Chekhov, The House With the Mezzanine

안톤 체호프의 단편 소설 “The House With the Mezzanine”의 화자는 늘 빈둥거리는 듯 보이는 화가입니다. 산책을 하다 우연히 마주친 이웃집에는 두 어여쁜 자매가 어머니와 함께 살고 있습니다. 화가의 눈에 두 자매는 달라도 참 많이 달라 보입니다.

“Whenever the conversation turned to serious matters, that slim, pretty, invariably severe young lady with her small, finely modeled mouth, would coldly tell me:

‘That’s of no interest to you.’

I did not appeal to her at all. She did not like me because I was a landscape painter who did not portray the hardships of the common people in my canvases and because–so she thought–I was indifferent to all her deepest beliefs.”