Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/81

 Countess Nordstone. "It seems that they have made a very deep impression on you."

"Akh! how so? But I always make notes. Well! how is it, Kitty, have you been skating to-day?" ....

And she began to talk with her young friend.

Awkward as it was in him to take his departure now, Levin preferred to commit this breach of etiquette rather than remain through the evening, and to see Kitty, who occasionally looked at him, though she avoided his eyes. He attempted to get up; but the princess, noticing that he had nothing to say, addressed him directly:—

"Do you intend to remain long in Moscow? You are justice of the peace in your district, are you not? and I suppose that will prevent you from making a long stay."

"No, princess, I have resigned that office," he said. "I have come to stay several days."

"Something has happened to him," thought the Countess Nordstone, as she saw Levin's stern and serious face, "because he does not launch out into his usual tirades; but I'll soon draw him out. Nothing amuses me more than to make him ridiculous before Kitty, and I'll do it."

"Konstantin Dmitritch," she said to him, "explain to me, please, what this means, for you know all about it: at our estate in Kaluga all the muzhiks and their wives have drunk up everything they had, and don't pay what they owe us. You are always praising the muzhiks; what does this mean?"

At this moment another lady came in, and Levin arose.

"Excuse me, countess, I know nothing at all about it, and I cannot answer your question," said he, looking at an officer who entered at the same time with the lady.

"That must be Vronsky," he thought, and to confirm his surmise he glanced at Kitty. She had already had time to perceive Vronsky, and she was looking at Levin. When he saw the young girl's involuntarily brightening eyes, Levin saw that she loved that man, he saw it as