Page 584 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Oh, no!’ said Dolly. ‘At first things were rather
uncomfortable, but now we’ve settled everything
capitally— thanks to my old nurse,’ she said, indicating
Marya Philimonovna, who, seeing that they were speaking

of her, smiled brightly and cordially to Levin. She knew
him, and knew that he would be a good match for her
young lady, and was very keen to see the matter settled.
‘Won’t you get in, sir, we’ll make room this side!’ she
said to him.
‘No, I’ll walk. Children, who’d like to race the horses
with me?’ The children knew Levin very little, and could
not remember when they had seen him, but they
experienced in regard to him none of that strange feeling
of shyness and hostility which children so often experience
towards hypocritical, grown-up people, and for which
they are so often and miserably punished. Hypocrisy in
anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most
penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children
recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it
may be disguised. Whatever faults Levin had, there was
not a trace of hypocrisy in him, and so the children
showed him the same friendliness that they saw in their
mother’s face. On his invitation, the two elder ones at
once jumped out to him and ran with him as simply as

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