A common story

by Ivan Goncharov

  " Ah! its Alexandr Fedoritch !" said the mother, the first to recover herself. The Count bowed affably. Nadinka quickly drew her veil back from her face, turned round and looked at him with dismay, her lips parted, then she swiftly turned her back, switched her horse, who dashed forward, and in two bounds had disappeared through the gates; the Count followed her.

  " Gently, gently, for Heaven's sake, gently !" screamed the mother after them—" hold on ! Ah ! Lord have mercy on us ! she'll be off to a certainty; what a frightful thing it is!"

  And all was gone; only the sound of the horses' hoofs could be heard, and the dust^was thrown up in a cloud from the road. Alexandr remained with Madame Lubetzky. He looked at her without speaking, as though asking her with his eyes, " What does this mean ? " She did not keep him long waiting for an answer.

  " They have gone," she said, " out of sight now! Well, let the young people amuse themselves, and I will have a little chat with you, Alexandr Fedoritch. But why has there been no sight nor sound of you this fortnight past; have you grown tired of us ? "

  tl I have been ill, Maria Mihalovna," he replied, sullenly. " Yes, one can see you have; you're so thin and pale 1

  no A COMMON STORY

  Sit down directly, rest a little; but won't you let me tell them to cook some eggs, soft-boiled, for you ? it's a long time still till dinner."

  " Thanks, I don't want anything."

  " Why not ? they'll be ready in a minute; and they are capital eggs; the Finnish woman only brought them today."

  " Oh, no, thank you."

  " What's the matter with you ? I kept expecting and expecting you; what does it mean ? I thought; he doesn't come himself, nor send any French books? Do you remember, you promised me something: * Peau de Chagrin, 7 wasn't it ? I expect it and expect it. No ! is Alexandr Fedoritch tired of us, I thought; upon my word, he's tired of us."

  " I'm afraid, Maria Mihalovna, haven't you grown tired ofme?"

  "It's too bad of you to be afraid of that, Alexandr Fedoritch! I love you as though you were one of the family. I can't tell of course about Nadinka, for she's still a child; what does she know ? how can she value people properly ! Every day I kept repeating to her : ' Why is it, I wonder, Alexandr Fedoritch doesn't call, why doesn't he come ?' and I was always expecting you. Would you believe that I would not sit down to dinner every day till five o'clock. I kept thinking he's sure to come in. And Nadinka said sometimes: * What is it, maman ? whom are you waiting for ? I'm hungry, and so is the Count, I think.'"

  "And the Count—has he been here often?" asked Alexandr.

  " Yes, nearly every day, and sometimes twice in the same day; he is so kind, he has taken such a fancy to us. . . . 'Well,' said Nadinka, 'I want my dinner, and that's all about it! it's time to begin.' 'But since Alexandr Fedoritch,' said I, ' will be coming ?'"

  "' He won't come,' she said, " would you like me to bet you a wager he won't? it's useless to wait." Madame Lubetzky stabbed Alexandr with these words as with a knife.

  " She—she said so ? " he asked, trying to smile.

  "Yes, that's just how she talked and hurried us. You know lam severe, though I do look good-tempered. I scolded

  her: one time you're for waiting till five o'clock for him, and won't eat any dinner, and then you don't want to wait at all —you're absurd ! it's wrong of you ! Alexandr Fedoritch is an old friend of ours, he is fond of us, and his uncle, Piotr Ivanitch, has given us many proofs of his friendliness; it's not right to neglect people so 1 He is vexed, I daresay, and will not come "

  " What did she say ? " asked Alexandr.

  "Oh, nothing. You know how saucy she is with me, skips away, begins to sing, and runs off- or says, ' He'll come, jjf he wants to !' such an imp she is ! I too thought —he'll come! I look out, another day passed—and no sign of you! I said again, * What can it be, Nadinka, is Alexandr Fedoritch well ?' 'I don't know, mamanj she said,. * how can I tell ?' * Shall we send to find out what's wrong with him ?' We were going to send and going to send, and so we never sent; I somehow forgot it, left it to her, and she's so thoughtless.—See now how she's given herself up to this r iding! She saw the Count once on horseback from the ivtnaow and kept on at me, * I want to ride' and so on again and again ! I said this and that; but all of no use. * I want to!' Mad thing ! No, there was no riding on horseback in my young days ; we were brought up altogether differently ! But nowadays, shocking to relate, ladies have begun to smoke : over opposite us lives a young widow ; she sits on the balcony all day and smokes; people go by, and pass on horseback—she doesn't care! Sometimes in our days if there were a smell of tobacco in the drawing-room even from the men "

  " Has it been going on long ? " asked Alexandr.

  " I don't know, they say it's been in fashion the last five years : I suppose it's from the French "

  " No, I asked; is it long since Nadyezhda Alexandrovna began to learn riding ? "

  " Ten days about. The Count is so kind, so polite: what is there he isn't ready to do for us; how he spoils her! Look what heaps of flowers ! all from his garden. Sometimes I'm really ashamed. ' Why do you, Count,' I say,' spoil her like that ? there'll be no putting up with her soon!' and I scold her too. I have been with Maria Ivanovna and Nadinka to see his covered court. As you know, I look after her myself; who can see after a daughter better than

  her own mother ? I myself undertook her education and though I say it who shouldn't—God grant every one such a daughter ! And Nadinka had her lessons in my presence. Then we breakfasted in his garden, and now they go riding every day. Ah! what a splendid house he has ! we went over it; all in such taste, so luxurious! "

  " Every day ! " said Alexandr almost to himself. "Why not let her enjoy herself! I was young myself once."

  " And do they go for long rides ? " " For three hours at a time. Come, and what has ailed you."

  " I don't know; there was something wrong with my chest," he said, laying his hand on his heart. " Didn't you take anything for it ? " " No."

  " There, these young people! they keep doing nothing, keep putting it off from day to day, and then take steps when it's too late ! What did you feel ? was it an ache or a griping or a rheumatic pain ?

  " It was an aching and griping and rheumatic pain!" said Alexandr absently.

  " That was a chili ; God forbid ! you mustn't let it go on, you'll kill yourself like that .... it might turn to inflammation of the lungs; and you took no medicine! Do you know what you must do? take some opodeldoc and rub your chest vigorously at night, and rub it till it's red, and drink a herb in your tea ; I will give you the receipt."

  Nadinka returned pale with fatigue. She fell on to the sofa, almost fainting.

  " Look at her! " said Maria Mihalovna, laying her hand on her head : " how tired you- are, you are half-dead. Drink some water and go and undress and unlace your corset. This riding will do you no good !"

  Alexandr and the Count remained the whole day. The Count was invariably courteous and affable to Alexandr, invited him to visit him, to look at his garden, suggested that he should share their next expedition on horseback, offered him a horse.

  " I can't ride," said Alexandr coldly. " Can't you ? " asked Nadinka, " and it is so delightful! Shall we go again, to-morrow, Count ? "

  The Count bowed.

  " That's enough, Nadinka," remarked her mother, " you are troublesome to the Count."

  There was nothing, however, to show that any special relation had arisen between Nadinka and the Count. He was equally friendly to the mother and the daughter; he did not seek opportunities of speaking to Nadinka alone, did not follow her into the garden, and looked at her exactly as he did at her mother. The freedom of her intercourse with him, and the expeditions on horseback showed on her part the whimsicality and impulsiveness of her character, her naivety perhaps her want of experience, her ignorance of the conventions of the world, on her mother's part weakness want of foresight. The civilities and attentions of the lomihand his daily visits might be ascribed to the pr
oximity oTtrie villas and the warm reception he always received at the Lubetzkys. This thing seemed natural, looked at with a simple eye; but Alexandr looked at it with a magnifying glass and saw much—oh ! much—which one would not see with the simple eye.

  " Why," he asked himself, " had Nadinka changed to him ? " She did not wait for him now in the garden, she did not meet him with a smilej but with a look of dismay. For some time she had dressed with special care, there was no carelessness now in her manners. She was more guarded in her behaviour, as though she had become more sensible. Sometimes one caught a glimpse in her eyes and her words of something like a secret. What had become of her sweet caprices, her wildness, her sallies, her frolicking? It had all disappeared. She had become serious, thoughtful, silent. It seemed as though something were tormenting her. She was like all other girls now; she was as hypocritical, told the same lies, asked with the same interest after your health; was so continually polite and friendly for form's sake—to him—to Alexandr ! with whom ? Oh God! his heart sank.

  " It is not for nothing, not for nothing," he kept repeating to himself, " there is something beneath it 1 But I will find out, come what may, and then woe to him."

  And that day, when the Count had taken his leave, Alexandr tried to snatch a moment to speak with Nadinka alone. What did he not do? He took the book with

  H

  which she had once called him away from her mother into the garden, showed it to her, and went out to the bank of the river, thinking she would run out at once. He waited and waited—she did not come. He returned to the room. She was reading the book and did not look at him. He sat down near her. She did not raise her eyes, and then asked casually, in a superficial tone, was he busy with his literary work, had anything new come out? Of the past not a word.

  He began to talk to her mother. Nadinka went out into the garden. The mother left the room and Adouev too rushed into the garden. Nadinka seeing him, rose from the bench, did not come to meet him, but went quietly by a roundabout way towards the house, as though to avoid him. He quickened his pace, she did the same.

  " Nadyezhda Alexandrovna!" he shouted from the distance, " I should like to say two words to you."

  " Come indoors ; it's damp here," she answered.

  When she had gone in, she sat down again near her mother. Alexandr felt quite ill.

  " So you are afraid of the damp air," he said with bitterness.

  " Yes, the evenings are so cold and dark now," she replied with a yawn.

  " We shall soon return to town," said her mother.

  " May I trouble you, Alexandr Fedoritch, to go to our apartments and remind the man-in-charge to renew two locks on the doors, and the shutter in Nadinka's bedroom. He promised to do it, but he'll forget, depend upon it. They are all alike ; care for nothing but making money."

  Adouev got up to go.

  " Come and see us before long! " said Maria Mihalovna.

  Nadinka did not speak.

  He had already reached the door, when he turned round to her. She made three steps towards him. His heart throbbed.

  " At last! " he thought.

  " Will you be with us to-morrow ?" she asked coldly, though her eyes were bent on him with eager curiosity.

  " I don't know; why? "

  " Oh,. I only asked ; shall you come ? "

  " Would you like me to ? "

  " Shall you come to-morrow ? " she repeated in the same chilly tone, but with greater impatience.

  " No ! " he answered with vexation.

  " And the next day ? "

  " No; I shall not come for a whole week, perhaps, two— a long while !" And he turned a scrutinising glance upon her, trying to read in her eyes what impression his words produced.

  She did not speak, but her eyes dropped at the very instant of his reply, and what was to be seen in them ? Were they clouded with pain or flashing with a gleam of pleasure —nothing could be deciphered from that lovely marble face.

  Alexandr clutched his hat in his hand and went away.

  "Don't forget to rub your chest with opodeldoc!" screamed Maria Mihalovna after him. And now Alexandr had again a problem to solve—what was the aim of Nadinka's question ? what was to be inferred from it—desire or dread of seeing him ?

  "Oh, what torture, what torture !" he said in despair. •Poor Alexandr could not hold out; he went on the third day. Nadinka was at the garden-fence when he arrived. He was beginning to rejoice, but no sooner had he drawn near the bank, when she, as though she had not seen him, turned away and after a few undecided steps on the path just as if she were walking without an object, went towards the house.

  He found her with her mother. Two gentlemen from the town were there, their neighbour Maria Ivanovna, and the inevitable Count. Alexandr's sufferings were unendurable. Again the whole day passed in empty, useless conversation. How the guests wearied him ! They talked calmly of all kinds of trifles, argued, joked, laughed.

  "They laugh!" said Alexandr: "they can laugh, while— Nadinka—has changed to me ! It's nothing to them! They are wretched, empty creatures; they are pleased with everything !"

  Nadinka went into the garden; the Count did not go out with her. For some time he and Nadinka seemed to avoid one another in Alexandra presence. He sometimes came on them alone in the garden or indoors, but then they separated and did not meet any more in his presence. A

  new dreadful discovery for Alexandr—a sign that there was an understanding between them.

  The guests broke up. The Count too took his leave. Nadinka did not know this, and did not hasten indoors. Adouev left Maria Mihalovna without ceremony and went into the garden. Nadinka was standing with her back to Alexandr, leaning with her arm on the trellis and her head propped on her hand, just as on that never-to-be-forgotten evening. She did not see him and did not hear his approach.

  How his heart beat, while he stole up to her on tiptoe! He could hardly breathe !

  " Nadyezhda Alexandrovna!" he said, hardly audibly in his emotion.

  She startled as though a shot had been fired off near her, turned round, and moved a step away from him.

  " Tell me, please, what is that smoke there ? " she said in embarrassment, pointing with alacrity to the opposite side of the river, " is it a fire, or some furnace—in a factory ? "

  He looked at her without speaking.

  " Really, I thought it was a fire. Why do you look at me like that, don't you believe it?"

  She broke off.

  " You too," he began, shaking his head, " you too, like others, like every one !. .. . Who could have expected this, two months ago ? "

  "What do you mean? I don't understand you," she said, and tried to go away.

  " Stop, Nadyezhda Alexandrovna; I am not able to bear this torture any longer."

  " What torture ? really I don't know."

  " Don't dissimulate; tell me. Are you the same as you were ? "

  " I am always the same ! " she said with decision.

  " How ! haven't you changed to me ? "

  " No; I think I am just as friendly with you; I am as glad to meet you."

  "As glad! why, then, are you running away from the trellis?"

  " I run away! see how you imagine things; I am standing at the trellis, and you say—I am running away."

  She gave a forced laugh,

  " Nadyezhda Alexandrovna, give up this pretence," continued Adouev.

  "What pretence? what are you worrying me about?"

  "Is this you? My God, six weeks ago, at this very spot!"

  " What is that smoke on the other side, I should like to know."

  " It's awful, awful!" said Alexandr.

  " What have I done to you ? You left off coming to us— you must admit. There was no keeping you against your will," began Nadinka.

  "That's all pretence! don't you know why I ceased coming ? "

  She shook her head, looking away.

  "And the Count?" he said almost menacingly.

  "What Count?"

  Sh
e made a face, as though she had heard of the Count for the first time.

  " What Count! tell me now," he said, looking her straight in the eyes, " that you are indifferent to him ? "

  " You are out of your senses!" she answered, stepping away from him.

  " Yes, you are right!" he continued, " my brain is failing day by day. How can any one behave so artfully, so ungratefully to a man, who loved you beyond everything in the world, who had forgotten everything for you, everything .... who thought soon to be happy for ever, and you "

  " Well, what about me ? " she said, still retreating.

  " What about you ? " he replied, maddened by her coolness. " You have forgotten! let me remind you that here on this very spot you have vowed a hundred times to be mine. ' God hears these vows,' you said. Yes, He heard them ! You must feel shame before Heaven, and these trees and every blade of grass, every witness of our happiness: each grain of sand here speaks of our love; think, look at yourself !—you have broken your oath!"

  She looked at him with horror. His eyes glittered, his lips were white.

  " Ugh ! how spiteful you are ! " she said timidly, "what are you angry about ? I did not prevent you, you still did not speak to tnaman —why, you know best."

  " Speak to her after this behaviour ? "

  " What behaviour ? I don't know."

  " What! I will tell you at once; what is the meaning of these interviews with the Count; these expeditions on horseback ? "

  " What! should I run away from him when maman goes out of the room ! and the riding means—that I like riding —it's so delightful; you gallop—ah, what a dear creature that horse Lucy! have you seen her ?—she knows me already."

  " And the change in your behaviour to me?" he continued; " why, the Count is with you every day from morning to night!"

  " Ah, my goodness, do I know why ? how ridiculous you are ! maman wishes it."

  " It's false! maman wishes what you wish. For whom are all those presents, notes, albums, flowers. All maman? "

  "Yes, maman is so fond of flowers. Yesterday she bought from the gardener "

  " And what is it you talk about in whispers ? " went on Alexandr, paying no attention to her words; look at me, you" are pale, you yourself feel your guilt. To ruin a man's happiness, forget, destroy everything so quickly, so easily, hypocrisy, ingratitude, lying and treachery!—yes, treachery! How could you let yourself come to this ? A rich count, a society lion, deigns to cast a glance of favour on you, and you were melted, you fell down before this tinsel god; where is your modesty !!! Let there be no more of the Count here," he said in a suffocating voice; " do you hear ? stop it, break off all relations with him, let him never And his way again into your house I won't have it."