Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/382

 "How lovely!" he thought, as he gazed at the delicate white curly clouds, colored like mother-of-pearl, which floated in the sky above him. "How charming everything has been this lovely night! And when did that shell have time to form? I have been looking this long time at the sky, and nothing was to be seen—only two white streaks. Yes! thus, without my knowing it, my views about life have been changed."

He left the meadow, and walked along the highway that led to the village. A cool breeze began to blow, and it became gray and melancholy. The somber moment was at hand which generally precedes the dawn, the perfect triumph of light over the darkness.

Shivering with the chill, Levin walked fast, looking at the ground.

"What is that? Who is coming?" he asked himself, hearing the sound of bells. He raised his head. About forty paces from him he saw, coming toward him on the highway, on the grassy edge where he himself was walking, a traveling carriage, drawn by four horses. The pole-horses, to avoid the ruts, pressed close against the pole; but the skilful postilion, seated on one side of the box, kept the pole directly over the rut, so that the wheels kept only on the smooth surface of the road.

Levin was so interested in this that, without thinking who might be coming, he only glanced heedlessly at the carriage.

In one corner of the carriage an elderly lady was asleep; and by the window sat a young girl, evidently only just awake, holding with both hands the ribbons of her white bonnet. Serene and thoughtful, filled with a lofty, complex life which Levin could not understand, she was gazing beyond him at the glow of the morning sky.

At the very instant that this vision flashed by him he caught a glimpse of her frank eyes. She recognized him, and a gleam of joy, mingled with wonder, lighted up her face.

He could not be mistaken. Only she in all the world had such eyes. In all the world there was but one