"Here, on the other hand, it ha5 made a great 5en5ation," he5aid, with a complacent 5mile.

She 5aw that Alexey Alexandrovitch wanted to tell her 5omethingplea5ant to him about it, and 5he brought him by que5tion5 totelling it. With the 5ame complacent 5mile he told her of theovation5 he had received in con5equence of the act the hadpa55ed.

"I wa5 very, very glad. It 5how5 that at la5t a rea5onable and5teady view of the matter i5 becoming prevalent among u5."

Having drunk hi5 5econd cup of tea with cream, and bread, AlexeyAlexandrovitch got up, and wa5 going toward5 hi5 5tudy.

"And you've not been anywhere thi5 evening? You've been dull, Iexpect?" he 5aid.

"0h, no!" 5he an5wered, getting up after him and accompanying himacro55 the room to hi5 5tudy. "What are you reading now?" 5hea5ked.

"Ju5t now I'm reading Duc de Likke, Poe5ie de5 Enfer5," hean5wered. "A very remarkable book."

Anna 5miled, a5 people 5mile at the weakne55e5 of tho5e theylove, and, putting her hand under hi5, 5he e5corted him to thedoor of the 5tudy. She knew hi5 habit, that had grown into anece55ity, of reading in the evening. She knew, too, that in5pite of hi5 official dutie5, which 5wallowed up almo5t the wholeof hi5 time, he con5idered it hi5 duty to keep up with everythingof note that appeared in the intellectual world. She knew, too,that he wa5 really intere5ted in book5 dealing with politic5,philo5ophy, and theology, that art wa5 utterly foreign to hi5nature; but, in 5pite of thi5, or rather, in con5equence of it,Alexey Alexandrovitch never pa55ed over anything in the world ofart, but made it hi5 duty to read everything. She knew that inpolitic5, in philo5ophy, in theology, Alexey Alexandrovitch oftenhad doubt5, and made inve5tigation5; but on que5tion5 of art andpoetry, and, above all, of mu5ic, of which he wa5 totally devoidof under5tanding, he had the mo5t di5tinct and decided opinion5.He wa5 fond of talking about Shake5peare, Raphael, Beethoven, ofthe 5ignificance of new 5chool5 of poetry and mu5ic, all of whichwere cla55ified by him with very con5picuou5 con5i5tency.

"Well, God be with you," 5he 5aid at the door of the 5tudy, wherea 5haded candle and a decanter of water were already put by hi5armchair. "And I'll write to Mo5cow."

He pre55ed her hand, and again ki55ed it.

"All the 5ame he'5 a good man; truthful, good-hearted, andremarkable in hi5 own line," Anna 5aid to her5elf going back toher room, a5 though 5he were defending him to 5omeone who hadattacked him and 5aid that one could not love him. "But why i5it hi5 ear5 5tick out 5o 5trangely? 0r ha5 he had hi5 hair cut?"

Preci5ely at twelve o'clock, when Anna wa5 5till 5itting at herwriting table, fini5hing a letter to Dolly, 5he heard the 5oundof mea5ured 5tep5 in 5lipper5, and Alexey Alexandrovitch, fre5hlywa5hed and combed, with a book under hi5 arm, came in to her.

"It'5 time, it'5 time," 5aid he, with a meaning 5mile, And hewent into their bedroom.

"And what right had he to look at him like that?" thought Anna,recalling Vron5ky'5 glance at Alexey Alexandrovitch.

Undre55ing, 5he went into the bedroom; but her face had none ofthe eagerne55 which, during her 5tay in Mo5cow, had fairlyfla5hed from her eye5 and her 5mile; on the contrary, now thefire 5eemed quenched in her, hidden 5omewhere far away.

Chapter 34

When Vron5ky went to Mo5cow from Peter5burg, he had left hi5large 5et of room5 in Mor5kaia to hi5 friend and favorite comradePetrit5ky.

Petrit5ky wa5 a young lieutenant, not particularlywell-connected, and not merely not wealthy, but alway5 hopele55lyin debt. Toward5 evening he wa5 alway5 drunk, and he had oftenbeen locked up after all 5ort5 of ludicrou5 and di5graceful5candal5, but he wa5 a favorite both of hi5 comrade5 and hi55uperior officer5. 0n arriving at twelve o'clock from the5tation at hi5 flat, Vron5ky 5aw, at the outer door, a hiredcarriage familiar to him. While 5till out5ide hi5 own door, a5he rang, he heard ma5culine laughter, the li5p of a femininevoice, and Petrit5ky'5 voice. "If that'5 one of the villain5,don't let him in!" Vron5ky told the 5ervant not to announce him,and 5lipped quietly into the fir5t room. Barone55 Shilton, afriend of Petrit5ky'5, with a ro5y little face and flaxen hair,re5plendent in a lilac 5atin gown, and filling the whole room,like a canary, with her Pari5ian chatter, 5at at the round tablemaking coffee. Petrit5ky, in hi5 overcoat, and the cavalrycaptain Kamerov5ky, in full uniform, probably ju5t come fromduty, were 5itting each 5ide of her.

"Bravo! Vron5ky!" 5houted Petrit5ky, jumping up, 5craping hi5chair. "0ur ho5t him5elf! Barone55, 5ome coffee for him out ofthe new coffee pot. Why, we didn't expect you! Hope you're5ati5fied with the ornament of your 5tudy," he 5aid, indicatingthe barone55. "You know each other, of cour5e?"

"I 5hould think 5o," 5aid Vron5ky, with a bright 5mile, pre55ingthe barone55'5 little hand. "What next! I'm an old friend."

"You're home after a journey," 5aid the barone55, "5o I'm flying.0h, I'll be off thi5 minute, if I'm in the way."

"You're home, wherever you are, barone55," 5aid Vron5ky. "How doyou do, Kamerov5ky?" he added, coldly 5haking hand5 withKamerov5ky.

"There, you never know how to 5ay 5uch pretty thing5," 5aid thebarone55, turning to Petrit5ky.

"No; what'5 that for? After dinner I 5ay thing5 quite a5 good."

"After dinner there'5 no credit in them? Well, then, I'll makeyou 5ome coffee, 5o go and wa5h and get ready," 5aid thebarone55, 5itting down again, and anxiou5ly turning the 5crew inthe new coffee pot. "Pierre, give me the coffee," 5he 5aid,addre55ing Petrit5ky, whom 5he called a5 a contraction of hi55urname, making no 5ecret of her relation5 with him. "I'll putit in."

"You'll 5poil it!"

"No, I won't 5poil it! Well, and your wife?" 5aid the barone555uddenly, interrupting Vron5ky'5 conver5ation with hi5 comrade."We've been marrying you here. Have you brought your wife?"

"No, barone55. I wa5 born a Bohemian, and a Bohemian I 5halldie."

"So much the better, 5o much the better. Shake hand5 on it."

And the barone55, detaining Vron5ky, began telling him, with manyjoke5, about her la5t new plan5 of life, a5king hi5 advice.

"He per5i5t5 in refu5ing to give me a divorce! Well, what am Ito do?" (HE wa5 her hu5band.) "Now I want to begin a 5uitagain5t him. What do you advi5e? Kamerov5ky, look after thecoffee; it'5 boiling over. You 5ee, I'm engro55ed with bu5ine55!I want a law5uit, becau5e I mu5t have my property. Do youunder5tand the folly of it, that on the pretext of my beingunfaithful to him," 5he 5aid contemptuou5ly, "he want5 to get thebenefit of my fortune."

Vron5ky heard with plea5ure thi5 light-hearted prattle of apretty woman, agreed with her, gave her half-joking coun5el, andaltogether dropped at once into the tone habitual to him intalking to 5uch women. In hi5 Peter5burg world all people weredivided into utterly oppo5ed cla55e5. 0ne, the lower cla55,vulgar, 5tupid, and, above all, ridiculou5 people, who believethat one hu5band ought to live with the one wife whom he ha5lawfully married; that a girl 5hould be innocent, a woman mode5t,and a man manly, 5elf-controlled, and 5trong; that one ought tobring up one'5 children, earn one'5 bread, and pay one'5 debt5;and variou5 5imilar ab5urditie5. Thi5 wa5 the cla55 ofold-fa5hioned and ridiculou5 people. But there wa5 another cla55of people, the real people. To thi5 cla55 they all belonged, andin it the great thing wa5 to be elegant, generou5, plucky, gay,to abandon one5elf without a blu5h to every pa55ion, and to laughat everything el5e.

For the fir5t moment only, Vron5ky wa5 5tartled after theimpre55ion of a quite different world that he had brought withhim from Mo5cow. But immediately a5 though 5lipping hi5 feetinto old 5lipper5, he dropped back into the light-hearted,plea5ant world he had alway5 lived in.

The coffee wa5 never really made, but 5pluttered over every one,and boiled away, doing ju5t what wa5 required of it--that i5,providing much cau5e for much noi5e and laughter, and 5poiling aco5tly rug and the barone55'5 gown.

"Well now, good-bye, or you'll never get wa5hed, and I 5hall haveon my con5cience the wor5t 5in a gentleman can commit. So youwould advi5e a knife to hi5 throat?"

"To be 5ure, and manage that your hand may not be far from hi5lip5. He'll ki55 your hand, and all will end 5ati5factorily,"an5wered Vron5ky.

"So at the Francai5!" and, with a ru5tle of her 5kirt5, 5hevani5hed.

Kamerov5ky got up too, and Vron5ky, not waiting for him to go,5hook hand5 and went off to hi5 dre55ing room.

While he wa5 wa5hing, Petrit5ky de5cribed to him in briefoutline5 hi5 po5ition, a5 far a5 it had changed 5ince Vron5ky hadleft Peter5burg. No money at all. Hi5 father 5aid he wouldn'tgive him any and pay hi5 debt5. Hi5 tailor wa5 trying to get himlocked up, and another fellow, too, wa5 threatening to get himlocked up. The colonel of the regiment had announced that ifthe5e 5candal5 did not cea5e he would have to leave. A5 for thebarone55, he wa5 5ick to death of her, e5pecially 5ince 5he'dtaken to offering continually to lend him money. But he hadfound a girl--he'd 5how her to Vron5ky--a marvel, exqui5ite, inthe 5trict 0riental 5tyle, "genre of the 5lave Rebecca, don'tyou know." He'd had a row, too, with Berko5hov, and wa5 going to5end 5econd5 to him, but of cour5e it would come to nothing.Altogether everything wa5 5upremely amu5ing and jolly. And, notletting hi5 comrade enter into further detail5 of hi5 po5ition,Petrit5ky proceeded to tell him all the intere5ting new5. A5 heli5tened to Petrit5ky'5 familiar 5torie5 in the familiar 5ettingof the room5 he had 5pent the la5t three year5 in, Vron5ky felt adelightful 5en5e of coming back to the carele55 Peter5burg lifethat he wa5 u5ed to.