Part Two: Chapter 14

by Leo Tolstoy

　　As he rode up to the house in the happiest frame of mind, Levinheard the bell ring at the side of the principal entrance of thehouse.

　　"Yes, that's someone from the railway station," he thought,"just the time to be here from the Moscow train...Who could itbe? What if it's brother Nikolay? He did say: 'Maybe I'll goto the waters, or maybe I'll come down to you.'" He feltdismayed and vexed for the first minute, that his brotherNikolay's presence should come to disturb his happy mood ofspring. But he felt ashamed of the feeling, and at once heopened, as it were, the arms of his soul, and with a softenedfeeling of joy and expectation, now he hoped with all his heartthat it was his brother. He pricked up his horse, and riding outfrom behind the acacias he saw a hired three-horse sledge fromthe railway station, and a gentleman in a fur coat. It was nothis brother. "Oh, if it were only some nice person one couldtalk to a little!" he thought.

　　"Ah," cried Levin joyfully, flinging up both his hands. "Here'sa delightful visitor! Ah, how glad I am to see you!" he shouted,recognizing Stepan Arkadyevitch.

　　"In shall find out for certain whether she's married, or whenshe's going to be married," he thought. And on that deliciousspring day he felt that the thought of her did not hurt him atall.

　　"Well, you didn't expect me, eh?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch,getting out of the sledge, splashed with mud on the bridge of hisnose, on his cheek, and on his eyebrows, but radiant with healthand good spirits. "I've come to see you in the first place," hesaid, embracing and kissing him, "to have some stand-shootingsecond, and to sell the forest at Ergushovo third."

　　"Delightful! What a spring we're having! How ever did you getalong in a sledge?"

　　"In a cart it would have been worse still, KonstantinDmitrievitch," answered the driver, who knew him.

　　"Well, I'm very, very glad to see you," said Levin, with agenuine smile of childlike delight.

　　Levin let his friend to the room set apart for visitors, whereStepan Arkadyevitch's things were carried also--a bag, a gun ina case, a satchel for cigars. Leaving him there to wash andchange his clothes, Levin went off to the counting house to speakabout the ploughing and clover. Agafea Mihalovna, always veryanxious for the credit of the house, met him in the hall withinquiries about dinner.

　　"Do just as you like, only let it be as soon as possible," hesaid, and went to the bailiff.

　　When he came back, Stepan Arkadyevitch, washed and combed, cameout of his room with a beaming smile, and they went upstairstogether.

　　"Well, I am glad I managed to get away to you! Now I shallunderstand what the mysterious business is that you are alwaysabsorbed in here. No, really, I envy you. What a house, hownice it all is! So bright, so cheerful!" said StepanArkadyevitch, forgetting that it was not always spring and fineweather like that day. "And your nurse is simply charming! Apretty maid in an apron might be even more agreeable, perhaps;but for your severe monastic style it does very well."

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch told him many interesting pieces of news;especially interesting to Levin was the news that his brother,Sergey Ivanovitch, was intending to pay him a visit in thesummer.

　　Not one word did Stepan Arkadyevitch say in reference to Kittyand the Shtcherbatskys; he merely gave him greetings from hiswife. Levin was grateful to him for his delicacy and was veryglad of his visitor. As always happened with him during hissolitude, a mass of ideas and feelings had been accumulatingwithin him, which he could not communicate to those about him.And now he poured out upon Stepan Arkadyevitch his poetic joy inthe spring, and his failures and plans for the land, and histhoughts and criticisms on the books he had been reading, and theidea of his own book, the basis of which really was, though hewas unaware of it himself, a criticism of all the old books onagriculture. Stepan Arkadyevitch, always charming, understandingeverything at the slightest reference, was particularly charmingon this visit, and Levin noticed in him a special tenderness, asit were, and a new tone of respect that flattered him.

　　The efforts of Agafea Mihalovna and the cook, that the dinnershould be particularly good, only ended in two famished friendsattacking the preliminary course, eating a great deal of breadand butter, salt goose and salted mushrooms, and in Levin'sfinally ordering the soup to be served without the accompanimentof little pies, with which the cook had particularly meant toimpress their visitor. But though Stepan Arkadyevitch wasaccustomed to very different dinners, he thought everythingexcellent: the herb brandy, and the bread, and the butter, andabove all the salt goose and the mushrooms, and the nettle soup,and the chicken in white sauce, and the white Crimean wine--everything was superb and delicious.

　　"Splendid, splendid!" he said, lighting a fat cigar after theroast. "I feel as if, coming to you, I had landed on a peacefulshore after the noise and jolting of a steamer. And so youmaintain that the laborer himself is an element to be studied andto regulate the choice of methods in agriculture. Of course, I'man ignorant outsider; but I should fancy theory and itsapplication will have its influence on the laborer too."

　　"Yes, but wait a bit. I'm not talking of political economy, I'mtalking of the science of agriculture. It ought to be like thenatural sciences, and to observe given phenomena and the laborerin his economic, ethnographical..."

　　At that instant Agafea Mihalovna came in with jam.

　　"Oh, Agafea Mihalovna," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, kissing thetips of his plump fingers, "what salt goose, what herbbrandy!...What do yo think, isn't it time to start, Kostya?" headded.

　　Levin looked out of the window at the sun sinking behind the baretree-tops of the forest.

　　"Yes, it's time," he said. "Kouzma, get ready the trap," and heran downstairs.

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch, going down, carefully took the canvas coveroff his varnished gun case with his own hands, and opening it,began to get ready his expensive new-fashioned gun. Kouzma, whoalready scented a big tip, never left Stepan Arkadyevitch's side,and put on him both his stockings and boots, a task which StepanArkadyevitch readily left him.

　　"Kostya, give orders that if the merchant Ryabinin comes...I toldhim to come today, he's to be brought in and to wait for me..."

　　"Why, do you mean to say you're selling the forest to Ryabinin?"

　　"Yes. Do you know him?"

　　"To be sure I do. I have had to do business with him,'positively and conclusively.'"

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch laughed. "Positively and conclusively" werethe merchant's favorite words.

　　"Yes, it's wonderfully funny the way he talks. She knows whereher master's going!" he added, patting Laska, who hung aboutLevin, whining and licking his hands, his boots, and his gun.

　　The trap was already at the steps when they went out.

　　"I told them to bring the trap round; or would you rather walk?"

　　"No, we'd better drive," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, getting intothe trap. He sat down, tucked the tiger-skin rug round him, andlighted a cigar. "How is it you don't smoke? A cigar is a sortof thing, not exactly a pleasure, but the crown and outward signof pleasure. Come, this is life! How splendid it is! This ishow In should like to live!"

　　"Why, who prevents you?" said Levin, smiling.

　　"No, you're a lucky man! You've got everything you like. Youlike horses--and you have them; dogs--you have them; shooting--you have it; farming--you have it."

　　"Perhaps because I rejoice in what I have, and don't fret forwhat I haven't," said Levin, thinking of Kitty.

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch comprehended, looked at him, but saidnothing.

　　Levin was grateful to Oblonsky for noticing, with hisnever-failing tact, that he dreaded conversation about theShtcherbatskys, and so saying nothing about them. But now Levinwas longing to find out what was tormenting him so, yet he hadnot the courage to begin.

　　"Come, tell me how things are going with you," said Levin,bethinking himself that it was not nice of him to think only ofhimself.

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch's eyes sparkled merrily.

　　"You don't admit, I know, that one can be fond of new rolls whenone has had one's rations of bread--to your mind it's a crime;but I don't count life as life without love," he said, takingLevin's question his own way. "What am I to do? I'm made thatway. And really, one does so little harm to anyone, and givesoneself so much pleasure..."

　　"What! is there something new, then?" queried Levin.

　　"Yes, my boy, there is! There, do you see, you know the type ofOssian's women.... Women, such as one sees in dreams.... Well,these women are sometimes to be met in reality...and these womenare terrible. Woman, don't you know, is such a subject thathowever much you study it, it's always perfectly new."

　　"Well, then, it would be better not to study it."

　　"No. Some mathematician has said that enjoyment lies in thesearch for truth, not in the finding it."

　　Levin listened in silence, and in spite of all the efforts hemade, he could not in the least enter into the feelings of hisfriend and understand his sentiments and the charm of studyingsuch women.