"There is, brother! You know the type of the women in Ossian?.... these women that you see in dreams? .... But they really exist, and are terrible. Woman, you see, is an inexhaustible theme; you can never cease studying her,—she always presents some new phase."
"So much the better not to study her, then."
"Not at all. Some mathematician has said that happiness consisted in searching for truth and never finding it."
Levin listened, and said no more; and, notwithstanding all the efforts which he made, he could not in the least enter into his friend's soul, and understand his feelings and the charm of studying such women.
CHAPTER XV
The place where the birds collected was not far away, by a small stream, flowing through an aspen grove. Levin got out and took Oblonsky to a nook in a mossy, somewhat marshy meadow, where the snow had already melted. He himself went to the opposite side, near a double birch, rested his gun on the fork of a dead branch, took off his kaftan, clasped a belt about his waist, and insured the free motion of his arms.
Old gray Laska, following him step by step, sat down cautiously in front of him, and pricked up her ears. The sun was setting behind the great forest, and against the bright sky the young birches and aspens stood out distinctly, with their bending branches and their swelling buds.
In the forest, where the snow still lay, the low rippling sound of waters could be heard running in their narrow channels; little birds were chirping, and flying from tree to tree. In the intervals of perfect silence one could hear the rustling of the last year's leaves, moved by the thawing earth or the pushing herbs.
"Why, one really can hear and see the grass grow!" said Levin to himself, as he saw a moist and slate-col-
