Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [264]
Turning back to the lectern, the priest took hold of Kitty’s small ring with some difficulty and, asking for Levin’s hand, placed it on the first joint of his finger. ‘The servant of God, Konstantin, is betrothed to the handmaid of God, Ekaterina.’ And, putting the big ring on Kitty’s small, pink, pathetically frail finger, the priest repeated the same thing.
Several times the betrothed couple tried to guess what they had to do, and each time they were mistaken, and the priest corrected them in a whisper. Finally, having done what was necessary, having crossed them with the rings, he again gave Kitty the big one and Levin the little one; again they became confused and twice handed the rings back and forth, still without doing what was required.
Dolly, Chirikov and Stepan Arkadyich stepped forward to correct them. The result was perplexity, whispers and smiles, which did not alter the solemnly tender expression on the faces of the couple; on the contrary, while they confused their hands, their look was more serious and solemn than before, and the smile with which Stepan Arkadyich whispered that each of them should now put on the proper ring, involuntarily froze on his lips. He had the feeling that any smile would offend them.
‘For thou, in the beginning, didst make them male and female,’ the priest was reading, following the exchange of rings, ‘and by thee is the woman joined unto the man as a helpmeet and for the procreation of the human race. Wherefore, O Lord our God, who has sent forth thy truth upon thine inheritance, and thy covenant unto thy servants our fathers, even thine elect, from generation to generation: look thou upon thy servant, Konstantin, and upon thy handmaid, Ekaterina, and establish their betrothal in faith, and in oneness of mind, in truth, and in love ...’13
Levin felt more and more that all his thoughts about marriage, all his dreams of how he would arrange his life, were mere childishness, and that it was something he had not understood before, and now understood still less, though it was being accomplished over him; spasms were rising higher and higher in his breast, and disobedient tears were coming to his eyes.
V
All Moscow, family and acquaintances, was in the church. And during the rite of betrothal, in the brilliant illumination of the church, among the decked-out women, girls, and men in white ties, tailcoats and uniforms, the talk went on unceasingly in decently low tones, initiated mainly by the men, while the women were absorbed in watching all the details of the sacred ritual, which they always find so moving.
In the group nearest the bride were her two sisters: Dolly, and the eldest, the calm beauty Princess Lvov, who had come from abroad.
‘Why is Marie wearing purple, almost like black, for a wedding?’ said Mme Korsunsky.
‘With her complexion it’s the only salvation ...’ Mme Drubetskoy replied. ‘I wonder why they’re having the wedding in the evening. Like merchants ...’
‘It’s more beautiful. I, too, was married in the evening,’ Mme Korsunsky answered with a sigh, recalling how nice she had looked that day, how comically in love her husband had been, and how different everything was now.
‘They say if anyone’s been a best man more than ten times, he’ll never marry. I wanted this to be my tenth time, to insure myself, but the job was taken,’ Count Sinyavin said to the pretty princess Charsky, who had designs on him.
Princess Charsky answered him only with a smile. She was looking at Kitty, thinking of how and when she would be standing in Kitty’s place with Count Sinyavin, and how she would remind him then of his present joke.
Shcherbatsky told the old lady-in-waiting, Mme Nikolaev, that he intended to put the crown on Kitty’s chignon so that she would be happy.14
‘She oughtn’t to be wearing a chignon,’ answered Mme Nikolaev, who had decided long ago that if the old widower she was trying to catch married her, the wedding would be the simplest. ‘I don’t like all this faste.’ak
Sergei Ivanovich was talking with Darya Dmitrievna, jokingly assuring