Page 771 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Ah, generosity!’ said Nikolay, and he smiled. ‘If you
want to be right, I can give you that satisfaction. You’re in
the right;
but I’m going all the same.’

It was only just at parting that Nikolay kissed him, and
said, looking with sudden strangeness and seriousness at his
brother:
‘Anyway, don’t remember evil against me, Kostya!’ and
his voice quivered. These were the only words that had
been spoken sincerely between them. Levin knew that
those words meant, ‘You see, and you know, that I’m in a
bad way, and maybe we shall not see each other again.’
Levin knew this, and the tears gushed from his eyes. He
kissed his brother once more, but he could not speak, and
knew not what to say.
Three days after his brother’s departure, Levin too set
off for his foreign tour. Happening to meet Shtcherbatsky,
Kitty’s cousin, in the railway train, Levin greatly
astonished him by his depression.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ Shtcherbatsky asked him.
‘Oh, nothing; there’s not much happiness in life.’
‘Not much? You come with me to Paris instead of to
Mulhausen. You shall see how to be happy.’
‘No, I’ve done with it all. It’s time I was dead.’

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