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Updated: May 15, 2025
He lay there while Afanasy, gloomy and scowling, hovered about him, sighing heavily, and smelling like a pothouse. "A month later Byelikov died. We all went to his funeral that is, both the high-schools and the seminary.
However that may be, Varinka began to show an unmistakable partiality for Byelikov. "And Byelikov? He used to visit Kovalenko just as he did us. He would arrive, sit down, and remain silent. He would sit quiet, and Varinka would sing to him 'The Winds do Blow, or would look pensively at him with her dark eyes, or would suddenly go off into a peal 'Ha-ha-ha!
I regard it as a duty to assure you that I have had no hand in it.... I have given no sort of ground for such ridicule on the contrary, I have always behaved in every way like a gentleman. "Kovalenko sat sulky and silent. Byelikov waited a little, and went on slowly in a mournful voice: "'And I have something else to say to you.
But just as he was falling down the stairs Varinka came in, and with her two ladies; they stood below staring, and to Byelikov this was more terrible than anything. I believe he would rather have broken his neck or both legs than have been an object of ridicule.
Everybody both his colleagues and the ladies began assuring Byelikov that he ought to get married, that there was nothing left for him in life but to get married; we all congratulated him, with solemn countenances delivered ourselves of various platitudes, such as 'Marriage is a serious step. Besides, Varinka was good-looking and interesting; she was the daughter of a civil councillor, and had a farm; and what was more, she was the first woman who had been warm and friendly in her manner to him.
"Byelikov lived in the same house as I did," Burkin went on, "on the same storey, his door facing mine; we often saw each other, and I knew how he lived when he was at home.
This Afanasy was usually standing at the door with his arms folded; with a deep sigh, he would mutter always the same thing: "'There are plenty of them about nowadays! "Byelikov had a little bedroom like a box; his bed had curtains.
"Three days later Afanasy came to me and asked whether we should not send for the doctor, as there was something wrong with his master. I went in to Byelikov. He lay silent behind the curtain, covered with a quilt; if one asked him a question, he said 'Yes' or 'No' and not another sound.
Varinka, too, was at the funeral, and when the coffin was lowered into the grave she burst into tears. I have noticed that Little Russian women are always laughing or crying no intermediate mood. "One must confess that to bury people like Byelikov is a great pleasure.
"Kovalenko seized him from behind by the collar and gave him a push, and Byelikov rolled downstairs, thudding with his goloshes. The staircase was high and steep, but he rolled to the bottom unhurt, got up, and touched his nose to see whether his spectacles were all right.
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