Part Eight: Chapter 14

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Levin looked before him and saw a herd of cattle, then he caughtsight of his trap with Raven in the shafts, and the coachman,who, driving up to the herd, said something to the herdsman.Then he heard the rattle of the wheels and the snort of the sleekhorse close by him. But he was so buried in his thoughts that hedid not even wonder why the coachman had come for him.

　　He only thought of that when the coachman had driven quite up tohim and shouted to him. "The mistress sent me. Your brother hascome, and some gentleman with him."

　　Levin got into the trap and took the reins. As though justroused out of sleep, for a long while Levin could not collect hisfaculties. He stared at the sleek horse flecked with latherbetween his haunches and on his neck, where the harness rubbed,stared at Ivan the coachman sitting beside him, and rememberedthat he was expecting his brother, thought that his wife was mostlikely uneasy at his long absence, and tried to guess who was thevisitor who had come with his brother. And his brother and hiswife and the unknown guest seemed to him now quite different frombefore. He fancied that now his relations with all men would bedifferent.

　　"With my brother there will be none of that aloofness therealways used to be between us, there will be no disputes; withKitty there shall never be quarrels; with the visitor, whoever hemay be, I will be friendly and nice; with the servants, withIvan, it will all be different."

　　Pulling the stiff rein and holding in the good horse that snortedwith impatience and seemed begging to be let go, Levin lookedround at Ivan sitting beside him, not knowing what to do with hisunoccupied hand, continually pressing down his shirt as it puffedout, and he tried to find something to start a conversation aboutwith him. He would have said that Ivan had pulled thesaddle-girth up too high, but that was like blame, and he longedfor friendly, warm talk. Nothing else occurred to him.

　　"Your honor must keep to the right and mind that stump," said thecoachman, pulling the rein Levin held.

　　"Please don't touch and don't teach me!" said Levin, angered bythis interference. Now, as always, interference made him angry,and he felt sorrowfully at once how mistaken had been hissupposition that his spiritual condition could immediately changehim in contact with reality.

　　He was not a quarter of a mile from home when he saw Grisha andTanya running to meet him.

　　"Uncle Kostya! mamma's coming, and grandfather, and SergeyIvanovitch, and someone else," they said, clambering up into thetrap.

　　"Who is he?"

　　"An awfully terrible person! And he does like this with hisarms," said Tanya, getting up in the trap and mimickingKatavasov.

　　"Old or young?" asked Levin, laughing, reminded of someone, hedid not know whom, by Tanya's performance.

　　"Oh, I hope it's not a tiresome person!" thought Levin.

　　As soon as he turned, at a bend in the road, and saw the partycoming, Levin recognized Katavasov in a straw hat, walking alongswinging his arms just as Tanya had shown him. Katavasov wasvery fond of discussing metaphysics, having derived his notionsfrom natural science writers who had never studied metaphysics,and in Moscow Levin had had many arguments with him of late.

　　And one of these arguments, in which Katavasov had obviouslyconsidered that he came off victorious, was the first thing Levinthought of as he recognized him.

　　"No, whatever I do, I won't argue and give utterance to my ideaslightly," he thought.

　　Getting out of the trap and greeting his brother and Katavasov,Levin asked about his wife.

　　"She has taken Mitya to Kolok" (a copse near the house). "Shemeant to have him out there because it's so hot indoors," saidDolly. Levin had always advised his wife not to take the baby tothe wood, thinking it unsafe, and he was not pleased to hearthis.

　　"She rushes about from place to place with him," said the prince,smiling. "I advised her to try putting him in the ice cellar."

　　"She meant to come to the bee house. She thought you would bethere. We are going there," said Dolly.

　　"Well, and what are you doing?" said Sergey Ivanovitch, fallingback from the rest and walking beside him.

　　"Oh, nothing special. Busy as usual with the land," answeredLevin. "Well, and what about you? Come for long? We have beenexpecting you for such a long time."

　　"Only for a fortnight. I've a great deal to do in Moscow."

　　At these words the brothers" eyes met, and Levin, in spite of thedesire he always had, stronger than ever just now, to be onaffectionate and still more open terms with his brother, felt anawkwardness in looking at him. He dropped his eyes and did notknow what to say.

　　Casting over the subjects of conversation that would be pleasantto Sergey Ivanovitch, and would keep him off the subject of theServian war and the Slavonic question, at which he had hinted bythe allusion to what he had to do in Moscow, Levin began to talkof Sergey Ivanovitch's book.

　　"Well, have there been reviews of your book?" he asked.

　　Sergey Ivanovitch smiled at the intentional character of thequestion.

　　"No one is interested in that now, and I less than anyone," hesaid. "Just look, Darya Alexandrovna, we shall have a shower,"he added, pointing with a sunshade at the white rain clouds thatshowed above the aspen tree-tops.

　　And these words were enough to reestablish again between thebrothers that tone--hardly hostile, but chilly--which Levin hadbeen so longing to avoid.

　　Levin went up to Katavasov.

　　"It was jolly of you to make up your mind to come," he said tohim.

　　"I've been meaning to a long while. Now we shall have somediscussion, we'll see to that. Have you been reading Spencer?"

　　"No, I've not finished reading him," said Levin. "But I don'tneed him now."

　　"How's that? that's interesting. Why so?"

　　"I mean that I'm fully convinced that the solution of theproblems that interest me I shall never find in him and his like.Now..."

　　But Katavasov's serene and good-humored expression suddenlystruck him, and he felt such tenderness for his own happy mood,which he was unmistakably disturbing by this conversation, thathe remembered his resolution and stopped short.

　　"But we'll talk later on," he added. "If we're going to thebee house, it's this way, along this little path," he said,addressing them all.

　　Going along the narrow path to a little uncut meadow covered onone side with thick clumps of brilliant heart's-ease among whichstood up here and there tall, dark green tufts of hellebore,Levin settled his guests in the dense, cool shade of the youngaspens on a bench and some stumps purposely put there forvisitors to the bee house who might be afraid of the bees, and hewent off himself to the hut to get bread, cucumbers, and freshhoney, to regale them with.

　　Trying to make his movements as deliberate as possible, andlistening to the bees that buzzed more and more frequently pasthim, he walked along the little path to the hut. In the veryentry one bee hummed angrily, caught in his beard, but hecarefully extricated it. Going into the shady outer room, hetook down from the wall his veil, that hung on a peg, and puttingit on, and thrusting his hands into his pockets, he went into thefenced-in bee-garden, where there stood in the midst of a closelymown space in regular rows, fastened with bast on posts, all thehives he knew so well, the old stocks, each with its own history,and along the fences the younger swarms hived that year. Infront of the openings of the hives, it made his eyes giddy towatch the bees and drones whirling round and round about the samespot, while among them the working bees flew in and out withspoils or in search of them, always in the same direction intothe wood to the flowering lime trees and back to the hives.

　　His ears were filled with the incessant hum in various notes, nowthe busy hum of the working bee flying quickly off, then theblaring of the lazy drone, and the excited buzz of the bees onguard protecting their property from the enemy and preparing tosting. On the farther side of the fence the old bee-keeper wasshaving a hoop for a tub, and he did not see Levin. Levin stoodstill in the midst of the beehives and did not call him.

　　He was glad of a chance to be alone to recover from the influenceof ordinary actual life, which had already depressed his happymood. He thought that he had already had time to lose his temperwith Ivan, to show coolness to his brother, and to talkflippantly with Katavasov.

　　"Can it have been only a momentary mood, and will it pass andleave no trace?" he thought. But the same instant, going back tohis mood, he felt with delight that something new and importanthad happened to him. Real life had only for a time overcast thespiritual peace he had found, but it was still untouched withinhim.

　　Just as the bees, whirling round him, now menacing him anddistracting his attention, prevented him from enjoying completephysical peace, forced him to restrain his movements to avoidthem, so had the petty cares that had swarmed about him from themoment he got into the trap restricted his spiritual freedom; butthat lasted only so long as he was among them. Just as hisbodily strength was still unaffected, in spite of the bees, sotoo was the spiritual strength that he had just become aware of.