Anna Karenina - Part 7 - Page 40/103

"Please, don't be frightened, it's all right. I'm not a bit

afraid," she said, seeing his scared face, and she pressed his

hand to her bosom and then to her lips.

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 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 night cap, was radiant with joy and

courage.

Though there was so little that was complex or artificial 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

...Kostya!... Nothing, 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 begun working at it

again.

As Levin was going out of one door, he heard the maid-servant

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.