Lvov obviously wanted to restrain himself and not show his joy, but he simply beamed all over.
‘As long as they’re better than I am. That’s all I wish for. You don’t know all the trouble yet,’ he began, ‘with boys who, like mine, were neglected in that life abroad.’
‘You’ll catch up on it all. They’re such capable children. Above all - moral education. That’s what I learn from looking at your children.’
‘Moral education, you say. It’s impossible to imagine how hard it is! You’ve just prevailed on one side when something else crops up, and the struggle starts again. Without support from religion - remember, we talked about it - no father, using only his own resources, would be able to bring up a child.’
This conversation, which always interested Levin, was interrupted by the entrance of the beautiful Natalya Alexandrovna, already dressed to go out.
‘I didn’t know you were here,’ she said, obviously not only not sorry but even glad to have interrupted this, for her, long-familiar and boring conversation. ‘Well, how’s Kitty? I’m dining with you today. Now then, Arseny,’ she turned to her husband, ‘you will take the carriage ...’
And a discussion began between husband and wife about how they were going to spend the day. Since the husband had to go and meet someone to do with his work, and the wife had to go to a concert and a public meeting of the South-Eastern Committee, there was much to be decided and thought over. Levin, as one of the family, had to take part in the planning. It was decided that Levin would go with Natalie to the concert and the public meeting, and from there the carriage would be sent to the office for Arseny, and he would come to fetch her and take her to Kitty’s; or, if he was still busy, he would send the carriage and Levin would go with her.
‘The man spoils me,’ he said to his wife, ‘he assures me that our children are wonderful, when I know how much bad there is in them.’
‘Arseny goes to extremes, as I always say,’ said the wife. ‘If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content. It’s true what papa says, that when we were being brought up there was one extreme - we were kept in the attic, while the parents lived on the first floor; now it’s the opposite - the parents go to the store-room and the children to the first floor. Parents mustn’t have any life now, everything’s given to the children.’
‘Why not, if they like it?’ Lvov said, smiling his handsome smile and touching her hand. ‘Anyone who didn’t know you would think you were not a mother but a stepmother.’
‘No, extremes aren’t good in anything,’ Natalie said calmly, putting his paper-knife in its proper place on the desk.
‘Well, come here now, you perfect children,’ he said to the handsome boys who came in and, after bowing to Levin, went over to their father, evidently wishing to ask him about something.
Levin would have liked to talk with them, to hear what they said to their father, but Natalie turned to him, and just then Lvov’s colleague, Makhotin, in a court uniform, came into the room to fetch him, so that they could go together to meet someone, and now an endless conversation started about Herzegovina, Princess Korzinsky, the duma, and the unexpected death of Mme Apraksin.
Levin quite forgot about the errand he had been given. He remembered it only on his way to the front hall.
‘Ah, Kitty told me to discuss something about Oblonsky with you,’ he said, when Lvov stopped on the stairs, seeing his wife and Levin out.
‘Yes, yes,
‘Then I’ll fall upon him,’ Natalie said, waiting in her white dog-fur
V
Two very interesting things were offered at the matinee concert.
One was a fantasia,
