smile of that bold handsome man when
he pressed her arm.

CHAPTER XI

Anatole Kuragin was staying in Moscow because his father had sent him
away from Petersburg, where he had been spending twenty thousand rubles
a year in cash, besides running up debts for as much more, which his
creditors demanded from his father.

His father announced to him that he would now pay half his debts for the
last time, but only on condition that he went to Moscow as adjutant
to the commander in chief--a post his father had procured for him--and
would at last try to make a good match there. He indicated to him
Princess Mary and Julie Karagina.

Anatole consented and went to Moscow, where he put up at Pierre's house.
Pierre received him unwillingly at first, but got used to him after a
while, sometimes even accompanied him on his carousals, and gave him
money under the guise of loans.

As Shinshin had remarked, from the time of his arrival Anatole had
turned the heads of the Moscow ladies, especially by the fact that
he slighted them and plainly preferred the gypsy girls and French
actresses--with the chief of whom, Mademoiselle George, he was said to
be on intimate relations. He had never missed a carousal at Danilov's
or other Moscow revelers', drank whole nights through, outvying everyone
else, and was at all the balls and parties of the best society. There
was talk of his intrigues with some of the ladies, and he flirted with a
few of them at the balls. But he did not run after the unmarried girls,
especially the rich heiresses who were most of them plain. There was a
special reason for this, as he had got married two years before--a fact
known only to his most intimate friends. At that time while with his
regiment in Poland, a Polish landowner of small means had forced him to
marry his daughter. Anatole had very soon abandoned his wife and, for a
payment which he agreed to send to his father-in-law, had arranged to be
free to pass himself off as a bachelor.

Anatole was always content with his position, with himself, and with
others. He was instinctively and thoroughly convinced that it was
impossible for him to live otherwise than as he did and that he had
never in his life done anything base. He was incapable of considering
how his actions might affect others or what the consequences of this or
that action of his might be. He was convinced that, as a duck is so made
that it must live in water, so God had made him such