Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART SEVEN CHAPTER 2
“Oh, it’s all right,” he said with a little cough, looking at her from under his brows.
That cough she knew well. It was a sign of intense dissatisfaction, not with her,
but with himself. He certainly was displeased not at so much money being spent,
but at being reminded of what he, knowing something was unsatisfactory, wanted
to forget.
“I have told Sokolov to sell the wheat, and to borrow an advance on the mill. We
shall have money enough in any case.”
“Yes, but I’m afraid that altogether...”
“Oh, it’s all right, all right,” he repeated. “Well, good-bye, darling.”
“No, I’m really sorry sometimes that I listened to mamma. How nice it would have
been in the country! As it is, I’m worrying you all, and we’re wasting our money.”
“Not at all, not at all. Not once since I’ve been married have I said that things
could have been better than they are....”
“Truly?” she said, looking into his eyes.
He had said it without thinking, simply to console her. But when he glanced at her
and saw those sweet truthful eyes fastened questioningly on him, he repeated it with
his whole heart. “I was positively forgetting her,” he thought. And he remembered
what was before them, so soon to come.
“Will it be soon? How do you feel?” he whispered, taking her two hands.
“I have so often thought so, that now I don’t think about it or know anything about
it.”
“And you’re not frightened?”
She smiled contemptuously.
“Not the least little bit,” she said.
“Well, if anything happens, I shall be at Katavasov’s.”
“No, nothing will happen, and don’t think about it. I’m going for a walk on the
boulevard with papa. We’re going to see Dolly. I shall expect you before dinner.
Oh, yes! Do you know that Dolly’s position is becoming utterly impossible? She’s
in debt all round; she hasn’t a penny. We were talking yesterday with mamma and
Arseny” (this was her sister’s husband Lvov), “and we determined to send you with
him to talk to Stiva. It’s really unbearable. One can’t speak to papa about it.... But if
you and he...”
“Why, what can we do?” said Levin.
“You’ll be at Arseny’s, anyway; talk to him, he will tell what we decided.”
“Oh, I agree to everything Arseny thinks beforehand. I’ll go and see him. By the
way, if I do go to the concert, I’ll go with Natalia. Well, good-bye.”
On the steps Levin was stopped by his old servant Kouzma, who had been with
him before his marriage, and now looked after their household in town.
“Beauty” (that was the left shaft-horse brought up from the country) “has been
badly shod and is quite lame,” he said. “What does your honor wish to be done?”
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