Latest / Classic Educational Library / Boyhood - Leo Tolstory
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter one, A slow journey. Again, two carriages stood at
- 0:04Speaker 1: the front door of the house at Petrovsky. In one
- 0:08Speaker 1: of them sat Mimi, the two girls and their maid,
- 0:10Speaker 1: with the bailiff Yakov on the box, while in the
- 0:14Speaker 1: other Abrtchka sat Woloda, myself and our servant Wassili. Papa,
- 0:21Speaker 1: who was to follow us to Moscow in a few days,
- 0:24Speaker 1: was standing bareheaded on the entrance steps. He made the
- 0:28Speaker 1: sign of the Cross at the windows of the carriages
- 0:30Speaker 1: and said, Christ go with you. Goodbye. Yakov and our coachman,
- 0:35Speaker 1: for we had our own horses, lifted their caps in answer,
- 0:39Speaker 1: and also made the sign of the cross. Amen, God
- 0:42Speaker 1: go with us. The carriages began to roll away, and
- 0:46Speaker 1: the birch trees of the great avenue filed out of sight.
- 0:50Speaker 1: I was not in the least depressed on this occasion,
- 0:52Speaker 1: for my mind was not so much turned upon what
- 0:54Speaker 1: I had left as upon what was awaiting me. In proportion,
- 0:58Speaker 1: as the various objects connected with the sad recollections which
- 1:02Speaker 1: had recently filled my imagination receded behind me, those recollections
- 1:07Speaker 1: lost their power and gave place to a consolatory feeling
- 1:10Speaker 1: of life youthful, vigor, freshness, and hope. Seldom have I
- 1:15Speaker 1: spent four days more well. I will not say gaily,
- 1:19Speaker 1: since I should have shrunk from appearing gay, but more
- 1:22Speaker 1: agreeably and pleasantly than those occupied by our journey. No
- 1:28Speaker 1: longer were my eyes confronted with the closed door of
- 1:30Speaker 1: Mama's room, which I had never been able to pass
- 1:33Speaker 1: without a pang, Nor with the covered piano, which nobody
- 1:37Speaker 1: opened now and at which I could never look without trembling,
- 1:41Speaker 1: Nor with mourning dresses we had, each of us on
- 1:44Speaker 1: our ordinary traveling clothes, nor with all those other objects
- 1:47Speaker 1: which recalled to me so vividly our irreparable loss, and
- 1:51Speaker 1: forced me to abstain from any manifestation of merriment, lest
- 1:55Speaker 1: I should unwittingly offend against her memory. On the contrary,
- 2:00Speaker 1: a continual succession of new and exciting objects and places
- 2:03Speaker 1: now caught and held my attention, and the charms of
- 2:07Speaker 1: spring awakened in my soul a soothing sense of satisfaction
- 2:10Speaker 1: with the present and of blissful hope for the future.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Very early next morning, the Merciless Wasili, who had only
- 2:18Speaker 1: just entered our service, and was therefore, like most people
- 2:20Speaker 1: in such a position. Zealous to a fault, came and
- 2:23Speaker 1: stripped off my counterpane, affirming that it was time for
- 2:26Speaker 1: me to get up, since everything was in readiness for
- 2:29Speaker 1: us to continue our journey. Though I felt inclined to
- 2:33Speaker 1: stretch myself and rebel, though I would gladly have spent
- 2:36Speaker 1: another quarter of an hour in sweet enjoyment of my
- 2:39Speaker 1: morning slumber, Wassily's inexorable face showed that he would grant
- 2:43Speaker 1: me no respite, but that he was ready to tear
- 2:47Speaker 1: away the counterpane twenty times more if necessary. Accordingly, I
- 2:51Speaker 1: submitted myself to the inevitable and ran down into the
- 2:54Speaker 1: courtyard to wash myself at the fountain. In the coffee room,
- 2:58Speaker 1: a tea kettle was already surmounting the fire, which milk
- 3:01Speaker 1: of the ostler, as red in the face as a crab,
- 3:04Speaker 1: was blowing with a pair of bellows. All was gray
- 3:07Speaker 1: and misty in the courtyard, like steam from a smoking dunghill.
- 3:10Speaker 1: But in the eastern sky the sun was diffusing a clear,
- 3:13Speaker 1: cheerful radiance and making the straw roofs of the sheds
- 3:17Speaker 1: around the courtyard sparkle with the night dew beneath them.
- 3:21Speaker 1: Stood our horses tied to mangers, and I could hear
- 3:24Speaker 1: the ceaseless sound of their chewing. A curly haired dog,
- 3:27Speaker 1: which had been spending the night on a dry dunghill,
- 3:30Speaker 1: now rose in lazy fashion, and, wagging its tail, walked
- 3:34Speaker 1: slowly across the courtyard. The bustling landlady opened the creaking gates,
- 3:40Speaker 1: turned her meditative cows into the street, whence came the
- 3:43Speaker 1: lowing and bellowing of other cattle, and exchanged a word
- 3:46Speaker 1: or two with a sleepy neighbor. Philip, with his shirt
- 3:49Speaker 1: sleeves rolled up, was working the windlass of a draw
- 3:53Speaker 1: well and sending sparkling fresh water coursing into an oaken troth,
- 3:57Speaker 1: while in the pool beneath it, some early rising ducks
- 4:00Speaker 1: were taking a bath. It gave me pleasure to watch
- 4:03Speaker 1: his strongly marked bearded face and the veins and muscles
- 4:07Speaker 1: as they stood out upon his great, powerful hands, whenever
- 4:10Speaker 1: he made an extra effort. In the room behind the
- 4:13Speaker 1: partition wall, where Mimi and the girls had slept, yet
- 4:17Speaker 1: so near to ourselves that we had exchanged confidences, overnight
- 4:21Speaker 1: movements now became audible. Their maid kept passing in and
- 4:24Speaker 1: out with clothes, and at last the door opened and
- 4:28Speaker 1: we were summoned to breakfast. Walloda, however, remained in a
- 4:31Speaker 1: state of bustle throughout, as he ran to fetch first
- 4:34Speaker 1: one article and then another, and urged the maid to
- 4:38Speaker 1: hasten her preparations. The horses were put to and showed
- 4:42Speaker 1: their impatience by tinkling their bells. Parcels, trunks, dressing cases,
- 4:47Speaker 1: and boxes were replaced, and we set about taking our seats.
- 4:51Speaker 1: Yet every time that we got in the mountain of
- 4:53Speaker 1: luggage in the Britchka seemed to have grown larger than before,
- 4:58Speaker 1: and we had much ado to understand how things had
- 5:00Speaker 1: been arranged yesterday and how we should sit now. A
- 5:04Speaker 1: tea chest in particular greatly inconvenienced me, But wassily declared
- 5:09Speaker 1: that things will soon right themselves, and I had no
- 5:13Speaker 1: choice but to believe him. The sun was just rising,
- 5:17Speaker 1: covered with dense white clouds, and every object around us
- 5:20Speaker 1: was standing out in a cheerful, calm sort of radiance.
- 5:23Speaker 1: The whole was beautiful to look at, and I felt
- 5:26Speaker 1: comfortable and light of heart. Before us, the road ran
- 5:29Speaker 1: like a broad, sinuous ribbon through cornfields, glittering with dew,
- 5:33Speaker 1: here and there a dark bush or young birch tree
- 5:36Speaker 1: cast a long shadow over the ruts and scattered grass
- 5:39Speaker 1: tufts of the track. Yet even the monotonous din of
- 5:42Speaker 1: our carriage wheels and collar bells could not drown the
- 5:46Speaker 1: joyous song of soaring larks, nor the combined odor of
- 5:49Speaker 1: moth eaten cloth, dust and sourness peculiar to our brich
- 5:53Speaker 1: cut overpower the fresh scents of the morning. I felt
- 5:56Speaker 1: in my heart that delightful impulse to be up and doing,
- 6:00Speaker 1: which is a sign of sincere enjoyment. As I had
- 6:03Speaker 1: not been able to say my prayers in the courtyard
- 6:05Speaker 1: of the Inn, but had nevertheless been assured once that
- 6:08Speaker 1: on the very first day, when I omitted to perform
- 6:11Speaker 1: that ceremony, some misfortune would overtake me. I now hastened
- 6:15Speaker 1: to rectify the omission, taking off my cap and stooping
- 6:19Speaker 1: down in a corner of the britchka, I duly recited
- 6:22Speaker 1: my orisons and unobtrusively signed the sign of the Cross
- 6:26Speaker 1: beneath my coat. Yet all the while a thousand different
- 6:29Speaker 1: objects were distracting my attention, and more than once I
- 6:33Speaker 1: inadvertently repeated a prayer twice over. Soon, on the little
- 6:37Speaker 1: footpath beside the road became visible some slowly moving figures.
- 6:42Speaker 1: They were pilgrims. On their heads, they had dirty handkerchiefs,
- 6:45Speaker 1: on their backs, wallets of birch bark, and on their
- 6:48Speaker 1: feet bundles of soiled rags and heavy bast shoes. Moving
- 6:53Speaker 1: their staffs in regular rhythm, and scarcely throwing us a glance,
- 6:56Speaker 1: they pressed onwards with heavy tread and in single foot.
- 7:01Speaker 1: Where have they come from? I wondered to myself, And
- 7:04Speaker 1: whither are they bound? Is it a long pilgrimage they
- 7:07Speaker 1: are making? But soon the shadows they cast on the
- 7:10Speaker 1: road became indistinguishable from the shadows of the bushes which
- 7:14Speaker 1: they passed. Next, a carriage and four could be seen
- 7:18Speaker 1: approaching us. In two seconds, the faces which looked out
- 7:21Speaker 1: at us from it with smiling curiosity had vanished. How
- 7:25Speaker 1: strange it seemed that those faces should have nothing in
- 7:29Speaker 1: common with me, and that, in all probability they would
- 7:32Speaker 1: never meet my eyes again. Next came a pair of
- 7:35Speaker 1: post horses with the traces looped up to their collars.
- 7:38Speaker 1: On one of them a young postilion, his lamb's wool
- 7:41Speaker 1: cap cocked to one side, was negligently kicking his booted
- 7:45Speaker 1: legs against the flanks of his steed as he sang
- 7:48Speaker 1: a melancholy ditty. Yet his face and attitude seemed to
- 7:51Speaker 1: me to express such perfect carelessness and indolent ease, that
- 7:56Speaker 1: I imagined it to be the height of happiness to be
- 7:58Speaker 1: a postilion and to sing melancholy songs. Far off through
- 8:02Speaker 1: a cutting in the road, there soon stood out against
- 8:05Speaker 1: the light blue sky, the green roof of a village church. Presently,
- 8:09Speaker 1: the village itself became visible, together with the roof of
- 8:12Speaker 1: the manor house and the garden attached to it. Who
- 8:16Speaker 1: lived in that house? Children? Parents, teachers? Why should we
- 8:20Speaker 1: not call there and make the acquaintance of its inmates?
- 8:24Speaker 1: Next we overtook a file of loaded wagons, a procession
- 8:28Speaker 1: to which our vehicles had to yield the road. What
- 8:30Speaker 1: have you got in there? Asked wassily of one wagoner,
- 8:33Speaker 1: who was dangling his legs lazily over the splashboard of
- 8:36Speaker 1: his conveyance and flicking his whip about as he gazed
- 8:39Speaker 1: at us with a stolid, vacant look. But he only
- 8:42Speaker 1: made answer when we were too far off to catch
- 8:44Speaker 1: what he said, And what have you got, asked wassily
- 8:47Speaker 1: of a second wagoner, who was lying at full length
- 8:49Speaker 1: under a new rug on the driving seat of his vehicle.
- 8:53Speaker 1: The red pole and the red face beneath it lifted
- 8:56Speaker 1: themselves up for a second from the folds of the rug,
- 8:59Speaker 1: measured our BRIDGEHKA with a cold contemptuous look, and lay
- 9:02Speaker 1: down again. Whereupon I concluded that the driver was wondering
- 9:06Speaker 1: to himself who we were, whence we had come, and
- 9:10Speaker 1: whither we were going. These various objects of interest had
- 9:14Speaker 1: absorbed so much of my time that as yet I
- 9:17Speaker 1: had paid no attention to the crooked figures on the
- 9:19Speaker 1: verst posts as we passed them in rapid succession. But
- 9:23Speaker 1: in time the sun began to burn my head and back,
- 9:26Speaker 1: the road to become increasingly dusty, the impedimenta on the
- 9:29Speaker 1: carriage to grow more and more uncomfortable, and myself to
- 9:33Speaker 1: feel more and more cramped. Consequently, I relapsed into devoting
- 9:37Speaker 1: my whole faculties to the distance posts and their numerals,
- 9:42Speaker 1: and to solving difficult mathematical problems for reckoning the time
- 9:45Speaker 1: when we should arrive at the next posting house. Twelve
- 9:50Speaker 1: versts are third of thirty six, and in all there
- 9:52Speaker 1: are forty one two lipets. We have done a third,
- 9:56Speaker 1: and how much then, and so forth and so forth,
- 10:00Speaker 1: Wassily was my next remark, on observing that he was
- 10:03Speaker 1: beginning to nod on the box seat. Suppose we change seats,
- 10:07Speaker 1: will you? Wassily agreed, and had no sooner stretched himself
- 10:10Speaker 1: out in the body of the vehicle than he began
- 10:12Speaker 1: to snore to me on my new perch. However, a
- 10:16Speaker 1: most interesting spectacle now became visible, namely our horses, all
- 10:21Speaker 1: of which were familiar to me down to the smallest detail.
- 10:24Speaker 1: Why is d'yachik on the right to day Philip not
- 10:26Speaker 1: on the left, I asked knowingly, And Nourachenka is not
- 10:30Speaker 1: doing her proper share of the pulling. One could not
- 10:33Speaker 1: put Dyachik on the left, replied Philip, altogether, ignoring my
- 10:37Speaker 1: last remark. He is not the kind of horse to
- 10:40Speaker 1: put there at all. A horse like the one on
- 10:42Speaker 1: the left now is the right kind of one for
- 10:44Speaker 1: the job. After this fragment of eloquence, Philip turned towards
- 10:48Speaker 1: Dyachik and began to do his best to worry the
- 10:51Speaker 1: poor animal by jogging at the reins in spite of
- 10:54Speaker 1: the fact that Dyachuk was doing well and dragging the
- 10:56Speaker 1: vehicle almost unaided. This Philip can continued to do until
- 11:00Speaker 1: he found it convenient to breathe and rest himself awhile,
- 11:04Speaker 1: and to settle his cap askew. Though it had looked
- 11:07Speaker 1: well enough before, I profited by the opportunity to ask
- 11:11Speaker 1: him to let me have the reins to hold until
- 11:13Speaker 1: the whole six in my hand, as well as the
- 11:16Speaker 1: whip I had attained complete happiness. Several times I asked
- 11:20Speaker 1: whether I was doing things right, but as usual, Philip
- 11:23Speaker 1: was never satisfied, and soon destroyed my felicity. The heat
- 11:28Speaker 1: increased until a hand showed itself at the carriage window
- 11:31Speaker 1: and waved a bottle and a parcel of eatables, whereupon
- 11:35Speaker 1: Wassily leapt briskly from the britchkah and ran forward to
- 11:39Speaker 1: get us something to eat and drink. When we arrived
- 11:42Speaker 1: at a steep descent, we all got out and ran
- 11:44Speaker 1: down it to a little bridge, while Wassily and Yakov followed,
- 11:48Speaker 1: supporting the carriage on either side, as though to hold
- 11:50Speaker 1: it up in the event of its threatening to upset.
- 11:54Speaker 1: After that, Mimi gave permission for a change of seats,
- 11:58Speaker 1: and sometimes Wolloda or myself would ride in the carriage
- 12:01Speaker 1: and Lubotshka or Katenka in the britchka. This arrangement greatly
- 12:05Speaker 1: pleased the girls, since much more fun went on in
- 12:08Speaker 1: the britchka. Just when the day was at its hottest,
- 12:11Speaker 1: we got out at a wood, and, breaking off a
- 12:13Speaker 1: quantity of branches, transformed our vehicle into a bower. This
- 12:18Speaker 1: traveling arbor then bustled on to catch the carriage up
- 12:21Speaker 1: and had the effect of exciting Lubotshka to one of
- 12:24Speaker 1: those piercing shrieks of delight which she was in the
- 12:27Speaker 1: habit of occasionally emitting. At last, we drew near the
- 12:31Speaker 1: village where we were to halt and dine. Already we
- 12:34Speaker 1: could perceive the smell of the place, the smell of
- 12:36Speaker 1: smoke and tar and sheep, and distinguished the sound of voices,
- 12:41Speaker 1: footsteps and carts. The bells on our horses began to
- 12:44Speaker 1: ring less clearly than they had done in the open country,
- 12:48Speaker 1: and on both sides the road became lined with huts,
- 12:51Speaker 1: dwellings with straw roofs, carved porches, and small red or
- 12:55Speaker 1: green painted shutters. To the windows through which here and
- 12:59Speaker 1: there was a way woman's face looking inquisitively out. Peasant
- 13:03Speaker 1: children clad in smocks only stood staring, open eyed, or
- 13:06Speaker 1: stretching out their arms to us, ran barefooted through the
- 13:09Speaker 1: dust to climb onto the luggage behind, despite Philip's menacing gestures. Likewise,
- 13:16Speaker 1: red haired waiters came darting around the carriages to invite
- 13:20Speaker 1: us with words and signs to select their several hostelries
- 13:24Speaker 1: as our halting place. Presently, a gate creaked, and we
- 13:28Speaker 1: entered a courtyard. Four hours of rest and liberty now
- 13:32Speaker 1: awaited us. Chapter two, The thunder storm. The sun was
- 13:38Speaker 1: sinking towards the west, and his long hot rays were
- 13:41Speaker 1: burning my neck and cheeks beyond endurance, while thick clouds
- 13:44Speaker 1: of dust were rising from the road and filling the
- 13:47Speaker 1: whole air. Not the slightest wind was there to carry
- 13:50Speaker 1: it away. I could not think what to do. Neither
- 13:54Speaker 1: the dust blackened face of Woloda dozing in a corner,
- 13:58Speaker 1: nor the motion of Philip's back, or the long shadow
- 14:01Speaker 1: of our Abrtchka as it came bowling along behind us,
- 14:04Speaker 1: brought me any relief. I concentrated my whole attention upon
- 14:08Speaker 1: the distance posts ahead, and the clouds, which hitherto dispersed
- 14:12Speaker 1: over the sky were now assuming a menacing blackness and
- 14:15Speaker 1: beginning to form themselves into a single solid mass. From
- 14:19Speaker 1: time to time, distant thunder could be heard, a circumstance
- 14:23Speaker 1: which greatly increased my impatience to arrive at the inn
- 14:25Speaker 1: where we were to spend the night. A thunder storm
- 14:28Speaker 1: always communicated to me an inexpressibly oppressive feeling of fear
- 14:32Speaker 1: and gloom. Yet we were still ten versts from the
- 14:36Speaker 1: next village, and in the meanwhile, the large purple cloud bank,
- 14:40Speaker 1: arisen from no one knows where, was advancing steadily towards us.
- 14:45Speaker 1: The sun, not yet obscured, was picking out its fuscus
- 14:49Speaker 1: shape with dazzling light and marking its front with gray
- 14:52Speaker 1: stripes running right down to the horizon. At intervals, vivid
- 14:57Speaker 1: lightning could be seen in the distance, followed by low rum,
- 15:00Speaker 1: which increased steadily in volume, until they merged into a
- 15:03Speaker 1: prolonged roll which seemed to embrace the entire heavens. At length,
- 15:08Speaker 1: Wassili got up and covered over the britchkah. The coachman
- 15:11Speaker 1: wrapped himself up in his cloak and lifted his cap
- 15:14Speaker 1: to make the sign of the cross at each successive thunderclap,
- 15:17Speaker 1: and the horses pricked up their ears and snorted, as
- 15:20Speaker 1: though to drink in the fresh air which the flying
- 15:23Speaker 1: clouds were out distancing. The britchka began to roll more
- 15:27Speaker 1: swiftly along the dusty road, and I felt uneasy, and
- 15:30Speaker 1: as though the blood were coursing more quickly through my veins.
- 15:33Speaker 1: Soon the clouds had veiled the face of the sun,
- 15:36Speaker 1: and though he threw a last gleam of light to
- 15:39Speaker 1: the dark and terrifying horizon, he had no choice but
- 15:42Speaker 1: to disappear behind them. Suddenly everything around us seemed changed
- 15:47Speaker 1: and assumed a gloomy aspect. A wood of aspen trees
- 15:50Speaker 1: which we were passing, seemed to be all in a tremble,
- 15:52Speaker 1: with its leaves showing white against the dark lilac background
- 15:56Speaker 1: of the clouds. Murmuring together in an agitated manner. The
- 16:00Speaker 1: tops of the larger trees began to bend to and
- 16:02Speaker 1: fro and dried leaves and grass to whirl about in
- 16:05Speaker 1: eddies over the road. Swallows and white breasted swifts came
- 16:09Speaker 1: darting around the Britchkah, and even passing in front of
- 16:12Speaker 1: the forelegs of the horses, while rooks, despite their outstretched wings,
- 16:16Speaker 1: were laid, as it were, on their keels by the wind. Finally,
- 16:19Speaker 1: the leather apron which covered us began to flutter about
- 16:23Speaker 1: and to beat against the sides of the conveyance. The
- 16:26Speaker 1: lightning flashed right into the britchkah as, cleaving the obscurity
- 16:30Speaker 1: for a second. It lit up the gray cloth and
- 16:33Speaker 1: silk galloon of the lining, and Wolloda's figure pressed back
- 16:36Speaker 1: into a corner. Next came a terrible sound, which, rising
- 16:40Speaker 1: higher and higher, and spreading further and further, increased until
- 16:44Speaker 1: it reached its climax in a deafening thunderclap, which made
- 16:47Speaker 1: us tremble and hold our breaths the wrath of God.
- 16:51Speaker 1: What poetry there is in that simple popular conception. The
- 16:56Speaker 1: pace of the vehicle was continually increasing, and from Philip's
- 17:00Speaker 1: when Vasili's backs, the former was tugging furiously at the reins,
- 17:03Speaker 1: I could see that they too were alarmed. Bowling rapidly
- 17:07Speaker 1: down an incline, the britchka cannoned violently against a wooden
- 17:11Speaker 1: bridge at the bottom. I dared not stir and expected destruction.
- 17:15Speaker 1: Every moment crack a trace had given way, and in
- 17:19Speaker 1: spite of the ceaseless, deafening thunderclaps, we had to pull
- 17:22Speaker 1: up on the bridge, leaning my head despairingly against the
- 17:25Speaker 1: side of the britchka. I followed with a beating heart
- 17:28Speaker 1: the movements of Philip's great black fingers as he tied
- 17:31Speaker 1: up the broken trace, and with hands in the butt
- 17:33Speaker 1: hand of the whip, pushed the harness vigorously back into
- 17:37Speaker 1: its place. My sense of terror was increasing with the
- 17:41Speaker 1: violence of the thunder. Indeed, at the moment of supreme silence,
- 17:45Speaker 1: which generally precedes the greatest intensity of a storm, it
- 17:48Speaker 1: mounted to such a height that I felt as though
- 17:51Speaker 1: another quarter of an hour of this emotion would kill me.
- 17:56Speaker 1: Just then there appeared from beneath the bridge a human
- 17:59Speaker 1: being who clad in a torn, filthy smock and sported
- 18:02Speaker 1: on a pair of thin shanks, bair of muscles, thrust
- 18:05Speaker 1: an idiotic face, a tremulous bare shaven head, and a
- 18:09Speaker 1: pair of red shining stumps in place of hands into
- 18:11Speaker 1: the Britchkah, My lord, a kopeck, for for God's sake,
- 18:18Speaker 1: groaned a feeble voice, as at each word the wretched
- 18:21Speaker 1: being made the sign of the cross and bowed himself
- 18:24Speaker 1: to the ground. I cannot describe the chill feeling of
- 18:28Speaker 1: horror which penetrated my heart at that moment. A shudder
- 18:31Speaker 1: crept through all my hair, and my eyes stared in
- 18:34Speaker 1: vacant terror at the outcast. Wassily, who was charged with
- 18:38Speaker 1: the apportioning of alms during the journey, was busy helping Philip,
- 18:42Speaker 1: and only when everything had been put straight and Philip
- 18:44Speaker 1: had resumed the reins again had he time to look
- 18:47Speaker 1: for his purse. Hardly had the Britchka begun to move,
- 18:50Speaker 1: when a blinding flash filled the welcome with a blaze
- 18:53Speaker 1: of light, which brought the horses to their haunches. Then
- 18:56Speaker 1: the flash was followed by such an ear splitting roar
- 19:00Speaker 1: that the very vault of heaven seemed to be descending
- 19:02Speaker 1: upon our heads. The wind blew harder than ever, and
- 19:06Speaker 1: Wassily's cloak, the manes and tails of the horses, and
- 19:09Speaker 1: the carriage apron were all slanted in one direction as
- 19:12Speaker 1: they waved furiously in the violent blast. Presently upon the
- 19:17Speaker 1: breech kest top there fell some large drops of rain one, two, three.
- 19:22Speaker 1: Then suddenly, as though a roll of drums were being
- 19:25Speaker 1: beaten over our heads. The whole countryside resounded with the
- 19:28Speaker 1: clatter of the deluge. From Wassily's movements. I could see
- 19:32Speaker 1: that he had now got his purse open, and that
- 19:34Speaker 1: the poor outcast was still bowing and making the sign
- 19:37Speaker 1: of the cross as he ran beside the wheels of
- 19:39Speaker 1: the vehicle at the imminent risk of being run over,
- 19:42Speaker 1: and reiterated from time to time his plea for for
- 19:46Speaker 1: God's sake. At last, a kopik rolled upon the ground,
- 19:50Speaker 1: and the miserable creature, his mutilated arms, with their sleeves
- 19:54Speaker 1: wet through and through, held out before him, stopped, perplexed
- 19:58Speaker 1: in the roadway, and vanished from my sight. The heavy
- 20:02Speaker 1: rain driven before the tempestuous wind, poured down in pailfuls,
- 20:06Speaker 1: and dripping from Wassily's thick cloak, formed a series of
- 20:10Speaker 1: pools on the apron. The dust became changed to a
- 20:14Speaker 1: paste which clung to the wheels, and the ruts became
- 20:17Speaker 1: transformed into muddy rivulets. At last, however, the lightning grew
- 20:22Speaker 1: paler and more diffuse, and the thunderclaps lost some of
- 20:25Speaker 1: their terror. Amid the monotonous rattling of the downpour. Then
- 20:29Speaker 1: the rain also abated, and the clouds began to disperse.
- 20:32Speaker 1: In the region of the sun, a lightness appeared, and
- 20:36Speaker 1: between the white gray clouds could be caught glimpses of
- 20:39Speaker 1: an azure sky. Finally, a dazzling ray shot across the
- 20:43Speaker 1: pools on the road, shot through the threads of rain,
- 20:47Speaker 1: now falling thin and straight as from a sieve, and
- 20:50Speaker 1: fell upon the fresh leaves and blades of grass. The
- 20:53Speaker 1: great cloud was still lowering, black and threatening on the
- 20:57Speaker 1: far horizon, but I no longer felt afraid of it.
- 21:00Speaker 1: I felt only an inexpressibly pleasant hopefulness in proportion as
- 21:05Speaker 1: trust in life replaced the late burden of fear. Indeed,
- 21:09Speaker 1: my heart was smiling like that of refreshed, revivified nature herself.
- 21:14Speaker 1: Wassily took off his cloak and wrung the water from it.
- 21:18Speaker 1: Willoda flung back the apron, and I stood up in
- 21:21Speaker 1: the britchka to drink in the new, fresh, balm laden air.
- 21:25Speaker 1: In front of us was the carriage, rolling along and
- 21:27Speaker 1: looking as wet and resplendent in the sunlight as though
- 21:31Speaker 1: it had just been polished. On one side of the road,
- 21:34Speaker 1: boundless oatfields, intersected in places by small ravines, which now
- 21:38Speaker 1: showed bright with their moist earth and greenery, stretched to
- 21:42Speaker 1: the far horizon like a checkered carpet, while on the
- 21:45Speaker 1: other side of us, an aspen wood intermingled with hazel
- 21:48Speaker 1: bushes and parquaded with wild thyme in joyous profusion, no
- 21:53Speaker 1: longer rustled and trembled, but slowly dropped rich, sparkling diamonds
- 21:57Speaker 1: from its newly bathed branches on to the leaves of
- 22:00Speaker 1: last year. From above us, from every side, came the
- 22:04Speaker 1: happy songs of little birds calling to one another among
- 22:07Speaker 1: the dripping brushwood, while clear from the inmost depths of
- 22:10Speaker 1: the wood sounded the voice of the cuckoo. So delicious
- 22:14Speaker 1: was the wondrous scent of the wood, the scent which
- 22:17Speaker 1: follows a thunder storm in spring, the scent of birch trees, violets, mushrooms,
- 22:21Speaker 1: and time, that I could no longer remain in the Britshka.
- 22:25Speaker 1: Jumping out, I ran to some bushes, and, regardless of
- 22:28Speaker 1: the showers of drops discharged upon me, tore off a
- 22:31Speaker 1: few sprigs of time and buried my face in them
- 22:34Speaker 1: to smell their glorious scent. Then, despite the mud which
- 22:38Speaker 1: had got into my boots, as also the fact that
- 22:40Speaker 1: my stockings were soaked, I went skipping through the puddles
- 22:43Speaker 1: to the window of the carriage. Lubatchhka, Katenka, I shouted
- 22:48Speaker 1: as I handed them some of the time, just look
- 22:50Speaker 1: how delicious this is. The girl smelted and cried. Ah,
- 22:55Speaker 1: but Mimi shrieked to me to go away, for fear
- 22:57Speaker 1: I should be run over by the wheels. Oh, but
- 23:00Speaker 1: smell how delicious it is, I persisted. Chapter three a
- 23:07Speaker 1: new point of view. Katenka was with me in the Britchka,
- 23:10Speaker 1: her lovely head inclined as she gazed pensively at the roadway.
- 23:14Speaker 1: I looked at her in silence and wondered what had
- 23:16Speaker 1: brought the unchildlike expression of sadness to her face, which
- 23:20Speaker 1: I now observed for the first time. There we shall
- 23:24Speaker 1: soon be in Moscow, I said, at last, How large
- 23:27Speaker 1: do you suppose it is? I don't know. She replied, well,
- 23:31Speaker 1: but how large do you imagine? As large as Serpakov?
- 23:37Speaker 1: What do you say? Nothing yet, the instinctive feeling which
- 23:42Speaker 1: enables one person to guess the thoughts of another and
- 23:44Speaker 1: serves as a guiding threat in conversation. Soon made Kitenka
- 23:48Speaker 1: feel that her indifference was disagreeable to me. Wherefore, she
- 23:51Speaker 1: raised her head presently, and turning round, said, did your
- 23:55Speaker 1: Papa tell you that we girls too were going to
- 23:57Speaker 1: live at your grandmamma's. Yes, he said that we should
- 24:01Speaker 1: all live there, all live there. Yes, of course, we
- 24:06Speaker 1: shall have one half of the upper floor, and you
- 24:08Speaker 1: the other half, and Papa the wing. But we shall
- 24:11Speaker 1: all of us dine together with Grandmamma downstairs. But Mama
- 24:16Speaker 1: says that your Grandmamma is so very grave and easily
- 24:19Speaker 1: made angry. No, she only seems like that at first.
- 24:23Speaker 1: She is grave, but not bad tempered. On the contrary,
- 24:27Speaker 1: she is both kind and cheerful. If you could only
- 24:29Speaker 1: have seen the ball at her house. All the same,
- 24:33Speaker 1: I am afraid of her. Besides, who knows whether we?
- 24:37Speaker 1: Katenka stopped short and once again became thoughtful. What I asked,
- 24:42Speaker 1: with some anxiety. Nothing, I only said that No, you said,
- 24:47Speaker 1: who knows whether we? And you said didn't you that
- 24:51Speaker 1: once there was ever such a ball at Grandmama's? Yes,
- 24:56Speaker 1: it is a pity you were not there. There were
- 24:58Speaker 1: heaps of guests, about a thousand people, and all of
- 25:01Speaker 1: them princes are generals. And there was music, and I danced,
- 25:05Speaker 1: But Ktenka, I broke off. You are not listening to me.
- 25:10Speaker 1: Oh yes, I am listening. You said that you danced.
- 25:13Speaker 1: Why are you so serious? Well, one cannot always be gay,
- 25:19Speaker 1: but you have changed tremendously since Walloda and I first
- 25:22Speaker 1: went to Moscow. Tell me the truth, now, why are
- 25:26Speaker 1: so odd? My tone was resolute. Am I so odd?
- 25:30Speaker 1: Said Katenka, with an animation which showed me that my
- 25:33Speaker 1: question had interested her. I don't see that I am
- 25:36Speaker 1: so at all. Well, you are not the same as
- 25:40Speaker 1: you were before, I continued. Once upon a time anyone
- 25:43Speaker 1: could see that you were our equal in everything, and
- 25:47Speaker 1: that you loved us like relations, just as we did you.
- 25:50Speaker 1: But now you are always serious and keep yourself apart
- 25:53Speaker 1: from us. Oh not at all. But let me finish, please,
- 25:57Speaker 1: I interrupted, already conscious of a slight tickling in my nose,
- 26:02Speaker 1: the precursor of the tears which usually came to my
- 26:04Speaker 1: eyes whenever I had to vent any long pent up feeling.
- 26:09Speaker 1: You avoid us and talk to no one but Mimi,
- 26:12Speaker 1: as though you had no wish for our further acquaintance.
- 26:16Speaker 1: But one cannot always remain the same. One must change
- 26:19Speaker 1: a little, sometimes, replied Kateenka, who had an inveterate habit
- 26:23Speaker 1: of pleading some such fatalistic necessity whenever she did not
- 26:27Speaker 1: know what else to say. I recollect that once, when
- 26:31Speaker 1: having a quarrel with Lubotshka, who had called her a
- 26:34Speaker 1: stupid girl, she Kateka retorted that everybody could not be wise,
- 26:39Speaker 1: seeing that a certain number of stupid people was a
- 26:42Speaker 1: necessity in the world. However, on the present occasion, I
- 26:45Speaker 1: was not satisfied that any such inevitable necessity for changing
- 26:49Speaker 1: sometimes existed, and asked further, why is it necessary? Well,
- 26:56Speaker 1: you see, we may not always go on living together
- 26:59Speaker 1: as we are doing now, said Kateenka, coloring slightly and
- 27:03Speaker 1: regarding Philip's back, with a grave expression on her face.
- 27:07Speaker 1: My mamma was able to live with your mother because
- 27:09Speaker 1: she was her friend. But will a similar arrangement always
- 27:13Speaker 1: suit the Countess, who they say, is so easily offended. Besides,
- 27:17Speaker 1: in any case, we shall have to separate some day.
- 27:21Speaker 1: You are rich, you have Petrovsky, while we are poor.
- 27:26Speaker 1: Mamma has nothing. You are rich, we are poor. Both
- 27:31Speaker 1: the words and the ideas which they connoted seemed to
- 27:33Speaker 1: me extremely strange. Hitherto, I had conceived that only beggars
- 27:37Speaker 1: and peasants were poor, and could not reconcile in my
- 27:40Speaker 1: mind the idea of poverty and the graceful, charming Katenka.
- 27:44Speaker 1: I felt that Mimi and her daughter ought to live
- 27:47Speaker 1: with us always and to share everything that we possessed.
- 27:51Speaker 1: Things ought never to be otherwise. Yet at this moment
- 27:55Speaker 1: a thousand new thoughts with regard to their lonely position
- 27:58Speaker 1: came crowding into my head, and I felt so remorseful
- 28:02Speaker 1: at the notion that we were rich and they poor
- 28:04Speaker 1: that I colored up and could not look Katenka in
- 28:07Speaker 1: the face. Yet, what does it matter? I thought, that
- 28:11Speaker 1: we are well off and they are not. Why should
- 28:14Speaker 1: that necessitate a separation? Why should we not share in
- 28:17Speaker 1: common what we possess? Yet I had a feeling that
- 28:21Speaker 1: I could not talk to Katenka on the subject, since
- 28:24Speaker 1: a certain practical instinct, opposed to all logical reasoning, warned
- 28:28Speaker 1: me that right though she possibly was, I should do
- 28:31Speaker 1: wrong to tell her. So it is impossible that you
- 28:36Speaker 1: should leave us. How could we ever live apart? Yet,
- 28:40Speaker 1: what else is there to be done? Certainly I do
- 28:42Speaker 1: not want to do it, Yet if it has to
- 28:45Speaker 1: be done, I know what my plan in life will be. Yes,
- 28:48Speaker 1: to become an actress. How absurd, I exclaimed, for I
- 28:52Speaker 1: knew that to enter that profession had always been her
- 28:54Speaker 1: favorite dream. Oh no, I only used to say that
- 28:58Speaker 1: when I was a little girl. Well, then what to
- 29:02Speaker 1: go into a convent and live there? Then I could
- 29:05Speaker 1: walk out in a black dress and velvet cap, cried Katenka.
- 29:10Speaker 1: Has it ever befallen you, my readers, to become suddenly
- 29:13Speaker 1: aware that your conception of things has altered, as though
- 29:17Speaker 1: every object in life had unexpectedly turned aside towards you,
- 29:21Speaker 1: of which you had hitherto remained unaware. Such a species
- 29:25Speaker 1: of moral change occurred as regards myself during this journey,
- 29:29Speaker 1: and therefore from it I date the beginning of my
- 29:31Speaker 1: boyhood for the first time in my life. I then
- 29:34Speaker 1: envisaged the idea that we, in other words, our family,
- 29:38Speaker 1: were not the only persons in the world, that not
- 29:41Speaker 1: every conceivable interest was centered in ourselves, and that there
- 29:46Speaker 1: existed numbers of people who had nothing in common with us,
- 29:49Speaker 1: cared nothing for us, and even knew nothing of our existence.
- 29:53Speaker 1: No doubt I had known all this before, only I
- 29:56Speaker 1: had not known it then as I knew it now,
- 29:59Speaker 1: I had never properly felt or understood it. Thought merges
- 30:03Speaker 1: into conviction through paths of its own, as well as
- 30:06Speaker 1: sometimes with great suddenness, and by methods wholly different from
- 30:09Speaker 1: those which have brought other intellects to the same conclusion.
- 30:13Speaker 1: For me, the conversation with Kateankas, striking deeply as it
- 30:17Speaker 1: did and forcing me to reflect on her future position,
- 30:20Speaker 1: constituted such a path. As I gazed at the towns
- 30:24Speaker 1: and villages through which we passed, and in each house
- 30:27Speaker 1: of which lived at least one family like our own,
- 30:30Speaker 1: as well as at the women and children who stared
- 30:32Speaker 1: with curiosity at our carriages and then became lost to
- 30:36Speaker 1: sight forever, and the peasants and workmen who did not
- 30:39Speaker 1: even look at us, much less make us any obeisance.
- 30:43Speaker 1: The question arose for the first time in my thoughts,
- 30:46Speaker 1: whom else do they care for if not for us?
- 30:49Speaker 1: And this question was followed by others, such as to
- 30:52Speaker 1: what end do they live? How do they educate their children?
- 30:56Speaker 1: Do they teach their children and let them play What
- 30:59Speaker 1: are their Nemes? And so forth Chapter four In Moscow.
- 31:08Speaker 1: From the time of our arrival in Moscow, the change
- 31:12Speaker 1: in my conception of objects, of persons and of my
- 31:14Speaker 1: connection with them became increasingly perceptible. When at my first
- 31:19Speaker 1: meeting with Grandmamma I saw her thin, wrinkled face and
- 31:22Speaker 1: faded eyes. The mingled respect and fear with which she
- 31:25Speaker 1: had hitherto inspired me gave place to compassion, and when
- 31:29Speaker 1: laying her cheek against Lubotchka's head, she sobbed as though
- 31:33Speaker 1: she saw before her the corpse of her beloved daughter.
- 31:36Speaker 1: My compassion grew to love. I felt deeply sorry to
- 31:40Speaker 1: see her grief at our meeting, even though I knew
- 31:43Speaker 1: that in ourselves we represented nothing in her eyes, but
- 31:46Speaker 1: were dear to her only as reminders of our mother.
- 31:50Speaker 1: That every kiss which she imprinted upon my cheeks expressed
- 31:53Speaker 1: the one thought she is no more. She is dead
- 31:57Speaker 1: and I shall never see her again. Papa, who took
- 32:01Speaker 1: little notice of us here in Moscow, and whose face
- 32:05Speaker 1: was perpetually preoccupied on the rare occasions when he came
- 32:08Speaker 1: in his black dress coat to take formal dinner with
- 32:11Speaker 1: us lost much in my eyes at this period, In
- 32:14Speaker 1: spite of his turned up ruffles, robes to chambre, overseers, bailiffs,
- 32:19Speaker 1: expeditions to the estate and hunting exploits. Karl Ivanitch, whom
- 32:25Speaker 1: Grandmamma always called uncle and who heaven knows why, had
- 32:29Speaker 1: taken it into his head to adorn the bald pate
- 32:32Speaker 1: of my childhood's days with a red wig parted in
- 32:35Speaker 1: the middle, now looked to me so strange and ridiculous
- 32:39Speaker 1: that I wondered how I could ever have failed to
- 32:42Speaker 1: observe the fact before. Even between the girls and ourselves,
- 32:46Speaker 1: there seemed to have sprung up an invisible barrier. They too,
- 32:49Speaker 1: began to have secrets among themselves, as well as to
- 32:53Speaker 1: evince a desire to show off their ever lengthening skirts,
- 32:56Speaker 1: even as we boys did our trousers and ankle straps.
- 33:00Speaker 1: As for Mimi, she appeared at luncheon the first Sunday
- 33:04Speaker 1: in such a gorgeous dress and with so many ribbons
- 33:07Speaker 1: in her cap that it was clear that we were
- 33:09Speaker 1: no longer on Campagna, and that everything was now going
- 33:13Speaker 1: to be different. End of Section one, Chapter five. My
- 33:21Speaker 1: elder brother I was only a year and some odd
- 33:26Speaker 1: months younger than Woloda, and from the first we had
- 33:28Speaker 1: grown up and studied and played together. Hitherto, the difference
- 33:32Speaker 1: between elder and younger brother had never been felt between us.
- 33:36Speaker 1: But at the period of which I am speaking, I
- 33:38Speaker 1: began to have a notion that I was not Wloda's equal,
- 33:41Speaker 1: either in years, in tastes, or in capabilities. I even
- 33:45Speaker 1: began to fancy that Woloda himself was aware of his superiority,
- 33:50Speaker 1: and that he was proud of it. And though perhaps
- 33:53Speaker 1: I was wrong, the idea wounded my conceit already suffering
- 33:57Speaker 1: from frequent comparison with him, he was my superior in everything,
- 34:03Speaker 1: in games, in studies, in quarrels, and in deportment. All
- 34:08Speaker 1: this brought about an estrangement between us and occasioned me
- 34:11Speaker 1: moral sufferings which I had never hitherto experienced. When for
- 34:17Speaker 1: the first time Woloda wore Dutch pleated shirts, I at
- 34:21Speaker 1: once said that I was greatly put out at not
- 34:23Speaker 1: being given similar ones, And each time that he arranged
- 34:27Speaker 1: his collar, I felt that he was doing so on
- 34:30Speaker 1: purpose to offend me. But what tormented me most of
- 34:34Speaker 1: all was the idea that Woloda could see through me,
- 34:37Speaker 1: yet did not choose to show it. Who has not
- 34:41Speaker 1: known those secret wordless communications which spring from some barely
- 34:45Speaker 1: perceptible smile or movement, from a casual glance between two
- 34:49Speaker 1: persons who live as constantly together as do brothers, friends,
- 34:53Speaker 1: man and wife, or master and servant, particularly if those
- 34:57Speaker 1: two persons do not, in all things cultivate mutual frankness.
- 35:02Speaker 1: How many half expressed wishes, thoughts, and meanings which one
- 35:06Speaker 1: shrinks from revealing, are made plain by a single accidental
- 35:09Speaker 1: glance which timidly and irresolutely meets the eye. However, in
- 35:16Speaker 1: my own case, I may have been deceived by my
- 35:18Speaker 1: excessive capacity for and love of analysis. Possibly Wolloda did
- 35:23Speaker 1: not feel at all as I did, passionate and frank
- 35:27Speaker 1: but unstable in his likings. He was attracted by the
- 35:30Speaker 1: most diverse things, and always surrendered himself wholly to such attraction.
- 35:36Speaker 1: For instance, he suddenly conceived a passion for pictures, spent
- 35:41Speaker 1: all his money on their purchase, begged Papa, Grandmamma and
- 35:45Speaker 1: his drawing master to add to their number, and applied
- 35:48Speaker 1: himself with enthusiasm to art. Next came a sudden rage
- 35:53Speaker 1: for curios, with which he covered his table, and for
- 35:57Speaker 1: which he ransacked the whole house. Following upon that, he
- 36:01Speaker 1: took to violent novel reading, procuring such works by stealth
- 36:05Speaker 1: and devouring them day and night. Involuntarily. I was influenced
- 36:10Speaker 1: by his whims, for though too proud to imitate him,
- 36:14Speaker 1: I was also too young and too lacking in independence
- 36:17Speaker 1: to choose my own way. Above all, I envied Woloda
- 36:21Speaker 1: his happy, nobly, frank character, which showed itself most strikingly
- 36:26Speaker 1: when we quarreled. I always felt that he was in
- 36:29Speaker 1: the right, yet could not imitate him. For instance, on
- 36:33Speaker 1: one occasion, when his passion for curios was at its height,
- 36:37Speaker 1: I went to his table and accidentally broke an empty,
- 36:40Speaker 1: many colored, smelling bottle. Who gave you leave to touch
- 36:43Speaker 1: my things? Asked Woloda, chancing to enter the room at
- 36:47Speaker 1: that moment, and at once perceiving the disorder which I
- 36:50Speaker 1: had occasioned in the orderly arrangement of the treasures on
- 36:53Speaker 1: his table. And where is that smelling bottle? Perhaps you
- 36:58Speaker 1: I let it fall at its smell to pieces, But
- 37:01Speaker 1: what does that matter? Well, please do me the favor
- 37:05Speaker 1: never to dare to touch my things again, he said,
- 37:09Speaker 1: as he gathered up the broken fragments and looked at
- 37:11Speaker 1: them vexedly. And will you please do me the favor?
- 37:15Speaker 1: Never to order me to do anything whatever, I retorted.
- 37:19Speaker 1: When a thing's broken, it's broken, and there is no
- 37:22Speaker 1: more to be said. Then I smiled, though I hardly
- 37:25Speaker 1: felt like smiling. Oh it may mean nothing to you,
- 37:29Speaker 1: but to me it means a good deal, said Woloda,
- 37:32Speaker 1: shrugging his shoulders, a habit he had caught from Papa.
- 37:37Speaker 1: First of all, you go and break my things, and
- 37:39Speaker 1: then you laugh. What a nuisance a little boy can be.
- 37:43Speaker 1: Little boy? Indeed, then you, I suppose, are a man,
- 37:47Speaker 1: And ever so wise, I do not intend to quarrel
- 37:51Speaker 1: with you, said Woloda, giving me a slight push. Go away.
- 37:55Speaker 1: Don't you push me? Go away? I say again again,
- 38:00Speaker 1: don't you push me? Wiloda took me by the hand
- 38:05Speaker 1: and tried to drag me away from the table. But
- 38:08Speaker 1: I was excited to the last degree, and gave the
- 38:10Speaker 1: table such a push with my foot that I upset
- 38:13Speaker 1: the whole concern and brought china and crystal ornaments and
- 38:17Speaker 1: everything else with a crash to the floor. You disgusting
- 38:22Speaker 1: little brute, exclaimed Woloda, trying to save some of his
- 38:25Speaker 1: falling treasures. At last, all is over between us, I
- 38:29Speaker 1: thought to myself, as I strode from the room. We
- 38:32Speaker 1: are separated now forever. It was not until evening that
- 38:37Speaker 1: we again exchanged a word. Yet I felt guilty and
- 38:40Speaker 1: was afraid to look at him, and remained at a
- 38:42Speaker 1: loose end all day. Woloda, on the contrary, did his
- 38:47Speaker 1: lessons as diligently as ever and passed the time after
- 38:50Speaker 1: luncheon in talking and laughing with the girls. As soon
- 38:53Speaker 1: again as afternoon lessons were over, I left the room,
- 38:57Speaker 1: for it would have been terribly embarrassing for me to
- 38:59Speaker 1: be alone with my brother. When too, the evening class
- 39:03Speaker 1: in history was ended, I took my note book and
- 39:06Speaker 1: moved towards the door. Just as I passed Woloda, I
- 39:10Speaker 1: pouted and pulled an angry face, though in reality I
- 39:13Speaker 1: should have liked to make my peace with him. At
- 39:16Speaker 1: the same moment, he lifted his head and, with a
- 39:18Speaker 1: barely perceptible and good humoredly satirical smile, looked me full
- 39:23Speaker 1: in the face. Our eyes met, and I saw that
- 39:26Speaker 1: he understood me. While He, for his part, saw that
- 39:29Speaker 1: I knew that he understood me. Yet a feeling stronger
- 39:33Speaker 1: than myself obliged me to turn away from him. Nikolinka,
- 39:38Speaker 1: he said, in a perfectly simple and anything but mocking
- 39:41Speaker 1: pathetic way, you have been angry with me long enough.
- 39:45Speaker 1: I am sorry if I offended you, And he tendered
- 39:47Speaker 1: me his hand. It was as though something welled up
- 39:51Speaker 1: from my heart and nearly choked me. Presently it passed away.
- 39:55Speaker 1: The tears rushed to my eyes, and I felt immensely relieved.
- 40:01Speaker 1: I too, am sorry, Loda, I said, taking his hand.
- 40:06Speaker 1: Yet he only looked at me with an expression as
- 40:09Speaker 1: though he could not understand why there should be tears
- 40:12Speaker 1: in my eyes. Chapter six, Masha, none of the changes
- 40:20Speaker 1: produced in my conception of things were so striking as
- 40:23Speaker 1: the one which led me to cease to see in
- 40:25Speaker 1: one of our chambermaids a mere servant of the female sex, but,
- 40:29Speaker 1: on the contrary, a woman upon whom depended, to a
- 40:33Speaker 1: certain extent my peace of mind and happiness. From the
- 40:38Speaker 1: time of my earliest recollection, I can remember Masha an
- 40:41Speaker 1: inmate of our house. Yet never until the occurrence of
- 40:45Speaker 1: which I am going to speak, an occurrence which entirely
- 40:48Speaker 1: altered my impression of her. Had I bestowed the smallest
- 40:52Speaker 1: attention upon her. She was twenty five years old while
- 40:56Speaker 1: I was but fourteen. Also, she was very beautiful. But
- 41:01Speaker 1: I hesitate to give a further description of her, lest
- 41:04Speaker 1: my imagination should once more picture the bewitching though deceptive
- 41:08Speaker 1: conception of her which filled my mind during the period
- 41:11Speaker 1: of my passion to be frank. I will only say
- 41:14Speaker 1: that she was extraordinarily handsome, magnificently developed, and a woman,
- 41:20Speaker 1: as also that I was but fourteen. At one of
- 41:24Speaker 1: those moments, when lessen book in hand, I would pace
- 41:27Speaker 1: the room and try to keep strictly to one particular
- 41:30Speaker 1: crack in the floor as I hummed up fragment of
- 41:33Speaker 1: some tune or repeated some vague formula. In short, at
- 41:37Speaker 1: one of those moments when the mind leaves off thinking
- 41:39Speaker 1: and the imagination gains the upper hand and yearns for
- 41:42Speaker 1: new impressions, I left the schoolroom and turned, with no
- 41:46Speaker 1: definite purpose in view towards the head of the staircase.
- 41:51Speaker 1: Somebody in slippers was ascending the second flight of stairs.
- 41:54Speaker 1: Of course, I felt curious to see who it was,
- 41:57Speaker 1: but the footsteps ceased abruptly when I heard Masha's voice say,
- 42:02Speaker 1: go away, what nonsense? What would Maria Ivanovna think if
- 42:07Speaker 1: she were to come now? Oh but she will not come,
- 42:11Speaker 1: answered Woloda's voice in a whisper, well, go away, you
- 42:15Speaker 1: silly boy, and Masha came running up and fled past me.
- 42:19Speaker 1: I cannot describe the way in which this discovery confounded me. Nevertheless,
- 42:24Speaker 1: the feeling of amazement soon gave place to a kind
- 42:26Speaker 1: of sympathy with Wilodo's conduct. I found myself wondering less
- 42:30Speaker 1: at the conduct itself than at his ability to behave
- 42:33Speaker 1: so agreeably. Also, I found myself involuntarily desiring to imitate him.
- 42:40Speaker 1: Sometimes I would pace the landing for an hour at
- 42:42Speaker 1: a time, with no other thought in my head than
- 42:44Speaker 1: to watch for movements from above. Yet, although I longed
- 42:48Speaker 1: beyond all things to do as Woloda had done, I
- 42:51Speaker 1: could not bring myself to the point. At other times,
- 42:55Speaker 1: filled with a sense of envious jealousy, I would conceal
- 42:58Speaker 1: myself behind a door and listened to the sounds which
- 43:01Speaker 1: came from the maid servant's room until the thought would
- 43:04Speaker 1: occur to my mind, how if I were to go
- 43:07Speaker 1: in now, and like Woloda kiss Masha. What should I say?
- 43:11Speaker 1: When she asked me, me with the huge nose and
- 43:14Speaker 1: the tuft on the top of my head, what I wanted? Sometimes, too,
- 43:19Speaker 1: I could hear her saying to Wiloda, that serves you right,
- 43:23Speaker 1: Go away, Nicholas Petrovitch never comes in here with such nonsense.
- 43:28Speaker 1: Alas she did not know that Nicholas Petrovitch was sitting
- 43:32Speaker 1: on the staircase just below, and feeling that he would
- 43:35Speaker 1: give all he possessed to be in that bold fellow
- 43:38Speaker 1: Woloda's place. I was shy by nature, and rendered worse
- 43:43Speaker 1: in that respect by a consciousness of my own ugliness.
- 43:46Speaker 1: I am certain that nothing so much influence is the
- 43:49Speaker 1: development of a man as his exterior, though the exterior
- 43:53Speaker 1: itself less than his belief in its plainness or beauty.
- 43:58Speaker 1: Yet I was too conceited it altogether to resign myself
- 44:01Speaker 1: to my fate. I tried to comfort myself much as
- 44:04Speaker 1: the fox did when he declared that the grapes were sour.
- 44:08Speaker 1: That is to say, I tried to make light of
- 44:10Speaker 1: the satisfaction to be gained from making such use of
- 44:13Speaker 1: a pleasing exterior as I believed Wolloda to employ satisfaction,
- 44:18Speaker 1: which I nevertheless envied him from my heart, and endeavored
- 44:23Speaker 1: with every faculty of my intellect and imagination to console
- 44:27Speaker 1: myself with a pride in my isolation. Chapter seven, Small shot, good,
- 44:37Speaker 1: gracious powder, exclaimed Mimi, in a voice trembling with alarm.
- 44:42Speaker 1: Whatever are you doing? You will set the house on
- 44:45Speaker 1: fire in a moment and be the death of us all.
- 44:48Speaker 1: Upon that, with an indescribable expression of firmness, Mimi ordered
- 44:52Speaker 1: everyone to stand aside, and regardless of all possible danger
- 44:56Speaker 1: from a premature explosion, strode with long and resolute steps
- 45:01Speaker 1: to where some small shot was scattered about the floor,
- 45:04Speaker 1: and began to trample upon it. When, in her opinion,
- 45:07Speaker 1: the pairl was at least lessened, she called for Michael
- 45:10Speaker 1: and commanded him to throw the powder away into some
- 45:13Speaker 1: remote spot, or, better still, to immerse it in water,
- 45:17Speaker 1: after which she adjusted her cap and returned proudly to
- 45:20Speaker 1: the drawing room, murmuring as she went. At least I
- 45:24Speaker 1: can say that they are well looked after. When Papa
- 45:28Speaker 1: issued from his room and took us to see Grandmamma,
- 45:31Speaker 1: we found Mimi sitting by the window and glancing with
- 45:33Speaker 1: a grave, mysterious official expression towards the door. In her
- 45:39Speaker 1: hand she was holding something carefully wrapped in paper. I
- 45:42Speaker 1: guessed that that something was the small shot, and that
- 45:46Speaker 1: Grandmamma had been informed of the occurrence. In the room
- 45:50Speaker 1: also where the maid servant Gasha, who, to judge by
- 45:53Speaker 1: her angry flushed face, was in a state of great irritation,
- 45:57Speaker 1: and Doctor Blumenthal, the latter a little man pitted with smallpox,
- 46:01Speaker 1: who was endeavoring by tacit pacificatory signs with his head
- 46:05Speaker 1: and eyes to reassure the perturbed Gasha. Grandmamma was sitting
- 46:09Speaker 1: a little askew and playing that variety of patience which
- 46:12Speaker 1: is called the Traveler, two unmistakable signs of her displeasure.
- 46:17Speaker 1: How are you to day, Mamma, said Papa, as he
- 46:20Speaker 1: kissed her hand respectfully. Have you had a good night? Yes,
- 46:24Speaker 1: very good, my dear. You know that I always enjoy
- 46:27Speaker 1: sound health, replied Grandmamma, in a tone implying that Papa's
- 46:31Speaker 1: inquiries were out of place and highly offensive. Please give
- 46:35Speaker 1: me a clean pocket handkerchief, she added to Gasha. I
- 46:39Speaker 1: have given you one, Madam, answered Gusha, pointing to the
- 46:43Speaker 1: snow white cambric handkerchief which she had just laid on
- 46:46Speaker 1: the arm of Grandmamma's chair. No, it's a nasty, dirty thing.
- 46:50Speaker 1: Take it away and bring me a clean one, my dear.
- 46:54Speaker 1: Gasha went to a cupboard and slammed the door of
- 46:57Speaker 1: it back so violently that every window rattled. Grandmamma glared
- 47:01Speaker 1: angrily at each of us, and then turned her attention
- 47:04Speaker 1: to following the movements of the servant. After the latter
- 47:07Speaker 1: had presented her with what I suspected to be the
- 47:10Speaker 1: same handkerchief as before, Grandmamma continued, And when do you
- 47:15Speaker 1: mean to cut me some snuff? My dear, when I
- 47:19Speaker 1: have time? What do you say to day? If you
- 47:24Speaker 1: don't want to continue in my service, you had better
- 47:27Speaker 1: say so at once. I would have sent you away
- 47:29Speaker 1: long ago had I known that you wished it. It
- 47:33Speaker 1: wouldn't have broken my heart if you had muttered the
- 47:36Speaker 1: woman in an undertone. Here the doctor winked at her again,
- 47:40Speaker 1: but she returned his gaze so firmly and wrathfully that
- 47:44Speaker 1: he soon lowered it and went on playing with his
- 47:46Speaker 1: watch key. You see, my dear, how people speak to
- 47:50Speaker 1: me in my own house, said Grandmamma to Papa, when
- 47:53Speaker 1: Gasha had left the room, grumbling. Well, Mamma, I will
- 47:57Speaker 1: cut you some snuff myself, replied Papa, though evidently at
- 48:01Speaker 1: a loss how to proceed now that he had made
- 48:04Speaker 1: this rash promise. No, no, I thank you. Probably she
- 48:08Speaker 1: is cross because she knows that no one except herself
- 48:11Speaker 1: can cut the snuff just as I like it. Do
- 48:14Speaker 1: you know, my dear, She went on, after a pause,
- 48:16Speaker 1: that your children very nearly set the house on fire
- 48:19Speaker 1: this morning. Papa gazed at Grandmamma with respectful astonishment. Yes,
- 48:26Speaker 1: they were playing with something or another. Tell him the story,
- 48:29Speaker 1: she added to Mimi. Papa could not help smiling as
- 48:33Speaker 1: he took the shot in his hand. This is only
- 48:37Speaker 1: small shot, mamma, he remarked, and could never be dangerous.
- 48:42Speaker 1: I thank you, my dear, for your instruction, but I
- 48:44Speaker 1: am rather too old for that sort of thing. Nerves nerves,
- 48:50Speaker 1: whispered the doctor. Papa turned to us and asked us
- 48:54Speaker 1: where we had got the stuff and how we could
- 48:57Speaker 1: dare to play with it. Don't ask them, ask that
- 49:01Speaker 1: useless uncle, Rather, put in Grandmamma, laying a peculiar stress
- 49:05Speaker 1: upon the word uncle. What else is he for? Wilotas
- 49:10Speaker 1: says that Karl Ivanitch gave him the powder himself, declared Mimi,
- 49:14Speaker 1: then you can see for yourself what use he is,
- 49:17Speaker 1: continued Grandmamma. And where is he, this precious uncle? How
- 49:21Speaker 1: is one to get hold of him? Send him here?
- 49:26Speaker 1: He is gone on an errand for me, said Papa.
- 49:29Speaker 1: That is not at all right, rejoined Grandmamma. He ought
- 49:32Speaker 1: to always be here. True, the children are yours, not mine,
- 49:36Speaker 1: and I have nothing to do with them, seeing that
- 49:38Speaker 1: you are so much cleverer than I am. Yet all
- 49:42Speaker 1: the same, I think it is time we had a
- 49:43Speaker 1: regular tutor for them, and not this uncle of a German,
- 49:47Speaker 1: a stupid fellow, who knows only how to teach them
- 49:49Speaker 1: rude manners and Tyrolean songs. Is it necessary? I ask
- 49:55Speaker 1: you that they should learn Tyrolean songs? However, there is
- 49:59Speaker 1: no one for me to consult about it, and you
- 50:01Speaker 1: must do just as you like. The word now meant
- 50:07Speaker 1: now that they have no mother, And suddenly awakened sad
- 50:11Speaker 1: recollections in Grandmamma's heart, she threw a glance at the
- 50:14Speaker 1: snuff box bearing Mamma's portrait and sighed, I thought of
- 50:19Speaker 1: all this long ago, said Papa eagerly, as well as
- 50:22Speaker 1: taking your advice on the subject. How would you like
- 50:24Speaker 1: Saint Jerome to superintend their lessons? Oh? I think he
- 50:28Speaker 1: would do excellently, my friend, said Grandmamma in a mollified tone.
- 50:32Speaker 1: He is at least a tutor comiefo, and knows how
- 50:36Speaker 1: to instruct des enfant de bon Meszon. He is not
- 50:39Speaker 1: a mere uncle who is good only for taking them
- 50:42Speaker 1: out walking. Very well, I will talk to him tomorrow,
- 50:46Speaker 1: said Papa, and sure enough, two days later saw Karl
- 50:50Speaker 1: Ivanitch forced to retire in favor of the young Frenchman
- 50:54Speaker 1: referred to chapter eight Karl Ivanitch's History. The evening before
- 51:02Speaker 1: the day when Karl was to leave us forever, he
- 51:04Speaker 1: was standing clad as usual in his wadded dressing gown
- 51:08Speaker 1: and red cap, near the bed in his room, and
- 51:11Speaker 1: bending down over a trunk as he carefully packed his belongings.
- 51:15Speaker 1: His behavior towards us had been very cool of light,
- 51:18Speaker 1: and he had seemed to shrink from all contact with us. Consequently,
- 51:22Speaker 1: when I entered his room on the present occasion, he
- 51:25Speaker 1: only glanced at me for a second, and then went
- 51:27Speaker 1: on with his occupation, even though I proceeded to jump
- 51:31Speaker 1: on to his bed, a thing hitherto always forbidden me
- 51:33Speaker 1: to do. He said not a word, and the idea
- 51:36Speaker 1: that he would soon be scolding or forgiving us, no longer,
- 51:40Speaker 1: no longer having anything to do with us, reminded me
- 51:43Speaker 1: vividly of the impending separation. I felt grieved to think
- 51:47Speaker 1: that he had ceased to love us, and wanted to
- 51:50Speaker 1: show him my grief. Will you let me help you,
- 51:54Speaker 1: I said, approaching him. He looked at me for a
- 51:57Speaker 1: moment and turned away again. Yet the expression of pain
- 52:00Speaker 1: in his eyes showed that his coldness was not the
- 52:03Speaker 1: result of indifference, but rather of sincere and concentrated sorrow.
- 52:09Speaker 1: God sees and knows everything, he said at length, raising
- 52:12Speaker 1: himself to his full height and drawing a deep sigh. Yes, Nikolinka,
- 52:17Speaker 1: he went on, observing the expression of sincere pity on
- 52:20Speaker 1: my face. My fate has been an unhappy one from
- 52:24Speaker 1: the cradle, and will continue so to the grave. The
- 52:27Speaker 1: good that I have done to people has always been
- 52:29Speaker 1: repaid with evil. Yet though I shall receive no reward here,
- 52:33Speaker 1: I shall find one there. He pointed upwards. Ah if
- 52:38Speaker 1: only you knew my whole story and all that I
- 52:41Speaker 1: have endured in this life. I who have been a bootmaker,
- 52:44Speaker 1: a soldier, a deserter, a factory hand, and a teacher.
- 52:49Speaker 1: Yet now now I am nothing, and, like the son
- 52:52Speaker 1: of man, have nowhere to lay my head. Sitting down
- 52:56Speaker 1: upon a chair, he covered his eyes with his hand,
- 52:59Speaker 1: seeing that he was in the introspective mood in which
- 53:02Speaker 1: a man pays no attention to his listener as he
- 53:04Speaker 1: cons over his secret thoughts. I remained silent, and, seating
- 53:09Speaker 1: myself upon the bed, continued to watch his kind face.
- 53:14Speaker 1: You are no longer a child. You can understand things now,
- 53:17Speaker 1: and I will tell you my whole story and all
- 53:20Speaker 1: that I have undergone. Some day, my children, you may
- 53:23Speaker 1: remember the old friend who loved you so much. He
- 53:27Speaker 1: leant his elbow upon the table by his side, took
- 53:29Speaker 1: a pinch of snuff, and, in the peculiarly measured guttural
- 53:33Speaker 1: tone in which he used to dictate us our lessons,
- 53:36Speaker 1: began the story of his career. Since he many times
- 53:40Speaker 1: in later years repeated the whole to me again, always
- 53:43Speaker 1: in the same order and with the same expressions and
- 53:46Speaker 1: the same unvarying intonation. I will try to render it
- 53:50Speaker 1: literally and without omitting the innumerable grammatical errors into which
- 53:55Speaker 1: he always strayed when speaking in Russian. Whether it was
- 53:58Speaker 1: really the history of his life, for whether it was
- 54:00Speaker 1: the mere product of his imagination, that is to say,
- 54:04Speaker 1: some narrative which he had conceived during his lonely residence
- 54:07Speaker 1: in our house and had at last, from endless repetition,
- 54:11Speaker 1: come to believe in himself, or whether he was adorning
- 54:15Speaker 1: with imaginary facts the true record of his career. I
- 54:18Speaker 1: have never quite been able to make out. On the
- 54:21Speaker 1: one hand, there was too much depth of feeling and
- 54:24Speaker 1: practical consistency in its recital for it to be wholly incredible,
- 54:29Speaker 1: while on the other hand, the abundance of poetical beauty
- 54:32Speaker 1: which it contained tended to raise doubts in the mind
- 54:35Speaker 1: of the listener. Me Ver very unhappy from the time
- 54:40Speaker 1: of my birth. He began with a profound sigh. Z
- 54:45Speaker 1: Nobelblut of the Countess of Zummerblat flows in my veins.
- 54:51Speaker 1: Me Ver born six weeks after zivetting Ze, man of
- 54:56Speaker 1: my mutter, I called him Papa ver Farmer to Zi,
- 55:00Speaker 1: Count van Zumerblad. He could not forget my mother's shame
- 55:06Speaker 1: and loved me not. I had a youngster brother, Johann,
- 55:11Speaker 1: and two sister pot me very strange between my own family.
- 55:18Speaker 1: Then Johann made several silly tricks. Papa said, with this child, Karl,
- 55:24Speaker 1: I am never to have one moment frank will And
- 55:28Speaker 1: then he scolded and punished me. When the sister quarreled
- 55:33Speaker 1: among themselves, Papa said, karlvill never be one obedient boy,
- 55:39Speaker 1: and still scolded and punished me. My good Mamma alone
- 55:45Speaker 1: loved and tenterate me often. She said to me, Carl,
- 55:50Speaker 1: come in my room, and there she kissed me secretly, poorly, poorly, Karl,
- 55:58Speaker 1: she said, nobody love you, but I will not exchange
- 56:02Speaker 1: you for somebody in the world. One sing your mother
- 56:07Speaker 1: pegged you to remember. She said to me, learn well
- 56:12Speaker 1: and be ever one honest man, then God will not
- 56:17Speaker 1: forsake you. And I tried so to become. When my
- 56:22Speaker 1: fourteen year had expired and me could partake of the
- 56:27Speaker 1: Holy Supper, my mother said to my father Karl is
- 56:31Speaker 1: one pig boy. Now, Gustaf, what shall we do with him?
- 56:37Speaker 1: Aunt Papa said me don't know. Then Mamma said, let
- 56:43Speaker 1: us give him to town at mister Schulton's and he
- 56:46Speaker 1: may be shoemaker. And my father said, good. Six year
- 56:52Speaker 1: and seven months lived I in town with the mister shoemaker,
- 56:57Speaker 1: and he loved me. He said, Karl are one good
- 57:02Speaker 1: workman and shall soon become my jaselle. But man makes
- 57:07Speaker 1: the proposition, Aunt God the deposition. In the year seventeen
- 57:12Speaker 1: ninety six one conscription took place. Aunt. Each which was
- 57:18Speaker 1: serviceable from the eighteenths to the twenty first year had
- 57:22Speaker 1: to go to town. My father and my brother Johann
- 57:27Speaker 1: come to town and we go together to throw the
- 57:31Speaker 1: lot for which should be Soljat. Johann drew the fatal
- 57:36Speaker 1: number and leave us not necessary to be soljat. Aunt.
- 57:42Speaker 1: Papa said, I have only one son, and with him
- 57:46Speaker 1: I must now separate. Then I take his hand and says,
- 57:52Speaker 1: why you say so? Papa, come with me and I
- 57:56Speaker 1: will say you something. And Papa come and we seat
- 58:01Speaker 1: together at the public's house, and me said, waiter, give
- 58:06Speaker 1: us one beer cug and he gives us one. We
- 58:11Speaker 1: drink all together, and brother Johann also drink. Papa said me,
- 58:18Speaker 1: don't say that you have only one son? And wisit
- 58:22Speaker 1: you must separate. My heart was breaking when you says this, brother,
- 58:28Speaker 1: Johann must not serve me. Shall be soljat Karl is
- 58:33Speaker 1: for nobody necessary, and Karl shall be sojat You is
- 58:39Speaker 1: one honest man, Karl said Papa, and kissed me, and
- 58:43Speaker 1: me was sojat. End of section two, chapter nine, continuation
- 58:51Speaker 1: of Karl's narrative. That was a terrible time, Nicolinka continued,
- 58:57Speaker 1: Karl Ivanitch the time of Napoleonian. He wanted to conquer Germany,
- 59:02Speaker 1: and we protected our vaterland to the last trap of
- 59:06Speaker 1: plot mever at um mever at austerlitz me we at Wagram?
- 59:15Speaker 1: Did you really fight? I asked, with a gaze of astonishment.
- 59:18Speaker 1: Did you really kill anybody? Karl instantly reassured me on
- 59:22Speaker 1: this point. Once one French grenadier was left behind and
- 59:28Speaker 1: fell to the ground, I sprang forwards with my gun
- 59:33Speaker 1: and were about to kill him aber Der franzose vortzein
- 59:38Speaker 1: gevir hin unrif pardon, and I let him loose. At Wagram,
- 59:46Speaker 1: Napoleon cut us open and surrounded us in such a
- 59:49Speaker 1: way as Zervas no helping. Three days had we no provisions,
- 59:55Speaker 1: An stood in zavater up to the knees. See even
- 59:59Speaker 1: Napoleon neither let us go loose nor catched us. On
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: the fourth day they took us prisoners, thank God, and
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: sent us to one fortress. Upon me vas one blue trousers, uniforms,
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: a very good close fifteen of tollers, and one silver clock,
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: which my vater hath given me. Sir Franz Soldatin took
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: from me everything for my happiness. Serve us three ducats
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: on me, which my mamma had sown in my shirt
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: of flannel. Nobody found them. I liked not long to
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: stay in the fortresses, and resoluted to run away one day.
- 1:00:47Speaker 1: One pig holiday, says I to the sergeant which had
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: to look after us. Mister sergeant, to day is a
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: pig holiday, and me wants to celebrate it. Bring here,
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: if you please, two bottle mateira, and we shall drink
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: them with each other. And the sergeant says, goot venzi, sergeant,
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: bring the mateira and we drink it out to the
- 1:01:14Speaker 1: last drop. I taked his hand. Aunt, says, mister sergeant.
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: Perhaps you have still one vater and one mutter. He says,
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: so I have, mister mayor, my voter and mutter not
- 1:01:30Speaker 1: seeing me eight year I goes on to him aunt
- 1:01:34Speaker 1: say no, not if I am yet alive, or if
- 1:01:37Speaker 1: my bones be reposing in the grave. O, mister sergeant,
- 1:01:41Speaker 1: I have two tuckets which is in my shirt of flannel.
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: Take them and let me loose. You will be my benefactor,
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: and my mutter will be praying for you all her
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: life to the almighty God. The sergeant emptied his glass
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: of mateira and said, says, mister Mayor, I love and
- 1:02:03Speaker 1: pity you very much, but you is one prisoner and
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: I one soljiat. So I take his hunt, and says
- 1:02:11Speaker 1: mister sergeant. And the sergeant says, you is one poor man,
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: and I will not take your money, but I will
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: help you. Then I go to sleep. Buy one pail
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: of prante for desoldaten, and they will sleep. Me will
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: not look after you. This was one good man. I
- 1:02:33Speaker 1: put it the pail of prante, and then the soultatin
- 1:02:38Speaker 1: was drunken. Me dressed in one old coat and gang
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: in silence out of the doon. I go to the
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: wall and will leaped down. But there is water below
- 1:02:49Speaker 1: and I will not spoil my last dressing. So I
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: go to the gate. The sentry go up and down
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: with one gun, and look at me, who goes there?
- 1:03:01Speaker 1: And I was silent? Who goes there? The second time?
- 1:03:05Speaker 1: And I was silent? Who go there the third time?
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: And I run away? I sprang in the water, climb
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: up to the other side, and walk on the entire night.
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: I run on the vey. But when daylight came, I
- 1:03:21Speaker 1: was afraid that they would catch me, and I hit
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: myself in the high corn. There I kneeled down, sank
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: at the water in heaven for my safety, and fall
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: asleep with a tranquil feeling. I wakened up in the
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: evening and gang firstir At once one large German carriage
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: with two raven black horse came alongside me. In the
- 1:03:46Speaker 1: carriage sit one well dressed man smoking pipe, and look
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: at me. I go slowly, so that the carriage shall
- 1:03:54Speaker 1: have time to pass me. But I go slowly, and
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: the carriage goes slowly, and the man look at me.
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: I go quick, and the carriage go quick, and the
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: man stop its two horses and look at me. Young
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: man says he, where go you so late? I says,
- 1:04:11Speaker 1: I go to Frankfort. Sit in the carriage. There is
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: room enough and I will track you, he says, but
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: why have you nosing about you? Your boots is dirty
- 1:04:21Speaker 1: and your beard not shaven. I seated with him and says,
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: I been one poor man and I would like to
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: pussy myself with something in a manufactory. My dressing is
- 1:04:34Speaker 1: dirty because I fell in zemadanzi rote. You tell me, untruce,
- 1:04:38Speaker 1: young man, says he. The roat is quite dry. Now
- 1:04:43Speaker 1: I was silent. Tell me the whole truth, goes Onzie
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: good Man. Who you are and where you go to?
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: I like your face and venue is one honest man,
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: so I will help you. And I tell all. Good
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: young man, he says, come to my manufactory of rope,
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: and I will give you work and dress and money,
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: and you can live with us. I says, goot. I
- 1:05:10Speaker 1: go to the manufactory of rope, and say, good man
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: says to his woman. Here is one young man who
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: defended his batterland and run away from prisons. He has
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: not house, nor tresses nor prete. He will live with us,
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: Give him clean linen and nourish him. I lived one
- 1:05:31Speaker 1: and a half year in the manufactory of rope, and
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: my landlord loved me so much that he would not
- 1:05:37Speaker 1: let me loose, and I felt very good. I was
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: then handsome man, young of pig stature, with blue eyes
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: and romish nose. And missus l I like not to
- 1:05:49Speaker 1: say her name. She was a woman of my landlord,
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: was young and handsome lady, and she fell in love
- 1:05:56Speaker 1: with me. Here Karl Ivanitch made a law long pause,
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: lowered his kindly blue eyes, shook his head quietly, and
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: smiled as people always do under the influence of a
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: pleasing recollection. Yes, he resumed as he leant back in
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: his arm chair and adjusted his dressing gown. I have
- 1:06:16Speaker 1: experienced many things in my life, but there is my
- 1:06:19Speaker 1: witness here, he pointed to an image of the Savior
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: embroidered on wool which was hanging over his bed. That
- 1:06:26Speaker 1: nobody in the world can say that Karl Ivanitch has
- 1:06:30Speaker 1: been one dishonest man. I would not repay black ingratitude
- 1:06:34Speaker 1: for zigut, which mister l did me, and I resoluted
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: to run away. So in the evening then all were asleep,
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: I write it one letter to my landlord and laid
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: it on the table in his room. Then I taked
- 1:06:49Speaker 1: my tresses, tree taler of money, and go mysteriously into
- 1:06:54Speaker 1: the street. Nobody have seen me, and I go on.
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: Zi wrote chapter ten, conclusion of Karl's narrative. I had
- 1:07:07Speaker 1: not seen my mamma for nine years, and I know
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: not whether she lived or whether her bones had long
- 1:07:12Speaker 1: since lain in the dark grave. Then I come to
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: my own country and go to ze town. I ask
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: where live Gustaf Mayer, who was farmer to the Count
- 1:07:22Speaker 1: van Zomerblatt. Ansey answer me, Graf Sohmerblatt is dead. Aunt
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: Gustaf Mayer live now in the pig street and keep
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: a public house. So I tress in my new waistcoat
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: and one noble coat which the manufacturist presented me, arranged
- 1:07:41Speaker 1: my hairs nice, and go to the public house of
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: my papa. Sister Merrison was sitting on a pench, and
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: she asked me what I want. I says, might I
- 1:07:51Speaker 1: drink one glass of branty? And she says, batter, here
- 1:07:56Speaker 1: is a young man who wished to drink one glass
- 1:07:58Speaker 1: of Branti, and Papa says, give him the glass. I
- 1:08:04Speaker 1: set to the table, drink my glass at branty, smoke
- 1:08:07Speaker 1: my pipe and look at Papa, Marishan and Johann, who
- 1:08:11Speaker 1: also come into the shop. In the conversation, Papa says,
- 1:08:16Speaker 1: you know, perhaps, young man, where stants our army, And
- 1:08:20Speaker 1: I say, I myself am come from the army, and
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: it stands now at ruienn our son says, Papa is
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: a soldat. And now is it nine years since he wrote?
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: Never one word, and we know not whether he is
- 1:08:34Speaker 1: alive or dead. My woman cry continually for him. I
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: still fumigate the pipe and say, what was your son's name?
- 1:08:44Speaker 1: And horse served tea? Perhaps I may know him. His
- 1:08:48Speaker 1: name was Karl Mayer, and he served in the Austrian Jaggers.
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: He wore a pig stature and a handsome man like yourself,
- 1:08:57Speaker 1: puts in Marishan. I say, I know your Karl, Amalia
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: exclaimed Mavater. Come here, here is young man which knows
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: our Karl, And my dear mutter comes out from a
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: back door. I knew her directly. You know our Karl,
- 1:09:14Speaker 1: says she, and looks at me and white all over trembles. Yes,
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: I have seen him, I says, without the courage to
- 1:09:21Speaker 1: look at her, for my heart did almost burst. My
- 1:09:25Speaker 1: Karl is alive, she cried, Zin, thank God, very is
- 1:09:29Speaker 1: he my Karl. I would die in peace if I
- 1:09:32Speaker 1: could see him once more, my darling son. But God
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: will not have it. So then she cried, and I
- 1:09:38Speaker 1: could no longer stant it. Darling Mamma, I say, I
- 1:09:42Speaker 1: am your son, I am your karl, and she fell
- 1:09:45Speaker 1: into my arms. Karl Ivanitch covered his eyes and his
- 1:09:49Speaker 1: lips were quivering. Mutter sakti ich ik bin er son
- 1:09:54Speaker 1: ik bin ere karl UNSI stirtzty mere in the army.
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: He RepA, recovering a little and wiping the tears from
- 1:10:02Speaker 1: his eyes. But God did not wish me to finish
- 1:10:06Speaker 1: my days in my own town. I were pursued by fate.
- 1:10:10Speaker 1: I lived in my own town only three months. One sante.
- 1:10:15Speaker 1: I sit in a coffee house and drink it one
- 1:10:17Speaker 1: pint a pier, and fumigated my pipe, and speak it
- 1:10:21Speaker 1: with some friends of politic, of the Emperor, Franz, of Napoleon,
- 1:10:26Speaker 1: of the war, and anybody might say his opinion. But
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: next to us sits a strange gentleman in a gray uberak,
- 1:10:34Speaker 1: who drink coffee, fumigate the pipe and says nothing. When
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: the night watchman shouted ten o'clock, I taked my hat,
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: paid the money and go home. At the middle of
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: the night, some one knock at the door. I rise
- 1:10:49Speaker 1: and says, who is there? Open, says some one. I
- 1:10:53Speaker 1: shout again. First, say who is there? And I will
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: open open in the name of the law, say some
- 1:11:00Speaker 1: one behind the door. I now do so. Two soldatin
- 1:11:04Speaker 1: with guns stand at the door, and into the room
- 1:11:07Speaker 1: steps the man in the gray uberak, who had sat
- 1:11:11Speaker 1: with us in the coffee house he were spying. Come
- 1:11:15Speaker 1: with me, says the spyan. Very good, I say. I
- 1:11:20Speaker 1: dressed myself in boots, trousers and coat and go through
- 1:11:24Speaker 1: the room. Then I come to the wall where my
- 1:11:26Speaker 1: gun hangs. I take it and says you are a spy.
- 1:11:30Speaker 1: In so defend you. I give one stroke left, one right,
- 1:11:34Speaker 1: and one on the head. The spian lay precipitated on
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: the floor. Then I taked my cloak, bag and money
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: and jumped out of zivinto I went to Ems, where
- 1:11:45Speaker 1: I was acquainted with one General Sassin, who loved me,
- 1:11:49Speaker 1: gived me a passport from the embassy and take me
- 1:11:53Speaker 1: to Rustland to learn his children. Then General Sasin tied
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: your mamma called for me and says Karl Ivanitch, I
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: give you my children, love them and I will never
- 1:12:05Speaker 1: leave you and will take care of your old age.
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: Now she is dead and all is forgotten for my
- 1:12:12Speaker 1: twenty year full of service, I must now go into
- 1:12:14Speaker 1: this street and seek for a try crust of bread
- 1:12:18Speaker 1: for my old age. God sees all this and knows
- 1:12:22Speaker 1: all this. His holy will be done. Only only I
- 1:12:27Speaker 1: yearn for you, my children, and Karl drew me to
- 1:12:30Speaker 1: him and kissed me on the forehead. Chapter eleven one
- 1:12:36Speaker 1: mark only the year of morning over. Grandmamma recovered a
- 1:12:41Speaker 1: little from her grief and once more took to receiving
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: occasional guests, especially children of the same age as ourselves.
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: On the thirteenth of December Lubotshka's birthday, the Princess Kornikov
- 1:12:53Speaker 1: and her daughters with Madame Valakin, Stonetchka, Ilinka, grap and
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: the two younger twins arrived at our house before luncheon.
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: Though we could hear the sounds of talking, laughter and
- 1:13:06Speaker 1: movements going on in the drawing room, we could not
- 1:13:09Speaker 1: join the party until our morning lessons were finished. The
- 1:13:12Speaker 1: table of studies in the schoolroom, said Lundi de diu
- 1:13:17Speaker 1: artois maitre d'estoir e de geography, and this infernal maitre
- 1:13:24Speaker 1: d'estoir we must await, listen to, and see the back
- 1:13:28Speaker 1: of before we could gain our liberty. Already it was
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: twenty minutes past two, and nothing was to be heard
- 1:13:34Speaker 1: of the tutor, nor yet anything to be seen of
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: him in the street, although I kept looking up and
- 1:13:39Speaker 1: down it with the greatest impatience and with an emphatic
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: longing never to see the matre again. I believe he
- 1:13:46Speaker 1: is not coming to day, said Wiloda, looking up for
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: a moment from his lesson book. I hope he has
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: not pleased the Lord, I answered, but in a despondent tone.
- 1:13:55Speaker 1: Yet there he does come, I believe all the same,
- 1:13:58Speaker 1: not he, Why that is a gentleman, said Woloda, likewise,
- 1:14:02Speaker 1: looking out of the window. Let us wait till half
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: past two, and then ask Saint Jerome if we may
- 1:14:07Speaker 1: put away our books. Yes, and wish them au revoir,
- 1:14:12Speaker 1: I added, stretching my arms with the book clasped in
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: my hands over my head. Having hitherto idled away my time,
- 1:14:18Speaker 1: I now opened the book at the place where the
- 1:14:20Speaker 1: lesson was to begin, and started to learn it. It
- 1:14:23Speaker 1: was long and difficult, and moreover I was in the
- 1:14:25Speaker 1: mood when one's thoughts refused to be arrested by anything
- 1:14:28Speaker 1: at all. Consequently, I made no progress after our last
- 1:14:33Speaker 1: lesson in history, which always seemed to me a peculiarly
- 1:14:36Speaker 1: arduous and wearisome subject. The history master had complained to
- 1:14:41Speaker 1: Saint Jerome of me because only two good marks stood
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: to my credit in the register, a very small total.
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: Saint Jerome had then told me that if I failed
- 1:14:50Speaker 1: to gain less than three marks at the next lesson,
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: I should be severely punished. The next lesson was now imminent,
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: and I confess that I felt a little nervous. So absorbed, however,
- 1:15:01Speaker 1: did I become in my reading that the sound of
- 1:15:04Speaker 1: galoshes being taken off in the ante room came upon
- 1:15:07Speaker 1: me almost as a shock. I had just time to
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: look up when there appeared in the doorway the servile
- 1:15:13Speaker 1: and to me very disgusting face and form of the Master,
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: clad in a blue frock coat with brass buttons. Slowly
- 1:15:21Speaker 1: he set down his hat and books, and adjusted the
- 1:15:23Speaker 1: folds of his coat, as though such a thing were necessary,
- 1:15:27Speaker 1: and seated himself in his place. Well, gentlemen, he said,
- 1:15:31Speaker 1: rubbing his hands. Let us first of all, repeat the
- 1:15:34Speaker 1: general contents of the last lesson, after which I will
- 1:15:37Speaker 1: proceed to narrate the succeeding events of the Middle Ages.
- 1:15:41Speaker 1: This meant, say, over the last lesson, while Woloda was
- 1:15:45Speaker 1: answering the master with the entire ease and confidence which
- 1:15:48Speaker 1: come of knowing a subject well, I went aimlessly out
- 1:15:51Speaker 1: on to the landing. And since I was not allowed
- 1:15:53Speaker 1: to go downstairs, what more natural than that I should
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: involuntarily turn towards the alcove on the landing. Yet before
- 1:16:01Speaker 1: I had time to establish myself in my usual coign
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: of vantage behind the door, I found myself pounced upon
- 1:16:08Speaker 1: by Mimi, always the cause of my misfortunes. You here,
- 1:16:12Speaker 1: she said, looking severely, first at myself, and then at
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: the maid servant's door, and then at myself again. I
- 1:16:19Speaker 1: felt thoroughly guilty, firstly because I was not in the
- 1:16:22Speaker 1: school room, and secondly because I was in a forbidden place.
- 1:16:26Speaker 1: So I remained silent, and, dropping my head, assumed a
- 1:16:29Speaker 1: touching expression of contrition. Indeed, this is too bad, Mimi
- 1:16:34Speaker 1: went on, What are you doing here? Still? I said nothing. Well,
- 1:16:39Speaker 1: it shall not rest where it is, she added, tapping
- 1:16:41Speaker 1: the banister with her yellow fingers. I shall inform the Countess.
- 1:16:46Speaker 1: It was five minutes to three when I re entered
- 1:16:48Speaker 1: the schoolroom. The master, as though oblivious of my presence
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: or absence, was explaining the new lesson to Wiloda. When
- 1:16:55Speaker 1: he had finished doing this and had put his books together,
- 1:16:58Speaker 1: while Woloda went into the other room to fetch his ticket,
- 1:17:01Speaker 1: the comforting idea occurred to me that perhaps the whole
- 1:17:04Speaker 1: thing was over now, and that the master had forgotten me.
- 1:17:07Speaker 1: But suddenly he turned in my direction with a malicious
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: smile and said, as he rubbed his hands, anew, I
- 1:17:13Speaker 1: hope you have learnt your lesson? Yes, I replied, Would
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: you be so kind then as to tell me something
- 1:17:21Speaker 1: about Saint Louis's crusade? He went on, balancing himself on
- 1:17:25Speaker 1: his chair and looking gravely at his feet. Firstly, tell
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: me something about the reasons which induced the French king
- 1:17:32Speaker 1: to assume the cross. Here he raised his eyebrows and
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: pointed to the inkstand. Then explain to me the general
- 1:17:39Speaker 1: characteristics of the crusade. Here he made a sweeping gesture
- 1:17:42Speaker 1: with his hand, as though to seize hold of something
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: with it, And lastly expound to me the influence of
- 1:17:49Speaker 1: this crusade upon the European states in general, drawing the
- 1:17:53Speaker 1: copy books to the left side of the table, and
- 1:17:56Speaker 1: upon the French state in particular, drawing one of them
- 1:17:59Speaker 1: to the right, and inclining his head in the same direction.
- 1:18:03Speaker 1: I swallowed a few times, coughed, bent forward, and was silent. Then,
- 1:18:08Speaker 1: taking a pen from the table, I began to pick
- 1:18:10Speaker 1: it to pieces, yet still said nothing. Allow me the pen,
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: I shall want it, said the Master. Well, Louis, the
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: er Saint was, was a very good and wise king.
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: What king? He took it into his head to go
- 1:18:29Speaker 1: to Jerusalem and hand it over the reins of government
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: to his mother? What was her name? But but but Lanka?
- 1:18:37Speaker 1: What Belanka? I laughed, in a rather forced smile. Well
- 1:18:43Speaker 1: is that all you know? He asked, again, smiling. I
- 1:18:46Speaker 1: had nothing to lose now, so I began chattering the
- 1:18:48Speaker 1: first thing that came into my head. The Master remained
- 1:18:51Speaker 1: silent as he gathered together the remains of the pen
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: which I had left strewn about the table, looked gravely
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: past my ear at the wall, and repeated for time
- 1:19:00Speaker 1: to time, very well, very well. Though I was conscious
- 1:19:04Speaker 1: that I knew nothing whatever, and was expressing myself all wrong.
- 1:19:07Speaker 1: I felt much hurt at the fact that he never
- 1:19:10Speaker 1: either corrected or interrupted me. What made him think of
- 1:19:14Speaker 1: going to Jerusalem? He asked, at last, repeating some words
- 1:19:17Speaker 1: of my own, because because that is to say, My
- 1:19:23Speaker 1: confusion was complete, and I relapsed into silence. I felt
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: that even if this disgusting history master were to go
- 1:19:30Speaker 1: on putting questions to me and gazing inquiringly into my
- 1:19:34Speaker 1: face for a year, I should never be able to
- 1:19:36Speaker 1: enunciate another syllable. After staring at me for some three minutes,
- 1:19:40Speaker 1: he suddenly assumed a mournful cast of countenance and said,
- 1:19:44Speaker 1: in an agitated voice to Woloda, who was just re
- 1:19:48Speaker 1: entering the room, allow me the register. I will write
- 1:19:51Speaker 1: my remarks. He opened the book thoughtfully, and in his
- 1:19:55Speaker 1: fine calligraphy, marked five for Woloda for diligence and the
- 1:20:00Speaker 1: aim for good behavior. Then, resting his pen on the
- 1:20:03Speaker 1: line where my report was to go, he looked at
- 1:20:06Speaker 1: me and reflected. Suddenly his hand made a decisive movement,
- 1:20:09Speaker 1: and behold against my name stood a clearly marked one
- 1:20:13Speaker 1: with a full stop after it. Another movement, and in
- 1:20:16Speaker 1: the behavior column there stood another one and another full stop,
- 1:20:21Speaker 1: quietly closing the book. The Master then rose and moved
- 1:20:24Speaker 1: towards the door, as though unconscious of my look of entreaty,
- 1:20:27Speaker 1: despair and reproach. Michael levyanitch I said no, He replied,
- 1:20:35Speaker 1: as though knowing beforehand what I was about to say.
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: It is impossible for you to learn in that way.
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: I am not going to earn my money for nothing.
- 1:20:44Speaker 1: He put on his goloshes and cloak, and then slowly
- 1:20:47Speaker 1: tied a scarf about his neck. To think that he
- 1:20:49Speaker 1: could care about such trifles after what had just happened
- 1:20:52Speaker 1: to me. To him, it was all a mere stroke
- 1:20:55Speaker 1: of the pen, But to me it meant the direst
- 1:20:57Speaker 1: misfortune is the lesson over, asked Saint Jerome, entering yes,
- 1:21:04Speaker 1: And was the Master pleased with you? Yes? How many
- 1:21:07Speaker 1: marks did he give you? Five? And to Nicholas I
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: was silent, I think four, said Wiloda. His idea was
- 1:21:15Speaker 1: to save me for at least to day. If punishment
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: there must be, it need not be awarded while we
- 1:21:20Speaker 1: had guests. Boyon, monsieur. Saint Jerome was forever saying, boyon
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: fet votre toilette. A descendant chapter twelve the key. We
- 1:21:34Speaker 1: had hardly descended and greeted our guests. When luncheon was announced,
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: Papa was in the highest of spirits, since for some
- 1:21:41Speaker 1: time past he had been winning. He had presented Lubotchka
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: with a silver tea service, and suddenly remembered after luncheon
- 1:21:47Speaker 1: that he had forgotten a box of bonbons, which he
- 1:21:50Speaker 1: was to have too. Why send a servant for it?
- 1:21:53Speaker 1: You had better go Kco, he said to me jestingly.
- 1:21:57Speaker 1: The keys are in the tray on the table, you know.
- 1:22:00Speaker 1: Take them, and with the largest one opened the second
- 1:22:02Speaker 1: drawer on the right. There you will find the box
- 1:22:05Speaker 1: of bonbons. Bring it here. Shall I get you some
- 1:22:08Speaker 1: cigars as well? I said, knowing that he always smoked.
- 1:22:10Speaker 1: After luncheon, Yes, do, but don't touch anything else. I
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: found the keys and was about to carry out my
- 1:22:17Speaker 1: orders when I was seized with a desire to know
- 1:22:20Speaker 1: what the smallest of the keys on the bunch belonged to.
- 1:22:24Speaker 1: On the table, I saw, among many other things, a
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: padlocked portfolio, and at once felt curious to see if
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: that was what the key fitted. My experiment was crowned
- 1:22:34Speaker 1: with success. The portfolio opened and disclosed a number of papers.
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: Curiosity so strongly urged me also to ascertain what those
- 1:22:42Speaker 1: papers contained, that the voice of conscience was stilled, and
- 1:22:46Speaker 1: I began to read their contents. My childish feeling of
- 1:22:50Speaker 1: unlimited respect for my elders, especially for Papa, was so
- 1:22:53Speaker 1: strong within me that my intellect involuntarily refused to draw
- 1:22:58Speaker 1: any conclusions from what I had seen. I felt that
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: Papa was living in a sphere completely apart from, incomprehensible
- 1:23:05Speaker 1: by and unattainable for me, as well as one that
- 1:23:08Speaker 1: was in every way excellent, and that any attempt on
- 1:23:11Speaker 1: my part to criticize the secrets of his life would
- 1:23:14Speaker 1: constitute something like sacrilege. For this reason, the discovery which
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: I made from Papa's portfolio left no clear impression upon
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: my mind, but only a dim consciousness that I had
- 1:23:26Speaker 1: done wrong. I felt ashamed and confused. The feeling made
- 1:23:30Speaker 1: me eager to shut the portfolio again as quickly as possible,
- 1:23:33Speaker 1: But it seemed as though on this unlucky day I
- 1:23:35Speaker 1: was destined to experience every possible kind of adversity. I
- 1:23:39Speaker 1: put the key back into the padlock and turned it round,
- 1:23:42Speaker 1: but not in the right direction, thinking that the portfolio
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: was now locked. I pulled at the key, and oh horror,
- 1:23:48Speaker 1: found my hand come away with only the top half
- 1:23:51Speaker 1: of the key in it. In vain did I try
- 1:23:53Speaker 1: to put the two halves together and to extract the
- 1:23:55Speaker 1: portion that was sticking in the padlock. At last, I
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: had to resign myself to the dreadful thought that I
- 1:24:01Speaker 1: had committed a new crime, one which would be discovered
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: to day, as soon as ever Papa returned to his study.
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: First of all Mimi's accusation on the staircase, and then
- 1:24:11Speaker 1: that one mark, and then this key. Nothing worse could
- 1:24:15Speaker 1: happen now this very evening I should be assailed successively
- 1:24:18Speaker 1: by Grandmamma because of Mimi's denunciation, by Saint Jerome because
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: of the solitary mark, and by Papa because of the
- 1:24:26Speaker 1: matter of this key. Yes, all in one evening. What
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: on earth is to become of me? What have I done?
- 1:24:33Speaker 1: I exclaimed, as I paced the soft carpet. Well, I
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: went on with sudden determination. What must come must that's all,
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: And taking up the bonbonds and the cigars, I ran
- 1:24:44Speaker 1: back to the other part of the house. The fatalistic
- 1:24:46Speaker 1: formula with which I had concluded and which was one
- 1:24:49Speaker 1: that I often heard Nicola utter during my childhood, always
- 1:24:52Speaker 1: produced in me at the more difficult crises of my life,
- 1:24:55Speaker 1: a momentarily soothing, beneficial effect. Consequently, when I re entered
- 1:25:00Speaker 1: the drawing room, I was in a rather excited, unnatural mood,
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: yet one that was perfectly cheerful. End of Section three,
- 1:25:10Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, The Traitress. After luncheon, we began to play
- 1:25:15Speaker 1: at round games, in which I took a lively part.
- 1:25:18Speaker 1: While indulging in cat and mouse, I happened to canon
- 1:25:22Speaker 1: rather awkwardly against Kernikov's governess, who was playing with us,
- 1:25:26Speaker 1: and stepping on her dress tore a large hole in it.
- 1:25:30Speaker 1: Seeing that the girls, particularly Sonechka, were anything but displeased
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: at the spectacle of the governess angrily departing to the
- 1:25:37Speaker 1: maidservant's room to have her dress mended, I resolved to
- 1:25:41Speaker 1: procure them the satisfaction of a second time. Accordingly, in
- 1:25:45Speaker 1: pursuance of this amiable resolution, I waited until my victim returned,
- 1:25:50Speaker 1: and then began to gallop madly round her until a
- 1:25:53Speaker 1: favorable moment occurred, for once more, planting my heel upon
- 1:25:56Speaker 1: her dress and reopening the rent, Senechka and the young
- 1:26:00Speaker 1: princesses had much ado to restrain their laughter, which excited
- 1:26:04Speaker 1: my conceit the more. But Saint Jerome, who had probably
- 1:26:07Speaker 1: divined my tricks, came up to me with the frown
- 1:26:10Speaker 1: which I could never abide in him, and said that
- 1:26:13Speaker 1: since I seemed disposed to mischief, he would have to
- 1:26:16Speaker 1: send me away if I did not moderate my behavior. However,
- 1:26:20Speaker 1: I was in the desperate position of a person who,
- 1:26:22Speaker 1: having staked more than he has in his pocket, and
- 1:26:25Speaker 1: feeling that he can never make up his account, continues
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: to plunge on unlucky cards, not because he hopes to
- 1:26:31Speaker 1: regain his losses, but because it will not do for
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: him to stop and consider. So I merely laughed in
- 1:26:38Speaker 1: an impudent fashion and flung away from my monitor. After
- 1:26:42Speaker 1: cat and Mouse, another game followed, in which the gentlemen
- 1:26:45Speaker 1: sit on one row of chairs and the ladies on another,
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: and choose each other for partners. The youngest princess always
- 1:26:53Speaker 1: chose the younger iwin Katenka either Willoda or Ilinka, and
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: Senechka Siriyosha. Nor to my extreme astonishment, did Sonechka seem
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: at all embarrassed when her cavalier went and sat down
- 1:27:07Speaker 1: beside her. On the contrary, she only laughed her sweet
- 1:27:11Speaker 1: musical laugh and made a sign with her head that
- 1:27:13Speaker 1: he had chosen right. Since nobody chose me, I always
- 1:27:17Speaker 1: had the mortification of finding myself left over, and of
- 1:27:20Speaker 1: hearing them say who has been left out? Oh, Nikolinka,
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: well do take him somebody. Consequently, whenever it came to
- 1:27:29Speaker 1: my turn to guess who had chosen me, I had
- 1:27:31Speaker 1: to go either to my sister or to one of
- 1:27:33Speaker 1: the ugly elder princesses. Snatchka seemed so absorbed in Seraosha
- 1:27:39Speaker 1: that in her eyes I clearly existed no longer. I
- 1:27:42Speaker 1: do not quite know why I called her the traitress
- 1:27:44Speaker 1: in my thoughts, since she had never promised to choose
- 1:27:47Speaker 1: me instead of Seraosha. But for all that I felt
- 1:27:51Speaker 1: convinced that she was treating me in a very abominable fashion.
- 1:27:55Speaker 1: After the game was finished, I actually saw the traitress,
- 1:27:59Speaker 1: from whom I never thought less could not withdraw my eyes,
- 1:28:02Speaker 1: go with Seraosha and Kateenka into a corner and engage
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: in secret confabulation, stealing softly round the piano which masked
- 1:28:11Speaker 1: the conclave. I beheld the following Kateenka was holding up
- 1:28:15Speaker 1: a pocket handkerchief by two of its corners so as
- 1:28:18Speaker 1: to form a screen for the heads of her two companions. No,
- 1:28:22Speaker 1: you have lost. You must pay the forfeit, cried Siriosha
- 1:28:25Speaker 1: at that moment, and Sonechka, who was standing in front
- 1:28:29Speaker 1: of him, blushed like a criminal as she replied, No,
- 1:28:32Speaker 1: I have not lost, have I, Mademoiselle Catherine Well, I
- 1:28:36Speaker 1: must speak the truth, answered Kateenka, and say that you
- 1:28:40Speaker 1: have lost, my dear Scarcely had she spoken the words
- 1:28:43Speaker 1: when Seraosha embraced Senechka and kissed her right on her
- 1:28:47Speaker 1: rosy lips, and Sonuchka smiled as though it were nothing
- 1:28:52Speaker 1: but merely something very pleasant. Horrors The Artful Traitress, Chapter fourteen,
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: The Retribution. Instantly I began to feel a strong contempt
- 1:29:06Speaker 1: for the female sex in general, and Senechka in particular.
- 1:29:10Speaker 1: I began to think that it was nothing at all
- 1:29:12Speaker 1: amusing in these games, that they were only fit for girls,
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: and felt as though I should like to make a
- 1:29:17Speaker 1: great noise, or to do something of such extraordinary boldness
- 1:29:21Speaker 1: that every one would be forced to admire it. The
- 1:29:25Speaker 1: opportunity soon arrived. Saint Jerome said something to Mimi and
- 1:29:29Speaker 1: then left the room. I could hear his footsteps ascending
- 1:29:32Speaker 1: the staircase and then passing across the school room, and
- 1:29:35Speaker 1: the idea occurred to me that Mimi must have told
- 1:29:38Speaker 1: him her story about my being found on the landing,
- 1:29:41Speaker 1: and thereupon he had gone to look at the register.
- 1:29:44Speaker 1: In those days, it must be remembered, I believed that
- 1:29:47Speaker 1: Saint Jerome's whole aim in life was to annoy me. Somewhere,
- 1:29:51Speaker 1: I have read that not infrequently children of from twelve
- 1:29:54Speaker 1: to fourteen years of age, that is to say, children
- 1:29:58Speaker 1: just passing from childhood to adolescence, are addicted to incendiarism
- 1:30:03Speaker 1: or even to murder. As I look back on my childhood,
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: and particularly upon the mood in which I was on
- 1:30:10Speaker 1: that particular for myself most unlucky day, I can quite
- 1:30:14Speaker 1: understand the possibility of such terrible crimes being committed by
- 1:30:18Speaker 1: children without any real aim in view, without any wish
- 1:30:21Speaker 1: to do wrong, but merely out of curiosity or under
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: the influence of an unconscious necessity for action. There are
- 1:30:29Speaker 1: moments when the human being sees the future in such
- 1:30:32Speaker 1: lurid colors that he shrinks from fixing his mental eye
- 1:30:35Speaker 1: upon it, puts a check upon all his intellectual activity,
- 1:30:39Speaker 1: and tries to feel convinced that the future will never
- 1:30:42Speaker 1: be and that the past has never been. At such moments,
- 1:30:46Speaker 1: moments when thought does not shrink from manifestations of will,
- 1:30:50Speaker 1: and the carnal instincts alone constitute the springs of life.
- 1:30:54Speaker 1: I can understand that want of experience, which is a
- 1:30:57Speaker 1: particularly predisposing factor in this case, might very possibly lead
- 1:31:02Speaker 1: a child eye without fear or hesitation, but rather with
- 1:31:05Speaker 1: a smile of curiosity on its face, to set fire
- 1:31:09Speaker 1: to the house in which its parents and brothers and sisters,
- 1:31:12Speaker 1: being whom it tenderly loves, are lying asleep. It would
- 1:31:15Speaker 1: be under the same influence of momentary absence of thought,
- 1:31:18Speaker 1: almost absence of mind, that a peasant boy of seventeen
- 1:31:22Speaker 1: might catch sight of the edge of a newly sharpened
- 1:31:24Speaker 1: axe reposing near the bench on which his aged father
- 1:31:28Speaker 1: was lying asleep, face downwards, and suddenly raised the implement
- 1:31:32Speaker 1: in order to observe with unconscious curiosity, how the blood
- 1:31:36Speaker 1: would come spurting out upon the floor. If he made
- 1:31:38Speaker 1: a wound in the sleeper's neck. It is under the
- 1:31:41Speaker 1: same influence, the same absence of thought, the same instinctive
- 1:31:45Speaker 1: curiosity that a man finds delight in standing on the
- 1:31:49Speaker 1: brink of an abyss and thinking to himself, how if
- 1:31:52Speaker 1: I were to throw myself down, or in holding to
- 1:31:55Speaker 1: his brow a loaded pistol and wondering what if I
- 1:31:57Speaker 1: were to pull the trigger, feeling when he catches sight
- 1:32:01Speaker 1: of some universally respected personage, that he would like to
- 1:32:04Speaker 1: go up to him, pull his nose hard and say,
- 1:32:07Speaker 1: how do you do, old boy? Under the spell. Then
- 1:32:11Speaker 1: of this instinctive agitation and lack of reflection, I was
- 1:32:14Speaker 1: moved to put out my tongue and to say that
- 1:32:16Speaker 1: I would not move when Saint Jerome came down and
- 1:32:19Speaker 1: told me that I had behaved so badly that day,
- 1:32:22Speaker 1: as well as done my lessons so ill that I
- 1:32:25Speaker 1: had no right to be where I was and must
- 1:32:26Speaker 1: go upstairs directly. At first, from astonishment and anger, he
- 1:32:31Speaker 1: could not utter a word. Sepiene, he exclaimed eventually, as
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: he darted towards me. Several times have I promised to
- 1:32:40Speaker 1: punish you, and you have been saved from it by
- 1:32:42Speaker 1: your grandmamma. But now I see that nothing but the
- 1:32:45Speaker 1: cane will teach you obedience, and you shall therefore taste it.
- 1:32:51Speaker 1: This was said loud enough for everyone to hear. The
- 1:32:54Speaker 1: blood rushed to my heart with such vehemence that I
- 1:32:56Speaker 1: could feel that organ beating violently, could feel the color
- 1:33:00Speaker 1: rising to my cheeks and my lips trembling. Probably I
- 1:33:04Speaker 1: looked horrible at that moment, for avoiding my eye, Saint
- 1:33:07Speaker 1: Jerome stepped forward and caught me by the hand. Hardly
- 1:33:11Speaker 1: feeling his touch, I pulled away my hand in blind fury,
- 1:33:15Speaker 1: and with all my childish might struck him. What are
- 1:33:19Speaker 1: you doing, said Wiloda, who had seen my behavior and
- 1:33:22Speaker 1: now approached me in alarm at astonishment, Let me alone,
- 1:33:27Speaker 1: I exclaimed, the tears flowing fast. Not a single one
- 1:33:30Speaker 1: of you loves me or understands how miserable I am.
- 1:33:34Speaker 1: You are, all of you odious and disgusting, I added, bluntly,
- 1:33:38Speaker 1: turning to the company at large. At this moment, Saint Jerome,
- 1:33:42Speaker 1: his face pale but determined, approached me again, and, with
- 1:33:47Speaker 1: a movement too quick to admit of any defense, seized
- 1:33:50Speaker 1: my hands as with a pair of tongs and dragged
- 1:33:52Speaker 1: me away. My head swam with excitement, and I can
- 1:33:56Speaker 1: only remember that, so long as I had strength to
- 1:33:58Speaker 1: do it, I fought with head and lefts that my
- 1:34:01Speaker 1: nose several times collided with a pair of knees, that
- 1:34:04Speaker 1: my teeth tore some one's coat, that all around me
- 1:34:07Speaker 1: I could hear the shuffling of feet, and that I
- 1:34:10Speaker 1: could smell dust and the scent of violets with which
- 1:34:12Speaker 1: Saint Jerome used to perfume himself. Five minutes later, the
- 1:34:18Speaker 1: door of the storeroom closed behind me. Basil said, a
- 1:34:22Speaker 1: triumphant but detestable voice, Bring me the cane, Chapter fifteen Dreams.
- 1:34:32Speaker 1: Could I, at that moment have supposed that I should
- 1:34:35Speaker 1: ever live to survive the misfortunes of that day, or
- 1:34:37Speaker 1: that there would ever come a time when I should
- 1:34:39Speaker 1: be able to look back upon those misfortunes Composedly, As
- 1:34:44Speaker 1: I sat there thinking over what I had done, I
- 1:34:46Speaker 1: could not imagine what the matter had been with me.
- 1:34:49Speaker 1: I only felt with despair that I was forever lost.
- 1:34:53Speaker 1: At first, the most profound stillness reigned around me, at
- 1:34:58Speaker 1: least so it appeared to me as compared with the
- 1:35:00Speaker 1: violent internal emotion which I had been experiencing. But by
- 1:35:04Speaker 1: and by I began to distinguish various sounds. Basil brought
- 1:35:09Speaker 1: something downstairs, which he laid upon a chest. Outside, it
- 1:35:12Speaker 1: sounded like a broomstick. Below me, I could hear Saint
- 1:35:16Speaker 1: Jerome's grumbling voice, probably he was speaking of me, And
- 1:35:20Speaker 1: then children's voices, and laughter and footsteps, until in a
- 1:35:24Speaker 1: few moments everything seemed to have regained its normal course
- 1:35:26Speaker 1: in the house, as though nobody knew or cared to
- 1:35:30Speaker 1: know that here I was sitting alone in the dark storeroom.
- 1:35:34Speaker 1: I did not cry, but something lay heavy like a
- 1:35:37Speaker 1: stone upon my heart. Ideas and pictures passed with extraordinary
- 1:35:42Speaker 1: rapidity before my troubled imagination. Yet through their fantastic sequence,
- 1:35:48Speaker 1: broke continually the remembrance of the misfortune which had befallen me.
- 1:35:52Speaker 1: As I once again plunged into an interminable labyrinth of
- 1:35:56Speaker 1: conjectures as to the punishment, the fate, and the despair
- 1:36:00Speaker 1: that were awaiting me, the thought occurred to me that
- 1:36:03Speaker 1: there must be some reason for the general dislike, even contempt,
- 1:36:08Speaker 1: which I fancied to be felt for me by others.
- 1:36:12Speaker 1: I was firmly convinced that everyone from Grandmamma down to
- 1:36:16Speaker 1: the coachman. Philip despised me and found pleasure in my sufferings. Next,
- 1:36:22Speaker 1: an idea struck me that perhaps I was not the
- 1:36:24Speaker 1: son of my father and mother at all, nor will
- 1:36:27Speaker 1: Loda's brother, but only some unfortunate orphan who had been
- 1:36:31Speaker 1: adopted by them out of compassion. And this absurd notion
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: not only afforded me a certain melancholy consolation, but seemed
- 1:36:39Speaker 1: to me quite probable. I found it comforting to think
- 1:36:42Speaker 1: that I was unhappy, not through my own fault, but
- 1:36:46Speaker 1: because I was fated to be so from my birth,
- 1:36:49Speaker 1: and conceived that my destiny was very much like poor
- 1:36:52Speaker 1: Karl ivanitches Why conceal the secret any longer? Now that
- 1:36:57Speaker 1: I have discovered it, I reflected to my Darrow. I
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: will go to Papa and say to him it is
- 1:37:03Speaker 1: in vain for you to try and conceal from me
- 1:37:05Speaker 1: the mystery of my birth. I know it already, and
- 1:37:09Speaker 1: he will answer me. What else could I do, My
- 1:37:11Speaker 1: good fellow, Sooner or later you would have had to
- 1:37:13Speaker 1: know that you are not my son, but were adopted
- 1:37:16Speaker 1: as such. Nevertheless, so long as you remain worthy of
- 1:37:20Speaker 1: my love, I will never cast you out. Then I
- 1:37:22Speaker 1: shall say, Papa, though I have no right to call
- 1:37:25Speaker 1: you by that name, and am now doing so for
- 1:37:28Speaker 1: the last time, I have always loved you, and shall
- 1:37:31Speaker 1: always retain that love. At the same time, while I
- 1:37:34Speaker 1: can never forget that you have been my benefactor, I
- 1:37:37Speaker 1: cannot remain longer in your house. Nobody here loves me,
- 1:37:41Speaker 1: and Saint Jerome has wrought my ruin. Either he or
- 1:37:44Speaker 1: I must go forth, since I cannot answer for myself.
- 1:37:48Speaker 1: I hate the man so that I could do anything,
- 1:37:50Speaker 1: I could even kill him. Papa will begin to entreat me,
- 1:37:55Speaker 1: but I shall make a gesture and say no, No,
- 1:37:57Speaker 1: my friend and benefactor, we cannot together let me go,
- 1:38:02Speaker 1: And for the last time, I shall embrace him and
- 1:38:04Speaker 1: say in French, O mompeerre o mont ben fetiur don
- 1:38:10Speaker 1: nois pour la derniere foi tabenedixion eh calav volonte de
- 1:38:16Speaker 1: dieux si fete. I sobbed bitterly at these thoughts as
- 1:38:21Speaker 1: I sat on a trunk in that dark storeroom. Then, suddenly,
- 1:38:25Speaker 1: recollecting the shameful punishment which was awaiting me, I would
- 1:38:28Speaker 1: find myself back again in actuality, and the dreams had
- 1:38:32Speaker 1: fled soon again, I began to fancy myself far away
- 1:38:35Speaker 1: from the house and alone in the world. I enter
- 1:38:39Speaker 1: a Hussar regiment and go to war. Surrounded by the
- 1:38:42Speaker 1: foe on every side. I waved my sword and kill
- 1:38:45Speaker 1: one of them, and wound another, then a third, then
- 1:38:47Speaker 1: a fourth. At last, exhausted with loss of blood and fatigue,
- 1:38:52Speaker 1: I fall to the ground and cry victory. The general
- 1:38:56Speaker 1: comes to look for me, asking where is our savior,
- 1:38:59Speaker 1: where I am pointed out to him. He embraces me,
- 1:39:02Speaker 1: and in his turn, exclaimed with tears of joy victory.
- 1:39:07Speaker 1: I recover, and, with my arm in a black sling,
- 1:39:10Speaker 1: go to walk on the boulevards. I am a general.
- 1:39:13Speaker 1: Now I meet the Emperor, who asks who is this
- 1:39:16Speaker 1: young man who has been wounded. He is told that
- 1:39:19Speaker 1: it is the famous hero Nicholas, whereupon he approaches me
- 1:39:22Speaker 1: and says, my thanks to you. Whatsoever you may ask for,
- 1:39:26Speaker 1: I will grant it to this. I bow respectfully, and
- 1:39:30Speaker 1: leaning on my sword, reply, I am happy, most August Emperor,
- 1:39:35Speaker 1: that I have been able to shed my blood for
- 1:39:37Speaker 1: my country. I would gladly have died for it. Yet,
- 1:39:40Speaker 1: since you are so generous as to grant any wish
- 1:39:43Speaker 1: of mine. I venture to ask of you permission to
- 1:39:46Speaker 1: annihilate my enemy, the foreigner, Saint Jerome. And then I
- 1:39:50Speaker 1: step fiercely before Saint Jerome and say you were the
- 1:39:53Speaker 1: cause of all my fortunes. Down now on your knees. Unfortunately,
- 1:39:59Speaker 1: this recalled to me my mind the fact that at
- 1:40:01Speaker 1: any moment the real Saint Jerome might be entering with
- 1:40:04Speaker 1: the cane, so that once more I saw myself not
- 1:40:08Speaker 1: a general in the savior of my country, but an unhappy,
- 1:40:11Speaker 1: pitiful creature. Then the idea of God occurred to me,
- 1:40:15Speaker 1: and I asked him boldly why he had punished me, thus,
- 1:40:18Speaker 1: seeing that I had never forgotten to say my prayers,
- 1:40:21Speaker 1: either morning or evening. Indeed, I can positively declare that
- 1:40:26Speaker 1: it was during that hour in the store room that
- 1:40:28Speaker 1: I took the first step towards the religious doubt which
- 1:40:31Speaker 1: afterwards assailed me during my youth. Not that mere misfortune
- 1:40:35Speaker 1: could arouse me to infidelity and murmuring, but that at
- 1:40:39Speaker 1: moments of utter contrition and solitude, the idea of the
- 1:40:42Speaker 1: injustice of providence took root in me as readily as
- 1:40:46Speaker 1: bad seed takes root in land well soaked with rain. Also,
- 1:40:51Speaker 1: I imagined that I was going to die there and then,
- 1:40:54Speaker 1: and drew vivid pictures of Saint Jerome's astonishment when he
- 1:40:58Speaker 1: entered the storeroom and found a corpse instead of myself. Likewise,
- 1:41:03Speaker 1: recollecting what Natalia Savishna had told me of the forty
- 1:41:07Speaker 1: days during which the souls of the departed must hover
- 1:41:10Speaker 1: around their earthly home, I imagined myself flying through the
- 1:41:14Speaker 1: rooms of Grandmamma's house and seeing Lubotchka's bitter tears, and
- 1:41:19Speaker 1: hearing Grandmamma's lamentations, and listening to Papa and Saint Jerome
- 1:41:24Speaker 1: talking together. He was a fine boy, Papa would say,
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: with tears in his eyes. Yes, Saint Jerome would reply,
- 1:41:33Speaker 1: but a sad scapegrace and good for nothing. But you
- 1:41:36Speaker 1: should respect the dead, would expostulate, Papa. You were the
- 1:41:40Speaker 1: cause of his death. You frightened him until he could
- 1:41:43Speaker 1: no longer bear the thought of humiliation which you were
- 1:41:46Speaker 1: about to inflict upon him. Away from me. Criminal upon
- 1:41:51Speaker 1: that Saint Jerome would fall upon his knees and implore forgiveness.
- 1:41:55Speaker 1: And when the forty days were ended, my soul would
- 1:41:57Speaker 1: fly to heaven and see there something wonderfully beautiful, white
- 1:42:02Speaker 1: and transparent, and know that it was mamma, and that
- 1:42:06Speaker 1: something would embrace me and caress me. Yet all at
- 1:42:09Speaker 1: once I should feel troubled and not know her. If
- 1:42:12Speaker 1: it be you, I should say to her, show yourself
- 1:42:14Speaker 1: more distinctly, so that it may embrace you in return.
- 1:42:18Speaker 1: And her voice would answer me, do you not feel
- 1:42:21Speaker 1: happy thus? And I should reply, yes, I do, but
- 1:42:24Speaker 1: you cannot really caress me, and I cannot really kiss
- 1:42:28Speaker 1: your hand like this. But it is not necessary, She
- 1:42:31Speaker 1: would say, there can be happiness here without that, and
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: I should feel that it was so, and we should
- 1:42:38Speaker 1: ascend together ever higher and higher, until suddenly I feel
- 1:42:43Speaker 1: as though I am being thrown down again, and find
- 1:42:45Speaker 1: myself sitting on the trunk in the dark storeroom, my
- 1:42:48Speaker 1: cheeks wet with tears and my thoughts in a mist,
- 1:42:51Speaker 1: yet still repeating the words, let us ascend together, higher
- 1:42:55Speaker 1: and higher. Indeed, it was a long, long while before
- 1:42:59Speaker 1: I could remember where I was, for at that moment
- 1:43:02Speaker 1: my mind's eyes saw only a dark, dreadful, illimitable void.
- 1:43:06Speaker 1: I tried to renew the happy, consoling dream which had
- 1:43:10Speaker 1: been thus interrupted by the return to reality, but to
- 1:43:13Speaker 1: my surprise, I found that as soon as ever I
- 1:43:16Speaker 1: attempted to re enter former dreams, their continuation became impossible.
- 1:43:21Speaker 1: While which astonished me even more, they no longer gave
- 1:43:25Speaker 1: me pleasure. Chapter sixteen, Keep on Grinding and You'll have Flower.
- 1:43:32Speaker 1: I passed the night in the store room, and nothing
- 1:43:34Speaker 1: further happened, except that on the following morning, a Sunday,
- 1:43:38Speaker 1: I was removed to a small chamber adjoining the schoolroom,
- 1:43:41Speaker 1: and once more shut up. I began to hope that
- 1:43:45Speaker 1: my punishment was going to be limited to confinement, and
- 1:43:48Speaker 1: found my thoughts growing calmer under the influence of a
- 1:43:51Speaker 1: sound soft sleep, the clear sunlight playing upon the frost
- 1:43:55Speaker 1: crystals of the window panes, and the familiar noises in
- 1:43:59Speaker 1: the street. Nevertheless, solitude gradually became intolerable. I wanted to
- 1:44:04Speaker 1: move about and to communicate to some one all that
- 1:44:08Speaker 1: was lying upon my heart, but not a living creature
- 1:44:11Speaker 1: was near me. The position was the more unpleasant because
- 1:44:15Speaker 1: Willy Nilly I could hear Saint Jerome walking about in
- 1:44:18Speaker 1: his room and softly whistling some hackneyed tune. Somehow I
- 1:44:23Speaker 1: felt convinced that he was whistling, not because he wanted to,
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: but because he knew it annoyed me. At two o'clock,
- 1:44:30Speaker 1: he and Wiloda departed down stairs, and Niccola brought me
- 1:44:34Speaker 1: up some luncheon. When I told him what I had
- 1:44:36Speaker 1: done and what was awaiting me, he said, pshaw, sir,
- 1:44:40Speaker 1: don't be alarmed. Keep on grinding and you'll have flower.
- 1:44:45Speaker 1: Although this expression, which also in later days has more
- 1:44:48Speaker 1: than once helped me to preserve my firmness of mind,
- 1:44:51Speaker 1: brought me a little comfort, the fact that I received
- 1:44:55Speaker 1: not bread and water only, but a whole luncheon and
- 1:44:58Speaker 1: even dessert, gave me much to think about. If they
- 1:45:01Speaker 1: had sent me no dessert, it would have meant that
- 1:45:03Speaker 1: my punishment was to be limited to confinement, whereas it
- 1:45:08Speaker 1: was now evident that I was looked upon as not
- 1:45:10Speaker 1: yet punished, that I was only being kept away from
- 1:45:13Speaker 1: the others, as an evil doer until the due time
- 1:45:16Speaker 1: of punishment. While I was still debating the question, the
- 1:45:19Speaker 1: key of my prison turned and Saint Jerome entered with
- 1:45:23Speaker 1: a severe official air. Come down and see your grandmamma,
- 1:45:27Speaker 1: he said, without looking at me. I should have liked
- 1:45:31Speaker 1: first to have brushed my jacket, since it was covered
- 1:45:34Speaker 1: with dust, but Saint Jerome said that was quite unnecessary,
- 1:45:37Speaker 1: since I was in such a deplorable moral condition that
- 1:45:39Speaker 1: my exterior was not worth considering. As he led me
- 1:45:43Speaker 1: through the salon, Katenka, Lubatchka and Woloda looked at me
- 1:45:47Speaker 1: with much the same expression as we were wont to
- 1:45:49Speaker 1: look at the convicts who on a certain days file
- 1:45:52Speaker 1: passed my grandmother's house. Likewise, when I approached Grandmamma's arm
- 1:45:57Speaker 1: chair to kiss her hand, she withdrew it and thrust
- 1:46:00Speaker 1: it under her mantilla. Well, my dear, she began, after
- 1:46:04Speaker 1: a long pause, during which she regarded me from head
- 1:46:07Speaker 1: to foot with the kind of expression which makes one
- 1:46:09Speaker 1: uncertain where to look or what to do. I must
- 1:46:13Speaker 1: say that you seem to value my love very highly
- 1:46:16Speaker 1: and afford me great consolation. Then she went on, with
- 1:46:20Speaker 1: an emphasis on each word. Monsieur Saint Jerome, who at
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: my request undertook your education, says that he can no
- 1:46:27Speaker 1: longer remain in the house, and why simply because of you.
- 1:46:32Speaker 1: Another pause ensued. Presently she continued in a tone which
- 1:46:36Speaker 1: clearly showed that her speech had been prepared beforehand. I
- 1:46:40Speaker 1: had hoped that you would be grateful for all his
- 1:46:43Speaker 1: care and for all the trouble that he has taken
- 1:46:45Speaker 1: with you, that you would have appreciated his services. But you,
- 1:46:49Speaker 1: you baby, you silly boy, you actually dare to raise
- 1:46:53Speaker 1: your hand against him. Very well, very good. I am
- 1:46:57Speaker 1: beginning to think that you cannot understand kind trees, but
- 1:47:01Speaker 1: require to be treated in a very different and humiliating fashion.
- 1:47:05Speaker 1: Go now directly and beg his pardon, she added in
- 1:47:08Speaker 1: a stern and peremptory tone, as she pointed to Saint Jerome.
- 1:47:12Speaker 1: Do you hear me? I followed the direction of her
- 1:47:15Speaker 1: finger with my eye, but on that member, alighting upon
- 1:47:18Speaker 1: Saint Jerome's coat, I turned my head away and felt
- 1:47:21Speaker 1: once more my heart beating violently as I remained where
- 1:47:24Speaker 1: I was. What did you not hear me when I
- 1:47:28Speaker 1: told you what to do? I was trembling all over,
- 1:47:31Speaker 1: but I would not stir Ko, Ko, went on my grandmother,
- 1:47:35Speaker 1: probably divining my inward sufferings. Koko, she repeated, in a
- 1:47:38Speaker 1: voice tender rather than harsh. Is this you, grandmamma? I
- 1:47:43Speaker 1: cannot beg his pardon for? And I stopped suddenly, for
- 1:47:47Speaker 1: I felt the next word refused to come for the
- 1:47:50Speaker 1: tears that were choking me. But I ordered you, I
- 1:47:53Speaker 1: begged of you to do so. What is the matter
- 1:47:56Speaker 1: with you? I? I, I will not, I cannot. I gasped,
- 1:48:01Speaker 1: and the tears, long pent up and accumulated in my
- 1:48:04Speaker 1: breast burst forth like a stream which breaks its dikes
- 1:48:08Speaker 1: and goes flowing madly over the country. Seteen sie caevu,
- 1:48:13Speaker 1: O bey say a voter seconde mer seten sie cavu
- 1:48:18Speaker 1: raconesse se bonce, remarked Saint Jerome quietly, a genoux. Good God.
- 1:48:27Speaker 1: If she had seen this, exclaimed Grandmamma, turning from me
- 1:48:30Speaker 1: and wiping away her tears. If she had seen this,
- 1:48:34Speaker 1: it may be all for the best. Yet she could
- 1:48:36Speaker 1: never have survived such grief never and Grandmamma wept more
- 1:48:41Speaker 1: and more. I too wept, but it never occurred to
- 1:48:44Speaker 1: me to ask for pardon. Tranquillis se vu ah nome
- 1:48:49Speaker 1: deuciel madame la comtesse, said Saint Jerome. But Grandmamma heard
- 1:48:54Speaker 1: him not. She covered her face with her hands, and
- 1:48:57Speaker 1: her sobs soon passed to hiccups and hysteria. Mimi and
- 1:49:01Speaker 1: Gasha came running in with frightened faces, sults and spirits
- 1:49:05Speaker 1: were applied, and the whole house was soon in a ferment.
- 1:49:09Speaker 1: You may feel pleased at your work, says Saint Jerome
- 1:49:12Speaker 1: to me as he led me from the room. Good God,
- 1:49:15Speaker 1: what have I done? I thought to myself, What a
- 1:49:18Speaker 1: terribly bad boy I am. As soon as Saint Jerome,
- 1:49:23Speaker 1: bidding me to go into his room, had returned to Grandmamma,
- 1:49:26Speaker 1: I all unconscious of what I was doing, ran down
- 1:49:29Speaker 1: the grand staircase leading to the front door. Whether I
- 1:49:32Speaker 1: intended to drown myself or whether merely to run away
- 1:49:35Speaker 1: from home, I do not remember. I only know that
- 1:49:38Speaker 1: I went blindly, on my face covered with my hands
- 1:49:42Speaker 1: that I might see nothing. Where are you going to,
- 1:49:45Speaker 1: asked a well known voice. I want you, my boy.
- 1:49:48Speaker 1: I would have passed on, but Papa caught hold of
- 1:49:50Speaker 1: me and said sternly, come hear you, impudent rascal. How
- 1:49:54Speaker 1: could you dare to do such a thing as to
- 1:49:56Speaker 1: touch the portfolio in my study? He went on as
- 1:49:59Speaker 1: he dragged me in to his room. Oh you are silent, eh,
- 1:50:02Speaker 1: and he pulled my ear. Yes, I was naughty, I said,
- 1:50:06Speaker 1: I don't know myself what came over me? Then? So
- 1:50:09Speaker 1: you don't know what came over you. You don't know,
- 1:50:12Speaker 1: you don't know, he repeated, as he pulled my ear
- 1:50:15Speaker 1: harder and harder. Will you go and put your nose
- 1:50:18Speaker 1: where you ought not to? Again? Will you? Will you?
- 1:50:22Speaker 1: Although my ear was in great pain, I did not cry,
- 1:50:25Speaker 1: but on the contrary, felt a sort of morally pleasing sensation.
- 1:50:29Speaker 1: No sooner did he let go of my ear than
- 1:50:31Speaker 1: I seized his hand and covered it with tears and kisses.
- 1:50:35Speaker 1: Please whip me, I cried, sobbing. Please hurt me the
- 1:50:38Speaker 1: more and more, for I am a wretched, bad, miserable boy.
- 1:50:42Speaker 1: Why what on earth is the matter with you? He said,
- 1:50:44Speaker 1: giving me a slight push from him. No, I will
- 1:50:47Speaker 1: not go away, I continued, seizing his coat. Everyone else
- 1:50:51Speaker 1: hates me. I know that. But do you listen to
- 1:50:53Speaker 1: me and protect me, or else send me away? Altogether?
- 1:50:57Speaker 1: I cannot live with him. He tries to you humiliate me.
- 1:51:01Speaker 1: He tells me to kneel before him and wants to
- 1:51:03Speaker 1: strike me. I can't stand it. I'm not a baby.
- 1:51:07Speaker 1: I can't stand it. I shall die. I shall kill myself.
- 1:51:10Speaker 1: He told Grandmamma that I was naughty, and now she
- 1:51:13Speaker 1: is ill. She will die through me. It is all
- 1:51:16Speaker 1: his fault. Please let me. Why should he torment me?
- 1:51:21Speaker 1: The tears choked my further speech. I sat down on
- 1:51:24Speaker 1: the sofa, and, with my head buried on Papa's knees,
- 1:51:27Speaker 1: sobbed until I thought I should die of grief. Come, Come,
- 1:51:31Speaker 1: Why are you such a water pump? Said Papa compassionately,
- 1:51:35Speaker 1: as he stooped over me. He is such a bully.
- 1:51:38Speaker 1: He is murdering me. I shall die. Nobody loves me
- 1:51:41Speaker 1: at all. I gasped, almost inaudibly, and went into convulsions.
- 1:51:46Speaker 1: Papa lifted me up and carried me to my bedroom,
- 1:51:49Speaker 1: where I fell asleep. When I awoke, it was late.
- 1:51:53Speaker 1: Only a solitary candle burned in the room, while beside
- 1:51:56Speaker 1: the bed there were seated Mimi, Lubotshka, and our door.
- 1:52:01Speaker 1: In their faces I could discern anxiety for my health.
- 1:52:04Speaker 1: So although I felt so well after my twelve hours
- 1:52:06Speaker 1: sleep that I could have got up directly, I thought
- 1:52:09Speaker 1: it best to let them continue, thinking that I was unwell.
- 1:52:14Speaker 1: End of Section four, Chapter seventeen. Hatred. Yes, it was
- 1:52:21Speaker 1: the real feeling of hatred that was mine now, not
- 1:52:24Speaker 1: the hatred of which one reads in novels, and in
- 1:52:27Speaker 1: the existence of which I do not believe the hatred
- 1:52:30Speaker 1: which finds satisfaction in doing harm to a fellow creature,
- 1:52:35Speaker 1: but the hatred which consists of an unconquerable aversion to
- 1:52:38Speaker 1: a person who may be wholly deserving of your esteem,
- 1:52:42Speaker 1: yet whose very hair, neck, walk, voice, limbs, movements, and
- 1:52:46Speaker 1: everything else are disgusting to you, while all the while,
- 1:52:50Speaker 1: and incomprehensible force attracts you towards him and compels you
- 1:52:54Speaker 1: to follow his slightest acts with anxious attention. This was
- 1:52:59Speaker 1: the feeling which I cherished for Saint Jerome, who had
- 1:53:02Speaker 1: lived with us now for a year and a half.
- 1:53:06Speaker 1: Judging coolly of the man at this time of day,
- 1:53:08Speaker 1: I find that he was a true Frenchman, but a
- 1:53:11Speaker 1: Frenchman in the better acceptation of the term. He was
- 1:53:15Speaker 1: fairly well educated and fulfilled his duties to us conscientiously.
- 1:53:19Speaker 1: But he had the peculiar features of fickle egotism, boastfulness, impertinence,
- 1:53:25Speaker 1: and ignorant self assurance, which are common to all his countrymen,
- 1:53:29Speaker 1: as well as entirely opposed to the Russian character. All
- 1:53:34Speaker 1: this set me against him. Grandmamma had signified to him
- 1:53:38Speaker 1: her dislike for corporal punishment, and therefore he dared not
- 1:53:41Speaker 1: beat us. But he frequently threatened us, particularly myself, with
- 1:53:46Speaker 1: the cane, and would utter the word fuetee as though
- 1:53:50Speaker 1: it were fuate, in an expressive and detestable way, which
- 1:53:55Speaker 1: always gave me the idea that to whip me would
- 1:53:57Speaker 1: afford him the greatest possible satisfaction. I was not in
- 1:54:02Speaker 1: the least afraid of the bodily pain, for I had
- 1:54:05Speaker 1: never experienced it. It was the mere idea that he
- 1:54:08Speaker 1: could beat me that threw me into such paroxysms of
- 1:54:11Speaker 1: wrath and despair. True Karl Avanitch, sometimes in moments of exasperation,
- 1:54:18Speaker 1: had recourse to a ruler or to his braces, But
- 1:54:21Speaker 1: that I can look back upon without anger. Even if
- 1:54:24Speaker 1: he had struck me at the time of which I
- 1:54:26Speaker 1: am now speaking, namely, when I was fourteen years old,
- 1:54:29Speaker 1: I should have submitted quietly to the correction, for I
- 1:54:32Speaker 1: loved him, and had known him all my life, and
- 1:54:35Speaker 1: looked upon him as a member of our family. But
- 1:54:38Speaker 1: Saint Jerome was a conceited, opinionated fellow for whom I
- 1:54:41Speaker 1: felt merely the unwilling respect which I entertained for all
- 1:54:45Speaker 1: persons older than myself. Karl Ivanitch was a comical old
- 1:54:49Speaker 1: uncle whom I loved with my whole heart, but who,
- 1:54:52Speaker 1: according to my childish conception of social distinctions, ranked below us,
- 1:54:57Speaker 1: whereas Saint Jerome was a well educated, hands some young
- 1:55:00Speaker 1: dandy who was for showing himself the equal of any one.
- 1:55:05Speaker 1: Karl Ivanitch had always scolded and punished us coolly, as
- 1:55:09Speaker 1: though he thought it unnecessary but extremely disagreeable duty. Saint Jerome,
- 1:55:13Speaker 1: on the contrary, always liked to emphasize his part as
- 1:55:17Speaker 1: judge when correcting us, and clearly did it as much
- 1:55:20Speaker 1: for his own satisfaction as for our good. He loved authority. Nevertheless,
- 1:55:26Speaker 1: I always found his grandiloquent French phrases, which he pronounced
- 1:55:30Speaker 1: with a strong emphasis on all the final syllables inexpressibly disgusting.
- 1:55:35Speaker 1: Whereas Karl, when angry, had never said anything beyond what
- 1:55:38Speaker 1: a foolish puppet comedy it is, or you boys are
- 1:55:43Speaker 1: as irritating as Spanish fly, which he always called Spaniard fly.
- 1:55:49Speaker 1: Saint Jerome, however, had names for us like mouve, Suget,
- 1:55:53Speaker 1: villain Ganement, and so forth. Epithets, which greatly offended my
- 1:55:59Speaker 1: life self respect. When Karl Ivanitch ordered us to kneel
- 1:56:04Speaker 1: in the corner with our faces to the wall, the
- 1:56:06Speaker 1: punishment consisted merely in the bodily discomfort of the position,
- 1:56:10Speaker 1: whereas Saint Jerome in such cases always assumed a haughty air,
- 1:56:14Speaker 1: made a grandiose gesture with his hand and exclaiming in
- 1:56:17Speaker 1: a pseudo tragic tone a genoux mauva suge ordered us
- 1:56:22Speaker 1: to kneel with our faces towards him and to crave
- 1:56:25Speaker 1: his pardon. His punishment consisted in humiliation. However, on the
- 1:56:32Speaker 1: present occasion, the punishment never came, nor was the matter
- 1:56:36Speaker 1: ever referred to again. Yet I could not forget all
- 1:56:39Speaker 1: that I had gone through, the shame, the fear, and
- 1:56:42Speaker 1: the hatred of those two days. From that time forth,
- 1:56:46Speaker 1: Saint Jerome appeared to give me up in despair and
- 1:56:49Speaker 1: took no further trouble with me. Yet I could not
- 1:56:51Speaker 1: bring myself to treat him with indifference. Every time that
- 1:56:55Speaker 1: our eyes met, I felt that my look expressed only
- 1:56:58Speaker 1: too plainly my dislike, And though I tried hard to
- 1:57:02Speaker 1: assume a careless air, he seemed to divine my hypocrisy,
- 1:57:05Speaker 1: until I was forced to blush and turn away. In short,
- 1:57:09Speaker 1: it was a terrible trial to me to have anything
- 1:57:12Speaker 1: to do with him. Chapter eighteen, The maid Servant's Room.
- 1:57:19Speaker 1: I began to feel more and more lonely, until my
- 1:57:21Speaker 1: chief solace lay in solitary reflection and observation of the
- 1:57:27Speaker 1: favorite subject of my reflections I shall speak in the
- 1:57:30Speaker 1: next chapter. The scene where I indulged in them was,
- 1:57:33Speaker 1: for preference, the maid servant's room, where a plot suitable
- 1:57:36Speaker 1: for a novel was in progress, a plot which touched
- 1:57:39Speaker 1: and engrossed me to the highest degree. The heroine of
- 1:57:43Speaker 1: the romance was, of course Masha. She was in love
- 1:57:47Speaker 1: with Basil, who had known her before she had become
- 1:57:49Speaker 1: a servant in our house, and who had promised to
- 1:57:52Speaker 1: marry her some day. Unfortunately, fate, which had separated them
- 1:57:57Speaker 1: five years ago and afterwards reunited them Grandmamma's abode, next
- 1:58:02Speaker 1: proceeded to interpose an obstacle between them in the shape
- 1:58:04Speaker 1: of Masha's uncle, our man Nikola, who would not hear
- 1:58:09Speaker 1: of his niece marrying that uneducated and unbearable fellow, as
- 1:58:12Speaker 1: he called Basil. One effect of the obstacle had been
- 1:58:16Speaker 1: to make the otherwise slightly cool and indifferent Basil fall
- 1:58:20Speaker 1: as passionately in love with Masha as it is possible
- 1:58:23Speaker 1: for a man to be who is only a servant
- 1:58:26Speaker 1: and a tailor, wears a red shirt and has his
- 1:58:29Speaker 1: hair palmaded. Although his methods of expressing his affection were odd.
- 1:58:34Speaker 1: For instance, whenever he met Masha, he always endeavored to
- 1:58:37Speaker 1: inflict upon her some bodily pain, either by pinching her,
- 1:58:41Speaker 1: giving her a slap with his open hand, or squeezing
- 1:58:43Speaker 1: her so hard that she could scarcely breathe. That affection
- 1:58:48Speaker 1: was sincere enough, and he proved it by the fact that,
- 1:58:51Speaker 1: from the moment when Nicolov refused him his niece's hand,
- 1:58:55Speaker 1: his grief led him to drinking and to frequenting taverns,
- 1:58:58Speaker 1: until he proved so un truly that more than once
- 1:59:01Speaker 1: he had to be sent to undergo a humiliating chastisement
- 1:59:04Speaker 1: at the police station. Nevertheless, these faults of his and
- 1:59:08Speaker 1: their consequences only served to elevate him in Masha's eyes
- 1:59:11Speaker 1: and to increase her love for him. Whenever he was
- 1:59:15Speaker 1: in the hands of the police, she would sit crying
- 1:59:17Speaker 1: the whole day and complain to Gasha of her hard fate.
- 1:59:21Speaker 1: Gasha played an active part in the affairs of these
- 1:59:23Speaker 1: unfortunate lovers. Then, regardless of her uncle's anger and blows,
- 1:59:28Speaker 1: she would stealthily make her way to the police station
- 1:59:31Speaker 1: there to visit and console her swain. Excuse me, reader,
- 1:59:36Speaker 1: for introducing you to such company. Nevertheless, if the cords
- 1:59:40Speaker 1: of love and compassion have not wholly snapped your soul,
- 1:59:43Speaker 1: you will find, even in that maid servant's room, something
- 1:59:46Speaker 1: which may cause them to vibrate again. So, whether you
- 1:59:50Speaker 1: please to follow me or not, I will return to
- 1:59:53Speaker 1: the alcove on the staircase. Whence I was able to
- 1:59:55Speaker 1: observe all that passed in that room. From my post
- 1:59:59Speaker 1: I could see the a stove, couch with a ponnet,
- 2:00:02Speaker 1: an iron, an old cap stand with its peg bent crooked,
- 2:00:06Speaker 1: a wash tub, and a basin. There too was the window,
- 2:00:10Speaker 1: with in fine disorder before it a piece of black wax,
- 2:00:13Speaker 1: some fragments of silk, a half eaten cucumber, a box
- 2:00:17Speaker 1: of sweets, and so on. There too was the large
- 2:00:20Speaker 1: table at which she used to sit in, the pink
- 2:00:23Speaker 1: cotton dress which I admired so much, and the blue handkerchief,
- 2:00:26Speaker 1: which always caught my attention. So she would be sewing,
- 2:00:30Speaker 1: though interrupting her work at intervals to scratch her head
- 2:00:33Speaker 1: a little, to bite the end of her thread, or
- 2:00:36Speaker 1: to snuff the candle, and I would think to myself,
- 2:00:39Speaker 1: why was she not born a lady? She, with her
- 2:00:41Speaker 1: blue eyes, beautiful fair hair, and magnificent bust. How splendid
- 2:00:45Speaker 1: she would look if she were sitting in a drawing
- 2:00:47Speaker 1: room and dressed in a cap with pink ribbons and
- 2:00:50Speaker 1: a silk gown, not one like Mimi's, but one like
- 2:00:53Speaker 1: the gown which I saw the other day at the
- 2:00:55Speaker 1: Trevsky Boulevard. Yes, she would work at the embroidery frame,
- 2:01:00Speaker 1: and I would sit and look at her in the mirror,
- 2:01:02Speaker 1: and be ready to do whatsoever she wanted, to help
- 2:01:06Speaker 1: her arm with her mantle, or to hand her food.
- 2:01:09Speaker 1: As for Basil's drunken face and horrid figure in the
- 2:01:12Speaker 1: scanty coat with the red shirt showing beneath it, well
- 2:01:16Speaker 1: in his every gesture, in his every movement of his back,
- 2:01:19Speaker 1: I seemed always to see signs of the humiliating chastisements
- 2:01:23Speaker 1: which he had undergone. Ah Basil again cried Masha on
- 2:01:28Speaker 1: one occasion, as she stuck her needle into the pincushion,
- 2:01:31Speaker 1: but without looking up at the person who was entering.
- 2:01:35Speaker 1: What is the good of a man like him? Was
- 2:01:37Speaker 1: Basil's first remark. Yes, if only he would say something decisive.
- 2:01:43Speaker 1: But I am powerless in the matter. I am at
- 2:01:45Speaker 1: odds and ends, and through his fault too. Will you
- 2:01:49Speaker 1: have some tea? Put in Madesha another servant, No, thank you.
- 2:01:54Speaker 1: But why does he hate me so, that old thief
- 2:01:57Speaker 1: of an uncle of yours? Why is it because of
- 2:02:00Speaker 1: the clothes I wear, or of my height, or of
- 2:02:03Speaker 1: my walk? Or what will damn and confound him? Finished Basil,
- 2:02:07Speaker 1: snapping his fingers. We must be patient, said Masha, threading
- 2:02:11Speaker 1: her needle. You are so. It is my nerves that
- 2:02:14Speaker 1: won't stand it, that's all. At this moment, the door
- 2:02:19Speaker 1: of Grandmamma's room banged, and Gasha's angry voice could be
- 2:02:23Speaker 1: heard as she came up the stairs. There, she muttered,
- 2:02:27Speaker 1: with a gesture of her hands, try to please people
- 2:02:30Speaker 1: when even they themselves do not know what they want.
- 2:02:32Speaker 1: And it is a cursed life. Sheer, hard labor and
- 2:02:35Speaker 1: nothing else. If only a certain thing would happen, Though God,
- 2:02:39Speaker 1: forgive me for thinking it good evening, Agatha Mikhaylovna, said Basil,
- 2:02:45Speaker 1: rising to greet her. You here, she answered, brusquely as
- 2:02:48Speaker 1: she stared at him, that is not very much to
- 2:02:50Speaker 1: your credit. What do you come here for? Is the
- 2:02:53Speaker 1: maid's room a proper place for men? I wanted to
- 2:02:57Speaker 1: see how you were, said Basil soothingly. I shall soon
- 2:03:01Speaker 1: be breathing my lass. That's how I am, cried Gusha,
- 2:03:03Speaker 1: still greatly incensed, Basil laughed, Oh, there's nothing to laugh
- 2:03:08Speaker 1: at when I say that I shall soon be dead.
- 2:03:11Speaker 1: But that's how it will be all the same. Just
- 2:03:13Speaker 1: look at the drunkard marry her? Would he the fool?
- 2:03:17Speaker 1: Come get out of here? And with a stamp of
- 2:03:19Speaker 1: her foot on the floor, Gusha it retreated to her
- 2:03:21Speaker 1: own room and banged the door behind her until the
- 2:03:24Speaker 1: window rattled again. For a while she could be heard
- 2:03:27Speaker 1: scolding at everything, flinging dresses and other things about, and
- 2:03:31Speaker 1: pulling the ears of her favorite cat. Then the door
- 2:03:34Speaker 1: opened again, and Puss, mewing pitifully, was flung forth by
- 2:03:39Speaker 1: the tail. I had better come another time for tea,
- 2:03:45Speaker 1: said Basil in a whisper. At some better time, for
- 2:03:48Speaker 1: our meeting. No, no, put in Medesha. I'll go and
- 2:03:54Speaker 1: fetch the urn at once. I mean to put an
- 2:03:57Speaker 1: end to things, soon went on Basil, seating himself beside Masha.
- 2:04:00Speaker 1: As soon as ever Madesha had left the room, I
- 2:04:03Speaker 1: had much better go straight to the countess and say
- 2:04:06Speaker 1: so and so, or I will throw up my situation
- 2:04:08Speaker 1: and go off into the world. Oh dear, Oh dear,
- 2:04:12Speaker 1: and am I to remain here? Ah, there's the difficulty.
- 2:04:17Speaker 1: That's what I feel so badly about. You have been
- 2:04:20Speaker 1: my sweetheart so long, you see. Ah, dear me, why
- 2:04:25Speaker 1: don't you bring me your shirts to wash? Basil asked Masha,
- 2:04:28Speaker 1: after a pause during which she had been inspecting his wristbands.
- 2:04:32Speaker 1: At this moment, Grandmamma's bell rang and Gasha issued from
- 2:04:36Speaker 1: her room. Again. What do you want with her, you
- 2:04:39Speaker 1: impudent fellow, she cried, as she pushed Basil, who had
- 2:04:42Speaker 1: risen at her entrance before her, towards the door. First
- 2:04:45Speaker 1: you lead a girl on, and then you want to
- 2:04:47Speaker 1: lead her further still, I suppose it amuses you to
- 2:04:50Speaker 1: see her tears. There's the door, Now off you go.
- 2:04:53Speaker 1: We want your room, not your company. And what good
- 2:04:56Speaker 1: can you see in him? She went on, turning to Masha.
- 2:04:59Speaker 1: Has not you your uncle been walking into you to
- 2:05:01Speaker 1: day already? No, she must stick to her promise forsooth.
- 2:05:05Speaker 1: I will have no one but Basil, fool that you are. Yes,
- 2:05:10Speaker 1: I will have no one but him. I'll never love
- 2:05:12Speaker 1: any one else. I could kill myself for him. Poor
- 2:05:15Speaker 1: Masha burst out, the tears, suddenly gushing forth. For a
- 2:05:20Speaker 1: while I stood watching her as she wiped away those tears.
- 2:05:24Speaker 1: Then I fell to contemplating Basil attentively, in the hope
- 2:05:28Speaker 1: of finding out what there was in him that she
- 2:05:30Speaker 1: found so attractive. Yet, though I sympathized with her sincerely
- 2:05:34Speaker 1: in her grief, I could not, for the life of
- 2:05:36Speaker 1: me understand how such a charming creature, as I considered
- 2:05:39Speaker 1: her to be, could love a man like him. When
- 2:05:44Speaker 1: I become a man, I thought to myself as I
- 2:05:46Speaker 1: returned to my room, Petrovsky shall be mine, and Basil
- 2:05:50Speaker 1: and Masha my servants. Some day, when I am sitting
- 2:05:53Speaker 1: in my study and smoking a pipe, Masha will chance
- 2:05:56Speaker 1: to pass the door in her way to the kitchen
- 2:05:58Speaker 1: with an iron, and I shall say, Masha, come here,
- 2:06:01Speaker 1: and she will enter and there will be no one
- 2:06:04Speaker 1: else in the room. Then suddenly Basil too will enter,
- 2:06:07Speaker 1: and on seeing her, will cry, my sweetheart is lost
- 2:06:10Speaker 1: to me, and Masha will begin to weep. Then I
- 2:06:14Speaker 1: shall say, Basil, I know that you love her and
- 2:06:17Speaker 1: that she loves you. Here are a thousand roubles for you.
- 2:06:20Speaker 1: Marry her, and may God grant you both happiness. Then
- 2:06:24Speaker 1: I shall leave them together. Among the countless thoughts and
- 2:06:28Speaker 1: fancies which pass without logic or sequence through the mind
- 2:06:32Speaker 1: and the imagination, there are always some which leave behind
- 2:06:35Speaker 1: them a mark so profound that, without remembering their exact subject,
- 2:06:40Speaker 1: we can at least recall that something good has passed
- 2:06:42Speaker 1: through our brain and try to retain and reproduce its effect.
- 2:06:46Speaker 1: Such was the mark left upon my consciousness by the
- 2:06:49Speaker 1: idea of sacrificing my feelings to Masha's happiness, seeing that
- 2:06:54Speaker 1: she believed that she could attain it only through a
- 2:06:56Speaker 1: union with Basil. Chapter nine, Boyhood. Perhaps people will scarcely
- 2:07:04Speaker 1: believe me when I tell them what were the dearest,
- 2:07:07Speaker 1: most constant objects of my reflections during my boyhood? So
- 2:07:11Speaker 1: little did those objects consort with my age and position. Yet,
- 2:07:15Speaker 1: in my opinion, contrast between a man's actual position and
- 2:07:19Speaker 1: his moral activity constitutes the most reliable sign of his genuineness.
- 2:07:25Speaker 1: During the period when I was leading a solitary and
- 2:07:27Speaker 1: self centered moral life, I was much taken up with
- 2:07:30Speaker 1: abstract thoughts on man's destiny, on a future life, and
- 2:07:34Speaker 1: on the immortality of the soul, and with all the
- 2:07:37Speaker 1: ardor of inexperience, strove to make my youthful intellect solve
- 2:07:41Speaker 1: those questions, the questions which constitute the highest level of
- 2:07:45Speaker 1: thought to which the human intellect can tend, but a
- 2:07:49Speaker 1: final decision of which the human intellect can never succeed
- 2:07:52Speaker 1: in attaining. I believe the intellect to take the same
- 2:07:56Speaker 1: course of development in the individual as in the mass.
- 2:08:00Speaker 1: As also that the thoughts which serve as a basis
- 2:08:02Speaker 1: for philosophical theories are an inseparable part of that intellect,
- 2:08:06Speaker 1: and that every man must be more or less conscious
- 2:08:09Speaker 1: of those thoughts before he can know anything of the
- 2:08:11Speaker 1: existence of philosophical theories. To my own mind, those thoughts
- 2:08:16Speaker 1: presented themselves with such clarity and force that I tried
- 2:08:19Speaker 1: to apply them to life in the fond belief that
- 2:08:22Speaker 1: I was the first to have discovered such splendid and
- 2:08:25Speaker 1: invaluable truths. Sometimes I would suppose that happiness depends not
- 2:08:30Speaker 1: upon external causes themselves, but only upon our relation to them,
- 2:08:36Speaker 1: and that provided a man can accustom himself to bearing suffering,
- 2:08:40Speaker 1: he need never be unhappy. To prove the latter hypothesis,
- 2:08:44Speaker 1: I would, despite the horrible pain, hold out a tatus
- 2:08:47Speaker 1: chef's dictionary at arm's length for five minutes at a time,
- 2:08:52Speaker 1: or else go into the store room and scourge my
- 2:08:54Speaker 1: back with chords until the tears involuntarily came to my eyes.
- 2:09:00Speaker 1: On other time. Suddenly bethinking me that death might find
- 2:09:02Speaker 1: me at any hour or any minute, I came to
- 2:09:05Speaker 1: the conclusion that man could only be happy by using
- 2:09:08Speaker 1: the present to the full and taking no thought for
- 2:09:10Speaker 1: the future. Indeed, I wondered how people had never found
- 2:09:14Speaker 1: that out. Before acting under the influence of the new idea,
- 2:09:17Speaker 1: I laid my lesson books aside for two or three days, and,
- 2:09:21Speaker 1: reposing on my bed, gave myself up to novel reading
- 2:09:24Speaker 1: and the eating of gingerbread and honey, which I had
- 2:09:27Speaker 1: bought with my last remaining coins. Again, standing one day
- 2:09:31Speaker 1: before the blackboard and smearing figures on it with honey,
- 2:09:35Speaker 1: I was struck with the thought, why is symmetry so
- 2:09:38Speaker 1: agreeable to the eye? What is symmetry? Of course, it
- 2:09:42Speaker 1: is an innate sense, I continued, Yet what is its basis?
- 2:09:47Speaker 1: Perhaps everything in life is symmetry. But no, on the contrary,
- 2:09:51Speaker 1: this is life. And I drew an oblong figure on
- 2:09:55Speaker 1: the board, and after life the soul passes to eternity.
- 2:09:59Speaker 1: Here I drew a lot line from one end of
- 2:10:01Speaker 1: the oblong figure to the edge of the board. Why
- 2:10:03Speaker 1: should there not be a corresponding line on the other side.
- 2:10:07Speaker 1: If there can be an eternity on one side, there
- 2:10:09Speaker 1: must surely be a corresponding one on the other. That
- 2:10:13Speaker 1: means that we have existed in a previous life, but
- 2:10:16Speaker 1: have lost the recollection of it. This conclusion, which seemed
- 2:10:20Speaker 1: to me at the time both clear and novel. But
- 2:10:23Speaker 1: the arguments for which it would be difficult for me
- 2:10:25Speaker 1: at this distance of time to piece together, pleased me extremely.
- 2:10:30Speaker 1: So I took a piece of paper and tried to
- 2:10:32Speaker 1: write it down. But at the first attempt such a
- 2:10:34Speaker 1: rush of other thoughts came whirling through my brain that
- 2:10:38Speaker 1: I was obliged to jump up and pace the room
- 2:10:41Speaker 1: at the window. My attention was arrested by a driver
- 2:10:44Speaker 1: harnessing a horse to a water cart, and at once
- 2:10:47Speaker 1: my mind concentrated itself upon the decision of the question
- 2:10:51Speaker 1: into what animal or human being will the spirit of
- 2:10:54Speaker 1: that horse pass at death. Just at that moment, Wallada
- 2:10:58Speaker 1: passed through the room and smile to see me absorbed
- 2:11:01Speaker 1: in speculative thoughts. His smile at once made me feel
- 2:11:05Speaker 1: that all that I had been thinking about was utter nonsense.
- 2:11:09Speaker 1: I have related all this as I recollect it, in
- 2:11:11Speaker 1: order to show the reader the nature of my cogitations.
- 2:11:15Speaker 1: No philosophical theory attracted me so much as skepticism, which
- 2:11:19Speaker 1: at one period brought me to a state of mind
- 2:11:21Speaker 1: verging upon insanity. I took the fancy into my head
- 2:11:25Speaker 1: that no one nor anything really existed in the world
- 2:11:28Speaker 1: except myself, that objects were not objects at all, but
- 2:11:32Speaker 1: that images of them became manifest only so soon as
- 2:11:35Speaker 1: I turned my attention upon them, and vanished again directly
- 2:11:39Speaker 1: that I ceased to think about them. In short, this
- 2:11:42Speaker 1: idea of mine that real objects do not exist, but
- 2:11:45Speaker 1: only one's conception of them, brought me to Schelling's well
- 2:11:49Speaker 1: known theory. There were moments when the influence of this
- 2:11:53Speaker 1: idea led me to such vagaries, as, for instance, turning
- 2:11:56Speaker 1: sharply round in the hope that, by the suddenness of
- 2:11:59Speaker 1: the movement, I should come in contact with the void
- 2:12:02Speaker 1: which I believed to be existing where I myself purported
- 2:12:05Speaker 1: to be. What a pitiful spring of moral activity is
- 2:12:09Speaker 1: the human intellect? My faulty reason could not define the impenetrable. Consequently,
- 2:12:16Speaker 1: it shattered one fruitless conviction after another, convictions which, happily
- 2:12:20Speaker 1: for my after life I never lacked the courage to
- 2:12:23Speaker 1: abandon as soon as they proved inadequate. From all this
- 2:12:27Speaker 1: weary mental struggle I derived only a certain pliancy of mind,
- 2:12:32Speaker 1: a weakening of the will, a habit of perpetual moral analysis,
- 2:12:36Speaker 1: and a diminution both of freshness of sentiment and of
- 2:12:39Speaker 1: clearness of thought. Usually, abstract thinking develops man's capacity for
- 2:12:44Speaker 1: apprehending the bent of his mind at certain moments and
- 2:12:48Speaker 1: laying it to heart. But my inclination for abstract thought
- 2:12:51Speaker 1: developed my consciousness in such a way that often, when
- 2:12:55Speaker 1: I began to consider even the simplest matter, I would
- 2:12:58Speaker 1: lose myself in a labyrinthine and analysis of my own
- 2:13:01Speaker 1: thoughts concerning the matter. In question. That is to say,
- 2:13:05Speaker 1: I no longer thought of the matter itself, but only
- 2:13:07Speaker 1: of what I was thinking about it. If I had
- 2:13:10Speaker 1: then asked myself of what am I thinking, the true
- 2:13:13Speaker 1: answer would have been, I am thinking of what I
- 2:13:15Speaker 1: am thinking. And if I had further asked myself, what
- 2:13:18Speaker 1: then are the thoughts of which I am thinking, I
- 2:13:21Speaker 1: should have had to reply they are attempts to think
- 2:13:24Speaker 1: of what I am thinking concerning my own thoughts. And
- 2:13:27Speaker 1: so on. Reason with me had to yield to excess
- 2:13:32Speaker 1: of reason. Every philosophical discovery which I made so flattered
- 2:13:36Speaker 1: my conceit that I often imagined to myself to be
- 2:13:39Speaker 1: a great man, discovering new truths for the benefit of humanity. Consequently,
- 2:13:44Speaker 1: I looked down with proud dignity upon my fellow mortals. Yet,
- 2:13:48Speaker 1: strange to state, no sooner did I come in contact
- 2:13:50Speaker 1: with those fellow mortals than I became filled with the
- 2:13:53Speaker 1: stupid shyness of them. And the higher I happened to
- 2:13:56Speaker 1: be standing in my own opinion, the less did I
- 2:13:59Speaker 1: feel capable of making king others perceive my consciousness of
- 2:14:02Speaker 1: my own dignity. Since I could not rid myself of
- 2:14:05Speaker 1: a sense of diffidence concerning even the simplest of my
- 2:14:08Speaker 1: words and acts, Chapter twenty Walloda. The further I advance
- 2:14:16Speaker 1: in the recital of this period of my life, the
- 2:14:18Speaker 1: more difficult and onerous does the task become. Too. Rarely
- 2:14:21Speaker 1: do I find among the reminiscences of that time any
- 2:14:24Speaker 1: moments full of the ardent feeling of sincerity which so
- 2:14:28Speaker 1: often and so cheeringly illumined my childhood. Gladly would I
- 2:14:32Speaker 1: pass in haste over my lonely boyhood, the sooner to
- 2:14:35Speaker 1: arrive at the happy time when once again a tender,
- 2:14:38Speaker 1: sincere and noble friendship marked with a gleam of light
- 2:14:41Speaker 1: at once the termination of that period and the beginning
- 2:14:44Speaker 1: of a phase of my youth which was full of
- 2:14:46Speaker 1: the charm of poetry. Therefore, I will not pursue my
- 2:14:51Speaker 1: recollections from hour to hour, but only throw a cursory
- 2:14:54Speaker 1: glance at the most prominent of them, from the time
- 2:14:57Speaker 1: to which I have now carried my tale, to the
- 2:14:59Speaker 1: moment of my first contact with the exceptional personality that
- 2:15:03Speaker 1: was fated to exercise such a decisive influence upon my
- 2:15:06Speaker 1: character and ideas. Woloda was about to enter the university.
- 2:15:12Speaker 1: Tutors came to give him lessons independently of myself, and
- 2:15:15Speaker 1: I listened with envy and involuntary respect as he drew
- 2:15:19Speaker 1: boldly on the blackboard with white chalk, and talked about functions, signs,
- 2:15:24Speaker 1: and so forth, all of which seemed to me terms
- 2:15:27Speaker 1: pertaining to unattainable wisdom. At length, one Sunday, before luncheon,
- 2:15:32Speaker 1: all the tutors, and among them two professors, assembled in
- 2:15:36Speaker 1: Grandmamma's room, and, in the presence of Papa and some friends,
- 2:15:40Speaker 1: put Woloda through a rehearsal of his university examination, in which,
- 2:15:45Speaker 1: to Grandmamma's delight, he gave evidence of no ordinary amount
- 2:15:48Speaker 1: of knowledge. Questions on different subjects were also put to me,
- 2:15:53Speaker 1: but on all of them I showed complete ignorance, while
- 2:15:56Speaker 1: the fact that the professors manifestly endeavored to conceal that
- 2:15:59Speaker 1: ignorance from Grandmamma only confused me the more. Yet, after all,
- 2:16:04Speaker 1: I was only fifteen, and so had a year before
- 2:16:07Speaker 1: me in which to prepare for the examinations. Woloda now
- 2:16:11Speaker 1: came downstairs for luncheon only and spent whole days and
- 2:16:14Speaker 1: evenings over his studies in his own room, to which
- 2:16:17Speaker 1: he kept not from necessity, but because he preferred its seclusion.
- 2:16:21Speaker 1: He was very ambitious and meant to pass the examinations
- 2:16:25Speaker 1: not by halves, but with flying colors. The first day arrived,
- 2:16:30Speaker 1: Woloda was wearing a new blue frock coat with brass buttons,
- 2:16:34Speaker 1: a gold watch, and shiny boots. At the door stood
- 2:16:37Speaker 1: Papa's phaeton, which Nicola duly opened, and presently when Wiloda
- 2:16:42Speaker 1: and Saint Jerome set out for the university, the girls,
- 2:16:45Speaker 1: particularly Katenka, would be seen gazing with beaming faces from
- 2:16:49Speaker 1: the window at Wiloda's pleasing figure as it sat in
- 2:16:52Speaker 1: the carriage. Papa said several times God go with him,
- 2:16:56Speaker 1: and Grandmamma, who also had dragged herself to the window,
- 2:17:00Speaker 1: continued to make the sign of the cross as long
- 2:17:02Speaker 1: as the phaeton was visible, as well as to murmur
- 2:17:05Speaker 1: something to herself. When Wiloda returned, everyone eagerly crowded round him.
- 2:17:11Speaker 1: How many marks were they? Good ones? Yes, But his
- 2:17:15Speaker 1: happy face was an answer in itself. He had received
- 2:17:18Speaker 1: five marks, the maximum. The next day he sped on
- 2:17:21Speaker 1: his way with the same good wishes and the same
- 2:17:24Speaker 1: anxiety for his success, and was welcomed home with the
- 2:17:28Speaker 1: same eagerness and joy. This lasted for nine days. On
- 2:17:32Speaker 1: the tenth day there was to be the last and
- 2:17:34Speaker 1: most difficult examination of all, the one in divinity. We
- 2:17:39Speaker 1: all stood at the window and watched for him with
- 2:17:41Speaker 1: greater impatience than ever Two o'clock. And yet no, Woloda,
- 2:17:46Speaker 1: Here they come, Papa, here they come, suddenly, screamed Lubatchka
- 2:17:50Speaker 1: as she peered through the window. Sure enough, the phaeton
- 2:17:53Speaker 1: was driving up with Saint Jerome and Wiloda, the latter
- 2:17:56Speaker 1: no longer in his gray cap and blue frackcoat, but
- 2:17:59Speaker 1: in the uniform of a student of the university, with
- 2:18:01Speaker 1: its embroidered blue collar, three cornered hat, and gilded sword.
- 2:18:07Speaker 1: Ah if only she had been alive, now, exclaimed Grandmamma,
- 2:18:11Speaker 1: on seeing Wiloda in this dress, and swooned away. Wiloda
- 2:18:15Speaker 1: enters the ante room with a beaming face and embraces myself, Lubotshka,
- 2:18:19Speaker 1: Mimi and Katenka, the latter blushing to her ears. He
- 2:18:24Speaker 1: hardly knows himself for joy, And how smart he looks
- 2:18:27Speaker 1: in that uniform, how well the blue collar suits his
- 2:18:30Speaker 1: budding dark mustache. What a tall, elegant figure is his?
- 2:18:34Speaker 1: And what a distinguished walk. On that memorable day, we
- 2:18:38Speaker 1: all lunched together in Grandmamma's room, every face expressed delight,
- 2:18:43Speaker 1: and with the dessert which followed the meal, the servants,
- 2:18:46Speaker 1: with grave but gratified faces, brought in bottles of champagne. Grandmamma,
- 2:18:51Speaker 1: for the first time since Mamma's death, drank a full
- 2:18:54Speaker 1: glass of the wine to Woloda's health, and wept for
- 2:18:57Speaker 1: joy as she looked at him. Henceforth, Woloda drove his
- 2:19:01Speaker 1: own turn out, invited his own friends, smoked, and went
- 2:19:05Speaker 1: to balls. On one occasion I even saw him sharing
- 2:19:08Speaker 1: a couple of bottles of champagne with some guests in
- 2:19:11Speaker 1: his room, and the whole company drinking a toast with
- 2:19:14Speaker 1: each glass to some mysterious being, and then quarreling as
- 2:19:18Speaker 1: to who should have the bottom of the bottle. Nevertheless,
- 2:19:23Speaker 1: he always lunched at home, and after the meal would
- 2:19:26Speaker 1: stretch himself on a sofa and talk confidentially to Katenka.
- 2:19:30Speaker 1: Yet from what I overheard, while pretending of course to
- 2:19:32Speaker 1: pay no attention, I gathered that they were only talking
- 2:19:36Speaker 1: of the heroes and heroines of novels which they had read,
- 2:19:39Speaker 1: or else of jealousy and love and so on. Never
- 2:19:42Speaker 1: could I understand what they found so attractive in these conversations,
- 2:19:47Speaker 1: nor why they smiled so happily and discussed things with
- 2:19:50Speaker 1: such animation. Altogether, I could see that, in addition to
- 2:19:54Speaker 1: the friendships natural to persons who had been companions from childhood,
- 2:19:58Speaker 1: there existed between Woloda and Katenka a relation which differentiated
- 2:20:02Speaker 1: them from us and united them mysteriously to one another.
- 2:20:10Speaker 1: End of Section five, Chapter twenty one, Kateenka and Lubatchka.
- 2:20:15Speaker 1: Katenka was now sixteen years old, quite a grown up girl,
- 2:20:19Speaker 1: and although at that age the angular figures, the bashfulness
- 2:20:23Speaker 1: and the gachiery peculiar to girls passing from childhood to
- 2:20:26Speaker 1: youth usually replaced the comely freshness and graceful, half developed
- 2:20:30Speaker 1: bloom of childhood, she had in no way altered. Still.
- 2:20:35Speaker 1: The blue eyes, with their merry glance, were hers. The
- 2:20:37Speaker 1: well shaped nose with firm nostrils and almost forming a
- 2:20:41Speaker 1: line with the forehead, the little mouth with its charming smile,
- 2:20:45Speaker 1: the dimples and the rosy cheeks, and the small white hands.
- 2:20:49Speaker 1: To her, the epithet of girl pure and simple was
- 2:20:51Speaker 1: pre eminently applicable. For in her the only new features
- 2:20:55Speaker 1: were a new and young, ladylike arrangement of her thick,
- 2:20:58Speaker 1: flaxen hair and a youthful bosom, the latter an addition
- 2:21:03Speaker 1: which at once caused her great joy and made her
- 2:21:05Speaker 1: very bashful. Although Lubotshka and she had grown up together
- 2:21:10Speaker 1: and received the same education, they were totally unlike one another.
- 2:21:14Speaker 1: Lubotshka was not tall, and the rickets from which she
- 2:21:16Speaker 1: had suffered had shaped her feet in goose fashion and
- 2:21:20Speaker 1: made her figure very bad. The only pretty feature in
- 2:21:23Speaker 1: her face was her eyes, which were indeed wonderful, being
- 2:21:26Speaker 1: large and black and instinct with such an extremely pleasing
- 2:21:30Speaker 1: expression of mingled gravity and naivete, that she was bound
- 2:21:34Speaker 1: to attract attention in everything. She was simple and natural,
- 2:21:38Speaker 1: so that whereas Ktenka always looked as though she were
- 2:21:41Speaker 1: trying to be like someone else, Lubotshka looked people straight
- 2:21:44Speaker 1: in the face and sometimes fixed them so long with
- 2:21:47Speaker 1: her splendid black eyes that she got blamed for doing
- 2:21:50Speaker 1: what was thought to be improper. Ktenka, on the contrary,
- 2:21:54Speaker 1: always cast her eyelids down, blinked, and pretended that she
- 2:21:58Speaker 1: was short sighted, though I knew very well that her
- 2:22:01Speaker 1: sight was excellent. Lubotshka hated being shown off before strangers,
- 2:22:06Speaker 1: and when a visitor offered to kiss her, she invariably
- 2:22:08Speaker 1: grew cross and said that she hated affection, Whereas when
- 2:22:13Speaker 1: strangers were present, Katenka was always particularly endearing to Mimi
- 2:22:17Speaker 1: and loved to walk about the room arm in arm
- 2:22:20Speaker 1: with another girl. Likewise, though Lubotshka was a terrible giggler
- 2:22:24Speaker 1: and sometimes ran about the room in convulsions of gesticulating laughter,
- 2:22:29Speaker 1: Ktenka always covered her mouth with her hands or her
- 2:22:31Speaker 1: pocket handkerchief when she wanted to laugh. Lubotshka again loved
- 2:22:36Speaker 1: to have grown up men to talk to, and said
- 2:22:38Speaker 1: that some day she meant to marry a hussar, but
- 2:22:41Speaker 1: Kateenka always pretended that all men were horrid and that
- 2:22:44Speaker 1: she never meant to marry any one of them, while
- 2:22:46Speaker 1: as soon as a male visitor addressed her, she changed completely,
- 2:22:50Speaker 1: as though she were nervous of something. Likewise, Lubotshka was
- 2:22:54Speaker 1: continually at loggerheads with Mimi, because the latter wanted her
- 2:22:58Speaker 1: to have her stays so tight that she could not breathe,
- 2:23:01Speaker 1: or eat or drink. In comfort, while Katenka, on the contrary,
- 2:23:05Speaker 1: would often insert her finger into her waistband to show
- 2:23:08Speaker 1: how loose it was, and always ate very little. Lubotshka
- 2:23:12Speaker 1: liked to draw heads, Katenka only flowers and butterflies. The
- 2:23:17Speaker 1: former could play fields Concerto's and Beethoven's sonatas excellently, whereas
- 2:23:22Speaker 1: the latter indulged in variations and waltzes, retarded the time
- 2:23:26Speaker 1: and used the petals continuously, not to mention the fact
- 2:23:30Speaker 1: that before she began she invariably struck three cords in arpeggio. Nevertheless,
- 2:23:36Speaker 1: in those days, I thought Katenka much the grander person
- 2:23:38Speaker 1: of the two, and liked her the best. Chapter twenty two. Papa.
- 2:23:45Speaker 1: Papa had been in a particularly good humor ever since
- 2:23:48Speaker 1: Walloda had passed into the university and came much oftener
- 2:23:52Speaker 1: to dine with Grandmamma. However, I knew from Nikola that
- 2:23:55Speaker 1: he had won a great deal Lately. Occasionally he would
- 2:23:58Speaker 1: come and sit with us in the evening before going
- 2:24:00Speaker 1: to the club. He used to sit down to the
- 2:24:02Speaker 1: piano and bid us group ourselves around him, after which
- 2:24:05Speaker 1: he would beat time with his thin boots. He detested
- 2:24:08Speaker 1: heels and never wore them, and make us sing gipsy songs.
- 2:24:13Speaker 1: At such times you should have seen the quaint enthusiasm
- 2:24:16Speaker 1: of his beloved Lubotchka, who adored him. Sometimes again he
- 2:24:21Speaker 1: would come to the schoolroom and listen with a grave
- 2:24:23Speaker 1: face as I said my lessons. Yet by the few
- 2:24:26Speaker 1: words which he would let drop on correcting me, I
- 2:24:28Speaker 1: could see that he knew even less about the subject
- 2:24:30Speaker 1: than I did. Not. Infrequently, too, he would wink at
- 2:24:33Speaker 1: us and make secret signs when Grandmamma was beginning to
- 2:24:36Speaker 1: scold us and find fault with us all round. So
- 2:24:40Speaker 1: much for us children, he would say. On the whole. However,
- 2:24:44Speaker 1: the impossible pinnacle upon which my childish imagination had placed
- 2:24:47Speaker 1: him had undergone a certain abasement. I still kissed his
- 2:24:51Speaker 1: large white hand with a certain feeling of love and respect.
- 2:24:54Speaker 1: But I also allowed myself to think about him and
- 2:24:57Speaker 1: to criticize his behavior, until involuntari thoughts occurred to me
- 2:25:01Speaker 1: which alarmed me by their presence. Never shall I forget
- 2:25:04Speaker 1: one incident in particular, which awakened thoughts of this kind
- 2:25:08Speaker 1: and caused me intense astonishment. Late one evening, he entered
- 2:25:12Speaker 1: the drawing room in his black dress coat and white
- 2:25:15Speaker 1: waistcoat to take Waloda, who was still dressing in his bedroom,
- 2:25:19Speaker 1: to a ball. Grandmamma was also in her bedroom, but
- 2:25:22Speaker 1: had given orders that before setting out, Woloda was to
- 2:25:25Speaker 1: come and say good bye to her. It was her
- 2:25:27Speaker 1: invariable custom to inspect him before he went to a
- 2:25:30Speaker 1: ball and to bless him and direct him as to
- 2:25:33Speaker 1: his behavior. The room where we were was lighted by
- 2:25:37Speaker 1: a solitary lamp. Mimi and Kateenka were walking up and down,
- 2:25:41Speaker 1: and Lubotshka was playing fields second Concerto, Mamma's favorite piece
- 2:25:45Speaker 1: at the piano. Never was there such a family likeness
- 2:25:49Speaker 1: as between Mamma and my sister, Not so much in
- 2:25:52Speaker 1: the face of the stature, as in the hands, the walk,
- 2:25:55Speaker 1: the voice, the favorite expressions, and above all the way
- 2:25:59Speaker 1: of playing the piano and the whole demeanor at the instrument.
- 2:26:02Speaker 1: Lubotshka always arranged her dress when sitting down, just as
- 2:26:05Speaker 1: Mamma had done, as well as turned the leaves like her,
- 2:26:09Speaker 1: tapped her fingers angrily and said dear me whenever a
- 2:26:12Speaker 1: difficult passage did not go smoothly, and in particular played
- 2:26:16Speaker 1: with the delicacy and exquisite purity of touch, which in
- 2:26:19Speaker 1: those days caused the execution of Field's music to be
- 2:26:22Speaker 1: known characteristically as joeu pere and to lie beyond comparison
- 2:26:28Speaker 1: with the humbug of our modern virtuosi. Papa entered the
- 2:26:33Speaker 1: room with short, soft steps and approached Lubashka. On seeing him,
- 2:26:37Speaker 1: she stopped playing. No go on, Luba, go on, he said,
- 2:26:42Speaker 1: as he forced her to sit down again. She went
- 2:26:44Speaker 1: on playing, while Papa, his head on his hand, sat
- 2:26:48Speaker 1: near her for a while. Then suddenly he gave his
- 2:26:50Speaker 1: shoulders a shrug, and rising began to pace the room.
- 2:26:54Speaker 1: Every time that he approached the piano, he halted for
- 2:26:57Speaker 1: a moment and looked fixedly at Lubatchka. By his walk
- 2:27:00Speaker 1: and his every movement, I could see that he was
- 2:27:02Speaker 1: greatly agitated. Once, when he stopped behind Lubachka, he kissed
- 2:27:07Speaker 1: her black hair, and then, wheeling quickly round, resumed his pacing.
- 2:27:11Speaker 1: The piece finished, Lubaschhka went up to him and said,
- 2:27:14Speaker 1: was it well played? Whereupon, without answering, he took her
- 2:27:17Speaker 1: head in his two hands and kissed her forehead and
- 2:27:20Speaker 1: eyes with such tenderness as I had never before seen
- 2:27:23Speaker 1: him display. Why you are crying, cried Lubachika suddenly, as
- 2:27:28Speaker 1: she ceased to toy with his watch chain and stared
- 2:27:30Speaker 1: at him with her great black eyes. Pardon me, darling, Papa,
- 2:27:34Speaker 1: I had quite forgotten that it was dear Mamma's piece
- 2:27:36Speaker 1: which I was playing. No, no, my love, play it often,
- 2:27:40Speaker 1: he said, in a voice trembling with emotion. Ah, if
- 2:27:43Speaker 1: only you knew how much good it does me to
- 2:27:45Speaker 1: share your tears. He kissed her again, and then, mastering
- 2:27:49Speaker 1: his feelings, and shrugging his shoulders, went to the door
- 2:27:52Speaker 1: leading to the corridor which ran past Woloda's room. Waldemar,
- 2:27:57Speaker 1: shall you be ready soon? He cried, halting in the
- 2:28:00Speaker 1: middle of the passage. Just then Masha came along. Why
- 2:28:04Speaker 1: you look prettier every day, he said to her. She
- 2:28:06Speaker 1: blushed and passed on. Valdemar, shall you be ready soon?
- 2:28:10Speaker 1: He cried again, with a cough and a shake of
- 2:28:13Speaker 1: his shoulders, just as Masha slipped away and he first
- 2:28:16Speaker 1: caught sight of me. I love, Papa, But the intellect
- 2:28:21Speaker 1: is independent of the heart and often gives birth to
- 2:28:24Speaker 1: thoughts which offend and are harsh and incomprehensible to the feelings.
- 2:28:28Speaker 1: And it was thoughts of this kind that for all
- 2:28:31Speaker 1: I strove to put them away, arose at that moment
- 2:28:33Speaker 1: in my mind. Chapter twenty three. Grandmamma. Grandmamma was growing
- 2:28:43Speaker 1: weaker every day. Her bell Gasha's grumbling voice, and the
- 2:28:47Speaker 1: slamming of doors in her room were sounds of constant occurrence,
- 2:28:50Speaker 1: and she no longer received us sitting in the voltairian
- 2:28:53Speaker 1: arm chair in her boudoir, but lying on the bed
- 2:28:56Speaker 1: in her bedroom, supported on lace trimmed cushions. One day,
- 2:29:00Speaker 1: when she greeted us, I noticed a yellowish white swelling
- 2:29:03Speaker 1: on her hand and smelt the same oppressive odor which
- 2:29:06Speaker 1: I had smelt five years ago in Mamma's room. The
- 2:29:09Speaker 1: doctor came three times a day, and there had been
- 2:29:12Speaker 1: more than one consultation. Yet the character of her, haughty,
- 2:29:16Speaker 1: ceremonious bearing towards all who lived with her, and particularly
- 2:29:20Speaker 1: towards Papa, never changed in the least. She went on
- 2:29:23Speaker 1: emphasizing certain words, raising her eyebrows and saying my dear,
- 2:29:28Speaker 1: just as she had always done. Then for a few
- 2:29:31Speaker 1: days we did not see her at all, and one
- 2:29:34Speaker 1: morning Saint Jerome proposed to me that Wiloda and I
- 2:29:37Speaker 1: should take Katenka and Lubotshka for our drive during the
- 2:29:39Speaker 1: hours generally allotted to study. Although I observed that the
- 2:29:43Speaker 1: street was lined with straw under the windows of Grandmamma's room,
- 2:29:46Speaker 1: and that some men in blue stockings Undertaker's men were
- 2:29:50Speaker 1: standing at our gate, the reason never dawned upon me
- 2:29:53Speaker 1: why we were being sent out at that unusual hour.
- 2:29:56Speaker 1: Throughout the drive, Lubotchka and I were in that particular
- 2:30:00Speaker 1: cularly merry mood when the least trifle, the least word,
- 2:30:03Speaker 1: or movement, sets one off laughing. A peddler went trotting
- 2:30:08Speaker 1: across the road with a tray, and we laughed. Some
- 2:30:10Speaker 1: ragged cabmen, brandishing their reins and driving at full speed,
- 2:30:14Speaker 1: overtook our sledge and we laughed again. Next, Philip's whip
- 2:30:18Speaker 1: got caught in the side of the vehicle, and the
- 2:30:20Speaker 1: way in which he said bother the thing as he
- 2:30:22Speaker 1: drove to disentangle it almost killed us with mirth. Mimi
- 2:30:26Speaker 1: looked displeased and said that only silly people laughed for
- 2:30:29Speaker 1: no reason at all, But Lubotshka her face purple with
- 2:30:33Speaker 1: suppressed merriment needed but to give me a sly glance,
- 2:30:36Speaker 1: and we again burst out into such homeric laughter. When
- 2:30:40Speaker 1: our eyes met that, the tears rushed into them, and
- 2:30:42Speaker 1: we could not stop our paroxysms, although they nearly choked us.
- 2:30:47Speaker 1: Hardly again had we desisted a little when I looked
- 2:30:49Speaker 1: at Lubotshka once more and gave vent to one of
- 2:30:53Speaker 1: the slang words which we then affected among ourselves, words
- 2:30:56Speaker 1: which always called forth hilarity, And in a moment we
- 2:30:59Speaker 1: were laughing again. Just as we reached home. I was
- 2:31:02Speaker 1: opening my mouth to make a splendid grimace at Lubatchhka,
- 2:31:05Speaker 1: when my eye fell upon a black coffin cover which
- 2:31:08Speaker 1: was leaning against the gate, and my mouth remained fixed
- 2:31:11Speaker 1: in its gaping position. Your Grandmamma is dead, said Saint
- 2:31:16Speaker 1: Jerome as he met us. His face was very pale.
- 2:31:21Speaker 1: Throughout the whole time that Grandmamma's body was in the house,
- 2:31:24Speaker 1: I was oppressed with the fear of death, for the
- 2:31:25Speaker 1: corpse served as a forcible and disagreeable reminder that I
- 2:31:29Speaker 1: too must die some day, a feeling which people often
- 2:31:32Speaker 1: mistake for grief. I had no sincere regret for Grandmamma,
- 2:31:36Speaker 1: nor I think had any one else, Since, although the
- 2:31:39Speaker 1: house was full of sympathizing callers, nobody seemed to mourn
- 2:31:43Speaker 1: for her from their hearts, except one mourner, whose genuine
- 2:31:47Speaker 1: grief made a great impression upon me. Seeing that the
- 2:31:50Speaker 1: mourner in question was Gosha. She shut herself up in
- 2:31:55Speaker 1: the garret, tore her hair, and refused all consolation, saying
- 2:31:59Speaker 1: that now the her mistress was dead, she only wished
- 2:32:02Speaker 1: to die herself. I again assert that in matters of feeling,
- 2:32:07Speaker 1: it is the unexpected effects that constitute the most reliable
- 2:32:11Speaker 1: signs of sincerity. Though Grandmamma was no longer with us,
- 2:32:15Speaker 1: reminiscences and gossip about her long went on in the house.
- 2:32:19Speaker 1: Such gossip referred mostly to her will, which she had
- 2:32:22Speaker 1: made shortly before her death, and of which as yet
- 2:32:25Speaker 1: no one knew the contents except her bosom friend, Prince
- 2:32:28Speaker 1: ivan Ivanovitch. I could hear the servants talking excitedly together
- 2:32:34Speaker 1: and making innumerable conjectures as to the amount left in
- 2:32:37Speaker 1: the probable beneficiaries. Nor can I deny that the idea
- 2:32:41Speaker 1: that we ourselves were probably the latter greatly pleased me.
- 2:32:45Speaker 1: Six weeks later, Nikola, who acted as regular newsagent to
- 2:32:49Speaker 1: the house, informed me that Grandmamma had left the whole
- 2:32:52Speaker 1: of her fortune to Lubatchka, with as her trustee until
- 2:32:56Speaker 1: her majority. Not Papa but Prince Ivan Ivanevich Chapter twenty four.
- 2:33:04Speaker 1: Myself only a few months remained before I was to
- 2:33:08Speaker 1: matriculate for the university. Yet I was making such good
- 2:33:11Speaker 1: progress that I felt no apprehensions and even took but
- 2:33:14Speaker 1: pleasure in my studies. I kept in good heart and
- 2:33:17Speaker 1: learnt my lessons fluently and intelligently. The faculty I had
- 2:33:21Speaker 1: selected was the mathematical one, probably to tell the truth,
- 2:33:25Speaker 1: because the terms tangent differentials, integrals, and so forth pleased
- 2:33:29Speaker 1: my fancy. Though stout and broad shouldered, I was shorter
- 2:33:33Speaker 1: than Muloda, while my ugliness of faith still remained and
- 2:33:36Speaker 1: tormented me as much as ever. By way of compensation,
- 2:33:41Speaker 1: I tried to appear original. Yet one thing comforted me,
- 2:33:43Speaker 1: namely that Papa had said that I had an intelligent face.
- 2:33:47Speaker 1: I quite believed him. Saint Jerome was not only satisfied
- 2:33:51Speaker 1: with me, but actually had taken to praising me. Consequently,
- 2:33:54Speaker 1: I had now ceased to hate him. In fact, when
- 2:33:58Speaker 1: one day he said that with my capatit and my intellect,
- 2:34:01Speaker 1: it would be shameful for me not to accomplish this,
- 2:34:04Speaker 1: that or the other thing, I believe I almost liked him.
- 2:34:08Speaker 1: I had long ago given up keeping observation on the
- 2:34:10Speaker 1: maid servants room, for I was now ashamed to hide
- 2:34:13Speaker 1: behind doors. Likewise, I confess that the knowledge of Masha's
- 2:34:17Speaker 1: love for Basil had greatly cooled my ardor for her,
- 2:34:21Speaker 1: and that my passion underwent a final cure by their marriage,
- 2:34:24Speaker 1: a consummation to which I myself contributed by, at Basil's request,
- 2:34:29Speaker 1: asking Papa's consent to the union. When the newly married
- 2:34:33Speaker 1: couple brought trays of cakes and sweetmeats to Papa as
- 2:34:37Speaker 1: a thank offering, and Masha, in a cap with blue ribbons,
- 2:34:40Speaker 1: kissed each of us on the shoulder and betoken of
- 2:34:42Speaker 1: her gratitude, I merely noticed the scent of the rose
- 2:34:45Speaker 1: palmade on her hair, but felt no other sensation. In general,
- 2:34:51Speaker 1: I was beginning to get the better of my youthful defects,
- 2:34:54Speaker 1: with the exception of the principal one, the one of
- 2:34:56Speaker 1: which I shall often again have to speak in relating
- 2:34:59Speaker 1: my life's history, namely the tendency to abstract thought end
- 2:35:05Speaker 1: of Section six, Chapter twenty five Wiloda's Friends. Although when
- 2:35:12Speaker 1: in the society of Woloda's friends, I had to play
- 2:35:15Speaker 1: a part that hurt my pride, I liked sitting in
- 2:35:17Speaker 1: his room when he had visitors and silently watching all
- 2:35:20Speaker 1: they did. The two who came most frequently to see
- 2:35:23Speaker 1: him were a military adjutant called Dubkoff and a student
- 2:35:27Speaker 1: named Prince Nekhludoff. Dubkov was a little, dark haired, highly
- 2:35:32Speaker 1: strung man who, though short of stature and no longer
- 2:35:35Speaker 1: in his first youth, had a pleasing and invariably cheerful air.
- 2:35:39Speaker 1: His was one of those limited natures which are agreeable
- 2:35:42Speaker 1: through their very limitations, natures which cannot regard matters from
- 2:35:46Speaker 1: every point of view, but which are nevertheless attracted by everything.
- 2:35:51Speaker 1: Usually the reasoning of such persons as false and one sided,
- 2:35:54Speaker 1: yet always genuine and taking, wherefore their narrow egotism seems
- 2:35:59Speaker 1: both in amiable and excusable. There were two other reasons
- 2:36:03Speaker 1: why Dubkov had charms for Wiloda and myself, namely the
- 2:36:07Speaker 1: fact that he was of military appearance, and secondly, and
- 2:36:10Speaker 1: principally the fact that he was of a certain age,
- 2:36:13Speaker 1: an age with which young people are apt to associate
- 2:36:16Speaker 1: that quality of gentlemanliness which is so highly esteemed at
- 2:36:20Speaker 1: their time of life. However, he was in very truth
- 2:36:24Speaker 1: an owncomb illful. The only thing which I did not
- 2:36:28Speaker 1: like about at all was that, in his presence Woloda
- 2:36:31Speaker 1: always seemed ashamed of my innocent behavior, and still more
- 2:36:34Speaker 1: so of my youthfulness. As for Prince Nekhludoff, he was
- 2:36:38Speaker 1: in no way handsome, since neither his small gray eyes,
- 2:36:41Speaker 1: his low projecting forehead, nor his disportionately long hands and
- 2:36:45Speaker 1: feet could be called good features. The only good points
- 2:36:48Speaker 1: about him were his unusually tall stature, his delicate coloring,
- 2:36:53Speaker 1: and his splendid teeth. Nevertheless, his face was of such
- 2:36:57Speaker 1: an original, energetic character, owing to his narrow, sparkling eyes
- 2:37:01Speaker 1: and ever changing expression, now stern, now childlike, now smiling indeterminately,
- 2:37:07Speaker 1: that it was impossible to help noticing it. As a rule,
- 2:37:11Speaker 1: he was very shy and would blush to the ears
- 2:37:13Speaker 1: at the smallest trifle, but it was a shyness altogether
- 2:37:17Speaker 1: different from mine, seeing that the more he blushed, the
- 2:37:20Speaker 1: more determined looking he grew as though he were vexed
- 2:37:23Speaker 1: at his own weakness. Although he was on very good
- 2:37:26Speaker 1: terms with Wiloda and Dubkov, it was clearly chance which
- 2:37:29Speaker 1: had united them. Thus, since their tastes were entirely dissimilar,
- 2:37:33Speaker 1: Wiloda and Dubkov seemed to be afraid of anything like
- 2:37:36Speaker 1: serious consideration or emotion, whereas Nekhludoff was beyond all things
- 2:37:41Speaker 1: an enthusiasts and would often, despite their sarcastic remarks, plunge
- 2:37:46Speaker 1: into dissertations on philosophical matters or matters of feeling. Again,
- 2:37:51Speaker 1: the two former liked talking about the fair objects of
- 2:37:53Speaker 1: their adoration. These were always numerous and always shared by
- 2:37:57Speaker 1: the friends in common, whereas Nekhludoff invariably grew annoyed when
- 2:38:01Speaker 1: taxed with his love for a certain red haired lady. Again,
- 2:38:05Speaker 1: Wiloda and Dubkov often permitted themselves to criticize their relatives
- 2:38:10Speaker 1: and to find amusement in so doing, But Nekhludoff flew
- 2:38:13Speaker 1: into a tremendous rage when, on one occasion they referred
- 2:38:16Speaker 1: to some weak points in the character of an aunt
- 2:38:19Speaker 1: of his whom he adored. Finally, after supper, Wiloda and
- 2:38:23Speaker 1: Dubkov would usually go off to some place, whether Nekhludoff
- 2:38:27Speaker 1: would not accompany them, wherefore they called him a dainty girl.
- 2:38:32Speaker 1: The very first time that I ever saw Prince Nekhludoff,
- 2:38:35Speaker 1: I was struck with his exterior and conversation. Yet, though
- 2:38:38Speaker 1: I could discern a great similarity between his disposition and
- 2:38:42Speaker 1: my own, or perhaps it was because I could so
- 2:38:44Speaker 1: discern it, the impression which he produced upon me at
- 2:38:48Speaker 1: first was anything but agreeable. I liked neither his quick glance,
- 2:38:52Speaker 1: his hard voice, his proud bearing, nor least of all,
- 2:38:55Speaker 1: the utter indifference with which he treated me often when conversing.
- 2:38:59Speaker 1: I burned to untradict him, to punish his pride by
- 2:39:02Speaker 1: confuting him, to show him that I was clever in
- 2:39:04Speaker 1: spite of his disdainful neglect of my presence. But I
- 2:39:08Speaker 1: was invariably prevented from doing so by my shyness. Chapter
- 2:39:13Speaker 1: twenty six Discussions. Willoto was lying reading a French novel
- 2:39:18Speaker 1: on the sofa when I paid my usual visit to
- 2:39:20Speaker 1: his room after my evening lessons. He looked up at
- 2:39:23Speaker 1: me for a moment from his book, and then went
- 2:39:25Speaker 1: on reading this perfectly simple and natural movement, however, offended me.
- 2:39:30Speaker 1: I conceived that the glance implied a question why I
- 2:39:33Speaker 1: had come, and a wish to hide his thoughts from me.
- 2:39:36Speaker 1: I may say that at that period a tendency to
- 2:39:38Speaker 1: attach a meaning to the most insignificant of acts formed
- 2:39:41Speaker 1: a prominent feature in my character. So I went to
- 2:39:45Speaker 1: the table and also took up a book to read. Yet,
- 2:39:47Speaker 1: even before I had actually begun reading, the idea struck
- 2:39:51Speaker 1: me how ridiculous it was that although we had never
- 2:39:53Speaker 1: seen one another all day, we should have not a
- 2:39:56Speaker 1: word to exchange. Are you going to stay in tonight, Woloda?
- 2:40:02Speaker 1: I don't know why. Oh, Because, seeing that the conversation
- 2:40:08Speaker 1: did not promise to be a success, I took up
- 2:40:10Speaker 1: my book again and began to read. Yet it was
- 2:40:13Speaker 1: a strange thing that, though we sometimes passed whole hours
- 2:40:16Speaker 1: together without speaking, when we were alone, the mere presence
- 2:40:19Speaker 1: of a third, sometimes of a taciturn and a wholly
- 2:40:22Speaker 1: uninteresting person, sufficed to plunge us into the most varied
- 2:40:26Speaker 1: and engrossing of discussions. The truth was that we knew
- 2:40:29Speaker 1: one another too well, and to know a person either
- 2:40:32Speaker 1: too well or too little, acts as a bar to intimacy.
- 2:40:37Speaker 1: Is Wiloda at home? Came in Dubkov's voice from the anteroom. Yes,
- 2:40:41Speaker 1: shouted Wiloda, springing up and throwing aside his book. Dubkov
- 2:40:45Speaker 1: and Nekhludoff entered, are you coming to the theater? Woloda? No,
- 2:40:50Speaker 1: I have no time, he replied with a blush. Oh
- 2:40:52Speaker 1: never mind that, Come along, but I haven't got a ticket.
- 2:40:56Speaker 1: Tickets as many as you like at the entrance. Very well,
- 2:41:00Speaker 1: then I'll be back in a minute, said Wiloda evasively,
- 2:41:03Speaker 1: as he left the room. I knew very well that
- 2:41:05Speaker 1: he wanted to go, but that he had declined because
- 2:41:07Speaker 1: he had no money, and had now gone to borrow
- 2:41:10Speaker 1: five roubles of one of the servants to be repaid
- 2:41:13Speaker 1: when he got his next allowance. How do you do, diplomat,
- 2:41:17Speaker 1: said Dupkov to me as he shook me by the hand.
- 2:41:20Speaker 1: Wiloda's friends had called me by that nickname since the
- 2:41:22Speaker 1: day when Grandmamma had said at luncheon that Wiloda must
- 2:41:26Speaker 1: go into the army, but that she would like to
- 2:41:28Speaker 1: see me in the diplomatic service, dressed in a black
- 2:41:31Speaker 1: frock coat and with my hair arranged a la coq,
- 2:41:34Speaker 1: the two essential requirements in her opinion of a diplomat.
- 2:41:38Speaker 1: Where has Wiloda gone to, asked Nekhludoff. I don't know,
- 2:41:42Speaker 1: I replied, blushing to think that. Nevertheless, they had probably
- 2:41:45Speaker 1: guessed his Errand I suppose he has no money? Yes,
- 2:41:49Speaker 1: I can see, I am right, o diplomatist, he added,
- 2:41:52Speaker 1: taking my smile as an answer in the affirmative. Well,
- 2:41:56Speaker 1: I have none either, have you any, Dupkov? I'll see,
- 2:42:00Speaker 1: replied Dupkov, feeling for his pocket and rummaging gingerly about
- 2:42:03Speaker 1: with his squat little fingers among his small change. Yes,
- 2:42:06Speaker 1: here are five kopeks twenty, but that's all, he concluded,
- 2:42:10Speaker 1: with a comic gesture of his hand. At this point,
- 2:42:13Speaker 1: Wilodo re entered. Are we going? No? What an odd
- 2:42:17Speaker 1: fellow you are, said Nekhludoff. Why don't you say that
- 2:42:20Speaker 1: you have no money? Here? Take my ticket? But what
- 2:42:23Speaker 1: are you going to do? He can go to his
- 2:42:25Speaker 1: cousin's box, said Dupkov. No, I'm not going at all,
- 2:42:29Speaker 1: replied Nekhludoff. Why because I hate sitting in a box,
- 2:42:33Speaker 1: and for what reason I don't know. Somehow I feel
- 2:42:36Speaker 1: uncomfortable there always the same. I can't understand a fellow
- 2:42:41Speaker 1: feeling uncomfortable when he is sitting with people who are
- 2:42:44Speaker 1: fond of him. It is unnatural, mon cher. But what
- 2:42:48Speaker 1: else is there to be done? Seed your sweet tonk
- 2:42:51Speaker 1: to Mete, you never blushed in your life, but I
- 2:42:53Speaker 1: do it the least trifle, and he blushed at that moment.
- 2:42:57Speaker 1: Do you know what that nervousness of yours proceeds from?
- 2:42:59Speaker 1: Said Dupkoh in a protecting sort of tone. Don't excess
- 2:43:03Speaker 1: d'a mourt propre moncher. What do you mean by excess
- 2:43:08Speaker 1: d'mour propra, asked Nekhludoff, highly offended. On the contrary, I
- 2:43:13Speaker 1: am shy just because I have too little amore proper.
- 2:43:16Speaker 1: I always feel as though I were being tiresome and disagreeable,
- 2:43:19Speaker 1: and therefore, well, get ready, Willoda, interrupted Dukov, tapping my
- 2:43:25Speaker 1: brother on the shoulder and handing him his cloak. Ignace,
- 2:43:27Speaker 1: get your master ready, therefore, continued Nekhludoff. It often happens
- 2:43:32Speaker 1: with me that. But Dukekov was not listening. Try La
- 2:43:35Speaker 1: la lah, and he hummed a popular air. Oh but
- 2:43:39Speaker 1: I'm not going to let you off, went on Nekhludoff,
- 2:43:42Speaker 1: I mean to prove to you that my shyness is
- 2:43:44Speaker 1: not the result of conceit. You can prove it as
- 2:43:46Speaker 1: we go along, But I have told you I am
- 2:43:49Speaker 1: not going. Well, then stay here and prove it to
- 2:43:51Speaker 1: the diplomat, and he can tell us all about it
- 2:43:53Speaker 1: when we return. Yes, that's what I will do, said Nekhludoff,
- 2:43:57Speaker 1: with boyish obstinacy. So hurry up with your return. Well
- 2:44:02Speaker 1: do you think I am egotistic? He continued, seating himself
- 2:44:04Speaker 1: beside me. True, I had a definite opinion on the subject,
- 2:44:08Speaker 1: but I felt so taken aback by this unexpected question
- 2:44:11Speaker 1: that at first I could make no reply. Yes, I
- 2:44:15Speaker 1: do think so, I said at length, in a faltering voice,
- 2:44:17Speaker 1: and coloring at the thought that at last the moment
- 2:44:20Speaker 1: had come when I could show him that I was clever.
- 2:44:23Speaker 1: I think that everybody is egotistic, and that everything we
- 2:44:26Speaker 1: do is done out of egotism. But what do you
- 2:44:29Speaker 1: call egotism, asked Nekhludoff, smiling as I thought a little contemptuously.
- 2:44:34Speaker 1: Egotism is a conviction that we are better and cleverer
- 2:44:37Speaker 1: than anyone else, I replied, But how can we all
- 2:44:40Speaker 1: be filled with this conviction, he inquired. Well, I don't
- 2:44:44Speaker 1: know if I am right or not. Certainly, no one
- 2:44:46Speaker 1: but myself seems to hold the opinion. But I believe
- 2:44:49Speaker 1: that I am wiser than anyone else in the world,
- 2:44:51Speaker 1: and that all of you know it. At least I
- 2:44:54Speaker 1: can say for myself, observed Nekhludoff, that I have met
- 2:44:58Speaker 1: a few people whom I believe to excel me in wisdom.
- 2:45:01Speaker 1: It is impossible, I replied, with conviction. Do you really
- 2:45:04Speaker 1: think so, he said, looking at me gravely. Yes, really,
- 2:45:08Speaker 1: I answered, and an idea crossed my mind, which I
- 2:45:11Speaker 1: proceeded to expound further. Let me prove it to you.
- 2:45:15Speaker 1: Why do we love ourselves better than anyone else? Because
- 2:45:18Speaker 1: we think ourselves better than anyone else, more worthy of
- 2:45:22Speaker 1: our own love. If we thought others better than ourselves,
- 2:45:25Speaker 1: we should love them better than ourselves. But that is
- 2:45:28Speaker 1: never the case, and even if it were so, I
- 2:45:31Speaker 1: should still be right, I added, with an involuntary smile
- 2:45:34Speaker 1: of complacency. For a few minutes, Nekhludoff was silent. I
- 2:45:39Speaker 1: never thought you were so clever, he said, with a smile,
- 2:45:41Speaker 1: so good humored and charming, that I at once felt happy.
- 2:45:46Speaker 1: Praise exercises an all potent influence not only upon the feelings,
- 2:45:50Speaker 1: but also upon the intellect, so that under the influence
- 2:45:53Speaker 1: of that agreeable sensation, I straightway felt much cleverer than before,
- 2:45:58Speaker 1: and thoughts began to rush with the extraordinary rapidity through
- 2:46:01Speaker 1: my head. From egotism, we passed insensibly to the theme
- 2:46:05Speaker 1: of love, which seemed inexhaustible. Although our reasonings might have
- 2:46:09Speaker 1: sounded nonsensical to a listener, so vague and one sided
- 2:46:12Speaker 1: were they, for ourselves, they had a profound significance. Our
- 2:46:16Speaker 1: minds were so perfectly in harmony that not a chord
- 2:46:19Speaker 1: was struck in the one without awakening an echo in
- 2:46:22Speaker 1: the other. And in this harmonious striking of different chords
- 2:46:26Speaker 1: we found the greatest delight. Indeed, we felt as though
- 2:46:29Speaker 1: time and language were insufficient to express the thoughts which
- 2:46:32Speaker 1: seethed within us. Chapter twenty seven, the beginning of our friendship.
- 2:46:40Speaker 1: From that time forth, a strange but exceedingly pleasant relation
- 2:46:43Speaker 1: subsisted between Dmitri Nikhludoff and myself. Before other people, he
- 2:46:48Speaker 1: paid me scanty attention, but as soon as ever we
- 2:46:50Speaker 1: were alone, we would sit down together in some comfortable corner,
- 2:46:54Speaker 1: and forgetful both of time and of everything around us.
- 2:46:57Speaker 1: Fall to reasoning, we talked of a future life of art, service, marriage,
- 2:47:02Speaker 1: and education. Nor did the idea ever occur to us
- 2:47:06Speaker 1: that very possibly always said was shocking nonsense. The reason
- 2:47:09Speaker 1: why it never occurred to us was that the nonsense
- 2:47:11Speaker 1: which we talked was good, sensible nonsense, and that so
- 2:47:15Speaker 1: long as one is young, one can appreciate good nonsense
- 2:47:18Speaker 1: and believe in it. In youth, the powers of the
- 2:47:21Speaker 1: mind are directed wholly to the future, and that future
- 2:47:24Speaker 1: assumes such various, vivid and alluring forms under the influence
- 2:47:28Speaker 1: of hope, hope based not upon the experience of the past,
- 2:47:32Speaker 1: but upon an assumed possibility of happiness to come. That
- 2:47:35Speaker 1: such dreams of expected felicity constitute in themselves the true
- 2:47:40Speaker 1: happiness of that period of our life. How I loved
- 2:47:43Speaker 1: those moments in our metaphysical discussions, discussions which formed the
- 2:47:47Speaker 1: major portion of our intercourse, when thoughts came thronging faster
- 2:47:51Speaker 1: and faster, and succeeding one another at lightning speed, and
- 2:47:55Speaker 1: growing more and more abstract at length attained such a
- 2:47:58Speaker 1: pitch of elevation that one felt powerless to express them,
- 2:48:02Speaker 1: and said something quite different from what one had intended
- 2:48:05Speaker 1: at first to say, how I liked those moments too.
- 2:48:08Speaker 1: When carried higher and higher into the realms of thought,
- 2:48:11Speaker 1: we suddenly felt that we could grasp its substance no
- 2:48:13Speaker 1: longer and go no further. At carnival time, Nekhludoff was
- 2:48:19Speaker 1: so much taken up with one festivity and another that,
- 2:48:21Speaker 1: though he came to see us several times a day,
- 2:48:24Speaker 1: he never addressed a single word to me. This offended
- 2:48:26Speaker 1: me so much that once again I found myself thinking
- 2:48:29Speaker 1: him a haughty, disagreeable fellow, and only awaited an opportunity
- 2:48:33Speaker 1: to show him that I no longer valued his company
- 2:48:36Speaker 1: or felt any particular affection for him. Accordingly, the first
- 2:48:40Speaker 1: time that he spoke to me after the carnival, I
- 2:48:42Speaker 1: said that I had lessons to do and went upstairs.
- 2:48:45Speaker 1: But a quarter of an hour later someone opened the
- 2:48:47Speaker 1: schoolroom door, and Nekhludoff entered. Am I disturbing you? He asked, No,
- 2:48:54Speaker 1: I replied, although I had at first intended to say
- 2:48:57Speaker 1: that I had a great deal to do. Then why
- 2:48:59Speaker 1: did you run away? Just now? It is a long
- 2:49:02Speaker 1: while since we had a talk together, and I have
- 2:49:04Speaker 1: grown so accustomed to these discussions that I feel as
- 2:49:07Speaker 1: though something were wanting. My anger had quite gone now,
- 2:49:11Speaker 1: and Dmitri stood before me, the same good and lovable
- 2:49:13Speaker 1: being as before. You know perhaps why I ran away,
- 2:49:17Speaker 1: I said, Perhaps I do, he answered, taking a seat
- 2:49:21Speaker 1: near me. However, though it is possible, I know why,
- 2:49:24Speaker 1: I cannot say it straight out whereas you can, then
- 2:49:28Speaker 1: I will do so. I ran away because I was
- 2:49:31Speaker 1: angry with you. Well, not angry, but grieved. I always
- 2:49:34Speaker 1: have an idea that you despise me for being so young.
- 2:49:38Speaker 1: Well do you know why I always feel so attracted
- 2:49:41Speaker 1: towards you, he replied, meeting my confession with a look
- 2:49:43Speaker 1: of kind understanding. And why I like you better than
- 2:49:46Speaker 1: any of my other acquaintances, or than any of the
- 2:49:49Speaker 1: people among whom I mostly have to live, It is
- 2:49:52Speaker 1: because I found out at once that you have the
- 2:49:54Speaker 1: rare and astonishing gift of sincerity. Yes, I always confess
- 2:49:59Speaker 1: the thing things of which I am most ashamed, but
- 2:50:02Speaker 1: only to people in whom I trust, I said, Ah,
- 2:50:06Speaker 1: But to trust a man you must be his friend completely.
- 2:50:08Speaker 1: And we are not friends yet, Nicholas, Remember how when
- 2:50:12Speaker 1: we were speaking of friendship. We agreed that to be
- 2:50:14Speaker 1: real friends, we ought to trust one another implicitly. I
- 2:50:18Speaker 1: trust you in so far as that I feel convinced
- 2:50:20Speaker 1: you would never repeat a word of what I might
- 2:50:23Speaker 1: tell you. I said. Yet, perhaps the most interesting and
- 2:50:26Speaker 1: important thoughts of all are just those which we never
- 2:50:29Speaker 1: tell one another, while the mean thoughts, the thoughts which,
- 2:50:33Speaker 1: if we only knew that we had to confess them
- 2:50:35Speaker 1: to one another, would probably never have the hardihood to
- 2:50:37Speaker 1: enter our minds. Well, do you know what I am
- 2:50:40Speaker 1: thinking of, Nicholas, He broke off, rising and taking my
- 2:50:44Speaker 1: hand with a smile. I propose, and I feel sure
- 2:50:46Speaker 1: that it would benefit us mutually that we should pledge
- 2:50:49Speaker 1: our word to one another to tell each other everything.
- 2:50:53Speaker 1: We should then really know each other and never have
- 2:50:55Speaker 1: anything on our consciences, and to guard against outsiders, let
- 2:50:59Speaker 1: us also agree never to speak of one another to
- 2:51:02Speaker 1: a third person. Suppose we do that, I agree, I replied,
- 2:51:08Speaker 1: And we did it. What the result was shall be
- 2:51:10Speaker 1: told hereafter. Kerr has said that every attachment has two sides.
- 2:51:17Speaker 1: One loves and the other allows himself to be loved.
- 2:51:19Speaker 1: One kisses and the other surrenders his cheek that is
- 2:51:23Speaker 1: perfectly true. In the case of our own attachment. It
- 2:51:26Speaker 1: was I who kissed and Dmitri who surrendered his cheek,
- 2:51:30Speaker 1: though he, in his turn, was ready to pay me
- 2:51:32Speaker 1: a similar salute. We loved equally because we knew and
- 2:51:35Speaker 1: appreciated each other thoroughly. But this did not prevent him
- 2:51:38Speaker 1: from exercising an influence over me, nor myself from rendering
- 2:51:42Speaker 1: him adoration. It will be readily understood that Nekhludoff's influence
- 2:51:47Speaker 1: caused me to adopt his bent of mind, the essence
- 2:51:50Speaker 1: of which lay in an enthusiastic reverence for ideal virtue
- 2:51:54Speaker 1: and a firm belief in man's vocation to perpetual perfection.
- 2:51:58Speaker 1: To raise mankind to a abolished vice and misery seemed
- 2:52:01Speaker 1: at that time a task offering no difficulties. To educate
- 2:52:05Speaker 1: oneself to every virtue, and so to achieve happiness seemed
- 2:52:09Speaker 1: a simple and easy matter. Only God himself knows whether
- 2:52:14Speaker 1: those blessed dreams of youth were ridiculous or whose the
- 2:52:18Speaker 1: fault was that they never became realized. End of Section seven.