428 429
and so on.
He talked of this, and passionately longed to hear more of Kitty,
and, at the same time, was afraid of hearing it. He dreaded the break-
ing up of the inward peace he had gained with such effort.
“Yes, but still all this has to be looked after, and who is there to look
after it?” Darya Alexandrovna responded, without interest.
She had by now got her household matters so satisfactorily ar-
ranged, thanks to Marya Philimonovna, that she was disinclined to
make any change in them; besides, she had no faith in Levin’s knowl-
edge of farming. General principles, as to the cow being a machine for
the production of milk, she looked on with suspicion. It seemed to her
that such principles could only be a hindrance in farm management. It
all seemed to her a far simpler matter: all that was needed, as Marya
Philimonovna had explained, was to give Brindle and Whitebreast
more food and drink, and not to let the cook carry all the kitchen slops
to the laundry maid’s cow. That was clear. But general propositions as
to feeding on meal and on grass were doubtful and obscure. And, what
was most important, she wanted to talk about Kitty.
Chapter 10.
“Kitty writes to me that there’s nothing she longs for so much as
quiet and solitude,” Dolly said after the silence that had followed.
“And how is she—better?” Levin asked in agitation.
“Thank God, she’s quite well again. I never believed her lungs
were affected.”
“Oh, I’m very glad!” said Levin, and Dolly fancied she saw some-
thing touching, helpless, in his face as he said this and looked silently
into her face.
“Let me ask you, Konstantin Dmitrievitch,” said Darya
Alexandrovna, smiling her kindly and rather mocking smile, “why is it
you are angry with Kitty?”
“I? I’m not angry with her,” said Levin.
“Yes, you are angry. Why was it you did not come to see us nor
them when you were in Moscow?”
“Darya Alexandrovna,” he said, blushing up to the roots of his hair,
“I wonder really that with your kind heart you don’t feel this. How it is
you feel no pity for me, if nothing else, when you know...”
“What do I know?”
“You know I made an offer and that I was refused,” said Levin,
and all the tenderness he had been feeling for Kitty a minute before
was replaced by a feeling of anger for the slight he had suffered.