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 Chapter 06

Strengthening a Company's Competitive Position: Strategic Moves,

Timing, and Scope of Operations

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sometimes it makes sense for a company to go on the offensive to improve its market
position and business performance. The best offensives tend to incorporate the following
EXCEPT:

A. focusing relentlessly on building a competitive advantage.

B. applying resources where rivals are least able to defend themselves.

C. using a strategic offense to allow the company to leverage its weaknesses to strengthen
operating vulnerabilities.

D. employing the elements of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are
prepared for.

E. displaying a strong bias for swift, decisive, and overwhelming actions to overpower rivals.

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2. Once a company has decided to employ a particular generic competitive strategy, then it
must make such additional strategic choices, such as:

A. whether to focus on building competitive advantages.

B. whether to employ the element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are
prepared for.

C. whether to display a strong bias for swift, decisive, and overwhelming actions to overpower
rivals.

D. whether to create and deploy company resources to cause rivals to defend themselves.

E. All of these.

3. Which one of the following is NOT a strategic choice that a company must make to
complement and supplement its choice of one of the five generic competitive strategies?

A. Whether to focus on building competitive advantages.

B. Whether to employ the element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are
prepared for.

C. Whether to employ a market share leadership strategy.

D. Whether to display a strong bias for swift, decisive, and overwhelming actions to
overpower.

E. Whether to create and deploy company resources to cause rivals to defend themselves.

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4. Strategic offensives should, as a general rule, be based on:

A. exploiting a company's strongest competitive assets—its most valuable resources and

capabilities.

B. instigating and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively.

C. scoping and scaling an organization's internal and external situation.

D. molding an organization's character and identity.

E. satisfying the buyer's needs that the company seeks to meet.

5. The principal offensive strategy options include all of the following EXCEPT:

A. using a cost advantage to attack competitors on the basis of lower price or better product
value.

B. using hit-and-run or guerrilla warfare tactics to grab sales and market share from
complacent or distracted rivals.

C. launching a preemptive strike to secure an advantageous position that rivals are prevented
or discouraged from duplicating.

D. pursuing continuous product innovation to draw sales and market share away from less
innovative rivals.

E. initiating a market threat and counterattack simultaneously to effect a distraction.

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6. Which of the following is NOT a principal offensive strategy option?

A. Leapfrogging competitors by being first to market with next-generation products.

B. Using hit-and-run or guerrilla warfare tactics to grab sales and market share.

C. Launching a preemptive strike to secure an advantageous position that rivals are

prevented or discouraged from duplicating.

D. Pursuing continuous product innovation to draw sales and market share away from rivals.

E. Being the final competitor to market a next-generation product so as to guarantee the

product is operationally sound.

7. An offensive to yield good results can be short if:

A. buyers respond immediately (to a dramatic cost-based price cut or imaginative ad

campaign).

B. competition creates an appealing new product.

C. the technology needs debugging.

D. new production capacity needs to be installed.

E. consumer acceptance of an innovative product takes time.

8. Which of the following rivals make the best targets for an offensive attack?

A. Firms with weaknesses in areas where the challenger is strong.

B. Companies that are financially strong and possess favorable competitive market
positioning.

C. Large national firms with vast capabilities and intermittent trivial resource deficiencies.

D. Strong and financially secure market leaders.

E. Small local and regional firms with unrestrained capabilities.

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9. When challenging a struggling rival, it can:

A. sap the rival's financial strength and competitive position.

B. weaken the rival's resolve.

C. accelerate the rival's exit from the market.

D. threaten the rival's overall survival in the market.

E. All of these.

10. A blue-ocean strategy:

A. is an offensive strike employed by a market leader that is directed at pilfering customers

away from unsuspecting rivals to boost profitability.

B. involves an unexpected (out-of- the-blue) preemptive strike to secure an advantageous

position in a fast-growing market segment.

C. works best when a company is the industry's low-cost leader.

D. involves abandoning efforts to beat out competitors in existing markets and instead invent
a new industry or new market segment that renders existing competitors largely irrelevant
and allows a company to create and capture altogether new demand.

E. involves the use of highly creative, never-used-before strategic moves to attack the
competitive weaknesses of rivals.

11. Which of the following is NOT a prime example of a blue-ocean market strategy?

A. The eBay online auction industry.

B. Starbucks coffee shops.

C. The weather Channel on cable TV.

D. FedEx overnight package delivery.

E. Walmart's logistics and distribution.

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12. All firms are subject to offensive challenges from rivals. The intent of the best defensive
move is to:

A. lower the risk of being attacked.

B. weaken the impact of any attack that occurs.

C. pressure challengers to aim their efforts at other rivals.

D. help protect a competitive advantage.

E. All of these.

13. Which of the following is NOT a purpose of a defensive strategy?

A. To increase the risk of having to defend an attack.

B. To weaken the impact of any attack that occurs.

C. To pressure challengers to aim their efforts at other rivals.

D. To help protect a competitive advantage.

E. To decrease the risk of being attacked.

14. Which of the following ways are employed by defending companies to fend off a competitive
attack?

A. Remain steadfast to current product features, models, and warranty terms to ensure
resources are not diverted toward unproductive efforts.

B. Exclude volume discounts or better financing terms from the strategic response in order to
maintain current profitability levels.

C. Gain product line exclusivity to force competitors to use other distributors.

D. Discourage buyers from leaving by offering expensive training and customer support
services that highlight the quality of the product.

E. All of these.

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15. What is the goal of signaling a challenger that strong retaliation is likely in the event of an
attack?

A. To alleviate their fears by committing to reduce the costs of value chain activities.

B. To cause the challenger to begin the attack instead of waiting.

C. To dissuade challengers from attacking or diverting them into using less threatening
options.

D. To create collaborative relationships with challengers.

E. To insulate other firms from adverse impacts resulting from the challenge.

16. Which of the following signals would NOT warn challengers that strong retaliation is likely?

A. Publicly announcing management's commitment to maintain market share.

B. Publicly committing to a company policy of matching competitors' terms or pricing.

C. Maintaining a war chest of cash and marketable securities.

D. Making a strong counter-response to the moves of weak competitors.

E. Announcing strong quarterly earnings potential to financial analysts.

17. Being first to initiate a particular strategic move can have a high payoff in all of the following
EXCEPT when:

A. pioneering helps build up a firm's image and reputation and creates strong brand loyalty.

B. buyers remain strongly loyal to pioneering firms because of incentives and switching costs
barriers.

C. there is a steep learning curve and when learning can be kept proprietary.

D. moving first can constitute a preemptive strike, making imitation extra hard or unlikely.

E. market uncertainties make it difficult to ascertain what will eventually succeed.

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18. In which of the following instances is being a first-mover NOT particularly advantageous?

A. When moving first with a preemptive strike makes imitation difficult or unlikely.

B. When first-time buyers remain strongly loyal to pioneering firms in making repeat
purchases.

C. When early commitments to new technologies, types of components, or emerging

distribution channels produce an absolute cost advantage over rivals.

D. When markets are slow to accept the innovative product offering of a first-mover, and fast
followers possess sufficient resources and marketing muscle to overtake a first mover.

E. When being a pioneer helps build a firm's image and reputation with buyers.

19. First-mover disadvantages (or late-mover advantages) rarely ever arise when:

A. the costs of pioneering are much higher than being a follower and only negligible
learning/experience curve benefits accrue to the pioneer.

B. rapid market evolution gives fast followers an opening to leapfrog the pioneer with next-
generation products of their own.

C. the pioneer's products are somewhat primitive and do not live up to buyer expectations,
allowing clever followers to win disenchanted buyers with better-performing products.

D. the marketplace is skeptical about the benefits of a new technology or product being
pioneered by a first-mover.

E. the market response is strong and the pioneer gains a monopoly position that enables it to
recover its investment.

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20. In which of the following cases are late-mover advantages (or first-mover disadvantages)
NOT likely to arise?

A. When the costs of pioneering are much higher than being a follower and only negligible
learning/experience benefits accrue to the pioneer.

B. When the marketplace is skeptical about the benefits of a new technology or product being
pioneered by a first-mover.

C. When the pioneer's products are somewhat primitive and are easily bested by late movers.

D. When opportunities exist for a blue-ocean strategy to invent a new industry or distinctive
market segment that creates altogether new demand.

E. When technological change is rapid and fast-following rivals find it easy to leapfrog the
pioneer with next-generation products of their own.

21. Because when to make a strategic move can be just as important as what move to make, a
company's best option with respect to timing is:

A. to be the first mover.

B. to be a fast follower.

C. to be a late mover (because it is cheaper and easier to imitate the successful moves of the
leaders and moving late allows a company to avoid the mistakes and costs associated with
trying to be a pioneer—first-mover disadvantages usually overwhelm first-mover
advantages).

D. to be the last-mover—playing catch-up is usually fairly easy and almost always is much
cheaper than any other option.

E. to carefully weigh the first-mover advantages against the first-mover disadvantages and
act accordingly.

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22. The race among rivals for industry leadership is more likely to be a marathon rather than a
sprint when:

A. new industry or market segments are yet to be developed and create altogether new
consumer demand.

B. fast followers find it easy to leapfrog the pioneer with even better next-generation
products of their own.

C. the market depends on the development of complementary products or services that are
currently not available, buyers have high switching costs, and influential rivals are in
position to derail the efforts of a first-mover.

D. entry barriers are high, substitute products or services are readily available, and buyers are
prone to negotiate aggressively for better terms and lower prices.

E. there are nearly always big advantages to being a slow mover rather than an early mover,
especially in regards to avoiding the "mistakes" of first or early movers.

23. For every emerging opportunity there exists:

A. a market penetration curve, and this typically has an inflection point where the business
model falls into place.

B. an opportunity to achieve first-mover status, which depends on analyzing the competitive

status curve where all the potential rivals are encoded.

C. an emerging pitfall exists that is a counterpoint to the intended growth.

D. a normal curve scenario which signifies the average growth curve will be opportunistic.

E. All of these.

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24. Any company that seeks competitive advantage by being a first-mover must ask several hard
questions prior to executing its strategy. Which question would it NOT ask?

A. Does market take-off depend on the new development of complementary products?

B. Is a new infrastructure required before buyer demand can surge?

C. Will buyers encounter high switching costs to move?

D. Are there influential competitors in a position to delay or derail the efforts?

E. Did the company pour too many resources into getting ahead of the market opportunity?

25. What does the scope of the firm refer to?

A. The range of activities the firm performs externally and its social responsibility activities

B. To gain competitive advantage based on where it locates its various value chain activities

C. The firm's capability to employ vertical integration strategies

D. The range of activities the firm performs internally and the breadth of its product offerings,
the extent of its geographic market, and its mix of businesses

E. To prevent foreign competition from affecting the market

26. The range of product and service segments that the firm serves within its market is known as
the firm's:

A. horizontal scope.

B. vertical integration.

C. vertical scope.

D. product outsourcing.

E. joint venture partnership.

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27. The extent to which a firm's internal activities encompass one, some, many, or all of the
activities that make up an industry's entire value chain system is known as:

A. horizontal scale.

B. vertical scope.

C. outsourcing scope.

D. cooperative scaled scope.

E. focal scope.

28. The difference between a merger and an acquisition is that:

A. a merger involves one company purchasing the assets of another company with cash,
whereas an acquisition involves a company acquiring another company by buying all of the
shares of its common stock.

B. a merger is the combining of two or more companies into a single corporate entity,
whereas an acquisition involves one company (the acquirer) purchasing and absorbing the
operations of another company (the acquired).

C. in a merger, the companies retain their original names, whereas in an acquisition the name
of the company being acquired is changed to be the name of the acquiring company.

D. a merger is a combination of three or more companies, whereas an acquisition is a pooling

of interests of just two companies.

E. a merger involves two or more companies deciding to adopt the same strategy, whereas an
acquisition involves one company taking over the strategy-making function of another
company.

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in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
29. The difference between a merger and an acquisition relates to:

A. strategy and competitive advantage.

B. the presence of available resources and competitive capabilities.

C. whether the end result is related to horizontal or vertical scope.

D. creating a more cost-efficient operation out of the combined companies.

E. the details of ownership, management control, and the financial arrangements.

30. Which of the following is NOT a typical strategic objective or benefit that drives mergers and
acquisitions?

A. To gain quick access to new technologies or other resources and capabilities.

B. To create a more cost-efficient operation out of the combined companies.

C. To expand a company's geographic coverage.

D. To facilitate a company's shift from a broad differentiation strategy to a focused

differentiation strategy.

E. To extend a company's business into new product categories.

31. Mergers and acquisitions are often driven by such strategic objectives as:

A. expanding a company's geographic coverage or extending its business into new product
categories.

B. reducing the number of industry key success factors.

C. reducing the number of strategic groups in the industry.

D. facilitating a company's shift from a low-cost leadership strategy to a focused low-cost

strategy.

E. lengthening a company's value chain and thereby putting it in a better position to deliver
superior value to buyers.

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32. Merger and acquisition strategies:

A. are nearly always a superior strategic alternative to forming alliances or partnerships with
these same companies.

B. may offer considerable cost-saving opportunities and can also be beneficial in helping a
company try to invent a new industry.

C. are a particularly effective way of pursuing a blue-ocean strategy and an outsourcing

strategy.

D. seldom are a superior strategic alternative to forming alliances with these same
companies because of the financial drain of using the company's cash resources to
accomplish the merger or acquisition.

E. is one of the best ways for helping a company strongly differentiate its product offering
and use a differentiation strategy to strengthen its market position.

33. What outcomes do horizontal merger and acquisition strategies intend?

A. Expanding a company's geographic coverage.

B. Gaining quick access to new technologies or complementary resources and capabilities.

C. Leading the convergence of industries whose boundaries are being blurred by changing
technologies and new market opportunities.

D. Extending the company's business into new product categories.

E. All of these.

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34. Mergers and acquisitions:

A. are nearly always successful in achieving their desired purpose.

B. frequently do not produce the hoped-for outcomes.

C. are generally less effective than forming alliances or partnerships with these same
companies.

D. are highly risky because of the financial drain that comes from using the company's cash
resources to pay for the costs of the merger or acquisition.

E. are usually more successful in achieving cost reductions than in expanding a company's
market opportunities.

35. A primary reason for why mergers and acquisitions sometimes fail is due to the:

A. misinterpretation of the cultural differences, like employee disenchantment and low

morale, differences in management styles and operating procedures, and operations
integration decision mistakes.

B. execution of functional and integration activity, while sustaining and capitalizing on the
combined sources of revenue.

C. development of effective integration plans conducive to employee satisfaction.

D. advertising message detailing the merger announcement.

E. All of these.

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36. Vertical integration strategies:

A. extend a company's competitive scope within the same industry by expanding its
operations across multiple segments or stages of the industry value chain.

B. are one of the best strategic options for helping companies win the race for global market
leadership.

C. offer good potential to expand a company's lineup of products and services.

D. are particularly effective in boosting a company's ability to expand into additional

geographic markets, particularly the markets of foreign countries.

E. is a good strategy option for helping a company revamp its value chain and bypass low
value-added activities.

37. The two best reasons for investing company resources in vertical integration (either forward
or backward) are to:

A. expand into foreign markets and/or control more of the industry value chain.

B. broaden the firm's product line and/or avoid the need for outsourcing.

C. gain a first-mover advantage over rivals in revamping the industry value chain.

D. add materially to a company's technological capabilities, strengthen the company's

competitive position, and/or boost its profitability.

E. achieve product differentiation and/or lengthen the company's value chain to include more
activities performed in-house and thereby gain a greater ability to reduce internal
operating costs.

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38. A good example of vertical integration is:

A. a global public accounting firm acquiring a small local or regional public accounting firm.

B. a large supermarket chain getting into convenience food stores.

C. a crude oil refiner purchasing a firm engaged in drilling and exploring for oil.

D. a hospital opening up a nursing home for the aged.

E. a railroad company acquiring a trucking company specializing in long-haul freight.

39. A vertical integration strategy can expand the firm's range of activities:

A. backward into sources of supply and/or forward toward end users.

B. backward into other industry business-lines and/or forward to suppliers of raw materials.

C. to enable the supply chain the opportunity for expansion.

D. to complement the industry's horizontal value chain line of profitability.

E. to establish full integration by participating in a tapered integration (without the

outsourced and in-house activities).

40. When firms are involved in a mix of in-house and outsourced activity in any given stage of the
vertical chain, it is called:

A. tapered integration.

B. partial integration.

C. full integration.

D. forward integration.

E. backward integration.

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41. For backward vertical integration into the business of suppliers to be a viable and profitable
strategy, a company:

A. must first be a proficient manufacturer.

B. must be able to achieve the same scale economies as outside suppliers and match or beat
suppliers' production efficiency with no drop-off in quality.

C. must have excess production capacity so that it has an ample in-house ability to undertake
additional production activities.

D. needs to have a wide product line, so it can supply parts and components for many
products.

E. should have a distinctive competence in production process technology and at least a core
competence in manufacturing R&D.

42. Vertical integration can lower costs by:

A. expanding supplier power.

B. facilitating the coordination of production flows and avoiding bottlenecks.

C. establishing the framework for operating.

D. creating control factors across the value chain.

E. All of these.

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43. Which of the following is NOT a potential advantage of backward vertical integration?

A. Reduced vulnerability to powerful suppliers (who may be inclined to raise prices at every
opportunity).

B. Reduced risks of disruptions in obtaining crucial components or support services.

C. Reduced costs.

D. Reduced business risk because of controlling a bigger portion of the overall industry value
chain.

E. Adding to a company's differentiation capabilities and perhaps achieving a differentiation-

based competitive advantage.

44. Backward vertical integration can produce:

A. a full integration when activities remain the domain of key suppliers.

B. a tapered integration if the firm consolidates all activities in-house.

C. a differentiation-based competitive advantage when activities enhance the performance of

the final product.

D. a focused differentiation strategy when the market is broad and the product is a
commodity.

E. All of these.

45. The strategic impetus for forward vertical integration is to:

A. gain better access to end users and better market visibility.

B. achieve the same scale economies as wholesale distributors and/or retail dealers.

C. control price at the retail level.

D. bypass distributors and dealers and sell direct to consumers at the company's website.

E. build a core competence in mass merchandising.

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46. Which of the following is typically the strategic impetus for forward vertical integration?

A. Being able to control the wholesale/retail portion of the industry value chain.

B. Fewer disruptions in the delivery of the company's products to end users.

C. Gaining better access to end users and better market visibility.

D. Broadening the company's product line.

E. Allowing the firm access to greater economies of scale.

47. Which of the following is NOT a strategic disadvantage of vertical integration?

A. Vertical integration boosts a firm's capital investment in the industry, thus increasing
business risk if the industry becomes unattractive later.

B. Vertical integration backward into parts and components manufacturing can impair a
company's operating flexibility when it comes to changing out the use of certain parts and
components.

C. Vertical integration reduces the opportunity for achieving greater product differentiation.

D. Forward or backward integration often calls for radically different skills and business
capabilities than the firm possesses.

E. Vertical integration poses all kinds of capacity-matching problems.

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48. Bypassing regular wholesale/retail channels in favor of direct sales and Internet retailing can
have appeal if:

A. it reinforces the brand, enhances consumer satisfaction, and results in lower prices to end
users.

B. it can result in better coordination of the firm's direct sales activity to wholesalers and
distributors

C. it can establish a retail frontal attack while efficiently managing its backward (defensive)
sales orientation.

D. it combines the best of all sales channels and provides financial support to distribution
allies.

E. it creates a channel conflict, thereby providing competitive improvisation.

49. A strategy of vertical integration can have substantial drawbacks, including:

A. whether horizontal integration can limit the performance of strategy-critical activities in

ways that increase cost, build expertise, protect proprietary know-how, or increase
differentiation.

B. raising the firm's capital investment in the industry and increasing business risk, as well as
providing less flexibility in accommodating shifting buyer preferences by locking the firm
into relying on its own in-house activities.

C. the environmental costs of coordinating operations across vertical chain activities.

D. the ease to manage a set of skills and capabilities needed to operate in another stage of
the vertical chain.

E. the difficulties faced in entering outside vertical and horizontal markets.

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50. A strategy of vertical integration can have both important strengths and weaknesses and
depends on:

A. whether it can limit the performance of strategy-critical activities in ways that increase
cost, build expertise, protect proprietary know-how, or increase differentiation.

B. the impact on investment costs, flexibility, and response times.

C. the administrative costs of coordinating operations across more vertical chain activities.

D. how difficult it will be for the company to acquire the set of skills and capabilities needed
to operate in another stage of the vertical chain.

E. All of these.

51. An outsourcing strategy:

A. is nearly always a more attractive strategic option than merger and acquisition strategies.

B. carries the substantial risk of raising a company's costs.

C. carries the substantial risk of making a company overly dependent on its suppliers.

D. increases a company's risk exposure to changing technology and/or changing buyer

preferences.

E. involves farming out certain value chain activities presently performed in-house to outside
vendors.

6-22
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in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
52. The two big drivers of outsourcing are:

A. an increased ability to cut R&D expenses and an increased ability to avoid the problems of
strategic alliances.

B. that outsiders can often perform certain activities better or more cheaply, and outsourcing
allows a firm to focus its entire energies on those activities that are at the center of its
expertise (its core competencies).

C. a desire to reduce the company's investment in fixed assets and the need to narrow the
scope of the company's in-house competencies and competitive capabilities.

D. the ability to avoid capital investments that accompany vertical integration and a desire to
reduce the company's risk exposure to changing technology and/or changing buyer
preferences.

E. that a smaller in-house workforce and a low investment in intellectual capital will produce
cost savings.

53. Outsourcing the performance of value chain activities presently performed in-house to
outside vendors and suppliers makes strategic sense EXCEPT when:

A. an activity can be performed better or more cheaply by outside specialists.

B. it allows a company to focus its entire energies on its core business, leverage its key
resources, and do even better what it already does best.

C. it restricts a company's ability to assemble diverse kinds of expertise speedily and

efficiently.

D. it reduces the company's risk exposure to changing technology and/or changing buyer
preferences.

E. All of these.

6-23
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in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
54. Which of the following is NOT one of the benefits of outsourcing value chain activities
presently performed in-house?

A. Streamlines company operations in ways that improve organizational flexibility and cuts
the time it takes to get new products into the marketplace.

B. Allows a company to concentrate on its core business, leverage its key resources, and do
even better what it already does best.

C. Helps the company assemble diverse kinds of expertise speedily and efficiently.

D. Enables a company to gain better access to end users and better market visibility.

E. Improves a company's ability to innovate.

55. Relying on outsiders to perform certain value chain activities offers such strategic advantages
as:

A. ensuring more costly components or services.

B. improving the company's inability to innovate by allying with "best-in-class" suppliers.

C. reducing the company's risk exposure to changing technology and/or changing buyer
preferences.

D. increasing the firm's inability to assemble diverse kinds of expertise speedily and
efficiently.

E. reducing its information technology and operational costs so that organizational flexibility
is maintained.

6-24
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in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
56. Outsourcing strategies can offer such advantages as:

A. increasing a company's ability to strongly differentiate its product and be successful with
either a broad differentiation strategy or a focused differentiation strategy.

B. obtaining higher quality and/or cheaper components or services, improving a company's

ability to innovate, and reducing its risk exposure.

C. speeding a company's entry into foreign markets.

D. permitting greater use of strategic alliances and collaborative partnerships.

E. giving a firm more direct control over the costs of value chain activities.

57. The big risk of employing an outsourcing strategy is:

A. causing the company to become partially integrated instead of being fully integrated.

B. hollowing out a firm's own capabilities and losing touch with activities and expertise that
contribute fundamentally to the firm's competitiveness and market success.

C. hurting a company's R&D capability.

D. putting the company in the position of being a late mover instead of an early mover.

E. increasing the firm's risk exposure to both supply chain management failures and shifts in
the composition of the industry value chain.

58. Strategic alliances:

A. are the cheapest means of developing new technologies and getting new products to
market quickly.

B. are collaborative formal arrangements where two or more companies join forces and agree
to work cooperatively toward some strategically relevant objective.

C. are a proven means of reducing the costs of performing value chain activities.

D. are best used to insulate a company from the impact of the five competitive forces.

E. help insulate a firm from the adverse impacts of industry driving forces.

6-25
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 GOOSEBERRIES

T
HE whole sky had been overcast with rain-clouds from early
morning; it was a still day, not hot, but heavy, as it is in grey
dull weather when the clouds have been hanging over the
country for a long while, when one expects rain and it does not
come. Ivan Ivanovitch, the veterinary surgeon, and Burkin, the high-
school teacher, were already tired from walking, and the fields
seemed to them endless. Far ahead of them they could just see the
windmills of the village of Mironositskoe; on the right stretched a
row of hillocks which disappeared in the distance behind the village,
and they both knew that this was the bank of the river, that there
were meadows, green willows, homesteads there, and that if one
stood on one of the hillocks one could see from it the same vast
plain, telegraph-wires, and a train which in the distance looked like a
crawling caterpillar, and that in clear weather one could even see the
town. Now, in still weather, when all nature seemed mild and
dreamy, Ivan Ivanovitch and Burkin were filled with love of that
countryside, and both thought how great, how beautiful a land it
was.
“Last time we were in Prokofy’s barn,” said Burkin, “you were
about to tell me a story.”
“Yes; I meant to tell you about my brother.”
Ivan Ivanovitch heaved a deep sigh and lighted a pipe to begin to
tell his story, but just at that moment the rain began. And five
minutes later heavy rain came down, covering the sky, and it was
hard to tell when it would be over. Ivan Ivanovitch and Burkin
stopped in hesitation; the dogs, already drenched, stood with their
tails between their legs gazing at them feelingly.
 “We must take shelter somewhere,” said Burkin. “Let us go to
Alehin’s; it’s close by.”
“Come along.”
They turned aside and walked through mown fields, sometimes
going straight forward, sometimes turning to the right, till they came
out on the road. Soon they saw poplars, a garden, then the red
roofs of barns; there was a gleam of the river, and the view opened
on to a broad expanse of water with a windmill and a white bath-
house: this was Sofino, where Alehin lived.
The watermill was at work, drowning the sound of the rain; the
dam was shaking. Here wet horses with drooping heads were
standing near their carts, and men were walking about covered with
sacks. It was damp, muddy, and desolate; the water looked cold and
malignant. Ivan Ivanovitch and Burkin were already conscious of a
feeling of wetness, messiness, and discomfort all over; their feet
were heavy with mud, and when, crossing the dam, they went up to
the barns, they were silent, as though they were angry with one
another.
In one of the barns there was the sound of a winnowing machine,
the door was open, and clouds of dust were coming from it. In the
doorway was standing Alehin himself, a man of forty, tall and stout,
with long hair, more like a professor or an artist than a landowner.
He had on a white shirt that badly needed washing, a rope for a
belt, drawers instead of trousers, and his boots, too, were plastered
up with mud and straw. His eyes and nose were black with dust. He
recognized Ivan Ivanovitch and Burkin, and was apparently much
delighted to see them.
“Go into the house, gentlemen,” he said, smiling; “I’ll come
directly, this minute.”
It was a big two-storeyed house. Alehin lived in the lower storey,
with arched ceilings and little windows, where the bailiffs had once
lived; here everything was plain, and there was a smell of rye bread,
cheap vodka, and harness. He went upstairs into the best rooms
only on rare occasions, when visitors came. Ivan Ivanovitch and
Burkin were met in the house by a maid-servant, a young woman so
beautiful that they both stood still and looked at one another.
“You can’t imagine how delighted I am to see you, my friends,”
said Alehin, going into the hall with them. “It is a surprise! Pelagea,”
he said, addressing the girl, “give our visitors something to change
into. And, by the way, I will change too. Only I must first go and
wash, for I almost think I have not washed since spring. Wouldn’t
you like to come into the bath-house? and meanwhile they will get
things ready here.”
Beautiful Pelagea, looking so refined and soft, brought them
towels and soap, and Alehin went to the bath-house with his guests.
“It’s a long time since I had a wash,” he said, undressing. “I have
got a nice bath-house, as you see—my father built it—but I
somehow never have time to wash.”
He sat down on the steps and soaped his long hair and his neck,
and the water round him turned brown.
“Yes, I must say,” said Ivan Ivanovitch meaningly, looking at his
head.
“It’s a long time since I washed...” said Alehin with
embarrassment, giving himself a second soaping, and the water near
him turned dark blue, like ink.
Ivan Ivanovitch went outside, plunged into the water with a loud
splash, and swam in the rain, flinging his arms out wide. He stirred
the water into waves which set the white lilies bobbing up and
down; he swam to the very middle of the millpond and dived, and
came up a minute later in another place, and swam on, and kept on
diving, trying to touch the bottom.
“Oh, my goodness!” he repeated continually, enjoying himself
thoroughly. “Oh, my goodness!” He swam to the mill, talked to the
peasants there, then returned and lay on his back in the middle of
the pond, turning his face to the rain. Burkin and Alehin were
dressed and ready to go, but he still went on swimming and diving.
“Oh, my goodness!...” he said. “Oh, Lord, have mercy on me!...”
“That’s enough!” Burkin shouted to him.
They went back to the house. And only when the lamp was lighted
in the big drawing-room upstairs, and Burkin and Ivan Ivanovitch,
attired in silk dressing-gowns and warm slippers, were sitting in arm-
chairs; and Alehin, washed and combed, in a new coat, was walking
about the drawing-room, evidently enjoying the feeling of warmth,
cleanliness, dry clothes, and light shoes; and when lovely Pelagea,
stepping noiselessly on the carpet and smiling softly, handed tea and
jam on a tray—only then Ivan Ivanovitch began on his story, and it
seemed as though not only Burkin and Alehin were listening, but
also the ladies, young and old, and the officers who looked down
upon them sternly and calmly from their gold frames.
“There are two of us brothers,” he began—“I, Ivan Ivanovitch, and
my brother, Nikolay Ivanovitch, two years younger. I went in for a
learned profession and became a veterinary surgeon, while Nikolay
sat in a government office from the time he was nineteen. Our
father, Tchimsha-Himalaisky, was a kantonist, but he rose to be an
officer and left us a little estate and the rank of nobility. After his
death the little estate went in debts and legal expenses; but,
anyway, we had spent our childhood running wild in the country.
Like peasant children, we passed our days and nights in the fields
and the woods, looked after horses, stripped the bark off the trees,
fished, and so on.... And, you know, whoever has once in his life
caught perch or has seen the migrating of the thrushes in autumn,
watched how they float in flocks over the village on bright, cool
days, he will never be a real townsman, and will have a yearning for
freedom to the day of his death. My brother was miserable in the
government office. Years passed by, and he went on sitting in the
same place, went on writing the same papers and thinking of one
and the same thing—how to get into the country. And this yearning
by degrees passed into a definite desire, into a dream of buying
himself a little farm somewhere on the banks of a river or a lake.
“He was a gentle, good-natured fellow, and I was fond of him, but
I never sympathized with this desire to shut himself up for the rest
of his life in a little farm of his own. It’s the correct thing to say that
a man needs no more than six feet of earth. But six feet is what a
corpse needs, not a man. And they say, too, now, that if our
intellectual classes are attracted to the land and yearn for a farm, it’s
a good thing. But these farms are just the same as six feet of earth.
To retreat from town, from the struggle, from the bustle of life, to
retreat and bury oneself in one’s farm—it’s not life, it’s egoism,
laziness, it’s monasticism of a sort, but monasticism without good
works. A man does not need six feet of earth or a farm, but the
whole globe, all nature, where he can have room to display all the
qualities and peculiarities of his free spirit.
“My brother Nikolay, sitting in his government office, dreamed of
how he would eat his own cabbages, which would fill the whole yard
with such a savoury smell, take his meals on the green grass, sleep
in the sun, sit for whole hours on the seat by the gate gazing at the
fields and the forest. Gardening books and the agricultural hints in
calendars were his delight, his favourite spiritual sustenance; he
enjoyed reading newspapers, too, but the only things he read in
them were the advertisements of so many acres of arable land and a
grass meadow with farm-houses and buildings, a river, a garden, a
mill and millponds, for sale. And his imagination pictured the garden-
paths, flowers and fruit, starling cotes, the carp in the pond, and all
that sort of thing, you know. These imaginary pictures were of
different kinds according to the advertisements which he came
across, but for some reason in every one of them he had always to
have gooseberries. He could not imagine a homestead, he could not
picture an idyllic nook, without gooseberries.
“‘Country life has its conveniences,’ he would sometimes say. ‘You
sit on the verandah and you drink tea, while your ducks swim on the
pond, there is a delicious smell everywhere, and... and the
gooseberries are growing.’
“He used to draw a map of his property, and in every map there
were the same things—(a) house for the family, (b) servants’
quarters, (c) kitchen-garden, (d) gooseberry-bushes. He lived
parsimoniously, was frugal in food and drink, his clothes were
beyond description; he looked like a beggar, but kept on saving and
putting money in the bank. He grew fearfully avaricious. I did not
like to look at him, and I used to give him something and send him
presents for Christmas and Easter, but he used to save that too.
Once a man is absorbed by an idea there is no doing anything with
him.
“Years passed: he was transferred to another province. He was
over forty, and he was still reading the advertisements in the papers
and saving up. Then I heard he was married. Still with the same
object of buying a farm and having gooseberries, he married an
elderly and ugly widow without a trace of feeling for her, simply
because she had filthy lucre. He went on living frugally after
marrying her, and kept her short of food, while he put her money in
the bank in his name.
“Her first husband had been a postmaster, and with him she was
accustomed to pies and home-made wines, while with her second
husband she did not get enough black bread; she began to pine
away with this sort of life, and three years later she gave up her soul
to God. And I need hardly say that my brother never for one
moment imagined that he was responsible for her death. Money, like
vodka, makes a man queer. In our town there was a merchant who,
before he died, ordered a plateful of honey and ate up all his money
and lottery tickets with the honey, so that no one might get the
benefit of it. While I was inspecting cattle at a railway-station, a
cattle-dealer fell under an engine and had his leg cut off. We carried
him into the waiting-room, the blood was flowing—it was a horrible
thing—and he kept asking them to look for his leg and was very
much worried about it; there were twenty roubles in the boot on the
leg that had been cut off, and he was afraid they would be lost.”
“That’s a story from a different opera,” said Burkin.
“After his wife’s death,” Ivan Ivanovitch went on, after thinking for
half a minute, “my brother began looking out for an estate for
himself. Of course, you may look about for five years and yet end by
making a mistake, and buying something quite different from what
you have dreamed of. My brother Nikolay bought through an agent a
mortgaged estate of three hundred and thirty acres, with a house for
the family, with servants’ quarters, with a park, but with no orchard,
no gooseberry-bushes, and no duck-pond; there was a river, but the
water in it was the colour of coffee, because on one side of the
estate there was a brickyard and on the other a factory for burning
bones. But Nikolay Ivanovitch did not grieve much; he ordered
twenty gooseberry-bushes, planted them, and began living as a
country gentleman.
“Last year I went to pay him a visit. I thought I would go and see
what it was like. In his letters my brother called his estate
‘Tchumbaroklov Waste, alias Himalaiskoe.’ I reached ‘alias
Himalaiskoe’ in the afternoon. It was hot. Everywhere there were
ditches, fences, hedges, fir-trees planted in rows, and there was no
knowing how to get to the yard, where to put one’s horse. I went up
to the house, and was met by a fat red dog that looked like a pig. It
wanted to bark, but it was too lazy. The cook, a fat, barefooted
woman, came out of the kitchen, and she, too, looked like a pig, and
said that her master was resting after dinner. I went in to see my
brother. He was sitting up in bed with a quilt over his legs; he had
grown older, fatter, wrinkled; his cheeks, his nose, and his mouth all
stuck out—he looked as though he might begin grunting into the
quilt at any moment.
“We embraced each other, and shed tears of joy and of sadness at
the thought that we had once been young and now were both grey-
headed and near the grave. He dressed, and led me out to show me
the estate.
“‘Well, how are you getting on here?’ I asked.
“‘Oh, all right, thank God; I am getting on very well.’
“He was no more a poor timid clerk, but a real landowner, a
gentleman. He was already accustomed to it, had grown used to it,
and liked it. He ate a great deal, went to the bath-house, was
growing stout, was already at law with the village commune and
both factories, and was very much offended when the peasants did
not call him ‘Your Honour.’ And he concerned himself with the
salvation of his soul in a substantial, gentlemanly manner, and
performed deeds of charity, not simply, but with an air of
consequence. And what deeds of charity! He treated the peasants
for every sort of disease with soda and castor oil, and on his name-
day had a thanksgiving service in the middle of the village, and then
treated the peasants to a gallon of vodka—he thought that was the
thing to do. Oh, those horrible gallons of vodka! One day the fat
landowner hauls the peasants up before the district captain for
trespass, and next day, in honour of a holiday, treats them to a
gallon of vodka, and they drink and shout ‘Hurrah!’ and when they
are drunk bow down to his feet. A change of life for the better, and
being well-fed and idle develop in a Russian the most insolent self-
conceit. Nikolay Ivanovitch, who at one time in the government
office was afraid to have any views of his own, now could say
nothing that was not gospel truth, and uttered such truths in the
tone of a prime minister. ‘Education is essential, but for the peasants
it is premature.’ ‘Corporal punishment is harmful as a rule, but in
some cases it is necessary and there is nothing to take its place.’
“‘I know the peasants and understand how to treat them,’ he
would say. ‘The peasants like me. I need only to hold up my little
finger and the peasants will do anything I like.’
 “And all this, observe, was uttered with a wise, benevolent smile.
He repeated twenty times over ‘We noblemen,’ ‘I as a noble’;
obviously he did not remember that our grandfather was a peasant,
and our father a soldier. Even our surname Tchimsha-Himalaisky, in
reality so incongruous, seemed to him now melodious, distinguished,
and very agreeable.
“But the point just now is not he, but myself. I want to tell you
about the change that took place in me during the brief hours I
spent at his country place. In the evening, when we were drinking
tea, the cook put on the table a plateful of gooseberries. They were
not bought, but his own gooseberries, gathered for the first time
since the bushes were planted. Nikolay Ivanovitch laughed and
looked for a minute in silence at the gooseberries, with tears in his
eyes; he could not speak for excitement. Then he put one
gooseberry in his mouth, looked at me with the triumph of a child
who has at last received his favourite toy, and said:
“‘How delicious!’
“And he ate them greedily, continually repeating, ‘Ah, how
delicious! Do taste them!’
“They were sour and unripe, but, as Pushkin says:

“‘Dearer to us the falsehood that exalts

Than hosts of baser truths.’

“I saw a happy man whose cherished dream was so obviously

fulfilled, who had attained his object in life, who had gained what he
wanted, who was satisfied with his fate and himself. There is always,
for some reason, an element of sadness mingled with my thoughts
of human happiness, and, on this occasion, at the sight of a happy
man I was overcome by an oppressive feeling that was close upon
despair. It was particularly oppressive at night. A bed was made up
for me in the room next to my brother’s bedroom, and I could hear
that he was awake, and that he kept getting up and going to the
plate of gooseberries and taking one. I reflected how many satisfied,
happy people there really are! What a suffocating force it is! You
look at life: the insolence and idleness of the strong, the ignorance
and brutishness of the weak, incredible poverty all about us,
overcrowding, degeneration, drunkenness, hypocrisy, lying.... Yet all
is calm and stillness in the houses and in the streets; of the fifty
thousand living in a town, there is not one who would cry out, who
would give vent to his indignation aloud. We see the people going to
market for provisions, eating by day, sleeping by night, talking their
silly nonsense, getting married, growing old, serenely escorting their
dead to the cemetery; but we do not see and we do not hear those
who suffer, and what is terrible in life goes on somewhere behind
the scenes.... Everything is quiet and peaceful, and nothing protests
but mute statistics: so many people gone out of their minds, so
many gallons of vodka drunk, so many children dead from
malnutrition.... And this order of things is evidently necessary;
evidently the happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy
bear their burdens in silence, and without that silence happiness
would be impossible. It’s a case of general hypnotism. There ought
to be behind the door of every happy, contented man some one
standing with a hammer continually reminding him with a tap that
there are unhappy people; that however happy he may be, life will
show him her laws sooner or later, trouble will come for him—
disease, poverty, losses, and no one will see or hear, just as now he
neither sees nor hears others. But there is no man with a hammer;
the happy man lives at his ease, and trivial daily cares faintly agitate
him like the wind in the aspen-tree—and all goes well.
“That night I realized that I, too, was happy and contented,” Ivan
Ivanovitch went on, getting up. “I, too, at dinner and at the hunt
liked to lay down the law on life and religion, and the way to
manage the peasantry. I, too, used to say that science was light,
that culture was essential, but for the simple people reading and
writing was enough for the time. Freedom is a blessing, I used to
say; we can no more do without it than without air, but we must
wait a little. Yes, I used to talk like that, and now I ask, ‘For what
reason are we to wait?’” asked Ivan Ivanovitch, looking angrily at
Burkin. “Why wait, I ask you? What grounds have we for waiting? I
shall be told, it can’t be done all at once; every idea takes shape in
life gradually, in its due time. But who is it says that? Where is the
proof that it’s right? You will fall back upon the natural order of
things, the uniformity of phenomena; but is there order and
uniformity in the fact that I, a living, thinking man, stand over a
chasm and wait for it to close of itself, or to fill up with mud at the
very time when perhaps I might leap over it or build a bridge across
it? And again, wait for the sake of what? Wait till there’s no strength
to live? And meanwhile one must live, and one wants to live!
“I went away from my brother’s early in the morning, and ever
since then it has been unbearable for me to be in town. I am
oppressed by its peace and quiet; I am afraid to look at the
windows, for there is no spectacle more painful to me now than the
sight of a happy family sitting round the table drinking tea. I am old
and am not fit for the struggle; I am not even capable of hatred; I
can only grieve inwardly, feel irritated and vexed; but at night my
head is hot from the rush of ideas, and I cannot sleep.... Ah, if I
were young!”
Ivan Ivanovitch walked backwards and forwards in excitement,
and repeated: “If I were young!”
He suddenly went up to Alehin and began pressing first one of his
hands and then the other.
“Pavel Konstantinovitch,” he said in an imploring voice, “don’t be
calm and contented, don’t let yourself be put to sleep! While you are
young, strong, confident, be not weary in well-doing! There is no
happiness, and there ought not to be; but if there is a meaning and
an object in life, that meaning and object is not our happiness, but
something greater and more rational. Do good!”
And all this Ivan Ivanovitch said with a pitiful, imploring smile, as
though he were asking him a personal favour.
 Then all three sat in arm-chairs at different ends of the drawing-
room and were silent. Ivan Ivanovitch’s story had not satisfied either
Burkin or Alehin. When the generals and ladies gazed down from
their gilt frames, looking in the dusk as though they were alive, it
was dreary to listen to the story of the poor clerk who ate
gooseberries. They felt inclined, for some reason, to talk about
elegant people, about women. And their sitting in the drawing-room
where everything—the chandeliers in their covers, the arm-chairs,
and the carpet under their feet—reminded them that those very
people who were now looking down from their frames had once
moved about, sat, drunk tea in this room, and the fact that lovely
Pelagea was moving noiselessly about was better than any story.
Alehin was fearfully sleepy; he had got up early, before three
o’clock in the morning, to look after his work, and now his eyes were
closing; but he was afraid his visitors might tell some interesting
story after he had gone, and he lingered on. He did not go into the
question whether what Ivan Ivanovitch had just said was right and
true. His visitors did not talk of groats, nor of hay, nor of tar, but of
something that had no direct bearing on his life, and he was glad
and wanted them to go on.
“It’s bed-time, though,” said Burkin, getting up. “Allow me to wish
you good-night.”
Alehin said good-night and went downstairs to his own domain,
while the visitors remained upstairs. They were both taken for the
night to a big room where there stood two old wooden beds
decorated with carvings, and in the corner was an ivory crucifix. The
big cool beds, which had been made by the lovely Pelagea, smelt
agreeably of clean linen.
Ivan Ivanovitch undressed in silence and got into bed.
“Lord forgive us sinners!” he said, and put his head under the
quilt.
 His pipe lying on the table smelt strongly of stale tobacco, and
Burkin could not sleep for a long while, and kept wondering where
the oppressive smell came from.
The rain was pattering on the window-panes all night.
 ABOUT LOVE

A
T lunch next day there were very nice pies, crayfish, and
mutton cutlets; and while we were eating, Nikanor, the cook,
came up to ask what the visitors would like for dinner. He was
a man of medium height, with a puffy face and little eyes; he was
close-shaven, and it looked as though his moustaches had not been
shaved, but had been pulled out by the roots. Alehin told us that the
beautiful Pelagea was in love with this cook. As he drank and was of
a violent character, she did not want to marry him, but was willing to
live with him without. He was very devout, and his religious
convictions would not allow him to “live in sin”; he insisted on her
marrying him, and would consent to nothing else, and when he was
drunk he used to abuse her and even beat her. Whenever he got
drunk she used to hide upstairs and sob, and on such occasions
Alehin and the servants stayed in the house to be ready to defend
her in case of necessity.
We began talking about love.
“How love is born,” said Alehin, “why Pelagea does not love
somebody more like herself in her spiritual and external qualities,
and why she fell in love with Nikanor, that ugly snout—we all call him
‘The Snout’—how far questions of personal happiness are of
consequence in love—all that is known; one can take what view one
likes of it. So far only one incontestable truth has been uttered about
love: ‘This is a great mystery.’ Everything else that has been written
or said about love is not a conclusion, but only a statement of
questions which have remained unanswered. The explanation which
would seem to fit one case does not apply in a dozen others, and
the very best thing, to my mind, would be to explain every case
individually without attempting to generalize. We ought, as the
doctors say, to individualize each case.”
 “Perfectly true,” Burkin assented.
“We Russians of the educated class have a partiality for these
questions that remain unanswered. Love is usually poeticized,
decorated with roses, nightingales; we Russians decorate our loves
with these momentous questions, and select the most uninteresting
of them, too. In Moscow, when I was a student, I had a friend who
shared my life, a charming lady, and every time I took her in my
arms she was thinking what I would allow her a month for
housekeeping and what was the price of beef a pound. In the same
way, when we are in love we are never tired of asking ourselves
questions: whether it is honourable or dishonourable, sensible or
stupid, what this love is leading up to, and so on. Whether it is a
good thing or not I don’t know, but that it is in the way,
unsatisfactory, and irritating, I do know.”
It looked as though he wanted to tell some story. People who lead
a solitary existence always have something in their hearts which
they are eager to talk about. In town bachelors visit the baths and
the restaurants on purpose to talk, and sometimes tell the most
interesting things to bath attendants and waiters; in the country, as
a rule, they unbosom themselves to their guests. Now from the
window we could see a grey sky, trees drenched in the rain; in such
weather we could go nowhere, and there was nothing for us to do
but to tell stories and to listen.
“I have lived at Sofino and been farming for a long time,” Alehin
began, “ever since I left the University. I am an idle gentleman by
education, a studious person by disposition; but there was a big
debt owing on the estate when I came here, and as my father was
in debt partly because he had spent so much on my education, I
resolved not to go away, but to work till I paid off the debt. I made
up my mind to this and set to work, not, I must confess, without
some repugnance. The land here does not yield much, and if one is
not to farm at a loss one must employ serf labour or hired labourers,
which is almost the same thing, or put it on a peasant footing—that
is, work the fields oneself and with one’s family. There is no middle
path. But in those days I did not go into such subtleties. I did not
leave a clod of earth unturned; I gathered together all the peasants,
men and women, from the neighbouring villages; the work went on
at a tremendous pace. I myself ploughed and sowed and reaped,
and was bored doing it, and frowned with disgust, like a village cat
driven by hunger to eat cucumbers in the kitchen-garden. My body
ached, and I slept as I walked. At first it seemed to me that I could
easily reconcile this life of toil with my cultured habits; to do so, I
thought, all that is necessary is to maintain a certain external order
in life. I established myself upstairs here in the best rooms, and
ordered them to bring me there coffee and liquor after lunch and
dinner, and when I went to bed I read every night the Yyesnik
Evropi. But one day our priest, Father Ivan, came and drank up all
my liquor at one sitting; and the Yyesnik Evropi went to the priest’s
daughters; as in the summer, especially at the haymaking, I did not
succeed in getting to my bed at all, and slept in the sledge in the
barn, or somewhere in the forester’s lodge, what chance was there
of reading? Little by little I moved downstairs, began dining in the
servants’ kitchen, and of my former luxury nothing is left but the
servants who were in my father’s service, and whom it would be
painful to turn away.
“In the first years I was elected here an honourary justice of the
peace. I used to have to go to the town and take part in the
sessions of the congress and of the circuit court, and this was a
pleasant change for me. When you live here for two or three months
without a break, especially in the winter, you begin at last to pine for
a black coat. And in the circuit court there were frock-coats, and
uniforms, and dress-coats, too, all lawyers, men who have received
a general education; I had some one to talk to. After sleeping in the
sledge and dining in the kitchen, to sit in an arm-chair in clean linen,
in thin boots, with a chain on one’s waistcoat, is such luxury!
“I received a warm welcome in the town. I made friends eagerly.
And of all my acquaintanceships the most intimate and, to tell the
truth, the most agreeable to me was my acquaintance with
Luganovitch, the vice-president of the circuit court. You both know
him: a most charming personality. It all happened just after a
celebrated case of incendiarism; the preliminary investigation lasted
two days; we were exhausted. Luganovitch looked at me and said:
“‘Look here, come round to dinner with me.’
“This was unexpected, as I knew Luganovitch very little, only
officially, and I had never been to his house. I only just went to my
hotel room to change and went off to dinner. And here it was my lot
to meet Anna Alexyevna, Luganovitch’s wife. At that time she was
still very young, not more than twenty-two, and her first baby had
been born just six months before. It is all a thing of the past; and
now I should find it difficult to define what there was so exceptional
in her, what it was in her attracted me so much; at the time, at
dinner, it was all perfectly clear to me. I saw a lovely young, good,
intelligent, fascinating woman, such as I had never met before; and
I felt her at once some one close and already familiar, as though that
face, those cordial, intelligent eyes, I had seen somewhere in my
childhood, in the album which lay on my mother’s chest of drawers.
“Four Jews were charged with being incendiaries, were regarded
as a gang of robbers, and, to my mind, quite groundlessly. At dinner
I was very much excited, I was uncomfortable, and I don’t know
what I said, but Anna Alexyevna kept shaking her head and saying
to her husband:
“‘Dmitry, how is this?’
“Luganovitch is a good-natured man, one of those simple-hearted
people who firmly maintain the opinion that once a man is charged
before a court he is guilty, and to express doubt of the correctness
of a sentence cannot be done except in legal form on paper, and not
at dinner and in private conversation.
“‘You and I did not set fire to the place,’ he said softly, ‘and you
see we are not condemned, and not in prison.’
 “And both husband and wife tried to make me eat and drink as
much as possible. From some trifling details, from the way they
made the coffee together, for instance, and from the way they
understood each other at half a word, I could gather that they lived
in harmony and comfort, and that they were glad of a visitor. After
dinner they played a duet on the piano; then it got dark, and I went
home. That was at the beginning of spring.
“After that I spent the whole summer at Sofino without a break,
and I had no time to think of the town, either, but the memory of
the graceful fair-haired woman remained in my mind all those days;
I did not think of her, but it was as though her light shadow were
lying on my heart.
“In the late autumn there was a theatrical performance for some
charitable object in the town. I went into the governor’s box (I was
invited to go there in the interval); I looked, and there was Anna
Alexyevna sitting beside the governor’s wife; and again the same
irresistible, thrilling impression of beauty and sweet, caressing eyes,
and again the same feeling of nearness. We sat side by side, then
went to the foyer.
“‘You’ve grown thinner,’ she said; ‘have you been ill?’
“‘Yes, I’ve had rheumatism in my shoulder, and in rainy weather I
can’t sleep.’
“‘You look dispirited. In the spring, when you came to dinner, you
were younger, more confident. You were full of eagerness, and
talked a great deal then; you were very interesting, and I really must
confess I was a little carried away by you. For some reason you
often came back to my memory during the summer, and when I was
getting ready for the theatre today I thought I should see you.’
“And she laughed.
“‘But you look dispirited today,’ she repeated; ‘it makes you seem
older.’
 “The next day I lunched at the Luganovitchs’. After lunch they
drove out to their summer villa, in order to make arrangements
there for the winter, and I went with them. I returned with them to
the town, and at midnight drank tea with them in quiet domestic
surroundings, while the fire glowed, and the young mother kept
going to see if her baby girl was asleep. And after that, every time I
went to town I never failed to visit the Luganovitchs. They grew
used to me, and I grew used to them. As a rule I went in
unannounced, as though I were one of the family.
“‘Who is there?’ I would hear from a faraway room, in the
drawling voice that seemed to me so lovely.
“‘It is Pavel Konstantinovitch,’ answered the maid or the nurse.
“Anna Alexyevna would come out to me with an anxious face, and
would ask every time:
“‘Why is it so long since you have been? Has anything happened?’
“Her eyes, the elegant refined hand she gave me, her indoor
dress, the way she did her hair, her voice, her step, always produced
the same impression on me of something new and extraordinary in
my life, and very important. We talked together for hours, were
silent, thinking each our own thoughts, or she played for hours to
me on the piano. If there were no one at home I stayed and waited,
talked to the nurse, played with the child, or lay on the sofa in the
study and read; and when Anna Alexyevna came back I met her in
the hall, took all her parcels from her, and for some reason I carried
those parcels every time with as much love, with as much solemnity,
as a boy.
“There is a proverb that if a peasant woman has no troubles she
will buy a pig. The Luganovitchs had no troubles, so they made
friends with me. If I did not come to the town I must be ill or
something must have happened to me, and both of them were
extremely anxious. They were worried that I, an educated man with
a knowledge of languages, should, instead of devoting myself to
science or literary work, live in the country, rush round like a squirrel
in a rage, work hard with never a penny to show for it. They fancied
that I was unhappy, and that I only talked, laughed, and ate to
conceal my sufferings, and even at cheerful moments when I felt
happy I was aware of their searching eyes fixed upon me. They
were particularly touching when I really was depressed, when I was
being worried by some creditor or had not money enough to pay
interest on the proper day. The two of them, husband and wife,
would whisper together at the window; then he would come to me
and say with a grave face:
“‘If you really are in need of money at the moment, Pavel
Konstantinovitch, my wife and I beg you not to hesitate to borrow
from us.’
“And he would blush to his ears with emotion. And it would
happen that, after whispering in the same way at the window, he
would come up to me, with red ears, and say:
“‘My wife and I earnestly beg you to accept this present.’
“And he would give me studs, a cigar-case, or a lamp, and I would
send them game, butter, and flowers from the country. They both,
by the way, had considerable means of their own. In early days I
often borrowed money, and was not very particular about it—
borrowed wherever I could—but nothing in the world would have
induced me to borrow from the Luganovitchs. But why talk of it?
“I was unhappy. At home, in the fields, in the barn, I thought of
her; I tried to understand the mystery of a beautiful, intelligent
young woman’s marrying some one so uninteresting, almost an old
man (her husband was over forty), and having children by him; to
understand the mystery of this uninteresting, good, simple-hearted
man, who argued with such wearisome good sense, at balls and
evening parties kept near the more solid people, looking listless and
superfluous, with a submissive, uninterested expression, as though
he had been brought there for sale, who yet believed in his right to
be happy, to have children by her; and I kept trying to understand
why she had met him first and not me, and why such a terrible
mistake in our lives need have happened.
“And when I went to the town I saw every time from her eyes that
she was expecting me, and she would confess to me herself that she
had had a peculiar feeling all that day and had guessed that I should
come. We talked a long time, and were silent, yet we did not confess
our love to each other, but timidly and jealously concealed it. We
were afraid of everything that might reveal our secret to ourselves. I
loved her tenderly, deeply, but I reflected and kept asking myself
what our love could lead to if we had not the strength to fight
against it. It seemed to be incredible that my gentle, sad love could
all at once coarsely break up the even tenor of the life of her
husband, her children, and all the household in which I was so loved
and trusted. Would it be honourable? She would go away with me,
but where? Where could I take her? It would have been a different
matter if I had had a beautiful, interesting life—if, for instance, I had
been struggling for the emancipation of my country, or had been a
celebrated man of science, an artist or a painter; but as it was it
would mean taking her from one everyday humdrum life to another
as humdrum or perhaps more so. And how long would our
happiness last? What would happen to her in case I was ill, in case I
died, or if we simply grew cold to one another?
“And she apparently reasoned in the same way. She thought of
her husband, her children, and of her mother, who loved the
husband like a son. If she abandoned herself to her feelings she
would have to lie, or else to tell the truth, and in her position either
would have been equally terrible and inconvenient. And she was
tormented by the question whether her love would bring me
happiness—would she not complicate my life, which, as it was, was
hard enough and full of all sorts of trouble? She fancied she was not
young enough for me, that she was not industrious nor energetic
enough to begin a new life, and she often talked to her husband of
the importance of my marrying a girl of intelligence and merit who
would be a capable housewife and a help to me—and she would
immediately add that it would be difficult to find such a girl in the
whole town.
“Meanwhile the years were passing. Anna Alexyevna already had
two children. When I arrived at the Luganovitchs’ the servants
smiled cordially, the children shouted that Uncle Pavel
Konstantinovitch had come, and hung on my neck; every one was
overjoyed. They did not understand what was passing in my soul,
and thought that I, too, was happy. Every one looked on me as a
noble being. And grown-ups and children alike felt that a noble
being was walking about their rooms, and that gave a peculiar
charm to their manner towards me, as though in my presence their
life, too, was purer and more beautiful. Anna Alexyevna and I used
to go to the theatre together, always walking there; we used to sit
side by side in the stalls, our shoulders touching. I would take the
opera-glass from her hands without a word, and feel at that minute
that she was near me, that she was mine, that we could not live
without each other; but by some strange misunderstanding, when
we came out of the theatre we always said good-bye and parted as
though we were strangers. Goodness knows what people were
saying about us in the town already, but there was not a word of
truth in it all!
“In the latter years Anna Alexyevna took to going away for
frequent visits to her mother or to her sister; she began to suffer
from low spirits, she began to recognize that her life was spoilt and
unsatisfied, and at times she did not care to see her husband nor
her children. She was already being treated for neurasthenia.
“We were silent and still silent, and in the presence of outsiders
she displayed a strange irritation in regard to me; whatever I talked
about, she disagreed with me, and if I had an argument she sided
with my opponent. If I dropped anything, she would say coldly:
“‘I congratulate you.’
 “If I forgot to take the opera-glass when we were going to the
theatre, she would say afterwards:
“‘I knew you would forget it.’
“Luckily or unluckily, there is nothing in our lives that does not end
sooner or later. The time of parting came, as Luganovitch was
appointed president in one of the western provinces. They had to
sell their furniture, their horses, their summer villa. When they drove
out to the villa, and afterwards looked back as they were going
away, to look for the last time at the garden, at the green roof, every
one was sad, and I realized that I had to say goodbye not only to
the villa. It was arranged that at the end of August we should see
Anna Alexyevna off to the Crimea, where the doctors were sending
her, and that a little later Luganovitch and the children would set off
for the western province.
“We were a great crowd to see Anna Alexyevna off. When she had
said good-bye to her husband and her children and there was only a
minute left before the third bell, I ran into her compartment to put a
basket, which she had almost forgotten, on the rack, and I had to
say good-bye. When our eyes met in the compartment our spiritual
fortitude deserted us both; I took her in my arms, she pressed her
face to my breast, and tears flowed from her eyes. Kissing her face,
her shoulders, her hands wet with tears—oh, how unhappy we
were!—I confessed my love for her, and with a burning pain in my
heart I realized how unnecessary, how petty, and how deceptive all
that had hindered us from loving was. I understood that when you
love you must either, in your reasonings about that love, start from
what is highest, from what is more important than happiness or
unhappiness, sin or virtue in their accepted meaning, or you must
not reason at all.
“I kissed her for the last time, pressed her hand, and parted for
ever. The train had already started. I went into the next
compartment—it was empty—and until I reached the next station I
sat there crying. Then I walked home to Sofino....”