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, and then began moving across

and came to a standstill at the door. Without turning round he

felt the eyes fixed on him, and the smile, and he could not help

turning round. She was standing in the doorway with

Shtcherbatsky, looking at him.

"I thought you were going towards the piano," said he, going up

to her. "That's something I miss in the country--music."

"No; we only came to fetch you and thank you," she said,

rewarding him with a smile that was like a gift, "for coming.

What do they want to argue for? No one ever convinces anyone,

you know."

"Yes; that's true," said Levin; "it generally happens that one

argues warmly simply because one can't make out what one's

opponent wants to prove."

Levin had often noticed in discussions between the most

intelligent people that after enormous efforts, and an enormous

expenditure of logical subtleties and words, the disputants

finally arrived at being aware that what they had so long been

struggling to prove to one another had long ago, from the

beginning of the argument, been known to both, but that they

liked different things, and would not define what they liked for

fear of its being attacked. He had often had the experience of

suddenly in a discussion grasping what it was his opponent liked

and at once liking it too, and immediately he found himself

agreeing, and then all arguments fell away as useless.

Sometimes, too, he had experienced the opposite, expressing at

last what he liked himself, which he was devising arguments to

defend, and, chancing to express it well and genuinely, he had

found his opponent at once agreeing and ceasing to dispute his

position. He tried to say this.




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