Anna Karenina - Part 8

Levin looked before him and saw a herd of cattle, then he caught

sight of his trap with Raven in the shafts, and the coachman,

who, driving up to the herd, said something to the herdsman.

Then he heard the rattle of the wheels and the snort of the sleek

horse close by him. But he was so buried in his thoughts that he

did not even wonder why the coachman had come for him.

He only thought of that when the coachman had driven quite up to

him and shouted to him. "The mistress sent me. Your brother has

come, and some gentleman with him."

Levin got into the trap and took the reins. As though just

roused out of sleep, for a long while Levin could not collect his

faculties. He stared at the sleek horse flecked with lather

between his haunches and on his neck, where the harness rubbed,

stared at Ivan the coachman sitting beside him, and remembered

that he was expecting his brother, thought that his wife was most

likely uneasy at his long absence, and tried to guess who was the

visitor who had come with his brother. And his brother and his

wife and the unknown guest seemed to him now quite different from

before. He fancied that now his relations with all men would be

different.

"With my brother there will be none of that aloofness there

always used to be between us, there will be no disputes; with

Kitty there shall never be quarrels; with the visitor, whoever he

may be, I will be friendly and nice; with the servants, with

Ivan, it will all be different."

Pulling the stiff rein and holding in the good horse that snorted

with impatience and seemed begging to be let go, Levin looked

round at Ivan sitting beside him, not knowing what to do with his

unoccupied hand, continually pressing down his shirt as it puffed

out, and he tried to find something to start a conversation about

with him. He would have said that Ivan had pulled the

saddle-girth up too high, but that was like blame, and he longed

for friendly, warm talk. Nothing else occurred to him.

"Your honor must keep to the right and mind that stump," said the

coachman, pulling the rein Levin held.

"Please don't touch and don't teach me!" said Levin, angered by

this interference. Now, as always, interference made him angry,

and he felt sorrowfully at once how mistaken had been his

supposition that his spiritual condition could immediately change

him in contact with reality.

He was not a quarter of a mile from home when he saw Grisha and

Tanya running to meet him.