Page 1462 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

room. ‘I heard the bell and thought: Impossible that it can
be he at the exact time!... Well, what do you say to the
Montenegrins now? They’re a race of warriors.’
‘Why, what’s happened?’ asked Levin.

Katavasov in a few words told him the last piece of
news from the war, and going into his study, introduced
Levin to a short, thick-set man of pleasant appearance.
This was Metrov. The conversation touched for a brief
space on politics and on how recent events were looked at
in the higher spheres in Petersburg. Metrov repeated a
saying that had reached him through a most trustworthy
source, reported as having been uttered on this subject by
the Tsar and one of the ministers. Katavasov had heard
also on excellent authority that the Tsar had said
something quite different. Levin tried to imagine
circumstances in which both sayings might have been
uttered, and the conversation on that topic dropped.
‘Yes, here he’s written almost a book on the natural
conditions of the laborer in relation to the land,’ said
Katavasov; ‘I’m not a specialist, but I, as a natural science
man, was pleased at his not taking mankind as something
outside biological laws; but, on the contrary, seeing his
dependence on his surroundings, and in that dependence
seeking the laws of his development.’

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