When Good Intentions Meet Reality — War and Peace

After reaching home Nicholas is at first serious and even dull. He is worried by the impending necessity of interfering in the stupid business matters for which his mother has called him home. To throw off this burden as quickly as possible, on the third day after his arrival he goes, angry and scowling and without answering questions as to where he is going, to Mítenka's lodge and demands an account of everything. But what an account of everything might be Nicholas knows even less than the frightened and bewildered Mítenka. The conversation and the examination of the accounts do not last long. The village elder, a peasant delegate, and the village clerk, who are waiting in the passage, hear with fear and delight first the young count's voice roaring and snapping and rising louder and louder, 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. Then with no less fear and delight they see how the young count, red in the face and with bloodshot eyes, drags Mítenka out by the scruff of the neck and applies his foot and knee to his behind with great agility at convenient moments between the words, shouting, Be off. Never let me see your face here again, you villain.

Mítenka flies headlong down the six steps and runs away into the shrubbery. This shrubbery is a well-known haven of refuge for culprits at Otrádnoe. Mítenka himself, returning tipsy from the town, used to hide there, and many of the residents, hiding from Mítenka, knew of its protective qualities. Mítenka's wife and sisters-in-law thrust their heads and frightened faces out of the door of a room where a bright samovar is boiling and where the steward's high bedstead stands with its patchwork quilt. The young count pays no heed to them, but, breathing hard, passes by with resolute strides and goes into the house. The countess, who heard at once from the maids what had happened at the lodge, is calmed by the thought that now their affairs would certainly improve, but on the other hand feels anxious as to the effect this excitement might have on her son. She goes several times to his door on tiptoe and listens, as he lights one pipe after another.

Next day the old count calls his son aside and, with an embarrassed smile, says it is a pity he got excited. Mítenka has told me all about it. Nicholas thinks he knew he should never understand anything in this crazy world. You were angry that he had not entered those seven hundred rubles. But they were carried forward, and you did not look at the other page. Papa, he is a blackguard and a thief. Nicholas used to understand what a corner and the stakes at cards meant, but carrying forward to another page he does not understand at all, and after that he does not meddle in business affairs. But once the countess calls her son and informs him that she has a promissory note from Anna Mikháylovna for two thousand rubles, and asks him what he thinks of doing with it. This, answers Nicholas. You say it rests with me. Well, I don't like Anna Mikháylovna and I don't like Borís, but they were our friends and poor. Well then, this, and he tears up the note, and by so doing causes the old countess to weep tears of joy. After that, young Rostóv takes no further part in any business affairs, but devotes himself with passionate enthusiasm to what is to him a new pursuit, the chase, for which his father keeps a large establishment.