第272页 / 共2288页

Laska kept poking her head under his hand. He stroked her, and

she promptly curled up at his feet, laying her head on a hindpaw.

And in token of all now being well and satisfactory, she opened

her mouth a little, smacked her lips, and settling her sticky

lips more comfortably about her old teeth, she sank into blissful

repose. Levin watched all her movements attentively.

"That's what I'll do," he said to himself; "that's what I'll do!

Nothing's amiss.... All's well."

Chapter 28

After the ball, early next morning, Anna Arkadyevna sent her

husband a telegram that she was leaving Moscow the same day.

"No, I must go, I must go"; she explained to her sister-in-law

the change in her plans in a tone that suggested that she had to

remember so many things that there was no enumerating them: "no,

it had really better be today!"

Stepan Arkadyevitch was not dining at home, but he promised to

come and see his sister off at seven o'clock.