Page 1490 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 8

Getting up from the table, Levin walked with Gagin
through the lofty room to the billiard room, feeling his
arms swing as he walked with a peculiar lightness and ease.
As he crossed the big room, he came upon his father-in-
law.
‘Well, how do you like our Temple of Idolence?’ said
the prince, taking his arm. ‘Come along, come along!’
‘Yes, I wanted to walk about and look at everything.
It’s interesting.’
‘Yes, it’s interesting for you. But its interest for me is
quite different. You look at those little old men now,’ he
said, pointing to a club member with bent back and
projecting lip, shuffling towards them in his soft boots,
‘and imagine that they were shlupiks like that from their
birth up.’
‘How shlupiks?’
‘I see you don’t know that name. That’s our club
designation. You know the game of rolling eggs: when
one’s rolled a long while it becomes a shlupik. So it is
with us; one goes on coming and coming to the club, and
ends by becoming a shlupik. Ah, you laugh! but we look

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