Anna Karenina

Before the ladies are up, the wagonette and trap are ready. Laska the dog, "aware since early morning that they were going shooting," sits excitedly watching the door. First out: Vassenka Veslovsky "in new high boots that reached half-way up his thick thighs, in a green blouse" with "a brand-new English gun without a sling." Then Stepan Arkadyevitch with his pointer Krak, "dressed in rough leggings and spats, in torn trousers and a short coat" with "a wreck of a hat" but his gun "a perfect gem." "Vassenka Veslovsky had had no notion before that it was truly _chic_ for a sportsman to be in tatters, but to have his shooting outfit of the best quality." Seeing Stepan "radiant in his rags," Veslovsky resolves to adopt this style next time. "Well, and what about our host?" "A young wife," Stepan smiles. "Yes, and such a charming one!" "He came down dressed. No doubt he's run up to her again." Indeed, "Levin had run up again to his wife to ask her once more if she forgave him for his idiocy yesterday, and, moreover, to beg her for Christ's sake to be more careful." He begs her to stay away from the children and to "send him a note next morning by a servant on horseback." "Kitty was distressed, as she always was, at parting for a couple of days from her husband, but when she saw his eager figure" and "a sort of sportsman elation and excitement incomprehensible to her, she forgot her own chagrin for the sake of his pleasure, and said good-bye to him cheerfully." Levin runs out: "Pardon, gentlemen!" giving instructions about lunch and the chestnut horse. A carpenter stops him with a question about the staircase in the lodge he's building. The carpenter "had spoiled the staircase, fitting it together without calculating the space" so the steps slope. He wants to add three steps to fix it. "You should have listened to me," Levin says with annoyance. He sketches in the dust with a ramrod: "There, do you see?" The carpenter finally understands: "It seems it'll be best to make a new one." "Well, then, do it as you're told," Levin shouts, seating himself in the wagonette. "Levin felt now at leaving behind all his family and household cares such an eager sense of joy in life and expectation that he was not disposed to talk." His only thoughts: whether they'd start game, whether Laska would show well against Krak, whether he'd shoot well. "Not to disgrace himself before a new spectator—not to be outdone by Oblonsky—that too was a thought that crossed his brain." Listening to Veslovsky's cheerful chatter, "Levin felt ashamed to think how unfair he had been to him the day before. Vassenka was really a nice fellow, simple, good-hearted, and very good-humored." Levin "rather disliked his holiday attitude to life" and his assumption of elegance with "long nails and a stylish cap" but "this could be forgiven for the sake of his good nature and good breeding." After two miles, Veslovsky feels for his cigar and pocketbook with thirty-seven pounds: "Do you know what, Levin, I'll gallop home on that left trace-horse." Levin, calculating Veslovsky "could hardly weigh less than seventeen stone," sends the coachman instead. "The coachman rode back on the trace-horse, and Levin himself drove the remaining pair."