nocent as a child, this
young Hercules. Not in vain was the whole personality of his young wife
breathing with fascination; not in vain was her promise to the senses of
a mysterious luxury of untold bliss; her fulfillment was richer than her
promise. When she reached Lavriky in the very height of the summer, she
found the house dark and dirty, the servants absurd and old-fashioned,
but she did not think it necessary even to hint at this to her husband.
If she had proposed to establish herself at Lavriky, she would have
changed everything in it, beginning of course with the house; but the
idea of staying in that out-of-the-way corner of the steppes never
entered her head for an instant; she lived as in a tent, good-temperedly
putting up with all its inconveniences, and indulgently making merry
over then. Marfa Timofyevna came to pay a visit to her former charge;
Varvara Pavlovna liked her very much, but she did not like Varvara
Pavlovna. The new mistress did not get on with Glafira Petrovna either;
she would have left her in peace, but old Korobyin wanted to have a
hand in the management of his son-in-law's affairs; to superintend the
property of such a near relative, he said, was not beneath the dignity
of even a general. One must add that Pavel Petrovitch would not have
been above managing the property even of a total stranger. Varvara
Pavlovna conducted her attack very skillfully, without taking any
step in advance, apparently completely absorbed in the bliss of the
honeymoon, in the peaceful life of the country, in music and reading,
she gradually worked Glafira up to such a point that she rushed one
morning, like one possessed, into Lavretsky's study, and throwing a
bunch of keys on the table, she declared that she was not equal to
undertaking the management any longer, and did not want to stop in the
place. Lavretsky, having been suitably prepared beforehand, at once
agreed to her departure. This Glafira Petrovna had not anticipated.
"Very well," she said, and her face darkened, "I see that I am not
wanted here! I know who is driving me out of the home of my fathers.
Only you mark my words, nephew; you will never make a home anywhere, you
will come to be a wanderer for ever. That is my last word to you." The
same day she went away to her own little property, and in a week General
Korobyin was there, and with a pleasant melancholy in his looks and
movements he took the superintendence of the whole property into his
h