There the two women sat on the nails, not knowing what the future had in store. Nelidowa cursed Grushenka and promised to roast her to death as soon as she could lay hands on her. She howled in her pain and tried to faint. Grushenka wept softly and avoided moving her body to lessen the pain from the nails. The torches burnt slowly down. The room became dark. The sobbing and wailing cut through the dark silence. The Prince ordered a carriage. He went to Gustavus' house. He was bent on action. He aroused a sleeping servant, pushed him aside, strode into Gustavus' bedroom, which was already filled with the first morning light, and awakened the soundly sleeping Adonis with a punch in the face. Gustavus jumped out of his bed. The Prince pointed a pistol at the naked form of his rival. He demanded: “No words are necessary between us. If you want to say a prayer, I will give you the time for it.” Gustavus was wide awake. He was a squeamish Adonis, but he saw there was no escape. He stood upright, folded his arms over his chest and faced the stocky man in front of him. His white, slender body was motionless. The Prince took careful aim and shot him through the heart. Leaving, he tossed a purse of gold to the scared man-servant who cowered in the hall. “Here,” shouted the Prince. “Take that money and see to it that your master gets a decent funeral. Harlequins like him might not leave even enough money for that.” His next stop was at the main police station. He aroused the drowsing lieutenant in charge and reported with sharp words: “I am Prince Alexey Sokolow. I just killed with one shot Gustavus Swanderson. He was the lover of my wife. The whole city will confirm that, I am sure. The police will not prosecute me or I will loose my dogs at their throats. You know that! Report my word to the policemaster anyway. I leave for France today. I expect to have the policemaster as my guest when I come back. Report that to him. I will first call on the Czar in Petersburg to get a leave of absence from him. (Here the voice of the Prince became threatening and the lieutenant understood him perfectly well.) If the police master wants to do anything about this affair, have him send a report to the Czar.”
With that he strode out of the room. Next he drove to his nephew, a lieutenant in a cavalry regiment. The orderly did not want to let the Prince enter his superior's apartment, but when he mentioned his name the soldier stood back in awe. Sokolow opened the curtains of the bedroom and the sun disclosed the sleeping lieutenant in close embrace with a girl. She woke up first and was a sight. Her make-up was smeared over her face by the night's love-making, her bust was drooping, her legs were bent. She was a little Jewish whore who slept with the lieutenant for a few kopecks. He was a light-hearted boy of twenty-five, slightly dumb, good looking and with a fine physique. He was deeply in debt. His rich uncle had never given him a ruble or lent him his influence, because Sokolow disliked him as he did the rest of his family. But he was his nearest kin and had to be treated differently now. Disregarding the bitch in the bed and the questions and objections of the aroused lieutenant, the Prince forced him to dress and accompany him, while the girl settled back under the covers with a yawn. The Prince drove with his nephew, who was very startled by the intrusion, to the house of his lawyer. He rang the bell and sent the sleepy servant upstairs to demand that the lawyer get dressed and come down at once. They sat in the coach, waiting. The uncle perfectly calm in his manner, drumming with his fingers; the nephew nervously apprehensive, trying in vain to learn what it was all about. Finally the lawyer joined them and they drove back to the palace. Prince Sokolow took them to his library, put paper and ink before the lawyer and dictated a complete power of attorney in favor of his nephew, instituting him as master of his whole estate until this granted power should be revoked. He demanded certain monies sent to his banker in Paris; made a codicil to his will, dividing his estate and leaving the greater part to his nephew, who did not trust his ears. After that he dictated to the lawyer the summary of a divorce action against his wife, claiming infidelity and disowning her entirely. Then he ordered vodka and tea, walked with firm steps from one corner of the room to the other and explained to his amazed audience exactly what had happened. He told his nephew that he hoped in the future he would not sleep with such awful harlots, especially since he would find such a fine assortment of Russian girls available on his estates and would not need to soil his body on low whores. He dismissed both men, ordering his nephew to take leave of his regiment, to straighten out his small affairs and to return immediately to take charge. So-and-so much had to be earned by the estate during a year and if he should find on his return that things were not in shape, he would disown him again. The men left the lieutenant with a startled feeling of joy in his heart. Two traveling carriages were now made ready for departure. The Prince went down to the basement where a crowd of women were in a flutter. They all knew what had happened. Grushenka had fainted, but Nelidowa was still wailing as she hung broken in the chair. The Prince sent for her hand maids. He had both women unstrapped and brought up to Nelidowa's room. Grushenka was revived and sent to her bed. The Prince ordered Nelidowa dressed. When they tried to put the chemise and the trousers on her, she screamed in pain because her lacerated body could not endure the touch of the linen. Nevertheless they put a dress on her and did it quickly because the staring look of the Prince made them hurry. When Nelidowa was ready, they carried her to one of the carriages. The Prince ordered three of his most trusted men to enter the carriage also. He told them they were to drive her home to her aunt's, not to stop on the way, and to feed her in the coach.
“She is your captive, and if you don't follow orders, I shall have you killed.” The carriage drove on. It is not said what became of Nelidowa, nor do we know what became of the Prince, except that his divorce was granted and that he returned to his estate, as the records of his divorce trial prove.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Leo Kirilowicz Sokolow, the nephew, left the palace drunk with happiness. He, the unimportant little lieutenant, indebted, bound by the discipline of his regiment, short of everything that makes life wonderful for a young man, had suddenly become rich.
Yes, he was independent, the master of a hundred thousand, maybe even a million souls. How should he know how many? He was a man now who would sit in council, be courted by the ladies, govern a huge estate.
Of course his power was only temporary, only for the time Uncle Alexey was in Western Europe. But who could tell, the old bugger might die soon. In all events let the present be the present! Things went so swiftly for this young man on this day that it is hard to detail even a part of them. Paul, the orderly, was kissed by his young master on both cheeks. The Jewish whore was pulled out of the bed by one leg, while Leo laughed like mad, and after she had covered her meager body with her rags and was leaving the barely furnished room, she felt something strike her on the back and fall to the floor. An oath on her lips, she picked it up automatically. It was a purse full of rubles, the total wealth Leo commanded before his uncle got him out of bed.
The whore fled from the room clutching her unexpected wages of sin to her stomach and followed by the hilarious laughter of the young man.
In turn, the adjutant of the regiment, the captain and the colonel were notified of his resignation. Comrades were invited to a drinking bout at the palace that same evening. His scanty belongings were shipped over to the magnificent home of the Sokolows'. The new master began immediately to learn about his new household by questioning the various head servants. He sought advice on the administration of his estates by conferring with lawyers and men holding public office. He even sent messengers to all the head administrators in the provinces, mostly trusted serfs, inviting them to a conference on some future date. In short he plunged headlong into the task of his new responsibilities. During the banquet that night he got so drunk that four men had to carry him to his bed where he collapsed unconscious. The palace itself would have been under great peril of demolishment by his no less sober friends had not one of them suggested a visit to a famous whore house. When Leo awoke late the next day, his trusted orderly was at hand to nurse his tremendous headache with ice and herring. All the wealth in the world was then of no meaning to our Leo, whose rebellious stomach chained him to his bed chamber. But early the next morning found him in the saddle on the back of one of the magnificent horses of his uncle's stables and he rode around inspecting his land. As he rode he began to collect his mental balance. The whole story of his young aunt and her substitute was certainly the best stroke of luck that ever could have happened, but it was not yet clear to him how it had all come about.