Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART SEVEN CHAPTER 6
Chapter 6
“Perhaps they’re not at home?” said Levin, as he went into the hall of Countess
Bola’s house.
“At home; please walk in,” said the porter, resolutely removing his overcoat.
“How annoying!” thought Levin with a sigh, taking off one glove and stroking his
hat. “What did I come for? What have I to say to them?”
As he passed through the first drawing room Levin met in the doorway Countess
Bola, giving some order to a servant with a care-worn and severe face. On seeing
Levin she smiled, and asked him to come into the little drawing room, where he
heard voices. In this room there were sitting in armchairs the two daughters of the
countess, and a Moscow colonel, whom Levin knew. Levin went up, greeted them,
and sat down beside the sofa with his hat on his knees.
“How is your wife? Have you been at the concert? We couldn’t go. Mamma had
to be at the funeral service.”
“Yes, I heard.... What a sudden death!” said Levin.
The countess came in, sat down on the sofa, and she too asked after his wife and
inquired about the concert.
Levin answered, and repeated an inquiry about Madame Apraksina’s sudden
death.
“But she was always in weak health.”
“Were you at the opera yesterday?”
“Yes, I was.”
“Lucca was very good.”
“Yes, very good,” he said, and as it was utterly of no consequence to him what they
thought of him, he began repeating what they had heard a hundred times about the
characteristics of the singer’s talent. Countess Bola pretended to be listening. Then,
when he had said enough and paused, the colonel, who had been silent till then,
began to talk. The colonel too talked of the opera, and about culture. At last, after
speaking of the proposed folle journée at Turin’s, the colonel laughed, got up noisily,
and went away. Levin too rose, but he saw by the face of the countess that it was not
yet time for him to go. He must stay two minutes longer. He sat down.
But as he was thinking all the while how stupid it was, he could not find a subject
for conversation, and sat silent.
“You are not going to the public meeting? They say it will be very interesting,”
began the countess.
“No, I promised my belle-soeur to fetch her from it,” said Levin.
A silence followed. The mother once more exchanged glances with a daughter.
“Well, now I think the time has come,” thought Levin, and he got up. The ladies
shook hands with him, and begged him to say mille choses to his wife for them.
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