Part Three: Chapter 26

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Sviazhsky was the marshal of his district. He was five yearsolder than Levin, and had long been married. His sister-in-law,a young girl Levin liked very much, lived in his house; and Levinknew that Sviazhsky and his wife would have greatly liked tomarry the girl to him. He knew this with certainty, as so-calledeligible young men always know it, though he could never havebrought himself to speak of it to anyone; and he knew too that,although he wanted to get married, and although by every tokenthis very attractive girl would make an excellent wife, he couldno more have married her, even if he had not been in love withKitty Shtcherbatskaya, than he could have flown up to the sky.And this knowledge poisoned the pleasure he had hoped to find inthe visit to Sviazhsky.

　　On getting Sviazhsky's letter with the invitation for shooting,Levin had immediately thought of this; but in spite of it he hadmade up his mind that Sviazhsky's having such views for him wassimply his own groundless supposition, and so he would go, allthe same. Besides, at the bottom of his heart he had a desire totry himself, put himself to the test in regard to this girl. TheSviazhskys' home-life was exceedingly pleasant, and Sviazhskyhimself, the best type of man taking part in local affairs thatLevin knew, was very interesting to him.

　　Sviazhsky was one of those people, always a source of wonder toLevin, whose convictions, very logical though never original, goone way by themselves, while their life, exceedingly definite andfirm in its direction, goes its way quite apart and almost alwaysin direct contradiction to their convictions. Sviazhsky was anextremely advanced man. He despised the nobility, and believedthe mass of the nobility to be secretly in favor of serfdom, andonly concealing their views from cowardice. He regarded Russiaas a ruined country, rather after the style of Turkey, and thegovernment of Russia as so bad that he never permitted himself tocriticize its doings seriously, and yet he was a functionary ofthat government and a model marshal of nobility, and when hedrove about he always wore the cockade of office and the cap withthe red band. He considered human life only tolerable abroad,and went abroad to stay at every opportunity, and at the sametime he carried on a complex and improved system of agriculturein Russia, and with extreme interest followed everything and kneweverything that was being done in Russia. He considered theRussian peasant as occupying a stage of development intermediatebetween the ape and the man, and at the same time in the localassemblies no one was readier to shake hands with the peasantsand listen to their opinion. He believed neither in God nor thedevil, but was much concerned about the question of theimprovement of the clergy and the maintenance of their revenues,and took special trouble to keep up the church in his village.

　　On the woman question he was on the side of the extreme advocatesof complete liberty for women, and especially their right tolabor. But he lived with his wife on such terms that theiraffectionate childless home life was the admiration of everyone,and arranged his wife's life so that she did nothing and could donothing but share her husband's efforts that her time should passas happily and as agreeably as possible.

　　If it had not been a characteristic of Levin's to put the mostfavorable interpretation on people, Sviazhsky's character wouldhave presented no doubt or difficulty to him: he would have saidto himself, "a fool or a knave," and everything would have seemedclear. But he could not say "a fool," because Sviazhsky wasunmistakably clever, and moreover, a highly cultivated man, whowas exceptionally modest over his culture. There was not asubject he knew nothing of. But he did not display his knowledgeexcept when he was compelled to do so. Still less could Levinsay that he was a knave, as Sviazhsky was unmistakably an honest,good-hearted, sensible man, who worked good-humoredly, keenly,and perseveringly at his work; he was held in high honor byeveryone about him, and certainly he had never consciously done,and was indeed incapable of doing, anything base.

　　Levin tried to understand him, and could not understand him, andlooked at him and his life as at a living enigma.

　　Levin and he were very friendly, and so Levin used to venture tosound Sviazhsky, to try to get at the very foundation of his viewof life; but it was always in vain. Every time Levin tried topenetrate beyond the outer chambers of Sviazhsky's mind, whichwere hospitably open to all, he noticed that Sviazhsky wasslightly disconcerted; faint signs of alarm were visible in hiseyes, as though he were afraid Levin would understand him, and hewould give him a kindly, good-humored repulse.

　　Just now, since his disenchantment with farming, Levin wasparticularly glad to stay with Sviazhsky. Apart from the factthat the sight of this happy and affectionate couple, so pleasedwith themselves and everyone else, and their well-ordered homehad always a cheering effect on Levin, he felt a longing, nowthat he was so dissatisfied with his own life, to get at thatsecret in Sviazhsky that gave him such clearness, definiteness,and good courage in life. Moreover, Levin knew that atSviazhsky's he should meet the landowners of the neighborhood,and it was particularly interesting for him just now to hear andtake part in those rural conversations concerning crops,laborers' wages, and so on, which, he was aware, areconventionally regarded as something very low, but which seemedto him just now to constitute the one subject of importance. "Itwas not, perhaps, of importance in the days of serfdom, and itmay not be of importance in England. In both cases theconditions of agriculture are firmly established; but among usnow, when everything has been turned upside down and is only justtaking shape, the question what form these conditions will takeis the one question of importance in Russia," thought Levin.

　　The shooting turned out to be worse than Levin had expected. Themarsh was dry and there were no grouse at all. He walked aboutthe whole day and only brought back three birds, but to make upfor that--he brought back, as he always did from shooting, anexcellent appetite, excellent spirits, and that keen,intellectual mood which with him always accompanied violentphysical exertion. And while out shooting, when he seemed to bethinking of nothing at all, suddenly the old man and his familykept coming back to his mind, and the impression of them seemedto claim not merely his attention, but the solution of somequestion connected with them.

　　In the evening at tea, two landowners who had come about somebusiness connected with a wardship were of the party, and theinteresting conversation Levin had been looking forward to sprangup.

　　Levin was sitting beside his hostess at the tea table, and wasobliged to keep up a conversation with her and her sister, whowas sitting opposite him. Madame Sviazhskaya was a round-faced,fair-haired, rather short woman, all smiles and dimples. Levintried through her to get a solution of the weighty enigma herhusband presented to his mind; but he had not complete freedom ofideas, because he was in an agony of embarrassment. This agonyof embarrassment was due to the fact that the sister-in-law wassitting opposite to him, in a dress, specially put on, as hefancied, for his benefit, cut particularly open, in the shape ofa trapeze, on her white bosom. This quadrangular opening, inspite of the bosom's being very white, or just because it wasvery white, deprived Levin of the full use of his faculties. Heimagined, probably mistakenly, that this low-necked bodice hadbeen made on his account, and felt that he had no right to lookat it, and tried not to look at it; but he felt that he was toblame for the very fact of the low-necked bodice having beenmade. It seemed to Levin that he had deceived someone, that heought to explain something, but that to explain it wasimpossible, and for that reason he was continually blushing, wasill at ease and awkward. His awkwardness infected the prettysister-in-law too. But their hostess appeared not to observethis, and kept purposely drawing her into the conversation.

　　"You say," she said, pursuing the subject that had been started,"that my husband cannot be interested in what's Russian. It'squite the contrary; he is always in cheerful spirits abroad, butnot as he is here. Here, he feels in his proper place. He hasso much to do, and he has the faculty of interesting himself ineverything. Oh, you've not been to see our school, have you?"

　　"I've seen it.... The little house covered with ivy, isn't it?"

　　"Yes; that's Nastia's work," she said, indicating her sister.

　　"You teach in it yourself?" asked Levin, trying to look above theopen neck, but feeling that wherever he looked in that directionhe should see it.

　　"Yes; I used to teach in it myself, and do teach still, but wehave a first-rate schoolmistress now. And we've startedgymnastic exercises."

　　"No, thank you, I won't have any more tea," said Levin, andconscious of doing a rude thing, but incapable of continuing theconversation, he got up, blushing. "I hear a very interestingconversation," he added, and walked to the other end of thetable, where Sviazhsky was sitting with the two gentlemen of theneighborhood. Sviazhsky was sitting sideways, with one elbow onthe table, and a cup in one hand, while with the other hand hegathered up his beard, held it to his nose and let it drop again,as though he were smelling it. His brilliant black eyes werelooking straight at the excited country gentleman with graywhiskers, and apparently he derived amusement from his remarks.The gentleman was complaining of the peasants. It was evident toLevin that Sviazhsky knew an answer to this gentleman'scomplaints, which would at once demolish his whole contention,but that in his position he could not give utterance to thisanswer, and listened, not without pleasure, to the landowner'scomic speeches.

　　The gentleman with the gray whiskers was obviously an inveterateadherent of serfdom and a devoted agriculturist, who had livedall his life in the country. Levin saw proofs of this in hisdress, in the old-fashioned threadbare coat, obviously not hiseveryday attire, in his shrewd deep-set eyes, in his idiomatic,fluent Russian, in the imperious tone that had become habitualfrom long use, and in the resolute gestures of his large, red,sunburnt hands, with an old betrothal ring on the little finger.