AFTER THE DANCE

“—­And you say that a man cannot, of himself, understand what is good and evil; that it is all environment, that the environment swamps the man.  But I believe it is all chance.  Take my own case . . .”

Thus spoke our excellent friend, Ivan Vasilievich, after a conversation between us on the impossibility of improving individual character without a change of the conditions under which men live.  Nobody had actually said that one could not of oneself understand good and evil; but it was a habit of Ivan Vasilievich to answer in this way the thoughts aroused in his own mind by conversation, and to illustrate those thoughts by relating incidents in his own life.  He often quite forgot the reason for his story in telling it; but he always told it with great sincerity and feeling.

He did so now.

“Take my own case.  My whole life was moulded, not by environment, but by something quite different.”

“By what, then?” we asked.

“Oh, that is a long story.  I should have to tell you about a great many things to make you understand.”

“Well, tell us then.”

Ivan Vasilievich thought a little, and shook his head.

“My whole life,” he said, “was changed in one night, or, rather, morning.”

“Why, what happened?” one of us asked.

“What happened was that I was very much in love.  I have been in love many times, but this was the most serious of all.  It is a thing of the past; she has married daughters now.  It was Varinka B——.”  Ivan Vasilievich mentioned her surname.  “Even at fifty she is remarkably handsome; but in her youth, at eighteen, she was exquisite—­tall, slender, graceful, and stately.  Yes, stately is the word; she held herself very erect, by instinct as it were; and carried her head high, and that together with her beauty and height gave her a queenly air in spite of being thin, even bony one might say.  It might indeed have been deterring had it not been for her smile, which was always gay and cordial, and for the charming light in her eyes and for her youthful sweetness.”

“What an entrancing description you give, Ivan Vasilievich!”

“Description, indeed!  I could not possibly describe her so that you could appreciate her.  But that does not matter; what I am going to tell you happened in the forties.  I was at that time a student in a provincial university.  I don’t know whether it was a good thing or no, but we had no political clubs, no theories in our universities then.  We were simply young and spent our time as young men do, studying and amusing ourselves.  I was a very gay, lively, careless fellow, and had plenty of money too.  I had a fine horse, and used to go tobogganing with the young ladies.  Skating had not yet come into fashion.  I went to drinking parties with my comrades—­in those days we drank nothing but champagne—­if we had no champagne we drank nothing at all.  We never drank vodka, as they do now.  Evening parties and balls were my favourite amusements.  I danced well, and was not an ugly fellow.”