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 CHAPTER VI

" they are not receiving?" asked Levin, as he entered the vestibule of Count Bohl's house.

"Oh, yes! permit me!" answered the Swiss, resolutely taking the visitor's shuba.

"What a nuisance!" thought Levin, drawing off one of his gloves with a sigh, and turning his hat in his hands. "Now, why did I come? Now, what am I going to say to them?"

Passing through the first drawing-room, he met the Countess Bohl at the door, who, with a perplexed and severe face, was giving orders to a servant. When she saw Levin, she smiled, and invited him to walk into a small parlor, where voices were heard. In this room were sitting her two daughters and a Muscovite colonel whom Levin knew. Levin joined them, passed the usual compliments, and sat down near a divan, holding his hat on his knee.

"How is your wife? Have you been to the concert? We were not able to go. Mamma had to attend the requiem," said one of the young ladies.

"Yes, I heard about it—what a sudden death!"— said Levin.

The countess came in, sat down on the divan, and asked also about his wife and the concert.

Levin replied, and asked some questions about the sudden death of Madame Apraksin.

"But then, she was always in delicate health."

"Were you at the opera yesterday?"

"Yes, I was."

"Lucca was very good."

"Yes, very good," he said; and he began, seeing that it was entirely immaterial to him what they thought about him, to repeat what he had heard a hundred times about the singer's extraordinary talent. The Countess Bohl pretended that she was listening. Then, when he had said all he had to say, and relapsed into silence, the colonel, who had hitherto held his peace, began also to