‘Yes, I know that well enough, it’s a terrible thing to do a person in. I once cut a sheep’s throat, and I didn’t feel too good about it myself. And here am I that’s never killed anybody, but they’ve gone and done for me, the swine. I’ve never killed anybody …’
‘Well and good, that’ll be counted in your favour.’
‘And where will that be then?’
‘What do you mean, where? What about God then?’
‘God? You don’t see much of him about, do you? I don’t believe all that stuff, friend. The way I see it is, you just die and the grass grows over you. And that’s all about it.’
‘How can you think that? I’ve done in that many, but she, she was kind-hearted, never did anything but help people. All right then, do you think it will be the same for me as it’ll be for her? No, just you wait and see …’
‘So you think that when you die, your soul goes on?’
‘That’s it. I reckon that’s the truth.’
Dying was a hard process for Prokofy as he lay there gasping for breath. But when his last hour came he suddenly felt easier. He called Stepan over to him.
‘Well, brother, goodbye. I can see it’s time for me to die now. I was really scared, but it’s all right now. I’d just like it to be quick.’
And Prokofy died in the prison hospital.
XVII
Meanwhile Yevgeny Mikhailovich’s business affairs were going from bad to worse. His shop was mortgaged. Trade refused to pick up. Another shop had opened in the town and the interest on his mortage was due. He had to take out another loan to pay the interest. And in the end he was obliged to put up the shop and all the contents for sale. Yevgeny Mikhailovich and his wife rushed hither and thither but nowhere could they find the four hundred roubles they needed in order to save their business.
They had faint hopes of the merchant Krasnopuzov, whose mistress was friendly with Yevgeny Mikhailovich’s wife. But now it was all over town that an enormous sum of money had been stolen from Krasnopuzov. People said that it amounted to half a million.
‘And who do you think stole it?’ Yevgeny Mikhailovich’s wife was saying. ‘Vasily, the one who used to be our yardman. They say he’s throwing the money about all over the place, and the police have been bribed to take no notice.’
‘He never was any good,’ said Yevgeny Mikhailovich. ‘Look how ready he was to perjure himself that time. I’d never have thought it of him.’
‘They say he actually came round to our place one day. The cook said it was him. She says he paid the dowries for fourteen poor girls to get married.’
‘Well, no doubt they’re making it up.’
Just at that moment a strange-looking elderly man in a woollen jacket came into the shop.
‘What do you want?’
‘I’ve got a letter for you.’
‘Who is it from?’
‘It says on it.’
‘I presume they will want a reply. Just wait a moment, please.’
‘I can’t.’
And the strange-looking man handed over the envelope and hurriedly departed.
‘Extraordinary!’
Yevgeny Mikhailovich tore open the bulging envelope and could hardly believe his eyes: inside there were hundred-rouble notes. Four of them. What on earth was this? And there was a semi-literate letter addressed to Yevgeny Mikhailovich. It read: ‘In the Gospel it says to retern good for evil. You did me a lot of evil with that cupon and I offended that peasant to but now I am sorry for you. So take these 4 Cathrines and remember your yardman Vasily.’
‘This is absolutely amazing,’ said Yevgeny Mikhailovich, to his wife and to himself. And whenever he subsequently remembered it or spoke of it to his wife, the tears would come into his eyes and her heart would be filled with joy.
XVIII
In the prison at Suzdal there were fourteen clergymen who were there primarily for having deviated from Orthodox teaching; and this was where Isidor too had been sent. Father Misail admitted Isidor in accordance with the written instructions he had received and, without interviewing him, gave the order that he should be placed in a solitary cell, as befitted a serious offender. In the third week of Isidor’s stay in the prison Father Misail was making the rounds of the inmates. Going into Isidor’s cell, he asked whether there was anything he needed.
‘There is a great deal that I need, but I cannot talk about it in the presence of other people. Please allow me the opportunity to speak to you on your own.’
They looked at one another, and Father Misail realized that he had nothing to fear from this man. He ordered that Isidor should be brought to his cell in the monastery, and as soon as they were left alone he said:
‘Well, tell me what you have to say.’
Isidor fell to his knees.
‘Brother!’ said Isidor, ‘what are you doing? Have mercy on yourself. There cannot be a villain alive worse than you, you have profaned everything that is holy …’
*
A month later Father Misail sent in applications for the release, on the grounds of repentance, not only of Isidor, but of seven of the other prisoners, together with a request that he himself should be allowed to withdraw from the world in another monastery.
XIX
Ten years went by.
Mitya Smokovnikov had long since graduated from the technical institute and was now working as an engineer on a large salary in the Siberian gold-mines. He was due to go on a prospecting trip in a certain area. The mine director recommended that he should take with him the convict Stepan Pelageyushkin.
‘But why should I take a convict with me? Won’t that be dangerous?’
‘There’s nothing dangerous about him. He’s a holy man. Ask anyone you like.’
‘So why is he here?’
The director smiled.
‘He murdered six people, but he’s a holy man. I’ll vouch for him absolutely.’
And so Mitya agreed to take Stepan, now bald, thin and weather-beaten, and they set off together.
On the journey Stepan looked after everybody’s needs as far as he could, and he looked after Mitya Smokovnikov as if Mitya had been his own offspring; and as they travelled on he told Smokovnikov his whole story. And he told him how, and why, and on what lines he was living now.
And it was a very strange thing. Mitya Smokovnikov, who until that time had lived only to eat and drink, to play cards, and to enjoy wine and women, fell to thinking for the first time about his own life. And these thoughts of his would not leave him, in fact they started an upheaval in his soul which spread out wider and wider. He was offered a job which would have brought him great benefits. He turned it down and decided to settle for what he had, to buy an estate, to get married, and to serve the common people as best he could.
XX
And so he did. But first he went to see his father, with whom his relations were strained on account of his father’s new wife and family. Now, however, he had decided to make things up with his father. And so he did. And his father was quite astonished, and ridiculed him at first, but then he stopped criticizing his son and recalled the many, many occasions when he had been at fault with regard to him.
1 A detachable voucher issued with government bonds and exchangeable for interest payments.
2 Gentlemanly, respectable.
3 A card game resembling bridge.
4 Sazhen: a measure equivalent to 2.13 metres (here cubic).
5 An educational and cultural centre for working people.
6 One desyatin = 1.09 hectares or 2.7 acres.
7 An elected district council which functioned in Russia from 1864 to 1917.
8 The raised platform from which the Scriptures were read and sermons preached.