Chapter 6 Duel 5

Fives Nadezhda Fyodorovna went to her bath in the morning, and her cook, Olga, followed her with a jug, a copper basin, large towels, and a sponge.At the anchorage were two unfamiliar ships with dirty white chimneys, which seemed to be foreign freighters.Some men in white clothes and white shoes walked up and down the quay, shouting in French, and someone on the steamer answered them.In the little church in the town, someone was ringing the bell vigorously. "Today is Sunday!" Nadezhda Fyodorovna thought cheerfully. She felt perfectly healthy, with the cheerfulness of a holiday.She wore a loose new dress of coarse cocoon made of men's clothes, and on her head a large straw hat whose broad brim was bent sharply toward her ears so that her face looked as if it were in a Like in a little box.She felt very charming.It occurred to her that there was only one young, beautiful, educated woman in the whole town, and that was her, and she was the only one who could dress so cheaply, gracefully, and elegantly.For example, the dress cost only twenty-two rubles, and yet it was so lovely!She was the only man in town who liked her, and there were so many men that they must have been jealous of Laevsky, whether they knew it or not.

She was secretly pleased at the thought of Laevsky's indifference to her of late, his forced affability, and sometimes his rudeness.In the past, when she saw him lose his temper, saw his contemptuous and cruel or strange and incomprehensible eyes, she always retaliated with tears and reproaches, threatening that she would leave him, or simply refuse to eat and starve. die.But now, her answer was just blushing and looking at him guiltily, and was secretly happy when he saw that he was not affectionate to her.It would be better and more pleasant if he scolded her or threatened her, because she felt so sorry for him.She felt that she was at fault, first of all, that she had not supported his desire for a working life, which was why he had left Petersburg for the Caucasus, and she believed that it was for this reason that he had recently been angry with her.When she came to the Caucasus, she thought that the first day she would find a simple nest by the coast here, with a cozy little garden in front of the door, with shady trees, flying birds, and flowing streams, where she could grow flowers and vegetables , raising chickens and ducks, entertaining neighbors, treating poor farmers, and giving them some pamphlets.Unexpectedly, the Caucasus has only bare mountains, forests, and large valleys. It took them a long time to choose and rush before they settled down.There are no neighbors here, and the weather is very hot. Someone might come and rob.She was secretly glad that Laevsky was not in a hurry to buy a piece of land, and the two of them seemed to agree that they would never speak of working life again.She thought he didn't mention it because she didn't, and he got mad at her.

Secondly, she had been in debt for three hundred rubles for all the odds and ends she had bought in Achmianov's store without telling him for two years.She bought here and there a piece of material, now a length of silk, now a parasol, and accumulated this debt unconsciously. "I'm going to tell him about it today..." she decided, but then it occurred to her that Laevsky's present state of mind made it inappropriate to raise the debt with him. Thirdly, she had already twice received Police Superintendent Kirilin privately in Laevsky's absence: once in the morning, when Laevsky had gone out to take a bath, and once at midnight, when he was out playing literary works. special.Nadyezhda Fyodorovna flushed at the thought, and looked round at the cook, as if fearing that she might overhear her thoughts.The days were so long and hot and oppressive, the evenings so graceful and lazy, the nights so sweltering that she hardly knew what to do with them from morning till night, and what was more, She kept thinking that she was the prettiest and youngest woman in the town, and that her youth was wasting away, that Laevsky was honest and idealistic, but monotonous, walking about in sandals all the time. Go, bite her fingernails, lose her temper and make people bored, in short, all these gradually made her be controlled by lust, and she was thinking about it like a madman day and night.She felt her breath, her eyes, the tone of her voice, her gait full of lust.The splashing of the sea told her that she should fall in love, and so did the darkness of evening, and so did the mountains. ... When Kirilin began to pursue her, she couldn't bear it anymore, she didn't intend to resist, and she couldn't resist, so she simply committed herself to him. ... now those foreign ships and those people in white clothes reminded her, for some reason, of a gigantic ballroom.Along with those French words, the music of the waltz also poured into her ears.An unaccountable joy made her breast tremble.She would have liked to dance and speak French.

There was nothing to fear in her indecency, she thought cheerfully.Her heart did not share in her infidelity: she still loved Laevsky.This was obvious, for she feared that he was in love with someone else, pitied him, and thought of him when he was not at home.Killerin was actually quite ordinary, beautiful but a little vulgar.She has broken with him completely, and nothing will happen in the future.What had happened was past, no one had anything to do with it, and even Laevsky would not have believed it if he knew about it. There is only one bathing shed for the women on the coast, and the men bathe in the open air.Nadezhda Fyodorovna went into the bathhouse, where she met Marya Konstantinovna Pichugova, an elderly civil servant, and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Katya, who was studying at the secondary school. .The two of them were sitting on a bench undressing.Marya Konstantinovna was a kind, warm, courteous person, with a drawn-out, expressive voice.She worked as a governess until she was thirty-two years old, and only later married the civil servant, Bhikhugof, a short, bald man with his hair combed to his temples, and a very docile temper.She loves him to this day, and she is afraid of losing his love. Whenever she hears the word "love", she blushes and tells everyone that she is very happy.

"My darling!" she said enthusiastically, seeing Nadyezhda Fyodorovna, with an expression on her face which all her acquaintances called "almond oil." "My dear, what a pleasure it is to have you here! How nice it is to have a bath together!" Olga quickly took off her coat and underwear and began to undress her wife. "It's not as hot today as it was yesterday, is it?" said Nadezhda Fyodorovna.The naked cook touched her flesh roughly, causing her to shrink back. "I almost died of heat yesterday!" "Well, yes, dear! I can hardly breathe, too. Believe it or not, I took a bath three times yesterday, . . . three times, if you think about it! Even Nikodim Alexandrey Qidu feels uneasy."

"Why, can there be such an ugly person?" Nadezhda Fyodorovna thought, glancing at the cook and the lady of the office.She looked at Katya and thought to herself: "That girl has a pretty figure." "Your Nikodim Alexandritch is very, very lovely!" she said. "I just fell in love with him." "Ha-ha-ha!" Marya Konstantinovna forced a smile. "This is great!" As soon as Nadezhda Fyodorovna took off her clothes, she felt the desire to fly to the sky, and she felt that if she just waved her arms, she would be able to do so.After undressing, she found Olga looking at her white body with disgust.Olga, the soldier's young wife, lived with her legal husband, and therefore considered herself better and superior to her.Nadezhda Fyodorovna also felt that Marya Konstantinovna and Katya did not respect her and were afraid of her.It's unpleasant.In order to enhance her status in their eyes, she said: "In our Petersburg, dacha life is just at its peak! My husband and I have a lot of acquaintances! We should go and see them."

"Your husband seems to be an engineer?" Marya Konstantinovna asked timidly. "I'm talking about Laevsky. He has a lot of acquaintances. Unfortunately, his mother is a proud lady and not very bright..." Nadezhda Fyodorovna jumped into the water without finishing her sentence; Marya Konstantinovna and Katya followed suit. "There are many prejudices in our high society," Nadezhda Fyodorovna went on, "and life is not as easy as it seems." Marya Konstantinovna, who had been a governess in a noble family and was well acquainted with high society, said: "Yes! Believe it or not, my dear, breakfast and lunch are required at the Galacynskys' I have to be fully dressed, so I, like an actor, receive a costume fee in addition to my salary."

She stood between Nadezhda Fyodorovna and Katya, as if to prevent the water Nadezhda Fyodorovna had washed from reaching her daughter.A door was open to the sea, and through it one could see someone swimming a hundred paces from the bathing shed. "Mother, this is our Kostya!" said Katya. "Ah, ah!" Marya Konstantinovna cried like a hen in alarm. "Oh! Kostya," she cried, "come back! Kostya, come back!" Kostya was a fourteen-year-old boy. In order to show his bravery in front of his mother and sister, he got into the water and swam far away, but he was tired and swam back quickly. It could be seen from his face that he did not believe in his own strength.

"These children are such a worry, my dear!" said Marya Konstantinovna, reassured. "He'll break his neck if you're not careful. Oh, dear, what a joy it is to be a mother, and how hard it is at the same time! There's a fear of everything." Nadezhda Fyodorovna put on her straw hat and swam out to sea.She swam four arbors and lay flat on the water.She saw the ocean stretching out to the horizon, the ships, the people on the shore, the cities, and all this, together with the heat and the clear, gentle waves, touched her heart, as if whispering to her: She should enjoy life You should enjoy the fun of life. … A sailboat cleaves the waves and the air swiftly and powerfully, drifting past her.A man sat at the helm of the boat, watching her.For her part, it was a pleasure to see people looking at her. ...After taking a shower, several women got dressed and came out together.

"I have a fever every other day, but I haven't lost any weight," said Nadyezhda Fyodorovna, licking her salty lips from the bath, and smiling at her nodding acquaintances. "I've always been fat, and now I seem to be getting fatter." "It's natural, my dear. I'm so naturally incapable of getting fat, it's no use eating. But, my dear, you've got your hat all wet." "It doesn't matter, it will dry." Again Nadyezhda Fyodorovna saw the men in white walking up and down the embankment, speaking French.For some reason, joy stirred again in her breast, and she recalled vaguely a hall in which she had once danced, or perhaps only dreamed of dancing in it.Yet in the depths of her soul a voice whispered vaguely and vaguely that she was a shallow, vulgar, insignificant, wicked woman. ... Marya Konstantinovna stopped at her door and invited her to come in and sit down.

"Go in, my dear!" she said in a beseeching voice, looking at Nadezhda Fyodorovna with anxiety and hope: perhaps she would refuse to go in! "As you order," agreed Nadezhda Fyodorovna. "You know how much I like to come to your house!" She went into the house.Marya Konstantinovna invited her to sit down, gave her coffee, offered her sweet rolls, and showed her pictures of her former pupils, the Galaczinskys, who They are all married now.Then she showed her the examination papers of Katya and Kostya, who got good grades, but trying to make them look better, she complained with a sigh: "It's really hard to study in secondary school now." ah. ... She tried to please her guest, but pitied her at the same time, and she was saddened by the moral influence that Nadezhda Fyodorovna's presence might have on Katya and Kostya, and she secretly thanked her. At last Nikodim Alexandritch was not at home.In her opinion, all men liked "such a woman," and Nadyezhda Fyodorovna would also have a bad influence on Nikodim Alexandritch. While talking to the guests, Marya Konstantinovna kept thinking of the picnic that evening, and von Koren begged her not to do anything to the macaques, that is, to Laevsky and Nadezhda Fyodorovna talked about it, but she accidentally said it, blushed, and said in alarm: "I hope you will go too!"