“I do not like people to smoke when I am dining, my good sir.”
I murmured something inaudible.
“No, I do not like it at all,” he went on sternly, and with a glance at his clean-shaven companion, as though inviting8 him to admire the way in which he was about to deal with me. “I do not like it, my good sir, nor do I like people who have the impudence9 to puff10 their smoke up one’s very nose.”
By this time I had gathered that it was myself he was scolding, and at first felt as though I had been altogether in the wrong,
“I did not mean to inconvenience you,” I said.
“Well, if you did not suppose you were being impertinent, at least I did! You are a cad, young sir!” he shouted in reply.
“But what right have you to shout at me like that?” I exclaimed, feeling that it was now HE that was insulting ME, and growing angry accordingly.
“This much right,” he replied, “that I never allow myself to be overlooked by any one, and that I always teach young fellows like yourself their manners. What is your name, young sir, and where do you live?”
At this I felt so hurt that my teeth chattered11, and I felt as though I were choking. Yet all the while I was conscious of being in the wrong, and so, instead of offering any further rudeness to the offended one, humbly12 told him my name and address.
“And MY name, young sir,” he returned, “is Kolpikoff, and I will trouble you to be more polite to me in future. — However, You will hear from me again” (“vous aurez de mes nouvelles”— the conversation had been carried on wholly in French), was his concluding remark.
To this I replied, “I shall be delighted,” with an infusion13 of as much hauteur14 as I could muster15 into my tone. Then, turning on my heel, I returned with my cigarette — which had meanwhile gone out — to our own room.
I said nothing, either to my brother or my friends, about what had happened (and the more so because they were at that moment engaged in a dispute of their own), but sat down in a corner to think over the strange affair. The words, “You are a cad, young sir,” vexed16 me more and more the longer that they sounded in my ears. My tipsiness was gone now, and, in considering my conduct during the dispute, the uncomfortable thought came over me that I had behaved like a coward.
“Yet what right had he to attack me?” I reflected. “Why did he not simply intimate to me that I was annoying him? After all, it may have been he that was in the wrong. Why, too, when he called me a young cad, did I not say to him, ‘A cad, my good sir, is one who takes offence’? Or why did I not simply tell him to hold his tongue? That would have been the better course. Or why did I not challenge him to a duel17? No, I did none of those things, but swallowed his insults like a wretched coward.”
Still the words, “You are a cad, young sir,” kept sounding in my ears with maddening iteration. “I cannot leave things as they are,” I at length decided as I rose to my feet with the fixed intention of returning to the gentleman and saying something outrageous18 to him — perhaps, also, of breaking the candelabrum over his head if occasion offered. Yet, though I considered the advisability of this last measure with some pleasure, it was not without a good deal of trepidation19 that I re-entered the main salon. As luck would have it, M. Kolpikoff was no longer there, but only a waiter engaged in clearing the table. For a moment I felt like telling the waiter the whole story, and explaining to him my innocence20 in the matter, but for some reason or another I thought better of it, and once more returned, in the same hazy21 condition of mind, to our own room.
“What has become of our DIPLOMAT22?” Dubkoff was just saying. “Upon him now hang the fortunes of Europe.”
“Oh, leave me alone,” I said, turning moodily23 away. Then, as I paced the room, something made me begin to think that Dubkoff was not altogether a good fellow. “There is nothing very much to admire in his eternal jokes and his nickname of ‘DIPLOMAT,’” I reflected. “All he thinks about is to win money from Woloda and to go and see his ‘Auntie.’ There is nothing very nice in all that. Besides, everything he says has a touch of blackguardism in it, and he is forever trying to make people laugh. In my opinion he is simply stupid when he is not absolutely a brute24.” I spent about five minutes in these reflections, and felt my enmity towards Dubkoff continually increasing. For his part, he took no notice of me, and that angered me the more. I actually felt vexed with Woloda and Dimitri because they went on talking to him.
“I tell you what, gentlemen: the DIPLOMAT ought to be christened,” said Dubkoff suddenly, with a glance and a smile which seemed to me derisive25, and even treacherous26. “Yet, 0 Lord, what a poor specimen27 he is!”
“You yourself ought to be christened, and you yourself are a sorry specimen!” I retorted with an evil smile, and actually forgetting to address him as “thou.” [In Russian as in French, the second person singular is the form of speech used between intimate friends.]
This reply evidently surprised Dubkoff, but he turned away good- humouredly, and went on talking to Woloda and Dimitri. I tried to edge myself into the conversation, but, since I felt that I could not keep it up, I soon returned to my corner, and remained there until we left.
When the bill had been paid and wraps were being put on, Dubkoff turned to Dimitri and said: “Whither are Orestes and Pedalion going now? Home, I suppose, to talk about love. Well, let US go and see my dear Auntie. That will be far more entertaining than your sour company.”
“How dare you speak like that, and laugh at us?” I burst out as I approached him with clenched28 fists. “How dare you laugh at feelings which you do not understand? I will not have you do it! Hold your tongue!” At this point I had to hold my own, for I did not know what to say next, and was, moreover, out of breath with excitement. At first Dubkoff was taken aback, but presently he tried to laugh it off, and to take it as a joke. Finally I was surprised to see him look crestfallen29, and lower his eyes.
“I NEVER laugh at you or your feelings. It is merely my way of speaking,” he said evasively.
“Indeed?” I cried; yet the next moment I felt ashamed of myself and sorry for him, since his flushed, downcast face had in it no other expression than one of genuine pain.
“What is the matter with you?” said Woloda and Dimitri simultaneously30. “No one was trying to insult you.”
“Yes, he DID try to insult me!” I replied.
“What an extraordinary fellow your brother is!” said Dubkoff to Woloda. At that moment he was passing out of the door, and could not have heard what I said. Possibly I should have flung myself after him and offered him further insult, had it not been that just at that moment the waiter who had witnessed my encounter with Kolpikoff handed me my greatcoat, and I at once quietened down — merely making such a pretence31 of having had a difference with Dimitri as was necessary to make my sudden appeasement32 appear nothing extraordinary. Next day, when I met Dubkoff at Woloda’s, the quarrel was not raked up, yet he and I still addressed each other as “you,” and found it harder than ever to look one another in the face.
The remembrance of my scene with Kolpikoff — who, by the way, never sent me “de ses nouvelles,” either the following day or any day afterwards — remained for years a keen and unpleasant memory. Even so much as five years after it had happened I would begin fidgeting and muttering to myself whenever I remembered the unavenged insult, and was fain to comfort myself with the satisfaction of recollecting33 the sort of young fellow I had shown myself to be in my subsequent affair with Dubkoff. In fact, it was only later still that I began to regard the matter in another light, and both to recall with comic appreciation34 my passage of arms with Kolpikoff, and to regret the undeserved affront35 which I had offered my good friend Dubkoff.
When, at a later hour on the evening of the dinner, I told Dimitri of my affair with Kolpikoff, whose exterior36 I described in detail, he was astounded37.
“That is the very man!” he cried. “Don’t you know that this precious Kolpikoff is a known scamp and sharper, as well as, above all things, a coward, and that he was expelled from his regiment38 by his brother officers because, having had his face slapped, he would not fight? But how came you to let him get away?” he added, with a kindly39 smile and glance. “Surely he could not have said more to you than he did when he called you a cad?”
“No,” I admitted with a blush.
“Well, it was not right, but there is no great harm done,” said Dimitri consolingly.
Long afterwards, when thinking the matter over at leisure, I suddenly came to the conclusion that it was quite possible that Kolpikoff took the opportunity of vicariously wiping off upon me the slap in the face which he had once received, just as I myself took the opportunity of vicariously wiping off upon the innocent Dubkoff the epithet40 “cad” which Kolpikoff had just applied to me.
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1
salon
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| n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室 | |
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2
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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3
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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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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6
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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7
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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8
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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9
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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10
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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11
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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12
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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13
infusion
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| n.灌输 | |
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hauteur
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| n.傲慢 | |
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15
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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16
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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17
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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18
outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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19
trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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21
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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22
diplomat
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| n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人 | |
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23
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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24
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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derisive
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| adj.嘲弄的 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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28
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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29
crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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31
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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32
appeasement
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| n.平息，满足 | |
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33
recollecting
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| v.记起，想起( recollect的现在分词 ) | |
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34
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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35
affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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36
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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37
astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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38
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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39
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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40
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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