414
PARTISAN REVIEW
Sergei Shchukin turned off the radio, the voices of the virgin
land dwellers broke off.
Again they began to tear off pieces of newspaper, pulling it out
little by little from under the cracked glass on the table top, and
rolling up cigarettes, both plain and twisted into L-shape.... They
were silent for a long while, smoking. . . . And when they began
again to exchange short remarks, these were already idle remarks,
not about anything, not meant for anyone. About the weather–
the weather was rotten, in such weather your bones ached. About
newspapers-there are different kinds;
if
you roll a cigarette from
some, all you get is a bitter taste and there's no tobacco smell. Then
there was something said about yesterday-someone had to go some–
where, but didn't go. Then about tomorrow--ought to get up earlier;
the old lady has finally got around to making pancakes. . . . Idle
words, but they were already uttered in muffled voices, quietly, with
a glance around now and then and at the stove, as though behind
it were concealed not Marfa, the office cleaning woman, but some
sort of outsider, some obscure person with whom one must be on
guard. Tsipyshev grew serious, no longer talked, did not smile, only
asked about three times, by the way, without addressing anyone in
particular, "What's keeping this teacher? We ought to get the Party
meeting started."
Only Shchukin suddenly acted a bit strangely. He could not
sit still, the stool under him scraped. His eyes--young, impudent, and
sharp--shone upon everyone defiantly. It was as though Shchukin
suddenly saw something that no one else had yet seen and therefore
felt
his
superiority over the others. Finally, he could not hold back
and laughed loudly.
"Boy, that darned dame gave us a scare!" said Shchukin,
laughing.
Piotr Kuz'mich and Konoplev exchanged glances and also
laughed.
"It's true-the old she-devil. Bellowing all of a sudden from
behind the stove. Well, I thought ..." Ivan Konoplev finished the
sentence with difficulty, "Well, I thought the big man himself had
come-caught us in the act...."
"We got scared like little boys caught in some one else's c<lJbbage
patch."
