LITMIR.BIZ

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his heart made him ill at ease and uncomfortable in this restaurant with its private rooms where men took women to dine. Everything seemed offensive: these bronzes, mirrors, gaslights and Tartar waiters. He was afraid of soiling that which filled his soul.

      ‘I? Yes, I am preoccupied — and besides, all this makes me feel constrained,’ he said. ‘You can’t imagine how strange it all seems to me who live in the country, — like the nails of that gentleman I saw at your place.’

      ‘Yes, I noticed that poor Grinevich’s nails interested you greatly,’ said Oblonsky.

      ‘I can’t help it,’ replied Levin. ‘Put yourself in my place — look at it from a country fellow’s point of view! We try to get our hands into a state convenient to work with, and for that purpose we cut our nails and sometimes roll up our sleeves. But here people purposely let their nails grow until they begin to curl, and have little saucers for studs to make it quite impossible for them to use their hands!’

      Oblonsky smiled merrily.

      ‘Yes, it is a sign that rough work is unnecessary to him. He works with his mind …’

      ‘Possibly; but still it seems to me strange that while we country people try to get over our meals as quickly as we can, so as to be able to get on with our work, here you and I try to make our meal last as long as possible, and therefore eat oysters.’

      ‘Well, of course,’ said Oblonsky. ‘The aim of civilization is to enable us to get enjoyment out of everything.’

      ‘Well, if that is its aim, I’d rather be a savage.’

      ‘You are a savage as it is. All you Levins are savages.’

      Levin sighed. He remembered his brother Nicholas and frowned, feeling ashamed and distressed; but Oblonsky started a subject which at once distracted his thoughts.

      ‘Well, are you going to see our people tonight? The Shcherbatskys, I mean,’ he said, pushing away the rough and now empty oyster shells and drawing the cheese toward him, while his eyes glittered significantly.

      ‘Yes, certainly I shall go. Though the Princess appeared to ask me rather unwillingly.’

      ‘Not a bit of it! What humbug! It’s just her manner … Come, bring us that soup, my good fellow! … It’s her grande dame manner,’ said Oblonsky. ‘I shall come too, but I must first go to a musical rehearsal at the Countess Bonin’s. What a strange fellow you are, though! How do you explain your sudden departure from Moscow? The Shcherbatskys asked me again and again, just as if I ought to know all about you. Yet all I know is that you never do things as anyone else does!’

      ‘Yes,’ said Levin slowly and with agitation. ‘You are right, I am a savage. Only my savagery lies not in having gone away then, but rather in having come back now. I have now come …’

      ‘Oh, what a lucky fellow you are!’ interrupted Oblonsky, looking straight into his eyes.

      ‘Why?’

      ‘ “Fiery steeds by” something “brands

      I can always recognize;

      Youths in love at once I know,

      By the look that lights their eyes!” ’

      declaimed Oblonsky. ‘You have everything before you!’

      ‘And you — have you everything behind you?’

      ‘No, not behind me, but you have the future and I have the present; and even that only half-and-half!’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Oh, things are rather bad… . However, I don’t want to talk about myself, and besides it’s impossible to explain everything,’ said Oblonsky. ‘Well, and why have you come to Moscow? … Here, take this away!’ he shouted to the Tartar.

      ‘Don’t you guess?’ answered Levin, the light shining deep in his eyes as he gazed steadily at Oblonsky.

      ‘I do, but I can’t begin to speak about it, — by which you can judge whether my guess is right or wrong,’ said Oblonsky, looking at him with a subtle smile.

      ‘Well, and what do you say to it?’ asked Levin with a trembling voice, feeling that all the muscles of his face were quivering. ‘What do you think of it?’

      Oblonsky slowly drank his glass of Chablis, his eyes fixed on Levin.

      ‘There is nothing I should like better,’ said he, ‘nothing! It is the best that could happen.’

      ‘But are you not making a mistake? Do you know what we are talking about?’ said Levin, peering into his interlocutor’s face. ‘You think it possible?’

      ‘I think so. Why shouldn’t it be?’

      ‘No, do you really think it is possible? No, you must tell me all you really think! And suppose … suppose a refusal is in store for me? … I am even certain …’

      ‘Why do you think so?’ said Oblonsky, smiling at Levin’s excitement.

      ‘Well, sometimes it seems so to me. You know, that would he terrible both for her and for me.’

      ‘Oh no! In any case there’s nothing in it terrible for the girl. Every girl is proud of an offer.’

      ‘Yes, every girl, but not she.’

      Oblonsky smiled. He understood that feeling of Levin’s so well, knew that for Levin all the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except her, and they had all the usual human failings and were very ordinary girls; while the other class — herself alone — had no weaknesses and was superior to all humanity.

      ‘Wait a bit: you must take some sauce,’ said Oblonsky, stopping Levin’s hand that was pushing away the sauceboat.

      Levin obediently helped himself to sauce, but would not let Oblonsky eat.

      ‘No, wait, wait!’ he said. ‘Understand that for me it is a question of life and death. I have never spoken to anyone about it, and can speak to no one else about it. Now you and I are quite different in everything — in tastes and views and everything — but I know you like me and understand me, and so I am awfully fond of you. But for God’s sake be quite frank with me!’

      ‘I am telling you what I think,’ said Oblonsky smiling. ‘And I’ll tell you something more. My wife is a most wonderful woman …’ He sighed, remembering his relations with his wife; then after a minute’s pause he continued: ‘She has the gift of clairvoyance. She sees people through and through! But more than that, she knows what is going to happen especially in regard to marriages. For instance, she predicted that the Shakovskaya girl would marry Brenteln. No one would believe it, but as it turned out she was right. And she is — on your side.’

      ‘How do you know?’

      ‘In this way — she not only likes you, but says that Kitty is sure to be your wife.’

      At these words a sudden smile brightened Levin’s face, the kind of smile that is not far from tears of tenderness.

      ‘She says that?’ he cried. ‘I have always thought her a jewel, your wife! But enough — enough about it!’ and he got up.

      ‘All right, but sit down!’

      But Levin could not sit still. He strode up and down the little cage of a room blinking to force back his tears, and only when he had succeeded did he sit down again.

      ‘Try and realize,’ he said, ‘that this is not love. I have been in love but this is not the same thing. It is not my feeling but some external power that has seized me. I went away, you know, because I had come to the conclusion that it was impossible — you understand? Because such happiness does not exist on earth. But I have struggled with myself and found that without that there’s no life for me. And it must be decided …’

      ‘Then why

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