conscious that she was bringing him into the atmosphere of serene friendliness from which he could not escape now, any more than he could at the beginning of the winter.
"Shall you stay long?" asked Kitty.
"I do not know," he answered, without regard to what he was saying. The thought that, if he fell back into that tone of calm friendship, he might return home without reaching any decision, occurred to him, and he resolved to rebel against it.
"Why don't you know?"
"I don't know why. It depends on you," he said, and instantly he was horrified at his own words.
She either did not understand his words, or did not want to understand them, for, seeming to stumble once or twice, catching her foot, she hurriedly skated away from him; and, having spoken to Mlle. Linon, she went to the little house, where her skates were removed by the waiting-women.
"My God! what have I done? O Lord God! have pity upon me, and come to my aid!" was Levin's secret prayer; and, feeling the need of taking some violent exercise, he began to describe outer and inner curves on the ice.
At this instant a young man, the best among the recent skaters, came out of the café with his skates on, and a cigarette in his mouth; with one spring he slid down, slipping and leaping from step to step, and, without even changing the easy position of his arms, skated down and out upon the ice.
"Ah, that is a new trick," said Levin to himself, and he climbed up to the top of the bank to try the new trick.
"Don't you kill yourself! it needs practice," shouted Nikolaï Shcherbatsky.
Levin went up to the platform, got as good a start as he could, and then flew down the steps preserving his balance with his arms; but at the last step he stumbled, made a violent effort to recover himself, regained his equilibrium, and with a laugh glided out upon the ice.
"Charming, glorious fellow," thought Kitty, at this
