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 splendid baby inspired him only with a feeling of pity and disgust. It was not at all the feeling that he expected.

He turned away while the nurse placed it in Kitty's arms. Suddenly a laugh caused him to raise his head. It was Kitty who laughed; the baby had taken the breast.

"There! that's enough, that's enough," said Lizavyeta Petrovna; but Kitty would not let go of her son, who had gone to sleep on her arm.

"Look at him now," said she, turning the child so that his father might see him. The little old face suddenly grew still more wrinkled, and the child sneezed.

Levin, smiling and hardly able to restrain his tears of tenderness, kissed his wife, and left the room.

The feelings which this little being awakened in him were entirely different from what he had expected! There was neither pride nor joy in the feeling, but rather a new and painful fear. It was the consciousness that he had become vulnerable in a new way. And this consciousness at first was so acute, his fear lest this poor, defenseless creature might suffer was so poignant, that it drowned the strange feeling of thoughtless joy, and even pride, that rose in his heart when the infant sneezed.

CHAPTER XVII

affairs of Stepan Arkadyevitch had reached a critical stage.

The money brought by the sale of two-thirds of the timber had long ago been spent, and he had obtained from the merchant at a discount of ten per cent a large part of the remaining third in advance. Now the merchant would not advance anything more; as Dolly, for the first time in her life asserting her rights to her personal property, had refused her signature to the contract when it was proposed to give a receipt for the sale of the last third of the wood. All the salary was used up