Page 205 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

dreaming on the road. All these traces of his life seemed to
clutch him, and to say to him: ‘No, you’re not going to
get away from us, and you’re not going to be different,
but you’re going to be the same as you’ve always been;

with doubts, everlasting dissatisfaction with yourself, vain
efforts to amend, and falls, and everlasting expectation, of a
happiness which you won’t get, and which isn’t possible
for you.’
This the tings said to him, but another voice in his
heart was telling him that he must not fall under the sway
of the past, and that one can do anything with oneself.
And hearing that voice, he went into the corner where
stood his two heavy dumbbells, and began brandishing
them like a gymnast, trying to restore his confident
temper. There was a creak of steps at the door. He hastily
put down the dumbbells.
The bailiff came in, and said everything, thank God,
was doing well; but informed him that the buckwheat in
the new drying machine had been a little scorched. This
piece of news irritated Levin. The new drying machine
had been constructed and partly invented by Levin. The
bailiff had always been against the drying machine, and
now it was with suppressed triumph that he announced
that the buckwheat had been scorched. Levin was firmly

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