“I hope you won’t be dull?”

“I hope not,” said Anna.  “I got a box of books yesterday from Gautier’s.  No, I shan’t be dull.”

“She’s trying to take that tone, and so much the better,” he thought, “or else it would be the same thing over and over again.”

And he set off for the elections without appealing to her for a candid explanation.  It was the first time since the beginning of their intimacy that he had parted from her without a full explanation.  From one point of view this troubled him, but on the other side he felt that it was better so.  “At first there will be, as this time, something undefined kept back, and then she will get used to it.  In any case I can give up anything for her, but not my masculine independence,” he thought.

Chapter 26

In September Levin moved to Moscow for Kitty’s confinement.  He had spent a whole month in Moscow with nothing to do, when Sergey Ivanovitch, who had property in the Kashinsky province, and took great interest in the question of the approaching elections, made ready to set off to the elections.  He invited his brother, who had a vote in the Seleznevsky district, to come with him.  Levin had, moreover, to transact in Kashin some extremely important business relating to the wardship of land and to the receiving of certain redemption money for his sister, who was abroad.

Levin still hesitated, but Kitty, who saw that he was bored in Moscow, and urged him to go, on her own authority ordered him the proper nobleman’s uniform, costing seven pounds.  And that seven pounds paid for the uniform was the chief cause that finally decided Levin to go.  He went to Kashin....

Levin had been six days in Kashin, visiting the assembly each day, and busily engaged about his sister’s business, which still dragged on.  The district marshals of nobility were all occupied with the elections, and it was impossible to get the simplest thing done that depended upon the court of wardship.  The other matter, the payment of the sums due, was met too by difficulties.  After long negotiations over the legal details, the money was at last ready to be paid; but the notary, a most obliging person, could not hand over the order, because it must have the signature of the president, and the president, though he had not given over his duties to a deputy, was at the elections.  All these worrying negotiations, this endless going from place to place, and talking with pleasant and excellent people, who quite saw the unpleasantness of the petitioner’s position, but were powerless to assist him—­all these efforts that yielded no result, led to a feeling of misery in Levin akin to the mortifying helplessness one experiences in dreams when one tries to use physical force.  He felt this frequently as he talked to his most good-natured solicitor.  This solicitor did, it seemed, everything possible, and strained