Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/953

 He felt that he was on some unattainable height from which he endeavored to descend to their level, that he might not offend those with whom he was talking. While talking about indifferent things, he was thinking of his wife, of the state of her health, and of his son, to the idea of whose existence he was trying to accustom himself. The whole world of womanhood, which had taken on a new and incomprehensible significance to him, even after his marriage, occupied such a lofty place, that he could not begin to realize it. He heard the men talking about their dinner at the club; but he was thinking, "What is she doing now? Is she asleep? How is she? What is in her mind? Is the son Dmitri crying?" And, in the midst of the conversation, in the midst of a sentence, he sprang up, and left the room.

"Send word down if I may see her," said the old prince.

"Very good.... I will at once," replied Levin, and without pausing he went to her room.

She was not asleep, but was softly talking with her mother, making plans about the christening.

With clean clothes and with her hair brushed, she lay comfortably arranged in bed, with her hands resting on the counterpane, and a mob-cap with blue ribbons on her head, and as her eyes met his she drew him to her by their look. Her face lighted up more and more brightly as he approached her. There was in it that change from the earthly to the superhuman calm which one sees in death, but, instead of a farewell, she welcomed him to a new life. Again an emotion, like that which he had felt during her agony, seized his heart. She took his hand, and asked him if he had slept.

He could not answer, but turned his head away, yielding to his weakness.

"I have had a nap, Kostia," she said; "and I feel so well now."

She looked at him, and suddenly the expression of her face changed. She heard her baby cry.

"Give him to me, Lizavyeta Petrovna, and let me show him to his father," she said.