Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/900

 "If that is so, then I am going to Katavasof's."

"I am going with papa to take a little walk on the boulevard. We are going to see Dolly. I shall expect you back before dinner. Oh, there! Do you know, Dolly's position is getting to be entirely unendurable? She is in debt on every side, and has n't any money at all. We talked about it yesterday with mamma and Arseny,"—this was her sister Natali Lvova's husband,—"and they decided that you should scold Stiva. It is truly unendurable. It is impossible for papa to speak about it; but if you and he ...."

"Well, what can we do?" asked Levin.

"You had better go to Arseny's, and talk with him; he will tell you what we decided about it."

"All right! I will follow Arseny's advice. Then, I will go directly to his house. By the way, if he is at the concert, then I will go with Natali. So good-by."

On the staircase, the old bachelor servant, Kuzma, who acted in the city as steward, stopped his master.

"Krasavtchika has just been shod, and it lamed her,"—this was Levin's left pole-horse, which he had brought from the country;—"what shall I do?" said he.

When Levin established himself in Moscow, he brought his horses from the country. He wished to set up as good a stable as possible, but not to have it cost too much. It seemed to him now that hired horses would have been less expensive; and even as it was, he was often obliged to hire of the izvoshchik.

"Take her to the veterinary; perhaps she is going to have a swimmer."

"Well, how shall you arrange for Katerina Aleksandrovna?" asked Kuzma.

Levin was now no longer troubled as he had been at first, when he first came to Moscow, that for the drive from Vozdvizhenko to Svintsef Vrazhek it was necessary to have a span of heavy horses harnessed into his heavy carriage and drive in it four versts through mealy snow, and keep them waiting four hours there, and have to pay