The Russian Master and Other Stories

'But these arc merest conjectures,' said Samoylcnko, sitting down.

'Oh, arc they ? Then why is he travelling alone? Why isn't she going with him? And why, you might ask him, shouldn't she go on ahead? And he come on afterwards? C^^ng bastard!'

Overwhelmed by sudden doubts and suspicions of his friend, Samoylenko immediately lost heart and lowered his voice.

'But this is impossible,' he said, remembering the night which Layevsky had passed in his house. 'The man suffers so.'

'What of it? Burglars and fire-raisers also suffer.'

'Let's suppose you're right,' Samoylenko said pensively. 'Even so, he's still a young fellow in a strange country, a university man. We were students ourselves once, and there's no one to stand up for him here besides us.'

'To abet his filthy tricksjust because you both attended university at different periods, and both wasted your time there—what utter nonsense!'

'Wait, let's reason this out coolly. We might do it this way, I think,' calculated Samoylcnko, flicking his fingers. 'I'll make him the loan, sec? But I'll insist he gives his word of honour to send Nadezhda her travelling expenses within one week.'

'Oh, he'll give you his word ofhonour all right, he'll throw in a few tears, even—and he'll mean every bit ofit. But what's his word worth? He won't keep it, and when you mect him on the Nevsky Prospekt in a couple of years with his new mistress on his arm, he'll make the excuse that civilization lits crippled him, and that he's a chip off the same block as Turgencv's Rudin. For God's sake drop him! Leavc that muck alone—don't wallow in it!'

Samoylenko thought for a moment.

Tll still lend him the money,' he said resolutely. 'Say what you like, but I can't refuse a man on the basis of mere conjecture.'

'Fine. And you can go and slobber all over him for all I care.'

'So let me have that hundred roubles,' Samoylenko said nervously.

'Not likely.'

Silence ensued. Samoylenko felt utterly crestfallen. He assumed a guilty, shamefaced, wheedling expression, and it was strange somehow to see this huge man with his epaulettes and medals looking so pathetic and embarrassed, like a small child.

'The local bishop tours his diocese on horseback, not by carriage,' said the deacon, laying down his pen. 'He looks extraordinarily moving on horseback—the very picture of simplicity and modesty infused with biblical grandeur.'

'Is he a good man?' asked Von Koren, welcoming the change of subject.

'Obviously yes. Would he have been consecrated bishop othernise ?'

'There are some very fine bishops—most able men,' said Von Koren. 'The trouble is, though, a lot of them have this foible of posing as pillars of the state. One tries to spread the Russian way of life, another criticizes science. What has that to do with them? They should pay more attention to diocesan affairs.'

'Laymen may not judge bishops.'

'Why not though, Deacon? A bishop's a man like me.'

'Yes and no,' said the deacon, taking umbrage and picking up his pen. 'Had you been such a man, God's grace would have alighted upon you—you'd be a bishop yourself. Since you aren't one, you can't be such a man.'

'Don't burble, Deacon,' said Samoylenko, much distressed and turning to Von Koren. 'I have an idea,' he went on. 'No need for you to lend me that hundred. You'll be eating at my place for another three months more before winter, so pay me a quarter in advance.'

'No.'

Samoylenko blinked and flushed crimson. Automatically reaching for the book with the spider on it, he gave it a glance, then stood up and took his cap. Von Koren felt sorry for him.

'Fancy having to live and work with such people,' he said, kicking a piece of paper into the comer in his indignation. 'This isn't kindness or love, can't you see? It's craven corruption—sheer poison, it is! What reason builds up, your futile, debilitated emotions pull down. I contracted enteric fever as a schoolboy, and my aunt felt so sorry for me that she stuffed me with pickled mushrooms till I nearly died. Can't you and dear auntie get it into your heads that love of mankind mustn't be located in the heart, >nor in the pit of the stomach, nor yet in the small of the back? It should be up here!' And Von Koren slapped his forehead.

'Take the thing!' he said, and tossed over a hundred-rouble note.

'No need to lose your temper, Nicholas,' said Samoylenko meekly, folding the note. 'I know what you mean all right, but—put yourself m my posmon.'

'You're an old woman, that's what it comes to.'

The deacon guffawed.

'Listen, Alexander, I have one last request,' said Von Koren heatedly. 'When you give that twister the money, make one proviso—he either takes his mistress with him, or he sends her on ahead. Don't let him have it otherwise. You make no bones about it! You tell him that, and if you don't I'll go to his office and throw him downstairs, by God I will, and I'll have nothing more to do with you either—and that's flat!'

'All right then. If he takes her with him or sends her ahead, it'll actually suit him better,' said Samoylenko. 'He'll be glad to, even. Good-bye then.'

He took a fond farewell and left the room, but looked back at Von Koren before closing the door behind him.

'You've been spoilt by Germans, old man,' he said with a terrifying grimace. 'By Germans, sir!'

XII

On the following day, a Thursday, Mary Bityugov was celebrating her son Kostya's birthday. Everyone had been invited for pie at noon and chocolate in the evening. When Layevsky and Nadezhda arrived that evening, the zoologist was already in the dining-room drinking chocolate.

'Have you spoken to him?' he asked Samoylenko.

'Not yet.' '

'Don't stand on ceremony, mind. But the creatures' impudence—it beats me! They're well aware what the Bityugovs here think of their liaison, yet they still barge in.'

'If one were to truckle to every superstition, one couldn't go any- where,' said Samoylenko.

'The aversion of the masses to licentiousness and love outside marriage—you call that superstition?'

'Of course I do. Superstition and sheer ill will. Soldiers whistle and cackle when they see a loose woman, but you try asking them a few questions about their o^ behaviour!'

'They have reason to whistle. Unmarried girls smother their illegiti- mate babies and go to prison. Anna Karenin threw herself under the train, and in the villages people tar women's gates' to show they're immoral. You and I are attracted by Katya's innocence, goodness knows why. And everyone feels a vague need for pure love, though he knows there isn't such a thing. Superstition is it, all this? No, old boy, it's all we have left of natural selection. Were it not for this obscure force regulating relations between the sexes, the Laycvskys of this world would soon see you in kingdom come, and humanity would go to the bad in a couple of years.'

Layevsky went into the drawing-room and said good evening to everyone, producing a sickly smile as he shook Von Koren's hand.

'Excuse me, Alexander, I must have a word with you,' he told Samoylenko, after choosing a convenient moment.

Samoylenko stood up and put his arm round Layevsky's waist. They both went into Nicodemus Bityugov's study.

'Tomorrow's Friday,' said Layevsky, biting his nails. 'Have you got me what you promised?'

'I've only managed two hundred and ten. The rest I'll have today or tomorrow, never fear.'

'Thank God,' sighed Layevsky, his hands shaking in his joy. 'You're my salvation, Alexander. As I hope to be happy, I'll send you that money the moment I arrive, by God—I swear by anything you like. And I'll pay off my old debt too.'