Chapter 16 "Kingdom of Women" II

Two, morning "The church bells have been ringing long ago! It's too bad they'll be gone by the time you get there! Get up!" "The horses are running, running..." said Anna Akimovna, waking up.Her maid, the red-haired Masha, stands before her with a candle in her hand. "What's the matter? What's the matter with you?" "Mass is over!" said Masha, terribly anxious. "This is the third time I've come to call you! According to my opinion, it's fine even if you sleep until evening, but you must know that you ordered me to wake you up!"

Anna Akimovna raised herself on her elbows and glanced out of the window.It was still pitch black outside, only the bottom edges of the window frames were white with snow.There was a muffled chime, but it was not the parish bell, but a bell from somewhere far away.The clock on the little table said it was six past three. "Well, Masha. . . . I'll be up in three minutes . . . . " said Anna Akimovna in a beseeching voice, pulling the quilt over her head. She pictured the snow on the porch, the sleigh, the black sky, the crowd in church, the smell of juniper, and was afraid, but she decided to get up in a moment and go to early mass.She enjoyed the warmth in bed, struggling with sleepiness.The drowsiness seems to be deliberately disturbing, but it is especially sweet when it should not be sleeping.

While she saw dimly a large garden on the hill, and then the house at Cousin, she was constantly troubled by the thought that she must get up and go to church at once. However, when she got up, it was already broad daylight, and the clock pointed to half past nine.A new heavy snow had fallen that night, the trees were covered with silver, and the air was so clear, clear, and soft that, looking out of the window, Anna Akimovna first wanted to take a deep breath.While she was washing, the remnants of earlier childhood feelings, the joy of Christmas, throbbed suddenly in her breast, and after that her soul was light, free, and pure, as if even her soul Wash it clean, or soak it in white snow.Masha came in, in her festive dress, tightly cinched at the waist; and then she spent a long time combing her mistress's hair and helping her put her dress on.The smell and feel of the fine new dress, the slight rustle of it, and the smell of fresh perfume excited Anna Akimovna.

"Today is Christmas," she said cheerfully to Masha. "Now we're going to tell our fortunes." "I did a fortune-telling last year, saying that I was going to marry an old man. It was the same three times." "Come on, God is merciful." "But what does that matter, Anna Akimovna? ​​That's what I think, if you can't get anywhere like this, it's better to just marry the old man," Masha said sadly, sighing . "I'm twenty-one, and this is no joke." Everyone in the house knew that the red-haired Masha had been in love with the footman Mishenka for three years in a deep, passionate and hopeless love.

"Come, don't talk nonsense," Anna Akimovna comforted. "I'm almost thirty, but I'm still ready to marry a young man." While the mistress was changing, Mishenka, in a new tailcoat and patent-leather shoes, walked up and down the hall and the drawing-room, waiting for her to come out, so that he could pay her respects. He had a peculiar way of walking, So soft and light that anyone who looked at his legs and arms at this moment, and his bowed head, might have thought that he was not simply walking, but learning the first steps of a quadrille. .Despite his fine, velvety mustache, his good looks, and even his slickness, he was steady, careful, religious, like an old man.He always kowtows when he prays to God, and likes to shake the censer in his room to emit fragrance.He always respected and admired the rich and powerful, but when he met the poor and all kinds of helpers, he despised them with his pure servant soul.Under his starched shirt was a flannel linen, which he wore in winter and summer, and which was dear to his health.He had cotton stuffed in his ears.

As soon as Anna Akimovna and Masha had passed through the hall, he bowed his head a little on one side and said in his sweet, honey-like voice: "It is my pleasure to congratulate you, Anna Akimov Verna, live happily the most solemn festival of the birth of Christ." Anna Akimovna gave him five rubles, and poor Masha was stunned.His festive attire, his gestures, the tone of his voice, and the words he said surprised her with grace and refinement.She walked forward with her young lady, but she couldn't think of anything, she couldn't see anything, she just smiled, sometimes happily, sometimes bitterly.

The upper floor of the house was called the upper room, or the main room for receiving guests, and the lower floor, in charge of my aunt Datiana Ivanovna, was called the business room, the old man's room, or simply the women's room.Nobility and educated guests were entertained as usual upstairs, and ordinary guests and aunt's own friends were entertained downstairs.Anna Akimovna, handsome and plump, went downstairs, healthy, still young and fresh, feeling as though she were radiant in the gorgeous dress she was wearing.Downstairs she was reproached for forgetting God, oversleeping, missing mass, and not coming downstairs to break the fast, as an educated person; Extraordinarily beautiful and different.She believed them, laughed, kissed them, and gave them money, depending on who they were, for one ruble, for three, for five rubles.She likes downstairs.Wherever you looked, the shrines, the icons, the ever-burning lamps, the portraits of the priests, had something monastic about them.The knives and knives in the kitchen were already in the air, and there was already a very fragrant smell of meat dishes in the room.The painted yellow floor shone, and a narrow carpet with bright blue stripes ran like a path from the door to the corner of the icon.The harsh sunlight streamed in through the window.

There were some strange old women sitting in the dining room.There were also old women in Varvaruschka's room, and a deaf-mute girl who was always ashamed about something and murmured: "Bul, ble, . . . " There were two lean The little girl, who had been brought out of the orphanage for the holiday, went up to Anna Akimovna and tried to kiss her hand, but they stopped in front of her, dumbfounded by her splendid dress. .She noticed a little squint in the eyes of a little girl, and the thought that this little girl would be slighted by the young men, and never marry, changed her lighthearted mood, and her heart contracted suddenly painfully.In the room of Agafyushka, the cook, sitting by the samovar were five well-built peasants in new shirts.They were not factory workers, but relatives of the cook.Seeing Anna Akimovna, the peasants jumped up from their seats, stopped chewing out of politeness, but their mouths were full.Stepan the cook came out of the kitchen and came into the room, wearing a white chef's hat and holding a kitchen knife in his hand, and came to pay her respects; the sweeper in felt boots also came in to pay her respects. The workers who carried the water had icicles hanging from their beards. They stood outside and looked in, but they dared not go in.

Anna Akimovna went through all the rooms, followed by her whole company: the aunt, Varvarushka, Nikondrovna, the seamstress Marfa Petrovna, and downstairs Masha.Varvarushka was thin and thin, but tall, taller than anyone else in the house.Dressed in black, she smelled of cypress and coffee, and in every room she saw an icon of the holy cross, stooping and bowing deeply.When people saw her, they remembered for some reason that she had sewn herself a white shroud and that in the box in which it was kept her lottery tickets were hidden. "You, Anyutka, have mercy on the sake of the holiday!" she said, opening the door to the kitchen. "Spare him, Lord, save him! Fuck him!"

Kneeling in the middle of the kitchen was Panteley the coachman, who had been dismissed in November for drunkenness.He was a kind-hearted man, but when he was drunk, he went crazy, couldn't sleep, and was always walking up and down the factory building, saying in a threatening tone: "I know everything!" Now, from him His thick, drooping lips, his puffy face, and his bloodshot eyes showed that he had been drinking without interruption from November until the present feast. "Forgive me, Anna Akimovna!" he said hoarsely, slamming his forehead on the floor, revealing the back of his skull.

"You were dismissed by your aunt, then you should ask her for forgiveness." "What's the matter with aunt?" her aunt came into the kitchen, panting.She was fat, with a samovar and a tray for teacups on her breasts. "What about aunt? You are the hostess here, and it's up to you. According to me, they bastards should be dead. Come on, get up, pig!" She couldn't help saying to Pan Jie. shouted. "Stay away from me! This is the last time I will forgive you. If anything happens again, don't ask for mercy!" Then they went to the dining room for coffee.But as soon as they sat down around the table, Masha from downstairs rushed in and made a big fuss, "Here comes the singer!" After speaking, she ran out again.Then there was the sound of blowing the nose, a low cough, and noisy footsteps, as if someone were leading a shoed horse into the hall off the hall.For half a minute all was silent. ...Suddenly, those singers sang loudly, the voice was so loud that everyone shivered in fright.While they were singing, the priest of the nursing home came, bringing with him a deacon and a chanter.The priest put on his long scarf and said slowly, at night when the church bell was ringing for morning service, it was snowing, but it was not cold, but it was getting colder when it was almost dawn, please God, it is probably below zero now. Twenty degrees. "But there are many who believe that winter is healthier than summer," said the deacon, but immediately put on a serious face, and followed the priest in singing: "O thy birth, Christ, our Lord, . . . " Soon the priest from the Workers' Hospital came with a chanter, followed by the nurses from the village commune, and the children from the orphanage, singing almost constantly. They sang, ate, and left. There were about twenty workers from the factory who came to pay their respects.They are the first-class people in the factory, such as mechanics and their assistants, foundry workers, accountants and so on. Everyone was well dressed, in new black frock coats.These are smart, capable people, as if handpicked, who know their worth, that is, they know that if they lose their jobs one day, another factory will gladly take them tomorrow.They obviously like Aunt, because they are all free in her presence, even smoking.When the group went to drink and eat cold dishes together, the accountant even put his arms around her broad waist.Perhaps their casualness was partly due to the fact that Varvarushka, who had held great power and supervised the conduct of the workers during the lives of the old men, now had no prestige in the house; Many of them remembered the time when their aunt Tatiana Ivanovna was strictly controlled by her brothers and dressed like an ordinary village woman, like Agavyushka, when Anna Akimovna Always running around in the yard near the factory building, everyone called her Anyutka. The workers ate and talked, looked at Anna Akimovna and wondered how fast she was growing and how beautiful she was!But this elegant girl, brought up by governesses and schoolteachers, had become strange and incomprehensible to them, and they could not help being drawn closer to her aunt, who addressed them as "you." , kept urging them to drink and eat vegetables, clinked glasses with them, and had already drank two glasses of rowan dew.Anna Akimovna was always afraid that they would think her proud, that she was a parvenu, a crow masquerading as a peacock.At this moment, these employees were gathering around to eat cold dishes, so she didn't go out of the dining room to chat with them.Seeing Pimenov, whom she had just met yesterday, she asked, "Why are there so many clocks in your room?" "I fix clocks," he replied. "I do it after get off work, or on holidays, or when I can't sleep." "Well, if my watch breaks, may I have it repaired for you?" asked Anna Akimovna, smiling. "Why not? I am at your service," said Pimenov.She, not knowing why herself, took off her beautiful pocket watch from her belt and handed it to him, who, with an expression of emotion on his face, looked at it silently for a moment, and returned it to her. "Why not? I'm at your service," he repeated. "I don't fix pocket watches now. My eyesight is bad, and the doctor forbids me to do delicate work. But for your sake, I will make an exception." "Doctors are always talking nonsense," said the accountant.Everyone laughed. "Don't you take their word for it," he went on, triumphant at the laughter. "During Lent last year a cog came out of the drum and hit old man Kalmykov on the head until his brains were visible, and the doctor said he was going to die, but he's still alive, and I'm working, but after this disaster, I'm a little stuttering." "It's true that the doctor likes to talk nonsense, but he doesn't always talk nonsense," my aunt sighed. "Pyotr Andreitch was blind, the poor fellow is dead now. Well, he, like you, worked all day at the factory with a hot stove, and he went blind. No eyes Like the heat. But hey, why talk about it?" She pulled herself together and said. "Let's drink! I wish you a happy holiday, my dear friends. I've never had a drink with anyone, and now I'm drinking with you, sinful woman I am. God bless you!" It seemed to Anna Akimovna that, since their meeting the previous evening, Pimenov had despised her as a philanthropist and seemed to be charmed by her as a woman.She looked at him and found that he was very well mannered and well dressed.It is true that the sleeves of his frock coat were a little short, the waist seemed to be a little high, and the trousers were not fashionable or baggy; but on the other hand, his cravat was loosely tied, flowing, and not of the same color as other people's. So bright.It seems that he is an easy-going person, because he obediently ate all the dishes that his aunt put on his plate.She remembered how dark and sleepy he had been yesterday; and for some reason the memory moved her deeply. When the workers were leaving, Anna Akimovna held out her hand to Pimenov, wanting to tell him not to be restrained, but to come and see him often, but she couldn't say it, because her tongue was stuck. Do what you want.She was afraid that others would think she liked Pimenov, so she also reached out to his colleagues. Later, the students from the school she hosted came.They all had their hair cut short and wore gray tops of the same color.The teacher was a tall young man without a mustache, with some red spots on his face, and his expression was obviously agitated.He had the students lined up, and the boys sang in unison, but in high-pitched, unpleasant voices.The manager of the factory, Nazarech, was a bald, sharp-eyed old-school believer who never got along well with the teachers. He especially despised and hated this teacher who was waving his hands in a hurry. why.He treated the teacher with arrogance and rudeness, withheld his salary, interfered with his teaching, and, in order to drive him out of the way, sent a distant relative of his wife's to the school a fortnight before Christmas as a watchman. A farmer who loves to drink, he doesn't listen to the teacher and contradicts him in front of the students. Anna Akimovna knew all this, but she could do nothing, for she herself was afraid of Nazaritch.Right now she really wanted to at least show some kindness to this teacher, to say to him that she was very pleased with him, but after the song, he seemed very flustered, apologizing for something, and aunt, calling him "you" At this time, she felt bored and uncomfortable, ordered someone to bring some sweets and snacks for the children, and then walked back to the upstairs room alone. "There is, in fact, a great deal of cruelty in these festivals," she said after a moment, as if to herself, looking out of the window at the children, who were coming out of the house in droves, Walking towards the gate, shivering from the cold all the way, I put on a leather jacket and overcoat. "During the festival, people want to rest and stay at home with their loved ones, but these poor children, this teacher and those staff, for some reason, have to walk around in the severe cold, and then do obeisance and express themselves I'm so flustered by your respect..." At that moment Mishenka, who was standing at the door of the hall, heard this and said: "We didn't start this custom, and we won't end it. Of course, I'm an uneducated person, Anna Akimovna, but I understand it this way: the poor should always respect the rich. As the saying goes: God marks the villain. Whether in prison or in a nightclub, In taverns, there are always only poor people. The decent people, you can see, are always rich. There is a saying about rich people: the abyss calls the abyss." "You, Mishenka, are always talking dull and difficult things," said Anna Akimovna, and she went to the other end of the hall. The clock had just struck eleven.She yawned incessantly in the silence of the large room, broken only by occasional singing from downstairs.The bronzes, the photo albums, the pictures on the walls of oceans and ships, of meadows and cattle, of the Rhine, were no longer novelties, and her eyes slid over them without paying attention to them.The festive mood turned into boredom.Anna Akimovna still thought she was beautiful, good, and different, but she already felt that she didn't need it for anyone, and she felt that even the expensive dress she was wearing was for whom and for what reason. wear.As is often the case at festivals, she began to be uncomfortably lonely, tormented by an inescapable thought that her beauty, her health, her abundance were a sham, because she was a superfluity in this world. People, no one needs her, no one loves her.She went through all the rooms, humming and looking out of the windows now and then.She stopped in the hall, unable to resist talking to Mishenka. "Misha, I don't know what you think of yourself," she said, with a sigh. "Really, even God will punish you for this." "What are you talking about, miss?" "You know what I'm talking about. I'm sorry to meddle in your private affairs, but I think your stubbornness is ruining your own life. You'll agree that it's time for you to get married now, and she's a wonderful woman again. Yes, promising girl. You won't find a better girl than her.She was a beauty, intelligent, gentle, and earnest. ...Look at her face! . . . If she had come from our circle or higher, one would have loved her just by looking at her pretty fiery hair.You see how her hair matches the complexion of her face.Oh, my God, you don't know anything, and you don't know what you want," said Anna Akimovna sadly, tears welling up in her eyes. "Poor girl, how I feel sorry for her! I know you want to marry a rich woman, but I have already told you that I will give Masha a dowry." Secretly Mishenka always imagined his future consort as a tall, fat, dignified, religious woman who walked like a proud peacock and who, for some reason, had to wear a long skirt over her shoulders. In the shawl, Masha was thin and delicate, with a narrow waist, and she walked with small steps; but the main thing was that she was too charming, and sometimes Mishenka liked her very much, but in his opinion, such a Women are not suitable for marriage, only for private concubine.When Anna Akimovna promised to give the dowry money, he hesitated for a while, but one day a poor student, wearing a brown overcoat over his uniform, came to see Anna Akimov with a letter. Masha, however, was fascinated by Masha, and could not help but put her arms around her downstairs by the coat rack, and she let out a slight cry of surprise. Mishenka happened to be standing on the top of the stairs, and saw this, and since then , he had feelings of disgust for Masha.Poor college students!Who knows, if it had been a rich college student or an army officer who had put her arms around her, it would have turned out differently. ... "Why don't you want to?" asked Anna Akimovna. "What else do you want?" Mishenka did not speak, but raised her eyebrows and stared blankly at an armchair. "Do you love another woman?" silence.Masha, the redhead, came in, holding a tray with letters and business cards.She guessed that they were talking about her, and her face was flushed, and she was on the verge of tears with embarrassment. "The postman is here," she muttered. "A civil servant called Tchalikov is waiting downstairs. He said you told him to come today for something." "What audacity!" said Anna Akimovna, angry. "I told him nothing. Tell him to go away, and say I'm not at home!" The doorbell rang.Here came the priests of the parish, who were usually received in the main room, that is, upstairs, where visitors were received.After the priests had left, the manager of the factory, Nazarich, and the factory doctor came to visit, and then Mishenka announced that the inspector of the national school had come.The work of meeting the guests began. Whenever she had a little free time, Anna Akimovna would sit down in a deep armchair in the drawing room, close her eyes, and think to herself: It is quite natural for her to feel lonely, since she is not married, And never get married.However, this cannot be blamed on her, this is the play of fate.If she could believe her memory, she felt quite comfortable and at home in the living environment of ordinary workers, but then fate threw her into these large rooms, making her unable to think about it. She didn't know what to do with herself, and she couldn't figure out why there were so many people dangling in front of her; in her view, all the things that happened now were meaningless and unnecessary. , because it did not give her a minute of happiness, nor could it give her any happiness. "Yeah, it would be nice to fall in love with someone," she thought to herself, stretching herself.The thought alone warmed her heart. "It would be nice if I could get rid of this factory," she thought, imagining how those heavy factories, workers' dormitories, and schools fell from her heart. ... Then she thought of her father, and thought that if he had lived a few more years, he would probably have married her to an ordinary man, for example, to Pimenov.He would order her to marry him and it would be done.That would be a good thing, and the factory would be in the hands of a competent man. She thought of his curly hair, thick eyebrows and big eyes, thin lips with a little mockery, and his physical strength, the amazing physical strength displayed on his shoulders, arms, and chest, and also remembered that he saw her today The touching look that was revealed when I pocketed the watch. "No!" she said. "That's all right. . . . I'd like to marry him." "Anna Akimovna!" Mishenka called her, coming quietly into the drawing room. "You startled me!" she said, shuddering all over. "What do you want?" "Anna Akimovna!" he repeated, putting his hand to his heart and raising his eyebrows. "You are my mistress and benefactor, and you alone can advise me in marriage, because you are in my heart exactly like my own mother. . . . But please tell the people downstairs not to laugh at me." , don't make fun of me. They just won't let me stop!" "How do they mock you?" "They say I am Mishenka of Mashenka." "Pah, what nonsense!" said Anna Akimovna indignantly. "How stupid you people are! How stupid you are, Misha! I'm so sick of you! I don't even want to see you anymore! " "Notes" ① Mashenka and Masha are nicknames for Maria.