11 You can reason so calmly, uncle, while I " said
Alexandr, " am suffering in earnest; I am wretched, I am really ill."
" Is it possible that you have grown so thin thro ugh love ? What a disgraceful thing ! No, yuiTTiave been iH,"and iTo"W you are beginning to recover; and it's high time ! Seriously, this folly had been dragging on for a year and a half. A little longer, and upon my word, I should have begun to believe in eternal and unchanging love."
" Uncle !" said Alexandr, " have pity on me; there is a hell now in my heart."
" Eh ? what then ? "
Alexandr drew his armchair up to the table and his uncle began to move away from his nephew's proximity the inkstand, the paper-weights, &c.
" He comes at midnight," he thought, " hell in his heart; he'll infallibly smash something."
" Sympathy I don't get from you, and I don't ask it," began Alexandr; "I ask for your help, as my uncle, my relation I seem foolish to you—isn't it so ? "
" Yes, you would, if you were not to be pitied."
" You feel pity for me ? "
"Great pity. Do you suppose I am a flint? A good, clever, well brought-up boy, throwing himself away and what for ? a mere trifle."
" Show me that you feel for me."
" In what way ? Money, you say, you don't want."
" Money ! oh, if my trouble had been only from want of money, how I would have blessed my fate !"
" Don't speak so," observed Piotr Ivanitch seriously; "you are a boy—you would curse and not bless your fate! I have cursed it more than once in bygone days— even I!"
" Give me a patient hearing."
" Shall you be staying long ? " asked his uncle.
" Yes, I want all your attention; why ? "
" So as to know whether we shall want to have supper. As a rule I am in the habit of going to bed without supper; but now, since we shall be sitting up a long while, we will have a little, and will drink a bottle of wine, and meantime you tell me everything."
"You can eat supper?" asked Alexandr in amazement
" Yes, indeed I can ; and won't you ? "
" I—supper ! why, even you will not be able to swallow a morsel when you know that it is a matter of life and death."
" Of life and death ? " repeated his uncle; " well, that is certainly a grave matter; however, we will try; perhaps we shall manage to swallow some."
He rang the bell.
" Bring in," he said to the valet who appeared, " whatever there is for supper, and tell them to fetch a bottle of Lafitte with a green seal."
The valet disappeared.
" Uncle! you are not in a suitable frame of mind to listen to the sad story of my unhappiness," said Alexandr, taking his hat: " I had better come to-morrow."
" No, no, not at all," interrupted Piotr Ivanitch briskly, keeping his nephew by the hand, " I am always in the same frame of mind. To-morrow—not a doubt of it—you will break in upon breakfast, or worse still—on business. It would be far better to have it all over at once. Supper will not hinder matters. I shall hear and understand all the better. On an empty stomach, you know, it's not well "
They brought in supper.
" Now, Alexandr; let me " said Piotr Ivanitch.
" No, I don't want anything to eat, uncle!" said Alexandr impatiently, shrugging his shoulders, as he saw his uncle busying himself over the supper.
" At least drink a glass of wine; it's not bad wine!"
Alexandr shook his head in refusal.
" Well, then, take a cigar and tell your story, and I will be all ears," said Piotr Ivanitch, setting briskly to work upon his supper.
" Do you know C ount N ovinsky ? " asked Alexandr, after a short pause.
1
" Count Platon ? "
" Yes."
" We are friends; why ? "
" I congratulate you on such a friend—he's a scoundrel!"
Piotr Ivanitch at once ceased munching and gazed in surprise at his nephew.
11 What a discovery !" he said; " do you know him ? "
" Very well."
" Have you known him long ? "
" Three months."
" How is that ? I have known him for five years, and always considered him an honourable man, and indeed you
will not hear from any one All praise him, but you run
him down."
" Is it long since you have taken to standing up for people, uncle ? In the past it used to be "
"Even in the past I always stood up for honourable men."
" Show me where there are any honourable men ? " said Alexandr scornfully.
" Why, such as you and I; in what are we not honourable ? The Count—if the talk of him can be believed—is also an honourable man ; still, who knows ? there is something bad in every one; but all men are not bad."
" Yes, all, all!" said Alexandr with decision.
" How about you ? "
" I ? I at least bear away from the world a heart broken but unstained from baseness, a spirit shattered but free from the reproach of lying, hyprocrisy, treachery; I am not corrupted."
" So much the better; come, let us see. What has the Count done to you ? "
" What has he done ? He has robbed me of everything."
"Be more precise. By the word everything one may understand God knows what all—money, for instance; he is not doing that."
" Of what is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world," said Alexandr.
" What might this have been ? "
" Everything—happiness, life."
" Here you are alive!"
•x
A COMMON STORY 131
" More's the pity—yes! But this life is worse than a hundred deaths."
11 Tell me straight out what has happened."
" It's awful!" exclaimed Alexandr, " My God! my God!"
" I have it! hasn't he enticed your charmer away from you—that—what's-her-name ? Oh yes ! he's masterly at it; it would be hard for you to compete with him. Oh, the rascal!" said Piotr Ivanitch, raising a piece of turkey to his mouth.
" He shall pay dearly for his masterliness 1" said Alexandr, fuming. " I am not going to give way without a
struggle Death shall decide which of us is to gain
Nadinka. I wiU cal l out this v ulgar gallantj he shall not live, he shall noFenjoy the treasure Tie tias^robbed me of. I will wipe him off the face of the earth !"
Piotr Ivanitch began to laugh.
" Oh, the provinces! " he said; " a propos of the Count, Alexandr, did he say whether they had sent him the china from abroad? He ordered the set in the spring; I should like to have a look at "
" We are not talking about china, uncle; did you hear what I was saying ? " interrupted Alexandr severely.
" Hm ! " his uncle mumbled in assent, picking a small bone.
" What do you say ? "
" Oh nothing. I am listening to what you are saying."
"Answer me one word; will you do me the greatest service ? "
"What is it?"
A " Will you consent to be my second ? "
I"
The cutlets are quite cold!" remarked Piotr Ivanitch with annoyance, pushing away the dish,
"You are smiling, uncle?"
Well; how is one to listen to such stuff: you ask for a second ? "
" What is your answer ? "
" It's a matter of course; I will not come."
" Very well; some one else shall be found, some outsider, who will come to my aid in this bitter wrong. I only ask you to take the trouble to communicate with the Count to learn what conditions."
.y
132 A COMMON STORY
" I cannot, I could not bring my tongue to propose such an imbecility to him. ,,
" Then good-bye ! " said Alexandr, taking his hat.
"What! are you going already? and won't you have any wine ? "
Alexandr walked to the door, but he sank down on a chair near the door in utter exhaustion.