Page 353 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

could not communicate to those about him. And now he
poured out upon Stepan Arkadyevitch his poetic joy in
the spring, and his failures and plans for the land, and his
thoughts and criticisms on the books he had been reading,

and the idea of his own book, the basis of which really
was, though he was unaware of it himself, a criticism of all
the old books on agriculture. Stepan Arkadyevitch, always
charming, understanding everything at the slightest
reference, was particularly charming on this visit, and
Levin noticed in him a special tenderness, as it were, and a
new tone of respect that flattered him.
The efforts of Agafea Mihalovna and the cook, that the
dinner should be particularly good, only ended in two
famished friends attacking the preliminary course, eating a
great deal of bread and butter, salt goose and salted
mushrooms, and in Levin’s finally ordering the soup to be
served without the accompaniment of little pies, with
which the cook had particularly meant to impress their
visitor. But though Stepan Arkadyevitch was accustomed
to very different dinners, he thought everything excellent:
the herb brandy, and the bread, and the butter, and above
all the salt goose and the mushrooms, and the nettle soup,
and the chicken in white sauce, and the white Crimean
wine— everything was superb and delicious.

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