Sanine by Mikhail Artsybashev (ebook pdf reader for pc .TXT) 📕

shrank from such an explanation. From both carriages there was a lively interchange of wit and raillery. Novikoff jumped down and ran races through the grass with Lida. Apparently there was a tacit understanding between them to appear to be the best of friends, for they kept merrily teasing each other all the time.

They now approached the hill on whose summit stood the convent with its glittering cupolas and white stone walls. The hill was covered by woods, and the curled tips of the oak-trees looked like wool. There were oak-trees also on the islands at the foot of it, where the broad, calm river flowed.

Leaving the road, the horses trotted over the moist, rich turf in which the carriage-wheels made deep ruts. There was a pleasant odour of earth and of green leaves.

At the appointed place, a meadow, seated on the grass were a young student and two girls wearing the dress of Little Russia. Being the first to arrive, they were busily preparing tea and light refreshments. When the carriage stopped, the horses snorted and whisked away flies with their tails. Everybody jumped down, enlivened and refreshed by the drive and the sweet country air. Lialia bestowed resounding kisses upon the two girls who were making tea, and introduced them to her brother and to Sanine, whom they regarded with shy curiosity. Lida suddenly remembered that the two men did not know each other. “Allow me,” she said to Yourii, “to introduce to you my brother Vladimir.” Sanine smiled and grasped Yourii’s hand, but the latter scarcely noticed him. Sanine found everybody interesting and liked making new acquaintances. Yourii considered that very few people in this world were interesting, and always felt disinclined to meet strangers. Ivanoff knew Sanine slightly and liked what he had about him. He was the first to go up to him and begin talking, while Semenoff ceremoniously shook hands with him.

“Now we can all enjoy ourselves after these tiresome formalities,” cried Lialia.

At first a certain stiffness prevailed, for many of the party were complete strangers to each other. But as they began to eat, when the men had had several liqueurs, and the ladies wine, such constraint gave way to mirth. They drank freely, and there was much laughter and joking. Some ran races and others clambered up the hillside. All around was so calm and bright and the green woods so fair, that nothing sad or sinister could cast its shadows on their souls.

“If everybody were to jump about and run like this,” said Riasantzeff, flushed and breathless, “nine-tenths of the world’s diseases would not exist.”

“Nor the vices either,” added Lialia.

“Well, as regards vice there will always be plenty of that,” observed Ivanoff, and although no one thought such a remark either witty or wise, it provoked hearty laughter.

As they were having tea, it was the sunset hour. The river gleamed like gold, and through the trees fell slanting rays of warm red light.

“Now for the boat!” cried Lida, as, holding up her skirts, she ran down to the riverbank. “Who’ll get there first?”

Some ran after her, while others followed at a more leisurely pace, and amid much laughter they all got into a large painted boat.

“Let her go!” cried Lida, in a merry voice of command. The boat slid away from the shore leaving behind it two broad stripes on the water that disappeared in ripples at the river’s edge.

“Yourii Nicolaijevitch, why are you so silent?” asked Lida.

Yourii smiled. “I’ve got nothing to say.”

“Impossible!” she answered, with a pretty pout, throwing back her head as if she knew that all men thought her irresistible.

“Yourii doesn’t like talking nonsense,” said Semenoff. “He requires.⁠ ⁠…”

“A serious subject, is that it?” exclaimed Lida, interrupting.

“Look! there is a serious subject!” said Sarudine, pointing to the shore.

Where the bank was steep, between the gnarled roots of a rugged oak one could see a narrow aperture, dark and mysterious, which was partially hidden by weeds and grasses.

“What is that?” asked Schafroff, who was unfamiliar with this part of the country.

“A cavern,” replied Ivanoff.

“What sort of cavern?”

“The devil only knows! They say that once it was a coiners’ den. As usual they were all caught. Rather hard lines, wasn’t it?” said Ivanoff.

“Perhaps you’d like to start a business of that sort yourself and manufacture sham twenty-copeck pieces?” asked Novikoff.

“Copecks? Not I! Roubles, my friend, roubles!”

“H⁠—m!” muttered Sarudine, shrugging his shoulders. He did not like Ivanoff, whose jokes to him were unintelligible.

“Yes, they were all caught, and the cave was filled up; it gradually collapsed, and no one ever goes into it now. As a child I often used to creep in there. It is a most interesting place.”

“Interesting? I should rather think so!” exclaimed Lida.

“Victor Sergejevitsch, suppose you go in? You’re one of the brave ones.”

“Why?” asked Sarudine, somewhat perplexed.

“I’ll go!” exclaimed Yourii, blushing to think that the others would accuse him of showing off.

“It’s a wonderful place!” said Ivanoff by way of encouragement.

“Aren’t you going too?” asked Novikoff.

“No, I’d rather stop here!”

At this they all laughed.

The boat drew near the bank and a wave of cold air from the cavern passed over their heads.

“For heaven’s sake, Yourii, don’t do such a silly thing!” said Lialia, trying to dissuade her brother. “It really is silly of you!”

“Silly? Of course it is.” Yourii, smiling, assented. “Semenoff, just give me that candle, will you?”

“Where shall I find it?”

“There is one behind you, in the hamper.”

Semenoff coolly produced the candle.

“Are you really going?” asked a tall girl, magnificently proportioned. Lialia called her Sina, her surname being Karsavina.

“Of course I am. Why not?” replied Yourii, striving to show utter indifference. He recollected having done this when engaged in some of his political adventures. The thought for some reason or other was not an agreeable one.

The entrance to the cavern was damp and dark. “Brrr!” exclaimed Sanine, as he looked in. To him it seemed absurd that Yourii should explore a disagreeable, dangerous place simply because others watched him doing it. Yourii, as self-conscious