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the evil old man sat by his pillow ... he drove away the bright spirits whose gold and sapphire wings rustled about his cot, carried off his poor mother from him for ever, and began whispering to him every night long, wonderful fairy tales, unintelligible to his childish imagination, but thrilling and tormenting him with terror and unchildlike passion. But thei wicked old man did not heed his sobs and entreaties, and would I go on talking to him till he sank into numbness, into uncon-sciousness. Then the child suddenly woke up a man; the yecu^ passed over him unseen, unheeded. He suddenly became aware of his real position. He understood all at once that he Wcis alone, an alien to all the world, alone in a comer not his own, among mysterious and suspicious people, among enemies who were always gathering together and whispering in the comers of his dark room, and nodding to the old woman squatting on her heels near the fire, warming her bony old hands, and pointing to him. He sank into perplexity and uneasiness; he wanted to know who these people were, why they were here, why he was himself in this room, and guessed that he had strayed into some dark den of miscreants, drawn on by some jxjwerful but incomprehensible force, without having first found out who and what the tenants were and who his landlord was. He began to be tortured by suspicion—and suddenly, in the stillness of the-night, again &erebeggn_aJ2iig^_whispeiM-stoiXLJfl^ woman, moumluI^'nodduigTier white, grizzled head before the dying fire, was muttering it softly, hardly audibly to herself. But—and agm_he_was_OKeEconiej;nth horror—the story took shape brfjg^^jmjnjormsandiaj^srTre saw evetytHing, from his dim, chilcUsh visions upwards: all his thoughts and dreams, all his experiences in life, all he had read in books, things he had forgotten long ago, all were coming to life, all were being put together, taking shape and rising up before him
jnjado^l forms and images, moving and swarming about him;
"hesawsj^feaa'ouF'beiore him magnificent, enchanted gardens, a whole town bmlt up and demolished before his eyes, a whole churchyard giving up its dead, who began living over again; whole'races and peoples came into being and passed away before his eyes; finally, every one of his thoughts, every immaterial fancy, now took bodily shape around his sick-bed; took bodily shape almost at the moment of its conception: at last he saw himself thinkings not in jmmaterialJdeas^^JbHt in whole'worldsPv^le_creations, saw himself borne along Uke an atoniiinhis infinite," strange worid from which there was no
escape, and all this life in its mutinous independence crushing and oppressing him and pursuing him witi eternal, infinite irony; he felt that he was dying, dissolving into dust and ashes for ever, and even without hope of resurrection, he tried to flee, but there was no comer in all the universe to hide him. jAt last, in an access of despair, he made an intense effort, I uttered a shriek and woke up.
Kjle woke up, bathed in a chill, icy sweat. About him was a deadly silence; it was the dead of night. ^ut_still_i^seemed to him that somewhere the wonderful fairy tale was going on, iEE^meloarae vcuce^was reaSy telling a.lQngstoiy-of something that.5eemed_familiar to him. He heard talk of dark forests, of bold brigands7 of some daring bravoes, maybe of Stenka Razin himself, of merry drunken bargemen, of some fair maiden, and of Mother Volga. Was it not a fairy tale? Was he really hearing it? For a whole hour he lay, open-eyed, without stirring a muscle, in agonising numbness. At last he got up carefully, and joyfully felt that his strength had come back to him after his severe iUness. T^ie_deliriumwas overand reality was begi
There was a bed in the comer of the landlord's room; before it was a table covered with a cloth and piled up with books of old-fashioned shape, looking from their bindings like devotional books. In the corner was an ikon of the same old-fashioned pattern as in his room; a lamp was burning before it. On the bed lay the old man, Murin, sick, worn out with suffering and pale as a sheet, covered with a fur mg. On his knees was an open book. On a bench beside the bed lay Katerina, with her arm about the old man's chest and her head bent on his shoulder. She was looking at him with attentive, childishly wondering eyes, and seemed, breathless with expectation, to be listening with insatiable curiosity to what Murin was telling her. From time to time the speaker's voice rose higher, there was a shade of animation on his pale face; he frowned, his eyes began
to flash, and Katerina seemed to turn pale with dread and expectation. Then something like a smile came into the old man's face and Katerina began laughing softly: Sometimes tears came into her eyes; then the old man tenderly stroked her on the head like a child, and she embraced him more tightly than ever with her bare arm that gleamed like snow, and nestled even more lovingly to his bosom.
At times Ordynov still thought this was part of his dream; in fact, he was convinced of it; but the blood rushed to his head and the veins throbbed painfully in his temples. He let go of the nail, got off the bed, and staggering, feeling his way Uke a lunatic, without understanding the impulse that flamed up like fire in his blood, he went to the door and pushed violently; the rusty bolt flew open at once, and with a bang and a crash he suddenly found himself in the middle of the landlord's bedroom. He saw Katerina start and tremble, saw the old man's eyes flash angrily under his lowering brows, and his whole face contorted witii sudden fury. He saw the old man, still keeping close watch upon him, feel hurriedly with fumbling hand for a gun that hung upon the wall; then he saw the barrel of the gun flash, aimed straight at his breast with an uncertain hand that trembled with fury. . . . There was the sound of a shot, then a wild, almost unhuman, scream, and when the smoke parted, a terrible sight met Ordynov's eyes. Trembling all over, he bent over the old man. Murin was lying on the floor; he was writhing in convulsions, his face was contorted in agony, and there was foam upon his working lips. Ordjmov guessed that the unhappy man was in a severe epileptic fit. He flew, together with Katerina, to help him . . .
CHAPTER III
THE whole night was spent in a^tation. Next day Ordjmov went out early in the morning, in spite of his weakness and the fever that stiU hung about him. In the yard he met the porter again. This time the Tartar lifted his cap to him from a distance and looked at him with curiosity. Then, as though pulling himself together, he set to work with his broom, glancing askance at Ordjmov as the latter slowly approached him.
"WeU, did you hear nothing in the night?" asked Ordjmov.
"Yes, I heard."
"What sort of man is he? Who is he?"
"Self took lodgings, self should know; me stranger."
"Will you ever speak?" cried Ordynov, beside himself with an access of morbid irritability.
"What did me do? Your fault^^you frightened the tenants. Below lives the cof&n-maker, he deed, but heard it all, and his wife deaf, but she heard, and in the next yard, far away, they heard. I go to the overseer."
"I am going to him myself," answered Ordynov; and he went to the gate.