Works of Ivan Turgenev (Illustrated) (360 page)

Kuzma Vassilyevitch looked at Emilie. Her face indeed showed no trace of care now. Everything was smiling in that pretty little face: the eyes, fringed with almost white lashes, and the lips and the cheeks and the chin and the dimples in the chin, and even the tip of her turned - up nose. She went up to the little looking glass beside the cupboard and, screwing up her eyes and humming through her teeth, began tidying her hair. Kuzma Vassilyevitch followed her movements intently.... He found her very charming.

VIII

“You must excuse me,” she began again, turning from side to side before the looking glass, “for having so ... brought you home with me. Perhaps you dislike it?”

“Oh, not at all!”

“As I have told you already, I am so quick. I act first and think afterwards, though sometimes I don’t think at all.... What is your name, Mr. Officer? May I ask you?” she added going up to him and folding her arms.

“My name is Kuzma Vassilyevitch Yergunov.”

“Yergu.... Oh, it’s not a nice name! I mean it’s difficult for me. I shall call you Mr. Florestan. At Riga we had a Mr. Florestan. He sold capital
gros - de - Naples
in his shop and was a handsome man, as good - looking as you. But how broad - shouldered you are! A regular sturdy Russian! I like the Russians.... I am a Russian myself ... my papa was an officer. But my hands are whiter than yours!” She raised them above her head, waved them several times in the air, so as to drive the blood from them, and at once dropped them. “Do you see? I wash them with Greek scented soap.... Sniff! Oh, but don’t kiss them.... I did not do it for that.... Where are you serving?”

“In the fleet, in the nineteenth Black Sea company.”

“Oh, you are a sailor! Well, do you get a good salary?”

“No ... not very.”

“You must be very brave. One can see it at once from your eyes. What thick eyebrows you’ve got! They say you ought to grease them with lard overnight to make them grow. But why have you no moustache?”

“It’s against the regulations.”

“Oh, that’s not right! What’s that you’ve got, a dagger?”

“It’s a cutlass; a cutlass, so to say, is the sailor’s weapon.”

“Ah, a cutlass! Is it sharp? May I look?” With an effort, biting her lip and screwing up her eyes, she drew the blade out of the scabbard and put it to her nose.

“Oh, how blunt! I can kill you with it in a minute!”

She waved it at Kuzma Vassilyevitch. He pretended to be frightened and laughed. She laughed too.

“
Ihr habt pardon
, you are pardoned,” she pronounced, throwing herself into a majestic attitude. “There, take your weapon! And how old are you?” she asked suddenly.

“Twenty - five.”

“And I am nineteen! How funny that is! Ach!” And Emilie went off into such a ringing laugh that she threw herself back in her chair. Kuzma Vassilyevitch did not get up from his chair and looked still more intently at her rosy face which was quivering with laughter and he felt more and more attracted by her.

All at once Emilie was silent and humming through her teeth, as her habit was, went back to the looking glass.

“Can you sing, Mr. Florestan?”

“No, I have never been taught.”

“Do you play on the guitar? Not that either? I can. I have a guitar set with
perlenmutter
but the strings are broken. I must buy some new ones. You will give me the money, won’t you, Mr. Officer? I’ll sing you a lovely German song.” She heaved a sigh and shut her eyes. “Ah, such a lovely one! But you can dance? Not that, either?
Unmöglich
! I’ll teach you. The
schottische
and the
valse - cosaque
. Tra - la - la, tra - la - la,” Emilie pirouetted once or twice. “Look at my shoes! From Warsaw. Oh, we will have some dancing, Mr. Florestan! But what are you going to call me?”

Kuzma Vassilyevitch grinned and blushed to his ears.

“I shall call you: lovely Emilie!”

“No, no! You must call me:
Mein Schätzchen, mein Zuckerpüppchen!
Repeat it after me.”

“With the greatest pleasure, but I am afraid I shall find it difficult....”

“Never mind, never mind. Say:
Mein
.”

“Me - in.”

“
Zucker
.”

“Tsook - ker.”

“
Püppchen! Püppchen! Püppchen!
”

“Poop ... poop.... That I can’t manage. It doesn’t sound nice.”

“No! You must ... you must! Do you know what it means? That’s the very nicest word for a young lady in German. I’ll explain it to you afterwards. But here is auntie bringing us the samovar. Bravo! Bravo! auntie, I will have cream with my tea.... Is there any cream?”

“
So schweige doch
,” answered the aunt.

IX

Kuzma Vassilyevitch stayed at Madame Fritsche’s till midnight. He had not spent such a pleasant evening since his arrival at Nikolaev. It is true that it occurred to him that it was not seemly for an officer and a gentleman to be associating with such persons as this native of Riga and her auntie, but Emilie was so pretty, babbled so amusingly and bestowed such friendly looks upon him, that he dismissed his rank and family and made up his mind for once to enjoy himself. Only one circumstance disturbed him and left an impression that was not quite agreeable. When his conversation with Emilie and Madame Fritsche was in full swing, the door from the lobby opened a crack and a man’s hand in a dark cuff with three tiny silver buttons on it was stealthily thrust in and stealthily laid a big bundle on the chair near the door. Both ladies instantly darted to the chair and began examining the bundle. “But these are the wrong spoons!” cried Emilie, but her aunt nudged her with her elbow and carried away the bundle without tying up the ends. It seemed to Kuzma Vassilyevitch that one end was spattered with something red, like blood.

“What is it?” he asked Emilie. “Is it some more stolen things returned to you?”

“Yes,” answered Emilie, as it were, reluctantly. “Some more.”

“Was it your servant found them?”

Emilie frowned.

“What servant? We haven’t any servant.”

“Some other man, then?”

“No men come to see us.”

“But excuse me, excuse me.... I saw the cuff of a man’s coat or jacket. And, besides, this cap....”

“Men never, never come to see us,” Emilie repeated emphatically. “What did you see? You saw nothing! And that cap is mine.”

“How is that?”

“Why, just that. I wear it for dressing up.... Yes, it is mine,
und Punctum
.”

“Who brought you the bundle, then?”

Emilie made no answer and, pouting, followed Madame Fritsche out of the room. Ten minutes later she came back alone, without her aunt and when Kuzma Vassilyevitch tried to question her again, she gazed at his forehead, said that it was disgraceful for a gentleman to be so inquisitive (as she said this, her face changed a little, as it were, darkened), and taking a pack of old cards from the card table drawer, asked him to tell fortunes for her and the king of hearts.

Kuzma Vassilyevitch laughed, took the cards, and all evil thoughts immediately slipped out of his mind.

But they came back to him that very day. When he had got out of the gate into the street, had said good - bye to Emilie, shouted to her for the last time,
“Adieu, Zuckerpüppchen!”
a short man darted by him and turning for a minute in his direction (it was past midnight but the moon was shining rather brightly), displayed a lean gipsy face with thick black eyebrows and moustache, black eyes and a hooked nose. The man at once rushed round the corner and it struck Kuzma Vassilyevitch that he recognised -
 
- not his face, for he had never seen it before -
 
- but the cuff of his sleeve. Three silver buttons gleamed distinctly in the moonlight. There was a stir of uneasy perplexity in the soul of the prudent lieutenant; when he got home he did not light as usual his meerschaum pipe. Though, indeed, his sudden acquaintance with charming Emilie and the agreeable hours spent in her company would alone have induced his agitation.

X

Whatever Kuzma Vassilyevitch’s apprehensions may have been, they were quickly dissipated and left no trace. He took to visiting the two ladies from Riga frequently. The susceptible lieutenant was soon on friendly terms with Emilie. At first he was ashamed of the acquaintance and concealed his visits; later on he got over being ashamed and no longer concealed his visits; it ended by his being more eager to spend his time with his new friends than with anyone and greatly preferring their society to the cheerless solitude of his own four walls. Madame Fritsche herself no longer made the same unpleasant impression upon him, though she still treated him morosely and ungraciously. Persons in straitened circumstances like Madame Fritsche particularly appreciate a liberal expenditure in their visitors, and Kuzma Vassilyevitch was a little stingy and his presents for the most part took the shape of raisins, walnuts, cakes.... Only once he let himself go and presented Emilie with a light pink fichu of real French material, and that very day she had burnt a hole in his gift with a candle. He began to upbraid her; she fixed the fichu to the cat’s tail; he was angry; she laughed in his face. Kuzma Vassilyevitch was forced at last to admit to himself that he had not only failed to win the respect of the ladies from Riga, but had even failed to gain their confidence: he was never admitted at once, without preliminary scrutinising; he was often kept waiting; sometimes he was sent away without the slightest ceremony and when they wanted to conceal something from him they would converse in German in his presence. Emilie gave him no account of her doings and replied to his questions in an offhand way as though she had not heard them; and, worst of all, some of the rooms in Madame Fritsche’s house, which was a fairly large one, though it looked like a hovel from the street, were never opened to him. For all that, Kuzma Vassilyevitch did not give up his visits; on the contrary, he paid them more and more frequently: he was seeing living people, anyway. His vanity was gratified by Emilie’s continuing to call him Florestan, considering him exceptionally handsome and declaring that he had eyes like a bird of paradise, “
wie die Augen eines Paradiesvogels!
”

XI

One day in the very height of summer, Kuzma Vassilyevitch, who had spent the whole morning in the sun with contractors and workmen, dragged himself tired and exhausted to the little gate that had become so familiar to him. He knocked and was admitted. He shambled into the so - called drawing - room and immediately lay down on the sofa. Emilie went up to him and mopped his wet brow with a handkerchief.

“How tired he is, poor pet! How hot he is!” she said commiseratingly. “Good gracious! You might at least unbutton your collar. My goodness, how your throat is pulsing!”

“I am done up, my dear,” groaned Kuzma Vassilyevitch. “I’ve been on my feet all the morning, in the baking sun. It’s awful! I meant to go home. But there those vipers, the contractors, would find me! While here with you it is cool.... I believe I could have a nap.”

“Well, why not? Go to sleep, my little chick; no one will disturb you here.”...

“But I am really ashamed.”

“What next! Why ashamed? Go to sleep. And I’ll sing you ... what do you call it? ... I’ll sing you to bye - bye,
‘Schlaf, mein Kindchen, Schlafe!’
“ She began singing.

“I should like a drink of water first.”

“Here is a glass of water for you. Fresh as crystal! Wait, I’ll put a pillow under your head.... And here is this to keep the flies off.”

She covered his face with a handkerchief.

“Thank you, my little cupid.... I’ll just have a tiny doze ... that’s all.”