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"Well, you've not been dull?" he said, eagerly and good-humoredly, going up to her. "What a terrible passion it is gambling!" "No, I've not been dull; I've learned long ago not to be dull. Stiva has been here and Levin." "Yes, they meant to come and see you. Well, how did you like Levin?" he said, sitting down beside her. "Very much. They have not long been gone. What was Yashvin doing?"
"I know more of the world than you do," she said. "I know how men like Stiva look at it. You speak of his talking of you with her. That never happened. Such men are unfaithful, but their home and wife are sacred to them. Somehow or other these women are still looked on with contempt by them, and do not touch on their feeling for their family.
"I am delighted, delighted," she repeated, and on her lips these simple words took for Levin's ears a special significance. "I have known you and liked you for a long while, both from your friendship with Stiva and for your wife's sake.... I knew her for a very short time, but she left on me the impression of an exquisite flower, simply a flower. And to think she will soon be a mother!"
"I shall come round tomorrow!" Stepan Arkadyevitch shouted to him. Alexey Alexandrovitch got into his carriage, and buried himself in it so as neither to see nor be seen. "Queer fish!" said Stepan Arkadyevitch to his wife, and glancing at his watch, he made a motion of his hand before his face, indicating a caress to his wife and children, and walked jauntily along the pavement. "Stiva! Stiva!"
Dolly went down alone to see the visitor who had interrupted their conversation. "Well, so you've not gone away yet? I meant to have come to you," she said; "I had a letter from Stiva today." "We had a telegram too," answered Anna, looking round for Kitty. "He writes that he can't make out quite what Alexey Alexandrovitch wants, but he won't go away without a decisive answer."
But if Karenin had not got his brother- in-law this berth, then through a hundred other personages brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, and aunts Stiva Oblonsky would have received this post, or some other similar one, together with the salary of six thousand absolutely needful for him, as his affairs, in spite of his wife's considerable property, were in an embarrassed condition.
"Tell me about all of you. Stiva I had only a glimpse of, and he cannot tell one about the children. How is my favorite, Tanya? Quite a big girl, I expect?" "Yes, she's very tall," Darya Alexandrovna answered shortly, surprised herself that she should respond so coolly about her children. "We are having a delightful stay at the Levins'," she added.
Together!" cried Levin, and he ran with Laska into the thicket to look for the snipe. "Oh, yes, what was it that was unpleasant?" he wondered. "Yes, Kitty's ill.... Well, it can't be helped; I'm very sorry," he thought. "She's found it! Isn't she a clever thing?" he said, taking the warm bird from Laska's mouth and packing it into the almost full game bag. "I've got it, Stiva!" he shouted.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was not merely liked by all who knew him for his good humor, but for his bright disposition, and his unquestionable honesty. In him, in his handsome, radiant figure, his sparkling eyes, black hair and eyebrows, and the white and red of his face, there was something which produced a physical effect of kindliness and good humor on the people who met him. "Aha! Stiva! Oblonsky!
Seeing her, he found himself face to face with one of the pictures of his daydream of family life. "You're like a hen with your chickens, Darya Alexandrovna." "Ah, how glad I am to see you!" she said, holding out her hand to him. "Glad to see me, but you didn't let me know. My brother's staying with me. I got a note from Stiva that you were here." "From Stiva?"
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