Works of Ivan Turgenev (Illustrated) (358 page)

Lizaveta Prohorovna’s house stood about a mile from her village to the left of the cross road along which Akim was walking. He was about to stop at the turning that led to his mistress’s house ... but he walked on instead. He decided first to go to what had been his hut, where his uncle lived.

Akim’s small and somewhat dilapidated hut was almost at the end of the village; Akin walked through the whole street without meeting a soul. All the people were at church. Only one sick old woman raised a little window to look after him and a little girl who had run out with an empty pail to the well gaped at him, and she too looked after him. The first person he met was the uncle he was looking for. The old man had been sitting all the morning on the ledge under his window taking pinches of snuff and warming himself in the sun; he was not very well, so he had not gone to church; he was just setting off to visit another old man, a neighbour who was also ailing, when he suddenly saw Akim.... He stopped, let him come up to him and glancing into his face, said:

“Good - day, Akimushka!”

“Good - day,” answered Akim, and passing the old man went in at the gate. In the yard were standing his horses, his cow, his cart; his poultry, too, were there.... He went into the hut without a word. The old man followed him. Akim sat down on the bench and leaned his fists on it. The old man standing at the door looked at him compassionately.

“And where is my wife?” asked Akim.

“At the mistress’s house,” the old man answered quickly. “She is there. They put your cattle here and what boxes there were, and she has gone there. Shall I go for her?”

Akim was silent for a time.

“Yes, do,” he said at last.

“Oh, uncle, uncle,” he brought out with a sigh while the old man was taking his hat from a nail, “do you remember what you said to me the day before my wedding?”

“It’s all God’s will, Akimushka.”

“Do you remember you said to me that I was above you peasants, and now you see what times have come.... I’m stripped bare myself.”

“There’s no guarding oneself from evil folk,” answered the old man, “if only someone such as a master, for instance, or someone in authority, could give him a good lesson, the shameless fellow -
 
- but as it is, he has nothing to be afraid of. He is a wolf and he behaves like one.” And the old man put on his cap and went off.

Avdotya had just come back from church when she was told that her husband’s uncle was asking for her. Till then she had rarely seen him; he did not come to see them at the inn and had the reputation of being queer altogether: he was passionately fond of snuff and was usually silent.

She went out to him.

“What do you want, Petrovitch? Has anything happened?”

“Nothing has happened, Avdotya Arefyevna; your husband is asking for you.”

“Has he come back?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he, then?”

“He is in the village, sitting in his hut.”

Avdotya was frightened.

“Well, Petrovitch,” she inquired, looking straight into his face, “is he angry?”

“He does not seem so.”

Avdotya looked down.

“Well, let us go,” she said. She put on a shawl and they set off together. They walked in silence to the village. When they began to get close to the hut, Avdotya was so overcome with terror that her knees began to tremble.

“Good Petrovitch,” she said, “go in first.... Tell him that I have come.”

The old man went into the hut and found Akim lost in thought, sitting just as he had left him.

“Well?” said Akim raising his head, “hasn’t she come?”

“Yes,” answered the old man, “she is at the gate....”

“Well, send her in here.”

The old man went out, beckoned to Avdotya, said to her, “go in,” and sat down again on the ledge. Avdotya in trepidation opened the door, crossed the threshold and stood still.

Akim looked at her.

“Well, Arefyevna,” he began, “what are we going to do now?”

“I am guilty,” she faltered.

“Ech Arefyevna, we are all sinners. What’s the good of talking about it!”

“It’s he, the villain, has ruined us both,” said Avdotya in a cringing voice, and tears flowed down her face. “You must not leave it like that, Akim Semyonitch, you must get the money back. Don’t think of me. I am ready to take my oath that I only lent him the money. Lizaveta Prohorovna could sell our inn if she liked, but why should he rob us.... Get your money back.”

“There’s no claiming the money back from him,” Akim replied grimly, “we have settled our accounts.”

Avdotya was amazed. “How is that?”

“Why, like this. Do you know,” Akim went on and his eyes gleamed, “do you know where I spent the night? You don’t know? In Naum’s cellar, with my arms and legs tied like a sheep -
 
- that’s where I spent the night. I tried to set fire to the place, but he caught me -
 
- Naum did; he is too sharp! And to - day he meant to take me to the town but he let me off; so I can’t claim the money from him.... ‘When did I borrow money from you?’ he would say. Am I to say to him, ‘My wife took it from under the floor and brought it to you’? ‘Your wife is telling lies,’ he will say. Hasn’t there been scandal enough for you, Arefyevna? You’d better say nothing, I tell you, say nothing.”

“I am guilty, Semyonitch, I am guilty,” Avdotya, terrified, whispered again.

“That’s not what matters,” said Akim, after a pause. “What are we going to do? We have no home or no money.”

“We shall manage somehow, Akim Semyonitch. We’ll ask Lizaveta Prohorovna, she will help us, Kiriliovna has promised me.”

“No, Arefyenva, you and your Kirillovna had better ask her together; you are berries off the same bush. I tell you what: you stay here and good luck to you; I shall not stay here. It’s a good thing we have no children, and I shall be all right, I dare say, alone. There’s always enough for one.”

“What will you do, Semyonitch? Take up driving again?”

Akim laughed bitterly.

“I should be a fine driver, no mistake! You have pitched on the right man for it! No, Arefyenva, that’s a job not like getting married, for instance; an old man is no good for the job. I don’t want to stay here, just because I don’t want them to point the finger at me -
 
- do you understand? I am going to pray for my sins, Arefyevna, that’s what I am going to do.”

“What sins have you, Semyonitch?” Avdotya pronounced timidly.

“Of them I know best myself, wife.”

“But are you leaving me all alone, Semyonitch? How can I live without a husband?”

“Leaving you alone? Oh, Arefyevna, how you do talk, really! Much you need a husband like me, and old, too, and ruined as well! Why, you got on without me in the past, you can get on in the future. What property is left us, you can take; I don’t want it.”

“As you like, Semyonitch,” Avdotya replied mournfully. “You know best.”

“That’s better. Only don’t you suppose that I am angry with you, Arefyevna. No, what’s the good of being angry when ... I ought to have been wiser before. I’ve been to blame. I am punished.” (Akim sighed.) “As you make your bed so you must lie on it. I am old, it’s time to think of my soul. The Lord himself has brought me to understanding. Like an old fool I wanted to live for my own pleasure with a young wife.... No, the old man had better pray and beat his head against the earth and endure in patience and fast.... And now go along, my dear. I am very weary, I’ll sleep a little.”

And Akim with a groan stretched himself on the bench.

Avdotya wanted to say something, stood a moment, looked at him, turned away and went out.

“Well, he didn’t beat you then?” asked Petrovitch sitting bent up on the ledge when she was level with him. Avdotya passed by him without speaking. “So he didn’t beat her,” the old man said to himself; he smiled, ruffled up his beard and took a pinch of snuff.

       *       *       *       *       *

Akim carried out his intention. He hurriedly arranged his affairs and a few days after the conversation we have described went, dressed ready for his journey, to say goodbye to his wife who had settled for a time in a little lodge in the mistress’s garden. His farewell did not take long. Kirillovna, who happened to be present, advised Akim to see his mistress; he did so, Lizaveta Prohorovna received him with some confusion but graciously let him kiss her hand and asked him where he meant to go. He answered he was going first to Kiev and after that where it would please the Lord. She commended his decision and dismissed him. From that time he rarely appeared at home, though he never forgot to bring his mistress some holy bread.... But wherever Russian pilgrims gather his thin and aged but always dignified and handsome face could be seen: at the relics of St. Sergey; on the shores of the White Sea, at the Optin hermitage, and at the far - away Valaam; he went everywhere.

This year he has passed by you in the ranks of the innumerable people who go in procession behind the ikon of the Mother of God to the Korennaya; last year you found him sitting with a wallet on his shoulders with other pilgrims on the steps of Nikolay, the wonder - worker, at Mtsensk ... he comes to Moscow almost every spring.

From land to land he has wandered with his quiet, unhurried, but never - resting step -
 
- they say he has been even to Jerusalem. He seems perfectly calm and happy and those who have chanced to converse with him have said much of his piety and humility. Meanwhile, Naum’s fortunes prospered exceedingly. He set to work with energy and good sense and got on, as the saying is, by leaps and bounds. Everyone in the neighbourhood knew by what means he had acquired the inn, they knew too that Avdotya had given him her husband’s money; nobody liked Naum because of his cold, harsh disposition.... With censure they told the story of him that once when Akim himself had asked alms under his window he answered that God would give, and had given him nothing; but everyone agreed that there never had been a luckier man; his corn came better than other people’s, his bees swarmed more frequently; even his hens laid more eggs; his cattle were never ill, his horses did not go lame.... It was a long time before Avdotya could bear to hear his name (she had accepted Lizaveta Prohorovna’s invitation and had reentered her service as head sewing - maid), but in the end her aversion was somewhat softened; it was said that she had been driven by poverty to appeal to him and he had given her a hundred roubles.... She must not be too severely judged: poverty breaks any will and the sudden and violent change in her life had greatly aged and humbled her: it was hard to believe how quickly she lost her looks, how completely she let herself go and lost heart....

How did it all end? the reader will ask. Why, like this: Naum, after having kept the inn successfully for about fifteen years, sold it advantageously to another townsman. He would never have parted from the inn if it had not been for the following, apparently insignificant, circumstance: for two mornings in succession his dog, sitting before the windows, had kept up a prolonged and doleful howl. He went out into the road the second time, looked attentively at the howling dog, shook his head, went up to town and the same day agreed on the price with a man who had been for a long time anxious to purchase it. A week later he had moved to a distance -
 
- out of the province; the new owner settled in and that very evening the inn was burnt to ashes; not a single outbuilding was left and Naum’s successor was left a beggar. The reader can easily imagine the rumours that this fire gave rise to in the neighbourhood.... Evidently he carried his “luck” away with him, everyone repeated. Of Naum it is said that he has gone into the corn trade and has made a great fortune. But will it last long? Stronger pillars have fallen and evil deeds end badly sooner or later. There is not much to say about Lizaveta Prohorovna. She is still living and, as is often the case with people of her sort, is not much changed, she has not even grown much older -
 
- she only seems to have dried up a little; on the other hand, her stinginess has greatly increased though it is difficult to say for whose benefit she is saving as she has no children and no attachments. In conversation she often speaks of Akim and declares that since she has understood his good qualities she has begun to feel great respect for the Russian peasant. Kirillovna bought her freedom for a considerable sum and married for love a fair - haired young waiter who leads her a dreadful life; Avdotya lives as before among the maids in Lizaveta Prohorovna’s house, but has sunk to a rather lower position; she is very poorly, almost dirtily dressed, and there is no trace left in her of the townbred airs and graces of a fashionable maid or of the habits of a prosperous innkeeper’s wife.... No one takes any notice of her and she herself is glad to be unnoticed; old Petrovitch is dead and Akim is still wandering, a pilgrim, and God only knows how much longer his pilgrimage will last!