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“Accompany you where?” Velchaninov goggled his eyes.
“To them, sir, that is, to their country house, sir. Forgive me, I’m speaking as if in a fever and may have become confused; but I’m so afraid you’ll say no, sir…”
And he looked lamentably at Velchaninov.
“You want me to go with you now to your fiancée?” Velchaninov repeated, casting a quick glance over him and believing neither his ears nor his eyes.
“Yes, sir,” Pavel Pavlovich suddenly grew terribly timid. “Don’t be angry, Alexei Ivanovich, this isn’t boldness, sir; I only beg you most humbly and exceptionally. I dreamed that you might perhaps not want to say no to me in this…”
“First of all, it’s utterly impossible,” Velchaninov squirmed uneasily.
“It’s just my exceeding wish and nothing more, sir,” the man went on imploring. “I also won’t conceal that there is a reason as well, sir. But about this reason I would like to reveal only later, sir, and now I only beg exceptionally…”
And he even got up from his chair out of deference.
“But in any case it’s impossible, you must agree…” Velchaninov also got up from his place.
“It’s very possible, Alexei Ivanovich, sir—I pla
“What’s that?” Velchaninov cried out. It was the same state councillor he had been looking for, about a month ago, and had been unable to catch at home, who had acted, as it turned out, in favor of the adverse party in his lawsuit.
“Why, yes, of course,” Pavel Pavlovich smiled, as if encouraged by Velchaninov’s extreme astonishment, “the same one, you remember, you were walking along and talking with, while I watched you and stood on the other side; I was waiting then to approach him after you. Some twenty years back we even served together, sir, but at the time when I wanted to approach after you, sir, I still didn’t have this thought. It’s only now that it came suddenly, about a week ago, sir.”
“But, listen, it seems this is quite a respectable family?” Velchaninov was naively surprised.
“So what, sir, if they’re respectable?” Pavel Pavlovich’s face twisted.
“No, naturally, I don’t mean that… but as far as I could tell, having been there…”
“They remember, they remember, sir, that you were,” Pavel Pavlovich picked up joyfully, “only you couldn’t see the family then, sir; and he remembers and respects you. I spoke about you deferentially with them.”
“But how can it be, if you’ve been a widower for only three months?”10
“Oh, the wedding’s not right now, sir; the wedding’s in nine or ten months, so that exactly a year of mourning will have gone by, sir. Believe me, it’s all just fine, sir. First of all, Fedosei Petrovich has known me even since my youngest years, he knew my late spouse, how I lived, and what my reputation is, sir, and, finally, I have a fortune, and here also I’ve now obtained a post and a promotion—so all this carries weight, sir.”
“It’s his daughter, then?”
“I’ll tell you all about it in detail, sir,” Pavel Pavlovich hunched himself up pleasantly, “allow me to light a cigarette. Besides, you’ll see for yourself today. First of all, such men of affairs as Fedosei Petrovich are sometimes highly valued in the service here in Petersburg, if they manage to attract attention, sir. But apart from the salary and the rest—supplements, premiums, emoluments, di
Pavel Pavlovich explained with rapture.
“You proposed to the oldest one?”
“N-no, I… not to the oldest one; I proposed to the sixth one, the one that’s still studying in school.”
“What?” Velchaninov gri
“Fifteen now, sir; but in nine months she’ll be sixteen, sixteen years and three months, sir, so why not? And since for the moment it’s all inappropriate, nothing’s been made public yet, only with the parents… Believe me, it’s all just fine, sir!”
“So it hasn’t been decided yet?”
“No, it’s decided, everything’s decided. Believe me, it’s all just fine, sir.”
“And she knows?”
“That is, it’s only for appearance, for propriety’s sake, that it hasn’t been talked about, as it were; but how could she not know, sir?” Pavel Pavlovich narrowed his eyes pleasantly. “So, then, will you make me a happy man, Alexei Ivanovich?” he concluded, terribly timidly.
“But what should I go there for? However,” he added hastily, “since I’m not going in any case, don’t offer me any reasons.”
“Alexei Ivanovich…”
“But do you think I can really sit down beside you and go!”
A disgusted and hostile feeling came back to him again after the momentary diversion of Pavel Pavlovich’s babble about his fiancée. Another minute, it seemed, and he would chase him out altogether. He was even angry with himself for something.
“Sit down, Alexei Ivanovich, sit down beside me and you won’t regret it!” Pavel Pavlovich entreated in a soulful voice. “No, no, no!” he waved his hands, catching Velchaninov’s impatient and resolute gesture, “Alexei Ivanovich, Alexei Ivanovich, don’t decide yet, sir! I see that you have perhaps misunderstood me: I realize only too well that I am not friends with you, nor you with me, sir; I’m not so absurd as not to realize that, sir. And that this present favor I am begging of you doesn’t count for anything in the future. And I myself will leave completely the day after tomorrow, sir—altogether, sir, so it’s as if there was nothing. Let this day be only one occasion, sir. I came to you basing my hopes on the nobility of certain special feelings of your heart, Alexei Ivanovich—precisely on those feelings that may have been stirred in your heart recently, sir… I believe I’m speaking clearly, sir—or not quite?”
Pavel Pavlovich’s agitation had grown in the extreme. Velchaninov looked at him strangely.
“You’re begging for some favor on my part,” he asked, pondering, “and being terribly insistent—I find that suspicious; I want to know more.”
“The whole favor consists only in your coming with me. And afterward, when we’ve come back, I’ll lay out everything before you as if at confession. Trust me, Alexei Ivanovich!”
But Velchaninov still kept refusing, and the more stubbornly as he felt in himself a certain heavy, spiteful thought. This wicked thought had already long been stirring in him, from the very begi
“All right, I’ll go,” he suddenly agreed uneasily and almost anxiously, getting up from his place. Pavel Pavlovich was boundlessly overjoyed.