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Chekhov -
Betrothed
I II
III IV
V VI
III In the middle of June Sasha suddenly felt bored and made up his
mind to return to Moscow.
"I can't exist in this town," he said gloomily. "No water
supply, no drains! It disgusts me to eat at dinner; the filth in
the kitchen is incredible. . . ."
"Wait a little, prodigal son!" Granny tried to persuade him,
speaking for some reason in a whisper, "the wedding is to be on
the seventh."
"I don't want to."
"You meant to stay with us until September!"
"But now, you see, I don't want to. I must get to work."
The summer was grey and cold, the trees were wet, everything in
the garden looked dejected and uninviting, it certainly did make
one long to get to work. The sound of unfamiliar women's voices
was heard downstairs and upstairs, there was the rattle of a
sewing machine in Granny's room, they were working hard at the
trousseau. Of fur coats alone, six were provided for Nadya, and
the cheapest of them, in Granny's words, had cost three hundred
roubles! The fuss irritated Sasha; he stayed in his own room and
was cross, but everyone persuaded him to remain, and he promised
not to go before the first of July.
Time passed quickly. On St. Peter's day Andrey Andreitch went
with Nadya after dinner to Moscow Street to look once more at
the house which had been taken and made ready for the young
couple some time before. It was a house of two storeys, but so
far only the upper floor had been furnished. There was in the
hall a shining floor painted and parqueted, there were Viennese
chairs, a piano, a violin stand; there was a smell of paint. On
the wall hung a big oil painting in a gold frame -- a naked lady
and beside her a purple vase with a broken handle.
"An exquisite picture," said Andrey Andreitch, and he gave a
respectful sigh. "It's the work of the artist Shismatchevsky."
Then there was the drawing-room with the round table, and a sofa
and easy chairs upholstered in bright blue. Above the sofa was a
big photograph of Father Andrey wearing a priest's velvet cap
and decorations. Then they went into the dining-room in which
there was a sideboard; then into the bedroom; here in the half
dusk stood two bedsteads side by side, and it looked as though
the bedroom had been decorated with the idea that it would
always be very agreeable there and could not possibly be
anything else. Andrey Andreitch led Nadya about the rooms, all
the while keeping his arm round her waist; and she felt weak and
conscience-stricken. She hated all the rooms, the beds, the easy
chairs; she was nauseated by the naked lady. It was clear to her
now that she had ceased to love Andrey Andreitch or perhaps had
never loved him at all; but how to say this and to whom to say
it and with what object she did not understand, and could not
understand, though she was thinking about it all day and all
night. . . . He held her round the waist, talked so
affectionately, so modestly, was so happy, walking about this
house of his; while she saw nothing in it all but vulgarity,
stupid, nave, unbearable vulgarity, and his arm round her waist
felt as hard and cold as an iron hoop. And every minute she was
on the point of running away, bursting into sobs, throwing
herself out of a window. Andrey Andreitch led her into the
bathroom and here he touched a tap fixed in the wall and at once
water flowed.
"What do you say to that?" he said, and laughed. "I had a tank
holding two hundred gallons put in the loft, and so now we shall
have water."
They walked across the yard and went out into the street and
took a cab. Thick clouds of dust were blowing, and it seemed as
though it were just going to rain.
"You are not cold?" said Andrey Andreitch, screwing up his eyes
at the dust.
She did not answer.
"Yesterday, you remember, Sasha blamed me for doing nothing," he
said, after a brief silence. "Well, he is right, absolutely
right! I do nothing and can do nothing. My precious, why is it?
Why is it that the very thought that I may some day fix a
cockade on my cap and go into the government service is so
hateful to me? Why do I feel so uncomfortable when I see a
lawyer or a Latin master or a member of the Zemstvo? O Mother
Russia! O Mother Russia! What a burden of idle and useless
people you still carry! How many like me are upon you,
long-suffering Mother!"
And from the fact that he did nothing he drew generalizations,
seeing in it a sign of the times.
"When we are married let us go together into the country, my
precious; there we will work! We will buy ourselves a little
piece of land with a garden and a river, we will labour and
watch life. Oh, how splendid that will be!"
He took off his hat, and his hair floated in the wind, while she
listened to him and thought: "Good God, I wish I were home!"
When they were quite near the house they overtook Father Andrey.
"Ah, here's father coming," cried Andrey Andreitch, delighted,
and he waved his hat. "I love my dad really," he said as he paid
the cabman. "He's a splendid old fellow, a dear old fellow."
Nadya went into the house, feeling cross and unwell, thinking
that there would be visitors all the evening, that she would
have to entertain them, to smile, to listen to the fiddle, to
listen to all sorts of nonsense, and to talk of nothing but the
wedding.
Granny, dignified, gorgeous in her silk dress, and haughty as
she always seemed before visitors, was sitting before the
samovar. Father Andrey came in with his sly smile.
"I have the pleasure and blessed consolation of seeing you in
health," he said to Granny, and it was hard to tell whether he
was joking or speaking seriously.
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