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Rest a bit? No, he could not think of resting; he would play the rubber.

They were all glum and silent, and Ivan Il'ich felt that he had cast this glumness upon them, and could not dissipate it. Then they had supper and separated, and Ivan Il'ich was left all alone with the consciousness that his life was envenomed, and that he was envenoming the lives of others, and that this venom would not lose in intensity, but would go on penetrating his existence more and more.

And with the consciousness of this, and what is more, with acute physical pain and even with terror, he was obliged to lie down on his bed, unable to sleep for great pain the whole night And in the morning he had to get up, dress himself, go to Court, speak, write, and if he did not go he had to remain for four-and-twenty hours at home, each one of which was a torment. And he had thus to go on living on the brink of destruction, without a single soul to understand and pity him.

V.

And thus a month, two months, passed away. Just before the new year his brother-in-law came to town, and stayed with them. Ivan Il'ich was at Court. Praskov'ya Thedorovna had gone out shopping. On entering his cabinet he found his brother-in-law there, a healthy fellow of sanguine temperament, unpacking his own trunk. He raised his head on hearing the footsteps of Ivan Il'ich, and glanced at him for a moment in silence. This look