PART 6
Chapter 11
(continued)
"Perhaps so," said Levin dryly, and he turned on his side.
"Tomorrow, early, I want to go shooting, and I won't wake anyone,
and shall set off at daybreak."
"Messieurs, venes vite!" they heard the voice of Veslovsky coming
back. "Charmante! I've made such a discovery. Charmante! a
perfect Gretchen, and I've already made friends with her.
Really, exceedingly pretty," he declared in a tone of approval,
as though she had been made pretty entirely on his account, and
he was expressing his satisfaction with the entertainment that
had been provided for him.
Levin pretended to be asleep, while Oblonsky, putting on his
slippers, and lighting a cigar, walked out of the barn, and soon
their voices were lost.
For a long while Levin could not get to sleep. He heard the
horses munching hay, then he heard the peasant and his elder boy
getting ready for the night, and going off for the night watch
with the beasts, then he heard the soldier arranging his bed on
the other side of the barn, with his nephew, the younger son of
their peasant host. He heard the boy in his shrill little voice
telling his uncle what he thought about the dogs, who seemed to
him huge and terrible creatures, and asking what the dogs were
going to hunt next day, and the soldier in a husky, sleepy voice,
telling him the sportsmen were going in the morning to the marsh,
and would shoot with their guns; and then, to check the boy's
questions, he said, "Go to sleep, Vaska; go to sleep, or you'll
catch it," and soon after he began snoring himself, and
everything was still. He could only hear the snort of the
horses, and the guttural cry of a snipe.
"Is it really only negative?" he repeated to himself. "Well,
what of it? It's not my fault." And he began thinking about the
next day.
"Tomorrow I'll go out early, and I'll make a point of keeping
cool. There are lots of snipe; and there are grouse too. When
I come back there'll be the note from Kitty. Yes, Stiva may be
right, I'm not manly with her, I'm tied to her apron-strings....
Well, it can't be helped! Negative again...."
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