Book 1 Chapter 13 Life in the Army

After that Nekhludoff did not see Katusha for more than three
years. When he saw her again he had just been promoted to the
rank of officer and was going to join his regiment. On the way he
came to spend a few days with his aunts, being now a very
different young man from the one who had spent the summer with
them three years before. He then had been an honest, unselfish
lad, ready to sacrifice himself for any good cause; now he was
depraved and selfish, and thought only of his own enjoyment. Then
God's world seemed a mystery which he tried enthusiastically and
joyfully to solve; now everything in life seemed clear and
simple, defined by the conditions of the life he was leading.
Then he had felt the importance of, and had need of intercourse
with, nature, and with those who had lived and thought and felt
before him--philosophers and poets. What he now considered
necessary and important were human institutions and intercourse
with his comrades. Then women seemed mysterious and
charming--charming by the very mystery that enveloped them; now
the purpose of women, all women except those of his own family
and the wives of his friends, was a very definite one: women were
the best means towards an already experienced enjoyment. Then
money was not needed, and he did not require even one-third of
what his mother allowed him; but now this allowance of 1,500
roubles a month did not suffice, and he had already had some
unpleasant talks about it with his mother.