Page 1249 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

her to keep away from the children—they might any
minute push against her. Then he had once more to hear
her declare that she was not angry with him for going
away for two days, and to beg her to be sure to send him a

note next morning by a servant on horseback, to write
him, if it were but two words only, to let him know that
all was well with her.
Kitty was distressed, as she always was, at parting for a
couple of days from her husband, but when she saw his
eager figure, looking big and strong in his shooting-boots
and his white blouse, and a sort of sportsman elation and
excitement incomprehensible to her, she forgot her own
chagrin for the sake of his pleasure, and said good-bye to
him cheerfully.
‘Pardon, gentlemen!’ he said, running out onto the
steps. ‘Have you put the lunch in? Why is the chestnut on
the right? Well, it doesn’t matter. Laska, down; go and lie
down!’
‘Put it with the herd of oxen,’ he said to the herdsman,
who was waiting for him at the steps with some question.
‘Excuse me, here comes another villain.’
Levin jumped out of the wagonette, in which he had
already taken his seat, to meet the carpenter, who came
towards the steps with a rule in his hand.

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