All the respected Ivan Vasilyevich unexpectedly changes the subject of the conversation: he is convinced that the environment does not affect the way people think, and the whole thing is the case. He tells the story of his youthful love for the beautiful Varenka B. Like the other young officers, Ivan Vasilievich spent his evenings at balls, was booing with his friends, and did not attend university circles, etc. At a ball at the provincial leader, he constantly danced with Varenka, dressed in a white and pink dress, feels that his love is mutual. Ivan Vasilievich nourishes exclusively a platonic feeling for the object of his love. Varenka’s father appears, “a very handsome, handsome, tall and fresh old man” with a ruddy face and a luxurious mustache, Colonel. The hosts persuade him to dance a mazurka with his daughter. During the dance, the couple attracts everyone’s attention. Ivan Vasilyevich is touched by the fact, that the colonels wear unfashionable bootlegs, that is, they refuse to themselves in many ways “to dress and take their beloved daughter to the light.” After the mazurka, the father brings Varenka to Ivan Vasilievich, and the rest of the evening the young people spend together. “Ivan Vasilievich returns home in the morning, but can not fall asleep and goes to wander the city in the direction of Varenka’s house From afar he hears the sounds of a flute and a drum that endlessly repeat the same shrill melody. In the field in front of the house B. he sees how the soldiers of some Tatar behind the father of Varenka, the handsome, well-behaved Colonel B. Tatar, begs the soldiers “to be merciful,” but the colonel strictly watches that the soldiers do not give him the slightest indulgence. “One of the soldiers” smears. “B. hits him in the face Ivan Vasilievich sees a red, mottled, wet from the blood of the Tatar back and terrified. Noticing Ivan Vasilyevich, B. pretends not to know him, and turns away. Ivan Vasilievich thinks that, probably, the colonel is right, since everyone recognizes that he is acting normally. However, he can not understand the reasons that forced B. to brutally beat a man, and not understanding, decides not to enter the military service. His love is waning. So one case changed his life and views.
“After the ball” of Tolstoy in brief