The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy (Volume 19) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. On the 3d of March there was a din of voices in the English club, and the members and guests, dressed in uniforms and evening coats, and some of them in caftans and powdered wigs, moved to and fro, sat down, stood around, and surged up and down, like bees swarming in spring. Powdered lackeys in livery, wearing stockings and low shoes, stood at each door, intent on catching every motion of the guests and the members of the club, in order to offer them their services. The majority of those present were old, venerable men, with broad, self-satisfied countenances, fat fingers, and firm motions and voices. This class of guests and of members sat in certain habitual places and gathered together in certain habitual circles. The minority consisted of casual guests, chiefly young men, among whom were also Denl- sov, Rostdv, and Ddlokhov, who was again an officer of the Seme'novski regiment. On the faces of the youths, especially of those serving in the army, there was an expression of contemptuous deference to the old men, which seemed to say, " We are prepared to respect and honour you, but remember that the future is with us." Nesvitski was there as an old member of the club. Pierre, who by order of his wife had allowed his hair to grow long, had taken off his glasses, and was dressed in the latest fashion, kept walking from one room to another, with a sad and gloomy expression on his face. He was surrounded, as always, by a circle of men who bent their knee before his wealth, but he treated them as though accustomed to lord it and with absent-minded disdain. According to his age he ought to have associated with the young people, but by his wealth and connections he was a member of the old circles of respectable guests, and so he kept going from one group to another. The mo...