Sanin was utterly unable to make out whether she was laughing at himor speaking seriously, and only said to himself: 'Oh, I can see onehas to mind what one's about with you!'
A man-servant came in with a Russian samovar, tea-things, cream,biscuits, etc., on a big tray; he set all these good things on thetable between Sanin and Madame Polozov, and retired.
She poured him out a cup of tea. 'You don't object?' she queried, asshe put sugar in his cup with her fingers ... though sugar-tongs werelying close by.
'Oh, please!... From such a lovely hand ...'
He did not finish his phrase, and almost choked over a sip of tea,while she watched him attentively and brightly.
'I spoke of a moderate price for my land,' he went on, 'because as youare abroad just now, I can hardly suppose you have a great deal ofcash available, and in fact, I feel myself that the sale ... thepurchase of my land, under such conditions is something exceptional,and I ought to take that into consideration.'
Sanin got confused, and lost the thread of what he was saying, whileMaria Nikolaevna softly leaned back in her easy-chair, folded herarms, and watched him with the same attentive bright look. He wassilent at last.
'Never mind, go on, go on,' she said, as it were coming to his aid;'I'm listening to you. I like to hear you; go on talking.'
Sanin fell to describing his estate, how many acres it contained, andwhere it was situated, and what were its agricultural advantages,and what profit could be made from it ... he even referred to thepicturesque situation of the house; while Maria Nikolaevna stillwatched him, and watched more and more intently and radiantly, and herlips faintly stirred, without smiling: she bit them. He felt awkwardat last; he was silent a second time.
'Dimitri Pavlovitch' began Maria Nikolaevna, and sank into thoughtagain.... 'Dimitri Pavlovitch,' she repeated.... 'Do you know what:I am sure the purchase of your estate will be a very profitabletransaction for me, and that we shall come to terms; but you must giveme two days.... Yes, two days' grace. You are able to endure two days'separation from your betrothed, aren't you? Longer I won't keep youagainst your will--I give you my word of honour. But if you want fiveor six thousand francs at once, I am ready with great pleasure to letyou have it as a loan, and then we'll settle later.'
Sanin got up. 'I must thank you, Maria Nikolaevna, for yourkindhearted and friendly readiness to do a service to a man almostunknown to you. But if that is your decided wish, then I prefer toawait your decision about my estate--I will stay here two days.'
'Yes; that is my wish, Dimitri Pavlovitch. And will it be very hardfor you? Very? Tell me.'
'I love my betrothed, Maria Nikolaevna, and to be separated from heris hard for me.'
'Ah! you're a heart of gold!' Maria Nikolaevna commented with a sigh.'I promise not to torment you too much. Are you going?'
'It is late,' observed Sanin.
'And you want to rest after your journey, and your game of "fools"with my husband. Tell me, were you a great friend of IppolitSidorovitch, my husband?'
'We were educated at the same school.'
'And was he the same then?'
'The same as what?' inquired Sanin. Maria Nikolaevna burst outlaughing, and laughed till she was red in the face; she put herhandkerchief to her lips, rose from her chair, and swaying as thoughshe were tired, went up to Sanin, and held out her hand to him.
He bowed over it, and went towards the door.
'Come early to-morrow--do you hear?' she called after him. He lookedback as he went out of the room, and saw that she had again droppedinto an easy-chair, and flung both arms behind her head. The loosesleeves of her tea-gown fell open almost to her shoulders, and it wasimpossible not to admit that the pose of the arms, that the wholefigure, was enchantingly beautiful.
XXXVI
Long after midnight the lamp was burning in Sanin's room. He sat downto the table and wrote to 'his Gemma.' He told her everything; hedescribed the Polozovs--husband and wife--but, more than all, enlargedon his own feelings, and ended by appointing a meeting with her inthree days!!! (with three marks of exclamation). Early in the morninghe took this letter to the post, and went for a walk in the gardenof the Kurhaus, where music was already being played. There were fewpeople in it as yet; he stood before the arbour in which the orchestrawas placed, listened to an adaptation of airs from 'Robert le Diable,'and after drinking some coffee, turned into a solitary side walk, satdown on a bench, and fell into a reverie. The handle of a parasolgave him a rapid, and rather vigorous, thump on the shoulder. Hestarted.... Before him in a light, grey-green barege dress, in a whitetulle hat, and _suede_ gloves, stood Maria Nikolaevna, fresh and rosyas a summer morning, though the languor of sound unbroken sleep hadnot yet quite vanished from her movements and her eyes.
'Good-morning,' she said. 'I sent after you to-day, but you'd alreadygone out. I've only just drunk my second glass--they're making medrink the water here, you know--whatever for, there's no telling ...am I not healthy enough? And now I have to walk for a whole hour. Willyou be my companion? And then we'll have some coffee.'
'I've had some already,' Sanin observed, getting up; 'but I shall bevery glad to have a walk with you.'
'Very well, give me your arm then; don't be afraid: your betrothed isnot here--she won't see you.'
Sanin gave a constrained smile. He experienced a disagreeablesensation every time Maria Nikolaevna referred to Gemma. However, hemade haste to bend towards her obediently.... Maria Nikolaevna's armslipped slowly and softly into his arm, and glided over it, and seemedto cling tight to it.
'Come--this way,' she said to him, putting up her open parasol overher shoulder. 'I'm quite at home in this park; I will take you to thebest places. And do you know what? (she very often made use of thisexpression), we won't talk just now about that sale, we'll have athorough discussion of that after lunch; but you must tell me nowabout yourself ... so that I may know whom I have to do with. Andafterwards, if you like, I will tell you about myself. Do you agree?'
'But, Maria Nikolaevna, what interest can there be for you ...'
'Stop, stop. You don't understand me. I don't want to flirt with you.'Maria Nikolaevna shrugged her shoulders. 'He's got a betrothed like anantique statue, is it likely I am going to flirt with him? But you'vesomething to sell, and I'm the purchaser. I want to know what yourgoods are like. Well, of course, you must show what they are like.I don't only want to know what I'm buying, but whom I'm buyingfrom. That was my father's rule. Come, begin ... come, if not fromchildhood--come now, have you been long abroad? And where have youbeen up till now? Only don't walk so fast, we're in no hurry.'
'I came here from Italy, where I spent several months.'
'Ah, you feel, it seems, a special attraction towards everythingItalian. It's strange you didn't find your lady-love there. Are youfond of art? of pictures? or more of music?'
'I am fond of art.... I like everything beautiful.'
'And music?'
'I like music too.'
'Well, I don't at all. I don't care for anything but Russiansongs--and that in the country and in the spring--with dancing, youknow ... red shirts, wreaths of beads, the young grass in the meadows,the smell of smoke ... delicious! But we weren't talking of me. Go on,tell me.'
Maria Nikolaevna walked on, and kept looking at Sanin. She wastall--her face was almost on a level with his face.
He began to talk--at first reluctantly, unskilfully--but afterwardshe talked more freely, chattered away in fact. Maria Nikolaevna wasa very good listener; and moreover she seemed herself so frank, thatshe led others unconsciously on to frankness. She possessed thatgreat gift of 'intimateness'--_le terrible don de la familiarite_--towhich Cardinal Retz refers. Sanin talked of his travels, of his lifein Petersburg, of his youth.... Had Maria Nikolaevna been a ladyof fashion, with refined manners, he would never have opened outso; but she herself spoke of herself as a 'good fellow,' who hadno patience with ceremony of any sort; it was in those words thatshe characterised herself to Sanin. And at t
he same time this 'goodfellow' walked by his side with feline grace, slightly bending towardshim, and peeping into his face; and this 'good fellow' walked in theform of a young feminine creature, full of the tormenting, fiery, softand seductive charm, of which--for the undoing of us poor weak sinfulmen--only Slav natures are possessed, and but few of them, and thosenever of pure Slav blood, with no foreign alloy. Sanin's walk withMaria Nikolaevna, Sanin's talk with Maria Nikolaevna lasted over anhour. And they did not stop once; they kept walking about the endlessavenues of the park, now mounting a hill and admiring the view asthey went, and now going down into the valley, and getting hidden inthe thick shadows,--and all the while arm-in-arm. At times Sanin feltpositively irritated; he had never walked so long with Gemma, hisdarling Gemma ... but this lady had simply taken possession of him,and there was no escape! 'Aren't you tired?' he said to her morethan once. 'I never get tired,' she answered. Now and then they metother people walking in the park; almost all of them bowed--somerespectfully, others even cringingly. To one of them, a very handsome,fashionably dressed dark man, she called from a distance with the bestParisian accent, '_Comte, vous savez, il ne faut pas venir me voir--niaujourd'hui ni demain_.' The man took off his hat, without speaking,and dropped a low bow.
'Who's that?' asked Sanin with the bad habit of asking questionscharacteristic of all Russians.
'Oh, a Frenchman, there are lots of them here ... He's dancingattendance on me too. It's time for our coffee, though. Let's go home;you must be hungry by this time, I should say. My better half musthave got his eye-peeps open by now.'
'Better half! Eye-peeps!' Sanin repeated to himself ... 'And speaksFrench so well ... what a strange creature!'
* * * * *
Maria Nikolaevna was not mistaken. When she went back into the hotelwith Sanin, her 'better half or 'dumpling' was already seated, theinvariable fez on his head, before a table laid for breakfast.
'I've been waiting for you!' he cried, making a sour face. 'I was onthe point of having coffee without you.'
'Never mind, never mind,' Maria Nikolaevna responded cheerfully. 'Areyou angry? That's good for you; without that you'd turn into a mummyaltogether. Here I've brought a visitor. Make haste and ring! Let ushave coffee--the best coffee--in Saxony cups on a snow-white cloth!'
She threw off her hat and gloves, and clapped her hands.
Polozov looked at her from under his brows.
'What makes you so skittish to-day, Maria Nikolaevna?' he said in anundertone.
'That's no business of yours, Ippolit Sidoritch! Ring! DimitriPavlovitch, sit down and have some coffee for the second time. Ah, hownice it is to give orders! There's no pleasure on earth like it!'
'When you're obeyed,' grumbled her husband again.
'Just so, when one's obeyed! That's why I'm so happy! Especially withyou. Isn't it so, dumpling? Ah, here's the coffee.'
On the immense tray, which the waiter brought in, there lay also aplaybill. Maria Nikolaevna snatched it up at once.
'A drama!' she pronounced with indignation, 'a German drama.No matter; it's better than a German comedy. Order a box forme--_baignoire_--or no ... better the _Fremden-Loge_,' she turned tothe waiter. 'Do you hear: the _Fremden-Loge_ it must be!'
'But if the _Fremden-Loge_ has been already taken by his excellency,the director of the town (_seine Excellenz der Herr Stadt-Director_),'the waiter ventured to demur.
'Give his excellency ten _thalers_, and let the box be mine! Do youhear!'
The waiter bent his head humbly and mournfully.
'Dimitri Pavlovitch, you will go with me to the theatre? the Germanactors are awful, but you will go ... Yes? Yes? How obliging you are!Dumpling, are you not coming?
'You settle it,' Polozov observed into the cup he had lifted to hislips.
'Do you know what, you stay at home. You always go to sleep at thetheatre, and you don't understand much German. I'll tell you whatyou'd better do, write an answer to the overseer--you remember, aboutour mill ... about the peasants' grinding. Tell him that I won't haveit, and I won't and that's all about it! There's occupation for youfor the whole evening.'
'All right,' answered Polozov.
'Well then, that's first-rate. You're a darling. And now, gentlemen,as we have just been speaking of my overseer, let's talk about ourgreat business. Come, directly the waiter has cleared the table,you shall tell me all, Dimitri Pavlovitch, about your estate, whatprice you will sell it for, how much you want paid down in advance,everything, in fact! (At last, thought Sanin, thank God!) You havetold me something about it already, you remember, you described yourgarden delightfully, but dumpling wasn't here.... Let him hear, hemay pick a hole somewhere! I'm delighted to think that I can help youto get married, besides, I promised you that I would go into yourbusiness after lunch, and I always keep my promises, isn't that thetruth, Ippolit Sidoritch?'
Polozov rubbed his face with his open hand. 'The truth's the truth.You don't deceive any one.'
'Never! and I never will deceive any one. Well, Dimitri Pavlovitch,expound the case as we express it in the senate.'
XXXVII
Sanin proceeded to expound his case, that is to say, again, a secondtime, to describe his property, not touching this time on the beautiesof nature, and now and then appealing to Polozov for confirmation ofhis 'facts and figures.' But Polozov simply gasped and shook his head,whether in approval or disapproval, it would have puzzled the devil,one might fancy, to decide. However, Maria Nikolaevna stood in no needof his aid. She exhibited commercial and administrative abilities thatwere really astonishing! She was familiar with all the ins-and-outs offarming; she asked questions about everything with great exactitude,went into every point; every word of hers went straight to the rootof the matter, and hit the nail on the head. Sanin had not expectedsuch a close inquiry, he had not prepared himself for it. And thisinquiry lasted for fully an hour and a half. Sanin experienced allthe sensations of the criminal on his trial, sitting on a narrowbench confronted by a stern and penetrating judge. 'Why, it'sa cross-examination!' he murmured to himself dejectedly. MariaNikolaevna kept laughing all the while, as though it were a joke; butSanin felt none the more at ease for that; and when in the course ofthe 'cross-examination' it turned out that he had not clearly realisedthe exact meaning of the words 'repartition' and 'tilth,' he was in acold perspiration all over.
'Well, that's all right!' Maria Nikolaevna decided at last. 'I knowyour estate now ... as well as you do. What price do you suggest persoul?' (At that time, as every one knows, the prices of estates werereckoned by the souls living as serfs on them.)
'Well ... I imagine ... I could not take less than five hundredroubles for each,' Sanin articulated with difficulty. O Pantaleone,Pantaleone, where were you! This was when you ought to have criedagain, 'Barbari!'
Maria Nikolaevna turned her eyes upwards as though she werecalculating.
'Well?' she said at last. 'I think there's no harm in that price.But I reserved for myself two days' grace, and you must wait tillto-morrow. I imagine we shall come to an arrangement, and then youwill tell me how much you want paid down. And now, _basta cosi_!'she cried, noticing Sanin was about to make some reply. 'We've spentenough time over filthy lucre ... _a demain les affaires_. Do youknow what, I'll let you go now ... (she glanced at a little enamelledwatch, stuck in her belt) ... till three o'clock ... I must let yourest. Go and play roulette.'
'I never play games of chance,' observed Sanin.
'Really? Why, you're a paragon. Though I don't either. It's stupidthrowing away one's money when one's no chance. But go into thegambling saloon, and look at the faces. Very comic ones there arethere. There's one old woman with a rustic headband and a moustache,simply delicious! Our prince there's another, a good one too. Amajestic figure with a nose like an eagle's, and when he puts down a_thaler_, he crosses himself under his waistcoat. Read the papers,go a walk, do what you like, in fact. But at three o'clock I expectyou ... _de pied ferme_. We shall have to dine a li
ttle earlier. Thetheatre among these absurd Germans begins at half-past six. She heldout her hand. '_Sans rancune, n'est-ce pas?_'
'Really, Maria Nikolaevna, what reason have I to be annoyed?'
'Why, because I've been tormenting you. Wait a little, you'll see.There's worse to come,' she added, fluttering her eyelids, and all herdimples suddenly came out on her flushing cheeks. 'Till we meet!'
Sanin bowed and went out. A merry laugh rang out after him, and inthe looking-glass which he was passing at that instant, the followingscene was reflected: Maria Nikolaevna had pulled her husband's fezover his eyes, and he was helplessly struggling with both hands.
XXXVIII
Oh, what a deep sigh of delight Sanin heaved, when he found himselfin his room! Indeed, Maria Nikolaevna had spoken the truth, heneeded rest, rest from all these new acquaintances, collisions,conversations, from this suffocating atmosphere which was affectinghis head and his heart, from this enigmatical, uninvited intimacy witha woman, so alien to him! And when was all this taking place? Almostthe day after he had learnt that Gemma loved him, after he had becomebetrothed to her. Why, it was sacrilege! A thousand times he mentallyasked forgiveness of his pure chaste dove, though he could not reallyblame himself for anything; a thousand times over he kissed the crossshe had given him. Had he not the hope of bringing the business, forwhich he had come to Wiesbaden, to a speedy and successful conclusion,he would have rushed off headlong, back again, to sweet Frankfort, tothat dear house, now his own home, to her, to throw himself at herloved feet.... But there was no help for it! The cup must be drunkto the dregs, he must dress, go to dinner, and from there to thetheatre.... If only she would let him go to-morrow!