1108 1109
trying not to see him, he had immediately gone to call on Anna, he
blushed. “We talk about the peasants drinking; I don’t know which
drinks most, the peasantry or our own class; the peasants do on holi-
days, but...”
But Kitty took not the slightest interest in discussing the drinking
habits of the peasants. She saw that he blushed, and she wanted to
know why.
“Well, and then where did you go?”
“Stiva urged me awfully to go and see Anna Arkadyevna.”
And as he said this, Levin blushed even more, and his doubts as to
whether he had done right in going to see Anna were settled once for
all. He knew now that he ought not to have done so.
Kitty’s eyes opened in a curious way and gleamed at Anna’s name,
but controlling herself with an effort, she concealed her emotion and
deceived him.
“Oh!” was all she said.
“I’m sure you won’t be angry at my going. Stiva begged me to, and
Dolly wished it,” Levin went on.
“Oh, no!” she said, but he saw in her eyes a constraint that boded
him no good.
“She is a very sweet, very, very unhappy, good woman,” he said,
telling her about Anna, her occupations, and what she had told him to
say to her.
“Yes, of course, she is very much to be pitied,” said Kitty, when he
had finished. “Whom was your letter from?”
He told her, and believing in her calm tone, he went to change his
coat.
Coming back, he found Kitty in the same easy chair. When he
went up to her, she glanced at him and broke into sobs.
“What? what is it?” he asked, knowing beforehand what.
“You’re in love with that hateful woman; she has bewitched you! I
saw it in your eyes. Yes, yes! What can it all lead to? You were
drinking at the club, drinking and gambling, and then you went...to her
of all people! No, we must go away.... I shall go away tomorrow.”
It was a long while before Levin could soothe his wife. At last he
succeeded in calming her, only by confessing that a feeling of pity, in
conjunction with the wine he had drunk, had been too much for him,
that he had succumbed to Anna’s artful influence, and that he would
avoid her. One thing he did with more sincerity confess to was that
living so long in Moscow, a life of nothing but conversation, eating and
drinking, he was degenerating. They talked till three o’clock in the
morning. Only at three o’clock were they sufficiently reconciled to be
able to go to sleep.