________________________________________________
_ The next day was Sunday. Stepan Arkadyevitch went to the Grand
Theater to a rehearsal of the ballet, and gave Masha Tchibisova,
a pretty dancing-girl whom he had just taken under his
protection, the coral necklace he had promised her the evening
before, and behind the scenes in the dim daylight of the theater,
managed to kiss her pretty little face, radiant over her present.
Besides the gift of the necklace he wanted to arrange with her
about meeting after the ballet. After explaining that he could
not come at the beginning of the ballet, he promised he would
come for the last act and take her to supper. From the theater
Stepan Arkadyevitch drove to Ohotny Row, selected himself the
fish and asparagus for dinner, and by twelve o'clock was at
Dussot's, where he had to see three people, luckily all staying
at the same hotel: Levin, who had recently come back from abroad
and was staying there; the new head of his department, who had
just been promoted to that position, and had come on a tour of
revision to Moscow; and his brother-in-law, Karenin, whom he must
see, so as to be sure of bringing him to dinner.
Stepan Arkadyevitch liked dining, but still better he liked to
give a dinner, small, but very choice, both as regards the food
and drink and as regards the selection of guests. He particularly
liked the program of that day's dinner. There would be fresh
perch, asparagus, and la piece de resistance--first-rate, but
quite plain, roast beef, and wines to suit: so much for the
eating and drinking. Kitty and Levin would be of the party, and
that this might not be obtrusively evident, there would be a girl
cousin too, and young Shtcherbatsky, and la piece de resistance
among the guests--Sergey Koznishev and Alexey Alexandrovitch.
Sergey Ivanovitch was a Moscow man, and a philosopher; Alexey
Alexandrovitch a Petersburger, and a practical politician. He was
asking, too, the well-known eccentric enthusiast, Pestsov, a
liberal, a great talker, a musician, an historian, and the most
delightfully youthful person of fifty, who would be a sauce or
garnish for Koznishev and Karenin. He would provoke them and set
them off.
The second installment for the forest had been received from the
merchant and was not yet exhausted, Dolly had been very amiable
and goodhumored of late, and the idea of the dinner pleased
Stepan Arkadyevitch from every point of view. He was in the most
light-hearted
mood. There were two circumstances a little unpleasant, but these
two circumstances were drowned in the sea of good-humored gaiety
which flooded the soul of Stepan Arkadyevitch. These two
circumstances were: first, that on meeting Alexey Alexandrovitch
the day before in the street he had noticed that he was cold and
reserved with him, and putting the expression of Alexey
Alexandrovitch's face and the fact that he had not come to see
them or let them know of his arrival with the rumors he had heard
about Anna and Vronsky, Stepan Arkadyevitch guessed that
something was wrong between the husband and wife.
That was one disagreeable thing. The other slightly disagreeable
fact was that the new head of his department, like all new heads,
had the reputation already of a terrible person, who got up at
six o'clock in the morning, worked like a horse, and insisted on
his subordinates working in the same way. Moreover, this new head
had the further reputation of being a bear in his manners, and
was, according to all reports, a man of a class in all respects
the opposite of that to which his predecessor had belonged, and
to which Stepan Arkadyevitch had hitherto belonged himself. On
the previous day Stepan Arkadyevitch had appeared at the office
in a uniform, and the new chief had been very affable and had
talked to him as to an acquaintance. Consequently Stepan
Arkadyevitch deemed it his duty to call upon him in his
non-official dress. The thought that the new chief might not
tender him a warm reception was the other unpleasant thing. But
Stepan Arkadyevitch instinctively felt that everything would come
round all right.
"They're all people, all men, like us poor sinners; why be nasty
and quarrelsome?" he thought as he went into the hotel.
"Good-day, Vassily," he said, walking into the corridor with his
hat cocked on one side, and addressing a footman he knew; "why,
you've let your whiskers grow! Levin, number seven, eh? Take me
up, please. And find out whether Count Anitchkin" (this was the
new head) "is receiving."
"Yes, sir," Vassily responded, smiling. "You've not been to see
us for a long while."
"I was here yesterday, but at the other entrance. Is this number
seven?"
Levin was standing with a peasant from Tver in the middle of the
room, measuring a fresh bearskin, when Stepan Arkadyevitch went
in.
"What! you kitlled him?" cried Stepan Arkadyevitch. "Well done! A
she-bear? How are you, Arhip!"
He shook hands with the peasant and sat down on the edge of a
chair, without taking off his coat and hat.
"Come, take offyour coat and stay a little," said Levin, taking
his hat.
"No, I haven't time; I've only looked in for a tiny second,"
answered Stepan Arkadyevitch. He threw open his coat, but
afterwards did take it off, and sat on for a whole hour, talking
to Levin about hunting and the most intimate subjects.
"Come, tell me, please, what you did abroad? Where have you
been?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, when the peasant had gone.
"Oh, I stayed in Germany, in Prussia, in France, and in England--
not in the capitals, but in the manufacturing towns, and saw a
great deal that was new to me. And I'm glad I went."
"Yes, I knew your idea of the solution of the labor question."
"Not a bit: in Russia there can be no labor question. In Russia
the question is that of the relation of the working people to the
land; though the question exists there too--but there it's a
matter of repairing what's been ruined, while with us . . ."
Stepan Arkadyevitch listened attentively to Levin.
"Yes, yes!" he said, "it's very possible you're right. But I'm
glad you're in good spirits, and are hunting bears, and working,
and interested. Shtcherbatsky told me another story--he met you--
that you were in such a depressed state, talking of nothing but
death...."
"Well, what of it? I've not given up thinking of death," said
Levin. "It's true that it's high time I was dead; and that all
this is nonsense. It's the truth I'm telling you. I do value my
idea and my work awfully; but in reality only consider this: all
this world of ours is nothing but a speck of mildew, which has
grown up on a tiny planet. And for us to suppose we can have
something great--ideas, work--it's all dust and ashes."
s."
"But all that's as old as the hills, my boy!"
"It is old; but do you know, when you grasp this fully, then
somehow everything becomes of no consequence. When you understand
that you will die to-morrow, if not to-day, and nothing will be
left, then everything is so unimportant! And I consider my idea
very important, but it turns out really to be as unimportant too,
even if it were carried out, as doing for that bear. So one goes
on living, amusing oneself with hunting, with work--anything so
as not to think of death!"
Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled a subtle affectionate smile as he
listened to Levin.
"Well, of course! Here you've come round to my point. Do you
remember you attacked me for seeking enjoyment in life? Don't be
so severe, O moralist!"
"No; all the same, what's fine in life is . . ." Levin hesitated-
-"oh, I don't know. All I know is that we shall soon be dead."
"Why so soon?"
"And do you know, there's less charm in life, when one thinks of
death, but there's more peace."
"On the contrary, the finish is always the best. But I must be
going," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, getting up for the tenth time.
"Oh, no, stay a bit!" said Levin, keeping him. "Now, when shall
we see each other again? I'm going to-morrow."
"I'm a nice person! Why, that's just what. I came for! You simply
must come to dinner with us to-day. Your brother's coming, and
Karenin, my brother-in-law."
"You don't mean to say he's here?" said Levin, and he wanted to
inquire about Kitty. He had heard at the beginning of the winter
that she was at Petersburg with her sister, the wife of the
diplomat, and he did not know whether she had come back or not;
but he changed his mind and did not ask. "Whether she's coming or
not, I don't care," he said to himself.
"So you'll come?"
"Of course."
"At five o'clock, then, and not evening dress."
And Stepan Arkadyevitch got up and went down below to the new
head of his department. Instinct had not misled Stepan
Arkadyevitch. The terrible new head turned Qut to be an extremely
amenable person, and Stepan Arkadyevitch lunched with him and
stayed on, so that it was four o'clock before he got to Alexey
Alexandrovitch. _
Read next: Part Four: Chapter 8
Read previous: Part Four: Chapter 6
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