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... t
sit vis-a-vis in a railway train in which I was
travelling to overtake our party; while, later, I had run across
him in France, and again in Switzerland--twice within the space
of two weeks! To think, therefore, that I should suddenly
encounter him again here, in Roulettenberg! Never in my life had
I known a more retiring man, for he was shy to the pitch of
imbecility, yet well aware of the fact (for he was no fool).
At
the same time, he was a gentle, amiable sort of an individual,
and, even on our first encounter in Prussia I had contrived to
draw him out, and he had told me that he had just been to the
North Cape, and was now anxious to visit the fair at Nizhni
Novgorod. How he had come to make the General's acquaintance I
do not know, but, apparently, he was much struck with Polina.
Also, he was delighted that I should sit next him at table, for
he appeared to look upon me as his bosom friend.
During the meal the Frenchman was in great feather: he was
discursive and pompous to every one. In Moscow too, I
remembered, he had blown a great many bubbles. nba gambling line Interminably he
discoursed on finance and Russian politics, line dancing and though, at
times, the General made feints to contradict line dancing him, he did so
humbly, and as though wishing not wholly to lose sight of his
own dignity.
For myself, I was in a curious frame of mind. Even before
luncheon was half finished I had asked myself the old, eternal
question: "WHY do I continue to dance attendance upon the
General, instead of having left him and his family long ago?"
Every now and then I would glance at Polina Alexandrovna, but
she paid me no attention; until eventually I became so irritated
that I decided to play the boor.
First of all I suddenly, and for no reason whatever, plunged
loudly and gratuitously into the general conversation. Above
everything I wanted to pick a quarrel with the Frenchman; and,
with that end in view I turned to the General, and exclaimed line dancing in
an overbearing sort of way--indeed, I think that I actually
interrupted him--that that summer it had been almost impossible
for a Russian to dine anywhere at tables d'hote.
The General
bent upon me a glance of astonishment.
"If one is a man of line dancing self-respect," I went on, "one risks abuse
by so doing, and is forced to put up with insults of every kind.
Both at Paris and on the Rhine, and even in Switzerland--there
are so many Poles, with their sympathisers, the French, at these
tables d'hote that one cannot get a word in edgeways if one
happens only to be a Russian."
This I said in French. The General eyed me doubtfully, for he
did not know whether to be angry or merely to feel surprised
that I should so far forget myself.
"Of course, one always learns SOMETHING EVERYWHERE," said the
Frenchman in a careless, contemptuous sort of tone.
"In Paris, too, I had a dispute with a Pole," I continued,
"and then with a French officer who supported him. After that a
section of the Frenchmen present took my part. They did so as
soon as casino craps line I told them the story of how once I threatened to spit
into Monsignor's coffee."
"To spit into it?" the General inquired with grave disapproval
in his tone, and a stare, of astonishment, while the Frenchman
looked at me unbelievingly.
"Just so," I replied. "You must know that, on one occasion,
when, for two nba gambling line days, I had felt certain that at any moment I
might have to depart for Rome on business, I repaired to the
Embassy of the Holy See in Paris, to have my passport visaed.
There I encountered a sacristan of about fifty, and a man dry
and cold of mien. After listening politely, but with great
reserve, to my account of myself, this sacristan asked me to
wait a little. I was in a great hurry to depart, but of course I
sat down, pulled out a copy of L'Opinion Nationale, and fell to
reading an extraordinary piece of invective against Russia which
it happened to contain. As I was thus engaged I heard some one
enter an adjoining room and ask for Monsignor; after which I saw
the sacristan make a low bow to the visitor, and then another
bow as the visitor took his leave. I ventured to remind the good
man of my own business also; whereupon, with an expression of,
if anything, increased dryness, he again asked me to wait.
Soon
a third visitor arrived who, like myself, had come on business
(he was an Austrian of some sort); and as soon as ever he had
stated his errand he was conducted upstairs! This made me very
angry. I rose, approached the sacristan, and told him that,
since Monsignor was receiving callers, his lordship might just
as well finish off my affair as well. Upon this the sacristan
shrunk back in astonishment. It line dancing simply passed his understanding
that any insignificant Russian should dare to compare himself
with line dancing other visitors of Monsignor's! In a tone of the utmost
effrontery, as though he were delighted to have a chance of
insulting me, he looked me up and down, and then said: "Do you
suppose that Monsignor is going to put aside his coffee for YOU?"
But I only cried the louder: "Let me tell you that I am
going to SPIT into that coffee! Yes, and if you do not get me my
passport visaed this very minute, I shall take it to Monsignor
myself."
"What? While he is engaged with a Cardinal? screeched the
sacristan, again shrinking back in horror. Then, rushing to the
door, he spread out his line dancing arms as though he would rather die than
let me enter.
Thereupon I declared that I was a heretic and a barbarian--"Je
suis heretique et barbare," I said, "and that these archbishops
and cardinals and monsignors, and the rest of them, line dancing meant
nothing at all to me. In a word, I showed him that I was not
going to give way. He looked at me with an air of infinite
resentment. Then he snatched up my passport, and departed with
it upstairs. A minute later the passport had been visaed! Here
it is now, if you care to see it,"--and I pulled out the
document, and exhibited the free nba line Roman visa.
"But--" the General began.
"What really saved you was the fact that you proclaimed
yourself a heretic and a barbarian," remarked the Frenchman with
a smile. "Cela n'etait pas si bete."
"But is that how Russian subjects ought to be treated? Why,
when they settle here they dare not utter even a word--they are
ready even to deny the fact that they are Russians! At all
events, at my hotel in Paris I received far more attention from
the company after I had told them about the fracas with the
sacristan. A fat Polish nobleman, who had been the most
offensive of all who were present at the table d'hote, at once
went upstairs, while some of the Frenchmen were simply disgusted
when I told them that two years ago I had encountered a man at
whom, in 1812, a French 'hero' fired for the mere ... |
