`Oh, no!' said Dolly. `At first things were rather uncomfortable, but now we've settled everything capitally - thanks to my old nurse,' she said, indicating Matriona Philimonovna, who, seeing that they were speaking of her, smiled brightly and cordially to Levin. She knew him, and knew that he would be a good match for her young lady, and was very keen to see the matter settled.
`Won't you get in, sir, we'll make room on this side!' she said to him.
`No, I'll walk. Children, who'd like to race the horses with me?'
The children knew Levin very little, and could not remember when they had seen him, but they experienced in regard to him none of that strange feeling of shyness and hostility which children so often experience toward hypocritical, grown-up people, and for which they are so often and miserably punished. Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised. Whatever faults Levin had, there was not a trace of hypocrisy in him, and so the children showed him the same friendliness that they saw in their mother's face. On his invitation, the two elder ones at once jumped out to him and ran with him as simply as they would have done with their nurse, or Miss Hoole, or their mother. Lily, too, began begging to go to him, and her mother handed her over to him; he sat her on his shoulder and ran along with her.
`Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, Darya Alexandrovna!' he said, smiling good-humoredly to the mother; `there's no chance of my hurting or dropping her.'
And, looking at his strong, agile, assiduously careful and extremely strained movements, the mother felt her mind at rest, and smiled gaily and approvingly as she watched him.
Here, in the country, with children, and with Darya Alexandrovna, with whom he was in sympathy, Levin was in a mood not infrequent with him, of childlike lightheartedness that she particularly liked in him. As he ran with the children, he taught them gymnastic feats, set Miss Hoole laughing with his queer English accent, and talked to Darya Alexandrovna of his pursuits in the country.
After dinner, Darya Alexandrovna, sitting alone with him on the balcony, began to speak of Kitty.
`You know, Kitty's coming here, and is going to spend the summer with me.'
`Really,' he said, flushing; and at once, to change the conversation, he said: `Then I'll send you two cows, shall I? If you insist on a bill you shall pay me five roubles a month - if you aren't ashamed.'
`No, thank you. We can manage very well now.'
`Oh, well, then, I'll have a look at your cows, and if you'll allow me, I'll give directions about their food. Everything depends on their food.'
And Levin, to turn the conversation, explained to Darya Alexandrovna the theory of cowkeeping, based on the principle that the cow is simply a machine for the transformation of food into milk, and so on.
He talked of this, and passionately longed to hear more of Kitty, and, at the same time, was afraid of hearing it. He dreaded the breaking up of the inward peace he had gained with such effort.
`Yes, but still all this has to be looked after, and who is there to look after it?' Darya Alexandrovna responded reluctantly.
She had by now got her household matters so satisfactorily arranged, thanks to Matriona Philimonovna, that she was disinclined to make any change in them; besides, she had no faith in Levin's knowledge of farming. General principles, as to the cow being a machine for the production of milk, she looked on with suspicion. It seemed to her that such principles could only be a hindrance in farm management. It all seemed to her a far ******r matter:
all that was needed, as Matriona Philimonovna had explained, was to give Brindle and Whitebreast more food and drink, and not to let the cook carry all the kitchen slops to the laundrymaid's cow. That was clear. But general propositions as to feeding on meal and on grass were doubtful and obscure.
And, what was most important, she wanted to talk about Kitty.
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TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 3, Chapter 10[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 10 `Kitty writes to me that there's nothing she longs for so much as quiet and solitude,' Dolly said after the silence that had followed.
`And how is she - better?' Levin asked in agitation.
`Thank God, she's quite well again. I never believed her lungs were affected.'
`Oh, I'm very glad!' said Levin, and Dolly fancied she saw something touching, helpless, in his face as he said this and looked silently into her face.
`Let me ask you, Konstantin Dmitrievich,' said Darya Alexandrovna, smiling her kindly and rather mocking smile, `why are you angry with Kitty?'
`I? I'm not angry with her,' said Levin.
`Yes, you are. Why was it you did not come to see us or them when you were in Moscow?'
`Darya Alexandrovna,' he said, blushing up to the roots of his hair, `I wonder really that with your kind heart you don't feel this. How it is you feel no pity for me, if nothing else, when you know...'
`What do I know?'
`You know that I proposed and was refused,' said Levin, and all the tenderness he had been feeling for Kitty a minute before was replaced by a feeling of anger for the slight he had suffered.
`What makes you suppose I know?'
`Because everybody knows it....'
`That's just where you are mistaken; I did not know it, though I had guessed it was so.'
`Well, now you know it.'
`All I knew was that something had happened that made her dreadfully miserable, and that she begged me never to speak of it. And if she would not tell me, she would certainly not speak of it to anyone else. But what did pass between you? Tell me.'
`I have told you.'
`When was it?'
`When I was at their house the last time.'
`Do you know,' said Darya Alexandrovna, `I am awfully, awfully sorry for her. You suffer only from pride....'
`Perhaps so,' said Levin, `but...'
She interrupted him.