urse was not wet on the lower part of her
dress, but Kitty was drenched through, and her soaked clothes
clung to her. Though the rain was over, they still stood in the
same position in which they had been standing when the storm
broke. Both stood bending over a perambulator with a green
umbrella.

"Alive? Unhurt? Thank God!" he said, splashing with his soaked
boots through the standing water and running up to them.

Kitty's rosy wet face was turned towards him, and she smiled
timidly under her shapeless sopped hat.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself? I can't think how you can be so
reckless!" he said angrily to his wife.

"It wasn't my fault, really. We were just meaning to go, when he
made such a to-do that we had to change him. We were just..."
Kitty began defending herself.

Mitya was unharmed, dry, and still fast asleep.

"Well, thank God! I don't know what I'm saying!"

They gathered up the baby's wet belongings; the nurse picked up
the baby and carried it. Levin walked beside his wife, and,
penitent for having been angry, he squeezed her hand when the
nurse was not looking.

Chapter 18

During the whole of that day, in the extremely different
conversations in which he took part, only as it were with the top
layer of his mind, in spite of the disappointment of not finding
the change he expected in himself, Levin had been all the while
joyfully conscious of the fulness of his heart.

After the rain it was too wet to go for a walk; besides, the
storm clouds still hung about the horizon, and gathered here and
there, black and thundery, on the rim of the sky. The whole
party spent the rest of the day in the house.

No more discussions sprang up; on the contrary, after dinner
every one was in the most amiable frame of mind.

At first Katavasov amused the ladies by his original jokes, which
always pleased people on their first acquaintance with him. Then
Sergey Ivanovitch induced him to tell them about the very
interesting observations he had made on the habits and
characteristics of common houseflies, and their life. Sergey
Ivanovitch, too, was in good spirits, and at tea his brother drew
him on to explain his views of the future of the Eastern
question, and he spoke so simply and so well, that everyone
listened eagerly.

Kitty was the only one who did not hear it all--she was summoned
to give Mitya his bath.

A few minutes after Kitty had left the room she sent for Levin to
come to