Anna Karenina — Chapter 7 (Part 1 of 3)

The next day was Sunday. Stepan Arkadyevich went to the Grand Theater to a rehearsal of the ballet, and gave Masha Chibisova, a pretty dancing girl who had been engaged through his protection, the coral necklace he had promised her the evening before, and, behind the scenes, in the dim daylight of the theater, managed to kiss her pretty little face, radiant over the present. Besides the gift of the necklace he wanted to arrange a meeting with her after the ballet. After explaining that he could not come at the beginning of the ballet, he promised he would come for the last act and take her to supper. From the theater Stepan Arkadyevich drove to Okhotny Riad, selected himself the fish and asparagus for dinner, and by twelve o'clock was at Dussot's, where he had to see three people, luckily all staying at the same hotel: Levin, who had recently come back from abroad and was staying there; the new head of his board who had just been promoted to that position, and had come on a tour of revision to Moscow; and his brother-in-law, Karenin, whom he must see, so as to be sure of bringing him to dinner.

Stepan Arkadyevich liked dining, but still better he liked to give a dinner, small, but very choice, both as regards the food and drink and as regards the selection of guests. He particularly liked the program of that day's dinner. There would be fresh perch, asparagus, and la pièce de résistance - first-rate, but quite plain, roast beef, and wines to suit: so much for the eating and drinking. Kitty and Levin would be of the party, and, so that this might not be obtrusively evident, there would be a girl cousin too, and young Shcherbatsky, and - la piece de resistance among the guests - Sergei Koznishev and Alexei Alexandrovich. Sergei Ivanovich was a Moscow man, and a philosopher; Alexei Alexandrovich a Peterburg man, and a practical politician. He was asking, too, the well-known eccentric enthusiast, Pestsov, a liberal, a great talker, a musician, a historian, and the most delightfully youthful person of fifty, who would be a sauce or garnish for Koznishev and Karenin. He would provoke them and set them off against one another.

The second installment for the forest had been received from the merchant and was not yet exhausted; Dolly had been very amiable and good-humored of late, and the idea of the dinner pleased Stepan Arkadyevich from every point of view. He was in the most lighthearted mood. There were two circumstances a little unpleasant, but these two circumstances were drowned in the sea of good-humored gaiety which flooded the soul of Stepan Arkadyevich. These two circumstances were: first, that on meeting Alexei Alexandrovich the day before in the street Stiva had noticed that the latter was cold and reserved with him, and putting together the expression of Alexei Alexandrovich's face, and the fact that he had not come to see them, or let them know of his arrival, with the rumors he had heard about Anna and Vronsky, Stepan Arkadyevich guessed that something was wrong between the husband and wife.

That was one disagreeable thing. The other slightly disagreeable fact was that the new head of his board, like all new heads, already had the reputation of a terrible person, who got up at six o'clock in the morning, worked like a horse, and insisted on his subordinates working in the same way. Moreover, this new head had the further reputation of being a bear in his manners, and was, according to all reports, a man of a class in all respects the opposite of that to which his predecessor had belonged, and to which Stepan Arkadyevich had hitherto belonged himself. On the previous day Stepan Arkadyevich had appeared at the office in a uniform, and the new chief had been very affable and had talked to him as to an acquaintance. Consequently Stepan Arkadyevich deemed it his duty to call upon him in his nonofficial dress. The thought that the new chief might not give him a warm reception was the other unpleasant thing. But Stepan Arkadyevich instinctively felt that everything would come round all right. `They're all human, all men, like us poor sinners; why be nasty and quarrelsome?' he thought as he went into the hotel.

`Good day, Vassilii,' he said, walking into the corridor with his hat cocked on one side, and addressing a footman he knew; `why, you've let your whiskers grow! Levin - number seven, eh? Take me up, please. And find out whether Count Anychkin' (this was the new head) `is receiving.'

`Yes, sir,' Vassilii responded, smiling. `You've not been to see us for a long while.'

`I was here yesterday, but at the other entrance. Is this number seven?'