Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART SEVEN CHAPTER 20
Chapter 20
STEPAN Arkadyevitch, as usual, did not waste his time in Petersburg. In Petersburg,
besides business, his sister’s divorce, and his coveted appointment, he
wanted, as he always did, to freshen himself up, as he said, after the mustiness of
Moscow.
In spite of its cafés chantants and its omnibuses, Moscow was yet a stagnant bog.
Stepan Arkadyevitch always felt it. After living for some time in Moscow, especially
in close relations with his family, he was conscious of a depression of spirits. After
being a long time in Moscow without a change, he reached a point when he positively
began to be worrying himself over his wife’s ill-humor and reproaches, over
his children’s health and education, and the petty details of his official work; even
the fact of being in debt worried him. But he had only to go and stay a little while in
Petersburg, in the circle there in which he moved, where people lived–really lived–
instead of vegetating as in Moscow, and all such ideas vanished and melted away
at once, like wax before the fire. His wife?... Only that day he had been talking to
Prince Tchetchensky. Prince Tchetchensky had a wife and family, grown-up pages
in the corps,...and he had another illegitimate family of children also. Though the
first family was very nice too, Prince Tchetchensky felt happier in his second family;
and he used to take his eldest son with him to his second family, and told Stepan
Arkadyevitch that he thought it good for his son, enlarging his ideas. What would
have been said to that in Moscow?
His children? In Petersburg children did not prevent their parents from enjoying
life. The children were brought up in schools, and there was no trace of the wild idea
that prevailed in Moscow, in Lvov’s household, for instance, that all the luxuries of
life were for the children, while the parents have nothing but work and anxiety. Here
people understood that a man is in duty bound to live for himself, as every man of
culture should live.
His official duties? Official work here was not the stiff, hopeless drudgery that it
was in Moscow. Here there was some interest in official life. A chance meeting, a
service rendered, a happy phrase, a knack of facetious mimicry, and a man’s career
might be made in a trice. So it had been with Bryantsev, whom Stepan Arkadyevitch
had met the previous day, and who was one of the highest functionaries in
government now. There was some interest in official work like that.
The Petersburg attitude on pecuniary matters had an especially soothing effect on
Stepan Arkadyevitch. Bartnyansky, who must spend 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 to Bartnyansky:
“You’re friendly, I fancy, with Mordvinsky; you might do me a favor: say a word
to him, please, for me. There’s an appointment I should like to get–secretary of the
agency...”
“Oh, I shan’t remember all that, if you tell it to me.... But what possesses you to
have to do with railways and Jews?... Take it as you will, it’s a low business.”
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