Chapter 115 — Anna Karenina

When Kitty leaves, Levin fears the fourteen hours until tomorrow as though facing death and clings to company. He tells Stiva he is happy and loves him; Stiva answers that it is not time to die yet. Dolly congratulates him awkwardly; Levin resents her commonplace and attaches himself to Sergey Ivanovitch.

At a meeting Levin finds everyone delightful, even disputes about pipes and missing sums, because he sees good hearts through every face. Sviazhsky invites him to tea; Levin once disliked him, now finds him wonderfully kind and stays hours boring the household without noticing.

Alone at last in his hotel, he cannot sleep or eat. He talks with the servant Yegor about marriage and love, hears Yegor's satisfied philosophy, pities the gambler Myaskin in the hall, opens the window to the cross and stars, and waits until seven o'clock when servants begin the day and he goes out into the street.

Levin's night cannot be filled: meetings, Sviazhsky's tea, Yegor's philosophy, and stars at the window all fail to shorten fourteen hours. Happiness has made time physical, and he waits for seven o'clock as prisoners wait for release.

The cross and stars outside his window measure the night he cannot shorten; tomorrow's visit to the Shcherbatskys will make the wait feel like resurrection or judgment.