‘‘My life is ruined!’’ he murmured, rubbing his hands. ‘‘Why am I still alive, my God! . . .’’
He dislodged his own dim star from the sky, it fell, and its traces mingled with the night’s darkness; it would never return to the sky, because life is given only once and is not repeated. If it had been possible to bring back the past days and years, he would have replaced the lies in them by truth, the idleness by work, the boredom by joy; he would have given back the purity to those from whom he had taken it, he would have found God and justice, but this was as impossible as putting a fallen star back into the sky. And the fact that it was impossible drove him to despair.
When the thunderstorm had passed, he sat by the open window and calmly thought of what was going to happen to him. Von Koren would probably kill him. The man’s clear, cold worldview allowed for the destruction of the feeble and worthless; and if it betrayed him in the decisive moment, he would be helped by the hatred and squeamishness Laevsky inspired in him. But if he missed, or, to mock his hated adversary, only wounded him, or fired into the air, what was he to do then? Where was he to go?
‘‘To Petersburg?’’ Laevsky asked himself. ‘‘But that would mean starting anew the old life I’m cursing. And he who seeks salvation in a change of place, like a migratory bird, will find nothing, because for him the earth is the same everywhere. Seek salvation in people? In whom and how? Samoilenko’s kindness and magnanimity are no more saving than the deacon’s laughter or von Koren’s hatred. One must seek salvation only in oneself, and if one doesn’t find it, then why waste time, one must kill oneself, that’s all . . .’’
The noise of a carriage was heard. Dawn was already breaking. The carriage drove past, turned, and, its wheels creaking in the wet sand, stopped near the house. Two men were sitting in the carriage.
‘‘Wait, I’ll be right there!’’ Laevsky said out the window. ‘‘I’m not asleep. Can it be time already?’’
‘‘Yes. Four o’clock. By the time we get there . . .’’
Laevsky put on his coat and a cap, took some cigarettes in his pocket, and stopped to ponder; it seemed to him that something else had to be done. Outside, the seconds talked softly and the horses snorted, and these sounds, on a damp early morning, when everyone was asleep and the sky was barely light, filled Laevsky’s soul with a despondency that was like a bad presentiment. He stood pondering for a while and then went to the bedroom.
Nadezhda Fyodorovna lay on her bed, stretched out, wrapped head and all in a plaid; she did not move and was reminiscent, especially by her head, of an Egyptian mummy. Looking at her in silence, Laevsky mentally asked her forgiveness and thought that if heaven was not empty and God was indeed in it, He would protect her, and if there was no God, let her perish, there was no need for her to live.
She suddenly jumped and sat up in her bed. Raising her pale face and looking with terror at Laevsky, she asked:
‘‘Is that you? Is the thunderstorm over?’’
‘‘It’s over.’’
She remembered, put both hands to her head, and her whole body shuddered.
‘‘It’s so hard for me!’’ she said. ‘‘If you only knew how hard it is for me! I was expecting you to kill me,’’ she went on, narrowing her eyes, ‘‘or drive me out of the house into the rain and storm, but you put it off . . . put it off . . .’’
He embraced her impulsively and tightly, covered her knees and hands with kisses, then, as she murmured something to him and shuddered from her memories, he smoothed her hair and, peering into her face, understood that this unfortunate, depraved woman was the only person who was close, dear, and irreplaceable to him.
When he left the house and was getting into the carriage, he wanted to come back home alive.
XVIII
THE DEACON GOT UP, dressed, took his thick, knobby walking stick, and quietly left the house. It was dark, and for the first moment, as he walked down the street, he did not even see his white stick; there was not a single star in the sky, and it looked as though it was going to rain again. There was a smell of wet sand and sea.
‘‘If only the Chechens don’t attack,’’ thought the deacon, listening to his stick tapping the pavement and to the resounding and solitary sound this tapping made in the stillness of the night.
Once he left town, he began to see both the road and his stick; dim spots appeared here and there in the black sky, and soon one star peeped out and timidly winked its one eye. The deacon walked along the high rocky coast and did not see the sea; it was falling asleep below, and its invisible waves broke lazily and heavily against the shore and seemed to sigh: oof! And so slowly! One wave broke, the deacon had time to count eight steps, then another broke, and after six steps, a third. Just as before, nothing could be seen, and in the darkness, the lazy, sleepy noise of the sea could be heard, the infinitely far-off, unimaginable time could be heard when God hovered over chaos.
The deacon felt eerie. He thought God might punish him for keeping company with unbelievers and even going to watch their duel. The duel would be trifling, bloodless, ridiculous, but however it might be, it was a heathen spectacle, and for a clergyman to be present at it was altogether improper. He stopped and thought: shouldn’t he go back? But strong, restless curiosity got the upper hand over his doubts, and he went on.
‘‘Though they’re unbelievers, they are good people and will be saved,’’ he reassured himself. ‘‘They’ll surely be saved!’’ he said aloud, lighting a cigarette.
By what measure must one measure people’s qualities, to be able to judge them fairly? The deacon recalled his enemy, the inspector of the seminary, who believed in God, and did not fight duels, and lived in chastity, but used to feed the deacon bread with sand in it and once nearly tore his ear off. If human life was so unwisely formed that everyone in the seminary respected this cruel and dishonest inspector, who stole government flour, and prayed for his health and salvation, was it fair to keep away from such people as von Koren and Laevsky only because they were unbelievers? The deacon started mulling over this question but then recalled what a funny figure Samoilenko had cut that day, and that interrupted the course of his thoughts. How they would laugh tomorrow! The deacon imagined himself sitting behind a bush and spying on them, and when von Koren began boasting tomorrow at dinner, he, the deacon, would laugh and tell him all the details of the duel.
‘‘How do you know all that?’’ the zoologist would ask.
‘‘It just so happens. I stayed home, but I know.’’
It would be nice to write a funny description of the duel. His father-in-law would read it and laugh; hearing or reading something funny was better food for him than meat and potatoes.
The valley of the Yellow River opened out. The rain had made the river wider and angrier, and it no longer
