1068 1069
devoted to obtaining the money corresponded to the pleasure given by
what was bought with it, was a consideration he had long ago dis-
missed. His business calculation that there divas a certain price below
which he could not sell certain grain was forgotten too. The rye, for the
price of which he had so long held out, had been sold for fifty kopecks
a measure cheaper than it had been fetching a month ago. Even the
consideration that with such an expenditure he could not go on living
for a year without debt, that even had no force. Only one thing was
essential: to have money in the bank, without inquiring where it came
from, so as to know that one had the wherewithal to buy meat for
tomorrow. And this condition had hitherto been fulfilled; he had al-
ways had the money in the bank. But now the money in the bank had
gone, and he could not quite tell where to get the next installment.
And this it was which, at the moment when Kitty had mentioned
money, had disturbed him; but he had no time to think about it. He
drove off, thinking of Katavasov and the meeting with Metrov that
was before him.
Chapter 3.
Levin had on this visit to town seen a great deal of his old friend at
the university, Professor Katavasov, whom he had not seen since his
marriage. He liked in Katavasov the clearness and simplicity of his
conception of life. Levin thought that the clearness of Katavasov’s
conception of life was due to the poverty of his nature; Katavasov
thought that the disconnectedness of Levin’s ideas was due to his lack
of intellectual discipline; but Levin enjoyed Katavasov’s clearness, and
Katavasov enjoyed the abundance of Levin’s untrained ideas, and
they liked to meet and to discuss.
Levin had read Katavasov some parts of his book, and he had liked
them. On the previous day Katavasov had met Levin at a public
lecture and told him that the celebrated Metrov, whose article Levin
had so much liked, was in Moscow, that he had been much interested
by what Katavasov had told him about Levin’s work, and that he was
coming to see him tomorrow at eleven, and would be very glad to make
Levin’s acquaintance.
“You’re positively a reformed character, I’m glad to see,” said
Katavasov, meeting Levin in the little drawing room. “I heard the bell
and thought: Impossible that it can be he at the exact time!... Well,
what do you say to the Montenegrins now? They’re a race of warriors.”
“Why, what’s happened?” asked Levin.