Anna Karenina

particulary nice if Pava's daughter should be a red-spotted cow, and all the
herd will take after her, and the other three, too! Splendid! To go out with
my wife and visitors to meet the herd.... My wife says, Kostya and I looked
after that calf like a child.' 'How can it interest you so much?' says a visitor.
'Everything that interests him, interests me.' But who will she be?" And he
remembered what had happened at Moscow.... "Well, there's nothing to be
done.... It's not my fault. But now everything shall go on in a new way. It's
nonsense to pretend that life won't let one, that the past won't let one. One
must struggle to live better, much better."... He raised his head, and fell to
dreaming. Old Laska, who had not yet fully digested her delight at his
return, and had run out into the yard to bark, came back wagging her tail,
and crept up to him, bringing in the scent of fresh air, put her head under
his hand, and whined plaintively, asking to be stroked.
"There, who'd have thought it?" said Agafea Mihalovna. "The dog
now...why, she understands that her master's come home, and that he's
low-spirited."
"Why low-spirited?"
"Do you suppose I don't see it, sir? It's high time I should know the gentry.
Why, I've grown up from a little thing with them. It's nothing, sir, so long
as there's health and a clear conscience."
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Levin looked intently at her, surprised at how well she knew his thought.
"Shall I fetch you another cup?" said she, and taking his cup she went out.
Laska kept poking her head under his hand. He stroked her, and she
promptly curled up at his feet, laying her head on a hindpaw. And in token
of all now being well and satisfactory, she opened her mouth a little,
smacked her lips, and settling her sticky lips more comfortably about her
old teeth, she sank into blissful repose. Levin watched all her movements
attentively.
"That's what I'll do," he said to himself; "that's what I'll do! Nothing's
amiss.... All's well."
Chapter 27
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