Chapter 20 "Duel" Nineteen

nineteen "This is the first time I've ever seen it in my life! How wonderful!" said von Koren, coming to the meadow in the forest, and stretching out his two hands to the east. "Look, green light!" There are two green lights protruding from behind the mountains in the east, which is really beautiful.The sun came up. "Hello!" continued the zoologist, nodding to Laevsky's witnesses. "I'm not late, am I?" He was followed by his witnesses Boyko and Govorovsky.They were two young officers of the same height, in white uniforms, and the thin and withdrawn doctor Ustcimovich, who was carrying in one hand a bundle containing something unknown, and in the other a Behind his back, his cane was clung to his back as usual.He put the burden on the ground, didn't say hello to anyone, put his other hand behind his back, and kept walking on the grass in the forest.

Laevsky felt fatigued and awkward, as is always the case with a man who might soon be dead and thus attract attention.He wished he could be killed or sent home as soon as possible.Now he saw the sunrise for the first time in his life.This morning, these two green lights, this wet weather, these people in wet boots, it seemed to him, were superfluous and unnecessary things in his life that made him uncomfortable.All this had nothing to do with last night, with his thoughts, with his guilt, so he wished he could get away and not wait for the duel. Von Koren was clearly agitated, but tried his best to conceal it, pretending that it was the two green lights that interested him most.The witnesses panicked and looked at each other as if asking why they were here and what they were supposed to do.

"I think, gentlemen, we need not go any further," said Sheshkovsky. "It's fine here too." "Yes, of course," agreed Von Koren. Silence followed.Uscimovich, who had been walking, turned suddenly to Laevsky, breathed in his face, and whispered: "They probably haven't had time to tell me my terms." You. Each party to the duel shall pay me fifteen rubles, and if one party dies, the living party shall pay me thirty rubles in total." Laevsky had known this man before, but it was only now for the first time that he saw clearly his dull eyes, his mustache, and his thin, consumptive neck.He's more of a usurer than a physician!His breath had a foul smell of beef.

"There are all kinds of people in this world," Laevsky thought, and replied, "All right." The doctor nodded and started walking again.It can be seen that he doesn't need money at all, he wants money purely to understand hatred.Everyone feels that it is time to start, or to end what has been started, but they don't start or end, they just walk around, stand still, and smoke.For the first time in their lives two young officers took part in a duel, who until now had little faith in the seriousness of such a duel between civilians, which they considered unnecessary.They only looked intently at their uniforms, and rubbed their sleeves.Sheshkovsky went up to them and said in a low voice: "Gentlemen, we must use all our strength to prevent this duel from taking place. They must make peace."

He blushed, and went on: "Yesterday Kirilin came to my house to complain that Laevsky happened to catch him with Nadezhda Fyodorovna yesterday, and told a lot about it." "Yes, we've heard that too," Boyko said. "Here, look. . . . Laevsky's hands are trembling, and something like that. . . . Now he can't lift a gun. Fighting him is like fighting a drunk or a typhoid patient." The same is inhuman. If the reconciliation is not successful, then, gentlemen, at least postpone the date of the duel. . . "Go and talk to von Koren." "I don't know the rules of a duel, and to hell with those rules. I don't intend to know either. Maybe he'll think Laevsky is timid and send me to him.

But it's up to him to think what he likes, and I'll talk about it anyway. " Sheshkovsky hesitated, and walked towards von Koren, with a slight limp, as if his legs had become numb from sitting.He cleared his throat as he walked, and his whole body looked weak. "I have something to tell you, sir," he began, looking intently at the flowers on the zoologist's shirt. "Let's talk about it in private. . . . I don't know the rules of a duel, and to hell with those rules. I don't want to know either. I don't speak in the capacity of a man or anything like that, but as a dignified people who are qualified to speak."

"Oh. How is it?" "The witnesses proposed a settlement, which was routinely dismissed as a matter of routine. It was just to save face, that's all. But I beg you to pay attention to Ivan Andreitch. Today he is in a so-called abnormal state. Unclear, poor looking. He's had a bad accident. I hate gossip," said Sheshkovsky, blushing and looking back, "but since there's going to be a duel, I think it's necessary to tell You. Last night at the Mulidov's he caught his wife with a . . . gentleman." "How disgusting!" murmured the zoologist.He turned pale, frowned, and spat loudly. "Pooh!"

His lower lip began to tremble.He walked away from Sheshkovsky, not wanting to hear any more, and spit loudly again as if he had accidentally tasted something bitter.And, for the first time all morning, he looked at Laevsky with hatred.His excitement and awkwardness passed, and he shook his head and said aloud, "Gentlemen, what are we waiting for, please? Why don't we start?" Sheshkovsky shrugged his shoulders with the officers and looked at each other. "Gentlemen!" he cried, but turned his face away from anyone. "Gentlemen! We propose that you reconcile!"

"Let's end this routine quickly," said von Koren. "We've already talked about the settlement. What's the next routine? Hurry up, gentlemen, time is ticking." "But we still insist on reconciliation," Sheshkovsky said in a tone of apology, like those who have to interfere in other people's affairs.He blushed, put his hand on his breast, and went on: "Gentlemen, we see no reason for linking conflicts of spirits with duels. Between duels and conflicts of minds which arise when we offend one another by human weakness, Nothing in common. You are college educated and educated people, and of course you can see that for yourselves: dueling is just some kind of old-fashioned and boring bureaucracy and whatnot. That's how we look at things like this Yes, otherwise we wouldn't have come; because we can't allow people to shoot each other in front of us or something." Sheshkovsky wiped the sweat off his face and went on: "Gentlemen, put an end to the differences between you." Misunderstanding, shake hands with each other, and let's go home to drink peace wine. It's a deal, gentlemen!"

Von Koren said nothing.Laevsky, noticing that people were looking at him, said: "I have nothing against Nikolai Vasilyitch myself. If he thinks I'm wrong, I'm ready to apologize to him." Von Koren was angry. "Gentlemen," he said, "it is evident that you intend to send Mr. Laevsky home as a magnanimous man and a knight; but I cannot give you and him this pleasure. Only for Drink peace wine, eat a meal, explain to me that a duel is an old-fashioned bureaucracy, that it is not necessary to get up so early, drive out of the city, and drive ten versts. A duel is a duel, and it should not be made more stupid than it is. , false. I want a duel!"

Silence followed.Officer Boyko took two pistols from the box and handed one to von Koren and the other to Laevsky.Then came a troublesome incident that amuses the zoologist and the witnesses for a moment.It turned out that none of those present had ever fought a duel in his life, and no one knew quite how to stand, what the witnesses had to say and do.But then Baoiko remembered and began to explain with a smile. "Gentlemen, who remembers Lermontov's description?" asked Von Koren, smiling. "Bazarov also fought duels in Turgenev's works. ..." "Why think about it?" Uscimovich said impatiently, stopping. "Measure the distance and that's it." He took three steps, as if to show how to measure.Boyko counted his steps, and his companion drew out his saber, and drew a line on the ground at each end to mark the boundary. The dueling parties took their places in the silence of all. "It's like those moles," recalled the deacon sitting in the bushes. Sheshkovsky said something, and Boyko explained it, but Laevsky didn't hear it, or, to be more precise, he heard it, but he didn't understand it.Then when the time came he cocked the pistol and raised the heavy, cold pistol, muzzle up.He forgot to unbutton his overcoat, which was tightly bound around his shoulders and under his arms, and his arms were raised awkwardly, as if the sleeves were made of tin.He thought of yesterday's hatred for the sunburnt forehead and curly hair, and he thought to himself: Even in the hatred and anger he felt yesterday, he could not have shot this man.He was afraid that the bullet would accidentally hit Von Koren, so he raised the pistol higher and higher.He felt that this overt magnanimity was not quite proper, not like magnanimity; but he would not and could not behave otherwise.Von Koren obviously believed from the beginning that the other party would shoot the gun in the air, and he smiled mockingly; Laevsky looked at von Koren's pale face and thought to himself: Now, thank God, it has finally come to an end. It would be over, if only he could close the trigger. ... His shoulders jerked violently, the gunshot rang out, and an echo echoed in the mountains: Pa——pa! Von Koren pulled the trigger and glanced sideways at Uscimovich, who was walking up and down as before, with his hands behind his back, not paying attention to anything. "Doctor," said the zoologist, "please don't walk around like a pendulum. You're driving me crazy." The doctor stopped.Von Koren aimed his gun at Laevsky. "It's over!" Laevsky thought to himself. The gun was pointed straight in his face.Von Koren's posture and body also showed hatred and contempt. A decent man in broad daylight and in front of many decent people is about to commit a murder.There was silence all around, and an unknown force forced Laevsky to stand still and not to run away.How mysterious, how incomprehensible, how terrible is all this!The period during which von Koren took aim seemed to Laevsky longer than a whole night.He looked at the witnesses imploringly.They were motionless and pale. "Hurry up and shoot!" thought Laevsky, feeling that his pale, trembling, pitiful face must arouse even greater hatred in von Koren's heart. "I'll kill him right away," thought Von Koren, aiming at the forehead, his fingers already on the trigger. "Yes, of course, I'll kill him. ..." "He's going to kill him!" Suddenly a distraught cry sounded from a very close place. Immediately the gunshot rang out.Seeing Laevsky standing where he was without falling down, everyone turned their heads, glanced in the direction from which the shout had come, and saw the deacon.Pale, with wet hair stuck to his forehead and cheeks, soaked and muddy all over, he stood in the cornfield on the opposite bank, smiling oddly, shaking his wet hat.Sheshkovsky smiled happily, then wept again, and went away. ... "Notes" ① Refers to Lermontov's novel "Contemporary Hero". ② Refers to Turgenev's novels.