of their family, of the highest degree of breeding (talent and intellect, of course that’s another matter), and have never curried favor with anyone, never depended on anyone for anything, like my father and my grandfather.  And I know many such.  You think it mean of me to count the trees in my forest, while you make Ryabinin a present of thirty thousand; but you get rents from your lands and I don’t know what, while I don’t and so I prize what’s come to me from my ancestors or been won by hard work....  We are aristocrats, and not those who can only exist by favor of the powerful of this world, and who can be bought for twopence halfpenny.”

“Well, but whom are you attacking?  I agree with you,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, sincerely and genially; though he was aware that in the class of those who could be bought for twopence halfpenny Levin was reckoning him too.  Levin’s warmth gave him genuine pleasure.  “Whom are you attacking?  Though a good deal is not true that you say about Vronsky, but I won’t talk about that.  I tell you straight out, if I were you, I should go back with me to Moscow, and...”

“No; I don’t know whether you know it or not, but I don’t care.  And I tell you—­I did make an offer and was rejected, and Katerina Alexandrovna is nothing now to me but a painful and humiliating reminiscence.”

“What ever for?  What nonsense!”

“But we won’t talk about it.  Please forgive me, if I’ve been nasty,” said Levin.  Now that he had opened his heart, he became as he had been in the morning.  “You’re not angry with me, Stiva?  Please don’t be angry,” he said, and smiling, he took his hand.

“Of course not; not a bit, and no reason to be.  I’m glad we’ve spoken openly.  And do you know, stand-shooting in the morning is unusually good—­why not go?  I couldn’t sleep the night anyway, but I might go straight from shooting to the station.”

“Capital.”

Chapter 18

Although all Vronsky’s inner life was absorbed in his passion, his external life unalterably and inevitably followed along the old accustomed lines of his social and regimental ties and interests.  The interests of his regiment took an important place in Vronsky’s life, both because he was fond of the regiment, and because the regiment was fond of him.  They were not only fond of Vronsky in his regiment, they respected him too, and were proud of him; proud that this man, with his immense wealth, his brilliant education and abilities, and the path open before him to every kind of success, distinction, and ambition, had disregarded all that, and of all the interests of life had the interests of his regiment and his comrades nearest to his heart.  Vronsky was aware of his comrades’ view of him, and in addition to his liking for the life, he felt bound to keep up that reputation.