Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART ONE CHAPTER 17
“Well, what do you say? Shall we give a supper on Sunday for the diva?” he said
to him with a smile, taking his arm.
“Of course. I’m collecting subscriptions. Oh, did you make the acquaintance of
my friend Levin?” asked Stepan Arkadyevitch.
“Yes; but he left rather early.”
“He’s a capital fellow,” pursued Oblonsky. “Isn’t he?”
“I don’t know why it is,” responded Vronsky, “in all Moscow people–present company
of course excepted,” he put in jestingly, “there’s something uncompromising.
They are all on the defensive, lose their tempers, as though they all want to make
one feel something...”
“Yes, that’s true, it is so,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laughing good-humoredly.
“Will the train soon be in?” Vronsky asked a railway official.
“The train’s signaled,” answered the man.
The approach of the train was more and more evident by the preparatory bustle
in the station, the rush of porters, the movement of policemen and attendants, and
people meeting the train. Through the frosty vapor could be seen workmen in short
sheepskins and soft felt boots crossing the rails of the curving line. The hiss of the
boiler could be heard on the distant rails, and the rumble of something heavy.
“No,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, who felt a great inclination to tell Vronsky of
Levin’s intentions in regard to Kitty. “No, you’ve not got a true impression of Levin.
He’s a very nervous man, and is sometimes out of humor, it’s true, but then he is
often very nice. He’s such a true, honest nature, and a heart of gold. But yesterday
there were special reasons,” pursued Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a meaning smile,
totally oblivious of the genuine sympathy he had felt the day before for his friend,
and feeling the same sympathy now, only for Vronsky. “Yes, there were reasons why
he could not help being either particularly happy or particularly unhappy.”
Vronsky stood still and asked directly: “How so? Do you mean he made your
belle-soeur an offer yesterday?”
“Maybe,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch. “I fancied something of the sort yesterday.
Yes, if he went away early, and was out of humor too, it must mean it.... He’s been
so long in love, and I’m very sorry for him.”
“So that’s it! I should imagine, though, she might reckon on a better match,” said
Vronsky, drawing himself up and walking about again, “though I don’t know him,
of course,” he added. “Yes, that is a hateful position! That’s why most fellows prefer
to have to do with Klaras. If you don’t succeed with them it only proves that you’ve
not enough cash, but in this case one’s dignity’s at stake. But here’s the train.”
The engine had already whistled in the distance. A few instants later the platform
was quivering, and with puffs of steam hanging low in the air from the frost, the
engine rolled up, with the lever of the middle wheel rhythmically moving up and
down, and the stooping figure of the engine-driver covered with frost. Behind the
tender, setting the platform more and more slowly swaying, came the luggage van
with a dog whining in it. At last the passenger carriages rolled in, oscillating before
coming to a standstill.
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