"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 they would have done with their nurse or

Miss Hoole or their mother. Lily, too, began begging to go to

him, and her mother handed her to him; he sat her on his shoulder

and ran along with her.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, Darya Alexandrovna!" he said,

smiling good-humoredly to the mother; "there's no chance of my

hurting or dropping her."

And, looking at his strong, agile, assiduously careful and

needlessly wary movements, the mother felt her mind at rest, and

smiled gaily and approvingly as she watched him.

Here, in the country, with children, and with Darya Alexandrovna,

with whom he was in sympathy, Levin was in a mood not infrequent

with him, of childlike light-heartedness that she particularly

liked in him. As he ran with the children, he taught them

gymnastic feats, set Miss Hoole laughing with his queer English

accent, and talked to Darya Alexandrovna of his pursuits in the

country.

After dinner, Darya Alexandrovna, sitting alone with him on the

balcony, began to speak of Kitty.

"You know, Kitty's coming here, and is going to spend the summer

with me."

"Really," he said, flushing, and at once, to change the

conversation, he said: "Then I'll send you two cows, shall I? If

you insist on a bill you shall pay me five roubles a month; but

it's really too bad of you."

"No, thank you. We can manage very well now."

"Oh, well, then, I'll have a look at your cows, and if you'll

allow me, I'll give directions about their food. Everything

depends on their food."

And Levin, to turn the conversation, explained to Darya

Alexandrovna the theory of cow-keeping, based on the principle

that the cow is simply a machine for the transformation of food

into milk, and so on.




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