The Awakening | Page 3

cow-shed to reprimand the
milkmaids for carelessness in skimming the cream, and there saw the
mother with the healthy and beautiful child. The old maiden chided
them for the cream and for permitting the woman to lie in the cow-shed,
and was on the point of departing, but noticing the child, was moved to
pity, and afterward consented to stand godmother to the child. She
baptized the child, and in pity for her god-daughter, furnished her with
milk, gave the mother some money, and the babe thrived. Wherefore
the old maidens called it "the saved one."
The child was three years old when the mother fell ill and died. She
was a great burden to her grandmother, so the old maidens adopted her.
The dark-eyed girl became unusually lively and pretty, and her
presence cheered them.
Of the two old maidens, the younger one--Sophia Ivanovna--was the
kindlier, while the older one--Maria Ivanovna--was of austere
disposition. Sophia Ivanovna kept the girl in decent clothes, taught her
to read and intended to give her an education. Maria Ivanovna said that
the girl ought to be taught to work that she might become a useful
servant, was exacting, punished, and even beat her when in bad humor.
Under such conditions the girl grew up half servant, half lady. Her
position was reflected even in her name, for she was not called by the
gentle Katinka, nor yet by the disdainful Katka, but Katiousha, which
stands sentimentally between the two. She sewed, cleaned the rooms,
cleaned the ikons with chalk, ground, cooked and served coffee,
washed, and sometimes she read for the ladies.
She was wooed, but would marry no one, feeling that life with any one
of her wooers would be hard, spoiled, as she was, more or less, by the
comparative ease she enjoyed in the manor.
She had just passed her sixteenth year when the ladies were visited by
their nephew, a rich student, and Katiousha, without daring to confess it
to him, or even to herself, fell in love with him. Two years afterward,

while on his way to the war, he again visited his aunts, and during his
four days' stay, consummated her ruin. Before his departure he thrust a
hundred ruble bill into her hand.
Thenceforward life ceased to have any charms for her, and her only
thought was to escape the shame which awaited her, and not only did
she become lax in her duties, but--and she did not know herself how it
happened--all of a sudden she gave vent to her ill temper. She said
some rude things to the ladies, of which she afterward repented, and
left them.
Dissatisfied with her behavior, they did not detain her. She then
obtained employment as servant in the house of the commissary of
rural police, but was obliged to give up the position at the end of the
third month, for the commissary, a fifty-year old man, pursued her with
his attentions, and when, on one occasion, he became too persistent,
she flared up, called him an old fool, and threw him to the ground.
Then she was driven from the house. She was now so far advanced on
the road to maternity that to look for a position was out of the question.
Hence she took lodgings with an old midwife, who was also a wine
dealer. The confinement came off painlessly. But the midwife was
attending a sick woman in the village, infected Katiousha with
puerperal fever, and the child, a boy, was taken to a foundling asylum
where, she was told, he died immediately after his arrival there.
When Katiousha took lodgings with the midwife she had 127 rubles; 27
rubles of which she had earned, and 100 rubles which had been given
her by her seducer. When she left her she had but six rubles left. She
was not economical, and spent on herself as well as others. She paid 40
rubles to the midwife for two months' board; 25 rubles it cost her to
have the child taken away; 40 rubles the midwife borrowed of her to
buy a cow with; the balance was spent on dresses, presents, etc., so that
after the confinement she was practically penniless, and was compelled
to look for a position. She was soon installed in the house of a forester
who was married, and who, like the commissary, began to pay court to
her. His wife became aware of it, and when, on one occasion, she found
them both in the room, she fell on Katiousha and began to beat her. The

latter resented it, and the result was a scrimmage, after which she was
driven out of the house, without being paid the wages due her.
Katiousha went to the city, where she stopped with her aunt. Her