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By Root 1346 0

the morning, worked like a horse, and demanded that his subordinates work in the same way. Besides, this new superior was also reputed to have the manners of a bear and, according to rumour, was a man of the completely opposite tendency from that to which the former superior had adhered and to which, till then, Stepan Arkadyich himself had also adhered. The day before, Stepan Arkadyich had come to work in his uniform and the new superior had been very amiable and had got to talking with him as with an acquaintance. Therefore Stepan Arkadyich felt obliged to call on him in a frock coat.5 The thought that the new superior might not take it well was that second unpleasant circumstance. But Stepan Arkadyich felt instinctively that it would all shape up beautifully. ‘They’re human, they’re people, just like us sinners: why get angry and quarrel?’ he thought, going into the hotel.

‘Greetings, Vassily,’ he said, walking down the corridor with his hat cocked and addressing a servant he knew. ‘So you’re letting your side-whiskers grow? Levin’s in number seven, eh? Take me there, please. And find out whether Count Anichkin’ (that was the new superior) ‘will receive me.’

‘Very well, sir,’ Vassily replied, smiling. ‘You haven’t been here for a long time.’

‘I was here yesterday, only I used a different entrance. Is this number seven?’

Levin was standing in the middle of the room with a muzhik from Tver measuring a fresh bear-skin with a yardstick when Stepan Arkadyich came in.

‘Ah, you shot it?’ Stepan Arkadyich cried. ‘A fine thing! A she-bear? Hello, Arkhip.’

He shook hands with the muzhik and sat down on a chair without taking off his coat and hat.

‘But do take it off and stay a while,’ said Levin, taking his hat off him.

‘No, I have no time, I’ll stay for one little second,’ Stepan Arkadyich replied. He threw his coat open, but then took it off and sat for a whole hour talking with Levin about hunting and the most heartfelt subjects.

‘Well, kindly tell me, what did you do abroad? Where did you go?’ said Stepan Arkadyich, when the muzhik left.

‘I was in Germany, in Prussia, in France, in England - not in the capitals, but in the manufacturing towns - and saw many new things. I’m glad I went.’

‘Yes, I know your idea about setting up the workers.’

‘Not at all: there can be no workers problem in Russia. In Russia there’s a problem of the relation of working people to the land. It exists there, too, but there it’s the repairing of something damaged, while here ...’

Stepan Arkadyich listened attentively to Levin.

‘Yes, yes!’ he said. ‘It’s very possible that you’re right,’ he observed. ‘But I’m glad you’re in cheerful spirits - hunting bear, and working, and getting enthusiastic. Shcherbatsky told me he met you and that you were in some sort of despondency, kept talking about death ...’

‘And what of it? I haven’t stopped thinking about death,’ said Levin. ‘It’s true that it’s time to die. And that everything is nonsense. I’ll tell you truly: I value my thought and work terribly, but in essence - think about it- this whole world of ours is just a bit of mildew that grew over a tiny planet. And we think we can have something great - thoughts, deeds! They’re all grains of sand.’

‘But, my dear boy, that’s as old as the hills!’

‘Old, yes, but you know, once you understand it clearly, everything somehow becomes insignificant. Once you understand that you’ll die today or tomorrow and there’ll be nothing left, everything becomes so insignificant! I consider my thought very important, but it turns out to be as insignificant, even if it’s carried out, as tracking down this she-bear. So you spend your life diverted by hunting or work in order not to think about death.’

Stepan Arkadyich smiled subtly and gently as he listened to Levin.

‘Well, naturally! Here you’re coming over to my side. Remember, you attacked me for seeking pleasures in life? “Be not so stern, O moralist”! ...’6

‘No, all the same there is this good in life that...’ Levin became confused. ‘But I don’t know. I only know that we’ll die soon.’

‘Why soon?’

‘And