Home of the Gentry (Translated by Richard Freeborn 1970) by Ivan Turgenev

Author:Ivan Turgenev [Turgenev, Ivan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature
ISBN: 9781101492901
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 1859-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

XXVI

TWO days later Marya Dmitrievna, according to her promise, arrived in Vasilyevskoye with all her young people. The little girls at once ran into the garden, while Marya Dmitrievna made a languid tour of the rooms and languidly praised everything. Her visit to Lavretsky she regarded as a mark of her great condescension, almost as an act of virtue. She graciously smiled when Anton and Apraxia, in the old-fashioned house-serf style, kissed her hand, and in a limp voice, nasally, asked if she might have some tea. To the profound annoyance of Anton, who had put on white knitted gloves for the occasion, tea was poured for the lady visitor not by him but by Lavretsky’s hired man who had no understanding, in the old man’s words, of the proper order of things. However, he came into his own at lunch-time: with a firm step he took his place by Marya Dmitrievna’s chair and would not surrender his place to anyone. The long unfamiliar arrival of guests at Vasilyevskoye both alarmed and delighted the old man: it pleased him to see that people of such good standing knew his master. Yet he was not the only one to be excited that day: Lemm was also excited. He had put on a short tobacco-coloured swallow-tail coat and tied his neck-tie tightly round his neck, and he ceaselessly cleared his throat and made way for people with a pleasantly welcoming expression. Lavretsky noted with satisfaction that the intimacy between him and Liza was continuing: as soon as she had entered the house she had amicably offered him her hand. After the meal Lemm extracted from the rear pocket of his coat, where he had from time to time been putting his hand, a small rolled-up sheet of music and, pursing his lips, silently laid it on the piano. It was a romance, composed by him the previous day to old-fashioned German words which made mention of the stars. Liza at once sat down at the piano and started to play. Alas! the music turned out to be involved and unpleasantly strained; it was apparent that the composer had striven to express something passionate and profound, but nothing had come of it: the striving remained striving and nothing more. Lavretsky and Liza both felt this – and Lemm understood: without a word, he replaced his romance in his pocket and, in response to Liza’s proposal that he should play it over again, simply gave a shake of the head, said significantly: ‘Now – that’s all!’, hunched his shoulders, cringed into himself and left the room.

In the afternoon everyone went fishing. In the pond at the bottom of the garden there were many carp and roach. Marya Dmitrievna was esconced in an armchair beside the bank, in a shady part, a rug was spread at her feet and she was given the best fishing-rod; Anton, as an old and experienced fisherman, offered her his services. He assiduously baited the hook with worms, slapped them

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