as originally intended four columns, but only three. The whole of the court-yard was enclosed by a strong and unusually thick wooden wall. The proprietor seemed to have been particularly concerned about everything being of the greatest possible durability60.
Upon the construction of his stables, penthouse and kitchen, he had employed full grown and heavy logs calculated to last an eternity61. The houses of his peasants in the village were also of a wonderfully strong and lasting62 construction, they nowhere displayed any of the common gingerbread ornaments63, but every one of them was a solid mass of logs of wood. Even the wall was enclosed by such large stems of fir as would only be employed as sleepers64 for a railway, or in the construction of ships. In a word, upon whatever kind of building Tchichikoff happened to cast a glance, his sight met with a pièce de résistance, unmistakeable, presenting a durable65 but clumsy appearance.
END OF VOL. I.
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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shrieks
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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pawn
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| n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押 | |
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liberate
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| v.解放，使获得自由，释出，放出；vt.解放，使获自由 | |
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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instilling
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| v.逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instil的现在分词 )；逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instill的现在分词 ) | |
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derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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conceitedness
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| 自负 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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dictates
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| n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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dissimulation
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| n.掩饰，虚伪，装糊涂 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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51
enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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52
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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pedant
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| n.迂儒；卖弄学问的人 | |
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conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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durability
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| n.经久性，耐用性 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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durable
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| adj.持久的，耐久的 | |
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