Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [104]
‘How amazingly they make soap,’ he said, examining and unwrapping a fragrant cake of soap that Agafya Mikhailovna had put out for the guest but that Oblonsky had not used. ‘Just look, it’s a work of art.’
‘Yes, all sorts of improvements have been made in everything,’ said Stepan Arkadyich, with a moist and blissful yawn. ‘The theatres, for instance, and these amusement ... a-a-ah!’ he yawned. ‘Electric light everywhere ... a-a-ah!’24
‘Yes, electric light,’ said Levin. ‘Yes. Well, and where is Vronsky now?’ he said, suddenly putting down the soap.
‘Vronsky?’ asked Stepan Arkadyich, suppressing a yawn. ‘He’s in Petersburg. He left soon after you did and hasn’t come to Moscow once since then. And you know, Kostya, I’ll tell you the truth,’ he continued, leaning his elbow on the table and resting on his hand his handsome, ruddy face, from which two unctuous, kindly and sleepy eyes shone like stars. ‘It was your own fault. You got frightened by your rival. And as I told you then, I don’t know which side had the greater chances. Why didn’t you just push right through? I told you then that ...’ He yawned with his jaws only, not opening his mouth.
‘Does he know I proposed, or doesn’t he?’ thought Levin, looking at him. ‘Yes, there’s something sly and diplomatic in his face,’ and, feeling himself blushing, he silently looked straight into Stepan Arkadyich’s eyes.
‘If there was anything on her part then, it’s that she was carried away by externals,’ Oblonsky continued. ‘That perfect aristocratism, you know, and the future position in society affected not her but her mother.’
Levin frowned. The offence of the refusal he had gone through burned his heart like a fresh, just-received wound. He was at home, and at home even the walls help.
‘Wait, wait,’ he began, interrupting Oblonsky. ‘Aristocratism, you say. But allow me to ask, what makes up this aristocratism of Vronsky or whoever else it may be - such aristocratism that I can be scorned? You consider Vronsky an aristocrat, but I don’t. A man whose father crept out of nothing by wiliness, whose mother, God knows who she didn’t have liaisons with ... No, excuse me, but I consider myself an aristocrat and people like myself, who can point to three or four honest generations in their families’ past, who had a high degree of education (talent and intelligence are another thing), and who never lowered themselves before anyone, never depended on anyone, as my father lived, and my grandfather. And I know many like that. You find it mean that I count the trees in the forest, while you give away thirty thousand to Ryabinin; but you’ll have rent coming in and I don’t know what else, while I won’t, and so I value what I’ve inherited and worked for ... We’re the aristocrats, and not someone who can only exist on hand-outs from the mighty of this world and can be bought for twenty kopecks.’
‘But who are you attacking? I agree with you,’ Stepan Arkadyich said sincerely and cheerfully, though he felt that Levin included him among those who could be bought for twenty kopecks. He sincerely liked Levin’s animation. ‘Who are you attacking? Though much of what you say about Vronsky is untrue, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ll tell you straight out, if I were you I’d go with me to Moscow and ...’
‘No, I don’t know whether you’re aware of it or not, and it makes no difference to me, but I’ll tell you - I made a proposal and received a refusal, and for me Katerina Alexandrovna is now a painful and humiliating memory.’
‘Why? That’s nonsense!’
‘Let’s not talk about it. Forgive me, please, if I was rude to you,’ said Levin. Now, having said everything, he became again the way he had been in the morning. ‘You’re not angry with me, Stiva? Please don’t be angry,’ he said and, smiling, took him by the hand.
‘No, not