Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/126

 had taken from the country to bring up, and whom he whipped so severely in a fit of anger that he narrowly escaped being transported for mayhem. He remembered his conduct toward a swindler to whom he owed a gambling debt and in payment of it had given him his note, and whom he had caused to be arrested on the charge of cheating him; this was, in fact, money that Sergeï Ivanuitch had just paid. Then he remembered the night spent by Nikolaï at the station-house on account of a spree. He remembered the scandalous lawsuit against his brother Sergeï Ivanuitch, because Sergeï had refused to pay his share of their mother's estate; and finally he recalled his last adventure, when, after he had gone to take a position at the Western frontier, he was dismissed for assaulting a superior. ....

All this was detestable, but it did not seem nearly so odious to Levin as it would have been to those who did not know Nikolaï, did not know his history, did not know his heart.

Levin remembered how at the time when Nikolaï was occupied with his devotions, his fastings, his priests, his ecclesiastical observances, when he was seeking to curb his passionate nature by religion, no one had aided him, but, on the contrary, every one, even himself, had made sport of him; they had mocked him, nicknamed him Noah, the monk! Then, when he had fallen, no one had helped him, but all had turned from him with horror and disgust. Levin felt that his brother Nikolaï at the bottom of his heart, in spite of all the deformity of his life, was not so very much worse than those who despised him. He was not to blame for having been born with his unrestrainable character and his peculiarities of intellect. He had always had good impulses.

"I will tell him everything, and I will make him tell me everything, and show him that I love him and therefore understand him," said Levin to himself, and about eleven o'clock in the evening he bade the driver take him to the hotel indicated on the address.

"Upstairs, No. 12 and 13," said the Swiss, in reply to Levin's question.