‘Excuse me, General, excuse me, so it was he who categorically demanded that I cease to be a member of your household, as you are pleased to put it?’
‘No, but I considered myself obliged to give him that satisfaction, and, it goes without saying, the baron was gratified. We are parting, my dear sir. I still owe you these four friedrichs d’or and three florins in the local money. Here’s the money, and here’s the paper with the account; you may check the figures. Goodbye. From this time forth we are strangers. I have had nothing from you but bother and unpleasantness. I’ll call the attendant now and inform him that as of tomorrow I am not responsible for your hotel expenses. I have the honour to remain your humble servant.’
I took the money and the paper on which the account had been written in pencil, bowed to the general and said to him very seriously:
‘General, the matter cannot end like this. I am very sorry that you have been subjected to unpleasantness by the baron, but – I beg your pardon – you yourself are to blame. Why did you take it upon yourself to answer for me to the baron? What is the meaning of the expression that I belong to your household? I am merely a tutor in your household, and nothing more. I am not your son, I am not under your guardianship and you cannot answer for my actions. I am a legally competent person. I am twenty-five years old, I am a university graduate, I am a nobleman and I am a complete stranger to you. Only my unbounded respect for your merits prevents me from demanding satisfaction from you right now and a further explanation for the fact that you took it upon yourself to answer for me.’
The general was so stunned that he flung up his hands, then suddenly turned towards the Frenchman and hurriedly recounted to him that I had practically challenged him to a duel just now. The Frenchman roared with laughter.
‘But I do not intend to let the baron off,’ I continued with complete composure, not in the least embarrassed by Monsieur des Grieux’s laughter, ‘and since, General, by consenting to listen to the baron’s complaint today and thus entering into his interests, you have made yourself a participant, as it were, in this whole affair, then I have the honour of informing you that no later than tomorrow morning I will demand from the baron, in my own name, a formal explanation of his reasons for addressing another person instead of me, when his business was with me, as if I were unable or unworthy of answering him myself.’
My hunch proved right. Upon hearing this new bit of nonsense, the general became terribly frightened.
‘What, do you really intend to continue this damned business!’ he cried. ‘But what are you doing to me, good Lord! Don’t you dare, don’t you dare, my dear sir, or I swear! … There are authorities here, too, and I … I … In a word, with my rank … and the baron’s, too … In a word, you’ll be arrested and sent away from here under police escort so that you don’t make a row! Understand that, sir!’ And although he was choking with rage, nevertheless he was terribly frightened.
‘General,’ I answered with a calmness that he found unbearable, ‘one cannot be arrested for making a row before the row happens. I have not yet begun my explanations with the baron, and you are completely in the dark as to how and on what grounds I intend to set about the business. I wish only to clear up the offensive assumption that I am under the guardianship of a person who supposedly has power over my free will. You are becoming alarmed and worried for no reason.’
‘For God’s sake, for God’s sake, Alexey Ivanovich, abandon this senseless undertaking!’ the general muttered, suddenly changing his wrathful tone for a pleading one, and even grabbing me by the hands. ‘Well, just imagine what will come of it. More unpleasantness! You will agree that I must behave in a particular way, particularly now! … Particularly now! … Oh, you don’t know, you don’t know all my circumstances! … I am prepared to take you back when we leave this place. It’s only now that, well, in a word – after all, you understand the reasons!’ he cried in despair. ‘Alexey Ivanovich, Alexey Ivanovich! …’
As I was making my way to the door, I once more earnestly asked him not to worry; I promised that everything would turn out well and properly, and hurried to leave.
Sometimes Russians abroad are too cowardly and are terribly afraid of what people will say, how they will be regarded and whether this or that is the proper thing to do – in a word, they behave as if they were wearing a corset, particularly those who lay claim to being of some importance. Their favourite thing is some sort of preconceived, established form, which they follow slavishly – in hotels, on walks, at meetings, while travelling … But the general had let slip that apart from everything else there were some particular circumstances, that he needed ‘to behave particularly’. And that was why he suddenly became so faint-hearted and frightened and changed his tone with me. I took this into consideration and made a note of it. And, of course, tomorrow he could without thinking what he was doing apply to some authorities, so that indeed I must be careful.
I did not at all wish to make the general himself angry, however; but I did want to make Polina angry now. Polina had treated me so cruelly and had pushed me on to such a stupid path that I very much wanted to drive her to the point where she would ask me to stop. My schoolboy’s prank, after all, might compromise her, too. Besides, some different feelings and desires were taking shape within me; if I, for instance, should disappear of my own accord into nothingness in her presence, that does not at all mean that I am a wet chicken in the presence of other people, and of course it’s certainly not for the baron ‘to beat me with his stick’. I wanted to have a good laugh at them all, and come out of it a splendid fellow. Let them watch me. I dare say that she’ll be frightened of a scandal and call me to her side once more. And if she doesn’t, then she’ll nevertheless see that I’m not a wet chicken …
(An astonishing bit of news: I’ve just heard from our nanny, whom I met on the stairway, that Marya Filippovna left today for Karlsbad, all alone on the evening train, to visit her cousin. What does this mean? The nanny says that she had been planning it for some time; but how is it that nobody knew? However, perhaps I’m the only one who didn’t know. Nanny let slip to me that Marya Filippovna had a talk with the general the day before yesterday. I understand, sir. It’s probably – Mlle Blanche. Yes, something decisive is coming.)
CHAPTER 7
In the morning I called the attendant and informed him that I wished to be billed separately. My room was not so expensive to alarm me and make me leave the hotel altogether. I had sixteen friedrichs d’or, and there … and there perhaps lay wealth! Strange as it may seem, I still hadn’t won, but I was acting, feeling and thinking like a wealthy man, and I couldn’t imagine myself any other way.
I had intended, despite the early hour, to go at once to see Mr Astley in the Hotel d’Angleterre, which was quite near us, when suddenly des Grieux came to see me. This had never happened before, and besides, my relations with this gentleman of late had been very aloof and very strained. He clearly hadn’t been bothering to conceal his contempt for me, hadn’t even tried to conceal it; while I – I had my own reasons for not regarding him with favour. In a word, I loathed him. His arrival surprised me very much. I at once grasped that something special was brewing.
He was very amiable when he entered and even complimented me on my room. Seeing that I had my hat in my hand, he enquired whether I was really going out for a walk so early. When he heard that I was going to see Mr Astley on business, he thought it over for a moment, reflected and his face assumed an extremely anxious look.
Des Grieux was like all Frenchmen, that is, gay and amiable when necessary and expedient, and unbearably boring when being gay and amiable had ceased to be necessary. The Frenchman is rarely naturally amiable; he is always amiable on command, as it were, or when it is to his advantage. If, for example, he sees the necessity to be fantastic, original, a bit out of the ordinary, then his fantasy, of the most stupid and unnatural kind, is pieced together from earlier accepted forms that have long since become vulgar. The natural Frenc
hman consists of the most plebeian, petty and ordinary positivism – in a word, he’s the most boring being in the world. In my opinion, only novices and, in particular, Russian young ladies find Frenchmen attractive. Any respectable being notices at once and finds unbearable the conventionalism of the established forms of salon amiability, familiarity and gaiety.
‘I’ve come to see you on business,’ he began extremely unceremoniously, though politely, ‘and I won’t conceal the fact that I come to you as an ambassador, or rather, as a mediator from the general. As I know very little Russian, I understood almost nothing yesterday; but the general explained it to me in detail, and I confess …’
‘But listen, Monsieur des Grieux,’ I interrupted him, ‘here you’ve undertaken to be a mediator in this business. Of course, I am “un outchitel” and have never laid claim to being a close friend of this household or to any other especially intimate relations, and therefore I do not know all the circumstances; but explain to me, are you now really a member of this family? Because, in the end, you take such an interest in everything, and without fail you are the mediator in everything …’
He didn’t like my question. It was too transparent for him, and he didn’t want to say more than he had to.
‘I am bound to the general in part through business, in part through certain special circumstances,’ he said drily. ‘The general sent me to ask you to abandon your intentions of yesterday. Everything you concocted, of course, is very clever; but he particularly asked me to convey to you that you will fail utterly; moreover, the baron won’t receive you; and, finally, in any event, he has the means by which to forestall any further unpleasantness from you. You must see that. Tell me, what is the purpose of continuing? The general has promised you that he will certainly take you back into his household again at the first opportunity and until that time will pay your salary, vos appointements.1 Now that’s rather handsome, don’t you think?’
I very calmly raised the objection that he was somewhat mistaken; that perhaps the baron wouldn’t send me packing, but on the contrary, would hear me out, and that he had probably come to try to discover how exactly I intended to pursue the matter.
‘Good heavens! Since the general is so interested, then it goes without saying that he would like to know what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. That’s only natural!’
I proceeded to explain and he began to listen, sprawled out with his head inclined somewhat towards me and a suggestion of overt and unconcealed irony in his face. I tried with all my might to pretend that I was regarding the matter very seriously. I explained that since the baron had turned to the general with his complaint about me, as if I were the general’s servant, then, first of all, he had deprived me of my post, and secondly, he had slighted me, as though I were a person who was not in a position to answer for myself and to whom it was not even worth talking. Of course, I was justified in feeling offended; however, considering the difference in our ages, positions in society and so on and so forth (I could hardly keep from laughing at this point), I did not want to commit another act of thoughtlessness, that is, by challenging the baron directly or merely offering him satisfaction. Nevertheless, I considered myself fully within my rights in offering him, and the baroness in particular, my apologies, all the more so because of late I have indeed felt ill, out of sorts and, so to speak, fantastic and so on and so forth. However, the baron himself, with his insulting appeal to the general yesterday and his insistence that the general dismiss me from my position, had put me in such a position that now I could no longer offer him and the baroness my apologies, because both he and the baroness and all of society would certainly think that I had come with my apologies out of fear and in order to regain my post. From all this it follows that I now find myself forced to ask the baron that he apologize to me first, in the most moderate terms – for example, he might say that he did not wish to offend me in any way. And when the baron says this, then I, my hands now untied, will extend to him my heartfelt and sincere apologies. In a word, I concluded, I ask only that the baron untie my hands.
‘Ugh! What scruples and what refinement! And why should you apologize? Well, you must admit, monsieur … monsieur … that you are undertaking all this on purpose, in order to annoy the general … but perhaps, you have some ulterior motive … mon cher monsieur, pardon, j’ai oublié votre nom, monsieur Alexis? … n’est ce pas?’2
‘But excuse me, mon cher marquis, what business is it of yours?’
‘Mais le général …’3
‘And what of the general? Yesterday he said something, that he needed to maintain a certain footing … and he was so worried … but I didn’t understand a thing.’
‘There is here, there exists here a particular circumstance,’ des Grieux picked up in a pleading tone, in which vexation was heard more and more. ‘You know Mlle de Cominges?’
‘That is, Mlle Blanche?’
‘Well, yes, Mlle Blanche de Cominges … et madame sa mere4 … You must admit, the general … In a word, the general is in love and even … perhaps the marriage will even take place here. And just imagine that at the same time there are all sorts of scandal and talk.’
‘I don’t see any scandal or talk that have any bearing on the marriage.’
‘But le baron est si irascible, un caractère prussien, vous savez, enfin il fera une querelle d’Allemande.’5
‘But that will be with me, and not you, since I no longer belong to the household …’ (I purposely tried to be as thick-headed as possible.) ‘But excuse me, so is it settled that Mlle Blanche is marrying the general? What are they waiting for? I mean to say – why conceal this, at any rate, from us, the members of the household?’
‘I can’t tell you … however, it’s not yet completely … however … you know that they are waiting for news from Russia; the general needs to put his affairs in order …’
‘Ah, yes, la baboulinka!’
Des Grieux looked at me with hatred.
‘In a word,’ he interrupted, ‘I rely completely on your innate kindness, your intelligence, your tact … You, of course, will do this for the family in which you have been received as one of their own, in which you have been loved and respected …’
‘Pardon me, I’ve been thrown out! Here you’ve just been claiming that it was all for the sake of appearances; but you must admit that if you’re told: “Of course, I don’t want to box your ears, but for the sake of appearances let me box your ears” … Isn’t that practically the same thing?’
‘If that’s the way it is, if no entreaties can have any influence over you,’ he began severely and haughtily, ‘then allow me to assure you that measures will be taken. There are authorities here, you’ll be sent away today – que diable! un blanc-bec comme vous6 wants to challenge a person like the baron to a duel! And do you think that you’ll be left in peace? Believe me, nobody here is afraid of you! If I have made a request, it was more on my own account, because you have caused the general worry. And do you really think, do you really think that the baron won’t simply order you thrown out by his lackey?’
‘But, you see, I’m not going myself,’ I answered with extraordinary calm, ‘you are mistaken, Monsieur des Grieux, all this will be managed much more properly than you think. I’m going to see Mr Astley now and ask him to be my go-between, in a word, to be my second. This man likes me and will certainly not refuse. He will go to the baron and the baron will receive him. If I am un outchitel and seem to be some sort of subalterne,7 well and, finally, defenceless – then Mr Astley is the nephew of a lord, a real lord, everybody knows that, Lord Pibroch, and that lord is here. Believe me, the baron will be courteous to Mr Astley and will hear him out. And if he doesn’t hear him out, then Mr Astley will regard that as a personal offence (you know how persistent the English are) and send a friend to the baron, and he has some good friends. Consider now that things might not turn out as you had supposed.’
The Frenchman was definitely frightened; indeed, all
this looked very much like the truth and, as a result, it turned out that I really was in a position to instigate a scandal.
‘But I beg you,’ he began in an utterly pleading voice, ‘drop all this! It’s as though you are pleased that a scandal will come of it! It’s not satisfaction that you require, but a scandal! I said that it all would come out amusing and even clever, which perhaps is what you’re aiming for, but in a word,’ he concluded, seeing that I had risen and was taking my hat, ‘I came to you to give you these few words from a certain person; read them – I was told to wait for an answer.’
Having said this, he took from his pocket a little note, folded and sealed, and gave it to me.
In Polina’s handwriting was written.
I gather that you intend to continue with this business. You’re angry and you’re starting to act like a schoolboy. But there are particular circumstances here, which perhaps I will explain to you later; meanwhile, please, stop and calm yourself. How stupid it all is! I need you and you promised to obey me. Remember the Schlangenberg. I ask you to be obedient and, if necessary, I order it.
Yours, P.
PS If you are angry with me about what happened yesterday, then forgive me.
Everything seemed to be swimming before my eyes as I read these lines. My lips turned white and I began to tremble. The damned Frenchman looked on with an earnestly reticent pose, having averted his eyes from me, as if to avoid witnessing my embarrassment. It would have been better if he had burst out laughing at me.
The Gambler and Other Stories (Penguin ed.) Page 23
