He saw Kira before she had a chance to run and spare him, but he did not seem to mind; he called her, his grim face smiling happily, the strange, helpless smile he had but for Kira, Victor and Irina.
“How are you, Kira? Glad to see you. Glad to see you.... This? Just an old clock. Doesn’t mean much.... I bought it for Marussia on her birthday ... her first birthday after we were married. She saw it in a museum and wanted it. It and no other. So I had to do some diplomatic work. It took an Imperial order from the palace to get it sold out of the museum.... It doesn’t run any more. We’ll get along without it.”
He stopped to look hopefully at a fat peasant woman who was staring at the clock, scratching her neck. But when she met Vasili Ivanovitch’s eyes, she turned and hurried away, raising her heavy skirts high over felt boots.
Vasili Ivanovitch whispered to Kira: “You know, this is not a cheerful place. I feel so sorry for all these people here, selling the last of their possessions, with nothing to expect of life. For me, it’s different. I don’t mind. What’s a few knick-knacks more or less? I’ll have time to buy plenty of new ones. But I have something I can’t sell and can’t lose and it can’t be nationalized. I have a future. A living future. My children. You know, Irina — she’s the smartest child. She was always first in school; had she graduated in the old days she would have received a gold medal. And Victor?” The old shoulders straightened vigorously like those of a soldier at attention. “Victor is an unusual young man. Victor’s the brightest boy I’ve ever seen. Sure, we disagree a little sometimes, but that’s because he’s young, he doesn’t quite understand. You mark my word: Victor will be a great man some day.”
“And Irina will be a famous artist, Uncle Vasili.”
“And, Kira, did you read the papers this morning? Just watch England. Within the next month or two....”
A fat individual in a sealskin hat stopped and eyed the Sachs clock critically.
“Give you fifty millions for it, citizen,” he said curtly, pointing at the clock with a short finger in a leather glove.
The price could not buy ten pounds of bread. Vasili Ivanovitch hesitated; he looked wistfully at the sky turning red high above the houses; at the long line of shadows on the sidewalk, that peered eagerly, hopelessly into every passing face.
“Well ...” he muttered.
“Why, citizen,” Kira whirled on the man, her voice suddenly sharp, querulous, like an indignant housewife, “fifty millions? I’ve just offered this citizen sixty millions for the clock and he wouldn’t sell. I was going to offer....”
“Seventy-five millions and I’ll take it along,” said the stranger.
Vasili Ivanovitch counted the bills carefully. He did not follow the clock with his eyes as it disappeared in the crowd, quivering against a portly hip. He looked at Kira.
“Why, child, where did you learn that?”
She laughed. “One can learn anything — in an emergency.”
Then they parted. Vasili Ivanovitch hurried home. Kira went on in search of the brief case.
Vasili Ivanovitch walked to save carfare. It was getting dark. Snow fluttered down slowly, steadily, as if saving speed for a long run. Thick white foam grew along the curbs.
On a corner, a pair of human eyes looked up at Vasili Ivanovitch from the level of his stomach. The eyes were in a young, clean-shaven face; the legs of the body to which the face belonged seemed to have fallen through the sidewalk, up to above the knees; it took Vasili Ivanovitch an effort to realize that the body had no legs, that it ended in two stumps wrapped in dirty rags, in the snow. The rest of the body wore the neat, patched tunic of an officer of the Imperial army; one of its sleeves was empty; in the other there was an arm and a hand; the hand held out a newspaper, silently, level with the knees of passersby. In the lapel of the tunic Vasili Ivanovitch noticed a tiny black and orange band, the ribbon of the Cross of St. George.
Vasili Ivanovitch stopped and bought a newspaper. The newspaper cost fifty thousand rubles; he handed down a million-ruble bill.
“I’m sorry, citizen,” the officer said in a soft, courteous voice, “I have no change.”
Vasili Ivanovitch muttered gruffly: “Keep it. And I’ll still be your debtor.”
And he hurried away without looking back.
Kira was listening to a lecture at the Institute. The auditorium was not heated; students kept on their overcoats and woolen mittens; the auditorium was overcrowded; students sat on the floor in the aisles.
A hand opened the door cautiously; a man’s head leaned in and threw a quick glance at the professor’s desk. Kira recognized the scar on the right temple. It was a lecture for beginners and he had never attended it. He had entered the auditorium by mistake. He was about to withdraw when he noticed Kira. He entered, closed the door noiselessly and took off his cap. She watched him from the corner of her eye. There was room in the aisle by the door, but he walked softly toward her and sat down on the steps in the aisle, at her feet.
She could not resist the temptation of looking down at him. He bowed silently, with the faintest hint of a smile, and turned attentively toward the professor’s desk. He sat still, his legs crossed, one hand motionless on his knee. The hand seemed all bones, skin and nerves. She noticed how hollow his cheeks were, how sharp the angles of his cheekbones. His leather jacket was more military than a gun, more communistic than a red flag. He did not look up at her once.
When the lecture ended and a mob of impatient feet rushed down the aisles, he got up; but he did not hurry to the door; he turned to Kira.
“How are you today?” he asked.
“Surprised,” she answered.
“By what?”
“Since when do conscientious Communists waste time by listening to lectures they don’t need?”
“Conscientious Communists are curious. They don’t mind listening to investigate that which they don’t understand.”
“I’ve heard they have many efficient ways of satisfying their curiosity.”
“They don’t always want to use them,” he answered calmly, “so they have to find out for themselves.”
“For themselves? Or for the Party?”
“Sometimes both. But not always.”
They were out of the auditorium, walking together down the corridor. A strong hand clapped Kira’s back; and she heard a laughter that was too loud.
“Well, well, well, Comrade Argounova!” Comrade Sonia roared into her face. “What a surprise! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Walking with Comrade Taganov, the reddest Communist we’ve got?”
“Afraid I’ll corrupt him, Comrade Sonia?”
“Corrupt? Him? Not a chance, dear, not a chance. Well, bye-bye. Have to run. Have three meetings at four o’clock — and promised to attend them all!”
Comrade Sonia’s short legs marched resonantly down the hall, her arm swinging a heavy brief case like a knapsack.
“Are you going home, Comrade Argounova?” he asked.
“Yes, Comrade Taganov.”
“Would you mind if you’re compromised by being seen with a very red Communist?”
“Not at all — if your reputation won’t be tarnished by being seen with a very white lady.”
Outside, snow melted into mud under many hurried steps and the mud froze into sharp, jagged ridges. He took Kira’s arm. He looked at her with a silent inquiry for approval. She answered by closing her eyes and nodding. They walked silently. Then she looked up at him and smiled.
She said: “I thought that Communists never did anything except what they had to do; that they never believed in doing anything but what they had to do.”
“That’s strange,” he smiled, “I must be a very poor Communist. I’ve always done only what I wanted to do.”