Part Seven: Chapter 2

by Leo Tolstoy

　　"Go, please, go then and call on the Bols," Kitty said to herhusband, when he came in to see her at eleven o'clock beforegoing out. "I know you are dining at the club; papa put downyour name. But what are you going to do in the morning?"

　　"I am only going to Katavasov," answered Levin.

　　"Why so early?"

　　"He promised to introduce me to Metrov. I wanted to talk to himabout my work. He's a distinguished scientific man fromPetersburg," said Levin.

　　"Yes; wasn't it his article you were praising so? Well, andafter that?" said Kitty.

　　"I shall go to the court, perhaps, about my sister's business."

　　"And the concert?" she queried.

　　"I shan't go there all alone."

　　"No? do go; there are going to be some new things.... Thatinterested you so. I should certainly go."

　　"Well, anyway, I shall come home before dinner," he said, lookingat his watch.

　　"Put on your frock coat, so that you can go straight to call onCountess Bola."

　　"But is it absolutely necessary?"

　　"Oh, absolutely! He has been to see us. Come, what is it? Yougo in, sit down, talk for five minutes of the weather, get up andgo away."

　　"Oh, you wouldn't believe it! I've got so out of the way of allthis that it makes me feel positively ashamed. It's such ahorrible thing to do! A complete outsider walks in, sits down,stays on with nothing to do, wastes their time and worrieshimself, and walks away!"

　　Kitty laughed.

　　"Why, I suppose you used to pay calls before you were married,didn't you?"

　　"Yes, I did, but I always felt ashamed, and now I'm so out of theway of it that, by Jove! I'd sooner go two days running withoutmy dinner than pay this call! One's so ashamed! I feel all thewhile that they're annoyed, that they're saying, 'What has hecome for?' "

　　"No, they won't. I'll answer for that," said Kitty, looking intohis face with a laugh. She took his hand. "Well, good-bye....Do go, please."

　　He was just going out after kissing his wife's hand, when shestopped him.

　　"Kostya, do you know I've only fifty roubles left?"

　　"Oh, all right, I'll go to the bank and get some. How much?" hesaid, with the expression of dissatisfaction she knew so well.

　　"No, wait a minute." She held his hand. "Let's talk about it,it worries me. I seem to spend nothing unnecessary, but moneyseems to fly away simply. We don't manage well, somehow."

　　"Oh, it's all right," he said with a little cough, looking at herfrom under his brows.

　　That cough she knew well. It was a sign of intensedissatisfaction, not with her, but with himself. He certainlywas displeased not at so much money being spent, but at beingreminded of what he, knowing something was unsatisfactory, wantedto forget.

　　"I have told Sokolov to sell the wheat, and to borrow an advanceon the mill. We shall have money enough in any case."

　　"Yes, but I'm afraid that altogether..."

　　"Oh, it's all right, all right," he repeated. "Well, good-bye,darling."

　　"No, I'm really sorry sometimes that I listened to mamma. Hownice it would have been in the country! As it is, I'm worryingyou all, and we're wasting our money."

　　"Not at all, not at all. Not once since I've been married haveI said that things could have been better than they are...."

　　"Truly?" she said, looking into his eyes.

　　He had said it without thinking, simply to console her. But whenhe glanced at her and saw those sweet truthful eyes fastenedquestioningly on him, he repeated it with his whole heart. "Iwas positively forgetting her," he thought. And he rememberedwhat was before them, so soon to come.

　　"Will it be soon? How do you feel?" he whispered, taking her twohands.

　　"I have so often thought so, that now I don't think about it orknow anything about it."

　　"And you're not frightened?"

　　She smiled contemptuously.

　　"Not the least little bit," she said.

　　"Well, if anything happens, I shall be at Katavasov's."

　　"No, nothing will happen, and don't think about it. I'm goingfor a walk on the boulevard with papa. We're going to see Dolly.I shall expect you before dinner. Oh, yes! Do you know thatDolly's position is becoming utterly impossible? She's in debtall round; she hasn't a penny. We were talking yesterday withmamma and Arseny" (this was her sister's husband Lvov), "and wedetermined to send you with him to talk to Stiva. It's reallyunbearable. One can't speak to papa about it.... But if you andhe..."

　　"Why, what can we do?" said Levin.

　　"You'll be at Arseny's, anyway; talk to him, he will tell what wedecided."

　　"Oh, I agree to everything Arseny thinks beforehand. I'll go andsee him. By the way, if I do go to the concert, I'll go withNatalia. Well, good- bye."

　　On the steps Levin was stopped by his old servant Kouzma, who hadbeen with him before his marriage, and now looked after theirhousehold in town.

　　"Beauty" (that was the left shaft-horse brought up from thecountry) "has been badly shod and is quite lame," he said. "Whatdoes your honor wish to be done?"

　　During the first part of their stay in Moscow, Levin had used hisown horses brought up from the country. He had tried to arrangethis part of their expenses in the best and cheapest waypossible; but it appeared that their own horses came dearer thanhired horses, and they still hired too.

　　"Send for the veterinary, there may be a bruise."

　　"And for Katerina Alexandrovna?" asked Konzma.

　　Levin was not by now struck as he had been at first by the factthat to get from one end of Moscow to the other he had to havetwo powerful horses put into a heavy carriage, to take thecarriage three miles through the snowy slush and to keep itstanding there four hours, paying five roubles every time.

　　Now it seemed quite natural.

　　"Hire a pair for our carriage from the jobmaster," said he.

　　"Yes, sir."

　　And so, simply and easily, thanks to the facilities of town life,Levin settled a question which, in the country, would have calledfor so much personal trouble and exertion, and going out onto thesteps, he called a sledge, sat down, and drove to Nikitsky. Onthe way he thought no more of money, but mused on theintroduction that awaited him to the Petersburg savant, a writeron sociology, and what he would say to him about his book.

　　Only during the first days of his stay in Moscow Levin had beenstruck by the expenditure, strange to one living in the country,unproductive but inevitable, that was expected of him on everyside. But by now he had grown used to it. That had happened tohim in this matter which is said to happen to drunkards--thefirst glass sticks in the throat, the second flies down like ahawk, but after the third they're like tiny little birds. WhenLevin had changed his first hundred-rouble note to pay forliveries for his footmen and hall-porter he could not helpreflecting that these liveries were of no use to anyone--butthey were indubitably necessary, to judge by the amazement of theprincess and Kitty when he suggested that they might do withoutliveries,--that these liveries would cost the wages of twolaborers for the summer, that is, would pay for about threehundred working days from Easter to Ash Wednesday, and each a dayof hard work from early morning to late evening--and thathundred-rouble note did stick in his throat. But the next note,changed to pay for providing a dinner for their relations, thatcost twenty-eight roubles, though it did excite in Levin thereflection that twenty-eight roubles meant nine measures of oats,which men would with groans and sweat have reaped and bound andthrashed and winnowed and sifted and sown,--this next one heparted with more easily. And now the notes he changed no longeraroused such reflections, and they flew off like little birds.Whether the labor devoted to obtaining the money corresponded tothe pleasure given by what was bought with it, was aconsideration he had long ago dismissed. His businesscalculation that there divas a certain price below which he couldnot sell certain grain was forgotten too. The rye, for the priceof which he had so long held out, had been sold for fifty kopecksa measure cheaper than it had been fetching a month ago. Eventhe consideration that with such an expenditure he could not goon living for a year without debt, that even had no force. Onlyone thing was essential: to have money in the bank, withoutinquiring where it came from, so as to know that one had thewherewithal to buy meat for tomorrow. And this condition hadhitherto been fulfilled; he had always had the money in the bank.But now the money in the bank had gone, and he could not quitetell where to get the next installment. And this it was which,at the moment when Kitty had mentioned money, had disturbed him;but he had no time to think about it. He drove off, thinking ofKatavasov and the meeting with Metrov that was before him.