Page 1088 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

quivering. ‘He is dying!’ she whispered. ‘I’m afraid will die
this minute.’
Both of them ran to him. He was sitting raised up with
one elbow on the bed, his long back bent, and his head

hanging low.
‘How do you feel?’ Levin asked in a whisper, after a
silence.
‘I feel I’m setting off,’ Nikolay said with difficulty, but
with extreme distinctness, screwing the words out of
himself. He did not raise his head, but simply turned his
eyes upwards, without their reaching his brother’s face.
‘Katya, go away!’ he added.
Levin jumped up, and with a peremptory whisper
made her go out.
‘I’m setting off,’ he said again.
‘Why do you think so?’ said Levin, so as to say
something.
‘Because I’m setting off,’ he repeated, as though he had
a liking for the phrase. ‘It’s the end.’
Marya Nikolaevna went up to him.
‘You had better lie down; you’d be easier,’ she said.
‘I shall lie down soon enough,’ he pronounced slowly,
‘when I’m dead,’ he said sarcastically, wrathfully. ‘Well,
you can lay me down if you like.’

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