Yakov Aratov lived on Shabolovka in a small wooden house with his aunt Platonida Ivanovna, Platosha, as his father called her. He was 25 years old, but he lived in isolation, was engaged in photography, was friends only with Kupfer, a Russified German who was sincerely attached to Aratov. For this, Platosha forgave him some arrogance and noisy cheerfulness. More and more, Jacob went to his father. He also lived in solitude, was engaged in chemistry, mineralogy, entomology, botany and medicine, was known as a warlock, considering himself the great-grandson of Bruce, in whose honor he named his son, and was inclined to everything mysterious and mystical. Jacob inherited this trait of his, believed in secrets that can sometimes be discerned, but impossible to comprehend. He believed in science. While still alive, he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, but left.
And yet, Kupfer once pulled Aratov to a concert in the house of a familiar Georgian princess. But he did not stay long that evening. Despite this, the next time Kupfer lured him to the princess, praising the first-class talent of a certain Klara Milich, about which they have not yet decided: Viardo she or Rachelle. “Does she have black eyes?” Aratov asked. "Yes, like coal!" It turned out that he had already seen this girl with the princess. She was nineteen years old, she was tall, beautifully built, with a beautiful dark complexion, thoughtful and almost stern. They took it very well, clapped for a long time and loudly.
During the singing, Aratov thought that her black eyes were all the time turned to him. This continued later, when she read from Eugene Onegin. Her reading, at first a little hasty, from the words "My whole life was a guarantee of a faithful meeting with you" became expressive and filled with feeling. Her eyes boldly and directly looked at Aratov.
Shortly after the concert, the delivery man brought Aratov a note inviting him to come at about five to Tverskaya Boulevard. It is very important.
At first he firmly decided not to walk, but at half-past three he went to the boulevard. After sitting for a while on a bench with thoughts of a mysterious stranger, he suddenly felt like someone had approached and stood behind him. Clara Milic was confused, apologizing for her courage, but she wanted to tell him so much.
Aratov suddenly felt annoyed: at himself, at her, at the ridiculous date, and at this explanation among the public. Irritation dictated a dry and tense rebuke: “gracious empress,” “I am even surprised,” “I can be useful,” “ready to listen to you.”
Clara was scared, embarrassed and saddened: “I was deceived in you ...” Her suddenly flushed face took an evil and bold expression: “How stupid our meeting is! How stupid I am! .. Yes, and you ... ”She laughed and quickly disappeared.
Two to three months have passed. And then one day he read in the Moskovskiye Vedomosti a message about the suicide in Kazan of gifted artist and public favorite Klara Milich. The reason, according to rumors, was unhappy love. Kupfer confirmed that this is true. But the newspaper is lying, there are no cupids: it was proud and impregnable Hard, like a stone. Only the offense would not have endured. He went to Kazan, got acquainted with the family. Her real name is Katerina Milovidova, daughter of a teacher of drawing, a drunkard and a home tyrant.
That night, Aratov dreamed that he was walking along the bare steppe. Suddenly a thin cloud appeared in front of him, becoming a woman in white robes. Her eyes were closed, her face was white, and her hands hung motionless. Without bending at the back, she lay on a stone like a grave, and Aratov, folding his hands on his chest, lay down next to her. But she got up and went, and he could not even move. She turned around, her eyes were alive, and her face also came to life. She beckoned to him. It was Clara: “If you want to know who I am, go there!”
In the morning he announced the Plateau that he was going to Kazan.There, from conversations with widow Milovidova and Klara’s sister Anna Aratov, she learned that Katya had been obstinate, self-willed and proud since childhood. Father despised for drunkenness and mediocrity. All she had was fire, passion and contradiction. She said: “I won’t meet anyone I want ... but I don’t need others!” - "Well, what if you meet?" “I’ll take a meeting.” - “And if you don’t get it?” “Well, then ... I will kill myself. So I'm not fit. "
Anna resolutely rejected even the thought of unhappy love as the cause of her sister's death. Here is her diary, is there a hint of unhappy love there?
Alas, Aratov came across such a hint right away. He begged Anna for a diary and a photo card, promising to return it, and went to Moscow.
At home, in his office, he felt that he was now in Clara’s power. He took her photo card, enlarged it, adjusted it to a stereoscope: the figure received some semblance of corporeality, but it did not finally come to life, everyone's eyes looked to the side. She seemed not to be given to him. He recalled how Anna said about her: untouched. That's what gave her power over him, also untouched. The thought of the immortality of the soul again visited him. "Death, where is your sting?" - said in the Bible.
In the evening darkness, it now seemed to him that he hears Clara’s voice, senses her presence. Once he managed to single out the word "roses" from a stream of sounds, another time - the word "I"; it seemed as if a soft whirlwind swept through the room, through it, through it. The spot of the door, whitening in the dark, moved, and a white female figure appeared - Klara! On her head is a wreath of red roses ... He rose. Before him was his aunt in a cap and in a white sweater. She became worried when she heard his screams in a dream.
Immediately after breakfast, Aratov went to Kupfer, and he said that Klara had already drunk poison in the theater, before the first act, and played as never before. And as soon as the curtain fell, she immediately, on stage, and fell ...
On the night after a visit to a friend, Aratov dreamed that he was the owner of a wealthy estate. He is accompanied by the manager, a small, spinning little man. Here they come to the lake. There is a golden boat near the shore: is it not a pleasure to ride, it will sail itself. He steps into it and sees there a monkey-like creature holding a flask of dark liquid in its paw. "It's nothing! - shouts from the shore manager. - This is death! Have a good trip!" Suddenly, a black whirlwind interferes with everything, and Aratov sees Clara, in a theatrical costume, raising a bottle to her lips under the cries of “bravo”, and someone’s rude voice says: “Ah! did you think it’s all comedy over? No, this is a tragedy! ”
Aratov woke up. The night light is on. Clara’s presence is felt in the room. He is in her power again.
“Clara, are you here?”
- Yes! - is heard in response.
- If you are exactly here, if you understand how bitterly I repent that I did not understand, pushed you away - come! If you are now sure that I, who still did not love and did not know a single woman, after your death fell in love with you, - come!
Someone quickly approached him from behind and laid a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and on his armchair he saw a woman in black, with her head turned to the side, as in a stereoscope.
- ... Turn to me, look at me, Clara! - The head turned quietly towards him, the eyelids opened, a stern expression gave way to a smile.
- I'm forgiven! - with these words Aratov kissed her on the lips.
Running into the scream of Platosch found him swooning.
The next night he was waiting impatiently. She and Clara love each other. That kiss still ran through his body with a quick chill. Another time, he will possess it ... But after all, they cannot live together. Well, you have to die to be with her.
In the evening he had a fever, and Platonida Ivanovna was left dozing in a chair. In the middle of the night, a piercing scream woke her. Yasha again lay on the floor. He was picked up and laid down. In his right hand was a lock of black female hair. He raved, talked about his perfect marriage, that now he knows what pleasure is. Having regained consciousness for a second, he said: “Do not cry, aunt.Don’t you know that love is stronger than death? ” And a blissful smile shone on his face.
