After burying his father and intrusting to the unchanged Glafira Petrovna the management of his estate and superintendence of his bailiffs, young Lavretsky went to Moscow, whither he felt drawn1 by a vague but strong attraction. He recognised the defects of his education, and formed the resolution, as far as possible, to regain2 lost ground. In the last five years he had read much and seen something; he had many stray ideas in his head; any professor might have envied some of his acquirements, but at the same time he did not know much that every schoolboy would have learnt long ago. Lavretsky was aware of his limitations; he was secretly conscious of being eccentric. The Anglomaniac had done his son an ill turn; his whimsical education had produced its fruits. For long years he had submitted unquestioningly to his father; when at last he began to see through him, the evil was already done, his habits were deeply-rooted. He could not get on with people; at twenty-three years old, with an unquenchable thirst for love in his shy heart, he had never yet dared to look one woman in the face. With his intellect, clear and sound, but somewhat heavy, with his tendencies to obstinacy3, contemplation, and indolence he ought from his earliest years to have been thrown into the stream of life, and he had been kept instead in artificial seclusion4. And now the magic circle was broken, but he continued to remain within it, prisoned and pent up within himself. It was ridiculous at his age to put on a student’s dress, but he was not afraid of ridicule5; his Spartan6 education had at least the good effect of developing in him a contempt for the opinion of others, and he put on, without embarrassment7, the academical uniform. He entered the section of physics and mathematics. Robust8, rosy-cheeked, bearded, and taciturn, he produced a strange impression on his companions; they did not suspect that this austere9 man, who came so punctually to the lectures in a wide village sledge10 with a pair of horses, was inwardly almost a child. He appeared to them to be a queer kind of pedant11; they did not care for him, and made no overtures12 to him, and he avoided them. During the first two years he spent in the university, he only made acquaintance with one student, from whom he took lessons in Latin. This student Mihalevitch by name, an enthusiast13 and a poet, who loved Lavretsky sincerely, by chance became the means of bringing about an important change in his destiny.
One day at the theatre — Motchalov was then at the height of his fame and Lavretsky did not miss a single performance — he saw in a box in the front tier a young girl, and though no woman ever came near his grim figure without setting his heart beating, it had never beaten so violently before. The young girl sat motionless, leaning with her elbows on the velvet14 of the box; the light of youth and life played in every feature of her dark, oval, lovely face; subtle intelligence was expressed in the splendid eyes which gazed softly and attentively15 from under her fine brows, in the swift smile on her expressive16 lips, in the very pose of her head, her hands, her neck. She was exquisitely17 dressed. Beside her sat a yellow and wrinkled woman of forty-five, with a low neck, in a black headdress, with a toothless smile on her intently-preoccupied and empty face, and in the inner recesses18 of the box was visible an elderly man in a wide frock-coat and high cravat19, with an expression of dull dignity and a kind of ingratiating distrustfulness in his little eyes, with dyed moustache and whiskers, a large meaningless forehead and wrinkled cheeks, by every sign a retired20 general. Lavretsky did not take his eyes off the girl who had made such an impression on him; suddenly the door of the box opened and Mihalevitch went in. The appearance of this man, almost his one acquaintance in Moscow, in the society of the one girl who was absorbing his whole attention, struck him as curious and significant. Continuing to gaze into the box, he observed that all the persons in it treated Mihalevitch as an old friend. The performance on the stage ceased to interest Lavretsky, even Motchalov, though he was that evening in his “best form,” did not produce the usual impression on him. At one very pathetic part, Lavretsky involuntarily looked at his beauty: she was bending forward, her cheeks glowing under the influence of his persistent21 gaze, her eyes, which were fixed22 on the stage, slowly turned and rested on him. All night he was! haunted by those eyes. The skillfully constructed barriers were broken down at last; he was in a shiver and a fever, and the next day he went to Mihalevitch. From him he learnt that the name of the beauty was Varvara Pavlovna Korobyin; that the old people sitting with her in the box were her father and mother; and that he, Mihalevitch, had become acquainted with them a year before, while he was staying at Count N.‘s, in the position of a tutor, near Moscow. The enthusiast spoke23 in rapturous praise of Varvara Pavlovna. “My dear fellow,” he exclaimed with the impetuous ring in his voice peculiar24 to him, “that girl is a marvelous creature, a genius, an artist in the true sense of the word, and she is very good too.” Noticing from Lavretsky’s inquiries25 the impression Varvara Pavlovna had made on him, he himself proposed to introduce him to her, adding that he was like one of the family with them; that the general was not at all proud, and the mother was so stupid she could not say “Bo” to a goose. Lavretsky blushed, muttered something unintelligible26, and ran away. For five whole days he was struggling with his timidity; on the sixth day the young Spartan got into a new uniform and placed himself at Mihalevitch’s disposal. The latter being his own valet, confined himself to combing his hair — and both betook themselves to the Korobyins.
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1
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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3
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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spartan
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| adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人 | |
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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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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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pedant
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| n.迂儒；卖弄学问的人 | |
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12
overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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enthusiast
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| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
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14
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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cravat
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| n.领巾，领结；v.使穿有领结的服装，使结领结 | |
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20
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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21
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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23
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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24
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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25
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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26
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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