The Slanderer

The Slanderer, by Anton
Chekhov

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Title: The Slanderer 1901
Author: Anton Chekhov
Translator: Herman Bernstein
Release Date: October 17, 2007 [EBook #23055]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SLANDERER ***

Produced by David Widger

THE SLANDERER
By Anton Chekhov

Translated by Herman Bernstein.
Copyright, 1901, by the Globe and Commercial Advertiser
Sergey Kapitonlch Akhineyev, the teacher of calligraphy, gave his
daughter Natalya in marriage to the teacher of history and geography,
Ivan Petrovich Loshadinikh. The wedding feast went on swimmingly.
They sang, played, and danced in the parlor. Waiters, hired for the
occasion from the club, bustled about hither and thither like madmen,
in black frock coats and soiled white neckties. A loud noise of voices
smote the air. From the outside people looked in at the windows;--their
social standing gave them no right to enter.
Just at midnight the host, Akhineyev, made his way to the kitchen to
see whether everything was ready for the supper. The kitchen was filled
with smoke from the floor to the ceiling; the smoke reeked with the
odors of geese, ducks, and many other things. Victuals and beverages
were scattered about on two tables in artistic disorder. Marfa, the cook,
a stout, red-faced woman, was busying herself near the loaded tables.
"Show me the sturgeon, dear," said Akhineyev, rubbing his hands and
licking his lips. "What a fine odor! I could just devour the whole
kitchen! Well, let me see the sturgeon!"
Marfa walked up to one of the benches and carefully lifted a greasy
newspaper. Beneath that paper, in a huge dish, lay a big fat sturgeon,
amid capers, olives, and carrots. Akhineyev glanced at the sturgeon and
heaved a sigh of relief. His face became radiant, his eyes rolled. He
bent down, and, smacking his lips, gave vent to a sound like a creaking
wheel. He stood a while, then snapped his fingers for pleasure, and
smacked his lips once more.
"Bah! The sound of a hearty kiss. Whom have you been kissing there,
Marfusha?" some one's voice was heard from the adjoining room, and
soon the closely cropped head of Vankin, the assistant school instructor,
appeared in the doorway. "Whom have you been kissing here? A-a-ah!
Very good! Sergey Kapitonich! A fine old man indeed! With the
female sex tête-à-tête!"

"I wasn't kissing at all," said Akhineyev, confused; "who told you, you
fool? I only--smacked my lips on account of--in consideration of my
pleasure--at the sight of the fish."
"Tell that to some one else, not to me!" exclaimed Vankin, whose face
expanded into a broad smile as he disappeared behind the door.
Akhineyev blushed.
"The devil knows what may be the outcome of this!" he thought. "He'll
go about tale-bearing now, the rascal. He'll disgrace me before the
whole town, the brute!"
Akhineyev entered the parlor timidly and cast furtive glances to see
what Vankin was doing. Vankin stood near the piano and, deftly
bending down, whispered something to the inspector's sister-in-law,
who was laughing.
"That's about me!" thought Akhineyev. "About me, the devil take him!
She believes him, she's laughing. My God! No, that mustn't be left like
that. No. I'll have to fix it so that no one shall believe him. I'll speak to
all of them, and he'll remain a foolish gossip in the end."
Akhineyev scratched his head, and, still confused, walked up to
Padekoi.
"I was in the kitchen a little while ago, arranging things there for the
supper," he said to the Frenchman. "You like fish, I know, and I have a
sturgeon just so big. About two yards. Ha, ha, ha! Yes, by the way, I
have almost forgotten. There was a real anecdote about that sturgeon in
the kitchen. I entered the kitchen a little while ago and wanted to
examine the food. I glanced at the sturgeon and for pleasure, I smacked
my lips--it was so piquant! And just at that moment the fool Vankin
entered and says--ha, ha, ha--and says: 'A-a! A-a-ah! You have been
kissing here?'--with Marfa; just think of it--with the cook! What a piece
of invention, that blockhead. The woman is ugly, she looks like a
monkey, and he says we were kissing. What a queer fellow!"
"Who's a queer fellow?" asked Tarantulov, as he approached them.

"I refer to Vankin. I went out into the kitchen--"
The story of Marfa and the sturgeon was repeated.
"That makes me laugh. What a queer fellow