PART I // chapter 3-4

[모나리자]

그녀는 나를 화나게 할까 두려워서 모든 것에 대해 나에게 편지를 쓰지도 않았지만, 우리는 끊임없이 소통을 했습니다. 모든 것이 매우 예상치 못하게 끝났습니다. 마르파 페트로브나는 우연히 남편이 정원에서 두니아에게 간청하는 것을 우연히 듣고, 그 입장을 완전히 잘못 해석하여 그녀에게 책임을 전가하고, 그녀가 모든 일의 원인이라고 믿었습니다.

정원에서 두 사람 사이에 끔찍한 장면이 벌어졌습니다. 마르파 페트로브나는 두니아를 때리기까지 했고, 아무것도 듣지 않고 한 시간 동안 그녀에게 소리를 지르고 나서 두니아를 평범한 농부의 수레에 태워서 나에게 데려오라고 명령했습니다. 그들은 그녀의 모든 물건, 린넨, 옷을 모두 엉망으로 던졌고, 접어서 포장하지 않았습니다. 그리고 폭우도 내렸고, 두니아는 모욕을 당하고 부끄러워서 농부와 함께 열린 수레에 17베르스트를 마을로 몰고 가야 했습니다.

이제 생각해 보세요. 두 달 전에 당신에게서 받은 편지에 어떤 답장을 보낼 수 있었을까요? 그리고 무엇을 쓸 수 있었을까요? 저는 절망에 빠져 있었습니다. 저는 감히 당신에게 진실을 쓸 수 없었습니다. 당신은 매우 불행하고, 창피하고, 분노했을 테니까요. 하지만 당신은 무엇을 할 수 있었을까요? 당신은 아마도 자신을 망칠 수 있을 뿐이었고, 게다가 두니아는 그것을 허락하지 않을 것입니다. 그리고 제 마음이 슬픔으로 가득 차서 제가 할 수 없을 때, 제 편지를 사소한 일로 채웠습니다. 한 달 내내 마을은 이 스캔들에 대한 소문으로 가득 찼고, 두니아와 저는 경멸적인 눈빛, 속삭임, 심지어 우리에 대한 큰 소리로 하는 말 때문에 감히 교회에 갈 수 없었습니다.

우리의 모든 지인들은 우리를 피했고, 아무도 거리에서 우리에게 절을 하지 않았고, 몇몇 상점 주인과 사무원들이 우리를 부끄러운 방식으로 모욕하려고 한다는 것을 알게 되었습니다. 우리 집 문을 피치로 칠했기 때문에 집주인은 우리에게 떠나야 한다고 말하기 시작했습니다. 이 모든 것은 두니아를 비방하고 모든 가정에서 그녀에게 험담을 퍼붓는 데 성공한 마르파 페트로브나가 세운 것입니다.

그녀는 동네의 모든 사람을 알고 있었고, 그 달에 그녀는 계속해서 마을로 들어왔고, 그녀는 수다스럽고 가족 문제에 대해 수다를 떨고 특히 남편에게 불평하는 것을 좋아했기 때문에(이것은 전혀 옳지 않습니다) 짧은 시간 안에 그녀는 마을뿐만 아니라 주변 지역 전체에 그녀의 이야기를 퍼뜨렸습니다.

그것은 나를 아프게 했지만, 두니아는 나보다 더 잘 견뎌냈고, 그녀가 어떻게 모든 것을 견뎌내고 나를 위로하고 격려하려고 했는지 당신이 볼 수만 있다면! 그녀는 천사입니다! 하지만 신의 자비로 우리의 고통은 단축되었습니다. 스비드리가일로프 씨는 정신을 차리고 회개했으며, 아마도 두니아를 불쌍히 여겼을 것입니다. 그는 두니아가 무죄임을 증명하는 완전하고도 틀림없는 증거를 마르파 페트로브나 앞에 제시했습니다. 두니아가 강제로 써서 그에게 주도록 한 편지의 형태로, 마르파 페트로브나가 정원에서 그들을 만나기 전에 말입니다.

그녀가 떠난 후에도 스비드리가일로프 씨의 손에 남아 있던 이 편지는 그녀가 개인적인 설명과 비밀 면담을 거부하기 위해 쓴 것이었습니다. 그 편지에서 그녀는 마르파 페트로브나에 대한 그의 행동의 비열함에 대해 큰 열과 분노로 그를 비난하며, 그가 한 가족의 아버지이자 수장이라고 상기시키고, 이미 충분히 불행한 무방비 상태의 소녀를 괴롭히고 불행하게 만드는 것이 얼마나 악명 높은 일인지 말했습니다. 사실, 친애하는 로디아, 그 편지는 너무나 고상하고 감동적으로 쓰여져서 읽을 때 울었고 오늘날까지도 눈물 없이 읽을 수 없습니다.

게다가 하인들의 증언도 두니아의 명예를 훼손했습니다. 그들은 스비드리가일로프 씨가 생각했던 것보다 훨씬 더 많은 것을 보고 알고 있었습니다. 사실 하인들에게는 항상 그렇듯이요. 마르파 페트로브나는 완전히 당황했고, 그녀가 우리에게 말했듯이 '다시 한번 무너졌지만' 두니아의 무죄를 완전히 확신했습니다.

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She did not even write to me about everything for fear of upsetting me, although we were constantly in communication. It all ended very unexpectedly. Marfa Petrovna accidentally overheard her husband imploring Dounia in the garden, and, putting quite a wrong interpretation on the position, threw the blame upon her, believing her to be the cause of it all.

An awful scene took place between them on the spot in the garden; Marfa Petrovna went so far as to strike Dounia, refused to hear anything and was shouting at her for a whole hour and then gave orders that Dounia should be packed off at once to me in a plain peasant’s cart, into which they flung all her things, her linen and her clothes, all pell-mell, without folding it up and packing it. And a heavy shower of rain came on, too, and Dounia, insulted and put to shame, had to drive with a peasant in an open cart all the seventeen versts into town.

Only think now what answer could I have sent to the letter I received from you two months ago and what could I have written? I was in despair; I dared not write to you the truth because you would have been very unhappy, mortified and indignant, and yet what could you do? You could only perhaps ruin yourself, and, besides, Dounia would not allow it; and fill up my letter with trifles when my heart was so full of sorrow, I could not. For a whole month the town was full of gossip about this scandal, and it came to such a pass that Dounia and I dared not even go to church on account of the contemptuous looks, whispers, and even remarks made aloud about us.

All our acquaintances avoided us, nobody even bowed to us in the street, and I learnt that some shopmen and clerks were intending to insult us in a shameful way, smearing the gates of our house with pitch, so that the landlord began to tell us we must leave. All this was set going by Marfa Petrovna who managed to slander Dounia and throw dirt at her in every family.

She knows everyone in the neighbourhood, and that month she was continually coming into the town, and as she is rather talkative and fond of gossiping about her family affairs and particularly of complaining to all and each of her husband—which is not at all right—so in a short time she had spread her story not only in the town, but over the whole surrounding district.

It made me ill, but Dounia bore it better than I did, and if only you could have seen how she endured it all and tried to comfort me and cheer me up! She is an angel! But by God’s mercy, our sufferings were cut short: Mr. Svidrigaïlov returned to his senses and repented and, probably feeling sorry for Dounia, he laid before Marfa Petrovna a complete and unmistakable proof of Dounia’s innocence, in the form of a letter Dounia had been forced to write and give to him, before Marfa Petrovna came upon them in the garden.

This letter, which remained in Mr. Svidrigaïlov’s hands after her departure, she had written to refuse personal explanations and secret interviews, for which he was entreating her. In that letter she reproached him with great heat and indignation for the baseness of his behaviour in regard to Marfa Petrovna, reminding him that he was the father and head of a family and telling him how infamous it was of him to torment and make unhappy a defenceless girl, unhappy enough already. Indeed, dear Rodya, the letter was so nobly and touchingly written that I sobbed when I read it and to this day I cannot read it without tears.

Moreover, the evidence of the servants, too, cleared Dounia’s reputation; they had seen and known a great deal more than Mr. Svidrigaïlov had himself supposed—as indeed is always the case with servants. Marfa Petrovna was completely taken aback, and ‘again crushed’ as she said herself to us, but she was completely convinced of Dounia’s innocence.