'There is something baffling in it, of course . . .' he thought, looking at the crimson windows. 'Fifteen hundred or two thousand workpeople are working without rest in unhealthy surroundings, making bad cotton goods, living on the verge of starvation, and only waking from this nightmare at rare intervals in the tavern; a hundred people act as overseers, and the whole life of that hundred is spent in imposing fines, in abuse, in injustice, and only two or three so-called owners enjoy the profits, though they don't work at all, and despise the wretched cotton. But what are the profits, and how do they enjoy them? Madame Lyalikov and her daughter are unhappy -- it makes one wretched to look at them; the only one who enjoys her life is Christina Dmitryevna, a stupid, middle-aged maiden lady in pince-nez. And so it appears that all these five blocks of buildings are at work, and inferior cotton is sold in the Eastern markets, simply that Christina Dmitryevna may eat sterlet and drink Madeira.'
Suddenly there came a strange noise, the same sound Korolyov had heard before supper. Some one was striking on a sheet of metal near one of the buildings; he struck a note, and then at once checked the vibrations, so that short, abrupt, discordant sounds were produced, rather like 'Dair . . . dair . . . dair. . . .' Then there was half a minute of stillness, and from another building there came sounds equally abrupt and unpleasant, lower bass notes: 'Drin . . . drin . . . drin. . .' Eleven times. Evidently it was the watchman striking the hour. Near the third building he heard: 'Zhuk . . . zhuk . . . zhuk. . . .' And so near all the buildings, and then behind the barracks and beyond the gates. And in the stillness of the night it seemed as though these sounds were uttered by a monster with crimson eyes -- the devil himself, who controlled the owners and the work-people alike, and was deceiving both.
Korolyov went out of the yard into the open country.
'Who goes there?' some one called to him at the gates in an abrupt voice.
'It's just like being in prison,' he thought, and made no answer.
Here the nightingales and the frogs could be heard more distinctly, and one could feel it was a night in May. From the station came the noise of a train; somewhere in the distance drowsy cocks were crowing; but, all the same, the night was still, the world was sleeping tranquilly. In a field not far from the factory there could be seen the framework of a house and heaps of building material:
Korolyov sat down on the planks and went on thinking.
'The only person who feels happy here is the governess, and the factory hands are working for her gratification. But that's only apparent: she is only the figurehead. The real person, for whom everything is being done, is the devil.'
And he thought about the devil, in whom he did not believe, and he looked round at the two windows where the fires were gleaming. It seemed to him that out of those crimson eyes the devil himself was looking at him -- that unknown force that had created the mutual relation of the strong and the weak, that coarse blunder which one could never correct. The strong must hinder the weak from living -- such was the law of Nature; but only in a newspaper article or in a school book was that intelligible and easily accepted. In the hotchpotch which was everyday life, in the tangle of trivialities out of which human relations were woven, it was no longer a law, but a logical absurdity, when the strong and the weak were both equally victims of their mutual relations, unwillingly submitting to some directing force, unknown, standing outside life, apart from man.
So thought Korolyov, sitting on the planks, and little by little he was possessed by a feeling that this unknown and mysterious force was really close by and looking at him. Meanwhile the east was growing paler, time passed rapidly; when there was not a soul anywhere near, as though everything were dead, the five buildings and their chimneys against the grey background of the dawn had a peculiar look -- not the same as by day; one forgot altogether that inside there were steam motors, electricity, telephones, and kept thinking of lake-dwellings, of the Stone Age, feeling the presence of a crude, unconscious force. . . .
And again there came the sound: 'Dair . . . dair . . . dair . . . dair . . .' twelve times. Then there was stillness, stillness for half a minute, and at the other end of the yard there rang out.
'Drin . . . drin . . . drin. . . .'
'Horribly disagreeable,' thought Korolyov.
'Zhuk . . . zhuk . . .' there resounded from a third place, abruptly, sharply, as though with annoyance -- 'Zhuk . . . zhuk. . . .'
And it took four minutes to strike twelve. Then there was a hush; and again it seemed as though everything were dead.
Korolyov sat a little longer, then went to the house, but sat up for a good while longer. In the adjoining rooms there was whispering, there was a sound of shuffling slippers and bare feet.
'Is she having another attack?' thought Korolyov.
He went out to have a look at the patient. By now it was quite light in the rooms, and a faint glimmer of sunlight, piercing through the morning mist, quivered on the floor and on the wall of the drawing-room. The door of Liza's room was open, and she was sitting in a low chair beside her bed, with her hair down, wearing a dressing- gown and wrapped in a shawl. The blinds were down on the windows.
'How do you feel?' asked Korolyov.
'Well, thank you.'
He touched her pulse, then straightened her hair, that had fallen over her forehead.
'You are not asleep,' he said. 'It's beautiful weather outside. It's spring. The nightingales are singing, and you sit in the dark and think of something.'
She listened and looked into his face; her eyes were sorrowful and intelligent, and it was evident she wanted to say something to him.
'Does this happen to you often?' he said.
She moved her lips, and answered:
'Often, I feel wretched almost every night.'
At that moment the watchman in the yard began striking two o'clock. They heard: 'Dair . . . dair . . .' and she shuddered.
'Do those knockings worry you?' he asked.
