Page 709 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 25

In the Surovsky district there was no railway nor
service of post horses, and Levin drove there with his own
horses in his big, old-fashioned carriage.
He stopped halfway at a well-to-do peasant’s to feed his
horses. A bald, well-preserved old man, with a broad, red
beard, gray on his cheeks, opened the gate, squeezing
against the gatepost to let the three horses pass. Directing
the coachman to a place under the shed in the big, clean,
tidy yard, with charred, old-fashioned ploughs in it, the
old man asked Levin to come into the parlor. A cleanly
dressed young woman, with clogs on her bare feet, was
scrubbing the floor in the new outer room. She was
frightened of the dog, that ran in after Levin, and uttered a
shriek, but began laughing at her own fright at once when
she was told the dog would not hurt her. Pointing Levin
with her bare arm to the door into the parlor, she bent
down again, hiding her handsome face, and went on
scrubbing.
‘Would you like the samovar?’ she asked.
‘Yes, please.’

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