Chapter 8 "Duel" VII

seven Kirilin and Atchmianov climbed up the hill by a path.Atchmianov stayed behind and stood still.Kirilin went straight up to Nadezhda Fyodorovna. "Good evening!" he said, raising his hand to the brim of his hat. "good evening." "Yes!" said Killilin, looking up at the sky, thoughtful. "What's a pass?" asked Nadezhda Fyodorovna after a moment's silence, noticing that Atchmianov was watching them both. "Well," said the inspector slowly, "our love withered, so to speak, before it had time to bloom. How do you want me to understand this? Is that what makes you different?" Is it a coquettish thing, or do you think I'm a fool to push around?"

"The past is a mistake! Get away from me!" said Nadezhda Fyodorovna sharply, looking at him with terror on this wonderful evening, and asking herself in bewilderment: Had there really been a thing before? During such a period of time, has this person touched her heart and been close to her? "So it is!" said Killilin.He stood silently for a while, thought for a while, and said, "All right. Let's talk later when you're in a better mood, but right now I want to assure you that I'm a man of integrity and I won't tolerate any People doubt it. You can't play tricks on me! Adieu!"

He raised his hand to the brim of his hat in salute, and went into a nearby bush.After a while, Atchmianov approached hesitantly. "It's a lovely evening!" he said, with a slight Armenian accent. He was good-looking, well-dressed, and well-mannered, like a well-educated youth.But Nadezhda Fyodorovna did not like him, because she owed his father three hundred rubles.It made her unhappy to think that even the store owner had been invited to the picnic.He happened to come to her at this evening, when her heart was very pure, and she also felt unhappy. "On the whole, the picnic was a great success," he said after a moment's silence.

"Yes," she agreed.Then, as if she had just remembered her debt, she said casually: "By the way, please tell the people in your shop that Ivan Andreitch will be in your shop in a few days." , to pay off the three hundred rubles or . . . I don't remember exactly how much." "I'd like to give you another three hundred rubles, if you don't raise this debt every day. Why talk about such nonsense?" Nadezhda Fyodorovna laughed.A ridiculous idea popped into her mind: as long as she had no shame, as long as she wanted to, she could get rid of her debts in less than a minute.Like, just to get this pretty young fool out of his head!Indeed, how absurd, absurd, astonishing it would be!She suddenly wanted to make him fall in love with her, to rob him of all his money, leave him behind, and then see what would happen.

"Allow me to give you a piece of advice," said Atchmianov timidly. "I beg you to beware of Killilin. He speaks badly about you everywhere." "I don't like to pay any attention to what kind of idiots say bad things about me," said Nadezhda Fyodorovna coldly, disturbed by the absurd idea of ​​trying to make fun of the young and beautiful Atchmianov. Suddenly lost its charm. "We should go down," she said. "They're calling us." Below, the fish soup has been cooked.Everyone put the fish soup on the plate and drank it, showing the seriousness that only people have at a picnic.Everyone thought they had never had such a delicious fish soup at home.As is often the case at picnics, among the piles of napkins, paper bags, and useless oiled paper blown by the wind, no one knows where his wine glass or bread is.They accidentally spilled wine on blankets, on their own laps, and sprinkled salt all over the floor.At this time, the surroundings were dark, and the campfire was no longer burning so vigorously, but no one bothered to get up and add a handful of dead branches.Everyone drank wine, and Kostya and Katya were poured half a glass each.Nadyezhda Fyodorovna drank a glass of wine, then another, became drunk, and forgot about Kirilin.

"Splendid picnic, lovely evening," said Laevsky, brightened by the drink, "but I still think fine winter is better than that." His beaver collar was thick with frost. get silver'②." "Everyone has their own preferences," said von Koren. Laevsky felt uncomfortable: although the heat of the campfire was blowing from his back, von Koren's hateful eyes shot from his chest and face.This decent and intelligent man probably had good reason to hate Laevsky, and this made him feel wronged and discouraged.He had no strength to resist this hatred, so he said in a flattering tone: "I love nature, and I regret that I am not a natural scientist. I envy you."

"But I neither envy nor regret it," said Nadezhda Fyodorovna. "I don't understand: How can one seriously study little beetles and ladybugs when people are suffering." Laevsky agreed with her.He was completely ignorant of natural science, so he would never be used to the authoritative tone of those who studied the antennae of ants and the tiny claws of cockroaches, let alone their profound knowledge and profound thinking.He was always secretly annoyed that these people were going to solve the problem of the origin of man and human life in terms of tentacles, little claws, and some kind of protoplasm (which for some reason he always imagined to be like an oyster).But he detected hypocrisy in Nadyezhda Fyodorovna's words, and he said, purely to contradict her: "It's not the little ladybug that's the problem, but the conclusions drawn from it!"

"Notes" ① French: Goodbye! ②Quoted from Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin".