Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [262]
Levin realized that this was a joke, but was unable to smile.
‘So, which is it - new or used? That is the question.’
‘Yes, yes, new ones!’
‘Well, I’m very glad. The question’s decided!’ Stepan Arkadyich said, smiling. ‘How stupid people get in this situation, though,’ he said to Chirikov, as Levin, giving him a lost look, moved nearer to his bride.
‘See that you’re the first to step on the rug,9 Kitty,’ Countess Nordston said, coming up. ‘A fine one you are!’ she turned to Levin.
‘What, frightened?’ said Marya Dmitrievna, her old aunt.
‘You’re not chilly? You look pale. Wait, bend down!’ Kitty’s sister Natalie said and, rounding her full, beautiful arms, she smilingly straightened the flowers on her head.
Dolly came over, tried to say something, but could not get it out, began to cry, then laughed unnaturally.
Kitty looked at everyone with the same absent gaze as Levin. To all that was said to her she could respond only with the smile of happiness that was now so natural to her.
Meanwhile the clergy had put on their vestments, and the priest and deacon came out to the lectern that stood inside the porch of the church.10 The priest turned to Levin and said something. Levin could not make out what the priest said.
‘Take the bride’s hand and lead her,’ the best man said to Levin.
For a long time Levin could not understand what was required of him. For a long time they kept correcting him and were about to give it up - because he kept either taking the wrong hand or taking it with the wrong hand - when he finally understood that he had to take her right hand with his own right hand without changing position. When he finally took the bride by the hand as he was supposed to, the priest went a few steps ahead of them and stopped at the lectern. The crowd of relations and acquaintances moved after them with a buzz of talk and a rustle of skirts. Someone bent down and straightened the bride’s train. The church became so still that the dripping of wax could be heard.
The little old priest, in a kamilavka,11 with the silvery gleam of his grey locks of hair pulled back on both sides behind his ears, drew his small, old man’s hands out from under his heavy chasuble, silver with a gold cross on the back, and fumbled with something at the lectern.
Stepan Arkadyich cautiously went up to him, whispered something, and, with a wink at Levin, went back again.
The priest lighted two candles adorned with flowers, holding them slantwise in his left hand so that the wax slowly dripped from them, and turned to face the young couple. He was the same priest who had confessed Levin. He looked wearily and sadly at the bride and bridegroom, sighed and, drawing his right hand out from under the chasuble, blessed the bridegroom and in the same way, but with a touch of careful tenderness placed his joined fingers over Kitty’s bowed head. Then he handed them the candles and, taking the censer, slowly moved away from them.
‘Can this be true?’ Levin thought and looked at his bride. He could see her profile from slightly above, and by the barely perceptible movement of her lips and eyelashes he knew that she felt his gaze. She did not turn, but her high, fluted collar stirred, rising to her small pink ear. He could see that a sigh had stopped in her breast, and her small hand in its long glove trembled, holding the candle.
All the fuss over the shirt, over being late, the talking with acquaintances, relations, their displeasure, his ridiculousness - all suddenly vanished, and he felt joyful and frightened.
The handsome, tall protodeacon in a silver surplice, his brushed, curled locks standing out on either side, stepped briskly forward and, raising his stole in two fingers with an accustomed gesture, stopped in front of the priest.
‘Ble-e-ess, ma-a-aster!’ Slowly, one after the other, the solemn tones resounded, making the air ripple.
‘Blessed is our God always, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages,’ the old priest responded humbly and melodiously, continuing