A Reckless Character | Page 3

I
shall live at my ease--and amuse others.--But why do you stare at me
so?--Do you really think that I ought to have spun the affair out
indefinitely?... My dear relative, can't I have a drink?"
Mísha talked with frightful rapidity, hurriedly and at the same time as
though half asleep.
"Good mercy, Mísha!"--I shouted: "Have the fear of God before thine
eyes! How dreadful is thine aspect, in what a condition thou art! And
thou wishest another drink! And to sell such a fine estate for a song!..."
"I always fear God and remember him," he caught me up.--"And he 's
good--God, I mean.... He'll forgive! And I also am good.... I have never

injured any one in my life as yet. And a drink is good also; and as for
hurting ... it won't hurt anybody, either. And as for my looks, they are
all right.... If thou wishest, uncle, I'll walk a line on the floor. Or shall I
dance a bit?"
"Akh, please drop that!--What occasion is there for dancing? Thou
hadst better sit down."
"I don't mind sitting down.... But why don't you say something about
my greys? Just look at them, they're regular lions! I'm hiring them for
the time being, but I shall certainly buy them together with the
coachman. It is incomparably cheaper to own one's horses. And I did
have the money, but I dropped it last night at faro.--Never mind, I'll
retrieve my fortunes to-morrow. Uncle ... how about that drink?"
I still could not collect myself.--"Good gracious! Mísha, how old art
thou? Thou shouldst not be occupying thyself with horses, or with
gambling ... thou shouldst enter the university or the service."
Mísha first roared with laughter again, then he emitted a prolonged
whistle.
"Well, uncle, I see that thou art in a melancholy frame of mind just now.
I'll call another time.--But see here: just look in at Sokólniki[6] some
evening. I have pitched my tent there. The Gipsies sing.... Well, well!
One can hardly restrain himself! And on the tent there is a pennant, and
on the pennant is written in bi-i-ig letters: 'The Band of Poltéva[7]
Gipsies.' The pennant undulates like a serpent; the letters are gilded;
any one can easily read them. The entertainment is whatever any one
likes!... They refuse nothing. It has kicked up a dust all over Moscow ...
my respects.... Well? Will you come? I've got a Gipsy there--a regular
asp! Black as my boot, fierce as a dog, and eyes ... regular coals of fire!
One can't possibly make out whether she is kissing or biting.... Will you
come, uncle?... Well, farewell for the present!"
And abruptly embracing me and kissing me with a smack on my
shoulder, Mísha darted out into the court to his calash, waving his cap
over his head, and uttering a yell; the monstrous coachman[8] bestowed
upon him an oblique glance across his beard, the trotters dashed
forward, and all disappeared!
On the following day, sinful man that I am, I did go to Sokólniki, and
actually did see the tent with the pennant and the inscription. The
tent-flaps were raised; an uproar, crashing, squealing, proceeded thence.

A crowd of people thronged around it. On the ground, on an outspread
rug, sat the Gipsy men and Gipsy women, singing, and thumping
tambourines; and in the middle of them, with a guitar in his hands, clad
in a red-silk shirt and full trousers of velvet, Mísha was gyrating like a
whirligig.--"Gentlemen! Respected sirs! Pray enter! The performance is
about to begin! Free!"--he was shouting in a cracked voice.--"Hey there!
Champagne! Bang! In the forehead! On the ceiling! Akh, thou rascal,
Paul de Kock!"--Luckily, he did not catch sight of me, and I hastily
beat a retreat.
I shall not dilate, gentlemen, on my amazement at the sight of such a
change. And, as a matter of fact, how could that peaceable, modest lad
suddenly turn into a tipsy good-for-nothing? Was it possible that all
this had been concealed within him since his childhood, and had
immediately come to the surface as soon as the weight of parental
authority had been removed from him?--And that he had kicked up a
dust in Moscow, as he had expressed it, there could be no possible
doubt, either. I had seen rakes in my day; but here something frantic,
some frenzy of self-extermination, some sort of recklessness, had made
itself manifest!

III
This diversion lasted for two months.... And lo! again I am standing at
the window of the drawing-room and looking out into the courtyard....
Suddenly--what is this?... Through the gate with quiet step enters a
novice.... His conical cap is pulled down on his brow, his hair is
combed smoothly and flows from under it to right and left