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Turovtsin exploded in a loud roar of laughter, and Sergei Ivanovich regretted that he had not made this comparison. Even Alexei Alexandrovich smiled.

`Yes, but a man can't nurse a baby,' said Pestsov, `while a woman...'

`No, there was an Englishman who did suckle his baby on board ship,' said the old Prince, feeling this freedom in conversation permissible before his own daughters.

`There are as many such Englishmen as there would be women officials,'

said Sergei Ivanovich.

`Yes, but what is a girl to do who has no family?' put in Stepan Arkadyevich, thinking of Masha Chibisova, whom he had had in his mind all along, in sympathizing with Pestsov and supporting him.

`If the story of such a girl were thoroughly sifted, you would find she had abandoned a family - her own or a sister's, where she might have found a woman's duties,' Darya Alexandrovna broke in unexpectedly, in a tone of exasperation, probably suspecting what sort of girl Stepan Arkadyevich had in mind.

`But we take our stand on principle, on the ideal,' replied Pestsov in his sonorous bass. `Woman desires to have the right to be independent, educated. She is oppressed, humiliated by the consciousness of her disabilities.'

`And I'm oppressed and humiliated that they won't engage me at the Foundling Asylum,' the old Prince said again, to the huge delight of Turovtsin, who in his mirth dropped his asparagus with the thick end in the sauce.

[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 4, Chapter 11[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 11 Everyone took part in the conversation except Kitty and Levin. At first, when they were talking of the influence that one people has on another, there rose to Levin's mind what he had to say on the subject. But these ideas, once of such importance in his eyes, seemed to come into his brain as in a dream, and had now not the slightest interest for him. It even struck him as strange that they should be so eager to talk of what was of no use to anyone. Kitty, too, one would have supposed, should have been interested in what they were saying of the rights and education of women.

How often she had mused on the subject, thinking of her friend abroad, Varenka, of her painful state of dependence; how often she had wondered about herself as to what would become of her if she did not marry, and how often she had argued with her sister about it! But now it did not interest her at all. She and Levin had a conversation of their own, yet not a conversation, but a sort of mysterious communication, which brought them every moment nearer, and stirred in both a sense of glad terror before the unknown into which they were entering.

At first Levin, in answer to Kitty's question how he could have seen her last year in the carriage, told her that he had been coming home from the mowing along the highroad and had met her.

`It was very, very early in the morning. You were probably only just awake. Your maman was asleep in her corner. It was an exquisite morning.

I was walking along wondering who it could be in the four-in-hand. It was a splendid set of four horses with bells, and in a second you flashed by, and I saw you at the window - you were sitting, like this; holding the strings of your cap in both hands, and in awfully deep thought about something,'

he said, smiling. `How I should like to know what you were thinking about then! Something important?'

`Wasn't I dreadfully untidy?' she wondered, but seeing the smile of ecstasy these reminiscences called up, she felt that the impression she had made had been very good. She blushed and laughed with delight:

`Really I don't remember.'

`How nicely Turovtsin laughs!' said Levin, admiring his humid eyes and heaving chest.

`Have you known him long?' asked Kitty.

`Oh, everyone knows him!'

`And I see you think he's a horrid man?'

`Not horrid, but there's nothing in him.'

`Oh, you're wrong! And you must give up thinking so directly!'

said Kitty. `I used to have a very poor opinion of him too, but he's an awfully fine and wonderfully goodhearted man. He has a heart of gold.'

`How could you find out what sort of heart he has?'

`We are great friends. I know him very well. Last winter, soon after... you came to see us,' she said, with a guilty and at the same time a confiding smile, `all Dolly's children had scarlatina, and he happened to come to see her. And only fancy,' she said in a whisper, `he felt so sorry for her that he stayed and began to help her look after the children.

Yes, and for three weeks he stopped with them, and looked after the children like a nurse.'

`I am telling Konstantin Dmitrievich about Turovtsin and the scarlatina,'

she said, bending over to her sister.

`Yes, it was wonderful, noble!' said Dolly, glancing toward Turovtsin, who had become aware they were talking of him, and smiling gently to him.

Levin glanced once more at Turovtsin, and wondered how it was he had not realized all this man's goodness before.

`I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and I'll never think ill of people again!'

he said gaily, genuinely expressing what he felt at the moment.

[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 4, Chapter 12[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 12 Connected with the conversation that had sprung up on the rights of women there were certain questions as to the inequality of rights in marriage, improper to discuss before the ladies. Pestsov had several times during dinner touched upon these questions, but Sergei Ivanovich and Stepan Arkadyevich carefully drew him off them.

When they rose from the table and the ladies had gone out, Pestsov did not follow them, but, addressing Alexei Alexandrovich, began to expound the chief ground of inequality. The inequality in marriage, in his opinion, lay in the fact that the infidelity of the wife and infidelity of the husband are punished unequally, both by the law and by public opinion.

Stepan Arkadyevich went hurriedly up to Alexei Alexandrovich and offered him a cigar.