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_ VII
AT an evening party at the Eropkins, Mahin, who was paying attentions
to the two young daughters of the house--they were rich matches,
both of them--having earned great applause for his fine singing and
playing the piano, began telling the company about the strange convict
who had converted the hangman. Mahin told his story very accurately,
as he had a very good memory, which was all the more retentive
because of his total indifference to those with whom he had to deal.
He never paid the slightest attention to other people's feelings,
and was therefore better able to keep all they did or said in his memory.
He got interested in Stepan Pelageushkine, and, although he did
not thoroughly understand him, yet asked himself involuntarily
what was the matter with the man? He could not find an answer,
but feeling that there was certainly something remarkable going
on in Stepan's soul, he told the company at the Eropkins all about
Stepan's conversion of the hangman, and also about his strange
behaviour in prison, his reading the Gospels and his great influence
on the rest of the prisoners. All this made a special impression
on the younger daughter of the family, Lisa, a girl of eighteen,
who was just recovering from the artificial life she had been living
in a boarding-school; she felt as if she had emerged out of water,
and was taking in the fresh air of true life with ecstasy.
She asked Mahin to tell her more about the man Pelageushkine,
and to explain to her how such a great change had come over him.
Mahin told her what he knew from the police official about Stepan's
last murder, and also what he had heard from Pelageushkine himself--
how he had been conquered by the humility, mildness, and fearlessness
of a kind woman, who had been his last victim, and how his eyes
had been opened, while the reading of the Gospels had completed
the change in him.
Lisa Eropkin was not able to sleep that night. For a couple
of months a struggle had gone on in her heart between society life,
into which her sister was dragging her, and her infatuation for Mahin,
combined with a desire to reform him. This second desire now became
the stronger. She had already heard about poor Maria Semenovna.
But, after that kind woman had been murdered in such a ghastly way,
and after Mahin, who learnt it from Stepan, had communicated to
her all the facts concerning Maria Semenovna's life, Lisa herself
passionately desired to become like her. She was a rich girl,
and was afraid that Mahin had been courting her because of her money.
So she resolved to give all she possessed to the poor, and told
Mahin about it.
Mahin was very glad to prove his disinterestedness,
and told Lisa that he loved her and not her money.
Such proof of his innate nobility made him admire himself greatly.
Mahin helped Lisa to carry out her decision. And the more
he did so, the more he came to realise the new world of Lisa's
spiritual ambitions, quite unknown to him heretofore. _
Read next: PART SECOND: Chapter VIII
Read previous: PART SECOND: Chapter VI
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