The Godmother (Bunin)
Short summary
Dachas outside Moscow, late June. A wealthy couple owned an expensive Swedish-style house near a lake. While the husband commuted daily to Moscow, his wife spent her days in a lacy matinee coat preparing berry jam.
One evening, her husband's friend, who was staying at their dacha, admired her bare arms while she worked. He confessed his love for her, claiming it began when they became godparents together at a christening. She dismissed his advances playfully.
At dinner, the lady mentioned her husband would spend the night in Moscow for a shareholders' meeting. When the godfather suggested leaving her alone to join her husband, she placed her palm on his hand. After midnight, they became intimate.
The next morning, during lunch, she asked him to leave, suggesting they could meet later in Kislovodsk while sending her husband to his parents in Crimea. He agreed, grateful for the promise of future rendezvous.
And at once he thought: "And there, in those patent-leather boots, the riding habit and bowler hat, I'll probably conceive an immediate fierce hatred for her!"
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Setting and characters at the dacha
The story took place at an expensive Swedish-style dacha near Moscow, surrounded by pine forests and situated close to a shallow lake with bathing huts along its marshy banks. The lady of the house spent her days in a light, lacy matinee coat, radiating beauty and contentment with her summer life.
Her husband commuted daily to his office in Moscow, leaving at nine in the morning and returning at six in the evening. Upon his return, tired and hungry, he would immediately go to bathe before dinner.
One evening in late June, a friend of the husband was visiting the dacha. While the lady prepared berries for jam on the terrace, this elegant man watched her bare arms with obvious admiration.
"The lady of the house is in a light, smart, lacy matinee coat all day, radiant with the beauty of a thirty-year-old woman of the merchant class and the tranquil contentment of summer life."
The godfathers confession of feelings
As they sat together on the terrace, the godfather asked if he could kiss the lady's hand, claiming he couldn't look at her in peace. When she mentioned her hands were covered in berry juice, she offered her elbow instead, which he touched with his lips.
The godfather then quoted a Persian poet named Saadi, saying that "a man's heart went out of his hands and he said to his mind: goodbye!" When the lady asked for clarification, he explained that it meant the man had fallen in love, just as he had with her.
"It was then that something secret began between us, some sort of sinful intimacy, our kinship, as it already seemed to be, and, because of that, a special lust."
The godfather traced the beginning of his feelings to the day when they had unexpectedly become godparents together for the Savelyevs' child. He vividly recalled how she had arrived covered in snow, wearing a white silk dress with a pearl cross at her bosom, and how they stood together by the baptismal font.
He remembered sitting next to her at lunch afterward, unable to determine whether the wonderful fresh scent came from the hyacinths on the table or from her. The lady responded to his confession with playful dismissal, suggesting he should see a doctor for his "illness."
The husbands absence and evening developments
The godfather inquired why Dmitry Nikolayevich was spending the night in Moscow. The lady explained that her husband had mentioned a shareholders' meeting before everyone departed for vacation—some to Kislovodsk, others abroad. She also alluded to a farewell drinking session at The Mauritania that would follow the meeting.
During dinner, the godfather was mostly quiet and sad, but suddenly joked about going to The Mauritania himself on the ten o'clock train to get drunk. The lady gave him a long look and asked if he would really leave her alone in an empty house, questioning if that was how he remembered the hyacinths.
"Push off and leave me alone in an empty house? So that's how you remember the hyacinths!" And quietly, as if deep in thought, she placed her palm onto his hand as it lay on the table...
With this gesture, she quietly placed her palm on his hand as it rested on the table, signaling her receptiveness to his advances.
Late night encounter and reflections
After one o'clock in the morning, wearing only a dressing gown, the godfather stole from the lady's bedroom through the dark house to his own room. Through the windows open to the garden balcony, he could see the lingering light of the sunset and smell the freshness of the night forest.
He fell onto his bed, lit a cigarette, and closed his eyes, recalling the details of his unexpected good fortune with the lady of the house. The intimate encounter had clearly taken place, though the specifics were left to the reader's imagination.
After one o'clock in the morning, wearing only a dressing gown... he stole from her bedroom through the dark, quiet house to his own room, in the twilight of which... there shone the distant, lifeless light of the sunset's afterglow
In the morning, he woke to the sound of gentle rain beating on the balcony. He felt a delightful sense of the sweet simplicity of everyday life and thought about leaving for Moscow that day, and then perhaps traveling to the Tyrol or Lake Garda. With these pleasant thoughts, he fell back asleep.
Morning after and arrangements to leave
When the godfather emerged for lunch, he deferentially kissed the lady's hand and sat down modestly at the table. She apologized for the simple meal of cold chicken and yogurt, and instructed the servant to bring red wine and cheese.
The lady then asked the godfather to leave that day, suggesting he tell her husband that he too felt compelled to go to Kislovodsk. She promised to join him there in a couple of weeks, after sending Dmitry Nikolayevich to his parents' dacha in Miskhor, Crimea.
The godfather took her hand across the table and asked if she would really come. She replied with a slight smirk, questioning whether he thought she would deceive him. Though outwardly grateful, he immediately thought to himself that once he saw her again in riding clothes, he would probably conceive an immediate fierce hatred for her.
"Please leave today... I'll be there in a couple of weeks, and I'll send him to his parents in the Crimea... Will you really come?" She replied... looking at him with a slight smirk: "And what do you think? I'll deceive you?"