nsciousness.

Prince Andrew was most favorably placed to secure good reception in the
highest and most diverse Petersburg circles of the day. The reforming
party cordially welcomed and courted him, in the first place because
he was reputed to be clever and very well read, and secondly because by
liberating his serfs he had obtained the reputation of being a liberal.
The party of the old and dissatisfied, who censured the innovations,
turned to him expecting his sympathy in their disapproval of the
reforms, simply because he was the son of his father. The feminine
society world welcomed him gladly, because he was rich, distinguished, a
good match, and almost a newcomer, with a halo of romance on account
of his supposed death and the tragic loss of his wife. Besides this
the general opinion of all who had known him previously was that he had
greatly improved during these last five years, having softened and grown
more manly, lost his former affectation, pride, and contemptuous irony,
and acquired the serenity that comes with years. People talked about
him, were interested in him, and wanted to meet him.

The day after his interview with Count Arakcheev, Prince Andrew spent
the evening at Count Kochubey's. He told the count of his interview with
Sila Andreevich (Kochubey spoke of Arakcheev by that nickname with the
same vague irony Prince Andrew had noticed in the Minister of War's
anteroom).

"Mon cher, even in this case you can't do without Michael Mikhaylovich
Speranski. He manages everything. I'll speak to him. He has promised to
come this evening."

"What has Speranski to do with the army regulations?" asked Prince
Andrew.

Kochubey shook his head smilingly, as if surprised at Bolkonski's
simplicity.

"We were talking to him about you a few days ago," Kochubey continued,
"and about your freed plowmen."

"Oh, is it you, Prince, who have freed your serfs?" said an old man of
Catherine's day, turning contemptuously toward Bolkonski.

"It was a small estate that brought in no profit," replied Prince
Andrew, trying to extenuate his action so as not to irritate the old man
uselessly.

"Afraid of being late..." said the old man, looking at Kochubey.

"There's one thing I don't understand," he continued. "Who will plow the
land if they are set free? It is easy to write laws, but difficult to
rule.... Just the same as now--I ask you, Count--who will be heads of
the departments when everybody has to pass examinatio