The Princess Roubine. A Russian story

Front matter

Class VZf* v-

Book

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Contents

Chapter. Page

I. THE VOW 5

II. FEODOR STEPLINE 87

Chapter I. The Vow

The Prince Roubine was smoking his after-dinner cigar upon the terrace; stretched out in a rocking-chair of bamboo, he rocked himself carelessly as he gazed at the landscape gilded by the evening rays.

Beneath his eyes spread out the gulf ; the right shore was shaded with a light red vapor, in which were barely visible in darker colors the granite masses of the coast of Finland; the blue water swashed gently on the strand at the foot of his garden, the wide avenues of which descended as far as the sea. To the right, the town of

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Peterhof lay in the form of an amphitheater, displaying the factitious animation of towns at the waterside, where people hasten to live during the three months of the summer, the steamboats that run to St. Petersburg were smoking and rumbling beside the long landing, depositing numerous passengers come to hear the music in the imperial gardens or to pass the evening with some friend; elegant uniforms of officers of all the arms were visible upon the quay, the light dresses of the women seemed so many flowers on the dark mass of verdure of the park, and all the exuberance of Russian society life appeared to be collected in this corner of the land.

To the left, the villas thinly sown amid the foliage, the sloping strand that seemed to be stealing away from the clasp of the sea, rested the sight and the mind.

The Prince was blasd in regard to the spectacle of the town, perhaps he was still more so in regard to that of the sea and the landscape; but surely he was not blase in regard to the charm of hot and delicious coffee, of an exquisite cigar, of a comfortable rocking-chair; these were enjoyments, the intensity of which, far from decreasing, seemed to increase with habit; hence he raised himself up m his chair with a little quiver of happiness at the moment when his cup of coffee was placed as if by enchantment within reach of his hand.

“Oh I you bad father, not to say as much as thank you!” cried a joking voice, as a soft, caressing hand was laid on Roubine’s shoulder.

“Is it you, Nadra?” said he, turning around.

“Yes, it is I! Would your coffee be good if it were poured out by another hand than mine?”

The Prince took his daughter’s hand, examined it attentively, turned the rings upon it, then smilingly looked at the pretty face bent over him and answered :

“No, that’s clear! What will they do this evening?”

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“ They are going to hear the music. The program gives plenty of fine promises; the fountains will play and be illuminated with the electric light. In addition a superb concert ”

“Perfectly splendid! Of course we will go?”

“Certainly! I ordered the caliche and the yellow dun horses to be in readiness at nine o’clock.”

“Very well,” carelessly said the happy father. “Sit down, Nadia; you prevent me from seeing a vessel that has arrived at Cronstadt.”

The young girl turned quickly, put her hand above her eyes, that the sun blinded, and gazed at the large craft that, after several skillfully executed maneuvers, stopped before the granite fortress.

A commotion among the boats around took place immediately. The Prince took up a spy glass that never quitted the terrace and watched the distant movement.

“ I can’t make out what the vessel is,” said he, after a moment’s attentive survey.

“ Some German bark,” said his daughter, negligently.

They chatted about this and that for an instant, then Roubine again took up his spy -glass.

“Look now, Nadia,” said he, “a little steam yacht is coming this way ! ”

In truth, an elegant pleasure craft was crossing the gulf and coming under a full head of steam toward Peterhof; the flag floated out behind, sometimes dipping in the blue water, and a flame danced at the top of the mast.

“I’ll wager it’s Korzof!” joyously cried the Prince, “it’s Korzof returning from Germany, He has come by vessel to be at Peterhof on his arrival, and has directed his yacht to be in waiting for him. That’s just like him ! But, Nadia, if it’s Korzof, he’ll be here before a couple of hours have elapsed ! ”

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“ It won’t take him as long as that,” calmly said the young girl, who had turned her back to the gulf.

“ Give him time to arrange his toilet a little,” observed her father.

“He can accomplish that operation on board his yacht,” answered Nadia, in the same cold tone.

“How indifferent you seem I” exclaimed the Prince, as he put clown the spy-glass and looked at his daughter. “I imagined that you had a great deal of friendship for him! ”

“ I have a great deal of friendship for Dmitri Korzof,” replied the young girl; “but mv friendship, as you know, father, does not express itself after the fashion of that of dogs that, barking, make a hundred turns around the object of their tenderness.”

“Yes, I know; you are for concentrated feelings,” said the Prince, with a little irony.

He resumed the spy glass and watched the progress of the yacht, that was approaching rapidly.

“Wait,” said he, “we will soon find out if it is Korzof.”

A tap on a bell placed upon the table summoned a servant. Roubine gave him his orders and descended from the terrace into the flower garden situated a few steps below. From there an opening skillfully contrived among the tree tops of the garden gave a view of a portion of the gulf.

After a few instants a gigantic flag, that bore on a red ground the arms of the Roubines, spread out over the roof of the villa and mounted majestically to the top of the flagstaff.

The report of a small piece of artillery replied to this signal; Nadia could see the white smoke fly from the stern of the yacht, and the flame on the mast mounted and descended again rapidly. In its turn, the princely

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flag descended and mounted again three times, then sank down, like a bird that folds its wings, and disappeared.

u It is he I” joyously cried the Prince. “He answered at once. I presume that he also had his spy-glass leveled upon the terrace. Eh! Nadia?”

Nadia did not answer. The cannon report had brought a slight blush to her pale cheeks. She turned away and picked two roses from a veritably fabulous rose-bush, a special and priceless product of Roubine’s celebrated green-house, transplanted into the flower-garden to charm the sight and the smell for a few days, then to die there and see itself replaced by another.

A caliche drawn by a pair of bay horses, irreproachable in form and bearing, passed rapidly over the highway; the Prince turned in time to catch a glimpse of them, or rather to guess at them, through the grating.

“There goes Korzofs equipage to meet him at the landing-place! It is very amusing! Say, Nadia, the cannon quite likely was not fired for us! It was, perhaps, for his horses ! ”

“If orders had not been given in advance,” answered the young girl in her cold tone, u they would not have had time to harness up so quickly!”

“Ah! quite right!” said the Prince, looking at his daughter out of the corner of his eye.

One of his favorite pastimes consisted in discreetly teasing her, without apparent design, which he did superbly.

“Do you change your toilet to go hear the music?” resumed he, after a short silence, during which Nadia had picked a handful of flowers that she let fall at her feet when she turned to listen to him, keeping in her hand only the two roses.

She glanced at her white batiste dress, covered with lace, and answered with a negative shake of the head.

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“ I dressed myself before dinner,” added she.

“I know, but I thought you had perhaps modified your plans,” continued the Prince, in the same tone of light persiflage.

“ And why, pray?” asked Nadia, looking him full in the face, with a proud light in her beautiful dark gray eyes.

“I adore you, my dear daughter!” said the happy father, drawing her to him to kiss her. “ I am a terrible father ; I would like to know everything.”

“You do know everything!” responded she* with delightful frankness.

“To guess everything, then!” continued Roubine, placing his daughter’s arm in his, — “to guess before you know yourself!”

Nadia lowered her head; the Prince went on:

“I am at once your father and your mother, my dear Nadia; I am afraid of not loving you enough, or of lov ing you ill, or of loving you too much; if your admirable mother were alive, I should rest easy in regard to your happiness; but since we have lost her, we must love each other more in the first place, and then have more confidence still the one in the other. But I am not calculated to attract your confidence, Nadia ”

“Oh! father!” interrupted the young girl, reproachfully, as she bent down to kiss the hand that retained hers.

“I mean that I am too young a father, a trifle given to teasing; that I am not the absolutely serious and patriarchal man who represents the ideal of^a father; I have nothing of the confessor about me, Nadia; I have rather the air of a comrade! What I say is true! In the midst of those young fellows who pay court to you I feel as young as they, and when they pay you a compliment to tell you that you are graceful and witty, I Qften say to

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myself that they do it awkwardly, and that I could do it better, with more grace, and sometimes with more truth. Admit, Nadia, that I am a very singular father! ”

“Not at all!” resumed the young girl, raising towards the Prince her pretty eyes full of filial tenderness; “you are an adorable and an adored father.”

“And you are the most charming of daughters!” replied Roubine, gazing at her with pride.

In truth, Nadia Roubine was one of the most beautiful young ladies of the court. Tall and slender, with that reed-like flexibility which is such a great charm in the Russian young ladies, she proudly bore the thick and heavy crown of dark golden hair that decked her head; her magnificent eves had never lied — when politeness obliged her to restrain herself, they protested in spite of her against this violation of the truth. Her mouth, somewhat large, was of a firm and pure design, and her smile discovered large teeth, a trifle wide apart, but perfect in form and color. With this the young Princess Roubine possessed a natural artistic feeling that made her fear the excess of bad taste in her toilet and all that approached it; hence she lacked neither flatterers nor envious friends.

They had paused upon the terrace, and Nadia was looking at the sea, that, was changing color in the decreasing light of day, when a carriage stopped in front of the villa, and the horses, suddenly checked, made the metal of their curbs dance.

Almost at the same instant Dmitri Korzof appeared in the embrasure of the glazed door that communicated with the terrace.

“How are you, Prince?” said he. “I saw your signal. I have taken the pleasure of coming to thank you ”

He bowed to the young girl, who presented him her hand, and he raised it respectfully to his lips.

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“Returning home after an absence of four months,” said he, “you cannot imagine how the sight of your flag made my heart beat.”

“More than that of the national flag? ” asked the young girl, slightly frowning.

“It was not at all the same thing,” answered the new arrival, with a luminous smile that well became his brave and intelligent countenance. “The Russian flag represented the country j yours, Princess, represented — represented friendship.”

“He did not dare to say the family!” cried the Prince, laughing, while Korzof blushed and Nadia turned away her head with a disconcerted air. “He did not dare because he has a ferocious sister, who is jealous of all his friends! The Countess is still jealous, eh? ”

“Yes, and more than ever,” answered Korzof, also laughing. “But that don’t prevent me, my dear Prince, from loving you like a relative ; in reality, my sister is well aware of this, and is enchanted at it. I need not ask if you are in good health. The sea air agrees with you marvelously, Princess.”

“What assurance to call this the sea!” said Roubine; “ a small arm of the gulf without tides ”

“But not without tempests,” interrupted the young traveler. “Come, Prince, be indulgent, and let the world make the most of what it has. That’s philosophy, isn’t it, Princess?”

Nadia smiled and did not reply.

“You are going to hear the music after awhile?” demanded Roubine, when Korzof was about to quit them.

“Certainly. Had it not been for that I should not have hurried so. I am going home to take a look around and will rejoin you. You are going to hear the music without doubt ? ”

Nadia nodded her head affirmatively. The young

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man bowed to her, grasped her father’s hand, and an instant afterwards the caliche passed before the grating of the garden, the superb horses dashing along at a trot.

Roubine glanced at his daughter out of the corner of his eye ; she seemed very calm ; a slight color tinted her cheeks, ordinarily of a white tone.

“ How do you find him ? ” asked he, taking Nadia’s arm in his.

“ About as usual,” answered she, tranquilly. “ A trifle tanned, but that is natural enough ■ they say that a sea voyage always produces that effect.”

The Prince, disappointed, quitted his daughter’s arm, and took two steps toward the salon.

“ Will you have a little music, father? ” said she, immediately rejoining him.

“ The caliche is at the door,” said a footman upon the threshold of the salon.

Nadia put on a coquettish straw hat, wrapped herself in a slight gold embroidered bournous and entered an elegant low carriage well-known to all the brilliant youth of Peterhof. Her father seated himself beside her and they rolled toward the park, drawn rapidly by two yellow-dun horses, unique in Russia that year and priceless.

The sun was about setting. In those days, the longest of the year, it did not vanish from the horizon until about half-past nine o’clock in the evening. Its last rays of ruddy gold, coloring the cupolas of the palace, threaded a lofty avenue and illuminated the colossal Samson overthrowing the lion that seemed carved from a massive block of gold, in the midst of a vast sheet of water.

Suddenly a hollow gurgle was heard and an enormous mass of water shot toward the sky in a single bound, leaping from the mouth of the monster, then fell back in the shape of a sheaf into the basin. The noise of running water spread throughout the park,

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and the military orchestra placed in front of the chateau amid the flower beds sent forth its first solemn accord.

It was a fete, the repetition of which had surfeited those who were its almost daily witnesses, but Nadia was not surfeited. While living amid luxury such as very few knew, she had preserved a freshness of impressions rare among the young girls of her age and condition. Seated in a chair amid a group of adorers, she was watching the gigantic column of foam and transparent spray launched forth by the gilded lion stand out against the blue sea, against the already pearl-gray sky. In the caprices of the light and of the wave she found a captivating charm that soothed the melancholy of her secret thoughts.

Around her society life was buzzing ; the fair promenaders, amiable and coquettish, had installed themselves to enjoy the freshness of the evening, with the sound of rustling silk which evoked ideas of wealth and comfort; the spurs of the officers of the guard made a sonorous clatter, and the gold-thread tassels resounded against the metal of the scabbards of their swords. The continual roll of carriages, deadened by a thick coat of gravel, seemed like distant thunder; the orchestra continued the overture of “ Euryanthe,” that speaks so beautifully of forests and solitudes, and, without hearing the idle words exchanged around her, Nadia, her eyes lost in the far-off sky, watched the first star come out in the yet bright azure.

She profoundly enjoyed all these exquisite things, the fruit of brilliant civilization; the contrast of an artificial luxury with the imperishable wealth of nature, the rustling of silken garments beneath the almost imperceptible murmur of the tall lindens, the sparkle of the gilded bronze against the opaline half- tint of the sea that formed the background of this magnificent picture

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doubled the power of ber sensations. But, while experiencing the delight of this artistic enjoyment, she could not prevent herself from remembering other pictures; her reading and the general tendency of her mind led her to think of those who toiled obscurely to produce the gold that paid for these pleasures and the materials composing them. Deprived too young of her mother, who would have put more moderation in her teachings, Nadia, educated by an English instructress, a strict observer of the laws of duty and morality, had acquired from her a love of the people, a sympathy with their sufferings that, gradually exaggerated by her naturally enthusiastic tendency, had taken the strength and the empire of a fixed idea.

The good she scattered around her did not satisfy her. During the years of her youth her purse, incessantly filled by her father, had been incessantly emptied into hands more greedy than meritorious, Some disillusions in this path inspired her with a desire of attacking the evil at its source, instead of seeking to weaken it in its effects. Nadia then did like the majority of the rich young girls of her epoch She had in the country her Sunday-school, where the children of the neighboring villages were attracted by the promise of rewards; she was numbered among the founders of a nursery, an orphan asylum, a house of refuge. Her name figured in all the charity lists beside considerable sums. But before reaching her nineteenth year she learned the emptiness of these works, undertaken at great expense by inexperienced women, who expended ten times the sum necessary to do the good desired and only obtained a result sometimes amounting to nothing, always mediocre, from lack of knowing how or wishing to put aside all ruinous and useless ostentation.

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“And you, Princess, are you interested in the new orphan asylum?” asked a voice near her.

She was so far from Peterhof and the flower garden that she could not repress a start.

“Pardon,” said she, recovering herself. “I was think-/ ing of something else. Of what were you speaking?” 7

“ Of the new orphan asylum founded by the Countess Brazof. She has purchased a house in old St. Petersburg there to receive the orphan daughters of workmen. You are interested in it, without doubt?”

“ISTo,” answered Nadia.

“Why? if I may be permitted, Princess, to ask you this question,” resumed the young aide-de-camp who had interrogated her.

“Because all such enterprises finish in the same way. Either they have no orphans, I know not why, or they have no employes because they steal or are incapable, or they have no money because the charitable persons get tired of giving it, seeing that the affair makes no progress. I am not for collective charities.”

A murmur of approbation arose from the group. If Nadia had said exactly the contrary the approval would have been exactly the same. The group consisted of six young officers of the guard, a Major General of thirtyfour and two attaches of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who were absolutely brutalized by the adoration with which the young Princess inspired them.

“You are so good, Princess I” cried the General. “You work more benefits alone by yourself.”

“ Chut!” interrupted the young girl, raising her fan to her lips, “respect the music!”

Nadia’s court immediately fell into profound silence, and everybody endeavored to listen with the most sustained attention to the particular pot-pourri that the military orchestra was executing. Nadia exchanged a jeer-

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ing glance with her father, the confidant of all her mischief, and they stealthily smiled at each other, then resumed the appearance of sang froid.

Two or three ladies approached and chatted an instant with Nadia. The Countess Mazourine, her aunt, seated herself beside her, as she usually did. She was a dame of honor of the defhnct Empress, a woman with a large heart and a very sensible turn of mind, who replaced as much as possible with her niece the mother who died too soon. The conversation continued by fits, according to the caprices of the young girl, who chatted during the morceaux of music that did not please her and ordained silence for the others. The stars were rapidly nd the evening was advanstruck when Korzof approached the group about the spot where the young Princess was enthroned.

“At last!” said Roubine. “I thought you had given us the slip.”

“I have been hunting you for the last half hour. You have changed the place of your sittings, mademoiselle? Formerly — I mean last year — you were to be found much nearer the orchestra.”

“One is better here; it is almost a solitude, and the longer I live the more I love solitude,” replied Nadia.

“It will never be solitude where you are found!” gallantly said the aide-de-camp.

Nadia smiled with a disdainful air and expressed her thanks by a slight nod. Korzof had seated himself in front of her; by the light of these June evenings he could read the young girl’s face as well as in broad day.

“What’s the news?” asked he of his nearest neighbor. “I have been four days without communication with the civilized world. These steamship voyages are almost like a sojourn in prison in that respect.”

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“In prison yon can at least sometimes procure a file to cut away your bars, can you not? ” said Roubine, who had grown gay since the arrival of the young man in their circle.

“Yes, they say so,” resumed Korzof; “and then, moreover, if one is sentenced it is for something, and that occupies one, while on board a ship — ”

“You don’t know what to think about,” said Nadia, raising her head to glance at the young man. “You have nothing in or around you with which to occupy your mind.”

“I ask your pardon, mademoiselle; my mind and heart are full of grave things; but as they are neither encouraging nor encouraged,” added he in a lower tone, “ these thoughts are companions void of gayety. Tell me now what is being done in society; who is dead, born or married?”

“ There are but few deaths to note, and those uninteresting ones,” rejoined the Prince; “no births that I am aware of, but as many marriages as you may want. Olga Rdzine has wedded Bachmakof, Moraline has wedded Mademoiselle Kouref — let me think — Natacha Doubler has w r edded old Serguinof”

“A love match?” demanded Korzof, smiling.

Nadia’s voice was heard, trembling a trifle with anger or emotion.

“ As much on one side as on the other,” said she.

The music paused at that moment; they were far removed from the noisy conversation; the only sound that accompanied her voice was that of the leaping waters that fell back in a shower into the basins.

“Natacha has wedded an old husband because he brings her a fortune, and Serguinof has wedded the young girl because she is handsome, well brought up and will make his home agreeable during his declining years.

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It was a marriage of interest — -the others were the same. They were unions of fortunes, nothing more. Ought not Olga, who has a marriage-portion of a million, to be ashamed of having married Bachmakof, who possesses a million and a half? Are there, then, no longer on the earth young and intelligent men, generous and disinterested girls, that every marriage should be either a trade or a placing of great interests ?’ 7

“Permit me, Princess,” said the Major General, bridling up; “is wealth, in your view, a bar to feelings?”

“That is not what I wish to say,” said Nadia, with some impatience, “and you well know it! When once such couples love, or imagine they love, let them get married. Mon Dieul it’s very natural, and they will do exceedingly well; besides, they have nothing better to do! But what would you have them become afterwards? What future is reserved for them, for those beings who have nothing to do in life save to amuse themselves wherever people indulge in amusement and grow weary at home, when they are alone ? As long as they are young, by dint of dragging themselves reciprocally to the ball, to the theater, to foreign lands, to Karlsbad or to Monaco, they pass the time as well as they can ; then, when they are old, they nurse their gout or their liver complaint. Do you imagine they love each other then, when they are tired of and disgusted with each other? Do you imagine they remember their youth, the time when they believed they loved each other? ”

She shrugged her shoulders with disgust.

“ Nadia,” said her aunt, mildly, “ all marriages are not like those you depict ! ”

“ You are right, aunt ! There are those who separate, because life in common is intolerable to them, or because — But I forget that I am a well-bred damsel and that certain topies of conversation are forbidden to me.”

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“ Nadia!” said her father, with tender reproach.

She was on the point of speaking, when the English horns played a melodious phrase that made her start. She lifted her finger in the air.

“Listen!” said she.

They listened. The phrase unrolled itself with infinite grace and suppleness, running through the orchestra like a ribbon of light that glided across the instrumental woof; then it lost itself, as too often happens, in a noisy and commonplace explosion. Nadia raised her head that she had held lowered in order to hear the better, and her eyes encountered the glance of Korzof.

“Pray, what may be your ideal of marriage, Princess? ” asked he, gently, but in a clear voice.

The young girl looked at him with a sort of defiance.

“I would like,” said she, with more force than she usually employed in simple society conversations, “I would like every human being to have an aim in life — let it be art, poetry, science, no matter what. I would like a man not to content himself with living happily and spending his money, the money that has come to him through the sweat of his peasants, or the toil of his ancestors, in some way or other, satisfied with giving a portion of it to those who have nothing. I would like * him to do something, to be somebody. I would like this to apply to the women as well as the men; the former cannot do it personally, according to the laws of our society! Well, at least let their fortunes be for them the means of doing good. Let each heiress summon to her by marriage a poor and intelligent man. By acting thus she will redeem her original sin — her fortune that puts her in advance in the ranks of the useless! ”

A chorus of disapproval arose around Nadia.

“Oh, Princess! You say this, but you would never do it ! ” cried one of the attaches of the ministry.

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Nadia arose and cast a resolute glance at those who surrounded her.

“I? You do not know me! Well, I swear in the presence of you all, who are my witnesses, that, since Heaven has pleased to make me rich and of high birth, I will wed only a man without fortune ; but by his merit and his talents he must have made for himself an honorable position. I swear it ! ”

She stretched out her right hand toward the sky and the sea to call upon them to witness her oath.

“ Nadia ! ” cried her father, stricken to the heart.

“ I have sworn it, father I ” said the young girl ; “ but if the object of my choice should displease you, you are well aware that I would not act contrary to your wishes ; I would be equal to living and dying beside you without desiring any other happiness.”

The music had come to a close, the crowd was dispersing, and the roll of the carriages had recommenced. The waters had ceased to make themselves heard, and silence reigned beneath the tall trees.

“Princess,” said Korzof, in a low tone, “I have something to say to you; will you deign to accord me a moment’s interview? ”

“ Whenever you please,” said Nadia, her eyes yet filled with a proud flame.