Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART EIGHT CHAPTER 7
Chapter 7
AGAFEA Mihalovna went out on tiptoe; the nurse let down the blind, chased a fly
out from under the muslin canopy of the crib, and a bumblebee struggling on
the window-frame, and sat down waving a faded branch of birch over the mother
and the baby.
“How hot it is! if God would send a drop of rain,” she said.
“Yes, yes, sh–sh–sh–” was all Kitty answered, rocking a little, and tenderly squeezing
the plump little arm, with rolls of fat at the wrist, which Mitya still waved feebly
as he opened and shut his eyes. That hand worried Kitty; she longed to kiss the little
hand, but was afraid to for fear of waking the baby. At last the little hand ceased
waving, and the eyes closed. Only from time to time, as he went on sucking, the
baby raised his long, curly eyelashes and peeped at his mother with wet eyes, that
looked black in the twilight. The nurse had left off fanning, and was dozing. From
above came the peals of the old prince’s voice, and the chuckle of Katavasov.
“They have got into talk without me,” thought Kitty, “but still it’s vexing that
Kostya’s out. He’s sure to have gone to the bee house again. Though it’s a pity he’s
there so often, still I’m glad. It distracts his mind. He’s become altogether happier
and better now than in the spring. He used to be so gloomy and worried that I felt
frightened for him. And how absurd he is!” she whispered, smiling.
She knew what worried her husband. It was his unbelief. Although, if she had
been asked whether she supposed that in the future life, if he did not believe, he
would be damned, she would have had to admit that he would be damned, his
unbelief did not cause her unhappiness. And she, confessing that for an unbeliever
there can be no salvation, and loving her husband’s soul more than anything in the
world, thought with a smile of his unbelief, and told herself that he was absurd.
“What does he keep reading philosophy of some sort for all this year?” she wondered.
“If it’s all written in those books, he can understand them. If it’s all wrong,
why does he read them? He says himself that he would like to believe. Then why is it
he doesn’t believe? Surely from his thinking so much? And he thinks so much from
being solitary. He’s always alone, alone. He can’t talk about it all to us. I fancy he’ll
be glad of these visitors, especially Katavasov. He likes discussions with them,” she
thought, and passed instantly to the consideration of where it would be more convenient
to put Katavasov, to sleep alone or to share Sergey Ivanovitch’s room. And
then an idea suddenly struck her, which made her shudder and even disturb Mitya,
who glanced severely at her. “I do believe the laundress hasn’t sent the washing yet,
and all the best sheets are in use. If I don’t see to it, Agafea Mihalovna will give
Sergey Ivanovitch the wrong sheets,” and at the very idea of this the blood rushed
to Kitty’s face.
“Yes, I will arrange it,” she decided, and going back to her former thoughts, she
remembered that some spiritual question of importance had been interrupted, and
she began to recall what. “Yes, Kostya, an unbeliever,” she thought again with a
smile.
“Well, an unbeliever then! Better let him always be one than like Madame Stahl,
or what I tried to be in those days abroad. No, he won’t ever sham anything.”
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