"My sole merit," replied Vronsky, "is that life is of no value to me. As to physical energy, I know it will not be wanting for any purpose; and I am glad enough to give my life, which is not only useless to me, but disgusting, to be useful to somebody;" and he made an impatient motion with his jaw, caused by his unceasing toothache, which prevented him from talking with the expression he desired.
"You will be regenerated, is my prediction," said Sergyeï Ivanovitch, feeling touched. "The deliverance of one's oppressed brethren is an aim for which one might as well live as die. May God grant you full success, and fill your soul with peace!" he added, and held out his hand.
Vronsky pressed his hand cordially.
"As a field-piece, I may be of use. .... But as a man, .... I am only a ruin," murmured the count, with intervals between the phrases. The throbbing pain in his tooth, which filled his mouth with saliva, made it an effort for him to speak. He stopped, and fixed his eyes mechanically on the engine-wheels, which advanced, revolving slowly and smoothly on the rails.
And suddenly a sense of intense spiritual anguish caused him for a moment to forget his toothache. At the sight of the engine and the rails, through the influence of his talk with an acquaintance whom he had not seen since his misfortune, she suddenly appeared to him, or, at least, that which remained of her, as, when he rushed like a madman into the barracks near the station, where they had carried her, he saw, lying on a table, shamelessly exposed to the sight of all, her bleeding body, which had so lately been full of life. Her head, uninjured, with its heavy braids, and its light curls clustering about the temples, was leaning back, with the eyes half closed; and in the lovely face hovered still a strange, wild expression, while her rosy lips, slightly opened, seemed prepared to utter once again that terrible menace, and predict to him, as she had in their dispute, that he "would repent."
And he tried to remember how she looked when he
