The Greatest Novellas & Short Stories of Anton Chekhov. Anton Chekhov

say anything about me?”

      “About you? What shall I say?”

      Alyosha looked searchingly into Belyaev’s face and shrugged his shoulders.

      “He didn’t say anything particular.”

      “For instance, what did he say?”

      “You won’t be offended?”

      “What next? Why, does he abuse me?”

      “He doesn’t abuse you, but you know he is angry with you. He says mother’s unhappy owing to you… and that you have ruined mother. You know he is so queer! I explain to him that you are kind, that you never scold mother; but he only shakes his head.”

      “So he says I have ruined her?”

      “Yes; you mustn’t be offended, Nikolay Ilyitch.”

      Belyaev got up, stood still a moment, and walked up and down the drawing-room.

      “That’s strange and… ridiculous!” he muttered, shrugging his shoulders and smiling sarcastically. “He’s entirely to blame, and I have ruined her, eh? An innocent lamb, I must say. So he told you I ruined your mother?”

      “Yes, but… you said you would not be offended, you know.”

      “I am not offended, and… and it’s not your business. Why, it’s… why, it’s positively ridiculous! I have been thrust into it like a chicken in the broth, and now it seems I’m to blame!”

      A ring was heard. The boy sprang up from his place and ran out. A minute later a lady came into the room with a little girl; this was Olga Ivanovna, Alyosha’s mother. Alyosha followed them in, skipping and jumping, humming aloud and waving his hands. Belyaev nodded, and went on walking up and down.

      “Of course, whose fault is it if not mine?” he muttered with a snort. “He is right! He is an injured husband.”

      “What are you talking about?” asked Olga Ivanovna.

      “What about?… Why, just listen to the tales your lawful spouse is spreading now! It appears that I am a scoundrel and a villain, that I have ruined you and the children. All of you are unhappy, and I am the only happy one! Wonderfully, wonderfully happy!”

      “I don’t understand, Nikolay. What’s the matter?”

      “Why, listen to this young gentleman!” said Belyaev, pointing to Alyosha.

      Alyosha flushed crimson, then turned pale, and his whole face began working with terror.

      “Nikolay Ilyitch,” he said in a loud whisper. “Sh-sh!”

      Olga Ivanovna looked in surprise at Alyosha, then at Belyaev, then at Alyosha again.

      “Just ask him,” Belyaev went on. “Your Pelagea, like a regular fool, takes them about to restaurants and arranges meetings with their papa. But that’s not the point: the point is that their dear papa is a victim, while I’m a wretch who has broken up both your lives…”

      “Nikolay Ilyitch,” moaned Alyosha. “Why, you promised on your word of honour!”

      “Oh, get away!” said Belyaev, waving him off. “This is more important than any word of honour. It’s the hypocrisy revolts me, the lying! …”

      “I don’t understand it,” said Olga Ivanovna, and tears glistened in her eyes. “Tell me, Alyosha,” she turned to her son. “Do you see your father?”

      Alyosha did not hear her; he was looking with horror at Belyaev.

      “It’s impossible,” said his mother; “I will go and question Pelagea.”

      Olga Ivanovna went out.

      “I say, you promised on your word of honour!” said Alyosha, trembling all over.

      Belyaev dismissed him with a wave of his hand, and went on walking up and down. He was absorbed in his grievance and was oblivious of the boy’s presence, as he always had been. He, a grownup, serious person, had no thought to spare for boys. And Alyosha sat down in the corner and told Sonia with horror how he had been deceived. He was trembling, stammering, and crying. It was the first time in his life that he had been brought into such coarse contact with lying; till then he had not known that there are in the world, besides sweet pears, pies, and expensive watches, a great many things for which the language of children has no expression.

      DIFFICULT PEOPLE

       Table of Contents

      Translation By Constance Garnett

      YEVGRAF IVANOVITCH SHIRYAEV, a small farmer, whose father, a parish priest, now deceased, had received a gift of three hundred acres of land from Madame Kuvshinnikov, a general’s widow, was standing in a corner before a copper washing-stand, washing his hands. As usual, his face looked anxious and ill-humoured, and his beard was uncombed.

      “What weather!” he said. “It’s not weather, but a curse laid upon us. It’s raining again!”

      He grumbled on, while his family sat waiting at table for him to have finished washing his hands before beginning dinner. Fedosya Semyonovna, his wife, his son Pyotr, a student, his eldest daughter Varvara, and three small boys, had been sitting waiting a long time. The boys — Kolka, Vanka, and Arhipka — grubby, snub-nosed little fellows with chubby faces and tousled hair that wanted cutting, moved their chairs impatiently, while their elders sat without stirring, and apparently did not care whether they ate their dinner or waited….

      As though trying their patience, Shiryaev deliberately dried his hands, deliberately said his prayer, and sat down to the table without hurrying himself. Cabbage-soup was served immediately. The sound of carpenters’ axes (Shiryaev was having a new barn built) and the laughter of Fomka, their labourer, teasing the turkey, floated in from the courtyard.

      Big, sparse drops of rain pattered on the window.

      Pyotr, a round-shouldered student in spectacles, kept exchanging glances with his mother as he ate his dinner. Several times he laid down his spoon and cleared his throat, meaning to begin to speak, but after an intent look at his father he fell to eating again. At last, when the porridge had been served, he cleared his throat resolutely and said:

      “I ought to go tonight by the evening train. I out to have gone before; I have missed a fortnight as it is. The lectures begin on the first of September.”

      “Well, go,” Shiryaev assented; “why are you lingering on here? Pack up and go, and good luck to you.”

      A minute passed in silence.

      “He must have money for the journey, Yevgraf Ivanovitch,” the mother observed in a low voice.

      “Money? To be sure, you can’t go without money. Take it at once, since you need it. You could have had it long ago!”

      The student heaved a faint sigh and looked with relief at his mother. Deliberately Shiryaev took a pocketbook out of his coat-pocket and put on his spectacles.

      “How much do you want?” he asked.

      “The fare to Moscow is eleven roubles forty-two kopecks… .”

      “Ah, money, money!” sighed the father. (He always sighed when he saw money, even when he was receiving it.) “Here are twelve roubles for you. You will have change out of that which will be of use to you on the journey.”

      “Thank you.”

      After waiting a little, the student said:

      “I did not get lessons quite at first last year. I don’t know how it will be this year; most likely it will take me a little time to find work. I ought to ask you for fifteen roubles