Part 32 (1/2)
”There are no inborn tastes, as well as abilities. Otherwise talents would be born only in refined, highly educated society; while artists would be born only to artists, and singers to singers; but we don't see this. However, I won't argue. Well, if not a flower girl, then something else. I, for instance, saw not long ago in a store show window a miss sitting, and some sort of a little machine with foot-power before her.”
”V-VA! Again a little machine!” said the prince, smiling and looking at Lichonin.
”Stop it, Nijeradze,” answered Lichonin, quietly but sternly. ”You ought to be ashamed.”
”Blockhead!” Soloviev threw at him, and continued.
”So, then, the machine moves back and forth, while upon it, on a square frame, is stretched a thin canvas, and really, I don't know how it's contrived, I didn't grasp it; only the miss guides some metallic thingamajig over the screen, and there comes out a fine drawing in vari-coloured silks. Just imagine, a lake, all grown over with pond-lilies with their white corollas and yellow stamens, and great green leaves all around. And on the water two white swans are floating toward each other, and in the background is a dark park with an alley; and all this shows finely, distinctly, as on a picture from life. And I became so interested that I went in on purpose to find out how much it costs. It proved to be just the least bit dearer than an ordinary sewing machine, and it's sold on terms. And any one who can sew a little on a common machine can learn this art in an hour. And there's a great number of charming original designs. And the main thing is that such work is very readily taken for fire-screens, alb.u.ms, lamp-shades, curtains and other rubbish, and the pay is decent.”
”After all, that's a sort of a trade, too,” agreed Lichonin, and stroked his beard in meditation. ”But, to confess, here's what I wanted to do. I wanted to open up for her ... to open up a little cook-shop or dining room, the very tiniest to start with, of course, but one in which all the food is cheap, clean and tasty. For it's absolutely all the same to many students where they dine and what they eat. There are almost never enough places to go round in the students' dining room.
And so we may succeed, perhaps, in pulling in all our acquaintances and friends, somehow.”
”That's true,” said the prince, ”but impractical as well; we'll begin to board on credit. And you know what accurate payers we are. A practical man, a knave, is needed for such an undertaking; and if a woman, then one with a pike's teeth; and even then a man must absolutely stick right at her back. Really, it's not for Lichonin to stand at the counter and to watch that somebody shouldn't suddenly wine and dine and slip away.”
Lichonin looked straight at him, insolently, but only set his jaws and let it pa.s.s in silence.
Simanovsky began in his measured, incontrovertible tone, toying with the gla.s.ses of his PINCE-NEZ:
”Your intention is splendid, gentlemen, beyond dispute. But have you turned your attention to a certain shady aspect, so to speak? For to open a dining room, to start some business--all this in the beginning demands money, a.s.sistance--somebody else's back, so to speak. The money is not grudged--that is true, I agree with Lichonin; but then, does not such a beginning of an industrious life, when every step is provided for--does it not lead to inevitable laxity and negligence, and, in the very end, to an indifferent disdain for business? Even a child does not learn to walk until it has flopped down some fifty times. No; if you really want to help this poor girl, you must give her a chance of getting on her feet at once, like a toiling being, and not like a drone. True, there is a great temptation here--the burden of labour, temporary need; but then, if she will surmount this, she will surmount the rest as well.”
”What, then, according to you, is she to become--a dish-washer?” asked Soloviev with unbelief.
”Well, yes,” calmly retorted Simanovsky. ”A dish-washer, a laundress, a cook. All toil elevates a human being.”
Lichonin shook his head.
”Words of gold. Wisdom itself speaks with your lips, Simanovsky.
Dish-washer, cook, maid, housekeeper ... but, in the first place, it's doubtful if she's capable for that; in the second place, she has already been a maid and has tasted all the sweets of masters' bawlings out, and masters' pinches behind doors, in the corridor. Tell me, is it possible you don't know that ninety per cent, of prost.i.tution is recruited from the number of female servants? And, therefore, poor Liuba, at the very first injustice, at the first rebuff, will the more easily and readily go just there where I have gotten her out of; if not even worse, because for her that's customary and not so frightful; and, perhaps, it will even seem desirable after the masters' treatment. And besides that, is it worth while for me--that is, I want to say--is it worth while for all of us, to go to so much trouble, to try so hard and put ourselves out so, if, after having saved a being from one slavery, we only plunge her into another?”
”Right,” confirmed Soloviev.
”Just as you wish,” drawled Simanovsky with a disdainful air.
”But as far as I'm concerned,” said the prince, ”I'm ready, as a friend and a curious man, to be present at this experiment and to partic.i.p.ate in it. But even this morning I warned you, that there have been such experiments before and that they have always ended in ignominious failure, at least those of which we know personally; while those of which we know only by hearsay are dubious as regards authenticity. But you have begun the business--and go on with it. We are your helpers.”
Lichonin struck the table with his palm.
”No!” he exclaimed stubbornly. ”Simanovsky is partly right concerning the great danger of a person's being led in leading strings. But I don't see any other way out. In the beginning I'll help her with room and board... find some easy work, buy the necessary accessories for her. Let be what may! And let us do everything in order to educate her mind a little; and that her heart and soul are beautiful, of that I am sure. I've no grounds for the faith, but I am sure, I almost know.
Nijeradze! Don't clown!” he cried abruptly, growing pale, ”I've restrained myself several times already at your fool pranks. I have until now held you as a man of conscience and feeling. One more inappropriate witticism, and I'll change my opinion of you; and know, that it's forever.”
”Well, now, I didn't mean anything... Really, I... Why go all up in the air, me soul? You don't like that I'm a gay fellow, well, I'll be quiet. Give me your hand, Lichonin, let's drink!”
”Well, all right, get away from me. Here's to your health! Only don't behave like a little boy, you Ossetean ram. Well, then, I continue, gentlemen. If we find anything which might satisfy the just opinion of Simanovsky about the dignity of independent toil, unsustained by anything, then I shall stick to my system: to teach Liuba whatever is possible, to take her to the theatre, to expositions, to popular lectures, to museums; to read aloud to her, give her the possibility of hearing music--comprehensible music, of course. It's understood, I alone won't be able to manage all this. I expect help from you; and after that, whatever G.o.d may will.”
”Oh, well,” said Simanovsky, ”the work is new, not threadbare; and how can we know the unknowable--perhaps you, Lichonin, will become the spiritual father of a good being. I, too, offer my services.”
”And I! And I!” the other two seconded; and right there, without getting up from the table, the four students worked out a very broad and very wondrous program of education and enlightenment for Liubka.
Soloviev took upon himself to teach the girl grammar and writing. In order not to tire her with tedious lessons, and as a reward for successes, he would read aloud for her artistic fiction, Russian and foreign, easy of comprehension. Lichonin left for himself the teaching of arithmetic, geography and history.