Anna Karenina (Dole)/Part Seven/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV
Lvof, who had married Natalie, Kitty's sister, had spent his life in the European capitals, where he had not only received his education, but had also pursued his diplomatic career.
The year before he had resigned his diplomatic appointment, not because it was distasteful to him,—for he never found anything distasteful to him,—and had acepted a position in the department of the palace in Moscow, so that he might be able to give a better education to his two sons.
In spite of very different opinions and habits, and the fact that Lvof was considerably older than Levin, they had seen much of each other this autumn, and had become great friends.
Levin found his brother-in-law at home, and went in without ceremony.
Lvof, in a house-coat with a belt, and in chamois-skin slippers, was sitting in an arm-chair, and with blue glasses was reading a book which rested on a stand, while he held a half-burned cigar in his shapely hand. His handsome, delicate, and still youthful face, to which his shining, silvery hair gave an expression of aristocratic dignity, lighted up with a smile as he saw Levin.
"Good! I was just going to send to find out about you all. How is Kitty?" said he; and, rising, he pushed forward a rocking-chair, "Sit down here: you 'll find this better. Have you read the last circular in the journal de St. Pétersbourg? I find it excellent," said he, with a slight French accent.
Levin informed him of what he had heard as to the reports in circulation at Petersburg; and, after having spoken of politics, he told about his acquaintance with Metrof and the session at the university. This greatly interested Lvof.
"There! I envy you your intimacy in that learned society," said he, and he went on speaking, not in Russian, but in French, which was far more familiar to him. "True, I could not meet them very well. My public duties, and my occupation with the children, would prevent it; and then, I do not feel ashamed to say that my own education is too faulty."
"I can't think that," said Levin, with a smile, and, as always, touched by his modest opinion of himself, expressed not for the sake of bringing out a flattering contradiction, but genuine and honest.
"Oh, dear! I now feel how little I know. Now that I am educating my sons, I am obliged to refresh my memory. I learn my lessons over again. Just as in your estate, you have to have workmen and overseers, so here it needs some one to watch the teachers. But see what I am reading,"—and he pointed to the grammar of Buslayef lying on the stand,—"Misha has to learn it, and it is so hard. .... Now explain this to me."
Levin wanted to explain to him that it was impossible to understand it, that it simply had to be learned. But Lvof did not agree with him.
"Yes, now you are making fun of it."
"On the contrary, you can't imagine how much I learn, when I look at you, about the way to teach children."
"Well! You could not learn much from me."
"I only know that I never saw children so well brought up as yours, and I should not want better children than yours."
Lvof evidently wanted to restrain himself so as not to betray his satisfaction, but his face lighted up with a smile.
"Only let them be better than I. That is all that I want. But you don't know the bother," he began, "with lads who, like mine, have been allowed to run wild abroad."
"You are regulating all that. They are such capable children. The main thing is—their moral training. And this is what I learn in looking at your children."
"You speak of the moral training. You can't imagine how hard it is. Just as soon as you have conquered one crop of weeds, others spring up, and there is always a fight. If you don't have a support in religion,—be- tween ourselves,—no father on earth, relying on his own strength and without this help, could ever succeed in training them."
This conversation, which was extremely interesting to Levin, was interrupted by the pretty Natalie Aleksandrovna, dressed for going out.
"I didn't know you were here," said she to Levin, evidently not regretting, but even rejoicing, that she had interrupted his conversation, which was too long for her pleasure. "Well! and how is Kitty? I am going to dine with you to-day. See here, Arseny," she said, turning to her husband, "you take the carriage." ....
And between husband and wife began a discussion of the question how they should spend the day. As the husband had to attend to his official business, and the wife was going to the concert and to a public session of the Committee of the Southeast, it was needful to discuss and think it all over. Levin, as a member of the family, was obliged to take part in these plans. It was decided that he should go with Natalie to the concert and to the public meeting, and then send the carriage to the office for Arseny, who would come and take her to Kitty's, or if he was not yet ready Levin would serve as her escort.
"This man is spoiling me," said Lvof to his wife; "he assures me that our children are lovely, when I know that they are full of faults."
"Arseny goes to extremes. I always say so," said his wife. "If you expect perfection, you will never be satisfied. And papa is right in saying that when we were children they went to one extreme: they kept us on the entresol, while the parents lived in the bel-étage; but now, on the contrary, the parents live in the lumber-room, and the children in the bel-étage. The parents are now of no account; everything must be for the children."
"Supposing this is more agreeable?" suggested Lvof, with his winning smile, as he offered her his arm. "Any one not knowing you would think that you were not a mother, but a step-mother."
"No, it is not good to go to extremes in anything," said Natalie, gently, laying his paper-cutter in its proper place on the table.
"Ah, here they are! Come in, ye perfect children," said Lvof to the handsome lads, who came in, and, after bowing to Levin, went to their father, evidently wishing to ask some favor of him.
Levin wanted to speak with them, and to hear what they said to their father, but Natalie was talking with him; and just then Lvof's colleague, Makhotin, in his court-uniform, came into the room, and began a lively conversation about Herzegovina, the Princess Korzinsky, and the premature death of Madame Apraksin.
Levin forgot all about Kitty's message. He remembered it just as they reached the vestibule.
"Oh! Kitty commissioned me to speak with you about Oblonsky," said he, as Lvof went with them to the head of the staircase.
"Yes, yes! maman wants us, les beaux-frères, to attack him," said Lvof, turning red. "But how can I?"
"Then I'll undertake it," said the smiling Madame Lvof, who, wrapped in her white dogskin rotonda, was waiting till they should finish talking.