`No, I'm going, Dolly, you sit still,' he said. `We'll do it all properly, according to the book. Only when Stiva comes, and we go out shooting, then we shall have to miss it.'

And Levin went to Grisha.

Varenka was saying the same thing to Kitty. Even in the happy, well-ordered household of the Levins, Varenka had succeeded in making herself useful.

`I'll see to the supper, you sit still,' she said, and got up to go to Agathya Mikhailovna.

`Yes, yes, most likely they've not been able to get chickens. If so, our...'

`Agathya Mikhailovna and I will see about it,' and Varenka vanished with her.

`What a fine girl!' said the Princess.

`Not merely fine, maman; she's an exquisite girl; there's no one else like her.'

`So you are expecting Stepan Arkadyevich today?' said Sergei Ivanovich, evidently not disposed to pursue the conversation about Varenka. `It would be difficult to find two sons-in-law more unlike than yours,' he said with a subtle smile. `One mobility itself, only living in society, like a fish in water; the other our Kostia, lively, alert, quick in everything, but, as soon as he is in society, he either sinks into apathy, or struggles helplessly like a fish on land.'

`Yes, he's very heedless,' said the Princess, addressing Sergei Ivanovich. `I've intended, indeed, to ask you to tell him that it's out of the question for her' (she indicated Kitty) `to stay here; that she positively must come to Moscow. He talks of getting a doctor down...'

`Maman, he'll do everything; he has agreed to everything,' Kitty said, angry with her mother for appealing to Sergei Ivanovich to judge in such a matter.

In the middle of their conversation they heard the snorting of horses and the sound of wheels on the gravel.

Dolly had not time to get up to go and meet her husband, when from the window of the room below, where Grisha was having his lesson, Levin leaped out and helped Grisha out after him.

`It's Stiva!' Levin shouted from under the balcony. `We've finished, Dolly, don't be afraid!' he added, and started running like a boy to meet the carriage.

`Is, ea, id, ejus, ejus, ejus!' shouted Grisha, skipping along the avenue.

`And someone else too! Papa, of course!' cried Levin, stopping at the entrance of the avenue. `Kitty, don't come down the steep staircase - go around.'

But Levin had been mistaken in taking the person sitting in the carriage for the old Prince. As he got nearer to the carriage he saw beside Stepan Arkadyevich not the Prince, but a handsome, stout young man in a Scotch cap, with long ends of ribbon behind. This was Vassenka Veslovsky, a distant cousin of the Shcherbatskys, a brilliant young gentleman in Peterburg and Moscow society - a capital fellow, and a keen sportsman,' as Stepan Arkadyevich said, introducing him.

Not a whit abashed by the disappointment caused by his having come in place of the old Prince, Veslovsky greeted Levin gaily, claiming acquaintance with him in the past, and snatching up Grisha into the carriage, lifted him over the pointer that Stepan Arkadyevich had brought with him.


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