Chapter 9 "Black Friars" IV

Four Yegor Semyonitch and Tanya often quarreled and said unpleasant things to each other. One morning they quarreled again about something.Tanya wept and ran back to her room.She did not come out for lunch, nor for tea. At first Yegor Semyonitch walked up and down majestically and pompously, as if wanting to make it known that for him the maintenance of justice and order was above all else; but soon he lost his airs and became discouraged up.He walked up and down the garden sadly, and kept sighing, "Oh, my God, my God!" He didn't eat a bite at lunch time.At last he, tormented by his conscience, felt remorse, knocked on the closed door, and called timidly, "Tanya! Tanya!"

A feeble, weeping, and at the same time resolute voice answered his call from the door: "Don't talk to me, I beg you." The distress of the masters affects those in the house, and even those who work in the garden.Kovrin immersed himself in his interesting work, but in the end even he became bored and uncomfortable.Trying to counteract the general bad mood, he decided to intervene.Towards evening he knocked at Tanya's door.She let him into her room. "Oh, what a disgrace!" he said jokingly, looking in surprise at Tanya's tear-stained, reddened, sad face. "Is it so serious? Oh-ah!"

"If only you knew how he tortured me!" she said, with tears streaming from her large eyes. "He's torturing me!" she went on, wringing her hands. "I didn't say anything to him, . . . I didn't say anything, . . . I just said that there was no need to keep ... redundant workers, and that if . Well, the workmen have been out of work for a whole week.... I... I just said a few words, and he started yelling and said a lot to me...very annoying, deeply touching Humiliated words. Why is that?" "Come, come," said Kovrin, smoothing her hair. "It's enough for you to quarrel and cry for a while. You can't be angry all the time, it's not good... Besides, he loves you infinitely."

"He...he ruined my life," Tanya continued, sobbing. "I just hear hurtful and . Do it this way. . . . " "Come on, come on, come on. . . . Don't cry, Tanya. Don't cry, dear. . . . .Let’s go, I’ll make peace with you.” Kovrin spoke affectionately and rationally, but she continued to cry, twitching her shoulders, and clenched her hands into fists, as if some disaster had really happened to her.Her pain was not too great, but she was so sad that he felt more pity for her.Just a little thing is enough to make a man unhappy all day, and perhaps all his life!While comforting Tanya, Kovrin thought to himself: In this world, except for this girl and her father, no one could find anyone who would love him as much as he loved his own family and relatives, even with a lantern in the daytime.If it weren't for these two people, then he, who lost his parents when he was young, might not have experienced what is called sincere tenderness, what is called simple, unthinking, and what is only produced by close relatives. love.He felt that the weeping, trembling girl's nerves were adapted to his slightly sick, overwrought nerves as iron adapts to a magnet.He had never been able to fall in love with a healthy, strong woman with rosy cheeks, and Tanya, pale, frail, and unhappy, was just what he liked.

He stroked her hair and shoulders happily, held her hands tightly, and wiped away her tears. ... Finally, she finally stopped crying.Again she complained for a long time about her father, about her heavy and unbearable life in the house, and asked Kovrin to put herself in her shoes; Such a bad temper, at last she laughed aloud, called herself a fool, and ran out of the room. After a while Kovrin went into the garden and saw Yegor Semyonitch and Tanya walking side by side on the avenue, as if nothing had happened.They were both eating black and salted bread, for they were both hungry.