Stepan Arkadyevitch had learned easily at school, thanks to his excellent abilities, but he had been idle and mischievous1, and therefore was one of the lowest in his class. But in spite of his habitually2 dissipated mode of life, his inferior grade in the service, and his comparative youth, he occupied the honorable and lucrative3 position of president of one of the government boards at Moscow. This post he had received through his sister Anna's husband, Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin, who held one of the most important positions in the ministry5 to whose department the Moscow office belonged. But if Karenin had not got his brother- in-law this berth6, then through a hundred other personages-- brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, and aunts--Stiva Oblonsky would have received this post, or some other similar one, together with the salary of six thousand absolutely needful for them, as his affairs, in spite of his wife's considerable property, were in an embarrassed condition.
Half Moscow and Petersburg were friends and relations of Stepan Arkadyevitch. He was born in the midst of those who had been and are the powerful ones of this world. One-third of the men in the government, the older men, had been friends of his father's, and had known him in petticoats; another third were his intimate chums, and the remainder were friendly acquaintances. Consequently the distributors of earthly blessings7 in the shape of places, rents, shares, and such, were all his friends, and could not overlook one of their own set; and Oblonsky had no need to make any special exertion8 to get a lucrative post. He had only not to refuse things, not to show jealousy9, not to be quarrelsome or take offense10, all of which from his characteristic good nature he never did. It would have struck him as absurd if he had been told that he would not get a position with the salary he required, especially as he expected nothing out of the way; he only wanted what the men of his own age and standing11 did get, and he was no worse qualified12 for performing duties of the kind than any other man.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was not merely liked by all who knew him for his good humor, but for his bright disposition14, and his unquestionable honesty. In him, in his handsome, radiant figure, his sparkling eyes, black hair and eyebrows15, and the white and red of his face, there was something which produced a physical effect of kindliness16 and good humor on the people who met him. "Aha! Stiva! Oblonsky! Here he is!" was almost always said with a smile of delight on meeting him. Even though it happened at times that after a conversation with him it seemed that nothing particularly delightful17 had happened, the next day, and the next, every one was just as delighted at meeting him again.
After filling for three years the post of president of one of the government boards at Moscow, Stepan Arkadyevitch had won the respect, as well as the liking18, of his fellow officials, subordinates, and superiors, and all who had had business with him. The principal qualities in Stepan Arkadyevitch which had gained him this universal respect in the service consisted, in the first place, of his extreme indulgence for others, founded on a consciousness of his own shortcomings; secondly19, of his perfect liberalism--not the liberalism he read of in the papers, but the liberalism that was in his blood, in virtue20 of which he treated all men perfectly21 equally and exactly the same, whatever their fortune or calling might be; and thirdly--the most important point--his complete indifference22 to the business in which he was engaged, in consequence of which he was never carried away, and never made mistakes.
On reaching the offices of the board, Stepan Arkadyevitch, escorted by a deferential23 porter with a portfolio24, went into his little private room, put on his uniform, and went into the boardroom. The clerks and copyists all rose, greeting him with good-humored deference25. Stepan Arkadyevitch moved quickly, as ever, to his place, shook hands with his colleagues, and sat down. He made a joke or two, and talked just as much as was consistent with due decorum, and began work. No one knew better than Stepan Arkadyevitch how to hit on the exact line between freedom, simplicity26, and official stiffness necessary for the agreeable conduct of business. A secretary, with the good-humored deference common to every one in Stepan Arkadyevitch's office, came up with papers, and began to speak in the familiar and easy tone which had been introduced by Stepan Arkadyevitch.
"We have succeeded in getting the information from the government department of Penza. Here, would you care?...."
"You've got them at last?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laying his finger on the paper. "Now, gentlemen...."
And the sitting of the board began.
"If they knew," he thought, bending his head with a significant air as he listened to the report, "what a guilty little boy their president was half an hour ago." And his eyes were laughing during the reading of the report. Till two o'clock the sitting would go on without a break, and at two o'clock there would be an interval27 and luncheon28.
It was not yet two, when the large glass doors of the boardroom suddenly opened and someone came in.
All the officials sitting on the further side under the portrait of the Tsar and the eagle, delighted at any distraction29, looked round at the door; but the doorkeeper standing at the door at once drove out the intruder, and closed the glass door after him.
When the case had been read through, Stepan Arkadyevitch got up and stretched, and by way of tribute to the liberalism of the times took out a cigarette in the boardroom and went into his private room. Two of the members of the board, the old veteran in the service, Nikitin, and the Kammerjunker Grinevitch, went in with him.
"We shall have time to finish after lunch," said Stepan Arkadyevitch.
"To be sure we shall!" said Nikitin.
"A pretty sharp fellow this Fomin must be," said Grinevitch of one of the persons taking part in the case they were examining.
Stepan Arkadyevitch frowned at Grinevitch's words, giving him thereby30 to understand that it was improper31 to pass judgment32 prematurely33, and made him no reply.
"Who was that came in?" he asked the doorkeeper.
"Someone, your excellency, crept in without permission directly my back was turned. He was asking for you. I told him: when the members come out, then..."
"Where is he?"
"Maybe he's gone into the passage, but here he comes anyway. That is he," said the doorkeeper, pointing to a strongly built, broadshouldered man with a curly beard, who, without taking off his sheepskin cap, was running lightly and rapidly up the worn steps of the stone staircase.b One of the members going down--a lean official with a portfolio--stood out of his way and looked disapprovingly34 at the legs of the stranger, then glanced inquiringly at Oblonsky.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was standing at the top of the stairs. His good-naturedly beaming face above the embroidered35 collar of his uniform beamed more than ever when he recognized the man coming up.
"Why, it's actually you, Levin, at last!" he said with a friendly mocking smile, scanning Levin as he approached. "How is it you have deigned36 to look me up in this den4?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, and not content with shaking hands, he kissed his friend. "Have you been here long?"
"I have just come, and very much wanted to see you," said Levin, looking shyly and at the same time angry and uneasily around.
"Well, let's go into my room," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, who knew his friend's sensitive and irritable37 shyness, and, taking his arm, he drew him along, as though guiding him through dangers.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was on familiar terms with almost all his acquaintances, and called almost all of them by their Christian38 names: old men of sixty, boys of twenty, actors, ministers, merchants, and adjutant-generals, so that many of his intimate chums were to be found at the extreme ends of the social ladder, and would have been very much surprised to learn that they had, through the medium of Oblonsky, something in common. He was the familiar friend of everyone with whom he took a glass of champagne39, and he took a glass of champagne with everyone, and when in consequence he met any of his disreputable chums, as he used in joke to call many of his friends, in the presence of his subordinates, he well knew how, with his characteristic tact40, to diminish the disagreeable impression made on them. Levin was not a disreputable chum, but Oblonsky, with his ready tact, felt that Levin fancied he might not care to show his intimacy41 with him before his subordinates, and so he made haste to take him off into his room.
Levin was almost of the same age as Oblonsky; their intimacy did not rest merely on champagne. Levin had been the friend and companion of his early youth. They were fond of one another in spite of the difference of their characters and tastes, as friends are fond of one another who have been together in early youth. But in spite of this, each of them--as is often the way with men who have selected careers of different kinds--though in discussion he would even justify42 the other's career, in his heart despised it. It seemed to each of them that the life he led himself was the only real life, and the life led by his friend was a mere13 phantasm. Oblonsky could not restrain a slight mocking smile at the sight of Levin. How often he had seen him come up to Moscow from the country where he was doing something, but what precisely43 Stepan Arkadyevitch could never quite make out, and indeed he took no interest in the matter. Levin arrived in Moscow always excited and in a hurry, rather ill at ease and irritated by his own want of ease, and for the most part with a perfectly new, unexpected view of things. Stepan Arkadyevitch laughed at this, and liked it. In the same way Levin in his heart despised the town mode of life of his friend, and his official duties, which he laughed at, and regarded as trifling44. But the difference was that Oblonsky, as he was doing the same as every one did, laughed complacently45 and good-humoredly, while Levin laughed without complacency and sometimes angrily.
"We have long been expecting you," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, going into his room and letting Levin's hand go as though to show that here all danger was over. "I am very, very glad to see you," he went on. "Well, how are you? Eh? When did you come?"
Levin was silent, looking at the unknown faces of Oblonsky's two companions, and especially at the hand of the elegant Grinevitch, which had such long white fingers, such long yellow filbert-shaped nails, and such huge shining studs on the shirt-cuff, that apparently46 they absorbed all his attention, and allowed him no freedom of thought. Oblonsky noticed this at once, and smiled.
"Ah, to be sure, let me introduce you," he said. "My colleagues: Philip Ivanitch Nikitin, Mihail Stanislavitch Grinevitch"--and turning to Levin--"a district councilor, a modern district councilman, a gymnast who lifts thirteen stone with one hand, a cattle-breeder and sportsman, and my friend, Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin, the brother of Sergey Ivonovitch Koznishev."
"Delighted," said the veteran.
"I have the honor of knowing your brother, Sergey Ivanovitch," said Grinevitch, holding out his slender hand with its long nails.
Levin frowned, shook hands coldly, and at once turned to Oblonsky. Though he had a great respect for his half-brother, an author well known to all Russia, he could not endure it when people treated him not as Konstantin Levin, but as the brother of the celebrated47 Koznishev.
"No, I am no longer a district councilor. I have quarreled with them all, and don't go to the meetings any more," he said, turning to Oblonsky.
"You've been quick about it!" said Oblonsky with a smile. "But how? why?"
"It's a long story. I will tell you some time," said Levin, but he began telling him at once. "Well, to put it shortly, I was convinced that nothing was really done by the district councils, or ever could be," he began, as though some one had just insulted him. "On one side it's a plaything; they play at being a parliament, and I'm neither young enough nor old enough to find amusement in playthings; and on the other side" (he stammered) "it's a means for the coterie48 of the district to make money. Formerly49 they had wardships, courts of justice, now they have the district council--not in the form of bribes50, but in the form of unearned salary," he said, as hotly as though someone of those present had opposed his opinion.
"Aha! You're in a new phase again, I see--a conservative," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. "However, we can go into that later."
"Yes, later. But I wanted to see you," said Levin, looking with hatred51 at Grinevitch's hand.
Stepan Arkadyevitch gave a scarcely perceptible smile.
"How was it you used to say you would never wear European dress again?" he said, scanning his new suit, obviously cut by a French tailor. "Ah! I see: a new phase."
Levin suddenly blushed, not as grown men blush, slightly, without being themselves aware of it, but as boys blush, feeling that they are ridiculous through their shyness, and consequently ashamed of it and blushing still more, almost to the point of tears. And it was so strange to see this sensible, manly52 face in such a childish plight53, that Oblonsky left off looking at him.
"Oh, where shall we meet? You know I want very much to talk to you," said Levin.
Oblonsky seemed to ponder.
"I'll tell you what: let's go to Gurin's to lunch, and there we can talk. I am free till three."
"No," answered Levin, after an instant's thought, "I have got to go on somewhere else."
"All right, then, let's dine together."
"Dine together? But I have nothing very particular, only a few words to say, and a question I want to ask you, and we can have a talk afterwards."
"Well, say the few words, then, at once, and we'll gossip after dinner."
"Well, it's this," said Levin; "but it's of no importance, though."
His face all at once took an expression of anger from the effort he was making to surmount54 his shyness.
"What are the Shtcherbatskys doing? Everything as it used to be?" he said.
Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had long known that Levin was in love with his sister-in-law, Kitty, gave a hardly perceptible smile, and his eyes sparkled merrily.
"You said a few words, but I can't answer in a few words, because.... Excuse me a minute..."
A secretary came in, with respectful familiarity and the modest consciousness, characteristic of every secretary, of superiority to his chief in the knowledge of their business; he went up to Oblonsky with some papers, and began, under pretense55 of asking a question, to explain some objection. Stepan Arkadyevitch, without hearing him out, laid his hand genially56 on the secretary's sleeve.
"No, you do as I told you," he said, softening57 his words with a smile, and with a brief explanation of his view of the matter he turned away from the papers, and said: "So do it that way, if you please, Zahar Nikititch."
The secretary retired58 in confusion. During the consultation59 with the secretary Levin had completely recovered from his embarrassment60. He was standing with his elbows on the back of a chair, and on his face was a look of ironical61 attention.
"I don't understand it, I don't understand it," he said.
"What don't you understand?" said Oblonsky, smiling as brightly as ever, and picking up a cigarette. He expected some queer outburst from Levin.
"I don't understand what you are doing," said Levin, shrugging his shoulders. "How can you do it seriously?"
"Why not?"
"Why, because there's nothing in it."
"You think so, but we're overwhelmed with work."
"On paper. But, there, you've a gift for it," added Levin.
"That's to say, you think there's a lack of something in me?"
"Perhaps so," said Levin. "But all the same I admire your grandeur62, and am proud that I've a friend in such a great person. You've not answered my question, though," he went on, with a desperate effort looking Oblonsky straight in the face.
"Oh, that's all very well. You wait a bit, and you'll come to this yourself. It's very nice for you to have over six thousand acres in the Karazinsky district, and such muscles, and the freshness of a girl of twelve; still you'll be one of us one day. Yes, as to your question, there is no change, but it's a pity you've been away so long."
"Oh, why so?" Levin queried63, panic-stricken.
"Oh, nothing," responded Oblonsky. "We'll talk it over. But what's brought you up to town?"
"Oh, we'll talk about that, too, later on," said Levin, reddening again up to his ears.
"All right. I see," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. "I should ask you to come to us, you know, but my wife's not quite the thing. But I tell you what; if you want to see them, they're sure now to be at the Zoological Gardens from four to five. Kitty skates. You drive along there, and I'll come and fetch you, and we'll go and dine somewhere together."
"Capital. So good-bye till then."
"Now mind, you'll forget, I know you, or rush off home to the country!" Stepan Arkadyevitch called out laughing.
"No, truly!"
And Levin went out of the room, only when he was in the doorway64 remembering that he had forgotten to take leave of Oblonsky's colleagues.
"That gentleman must be a man of great energy," said Grinevitch, when Levin had gone away.
"Yes, my dear boy," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, nodding his head, "he's a lucky fellow! Over six thousand acres in the Karazinsky district; everything before him; and what youth and vigor65! Not like some of us."
"You have a great deal to complain of, haven't you, Stepan Arkadyevitch?"
"Ah, yes, I'm in a poor way, a bad way," said Stepan Arkadyevitch with a heavy sigh.
收听单词发音 |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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lucrative
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| adj.赚钱的，可获利的 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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portfolio
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| n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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improper
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| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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disapprovingly
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| adv.不以为然地，不赞成地，非难地 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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deigned
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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coterie
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| n.(有共同兴趣的)小团体，小圈子 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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bribes
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| n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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surmount
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| vt.克服；置于…顶上 | |
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pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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genially
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| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
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softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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64
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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65
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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