Page 767 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 32

Levin had long before made the observation that when
one is uncomfortable with people from their being
excessively amenable and meek, One is apt very soon after
to find things intolerable from their touchiness and
irritability. He felt that this was how it would be with his
brother. And his brother Nikolay’s gentleness did in fact
not last out for long. The very next morning he began to
be irritable, and seemed doing his best to find fault with
his brother, attacking him on his tenderest points.
Levin felt himself to blame, and could not set things
right. He felt that if they had both not kept up
appearances, but had spoken, as it is called, from the
heart—that is to say, had said only just what they were
thinking and feeling—they would simply have looked into
each other’s faces, and Konstantin could only have said,
‘You’re dying, you’re dying,’ and Nikolay could only
have answered, ‘I know I’m dying, but I’m afraid, I’m
afraid, I’m afraid!’ And they could have said nothing more,
if they had said only what was in their hearts. But life like
that was impossible, and so Konstantin tried to do what he
had been trying to do all his life, and never could learn to

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