The Man Who Was Afraid | Page 5

work he regarded people morosely and piteously, nor did he give himself rest while hunting for roubles. And suddenly--it usually happened in spring, when everything on earth became so bewitchingly beautiful and something reproachfully wild was breathed down into the soul from the clear sky--Ignat Gordyeeff would feel that he was not the master of his business, but its low slave. He would lose himself in thought and, inquisitively looking about himself from under his thick, knitted eyebrows, walk about for days, angry and morose, as though silently asking something, which he feared to ask aloud. They awakened his other soul, the turbulent and lustful soul of a hungry beast. Insolent and cynical, he drank, led a depraved life, and made drunkards of other people. He went into ecstasy, and something like a volcano of filth boiled within him. It looked as though he was madly tearing the chains which he himself had forged and carried, and was not strong enough to tear them. Excited and very dirty, his face swollen from drunkenness and sleeplessness, his eyes wandering madly, and roaring in a hoarse voice, he tramped about the town from one tavern to another, threw away money without counting it, cried and danced to the sad tunes of the folk songs, or fought, but found no rest anywhere--in anything.
It happened one day that a degraded priest, a short, stout little bald-headed man in a torn cassock, chanced on Ignat, and stuck to him, just as a piece of mud will stick to a shoe. An impersonal, deformed and nasty creature, he played the part of a buffoon: they smeared his bald head with mustard, made him go upon all- fours, drink mixtures of different brandies and dance comical dances; he did all this in silence, an idiotic smile on his wrinkled face, and having done what he was told to do, he invariably said, outstretching his hand with his palm upward:
"Give me a rouble."
They laughed at him and sometimes gave him twenty kopeiks, sometimes gave him nothing, but it sometimes happened that they threw him a ten-rouble bill and even more.
"You abominable fellow," cried Ignat to him one day. "Say, who are you?"
The priest was frightened by the call, and bowing low to Ignat, was silent.
"Who? Speak!" roared Ignat.
"I am a man--to be abused," answered the priest, and the company burst out laughing at his words.
"Are you a rascal?" asked Ignat, sternly.
"A rascal? Because of need and the weakness of my soul?"
"Come here!" Ignat called him. "Come and sit down by my side."
Trembling with fear, the priest walked up to the intoxicated merchant with timid steps and remained standing opposite him.
"Sit down beside me!" said Ignat, taking the frightened priest by the hand and seating him next to himself. "You are a very near man to me. I am also a rascal! You, because of need; I, because of wantonness. I am a rascal because of grief! Understand?"
"I understand," said the priest, softly. All the company were giggling.
"Do you know now what I am?"
"I do."
"Well, say, 'You are a rascal, Ignat!'"
The priest could not do it. He looked with terror at the huge figure of Ignat and shook his head negatively. The company's laughter was now like the rattling of thunder. Ignat could not make the priest abuse him. Then he asked him:
"Shall I give you money?"
"Yes," quickly answered the priest.
"And what do you need it for?"
He did not care to answer. Then Ignat seized him by the collar, and shook out of his dirty lips the following speech, which he spoke almost in a whisper, trembling with fear:
"I have a daughter sixteen years old in the seminary. I save for her, because when she comes out there won't be anything with which to cover her nakedness."
"Ah," said Ignat, and let go the priest's collar. Then he sat for a long time gloomy and lost in thought, and now and again stared at the priest. Suddenly his eyes began to laugh, and he said:
"Aren't you a liar, drunkard?"
The priest silently made the sign of the cross and lowered his head on his breast.
"It is the truth!" said one of the company, confirming the priest's words.
"True? Very well!" shouted Ignat, and, striking the table with his fist, he addressed himself to the priest:
"Eh, you! Sell me your daughter! How much will you take?"
The priest shook his head and shrank back.
"One thousand!"
The company giggled, seeing that the priest was shrinking as though cold water was being poured on him.
"Two!" roared Ignat, with flashing eyes.
"What's the matter with you? How is it?" muttered the priest, stretching out both hands to Ignat.
"Three!"
"Ignat Matveyich!" cried the priest, in a thin, ringing voice. "For God's sake! For Christ's sake! Enough! I'll sell her! For her own sake I'll sell her!"
In his sickly, sharp voice was