Leo Tolstoy

“ It was he who dropped Matnev out of the window by his legs. It was he who won three hundred thousand rubles from Prince Nestorov. He is a regular dare-devil, you know: a gambler, a duellist, a seducer, but a jewel of an hussar - a real jewel. The rumors that are afloat about us are nothing to the reality - if anyone knew what a true hussar is! Ah yes, those were times!"
And the cavalryman told his interlocutor of such a spree with the count in Lebedyani as not only never had, but never even could have, taken place. ”

“ As soon as the polonaise was over and the couples after bowing to one another had separated - the women into one group and the men into another - Zavalshevski, proud and happy, introduced the count to their hostess.
The marshal's wife, feeling an inner trepidation lest this hussar should treat her in some scandalous manner before everybody, turned away haughtily and contemptuously as she said, "Very pleased, I hope you will dance," and then gave him a distrustful look that said, "Now, if you offend a woman it will show me that you are a perfect villain." ”

“ These cards, though she had used them for a couple of months, were cleaner than those Anna Fedorovna used to tell fortunes.
"But perhaps you won't play for small stakes?" inquired the uncle. "Anna Fedorovna and I play for half-kopeks. . . . And even so she wins all our money."
"Oh, any stakes you like - I shall be delighted," replied the count.
"Well then, one-kopek 'assignats' just for once, in honour of our dear visitors! Let them beat me, an old woman!" said Anna Fedorovna, settling down in her armchair and arranging her mantilla. ”

“ I'd rather have an uhlan. Weren't you in the uhlans, uncle? . . . I don't want to have anything to do with these hussars. They are all said to be desperate fellows." And Lisa blushed a little but again laughed her musical laugh.
"Here comes Ustyushka running; we must ask her what she has seen," she added.
Anna Fedorovna told her to call Ustyushka.
"It's not in you to keep to your work, you must needs run off to see the soldiers," said Anna Fedorovna. "Well, where have the officers put up?"
"In Eromkin's house, mistress. There are two of them, such handsome ones. One's a count, they say!" ”

“ As if to harmonize with the gloomy shadows that spread over the world outside, a light wind ran through the leaves and brought to the window the odour of dewy leaves, of moist earth, and of blooming lilacs.
"But it is not true," she consoled herself. "There now, if the nightingale sings tonight it will be a sign that what I'm thinking is all nonsense, and that I need not despair," thought she. And she sat a long while in silence waiting for something, while again all became bright and full of life and again and again the cloudlets ran across the moon making everything dim. ”

“ But having said this, Anna Fedorovna suddenly felt frightened of something and blushed. All gaiety instantly left the count's face.
"Your brother is a fool!" he said abruptly. "You know when a man insults another man they fight; but when a woman insults a man, what does he do then - do you know?"
Poor Anna Fedorovna's neck and ears grew red with confusion. She lowered her eyes and said nothing.
"He kisses the woman in public," said the count in a low voice, leaning towards her ear. ”

“ We want nothing but say we told you to ask whether we could not have a cleaner room somewhere - in the manor-house or anywhere."
"Now, why did you do that?" asked Polozov when Daniel had gone. "What does it matter? Just for one night - what does it matter? And they will be inconveniencing themselves."
"What an idea! I think we've had our share of smoky huts! . . . It's easy to see you're not a practical man. Why not seize the opportunity when we can, and live like human beings for at least one night? And on the contrary they will be very pleased to have us. ”

“ Sashka, who had taken a tumbler of vodka to refresh himself after the journey and was decidedly tipsy, came in.
"What, already! You've been drinking, you rascal! . . . Feed Blucher!"
"He won't starve anyway: see how sleek he is!" answered Sashka, stroking the dog.
"Silence! Be off and feed him!"
"You want the dog to be fed, but when a man drinks a glass you reproach him."
""Hey! I'll thrash you!" shouted the count in a voice that made the window-panes rattle and even frightened the cavalryman a bit. ”

“ The Captain of Police who lay in a shocking state on the floor at the feet of an old woman, began wriggling his legs and shouting: "Champagne . . . The Count's come! . . . Champagne! . . . He's come . . . now then, champagne! . . . I'll have a champagne bath and bathe in it! Noble gentlemen! . . . I love the society of our brave old nobility . . . Steshka, sing 'The Pathway'."
The cavalryman was also rather tipsy, but in another way. He sat on a sofa in the corner very close to a tall handsome gipsy girl, Lyubasha ”

“ A peasant, with a loaded sledge that kept gliding to the side of the road, got hurriedly out of the way, jerking his rope reins and plashing with his wet bast shoes as he ran along the thawing road. A fat red- faced peasant woman, with a baby wrapped in the bosom of her sheepskin cloak, sat in another laden sledge, urging on a thin-tailed, jaded white horse with the ends of the reins. The count suddenly thought of Anna Fedorovna. ”

“ Early in the nineteenth century, when there were as yet no railways or macadamized roads, no gaslight, no stearine candles, no low couches with sprung cushions, no unvarnished furniture, no disillusioned youths with eye glasses, no liberalizing women philosophers, nor any charming dames aux camelias of whom there are so many in our times, in those naive days, when leaving Moscow for Petersburg in a coach or carriage provided with a kitchenful of home-made provisions one traveled for eight days along a soft, dusty or muddy road and believed in chopped cutlets, sledge-bells, and plain rolls ”

“ You should have got some from his man."
"Cornet Polozov? I don't know. He bought the tea and the sugar."
"Idiot! . . . Get out! . . . You are the only man who knows how to make me lose my patience. . . . You know that on a march I always have rum with my tea."
"Here are two letters for you from the staff," said the valet.
The count opened his letters and began reading them without rising. The cornet, having quartered the squadron, came in with a merry face.
"Well, how is it, Turbin? It seems very nice here. But I must confess I'm tired. It was hot." ”

“ Anna Fedorovna did not agree - no one could be superior to Count Fedor Ivanych Turbin - and at last she grew seriously angry and drily remarked, "The one who has last stroked you, brother, is always the best. . . . Of course people are cleverer nowadays, but Count Fedor Ivanych danced the *ecossaise* in such a way and was so amiable that everybody lost their heads about him, though he paid attention to no one but me. So you see, there were good people in the old days too." ”

“ The count promised to come without fail, and drank some glasses of champagne with him.
"But why are you not dancing, gentlemen?" said the count, as he was about to leave the room.
"We are not dancers," replied the Captain of Police, laughing. "Wine is more in our line, Count. . . . And besides, I have seen all those young ladies grow up, Count! But I can walk through an *ecossaise* now and then, Count . . . I can do it, Count."
"Then come and walk through one now," said Turbin. "It will brighten us up before going to hear the gipsies." ”

“ Formerly, solitude and the absence of anyone who might have attracted her attention had caused the power of love, which Providence has given impartially to each of us, to rest intact and tranquil in her bosom, and now she had lived too long in the melancholy happiness of feeling within her the presence of this something, and of now and again opening the secret chalice of her heart to contemplate its riches, to be able to lavish its contents thoughtlessly on anyone. ”

“ Why should you borrow from anyone else when I shall be delighted to lend you a couple of hundred rubles? I haven't got them just now - only a hundred rubles - but I'll get the rest today. You would really hurt my feelings, Count."
"Thank you, old man," said the count, instantly discerning what kind of relations had to be established between them, and slapping the cavalryman on the shoulder. "Thanks! Well then, we'll go to the ball if it must be so. But what are we to do now? Tell me what you have in your town. What pretty girls? What men fit for a spree? What gaming?" ”

“ Then the last melodious note he suddenly drew himself up and, as if feeling himself superior to everyone in the world, proudly and resolutely threw up his guitar with his foot, twirled it about, stamped, tossed back his hair, and looked round at the choir with a frown. His whole body from neck to heels began dancing in every muscle - and twenty energetic, powerful voices each trying to chime in more strongly and more strangely than the rest, rang through the air. ”

“ And indeed Ilyin's cards lost more often than any of the others. He would tear up the losing card nervously under the table and choose another with trembling fingers. Turbin rose from the sofa and asked the Greek to let him sit by the banker. The Greek moved to another place; the count took his chair and began watching Lukhnov's hands attentively, not taking his eyes off them.
"Ilyin!" he suddenly said in his usual voice, which quiet unintentionally drowned all the others. "Why do you keep to a routine? You don't know how to play."
"It's all the same how one plays." ”

“ XI Having heard that the hussar officer was the son of Count fedor Turbin, Anna Fedorovna was all in a flutter.
"Oh, dear me! The darling boy! . . . Daniel, run quickly and say your mistress asks them to her house!" she began, jumping up and hurrying with quick steps to the servants' room. "Lizzie! Ustyushka! . . . Your room must be got ready, Lisa, you can move into your uncle's room. And you, brother, you won't mind sleeping in the drawing-room, will you? It's only for one night."
"I don't mind, sister. I can sleep on the floor."
"He must be handsome if he's like his father. ”

“ He made one attempt to think of what he should do now: how being penniless he could get away, how he could repay the fifteen thousand rubles of Crown money, what his regimental commander would say, what his mother and his comrades would say, and he felt such terror and disgust with himself that wishing to forget himself he rose and began pacing up and down the room trying to step only where the floor-boards joined, and began, once more, vividly to recall every slightest detail of the course of play. ”

“ He had even gone so far as to have an uhlan uniform made with orange facings, meaning to enter an uhlan regiment. This desire to enter the cavalry, and the three weeks spent with the remount officers at Lebedyani, remained the brightest and happiest memories of his life, so he transformed the desire first into a reality and then into a reminiscence and came to believe firmly in his past as a cavalry officer - all of which did not prevent his being, as to gentleness and honesty, a most worthy man.
"Yes, those who have never served in the cavalry will never understand us fellows." ”

“ He smiled merrily, joked with Ustyushka in such a way that she even called him a scamp, asked whether her young lady was pretty, and in answer to her question whether they would have any tea he said she might bring them some tea, but the chief thing was that, their own supper not being ready yet, perhaps they might have some vodka and something to eat, and some sherry if there was any.
The uncle was in raptures over the young count's politeness and praised the new generation of officers to the skies, saying that the present men were incomparable superior to the former generation. ”

“ The worst of it is, if this lady really knew my father . . . " continued the count with a smile which displayed his glistening white teeth. "I always have to feel ashamed of my departed papa. There is always some scandalous story or other, or some debt he has left. That's why I hate meeting these acquaintances of my father's. However, that was the way in those days," he added, growing serious.
"Did I ever tell you," said Polozov, "I once met an uhlan brigade- commander, Ilyin? He was very anxious to meet you. He is awfully fond of your father." ”

“ The widow noticed with pleasure the effect she was producing, yet something in the count's behaviour began to frighten and excite her, though the young hussar, despite his insinuating amiability, was respectful to a degree that in our days would be considered cloying. He ran to fetch almond-milk for her, picked up her handkerchief, snatched a chair from the hands of a scrofulous young squire who danced attendance onher to hand it her more quickly, and so forth. ”

“ Ha-ha-ha! ... " the count continued to laugh.
"No, really it was too bad. I was quite sorry for her," said the cornet.
"What nonsense! How young you still are! Why, did you wish me to lose? Why should one lose? I used to lose before I knew how to play! Ten rubles may come in useful, my dear fellow. You must look at life practically or you'll always be left in the lurch."
Polozov was silenced; besides, he wished to be quiet and to think about Lisa, who seemed to him an unusually pure and beautiful creature. ”