You
know nothing of all this, we are as strangers.... Yes, I have been
with Arina. Soon I shall have a son. I do not know if I am broken or
merely tired, but for the moment I feel all right. I am going to
bring Arina here, she will be my wife and keep house for me. And I
shall live.... I am keeping step with some elemental Force . . . I
shall have a son.... It will be a totally different life for me,
Lida."
"And for me Moscow--as ever--wine, theatres, cafes, Mintz, an eternal
hurly-burly ... I am sick of it!"
"I cannot help you, Lida. I too am sick of all that, but now I am at
peace. We must all work out our own salvation."
Ivanov spoke very quietly and simply. Lydia Constantinovna sat bowed
and motionless, as if fearing to move, clasping her knees with both
hands. When Ivanov ceased speaking she rose noiselessly and went
towards the door. She stood on the threshold a brief moment then,
went out. The candle still burnt fitfully in the drawing-room. The
house was wrapt in silence.
THE BIELOKONSKY ESTATE
Ivan Koloturov, President of the Bielokonsky Committee of the Poor,
had ploughed his tiny holding for twenty years. He always rose before
dawn and worked--dug, harrowed, threshed, planed, repaired--with his
huge, strong, pock-marked hands; he could only use his muscular
strength.
On rising in the morning, he prepared his hash of potatoes and bread,
and went out of the hut to work--on the land, with cattle, with wood,
stone and iron.
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