Then the colonel, who began to show signs of weakening, sat down on a bench in the courtyard and began demonstrating to Iashvin the superiority of Russia over Prussia, especially in cavalry attack, and there was a lull in the revelry for a moment. Serpukhovskoy went into the house to the bathroom to wash his hands and found Vronsky there - Vronsky was sousing his head with water. He had taken off his coat and put his red hairy neck under the tap, and was rubbing it and his head with his hands. When he had finished, Vronsky sat down by Serpukhovskoy. They both sat down in the bathroom on a lounge, and a conversation began which was very interesting to both of them.
`I've always been hearing about you through my wife,' said Serpukhovskoy.
`I'm glad you've been seeing her pretty often.'
`She's friendly with Varia, and they're the only women in Peterburg I care about seeing,' answered Vronsky, smiling. He smiled because he foresaw the topic the conversation would turn to, and he was glad of it.
`The only ones?' Serpukhovskoy queried, smiling.
`Yes; and I heard news of you, but not only through your wife,'
said Vronsky, checking Serpukhovskoy's hint by assuming a stern expression.
`I was greatly delighted to hear of your success, but not a bit surprised.
I expected even more.'
Serpukhovskoy smiled. Such an opinion of him was obviously agreeable to him, and he did not think it necessary to conceal it.
`Well, I, on the contrary, expected less - I'll own up frankly.
But I'm glad, very glad. I'm ambitious - that's my weakness, and I confess to it.'
`Perhaps you wouldn't confess to it if you hadn't been successful,'
said Vronsky.
`I don't suppose so,' said Serpukhovskoy, smiling again. `I won't say life wouldn't be worth living without it, but it would be dull. Of course I may be mistaken, but I fancy I have a certain capacity for the line I've chosen, and that if there is to be power of any sort in my hands, it will be better than in the hands of a good many people I know,' said Serpukhovskoy, with beaming consciousness of success; `and so the nearer I get to it, the better pleased I am.'
`Perhaps that is true for you, but not for everyone. I used to think so too, but now I see and think life worth living not only for that.'
`There it comes! there it comes!' said Serpukhovskoy laughing.
`Ever since I heard about you, about your refusal, I began... Of course, I approved of what you did. But there are ways of doing everything. And I think your action was good in itself, but you didn't do it in quite the way you should have done.'
`What's done can't be undone, and you know I never go back on what I've done. And, besides, I'm very well off.'
`Very well off - for the time. But you're not satisfied with that.
I wouldn't say this to your brother. He's a charming child, like our host here. There he goes!' he added, listening to the roar of a `hurrah!' -`and he's happy; that does not satisfy you.'
`I didn't say it did.'
`Yes, but that's not the only thing. Such men as you are wanted.'
`By whom?'
`By whom? By society, by Russia. Russia needs men, she needs a party, or else everything goes and will go to the dogs.'
`How do you mean? Bertenev's party against the Russian communists?'
`No,' said Serpukhovskoy, frowning with vexation at being suspected of such an absurdity. ` Tout ça est une blague . That has always been, and always will be. There are no communists. But intriguing people have to invent a noxious, dangerous party. It's an old trick. No, what's wanted is a powerful party of independent men, like you and me.'
`But why so?' Vronsky mentioned a few men who were in power. `Why aren't they independent men?'
`Simply because they have not, or have not had from birth, an independent fortune, they've not had a name, they weren't born close to the sun as we were. They can be bought either by money or by favor. And they have to find a support for themselves in inventing a trend. And they bring forward some notion, some trend that they don't believe in, that does harm; and the whole policy is really only a means to a house at the expense of the crown and so much income. Cela n'est pas plus fin que ça , when you get a peep at their cards. I may be inferior to them, more stupid perhaps, though I don't see why I should be inferior to them. But you and I have one important, certain advantage over them, in being more difficult to buy. And such men are more needed than ever.'
Vronsky listened attentively, but he was not so much interested by the meaning of the words as by the attitude of Serpukhovskoy, who was already contemplating a struggle with the existing powers, and already had his likes and dislikes in that world, while his own interest in his service did not go beyond the interests of his squadron. Vronsky felt, too, how powerful Serpukhovskoy might become through his unmistakable faculty for thinking things out and for taking things in, through his intelligence and gift of eloquence, so rarely met with in the world in which he moved.
And, ashamed as he was of the feeling, he felt envious.
`Still I haven't the one thing of paramount importance for that,'
he answered; `I haven't the desire for power. I had it once, but it's gone.'
`Excuse me, that's not true,' said Serpukhovskoy smiling.
`Yes, it's true, it's true - now to be truthful!' Vronsky added.
`Yes, it's true now, that's another thing; but that now won't last forever.'
`Perhaps,' answered Vronsky.
`You say perhaps,' Serpukhovskoy went on, as though guessing his thoughts, `but I say for certain. And that's what I wanted to see you for.
Your action was just what it should have been. I see that, but you ought not to persevere in it. I only ask you to give me carte blanche. I'm not going to offer you my protection.... Though, indeed, why shouldn't I protect you? - you've protected me often enough! I should hope our friendship rises above all that sort of thing. Yes,' he said, smiling to him as tenderly as a woman, `give me carte blanche, retire from the regiment, and I'll get you in imperceptibly.'