The Lady with the Dog and Other StoriesChekhov, Anton Pavlovich
General
The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904 -- Translations into English; Russia -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
She went by coach and he went with her. They were driving the whole day.
When she had got into a compartment of the express, and when the second
bell had rung, she said:
"Let me look at you once more ... look at you once again. That's right."
She did not shed tears, but was so sad that she seemed ill, and her face
was quivering.
"I shall remember you ... think of you," she said. "God be with you; be
happy. Don't remember evil against me. We are parting forever--it must
be so, for we ought never to have met. Well, God be with you."
The train moved off rapidly, its lights soon vanished from sight, and a
minute later there was no sound of it, as though everything had
conspired together to end as quickly as possible that sweet delirium,
that madness. Left alone on the platform, and gazing into the dark
distance, Gurov listened to the chirrup of the grasshoppers and the hum
of the telegraph wires, feeling as though he had only just waked up. And
he thought, musing, that there had been another episode or adventure in
his life, and it, too, was at an end, and nothing was left of it but a
memory.... He was moved, sad, and conscious of a slight remorse. This
young woman whom he would never meet again had not been happy with him;
he was genuinely warm and affectionate with her, but yet in his manner,
his tone, and his caresses there had been a shade of light irony, the
coarse condescension of a happy man who was, besides, almost twice her
age. All the time she had called him kind, exceptional, lofty; obviously
he had seemed to her different from what he really was, so he had
unintentionally deceived her....
Here at the station was already a scent of autumn; it was a cold
evening.
"It's time for me to go north," thought Gurov as he left the platform.
"High time!"
III
At home in Moscow everything was in its winter routine; the stoves were
heated, and in the morning it was still dark when the children were
having breakfast and getting ready for school, and the nurse would light
the lamp for a short time. The frosts had begun already. When the first
snow has fallen, on the first day of sledge-driving it is pleasant to
see the white earth, the white roofs, to draw soft, delicious breath,
and the season brings back the days of one's youth. The old limes and
birches, white with hoar-frost, have a good-natured expression; they are
nearer to one's heart than cypresses and palms, and near them one
doesn't want to be thinking of the sea and the mountains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account