Part 7. Chapter 6.

"Perhaps they're not at home?" said Levin, as he went into the hall of Countess Bola's house. "At home; please walk in," said the porter, resolutely removing his overcoat. "How annoying!" thought Levin with a sigh, taking off one glove and stroking his hat. pensa Levin avec un soupir, enlevant un gant et caressant son chapeau. "What did I come for? What have I to say to them?" As he passed through the first drawing room Levin met in the doorway Countess Bola, giving some order to a servant with a care-worn and severe face. En traversant le premier salon, Levin rencontra sur le seuil la comtesse Bola, donnant un peu d'ordre à un domestique au visage usé et sévère. On seeing Levin she smiled, and asked him to come into the little drawing room, where he heard voices. In this room there were sitting in armchairs the two daughters of the countess, and a Moscow colonel, whom Levin knew. Levin went up, greeted them, and sat down beside the sofa with his hat on his knees.

"How is your wife? Have you been at the concert? We couldn't go. Mamma had to be at the funeral service." "Yes, I heard…. What a sudden death!" said Levin.

The countess came in, sat down on the sofa, and she too asked after his wife and inquired about the concert.

Levin answered, and repeated an inquiry about Madame Apraksina's sudden death. Levin répondit et répéta une enquête sur la mort subite de Mme Apraksina. "But she was always in weak health." "Were you at the opera yesterday?" "Yes, I was." "Lucca was very good." "Yes, very good," he said, and as it was utterly of no consequence to him what they thought of him, he began repeating what they had heard a hundred times about the characteristics of the singer's talent. Countess Bola pretended to be listening. Then, when he had said enough and paused, the colonel, who had been silent till then, began to talk. The colonel too talked of the opera, and about culture. At last, after speaking of the proposed folle journée at Turin's, the colonel laughed, got up noisily, and went away. Enfin, après avoir parlé de la folle journée proposée chez Turin, le colonel rit, se leva bruyamment et s'en alla. Levin too rose, but he saw by the face of the countess that it was not yet time for him to go. He must stay two minutes longer. He sat down.

But as he was thinking all the while how stupid it was, he could not find a subject for conversation, and sat silent.

"You are not going to the public meeting? They say it will be very interesting," began the countess. "No, I promised my belle-soeur to fetch her from it," said Levin. A silence followed. The mother once more exchanged glances with a daughter.

"Well, now I think the time has come," thought Levin, and he got up. The ladies shook hands with him, and begged him to say mille choses to his wife for them. Ponios paspaudė jam ranką ir maldavo, kad jis pasakytų žmonai dėl jų mylių. De dames schudden hem de hand en smeekten hem om mille choses tegen zijn vrouw te zeggen voor hen.

The porter asked him, as he gave him his coat, "Where is your honor staying?" Portjė paklausė jo, paduodamas paltą: "Kur tavo garbė likti?" and immediately wrote down his address in a big handsomely bound book. et a immédiatement noté son adresse dans un grand livre joliment relié.

"Of course I don't care, but still I feel ashamed and awfully stupid," thought Levin, consoling himself with the reflection that everyone does it. "Bien sûr, je m'en fiche, mais je me sens quand même honteux et terriblement stupide," pensa Levin, se consolant avec le reflet que tout le monde le fait. He drove to the public meeting, where he was to find his sister-in-law, so as to drive home with her.

At the public meeting of the committee there were a great many people, and almost all the highest society. Levin was in time for the report which, as everyone said, was very interesting. Levin était à temps pour le rapport qui, comme tout le monde l'a dit, était très intéressant. When the reading of the report was over, people moved about, and Levin met Sviazhsky, who invited him very pressingly to come that evening to a meeting of the Society of Agriculture, where a celebrated lecture was to be delivered, and Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had only just come from the races, and many other acquaintances; and Levin heard and uttered various criticisms on the meeting, on the new fantasia, and on a public trial. À la fin de la lecture du rapport, les gens se déplaçaient et Levin rencontra Sviazhsky, qui l'invita très vivement à venir ce soir-là à une réunion de la Société d'agriculture, où une conférence célèbre devait être prononcée, et Stepan Arkadyevitch, qui venait à peine de venir des races et de bien d'autres connaissances; et Levin a entendu et émis diverses critiques sur la réunion, sur la nouvelle fantaisie et sur un procès public. But, probably from the mental fatigue he was beginning to feel, he made a blunder in speaking of the trial, and this blunder he recalled several times with vexation. Speaking of the sentence upon a foreigner who had been condemned in Russia, and of how unfair it would be to punish him by exile abroad, Levin repeated what he had heard the day before in conversation from an acquaintance.

"I think sending him abroad is much the same as punishing a carp by putting it into the water," said Levin. "Je pense que l'envoyer à l'étranger revient à punir une carpe en la mettant à l'eau", a déclaré Levin. Then he recollected that this idea, which he had heard from an acquaintance and uttered as his own, came from a fable of Krilov's, and that the acquaintance had picked it up from a newspaper article. Puis il se rappela que cette idée, qu'il avait entendue d'une connaissance et exprimée comme la sienne, venait d'une fable de Krilov, et que la connaissance l'avait reprise d'un article de journal. After driving home with his sister-in-law, and finding Kitty in good spirits and quite well, Levin drove to the club. Après être rentré à la maison avec sa belle-sœur et avoir trouvé Kitty de bonne humeur et plutôt bien, Levin s'est rendu au club.