Complete Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (573 page)

“Tell me, prince,” I blurted out suddenly, “don’t you secretly think it absurd that a youngster like me should think of challenging you, especially for an affront to some one else?”

“An affront to a father may well be resented.  No, I don’t think it’s absurd.”

“It seems to me that it’s dreadfully absurd . . . from one point of view, not of course from my own.  Especially as my name is Dolgoruky and not Versilov.  And if you’re telling me a falsehood, or are trying to smooth things over simply from worldly politeness, it stands to reason that you are deceiving me in everything else.”

“No, I don’t think it’s absurd,” he repeated with great seriousness. “How could you help feeling like a son to your father?  It’s true, you’re young . . . because . . . I don’t know . . . I believe that a youth not of age can’t fight a duel . . . and a challenge can’t be accepted from him . . . by the rules. . . .  But there is, if you like, one serious objection to be made: if you send a challenge without the knowledge of the offended party on whose behalf you are acting, you seem to be guilty of a certain lack of respect to him, don’t you? . . .”

Our conversation was interrupted by a footman who came in to make some announcement.  Prince Sergay, who seemed to have been expecting him, went at once to meet him without finishing what he was saying.  So the announcement was made in an undertone and I did not hear it.

“Excuse me,” said Prince Sergay, turning to me, “I’ll be back in a moment.”

And he went out.  I was left alone; I walked up and down the room, thinking.  Strange to say, he attracted me and at the same time repelled me intensely.  There was something in him for which I could not find a name, though it was very repellent.  “If he isn’t laughing at me he certainly must be very guileless, but if he has been laughing at me then . . . perhaps I should think him cleverer. . . .” I thought rather oddly.  I went up to the table, and read the letter to Versilov once more.  In my abstraction I didn’t notice the time, but when I roused myself I found that the prince’s minute had lasted at least a quarter of an hour.  This disturbed me a little; I walked up and down once more, at last I took my hat and decided, I remember, to go out to try and find some one to send to Prince Sergay, and when he came, to say good-bye to him at once, declaring that I had work to do and could stay no longer.  I fancied that that would be the most suitable thing to do, for I was rather tormented by the idea that he was treating me very casually in leaving me so long.

There were two doors in the room, both shut, and on the same side, one at each end of it.  Forgetting which door I had come in by, or rather lost in thought, I opened one of them, and suddenly, in a long narrow room, I saw, sitting on the sofa, my sister Liza.  There was no one else in the room and she was certainly waiting for some one.  But before I had time even to feel surprised, I heard the voice of Prince Sergay speaking loudly to some one, and returning to the study.  I hurriedly closed the door and Prince Sergay, coming in at the other, noticed nothing.  I remember he began to apologize and said something about “Anna Fyodorovna.”  But I was so amazed and confused that I hardly took in what he said, and could only mutter that I simply must go home, and stubbornly persisting in this, I beat a hasty retreat.  The well-bred prince must have looked with curiosity at my manners.  He came with me right into the hall, still talking, and I neither answered nor looked at him.

4

I turned to the left when I got into the street and walked away at random.  There was nothing coherent in my mind.  I walked along slowly and I believe I had walked a good way, some five hundred paces, when I felt a light tap on my shoulder.  I turned and saw Liza; she had overtaken me and tapped me on the shoulder with her umbrella.  There was a wonderful gaiety and a touch of roguishness in her beaming eyes.

“How glad I am you came this way, or I shouldn’t have met you to- day!”  She was a little out of breath from walking fast.

“How breathless you are.”

“I’ve been running so as to catch you up.”

“Liza, was it you I saw just now?”

“Where?”

“At the prince’s. . . .  At Prince Sokolsky’s.”

“No, it wasn’t me.  You didn’t see me. . . .”

I made no answer and we walked on for ten paces.  Liza burst into a fit of laughter.

“It was me, of course it was!  Why, you saw me yourself, you looked into my eyes, and I looked into yours, so how can you ask whether you saw me?  What a character!  And do you know I dreadfully wanted to laugh when you looked at me then.  You looked so awfully funny.”

She laughed violently.  I felt all the anguish in my heart fade away at once.

“But tell me how did you come to be there?”

“To see Anna Fyodorovna.”

“What Anna Fyodorovna?”

“Mme. Stolbyeev.  When we were staying in Luga I used to spend whole days with her.  She used to receive mother, too, and used even to come and see us, though she visited scarcely anyone else there.  She is a distant relation of Andrey Petrovitch’s, and a relation of Prince Sokolsky’s too: she’s a sort of old aunt of his.”

“Then she lives at Prince Sokolsky’s?”

“No, he lives with her.”

“Then whose flat is it?”

“It’s her flat.  The whole flat has been hers for the last year.  Prince Sokolsky has only just arrived and is staying with her.  Yes, and she’s only been in Petersburg four days herself.”

“I say, Liza, bother her flat and her too!”

“No, she’s splendid.”

“Well, let her be, that’s her affair.  We’re splendid too!  See what a day it is, see how jolly!  How pretty you are to-day, Liza.  But you’re an awful baby though.”

“Arkady, tell me, that girl, the one who came yesterday. . . .”

“Oh, the pity of it, Liza!  The pity of it!”

“Ach, what a pity!  What a fate!  Do you know it’s a sin for us to be walking here so happily while her soul is hovering somewhere in darkness, in some unfathomable darkness, after her sin and the wrong done her. . . .  Arkady, who was responsible for her suicide?  Oh, how terrible it is!  Do you ever think of that outer darkness?  Ach, how I fear death, and how sinful it is.  I don’t like the dark, what a glorious thing the sun is!  Mother says it’s a sin to be afraid. . . .  Arkady, do you know mother well?

“Very little, Liza.  Very little so far.”

“Ah, what a wonderful person she is; and you ought to get to know her!  She needs understanding. . . .”

“Yes, but you see, I didn’t know you either; but I know you now, thoroughly.  I’ve found you out altogether in one minute.  Though you are afraid of death, Liza, you must be proud, bold, plucky.  Better than I am, ever so much better!  I like you awfully, Liza.  Ach, Liza! let death come when it must, but meantime let us live — let us live!  Oh, let us pity that poor girl, but let us bless life all the same!  Don’t you think so?  I have an ‘idea,’ Liza.  Liza, you know, of course, that Versilov has refused to take the fortune?  You don’t know my soul, Liza, you don’t know what that man has meant to me. . . .”

“Not know indeed!  I know all that.”

“You know all about it?  But, of course, you would!  You’re clever, cleverer than Vassin.  Mother and you have eyes that are penetrating and humane, I mean a point of view that is.  I’m talking nonsense. . . .  Liza, I’m not good for much, in lots of ways.”

“You want taking in hand, that’s all.”

“Take me in hand, Liza.  How nice it is to look at you to-day.  Do you know that you are very pretty?  I have never seen your eyes before. . . .  I’ve only seen them for the first time to-day . . . where did you get them to-day, Liza?  Where have you bought them?  What price have you paid for them?  Liza, I’ve never had a friend, and I’ve thought the idea of friendship nonsense; but it’s not nonsense with you. . . .  Shall we be friends!  You understand what I mean?”

“I quite understand.”

“And you know — we’ll simply be friends, no conditions, no contract.”

“Yes, simply, simply, with only one condition: that if we ever blame one another, if we’re displeased about anything, if we become nasty and horrid, even if we forget all this, — we will never forget this day, and this hour!  Let’s vow that to ourselves.  Let us vow that we will always remember this day and how we walked arm in arm together, and how we laughed and were gay. . . .  Yes?  Shall we?”

“Yes, Liza, yes, I swear.  But, Liza, I feel as though I’m hearing you talk for the first time. . . .  Liza, have you read much?”

“He has never asked till now!  Only yesterday for the first time, when I said something, you deigned to notice me, honoured sir, Mr. Wiseacre.”

“But why didn’t you begin to talk to me if I’ve been such a fool?”

“I kept expecting you’d grow wiser.  I’ve been watching you from the very first, Arkady Makarovitch, and as I watched you I said to myself ‘he’ll come to me, it’s bound to end in his coming’ — and I made up my mind I’d better leave you the honour of taking the first step.  ‘No,’ I said to myself, ‘you can run after me.’”

“Ah, you coquette!  Come, Liza, tell me honestly, have you been laughing at me for the last month?”

“Oh, you are funny, you’re awfully funny, Arkady!  And do you know, what I’ve been loving you for most all this month is your being so queer.  But in some ways you’re a horrid boy too — I say that for fear you should grow conceited.  And do you know who else has been laughing at you?  Mother’s been laughing at you, mother and I together.  ‘Oh my,’ we whispered, ‘what a queer boy!  My goodness, what a queer boy!’  And you sat all the while imagining that we were trembling before you.”

“Liza, what do you think about Versilov?”

“I think a great deal about him; but we won’t talk about him just now, you know.  There’s no need to talk of him to-day, is there?”

“Quite so!  Yes, you’re awfully clever, Liza!  You are certainly cleverer than I am.  You wait a bit, Liza, I’ll make an end of all this, and then I shall have something to tell you. . . .”

“What are you frowning at?”

“I’m not frowning, Liza, it’s nothing. . . .  You see, Liza, it’s best to be open: it’s a peculiarity of mine that I don’t like some tender spots on my soul being touched upon . . . or rather, it’s shameful to be often displaying certain feelings for the admiration of all, isn’t it?  So that I sometimes prefer to frown and hold my tongue.  You’re clever, you must understand.”

“Yes, and what’s more, I’m the same myself; I understand you in everything.  Do you know that mother’s the same too?”

“Ah, Liza!  Oh, to live a long while on this earth!  Ah?  What did you say?”

“I said nothing.”

“You’re looking?”

“Yes, and so are you.  I look at you and love you.”

I went with her almost all the way home and gave her my address.  As we parted, for the first time in my life I kissed her. . . .

5

And all this would have been very nice but there was one thing that was not nice: one painful thought had been throbbing in my mind all night and I could not shake it off.  This was, that when I had met that unhappy girl at the gate I told her I was leaving the house myself, leaving home, that one left bad people and made a home for oneself, and that Versilov had a lot of illegitimate children.  Such words from a son about his father must, of course, have confirmed all her suspicions of Versilov’s character and of his having insulted her.  I had blamed Stebelkov, but perhaps I had been the chief one to pour oil on the flames.  That thought was awful, it is awful even now. . . .  But then, that morning, though I’d begun to be uneasy, I told myself it was all nonsense.  “Oh, ‘things had gone too far already’ apart from me,” I repeated from time to time, “it’s nothing; it will pass! I shall get over it.  I shall make up for this somehow, I’ve fifty years before me!”

But yet the idea haunted me.

PART II

CHAPTER I

1

I pass over an interval of almost two months.  The reader need not be uneasy, everything will be clear from the latter part of my story.  I start again from the 15th of November, a day I remember only too well for many reasons.  To begin with, no one who had known me two months before would have recognized me, externally anyway, that is to say, anyone would have known me but would not have been able to make me out.  To begin with I was dressed like a dandy.  The conscientious and tasteful Frenchman, whom Versilov had once tried to recommend me, had not only made me a whole suit, but had already been rejected as not good enough.  I already had suits made by other, superior, tailors, of a better class, and I even ran up bills with them.  I had an account, too, at a celebrated restaurant, but I was still a little nervous there and paid on the spot whenever I had money, though I knew it was mauvais ton, and that I was compromising myself by doing so.  A French barber on the Nevsky Prospect was on familiar terms with me, and told me anecdotes as he dressed my hair.  And I must confess I practised my French on him.  Though I know French, and fairly well indeed, yet I’m afraid of beginning to speak it in grand society; and I dare say my accent is far from Parisian.  I have a smart coachman, Matvey, with a smart turn-out, and he is always at my service when I send for him; he has a pale sorrel horse, a fast trotter (I don’t like greys).  Everything is not perfect, however: it’s the 15th of November and has been wintry weather for the last three days, and my fur coat is an old one, lined with raccoon, that once was Versilov’s.  It wouldn’t fetch more than twenty-five roubles.  I must get a new one, and my pocket is empty, and I must, besides, have money in reserve for this evening whatever happens — without that I shall be ruined and miserable: that was how I put it to myself at the time.  Oh, degradation!  Where had these thousands come from, these fast trotters, these expensive restaurants?  How could I all at once change like this and forget everything?  Shame!  Reader, I am beginning now the story of my shame and disgrace, and nothing in life can be more shameful to me than these recollections.

I speak as a judge and I know that I was guilty.  Even in the whirl in which I was caught up, and though I was alone without a guide or counsellor, I was, I swear, conscious of my downfall, and so there’s no excuse for me.  And yet, for those two months I was almost happy — why almost?  I was quite happy!  And so happy — would it be believed — that the consciousness of my degradation, of which I had glimpses at moments (frequent moments!) and which made me shudder in my inmost soul, only intoxicated me the more.  “What do I care if I’m fallen!  And I won’t fall, I’ll get out of it!  I have a lucky star!”  I was crossing a precipice on a thin plank without a rail, and I was pleased at my position, and even peeped into the abyss.  It was risky and it was delightful.  And “my idea?”  My “idea” later, the idea would wait.  Everything that happened was simply “a temporary deviation.”  “Why not enjoy oneself?”  That’s what was amiss with my idea, I repeat, it admitted of all sorts of deviations; if it had not been so firm and fundamental I might have been afraid of deviating.