Nastenka! I cried breathless with sobs. Nastenka, oh Nastenka!
Enough, enough! Well, now its quite enough, she said, hardly able to control herself. Well, now all has been said, hasnt it? Hasnt it? You are happy I am happy too. Not another word about it, wait; spare me talk of something else, for Gods sake.
Yes, Nastenka, yes! Enough about that, now I am happy. I Yes, Nastenka, yes, let us talk of other things, let us make haste and talk. Yes! I am ready.
Yes, Nastenka, yes! Enough about that, now I am happy. I Yes, Nastenka, yes, let us talk of other things, let us make haste and talk. Yes! I am ready.
And we did not know what to say: we laughed, we wept, we said thousands of things meaningless and incoherent; at one moment we walked along the pavement, then suddenly turned back and crossed the road; then we stopped and went back again to the embankment; we were like children.
I am living alone now, Nastenka, I began, but to-morrow! Of course you know, Nastenka, I am poor, I have only got twelve hundred roubles, but that doesnt matter.
Of course not, and granny has her pension, so she will be no burden. We must take granny.
Of course we must take granny. But theres Matrona.
Yes, and weve got Fyokla too!
Matrona is a good woman, but she has one fault: she has no imagination, Nastenka, absolutely none; but that doesnt matter.
Thats all right they can live together; only you must move to us to-morrow.
To you? How so? All right, I am ready.
Yes, hire a room from us. We have a top oor, its empty. We had an old lady lodging there, but she has gone away; and I know granny would like to have a young man. I said to her, Why a young man? And she said, Oh, because I am old; only dont you fancy, Nastenka, that I want him as a husband for you. So I guessed it was with that idea.
Oh, Nastenka!
And we both laughed.
Come, thats enough, thats enough. But where do you live? Ive forgotten.
Over that way, near X bridge, Barannikovs Buildings.
Its that big house? Yes, that big house.
Oh, I know, a nice house; only you know you had better give it up and come to us as soon as possible.
To-morrow, Nastenka, to-morrow; I owe a little for my rent there, but that doesnt matter. I shall soon get my salary.
And do you know I will perhaps give lessons; I will learn something myself and then give lessons.
Capital! And I shall soon get a bonus.
So by to-morrow you will be my lodger.
And we will go to The Barber of Seville, for they are soon going to give it again.
Yes, well go, said Nastenka, but better see something else and not The Barber of Seville.
Very well, something else. Of course that will be better, I did not think
As we talked like this we walked along in a sort of delirium, a sort of intoxication, as though we did not know what was happening to us. At one moment we stopped and talked for a long time at the same place; then we went on again, and goodness knows where we went; and again tears and again laughter. All of a sudden Nastenka would want to go home, and I would not dare to detain her but would want to see her to the house; we set o, and in a quarter of an hour found ourselves at the embankment by our seat. Then she would sigh, and tears would come into her eyes again; I would turn chill with dismay But she would press my hand and force me to walk, to talk, to chatter as before.
Its time I was home at last; I think it must be very late, Nastenka said at last. We must give over being childish.
Yes, Nastenka, only I shant sleep to-night; I am not going home.
I dont think I shall sleep either; only see me home.
I should think so!
Only this time we really must get to the house. We must, we must.
Honour bright? For you know one must go home some time!
Honour bright, I answered laughing.
Well, come along!
Come along! Look at the sky, Nastenka. Look! To-morrow it will be a lovely day; what a blue sky, what a moon! Look; that yellow cloud is covering it now, look, look! No, it has passed by. Look, look!
But Nastenka did not look at the cloud; she stood mute as though turned to stone; a minute later she huddled timidly close up to me. Her hand trembled in my hand; I looked at her. She pressed still more closely to me.
At that moment a young man passed by us. He suddenly stopped, looked at us intently, and then again took a few steps on. My heart began throbbing.
Who is it, Nastenka? I said in an undertone. Its he, she answered in a whisper, huddled up to me, still more closely, still more tremulously I could hardly stand on my feet.
Nastenka, Nastenka! Its you! I heard a voice behind us and at the same moment the young man took several steps towards us.
My God, how she cried out! How she started! How she tore herself out of my arms and rushed to meet him! I stood and looked at them, utterly crushed. But she had hardly given him her hand, had hardly ung herself into his arms, when she turned to me again, was beside me again in a ash, and before I knew where I was she threw both arms round my neck and gave me a warm, tender kiss. Then, without saying a word to me, she rushed back to him again, took his hand, and drew him after her.
I stood a long time looking after them. At last the two vanished from my sight.
MORNING
My night ended with the morning. It was a wet day. The rain was falling and beating disconsolately upon my window pane; it was dark in the room and grey outside. My head ached and I was giddy; fever was stealing over my limbs.
Theres a letter for you, sir; the postman brought it, Matrona said stooping over me.
A letter? From whom? I cried, jumping from my chair.
I dont know, sir, better look maybe it is written there whom it is from. I broke the seal. It was from her!
Oh, forgive me, forgive me! I beg you on my knees to forgive me! I deceived you and myself. It was a dream, a mirage My heart aches for you today; forgive me, forgive me!
Dont blame me, for I have not changed to you in the least. I told you that I would love you, I love you now, I more than love you. Oh, my God! If only I could love you both at once! Oh, if only you were he!
(Oh, if only he were you, echoed in my mind. I remembered your words, Nastenka!)
God knows what I would do for you now! I know that you are sad and dreary. I have wounded you, but you know when one loves, a wrong is soon forgotten. And you love me.
Thank you, yes, thank you for that love! For it will live in my memory like a sweet dream which lingers long after awakening; for I shall remember for ever that instant when you opened your heart to me like a brother and so generously accepted the gift of my shattered heart to care for it, nurse it, and heal it If you forgive me, the memory of you will be exalted by a feeling of everlasting gratitude which will never be eaced from my soul I will treasure that memory: I will be true to it, I will not betray it, I will not betray my heart: it is too constant. It returned so quickly yesterday to him to whom it has always belonged.
We shall meet, you will come to us, you will not leave us, you will be for ever a friend, a brother to me. And when you see me you will give me your hand yes? You will give it to me, you have forgiven me, havent you? You love me as before?
Oh, love me, do not forsake me, because I love you so at this moment, because I am worthy of your love, because I will deserve it my dear! Next week I am to be married to him. He has come back in love, he has never forgotten me, You will not be angry at my writing about him. But I want to come and see you with him; you will like him, wont you?
Forgive me, remember and love your
Nastenka.
I read that letter over and over again for a long time; tears gushed to my eyes. At last it fell from my hands and I hid my face.
I read that letter over and over again for a long time; tears gushed to my eyes. At last it fell from my hands and I hid my face.
Dearie! I say, dearie Matrona began.
What is it, Matrona?
I have taken all the cobwebs o the ceiling; you can have a wedding or give a party.
I looked at Matrona. She was still a hearty, youngish, old woman, but I dont know why all at once I suddenly pictured her with lustreless eyes, a wrinkled face, bent, decrepit I dont know why I suddenly pictured my room grown old like Matrona. The walls and the oors looked discoloured, everything seemed dingy; the spiders webs were thicker than ever. I dont know why, but when I looked out of the window it seemed to me that the house opposite had grown old and dingy too, that the stucco on the columns was peeling o and crumbling, that the cornices were cracked and blackened, and that the walls, of a vivid deep yellow, were patchy.
Either the sunbeams suddenly peeping out from the clouds for a moment were hidden again behind a veil of rain, and everything had grown dingy again before my eyes; or perhaps the whole vista of my future ashed before me so sad and forbidding, and I saw myself just as I was now, fteen years hence, older, in the same room, just as solitary, with the same Matrona grown no cleverer for those fteen years.
But to imagine that I should bear you a grudge, Nastenka! That I should cast a dark cloud over your serene, untroubled happiness; that by my bitter reproaches I should cause distress to your heart, should poison it with secret remorse and should force it to throb with anguish at the moment of bliss; that I should crush a single one of those tender blossoms which you have twined in your dark tresses when you go with him to the altar Oh never, never! May your sky be clear, may your sweet smile be bright and untroubled, and may you be blessed for that moment of blissful happiness which you gave to another, lonely and grateful heart!
My God, a whole moment of happiness! Is that too little for the whole of a mans life?
1
gay cheerful, happy, full of fun
2
Fontanka a river in Petersburg
3
Kamenny and Aptekarsky Islands or of the Peterhof Road formerly the places of summer vacations of St. Petersburg citizens, now part of the city
4
Pargolovo a resort not far from St. Petersburg
5
Zhukovsky a famous Russian poet of the 19th century
6
Diana Vernon the main female character of W. Scotts Rob Roy
7
Ivan Vassilyevitch Ivan the Terrible (1530 1584)