Page 1570 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 20

Stepan Arkadyevitch, as usual, did not waste his time in
Petersburg. In Petersburg, besides business, his sister’s
divorce, and his coveted appointment, he wanted, as he
always did, to freshen himself up, as he said, after the
mustiness of Moscow.
In spite of its cafes chantants and its omnibuses,
Moscow was yet a stagnant bog. Stepan Arkadyevitch
always felt it. After living for some time in Moscow,
especially in close relations with his family, he was
conscious of a depression of spirits. After being a long time
in Moscow without a change, he reached a point when he
positively began to be worrying himself over his wife’s ill-
humor and reproaches, over his children’s health and
education, and the petty details of his official work; even
the fact of being in debt worried him. But he had only to
go and stay a little while in Petersburg, in the circle there
in which he moved, where people lived—really lived—
instead of vegetating as in Moscow, and all such ideas
vanished and melted away at once, like wax before the
fire. His wife?... Only that day he had been talking to
Prince Tchetchensky. Prince Tchetchensky had a wife and

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