"Kitty writes to me that there's nothing she longs for so much as

quiet and solitude," Dolly said after the silence that had

followed.

"And how is she--better?" Levin asked in agitation.

"Thank God, she's quite well again. I never believed her lungs

were affected."

"Oh, I'm very glad!" said Levin, and Dolly fancied she saw

something touching, helpless, in his face as he said this and

looked silently into her face.

"Let me ask you, Konstantin Dmitrievitch," said Darya

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Alexandrovna, smiling her kindly and rather mocking smile, "why

is it you are angry with Kitty?"

"I? I'm not angry with her," said Levin.

"Yes, you are angry. Why was it you did not come to see us nor

them when you were in Moscow?"

"Darya Alexandrovna," he said, blushing up to the roots of his

hair, "I wonder really that with your kind heart you don't feel

this. How it is you feel no pity for me, if nothing else, when

you know..."

"What do I know?"

"You know I made an offer and that I was refused," said Levin,

and all the tenderness he had been feeling for Kitty a minute

before was replaced by a feeling of anger for the slight he had

suffered.

"What makes you suppose I know?"

"Because everybody knows it..."

"That's just where you are mistaken; I did not know it, though

I had guessed it was so."

"Well, now you know it."

"All I knew was that something had happened that made her

dreadfully miserable, and that she begged me never to speak of

it. And if she would not tell me, she would certainly not speak

of it to anyone else. But what did pass between you? Tell me."

"I have told you."

"When was it?"

"When I was at their house the last time."

"Do you know that," said Darya Alexandrovna, "I am awfully,

awfully sorry for her. You suffer only from pride...."

"Perhaps so," said Levin, "but..."

She interrupted him.

"But she, poor girl...I am awfully, awfully sorry for her. Now I

see it all."

"Well, Darya Alexandrovna, you must excuse me," he said, getting

up. "Good-bye, Darya Alexandrovna, till we meet again."

"No, wait a minute," she said, clutching him by the sleeve.

"Wait a minute, sit down."




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