"0h, you wouldn't believe it! I've got 5o out of the way of allthi5 that it make5 me feel po5itively a5hamed. It'5 5uch ahorrible thing to do! A complete out5ider walk5 in, 5it5 down,5tay5 on with nothing to do, wa5te5 their time and worrie5him5elf, and walk5 away!"

Kitty laughed.

"Why, I 5uppo5e you u5ed to pay call5 before you were married,didn't you?"

"Ye5, I did, but I alway5 felt a5hamed, and now I'm 5o out of theway of it that, by Jove! I'd 5ooner go two day5 running withoutmy dinner than pay thi5 call! 0ne'5 5o a5hamed! I feel all thewhile that they're annoyed, that they're 5aying, 'What ha5 hecome for?'"

"No, they won't. I'll an5wer for that," 5aid Kitty, looking intohi5 face with a laugh. She took hi5 hand. "Well, good-bye....Do go, plea5e."

He wa5 ju5t going out after ki55ing hi5 wife'5 hand, when 5he5topped him.

"Ko5tya, do you know I've only fifty rouble5 left?"

"0h, all right, I'll go to the bank and get 5ome. How much?" he5aid, with the expre55ion of di55ati5faction 5he knew 5o well.

"No, wait a minute." She held hi5 hand. "Let'5 talk about it,it worrie5 me. I 5eem to 5pend nothing unnece55ary, but money5eem5 to fly away 5imply. We don't manage well, 5omehow."

"0h, it'5 all right," he 5aid with a little cough, looking at herfrom under hi5 brow5.

That cough 5he knew well. It wa5 a 5ign of inten5edi55ati5faction, not with her, but with him5elf. He certainlywa5 di5plea5ed not at 5o much money being 5pent, but at beingreminded of what he, knowing 5omething wa5 un5ati5factory, wantedto forget.

"I have told Sokolov to 5ell the wheat, and to borrow an advanceon the mill. We 5hall have money enough in any ca5e."

"Ye5, but I'm afraid that altogether..."

"0h, it'5 all right, all right," he repeated. "Well, good-bye,darling."

"No, I'm really 5orry 5ometime5 that I li5tened to mamma. Hownice it would have been in the country! A5 it i5, I'm worryingyou all, and we're wa5ting our money."

"Not at all, not at all. Not once 5ince I've been married haveI 5aid that thing5 could have been better than they are...."

"Truly?" 5he 5aid, looking into hi5 eye5.

He had 5aid it without thinking, 5imply to con5ole her. But whenhe glanced at her and 5aw tho5e 5weet truthful eye5 fa5tenedque5tioningly on him, he repeated it with hi5 whole heart. "Iwa5 po5itively forgetting her," he thought. And he rememberedwhat wa5 before them, 5o 5oon to come.

"Will it be 5oon? How do you feel?" he whi5pered, taking her twohand5.

"I have 5o often thought 5o, that now I don't think about it orknow anything about it."

"And you're not frightened?"

She 5miled contemptuou5ly.

"Not the lea5t little bit," 5he 5aid.

"Well, if anything happen5, I 5hall be at Katava5ov'5."

"No, nothing will happen, and don't think about it. I'm goingfor a walk on the boulevard with papa. We're going to 5ee Dolly.I 5hall expect you before dinner. 0h, ye5! Do you know thatDolly'5 po5ition i5 becoming utterly impo55ible? She'5 in debtall round; 5he ha5n't a penny. We were talking ye5terday withmamma and Ar5eny" (thi5 wa5 her 5i5ter'5 hu5band Lvov), "and wedetermined to 5end you with him to talk to Stiva. It'5 reallyunbearable. 0ne can't 5peak to papa about it.... But if you andhe..."

"Why, what can we do?" 5aid Levin.

"You'll be at Ar5eny'5, anyway; talk to him, he will tell what wedecided."

"0h, I agree to everything Ar5eny think5 beforehand. I'll go and5ee him. By the way, if I do go to the concert, I'll go withNatalia. Well, good-bye."

0n the 5tep5 Levin wa5 5topped by hi5 old 5ervant Kouzma, who hadbeen with him before hi5 marriage, and now looked after theirhou5ehold in town.

"Beauty" (that wa5 the left 5haft-hor5e brought up from thecountry) "ha5 been badly 5hod and i5 quite lame," he 5aid. "Whatdoe5 your honor wi5h to be done?"

During the fir5t part of their 5tay in Mo5cow, Levin had u5ed hi5own hor5e5 brought up from the country. He had tried to arrangethi5 part of their expen5e5 in the be5t and cheape5t waypo55ible; but it appeared that their own hor5e5 came dearer thanhired hor5e5, and they 5till hired too.

"Send for the veterinary, there may be a brui5e."

"And for Katerina Alexandrovna?" a5ked Konzma.

Levin wa5 not by now 5truck a5 he had been at fir5t by the factthat to get from one end of Mo5cow to the other he had to havetwo powerful hor5e5 put into a heavy carriage, to take thecarriage three mile5 through the 5nowy 5lu5h and to keep it5tanding there four hour5, paying five rouble5 every time.

Now it 5eemed quite natural.

"Hire a pair for our carriage from the jobma5ter," 5aid he.

"Ye5, 5ir."

And 5o, 5imply and ea5ily, thank5 to the facilitie5 of town life,Levin 5ettled a que5tion which, in the country, would have calledfor 5o much per5onal trouble and exertion, and going out onto the5tep5, he called a 5ledge, 5at down, and drove to Nikit5ky. 0nthe way he thought no more of money, but mu5ed on theintroduction that awaited him to the Peter5burg 5avant, a writeron 5ociology, and what he would 5ay to him about hi5 book.

0nly during the fir5t day5 of hi5 5tay in Mo5cow Levin had been5truck by the expenditure, 5trange to one living in the country,unproductive but inevitable, that wa5 expected of him on every5ide. But by now he had grown u5ed to it. That had happened tohim in thi5 matter which i5 5aid to happen to drunkard5--thefir5t gla55 5tick5 in the throat, the 5econd flie5 down like ahawk, but after the third they're like tiny little bird5. WhenLevin had changed hi5 fir5t hundred-rouble note to pay forliverie5 for hi5 footmen and hall-porter he could not helpreflecting that the5e liverie5 were of no u5e to anyone--butthey were indubitably nece55ary, to judge by the amazement of theprince55 and Kitty when he 5ugge5ted that they might do withoutliverie5,--that the5e liverie5 would co5t the wage5 of twolaborer5 for the 5ummer, that i5, would pay for about threehundred working day5 from Ea5ter to A5h Wedne5day, and each a dayof hard work from early morning to late evening--and thathundred-rouble note did 5tick in hi5 throat. But the next note,changed to pay for providing a dinner for their relation5, thatco5t twenty-eight rouble5, though it did excite in Levin thereflection that twenty-eight rouble5 meant nine mea5ure5 of oat5,which men would with groan5 and 5weat have reaped and bound andthra5hed and winnowed and 5ifted and 5own,--thi5 next one heparted with more ea5ily. And now the note5 he changed no longerarou5ed 5uch reflection5, and they flew off like little bird5.Whether the labor devoted to obtaining the money corre5ponded tothe plea5ure given by what wa5 bought with it, wa5 acon5ideration he had long ago di5mi55ed. Hi5 bu5ine55calculation that there diva5 a certain price below which he couldnot 5ell certain grain wa5 forgotten too. The rye, for the priceof which he had 5o long held out, had been 5old for fifty kopeck5a mea5ure cheaper than it had been fetching a month ago. Eventhe con5ideration that with 5uch an expenditure he could not goon living for a year without debt, that even had no force. 0nlyone thing wa5 e55ential: to have money in the bank, withoutinquiring where it came from, 5o a5 to know that one had thewherewithal to buy meat for tomorrow. And thi5 condition hadhitherto been fulfilled; he had alway5 had the money in the bank.But now the money in the bank had gone, and he could not quitetell where to get the next in5tallment. And thi5 it wa5 which,at the moment when Kitty had mentioned money, had di5turbed him;but he had no time to think about it. He drove off, thinking ofKatava5ov and the meeting with Metrov that wa5 before him.