On the Eve: Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Elena walked with her head bent and her eyes fixed straight before
her. She feared nothing, she considered nothing; she wanted to see
Insarov once more. She went on, not noticing that the sun had long ago
disappeared behind heavy black clouds, that the wind was roaring by
gusts in the trees and blowing her dress about her, that the dust had
suddenly risen and was flying in a cloud along the road. . . . Large
drops of rain were falling, she did not even notice it; but it fell
faster and heavier, there were flashes of lightning and peals of
thunder. Elena stood still looking round. . . . Fortunately for her,
there was a little old broken-down chapel that had been built over a
disused well not far from the place where she was overtaken by the
storm. She ran to it and got under the low roof. The rain fell in
torrents; the sky was completely overcast. In dumb despair Elena
stared at the thick network of fast-falling drops. Her last hope of
getting a sight of Insarov was vanishing. A little old beggar-woman
came into the chapel, shook herself, said with a curtsy: 'Out of the
rain, good lady,' and with many sighs and groans sat down on a ledge
near the well. Elena put her hand into her pocket; the old woman
noticed this action and a light came into her face, yellow and
wrinkled now, though once handsome. 'Thank you, dear gracious lady,'
she was beginning. There happened to be no purse in Elena's pocket,
but the old woman was still holding out her hand.

'I have no money, grannie,' said Elena, 'but here, take this, it will
be of use for something.'

She gave her her handkerchief.

'O-oh, my pretty lady,' said the beggar, 'what do you give your
handkerchief to me for? For a wedding-present to my grandchild when
she's married? God reward you for your goodness!'

A peal of thunder was heard.

'Lord Jesus Christ,' muttered the beggar-woman, and she crossed
herself three times. 'Why, haven't I seen you before,' she added after
a brief pause. 'Didn't you give me alms in Christ's name?'

Elena looked more attentively at the old woman and recognised her.

'Yes, grannie,' she answered, 'wasn't it you asked me why I was so
sorrowful?'

'Yes, darling, yes. I fancied I knew you. And I think you've a
heart-ache still. You seem in trouble now. Here's your handkerchief,
too, wet from tears to be sure. Oh, you young people, you all have the
same sorrow, a terrible woe it is!'

'What sorrow, grannie?'

'Ah, my good young lady, you can't deceive an old woman like me. I
know what your heart is heavy over; your sorrow's not an uncommon
one. Sure, I have been young too, darling. I have been through that
trouble too. Yes. And I'll tell you something, for your goodness to
me; you've won a good man, not a light of love, you cling to him
alone; cling to him stronger than death. If it comes off, it comes
off,--if not, it's in God's hands. Yes. Why are you wondering at me?
I'm a fortune-teller. There, I'll carry away your sorrow with your
handkerchief. I'll carry it away, and it's over. See the rain's
less; you wait a little longer. It's not the first time I've been wet.
Remember, darling; you had a sorrow, the sorrow has flown, and
there's no memory of it. Good Lord, have mercy on us!'

The beggar-woman got up from the edge of the well, went out of the
chapel, and stole off on her way. Elena stared after her in
bewilderment. 'What does this mean?' she murmured involuntarily.

The rain grew less and less, the sun peeped out for an instant. Elena
was just preparing to leave her shelter. . . . Suddenly, ten paces
from the chapel, she saw Insarov. Wrapt in a cloak he was walking
along the very road by which Elena had come; he seemed to be hurrying
home.

She clasped the old rail of the steps for support, and tried to call
to him, but her voice failed her. . . Insarov had already passed by
without raising his head.

'Dmitri Nikanorovitch!' she said at last.

Insarov stopped abruptly, looked round. . . . For the first minute he
did not know Elena, but he went up to her at once. 'You! you here!'
he cried.

She walked back in silence into the chapel. Insarov followed Elena.
'You here?' he repeated.

She was still silent, and only gazed upon him with a strange, slow,
tender look. He dropped his eyes.

'You have come from our house?' she asked.

'No ... not from your house.'

'No?' repeated Elena, and she tried to smile. 'Is that how you keep
your promises? I have been expecting you ever since the morning.'

'I made no promise yesterday, if you remember, Elena Nikolaevna.'

Again Elena faintly smiled, and she passed her hand over her face.
Both face and hands were very white.

'You meant, then, to go away without saying good-bye to us?'

'Yes,' replied Insarov in a surly, thick voice.

'What? After our friendship, after the talks, after everything. . . .
Then if I had not met you here by chance.' (Elena's voice began to
break, and she paused an instant) . . . 'you would have gone away
like that, without even shaking hands for the last time, and you would
not have cared?'

Insarov turned away. 'Elena Nikolaevnas don't talk like that, please.
I'm not over happy as it is. Believe me, my decision has cost me
great effort. If you knew----'

'I don't want to know,' Elena interposed with dismay, 'why you are
going. ... It seems it's necessary. It seems we must part. You would
not wound your friends without good reason. But, can friends part like
this? And we are friends, aren't we?'

'No,' said Insarov.

'What?' murmured Elena. Her cheeks were overspread with a faint
flush.

'That's just why I am going away--because we are not friends. Don't
force me into saying what I don't want to say, and what I won't say.'

'You used to be so open with me,' said Elena rather reproachfully.
'Do you remember?'

'I used to be able to be open, then I had nothing to conceal; but
now----'

'But now?' queried Elena.

'But now . . . now I must go away. Goodbye.'

If, at that instant, Insarov had lifted his eyes to Elena, he would
have seen that her face grew brighter and brighter as he frowned and
looked gloomy; but he kept his eyes obstinately fixed on the ground.

'Well, good-bye, Dmitri Nikanorovitch,' she began. 'But at least,
since we have met, give me your hand now.'

Insarov was stretching out his hand. 'No, I can't even do that,' he
said, and turned away again.

'You can't?'

'No, I can't. Good-bye.' And he moved away to the entrance of the
chapel.

'Wait a little longer,' said Elena. 'You seem afraid of me. But I am
braver than you,' she added, a faint tremor passing suddenly over her
whole body. 'I can tell you . . . shall I? ... how it was you found me
here? Do you know where I was going?'

Insarov looked in bewilderment at Elena,

'I was going to you.'

'To me?'

Elena hid her face. 'You mean to force me to say that I love you,'
she whispered. 'There, I have said it.'

'Elena!' cried Insarov.

She took his hands, looked at him, and fell on his breast.

He held her close to him, and said nothing. There was no need for him
to tell her he loved her. From that cry alone, from the instant
transformation of the whole man, from the heaving of the breast to
which she clung so confidingly, from the touch of his finger tips in
her hair, Elena could feel that she was loved. He did not speak, and
she needed no words. 'He is here, he loves me . . . what need of more?'
The peace of perfect bliss, the peace of the harbour reached after
storm, of the end attained, that heavenly peace which gives
significance and beauty even to death, filled her with its divine
flood. She desired nothing, for she had gained all. 'O my brother,
my friend, my dear one!' her lips were whispering, while she did not
know whose was this heart, his or her own, which beat so blissfully,
and melted against her bosom.

He stood motionless, folding in his strong embrace the young life
surrendered to him; he felt against his heart this new, infinitely
precious burden; a passion of tenderness, of gratitude unutterable,
was crumbling his hard will to dust, and tears unknown till now stood
in his eyes.

She did not weep; she could only repeat, 'O my friend, my brother!'

'So you will follow me everywhere?' he said to her, a quarter of an
hour later, still enfolding her and keeping her close to him in his
arms.

'Everywhere, to the ends of the earth. Where you are, I will be.'

'And you are not deceiving yourself, you know your parents will never
consent to our marriage?'

'I don't deceive myself; I know that.'

'You know that I'm poor--almost a beggar.'

'I know.'

'That I'm not a Russian, that it won't be my fate to live in Russia,
that you will have to break all your ties with your country, with your
people.'

'I know, I know.'

'Do you know, too, that I have given myself up to a difficult,
thankless cause, that I ... that we shall have to expose ourselves not
to dangers only, but to privation, humiliation, perhaps----'

'I know, I know all--I love you----'

'That you will have to give up all you are accustomed to, that out
there alone among strangers, you will be forced perhaps to work----'

She laid her hand on his lips. 'I love you, my dear one.'

He began hotly kissing her slender, rosy hand. Elena did not draw it
away from his lips, and with a kind of childish delight, with smiling
curiosity, watched how he covered with kisses, first the palm, then
the fingers. . . .

All at once she blushed and hid her face upon his breast.

He lifted her head tenderly and looked steadily into her eyes.
'Welcome, then, my wife, before God and men!'

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