Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/541

 writing them ere she read them under his hand and herself finished the sentence and answered it!

"Yes."

"You are playing secrétaire, are you," said the old prince, coming up to them. "Well, if you are going to the theater it is time to start."

Levin rose and accompanied Kitty to the door.

This conversation decided everything; Kitty had acknowledged her love for him, and had given him permission to come the next morning to speak to her parents.

CHAPTER XIV

Kitty had gone and Levin was left alone, he felt such a restlessness and such an unendurable longing for the morning to come when he might see her again and settle his destiny forever, that he dreaded, as he dreaded death, the fourteen hours which he should have to endure without her. He felt it absolutely necessary to be with and to talk with some one so as not to remain alone, so as to cheat the time. Stepan Arkadyevitch, whom he would have liked to keep with him, was going, so he said, to a reception, but in reality to the ballet. Levin could only tell him that he was happy, and should never, never forget what he owed to him. Stepan Arkadyevitch's eyes and smile showed Levin that he suitably appreciated his feelings.

"What! Then you have nothing more to say about dying?" said Oblonsky, pressing his friend's hand affectionately.

"N-n-n-no," replied the latter.

Darya Aleksandrovna, too, almost congratulated him when she bade him good night. She said, "How glad I am that you have made up with Kitty; we ought to prize old friends!" and her words displeased Levin, She could not comprehend how lofty and inaccessible to her all this was for him, and she should not have dared to refer to it. Levin took his departure, but, to avoid being alone, he joined his brother.