Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART ONE CHAPTER 5
“I don’t understand what you are doing,” said Levin, shrugging his shoulders.
“How can you do it seriously?”
“Why not?”
“Why, because there’s nothing in it.”
“You think so, but we’re overwhelmed with work.”
“On paper. But, there, you’ve a gift for it,” added Levin.
“That’s to say, you think there’s a lack of something in me?”
“Perhaps so,” said Levin. “But all the same I admire your grandeur, and am proud
that I’ve a friend in such a great person. You’ve not answered my question, though,”
he went on, with a desperate effort looking Oblonsky straight in the face.
“Oh, that’s all very well. You wait a bit, and you’ll come to this yourself. It’s very
nice for you to have over six thousand acres in the Karazinsky district, and such
muscles, and the freshness of a girl of twelve; still you’ll be one of us one day. Yes,
as to your question, there is no change, but it’s a pity you’ve been away so long.”
“Oh, why so?” Levin queried, panic-stricken.
“Oh, nothing,” responded Oblonsky. “We’ll talk it over. But what’s brought you
up to town?”
“Oh, we’ll talk about that, too, later on,” said Levin, reddening again up to his
ears.
“All right. I see,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch. “I should ask you to come to us, you
know, but my wife’s not quite the thing. But I tell you what; if you want to see them,
they’re sure now to be at the Zoological Gardens from four to five. Kitty skates. You
drive along there, and I’ll come and fetch you, and we’ll go and dine somewhere
together.”
“Capital. So good-bye till then.”
“Now mind, you’ll forget, I know you, or rush off home to the country!” Stepan
Arkadyevitch called out laughing.
“No, truly!”
And Levin went out of the room, only when he was in the doorway remembering
that he had forgotten to take leave of Oblonsky’s colleagues.
“That gentleman must be a man of great energy,” said Grinevitch, when Levin had
gone away.
“Yes, my dear boy,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, nodding his head, “he’s a lucky
fellow! Over six thousand acres in the Karazinsky district; everything before him;
and what youth and vigor! Not like some of us.”
“You have a great deal to complain of, haven’t you, Stepan Arkadyevitch?”
“Ah, yes, I’m in a poor way, a bad way,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch with a heavy
sigh.
CHAPTER 6
WHEN Oblonsky asked Levin what had brought him to town, Levin blushed, and
was furious with himself for blushing, because he could not answer, “I have
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