Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FOUR CHAPTER 14
Chapter 14
WHEN Kitty had gone and Levin was left alone, he felt such uneasiness without
her, and such an impatient longing to get as quickly, as quickly as possible, to
tomorrow morning, when he would see her again and be plighted to her forever, that
he felt afraid, as though of death, of those fourteen hours that he had to get through
without her. It was essential for him to be with someone to talk to, so as not to be
left alone, to kill time. Stepan Arkadyevitch would have been the companion most
congenial to him, but he was going out, he said, to a soirèe, in reality to the ballet.
Levin only had time to tell him he was happy, and that he loved him, and would
never, never forget what he had done for him. The eyes and the smile of Stepan
Arkadyevitch showed Levin that he comprehended that feeling fittingly.
“Oh, so it’s not time to die yet?” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, pressing Levin’s hand
with emotion.
“N-n-no!” said Levin.
Darya Alexandrovna too, as she said good-bye to him, gave him a sort of congratulation,
saying, “How glad I am you have met Kitty again! One must value old
friends.” Levin did not like these words of Darya Alexandrovna’s. She could not
understand how lofty and beyond her it all was, and she ought not to have dared
to allude to it. Levin said good-bye to them, but, not to be left alone, he attached
himself to his brother.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to a meeting.”
“Well, I’ll come with you. May I?”
“What for? Yes, come along,” said Sergey Ivanovitch, smiling. “What is the matter
with you today?”
“With me? Happiness is the matter with me!” said Levin, letting down the window
of the carriage they were driving in. “You don’t mind?–it’s so stifling. It’s
happiness is the matter with me! Why is it you have never married?”
Sergey Ivanovitch smiled.
“I am very glad, she seems a nice gi...” Sergey Ivanovitch was beginning.
“Don’t say it! don’t say it!” shouted Levin, clutching at the collar of his fur coat
with both hands, and muffling him up in it. “She’s a nice girl” were such simple,
humble words, so out of harmony with his feeling.
Sergey Ivanovitch laughed outright a merry laugh, which was rare with him.
“Well, anyway, I may say that I’m very glad of it.”
“That you may do tomorrow, tomorrow and nothing more! Nothing, nothing,
silence,” said Levin, and muffling him once more in his fur coat, he added: “I do like
you so! Well, is it possible for me to be present at the meeting?”
“Of course it is.”
“What is your discussion about today?” asked Levin, never ceasing smiling.
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