Page 1571 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

family, grown-up pages in the corps,...and he had another
illegitimate family of children also. Though the first family
was very nice too, Prince Tchetchensky felt happier in his
second family; and he used to take his eldest son with him

to his second family, and told Stepan Arkadyevitch that he
thought it good for his son, enlarging his ideas. What
would have been said to that in Moscow?
His children? In Petersburg children did not prevent
their parents from enjoying life. The children were
brought up in schools, and there was no trace of the wild
idea that prevailed in Moscow, in Lvov’s household, for
instance, that all the luxuries of life were for the children,
while the parents have nothing but work and anxiety.
Here people understood that a man is in duty bound to
live for himself, as every man of culture should live.
His official duties? Official work here was not the stiff,
hopeless drudgery that it was in Moscow. Here there was
some interest in official life. A chance meeting, a service
rendered, a happy phrase, a knack of facetious mimicry,
and a man’s career might be made in a trice. So it had
been with Bryantsev, whom Stepan Arkadyevitch had met
the previous day, and who was one of the highest
functionaries in government now. There was some
interest in official work like that.

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