Page 1214 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Yes, he’s very nice to me; but..’
‘It’s not as it was with poor Nikolay...you really cared
for each other,’ Levin finished. ‘Why not speak of him?’
he added. ‘I sometimes blame myself for not; it ends in

one’s forgetting. Ah, how terrible and dear he was!... Yes,
what were we talking about?’ Levin said, after a pause.
‘You think he can’t fall in love,’ said Kitty, translating
into her own language.
‘It’s not so much that he can’t fall in love,’ Levin said,
smiling, ‘but he has not the weakness necessary.... I’ve
always envied him, and even now, when I’m so happy, I
still envy him.’
‘You envy him for not being able to fall in love?’
‘I envy him for being better than I,’ said Levin. ‘He
does not live for himself. His whole life is subordinated to
his duty. And that’s why he can be calm and contented.’
‘And you?’ Kitty asked, with an ironical and loving
smile.
She could never have explained the chain of thought
that made her smile; but the last link in it was that her
husband, in exalting his brother and abasing himself, was
not quite sincere. Kitty knew that this insincerity came
from his love for his brother, from his sense of shame at

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