his way to Kolok. He thought he already saw white forms behind a well-known oak, when suddenly a glare of light seemed to burst from the ground before him, and the vault of the sky above him to fall with a crash. When he opened his dazzled eyes, he looked through the thick curtain formed by the rain, which cut him off from the Kolok woods, and saw, to his horror, that the green top of a well-known oak which stood in the forest had strangely changed its position. Even before he could ask, "Can the lightning have struck it?" he saw it bending over more and more rapidly, and then disappearing behind the other trees, and he heard the crash the great oak made as it fell, carrying with it the neighboring trees. The glare of the lightning, the crash of the thunder, and the sensation of chill running over his whole body blended for Levin in one impression of horror.
"My God! my God! keep them safe," he exclaimed.
And though he instantly felt the absurdity of the prayer, since the oak had already fallen, he nevertheless said it over and over, for he knew that, absurd as it was, he could not do anything else to help them.
He hastened toward the spot where they generally went, but he did not find them. They were in another part of the woods under an old linden, and they called to him. Two figures dressed in dark clothes—they usually wore white—were bending over something under the trees. It was Kitty and the nurse. The rain had stopped, and it was beginning to grow lighter when Levin reached them. The bottom of the nurse's dress was dry, but Kitty's gown was wet through and clung to her. Though it was no longer raining, they were standing just as they had been when the shower began. Both were leaning over the baby-carriage, with its green parasol.
"Alive? safe? God be praised!" he cried, as, splashing through the puddles, he ran to them with his shoes full of water.
Kitty's glowing face, all wet, was turned to him, and
