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+Project Gutenberg's The  Argonauts, by Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The  Argonauts
+
+Author: Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)
+
+Translator: Jeremiah Curtin
+
+Release Date: February 6, 2007 [EBook #20537]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE  ARGONAUTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Andrew Leader of www.polishwriting.net
+
+
+
+
+
+Introduction
+
+Eliza Orzeszko, the authoress of "The Argonauts," is the greatest
+female writer and thinker in the Slav world at present. There are
+keen and good critics, just judges of thought and style, who
+pronounce her the first literary artist among the women of
+Europe.
+
+These critics are not Western Europeans, for Western Europe has
+no means yet of appreciating this gifted woman. No doubt it will
+have these means after a time in the form of adequate
+translations. Meanwhile I repeat that she is the greatest
+authoress among all the Slav peoples. She is a person of rare
+intellectual distinction, an observer of exquisite perception in
+studying men and women, and the difficulties with which they have
+to struggle.
+
+Who are the Slavs among whom Eliza Orzeszko stands thus
+distinguished?
+
+The Slavs form a very large majority of the people in
+Austria-Hungary, an immense majority in European Turkey, and an
+overwhelming majority in the Russian Empire; they are besides an
+unyielding, though repressed, majority in that part of Prussian
+territory known as Posen in German, and Poznan in Polish.
+
+The Slav race occupies an immense region extending from Prussia,
+Bohemia, and the Adriatic eastward to the Pacific Ocean. Its main
+divisions are the Russians, Poles, Bohemians (Chehs), Serbs,
+Bulgarians; its smaller divisions are the Slovaks, Wends,
+Slovinians, Croats, Montenegrins. These all have literature in
+some form, literature which in respect to the world outside is
+famous, well known, little known, or unknown.
+
+The Slavs have behind them a history dramatic to the utmost,
+varied, full of suffering, full also, of heroism in endurance or
+valor.
+
+The present time is momentous for all nations, the future is a
+tangled riddle; for the Slavs this seems true in a double
+measure. To involved social problems is added race opposition in
+the breasts of neighbors, a deep, sullen historic hostility.
+Hence when a writer of power appears among the Slavs, whether he
+takes up the past or the present, he has that at hand through
+which he compels the whole world to listen. Sienkiewicz has shown
+this, so has Tolstoy, so have Dostoyevski and Gogol.
+
+The present volume gives in translation a book which should be
+widely read with much pleasure. The winning of money on an
+immense scale to the neglect of all other objects, to the neglect
+even of the nearest duties, is the sin of one Argonaut; the utter
+neglect of money and the proper means of living is the ruin of
+the other.
+
+Darvid by "iron toil" laid the basis of a splendid structure, but
+went no farther; he had not the time, he had not the power,
+perhaps, to build thereon himself, and his wife, to whom he left
+the task, had not the character to do so. By neglect of duty
+Darvid is brought to madness; by neglect of money Kranitski is
+brought to be a parasite, and when he loses even that position he
+is supported by a servant.
+
+The right use of wealth, the proper direction of labor, these are
+supreme questions in our time, and beyond all in America.
+
+Friends have advised Madame Orzeszko to visit this country and
+study it; visit Chicago, the great business centre, the most
+active city on earth, and New York, the great money capital. If
+she comes she will see much to rouse thought. What will she see?
+That we know how to win money and give proper use to it? Whatever
+she sees, it will be something of value, that is undoubted;
+something that may be compared with European conditions,
+something to be compared with the story in this book.
+
+Eliza Orzeszko writes because she cannot help writing; her works,
+contained in forty-odd volumes, touch on the most vital subjects
+in the world about her. She tells the truth precisely as she sees
+it. We may hope for much yet from the pen of this lady, who is
+still in the best years of her intellectual activity.
+
+Madame Orzeszko was born a little more than fifty years ago in
+Lithuania, that part of the Commonwealth which produced
+Mickiewicz, the great poet, and Kosciuszko the hero.
+
+THE ARGONAUTS
+
+By Eliza Orzeszko (Orzeszkowa)
+
+Translated by Jeremiah Curtin
+Bristol, Vt., U.S.A.
+September 12, 1901.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+It was the mansion of a millionaire. On the furniture and the
+walls of drawing-rooms, colors and gleams played as on the
+surface of a pearl shell. Mirrors reflected pictures, and inlaid
+floors shone like mirrors. Here and there dark tapestry and
+massive curtains seemed to decrease the effect, but only at first
+sight, for, in fact, they lent the whole interior a dignity which
+was almost churchlike. At some points everything glistened,
+gleamed, changed into azure, scarlet, gold, bronze, and the
+various tints of white peculiar to plaster-of-Paris, marble,
+silk, porcelain. In that house were products of Chinese and
+Japanese skill; the styles of remote ages were there, and the
+most exquisite and elegant among modern styles, lamps,
+chandeliers, candlesticks, vases, ornamental art in its highest
+development. Withal much taste and skill was evident, a certain
+tact in placing things, and a keenness in disposing them, which
+indicated infallibly the hand and the mind of a woman who was far
+above mediocrity.
+
+The furnishing of this mansion must have cost sums which to the
+poor would seem colossal, and very considerable even to the
+wealthy.
+
+Aloysius Darvid, the owner of this mansion, had not inherited his
+millions; he had won them with his own iron labor, and he toiled
+continually to increase them. His industry, inventiveness, and
+energy were inexhaustible. To him business seemed to be what
+water is to a fish: the element which gives delight and freedom.
+What was his business? Great and complicated enterprises: the
+erection of public edifices, the purchase, sale, and exchange of
+values of various descriptions, exchanges in many markets and
+corporations. To finish all this business it was necessary to
+possess qualities of the most opposite character: the courage of
+the lion and the caution of the fox, the talons of the falcon and
+the elasticity of the cat. His life was passed at a gaming-table,
+composed of the whole surface of a gigantic State; that life was
+a species of continuous punting at a bank kept by blind chance
+rather frequently; for calculation and skill, which meant very
+much in his career, could not eliminate chance altogether, that
+power which appears independently. Hence, he must not let chance
+overthrow him; he might drop to the earth before its thrusts and
+contract a muscle, but only to parry, make an elastic spring, and
+seize new booty. His career was success rising and falling like a
+river, it was also a fever, ceaselessly bathed in cool
+calculation and reckoning.
+
+As to the rest, post-wagons, railways, bells at railway stations,
+urging to haste, glittering snows of the distant North, mountains
+towering on the boundary between two parts of the world, rivers
+cutting through uninhabited regions, horizons marked with the
+gloomy lines of Siberian forests, solitary since the beginning of
+ages. Then, as a change: noise, glitter, throngs, the brilliancy
+of capitals, and in those capitals a multitude of doors, some of
+which open with freedom, while others are closed hermetically;
+before doors of the second sort the pliancy of the cat's paw is
+needed; this finds a hole where the broad way is impossible.
+
+He was forced to be absent from his family for long months,
+sometimes for whole years, and even when living under the same
+roof with the members of it he was a rare guest, never a real
+confiding companion. For permanence, intimacy, tender feeling in
+relations, with even those who were nearest him, Darvid had not
+the time, just as he had not the time to concentrate his thoughts
+on any subject whatever unless it was connected with his lines,
+dates, and figures, or with the meshes of that net in which he
+enclosed his thoughts and his iron labor.
+
+As to amusements and delights of life, they were at intervals
+love-affairs, flashing up on a sudden, transient, fleeting,
+vanishing with the smoke of the locomotive which rushed forward,
+at times luxuries of the table peculiar to various climates, or
+majestic scenery which forced itself on the eye by its grandeur
+and disappeared quickly, or some hours of animated card-playing;
+but, above all, relations with social magnates, who were on the
+one hand of use, and on the other an immensely great honor to his
+vanity. Money and significance, these were the two poles around
+which all Darvid's thoughts, desires, and feelings circled; or,
+at least, it might seem all, for who can be certain that nothing
+exists in a man save that which is manifest in his actions?
+Surely no one, not the man himself even.
+
+After three years' absence, Darvid had returned only a few months
+before to his native city, and to his own house, where he was as
+ever a rare and inattentive guest. Pie was laboring again. In the
+first week, on the first day almost, he discovered a new field;
+he was very anxious to seize this field, and begin his Herculean
+efforts on it. But the seizure depended on a certain very highly
+placed personage to whom, up to that time, he had not been able
+to gain admittance.
+
+The cat's paw had played about a number of times to open a
+crevice in the closed door, but in vain! He desired a
+confidential talk of two hours, but could not obtain it.
+
+He turned then to a method which had given him real service
+frequently.
+
+He found an individual who had the art of squeezing into all
+places, of winning everyone, of digging from under the earth
+circumstances, relations, influences. Individuals of this kind
+are generally dubious in character, but this concerned Darvid in
+no way. He considered that at the bottom of life dregs are found
+as surely as slime is in rivers which have golden sand. He
+thought of life's dregs and smiled contemptuously, but did not
+hesitate to handle those dregs, and see if there were golden
+grains in them. He called his dubious assistants hounds, for they
+tracked game in thickets inaccessible to the hunter. Small,
+almost invisible, they were still better able than he to contract
+muscles, creep up or spring over. He had let out such a hound a
+few days before to gain the desired audience, and had received no
+news from him thus far. This disturbed and annoyed Darvid
+greatly. He would rush into the new work like a lion into an
+arena, and spring at fresh prey.
+
+The evening twilight came down into the series of great and small
+chambers. Darvid, in his study, furnished with such dignified
+wealth that it was almost severe in the rich lamp-light, received
+men who came on affairs of various descriptions: with reports,
+accounts, requests, proposals.
+
+In that study everything was dark-colored, massive, grand in its
+proportions, of great price, but not flashy. Not the least object
+was showy or fantastic; nothing was visible save dignity and
+comfort. There were books behind the glass of a splendid
+bookcase, two great pictures on the wall, a desk with piles of
+papers, in the middle of the room a round table covered with
+maps, pamphlets, thick volumes; around the table, heavy, deep and
+low armchairs. The room was spacious with a lofty ceiling, from
+which hung over the round table a splendid lamp, burning
+brightly.
+
+Darvid's remote prototype, the Argonaut Jason, must have had
+quite a different exterior when he sailed on toward Colchis to
+find the golden fleece. Time, which changes the methods of
+contest, changes the forms of its knights correspondingly. Jason
+trusted in the strength of his arm and his sword-blade. Darvid
+trusted in his brain and his nerves only. Hence, in him, brain
+and nerves were developed to the prejudice of muscles, creating a
+special power, which one had to know in order to recognize it in
+that slender and not lofty figure, in that face with shrunken
+cheeks, covered with skin which was dry, pale, and as mobile as
+if quivering from every breeze which carried his bark toward the
+shores which he longed for. On his cheeks shone narrow strips of
+whiskers, almost bronze-hued; the silky ends of these fell on his
+stiff, low collar; ruddy mustaches, short and firm, darkened his
+pale, thin lips, which had a smile in the changeableness of which
+was great expression; this smile encouraged, discouraged,
+attracted, repelled, believed, doubted, courted or jeered-jeered
+frequently. But the main seat of power in Darvid seemed to be his
+eyes, which rested long and attentively on that which he
+examined. These eyes had pupils of steel color, cold, very deep,
+and with a fullness of penetrating light which was often sharp,
+under brows which were prominent, whose ruddy lines were drawn
+under a high forehead, increased further by incipient baldness-a
+forehead which was smooth and had the polish of ivory; between
+the brows were numerous wrinkles, like a cloud of anxiety and
+care. His was a cold, reasoning face, energetic, with the stamp
+of thought fixed between the brows, and lines of irony which had
+made the mouth drawn.
+
+A jurist, one of the most renowned in that great city, held in
+his hand an open volume of the Code, and was reading aloud a
+series of extracts from it. Darvid was standing and listening
+attentively, but irony increased in his smile, and, when the
+jurist stopped reading, he began in a low voice. This voice with
+its tones suppressed, as it were, through caution, was one of
+Darvid's peculiarities.
+
+"Pardon me, but what you have read has no relation to the point
+which concerns us." Taking the book he turned over its pages for
+a while and began then to read from it. In reading he used
+glasses with horn-rims; from these the yellowish pallor of his
+lean face became deeper. The renowned jurist was confused and
+astonished.
+
+"You are right," said he. "I was mistaken. You know law
+famously." How was he to avoid knowing it, since it was his
+weapon and safety-valve! The jurist sat down on one of the broad
+and low armchairs in silence, and now the architect unrolled on
+the table the plan of a public edifice to which the last finish
+was to be given during winter and before work began in spring.
+
+Darvid listened again in silent thought, looking at the plan with
+his steel-colored eyes, in which at times there flashed sparks of
+ideas coming from the brain-ideas which, after a while, he
+presented to the trained architect. He spoke in a voice low and
+fluent; he spoke connectedly and very clearly. The architect
+answered with respect, and, like, the jurist who had preceded,
+not without a certain astonishment. Great God! this man knows
+everything; he moves as freely in the fields of architecture,
+mathematics, and law as in his own chamber! Darvid noticed the
+astonishment of those around him, and irony settled on his thin
+lips. Did those men imagine that he could begin such undertakings
+and be like a blind man among colors? Some begin thus but are
+ruined! He understood that in our time immense knowledge is the
+only foundation for pyramidal fortunes, and his memory alone knew
+the long series of nights which had passed above his head while
+it was sleepless in winning knowledge.
+
+Next appeared before the table a young man, lean and slender; his
+dark eyes expressed genius, his clothing was threadbare, his
+gestures almost vulgar. This was a sculptor, young but already
+famous. The man had incipient consumption, which brought
+excessive ruddiness to his face, a glitter to his eyes, and a
+short, rasping cough from his breast.
+
+He spoke of the sculptures which he was to finish for the
+edifices reared by the great contractor; he showed the drawings
+of them, and explained his ideas; he rose to enthusiasm; he spoke
+more loudly, and coughed at more frequent intervals. Darvid
+raised his head; the sensitive skin on his cheeks quivered with a
+delicate movement; he touched the shoulder of the artist with the
+tips of two white, slender fingers.
+
+"Best," said he; "it hurts you to speak too long."
+
+"My younger daughter coughs in just this way," remarked he to the
+other men present, "and it troubles me somewhat."
+
+"Perhaps a visit to Italy," said the architect.
+
+"Yes, I have thought of that, but the doctors note nothing
+dangerous so far." Then he turned to the sculptor:
+
+"You ought to visit Italy, for its collections of art and--its
+climate." The artist, not pleased with this interruption, did not
+answer directly, but went on showing his projects and explaining
+them; though his short breath and the cough, which was repeated
+oftener, made his conversation more difficult. Thereupon Darvid
+straightened himself.
+
+"I know very little of art," said he. "Not because I despise it;
+on the contrary, I think art a power, since the world does it
+homage, but because I lack time. Trouble yourself no further to
+exhibit plans and ideas here. I confirm them beforehand, knowing
+well what I do. Prince Zeno, whose good taste and intellect I
+admire, advised me to turn to you. At his house, moreover, I have
+seen works of your chisel which charmed me. Some declare that we
+men of finance and business represent only matter, and have no
+concern with Psyche (the soul). But I say that your Psyche, now
+in Prince Zeno's palace, produced on me the impression that I am
+not matter only."
+
+Irony covered his lips, but with increased amiability he added:
+
+"Let us fix the amount of your honorarium, permit me to take the
+initiative," said he, hurriedly.
+
+In a tone of inquiry he mentioned a sum which was very
+considerable. The sculptor bowed, unwilling, or unable to conceal
+his delight and astonishment. Darvid touched him lightly on the
+arm, and conducted him to a great desk, one drawer of which he
+opened. The jurist and the architect at the round table exchanged
+glances.
+
+"A protege of the prince!" whispered one.
+
+"Cleverness! advertising!" whispered the other.
+
+"I know from report," said Darvid, to the young artist, "that
+sculptors must spend considerable sums before they begin a given
+work. Here is an advance. Do not hesitate. Money should be at the
+service of talent."
+
+The sculptor was astonished. He had imagined the millionaire as
+entirely different.
+
+"Money should be at the service of talent!" repeated he.
+
+"I hear this for the first time from a man having money! Do you
+really think so?" Darvid smiled, but his face clouded
+immediately.
+
+"My dear sir," said he, "I would give, I think, much money if a
+cough like yours were not in the world."
+
+"Because of your daughter--" began the sculptor, but Darvid had
+grown cold now, ceremonious, and he turned toward the round
+table.
+
+At the same moment a servant announced from the door a new guest.
+
+"Pan Arthur Kranitski."
+
+The guest entered immediately after the servant, and passed the
+outgoing sculptor in the door.
+
+This guest was a man who carried his fifth decade of years with
+youthful elasticity of movement, and with a pleasant, winning
+expression on his still handsome face. In general he seemed to be
+clothed with remnants of great manly beauty, from behind which,
+like soiled lining through rents in a once splendid robe,
+appeared, carefully concealed, old age, which was premature,
+perhaps.
+
+A tall man with a shapely oval face, he had dark whiskers, and
+the black curls of his hair did not cover successfully the bald
+spot appearing on the back of his head; his mustache was curled
+upward, in the fashion of young men, above ruddy lips; he passed
+through the study with a youthful step, and had the express
+intention of greeting the master of the house in a cordial and
+intimate manner. But in the cold eyes of Darvid appeared flashes
+well-nigh threatening; he barely touched with his finger-tips the
+hand extended by the guest-a hand really aristocratic, white,
+slender, and greatly cared for.
+
+"Pardon, pardon, dear Pan Aloysius, that I come at this hour,
+just the hour of thy important, immense, colossal occupations!
+But on receiving thy invitation I hastened."
+
+"Yes," said Darvid, "I need to talk with you a little--will you
+wait a while?"
+
+He turned toward the two men standing by the table, who when he
+greeted Kranitski looked at him with a curiosity impossible to
+conceal.
+
+Every meeting of Darvid with that eternal guest, that offshoot of
+aristocratic families, roused the curiosity of people. For a good
+while Darvid did not know this, but at last he discovered it, and
+now his quick glance caught on the lips of the famous jurist a
+barely discernible smile, to meet which a similar smile appeared
+on the lips of the architect. He discoursed a few minutes more
+with the two men. When they turned to go he conducted them to the
+door; when that was closed he turned to Kranitski and said:
+
+"Now I am at your service."
+
+No one had ever seen service so icy cold, and having in it the
+shade of a restrained threat. Kranitski in view of this spent
+more time than was needed in placing his hat on one of the pieces
+of furniture, besides an expression of alarm covered his face,
+now bent forward, and, in the twinkle of an eye, the wrinkling of
+his forehead and the dropping of his cheeks, made him look ten
+years older. Still with grace which was unconscious, since it had
+passed long before into habit, he turned to Darvid.
+
+"Thou hast written to me, dear Pan Aloysius--"
+
+"I have called you," interrupted Darvid, "for the purpose of
+proposing a certain condition, and a change."
+
+From a thick, long book he cut out a page, on which, previously,
+he had written a few words in haste, and giving it to Kranitski,
+he said:
+
+"Here is a bank check for a considerable sum. Your affairs, as I
+hear, are in a very disagreeable condition."
+
+Kranitski's face grew radiant from delight, and became ten years
+younger. Taking the check presented to him he began, with a
+certain hesitation:
+
+"Dear Pan Aloysius, this service, really friendly, which thou art
+rendering me, even without request on my part, is truly
+magnanimous, but be assured that the moment income from my
+property increases--"
+
+Darvid interrupted him a second time.
+
+"We know each other so long that I cannot be ignorant of what
+your property is, and what income you receive from it. You have
+no property. You own a little village, the income from which has
+never sufficed to satisfy even one half of your needs. In that
+little village you would have passed your life unknown to the
+great world if your mother had not been a relative of Prince
+Zeno, and some other coronets of nine quarterings. But since you
+had relationship so brilliant through your mother, high society
+did not suffer from the loss of your presence. I know all that
+relates to you, you need not try to lead me into error--I know
+everything."
+
+On the last words he put an emphasis which seemed to bring
+Kranitski into a profound confusion, which he could not master.
+
+"Parole d'honneur," began he, "I do not understand such a real
+friendly service with such a tone."
+
+"You will understand at once. This sum offered you is not a
+friendly service, but a simple commercial transaction. To begin
+with, I insist that for the future you cut short all relations
+with my son Maryan."
+
+Kranitski stepped back a number of paces.
+
+"With Maryan!" exclaimed he, as if not wishing to believe his own
+ears. "I break all relations with him! Is it possible? Why? How
+can that be? But you yourself--"
+
+"That is true, I myself began this. I wished that my family,
+which, during my frequent absences, resided here permanently,
+should move in that social sphere which I considered most
+desirable, and I asked you to be the link between my family and
+that sphere--"
+
+"I did what you desired," interrupted Kranitski in turn, and
+raising his head.
+
+Darvid, looking firmly into his face, said in a low voice,
+slowly, but the ice of his tones seemed at moments to break from
+the boiling of passion confined beneath them.
+
+"Yes, but you, sir, have demoralized my son. Of himself he would
+never have gone to such a degree of corruption and idleness. You
+drew him from study, you led him into all kinds of sport, you
+took him to all places of amusement, from the highest to the
+lowest. On returning, after three years' absence, I found Maryan
+withered morally. Luckily he is a child yet, twenty-three years
+of age, it is possible to save him. The process of salvation I
+begin by forbidding you to have any further relations whatever
+with my son."
+
+Darvid grew terrible during his remaining words. His fingers were
+sinking into the table, on which he rested his hand. The cluster
+of wrinkles between his brows became deeper, his eyes had the
+flash of steel in them; he was all hatred, anger, contempt. But
+Kranitski, who at first listened to him as if unable to move from
+astonishment, boiled up also with anger.
+
+"What do you say?" cried he. "Does not my hearing deceive me? You
+reproach me! Me, who during your ceaseless occupations and
+absences have been for many years, one may say, the only guardian
+of your family, and director of your son. Well! Then do you not
+remember our former intimacy, and this, that it was I who made
+you acquainted with the highest families of this city, and all
+this country? Do you not remember your confidential statements to
+me that you wished to give your daughters in marriage within
+those circles to which my connections might be a convenient
+bridge for you? Do you not remember your requests that I should
+introduce Maryan into the best society, and teach him the manners
+prevailing there? Very well! You were making your millions in
+peace, going after them to the ends of the earth, while I did
+everything that you wished, and now I meet with reproaches,
+which, at the very least, are expressed without delicacy--des
+reproches, des grossieretes--Mais ca n'a pas de nom! c'est inoui!
+This demands the satisfaction of honor."
+
+His indignation was genuine and heartfelt; it brought out a deep
+flush on his still shapely face. A stony amazement fell on
+Darvid. True, true, that man spoke the truth.
+
+He, Darvid, had used him for his purposes; he had liked the man,
+almost loved him; he had given him great confidence. He had not
+looked into his character; he had not tried to know him, though
+he had found time to analyze and know men who took no part in his
+business. But the fact in this case was, that whatever had
+happened, had happened with his own will. From the depth of his
+bosom, from out their mysterious den, came a coil of snakes, and
+a repulsive coldness and slime rose toward his throat, still he
+reared his head.
+
+"There is much truth in what you say; still my decisive and
+repeated wish is that you cease to appear in my house."
+
+Kranitski's forehead was flushed with blood, and the words were
+hissing on his lips when he cried:
+
+"In view of such feelings of yours toward me, how am I to explain
+the service rendered just now?"
+
+"As pay for service which you have rendered me, or my family. I
+pay, we are at quits, and part forever."
+"You are not the only power in this world!" cried Kranitski; "not
+your will alone can open or close the doors of this house to me."
+
+Darvid, so pale that even his thin lips did not seem to possess a
+drop of blood, took from a letter-case and showed Kranitski,
+between two fingers, a letter in a small elegant envelope,
+bearing the address of Pani Malvina Darvid.
+
+The dark flush vanished from Kranitski without a trace; he became
+very pale and rested his hand on the arm of the chair; his eyes
+opened widely. Silence lasted some seconds; between those two men
+with faces as pale as linen hung the terror of a discovered
+secret. Darvid, with a voice so stifled that it was barely
+audible, was the first to speak.
+
+"How this letter came into my hands we need not explain! Simply
+by chance. Such chances are very common, and they have in them
+only this good, that at times they put an end to deceit
+and--villainy!"
+
+Kranitski, still very pale except that red spots were coming out
+on his forehead, looked very old all at once; he advanced some
+steps and stood before Darvid, the round table alone was between
+them. With stifled voice, but fixing his black, flashing eyes
+boldly on Darvid's face, he said:
+
+"Deceit! villainy! those words are said easily! Do you not know
+that in early youth your wife was almost my betrothed?"
+
+Darvid's lips were covered with irony, and he said:
+
+"You deserted her at command of your mother, when she sent you to
+this capital in search of the golden fleece."
+
+"And when you went to the ends of the earth for it," answered
+Kranitski, "you thought proper to place me to guard the woman
+whom I loved formerly. You considered yourself invincible, even
+when separated by hundreds or thousands of miles from her--"
+
+"Let us stop this ridiculous discussion," said Darvid.
+
+"As for me," put in Kranitski, with animation, "I will finish it
+by offering you any satisfaction which you may demand. I await
+your seconds."
+
+Darvid laughed loudly and sharply.
+
+"A duel! Do you think that the world would not know the cause of
+it? Your former betrothed would appear in the matter. For that I
+should care less, though I must care, for she bears my name, but
+I have daughters, and I have business--"
+
+He was silent a while, then he finished:
+
+"A scandal might injure my business, and most assuredly would
+injure the future of my daughters; therefore I will neither
+challenge you to a duel, nor will I direct my servants to thrash
+you!"
+
+A trembling shook Kranitski from head to foot, as if from the
+effects of a blow; he straightened himself, he became manful, and
+crushing in his hand the bank check which he had received, hurled
+that paper bullet into Darvid's face so directly that it hit him
+at the top of his bronze colored whiskers and fell to his feet.
+Then with elastic movement, and with a grace which was
+unconscious and uncommon, he turned toward the door and strode
+out. Darvid remained alone. In that spacious, lofty chamber,
+richly furnished, in the abundant light of a costly lamp, he
+remained alone. Clasping his inclined head with both hands, he
+squeezed it with his white, lean fingers, as with pincers. How
+many vexations and troubles had met him here after an absence of
+years! There was something greater still than even these
+vexations and troubles. The coil of serpents rose in his breast
+and crawled up to his very throat.
+
+That was torture mixed with a feeling of unendurable disgust. But
+Darvid avoided high-sounding phrases, and would never think or
+say: torture, disgust. That was a manner of speaking for idlers
+and poets. He, a man of iron industry, knew only the words
+vexation, trouble. What is he to do now with that woman? Throw
+her out like a beast which, bathed in milk and honey by its
+owner, has bitten him to the blood? Impossible. His children,
+especially his daughters, his business, his position, his
+house--scandals are harmful in every way. So he must live on
+under the same roof with her; meet the sight of her face, her
+eyes--those eyes which on a time were for him--yes, it cannot be
+otherwise.
+
+He must endure that and master himself; master himself mightily,
+so as not to let things reach a scene, or reproaches, or
+explanation. Naturally, no scenes, disputes, or explanations.
+For, first of all, what can they profit? Nothing save a useless
+expense of energy, and he needs energy so much.
+
+Besides, the very best punishment for that woman is unbroken
+silence, which will raise between her and him an impenetrable
+wall. From words, even though they be as sharp as sword-edges,
+some sound may be got, some slight hope of salvation; but
+silence, concealing hidden knowledge of a deed, is a coffin in
+which, from the first hour of each day to the end of it, that
+woman's pride will be placed with all that in her may still be
+human. Contempt as silent as the grave! She will eat of his
+millions, seasoned with his contempt. She will array herself in
+his millions, interwoven with his hatred. Hatred? Oh, beyond
+doubt he hates her with passion, and only at times does her name
+move marvellously through his brain with such sounds as if they
+were the echo of things very dear, things lost forever and
+irreplaceable. Can it be? Is it possible that she did that?
+Malvina, once an ideal maiden, and ten years later a woman so
+loving that when he was going on a journey she threw herself on
+her knees and wept, and then besought him not to go from her! He
+remembers the scene perfectly.
+
+Her hair of pale gold, dropping then in disorder to her shoulders
+and bosom--her magnificent hair, surrounded by which the tears
+flowing down her face glistened like diamonds! He raised his
+head, straightened himself. What stupidity! On what sentiment and
+exaltation is he losing time and energy! He needs them for
+something else. He needs to concentrate all his forces to bring
+his new designs to the desired culmination. Why does "that hound"
+not show himself and bring the answer needed? Ah, if he could
+only get one hour of that conversation, he would convince; he
+would capture; he would overcome rivals, and seize into his own
+sole possession new fields of industry and speculation! There are
+hindrances, intrigues, dangerous rivalries, he knows of them, and
+these oppositions it is precisely which attract him most of all.
+Now especially, with those vexations and troubles, victory and
+the new work would be as a spoonful of hashish to him, or a glass
+of strong, invigorating wine. He must go to the club. A game of
+cards, to which he devotes some night hours frequently, is not
+specially pleasant, but he plays with persons of high position in
+society, or with those who are needed in his business. He will
+find perhaps, also, that man for whom he has been waiting,
+vainly, some days.
+
+He was extending his hand to the button of the electric bell when
+from behind the portieres which half hid the door opening to the
+interior of the mansion a thin and timid voice came; one could
+hardly tell whether it was the voice of a child or a young lady:
+
+"Is it permitted to enter?"
+
+Darvid went to the door hurriedly, saying, also hurriedly:
+
+"It is! It is!"
+
+At that moment, from the darkness which filled the adjoining
+room, into the abundant light of the study, came a maiden of
+fifteen years, in a bright dress; she was tall and very slender,
+with a small waist and narrow breast. An immense wealth of pale,
+golden hair seemed to bend back with its weight her small,
+shapely head somewhat; her oval face, with its delicate features,
+had the blush of spring on it; her lips were like cherries, and
+under the arches of her dark brows were large dark eyes. Right
+behind the bright dress of the girl came a small shaggy creature,
+a ball of ash colored silk, a little dog.
+
+"Cara!" cried Darvid, "well, you are here, little one! How often
+have I asked you to come always boldly. How do you feel to-day?
+You have not coughed much, I think? Have you taken your daily
+walk? With whom did you go? With Miss Mary, or Irene? Come, come,
+sit here in this armchair."
+
+He held her small hand in his and led her toward the table, which
+was surrounded with armchairs. In his movements there was
+something polished and exquisite, as it were delicacy toward a
+person who was very dear and not much known, pushed to the degree
+where it might be called gallantry. Joined with this was a
+feeling of delight. She was pleased and smiling, but she was
+blushing and embarrassed. Advancing with short steps at his side,
+she bent to his hand every moment and kissed it. Her act was full
+of a timid charm, half capricious. They both looked like persons
+who were greatly pleased at meeting, but who remained on a
+footing of ceremony with each other. He received her in his study
+as a queen; he seated her in an armchair, then, sitting very
+near, he held her hands in his. Between them, on the edge of his
+mistress's skirt, sat the dog with the ash-colored coat, in a
+posture of disquiet and uncertainty; it was evident that he was
+not accustomed to visit that room. Cara also, with an expression
+of timid happiness on her lips which were open, cast her glance
+with a smile on the vases and the walls, uncertain whether she
+was to speak, not knowing if she might say something; she bore
+herself very simply; her small hands rested without motion
+between her father's palms. At last she said, in a very low
+voice:
+
+"I was so anxious to see you, father, dear; I wished so much to
+speak with you that I have come."
+
+"You have done excellently, my little one. Why not come oftener?
+Your coming gives me great pleasure."
+
+While speaking he looked all the time into her face, which was
+almost that of a little child. She was so like her mother, that
+Malvina's youth was simply renewed in Cara.
+
+But Malvina, when he made her acquaintance, was considerably
+older; the hair was just the same, very bright, and the eyes with
+dark brows and pupils, the same shape of forehead. With a
+deepening of the wrinkles between his brows he repeated:
+
+"Why not come offener?"
+
+"You are always so occupied, father," whispered she.
+
+"What of that?" answered he hurriedly and abruptly.
+
+"There is reproach in your voice. Are my occupations a crime? But
+labor is service, it is the value of a man. My children should
+esteem my labor more than others, since I toil for them as much,
+or even more, than for myself."
+
+He did not even think of speaking to that child with a voice so
+abrupt, and with such a cloud on his forehead; but that cloud
+came to him from some place within, from a distant feeling of
+something which he had never looked at directly before. But he
+hardly knew the girl! When he went away the last time she was a
+child; now she was almost full grown. But she, in the twinkle of
+an eye, slipped from the low armchair to the carpet, and kneeling
+with clasped hands began to speak passionately and quickly:
+
+"Your child is on her knees before you, father. When you were far
+away she revered you, did you homage, longed for you; when you
+are here she loves you greatly, above everything--"
+
+Here she turned and removed from her dress the ball of
+ash-colored silk, which was climbing to her shoulder.
+
+"Go away, Puffie, go away! I have no time for thee now."
+
+She pushed away the little dog, which sat on the carpet some
+steps distant. Darvid felt a stream of pleasant warmth flooding
+into his breast from the words of his daughter; but on principle
+he did not like enthusiasm. In feelings and the expression of
+them he esteemed moderation beyond everything. He raised with
+both hands the girl's head, which was bending toward his knees.
+
+"Be not excited, be not carried away. Repose is beautiful, it is
+indispensable; without repose no calculation can be accurate, no
+work complete. Your attachment makes me happy; but compose
+yourself, rise from your knees, sit comfortably."
+
+She put her hands together as in prayer.
+
+"Let me stay as I am, father, at your knee. I imagined that on
+your return I should be able to talk often and long with you; to
+ask about everything, learn everything from you."
+
+She coughed. Darvid took her in his arms, and, without raising
+her from her knees, he drew her to his breast.
+
+"See! your cough lasts! Do you cough much? Well, do not speak, do
+not speak! let it pass. Does this cough pass quickly?"
+
+It had passed. She stopped coughing, laughed. Her teeth glittered
+like pearls between her red lips. A gleam of delight shot through
+Darvid's eyes.
+
+"It has gone already! I do not cough often, only rarely. I am
+perfectly well. I was very sick when I got chilled at an open
+window while you were away, father."
+
+"I know, I know. Your enthusiastic little head thought of opening
+the window on a winter night, so as to peep out and see how the
+garden looked covered with snow in the moonlight."
+
+"The trees, father, the trees!" began she, smiling and with
+vivacity; "not the whole garden, just the trees, which, covered
+with snow and frost in the moonlight, were like pillars of
+marble, alabaster, crystal, set with diamonds, hung with laces;
+and whenever the slightest breeze moved, a rain of pearls was
+scattered on the ground."
+"Great God!" exclaimed Darvid, "marbles, alabasters, laces,
+diamonds, pearls! But there was nothing of all this in fact!
+There was nothing but dry trunks, branches, snow, and hoar-frost.
+That is exaltation! And you see how destructive it may be! It
+brought you acute inflammation of the lungs, the traces of which
+are not gone yet."
+
+"They are!" answered she, in passing, and then she spoke
+seriously. "My father, is it exaltation to worship something
+which is very beautiful, or to love some one greatly with all our
+strength? If it is--then I am given to exaltation, but without
+exaltation what could we live for?"
+
+An expression of wonder, meditation, thoughtfulness filled her
+eyes and covered her finely cut face with a freshness like that
+of a wild rose. With a movement of wonder she opened her arms,
+and repeated:
+
+"What do we live for?"
+
+Darvid laughed.
+
+"I see that your head is turned a little, but you are a child
+yet, and your trouble will pass."
+
+Stroking her pale, golden hair, he continued:
+
+"Homage, love, and like things of the sensational sort, are very
+nice, very beautiful, but should not occupy the first place."
+
+Cara listened so eagerly that her mouth was open somewhat, and
+she became motionless as a statue.
+
+"But what should stand in the first place, father?"
+
+Darvid did not answer at once. What? What should stand in the
+first place?
+
+"Duty," said he.
+
+"What duty, father?"
+
+Again he was silent a while. What duty? Yes, what kind of duty?
+
+"Naturally the duty of labor, hard labor."
+
+The flush on Cara's face increased; she was all curiosity, all
+eagerness to hear her father's words.
+
+"Labor, for what, father, dear?"
+
+"How? for what?"
+
+"For what purpose? For what purpose? because no one labors for
+the labor itself. For what purpose?"
+
+For what purpose? How that child pushed him to the wall with her
+questions! With hesitation in his voice, he answered:
+
+"There are various purposes--"
+
+"But you, father, for what are you working?" continued she, with
+eager curiosity.
+
+He knew very well for what purpose he wished now to undertake the
+gigantic labor of erecting a multitude of buildings for the
+residence of an army, but could he explain that to this child?
+Meanwhile the dark eyes of the child were fastened on his face,
+urging him to an answer.
+
+"What is it?" said he. "I--labor gives me considerable, sometimes
+immense profits."
+
+"In money?" asked she.
+
+"In money."
+
+She made a motion with her head, signifying that she knew that
+this long time.
+
+"But I," began she, "if I wanted to work, should not know what to
+work for, I should not know for what object I could work."
+
+He laughed.
+
+"You will not need to work; I will work for you, and instead of
+you."
+"Well, father!" exclaimed she, with a resonant laugh, "what can I
+do? To worship, to love, is exaltation--duty is labor, but if I
+may not labor, what am I to do?"
+
+Again she opened her small hands with astonishment and inquiry;
+her eyes were flashing, her lips trembling.
+
+Darvid, with marks of disagreeable feeling on his face, reached
+for his watch.
+
+"I have no time," said he; "I must go to the club."
+
+At that moment the servant announced from the antechamber,
+through the open door:
+
+"Prince Zeno Skirgello."
+
+Delight burst forth on Darvid's face. Cara sprang up from her
+knees, and looking around, called:
+
+"Puff! Puff! Come, let us be off! doggy."
+
+"Where is the prince?" asked Darvid, hurriedly. "Is he here, or
+in the carriage?"
+
+"In the carriage," answered the servant.
+
+"Beg him to come in, beg him to come in!"
+
+In the delight which the unexpected arrival of the prince caused
+him at that time, he did not notice the expression of regret on
+Cara's face. Raising the little dog from the floor and holding
+him in her arms, she whispered:
+
+"This is the third time, or the fourth--it is unknown which time
+it is!" Darvid sprang toward her.
+
+"You may remain! You know the prince--"
+
+"Oh, no, father, I flee--I am not dressed!"
+
+Her white robe with blue dots had the shape of a wrapper, and her
+hair was somewhat dishevelled. With the dog on her arm she ran to
+the door beyond which was darkness.
+
+"Wait!" cried Darvid, and he took one of the candles which were
+burning on the desk in tall candlesticks. The prince was coming
+up the stairs slowly. "I will light you through the dark
+chambers."
+
+Saying this he walked with her to the second chamber, and when
+passing through that, she, while going at his side with the dog
+on her arm, and with her short step, which gave her tall form the
+charm of childhood, repeated:
+
+"This is the fourth time, perhaps--it is unknown how many times
+it will be in this way!"
+
+"What will be in this way?"
+
+"Just when I begin to talk with you. Paf! something hinders!"
+
+"What is to be done?" answered he, with a smile; "since your
+father is not a hermit, nor a small person on this world's
+chessboard."
+
+They went hurriedly, and passed through the second chamber. The
+flame of the candle which Darvid carried cast passing flashes on
+the gold and polish of the walls, and the furniture. These were
+like tricky gnomes, appearing and vanishing in the silence,
+darkness, and emptiness.
+
+Darvid thought:
+
+"How dark it is here, and deserted!" Cara divined this thought,
+as it were, and said:
+
+"Mamma and Ira are invited to dine to-day at--"
+
+She gave the name of one of the financial potentates, and added:
+
+"After dinner they will come to dress for the theatre."
+
+"And thou?" inquired Darvid.
+
+"I? I do not go into society yet, and so far the doctor forbids
+me to go to the theatre. I will read or talk with Miss Mary, and
+amuse myself with Puff."
+
+She stroked with her palm the silky head of the little dog.
+Darvid halted at the door of the third chamber, and gave Cara the
+light, from the weight of which her slight arm bent somewhat.
+
+"Go on alone; I must hurry to the prince."
+
+She bent down to his hands, covered them with hurried, ardent
+kisses. With the flame of the candle before her rosy face, with
+the dog at her breast, and the pale, golden hair pushed back on
+her shoulders, she advanced in the darkness. Darvid returned
+through that darkness in the opposite direction, and when he had
+passed the two spacious chambers hastily, he felt in the twinkle
+of an eye as if from behind, from that interior, some weight had
+been placed on his shoulders. He looked around. There was nothing
+but vacancy, obscurity, and silence.
+
+"Stupid! I must have the house lighted!" thought Darvid, and he
+hurried into the study, where, with movements a little too
+vivacious, with a fondling smile, and with repeated declarations
+that he felt happy, he greeted the prince, a man of middle age,
+of agreeable exterior, affable and pleasant in speech. When they
+had sat down in armchairs, the prince declared the object of his
+visit, which was to invite Darvid to a hunt which was to take
+place soon on one of his estates. Darvid accepted the invitation
+with expressions of pleasure, a little too prompt and hearty. But
+he was never so well able to measure his words and movements in
+presence of those high-born people as in presence of others. He
+felt this himself, still he had not the power to refrain. In
+presence of them he found himself under the influence of one of
+his passions, and it carried him too far. The prince spoke of the
+sculptor, whose gifts he esteemed highly; the young man had gone
+directly from Darvid to him and told of all that he had heard,
+and what he had experienced.
+
+"I was really affected by your kindness toward this youthful
+genius, and am delighted that he found in you a patron so
+magnanimous."
+
+Darvid thought that in every case his arrows always struck the
+mark. To that act of his he was surely indebted for this unusual
+visit of the prince, and the invitation. With a smile, in which
+honey was overflowing, he said:
+
+"That young man seems very ill. A visit to more favorable
+climates might save him. I must try that he does not reject the
+means which I shall offer him for that purpose. I foresee
+resistance, but I shall do what I can to overcome it, out of
+regard for art, and through good-will for a young man who,
+besides many sympathetic traits, has this on his side, that he
+rejoices in the exceptional favor of Prince Zeno."
+
+Had he been able, Darvid would have kissed himself for that
+phrase, he felt so well satisfied with it; especially when the
+prince answered with animation:
+
+"This, in the full sense of the words, means speaking and acting
+beautifully! You use the gifts of fortune in a manner truly
+noble."
+
+"Not fortune, prince, not fortune!" exclaimed Darvid, "but iron
+labor."
+
+"Such toilers as you are the knights of the contemporary world,"
+answered the prince, with vivacity; "the Du Guesclins and Cids of
+the present century."
+
+He rose and, while pressing the hand of that Cid, fixed again in
+his memory the date of the hunt, which was not distant. Prince
+Zeno was an aristocrat of the purest blood, possessing a wide
+popularity which was fairly well deserved.
+
+Darvid was radiant. While accompanying the prince to the door of
+the antechamber he looked as if no coil of serpents had ever
+crawled up in his bosom, which was now beating with delight and
+with pride. The prince halted still a moment at the door, as if
+to recall something.
+
+"Pardon me an indiscreet question, but this interests me
+immensely. Is there truth in the reports which are circulating in
+the city, that Baron Blauendorf is to have the honor in the near
+future of receiving the hand of your elder daughter?"
+
+The expression of Darvid's face changed quickly, it became sharp
+and severe.
+
+"Were there any truth in the report," answered he, "I should try
+to destroy it together with the report."
+
+"And you would be right, perfectly right!" exclaimed the prince.
+Then he bent his lips almost to Darvid's ear and whispered:
+
+"There is no Pactolus which such a young buck as Baron Emil would
+not drink up. He is a genuine devourer of fortunes. He has
+swallowed one already and the half of another."
+
+He laughed and added at once, with immense affability:
+
+"I see your son frequently--that worthy Kranitski presented him a
+year ago to us; I and my wife are very, very thankful. He is
+sympathetic, handsome, and a highly intellectual young man, who
+does you honor."
+
+He went out. Darvid stood at the round table sunk in thought,
+with pins of irony in his smile and his eyes, with a cloud of
+wrinkles between his brows. That young sculptor, the favorite of
+Prince Zeno, with clothing almost in tatters, brought consumption
+on himself unhindered, till a parvenu appeared with his money-bag
+and rescued the pocket of the aristocrat, receiving in return a
+visit and an invitation to hunt. "Behold the significance of
+money! Almost infinite power--ha! ha! ha!"
+
+Internal laughter bore him away, and in his brain sounded the
+word: "Wretchedness! Wretchedness!"
+
+What was it specially that he called wretchedness? He was not
+clearly conscious himself of this, but the feeling of it
+penetrated him. Again he heard the prince saying "that honest
+Kranitski," and a wave of blood rushed to his forehead.
+Everything that he had forgotten a moment earlier returned to his
+mind; the prince's voice roared in his ears: "That honest
+Kranitski." He repeated a number of times to himself, in a
+hissing whisper, "honest! honest!" And then he said:
+
+"Wretchedness!"
+
+That Baron Emil, the young buck capable of gulping down many a
+Pactolus! And he was to possess the hand of his daughter, with a
+considerable part of that fortune won by iron labor. Is Irene in
+love with him? But the baron is a vibrio and a monkey all in one.
+There is need to think over this family matter, lest a misfortune
+might happen. He cast a glance at the door behind which was
+darkness, thick, silent, immovable. It resembled a window opened
+into a great and impenetrable secret.
+
+"I must have the house lighted up," thought he. At this moment he
+heard the dull rumble of a carriage in the gateway as it entered.
+He pressed the button of the electric bell.
+
+"Is that the lady who has come?"
+
+"Yes, serene lord."
+
+"Tell the coachman to wait. He will take me to the club."
+
+When the servant opened the door the rustle of silk came in like
+the sound of wind. Two long silken robes passed over the floor of
+the anteroom and farther on in the darkness of the chambers,
+which was dispelled by the light of the lamp, borne by the
+servant advancing in front of them.
+
+The glittering gnomes called forth by that light sprang along the
+gildings, polished walls, and furniture; ran out of the darkness,
+ran into it again; were lighted up and quenched on the inclined
+heads, drooping lids, and silent lips of the two women in rich
+array and gloomy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Malvina Darvid was one of those women to whom old age is very
+tardy in coming, and whose beauty, modified in each season of
+life, never leaves them. For this last she was indebted less to
+the features of her face than to the immense charm of her
+movements, her smile, her expression, her speech. She retained
+yet the same pale, golden hair which she had years earlier, which
+she arranged high above her low forehead, calling to mind the
+statues of Grecian women. In contrast with that hair, and her
+slightly faded but delicate complexion, shone, from under dark
+brows, large eyes, also dark, with a very mild, warm expression,
+now bright, now tempered by a deep inevitable cloud of
+pensiveness. In a robe covered with lace, in the glitter of a
+star of diamonds in the bright aureole of her hair, she greeted
+the numerous acquaintances who entered her box at the theatre,
+with the affability and freedom of a perfect society lady. She
+was even celebrated in that great city for the qualities which
+constitute so-called society personages, and which, in those who
+knew her past, roused a certain wonder. It was known to all that
+that past was very modest. Darvid in his youth, which was far
+less brilliant than his present, married a poor orphan, a
+teacher. But Malvina Darvid was of those women who need only a
+golden setting to sparkle like diamonds. She shone in the great
+world with a charm, an elegance, a power of speech which were the
+same as if she had been its own daughter. She was radiant with
+satisfaction, with serenity, often even with joyous animation,
+and only now and then did a slight wrinkle, with a barely
+discernible line furrowing her Grecian forehead, sink itself and
+cast on her face an expression of weariness, or the corners of
+her lips, still red and shapely, drop downward and make that
+oval, white, delicate face ten years older than it seemed to be
+usually. But those were only short and rare moments, after which
+Malvina Darvid was again entirely flooded with the brilliancy of
+her beautiful eyes, her splendid toilet, the sounds of her
+metallic voice, warm and full of sweetness. She seemed barely a
+few years older than her elder daughter. Sometimes guests left
+her box with the words:
+
+"She is more beautiful than her daughter."
+
+And offener still: "She is more charming and sympathetic than her
+daughter."
+
+Still nature had been no stepmother to Irene Darvid; but life,
+though so short thus far, had stamped on her exterior a mark
+which, while it astonished and discouraged, repelled.
+
+If the younger sister seemed a living portrait of her mother, the
+elder recalled her father, with her high forehead, thin lips,
+and--a thing wonderful at such a tender age--the mark of irony
+drawn over them. Her hair, too, like her father's, changed with
+fiery gleams of gold and bronze, while the pale complexion of her
+face, which was too long, was lighted by the frequent sharp
+glitter of her eyes, which, as those of her father, were not
+large, and had gray pupils with a cold glance, penetrating and
+reasoning. Her shapely form was somewhat too slender; her posture
+and movements too stiff and ceremonious. She passed in society
+for a haughty, cold, unapproachable, original, and even eccentric
+young lady.  On the stage was presented a play which had been
+preceded by immense praise; in the theatre had collected all that
+bore the name of high and fashionable society in the city. The
+boxes were filled, except one, which only just before the
+beginning of the second act was opened with a rattle and filled
+with loud, free, and bold conversation. It was occupied by a
+number of young men of elegant dress and manners; they, as it
+seemed, were connected by similarity in position, habits, and
+pleasures. Prom the higher to the lower rows of the theatre all
+eyes and glasses were turned toward that box, with its princes,
+young nabobs, sons of ancient families, or heirs to immense
+fortunes. Through boxes, armchairs, galleries, passed names
+notorious through deeds of originality, witty sayings,
+astonishing excesses; names interwoven with anecdotes about money
+and love-passages; the substance of the love-passages could be
+repeated only in whispers, while the amounts of money were
+mentioned with eyes widely opened in amazement.  Two among these
+young men occupied public attention beyond others that winter:
+Baron Emil Blauendorf, and Maryan Darvid, both of families
+recently, but greatly, enriched. The Blauendorf house was older
+by some generations, and had become widely connected; on the
+other hand, their fortune in possession of the present descendant
+was vanishing quickly; in comparison with the entirely new
+edifice of the Darvids, it seemed a ruin. On these two general
+attention was concentrated with the greatest curiosity; for
+during that winter and the preceding one the most numerous
+anecdotes touching them were in circulation among those who
+frequented that theatre. They were so young, and still so noted!
+But Baron Emil was considerably older than Maryan; he was thirty
+and little favored in looks. Small, weakly, with red, closely-cut
+hair, with features which were too small, and injured by a faded
+complexion, with small eyes, which, because of nearsightedness,
+were either covered with eyeglasses, or blinked at the light from
+behind yellow lids, which gave them an expression of pride and
+weariness. An unshapely exterior, unimposing, slight, bent,
+sickly. But through those small, yellowish, thin hands had passed
+already the fortune of the old baron, who was dead some years,
+and now a second fortune was passing through them--a fortune left
+scarcely a year before to her son by the baroness, who was famous
+for her idolatrous love of him. People looked, and wondered how
+such a great river of gold could flow through a creature so small
+and insignificant. With Maryan it was different. He astonished
+also, but he roused general sympathy. Such a child! And such a
+perfectly beautiful fellow at the same time! He was not twenty
+three years of age yet; of fine stature; his manners were elegant
+and pleasing; he had the head of a cherub, with bright curling
+locks; a noble fresh face from which gazed eyes as blue as
+turquoise; and wise, too wise, perhaps, in so youthful a
+countenance, for these eyes seemed not to confide but to jeer, or
+to be wearied and seeking something through the world without
+finding it. Women whispered into one another's ears that that
+lad, when in England, had joined the Salvation Army; but after he
+had remained a short time in its ranks, he became, in Paris, a
+member of the Hashish Club, and brought away the habit of using
+narcotics to rouse dreams in himself and unusual conditions. If
+the city at that moment had temporary possession of Bianca
+Bianetti it was thanks to that lad, who, in a remote land, had
+won the heart of the singer. Some insisted that he had spent
+fabulous sums on her; others contradicted, declaring that not
+Bianca, the singer, had consumed them, but Aurora, that noted
+Amazon of the circus, for whose favor princes of blood royal had
+striven in various capitals. That shapely little nabob had come,
+seen, and conquered; and when he had got his prize at an
+incredible outlay, he threw it aside and brought home Bianca. But
+is that all that may be told of him? He and Baron Emil are
+fountains of histories of this sort. The baron is considerably
+older, but this lad has a father. That father himself is a source
+of unbounded credit. Young Darvid has as many debts as there are
+golden curls on that cherub head of his. What will his papa say?
+What? Not long since that papa returned from the ends of the
+earth, after a long absence; will he put an end to the tricks of
+the boy? will he be able to do so? The white forehead of the
+youth has an expression of maturity, and at times of something
+else--namely, weariness--and in his blue eyes gleams of firmness,
+resolve, and contempt. He looks as if he despised the whole world
+then. He and the baron occupy themselves much with art and
+literature. They expend almost as much on art as on women and
+joyous suppers. They are highly cultured. The baron plays like an
+artist; Maryan translates poetry into various languages.  In the
+box were a number of others resembling these two, but the others
+had places elsewhere in the theatre: they had come for a brief
+time and left the box afterward, then there remained only the
+baron and young Darvid. Behind their chairs sat some third man,
+very quietly, as if to attract the least attention possible. This
+was Pan Arthur Kranitski. People were accustomed to see him here
+and elsewhere with these two young men, and with others also, but
+with these two most frequently; his hair curled, freshened; his
+black mustache, pointed at the ends above his red lips, in the
+fashion of young men. But to-day he looks considerably more
+retiring and older than usual. With much bold conversation, with
+laughter which cast his head back, with movements full of grace
+and animation, he generally strove to equal, and did equal, those
+two young nabobs, whose Mentor he seemed to be, and at the same
+time their comrade and continual guest, as well as their gracious
+protector. This time he was weighed down and gloomy, with spots
+on his aged forehead. He was sitting in a corner of the box,
+turning his attention neither to the play nor the audience; and,
+what was more, not striving to attract the attention of anyone.
+But from behind the shoulders of the young men in the front of
+the box, his hand, as if directed by an irresistible impulse,
+turned the opera-glass, from moment to moment, toward Malvina
+Darvid. He felt that he ought not to look so persistently at that
+woman with the gleaming star above her forehead, so he dropped
+his hand to raise it again and turn it in the same direction.  As
+if imitating Kranitski, though really he did not even think of
+his existence, Baron Emil was acting in the same way with
+reference to Irene, gazing through his opera-glass at her face,
+which showed indifference and even weariness.  He did this with a
+perfect disregard for the rest of the audience, and beginning at
+the second act, with an insolence which might have confused or
+angered another woman. But Irene, indifferent for some time,
+raised her glass also, and turned it on the baron. With these
+glasses the two people brought their faces near each other; they
+looked each other straight in the eyes, separated themselves from
+the audience, and gazed from the height of their two boxes in
+full disregard of everything happening around them. These two
+opera-glasses, planted in permanent opposition, attract the
+attention of all; but Irene and the baron do not heed that, do
+not care to know anything what ever about the audience, or the
+love scenes and tragedy represented in that theatre. They gaze
+long at each other with such indifference that one might ask. Why
+do they do that? Perhaps because it is original, perhaps to rouse
+the curiosity or the censure of the audience. But, after a long
+time, there appeared on their faces a jeering, self-willed smile,
+with a tinge of friendly comradeship, mixed in the baron's case
+with a passing gleam of the eyes; and in Irene's a pale flush,
+which covered her lofty forehead for a moment and then vanished.
+Dropping his hand with the opera-glass the baron turned to
+Maryan: "Tres garconniere ta soeur!" said he. "She is bold and
+looks down on every thing; she is disenchanted. Une desabusee!
+Very interesting, and grows more and more so."
+
+"Does she rouse a new shiver in you?" laughed Maryan.
+
+"Yes, an entirely new shiver. That is a type of woman which is
+barely beginning. Twenty years old, and a perfectly distinct
+individuality! Twenty years old, and knows painted pots
+thoroughly!"
+
+"That is a family trait with us," retorted Maryan.
+
+"Your mother," continued the baron, "has undying beauty. Such
+splendid hair and eyes! But hers is another type entirely."
+
+"A past one," put in Maryan.
+
+"Yes, that is true, a past type, a simple one. But Panna Irene is
+new and intricate; yes, that is the word, intricate! We are all
+intricate now, full of contrasts, dissonances, and vexations."
+
+In the theatre a thunder of applause was heard. The two young men
+looked at each other and laughed almost loudly.
+
+"What are they playing?" asked the baron, indicating the stage
+with his head. "Ma foi! I have not heard one word."
+
+"Well old man," said Maryan, turning to Kranitski, "what are they
+doing on the stage?" Kranitski dropped his hand with the
+opera-glass quickly and blurted out:
+
+"What is the question, Maryan?" His eyes, which were fine yet in
+their prolonged lids, were glazed with a tear.
+
+"Ho, ho! romantic, there is a tear in your eye. The subject must
+be affecting! Let us listen!" They began to listen, but quite
+differently from others. When passions exhibited on the stage
+quickened the beating of all hearts, or poetry, pulsating in
+lofty words, brightened faces with enthusiasm, Maryan and the
+baron laughed inattentively and with contempt; when stupidity,
+selfishness, or wit called out laughter, or ridicule, they were
+immovable in cold importance, puffed up and insolent; when the
+curtain came down at the end, and a deafening, prolonged thunder
+of applause was heard, their hands rested ostentatiously on the
+edge of the box. This opposition to the impressions and opinions
+of the audience might seem a childish wish for distinction; but
+one could feel besides in it, a bold throwing down of the
+gauntlet to common taste, and an estimate of the various elements
+and values in life directly in conflict with that of others.
+
+Toward the end of the last act Kranitski entered Malvina Darvid's
+box, and saluting each woman silently he stood motionless.
+Malvina bowed toward him slightly, then a shadow came out on her
+face; this shadow seemed to have torn itself from an internal
+cloud. She frowned--a deep wrinkle appeared on her forehead, the
+corners of her mouth drooped somewhat, and her face, with that
+brilliant star in the aureole of bright hair above, had an
+expression of pain when seen on the drapery of the box as a
+background.
+
+But that did not last long. The box was filled with an assembly
+of brilliant and agreeable men, one of whom, with his gray hair
+and bearing of an official, made a low obeisance before the wife
+of Darvid, and seemed to lay at her feet smiles full of homage.
+Hence she grew affable, pleasant, vivacious, elegant in gestures,
+and in the modulation of her beautiful voice, she answered
+politeness with politeness, requests with promises, and gave
+opinions in return for questions touching the piece just played.
+
+Baron Emil meanwhile approached Irene and, indicating the excited
+audience with his eyes, inquired:
+
+"How do those shouting Arcadians please you?"
+
+Taking on her shoulders the wrap which he held for her, she
+answered:
+
+"They are happy!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because they are naive!"
+
+"You have described the position famously!" cried he, with
+enthusiasm. "Only Arcadians could be so happy--"
+
+"As to believe in those painted pots--"
+
+"As their great-grandfathers did," added he.
+
+"Who knows," said she, as it were, with deep thought, "whether
+the great-grandfathers really believed in them, or only--"
+
+"Pretended belief! Ha! ha! ha! Beyond price! excellent! How you
+and I converse, do we not? This is harmony!"
+
+"Not without dissonance."
+
+"Yes, yes, not without vexation. But that is nothing. That even
+rouses-"
+
+During this interchange of opinions, which was like the glitter
+of cold and sharp steel, Kranitski, in the crowd which surrounded
+Malvina, was able to whisper to her:
+
+"To-morrow at eleven." Without looking at him, and with a quiver
+of her brows, which drooped a little, she answered:
+
+"It is too early."
+
+"Absolutely necessary. A catastrophe! A misfortune!" whispered he
+in addition.
+
+She raised to him a glance which showed that she was tortured to
+her inmost soul by fear, but at the same moment Maryan gave her
+his arm, and said:
+
+"To be original, to edify the Arcadians, and to give myself
+pleasure, I shall be to-day a virtuous son, conducting his own
+beautiful mamma downstairs!"
+
+Adroit, with almost childish delight in his blue eyes, but with a
+sarcastic smile which seemed to have grown to his lips, which
+were shaded by a minute mustache, this youth led through the
+theatre corridor that woman not young, but whose beautiful and
+original head, and whose rich toilet drew all eyes to her.
+
+"I am proud of you, dear mamma. To-day I have heard whole odes
+sung in your honor; even Emil declares that you are eclipsing
+Irene with your beauty."
+
+She was smiling and also angry. Her dark gleaming eyes rose with
+love to the shapely face of her son, but, striving to be
+dignified, she said:
+
+"Maryan, you know that I am displeased at hearing you talk to me
+in such a tone."
+
+He laughed loudly.
+
+"Then, my dear mamma, you should grow old as quickly as possible,
+put on a cap, and sit in a jacket at the fireplace. I should be
+filled then with timid respect, and would hurry away with all
+speed from such an annoying mamma!"
+
+"But since I am not annoying you will be good and come home with
+us. We shall drink tea together."
+
+"Au desespoir, chere maman! But that cannot be. The rest of this
+day, or night, I have promised to friends."
+
+"Is to-day the only time promised?" asked she, with a shade of
+sadness.
+
+"For the true sage to-morrow and yesterday have no existence,"
+answered Maryan.
+
+They were at the open door of the carriage; Maryan bent and
+kissed his mother's hand.
+
+"Be not angry, mamma dear! But you are never angry. If there is
+anything on earth that I worship yet it is your marvellous
+sweetness of temper."
+
+"It is excessive," answered Malvina. "If I only knew how to
+dominate--"
+
+He interrupted her, with a laugh:
+
+"I should avoid you in that ease; but now, all relations between
+us are excellent, though they are constitutional or even
+republican."
+
+"I go for anarchy!" put in Baron Emil, helping Irene to a seat in
+the carriage.
+
+He spoke somewhat through his nose and teeth, it was difficult to
+say whether by nature or habit, but that gave to his speech a
+character of contemptuousness and indolence.
+
+"But of dissonances to-morrow n'est ce pas?" asked he.
+
+"And of vexations!" concluded Irene with a smile, wherewith her
+hand remained on the baron's palm a few seconds longer than was
+necessary.
+
+Soon after, Malvina Darvid was sitting at a small table covered
+with a tea service, in a study which was like the lined and
+gilded interior of a costly confectionery box. Massive silver
+artistically finished, expensive porcelain, exquisite tid-bits,
+enticing the eye by their ornamentation, and the taste by the
+odor from them, tempered, however, by the strong fragrance of
+hyacinths, syringa, and violets which were blooming at the window
+and the walls, and on largo and small tables everywhere.
+
+The dress worn at the theatre was replaced now by a wrapper,
+composed of lace and material soft as down. Her posture in the
+low and deep armchair, the very manner even in which she arranged
+the folds of her robe seemed to exhale the luxury of rest; but
+her mind was at work, and filled her eyes with an expression of
+disquiet.
+
+"'Catastrophe! Misfortune!' What could that be?" Marks of pain
+had begun to wind around her mouth; her hands were firmly clasped
+on her knees. "It may be that lost letter? A man must have a head
+filled with exaltation, and a character as weak as Kranitski's to
+write such a letter. It may be--it is even sure to be so, for
+during a number of days she has felt in the air a catastrophe.
+But if?--Well! Is that a misfortune? Oh, rather the opposite?"
+The supposition that the dark, grievous truth of her life might
+be discovered by him who would seek vengeance because of it
+roused no fear in her; it caused her to hope for a thing
+disagreeable and yet desired. Let that horrid knot in which her
+life was involved be untied or torn apart sometime, in any way
+whatever. Alone she would never have strength to untie or to cut
+it, she is such an eternally weak, weak, weak creature! And still
+anything would be better than the present condition.
+
+Two glittering tears rolled slowly down her cheeks; above the
+drooping eyelids a deep wrinkle cut a dark line across her
+forehead. The diamond star flashing rainbow gleams from her hair,
+and the flowers, which dotted the room thickly with their pale
+colors, gave a background of wealth to that woman's life tragedy.
+
+With a teacup in her hand Irene stood in the opposite door and
+looked at her mother uneasily, keenly, with such attention that
+her eyelids blinked repeatedly. Far from her now were those dry
+and sneering smiles in conversation with the baron. But she
+passed through the room calmly and sat in front of her mother.
+
+"It seems that the play of to-night did not amuse you much,
+mamma." She looked into the teacup so steadily that she could not
+see her mother's tears or expression of face. But that face grew
+bright on a sudden and was covered with an unrestrained smile.
+
+"Is Cara sleeping?" inquired she.
+
+"Of course; her room is quite silent, and so is Miss Mary's. Why
+do you not drink tea, mamma?"
+
+Malvina raised the spoon slowly to her lips, and Irene began to
+speak calmly:
+
+"I heard very unexpected news to-day. It seems that father has
+told Prince Zeno, who inquired about the matter, that he will not
+consent to my marriage with Baron Blauendorf."
+
+"Why call that news unexpected?" asked Malvina, looking at her
+daughter.
+
+Irene shrugged her shoulders slowly.
+
+"I did not suppose that father would devote his precious time to
+things so trivial. This is unexpected and may bring trouble."
+
+"What trouble?" inquired Malvina, with alarm.
+
+"Father's opinions and mine may be in opposition."
+
+"In that case your opinion will yield."
+
+"I doubt that. I have my plans, my needs, my tastes; of these
+father can know nothing."
+
+They were silent rather long; during this time Malvina raised her
+eyes to her daughter repeatedly, with the intent to say
+something, but she was unable, or at least she hesitated. At last
+she inquired in irresolute, almost timid, tones:
+
+"Irene, do you love him?"
+
+"Do I love the baron?"
+
+These words coming from the lips of the young girl expressed
+immense astonishment.
+
+"If Baron Emil should hear that question he would be the first to
+call it Arcadian or great-grandfatherly." And she laughed. "That
+is one of those things which do not exist, or which, at least,
+are changeable, temporary, dependent on the state of the nerves
+and the imagination. I have a cool imagination and calm nerves. I
+can do without painted pots."
+
+As these words came slowly and coldly from the lips of her
+daughter, Malvina straightened herself, and her face was covered
+with a faint blush. She had preserved the rare, and at her age
+even wonderful, faculty of blushing.
+
+"Ira!" cried she, "I hear these opinions not for the first time,
+and they give me such pain!"
+
+She clasped her hands.
+
+"Love, sympathy, when a choice is made--"
+
+The voice broke in her throat all at once. Her eyelids drooped;
+her shoulders fell back on the chair; she was silent.
+
+Irene laughed and made a gesture of despair with her hands.
+
+"What can I do with the situation?" began she in a jesting tone.
+"It was not I who made this world, and cannot reconstruct it. I
+might like to do so, perhaps, but I cannot." Then she grew
+serious, and continued: "Love and sympathy may be very charming.
+I admit even that most assuredly they are when they exist; but
+usually if they exist it is for a short period, they flash up and
+quench--a few years, a few days, most frequently only days, and
+they pass--they are as if they had never been. Why illusions,
+when after them disenchantment must conic? They merely cause
+useless exertion in life, disappointment, and suffering."
+
+Irene's words and sententious, hard tones were in marvellous
+contrast with the maiden-roundness of her arms, which were bare
+in the broad sleeves of her dressing-gown, with the fresh red of
+her delicate lips, and the gleam of her blue eyes.
+
+"Besides," added she, "I feel a sympathy for the baron; a certain
+kind of sympathy." Malvina, after a moment's silence, asked in a
+low voice:
+
+"What kind of sympathy is it?"
+
+After a little hesitation Irene answered with a harsh, abrupt
+laugh:
+
+"What kind of sympathy? A kind very common, it seems known
+universally. Sometimes his way of looking at me, or his pressure
+of the hand, moves me. But he pleases me most by his sincerity;
+he makes no pretence. He has never told me, like those three or
+four other suitors of mine, that he loves me. He has for me, as I
+have for him, a certain kind of sympathy; he considers me
+financially an excellent match, and for these two reasons he
+wishes to share with me his title of baron, and his relationship
+with certain families of counts and princes. And as I, on my
+part, need independence at the earliest, and my own house, so one
+thing for another, the exchange of services and interests is
+accomplished. We do not hide from each other these motives of
+ours, and this creates between us sincere and comrade-like
+relations, quite agreeable, and leading to no tirades or elegies
+in which there is not one bit of truth, or to any exaltation or
+despair which has no title to the future. This is all."
+
+"Ira!" whispered Malvina after a long silence.
+
+"What, mamma?"
+
+"If I could--if I had the right--" Both were silent.
+
+"What, mamma?"
+
+"If I could believe in spite of--"
+
+The gilded and artistic clock ticked among the pinks and lilies:
+tick-tack, tick-tack.
+
+"What is it, mamma?"
+
+"A cake, Ira!"
+
+As Irene took a cake from the silver basket with her trembling
+hand, she cried, with glad laughter:
+
+"At last you will eat even a cake! You have changed immensely,
+mamma. I cannot call you now as I once did, a little glutton,
+since for some time past you eat so little that it is nearly
+nothing."
+
+Malvina smiled fondly at the name which on a time her daughter
+had given her jestingly, and Irene continued in the same tone:
+
+"Remember, mamma, how you and I, with one small assistant in
+Cara, ate whole baskets of cakes, or big, big boxes of
+confectionery. Now that is past. I notice this long time that you
+eat almost nothing, and that you dress richly only because you
+must do so. At times, were it possible, you would put on
+haircloth instead of rich silks, would you not? Have I guessed
+rightly?"
+
+While a faint blush covered her forehead and cheeks again,
+Malvina answered:
+
+"Rightly."
+
+Irene grew thoughtful; without raising her eyes to her mother she
+inquired in a low voice:
+
+"What is the cause of this?"
+
+"Returning currents of life are the cause," answered Malvina
+after a rather long silence, and she continued, thoughtfully:
+"You see, my child, currents of a river when once they have
+passed never come back again, but currents of life come hack. My
+early youth was poor, as you know, calm, laborious, brightened by
+ideals, from which I have deviated much! That was long ago, but
+it happened. In life so many years pass sometimes, that events
+which precede those years seem a dream, but they are real and
+come back to us."
+
+Irene listened to this hesitating, low conversation with drooping
+eyelids and forehead resting on her hand. She made no answer.
+Malvina, sunk in thought, was silent also.
+
+A few minutes later the tea things vanished from the table,
+removed without a sound almost, and borne out by the young
+waiting-maid.
+
+With eyelids still drooping, as if she were finishing an idea
+circling stubbornly in her head, Irene said with pensive lips:
+
+"A haircloth!" She rose then, and, suppressing a yawn, said: "I
+am sleepy. Good-night, mamma, dear!" She placed a brief kiss on
+her mother's hand: "Shall I call Kosalia?"
+
+"No, no! Tell her to go to sleep. I will undress myself and go to
+bed unattended."
+
+"Good-night!"
+
+Stepping quietly along the carpet Irene passed out. Malvina
+followed the young lady to the door with her eyes, and the moment
+she was alone she threw her arm over her head, turned her face
+upward, and repeated a number of times, audibly: "God! God!" Then
+she rested her elbows on the arms of the chair, covered her face
+with both palms, the broad sleeves of her dress fell from her
+arms like broken wings. Thus, altogether motionless, she dropped
+into an abyss of regrets, reminiscences, and fears. The night
+flowed on. The clock among the flowers in that study struck the
+first hour after midnight, then the second hour, and each time in
+the darkness of the drawing-rooms another clock answered in tones
+which were deeper and more resonant. The syringa and hyacinths
+gave out a still stronger odor, though the cold increased in that
+chamber. The frosty winter night was creeping in, even to
+dwellings which were carefully heated, and was filling them with
+darkness penetrated with cold; along Malvina's shoulders, which
+were bent over the arm of the chair, shivers began to pass.
+
+In the darkness and cold a slight rustle was heard, and on the
+background of this darkness, in the doorway, appeared Irene. She
+wore a short, embroidered dress of cambric, and her fiery tresses
+were on her shoulders. She stood in the doorway with neck
+extended toward her mother, then walking in soft slippers
+silently she passed through the room like a shadow, and vanished
+beyond the opposite door. There was something ghostlike in those
+two women; one passed, without the slightest rustle, by the
+other, who was sleeping in a low chair, without making the least
+movement. Outside that mansion the streets of the city were
+entering into a deeper and longer silence.
+
+The clock in the study struck three, in the darkness three
+strokes, remote and deep, answered. In the air the volatile and
+languid odor of syringas was overcome by the narcotic and
+stronger odor of hyacinths. The increasing cold flowed around
+them with painful contrast. In the door, beyond which she had
+vanished, Irene appeared again, just as silently as before. She
+passed through the room and placed a shawl upon her mother's
+shoulders. Malvina, feeling the soft stuff, woke as if from a
+dream.
+
+"What is this?" exclaimed she, raising her face, the cheeks of
+which were gleaming in the light of the lamp; but when she saw
+her daughter she smiled with relief immediately.
+
+"That is you, Ira? Why are you not asleep?"
+
+"I cannot sleep, and I came for the book which we began to read
+together. It is growing cold, so I brought a shawl. Good-night."
+
+She went aside but did not leave the room. She had no book in her
+hand; perhaps she was looking for it in the beautifully carved
+ease filled with books, for she opened the case and stood before
+it with arms raised toward the upper shelves, her hair lying
+motionless on the white cambric covering her shoulders.
+
+Malvina was looking at her daughter, in her eyes was impatience;
+she was waiting for her to go.
+
+"Is it late?" asked she.
+
+"Very late," answered Irene, without turning her head.
+
+"Does Cara cough to-night?"
+
+"I have not heard her cough to-day." Malvina rose, but tottered
+so much that she was forced to rest her hand on the edge of the
+table. She seemed greatly wearied.
+
+"Go to sleep. Good-night!" said she, passing her daughter.
+
+Irene looked at her tottering step and followed her quickly a
+number of paces.
+
+"Mamma!" cried she.
+
+"What, Ira?"
+
+Irene stood before her mother a moment, her lips were quivering
+with words which she withheld, till she bent, kissed her mother's
+hand gently, and said in her usual manner:
+
+"Good-night!"
+
+Then she stood a while longer before the open case, listening to
+the rustle made by her mother while going to bed, and when that
+had ceased she closed the case and moved quietly into the
+darkness behind the outer door.
+
+At that same time a carriage thundered in the silence and passed
+through the gateway. Restrained movement rose in the antechamber
+from which one servant ran out into the dimly lighted stairway,
+and another rushed to the study and bedroom of the master of the
+mansion to increase quickly the light of the lamps there. Darvid
+went up the stairs quickly and with sprightliness; he threw into
+the hands of the servant his fur, which was costly and original,
+since it was brought from the distant North, and began at once to
+read at the round table, through an eyeglass, that which he had
+jotted down recently in his pocket notebook. The book was in
+ivory binding with a gold monogram, and a pencil with a gold
+case. While reading Darvid put a brief question to the servant:
+
+"Has Pan Maryan returned?"
+
+The answer was negative. Large and heavy wrinkles appeared
+between Darvid's brows, but he continued to read his notes.
+Almost a quarter of an hour later he wrote something more while
+bending over the desk, and standing. Soon in the bedchamber,
+furnished by the most skillful decorator of the capital, a
+night-lamp on the mantel of a chimney illuminated a bed adorned
+with rich carving; a white and lean hand stretched out on a silk
+coverlet, and a face also, which was like ivory, and shining with
+two blue sleepless eyes, keenly glittering. Darvid cast an
+inattentive glance through the room, over which, in the pale
+lamplight, two beautiful female heads seemed to hover, reflected
+and multiplied in mirrors standing opposite each other. This was
+a most beautiful work--a genuine Greuze. To win this masterpiece
+Darvid outbid a number of men of high standing; he triumphed and
+was delighted. But now his sleepless glance passed over that
+pearl of art inattentively. His night at the club instead of
+diverting and calming had bored and irritated. His honorable
+partner was annoying, and rude in addition. Never would he have
+forced himself to play with the man, had not that relation been
+an honor, and--what was more--had it not been needful. Women say:
+one must suffer to be beautiful; men need to change only the last
+word and say: one must suffer to be powerful. But that was
+beginning to be repulsive, and, above all, to be wearisome. Only
+when in bed did he feel that he was weary. He could not sleep. He
+had slept badly for some weeks--since the time of that wretched
+letter. At thought of that letter the serpents stirred in
+Darvid's breast, but he shut them down in their den by hissing:
+"Stupidity!" And he fell into long and uneasy thought about that
+man whom he had sent on weighty business, but who had not
+returned yet.
+
+Perhaps chance will not favor him this time, and another hand
+will seize the field of action and the great profits. He knows
+that he has enemies and rivals who envy, who undermine him. Well,
+he will win also in this case, only he would like something
+afterward--what? He himself does not know what--perhaps rest. To
+go for a time to Switzerland or Italy. For what purpose? He is
+not over curious about art and nature, he has no time to fall in
+love with them. Without occupation he would be bored in all
+places, and besides he must finish these family questions. He
+must tame Maryan, and hinder Irene's marriage to the baron. He is
+fighting a battle with his own son and daughter. Cara is the only
+one with whom he has no trouble. She is mild and beautiful. Her
+head is turned also, but in another, a more agreeable direction.
+She is greatly attached to him, the dear child! She is frail. He
+must speak to the doctor about her. Perhaps send her to Italy.
+With whom? With her mother? He would never permit that. The child
+is his. He will go himself with Cara. But in that case what will
+become of his enterprise?
+
+In the interior of the mansion were heard deep, metallic sounds.
+The clock struck five.
+
+In that same mansion, at the distant end of it, in a chamber
+lighted by a blue night-lamp, was heard a low, dry cough, and a
+frail, tall maiden, in night-clothing covered with lace, sat up
+in a blue and white bed.
+
+"Miss Mary! Miss Mary!" cried she, with fear in her voice.
+
+From the adjoining chamber came a voice of agreeable tone and
+somewhat drowsy:
+
+"You are not asleep, Cara?"
+
+"I have slept. The cough woke me, but that is well, for I had a
+dreadful dream. I dreamed that papa and mamma--"
+
+She stopped suddenly, and, though no one was looking at her, she
+hid her delicate face in the blue coverlet. So only in a whisper
+did she tell the end of her dream:
+
+"They were angry at each other--so awfully angry--Ira put her
+arms around mamma--Maryan went away hissing. I hung to papa, and
+cried so, and cried."
+
+In fact her eyes were then filled with tears from the dream. But
+she stretched in the bed, and, with her head on the pillows,
+thought, till she called again:
+
+"Miss Mary! Are you sleeping?"
+
+"No, dear; do you wish anything?"
+
+Cara began in a loud voice:
+
+"I wish immensely, immensely, Miss Mary, to go with you to
+England, to your father and mother. Oh, how I should like to be
+in that parsonage a while, where your sisters teach poor children
+and nurse the sick, and your mother makes tea at the grate for
+your father when he comes home after services. Oh, Mary, if you
+and I could go to that place! It is so pleasant there." In the
+blue light and in the silence her thin voice recalled the
+twittering of a lark.
+
+"We will go there sometime, dear. Your parents will permit, and
+we will go. But sleep now."
+
+"Very well, I will sleep. Good-night, Miss Mary--my dear, good
+Miss Mary."
+
+She lay some minutes quietly thinking, till she sat up again in
+bed coughing. When the cough had passed, she called in a low
+voice:
+
+"Miss Mary! Miss Mary!"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"She is sleeping," whispered Cara, and after a while she looked
+around, and, in a lower voice, called:
+
+"Puffie! Puffie!"
+
+At this call the little dog sprang from a neighboring chair, and
+in the twinkle of an eye was on the bed.
+
+Cara stroked the silken coat of the dog, and bending toward him
+whispered:
+
+"Puffie! Puffie! dear, little dog! lie here, sleep for thyself!"
+
+She put him on her breast almost at her chin; with her hand on
+his coat, and with the whisper: "Puffie! good Puffie!" she fell
+asleep.
+
+Then was heard the sound of a drozhky, coming quickly, with
+uproar in front of the house, and again there was an end to
+voices and movement. Two men ascended the stairway, one much
+older than the other, with a carefully brushed, but somewhat worn
+hat, in a fashionable but somewhat worn fur. He spoke in a low
+voice:
+
+"Yes, yes! c'est quelque chose d'inoui! he commanded me to break
+off all relations with you, and to stop visiting his house."
+
+"A thousand and one nights! Why is it? What is it for?" exclaimed
+the other.
+
+Suddenly he stopped part way on the stairs, and asked with a half
+jeering, half pitying look at his companion:
+
+"If he should find out?"
+
+Kranitski turned his face away.
+
+"My Maryan--with you--of that--"
+
+"Painted pots!" laughed Maryan. "Do you take me for my
+great-grandfather? Well, has he found it out?"
+
+With red spots on his cheeks and forehead Kranitski blinked
+affirmatively.
+
+"Sapristi!" imprecated Maryan, and immediately he laughed again.
+"And why? for what reason? Did he also believe in painted pots? I
+thought him modern."
+
+"Alas!" sighed Kranitski.
+
+They advanced in silence, passed the first story of the house.
+Maryan's bachelor chambers were on the second story.
+
+"My dear old man, I am sorry for you, enormously sorry," began
+young Darvid again. "I have grown so accustomed to you. You will
+have to suffer, and poor mamma, too. Where did he get all this? A
+man of such sense! I thought that his head was better
+ventilated--"
+
+He could not finish, for Kranitski threw himself on his neck at
+the very door of his apartments. He wept. Drying his eyes with
+his perfumed cambric handkerchief, he said:
+
+"My Maryan, I shall not survive this blow! I love you all so
+much--you are--for me--as a younger brother--"
+
+He tried to kiss him, but Maryan broke away from his embrace, and
+his tears, the moisture of which he felt on his face, with
+discomfort.
+
+"But it is absurd!" exclaimed he. "Are we to break our relations
+because they displease someone? Are we slaves? Laugh at that, my
+dear. Come to me as before, but pass the night now with me, for
+it would be difficult for you to go home at this hour."
+
+He touched the button of the electric bell, and when the door
+opened at once, he said to his companion on the threshold:
+
+"Bianca sings that aria from the 'Cavalier' gloriously, does she
+not? La, la, la----"
+
+He tried to give the music, but his voice failed. So he
+disappeared behind the closing door, humming the aria of the
+splendid singer which he had just heard at supper.
+
+Below, two clocks, one after the other, sounded out six. Through
+the great windows light began to enter from the snow-covered
+streets. That seemed the gradual and slow drawing aside of a dark
+curtain, from behind which came out with increasing distinctness,
+furniture, pictures, mirrors, candlesticks, vases, rugs, plushes,
+velvets, polish, gilt, mosaics, ivory, porcelain. Until all
+standing forth in the full light of that winter morning began
+like a pearl shell to interchange various colors and lustres, and
+to drop from the walls and ceilings reflections of gold on the
+shining floor.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Kranitski ascended a carpeted stairway, which was adorned with
+lamps and statues. His fur coat with a costly collar was over
+worn somewhat; his hat was shining; his step free, and there was
+a cheerful smile under his mustaches, which were turned up at the
+ends carefully. The stairway was almost a street. People were
+passing up and down on it, and whenever you met them and caught
+their eyes you noted freedom, self-confidence, elegance; you saw
+the eleventh commandment of God, which Moses, only through some
+inconceivable forgetfulness, neglected to add to the Decalogue.
+
+Entering the antechamber he threw the servant his fur, from which
+issued the odor of excellent perfumes. From the pocket of his
+coat peeped the edge of a handkerchief. He arranged before a
+mirror his hair, thick yet above his forehead, but showing from
+behind a small, circular, bald spot. Hat in hand, and with a
+springy, self-confident tread, he entered the drawing-room. Only
+two red spots above his brow interrupted the whiteness of his
+forehead, which was slightly wrinkled; his eyes, usually gleaming
+or affable, were mist-covered.
+
+In a door, opposite that by which Kranitski entered, stood Irene,
+under a crimson drapery of curtains, with an open book in her
+hand. Kranitski, with that light-swaying of the body, with which
+elegants are accustomed to approach ladies, approached Irene and,
+bending easily before her, kissed her hand.
+
+"May one enter?" inquired he, indicating with his eyes the door
+of an adjoining; chamber.
+
+"I beg you to enter, mamma is in her study."
+
+The inclination of head, and sound of Irene's voice, contained
+only that measure of cordiality which was absolutely demanded by
+politeness, but that was her way always and with every one. Cold
+radiated from her, and such indifference that it was sometimes a
+contemptuous disregard for people and things. But when Kranitski,
+hat in hand, passed two drawing-rooms she followed him with her
+glance, in which, besides disquiet, there was a kindly feeling,
+and more, perhaps, a feeling of pity. She was accustomed from
+childhood to see him; he was gentle, as ready as a slave to
+render service, as ready as a friend to oblige; he noted the
+wants not only of the lady of the house, but of each of her
+children. He had the subdued manner and pliancy of people who do
+not feel that they merit what they have, and are ever trembling
+lest they lose it. He had, besides, the gift of reading
+beautifully in various languages. For a number of years Irene
+could not remember pleasanter evenings than those which, free
+from society demands, she had passed in her mother's study when
+Kranitski was present. Sometimes Cara and her governess took part
+in these domestic gatherings; sometimes, also, though more and
+more rarely, they were enlivened by the presence of Maryan, who,
+in the intervals of reading, chaffed with his sister and mother,
+and argued with Kranitski about various tendencies in taste and
+literature. Most frequently, however, Cara was occupied with
+lessons, and Maryan by society, and only she and Malvina, with
+artistic work in hand, listened in silence and thoughtfully to
+that resonant, manly voice, which rendered masterpieces of
+thought and poetry with perfect appreciation and feeling. During
+such evenings Irene was seized at moments by a dream of certain
+grand solitudes, pure, surrounded by cordial warmth, remote from
+the uproar of streets, the rustle of silks, the noise of vain
+words, whose emptiness and falsehood she had measured; but
+straightway she said to herself: "Painted pots, ideals! these
+have no existence!" and she made a gesture, as if driving from
+above her head a beautiful butterfly, feeling convinced that that
+butterfly was merely a phantom. To-day, from minute observation,
+the conjecture rose in her that something uncommon had happened,
+and that something more must happen, also; she was colder and
+more formal than ever, with a burning spark of fear in the depth
+of her blue, clear eyes. Her dress was of cloth, closely fitting,
+somewhat masculine in the cut of the waist, and on the top of her
+head was a Japanese knot of fiery hair, pierced by a pin with
+steel lustres. In her hand was an open book, and she walked along
+slowly through the two spacious drawing-rooms. She did not raise
+her eyes from the book, though she did not turn a page in it. At
+one door she turned immediately, at the other, which was closed,
+she stopped for a few seconds when she caught the sound of
+conversation, carried on beyond the door, in low voices, by two
+people. She did not wish to hear that conversation. Oh, she did
+not! How long ago was it since she had striven to be deaf as well
+as blind, and frequently so deal that no glance of the eye, no
+movement of the face might betray that she had sight or hearing.
+But now, as often as a louder sound struck her ears from beyond
+the closed door she stood immovable, and her eyelids quivered
+like leaves stirred by wind. For a long time it had seemed to her
+that something terrible might happen in that house some day,
+something to which she would not be able to remain deaf and
+blind. Might it not happen just that day? With slow, even step
+along the gleaming floor, between purple, azure, and various
+shades of white, which filled the drawing-rooms, she walked, in
+her closely-fitting dress, from one door to the other, her eyes
+fixed on the book, her manner colder, more formal than ever, her
+delicate motionless face, above which the long pin threw out
+metallic gleams. Suddenly an outburst of silver laughter was
+heard at another door. Till that moment two female voices had
+been heard, speaking English, beyond this door, now thrown open
+with a rattle. Golden strips of light, cast in by the winter sun,
+were lying on the purple and white of the drawing-room. Into this
+drawing-room rushed a strange pair; a maiden of fifteen, in a
+bright dress, golden-haired, rosy, and tall, bent low; she held
+by the forepaws a little ash-colored dog, and with him went
+waltzing around the furniture of the room, humming as she moved
+the fashionable: La, la, la! La, la, la! A pair of small feet, in
+elegant slippers, and a pair of shaggy, beast paws, whirled over
+the gleaming inlaid floor, around long chairs, tables, columns
+holding vases; swiftly, swiftly did she go till she met Irene at
+the door of the next drawing room. Cara raised the little dog
+from the floor, straightened herself, her eyes met the strange
+glance of her sister. Irene blinked repeatedly, as if some
+disagreeable light had struck her eyes.
+
+"Always so gladsome, Cara!"
+
+"I?" cried the girl. "Oh, so! Puffie made me laugh--and--the sun
+shines so nicely. The day is beautiful, isn't it, Ira? Have you
+noticed how diamond sparks glitter on the snow? The trees are all
+covered with frost. Let us go with Miss Mary for a walk. I will
+take Puffie, but I will cover him with that blanket which I
+finished embroidering yesterday. Is mamma well?"
+
+"Why do you ask about mamma?"
+
+"Because, when I gave her 'good-morning,' I thought that she was
+ill, she was so pale--pale. I asked her, but she said: 'Oh, it is
+nothing, I am well.' Still it seems to me--"
+
+"Let nothing seem to you!" Irene interrupted her almost angrily.
+"The surmises of children like you have no sense in them most of
+the time. Where are you going?"
+
+"To father."
+
+She pointed with her eyes to her mother's rooms.
+
+"Is that--that man there?"
+
+It was not to be discovered why she spoke in lowered tones, but
+Irene's voice sounded almost harsh when she inquired:
+
+"What man?"
+
+"Pan Kranitski."
+
+Now Cara's red, small lips, in the twinkle of an eye, formed a
+crooked line in spite of her; then, bending toward her sister,
+she said, almost in a whisper:
+
+"Tell me, Ira, but tell the truth. Do you like that
+man--Kranitski?" Irene laughed aloud, freely, almost as she had
+never laughed.
+
+"Ridiculous! Ah, what an amusing baby you are! Why should I not
+like him? He is our old and good acquaintance." And returning to
+her usual formality, she added: "Besides, you know that I do not
+like anyone very much."
+
+"Not me?" asked Cara, fondly touching with her red lips the pale
+cheeks of her sister.
+
+"You? A little! But go away. You hinder my reading."
+
+"I will go. Come Puffie--come!" And with the dog on her arm she
+went off, but she stopped at the door, and turning to Irene, she
+bent forward a little, and said, in a low voice: "But I do not
+like him--I do not know why this is. First I liked him, but for
+some time I cannot endure him--I do not know myself why."
+
+At the last words she turned away, capriciously, and went on.
+
+"She does not know! does not know!" whispered Irene over her
+book. "That is why she dances with the dog. What happiness in
+Arcadian life!"
+
+The little one, going on, began to hum again, but near the door
+of her father's study she grew silent and stopped. The sound of a
+number of men's voices in conversation reached her. She dropped
+her hand, and whispered:
+
+"Father has visitors! What shall we do now, Puffie? How shall we
+go in there?"
+
+After a moment's thought and hesitation she stepped in very
+quietly under the drapery of the portiere, and in the twinkle of
+an eye was sitting on a small, low stool which stood behind a
+tall case of shelves filled with books, which, placed near the
+door, formed with two walls a narrow, triangular space. That was
+an excellent corner, a real asylum which she could reach
+unobserved, and which she had selected for herself earlier. The
+books on the shelves hid her perfectly, but left small cracks
+through which she could see everyone. Whenever there were guests
+with her father she entered directly from the door, with one
+silent little step she pushed in, waited longer than the guests,
+and when they were gone she could talk with her father.
+
+At the round table, which was covered with books, maps, and
+pamphlets, in broad armchairs were sitting, hat in hand, men of
+various statures and ages. They had not come on business, but to
+make calls of longer or shorter duration. Some were giving place
+to others, who came unceasingly, or rather flowed in as wave
+follows wave. Some went, others came. The pressing of hands, bows
+more or less profound, polite and choice phrases, conversation,
+interrupted and begun again, conversation touching important and
+serious questions of European politics, local questions of the
+higher order, and problems of society, especially financial and
+economic.
+
+Darvid's voice, low but metallic, filled the study, it was heard
+by all with an attention almost religious; in general, Darvid
+seemed to ride over that ever-changing throng of men, by his
+word, by his gestures, by his eyes, with their cold and
+penetrating gleam, from behind the glasses of his binocle. He was
+radiant with a certain kind of power, which made him what he was,
+and the world yielded to the charm of this power, for it created
+wealth, that object of most universal and passionate desire. He
+himself felt all its might at that moment. When at the door of
+the study were heard, announced by the servant, names famous
+because they were ancient, others known for high office, or for
+the reputation which science and mental gifts confer, he
+experienced a feeling like that which a cat must feel when
+stroked along the back. He felt the hand of fate stroking him,
+and the delight caused by this became very pleasing. He was
+eloquent, he was gleaming with self-confidence, judgment, and
+ease of utterance. Not the least pride was to be observed in him,
+only the gleam of glory issuing from his smooth forehead, and the
+mysterious sensation of apotheosis, which pushed an invisible
+pedestal under the man, and made him seem loftier than he was in
+reality.
+
+At a certain moment a number of men entered, they seemed almost
+sunk in humility, and at the same time filled with solemnity.
+That was a delegation from a well-known philanthropic society in
+the city; they had come to Darvid with a request to take part in
+their work by a money contribution and by personal assistance. He
+began by the gift of a considerable sum, but refused personal
+assistance. He had not the time, he said, but even had he time,
+he was opposed in principle to all philanthropic activity.
+"Philanthropy gives a beautiful witness touching those who engage
+in it, but it cannot prevent the misfortunes which torture the
+race; nay, it strengthens them needlessly, and offers premiums to
+sloth and incompetence. Only exertion of all forces in untiring
+and iron labor can save mankind from the cancer of poverty which
+tortures it. Were there no help behind any man's shoulders, no
+hands would drop down unoccupied; each man would exercise his own
+strength, and misery would vanish from this earth of ours."
+
+Among those present, a guarded and immensely polite opposition
+rose, however.
+
+"The weak, the cripples, lonely old men and children?"
+
+"Philanthropy," answered Darvid, "cannot stop the existence of
+these social castaways, it merely continues and establishes
+them."
+
+"But they have hungry stomachs, sad souls and hearts--like our
+own."
+
+"What is to be done," inquired Darvid, with outspread palms which
+indicated regret. "There must be victors and vanquished in the
+world, and the sooner the latter are swept from existence the
+better for them and for mankind."
+
+A look of displeasure was evident on the faces of some, but they
+were silent, the oldest man rose, and smiling most agreeably,
+ended the argument:
+
+"But if philanthropy had many patrons like you its activity would
+correct the injustice of fate very frequently."
+
+"Let us not call fate unjust," retorted Darvid with a smile,
+"because it favors strength and crushes incompetence. On the
+contrary its action is beneficent, for it strengthens all that is
+worthy of life, and destroys that which is useless."
+
+"It has been just to you, and in this case we all owe it
+gratitude," concluded the oldest man in the delegation, ending
+the dispute hurriedly. Holding, meanwhile, Darvid's hand in his
+two palms he shook it with a cordial pressure, and his gray head,
+and face, furrowed with wrinkles, were bent in a profound
+obeisance. For those whom his honest heart pitied he carried a
+gift so considerable that, in spite of words which were not to
+his mind, the homage and gratitude which he gave came from
+perfect sincerity.
+
+At last Darvid's study was deserted, and on his lips was fixed a
+smile which resembled a pricking pin. Why had he poured out such
+a great handful of money for an object which to him was
+indifferent, the need of which he did not recognize? Why? Habit,
+relations, public opinion, expressed orally, and by the printed
+word. A comedy! Misery! He frowned, the wrinkles between his
+brows were growing, when he heard a slight rustle behind. He
+looked around, and exclaimed:
+
+"Cara! How did you come in? Ah! you were sitting in the corner
+behind the books! Only a reed such as you are could squeeze in
+through that cranny! What is your wish, my little daughter?"
+
+He smiled at his daughter, though his glance turned to the clock
+standing in the corner of the room. But Cara, with seriousness on
+her rosy face, stretched out to him the little dog, which had
+just wakened and was still sleepy.
+
+"First of all, I beg father to stroke Puffie--Puffie is pretty,
+and he is good, stroke him just once, father."
+
+Darvid drew his palm a number of times, absent-mindedly, over the
+back of the dog.
+
+"I have stroked him. But now if you have nothing else to say--"
+
+"I have no time!" added she, finishing her father's sentence. She
+laughed, and dropping Puff on the armchair, she caught her father
+in both her arms:
+
+"I will not let you go!" cried she; "father must give me a
+quarter of an hour, ten minutes, eight minutes, five minutes, I
+will speak quickly, quickly. 'If I have nothing more to say.' I
+have piles of things to say! I was sitting in the corner looking
+and listening, and I don't understand, father, why so many men
+come to you. When one looks at it all from a corner, it is so
+funny! They come in and bow--"
+
+Here she ran to the door and began with motions and gestures to
+enact that of which she was talking. Puff sprang after his
+mistress, and, stopping in the middle of the room, did not take
+his eyes from her.
+
+"They come in, they bow, they press your hand, father, they sit
+down, they listen."
+
+She sat on the chair in the posture of a man, and gave her
+delicate features an expression of profound attention. Puff fixed
+his eyes on her and began to bark.
+
+"Or in this way." She changed her expression from attention to
+gaping. Next she sprang up from the chair. Puff sprang up, too,
+and caught the end of her skirt in his little teeth. "They rise,
+they bow again, they all say the same things: I have the honor! I
+shall have the honor! I wish to have the honor!"
+
+She bowed man-fashion, knocking her heels together, and then
+pushing apart her little, slippered feet, and Puff tugged at the
+edge of her dress, sprang away, barked repeatedly, and seized her
+dress in his teeth again.
+
+"Puffie, don't hinder me! Puffie, go away! Some go out, others
+come. Again: 'I have the honor! I wish to have the honor!'
+Puffie, go away! They press your hand, father. Oh, I have tired
+myself!"
+
+Her breath had become hurried from quick motions and rapid
+speaking, a bright flush covered her face, she coughed and
+coughed again, she seized her father's arms.
+
+"Do not run away, father! I have much to tell you. I will talk
+quickly."
+
+Darvid had been standing in the middle of the room, and following
+her quick movements with his eyes, at first with an indulgent,
+and then with a more gladsome smile. That child was beaming with
+exuberant life, with wit also, which had the power to penetrate
+things and people; a most delicate sensitiveness, which made her
+an instrument of many strings, and these never ceased quivering.
+She reminded him marvellously of Malvina in her youth. When she
+began to cough he caught her, and said:
+
+"Do not hurry so; do not speak so much; talk less; sit down
+here."
+
+"I have no time, father, to talk slowly--I cannot sit down--for
+you will run away that moment. I must hold you and hurry. I want
+you to tell me why so many men come to you, and why you go to
+their houses. Do you love them? Do they love you? Is it agreeable
+and pleasant for you in their company? What do they want? What
+comes of these visits, pleasantness or profit? And whose profit,
+theirs or yours? or the profit of someone else, perhaps? What is
+all this for? Do not these visits remind you of the theatre?
+Though I have never been in the theatre. Here, as in the theatre,
+every man plays some part, pretends, puts on a face, does he not?
+Why does he do so? Do you like this, father? I beg you to tell,
+but only tell me everything, everything; for father, I want you
+to be my master, my light--you are so wise, so respected, so
+great!"
+
+"Enthusiasm put sparks into her dark eyeballs which were turned
+up to her father's face. Darvid stroked her pale, golden hair.
+
+"My dear child," said he, "my little one!" After a while he
+added: "Are you a wild girl from Australia or Africa to ask me
+such questions? You have seen visits from childhood. Have you not
+seen your mother receiving many visitors, also?"
+
+"Yes, yes, father; but mamma amuses herself with them, and is
+taking Ira into society. But what are visits to you? Are you
+amusing yourself, also?"
+
+"How amuse?" laughed Darvid, "they annoy me oftenest of all,
+though an odd time they give me pleasure."
+
+"What pleasure?"
+
+"You do not understand this yet. Relations, position in the
+world, significance."
+
+"What do you want of significance, father; why do you wish for a
+high position in society? What profit does significance give?
+Does it give happiness? See, father, I know one little
+history--Miss Mary's father, an English clergyman, has a parish
+in a poor, far-away corner, where there are no people of
+significance, and no rich men, but there are many poor and
+ignorant people there; and he has significance only among those
+poor people--that is, he has no significance whatever, still he
+is so happy, and all those people are so happy. They love one
+another, and live together. It is so warm and bright in that
+pastor's house, there, among the old trees. Miss Mary came away
+from there to get a little money for her youngest sister, whom
+she loves dearly. She lives pleasantly here, but she yearns for
+her family, and has told me so much of them; and some time,
+father, I will beg you to let me go with Miss Mary to England, to
+that poor country parish, and see that great, warm, bright
+happiness which exists in it."
+
+Tears glittered like diamonds in her gleaming eyes, and Darvid,
+with his arm around her slender waist, stood silent, in deep
+meditation. That child, by her questions, had let his thoughts
+down, as if by a string, to the bottom of things, at which he had
+never looked before--he had had no time. He might tell her that
+high significance in the world tickles vanity, flatters pride,
+helps, frequently, to carry business to a profitable
+conclusion--that is to pecuniary profit. He might confess to
+himself, also, that that English clergyman, in his quiet
+parsonage, under his ancient trees, seemed to him a very happy
+man all at once in that moment. After a while, he said:
+
+"It must be so. Happiness and unhappiness are one thing for poor
+people, and another for the rich."
+
+He looked at the clock.
+
+"But now--"
+
+"Now, I have no time!" laughed Cara. "No, no, father, two minutes
+more, a minute more--I will ask about something else."
+
+"You will ask more!" exclaimed he, with such a laugh as he had
+hardly ever given.
+
+"Yes, yes--something even more important than the last. I am
+troubled about it--it pains me so--"
+
+She changed from foot to foot, and embraced her father with all
+her strength, as if fearing that he might run away.
+
+"Did father mean really to say that one should not uphold the
+poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, the sad, nor comfort them; that
+it is only necessary to leave them so that they may die as soon
+as possible? When father said that I felt sick in some way. Mamma
+and Ira this long time support two old men, so gray and nice,
+whom Miss Mary and I visit often. Do mamma and Ira do badly?
+Should we let them die as soon as possible from hunger? Brrr! it
+is terrible! Does father think so really, or did he only say what
+he did to get rid of those gentlemen the more quickly? Father you
+are good, the best, a dear, golden father. Do you really believe
+what you said, or was it to get rid of those men? I beg you to
+answer me, I beg you!"
+
+This time her eyes were fixed on his face, with a gleam which was
+almost feverish, and again he stood in silence, filled with
+astonishment. Why could his mouth not open to tell that girl his
+profoundest conviction?
+
+With all the wrinkles between his brows, he said, without a
+smile:
+
+"I said that to get rid of them; I wished to be rid of those
+gentlemen as quickly as possible." The soles of Cara's feet
+struck the floor time after time with delight.
+
+"Yes, yes! I was sure of that! My best, dearest father--"
+
+Stroking her hair, he added:
+
+"We must be kind. Be kind always. Keep the life in gray-haired,
+nice old men. You will never lack money for that."
+
+She kissed his hands; suddenly her glance fell on her father's
+desk, and she cried:
+
+"Puffie! Puffie! where have you climbed to? There you are, you
+have crawled on to the desk and done so much mischief!"
+The ash-colored little dog was on the great desk of the
+celebrated financier, on the top of a huge pile of papers; he was
+sitting with his nose against a window pane, growling at crows
+that were flying past and cawing. In that study, which was so
+dignified as to be almost solemn, Cara's laughter was heard in
+silver tones:
+
+"Look, father, how angry he is! He is angry at the crows! Oh, how
+he sticks his little nose up when one of them flies past. Do you
+see, father?"
+
+"I see, I see! Never has such a dignified assistant been in
+charge of my desk. Oh, you little one!"
+
+He put his arm around her and pressed her to his bosom, briefly,
+but heartily. Through his head passed at that moment the
+recollection of something unimportant which he had seen on a
+time: a golden sun-ray, which, flashing from behind clouds, had
+torn them apart, and disclosed a strip of clear azure beyond. He
+saw this through a window of a railroad car, mechanically, as we
+see things to which we are indifferent. Now he remembered it.
+
+"The carriage is ready!" called the servant from the anteroom.
+
+"You are a little giddy-head," said Darvid, looking at the clock.
+"I should have left the house a quarter of an hour ago."
+
+She ran to bring his hat, and gave it with a low bow. Stooping
+quickly she raised a glove which he had dropped.
+
+"Don't forget to leave Puffie here to keep my papers in order!"
+
+With this jest on his lips he went to the antechamber, but, while
+putting on his fur and descending the stairway, he thought of the
+auction, where he was to buy a house sold for debt--an excellent
+investment.
+
+"Is Pan Maryan at home?" asked Darvid of the Swiss at the street
+door.
+
+The Swiss learned from servants that the young master was
+sleeping yet.
+
+"What a miserable method of life! I must put a curb on this wild
+buck immediately. Well, lack of time, a chronic lack of time!"
+
+"Quickly! as quickly as possible!" called he to the driver, while
+entering the carriage.
+
+He had left the house too late, his daughter had broken in on him
+with her twittering and fondling--but she is a ray of sunlight!
+
+Cara removed Puff from her father's papers, and, putting him on
+her breast, almost under her chin, as usual, passed through the
+drawing-rooms hurriedly. She was late for her lessons with Miss
+Mary. In one of the drawing-rooms she passed Irene. The slow
+promenade of the tall and formal young lady, with an open book in
+her hand, continued yet. Cara, while passing, and without
+stopping, said, with evident gladsomeness:
+
+"But I talked long with father to-day, long."
+
+"You have done that trick!" answered Irene, indifferently.
+
+Cara stopped as if fixed to the floor. In the careless voice of
+her sister she heard irony; she seemed ready for conflict; her
+brows contracted suddenly; her eyes were full of sparks. But
+Irene, absorbed in reading, was already a good number of steps
+away. After a few seconds, Cara vanished behind the door of her
+own room and Miss Mary's.
+
+Irene's features, rather meagre and elongated, continued
+motionless; her paleness increased their formality. But as time
+passed, weariness settled the more deeply on her drooping
+eyelids. Whenever she passed a window of the drawing-rooms, the
+pin in her hair east quick, sharp gleams in the sunlight.
+
+At last the door of Malvina's room opened and out came Kranitski,
+quite different from what he had been at his arrival. His
+shoulders were bent; his head drooping; on his cheeks were red
+spots; his forehead was greatly wrinkled. He looked as though he
+had been weeping a moment before. Even his mustaches were hanging
+in woefulness over his carefully shaven chin. Irene stopped, and
+with the book in her two hands, which she had dropped, gazed at
+the man approaching her. He hastened his step, took her hand, and
+said in a low voice and hurriedly:
+
+"I am the most wretched of beings! I was not worthy of such great
+happiness as--as--your mother's friendship, so I lose it. Je suis
+fini, completement et cruellement fini. I take farewell of you,
+Panna Irene--so many years! so many years! I loved you all so
+greatly, so heartily. Some people call me a romantic old dreamer.
+I am. I suffer. Je souffre horriblement. I wish you every
+happiness. Perhaps, we may never meet again. Perhaps, I shall go
+to the country. I take farewell of you. So many, so many years! O
+Dieu!" His eyelids were red; he was bent more than ever as he
+passed out. On Irene's face great alarm appeared.
+
+"It is true, then. It is true!" whispered she. Springing forward
+like a bird she passed through the drawing-room, quickly and
+silently. Invisible wings bore her toward the closed door of her
+mother's room; when entering, her manner was calm and
+distinguished, as usual, but her eyes, in which there was anxious
+concern, beheld the form of a woman lying in a deep armchair, her
+face covered with her hands. Malvina was weeping in silence; her
+sobs gave out no sound, they merely shook her shoulders at
+regular intervals. These shoulders were drooping forward, and it
+seemed as though an unseen weight were crushing them to the earth
+and would crush them down through it.
+
+Irene hurried, silently; brought a vial from the adjoining
+bedchamber, poured some liquid on her palm, and touched her
+mother's forehead and temples with it, delicately. Malvina raised
+her face, which was deeply agitated by an expression of dread. At
+that instant one might have thought the woman feared her
+daughter. But Irene, in her usual calm voice, said:
+
+"Insomnia always harms you, mamma. Again you have that horrible
+neuralgia!"
+
+"Yes, I feel a little ill," answered Malvina in a weak voice.
+
+She rose, and tried to smile at Irene, but her pale lips merely
+quivered, and her eyelids drooped; they were swollen from
+weeping. With a step which she strove to make firm and steady she
+went toward her bedroom.
+
+Irene followed some steps behind.
+
+"Mamma?"
+
+"What, my child?"
+
+Irene's lips opened and closed repeatedly; it seemed as though
+some cry would come from them, but she only said in low tones:
+
+"A little wine or bouillon might be brought?"
+
+Malvina shook her head, advanced some steps, looked around:
+
+"Ira!"
+
+The daughter stood before her mother, but now Malvina in her turn
+was speechless. She inclined her forehead, which covered slowly
+with a blush; at last she inquired in a low voice:
+
+"Is your father at home?"
+
+"I heard him drive away some moments ago."
+
+"On his return, should he wish to see me, say that I am waiting
+for him."
+
+"Very well, mamma."
+
+In the door she turned again:
+
+"Should someone else come--I cannot--"
+
+Irene halted a number of steps from her mother in the formal
+posture of a society young lady, and said:
+
+"Be at rest, mamma; I shall not go a step away, and I shall not
+let anyone interrupt you. Not even father if you wish--perhaps
+to-morrow would be better?"
+
+"Oh, no, no!" cried Malvina, with sudden animation. "On the
+contrary, as soon as possible--beg your father to come, and let
+me know at the earliest."
+
+"Very well, mamma."
+
+Malvina closed the bedroom door, advanced a few steps, and fell
+on her knees at her richly covered bed. Amid furniture, finished
+in yellow damask, on a downy bed, covered with cambric and lace,
+she raised her clasped hands, and said, in whispers broken with
+sobs:
+
+"O God! O God! O God!"
+
+She was of those weak beings who to live need heartfelt love as
+much as air, and who are infected by this love without power of
+resisting it. To such a love had she yielded once in the chill
+and emptiness of rich drawing rooms. That was a happening of long
+ago; she was the weaker at that time because she was caught by a
+breeze from the spring of her life, passed in the company of that
+man who was casting himself at her feet then. In that moment of
+yielding a pebble had dropped on her, the weight of which
+increased with the course of years and the growth of her
+children. She had not thought for an instant that she was the
+heroine of a drama. On the contrary, she repeated, with a face
+always blushing from shame: "Weak! weak! weak!" and, from a time
+rather remote, it was joined with another word, "Guilty." She was
+weak, still to-day she had found strength at last to cut one of
+those knots in which her life had been involved so repulsively.
+Oh, that the other might be torn apart quickly; then she could go
+far from the world into lone obscurity, an abyss occupied only by
+her endless penitence. In her head a plan had matured. She wished
+to speak with Darvid as soon as possible, and she doubted not
+that in the near future he would agree with her. Her daughters?
+Well, was it not better that such a mother should leave them,
+vanish from their eyes?
+
+Irene pushed to the window a small table, on which were painting
+materials; she took her place at the table, and with fixed
+attention in her eyes began to outline a cluster of beautiful
+flowers. They were chrysanthemums, and seemed to be opening their
+snowy and fiery petals to mystic kisses. Deep silence reigned in
+the mansion, and only after a certain time had passed did the
+sound of glasses and porcelain come from a remote apartment, and
+at the door of the study a servant appeared, announcing that
+lunch was served. Irene raised her head from her work:
+
+"Tell Panna Caroline and Miss Mary that mamma and I will not come
+to the table."
+
+She added a command to bring two cups of bouillon and some rusks.
+A while later she stood with a cup in her hand at her mother's
+door.
+
+"May I come in?"
+
+She held her ear to the door; there was no answer. Her lids
+blinked anxiously; she repeated the question, adding:
+
+"Mamma, I beg--"
+
+"Come in, Ira!"
+
+Covered with silken materials Malvina was like a glittering wave
+on the bed. Irene entered with the bouillon and the rusks, then
+slipped through the room quietly and let down the shades. A mild
+half-gloom filled the chamber.
+
+"This is better. Light when one has the headache is hurtful." She
+went to the bed. "You cannot sleep in these tight boots, try as
+you like, and without some hours of sleep the neuralgia will not
+leave you."
+
+Before these words were finished, her slender hands had changed
+the tight boots for roomy and soft ones. She bent down, and with
+a touch of her fingers unfastened a number of hooks at her
+mother's breast.
+
+"Now, it will be well!" Irene dropped her arms on her dress and
+smiled a little. Despite her fashionable robe and fantastic
+hairdressing there was in her at that moment something of the
+sister of charity, she seemed painstaking and cautious.
+
+"And now, mamma, be a little glutton," added she with a smile;
+"you will drink the bouillon and eat the rusk; I will go to paint
+my chrysanthemums."
+
+She was at the door when she heard the call:
+
+"Ira!"
+
+"What, mamma?"
+
+Two arms stretched toward her, and surrounded her neck; and lips,
+so feverish that they burnt, covered her forehead and face with
+kisses. Irene in return pressed her lips to her mother's forehead
+and hand, but for a few seconds only, then she withdrew from the
+embrace with a gentle movement, moved away somewhat, and said:
+
+"Be not excited, for that may increase the neuralgia."
+
+At the door she turned again:
+
+"Should anything be needed, just whisper; you know what delicate
+hearing I have; I shall hear. I shall be painting in your study.
+Those chrysanthemums are beautiful, and I have a new idea about
+them which interests me greatly."
+
+In the tempered winter light from the window, in that study full
+of gilding, artistic trifles, syringas, and hyacinths, Irene sat
+at the table with painting utensils, sunk in thought and idle.
+From beneath her brows, which had each the outline of a delicate
+little flame, her fixed eyes turned toward the past. She had in
+mind a time when she was ten years old, and was fitting a new
+dress on her doll with immense interest. At first she did not
+turn attention to her parents' conversation in the next chamber,
+but afterward, when the dress was fitted to the doll as if melted
+around it, she raised her head, and through the open door began
+to look and listen. Her father, with a jesting smile, was sitting
+in an armchair; her mother, in a white gown, was standing before
+him, with such an expression in her eyes as if she were praying
+for salvation.
+
+"Aloysius!" said she, "have we not enough? Is there nothing in
+the world except property and profits--this golden idol?"
+
+"I beg you to consider that there is something else," interrupted
+he, with a slight hiss of irony; "this luxury which surrounds you
+and becomes you so well."
+
+Then she seated herself opposite him, and, bending forward, spoke
+somewhat quickly, disconnectedly:
+
+"Do we live with each other? We do not by any means. We only see
+each other. There is nothing in common between us. You are
+swallowed up by business, I by society. I have taken a fancy, it
+is true, for amusement, but in the depth of my heart I am often
+very gloomy. I feel lonely. My early life, as you know, was
+modest, poor, toilsome, and often it calls to me reproachfully.
+You do not know of this, for we have no time to exchange ideas. I
+am of those women who need to feel guardianship, to have near
+them an ear which might listen to their hearts, and a mind which
+would direct their conscience. I am weak. I am full of dread. I
+fear that in view of your frequent, almost continual absence, I
+shall not be able to rear the children properly. I only know how
+to love them, I would give my life for them, but I am weak. I beg
+you not to leave me and them so frequently; that is, almost
+continuously--rather let this luxury decrease--I shall be glad,
+even, for the decrease will bring us nearer together. I beg you!"
+
+She seized his hands, and it seemed as though she kissed them;
+but it was certain that the pale, golden wave of her dishevelled
+hair fell on them. Irene, though she was only ten years old then,
+felt pity for her mother, and waited with intense curiosity for
+her father's answer.
+
+"What do you wish in particular?" asked he. "I listen, I listen,
+still I do not know exactly what the question is. Is it this,
+that I should stop work, which I love and which succeeds with me?
+You must be in a waking dream. Those are ideas from another
+society, mere childish fancies."
+
+ Here Irene's thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of Cara.
+
+"Ira, is mamma sick, since she did not come to luncheon?"
+
+"Mamma has neuralgia often; you know that well." Cara turned to
+the door of her mother's bedroom, but Irene stopped her.
+
+"Do not go; she may be sleeping." The girl approached her sister:
+
+"It seems to me--" she whispered and stopped.
+
+"What seems to you a second time?"
+
+"That there is something going on in this house--"
+
+Irene frowned.
+
+"What an imagination you have! You are ever imagining something
+uncommon. Now all these uncommon things are painted pots, or
+illusions. Life rolls on always in a common, prosaic movement.
+Stop making painted pots, and go out to walk with Puff and Miss
+Mary."
+
+Cara listened attentively, but with an incredulous expression of
+eyes, which were fixed on her sister's face.
+
+"Very well, I will go to walk, but what you have said is not
+true, Ira. It is not painted pots that mamma is suffering and
+sick, that father goes out to dine for a whole week, and does not
+come to her at all; even that--man, going out to-day, began to
+cry in the antechamber--I saw him by chance--he wanted to say
+something to me, but I ran away--"
+
+Irene shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"You will be a poetess, perhaps, you exaggerate everything so
+terribly. Mamma is not troubled, she only has neuralgia. Father
+does not dine with us because he has so many invitations, and Pan
+Kranitski struck his nose against something which you, in poetic
+imagination, took for crying. Men never cry, and sensible girls,
+instead of filling their heads with painted pots, go to walk
+while good weather lasts and the sun shines. The doctor tells you
+to walk every day, not in the evening, but about this hour."
+
+"I am going, I am going! You drive me away!"
+
+She went on a number of steps, and turned again toward her aster:
+
+"Father is angry at Maryan--I see that very clearly. Everything
+in this house is, somehow, so strange."
+
+She went out, but Irene clasped her hands, and for some seconds
+squeezed them with all her might, and thought:
+
+"That child will soon look at life just as I have been looking at
+it for some time past. It is necessary to foresee, absolutely
+necessary!" She returned to her reminiscences. Her mother said to
+her father:
+
+"Our fortune is now considerable."
+
+"In that direction," answered her father, "it never can be too
+great, nor even sufficient."
+
+Then, playing with her beautiful hair, he asked:
+
+"But do you believe that I love you?"
+
+After some hesitation she answered:
+
+"No. I have lost that faith, I lost it some time ago."
+
+Later there were many other words, some of which Irene
+remembered:
+
+"The very best guardianship in this world," said her father, "is
+wealth. Whoso has that will never lack mind, even; since, in ease
+of need, he can buy mind from other men.
+
+"In the training of our children you will expend all that is
+requisite. You will rear for me our daughters to be grand ladies;
+will you not? Educate them so that when mature they may feel as
+much at home in the highest social circles as in their own
+father's household. As to you, amuse yourself, make connections,
+dress, be brilliant. The more you elevate the name which you
+bear, by beauty, wit, knowledge of life, the more service will
+you render me in return for the services which I render you.
+Besides, if you have any difficulty with the house, with
+teachers, with social relations, you have that honest Kranitski,
+who will serve you with great good will. I am very much pleased
+with that acquaintance. Just such a man did I need. He has
+extensive and very good connections; he is perfectly well-bred,
+obliging, polite. Foreseeing that he might be very useful to us,
+I became familiar with him. It is true that he has borrowed money
+a number of times of me, but he has rendered a number of
+services. Pay in return for value, that is the best method."
+
+He walked up and down through the room repeatedly; on his
+forehead, in his look, in his movements, he had an expression of
+perfect confidence in himself, his rights, and his reason.
+Suddenly, turning toward the door of remoter rooms, he cried with
+delight:
+
+"Speak of the wolf, and he is before you! I greet you, dear sir."
+
+With these words he extended his hand to the guest who was
+entering. This was Kranitski, at that time in his highest manly
+beauty; petted, and a favorite in the best social circles because
+of it, and for other reasons also.
+
+He gave a hearty greeting of Darvid, who met him with delight,
+and then he stood before Malvina in such a posture, and with such
+an expression on his face, as if he desired only one thing on
+earth, to be able to drop on his knees before her.
+
+That conversation and scene remained fixed in Irene's memory. She
+drew from it formerly, extensive conclusions, then she ceased
+altogether to recall it; now she thought again of it, forgetting
+her painted chrysanthemums, which, on the blue satin, seemed to
+gaze at her, having as subtle and enigmatical a look as she
+herself had.
+
+A servant at the door announced: "Baron Emil Blauendorf!"
+
+"Not at ho--" began she at once; but, halting, instructed the
+servant to ask him to wait. At her mother's desk she wrote on a
+narrow card of Bristol-board, in English:
+
+"Mamma is ill with neuralgia; I am nursing her, and cannot see
+you to-day. I regret this, for the talk about dissonances began
+to be interesting. Bring me the continuation of it to-morrow!"
+
+She gave this card, in an envelope addressed to the baron, to a
+servant, and sat down again to her chrysanthemums, this time with
+a smile both malicious and gladsome. With his appearance in that
+house, though unseen by her, Baron Emil had lent form in her head
+to a certain whimsical idea. She knew that it was whimsical, but
+just for that reason it pleased her, and must also please the
+baron. She began quickly, almost with enthusiasm, to paint dark
+outlines of imps among the flowers. She disposed them so that
+they seemed to separate the flowers and keep them apart from one
+another. Some imps were climbing up, others were slipping down;
+they peeped out from behind petals, climbed along stems, but all
+were malicious, distorted, capricious, and pushed the tops of the
+flowers apart in such fashion that they did not let the
+half-bending petals meet in kisses. Painting quickly, Irene
+laughed. She imagined Baron Emil saying at sight of this work:
+"C'est du nouveau! It is not a painted pot! it is an individual
+thought. There is a new quiver there. It bites."
+
+The expressions "painted pots," "Arcadians," "it bites," "new
+quivers," "rheumatism of thought," and many more she had from
+him. And she was not the only one who borrowed. These expressions
+had spread in a rather largo circle of people who despised
+everything existing, and were seeking everything which was new
+and astonishing. Baron Emil was cultured, had read much. He read
+frequently Nietsche's "Zarathustra," and spoke of the coming
+"race," the super-humans. He spoke somewhat through his nose and
+through his teeth.
+
+The superhuman is he who is able to will absolutely and
+unconditionally.
+
+When Irene thought that perhaps she would soon become the baron's
+wife, and leave that house, her brows contracted and her jeering
+smile vanished. Oh, she would not let him escape her! She had an
+absolute condition to put before the baron; he would accept it
+most assuredly, through deference to the amount of her dower.
+Energy glittered in her blue eyes. She turned her face toward the
+door of her mother's room with so quick a movement that the
+metallic pin in her hair cast a gleam of sharp steel above her
+head.
+
+"One must know how to will," whispered she.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+When Kranitski entered his own lodgings, after passing the night
+with Maryan, and after the long conversation with Malvina, old
+widow Clemens looked at him from behind her great spectacles, and
+dropped her hands:
+
+"Are you sick, or what? Arabian adventure! Ah, what a look you
+have! What has happened? Maybe those pains have come; you have
+had them a number of times already. Why not take off your fur?
+Wait! I will help you this minute. Oh, you will be sick in
+addition to everything else."
+
+She was a squatty woman, heavy, with a striped kerchief on her
+shoulders, and wearing a short skirt, from under which appeared
+flat feet in tattered overshoes. She was seventy years old, at
+least; her large, sallow face was much withered. Bordered by gray
+hair and a white cap that face was bright with the gleam of dark
+eyes, still fiery, and quickly glancing from under a wrinkled,
+high forehead. Her whole figure had in it something of the
+fields, something primitive, which seemed not to have the least
+relation to that little drawing-room and its owner. That room
+contained everything which is found usually in such apartments,
+therefore: a sofa, armchairs, a table, a mirror with a console, a
+low and broad ottoman with cushions in Oriental fashion,
+porcelain figures on the console, old-fashioned shelves with
+books in nice bindings, a few oil paintings, small but neat, on
+the walls, a number of photographs, tastefully grouped above the
+ottoman, a large album on the table before the sofa. But all this
+was a collection brought together at various seasons, and injured
+by time. The covering of the cushions had faded, the gilding on
+the mirror frame was worn here and there, the leather covering on
+the furniture was worn and showed through cracks the stuffing
+within, the album was torn, the porcelain base of the lamp was
+broken. At the first cast of the eye the little drawing-room
+seemed elegant, but after a while, through spots and rents mended
+carefully, want was observed creeping forth. This want was hidden
+chiefly by perfect and minute cleanliness, in which one could
+recognize active, careful hands, industrious, untiring sweeping
+out, rubbing out, sewing, mending--those were the lean, aged
+hands, with broad palms and short fingers, which were now helping
+Kranitski to remove his fur coat. Meanwhile, a scolding, harsh
+voice, with tenderness at the base of it, continued:
+
+"Again a night passed away from home. Surely off there with
+cards, or with madams of some sort! Oi, an offense against God!
+And this time you come home sick. I see that you are sick, your
+whole face is covered with red spots, you are hardly able to
+stand on your feet. Arabian adventure!"
+
+"Give me rest!" answered Kranitski in a complaining voice. "I am
+sick, the most wretched of men. Everything is past for me--I beg
+you to look to the door, so that no one may enter; I am suffering
+too much to let in impertinent people."
+
+There were tears in his eyes, and his appearance was wretched. No
+one was looking at him then, except his old servant, who was as
+faithful as a dog, so he let the fetters of artificial youth and
+elegance drop from him. His shoulders were bent, his cheeks
+pendant, above his brows were red spots and thick wrinkles. He
+vanished then beyond the half-closed door of his bedroom, and
+widow Clemens went back to the work interrupted by his coming. In
+the middle of the drawing-room, on an open card-table, lay,
+spread out, a dressing gown of Turkish stuff. That gown,
+beautiful on a time, was then faded; moreover, its lining was
+torn. Widow Clemens while repairing that lining and patching it
+had been interrupted by Kranitski's return; and now, wearing
+great steel-rimmed glasses, and with a brass thimble on her
+middle finger, she sat down again. She examined a rent through
+which wadding peeped out on the world, cautiously. But in spite
+of her attention fixed on the work she whispered, or rather
+talked on in a low and monotonous mutter:
+
+"'Look to the door, let no one in!' As if anyone ever comes here.
+Long ago, comrades and various protectors used to come; they came
+often at first, afterward very seldom; but now it is perhaps two
+years since even a dog has looked in here. He could not bear
+impertinent people. Oh, yes! they come here, many of them,
+princes, counts, various rich persons. Oh, yes! while he was a
+novelty and brilliant they amused themselves with him as they
+would with a shining button, but when the button was rubbed and
+dull they threw it into a corner. The relations, the friends, the
+companions! Arabian adventure! Oh, this society!"
+
+She was silent a while, put a piece of carefully fitted material
+on the rent, raised her hand a number of times with the long
+thread, and again muttered:
+
+"But is that society? It is sin, not society! Roll in sin, like
+the devil in pitch, and then scream that it burns! Oi, Oi!"
+
+Silence reigned in the room; only the clock, that unavoidable
+dweller in all houses, that comrade of all people, ticked
+monotonously on the shelf, beneath the mirror, among the
+porcelain figures. Widow Clemens, while sewing, industriously,
+muttered on. Her unbroken loneliness, the store of thoughts put
+away in her old head, and the care in her heart had given her the
+habit of soliloquy.
+
+"And it will be worse yet. He has debts beyond calculation. He
+will die on a litter of straw, or in a hospital. Oh, if his dead
+mother could see this! Arabian adventure! Unless Stefanek and I
+drag him out of this pit!"
+
+She stopped sewing and raised her spectacles to her forehead,
+their glass eyes gleamed above her gray brows, and she fell into
+deep thought. She moved her lips from time to time, but did not
+mutter. By this movement of the lips, and by her wrinkles, it
+could be seen that she was forming some plan, that she was
+imagining. Just then Kranitski's voice was heard from the
+bedroom.
+
+She sprang up with the liveliness of twenty years, and, with a
+loud clattering of old overshoes, ran to the door.
+
+"Give me the dressing-gown, mother; I am not well; I will not go
+anywhere to-day."
+
+"Here is the dressing-gown; but if the lining is torn?"
+
+"Torn or not, give it here, and my slippers, too; for I am not
+well."
+
+"Here they are! Not well? I have said not well! O beloved God,
+what will come of this?"
+
+But, while helping him to put on the dressing-gown, she inquired,
+with incredulity:
+
+"Is it true, or a joke, that you will not leave the house
+to-day?"
+
+"A joke!" answered he in bitterness. "If you knew what a joke
+this is! I will not leave the house to-day, or to-morrow, or
+perhaps ever. I will lie here and grieve till I grieve to death.
+Oh, that it might be very soon!"
+
+"Arabian adventure! Never has it been like this! It is easy to
+see that the pitch has burnt!" whispered widow Clemens to
+herself. But aloud she said:
+
+"Before you grieve to death we must get you some dinner. I will
+run to the town for meat. I will lock the door outside, so that
+impertinent counts, and various barons should not burst in,"
+added she, ironically.
+
+Kranitski, left alone, locked up in his lodgings, robed in his
+dressing-gown, once costly, now faded, its sleeves tattered at
+the wrists, lay on the long-chair in front of his collection of
+pipes, arranged on the wall cunningly. In the society in which he
+moved collecting was universal. They collected pictures,
+miniatures, engravings, autographs, porcelain, old books, old
+spoons, old stuffs. Kranitski collected pipes. Some he had
+bought, but the greater number, by far, he had received on
+anniversaries of his name's-day, in proof of friendly
+recollection, and as keepsakes after a journey. During years many
+were collected, about a hundred; among them some were valuable,
+some poor but original, some even ridiculous, some immense in
+size, some small, some bright colored, some almost black; they
+were arranged on shelves at the wall with taste, and effectively.
+
+Besides these pipes there were in the bed-room other objects of
+value: a writing-desk of peculiar wood, a porcelain frame, with
+Cupids at the top, surrounding an oval mirror, at which were
+bottles, vials, toilet boxes, and a rather long cigarette-case of
+pure gold, which Kranitski kept with him at all times, and which,
+as he lay now in the long-chair, he turned in his fingers,
+mechanically. This cigarette-case was a precious memento. He had
+received it soon after his arrival in the city, twenty and some
+years before, from Countess Eugenia, his mother's aunt. Prom
+their first meeting the countess was simply wild about him.
+Society even insisted, notwithstanding her more than ripe years,
+that she was madly in love with that uncommonly beautiful and
+blooming young man, who had been reared by his mother with
+immense care, and trained to appear successfully in that society
+to which she had been born. Kranitski's mother, through various
+causes, had become the victim of a mesalliance; she grieved out,
+and wept away secretly; her life, in a village corner, after
+marrying a noble who was perfectly honorable, but neither a man
+of the world, nor the owner of much property. She desired for her
+only son a better fate than she herself had had, and prepared him
+for it long beforehand. He spoke French with a Parisian accent,
+and English quite well; he was versed in the literatures of
+Western Europe; he was a famous dancer; he was obliging; he had
+an inborn instinct of kindness toward people; he was popular,
+sought after, petted; when the money with which his mother
+furnished him proved insufficient he obtained a small office,
+through the influence of wealthy relatives, which, besides
+increasing his revenue, gave him a certain independent aspect. He
+passed whole days in great and wealthy houses, where he read
+books, aloud, to old princesses and countesses, and for young
+princesses and countesses; he held skeins of silk on his opened
+hands. He carried out commissions and various small affairs; at
+balls he led dances; he amused himself; fell in love, was loved
+in return; he passed evenings and nights in clubs, and in private
+rooms at restaurants, at theatres, and behind the scenes in
+theatres, where he paid homage to famous actresses of various
+degrees and qualities. Those were times truly joyous and golden.
+At that period he was served not by widow Clemens, but by a man;
+he dined--if not with friends or relatives--at the best
+restaurants. At that time, too, he did something magnanimous,
+which brought reward in the form of great mental profit: He
+passed a whole year in Italy with Count Alfred, his relative, who
+was suffering from consumption; Kranitski nursed, amused, and
+comforted his cousin with patience, attachment, and tenderness
+which were perfectly sincere, and which came from a heart
+inclined to warm, almost submissive feelings. In return that year
+gave him skill in the use of Italian, and a wide acquaintance
+with the achievements and the schools of art, of which he was an
+enthusiastic worshipper. Soon after he went with Prince Zeno to
+Paris, learned France and its capital well, and on his return
+remained for some time as a reader with the prince, whose eyes
+were affected. His power of beautiful reading in many languages
+brought him a wide reputation; he was distinguished in
+drawing-rooms by the ease of his speech and manners; to some he
+became a valued assistant in entertaining guests, and a pleasant
+companion in hours of loneliness; to others he was a master in
+the domain of amusements, and elegance in the arts of politeness
+and pleasure. At this period also he made the acquaintance of
+Darvid, and met his wife, whom he had known from childhood, and
+who had been his earliest ideal of womanhood. Thenceforth, his
+relations with other houses were relaxed considerably, for he
+gave himself to the Darvid house soul and body. Though Malvina's
+children had many tutors, he taught one of her daughters Italian,
+and the other English; he did this with devotion, with delight;
+and, therefore, that house became, as it were, his own, and was
+ever open to him. Moreover, during the last ten years great
+changes had happened in that society of which he was the adopted
+child, and so long the favorite.
+
+Countess Eugenia had given her daughter in marriage to a French
+count, and resided in Paris; Count Alfred was dead; dead, also,
+was that dear, kindly Baroness Blauendorf from whom he had
+received as a gift that mirror with porcelain frame and Cupids.
+Others, too, were dead, or were living elsewhere. Only Prince
+Zeno remained, but he had cooled toward his former reader,
+notably because of the princess, who could not forgive Kranitski;
+since, as was too well known by all, he was occupied with the
+wife of that millionaire--the eternally absent.
+
+There were still many acquaintances, and more recent relations,
+but these had neither the charm nor the certainty of those which
+time had in various ways broken, brought to an end, or relaxed.
+
+His mother, the foundress of his destiny, had ceased to live some
+time before that.
+
+"Pauvre maman! pauvre maman!"
+
+How tenderly and unboundedly he had loved her. How long he had
+hesitated and fought with himself before he left at her
+persuasion, the house in which she had given birth to him. He
+regretted immensely the village, the freedom, and that
+bright-haired maiden in the neighborhood. But the wide world and
+the great city took on, in his mother's narrative, the outlines
+of paradise, and his worthy relatives, the forms of demi-gods.
+
+When at last, after long hesitation and struggles, he resolved to
+go away, how many were the kisses and embraces of his mother! how
+many were her maxims and advices; how many her predictions of
+happiness. He began to look at his own form in the mirrors, and
+to feel in his own person the movement of desires, hopes,
+ambitions. Once he caught himself bowing and making gestures,
+almost involuntarily, before the mirrors. He laughed aloud, his
+mother laughed also, for she had caught him in the act
+red-handed.
+
+"Pauvre maman! pauvre, chere maman!"
+
+And on the background of that domestic gladness, of those
+wonderful hopes, only one person by her conduct had raised a
+cloud on that heaven, beaming serenely. That was widow Clemens,
+an old servant of the house, and once his nurse, not young even
+at that time, and a childless widow.
+
+She was morose, grumbling, peevish, but for a long time she said
+nothing; she did not hinder the thin, gray-haired mother, nor the
+youth, beautiful as a dream, from rejoicing and imagining; till
+at last she spoke when alone with the petted stripling. It was
+the end of an autumn day, twilight had begun to come down on the
+yard in Lipovka, and the linden grove, in a black line, cut
+through the evening ruddiness glowing in the western heavens.
+Widow Clemens, with her eyes fixed on the grove and the red of
+evening, said:
+
+"Oi! Tulek, Tulek! how will this be? You will go away; you will
+take up and go away; but the sun will rise and set; the grove
+will rustle; the wheat will ripen; and the snow will fall when
+you are gone."
+
+He sat on the bench of the piazza, and said nothing. But in the
+distant fields, in the growing darkness, a shepherd's whistle
+gave out clear tones, simple, monotonous, they flew along the
+field like the weeping of space.
+
+"Why go; do you know why--God alone knows. What are you throwing
+away? The beauties of God. What will you bring back? Perhaps the
+mud people cast at you."
+
+A cow bellowed in the stable; a belated working-woman muttered a
+song somewhere behind in the garden. The evening red was
+quenched; and above the roof the crescent of the moon came out,
+thin and like silver.
+
+Widow Clemens whispered:
+
+"Ill-fated! ill-fated boy!"
+
+He was immensely far from considering himself ill fated, but
+something in his heart felt pain at leaving that village where he
+was born, at leaving Malvina, and it seemed to him that he ought
+to stay.
+
+But he went. The Argonaut, of twenty and some years of age, went
+out into the world, slender, adroit, with eyes dark and fiery as
+youth, with cheeks shapely and fresh as peaches, with a forehead
+as white and pure as the petal of a lily; he went for a wife with
+a fortune, for the pleasures of the world--for the golden fleece.
+
+Now he wrapped himself closely in the skirt of his faded
+dressing-gown, and let his head droop so low that the bald spot
+seemed white on the top of it; his lower lip dropped; the red
+spots came out over his dark brows on his wrinkled forehead. In
+his hand he held the cigarette-case presented by Countess
+Eugenia, now living in Paris, and at times he turned it in his
+fingers, with an unconscious movement, and that glittering object
+cast on the tattered sleeve of his dressing-gown, on his
+suffering face, on his long, thin fingers, its bright, golden
+reflection.
+
+Meanwhile widow Clemens had returned to the kitchen, and there,
+not without a loud clattering of overshoes, had begun to cook the
+dinner. But Kranitski neither heard nor saw anything. From time
+to time the head, with its great cap, looked in through the
+kitchen door, gazed on him unquietly and pushed back to look in
+again soon.
+
+"Will you have dinner now?" inquired she at last. "It is ready."
+
+In a low voice he asked for dinner, but he ate almost nothing;
+the woman had never yet seen him so broken, still she made no
+inquiry. When the moment came he would tell all himself. He was
+not of those who bear secrets to the grave with them. She waited
+on the man, gave him food, brought tea, cleared the table in
+silence. Once she fell into trouble: Passing hurriedly through
+the room she lost one of the overshoes which she had on her feet:
+
+"Ah! may thou be!--they fall off every moment!" grumbled she, and
+for some minutes she struggled with that overshoe, which,
+dropping from her foot, slipped along the floor noisily.
+Kranitski raised his head:
+
+"What is that?" inquired he.
+
+She made no answer, but when she was near the kitchen door, he
+cried:
+
+"What have you on your feet that clatter so? It is irritating!"
+
+She stopped at the door:
+
+"What have I on my feet? Well, your old overshoes! Am I to wear
+out shoes every day, and then buy new ones? 'Irritating!' Arabian
+adventure! God grant that you never have worse irritation than
+overshoes clattering on the floor!"
+
+And she grumbled on in the kitchen while going with an empty
+glass to the samovar:
+
+"You wouldn't have a pinch of tea in the house if I went around
+in new shoes all my time!"
+
+Darkness came down. Kranitski smoked cigarettes one after
+another, and was so sunk in thought that he trembled throughout
+his body. When widow Clemens brought in a lamp, with a
+milk-colored globe, which filled the room with a white, mild
+light, Kranitski looked at the head of the old woman in the white
+lamp-light, and, for the first time in a number of hours, he
+spoke:
+
+"Come, mother, come nearer!" said he.
+
+When she came he seized her rude fist in both his hands and shook
+it vigorously.
+
+"What could I do; what would happen to me now, if you were not
+with me? No living soul of my own here! Alone, alone, as in a
+desert."
+
+The onrush of tenderness burst through all obstructions.
+Confidences flowed on. He had loved for the last time in life, le
+dernier amour, and all had ended. She had forbidden him to see
+her. That decision of hers had been ripening for a long time.
+Reproaches of conscience, shame, despair as to her children. One
+daughter knew everything; the other might know it any day. She
+had let out of her hands the rudder of those hearts and
+consciences, for when she was talking with them her own fault
+closed her lips, like a red-hot seal. She thought herself the
+most pitiful of creatures. She did not wish to make further use
+of her husband's wealth, or the position which it give her in
+society. She wished to go away, to settle down in some silent
+corner, vanish from the eyes of people.
+
+Kranitski was so excited that he almost sobbed; here his speech
+was interrupted by a rough, sarcastic voice:
+
+"It is well that she came to her senses at last--"
+
+"What senses? What are you weaving, mother? You know nothing.
+Love is never an offense. Ils ont peche, mais le ceil est un
+don."
+
+"You are mad, Tulek! Am I some madam that you must speak French
+to me?" Still he finished:
+
+"Ils ont souffert, c'est le sceau du pardon. I will translate
+this for thee: They have sinned, but heaven is a gift-----They
+have suffered; suffering is the seal of pardon."
+
+"Tulek, let heaven alone! To mix up such things with
+heaven--Arabian adventure!"
+
+"Are you a priest, mother? I tell you of my own suffering and the
+suffering of that noble, sweet being--" In the antechamber, the
+door of which widow Clemens, in returning from the city, had not
+locked, was heard stamping, and the youthful voice of a man
+called:
+
+"Is your master at home?"
+
+"Arabian adventure!" muttered widow Clemens.
+
+"Maryan!" exclaimed Kranitski with delight, and he answered
+aloud:
+
+"I am at home, at home!"
+
+"An event worthy of record in universal history," answered the
+voice of a man speaking somewhat through his nose and teeth.
+
+"And the baron!" cried Kranitski; then he whispered:
+
+"Close the drawing-room door, mother; I must freshen up a
+little," and from behind the closed door he spoke to those who
+were in the drawing-room:
+
+"In a moment, my dears, in a moment I shall be at your service."
+
+In the light of the lamp, placed by widow Clemens in the
+drawing-room, he appeared, indeed, after a few minutes, dressed,
+his hair arranged, perfumed, elegant with springy movements and
+an unconstrained smile on his lips. Only his lids were reddened,
+and on his forehead were many wrinkles which would not be
+smoothed away.
+
+"A comedian! There is a comedian!" grumbled widow Clemens,
+returning to the kitchen, with a terrible clatter of overshoes.
+
+The two young men pressed his hand in friendship. It was clear
+that they liked him.
+
+"Why did you avoid us all day?" inquired Baron Emil. "We waited
+for you at Borel's--he gave us an excellent dinner. But maybe you
+are fasting?"
+
+"Let him alone, he has his suffering," put in Maryan. "I am so
+sorry, mon bon vieux (my good old man), that I have persuaded the
+baron to join me in taking you out. I cannot, of course, leave
+you a victim to melancholy."
+
+Kranitski was moved; gratitude and tenderness were gazing out of
+his eyes.
+
+"Thanks, thanks! You touch me."
+
+He pressed the hands of both in turn, holding Maryan's hand
+longer than the baron's, with the words:
+
+"My dear-dear--dear."
+
+The young man smiled.
+
+"Do not grow so tender," said he, "for that injures the interior.
+You are, however, a son of that generation which possesses an
+antidote for melancholy."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Well, faith, hope, charity, with resignation and--other painted
+pots. We haven't them, so we go to Tron-tron's, where Lili Kerth
+sings. We are to give her a supper tonight at Borel's. Borel has
+promised me everything which the five parts of the world can
+give."
+
+"As to the problematic nature of that Lili," remarked the baron,
+"there are moments in which she takes on the superhuman ideal."
+
+"What an idea, dear baron!" burst out Kranitski. "Lili and
+superhumanity, the ideal! Why, she is a little beast that sings
+abject things marvellously."
+
+"That is it, that is it!" said the baron, defending his position,
+"a little beast in the guise of an angel--the singing of
+chansonettes with such a devil in the body--and at the same time
+a complexion, a look, a smile, which scatters a kind of mystic,
+lily perfume. This is precisely that dissonance, that snap, that
+mystery with which she has conquered Europe. This rouses
+curiosity; it excites; it is opposed to rules, to harmony--do you
+understand?"
+
+"Stop, Emil!" cried Maryan, laughing. "You are speaking to the
+guardian of tombs. He worships harmony yet."
+
+Kranitski seemed humiliated somewhat. He passed his palm over his
+hair, and began timidly:
+
+"But that is true, my dears; I see myself that I am becoming
+old-fashioned. Men of my time, and I, called a cat a cat, a rogue
+a rogue. If a Lili like yours put on the airs of an angel we
+said: 'Oh, she is a rogue!' And we knew what to think of the
+matter. But this confounding of profane with sacred, of the
+rudest carnalism with a mystic tendency--"
+
+The baron and Maryan laughed.
+
+"For you this is all Greek, and will remain Greek. You wore born
+in the age of harmony, you will remain on the side of harmony.
+But a truce to talk. Let us go. Come, you will hear Lili Kerth;
+we shall sup together."
+
+"Come, we have a place in the carriage for you," said the baron,
+supporting young Darvid's invitation.
+
+Kranitski grew as radiant as if a sun-ray had fallen on his face.
+
+"Very well, my dears, very well, I will go with you; it will
+distract me, freshen me. A little while only; will you permit?"
+
+"Of course. Willingly. We will wait." He hurried to his bedroom,
+and closed the door behind him. In his head whirled pictures and
+expressions: the theatre, songs, amusement, supper, conversation,
+the bright light--everything, in a word, to which he had grown
+accustomed, and with which he had lived for many years. The
+foretaste of delight penetrated through his grievous sorrows.
+After the bitter mixture he felt the taste of caramels in his
+mouth. He ran toward his dressing-table, but in the middle of the
+room he stood as if fixed to the floor. His eye met a beautiful
+heliotype, standing on the bureau in the light of the lamp; from
+the middle of the room, in a motionless posture, Kranitski gazed
+at the face of the woman, which was enclosed in an ornamented
+frame.
+
+"Poor, dear soul! Noble creature!" whispered he, and his lips
+quivered, and on his forehead appeared the red spots. Maryan
+called from beyond the door:
+
+"Hurry, old man! We shall be late!"
+
+A few minutes afterward Kranitski entered the drawing-room. His
+shoulders were bent; his lids redder than before.
+
+"I cannot--as I love you, I cannot go with you! I feel ill."
+
+"Indeed, he must be ill!" cried Maryan. "See, Emil, how our old
+man looks! He is changed, is he not?"
+
+"But a moment ago you looked well!" blurted out Emil, and added:
+"Do not become wearisome, do not get sick. Sick people are
+fertilizers on the field of death--and sickness is annoying!"
+
+"Splendidly said!" exclaimed Maryan.
+
+"No, no," answered Kranitski, "this is not important, it is an
+old trouble of the liver. Returned only to-day--you must go
+without me."
+
+He straightened himself, smiled, tried to move without
+constraint, but unconquerable suffering was evident on his
+features and in the expression of his eyes.
+
+"May we send the doctor?" asked Maryan.
+
+"No, no," protested Kranitski, and the baron took him by the arm
+and turned him toward the bedroom. Though Kranitski's shoulders
+were bent at that moment, his form was shapely and imposing; the
+baron, holding his arm, seemed small and frail; he made one think
+of a fly. In the bedroom he said, with a low voice:
+
+"It is reported in the city that papa Darvid is opposed to my
+plans concerning Panna Irene. Do you know of this?"
+
+For some months the baron had spoken frequently with Kranitski
+about his plans, taking counsel with him even at times, and
+begging for indications. Was he not the most intimate friend of
+that house, and surely an adviser of the family? Kranitski did
+not think, or even speak, of Baron Emil otherwise than:
+
+"Ce brave garcon has the best heart in the world; he is very
+highly developed and intelligent; yes, very intelligent; and his
+mother, that dear, angelic baroness, was one of the most
+beautiful stars among those which have lighted my life."
+
+So through the man's innate inclination to an optimistic view of
+mankind, and his grateful memory of "one of the most beautiful
+stars," he was always very friendly to the baron and favorable to
+his plan touching Irene; all the more since he noted in her an
+inclination toward the baron. So, usually, he gave the young man
+counsel and answers willingly and exhaustively. This time,
+however, an expression of constraint and of suffering fell on his
+face.
+
+"I know not, dear baron; indeed, I can do nothing, for to
+tell--for I--" A number of drops of perspiration came out on his
+forehead, and he added, with difficulty:
+
+"It seems that Panna Irene--"
+
+"Panna Irene," interrupted the baron, without noticing
+Kranitski's emotion, "is a sonnet from Baudelaire's Les fleurs du
+mal (The flowers of evil). There is in her something undefined,
+something contradictory--"
+
+Kranitski made a quick movement.
+
+"My baron--"
+
+"But do you not understand me, dear Pan Arthur? I have no
+intention of speaking ill of Panna Irene. In my mouth the
+epithets which I have used are the highest praise. Panna Irene is
+interesting precisely for this reason, that she is indefinite and
+complicated. She is a disenchanted woman. She possesses that
+universal irony which is the stamp of higher natures. Oh, Panna
+Irene is not a violet unless from the hot-house of Baudelaire!
+But, just for that reason she rouses curiosity, irritates, une
+desabusee--une vierge desabusee. Do you understand? There is in
+this the odor of mystery--a new quiver. But with natures of this
+sort nothing can ever be certain--"
+
+"Hers is a noble nature!" cried Kranitski, with enthusiasm.
+
+"You divide natures into noble and not noble," said the baron,
+with a smile; "but I, into annoying and interesting."
+
+Beyond the door the loud voice of Maryan was heard:
+
+"Emil, I will leave you and go to Tron-tron's. I will tell Lili
+Kerth that you remained for the night to nurse a sick friend."
+
+These words seemed to them so amusing that they laughed, from
+both sides of the closed door, simultaneously.
+
+"Good!" cried the baron. "You will create for me the fame of a
+good Christian. As the Brandenburger fears only God, I fear only
+the ridiculous, and go."
+
+A few minutes later the two friends were no longer in the
+dwelling of Kranitski, who was sitting on his long chair again,
+with drooping head, turning in his fingers the golden
+cigarette-case. The street outside the window was lonely enough,
+so the rumble of the departing carriage was audible. Kranitski
+followed it with his ear, and when it was silent he regretted
+passionately for a moment that he had not gone to where people
+were singing and jesting, and eating, and drinking in bright
+light, in waves of laughter. But, straightway, he felt an
+invincible distaste for all that. He was so sad, crushed, sick.
+Why had not those two young friends of his remained longer? He
+had rendered them the most varied services frequently, he had
+simply been at their service always, and had loved them;
+especially Maryan, the dear child--and many others. How many
+times had he nursed them, also, in sickness, consoled them,
+rescued them, amused them. Now, when he cannot run after them, as
+a dog after its mistress, his only comrades are darkness and
+silence.
+
+Darkness reigned in the little drawing-room, silence of the grave
+in the whole dwelling. A clatter of overshoes broke this silence;
+widow Clemens stood in the kitchen door. On her high forehead,
+above her gray eyebrows, shone the glass eyes of her spectacles;
+her left hand was covered with a man's sock which she was
+darning. She stood in the door and looked at Kranitski, bent,
+grown old, buried in gloomy silence, and shook her head. Then, as
+quietly as ever was possible for her, she approached the
+long-chair, sat on a stool which was near it, and asked:
+
+"Well, why are you silent, and chewing sorrow alone? Talk with
+me, you will feel easier."
+
+As he gazed at her silently, she asked in a still lower tone:
+
+"Well, the woman? Did she love you greatly? Was her love real?
+How did you and she come to your senses?"
+
+After a few minutes' hesitation, or thought, Kranitski, with his
+elbows on the edge of the chair, and his forehead on his palms,
+said:
+
+"I can tell all, mother, for you are not of our society, and you
+are noble, faithful; the only one on earth who remains with me."
+
+Throughout the silent chamber was heard, as it were, the sound of
+a trumpet: that sound was made by widow Clemens, who had drawn
+from her pocket a coarse handkerchief and held it to her nose.
+Her eyes were moist. Kranitski quivered and squirmed, but
+continued:
+
+"When we met the first time after parting, the spring season was
+around us. You know that we parted only because I had too little
+fortune to marry a portionless maiden, and my mother would not
+hear of my marrying a governess. Soon after, that rich man
+married her. Fiu! fiu! what became of that governess, that girl
+more timid than a violet? She became a society lady, full of
+life, elegance, style--but springtime breathed around us,
+memories of the village, of the flowers, of the fields, of our
+earliest, heartfelt emotions. Did she love her husband? Poor,
+dear, soul! It seems that at first she was attached to him, but
+he left her, neglected her, grasped after millions throughout the
+whole world. He was strong, unbending--she was ever alone. Alone
+in society! Alone in the house--for the children were small yet,
+and she so sensitive and weak, needing friendship and the
+fondling of a devoted heart. I fell on my knees in spirit before
+her--she felt that. He, when going away, left me near her as an
+adviser, a guardian for the time, even a protector, yes, a
+pro-tec-tor--the parvenu! the idiot! So wise, yet so stupid--ha!
+ha! ha!"
+
+Sneering, vengeful laughter contorted Kranitski's face, the red
+spots spread over his brows and covered half of his forehead,
+which was drawn now into thick wrinkles.
+
+"Do not vex yourself, Tulek, do not vex yourself, you will be
+ill," urged widow Clemens; but once his confessions were begun he
+went on with them.
+
+"For a year or more there was nothing between us. We were
+friends, but she held me at a distance; she struggled. You,
+mother, know if I had success with women--"
+
+"You had, to your eternal ruin, you had!" blurted out widow
+Clemens.
+
+"From youth I had the gift of reading; I owe much to it."
+
+"Ei! you owe much to it! What do you owe to it? Your sin against
+God, and the waste of your life!" said the widow, ready for a
+dispute, but he went on without noting that.
+
+"Once she was weak after a violent attack of neuralgia; it was
+late in the evening, the great house was empty and dark, the
+children were sleeping--I gave her the attention that a brother
+or a mother would give; I was careful; I hid what was happening
+within me; I acted as though I were watching over a sick child
+which was dear to me. I entertained her with conversation; I
+spoke in a low voice; I gave her medicine and confectionery.
+Afterward I began to read. More than once she had said that my
+reading was music. I was reading Musset. You do not know, mother,
+who Musset is. He is the poet of love--of that love exactly which
+the world calls forbidden. She wanted something from the
+neighboring chamber; I went for it. When I returned our eyes met,
+and--well, I read no more that evening."
+
+He was barely able to utter the last words; he covered his face
+with his handkerchief, rested his head on the arm of the
+long-chair, was motionless; wept, perhaps. Widow Clemens bent
+down, the corner of her coarse handkerchief came from her pocket,
+and through the chamber that sound of a trumpet was heard for the
+second time. Then she drew her bench up still nearer, and, with
+her hand in the stocking-foot, touched Kranitski's arm, and
+whispered:
+
+"Say no more, Tulek; despair not! Let God up there judge her and
+you. He is a strict judge, but merciful! I am sorry for you, but
+also for her, poor thing! What is to be done? The heart is not
+stone, man is not an angel! Only drive off despair! Everything
+passes-, and your sorrow also will pass. You may be better off in
+the world than you now are. You may yet enjoy pleasant quiet in
+Lipovka, in your own cottage. Stefanek and I may think out
+something, so that you will escape from the mud of this city."
+
+Kranitski made no answer; the woman spoke on:
+
+"I have had another letter from Stefanek."
+
+"What does that honest man write?" asked Kranitski.
+
+The widow flushed up in anger:
+
+"It is true that he is honest, and there is no need to call him
+that--as if through favor, or sneering. Arabian adventure! He is
+only my godson, but better than men of high birth. He writes that
+management in Lipovka goes well; that again he has set out a
+hundred fruit-trees in the garden; that in four weeks he will
+come and bring a little money."
+
+"Money!" whispered Kranitski; "but that is well!"
+
+"It is surely well, for that Jew would have taken your furniture
+if I had not pushed him down the steps, and a second time begged
+him to wait." She laughed. "To push him down was easier than to
+beg, for I am strong, and he is as small as a fly. Well I almost
+kissed his hands, and he promised to wait. 'For widow Clemens I
+will do this,' said he, 'because she is a servant who is like a
+mother.' Indeed, I am like a mother! I have no children, I have
+no one of my own in the world--I have only you."
+
+Kranitski looked at her and began to shake his head with a slow
+movement. She, too, fixing her fiery and gloomy eyes on his eyes,
+shook slowly her head, which was covered with a great cap.
+
+The lamp burning on the bureau threw its white light on those two
+heads, which, discoursing sadly, continued their melancholy
+converse without words; it shone also on the varied collection of
+pipes at the wall, and cast passing gleams on the golden
+cigarette-case which Kranitski turned in his hand.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Darvid was in splendid humor--he had bought at auction a house
+and broad grounds very reasonably. He cared little for the
+house--it was a rubbishy old pile which he would remove very
+soon--but the grounds, covered then with an extensive garden,
+represented an uncommonly profitable transaction. Situated near
+one of the railroad stations, he would, of course, receive a high
+price for it, because of the need to put there a great public
+edifice.
+
+Darvid would sell the ground to those who needed it, and then
+make proposals to build the edifice. This was the third
+undertaking which had fallen to him since his return, a few
+months before. What of that, when the most important, for which
+he would have given the other three willingly, had not fallen yet
+to him, and he did not know well what had been done concerning
+it? This affair did not let him sleep sometimes, still it did not
+disincline him from working at that which he had begun already.
+
+The day was clear, slightly frosty, myriads of brilliants were
+glittering in the white rime which covered the trees, and in the
+snow which lay on the extensive garden. Darvid, in company with a
+surveyor, an engineer, and an architect, walked through the
+garden, but the object of his walk was in no way the
+contemplation of nature bound up under marbles, and alabasters
+sprinkled with brilliants. The engineer brought him a plan for
+the purchase of the place, and supported the interests of his
+employers energetically; the surveyor and the architect spoke of
+their part, pointed out with gestures the proportions and various
+points of the open area. Darvid, in a closely fitting fur coat,
+finished with an original and very costly collar, with a shining
+hat on his head, walked over the ground with even tread; he
+listened rather than spoke, there was a silent satisfaction in
+his smile, when suddenly an immense brightness reflected from a
+tree, directly in front, dazzled his eyesight. The tree, which
+resembled a lofty pillar, had on each of its branches a plume,
+cut as it were delicately from alabaster, every feather of this
+plume flamed like a torch lighted in a rainbow. Sheafs of rainbow
+gleams shot out of that wonderful carving, and from that fountain
+of many-colored light. Darvid put his glasses on his nose
+suddenly, and said with a painful twist of the mouth:
+
+"What unendurable light!"
+
+The architect looked at the tree and said, with a smile:
+
+"No man, not even a Greek master, has ever finished a pillar like
+that."
+
+"The only pity is that it cannot be used," replied Darvid,
+smiling also.
+
+"You are not a lover of nature, that is true; while I--" began
+the engineer.
+
+"On the contrary, on the contrary. During intervals I have looked
+at nature here and there," said Darvid, playfully. "But to become
+her lover, as you say, I have not had leisure. To love nature is
+a luxury which iron toil does not know--a luxury which must have
+leisure."
+
+With these words he turned from the beautiful work of nature and
+intended to go on, but again he halted. He found himself at the
+picket fence, which divided the garden from the street, and in
+the movement of the street he saw something which occupied him
+greatly.
+
+It was the hour of departure for one of the railroad trains. The
+street was wide, and the ground on both sides of it was not
+entirely occupied yet with houses, many carriages on wheels, and
+a multitude of sleighs were hastening toward the near railway
+station. The sleighs shot forward with clinking harness, the snow
+under wheels squeaked complainingly, the drivers uttered brief
+shouts. The hats of men and women, various kinds of furs, the
+liveries of coachmen, the horses puffing steam, covered here and
+there with colored nets, formed a motley, changing line, moving
+forward with a rattle and an outcry along the white snow, in an
+atmosphere glittering from frost and sunlight.
+
+One of the carriages looked like a flower garden. Roses,
+camelias, pinks, and violets were creeping out--simply pouring
+out--through its windows. The carriage was filled with bouquets,
+garlands, baskets. Among these, as in a flood of various colors,
+appeared in the heart of it the broad-rimmed hat of a woman.
+Immediately behind the carriage rushed a sleigh drawn by a pair
+of grand horses, the driver wearing an enormous fur collar, and
+in the sleigh were two young men, at whose feet again was a
+basket of flowers, but the finest and costliest, very rare and
+expensive orchids. The carriage and sleigh shot forward through
+the many-colored crowd of the street, as if some enchanted vision
+of spring had risen through the snow and then vanished.
+
+"Who is that lady in the carriage filled with flowers?" asked
+Darvid, turning to his companions.
+
+"Bianca Biannetti."
+
+That was a name which needed no commentary. Darvid smiled, with
+satisfaction. It was not wonderful that Maryan and the little
+baron were escorting to the station that woman of European fame,
+and were taking flowers to her. Of course, of course. He himself
+a number of times in his life--and if it was not offener, it was
+because time had failed him.
+
+"There will be an amusing history to-day at the station," said
+the engineer. "A special train for Bianca; it is to leave five
+minutes after the regular one."
+
+"For what purpose?" asked the architect.
+
+"It is easy to divine: to have five minutes longer to enjoy the
+society of the great singer."
+
+"An extra train! That is madness!" said Darvid. "Who did this?"
+
+The engineer and architect exchanged significant glances, and the
+former answered:
+
+"Your son."
+
+The skin on Darvid's face quivered, but he answered with perfect
+composure:
+
+"Ah, true! I remember Maryan told me something of this. I
+persuaded him a little, but he insisted. What is to be done? Il
+faut que la jeunesse se passe (youth must have its day)."
+
+Then he gave his hand to the three men in farewell:
+
+"I am sorry that we cannot finish our discussions to-day, but I
+remember an important affair. I beg you, gentlemen, to come
+to-morrow at the usual hour of my receptions."
+
+He raised his hat and left them.
+
+"To the station! Hurry!" said he to the driver while entering the
+carriage.
+
+At the station stood a row of cars with a locomotive sending up
+steam. A throng of people were moving toward the snow-covered
+platform, and hurrying to the train. Darvid came out also,
+searching with his eyes for a youthful face which filled his
+sleepless nights with care. At first he could not find it, but
+when many people had entered the train, those assembled for the
+passive role of spectators formed a group and turned their
+glances toward one point upon the platform. There in the hands of
+a number of people bloomed a garden of beautiful flowers, and
+near them two persons were conversing with great animation. The
+opera singer was an Italian, a beautiful brunette, with eyes
+blazing like dark stars. Conversing with her in her own language
+was a young man, younger than she, very youthful, light haired,
+shapely, elegantly dressed. At some steps from this pair, in a
+careless posture, with an unoccupied air, stood Baron Emil,
+fragile and red-haired.
+
+The bell, summoning passengers, was heard in the frosty air for
+the second time. The lady, with a charming smile, bowed in sign
+of farewell, and made a step toward the train, but the young man
+barred the way with a movement made adroitly, talking meanwhile,
+and holding her under the determined glance of his blue eyes.
+Without showing alarm she delayed, smiled, and listened.
+
+Darvid stood on the platform, lost in that crowd of the curious,
+and snatches of conversation struck his ear.
+
+"She will not go!" said one man.
+
+"She will! There is time enough yet!" said another.
+
+"He detains her purposely, so that she may not go."
+
+"He does, for she is beautiful. Her smile is as charming as her
+song."
+
+"He is a daring boy," said some third man near Darvid's other
+ear. "Look, look, how he talks her down purposely--poor woman,
+she will go back to the city beaten."
+
+"But no! That would be an impoliteness on his part."
+
+"Who is this handsome young man with golden hair?" asked some
+woman.
+
+"Young Darvid. The son of the great financier. How young! He is a
+child."
+
+"A man with millions ripens quickly, like a peach in sunlight."
+
+"What language are they speaking? I cannot hear, but it is not
+French."
+
+"Italian; she is Italian."
+
+"But he chatters in that language as if he were her compatriot."
+
+"Millions are like the tongues at Pentecost," said the man who
+had mentioned peaches, "whoever is touched by them speaks every
+language on earth right away."
+
+All the passengers had vanished in the cars, the doors of which
+were fastened now with loud clinking. This time the opera singer
+stepped forward quickly, but young Darvid spoke a few words which
+brought to her face astonishment and the most beautiful smile in
+the world; she nodded, agreed to something, gave thanks for
+something in the same way that kindly queens consent to receive
+marks of the highest honor from their subjects.
+
+In the crowd surrounding Darvid someone laughed:
+
+"Ah, he is a stunning fellow! he will not let her go!"
+
+"How handsome he is, that young Darvid!" said a woman.
+
+"He looks like a young prince," added another.
+
+"But what will come of this? She will not go."
+
+"She will go!"
+
+"She will not go!"
+
+"I will bet!"
+
+"I will bet!"
+
+In a moment a number of bets were made behind Darvid as to
+whether the woman, who was talking to his son, would go from the
+city that day or not. On his thin lips a smile of satisfaction
+appeared, the eyes from behind his glasses looked at his son with
+an expression which was almost mild. A young prince! Yes, that is
+true. What freedom of manner, what grace! What fine disregard for
+the common throng gazing at him! Triumphant even with women! That
+woman, famous throughout Europe, is simply devouring him with
+those black eyes of hers.
+
+The bell was heard on the platform for the third time, and at the
+same moment a prolonged whistle pierced the air. The wheels of
+the train began to turn with a slow, measured movement.
+
+"It is over!" cried someone in the crowd. "She has not gone!"
+
+"I have lost the bet!" said a number of voices.
+
+"How splendid that that handsome youth has carried his point,"
+said a woman.
+
+Meanwhile, from the remotest end of the platform, new whistling
+of a locomotive came up, and the measured beat of wheels on the
+rails was heard; at some distance a certain black mass appeared,
+it pushed forward faster and faster, until under the smoke came
+out clearly the cylinder of a locomotive, drawing behind it a
+short row of wagons. This was the train, and small, fresh,
+elegant. This train glittered in the sunlight with its yellow
+brass fittings, gleamed in its sapphire-colored varnish. Its rich
+interior, with cushions of purple velvet, was visible through the
+windows. A conductor opened the door of a car and stood near it
+in an expectant position. Maryan, with a motion of request,
+indicated it to the celebrated singer.
+
+Now the people standing on the platform understood everything,
+and fell into enthusiasm. The spirit, which rose to that plan and
+threw out a large sum of money for the sake of it, struck the
+imagination and roused the sympathy of people inclined to gold
+and strange acts, without reference to their object or value. On
+the platform was heard the sharp clapping of some tens of hands,
+and soon after the locomotive whistled once more, and that small,
+special train pushed forward into space, only five minutes later
+than the regular train which preceded it.
+
+Darvid stood near the door of the station whence he could see his
+son, who passed with slow step along a part of the platform. And
+he looked at him with unquiet curiosity, for something unexpected
+in Maryan astonished him. In contradiction to what one might
+expect, and which seemed natural, there was not in the expression
+of face and the movements of. Maryan either the pleasure of youth
+at something accomplished, or sorrow at the departure of the
+woman, for whom he had accomplished it. When a moment before
+applause was heard on the platform, he looked around and cast on
+the hand-clapping crowd a passing glance, as indifferent as if
+they were an object not worthy of contempt, even. Now, too, his
+whole person expressed perfect indifference, nay, even annoyance,
+which contracted his lips, and yellowed the rosiness of his round
+cheeks somewhat. In his blue eyes, fixed glassily on the
+distance, was depicted something like dissatisfaction, or a
+feeling of disappointment, a dreaming, or a pondering in vain
+over deceitful visions which pass over space, but which no one
+can seize upon. He did not see his father, for his glassy eyes
+were looking far away at some point. Even the baron did not see
+Darvid; he was searching for something in his pocketbook
+carefully, till he took out a ten-rouble note and threw it at the
+porters who had borne in the baggage and flowers of the
+primadonna. At the same time he cast these words through his
+teeth at them:
+
+"I have no small money!"
+
+Maryan, without rousing himself from thought, said, as if
+mechanically:
+
+"It is wonderful!"
+
+"What?" asked the baron.
+
+"That everything in the world is so little, so little."
+
+"Except my appetite, which is immense at this moment," cried the
+baron.
+
+"But those fabulous sums which Maryan must expend!" thought
+Darvid going to his carriage; before he reached it he heard other
+snatches of conversation:
+
+"To throw away so much money for a few moments' talk with a
+beautiful woman--that is a character!"
+
+"It promises trouble, does it not?"
+
+"Especially for papa."
+
+"He has as many debts, no doubt, as curly hairs on his head."
+
+"He borrows, of course, on the security of papa's pocket."
+
+"Or his death."
+
+Others said:
+
+"In such hands ill-gotten gains will go to the devil quickly."
+
+"Why ill-gotten gains?"
+
+"Well, can you imagine Saint Francis of Assisi making millions?"
+
+While his carriage was rolling along the streets of the city,
+Darvid's head was full of conflicting ideas. True, true; that
+green youth had a special capacity for devouring the golden sands
+of Pactolus! But in what a charming and princely fashion he did
+that! Darvid was proud of his son, and at the same time greatly
+dismayed and troubled; for this could not last. That lad was
+making debts in view of--his father's death. And this absolute
+idleness! What good was a man who did nothing? The results also
+of idleness were evident in him: a certain premature withering, a
+certain dreaming without object--a handsome fellow! He looked as
+if born to a princely coronet. As Darvid was ascending the marble
+steps of his mansion he said to the Swiss:
+
+"When Pan Maryan comes home say that I request him to come to
+me."
+
+Darvid passed an hour or more in his study, alone, over papers,
+writing, taking notes, examining various accounts, and letters;
+but over his face, from time to time, ran a disagreeable quiver,
+and the nervous movements of his hand caused sheets of paper to
+rustle unpleasantly. At last the door of the antechamber opened
+and Maryan appeared, hat in hand.
+
+"Good-day, my father," began he on entering. "I am glad that you
+invited me, for it is long since I have had the pleasure of
+talking with you. We both have been greatly occupied. For some
+weeks Bianca Biannetti has taken all my time."
+
+He was perfectly unconstrained, though not at all gladsome in his
+manner. Darvid, standing at the round table, looked at his son
+quickly.
+
+"Are you in love with that singer?" asked he.
+
+Only then did Maryan laugh unaffectedly, almost loudly.
+
+"What a question, my father; love is a sanctuary, built on a
+poppy-seed; love then is sacred; while my fancy for that
+beautiful Bianca--"
+
+"Is a poppy-seed which you are transporting through the world on
+special trains," finished Darvid.
+
+"Have you heard of that, father?"
+
+"I have seen it."
+
+"Ah, you were at the station! Strange that I did not see you."
+
+He made a gesture of contempt with his hand.
+
+"I was disappointed. I planned that surprise for Bianca, and felt
+sure of a lively pleasure. When the time came I convinced myself
+that the affair was a trifle, not new, and, like everything,
+stupid. So it is always: what imagination builds up in a long
+time, criticism overturns in a twinkle. It is impossible to
+invent anything important. The world is so aged that it has come
+to us a worn-out old rag."
+
+He took a seat on one of the armchairs surrounding the table, and
+put his hat on the carpet. Darvid replied without changing his
+posture:
+
+"Nothing wonderful; when imagination builds up stupidities
+criticism overturns the building in a twinkle--"
+
+"Who can be sure that he is building up wisdom?" interrupted
+Maryan.
+
+Then, taking a cigarette-case from his pocket, he asked:
+
+"Do you permit, father?" Then, handing the cigarette-case, with
+great politeness, to Darvid, he added:
+
+"But, perhaps, you will smoke also?"
+
+Darvid, with thick wrinkles between his brows, shook his head and
+sat down.
+
+"Why did you leave the university soon after I went away?" asked
+he. "I inquired of you touching this several times by letter, but
+you have never given me a definite answer."
+
+"I beg pardon for that, father, but I am wonderfully slow in
+writing letters. I will explain all to you willingly in words--"
+
+Darvid interrupted:
+
+"I have no time for long talk, so tell me at once. Have you no
+love for science?"
+
+Maryan let out a streak of smoke from his lips, and spoke with
+deliberation:
+
+"I feel no repugnance whatever toward science. I read much, and
+mental curiosity is just one of the most emphatic traits of my
+individuality. In childhood I swallowed books in monumental
+numbers, but I have never learned school lessons. All were
+astonished at this, and still the thing is simple, it lies quite
+on the surface. Common individualities yield to rules, but
+energetic and higher ones will not endure them. Rules and duty
+are stables in which humanity confines its beasts, to prevent
+them from injuring fields under culture. Cattle and sheep stand
+patiently in the enclosures, higher organisms break them down and
+go out into freedom. I need absolute freedom in all things;
+and,-therefore, I stopped going to inns of science, which give
+out this science at stated hours, in certain sorts and doses.
+Though, even in this regard, I showed many good intentions, owing
+to the entreaties and persuasions of mamma. From legal studies I
+betook myself to the study of nature, and turned from that to
+philosophy, thinking that something would occupy me, and that I
+should be able to still that real storm of desperation which
+seized poor mamma. But I was not able. The professors were
+contemptible, my fellow-students a rabble. Society relations
+amused me in those days, and occupied me: imagination swept me
+farther and higher. So I stopped a labor which was annoying and
+irritating, and which, moreover, had no object."
+
+He quenched his cigarette stump in the ash-pan, and, sinking
+again into the deep armchair, continued:
+
+"So far as I have been able to observe, people study science
+regularly for one of two purposes: either they intend to devote
+themselves to what is called the salvation of mankind, or they
+need to win a morsel of bread for their stomachs. Neither of
+these objects could be mine; for, as to the first, I hold the
+principle of individuality carried quite to anarchy. The
+so-called salvation of society is, for our decadent epoch, a
+fable, quite impossible; and the naked truth is, that each man
+lives for himself, and in his own fashion. The man whom fate
+serves well passes his life in a manner more or less agreeable;
+if it serves him ill--he perishes. Luck, and the chance meeting
+of causes, arranges everything. It is impossible to turn the
+earth into a general paradise, just as it is to change a small
+planet into an immense one. The salvation of society is one of
+the narcotics invented to lull the sufferings of people.
+Altruists possess a whole drug-shop of these narcotics; whoever
+wishes has the right to use them; but, as for me, I prefer not to
+be lulled to sleep. I am an individualist, and do not understand
+why Pavel must suffer for the purpose of decreasing the pains of
+Gavel. Let Gavel, as well as Pavel, think of himself; and, if
+they are clever, they will both help themselves somehow without
+turning to labelled bottles. This is my conviction about one of
+the objects for which people make regular studies in science. As
+to the other--"
+
+He took out his cigarette-ease again, and, lighting a cigarette,
+finished:
+
+"As to the other object, that is a simple thing; since being your
+son, my father, I shall not need to bake my own bread. Such is my
+confession of faith which I have laid down before you; all the
+more readily since I have long cherished a genuine reverence for
+your strength of mind and independence. I am certain, too, that
+by no one could I be understood better than by you, my father."
+
+He was mistaken. The man to whom he was talking so fluently and
+politely did not understand him in any sense.
+
+For the first time in his life, perhaps, Darvid did not
+understand the person with whom he was talking. The millionnaire
+was astounded. He had expected to find a frivolous youth, whom
+passions had pushed into extravagance and idleness; meanwhile, a
+reasoning, disenchanted sage sat before him, with bitterness on
+his lips and irony in his speech and eyes. That sour wisdom, the
+measureless belief in himself and his opinions, with the
+independence which accompanied it, were found in a slender,
+delicate, and rosy-faced youth, with eyes as blue as
+forget-me-nots, and came from lips slightly faded, but marked by
+a tiny, youthful moustache. Besides, the perfect elegance of
+manner, the aestheticism and irreproachable grace in movements,
+in voice, in compliments, the utterance of which he rounded very
+beautifully.
+
+Darvid was astounded. He had found no time in his life to observe
+the new directions which thought and character were taking in the
+world; nor for observing the changed forms in which time moulds
+the various generations of mankind. He was dumbfounded,
+speechless, and only after a while did an ironical smile appear
+on his lips--that lad with his theories was absurd!
+
+"All that you have said is simply ridiculous. You are making a
+principle out of a thorough absence of principles. At your age
+such opinions and such coolness are incredible. At your age,
+which is almost that of a child, and with your scant training,
+they are, out and out, ridiculous."
+
+Maryan, with a quick movement, raised his head and looked with
+astonishment at his father. He, too, had expected something
+entirely different.
+
+"Ridiculous!" cried he; "what does this mean, father? This is not
+argument. I felt sure that we should agree perfectly. With the
+profoundest astonishment I see that this is not the case. How is
+it, my father, then, you do not take up the motto: each for
+himself, and in his own way? Still, it is impossible for any man
+to carry contempt for all painted pots farther than you do; than
+you have carried it all your life. But, perhaps, this difference
+in our opinions is only apparent? I beg you to give me argument.
+The charge of ridiculousness is not argument. I may be
+ridiculous, and be right. A lack of principles? Very well;
+principles form one of the most brightly painted of all pots,
+and, therefore, it is most difficult to see the clay. But, never
+mind; I ask for a closer description. What principles do you
+value, father?"
+
+Darvid, with a strong quiver in his face, answered:
+
+"What? Oh, moral. Naturally, moral principles--"
+
+"Yes, yes, but I ask for an accurate definition. What are they
+called; what are the names of those principles?"
+
+Darvid was silent. What are they called? Was he a priest, or a
+governess, to break his head over such questions? If it were a
+question of law, mathematics, architecture, guilds, banks--but he
+had never occupied himself with morals; he had not had the time.
+A deep anger began to possess him, and his words hissed somewhat
+through his lips; when, after some silence, he added:
+
+"My dear, you have made a mistake in the address. It is not the
+office of a father to instil moral principles into children. That
+is the province of mothers. Fathers have no time for that work.
+Go back in memory to your childhood; recall the principles which
+your mother implanted in you, and you will find an answer to your
+question."
+
+Maryan laughed.
+
+"What you say, father, reminds me of one of my friends who writes
+books. A poor devil, but we receive him into our set, for he has
+talent--that legitimizes. Well, on a time, someone asked him:
+'What do you do when, in writing, you meet a difficulty?' 'I try
+to overcome it,' answered he. 'But if you can't overcome it?'
+'Then I dodge; or, I run to one side like a rabbit, and avoid
+saying that which I know not how to say.' Well, you have acted,
+dear father, like this author. You have dodged! Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+He laughed, but Darvid grew gloomier and stiffer. It was strange,
+but true, that in presence of that professor he felt himself more
+and more a pupil.
+
+"Let us leave poor, dear mamma in peace," continued Maryan. "She
+is the impersonation of charm and sweetness. If there is still
+anything of this sort which for me is not a painted pot yet, it
+is the tenderness which I feel for mamma. She has spoken to me
+often, indeed; and she speaks, even now, of principles, but the
+best and dearest of women is only a woman. Sentiment, routine,
+and, besides, want of logic: theory without end and practice
+nowhere, is not that the case with women? You know them better
+than I, father; for you have had more time to explore this part
+of the universe."
+
+His azure eyes glittered with sparks; his golden curls fell low
+on his white forehead; and from his lips, shaded by a tiny
+mustache, the words came out with increasing boldness and
+fluency, and more thickly intermingled with a sarcastic smile:
+
+"As for me, were I an old maid, I should become a Sister of
+Charity; for that office has always a certain position in the
+world, and the stiff bonnet casts a saving shadow on wrinkles.
+Since I am who I am, I think thus of principles: they depend on
+the place; the time; the geographical position; and the evolution
+which society is accomplishing. If the heavens had created me an
+ancient Greek, my principle would have been to battle for freedom
+against Asiatics, and to be enamoured of a beautiful boy. If in
+the Middle Ages, I should have fought for the honor of my lady
+and burnt men alive on blazing piles. In the Orient, I should
+possess, openly, a number of wives, accommodated only to my wish;
+in the West, principle commands a man to pretend that he has only
+one wife. In Europe, it is my duty to honor my father and mother;
+in the Fiji Islands it would be criminal for me not to put them
+to death at the proper moment. Wretched makeup--hash, with which
+our age does not wish now to feed itself. Our age is too old, and
+its palate is too practised, not to distinguish figs from
+pomegranates. We children of an advanced age, decadents, know
+well that man may win much, but will never gain absolute truth.
+It does not exist. All things are relative. My only principle is,
+that I exist, and use my will, my only interest is to know how to
+will. Many other things might be said, but what use? Still, I
+will add to what is already said. You, my father, are an
+uncommonly wise man. You must think, therefore, just as I do; you
+speak differently only because people have the habit of talking
+in that way--to children!"
+
+Darvid seemed to hear this speech out, only mechanically; and
+when Maryan, with a short and somewhat sharp laugh, pronounced
+the last words and was silent, the following words broke from him
+more quickly than words had ever left his mouth before:
+
+"Not true. You are greatly mistaken. I think and act differently
+from what you say. I have not had time to meditate over the
+theory of principles; but all my life has rested on one of
+them--on labor. Skilled and iron labor was my principle, and it
+has made me what I am--"
+
+"Pardon me for interrupting," exclaimed Maryan. "I beg you
+earnestly, but permit one question: What was the object of your
+labor? What was the object? That will settle everything; for a
+principle can be found only in the object, not in the labor,
+which is only the means of obtaining an end. What was your
+object, my father? Of course, it was not the salvation of the
+world, but the satisfaction of your own desires--your own--not
+any put on you beforehand, and accepted obediently; but your own
+individual desires. The object of them was great wealth--a high
+position. Through labor you strive to acquire these, and I do not
+see here any principle except that which I myself
+possess--namely: it is necessary to know how to will. In the very
+essence of things we agree; only I, with the sincerest homage,
+have recognized in you a master. Frequently have I thought with
+what perfect logic, with what unbending will, you have freed
+yourself from the labels which other men, even wise ones for the
+period, have never ceased from pasting on their persons. If in
+your career you had knocked against painted pots, labelled:
+birthplace, fatherland, humanity, charity, etc., you would have
+gone at considerably less speed, and not gone so far. But you
+were astonishingly logical. With amazing strength and
+unsparingness you have known how to will. It is from this point
+precisely that I looked, and I was filled with real admiration.
+During your absence, of more than three years, I called you
+frequently, in thought, a superhuman. Friederich Nietsche
+imagined such men as you when--"
+
+He stopped here, raising a glance full of astonishment at his
+father's face. Darvid, very pale, with quivering temples, stood
+up, leaned firmly on the table, and said:
+
+"Enough!"
+
+Unable to conceal the violent emotion which he felt, under an
+ironical tone and laugh, he continued:
+
+"Enough of this mockery of reasoning and argument, and of all
+this empty twaddle. If it was your intention to pass an
+examination before me, I give you five with plus. You have fluent
+speech, and quite a rich vocabulary of words. But I have no time
+for those things and proceed to facts and figures. The life which
+you are leading is impossible, and you must change. You must
+begin another life."
+
+He put emphasis on the word must. Maryan looked at his father
+with an amazement which seemed to take away his speech.
+
+"You have not ended your twenty-third year yet, and the history
+of your romances has acquired broad notoriety in the world a
+number of times--"
+
+Maryan recovered from his amazement slowly.
+
+"Affairs so completely personal--" began he with a hesitating
+voice.
+
+Darvid, paying no attention to the interruption, continued:
+
+"The sum which you lost in betting at the last races was, even
+for my fortune, considerable--thirty thousand."
+
+Maryan had now almost recovered his balance.
+
+"If this shrift is indispensable I will correct the
+figures--thirty-six thousand."
+
+"The suppers which you give to friends, male and female, have the
+fame of Lucullus feasts."
+
+Maryan, with sparks of hidden irritation in his eyes, laughed.
+
+"An exaggeration! Our poor Borel has no idea of Lucullus, but
+that he plunders us, unmercifully, is true."
+
+"He knows how to will!" threw in Darvid.
+
+Maryan raised his eyes to him, and said:
+
+"He is making a fortune."
+
+This time, in his turn, astonishment was depicted on the face of
+Darvid, indignant to that degree that a slight flush appeared on
+cheeks generally pale.
+
+"Folly!" hissed he, and immediately restrained himself.
+
+"You are incurring enormous debts; on what security?"
+
+Maryan, at least apparently, had regained perfect confidence in
+himself. With eyes slightly blinking he seemed to look at a
+picture on the wall.
+
+"That is the affair of my creditors," said he. "They must have
+this in view, that I am your son."
+
+"But if I should wish not to pay your debts?"
+
+Maryan smiled with incredulity.
+
+"I doubt that. Such a smash-up, as refusal to pay my debts, would
+injure you also, my father. Besides, the sums are not fabulous."
+
+"How much?"
+
+"I cannot tell the exact figure, but approximately they are--"
+
+He mentioned figures. Darvid repeated them indifferently.
+
+"About a quarter of a million. Very good. I shall be far from
+ruin this time, but in future--I make no reproaches; for to do so
+would be to lose time. What has dropped into the past is lost.
+But the future must be different."
+
+On the word must he laid emphasis again. With a quick movement he
+put his glasses on his nose, and taking a cigarette from a
+beautiful box, he put the end of it at the flame of one of the
+candles burning on the desk. He seemed perfectly calm; but behind
+his eyeglasses steel sparks flew, and the cigarette did not
+ignite, held by fingers which trembled somewhat. Turning from the
+desk to the table, he said:
+
+"I will pay your debts at once; and the pension which, three
+years ago, I appointed to you--that is six thousand yearly--I
+leave at your disposal. But you will leave the city two weeks
+from now, and go to--"
+
+He named a place very remote, situated in the heart of the
+Empire.
+
+"In that place is an iron mill, and also glass-works; in these
+two establishments I am one of the chief shareholders. You will
+take the office designated by the director, who is a shareholder,
+and a friend of mine; under his guidance and indications you will
+begin a life of labor."
+
+In Maryan's eyes again appeared amazement without limit; but on
+his lips quivered a smile somewhat incredulous, somewhat jeering.
+
+"What is this to be?" asked he. "Penance for sins? Punishment?"
+
+"No," answered Darvid; "only a school. Not a school for
+reasoning, for you have too much of that already; but for
+character. You must learn three things: economy, modesty, and
+labor."
+
+Quenching in the ash-pan the fifth or sixth cigarette, Maryan
+inquired:
+
+"But if--perchance--I should not agree to enter that school?"
+
+Darvid answered immediately:
+
+"In that case you will remain here, but without means of
+independent existence. You will be free to live under my roof,
+and appear at the parental table; but you will not receive a
+personal income of any kind. At the same time, I will publish in
+the newspapers that I shall not pay your debts hereafter. What I
+have said, I will do. Take your choice."
+
+That he would do what he had said any man who saw him then might
+feel certain.
+
+The bloom on Maryan's cheeks took on a brick color; his eyes
+filled with steel sparks.
+
+"The system of taking fortresses through famine," said he, in an
+undertone; and, then with head inclined somewhat, and eyes fixed
+on the carpet, he said:
+
+"I am astonished. I thought, father, that in spite of my seeing
+you rarely, I knew you well; now I find that I did not know you
+at all. I admired in you that power of thought which was able to
+strike from you the bonds of every prejudice; now, I have
+convinced myself that your ideas are not only patriarchal, but
+despotic. This is a deception which pains. I wonder myself, even,
+that this affects me so powerfully; but in falling from heights
+one must always hurt, even the point of the nose. This is one
+lesson more not to climb heights. I have in me a cursed
+imagination which leads me astray. One more mirage has vanished;
+one more painted pot has lost its colors. What is to be done?"
+
+He said this in a low voice, biting his lower lip at times; he
+was pained in reality, and deeply. After a while he continued:
+
+"What is to be done? I must be resigned to the disappointment
+which has met me; but as to disposing of my person so absolutely,
+I protest. Had it been your intention, my father, to make a
+mill-hand of me, you should have begun that work earlier. My
+individuality is now developed, and cannot be pounded in through
+the gate of a given cemetery. To rear me as a great lord and
+permit--even demand--during a rather long period that I should
+use all the good things of society, and be distinguished most
+brilliantly for your sake, and then thrust into a school of
+economy, modesty, and labor is--pardon me if I call the thing by
+its name--illogical and devoid of sequence. I might even add,
+that it lacks justice; but I do not wish to defend myself with
+arguments taken from painted pots. One thing is certain--namely
+this: that I shall not be the victim of patriarchal despotism."
+
+He rose, took his hat from the carpet, and calmly, elegantly, but
+with a brick-colored flush on his cheeks, and a blue, swollen
+vein on his forehead, he added:
+
+"I know not what I shall do. It may happen me to be the creator
+of my own destiny. I know how to be this; and I shall decide more
+readily to be a workman at my own will than at the will of
+another. I shall surely leave this place. Expatriation has come
+to my mind more than once, but not in the direction in which you
+have seen fit to indicate. Besides, I do not know yet, for this
+has fallen suddenly. I shall look into myself; I shall look
+around me. Meanwhile, I must go; for I have promised one of my
+friends to be at a certain collector's place at a given hour, to
+examine a very curious picture. It is an original; an authentic
+Overbeck. A rare thing; a real find--I take farewell of you, my
+father."
+
+He made a low bow and went out. Exquisite elegance did not desert
+him for an instant; still, in the expression of his face, and
+especially his excited complexion, and his voice, too,
+indignation and distress were evident in a degree which bordered
+on suffering.
+
+The door of the antechamber opened and closed. Darvid was as if
+petrified. What was this? What had happened? Was it possible that
+this should be the end of the conversation, and that such a
+conversation should end in Overbeck, and a perfectly elegant bow?
+Wonderful man! Yes, for that was no petulant child, with childish
+requests, evasions, outbursts; but a premature man, almost an old
+man. A reasoner; a pessimist; a sceptic. A genial head! What
+elegance! What command of self. A princely exterior. Marvellous
+man! What could he do with him? If he had asked for forgiveness;
+had promised, in part, even to accommodate himself to his
+father's wishes; even to change his life a little. But this iron
+persistence and unshaken confidence in himself, joined with
+perfect politeness, and with reason which would not yield a step!
+What was to be done with him? Fortresses are taken sometimes
+through famine; but, suppose it is resolved on everything except
+yielding. Well, he would try; he would keep his word; he would
+see.
+
+A servant at the door announced:
+
+"The horses are ready."
+
+He was invited to dine at the house of one of the greatest
+dignitaries in the city. He would have given much to remain that
+day in quiet. But he had to go. In his position--with his
+business--to offend such a personage might involve results that
+would be very disagreeable. Besides, he would meet someone there
+whose good will also was necessary. He did not wish to go; but he
+would do violence to himself and go. Is not that the firm and
+strict observance of principle? What had that milksop said? That
+he did not recognize principles, and would not observe them? Who
+could treat himself more sternly and mercilessly than he? How
+many of the most beautiful flowers of life had he east aside; how
+many sleepless nights had he passed, and borne even physical toil
+for the principle of untiring labor--merciless iron labor!
+
+In a dress-coat, his bosom covered with the finest of linen, and
+with glittering diamond buttons, with ruddy side-whiskers, a pale
+and lean face, unbending, irreproachable in dress, and correct in
+posture, he stood in the middle of his study, and was drawing on
+his light gloves very slowly. Taking his hat he thought that he
+felt a decided sourness and a bitterness in his person, which
+would make the most famous dishes, on the table of the dignitary,
+ill-tasting. What was to be done? He had to go. Principle beyond
+all things else!
+
+When he was descending the stairway, in his fur-coat and hat, he
+heard the rustle of silk garments on the first landing, and a
+rather loud conversation in English. He recognized the voices of
+his elder daughter and Baron Emil; but he saw Malvina first; she
+was in front of the young couple. With elegant politeness he
+pushed up to the wall so that his wife might have more room, and
+raising his hat, with the most agreeable smile which his lips
+could give, he asked:
+
+"The ladies are coming from visits, of course?"
+
+There were witnesses of the meeting. Malvina, wrapped in a fur,
+the white edges of which appeared from under deep black velvet,
+answered, also with a smile:
+
+"Yes, we have made some visits."
+
+But Irene, who was standing some steps lower, caught up the
+conversation with a vivacity unusual for her.
+
+"We are coming just now from the shops, where we met the baron."
+
+"What are your plans for the evening?" inquired Darvid again.
+
+"We shall remain at home,'" answered Malvina.
+
+"How is that?--but the party at Prince and Princess Zeno's!"
+
+"We had no intention--" said Malvina, in an attempt at
+self-defence; but she saw the look of her husband, and the voice
+broke in her throat.
+
+"You and your daughter will go to that party," said he, with a
+low whisper, which hissed from his lips. And immediately he added
+aloud, with a smile: "Ladies, I advise you to be at that party."
+
+Malvina became almost as white as the fur which encircled her
+neck, and at that moment Irene asked:
+
+"Will you be there, father?"
+
+"I will run in for a while. As usual, I have no time."
+
+"What a pity," said Baron Emil, "that I cannot offer you a part
+of mine as a gift. In this regard I am a regular Dives."
+
+"And I a beggar! For this reason I must take farewell of you."
+
+He raised his hat and had begun to descend when he heard Irene's
+voice behind him, calling:
+
+"My father!"
+
+She told her mother and the baron that she wished to exchange a
+few words with her father, and ran down the steps. The splendid
+entrance was empty and brightly lighted with lamps; but the
+liveried Swiss, at sight of the master of the house, stood with
+his hand on the latch of the glass door. At the foot of the
+stairs a tall young lady, in a black cloak lined with fur, very
+formal and very pale, began to speak French:
+
+"Pardon me, that in a place so unfitting, I must tell you that
+the ball, of which you have spoken to Cara, cannot take place
+this winter."
+
+Darvid, greatly astonished, inquired:
+
+"Why?"
+
+Irene's blue eyes glittered under the fantastic rim of her hat,
+as she answered:
+
+"Because the very thought of that ball has disturbed mamma
+greatly."
+
+After a moment of silence Darvid asked, slowly:
+
+"Has your mother conceived a distaste for amusements?"
+
+"Yes, father, and I need not enlighten you as to the cause of
+this feeling. There are people who cannot amuse themselves in
+certain positions."
+
+"In certain positions? In what position is your mother?"
+
+He made this inquiry in a voice betraying a fear which he could
+not conceal. This thought was sounding in his head: "Can she know
+it?" But Irene said, in a voice almost husky:
+
+"You and I both know her position well, father--but as to this
+ball--"
+
+"This ball," interrupted Darvid, "is necessary to me for various
+reasons, and will take place in our house after a few weeks."
+
+"Oh, my father," said Irene, with a nervous, dry laugh, "je vous
+adresse ma sommation respectueuse, that it should not take place!
+Mamma and I are greatly opposed to it; therefore, I have
+permitted myself to detain you for a moment, and say--" The smile
+disappeared entirely from her lips when she finished; "and say to
+you that this ball will not take place."
+
+"What does this mean?" began Darvid; but suddenly he restrained
+himself.
+
+The Swiss stood at the door; at the top of the stairs was another
+servant. So, raising his hat to his daughter, he finished the
+conversation in a language understandable to the servants:
+
+"Pardon me; I have no time. I shall be late. We will finish this
+conversation another time."
+
+When the carriage, whining on the snow, rolled along the crowded
+streets of the city, in the light of the streetlamps which fell
+on it, appeared Darvid's face, with an expression of terror. That
+pallid, thin face, with ruddy whiskers, and a collar of silvery
+fur, was visible for a moment with eyes widely open, with raised
+brows, with the words hanging on his lips: "She knows
+everything!--ghastly!" and after a while it sank again into the
+darkness which filled the carriage.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+For the first time surely in that city, separated from England by
+lands and seas, a certain number of people, very limited, it is
+true, might admire small, bachelor's apartments, fitted up with
+tapestry, sculpture, and stained-glass, from the London factory
+of Morris, Faulkner, Marshall & Co. The drawing-room was not
+large, but there was in it absolutely nothing which had its
+origin elsewhere than in that factory founded by a famous poet
+and member of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The famous poet and
+artist, William Morris, had become a manufacturer for the purpose
+of correcting aesthetic taste in the multitude, and filling
+people's dwellings with works of pure beauty. The objects in this
+apartment were really beautiful. The tapestry on the walls
+represented a series of pictures taken from romances of
+knighthood, and from marvellous legends: Tristan and Isolde, on
+the deck of a ship; Flor and Blancheflor, in a garden of roses;
+the monk Alberich, in a Dominican habit, descending into hell.
+The tapestry on the furniture was full of winged heads and
+fantastic flowers; on all sides were seen great art in weaving
+and masterly borders, which recalled the margins of old
+prayer-books. Dulled and dingy colors, producing the impression
+of things which had emerged from the mist of ages, and only glass
+window-screens, framed in columns and pointed arches, were
+brilliant with the colors of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. The
+window-panes were stained with roses and with the figures of
+saints having pale profiles and wearing bright robes. On one of
+the tables was a bronze pulpit in the form of a Gothic chapel; in
+another place was a lamp-support, which represented the Triumph
+of Death; Death was a woman with the wings of a bat; she was in a
+flowing robe; she had curved talons on her feet, and a scythe in
+her hand. This was a sculptured copy of Orcagna, from the Campo
+Santo of Pisa. In the middle of the dining-room, which was seen
+beyond an open door, stood a table, in the style of the
+eighteenth century. Altogether simple was this table, and like
+those under which, instead of carpets, men (of that century) used
+to put a layer of hay. The side table (fourteenth century), with
+painted carvings; a box (fourteenth century, a copy from the
+Museum of Cluny), with fantastic beasts carved on its cover, and
+with small figures on the front side, on very narrow niches,
+figures representing the twelve peers of France; another box,
+which was in the bedroom, was like this one, but the carving
+which covered it represented the anointing of Louis XI at Rheims
+(Museum of Orleans). It stood at the feet of Brother Alberich,
+who, in his white habit, was entering the black jaws of hell; it
+took the place of a sofa, there being no sofa in the room. Both
+these boxes of wood and iron, immensely artistic, though merely
+copies of authentic relics, served as places in which to keep
+objects of art, and served as seats also. Besides these, there
+were only a few stools, with arms carved in trefoil shape
+(fourteenth and fifteenth century), and still fewer armchairs,
+immensely deep and wide--so-called cathedras--covered with most
+wonderful stuffs; but everything was there which was needed, if
+the dwelling was to preserve a purely Middle Age character as to
+style. In the air, slightly colored by the brightly
+stained-glass, hovered something archaic and exotic--hoary
+antiquity reigned--and a critical spirit with the odor of
+mysticism might be felt floating around there. But all this
+seemed quite comprehensible and natural to anyone who knew Baron
+Emil, the owner of that dwelling--a trained and exacting
+aesthete--moreover, the baron was of that school called
+Mediaeval; and as a Mediaevalist he professed homage for Middle
+Ages romances and legends; for subtle works of art and for
+inspirations touching a world beyond the present which resulted
+from them.
+
+Three years before Maryan Darvid, in company with, or more
+strictly under the protection of Kranitski, entered for the first
+time this dwelling, which had been recently furnished. The baron
+had brought home, from one of the Mediterranean islands, the
+mortal remains of his mother, who had died just before; he had
+received from her a great inheritance, and to put his interests
+in order he had settled in his native city for a period.
+Kranitski, long a friend in the house of his father and mother,
+had known him from childhood, and exhibited on greeting him an
+outburst of tenderness. This amused the baron, but pleased him
+also a little. "He is a trifle odd, good, poor devil--on the
+whole: gentle, perfectly presentable, and active." Kranitski was
+very active. He went to the boundary to take out of the
+custom-house everything which had come to the baron's address
+from England; and then helped him in the arrangement of the
+dwelling, which was attended with considerable labor.
+Upholsterers and other assistants lost their heads at sight of
+those knights, ladies, monks, peers of France, and the Triumph of
+Death, which came out of the boxes. Kranitski was astonished at
+nothing, for he had read much, and knew many things also, but he
+could not be very enthusiastic in this case. When the
+installation was accomplished, with his active and skilful
+assistance, he thought: "The place is funereal, and there is
+little comfort here." He looked askance somewhat at the boxes
+with the peers of France and Louis XI. on them. The covers of
+these boxes, rough with carving, did not seem to him the most
+agreeable places to sit on. He said nothing, however, for he was
+ashamed to confess that he did not understand or did not favor
+that which was the flower of the newest exotic fashion. He
+visited the baron and spent many hours in his dwelling, and soon
+he took there a second man--a young friend of his. When Maryan
+Darvid found himself for the first time in the company and at the
+house of a Mediaevalist, he was confused, like a man who is
+standing in the presence of something immensely above him. Almost
+ten years older, the baron surpassed Maryan immeasurably in all
+branches of knowledge, both of books and life; and his little
+dwelling was a marvel of originality and outlay. Maryan felt poor
+both in body and spirit. Though a yearly allowance of six
+thousand received from his father had not been enough up to that
+time, it seemed to him then a chip, only fit to be kicked away.
+As to the mental side, he was simply ashamed that he could still
+find any pleasant thing in that world which surrounded him, and
+in the life which he was leading. Commonness, cheapness,
+vulgarity! The meaning of these words he understood clearly after
+he had been in the baron's society. Even earlier he had begun to
+feel the need of something loftier; something beyond those
+pleasures of the senses--of fancy and of vanity--which he had
+experienced, though these were considerable. The substance and
+nature of these pleasures lay on the surface--they were
+accessible to a considerable number of people. The baron, in the
+manner usual with him, speaking somewhat through his nose and
+teeth, said:
+
+"We, the experienced and disenchanted, seek for new shivers, just
+as alchemists of the Middle Ages sought for gold. We are in
+search of the rare and of the novel."
+
+In search of the rare and the novel in shivers, or universal
+impressions: sensuous, mental, and aesthetic, Maryan went once
+with the baron, and a second time alone, on a journey through
+Europe. He visited many countries and capitals. To investigate
+the Salvation Army, he joined its ranks for a period in England.
+In Germany he was connected with the almost legendary,
+politico-religious sect which bears the name Fahrende Leute; and,
+again, for some time, in an immense wagon drawn by gigantic
+Mechlenburgers, he wandered through the mountainous Hartz forest
+and along the banks of the picturesque Saal; he spent most time
+in Paris, where, with the theosophists he summoned up spirits,
+and with the decadents, otherwise known as incoherents, and still
+otherwise as the accursed poets; in the club of hashish-eaters he
+had dreams and visions brought on by using narcotics. Besides, he
+saw many other rare and peculiar things; but he was ever hampered
+by slender financial means and the need of incurring great debts;
+and was irritated by the impossibility of finding anything which
+could satisfy him permanently, or, at least, for a long period.
+He felt satisfactions, but brief ones. Everything of which he had
+dreamed seemed less after he had attained it--more common, weaker
+than in his imagining. The brightness was dimmed; on the glitter
+there were defects; the warm inspirations which came from afar,
+grew stiff when they were touched, stiffened, as oil does when
+floating on water. In the taste of things, sweetness and tartness
+became insipid and nauseous, the moment they reached his palate.
+
+This was by no means a surfeit devoid of appetites; but, on the
+contrary, such an immense flood of appetites that the insurgent
+wave of them struck the region of the impossible with fury,
+because it could not rush over that barrier. This was also an
+inflammation of the fancy, which had risen from an active mind,
+and which early and numerous experiences had turned into a
+festering wound. Finally, it was also the placing of self on some
+imagined summit, standing apart and aloft, beyond and above all.
+I--and the rabble. What is not I, and a handful like me--is the
+rabble. What is to be mine cannot be of the rabble; what is of
+the rabble must be not of mine. This pride was not of birth or
+money; it might be called nervous mental arrogance. Mental
+summits other than those of the rabble, and other requirements of
+the nerves; the highest bloom of human civilization--sickly, but
+the highest; the crash, but also the coronation of mankind. In
+all this there was a principle--one, but indestructible: the
+respect of individuality; the preservation of it from all
+limitations and changes which might come from outside; a respect
+reaching the height of worship. Everything might be, according to
+time and place, a painted pot; but individuality (that is, the
+way in which a man's wishes, tastes, way of thinking were
+fashioned) was sacred--the only sacred thing. It was not
+permitted to give this into captivity to anyone or anything, or
+to submit it to criticisms, or corrections. I am what I am; and I
+will remain myself. I will and I am obliged to know how to
+will--something like the superhuman preached by Friedrich
+Nietsche. The baron's dwelling was not only original and
+fabulously expensive, but it had in itself besides, that which
+the Germans define by the word Stimmung. A number of young
+polyglots examined for a long time various languages of Europe to
+find a word which would answer best to the German Stimmung, till
+Maryan first, possessing the greatest linguistic capacity, came
+on the Polish expression nastroj (tone of mind). Yes, they
+agreed, universally, that the baron's dwelling produced a tone of
+mind; an impression not of what was in it, but of something of
+which it was the mysterious expression or symbol. It produced an
+impression which had its cause beyond this world. To believe in
+something beyond this world does not mean to profess a
+religion--as that of Buddha, Zoroaster, or Chrystos. No, of
+course not; that would be well for early ages and infantile
+people; ..old ones, too, run wild after fables, for the principle
+of the beautiful is in these fables; but they do not let fables
+lead them off by the nose. An impression from beyond the world is
+something entirely different; it is a shiver of delights which
+are unknown here, and only anticipated, coming from a world
+inaccessible to the senses. That such a world exists is shown by
+the enormous poverty of this one, and the mad monotony of those
+sources of pleasure which are contained in the world accessible
+to human senses. A poet is so far a poet, an aesthete so far an
+aesthete, as he is able, by intuition and unheard-of delicacy of
+nerves, to burst into the world above the senses and to
+experience the taste, or rather the odor, which goes before it.
+For it is an absolute condition that the feeling should be hazy,
+something in the nature of an odor; or, better still, the echo of
+an odor. No key of a musical instrument is to be touched; no
+definite features are to be drawn; the tone of mind alone is to
+be produced. The baron's dwelling gave the tone of mind for
+another world. He and his associates believed in another world,
+beyond the earth and the grave; on the basis of the poverty and
+commonness of the world before the grave--that is, in despair of
+the case. For them it was not subject to doubt--that world, the
+slight odors of which flew to them in moments when they were in
+the tone of mind, was filled with perfect beauty, nothing but
+beauty; a beauty which, in this world, even by itself alone,
+raises men above the level of the rabble. If this beauty did not
+exist, we should be justified in accepting Hartmann's theory of
+the collective suicide of mankind, and in throwing a "bloody
+spittle of contempt" at life. A "bloody spittle," as is known
+from Arthur Rimbaud's sonnets on consonants, stands before the
+eyes of everyone who pronounces the vowel i, just as the vowel a
+brings up the picture of "black, shaggy flies, which buzz around
+terribly fetid objects."
+
+"Ah, no, my friend! No, no! That passes my power! In heaven's
+name I beg you not to say another word!"
+
+With this exclamation Arthur Kranitski, like a pike out of water,
+struggled in the immensely deep cathedra; and, with his arms in
+the air kept calling out:
+
+"Terribly fetid objects! Bloody spittle! that is not poetry--it
+is not even decent! And those shaggy flies whirling
+around--that--No! I feel a nausea, which mounts to my throat. No,
+my friends, I will never agree that that is poetry!"
+
+His voice broke, so wounded was he in his aesthetic conceptions.
+The young men laughed. That dear, honest Pan Kranitski is an
+innocent. In spite of his forty and some years clearly sounded,
+and his romantic experiences, his love for good eating and other
+nice things, the highest point of extravagance of all sorts for
+him were Boccaccio, Paul de Kock, Alfred Musset--simpletons, or
+babies.
+
+Kranitski, after his first impression, had a feeling of shame.
+
+"Pardon, my dears! An innocent! Not so much of an innocent as may
+seem to you. I am far from being an innocent; I understand
+everything and am able to experience everything. But, do you see,
+there is a difference in tastes. Clearness, simplicity, harmony,
+these are what I like, but yours--yours--"
+
+Again he was carried away by aesthetic indignation, so, throwing
+himself back in the chair, with outspread arms, he finished:
+
+"Your making poetry of spittle and foul odor is--do you know
+what? it is sprinkling a cloaca with holy water! That is what it
+is."
+
+In the little drawing-room between the screens of stained glass
+and that part of the wall on which a knight of the Pound Table
+was bowing to Isolde stood a small organ, and before the organ,
+at the midday hour, sat Baron Emil playing one of the grandest
+fugues of Sebastian Bach. Small and fragile, in his morning dress
+of yellowish flannel, in stockings with colored stripes, and
+shoes of yellow leather with very sharp tips, he was resting his
+shoulder against the arm of the chair carved in a trefoil
+(fourteenth century); he stretched his arms stiffly and rested
+his long bony fingers on various keys of the piano. His delicate,
+sallow features had an expression of great solemnity; his small,
+blue eyes looked dreamily into space, and from the glass shade,
+brightened by the sunlight falling in through the window, purple
+and blue rays fell on his faded forehead and ruddy, closely cut
+hair.
+
+Besides the baron, who was playing, was present Kranitski, who
+had come an hour before and heard from the servant that the baron
+was sleeping yet. But that was not true, for a few minutes after
+Kranitski heard farther back in the building an outburst of
+female laughter, to which the nasal voice of the baron, who spoke
+rather long about something, gave answer. The guest smiled and
+whispered to the "Triumph of Death," at which he was looking,
+"Lili Kerth."
+
+Then he sank into the cathedra so that in spite of his lofty
+stature he almost disappeared in it. Soon the baron appeared at
+the door, and, accustomed to seeing Kranitski at various times,
+he nodded to him with a brief "Bon jour!" and turned to the
+organ. Sitting at the organ he threw these words over his arm:
+
+"We expect Maryan at lunch."
+
+"But she?" inquired Kranitski from the depth of the long and high
+arms of the cathedra.
+
+"She will finish her toilet and go."
+
+Then he played the Bach fugue. He played, and Kranitski, sank in
+the chair, listened and grew sadder and sadder. During recent
+days he had grown evidently old; he had become thin; wrinkles had
+appeared on his forehead. His person had lost elasticity and
+self-confidence, lie looked like a man who had received a heavy
+blow, but he was, as always, dressed carefully, the odor of
+perfumes was around him, and a colored handkerchief appeared in
+his coat pocket. In presence of the baron's music he grew sad and
+then sadder. That music made the place more and more church-like.
+The figures of saints on the shade under the golden haloes seemed
+to melt in profound adoration. The "Triumph of Death" spread its
+wings on the background of subdued colors in the chamber; in that
+atmosphere the organ and silence sang a majestic duet. Kranitski
+began to feel the tone of mind mightily. His shoulders bent
+forward mechanically; he took out of his pocket the gold
+cigarette case, and thought, while turning it in his fingers:
+
+"Everything passes! Everything is behind me--love and the rest!
+The grave swallows all things. The days fly, like dust, fly into
+the past--into eternity! Eternity! the enigma."
+
+All at once into the duet, sung by the organ and silence, broke
+the loud rattle of a door, then the rustle of silk skirts, till
+there had shot through the dining-room, and halted in the door of
+the drawing-room, a creature who was pretty, not large,
+excessively noisy, and active of body. She had a short skirt,
+small feet, a fur-lined cape of the latest style, and a gigantic
+hat which shaded a small, dark, thin, wilted face, with eyes
+burning like candles and hair gleaming like Venetian gold. The
+silk, the sable, the incredibly long ostrich feathers, the
+diamonds in her ears, and the loud burst of laughter cut through
+the music of Bach like a silver saw.
+
+"Eh bien, ne veus-tu pas me dire bon jour, toi, grand beta?
+Tiens, voila!" (Well, wilt thou not say good-day to me, thou
+great beast? Here it is!) With the expression voila! was heard a
+loud kiss, impressed on the check of the baron, then Lili Kerth,
+the gleaming of silk, diamonds, eyes, and hair turned toward the
+door of the antechamber and saw Kranitski.
+
+"Oh, te voila aussi, vieux beau!" (Oh, here thou art too, old
+beau!) She sprang toward the cathedra, and, wringing her hands,
+exclaimed:
+
+"What a funereal face!" And she spoke on, or rather babbled on in
+French: "Hast disappointments? That is bad! But one must not
+think of them. Do as I do. I have disappointments, but I mock at
+them. This is how I treat disappointments."
+
+She made a stop so elastic that her little foot flew into the
+air, and she touched Kranitski's chin with the point of her shoe.
+That was a model indication of the method with which one should
+treat disappointments.
+
+"Now adieu to the company!" cried she, and rattling her bracelets
+she vanished.
+
+In the chamber there was silence again, in the midst of which
+Tristan gave a knightly bow to Isolde, and the monk Alberich let
+himself down into the jaws of hell; "Triumph of Death" spread her
+bat-wings, and the saints with their golden haloes crossed their
+pale hands on their bright robes.
+
+The baron was sitting before the organ with his head dropped to
+his breast. Kranitski, buried in the cathedra, panted aloud for
+some seconds till he said, with a complaining voice:
+
+"It is abominable! I do not wish a cocotte to throw her foot on
+my neck when I am thinking of eternity. What confounded tastes
+you have! Immediately after leaving Lili Kerth to play that
+divine Bach. Nonsense! mixture! I am not a monk, far from it--but
+such shaking up in one bottle of the profane and the sacred, no,
+that is vileness swaddled in art. Yes, yes, I beg forgiveness
+once more, but in the Holy Scriptures something is said about a
+gold ring in a pig's nose. Voila!"
+
+The baron smiled under his ruddy mustache and said, after a
+while:
+
+"That is subtle and not to be understood by everyone. Bach after
+Lili Kerth--that is the bite, that is the irony of things. Do you
+know Baudelaire's quatrain?"
+
+He stood up, and, without declamation, even carelessly, through
+his nose and teeth, gave the quatrain:
+
+"Quand chez le debauche l'aube blanche et vermeil,
+
+Entre en societe de l'Ideal rongeur,
+
+Par l'operation d'un mystere vengeur,
+
+Dans la brute assoupie un Ange se reveille."
+
+With his hands in the pockets of his flannel sack he paced
+through the room.
+
+Maryan had translated that quatrain quite beautifully. Without
+interrupting his pacing he repeated the translation.
+
+The bell rang in the antechamber; Maryan entered the
+drawing-room. He was paler than usual and had dark lines under
+his eyes, which were very bright. Kranitski rushed from the
+cathedra, and, seizing the young man by both hands, looked into
+his face with tenderness:
+
+"At last, at last! I have not seen you for almost a fortnight. I
+have not left the house. I had a little hope that you would visit
+me."
+
+"All right, all right!" answered Maryan, and touching the hand of
+the baron, he sat down on the box on which was the anointing of
+Louis XI, he rested his shoulders on the bare foot of Alberich
+and became motionless.
+
+Maryan continued to be so motionless that not only the limbs of
+his body, but the features of his face seemed benumbed. Had it
+not been for his eyes, which were gleaming brightly, he might
+have been mistaken at a distance for a stuffed and elegantly
+dressed manikin. Baron Emil and Kranitski knew what this meant.
+According to Maryan that was a chill into which he fell always
+after disappointment or disenchantment. He was possessed at such
+times by a lack of will, which made all movements, even those
+which were physical, unendurable and difficult. At the same time
+he had such a contempt for all things on earth that it did not
+seem worth the while to him to move hand or lips for any cause.
+Some French writer has called such a condition of desiccation of
+the heart's interior. Maryan found that definition quite
+appropriate. When he sat motionless, deaf and dumb, or walked
+like an automaton moved by springs, he felt exactly as if the
+interior of his heart were drying up.
+
+The baron, too, passed through similar states with some
+differences, however, for feeling contempt instead of lack of
+will, he felt a "red anger," or what the French call colere
+rouge. He was carried away then by the wish to shut his fist,
+heat and break, in fact he did beat the servants sometimes, and
+break costly articles. He considered the desiccation of his
+friend's heart in its interior portions with respect, even with
+sympathy. He, with hands thrust into his yellowish flannel
+pockets, walked up and down in the chamber and hissed through his
+teeth:
+
+"We are all stunted. We are breaking down! bah! it is time. The
+world is old. Children of an aged father born with internal
+cancer."
+
+Kranitski, hearing this, thought: "Why should a man break down
+and get a cancer when he is young and rich?" But he did not
+oppose. He pitied Maryan. He looked at him with an expression of
+eyes similar to that with which loving nurses look on sick or
+capricious children.
+
+At lunch Maryan's handsome face was sallow and motionless as a
+wax mask; as a wax mask it stood out on the background of the
+high arms of the chair. He was as silent as a stone. He had no
+appetite. He ate only a little caviar, and then fell to
+swallowing an endless number of small cups of black coffee, which
+the baron himself prepared, according to some special recipe, and
+poured out. The baron himself drank goblet after goblet of wine,
+and as to the rest he yawned a great deal more than he ate. But
+Kranitski's appetite was a success. After some weeks of Widow
+Clemens' meagre kitchen he ate eggs, cutlets, cheese, till his
+eyes were gleaming. According to his old acquaintances gastronomy
+had always been his weak point--and women. But he drank little
+and did not play cards. In spite of hearty eating he did not
+forget the duties of a welcome guest. He kept up conversation
+with the master of the house, who told him carelessly of a rare
+and beautiful picture found at some collector's.
+
+"A real, a genuine Overbeck. We were to examine it with Maryan,
+but since Maryan did not come--" He turned to young Darvid: "Why
+did you not come?"
+
+There was no answer. The waxen mask, supported on the arm of the
+chair, remained motionless and gazed with gloomy eyes into space.
+
+"Overbeck!" began Kranitski, and added, "a pre-Raphaelite."
+
+Over Maryan's fixed features ran a quiver caused by better
+thoughts. Without the least movement of features or posture he
+grumbled:
+
+"Nazarene."
+
+Kranitski corrected himself hurriedly and with a shamed face.
+
+"Yes, pardon! A Nazarene."
+
+"But, naturally, a Nazarene pure blood," said the baron, growing
+animated, "the uninitiated confound Nazarenes with
+pre-Raphaelites quite erroneously. They form a separate school.
+This Overbeck is a find. I will say more, it is a discovery. If
+it were dragged out of that den and taken abroad one might do a
+splendid business with it."
+
+Warmed by a considerable quantity of wine, his complexion made
+somewhat rosy, the baron fell to giving Kranitski an idea which
+had circled long in his brain: "There is in Poland a number of
+ancient families who are failing financially, and who possess
+many remnants of former wealth. There are frequently things of
+high value not only objects of pure art, but the most various
+products of former wealth and taste; as, for instance, hangings,
+tapestry belts, china, tapestry, furniture, and jewellery. The
+owners, pushed to the wall by evil circumstances, would sell
+willingly, and for a trifle, articles which have great value now
+in both hemispheres. One must search for them, it is true, almost
+as the humanists once sought for Greek and Latin manuscripts, but
+whoever could find, purchase, and sell these would open a real
+mine of great profits. In Europe, England is the country most
+favorable for commercial operations of this kind, but the richest
+field is America. To buy here for a trifle and sell in the United
+States for gold weighed out to you. But, before beginning
+business, one should go to America, examine the field, form
+connections, take initial steps. Above all approach the
+undertaking with considerable capital and great knowledge."
+
+While explaining his idea and the plan of operations which had
+come to his head long before, and drawing from the glass
+excellent liquid, the baron became animated, grew young, his
+little eyes under their ruddy brows gleamed sharply. And even
+Maryan said all at once in grumbling tones:
+
+"It is an idea!"
+
+"Is it not?" laughed the baron.
+
+Kranitski listened in silence, with curiosity. Then, halting a
+little, he said, with some indecision:
+
+"If your project becomes a fact then you will take me as your
+agent. I know a little of those things; I know where to look for
+them, and I offer you my earnest services--very earnest."
+
+In spite of the jesting tone one could note in his imploring
+look, and in his smile full of timid, uncertain quivers, that he
+felt keenly the need of fixing himself to someone or something
+and escaping from the great void yawning under him.
+
+All three lighted cigars and went to the drawing-room where
+Maryan sat again on the Louis XI box, Kranitski sank into a
+cathedra, and the baron opened at the window one sheet of an
+English paper, which shielded him before the light from his knees
+to the crown of his head. He was silent rather long, then from
+behind the paper curtain was heard his nasal voice:
+
+"Crushing!"
+
+"What?" inquired Kranitski.
+
+"The fair at Chicago."
+
+And he read aloud an account of the preparations for the colossal
+exhibition which was to be in that American city.
+
+He accompanied the reading with judgments which contained
+comparisons: The old part of the world--the old civilizations,
+the old common methods and proceedings.
+
+Besides narrow spaces, familiar horizons--too familiar. But
+America was something not worn to rags yet. By a wonderful chance
+the baron had not been there, but when he thought of America
+Rimbaud's verses occurred to him. He rose, and, walking through
+the chamber, gave the following:
+
+"Divine vibration of green seas,
+
+The peace of fields spotted with animals;
+
+Silences traversed by worlds, by angels."
+
+"And by millions!" called Maryan from the foot of the white monk
+Alberich.
+
+He took his shoulders from the monk's robe, and added:
+
+"Nowhere are there such colossal fortunes, and such powerful
+means of getting them, as on those fields spotted with animals."
+
+And all at once, as it were, the desiccating interior of his
+heart became animated, he rose and began to walk quickly through
+the chamber, passed the slowly walking baron, and said:
+
+"It is an idea! One must dwell on it. I must go there, or
+somewhere else--do something with myself. I am driven from this
+place by one of the greatest disappointments which I have ever
+known. I reached the bottom of disenchantments yesterday. That is
+why I did not come to look at the Overbeck. I was buried. My last
+painted pot burst. I was disappointed in a man for whom I had
+felt something like honor."
+
+He spoke English. The baron asked him in English also:
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+And Kranitski, with a little worse accent in the same language,
+repeated the question a number of times.
+
+Maryan, continuing to walk through the chamber, narrated the
+conversation with his father and the ultimatum given him. The
+baron laughed noiselessly, and inquired; Kranitski gave out cries
+of indignation. Maryan, with a fiery face and feverish movement,
+added:
+
+"I had thought that man worthy of my admiration. Logical,
+consequent, unconquerable, formed of one piece. A magnificent
+monolith. No sentiments, no prejudices. Permitting no one to
+disturb the development of his individuality. I understood that
+his method of rearing me, and then pushing me to the highest
+spheres of life, pointed to this, that I was to live for his
+honor. I was to be one of the columns of that temple which he had
+raised to his own glory. But just that absoluteness with which he
+used everything for his own purposes roused in me homage. The
+power of producing was in him equal to his power of egotism. So
+must it be with every individuality fashioned by nature not on a
+model, but originally. I did not know him much, and desired a
+nearer acquaintance. I was certain that we should understand each
+other perfectly; that I should behold from nearby a magnificent
+monolith. Meanwhile it was stuck over with labels of various
+kinds of trash, and covered with half a hundred stains of the
+past--"
+
+"He remembered the school of training and labor in time," laughed
+Kranitski.
+
+"Peste!" hissed the baron. "What a rheumatism of thought!"
+
+"Moral principles!" added Kranitski, "he himself practises them
+beautifully. Let him give even half of his millions to that
+poverty which is ashamed to beg. Oh, he will not! He will not do
+that! By the help of moral principles it is easy to put sacred
+burdens on other men's shoulders."
+
+"That is it," added Maryan, "on other men's shoulders you have
+hit the point, my old man. Yes! So many years he cared for
+nothing; he considered nothing; now on a sudden he has thrown
+down the edifice which he himself built. I know not as to others;
+but, as for me, I shall stick to my rights. I cannot permit
+myself to fall a victim to this sad accident, that my father is a
+mental rheumatic."
+
+He stopped, meditated a moment, then added:
+
+"That is even more than rheumatism of thought; it is the
+exudation of a decaying past, filling the brain with the
+corruption--of a corpse."
+
+"Corruption of a corpse! very apt this expression!" exclaimed the
+baron.
+
+Kranitski made a wry face in the cathedra, and muttered:
+
+"No, no. What horror! I will never agree to that phrase."
+
+But no one heard this quiet protest. Now the baron in his turn,
+walking more and more quickly through the room, spoke on.
+
+Maryan remained sitting on the Louis XI box while the baron
+walked and complained of the narrowness of relations and the low
+level of civilization in the city:
+
+"This is the real fatherland of darned socks. Everything here has
+the mustiness of locked up store-houses. There is a lack of room
+and ventilation. In England William Morris, a great poet,
+establishes a factory for objects pertaining to art, and makes
+millions. I beg you to show anything similar in this place.
+Darvid has made a colossal fortune only because he was not blind,
+and did not hold on to his father's fence. Nationality and
+fa-ther-land, each is a darned sock--one of those labels which
+men with parti-colored clothes paste on a gate before which
+diggers are standing. One must escape from this position. One
+must know how to will."
+
+The baron said, that as soon as he could bring certain plans of
+his to completion and regulate certain property interests, and
+even before regulating them, he would occupy himself with
+completing his new plan. He turned to Maryan:
+
+"Will you be my partner? It would be difficult for me to get on
+without you. You have an excellent feeling for art--you are
+subtle--"
+
+"Why not," answered Maryan. "But one should go first of all and
+examine the field; one should go to America before the
+exhibition."
+
+"Naturally, before the exhibition, so as to begin action before
+it is over. In the question of capital--"
+
+"I will sell my personal property, which has some value, and
+incur another debt," said Maryan, carelessly.
+
+The baron halted; he thought awhile; his faded face took on that
+expression of roguery which the French call polissonnerie;
+joyousness seized him.
+
+"We will shoot off!" cried he; and he made a movement with his
+foot like that which a street-sweeper makes to catch a bark shoe
+thrown up in the air.
+
+Maryan rose, shook himself out of his lethargy, and said, almost
+with delight:
+
+"It is an idea. To America!"
+
+Then from the abyss of the immensely deep and broad cathedra
+Kranitski's voice was heard, orphan-like, timid:
+
+"But will you take me with you, my dears? When you shoot off you
+will take me with you, will you not?"
+
+There was no answer. The baron was sitting already before the
+organ and had begun to play some grand church composition; in the
+dignified sound of that music Tristan made a knightly bow to
+Isolde, and the "Triumph of Death," with its dark outline, was
+reflected on the background of Alberich's white habit, while the
+saints painted with golden haloes on the windows clasped their
+pale hands above their bright robes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Baron Emil said at times to Irene:
+
+"You have the aristocracy of intellect. Your mind is original.
+There is in you much delicate irony. You are not deceived with
+painted pots."
+
+These words caused her pleasure of the same sort as that which
+the praise of a mountaineer causes an inexperienced traveller
+when he tells him that he knows how to climb neck-breaking
+summits. Much irony had flowed into her mind from certain
+mysterious sides of her life. But she had become conscious of
+this now for the first time, under the guidance and influence of
+the baron. He awed her by the originality of his language and
+ideas, by the absolute sincerity of his disbelief, and his
+egotism. During childhood she had seen a mask which astounded
+her, and struck her in the very heart. Thenceforth everything
+seemed better to her and more agreeable than masks. Moreover, the
+baron was to her thinking a finished aesthete, an excellent judge
+in the whole realm of art, and in this regard she did not deceive
+herself greatly. The opinions on art and philosophy, which he
+proclaimed, interested her through their novelty, and the
+expressions which he used purposely, though sometimes brutal and
+verging on the gutter, roused her curiosity by their singularity
+and insolence. She imitated him in speech; in his presence she
+guarded her lips lest they might let something escape through
+which she would earn the title of "shepherdess."
+
+"You are very far from the Arcadian condition, in which I meet
+people here at every step. You are intricate; you are like an
+orchid, one stem of which has a flower in the form of a
+butterfly, while the next seems like a death's head."
+
+She interrupted him with a brief laugh:
+
+"A butterfly is flat."
+
+Her laugh had a sharp sound, for the cold gleam of the baron's
+eyes fell on her boldly and persistently.
+
+"No," contradicted he, "no; the combination of a death's head
+with a butterfly makes a dissonance. That bites and sticks a new
+pin in the soul."
+
+"But the Greek harmony?" she inquired.
+
+With a flattering smile, which conquered her, the baron answered:
+
+"Never mention harmony. That is the milk with which babes were
+nourished. We subsist on something else. You like game, do you
+not? but only when it begins to decay. There is no good game,
+except that which is rank. Very well, we subsist on a world in
+decay. This is true, but you speak of that darned sock; namely,
+harmony--ha! ha! ha! You think sometimes one way and sometimes
+another. Your soul is full of bites! You are idyllic and also
+satirical. You jeer at idyls, and still, at odd times, you yearn
+for one somewhat. Have I touched the point accurately? Are my
+words true?"
+
+"True," answered Irene, dropping her eyelids.
+
+She dropped her lids because she was ashamed of the discovery
+which the baron had made in her, and for this cause as well, that
+she felt his breath on her face, and caught the odor of certain
+strange perfumes which came from him. His eyes sought hers and
+strove to pour into them their cold gleam, which was also a
+burning one. He strove to take her hand, but she withdrew it, and
+he, with lowered, drawling, and somewhat nasal tones, said:
+
+"You wish, and again you do not wish; you feel the cry of life in
+you and try to turn it into a lyric song."
+
+The cry of life! Over this phrase Irene halted later on, but
+briefly, touched as she had been by premature knowledge, its
+meaning became clear to her straightway. The baron, small,
+fragile, with a faded face and irregular, was a master in calling
+forth the "cry of life" in women. His manner with them was
+exquisite, but also insolent. In his gray eyes, with the reddened
+edges of their lids, he had a look which was hypnotising in its
+persistence and cold fire. It resembled the glitter of
+steel--pale and penetrating. In the manner in which he held the
+hand of a woman and placed a kiss on it, in the glances with
+which he seemed to tear her away from her shelter, in the
+intonation given to certain words, was attained the primitiveness
+of desire and conquest under cover of polished refinement. Amid
+the tedium and dissatisfaction of ordinary and exercised
+lovemakers this method seemed cynical, but bold and honest. It
+might have been compared to the shaggy head of a beast sticking
+out of a basket of heliotropes, which have ever the character of
+sameness as has their odor. The head is ugly, but smells of a
+cave and of troglodytes, which among common flowers of dull odor
+lend it the charm of power and originality.
+
+Irene thought at once of "great grandfatherliness;" when in
+presence of the baron her nerves quivered like chords when
+touched in a manner unknown up to that time. She asked herself:
+"Am I in love?" But when he had gone this question called from
+her a brief, ironical smile. She analyzed and criticised the
+physical and moral personality of the baron with perfect
+coolness, and at moments with a shade of contempt even.
+
+A vibrio! This expression contained the conception of physical
+and moral withering, almost the palpable picture of an existence
+which merely quivers in space, and is barely capable of living.
+In comparison with this picture she had a presentiment of some
+wholesome, noble, splendid strength. Disgust for the baron began
+to flow around her heart and rise to her lips with a taste that
+was repulsive, and to her brain with a thought that was bitter:
+Why is this world as it is? Why is it not different? But perhaps
+it was different somewhere else, but not for her? She had ceased
+to believe in an idyl. She had looked too long, and from too near
+a point, at the tragedy and irony of things to preserve faith in
+idyls. Maybe there were idyls somewhere, but not in the sphere
+where she lived--they were not for her! To yearn for that which
+perhaps did not exist at all, which most assuredly did not exist
+for her! What a "rheumatism of thought" that would be! Her head,
+with a Japanese knot of fiery hair on the top of it, bent down
+low, for the stream of lead from her heart was rising. With a
+movement usual to her she clasped her long hands, and, squeezing
+them violently, thought:
+
+"Well, what of it? I must in every case create some future, and
+why should any other be better than this one? Here at least is
+sincerity on both sides, and a just view of things."
+
+As time passed she said to herself that what she felt for the
+baron was love of a certain kind, and that at the foundation of
+things there is no other love, and if there is any other kind it
+does not signify much, for each kind passes quickly. She began in
+general to attach less and less weight to that side of life, and
+also life itself had for her a charm which was continually
+decreasing. In the gloom of weariness, and the apathy into which
+she was falling, that which connected her with the baron was like
+a red electric lantern shining on a throng in the street and in
+the darkness. It was not the bright sun, nor the silvery moon; it
+was just that red lantern which, shining on a throng in the
+street, enabled one to see many curious or brilliant objects.
+
+She knew of Lili Kerth, and the role which she played as to the
+world in general and the baron in particular. The baron in that
+case, as in others, wore no mask; sometimes he accompanied Lili
+Kerth to public promenades, and sometimes even showed himself
+with her in a box at the theatre. That was in contradiction with
+morals, especially in view of his relation with Irene; but
+subjection to morals, would not that be standing guard over
+graves, or the "darned sock?"
+
+In this case Maryan, without knowing why, did not applaud his
+friend.
+
+"C'est crane, mais trop cochon," judged he, and he pouted a
+little at the baron, but looked with curiosity at his sister,
+also present in the theatre. Irene sat in her box as usual, calm
+and full of distinction, a little formal, never charmed with
+anything, or laughing at anything. As usual she conversed with
+the baron between acts, till Maryan, looking at her, sneered, and
+asked:
+
+"How did your vis-a-vis please you?"
+
+"Qui cette fille?" asked Irene, carelessly. "The color of her
+hair is superb. Pure Venetian gold."
+
+No feeling of offence, or modesty.
+
+"Bravo!" said Maryan. And with comical solemnity in his voice he
+added: "Dear sister, you have a new mentality altogether. You
+have surpassed my expectations, and now I shall call you my true
+sister."
+
+Why? Was she to be naive in a theatre? She knew well that such
+things were done everywhere, and they must exist in the life of
+the baron. And, if they must exist, then let them be open, for
+mysteries--Oh! she preferred anything to masks and mysteries.
+Besides the question was mainly in this, that that history of the
+baron and the famous singer of chansonettes did not concern her
+in any way.
+
+One evening outside the windows of the house began the twilight,
+which was rather pale from snow. In the drawing-room sat Irene
+amid the cold whiteness of sculpture, which adorned the walls,
+and the reflection on polished furniture of blue watered-silk.
+The young lady was seated at one of the windows on a high stool.
+On the background of the window-pane, filled with the whitish
+twilight, her figure seemed tall, with narrow shoulders, and her
+profile somewhat too prolonged. Over this profile rose a knot of
+fiery hair, and the whole figure reminded one of a statue of a
+priestess, erect and smiling enigmatically. Her eyelids were
+drooping, her long hands were clasped on her robe; but the smiles
+wandering over her lips and ever changing, were not those of
+satisfaction. She remembered that in recent days she had met the
+baron offener than before. He strove more and more to see her--to
+meet her. He simply pursued her--found her frequently in shops
+which she visited with her mother, or alone. When he came he did
+not shield himself with the excuse of chance, but said with his
+usual sincerity:
+
+"I willed to-day to see you, and I see you. I know how to will!"
+
+This day she had barely entered the shop of a celebrated tailor
+when he entered also, and immediately, with unusual animation,
+began to tell her of his great project of going to America and
+settling there for a long time, perhaps permanently. He was
+roused by that idea; he was almost enthusiastic; the hope of new
+scenes and impressions, perhaps great profits, had fired his
+imagination. Of these last he spoke also to Irene.
+
+"One must move, rouse courage, bring the nerves into action,
+otherwise they may wither. One must conquer and win. He who does
+not gain victories deserves the grave. Money is an object worthy
+of conquest, for it opens the gates of life. William Morris is a
+famous poet and artist, but he became a manufacturer. He
+understood that contempt for industry is like many other things,
+a painted pot. Men made this pot and poets painted it in
+beautiful colors, then the poets died of hunger. America holds in
+reserve new horizons."
+
+He spoke long, and was astonished himself at his own enthusiasm.
+
+"I thought," said he, "that I should never know enthusiasm, and I
+supposed even that it was a rheumatism of thought. Meanwhile I
+feel enthusiasm, yes, enthusiasm! And it pervades me with a
+delightful shiver. Do you not share it? Are you not attracted, as
+well as I, by distant perspectives, new horizons, 'the divine
+vibrations of blue seas, the silences traversed by worlds, by
+angels '--And plagiarizing he repeated the addition made by
+Maryan: 'And by millions'?"
+
+Yes, she was attracted. Not by the millions; she was too familiar
+with them, but the distant perspectives, the new horizons, the
+shoreless expanses of oceans, and the endless quiet of spaces
+which in the twinkle of an eye were unfolded before her
+imagination. The dull pain, and the gloomy disgust which tortured
+her not long before, cried out: "Yes! yes! go, fly far, as far as
+possible under new skies, among people of another nationality!
+Go, fly, seek."
+
+With a slight flush on her cheeks, which were delicate to the
+highest degree, she told all this to the baron, whose crumpled,
+faded face was gleaming with delight.
+
+"You make me happy, really happy!" whispered he, and added:
+"Command me to bow down before you; I will obey and bow down."
+
+Meanwhile a door-bell was heard every moment in the great shop,
+and a wave of people passing by reminded Irene of the reason why
+she was there. She turned to an elegant apartment, in which a
+flood of materials disposed on the furniture was waiting for her.
+The baron had a knowledge of the wearing apparel of ladies; he
+liked to speak of it; and more than once, with the accuracy of a
+tailor, and the pleasure of an artist, he told of the original
+and peculiar toilets seen in capitals. On this occasion, in the
+tailor's apartment between great mirrors, in the flood of
+unfolded materials, he said:
+
+"I beg you not to dress according to pattern; I beg you not to
+spoil my delight by forcing me to see on you any of the
+ridiculous styles of this city. I meet no ladies here of subtle
+taste. There is wealth, frequently there is even taste, but
+common, according to pattern. For you it is necessary to think
+out something new--something symbolic, or rather something which
+symbolizes. A woman's dress should be a symbol of her
+individuality. For you it is necessary to think out a dress which
+would symbolize aristocracy of soul and body."
+
+And he fell to thinking out; and they both fell to thinking out.
+They selected among colors and kinds of materials; they examined
+specimens, drawings, the baron corrected them, completed them
+with details taken from his own fancy. After a certain time they
+agreed to one thing: her dress should be flame color. With
+Irene's delicate complexion and her fiery hair this would, as the
+baron thought, form a whole which would be irritating.
+
+"In this robe you will be novel and irritating."
+
+The proprietor of the shop, elegant and important, came in and
+went out, inquired, advised, and again left them to their own
+thoughts and decisions. They, on their part, amused themselves
+better and better, surrounded by a light cloud of perfumes which
+rose from their clothing, and by the rustle of silks which fell
+to their feet, like cascades of many colors. The flame-colored
+material was selected, still they went on selecting. The baron,
+with a flush appearing on his cheeks, exclaimed:
+
+"We are passing the time most delightfully, are we not? And who
+could have expected it? At a tailor's! But you and I know how to
+experience sensations which no one else can experience. For that
+it is necessary to have a sixth sense. You and I have the sixth
+sense."
+
+Irene began to lose her usual formality and air of distinction;
+she spoke quickly and much; she laughed aloud, and, a number of
+times, the movement of her bosom and arms became irregular, too
+lively at moments, but they were full of a half dreamy
+gracefulness. The baron grew silent and looked at her for a
+while, then, with rapturous eyes, he began:
+
+"How you are changed at this moment. How charmingly you are
+changed! Such surprises interest one--they irritate. You have the
+rare gift of causing surprises."
+
+With gleaming eyes he begged her insistently to tell him whether
+the change which had taken place, the humor into which she had
+fallen, was spontaneous or artificial, the result of feeling, or
+of coquetry.
+
+"You are without doubt the product of high training, so it is
+difficult to know in you that which is nature and that which is
+art. And such a person in that changed form is problematical--I
+beg you, I beg you to tell me whether in you this is nature, or
+art?"
+
+Listening to these words, in which a very insolent idea was
+contained, she laughed and turned her eyes away. But bending
+toward her with a smile which might remind one of a satyr, and
+with a request in his voice, he asked:
+
+"Is this nature? is it art?"
+
+With a sudden resolve she answered:
+
+"It is nature!"
+
+And she wished to equal the boldness of her answer with the
+boldness of her look, but a flaming blush shot over her face, and
+the lids covered her eyes, into which shame had gushed forth.
+Though maiden modesty was a painted pot, this new change, to
+which Irene had yielded, exercised on the baron a new irritating
+influence. In the midst of the rustling materials he seized both
+her hands, his eyes flashed magnetic rays into her flushed face;
+he drew her delicate form toward him. She tried to twist her
+hands away, and with a violent effort strove to throw her bust
+backward, but the fragile baron was very strong at that instant;
+he pressed her hands in his as in a vice, and whispered into her
+very face:
+
+"Do not fight against that cry of life which is heard within
+you--I am a despot--I know how to will--"
+
+With the last word he pressed his lips to hers. But that moment
+she, too, gained unexpected strength, and in a flash she was some
+steps away from him, very pale now and trembling throughout her
+whole body.
+
+"This is too much of nature!" cried she.
+
+Her head was erect, and from her eyes came flashing sparks, which
+soon melted, however, into cold irony. Shrugging her shoulders,
+with a smile she exclaimed:
+
+"Dieu! que c'etait vulgaire!"
+
+Then holding her skirt with both hands, as if she wished not to
+take one atom of dust from that room with her, she went out into
+the shop; the baron saw her talk to the tailor for a moment with
+her usual coolness, and then turn to go with the ordinary words
+of brief leave-taking.
+
+But now Irene sitting there on that tall stool at the window,
+surrounded by the fading gleam of the blue watered-silk, and
+against the background of the pane which was covered with a
+whitish gloom, seemed a statue with a delicate bust, and a
+somewhat prolonged profile settled in stony fixedness. The "cry
+of life" possessed as words the charm of novelty and daring, but
+when changed into an act it roused in her every feeling of
+offence and maiden modesty. The shaggy beast had ventured out too
+far from behind the heliotropes, and had given forth too rank a
+smell of the den and the troglodytes. "It is vulgar!" cried she
+to the baron, but she understood immediately that what had taken
+place was neither new, nor a rare thing, but as old as the human
+race and as vulgar as the street is. The tailor's shop full of
+people, the ceaseless ringing at the door-bell, the noise of
+selling and buying, the passage beyond the window--is the street.
+A kiss received on the street. Street adventure! A quiver shot
+downward through her shoulders. Before her imagination passed the
+wretched forms of women trailing in the dusk of evening along the
+sidewalks. On her inclined face a blush came out; that painted
+pot called maiden, modesty, under the form of inherited instinct
+and woman's pride, was laboring in her untiringly and painfully.
+After a while its place was taken by disgust beyond expression.
+
+The baron, whose single charm was in his subtlety, appeared now
+as a vulgar figure. That kind of mutual love, which she had
+thought they felt for each other, when closely analyzed, reminded
+her of pictures in which Fauns with goats' beards were chasing
+through the forest after Nymphs. On Irene's lips a jeering,
+almost angry smile, now fixed itself. What did he say: "a sixth
+sense." Why a sixth sense in this case? Empty words! The baron
+jeers at painted pots, but he makes them himself, and paints them
+in the ancient colors. An idyl is an old thing, and a den is old
+also, but the idyl would be better than the den if only it
+existed. But where is it? Her eyes had never seen an idyl, but
+they had seen, ah, they had seen what happens and takes place
+with loves of men and women, 'and with bonds which bear the name
+of sacred! Well, what is to be done with the baron--and America?
+Such contempt for everything, such disbelief in all things, such
+a contemptuous despising of everything, and of her own self as
+well, embraced her and possessed her, that at the end of the
+meditation she said to herself: "It is all one!" She crossed her
+hands and pressed them firmly across her breast, bent her head
+somewhat, and thought: "It is all, all, all one!"
+
+A few tears, one after another, fell on her tightly clasped
+fingers. "All one! If only the sooner!"
+
+What sooner? Why sooner? With a slow movement she turned her face
+toward her mother's apartments; her lips which quivered, and the
+glistening tear which had fallen on them had the same kind of
+expression that a child has when crying in silence. With brows
+raised somewhat, she whispered:
+
+"Mamma!"
+
+After a while, under those brows which were like delicate little
+flames, her eyes began to grow mild, to lose their tears and
+their irony, until they took on an expression of such delight, as
+if they were looking at an idyl.
+
+Meanwhile the air, modified by the gray twilight, was cut by a
+bright moving line. This was Cara going from her father's study
+with Puff tugging at her skirt. She hummed a song as she went
+forward. When she saw her sister she ceased humming, and called
+out from the end of the drawing-room:
+
+"Do you know, Ira, father will dine with us to-day?"
+
+In her voice a note of triumph was heard. After many weeks her
+father would sit for the first time with them at the family
+table, and then everything would go on as it should go. What it
+was that went ill, and why it went so, she knew not. But she had
+been observing, was astonished, and had fears. With that real
+sixth sense, which persons of keen sensitiveness possess, she
+felt something. She felt in the air a certain oppression, a
+certain trouble, and, not knowing what these signified, nor
+whence they were coming, she suffered. In the very same way,
+organisms with supersensitive nerves feel the approach of
+atmospheric storms. Now she advanced with a short step, erect and
+slender, with Puff at her skirt, while she hummed joyously.
+
+When Irene entered her mother's study soon after, she saw, by the
+lamplight, a group composed of three persons. Sitting on the
+sofa, with glitters of black jet in her light hair, was Malvina
+Darvid; nearby, in a low armchair, inclining toward her, was
+Maryan, elegant as usual, and before him, with elbows resting on
+her mother's knees, knelt Cara, a bright, blue strip lying across
+the black silk robe of her mother.
+
+"A picture deserving the eyes of Sarah and Rebecca!" suggested
+Irene, going straight to the mirror before which she began, with
+raised arms, to arrange and modify the knot of hair on her head.
+Maryan, in good humor, was imploring his mother to let him have
+her portrait painted by one of the most noted artists in the
+city.
+
+"His brush is famous! I cannot understand how, amid the
+effeteness of this city, a talent can rise which is so fresh and
+individual. In his landscapes there is a magnificent pleinair,
+and as a portrait painter he knows how to seize the soul. My
+mother, let me have your soul enchanted into a portrait--have you
+noticed that the eyes of some portraits look on us from beyond
+this world? There is an enchanted soul in them. Let me have your
+portrait painted by an artist from whose canvas comes a breath
+from beyond this world."
+
+He inclined his cherub head and kissed his mother's hand, which
+was resting on Cara's shoulder.
+
+"And kiss me, too!" cried Cara.
+
+"Sentiment!" said Maryan, straightening himself, "beware of
+sentiment, little one. I, thy great-grandfather, say this to
+thee."
+
+"Splendidly expressed!" exclaimed Irene from the mirror. "Cara's
+soul is so primitive, yours--"
+
+"So decadent," put in Maryan.
+
+"That you have a right to be called her great-grandfather."
+
+"I greet you great-grandmother!" laughed he at Irene.
+
+"I say this, mother, for, as you see, I understand my elder
+sister perfectly, but not the little one yet; however, that will
+come some time--surely soon. Mais revenons a nos moutons: How
+about the portrait?"
+
+Malvina laughed. Her face, greatly troubled an hour before, had
+grown young again. A certain sunray had pierced the thick cloud
+at that moment. She warded off the idea of the portrait.
+
+"Why? There are too many portraits of me already. Oh, too many!"
+
+"Caricatures!" exclaimed Maryan, "and none of them is mine. I beg
+a portrait for myself specially; my own exclusive property."
+
+"What for?" repeated Malvina. "Look at the original as often as
+you like. Better not have a portrait; then, perhaps, you will
+feel the need of seeing me oftener."
+
+"No reproaches, dear mother! Leave reproaches, threats; let the
+whole patriarchal arsenal remain on that side, over there--"
+
+With a gesture he indicated the door leading to the interior of
+the house.
+
+Cara raised her head from her mother's knees, and her eyes
+glittered.
+
+"But on this side let there be only sweetness, only charm, only
+that precious, beautiful weakness, before which I am on my knees
+always. As to this, that I can see the original of the portrait
+when I wish, that is a question! We are grains of sand scattered
+over the world by the wind of interesting voyages."
+
+"Have you some plan of a journey again?" inquired Malvina,
+alarmed.
+
+"Yes. It is in indistinct lines yet, but is becoming more
+definite every day. This will be the step of a giant--fleeing
+before that rod with which the all-mighty father is pleased to
+beat his children."
+
+Again, with a gesture he pointed to the door leading to the more
+distant apartments, and in the short laugh which accompanied his
+last words there was sarcasm--almost hatred. At the same moment
+he met Cara's eyes, and asked:
+
+"Why look at me, little one, in that way? There are eyes!
+curious, anxious, and as frightened as those of a hunted deer.
+Why so curious? What do you fear?"
+
+Cara hid her face in her mother's dress, quickly.
+
+"But how would it please you, mamma, to make a trip with me to
+America?" called Irene from before the mirror.
+
+She put up the last of her hair, fastened it with a fantastic
+pin, and said, turning toward her mother:
+
+"I have such Tom Thumb boots that when I put them on I shall be
+beyond the sea with three great steps. How does that plan please
+you?"
+
+"You give a shower of plans to-day," jested Malvina.
+
+"A portrait, flight from the rod, America."
+
+"A ball!" exclaimed Cara, raising her head. "Do you know of it,
+Maryan? In a few weeks we shall have a real ball--a grand one."
+
+"Your tale is curious, little one, tell on," answered Maryan.
+"When talk is the question, there is never need to beg Cara
+twice."
+
+She sprang up from her knees and told of the hour which she had
+spent in her father's study a few days before. She had told her
+mother and sister of the plan of the ball, but how it rose she
+had not told. Something had prevented. Now she would tell them
+all. Three gentlemen had visited her father: Prince Zeno, Count
+Charski, and a third person whose name she did not remember, but
+he was a large man, tall and broad; his breast glittered with
+stars and crosses. She, Cara, wished to hide from the guests
+behind the bookshelves--there were shelves behind which she sat
+often, invisible herself, she saw and heard everything. It was a
+wonderfully comfortable hiding-place, in which her only trouble
+was Puff; for, when anyone came to the study he wanted to bark,
+but she squeezed his nose with her hand tightly, and he was
+silent. That day she did not go behind the book-shelves, for her
+father commanded her to sit in the armchair. So she sat there
+with dignity.
+
+Now she sat on the stool, and showed them in what a posture she
+had sat in presence of her father's guests, her hands on her
+knees, bolt upright, with dignity on her rosy face. Puffie alone
+interrupted this dignity, she said; he crawled up behind her, put
+his paws on her shoulder, and touched her with his moist nose.
+One of the gentlemen turned then to her, and said:
+
+"You have a beautiful dog, young lady."
+
+"He is very nice," answered she.
+
+"And what is his name?" asked the man.
+
+"Puffie," explained she.
+
+She did not laugh, for there was no cause. Puffie was really very
+nice, and he had a good name, but those gentlemen, while looking
+at her, smiled very agreeably, and one of them said to her
+father:
+
+"How time passes! Not long ago I saw your younger daughter a
+little child, and now--"
+
+The other interrupted: "She is almost grown. And as tall it seems
+as her elder sister."
+
+"We have only very rarely the pleasure of seeing your family in
+society this winter," said the other.
+
+"Your wife and daughter pass a very secluded life this year,"
+said the second visitor.
+
+"My wife complains of frequent neuralgia," answered father, and
+then the unknown, large man talked.
+
+Hitherto Cara, while giving the conversation of the two
+gentlemen, changed her voice, imitating the tones, and posture of
+each; now she repeated the words of the large man in the rudest
+voice that she could command:
+
+"I have not yet had the honor of being presented to your wife and
+elder daughter, but I have heard so much, etc."
+
+Then they talked longer with her father about something else, and
+when going away gave her some nice compliments. She courtesied.
+She might say with confidence that she had played the role of a
+mature young lady brilliantly. Her father said, after the
+departure of the guests, that he was glad to receive the large
+man's visit. The large man might aid him greatly. Then he thought
+a while, and said:
+
+"Do you know what, little one, you must show yourself in
+society."
+
+Here Maryan muttered in an undertone:
+
+"He needs a new column in his temple."
+
+Irene smiled. Malvina feigned not to hear; Cara, given up to her
+twittering, twittered on:
+
+"Then father said that mamma and Ira were leading almost the life
+of a cloister, that they received few persons, and went out
+little. That had the appearance of domestic misfortune, or of
+bankruptcy. Such an appearance was ugly in general, and harmful
+to business. To avoid this there was need to arrange a reception,
+but grand, and as splendid as possible. The carnival would be
+over soon, and at the end of the carnival we would give a ball in
+which the 'little one 'would appear in society for the first
+time. Today, an hour ago, father said he would come to us at
+dinner, and would talk at length about this ball with mamma."
+
+Here Cara finished the narrative which was somewhat of a dramatic
+representation. Maryan rose suddenly from his seat.
+
+"I must go," said he, standing rigidly, and with a serious face.
+
+"Stay, Maryan," said Malvina, in a low voice.
+
+On her face was a look of pain; a deep wrinkle appeared on her
+forehead; her voice was imploring. Maryan looked at her,
+hesitated a while, then dropping into an armchair with the
+movement of an automaton, muttered:
+
+"Let thy will be done! Let a pot be painted with the color of a
+son's love--for you, mother."
+
+From the thought that he must meet his father soon, the interior
+of his heart began to desiccate.
+
+A servant announced the dinner. Cara sprang up from the stool:
+
+"I will go to conduct father!"
+
+She went to the door, but turned back from it, and, dropping on
+her knees before her mother, put a number of long, passionate
+kisses on her knees and her hand. Then hanging on her neck, she
+whispered in a low voice:
+
+"Golden, only, dearest mamma." And springing from her knees she
+flew out of the room like a bird.
+
+What did that violent outburst of tenderness for her mother mean?
+No one knew, neither did she herself, perhaps. Was it a prayer
+for someone, or the assurance that she loved greatly not only
+that one, but her mother too? or was it delight that at last she
+would see them both together? She flew like a bird through the
+drawing-rooms, lighted by lamps burning here and there, till she
+pushed quietly into her father's study, and put her hand under
+his arm at the writing-desk. All rosy, imitating the deep and
+solemn voice of the servant, she said:
+
+"Dinner is served!"
+
+Darvid felt a stream of warmth and sweetness flowing to his
+breast.
+
+"Oh, you rogue!" said he, "you sunray! You little one!"
+
+When he was entering the dining-room soon after with Cara, Maryan
+led in his mother through the opposite door; she was all in black
+silk and jet.
+
+Darvid inclined and touched his wife's hand with his lips; on
+Malvina's face there was a pleasant smile.
+
+"I am so immensely occupied," said he, "that I have not time
+every day to inquire after your health."
+
+"I thank you, my health is excellent."
+
+At a rich side-table two servants were occupied; at the table
+gleaming with crystal and silver stood Miss Mary, graceful and
+still young, with puritanic simplicity in her closely fitting
+garment, and with smooth hair over her calm forehead. The master
+of the house greeted her and expressed his regret that, because
+of business, he could see her only rarely. When all were seated
+at table, Malvina, with the experience of a trained lady of the
+house, began conversation:
+
+"We have been talking just now of the United States, with which
+Ira and Maryan have begun to be greatly interested."
+
+"No doubt because of the exhibition at Chicago," said Darvid; "it
+must be something colossal indeed."
+
+Miss Mary mentioned the congress of women which was to meet
+there. Malvina and Irene supplemented that statement with
+details; the conversation flowed on smoothly, easily, coolly; it
+was filled with various kinds of information. Maryan took no part
+in it. He sat stiff, deaf, dumb, with fixed features. When he
+ate, his movements had the appearance of an automaton, even his
+eyelids winked very rarely. He was a picture of apathy, contempt,
+and biliousness. Even his fair complexion had grown sallow, and
+his lips had paled. He caused exactly the impression of a wax
+doll in an elegant dress, with glittering eyes.
+
+Darvid, with some humor and playfully, spoke of the edifice which
+was to be erected in Chicago according to a plan by a female
+architect.
+
+"I tremble for those who are to visit the building. In
+architecture, equilibrium has immense meaning, and for women
+equilibrium is most difficult. Women lose equilibrium so easily,
+so generally, so inevitably, almost."
+
+This was said in a manner quite airy and trifling; still--it was
+unknown why--in the voice of the speaker certain biting tones
+quivered, and a pale flush came out on Malvina's forehead. Irene
+fell at once to talking most vivaciously with Miss Mary about the
+latest movement among English women toward emancipation, and
+Darvid himself, with some haste, expressed quietly, though with
+some irony, opinions touching these movements.
+
+A great bronze lamp cast abundant light on the table, which was
+covered with the brightness of silver and crystal. White-gloved
+servants, as silent as apparitions, changed the plates adorned
+with painted and gilded monograms; with bottles in their hands
+they inquired about the kind of wine which they were to pour out;
+they served dishes from which came the excellent odor of
+truffles, pickles, rare meat, and vegetables. A number of
+wall-lamps, placed high, lighted the sides of the dining-hall,
+which was decked with pictures in brightly shining frames, and
+with festoons of heavy curtains at the doors and windows. When it
+left America, the conversation, carried on in French and English,
+turned to European capitals and to the various phenomena of life
+in them. English was spoken out of regard for Miss Mary, but
+French sometimes, for Darvid and his wife preferred that language
+to English. Irene and Cara might have been considered as genuine
+English. The ready and accurate English; the pure Parisian
+French; the varied information, in an atmosphere of light falling
+from above on a table glittering with costly plate; the order and
+the dignified ornaments of the great hall; the grand scale of
+living seemed undoubted high life. There was a moment in which
+Darvid cast his glance around and threw back his head somewhat;
+his forehead freed itself from wrinkles--smooth, clever, shining
+somewhat at the temples--it seemed to be carved out of ivory. His
+nostrils, delicate and nervous, expanded and contracted, as if
+inhaling, with the odor of wines and delicacies, the more subtle
+and intoxicating odor of his own greatness. But this lasted only
+a short time; soon certain pebbles of seriousness and breaths of
+distraction began to interrupt his conversation and to dull his
+clear thought. Balancing in two fingers a dessert knife, he said
+to Miss Mary:
+
+"I respect your countrymen greatly for their practical sense and
+sound reason. That's a people--that's a people--"
+
+He stammered somewhat now--a thing which, in his low and fluent
+speech, never happened. He was thinking of something else.
+
+"That is the nation which said to itself: 'Time is money,' which
+also--"
+
+Again he faltered. His eyes, attracted by an invincible power,
+turned continually toward that point of the table where black
+jets glittered richly and gloomily, and then his lips finished
+the judgment which he had begun:
+
+"Which also possesses to-day the greatest money-power."
+
+Here Maryan spoke for the first time:
+
+"Not only money; England now leads the newest tendencies in art."
+
+This was spoken at the edges of his lips, without cooperation of
+other parts of his face, which continued fixed; and on Darvid's
+lips appeared his smile, of which people said that it bristled
+with pins.
+
+"The newest tendencies of art!" repeated he, and the words hissed
+in his mouth somewhat. "Art is something splendid, but the pity
+is that it is turned into a plaything by wrongly reared
+children!"
+
+Maryan raised at his father a look from which a whole flood of
+irony rushed forth, and answered, with the edge of his lips:
+
+"He alone is not a child who knows that we are all children,
+turning everything into playthings for ourselves. The point is
+that there are various playthings."
+
+"Maryan!" whispered Malvina, with an alarm which she could not
+suppress.
+
+Darvid turned his face to her suddenly, and their glances which
+till then had avoided each other carefully, met for a few
+seconds; but during that time Darvid's eyes filled with the
+glitter of keen steel, and Malvina bent her face so low over the
+plate that, in the sharp light, one could see only her forehead,
+with its one deep wrinkle. But that same moment Irene began to
+converse with her father about London, where he had spent a
+considerable time on two occasions. He answered her at once;
+spoke long, fluently, and interestingly, engaging also in the
+conversation Miss Mary, to whom he turned frequently and with
+pleasure.
+
+Again the conversation went on smoothly, easily, deliberately.
+Above the table, in place of the odors of meats and sauces,
+hovered the light odors of fruit and vanilla. When the dessert
+was served, Darvid spoke of fruits peculiar to various climates
+which he had visited in his almost ceaseless journeys; all at
+once he stopped the conversation in mid-career, and turned to
+Cara, who struggled a few times with a dry and stubborn cough.
+
+"I thought that you had recovered entirely. But you are coughing
+yet. That is sad!"
+
+On the girl's face, which was flushing in a fiery manner, there
+was an expression of sorrow or anger. Quickly and broken came the
+words from her lips which were pouting like those of an angry
+child:
+
+"There are so many sad things in the world, father, that my cough
+is a bit of dust compared with them."
+
+This was an answer thoroughly unexpected, but the impression
+which it might have made was hindered at once by Irene through a
+laugh and an exclamation too loud, perhaps:
+
+"See where pessimism is going to fix itself! Is Puffie sick?"
+
+"Cara's remark is precocious but pointed," said Maryan, with the
+edges of his lips.
+
+Malvina, too, began to speak. Giving a small cup to her son, she
+inquired:
+
+"You like black coffee so well that I ought to reserve another
+cup, ought I not?"
+
+Maryan made no answer; with a wrinkle on her forehead, and a
+smile on her lips, she continued quickly and hurriedly:
+
+"I share your taste for coffee, Maryan. Some time ago I drank
+much coffee, but I saw that it injured my nerves and deprived me
+of sleep. It is very disagreeable not to sleep, and better to
+give up a favorite luxury than suffer from insomnia."
+
+Smiling and moving her head she talked, and talked on with great
+charm, and with a sweetness which always filled the tones of her
+voice. She mentioned mere nothings, connecting opinion with
+opinion, just to talk, to kill time, or avoid other topics.
+Darvid raised his head somewhat and looked at her through the
+glasses with which he had shaded his eyes until she bent her head
+before the gleam in those glasses, and her face sank very low
+over the cup, and was covered with an expression not to be hidden
+by a woman who wants to vanish through the earth, dissolve in
+air, become a shade, become dust, become a corpse; if she can
+only escape from where she is and from being what she is. Then
+Irene, with a light tap, dropping her cup on the saucer, began:
+
+"You must know well, father, how they make coffee in the Orient?"
+
+He knew, for he had been in the Orient; and, in a way which was
+picturesque enough, he told about the Turks; how, sitting around
+in a circle, they put the favorite drink into their mouths
+slowly.
+
+"They delight themselves with it, as dignified as Magi, and
+silent as fish. The time in which they give themselves to this
+absolute rest, composed of black coffee and silence, bears with
+them the name 'keif.'"
+
+This word called laughter to the lips of all. Darvid laughed,
+too. On all faces weariness grew evident. Cara's thin voice
+called out:
+
+"The Turks do well to be silent, for what good is there in
+people's talk? What good is there?"
+
+"Here is a little sage, she is never satisfied with questions,"
+said Darvid, jestingly.
+
+"Capacity for criticism is a family trait of ours," laughed
+Irene.
+
+"Cara had been distinguished by curiosity from childhood," added
+Malvina, with a smile.
+
+Even Maryan, looking at his younger sister, said:
+
+"The time always comes when children begin to speak instead of
+prattling."
+
+Miss Mary, with an anxious forehead under her puritan hair, said
+nothing.
+
+On the faces of all who spoke, anxiety was evident, and above the
+smiling lips weariness was present in every eye.
+
+Malvina rose from her chair; Darvid left his place, bowed to all
+with exquisite politeness, and, advancing some steps, gave his
+arm to his wife.
+
+They passed through a small, brightly lighted drawing-room and
+halted in the following chamber, where the walls were adorned
+with white garlands and the curtains and upholstering were of
+blue watered-silk. Beyond, in a small drawing-room. Miss Mary sat
+down to play chess with Maryan; Cara took her place near them in
+the character of observer, and Irene unrolled in the lamp-light a
+piece of church stuff, very old and time-worn, which the baron
+had brought her as a rarity, and which she intended to repair by
+embroidering it with silk and gold thread.
+
+Darvid and Malvina stopped among the pieces of blue furniture in
+the tempered light of a shade-covered lamp. Malvina was very
+pale, and her heart must have beaten with violence, for her
+breath was hurried. At last that had come which she had waited
+for long and vainly: a positive and decisive conversation.
+
+With all her strength she desired an explanation, a change of
+some kind, and in any shape, if it would only bring a change in
+her position. She was waiting, ready to yield to everything, to
+endure everything, if he would only speak. He spoke, and said:
+
+"To-morrow I shall go to a hunt on the estate of Prince Zeno, and
+as I go from there to a place where I have business, I shall
+return in ten days, more or less. Immediately after my return,
+and during the last week of the Carnival, there will be in our
+house a reception, a ball simply, the most brilliant possible. My
+business requires it, and public opinion concerning this family
+requires it also. I wish, too, that Cara should make her first
+appearance in society at that ball. I have drawn up, and will
+send you a list of persons to whom it is necessary to send
+invitations, persons of whom you might not have thought; the rest
+of society you know better than I do. I know that you can arrange
+such matters excellently, and I trust that this time you will do
+all that is best. The check-book will be brought you by my
+secretary, whose abilities and time you may use without limit, as
+well as the check-book. There is no need to hesitate at outlay;
+everything should be in a style rarely seen in any house, or
+rather in a style never seen except in this house. This ball is
+needed for my business and for--public opinion concerning our
+family, which opinion is a little, even more than a little,
+lowered."
+
+He spoke slowly and politely, with an accent of command at the
+basis of the politeness. At the last words he cast into her face
+a gleam of his eyes which was firm and penetrating, then he
+bowed, and made a move to go.
+
+"Aloysius!" cried Malvina, with tightly clasped hands, and she
+began to tremble. How was this? A ball, and nothing more! The
+question with her was of things as important as human dignity,
+conscience, unendurable restraint, and fear in the presence of
+her children.
+
+He stopped and inquired:
+
+"What is your command?"
+
+She bowed her head and began:
+
+"I require; I wish to speak with you at length and positively."
+
+He smiled.
+
+"For what purpose? We have nothing pleasant to say to each other,
+and unpleasant conversation injures the nerves more than--black
+coffee."
+
+She raised her head, and with an effort, to which she brought
+herself with difficulty, said:
+
+"Things cannot remain as they are. My position--"
+
+With an expression of profoundest astonishment on his face, he
+interrupted:
+
+"Your position! But your position is brilliant!"
+
+He made a gesture which seemed to indicate everything which was
+in that drawing-room, and in the whole house; but she blushed
+deeply, and like one in whom the sensitive place is touched,
+exclaimed:
+
+"But this is just what--what I do not wish any longer. I have the
+right to desire to be free, to withdraw, to cast from myself this
+glitter, and go somewhere."
+
+With all her strength she struggled against the tears which were
+overpowering her. He repeated with the profoundest astonishment:
+
+"You do not wish? You have the right?"
+
+Everything in him--cheeks, wrinkles on his forehead, pale
+lips--trembled with excitement now beyond restraint. But he was
+master of his voice yet. He spoke in low tones, but with a hiss:
+
+"What right? You have no right! You have lost every right! You do
+not wish? You have no right to wish, or not to wish. You must
+live as it happens you, and as is needed. As to conversations and
+serious theatrical scenes, I want none of them--I, who have not
+lost the right to wish. I am silent, and I will enforce silence.
+That is, and will always be, our modus vivendi, which, moreover,
+should be for you the easiest thing in the world to preserve. You
+have everything: a high position, luxury, brilliancy, even the
+love of your children as it seems. You have everything
+except--except--"
+
+He hesitated. His habit of preserving in all cases correctness of
+form, struggled with the excitement which had overcome him, and
+these words hissed through his lips in a low though envenomed
+voice:
+
+"Except--the lover whom you have dismissed, on which deed I
+congratulate you, and--my respect, which you have lost, but
+without which you must live on to the end. On this subject we are
+talking now for the first and last time. We are talking too long.
+I am in a hurry to my work. I wish you good-night."
+
+The bow which he made before his wife might seem from a distance
+full of friendly kindness; he withdrew with perfect calmness and
+freedom of manner, still Irene went to her mother with a firm
+though hurried step, and with the piece of ancient stuff in her
+hand, she said:
+
+"I am sure that without your assistance I shall not be equal to
+my task. To restore this Middle Age wonder requires taste, an
+eye, shading of colors; all this is beyond my poor ability."
+
+She stood before her mother, and among the large flowers on the
+cloth, which was changing from silver to sapphire, she indicated
+certain defects produced by time. Her eyelids blinked with
+marvellous quickness, and therefore, perhaps, she did not notice
+her mother's chalky pallor, trembling hands, and despairing
+expression of eyes. Apparently noticing nothing she spoke in a
+loud voice and joyously:
+
+"You have an ocean of various silks left after so many things
+which we made in company. Let us search among them. Shall we go?
+They are in your chamber. Come, mamma! I am so impatient to begin
+the restoration of this beautiful ruin! You will help me to match
+the silks, will you not? Oh, how many beautiful things you and I
+have made together with these four hands of ours, which were
+always in company."
+
+And they were in company then. She thrust her hand under her
+mother's arm, and holding the strip of silver and azure stuff she
+escorted the very pale woman in black jets through the
+brilliantly lighted drawing-room, past the chess-table at which
+were sitting three persons, through the dining-hall, where
+servants were hurrying, through her mother's study, in which both
+had passed most hours of their life, till she came to Malvina's
+bedroom, where, amid the yellow damask furniture a shaded lamp
+was burning. In the twinkle of an eye Irene drew the brass
+door-bolt, and with face turned toward her mother, with cheeks
+which flushed immediately, she took Malvina's two hands in her
+own.
+
+"Enough of these secrets, of things partly said, and of barriers
+raised between our hearts and lips."
+
+This hurried whisper burst from her like a current from a covered
+vessel filled with heat and opened suddenly.
+
+"Let us tell each other everything--or no, say no word, I know
+everything and neither will I speak--but let us counsel--let us
+meditate together--Oh, mamma!"
+
+Her form, usually erect and distinguished, bent, and trembled
+like a reed, and her lips, famous for irony and coldness,
+scattered a shower of kisses on the hands and face of her mother,
+whose chalky paleness was covered by a flame of blushes.
+
+"Ira!" she exclaimed, "forgive. May God forgive me."
+
+Unable to utter more than these words she dropped on her knees
+and touched the yellow cushion of the low sofa with her head. She
+seemed shattered, annihilated. Then Irene grew cold again. Sober
+thought and strong will shone in, her eyes. She bent over her
+mother, placed her delicate hand on her shoulder, and began
+almost with the movement of a guardian:
+
+"Mamma, I beg you not to despair, and above all not to torture
+yourself with that which you consider a reproach and a sin. Never
+say to your children 'forgive,' for we cannot be your judges--I,
+least of all. You have ever been kind to us and as loving as an
+angel; we have lived with you; we love you--I most of all.
+Remember at all times that a loyal heart is near you and--a
+kindred one--for it is the heart of a daughter. You must stand
+erect, have will, think out something, frame something, have
+decision, save yourself."
+
+Looking into her mother's face with a strange smile, she added:
+
+"And save me, perhaps, for I, too, am a poor, unwise creature; I
+know not myself what to do."
+
+Malvina raised her head, straightened herself, and rose from her
+knees slowly.
+
+"True," whispered she. "You--you, so long and so earnestly have I
+wished to speak--of you--and had not the courage."
+
+"Well, let us speak now," said Irene.
+
+And again putting her hand under her mother's arm, she led her to
+the ottoman, which stood in the tempered lamplight.
+
+"The door is bolted, no one can disturb us; we will have a talk,
+a long one. Only we must be reasonable, calm. Look at things and
+ourselves clearly; know definitely what we want; try to bring our
+plans into action; know how to wish."
+
+At these last words she imitated the nasal voice of Baron Emil,
+laughed at it, and dropped down on the carpet before Malvina had
+seated herself on the low ottoman. Irene, taking her mother's
+hands in her own, fixed her eyes on her eyes, and began:
+
+"Mamma, if you wish I shall become very soon the wife of the
+famous Mediaevalist, Baron Emil, and we shall all three of us go
+to America--beyond the seas--"
+
+"Oh, no! no! no!" exclaimed Malvina, who bent toward her
+daughter, and put her arms around the young woman with such
+terror as if she were shielding her from a falling house. "Not
+that! Not that! Something different--entirely different."
+
+At that moment some impulsive, or impatient, hand shook the
+door-latch.
+
+"Not permitted!" cried Irene, and she asked:
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+There was no answer, but the latch moved again, though in a
+timid, and, as it were, imploring manner.
+
+"You cannot come in," repeated Irene.
+
+There was a rustle against the sofa outside, a light and quick
+step moved away.
+
+"Cara!" whispered Malvina.
+
+"For her as well as for ourselves there is need to end this
+position at the earliest," said Irene, with a sudden frown.
+
+It was Cara; she had left the door of her mother's room with
+drooping head, with a great frown on her forehead, and no thought
+for the little dog, tugging at her skirt as usual. Half an hour
+before, when Maryan and Miss Mary had risen from chess, she rose,
+too, pushed her hand under her brother's arm and said:
+
+"I have something to say to you."
+
+Her seriousness was so evident that Maryan answered, with a
+smile:
+
+"If your speech is to be as solemn as your face is we shall have
+little joy. What have you to tell me?"
+
+Without answering she led him through the blue drawing-room to
+the next one more faintly lighted. Here she halted, looked
+around, and, seeing only inanimate objects, asked:
+
+"Why have you quarrelled with father?"
+
+This question in her mouth astonished him, and he asked in turn:
+
+"Why do you wish this information? You might dream of the role of
+peacemaker."
+
+Without a shade of laughter, with forehead somewhat wrinkled
+beneath bright curls of hair, she repeated the question:
+
+"Why have you quarrelled with father? Do you not love him? Why
+can you not love him? For me, father is an ideal! He is so wise,
+noble, great. When he was so long away I dreamed about him,
+wanted his return, imagined how happy we should all be when he
+came. But that is not the case in any way. All in the house seem
+to be at variance, angry, disappointed--I see this well, but I
+cannot understand why. Why? why is it?"
+
+Maryan fixed his eyes on her attentively and laughed, but his
+laugh was not sincere, it was forced.
+
+"Curiosity," said he, "is the first step toward hell, and the
+surest road to premature age. You will grow old before your time,
+little one."
+
+"This is not curiosity!" interrupted Cara. "There is some kind of
+trouble here, I know not what it is; but something so unpleasant
+and--dreadful. Sometimes it seems to me that someone will die, or
+that something will vanish, and that, in general, something
+awfully bad will happen to somebody--I--know not what it is, but
+it is very bad. I know not what it is, but it is something--it is
+something--"
+
+Maryan frowned and interrupted her:
+
+"Since you know not what it is, nor to whom it will happen, nor
+how, what do you ask me for? Am I a master of the cabala, to
+interpret childish dreams for you?"
+
+"This is not a dream; it is something of the sort that wanders in
+the air, touches, breathes, goes away and comes again, like a
+haze--or the wind. You are grown up, and all say that you are
+clever. I beg you to explain this--I think, too, that, if you
+wished, you might so arrange matters that all would go better. It
+is your duty to do this. Do you not love mamma, father, Ira? I
+love them immensely--I would give up everything for them. I do
+not understand even how any person could live without loving
+somebody with full heart, and all strength--I could not. But what
+use--I am not grown up, not wise, I cannot even understand
+anything. With you it is different, but you have quarrelled with
+father. You do not even love him, I see that well. For what
+reason? Why? My brother, you might, at least, tell me something
+to explain."
+
+She stopped, and he stared at her, a look of indecision increased
+on his face. Something of concern, and a trifle of tenderness
+gleamed in his eyes. It might have seemed for some seconds that
+he would put his arm around her, or stroke her with his palm and
+smooth away the wrinkles from her childish forehead.
+But--"Arcadian" feelings were in the past, so he began to speak
+coldly and deliberately:
+
+"My dear, you are torturing your little head for nothing with
+affairs of this world; you are not equal to them yet. I cannot
+tell anything to you, or explain anything, for you and I are at
+the two opposite poles of thought. You speak of devotion, duty,
+and love, like a governess, for you have a governess yet. As to
+my disagreement with father, you know nothing of what caused it;
+but, to be a kindly brother, I will answer a few words. Two
+developed and energetic individualities have met in this case and
+come into collision, like two planets. Two egotisms also--do not
+show such frightened eyes. Stupid nurses frighten children with a
+beggar, a gypsy, or an egotist, but mature people know that
+egotism is a universal right; and, moreover, good business. Be an
+egotist. Take no trouble about what does not concern your own
+self and strive to develop your own individuality. Keep this in
+view, play joyously with Puffie, and go to sleep early, for long
+watching spoils the complexion of young ladies. Begin to think
+to-morrow of the dress which you will wear at that brilliant
+ball--planned by our father to torment mamma--and you will have
+success. Do not mind those mists, dreams, and other visions which
+come and go. They are conditions of mind which are very much
+subject to fancy, and other painted pots. This is all that I,
+your great-grandfather, can tell you, or mention as advice. Look
+at Ira and imitate her wisdom, which knows how to make sport of
+the world around her. Good-night to you, little one!"
+
+He pressed her hand in such a friendly manner that he hurt it,
+and then went away, disappearing at the other end of the chamber.
+
+Cara stood for a time with her eyes fixed on the floor, then she
+raised her head and looked around at the void in which silence
+had fixed itself. The globe-lamps burning, here and there, at the
+walls, filled the drawing-room with a hazy, half-light, in which,
+here and there, glittered golden reflections, and the features of
+faces, and landscapes flimmered on pictures. Farther on, from the
+shady corner of the other drawing-room, slender and swelling
+vases appeared, partially; portions of white garlands on the
+walls; the delicate dimness of dulled colors on Gobelin tapestry.
+Farther still, in the small warm and bright drawing-room, lights
+were burning in the candelabra, and a crown of glittering
+crystals were hanging like icicles, or immense frozen tears.
+Farthest off, in the dining-room, with its dark walls, gleamed a
+great lamp, in its hanging bronze, like a point of light, above
+the table. This point seemed very far from where Cara was
+standing, and in all the space between her and it there was not a
+voice, not a rustle, nothing living. Only once a waiter, dressed
+in black, passed on tip-toe through the dining-room, emerged into
+the full light of the lamp, and disappeared behind a door. After
+that there was no voice, no step, no noise--nothing living. All
+at once a clock began to strike nine. Its metallic sound inclined
+to bass, and was heard clearly in the silence which had settled
+in the vacant chambers. One, two, three--at the fourth stroke
+another clock was heard in a distant study. Its sound was thinner
+and more like singing--these two seemed to be a voice and its
+echo; the sounds from these resembled a mysterious conversation
+carried on by things that were inanimate.
+
+Cara hurried then, and hastened through the drawing-rooms on
+tip-toe toward her mother's boudoir. Through her widely opened
+eyes looked fear, and under bright curls her forehead was thickly
+wrinkled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Because of his absence of ten days Darvid, on his return from the
+hunting scenes, which had passed noisily and splendidly at Prince
+Zeno's, rushed into the whirl of business--of labors and visits
+which even for him, who was so greatly trained, proved to be
+wearisome and difficult. He drove out; he received for long
+hours, both alone and with the assistance of others; he wrote,
+reckoned, counselled, discussed, concluded contracts, with a
+multitude of men. Sometimes, in the very short intervals between
+occupations, in his carriage, after a noisy and laborious night,
+or at the almost sleepless end of it, while putting himself to
+bed, he thought, that in every case the amusement from which he
+had returned a few days before had cost him more than the worth
+of it. His life was a belt of toil and duties, so closely woven
+that every interruption brought to a new point an accumulation of
+these toils and duties that might surpass even his powers. And
+what had his object been? Why had he gone? Had he found pleasure
+in that place? What pleasure? Those full-grown, or even old men,
+who found their delight, or disappointment in this, that they had
+hit or had missed a shot; those great lords, spending their time
+at a recreation which, by the uproar, the style of conversation,
+the spectacle of bloodshed, reminded him of the mental and
+physical condition of wild men--seemed to him children which were
+sometimes annoying and sometimes ridiculous. Such frivolous
+amusement, idle, somewhat savage, somewhat knightly, found no
+access to his brain, which had been occupied so long with the
+seriousness of dates and figures. He had met there, it is true,
+though only once, a man in a lyric mood. A youthful person, who
+was riding one day at his side, and who afterward, when they
+halted, strove to incline him to enthusiasm because of the
+snow-covered field; the fresh breezes blowing over that field;
+the deep perspective of the forest, etc. That man was lyric. He
+confessed openly that the hunting was to him indifferent; that he
+took part in it not for game, but for nature. He loved nature.
+Yes, yes, Darvid knew that many people loved nature. Art and
+nature must be powers, since a multitude of men bow down to them.
+Perhaps he, too, would have done so if the career of his life had
+led him into their presence, but the path of his life led him in
+another direction, far from nature and art, hence he did not know
+them; he had not had the time. He looked at a field, at snow, at
+a forest--and he saw a field, snow, a forest--nothing higher,
+nothing more. He was of those who call a cat a cat, a rogue a
+rogue, and hold every hyperbole, ode, and enthusiasm in silent
+contempt. He listened to his lyric companion, at first with
+curiosity, investigating in the man a certain kind of people
+little known to him. When he had finished he listened only
+through politeness, and with concealed annoyance. He concealed
+his annoyance, and tried openly to pretend that he shared the
+enthusiasm, the rapture, and the gladness. He was, of course, in
+an assembly of very wealthy persons, standing very high. He
+sailed in a sea of blood purely blue, so he hid away irony,
+contempt, and yawning, and had on the outside only smoothness
+itself, affability, and general pleasantness of manner, speech,
+and smiles. That was also a labor, rewarded at once with a
+certain degree of lively enjoyment. In lordly drawing-rooms,
+himself the equal of the highest, while passing the time in a
+friendly manner and conversing with princes he was unconscious at
+first that he raised his smooth, lofty forehead and gave himself
+out as greater than he was in reality, and inhaled with distended
+nostrils the odor of that grandeur which surrounded him as well
+as that which was his own. But soon this condition yielded to
+something embarrassing, not quite clearly defined, but causing
+this, that he did not feel altogether certain of himself and the
+fitness of his whole self to the surrounding. For though the
+politeness of those about him was unquestioned and most
+exquisite, though words of praise in recognition of his services
+and labor struck his hearing, though his strong feet had under
+them a foundation carved from gold; he felt strange in that
+position, involved in phenomena which were new to him, and
+bristling with difficulties. Sometimes the guests mentioned
+things of which he was ignorant, they used expressions which were
+strange to him, and referred to degrees of relationship, and
+events with which he was unacquainted. He began to stand guard
+over his own words and movements, with a mysterious fear lest
+something of his might come out too emphatic, or high colored for
+the background before which he found himself. In spite of
+everything which connected the man with that background, he began
+to feel a broad vacuum between him and it himself.
+
+This timidity, a thing entirely new, entirely unknown to Darvid
+from his earliest years, was an oppression which, during the last
+days of the hunt, fell on him together with weariness, and some
+third thing--a feeling of the difference between himself and
+those who surrounded him. Nothing could help him: neither the
+iron labor which they praised audibly, nor the millions piled up
+by that labor--millions for which they felt unconcealed
+reverence. Among those men into whose society he had always
+desired to enter as an integral part thereof, on that social
+height to which he had been climbing in imagination and with
+effort, he felt as if he were in some uneasy chair, put out in a
+cold wind, and deprived of every outlook. He found nothing there
+on which to rest his eye, or his thought. Emptiness, emptiness,
+weariness. A little humiliation which, like a tiny, but venomous
+worm, was boring into the bottom of his heart. It was not
+wonderful, therefore, that when he thought of how he had used his
+time, and of all that he had seen, heard, and passed through,
+there was on his lips one of those smiles most bristling with
+pins points, while in his mind he repeated the expression:
+"Wretchedness!"
+
+He was too wise not to give this name at times to many things of
+the world which he desired and toward which he was struggling.
+
+After some days of labor, so intense that it astonished those who
+saw it, and which weakened those who assisted in it, he received
+at an hour before evening, as customary, in his study, all men
+who came either on business, or with visits. He knew no
+exceptions for anyone, nor indulgence for himself. He received
+all, conversed with all, for it was impossible to foresee what a
+given man might contribute, or what he might be good for, if not
+at the moment, some time, if not much, then a little. But his
+cheeks seemed thinner than usual, and at moments his speech was
+less fluent. That hunting trip, and all which he had experienced
+at it, and afterward, days of activity and unparalleled exertion,
+were reflected on his face in an expression of suffering. And
+sometimes even a slight hesitation in speech arose from this,
+that his mind ran to a subject which tortured him, and raised in
+his breast a lump of slimy serpents. Some hours before he had
+inquired of his secretary, who, in spite of youth, zeal, and wit,
+was bending beneath the burden of labor imposed on him, whether
+everything was ready for the ball to be given soon, and whether
+he had received directions from the lady of the house during his,
+Darvid's, recent absence. The secretary showed great
+astonishment. How was that? Then the project had not been
+abandoned? On the morning after the departure of his principal
+the secretary sought to come to an understanding with Pani Darvid
+on this subject, but was able to see only Panna Irene, who
+declared that he would receive no instructions, and that his
+assistance would not be needed. After that there was silence in
+the house, undisturbed by preparations of any kind.
+
+"Then," said Darvid, "my wife must be out of health. She has
+neuralgia frequently. What is to be done? A woman's nerves are a
+force majeure."
+
+But now, while receiving visits and speaking of business, he
+avoided thinking of the unexpected resistance. How was this!
+She--the woman for whom the highest favor, the pinnacle of
+happiness had been the possibility of remaining at the head of
+his house, in the brilliancy of wealth and general respect,
+dared--had the shamelessness to oppose his will! He felt such
+contempt that, in thought, he threw that woman on the ground to
+trample her; in spite of this, that, almost unconsciously, he
+ascribed the blame not to her, but to Irene. Almost unconsciously
+he saw the tall young lady; she stood before his eyes, cold and
+distinguished; she, who at the foot of the stairway, in the down
+of her black fur cloak, with an almost hard glitter in her eyes,
+under the fantastic hat, had said: "That ball will not be given."
+
+That was Irene. The other woman could not have risen to this act.
+Did he not know her? She had always been so mild and
+weak--powerless, pitiable! She could not command such energy! It
+was Irene!
+
+With these thoughts he pressed the hand of the last guest, and
+said to him at the threshold, that there was absolute need for
+the commercial company of which they had been talking to gain a
+broader foundation of activity by obtaining more and surer
+sources of credit.
+
+"Credit, my dear sir, credit is the first letter in the alphabet
+of contemporary finance. Send some man to the capital--some
+man--"
+
+He hesitated here, thinking "It was Irene!" Then he finished:
+
+"Some man with proper authority and weight--best of all that
+person of whom we have been speaking. Such is my advice."
+
+After the last bow of the guest they closed the door of the
+anteroom. Darvid turned and saw Irene standing at the round
+table. That day, while passing on the stairs, when she was
+returning from a trip to the city, and he was hastening to the
+carriage waiting for him, they had greeted each other hurriedly
+and in passing. He had not a moment's time then to talk with her;
+she, too, was in a hurry, for she ran up the stairs quickly.
+
+"Bon jour, pere!" said she, inclining her head with swift
+movement.
+
+"Bon jour, Irene," answered he, touching his hat. Behind him
+moved the secretary, carrying a heavy portfolio of papers; after
+her went some merchant's servant with packages. No greeting was
+necessary now. Irene, standing at the table, began to speak at
+once:
+
+"I have come, father, to beg you in mamma's name and my own for a
+half-an-hour's conversation, but to-day, now, absolutely."
+
+Her bodice, which was dark and close fitting, had a very
+high-standing ruff, which enclosed her slightly elongated and
+very pale face, just as the half-open shield of a leaf encloses a
+white flower-bud. Her whole person, in that chamber, with its
+very high ceiling and massive furniture, seemed smaller and less
+tall than elsewhere. However, the words "now and absolutely" were
+spoken with such solid emphasis, that Darvid halted in the middle
+of the room and fixed a sharp glance on her.
+
+"You have come in your mother's name and your own," said he. "Why
+this solemnity and decision? You wish, of course, to explain the
+reasons why your mother and you have seen fit to oppose my will."
+
+"No, father," answered she, "but I intend to announce to you
+mamma's will and mine."
+
+"As to that ball?" asked he, quickly.
+
+"No, the question is immensely more important than the ball."
+
+Both were silent for a moment. If the words exchanged had been
+less emphatic, and had followed one another less quickly, Darvid
+and his daughter might, perhaps, have heard, in a corner of the
+room, behind a wall of books arranged on highly ornamented
+shelves, a slight rustle which lasted a short time. Something had
+moved there, and then stopped moving.
+
+"It touches an affair of immensely greater importance than the
+ball," repeated Irene; "namely, my mother's peace, honor, and
+conscience."
+
+"What pomposity of expression!" exclaimed Darvid, with a slight
+smile. "I observe more and more that exaggeration is a disease in
+my family. I should prefer simple speech from you."
+
+"The question before us is not a simple one, so I use a style
+fitted to the subject," answered Irene, and she sat down in one
+of the armchairs, erect, her hands on her knees, motionless,
+between the wide and heavy arms of the chair.
+
+"The subject of which I have to speak with you, father, is much
+involved and delicate. Do you not share my opinion, that one may
+commit what is commonly called an offence and still possess a
+noble heart, and suffer greatly? In common opinion this suffering
+is a just punishment, or penance for the offence committed, but I
+consider this opinion as a painted pot, for everything in this
+world is so involved, so vain, and relative."
+
+She spoke with perfect calmness, but at the last words she
+shrugged her shoulders slightly. Darvid looked at her with dazed
+eyes.
+
+"How is this?" began he, in a low voice. "You--you--have you come
+to talk to me--about this? Do you know? Do you understand? And
+have you come to talk about--this?"
+
+"My father," answered Irene, "to bring our conversation to any
+result we must first of all push away painted pots from between
+us."
+
+"What does that mean?" asked Darvid.
+
+"What does it mean? What are painted pots? They are little dabs
+of wretched clay, but painted in beautiful colors; they are just
+what naivete, bashfulness, modesty, and darned socks like them
+would be to-day in my case."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I have known all that has happened this long time. I was a
+little girl, in a corner of a room, dressing a doll, when a
+certain conversation between you and mamma struck my ears, and
+helped me considerably to understand what took place afterward.
+Because of business and difficulties which swallowed your time
+you were ever absent, father. Oh, I have no thought of
+criticising you, no thought whatever. Here a question of logic
+presents itself, simple logic. You were chasing after that which
+was your happiness, the delight of your life, while mamma--poor
+mamma stooped to pick up also for herself a little happiness and
+delight. But your happiness and delight were open, brilliant,
+triumphant, while mamma's were always full of darkness, poison,
+and shame."
+
+For the first time in that conversation her voice quivered; and,
+inclining her face, she brushed away from her dress, with the
+rosy tips of her fingers, some bit of dust that had dropped on
+it; then again she gazed with a look clear and calm at her
+father, who had sat down in front of her.
+
+"To convince you, father," continued she, "that our conversation
+has a perfectly important and definite meaning I permit myself to
+open before you the secret, but for me, the visible springs which
+caused the so-called offence, and present disposition of mamma."
+
+"It would be better to avoid this and proceed to the point
+directly," said Darvid, throwing his eyeglasses on his nose with
+a nervous movement.
+
+"No, father, permit me to take a few minutes of time, I beg you.
+This is necessary. Every man has in himself a soul, so-called,
+personal to him, unlike others."
+
+She halted for a moment, shrugged her shoulders:
+
+"For that matter, am I sure of this? The soul may be a painted
+pot also. But it is the usual name given to our various feelings
+and inclinations. So pour le commodite de la conversation, I
+shall use this word." She smiled and continued: "There are
+various souls, some as hard as steel, others soft as wax, some
+inaccessible to sentiment, others sentimental. Mamma's soul is
+soft and sentimental. Tenderness, care, confidence are as needful
+to her as air is to breathing. Do I know, for that matter, the
+various ingredients which make up the so-called love, attachment,
+etc. You, father, have a soul of steel and immensely great
+business power--we were children--Cara had barely begun to speak
+then. Well, a moment came--do I know when? I do not
+know--but--finally that happened which must have happened more
+than once to you in your very numerous, remote, and prolonged
+journeys. Do I not speak the truth?"
+
+In the high plates of her dark ruff her face was in a blush, but
+she smiled a little, and with strangely flashing eyes looked
+directly into the face of her father.
+
+"For," added she, "one would need to have mental rheumatism to
+believe that you loved only mamma all the time, and even that you
+loved her in general--mamma, of course, did not think that you
+did."
+
+"Irene!" cried Darvid.
+
+But she did not permit interruption.
+
+"Allow me, I beg you, to say that I am not criticising. I am not
+in any sense. There is not a shade of criticism in what I say. I
+only state and expose facts and causes. That is all. This is
+requisite. Without this it would be impossible to understand
+mamma's request and mine which I will tell you quickly. And now I
+return to the question of the individual soul. That is a thing of
+capital importance. Offences, so-called, rise from so-called mean
+souls, or from noble ones. Of the first I know little, but if an
+offence comes from a noble soul it is to that soul a great and
+terrible torment--I have looked at such a torment, and while
+looking at it I have been brought to name the so-called love, and
+the so-called happiness, painted pots. Idyls! There may be idyls
+somewhere, but that which I saw--I assure you, father, did not
+encourage--did not encourage me to look at things from the
+idyllic angle."
+
+Darvid rose with an impulsive movement.
+
+"To the question, Irene, to the question! Say what the request is
+for which you have come. And from what does your mother suffer so
+greatly? It would be better were you to tell your wish at once,
+and without these introductions. Do reproaches of conscience
+trouble your mother? I have no time for psychological analysis,
+and should like to finish this conversation more quickly. Well,
+was it that besides conscience and other things like it--she did
+not find in her lover the man whom her sentiment imagined? I am
+ashamed to speak with you of this. Tell quickly what your wish
+is."
+
+With a trembling hand he approached the end of his cigarette to
+the candle burning on the desk; his face now grown smaller, was
+contracted from the wrinkles which covered his forehead, and the
+countless quivers which passed across his face. Irene, very pale
+now, followed her father with her eyes; her lips were almost
+blue.
+
+"Yes, father," answered she, "in mamma's soul that which we call
+conscience is greatly developed. Moreover, a feeling of shame in
+presence of us, and humiliation that everything which she has
+comes from you."
+
+At this moment something rustled again, somewhere in a corner,
+but no one turned attention to it.
+
+Darvid, who passed through the room a number of times, hastily,
+stopped again:
+
+"Speak more quickly," said he, "I cannot understand what it is
+that your mother wishes. I left her in the position of a
+respected wife, of a mother, and mistress of a house. She is
+surrounded with luxury, she shines in society, and enjoys life."
+
+Irene opened her arms with a movement indicating pity:
+
+"This which you consider as the highest favor for mamma is just
+what she does not wish. She does not wish to enjoy the respect of
+society, which she does not deserve, as she thinks; nor to make
+use of the luxury which comes from you, and which is bound up
+with speechless contempt. Mamma desires to leave this house; in
+general, to abandon society-life, with all its luxury and
+brilliancy. I have known for a considerable time of this, and
+therefore had the plan of marrying soon and withdrawing from here
+with mamma."
+
+Darvid put an end to his emotion; his daughter's words approached
+facts, and facts demanded cool blood.
+
+"If you wish to speak of your intention to marry the baron, I
+must tell you--"
+
+"You have no need to speak of that, father. I have abandoned that
+intention. I had it, but I have dropped it. Another plan entirely
+different has taken its place. You own a village in a remote
+province which came to you from your parents. I wish to ask you
+to give me that village, to endow me with it, but immediately. I
+suppose, I know, even, that it was your intention to give me a
+dowry ten times as valuable. Now, I am ready to renounce
+nine-tenths, orally, in writing, in every form and every manner
+indicated by you, but I beg you, as a favor, I beg you earnestly,
+for this one-tenth, and beg that I may receive it without delay."
+
+She bent her whole form low, and her eyes, which she raised to
+her father, were filled with tears; these, however, she
+restrained immediately. Darvid answered after a moment of
+silence:
+
+"Though I do not understand this whim of yours, I do not see in
+it anything impossible, or harmful. On the contrary, I shall be
+glad to do something which pleases you, and to-morrow, if you
+like, you shall be the owner of that wretched hole. But of what
+use can it be to you?"
+
+Irene rose, went around the table, and, bending, pressed her
+father's hand to her lips; and then she returned to her former
+place:
+
+"I thank you, father," said she; "you satisfy my most ardent
+desire. That 'wretched hole,' as you call it, is just the place
+that mamma desires. We shall go from here, and settle down there
+as quickly as possible."
+
+"What?" cried Darvid, bending forward with astonishment, but soon
+he began to speak calmly:
+
+"I come to the conclusion that when talking with my children I
+should not be astonished at anything. I must be ready for any
+surprise."
+
+"That is natural, father, for we hardly know each other,"
+interrupted Irene. "In reproaches of conscience," continued she,
+"and various other feelings of that sort, mamma goes to
+exaggeration, she goes so far as to desire penance, punishment,
+voluntarily accepted. If time and circumstances were favorable
+she would enter a cloister assuredly, and put on a hair shirt.
+That is an exaggeration, but what is to be done? Characters are
+various; hers is of that kind. But the desire which mamma has of
+withdrawing from the noise and show of the world, I understand
+perfectly; for, first of all--"
+
+She made a gesture of contempt with her hand.
+
+"All the honors, the glitter, the luxury, etc., are gates 'before
+which men with spades are standing;' this means that behind them
+we find dust, emptiness, nothing."
+
+"Great God!" exclaimed Darvid.
+
+"What do you say, father?" inquired she.
+
+"Your age, the brilliant position in which you have lived since
+childhood--and this disenchantment."
+
+"Just this brilliant position, father--just because of this
+brilliant position, perhaps. We are not talking of me,
+however--but because of this, which in me you call
+disenchantment, I am able to understand mamma's wish to leave
+society, all the more because, if I were in her position, all
+homage, show, luxury, amusements would for me be as impossible as
+they are for her. This depends on character. Moreover, mamma
+remembers that everything which she uses is yours, and the use of
+it attended by your contempt, and the evident impossibility of
+ever coming to any understanding is such a poison--so I beg you
+to give me Krynichna. I am your daughter, and, as it seems to me,
+you have no thought of disinheriting me, so if I own Krynichna,
+mamma will live with me and receive everything from me alone."
+
+Her voice grew weaker, and her posture less constrained, in her
+whole form there was an expression of suffering. Everything which
+she said cost her, in spite of appearances to the contrary, much
+effort and suffering. Darvid was silent a while, then he said:
+
+"It seems to me that I am Ali Baba, listening to the tales of
+Sheherazade. If I should agree to your plan what would you do
+there?"
+
+"I do not know clearly as yet. This is mamma's idea; her wish;
+she will discover more and tell me. We will examine; we shall
+see. Into mamma's plans, besides quiet obscurity, and modesty of
+life, labor enters also."
+
+She spoke in a low, wearied voice:
+
+"An idyl!" laughed Darvid.
+
+"An idyl, father; I used to laugh at all idyls without knowing
+that I had one in myself. It has saved me from many, and,
+perhaps, dreadful things. Yes, I have an idyl: I love mamma."
+
+Then her thin lips, famous in society for their precocious,
+bitter irony, quivered as do those of children when preparing to
+cry.
+
+Darvid turned to her quickly, and said with a prolonged hiss:
+
+"Why?"
+
+She raised sad eyes to him, and with a voice in which Malvina's
+sweet tones were heard, she answered:
+
+"I am not sure that anyone could tell why he or she loves. Mamma
+has always been kind--but I do not know--she is very pleasant,
+and she and I have been together always--I do not know--it may
+be, besides, that often I have seen her so unhappy. You see,
+father, that I am sincere; I answer all your questions as far as
+I am able. Have regard to mamma's scruples, I beg, and my
+request; do not oppose our plans."
+
+Darvid stood in the middle of the room, he raised his head, his
+eyes had the flash of steel.
+
+"No," said he. "My daughter shall not wither away in a remote
+corner with my consent, because it pleases her mother to hide
+her--shame there."
+
+"Father," answered Irene, "I must explain that your resistance
+will only give a more permanent, and, for you, a more
+disagreeable, form to our withdrawal."
+
+She rose, and again on her face, surrounded by the high ruff, was
+an expression of resolve and energy. A moment before she was full
+of emotion and pain, now with the need of defence she found
+energy.
+
+"Do you suppose, father, that you can understand what happened,
+forgive, to use the general phrase, and restore your esteem and
+friendship to mamma?"
+
+With a form as rigid as iron, and with an evil smile on his lips,
+Darvid answered immediately:
+
+"No. I am very sorry that I cannot play a comedy of
+noble-mindedness, for this is perhaps a popular comedy. But that
+of which you speak is forever and altogether impossible."
+
+Irene moved her head affirmatively.
+
+"Then mamma and I must withdraw; if not to Krynichna to some
+remote place abroad--I know four European languages well, I know
+how to paint, and I know a few other things. Mamma possesses a
+real genius in several rare accomplishments, and you remember
+well her beautiful music. We will give lessons, and do something
+else--I know not what--we shall find means of existence. But I
+beg you, father, to believe that in no case shall we remain in
+this house."
+
+With pale, almost with blue lips, she laughed and added:
+
+"Either as inhabitants of Krynichna, or making our own living in
+some distant place--which do you prefer, father? In the last
+instance it depends on you. One of these two things we shall do
+most certainly; that is, properly speaking, I shall do it; I, who
+am mamma's only defence. I became of age some months ago. I have
+finished my twenty-first year, and--no one can hinder me from
+acting in this way."
+
+Whoever had seen her at that moment would have believed,
+perforce, that no man and no thing would have power to hinder her
+in carrying out her resolve. Omitting differences of age and sex,
+she seemed the living portrait of her father. The same cold
+self-confidence as in him; the same clear penetrating glance as
+of steel; the same enigmatical smile on impressionable and also
+cold lips. As if involuntarily, and lowering her voice, she said
+in addition:
+
+"It is our duty to put a radical stop to the family idyl out of
+regard also to Cara. She is innocent yet--she knows nothing--she
+loves all, and not only loves but worships. Life has not touched
+her, even with the tip of one of its angel feathers. Just imagine
+what would happen if, into that little volcano of lofty feeling,
+a spark of this knowledge were to fall. And this may happen any
+moment. If we do not change the condition of affairs it will
+happen."
+
+She was silent, and Darvid was silent also. It might seem that he
+recognized only Irene's last argument as worthy of attention. The
+two voices had grown silent, one after the other; then, somewhere
+in the corner of the room, was heard a rustle, not so low as
+before, far stronger, a low knocking rather than a rustle, and
+almost at the same time a servant in the open door of the
+antechamber called:
+
+"The horses are ready."
+
+Irene, who had turned her face toward the rustle, or knocking,
+thought some of the countless papers in the room had dropped from
+the furniture, or that some book had fallen. Darvid, who also had
+heard the knocking, or rustle, forgot it while looking at his
+watch.
+
+"I shall be late," said he. "You have told me things over which I
+must meditate. I cannot deny that they possess considerable
+importance. Hence, I delay, and shall beg you soon to continue
+this conversation. Good-night, and perhaps till to-morrow."
+
+"Let it be only till to-morrow. I beg you, father. Tomorrow."
+
+Miss Mary was sitting in her pupil's bedroom, a beautiful nest
+which wealth had formed as a symbol of the springtime of life.
+From the top of the walls to the bottom, cretonne, interchanged
+with muslin, formed succeeding folds on which the freshest
+flowers of spring seemed to have been scattered. The walls, the
+windows, the furniture were covered with a shower of
+forget-me-nots and rosebuds, strewn on grounds of yellow as pale
+as if sunlight had penetrated them slightly. Groups of green
+plants at the windows looked like little groves made ready for
+the songs of nightingales; artistic playthings, porcelain
+figures, suggested a child amused with dolls yet; but a multitude
+of large books in gilt bindings suggested the active and
+methodical development of a young mind, which surely had dreams
+of Paradise on that lace and satin bed which covered a bedstead
+inlaid with mother-of-pearl. On all the furniture: small
+arm-chairs, tables, screens, which reminded one of
+butterfly-wings, mother-of-pearl rainbow-tints passed into
+milk-white. Spring tones, joyous motives, light and graceful
+forms, filled the room of that little daughter of a millionnaire
+with an atmosphere of childish innocence and tenderness; it was
+lighted, from floor to ceiling, and from wall to wall, with a
+cheering light, poured from the rosy tulip-shaped shade of a
+grand lamp.
+
+In that rosy lamp-light Miss Mary seemed full of care. Under her
+smooth hair her forehead was smooth and calm, but in her
+thoughtful eyes, and in the way that her head rested on her hand,
+anxiety was evident. Conscientiously devoted to the duties
+undertaken by her, she retained the warmth and purity which
+permeated the house of an Anglican pastor; chance had committed
+to her care, in a strange atmosphere, a rare spirit, one of those
+which come to the world in the form of a flame. Even three years
+earlier, Cara had seemed to her, at first glance, one of those
+souls for whom life is love, worship, trust, and--nothing more.
+No ambitions or imaginings beyond those. All her thoughts and
+wishes issued from her heart and went back to it. Her innate
+sensitiveness was inexplicable in its source, just as genius is
+in other persons. Sensitiveness in her demanded the
+accomplishment of her wishes as imperiously as, in organisms of
+another sort, hunger claims satisfaction for the body. She was by
+nature a flame and a bird. The riddle of her existence was
+involved in two words: to blaze and to fly. Besides, she had
+impulse and caprice; she loved to twitter, and to laugh quietly
+in a corner. From the thoughtfulness into which she dropped
+oftener and oftener, she woke up as a gladsome and petted child;
+that room was filled with her quick speech, her thin voice, her
+gestures, almost theatrical, her laughing, her humming, and at
+times all the drawing-rooms were filled with them.
+
+This day she woke up full of twittering, and before dressing
+threw her bare arms around Miss Mary, looking into her eyes,
+declaiming verses, telling childish dreams.
+
+"Why are you so delighted?" inquired Miss Mary. "Is it at the
+coming ball?"
+
+Cara pouted her scarlet lips contemptuously, and answered:
+
+"The ball! What do I care? I do not want the ball! Mamma and Ira
+do not want it either, so I will go to-day and beg father to
+defer it. But I am delighted this morning! The sun is so
+pleasant! Do you see how the rays quiver; how they slip among the
+leaves, like little snakes, or spring, like golden butterflies?"
+
+With outstretched finger she showed the play of sunrays among the
+clumps of green at the windows; herself in white muslin which
+covered her slender neck and childish breast, and with naked
+arms, she might remind one of a butterfly escaping from the
+chrysalis of childhood.
+
+In the evening (of that day) Cara circled about the room; her
+mouth filled with historical names, and lines of poetry, with
+which she had been occupied all day. Finally, she caught Puffie
+in her arms, and, courtesying so low before Miss Mary that she
+touched the floor, announced that she was going to her father.
+From time immemorial she had not talked with him a moment.
+Sometimes he was going out, or had not the time. But to-day she
+would watch him, she would wait till all his business was
+finished, all his guests gone; she would seize her father and
+bring him to her mother's study. Miss Mary would go there;
+perhaps Maryan would be there too.
+
+Her idyllic heart, like a bird in a grove, was eternally dreaming
+of quiet retreats, of confidential talks, of the attachment of
+hearts and the pressure of hands. Her picture of the Anglican
+rectory taken from Miss Mary's narrative, and situated in a grove
+of old oaks, smiled at her like a bit of Paradise. "But mamma's
+study is so quiet, and full of fragrant flowers--"
+
+An hour had passed since she had skipped away with Puffie in her
+arms, and with the reflection of a bit of Paradise in her eyes.
+Miss Mary felt alarmed. For some time she had felt continual
+alarm. She observed carefully the change taking place in Cara's
+disposition, and discovered in it causes for anxiety. But she
+could do nothing. While she was friendly to the family to which
+fate had brought her, and while she experienced from it kindness
+mingled with respect, it was to her a stranger. She observed
+everything, and said nothing. She strove, more and more, to be
+inseparable from Cara, and to turn her attention toward things of
+remote interest. That was a splendid mansion, but terrors were
+roaming around in its drawing-rooms, among plushes, mirrors,
+damasks, satins, and gold.
+
+From the gates of the mansion, the rumble of a carriage went
+forth, grew faint in the street, and was lost in the distance.
+The master of the mansion was in that carriage which sank in the
+uproar of the city, to return, barely, at daybreak. A quarter of
+an hour passed, Cara did not return. Maybe she went to her
+mother? Another quarter of an hour. Miss Mary rose up, took a
+small candlestick in her hand with a candle, which she lighted to
+use in her wandering through the series of drawing-rooms. But
+among the soft folds of cretonne and muslin the lofty door,
+ornamented with gilded arabesques and borders, opened slowly, and
+Cara walked into the chamber holding Puffie at her bosom. Her
+face was so bent that the lower part of it was hidden in the
+silky coat of the little animal. Miss Mary, sitting down again,
+inquired:
+
+"Where were you, Cara, after your father went away? With mamma?"
+
+In answer, a few steps from the door, the sound of a fall was
+heard. That was Puff, he had dropped from her arms to the floor.
+She had let him slip down along her dress. Cara had never treated
+her favorite with such indifference, or so carelessly. Leaning
+forward, Miss Mary fixed her eyes on the young girl. Oh, my God!
+What has happened? Who can tell, but something has happened, that
+is certain. Cara's cheeks, recalling usually the leaves of a full
+rose, were as white as the soft muslin covering her chamber, and
+her lips, always scarlet, formed a barely visible line, pale and
+narrow. Tall, slender, and erect, without the slightest movement
+of hand or head, with dry eyes looking somewhere into remoteness,
+she passed through the room, and with automatic movement dropped
+into a low chair near Miss Mary, who touched her hand and felt
+the cold of ice in it.
+
+"What is the matter, my dear? Are you ill?"
+
+Instead of giving an answer Cara rose and went to the cluster of
+green plants at the window. With her shoulders turned toward Miss
+Mary, she seemed to be looking at the plants; but, after a few
+minutes, she turned, and making some steps stopped, with her eyes
+fixed on the floor.
+
+"Cara, come to me!" cried Miss Mary.
+
+She went, and sat down at her side. The English girl looked at
+her sharply, and asked in a low voice:
+
+"Have you met anything disagreeable? Or anyone? Or has anyone--"
+
+She did not finish, for the delicate, pale face turned from her
+with quick movement, and said very hurriedly:
+
+"No! no! no!"
+
+Then the slender form of the girl slipped slowly from the chair
+to the carpet, and her head rested heavily on the knees of her
+governess. But barely had the soft hand of the English girl
+touched her hair, when Cara rose and went to the other side of
+the room, where the light screen, struck by her skirt, tottered
+and fell with a clatter. Without noticing the noise Cara turned
+now toward the lamp, and with a face which was growing ever paler
+she sat down opposite Miss Mary and opened one of the books lying
+on the table. Her brows were raised, this brought many wrinkles
+to her forehead; for a time it seemed as though she were reading,
+then she closed the book with a sudden gesture, stood up again,
+and went toward the door leading to the drawing-rooms.
+
+"Are you going to your mamma?"
+
+She made no answer, but sat on a low stool near the door. Puff
+went up, and, putting his forepaws on her knees, licked her hand.
+But that hand, usually so fondling, pushed the little dog far
+away with a sudden movement. Miss Mary rose, and was going to the
+stool, but she had hardly reached the middle of the room when
+Cara rose again and went to meet her. The English girl seized
+both her hands.
+
+"My dear," began the governess, "you frighten me. What has
+happened? What is your trouble? You should have confidence in
+me--I am your friend, and a friend of your family--perhaps, I can
+explain, or help you in some way. Has anything happened? Has
+there been an accident? What is it that troubles you?"
+
+The dry, dark eyes of the girl, looking, as it were, from some
+distant depth, met the kindly glance of her friend, and this
+whisper came from her lips:
+
+"Nothing! Nothing!"
+
+Then going some steps, she stopped at the table with the lamp on
+it, and again opened one of the books there. Miss Mary followed,
+put her arm around Cara, and wished to draw her near, but she,
+with an alarmed and supple movement, slipped from her embrace,
+put the book down, and turning, started to go somewhere. Miss
+Mary faced toward the door, and said:
+
+"I will go for your mother."
+
+But that instant she was frightened; for Cara, recovering her
+voice at once, screamed:
+
+"No!"
+
+Her eyes grew wild, and she began to tremble.
+
+There was no doubt: In the row of empty drawing-rooms which
+stretched beyond that door, ornamented with arabesques and gilded
+borders, the girl had seen some horror. But what the horror was,
+and whence it had crept forth, Miss Mary did not know. She sat
+down, and pale with fear, placed her helpless hands upon her
+knees. What could she do in presence of those blue lips, which
+were as silent as if shut by some seal, either sacred or
+infernal? What could she do? Cara's father was not at home, and
+to call her mother, when the very mention of that mother brought
+a cry of terror from the girl's breast, would have been a useless
+cruelty. Her brother? Her elder sister? Miss Mary's hand moved in
+a manner indicating doubt. It was necessary to wait, to leave her
+some time to herself. She might grow calm, overcome her fear,
+speak.
+
+Left to herself Cara went to the bed, knelt by it, and buried her
+face in the coverlet; but a few minutes later she wound her lithe
+form like the twist of a serpent, and turned her face toward the
+ceiling. She remained in this posture rather long, only changing,
+from time to time, the position of her head, which rested on the
+coverlet.
+
+Miss Mary remembered people seized with violent pains, who, in
+the fruitless hope of allaying them, changed positions and
+postures continually. She remembered, also, the faintness and
+weariness which cover the faces of people with pallor and an
+expression of unbearable disgust. A certain disgust, repulsive
+and unendurable, must be working in that slender breast, from
+which a low moan came when she turned her head from side to side.
+
+"Are you ill, dearest Cara; are you in pain?"
+
+Prom the bed, in a scarcely audible whisper, came:
+
+"No."
+
+She rose, went to Miss Mary, sat on the carpet, put her head on
+the English girl's knee, with her face toward the ceiling. She
+threw her hands back on her dishevelled hair, and then let them
+drop without control, so that they fell on the carpet as if
+lifeless. Her dry, inflamed eyes continued to look at the
+ceiling. Miss Mary, bent, and making her words as low and
+fondling as human words could be, inquired again:
+
+"Has anything happened? Has anything hurt you?"
+
+Changing the position of her head, and shaking it, as if she
+wished to shake something off, she whispered:
+
+"Nothing."
+
+And rising, she went again to the end of the room. Her hair, not
+long, but thick, like a bundle of silken flax, lay motionless on
+her narrow shoulders; her pendent hands seemed like two rose-buds
+falling from a bush. She stood again for a moment before the
+clump of green plants, then went around it and hid beyond the
+thickest palms at the window. Outside the window was the darkness
+of a winter evening, relieved somewhat by snow which covered the
+broad garden. The darkness was spotted by red lamps, which
+illuminated the street beyond the garden. Some months before,
+Cara had opened a window overlooking that same garden; she did
+this in the middle of the night to look at the first snow and at
+the frost in the moonlight. Snow was lying there now, at the
+close of winter, surely the last snow.
+
+Much time passed. Miss Mary rose, and went to the narrow space
+between the clump of plants and the window. Cara was standing
+there at the very window, looking into the darkness, or at the
+red spots made by lanterns, placed here and there in it. The
+governess saw that a change had taken place in her. She was not
+pale as before; on the contrary, a lively flush had come out on
+her face. Her features were less rigid; instead of the nauseous
+disgust and dull pain, an expression of deep thought had covered
+them. As happened often when Cara was thinking deeply, the point
+of her finger was in her mouth. Miss Mary felt relieved. "Cara is
+no longer pale," thought she; "she has stopped over something;
+she stands long in one place; she is recovering her balance; soon
+she will be pacified completely, and will tell what has
+happened."
+
+"Do you not wish me to read to you?"
+
+Cara shook her head, and said in a low voice:
+
+"I want to sleep."
+
+"To sleep! so early? But you are tired, of course. Very well,
+dear. Lie down and rest. I will call Ludvika to open the bed. Or
+no--I will do it myself. No one need make a noise here that would
+prevent us from talking."
+
+With great goodness and kindly grace, while arranging the bed
+with a rustle of silk, and the waves of lace going through her
+fingers, Miss Mary told vivaciously of many things which were
+near and confidential, things always affecting Cara, and though
+no answer came to her from beyond the green plants, her voice,
+which sounded agreeably, scattered the gloom and silence of the
+chamber.
+
+Half an hour later the door to the drawing-room was opened
+partly, and the voice of Irene said some words in English. Miss
+Mary went to the door on tip-toe.
+
+"Cara is sleeping already," whispered she; "we ought not to wake
+her; she is a little unwell."
+
+The door was closed slowly and in silence; some minutes later the
+maid brought a tray in with tea and many dishes.
+
+Soon after Malvina entered the room. She approached her
+daughter's bed quietly, and anxious.
+
+"What is the matter?" whispered she. "Why did she go to bed so
+early?"
+
+Miss Mary gave some pacifying answer. That was caution. She felt
+always in that house, and on that day more than ever, the need of
+caution in making observations. Both looked at the girl, who, as
+they thought, was sleeping soundly; she breathed slowly and
+evenly, with a deep flush on her cheeks.
+
+Malvina bent down and impressed a long kiss on the forehead of
+her sleeping daughter. Then Miss Mary noted something of which
+she was not sure: when her mother's lips rested on Cara's
+forehead a quiver ran through the girl's body, from head to foot.
+But Miss Mary was not sure whether Cara really trembled, or it
+only seemed so to her. After Malvina's departure she remained at
+the bedside, with eyes fixed on the delicate face, which was
+growing more inflamed with an ever-increasing flush. A number of
+dark spots came out on her purple lips, which were parched and
+half open, her small pearl-like teeth gleamed behind them.
+
+"She is sick, but has fallen asleep!" thought Miss Mary. "Perhaps
+that horror, which I thought seized the child in the empty
+drawing-rooms, was an invention of her mind? Surely it was
+nothing more; she is simply ill; perhaps, not very ill, since she
+fell asleep so quickly."
+
+The small night-lamp shone in Cara's room like a blue spark. In
+the adjoining room, beyond the open door, far into the night,
+rustled book-leaves turned by the English governess. Miss Mary
+watched long, and stood often in the open door, between her room
+and Cara's, inclining forward, looking from a distance at the bed
+from which the regular, unbroken sound of breathing came to her.
+She is asleep. She moved a number of times and groaned, then
+again she was silent. Puff lay at her feet, like a bundle of
+ash-colored silk, and snored slightly. The street beyond the
+garden grew more and more silent till it was silent altogether.
+At the windows light began to whiten the shades and to draw aside
+the black curtain of darkness which was on the furniture. The
+wearied Miss Mary, in a long dressing-gown, ready to spring from
+her bed any moment, slept for a short time and then woke with a
+feeling of great fear. She was roused by a sharp cold by a breath
+of frosty air coming in through the open door. She sprang up and
+ran, with a cry, to Cara's chamber. There, on the threshold she
+saw beyond the spreading palm leaves the great window half open,
+and a slender, white figure sitting there in the gray dawn. When
+had she done that? How long had she sat there with her shoulders
+resting on the window-frame, with her naked feet hanging in the
+air, with her breast and arms stripped even of muslin? No one was
+ever to know.
+
+Miss Mary, while carrying the girl to bed with that strength
+which only terror can give one, felt in her embrace, limbs as
+stiff as those of a frozen corpse; but her breast rose and fell
+with her breathing which was heavy and audible; her cheeks and
+forehead were burning. In half a minute the window was closed;
+Miss Mary, with all the strength of long and supple arms, strove
+to warm the breast and shoulders, which were as cold as ice, and
+the skin on them stiffened.
+
+"Oh, child! you unkind! most dear! poor child! Why have you done
+this? Is it possible to do such things? Did you know what you
+were doing? Was that an unfortunate accident, or did you do it
+purposely? Tell, was it done purposely? Tell me! tell!"
+
+Cara for the first time looked straight into Miss Mary's face;
+she bent her head with a lively movement; her eyes shot forth
+triumph; a smile encircled her parched lips. In the glitter of
+her eyes, in the smile, in the curve of her neck, for the twinkle
+of an eye, shone forth once again the wilful, capricious Cara.
+Next moment her teeth began to chatter and her whole body
+trembled in a feverish chill, so that the silk of the bed rustled
+loudly. With that rustling was joined a dry, unbroken cough,
+which shook the fragile and ice-cold breast, the skin of which
+was rough, and had a tanned and withered look. Miss Mary sprang
+from her knees. On her lips were the words:
+
+"Her parents! A doctor!"
+
+The rumbling of a carriage was heard far away on the street, it
+drew nearer and nearer, rolled in through the gate of the house,
+and was silent. Miss Mary, all in white, her hair hanging over
+her shoulders, hastened to Darvid's study, through drawing-rooms
+in which, from behind black veils which the pale dawn was
+removing, emerged glass, metal, pictures, mirrors, plush, silk,
+polished surfaces, gildings, mosaics, marbles, porcelain, in the
+dull gleam of their colors.
+
+The dawn was in Darvid's study also; but the servant was lighting
+the hanging-lamp over the round table. Darvid, very pale, with a
+nervous movement, tore rather than drew the gloves from his
+hands.
+
+"Then did she return from me? Where did she come from? You say
+that she was with me, and returned--in that condition? But she
+was not here yesterday; I did not see her; she was not here--"
+
+"She was," answered Miss Mary; "she said that she was going to
+you; she did not return for more than an hour."
+
+"She might have been with her mother?"
+
+"No; I asked her sister about that. She was not with her mother;
+she was here."
+
+Darvid was astonished; he thought a while, and called suddenly:
+
+"Ah!"
+
+There was something tragic in the gesture with which he indicated
+the thick case full of books, forming with the two walls a little
+triangular space; then in the manner in which he intertwined his
+fingers:
+
+"She was there! And--she heard! Ah!"
+
+He stood for a moment as if rooted to the floor; he bit his lip;
+there were quivers on his cheeks and wrinkles on his forehead;
+then he approached Miss Mary, and asked in such a low voice that
+she barely heard him:
+
+"Did she do this purposely--purposely? Purposely?"
+
+"With clasped hands she said in a very low voice:
+
+"I cannot hide--maybe something will depend on this--she did it
+purposely."
+
+Then that man, usually calm and regular in all his movements,
+rushed to the door of the antechamber with the spring of a tiger.
+
+"Carriage!" cried he.
+
+"When the most famous doctor in the city came out of the sick
+girl's chamber that day for the second time, Darvid met him in
+the blue drawing-room, alone. He was as usual self-possessed, and
+with a pleasing smile in the presence of that man with a great
+name.
+
+"Is the disease defined?" asked he.
+
+It was defined, and very serious. Inflammation had seized the
+greater part of the lungs, and was working fiercely on an
+organism weakened by a previous attack. Besides, some kind of
+complication had supervened, something coming from the brain,
+from the nerves, something psychic.
+
+Darvid mentioned a consultation.
+
+"We may summon from abroad--from Paris, from Vienna; we have
+telegraphs and railroads at our service--as to expense--"
+concluded he with indifference "--as to expense, I shall not
+spare it. My whole fortune is at the disposal of--"
+
+He fixed in the eyes of the doctor a look in which was the desire
+for a silent understanding.
+
+"This is no hyperbole, or figure of rhetoric. I am ready to
+summon half medical Europe, and spend half my fortune."
+
+There was a quiver on his temples, around his mouth, and near his
+eyes, but he smiled. The doctor smiled also.
+
+"My dear sir," said he, "the case is not so peculiar as to need
+presentation before the judgment of Europe. But being in
+Europe--yes. I will serve you at once with the names of my
+foreign colleagues. But as to colossal money sacrifices, I must
+say that they will not help. Death, my dear sir, is such a
+giantess, that if she is to come, mountains of gold will not stop
+her. I will not say that she must come surely in this case. But
+if she is to come, half your fortune--that is, golden
+mountains--yes, golden mountains will be no hindrance to her. She
+will spring over them and--come."
+
+After the doctor had gone, Darvid remained alone for a while,
+and, with his eyes fixed on the floor, he thought:
+
+"A giantess! Golden mountains will not stop her! True, but
+science is also a giantess. And, besides, is human, and every
+human thing travels in golden chariots. But to set one giantess
+against the other, gold and energy are needed."
+
+For some time the great study was seething with activity, in
+sending letters and telegrams. Darvid was heard commanding and
+giving directions in a voice always low, but emphatic. He was
+decisive, cool, and active, as he always was when going to a
+contest. In the course of a few minutes arriving carriages
+halted, one after another, before the gate of the mansion. Out of
+them issued men full of importance, with famous names, very
+learned, specialists, old and young, strong in theory and
+practice. Some of these men it was almost impossible to see, for
+they were reposing in wealth and on laurels, but they had been
+snatched from their rest by the rumble of the golden chariot
+which came for them. There were many of these men. The blue room
+grew black from their garments as from a cloud. Darvid pressed
+their hands a little more firmly than he was wont to do; perhaps
+his side-whiskers dropped a little less symmetrically than usual,
+along cheeks somewhat paler than usual, but there was no other
+change in the man. And when the cloud of dark garments flowed
+from the blue room to the chamber of his daughter, a spark of
+triumph glittered in his eye. Let one giantess fight with the
+other; we shall see which one wins. The power of science was one
+of the very few articles of Darvid's faith. That power had to be
+great, since it was indispensable in the conquest of wealth. He
+had tried that power more than once in his mighty struggles for
+wealth; he would try it now, also. This was only the beginning of
+the battle. Diseases last a series of days, sometimes weeks, but
+to-morrow, after to-morrow, Europe will begin to ride hither on
+the golden chariot. Giantess against giantess! We shall see their
+force.
+
+Inflammation extending with great rapidity in the weak breast of
+the girl, besides a complication of the brain, not considerable,
+but giving much cause for concern--the normal condition of the
+mind shaken--that was the case. A long consultation was carried
+on in an undertone; some medicines were prescribed, and some
+advice given, in the domain of hygiene. Among the carriages which
+left the gate of the mansion, two were empty. The two dignitaries
+of science, who had remained in his house, Darvid conducted to
+his study for black coffee, excellent liquors, and cigars of
+uncommon quality. They had to remain some hours, then they would
+be relieved by others. They opposed this wish at first, for it
+was in opposition to their customs, to obligations assumed
+elsewhere; but Darvid, with his eyes looking very kindly into
+theirs, uttered a magic word. It was a figure unheard of--almost
+fabulous. They hesitated still; resisted; then they came to an
+understanding as to the how-and-when--and remained. Darvid's
+forehead smoothed for the moment, all wrinkles vanished from it.
+His child (in his mind he added), "my little one," during one
+hour of the day or night would not be without the good giantess,
+who would do battle against the wicked one.
+
+In the city, people said that Darvid, in anxiety for his daughter
+would commit some mad folly; but those who had seen him shrugged
+their shoulders. Not at all! There was not a man on earth who
+could preserve better, in such straits, cool blood,
+self-confidence, fluent speech, affability perfect, though cold.
+Only at times, from the quiver which ran over his face, from the
+temporary stare of his eyes, and the slight carelessness in
+dressing his hair, was it possible to divine in him a man playing
+for great stakes. Really, in the battle which he had begun and
+was fighting, the question was not of Cara alone--it was of her
+above all, but not of her alone. At the bottom of his being he
+felt himself a player, then, as he had been countless times
+before in cases wholly different; a player aided by energy,
+money, and universal reason, which was his own and that bought by
+money. The stakes in this play were not only the life of his
+child, but the one faith which he had--his faith in the
+all-mightiness, and all-effectiveness of energy, sound sense, and
+money.
+
+At one time and another, either with the doctors, or without
+them, Darvid entered Cara's chamber; where, in obedience to
+medical advice, they had not darkened the great windows through
+which light was pouring in its golden torrents. This light
+penetrated the yellowish folds of cretonne at the walls, lent
+apparent life to forget-me-nots and rose-buds scattered over
+them, played among the palm leaves, lay on the flowery carpet,
+struck out golden sparks on the gilding of toys and books, played
+with rainbow gleams on surfaces inlaid with mother-of-pearl. In
+this gleaming light, near the mirror, which was surrounded by
+porcelain flowers, amid flasks gilded and enamelled, a rosy Cupid
+was drawing a bow with a golden arrow, a marble cat lay at the
+feet of a statuette, which held a dove rat its bosom; on a small
+desk of lapis-lazuli as blue as the sky, a bronze statuette
+personifying the Dew was inclining gracefully an amphora above an
+open book, skeins of various colored silks were hanging at little
+looms. Amid all these tones of spring, joyous themes, light and
+graceful forms, the sunlight went to Cara's bed, and, from the
+white cambric on which she was lying, increased the paleness of
+her yellow hair. On the pillow with lace it was difficult at
+first to distinguish where the sunrays ended and the maiden's
+hair began. But, amid the yellow of the rays and the hair, her
+oval, delicate face in its bright flush seemed a scarlet flower.
+Her lips, blooming with a bloody purple, her eyes, flashing with
+a dry fire, were silent. But her breast labored with hoarse,
+hurried breathing, and a cough shook her body, the slender,
+fragile form of which was indicated beneath the blue silk
+coverlet, like a fine piece of sculpture.
+
+When Darvid entered the chamber a dark-robed woman drew back from
+the bed of the suffering Cara, without the least rustle, and
+stood at some distance with a pained, pallid face under smoothly
+dressed hair of the same hue exactly as that which, in
+dishevelled abundance, lay mingled with pale sunrays on the
+pillow of the sick girl.
+
+"How is it with you, little one?" asked Darvid. "Perhaps you feel
+somewhat better? Perhaps you would like something?"
+
+For its only answer the face, which was like a scarlet flower,
+turned toward the wall, covered with forget-me-nots and
+rose-buds.
+
+"Why not answer, Cara? Perhaps you would like something? Only
+say, only whisper. Say into my ear. I would bring you anything,
+get it, buy it. Perhaps you would like something? Have something,
+something to look at. You can have anything--anything, only say
+what it is--whisper in my ear."
+
+But in vain he bent low, brought his ear to her lips almost, no
+sound came from them, no whisper, only her face turned away still
+more and her breath became hoarser and heavier.
+
+How many times did he go there and put to her the question:
+"Would you like something? Will you tell what?" He thought that
+the young girl, though sick, must remember some wish, some desire
+which, if granted, might give her relief and some comfort. He had
+power to gratify every wish, even the wildest, but had not the
+power of drawing from her lips even one word, and that the
+briefest.
+
+Some days passed. In front of the mansion the carriages of
+doctors were arriving and departing continually, meeting on the
+way a multitude of equipages from which men came out and entered
+the study of the master of the mansion, or only came to the
+entrance to inscribe their names in a book furnished by the Swiss
+in livery. Once, when coming home, Darvid met on the stairway two
+men who spoke a foreign language. He was eloquent, triumphant.
+These were allies from abroad, coming to strengthen the local
+forces, which joined them in full array for a consultation. Again
+a cloud of black garments moved from the blue room to the chamber
+which was full of spring colors, of childhood's playthings, of
+mother-of-pearl rainbow gleams. One more mountain of gold and of
+intellect set up as a bulwark of defence near the bed of the sick
+girl. When the cloud of black garments and serious faces had
+vanished, the mother drew near:
+
+"These gentlemen have wearied you. That is nothing. Because they
+have come you will be well. Those are very wise men. The two who
+have just come are Germans; throughout the whole world they are
+famous. They will cure you to a certainty. But now you may
+swallow a little of those excellent sweets which those gentlemen
+let us give you. Or a drop of wine. Perhaps a spoonful, one
+little spoonful of bouillon?"
+
+Cara's only answer was to turn on her yellowish bed to the wall
+sprinkled with spring flowers, her face in scarlet flushes.
+Malvina, bending low, kissed the little hand, the heat of which
+burnt her lips, and which trembled under those lips, like a leaf
+in a blast of wind.
+
+"Why not answer me, Cara? One word! only one short, little word!
+Shall I give a drop of wine? Those gentlemen ordered it--will you
+have it now? Whisper!"
+
+But in vain did she put her ear almost down to Cara's lips, not a
+sound, not a whisper, she only turned her face away farther,
+while her breath grew in hoarseness.
+
+Maryan came in with a great bouquet of flowers in his hand.
+
+"What, are we sick, little one!" began he. "Well, that is nothing
+wonderful! King Solomon said that for everyone there must be a
+time for sickness and a time for dancing. You will be sick a
+little while, and then you will dance. But now I have brought
+flowers to cheer you. Flowers without odor, for sick girls might
+get headache from fragrant ones. These have no fragrance, but
+they are very beautiful. You will look most poetic when I scatter
+them on the bed before you. They will gladden your sight after
+looking at those dreary pedants who are like a flock of wise
+ravens. Father has brought in the wisest ravens from all the
+world for you; I have gathered throughout this whole city the
+most beautiful flowers. Mein Lieichen, was willst du mehr?"
+
+While laughing he scattered on the blue coverlet, and on the
+slender form of the maiden indicated under it, the most beautiful
+flowers which the best conservatories could yield to him; she
+only looked at her brother with great burning eyes, and when he
+went away she began, with a slow and monotonous movement to throw
+them from the bed. She did not look at these flowers, but the
+slender, dry, rosy hand of the girl worked and worked on, pushing
+from the bed the rich twigs and beautiful flowers, which fell,
+one after another, with a dull rustle on the carpet. She wanted
+nothing. But in the night, when Malvina and Miss Mary thought
+that she was sleeping, a whisper was heard in the deep stillness
+calling:
+
+"Puffie! Puffie!"
+
+Miss Mary raised the little dog from a neighboring chair and gave
+him to her. Cara took him in her burning hands, but soon she
+pushed him away with the same kind of slow gesture with which she
+had thrown down the flowers, turned her face toward the wall, and
+then whispered:
+
+"No."
+
+Next morning the faces of the "wise ravens" were very gloomy.
+Those who flew in from the neighborhood, and those who came from
+a distance took on more and more that mysterious solemnity which
+reminds one of death-bells.
+
+But Darvid waited yet; he did not lay down his arms; he did not
+lose faith in the power of the good giantess. He waited for a new
+reinforcement. This was the greatest medical name in all Europe,
+that of a man who had the fame almost of one who worked miracles.
+Here again was a mountain of gold, and of intellect piled up, the
+highest mountain among all of them.
+In the blue drawing-room a suppressed, many-tongued murmur was
+heard. Servants bore about food and drink. Darvid gave cigars to
+his worthy guests, the most worthy of all, he who had just
+arrived; listened with close attention to the explanation of his
+colleagues touching the case before which he was to find himself.
+At last, calm, and perfectly correct, with a pleasant smile on
+his lips, a smile almost of triumph, Darvid indicated with a
+gesture full of welcome the door of his daughter's chamber. The
+most famous of the famous entered first, and stopped some steps
+from the threshold; behind him stopped the others. On the parched
+lips of the sick girl appeared ruby-like drops of blood; her eyes
+were opened very widely; to her forehead, which was damp from
+perspiration, some slender locks of pale, yellow hair adhered.
+Throughout the room sounded in an audible, hoarse whisper:
+
+"Ira! Ira!"
+
+Irene approached quickly, and, bending over, removed, delicately,
+with a thin handkerchief, the liquid rubies from the lips of her
+sister.
+
+"What do you want, little one; what do you wish?"
+
+Cara fixed on her sister eyes in which something uncommon had
+begun to take place, for the dark pupils became larger every
+moment, and larger, more prominent, they seemed to grow and to
+swell, as if concentrating into one point all power of vision,
+until a glassy film began to come down over them, and at the same
+time her lips, sprinkled with blood, moved a number of times
+wishing to pronounce something and not being able. At last,
+fixing on her sister from behind the glassy film the sight of her
+swollen pupils, Cara, as if in sign that she understood, shook
+her head, and with a whisper which was heard through the room
+with a note of alarm and complaint, she said:
+
+"Pain-ted pots!"
+
+Then in her breast a great orchestra began to play: hoarse,
+discordant, wheezing, and her head, grown suddenly heavy, fell
+into the pillow deeply. Prom the assembly of men standing there
+at the door, the most famous, the small sprightly, iron-gray
+Frenchman, with a face greatly thoughtful, advanced a few steps,
+stood at the bedside, and after some minutes, with his hands
+resting on the laboring bosom, cast into the deep silence which
+possessed the room these words:
+
+"The agony!"
+
+As if in answer to that word, at the very door, behind the cloud
+of black garments, was heard a loud hand-clap. That was Darvid,
+who, with a movement most unexpected for him, had in this manner
+wrung his hands, intertwining them with a strength which almost
+broke his fingers, and then raised them above his head.
+
+So the giantess had sprung over all the mountains--and had come!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+From street to street, and from one alley of the public garden to
+another, passed Arthur Kranitski, with the step and the mien of a
+person who is strolling through a city without great desire or
+object. In his shining hat and well-fitting fur coat, on the
+costly collar of which traces of wear were observable, the man
+seemed notably older and poorer in some sort than he had been
+during a past which was still recent. In his erect form and
+springy step one might discover that disagreeable effort with
+which people guard themselves when they fear lest observers may
+penetrate their sad secret in some way. But despite every effort
+Kranitski's secret was manifest sometimes in his stooping
+shoulders, drooping head, pendant cheeks, and dimmed glances. All
+this was the more evident since Pan Arthur was advancing in the
+full gleam of the sun which flooded with light the sidewalks of
+the streets and the alleys of the great public garden. The end of
+the winter had been exceptionally mild and serene, the snow had
+almost melted away, and only, here and there, mingled its dull
+white with the azure of the sky and the golden hue of the
+atmospheres. While passing multitudes of people, Kranitski raised
+his hand to his hat frequently, and at times, with a smile which
+was winning, nay, almost seductive, he made movements as if to
+approach, or even spring forward to those whom he greeted; but
+they, with a courteous though prompt inclination, moved past the
+man swiftly. These persons were stylish young gentlemen
+conversing with one another vivaciously, or young ladies
+hastening to some point. They returned bow after bow, but none
+took note of Kranitski's desire to draw near, or, at least, none
+had the wish to observe it. Each man or woman had some person at
+his side or hers with whom to converse, and was going, or even
+hastening, to some place. How recent and intimate had been his
+acquaintance with those persons!--lie had known them from early
+childhood. He knew everything touching them: the names and
+life-histories of their parents, the nicknames given them in jest
+or in tenderness, names given at an age when they were barely
+lisping. He knew every chamber, almost every corner of the houses
+in which they had been reared. He had raised many of them in his
+strong arms from the floor--he who at that time was the praised,
+the beloved, the sought for. He who had amused and entertained
+them, was he, indeed, to imagine a day when they would pass him
+at a distance and indifferently? How could he? He with rosy
+glasses on his eyes, those eyes famed at that period for beauty,
+had been given to tenderness and attachments; he had considered
+the feelings and relations of men as eternal. But from various
+causes a multitude of his relations with people had ended
+already--and now they were ending to the last one. He had the
+vivid sensation of hanging in a vacuum, and felt a growing need
+to grasp after something or someone lest he might tumble into a
+place which he knew not, but which he felt must be abyss-like. At
+the beginning of his walk he thought that in that bright hour of
+the day when throngs of gayly-dressed people were covering the
+sidewalks, and the middle of the street was filled with passing
+carriages, some person would stop him, would invite him, would
+attend him somewhere, or take him to some place. What was he to
+do now? Whither was he to go? Baron Emil, whose mediaeval mansion
+had been in recent days almost his one refuge from weariness and
+lonely tedium, had gone to his estate to make trips in various
+directions and search in village cottages and under their roofs
+for remnants of art which were genuine or suitable. He was to
+return soon; but, meanwhile, Kranitski could not sit in the broad
+chair before Tristan, who was giving obeisance on the wall of the
+chamber to Isolde, nor sit at the table where, besides
+gastronomic tidbits, he found conversation to which he was
+accustomed, nor in presence of the Triumph of Death sweeping
+through the air on bat wings, or experience the tone of
+beyond-the-worldness. With the departure of the baron he lost the
+only ground on which he met Maryan--that dear child. The very
+thought now of Maryan, from whom after so many years of life in
+common he was separated, brought tears to Kranitski's eyelids.
+
+He took a seat on a bench of the garden, and wishing to light a
+cigarette drew the golden case from his pocket. He did not light
+the cigarette, however; for there, beyond the low paling near
+which he was sitting, passed a splendid carriage drawn by two
+horses and bearing servants in livery. In that carriage sat a man
+of thirty years, at sight of whom Kranitski pushed forward as if
+to rush after him, as if to fly like the wind to him. This young
+man was the son of Count Alfred, of him whom Kranitski had nursed
+with endless devotion during illness under the sky of Italy. In
+those days the young man was a child, and remembered little of
+the hours in which Kranitski had occupied in his family the place
+of the best of friends, and somewhat that of the most faithful of
+servants. Afterward he forgot those hours completely, and put
+away by degrees "that excellent Kranitski," who was growing old;
+and though this Kranitski, on a time, had rendered some sort of
+service to the young man's father, he had been rewarded richly by
+resorting to the house for years, and, very likely, by loans of
+money given frequently and with no thought of payment. Very
+wealthy and a frequent traveller, Count Arthur's son had too many
+affairs on his head, and too many in it to cherish any desire of
+stuffing it further with old-fashioned trumpery. Kranitski soon
+observed this frame of mind in the young son of his former friend
+and protector, and he had long considered that house as lost and
+its master as a stranger. This did not sadden him at first over
+much, for he had a port, which he entered with, full sail at all
+times. But now the passing sight of that young man struck his
+heart with something which cut and burned at the same instant.
+Services are forgotten, ties are broken, the past is rejected;
+oh, the ingratitude of mankind! And still with what delight would
+he have ridden through the streets of the city on such a spring
+day in that carriage with rubber ties, bearing the persons within
+it on yielding cushions, with the soft movement of a cradle. With
+a still greater feeling of delight would he have conversed while
+going with someone who possessed the same habits, tastes, and
+relations which he had; with what vivid satisfaction would he
+halt before one of the best restaurants of that city to have an
+exquisite lunch, between walls decorated with taste, and amid
+sounds of joyfulness. But all those things which on a time were
+as cheap as good-morning, are now as remote and unattainable as
+the blue sky above him.
+
+In his closely drawn coat, and bent over so much that his
+shoulders took the form of a half-circle; in his hat, from
+beneath which black hair was visible and a row of furrows above
+his dark brows, he gazed at the street which stretched along
+outside the paling, and in his fingers, covered with Danish
+gloves, he twirled the golden toy from habit. The hat shone like
+satin above his head, and on tire cigarette-ease, which he
+twirled in his fingers, the sun-gleams were crossing one another.
+
+The street beyond that paling lay before a square which was
+rather extensive; this square seemed dominated by two lofty
+buildings, before the ornamented fronts of which there was a
+great movement of people. Through the broad doors of these
+buildings a throng of men went in and came out, equipages stopped
+before them; on the steps which led up to them halted, advanced,
+decreased, and again increased a crowd of figures clad in black,
+noisy, gesticulating, occupied passionately in some work. No
+wonder! These were the bank and the exchange, which stood with
+opposing fronts, and, with their multitude of windows, seemed to
+gaze eye to eye at each other. Kranitski looked neither at these
+piles nor the throng of men circulating about them. He had never
+had anything in common with activity in those buildings. But all
+at once he bent forward a second time and fixed his eyes on a
+carriage which passed the paling, or rather he fixed them on the
+man sitting in it.
+
+It was Aloysius Darvid who, on that sunny day, was in an open
+carriage drawn by a pair of large, costly horses, which, in light
+harness without mounting, stepped slowly, with grace and
+importance. On the box sat a coachman and footman, in high hats
+and immense fur collars; in the carriage, finished in sapphire
+damask, a man of not large stature, slender, with pale face,
+ruddy side-whiskers, and with the glitter of a golden spark in
+the glasses which covered his eyes. Slowly, with dignity, the
+carriage with muffled sound of rubber-bound wheels halted before
+the bank entrance. The footman sprang from the box, stood at the
+door, and taking a card from his master's hand hurried into the
+building. Five minutes had not passed when out came two serious
+persons who approached the carriage hastily, and began to
+converse with the man sitting in it. Surely officials, even
+dignitaries of the bank, whom he had summoned by two words
+outlined on the card. To go to them, to ascend the high steps, he
+had not time perhaps, so they ran down those steps to him. They
+did not walk down, they ran, and now, with the most courteous
+smiles in the world and with raising of hats above their
+important heads, these men seemed to counsel with him about
+something, to indicate some point, to promise. While he, ever
+unchanged, perfectly polite though cold, with a shade of sarcasm
+on his lean face, rather listened than spoke, and with a golden
+spark in his glasses, against a background of bright sapphire
+damask, had the seeming of a demi-god.
+
+In five minutes' time the conversation was over. Darvid inclined
+with befitting profoundness; the officers bowed much lower their
+hats above their heads. With the muffled sound of rubber tires,
+with the slow and important gait of the splendid horses, that
+carriage moved on, described a large circle and stopped at the
+long and broad steps leading up to the edifice opposite. Here the
+footman opened the carriage door; Darvid alighted and began to
+ascend the steps where a dense throng of men, dressed in black,
+opened before him as a wave opens to an oncoming vessel. That
+must be no common craft; for, along the wave of men, quivers
+passed as they pass through one living organism at the touch of
+an electric current. The opening throng formed eddies, whispered,
+was silent; a number of hands were raised toward heads, and hats
+or caps hung in the air; a multitude of faces were turned toward
+that one face, and fixed their eyes on it. These movements had in
+them an expression of timid curiosity, an expression which seemed
+almost humble. The most confident stepped forth from the throng
+with bared heads, and with steps which were either too slow or
+too hurried, but never such steps as they made habitually. These
+men approached the newly arrived and spoke to him of something;
+they were doubtless inquiring, taking counsel, perhaps
+petitioning; for all those acts were expressed in their
+movements, and on their faces. Thus was formed something like
+that retinue of the elite who surround a demi-god, and between
+the two walls of people, along the splendid steps of the stairway
+they went up with him higher and higher to the entrance of the
+temple, and vanished there with him. The heads of the common
+crowd were covered with hats and caps now, but many eyes, unable
+to gaze on Phaeton himself, turned to his chariot, and were fixed
+for a long time yet on its sapphire-colored damask, which was
+warmed by the sunrays, and on those two splendid animals which,
+standing there in trained fixedness, seemed like bronze steeds of
+the sun before the gates of that money mart.
+
+Kranitski, sitting on the garden bench, had grown rigid in the
+posture described above--his mouth awry, his eyes gleaming. So
+this is what has happened! In a few weeks after the death of the
+hapless Cara he is active and triumphant; he hurls his lariat on
+the golden calf and captures new millions. A demi-god! A Titan!
+The king of markets! He sweeps forward in seven-league boots over
+roads, at the crossing-points of which are Americans with
+milliards, they are millionnaires no longer, but masters of
+milliards. He is the man who, as Baron Emil said, knows how to
+will.
+
+Still, how small he seemed and devoid of desire at the hour when
+he stood near the corpse of his daughter, joined with the silent
+smoke of the censer, which rose like light mist in the air. How
+petty he appeared at that juncture, crushed, as it were, by some
+giant hand--not a demi-god in any sense, or a Titan, but rather
+an insect, pushing into some narrow cranny to hide from a bird of
+prey. Kranitski had seen Darvid then, for, on hearing of the
+misfortune, no power on earth or in hell could have stopped him
+from running, from flying to the house where it had happened.
+
+That misfortune had pierced his heart. And straightaway he felt,
+also, those inward and other pains which for some time had
+attacked him without pity and more frequently; but, in spite of
+his pains, he ran on without a thought that he had been forbidden
+that house, or a thought of what might meet him within it. He
+entered, and by well-known ways went directly to the chambers of
+the lady. Happen what might, he must see, in such a terrible
+moment, that woman, that saint, that mild and noble being. She
+was surrounded by many; there was a throng of people about her,
+but he did not see who they were, nor did he think what they
+might say of him. Before his eyes was a mist which veiled all
+things in front of him, save the face of that woman so dreadfully
+changed and grown old recently; that woman who no longer had the
+bright aureole of pale, golden hair above her forehead, but on
+that forehead and across the whole width of it was the dark
+furrow of a deep wrinkle. Without seeing, or greeting a person,
+he walked up to her directly, and, dropping on his knees, pressed
+to his lips the hem of her mourning garment. He did this without
+the trace of a plan, without forethought; he did it through an
+impulse which threw him at the feet of the woman. That action
+came from his heart, and from his heart only. For never was
+anyone like her, he thought. Many a time he had had fortune with
+women. In life he had been loved, and had loved in various
+fashions, but as he had loved her, never had he loved woman.
+
+He did not remember; he was unconscious of what happened after
+that; but it seemed that Irene seized in her arms the loudly
+weeping lady; that Maryan was there also, and many other persons,
+who, going in and passing out with silent tread and low words,
+produced a sound something like the rustle of leaves when they
+are falling. In some corner of the chamber he sat down, or stood
+up, he cannot tell which, he only remembers that he was
+surrounded by the odor of alder-blossoms which filled the
+chamber, till, finally, he felt that it was late, that he had to
+go out just as had others. He could not be with that beloved
+being in her suffering; of all pains that was the most
+unendurable. But life contains sometimes such cruelties. Life at
+times is atrocious! He went once again to look at the "little
+one," he saw her, and with her the demi-god, in such a position
+that he thought: Here, too, is a man who is ended! At this point
+of meditation Kranitski rested his elbow on the arm of the bench,
+shaded his eyes with his palm, and placed before his imagination
+that wonderful sight which seemed a fable, a dream to him.
+
+What luxury, what originality of thought and taste! What a
+mountain of gold was poured out there! The plan and the taste
+were seemingly Maryan's. The grand drawing-room had been turned
+into a grotto, which, from floor to ceiling, was covered with
+soft folds of white crape and muslin, meeting above in a gigantic
+rosette resembling the mystic four-leafed roses painted on Gothic
+church-windows, save that this one at which the wavy drapery met
+and hid walls and ceiling was as white and soft as if formed by
+the fantastic play of cloud substance. But everything in that
+chamber, the walls, the arch, the rosette, seemed made up of
+clouds and of snow, on which had fallen an immense rain of white
+flowers, white only. In garlands, woven together, or cast about
+without order by the movement of hands, they clung to the walls
+and the vault, covered the floor, were scattered over everything,
+were visible everywhere, and seemed to have fallen out of every
+place. Aside from them and among them, there was nothing but
+abundance of light; stars, bunches, columns were formed of
+lights, burning in branch-holders and candlesticks. It is unknown
+where they were invented, so uncommon were these holders and
+candlesticks, so fantastic. They were so peculiar in style that
+it would seem as if they had been brought from the dream-world of
+an excited fancy to the world of existence. There was no color,
+no tinsel, no emblem of death, nothing in that sea of snowy
+whiteness save an avalanche of snow-covered flowers and the
+dazzling gleam of burning tapers, with the odor of
+lilies-of-the-valley, roses, alder-blossoms, hyacinths, to which
+was added incense of some kind, as peculiar as was everything in
+that chamber. This incense, burning it was unknown in what place,
+sent hither and thither through the air, from time to time, small
+grayish cloudlets of smoke amid the gleam of the lights and
+tinged by the gold of them. In that chamber were virginity, with
+an atmosphere of mysticism, inventiveness unwilling to recognize
+the impossible--a chapter of magic, a strophe of a poem, and in
+it, as a central point for all else, was the slender form of Cara
+on a lofty place, fallen asleep calmly, arrayed as in a bridal
+robe, with her delicate face, which, in the pale, golden hair,
+with a shade of whiteness barely discernible, emerged from the
+flood of snowy crape and flowers. In that flood of snowy white,
+in that gleaming brilliance of the tapers, in that richness of
+intoxicating odors, in that atmosphere of haze moving from the
+burning censer, Cara was sleeping calmly, with the smooth arches
+of her dark brows below the Grecian outline of her forehead; on
+her closed lips was a smile which was almost gladsome.
+
+It must have been late at night when Kranitski rose from his
+knees and found himself alone in that chamber. Outside the words
+and prayers of watchers were heard murmuring beyond the doors and
+the walls, but there the sleep of death seemed to reign alone.
+After a while, however, something rustled near one of the walls.
+Kranitski looked around and saw a man who seemed at first to be
+an undefined patch on the snowy background. After a few seconds
+he recognized Darvid's features in ruddy side-whiskers, but he
+strained his eyes rather long inquiring whether he was not
+mistaken. Neither sorrow nor despair, commonly roused by death in
+the living, but something still greater and beyond that was
+depicted in the look and the posture of Darvid. His eyes, usually
+so clear, so positive, so like glittering steel, had in them now
+an abyss of thought at the bottom of which terror was secreted,
+while the form of the man seemed shrunk and crushed down. Neither
+irony, nor energy, nor bold certainty of self was in it now. He
+looked smaller than usual, and in the manner of bending his head
+forward there was something of the vanquished. The soft folds at
+which he stood surrounded him in such a way that he seemed
+flattened and recalled definitely, like an insect in flight which
+was trying to push through a narrow crack to escape before
+something immense which was swooping down suddenly. He turned his
+eyes toward Kranitski, recognized the man, and casting an
+indifferent glance at him, gazed again in another direction at
+the enormous something. He had no feeling of hatred, or contempt,
+or offence. Kranitski on his part had none of those feelings
+either. He thought that various tales and dramas represent mortal
+enemies who, in moments like that, reach their hands to one
+another and are reconciled. Pathos is not truthful! It has no
+sufficient reason. What are men's quarrels or agreements in
+presence of--this? He looked a little longer at the maiden
+sleeping under the shower of white blossoms, and whispered:
+"Death! yes, yes! death! eternal sleep!" then, with drooping
+head, he went forth from that grotto, which was snow-white and
+gleaming with lights. He was so broken that he dragged himself
+out of it rather than walked.
+
+Now, on the bench of the garden, Kranitski raised his face from
+his palms and looked at the exchange. The porch with its broad
+steps was empty, but Darvid's carriage was there yet, showing a
+spot of gleaming sapphire in the sunny air, the horses stood in
+trained fixedness, like statues cast from bronze. Kranitski's
+lips were awry with distaste.
+
+With a bitterness to which his mild nature came rarely, he
+whispered:
+
+"Labor! iron labor!"
+
+With lips full of gall, not thinking now of straightening his
+shoulders or giving his steps an appearance of elasticity, he
+dragged along from street to street, halting sometimes for a
+moment before the gates of the grandest houses. Each one of these
+reminded him of something, of some brilliant or happy moment, of
+some fragment of the past. This one he had entered while going to
+one of the smaller or greater "stars of his existence;" out of
+that one he had gone when taking the ailing Count Alfred to
+Italy; through this one he had hurried daily to do some kindness
+for Prince Zeno; that one brought to him the memory of a certain
+ball, so brilliant that it bordered upon fairy-land. Now all
+these gates and those mansions are for him like that hall which
+guests have deserted, in which the lights are extinguished, and
+through which a man finds his way with a night-lamp--remembering,
+as he passes, a spot where had gleamed the naked shoulders of a
+beauty; or another, where the faces of joyous comrades had smiled
+at him; a third, where had risen the odor of flowers, or the odor
+of roast pheasants.
+
+At last, late in the afternoon, Mother Clemens heard a ring in
+the antechamber, and ran along the floor in her clattering old
+overshoes, hastening to answer the door-bell. On her broad
+shoulders was a barred kerchief, in her hand was a needle with a
+thick thread, and above her eyes, now growing dim, a second pair
+of eyes, which were glass, in spectacles raised to the woman's
+wrinkled forehead.
+
+"Hm!" commenced she immediately, "I thought that thou hadst
+fastened for the day in some pleasant company; but, Arabian
+adventure! thou hast returned before evening. This is well, for
+guests have been here, and they will come again shortly."
+
+"Guests?" inquired Kranitski, and his face cleared somewhat, but
+briefly, because Clemens snorted.
+
+"Yes, one of them was very important. Be pleased with the honor!
+Berek Shyldman! He said that next week, as God is God, he would
+sell thy furniture."
+
+Seeing, however, that Kranitski, after he had removed his coat,
+dragged his feet through the little drawing-room, and that red
+wrinkles came out above his brows, she grew mild and spoke in
+better humor:
+
+"But thou mayst take delight in two other guests who came. Great
+dandies, and of thy company, though young enough to be thy sons."
+
+"Who were they? who? who? Speak, mother!"
+
+"How can I remember those Arabian names? But they left
+cards--wait, I'll bring them this minute--I put them in the
+kitchen."
+
+She turned toward the kitchen, but right behind her, stepping
+almost on her heels went Kranitski, delighted and impatient, he
+almost snatched from her hand two visiting cards, on which he
+read the names: Maryan Darvid and Baron Emil Blauendorf.
+
+"Ah!" cried he, "those dear children! The baron has returned
+then! And his first thought after returning was of me! What a
+heart! I go; I run!"
+
+And, indeed, he ran to the door of the antechamber, radiant,
+rejuvenated, but Mother Clemens stood in his way, squaring out
+her shoulders in the checkered kerchief.
+
+"Whither art thou going? What for? Is it to meet them on the
+steps, or at the gate? They said that they would come again in an
+hour. To each other they said that they would go to see the
+Nazarene--"
+
+"What Nazarene?" asked Kranitski, with astonishment. "What
+Nazarene?"
+
+"But how should I know what Nazarene? It may be an image of the
+Lord Jesus of Nazareth. They only said that they would go to look
+at it, and come back here."
+
+"Come back," repeated Kranitski, "that is well. We shall have a
+talk--it is so long since I have had a talk with anyone--and I
+shall see Maryan, the dear, dear boy!"
+
+Kranitski rubbed his hands; he walked with springy step, and
+erect shoulders, through the little drawing-room, but not even
+delight could round his cheeks, which had dropped during recent
+days somewhat; neither could it freshen the yellow tint on them.
+Mother Clemens halted in the middle of the room and followed him
+with her two pair of eyes.
+
+"See, my lords! He is as if born again, as if called back to
+life!"
+
+He stopped confused before her.
+
+"Knowest what? Let mother run for a pate de foie gras, and a
+bottle of liqueur."
+
+Mother Clemens dropped back to the wall.
+
+"Jesus of Nazareth! Hast thou gone mad, Tulek? Berek
+Shyldman--thy furniture--"
+
+"What do I care for Berek Shyldman! What do I care for
+furniture!" cried Kranitski, "when those noble hearts remember
+me--"
+
+"Hearts have no stomachs; there is no need of stuffing something
+into them the first minute."
+
+"What does mother know? Mother is an honest woman, but her level
+is earth to earth--she only thinks of this cursed money!"
+
+"But is pate de foie gras holy? Arabian adventure!"
+
+Both voices were raised somewhat. Kranitski threw himself on the
+sofa, pressed his right side with his palm, groaned.
+
+Then Clemens turned her face toward him; she had grown mild and
+seemed frightened.
+
+"Well, has pain caught thee?"
+
+It was clear that he was suffering. An old affliction of the
+liver, and something of the heart in addition. Mother Clemens
+approached the sofa in her clattering overshoes.
+
+"Well, do not excite thyself. What is to be done? How much money
+will that Arabian pate cost?"
+
+"And the liqueur!" put in Kranitski.
+
+When he had grown calm he explained that the baron was fond of
+liqueur, and that Maryan was wild for pate and black coffee.
+
+"Let mother prepare black coffee--thou knowest how to do it
+perfectly."
+
+"What more!" snorted she. "Perhaps it would be well to take the
+panes from the windows, and throw the stove down?"
+
+Kranitski spread out his arms.
+
+"Why speak of the window-panes and the stove? What meaning can
+the stove and the glass have? There is no comparison between
+black coffee and window-panes, or the stove. Mother irritates
+me."
+
+Again his face changed and he groaned; the old woman surrendered,
+but the question of money remained. Kranitski took a bill out of
+his pocketbook, held it between two fingers, and thought. This is
+too small. That kind of liqueur which the baron drinks is very
+expensive. Vexation was evident on his face. Clemens spoke up:
+
+"Well, stop thinking, for if thou hast not a rouble thou wilt not
+think out one in a hundred years. Be calm. Only write all on a
+card for me; I will go and buy what is needed."
+
+Kranitski struggled on the sofa.
+
+"With what money wilt thou buy it, mother?"
+
+But she was already in the doorway of the neighboring room, and
+gave no answer.
+
+"Is it with thy own?" cried Kranitski, "surely with thy own! I
+know that mother is spending her capital this good while--"
+
+She came back with the checkered kerchief over her head, without
+spectacles, and ready for the errand.
+
+"Well, what if I do spend it? Hast thou not Lipovka? Thou hast,
+and what I lend thou wilt return. Oi, oi! I stand with one foot
+in the grave, and should I fight about a rouble when thou art in
+need of it?"
+
+Kranitski raised his hands and his eyes:
+
+"What a heart!" whispered he; "what attachment! No one can equal
+the old servants of our ancient families!"
+
+After a few minutes steps were heard in the antechamber of people
+coming in, and the fresh voice of a man cried:
+
+"May one see the master of this place?"
+
+Kranitski ran to the antechamber.
+
+"Of course, my dears! You make me happy, altogether happy!"
+
+And indeed he had the face of a man made happy, and also tilled
+with emotion; for, taking his place in one of the armchairs
+opposite Maryan, who sat in another, he listened to the baron's
+narrative, which gave details of his recent expedition. Baron
+Emil was uncommonly vivacious, but at the same time he feigned to
+be more nervous and excited than usual.
+
+He did not sit down for one instant.
+
+"Merci, merci" said he to the master of the house who indicated a
+chair to him; "I am in such a condition, that really, I cannot
+sit in one place. Something within me is toiling, and crying, and
+biting. I am full of trembling of hopes, and of anger--" A
+brick-colored rosy blush appeared on his yellow cheeks; as usual,
+he spoke through his nose and through his teeth, but more quickly
+than common. While walking through the drawing-room he said, that
+in smaller and greater country residences which he had visited he
+had found a few remnants of former wealth, specimens of art, and
+of ornamental industry, which were of considerable, and sometimes
+even of high, value. A multitude of these rich things had been
+acquired by the English, who had circled about through the
+country more than once in pursuit of them; but much remained yet,
+and the only need was to inquire, seek, examine, and it was
+possible to find real treasures, even, often most unexpectedly.
+He halted before Maryan.
+
+"I say this because who, for example, could hope or expect to
+find in possession of a schoolmaster, a teacher of geography, an
+absolute Arcadian, a picture by Steinle hung behind a door,
+smoked befouled by flies--an undoubted, a genuine Steinle--Edward
+Steinle--"
+
+"But is it undoubted?" interrupted Maryan; "once more I turn thy
+attention to certain traits which seem to speak in favor of
+Kupelweiser."
+
+"What, Kupelweiser!" cried the baron, walking still more quickly
+through the drawing-room. "No Kupelweiser, my dear; not a shadow
+of a Kupelweiser. Kupelweiser, though the teacher of Steinle was
+considerably inferior to him in drawing--that firmness and
+elegance of outline, that harmony of composition, that piety,
+that genuine compunction which is dominant in the faces of the
+saints--that is Steinle, the purest Steinle, undoubted Steinle,
+whose collection of cartoons in Frankfort--"
+
+"Was Steinle, for I do not recollect, pre-Raphaelite?" put in
+Kranitski timidly, somewhat ashamed of his ignorance.
+
+"Yes, if you like," answered the baron, "we may reckon among the
+pre-Raphaelites the German school of Nazarenes. But this school
+is distinct."
+
+"Then surely you examined this Steinle to-day, my dears, before
+you came to me?"
+
+"Yes, we heard of it by chance; we went to examine it, and
+imagine, we found this pearl in the possession of an Arcadian who
+has neither a conception, nor the shadow of a conception of the
+Nazarenes, or who Steinle--"
+
+"But perhaps we should pardon him," laughed Maryan, "for the
+Germans themselves know almost nothing of Steinle, who fell into
+disfavor among his successors."
+
+"On the contrary!" exclaimed the baron, "I beg pardon, my dear,
+real judges always value him highly, and he is greatly sought for
+by museums. His cartoons when placed at the side of Overbeck's
+Triumph of Religion in Art lose nothing; on the contrary, that
+compunction distinguishes his figures."
+
+"But thou canst not compare him with Overbeck!" said Maryan, with
+indignation.
+
+"I can, I can! I make him equal to Overbeck; and I consider him
+superior to Fuhrich and Veit--"
+
+"I will give thee Veit, but as to Overbeck, that marvellous
+melancholy which fills the eyes of his women--"
+
+"It is earthly, earthly, rather than that perfect expression from
+beyond which is dominant in Steinle's figures. In this regard
+Steinle is the only man whom we may compare with Fra Angelico--"
+
+"I would rather compare him with Lippo-Mani."
+
+"Perhaps," said the baron, half agreeing, "as Fuhrich, whenever I
+look at him, reminds me of Buffalmaco."
+
+"And me, of Piero di Cosimo."
+
+"No, no," objected the baron, "Piero di Cosimo in coloring is
+different from Fuhrich and Buffalmaco."
+
+"I can compare Buffalmaco, to-day, with Rossetti alone."
+
+In this manner they conversed some time longer of the Italian
+painters of the epoch preceding Raphael, and of their modern
+followers. At times disputing slightly; at times growing
+enthusiastic in company, till they agreed in one opinion; namely,
+that the greatest master of painting, whom it was impossible to
+compare with anyone among contemporaries, was Dante Gabriel
+Rossetti, an Englishman, but that the school of German Nazarenes,
+to which Overbeck, Steinle, Fuhrich, and others belonged, was, in
+spite of certain inequalities and weaknesses, altogether pure
+Quatrocento.
+
+"Yes, Quatrocento," finished the baron; "who knows even if they
+are not purer, more perfect Quatrocento than Rossetti and
+Morris."
+
+Kranitski listened, spoke rarely, while something within him
+began to weep. He, too, loved art, but how far was he now from
+its loftiest caprices. How much would he give if those dear boys
+there, those noble hearts, would speak of something else to him,
+of something nearer. After a time he remarked with a smile to
+which he brought himself with effort:
+
+"Then you have the first parts of that golden fleece which you
+are to bear beyond the sea?"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the baron, "the golden fleece! splendidly
+said! In truth, we shear the sheep, or, if you like, the
+shepherds, for you cannot imagine what a rheumatism of thought in
+this matter prevails throughout the country. No man knows the
+value of what he has; no man knows what he possesses. There is no
+conception of art; no aesthetic knowledge. In my journey I felt
+as if wandering through ancient Scythia. All are related to me,
+or are old neighbors of my parents; they greeted me with open
+arms. Kisses with saliva, and chops cooked in buckwheat-grits!
+Their rooms are filled with progeny, who look as though they
+might grow up without trousers. The parents we may almost call,
+now, the shirtless. From this cause comes a genuine fury of
+turning all things to money. My proposition brought to their eyes
+tears of gratitude. They saw in me a saviour. Had I wished, I
+might have won the glory of a patriot bringing salvation to his
+countrymen. But glory is a painted pot. I am not a man to be
+covered with labels. I buy cheap to sell dear, that is my game.
+And, though I told them this, they kissed me. I filled their
+mouths, which were suffering from that hunger which goes before
+harvest. They opened old cupboards before me, also storehouses;
+one man even opened a chapel in which I found church-cloths of
+incomparable antiquity. I suspect that one of these is of Flemish
+make, and reaches back to Robert the Pious, just such a one did I
+see in the museum at Cluny. Finally, a number of images; some
+girdles and brocades; some old weapons, which would befit John of
+Dresden very well; this is my booty. Here we have discovered one
+Overbeck and one Steinle; but Maryan, during my absence, found,
+somewhere, Saxon porcelain, of incredible age, in perfect
+preservation. But this is only the beginning. There will be a
+whole harvest of these things, a whole harvest!"
+
+"A golden fleece!" whispered Kranitski.
+
+He grew more and more gloomy, and felt in his right side a pain
+which was well-nigh unendurable. The tone in which the baron gave
+account of his journey in regions about his birthplace, roused
+almost instinctive disgust in Kranitski. He looked at Maryan. Was
+he the same also? After a while he asked:
+
+"Has the American project crystallized thoroughly? Is it settled?
+Are you going to America surely?"
+
+"It has crystallized this far," answered Maryan, "that I start no
+later than to-morrow. Emil will remain here some weeks yet. I, to
+become acquainted with the people and the country, leave here
+to-morrow."
+
+Kranitski straightened himself and sat there dumb for a time,
+with fixed look, then he repeated:
+
+"To-morrow?"
+
+"Absolutely," confirmed Maryan; and, when the baron sat down
+after long walking, he rose, and began in turn to walk through
+the drawing-room, declaring that he had come to-day purposely to
+take farewell of Kranitski.
+
+"I could not go without taking farewell of my good, old man,"
+said he.
+
+It may be that he would not have gone so soon had not certain
+details made his life impossible. One of these details was, that
+the week before his father had withdrawn the allowance paid up to
+that time. A certain period had ended just a week earlier, and,
+through commands from above, the treasury had withheld payment.
+
+In speaking of this Maryan grew red in the face; the vein in his
+forehead swelled like a blue cord; his eyes glittered brightly.
+He was wounded to his innermost heart by the last conversation
+which he had had with his father. It was brief, but decisive; he
+had told it to Kranitski. From the narrative it was possible to
+divine that Darvid had shown at first an inclination to milden
+the demands on his son, but afterward despotic habits and
+practical views had won the victory. He demanded that in one of
+the factories belonging to him, Maryan should begin a course of
+self-restraint, obedience, and labor.
+
+"Our two individualities," said Maryan, "came into collision, and
+sprang back in a state of complete inviolability--not the least
+dint was made on Mm or on me. Our wills remained unbroken. He, of
+course, is a man with a mighty will. It seemed at first that the
+death of that poor little Cara crushed him, but he straightened
+quickly, and now again he is going through genuine orgies of his
+iron labor. I admire that integrity of will in him, and I confess
+that it is a power of the highest quality; but I have no thought
+of abdicating my own personality because my father, with all his
+undoubted endowments, has a head badly ventilated. It may be that
+one of my great-grandfathers said, that if one child gave itself
+as food to worms, another should give itself to be crushed by its
+father's chariot. But I am not my own great-grandfather, and I
+know that every yielding of one's self to be tormented by Pavel
+to amuse Gavel is a painted pot."
+
+"It is a darned sock!" added the baron.
+
+Another reason why Maryan had to leave the city without delay was
+the impression produced on him by the death of that poor little
+girl. But he did not admit that so many atavistic instincts were
+at work in him. He was a man of the new style, but he experienced
+now the spiritual condition of his great-grandfather, which
+affected him so that, like Maeterlinck's Hjalmar, he wished to
+throw handfuls of earth at night-owls. The death of that little
+one, and all that was happening and going on in the house, had
+made his soul pale from weakness. He understood now Maeterlinck's
+expression, to sink to the very eyelids in sorrow. When that
+Intruder, who is ever mowing grass beneath life's windows, came
+for that little girl, Maryan had the question in mind
+continually: "Why do the lamps go out?" Now, like Hjalmar in
+"Princess Malenia," he feels every moment like exclaiming:
+Someone is weeping here near us! He had moments in which such
+nervous impotence attacked him that he did not feel capable of
+stirring a finger, or moving an eyelid. Accompanying this
+condition was a perfect understanding that all sentimental
+family-tenderness is a painted pot. It is known, of course, that
+in the world a multitude of maidens are always dying; that each
+life is a gate before which grave-diggers are waiting; and that
+this does not furnish the slightest reason why those, under whose
+window the Intruder has not begun to mow grass yet, should have
+pale and sickly souls.
+
+He must flee from expiring lamps, and night-owls; from nervous
+impotence and spleen of spirit; he must rush out for new contacts
+and horizons; for new spaces, where there are fresh worlds which
+are free from the fifty defilements of past centuries.
+
+He concluded and took a seat. Kranitski had tears in his eyes,
+and after a rather long silence, he added:
+
+"Thou art going away I see!"
+
+And then, with hesitating voice, he inquired:
+
+"Thou hast said: 'that which is happening and going on in the
+house.' What is going on there?"
+
+To this the baron answered, with growing blushes:
+
+"How? Do you not know that Pani Darvid and Panna Irene set out in
+a few days--for a retreat?"
+
+"To Krynichna," said Maryan, completing the information. "Father
+has made Irene the owner of Krynichna, and they are going there."
+
+Kranitski grew very pale, and only after great red spots had
+appeared above his eyes did he look at the baron, and begin:
+
+"Then--"
+
+"Then," added the baron, quickly, "everything is ended between
+Panna Irene and me. I am glad, for how could my bite and her idyl
+agree? That would have been like the odor of ether on a sunny day
+in Maeterlinck's hot-houses. Naturally, I represent the ether,
+and Panna Irene the sunny day."
+
+The smile with which he said this grew ever more jeering and
+malicious.
+
+"But I know not how they will succeed in the retreat. In spite of
+her idyl Panna Irene has much in her, very much of the cry of
+life, of that beautiful impulse toward--what Ruysbrook called
+love in action, toward ecstatic impressions, and with such a
+disposition, as far as my skill extends in this matter, it is
+difficult to halt at the mere spectacle of sparrows making love
+outside one's window--"
+
+"A truce to malicious phrases, Emil," interrupted Maryan. "Thou
+art not threatened with the fate of Werther because my sister has
+broken with thee--"
+
+"Of course not!" laughed the baron.
+
+And Maryan added quickly:
+
+"And thou shouldst even offer up to her that painted pot, called
+gratitude, because she has not closed to thee the road to some
+daughter of a multi-millionnaire Yankee. America possesses men of
+'iron toil,' whose daughters are far richer than the
+daughters--alas! than the only daughter of my father."
+
+"Perhaps! perhaps!" agreed the baron; "the daughters of the
+richest American fathers pay very high prices for European
+titles. In this way, or another, or both together, I may make a
+colossal fortune. Yes, wealth is a door before which the heralds
+of life have their station--I am not a man pasted over with
+labels. I confess that this perspective entices me; what I
+possess now is merely a little crumb for my hunger of life. I
+shall leave here greedy for new sensations and new profits--eager
+for love in action and for gain."
+
+After a moment's silence Kranitski whispered:
+
+"They are going!"
+
+"They are going: Then glancing along the faces of the two young
+men, he added:
+
+"You are going!"
+
+"Yes," said the baron, "and therefore we make a certain
+proposition. Perhaps you would take upon yourself to be one of
+our agents."
+
+He presented in detail a plan of the enterprise--to carry out
+this there would be agents disposed through the whole country to
+discover and purchase.
+
+"We need aesthetic persons, a company of developed men, and it is
+difficult, very difficult to find them. In this country sterility
+reigns throughout the whole region of gray matter in the
+brain--it is sterility in the great gray substance--if you
+wish--"
+
+Kranitski was silent. It was not long since he had desired this
+position, perhaps, and something which might attach him to people
+and to life. But now--during this discourse with his two
+friends--an increasing disgust had seized hold of him. The
+sarcasm of the baron about shirtless parents who kissed him with
+lips suffering from hunger before harvest pierced his heart
+cruelly. In his mind hovered the words "departure, death!" and
+before his imagination rose the vision of a flock of birds flying
+in every direction.
+
+To buy cheap to sell dear! That was vile! At the same time he
+felt that the pains in his side and his heart had grown keener,
+and a feeling of faintness possessed him. After a moment's
+thought, he said:
+
+"No, my dear friends; it seems that I shall not be able to serve
+you. I am sick--I am growing old--besides, my dears, I must tell
+you openly--"
+
+He hesitated, and took from the table his gold case, which he had
+opened before the guests. He meditated a moment, and then said:
+
+"Your undertaking has sides which wound my sense of propriety
+somewhat. This business will always be buying in a temple, even
+in temples, I might say, for art is sacred, and so is the
+fatherland. You are both too clever to require explanation on
+this point. The loneliness in which I shall be when you are gone
+frightens and pains me--pains me immensely, but I am forced to
+say that I shall not be with you in this matter; no, decidedly, I
+shall not be of your company."
+
+By nature Kranitski was averse to disputes, and for various
+reasons unused to them, hence he had begun to speak with
+hesitation and dislike; but afterward he rested his shoulder
+against the arm of the sofa, and with head somewhat raised,
+twirling the cigarette-case in his hand, he had the look of a
+great lord, especially if compared with the baron, who always
+seemed somewhat like a mosquito preparing to bite. And this time
+he began with a sneering smile:
+
+"You are always painted in the color of romantic poetry of sacred
+memory. While you were speaking I seemed to be listening to 'a
+postillion, playing under the windows of incurable patients,'
+and--"
+
+But Mary an rose from his armchair, and broke in:
+
+"As for me, I respect individuality; and since that of our
+beloved Pan Arthur is developed in his way, we have no right to
+insist on attacking him with ridicule. To be ridiculous proves
+nothing. 'Thou art ridiculous,' is no argument. I may be
+ridiculous in the eyes of another man, though right in my own.
+But a truce to discussion; I remind thee, Emil, of our
+porcelain--"
+
+"Yes, yes!" replied the baron, and he rose also. "We must take
+farewell of our beloved friend here--"
+
+At that moment, through the open door of the sleeping-room,
+entered Mother Clemens with a great tray. Since she had gratified
+her favorite she wished to do it in the best manner possible. On
+her head was a cap as white as snow; the clattering overshoes
+were no longer on her feet; and a checkered kerchief was arranged
+neatly, even with elegance, across her bosom. On the tray were
+small glasses, a bottle of liqueur, a pate de foie gras, and
+three cups from which rose the excellent odor of coffee. All this
+she placed on a table before the sofa, and left the little
+drawing-room with gloomy eye, but firm foot.
+
+Kranitski sprang up from the sofa.
+
+"My dearest friends, I beg you--take a glass of liqueur, that
+which thou lovest, baron--Maryan, a little of the pate de foie
+gras--"
+
+But they touched their watches simultaneously.
+
+"No, no!" began the baron, refusing, "we have only three minutes
+left."
+
+"We lunched at Borel's, who, as my father says, gives us Lucullus
+feasts."
+
+Kranitski did not cease to urge them. Certain habits or instincts
+of a noble brightened his eyes, and shaped his arms in gestures
+of entreaty. But they resisted. In five minutes they must be in
+that apparently wretched antiquarian shop, where Maryan had
+discovered the amazing porcelain. The baron, giving his hand to
+Kranitski in parting, said:
+
+"We shall see each other again. You will visit me. I do not leave
+for a number of weeks--I doubt if this porcelain comes from
+Meissen as Maryan insists. In what year was the factory in
+Meissen?"
+
+"In 1709," answered Maryan, and to Kranitski he said:
+
+"Adieu, my good friend, adieu; be well, and write to me
+sometimes. Thou wilt find the address with Emil."
+
+He turned to the door; Kranitski held him by the hand, however,
+and looked into his face with eyes which were mist-covered.
+
+"Then it has come to this; for long years! It may be forever!"
+
+"Well, well! See, thou art growing tender," began Maryan, but he
+stopped, and over his rosy face passed something like a shade of
+feeling.
+
+"Well, my old man, embrace me!"
+
+And when Kranitski had held him long in his arms, he said:
+
+"La! La! leave regrets! Some ancient poet has told us that man is
+a shadow that is dreaming of shadows. We have been dreaming, my
+good friend-.The only cure is to jest at every thing, come what
+may!"
+
+With these words, Maryan went to the anteroom and put on his
+overcoat; meanwhile, the baron said:
+
+"That cannot have come from Meissen, nor be of the year 1709.
+That is much more recent. It comes from the Ilmenau factory--"
+
+"How so? Say rather that it comes from Prankenthal?"
+
+The baron, looking around from behind his cane, remarked:
+
+"It is too smooth and shining for such an old date."
+
+Maryan answered, with his hand on the lock:
+
+"It is polished with agate."
+
+And he went out. But the baron, after crossing the threshold,
+began:
+
+"And as to the ruddy-brownish biscuit--"
+
+The door closed; the voices ceased. Kranitski stood some time in
+the antechamber, then he turned toward the little drawing-room,
+and whispered:
+
+"'Polished with agate'--'Biscuit,' and those are their last
+words!"
+
+Some minutes later, in a Turkish dressing-gown with patched
+lining and mended sleeves, Kranitski lay on his long chair,
+opposite his collection of pipes, and, in deep thought, twirled
+his golden cigarette-case. In vain did Mother Clemens urge him to
+eat a little of that Arabian pate and drink a glass of liqueur;
+he tried, but could swallow nothing. Sorrow had closed his
+throat; he was sunk in reminiscences. He felt with perfect
+tangibleness that breath of cold air which was blowing around
+him. In this manner did Time blow on the man--Time, that
+merciless jester, who had always circled about playing various
+pranks on him; but Kranitski had never looked into the face of
+that jester, with attention. Occasionally, sorrow and grief had
+come to him in company with the trickster, but they were
+transient, not of the kind which go into the depth of the heart,
+but such as slip along over the surface. He grew gloomy; was
+sorry for having lost someone, or having missed something, and
+passed on with springy, lightly swaying gait, with his long
+continued youth, humming some fashionable ditty; or, with tender
+smile on his lips, living easily and joyously in endless pursuit
+of agreeable trifles. But, now, he has the first look at Time,
+face to face and near by. The current has borne away; the abyss
+has swallowed; people, houses, relations, feelings, and nothing
+comes back from them but one word in a ceaseless murmur: "Gone!
+gone! gone!" That which is ended to-day calls to the man's mind
+all things that have been. That past is to him something in the
+form of a mighty grave, or rather a catacomb, composed of a host
+of graves, through the openings of which are visible the absent;
+not only those snatched away by death, but also those gone
+through separation, removal, oblivion. Dead were faces once dear;
+faded were moments once precious; portions of life had dropped
+into dust; and Time, standing before the catacomb, his cheeks
+swollen in jeering, puffs his cold breath of the grave on that
+man who is calling up the past.
+
+Kranitski wrapped himself closely in his dressing-gown; hung his
+head so low that the bald spot, whitening on his crown, became
+visible; his lower lip dropped; red furrows came out above his
+black brow. Mother Clemens stood in the kitchen doorway.
+
+"Wilt thou eat dinner now?" inquired she.
+
+He made no answer. She withdrew, but returned in half an hour
+bringing a cup of black coffee.
+
+"Drink," said she, "perhaps thou wilt grow cheerful, and I will
+tell the news from Lipovka."
+
+She pushed a small table to the long chair, sat down with hands
+on her knees, and with immense attention in the expression of her
+quick and shining eyes, fell to repeating the substance of a
+letter just received from her godson, the tenant of Lipovka. He
+wrote that he had repaired the dwelling; that he was living
+himself in a building outside; that he had put the place in order
+most neatly, as if for the arrival of the owner. The furniture
+was the same as in the time of the former master; though old, it
+was sound yet, and beautiful, because repaired and cleaned. The
+garden was larger than of old, for many fruit-trees had been
+added. The bees, brought in recently, were thriving. It was quiet
+there; calm, green in summer; white in winter; not as in that
+cursed city of throngs and shouting--
+
+She laughed.
+
+"And there is no Berek Shyldman there."
+
+Then she added:
+
+"Be at rest about debts. Thou wilt sell thy pipes and cupids, and
+if they do not bring enough, I will give all my own things. All
+that I have I will give, and I will drag thee out of this hell.
+Oh, Arabian adventure! If this lasts longer, thou wilt lose the
+last of thy health; thou wilt go deeper in debt, and die in a
+hospital. Tulek, dost thou hear what I say? Why not answer?"
+
+And since he made no answer even then, she continued:
+
+"But rememberest thou that Lipovka grove beyond the yard? It is
+there yet. Stefan has not cut it down; God forbid! And dost thou
+remember how beautifully the sun sets behind that grove?"
+
+When the sun had gone down in the world it began to grow dark in
+Kranitski's room. And Mother Clemens continued in the thickening
+twilight:
+
+"And rememberest thou how quiet the evenings are there? In
+summer, the nightingales sing; in autumn, the bagpipes play; in
+winter, God's winds rush outside the wall and roar; but, inside,
+it is honest, and quiet, and safe."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+What Maryan had told Kranitski about Darvid was true. The man was
+engaged in real orgies of labor. His assistants and associates
+were bending beneath it, and losing breath; he seemed more
+untiring than ever: Counsels, meetings, accounts, balances,
+correspondence, discussions with functionaries of the government,
+of finance, and of industries, banks, bureaus, exchanges,
+auctions, etc. And in all this appeared order, sequence,
+punctuality, logic, lending to the course of these gigantic
+interests the seeming of a machine with multitudes of wheels
+moved by a force elemental, invincible. For even those who had
+known him longest and most intimately, Darvid had become this
+time a surprise; he had surpassed himself. The number of men was
+continually increasing who began to look on him as on a rare
+phenomenon of nature. Whence did the man get such uncommon mental
+and physical vigor? From mid-day till hours which were far beyond
+midnight he was unceasingly active. When has he time to sleep and
+take rest? What is he seeking to reach? What will he reach? This
+last question brought out before the imagination of men certain
+summits of financial might, to be reared to such dizzy heights
+for the first time in the history of the country. A giant of
+mentality and energy. Some said: He is superhuman.
+
+But in the immense number of men connected with Darvid by a net
+of most varied relations there were some to whom he seemed a
+curious enigma, representing a certain inveterate struggle, the
+motives of which rested on the mysterious bases of his being.
+That hurling of himself with greater force than at any time
+hitherto into the whirl of occupations and business; that
+exertion to the remotest limits of the possible, directed toward
+one object of thought and energy, seemed to penetrating eyes, not
+merely a thirst for acquisition and profit, but a desperate
+conflict with something undiscovered and invisible. At that
+moment of his life it seemed to some that Darvid was like a man
+running straight forward and with all his might, because he felt
+that were he to halt, something awful would seize him. Others
+said, that he called to mind a man into whose ear some buzzing
+insect had crept, and who was hiding in a factory filled with
+uproar which was to drown the unendurable buzzing of the insect.
+
+The truth was, that Darvid was building at that time, and with
+iron labor, a wall between himself and the giantess whom, for the
+first time in life, he had seen face to face, and very closely.
+It was clear enough that he had always known, not merely of her
+existence, but of this, that there was no power in the world more
+familiar than that giantess; still, this knowledge of his had
+been in a comatose condition, something separated altogether from
+the every-day substance of life, and touching which there had
+never been any need of thinking. Someone dies--a certain
+acquaintance; a comrade in amusement; a famous, or unknown power
+in the world--what do people say? A pity that he is gone! or, no
+help for it! Well, what influence can the disappearance of that
+man exercise on a given sphere of human action; on the course of
+men's relations and interests? Life, like a rushing river, tears
+all living men forward, and behind them, ever more distant,
+remains that misty region, which is filled with the vanished and
+forgotten. Who are they who, at any time, think of that misty
+region, and look at the face of the giantess who reigns in it?
+Priests, perhaps, devotees it may be; a few poets at times; or
+people who sail on a slow and sad stream in life. Darvid had
+never had time for such thoughts. The stream which bore him on
+was rushing and roaring, glittering and turbulent.
+
+But the giantess, because of her power, sprang over all golden
+mountains--and came! He was thinking of this at the moment when
+Kranitski saw him standing at the wall and squeezing into its
+snowy drapery, just as a frightened insect might squeeze itself
+into a cranny. That was a cranny in one more of his golden
+mountains. In the great city, people had spoken with amazement of
+the cost, well-nigh fabulous, of that last chamber of the
+millionnaire's little daughter. He had means to do that and much
+more. What are those means to him? He had vanquished enormously
+great things in life, and he had immense power at that moment.
+But of what use is that power to him, since something has come
+which he cannot overthrow; something against which he can do
+nothing, and which has struck him doubly--struck his heart with
+pain, and his head with anxiety? What virtue is there in power
+which cannot shield a man from suffering? And even suffering is
+not important, since man can battle with it; but to shield
+against annihilation! That, at which he was looking then so
+nearly, was a sudden and merciless annihilation of life, blooming
+in all its charm and with great fullness. Something out of the
+air, something out of space, and from beyond boundaries
+attainable by human thought, had rushed in and trampled down that
+life fresh and beautiful. A power invincible--not to be bribed by
+wealth, persuaded by reason, or vanquished by energy. A
+mysterious power--the beginning and object of which were unknown,
+which had flown in on silent wings and swept from the earth
+everything that it wished to take; and, against this, there were
+no means of resistance, or rescue. It seemed to him that the
+gloomy rustle of giant wings was filling that snowy chamber of
+the dead from edge to edge; and, for the first time in life, he
+felt things beyond mankind and the senses. His breast, which had
+breathed with pride; his head, which held one faith, the might of
+reason, and that which reason can accomplish, were struck now by
+an incomprehensible secret, which roused in him for the first
+time a feeling of his own inconceivable insignificance. He felt
+as small as an earth-worm must feel when on the grass along which
+it is crawling--the shadow of a vulture falls as it sweeps
+through the azure sky--and as the worm hides in the crack of a
+stone, so he sank into the snowy folds of crape and muslin which
+veiled the walls of that chamber. He felt as weak as if he were
+not a man of strong will and splendid labor, but a little child
+which is unable to push aside with its tiny fingers the terror
+which is standing out in front of it. With his shoulders and one
+half of his head sunk in the snowy folds, with his glance fixed
+on the sleeping face of Cara, which was visible among the white
+flowers, he said to her, mentally: "I can do nothing, nothing for
+thee, little one! I can do much, almost anything; but for thee I
+can do nothing!" Slender, grayish bits of smoke passed above her
+sleeping face, and, impelled by invisible movements of air,
+stretched in waving threads from her to him. Just at that moment
+he saw Kranitski come from an inner apartment of the house and
+kneel at the steps strewn with flowers. He looked; he recognized
+the man, and felt none of those emotions which his name alone had
+roused in him previously. What were human anger, hatred,
+disagreement in presence of that immense something into whose
+face he was gazing at that moment? What could Kranitski, hitherto
+hateful to Darvid, be to him now, when he said to himself: "I
+know not; I understand not; it is impossible to comprehend this;
+and still it is real; since I--I can do nothing for thee, my
+little daughter."
+
+But this was not the only discovery which he was to make on that
+occasion. He knew not how many hours he had passed in that
+chamber, but he saw the dawn, which drew a blue lining beyond the
+snowy folds which covered the windows, and then he saw the sun
+which flooded it with molten gold; he heard clocks striking a
+number of times in a chamber; one of these clocks was bass, and
+announced the hours slowly somewhere behind him, while another
+before him answered in a thinner and more hurried voice, till,
+all at once, beyond the closed doors, in one of the
+drawing-rooms, music was heard. Darvid knew what the meaning of
+that was: another golden mountain which he had reared for the
+"little one."
+
+Much gold had been poured out in bringing those voices, the
+chorus of which raised a hymn of prayer and sorrow above his dead
+daughter. But previously the door was opened, and the white
+chamber was half filled with the highest of the most brilliant
+society in that city, showing signs of profound respect and
+sympathy. Prince Zeno escorted Malvina Darvid, who was all in
+tears and black crape. Maryan brought in the princess. Irene
+entered, leaning on the arm of a young prince, celebrated for
+beauty; next came stars of these three powers: birth, money, and
+reputation. They were not many, since summits are always few in
+number; slight sounds were heard of bringing, giving, and moving
+chairs; there were whispers and the rustle of silk garments.
+
+Black silks, laces, and crape; the black dress of men mixed with
+glittering white; hands folded sadly on knees, or crossed on
+breasts, with seriousness; faces sunk in thought--solemn
+stillness. Meanwhile, out of silence in the adjoining chamber, to
+the accompaniment of instrumental music, rose a grand funeral
+hymn, given by a chorus of the most famous artists in the city.
+The solemnity of the mourning, with its character of high life
+and unusualness, roused admiration for the man who had given such
+magnificent homage to his departed daughter. From out the
+mountain of gold gushed a fountain of enchanting music, on which
+that child sailed away beyond the boundaries of earthly
+existence.
+
+Darvid did not greet those who entered; and, for the first time
+in life, perhaps, failed to meet the demands of society; they
+also, respecting a frame of mind which they divined in him,
+troubled the man in no way. He remained resting against the wall,
+and, from a distance, resembled a silhouette outlined on it
+darkly, as on a background. He looked on the brilliant assembly,
+from which he was separated by half the chamber, and felt that he
+was divided from those people by a space as great as if they were
+at one end of the world and he at the other end. Those shadows
+there whose names he knew, but who were nothing to him, and he
+nothing to them. They might exist, or not; that was all one to
+Darvid. Why had they come? Why were they there? Never mind, he
+knew only this, that they did not exist for him, as he did not
+for them. He was struck by the feeling of an immense vacuum,
+which divided him from men. This vacuum was something like a
+space which the eye could not take in, a space with two edges, on
+one of which he was found, and they on the other. They were by
+themselves, he was by himself.
+
+The singing of the chorus rose in power, in thunders, then became
+like nightingale voices heard in space, with notes clear and
+resonant. Invisible movements of air passed along the crapes, and
+the immense number of tapers, causing the flames on them to
+quiver.
+
+Darvid had not paid attention to music; he had never had time to
+learn and to love it; but he felt that those tones were passing
+into his vitals, moving the secret strata of his being, and
+bringing them into movements unknown to him till that moment. He
+looked at Cara's face, rising up among the white blossoms, and he
+thought, or rather felt that, while those others seemed removed
+by boundless space, she alone was very near to him. "Mine!" he
+whispered. She alone. He did not know precisely how that could
+happen, but mentally he placed that little head with golden hair
+upon his shoulders, and said to it:
+
+"Let us flee, little one! Thou didst ask me once what those
+people were to me. Now I will tell thee that they are nothing. I
+do not need them; they are strangers to me; with me they have no
+relations whatever; thou alone art needful to me; thou alone,
+such a sunray as I once saw on a journey and forgot, bright and
+warm. Thou alone art mine! Let us go; let us flee together from
+all and from everyone, for everything and all people are nothing
+to you and me; they are strange, and distant."
+
+Here he remembered that never and nowhere would he be able to go
+with her, or to flee with her. He was joint possessor of a number
+of railroads; he had the power to employ for himself alone a
+number of trains passing over those roads; in the East, on a
+gigantic river, his own vessels were sailing, in clouds of steam;
+in one capital and another, and in this great city, swarms of
+people inhabited his houses--still he could not take that
+sleeping girl by land or by water, to any city, or to any house.
+To his eyes, which were raised toward her, a biting moisture
+began to come, and gathered into drops, a number of which flowed
+down his cheeks, and were shaken in every direction by quiverings
+of the skin.
+
+But at that moment appeared on his lips the smile, which, as
+people said, was bristling with pin-points.
+
+"What is this? Is it exaltation?"
+
+He discovered exaltation in himself. A few days before, nay, down
+to that very night, he would have laughed at the supposition that
+in him it could darken judgment and clear vision. He thought,
+however, that a man is at times to himself the most marvellous of
+all surprises. Under various influences forces spring up in him,
+the presence of which he is farthest from suspecting. Darvid
+discovered, now in himself, the thing most unexpected:
+exaltation. The habit of a life-time; that which he had always
+considered as an unshaken conviction, rose now with loud laughter
+at itself. Will he begin now as a poet to write a threnody over
+his dead daughter, or like a monk yield himself to thoughts about
+death? Misery! Earlier, that word had occurred more than once to
+him, but only now does it career through his head freely. Still,
+he will not let exaltation master him. He must stand erect and
+look at things soberly.
+
+He straightened himself; removed his shoulders from the wall;
+calmed his face and glance; by strength of will brought a
+greeting smile to his lips; and moved toward his guests. The
+moment the hymn stopped he gave his hand to those present, in
+very polite welcome, and thanked them with a few, but pleasant
+phrases. This was the beginning of one of those herculean
+struggles, the like of which he had fought many times in the
+past. This, in its farther course, had an orgie of labor, which
+he continued for a number of weeks, and which roused admiration,
+or curiosity, in every on-looker.
+
+One day, between his return from the city and the hour of
+reception, he was standing in the blue drawing-room at the
+window, thinking: What that peculiar movement was which on
+returning from the city he noted while walking up the stairway.
+Porters were bearing out articles of some sort, which he did not
+examine, but which seemed to him pictures, and other things also.
+Was Maryan leaving the house? Perhaps. It was impossible to
+foresee what that self-sufficient and stubborn youth was capable
+of doing. But whatever happened he would not yield, and he would
+permit no longer that vain method of life, with its mad excesses,
+excesses which are costly. But in those recent hours everything,
+not excepting Maryan, had concerned him considerably less than
+before. Why was this? He did not answer that question, for he
+heard a noise of steps, and a whisper:
+
+"Aloysius!"
+
+He looked around. It was Malvina greatly changed. Beneath her
+hair, dressed with stern simplicity, her forehead was furrowed
+with a dark, deep wrinkle; the corners of her pale mouth were
+drooping; on the back of her head a heavy roll of hair, coiled
+carelessly, dropped to her dress of black material, which was
+almost like the robe of a religious. She stood in the descending
+darkness, some steps from him. She had pronounced his name, but
+was unable to go further. Her white hand, resting on a small
+table, trembled; her head was inclined, and she raised to him
+eyes which were dim but had a painfully timid and anxious
+expression. They looked at each other for a moment, and then he
+inquired:
+
+"In what can I serve?"
+
+The question was polite and formal. After a moment of hesitation,
+or of collecting her strength, she began:
+
+"Irene and I are to leave here in a few days. It is impossible
+for me to do this without speaking to thee, Aloysius. I have
+waited for a convenient moment, and seeing thee here, I have
+come."
+
+She was silent again. She breathed quickly, and was excited.
+Standing toward her in profile, the definite and sharp outline of
+his face was fixed on the background of the window, beyond which
+was darkness; he inquired:
+
+"What is the question?"
+
+She answered in a whisper:
+
+"Be patient--this is hard for me--"
+
+And as if fearing to exhaust that patience for which she was
+begging, the woman began hurriedly, and therefore without order,
+to say:
+
+"A common misfortune has struck us--thou hast been, Aloysius, so
+kind, so immensely loving to our poor Cara--when I go from here
+with, thou wilt be so much alone--Maryan has some project of
+travel--so perhaps--if it were possible--if thou couldst forget
+the past--I do not know even--forgive--if thou shouldst wish, I
+and Irene would remain--"
+
+While speaking she gained some courage; some internal motive was
+to be felt in her, which forced her to speak.
+
+"I will not try to justify myself before thee, Aloysius, nor to
+deny that I am guilty--I will say only this, that I, too, was
+unhappy, and that my fault has caused me dreadful suffering. I
+wished to say to thee, Aloysius, that, perhaps, even on thy part
+also, for thou didst not know me--that is, thou didst know my
+face, my eyes, my hair, the sound of my voice, and they pleased
+thee, hence thou didst make me thy wife, but thou didst not know
+my soul, and didst not wish to be its confidant, or its defender.
+This soul was not devoid of good desires; not without some small
+beginning of heartfelt happiness--though it was the unfortunate
+soul of a woman attacked by wealth and idleness. But thou,
+Aloysius, didst make a rich woman of a girl who, though poor and
+a toiler, held her head high--thou didst make her a rich and
+unoccupied woman, who--was left to herself at all times. Still,
+it was thy wish and demand that I should represent thy name in
+society with the utmost effect; thy name; thy firm, as thou didst
+call it."
+
+She was silent, for her eyes met his smile which was bristling
+with pin-points.
+
+"It seems to me," said he, "that in this tragic piece which it
+pleases thee to play, the role of villain will fall to me."
+
+"Oh, no!" cried she, clasping her hands. "Oh, no! I did not wish
+to complain of thee in any way, or to make reproaches--I have not
+the right--but--I think that since all of us in this world are
+guilty in some way, and life is so sad, and all is so--poor, it
+would perhaps be better to forgive each other--to yield, to
+renounce. This is what I think, and though my pride is wounded
+this long time because all that I must use is thine, I yield, and
+I will use it, though my only wish is to go from here, to
+withdraw from the world, to vanish forever in some lonely
+corner--"
+
+Her voice quivered, shaken by sobbing, but she restrained herself
+and finished:
+
+"I will renounce this desire, and remain, if--only thou wish--if
+only thou wilt not despise me--"
+
+With his profile outlined more and more sharply on the
+window-pane, which grew darker from the gloom, he answered, after
+a moment of silence:
+
+"I have not the strength for it. I am very sorry; but in me is
+not stuff to make the hero of a Christian romance. Thou hast
+perfect freedom of movement; Krynichna belongs to thy daughter.
+Thou mayst vanish with her in that 'lonely corner,' in which I
+cannot wish pleasant lives to you, or remain and live here as
+hitherto, which I could understand better; but in no case--"
+
+He stopped suddenly, and was silent.
+
+While speaking with that woman he had felt beneath his throat a
+coil of snakes stifling him, but in his brain certain memories
+were sounding, as it were voices, the echo of something distant.
+This echo issued from that woman's features, changed and faded,
+though the same in which on a time he had fixed his eyes with
+rapture, from the sound of her voice, which, at all times, had
+possessed for him a charm beyond description. His head, as if
+pressed by something above him and invisible, dropped with an
+almost indiscernible movement. Shall he forgive? And what would
+the result be? An idyl? Harmony? A return to family happiness?
+Folly!
+
+That can never be. Only one thing in this world is undoubted and
+indestructible: a fact. A fact has taken place, and there is no
+power in existence to cause that fact not to be. All views except
+this are exaltation! After a moment of silence he finished coldly
+and with deliberation:
+
+"In no case can my feelings, or our relations be subject to
+change."
+
+She rested her hand against the table more firmly, and bent her
+head lower--through that head were still wandering certain
+thoughts of a return to pure womanly honor through expiation,
+through yielding obediently to the will of the offended.
+
+Then she began in a very low voice:
+
+"Can I aid thee in any way?"
+
+After a moment of silence he answered:
+
+"No."
+
+"Can I be of use to thee in anything?"
+
+He was silent a little longer, and said:
+
+"No," a second time.
+
+The profile which had been turned to her was looking now through
+the window-pane to a ruddy cloud, which was moving on in darkness
+above the roof opposite, that cloud reminded him of something.
+She looked at him, and, after a moment, added:
+
+"Our daughter will write to thee, Aloysius."
+
+He interrupted her, hurriedly:
+
+"Thy daughter!"
+
+She began in astonishment:
+
+"Irene--"
+
+He knew now that that ruddy cloud moving over the darkening sky
+reminded him of Cara. He turned his face toward the face of the
+woman standing there.
+
+"Irene is thy daughter," said he--"for what meaning have
+blood-bonds when there are no others? I had a child who was my
+own--"
+
+At that moment desire for revenge boiled up in him; the desire to
+crush, so he finished:
+
+"And I lost her--through thee!"
+
+"Through me?"
+
+Her questioning cry was full of amazement.
+
+"Thou knowest of nothing then? They have hidden it from thee? A
+proper regard for the delicate nerves of a woman! But my rude
+nerves of a man feel the need of sharing this knowledge with thy
+nerves."
+
+Slowly and emphatically he uttered his words; words which, from
+moment to moment, were hissed through his pallid lips, and thus
+he concluded:
+
+"Once thy daughter had an interesting conversation with me; a
+very interesting conversation about--everything which took place
+in our family idyl. The little girl, hidden behind some
+furniture, heard the conversation, and became mentally
+disordered--oh! temporarily, of course, and this would have
+passed, but under its influence she exposed herself to the cold
+night air so as to die. Inflammation of the lungs was complicated
+by mental disorder. Her death--was suicide."
+
+The last words went out of his straitened throat in a suppressed
+whisper, still they were so definite as to be heard in every part
+of the great chamber. They were deadened, however, by the
+overpowering shriek of the woman and the noise made as her body
+fell to the floor. Pani Darvid's knees bent under her, and
+dropping, with her face in her hands, her head struck the corner
+of the table near which she had been standing. At that moment
+Irene shot into the chamber; like a skylark, flying forward to
+defend its little ones, she ran to her mother, and surrounding
+her bent form with both arms, she raised to her father a face
+covered with a flood of tears.
+
+"A needless cruelty, father," cried she. "Ah, how I hid this from
+her; how I tried to hide it! This is a needless cruelty! I
+thought that a man as wise as thou would do nothing so uncalled
+for. But thou hast committed a vileness!"
+
+Darvid made an abrupt movement, but restrained himself, and with
+his face toward the window he heard the retreating footsteps of
+the two women. There was a second of time during which he turned
+his head, and his lips moved as if some word, a name was to
+escape from him. At that moment the two women, holding to each
+other, moved slowly through the next drawing-room, advanced in
+the increasing darkness, and vanished. He uttered no word. What
+was his feeling when she shrieked and struck her head against the
+edge of the table? Was it pity? Perhaps. Was it a quiver of
+sorrow for that past which had left him forever, and for that
+daughter who went out with the word "vileness" hanging on her
+lips? Perhaps. But he said nothing; he uttered no name. He
+remained alone. It was silent around him and empty. Emptiness
+occupied that part of space beyond the window, for the rosy cloud
+which had passed there a while before had vanished. The figure of
+Darvid standing at the window became darker in that gloom, which,
+growing denser, dimmed and then concealed the white, the blue,
+and the gilding of the great drawing-room. By degrees the lines
+of his face became invisible; his trembling hands and the quiver
+of the skin on his cheeks were no longer to be distinguished, and
+Darvid appeared on the gray background of the window as a narrow
+and perfectly black line. He did not go away, for he was riveted
+there, fixed in thought, filled with amazement. In this way, in
+this manner then, all things on earth are ended. Those invisible
+giants, Death, Insanity, Anguish, Rage, go about the world
+trampling, crushing, rending, and no man has power to arrest
+them! He had never thought about those giants. How could he? Was
+he a philosopher? He had not had time to think. Now he was
+thinking, and at the bottom of his stony meditation he beholds a
+pale, dreadful visage. Something which recalls a Medusa-head,
+which he had seen some time in a picture. It has struggled out of
+raging waves, and is resting on them face upward; its hair is
+torn; its gaze has endless depth; and on its blue lips is a
+jeering smile. What is it jeering at? Perhaps at the grandeur of
+the man who appears as a narrow line on the gray background of
+that window, black, and alone as he is, in the gathering gloom
+and the silence?
+
+Now something soft and timid touches his feet, and he sees a
+little dark point moving. He stoops and calls:
+
+"Puffie!"
+
+At the floor was heard thin barking. Puffie had always barked
+that way to call the attention of his mistress.
+
+Darvid bent low with his hand on the silky coat, and repeated:
+
+"Puffie!"
+
+Then he straightened himself, and, leaving the window, called
+several times in succession:
+
+"Puffie! Puffie!"
+
+The black line moved on, in the gray darkness, through two
+drawing-rooms, and behind it, on the floor, rolled the dark small
+ball-like object, till a space of bright light gleamed before
+them. This was the widely open door of his clearly lighted study.
+
+In the door the footman pronounced loudly a name, at the sound of
+which Darvid's step quickened. At last the man had returned--the
+envoy, the agent, the hound had come hack! Beyond doubt he brings
+favoring news, otherwise he would have no cause to come. Hence,
+that colossal business; that immense arena of toil and struggle,
+through which an enormous vein of gold runs, may belong to
+Darvid. How timely this is! The business will freshen him; snatch
+him out of the evil dreams into which he has fallen for some time
+past. Indeed, all these exaltations, all these elements of
+feeling, which have risen in him with such power, are an
+unwholesome and nervous dream, out of which he must shake himself
+and return to clear, sober, sound reality.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A rather long series of days had passed when Darvid entered his
+clear, brightly lighted study, after winning one of the very
+greatest triumphs of his life. In the antechamber he had thrown
+into the hands of a footman, not his fur, but a somewhat light
+overcoat; for that day, which for him had been lucky, was
+succeeded by a warm, spring evening. Whoever might have seen him
+when he was leaving the lofty threshold of the highest dignitary
+in that city must have said to himself: "Happy man!" Though he
+had grown evidently thin during recent days; gladness and pride
+were beaming from his smile; from his eyes; from his serene
+forehead. He possessed now that for which he had striven long in
+vain: he held in his hand the colossal enterprise; before him was
+a broad arena for iron toil and a great vein, of gold. It is
+true, that while making ready for that moment of triumph, he had
+spent days and nights like a Benedictine over piles of books and
+documents, calculating, combining, covering many folios of paper
+with arguments and figures. He had toiled immensely, thinking of
+nothing save the toil; and now, when he stood at his object as a
+conqueror, all people said: he is happy! He had received a
+multitude of congratulations already; in the eyes of men he had
+read much admiration. He had just returned from a meeting where,
+by accurate and fluent speech, he had convinced and won over a
+numerous assembly of men of uncommon keenness and significance.
+Thus had he passed the day; now, in the middle of the evening, he
+returned to his house; and when he had given the servant in
+attendance the brief command: "Receive no one!" he asked:
+
+"Where is the little dog?"
+
+After that he dropped into a deep armchair near the round table,
+and had the face, for a while, of a man who is waking from sleep.
+For a number of days he had been so buried in thought over this
+weighty enterprise, and that day from early morning he had been
+so absorbed by the feeling of that victory which he had won, that
+he had had no time to think of any other thing; now, after a long
+time, in the first moment of inactivity which had fallen to him,
+he felt as if waking from sleep, and he was brought to thinking
+by the question:
+
+"Well? What is it for?"
+
+Just this question was to him at that moment reality, while every
+other thing was accomplished by the power of habit. He had
+toiled, calculated, triumphed, just as a round body rolls over an
+inclined plane by the force of acquired motion. Under this
+surface-life, which had been the one which he had led so long
+exclusively, was now another one which seized a continually
+increasing area; this new life, a mystery to every other man, had
+become for him more tangible than the entire visible universe.
+Out of it was growing an irresistible, importunate riddle,
+enclosed in the brief words: What for?
+
+These two brief words kept returning to his mind during every
+moment of rest, so that hours of noise and movement seemed to him
+a dream, and only those two words--unceasingly recurrent--the one
+true reality over which there was reason to be anxious.
+
+Why had he taken on his head and hands this new burden of toil,
+which was greater than all the others? Why, in general, this
+climbing a sky-touching ladder with exertion of all his strength
+of nerve and brain? To what kind of heaven could he climb upon
+that ladder? New profits, ever-increasing wealth? But he had
+ceased to desire these! Although that seemed marvellous to the
+man himself, he had ceased really. Why? Did he own little? He was
+the possessor of enormously much. He had never been of those who
+make a golden chariot so as to sit in it with Bacchantes and with
+Bacchus. But pride? He laughed. Yes, pride, but that was before
+he had known, intimately, those giants who sit in various corners
+of the earth. He knows them now; he knows what they can do; and
+he knows his own power. Why toil? What for? But his worth; that
+worth which people esteem so immensely that they almost cast
+themselves at his feet, or do they cast themselves before his
+golden chariot? For, if that chariot were to shoot away from
+under him, would he retain the title of modern Cid, Titan,
+superhuman? It was wonderful with what clearness he saw then
+Maryan, sitting in that chair, and how distinctly he heard his
+voice inquiring: "What is the object of your toil, father? The
+object; the object? That decides everything. What was the object?
+Of course, not this world's salvation!" He laughed again. What
+cause was there for long thought here! His object had been to win
+new profits continually; to gain ever-increasing wealth; and now,
+since he had ceased to desire these, the question was--what for?
+But the genius of that Maryan with his questions! He had gone
+down so deeply into his father's being that those questions
+remained there and continued their inquisitorial labor. A
+beautiful and genial fellow! A young prince; almost a sage. But
+what does that signify if--he lacks something? What is it that he
+lacks, and so lacks that he is as if he had nothing? What is it
+that he lacks?
+
+With a slow movement, in which weariness was evident, Darvid
+turned his head toward the desk, which was lighted abundantly
+with tapers burning on lofty candlesticks. What did those
+candlesticks bring to his mind? Ah, yes, he remembers! On a time
+he gave one of them, in the inner drawing-room, to Cara, so that
+the candle burning in it might light the way to her. He remembers
+how her slender arm bent beneath its weight when her small hand
+took it, and how beautifully the flame of the candle was
+reflected in the dark pupils gazing at him with such--with such
+what? With such exaltation! But how wonderful, how intense was
+his happiness when that child lived and loved him as she did!
+That was his only happiness! Then, holding the light in the heavy
+candlestick straight on before her rosy face, she went on into
+the darkness.
+
+Again he looked around, not with a wearied movement as before,
+but abruptly. He looked around at the door beyond which thick
+darkness was hiding, impenetrably, a series of drawing-rooms.
+This darkness was like a black wall outside the door. Along
+Darvid's shoulders ran a movement of the skin, the same as a man
+feels when something heavy from behind is placed upon his
+shoulders, or rides onto him. That black wall, in which an
+enchanted row of empty drawing-rooms stood silent, seemed to put
+itself down on him. But again he looked toward the desk; there,
+among a multitude of papers, lay a letter from Maryan, received
+many days before. Darvid had not destroyed or put away this
+letter, and not knowing himself the reason why, had left it on
+the desk there. The letter, in that great study, appeared
+definitely with its white color on the green of the malachite
+writing utensils. Moreover, it was not a letter. A number of
+lines merely. He had written that, wishing to spare his father
+and himself a new personal interview; he gives notice, in
+writing, of his trip to America. But as he is slow to write
+letters he confines himself to a few words. Since an
+incomprehensible lack of logic in directing his life had forced
+him to become a laborer, he desired to choose the field and the
+manner according to his own individuality. He had turned his
+personal property into money; this had brought him a considerable
+sum; he had borrowed another sum; he did not ask pardon for
+acting thus, since this borrowing was the natural outcome of a
+position of which he was not the cause, but on the contrary the
+victim. He makes no reproaches, since he is ever of opinion that
+all such things as offences and services, crimes and virtues, are
+soup prepared from the bones of great-grandfathers, and served in
+painted pots to Arcadians. All this was concluded with a
+compliment which was smooth, rounded, exquisite as to style,
+plan, and execution.
+
+Lack of logic. Those three words had fixed themselves in Darvid's
+memory, and after the words "what for?" appeared in it most
+frequently. Could they really relate to him? Had he in fact
+committed an error in logic? Yes, it seemed so. In that case his
+clear, sober, logical reason had deceived him. He rose, and with
+his profile toward the door, felt again, rather than saw, a black
+wall of darkness beyond. Again a shiver ran along the skin of his
+shoulders, which quivered and bent somewhat. He went to the desk,
+from which he took another letter, thrown down a moment before,
+and unread yet. Something in the room was moving; certain little
+steps ran along the carpet quietly. Puffie had woke; had run to
+the man, and begun to squirm at his feet.
+
+"Puffie!" said Darvid, and he began to read the letter. It was an
+invitation from Prince Zeno to a grand farewell ball. The prince
+and his family were going abroad, and wished to take farewell of
+their acquaintances in the first rank of them with the "modern
+Cid." Prince Zeno had often given this title to Darvid. But
+to-day the "modern Cid" read the letter of invitation while his
+mouth was awry from disgust. It had not the famous smile
+bristling with pin-points, but simply that disfigurement of the
+lips which accompanies the swallowing of something which is
+nauseating and repugnant. He placed before his mind the society
+in which some time before he had passed a few days at the hunting
+trip. This society would fill the prince's drawing-rooms on that
+day, and not only did he note in himself an utter absence of
+desire to be in that society, but a repulsion for it. Not that he
+cherished hatred toward those people, but they were perfectly
+indifferent to him. He did not reproach that society; but when he
+thought of it he was conscious again of a boundless space and a
+vacuum, which divided him from those who formed it. He imagined
+to himself Prince Zeno's drawing-rooms filled with faces,
+costumes, conversations, card-tables; and, it seemed to him, that
+it all existed at an immense distance--on the other side of a
+space that was infinite and empty--on one edge of this space was
+he; on the other were they; between him and them lay a vacuum; no
+bond between them; not even one as slender as a spider-web.
+
+In the midst of the lofty chamber, above the round table, burned
+the lamp with a great and calm light; on the desk, in massive
+candlesticks, burned candles. In that abundant light Darvid stood
+near the desk, with bent shoulders; a number of wrinkles between
+his brows; his face inclined low toward the paper which he held
+in his hand. At his feet, on the rug, like a tiny statue, sat the
+motionless Puffie; with upraised head, and through silken hair,
+the dog looked into the face of the man. But Darvid did not see
+the little animal, and did not read the flattering phrases on the
+paper; he only repeated the words which, on a time, he had heard
+from his daughter:
+
+"What do you want of so many people, father? Do you love them? Do
+they love you? What comes of this? Pleasure or profit? What is it
+all for?"
+
+"I do not love them, little one, and they do not love me. Profit
+comes to me from this--significance in society."
+
+"But what is significance to you, father? What do you want of
+significance? Does it give you happiness?"
+
+This time there appeared on his lips the smile full of pinpoints,
+which was famous in society.
+
+"It has not given it, little one!"
+
+His child had let down on her question his thought to the basis
+of life, as if on threads. Now he looked around, and his smile
+was bristling with pin-points of irony, increasing in sharpness.
+He thought a long time before he said, aloud:
+
+"What comes of this?"
+
+And afterward, in an inquiring tone, he almost cried:
+
+"An error?"
+
+In the light of this thought that his life with its toils, its
+conflicts, and its triumphs could be an error, he saw, again,
+that Medusa-face, pale with terror.
+
+Puffie, perhaps frightened by the cry which had been rent from
+his master, fell to barking. Darvid turned from the desk, and his
+glance met the black wall beyond the door.
+
+"Was it an error?" he repeated.
+
+The darkness was silent, and a face without eyes seemed to gaze
+at him persistently, with attention. He moved forward a few steps
+quickly, and pressed the bell-knob. To the incoming servant he
+indicated the door, and said:
+
+"Light up the drawing-rooms!"
+
+After a few moments the series of drawing-rooms emerged from the
+darkness, and stood in the light of blazing lamps and candles.
+Globe-lamps, burning at the walls, cast a hazy half-light, in
+which glittered, here and there, golden gleams, and appeared the
+features of painted faces and landscapes.
+
+From shady corners emerged, partially, the forms of slender and
+swelling vases; portions of white garlands on the walls; the
+delicate mists of dim colors on Gobelin tapestry; the bright
+scarlet and blue of silk drapery. Farther on, in the small
+drawing-room, burned, in two chandeliers, a bundle of tapers,
+beneath which hung a crown of crystals, glittering like icicles,
+or immense congealed tears. Farther on still, in the dining-room,
+with its dark walls, gleamed a bright spot in the grand lamp of
+pendant bronze above the table. This point seemed very distant
+from Darvid's study; but on the whole expanse which divided him
+from it there was neither voice nor sound--there was nothing
+living. Notwithstanding the multitude of objects scattered, or
+collected, this was a desert on which silence had imposed itself.
+
+From the threshold of the study to that door, beyond which the
+largest of the lamps was suspended as a shining object in its
+bronze above the table, Darvid moved, stepping with inclined
+face; at his lips the fire of a lighted cigarette; now, as it
+were, extinguished; and, now, shining up again. Behind him, right
+there near his feet, with the end of its snout almost touching
+the floor, rolled along little Puffie, like a bundle of raw silk.
+
+After a while, the step of the advancing man grew more hurried
+and uneven; increasing disquiet was expressed in him; now the
+light scattering along the unoccupied and silent space the extent
+of that space, and he himself wandering along through it. What
+did all this signify? Here and there, in the gildings and
+polished surfaces, quivered flashes like playful gnomes; at other
+points, on bluish backgrounds, pale faces looked from tapestry
+thrown over furniture; still, farther, a great mirror reflects
+two clusters of lights, beneath which hang crystal pendants, and,
+increasing the perspective, made the space still greater, and the
+light more peculiar; in another place, from behind bluish folds
+depending from a door, appears a vase of Chinese porcelain; and,
+at that moment, it assumes, in Darvid's eyes, a strange
+appearance. Large, covered with blue decorations, it has a form
+which is swollen in the middle, but slender above, with a long
+neck, and not altogether visible; it seems to lean forward from
+behind the curtains, gaze at the passing man, follow his steps,
+and laugh at him. Yes, the Chinese vase is laughing--its body
+seems to swell more and more from laughter, and in the blue
+painting the white background has, here and there, a deceptive
+similarity to grinning teeth. Darvid strives not to look at the
+vase, and hastens on; behind him Puffie's shaggy feet tread the
+floor more hurriedly, but as he returns, the porcelain monster
+thrusts out its long neck again from behind the curtain, jeers,
+bares its teeth, and seems ready to burst from laughter. At the
+opposite side of that drawing-room, on a blue background, is the
+pale face of an old man, and from above a gray beard the sad and
+inquisitive eyes of the patriarch are settled on Darvid.
+
+What does all this mean? Darvid halted in the centre of one of
+the drawing-rooms, right there behind him the bundle of raw silk
+halted also, and stood on its shaggy paws. What was he doing in
+those empty drawing-rooms; why had he commanded to light them?
+This act seems like madness. He called to mind recent acts of an
+insane king, who, in a brilliantly lighted edifice, listened
+alone to the rendering of an opera. Is he also becoming insane?
+Why is he not at work? He has so much to do! Darvid advanced
+quickly, and halted again. The Chinese vase inclined half way
+from behind the curtain, it seemed bursting from laughter. Work?
+What for? The object? The object? That decides everything! He
+turned his glance from the gnashing teeth of the Chinese monster,
+and it met the pale face of the patriarch, whose eyes, looking
+out at him from the blue background, and from above a gray beard,
+said with sadness, and inquiringly: "The wrong road!"
+
+He had lost the road! Only the habit of restraining internal
+impulses, and the expression of them, kept him from crying
+"Help!" But he had the cry within him, and with a quick and
+uneven tread he went toward the great lamp burning at the end of
+the perspective, in the centre of the open space between the
+walls of the dining-room. Behind him ran along Puffie, with all
+the speed of his shaggy feet.
+
+Meanwhile, in one of the drawing-rooms, the clock began to strike
+eleven--one, two, three. Its deep sounds penetrated slowly the
+empty space on which silence had imposed itself, until somewhere,
+at the other end of the perspective, a second clock began to
+strike, as if answering this one in a thinner voice and more
+hurriedly. This seemed a voice, an echo, a conversation carried
+on by things that were inanimate.
+
+Darvid returned to his study, and pressing the knob of the bell
+again, said to his servant:
+
+"Put out the lights!"
+
+He sat in one of the armchairs at the round table, and felt an
+unspeakable weariness from the crown of his head to his feet.
+Some light body sprang to his knee. He placed his hand on the
+silky coat of the creature nestling up to him, and said:
+
+"Puffie!"
+
+He considered that he must renounce absolutely that colossal
+affair to obtain which he had struggled so long, because
+strength, and especially desire for such immense toil, seemed to
+fail him. He was so tired. But if he abandons toil what will he
+do; what is he to live for? What is the object of life? The
+darkness was silent, and as a face without eyes seemed to gaze on
+him with stubbornness and attention.
+
+A few hours later, in a sleeping-room, furnished by the most
+skilled of decorators in the capital, a night-lamp, placed on the
+mantle, cast its light on a bed adorned with rich carving; a
+hand, white and thin, stretched forth on the silken coverlet, and
+a face, also thin, with ruddy side-whiskers, itself as if carved
+out of ivory, and gleaming with a pair of blue, sleepless eyes,
+which wandered through that spacious, half-lighted, chamber with
+a tortured and heavy expression.
+
+All at once Darvid raised himself in bed, and, with his elbow on
+the pillow, gazed upward. Higher on the wall was the face of a
+maiden, small, oval, rosy, with thick, bright hair scattered
+above her Grecian forehead, and by a movement of her eyes she
+seemed to summon the man gazing at her. She smiled, with rosy
+lips, at him, lovingly, and moved her eyelids, inviting him.
+Darvid, with raised brows, and with his forehead gathered in a
+number of great wrinkles; with eyes turned to that picture above
+him bent forward still more, and, with trembling lips, whispered:
+"My little one." But immediately after he rubbed his eyes, and
+smiled. It was a picture by Greuze! There were two of them: one
+almost invisible in the shade; the other that one emerging from
+the shade into a half light in such fashion that the head of the
+maiden seemed to stand out from, the canvas as it were suspended.
+
+"It is like Cara; very like her. The same type--the very same
+lips, hair, and forehead--"
+
+He knew that that was a painted face; still, with his head on the
+pillow, he raised his eyes to it frequently, and as often as he
+raised them he saw a loving smile on the rosy lips and the
+distinct movement of the eyes which seemed to call and invite
+him.
+
+He thought that he was ill, unnerved; that he must summon in
+physicians. Next morning Darvid heard, in the study of a famous
+doctor, that his nerves were unstrung remarkably; suffering from
+a blow which had struck him--over-work. He had toiled beyond
+measure. There was only one cure: complete and long rest. A
+journey abroad. A change of impressions, after hard and special
+toil; life in the midst of splendid scenery and works of art.
+
+Meditating afterward on this advice of the doctor, he thought
+that he had not the slightest wish to follow it. Neither nature
+nor art attracted him in any way. During his whole life he had
+not had the time for them, and it was too late now for new
+studies. Why was he to undertake a journey if not for that
+purpose? He had travelled much in his lifetime, but always on
+business, and with a clearly defined object; without business and
+an object, travelling through the world seemed to him exactly
+like that walking in the night through his empty, lighted
+mansion; something akin to madness.
+
+What then? Days passed again in toil, amidst consultations and
+reckonings. The arranging of balances and reports--the round body
+rolled on by the power of impetus. At appointed hours he received
+visits. He received also Prince Zeno, who came to take farewell
+of him for many months, till the following winter.
+
+"We are scattering, all of us," said the prince. "Like birds in
+autumn we are flying to places where the sun shines most
+beautifully. You, too, will go, of course. Whither? To the South
+or the East? Perhaps to that estate where your wife and daughter
+are passing the sad time of family mourning? But apropos of the
+country. You know that poor Kranitski; well, he came to take
+farewell of me. He has left the city; left it never to come back
+again. He has gone to the country. He is to remain on his
+estate--a small one, not over-pleasantly situated. I was there
+once on a visit to his mother, with whom I was connected by
+blood-bonds. A tiresome little hole, that place! But what is to
+be done? This handsome and once charming man has grown dreadfully
+old; the conditions of his life were difficult--so he has gone.
+Your son is making a long journey. Is he in the United States
+already? Baron Blauendorf is going there also; only yesterday he
+bade good-by to us. We scatter through the world; but, till we
+meet again? For I should be in despair were I to lose an
+acquaintance so precious and dear to me as yours is."
+
+Ah, how indifferent it was to Darvid whether he should keep or
+lose acquaintance with Prince Zeno. He saw and recognized in the
+man many fine and agreeable qualities, but he would rather not
+see him, just as he would rather not see others. All seemed
+strange to him and distant. Conversation, even with the most
+agreeable and worthy, both wearied and annoyed him. "What do you
+want of so many people, father? Do you love them? Do they love
+you?"
+
+One thought now devoured him. That "poor Kranitski" had left the
+city to live on his estate permanently, or rather in his poor
+village, situated in that same district as Krynichna, not very
+near, but in the same region. Of course, he will be a frequent
+guest at Krynichna--but, maybe not; even, surely not. Indeed, she
+had broken with him, and, in truth, she felt immense shame and
+pain--he laughed. A penitent Magdalen! He finished with the
+thought: Unhappy woman!
+
+But what more had he to do that day? Ah! he had an appointment to
+meet that young sculptor at the cemetery toward evening, and
+agree on a monument for Cara. That was to be a monument of great
+cost and beauty--a mountain of gold above the "little one."
+
+The great cemetery was in the bright green of leaves which had
+recently unfolded on the trees, and in the intoxicating odor of
+violets over Cara's grave-mound, which was covered with a carpet,
+not of modest violets, but of exquisite exotic flowers. Darvid
+spoke long with the young sculptor, and with a number of other
+men, giving, agreeably and fluently, opinions and directions
+concerning the erection of the monument. While doing this, his
+eyes dropped, at moments, to the grave, and were fixed with such
+force on it as if he wished to pierce through that carpet of
+flowers; through the stratum of brick; through the coffin, and
+look at that which was under the lid. At last, with a polite
+elevation of his hat, he took farewell of them, and passed on by
+a path, amid columns and statues intwined with a lace of bright
+leaves, into the centre of that broad city of the dead. That was
+his first acquaintance with such a city. He had seen a multitude
+of other such cities, but had never become acquainted with one of
+them. He had looked into them sometimes, but briefly, and because
+he was forced to it--his head was ever filled with thoughts
+altogether foreign to such places. Now he passed the interior of
+the cemetery with this thought. So all ends here! He did not go
+out for a long time. His carriage, with cushions of
+sapphire-colored damask, and his pair of splendid horses stood
+long before the cemetery gate, obedient and motionless. In the
+chapel tower the silver music of the vesper-bell sounded, and
+ceased to sound. Darkness had begun to fall on the fresh green of
+the trees, and the urns, columns, and statues standing thickly
+between them, as Darvid drove away from the cemetery.
+
+"When church-bells sound, as this has, people pray," thought he.
+"Do they think that God hears them? Does God exist? Perhaps he
+does. It is even likely that he does, but that he occupies
+himself with men and their entreaties!--I am not sure. I have
+never given time to this, and it seems to me that no one knows.
+Men have wrangled over this question for ages and--know nothing.
+It is a mystery. All places are full of mystery, but men think
+that reason is a great power. That is an error! Whatever ends
+thus is misery. Everything ends in stupidity. All things are
+foolishness! Foolishness!"
+
+Reaching the steps of his mansion he thought that he felt greatly
+wearied. Is this old age? not long before he felt perfectly
+youthful. But, evidently, this is the way--Age comes and seizes a
+man. One giantess more--it seems to him that he is a hundred
+years old. The same with Malvina. How changed she was when he
+spoke last to her. She had preserved her youth so long, and on a
+sudden she was aged. She must have suffered greatly. Hapless
+woman!
+
+He entered his study; sat down at his desk. Puffie sprang onto
+his knee immediately. He put one hand on the coat of the little
+dog, and with the other opened a drawer, looked into it, pushed
+the drawer back, and, resting comfortably against the arms of the
+chair, gazed into space with a fixed, torpid look.
+
+He was too wise not to see standing, earlier or later, before
+him, the stern irony existing in human affairs. It had been
+standing before him for a long time, but, standing behind veils,
+such as labor, success--the eternal lack of time. Now the veils
+had fallen. He beheld the irony clearly. It was embodied in the
+swollen vase of Chinese porcelain, which, though not standing in
+that chamber, seemed to bend forward from the corner, with
+sloping eyes painted in sapphire. The figure leered at him; bared
+its white teeth, and with swollen body seemed to burst from
+laughter. What could he place against that monster? how was he to
+cover it?--he knew not. He understood well that at the bottom of
+this all lay an error. On the road of life there was something
+which he had not noted; something which he had not recognized; he
+had let something slip from his hands which still were so
+rapacious; he, an architect, observing with mighty diligence the
+law of equilibrium in buildings reared by him, had not preserved
+that equilibrium in his own house; so that now it was hard for
+him to dwell there, and he wished to depart from it.
+
+When he goes it will be better for all. Better for him and for
+them. That unhappy woman will be free, and may become happy.
+Maryan will return from the end of the earth to receive his
+inheritance, if for no other reason. Irene will reappear in
+society. Irene, what a strange character!--so deeply tender, and
+so insolent. How savagely she hurled at him the word "vileness!"
+But she was right. He had committed that moment a vile act, just
+as in general he was forced to commit many follies--but "useless
+cruelty" will give reward--Irene will learn that he was not
+so--no, neither she nor anyone will know the nature of his act.
+He raised his head, in which he felt once more an access of
+pride. No, he will not give account of his motives to anyone; nor
+confess on his knees, like a penitent sinner; nor will he take
+the pose of a hero. Let them think what they like. How can that
+concern him? Nothing concerns him.
+
+By chance he raised his eyes and saw, hanging in the air, the
+face of a maiden, oval, rosy, and bright-haired which smiled at
+him lovingly, and made a clear motion, inviting him. Greuze's
+picture was not there, still the vision was present. With eyes
+raised toward it Darvid smiled.
+
+"Yes, little one, quickly."
+
+He took a pen and began a telegram to Irene. He penned the
+address, and then wrote: "Come as quickly as possible for
+Puffie." He put the pen down, rang, and told the footman to send
+the telegram immediately. Then, passing his hand over the coat of
+the sleeping little dog, he sat long, sunk in thought. The world
+appeared before him with all that he had ever seen, owned, or
+used in it. Countries, cities, nations, their dwellings and
+languages, banks, exchanges, markets, offices, noise, throngs,
+struggles, horse-races, movements, uproar, life. This vision did
+not halt there before him, but sailed away, as it were, on a
+giant river, ever farther from him; farther, till it was on the
+opposite shore of a great space, entirely cut off and entirely
+indifferent. When he considered that he might spring over that
+space and mingle again in all those things, repulsion came on
+him, and also fear; he shook his head in refusal, and said to
+himself: "I do not want them!"
+
+He was very calm; an expression of happiness began to spread over
+his features. If anyone had seized him then and tried to hurl him
+to the side of that broad space on which this life is situated,
+he would have resisted with all his might, and, if need be, would
+have begged to remain on that other side.
+
+He looked up and smiled.
+
+"Now, my little one, I am coming!"
+
+He opened the drawer.
+
+Next morning news flew through the city like a thunderbolt, that
+the renowned financial operator and millionnaire, Aloysius
+Darvid, had, during the night, in his study, taken his own life
+with a revolver. The first and universal thought was of
+bankruptcy. But no. Soon it became clear and most certain that
+his ship, in full canvas, was sailing on the broad stream of
+success, and was bearing an immense, glittering golden fleece.
+The Argonaut, however, no man knew for what reason--through
+causes hidden altogether from everyone--had sprung from the deck
+into the dark and mysterious abyss.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The  Argonauts, by Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)
+
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