Anna Karenina - Part 3

Three days after his brother's departure, Levin too set off for

his foreign tour. Happening to meet Shtcherbatsky, Kitty's

cousin, in the railway train, Levin greatly astonished him by his

depression.

"What's the matter with you?" Shtcherbatsky asked him.

"Oh, nothing; there's not much happiness in life."

"Not much? You come with me to Paris instead of to Mulhausen.

You shall see how to be happy."

"No, I've done with it all. It's time I was dead."

"Well, that's a good one!" said Shtcherbatsky, laughing; "why,

I'm only just getting ready to begin."

"Yes, I thought the same not long ago, but now I know I shall

soon be dead."

Levin said what he had genuinely been thinking of late. He saw

nothing but death or the advance towards death in everything.

But his cherished scheme only engrossed him the more. Life had

to be got through somehow till death did come. Darkness had

fallen upon everything for him; but just because of this darkness

he felt that the one guiding clue in the darkness was his work,

and he clutched it and clung to it with all his strength.