Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904 -- Translations into English; Russia -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"Come, drop it . . . it's uncomfortable. Why attack a woman?"
"She's not a woman, but a maiden lady. . . . I bet she's dreaming
of suitors. The ugly doll. And she smells of something decaying
. . . . I've got a loathing for her, my boy! I can't look at her with
indifference. When she turns her ugly eyes on me it sends a twinge
all through me as though I had knocked my elbow on the parapet. She
likes fishing too. Watch her: she fishes as though it were a holy
rite! She looks upon everything with disdain . . . . She stands
there, the wretch, and is conscious that she is a human being, and
that therefore she is the monarch of nature. And do you know what
her name is? Wilka Charlesovna Fyce! Tfoo! There is no getting it
out!"
The Englishwoman, hearing her name, deliberately turned her nose
in Gryabov's direction and scanned him with a disdainful glance;
she raised her eyes from Gryabov to Otsov and steeped him in disdain.
And all this in silence, with dignity and deliberation.
"Did you see?" said Gryabov chuckling. "As though to say 'take
that.' Ah, you monster! It's only for the children's sake that I
keep that triton. If it weren't for the children, I wouldn't let
her come within ten miles of my estate. . . . She has got a nose
like a hawk's . . . and her figure! That doll makes me think of a
long nail, so I could take her, and knock her into the ground, you
know. Stay, I believe I have got a bite. . . ."
Gryabov jumped up and raised his rod. The line drew taut. . . .
Gryabov tugged again, but could not pull out the hook.
"It has caught," he said, frowning, "on a stone I expect . . .
damnation take it . . . ."
There was a look of distress on Gryabov's face. Sighing, moving
uneasily, and muttering oaths, he began tugging at the line.
"What a pity; I shall have to go into the water."
"Oh, chuck it!"
"I can't. . . . There's always good fishing in the evening. . . .
What a nuisance. Lord, forgive us, I shall have to wade into the
water, I must! And if only you knew, I have no inclination to
undress. I shall have to get rid of the Englishwoman. . . . It's
awkward to undress before her. After all, she is a lady, you know!"
Gryabov flung off his hat, and his cravat.
"Meess . . . er, er . . ." he said, addressing the Englishwoman,
"Meess Fyce, je voo pree . . . ? Well, what am I to say to her? How
am I to tell you so that you can understand? I say . . . over there!
Go away over there! Do you hear?"
Miss Fyce enveloped Gryabov in disdain, and uttered a nasal sound.
"What? Don't you understand? Go away from here, I tell you! I must
undress, you devil's doll! Go over there! Over there!"
Gryabov pulled the lady by her sleeve, pointed her towards the
bushes, and made as though he would sit down, as much as to say:
Go behind the bushes and hide yourself there. . . . The Englishwoman,
moving her eyebrows vigorously, uttered rapidly a long sentence in
English. The gentlemen gushed with laughter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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