Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/513

 "Well, of course! Here you come to me and you pounce on me because I seek pleasure in life! Be not so severe, O moralist!"

"All the same, there is some good in life," replied Levin, becoming confused. "Well, I don't know, I only know that we must soon die."

"Why soon?"

"And you know there is less charm in life when we think of death, but more restfulness."

"On the contrary, we must enjoy what there is of it, anyway. .... But," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, rising for the tenth time, "I must go."

"Oh, no! stay a little longer," said Levin, holding him back; "when shall we see each other again? I leave to-morrow."

"I am a queer fellow. This is what I came for! .... Don't fail to come and dine with us to-day. Your brother will be with us; my brother-in-law, Karenin, will be there."

"Is he here?" asked Levin, and he wanted to ask about Kitty; he had heard that she had been in Petersburg at the beginning of the winter, visiting her sister, the wife of a diplomatist, and he did not know whether she had returned or not, but he hesitated about asking.

"Whether she has come back or not, it's all the same. I will accept," he thought.

"Will you come?"

"Well! Of course I will."

"At five o'clock, in ordinary dress."

And Stepan Arkadyevitch rose, and went down to see the new nachalnik. Instinct had not deceived him: this dreadful man proved to be a good fellow; Stepan Arkadyevitch lunched with him, and stayed so long to talk that it was nearly four o'clock when he got to Alekseï Aleksandrovitch's room.