Levin got up and went with him to the big table spread with spirits and
appetizers of the most various kinds. One would
have thought that out of
two dozen delicacies one might find something to one's taste, but Stepan
Arkadyevitch asked for something special, and one of the liveried waiters
standing by immediately brought what was required. They drank a wine
glassful and returned to their table.
At once, while they were still at the soup, Gagin was served with
champagne, and told the waiter to fill four glasses. Levin did not refuse the
wine, and asked for a second bottle.
He was very hungry, and ate and drank
with great enjoyment, and with still greater enjoyment took part in the
lively and simple conversation of his companions. Gagin, dropping his
voice, told the last good story from Petersburg, and the story, though
improper
and stupid, was so ludicrous that Levin broke into roars of
laughter so loud that those near looked round.
"That's in the same style as, 'that's a thing I can't endure!' You know the
story?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch. "Ah, that's exquisite! Another bottle," he
said to the waiter, and he began to relate his good story.
"Pyotr Illyitch Vinovsky invites you to drink with him," a little old waiter
interrupted
Stepan Arkadyevitch, bringing two delicate glasses of sparkling
champagne, and addressing Stepan Arkadyevitch and Levin. Stepan
Arkadyevitch took the glass, and looking towards a bald man with red
mustaches at the other end of the table, he nodded to him, smiling.
"Who's that?" asked Levin.
"You met him once at my place, don't you remember?
A good-natured
fellow."
Levin did the same as Stepan Arkadyevitch and took the glass.
Stepan Arkadyevitch's anecdote too was very amusing. Levin told his story,
and that too was successful. Then they talked of horses, of the races, of
what they had been doing that day, and of how smartly Vronsky's Atlas had
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won the first prize. Levin did not notice how the time passed at dinner.
"Ah! and here they are!" Stepan Arkadyevitch said towards the end of
dinner, leaning over the back of his chair and holding out his hand to
Vronsky, who came up with a tall officer of the Guards. Vronsky's
face too
beamed with the look of good-humored enjoyment that was general in the
club. He propped his elbow playfully on Stepan Arkadyevitch's shoulder,
whispering something to him, and he held out his hand to Levin with the
same good-humored smile.
"Very glad to meet you," he said. "I looked out for you at the election, but I
was told you had gone away."
"Yes, I left the same day. We've just been talking of your horse. I
congratulate you," said Levin. "It was very rapidly run."
"Yes; you've race horses too, haven't you?"
"No,
my father had; but I remember and know something about it."
"Where have you dined?" asked Stepan Arkadyevitch.
"We were at the second table, behind the columns."
"We've been celebrating his success," said the tall colonel. "It's his second
Imperial prize. I wish I might have the luck at cards he has with horses.
Well, why waste the precious time? I'm going to the 'infernal regions,'"
added the colonel, and he walked away.
"That's Yashvin," Vronsky said in answer to Turovtsin, and he sat down in
the vacated seat beside them. He drank the glass offered him,
and ordered a
bottle of wine. Under the influence of the club atmosphere or the wine he
had drunk, Levin chatted away to Vronsky of the best breeds of cattle, and
was very glad not to feel the slightest hostility to this man. He even told
him, among other things, that he had heard from his wife that she had met
him at Princess Marya Borissovna's.
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"Ah, Princess Marya Borissovna, she's exquisite!" said Stepan
Arkadyevitch, and he told an anecdote
about her which set them all
laughing. Vronsky particularly laughed with such simplehearted
amusement that Levin felt quite reconciled to him.
"Well, have we finished?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, getting up with a
smile. "Let us go."
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