第75章

`Let's go into the billiard room,' he said.

The plump officer rose submissively, and they moved toward the door.

At that moment there walked into the room the tan and well-built Captain Iashvin. Nodding with an air of lofty contempt to the two officers, he went up to Vronsky.

`Ah! Here he is!' he cried, bringing his big hand down heavily on his epaulet. Vronsky looked round angrily, but his face lighted up immediately with his characteristic expression of calm and firm friendliness.

`That's it, Aliosha,' said the captain, in his loud baritone.

`Have a bite and drink one tiny glass.'

`Oh, I'm not very hungry.'

`There go the inseparables,' Iashvin dropped, glancing sarcastically at the two officers who were at that instant leaving the room. And he bent his long legs, swathed in tight riding breeches, and sat down in the chair, too low for him, so that his knees were cramped up in a sharp angle. `Why didn't you turn up at Theater at Krasnoe Selo yesterday? Numerova wasn't at all bad. Where were you?'

`I was late at the Tverskys',' said Vronsky.

`Ah!' responded Iashvin.

Iashvin, a gambler and a rake, a man not merely without any principles, but of immoral principles - Iashvin was Vronsky's greatest friend in the regiment. Vronsky liked him both for his exceptional physical strength, which he showed for the most part by being able to drink like a fish and to do without sleep without being in the slightest degree affected by it;and for his great strength of character, which he showed in his relations with his comrades and superior officers, commanding both fear and respect, and also at cards, when he would play for tens of thousands and, however much he might have drunk, always with such skill and decision that he was reckoned the best player in the English Club. Vronsky respected and liked Iashvin particularly because he felt Iashvin liked him, not for his name and his money, but for himself. And of all men he was the only one with whom Vronsky would have liked to speak of his love. He felt that Iashvin, in spite of his apparent contempt for every sort of feeling, was the only man who could, so he fancied, comprehend the intense passion which now filled his whole life. Moreover, he felt certain that Iashvin, as it was, took no delight in gossip and scandal, and interpreted his feeling rightly - that is to say, knew and believed that this passion was not a joke, not a pastime, but something more serious and important.

Vronsky had never spoken to him of his passion, but he was aware that he knew all about it, and that he put the right interpretation on it, and he was glad to see this in his eyes.

`Ah! yes,' he said, to the announcement that Vronsky had been at the Tverskys'; and, his black eyes shining, he plucked at his left mustache, and began twisting it into his mouth - a bad habit he had.

`Well, and what did you do yesterday? Win anything?' asked Vronsky.

`Eight thousand. But three don't count; the chap will hardly pay up.'

`Oh, then you can afford to lose over me,' said Vronsky, laughing.

(Iashvin had betted heavily on Vronsky in the races.)`No chance of my losing. Makhotin's the only one who's a dangerous entrant.'

And the conversation passed to forecasts of the coming race, the only thing Vronsky could think of just now.

`Come along, I've finished,' said Vronsky, and getting up he went to the door. Iashvin got up too, stretching his long legs and his long back.

`It's too early for me to dine, but I must have a drink. I'll come along directly. Hi, wine!' he shouted, in his rich voice, that was so famous at drill, and set the windows shaking. `No, I don't need it!'

he shouted again, immediately after. `You're going home, so I'll go with you.'

And he walked out with Vronsky.

[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 2, Chapter 20[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 20 Vronsky was staying in a roomy, clean, Finnish hut, divided into two by a partition. Petritsky lived with him in camp too. Petritsky was asleep when Vronsky and Iashvin came into the hut.

`Get up, don't go on sleeping,' said Iashvin, going behind the partition and giving Petritsky, who was lying with ruffled hair and with his nose in the pillow, a prod on the shoulder.

Petritsky jumped up suddenly onto his knees and looked around.

`Your brother's been here,' he said to Vronsky. `He waked me up, the devil take him, and said he'd look in again.' And pulling up the rug he flung himself back on the pillow. `Oh do quit that, Iashvin!' he said, getting furious with Iashvin, who was pulling the rug off him. `Quit that!'

He turned over and opened his eyes. `You'd better tell me what to drink;I've such a nasty taste in my mouth that...'

`Vodka's better than anything,' boomed Iashvin. `Tereshchenko!

Vodka for your master and cucumbers,' he shouted, obviously taking pleasure in the sound of his own voice.

`Vodka, do you think? Eh?' queried Petritsky, blinking and rubbing his eyes. `And you'll drink something? All right then, we'll have a drink together! Vronsky, have a drink?' said Petritsky, getting up and wrapping the tiger-striped bedcover round him. He went to the door of the partition wall, raised his hands, and hummed in French: ``there was a king in Thu-u-le.''

Vronsky, will you have a drink?'

`Go along,' said Vronsky, putting on the coat his valet handed him.

`Where are you off to?' asked Iashvin. `Oh, here is your troika,'

he added, seeing the carriage drive up.

`To the stables, and I've got to see Briansky, too, about the horses,' said Vronsky.

Vronsky had as a fact promised to call at Briansky's, some ten verstas from Peterhof, and to bring him money owing for some horses; and he hoped to have time to get that in too. But his comrades were at once aware that that was not the only place he was going.

Petritsky, still humming, winked and made a pout with his lips, as though he would say: `Oh, yes, we know your Briansky!'