she was … a

working-class girl. And then there is my uncle…. I was obliged to

consider him, too.»

«Your uncle?» I cried. «But what the devil do you want with your uncle

whom you never see except at the New Year when you go to congratulate

him? Are you reckoning on his money? But he has got a dozen children

of his own!»

I spoke with heat…. Tyeglev winced and flushed … flushed unevenly,

in patches.

«Don’t lecture me, if you please,» he said dully. «I don’t justify

myself, however. I have ruined her life and now I must pay the

penalty….»

His head sank and he was silent. I found nothing to say, either.

XI

So we sat for a quarter of an hour. He looked away—I looked at

him—and I noticed that the hair stood up and curled above his

forehead in a peculiar way, which, so I have heard from an army doctor

who had had a great many wounded pass through his hands, is always a

symptom of intense overheating of the brain…. The thought struck me

again that fate really had laid a heavy hand on this man and that his

comrades were right in seeing something «fatal» in him. And yet

inwardly I blamed him. «A working-class girl!» I thought, «a fine sort

of aristocrat you are yourself!»

«Perhaps you blame me, Ridel,» Tyeglev began suddenly, as though

guessing what I was thinking. «I am very … unhappy myself. But what

to do? What to do?»

He leaned his chin on his hand and began biting the broad flat nails

of his short, red fingers, hard as iron.

«What I think, Ilya Stepanitch, is that you ought first to make

certain whether your suppositions are correct…. Perhaps your lady

love is alive and well.» («Shall I tell him the real explanation of

the taps?» flashed through my mind. «No—later.»)

«She has not written to me since we have been in camp,» observed

Tyeglev.

«That proves nothing, Ilya Stepanitch.»

Tyeglev waved me off. «No! she is certainly not in this world. She

called me.»

He suddenly turned to the window. «Someone is knocking again!»

I could not help laughing. «No, excuse me, Ilya Stepanitch! This time

it is your nerves. You see, it is getting light. In ten minutes the

sun will be up—it is past three o’clock—and ghosts have no power in

the day.»

Tyeglev cast a gloomy glance at me and muttering through his teeth

«good-bye,» lay down on the bench and turned his back on me.

I lay down, too, and before I fell asleep I remember I wondered why

Tyeglev was always hinting at … suicide. What nonsense! What humbug!

Of his own free will he had refused to marry her, had cast her off …

and now he wanted to kill himself! There was no sense in it! He could

not resist posing!

With these thoughts I fell into a sound sleep and when I opened my

eyes the sun was already high in the sky—and Tyeglev was not in the

hut.

He had, so his servant said, gone to the town.

XII

I spent a very dull and wearisome day. Tyeglev did not return to

dinner nor to supper; I did not expect my brother. Towards evening a

thick fog came on again, thicker even than the day before. I went to

bed rather early. I was awakened by a knocking under the window.

It was my turn to be startled!

The knock was repeated and so insistently distinct that one could have

no doubt of its reality. I got up, opened the window and saw Tyeglev.

Wrapped in his great-coat, with his cap pulled over his eyes, he stood

motionless.

«Ilya Stepanitch!» I cried, «is that you? I gave up expecting you.

Come in. Is the door locked?»

Tyeglev shook his head. «I do not intend to come in,» he pronounced in

a hollow tone. «I only want to ask you to give this letter to the

commanding officer to-morrow.»

He gave me a big envelope sealed with five seals. I was

astonished—however, I took the envelope mechanically. Tyeglev at once

walked away into the middle of the road.

«Stop! stop!» I began. «Where are you going? Have you only just come?

And what is the letter?»

«Do you promise to deliver it?» said Tyeglev, and moved away a few

steps further. The fog blurred the outlines of his figure. «Do you

promise?»

«I promise … but first—»

Tyeglev moved still further away and became a long dark blur.

«Good-bye,» I heard his voice. «Farewell, Ridel, don’t remember evil

against me…. And don’t forget Semyon….»

And the blur itself vanished.

This was too much. «Oh, the damned poseur,» I thought. «You

must always be straining after effect!» I felt uneasy, however; an

involuntary fear clutched at my heart. I flung on my great-coat and

ran out into the road.

XIII

Yes; but where was I to go? The fog enveloped me on all sides. For

five or six steps all round it was a little transparent—but further

away it stood up like a wall, thick and white like cotton wool. I

turned to the right along the village street; our house was the last

but one in the village and beyond it came waste land overgrown here

and there with bushes; beyond the waste land, a quarter of a mile from

the village, there was a birch copse through which flowed the same

little stream that lower down encircled our village. The moon stood, a

pale blur in the sky—but its light was not, as on the evening before,

strong enough to penetrate the smoky density of the fog and hung, a

broad opaque canopy, overhead. I made my way out on to the open ground

and listened…. Not a sound from any direction, except the calling of

the marsh birds.

«Tyeglev!» I cried. «Ilya Stepanitch!! Tyeglev!!»

My voice died away near me without an answer; it seemed as though the

fog would not let it go further. «Tyeglev!» I repeated.

No one answered.

I went forward at random. Twice I struck against a fence, once I

nearly fell into a ditch, and almost stumbled against a peasant’s

horse lying on the ground. «Tyeglev! Tyeglev!» I cried.

All at once, almost behind me, I heard a low voice, «Well, here I am.

What do you want of me?»

I turned round quickly.

Before me stood Tyeglev with his hands hanging at his sides and with

no cap on his head. His face was pale; but his eyes looked animated

and bigger than usual. His breathing came in deep, prolonged gasps

through his parted lips.

«Thank God!» I cried in an outburst of joy, and I gripped him by both

hands. «Thank God! I was beginning to despair of finding you. Aren’t

you ashamed of frightening me like this? Upon my word, Ilya

Stepanitch!»

«What do you want of me?» repeated Tyeglev.

«I want … I want you, in the first place, to come back home with me.

And secondly, I want, I insist, I insist as a friend, that you explain

to me at once the meaning of your actions—and of this letter to the

colonel. Can something unexpected have happened to you in Petersburg?»

«I found in Petersburg exactly what I expected,» answered Tyeglev,

without moving from the spot.

«That is … you mean to say … your friend … this Masha….»

«She has taken her life,» Tyeglev answered hurriedly and as it were

angrily. «She was buried the day before yesterday. She did not even

leave a note for me. She poisoned herself.»

Tyeglev hurriedly uttered these terrible words and still stood

motionless as a stone.

I clasped my hands. «Is it possible? How dreadful! Your presentiment

has come true…. That is awful!»

I stopped in confusion. Slowly and with a sort of triumph Tyeglev

folded his arms.

«But why are we standing here?» I began. «Let us go home.»

«Let us,» said Tyeglev. «But how can we find the way in this fog?»

«There is a light in our windows, and we will make for it. Come

along.»

«You go ahead,» answered Tyeglev. «I will follow you.» We set off. We

walked for five minutes and our beacon light still did not appear; at

last it gleamed before us in two red points. Tyeglev stepped evenly

behind me. I was desperately anxious to get home as quickly as

possible and to learn from him all the details of his unhappy

expedition to Petersburg. Before we reached the hut, impressed by what

he had said, I confessed to him in an access of remorse and a sort of

superstitious fear, that the mysterious knocking of the previous

evening had been my doing … and what a tragic turn my jest had

taken!

Tyeglev confined himself to observing that I had nothing to do with

it—that something else had guided my hand—and this only showed how

little I knew him. His voice, strangely calm and even, sounded close

to my ear. «But you do not know me,» he added. «I saw you smile

yesterday when I spoke of the strength of my will. You will come to

know me—and you will remember my words.»

The first hut of the village sprang out of the fog before us like some

dark monster … then the second, our hut, emerged—and my setter dog

began barking, probably scenting me.

I knocked at the window. «Semyon!» I shouted to Tyeglev’s servant,

«hey, Semyon! Make haste and open the gate for us.»

The gate creaked and opened; Semyon crossed the threshold.

«Ilya Stepanitch, come in,» I said, and I looked round. But no Ilya

Stepanitch was with me. Tyeglev had vanished as though he had sunk

into the earth.

I went into the hut feeling dazed.

XIV

Vexation with Tyeglev and with myself succeeded the amazement with

which I was overcome at first.

«Your master is mad!» I blurted out to Semyon, «raving mad! He

galloped off to Petersburg, then came back and is running about all

over the place! I did get hold of him and brought him right up to the

gate—and here he has given me the slip again! To go out of doors on a

night like this! He has chosen a nice time for a walk!»

«And why did I let go of his hand?» I reproached myself. Semyon looked

at me in silence, as though intending to say something—but after the

fashion of servants in those days he simply shifted from one foot to

the other and said nothing.

«What time