That was one disagreeable thing. The other slightly disagreeable
fact was that the new head of his department, like all new heads,
had the reputation already of a terrible person, who got up at
six o'clock in the morning, worked like a horse, and insisted on
his subordinates working in the same way. Moreover, this new
head had the further reputation of being a bear in his manners,
and was, according to all reports, a man of a class in all
respects the opposite of that to which his predecessor had
belonged, and to which Stepan Arkadyevitch had hitherto belonged
himself. On the previous day Stepan Arkadyevitch had appeared at
the office in a uniform, and the new chief had been very affable
and had talked to him as to an acquaintance. Consequently Stepan
Arkadyevitch deemed it his duty to call upon him in his
non-official dress. The thought that the new chief might not
tender him a warm reception was the other unpleasant thing. But
Stepan Arkadyevitch instinctively felt that everything would _come
round_ all right. "They're all people, all men, like us poor
sinners; why be nasty and quarrelsome?" he thought as he went
into the hotel.
"Good-day, Vassily," he said, walking into the corridor with his
hat cocked on one side, and addressing a footman he knew; "why,
you've let your whiskers grow! Levin, number seven, eh? Take me
up, please. And find out whether Count Anitchkin" (this was the
new head) "is receiving."
"Yes, sir," Vassily responded, smiling. "You've not been to see
us for a long while."
"I was here yesterday, but at the other entrance. Is this
number seven?"
Levin was standing with a peasant from Tver in the middle of the
room, measuring a fresh bearskin, when Stepan Arkadyevitch went
in.
"What! you killed him?" cried Stepan Arkadyevitch. "Well done!
A she-bear? How are you, Arhip!"
He shook hands with the peasant and sat down on the edge of a
chair, without taking off his coat and hat.
"Come, take off your coat and stay a little," said Levin, taking
his hat.
"No, I haven't time; I've only looked in for a tiny second,"
answered Stepan Arkadyevitch. He threw open his coat, but
afterwards did take it off, and sat on for a whole hour, talking
to Levin about hunting and the most intimate subjects.
"Come, tell me, please, what you did abroad? Where have you
been?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, when the peasant had gone.
"Oh, I stayed in Germany, in Prussia, in France, and in England--
not in the capitals, but in the manufacturing towns, and saw a
great deal that was new to me. And I'm glad I went."