‘Here? No, not long, I arrived yesterday … I mean today,’ replied Levin, his nerves preventing him from immediately understanding her question. ‘I was going to call on you,’ he said, and then immediately became embarrassed and went red when he remembered why he was seeking her out. ‘I did not know that you skated, and so well too.’
She studied him carefully, as if wanting to understand the cause of his embarrassment.
‘From you that is praise indeed. Legend has it that you are a first-class skater,’ she said as she brushed off with her small black-gloved hand the needles of hoarfrost which had fallen on to her muff.
‘Yes, I was passionate about skating at one time; I wanted to do it perfectly.’
‘You seem to do everything passionately,’ she said with a smile. ‘I would so like to see you skate. Do put on some skates and let’s skate together.’
‘Skate together! Could that really be possible?’ thought Levin, looking at her.
‘I’ll put some on right away,’ he said.
And he went off to put on some skates.
‘We haven’t seen you here in a long while, sir,’ said the attendant, holding his foot as he tightened the screw on his heel. ‘None of the other gentlemen can hold a candle to you. Will it be all right like that?’ he said, tightening the strap.
‘It’s fine, it’s fine, please hurry up,’ replied Levin, struggling to repress the smile of happiness spontaneously appearing on his face. ‘Yes,’ he thought, ‘this is life, this is happiness! Together, she said, let’s skate together. Should I tell her now? But after all, it’s precisely because I’m afraid to say anything that I am happy now, happy at least in having hope … But then? … No, I must, I must! No more weakness!’
Levin got to his feet, took off his coat, and after taking a run-up on the rough ice by the hut, sprinted on to the smooth ice and glided off without effort, as if he could increase his speed, slow down, and change direction through willpower alone. He approached her diffidently, but once again her smile reassured him.
She gave him her hand and they set off together, picking up speed, and the faster they went, the tighter she clasped his hand.
‘I’m sure I would learn faster with you, I feel more confident with you somehow,’ she said to him.
‘And I have confidence in myself when you lean on me,’ he said, but immediately took fright at what he said and blushed. In fact, as soon as he uttered those words, her face lost all its warmth, like the sun going behind a cloud, and Levin recognized the familiar movement of her face which indicated concentrated thought; a tiny wrinkle puckered her smooth forehead.
‘Is anything the matter? Not that I have any right to ask,’ he said quickly.
‘What do you mean? … No, there is nothing the matter,’ she replied coldly, and added immediately: ‘Have you seen Mademoiselle Linon?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Do go over to her, she’s so fond of you.’
‘What is this? I’ve upset her. Oh Lord, help me!’ thought Levin as he skated over to the old Frenchwoman with grey ringlets sitting on a bench. Smiling and showing her false teeth, she greeted him like an old friend.
‘We’re growing up, as you can see,’ she said, indicating Kitty with her eyes, ‘and growing older. Tiny bear1 has already become big!’ the Frenchwoman went on, chuckling, and she reminded him of his joke about the three young ladies, whom he had called the three bears after the English fairy-tale. ‘Do you remember how you used to say that?’
He had absolutely no recollection of it, but she had been laughing at the joke for ten years now, and was very fond of it.
‘Well, you go off and skate now, off you go. Our Kitty has begun to skate rather well, don’t you think?’
When Levin went over to Kitty again, her face was no longer stern, and her eyes looked as truthful and warm-hearted as ever, but it seemed to Levin that there was a particular, deliberately calm tone to her warm-heartedness. And he felt sad. After talking about her old governess and her eccentricities, she asked him about his life.
‘Isn’t it boring for you being in the country during the winter?’ she said.
‘Oh no, it’s not boring, I’m very busy,’ he replied, feeling that she was subjecting him to her calm tone, from which he would be incapable of freeing himself, just as it had been at the beginning of winter.
‘Have you come for long?’ Kitty asked him.
‘I don’t know,’ he replied, not thinking about what he was saying. The thought occurred to him that if he yielded to her tone of calm friendship, then he would leave again without having resolved anything, so he decided to put up some resistance.
‘Why don’t you know?’
‘I don’t know. It depends on you,’ he said, immediately horrified at his words.
Whether she heard what he said, or just did not want to hear, she seemed to stumble after striking her foot twice, and hurriedly skated away from him. She skated up to Mademoiselle Linon, said something to her, then headed off towards the hut where ladies took off their skates.
‘Heavens, what have I done! Dear God, help me, teach me,’ said Levin, praying, and at the same time feeling a need for strong physical exertion as he picked up speed and started carving large and small circles.
Just then, one of the young men, the best of the new skaters, happened to come out of the café on his skates with a cigarette in his mouth, and after building up speed, he hurled himself down the steps on his skates with a bounce and a clatter. He flew down and glided across the ice without even bothering to alter the casual position of his arms.
‘Ah, that’s a new trick!’ said Levin, and he immediately ran up to try this new trick out for himself.
‘Don’t kill yourself, it needs practice!’ Nikolay Shcherbatsky shouted out to him.
Levin went to the top of the steps, gathered as much speed as he could and hurtled downwards, keeping balance with his arms as he executed this strange movement. He tripped on the last step, but he managed to right himself with a forceful movement after his hand just grazed the ice, and skated off with a laugh.
‘He’s nice, he really is,’ thought Kitty at that moment as she came out of the hut with Mademoiselle Linon and looked at him with a smile of quiet affection, as if he were a favourite brother. ‘And it’s not my fault, surely; I haven’t done anything bad, have I? They say it’s flirting. I know that it’s not him I love; but I still enjoy being with him, and he’s so nice. But why did he have to say that? …’ she wondered.
When he saw Kitty leaving with her mother, who had met her on the steps, Levin stopped and thought for a moment, his face red after all the exertion. He took off his skates and caught up with mother and daughter as they were leaving the garden.
‘I’m very glad to see you,’ said the Princess. ‘We’re at home on Thursdays, as always.’
‘Today, then?’
‘We will be very glad to see you,’ said the Princess stiffly.
Kitty was upset by this stiffness, and she could not repress her desire to smooth over her mother’s coldness. She turned her head and said with a smile:
‘Goodbye.’
It was just then that Stepan Arkadyich entered the Gardens like a conquering hero, his hat set at an angle and his face and eyes shining. But when he went up to his mother-in-law, he answered her questions about Dolly’s health with a sad and guilty expression. After exchanging a few quiet and despondent words with his mother-in-law, he drew himself up and took Levin’s arm.
‘Well, shall we go?’ he asked. ‘I’ve been thinking about you all the time, and I’m very, very glad you have come,’ he said, looking straight at him with a significant expression.
‘Yes, let’s go,’ said the happy Levin, who was still hearing the sound of the voice which had said: ‘Goodbye,’ and seeing the smile with which it was uttered.