CHAPTER XIV.
AN ARISTOCRATIC CIRCLE.
Nekhludoff had four matters to attend to in Petersburg. The first
was the appeal to the Senate in Maslova's case; the second, to
hand in Theodosia Birukoff's petition to the committee; the
third, to comply with Vera Doukhova's requests--i.e., try to get
her friend Shoustova released from prison, and get permission for
a mother to visit her son in prison. Vera Doukhova had written to
him about this, and he was going to the Gendarmerie Office to
attend to these two matters, which he counted as one.
The fourth matter he meant to attend to was the case of some
sectarians who had been separated from their families and exiled
to the Caucasus because they read and discussed the Gospels. It
was not so much to them as to himself he had promised to do all
he could to clear up this affair.
Since his last visit to Maslennikoff, and especially since he had
been in the country, Nekhludoff had not exactly formed a
resolution but felt with his whole nature a loathing for that
society in which he had lived till then, that society which so
carefully hides the sufferings of millions in order to assure
ease and pleasure to a small number of people, that the people
belonging to this society do not and cannot see these sufferings,
nor the cruelty and wickedness of their life. Nekhludoff could no
longer move in this society without feeling ill at ease and
reproaching himself. And yet all the ties of relationship and
friendship, and his own habits, were drawing him back into this
society. Besides, that which alone interested him now, his desire
to help Maslova and the other sufferers, made it necessary to ask
for help and service from persons belonging to that society,
persons whom he not only could not respect, but who often aroused
in him indignation and a feeling of contempt.
When he came to Petersburg and stopped at his aunt's--his
mother's sister, the Countess Tcharsky, wife of a former
minister--Nekhludoff at once found himself in the very midst of
that aristocratic circle which had grown so foreign to him. This
was very unpleasant, but there was no possibility of getting out
of it. To put up at an hotel instead of at his aunt's house would
have been to offend his aunt, and, besides, his aunt had
important connections and might be extremely useful in all these
matters he meant to attend to.
"What is this I hear about you? All sorts of marvels," said the
Countess Katerina Ivanovna Tcharsky, as she gave him his coffee
immediately after his arrival. "Vous posez pour un Howard.
Helping criminals, going the round of prisons, setting things
right."
"Oh, no. I never thought of it."
"Why not? It is a good thing, only there seems to be some
romantic story connected with it. Let us hear all about it."
Nekhludoff told her the whole truth about his relations to
Maslova.
"Yes, yes, I remember your poor mother telling me about it. That
was when you were staying with those old women. I believe they
wished to marry you to their ward (the Countess Katerina Ivanovna
had always despised Nekhludoff's aunts on his father's side). So
it's she. Elle est encore jolie?"
Katerina Ivanovna was a strong, bright, energetic, talkative
woman of 60. She was tall and very stout, and had a decided black
moustache on her lip. Nekhludoff was fond of her and had even as
a child been infected by her energy and mirth.
"No, ma tante, that's at an end. I only wish to help her, because
she is innocently accused. "I am the cause of it and the cause of
her fate being what it is. I feel it my duty to do all I can for
her."
"But what is this I have heard about your intention of marrying
her?"
"Yes, it was my intention, but she does not wish it."
Katerina Ivanovna looked at her nephew with raised brows and
drooping eyeballs, in silent amazement. Suddenly her face
changed, and with a look of pleasure she said: "Well, she is
wiser than you. Dear me, you are a fool. And you would have
married her?
"Most certainly."
"After her having been what she was?"
"All the more, since I was the cause of it."
"Well, you are a simpleton," said his aunt, repressing a smile,
"a terrible simpleton; but it is just because you are such a
terrible simpleton that I love you." She repeated the word,
evidently liking it, as it seemed to correctly convey to her mind
the idea of her nephew's moral state. "Do you know--What a lucky
chance. Aline has a wonderful home--the Magdalene Home. I went
there once. They are terribly disgusting. After that I had to
pray continually. But Aline is devoted to it, body and soul, so
we shall place her there--yours, I mean."
"But she is condemned to Siberia. I have come on purpose to
appeal about it. This is one of my requests to you."
"Dear me, and where do you appeal to in this case?"
"To the Senate."
"Ah, the Senate! Yes, my dear Cousin Leo is in the Senate, but he
is in the heraldry department, and I don't know any of the real
ones. They are all some kind of Germans--Gay, Fay, Day--tout
l'alphabet, or else all sorts of Ivanoffs, Simenoffs, Nikitines,
or else Ivanenkos, Simonenkos, Nikitenkos, pour varier. Des gens
de l'autre monde. Well, it is all the same. I'll tell my husband,
he knows them. He knows all sorts of people. I'll tell him, but
you will have to explain, he never understands me. Whatever I may
say, he always maintains he does not understand it. C'est un
parti pris, every one understands but only not he."
At this moment a footman with stockinged legs came in with a note
on a silver platter.
"There now, from Aline herself. You'll have a chance of hearing
Kiesewetter."
"Who is Kiesewetter?"
"Kiesewetter? Come this evening, and you will find out who he is.
He speaks in such a way that the most hardened criminals sink on
their knees and weep and repent."
The Countess Katerina Ivanovna, however strange it may seem, and
however little it seemed in keeping with the rest of her
character, was a staunch adherent to that teaching which holds
that the essence of Christianity lies in the belief in
redemption. She went to meetings where this teaching, then in
fashion, was being preached, and assembled the "faithful" in her
own house. Though this teaching repudiated all ceremonies, icons,
and sacraments, Katerina Ivanovna had icons in every room, and
one on the wall above her bed, and she kept all that the Church
prescribed without noticing any contradiction in that.
"There now; if your Magdalene could hear him she would be
converted," said the Countess. "Do stay at home to-night; you
will hear him. He is a wonderful man."
"It does not interest me, ma tante."
"But I tell you that it is interesting, and you must come home.
Now you may go. What else do you want of me? Videz votre sac."
"The next is in the fortress."
"In the fortress? I can give you a note for that to the Baron
Kriegsmuth. Cest un tres brave homme. Oh, but you know him; he
was a comrade of your father's. Il donne dans le spiritisme. But
that does not matter, he is a good fellow. What do you want
there?"
"I want to get leave for a mother to visit her son who is
imprisoned there. But I was told that this did not depend on
Kriegsmuth but on Tcherviansky."
"I do not like Tcherviansky, but he is Mariette's husband; we
might ask her. She will do it for me. Elle est tres gentille."
"I have also to petition for a woman who is imprisoned there
without knowing what for."
"No fear; she knows well enough. They all know it very well, and
it serves them right, those short-haired [many advanced women wear
their hair short, like men] ones."
"We do not know whether it serves them right or not. But they
suffer. You are a Christian and believe in the Gospel teaching
and yet you are so pitiless."
"That has nothing to do with it. The Gospels are the Gospels, but
what is disgusting remains disgusting. It would be worse if I
pretended to love Nihilists, especially short-haired women
Nihilists, when I cannot bear them."
"Why can you not bear them?"
"You ask why, after the 1st of March?" [The Emperor Alexander II
was killed on the first of March, old style.]
"They did not all take part in it on the 1st of March."
"Never mind; they should not meddle with what is no business of
theirs. It's not women's business."
"Yet you consider that Mariette may take part in business."
"Mariette? Mariette is Mariette, and these are goodness knows
what. Want to teach everybody."
"Not to teach but simply to help the people."
"One knows whom to help and whom not to help without them."
"But the peasants are in great need. I have just returned from
the country. Is it necessary, that the peasants should work to
the very limits of their strength and never have sufficient to
eat while we are living in the greatest luxury?" said Nekhludoff,
involuntarily led on by his aunt's good nature into telling her
what he was in his thoughts.
"What do you want, then? That I should work and not eat
anything?"
"No, I do not wish you not to eat. I only wish that we should all
work and all eat." He could not help smiling as he said it.
Again raising her brow and drooping her eyeballs his aunt look at
him curiously. "Mon cher vous finirez mal," she said.
Just then the general, and former minister, Countess Tcharsky's
husband, a tall, broad-shouldered man, came into the room.
"Ah, Dmitri, how d'you do?" he said, turning his freshly-shaved
cheek to Nekhludoff to be kissed. "When did you get here?" And he
silently kissed his wife on the forehead.
"Non il est impayable," the Countess said, turning to her
husband. "He wants me to go and wash clothes and live on
potatoes. He is an awful fool, but all the same do what he is
going to ask of you. A terrible simpleton," she added. "Have you
heard? Kamenskaya is in such despair that they fear for her
life," she said to her husband. "You should go and call there."
"Yes; it is dreadful," said her husband.
"Go along, then, and talk to him. I must write some letters."
Hardly had Nekhludoff stepped into the room next the drawing-room
than she called him back.
"Shall I write to Mariette, then?"
"Please, ma tante."
"I shall leave a blank for what you want to say about the
short-haired one, and she will give her husband his orders, and
he'll do it. Do not think me wicked; they are all so disgusting,
your prologues, but je ne leur veux pas de mal, bother them.
Well, go, but be sure to stay at home this evening to hear
Kiesewetter, and we shall have some prayers. And if only you do
not resist cela vous fera beaucoup de bien. I know your poor
mother and all of you were always very backward in these things."
