When he had made sure he had missed, Levin looked round and saw

the horses and the wagonette not on the road but in the marsh.

Veslovsky, eager to see the shooting, had driven into the marsh,

and got the horses stuck in the mud.

"Damn the fellow!" Levin said to himself, as he went back to the

carriage that had sunk in the mire. "What did you drive in for?"

he said to him dryly, and calling the coachman, he began pulling

the horses out.

Levin was vexed both at being hindered from shooting and at his

horses getting stuck in the mud, and still more at the fact that

neither Stepan Arkadyevitch nor Veslovsky helped him and the

coachman to unharness the horses and get them out, since neither

of them had the slightest notion of harnessing. Without

vouchsafing a syllable in reply to Vassenka's protestations that

it had been quite dry there, Levin worked in silence with the

coachman at extricating the horses. But then, as he got warm at

the work and saw how assiduously Veslovsky was tugging at the

wagonette by one of the mud-guards, so that he broke it indeed,

Levin blamed himself for having under the influence of

yesterday's feelings been too cold to Veslovsky, and tried to be

particularly genial so as to smooth over his chilliness. When

everything had been put right, and the carriage had been brought

back to the road, Levin had the lunch served.

"_Bon appétit--bonne conscience! Ce poulet va tomber jusqu'au

fond de mes bottes_," Vassenka, who had recovered his spirits,

quoted the French saying as he finished his second chicken.

"Well, now our troubles are over, now everything's going to go

well. Only, to atone for my sins, I'm bound to sit on the box.

That's so? eh? No, no! I'll be your Automedon. You shall see

how I'll get you along," he answered, not letting go the rein,

when Levin begged him to let the coachman drive. "No, I must

atone for my sins, and I'm very comfortable on the box." And he

drove.

Levin was a little afraid he would exhaust the horses, especially

the chestnut, whom he did not know how to hold in; but

unconsciously he fell under the influence of his gaiety and

listened to the songs he sang all the way on the box, or the

descriptions and representations he gave of driving in the

English fashion, four-in-hand; and it was in the very best of

spirits that after lunch they drove to the Gvozdyov marsh.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024