CHAPTER V
In Moscow Raisky spent his time partly in the University, partly in theKremlin gardens. In the evening he sat in the club with his friends,hot-headed, good-hearted individuals. Every one of them made a greatto-do, and confidently expected a great future.
At the University, as at school, Raisky paid little attention to therules of grammar, but observed intently the professor and the students.But as soon as the lecture touched actual life and brought living men,Romans, Germans or Russians on the scene, whether in history orliterature, he involuntarily gave the lecturer his attention, and thepersonages and their doings became real to him.
In his second year he made friends with a poor student named Koslov, theson of a deacon, who had been sent first of all to a seminary, but hadtaught himself Latin and Greek at home, and thus gained admission to theGymnasium. He zealously studied the life of antiquity, but understoodnothing of the life going on around him. Raisky felt himself drawn tothis young man, at first because of his loneliness, his reserve,simplicity and kindness; later he discovered in him passion, the sacredfire, profundity of comprehension and austerity of thought and delicacyof perception--in all that pertained to antiquity. Koslov on his sidewas devoted to Raisky, whose vivacious temperament could not bepermanently bound by anything. The outcome was the great gift of anintimate friendship.
In summer Raisky liked to explore the neighbourhood of Moscow. Heexplored old convents, examined their dark recesses, the blackenedpictures of the saints and martyrs; his imagination interpreted oldRussia for him better than the lectures of his professors.
The tsars, monks, warriors and statesmen of the past filed before him asthey lived and moved. Moscow seemed to him to be a miniature tsardom.Here was conflict, here the death punishment was carried out; he sawTatars, Cossacks of the Don. The varied life attracted him.
In spite of obstacles he passed from one course to another at theUniversity. He was helped by the reputation for talent he had won bycertain poems and essays, the subjects of which were drawn from Russianhistory.
"Which service do you mean to enter?" the Dean asked him one day. "In aweek's time you will be leaving the University. What are you going todo?"
Raisky was silent.
"What profession have you selected?"
Raisky almost answered that he meant to be an artist, but he rememberedin time the reception that this proposition had received from hisguardian and his aunt. "I shall write verses," he answered in a low tone.
"But that is not a profession. You may write verses and yet...."
"Stories too."
"Naturally, you can write stories as well. You have talent and means todevelop it. But what profession--profession, I asked."
"For the moment I shall enter the Guards, later on the Civil Service--Imean to be a barrister, a governor...."
The Dean smiled. "You begin by being an ensign, that is comprehensible.You and Leonid Koslov are exceptions; every other man has made hisdecision."
When Koslov was asked his intentions he replied that he would like to bea schoolmaster somewhere in the interior, and from this intention herefused to be turned aside.
Raisky moved among the golden youth of St. Petersburg society, first asyoung officer, then as bureaucrat, fulfilled his duties in devotion tothe beauty of many an Armide, suffering to some degree, and gaining someexperience in the process. After a time his dreams and his artisticconsciousness revived. He seemed to see the Volga flowing between itssteep banks, the shady garden, and the wooded precipice. He abandonedthe Civil Service in its turn to enter the Academy of Arts. Hiseducation would never be finished, but he was determined to be acreative artist. His aunt scolded him by letter for having left theGuards; his guardian advised him to seek a position in the Senate, andsent him letters of recommendation.
But Raisky did not enter the Senate, but indolently pursued his artisticstudies, read a great deal, wrote poems and prose, danced, went intosociety and to the theatre, indulged in wild dissipation, and at thesame time did some musical composition, and drew a portrait of a lady.He would spend one week in dissipation and the next in diligent study atthe Academy. Life knocked at the door and tore him from his artist'sdreams to a dissolute existence of alternating pleasure and boredom.
The universal summer exodus from the capital had driven him abroad. Butone day when he came home he found two letters awaiting him, one fromTatiana Markovna, the other from his comrade at the University, LeonidKoslov, who had been installed in Raisky's native place as a master inthe Gymnasium.
During all these years his aunt had often written to him, and sent himstatements of accounts. His answers were short but affectionate; theaccounts he tore up without having even looked at them.
"Is it not a sin," she wrote, "to forget an old woman like me, when I amall the family you have? But in these days it seems that old people have,in the judgment of youth, become superfluous. But I have not evenleisure to die; I have two grown-up nieces, and until their future issettled to my satisfaction, I shall pray God to spare my life--and thenHis will be done. I do not complain that you forget me. But if I werenot here my little girls, your sisters, would be alone. You are theirnext of kin and their natural protector. Think, too, of the estate. I amold, and can no longer be your bailiff. To whom do you intend to entrustthe estate? The place will be ruined and the estate dissipated. Itbreaks my heart to think that your family silver, bronzes, pictures,diamonds, lace, china and glass will come into the hands of the servants,or the Jews, or the usurers. So long as your Grandmother lives, you maybe sure that not a thread goes astray, but after that I can give noguarantee. And my two nieces, what is to become of them? Vera is a good,sensible, but retiring girl, and does not concern herself with domesticmatters at all. Marfinka will be a splendid manager, but she is stillyoung; although she ought to have been married before now, she is stillsuch a child in her ideas, thank God! She will mature with experience,and meantime I shelter her. She appreciates this and does nothingagainst her Grandmother's will, for which may God reward her. In thehouse she is a great help, but I do not let her do anything on theestate; that is no work for a young girl.
"Do not defer your coming, but gladden your Grandmother's heart. She isdevoted to you, not merely because of the relationship, but from herheart. You were conscious of the sympathy between us when you were achild. I don't know what you are in manhood, but you were then a goodnephew. Come, if only to see your sisters, and perhaps happiness willreward your coming. If God grants me the joy of seeing you married andlaying the estate in your hands I shall die happy. Marry, Borushka; youare long since of an age to do so. Then my little girls will still havea home. So long as you remain unmarried they cannot live in your house.Marry, please your Grandmother, and God will not forsake you. I waityour coming; let me know when to expect you.
"Tiet Nikonich desires to be remembered to you. He has aged, but isstill hale and hearty, he has the same smile, still talks well and hassuch pleasant manners that none of the young dandies can hold a candleto him. Bring him, please, a vest and hose of Samian leather; it is wornnow, I hear, as a specific against rheumatism. It will be a surprise forhim. I enclose the account for the last two years. Accept my blessing."