Page 1044 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

in everything. And all of a sudden, instead of his life with
his wife being made on an individual pattern, it was, on
the contrary, entirely made up of the pettiest details,
which he had so despised before, but which now, by no

will of his own, had gained an extraordinary importance
that it was useless to contend against. And Levin saw that
the organization of all these details was by no means so
easy as he had fancied before. Although Levin believed
himself to have the most exact conceptions of domestic
life, unconsciously, like all men, he pictured domestic life
as the happiest enjoyment of love, with nothing to hinder
and no petty cares to distract. He ought, as he conceived
the position, to do his work, and to find repose from it in
the happiness of love. She ought to be beloved, and
nothing more. But, like all men, he forgot that she too
would want work. And he was surprised that she, his
poetic, exquisite Kitty, could, not merely in the first
weeks, but even in the first days of their married life,
think, remember, and busy herself about tablecloths, and
furniture, about mattresses for visitors, about a tray, about
the cook, and the dinner, and so on. While they were still
engaged, he had been struck by the definiteness with
which she had declined the tour abroad and decided to go
into the country, as though she knew of something she

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