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THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYCH.TXT-Part2_LEO TOLSTOY (1828-1910)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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eldest son was following in his father's footsteps only in another



department, and was already approaching that stage in the service

at which a similar sinecure would be reached. the third son was a



failure. He had ruined his prospects in a number of positions and

was not serving in the railway department. His father and



brothers, and still more their wives, not merely disliked meeting

him, but avoided remembering his existence unless compelled to do



so. His sister had married Baron Greff, a Petersburg official of

her father's type. Ivan Ilych was *le phenix de la famille* as



people said. He was neither as cold and formal as his elder

brother nor as wild as the younger, but was a happy mean between



them -- an intelligent polished, lively and agreeable man. He had

studied with his younger brother at the School of Law, but the



latter had failed to complete the course and was expelled when he

was in the fifth class. Ivan Ilych finished the course well. Even



when he was at the School of Law he was just what he remained for

the rest of his life: a capable, cheerful, good-natured, and



sociable man, though strict in the fulfillment of what he

considered to be his duty: and he considered his duty to be what



was so considered by those in authority. Neither as a boy nor as

a man was he a toady, but from early youth was by nature attracted



to people of high station as a fly is drawn to the light,

assimilating their ways and views of life and establishing friendly



relations with them. All the enthusiasms of childhood and youth

passed without leaving much trace on him; he succumbed to



sensuality, to vanity, and latterly among the highest classes to

liberalism, but always within limits which his instinct unfailingly



indicated to him as correct.

At school he had done things which had formerly seemed to him



very horrid and made him feel disgusted with himself when he did

them; but when later on he saw that such actions were done by



people of good position and that they did not regard them as wrong,

he was able not exactly to regard them as right, but to forget



about them entirely or not be at all troubled at remembering them.

Having graduated from the School of Law and qualified for the



tenth rank of the civil service, and having received money from his

father for his equipment, Ivan Ilych ordered himself clothes at



Scharmer's, the fashionabletailor, hung a medallion inscribed

*respice finem* on his watch-chain, took leave of his professor and



the prince who was patron of the school, had a farewell dinner with

his comrades at Donon's first-classrestaurant, and with his new



and fashionable portmanteau, linen, clothes, shaving and other

toilet appliances, and a travelling rug, all purchased at the best



shops, he set off for one of the provinces where through his

father's influence, he had been attached to the governor as an



official for special service.

In the province Ivan Ilych soon arranged as easy and agreeable



a position for himself as he had had at the School of Law. He

performed his official task, made his career, and at the same time



amused himself pleasantly and decorously. Occasionally he paid

official visits to country districts where he behaved with dignity



both to his superiors and inferiors, and performed the duties

entrusted to him, which relatedchiefly to the sectarians, with an



exactness and incorruptible honesty of which he could not but feel

proud.



In official matters, despite his youth and taste for frivolous

gaiety, he was exceedingly reserved, punctilious, and even severe;



but in society he was often amusing and witty, and always good-

natured, correct in his manner, and *bon enfant*, as the governor



and his wife -- with whom he was like one of the family -- used to

say of him.



In the province he had an affair with a lady who made advances

to the elegant young lawyer, and there was also a milliner; and



there were carousals with aides-de-camp who visited the district,

and after-supper visits to a certain outlying street of doubtful



reputation; and there was too some obsequiousness to his chief and

even to his chief's wife, but all this was done with such a tone of



good breeding that no hard names could be applied to it. It all




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