Anna Karenina (Dole)/Part Three/Chapter 26
CHAPTER XXVI
Sviazhsky was predvodityel or marshal of the nobility in his district. He was five years older than Levin, and had been married some time. His sister-in-law was an inmate of his family, and to Levin she was a very attractive young lady; and Levin knew that Sviazhsky and his wife would be very glad for him to marry her. He knew this infallibly, as marriageable young men usually know such things, and he knew also that though he dreamed of marriage, and was sure that this fascinating young lady would make a charming wife, he would sooner have been able to fly to heaven than to marry her, even if he had not been in love with Kitty Shcherbatsky. And this knowledge poisoned his pleasure in his prospective visit.
On receiving Sviazhsky's letter, with its invitation to go hunting, Levin had immediately thought about this; but in spite of it, decided that such views in regard to him on the part of Sviazhsky were entirely gratuitous, and he decided to accept the invitation. Moreover he had in the depths of his soul a strong curiosity to see this girl once more, and experiment on the effect that she would produce on him.
Sviazhsky's domestic life was in the highest degree pleasant, and Sviazhsky himself was the very best type of the proprietor devoted to the affairs of the province, and this fact always interested Levin.
He was one of those men that always excited Levin's amazement, whose opinions, very logical, although never self-formed, take one direction, while their lives, perfectly defined and confident in their course, take another, absolutely independent of each other and almost always in opposition. Sviazhsky was a thorough-going liberal. He despised the nobility, charged the majority of the nobles with secretly, and from motives of cowardice, opposing emancipation; and he regarded Russia as a rotten country like Turkey, and its government so wretched that he did not permit himself seriously to criticize its acts; and yet he had accepted public office, and attended faithfully to his duties. He never even went out without donning his official cap, with its red border and cockade. He declared that human existence was endurable only abroad, where he was going to Hve at the first opportunity; but at the same time he carried on in Russia a very complicated estate[1] in the most perfect style, and was interested in all that was going on in Russia, and was fully up with the times. The Russian muzhik, in his eyes, stood between man and monkey; but, when the elections came, he gave his hand to the peasants by preference, and listened to them with the utmost attention. He believed neither in God nor in the devil; but he showed great concern in the questions concerning ameliorating the condition of the clergy, and the diminution of the revenues, and moreover he labored with especial zeal to have his village church kept in repair.
In regard to the complete emancipation of woman and especially her right to work, he sided with the most extreme supporters of this doctrine, but he lived with his wife in such perfect harmony that though they had no children every one admired them, and he took entire direction of the family affairs, so that his wife did nothing, and could do nothing, except in cooperation with him, in order to pass the time as agreeably as possible.
If Levin had not been naturally disposed to see the best side of people the analysis of Sviazhsky's character would have caused him no trouble or question; he would have said to himself: "Fool or Good-for-nothing," and that would have been the end of it. But he could not say fool—durak—because Sviazhsky was undoubtedly not only very clever, but also a very cultivated and an extraordinarily simple-hearted man, entirely free from conceit; there was no subject which he did not know; but he displayed his knowledge only when it was needed. Still less could he say that he was a good-for-nothing, because Sviazhsky was unquestionably an honorable, excellent, sensible man, who was always doing his work cheerfully and alertly, and had apparently never intentionally done anything wrong or could do anything wrong.
Levin tried to comprehend and could not understand him and always looked at him and his life as a living enigma.
He and Levin had been friends and therefore Levin allowed himself to study Sviazhsky, and tried to trace his view of life to the very source. But this was always an idle task. Every time Levin made the effort to penetrate a little farther into the hidden chambers of Sviazhsky's mind he discovered that the man was somewhat confused; a sort of terror showed itself in his eyes, as if he feared that Levin was going to entrap him; and he would give him a good-natured and jolly rebuff.
Now, after his disenchantment on the subject of farm management. Levin was especially glad to be at Sviazhsky's. To say nothing of the fact that he was always pleasantly impressed by the sight of these doves so contented with themselves and all they possessed, and their comfortable nest, he had a great longing, now that he was so dissatisfied with his own life, to discover the secret of his having such clear, decided, and cheerful views of life. Moreover, Levin knew that he should meet at Sviazhsky's the proprietors of the neighborhood, and he was especially desirous to talk with them, to hear about their experiences in farm management, about their crops, their ways of hiring service, and the like, which, as Levin knew well, it was the fashion to regard as very trifling topics of conversation, but which seemed to him more important than anything else.
"Perhaps these things were not important during the days of serfdom or in England. In both those cases conditions are definitely fixed; but with us at the present time when everything has been overturned and the new order is only just begun, the question how to regulate these conditions is the only important one in Russia." Such was Levin's conviction.
The hunting which Sviazhsky gave him was poorer than Levin had expected: the marshes were dry, and the woodcock scarce. Levin walked all day, and bagged only three birds; but in compensation he brought back with him as always from hunting a ravenous appetite, capital spirits, and that intellectual excitement which violent physical exercise always gave him. Even while he was out hunting, while, as it would seem, his thoughts were not busy about anything, he kept remembering the old man and his family, and the impression remained with him that there was some peculiar tie between himself and that family.
In the evening, at the tea-table in the company of two proprietors, who had come on some business with the marshal, the interesting conversation that he had looked forward to soon began. At the tea-table Levin sat next the hostess and had to keep up a conversation with her and her sister who sat opposite him. His hostess was a moon-faced lady of medium stature and light complexion, all radiant with smiles and dimples. Levin endeavored, through her, to unravel the enigma which her husband's character offered him; but he could not get full control of his thoughts, because opposite him sat the pretty sister-in-law in a gown worn, as it seemed to him, for his especial benefit, with a square corsage cut rather low in front, and giving a glimpse of a very white bosom. This decollete gown, in spite of the fact that the bosom was very white or perhaps from the very reason that it was very white, stopped the free flow of his thought. He could not help imagining, though of course erroneously, that this display was made for his benefit, and yet he felt that he had no right to look at it, and he tried not to look at it; but he was conscious of being to blame for her wearing such a gown. It seemed to Levin that he was deceiving some one, that he ought to make some kind of an explanation, but that it was an utter impossibility to do it, and so he kept blushing and felt ill at ease, and his constraint communicated itself to the pretty young lady. But the hostess seemed not to notice it, and kept up a lively conversation.
"You say that my husband does not take an interest in Russian affairs?" she asked. "On the contrary, he was happy when he was abroad, but not so happy as he is here. Here he feels that he is in his sphere. He has so much to do, and he has the faculty of interesting himself in everything. Oh! you have not been to see our school, have you?"
"Yes, I have,—that little house covered with ivy?"
"Yes; that is Nastia's work," said she, glancing at her sister.
"Do you yourself teach?" asked Levin, trying to look at Nastia's face, but feeling that, in spite of himself, he would see the low corsage.
"Yes, I teach, and intend to keep on teaching; but we have an excellent schoolmistress. And we have gymnastics."
"No, thank you, I will not take any more tea," said Levin. He felt that he was committing a solecism; but he could not keep up the conversation, and he rose in confusion. "I am very much interested in what they are saying," he added, and went to the other end of the table, where the host was talking with the two landed proprietors. Sviazhsky was sitting with his side toward the table, twirling his cup around with one hand, and with the other stroking his long beard, lifting it up to his nose and dropping it again as if he were smelling of it. His bright black eyes were fixed with keen amusement on one of the proprietors, a man with a white mustache, who was complaining bitterly about the peasantry. Levin saw that Sviazhsky had an answer ready for the worthy gentleman's comical complaints, and could reduce his arguments to powder if his official position did not compel him to respect the proprietor's.
The proprietor with the white mustache was evidently a narrow-minded country gentleman, an inveterate opponent of the emancipation, and an old-style farmer. Levin could see the signs of it in his old-fashioned, shiny coat, in his keen, angry eyes, in his well balanced Russian speech, in his authoritative, slow, and studied manner, and his imperious gestures with his large, handsome, sunburnt hands, on one of which for sole ornament was an old-fashioned wedding-ring.
- ↑ Khozyaïstvo includes household economy, the outside interests, farming, mills,—everything connected with an estate. The master of an estate is called khozyaïn, the mistress khozyaïka,—terms often used for host and hostess.