Chapter 16

On the way home Levin asked all details of Kitty’s illness and the Shtcherbatskys’ plans, and though he would have been ashamed to admit it, he was pleased at what he heard. He was pleased that there was still hope, and still more pleased that she should be suffering who had made him suffer so much. But when Stepan Arkadyevitch began to speak of the causes of Kitty’s illness, and mentioned Vronsky’s name, Levin cut him short.

‘I have no right whatever to know family matters, and, to tell the truth, no interest in them either.’

Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled hardly perceptibly, catching the instantaneous change he knew so well in Levin’s face, which had become as gloomy as it had been bright a minute before.

‘Have you quite settled about the forest with Ryabinin?’ asked Levin.

‘Yes, it’s settled. The price is magnificent; thirty-eight thousand. Eight straight away, and the rest in six years. I’ve been bothering about it for ever so long. No one would give more.’

‘Then you’ve as good as given away your forest for nothing,’ said Levin gloomily.

‘How do you mean for nothing?’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch with a good-humored smile, knowing that nothing would be right in Levin’s eyes now.

‘Because the forest is worth at least a hundred and fifty roubles the acre,’ answered Levin.

‘Oh, these farmers!’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch playfully. ‘Your tone of contempt for us poor townsfolk!… But when it comes to business, we do it better than anyone. I assure you I have reckoned it all out,’ he said, ‘and the forest is fetching a very good price—so much so that I’m afraid of this fellow’s crying off, in fact. You know it’s not ‘timber,’’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, hoping by this distinction to convince Levin completely of the unfairness of his doubts. ‘And it won’t run to more than twenty-five yards of fagots per acre, and he’s giving me at the rate of seventy roubles the acre.’

Levin smiled contemptuously. ‘I know,’ he thought, ‘that fashion not only in him, but in all city people, who, after being twice in ten years in the country, pick up two or three phrases and use them in season and out of season, firmly persuaded that they know all about it. ‘Timber, run to so many yards the acre.’ He says those words without understanding them himself.’

‘I wouldn’t attempt to teach you what you write about in your office,’ said he, ‘and if need arose, I should come to you to ask about it. But you’re so positive you know all the lore of the forest. It’s difficult. Have you counted the trees?’

‘How count the trees?’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laughing, still trying to draw his friend out of his ill-temper. ‘Count the sands of the sea, number the stars. Some higher power might do it.’

‘Oh, well, the higher power of Ryabinin can. Not a single merchant ever buys a forest without counting the trees, unless they get it given them for nothing, as you’re doing now. I know your forest. I go there every year shooting, and your forest’s worth a hundred and fifty roubles an acre paid down, while he’s giving you sixty by installments. So that in fact you’re making him a present of thirty thousand.’

‘Come, don’t let your imagination run away with you,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch piteously. ‘Why was it none would give it, then?’

‘Why, because he has an understanding with the merchants; he’s bought them off. I’ve had to do with all of them; I know them. They’re not merchants, you know: they’re speculators. He wouldn’t look at a bargain that gave him ten, fifteen per cent profit, but holds back to buy a rouble’s worth for twenty kopecks.’

‘Well, enough of it! You’re out of temper.’

‘Not the least,’ said Levin gloomily, as they drove up to the house.

At the steps there stood a trap tightly covered with iron and leather, with a sleek horse tightly harnessed with broad collar-straps. In the trap sat the chubby, tightly belted clerk who served Ryabinin as coachman. Ryabinin himself was already in the house, and met the friends in the hall. Ryabinin was a tall, thinnish, middle-aged man, with mustache and a projecting clean-shaven chin, and prominent muddy-looking eyes. He was dressed in a long-skirted blue coat, with buttons below the waist at the back, and wore high boots wrinkled over the ankles and straight over the calf, with big galoshes drawn over them. He rubbed his face with his handkerchief, and wrapping round him his coat, which sat extremely well as it was, he greeted them with a smile, holding out his hand to Stepan Arkadyevitch, as though he wanted to catch something.

‘So here you are,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, giving him his hand. ‘That’s capital.’

‘I did not venture to disregard your excellency’s commands, though the road was extremely bad. I positively walked the whole way, but I am here at my time. Konstantin Dmitrievitch, my respects”; he turned to Levin, trying to seize his hand too. But Levin, scowling, made as though he did not notice his hand, and took out the snipe. ‘Your honors have been diverting yourselves with the chase? What kind of bird may it be, pray?’ added Ryabinin, looking contemptuously at the snipe: ‘a great delicacy, I suppose.’ And he shook his head disapprovingly, as though he had grave doubts whether this game were worth the candle.

‘Would you like to go into my study?’ Levin said in French to Stepan Arkadyevitch, scowling morosely. ‘Go into my study; you can talk there.’

‘Quite so, where you please,’ said Ryabinin with contemptuous dignity, as though wishing to make it felt that others might be in difficulties as to how to behave, but that he could never be in any difficulty about anything.

On entering the study Ryabinin looked about, as his habit was, as though seeking the holy picture, but when he had found it, he did not cross himself. He scanned the bookcases and bookshelves, and with the same dubious air with which he had regarded the snipe, he smiled contemptuously and shook his head disapprovingly, as though by no means willing to allow that this game were worth the candle.

‘Well, have you brought the money?’ asked Oblonsky. ‘Sit down.’

‘Oh, don’t trouble about the money. I’ve come to see you to talk it over.’

‘What is there to talk over? But do sit down.’

‘I don’t mind if I do,’ said Ryabinin, sitting down and leaning his elbows on the back of his chair in a position of the intensest discomfort to himself. ‘You must knock it down a bit, prince. It would be too bad. The money is ready conclusively to the last farthing. As to paying the money down, there’ll be no hitch there.’

Levin, who had meanwhile been putting his gun away in the cupboard, was just going out of the door, but catching the merchant’s words, he stopped.

‘Why, you’ve got the forest for nothing as it is,’ he said. ‘He came to me too late, or I’d have fixed the price for him.’

Ryabinin got up, and in silence, with a smile, he looked Levin down and up.

‘Very close about money is Konstantin Dmitrievitch,’ he said with a smile, turning to Stepan Arkadyevitch; ‘there’s positively no dealing with him. I was bargaining for some wheat of him, and a pretty price I offered too.’

‘Why should I give you my goods for nothing? I didn’t pick it up on the ground, nor steal it either.’

‘Mercy on us! nowadays there’s no chance at all of stealing. With the open courts and everything done in style, nowadays there’s no question of stealing. We are just talking things over like gentlemen. His excellency’s asking too much for the forest. I can’t make both ends meet over it. I must ask for a little concession.’

‘But is the thing settled between you or not? If it’s settled, it’s useless haggling; but if it’s not,’ said Levin, ‘I’ll buy the forest.’

The smile vanished at once from Ryabinin’s face. A hawklike, greedy, cruel expression was left upon it. With rapid, bony fingers he unbuttoned his coat, revealing a shirt, bronze waistcoat buttons, and a watch chain, and quickly pulled out a fat old pocketbook.

‘Here you are, the forest is mine,’ he said, crossing himself quickly, and holding out his hand. ‘Take the money; it’s my forest. That’s Ryabinin’s way of doing business; he doesn’t haggle over every half-penny,’ he added, scowling and waving the pocketbook.

‘I wouldn’t be in a hurry if I were you,’ said Levin.

‘Come, really,’ said Oblonsky in surprise. ‘I’ve given my word, you know.’

Levin went out of the room, slamming the door. Ryabinin looked towards the door and shook his head with a smile.

‘It’s all youthfulness—positively nothing but boyishness. Why, I’m buying it, upon my honor, simply, believe me, for the glory of it, that Ryabinin, and no one else, should have bought the copse of Oblonsky. And as to the profits, why, I must make what God gives. In God’s name. If you would kindly sign the title-deed…’

Within an hour the merchant, stroking his big overcoat neatly down, and hooking up his jacket, with the agreement in his pocket, seated himself in his tightly covered trap, and drove homewards.

‘Ugh, these gentlefolks!’ he said to the clerk. ‘They—they’re a nice lot!’

‘That’s so,’ responded the clerk, handing him the reins and buttoning the leather apron. ‘But I can congratulate you on the purchase, Mihail Ignatitch?’

‘Well, well…’

Chapter 17

Stepan Arkadyevitch went upstairs with his pocket bulging with notes, which the merchant had paid him for three months in advance. The business of the forest was over, the money in his pocket; their shooting had been excellent, and Stepan Arkadyevitch was in the happiest frame of mind, and so he felt specially anxious to dissipate the ill-humor that had come upon Levin. He wanted to finish the day at supper as pleasantly as it had been begun.

Levin certainly was out of humor, and in spite of all his desire to be affectionate and cordial to his charming visitor, he could not control his mood. The intoxication of the news that Kitty was not married had gradually begun to work upon him.

Kitty was not married, but ill, and ill from love for a man who had slighted her. This slight, as it were, rebounded upon him. Vronsky had slighted her, and she had slighted him, Levin. Consequently Vronsky had the right to despise Levin, and therefore he was his enemy. But all this Levin did not think out. He vaguely felt that there was something in it insulting to him, and he was not angry now at what had disturbed him, but he fell foul of everything that presented itself. The stupid sale of the forest, the fraud practiced upon Oblonsky and concluded in his house, exasperated him.

‘Well, finished?’ he said, meeting Stepan Arkadyevitch upstairs. ‘Would you like supper?’

‘Well, I wouldn’t say no to it. What an appetite I get in the country! Wonderful! Why didn’t you offer Ryabinin something?’

‘Oh, damn him!’

‘Still, how you do treat him!’ said Oblonsky. ‘You didn’t even shake hands with him. Why not shake hands with him?’

‘Because I don’t shake hands with a waiter, and a waiter’s a hundred times better than he is.’

‘What a reactionist you are, really! What about the amalgamation of classes?’ said Oblonsky.

‘Anyone who likes amalgamating is welcome to it, but it sickens me.’

‘You’re a regular reactionist, I see.’

‘Really, I have never considered what I am. I am Konstantin Levin, and nothing else.’

‘And Konstantin Levin very much out of temper,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, smiling.

‘Yes, I am out of temper, and do you know why? Because—excuse me—of your stupid sale…’

Stepan Arkadyevitch frowned good-humoredly, like one who feels himself teased and attacked for no fault of his own.

‘Come, enough about it!’ he said. ‘When did anybody ever sell anything without being told immediately after the sale, ‘It was worth much more’? But when one wants to sell, no one will give anything…. No, I see you’ve a grudge against that unlucky Ryabinin.’

‘Maybe I have. And do you know why? You’ll say again that I’m a reactionist, or some other terrible word; but all the same it does annoy and anger me to see on all sides the impoverishing of the nobility to which I belong, and, in spite of the amalgamation of classes, I’m glad to belong. And their impoverishment is not due to extravagance—that would be nothing; living in good style —that’s the proper thing for noblemen; it’s only the nobles who know how to do it. Now the peasants about us buy land, and I don’t mind that. The gentleman does nothing, while the peasant works and supplants the idle man. That’s as it ought to be. And I’m very glad for the peasant. But I do mind seeing the process of impoverishment from a sort of—I don’t know what to call it— innocence. Here a Polish speculator bought for half its value a magnificent estate from a young lady who lives in Nice. And there a merchant will get three acres of land, worth ten roubles, as security for the loan of one rouble. Here, for no kind of reason, you’ve made that rascal a present of thirty thousand roubles.’

‘Well, what should I have done? Counted every tree?’

‘Of course, they must be counted. You didn’t count them, but Ryabinin did. Ryabinin’s children will have means of livelihood and education, while yours maybe will not!’

‘Well, you must excuse me, but there’s something mean in this counting. We have our business and they have theirs, and they must make their profit. Anyway, the thing’s done, and there’s an end of it. And here come some poached eggs, my favorite dish. And Agafea Mihalovna will give us that marvelous herb-brandy…’

Stepan Arkadyevitch sat down at the table and began joking with Agafea Mihalovna, assuring her that it was long since he had tasted such a dinner and such a supper.

‘Well, you do praise it, anyway,’ said Agafea Mihalovna, ‘but Konstantin Dmitrievitch, give him what you will—a crust of bread—he’ll eat it and walk away.’

Though Levin tried to control himself, he was gloomy and silent. He wanted to put one question to Stepan Arkadyevitch, but he could not bring himself to the point, and could not find the words or the moment in which to put it. Stepan Arkadyevitch had gone down to his room, undressed, again washed, and attired in a nightshirt with goffered frills, he had got into bed, but Levin still lingered in his room, talking of various trifling matters, and not daring to ask what he wanted to know.

‘How wonderfully they make this soap,’ he said gazing at a piece of soap he was handling, which Agafea Mihalovna had put ready for the visitor but Oblonsky had not used. ‘Only look; why, it’s a work of art.’

‘Yes, everything’s brought to such a pitch of perfection nowadays,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a moist and blissful yawn. ‘The theater, for instance, and the entertainments… a—a—a!’ he yawned. ‘The electric light everywhere…a—a—a!’

‘Yes, the electric light,’ said Levin. ‘Yes. Oh, and where’s Vronsky now?’ he asked suddenly, laying down the soap.

‘Vronsky?’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, checking his yawn; ‘he’s in Petersburg. He left soon after you did, and he’s not once been in Moscow since. And do you know, Kostya, I’ll tell you the truth,’ he went on, leaning his elbow on the table, and propping on his hand his handsome ruddy face, in which his moist, good-natured, sleepy eyes shone like stars. ‘It’s your own fault. You took fright at the sight of your rival. But, as I told you at the time, I couldn’t say which had the better chance. Why didn’t you fight it out? I told you at the time that….’ He yawned inwardly, without opening his mouth.

‘Does he know, or doesn’t he, that I did make an offer?’ Levin wondered, gazing at him. ‘Yes, there’s something humbugging, diplomatic in his face,’ and feeling he was blushing, he looked Stepan Arkadyevitch straight in the face without speaking.

‘If there was anything on her side at the time, it was nothing but a superficial attraction,’ pursued Oblonsky. ‘His being such a perfect aristocrat, don’t you know, and his future position in society, had an influence not with her, but with her mother.’

Levin scowled. The humiliation of his rejection stung him to the heart, as though it were a fresh wound he had only just received. But he was at home, and the walls of home are a support.

‘Stay, stay,’ he began, interrupting Oblonsky. ‘You talk of his being an aristocrat. But allow me to ask what it consists in, that aristocracy of Vronsky or of anybody else, beside which I can be looked down upon? You consider Vronsky an aristocrat, but I don’t. A man whose father crawled up from nothing at all by intrigue, and whose mother—God knows whom she wasn’t mixed up with…. No, excuse me, but I consider myself aristocratic, and people like me, who can point back in the past to three or four honorable generations of their family, of the highest degree of breeding (talent and intellect, of course that’s another matter), and have never curried favor with anyone, never depended on anyone for anything, like my father and my grandfather. And I know many such. You think it mean of me to count the trees in my forest, while you make Ryabinin a present of thirty thousand; but you get rents from your lands and I don’t know what, while I don’t and so I prize what’s come to me from my ancestors or been won by hard work…. We are aristocrats, and not those who can only exist by favor of the powerful of this world, and who can be bought for twopence halfpenny.’

‘Well, but whom are you attacking? I agree with you,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, sincerely and genially; though he was aware that in the class of those who could be bought for twopence halfpenny Levin was reckoning him too. Levin’s warmth gave him genuine pleasure. ‘Whom are you attacking? Though a good deal is not true that you say about Vronsky, but I won’t talk about that. I tell you straight out, if I were you, I should go back with me to Moscow, and…’

‘No; I don’t know whether you know it or not, but I don’t care. And I tell you—I did make an offer and was rejected, and Katerina Alexandrovna is nothing now to me but a painful and humiliating reminiscence.’

‘What ever for? What nonsense!’

‘But we won’t talk about it. Please forgive me, if I’ve been nasty,’ said Levin. Now that he had opened his heart, he became as he had been in the morning. ‘You’re not angry with me, Stiva? Please don’t be angry,’ he said, and smiling, he took his hand.

‘Of course not; not a bit, and no reason to be. I’m glad we’ve spoken openly. And do you know, stand-shooting in the morning is unusually good—why not go? I couldn’t sleep the night anyway, but I might go straight from shooting to the station.’

‘Capital.’