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Now he was glad to get away from the neighborhood of the

Shtcherbatskys, and still more from his farm work, especially on

a shooting expedition, which always in trouble served as the best

consolation.

Chapter 25

In the Surovsky district there was no railway nor service of post

horses, and Levin drove there with his own horses in his big,

old-fashioned carriage.

He stopped halfway at a well-to-do peasant's to feed his horses.

A bald, well-preserved old man, with a broad, red beard, gray on

his cheeks, opened the gate, squeezing against the gatepost to

let the three horses pass. Directing the coachman to a place

under the shed in the big, clean, tidy yard, with charred,

old-fashioned ploughs in it, the old man asked Levin to come into

the parlor. A cleanly dressed young woman, with clogs on her bare

feet, was scrubbing the floor in the new outer room. She was

frightened of the dog, that ran in after Levin, and uttered a

shriek, but began laughing at her own fright at once when she was

told the dog would not hurt her. Pointing Levin with her bare arm

to the door into the parlor, she bent down again, hiding her

handsome face, and went on scrubbing.