"Is Georgy Ivanitch at home?" he asked.
At first I thought it was one of the moneylenders, Gruzin's creditors3, who sometimes used to come to Orlov for small payments on account; but when he came into the hall and flung open his coat, I saw the thick brows and the characteristically compressed lips which I knew so well from the photographs, and two rows of stars on the uniform. I recognised him: it was Orlov's father, the distinguished4 statesman.
I answered that Georgy Ivanitch was not at home. The old man pursed up his lips tightly and looked into space, reflecting, showing me his dried-up, toothless profile.
"I'll leave a note," he said; "show me in."
He left his goloshes in the hall, and, without taking off his long, heavy fur coat, went into the study. There he sat down before the table, and, before taking up the pen, for three minutes he pondered, shading his eyes with his hand as though from the sun—exactly as his son did when he was out of humour. His face was sad, thoughtful, with that look of resignation which I have only seen on the faces of the old and religious. I stood behind him, gazed at his bald head and at the hollow at the nape of his neck, and it was clear as daylight to me that this weak old man was now in my power. There was not a soul in the flat except my enemy and me. I had only to use a little physical violence, then snatch his watch to disguise the object of the crime, and to get off by the back way, and I should have gained infinitely5 more than I could have imagined possible when I took up the part of a footman. I thought that I could hardly get a better opportunity. But instead of acting6, I looked quite unconcernedly, first at his bald patch and then at his fur, and calmly meditated7 on this man's relation to his only son, and on the fact that people spoiled by power and wealth probably don't want to die....
"Have you been long in my son's service?" he asked, writing a large hand on the paper.
"Three months, your High Excellency."
He finished the letter and stood up. I still had time. I urged myself on and clenched8 my fists, trying to wring9 out of my soul some trace of my former hatred10; I recalled what a passionate11, implacable, obstinate12 hate I had felt for him only a little while before.... But it is difficult to strike a match against a crumbling13 stone. The sad old face and the cold glitter of his stars roused in me nothing but petty, cheap, unnecessary thoughts of the transitoriness of everything earthly, of the nearness of death....
"Good-day, brother," said the old man. He put on his cap and went out.
There could be no doubt about it: I had undergone a change; I had become different. To convince myself, I began to recall the past, but at once I felt uneasy, as though I had accidentally peeped into a dark, damp corner. I remembered my comrades and friends, and my first thought was how I should blush in confusion if ever I met any of them. What was I now? What had I to think of and to do? Where was I to go? What was I living for?
I could make nothing of it. I only knew one thing—that I must make haste to pack my things and be off. Before the old man's visit my position as a flunkey had a meaning; now it was absurd. Tears dropped into my open portmanteau; I felt insufferably sad; but how I longed to live! I was ready to embrace and include in my short life every possibility open to man. I wanted to speak, to read, and to hammer in some big factory, and to stand on watch, and to plough. I yearned14 for the Nevsky Prospect15, for the sea and the fields—for every place to which my imagination travelled. When Zinaida Fyodorovna came in, I rushed to open the door for her, and with peculiar16 tenderness took off her fur coat. The last time!
We had two other visitors that day besides the old man. In the evening when it was quite dark, Gruzin came to fetch some papers for Orlov. He opened the table-drawer, took the necessary papers, and, rolling them up, told me to put them in the hall beside his cap while he went in to see Zinaida Fyodorovna. She was lying on the sofa in the drawing-room, with her arms behind her head. Five or six days had already passed since Orlov went on his tour of inspection17, and no one knew when he would be back, but this time she did not send telegrams and did not expect them. She did not seem to notice the presence of Polya, who was still living with us. "So be it, then," was what I read on her passionless and very pale face. Like Orlov, she wanted to be unhappy out of obstinacy18. To spite herself and everything in the world, she lay for days together on the sofa, desiring and expecting nothing but evil for herself. Probably she was picturing to herself Orlov's return and the inevitable19 quarrels with him; then his growing indifference20 to her, his infidelities; then how they would separate; and perhaps these agonising thoughts gave her satisfaction. But what would she have said if she found out the actual truth?
"I love you, Godmother," said Gruzin, greeting her and kissing her hand. "You are so kind! And so dear George has gone away," he lied. "He has gone away, the rascal21!"
He sat down with a sigh and tenderly stroked her hand.
"Let me spend an hour with you, my dear," he said. "I don't want to go home, and it's too early to go to the Birshovs'. The Birshovs are keeping their Katya's birthday to-day. She is a nice child!"
I brought him a glass of tea and a decanter of brandy. He slowly and with obvious reluctance22 drank the tea, and returning the glass to me, asked timidly:
"Can you give me ... something to eat, my friend? I have had no dinner."
We had nothing in the flat. I went to the restaurant and brought him the ordinary rouble dinner.
"To your health, my dear," he said to Zinaida Fyodorovna, and he tossed off a glass of vodka. "My little girl, your godchild, sends you her love. Poor child! she's rickety. Ah, children, children!" he sighed. "Whatever you may say, Godmother, it is nice to be a father. Dear George can't understand that feeling."
He drank some more. Pale and lean, with his dinner-napkin over his chest like a little pinafore, he ate greedily, and raising his eyebrows23, kept looking guiltily, like a little boy, first at Zinaida Fyodorovna and then at me. It seemed as though he would have begun crying if I had not given him the grouse24 or the jelly. When he had satisfied his hunger he grew more lively, and began laughingly telling some story about the Birshov household, but perceiving that it was tiresome25 and that Zinaida Fyodorovna was not laughing, he ceased. And there was a sudden feeling of dreariness26. After he had finished his dinner they sat in the drawing-room by the light of a single lamp, and did not speak; it was painful to him to lie to her, and she wanted to ask him something, but could not make up her mind to. So passed half an hour. Gruzin glanced at his watch.
"I suppose it's time for me to go."
"No, stay a little.... We must have a talk."
Again they were silent. He sat down to the piano, struck one chord, then began playing, and sang softly, "What does the coming day bring me?" but as usual he got up suddenly and tossed his head.
"Play something," Zinaida Fyodorovna asked him.
"What shall I play?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders. "I have forgotten everything. I've given it up long ago."
Looking at the ceiling as though trying to remember, he played two pieces of Tchaikovsky with exquisite27 expression, with such warmth, such insight! His face was just as usual—neither stupid nor intelligent—and it seemed to me a perfect marvel28 that a man whom I was accustomed to see in the midst of the most degrading, impure29 surroundings, was capable of such purity, of rising to a feeling so lofty, so far beyond my reach. Zinaida Fyodorovna's face glowed, and she walked about the drawing-room in emotion.
"Wait a bit, Godmother; if I can remember it, I will play you something," he said; "I heard it played on the violoncello."
Beginning timidly and picking out the notes, and then gathering30 confidence, he played Saint-Sa?ns's "Swan Song." He played it through, and then played it a second time.
"It's nice, isn't it?" he said.
Moved by the music, Zinaida Fyodorovna stood beside him and asked:
"Tell me honestly, as a friend, what do you think about me?"
"What am I to say?" he said, raising his eyebrows. "I love you and think nothing but good of you. But if you wish that I should speak generally about the question that interests you," he went on, rubbing his sleeve near the elbow and frowning, "then, my dear, you know.... To follow freely the promptings of the heart does not always give good people happiness. To feel free and at the same time to be happy, it seems to me, one must not conceal31 from oneself that life is coarse, cruel, and merciless in its conservatism, and one must retaliate32 with what it deserves—that is, be as coarse and as merciless in one's striving for freedom. That's what I think."
"That's beyond me," said Zinaida Fyodorovna, with a mournful smile. "I am exhausted33 already. I am so exhausted that I wouldn't stir a finger for my own salvation34."
"Go into a nunnery."
He said this in jest, but after he had said it, tears glistened35 in Zinaida Fyodorovna's eyes and then in his.
"Well," he said, "we've been sitting and sitting, and now we must go. Good-bye, dear Godmother. God give you health."
He kissed both her hands, and stroking them tenderly, said that he should certainly come to see her again in a day or two. In the hall, as he was putting on his overcoat, that was so like a child's pelisse, he fumbled36 long in his pockets to find a tip for me, but found nothing there.
"Good-bye, my dear fellow," he said sadly, and went away.
I shall never forget the feeling that this man left behind him.
Zinaida Fyodorovna still walked about the room in her excitement. That she was walking about and not still lying down was so much to the good. I wanted to take advantage of this mood to speak to her openly and then to go away, but I had hardly seen Gruzin out when I heard a ring. It was Kukushkin.
"Is Georgy Ivanitch at home?" he said. "Has he come back? You say no? What a pity! In that case, I'll go in and kiss your mistress's hand, and so away. Zinaida Fyodorovna, may I come in?" he cried. "I want to kiss your hand. Excuse my being so late."
He was not long in the drawing-room, not more than ten minutes, but I felt as though he were staying a long while and would never go away. I bit my lips from indignation and annoyance37, and already hated Zinaida Fyodorovna. "Why does she not turn him out?" I thought indignantly, though it was evident that she was bored by his company.
When I held his fur coat for him he asked me, as a mark of special good-will, how I managed to get on without a wife.
"But I don't suppose you waste your time," he said, laughingly. "I've no doubt Polya and you are as thick as thieves.... You rascal!"
In spite of my experience of life, I knew very little of mankind at that time, and it is very likely that I often exaggerated what was of little consequence and failed to observe what was important. It seemed to me it was not without motive38 that Kukushkin tittered and flattered me. Could it be that he was hoping that I, like a flunkey, would gossip in other kitchens and servants' quarters of his coming to see us in the evenings when Orlov was away, and staying with Zinaida Fyodorovna till late at night? And when my tittle-tattle came to the ears of his acquaintance, he would drop his eyes in confusion and shake his little finger. And would not he, I thought, looking at his little honeyed face, this very evening at cards pretend and perhaps declare that he had already won Zinaida Fyodorovna from Orlov?
That hatred which failed me at midday when the old father had come, took possession of me now. Kukushkin went away at last, and as I listened to the shuffle39 of his leather goloshes, I felt greatly tempted40 to fling after him, as a parting shot, some coarse word of abuse, but I restrained myself. And when the steps had died away on the stairs, I went back to the hall, and, hardly conscious of what I was doing, took up the roll of papers that Gruzin had left behind, and ran headlong downstairs. Without cap or overcoat, I ran down into the street. It was not cold, but big flakes41 of snow were falling and it was windy.
He stopped under a lamp-post and looked round with surprise. "Your Excellency!" I said breathless, "your Excellency!"
And not able to think of anything to say, I hit him two or three times on the face with the roll of paper. Completely at a loss, and hardly wondering—I had so completely taken him by surprise—he leaned his back against the lamp-post and put up his hands to protect his face. At that moment an army doctor passed, and saw how I was beating the man, but he merely looked at us in astonishment43 and went on. I felt ashamed and I ran back to the house.
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1
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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2
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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3
creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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4
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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5
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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6
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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7
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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8
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
wring
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| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
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10
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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11
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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12
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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13
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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14
yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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16
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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17
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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18
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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19
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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20
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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21
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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22
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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23
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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24
grouse
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| n.松鸡；v.牢骚，诉苦 | |
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25
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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26
dreariness
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| 沉寂，可怕，凄凉 | |
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27
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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28
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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29
impure
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| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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30
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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31
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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32
retaliate
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| v.报复，反击 | |
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33
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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34
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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35
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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37
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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38
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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39
shuffle
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| n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走 | |
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40
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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41
flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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42
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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43
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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