Page 760 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 31

Running halfway down the staircase, Levin caught a
sound he knew, a familiar cough in the hall. But he heard
it indistinctly through the sound of his own footsteps, and
hoped he was mistaken. Then he caught sight of a long,
bony, familiar figure, and now it seemed there was no
possibility of mistake; and yet he still went on hoping that
this tall man taking off his fur cloak and coughing was not
his brother Nikolay.
Levin loved his brother, but being with him was always
a torture. Just now, when Levin, under the influence of
the thoughts that had come to him, and Agafea
Mihalovna’s hint, was in a troubled and uncertain humor,
the meeting with his brother that he had to face seemed
particularly difficult. Instead of a lively, healthy visitor,
some outsider who would, he hoped, cheer him up in his
uncertain humor, he had to see his brother, who knew
him through and through, who would call forth all the
thoughts nearest his heart, would force him to show
himself fully. And that he was not disposed to do.
Angry with himself for so base a feeling, Levin ran into
the hall; as soon as he had seen his brother close, this

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