e wedding,
he and his wife set out in a commodious carriage, which she had bought,
for Lavriki. How everything which surrounded him had been planned,
foreseen, provided for by Varvara Pavlovna! What charming travelling
requisites, what fascinating toilet-boxes and coffeepots, made their
appearance in divers snug nooks, and how prettily Varvara Pavlovna
herself boiled the coffee in the mornings! But Lavretzky was not then in
a mood for observation: he was in a beatific state, he was intoxicating
himself with happiness; he gave himself up to it like a child.... And he
was as innocent as a child, that young Alcides. Not in vain did witchery
exhale from the whole being of his young wife; not in vain did she
promise to the senses the secret luxury of unknown delights; she
fulfilled more than she had promised. On arriving at Lavriki, in the
very hottest part of the summer, she found the house dirty and dark, the
servants ridiculous and antiquated, but she did not find it necessary
even to hint at this to her husband. If she had been making preparations
to settle down at Lavriki, she would have made over everything about it,
beginning, of course, with the house; but the idea of remaining in that
God-forsaken corner of the steppes never entered her mind for one moment;
she lived in it, as though camping out, gently enduring all the
inconveniences and making amusing jests over them. Marfa Timofeevna
came to see her nursling; Varvara Pavlovna took a great liking for her,
but she did not take a liking for Varvara Pavlovna. Neither did the new
mistress of the house get on well with Glafira Petrovna; she would have
left her in peace, but old Korobyn wanted to feather his nest from his
son-in-law's affairs; "it was no shame, even for a General," said he, "to
manage the estate of so near a relative." It must be assumed that Pavel
Petrovitch would not have disdained to busy himself with the estate of
an entire stranger. Varvara Pavlovna conducted her attack in a very
artful manner: without thrusting herself forward, and still, to all
appearances, wholly absorbed in the felicity of the honeymoon, in quiet
country life, in music and reading, she little by little drove Glafira
Petrovna to such a state, that one morning the latter rushed like a
madwoman into Lavretzky's study, and, hurling her bunch of keys on the
table, announced that it was beyond her power to occupy herself with the
housekeeping, and that she did not wish to remain in the