Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/451

 The hunting which Sviazhsky gave him was poorer than Levin had expected: the marshes were dry, and the woodcock scarce. Levin walked all day, and bagged only three birds; but in compensation he brought back with him as always from hunting a ravenous appetite, capital spirits, and that intellectual excitement which violent physical exercise always gave him. Even while he was out hunting, while, as it would seem, his thoughts were not busy about anything, he kept remembering the old man and his family, and the impression remained with him that there was some peculiar tie between himself and that family.

In the evening, at the tea-table in the company of two proprietors, who had come on some business with the marshal, the interesting conversation that he had looked forward to soon began. At the tea-table Levin sat next the hostess and had to keep up a conversation with her and her sister who sat opposite him. His hostess was a moon-faced lady of medium stature and light complexion, all radiant with smiles and dimples. Levin endeavored, through her, to unravel the enigma which her husband's character offered him; but he could not get full control of his thoughts, because opposite him sat the pretty sister-in-law in a gown worn, as it seemed to him, for his especial benefit, with a square corsage cut rather low in front, and giving a glimpse of a very white bosom. This decollete gown, in spite of the fact that the bosom was very white or perhaps from the very reason that it was very white, stopped the free flow of his thought. He could not help imagining, though of course erroneously, that this display was made for his benefit, and yet he felt that he had no right to look at it, and he tried not to look at it; but he was conscious of being to blame for her wearing such a gown. It seemed to Levin that he was deceiving some one, that he ought to make some kind of an explanation, but that it was an utter impossibility to do it, and so he kept blushing and felt ill at ease, and his constraint communicated itself to the pretty young lady. But the hostess seemed not to notice it, and kept up a lively conversation.