Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/1079

Rh Ivanovitch. I don't like to. See if they put in the new washstand properly."

"Certainly, I'll go," answered Levin, rising, and kissing her.

"No; better be silent," thought he, as she went past; "this secret has no importance save for me alone, and words could not explain it. This new feeling has neither changed me nor suddenly enlightened me nor made me happy, as I imagined it would. It is just like my feeling for my son. There is no element of surprise in it. But it is faith .... no, not faith .... I know not what it is. But the feeling stole into my soul through suffering, and there it is firmly established.

"I shall continue to be vexed with Ivan the coachman, and get into useless discussions, and express my thoughts blunderingly. I shall always be blaming my wife for what annoys me, and repenting at once. I shall always feel a certain barrier between the Holy of Holies of my inmost soul, and the souls of others, even my wife's. I shall continue to pray without being able to explain to myself why. But my whole life, every moment of my life, independently of whatever may happen to me, will be, not meaningless as before, but full of the deep meaning which I shall have the power to impress upon it."