Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/846

 "Well, yesterday evening I heard Anna Arkadyevna making some wise remark about plinths," said Veslovsky. "Would you find me doing that?"

"There is nothing remarkable in that, when one keeps one's eyes and ears open," said Anna. "But don't you know what houses are built of?"

Darya Aleksandrovna perceived that Anna was not pleased with this tone of badinage which she and Veslovsky kept up, but that she fell into it involuntarily.

In this respect Vronsky behaved exactly the opposite to Levin. He evidently attributed not the least importance to Veslovsky's nonsense, but, on the contrary, encouraged this jesting.

"Well, tell us, Veslovsky, what they use to fasten stones together."

"Cement, of course."

"Bravo! And what is cement made of?"

"Well, it is something like gruel. .... No, a sort of mastic," said Veslovsky, amid general laughter.

The conversation among the guests, with the exception of the doctor, the superintendent, and the architect, who generally kept silence, went on without cessation, now growing light, now dragging a little, and now touching to the quick.

Once Darya Aleksandrovna was touched to the quick, and felt so provoked that she grew red in the face, and afterward she wondered if she made any improper or unpleasant remark. Sviazhsky spoke of Levin and told of some of his strange opinions in regard to machines being injurious to Russian agriculture.

"I have not the pleasure of knowing this Mr. Levin; probably he has never seen the machines he criticizes. But if he has seen and tried, they must have been Russian ones, and not the foreign make. What can be his views?"

"Turkish views," said Veslovsky, smiling at Anna.

"I cannot defend his opinions," said Dolly, reddening; "but Levin is a thoroughly intelligent man, and if he were here he would know what answer to make you, but I can't."