Works of Ivan Turgenev (Illustrated) (457 page)
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Authors: IVAN TURGENEV
Kuzovkin [accepting the paper with tears]: Please, Olga Petrovna, please command me to do anything you wish. I am both ready and glad. Command me to go to the end of the world and I will go. Now I can die. Now I don’t want anything any more . . . [Olga wipes his tears away with her handkerchief.] Oh, Olga, Olga . . .
Olga: Don’t cry, don’t cry. . . . We’ll see one another. You will be coming to see . . .
Kuzovkin: Oh, Olga Petrovna, Olga . . .
Am I living through this in a dream or in reality?
Olga: Enough, enough .. . .
Kuzovkin [quickly]: Olga, get up! Somebody’s coming. [Olga, who has almost been sitting in his lap, jumps to her feet quickly.] Give me your hand, your hand for the last time. [He quickly kisses her hand, and she goes away to one side.]
[Kuzovkin wants to rise but cannot. Through the door on the right, Eletski and Tropachev enter. Karpachov follows them. Olga goes to meet them, passing by Kuzovkin, and remains standing with her back to him.]
Tropachev [bowing affectedly]: Enfin, now we have the good fortune to see Olga Petrovna. How’s your health?
Olga: Thank you, I am very well.
Tropachev: Your face is as . . .
Eletski [interrupting]: My wife and I are not feeling well to - day.
Tropachev: Well, then, here is my sympathy, ha, ha, ha! And your garden, I must say, is most beautiful!
[Kuzovkin rises with great effort.]
Olga: I am very glad to know that you like our garden.
Tropachev [as though he were insulted]: Permit me to say that it is the most charming garden. Mais, c’est tr&s beau, tres beau. The paths, the flowers — in fact everything . . . Yes, yes, nature and poetry — they are my weaknesses. What do I see? Albums! This is like in a capital salon.
Eletski [looking expressively at his wife, and speaking drawlingly]: Did you succeed in the arrangements? [Olga shakes her head. Out of courtesy, Tropachev turns away.] Did he accept, hm? Very well. [Taking her a little to one side.] I repeat, I do not believe one word of his whole story, but I approve it for your sake. Family happiness is worth more than ten thousand rubles.
Olga [returning to Tropachev, who has commenced looking over the album]: What are you busying yourself with, Flegont Aleksandrych?
Tropachev: Oh, with your album. It is so pleasing. Tell me, are you acquainted with the Kovrinskis?
Olga: No, I am not.
Tropachev: How’s that? Have you never been acquainted with them? Get acquainted, I advise you. Their house is almost the best one in the county, or, to be more precise, it was the best house until yesterday. Ha, ha, ha!
Eletski [having gone up to Kuzovkin]: Are you going to take the money?
Kuzovkin: Yes, sir, I am.
Eletski: That means then that you lied.
Kuzovkin: I did.
Eletski: Eh . . . [Turning to Tropachev, who affectedly twists his body in the presence of Olga.] Flegont Aleksandrych, we laughed and joked yesterday over Vasili Semenych, but he has won his case. We just received the news, while we were walking in the garden.
Tropachev: You don’t mean it!
Eletski: Yes, yes, I do — Olga told me that just now. Ask him yourself.
Tropachev: Is that right, Vasili Semenych?
Kuzovkin [who from now on until the end of the act is laughing like a child, speaks in a ringing voice, but with a slight trembling forced by tears]: Yes, yes, I am getting it back — I am getting it back.
Tropachev: Accept my congratulations, Vasili Semenych. I congratulate you. [Semi - audibly to Eletski.] I understand ... In a very nice way you send him away from here after yesterday’s . . . [Eletski wants to assure him that that is not the case.] Oh, yes, yes . . . And how nice, how magnanimous, how refined ... It is very well done. I am willing to make a bet that this thought [with a smile at Olga] dawned on your wife, although you are also surely . . . [Eletski smiles, Tropachev continues loudly.] Very well, very well. So now you must go there, Vasili Semenych. You must take up the management.
Kuzovkin: Surely.
Eletski: Vasili Semenych told me just now that he expected to go there to - day.
Tropachev: Positively so. I fully understand his impatience, ha, ha, ha! The devil take it! They’ve led him around long enough, but finally he has got his estate . . . Why shouldn’t he want to go there and see his worldly possessions. Am I not right, Vasili Semenych?
Kuzovkin: Yes, sir, you are quite right.
Tropachev: You will undoubtedly have to go to the City too.
Kuzovkin: Most likely. I’ll get everything in order.
Tropachev: Then you mustn’t linger. [Winking to Eletski.] Lychkov, the lawyer, must be a great fellow. He’s the one that did it all! [To Kuzovkin.] And are you glad?
Kuzovkin: Yes, sir, why shouldn’t I be glad?
Tropachev: Will you permit me to call at the house - warming, hm?
Kuzovkin: You will do me great honor, Flegont Aleksandrych.
Tropachev [turning to Eletski]: Pavel Nikolaich, we’ll have to have a house - warming, won’t we?
Eletski [somewhat hesitatingly]: Yes . . . Maybe. Yes . . . [Goes up to the sitting - room door.] Call Trembinski.
Trembinski [quickly appearing in the doorway]: What do you wish, sir?
Eletski: Oh, you’re here? A bottle of champagne.
Trembinski [as he disappears]: Yes, sir.
Eletski: Oh, listen. [Trembinski turns around.] I think I saw Mr. Ivanov in the sitting - room. If so, call him in.
Trembinski: Yes, sir.
Tropachev [going up to Olga, who has been standing all this time at the table, alternately playing with the albums, and looking at Kuzovkin]: Madame Kovrinski will be most unusually happy to get acquainted with you. . . . Enchantee, enchantee. I hope that you will like her. I am in her house as in my own. She is a bright woman, and don’t you know, so . . . [Whirls his finger in the air.]
Olga [smiling]: Hm!
Tropachev: You’ll see. [Trembinski enters with bottles and glasses on a tray.] Well, Vasili Semenych, permit me to congratulate you, heartily.
[Ivanov enters, stops at the door, and bows.] Olga [kindly to Ivanov]: How do you do? I am very glad to see you. Have you heard the news, that your friend has come into his own?
[Ivanov again bows and goes over to Kuzovkin. Trembinski hands everyone a glass.] Ivanov [quietly but quickly to Kuzovkin]: Vasili, what’s all this?
Kuzovkin [a/so quietly]: Keep quiet, Ivan. Keep quiet. I am as happy . . .
Teopachev [with glass in hand]: To the health of the new land - owner!
Everybody [except Ivan, who doesn’t even drink]: To’ his health, to his health!
Karpachov [in a deep voice]: Long life!
[Tropachev looks at him gloomily. He shows confusion. Kuzovkin thanks everybody, bows, and smiles. Eletski holds himself reserved. Olga feels uneasy. She is ready to cry out. Ivanov is astonished, and looks out from under his brows.] Kuzovkin [in a quivering voice]: Permit me now — on such a solemn day for me — to announce my thanks for all your kindnesses . . .
Eletski [interrupting him, and sternly]: Why, Vasili Semenych, why are you thanking us?
Kuzovkin: You are, after all, my benefactor, and as for my — what shall I call it? — behavior, I beg you to forgive an old man. Only the Lord knows why I felt insulted yesterday and spoke such . . .
Eletski [again interrupting him]: Oh, very, very well.
Kuzovkin: What was there to be insulted at? What harm? . . . The Lord knows we just had a little fun. [Looking at Olga.] However, I am not speaking to the point. Good - bye, my dear benefactors, may you be well, happy, and joyful . . .
Tropachev: Why do you bid them good - bye in this way, Vasili Semenych? You are not going to Siberia!
Kuzovkin [moved, he continues]: May the Lord give you all good luck, and I ... I haven’t even anything more to ask of the Lord. I am so happy, so . . . [He stops and restrains himself from crying.]
Eletski [aside, to himself ]: What a scene! . . . When will he go away?
Olga [
Kuzovkin [kissing her hand]: Olga Petrovna . . . the Lord will reward you.
Eletski: Very well, very well. Good - bye. . . .
Kuzovkin: Good - bye. [Bows and with Ivanov he goes to the door of the sitting - room.]
[Everybody escorts them. At the threshold, Tropachev exclaims: “Long live the new owner.” Olga rushes out quickly to the office.’]
Tropachev [turning around to Eletski and patting him on the shoulder]: Do you know what I want to tell you? You are a most honorable man!
Eletski: Oh, don’t mention it! You are excessively kind. . . .
Curtain
