Princess Shtcherbatskaya considered that it was out of the
question for the wedding to take place before Lent, just five
weeks off, since not half the trousseau could possibly be ready
by that time. But she could not but agree with Levin that to fix
it for after Lent would be putting it off too late, as an old
aunt of Prince Shtcherbatsky's was seriously ill and might die,
and then the mourning would delay the wedding still longer. And
therefore, deciding to divide the trousseau into two parts--a
larger and smaller trousseau--the princess consented to have the
wedding before Lent. She determined that she would get the
smaller part of the trousseau all ready now, and the larger part
should be made later, and she was much vexed with Levin because
he was incapable of giving her a serious answer to the question
whether he agreed to this arrangement or not. The arrangement
was the more suitable as, immediately after the wedding, the
young people were to go to the country, where the more important
part of the trousseau would not be wanted.
Levin still continued in the same delirious condition in which it
seemed to him that he and his happiness constituted the chief and
sole aim of all existence, and that he need not now think or care
about anything, that everything was being done and would be done
for him by others. He had not even plans and aims for the
future, he left its arrangement to others, knowing that
everything would be delightful. His brother Sergey Ivanovitch,
Stepan Arkadyevitch, and the princess guided him in doing what he
had to do. All he did was to agree entirely with everything
suggested to him. His brother raised money for him, the princess
advised him to leave Moscow after the wedding. Stepan
Arkadyevitch advised him to go abroad. He agreed to everything.
"Do what you choose, if it amuses you. I'm happy, and my
happiness can be no greater and no less for anything you do," he
thought. When he told Kitty of Stepan Arkadyevitch's advice that
they should go abroad, he was much surprised that she did not
agree to this, and had some definite requirements of her own in
regard to their future. She knew Levin had work he loved in the
country. She did not, as he saw, understand this work, she did
not even care to understand it. But that did not prevent her
from regarding it as a matter of great importance. And then she
knew their home would be in the country, and she wanted to go,
not abroad where she was not going to live, but to the place
where their home would be. This definitely expressed purpose
astonished Levin. But since he did not care either way, he
immediately asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, as though it were his
duty, to go down to the country and to arrange everything there
to the best of his ability with the taste of which he had so
much.