“Precisely! I love you very much, Ryazanov,
because you are a clever child. You will always
catch a thought in its flight; although, I must say,
that this isn’t an especially high property
of the mind. And really, two beings come together,
the friends of yesterday, who had conversed with each
other and eaten at the same table, and this day one
of them must perish. You understand depart from
life forever. But they have neither malice nor
fear. There is the most real, magnificent spectacle,
which I can only picture to myself!”
“How much cruelty there is in you,” said
the baroness meditatively.
“Well, nothing can be done about it now!
My ancestors were cavaliers and robbers. However,
shan’t we go away now?”
They all went out of the garden. Volodya Chaplinsky
ordered his automobile called. Ellena Victorovna
was leaning upon his arm. And suddenly she asked:
“Tell me, Volodya, where do you usually go when
you take leave of so-called decent women?”
Volodya hemmed and hawed. However, he knew positively
that he could not lie to Rovinskaya.
“M-m-m ... I’m afraid of offending
your hearing. To the Tzigani, for instance ...
to night cabarets ...”
“And somewhere else? Worse?”
“Really, you put me in an awkward position.
From the time that I’ve become so madly in love
with you ...”
“Leave out the romancingl”
“Well, how shall I say it?” murmured Volodya,
feeling that he was turning red, not only in the face,
but with his body, his back. “Well, of
course, to the women. Now, of course, this does
not occur with me personally ...”
Rovinskaya maliciously pressed Chaplinsky’s
elbow to her side.
“To a brothel?”
Volodya did not answer anything. Then she said:
“And so, you’ll carry us at once over
there in the automobile and acquaint us with this
existence, which is foreign to me. But remember,
that I rely upon your protection.”
The remaining two agreed to this, unwillingly, in
all probability; but there was no possibility of opposing
Ellena Victorovna. She always did everything
that she wanted to. And then they had all heard
and knew that in Petersburg carousing worldly ladies,
and even girls, permit themselves, out of a modish
snobbism, pranks far worse than the one which Rovinskaya
had proposed.
On the way to Yamskaya Street Rovinskaya said to Chaplinsky:
“You’ll bring me at first into the most
luxurious place, then into a medium one, and then
into the filthiest.”
“My dear Ellena Victorovna,” warmly retorted
Chaplinsky, “I’m ready to do everything
for you. It is without false boasting when I
say that I would give my life away at your order, ruin
my career and position at a mere sign of yours ...
But I dare not bring you to these houses. Russian
manners are coarse, and often simply inhuman manners.
I’m afraid that you will be insulted by some
pungent, unseemly word, or that a chance visitor will
play some senseless prank before you ...”
