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And in the tone of her question Levin heard that it would be easy
for him to say what he had meant to say.
“I’ve not been in there, I’ve been alone in the garden with Kitty.
We’ve had a quarrel for the second time since...Stiva came.”
Dolly looked at him with her shrewd, comprehending eyes.
“Come, tell me, honor bright, has there been...not in Kitty, but in
that gentleman’s behavior, a tone which might be unpleasant— not
unpleasant, but horrible, offensive to a husband?”
“You mean, how shall I say.... Stay, stay in the corner!” she said to
Masha, who, detecting a faint smile in her mother’s face, had been
turning round. “The opinion of the world would be that he is behaving
as young men do behave. Il fait la cour a une jeune et jolie femme, and
a husband who’s a man of the world should only be flattered by it.”
“Yes, yes,” said Levin gloomily; “but you noticed it?”
“Not only I, but Stiva noticed it. Just after breakfast he said to me
in so many words, Je crois que Veslovsky fait un petit brin de cour a
Kitty.”
“Well, that’s all right then; now I’m satisfied. I’ll send him away,”
said Levin.
“What do you mean!b Are you crazy?” Dolly cried in horror; “non-
sense, Kostya, only think!” she said, laughing. “You can go now to
Fanny,” she said to Masha. “No, if you wish it, I’ll speak to Stiva. He’ll
take him away. He can say you’re expecting visitors. Altogether he
doesn’t fit into the house.”
“No, no, I’ll do it myself.”
“But you’ll quarrel with him?”
“Not a bit. I shall so enjoy it,” Levin said, his eyes flashing with real
enjoyment. “Come, forgive her, Dolly, she won’t do it again,” he said of
the little sinner, who had not gone to Fanny, but was standing irreso-
lutely before her mother, waiting and looking up from under her brows
to catch her mother’s eye.
The mother glanced at her. The child broke into sobs, hid her face
on her mother’s lap, and Dolly laid her thin, tender hand on her head.
“And what is there in common between us and him?” thought
Levin, and he went off to look for Veslovsky.
As he passed through the passage he gave orders for the carriage
to be got ready to drive to the station.
“The spring was broken yesterday,” said the footman.
“Well, the covered trap, then, and make haste. Where’s the visi-
tor?”
“The gentleman’s gone to his room.”
Levin came upon Veslovsky at the moment when the latter, having
unpacked his things from his trunk, and laid out some new songs, was
putting on his gaiters to go out riding.
Whether there was something exceptional in Levin’s face, or that
Vassenka was himself conscious that ce petit brin de cour he was
making was out of place in this family, but he was somewhat (as much
as a young man in society can be) disconcerted at Levin’s entrance.
“You ride in gaiters?”
“Yes, it’s much cleaner,” said Vassenka, putting his fat leg on a chair,
fastening the bottom hook, and smiling with simple-hearted good hu-
mor.
He was undoubtedly a good-natured fellow, and Levin felt sorry
for him and ashamed of himself, as his host, when he saw the shy look
on Vassenka’s face.
On the table lay a piece of stick which they had broken together
that morning, trying their strength. Levin took the fragment in his
hands and began smashing it up, breaking bits off the stick, not know-