On the Eve: Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Elena's first sensation on awakening was one of happy consternation.
'Is it possible? Is it possible?' she asked herself, and her heart
grew faint with happiness. Recollections came rushing on her . . . she
was overwhelmed by them. Then again she was enfolded by the blissful
peace of triumph. But in the course of the morning, Elena gradually
became possessed by a spirit of unrest, and for the remainder of the
day she felt listless and weary. It was true she knew now what she
wanted, but that made it no easier for her. That never-to-be forgotten
meeting had cast her for ever out of the old groove; she was no
longer at the same standpoint, she was far away, and yet everything
went on about her in its accustomed order, everything pursued its own
course as though nothing were changed; the old life moved on its old
way, reckoning on Elena's interest and co-operation as of old. She
tried to begin a letter to Insarov, but that too was a failure; the
words came on to paper either lifeless or false. Her diary she had put
an end to by drawing a thick stroke under the last line. That was the
past, and every thought, all her soul, was turned now to the future.
Her heart was heavy. To sit with her mother who suspected nothing, to
listen to her, answer her and talk to her, seemed to Elena something
wicked; she felt the presence of a kind of falseness in her, she
suffered though she had nothing to blush for; more than once an almost
irresistible desire sprang up in her heart to tell everything without
reserve, whatever might come of it afterwards. 'Why,' she thought,
'did not Dmitri take me away then, from that little chapel, wherever
he wanted to go? Didn't he tell me I was his wife before God? What am
I here for?' She suddenly began to feel shy of every one, even of Uvar
Ivanovitch, who was flourishing his fingers in more perplexity than
ever. Now everything about her seemed neither sweet nor friendly, nor
even a dream, but, like a nightmare, lay, an immovable dead load, on
her heart; seeming to reproach her and be indignant with her, and not
to care to know about her. . . .'You are ours in spite of
everything,' she seemed to hear. Even her poor pets, her ill-used
birds and animals looked at her--so at least she fancied--with
suspicion and hostility. She felt conscience-stricken and ashamed of
her feelings. 'This is my home after all,' she thought, 'my family, my
country.' . . . 'No, it's no longer your country, nor your family,'
another voice affirmed within her. Terror was overmastering her, and
she was vexed with her own feebleness. The trial was only beginning
and she was losing patience already. . . Was this what she had
promised?

She did not soon gain control of herself. But a week passed and then
another. . . . Elena became a little calmer, and grew used to her new
position. She wrote two little notes to Insarov, and carried them
herself to the post: she could not for anything--through shame and
through pride--have brought herself to confide in a maid. She was
already beginning to expect him in person. . . . But instead of
Insarov, one fine morning Nikolai Artemyevitch made his appearance.

Back to chapter list of: On the Eve