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

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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?"




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