Page 1534 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

wife, and on the contrary to soothe her and keep up her
courage. Without allowing himself even to think of what
was to come, of how it would end, judging from his
inquiries as to the usual duration of these ordeals, Levin

had in his imagination braced himself to bear up and to
keep a tight rein on his feelings for five hours, and it had
seemed to him he could do this. But when he came back
from the doctor’s and saw her sufferings again, he fell to
repeating more and more frequently: ‘Lord, have mercy
on us, and succor us!’ He sighed, and flung his head up,
and began to feel afraid he could not bear it, that he would
burst into tears or run away. Such agony it was to him.
And only one hour had passed.
But after that hour there passed another hour, two
hours, three, the full five hours he had fixed as the furthest
limit of his sufferings, and the position was still unchanged;
and he was still bearing it because there was nothing to be
done but bear it; every instant feeling that he had reached
the utmost limits of his endurance, and that his heart
would break with sympathy and pain.
But still the minutes passed by and the hours, and still
hours more, and his misery and horror grew and were
more and more intense.

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