Page 1529 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 14

The doctor was not yet up, and the footman said that
‘he had been up late, and had given orders not to be
waked, but would get up soon.’ The footman was
cleaning the lamp-chimneys, and seemed very busy about
them. This concentration of the footman upon his lamps,
and his indifference to what was passing in Levin, at first
astounded him, but immediately on considering the
question he realized that no one knew or was bound to
know his feelings, and that it was all the more necessary to
act calmly, sensibly, and resolutely to get through this wall
of indifference and attain his aim.
‘Don’t be in a hurry or let anything slip,’ Levin said to
himself, feeling a greater and greater flow of physical
energy and attention to all that lay before him to do.
Having ascertained that the doctor was not getting up,
Levin considered various plans, and decided on the
following one: that Konzma should go for another doctor,
while he himself should go to the chemist’s for opium,
and if when he came back the doctor had not yet begun to
get up, he would either by tipping the footman, or by
force, wake the doctor at all hazards.

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