第16章

MY EXAMINATION IN MATHEMATICS

AT the subsequent examinations, I made several new acquaintances in addition to the Graps (whom I considered unworthy of my notice) and Iwin (who for some reason or other avoided me).With some of these new friends I grew quite intimate, and even Ikonin plucked up sufficient courage to inform me, when we next met, that he would have to undergo re-examination in history--the reason for his failure this time being that the professor of that faculty had never forgiven him for last year's examination, and had, indeed, "almost killed" him for it.Semenoff (who was destined for the same faculty as myself--the faculty of mathematics) avoided every one up to the very close of the examinations.Always leaning forward upon his elbows and running his fingers through his grey hair, he sat silent and alone.Nevertheless, when called up for examination in mathematics (he had no companion to accompany him), he came out second.The first place was taken by a student from the first gymnasium--a tall, dark, lanky, pale-faced fellow who wore a black folded cravat and had his cheeks and forehead dotted all over with pimples.His hands were shapely and slender, but their nails were so bitten to the quick that the finger-ends looked as though they had been tied round with strips of thread.All this seemed to me splendid, and wholly becoming to a student of the first gymnasium.He spoke to every one, and we all made friends with him.To me in particular his walk, his every movement, his lips, his dark eyes, all seemed to have in them something extraordinary and magnetic.

On the day of the mathematical examination I arrived earlier than usual at the hall.I knew the syllabus well, yet there were two questions in the algebra which my tutor had managed to pass over, and which were therefore quite unknown to me.If I remember rightly, they were the Theory of Combinations and Newton's Binomial.I seated myself on one of the back benches and pored over the two questions, but, inasmuch as I was not accustomed to working in a noisy room, and had even less time for preparation than I had anticipated, I soon found it difficult to take in all that I was reading.

"Here he is.This way, Nechludoff," said Woloda's familiar voice behind me.

I turned and saw my brother and Dimitri--their gowns unbuttoned, and their hands waving a greeting to me--threading their way through the desks.A moment's glance would have sufficed to show any one that they were second-course students--persons to whom the University was as a second home.The mere look of their open gowns expressed at once disdain for the "mere candidate" and a knowledge that the "mere candidate's" soul was filled with envy and admiration of them.I was charmed to think that every one near me could now see that I knew two real second-course students: wherefore I hastened to meet them half-way.

Woloda, of course, could not help vaunting his superiority a little.

"Hullo, you smug!" he said."Haven't you been examined yet?"

"No."

"Well, what are you reading? Aren't you sufficiently primed?"

"Yes, except in two questions.I don't understand them at all."