Part Seven: Chapter 20

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch, as usual, did not waste his time inPetersburg. In Petersburg, besides business, his sister'sdivorce, and his coveted appointment, he wanted, as he alwaysdid, to freshen himself up, as he said, after the mustiness ofMoscow.

　　In spite of its cafes chantants and its omnibuses, Moscow was yeta stagnant bog. Stepan Arkadyevitch always felt it. Afterliving for some time in Moscow, especially in close relationswith his family, he was conscious of a depression of spirits.After being a long time in Moscow without a change, he reached apoint when he positively began to be worrying himself over hiswife's ill-humor and reproaches, over his children's health andeducation, and the petty details of his official work; even thefact of being in debt worried him. But he had only to go andstay a little while in Petersburg, in the circle there in whichhe moved, where people lived--really lived--instead of vegetatingas in Moscow, and all such ideas vanished and melted away atonce, like wax before the fire. His wife?... Only that day hehad been talking to Prince Tchetchensky. Prince Tchetchensky hada wife and family, grown-up pages in the corps,...and he hadanother illegitimate family of children also. Though the firstfamily was very nice too, Prince Tchetchensky felt happier in hissecond family; and he used to take his eldest son with him tohis second family, and told Stepan Arkadyevitch that he thoughtit good for his son, enlarging his ideas. What would have beensaid to that in Moscow?

　　His children? In Petersburg children did not prevent theirparents from enjoying life. The children were brought up inschools, and there was no trace of the wild idea that prevailedin Moscow, in Lvov's household, for instance, that all theluxuries of life were for the children, while the parents havenothing but work and anxiety. Here people understood that a manis in duty bound to live for himself, as every man of cultureshould live.

　　His official duties? Official work here was not the stiff,hopeless drudgery that it was in Moscow. Here there was someinterest in official life. A chance meeting, a service rendered,a happy phrase, a knack of facetious mimicry, and a man's careermight be made in a trice. So it had been with Bryantsev, whomStepan Arkadyevitch had met the previous day, and who was one ofthe highest functionaries in government now. There was someinterest in official work like that.

　　The Petersburg attitude on pecuniary matters had an especiallysoothing effect on Stepan Arkadyevitch. Bartnyansky, who mustspend at least fifty thousand to judge by the style he lived in,had made an interesting comment the day before on that subject.

　　As they were talking before dinner, Stepan Arkadyevitch said toBartnyansky:

　　"You're friendly, I fancy, with Mordvinsky; you might do me afavor: say a word to him, please, for me. There's an appointmentI should like to get--secretary of the agency..."

　　"Oh, I shan't remember all that, if you tell it to me.... Butwhat possesses you to have to do with railways and Jews?... Takeit as you will, it's a low business."

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch did not say to Bartnyansky that it was a"growing thing"--Bartnyansky would not have understood that.

　　"I want the money, I've nothing to live on."

　　"You're living, aren't you?"

　　"Yes, but in debt."

　　"Are you, though? Heavily?" said Bartnyansky sympathetically.

　　"Very heavily: twenty thousand."

　　Bartnyansky broke into good-humored laughter.

　　"Oh, lucky fellow!" said he. "My debts mount up to a million anda half, and I've nothing, and still I can live, as you see!"

　　And Stepan Arkadyevitch saw the correctness of this view not inwords only but in actual fact. Zhivahov owed three hundredthousand, and hadn't a farthing to bless himself with, and helived, and in style too! Count Krivtsov was considered ahopeless case by everyone, and yet he kept two mistresses.Petrovsky had run through five millions, and still lived in justthe same style, and was even a manager in the financialdepartment with a salary of twenty thousand. But besides this,Petersburg had physically an agreeable effect on StepanArkadyevitch. It made him younger. In Moscow he sometimes founda gray hair in his head, dropped asleep after dinner, stretched,walked slowly upstairs, breathing heavily, was bored by thesociety of young women, and did not dance at balls. InPetersburg he always felt ten years younger.

　　His experience in Petersburg was exactly what had been describedto him on the previous day by Prince Pyotr Oblonsky, a man ofsixty, who had just come back from abroad:

　　"We don't know the way to live here," said Pyotr Oblonsky. "Ispent the summer in Baden, and you wouldn't believe it, I feltquite a young man. At a glimpse of a pretty woman, mythoughts.... One dines and drinks a glass of wine, and feelsstrong and ready for anything. I came home to Russia--had to seemy wife, and, what's more, go to my country place; and there,you'd hardly believe it, in a fortnight I'd got into a dressinggown and given up dressing for dinner. Needn't say I had nothoughts left for pretty women. I became quite an old gentleman.There was nothing left for me but to think of my eternalsalvation. I went off to Paris--I was as right as could be atonce."

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch felt exactly the difference that PyotrOblonsky described. In Moscow he degenerated so much that if hehad had to be there for long together, he might in good earnesthave come to considering his salvation; in Petersburg he felthimself a man of the world again.

　　Between Princess Betsy Tverskaya and Stepan Arkadyevitch therehad long existed rather curious relations. Stepan Arkadyevitchalways flirted with her in jest, and used to say to her, also injest, the most unseemly things, knowing that nothing delightedher so much. The day after his conversation with Karenin, StepanArkadyevitch went to see her, and felt so youthful that in thisjesting flirtation and nonsense he recklessly went so far that hedid not know how to extricate himself, as unluckily he was so farfrom being attracted by her that he thought her positivelydisagreeable. What made it hard to change the conversation wasthe fact that he was very attractive to her. So that he wasconsiderably relieved at the arrival of Princess Myakaya, whichcut short their tete-a-tete.

　　"Ah, so you're here!" said she when she saw him. "Well, and whatnews of your poor sister? You needn't look at me like that," sheadded. "Ever since they've all turned against her, all thosewho're a thousand times worse than she, I've thought she did avery fine thing. I can't forgive Vronsky for not letting me knowwhen she was in Petersburg. I'd have gone to see her and goneabout with her everywhere. Please give her my love. Come, tellme about her."

　　"Yes, her position is very difficult; she..." began StepanArkadyevitch, in the simplicity of his heart accepting assterling coin Princess Myakaya's words "tell me about her."Princess Myakaya interrupted him immediately, as she always did,and began talking herself.

　　"She's done what they all do, except me--only they hide it. Butshe wouldn't be deceitful, and she did a fine thing. And she didbetter still in throwing up that crazy brother-in-law of yours.You must excuse me. Everybody used to say he was so clever, sovery clever; I was the only one that said he was a fool. Nowthat he's so thick with Lidia Ivanovna and Landau, they all sayhe's crazy, and I should prefer not to agree with everybody, butthis time I can't help it."

　　"Oh, do please explain," said Stepan Arkadyevitch; "what does itmean? Yesterday I was seeing him on my sister's behalf, and Iasked him to give me a final answer. He gave me no answer, andsaid he would think it over. But this morning, instead of ananswer, I received an invitation from Countess Lidia Ivanovnafor this evening."

　　"Ah, so that's it, that's it!" said Princess Myakaya gleefully,"they're going to ask Landau what he's to say."

　　"Ask Landau? What for? Who or what's Landau?"

　　"What! you don't know Jules Landau, le fameux Jules Landau, leclairvoyant? He's crazy too, but on him your sister's fatedepends. See what comes of living in the provinces--you knownothing about anything. Landau, do you see, was a commis in ashop in Paris, and he went to a doctor's; and in the doctor'swaiting room he fell asleep, and in his sleep he began givingadvice to all the patients. And wonderful advice it was! Thenthe wife of Yury Meledinsky--you know, the invalid?--heard ofthis Landau, and had him to see her husband. And he cured herhusband, though I can't say that I see he did him much good, forhe's just as feeble a creature as ever he was, but they believedin him, and took him along with them and brought him to Russia.Here there's been a general rush to him, and he's begun doctoringeveryone. He cured Countess Bezzubova, and she took such a fancyto him that she adopted him."

　　"Adopted him?"

　　"Yes, as her son. He's not Landau any more now, but CountBezzubov. That's neither here nor there, though; but Lidia--I'mvery fond of her, but she has a screw loose somewhere--has losther heart to this Landau now, and nothing is settled now in herhouse or Alexey Alexandrovitch's without him, and so yoursister's fate is now in the hands of Landau, alias CountBezzubov."