Page 672 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

him a fresh distinction which soothed his gnawing worm
of ambition for a while, but a week before that worm had
been roused up again with fresh force. The friend of his
childhood, a man of the same set, of the same coterie, his

comrade in the Corps of Pages, Serpuhovskoy, who had
left school with him and had been his rival in class, in
gymnastics, in their scrapes and their dreams of glory, had
come back a few days before from Central Asia, where he
had gained two steps up in rank, and an order rarely
bestowed upon generals so young.
As soon as he arrived in Petersburg, people began to
talk about him as a newly risen star of the first magnitude.
A schoolfellow of Vronsky’s and of the same age, he was a
general and was expecting a command, which might have
influence on the course of political events; while Vronsky,
independent and brilliant and beloved by a charming
woman though he was, was simply a cavalry captain who
was readily allowed to be as independent as ever he liked.
‘Of course I don’t envy Serpuhovskoy and never could
envy him; but his advancement shows me that one has
only to watch one’s opportunity, and the career of a man
like me may be very rapidly made. Three years ago he was
in just the same position as I am. If I retire, I burn my
ships. If I remain in the army, I lose nothing. She said

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