Page 715 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 26

Sviazhsky was the marshal of his district. He was five
years older than Levin, and had long been married. His
sister-in-law, a young girl Levin liked very much, lived in
his house; and Levin knew that Sviazhsky and his wife
would have greatly liked to marry the girl to him. He
knew this with certainty, as so-called eligible young men
always know it, though he could never have brought
himself to speak of it to anyone; and he knew too that,
although he wanted to get married, and although by every
token this very attractive girl would make an excellent
wife, he could no more have married her, even if he had
not been in love with Kitty Shtcherbatskaya, than he
could have flown up to the sky. And this knowledge
poisoned the pleasure he had hoped to find in the visit to
Sviazhsky.
On getting Sviazhsky’s letter with the invitation for
shooting, Levin had immediately thought of this; but in
spite of it he had made up his mind that Sviazhsky’s
having such views for him was simply his own groundless
supposition, and so he would go, all the same. Besides, at
the bottom of his heart he had a desire to try himself, put

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