What induced her to forsake1 his roof, where she seemed to be so thoroughly2 at home, it is hard to say. Tchertop-hanov to the end of his days clung to the conviction that a certain young neighbour, a retired3 captain of Uhlans, named Yaff, was at the root of Masha's desertion. He had taken her fancy, according to Panteley Eremyitch, simply by constantly curling his moustaches, pomading himself to excess, and sniggering significantly; but one must suppose that the vagrant4 gypsy blood in Masha's veins5 had more to do with it. However that may have been, one fine summer evening Masha tied up a few odds6 and ends in a small bundle, and walked out of Tchertop-hanov's house.
For three days before this she had sat crouched7 up in a corner, huddled8 against the wall, like a wounded fox, and had not spoken a word to any one; she had only turned her eyes about, and twitched9 her eyebrows10, and faintly gnashed her teeth, and moved her arms as though she were wrapping herself up. This mood had come upon her before, but had never lasted long: Tchertop-hanov knew that, and so he neither worried himself nor worried her. But when, on coming in from the kennels11, where, in his huntsman's words, the last two hounds 'had departed,' he met a servant girl who, in a trembling voice, informed him that Marya Akinfyevna sent him her greetings, and left word that she wished him every happiness, but she was not coming back to him any more; Tchertop-hanov, after reeling round where he stood and uttering a hoarse12 yell, rushed at once after the runaway13, snatching up his pistol as he went.
He overtook her a mile and a half from his house, near a birch wood, on the high-road to the district town. The sun was sinking on the horizon, and everything was suddenly suffused14 with purple glow--trees, plants, and earth alike.
'To Yaff! to Yaff!' groaned15 Tchertop-hanov directly he caught sight of Masha. 'Going to Yaff!' he repeated, running up to her, and almost stumbling at every step.
Masha stood still, and turned round facing him.
She stood with her back to the light, and looked all black, as though she had been carved out of dark wood; only the whites of her eyes stood out like silvery almonds, but the eyes themselves--the pupils--were darker than ever.
She flung her bundle aside, and folded her arms. 'You are going to Yaff, wretched girl!' repeated Tchertop-hanov, and he was on the point of seizing her by the shoulder, but, meeting her eyes, he was abashed16, and stood uneasily where he was.
'I am not going to Mr. Yaff, Panteley Eremyitch,' replied Masha in soft, even tones; 'it's only I can't live with you any longer.'
'Can't live with me? Why not? Have I offended you in some way?'
Masha shook her head. 'You've not offended me in any way, Panteley Eremyitch, only my heart is heavy in your house.... Thanks for the past, but I can't stay--no!'
Tchertop-hanov was amazed; he positively17 slapped his thighs18, and bounced up and down in his astonishment19.
'How is that? Here she's gone on living with me, and known nothing but peace and happiness, and all of a sudden--her heart's heavy! and she flings me over! She goes and puts a kerchief on her head, and is gone. She received every respect, like any lady.'
'I don't care for that in the least,' Masha interrupted.
'Don't care for it? From a wandering gypsy to turn into a lady, and she doesn't care for it! How don't you care for it, you low-born slave? Do you expect me to believe that? There's treachery hidden in it--treachery!'
He began frowning again.
'There's no treachery in my thoughts, and never has been,' said Masha in her distinct, resonant20 voice; 'I've told you already, my heart was heavy.'
'Masha!' cried Tchertop-hanov, striking himself a blow on the chest with his fist; 'there, stop it; hush21, you have tortured me... now, it's enough! O my God! think only what Tisha will say; you might have pity on him, at least!'
'Remember me to Tihon Ivanitch, and tell him...'
Tchertop-hanov wrung22 his hands. 'No, you are talking nonsense--you are not going! Your Yaff may wait for you in vain!'
'Mr. Yaff,' Masha was beginning....
'A fine Mister Yaff!' Tchertop-hanov mimicked23 her. 'He's an underhand rascal24, a low cur--that's what he is--and a phiz like an ape's!'
For fully25 half-an-hour Tchertop-hanov was struggling with Masha. He came close to her, he fell back, he shook his fists at her, he bowed down before her, he wept, he scolded.
Little by little her face assumed such an indifferent, almost drowsy27 expression, that Tchertop-hanov asked her if they had not drugged her with laudanum.
'It's weariness,' she said for the tenth time.
'Then what if I kill you?' he cried suddenly, and he pulled the pistol out of his pocket.
Masha smiled; her face brightened.
'Well, kill me, Panteley Eremyitch; as you will; but go back, I won't.'
'You won't come back?' Tchertop-hanov cocked the pistol.
Tchertop-hanov suddenly thrust the pistol into her hand, and sat down on the ground.
'Then, you kill me! Without you I don't care to live. I have grown loathsome29 to you--and everything's loathsome for me!'
Masha bent30 down, took up her bundle, laid the pistol on the grass, its mouth away from Tchertop-hanov, and went up to him.
'Ah, my dearie, why torture yourself? Don't you know what we gypsy girls are? It's our nature; you must make up your mind to it. When there comes weariness the divider, and calls the soul away to strange, distant parts, how is one to stay here? Don't forget your Masha; you won't find such another sweetheart, and I won't forget you, my dearie; but our life together's over!'
'I loved you, Masha,' Tchertop-hanov muttered into the fingers in which he had buried his face....
'And I loved you, little friend Panteley Eremyitch.'
'I love you, I love you madly, senselessly--and when I think now that you, in your right senses, without rhyme or reason, are leaving me like this, and going to wander over the face of the earth--well, it strikes me that if I weren't a poor penniless devil, you wouldn't be throwing me over!'
At these words Masha only laughed.
'And he used to say I didn't care for money,' she commented, and she gave Tchertop-hanov a vigorous thump31 on the shoulder.
He jumped up on to his feet.
'Come, at least you must let me give you some money--how can you go like this without a halfpenny? But best of all: kill me! I tell you plainly: kill me once for all!'
Masha shook her head again. 'Kill you? Why get sent to Siberia, my dearie?'
He rolled on the grass again.
Masha stood over him in silence. 'I'm sorry for you, dear,' she said with a sigh: 'you're a good fellow... but there's no help for it: good-bye!'
She turned away and took two steps. The night had come on by now, and dim shadows were closing in on all sides. Tchertop-hanov jumped up swiftly and seized Masha from behind by her two elbows.
'You are going away like this, serpent, to Yaff!'
'Good-bye!' Masha repeated sharply and significantly; she tore herself away and walked off.
Tchertop-hanov looked after her, ran to the place where the pistol was lying, snatched it up, took aim, fired.... But before he touched the trigger, his arm twitched upwards34; the ball whistled over Masha's head. She looked at him over her shoulder without stopping, and went on, swinging as she walked, as though in defiance35 of him.
He hid his face--and fell to running.
But before he had run fifty paces he suddenly stood still as though turned to stone. A well-known, too well-known voice came floating to him. Masha was singing. 'It was in the sweet days of youth,' she sang: every note seemed to linger plaintive36 and ardent37 in the evening air. Tchertop-hanov listened intently. The voice retreated and retreated; at one moment it died away, at the next it floated across, hardly audible, but still with the same passionate38 glow.
'She does it to spite me,' thought Tchertop-hanov; but at once he moaned, 'oh, no! it's her last farewell to me for ever,'--and he burst into floods of tears.
The next day he appeared at the lodgings39 of Mr. Yaff, who, as a true man of the world, not liking40 the solitude41 of the country, resided in the district town, 'to be nearer the young ladies,' as he expressed it. Tchertop-hanov did not find Yaff; he had, in the words of his valet, set off for Moscow the evening before.
'Then it is so!' cried Tchertop-hanov furiously; 'there was an arrangement between them; she has run away with him... but wait a bit!'
He broke into the young cavalry42 captain's room in spite of the resistance of the valet. In the room there was hanging over the sofa a portrait in oils of the master, in the Uhlan uniform. 'Ah, here you are, you tailless ape!' thundered Tchertop-hanov; he jumped on to the sofa, and with a blow of his fist burst a big hole in the taut43 canvas.
'Tell your worthless master,' he turned to the valet, 'that, in the absence of his own filthy44 phiz, the nobleman Tchertop-hanov put a hole through the painted one; and if he cares for satisfaction from me, he knows where to find the nobleman Tchertop-hanov! or else I'll find him out myself! I'll fetch the rascally45 ape from the bottom of the sea!'
Saying these words, Tchertop-hanov jumped off the sofa and majestically46 withdrew.
But the cavalry captain Yaff did not demand satisfaction from him--indeed, he never met him anywhere--and Tchertop-hanov did not think of seeking his enemy out, and no scandal followed. Masha herself soon after this disappeared beyond all trace. Tchertop-hanov took to drink; however, he 'reformed' later. But then a second blow fell upon him.
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收听单词发音
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1
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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2
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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vagrant
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| n.流浪者，游民；adj.流浪的，漂泊不定的 | |
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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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6
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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7
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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kennels
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| n.主人外出时的小动物寄养处，养狗场；狗窝( kennel的名词复数 )；养狗场 | |
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12
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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14
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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16
abashed
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| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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resonant
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| adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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22
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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23
mimicked
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| v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的过去式和过去分词 )；酷似 | |
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rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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26
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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steadfast
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| adj.固定的，不变的，不动摇的；忠实的；坚贞不移的 | |
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loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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30
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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31
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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33
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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34
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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35
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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37
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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38
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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39
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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40
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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41
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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42
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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43
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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44
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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45
rascally
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| adj. 无赖的，恶棍的 adv. 无赖地，卑鄙地 | |
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46
majestically
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| 雄伟地； 庄重地； 威严地； 崇高地 | |
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