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“Delighted to see you,” said Princess Shtcherbatskaya. “On Thurs-
days we are home, as always.”
“Today, then?”
“We shall be pleased to see you,” the princess said stiffly.
This stiffness hurt Kitty, and she could not resist the desire to
smooth over her mother’s coldness. She turned her head, and with a
smile said:
“Good-bye till this evening.”
At that moment Stepan Arkadyevitch, his hat cocked on one side,
with beaming face and eyes, strode into the garden like a conquering
hero. But as he approached his mother-in-law, he responded in a
mournful and crestfallen tone to her inquiries about Dolly’s health.
After a little subdued and dejected conversation with his mother-in-
law, he threw out his chest again, and put his arm in Levin’s.
“Well, shall we set off?” he asked. “I’ve been thinking about you all
this time, and I’m very, very glad you’ve come,” he said, looking him in
the face with a significant air.
“Yes, come along,” answered Levin in ecstasy, hearing unceasingly
the sound of that voice saying, “Good-bye till this evening,” and seeing
the smile with which it was said.
“To the England or the Hermitage?”
“I don’t mind which.”
“All right, then, the England,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, selecting
that restaurant because he owed more there than at the Hermitage,
and consequently considered it mean to avoid it. “Have you got a
sledge? That’s first-rate, for I sent my carriage home.”
The friends hardly spoke all the way. Levin was wondering what
that change in Kitty’s expression had meant, and alternately assuring
himself that there was hope, and falling into despair, seeing clearly that
his hopes were insane, and yet all the while he felt himself quite an-
other man, utterly unlike what he had been before her smile and those
words, “Good-bye till this evening.”
Stepan Arkadyevitch was absorbed during the drive in composing
the menu of the dinner.
“You like trout, don’t you?” he said to Levin as they were arriving.
“Eh?” responded Levin. “Turbot? Yes, I’m AWF ULLY fond of
turbot.”