First loves -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Russian fiction -- Translations into English
been full of reverence before his hero, his ideal, but now his pale
handsome face, so handsome that Maria Nikolaevna noticed him and poked
her head out of the carriage window, that noble face is glowing with
anger and contempt; his eyes, so like _her_ eyes! are fastened upon
Sanin, and the tightly compressed lips part to revile him….
And Pantaleone stretches out his hand and points Sanin out to Tartaglia
standing near, and Tartaglia barks at Sanin, and the very bark of the
faithful dog sounds like an unbearable reproach…. Hideous!
And then, the life in Paris, and all the humiliations, all the
loathsome tortures of the slave, who dare not be jealous or complain,
and who is cast aside at last, like a worn-out garment….
Then the going home to his own country, the poisoned, the devastated
life, the petty interests and petty cares, bitter and fruitless regret,
and as bitter and fruitless apathy, a punishment not apparent, but of
every minute, continuous, like some trivial but incurable disease, the
payment farthing by farthing of the debt, which can never be settled….
The cup was full enough.
How had the garnet cross given Sanin by Gemma existed till now, why had
he not sent it back, how had it happened that he had never come across
it till that day? A long, long while he sat deep in thought, and taught
as he was by the experience of so many years, he still could not
comprehend how he could have deserted Gemma, so tenderly and
passionately loved, for a woman he did not love at all…. Next day he
surprised all his friends and acquaintances by announcing that he was
going abroad.
The surprise was general in society. Sanin was leaving Petersburg, in
the middle of the winter, after having only just taken and furnished a
capital flat, and having even secured seats for all the performances of
the Italian Opera, in which Madame Patti … Patti, herself, herself, was
to take part! His friends and acquaintances wondered; but it is not
human nature as a rule to be interested long in other people’s affairs,
and when Sanin set off for abroad, none came to the railway station to
see him off but a French tailor, and he only in the hope of securing an
unpaid account “_pour un saute-en-barque en velours noir tout à fait
chic_.”
XLIV
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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