Anna Karenina - Part 1 - Page 17/119

Levin was almost of the same age as Oblonsky; their intimacy did

not rest merely on champagne. Levin had been the friend and

companion of his early youth. They were fond of one another in

spite of the difference of their characters and tastes, as

friends are fond of one another who have been together in early

youth. But in spite of this, each of them--as is often the way

with men who have selected careers of different kinds--though in

discussion he would even justify the other's career, in his heart

despised it. It seemed to each of them that the life he led

himself was the only real life, and the life led by his friend

was a mere phantasm. Oblonsky could not restrain a slight

mocking smile at the sight of Levin. How often he had seen him

come up to Moscow from the country where he was doing something,

but what precisely Stepan Arkadyevitch could never quite make

out, and indeed he took no interest in the matter. Levin arrived

in Moscow always excited and in a hurry, rather ill at ease and

irritated by his own want of ease, and for the most part with a

perfectly new, unexpected view of things. Stepan Arkadyevitch

laughed at this, and liked it. In the same way Levin in his

heart despised the town mode of life of his friend, and his

official duties, which he laughed at, and regarded as trifling.

But the difference was that Oblonsky, as he was doing the same as

every one did, laughed complacently and good-humoredly, while

Levin laughed without complacency and sometimes angrily.

"We have long been expecting you," said Stepan Arkadyevitch,

going into his room and letting Levin's hand go as though to show

that here all danger was over. "I am very, very glad to see

you," he went on. "Well, how are you? Eh? When did you come?"

Levin was silent, looking at the unknown faces of Oblonsky's two

companions, and especially at the hand of the elegant Grinevitch,

which had such long white fingers, such long yellow

filbert-shaped nails, and such huge shining studs on the

shirt-cuff, that apparently they absorbed all his attention, and

allowed him no freedom of thought. Oblonsky noticed this at

once, and smiled.

"Ah, to be sure, let me introduce you," he said. "My colleagues:

Philip Ivanitch Nikitin, Mihail Stanislavitch Grinevitch"--and

turning to Levin--"a district councilor, a modern district

councilman, a gymnast who lifts thirteen stone with one hand, a

cattle-breeder and sportsman, and my friend, Konstantin

Dmitrievitch Levin, the brother of Sergey Ivanovitch Koznishev."