Under Western Eyes — Pt. 1, Ch. 2, Sec. 2
With something resembling anguish he said to himself-- “I want to be understood.
” The universal aspiration with all its profound and melancholy meaning assailed heavily Razumov, who, amongst eighty millions of his kith and kin, had no heart to which he could open himself.
The attorney was not to be thought of.
He despised the little agent of chicane too much.
One could not go and lay one’s conscience before the policeman at the corner.
Neither was Razumov anxious to go to the chief of his district’s police--a common-looking person whom he used to see sometimes in the street in a shabby uniform and with a smouldering cigarette stuck to his lower lip.
“He would begin by locking me up most probably.
At any rate, he is certain to get excited and create an awful commotion,” thought Razumov practically.
An act of conscience must be done with outward dignity.
Razumov longed desperately for a word of advice, for moral support.
Who knows what true loneliness is--not the conventional word, but the naked terror?
To the lonely themselves it wears a mask.
The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.
Now and then a fatal conjunction of events may lift the veil for an instant.
For an instant only.
No human being could bear a steady view of moral solitude without going mad.
Razumov had reached that point of vision.
To escape from it he embraced for a whole minute the delirious purpose of rushing to his lodgings and flinging himself on his knees by the side of the bed with the dark figure stretched on it; to pour out a full confession in passionate words that would stir the whole being of that man to its innermost depths; that would end in embraces and tears; in an incredible fellowship of souls--such as the world had never seen.
It was sublime!
Inwardly he wept and trembled already.
But to the casual eyes that were cast upon him he was aware that he appeared as a tranquil student in a cloak, out for a leisurely stroll.
He noted, too, the sidelong, brilliant glance of a pretty woman--with a delicate head, and covered in the hairy skins of wild beasts down to her feet, like a frail and beautiful savage--which rested for a moment with a sort of mocking tenderness on the deep abstraction of that good-looking young man.
Suddenly Razumov stood still.
The glimpse of a passing grey whisker, caught and lost in the same instant, had evoked the complete image of Prince K---, the man who once had pressed his hand as no other man had pressed it--a faint but lingering pressure like a secret sign, like a half-unwilling caress.
And Razumov marvelled at himself.
Why did he not think of him before!
“A senator, a dignitary, a great personage, the very man--He!
” A strange softening emotion came over Razumov--made his knees shake a little.
He repressed it with a new-born austerity.
All that sentiment was pernicious nonsense.
He couldn’t be quick enough; and when he got into a sledge he shouted to the driver--“to the K--- Palace.
Get on--you!
Fly!
” The startled moujik, bearded up to the very whites of his eyes, answered obsequiously-- “I hear, your high Nobility.
” It was lucky for Razumov that Prince K--- was not a man of timid character.
On the day of Mr. de P---‘s murder an extreme alarm and despondency prevailed in the high official spheres.
Prince K---, sitting sadly alone in his study, was told by his alarmed servants that a mysterious young man had forced his way into the hall, refused to tell his name and the nature of his business, and would not move from there till he had seen his Excellency in private.
Instead of locking himself up and telephoning for the police, as nine out of ten high personages would have done that evening, the Prince gave way to curiosity and came quietly to the door of his study.
In the hall, the front door standing wide open, he recognised at once Razumov, pale as death, his eyes blazing, and surrounded by perplexed lackeys.
The Prince was vexed beyond measure, and even indignant.
But his humane instincts and a subtle sense of self-respect could not allow him to let this young man be thrown out into the street by base menials.
He retreated unseen into his room, and after a little rang his bell.
Razumov heard in the hall an ominously raised harsh voice saying somewhere far away-- “Show the gentleman in here.
” Razumov walked in without a tremor.
He felt himself invulnerable--raised far above the shallowness of common judgment.
Though he saw the Prince looking at him with black displeasure, the lucidity of his mind, of which he was very conscious, gave him an extraordinary assurance.
He was not asked to sit down.
Half an hour later they appeared in the hall together.
The lackeys stood up, and the Prince, moving with difficulty on his gouty feet, was helped into his furs.
The carriage had been ordered before.
When the great double door was flung open with a crash, Razumov, who had been standing silent with a lost gaze but with every faculty intensely on the alert, heard the Prince’s voice-- “Your arm, young man.
” The mobile, superficial mind of the ex-Guards officer, man of showy missions, experienced in nothing but the arts of gallant intrigue and worldly success, had been equally impressed by the more obvious difficulties of such a situation and by Razumov’s quiet dignity in stating them.
He had said, “No. Upon the whole I can’t condemn the step you ventured to take by coming to me with your story.
It is not an affair for police understrappers.
The greatest importance is attached to....
Set your mind at rest.
I shall see you through this most extraordinary and difficult situation.
” Then the Prince rose to ring the bell, and Razumov, making a short bow, had said with deference-- “I have trusted my instinct.
A young man having no claim upon anybody in the world has in an hour of trial involving his deepest political convictions turned to an illustrious Russian--that’s all.
” The Prince had exclaimed hastily-- “You have done well.
” In the carriage--it was a small brougham on sleigh runners--Razumov broke the silence in a voice that trembled slightly.
“My gratitude surpasses the greatness of my presumption.
” He gasped, feeling unexpectedly in the dark a momentary pressure on his arm.
“You have done well,” repeated the Prince.
When the carriage stopped the Prince murmured to Razumov, who had never ventured a single question-- “The house of General T---.
” In the middle of the snow-covered roadway blazed a great bonfire.
Some Cossacks, the bridles of their horses over the arm, were warming themselves around.
Two sentries stood at the door, several gendarmes lounged under the great carriage gateway, and on the first-floor landing two orderlies rose and stood at attention.
Razumov walked at the Prince’s elbow.
A surprising quantity of hot-house plants in pots cumbered the floor of the ante-room.
Servants came forward.
A young man in civilian clothes arrived hurriedly, was whispered to, bowed low, and exclaiming zealously, “Certainly--this minute,” fled within somewhere.
The Prince signed to Razumov.
They passed through a suite of reception-rooms all barely lit and one of them prepared for dancing.
The wife of the General had put off her party.
An atmosphere of consternation pervaded the place.
But the General’s own room, with heavy sombre hangings, two massive desks, and deep armchairs, had all the lights turned on.
The footman shut the door behind them and they waited.
There was a coal fire in an English grate; Razumov had never before seen such a fire; and the silence of the room was like the silence of the grave; perfect, measureless, for even the clock on the mantelpiece made no sound.
Filling a corner, on a black pedestal, stood a quarter-life-size smooth-limbed bronze of an adolescent figure, running.
The Prince observed in an undertone-- “Spontini’s. ‘Flight of Youth.
’ Exquisite.
” “Admirable,” assented Razumov faintly.
They said nothing more after this, the Prince silent with his grand air, Razumov staring at the statue.
He was worried by a sensation resembling the gnawing of hunger.
He did not turn when he heard an inner door fly open, and a quick footstep, muffled on the carpet.
The Prince’s voice immediately exclaimed, thick with excitement-- “We have got him--_ce miserable_.
A worthy young man came to me--No!
It’s incredible....
” Razumov held his breath before the bronze as if expecting a crash.
Behind his back a voice he had never heard before insisted politely-- “_Asseyez-vous donc_.
” The Prince almost shrieked, “_Mais comprenez-vous, mon cher!
L’assassin_!
the murderer--we have got him....
” Razumov spun round.
The General’s smooth big cheeks rested on the stiff collar of his uniform.
He must have been already looking at Razumov, because that last saw the pale blue eyes fastened on him coldly.
The Prince from a chair waved an impressive hand.
“This is a most honourable young man whom Providence itself...
Mr. Razumov.
” The General acknowledged the introduction by frowning at Razumov, who did not make the slightest movement.
Sitting down before his desk the General listened with compressed lips.
It was impossible to detect any sign of emotion on his face.
Razumov watched the immobility of the fleshy profile.
But it lasted only a moment, till the Prince had finished; and when the General turned to the providential young man, his florid complexion, the blue, unbelieving eyes and the bright white flash of an automatic smile had an air of jovial, careless cruelty.
He expressed no wonder at the extraordinary story--no pleasure or excitement--no incredulity either.
He betrayed no sentiment whatever.
Only with a politeness almost deferential suggested that “the bird might have flown while Mr. --Mr. Razumov was running about the streets.
” Razumov advanced to the middle of the room and said, “The door is locked and I have the key in my pocket.
” His loathing for the man was intense.
It had come upon him so unawares that he felt he had not kept it out of his voice.
The General looked up at him thoughtfully, and Razumov grinned.
All this went over the head of Prince K--- seated in a deep armchair, very tired and impatient.
“A student called Haldin,” said the General thoughtfully.
Razumov ceased to grin.
“That is his name,” he said unnecessarily loud.
“Victor Victorovitch Haldin--a student.
” The General shifted his position a little.
“How is he dressed?
Would you have the goodness to tell me?
” Razumov angrily described Haldin’s clothing in a few jerky words.
The General stared all the time, then addressing the Prince-- “We were not without some indications,” he said in French.
“A good woman who was in the street described to us somebody wearing a dress of the sort as the thrower of the second bomb.
We have detained her at the Secretariat, and every one in a Tcherkess coat we could lay our hands on has been brought to her to look at.
She kept on crossing herself and shaking her head at them.
It was exasperating....
” He turned to Razumov, and in Russian, with friendly reproach-- “Take a chair, Mr. Razumov--do.
Why are you standing?
” Razumov sat down carelessly and looked at the General.
“This goggle-eyed imbecile understands nothing,” he thought.
The Prince began to speak loftily.
“Mr. Razumov is a young man of conspicuous abilities.
I have it at heart that his future should not....
” “Certainly,” interrupted the General, with a movement of the hand.
“Has he any weapons on him, do you think, Mr. Razumov?
” The General employed a gentle musical voice.
Razumov answered with suppressed irritation-- “No. But my razors are lying about--you understand.
” The General lowered his head approvingly.
“Precisely.
” Then to the Prince, explaining courteously-- “We want that bird alive.
It will be the devil if we can’t make him sing a little before we are done with him.
” The grave-like silence of the room with its mute clock fell upon the polite modulations of this terrible phrase.
The Prince, hidden in the chair, made no sound.
The General unexpectedly developed a thought.
“Fidelity to menaced institutions on which depend the safety of a throne and of a people is no child’s play.
We know that, _mon Prince,_ and--_tenez_--” he went on with a sort of flattering harshness, “Mr. Razumov here begins to understand that too.
” His eyes which he turned upon Razumov seemed to be starting out of his head.
This grotesqueness of aspect no longer shocked Razumov.
He said with gloomy conviction-- “Haldin will never speak.
” “That remains to be seen,” muttered the General.
“I am certain,” insisted Razumov.
“A man like this never speaks....
Do you imagine that I am here from fear?
” he added violently.
He felt ready to stand by his opinion of Haldin to the last extremity.
“Certainly not,” protested the General, with great simplicity of tone.
“And I don’t mind telling you, Mr. Razumov, that if he had not come with his tale to such a staunch and loyal Russian as you, he would have disappeared like a stone in the water...
which would have had a detestable effect,” he added, with a bright, cruel smile under his stony stare.
“So you see, there can be no suspicion of any fear here.
” The Prince intervened, looking at Razumov round the back of the armchair.
“Nobody doubts the moral soundness of your action.
Be at ease in that respect, pray.
” He turned to the General uneasily.
“That’s why I am here.
You may be surprised why I should....
” The General hastened to interrupt.
“Not at all.
Extremely natural.
You saw the importance....
” “Yes,” broke in the Prince.
“And I venture to ask insistently that mine and Mr. Razumov’s intervention should not become public.
He is a young man of promise--of remarkable aptitudes.
” “I haven’t a doubt of it,” murmured the General.
“He inspires confidence.
” “All sorts of pernicious views are so widespread nowadays--they taint such unexpected quarters--that, monstrous as it seems, he might suffer his studies...
his...
” The General, with his elbows on the desk, took his head between his hands.
“Yes.
Yes.
I am thinking it out....
How long is it since you left him at your rooms, Mr. Razumov?
” Razumov mentioned the hour which nearly corresponded with the time of his distracted flight from the big slum house.
He had made up his mind to keep Ziemianitch out of the affair completely.
To mention him at all would mean imprisonment for the “bright soul,” perhaps cruel floggings, and in the end a journey to Siberia in chains.
Razumov, who had beaten Ziemianitch, felt for him now a vague, remorseful tenderness.
The General, giving way for the first time to his secret sentiments, exclaimed contemptuously-- “And you say he came in to make you this confidence like this--for nothing--_a propos des bottes_.
” Razumov felt danger in the air.
The merciless suspicion of despotism had spoken openly at last.
Sudden fear sealed Razumov’s lips.
The silence of the room resembled now the silence of a deep dungeon, where time does not count, and a suspect person is sometimes forgotten for ever.
But the Prince came to the rescue.
“Providence itself has led the wretch in a moment of mental aberration to seek Mr. Razumov on the strength of some old, utterly misinterpreted exchange of ideas--some sort of idle speculative conversation--months ago--I am told--and completely forgotten till now by Mr. Razumov.
” “Mr. Razumov,” queried the General meditatively, after a short silence, “do you often indulge in speculative conversation?
” “No, Excellency,” answered Razumov, coolly, in a sudden access of self-confidence.
“I am a man of deep convictions.
Crude opinions are in the air.
They are not always worth combating.
But even the silent contempt of a serious mind may be misinterpreted by headlong utopists.
” The General stared from between his hands.
Prince K--- murmured-- “A serious young man.
_Un esprit superieur_.
” “I see that, _mon cher Prince_,” said the General.
“Mr. Razumov is quite safe with me.
I am interested in him.
He has, it seems, the great and useful quality of inspiring confidence.
What I was wondering at is why the other should mention anything at all--I mean even the bare fact alone--if his object was only to obtain temporary shelter for a few hours.
For, after all, nothing was easier than to say nothing about it unless, indeed, he were trying, under a crazy misapprehension of your true sentiments, to enlist your assistance--eh, Mr. Razumov?
” It seemed to Razumov that the floor was moving slightly.
This grotesque man in a tight uniform was terrible.
It was right that he should be terrible.
“I can see what your Excellency has in your mind.
But I can only answer that I don’t know why.
” “I have nothing in my mind,” murmured the General, with gentle surprise.
“I am his prey--his helpless prey,” thought Razumov.
The fatigues and the disgusts of that afternoon, the need to forget, the fear which he could not keep off, reawakened his hate for Haldin.
“Then I can’t help your Excellency.
I don’t know what he meant.
I only know there was a moment when I wished to kill him.
There was also a moment when I wished myself dead.
I said nothing.
I was overcome.
I
provoked no confidence--I asked for no explanations--” Razumov seemed beside himself; but his mind was lucid.
It was really a calculated outburst.
“It is rather a pity,” the General said, “that you did not.
Don’t you know at all what he means to do?
” Razumov calmed down and saw an opening there.
“He told me he was in hopes that a sledge would meet him about half an hour after midnight at the seventh lamp-post on the left from the upper end of Karabelnaya.
At any rate, he meant to be there at that time.
He did not even ask me for a change of clothes.
” “_Ah voila_!
” said the General, turning to Prince K with an air of satisfaction.
“There is a way to keep your _protege_, Mr. Razumov, quite clear of any connexion with the actual arrest.
We shall be ready for that gentleman in Karabelnaya.
” The Prince expressed his gratitude.
There was real emotion in his voice.
Razumov, motionless, silent, sat staring at the carpet.
The General turned to him.
“Half an hour after midnight.
Till then we have to depend on you, Mr. Razumov.
You don’t think he is likely to change his purpose?
” “How can I tell?
” said Razumov.
“Those men are not of the sort that ever changes its purpose.
” “What men do you mean?
” “Fanatical lovers of liberty in general.
Liberty with a capital L, Excellency.
Liberty that means nothing precise.
Liberty in whose name crimes are committed.
” The General murmured-- “I detest rebels of every kind.
I can’t help it.
It’s my nature!
” He clenched a fist and shook it, drawing back his arm.
“They shall be destroyed, then.
” “They have made a sacrifice of their lives beforehand,” said Razumov with malicious pleasure and looking the General straight in the face.
“If Haldin does change his purpose to-night, you may depend on it that it will not be to save his life by flight in some other way.
He would have thought then of something else to attempt.
But that is not likely.
” The General repeated as if to himself, “They shall be destroyed.
” Razumov assumed an impenetrable expression.
The Prince exclaimed-- “What a terrible necessity!
” The General’s arm was lowered slowly.
“One comfort there is.
That brood leaves no posterity.
I’ve always said it, one effort, pitiless, persistent, steady--and we are done with them for ever.
” Razumov thought to himself that this man entrusted with so much arbitrary power must have believed what he said or else he could not have gone on bearing the responsibility.
“I detest rebels.
These subversive minds!
These intellectual _debauches_!
My existence has been built on fidelity.
It’s a feeling.
To defend it I am ready to lay down my life--and even my honour--if that were needed.
But pray tell me what honour can there be as against rebels--against people that deny God Himself--perfect unbelievers!
Brutes.
It is horrible to think of.
” During this tirade Razumov, facing the General, had nodded slightly twice.
Prince K---, standing on one side with his grand air, murmured, casting up his eyes-- “_Helas!
_” Then lowering his glance and with great decision declared-- “This young man, General, is perfectly fit to apprehend the bearing of your memorable words.
” The General’s whole expression changed from dull resentment to perfect urbanity.
“I would ask now, Mr. Razumov,” he said, “to return to his home.
Note that I don’t ask Mr. Razumov whether he has justified his absence to his guest.
No doubt he did this sufficiently.
But I don’t ask.
Mr. Razumov inspires confidence.
It is a great gift.
I only suggest that a more prolonged absence might awaken the criminal’s suspicions and induce him perhaps to change his plans.
”
