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And his brother, who was in command of one of the most expensive

regiments, and was only just married, could not decline the gift.

His mother, who had her own separate property, had allowed Alexey

every year twenty thousand in addition to the twenty-five

thousand he had reserved, and Alexey had spent it all. Of late

his mother, incensed with him on account of his love affair and

his leaving Moscow, had given up sending him the money. And in

consequence of this, Vronsky, who had been in the habit of living

on the scale of forty-five thousand a year, having only received

twenty thousand that year, found himself now in difficulties. To

get out of these difficulties, he could not apply to his mother

for money. Her last letter, which he had received the day before,

had particularly exasperated him by the hints in it that she was

quite ready to help him to succeed in the world and in the army,

but not to lead a life which was a scandal to all good society.