Page 1368 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘I have not the pleasure of knowing this M. Levin,’
Vronsky said, smiling, ‘but most likely he has never seen
the machines he condemns; or if he has seen and tried any,
it must have been after a queer fashion, some Russian

imitation, not a machine from abroad. What sort of views
can anyone have on such a subject?’
‘Turkish views, in general,’ Veslovsky said, turning to
Anna with a smile.
‘I can’t defend his opinions,’ Darya Alexandrovna said,
firing up; ‘but I can say that he’s a highly cultivated man,
and if he were here he would know very well how to
answer you, though I am not capable of doing so.’
‘I like him extremely, and we are great friends,’
Sviazhsky said, smiling good-naturedly. ‘Mais pardon, il
est un petit peu toque; he maintains, for instance, that
district councils and arbitration boards are all of no use,
and he is unwilling to take part in anything.’
‘It’s our Russian apathy,’ said Vronsky, pouring water
from an iced decanter into a delicate glass on a high stem;
‘we’ve no sense of the duties our privileges impose upon
us, and so we refuse to recognize these duties.’
‘I know no man more strict in the performance of his
duties,’ said Darya Alexandrovna, irritated by Vronsky’s
tone of superiority.

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