第14章

THE EXAMINATION IN HISTORY

ON the 16th of April I entered, for the first time, and under the wing of St.Jerome, the great hall of the University.I had driven there with St.Jerome in our smart phaeton and wearing the first frockcoat of my life, while the whole of my other clothes--

even down to my socks and linen--were new and of a grander sort.

When a Swiss waiter relieved me of my greatcoat, and I stood before him in all the beauty of my attire, I felt almost sorry to dazzle him so.Yet I had no sooner entered the bright, carpeted, crowded hall, and caught sight of hundreds of other young men in gymnasium [The Russian gymnasium = the English grammar or secondary school.] uniforms or frockcoats (of whom but a few threw me an indifferent glance), as well as, at the far end, of some solemn-looking professors who were seated on chairs or walking carelessly about among some tables, than I at once became disabused of the notion that I should attract the general attention, while the expression of my face, which at home, and even in the vestibule of the University buildings, had denoted only a kind of vague regret that I should have to present so important and distinguished an appearance, became exchanged for an expression of the most acute nervousness and dejection.

However, I soon picked up again when I perceived sitting at one of the desks a very badly, untidily dressed gentleman who, though not really old, was almost entirely grey.He was occupying a seat quite at the back of the hall and a little apart from the rest, so I hastened to sit down beside him, and then fell to looking at the candidates for examination, and to forming conclusions about them.Many different figures and faces were there to be seen there; yet, in my opinion, they all seemed to divide themselves into three classes.First of all, there were youths like myself, attending for examination in the company of their parents or tutors.Among such I could see the youngest Iwin (accompanied by Frost) and Ilinka Grap (accompanied by his old father).All youths of this class wore the early beginnings of beards, sported prominent linen, sat quietly in their places, and never opened the books and notebooks which they had brought with them, but gazed at the professors and examination tables with ill-concealed nervousness.The second class of candidates were young men in gymnasium uniforms.Several of them had attained to the dignity of shaving, and most of them knew one another.They talked loudly, called the professors by their names and surnames, occupied themselves in getting their subjects ready, exchanged notebooks, climbed over desks, fetched themselves pies and sandwiches from the vestibule, and ate them then and there merely lowering their heads to the level of a desk for propriety's sake.

Lastly, the third class of candidates (which seemed a small one)

consisted of oldish men--some of them in frock coats, but the majority in jackets, and with no linen to be seen.These preserved a serious demeanour, sat by themselves, and had a very dingy look.The man who had afforded me consolation by being worse dressed than myself belonged to this class.Leaning forward upon his elbows, and running his fingers through his grey, dishevelled hair as he read some book or another, he had thrown me only a momentary glance--and that not a very friendly one--

from a pair of glittering eyes.Then, as I sat down, he had frowned grimly, and stuck a shiny elbow out to prevent me from coming any nearer.On the other hand, the gymnasium men were over-sociable, and I felt rather afraid of their proximity.One of them did not hesitate to thrust a book into my hands, saying, "Give that to that fellow over there, will you?" while another of them exclaimed as he pushed past me, "By your leave, young fellow!" and a third made use of my shoulder as a prop when he wanted to scramble over a desk.All this seemed to me a little rough and unpleasant, for I looked upon myself as immensely superior to such fellows, and considered that they ought not to treat me with such familiarity.At length, the names began to be called out.The gymnasium men walked out boldly, answered their questions (apparently) well, and came back looking cheerful.My own class of candidates were much more diffident, as well as appeared to answer worse.Of the oldish men, some answered well, and some very poorly.When the name "Semenoff " was called out my neighbour with the grey hair and glittering eyes jostled me roughly, stepped over my legs, and went up to one of the examiners' tables.It was plain from the aspect of the professors that he answered well and with assurance, yet, on returning to his place, he did not wait to see where he was placed on the list, but quietly collected his notebooks and departed.Several times I shuddered at the sound of the voice calling out the names, but my turn did not come in exact alphabetical order, though already names had begun to be called beginning with "I."

"Ikonin and Tenieff!" suddenly shouted some one from the professors' end of the hall.

"Go on, Ikonin! You are being called," said a tall, red-faced gymnasium student near me."But who is this BARtenieff or MORtenieff or somebody? I don't know him."