"I can understand her hanging onto him," said Michael Korsakoff, blowing the smoke of his yellow cigarette."Look at her.She watches him like a treasure.""What do you mean, Michael Nikolaievitch?" said Boris, curtly.
"You believe, do you, that the devotion of Matrena Petrovna is not disinterested.You must know her very poorly to dare utter such a thought.""I have never had that thought, Boris Alexandrovitch," replied the other in a tone curter still."To be able to imagine that anyone who lives in the Trebassofs' home could have such a thought needs an ass's head, surely.""We will speak of it again, Michael Nikolaievitch.""At your pleasure, Boris Alexandrovitch."They had exchanged these latter words tranquilly continuing their walk and negligently smoking their yellow tobacco.Rouletabille was between them.He did not regard them; he paid no attention even to their quarrel; he had eyes only for Natacha, who just now quit her place beside her father's wheel-chair and passed by them with a little nod of the head, seeming in haste to retrace the way back to the villa.
"Are you leaving us?" Boris demanded of her.
"Oh, I will rejoin you immediately.I have forgotten my umbrella.""But I will go and get it for you," proposed Michael.""No, no.I have to go to the villa; I will return right away."She was already past them.Rouletabille, during this, looked at Matrena Petrovna, who looked at him also, turning toward the young man a visage pale as wax.But no one else noted the emotion of the good Matrena, who resumed pushing the general's wheel-chair.
Rouletabille asked the officers, "Was this arrangement because the first wife of the general, Natacha's mother, was rich?""No.The general, who always had his heart in his hand," said Boris, "married her for her great beauty.She was a beautiful girl of the Caucasus, of excellent family besides, that Feodor Feodorovitch had known when he was in garrison at Tiflis.""In short," said Rouletabille, "the day that General Trebassof dies Madame Trebassof, who now possesses everything, will have nothing, and the daughter, who now has nothing, will have everything.""Exactly that," said Michael.
"That doesn't keep Matrena Petrovna and Natacha Feodorovna from deeply loving each other," observed Boris.
The little party drew near the "Point." So far the promenade had been along pleasant open country, among the low meadows traversed by fresh streams, across which tiny bridges had been built, among bright gardens guarded by porcelain dwarfs, or in the shade of small weeds from the feet of whose trees the newly-cut grass gave a seasonal fragrance.All was reflected in the pools - which lay like glass whereon a scene-painter had cut the green hearts of the pond-lily leaves.An adorable country glimpse which seemed to have been created centuries back for the amusement of a queen and preserved, immaculately trimmed and cleaned, from generation to generation, for the eternal charm of such an hour as this on the banks of the Gulf of Finland.
Now they had reached the bank of the Gulf, and the waves rippled to the prows of the light ships, which dipped gracefully like huge and rapid sea-gulls, under the pressure of their great white sails.
Along the roadway, broader now, glided, silently and at walking pace, the double file of luxurious equipages with impatient horses, the open carriages in which the great personages of the court saw the view and let themselves be seen.Enormous coachmen held the reins high.Lively young women, negligently reclining against the cushions, displayed their new Paris toilettes, and kept young officers on horseback busy with salutes.There were all kinds of uniforms.No talking was heard.Everyone was kept busy looking.
There rang in the pure, thin air only the noise of the champing bits and the tintinnabulation of the bells attached to the hairy Finnish ponies' collars.And all that, so beautiful, fresh, charming and clear, and silent, it all seemed more a dream than even that which hung in the pools, suspended between the crystal of the air and the crystal of the water.The transparence of the sky and the transparence of the gulf blended their two unrealities so that one could not note where the horizons met.
Rouletabille looked at the view and looked at the general, and in all his young vibrating soul there was a sense of infinite sadness, for he recalled those terrible words in the night: "They have gone into all the corners of the Russian land, and they have not found a single corner of that land where there are not moanings." "Well,"thought he, "they have not come into this corner, apparently.Idon't know anything lovelier or happier in the world." No, no, Rouletabille, they have not come here.In every country there is a corner of happy life, which the poor are ashamed to approach, which they know nothing of, and of which merely the sight would turn famished mothers enraged, with their thin bosoms, and, if it is not more beautiful than that, certainly no part of the earth is made so atrocious to live in for some, nor so happy for others as in this Scythian country, the boreal country of the world.
Meanwhile the little group about the general's rolling-chair had attracted attention.Some passers-by saluted, and the news spread quickly that General Trebassof had come for a promenade to "the Point." Heads turned as carriages passed; the general, noticing how much excitement his presence produced, begged Matrena Petrovna to push his chair into an adjacent by-path, behind a shield of trees where he would be able to enjoy the spectacle in peace.
He was found, nevertheless, by Koupriane, the Chief of Police, who was looking for him.He had gone to the datcha and been told there that the general, accompanied by his friends and the young Frenchman, had gone for a turn along the gulf.Koupriane had left his carriage at the datcha, and taken the shortest route after them.
