Oblomov - Ivan Goncharov [204]
She looked at him with wide-open eyes and waited.
‘Yes,’ he began slowly, almost stammering, ‘we mustn’t see each other too often. Yesterday they again started talking about us at the landlady’s and – and I don’t want that. As soon as everything is settled and my agent sees about the building and brings the money – I mean, all this will be finished in about a year and – and we shan’t have to part any more and – and we’ll tell your aunt – and – and – –’
He looked up at Olga: she had fainted. Her head was bent sideways and her teeth showed from between her lips, which had turned blue. He didn’t notice, while indulging in his dreams of their future happiness, that at the words: ‘As soon as everything is settled, and my agent sees…’ Olga had turned pale and did not hear the end of the sentence.
‘Olga! Good heavens, she has fainted!’ he said and pulled at the bell.
‘Your mistress has fainted,’ he said to Katya, when she ran into the room. ‘Water, quick!… And the smelling salts!’
‘Goodness, sir, she has been so happy all the morning! What’s happened to her?’ she whispered, bringing the smelling-salts from the aunt’s table and bustling over Olga with a glass of water.
Olga came to, got up with the help of Katya and Oblomov and walked unsteadily to her bedroom.
‘It’ll pass,’ she said weakly; ‘it’s just my nerves. I slept badly last night. I’ll feel better presently and come back.’
Left to himself, Oblomov put his ear to the door, tried to look through the keyhole, but heard and saw nothing. Half an hour later he walked down the corridor to the maid’s room and asked Katya how her mistress was.
‘She’s all right,’ said Katya. ‘She lay down and sent me away. I went in later and found her sitting in the arm-chair.’
Oblomov went back to the sitting-room, looked through the keyhole of Olga’s bedroom again, but heard nothing. He tapped on the door with his finger – there was no reply. He sat down and pondered. He did a great deal of thinking in that hour and a half, there were a great many changes in his ideas, and he took many new decisions. At last he made up his mind to go to the country together with his agent, but first to get the consent of Olga’s aunt to the announcement of their engagement, to ask Ivan Gerasimovich to find a flat and even to borrow some money – a little, to cover the expenses of the wedding. This loan he could repay out of the money he would get for the corn. Why, then, was he so dejected? Oh dear, how everything could change in a minute! In the country he and his agent would make all the necessary arrangements for the collection of the taxes, and, besides, he could write to Stolz, who would lend him some money and then come and get everything in Oblomovka ship-shape, make roads, build bridges, and open a school…. And he would be there with Olga! Lord, that was happiness! How was it he had never thought of it before? Suddenly he felt so light-hearted and gay; he began pacing the room, snapping his fingers and almost shouting with joy. He went up to Olga’s door and called to her in a cheerful voice.
‘Olga, Olga!’ he cried, putting his lips to the keyhole. ‘I’ve something to tell you! I’m sure you don’t know what it is!’
He even decided not to leave her that day, until after her aunt returned. ‘We’ll tell her to-day and I’ll go home as Olga’s fiancé!’
The door opened quietly and Olga appeared: he looked at her and suddenly his heart sank. His joy vanished: Olga seemed to have aged. She was pale, but her eyes glittered; an intense inner life was hidden in her tightly closed lips and in every