' Is it long since you have taken to standing up for people, uncle ? In the past it used to be '
'Even in the past I always stood up for honourable men.'
' Show me where there are any honourable men ? ' said Alexandr scornfully.
' Why, such as you and I; in what are we not honourable ? The Count—if the talk of him can be believed—is also an honourable man ; still, who knows ? there is something bad in every one; but all men are not bad.'
' Yes, all, all!' said Alexandr with decision.
' How about you ? '
' I ? I at least bear away from the world a heart broken but unstained from baseness, a spirit shattered but free from the reproach of lying, hyprocrisy, treachery; I am not corrupted.'
' So much the better; come, let us see. What has the Count done to you ? '
' What has he done ? He has robbed me of everything.'
'Be more precise. By the word everything one may understand God knows what all—money, for instance; he is not doing that.'
' Of what is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world,' said Alexandr.
' What might this have been ? '
' Everything—happiness, life.'
' Here you are alive!'
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A COMMON STORY 131
' More's the pity—yes! But this life is worse than a hundred deaths.'
11 Tell me straight out what has happened.'
' It's awful!' exclaimed Alexandr, ' My God! my God!'
' I have it! hasn't he enticed your charmer away from you—that—what's-her-name ? Oh yes ! he's masterly at it; it would be hard for you to compete with him. Oh, the rascal!' said Piotr Ivanitch, raising a piece of turkey to his mouth.
' He shall pay dearly for his masterliness 1' said Alexandr, fuming. ' I am not going to give way without a
struggle Death shall decide which of us is to gain
Nadinka. I wiU cal l out this v ulgar gallantj he shall not live, he shall noFenjoy the treasure Tie tias^robbed me of. I will wipe him off the face of the earth !'
Piotr Ivanitch began to laugh.
' Oh, the provinces! ' he said; ' a propos of the Count, Alexandr, did he say whether they had sent him the china from abroad? He ordered the set in the spring; I should like to have a look at '
' We are not talking about china, uncle; did you hear what I was saying ? ' interrupted Alexandr severely.
' Hm ! ' his uncle mumbled in assent, picking a small bone.
' What do you say ? '
' Oh nothing. I am listening to what you are saying.'
'Answer me one word; will you do me the greatest service ? '
'What is it?'
A ' Will you consent to be my second ? '
I'
The cutlets are quite cold!' remarked Piotr Ivanitch with annoyance, pushing away the dish,
'You are smiling, uncle?'
Well; how is one to listen to such stuff: you ask for a second ? '
' What is your answer ? '
' It's a matter of course; I will not come.'
' Very well; some one else shall be found, some outsider, who will come to my aid in this bitter wrong. I only ask you to take the trouble to communicate with the Count to learn what conditions.'
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132 A COMMON STORY
' I cannot, I could not bring my tongue to propose such an imbecility to him. ,,
' Then good-bye ! ' said Alexandr, taking his hat.
'What! are you going already? and won't you have any wine ? '
Alexandr walked to the door, but he sank down on a chair near the door in utter exhaustion.
' Whom can I go to ? whose help can I get ? ' he said in a low voice.
'Listen, Alexandr?' began Piotr Ivanitch, wiping his lips with a napkin and moving an armchair to his nephew. ' I see that I must talk to you in earnest. Let us talk it over. You have come to me for assistance; I will assist you, only not in the way you imagine, and on condition—that you be guided by me. Don't ask any one to be your second; there will be no use in it. For a trifle you will make a scandal, it will be spread about everywhere, people will laugh at you, or worse still, make use of it to injure you. No one will consent, but even if some madman could be found to second you, it would be all for nothing. The Count will not fight; I know him.'
' Not fight! is there no grain of manliness in him ?' observed Alexandr with bitter malice; ' I should not have suspected he was as base as that!'
' He is not base, but only sensible.'
' Tell me with whom are you chiefly angry—with the Count, or with her—what's-her-name—Anuta, is it ? '
' I hate her, I despise her,' said Alexandr.
' Let us begin with the Count; let as suppose that he accepts your challenge, let us even suppose that you find a fool to second you—what will come of it ? The Count will kill you, like a fly, and every one will laugh at you afterwards ; a fine revenge. Let us even suppose that you did by some accident kill him—what sense is there in it ? would you bring back your charmer's love by that? No, she would only hate you for it, and besides, they would send
you for a soldier And what is the chief consideration;
you would tear your hair in despair at your behaviour another day and would quickly have grown cold to. your charmer. Is she the only one in the world—your Maria or Sophia—what's-her-name ? '
' They call her Nadyezhda.'
' Nadyezhda ? then who is Sophia ? '
' Sophia 1 oh, that was in the country,' said Alexandr reluctantly.
' Do you see ? ' continued his uncle, ' there it was Sophia, here it's Nadyezhda, somewhere else it will be Maria. The heart is a very deep well; it's a long while before you sound it to the bottom. It goes on loving till old age.'
' No, the heart loves once.'
' And you go on repeating what you have heard from others. The heart goes on loving as long as its strength is not all spent. It lives its life and also, like everything else in man, has its youth and its old age. If one love has failed, it only dies away, and is still until the next; if a second time it's thwarted, it still has the power, so long as its love is unavailing, to love again for a third and a fourth time, until at last the heart puts all its strength into some one happy union, when nothing thwarts it, and then it slowly and gradually grows cold. With some men love was successful the first time, so they go crying out that one can love once only. So long as a man is in good health and not in decrepitude '
'You always talk of youth, uncle, meaning, of course, material love.'
' I talk of youth because love in old age is a blunder, an abnormality. And how about material love ? There is no such love, or rather it is not love, just as there is no love purely ideal. Where was I ? .... oh, you'd been sent for a soldier; besides this, after this scandal your charmer wouldn't allow you in her sight. You would have injured her and yourself too for nothing—do you see ? I hope we have worked out this question conclusively on one side. Now '
Piotr Ivanitch poured himself out some wine and drank it.
'What a blockhead!' he said, 'he has sent up cold Lafitte.'
Alexandr sat in silence with drooping head.
' Now, tell me,' continued his uncle, warming the glass of wine with both hands, ' why did you want to wipe
