Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [329]
Not put out in the least at the disappointment he caused by replacing the old prince with himself, Veslovsky gaily greeted Levin, reminding him of their former acquaintance, and, taking Grisha up into the carriage, lifted him over the pointer that Stepan Arkadyich had brought along.
Levin did not get into the carriage but walked behind. He was slightly vexed that the old prince, whom he loved more the more he knew him, had not come, and that this Vasenka Veslovsky, a completely alien and superfluous man, had appeared. He seemed all the more alien and superfluous in that, when Levin came up to the porch where the whole animated crowd of grown-ups and children had gathered, he saw Vasenka Veslovsky kiss Kitty’s hand with an especially gentle and gallant air.
‘Your wife and I are cousins, as well as old acquaintances,’ said Vasenka Veslovsky, again pressing Levin’s hand very, very firmly.
‘Well, is there any game?’ Stepan Arkadyich turned to Levin, having barely had time to say hello to everyone. ‘He and I have come with the cruellest intentions. Of course, maman, they haven’t been to Moscow since. Well, Tanya, there’s something for you! Get it from the back of the carriage, please,’ he spoke in all directions. ‘How fresh you look, Dollenka,’ he said to his wife, kissing her hand again, keeping it in his own and patting it with his other hand.
Levin, who a minute ago had been in the merriest spirits, now looked darkly at everyone and did not like anything.
‘Who did he kiss yesterday with those lips?’ he thought, gazing at Stepan Arkadyich’s tenderness with his wife. He looked at Dolly and did not like her either.
‘She doesn’t believe in his love. Then why is she so glad? Revolting!’ thought Levin.
He looked at the princess, who had been so dear to him a moment ago, and did not like the manner in which she welcomed this Vasenka with his ribbons, as if she were in her own home.
Even Sergei Ivanovich, who also came out on to the porch, seemed unpleasant to him in the sham friendliness with which he met Stepan Arkadyich, when Levin knew that his brother neither liked nor respected Oblonsky.
And Varenka, too, was disgusting to him, with her look of a sainte nitouche,az as she made the acquaintance of this gentleman, while all she thought about was getting married.
And most disgusting of all was Kitty, the way she yielded to the tone of merriment with which this gentleman regarded his arrival in the country as a festive occasion for himself and everyone, and particularly unpleasant was the special smile with which she responded to his smiles.
Talking noisily, they all went into the house; but as soon as they all sat down, Levin turned round and left.
Kitty saw that something was wrong with her husband. She wanted to snatch a moment and talk to him alone, but he hastened away from her, saying he had to go to the office. It was long since his farm affairs had seemed so important to him as they did right then. ‘It’s all a holiday for them,’ he thought, ‘but these are no holiday affairs, they won’t wait and without them life is impossible.’
VII
Levin returned home only when they sent to call him to supper. Kitty and Agafya Mikhailovna were standing on the stairs, conferring about the wines.
‘Why make such a fuss? Serve what you usually do.’
‘No, Stiva won’t drink ... Kostya, wait, what’s the matter?’ Kitty began to say, running after him, but he mercilessly strode off to the dining room without waiting for her and at once got into the animated general conversation that Vasenka Veslovsky and Stepan Arkadyich were carrying on there.
‘Well, what about it, shall we go hunting tomorrow?’ said Stepan Arkadyich.
‘Yes, please, let’s go,’ said Veslovsky, shifting his chair and sitting on it sideways, tucking his fat leg under him.
‘I’ll be very glad to. And have you already gone hunting this year?’ Levin said to Veslovsky, studying his leg attentively, but with an assumed pleasantness that Kitty knew so well and that was so unbecoming to him. ‘I don’t know if we’ll find any great snipe,