Though there was so little that was complex or artificial in Kitty’s character in general, Levin was struck by what was revealed now, when suddenly all disguises were thrown off and the very kernel of her soul shone in her eyes.  And in this simplicity and nakedness of her soul, she, the very woman he loved in her, was more manifest than ever.  She looked at him, smiling; but all at once her brows twitched, she threw up her head, and going quickly up to him, clutched his hand and pressed close up to him, breathing her hot breath upon him.  She was in pain and was, as it were, complaining to him of her suffering.  And for the first minute, from habit, it seemed to him that he was to blame.  But in her eyes there was a tenderness that told him that she was far from reproaching him, that she loved him for her sufferings.  “If not I, who is to blame for it?” he thought unconsciously, seeking someone responsible for this suffering for him to punish; but there was no one responsible.  She was suffering, complaining, and triumphing in her sufferings, and rejoicing in them, and loving them.  He saw that something sublime was being accomplished in her soul, but what?  He could not make it out.  It was beyond his understanding.

“I have sent to mamma.  You go quickly to fetch Lizaveta Petrovna ...Kostya!...  Nothing, it’s over.”

She moved away from him and rang the bell.

“Well, go now; Pasha’s coming.  I am all right.”

And Levin saw with astonishment that she had taken up the knitting she had brought in in the night and begun working at it again.

As Levin was going out of one door, he heard the maid-servant come in at the other.  He stood at the door and heard Kitty giving exact directions to the maid, and beginning to help her move the bedstead.

He dressed, and while they were putting in his horses, as a hired sledge was not to be seen yet, he ran again up to the bedroom, not on tiptoe, it seemed to him, but on wings.  Two maid-servants were carefully moving something in the bedroom.

Kitty was walking about knitting rapidly and giving directions.

“I’m going for the doctor.  They have sent for Lizaveta Petrovna, but I’ll go on there too.  Isn’t there anything wanted?  Yes, shall I go to Dolly’s?”

She looked at him, obviously not hearing what he was saying.

“Yes, yes.  Do go,” she said quickly, frowning and waving her hand to him.

He had just gone into the drawing room, when suddenly a plaintive moan sounded from the bedroom, smothered instantly.  He stood still, and for a long while he could not understand.

“Yes, that is she,” he said to himself, and clutching at his head he ran downstairs.

“Lord have mercy on us! pardon us! aid us!” he repeated the words that for some reason came suddenly to his lips.  And he, an unbeliever, repeated these words not with his lips only.  At that instant he knew that all his doubts, even the impossibility of believing with his reason, of which he was aware in himself, did not in the least hinder his turning to God.  All of that now floated out of his soul like dust.  To whom was he to turn if not to Him in whose hands he felt himself, his soul, and his love?