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herself to him without a word—on that day, at that hour, there took
place in her heart a complete severance from all her old life, and a quite
different, new, utterly strange life had begun for her, while the old life
was actually going on as before. Those six weeks had for her been a
time of the utmost bliss and the utmost misery. All her life, all her
desires and hopes were concentrated on this one man, still
uncomprehended by her, to whom she was bound by a feeling of
alternate attraction and repulsion, even less comprehended than the
man himself, and all the while she was going on living in the outward
conditions of her old life. Living the old life, she was horrified at
herself, at her utter insurmountable callousness to all her own past, to
things, to habits, to the people she had loved, who loved her—to her
mother, who was wounded by her indifference, to her kind, tender
father, till then dearer than all the world. At one moment she was
horrified at this indifference, at another she rejoiced at what had brought
her to this indifference. She could not frame a thought, not a wish
apart from life with this man; but this new life was not yet, and she
could not even picture it clearly to herself. There was only anticipation,
the dread and joy of the new and the unknown. And now behold—
anticipation and uncertainty and remorse at the abandonment of the
old life—all was ending, and the new was beginning. This new life
could not but have terrors for her inexperience; but, terrible or not, the
change had been wrought six weeks before in her soul, and this was
merely the final sanction of what had long been completed in her
heart.
Turning again to the lectern, the priest with some difficulty took
Kitty’s little ring, and asking Levin for his hand, put it on the first joint
of his finger. “The servant of God, Konstantin, plights his troth to the
servant of God, Ekaterina.” And putting his big ring on Kitty’s touch-
ingly weak, pink little finger, the priest said the same thing.
And the bridal pair tried several times to understand what they
had to do, and each time made some mistake and were corrected by the
priest in a whisper. At last, having duly performed the ceremony,
having signed the rings with the cross, the priest handed Kitty the big
ring, and Levin the little one. Again they were puzzled and passed the
rings from hand to hand, still without doing what was expected.
Dolly, Tchirikov, and Stepan Arkadyevitch stepped forward to set
them right. There was an interval of hesitation, whispering, and smiles;
but the expression of solemn emotion on the faces of the betrothed
pair did not change: on the contrary, in their perplexity over their hands
they looked more grave and deeply moved than before, and the smile
with which Stepan Arkadyevitch whispered to them that now they
would each put on their own ring died away on his lips. He had a
feeling that any smile would jar on them.
“Thou who didst from the beginning create male and female,” the
priest read after the exchange of rings, “from Thee woman was given to
man to be a helpmeet to him, and for the procreation of children. O
Lord, our God, who hast poured down the blessings of Thy Truth
according to Thy Holy Covenant upon Thy chosen servants, our fa-
thers, from generation to generation, bless Thy servants Konstantin
and Ekaterina, and make their troth fast in faith, and union of hearts,
and truth, and love....”
Levin felt more and more that all his ideas of marriage, all his
dreams of how he would order his life, were mere childishness, and
that it was something he had not understood hitherto, and now under-
stood less than ever, though it was being performed upon him. The
lump in his throat rose higher and higher, tears that would not be
checked came into his eyes.