Page 1081 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

petted him, and talked of cases of recovery and all went
well; so then she must know. The proof that her behavior
and Agafea Mihalovna’s was not instinctive, animal,
irrational, was that apart from the physical treatment, the

relief of suffering, both Agafea Mihalovna and Kitty
required for the dying man something else more important
than the physical treatment, and something which had
nothing in common with physical conditions. Agafea
Mihalovna, speaking of the man just dead, had said: ‘Well,
thank God, he took the sacrament and received
absolution; God grant each one of us such a death.’ Katya
in just the same way, besides all her care about linen,
bedsores, drink, found time the very first day to persuade
the sick man of the necessity of taking the sacrament and
receiving absolution.
On getting back from the sick-room to their own two
rooms for the night, Levin sat with hanging head not
knowing what to do. Not to speak of supper, of preparing
for bed, of considering what they were going to do, he
could not even talk to his wife; he was ashamed to. Kitty,
on the contrary, was more active than usual. She was even
livelier than usual. She ordered supper to be brought,
herself unpacked their things, and herself helped to make
the beds, and did not even forget to sprinkle them with

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