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As he rode up to the house in the happiest frame of mind, Levin

heard the bell ring at the side of the principal entrance of the

house.

"Yes, that's someone from the railway station," he thought, "just

the time to be here from the Moscow train ... Who could it be?

What if it's brother Nikolay? He did say: 'Maybe I'll go to the

waters, or maybe I'll come down to you.'" He felt dismayed and

vexed for the first minute, that his brother Nikolay's presence

should come to disturb his happy mood of spring. But he felt

ashamed of the feeling, and at once he opened, as it were, the

arms of his soul, and with a softened feeling of joy and

expectation, now he hoped with all his heart that it was his

brother. He pricked up his horse, and riding out from behind the

acacias he saw a hired three-horse sledge from the railway

station, and a gentleman in a fur coat. It was not his brother.

"Oh, if it were only some nice person one could talk to a

little!" he thought.