Page:Leo Tolstoy - Father Sergius and Other Stories and Plays - ed. Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright (1911).djvu/44

 38 utmost perfection in the knowledge of the service, and, except for his uncontrollable temper, which was sometimes the occasion of actions that were inimical to his success, he soon became a model officer.

Once during a conversation in society he realized the need of a more general education: so, setting himself to work to read books, he soon attained what he desired. Then he wanted to hold a brilliant position in aristocratic society: he learned to dance beautifully, and was presently invited to all the balls and parties in the best circles. But he was not satisfied with this: he was accustomed to being first in everything, and in this instance he was very far from that. Society at that time consisted, as I suppose it has done in every time and place, of four kinds of people—rich people who are received at Court; people who are not rich, but are born and brought up in Court circles; rich people who ape the Court; and people, neither rich nor of the Court, who copy both.

Kasatsky did not belong to the first two, but was gladly received in the last two sets. On entering society his first idea was that he must have a liaison with a society lady; and quite unexpectedly it soon came about. Presently, however, he realized that the circle in which he moved was not the most exclusive, and that there were