my beloved makar alexievitch,—do you know, i must quarrel with you. yes, good makar alexievitch, i really cannot accept your presents, for i know what they must have cost you—i know to what privations and self-denial they must have led. how many times have i not told you that i stand in need of nothing, of absolutely nothing, as well as that i shall never be in a position to recompense you for all the kindly acts with which you have loaded me? why, for instance, have you sent me geraniums? a little sprig of balsam would not have mattered so much—but geraniums! only have i to let fall an unguarded word—for example, about geraniums—and at once you buy me some! how much they must have cost you! yet what a charm there is in them, with their flaming petals! wherever did you get these beautiful plants? i have set them in my window as the most conspicuous place possible, while on the floor i have placed a bench for my other flowers to stand on (since you are good enough to enrich me with such presents). unfortunately, thedora, who, with her sweeping and polishing, makes a perfect sanctuary of my room, is not over-pleased at the arrangement. but why have you sent me also bonbons? your letter tells me that something special is afoot with you, for i find in it so much about paradise and spring and sweet odours and the songs of birds. surely, thought i to myself when i received it, this is as good as poetry! indeed, verses are the only thing that your letter lacks, makar alexievitch. and what tender feelings i can read in it—what roseate-coloured fancies! to the curtain, however, i had never given a thought. the fact is that when i moved the flower-pots, it looped itself up. there now!
ah, makar alexievitch, you neither speak of nor give any account of what you have spent upon me. you hope thereby to deceive me, to make it seem as though the cost always falls upon you alone, and that there is nothing to conceal. yet i know that for my sake you deny yourself necessaries. for instance, what has made you go and take the room which you have done, where you will be worried and disturbed, and where you have neither elbow-space nor comfort—you who love solitude, and never like to have any one near you? to judge from your salary, i should think that you might well live in greater ease than that. also, thedora tells me that your circumstances used to be much more affluent than they are at present. do you wish, then, to persuade me that your whole existence has been passed in loneliness and want and gloom, with never a cheering word to help you, nor a seat in a friend’s chimney-corner? ah, kind comrade, how my heart aches for you! but do not overtask your health, makar alexievitch. for instance, you say that your eyes are over-weak for you to go on writing in your office by candle-light. then why do so? i am sure that your official superiors do not need to be convinced of your diligence!
once more i implore you not to waste so much money upon me. i know how much you love me, but i also know that you are not rich.... this morning i too rose in good spirits. thedora had long been at work; and it was time that i too should bestir myself. indeed i was yearning to do so, so i went out for some silk, and then sat down to my labours. all the morning i felt light-hearted and cheerful. yet now my thoughts are once more dark and sad—once more my heart is ready to sink.
ah, what is going to become of me? what will be my fate? to have to be so uncertain as to the future, to have to be unable to foretell what is going to happen, distresses me deeply. even to look back at the past is horrible, for it contains sorrow that breaks my very heart at the thought of it. yes, a whole century in tears could i spend because of the wicked people who have wrecked my life!
but dusk is coming on, and i must set to work again. much else should i have liked to write to you, but time is lacking, and i must hasten. of course, to write this letter is a pleasure enough, and could never be wearisome; but why do you not come to see me in person? why do you not, makar alexievitch? you live so close to me, and at least some of your time is your own. i pray you, come. i have just seen theresa. she was looking so ill, and i felt so sorry for her, that i gave her twenty kopecks. i am almost falling asleep. write to me in fullest detail, both concerning your mode of life, and concerning the people who live with you, and concerning how you fare with them. i should so like to know! yes, you must write again. tonight i have purposely looped the curtain up. go to bed early, for, last night, i saw your candle burning until nearly midnight. goodbye! i am now feeling sad and weary. ah that i should have to spend such days as this one has been. again good-bye.—your friend,
barbara dobroselova.
