Page 1068 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

In a little dirty room with the painted panels of its walls
filthy with spittle, and conversation audible through the
thin partition from the next room, in a stifling atmosphere
saturated with impurities, on a bedstead moved away from

the wall, there lay covered with a quilt, a body. One arm
of this body was above the quilt, and the wrist, huge as a
rake-handle, was attached, inconceivably it seemed, to the
thin, long bone of the arm smooth from the beginning to
the middle. The head lay sideways on the pillow. Levin
could see the scanty locks wet with sweat on the temples
and tense, transparent-looking forehead.
‘It cannot be that that fearful body was my brother
Nikolay?’ thought Levin. But he went closer, saw the face,
and doubt became impossible. In spite of the terrible
change in the face, Levin had only to glance at those eager
eyes raised at his approach, only to catch the faint
movement of the mouth under the sticky mustache, to
realize the terrible truth that this death-like body was his
living brother.
The glittering eyes looked sternly and reproachfully at
his brother as he drew near. And immediately this glance
established a living relationship between living men. Levin
immediately felt the reproach in the eyes fixed on him,
and felt remorse at his own happiness.

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