Fathers and Sons
"I feel easy, then," continued Bazarov. "In fact, never do I mind with
whom I sit at table."
Vasili Ivanitch's face brightened at once.
"I felt sure of that in advance," he said. "Yes, I knew that you, a
young man, are as superior to prejudice as I am at sixty-two" (Vasili
had none the less shrunk from confessing that he had wished for the
thanksgiving ceremony as much as his wife had, since his piety was
fully equal to hers). "In any case Father Alexis would like to make
your acquaintance; while you, for your part, will very likely take to
him, seeing that he not only plays cards, but also (though this is
quite between ourselves) smokes a pipe!"
"Indeed? After dinner, then, we will have a game, and I will despoil
him utterly."
"Ha, ha, ha! We shall see, we shall see."
"Then at times you hark back to old days?" Bazarov asked with a tinge
of surprise.
Vasili Ivanitch's bronzed cheeks took on a faint flush.
"For shame, Evgenii!" he muttered. "Remember that the past is the past.
Nevertheless, even in this gentleman's presence I am ready to confess
that in my youth I had my addictions, and that, since, I have paid for
them. But how hot the weather is! Let me seat myself beside you; though
I hope that, in doing so, I shall not interrupt your conversation?"
"By no means," replied Arkady with alacrity.
Vasili Ivanitch subsided with a grunt and the remark:
"Your _logement_ reminds me of my military bivouacking days--this rick
being a dressing-station." There followed a sigh. "Aye, many and many
an experience have I had in my time. For instance, let me tell you a
curious story about the black death in Bessarabia."
"When you received the order of St. Vladimir?" said Bazarov. "Yes, I
know the story. But why do you never wear the badge of the order?"
"As I have told you, I care not a jot for appearances," protested
Vasili Ivanitch (though only on the previous day had he had the red
riband of the order removed from his coat). He then embarked upon the
story.
"Evgenii has gone to sleep," presently he whispered to Arkady with a
good-humoured wink and a pointing finger. "Come, come, Evgenii!" he
added in a louder tone. "It is time to get up! Time for dinner!"
Father Alexis--a stout, good-looking man with thick, well-combed hair
and an embroidered girdle over a lilac cassock--proved a clever,
resourceful guest who, taking the initiative as regards shaking hands
with Arkady and Bazarov (somehow he seemed to divine that they did not
require his blessing), bore himself, in general, with complete absence
of restraint, and, while neither demeaning himself nor imposing general
constraint, made merry over scholastic Latin, defended his archbishop,
quaffed a couple of glasses of wine (refusing a third), and accepted
one of Arkady's cigars, though, instead of smoking it, he put it into
his pocket to take home with him. The only thing that was at all
unpleasant was the fact that every now and then, on raising a stealthy
hand to brush from his face a fly, he, in lieu of doing so, crushed the
insect flat!
Dinner over, he seated himself with modest zest at the card-table, and
ended by despoiling Bazarov of two-and-a-half roubles in paper money
(this rural establishment took no account of the system of computing
cash in silver). During the game the hostess sat beside her son with
her cheek resting on her hand as usual, and only rose from the table
when it became necessary to order further relays of refreshment. Yet
to caress Bazarov was more than she dared do; nor did he give her the
least encouragement in that direction; in addition to which Vasili
Ivanitch further restrained her ardour by whispering at intervals:
"Do not worry our Evgenii. Young men do not like that sort of thing."
Also, hardly need it be said that the dinner of which the company
had just partaken had been of the usual sumptuousness, seeing that at
break of day Timotheitch had set out for Circassian beef, and that
the _starosta_ also had galloped in quest of trout, eels, and crabs,
while a sum of forty-two kopecks had been paid to peasant women for
mushrooms. Arina Vlasievna's eyes, fixed immovably upon Bazarov, had in
them something more than tenderness and affection. In them there were
also sadness, curiosity, a touch of apprehension, and a kind of painful
deference. Yet never did he mark their expression, since never did he
turn in her direction, save to put to her the curtest of questions,
and, once, to ask her to lay her hand in his, "for luck." On the latter
occasion she slipped her plump fingers into his hard, capacious palm,
waited a little, and then asked him:
"Has that helped you at all in your play?"
"It has not," he replied with a contemptuous grimace. "On the contrary,
things are even worse than they were before."
"Yes, the cards seem to be against you," remarked Father Alexis with an
assumed air of sympathy as he stroked his handsome beard.
"But beware of the Code Napoleon, my father," observed Vasili Ivanitch
as he played an ace. "Beware of the Code Napoleon."
"Which, in the end, brought Napoleon to St. Helena," retorted the
father as he trumped the ace.
"A glass of currant wine, Eniushka dear?" asked Arina Vlasievna.
Bazarov replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Next day he said to Arkady:
"To-morrow I must depart. The place wearies me, for I wish to work, and
it is impossible to do so here. I will come to your place, I think,
for all my chemical preparations are there. Moreover, one can at least
lock one's door at your place; whereas here, though my father keeps
saying, 'My study is entirely at your disposal, and no one shall
disturb you,' he himself is never absent for a moment. And, for that
matter, I should be ashamed to lock him outside, or my mother either.
Sometimes I can hear her groaning in the next room. Yet no sooner do I
go out to her than I find that I have not a word to say."
"She will be much distressed at your departure," said Arkady. "And so
will he."
"But I intend to return."
"Exactly when?"
"When I am on my way back to St. Petersburg."
"I am particularly sorry for your mother."
"Why so? Has she been stuffing you with fruit?" Arkady lowered his eyes.
"You do not know her," he said. "She is not only a good woman, but also
a very wise one. This morning I had half an hour's very practical and
interesting talk with her."
"A talk in which she told you all about me?"
"We spoke of other topics besides yourself."
"Possibly. Possibly, too, you, as an outsider, may see things clearer
than I do. Yet when a woman can talk for half an hour it is a good
sign, and I will depart as I have said."
"But you will not find it easy to break the news to her, for her plans
for us extend over a couple of weeks."
"No, it may not prove easy, as you say; and the less so since the devil
led me to vex my father this morning. It was like this. A few days ago
he had one of his serfs flogged, and therein did rightly. No, you need
not look at me with such indignation. I say my father did rightly for
the reason that the peasant in question had proved himself to be an
arrant thief and drunkard. Unfortunately, my father had not expected
me to get to hear of the occurrence; wherefore he was the more put
out when he found that I had done so. Well, now his vexation will be
twofold! However, no matter. He will get over it before long."
Yet, though Bazarov had said "No matter," he let the whole of the rest
of the day elapse before he could make up his mind to acquaint Vasili
Ivanitch with his intention. Finally, just as he was saying good-night
to his father in the study, he observed with a prolonged yawn:
"By the way, I had almost forgotten to request you to have our horses
sent forward to Thedot's."
Vasili Ivanitch looked thunderstruck.
"Then is Monsieur Kirsanov leaving us?" he inquired.
"Yes, and I am going with him."
Vasili Ivanitch fidgeted for a moment or two.
"You say that you are going with him?" he murmured.
"Yes. I _must_ go. So pray have the horses sent forward as requested."
"I--I will, I will," the old man stuttered. "So they are to go to
Thedot's? Yes, yes, very well. Only, only--is there any particular
reason for this change of plan?"
"There is. I am engaged to pay Arkady a short visit. That done, I will
return to you."
"Only to be a _short_ visit? Good!" And Vasili Ivanitch pulled out his
pocket-handkerchief, and blew his nose. In doing so, he bent his head
very low--almost to the ground. "Well, well! Things shall be as you
desire. Yet we had hoped that you would have stayed with us a little
longer. Three days only! Three days after three years of absence! Ah,
that is not much, Evgenii--it is not much!"
"But I tell you I intend to return soon. You see, I _must_ go."
"You have no choice, eh? Very well, very well. Of course, engagements
must be kept. Yes, yes; of course they must be kept. And I am to
send the horses forward? Very good. Naturally, Arina and I had not
altogether looked for this. Only to-day she has been to a neighbour to
beg flowers for your room."
Nor of the fact that, each morning, he had gone downstairs in his
slippers to confer with Timotheitch; nor of the fact that, producing,
with tremulous fingers, one ragged banknote after another, he had
commissioned his henchman to make various purchases with special
reference to the question of eatables (in particular, of a certain red
wine which he had noticed the young men to like); no, of none of these
facts did Vasili Ivanitch make any mention.
"The greatest thing in the world is one's freedom," he went on. "I,
too, make it my rule. Never should one let oneself be hampered or----"
A sudden break occurred in his voice, and he made for the door.
"I promise you that we will return soon, my father. I give you my word
of honour upon that."
But Vasili Ivanitch did not look round--he just waved his hand and
departed. Mounting to the bedroom, he found Arina asleep, so started to
say his prayers in an undertone, for fear of awaking her. But at once
she opened her eyes.
"In that you, Vasili Ivanitch?" she asked.
"Yes, mother."
"Have you just left Eniusha? Do you know, I am anxious about him. Does
he sleep comfortably on the sofa? To-day I told Anfisushka to lay him
out your travelling mattress and the new pillows. Also, I would have
given him our feather bed had he not disliked soft lying."
"Do not fret, mother dear. He is quite comfortable. 'Lord, pardon us
sinners!'" And Vasili Ivanitch went on with his prayers. Yet his heart
was full of an aching compassion for his old companion; nor did he
want to tell her overnight of the sorrow which was awaiting her on the
morrow.
Next day, therefore, Arkady and Bazarov departed. From earliest morn an
air of woe pervaded the household. Anfisushka let fall some crockery,
and Thedika's perturbation ended in his taking off his shoes. As for
Vasili Ivanitch, he fussed about, and made a brave show--he talked in
loud tones, and stamped his feet upon the floor as he walked; but his
face had suddenly fallen in, and his glance could not meet that of
his son. Meanwhile Arina Vlasievna indulged in quiet weeping. Indeed,
but for the fact that her husband had spent two hours that morning in
comforting her, she would have broken down completely, and lost all
self-control.
But at last, when, after reiterated promises to return within, at most,
a month, Bazarov had freed himself from the arms which sought to detain
him, and entered the _tarantass_; when the horses had started, and
their collar-bow had begun to tinkle, and the wheels to revolve; when
to gaze after the vehicle any longer had become useless, and the dust
had subsided, and Timotheitch, bent and tottering, had crawled back