Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/601

 Levin found the explanation perfectly satisfactory. When the princess came in, they were sitting side by side on the big chest, looking over the frocks, and discussing their fate. Kitty wanted to give Duniasha the brown frock that she wore the day Levin proposed to her; and he insisted that it should not be given to any one, and that Duniasha should have the blue frock.

"But don't you see that she is a brunette, and the blue frock will not be becoming to her? .... I have thought it all over." ....

When she learned why Levin was there, the princess was half vexed at him, and sent him home to make his own toilet and leave Kitty in peace, as Charles was going to dress Kitty's hair.

"She is quite excited enough," said she; "she has eaten nothing for days, and is losing all her beauty; and here you come to trouble her with your foolishness. Come, go away now, my dear."

Levin went back to the hotel, guilty and ashamed, but reassured. His brother, Darya Aleksandrovna, and Stepan Arkadyevitch, in full dress, were already waiting with holy images to bless him. There was no time to be lost. Darya Aleksandrovna had to go home again to get her son perfumed and curled for the occasion; the child was to carry the sacred image before the bride. Then one carriage must be sent for the shafer or best man, while another was to come to the hotel for Sergyeï Ivanovitch. .... This day was full of complications. One thing was certain, that no delay was permissible, for it was already half-past six.

The ceremony of the benediction was anything but solemn. Stepan Arkadyevitch assumed a comically grave attitude beside his wife, raised the sacred image, and obliged Levin to kneel before it, while he blessed him with an affectionate and wicked smile; at last he kissed him three times; and Darya Aleksandrovna did the same very hastily, for she was in a great hurry to get away, and in great perplexity about the carriage arrangements.

"Well! This is what we will do: you go for him in