Chương Chương 134 · 第134章

After reaching home Nicholas was at first serious and even dull. He was

worried by the impending necessity of interfering in the stupid business

matters for which his mother had called him home. To throw off this

burden as quickly as possible, on the third day after his arrival he

went, angry and scowling and without answering questions as to where he

was going, to Mítenka’s lodge and demanded an account of everything.

But what an account of everything might be Nicholas knew even less

than the frightened and bewildered Mítenka. The conversation and the

examination of the accounts with Mítenka did not last long. The village

elder, a peasant delegate, and the village clerk, who were waiting in

the passage, heard with fear and delight first the young count’s voice

roaring and snapping and rising louder and louder, and then words of

abuse, dreadful words, ejaculated one after the other.

“Robber!... Ungrateful wretch!... I’ll hack the dog to pieces! I’m

not my father!... Robbing us!...” and so on.

Then with no less fear and delight they saw how the young count, red in

the face and with bloodshot eyes, dragged Mítenka out by the scruff of

the neck and applied his foot and knee to his behind with great agility

at convenient moments between the words, shouting, “Be off! Never let

me see your face here again, you villain!”

Mítenka flew headlong down the six steps and ran away into the

shrubbery. (This shrubbery was a well-known haven of refuge for culprits

at Otrádnoe. Mítenka himself, returning tipsy from the town, used

to hide there, and many of the residents at Otrádnoe, hiding from

Mítenka, knew of its protective qualities.)

Mítenka’s wife and sisters-in-law thrust their heads and frightened

faces out of the door of a room where a bright samovar was boiling and

where the steward’s high bedstead stood with its patchwork quilt.

The young count paid no heed to them, but, breathing hard, passed by

with resolute strides and went into the house.

The countess, who heard at once from the maids what had happened at the

lodge, was calmed by the thought that now their affairs would certainly

improve, but on the other hand felt anxious as to the effect this

excitement might have on her son. She went several times to his door on

tiptoe and listened, as he lighted one pipe after another.

Next day the old count called his son aside and, with an embarrassed

smile, said to him:

“But you know, my dear boy, it’s a pity you got excited! Mítenka

has told me all about it.”

“I knew,” thought Nicholas, “that I should never understand

anything in this crazy world.”

“You were angry that he had not entered those 700 rubles. But they

were carried forward—and you did not look at the other page.”

“Papa, he is a blackguard and a thief! I know he is! And what I have

done, I have done; but, if you like, I won’t speak to him again.”

“No, my dear boy” (the count, too, felt embarrassed. He knew he had

mismanaged his wife’s property and was to blame toward his children,

but he did not know how to remedy it). “No, I beg you to attend to the

business. I am old. I...”

“No, Papa. Forgive me if I have caused you unpleasantness. I

understand it all less than you do.”

“Devil take all these peasants, and money matters, and carryings

forward from page to page,” he thought. “I used to understand what

a ‘corner’ and the stakes at cards meant, but carrying forward to

another page I don’t understand at all,” said he to himself, and

after that he did not meddle in business affairs. But once the countess

called her son and informed him that she had a promissory note from Anna

Mikháylovna for two thousand rubles, and asked him what he thought of

doing with it.

“This,” answered Nicholas. “You say it rests with me. Well, I

don’t like Anna Mikháylovna and I don’t like Borís, but they were

our friends and poor. Well then, this!” and he tore up the note, and

by so doing caused the old countess to weep tears of joy. After that,

young Rostóv took no further part in any business affairs, but

devoted himself with passionate enthusiasm to what was to him a new

pursuit—the chase—for which his father kept a large establishment.