Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FIVE CHAPTER 4
then dearer than all the world. At one moment she was horrified at this indifference,
at another she rejoiced at what had brought her to this indifference. She could not
frame a thought, not a wish apart from life with this man; but this new life was not
yet, and she could not even picture it clearly to herself. There was only anticipation,
the dread and joy of the new and the unknown. And now behold–anticipation and
uncertainty and remorse at the abandonment of the old life–all was ending, and the
new was beginning. This new life could not but have terrors for her inexperience;
but, terrible or not, the change had been wrought six weeks before in her soul, and
this was merely the final sanction of what had long been completed in her heart.
Turning again to the lectern, the priest with some difficulty took Kitty’s little ring,
and asking Levin for his hand, put it on the first joint of his finger. “The servant of
God, Konstantin, plights his troth to the servant of God, Ekaterina.” And putting his
big ring on Kitty’s touchingly weak, pink little finger, the priest said the same thing.
And the bridal pair tried several times to understand what they had to do, and
each time made some mistake and were corrected by the priest in a whisper. At last,
having duly performed the ceremony, having signed the rings with the cross, the
priest handed Kitty the big ring, and Levin the little one. Again they were puzzled,
and passed the rings from hand to hand, still without doing what was expected.
Dolly, Tchirikov, and Stepan Arkadyevitch stepped forward to set them right.
There was an interval of hesitation, whispering, and smiles; but the expression of
solemn emotion on the faces of the betrothed pair did not change: on the contrary,
in their perplexity over their hands they looked more grave and deeply moved than
before, and the smile with which Stepan Arkadyevitch whispered to them that now
they would each put on their own ring died away on his lips. He had a feeling that
any smile would jar on them.
“Thou who didst from the beginning create male and female,” the priest read after
the exchange of rings, “from Thee woman was given to man to be a helpmeet to
him, and for the procreation of children. O Lord, our God, who hast poured down
the blessings of Thy Truth according to Thy Holy Covenant upon Thy chosen servants,
our fathers, from generation to generation, bless Thy servants Konstantin and
Ekaterina, and make their troth fast in faith, and union of hearts, and truth, and
love....”
Levin felt more and more that all his ideas of marriage, all his dreams of how
he would order his life, were mere childishness, and that it was something he had
not understood hitherto, and now understood less than ever, though it was being
performed upon him. The lump in his throat rose higher and higher, tears that would
not be checked came into his eyes.
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