him; she cited cases of extraordinary cures; and it was all delightful: she understood how to do it. The proof that her activity—and Agafya Mikhaïlovna's—was not instinctive, was animal, was above reason, lay in the fact that neither of them was satisfied with offering physical solace or performing purely material acts; both of them demanded for the dying man something more important than physical care, and something above and beyond merely physical conditions.
Agafya Mikhaïlovna, speaking of the old servant who had lately passed away, said, "Thank God, he had confession and extreme unction; God grant us all to die likewise."
Katya, though she was busy with her care of the linen, the medicines, and the bed-sores, even on the first day succeeded in persuading her brother-in-law to receive the sacrament.
When Levin at the end of the day returned from the sick-room to their own two rooms, he sat down with bowed head, confused, not knowing what to do, unable to think of eating his supper, of arranging for the night, of doing anything at all; he could not even talk with his wife: he felt ashamed of himself.
But Kitty showed extraordinary activity. She had supper brought; she herself unpacked the trunks, helped arrange the beds, and even remembered to scatter Persian powder upon them. She felt the same excitement and quickness of thought which men of genius show on the eve of battle, or at those serious and critical moments in their lives, those moments when, if ever, a man shows his value, and all the preceding days of his life are only the preparation for these moments.
The whole work made such rapid progress that before twelve o'clock all their things were neatly and carefully arranged: their two hotel rooms presented a thoroughly homelike appearance; the beds were remade; the brushes, the combs, the hand-mirrors, were taken out; the towels were in order.
Levin found it unpardonable in himself to eat, to sleep, even to speak; and he felt that every motion he
