As soon as Stepan Arkadyevitch entered the drawing-room, he made his excuses and explained that he had been detained by a certain prince who was always his scapegoat for all his delays and absences. In a twinkling he presented his guests to one another, furnished Koznuishef and Karenin a subject of conversation, — the Russification of Poland, which they instantly grappled with, also enlisting Pestsof in the discussion. Then, tapping Turovtsuin on the shoulder, he whispered some jest into his ear and sat him down between his wife and Prince Shcherbatsky, Then he complimented Kitty on her beauty and introduced young Shcherbatsky to Karenin. In a twinkling he had so worked on all this mass of social dough that it began to seem like a salon and the voices intermingled in gay confusion.
Konstantin Levin was the only guest not on hand.
But even this was a fortunate circumstance, because when Stepan Arkadyevitch went into the dining-room he discovered to his dismay that the port and sherry had come from Des Prés and not from Lévy, and he seized the opportunity to send the coachman in all haste to Lévy's, and then he returned to the drawing-room.
Levin met him at the door of the dining-room.
"I am not late, am I?"
"How could you be?" replied Stepan Arkadyevitch, taking him by the arm.
"Are there many people here? Who are they?" asked Levin, blushing involuntarily, and with his glove brushing away the snow from his hat.
"No one but relatives. Kitty is here. Come and let me present you to Karenin."
Stepan Arkadyevitch, notwithstanding his liberal views, knew that a presentation to Karenin could not fail to be flattering, and therefore he regaled his best friends with this pleasure. But at this moment Konstantin Levin was not in a condition to appreciate all the satisfaction which this acquaintance would afford.
He had not seen Kitty since that well-remembered evening when he met Vronsky, except for that glimpse
