Page 1539 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 15

He did not know whether it was late or early. The
candles had all burned out. Dolly had just been in the
study and had suggested to the doctor that he should lie
down. Levin sat listening to the doctor’s stories of a quack
mesmerizer and looking at the ashes of his cigarette. There
had been a period of repose, and he had sunk into
oblivion. He had completely forgotten what was going on
now. He heard the doctor’s chat and understood it.
Suddenly there came an unearthly shriek. The shriek was
so awful that Levin did not even jump up, but holding his
breath, gazed in terrified inquiry at the doctor. The doctor
put his head on one side, listened, and smiled approvingly.
Everything was so extraordinary that nothing could strike
Levin as strange. ‘I suppose it must be so,’ he thought, and
still sat where he was. Whose scream was this? He jumped
up, ran on tiptoe to the bedroom, edged round Lizaveta
Petrovna and the princess, and took up his position at
Kitty’s pillow. The scream had subsided, but there was
some change now. What it was he did not see and did not
comprehend, and he had no wish to see or comprehend.
But he saw it by the face of Lizaveta Petrovna. Lizaveta

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