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
Madame Shumihin and Nyuta waked up at one o'clock. Volodya heard Madame
Shumihin open her window with a bang, heard Nyuta go off into a peal of
laughter in reply to her coarse voice. He saw the door open and a string
of nieces and other toadies (among the latter was his _maman_) file into
lunch, caught a glimpse of Nyuta's freshly washed laughing face, and,
beside her, the black brows and beard of her husband the architect, who
had just arrived.
Nyuta was wearing a Little Russian dress which did not suit her at all,
and made her look clumsy; the architect was making dull and vulgar
jokes. The rissoles served at lunch had too much onion in them--so it
seemed to Volodya. It also seemed to him that Nyuta laughed loudly on
purpose, and kept glancing in his direction to give him to understand
that the memory of the night did not trouble her in the least, and that
she was not aware of the presence at table of the "ugly duckling."
At four o'clock Volodya drove to the station with his _maman_. Foul
memories, the sleepless night, the prospect of expulsion from school,
the stings of conscience--all roused in him now an oppressive, gloomy
anger. He looked at _maman_'s sharp profile, at her little nose, and at
the raincoat which was a present from Nyuta, and muttered:
"Why do you powder? It's not becoming at your age! You make yourself up,
don't pay your debts at cards, smoke other people's tobacco.... It's
hateful! I don't love you ... I don't love you!"
He was insulting her, and she moved her little eyes about in alarm,
flung up her hands, and whispered in horror:
"What are you saying, my dear! Good gracious! the coachman will hear! Be
quiet or the coachman will hear! He can overhear everything."
"I don't love you ... I don't love you!" he went on breathlessly.
"You've no soul and no morals.... Don't dare to wear that raincoat! Do
you hear? Or else I will tear it into rags...."
"Control yourself, my child," _maman_ wept; "the coachman can hear!"
"And where is my father's fortune? Where is your money? You have wasted
it all. I am not ashamed of being poor, but I am ashamed of having such
a mother.... When my schoolfellows ask questions about you, I always
blush."
In the train they had to pass two stations before they reached the town.
Volodya spent all the time on the little platform between two carriages
and shivered all over. He did not want to go into the compartment
because there the mother he hated was sitting. He hated himself, hated
the ticket collectors, the smoke from the engine, the cold to which he
attributed his shivering. And the heavier the weight on his heart, the
more strongly he felt that somewhere in the world, among some people,
there was a pure, honourable, warm, refined life, full of love,
affection, gaiety, and serenity.... He felt this and was so intensely
miserable that one of the passengers, after looking in his face
attentively, actually asked:
"You have the toothache, I suppose?"
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account