The Awakening Part 64

"And who is this third one?" he asked, mistrusting his own eyesight.

"This one is a gentleman who was sent hither from the hospital,"

replied the superintendent.

Nekhludoff walked up to the body and touched the icy cold feet of Kryltzoff.

CHAPTER X.

Nekhludoff, after parting with the Englishman, went straight to his hotel, and walked about his room for a long time. The affair with Katiousha was at an end. There was something ugly in the very memory of it. But it was not that which grieved him. Some other affair of his was yet unsettled--an affair which tortured him and required his attention. In his imagination rose the gloomy scenes of the hundreds and thousands of human beings pent up in the pestiferous air. The laughter of the prisoners resounded in his ears. He saw again among the dead bodies the beautiful, angry, waxen face of the dead Kryltzoff; and the question whether he was mad, or all those who commit those evils and think themselves wise were mad, bore in upon his mind with renewed power, and he found no answer to it. The princ.i.p.al difficulty consisted in finding an answer to the princ.i.p.al question, which was: What should be done with those who became brutalized in the struggle for life?

When he became tired walking about the room he sat down on the lounge, close by the lamp, and mechanically opened the Bible which the Englishman had presented him, and which he had thrown on the table while emptying his pockets. They say, he thought, that this Bible contains the solution to all questions. So, opening it, he began to read at the place at which it opened itself--Matt. x., 8. After a while he inclined close to the lamp and became like one petrified. An exultation, the like of which he had not experienced for a long time, took possession of his soul, as though, after long suffering and weariness, he found at last liberty and rest. He did not sleep the whole night. As is the case with many who read the Bible for the first time, he now, on reading it again, grasped the full meaning of words which he had known long ago, but which he had not understood before.

Like a sponge that absorbs everything, so he absorbed everything that was important, necessary and joyful.

"That is the princ.i.p.al thing," thought Nekhludoff. "We all live in the silly belief that we ourselves are the lords of our world, that this world has been given us for our enjoyment. But this is evidently untrue. Somebody must have sent us here for some reason. And for this reason it is plain that we will suffer like those laborers suffer who do not fulfill the wishes of their Master. The will of the Lord is expressed in the teachings of Christ. Let man obey Him, and the Kingdom of the Lord will come on earth, and man will derive the greatest possible good.

"_Seek the truth and the Kingdom of G.o.d, and the rest will come of itself._ We seek that which is to come, and do not find it, and not only do we not build the Kingdom of G.o.d, but we destroy it.

"So this will henceforth be the task of my life!"

And indeed, from that night a new life began for Nekhludoff; not so much because he had risen into a new stage of existence, but because all that had happened to him till then a.s.sumed for him an altogether new meaning.

THE END.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: (Not part of the original book.)

Below are listed the spelling inconsistencies in the names of certain characters. The names were transcribed to match the original text except where typos are a.s.sumed to have caused the variations. Changes from the original are noted below, except for minor punctuation corrections.

Absence changed to absent from original sentence (Part 1, Ch. VI, Pg. 25):

He was postponing the case against the Skoptzy, although the absence witness was an entirely unnecessary one.

Birukova (Theodosia) (1 time) Brinkova (Theodosia) (1 time)

Borki (village) (1 time) Borkoff (village) (1 time) Barkoff (village) (1 time)

Chapter (3 times) Chepter (1 time), changed to Chapter from original sentence (Part 1, Ch. XLIII, Pg. 153):

"To the Department of Ca.s.sation, etc., etc., Katherine, etc.

Pet.i.tion. By the decision, etc., of the etc., rendered, etc., a certain Maslova was found guilty of taking the life, by poisoning, of a certain merchant Smelkoff, and in pursuance of Chepter 1,454 of the Code, was sentenced to etc., with hard labor, etc."

Daus changed to dans, from original sentence (Part 2, Ch. IX, Pg. 229):

Il donne daus le spiritisme.

Dmitri (22 times) Dimitri (3 times)

Dvorianskaia (1 time) Dvorinskaia (1 time)

Fanarin (11 times) Fanirin (19 times)

Fomer changed to former, from original sentence (Part 1, Ch. XLIII, Pg. 151):

Not only was the old arrangement of things continued, but, as in fomer times, the house received a general cleaning.

Gerasimovich (7 times) Gerasimovitch (8 times)

Ivanova (Bochkova) (1 time) Ivanovna (Bochkova) (1 time)

Ivanovich (Dmitri) (14 times) Ivanovitch (Dmitri) (3 time)

Kamensky (2 times) Kanesky (1 time)

Katherine (Michaelovna Maslova) (15 times) Catherine (Michaelovna Maslova) (3 times)

Katiousha (122 times) Katiusha (3 times)

Korableva (39 times) Korabeva (1 time), changed to Korableva from original sentence (Part 1, Ch. XLVI, Pg. 164):

"Well, girl, good times are coming," said Korabeva to Maslova when the latter returned to the cell.

Kornei (8 times) Kornci (1 time), changed to Kornei from original sentence (Part 2, Ch. VI, Pg. 215):

The odor of camphor still hung in the air through all the rooms, and Agrippina, Petrovna and Kornci seemed tired out and dissatisfied, and even quarreled about the packing of the things, the use of which seemed to consist chiefly in being hung out, dried and packed away again.

Kryltzoff (22 times) Kyrltzoff (1 time), changed to Kryltzoff from original sentence (Part 3, Ch. V, Pg. 301):

"I cannot talk to them," Kyrltzoff said in a whisper, and became silent.

Kusminskoie (8 times) Kusminskoi (1 time), changed to Kusminskoie from original sentence (Part 2, Ch. V, Pg. 215):

Recalling now the feeling of pity over the loss of his property which he had experienced in Kusminskoi, Nekhludoff wondered how he could have done so.

Kusminskoe (1 time), changed to Kusminskoie from original sentence (Part 2, Ch. XXIV, Pg. 286):

"I have not yet given the Kusminskoe land to the peasants."

Maslova (294 times) Moslova (3 times)