The Little Demon Fyodor Sologub (large ebook reader .TXT) đ
- Author: Fyodor Sologub
Book online «The Little Demon Fyodor Sologub (large ebook reader .TXT) đ». Author Fyodor Sologub
âThat was clever, Pavloushka,â shouted Peredonov. âHe got what he deserved.â
âYes, that was quite proper,â chimed in Varvara. âPeople like that shouldnât be let off. Youâre a smart young fellow, Pavel Vassilyevitch.â
Volodin, with an air of injured innocence, went on:
âAnd then he says to me: âEach to his trade.â Then he turns and goes out. Thatâs all there was to it and nothing else.â
Volodin nevertheless felt himself a hero. Peredonov, to mollify him, gave him a caramel.
A new visitor arrivedâ âSofya Efimovna Prepolovenskaya, the wife of the forester, a fat woman, with a face half good-natured, half cunningâ âbrisk in her movements. She sat down at the table and asked Volodin slyly:
âPavel Vassilyevitch, why do you come so often to visit Varvara Dmitrievna?â
âI donât come to visit Varvara Dmitrievna,â answered Volodin bashfully, âbut to see Ardalyon Borisitch.â
âYou havenât yet fallen in love with anyone?â asked Prepolovenskaya with a laugh.
Everyone knew Volodin was looking for a wife with a dowry, offered himself to many and was always rejected. Prepolovenskayaâs joke seemed to him out of place. In a manner resembling that of an injured sheep, he said in a trembling voice:
âIf I fell in love, Sofya Efimovna, that wouldnât concern anyone except my own self and her. And in such an affair you wouldnât be considered.â
But Prepolovenskaya refused to be suppressed.
âSuppose,â she said, âthat you fell in love with Varvara Dmitrievna, who would make jam tarts for Ardalyon Borisitch?â
Volodin again protruded his lips and lifted his eyebrows. He was at a loss what to say.
âDonât be fainthearted, Pavel Vassilyevitch,â Prepolovenskaya went on. âWhy arenât you engaged? Youâre young and handsome.â
âPerhaps Varvara Dmitrievna wouldnât have me,â said Volodin, sniggering.
âWhy shouldnât she? Youâre much too timid!â
âAnd perhaps I wouldnât have her,â said Volodin, in desperation. âPerhaps I donât want to marry other peopleâs cousins; perhaps I have a cousin of my own in my village.â
He was already beginning to believe that Varvara would marry him. Varvara was angry; she considered Volodin a fool, and moreover, his wages were only three-quarters of Peredonovâs.
Prepolovenskaya wanted to marry Peredonov to her sister, the fat daughter of a priest. That is why she tried to create a quarrel between Peredonov and Varvara.
âWhy are you trying to marry us?â asked Varvara, in an irritated way. âYouâd better try to marry your little fool of a sister to Pavel Vassilyevitch.â
âWhy should I take him from you?â said Prepolovenskaya, jokingly.
Prepolovenskayaâs jests gave a new turn to Peredonovâs slow thoughts, and the erli had already taken possession of his mind. Why did Volodin advise such a dish? Peredonov disliked thinking. He believed at once everything he was told; that was why he began to believe that Volodin was in love with Varvara. He thought: they would entangle Varvara, and then when he left for the inspectorâs job, they would poison him on the way with erlis, and Volodin would take his place; he would be buried as Volodin, and Volodin would become inspector. A clever trick!
There was a sudden noise in the passage. Peredonov and Varvara were frightened. Peredonov fixed his screwed-up eyes on the door. Varvara crept up to the parlour door, looked in, then, just as quietly, on tiptoe, balancing her arms and smiling in a distracted way, returned to the table. From the passage came a noise and shrill outcries as if two people were wrestling. Varvara whispered:
âThatâs Ershova, frightfully drunk. Natashka wonât let her in and sheâs trying to get into the parlour.â
âWhat shall we do?â asked Peredonov, fearfully.
âI suppose weâd better go into the parlour,â decided Varvara, âso that she shanât get in here.â
They entered the parlour and closed the door tightly behind them. Varvara went into the passage in the faint hope of restraining the landlady, or of persuading her to sit down in the kitchen. But the insolent woman kept pushing her way in, propped herself up against the doorpost and poured out abusive compliments on the whole company. Peredonov and Varvara fussed about her and tried to make her sit down on a chair near the passage and farther from the dining-room. Varvara brought her from the kitchen, on a tray, vodka, beer and some tarts, but the landlady would not sit nor drink anything and kept on edging towards the dining-room, but she could not exactly find the door. Her face was red, her clothes were disordered, she was filthy and smelt of vodka, even at a distance. She shouted:
âNo! You must let me sit at your own table. Iâll not have it on a tray. I want it on a tablecloth. Iâm the landlady and I will be respected. Never mind if Iâm drunk. Iâm at least honest and a good wife to my husband.â
Varvara, smiling at once with contempt and fear, said: âYes, we know.â
Ershova winked at Varvara, laughed hoarsely and snapped her fingers defiantly. She became more and more arrogant.
âCousin!â she shouted. âWe know the sort of cousin you are. Why doesnât the Headmasterâs wife come to see you, eh?â
âDonât make so much noise,â said Varvara.
But Ershova began to shout even louder:
âHow dare you order me about? Iâm in my own house and I can do what I please. If I like I can have you thrown out so that thereâd not even be a smell of you left behind. Only Iâm too kindhearted.â
Meanwhile Volodin and Prepolovenskaya sat timidly at the window in silence. Prepolovenskaya smiled slightly, looking at the shrew out of the corner of her eye, but pretended that she was looking into the street. Volodin sat with an injured expression on his face.
Ershova eventually became more good-humoured and gave Varvara a friendly slap on the shoulder, saying with a drunken smile:
âNow listen to me. Put me at your table and treat me like a lady. Then give me some zhamochki,5 and treat your landlady decently. Come, my dear girl!â
âHere are some tarts,â said Varvara.
âI donât want tarts!â shouted Ershova. âI want some
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