‘It’s impossible to live this way! It’s torture! I’m suffering, you’re suffering. Why?’ she said, when they finally reached a solitary bench at the corner of a linden alley.
‘But tell me yourself: was there something indecent, impure, humiliat ingly terrible in his tone?’ he said, standing before her again, fists on his chest, in the same pose as the other night.
‘There was,’ she said in a trembling voice. ‘But don’t you see, Kostya, that it’s not my fault? All morning I wanted to set a certain tone, but these people ... Why did he come? We were so happy!’ she said, choking with sobs that shook her whole filled-out body.
The gardener saw with surprise that, though no one had chased them and there had been nothing to flee from, and though they could not have found anything especially joyful on that bench - they returned home past him with calmed, radiant faces.
XV
After taking his wife upstairs, Levin went to Dolly’s side of the house. Darya Alexandrovna, for her part, was very upset that day. She was pacing the room and saying angrily to the girl who stood in the corner howling:
‘And you’ll stand in the corner all day, and have dinner alone, and won’t see a single doll, and I won’t make you a new dress,’ she said, not knowing how else to punish her.
‘No, she’s a nasty little girl!’ She turned to Levin. ‘Where did she get these vile inclinations?’
‘But what did she do?’ Levin said rather indifferently. He had wanted to consult her about his own affairs and was therefore vexed that he had come at the wrong moment.
‘She and Grisha went into the raspberry bushes, and there ... I can’t even tell you what she did there. Such nasty things. I’m a thousand times sorry Miss Elliot’s not here. This woman doesn’t look after anything, she’s a machine...
And Darya Alexandrovna related Masha’s crime.
‘That doesn’t prove anything. It’s not vile inclinations, it’s simply a prank,’ Levin comforted her.
‘But you’re upset about something? Why did you come?’ asked Dolly. ‘What’s going on there?’
And in the tone of this question Levin heard that it would be easy for him to say what he meant to say.
‘I wasn’t there, I was alone in the garden with Kitty. It’s the second time we’ve quarrelled since ... Stiva arrived.’
Dolly looked at him with intelligent, understanding eyes.
‘Well, tell me, hand on heart, wasn’t there... not in Kitty, but in that gentleman, a tone that could be unpleasant - not unpleasant but terrible, insulting for a husband?’
‘That is, how shall I put it to you ... Stay, stay in the corner,’ she said to Masha, who, seeing a barely noticeable smile on her mother’s lips, had begun to stir. ‘Society’s view would be that he’s behaving as all young men behave.
‘Yes, yes,’ Levin said gloomily, ‘but you did notice?’
‘Not only I, but Stiva noticed. He told me just after tea: “
‘Well, splendid, now I’m at peace. I shall throw him out,’ said Levin.
‘What, have you lost your mind?’ Dolly cried in horror. ‘No, Kostya, come to your senses!’ she said, laughing. ‘Well, you can go to Fanny now,’ she said to Masha. ‘No, if you want, I’ll tell Stiva. He’ll take him away. He can say you’re expecting guests. Generally, he doesn’t fit in with us.’
‘No, no, I’ll do it myself.’
‘But you’re going to quarrel? ...’
‘Not at all. It will be great fun for me,’ said Levin, his eyes indeed sparkling merrily. ‘Well, forgive her, Dolly! She won’t do it again,’ he said, referring to the little criminal, who would not go to Fanny and stood hesitantly before her mother, looking expectantly from under her brows and seeking her eyes.
The mother looked at her. The girl burst into sobs, buried her face in her mother’s lap, and Dolly placed her thin hand tenderly on her head.
‘And what do we and he have in common?’ thought Levin, and he went to look for Veslovsky.
Passing through the front hall, he ordered the carriage harnessed to go to the station.
‘A spring broke yesterday,’ the footman replied.
‘The tarantass, then, but quickly. Where’s the guest?’
‘The gentleman has gone to his room.’
Levin found Vasenka at a moment when, having taken his things from the suitcase and laid out the new song music, he was trying on his leggings for horseback riding.
Either there was something special in Levin’s face, or Vasenka himself sensed that the
‘You wear leggings when you ride?’
‘Yes, it’s much cleaner,’ said Vasenka, putting his fat leg on a chair, fastening the lower hook, and smiling cheerfully and good-naturedly.
