Page 1250 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘You didn’t come to the counting house yesterday, and
now you’re detaining me. Well, what is it?’
‘Would your honor let me make another turning? It’s
only three steps to add. And we make it just fit at the same

time. It will be much more convenient.’
‘You should have listened to me,’ Levin answered with
annoyance. ‘I said: Put the lines and then fit in the steps.
Now there’s no setting it right. Do as I told you, and
make a new staircase.’
The point was that in the lodge that was being built the
carpenter had spoiled the staircase, fitting it together
without calculating the space it was to fill, so that the steps
were all sloping when it was put in place. Now the
carpenter wanted, keeping the same staircase, to add three
steps.
‘It will be much better.’
‘But where’s your staircase coming out with its three
steps?’
‘Why, upon my word, sir,’ the carpenter said with a
contemptuous smile. ‘It comes out right at the very spot.
It starts, so to speak,’ he said, with a persuasive gesture; ‘it
comes down, and comes down, and comes out.’
‘But three steps will add to the length too...where is it
to come out?’

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