Works of Ivan Turgenev (Illustrated) (242 page)

‘The Flea?’ he said at last, gathering up the reins; ‘he’s a queer fellow; yes, a crazy chap; such a queer fellow, you wouldn’t find another like him in a hurry. You know, for example, he’s for all the world like our roan horse here; he gets out of everything — out of work, that’s to say. But, then, what sort of workman could he be?… He’s hardly body enough to keep his soul in … but still, of course…. He’s been like that from a child up, you know. At first he followed his uncle’s business as a carrier — there were three of them in the business; but then he got tired of it, you know — he threw it up. He began to live at home, but he could not keep at home long; he’s so restless — a regular flea, in fact. He happened, by good luck, to have a good master — he didn’t worry him. Well, so ever since he has been wandering about like a lost sheep. And then, he’s so strange; there’s no understanding him. Sometimes he’ll be as silent as a post, and then he’ll begin talking, and God knows what he’ll say! Is that good manners, pray? He’s an absurd fellow, that he is. But he sings well, for all that.’

‘And does he cure people, really?’

‘Cure people!… Well, how should he? A fine sort of doctor! Though he did cure me of the king’s evil, I must own…. But how can he? He’s a stupid fellow, that’s what he is,’ he added, after a moment’s pause.

‘Have you known him long?’

‘A long while. I was his neighbour at Sitchovka up at Fair Springs.’

‘And what of that girl — who met us in the wood, Annushka — what relation is she to him?’

Erofay looked at me over his shoulder, and grinned all over his face.

‘He, he!… yes, they are relations. She is an orphan; she has no mother, and it’s not even known who her mother was. But she must be a relation; she’s too much like him…. Anyway, she lives with him. She’s a smart girl, there’s no denying; a good girl; and as for the old man, she’s simply the apple of his eye; she’s a good girl. And, do you know, you wouldn’t believe it, but do you know, he’s managed to teach Annushka to read? Well, well! that’s quite like him; he’s such an extraordinary fellow, such a changeable fellow; there’s no reckoning on him, really…. Eh! eh! eh!’ My coachman suddenly interrupted himself, and stopping the horses, he bent over on one side and began sniffing. ‘Isn’t there a smell of burning? Yes! Why, that new axle, I do declare!… I thought I’d greased it…. We must get on to some water; why, here is a puddle, just right.’

And Erofay slowly got off his seat, untied the pail, went to the pool, and coming back, listened with a certain satisfaction to the hissing of the box of the wheel as the water suddenly touched it…. Six times during some eight miles he had to pour water on the smouldering axle, and it was quite evening when we got home at last.

X

THE AGENT

Twelve miles from my place lives an acquaintance of mine, a landowner and a retired officer in the Guards — Arkady Pavlitch Pyenotchkin. He has a great deal of game on his estate, a house built after the design of a French architect, and servants dressed after the English fashion; he gives capital dinners, and a cordial reception to visitors, and, with all that, one goes to see him reluctantly. He is a sensible and practical man, has received the excellent education now usual, has been in the service, mixed in the highest society, and is now devoting himself to his estate with great success. Arkady Pavlitch is, to judge by his own words, severe but just; he looks after the good of the peasants under his control and punishes them — for their good. ‘One has to treat them like children,’ he says on such occasions; ‘their ignorance,
mon cher; il faut prendre cela en considération
.’ When this so - called painful necessity arises, he eschews all sharp or violent gestures, and prefers not to raise his voice, but with a straight blow in the culprit’s face, says calmly, ‘I believe I asked you to do something, my friend?’ or ‘What is the matter, my boy? what are you thinking about?’ while he sets his teeth a little, and the corners of his mouth are drawn. He is not tall, but has an elegant figure, and is very good - looking; his hands and nails are kept perfectly exquisite; his rosy cheeks and lips are simply the picture of health. He has a ringing, light - hearted laugh, and there is sometimes a very genial twinkle in his clear brown eyes. He dresses in excellent taste; he orders French books, prints, and papers, though he’s no great lover of reading himself: he has hardly as much as waded through the
Wandering Jew
. He plays cards in masterly style. Altogether, Arkady Pavlitch is reckoned one of the most cultivated gentlemen and most eligible matches in our province; the ladies are perfectly wild over him, and especially admire his manners. He is wonderfully well conducted, wary as a cat, and has never from his cradle been mixed up in any scandal, though he is fond of making his power felt, intimidating or snubbing a nervous man, when he gets a chance. He has a positive distaste for doubtful society — he is afraid of compromising himself; in his lighter moments, however, he will avow himself a follower of Epicurus, though as a rule he speaks slightingly of philosophy, calling it the foggy food fit for German brains, or at times, simply, rot. He is fond of music too; at the card - table he is given to humming through his teeth, but with feeling; he knows by heart some snatches from
Lucia
and
Somnambula
, but he is always apt to sing everything a little sharp. The winters he spends in Petersburg. His house is kept in extraordinarily good order; the very grooms feel his influence, and every day not only rub the harness and brush their coats, but even wash their faces. Arkady Pavlitch’s house - serfs have, it is true, something of a hang - dog look; but among us Russians there’s no knowing what is sullenness and what is sleepiness. Arkady Pavlitch speaks in a soft, agreeable voice, with emphasis and, as it were, with satisfaction; he brings out each word through his handsome perfumed moustaches; he uses a good many French expressions too, such as:
Mais c’est impayable! Mais comment donc
? and so so. For all that, I, for one, am never over - eager to visit him, and if it were not for the grouse and the partridges, I should probably have dropped his acquaintance altogether. One is possessed by a strange sort of uneasiness in his house; the very comfort is distasteful to one, and every evening when a befrizzed valet makes his appearance in a blue livery with heraldic buttons, and begins, with cringing servility, drawing off one’s boots, one feels that if his pale, lean figure could suddenly be replaced by the amazingly broad cheeks and incredibly thick nose of a stalwart young labourer fresh from the plough, who has yet had time in his ten months of service to tear his new nankin coat open at every seam, one would be unutterably overjoyed, and would gladly run the risk of having one’s whole leg pulled off with the boot….

In spite of my aversion for Arkady Pavlitch, I once happened to pass a night in his house. The next day I ordered my carriage to be ready early in the morning, but he would not let me start without a regular breakfast in the English style, and conducted me into his study. With our tea they served us cutlets, boiled eggs, butter, honey, cheese, and so on. Two footmen in clean white gloves swiftly and silently anticipated our faintest desires. We sat on a Persian divan. Arkady Pavlitch was arrayed in loose silk trousers, a black velvet smoking jacket, a red fez with a blue tassel, and yellow Chinese slippers without heels. He drank his tea, laughed, scrutinised his finger - nails, propped himself up with cushions, and was altogether in an excellent humour. After making a hearty breakfast with obvious satisfaction, Arkady Pavlitch poured himself out a glass of red wine, lifted it to his lips, and suddenly frowned.

‘Why was not the wine warmed?’ he asked rather sharply of one of the footmen.

The footman stood stock - still in confusion, and turned white.

‘Didn’t I ask you a question, my friend?’ Arkady Pavlitch resumed tranquilly, never taking his eyes off the man.

The luckless footman fidgeted in his place, twisted the napkin, and uttered not a word.

Arkady Pavlitch dropped his head and looked up at him thoughtfully from under his eyelids.

‘
Pardon, mon cher
’, he observed, patting my knee amicably, and again he stared at the footman. ‘You can go,’ he added, after a short silence, raising his eyebrows, and he rang the bell.

A stout, swarthy, black - haired man, with a low forehead, and eyes positively lost in fat, came into the room.

‘About Fyodor … make the necessary arrangements,’ said Arkady

Pavlitch in an undertone, and with complete composure.

‘Yes, sir,’ answered the fat man, and he went out.

‘
Voilà, mon cher, les désagréments de la campagne
,’ Arkady Pavlitch remarked gaily. ‘But where are you off to? Stop, you must stay a little.’

‘No,’ I answered; ‘it’s time I was off.’

‘Nothing but sport! Oh, you sportsmen! And where are you going to shoot just now?’

‘Thirty - five miles from here, at Ryabovo.’

‘Ryabovo? By Jove! now in that case I will come with you. Ryabovo’s only four miles from my village Shipilovka, and it’s a long while since I’ve been over to Shipilovka; I’ve never been able to get the time. Well, this is a piece of luck; you can spend the day shooting in Ryabovo and come on in the evening to me. We’ll have supper together — we’ll take the cook with us, and you’ll stay the night with me. Capital! capital!’ he added without waiting for my answer.

‘
C’est arrangé
…. Hey, you there! Have the carriage brought out, and look sharp. You have never been in Shipilovka? I should be ashamed to suggest your putting up for the night in my agent’s cottage, but you’re not particular, I know, and at Ryabovo you’d have slept in some hayloft…. We will go, we will go!’

And Arkady Pavlitch hummed some French song.

‘You don’t know, I dare say,’ he pursued, swaying from side to side; ‘I’ve some peasants there who pay rent. It’s the custom of the place — what was I to do? They pay their rent very punctually, though. I should, I’ll own, have put them back to payment in labour, but there’s so little land. I really wonder how they manage to make both ends meet. However,
c’est leur affaire
. My agent there’s a fine fellow,
une forte tête
, a man of real administrative power! You shall see…. Really, how luckily things have turned out!’

There was no help for it. Instead of nine o’clock in the morning, we started at two in the afternoon. Sportsmen will sympathise with my impatience. Arkady Pavlitch liked, as he expressed it, to be comfortable when he had the chance, and he took with him such a supply of linen, dainties, wearing apparel, perfumes, pillows, and dressing - cases of all sorts, that a careful and self - denying German would have found enough to last him for a year. Every time we went down a steep hill, Arkady Pavlitch addressed some brief but powerful remarks to the coachman, from which I was able to deduce that my worthy friend was a thorough coward. The journey was, however, performed in safety, except that, in crossing a lately - repaired bridge, the trap with the cook in it broke down, and he got squeezed in the stomach against the hind - wheel.

Arkady Pavlitch was alarmed in earnest at the sight of the fall of Karem, his home - made professor of the culinary art, and he sent at once to inquire whether his hands were injured. On receiving a reassuring reply to this query, his mind was set at rest immediately. With all this, we were rather a long time on the road; I was in the same carriage as Arkady Pavlitch, and towards the end of the journey I was a prey to deadly boredom, especially as in a few hours my companion ran perfectly dry of subjects of conversation, and even fell to expressing his liberal views on politics. At last we did arrive — not at Ryabovo, but at Shipilovka; it happened so somehow. I could have got no shooting now that day in any case, and so, raging inwardly, I submitted to my fate.

The cook had arrived a few minutes before us, and apparently had had time to arrange things and prepare those whom it concerned, for on our very entrance within the village boundaries we were met by the village bailiff (the agent’s son), a stalwart, red - haired peasant of seven feet; he was on horseback, bareheaded, and wearing a new overcoat, not buttoned up. ‘And where’s Sofron?’ Arkady Pavlitch asked him. The bailiff first jumped nimbly off his horse, bowed to his master till he was bent double, and said: ‘Good health to you, Arkady Pavlitch, sir!’ then raised his head, shook himself, and announced that Sofron had gone to Perov, but they had sent after him.

‘Well, come along after us,’ said Arkady Pavlitch. The bailiff deferentially led his horse to one side, clambered on to it, and followed the carriage at a trot, his cap in his hand. We drove through the village. A few peasants in empty carts happened to meet us; they were driving from the threshing - floor and singing songs, swaying backwards and forwards, and swinging their legs in the air; but at the sight of our carriage and the bailiff they were suddenly silent, took off their winter caps (it was summer - time) and got up as though waiting for orders. Arkady Pavlitch nodded to them graciously. A flutter of excitement had obviously spread through the hamlet. Peasant women in check petticoats flung splinters of wood at indiscreet or over - zealous dogs; an old lame man with a beard that began just under his eyes pulled a horse away from the well before it had drunk, gave it, for some obscure reason, a blow on the side, and fell to bowing low. Boys in long smocks ran with a howl to the huts, flung themselves on their bellies on the high door - sills, with their heads down and legs in the air, rolled over with the utmost haste into the dark outer rooms, from which they did not reappear again. Even the hens sped in a hurried scuttle to the turning; one bold cock with a black throat like a satin waistcoat and a red tail, rumpled up to his very comb, stood his ground in the road, and even prepared for a crow, then suddenly took fright and scuttled off too. The agent’s cottage stood apart from the rest in the middle of a thick green patch of hemp. We stopped at the gates. Mr. Pyenotchkin got up, flung off his cloak with a picturesque motion, and got out of the carriage, looking affably about him. The agent’s wife met us with low curtseys, and came up to kiss the master’s hand. Arkady Pavlitch let her kiss it to her heart’s content, and mounted the steps. In the outer room, in a dark corner, stood the bailiff’s wife, and she too curtsied, but did not venture to approach his hand. In the cold hut, as it is called — to the right of the outer room — two other women were still busily at work; they were carrying out all the rubbish, empty tubs, sheepskins stiff as boards, greasy pots, a cradle with a heap of dish - clouts and a baby covered with spots, and sweeping out the dirt with bathbrooms. Arkady Pavlitch sent them away, and installed himself on a bench under the holy pictures. The coachmen began bringing in the trunks, bags, and other conveniences, trying each time to subdue the noise of their heavy boots.

Meantime Arkady Pavlitch began questioning the bailiff about the crops, the sowing, and other agricultural subjects. The bailiff gave satisfactory answers, but spoke with a sort of heavy awkwardness, as though he were buttoning up his coat with benumbed fingers. He stood at the door and kept looking round on the watch to make way for the nimble footman. Behind his powerful shoulders I managed to get a glimpse of the agent’s wife in the outer room surreptitiously belabouring some other peasant woman. Suddenly a cart rumbled up and stopped at the steps; the agent came in.

This man, as Arkady Pavlitch said, of real administrative power, was short, broad - shouldered, grey, and thick - set, with a red nose, little blue eyes, and a beard of the shape of a fan. We may observe, by the way, that ever since Russia has existed, there has never yet been an instance of a man who has grown rich and prosperous without a big, bushy beard; sometimes a man may have had a thin, wedge - shape beard all his life; but then he begins to get one all at once, it is all round his face like a halo — one wonders where the hair has come from! The agent must have been making merry at Perov: his face was unmistakably flushed, and there was a smell of spirits about him.