Page 865 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 13

When they rose from table, Levin would have liked to
follow Kitty into the drawing room; but he was afraid she
might dislike this, as too obviously paying her attention.
He remained in the little ring of men, taking part in the
general conversation, and without looking at Kitty, he was
aware of her movements, her looks, and the place where
she was in the drawing room.
He did at once, and without the smallest effort, keep
the promise he had made her—always to think well of all
men, and to like everyone always. The conversation fell
on the village commune, in which Pestsov saw a sort of
special principle, called by him the choral principle. Levin
did not agree with Pestsov, nor with his brother, who had
a special attitude of his own, both admitting and not
admitting the significance of the Russian commune. But
he talked to them, simply trying to reconcile and soften
their differences. He was not in the least interested in what
he said himself, and even less so in what they said; all he
wanted was that they and everyone should be happy and
contented. He knew now the one thing of importance;
and that one thing was at first there, in the drawing room,

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