Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/677

 but suddenly Nikolaï's lips trembled slightly, and from the depths of his breast came these words, which sounded distinctly in the silent room:—

"Not yet.... soon."

A moment later his face brightened, a smile came to his lips, and the women who had been summoned hastened to lay out the body.

The sight of his brother and the propinquity of death awakened in Levin's mind that feeling of horror at the inexplicability and the unavoidableness of death, just as he had felt on that autumn night when his brother came to see him. This feeling was now more intense than ever. More than ever he felt his inabihty to fathom this mystery, and even more terrible seemed to him its proximity. But now, thanks to his wife's presence, this feeling did not lead him to despair; for in spite of his terrors he felt the need of living, and loving. He felt that love saved him from despair, and that this love became all the stronger and purer because it was threatened.

And scarcely had this mystery of death taken place before his eyes ere he found himself face to face with another miracle of love and of life equally unfathomable.

The doctor confirmed his surmise in regard to Kitty. Her discomfort was the beginning of pregnancy.

END OF VOL II.