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garments, such pity for the little creature came upon him, and such
terror that she would hurt it, that he held her hand back.
Lizaveta Petrovna laughed.
“Don’t be frightened, don’t be frightened!”
When the baby had been put to rights and transformed into a firm
doll, Lizaveta Petrovna dandled it as though proud of her handiwork,
and stood a little away so that Levin might see his son in all his glory.
Kitty looked sideways in the same direction, never taking her eyes
off the baby. “Give him to me! give him to me!” she said, and even
made as though she would sit up.
“What are you thinking of, Katerina Alexandrovna, you mustn’t
move like that! Wait a minute. I’ll give him to you. Here we’re showing
papa what a fine fellow we are!”
And Lizaveta Petrovna, with one hand supporting the wobbling
head, lifted up on the other arm the strange, limp, red creature, whose
head was lost in its swaddling clothes. But it had a nose, too, and
slanting eyes and smacking lips.
“A splendid baby!” said Lizaveta Petrovna.
Levin sighed with mortification. This splendid baby excited in him
no feeling but disgust and compassion. It was not at all the feeling he
had looked forward to.
He turned away while Lizaveta Petrovna put the baby to the
unaccustomed breast.
Suddenly laughter made him look round. The baby had taken the
breast.
“Come, that’s enough, that’s enough!” said Lizaveta Petrovna, but
Kitty would not let the baby go. He fell asleep in her arms.
“Look, now,” said Kitty, turning the baby so that he could see it.
The aged-looking little face suddenly puckered up still more and the
baby sneezed.
Smiling, hardly able to restrain his tears, Levin kissed his wife and
went out of the dark room. What he felt towards this little creature was
utterly unlike what he had expected. There was nothing cheerful and
joyous in the feeling; on the contrary, it was a new torture of apprehen-
sion. It was the consciousness of a new sphere of liability to pain. And
this sense was so painful at first, the apprehension lest this helpless
creature should suffer was so intense, that it prevented him from notic-
ing the strange thrill of senseless joy and even pride that he had felt
when the baby sneezed.