“You run, too!” ten voices whispered to Velchaninov, all but horrified that he was not running.
“What is it? What’s happened?” he kept asking, hurrying after them all.
“Quiet, don’t shout! Let him stand there and stare at the fence while we all run away. Here’s Nastya running, too!”
The little redhead (Nastya) was running headlong as if God knows what had happened, and waving her arms. They all came finally, beyond the pond, to a completely different end of the garden. When Velchaninov got there, he saw that Katerina Fedoseevna was having a big argument with all the girls and especially with Nadya and Marya Nikitishna.
“Katya, darling, don’t be angry!” Nadya was kissing her.
“All right, I won’t tell Mama, but I shall leave myself, because this is not nice at all. What must the poor man be feeling there by the fence?”
She left out of pity, but all the rest remained as implacable and pitiless as before. It was sternly demanded of Velchaninov that, when Pavel Pavlovich came back, he also pay no attention to him, as if nothing had happened. “And let’s all play fox and hounds!” the little redhead cried out rapturously.
Pavel Pavlovich rejoined the company only after at least a quarter of an hour. He must have spent two thirds of that time standing at the fence. Fox and hounds was in full swing and succeeded excellently—everyone shouted and had fun. Mad with rage, Pavel Pavlovich sprang straight up to Velchaninov and again grabbed him by the sleeve.
“For one little moment, sir!”
“Oh, Lord, what’s with him and his little moments!”
“Asking for a handkerchief again,” the cry came after them.
“Well, this time it’s you, sir; here it’s you now, sir, you are the cause of it!” Pavel Pavlovich’s teeth even chattered as he articulated this.
Velchaninov interrupted him and peaceably advised him to be more cheerful, or else he would be teased to death: “They tease you because you’re angry while everyone else is having fun.” To his amazement, Pavel Pavlovich was terribly struck by his words and advice; he at once became quiet, even to the point of returning to the company like a guilty man and obediently taking part in the general games; for some time afterward they did not bother him and played with him like anyone else—and before half an hour had gone by, he was almost cheerful again. In all the games, he engaged himself as a partner, when need be, predominantly with the treacherous little redhead or one of the Zakhlebinin sisters. But Velchaninov noticed, to his still greater amazement, that Pavel Pavlovich hardly dared even once to address Nadya, though he ceaselessly fussed around her or near her; at least he accepted the position of one unnoticed and scorned by her as if it were proper, natural. But in the end a prank was again played on him even so.
The game was hide-and-seek. The person hiding, incidentally, had the right to change his place within the whole area in which he was allowed to hide. Pavel Pavlovich, who had managed to hide by getting himself into a thick bush, suddenly decided to change his place and run into the house. There was shouting, he was seen; he hastily sneaked upstairs, having in mind a little place behind a chest of drawers where he wanted to hide. But the little redhead flew up after him, tiptoed stealthily to the door, and snapped the lock. As before, everyone at once stopped playing and again ran beyond the pond to the other end of the garden. About ten minutes later, Pavel Pavlovich, sensing that no one was looking for him, peeked out the window. No one was there. He did not dare shout lest he awaken the parents; the maid and the serving girl had been given strict orders not to come or respond to Pavel Pavlovich’s call. Katerina Fedoseevna could have opened the door for him, but she, having returned to her room, sat down in reverie and unexpectedly fell asleep herself. He sat like that for about an hour. At last, girls began to appear in twos and threes, passing by as if inadvertently.
“Pavel Pavlovich, why don’t you join us? Ah, it’s such fun there! We’re playing theater. Alexei Ivanovich had the role of the ‘young man.’ ”
“Pavel Pavlovich, why don’t you join us, it’s you one always misses!” other young misses observed, passing by.
“Who is it, again, that one always misses?” suddenly came the voice of Mme. Zakhlebinin, who had just woken up and decided finally to take a stroll in the garden and watch the “children’s” games while waiting for tea.
“It’s Pavel Pavlovich there.” She was shown the window through which peeked, with a distorted smile, pale with anger, the face of Pavel Pavlovich.
“The man would just rather sit there alone, while others are having such fun!” the mother of the family shook her head.
Meanwhile Velchaninov had the honor, finally, of receiving from Nadya an explanation of her words earlier about being “glad he had come owing to a certain circumstance.” The explanation took place in a solitary alley. Marya Nikitishna purposely summoned Velchaninov, who had participated in some of the games and was already beginning to languish greatly, and brought him to this alley, where she left him alone with Nadya.
“I’m perfectly convinced,” she rattled out in a bold and quick patter, “that you are not at all such a friend of Pavel Pavlovich’s as he boasted you were. I calculate that you alone can render me an extremely important service; here is today’s nasty bracelet,” she took the case from her pocket, “I humbly beg you to return it to him immediately, because I myself will not speak to him ever or for anything for the rest of my life. Anyhow, you may tell him so on my behalf and add that henceforth he dare not thrust his presents at me. The rest I’ll let him know through others. Will you kindly give me the pleasure of fulfilling my wish?”
“Ah, no, spare me, for God’s sake!” Velchaninov all but cried out, waving his hands.
“What! Spare me?” Nadya was unbelievably astonished by his refusal and stared wide-eyed at him. All her prepared tone broke down in an instant, and she was nearly in tears. Velchaninov laughed.
“It’s not that I… I’d be very glad… but I’ve got my own accounts with him…”
“I knew you weren’t his friend and that he was lying!” Nadya interrupted him fervently and quickly. “I’ll never marry him, you should know that! Never! I don’t even understand how he dared… Only you must return his vile bracelet to him even so, otherwise what am I to do? I absolutely, absolutely want him to get it back today, the same day—and lump it. And if he peaches to Papa, he’ll be in real trouble.”
Suddenly and quite unexpectedly the ruffled young man in blue spectacles popped from behind a bush.
“You must give him back the bracelet,” he fell upon Velchaninov furiously, “if only in the name of women’s rights, assuming you yourself stand on the level of the question…”
But he had no time to finish; Nadya pulled him by the sleeve with all her might and tore him away from Velchaninov.
“Lord, how stupid you are, Predposylov!” 12she cried. “Go away! Go away, go away, and don’t you dare eavesdrop, I told you to stand far off!…” She stamped her little feet at him, and when he had slipped back into his bushes, she still went on pacing back and forth across the path, as if beside herself, flashing her eyes and clasping her hands in front of her.
“You wouldn’t believe how stupid they are!” she suddenly stopped in front of Velchaninov. “To you it’s funny, but how is it for me!”
“But it’s not him, not him?” Velchaninov was laughing.
“Naturally it’s not him, how could you think such a thing!” Nadya smiled and turned red. “He’s only his friend. But what friends he chooses, I don’t understand it, they all say he’s a ‘future mover,’ but I don’t understand a thing… Alexei Ivanovich, I have no one to turn to; your final word, will you give it back or not?”
“Well, all right, I’ll give it back, let me have it.”
“Ah, you’re a dear, ah, you’re so kind!” she suddenly rejoiced, handing him the case. “For that I’ll sing for you the whole evening, because I sing wonderfully, you should know that, and I lied earlier about not liking music. Ah, if only you’d come again, just once, how glad I’d be, I’d tell you everything, everything, everything, and a lot more besides, because you’re so kind, so kind, like—like Katya!”