ated--
"oh, I don't know. All I know is that we shall soon be dead."

"Why so soon?"

"And do you know, there's less charm in life, when one thinks of
death, but there's more peace."

"On the contrary, the finish is always the best. But I must be
going," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, getting up for the tenth time.

"Oh, no, stay a bit!" said Levin, keeping him. "Now, when shall
we see each other again? I'm going tomorrow."

"I'm a nice person! Why, that's just what I came for! You simply
must come to dinner with us today. Your brother's coming, and
Karenin, my brother-in-law."

"You don't mean to say he's here?" said Levin, and he wanted to
inquire about Kitty. He had heard at the beginning of the winter
that she was at Petersburg with her sister, the wife of the
diplomat, and he did not know whether she had come back or not;
but he changed his mind and did not ask. "Whether she's coming
or not, I don't care," he said to himself.

"So you'll come?"

"Of course."

"At five o'clock, then, and not evening dress."

And Stepan Arkadyevitch got up and went down below to the new
head of his department. Instinct had not misled Stepan
Arkadyevitch. The terrible new head turned out to be an
extremely amenable person, and Stepan Arkadyevitch lunched with
him and stayed on, so that it was four o'clock before he got to
Alexey Alexandrovitch.

Chapter 8

Alexey Alexandrovitch, on coming back from church service, had
spent the whole morning indoors. He had two pieces of business
before him that morning; first, to receive and send on a
deputation from the native tribes which was on its way to
Petersburg, and now at Moscow; secondly, to write the promised
letter to the lawyer. The deputation, though it had been
summoned at Alexey Alexandrovitch's instigation, was not without
its discomforting and even dangerous aspect, and he was glad he
had found it in Moscow. The members of this deputation had not
the slightest conception of their duty and the part they were to
play. They naively believed that it was their business to lay
before the commission their needs and the actual condition of
things, and to ask assistance of the government, and utterly
failed to grasp that some of their statements and requests
supported the contention of the enemy's side, and so spoiled the
whole business. Alexey Alexandrovitch was busily engaged with
them for a long while, drew up a program for them from which they
were not