Page 1525 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

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

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