Part 19 (1/2)
Having received the money and counted it over painstakingly, Horizon had the brazenness to extend his hand in addition, and to shake the hand of the sub-lieutenant, who did not dare to lift up his eyes to him; and, having left him on the platform, went back into the pa.s.sageway of the car, as though nothing had happened.
This was an unusually communicative man. On the way to his COUPE he came to a stop before a beautiful little girl of three years, with whom he had for some time been flirting at a distance and making all sorts of funny grimaces at. He squatted down on his heels before her, began to imitate a nanny goat for her, and questioned her in a lisping voice:
”May I athk where the young lady ith going? OI, OI, OI! Thuch a big girl! Travelling alone, without mamma? Bought a ticket all by herthelf and travelth alone! AI! What a howwid girl! And where ith the girl'th mamma?” At this moment a tall, handsome, self-a.s.sured woman appeared from the COUPE and said calmly:
”Get away from the child. What a despicable thing to annoy strange children!”
Horizon jumped up on his feet and began to bustle:
”Madam! I could not restrain myself ... Such a wonderful, such a magnificent and swell child! A regular cupid! You must understand, madam, I am a father myself--I have children of my own ... I could not restrain myself from delight! ...”
But the lady turned her back upon him, took the girl by the hand and went with her into the COUPE, leaving Horizon shuffling his feet and muttering his compliments and apologies.
Several times during the twenty-four hours Horizon would go into the third cla.s.s, of two cars, separated from each other by almost the entire train. In one care were sitting three handsome women, in the society of a black-bearded, taciturn, morose man. Horizon and he would exchange strange phrases in some special jargon. The women looked at him uneasily, as though wis.h.i.+ng, yet not daring, to ask him about something. Only once, toward noon, did one of them allow herself to utter:
”Then that's the truth? That which you said about the place? ... You understand--I'm somewhat uneasy at heart!”
”Ah, what do you mean, Margarita Ivanovna? If I said it, then it's right, just like by the National Bank. Listen, Lazer,” he turned to him of the beard. ”There will be a station right away. Buy the girls all sorts of sandwiches, whichever they may desire. The train stops here for twenty-five minutes.”
”I'd like to have bouillon,” hesitatingly uttered a little blonde, with hair like ripened rye, and with eyes like corn-flowers.
”My dear Bella, anything you please! At the station I'll go and see that they bring you bouillon with meat and even stuffed dumplings.
Don't you trouble yourself, Lazer, I'll do all that myself.”
In another car he had a whole nursery garden of women, twelve or fifteen people, under the leaders.h.i.+p of an old, stout woman, with enormous, awesome, black eyebrows. She spoke in a ba.s.s, while her fat chins, b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and stomachs swayed under a broad morning dress in time to the shaking of the car, just like apple jelly. Neither the old woman nor the young women left the least doubts as to their profession.
The women were lolling on the benches, smoking, playing cards--at ”sixty-six,”--drinking beer. Frequently the male public of the car provoked them, and they swore back in unceremonious language, in hoa.r.s.e voices. The young people treated them with wine and cigarettes.
Horizon was here altogether unrecognizable; he was majestically negligent and condescendingly jocose. On the other hand, cringing ingratiation sounded in every word addressed to him by his female clients. But he, having looked over all of them--this strange mixture of Roumanians, Jewesses, Poles and Russians--and having a.s.sured himself that all was in order, gave orders about the sandwiches and majestically withdrew. At these moments he very much resembled a drover, who is transporting by railroad cattle for slaughter, and at a station drops in to look it over and to feed it. After that he would return to his COUPE and again begin to toy with his wife, and Hebrew anecdotes just poured from his mouth.
At the long stops he would go out to the buffet only to see about his lady clients. But he himself said to his neighbours:
”You know, it's all the same to me if it's TREIF or KOSHER. I don't recognize any difference. But what can I do with my stomach! The devil knows what stuff they'll feed you sometimes at these stations. You'll pay some three or four roubles, and then you'll spend a hundred roubles on the doctors curing yourself. But maybe you, now, Sarochka”--he would turn to his wife--”maybe you'll get off at the station to eat something? Or shall I send it up to you here?”
Sarochka, happy over his attention, would turn red, beam upon him with grateful eyes, and refuse.
”You're very kind, Senya, only I don't want to. I'm full.”
Then Horizon would reach out of a travelling hamper a chicken, boiled meat, cuc.u.mbers, and a bottle of Palestine wine; have a snack, without hurrying, with appet.i.te; regale his wife, who ate very genteelly, sticking out the little fingers of her magnificent white hands; then painstakingly wrap up the remnants in paper and, without hurrying, lay them away accurately in the hamper.
In the distance, far ahead of the locomotive, the cupolas and belfries were already beginning to sparkle with fires of gold. Through the COUPE pa.s.sed the conductor and made some imperceptible sign to Horizon. He immediately followed the conductor out to the platform.
”The inspector will pa.s.s through right away,” said the conductor, ”so you'll please be so kind as to stand for a while here on the platform of the third cla.s.s with your spouse.”
”NU, NU, NU!” concurred Horizon.
”And the money as agreed, if you please.”
”How much is coming to you, then?”
”Well, just as we agreed; half the extra charge, two roubles eighty kopecks.”