Page:Chernyshevsky - What's to be done? A romance.djvu/19

Rh Oui, pour vaincre la misère,

Instruisons-nous, travaillons;

Un paradis de la terre,

En nous aimant, nous ferons.

Travaillons, aimons, chantons,

Tous les vrais biens nous aurons;

Un jour vient où nous serons

Tous heureux, instruits, et bons.

Ah! ça ira! ça ira! ça ira!

Le peuple en ce jour répète:

Ah! ça ira! ça ira! ça ira!

Qui vivra verra!

Done vivons!

Ça bien vite ira!

Ça viendra!

Nous tous le verrons!

The melody of this audacious song was gay; there were two or three sad notes in it, but they were concealed beneath the general character of the motive; they entirely disappeared in the refrain and in the last couplet. But such was the condition of the mind of the songstress that these two or three sad notes sounded above the others in her song. She saw this herself, started, and tried to sustain the gay notes longer and glide over the others. Vain efforts! her thought dominated her in spite of herself, and the sad notes always prevailed over the others.

It was easy to see that the young woman was trying to repress the sadness which had taken possession of her, and when, from time to time, she succeeded and the song then took its joyous pace, her work doubled in rapidity; she seemed, moreover, to be an excellent seamstress. At this moment the maid, a young and pretty person, entered.

"See, Macha," the young lady said to her, "how well I sew! I have almost finished the ruffles which I am embroidering to wear at your wedding."

"Oh! there is less work in them than in those which you desired me to embroider."

"I readily believe it! Should not the bride be more beautifully adorned than her guests?"

"I have brought you a letter, Véra Pavlovna."

Véra Pavlovna took the letter with an air of perplexity which depicted itself in her face. The envelope bore the city stamp.

"He is then at Moscow!" she whispered,—and she hastily broke open the letter and turned pale.