第97章

The eyes were the most remarkable picture of all: it seemed as though the full power of the artist's brush had been lavished upon them.They fairly gazed out of the portrait, destroying its harmony with their strange liveliness.When he carried the portrait to the door, the eyes gleamed even more penetratingly.They produced nearly the same impression on the public.A woman standing behind him exclaimed, "He is looking, he is looking!" and jumped back.Tchartkoff experienced an unpleasant feeling, inexplicable even to himself, and placed the portrait on the floor.

"Well, will you take the portrait?" said the dealer.

"How much is it?" said the painter.

"Why chaffer over it? give me seventy-five kopeks.""No."

"Well, how much will you give?"

"Twenty kopeks," said the painter, preparing to go.

"What a price! Why, you couldn't buy the frame for that! Perhaps you will decide to purchase to-morrow.Sir, sir, turn back! Add ten kopeks.Take it, take it! give me twenty kopeks.To tell the truth, you are my only customer to-day, and that's the only reason."Thus Tchartkoff quite unexpectedly became the purchaser of the old portrait, and at the same time reflected, "Why have I bought it? What is it to me?" But there was nothing to be done.He pulled a twenty-kopek piece from his pocket, gave it to the merchant, took the portrait under his arm, and carried it home.On the way thither, he remembered that the twenty-kopek piece he had given for it was his last.His thoughts at once became gloomy.Vexation and careless indifference took possession of him at one and the same moment.The red light of sunset still lingered in one half the sky; the houses facing that way still gleamed with its warm light; and meanwhile the cold blue light of the moon grew brighter.Light, half-transparent shadows fell in bands upon the ground.The painter began by degrees to glance up at the sky, flushed with a transparent light; and at the same moment from his mouth fell the words, "What a delicate tone! What a nuisance! Deuce take it!" Re-adjusting the portrait, which kept slipping from under his arm, he quickened his pace.

Weary and bathed in perspiration, he dragged himself to Vasilievsky Ostroff.With difficulty and much panting he made his way up the stairs flooded with soap-suds, and adorned with the tracks of dogs and cats.To his knock there was no answer: there was no one at home.He leaned against the window, and disposed himself to wait patiently, until at last there resounded behind him the footsteps of a boy in a blue blouse, his servant, model, and colour-grinder.This boy was called Nikita, and spent all his time in the streets when his master was not at home.Nikita tried for a long time to get the key into the lock, which was quite invisible, by reason of the darkness.

Finally the door was opened.Tchartkoff entered his ante-room, which was intolerably cold, as painters' rooms always are, which fact, however, they do not notice.Without giving Nikita his coat, he went on into his studio, a large room, but low, fitted up with all sorts of artistic rubbish--plaster hands, canvases, sketches begun and discarded, and draperies thrown over chairs.Feeling very tired, he took off his cloak, placed the portrait abstractedly between two small canvasses, and threw himself on the narrow divan.Having stretched himself out, he finally called for a light.

"There are no candles," said Nikita.

"What, none?"

"And there were none last night," said Nikita.The artist recollected that, in fact, there had been no candles the previous evening, and became silent.He let Nikita take his coat off, and put on his old worn dressing-gown.

"There has been a gentleman here," said Nikita.

"Yes, he came for money, I know," said the painter, waving his hand.

"He was not alone," said Nikita.

"Who else was with him?"

"I don't know, some police officer or other.""But why a police officer?"

"I don't know why, but he says because your rent is not paid.""Well, what will come of it?"

"I don't know what will come of it: he said, 'If he won't pay, why, let him leave the rooms.' They are both coming again to-morrow.""Let them come," said Tchartkoff, with indifference; and a gloomy mood took full possession of him.

Young Tchartkoff was an artist of talent, which promised great things:

his work gave evidence of observation, thought, and a strong inclination to approach nearer to nature.