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"From Stiva?" Darya Alexandrovna asked with surprise.

"Yes; he writes that you are here, and that he thinks you might

allow me to be of use to you," said Levin, and as he said it he

became suddenly embarrassed, and, stopping abruptly, he walked on

in silence by the wagonette, snapping off the buds of the lime

trees and nibbling them. He was embarrassed through a sense that

Darya Alexandrovna would be annoyed by receiving from an outsider

help that should by rights have come from her own husband. Darya

Alexandrovna certainly did not like this little way of Stepan

Arkadyevitch's of foisting his domestic duties on others. And she

was at once aware that Levin was aware of this. It was just for

this fineness of perception, for this delicacy, that Darya

Alexandrovna liked Levin.