Page 583 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Glad to see me, but you didn’t let me know. My
brother’s staying with me. I got a note from Stiva that you
were here.’
‘From Stiva?’ Darya Alexandrovna asked with surprise.

‘Yes; he writes that you are here, and that he thinks
you might allow me to be of use to you,’ said Levin, and
as he said it he became suddenly embarrassed, and,
stopping abruptly, he walked on in silence by the
wagonette, snapping off the buds of the lime trees and
nibbling them. He was embarrassed through a sense that
Darya Alexandrovna would be annoyed by receiving from
an outsider help that should by rights have come from her
own husband. Darya Alexandrovna certainly did not like
this little way of Stepan Arkadyevitch’s of foisting his
domestic duties on others. And she was at once aware that
Levin was aware of this. It was just for this fineness of
perception, for this delicacy, that Darya Alexandrovna
liked Levin.
‘I know, of course,’ said Levin, ‘that that simply means
that you would like to see me, and I’m exceedingly glad.
Though I can fancy that, used to town housekeeping as
you are, you must feel in the wilds here, and if there’s
anything wanted, I’m altogether at your disposal.’

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