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Page 6
Meanwhile, the steward's anticipations were not fulfilled. The old lady
was so much taken up with the idea of Kapiton's wedding, that even in
the night she talked of nothing else to one of her companions, who was
kept in her house solely to entertain her in case of sleeplessness, and,
like a night cabman, slept in the day. When Gavrila came to her after
morning tea with his report, her first question was: "And how about our
wedding--is it getting on all right?" He replied, of course, that it was
getting on first-rate, and that Kapiton would appear before her to pay
his reverence to her that day. The old lady was not quite well; she did
not give much time to business. The steward went back to his own room,
and called a council. The matter certainly called for serious
consideration. Tatiana would make no difficulty, of course; but Kapiton
had declared in the hearing of all that he had but one head to lose, not
two or three. . . Gerasim turned rapid sullen looks on every one, would
not budge from the steps of the maids' quarters, and seemed to guess
that some mischief was being hatched against him. They met together.
Among them was an old sideboard waiter, nicknamed Uncle Tail, to whom
every one looked respectfully for counsel, though all they got out of
him was, "Here's a pretty pass! to be sure, to be sure, to be sure!" As
a preliminary measure of security, to provide against contingencies,
they locked Kapiton up in the lumber-room where the filter was kept;
then considered the question with the gravest deliberation. It would, to
be sure, be easy to have recourse to force. But Heaven save us! There
would be an uproar, the mistress would be put out--it would be awful!
What should they do? They thought and thought, and at last thought out a
solution. It had many a time been observed that Gerasim could not bear
drunkards. . . . As he sat at the gates, he would always turn away with
disgust when some one passed by intoxicated, with unsteady steps and his
cap on one side of his ear. They resolved that Tatiana should be
instructed to pretend to be tipsy, and should pass by Gerasim staggering
and reeling about. The poor girl refused for a long while to agree to
this, but they persuaded her at last; she saw, too, that it was the only
possible way of getting rid of her adorer. She went out. Kapiton was
released from the lumber-room; for, after all, he had an interest in the
affair. Gerasim was sitting on the curbstone at the gates, scraping the
ground with a spade. . . . From behind every corner, from behind every
window-blind, the others were watching him. . . . The trick succeeded
beyond all expectations. On seeing Tatiana, at first, he nodded as usual,
making caressing, inarticulate sounds; then he looked carefully at her,
dropped his spade, jumped up, went up to her, brought his face close to
her face. . . . In her fright she staggered more than ever, and shut her
eyes. . . . He took her by the arm, whirled her right across the yard, and
going into the room where the council had been sitting, pushed her
straight at Kapiton. Tatiana fairly swooned away. . . . Gerasim stood,
looked at her, waved his hand, laughed, and went off, stepping heavily,
to his garret. . . . For the next twenty-four hours he did not come out of
it. The postilion Antipka said afterwards that he saw Gerasim through a
crack in the wall, sitting on his bedstead, his face in his hand. From
time to time he uttered soft regular sounds; he was wailing a dirge,
that is, swaying backwards and forwards with his eyes shut, and shaking
his head as drivers or bargemen do when they chant their melancholy
songs. Antipka could not bear it, and he came away from the crack. When
Gerasim came out of the garret next day, no particular change could be
observed in him. He only seemed, as it were, more morose, and took not
the slightest notice of Tatiana or Kapiton. The same evening, they both
had to appear before their mistress with geese under their arms, and in
a week's time they were married. Even on the day of the wedding Gerasim
showed no change of any sort in his behavior. Only, he came back from
the river without water, he had somehow broken the barrel on the road;
and at night, in the stable, he washed and rubbed down his horse so
vigorously, it swayed like a blade of grass in the wind, and staggered
from one leg to the other under his fists of iron.
All this had taken place in the spring. Another year passed by, during
which Kapiton became a hopeless drunkard, and as being absolutely of no
use for anything, was sent away with the store wagons to a distant
village with his wife. On the day of his departure, he put a very good
face on it at first, and declared that he would always be at home, send
him where they would, even to the other end of the world; but later on
he lost heart, began grumbling that he was being taken to uneducated
people, and collapsed so completely at last that he could not even put
his own hat on. Some charitable soul stuck it on his forehead, set the
peak straight in front, and thrust it on with a slap from above. When
everything was quite ready, and the peasants already held the reins in
their hands, and were only waiting for the words "With God's blessing!"
to start, Gerasim came out of his garret, went up to Tatiana, and gave
her as a parting present a red cotton handkerchief he had bought for her
a year ago. Tatiana, who had up to that instant borne all the revolting
details of her life with great indifference, could not control herself
upon that; she burst into tears, and as she took her seat in the cart,
she kissed Gerasim three times like a good Christian. He meant to
accompany her as far as the town-barrier, and did walk beside her cart
for a while, but he stopped suddenly at the Crimean ford, waved his
hand, and walked away along the riverside.
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