The Schoolmaster and other stories - Penn State University

The Schoolmaster & other storiesto much talk as a rule, and was fond of the fiddle, perhapsbecause one could be silent while playing. At eleveno’clock when he was about to go home and had put onhis greatcoat, he embraced Nadya and began greedilykissing her face, her shoulders, and her hands.“My dear, my sweet, my charmer,” he muttered. “Ohhow happy I am! I am beside myself with rapture!”And it seemed to her as though she had heard thatlong, long ago, or had read it somewhere … in some oldtattered novel thrown away long ago. In the dining-roomSasha was sitting at the table drinking tea with the saucerpoised on his five long fingers; Granny was layingout patience; Nina Ivanovna was reading. The flamecrackled in the ikon lamp and everything, it seemed,was quiet and going well. Nadya said good-night, wentupstairs to her room, got into bed and fell asleep at once.But just as on the night before, almost before it waslight, she woke up. She was not sleepy, there was anuneasy, oppressive feeling in her heart. She sat up withher head on her knees and thought of her fiancé and hermarriage…. She for some reason remembered that hermother had not loved her father and now had nothingand lived in complete dependence on her mother-in-law,Granny. And however much Nadya pondered she couldnot imagine why she had hitherto seen in her mothersomething special and exceptional, how it was she hadnot noticed that she was a simple, ordinary, unhappywoman.And Sasha downstairs was not asleep, she could hearhim coughing. He is a queer, naïve man, thought Nadya,and in all his dreams, in all those marvellous gardensand wonderful fountains one felt there was somethingabsurd. But for some reason in his naïveté, in this veryabsurdity there was something so beautiful that as soonas she thought of the possibility of going to the university,it sent a cold thrill through her heart and her bosomand flooded them with joy and rapture.“But better not think, better not think …” she whispered.“I must not think of it.”“Tick-tock,” tapped the watchman somewhere faraway. “Tick-tock … tick-tock….”40