Page 1538 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

suffering, and he prayed to God without ceasing. And
every time he was brought back from a moment of
oblivion by a scream reaching him from the bedroom, he
fell into the same strange terror that had come upon him

the first minute. Every time he heard a shriek, he jumped
up, ran to justify himself, remembered on the way that he
was not to blame, and he longed to defend her, to help
her. But as he looked at her, he saw again that help was
impossible, and he was filled with terror and prayed:
‘Lord, have mercy on us, and help us!’ And as time went
on, both these conditions became more intense; the
calmer he became away from her, completely forgetting
her, the more agonizing became both her sufferings and
his feeling of helplessness before them. He jumped up,
would have liked to run away, but ran to her.
Sometimes, when again and again she called upon him,
he blamed her; but seeing her patient, smiling face, and
hearing the words, ‘I am worrying you,’ he threw the
blame on God; but thinking of God, at once he fell to
beseeching God to forgive him and have mercy.

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