[Footnote A: Literally, “souls,”
i.e., male peasants.]
[Footnote B: My daughter is going to make a capital
match.]
And so his offer was accepted, but under certain conditions.
In the first place, Lavretsky must immediately leave
the university. Who could think of marrying a
student? And what an extraordinary idea, a landed
proprietor, a rich man, at twenty-six years of age,
to be taking lessons like a schoolboy! In the
second place, Varvara Pavlovna was to take upon herself
the trouble of ordering and buying her trousseau.
She even chose the presents the bridegroom was to give.
She had very good taste, and a great deal of common
sense, and she possessed a great liking for comfort,
and no small skill in getting herself that comfort.
Lavretsky was particularly struck by this talent when,
immediately after the wedding, he and his wife set
off for Lavriki, travelling in a convenient carriage
which she had chosen herself. How carefully all
their surroundings had been meditated over by Varvara
Pavlovna! what prescience she had shown in providing
them! What charming travelling contrivances made
their appearance in the various convenient corners!
what delicious toilet boxes! what excellent coffee
machines! and how gracefully did Varvara Pavlovna
herself make the coffee in the morning! But it
must be confessed that Lavretsky was little fitted
for critical observation just then. He revelled
in his happiness, he was intoxicated by his good fortune,
he abandoned himself to it like a child—he
was, indeed, as innocent as a child, this young Hercules.
Not in vain did a charmed influence attach itself
to the whole presence of his young wife; not in vain
did she promise to the imagination a secret treasure
of unknown delights. She was even better than
her promise.
When she arrived at Lavriki, which was in the very
hottest part of the summer, the house seemed to her
sombre and in bad order, the servants antiquated and
ridiculous; but she did not think it necessary to say
a word about this to her husband. If she had intended
to settle at Lavriki, she would have altered every
thing there, beginning of course with the house; but
the idea of staying in that out-of-the-way corner
never, even for an instant, came into her mind.
She merely lodged in it, as she would have done in
a tent, putting up with all its discomforts in the
sweetest manner, and laughing at them pleasantly.
When Marfa Timofeevna came to see her old pupil, she
produced a favorable impression on Varvara Pavlovna.
But Varvara was not at all to the old lady’s
liking. Nor did the young mistress of the house
get on comfortably with Glafira Petrovna. She
herself would have been content to leave Glafira in
peace, but the general was anxious to get his hand
into the management of his son-in-law’s affairs.
To see after the property of so near a relative, he
said, was an occupation that even a general might
adopt without disgrace. It is possible that Pavel
Petrovich would not have disdained to occupy himself
with the affairs of even an utter stranger.
