Page 756 - ANNA KARENINA
P. 756
Anna Karenina
Musing on such thoughts Levin reached home in the
darkness.
The bailiff, who had been to the merchant, had come
back and brought part of the money for the wheat. An
agreement had been made with the old servant, and on the
road the bailiff had learned that everywhere the corn was
still standing in the fields, so that his one hundred and
sixty shocks that had not been carried were nothing in
comparison with the losses of others.
After dinner Levin was sitting, as he usually did, in an
easy chair with a book, and as he read he went on
thinking of the journey before him in connection with his
book. Today all the significance of his book rose before
him with special distinctness, and whole periods ranged
themselves in his mind in illustration of his theories. ‘I
must write that down,’ he thought. ‘That ought to form a
brief introduction, which I thought unnecessary before.’
He got up to go to his writing table, and Laska, lying at his
feet, got up too, stretching and looking at him as though
to inquire where to go. But he had not time to write it
down, for the head peasants had come round, and Levin
went out into the hall to them.
After his levee, that is to say, giving directions about
the labors of the next day, and seeing all the peasants who
755 of 1759