War And Peace: Book 6 - CHAPTER XVIII

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NEXT DAY when Prince Andrey thought of the ball it did not occupy his mind

for long. “Yes, it was a very successful ball. And besides…yes, the younger

Rostov is very charming. There's something fresh in her, original, unlike

Petersburg.” That was all he thought about the previous day's ball, and after

his morning tea he set to work.

But from fatigue and want of sleep he was not very well disposed for work,

and could get nothing done. He was continually criticising his own work—a habit

common with him—and was glad when he heard a visitor arrive.

The visitor was Bitsky, a man who was a member of various committees and of

all the societies in Petersburg. He was a passionate adherent of the new ideas

and of Speransky, and the busiest purveyor of news in Petersburg, one of those

men who choose their opinions like their clothes—according to the fashion—but

for that very reason seem the most vehement partisans. Scarcely waiting to

remove his hat, he ran fussily up to Prince Andrey, and at once began talking.

He had just learned particulars of the sitting of the State Council of that

morning, opened by the Tsar, and began enthusiastically upon the subject. The

Tsar's speech had been, he said, an extraordinary one. It had been a speech such

as are only delivered by constitutional monarchs. “The Emperor directly asserted

that the Council and the Senate are the estates of the realm; he said that

government should be founded not on arbitrary authority, but on a secure basis.

The Emperor said that the fiscal system must be reconstituted and the accounts

must be public,” Bitsky announced, laying stress on certain words, and opening

his eyes significantly. “Yes, to-day's sitting marks an epoch, the greatest

epoch in our history,” he concluded.

Prince Andrey heard his account of the opening of the State Council, to which

he had been looking forward with such eagerness, and to which he had attached so

much consequence, and was amazed that now, when it had come to pass, this event,

far from affecting him, struck him as less than insignificant. With quiet irony

he listened to Bitsky's enthusiastic description. The idea in his mind was of

the simplest. “What is it to me and Bitsky,” he thought, “what is it to us,

whatever the Emperor is pleased to say in the Council? Can all that make me any

happier or better?”

And this simple reflection suddenly destroyed all Prince Andrey's former

interest in the reforms that were being made. That day Prince Andrey was to dine

with Speransky, “with only a few friends,” as the host had said in inviting him.

That dinner, in the intimate home circle of the man who had so fascinated him,

had seemed very attractive to Prince Andrey, especially as he had not hitherto

seen Speransky in his home surroundings. But now he had no wish to go to

it.

At the hour fixed, however, Prince Andrey was entering the small house in

Tavritchesky Garden. The little house, which was Speransky's property, was

distinguished by an extraordinary cleanliness, suggestive of the cleanliness of

a convent. In the parqueted dining-room, Prince Andrey, who was a little late,

found all that circle of Speransky's intimate friends already gathered together

at five o'clock. There were no ladies present, except Speransky's little

daughter (with a long face like her father's) and her governess. The guests were

Gervais, Magnitsky and Stolypin. From the vestibule Prince Andrey had caught the

sound of loud voices and a ringing, staccato laugh—a laugh such as one hears on

the stage. Some one—it sounded like Speransky—was giving vent to a staccato

“ha…ha…ha…” Prince Andrey had never before heard Speransky laugh, and this

shrill, ringing laugh from the great statesman made a strange impression on

him.

Prince Andrey went into the dining-room. The whole party were standing

between the two windows at a little table laid with hors d'

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