II.
HIPPOLYTE had now been five days at the Ptitsins'. His flitting
from the prince's to these new quarters had been brought about
quite naturally and without many words. He did not quarrel with
the prince--in fact, they seemed to part as friends. Gania, who
had been hostile enough on that eventful evening, had himself
come to see him a couple of days later, probably in obedience to
some sudden impulse. For some reason or other, Rogojin too had
begun to visit the sick boy. The prince thought it might be
better for him to move away from his (the prince's) house.
Hippolyte informed him, as he took his leave, that Ptitsin "had
been kind enough to offer him a corner," and did not say a word
about Gania, though Gania had procured his invitation, and
himself came to fetch him away. Gania noticed this at the time,
and put it to Hippolyte's debit on account.
Gania was right when he told his sister that Hippolyte was
getting better; that he was better was clear at the first glance.
He entered the room now last of all, deliberately, and with a
disagreeable smile on his lips.
Nina Alexandrovna came in, looking frightened. She had changed
much since we last saw her, half a year ago, and had grown thin
and pale. Colia looked worried and perplexed. He could not
understand the vagaries of the general, and knew nothing of the
last achievement of that worthy, which had caused so much
commotion in the house. But he could see that his father had of
late changed very much, and that he had begun to behave in so
extraordinary a fashion both at home and abroad that he was not
like the same man. What perplexed and disturbed him as much as
anything was that his father had entirely given up drinking
during the last few days. Colia knew that he had quarrelled with
both Lebedeff and the prince, and had just bought a small bottle
of vodka and brought it home for his father.
"Really, mother," he had assured Nina Alexandrovna upstairs,
"really you had better let him drink. He has not had a drop for
three days; he must be suffering agonies--The general now entered
the room, threw the door wide open, and stood on the threshold
trembling with indignation.
"Look here, my dear sir," he began, addressing Ptitsin in a very
loud tone of voice; "if you have really made up your mind to
sacrifice an old man--your father too or at all events father of
your wife--an old man who has served his emperor--to a wretched
little atheist like this, all I can say is, sir, my foot shall
cease to tread your floors. Make your choice, sir; make your
choice quickly, if you please! Me or this--screw! Yes, screw,
sir; I said it accidentally, but let the word stand--this screw,
for he screws and drills himself into my soul--"
"Hadn't you better say corkscrew?" said Hippolyte.
"No, sir, NOT corkscrew. I am a general, not a bottle, sir. Make
your choice, sir--me or him."
Here Colia handed him a chair, and he subsided into it,
breathless with rage.
"Hadn't you better--better--take a nap?" murmured the stupefied
Ptitsin.
"A nap?" shrieked the general. "I am not drunk, sir; you insult
me! I see," he continued, rising, "I see that all are against me
here. Enough--I go; but know, sirs--know that--"
He was not allowed to finish his sentence. Somebody pushed him
back into his chair, and begged him to be calm. Nina Alexandrovna
trembled, and cried quietly. Gania retired to the window in
disgust.
"But what have I done? What is his grievance?" asked Hippolyte,
grinning.
"What have you done, indeed?" put in Nina Alexandrovna. "You
ought to be ashamed of yourself, teasing an old man like that--
and in your position, too."
"And pray what IS my position, madame? I have the greatest
respect for you, personally; but--"
"He's a little screw," cried the general; "he drills holes my
heart and soul. He wishes me to be a pervert to atheism. Know,
you young greenhorn, that I was covered with honours before ever
you were born; and you are nothing better than a wretched little
worm, torn in two with coughing, and dying slowly of your own
malice and unbelief. What did Gavrila bring you over here for?
They're all against me, even to my own son--all against me."
"Oh, come--nonsense!" cried Gania; "if you did not go shaming us
all over the town, things might be better for all parties."
"What--shame you? I?--what do you mean, you young calf? I shame
you? I can only do you honour, sir; I cannot shame you."
He jumped up from his chair in a fit of uncontrollable rage.
Gania was very angry too.
"Honour, indeed!" said the latter, with contempt.
"What do you say, sir?" growled the general, taking a step
towards him.
"I say that I have but to open my mouth, and you--"
Gania began, but did not finish. The two--father and son--stood
before one another, both unspeakably agitated, especially Gania.
"Gania, Gania, reflect!" cried his mother, hurriedly.
"It's all nonsense on both sides," snapped out Varia. "Let them
alone, mother."
"It's only for mother's sake that I spare him," said Gania,
tragically.
"Speak!" said the general, beside himself with rage and
excitement; "speak--under the penalty of a father's curse
"Oh, father's curse be hanged--you don't frighten me that way!"
said Gania. "Whose fault is it that you have been as mad as a
March hare all this week? It is just a week--you see, I count the
days. Take care now; don't provoke me too much, or I'll tell all.
Why did you go to the Epanchins' yesterday--tell me that? And you
call yourself an old man, too, with grey hair, and father of a
family! H'm--nice sort of a father."
"Be quiet, Gania," cried Colia. "Shut up, you fool!"
"Yes, but how have I offended him?" repeated Hippolyte, still
in the same jeering voice. " Why does he call me a screw? You all
heard it. He came to me himself and began telling me about some
Captain Eropegoff. I don't wish for your company, general. I
always avoided you--you know that. What have I to do with
Captain Eropegoff? All I did was to express my opinion that
probably Captain Eropegoff never existed at all!"
"Of course he never existed!" Gania interrupted.
But the general only stood stupefied and gazed around in a dazed
way. Gania's speech had impressed him, with its terrible candour.
For the first moment or two he could find no words to answer him,
and it was only when Hippolyte burst out laughing, and said:
"There, you see! Even your own son supports my statement that
there never was such a person as Captain Eropegoff!" that the old
fellow muttered confusedly:
"Kapiton Eropegoff--not Captain Eropegoff!--Kapiton--major
retired--Eropegoff--Kapiton."
"Kapiton didn't exist either!" persisted Gania, maliciously.
"What? Didn't exist?" cried the poor general, and a deep blush
suffused his face.
"That'll do, Gania!" cried Varia and Ptitsin.
"Shut up, Gania!" said Colia.
But this intercession seemed to rekindle the general.
"What did you mean, sir, that he didn't exist? Explain yourself,"
he repeated, angrily.
"Because he DIDN'T exist--never could and never did--there! You'd
better drop the subject, I warn you!"
"And this is my son--my own son--whom I--oh, gracious Heaven!
Eropegoff--Eroshka Eropegoff didn't exist!"
"Ha, ha! it's Eroshka now," laughed Hippolyte.
"No, sir, Kapitoshka--not Eroshka. I mean, Kapiton Alexeyevitch--
retired major--married Maria Petrovna Lu--Lu--he was my friend
and companion--Lutugoff--from our earliest beginnings. I closed
his eyes for him--he was killed. Kapiton Eropegoff never existed!
tfu!"
The general shouted in his fury; but it was to be concluded that
his wrath was not kindled by the expressed doubt as to Kapiton's
existence. This was his scapegoat; but his excitement was caused
by something quite different. As a rule he would have merely
shouted down the doubt as to Kapiton, told a long yarn about his
friend, and eventually retired upstairs to his room. But today,
in the strange uncertainty of human nature, it seemed to require
but so small an offence as this to make his cup to overflow. The
old man grew purple in the face, he raised his hands. "Enough of
this!" he yelled. "My curse--away, out of the house I go! Colia,
bring my bag away!" He left the room hastily and in a paroxysm of
rage.
His wife, Colia, and Ptitsin ran out after him.
"What have you done now?" said Varia to Gania. "He'll probably be
making off THERE again! What a disgrace it all is!"
"Well, he shouldn't steal," cried Gania, panting with fury. And
just at this moment his eye met Hippolyte's.
"As for you, sir," he cried, "you should at least remember that
you are in a strange house and--receiving hospitality; you should
not take the opportunity of tormenting an old man, sir, who is
too evidently out of his mind."
Hippolyte looked furious, but he restrained himself.
"I don't quite agree with you that your father is out of his
mind," he observed, quietly. "On the contrary, I cannot help
thinking he has been less demented of late. Don't you think so?
He has grown so cunning and careful, and weighs his words so
deliberately; he spoke to me about that Kapiton fellow with an
object, you know! Just fancy--he wanted me to--"
"Oh, devil take what he wanted you to do! Don't try to be too
cunning with me, young man!" shouted Gania. "If you are aware of
the real reason for my father's present condition (and you have
kept such an excellent spying watch during these last few days
that you are sure to be aware of it)--you had no right whatever
to torment the--unfortunate man, and to worry my mother by your
exaggerations of the affair; because the whole business is
nonsense--simply a drunken freak, and nothing more, quite
unproved by any evidence, and I don't believe that much of it!"
(he snapped his fingers). "But you must needs spy and watch over
us all, because you are a-a--"
"Screw!" laughed Hippolyte.
"Because you are a humbug, sir; and thought fit to worry people
for half an hour, and tried to frighten them into believing that
you would shoot yourself with your little empty pistol,
pirouetting about and playing at suicide! I gave you hospitality,
you have fattened on it, your cough has left you, and you repay
all this--"
"Excuse me--two words! I am Varvara Ardalionovna's guest, not
yours; YOU have extended no hospitality to me. On the contrary,
if I am not mistaken, I believe you are yourself indebted to Mr.
Ptitsin's hospitality. Four days ago I begged my mother to come
down here and find lodgings, because I certainly do feel better
here, though I am not fat, nor have I ceased to cough. I am
today informed that my room is ready for me; therefore, having
thanked your sister and mother for their kindness to me, I intend
to leave the house this evening. I beg your pardon--I interrupted
you--I think you were about to add something?"
"Oh--if that is the state of affairs--" began Gania.
"Excuse me--I will take a seat," interrupted Hippolyte once more,
sitting down deliberately; "for I am not strong yet. Now then, I
am ready to hear you. Especially as this is the last chance we
shall have of a talk, and very likely the last meeting we shall
ever have at all."
Gania felt a little guilty.
"I assure you I did not mean to reckon up debits and credits," he
began, "and if you--"
"I don't understand your condescension," said Hippolyte. "As for
me, I promised myself, on the first day of my arrival in this
house, that I would have the satisfaction of settling accounts
with you in a very thorough manner before I said good-bye to you.
I intend to perform this operation now, if you like; after you,
though, of course."
"May I ask you to be so good as to leave this room?"
"You'd better speak out. You'll be sorry afterwards if you
don't."
"Hippolyte, stop, please! It's so dreadfully undignified," said
Varia.
"Well, only for the sake of a lady," said Hippolyte, laughing. "I
am ready to put off the reckoning, but only put it off, Varvara
Ardalionovna, because an explanation between your brother and
myself has become an absolute necessity, and I could not think of
leaving the house without clearing up all misunderstandings
first."
"In a word, you are a wretched little scandal-monger," cried
Gania, "and you cannot go away without a scandal!"
"You see," said Hippolyte, coolly, " you can't restrain yourself.
You'll be dreadfully sorry afterwards if you don't speak out now.
Come, you shall have the first say. I'll wait."
Gania was silent and merely looked contemptuously at him.
"You won't? Very well. I shall be as short as possible, for my
part. Two or three times to-day I have had the word 'hospitality'
pushed down my throat; this is not fair. In inviting me here you
yourself entrapped me for your own use; you thought I wished to
revenge myself upon the prince. You heard that Aglaya Ivanovna
had been kind to me and read my confession. Making sure that I
should give myself up to your interests, you hoped that you might
get some assistance out of me. I will not go into details. I
don't ask either admission or confirmation of this from yourself;
I am quite content to leave you to your conscience, and to feel
that we understand one another capitally."
"What a history you are weaving out of the most ordinary
circumstances!" cried Varia.
"I told you the fellow was nothing but a scandalmonger," said
Gania.
"Excuse me, Varia Ardalionovna, I will proceed. I can, of course,
neither love nor respect the prince, though he is a good-hearted
fellow, if a little queer. But there is no need whatever for me
to hate him. I quite understood your brother when he first
offered me aid against the prince, though I did not show it; I
knew well that your brother was making a ridiculous mistake in
me. I am ready to spare him, however, even now; but solely out of
respect for yourself, Varvara Ardalionovna.
"Having now shown you that I am not quite such a fool as I look,
and that I have to be fished for with a rod and line for a good
long while before I am caught, I will proceed to explain why I
specially wished to make your brother look a fool. That my motive
power is hate, I do not attempt to conceal. I have felt that
before dying (and I am dying, however much fatter I may appear to
you), I must absolutely make a fool of, at least, one of that
class of men which has dogged me all my life, which I hate so
cordially, and which is so prominently represented by your much
esteemed brother. I should not enjoy paradise nearly so much
without having done this first. I hate you, Gavrila
Ardalionovitch, solely (this may seem curious to you, but I
repeat)--solely because you are the type, and incarnation, and
head, and crown of the most impudent, the most self-satisfied,
the most vulgar and detestable form of commonplaceness. You are
ordinary of the ordinary; you have no chance of ever fathering
the pettiest idea of your own. And yet you are as jealous and
conceited as you can possibly be; you consider yourself a great
genius; of this you are persuaded, although there are dark
moments of doubt and rage, when even this fact seems uncertain.
There are spots of darkness on your horizon, though they will
disappear when you become completely stupid. But a long and
chequered path lies before you, and of this I am glad. In the
first place you will never gain a certain person."
"Come, come! This is intolerable! You had better stop, you little
mischief-making wretch!" cried Varia. Gania had grown very pale;
he trembled, but said nothing.
Hippolyte paused, and looked at him intently and with great
gratification. He then turned his gaze upon Varia, bowed, and
went out, without adding another word.
Gania might justly complain of the hardness with which fate
treated him. Varia dared not speak to him for a long while, as he
strode past her, backwards and forwards. At last he went and
stood at the window, looking out, with his back turned towards
her. There was a fearful row going on upstairs again.
"Are you off?" said Gania, suddenly, remarking that she had risen
and was about to leave the room. "Wait a moment--look at this."
He approached the table and laid a small sheet of paper before
her. It looked like a little note.
"Good heavens!" cried Varia, raising her hands.
This was the note:
"GAVRILA ARDOLIONOVITCH,--persuaded of your kindness of heart, I
have determined to ask your advice on a matter of great
importance to myself. I should like to meet you tomorrow morning
at seven o'clock by the green bench in the park. It is not far
from our house. Varvara Ardalionovna, who must accompany you,
knows the place well.
"A. E."
"What on earth is one to make of a girl like that?" said Varia.
Gania, little as he felt inclined for swagger at this moment,
could not avoid showing his triumph, especially just after such
humiliating remarks as those of Hippolyte. A smile of self-
satisfaction beamed on his face, and Varia too was brimming over
with delight.
"And this is the very day that they were to announce the
engagement! What will she do next?"
"What do you suppose she wants to talk about tomorrow?" asked
Gania.
"Oh, THAT'S all the same! The chief thing is that she wants to
see you after six months' absence. Look here, Gania, this is a
SERIOUS business. Don't swagger again and lose the game--play
carefully, but don't funk, do you understand? As if she could
possibly avoid seeing what I have been working for all this last
six months! And just imagine, I was there this morning and not a
word of this! I was there, you know, on the sly. The old lady did
not know, or she would have kicked me out. I ran some risk for
you, you see. I did so want to find out, at all hazards."
Here there was a frantic noise upstairs once more; several people
seemed to be rushing downstairs at once.
"Now, Gania," cried Varia, frightened, "we can't let him go out!
We can't afford to have a breath of scandal about the town at
this moment. Run after him and beg his pardon--quick."
But the father of the family was out in the road already. Colia
was carrying his bag for him; Nina Alexandrovna stood and cried
on the doorstep; she wanted to run after the general, but Ptitsin
kept her back.
"You will only excite him more," he said. "He has nowhere else to
go to--he'll be back here in half an hour. I've talked it all
over with Colia; let him play the fool a bit, it will do him
good."
"What are you up to? Where are you off to? You've nowhere to go
to, you know," cried Gania, out of the window.
"Come back, father; the neighbours will hear!" cried Varia.
The general stopped, turned round, raised his hands and remarked:
"My curse be upon this house!"
"Which observation should always be made in as theatrical a tone
as possible," muttered Gania, shutting the window with a bang.
The neighbours undoubtedly did hear. Varia rushed out of the
room.
No sooner had his sister left him alone, than Gania took the note
out of his pocket, kissed it, and pirouetted around.
