Anna Karenina - Part 8

During the whole of that day, in the extremely different

conversations in which he took part, only as it were with the top

layer of his mind, in spite of the disappointment of not finding

the change he expected in himself, Levin had been all the while

joyfully conscious of the fulness of his heart.

After the rain it was too wet to go for a walk; besides, the

storm clouds still hung about the horizon, and gathered here and

there, black and thundery, on the rim of the sky. The whole

party spent the rest of the day in the house.

No more discussions sprang up; on the contrary, after dinner

every one was in the most amiable frame of mind.

At first Katavasov amused the ladies by his original jokes, which

always pleased people on their first acquaintance with him. Then

Sergey Ivanovitch induced him to tell them about the very

interesting observations he had made on the habits and

characteristics of common houseflies, and their life. Sergey

Ivanovitch, too, was in good spirits, and at tea his brother drew

him on to explain his views of the future of the Eastern

question, and he spoke so simply and so well, that everyone

listened eagerly.

Kitty was the only one who did not hear it all--she was summoned

to give Mitya his bath.

A few minutes after Kitty had left the room she sent for Levin to

come to the nursery.

Leaving his tea, and regretfully interrupting the interesting

conversation, and at the same time uneasily wondering why he had

been sent for, as this only happened on important occasions,

Levin went to the nursery.

Although he had been much interested by Sergey Ivanovitch's views

of the new epoch in history that would be created by the

emancipation of forty millions of men of Slavonic race acting

with Russia, a conception quite new to him, and although he was

disturbed by uneasy wonder at being sent for by Kitty, as soon as

he came out of the drawing room and was alone, his mind reverted

at once to the thoughts of the morning. And all the theories of

the significance of the Slav element in the history of the world

seemed to him so trivial compared with what was passing in his

own soul, that he instantly forgot it all and dropped back into

the same frame of mind that he had been in that morning.

He did not, as he had done at other times, recall the whole train

of thought--that he did not need. He fell back at once into the

feeling which had guided him, which was connected with those

thoughts, and he found that feeling in his soul even stronger and

more definite than before. He did not, as he had had to do with

previous attempts to find comforting arguments, need to revive a

whole chain of thought to find the feeling. Now, on the

contrary, the feeling of joy and peace was keener than ever, and

thought could not keep pace with feeling.