Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART SIX CHAPTER 15
Chapter 15
AFTER escorting his wife upstairs, Levin went to Dolly’s part of the house. Darya
Alexandrovna, for her part, was in great distress too that day. She was walking
about the room, talking angrily to a little girl, who stood in the corner roaring.
“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.... Stay, stay in the corner!” she said to Masha, who,
detecting a faint smile in 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 la 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 in so many
words, 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, Kostya,
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.”
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