482 483
out inward pride, and not without reason, he thought that any other
man would long ago have been in difficulties, would have been forced
to some dishonorable course, if he had found himself in such a difficult
position. But Vronsky felt that now especially it was essential for him
to clear up and define his position if he were to avoid getting into
difficulties.
What Vronsky attacked first as being the easiest was his pecuniary
position. Writing out on note paper in his minute hand all that he
owed, he added up the amount and found that his debts amounted to
seventeen thousand and some odd hundreds, which he left out for the
sake of clearness. Reckoning up his money and his bank book, he
found that he had left one thousand eight hundred roubles, and noth-
ing coming in before the New Year. Reckoning over again his list of
debts, Vronsky copied it, dividing it into three classes. In the first class
he put the debts which he would have to pay at once, or for which he
must in any case have the money ready so that on demand for pay-
ment there could not be a moment’s delay in paying. Such debts
amounted to about four thousand: one thousand five hundred for a
horse, and two thousand five hundred as surety for a young comrade,
Venovsky, who had lost that sum to a cardsharper in Vronsky’s pres-
ence. Vronsky had wanted to pay the money at the time (he had that
amount then), but Venovsky and Yashvin had insisted that they would
pay and not Vronsky, who had not played. That was so far well, but
Vronsky knew that in this dirty business, though his only share in it
was undertaking by word of mouth to be surety for Venovsky, it was
absolutely necessary for him to have the two thousand five hundred
roubles so as to be able to fling it at the swindler, and have no more
words with him. And so for this first and most important division he
must have four thousand roubles. The second class—eight thousand
roubles—consisted of less important debts. These were principally
accounts owing in connection with his race horses, to the purveyor of
oats and hay, the English saddler, and so on. He would have to pay
some two thousand roubles on these debts too, in order to be quite free
from anxiety. The last class of debts—to shops, to hotels, to his tailor—
were such as need not be considered. So that he needed at least six
thousand roubles for current expenses, and he only had one thousand
eight hundred. For a man with one hundred thousand roubles of
revenue, which was what everyone fixed as Vronsky’s income, such
debts, one would suppose, could hardly be embarrassing; but the fact
was that he was far from having one hundred thousand. His father’s
immense property, which alone yielded a yearly income of two hun-
dred thousand, was left undivided between the brothers. At the time
when the elder brother, with a mass of debts, married Princess Varya
Tchirkova, the daughter of a Decembrist without any fortune what-
ever, Alexey had given up to his elder brother almost the whole income
from his father’s estate, reserving for himself only twenty-five thou-
sand a year from it. Alexey had said at the time to his brother that that
sum would be sufficient for him until he married, which he probably
never would do. And his brother, who was in command of one of the
most expensive regiments, and was only just married, could not decline
the gift. His mother, who had her own separate property, had allowed
Alexey every year twenty thousand in addition to the twenty-five
thousand he had reserved, and Alexey had spent it all. Of late his
mother, incensed with him on account of his love affair and his leaving
Moscow, had given up sending him the money. And in consequence of
this, Vronsky, who had been in the habit of living on the scale of forty-
five thousand a year, having only received twenty thousand that year,
found himself now in difficulties. To get out of these difficulties, he