He hurriedly jumped up, hardly awake, and kept his eyes fixed on her, as he put on his dressing gown; then he stopped, still looking at her. He had to go, but he could not tear himself away from her eyes.
He thought he loved her face, knew her expression, her eyes, but never had he seen it like this. How hateful and horrible he seemed to himself, thinking of the distress he had caused her yesterday. Her flushed face, fringed with soft curling hair under her nightcap, was radiant with joy and courage.
Though there was so little that was artificial or pretended in Kitty's character in general, Levin was struck by what was revealed now, when suddenly all disguises were thrown off and the very kernel of her soul shone in her eyes. And in this simplicity and nakedness of her soul, she, the very woman he loved in her, was more manifest than ever. She looked at him, smiling; but all at once her brows twitched, she threw up her head, and, going quickly up to him, clutched his hand and pressed close up to him, breathing her hot breath upon him. She was in pain and was, as it were, complaining to him of her suffering. And for the first minute, from habit, it seemed to him that he was to blame. But in her eyes there was a tenderness that told him that she was far from reproaching him, that she loved him for her sufferings. `If not I, who is to blame for it?' he thought unconsciously, seeking someone responsible for this suffering for him to punish; but there was no one responsible. She was suffering, complaining, and triumphing in her sufferings, and rejoicing in them, and loving them.
He saw that something sublime was being accomplished in her soul, but what?
He could not make it out. It was beyond his understanding.
`I have sent to mamma. You go quickly to fetch Lizaveta Petrovna....
Kostia!... Never mind - it's over.'
She moved away from him and rang the bell.
`Well, go now; Pasha's coming. I am all right.'
And Levin saw with astonishment that she had taken up the knitting she had brought in in the night, and had begun working at it again.
As Levin was going out of one door, he heard the maidservant come in at the other. He stood at the door and heard Kitty giving exact directions to the maid, and beginning to help her move the bedstead.
He dressed, and while they were putting in his horse, as there were no hacks about as yet, he ran again up to the bedroom, not on tiptoe, it seemed to him, but on wings. Two maidservants were carefully shifting something about in the bedroom. Kitty was walking about knitting rapidly and giving directions.
`I'm going for the doctor. They have sent for Lizaveta Petrovna, but I'll go on there too. Isn't there anything wanted? Yes - shall I go to Dolly's?'
She looked at him, obviously not hearing what he was saying.
`Yes, yes. Do go,' she said quickly, frowning and waving her hand to him.
He had just gone into the drawing room, when suddenly a plaintive moan sounded from the bedroom, smothered instantly. He stood still, and for a long while he could not understand.
`Yes, that is she,' he said to himself, and, clutching at his head, he ran downstairs.
`Lord have mercy on us! Forgive us! Help us!' he repeated the words that for some reason came suddenly to his lips. And he, an unbeliever, repeated these words not with his lips only. At that instant he knew that all his doubts, even the impossibility of believing with his reason, of which he was aware in himself, did not in the least hinder his turning to God. All of that now floated out of his soul like dust. To whom was he to turn if not to Him in whose hands he felt himself, his soul, and his love?
The horse was not yet ready, but feeling a peculiar concentration of his physical forces and his intellect on what he had to do, he, losing no minute, started off on foot without waiting for the horse, and told Kouzma to overtake him.
At the corner he met a night hack driving hurriedly. In the little sleigh, wrapped in a velvet cloak, sat Lizaveta Petrovna with a kerchief round her head. `Thank God! thank God!' he said, overjoyed to recognize her little fair face which wore a peculiarly serious, even stern expression.
Telling the driver not to stop, he ran along beside her.
`For two hours, then? Not more?' she inquired. `You should let Piotr Dmitrievich know, but don't hurry him. And get some opium at the chemist's.'
`So you think that it will go well? Lord have mercy on us and help us!' Levin said, seeing his own horse driving out of the gate. Jumping into the sleigh beside Kouzma, he told him to drive to the doctor's.
[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]
TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 7, Chapter 14[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 14 The doctor was not yet up, and the footman said that `he had been up late, and had given orders not to be waked, but would get up soon.' The footman was cleaning the lamp chimneys, and seemed very busy about them. This concentration of the footman upon his lamps, and his indifference to what was passing in Levin, at first astounded him, but immediately on considering the question he realized that no one knew or was bound to know his feelings, and that it was all the more necessary to act calmly, sensibly, and resolutely to get through this wall of indifference and attain his aim. `Don't be in a hurry or let anything slip,' Levin said to himself, feeling a greater and greater flow of physical energy and attention to all he had yet to do.
Having ascertained that the doctor was not getting up, Levin considered various plans, and decided on the following one; that Kouzma should go for another doctor, while he himself should go to the chemist's for opium, and if, when he came back, the doctor had not yet begun to get up, he would, either by tipping the footman, or by force, wake the doctor at all hazards.
