A common story

by Ivan Goncharov

  " First you had better read them. See, remember, don't come to me for ' contemptible money' as soon as you have quite given yourself up to ' soft emotions.'

  i u

  CHAPTER IV

  Alexandr's life was divided into two halves. His official duties consumed the morning. He burrowed about in dusty deeds, pondered over facts in no way concerning himself, and reckoned on paper millions of money that did not belong to him. But at times his head refused to think for others, the pen dropped out of his hand and he was possessed by the "soft emotions" which made Piotr Ivanitch so angry.

  Then Alexandr leant over the back of his chair and was carried in thought to a grassy peaceful place, where there were no papers, nor ink, nor strange faces, nor uniforms, where peace, sweetness, and freshness reigned, where in the luxurious drawing-room there was the sweet scent of flowers, and the sounds of a piano and a parrot hopping in his cage, and in the garden the waving branches of birch-trees and bushes of lilac. And the queen of all this— She.

  In the morning, Alexandr, while he sat in his office, was present unseen in one of the islands, in the country villa of the Lubetzky's, but in the evening he was present visibly in his tangible person. Let us cast an indiscreet glance at his happiness.

  It was a hot day, one of the few in Petersburg; the sun, which gave life to the fields, seemed to kill the streets in Petersburg, made the granite red-hot with its rays, and the rays, reflected from the stone, scorched the people. The people walked slowly, hanging their heads, the dogs with their tongues lolling out. The town was like one of those towns of story, in which everything has changed to stone at some magician's sign. No carriages rattled on the flags; the windows were covered with awnings like eyelids closed over eyes; the wooden pavement polished like paraquet; it burnt the foot to step on it. All around was weary, asleep.

  The pedestrian wiping the sweat from his face made for the shade. Stage coaches with six passengers slowly crawled into the town, scarcely stirring up the dust after them. At four o'clock the government clerks came out from their offices and slowly plodded off to their homes.

  Alexandr rushed out, as though the roof of the house was falling in, looked at his watch—it was late; he would not be in time for dinner. He flung himself into a restaurant

  " What have you got, quick !"

  " Soup julienne and k la reine; sauce k la provengale, k la maitre d'hotel; roast turkey, game, &c, sweet souffle."

  "Well, soup h la provencale, sauce julienne, and roast souffle', only be quick! "

  The waiter looked at him.

  " Well, what is it ? " said Alexandr, impatiently.

  The man hurried off and gave him what he thought fit Adouev) seemed very content. He did not wait for a quarter of the dishes and hurried off to a wharf of the Neva, and here a boat and two boatmen awaited him.

  Within an hour he was in sight of the place of his hopes; hestood up in the boat and bent his gaze on the distance. Atfirst his eye was dimmed with anxiety and uneasiness, which passed into doubt. Then suddenly his face brightened with the light of happiness, like a beam of sunlight. He

  distinguished a well-known dress at the garden fence; then he was recognised, a handkerchief was waved to him. He had been waited for perhaps a long time. His feet seemed burning with impatience.

  " Ah! if only one could walk on the water!" thought Alexandr; " they invent all sorts of silly things, and they don't invent that!" The boatmen plied the oars slowly, evenly like a machine. The sweat stood in drops on their sunburnt faces; it was nothing to them that Alexandr's heart was leaping within him, that never taking his eyes from one point, he had already twice in his absorption moved first one leg and then the other up to the very edge of the boat; but they did not care; they went on rowing with the same phlegm, now and then wiping their faces with their sleeves.

  " Quicker!" he said—" half a rouble for vodka!"

  How they set to work, how they began to rise from their seats ! What had become of their fatigue ? how had they regained strength ? The oars seemed only to tremble in the water. The boat shot along, twenty yards in no time ! Ten strokes more, and the stern had already described an arc, the boat came up gracefully and turned into the very bank—Alexandr and Nadinka smiled from afar off and did not take their eyes off one another. Adouev leaped out with one foot in the water instead of on the bank, Nadinka laughed.

  " Gently, sir, wait till I give you a hand," said one of the boatmen when Alexandr was already on the bank.

  " Wait for me here," Adouev said to them, and ran to Nadinka.

  She smiled tenderly at Alexandr from the distance. With every movement of the boat to the shore, her bosom heaved.

  " Nadyezhda Alexandrovna!" said Adouev, almost breathless with delight.

  " Alexandr Fedoritch I " she replied.

  Involuntarily they rushed towards each other, then stopped short, and looked at one another with a smile and moist eyes, and could not say a word. A.few minutes passed thus.

  Piotr Ivanitch could not be blamed for not having noticed Nadinka the first time of seeing her. She was not a beauty, and did not attract attention at once.

  But if any one looked attentively at her features, he would not readily take his eyes off her. Her face rarely remained at rest for two minutes together. The thoughts and emotions of a nature impressionable and susceptible to excess, incessantly replaced one another, and the reflections of these emotions played, curiously mingled on her face, giving it every minute a fresh and unexpected expression. Her eyes, for instance, would flash like lightning, glow and suddenly be hidden under their delicate lids; her face would grow lifeless and motionless, and she would turn to a marble statue before your eyes. You would expect immediately after again the same piercing brillance—not at all! the eyelids would lift softly, and you would meet the mild light of eyes which seemed swimming in the splendour of moonlight. The heart could not but be stirred to a slight throb at such a gaze. In her gestures it was just the same. There was much grace in them, but a grace hardly sylph-like. There was much of the untamed impulsiveness in it which Nature gives. She sometimes sat in a picturesque pose, then suddenly, at the bidding of some inward impulse, this artistic pose would be broken in upon by some unexpected and equally bewitching gesture. In her conversation the same unlooked-for turns; now just criticism, now dreaminess and short answers, then a childish frolicsomeness, or subtle dissembling. Everything in her pointed to an ardent imagination, a wilful and inconstant heart. A much stronger man than Alexandr might have lost his heart over her, only a Piotr Ivanitch could have withstood her, but there are not many like him.

  " You were waiting for me ! How happy I am ! " said Alexandr.

  " I waiting for you? I never thought of it! " answered Nadinka, shaking her head:—"You know I am always in the garden."

  " You are angry ? " he asked timidly.

  " What for? what an idea !"

  " Well, give me you little hand."

  She gave him her hand, but he had scarcely touched it when she at once drew it away—and all at once changed completely. Her smile vanished, and on her face appeared something like vexation.

  " What is that, are you drinking milk ? " he asked.

  Nadinka had a cup in her hands and some sugar.

  " I am having dinner/' she answered.

  " You are dining at six o'clock, and on milk ? "

  " Of course it is strange to you to look at milk after a luxurious dinner at your uncle's, but here we are in the country ; we live simply."

  She broke off some bits of sugar with her front teeth and drank the milk, making a delicate grimace with her lips.

  " I didn't dine with my uncle; I declined yesterday," replied Adouev.

  " How shameless you are ! How can you tell such stories ? Where have you been up till now?"

  " I have been at the office all day up till four "

  " But now it is six. Don't tell fibs; confess, you were tempted by the dinner, by pleasant society ? There you have been enjoying yours
elf very, very much."

  " On my word of honour, I haven't been to my uncle's." Alexandr began to defend himself with warmth. i( If I had, could I be here with you by now ? "

  " Oh! does it seem so early to you ? you might have come here two hours ago !" said Nadinka, and all at once, with a quick pirouette, turned away from him and went along the little path towards the house : Alexandr was after her.

  " Don't come near me, don't come near me," she said, shaking her hand; " I can't see you "

  " Leave off teazing, Nadyezhda Alexandrovna."

  "lam not teazing at all. Tell me, where have you been up till now ? "

  " At four o'clock I got out of the office," began Alexandr; " I was an hour coming here "

  " Then it ought to be five, but it is now six. Where were you that hour ? you see what stories you tell!"

  " I had dinner at a restaurant as quick as possible."

  " As quick as possible! only one hour!" she said. " Poor fellow! you must be hungry. Don't you want some milk ? "

  " Oh, let me, let me have that cup," began Alexandr, holding out his hand.

  But she stopped short all at once, turned the cup upside down, and paying no attention to Alexandr, looked with

  curiosity at the last drops trickling out of the cup on to the dust.

  " You are pitiless!" he said. " How can you torment me so?"

  "Look, look, Alexandr Fedovitch," Nadinka suddenly interposed, absorbed in her occupation. " Shall I make a drop fall on the little beetle that is crawling here on the path ? .... Ah! it has fallen! Poor little thing, it will die!" she said; then carefully picking up the beetle, and laying it on the palm of her hand she began to breathe on it.

  " What care you take of a beetle!" said Alexandr in vexation.

  " Poor little thing! look, it will die," said Nadinka, in distress. " What have I done ? "

  She carried the beetle a little while in her palm, and when it began to stir and to crawl about on her hand Nadinka gave a shudder, quickly threw it on the ground, and stamped on it, saying, " horrid little beetle !"

  " Where have you been ? " she asked then.

  " Why, I told you "

  "Oh, yes, at your uncle's. Were there many people? Did you have any champagne ? Even from here I notice how you smell of champagne."

  "Oh no, not at my uncled," interrupted Alexandr in despair. " Who told you so ? "

  " You just said so."

  " Why, I should think they are only just sitting down to his dinner. You don't know those dinner parties; would such a dinner be over in one hour ? "

  " You have been dining for two hours—four till six."

  " When was I coming here then ? "

  She made no answer, but jumped up and picked a spray of acacia, then began to run along the path.

  Adouev after her.

  " Where are you going ? " he asked.

  " Where ? What a question! To mamma."

  " Why ? Very likely we shall disturb her."

  " Oh no, not at all."

  Marja^Mihgloynaa the mother, of Nadyezhda_ Alexaa-drovna, was one of those indulgent and simple mothers who trrink everything good that their children do. Maria

  Mihalovna, for instance, would order the carriage to be got ready.

  " What for, mamma ? " Nadinka would inquire,

  " We will go out for a drive, it's such glorious weather," said her mother.

  " How can we ? Alexandr Fedoritch is coming."

  And the carriage would be put off.

  Another time Maria Mihalovna would be sitting at work at her everlasting scarf and beginning to sigh, or be sniffing snuff and plying her bone knitting-needles, or else buried in the perusal of a French novel.

  " Maman, why are you not dressing ? " Nadinka would ask severely.

  " What for ? "

  " Why, we are going for a walk, of course."

  " For a walk ? "

  "Yes. Alexandr Fedoritch will come after us. Have you forgotten already ? "

  " Why, I didn't know."

  " Not know indeed !" Nadinka would say in displeasure.

  Her mother would leave her scarf and her book, and go to dress. So Nadinka enjoyed complete freedom and ordered herself and her mamma and her time and her occupations as she pleased. However, she was a kind and indulgent daughter—obedient one could not call her, for it was not she, but her mother, who obeyed; but at least one could say that she had an obedient mother.

  " Go in to mamma," said Nadinka, when they had reached the door of the drawing-room.

  "And you?"

  " I will come afterwards."

  " Well, then, I will come afterwards too."

  " No, go in first."

  Alexandr went in and at once retreated again on tip-toe.

  " She is asleep in the armchair," he said in a whisper.

  " Never mind, go in. Maman, maman I "

  " Ah 1"

  "Alexandr Fedoritch has come."

  " Ah!"

  " Mr. Adouev wants to see you."

  " Ah!"

  " You see how sound asleep she is. Don't wake her !" Alexandr restrained her.

  " No, I will wake her. Maman I "

  " Ah !"

  "Wake up; Alexandr Fedoritch is here."

  " Where is Alexandr Fedoritch ?" said Maria Mihal-ovna, looking directly at him and setting straight her cap, which had fallen on one side. " Ah, is that you, Alexandr Fedoritch? Glad to see you. Here have I been sitting and dropping off into a nap. I'm sure I don't know why, I suppose it's the weather. My corns too begin to shoot— there will be rain. I've been dozing, and in my sleep I thought that Ignaty announced some visitors, but I did not understand who. I listen, " are here," he says, but who I couldn't make out. Then Nadinka called and I woke up at once. I sleep very lightly; the least sound and I'm looking to see what it is. Sit down, Alexandr Fedoritch, how are you ? "

  " Very well, thank you."

  " How is Piotr Ivanitch ? "

  " Very well, I thank you."

  " Why does he never come to see us ? I was only thinking yesterday; he might, thought I, come over once sometime, but he never has—I suppose he is busy ? "

  "Very busy," said Alexandr.

  " And we didn't see you the other day!" continued Maria Mihalovna. " I had been awake a long while; I asked, where is Nadinka? They tell me she's still asleep. " Well, let her sleep," I said, the whole day in the open air, in the garden, the weather keeps fine, she's tired. At her age she sleeps soundly, not as I do at my time of life; such sleeplessness—would you believe—it grows quite a torment; my nerves, or something, I don't know. Then they bring me coffee; you know I always drink it in bed—and while I was drinking it, I thought: "what does it mean, we've seen nothing of Alexandr Fedoritch ? Can he be well ? " Then I got up, and I look; it's eleven o'clock—a pretty thing, on my word—the servants never told me. I went into Nadinka. She was still asleep. I woke her. " It's time, upon my word, my dear; it's nearly twelve o'clock, what's the matter with you ? " You know I am after her the whole day like a nurse. I sent away the governess on purpose to

  have no strangers about. Trust strangers, they say, and God knows what they will do! No ! I undertook her education myself. I look after her strictly, she's never a step out of my sight, and I can say that Nadinka feels this; she doesn't even keep a thought secret from me. I seem to see right through her. Then the cook came up; I talked to him for an hour; then I read a little of the " Memoires du Diable .... ah ! what a pleasant author Sully is ! how agreeably he writes ! Then our neighbour Maria Ivanovna called with her husband; so I never noticed how the morning slipped away; four o'clock already and time for dinner! Ah, yes; why didn't you come to dinner ? we waited for you till five o'clock."

  "Till five« o'clock?" said Alexandr : "I never can, Maria Mihalovna; my office work kept me. I beg you never to wait for me after four o'clock."

  " Well, I said the same, but Nadinka kept on' let us wait a little longer, and a little longer !'"

  " I ? Oh, mamma, how yo
u talk! Didn't I say,' It's time for dinner, mamma,' and you said 'No, we must wait; Alexandr Fedoritch can't be far off; certainly he will be J

  here to dinner.'"

  "There, there!" said Maria Mihalovna, shaking her head; " oh, she's a shameless girl! she puts her own words into my mouth !"

  Nadinka turned away, walked to the flowers and began to tease the parro,t.

  " I said,' Well, where can Alexandr Fedoritch be now ?'" continued Maria Mihalovna " it's half-past four. ' No,' she said, ' we must wait, maman, he will be here.' I look again, a quarter to five. 'You may say what you like, Nadinka,' said I;' Alexandr Fedoritch has certainly gone to some friends, he will not come; I am getting hungry.' ' No,' she said, ' we must wait till five o'clock.' So she plagued me. Eh, isn't it true, miss ?"

  "Popka, popka!" was heard from behind the flowers; " where did you dine to-day, at your uncle's ? "

  " What; she has hidden herself!" her mother went on; " you see she's ashamed to face the light of day."

  " Not at all," answered Nadinka, coming from the flowers, and sitting down at the window.

  " And after all she wouldn't sit down to the table !" said

  Maria Mihalovna: " she asked for a cup of milk and went into the garden; so she has had no dinner. What ? look me straight in the face, miss !"

  Alexandr nearly fainted with happiness at this narrative. He looked at Nadinka, but she had turned her back on him and was tearing a leaf of ivy into little pieces.

  " Nadyezhda Alexandrovna !" he said, " had I the happiness of being thought of by you ? "

  " Don't come near me !" she cried, in vexation that her manoeuvres had been revealed. " Mamma is joking, and you are ready to believe her."

  " But where are the berries that you had got ready for Alexandr Fedoritch ? " asked her mother.

  " Berries ? "

  " Yes, the berries."

  " Why, you ate them at dinner," answered Nadinka.

  " I! please to remember, my dear, you hid them aud would not give me any. 'You will see/ she said, ' Alexandr Fedoritch will come, and then I will give you some too.' What do you think of her? "

  Alexandr looked shyly and tenderly at Nadinka. She blushed.

  " She picked them herself, Alexandr Fedoritch," remarked her mother.