Читать книгу Petersburg - Andrei Bely - Страница 20

In the oak dining room the wall cuckoo clock had already cuckooed. Apollon Apollonovich had sat down before his porcelain cup and was breaking off warm crusts of bread. Over coffee—even then, even then—he would have his little joke:

“Who is the most respected of them all, Semyonych?”^†

“I suppose, Apollon Apollonovich, that the most respected of them all is an Actual Privy Councilor.”^†

Apollon Apollonovich smiled with his lips only:

“You suppose incorrectly: a chimney sweep . . .

The valet already knew the way the riddle ended, but he kept quiet about it.

“But why, if I may venture to ask?”

“People make way for an Actual Privy Councilor, Semyonych. . . .”

“I suppose that’s so. . . .”

“A chimney sweep. . . . Even an Actual Privy Councilor will make way for him: a chimney sweep can get you all dirty.”

“So that’s what it is, sir.”

“Yes, precisely. Except that there is an even more respected occupation. . . .”

And then and there he added:

“A cesspool cleaner . . .”

“Ugh . . .”

And a gulp of coffee.

“Well, Apollon Apollonovich, there were times when Anna Petrovna . . .”

But with the word “Anna Petrovna” the gray-haired valet stopped short.

***

“The gray coat, sir?”

“Yes . . .”

“And the gloves, sir?”

“Let me have the suede gloves. . . .”

“Kindly wait a moment, sir. Your Excellency, your gloves are in the chiffonier: Shelf B—northwest.”

Only once had Apollon Apollonovich taken note of the trivia of life: he had made an audit of the household inventory. The inventory was registered in proper order and a nomenclature for all the shelves, large and small, was established: there appeared shelves labelled with the Latin letters A, B, C. And the four corners of each shelf received the designation of the four corners of the earth.

Putting away his spectacles, Apollon Apollonovich would note in the register, in a fine, minute hand: spectacles, shelf B and NE, that is, northeast. As for the valet, he was given a copy of the register.

***

In the lacquered house the storms of life flowed noiselessly on; here, nonetheless, the storms of life did flow destructively on.