From that day forward he gave her no peace; wherever she went, he was on
the spot at once, coming to meet her, smiling, grunting, waving his
hands; all at once he would pull a ribbon out of the bosom of his smock
and put it in her hand, or would sweep the dust out of her way. The poor
girl simply did not know how to behave or what to do. Soon the whole
household knew of the dumb porter's wiles; jeers, jokes, sly hints, were
showered upon Tatiana. At Gerasim, however, it was not every one who
would dare to scoff; he did not like jokes; indeed, in his presence,
she, too, was left in peace. Whether she liked it or not, the girl found
herself to be under his protection. Like all deaf-mutes, he was very
suspicious, and very readily perceived when they were laughing at him or
at her. One day, at dinner, the wardrobe-keeper, Tatiana's superior,
fell to nagging, as it is called, at her, and brought the poor thing to
such a state that she did not know where to look, and was almost crying
with vexation. Gerasim got up all of a sudden, stretched out his
gigantic hand, laid it on the wardrobe-maid's head, and looked into her
face with such grim ferocity that her head positively flopped upon the
table. Every one was still. Gerasim took up his spoon again and went on
with his cabbage-soup. "Look at him, the dumb devil, the wood-demon!"
they all muttered in undertones, while the wardrobe-maid got up and went
out into the maid's room. Another time, noticing that Kapiton--the same
Kapiton who was the subject of the conversation reported above--was
gossiping somewhat too attentively with Tatiana, Gerasim beckoned him to
him, led him into the cartshed, and taking up a shaft that was standing
in a corner by one end, lightly, but most significantly, menaced him
with it. Since then no one addressed a word to Tatiana. And all this
cost him nothing. It is true the wardrobe-maid, as soon as she reached
the maids' room, promptly fell into a fainting fit, and behaved
altogether so skilfully that Gerasim's rough action reached his
mistress's knowledge the same day. But the capricious old lady only