Works of Ivan Turgenev (Illustrated) (249 page)

We went out on the balcony, sat down, and began to talk. Mardary Apollonitch glanced below, and suddenly fell into a state of tremendous excitement.

‘Whose hens are those? whose hens are those?’ he shouted: ‘Whose are those hens roaming about in the garden?… Whose are those hens? How many times I’ve forbidden it! How many times I’ve spoken about it!’

Yushka ran out.

‘What disorder!’ protested Mardary Apollonitch; ‘it’s horrible!’

The unlucky hens, two speckled and one white with a topknot, as I still remember, went on stalking tranquilly about under the apple - trees, occasionally giving vent to their feelings in a prolonged clucking, when suddenly Yushka, bareheaded and stick in hand, with three other house - serfs of mature years, flew at them simultaneously. Then the fun began. The hens clucked, flapped their wings, hopped, raised a deafening cackle; the house - serfs ran, tripping up and tumbling over; their master shouted from the balcony like one possessed: ‘Catch ‘em, catch ‘em, catch ‘em, catch ‘em, catch ‘em, catch ‘em, catch ‘em!’

At last one servant succeeded in catching the hen with the topknot, tumbling upon her, and at the very same moment a little girl of eleven, with dishevelled hair, and a dry branch in her hand, jumped over the garden - fence from the village street.

‘Ah, we see now whose hens!’ cried the landowner in triumph. ‘They’re Yermil, the coachman’s, hens! he’s sent his Natalka to chase them out…. He didn’t send his Parasha, no fear!’ the landowner added in a low voice with a significant snigger. ‘Hey, Yushka! let the hens alone; catch Natalka for me.’

But before the panting Yushka had time to reach the terrified little girl the house - keeper suddenly appeared, snatched her by the arm, and slapped her several times on the back….

‘That’s it! that’s it!’ cried the master, ‘tut - tut - tut!… And carry off the hens, Avdotya,’ he added in a loud voice, and he turned with a beaming face to me; ‘that was a fine chase, my dear sir, hey? — I’m in a regular perspiration: look.’

And Mardary Apollonitch went off into a series of chuckles.

We remained on the balcony. The evening was really exceptionally fine.

Tea was served us.

‘Tell me,’ I began, ‘Mardary Apollonitch: are those your peasants’ huts, out there on the highroad, above the ravine?’

‘Yes … why do you ask?’

‘I wonder at you, Mardary Apollonitch? It’s really sinful. The huts allotted to the peasants there are wretched cramped little hovels; there isn’t a tree to be seen near them; there’s not a pond even; there’s only one well, and that’s no good. Could you really find no other place to settle them?… And they say you’re taking away the old hemp - grounds, too?’

‘And what is one to do with this new division of the lands?’ Mardary Apollonitch made answer. ‘Do you know I’ve this re - division quite on my mind, and I foresee no sort of good from it. And as for my having taken away the hemp - ground, and their not having dug any ponds, or what not — as to that, my dear sir, I know my own business. I’m a plain man — I go on the old system. To my ideas, when a man’s master — he’s master; and when he’s peasant — he’s peasant. … That’s what I think about it.’

To an argument so clear and convincing there was of course no answer.

‘And besides,’ he went on, ‘those peasants are a wretched lot; they’re in disgrace. Particularly two families there; why, my late father — God rest his soul — couldn’t bear them; positively couldn’t bear them. And you know my precept is: where the father’s a thief, the son’s a thief; say what you like…. Blood, blood — oh, that’s the great thing!’

Meanwhile there was a perfect stillness in the air. Only rarely there came a gust of wind, which, as it sank for the last time near the house, brought to our ears the sound of rhythmically repeated blows, seeming to come from the stable. Mardary Apollonitch was in the act of lifting a saucer full of tea to his lips, and was just inflating his nostrils to sniff its fragrance — no true - born Russian, as we all know, can drink his tea without this preliminary — but he stopped short, listened, nodded his head, sipped his tea, and laying the saucer on the table, with the most good - natured smile imaginable, he murmured as though involuntarily accompanying the blows: ‘Tchuki - tchuki - tchuk! Tchuki - tchuk!’

‘What is it?’ I asked puzzled. ‘Oh, by my order, they’re punishing a scamp of a fellow…. Do you happen to remember Vasya, who waits at the sideboard?’

‘Which Vasya?’

‘Why, that waited on us at dinner just now. He with the long whiskers.’

The fiercest indignation could not have stood against the clear mild gaze of Mardary Apollonitch.

‘What are you after, young man? what is it?’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Am I a criminal or something, that you stare at me like that? “Whom he loveth he chasteneth”; you know that.’

A quarter of an hour later I had taken leave of Mardary Apollonitch. As I was driving through the village I caught sight of Vasya. He was walking down the village street, cracking nuts. I told the coachman to stop the horses and called him up.

‘Well, my boy, so they’ve been punishing you to - day?’ I said to him.

‘How did you know?’ answered Vasya.

‘Your master told me.’

‘The master himself?’

‘What did he order you to be punished for?’

‘Oh, I deserved it, father; I deserved it. They don’t punish for trifles among us; that’s not the way with us — no, no. Our master’s not like that; our master … you won’t find another master like him in all the province.’

‘Drive on!’ I said to the coachman.’ There you have it, old Russia!’ I mused on my homeward way.

XIV

LEBEDYAN

One of the principal advantages of hunting, my dear readers, consists in its forcing you to be constantly moving from place to place, which is highly agreeable for a man of no occupation. It is true that sometimes, especially in wet weather, it’s not over pleasant to roam over by - roads, to cut ‘across country,’ to stop every peasant you meet with the question, ‘Hey! my good man! how are we to get to Mordovka?’ and at Mordovka to try to extract from a half - witted peasant woman (the working population are all in the fields) whether it is far to an inn on the high - road, and how to get to it — and then when you have gone on eight miles farther, instead of an inn, to come upon the deserted village of Hudobubnova, to the great amazement of a whole herd of pigs, who have been wallowing up to their ears in the black mud in the middle of the village street, without the slightest anticipation of ever being disturbed. There is no great joy either in having to cross planks that dance under your feet; to drop down into ravines; to wade across boggy streams: it is not over - pleasant to tramp twenty - four hours on end through the sea of green that covers the highroads or (which God forbid!) stay for hours stuck in the mud before a striped milestone with the figures 22 on one side and 23 on the other; it is not wholly pleasant to live for weeks together on eggs, milk, and the rye - bread patriots affect to be so fond of…. But there is ample compensation for all these inconveniences and discomforts in pleasures and advantages of another sort. Let us come, though, to our story.

After all I have said above, there is no need to explain to the reader how I happened five years ago to be at Lebedyan just in the very thick of the horse - fair. We sportsmen may often set off on a fine morning from our more or less ancestral roof, in the full intention of returning there the following evening, and little by little, still in pursuit of snipe, may get at last to the blessed banks of Petchora. Besides, every lover of the gun and the dog is a passionate admirer of the noblest animal in the world, the horse. And so I turned up at Lebedyan, stopped at the hotel, changed my clothes, and went out to the fair. (The waiter, a thin lanky youth of twenty, had already informed me in a sweet nasal tenor that his Excellency Prince N —
 
— , who purchases the chargers of the — regiment, was staying at their house; that many other gentlemen had arrived; that some gypsies were to sing in the evenings, and there was to be a performance of
Pan Tvardovsky
at the theatre; that the horses were fetching good prices; and that there was a fine show of them.)

In the market square there were endless rows of carts drawn up, and behind the carts, horses of every possible kind: racers, stud - horses, dray horses, cart - horses, posting - hacks, and simple peasants’ nags. Some fat and sleek, assorted by colours, covered with striped horse - cloths, and tied up short to high racks, turned furtive glances backward at the too familiar whips of their owners, the horse - dealers; private owners’ horses, sent by noblemen of the steppes a hundred or two hundred miles away, in charge of some decrepit old coachman and two or three headstrong stable - boys, shook their long necks, stamped with ennui, and gnawed at the fences; roan horses, from Vyatka, huddled close to one another; race - horses, dapple - grey, raven, and sorrel, with large hindquarters, flowing tails, and shaggy legs, stood in majestic immobility like lions. Connoisseurs stopped respectfully before them. The avenues formed by the rows of carts were thronged with people of every class, age, and appearance; horse - dealers in long blue coats and high caps, with sly faces, were on the look - out for purchasers; gypsies, with staring eyes and curly heads, strolled up and down, like uneasy spirits, looking into the horses’ mouths, lifting up a hoof or a tail, shouting, swearing, acting as go - betweens, casting lots, or hanging about some army horse - contracter in a foraging - cap and military cloak, with beaver collar. A stalwart Cossack rode up and down on a lanky gelding with the neck of a stag, offering it for sale ‘in one lot,’ that is, saddle, bridle, and all. Peasants, in sheepskins torn at the arm - pits, were forcing their way despairingly through the crowd, or packing themselves by dozens into a cart harnessed to a horse, which was to be ‘put to the test,’ or somewhere on one side, with the aid of a wily gypsy, they were bargaining till they were exhausted, clasping each other’s hands a hundred times over, each still sticking to his price, while the subject of their dispute, a wretched little jade covered with a shrunken mat, was blinking quite unmoved, as though it was no concern of hers…. And, after all, what difference did it make to her who was to have the beating of her? Broad - browed landowners, with dyed moustaches and an expression of dignity on their faces, in Polish hats and cotton overcoats pulled half - on, were talking condescendingly with fat merchants in felt hats and green gloves. Officers of different regiments were crowding everywhere; an extraordinarily lanky cuirassier of German extraction was languidly inquiring of a lame horse - dealer ‘what he expected to get for that chestnut.’ A fair - haired young hussar, a boy of nineteen, was choosing a trace - horse to match a lean carriage - horse; a post - boy in a low - crowned hat, with a peacock’s feather twisted round it, in a brown coat and long leather gloves tied round the arm with narrow, greenish bands, was looking for a shaft - horse. Coachmen were plaiting the horses’ tails, wetting their manes, and giving respectful advice to their masters. Those who had completed a stroke of business were hurrying to hotel or to tavern, according to their class…. And all the crowd were moving, shouting, bustling, quarrelling and making it up again, swearing and laughing, all up to their knees in the mud. I wanted to buy a set of three horses for my covered trap; mine had begun to show signs of breaking down. I had found two, but had not yet succeeded in picking up a third. After a hotel dinner, which I cannot bring myself to describe (even Aeneas had discovered how painful it is to dwell on sorrows past), I repaired to a
café
so - called, which was the evening resort of the purchasers of cavalry mounts, horse - breeders, and other persons. In the billiard - room, which was plunged in grey floods of tobacco smoke, there were about twenty men. Here were free - and - easy young landowners in embroidered jackets and grey trousers, with long curling hair and little waxed moustaches, staring about them with gentlemanly insolence; other noblemen in Cossack dress, with extraordinarily short necks, and eyes lost in layers of fat, were snorting with distressing distinctness; merchants sat a little apart on the
qui - vive
, as it is called; officers were chatting freely among themselves. At the billiard - table was Prince N —
 
— a young man of two - and - twenty, with a lively and rather contemptuous face, in a coat hanging open, a red silk shirt, and loose velvet pantaloons; he was playing with the ex - lieutenant, Viktor Hlopakov.

The ex - lieutenant, Viktor Hlopakov, a little, thinnish, dark man of thirty, with black hair, brown eyes, and a thick snub nose, is a diligent frequenter of elections and horse - fairs. He walks with a skip and a hop, waves his fat hands with a jovial swagger, cocks his cap on one side, and tucks up the sleeves of his military coat, showing the blue - black cotton lining. Mr. Hlopakov knows how to gain the favour of rich scapegraces from Petersburg; smokes, drinks, and plays cards with them; calls them by their Christian names. What they find to like in him it is rather hard to comprehend. He is not clever; he is not amusing; he is not even a buffoon. It is true they treat him with friendly casualness, as a good - natured fellow, but rather a fool; they chum with him for two or three weeks, and then all of a sudden do not recognise him in the street, and he on his side, too, does not recognise them. The chief peculiarity of Lieutenant Hlopakov consists in his continually for a year, sometimes two at a time, using in season and out of season one expression, which, though not in the least humorous, for some reason or other makes everyone laugh. Eight years ago he used on every occasion to say, “‘Umble respecks and duty,” and his patrons of that date used always to fall into fits of laughter and make him repeat ‘‘Umble respecks and duty’; then he began to adopt a more complicated expression: ‘No, that’s too, too k’essk’say,’ and with the same brilliant success; two years later he had invented a fresh saying: ‘
Ne voo
excite
voo
self
pa
, man of sin, sewn in a sheepskin,’ and so on. And strange to say! these, as you see, not overwhelmingly witty phrases, keep him in food and drink and clothes. (He has run through his property ages ago, and lives solely upon his friends.) There is, observe, absolutely no other attraction about him; he can, it is true, smoke a hundred pipes of Zhukov tobacco in a day, and when he plays billiards, throws his right leg higher than his head, and while taking aim shakes his cue affectedly; but, after all, not everyone has a fancy for these accomplishments. He can drink, too … but in Russia it is hard to gain distinction as a drinker. In short, his success is a complete riddle to me…. There is one thing, perhaps; he is discreet; he has no taste for washing dirty linen away from home, never speaks a word against anyone.

‘Well,’ I thought, on seeing Hlopakov, ‘I wonder what his catchword is now?’

The prince hit the white.

‘Thirty love,’ whined a consumptive marker, with a dark face and blue rings under his eyes.

The prince sent the yellow with a crash into the farthest pocket.

‘Ah!’ a stoutish merchant, sitting in the corner at a tottering little one - legged table, boomed approvingly from the depths of his chest, and immediately was overcome by confusion at his own presumption. But luckily no one noticed him. He drew a long breath, and stroked his beard.

‘Thirty - six love!’ the marker shouted in a nasal voice.

‘Well, what do you say to that, old man?’ the prince asked Hlopakov.

‘What! rrrrakaliooon, of course, simply rrrrakaliooooon!’

The prince roared with laughter.

‘What? what? Say it again.’

‘Rrrrrakaliooon!’ repeated the ex - lieutenant complacently.

‘So that’s the catchword!’ thought I.

The prince sent the red into the pocket.

‘Oh! that’s not the way, prince, that’s not the way,’ lisped a fair - haired young officer with red eyes, a tiny nose, and a babyish, sleepy face. ‘You shouldn’t play like that … you ought … not that way!’

‘Eh?’ the prince queried over his shoulder.

‘You ought to have done it … in a triplet.’

‘Oh, really?’ muttered the prince.

‘What do you say, prince? Shall we go this evening to hear the gypsies?’ the young man hurriedly went on in confusion. ‘Styoshka will sing … Ilyushka….’

The prince vouchsafed no reply.

‘Rrrrrakaliooon, old boy,’ said Hlopakov, with a sly wink of his left eye.

And the prince exploded.

‘Thirty - nine to love,’ sang out the marker.

‘Love … just look, I’ll do the trick with that yellow.’ … Hlopakov, fidgeting his cue in his hand, took aim, and missed.

‘Eh, rrrakalioon,’ he cried with vexation.

The prince laughed again.

‘What, what, what?’

‘Your honour made a miss,’ observed the marker. ‘Allow me to chalk the cue…. Forty love.’

‘Yes, gentlemen,’ said the prince, addressing the whole company, and not looking at any one in particular; ‘you know, Verzhembitskaya must be called before the curtain to - night.’

‘To be sure, to be sure, of course,’ several voices cried in rivalry, amazingly flattered at the chance of answering the prince’s speech; ‘Verzhembitskaya, to be sure….’

‘Verzhembitskaya’s an excellent actress, far superior to Sopnyakova,’ whined an ugly little man in the corner with moustaches and spectacles. Luckless wretch! he was secretly sighing at Sopnyakova’s feet, and the prince did not even vouchsafe him a look.

‘Wai - ter, hey, a pipe!’ a tall gentleman, with regular features and a most majestic manner — in fact, with all the external symptoms of a card - sharper — muttered into his cravat.

A waiter ran for a pipe, and when he came back, announced to his excellency that the groom Baklaga was asking for him.

‘Ah! tell him to wait a minute and take him some vodka.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Baklaga, as I was told afterwards, was the name of a youthful, handsome, and excessively depraved groom; the prince loved him, made him presents of horses, went out hunting with him, spent whole nights with him…. Now you would not know this same prince, who was once a rake and a scapegrace…. In what good odour he is now; how straight - laced, how supercilious! How devoted to the government — and, above all, so prudent and judicious!