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pers, and lighting a cigar, walked out of the barn, and soon their voices
were lost.
For a long while Levin could not get to sleep. He heard the horses
munching hay, then he heard the peasant and his elder boy getting
ready for the night, and going off for the night watch with the beasts,
then he heard the soldier arranging his bed on the other side of the
barn, with his nephew, the younger son of their peasant host. He
heard the boy in his shrill little voice telling his uncle what he thought
about the dogs, who seemed to him huge and terrible creatures, and
asking what the dogs were going to hunt next day, and the soldier in a
husky, sleepy voice, telling him the sportsmen were going in the morn-
ing to the marsh, and would shoot with their guns; and then, to check
the boy’s questions, he said, “Go to sleep, Vaska; go to sleep, or you’ll
catch it,” and soon after he began snoring himself, and everything was
still. He could only hear the snort of the horses, and the guttural cry of
a snipe.
“Is it really only negative?” he repeated to himself. “Well, what of
it? It’s not my fault.” And he began thinking about the next day.
“Tomorrow I’ll go out early, and I’ll make a point of keeping cool.
There are lots of snipe; and there are grouse too. When I come back
there’ll be the note from Kitty. Yes, Stiva may be right, I’m not manly
with her, I’m tied to her apron-strings.... Well, it can’t be helped! Nega-
tive again....”
Half asleep, he heard the laughter and mirthful talk of Veslovsky
and Stepan Arkadyevitch. For an instant he opened his eyes: the
moon was up, and in the open doorway, brightly lighted up by the
moonlight, they were standing talking. Stepan Arkadyevitch was say-
ing something of the freshness of one girl, comparing her to a freshly
peeled nut, and Veslovsky with his infectious laugh was repeating
some words, probably said to him by a peasant: “Ah, you do your best
to get round her!” Levin, half asleep, said:
“Gentlemen, tomorrow before daylight!” and fell asleep.