"Please, don't be frightened, it's all right. I'm not a bit
afraid," she said, seeing his scared face, and she pressed his
hand to her bosom and then to her lips.
He hurriedly jumped up, hardly awake, and kept his eyes fixed on
her, as he put on his dressing gown; then he stopped, still
looking at her. He had to go, but he could not tear himself from
her eyes. He thought he loved her face, knew her expression, her
eyes, but never had he seen it like this. How hateful and
horrible he seemed to himself, thinking of the distress he had
caused her yesterday. Her flushed face, fringed with soft
curling hair under her night cap, was radiant with joy and
courage.
Though there was so little that was complex or artificial in
Kitty's character in general, Levin was struck by what was
revealed now, when suddenly all disguises were thrown off and the
very kernel of her soul shone in her eyes. And in this
simplicity and nakedness of her soul, she, the very woman he
loved in her, was more manifest than ever. She looked at him,
smiling; but all at once her brows twitched, she threw up her
head, and going quickly up to him, clutched his hand and pressed
close up to him, breathing her hot breath upon him. She was in
pain and was, as it were, complaining to him of her suffering.
And for the first minute, from habit, it seemed to him that he
was to blame. But in her eyes there was a tenderness that told
him that she was far from reproaching him, that she loved him for
her sufferings. "If not I, who is to blame for it?" he thought
unconsciously, seeking someone responsible for this suffering for
him to punish; but there was no one responsible. She was
suffering, complaining, and triumphing in her sufferings, and
rejoicing in them, and loving them. He saw that something
sublime was being accomplished in her soul, but what? He could
not make it out. It was beyond his understanding.
"I have sent to mamma. You go quickly to fetch Lizaveta Petrovna
...Kostya!... Nothing, it's over."
She moved away from him and rang the bell.
"Well, go now; Pasha's coming. I am all right."
And Levin saw with astonishment that she had taken up the
knitting she had brought in in the night and begun working at it
again.
As Levin was going out of one door, he heard the maid-servant
come in at the other. He stood at the door and heard Kitty
giving exact directions to the maid, and beginning to help her
move the bedstead.