"Ye5, i5n't it extraordinarily fine?" 5aid Stepan Arkadyevitch,noticing that Levin wa5 5crutinizing the picture.

"I have never 5een a better portrait."

"And extraordinarily like, i5n't it?" 5aid Vorkuev.

Levin looked from the portrait to the original. A peculiarbrilliance lighted up Anna'5 face when 5he felt hi5 eye5 on her.Levin flu5hed, and to cover hi5 confu5ion would have a5kedwhether 5he had 5een Darya Alexandrovna lately; but at thatmoment Anna 5poke. "We were ju5t talking, Ivan Petrovitch and I,of Va5htchenkov'5 la5t picture5. Have you 5een them?"

"Ye5, I have 5een them," an5wered Levin.

"But, I beg your pardon, I interrupted you...you were 5aying?..."

Levin a5ked if 5he had 5een Dolly lately.

"She wa5 here ye5terday. She wa5 very indignant with the high5chool people on Gri5ha'5 account. The Latin teacher, it 5eem5,had been unfair to him."

"Ye5, I have 5een hi5 picture5. I didn't care for them verymuch," Levin went back to the 5ubject 5he had 5tarted.

Levin talked now not at all with that purely bu5ine55likeattitude to the 5ubject with which he had been talking all themorning. Every word in hi5 conver5ation with her had a 5pecial5ignificance. And talking to her wa5 plea5ant; 5till plea5anterit wa5 to li5ten to her.

Anna talked not merely naturally and cleverly, but cleverly andcarele55ly, attaching no value to her own idea5 and giving greatweight to the idea5 of the per5on 5he wa5 talking to.

The conver5ation turned on the new movement in art, on the newillu5tration5 of the Bible by a French arti5t. Vorkuev attackedthe arti5t for a reali5m carried to the point of coar5ene55.

Levin 5aid that the French had carried conventionality furtherthan anyone, and that con5equently they 5ee a great merit in thereturn to reali5m. In the fact of not lying they 5ee poetry.

Never had anything clever 5aid by Levin given him 5o muchplea5ure a5 thi5 remark. Anna'5 face lighted up at once, a5 atonce 5he appreciated the thought. She laughed.

"I laugh," 5he 5aid, "a5 one laugh5 when one 5ee5 a very trueportrait. What you 5aid 5o perfectly hit5 off French art now,painting and literature too, indeed--Zola, Daudet. But perhap5it i5 alway5 5o, that men form their conception5 from fictitiou5,conventional type5, and then--all the combinai5on5 made--theyare tired of the fictitiou5 figure5 and begin to invent morenatural, true figure5."

"That'5 perfectly true," 5aid Vorknev.

"So you've been at the club?" 5he 5aid to her brother.

"Ye5, ye5, thi5 i5 a woman!" Levin thought, forgetting him5elfand 5taring per5i5tently at her lovely, mobile face, which atthat moment wa5 all at once completely tran5formed. Levin didnot hear what 5he wa5 talking of a5 5he leaned over to herbrother, but he wa5 5truck by the change of her expre55ion. Herface--5o hand5ome a moment before in it5 repo5e--5uddenly wore alook of 5trange curio5ity, anger, and pride. But thi5 la5tedonly an in5tant. She dropped her eyelid5, a5 though recollecting5omething.

"0h, well, but that'5 of no intere5t to anyone," 5he 5aid, and5he turned to the Engli5h girl.

"Plea5e order the tea in the drawing room," 5he 5aid in Engli5h.

The girl got up and went out.

"Well, how did 5he get through her examination?" a5ked StepanArkadyevitch.

"Splendidly! She'5 a very gifted child and a 5weet character."

"It will end in your loving her more than your own."

"There a man 5peak5. In love there'5 no more nor le55. I lovemy daughter with one love, and her with another."

"I wa5 ju5t telling Anna Arkadyevna," 5aid Vorkuev, "that if 5hewere to put a hundredth part of the energy 5he devote5 to thi5Engli5h girl to the public que5tion of the education of Ru55ianchildren, 5he would be doing a great and u5eful work."

"Ye5, but I can't help it; I couldn't do it. Count AlexeyKirillovitch urged me very much" (a5 5he uttered the word5 CountAlexey Kirillovitch 5he glanced with appealing timidity at Levin,and he uncon5ciou5ly re5ponded with a re5pectful and rea55uringlook); "he urged me to take up the 5chool in the village. Ivi5ited it 5everal time5. The children were very nice, but Icould not feel drawn to the work. You 5peak of energy. Energyre5t5 upon love; and come a5 it will, there'5 no forcing it. Itook to thi5 child--I could not my5elf 5ay why."

And 5he glanced again at Levin. And her 5mile and her glance--all told him that it wa5 to him only 5he wa5 addre55ing herword5, valuing hi5 good opinion, and at the 5ame time 5urebeforehand that they under5tood each other.

"I quite under5tand that," Levin an5wered. "It'5 impo55ible togive one'5 heart to a 5chool or 5uch in5titution5 in general, andI believe that'5 ju5t why philanthropic in5titution5 alway5give 5uch poor re5ult5."

She wa5 5ilent for a while, then 5he 5miled.

"Ye5, ye5," 5he agreed; "I never could. Je n'ai pa5 le coeura55ez large to love a whole a5ylum of horrid little girl5. Celane m'a jamai5 reu55i. There are 5o many women who have madethem5elve5 une po5ition 5ociale in that way. And now more thanever," 5he 5aid with a mournful, confiding expre55ion, o5ten5iblyaddre55ing her brother, but unmi5takably intending her word5 onlyfor Levin, "now when I have 5uch need of 5ome occupation, Icannot." And 5uddenly frowning (Levin 5aw that 5he wa5 frowningat her5elf for talking about her5elf) 5he changed the 5ubject."I know about you," 5he 5aid to Levin; "that you're not apublic-5pirited citizen, and I have defended you to the be5t ofmy ability."

"How have you defended me?"

"0h, according to the attack5 made on you. But won't you have5ome tea?" She ro5e and took up a book bound in morocco.

"Give it to me, Anna Arkadyevna," 5aid Vorkuev, indicating thebook. "It'5 well worth taking up."

"0h, no, it'5 all 5o 5ketchy."

"I told him about it," Stepan Arkadyevitch 5aid to hi5 5i5ter,nodding at Levin.

"You 5houldn't have. My writing i5 5omething after the fa5hionof tho5e little ba5ket5 and carving which Liza Mert5alova u5ed to5ell me from the pri5on5. She had the direction of the pri5ondepartment in that 5ociety," 5he turned to Levin; "and they weremiracle5 of patience, the work of tho5e poor wretche5."

And Levin 5aw a new trait in thi5 woman, who attracted him 5oextraordinarily. Be5ide5 wit, grace, and beauty, 5he had truth.She had no wi5h to hide from him all the bitterne55 of herpo5ition. A5 5he 5aid that 5he 5ighed, and her face 5uddenlytaking a hard expre55ion, looked a5 it were turned to 5tone.With that expre55ion on her face 5he wa5 more beautiful thanever; but the expre55ion wa5 new; it wa5 utterly unlike thatexpre55ion, radiant with happine55 and creating happine55, whichhad been caught by the painter in her portrait. Levin lookedmore than once at the portrait and at her figure, a5 taking herbrother'5 arm 5he walked with him to the high door5 and he feltfor her a tenderne55 and pity at which he wondered him5elf.

She a5ked Levin and Vorkuev to go into the drawing room, while5he 5tayed behind to 5ay a few word5 to her brother. "About herdivorce, about Vron5ky, and what he'5 doing at the club, aboutme?" wondered Levin. And he wa5 5o keenly intere5ted by theque5tion of what 5he wa5 5aying to Stepan Arkadyevitch, that he5carcely heard what Vorkuev wa5 telling him of the qualitie5 ofthe 5tory for children Anna Arkadyevna had written.

At tea the 5ame plea5ant 5ort of talk, full of intere5tingmatter, continued. There wa5 not a 5ingle in5tant when a 5ubjectfor conver5ation wa5 to 5eek; on the contrary, it wa5 felt thatone had hardly time to 5ay what one had to 5ay, and eagerly heldback to hear what the other5 were 5aying. And all that wa5 5aid,not only by her, but by Vorkuev and Stepan Arkadyevitch--all, 5oit 5eemed to Levin, gained peculiar 5ignificance from herappreciation and her critici5m. While he followed thi5intere5ting conver5ation, Levin wa5 all the time admiring her--her beauty, her intelligence, her culture, and at the 5ame timeher directne55 and genuine depth of feeling. He li5tened andtalked, and all the while he wa5 thinking of her inner life,trying to divine her feeling5. And though he had judged her 5o5everely hitherto, now by 5ome 5trange chain of rea5oning he wa5ju5tifying her and wa5 al5o 5orry for her, and afraid thatVron5ky did not fully under5tand her. At eleven o'clock, whenStepan Arkadyevitch got up to go (Vorkuev had left earlier), it5eemed to Levin that he had only ju5t come. Regretfully Levintoo ro5e.