Page 333 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

forward to the news that she was married, or just going to
be married, hoping that such news would, like having a
tooth out, completely cure him.
Meanwhile spring came on, beautiful and kindly,

without the delays and treacheries of spring,—one of those
rare springs in which plants, beasts, and man rejoice alike.
This lovely spring roused Levin still more, and
strengthened him in his resolution of renouncing all his
past and building up his lonely life firmly and
independently. Though many of the plans with which he
had returned to the country had not been carried out, still
his most important resolution—that of purity—had been
kept by him. He was free from that shame, which had
usually harassed him after a fall; and he could look
everyone straight in the face. In February he had received
a letter from Marya Nikolaevna telling him that his
brother Nikolay’s health was getting worse, but that he
would not take advice, and in consequence of this letter
Levin went to Moscow to his brother’s and succeeded in
persuading him to see a doctor and to go to a watering-
place abroad. He succeeded so well in persuading his
brother, and in lending him money for the journey
without irritating him, that he was satisfied with himself in
that matter. In addition to his farming, which called for

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