Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak [227]
“It troubles me that all my letters to Moscow have gone unanswered. I must get there and find out what has happened with my family. You keep saying that yourself. But then how understand your words about Varykino? Would you really go to that frightening wilderness without me?”
“No, without you, of course, it’s unthinkable.”
“And yet you’re sending me to Moscow?”
“Yes, that’s indispensable.”
“Listen. Do you know what? I have an excellent plan. Let’s go to Moscow. You and Katenka together with me.”
“To Moscow? You’re out of your mind. Why on earth? No, I have to stay. I must be in readiness somewhere nearby. Pashenka’s fate is being decided here. I must wait for the outcome, so as to be at hand in case of need.”
“Then let’s give some thought to Katenka.”
“From time to time Simushka stops by to see me, Sima Tuntseva. We were talking about her the other day.”
“Well, of course. I often see her at your place.”
“I’m surprised at you. Where are men’s eyes? If I were you, I’d certainly have fallen in love with her. So enchanting! Such fine looks! Tall. Shapely. Intelligent. Well-read. Kind. Clear-headed.”
“On the day I returned here from captivity, her sister, the seamstress Glafira, shaved me.”
“I know. The sisters live together with the eldest, Avdotya, the librarian. An honest, hardworking family. I want to persuade them, in the worst case, if you and I are picked up, to take Katenka into their charge. I haven’t decided yet.”
“But really only in the most hopeless case. And God grant that such a misfortune is still a long way off.”
“They say Sima’s a bit odd, not all there. In fact, one has to admit that she’s not an entirely normal woman. But that’s owing to her depth and originality. She’s phenomenally well educated, only not like the intelligentsia, but like the people. Your views and hers are strikingly similar. I would trust Katya to her upbringing with an easy heart.”
17
Again he went to the station and came back with nothing for his pains. Everything remained undecided. He and Lara were faced with uncertainty. It was a cold, dark day, as before the first snow. The sky over the intersections, where it spread wider than over the streets drawn out lengthwise, had a wintry look.
When Yuri Andreevich came home, he found Simushka visiting Lara. A talk was going on between the two that bore the character of a lecture read by the guest to the hostess. Yuri Andreevich did not want to disturb them. Besides, he wanted to be alone for a while. The women were talking in the next room. The door was ajar. A floor-length curtain hung from the lintel, through which he could hear every word of their conversation.
“I’ll sew, but don’t pay any attention to that, Simochka. I’m all ears. In my time I took courses in history and philosophy at the university. The structure of your thought is after my own heart. Besides, listening to you is such a relief for me. These last few nights we haven’t had enough sleep, because of various worries. My motherly duty towards Katenka is to assure her safety in case of possible troubles with us. I have to think soberly about her. I’m not particularly strong in that. It makes me sad to realize it. I’m sad from fatigue and lack of sleep. Your conversation calms me down. Besides, it’s going to snow any moment. When it snows, it’s such a pleasure to listen to long, intelligent reasoning. If you glance out the window when it’s snowing, it seems like somebody’s coming towards the house through the courtyard, doesn’t it? Begin, Simochka. I’m listening.”
“Where did we stop last time?”
Yuri Andreevich did not hear Lara’s reply. He began to follow what Sima was saying.
“It’s possible to make use of the words ‘culture’ and ‘epochs.’ But they are so differently understood. In view of the uncertainty of their meaning,