Three months had not passed before he obtained a position
in a Russian embassy to London, and in the first English
vessel that sailed (steamers were not even talked
of then) he crossed the sea. A few months later
he received a letter from Pestov. The good-natured
landowner congratulated Ivan Petrovitch on the birth
of a son, who had been born into the world in the
village of Pokrovskoe on the 20th of August, 1807,
and named Fedor, in honour of the holy martyr Fedor
Stratilat. On account of her extreme weakness
Malanya Sergyevna added only a few lines; but those
few lines were a surprise, for Ivan Petrovitch had
not known that Marfa Timofyevna had taught his wife
to read and write. Ivan Petrovitch did not long
abandon himself to the sweet emotion of parental feeling;
he was dancing attendance on a notorious Phryne or
Lais of the day (classical names were still in vogue
at that date); the Peace of Tilsit had only just been
concluded and all the world was hurrying after pleasure,
in a giddy whirl of dissipation, and his head had been
turned by the black eyes of a bold beauty. He
had very little money, but he was lucky at cards,
made many acquaintances, took part in all entertainments,
in a word, he was in the swim.
Chapter IX
For a long time the old Lavretsky could not forgive
his son for his marriage. If six months later
Ivan Petrovitch had come to him with a penitent face
and had thrown himself at his feet, he would, very
likely, have pardoned him, after giving him a pretty
severe scolding, and a tap with his stick by way of
intimidating him, but Ivan Petrovitch went on living
abroad and apparently did not care a straw. “Be
silent! I dare you to speak of it,” Piotr
Andreitch said to his wife every time she ventured
to try to incline him to mercy. “The puppy,
he ought to thank God for ever that I have not laid
my curse upon him; my father would have killed him,
the worthless scamp, with his own hands, and he would
have done right too.” At such terrible speeches
Anna Pavlovna could only cross herself secretly.
As for Ivan Petrovitch’s wife, Piotr Andreitch
at first would not even hear her name, and in answer
to a letter of Pestov’s, in which he mentioned
his daughter-in-law, he went so far as to send him
word that he knew nothing of any daughter-in-law, and
that it was forbidden by law to harbour run-away wenches,
a fact which he thought it his duty to remind him
of. But later on, he was softened by hearing
of the birth of a grandson, and he gave orders secretly
that inquiries should be made about the health of
the mother, and sent her a little money, also as though
it did not come from him. Fedya was not a year
old before Anna Pavlovna fell ill with a fatal complaint.
A few days before her end, when she could no longer
leave her bed, with timid tears in her eyes, fast
growing dim, she informed her husband in the presence
of the priest that she wanted to see her daughter-in-law
Copyrights
A House of Gentlefolk from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
