our mistress!» wailed Akim, and
seeing Naum’s cart which had not yet been taken into the yard, he
jumped into it, snatched the reins and lashing the horse with all his
might set off at full speed to his mistress’s house.
«My lady, Lizaveta Prohorovna,» he kept repeating to himself all the
way, «how have I lost your favour? I should have thought I had done my
best!»
And meantime he kept lashing and lashing the horse. Those who met him
moved out of his way and gazed after him.
In a quarter of an hour Akim had reached Lizaveta Prohorovna’s house,
had galloped up to the front door, jumped out of the cart and dashed
straight into the entry.
«What do you want?» muttered the frightened footman who was sleeping
sweetly on the hall bench.
«The mistress, I want to see the mistress,» said Akim loudly.
The footman was amazed.
«Has anything happened?» he began.
«Nothing has happened, but I want to see the mistress.»
«What, what,» said the footman, more and more astonished, and he
slowly drew himself up.
Akim pulled himself up…. He felt as though cold water had been
poured on him.
«Announce to the mistress, please, Pyotr Yevgrafitch,» he said with a
low bow, «that Akim asks leave to see her.»
«Very good … I’ll go … I’ll tell her … but you must be drunk,
wait a bit,» grumbled the footman, and he went off.
Akim looked down and seemed confused…. His determination had
evaporated as soon as he went into the hall.
Lizaveta Prohorovna was confused, too, when she was informed that Akim
had come. She immediately summoned Kirillovna to her boudoir.
«I can’t see him,» she began hurriedly, as soon as the latter
appeared. «I absolutely cannot. What am I to say to him? I told you he
would be sure to come and complain,» she added in annoyance and
agitation. «I told you.»
«But why should you see him?» Kirillovna answered calmly, «there is no
need to. Why should you be worried! No, indeed!»
«What is to be done then?»
«If you will permit me, I will speak to him.»
Lizaveta Prohorovna raised her head.
«Please do, Kirillovna. Talk to him. You tell him … that I found it
necessary … but that I will compensate him … say what you think
best. Please, Kirillovna.»
«Don’t you worry yourself, madam,» answered Kirillovna, and she went
out, her shoes creaking.
A quarter of an hour had not elapsed when their creaking was heard
again and Kirillovna walked into the boudoir with the same unruffled
expression on her face and the same sly shrewdness in her eyes.
«Well?» asked her mistress, «how is Akim?»
«He is all right, madam. He says that it must all be as you graciously
please; that if only you have good health and prosperity he can get
along very well.»
«And he did not complain?»
«No, madam. Why should he complain?»
«What did he come for, then?» Lizaveta Prohorovna asked in some
surprise.
«He came to ask whether you would excuse his yearly payment for next
year, that is, until he has been compensated.»
«Of course, of course,» Lizaveta Prohorovna caught her up eagerly. «Of
course, with pleasure. And tell him, in fact, that I will make it up
to him. Thank you, Kirillovna. I see he is a good-hearted man. Stay,»
she added, «give him this from me,» and she took a three-rouble note
out of her work-table drawer, «Here, take this, give it to him.»
«Certainly, madam,» answered Kirillovna, and going calmly back to her
room she locked the note in an iron-cased box which stood at the head
of her bed; she kept in it all her spare cash, and there was a
considerable amount of it.
Kirillovna had reassured her mistress by her report but the
conversation between herself and Akim had not been quite what she
represented. She had sent for him to the maid’s room. At first he had
not come, declaring that he did not want to see Kirillovna but
Lizaveta Prohorovna herself; he had, however, at last obeyed and gone
by the back door to see Kirillovna. He found her alone. He stopped at
once on getting into the room and leaned against the wall by the door;
he would have spoken but he could not.
Kirillovna looked at him intently.
«You want to see the mistress, Akim Semyonitch?» she began.
He simply nodded.
«It’s impossible, Akim Semyonitch. And what’s the use? What’s done
can’t be undone, and you will only worry the mistress. She can’t see
you now, Akim Semyonitch.»
«She cannot,» he repeated and paused. «Well, then,» he brought out at
last, «so then my house is lost?»
«Listen, Akim Semyonitch. I know you have always been a sensible man.
Such is the mistress’s will and there is no changing it. You can’t
alter that. Whatever you and I might say about it would make no
difference, would it?»
Akim put his arm behind his back.
«You’d better think,» Kirillovna went on, «shouldn’t you ask the
mistress to let you off your yearly payment or something?»
«So my house is lost?» repeated Akim in the same voice.
«Akim Semyonitch, I tell you, it’s no use. You know that better than
I do.»
«Yes. Anyway, you might tell me what the house went for?»
«I don’t know, Akim Semyonitch, I can’t tell you…. But why are you
standing?» she added. «Sit down.»
«I’d rather stand, I am a peasant. I thank you humbly.»
«You a peasant, Akim Semyonitch? You are as good as a merchant, let
alone a house-serf! What do you mean? Don’t distress yourself for
nothing. Won’t you have some tea?»
«No, thank you, I don’t want it. So you have got hold of my house
between you,» he added, moving away from the wall. «Thank you for
that. I wish you good-bye, my lady.»
And he turned and went out. Kirillovna straightened her apron and went
to her mistress.
«So I am a merchant, it seems,» Akim said to himself, standing before
the gate in hesitation. «A nice merchant!» He waved his hand and
laughed bitterly. «Well, I suppose I had better go home.»
And entirely forgetting Naum’s horse with which he had come, he
trudged along the road to the inn. Before he had gone the first mile
he suddenly heard the rattle of a cart beside him.
«Akim, Akim Semyonitch,» someone called to him.
He raised his eyes and saw a friend of his, the parish clerk, Yefrem,
nicknamed the Mole, a little, bent man with a sharp nose and
dim-sighted eyes. He was sitting on a bundle of straw in a wretched
little cart, and leaning forward against the box.
«Are you going home?» he asked Akim.
Akim stopped
«Yes.»
«Shall I give you a lift?»
«Please do.»
Yefrem moved to one side and Akim climbed into the cart. Yefrem, who
seemed to be somewhat exhilarated, began lashing at his wretched
little horse with the ends of his cord reins; it set off at a weary
trot continually tossing its unbridled head.
They drove for nearly a mile without saying one word to each other.
Akim sat with his head bent while Yefrem muttered to himself,
alternately urging on and holding back his horse.
«Where have you been without your cap, Semyonitch?» he asked Akim
suddenly and, without waiting for an answer, went on, «You’ve left it
at some tavern, that’s what you’ve done. You are a drinking man; I
know you and I like you for it, that you are a drinker; you are not a
murderer, not a rowdy, not one to make trouble; you are a good
manager, but you are a drinker and such a drinker, you ought to have
been pulled up for it long ago, yes, indeed; for it’s, a nasty
habit…. Hurrah!» he shouted suddenly at the top of his voice,
«Hurrah! Hurrah!»
«Stop! Stop!» a woman’s voice sounded close by, «Stop!»
Akim looked round. A woman so pale and dishevelled that at first he
did not recognise her, was running across the field towards the cart.
«Stop! Stop!» she moaned again, gasping for breath and waving her
arms.
Akim started: it was his wife.
He snatched up the reins.
«What’s the good of stopping?» muttered Yefrem. «Stopping for a woman?
Gee-up!»
But Akim pulled the horse up sharply. At that instant Avdotya ran up
to the road and flung herself down with her face straight in the dust.
«Akim Semyonitch,» she wailed, «he has turned me out, too!»
Akim looked at her and did not stir; he only gripped the reins
tighter.
«Hurrah!» Yefrem shouted again.
«So he has turned you out?» said Akim.
«He has turned me out, Akim Semyonitch, dear,» Avdotya answered,
sobbing. «He has turned me out. The house is mine, he said, so you can
go.»
«Capital! That’s a fine thing … capital,» observed Yefrem.
«So I suppose you thought to stay on?» Akim brought out bitterly,
still sitting in the cart.
«How could I! But, Akim Semyonitch,» went on Avdotya, who had raised
her head but let it sink to the earth again, «you don’t know, I …
kill me, Akim Semyonitch, kill me here on the spot.»
«Why should I kill you, Arefyevna?» said Akim dejectedly, «you’ve been
your own ruin. What’s the use?»
«But do you know what, Akim Semyonitch, the money … your money …
your money’s gone…. Wretched sinner as I am, I took it from under
the floor, I gave it all to him, to that villain Naum…. Why did you
tell me where you hid your money, wretched sinner as I am? … It’s
with your money he has bought the house, the villain.»
Sobs choked her voice.
Akim clutched his head with both hands.
«What!» he cried at last, «all the money, too … the money and the
house, and you did it…. Ah! You took it from under the floor, you
took it…. I’ll kill you, you snake in the grass!» And he leapt out
of the cart.
«Semyonitch, Semyonitch, don’t beat her, don’t fight,» faltered
Yefrem, on whom this unexpected adventure began to have a sobering
effect.
«No, Akim Semyonitch, kill me, wretched sinner as I am; beat me, don’t
heed him,» cried Avdotya, writhing convulsively at Akim’s feet.
He stood a moment, looked at her, moved a few steps away and sat down
on the grass beside the road.
A brief silence followed. Avdotya turned her head in his direction.
«Semyonitch! hey, Semyonitch,» began Yefrem, sitting up in the cart,
«give over … you know … you won’t make things any better. Tfoo,
what
