At nine o'clock they heard the bell and the faint vibration of a carriage over the mud.

"Well, here's visitors come to us, and you won't be dull," said Agafea Mihalovna, getting up and going to the door.

But Levin overtook her.

His work was not going well now, and he was glad of a visitor, whoever it might be.

Running halfway down the staircase, Levin caught a sound he knew, a familiar cough in the hall.