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On the way home Levin asked all details of Kitty's illness and

the Shtcherbatskys' plans, and though he would have been ashamed

to admit it, he was pleased at what he heard. He was pleased that

there was still hope, and still more pleased that she should be

suffering who had made him suffer so much. But when Stepan

Arkadyevitch began to speak of the causes of Kitty's illness, and

mentioned Vronsky's name, Levin cut him short.

"I have no right whatever to know family matters, and, to tell

the truth, no interest in them either."

Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled hardly perceptibly, catching the

instantaneous change he knew so well in Levin's face, which had

become as gloomy as it had been bright a minute before.

"Have you quite settled about the forest with Ryabinin?" asked

Levin.

"Yes, it's settled. The price is magnificent; thirty-eight

thousand. Eight straight away, and the rest in six years. I've

been bothering about it for ever so long. No one would give

more."