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After reaching home Nicholas was at first serious and even
dull. He was worried by the impending necessity of interfering
in the stupid business matters for which his mother had called
him home. To throw off this burden as quickly as possible, on
the third day after his arrival he went, angry and scowling and
without answering questions as to where he was going, to Mitenka's
lodge and demanded an account of everything. But what an account
of everything might be Nicholas knew even less than the frightened
and bewildered Mitenka. The conversation and the examination of
the accounts with Mitenka did not last long. The village elder,
a peasant delegate, and the village clerk, who were waiting in
the passage, heard with fear and delight first the young count's
voice roaring and snapping and rising louder and louder, and then
words of abuse, dreadful words, ejaculated one after the other.
"Robber!... Ungrateful wretch!... I'll hack the dog to
pieces! I'm not my father!... Robbing us!..." and so on.
Then with no less fear and delight they saw how the young
count, red in the face and with bloodshot eyes, dragged Mitenka
out by the scruff of the neck and applied his foot and knee to
him behind with great agility at convenient moments between the
words, shouting, "Be off! Never let me see your face here
again, you villain!"
Mitenka flew headlong down the six steps and ran away into
the shrubbery. (This shrubbery was a well-known haven of refuge
for culprits at Otradnoe. Mitenka himself, returning tipsy from
the town, used to hide there, and many of the residents at Otradnoe,
hiding from Mitenka, knew of its protective qualities.)
Mitenka's wife and sisters-in-law thrust their heads and frightened
faces out of the door of a room where a bright samovar was boiling
and where the steward's high bedstead stood with its patchwork
quilt.
The young count paid no heed to them, but, breathing hard,
passed by with resolute strides and went into the house.
The countess, who heard at once from the maids what had happened
at the lodge, was calmed by the thought that now their affairs
would certainly improve, but on the other hand felt anxious as
to the effect this excitement might have on her son. She went
several times to his door on tiptoe and listened, as he lighted
one pipe after another.
Next day the old count called his son aside and, with an embarrassed
smile, said to him:
"But you know, my dear boy, it's a pity you got excited!
Mitenka has told me all about it."
"I knew," thought Nicholas, "that I should
never understand anything in this crazy world."
"You were angry that he had not entered those 700 rubles.
But they were carried forward- and you did not look at the other
page."
"Papa, he is a blackguard and a thief! I know he is!
And what I have done, I have done; but, if you like, I won't speak
to him again."
"No, my dear boy" (the count, too, felt embarrassed.
He knew he had mismanaged his wife's property and was to blame
toward his children, but he did not know how to remedy it). "No,
I beg you to attend to the business. I am old. I..."
"No, Papa. Forgive me if I have caused you unpleasantness.
I understand it all less than you do."
"Devil take all these peasants, and money matters, and
carryings forward from page to page," he thought. "I
used to understand what a 'corner' and the stakes at cards meant,
but carrying forward to another page I don't understand at all,"
said he to himself, and after that he did not meddle in business
affairs. But once the countess called her son and informed him
that she had a promissory note from Anna Mikhaylovna for two thousand
rubles, and asked him what he thought of doing with it.
"This," answered Nicholas. "You say it rests
with me. Well, I don't like Anna Mikhaylovna and I don't like
Boris, but they were our friends and poor. Well then, this!"
and he tore up the note, and by so doing caused the old countess
to weep tears of joy. After that, young Rostov took no further
part in any business affairs, but devoted himself with passionate
enthusiasm to what was to him a new pursuit- the chase- for which
his father kept a large establishment.
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