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Chapter 14.
When Kitty had gone and Levin was left alone, he felt such un-
easiness 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 soiree, in
reality to the ballet. Levin only had time to tell him he was happy, and
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 be-
yond 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 be-
ginning.
“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 feel-
ing.
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! Noth-
ing, nothing, silence,” said Levin, and muffing 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?”
“Of course it is.”
“What is your discussion about today?” asked Levin, never ceas-
ing smiling.
They arrived at the meeting. Levin heard the secretary hesitat-
ingly read the minutes which he obviously did not himself understand;
but Levin saw from this secretary’s face what a good, nice, kind-hearted