Leo Tolstoy Archive


A Russian Proprietor, and Other Stories,
Two Hussars
Part 5, Chapter 16


Written: 1887
Source: "A Russian Proprietor and Other Stories," by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Nathan Haskell Dole, 1887, published by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York, 13 Astor Place.
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021


Leo Tolstoy

The next day the battalion departed. The officers did not see any of the household, or bid them farewell. Neither did they speak together.

It was understood that they were to fight their duel when they came to the next halting-place. But Captain Schultz, a good comrade, an admirable horseman, who was loved by everybody in the regiment, and had been chosen by the count for his second, succeeded in arranging the affair in such a manner that not only they did not fight, but that no one in the regiment knew about the matter; and Turbin and Polózof, though their old relations of friendship were never restored, still said "thou," and met at meals and at the gaming-table.

FOOTNOTES:

[56] From the poem entitled, "The Song of an Old Hussar," in which a veteran contrasts the mighty days of the past with the dilettanti present. Denis Vasilyevitch Davuidof, who was an officer of hussars, died in 1839.—Tr.

[57] Diminished diminutive of Aleksandr.

[58] Blue notes were five rubles.

[59] isprávnik.

[60] Diminutive of Stepanida, Stephanie.

[61] golúbchiki, little pigeons.

[62] babas.

[63] Five or ten rubles.

[64] arshins.

[65] zakuski.

[66] Diminutive of Vasili.

[67] tsiganotchka.

[68] grafchik! golubchik!

[69] Landed proprietor.

[70] denshchik.

[71] próshol.

[72] muzhík.

[73] lapti.

[74] katsavéïka.

[75] golúbchik.

[76] Village elder.

[77] kherubimchik.

[78] A sour beverage made of cranberries.

[79] barsky dvor.

[80] kammerdiener.

[81] báruinya.

[82] kúrnaya izbá, a peasant's hut without chimney.

[83] bátiuzhki moï!

[84] Assignatsii.

[85] Akh! Bozhe moï!

[86] stanovói.

[87] The lezhanka, a part of the oven built out as a sort of couch.