The Maxim Gorky

by Maxim Gorky

  “Go and be a footman; then you will know. In fact, it is never the case that, if one serves a man, one can love that man.… How steadily the rain persists!”

  Indeed, on every hand there was in progress a trickling and a splashing sound as though the weeping earth were venting soft, sorrowful sobs over the departure of summer before winter and its storms should arrive.

  “How come you to be travelling the Caucasus?” I asked at length.

  “Merely through the fact that my walking and walking has brought me hither,” was the reply. “For that matter, everyone ends by heading for the Caucasus.”

  “Why so?”

  “Why not, seeing that from one’s earliest years one hears of nothing but the Caucasus, the Caucasus? Why, even our old General used to harp upon the name, with his moustache bristling, and his eyes protruding, as he did so. And the same as regards my mother, who had visited the country in the days when, as yet, the General was in command but of a company. Yes, everyone tends hither. And another reason is the fact that the country is an easy one to live in, a country which enjoys much sunshine, and produces much food, and has a winter less long and severe than our own winter, and therefore presents pleasanter conditions of life.”

  “And what of the country’s people?”

  “What of the country’s people? Oh, so long as you keep yourself to yourself they will not interfere with you.”

  “And why will they not?”

  Kalinin paused, stared at me, smiled condescendingly, and, finally, said:

  “What a dullard you are to ask about such simple things! Were you never given any sort of an education? Surely by this time you ought to be able to understand something?”

  Then, with a change of subject, and subduing his tone to one of snuffling supplication, he added in the sing-song chant of a person reciting a prayer:

  “‘Oh Lord, suffer me not to become bound unto the clergy the priesthood, the diaconate, the tchinovstvo, [The official class] or the intelligentsia!’ This was a petition which my mother used often to repeat.”

  The raindrops now were falling more gently, and in finer lines and more transparent network, so that one could once more descry the great trunks of the blackened oaks, with the green and gold of their leaves. Also, our own hollow had grown less dark, and there could be discerned its smoky, satin-bright walls. From those walls Kalinin picked a bit of charcoal with finger and thumb, saying:

  “It was shepherds that fired the place. See where they dragged in hay and dead leaves! A shepherd’s fife hereabouts must be a truly glorious one!”

  Lastly, clasping his head as though he were about to fall asleep, he sank his chin between his knees, and relapsed into silence.

  Presently a brilliant, sinuous little rivulet which had long been laving the bare roots of our tree brought floating past us a red and fawn leaf.

  “How pretty,” I thought, “that leaf will look from a distance when reposing on the surface of the sea! For, like the sun when he is in solitary possession of the heavens, that leaf will stand out against the blue, silky expanse like a lonely red star.”

  After awhile my companion began, catlike, to purr to himself a song. Its melody, the melody of “the moon withdrew behind a cloud,” was familiar enough, but not so the words, which ran:

  Oh Valentina, wondrous maid,

  More comely thou than e’er a flow’r!

  The nurse’s son doth pine for thee,

  And yearn to serve thee every hour!

  “What does that ditty mean?” I inquired.

  Kalinin straightened himself, gave a wriggle to a form that was as lithe as a lizard’s, and passed one hand over his face.

  “It is a certain composition,” he replied presently. “It is a composition that was composed by a military clerk who afterwards died of consumption. He was my friend his life long, and my only friend, and a true one, besides being a man out of the common.”

  “And who was Valentina?”

  “My one-time mistress,” Kalinin spoke unwillingly.

  “And he, the clerk—was he in love with her?”

  “Oh dear no!”

  Evidently Kalinin had no particular wish to discuss the subject, for he hugged himself together, buried his face in his hands, and muttered:

  “I should like to kindle a fire, were it not that everything in the place is too damp for the purpose.”

  The wind shook the trees, and whistled despondently, while the fine, persistent rain still whipped the earth.

  “I but humble am, and poor, Nor fated to be otherwise,”

  sang Kalinin softly as, flinging up his head with an unexpected movement, he added meaningly:

  “Yes, it is a mournful song, a song which could move to tears. Only to two persons has it ever been known; to my friend the clerk and to myself. Yes, and to her, though I need hardly add that at once she forgot it.”

  And Kalinin’s eyes flashed into a smile as he added:

  “I think that, as a young man, you had better learn forthwith where the greatest danger lurks in life. Let me tell you a story.”

  And upon that a very human tale filtered through the silken monotonous swish of the downpour, with, for listeners to it, only the rain and myself.

  “Lukianov was NEVER in love with her,” he narrated. “Only I was that. All that Lukianov did in the matter was to write, at my request, some verses. When she first appeared on the scene (I mean Valentina Ignatievna) I was just turned nineteen years of age; and the instant that my eyes fell upon her form I realised that in her alone lay my fate, and my heart almost stopped beating, and my vitality stretched out towards her as a speck of dust flies towards a fire. Yet all this I had to conceal as best I might; with the result that in the company’s presence I felt like a sentry doing guard duty in the presence of his commanding officer. But at last, though I strove to pull myself together, to steady myself against the ferment that was raging in my breast, something happened. Valentina Ignatievna was then aged about twenty-five, and very beautiful—marvellous, in fact! Also, she was an orphan, since her father had been killed by the Chechentzes, and her mother had died of smallpox at Samarkand. As regards her kinship with the General, she stood to him in the relation of niece by marriage. Golden-locked, and as skin-fair as enamelled porcelain, she had eyes like emeralds, and a figure wholly symmetrical, though as slim as a wafer. For bedroom she had a little corner apartment situated next to the kitchen (the General possessed his own house, of course), while, in addition, they allotted her a bright little boudoir in which she disposed her curios and knickknacks, from cut-glass bottles and goblets to a copper pipe and a glass ring mounted on copper. This ring, when turned, used to emit showers of glittering sparks, though she was in no way afraid of them, but would sing as she made them dance:

  “Not for me the spring will dawn!

  Not for me the Bug will spate!

  Not for me love’s smile will wait!

  Not for me, ah, not for me!

  “Constantly would she warble this.

  “Also, once she flashed an appeal at me with her eyes, and said:

  “‘Alexei, please never touch anything in my room, for my things are too fragile.’

  “Sure enough, in her presence anything might have fallen from my hands!

  “Meanwhile her song about ‘Not for me’ used to make me feel sorry for her. ‘Not for you?’ I used to say to myself. ‘Ought not everything to be for you?’ And this reflection would cause my heart to yearn and stretch towards her. Next, I bought a guitar, an instrument which I could not play, and took it for instruction to Lukianov, the clerk of the Divisional Staff, which had its headquarters in our street. In passing I may say that Lukianov was a little Jewish convert with dark hair, sallow features, and gimlet-sharp eyes, but beyond all things a fellow with brains, and one who could play the guitar unforgettably.

  “
Once he said: ‘In life all things are attainable—nothing need we lose for want of trying. For whence does everything come? From the plainest of mankind. A man may not be born in the rank of a general, but at least he may attain to that position. Also, the beginning and ending of all things is woman. All that she requires for her captivation is poetry. Hence, let me write you some verses, that you may tender them to her as an offering.’

  “These, mind you, were the words of a man in whom the heart was absolutely single, absolutely dispassionate.”

  Until then Kalinin had told his story swiftly, with animation; but thereafter he seemed, as it were, to become extinguished. After a pause of a few seconds he continued—continued in slower, to all appearances more unwilling, accents—

  “At the time I believed what Lukianov said, but subsequently I came to see that things were not altogether as he had represented—that woman is merely a delusion, and poetry merely fiddle-faddle; and that a man cannot escape his fate, and that, though good in war, boldness is, in peace affairs, but naked effrontery. In this, brother, lies the chief, the fundamental law of life. For the world contains certain people of high station, and certain people of low; and so long as these two categories retain their respective positions, all goes well; but as soon as ever a man seeks to pass from the upper category to the inferior category, or from the inferior to the upper, the fat falls into the fire, and that man finds himself stuck midway, stuck neither here nor there, and bound to abide there for the remainder of his life, for the remainder of his life.… Always keep to your own position, to the position assigned you by fate.… Will the rain never cease, think you?”

  By this time, as a matter of fact, the raindrops were falling less heavily and densely than hitherto, and the wet clouds were beginning to reveal bright patches in the moisture-soaked firmament, as evidence that the sun was still in existence.

  “Continue,” I said.

  Kalinin laughed.

  “Then you find the story an interesting one,” he remarked.

  Presently he resumed:

  “As I have said, I trusted Lukianov implicitly, and begged of him to write the verses. And write them he did—he wrote them the very next day. True, at this distance of time I have forgotten the words in their entirety, but at least I remember that there occurred in them a phrase to the effect that ‘for days and weeks have your eyes been consuming my heart in the fire of love, so pity me, I pray.’ I then proceeded to copy out the poem, and tremblingly to leave it on her table.

  “The next morning, when I was tidying her boudoir, she made an unexpected entry, and, clad in a loose, red dressing-gown, and holding a cigarette between her lips, said to me with a kindly smile as she produced my precious paper of verses:

  “‘Alexei, did you write these?’

  “‘Yes,’ was my reply. ‘And for Christ’s sake pardon me for the same.’

  “‘What a pity that such a fancy should have entered your head! For, you see, I am engaged already—my uncle is intending to marry me to Doctor Kliachka, and I am powerless in the matter.’

  “The very fact that she could address me with so much sympathy and kindness struck me dumb. As regards Doctor Kliachka, I may mention that he was a good-looking, blotchy-faced, heavy-jowled fellow with a moustache that reached to his shoulders, and lips that were for ever laughing and vociferating. ‘Nothing has either a beginning or an end. The only thing really existent is pleasure.’

  “Nay, even the General could, at times, make sport of the fellow, and say as he shook with merriment:

  “‘A doctor-comedian is the sort of man that you are.’

  “Now, at the period of which I am speaking I was as straight as a dart, and had a shock of luxuriant hair over a set of ruddy features. Also, I was living a life clean in every way, and maintaining a cautious attitude towards womenfolk, and holding prostitutes in a contempt born of the fact that I had higher views with regard to my life’s destiny. Lastly, I never indulged in liquor, for I actually disliked it, and gave way to its influence only in days subsequent to the episode which I am narrating. Yes, and, last of all, I was in the habit of taking a bath every Saturday.

  “The same evening Kliachka and the rest of the party went out to the theatre (for, naturally, the General had horses and a carriage of his own), and I, for my part, went to inform Lukianov of what had happened.

  “He said: ‘I must congratulate you, and am ready to wager you two bottles of beer that your affair is as good as settled. In a few seconds a fresh lot of verses shall be turned out, for poetry constitutes a species of talisman or charm.’

  “And, sure enough, he then and there composed the piece about ‘the wondrous Valentina.’ What a tender thing it is, and how full of understanding! My God, my God!”

  And, with a thoughtful shake of his bead, Kalinin raised his boyish eyes towards the blue patches in the rain-washed sky.

  “Duly she found the verses,” he continued after a while, and with a vehemence that seemed wholly independent of his will. “And thereupon she summoned me to her room.

  “‘What are we to do about it all?’ she inquired.

  “She was but half-dressed, and practically the whole of her bosom was visible to my sight. Also, her naked feet had on them only slippers, and as she sat in her chair she kept rocking one foot to and fro in a maddening way.

  “‘What are we to do about it all?’ she repeated.

  “‘What am I to say about it, at length I replied, ‘save that I feel as though I were not really existing on earth?’

  “‘Are you one who can hold your tongue?’ was her next question.

  “I nodded—nothing else could I compass, for further speech had become impossible. Whereupon, rising with brows puckered, she fetched a couple of small phials, and, with the aid of ingredients thence, mixed a powder which she wrapped in paper, and handed me with the words:

  “‘Only one way of escape offers from the Plagues of Egypt. Here I have a certain powder. Tonight the doctor is to dine with us. Place the powder in his soup, and within a few days I shall be free!—yes, free for you!’

  “I crossed myself, and duly took from her the paper, whilst a mist rose, and swam before my eyes, as I did so, and my legs became perfectly numb. What I next did I hardly know, for inwardly I was swooning. Indeed, until Kliachka’s arrival the same evening I remained practically in a state of coma.”

  Here Kalinin shuddered—then glanced at me with drawn features and chattering teeth, and stirred uneasily.

  “Suppose we light a fire?” he ventured. “I am growing shivery all over. But first we must move outside.”

  The torn clouds were casting their shadows wearily athwart the sodden earth and glittering stones and silver-dusted herbage. Only on a single mountain top had a blur of mist settled like an arrested avalanche, and was resting there with its edges steaming. The sea too had grown calmer under the rain, and was splashing with more gentle mournfulness, even as the blue patches in the firmament had taken on a softer, warmer look, and stray sunbeams were touching upon land and sea in turn, and, where they chanced to fall upon herbage, causing pearls and emeralds to sparkle on every leaf, and kaleidoscopic tints to glow where the dark-blue sea reflected their generous radiance. Indeed, so goodly, so full of promise, was the scene that one might have supposed autumn to have fled away for ever before the wind and the rain, and beneficent summer to have been restored.

  Presently through the moist, squelching sound of our footsteps, and the cheerful patter of the rain-drippings, Kalinin’s narrative resumed its languid, querulous course:

  “When, that evening, I opened the door to the doctor I could not bring myself to look him in the face—I could merely hang my head; whereupon, taking me by the chin, and raising it, he inquired:

  “Why is your face so yellow? What is the matter with you?’

  “Yes, a kind-hearted man was he, and one who had never faile
d to tip me well, and to speak to me with as much consideration as though I had not been a footman at all.

  “‘I am not in very good health,’ I replied. ‘I, I—’

  “‘Come, come!’ was his interjection. ‘After dinner I must look you over, and in the meanwhile, do keep up your spirits.’

  “Then I realised that poison him I could not, but that the powder must be swallowed by myself—yes, by myself! Aye, over my heart a flash of lightning had gleamed, and shown me that now I was no longer following the road properly assigned me by fate.

  “Rushing away to my room, I poured out a glass of water, and emptied into it the powder; whereupon the water thickened, fizzed, and became topped with foam. Oh, a terrible moment it was!… Then I drank the mixture. Yet no burning sensation ensued, and though I listened to my vitals, nothing was to be heard in that quarter, but, on the contrary, my head began to lighten, and I found myself losing the sense of self-pity which had brought me almost to the point of tears.… Shall we settle ourselves here?”

  Before us a large stone, capped with green moss and climbing plants, was good-humouredly thrusting upwards a broad, flat face beneath which the body had, like that of the hero Sviatogov, sunken into the earth through its own weight until only the face, a visage worn with aeons of meditation, was now visible. On every side, also, had oak-trees overgrown and encompassed the bulk of the projection, as though they too had been made of stone, with their branches drooping sufficiently low to brush the wrinkles of the ancient monolith. Kalinin seated himself on his haunches under the overhanging rim of the stone, and said as he snapped some twigs in half:

  “This is where we ought to have been sitting whilst the rain was coming down.”

  “And so say I,” I rejoined. “But pray continue your story.”

  “Yes, when you have put a match to the fire.”

  Whereafter, further withdrawing his spare frame under the stone, so that he might stretch himself at full length, Kalinin continued:

  “I walked to the pantry quietly enough, though my legs were tottering beneath me, and I had a cold sensation in my breast. Suddenly I heard the dining-room echo to a merry peal of laughter from Valentina Ignatievna, and the General reply to that outburst: