" He will understand them soon enough; he is first rate at understanding. And what kind of post would you like to occupy ? "
" I don't know, uncle, what kind of "
" There are posts of minister," remarked Piotr Ivanitch, "and deputy-ministers, directors, vice-directors, chiefs of departments, branch-chiefs, their assistants, officials of several orders."
Alexandr thought a minute. He was abashed and did not know which to choose.
\S
A COMMON STORY 55
" Well, to begin with the post of a branch-chief would do very well," he said.
" Yes, very well!" repeated Piotr Ivanitch.
"I could see something of the work, uncle, and then in two months or so I might even be a chief of a department."
His uncle pricked up his ears.
" Of course, of course!" he said : " then in three months a director; then in a year a minister; don't you think so ? "
Alexandr blushed and was silent.
" The chief of the department told you, I suppose, what was the post vacant ? " he asked after a pause.
" No," answered his uncle:—" he did not say, but we had better leave it to him; we should find it difficult, you see, to choose, but he will know what to appoint you to. Don't talk to him of the difficulty you feel in choosing a post, and of your schemes not a word. I would not advise you to talk of material tokens to the pretty girls here; they won't know how to take you ! This is too elevated for them; even I hardly fathomed it, and they will make faces at you."
While his uncle was speaking Alexandr was balancing a packet in his hand.
" What have you there ? "
Alexandr had been impatiently expecting this question.
" This—I have long wanted to show you .... poems; you once showed an interest "
" I don't remember it at all; I think I did not show any interest."
" You see, uncle, I regard official life as a dry occupation, in which the soul has no part, but the soul thirsts for self-expression, it thirsts to share with others the overflow of emotions and thoughts which fill it"
" Well, what of it ? " asked his uncle impatiently. \ " I feel an impulse to creative work." 1 "Which means, you would like some other occupation besides official duties—for instance some translation? Well, it's very praiseworthy; what is it to be, literary work?"
" Yes, uncle, I wanted to ask you, if you had a chance of getting anything inserted "
"Are you convinced that you have talent? without it
<\
56 A COMMON STORY
of course you can do hackwork in literature but what is the use of it ? If you have talent, it is a different matter; you can work; you will do much that is worth doing and besides it is capital—it is worth more than your hundred serfs/'
" Do you measure this too in money ? Fame! fame! that is the poet's true reward."
"There is no such thing as fame nowadays. There
is notoriety, but of fame you hear nothing at all, or perhaps
it has taken to appearing in another fp nn; the bette r a
man writes the more money he gets, jllbwever in these
I days* a decent author lives decently, he is not frozen and
\ starved to death in a garret, though people don't run after
\him in the street and point at him with their fingers, as
though he were a clown; they have, learnt that "a poet is
. not a god but a man; that he looks, walks, thinks, and
j does silly things just like other people; why do you look
J like that ? "
" Like other people—rwhat will you say next, uncle ? how can v any one say such things ? A poet is marked off by a special stamp; there are mysterious tokens of the existence in him of higher powers."
" Yes, just as in some others—in the mathematician and the watchmaker or even the manufacturer, like myself. Newton, Gutenberg, Watt, were also endowed with higher powers, like Shakespeare, Dante and the rest. If I could manage by some special process to work our Petersburg pay till china could be made of it better than Saxony or Sevres, do you consider that this would not show the possession of higher powers ? "
" You are mixing up art with manufactures, uncle/' " God forbid! Art is one thing, manufacture is another, but there may be creative genius in one just as much as in the other, and similarly there may not. If there is not, the manufacturer is simply called a manufacturer, and not a creative genius, and the poet too without genius is not a poet, but a rhymer .... Haven't you been told about this at the university? Pray what did you learn l^there ? "
—The uncle began to be vexed with himself for having been led into such an exposition of what he considered commonplace truisms.
" It's like a ' sincere outburst of feeling/ " he reflected. "Show me what have you there?" he demanded; " verses ? "
His uncle took the papers and began to read the first page.
" Whence the cloud of pain and sorrow Swooping sometimes suddenly On the heart with life at conflict/ 1
He began to smoke a cigar and continued :—
" Filling it with passion high.
" Why in time of storm and tempest Doth some gloomy dream of ill, With unfathomable sadness Strike the inmost spirit chill.
" Of the distant skies the silence Fills us now with dread and fright-
j»
" 'Dread' and ' fright* one and the same thing."
" I gaze upwards ; the moon soundless,"
"That's not so bad and not good!" he said as he finished it. However others have begun worse than that; you can try a little, write, work at it if you have the inclination; possibly talent may show itself; then it will be a different matter."
Alexandr was very downcast. He had expected a very different criticism. He was a little consoled by reflecting that his uncle was a cold man almost'destitute of soul.
" Here is a translation from Schiller/ 1 he said.
" Well; I will look at it. Have you learnt foreign languages too then ? "
" I know French, German, and a little English."
" I congratulate you, you should have told me so before; there's a good deal to be made of you. You talked to me long ago about political economy, philosophy, archaeology, God knows what all. But of the most important thing not a word—misplaced modesty. I will get you some literary work at once."
" Really, uncle ? how good you are!—allow me to embrace you."
" Wait till I have got it for you."
44 Will you not show any of my compositions to my future chief to give him an idea of me?"
" No, it is not necessary: if there is any need, you show it yourself, but perhaps it will not be needed. Do you make I me a present of your dissertations and compositions ? "
" Make you a present of them ?—by all means, uncle," said Alexandr, who was rather flattered by this request on the part of his uncle. " Would you not like me to make you an index of all the articles in chronological order ? "
"No, there's no need of that .. . Thanks for the present. Yevsay! take these papers to Vassily."
" Why to Vassily ? surely to your study."
" He asked me for some paper to paste on something. ,,
"What, uncle?" cried Alexandr in horror, clutching the heap back again.
44 You gave them to me you know, and what does it matter to you what use I make of your present ? "
44 You are quite ruthless !" he groaned in despair, clasping his manuscripts in both hands to his heart.
44 Alexandr, listen to me," said his uncle, taking the manuscript from him:— 44 you will not have to blush hereafter and you will thank me for it"
Alexandr let the manuscripts drop out of his hands.
44 There, take them away, Yevsay," said Piotr Ivanitch. 44 Well now your room is tidy and nice, there is no rubbish lying about; it will depend on you whether it is filled with worthless litter or with something sensible. Let us go to the factory for a walk, to get a breath of fresh air and to see how they are working."