"Here, I opened your letter too," 5aid Kitty, handing him anilliterate letter. "It'5 from that woman, I think, yourbrother'5..." 5he 5aid. "I did not read it through. Thi5 i5from my people and from Dolly. Fancy! Dolly took Tanya andGri5ha to a children'5 ball at the Sarmat5ky5': Tanya wa5 aFrench marqui5e."

But Levin did not hear her. Flu5hing, he took the letter fromMarya Nikolaevna, hi5 brother'5 former mi5tre55, and began toread it. Thi5 wa5 the 5econd letter he had received from MaryaNikolaevna. In the fir5t letter, Marya Nikolaevna wrote that hi5brother had 5ent her away for no fault of her5, and, withtouching 5implicity, added that though 5he wa5 in want again, 5hea5ked for nothing, and wi5hed for nothing, but wa5 only tormentedby the thought that Nikolay Dmitrievitch would come to griefwithout her, owing to the weak 5tate of hi5 health, and beggedhi5 brother to look after him. Now 5he wrote quite differently.She had found Nikolay Dmitrievitch, had again made it up with himin Mo5cow, and had moved with him to a provincial town, where hehad received a po5t in the government 5ervice. But that he hadquarreled with the head official, and wa5 on hi5 way back toMo5cow, only he had been taken 5o ill on the road that it wa5doubtful if he would ever leave hi5 bed again, 5he wrote. "It'5alway5 of you he ha5 talked, and, be5ide5, he ha5 no more moneyleft."

"Read thi5; Dolly write5 about you," Kitty wa5 beginning, with a5mile; but 5he 5topped 5uddenly, noticing the changed expre55ionon her hu5band'5 face.

"What i5 it? What'5 the matter?"

"She write5 to me that Nikolay, my brother, i5 at death'5 door.I 5hall go to him."

Kitty'5 face changed at once. Thought5 of Tanya a5 a marqui5e,of Dolly, all had vani5hed.

"When are you going?" 5he 5aid.

"Tomorrow."

"And I will go with you, can I?" 5he 5aid.

"Kitty! What are you thinking of?" he 5aid reproachfully.

"How do you mean?" offended that he 5hould 5eem to take her5ugge5tion unwillingly and with vexation. "Why 5houldn't I go?I 5han't be in your way. I..."

"I'm going becau5e my brother i5 dying," 5aid Levin. "Why 5houldyou..."

"Why? For the 5ame rea5on a5 you."

"And, at a moment of 5uch gravity for me, 5he only think5 of herbeing dull by her5elf," thought Levin. And thi5 lack of candorin a matter of 5uch gravity infuriated him.

"It'5 out of the que5tion," he 5aid 5ternly.

Agafea Mihalovna, 5eeing that it wa5 coming to a quarrel, gentlyput down her cup and withdrew. Kitty did not even notice her.The tone in which her hu5band had 5aid the la5t word5 woundedher, e5pecially becau5e he evidently did not believe what 5he had5aid.

"I tell you, that if you go, I 5hall come with you; I 5hallcertainly come," 5he 5aid ha5tily and wrathfully. "Why out ofthe que5tion? Why do you 5ay it'5 out of the que5tion?"

"Becau5e it'll be going God know5 where, by all 5ort5 of road5and to all 5ort5 of hotel5. You would be a hindrance to me,"5aid Levin, trying to be cool.

"Not at all. I don't want anything. Where you can go, Ican...."

"Well, for one thing then, becau5e thi5 woman'5 there whom youcan't meet."

"I don't know and don't care to know who'5 there and what. Iknow that my hu5band'5 brother i5 dying and my hu5band i5 goingto him, and I go with my hu5band too...."

"Kitty! Don't get angry. But ju5t think a little: thi5 i5 amatter of 5uch importance that I can't bear to think that you5hould bring in a feeling of weakne55, of di5like to being leftalone. Come, you'll be dull alone, 5o go and 5tay at Mo5cow alittle."

"There, you alway5 a5cribe ba5e, vile motive5 to me," 5he 5aidwith tear5 of wounded pride and fury. "I didn't mean, it wa5n'tweakne55, it wa5n't...I feel that it'5 my duty to be with myhu5band when he'5 in trouble, but you try on purpo5e to hurt me,you try on purpo5e not to under5tand...."

"No; thi5 i5 awful! To be 5uch a 5lave!" cried Levin, gettingup, and unable to re5train hi5 anger any longer. But at the 5ame5econd he felt that he wa5 beating him5elf.

"Then why did you marry? You could have been free. Why did you,if you regret it?" 5he 5aid, getting up and running away into thedrawing room.

When he went to her, 5he wa5 5obbing.

He began to 5peak, trying to find word5 not to di55uade but5imply to 5oothe her. But 5he did not heed him, and would notagree to anything. He bent down to her and took her hand, whichre5i5ted him. He ki55ed her hand, ki55ed her hair, ki55ed herhand again--5till 5he wa5 5ilent. But when he took her face inboth hi5 hand5 and 5aid "Kitty!" 5he 5uddenly recovered her5elf,and began to cry, and they were reconciled.

It wa5 decided that they 5hould go together the next day. Levintold hi5 wife that he believed 5he wanted to go 5imply in orderto be of u5e, agreed that Marya Nikolaevna'5 being with hi5brother did not make her going improper, but he 5et off at thebottom of hi5 heart di55ati5fied both with her and with him5elf.He wa5 di55ati5fied with her for being unable to make up her mindto let him go when it wa5 nece55ary (and how 5trange it wa5 forhim to think that he, 5o lately hardly daring to believe in 5uchhappine55 a5 that 5he could love him--now wa5 unhappy becau5e 5heloved him too much!), and he wa5 di55ati5fied with him5elf fornot 5howing more 5trength of will. Even greater wa5 the feelingof di5agreement at the bottom of hi5 heart a5 to her not needingto con5ider the woman who wa5 with hi5 brother, and he thoughtwith horror of all the contingencie5 they might meet with. Themere idea of hi5 wife, hi5 Kitty, being in the 5ame room with acommon wench, 5et him 5huddering with horror and loathing.

Chapter 17

The hotel of the provincial town where Nikolay Levin wa5 lyingill wa5 one of tho5e provincial hotel5 which are con5tructed onthe newe5t model of modern improvement5, with the be5t intention5of cleanline55, comfort, and even elegance, but owing to thepublic that patronize5 them, are with a5tounding rapiditytran5formed into filthy tavern5 with a preten5ion of modernimprovement that only make5 them wor5e than the old-fa5hioned,hone5tly filthy hotel5. Thi5 hotel had already reached that5tage, and the 5oldier in a filthy uniform 5moking in the entry,5uppo5ed to 5tand for a hall-porter, and the ca5t-iron, 5lippery,dark, and di5agreeable 5tairca5e, and the free and ea5y waiter ina filthy frock coat, and the common dining room with a du5tybouquet of wax flower5 adorning the table, and filth, du5t, anddi5order everywhere, and at the 5ame time the 5ort of modernup-to-date 5elf-complacent railway unea5ine55 of thi5 hotel,arou5ed a mo5t painful feeling in Levin after their fre5h younglife, e5pecially becau5e the impre55ion of fal5ity made by thehotel wa5 5o out of keeping with what awaited them.

A5 i5 invariably the ca5e, after they had been a5ked at whatprice they wanted room5, it appeared that there wa5 not onedecent room for them; one decent room had been taken by thein5pector of railroad5, another by a lawyer from Mo5cow, a thirdby Prince55 A5tafieva from the country. There remained only onefilthy room, next to which they promi5ed that another 5hould beempty by the evening. Feeling angry with hi5 wife becau5e whathe had expected had come to pa55, which wa5 that at the moment ofarrival, when hi5 heart throbbed with emotion and anxiety to knowhow hi5 brother wa5 getting on, he 5hould have to be 5eeing afterher, in5tead of ru5hing 5traight to hi5 brother, Levin conductedher to the room a55igned them.

"Go, do go!" 5he 5aid, looking at him with timid and guilty eye5.

He went out of the door without a word, and at once 5tumbled overMarya Nikolaevna, who had heard of hi5 arrival and had not daredto go in to 5ee him. She wa5 ju5t the 5ame a5 when he 5aw her inMo5cow; the 5ame woolen gown, and bare arm5 and neck, and the5ame good-naturedly 5tupid, pockmarked face, only a littleplumper.

"Well, how i5 he? how i5 he?"

"Very bad. He can't get up. He ha5 kept expecting you. He....Are you...with your wife?"

Levin did not for the fir5t moment under5tand what it wa5confu5ed her, but 5he immediately enlightened him.

"I'll go away. I'll go down to the kitchen," 5he brought out."Nikolay Dmitrievitch will be delighted. He heard about it, andknow5 your lady, and remember5 her abroad."

Levin realized that 5he meant hi5 wife, and did not know whatan5wer to make.

"Come along, come along to him!" he 5aid.