‘Well, to pursue a woman means doing the exact opposite of what you would do if you were in love with her – expressing your feelings little by little, trying to make her fall in love with you. You really have to do the opposite of what you do in a relationship with some
The young man blushed once more.
‘I was talking to your cousin about you only this morning, and she revealed your secret to me. Why haven’t you got yourself presented to her yet?’
‘I have not had an opportunity.’
‘How can there possibly have been no opportunity? No, it would be truer to say that you haven’t been able to make up your mind to do it; I realize that true love, especially if it is first love, is always bashful. That is no good at all.’
‘My cousin promised me not long ago that she would introduce me to her,’ said the young man, with a shy, childlike smile.
‘No, no, you must allow
‘To be sucessful with women,’ he went on in a didactic manner as he headed towards the door, ignoring both Monsieur Charles’ bow and the smile of the
II
The young man’s name was Seriozha Ivin. He was a first-rate fellow with a soul as yet unshadowed by the consciousness of mistakes made in life, and thus full of radiant fantasies and noble motives. Having completed his course at the —– College when still a child in mind and body, he had come to Moscow to be with his mother, a deeply gentle woman born in the last century who loved him as any mother does her only son in whom she takes great pride.
Once in Moscow he almost unwittingly and imperceptibly came to feel at ease in the genial, one might even say familial atmosphere of Muscovite society, in which people of an acknowledged pedigree, whatever their outward qualities, are accepted in all respects as kith and kin; and this with particular confidence and enthusiasm when, like Ivin, they do not carry with them any sort of unknown past. It is hard to say whether this was a piece of good fortune for him or not. From one point of view Moscow society gave him many genuine pleasures, and to be able to enjoy oneself at this period of one’s early manhood when every gratifying experience makes its impression on the youthful spirit and sets the fresh strings of happiness vibrating – this is already a great blessing. From the contrary point of view, however, Moscow society developed in him that dreadful moral infection which establishes itself in every department of the soul and which is known by the name of vanity. Not that purely social vanity which is never content with the circle in which it lives, and is constantly seeking and attaining some new one in which it will feel awkward and ill at ease. Moscow society is notably indulgent and agreeable, in that its judgements of people are kindly and independent: once a man finds himself accepted in it, then he is accepted everywhere and considered by everyone in the same light, and there is nothing further for him to aspire to: live as you wish and as it pleases you. No, Seriozha’s vanity, despite the fact that he was a clever and energetic young fellow, was the vanity of youth. Absurdly enough, he who was among the best dancers in Moscow dreamed of how he might get into the tedious social set of G.O. on the cheap, and how he, innocent and bashful as a young girl, could gain an entrée to the scandalous evening parties given by Madame Z., and strike up an intimacy with the debauched and corrupt bachelor Dolgov. Beautiful dreams of love and friendship, and ridiculous dreams of vanity and the power of youthful attraction filled his imagination and became strangely mingled within him.
