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He felt that this independent attitude of a man who might have

done anything, but cared to do nothing, was already beginning to

pall, that many people were beginning to fancy that he was not

really capable of anything but being a straightforward,

good-natured fellow. His connection with Madame Karenina, by

creating so much sensation and attracting general attention, had

given him a fresh distinction which soothed his gnawing worm of

ambition for a while, but a week before that worm had been roused

up again with fresh force. The friend of his childhood, a man of

the same set, of the same coterie, his comrade in the Corps of

Pages, Serpuhovskoy, who had left school with him and had been

his rival in class, in gymnastics, in their scrapes and their

dreams of glory, had come back a few days before from Central

Asia, where he had gained two steps up in rank, and an order

rarely bestowed upon generals so young.