Anna Karenina - Part 1 - Page 32/119

At that moment one of the young men, the best of the skaters of

the day, came out of the coffee-house in his skates, with a

cigarette in his mouth. Taking a run, he dashed down the steps

in his skates, crashing and bounding up and down. He flew down,

and without even changing the position of his hands, skated away

over the ice.

"Ah, that's a new trick!" said Levin, and he promptly ran up to

the top to do this new trick.

"Don't break your neck! it needs practice!" Nikolay Shtcherbatsky

shouted after him.

Levin went to the steps, took a run from above as best he could,

and dashed down, preserving his balance in this unwonted movement

with his hands. On the last step he stumbled, but barely

touching the ice with his hand, with a violent effort recovered

himself, and skated off, laughing.

"How splendid, how nice he is!" Kitty was thinking at that time,

as she came out of the pavilion with Mlle. Linon, and looked

towards him with a smile of quiet affection, as though he were a

favorite brother. "And can it be my fault, can I have done

anything wrong? They talk of flirtation. I know it's not he

that I love; but still I am happy with him, and he's so jolly.

Only, why did he say that?..." she mused.

Catching sight of Kitty going away, and her mother meeting her at

the steps, Levin, flushed from his rapid exercise, stood still

and pondered a minute. He took off his skates, and overtook the

mother and daughter at the entrance of the gardens.

"Delighted to see you," said Princess Shtcherbatskaya. "On

Thursdays we are home, as always."

"Today, then?"

"We shall be pleased to see you," the princess said stiffly.

This stiffness hurt Kitty, and she could not resist the desire to

smooth over her mother's coldness. She turned her head, and with

a smile said: "Good-bye till this evening."

At that moment Stepan Arkadyevitch, his hat cocked on one side,

with beaming face and eyes, strode into the garden like a

conquering hero. But as he approached his mother-in-law, he

responded in a mournful and crestfallen tone to her inquiries

about Dolly's health. After a little subdued and dejected

conversation with his mother-in-law, he threw out his chest

again, and put his arm in Levin's.

"Well, shall we set off?" he asked. "I've been thinking about

you all this time, and I'm very, very glad you've come," he said,

looking him in the face with a significant air.