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Chapter 6.
When the ceremony of plighting troth was over, the beadle spread
before the lectern in the middle of the church a piece of pink silken
stuff, the choir sang a complicated and elaborate psalm, in which the
bass and tenor sang responses to one another, and the priest turning
round pointed the bridal pair to the pink silk rug. Though both had
often heard a great deal about the saying that the one who steps first
on the rug will be the head of the house, neither Levin nor Kitty were
capable of recollecting it, as they took the few steps towards it. They
did not hear the loud remarks and disputes that followed, some main-
taining he had stepped on first, and others that both had stepped on
together.
After the customary questions, whether they desired to enter upon
matrimony, and whether they were pledged to anyone else, and their
answers, which sounded strange to themselves, a new ceremony be-
gan. Kitty listened to the words of the prayer, trying to make out their
meaning, but she could not. The feeling of triumph and radiant happi-
ness flooded her soul more and more as the ceremony went on, and
deprived her of all power of attention.
They prayed: “Endow them with continence and fruitfulness, and
vouchsafe that their hearts may rejoice looking upon their sons and
daughters.” They alluded to God’s creation of a wife from Adam’s rib
“and for this cause a man shall leave father and mother, and cleave
unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh,” and that “this is a great
mystery”; they prayed that God would make them fruitful and bless
them, like Isaac and Rebecca, Joseph, Moses and Zipporah, and that
they might look upon their children’s children. “That’s all splendid,”
thought Kitty, catching the words, “all that’s just as it should be,” and a
smile of happiness, unconsciously reflected in everyone who looked at
her, beamed on her radiant face.
“Put it on quite,” voices were heard urging when the priest had put
on the wedding crowns and Shtcherbatsky, his hand shaking in its
three-button glove, held the crown high above her head.
“Put it on!” she whispered, smiling.
Levin looked round at her, and was struck by the joyful radiance on
her face, and unconsciously her feeling infected him. He too, like her
felt glad and happy.
They enjoyed hearing the epistle read, and the roll of the head
deacon’s voice at the last verse, awaited with such impatience by the
outside public. They enjoyed drinking out of the shallow cup of warm
red wine and water, and they were still more pleased when the priest,
flinging back his stole and taking both their hands in his, led them
round the lectern to the accompaniment of bass voices chanting “Glory
to God.”
Shtcherbatsky and Tchirikov, supporting the crowns and stum-
bling over the bride’s train, smiling too and seeming delighted at some-
thing, were at one moment left behind, at the next treading on the
bridal pair as the priest came to a halt. The spark of joy kindled in Kitty
seemed to have infected everyone in the church. It seemed to Levin
that the priest and the deacon too wanted to smile just as he did.
Taking the crowns off their heads the priest read the last prayer