The Schoolmaster and other stories - Penn State University

Anton TchekhovIIWHEN NADYA WOKE UP it must have been two o’clock, itwas beginning to get light. A watchman was tappingsomewhere far away. She was not sleepy, and her bedfelt very soft and uncomfortable. Nadya sat up in herbed and fell to thinking as she had done every night inMay. Her thoughts were the same as they had been thenight before, useless, persistent thoughts, always alike,of how Andrey Andreitch had begun courting her andhad made her an offer, how she had accepted him andthen little by little had come to appreciate the kindly,intelligent man. But for some reason now when therewas hardly a month left before the wedding, she beganto feel dread and uneasiness as though something vagueand oppressive were before her.“Tick-tock, tick-tock …” the watchman tapped lazily.“… Tick-tock.”Through the big old-fashioned window she could seethe garden and at a little distance bushes of lilac in fullflower, drowsy and lifeless from the cold; and the thickwhite mist was floating softly up to the lilac, trying tocover it. Drowsy rooks were cawing in the far-away trees.“My God, why is my heart so heavy?”Perhaps every girl felt the same before her wedding.There was no knowing! Or was it Sasha’s influence? Butfor several years past Sasha had been repeating the samething, like a copybook, and when he talked he seemednaïve and queer. But why was it she could not get Sashaout of her head? Why was it?The watchman left off tapping for a long while. Thebirds were twittering under the windows and the misthad disappeared from the garden. Everything waslighted up by the spring sunshine as by a smile. Soonthe whole garden, warm and caressed by the sun, returnedto life, and dewdrops like diamonds glittered onthe leaves and the old neglected garden on that morninglooked young and gaily decked.Granny was already awake. Sasha’s husky cough began.Nadya could hear them below, setting the samovarand moving the chairs. The hours passed slowly, Nadya37