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

Shyly at first, and then in noisy haste, the people entered the lecture-room. Yourii scrutinized them closely; his keen interest as a propagandist was roused. There were old folk, young men, and children. No one sat in the front row; but, later on, it was filled by several ladies whom Yourii did not know; by the fat school-inspector; and by masters and mistresses of the elementary school for boys and girls. The rest of the room was full of men in caftans and long coats, soldiers, peasants, women, and a great many children in coloured shirts and frocks.

Yourii sat beside Sina at a desk and listened while Schafroff read, calmly, but badly, a paper on universal suffrage. He had a hard, monotonous voice and everything he read sounded like a column of statistics. Yet everybody listened attentively with the exception of the intellectual people in the front row, who soon grew restless and began whispering to each other. This annoyed Yourii, and he felt sorry that Schafroff should read so badly. The latter was obviously tired, so Yourii said to Sina:

“Suppose I finish reading it for him? What do you say?”

Sina shot a kindly glance at him from beneath her drooping eyelashes.

“Oh! yes, do read! I wish you would.”

“Do you think it will matter?” he whispered, smiling at her as if she were his accomplice.

“Matter? Not in the least. Everybody will be delighted.”

During a pause, she suggested this to Schafroff, who being tired and aware how badly he had read, accepted with pleasure.

“Of course! By all means!” he exclaimed, as usual, giving up his place to Yourii.

Yourii was fond of reading, and read excellently. Without looking at anyone, he walked to the desk on the platform and began in a loud, well modulated voice. Twice he looked down at Sina, and each time he encountered her bright, expressive glance. He smiled at her in pleasure and confusion, and then, turning to his book, began to read louder and with greater emphasis. To him it seemed as if he were doing a most excellent and interesting thing. When he had finished, there was some applause in the front seats. Yourii bowed gravely, and as he left the platform he smiled at Sina as much as to say, “I did that for your sake.” There was some murmuring, and a noise of chairs being pushed back as the listeners rose to go. Yourii was introduced to two ladies who complimented him on his performance. Then the lamps were put out and the room became dark.

“Thank you very much,” said Schafroff as he warmly shook Yourii’s hand. “I wish that we always had someone to read to us like that.”

Lecturing was his business, and so he felt obliged to Yourii as if the latter had done him a personal service, although he thanked him in the name of the people. Schafroff laid stress on the word “people.” “So little is done here for the people,” he said, as if he were telling Yourii a great secret, “and if anything is done, it is in a halfhearted, careless way. It is most extraordinary. To amuse a parcel of bored gentlefolk dozens of first-rate actors, singers and lecturers are engaged, but for the people a lecturer like myself is quite good enough.” Schafroff smiled at his own bland irony. “Everybody’s quite satisfied. What more do they want?”

“That is quite true,” said Dubova. “Whole columns in the newspapers are devoted to actors and their wonderful performances; it is positively revolting; whereas here⁠ ⁠…”

“Yet what a good work we’re doing!” said Schafroff, with conviction, as he gathered his pamphlets together.

“Sancta Simplicitas!” ejaculated Yourii inwardly.

Sina’s presence, however, and his own success inclined him to be tolerant. Indeed Schafroff’s utter ingenuousness almost touched him.

“Where shall we go now?” asked Dubova, as they came out into the street.

Outside it was not nearly so dark as in the lecture-room, and in the sky a few stars shone.

“Schafroff and I are going to the Ratoffs,” said Dubova. “Will you take Sina home?”

“With pleasure,” said Yourii.

Sina lodged with Dubova in a small house that stood in a large, barren-looking garden. All the way thither she and Yourii talked of the lecture and its impression upon them, so that Yourii felt more and more convinced that he had done a good and great thing. As they reached the house, Sina said:

“Won’t you come in for a moment?” Yourii gladly accepted. She opened the gate, and they crossed a little grass-grown courtyard beyond which lay the garden.

“Go into the garden, will you?” said Sina, laughing. “I would ask you to come indoors, but I am afraid things are rather untidy, as I have been out ever since the morning.”

She went in, and Yourii sauntered towards the green, fragrant garden. He did not go far, but stopped to look round with intense curiosity at the dark windows of the house, as if something were happening there, something strangely beautiful and mysterious. Sina appeared in the doorway. Yourii hardly recognized her. She had changed her black dress, and now wore the costume of Little Russia, a thin bodice cut low, with short sleeves and a blue skirt.

“Here I am!” she said, smiling.

“So I see!” replied Yourii with a certain mysterious emphasis that she alone could appreciate.

She smiled once more, and looked sideways, as they walked along the garden-path between long grasses and branches of lilac. The trees were small ones, most of them being cherry-trees, whose young leaves had an odour of resinous gum. Behind the garden there was a meadow where wild flowers bloomed amid the long grass.

“Let us sit down here,” said Sina.

They sat down by the, fence that was falling to pieces, and looked across the meadow at the dying sunset. Yourii caught hold of a slender lilac-branch, from which fell a shower of dew.

“Shall I sing something to you?” asked Sina.

“Oh! yes, do!” replied Yourii.

As on the evening of the picnic, Sina breathed deeply, and her comely bust was clearly denned