was settled: Akim’s inn

belonged to him. He had bought it for 2800 paper roubles. It was

arranged that the legal formalities should take place as quickly as

possible and that till then the matter should not be made public.

Lizaveta Prohorovna received a deposit of a hundred roubles and two

hundred went to Kirillovna for her assistance. «It has not cost me

much,» thought Naum as he got into his coat, «it was a lucky chance.»

While the transaction we have described was going forward in the

mistress’s house, Akim was sitting at home alone on the bench by the

window, stroking his beard with a discontented expression. We have

said already that he did not suspect his wife’s feeling for Naum,

although kind friends had more than once hinted to him that it was

time he opened his eyes; it is true that he had noticed himself that

of late his wife had become rather difficult, but we all know that the

female sex is capricious and changeable. Even when it really did

strike him that things were not going well in his house, he merely

dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand; he did not like the

idea of a squabble; his good nature had not lessened with years and

indolence was asserting itself, too. But on that day he was very much

out of humour; the day before he had overheard quite by chance in the

street a conversation between their servant and a neighbouring peasant

woman.

The peasant woman asked the servant why she had not come to see her on

the holiday the day before. «I was expecting you,» she said.

«I did set off,» replied the servant, «but as ill-luck would have it,

I ran into the mistress … botheration take her.»

«Ran into her?» repeated the peasant woman in a sing-song voice and

she leaned her cheek on her hand. «And where did you run into her, my

good girl?»

«Beyond the priest’s hemp-patch. She must have gone to the hemp-patch

to meet her Naum, but I could not see them in the dusk, owing to the

moon, maybe, I don’t know; I simply dashed into them.»

«Dashed into them?» the other woman repeated. «Well, and was she

standing with him, my good girl?»

«Yes, she was. He was standing there and so was she. She saw me and

said, ‘Where are you running to? Go home.’ So I went home.»

«You went home?» The peasant woman was silent. «Well, good-bye,

Fetinyushka,» she brought out at last, and trudged off.

This conversation had an unpleasant effect on Akim. His love for

Avdotya had cooled, but still he did not like what the servant had

said. And she had told the truth: Avdotya really had gone out that

evening to meet Naum, who had been waiting for her in the patch of

dense shade thrown on the road by the high motionless hemp. The dew

bathed every stalk of it from top to bottom; the strong, almost

overpowering fragrance hung all about it. A huge crimson moon had just

risen in the dingy, blackish mist. Naum heard the hurried footsteps of

Avdotya a long way off and went to meet her. She came up to him, pale

with running; the moon lighted up her face.

«Well, have you brought it?» he asked.

«Brought it—yes, I have,» she answered in an uncertain voice. «But,

Naum Ivanitch—-»

«Give it me, since you have brought it,» he interrupted her, and held

out his hand.

She took a parcel from under her shawl. Naum took it at once and

thrust it in his bosom.

«Naum Ivanitch,» Avdotya said slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on him,

«oh, Naum Ivanitch, you will bring my soul to ruin.»

It was at that instant that the servant came up to them.

And so Akim was sitting on the bench discontentedly stroking his

beard. Avdotya kept coming into the room and going out again. He

simply followed her with his eyes. At last she came into the room and

after taking a jerkin from the lobby was just crossing the threshold,

when he could not restrain himself and said, as though speaking to

himself:

«I wonder,» he began, «why it is women are always in a fuss? It’s no

good expecting them to sit still. That’s not in their line. But

running out morning or evening, that’s what they like. Yes.»

Avdotya listened to her husband’s words without changing her position;

only at the word «evening,» she moved her head slightly and seemed to

ponder.

«Once you begin talking, Semyonitch,» she commented at last with

vexation, «there is no stopping you.»

And with a wave of her hand she went away and slammed the door.

Avdotya certainly did not appreciate Akim’s eloquence and often in the

evenings when he indulged in conversation with travellers or fell to

telling stories she stealthily yawned or went out of the room. Akim

looked at the closed door. «Once you begin talking,» he repeated in an

undertone…. «The fact is, I have not talked enough to you. And who

is it? A peasant like any one of us, and what’s more….» And he got

up, thought a little and tapped the back of his head with his fist.

Several days passed in a rather strange way. Akim kept looking at his

wife as though he were preparing to say something to her, and she, for

her part, looked at him suspiciously; meanwhile, they both preserved a

strained silence. This silence, however, was broken from time to time

by some peevish remark from Akim in regard to some oversight in the

housekeeping or in regard to women in general. For the most part

Avdotya did not answer one word. But in spite of Akim’s good-natured

weakness, it certainly would have come to a decisive explanation

between him and Avdotya, if it had not been for an event which

rendered any explanation useless.

One morning Akim and wife were just beginning lunch (owing to the

summer work in the fields there were no travellers at the inn) when

suddenly a cart rattled briskly along the road and pulled up sharply

at the front door. Akim peeped out of window, frowned and looked down:

Naum got deliberately out of the cart. Avdotya had not seen him, but

when she heard his voice in the entry the spoon trembled in her hand.

He told the labourers to put up the horse in the yard. At last the

door opened and he walked into the room.

«Good-day,» he said, and took off his cap.

«Good-day,» Akim repeated through his teeth. «Where has God brought

you from?»

«I was in the neighbourhood,» replied Naum, and he sat down on the

bench. «I have come from your lady.»

«From the lady,» said Akim, not getting up from his seat. «On

business, eh?»

«Yes, on business. My respects to you, Avdotya Arefyevona.»

«Good morning, Naum Ivanitch,» she answered. All were silent.

«What have you got, broth, is it?» began Naum.

«Yes, broth,» replied Akim and all at once he turned pale, «but not

for you.»

Naum glanced at Akim with surprise.

«Not for me?»

«Not for you, and that’s all about it.» Akim’s eyes glittered and he

brought his fist on the table. «There is nothing in my house for you,

do you hear?»

«What’s this, Semyonitch, what is the matter with you?»

«There’s nothing the matter with me, but I am sick of you, Naum

Ivanitch, that’s what it is.» The old man got up, trembling all over.

«You poke yourself in here too often, I tell you.»

Naum, too, got up.

«You’ve gone clean off your head, old man,» he said with a jeer.

«Avdotya Arefyevna, what’s wrong with him?»

«I tell you,» shouted Akim in a cracked voice, «go away, do you

hear? … You have nothing to do with Avdotya Arefyevna … I tell

you, do you hear, get out!»

«What’s that you are saying to me?» Naum asked significantly.

«Go out of the house, that’s what I am telling to you. Here’s God and

here’s the door … do you understand? Or there will be trouble.»

Naum took a step forward.

«Good gracious, don’t fight, my dears,» faltered Avdotya, who till

then had sat motionless at the table.

Naum glanced at her.

«Don’t be uneasy, Avdotya Arefyevna, why should we fight? Fie,

brother, what a hullabaloo you are making!» he went on, addressing

Akim. «Yes, really. You are a hasty one! Has anyone ever heard of

turning anyone out of his house, especially the owner of it?» Naum

added with slow deliberateness.

«Out of his house?» muttered Akim. «What owner?»

«Me, if you like.»

And Naum screwed up his eyes and showed his white teeth in a grin.

«You? Why, it’s my house, isn’t it?»

«What a slow-witted fellow you are! I tell you it’s mine.»

Akim gazed at him open-eyed.

«What crazy stuff is it you are talking? One would think you had gone

silly,» he said at last. «How the devil can it be yours?»

«What’s the good of talking to you?» cried Naum impatiently. «Do you

see this bit of paper?» he went on, pulling out of his pocket a sheet

of stamped paper, folded in four, «do you see? This is the deed of

sale, do you understand, the deed of sale of your land and your house;

I have bought them from the lady, from Lizaveta Prohorovna; the deed

was drawn up at the town yesterday; so I am master here, not you. Pack

your belongings today,» he added, putting the document back in his

pocket, «and don’t let me see a sign of you here to-morrow, do you

hear?»

Akim stood as though struck by a thunderbolt.

«Robber,» he moaned at last, «robber…. Heigh, Fedka, Mitka, wife,

wife, seize him, seize him—hold him.»

He lost his head completely.

«Mind now, old man,» said Naum menacingly, «mind what you are about,

don’t play the fool….»

«Beat him, wife, beat him!» Akim kept repeating in a tearful voice,

trying helplessly and in vain to get up. «Murderer, robber…. She is

not enough for you, you want to take my house, too, and everything….

But no, stop a bit … that can’t be…. I’ll go myself, I’ll speak

myself … how … why should she sell it? Wait a bit, wait a bit.»

And he dashed out bareheaded.

«Where are you off to, Akim Ivanitch?» said the servant Fetinya,

running into him in the doorway.

«To our mistress! Let me pass! To