第一百五十八章 第一章
第一章
达里娅·亚历山德罗夫娜带着孩子们在波克罗夫斯科耶她妹妹基蒂·列文家度夏。她自己庄园的房子已经完全破败了，列文和妻子说服她来和他们一起住夏天。斯捷潘·阿尔卡季奇非常赞同这个安排。他说，他很遗憾公务缠身，不能和家人一起在乡下消夏，否则对他来说将是莫大的幸福；他留在莫斯科，偶尔下乡住上一两天。除了奥布隆斯基一家和他们的孩子及家庭教师，老公爵夫人那个夏天也来和列文夫妇同住，因为她觉得有责任在女儿身体“有喜”期间照看这个没有经验的女儿。此外，基蒂在国外的朋友瓦莲卡也信守诺言，在基蒂婚后前来相聚，陪伴她的朋友。这些都是列文妻子的朋友或亲戚。虽然他喜欢他们所有人，但他还是有点怀念自己列文式的世界和生活方式，而这一切都被这股他私下称之为“谢尔巴茨基流派”的涌入给淹没了。他自己的亲属中，只有谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇住在他这里，但他也是个科兹内舍夫类型的人，而不是列文类型的，因此列文精神完全被湮没了。
在列文那座长久无人居住的宅子里，现在住着这么多人，几乎所有的房间都占满了，而且几乎每天都会发生这样的事：老公爵夫人坐到桌边，总要把全家人数一遍，把第十三个孙子或孙女安置到另一张小桌子上。而精于持家的基蒂，为了弄到足够的鸡、火鸡和鹅来满足客人和孩子们夏日的食欲，也费了不少心思。
全家人正坐着吃午饭。多莉的孩子们、他们的家庭教师和瓦莲卡正在计划着去找蘑菇。谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇，这位因其才智和学识而受到全家尊敬——几乎是敬畏——的人，也加入了关于蘑菇的谈话，这让大家吃了一惊。
“带我一起去吧。我很喜欢采蘑菇，”他望着瓦莲卡说，“我觉得这是一项很好的消遣。”
“哦，我们很高兴，”瓦莲卡回答，脸微微红了。基蒂意味深长地跟多莉交换了一个眼色。博学多才的谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇提议和瓦莲卡一起去采蘑菇，这证实了基蒂最近一直萦绕心头的某些想法。她赶紧跟母亲说了句什么，以免有人注意到她的眼神。饭后，谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇端着咖啡杯坐在客厅窗边，一面参与他和弟弟开始的谈话，一面望着孩子们出发去采蘑菇的那扇门。列文坐在靠近他兄弟的窗户旁。
基蒂站在丈夫身旁，显然是在等她毫无兴趣的谈话结束，好告诉他什么事。
“你结婚后在许多方面都变了，而且是变好了，”谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇微笑着对基蒂说，显然对谈话不太感兴趣，“但你喜欢维护最离奇理论的那股热情，却依然如故。”
“卡佳，你站着不好，”丈夫对她说，给她拉过一把椅子，意味深长地看着她。
“哦，而且时间也不多了，”谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇看到孩子们跑出去，补了一句。
领头的是塔尼娅，她穿着紧紧绷着袜子的腿，侧身跳跃着，挥舞着篮子和谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇的帽子，径直跑到他面前。
她大胆地跑到谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇面前，明亮的眼睛——酷似她父亲那双漂亮眼睛——闪着光，把帽子递给他，做出要帮他戴上的样子，用羞怯而友好的微笑缓和了她的放肆。
“瓦莲卡在等着呢，”她说着，小心地把帽子戴在他头上，从谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇的微笑中看出她可以这样做。
瓦莲卡站在门口，穿着一件黄色印花连衣裙，头上扎着白头巾。
“来了，来了，瓦尔瓦拉·安德烈耶夫娜，”谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇说着，喝完咖啡，把手帕和雪茄盒分别放进口袋里。
“我的瓦莲卡多可爱啊！嗯？”谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇一起身，基蒂就对丈夫说道。她说话的声音让谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇能听见，而且显然她是想让他听见。“她长得多好看啊——真是优雅的美！瓦莲卡！”基蒂喊道，“你们去磨坊那边的小树林吗？我们去找你们。”
“你肯定忘了你的身体状况，基蒂，”老公爵夫人匆匆走到门口说，“你不能那么大声喊叫。”
瓦莲卡听见基蒂的声音和她母亲的责备，轻快急促地走到基蒂面前。她动作的迅速，她泛红而热切的脸庞，一切都显示出她心里正发生着什么不寻常的事。基蒂知道是怎么回事，而且一直在注意观察她。她此刻叫住瓦莲卡，只是为了在心里为她祝福，为了那件重要的事——基蒂觉得，这件事今天午饭后在树林里一定会发生。
“瓦莲卡，如果那件事发生，我会非常高兴，”她吻着她低声说。
“你和我们一起去吗？”瓦莲卡慌乱地对列文说，假装没听见刚才说的话。
“我去，但只到打谷场，到那儿我就停下了。”
“哎呀，你去那儿干嘛？”基蒂问。
“我得去看看那些新马车，核对一下账单，”列文说，“你们会在哪儿？”
“在露台上。”
Darya Alexandrovna spent the summer with her children at Pokrovskoe, at
her sister Kitty Levin’s. The house on her own estate was quite in
ruins, and Levin and his wife had persuaded her to spend the summer
with them. Stepan Arkadyevitch greatly approved of the arrangement. He
said he was very sorry his official duties prevented him from spending
the summer in the country with his family, which would have been the
greatest happiness for him; and remaining in Moscow, he came down to
the country from time to time for a day or two. Besides the Oblonskys,
with all their children and their governess, the old princess too came
to stay that summer with the Levins, as she considered it her duty to
watch over her inexperienced daughter in her _interesting condition_.
Moreover, Varenka, Kitty’s friend abroad, kept her promise to come to
Kitty when she was married, and stayed with her friend. All of these
were friends or relations of Levin’s wife. And though he liked them
all, he rather regretted his own Levin world and ways, which was
smothered by this influx of the “Shtcherbatsky element,” as he called
it to himself. Of his own relations there stayed with him only Sergey
Ivanovitch, but he too was a man of the Koznishev and not the Levin
stamp, so that the Levin spirit was utterly obliterated.
In the Levins’ house, so long deserted, there were now so many people
that almost all the rooms were occupied, and almost every day it
happened that the old princess, sitting down to table, counted them all
over, and put the thirteenth grandson or granddaughter at a separate
table. And Kitty, with her careful housekeeping, had no little trouble
to get all the chickens, turkeys, and geese, of which so many were
needed to satisfy the summer appetites of the visitors and children.
The whole family were sitting at dinner. Dolly’s children, with their
governess and Varenka, were making plans for going to look for
mushrooms. Sergey Ivanovitch, who was looked up to by all the party for
his intellect and learning, with a respect that almost amounted to awe,
surprised everyone by joining in the conversation about mushrooms.
“Take me with you. I am very fond of picking mushrooms,” he said,
looking at Varenka; “I think it’s a very nice occupation.”
“Oh, we shall be delighted,” answered Varenka, coloring a little. Kitty
exchanged meaningful glances with Dolly. The proposal of the learned
and intellectual Sergey Ivanovitch to go looking for mushrooms with
Varenka confirmed certain theories of Kitty’s with which her mind had
been very busy of late. She made haste to address some remark to her
mother, so that her look should not be noticed. After dinner Sergey
Ivanovitch sat with his cup of coffee at the drawing-room window, and
while he took part in a conversation he had begun with his brother, he
watched the door through which the children would start on the
mushroom-picking expedition. Levin was sitting in the window near his
brother.
Kitty stood beside her husband, evidently awaiting the end of a
conversation that had no interest for her, in order to tell him
something.
“You have changed in many respects since your marriage, and for the
better,” said Sergey Ivanovitch, smiling to Kitty, and obviously little
interested in the conversation, “but you have remained true to your
passion for defending the most paradoxical theories.”
“Katya, it’s not good for you to stand,” her husband said to her,
putting a chair for her and looking significantly at her.
“Oh, and there’s no time either,” added Sergey Ivanovitch, seeing the
children running out.
At the head of them all Tanya galloped sideways, in her tightly-drawn
stockings, and waving a basket and Sergey Ivanovitch’s hat, she ran
straight up to him.
Boldly running up to Sergey Ivanovitch with shining eyes, so like her
father’s fine eyes, she handed him his hat and made as though she would
put it on for him, softening her freedom by a shy and friendly smile.
“Varenka’s waiting,” she said, carefully putting his hat on, seeing
from Sergey Ivanovitch’s smile that she might do so.
Varenka was standing at the door, dressed in a yellow print gown, with
a white kerchief on her head.
“I’m coming, I’m coming, Varvara Andreevna,” said Sergey Ivanovitch,
finishing his cup of coffee, and putting into their separate pockets
his handkerchief and cigar-case.
“And how sweet my Varenka is! eh?” said Kitty to her husband, as soon
as Sergey Ivanovitch rose. She spoke so that Sergey Ivanovitch could
hear, and it was clear that she meant him to do so. “And how
good-looking she is—such a refined beauty! Varenka!” Kitty shouted.
“Shall you be in the mill copse? We’ll come out to you.”
“You certainly forget your condition, Kitty,” said the old princess,
hurriedly coming out at the door. “You mustn’t shout like that.”
Varenka, hearing Kitty’s voice and her mother’s reprimand, went with
light, rapid steps up to Kitty. The rapidity of her movement, her
flushed and eager face, everything betrayed that something out of the
common was going on in her. Kitty knew what this was, and had been
watching her intently. She called Varenka at that moment merely in
order mentally to give her a blessing for the important event which, as
Kitty fancied, was bound to come to pass that day after dinner in the
wood.
“Varenka, I should be very happy if a certain something were to
happen,” she whispered as she kissed her.
“And are you coming with us?” Varenka said to Levin in confusion,
pretending not to have heard what had been said.
“I am coming, but only as far as the threshing-floor, and there I shall
stop.”
“Why, what do you want there?” said Kitty.
“I must go to have a look at the new wagons, and to check the invoice,”
said Levin; “and where will you be?”
“On the terrace.”
