Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/793

 Yes, perhaps Stiva is right; I am not manly toward her; I am too much under my wife's thumb But what is to be done about it? This also is revolting."

Through his dream he heard Veslovsky and Stepan Arkadyevitch gayly talking and laughing. For an instant he opened his eyes. The moon had risen, and through the open doors he saw them standing there in the bright moonlight, and talking. Stepan Arkadyevitch was saying something about the freshness of a young girl, comparing her to a walnut just out of its shell, and Veslovsky laughing his contagious laugh, made some reply, evidently repeating the words spoken by some muzhik, "You'd better be going home."

Levin spoke through his dream, "Gentlemen, to-morrow morning at daybreak."

CHAPTER XII

at earliest dawn, Levin tried to wake his companions. Vasenka, lying on his stomach, with one leg in a stocking, was sleeping so soundly that it was impossible to get any reply from him. Oblonsky, only half awake, refused to start out so early. And even Laska, sleeping curled up in a round ball at the edge of the hay, got up reluctantly, and lazily stretched out and straightened her hind legs, one after the other. Levin, putting on his boots, took his gun and cautiously opening the creaking door of the shed, went outdoors. The coachmen were sleeping near the wagons; the horses were dozing. Only one sheep was drowsily eating with his nose in the trough. It was still gray in the yard.

"You are up early, aren't you, my dear," said the old peasant woman, the mistress of the house, coming out from the izba, and addressing him in a friendly way, like an old acquaintance.

"Yes, I'm going out shooting, auntie. Can I go this way to the swamp?"

"Directly behind the barns, follow the foot-path along