Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/665

 "Now turn me over on the left side, and all of you go to bed."

No one heard what he said; Kitty alone understood. She understood because she was ceaselessly on the watch for what he needed.

"Turn him on the other side," said she to her husband. "He always sleeps on that side. It is not pleasant to call the man. I cannot do it. Can you?" she asked of Marya Nikolayevna.

"I am afraid not," she replied.

Levin, terrible as it was to him to put his arms around this frightful body, to feel what he did not wish to feel under the coverlid, submitted to his wife's influence, and assuming that resolute air which she knew so well, and putting in his arms, took hold of him; but in spite of all his strength he was amazed at the strange weight of these emaciated limbs. While he was, with difficulty, changing his brother's position, Nikolaï threw his arms around his neck, and Kitty quickly turned the pillows so as to make the bed more comfortable, and carefully arranged his head and his thin hair, which was again sticking to his temples.

Nikolaï kept one of his brother's hands in his. Levin felt that the sick man was going to do something with his hand and was drawing it toward him. His heart sank within him! Yes, Nikolaï put it to his lips and kissed it! Then, shaken with sobs. Levin hurried from the room, without being able to utter a word.

CHAPTER XIX

has hidden it from the wise, and revealed it unto children and fools;" thus thought Levin about his wife as he was talking with her a little while later.

He did not mean to compare himself to a wise man in thus quoting the Gospel. He did not call himself wise; but he could not help feeling that he was more intellectual than his wife and Agafya Mikhaïlovna, that he employed all the powers of his soul, when he thought about