“All right, then, let’s dine together.”

“Dine together? But I have nothing very particular, only a few words to say, and a question I want to ask you, and we can have a talk afterwards.”

“Well, say the few words, then, at once, and we’ll gossip after dinner.”

“Well, it’s this,” said Levin; “but it’s of no importance, though.”

His face all at once took an expression of anger from the effort he was making to surmount his shyness.

“What are the Shtcherbatskys doing? Everything as it used to be?” he said.

Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had long known that Levin was