The chapter about the children in the new material has been slightly altered at the beginning, and all the rest remains without alteration, as in the former manuscript.
Be so good as to note the Roman figures marking chapters, but divide it up into chapters anew at your discretion.
As I have not the whole manuscript in its final form before me, I cannot do it myself and am obliged to trouble you. Please also write me a word to say you have received the new chapter and give me your opinion, which I value greatly.[G]
Accept the assurance of my sincere respect and devotion.
Sophie Tolstoy.
The additional matter did not satisfy S. A. Vengerov. He had long ago formed an idea of Yasnaya Polyana, during the period in which War and Peace and Anna Karenina were created, as of a "home" in which the interests of the family were such that literary interests were removed to the second floor. He hoped that S. A. T. in her additional matter would turn her attention to that particular side in the life and activity of L. N. Tolstoy, making use for that purpose of the very rich material possessed by her. But S. A. T. did not fulfil his hopes, as he told her in a letter to her and as may be seen from her reply.
S. A. T. held a different view, and she wrote to Vengerov:
Yasnaya Polyana,
Station Zassyeka,
5 May, 1914.
Much-respected Semen Afanasevich: I have received your letter; you are not quite satisfied with the new chapter, to which I reply: you want more facts, but where am I to get them? Our life was quiet, placid, a retired family life.
You write about the 'home' interests which must have been subordinated to Leo Nikolaevich's writing of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. But what was that home? It consisted only of Leo Nikolaevich and myself. The two old women had become childish and took no interest at all in Leo N.'s writings, but used to lose their tempers over patience; a nd their only interests were the children and the dinner.[H]