" I will tell her, I will tell her, I will not forget."
" Ah, Sashenka, my darling!" she murmured looking round. "There is nothing to be seen of him, he is gone."
Madame Adouev sat the whole day silent, and ate no dinner or supper. Anton Ivanitch talked and dined and supped to make up for her.
"Where is he now, my darling? " was all she could utter from time to time.
"By now he must be at Nefaeva. No, what am I saying?—he is not yet at Nefaeva, but not far off; there he will drink tea," answered Anton Ivanitch.
" No, he never takes tea at this time."
And so Anna Pavlovna in spirit travelled with him. Afterwards, when according to her calculations he must have reached Petersburg, she divided her time between praying, telling fortunes on cards and talking to Maria Karpovna.
And he ?
We shall meet him again at Petersburg.
CHAPTER II
/iotr Ivanitch Adquev . j>ut frero's uncle, had, like him, w >eeh sent to Petersburg wnen twenty years old by his elder [brother, Alexandr's father, and had lived there uninterruptedly Jbr seventeen years| He had not kept up a correspondence witETiTs relatives after his brother's death, and Anna Pavlovna had seen nothing of him since then, as he had sold his small property not far from her estate.
In Petersburg he passed for a wealthy man, and perhaps not without good grounds; he had an appointment under a certain influential personage, a secretary of special commissions, and had ribbons to wear in his buttonhole; he had a fine suite of rooms in a good street, kept three men and as many horses. He was not old, but what is called "a man in the prime of life"—between th irty-five an d forty. But he did not care to talk ^Phis age, not from petty vanity, but from a sort of deliberate calculation, as though with an idea of insuring his life on the easiest terms. Any way there was no sign in his manner of concealing his age, of any frivolous pretensions to pleasing the fair sex.
He was a tall, well-made man, with large regular features and a swarthy complexion, a smooth graceful carriage, and dignified but agreeable manners—one of those men who arejjenerally described by the term bel homme.
!is face, too, showed dignity—that is, the power of controlling himself and not allowing his face to be the reflection ^gf his feelings. He was of the opinion that this was improper both for his own sake, and for other people's, and behaved himself in public accordingly. Yet one could not call his face wooden; no, it was only tranquil. Sometimes he showed the traces of fatigue—doubtless from overwork. He was known to be both a man of business and a busy man. He always dressed carefully, even stylishly, but only within the limits of good taste ; his linen was unexceptionable; bis hands were plump and white, with long transparent finger-nails.
- One morning, when he had just waked up and rung his
\ bell, his man brought him in three letters together with the
tea, and informed him further of the arrival of a young
gentleman, who called himself Alexandr Fedoritch Adouev,
j and him—Piotr Ivanitch—uncle, and had promised to call
L-at-JLW£ly_ e _ o'clock. * Piotr Ivanitch listened tranquilly after
/
his wont to this piece of news, only pricking up his ears, and raising his eyebrows a little.
" Good, you can go," he said to the servant.
Then he took one letter, and was about to break it open,
when he paused and reflected.
, -"A nephew from the country—what a surprise!" he
\ muttered;."and I had hoped they had forgotten me in
those regions. Well, why should I trouble myself about
him ? I will get rid of him."
He rang again. .' "Tell that gentleman when he comes, that I set off 'directly I was up for my works, and shall be back in three /months."
" Yes, sir," said the servant, " and what shall I do with the presents ? "
" With what presents ? "
" A man brought them: the mistress, he says, sent them as presents from the country."
" Presents ? "
" Yes \ a barrel of honey, a bag of dried raspberries."
Piotr Ivanitch shrugged his shoulders.
" And two pieces of linen, and preserves."
" Very fine linen, I should imagine!"
" Yes, the linen is fine, and the preserves are of sugar/'
" Well, you can go, I will see them directly."
He took one letter, broke it open, and took a comprehensive look at the page. It was written in a large round hand like print, without punctuation,
Adouev began to read in an undertone.
" Honoured Sir, —Having been closely acquainted and friendly with your lamented parents, and having amused you not a little in your childhood and ofttimes eaten bread and salt in your house, therefore I cherish a warm feeling and an ardent hope that you have not forgotten the old man Vassili Tihovitch, as we here remember you and your parents with every kindness and we pray God "
"What a rigmarole? Who is it from?" said Piotr Ivanitch, looking at the signature. "Vassili Zayeshaloff! Zayeshaloff!—I'll be hanged if I remember it. What does he want from me ? "
And he began reading further.
" But my most humble petition and importunity to you —do not refuse it< little father—to you in Petersburg, unlike us in these parts, all of course is known and everything is in your reach. There has been fixed upon me a cursed lawsuit, and here's the seventh year come and gone, and I cannot shake it off my neck. Do you remember the little copse which lies one mile from my property ? The court made a mistake in the purchase deeds, and my adversary, Medvyedev, still persists in it; the point, he says, is a got-up one, and this he sticks to through thick and thin. This same Medvyedev is the fellow who always used to be poaching fish from your ponds without permission; your lamented father drove him away and put him to shame, and would have lodged a complaint with the governor for his impudence, but in the kindness of his heart—God rest his soul!—let him off, and he should not have had mercy on such a rogue. Help me, little father, Piotr Ivanitch; the affair is now before the Senate of Appeal, I don't know in what department, or under whom; but to be sure they will
tell you directly. Go and see the secretary and the senators; incline them in my favour, tell, them it's all a mistake, simply from a mistake in the purchase-deed that I am suffering ; for you they will do everything. While you are there, by the way, kindly trouble to obtain for me a patent of promotion and send it me. Further, little father, Piotr Ivanitch, there is a. little matter of the utmost importance: give your heart-felt sympathy to an innocently oppressed victim, and aid with advice and assistance. We have in the governor's service a councillor, Droshoff, a heart of gold more than a man ; he would die before he would betray a friend; in the town I have no lodging but his house. As soon as I arrive I go straight to him, I live there for weeks, and God forbid you should not make yourself at home; he will overwhelm you with good things to eat and drink, and cards from dinner till the middle of the night. And such a man has been passed over, without promotion, and now they are forcing him to send in his resignation. Go and see, my dear father, all the grandees there, and suggest to them what a man Afanasy Ivanitch is; if there is work to be done it goes like a house on fire in his hands; tell them he has been falsely denounced by an intrigue of the governor's secretary—they will listen to you, and write me by return of post. And go and see my old colleague KostyakofF. I have heard from one of your Petersburgers who has arrived here, Studentsin—no doubt you know him—that he is living at Peska; there the street boys will tell you the house ; write by the same post, don't be lazy, whether he is alive or dead, whether he is in good health, what he is doing, whether he remembers me. Get acquainted and make friends with him—he is a capital fellow —an open heart, and such an amusing fellow. I conclude my letter with a further request "