Page 1280 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

For a long while Levin could not get to sleep. He heard
the horses munching hay, then he heard the peasant and
his elder boy getting ready for the night, and going off for
the night watch with the beasts, then he heard the soldier

arranging his bed on the other side of the barn, with his
nephew, the younger son of their peasant host. He heard
the boy in his shrill little voice telling his uncle what he
thought about the dogs, who seemed to him huge and
terrible creatures, and asking what the dogs were going to
hunt next day, and the soldier in a husky, sleepy voice,
telling him the sportsmen were going in the morning to
the marsh, and would shoot with their guns; and then, to
check the boy’s questions, he said, ‘Go to sleep, Vaska; go
to sleep, or you’ll catch it,’ and soon after he began
snoring himself, and everything was still. He could only
hear the snort of the horses, and the guttural cry of a snipe.
‘Is it really only negative?’ he repeated to himself.
‘Well, what of it? It’s not my fault.’ And he began
thinking about the next day.
‘Tomorrow I’ll go out early, and I’ll make a point of
keeping cool. There are lots of snipe; and there are grouse
too. When I come back there’ll be the note from Kitty.
Yes, Stiva may be right, I’m not manly with her, I’m tied

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