Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/655

 pray, should I not go with you? I should not hinder you in any way. I ...."

"I am going because my brother is dying," said Levin. "Why should you go?"

"For the same reason that you do." ....

"At a time so solemn for me, she thinks only of the discomfort of being left alone," said Levin to himself, and this excuse for taking part in such a solemn duty angered him.

"It is impossible," he replied sternly.

Agafya Mikhaïlovna, seeing that a quarrel was imminent, quietly put down her cup and went out. Kitty did not even notice it. Her husband's tone wounded her all the more deeply because he evidently did not believe what she said.

"I tell you, if you go, I am going too. I shall certainly go with you. I certainly am going," said she, with angry determination. "Why is it impossible? Why did you say that?"

"Because God knows when or in what place I shall find him, or by what means I shall reach him. You would only hinder me," said he, doing his best to retain his self-control.

"Not at all. I don't need anything. Where you can go, I can go too, and ...."

"Well! If it were for nothing else, it would be because of that woman, with whom you cannot come in contact." ....

"Why not? I know nothing about all that, and don't want to know. I know that my husband's brother is dying; that my husband is going to see him; and I am going too, because ...."

"Kitty! don't be angry! and remember that in such a serious time it is painful for me to have you add to my grief by showing such weakness,—the fear of being alone. There, now, if it would bore you to be alone, go to Moscow." ....

"You always ascribe to me such miserable sentiments," she cried, choking with tears of vexation and anger. "I am not so weak.... I know that it is my