At the French Theater, which he reached in time for the last act, and afterward over his champagne at the the Tartars', Stepan Arkadyevitch gradually began to breathe more freely in the familiar atmosphere. Nevertheless, all that evening he was very far from being himself.
When he returned to the house of Piotr Oblonsky, where he made his home in Petersburg, he found a note from Betsy. She wrote him that she was very desirous of finishing their talk, and urged him to call the next day. He had hardly finished reading this note and making up a face at it, when heavy shuffling steps were heard down-stairs as of men lifting some heavy object.
Stepan Arkadyevitch went out to see what it was. It was the rejuvenated Piotr Oblonsky, who was so tipsy that he could not walk up-stairs; but when he caught sight of Stepan Arkadyevitch, he ordered his attendants to put him on his feet, and, clinging to Stepan Arkadyevitch's arm, he managed to reach his room, where he began to relate how he had spent the evening, till he fell asleep.
Stepan Arkadyevitch himself was in such a weak state of mind, that, contrary to his custom, he did not fall asleep quickly. What he had heard and seen during the day was disgusting. But more disgusting than anything else was the recollection of the evening at the Countess Lidia Ivanovna's.
The next day he received from Alekseï Aleksandrovitch a flat refusal in the matter of the divorce, and knew that this decision was based on the words which the Frenchman had uttered during his slumber, real or feigned.
CHAPTER XXIII
In order that anything may be accomplished in family life, it is requisite that between the husband and wife there should be either absolute discord or loving harmony. But when the relations between the two are uncertain, and there is neither the one nor the other, nothing can be accomplished.
