After escorting his wife upstairs, Levin went to Dolly's part of
the house. Darya Alexandrovna, for her part, was in great
distress too that day. She was walking about the room, talking
angrily to a little girl, who stood in the corner roaring.
"And you shall stand all day in the corner, and have your dinner
all alone, and not see one of your dolls, and I won't make you a
new frock," she said, not knowing how to punish her.
"Oh, she is a disgusting child!" she turned to Levin. "Where
does she get such wicked propensities?"
"Why, what has she done?" Levin said without much interest, for
he had wanted to ask her advice, and so was annoyed that he had
come at an unlucky moment.
"Grisha and she went into the raspberries, and there...I can't
tell you really what she did. It's a thousand pities Miss
Elliot's not with us. This one sees to nothing--she's a
machine.... _Figurez-vous que la petite_?..."
And Darya Alexandrovna described Masha's crime.
"That proves nothing; it's not a question of evil propensities at
all, it's simply mischief," Levin assured her.
"But you are upset about something? What have you come for?"
asked Dolly. "What's going on there?"
And in the tone of her question Levin heard that it would be easy
for him to say what he had meant to say.
"I've not been in there, I've been alone in the garden with
Kitty. We've had a quarrel for the second time since...Stiva
came."
Dolly looked at him with her shrewd, comprehending eyes.
"Come, tell me, honor bright, has there been...not in Kitty, but
in that gentleman's behavior, a tone which might be unpleasant--
not unpleasant, but horrible, offensive to a husband?"
"You mean, how shall I say.... Stay, stay in the corner!" she
said to Masha, who, detecting a faint smile in her mother's face,
had been turning round. "The opinion of the world would be that
he is behaving as young men do behave. _Il fait la cour à une
jeune et jolie femme_, and a husband who's a man of the world
should only be flattered by it."
"Yes, yes," said Levin gloomily; "but you noticed it?"
"Not only I, but Stiva noticed it. Just after breakfast he said
to me in so many words, _Je crois que Veslovsky fait un petit brin
de cour à Kitty_."
"Well, that's all right then; now I'm satisfied. I'll send him
away," said Levin.