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‘Well, splendid, now I’m at peace. I shall throw him out,’ said Levin.

‘What, have you lost your mind?’ Dolly cried in horror. ‘No, Kostya, come to your senses!’ she said, laughing. ‘Well, you can go to Fanny now,’ she said to Masha. ‘No, if you want, I’ll tell Stiva. He’ll take him away. He can say you’re expecting guests. Generally, he doesn’t fit in with us.’

‘No, no, I’ll do it myself.’

‘But you’re going to quarrel? ...’

‘Not at all. It will be great fun for me,’ said Levin, his eyes indeed sparkling merrily. ‘Well, forgive her, Dolly! She won’t do it again,’ he said, referring to the little criminal, who would not go to Fanny and stood hesitantly before her mother, looking expectantly from under her brows and seeking her eyes.

The mother looked at her. The girl burst into sobs, buried her face in her mother’s lap, and Dolly placed her thin hand tenderly on her head.

‘And what do we and he have in common?’ thought Levin, and he went to look for Veslovsky.

Passing through the front hall, he ordered the carriage harnessed to go to the station.

‘A spring broke yesterday,’ the footman replied.

‘The tarantass, then, but quickly. Where’s the guest?’

‘The gentleman has gone to his room.’

Levin found Vasenka at a moment when, having taken his things from the suitcase and laid out the new song music, he was trying on his leggings for horseback riding.

Either there was something special in Levin’s face, or Vasenka himself sensed that the petit brin de cour he had started was out of place in this family, but he was somewhat embarrassed (as much as a worldly man could be) by Levin’s entrance.

‘You wear leggings when you ride?’

‘Yes, it’s much cleaner,’ said Vasenka, putting his fat leg on a chair, fastening the lower hook, and smiling cheerfully and good-naturedly.

He was undoubtedly a nice fellow, and Levin felt sorry for him and ashamed for himself, the master of the house, when he noticed the timidity in Vasenka’s eyes.

On the table lay a piece of a stick they had broken that morning during gymnastics, when they had tried to raise the jammed bars. Levin took the piece in his hands and started breaking off the splintered end, not knowing how to begin.

‘I wanted ...’ He fell silent, but suddenly, remembering Kitty and all that had taken place, he said, looking him resolutely in the eye: ‘I’ve ordered the horses to be harnessed for you.’

‘How’s that?’ Vasenka began in surprise. ‘To go where?’

‘You are going to the station,’ Levin said darkly, splintering the end of the stick.

‘Are you leaving, or has something happened?’

‘It happens that I am expecting guests,’ said Levin breaking off the splintered ends of the stick more and more quickly with his strong fingers. ‘No, I am not expecting guests, and nothing has happened, but I am asking you to leave. You may explain my discourtesy in any way you like.’

Vasenka drew himself up.

‘I ask you to explain to me ...’ he said with dignity, having understood at last.

‘I cannot explain to you,’ Levin spoke softly and slowly, trying to hide the quivering of his jaw. ‘And it is better that you not ask.’

And as the splintered ends were all broken off, Levin took the thick ends in his fingers, snapped the stick in two and carefully caught one end as it fell.

Probably it was the sight of those nervously tensed arms, those same muscles that he had felt that morning during the gymnastics, and the shining eyes, the soft voice and quivering jaw, that convinced Vasenka more than any words. He shrugged his shoulders and bowed with a contemptuous smile.

‘May I see Oblonsky?’

The shrug of the shoulders and the smile did not annoy Levin. ‘What else can he do?’ he thought.

‘I’ll send him to you presently.’

‘What is this senselessness?’ said Stepan Arkadyich, on learning from his friend that he was being chased out of the house, and finding Levin in the garden, where he was strolling, waiting for his guest’s departure. ‘Mais c’est ridicule!bl What fly has bitten you? Mais c‘est