‘Well, what do you think?’ I began, not
waiting for him to speak.
‘I have acted wrongly towards her,’ Fustov
declared thickly. ’I have behaved... rashly,
unpardonably, cruelly. I believed that...
Viktor—’
‘What!’ I cried; ’that Viktor whom
you despise so! But what could he say to you?’
Fustov crossed his arms and stood obliquely to me.
He was ashamed, I saw that.
‘Do you remember,’ he said with some effort,
’that... Viktor alluded to... a pension.
That unfortunate word stuck in my head. It’s
the cause of everything. I began questioning
him.... Well, and he—’
‘What did he say?’
’He told me that the old man... what’s
his name?... Koltovsky, had allowed Susanna that
pension because... on account of... well, in fact,
by way of damages.’
I flung up my hands.
‘And you believed him?’
Fustov nodded.
’Yes! I believed him.... He said,
too, that with the young one... In fact, my behaviour
is unjustifiable.’
‘And you went away so as to break everything
off?’
‘Yes; that’s the best way... in such cases.
I acted savagely, savagely,’ he repeated.
We were both silent. Each of us felt that the
other was ashamed; but it was easier for me; I was
not ashamed of myself.
‘I would break every bone in that Viktor’s
body now,’ pursued Fustov, clenching his teeth,
’if I didn’t recognise that I’m in
fault. I see now what the whole trick was contrived
for, with Susanna’s marriage they would lose
the pension.... Wretches!’
I took his hand.
‘Alexander,’ I asked him, ‘have
you been to her?’
’No; I came straight to you on arriving.
I’ll go to-morrow... early to-morrow. Things
can’t be left so. On no account!’
‘But you... love her, Alexander?’
Fustov seemed offended.
‘Of course I love her. I am very much attached
to her.’
‘She’s a splendid, true-hearted girl!’
I cried.
Fustov stamped impatiently.
’Well, what notion have you got in your head?
I was prepared to marry her—she’s
been baptized—I’m ready to marry her
even now, I’d been thinking of it, though she’s
older than I am.’
At that instant I suddenly fancied that a pale woman’s
figure was seated in the window, leaning on her arms.
The lights had burnt down; it was dark in the room.
I shivered, looked more intently, and saw nothing,
of course, in the window seat; but a strange feeling,
a mixture of horror, anguish and pity, came over me.
‘Alexander!’ I began with sudden intensity,
’I beg you, I implore you, go at once to the
Ratsches’, don’t put it off till to-morrow!
An inner voice tells me that you really ought to see
Susanna to-day!’
Fustov shrugged his shoulders.
’What are you talking about, really! It’s
eleven o’clock now, most likely they’re
all in bed.’
