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In spite of Stepan Arkadyevitch's efforts to be an attentive

father and husband, he never could keep in his mind that he had a

wife and children. He had bachelor tastes, and it was in

accordance with them that he shaped his life. On his return to

Moscow he informed his wife with pride that everything was ready,

that the house would be a little paradise, and that he advised

her most certainly to go. His wife's staying away in the country

was very agreeable to Stepan Arkadyevitch from every point of

view: it did the children good, it decreased expenses, and it

left him more at liberty. Darya Alexandrovna regarded staying in

the country for the summer as essential for the children,

especially for the little girl, who had not succeeded in

regaining her strength after the scarlatina, and also as a means

of escaping the petty humiliations, the little bills owing to the

wood-merchant, the fishmonger, the shoemaker, which made her

miserable.