第99章

Again he approached the portrait, in order to observe those wondrous eyes, and perceived, with terror, that they were gazing at him.This was no copy from Nature; it was life, the strange life which might have lighted up the face of a dead man, risen from the grave.Whether it was the effect of the moonlight, which brought with it fantastic thoughts, and transformed things into strange likenesses, opposed to those of matter-of-fact day, or from some other cause, but it suddenly became terrible to him, he knew not why, to sit alone in the room.He draw back from the portrait, turned aside, and tried not to look at it; but his eye involuntarily, of its own accord, kept glancing sideways towards it.Finally, he became afraid to walk about the room.

It seemed as though some one were on the point of stepping up behind him; and every time he turned, he glanced timidly back.He had never been a coward; but his imagination and nerves were sensitive, and that evening he could not explain his involuntary fear.He seated himself in one corner, but even then it seemed to him that some one was peeping over his shoulder into his face.Even Nikita's snores, resounding from the ante-room, did not chase away his fear.At length he rose from the seat, without raising his eyes, went behind a screen, and lay down on his bed.Through the cracks of the screen he saw his room lit up by the moon, and the portrait hanging stiffly on the wall.

The eyes were fixed upon him in a yet more terrible and significant manner, and it seemed as if they would not look at anything but himself.Overpowered with a feeling of oppression, he decided to rise from his bed, seized a sheet, and, approaching the portrait, covered it up completely.

Having done this, he lay done more at ease on his bed, and began to meditate upon the poverty and pitiful lot of the artist, and the thorny path lying before him in the world.But meanwhile his eye glanced involuntarily through the joint of the screen at the portrait muffled in the sheet.The light of the moon heightened the whiteness of the sheet, and it seemed to him as though those terrible eyes shone through the cloth.With terror he fixed his eyes more steadfastly on the spot, as if wishing to convince himself that it was all nonsense.

But at length he saw--saw clearly; there was no longer a sheet--the portrait was quite uncovered, and was gazing beyond everything around it, straight at him; gazing as it seemed fairly into his heart.His heart grew cold.He watched anxiously; the old man moved, and suddenly, supporting himself on the frame with both arms, raised himself by his hands, and, putting forth both feet, leapt out of the frame.Through the crack of the screen, the empty frame alone was now visible.Footsteps resounded through the room, and approached nearer and nearer to the screen.The poor artist's heart began beating fast.

He expected every moment, his breath failing for fear, that the old man would look round the screen at him.And lo! he did look from behind the screen, with the very same bronzed face, and with his big eyes roving about.

Tchartkoff tried to scream, and felt that his voice was gone; he tried to move; his limbs refused their office.With open mouth, and failing breath, he gazed at the tall phantom, draped in some kind of a flowing Asiatic robe, and waited for what it would do.The old man sat down almost on his very feet, and then pulled out something from among the folds of his wide garment.It was a purse.The old man untied it, took it by the end, and shook it.Heavy rolls of coin fell out with a dull thud upon the floor.Each was wrapped in blue paper, and on each was marked, "1000 ducats." The old man protruded his long, bony hand from his wide sleeves, and began to undo the rolls.The gold glittered.

Great as was the artist's unreasoning fear, he concentrated all his attention upon the gold, gazing motionless, as it made its appearance in the bony hands, gleamed, rang lightly or dully, and was wrapped up again.Then he perceived one packet which had rolled farther than the rest, to the very leg of his bedstead, near his pillow.He grasped it almost convulsively, and glanced in fear at the old man to see whether he noticed it.

But the old man appeared very much occupied: he collected all his rolls, replaced them in the purse, and went outside the screen without looking at him.Tchartkoff's heart beat wildly as he heard the rustle of the retreating footsteps sounding through the room.He clasped the roll of coin more closely in his hand, quivering in every limb.

Suddenly he heard the footsteps approaching the screen again.

Apparently the old man had recollected that one roll was missing.Lo!

again he looked round the screen at him.The artist in despair grasped the roll with all his strength, tried with all his power to make a movement, shrieked--and awoke.