Stories by Foreign Authors: Russian | Page 6

How did you come to bewitch such a bear? But
you see, he'll kill you, very like, he's such a bear . . ."
"He'll kill me, Gavrila Andreitch, he'll kill me, and no mistake."
"Kill you . . . Well we shall see about that. What do you mean by
saying he'll kill you? Has he any right to kill you? tell me yourself."
"I don't know, Gavrila Andreitch, about his having any right or not."
"What a woman! why, you've made him no promise, I suppose . . ."
"What are you pleased to ask of me?"
The steward was silent for a little, thinking, "You're a meek soul! Well,
that's right," he said aloud; "we'll have another talk with you later, now
you can go, Taniusha; I see you're not unruly, certainly."
Tatiana turned, steadied herself a little against the doorpost, and went
away.
"And, perhaps, our lady will forget all about this wedding by to-
morrow," thought the steward; "and here am I worrying myself for

nothing! As for that insolent fellow, we must tie him down if it comes
to that, we must let the police know . . . Ustinya Fyedorovna!" he
shouted in a loud voice to his wife, "heat the samovar, my good
soul . . ." All that day Tatiana hardly went out of the laundry. At first
she had started crying, then she wiped away her tears, and set to work
as before. Kapiton stayed till late at night at the gin-shop with a friend
of his, a man of gloomy appearance, to whom he related in detail how
he used to live in Petersburg with a gentleman, who would have been
all right, except he was a bit too strict, and he had a slight weakness
besides, he was too fond of drink; and, as to the fair sex, he didn't stick
at anything. His gloomy companion merely said yes; but when Kapiton
announced at last that, in a certain event, he would have to lay hands on
himself to-morrow, his gloomy companion remarked that it was
bedtime. And they parted in surly silence.
Meanwhile, the steward's anticipations were not fulfilled. The old lady
was so much taken up with the idea of Kapiton's wedding, that even in
the night she talked of nothing else to one of her companions, who was
kept in her house solely to entertain her in case of sleeplessness, and,
like a night cabman, slept in the day. When Gavrila came to her after
morning tea with his report, her first question was: "And how about our
wedding--is it getting on all right?" He replied, of course, that it was
getting on first-rate, and that Kapiton would appear before her to pay
his reverence to her that day. The old lady was not quite well; she did
not give much time to business. The steward went back to his own
room, and called a council. The matter certainly called for serious
consideration. Tatiana would make no difficulty, of course; but Kapiton
had declared in the hearing of all that he had but one head to lose, not
two or three. . . Gerasim turned rapid sullen looks on every one, would
not budge from the steps of the maids' quarters, and seemed to guess
that some mischief was being hatched against him. They met together.
Among them was an old sideboard waiter, nicknamed Uncle Tail, to
whom every one looked respectfully for counsel, though all they got
out of him was, "Here's a pretty pass! to be sure, to be sure, to be sure!"
As a preliminary measure of security, to provide against contingencies,
they locked Kapiton up in the lumber-room where the filter was kept;
then considered the question with the gravest deliberation. It would, to
be sure, be easy to have recourse to force. But Heaven save us! There

would be an uproar, the mistress would be put out--it would be awful!
What should they do? They thought and thought, and at last thought out
a solution. It had many a time been observed that Gerasim could not
bear drunkards. . . . As he sat at the gates, he would always turn away
with disgust when some one passed by intoxicated, with unsteady steps
and his cap on one side of his ear. They resolved that Tatiana should be
instructed to pretend to be tipsy, and should pass by Gerasim staggering
and reeling about. The poor girl refused for a long while to agree to this,
but they persuaded her at last; she saw, too, that it was the only possible
way of getting rid of her adorer. She went out. Kapiton was released
from the lumber-room; for, after all, he had an interest in the affair.
Gerasim was sitting on the curbstone