<h3>Chapter 7</h3>
<p>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 Dussots’, 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.</p>
<p>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 <i>la pièce de
resistance</i>—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 <i>la pièce de resistance</i> 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.</p>
<p>The second installment for the forest had been received from the merchant and
was not yet exhausted; Dolly had been very amiable and good-humored 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.</p>
<p>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 <i>come round</i> 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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>“Yes, sir,” Vassily responded, smiling. “You’ve not
been to see us for a long while.”</p>
<p>“I was here yesterday, but at the other entrance. Is this number
seven?”</p>
<p>Levin was standing with a peasant from Tver in the middle of the room,
measuring a fresh bearskin, when Stepan Arkadyevitch went in.</p>
<p>“What! you killed him?” cried Stepan Arkadyevitch. “Well
done! A she-bear? How are you, Arhip!”</p>
<p>He shook hands with the peasant and sat down on the edge of a chair, without
taking off his coat and hat.</p>
<p>“Come, take off your coat and stay a little,” said Levin, taking
his hat.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“Come, tell me, please, what you did abroad? Where have you been?”
said Stepan Arkadyevitch, when the peasant had gone.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I knew your idea of the solution of the labor question.”</p>
<p>“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....”</p>
<p>Stepan Arkadyevitch listened attentively to Levin.</p>
<p>“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....”</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>“But all that’s as old as the hills, my boy!”</p>
<p>“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
tomorrow, if not today, 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!”</p>
<p>Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled a subtle affectionate smile as he listened to Levin.</p>
<p>“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!”</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>“Why so soon?”</p>
<p>“And do you know, there’s less charm in life, when one thinks of
death, but there’s more peace.”</p>
<p>“On the contrary, the finish is always the best. But I must be
going,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, getting up for the tenth time.</p>
<p>“Oh, no, stay a bit!” said Levin, keeping him. “Now, when
shall we see each other again? I’m going tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“I’m a nice person! Why, that’s just what I came for! You
simply must come to dinner with us today. Your brother’s coming, and
Karenin, my brother-in-law.”</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“So you’ll come?”</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
<p>“At five o’clock, then, and not evening dress.”</p>
<p>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 out 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.</p>
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