I stood for a little while at his bedside. I did not think he would get to sleep quickly, but soon his breathing became more even and prolonged. I went away on tiptoe, turned into my own room, and lay down on the sofa. For a long while I mused on what Pasinkov had told me, recalled many things, wondered; at last I too fell asleep….
Some one touched me; I started up; before me stood Elisei.
'Come in to my master,' he said.
I got up at once.
'What's the matter with him?'
'He's delirious.'
'Delirious? And hasn't it ever been so before with him?'
'Yes, he was delirious last night, too; only to-day it is something terrible.'
I went to Pasinkov's room. He was not lying down, but sitting up in bed, his whole body bent forward. He was slowly gesticulating with his hands, smiling and talking, talking all the time in a weak, hollow voice, like the whispering of rushes. His eyes were wandering. The gloomy light of a night light, set on the floor, and shaded off by a book, lay, an unmoving patch on the ceiling; Pasinkov's face seemed paler than ever in the half darkness.
I went up to him, called him by his name—he did not answer. I began listening to his whispering: he was talking of Siberia, of its forests. From time to time there was sense in his ravings.
'What trees!' he whispered; 'right up to the sky. What frost on them! Silver … snowdrifts…. And here are little tracks … that's a hare's leaping, that's a white weasel… No, it's my father running with my papers. Here he is!… Here he is! Must go; the moon is shining. Must go, look for my papers…. Ah! A flower, a crimson flower—there's Sophia…. Oh, the bells are ringing, the frost is crackling…. Ah, no; it's the stupid bullfinches hopping in the bushes, whistling…. See, the redthroats! Cold…. Ah! here's Asanov…. Oh yes, of course, he's a cannon, a copper cannon, and his gun-carriage is green. That's how it is he's liked. Is it a star has fallen? No, it's an arrow flying…. Ah, how quickly, and straight into my heart!… Who shot it? You, Sonitchka?'
He bent his head and began muttering disconnected words. I glanced at Elisei; he was standing, his hands clasped behind his back, gazing ruefully at his master.
'Ah, brother, so you've become a practical person, eh?' he asked suddenly, turning upon me such a clear, such a fully conscious glance, that I could not help starting and was about to reply, but he went on at once: 'But I, brother, have not become a practical person, I haven't, and that's all about it! A dreamer I was born, a dreamer! Dreaming, dreaming…. What is dreaming? Sobakevitch's peasant—that's dreaming. Ugh!…'
Almost till morning Pasinkov wandered in delirium; at last he gradually grew quieter, sank back on the pillow, and dozed off. I went back into my room. Worn out by the cruel night, I slept soundly.
Elisei again waked me.
'Ah, sir!' he said in a shaking voice, 'I do believe Yakov Ivanitch is dying….'
I ran in to Pasinkov. He was lying motionless. In the light of the coming day he looked already a corpse. He recognised me.
'Good-bye,' he whispered; 'greet her for me, I'm dying….'
'Yasha!' I cried; 'nonsense! you are going to live….'
'No, no! I am dying…. Here, take this as a keepsake.' … (He pointed to his breast.) …
'What's this?' he began suddenly; 'look: the sea … all golden, and blue isles upon it, marble temples, palm-trees, incense….'
He ceased speaking … stretched….
Within half an hour he was no more. Elisei flung himself weeping at his feet. I closed his eyes.
On his neck there was a little silken amulet on a black cord. I took it.
Three days afterwards he was buried…. One of the noblest hearts was hidden for ever in the grave. I myself threw the first handful of earth upon him.
III
Another year and a half passed by. Business obliged me to visit Moscow. I took up my quarters in one of the good hotels there. One day, as I was passing along the corridor, I glanced at the black-board with the list of visitors staying in the hotel, and almost cried out aloud with astonishment. Opposite the number 12 stood, distinctly written in chalk, the name, Sophia Nikolaevna Asanova. Of late I had chanced to hear a good deal that was bad about her husband. I had learned that he was addicted to drink and to gambling, had ruined himself, and was generally misconducting himself. His wife was spoken of with respect…. In some excitement I went back to my room. The passion, that had long long ago grown cold, began as it were to stir within my heart, and it throbbed. I resolved to go and see Sophia Nikolaevna. 'Such a long time has passed since the day we parted,' I thought, 'she has, most likely, forgotten everything there was between us in those days.'
I sent Elisei, whom I had taken into my service after the death of Pasinkov, with my visiting-card to her door, and told him to inquire whether she was at home, and whether I might see her. Elisei quickly came back and announced that Sophia Nikolaevna was at home and would see me.
I went at once to Sophia Nikolaevna. When I went in, she was standing in the middle of the room, taking leave of a tall stout gentleman.
'As you like,' he was saying in a rich, mellow voice; 'he is not a harmless person, he's a useless person; and every useless person in a well-ordered society is harmful, harmful, harmful!'
With those words the tall gentleman went out. Sophia Nikolaevna turned to me.
'How long it is since we met!' she said. 'Sit down, please….'
We sat down. I looked at her…. To see again after long absence the features of a face once dear, perhaps beloved, to recognise them, and not recognise them, as though across the old, unforgotten countenance a new one, like, but strange, were looking out at one; instantaneously, almost unconsciously, to note the traces time has laid upon it;—all this is rather melancholy. 'I too must have changed in the same way,' each is inwardly thinking….
Sophia Nikolaevna did not, however, look much older; though, when I had seen her last, she was sixteen, and that was nine years ago.
Her features had become still more correct and severe; as of old, they expressed sincerity of feeling and firmness; but in place of her former serenity, a sort of secret ache and anxiety could be discerned in them. Her eyes had grown deeper and darker. She had begun to show a likeness to her mother….
Sophia Nikolaevna was the first to begin the conversation.
'We are both changed,' she began. 'Where have you been all this time?'
'I've been a rolling stone,' I answered. 'And have you been living in the country all the while?'
'For the most part I've been in the country. I'm only here now for a little time.'
'How are your parents?'
'My mother is dead, but my father is still in Petersburg; my brother's in the service; Varia lives with him.'
'And your husband?'
'My husband,' she said in a rather hurried voice—'he's just now in South Russia for the horse fairs. He was always very fond of horses, you know, and he has started stud stables … and so, on that account … he's buying horses now.'
At that instant there walked into the room a little girl of eight years old, with her hair in a pigtail, with a very keen and lively little face, and large dark grey eyes. On seeing me, she at once drew back her little foot, dropped a hasty curtsey, and went up to Sophia Nikolaevna.
'This is my little daughter; let me introduce her to you,' said Sophia
Nikolaevna, putting one finger under the little girl's round chin; 'she would not stop at home—she persuaded me to bring her with me.'
The little girl scanned me with her rapid glance and faintly dropped her eyelids.
'She is a capital little person,' Sophia Nikolaevna went on: 'there's nothing she's afraid of. And she's good at her lessons; I must say that for her.'
'Comment se nomme monsieur?' the little girl asked in an undertone, bending over to her mother.