第256章

`By all means, please, and I shall come too,' said Kitty, and she blushed. She wanted from politeness to ask Vassenka whether he would come, and she did not ask him. `Where are you going, Kostia?' she asked her husband with a guilty face, as he passed by her with a resolute step.

This guilty air confirmed all his suspicions.

`The mechanician came when I was away; I haven't seen him yet,'

he said, not looking at her.

He went downstairs, but before he had time to leave his study he heard his wife's familiar footsteps running with reckless speed to him.

`What do you want?' he said to her shortly. `We are busy.'

`I beg your pardon,' she said to the German mechanician; `I want a few words with my husband.'

The German would have left the room, but Levin said to him:

`Don't disturb yourself'

`The train is at three?' queried the German. `I mustn't be late.'

Levin did not answer him, but walked out himself with his wife.

`Well, what have you to say to me?' he said to her in French.

He did not look her in the face, and did not care to see that she in her condition was trembling all over, and had a piteous, crushed look.

`I... I want to say that we can't go on like this; that this is misery...' she said.

`The servants are here at the buttery,' he said angrily; `don't make a scene.'

`Well, let's go in here!'

They were standing in the passage room. Kitty would have gone into the next room, but there the English governess was giving Tania a lesson.

`Well, come into the garden.'

In the garden they came upon a peasant weeding the path. And no longer considering that the peasant could see her tear-stained and his agitated face, that they looked like people fleeing from some disaster, they went on with rapid steps, feeling that they must speak out and clear up misunderstandings, must be alone together, and so get rid of the misery they were both feeling.

`We can't go on like this! It's misery! I am wretched; you are wretched. What for?' she said, when they had at last reached a solitary garden seat at a turn in the linden tree avenue.

`But tell me one thing: was there in his tone anything unseemly, unclean, humiliatingly horrible?' he said, standing before her again in the same position, with his clenched fists on his chest, as he had stood before her that night.

`Yes,' she said in a shaking voice; `but, Kostia, surely you see I'm not to blame? All the morning I've been trying to take a tone... But such people... Why did he come? How happy we were!' she said, breathless with the sobs that shook her.

Although nothing had been pursuing them, and there was nothing to run away from, and they could not possibly have found anything very delightful on that garden seat, the gardener saw with astonishment that they passed him on their way home with comforted and radiant faces.

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TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 15[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 15 After escorting his wife upstairs, Levin went to Dolly's part of the house.

Darya Alexandrovna, for her part, was also in great distress that day.

She was walking about the room, talking angrily to a little girl, who stood in the corner bawling.

`And you shall stand all day in the corner, and have your dinner all alone, and not see one of your dolls, and I won't make you a new frock,'

she said, not knowing how to punish her.

`Oh, she is a disgusting child!' she turned to Levin. `Where does she get such wicked propensities?'

`Why, what has she done?' Levin said without much interest, for he had wanted to ask her advice, and so was annoyed that he had come at an unlucky moment.

`Grisha and she went into the raspberries, and there... I can't tell you really what she did. It's a thousand pities Miss Elliot's not with us. This one sees to nothing - she's a machine.... Figurez-vous que la petite ?...'

And Darya Alexandrovna described Masha's crime.

`That proves nothing; it's not a question of evil propensities at all, it's simply mischief,' Levin assured her.

`But you are upset about something? What have you come for?' asked Dolly. `What's going on there?'

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... Stand there - stand in the corner!'

she said to Masha, who, detecting a faint smile on 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 le cour à 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: Je crois que Veslovsky fait un petit brin de cour à Kitty.'

`Well, that's all right then; now I'm satisfied. I'll send him away,' said Levin.

`What do you mean! Are you crazy?' Dolly cried in horror. `Nonsense, Kostia, 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 irresolutely 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.