No one appeared on the platform either.
The back rows began applauding, as in a theatre.
The elderly gentlemen and the ladies frowned.
"The Lembkes are really giving themselves unbearable airs."
Even among the better part of the audience an absurd whisper began to gain ground that perhaps there would not be a fete at all, that Lembke perhaps was really unwell, and so on and so on.
But, thank God, the Lembkes at last appeared, she was leaning on his arm; I must confess I was in great apprehension myself about their appearance.
But the legends were disproved, and the truth was triumphant.
The audience seemed relieved.
Lembke himself seemed perfectly well. Every one, I remember, was of that opinion, for it can be imagined how many eyes were turned on him.
I may mention, as characteristic of our society, that there were very few of the better-class people who saw reason to suppose that there was anything wrong with him; his conduct seemed to them perfectly normal, and so much so that the action he had taken in the square the morning before was accepted and approved.
"That's how it should have been from the first," the higher officials declared.
"If a man begins as a philanthropist he has to come to the same thing in the end, though he does not see that it was necessary from the point of view of philanthropy itself"—that, at least, was the opinion at the club.
They only blamed him for having lost his temper.
"It ought to have been done more coolly, but there, he is a new man," said the authorities.
All eyes turned with equal eagerness to Yulia Mihailovna.
Of course no one has the right to expect from me an exact account in regard to one point: that is a mysterious, a feminine question. But I only know one thing: on the evening of the previous day she had gone into Andrey Antonovitch's study and was there with him till long after midnight.
Andrey Antonovitch was comforted and forgiven.
The husband and wife came to a complete understanding, everything was forgotten, and when at the end of the interview Lembke went down on his knees, recalling with horror the final incident of the previous night, the exquisite hand, and after it the lips of his wife, checked the fervent flow of penitent phrases of the chivalrously delicate gentleman who was limp with emotion.
Every one could see the happiness in her face.
She walked in with an open-hearted air, wearing a magnificent dress.
She seemed to be at the very pinnacle of her heart's desires, the fete—the goal and crown of her diplomacy—was an accomplished fact.
As they walked to their seats in front of the platform, the Lembkes bowed in all directions and responded to greetings.
They were at once surrounded.
The marshal's wife got up to meet them. But at that point a horrid misunderstanding occurred; the orchestra, apropos of nothing, struck up a flourish, not a triumphal march of any kind, but a simple flourish such as was played at the club when some one's health was drunk at an official dinner.
I know now that Lyamshin, in his capacity of steward, had arranged this, as though in honour of the Lembkes' entrance.
Of course he could always excuse it as a blunder or excessive zeal.... Alas! I did not know at the time that they no longer cared even to find excuses, and that all such considerations were from that day a thing of the past.
But the flourish was not the end of it: in the midst of the vexatious astonishment and the smiles of the audience there was a sudden "hurrah" from the end of the hall and from the gallery also, apparently in Lembke's honour.
The hurrahs were few, but I must confess they lasted for some time.
Yulia Mihailovna flushed, her eyes flashed.
Lembke stood still at his chair, and turning towards the voices sternly and majestically scanned the audience.... They hastened to make him sit down.
I noticed with dismay the same dangerous smile on his face as he had worn the morning before, in his wife's drawing-room, when he stared at Stepan Trofimovitch before going up to him.
It seemed to me that now, too, there was an ominous, and, worst of all, a rather comic expression on his countenance, the expression of a man resigned to sacrifice himself to satisfy his wife's lofty aims.... Yulia Mihailovna beckoned to me hurriedly, and whispered to me to run to Karmazinov and entreat him to begin.
And no sooner had I turned away than another disgraceful incident, much more unpleasant than the first, took place.
On the platform, the empty platform, on which till that moment all eyes and all expectations were fastened, and where nothing was to be seen but a small table, a chair in front of it, and on the table a glass of water on a silver salver—on the empty platform there suddenly appeared the colossal figure of Captain Lebyadkin wearing a dress-coat and a white tie.
I was so astounded I could not believe my eyes.
The captain seemed confused and remained standing at the back of the platform.
Suddenly there was a shout in the audience,
"Lebyadkin! You?"
The captain's stupid red face (he was hopelessly drunk) expanded in a broad vacant grin at this greeting.
He raised his hand, rubbed his forehead with it, shook his shaggy head and, as though making up his mind to go through with it, took two steps forward and suddenly went off into a series of prolonged, blissful, gurgling, but not loud guffaws, which made him screw up his eyes and set all his bulky person heaving.
This spectacle set almost half the audience laughing, twenty people applauded.
The serious part of the audience looked at one another gloomily; it all lasted only half a minute, however.
Liputin, wearing his steward's rosette, ran on to the platform with two servants; they carefully took the captain by both arms, while Liputin whispered something to him.
The captain scowled, muttered
"Ah, well, if that's it!" waved his hand, turned his huge back to the public and vanished with his escort.
But a minute later Liputin skipped on to the platform again.
He was wearing the sweetest of his invariable smiles, which usually suggested vinegar and sugar, and carried in his hands a sheet of note-paper.
With tiny but rapid steps he came forward to the edge of the platform.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, addressing the public, "through our inadvertency there has arisen a comical misunderstanding which has been removed; but I've hopefully undertaken to do something at the earnest and most respectful request of one of our local poets. Deeply touched by the humane and lofty object... in spite of his appearance... the object which has brought us all together... to wipe away the tears of the poor but well-educated girls of our province... this gentleman, I mean this local poet... although desirous of preserving his incognito, would gladly have heard his poem read at the beginning of the ball... that is, I mean, of the matinee.
Though this poem is not in the programme... for it has only been received half an hour ago... yet it has seemed to us"—(Us? Whom did he mean by us?