"Trust me, Maria Alexandrovna!" said Paul, "it shall all be exactly as I have promised you!"

"Oh-but you're such a weatherc.o.c.k! I can never trust _you_! I shall wait for you at dinner time, Prince; we dine early. How sorry I am that my husband happens to be in the country on such an occasion! How happy he would have been to see you! He esteems you so highly, Prince; he is so sincerely attached to you!"

"Your husband? dear me! So you have a h-husband, too!" observed the old man.

"Oh, prince, prince! how forgetful you are! Why, you have _quite_, quite forgotten the past! My husband, Afana.s.sy Matveyevitch, surely you must remember him? He is in the country: but you have seen him thousands of times before! Don't you remember-Afana.s.sy Matveyevitch!"

"Afana.s.sy Matveyevitch. Dear me!-and in the co-country! how very charming!

So you have a husband! dear me, I remember a vaudeville very like that, something about-

"The husband's here, And his wife at Tvere."

Charming, charming-such a good rhyme too; and it's a most ri-diculous story! Charming, charming; the wife's away, you know, at Jaroslaf or Tv-- or somewhere, and the husband is--is--Dear me! I'm afraid I've forgotten what we were talking about! Yes, yes-we must be going, my boy! _Au revoir, madame; adieu, ma charmante demoiselle_" he added, turning to Zina, and putting the ends of her fingers to his lips.

"Come back to dinner,-to dinner, prince! don't forget to come back here quick!" cried Maria Alexandrovna after them as they went out; "be back to dinner!"

CHAPTER V.

"Nastasia Petrovna, I think you had better go and see what is doing in the kitchen!" observed Maria Alexandrovna, as she returned from seeing the prince off. "I'm sure that rascal Nikitka will spoil the dinner! Probably he's drunk already!" The widow obeyed.

As the latter left the room, she glanced suspiciously at Maria Alexandrovna, and observed that the latter was in a high state of agitation. Therefore, instead of going to look after Nikitka, she went through the "Salon," along the pa.s.sage to her own room, and through that to a dark box-room, where the old clothes of the establishment and such things were stored. There she approached the locked door on tiptoe; and stifling her breath, she bent to the keyhole, through which she peeped, and settled herself to listen intently. This door, which was always kept shut, was one of the three doors communicating with the room where Maria Alexandrovna and Zina were now left alone. Maria Alexandrovna always considered Nastasia an untrustworthy sort of woman, although extremely silly into the bargain. Of course she had suspected the widow-more than once-of eavesdropping; but it so happened that at the moment Madame Moskaleva was too agitated and excited to think of the usual precautions.

She was sitting in her arm-chair and gazing at Zina. Zina felt that her mother was looking at her, and was conscious of an unpleasant sensation at her heart.

"Zina!"

Zina slowly turned her head towards the speaker, and lifted her splendid dark eyes to hers.

"Zina, I wish to speak to you on a most important matter!"

Zina adopted an attentive air, and sat still with folded hands, waiting for light. In her face there was an expression of annoyance as well as irony, which she did her best to hide.

"I wish to ask you first, Zina, what you thought of _that_ Mosgliakoff, to-day?"

"You have known my opinion of him for a long time!" replied Zina, surlily.

"Yes, yes, of course! but I think he is getting just a little _too_ troublesome, with his continual bothering you-"

"Oh, but he says he is in love with me, in which case his importunity is pardonable!"

"Strange! You used not to be so ready to find his offences pardonable; you used to fly out at him if ever I mentioned his name!"

"Strange, too, that you always defended him, and were so very anxious that I should marry him!-and now you are the first to attack him!"

"Yes; I don't deny, Zina, that I did wish, then, to see you married to Mosgliakoff! It was painful to me to witness your continual grief, your sufferings, which I can well realize-whatever you may think to the contrary!-and which deprived me of my rest at night! I determined at last that there was but one great change of life that would ever save you from the sorrows of the past, and that change was matrimony! We are not rich; we cannot afford to go abroad. All the a.s.ses in the place p.r.i.c.k their long ears, and wonder that you should be unmarried at twenty-three years old; and they must needs invent all sorts of stories to account for the fact!

As if I would marry you to one of our wretched little town councillors, or to Ivan Ivanovitch, the family lawyer! There are no husbands for _you_ in this place, Zina! Of course Paul Mosgliakoff is a silly sort of a fellow, but he is better than these people here: he is fairly born, at least, and he has 150 serfs and landed property, all of which is better than living by bribes and corruption, and goodness knows what jobbery besides, as these do! and that is why I allowed my eyes to rest on him. But I give you my solemn word, I never had any real sympathy for him! and if Providence has sent you someone better now, oh, my dear girl, how fortunate that you have not given your word to Mosgliakoff! You didn't tell him anything for certain to-day, did you, Zina?"

"What is the use of beating about the bush, when the whole thing lies in a couple of words?" said Zina, with some show of annoyance.

"Beating about the bush, Zina? Is that the way to speak to your mother?

But what am I? You have long ceased to trust to your poor mother! You have long looked upon me as your enemy, and not as your mother at all!"

"Oh, come mother! you and I are beyond quarrelling about an expression!

Surely we understand one another by now? It is about time we did, anyhow!"

"But you offend me, my child! you will not believe that I am ready to devote _all, all_ I can give, in order to establish your destiny on a safe and happy footing!"

Zina looked angrily and sarcastically at her mother.

"Would not you like to marry me to this old prince, now, in order to establish my destiny on a safe and happy footing?"

"I have not said a word about it; but, as you mention the fact, I will say that if you _were_ to marry the prince it would be a very happy thing for you, and-"

"Oh! Well, I consider the idea utter nonsense!" cried the girl pa.s.sionately. "Nonsense, humbug! and what's more, I think you have a good deal too much poetical inspiration, mamma; you are a woman poet in the fullest sense of the term, and they call you by that name here! You are always full of projects; and the impracticability and absurdity of your ideas does not in the least discourage you. I felt, when the prince was sitting here, that you had that notion in your head. When Mosgliakoff was talking nonsense there about marrying the old man to somebody I read all your thoughts in your face. I am ready to bet any money that you are thinking of it now, and that you have come to me now about this very question! However, as your perpetual projects on my behalf are beginning to weary me to death, I must beg you not to say one word about it, not _one word_, mamma; do you hear me? _not one word_; and I beg you will remember what I say!" She was panting with rage.

"You are a child, Zina; a poor sorrow-worn, sick child!" said Maria Alexandrovna in tearful accents. "You speak to your poor mother disrespectfully; you wound me deeply, my dear; there is not another mother in the world who would have borne what I have to bear from you every day!

But you are suffering, you are sick, you are sorrowful, and I am your mother, and, first of all, I am a Christian woman! I must bear it all, and forgive it. But one word, Zina: if I had really thought of the union you suggest, why would you consider it so impracticable and absurd? In my opinion, Mosgliakoff has never said a wiser thing than he did to-day, when he declared that marriage was what alone could save the prince,-not, of course, marriage with that slovenly s.l.u.t, Nastasia; there he certainly _did_ make a fool of himself!"

"Now look here, mamma; do you ask me this out of pure curiosity, or with design? Tell me the truth."

"All I ask is, why does it appear to you to be so absurd?"

"Good heavens, mother, you'll drive me wild! What a fate!" cried Zina, stamping her foot with impatience. "I'll tell you why, if you can't see for yourself. Not to mention all the other evident absurdities of the plan, to take advantage of the weakened wits of a poor old man, and deceive him and marry him-an old cripple, in order to get hold of his money,-and then every day and every hour to wish for his death, is, in my opinion, not only nonsense, but so mean, _so_ mean, mamma, that I-I can't congratulate you on your brilliant idea; that's all I can say!"

There was silence for one minute.

"Zina, do you remember all that happened two years ago?" asked Maria Alexandrovna of a sudden.

Zina trembled.

"Mamma!" she said, severely, "you promised me solemnly never to mention that again."

"And I ask you now, as solemnly, my dear child, to allow me to break that promise, just once! I have never broken it before. Zina! the time has come for a full and clear understanding between us! These two years of silence have been terrible. We cannot go on like this. I am ready to pray you, on my knees, to let me speak. Listen, Zina, your own mother who bore you beseeches you, on her knees! And I promise you faithfully, Zina, and solemnly, on the word of an unhappy but adoring mother, that never, under any circ.u.mstances, not even to save my life, will I ever mention the subject again. This shall be the last time, but it is absolutely necessary!"

Maria Alexandrovna counted upon the effect of her words, and with reason:

"Speak, then!" said Zina, growing whiter every moment.

"Thank you, Zina!--Two years ago there came to the house, to teach your little brother Mitya, since dead, a tutor--"

"Why do you begin so solemnly, mamma? Why all this eloquence, all these quite unnecessary details, which are painful to me, and only too well known to both of us?" cried Zina with a sort of irritated disgust.

"Because, my dear child, I, your mother, felt in some degree bound to justify myself before you; and also because I wish to present this whole question to you from an entirely new point of view, and not from that mistaken position which you are accustomed to take up with regard to it; and because, lastly, I think you will thus better understand the conclusion at which I shall arrive upon the whole question. Do not think, dear child, that I wish to trifle with your heart! No, Zina, you will find in me a real mother; and perhaps, with tears streaming from your eyes, you will ask and beseech at my feet-at the feet of the '_mean woman_,' as you have just called me,-yes, and pray for that reconciliation which you have rejected so long! That's why I wish to recall all, Zina, _all_ that has happened, from the very beginning; and without this I shall not speak at all!"