That was one disagreeable thing. The other slightly disagreeable

fact was that the new head of his department, like all new heads,

had the reputation already of a terrible person, who got up at

six o'clock in the morning, worked like a horse, and insisted on

his subordinates working in the same way. Moreover, this new

head had the further reputation of being a bear in his manners,

and was, according to all reports, a man of a class in all

respects the opposite of that to which his predecessor had

belonged, and to which Stepan Arkadyevitch had hitherto belonged

himself. On the previous day Stepan Arkadyevitch had appeared at

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the office in a uniform, and the new chief had been very affable

and had talked to him as to an acquaintance. Consequently Stepan

Arkadyevitch deemed it his duty to call upon him in his

non-official dress. The thought that the new chief might not

tender him a warm reception was the other unpleasant thing. But

Stepan Arkadyevitch instinctively felt that everything would _come

round_ all right. "They're all people, all men, like us poor

sinners; why be nasty and quarrelsome?" he thought as he went

into the hotel.

"Good-day, Vassily," he said, walking into the corridor with his

hat cocked on one side, and addressing a footman he knew; "why,

you've let your whiskers grow! Levin, number seven, eh? Take me

up, please. And find out whether Count Anitchkin" (this was the

new head) "is receiving."

"Yes, sir," Vassily responded, smiling. "You've not been to see

us for a long while."

"I was here yesterday, but at the other entrance. Is this

number seven?"

Levin was standing with a peasant from Tver in the middle of the

room, measuring a fresh bearskin, when Stepan Arkadyevitch went

in.

"What! you killed him?" cried Stepan Arkadyevitch. "Well done!

A she-bear? How are you, Arhip!"

He shook hands with the peasant and sat down on the edge of a

chair, without taking off his coat and hat.

"Come, take off your coat and stay a little," said Levin, taking

his hat.

"No, I haven't time; I've only looked in for a tiny second,"

answered Stepan Arkadyevitch. He threw open his coat, but

afterwards did take it off, and sat on for a whole hour, talking

to Levin about hunting and the most intimate subjects.

"Come, tell me, please, what you did abroad? Where have you

been?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, when the peasant had gone.

"Oh, I stayed in Germany, in Prussia, in France, and in England--

not in the capitals, but in the manufacturing towns, and saw a

great deal that was new to me. And I'm glad I went."




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