have known him if I had met him

anywhere else. That red, wrinkled, toothless face, those lustreless

round eyes and touzled grey hair, those jerks and capers, that

senseless halting speech! What did it mean? What inhuman despair was

torturing this unhappy creature? What dance of death was this?

«Tchoo—tchoo,» he muttered, wriggling incessantly. «See Vassilyevna

here came in tchoo—tchoo, just now…. Do you hear? With a trough on

the roof» (he slapped himself on the head with his hand), «and there

she sits like a spade, and she is cross-eyed, cross-eyed, like

Andryushka; Vassilyevna is cross-eyed» (he probably meant to say

dumb), «tchoo! My Vassilyevna is cross-eyed! They are both on the same

cork now. You may wonder, good Christians! I have only these two

little boats! Eh?»

Latkin was evidently conscious that he was not saying the right thing

and made terrible efforts to explain to me what was the matter. Raissa

did not seem to hear what her father was saying and the little sister

went on lashing the whip.

«Good-bye, diamond-merchant, good-bye, good-bye,» Latkin drawled

several times in succession, making a low bow, seeming delighted at

having at last got hold of an intelligible word.

My head began to go round.

«What does it all mean?» I asked of an old woman who was looking out

of the window of the little house.

«Well, my good gentleman,» she answered in a sing-song voice, «they

say some man—the Lord only knows who—went and drowned himself and

she saw it. Well, it gave her a fright or something; when she came

home she seemed all right though; but when she sat down on the

step—here, she has been sitting ever since like an image, it’s no good

talking to her. I suppose she has lost her speech, too. Oh, dear! Oh,

dear!»

«Good-bye, good-bye,» Latkin kept repeating, still with the same bow.

I went up to Raissa and stood directly facing her.

«Raissa, dear, what’s the matter with you?»

She made no answer, she seemed not to notice me. Her face had not

grown pale, had not changed—but had turned somehow stony and there

was a look in it as though she were just falling asleep.

«She is cross-eyed, cross-eyed,» Latkin muttered in my ear.

I took Raissa by the hand. «David is alive,» I cried, more loudly than

before. «Alive and well; David’s alive, do you understand? He was

pulled out of the water; he is at home now and told me to say that he

will come to you to-morrow; he is alive!» As it were with effort

Raissa turned her eyes on me; she blinked several times, opening them

wider and wider, then leaned her head on one side and flushed slightly

all over while her lips parted … she slowly drew in a deep breath,

winced as though in pain and with fearful effort articulated:

«Da … Dav … a … alive,» got up impulsively and rushed away.

«Where are you going?» I exclaimed. But with a faint laugh she ran

staggering across the waste-ground….

I, of course, followed her, while behind me a wail rose up in unison

from the old man and the child…. Raissa darted straight to our

house.

«Here’s a day!» I thought, trying not to lose sight of the black dress

that was fluttering before me. «Well!»

XXII

Passing Vassily, my aunt, and even Trankvillitatin, Raissa ran into

the room where David was lying and threw herself on his neck. «Oh…

oh … Da … vidushka,» her voice rang out from under her loose

curls, «oh!»

Flinging wide his arms David embraced her and nestled his head against

her.

«Forgive me, my heart,» I heard his voice saying.

And both seemed swooning with joy.

«But why did you go home, Raissa, why didn’t you stay?» I said to

her…. She still kept her head bowed. «You would have seen that he

was saved….»

«Ah, I don’t know! Ah, I don’t know. Don’t ask. I don’t know, I don’t

remember how I got home. I only remember: I saw you in the air …

something seemed to strike me… and what happened afterwards…»

«Seemed to strike you,» repeated David, and we all three suddenly

burst out laughing together. We were very happy.

«What may be the meaning of this, may I ask,» we heard behind us a

threatening voice, the voice of my father. He was standing in the

doorway. «Will there ever be an end to these fooleries? Where are we

living? Are we in the Russian Empire or the French Republic?»

He came into the room.

«Anyone who wants to be rebellious and immoral had better go to France!

And how dare you come here?» he said, turning to Raissa, who,

quietly sitting up and turning to face him, was evidently taken aback but

still smiled as before, a friendly and blissful smile.

«The daughter of my sworn enemy! How dare you? And hugging him, too!

Away with you at once, or …»

«Uncle,» David brought out, and he sat up in bed. «Don’t insult Raissa.

She is going away, only don’t insult her.»

«And who are you to teach me? I am not insulting her, I am not in …

sul … ting her! I am simply turning her out of the house. I have an

account to settle with you, too, presently. You have made away with

other people’s property, have attempted to take your own life, have put

me to expense.»

«To what expense?» David interrupted.

«What expense? You have ruined your clothes. Do you count that as

nothing? And I had to tip the men who brought you. You have given the

whole family a fright and are you going to be unruly now? And if this

young woman, regardless of shame and honour itself …»

David made a dash as though to get out of bed.

«Don’t insult her, I tell you.»

«Hold your tongue.»

«Don’t dare …»

«Hold your tongue!»

«Don’t dare to insult my betrothed,» cried David at the top of his

voice, «my future wife!»

«Betrothed!» repeated my father, with round eyes. «Betrothed! Wife!

Ho, ho, ho! …» («Ha, ha, ha,» my aunt echoed behind the door.) «Why,

how old are you? He’s been no time in the world, the milk is hardly

dry on his lips, he is a mere babe and he is going to be married! But

I … but you …»

«Let me go, let me go,» whispered Raissa, and she made for the door.

She looked more dead than alive.

«I am not going to ask permission of you,» David went on shouting,

propping himself up with his fists on the edge of the bed, «but of my

own father who is bound to be here one day soon; he is a law to me,

but you are not; but as for my age, if Raissa and I are not old

enough … we will bide our time whatever you may say….»

«Aië, aië, Davidka, don’t forget yourself,» my father interrupted.

«Just look at yourself. You are not fit to be seen. You have lost all

sense of decency.»

David put his hand to the front of his shirt.

«Whatever you may say…» he repeated.

«Oh, shut his mouth, Porfiry Petrovitch,» piped my aunt from behind

the door, «shut his mouth, and as for this hussy, this baggage …

this …»

But something extraordinary must have cut short my aunt’s eloquence at

that moment: her voice suddenly broke off and in its place we heard

another, feeble and husky with old age….

«Brother,» this weak voice articulated, «Christian soul.»

XXIII

We all turned round…. In the same costume

in which I had just seen him, thin, pitiful

and wild looking, Latkin stood before us like an

apparition.

«God!» he pronounced in a sort of childish way, pointing upwards with

a bent and trembling finger and gazing impotently at my father, «God

has chastised me, but I have come for Va … for Ra … yes, yes, for

Raissotchka…. What … tchoo! what is there for me? Soon

underground—and what do you call it? One little stick, another …

cross-beam—that’s what I … want, but you, brother, diamond-merchant

… mind … I’m a man, too!»

Raissa crossed the room without a word and taking his arm buttoned his

vest.

«Let us go, Vassilyevna,» he said; «they are all saints here, don’t

come to them and he lying there in his case»—he pointed to David—«is

a saint, too, but you and I are sinners, brother. Come. Tchoo….

Forgive an old man with a pepper pot, gentleman! We have stolen

together!» he shouted suddenly; «stolen together, stolen together!» he

repeated, with evident satisfaction that his tongue had obeyed him at

last.

Everyone in the room was silent. «And where is … the ikon here,» he

asked, throwing back his head and turning up his eyes; «we must

cleanse ourselves a bit.»

He fell to praying to one of the corners, crossing himself fervently

several times in succession, tapping first one shoulder and then the

other with his fingers and hurriedly repeating:

«Have mercy me, oh, Lor … me, oh, Lor … me, oh, Lor …» My

father, who had not taken his eyes off Latkin, and had not uttered a

word, suddenly started, stood beside him and began crossing himself,

too. Then he turned to him, bowed very low so that he touched the

floor with one hand, saying, «You forgive me, too, Martinyan

Gavrilitch,» kissed him on the shoulder. Latkin in response smacked

his lips in the air and blinked: I doubt whether he quite knew what he

was doing. Then my father turned to everyone in the room, to David, to

Raissa and to me:

«Do as you like, act as you think best,» he brought out in a soft and

mournful voice, and he withdrew.

My aunt was running up to him, but he cried out sharply and gruffly to

her. He was overwhelmed.

«Me, oh, Lor … me, oh, Lor … mercy!» Latkin repeated. «I am a

man.»

«Good-bye, Davidushka,» said Raissa, and she, too, went out of the

room with the old man.

«I will be with you tomorrow,» David called after her, and, turning

his face to the wall, he whispered: «I am very tired; it will be as

well to have some sleep now,» and was quiet.

It was a long while before I went out of the room. I kept in hiding. I

could not forget my father’s threats. But my apprehensions turned out

to be unnecessary. He met me and did not