Sacred Joy in a Noisy Room — Anna Karenina

Levin follows Stiva into the England restaurant and sees restrained radiance in every gesture: waiters bowing, oysters debated, champagne chosen, the painted Frenchwoman laughing at Stiva's joke. Levin's soul is already full of Kitty. The mirrors, gas, and powdered artifice feel like contamination; he would rather have cabbage soup and get back to work, the way country people do.

Stiva says civilization makes everything a source of enjoyment; Levin says he would rather be a savage. Stiva teases that all Levins are savages, then reads Levin's face and quotes Pushkin on a youth in love. Levin asks if Kitty could accept him. Stiva swears he desires nothing more. Levin presses, terrified of refusal, until Stiva smiles at his habit of putting every woman on earth below her alone and reports that Dolly foresees marriages well and says Kitty is certain to be Levin's wife.

Levin glows, walks the little room, and confesses it is not ordinary love but a force outside him. He names the awful part: old men with sinful pasts brought near a pure girl. Stiva says the world is made so. Levin answers with the prayer he always liked: forgive me not according to my unworthiness, but according to Thy loving-kindness.