Part 24 (1/2)

'May I come in?' asked Ratmirov from the other room.

'Yes ... yes.'

The door opened, and in the doorway appeared the general. He scowled on seeing Litvinov; however, he bowed to them, that is to say, he bent the upper portion of his person.

'I did not know you had a visitor,' he said: '_je vous demande pardon de mon indiscretion_. So you still find Baden entertaining, M'sieu--Litvinov?'

Ratmirov always uttered Litvinov's surname with hesitation, every time, as though he had forgotten it, and could not at once recall it.... In this way, as well as by the lofty flourish of his hat in saluting him, he meant to insult his pride.

'I am not bored here, _m'sieu le general_.'

'Really? Well, I find Baden fearfully boring. We are soon going away, are we not, Irina Pavlovna? _a.s.sez de Bade comme ca._ By the way, I've won you five hundred francs to-day.'

Irina stretched out her hand coquettishly.

'Where are they? Please let me have them for pin-money.'

'You shall have them, you shall have them.... You are going, M'sieu--Litvinov?'

'Yes, I am going, as you see.'

Ratmirov again bent his body.

'Till we meet again!'

'Good-bye, Grigory Mihalitch,' said Irina. 'I will keep my promise.'

'What is that? May I be inquisitive?' her husband queried.

Irina smiled.

'No, it was only ... something we've been talking of. _C'est a propos du voyage ... ou il vous plaira._ You know--Stael's book?'

'Ah! ah! to be sure, I know. Charming ill.u.s.trations.'

Ratmirov seemed on the best of terms with his wife; he called her by her pet name in addressing her.

XXII

'Better not think now, really,' Litvinov repeated, as he strode along the street, feeling that the inward riot was rising up again in him.

'The thing's decided. She will keep her promise, and it only remains for me to take all necessary steps.... Yet she hesitates, it seems.'... He shook his head. His own designs struck even his own imagination in a strange light; there was a smack of artificiality, of unreality about them. One cannot dwell long upon the same thoughts; they gradually s.h.i.+ft like the bits of gla.s.s in a kaleidoscope ... one peeps in, and already the shapes before one's eyes are utterly different. A sensation of intense weariness overcame Litvinov.... If he could for one short hour but rest!... But Tanya? He started, and, without reflecting even, turned submissively homewards, merely struck by the idea, that this day was tossing him like a ball from one to the other.... No matter; he must make an end. He went back to his hotel, and with the same submissiveness, insensibility, numbness, without hesitation or delay, he went to see Tatyana.

He was met by Kapitolina Markovna. From the first glance at her, he knew that she knew about it all; the poor maiden lady's eyes were swollen with weeping, and her flushed face, fringed with her dishevelled white locks, expressed dismay and an agony of indignation, sorrow, and boundless amazement. She was on the point of rus.h.i.+ng up to Litvinov, but she stopped short, and, biting her quivering lip, she looked at him as though she would supplicate him, and kill him, and a.s.sure herself that it was a dream, a senseless, impossible thing, wasn't it?

'Here you ... you are come,' she began.... The door from the next room opened instantaneously, and with a light tread Tatyana came in; she was of a transparent pallor, but she was quite calm.

She gently put one arm round her aunt and made her sit down beside her.