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"Very well, I will come directly and see about it. But did you

send for some new milk?"

And Darya Alexandrovna plunged into the duties of the day, and

drowned her grief in them for a time.

Chapter 5

Stepan Arkadyevitch had learned easily at school, thanks to his

excellent abilities, but he had been idle and mischievous, and

therefore was one of the lowest in his class. But in spite of his

habitually dissipated mode of life, his inferior grade in the

service, and his comparative youth, he occupied the honorable and

lucrative position of president of one of the government boards

at Moscow. This post he had received through his sister Anna's

husband, Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin, who held one of the most

important positions in the ministry to whose department the

Moscow office belonged. But if Karenin had not got his

brother-in-law this berth, then through a hundred other

personages-brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, and aunts-Stiva

Oblonsky would have received this post, or some other similar

one, together with the salary of six thousand absolutely needful

for him, as his affairs, in spite of his wife's considerable

property, were in an embarrassed condition.