Page 1278 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Levin did not answer. What they had said in the
conversation, that he acted justly only in a negative sense,
absorbed his thoughts. ‘Can it be that it’s only possible to
be just negatively?’ he was asking himself.

‘How strong the smell of the fresh hay is, though,’ said
Stepan Arkadyevitch, getting up. ‘There’s not a chance of
sleeping. Vassenka has been getting up some fun there. Do
you hear the laughing and his voice? Hadn’t we better go?
Come along!’
‘No, I’m not coming,’ answered Levin.
‘Surely that’s not a matter of principle too,’ said Stepan
Arkadyevitch, smiling, as he felt about in the dark for his
cap.
‘It’s not a matter of principle, but why should I go?’
‘But do you know you are preparing trouble for
yourself,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, finding his cap and
getting up.
‘How so?’
‘Do you suppose I don’t see the line you’ve taken up
with your wife? I heard how it’s a question of the greatest
consequence, whether or not you’re to be away for a
couple of days’ shooting. That’s all very well as an idyllic
episode, but for your whole life that won’t answer. A man

1277 of 1759