Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/811

 CHAPTER XVI

carried out her plan of going to see Anna. She was sorry to offend her sister, or to displease her sister's husband. She realized that the Levins were right in not wishing to have anything to do with Vronsky; but she considered it her duty to go to see Anna and prove to her that her feelings could not change, in spite of the change in her position.

In order not to be dependent on the Levins, Darya Aleksandrovna sent to the village to hire horses; but Levin, when he heard about it, went to her with his complaint:—

"Why do you think this journey would be disagreeable to me? And even if it were, it would be still more unpleasant for me not to have you take my horses," said he. "You never told me that you were really going; but to hire them from the village is disagreeable to me in the first place, and chiefly because, though they undertake to get you there, they would not succeed. I have horses. And if you don't wish to offend me, you will take mine."

Darya Aleksandrovna had to yield, and on the appointed day Levin had all ready for his sister-in-law a team of four horses, and a relay, made up of working and saddle-horses; a very far from handsome turnout, but capable of taking Darya Aleksandrovna to her destination in one day.

Now that horses were needed to take the old princess out for her daily drive, and for the midwife, it was a rather heavy burden for Levin; but, according to the law of hospitality, he could not possibly think of allowing Darya Aleksandrovna to hire horses outside, and, moreover, he knew that the twenty rubles which was asked for the hire of a team would be a serious matter for her, for Darya Aleksandrovna's pecuniary affairs had got into a very wretched condition, and caused the Levins as much anxiety as if they had been their own.

Darya Aleksandrovna, by Levin's advice, set out at