Anna Karenina

trying
to delay satiety as long as possible, and with that object are
eating oysters...."
"Why, of course," objected Stepan Arkadyevich. "But that's just
the aim of culture- to make everything a source of enjoyment."
{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_X ^paragraph 40}
"Well, if that's its aim, I'd rather be a savage."
"You are a savage, as it is. All you Levins are savages."
Levin sighed. He remembered his brother Nikolai, and felt ashamed
and pained, and he scowled; but Oblonsky began speaking of a subject
which at once drew his attention.
"Oh, I say, are you going tonight to our people- the Shcherbatskys',
I mean?" he said, his eyes sparkling significantly as he pushed away
the empty rough shells, and drew the cheese toward him.
"Yes, I shall certainly go," replied Levin; "though I fancied the
Princess was not very warm in her invitation."
{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_X ^paragraph 45}
"What nonsense! That's her manner.... Come, boy, the soup!... That's
her manner- grande dame," said Stepan Arkadyevich. "I'm coming, too,
but I have to go to the Countess Bonin's rehearsal. Come, isn't it
true that you're a savage? How do you explain the sudden way in
which you vanished from Moscow? The Shcherbatskys were continually
asking me about you, as though I ought to know. The only thing I
know is that you always do what no one else does."
"Yes," said Levin, slowly and with emotion, "you're right. I am a
savage. Only, my savageness is not in having gone away, but in
coming now. Now I have come..."
"Oh, what a lucky fellow you are!" broke in Stepan Arkadyevich,
looking into Levin's eyes.
"Why?"
"I can tell the gallant steeds," by some... I don't know what...
'paces'; I can tell youths 'by their faces,'" declaimed Stepan
Arkadyevich. "Everything is before you."
{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_X ^paragraph 50}
"Why, is it over for you already?"
"No; not over exactly, but the future is yours, and the present is
mine, and the present- well, it's only fair to middling."
"How so?"
"Oh, things aren't right. But I don't want to talk of myself,
besides I can't explain it all," said Stepan Arkadyevich. "Well, why
have you come to Moscow, then?... Hi! clear the table!" he called to
the Tatar.
"Are you trying to surmise?" responded Levin, his eyes, gleaming
in their depth, fixed on Stepan Arkadyevich.
{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_X ^paragraph 55}
"I am, but I can't be the first to talk about it. You can see by
that whether I surmise right or wrong," said Stepan Arkadyevich,
gazing at Levin with a subtle smile.
"Well, and what have you to say to me?" said Levin in a quivering
voice, feeling that all the muscles of his face were quivering too.
"How do you look at it?
Stepan Arkadyevich slowly emptied his glass of Chablis, never taking
his eyes off Levin.
"I?" said Stepan Arkadyevich. "There's nothing I desire so much as
that- nothing! It would be the best thing that could happen."
"But you're not making a mistake? You know what