Page 41 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Arkadyevitch laughed at this, and liked it. In the same way
Levin in his heart despised the town mode of life of his
friend, and his official duties, which he laughed at, and
regarded as trifling. But the difference was that Oblonsky,

as he was doing the same as every one did, laughed
complacently and good-humoredly, while Levin laughed
without complacency and sometimes angrily.
‘We have long been expecting you,’ said Stepan
Arkadyevitch, going into his room and letting Levin’s
hand go as though to show that here all danger was over.
‘I am very, very glad to see you,’ he went on. ‘Well, how
are you? Eh? When did you come?’
Levin was silent, looking at the unknown faces of
Oblonsky’s two companions, and especially at the hand of
the elegant Grinevitch, which had such long white fingers,
such long yellow filbert-shaped nails, and such huge
shining studs on the shirt-cuff, that apparently they
absorbed all his attention, and allowed him no freedom of
thought. Oblonsky noticed this at once, and smiled.
‘Ah, to be sure, let me introduce you,’ he said. ‘My
colleagues: Philip Ivanitch Nikitin, Mihail Stanislavitch
Grinevitch’—and turning to Levin—‘a district councilor, a
modern district councilman, a gymnast who lifts thirteen
stone with one hand, a cattle-breeder and sportsman, and

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