The Maxim Gorky

by Maxim Gorky

  The little physician walked in. He quickly said:

  “First of all, Nikolay is arrested. Aha! You here, Nilovna? They’re interested in you, too. Weren’t you there when he was arrested?”

  “He packed me off, and told me to come here.”

  “Hm! I don’t think it will be of any use to you. Secondly, last night several young people made about five hundred hektograph copies of Pavel’s speech—not badly done, plain and clear. They want to scatter them throughout the city at night. I’m against it. Printed sheets are better for the city, and the hektograph copies ought to be sent off somewhere.”

  “Here, I’ll carry them to Natasha!” the mother exclaimed animatedly. “Give them to me.”

  She was seized with a great desire to sow them broadcast, to spread Pavel’s speech as soon as possible. She would have bestrewn the whole earth with the words of her son, and she looked into the doctor’s face with eyes ready to beg.

  “The devil knows whether at this time you ought to take up this matter,” the physician said irresolutely, and took out his watch. “It’s now twelve minutes of twelve. The train leaves at 2.05, arrives there 5.15. You’ll get there in the evening, but not sufficiently late—and that’s not the point!”

  “That’s not the point,” repeated Liudmila, frowning.

  “What then?” asked the mother, drawing up to them. “The point is to do it well; and I’ll do it all right.”

  Liudmila looked fixedly at her, and chafing her forehead, remarked:

  “It’s dangerous for you.”

  “Why?” the mother challenged hotly.

  “That’s why!” said the physician quickly and brokenly. “You disappeared from home an hour before Nikolay’s arrest. You went away to the mill, where you are known as the teacher’s aunt; after your arrival at the mill the naughty leaflets appear. All this will tie itself into a noose around your neck.”

  “They won’t notice me there,” the mother assured them, warming to her desire. “When I return they’ll arrest me, and ask me where I was.” After a moment’s pause she exclaimed: “I know what I’ll say. From there I’ll go straight to the suburb; I have a friend there—Sizov. So I’ll say that I went there straight from the trial; grief took me there; and he, too, had the same misfortune, his nephew was sentenced; and I spent the whole time with him. He’ll uphold me, too. Do you see?”

  The mother was aware that they were succumbing to the strength of her desire, and strove to induce them to give in as quickly as possible. She spoke more and more persistently, joy arising within her. And they yielded.

  “Well, go,” the physician reluctantly assented.

  Liudmila was silent, pacing thoughtfully up and down the room. Her face clouded over and her cheeks fell in. The muscles of her neck stretched noticeably as if her head had suddenly grown heavy; it involuntarily dropped on her breast. The mother observed this. The physician’s reluctant assent forced a sigh from her.

  “You all take care of me,” the mother said, smiling. “You don’t take care of yourselves.” And the wave of joy mounted higher and higher.

  “It isn’t true. We look out for ourselves. We ought to; and we very much upbraid those who uselessly waste their power. Ye-es. Now, this is the way you are to do. You will receive the speeches at the station.” He explained to her how the matter would be arranged; then looking into her face, he said: “Well, I wish you success. You’re happy, aren’t you?” And he walked away still gloomy and dissatisfied. When the door closed behind him Liudmila walked up to the mother, smiling quietly.

  “You’re a fine woman! I understand you.” Taking her by the arm, she again walked up and down the room. “I have a son, too. He’s already thirteen years old; but he lives with his father. My husband is an assistant prosecuting attorney. Maybe he’s already prosecuting attorney. And the boy’s with him. What is he going to be? I often think.” Her humid, powerful voice trembled. Then her speech flowed on again thoughtfully and quietly. “He’s being brought up by a professed enemy of those people who are near me, whom I regard as the best people on earth; and maybe the boy will grow up to be my enemy. He cannot live with me; I live under a strange name. I have not seen him for eight years. That’s a long time—eight years!”

  Stopping at the window, she looked up at the pale, bleak sky, and continued: “If he were with me I would be stronger; I would not have this wound in my heart, the wound that always pains. And even if he were dead it would be easier for me—” She paused again, and added more firmly and loudly: “Then I would know he’s merely dead, but not an enemy of that which is higher than the feeling of a mother, dearer and more necessary than life.”

  “My darling,” said the mother quietly, feeling as if something powerful were burning her heart.

  “Yes, you are happy,” Liudmila said with a smile. “It’s magnificent—the mother and the son side by side. It’s rare!”

  The mother unexpectedly to herself exclaimed:

  “Yes, it is good!” and as if disclosing a secret, she continued in a lowered voice: “It is another life. All of you—Nikolay Ivanovich, all the people of the cause of truth—are also side by side. Suddenly people have become kin—I understand all—the words I don’t understand; but everything else I understand, everything!”

  “That’s how it is,” Liudmila said. “That’s how.”

  The mother put her hand on Liudmila’s breast, pressing her; she spoke almost in a whisper, as if herself meditating upon the words she spoke.

  “Children go through the world; that’s what I understand; children go into the world, over all the earth, from everywhere toward one thing. The best hearts go; people of honest minds; they relentlessly attack all evil, all darkness. They go, they trample falsehood with heavy feet, understanding everything, justifying everybody—justifying everybody, they go. Young, strong, they carry their power, their invincible power, all toward one thing—toward justice. They go to conquer all human misery, they arm themselves to wipe away misfortune from the face of the earth; they go to subdue what is monstrous, and they will subdue it. We will kindle a new sun, somebody told me; and they will kindle it. We will create one heart in life, we will unite all the severed hearts into one—and they will unite them. We will cleanse the whole of life—and they will cleanse it.”

  She waved her hand toward the sky.

  “There’s the sun.”

  And she struck her bosom.

  “Here the most glorious heavenly sun of human happiness will be kindled, and it will light up the earth forever—the whole of it, and all that live upon it—with the light of love, the love of every man toward all, and toward everything.”

  The words of forgotten prayers recurred to her mind, inspiring a new faith. She threw them from her heart like sparks.

  “The children walking along the road of truth and reason carry love to all; and they clothe everything in new skies; they illumine everything with an incorruptible fire issuing from the depths of the soul. Thus, a new life comes into being, born of the children’s love for the entire world; and who will extinguish this love—who? What power is higher than this? Who will subdue it? The earth has brought it forth; and all life desires its victory—all life. Shed rivers of blood, nay, seas of blood, you’ll never extinguish it.”

  She shook herself away from Liudmila, fatigued by her exaltation, and sat down, breathing heavily. Liudmila also withdrew from her, noiselessly, carefully, as if afraid of destroying something. With supple movement she walked about the room and looked in front of her with the deep gaze of her dim eyes. She seemed still taller, straighter, and thinner; her lean, stern face wore a concentrated expression, and her lips were nervously compressed. The stillness in the room soon calmed the mother, and noticing Liudmila’s mood she asked guiltily and softly:

  “Maybe I said something that wasn’t quite right?”

  Liudmila quickly turned around and look
ed at her as if in fright.

  “It’s all right,” she said rapidly, stretching out her hand to the mother as if desiring to arrest something. “But we’ll not speak about it any more. Let it remain as it was said; let it remain. Yes.” And in a calmer tone she continued: “It’s time for you to start soon; it’s far.”

  “Yes, presently. I’m glad! Oh, how glad I am! If you only knew! I’m going to carry the word of my son, the word of my blood. Why, it’s like one’s own soul!”

  She smiled; but her smile did not find a clear reflection in the face of Liudmila. The mother felt that Liudmila chilled her joy by her restraint; and the stubborn desire suddenly arose in her to pour into that obstinate soul enveloped in misery her own fire, to burn her, too, let her, too, sound in unison with her own heart full of joy. She took Liudmila’s hands and pressed them powerfully.

  “My dear, how good it is when you know that light for all the people already exists in life, and that there will be a time when they will begin to see it, when they will bathe their souls in it, and all, all, will take fire in its unquenchable flames.”

  Her good, large face quivered; her eyes smiled radiantly; and her eyebrows trembled over them as if pinioning their flash. The great thoughts intoxicated her; she put into them everything that burned her heart, everything she had lived through; and she compressed the thoughts into firm, capacious crystals of luminous words. They grew up ever more powerful in the autumn heart, illuminated by the creative force of the spring sun; they blossomed and reddened in it ever more brightly.

  “Why, this is like a new god that’s born to us, the people. Everything for all; all for everything; the whole of life in one, and the whole of life for everyone, and everyone for the whole of life! Thus I understand all of you; it is for this that you are on this earth, I see. You are in truth comrades all, kinsmen all, for you are all children of one mother, of truth. Truth has brought you forth; and by her power you live!”

  Again overcome by the wave of agitation, she stopped, fetched breath, and spread out her arms as if for an embrace.

  “And if I pronounce to myself that word ‘comrades’ then I hear with my heart—they are going! They are going from everywhere, the great multitude, all to one thing. I hear such a roaring, resonant and joyous, like the festive peal of the bells of all the churches of the world.”

  She had arrived at what she desired. Liudmila’s face flashed in amazement. Her lips quivered; and one after the other large transparent tears dropped from her dull eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

  The mother embraced her vigorously and laughed softly, lightly taking pride in the victory of her heart. When they took leave of each other Liudmila looked into the mother’s face, and asked her softly:

  “Do you know that it is well with you?” And herself supplied the answer: “Very well. Like a morning on a high mountain.”

  CHAPTER XIX

  In the street the frozen atmosphere enveloped her body invigoratingly, penetrated into her throat, tickled her nose, and for a second suppressed the breathing in her bosom. The mother stopped and looked around. Near to her, at the corner of the empty street, stood a cabman in a shaggy hat; at a slight distance a man was walking, bent, his head sunk in his shoulders; and in front of him a soldier was running in a jump, rubbing his ears.

  “The soldier must have been sent to the store,” she thought, and walked off listening with satisfaction to the youthful crunching of the snow under her feet. She arrived at the station early; her train was not yet ready; but in the dirty waiting room of the third class, blackened with smoke, there were numerous people already. The cold drove in the railroad workmen; cabmen and some poorly dressed, homeless people came in to warm themselves; there were passengers, also a few peasants, a stout merchant in a raccoon overcoat, a priest and his daughter, a pockmarked girl, some five soldiers, and bustling tradesmen. The men smoked, talked, drank tea and whisky at the buffet; some one laughed boisterously; a wave of smoke was wafted overhead; the door squeaked as it opened, the windows rattled when the door was jammed to; the odor of tobacco, machine oil, and salt fish thickly beat into the nostrils.

  The mother sat near the entrance and waited. When the door opened a whiff of fresh air struck her, which was pleasant to her, and she took in deep breaths. Heavily dressed people came in with bundles in their hands; they clumsily pushed through the door, swore, mumbled, threw their things on the bench or on the floor, shook off the dry rime from the collars of their overcoats and their sleeves and wiped it off their beards and mustaches, all the time puffing and blowing.

  A young man entered with a yellow valise in his hand, quickly looked around, and walked straight to the mother.

  “To Moscow, to your niece?” he asked in a low voice.

  “Yes, to Tanya.”

  “Very well.”

  He put the valise on the bench near her, quickly whipped out a cigarette, lighted it, and raising his hat, silently walked toward the other door. The mother stroked the cold skin of the valise, leaned her elbows on it, and, satisfied, began again to look around at the people. In a few moments she arose and walked over to the other bench, nearer to the exit to the platform. She held the valise lightly in her hand; it was not large, and she walked with raised head, scanning the faces that flashed before her.

  One man in a short overcoat and its collar raised jostled against her and jumped back, silently waving his hand toward his head. Something familiar about him struck her; she glanced around and saw that he was looking at her with one eye gleaming out of his collar. This attentive eye pricked her; the hand in which she held the valise trembled; she felt a dull pain in her shoulder, and the load suddenly grew heavy.

  “I’ve seen him somewhere,” she thought, and with the thought suppressed the unpleasant, confused feeling in her breast. She would not permit herself to define the cold sensation that already pressed her heart quietly but powerfully. It grew and rose in her throat, filling her mouth with a dry, bitter taste, and compelling her to turn around and look once more. As she turned he carefully shifted from one foot to the other, standing on the same spot; it seemed he wanted something, but could not decide what. His right hand was thrust between the buttons of his coat, the other he kept in his pocket. On account of this the right shoulder seemed higher than the left.

  Without hastening, she walked to the bench and sat down carefully, slowly, as if afraid of tearing something in herself or on herself. Her memory, aroused by a sharp premonition of misfortune, quickly presented this man twice to her imagination—once in the field outside the city, after the escape of Rybin; a second time in the evening in the court. There at his side stood the constable to whom she had pointed out the false way taken by Rybin. They knew her; they were tracking her—this was evident.

  “Am I caught?” she asked, and in the following second answered herself, starting: “Maybe there is still—” and immediately forcing herself with a great effort, she said sternly: “I’m caught. No use.”

  She looked around, and her thoughts flashed up in sparks and expired in her brain one after the other.

  “Leave the valise? Go away?”

  But at the same time another spark darted up more glaringly: “How much will be lost? Drop the son’s word in such hands?”

  She pressed the valise to herself trembling. “And to go away with it? Where? To run?”

  These thoughts seemed to her those of a stranger, somebody from the outside, who was pushing them on her by main force. They burned her, and their burns chopped her brain painfully, lashed her heart like fiery whipcords. They were an insult to the mother; they seemed to be driving her away from her own self, from Pavel, and everything which had grown to her heart. She felt that a stubborn, hostile force oppressed her, squeezed her shoulder and breast, lowered her stature, plunging her into a fatal fear. The veins on her temples began to pulsate vigorously, and the roots of her hair grew warm.

  Then
with one great and sharp effort of her heart, which seemed to shake her entire being, she quenched all these cunning, petty, feeble little fires, saying sternly to herself: “Enough!”

  She at once began to feel better, and she grew strengthened altogether, adding: “Don’t disgrace your son. Nobody’s afraid.”

  Several seconds of wavering seemed to have the effect of joining everything in her; her heart began to beat calmly.

  “What’s going to happen now? How will they go about it with me?” she thought, her senses strung to a keener observation.

  The spy called a station guard, and whispered something to him, directing his look toward her. The guard glanced at him and moved back. Another guard came, listened, grinned, and lowered his brows. He was an old man, coarse-built, gray, unshaven. He nodded his head to the spy, and walked up to the bench where the mother sat. The spy quickly disappeared.

  The old man strode leisurely toward the mother, intently thrusting his angry eyes into the mother’s face. She sat farther back on the bench, trembling. “If they only don’t beat me, if they only don’t beat me!”

  He stopped at her side; she raised her eyes to his face.

  “What are you looking at?” he asked in a moderated voice.

  “Nothing.”

  “Hm! Thief! So old and yet—”

  It seemed to her that his words struck her face once, twice, rough and hoarse; they wounded her, as if they tore her cheeks, ripped out her eyes.

  “I’m not a thief! You lie!” she shouted with all the power of her chest; and everything before her jumped and began to whirl in a whirlwind of revolt, intoxicating her heart with the bitterness of insult. She jerked the valise, and it opened.

  “Look! look! All you people!” she shouted, standing up and waving the bundle of the proclamations she had quickly seized over her head. Through the noise in her ears she heard the exclamations of the people who came running up, and she saw them pouring in quickly from all directions.

  “What is it?”

  “There’s a spy!”