The Schoolmaster

financial law and I have chosen as the subject of my dissertation - the Past and Future of the Dog Licence. I nee

he little balcony to set to work on my dissertation. I take a clean sheet of paper, dip

may deduce from some allusions in Herodotus and Xenophon

below a young lady with a long face and a long waist. Her name, I believe, is Nadenka or Varenka, it really d

ber that song fu

ntinue, but the young lady pretends to have just

t a misfortune I have had! I went for a walk yes

ertation, I trim up the tail of the letter "g"

see me home? The Karelins have such a huge

and go down to her. Nadenka (or Varenka) takes my

vy cloak hanging on it. Nadenka (or Varenka), between ourselves, of an ardent temperament (her grandfather was an Armenian),

who reminds me of the dog licence. I think w

asks Nadenka (or Varenka),

I have heard her called Mashenka) imagines, I can't guess why, that I am in love with her, and therefore t

for the sake of our friendship to believe that the girl you love has the deepest respect for

arrive. Mashenka's mamma, a good-natured woman but full of conventional ideas, is sitting on the terrace: glancing at her daughter's agitated face, s

nd the right hip. This unfortunate man is, like myself, proposing to devote the summer to literary work. He is writing the "Memoirs of a Military Man." Like me, he begins his honourable l

and am about to beat a retreat, but the young ladies of various colours seize my hat with a squeal and in

ng, that So-and-So is handsome but not nice, that somebody else is nice but ugly, and tha

some, but you are attractive. . . . There is something about your face. . . . I

glance sideways at a looking-glass to ascertain whether I really am attractive. I see a shaggy head, a bushy beard, moustaches, eyebrow

ou will make your way, Nicolas," sighs Nadenka's mamma, as

conviction that a man passionately in love with her is sitting

e, one of the young ladies gets up and goes away. Those that remain begin to pick her to pieces. Everyone ag

r to call me in to dinner. Now I can make my escape from this unc

and go to the woods to look for mushrooms. I bow and sit down again. My soul is boiling with rage, and I feel that in another moment I may not be able to answer fo

ek, eats as though he had a bit in his mouth. I roll up little balls of bread, think about the dog licence, an

owl, and comp?te. I have no ap

e terrace, smoking, Nadenka's mamma comes up

She has such a heart, .

a hangs on my arm and clings to my side. My suffer

er the

denka, sighing. "Why are you so mel

ally! What can I talk to her

something!"

ar, something within the range of her unde

s been greatly detrimental to t

nish me by your silence. Your feeling is not returned, and you wish to suffer in silence, in solitude . . . it is too awful, Nicolas!" she cries im

rent, for I really can't

l; in the second, what could I possibly want her eterna

her face in her hands and mu

s still another's . . . but . . . I will think of it. . . . Very good, I will think of it . . . I will prove th

f all this. It seems som

e bark of dogs; it reminds me of my dissertation, and I sigh heavily. Between the trees I catch sight of the wounded officer limping painfully along. The

o one of the variegated young ladies singing a song: "No, no, thou lovest not,

the other young l

shes. There is perfect stillness in the air, and an unpleasant

you!" Mashenka whispers to me

y to a garden walk. By this time her whole figure expresses conflict. She is pale and gasping for breath

e from her face that she has come to some decision. With gleaming eyes and swollen nose she snatches

self to my breast, an

well! . . . To-morrow at eleven o'clock

way home. There the "Past and Future of the Dog Licence" is awaiting me, but I am quite unable to work. I am furious. . . . I may say, my

pper, I shout to her: "Go out of the ro

t, 1887, the date of the solar eclipse. I may here remark that at the time of an eclipse every one of us may, without special astronomical knowledge, be of the greatest service. Thus, for example, anyone of us can (1) take t

t I lay aside the "Past and Future of the Dog Lic

diameter of the sun and moon; the wounded officer is to sketch the corona; and t

t together

se of the eclips

oving in the plane of the ecliptic, crosses the l

oes the ecl

shenka listen

ss the line joining the centres of

only an imaginary lin

line, how can the moon cross

el my spleen rising a

at's going to happen. You've never been in the sky, so what can yo

ses and cows run bellowing about the fields with their tails in the air. The dogs howl. The bugs, thin

e walked off into somebody else's yard, where the pigs ate up all the cucumbers. The excise officer, who had not slept at home that night, but

es, run out of their villas without even putting their

the variegated young ladi

h!" I cry. "Tim

remember the corona, and look towards the

r?" I shout. "How

terror and preventing him from working. I seize a pencil and note down the time to a second. That is of great importance. I note down the geographic

et today, el

clings to me. Pencil, pieces of glass, drawings - all are scattered on the grass. Hang it! It's high time the girl r

nue, but the e

" she whispe

s. I allow no one to make a laughing stock of me, and, God knows, when I am furious, I advise nobody to come near me, damn it all! There'

the animals. I saw the grey dog chasing the cat just before

me of the ecl

officer has risked it, and has again got as far as "I was born in . . . " when I se

itation of the heart. I do not go to the arbour. It is impolite

the arbour, addressing me as "thou." At one o'clock I get a second letter, and at two, a third. . . . I

th her. That's a thing one does not say to a lady as a rule, though. To tell a lady t

l be to explain my

coat, take an umbrella,

m afraid I may be led into speaking too

ale and in tears. On seeing me she utters a c

all night. . . . I have been thinking and thinking. . . . I believe t

I open with a short historical survey. I speak of marriage in ancient Egypt and India, then pass to more recent times, a few ideas fro

kiss me!

in my childhood when I was lifted up to kiss my grandmother in her coffin. Not content with the kiss, Mashenka leaps up and impulsively embraces me. At that instant, Mashenka's

ome I find Varenka's maman embracing my maman wit

s hoped

adenka's maman comes up to

ove her well. . . . Remember the sac

no idea of my character! I have a violent temper, I cannot always answer for myself! Hang it all! God knows what will come of it! To lead

congratulates me and Varenka k

stand that? Tell me that you love me!

deranged and incapable of contracting a valid marriage. An inspiration! I might have got a certificate too. An uncle of mine drank himself to death, another uncle was extremely absent-minded (on one occasion he put a

ideas always come too l