“Well, we’ve chased them away. They’ll bring it tomorrow morning,” said Volodin, as he seated himself once more at the table.
Peredonov fixed his troubled eyes upon him, and asked:
“Are you a friend to me or an enemy?”
“A friend, a friend, Ardasha!” replied Volodin.
“A friend with true love is like a beetle behind the stove,” said Varvara.
“Not a beetle but a ram,” corrected Peredonov. “Well, you and I will drink together, Pavloushka, only we two. And you, Varvara, drink also—we’ll drink together, we two.”
Volodin said with a snigger:
“If Varvara Dmitrievna drinks with us, it won’t be two but three.”
“Two, I say,” repeated Peredonov morosely.
“Husband and wife are one Satan,” said Varvara, and began to laugh.
Volodin did not suspect to the last minute that Peredonov wanted to kill him. He kept on bleating, making a fool of himself, and uttering nonsense, which made Varvara laugh. But Peredonov did not forget his knife the whole evening. When Volodin or Varvara walked up to that side where the knife was hidden, Peredonov savagely warned them off. Sometimes he pointed at his pocket and said:
“I have a trick here, Pavloushka, that will make you quack.”
Varvara and Volodin laughed.
“I can always quack, Ardasha,” said Volodin. “Kra, Kra. It’s quite easy.”
Red, and drunken with vodka, Volodin protruded his lips and quacked. He became more and more arrogant towards Peredonov.
“You’ve been taken in, Ardasha,” he said with contemptuous pity.
“I’ll take you in,” bellowed Peredonov in fury.
Volodin appeared terrible to him and menacing. He must defend himself. Peredonov quickly pulled out his knife, threw himself on Volodin, and slashed him across his throat. The blood gushed out in a stream.
Peredonov was frightened. The knife fell out of his hands. Volodin kept up his bleat, and tried to catch hold of his throat with his hands. It was evident that he was deadly frightened, that he was growing weaker, and that his hands would never reach his throat. Suddenly he grew deathly pale, and fell on Peredonov. There was a broken squeal—as if he choked—then he was silent. Peredonov cried out in horror, and Varvara after him.
Peredonov pushed Volodin away. Volodin fell heavily to the floor. He groaned, moved his feet, and was soon dead. His open eyes grew glassy, and their fixed stare was directed upwards. The cat walked out of the next room, smelt the blood, and mewed malignantly. Varvara stood as if in a trance. Klavdia upon hearing the noise, came running in.
“Oh, Lord, they’ve cut his throat,” she wailed.
Varvara roused herself, and with a scream rushed from the dining-room together with Klavdia.
The news of the event spread quickly. The neighbours collected in the street, and in the garden. The bolder ones went into the house. They did not venture to enter the dining-room for some time. They peeped in and whispered. Peredonov was looking at the corpse with his vacant eyes, and listened to the whispers behind the door. … A dull sadness tormented him. He had no thoughts.
At last they grew bolder, and entered. Peredonov was sitting with downcast eyes, and mumbling incoherent, meaningless words.
Endnotes
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Rather acute “spoiler alert” in this particular author’s note we were signalled—(transcribers’ note). ↩
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St. Petersburg. ↩
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Pisarev (1840–68), a revolutionary writer and a precursor of Nihilism. ↩
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A kind of rice pudding eaten at funerals in Russia. ↩
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Zhamochki, an apparently invented word, meaning something particularly nice to eat. ↩
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A musical instrument. ↩
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This is an exaggeration of a Russian charm used against witchcraft. The word chure implies, “Hence! away!” and is addressed to the evil spirits. The whole charm is a jargon practically untranslatable. ↩
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Piatachek means a “five kopek piece” and also a “pig’s snout.” Routilov puns on the word. ↩
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Durman, the thorn apple or datura, a very poisonous plant. The Russians have a verb “durmanised,” meaning bewitched or stupefied by the durman. ↩
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Zakouska, savoury salt eatables, rather like hors d’oeuvres, eaten with vodka. ↩
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A journal of revolutionary tendencies, suppressed in 1881. ↩
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A card game. ↩
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Great Polish poet (1798–1855) who “is held to have been the greatest Slavonic poet with the exception of Pushkin.” ↩
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Sarafan, national peasant-woman’s costume. ↩
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This rhyming fellow is not such a rare specimen as may seem to the English reader. The tendency to speak in rhymes is rather common among Russian peasants. The rayeshnik is an interesting native institution. He usually improvises rhymes at gatherings and entertainments in open places, especially at carnivals and fairs. There is also the balagani d’yed (the tent grandfather), who appears in a tent in a long white beard of flax, and makes jests in rhymes. It is an institution that is gradually disappearing. ↩
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Alexander Herzen’s periodical, the Kolokol (The Bell), was suppressed in 1863 for its sympathy with the Poles. ↩
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Dvoryanin actually means a nobleman, but certain professions—that of a schoolmaster, for instance—entitle a man to the rank of dvoryanin. We have used the English word “gentleman,” to avoid confusing the reader. ↩
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Madame Shteven gave all her energy to the education of peasants, but her efforts were ultimately curtailed by the authorities. ↩
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Very inferior bread used during the famine. ↩
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Nedotikomka, an invention of the author. The word means “the touch-me-not-creature.” It is presumably an elemental, a symbol of the evil of the world. Sologub begins one of his poems—
“The grey Nedotikomka
Wriggles and turns, round and round me. …” -
This expression implies a house of
