make any allusion to the consolation brought by faith and love for human sorrows, and to the compassion of Christ, who looked on no sorrows as insignificant; and she immediately changed the subject.
But in all this lady's motions, in her words, in her heavenly looks, as Kitty called them, and, above all, in the story of her life, which she knew through Varenka, Kitty discovered "the important thing" which till now had been but a sealed book to her.
But, lofty as Madame Stahl's character was, touching as was her history, high-minded and affectionate her discourse, Kitty could not help noticing certain peculiarities, which troubled her. One day, for example, when her relatives were mentioned, Madame Stahl smiled disdainfully; it was contrary to Christian charity. Another time Kitty noticed, when she met a Roman Catholic dignitary calling on her, that Madame Stahl kept her face carefully shaded by the curtain, and smiled peculiarly. Insignificant as these two incidents were, they gave her some pain, and caused her to doubt Madame Stahl's sincerity.
Varenka, on the other hand, alone in the world, without family connections, without friends, hoping for naught, harboring no ill-will after her bitter disappointment, seemed to her absolute perfection. Through Varenka she learned how to forget herself, and to love her neighbor, if she wanted to be happy, calm, and good. And Kitty did wish this. And, when once she learned what was the important thing, Kitty was no longer willing simply to admire, but gave herself up with her whole heart to the new life which opened before her. After the stories which Varenka told her of Madame Stahl and others whom she named, Kitty drew up a plan for her coming life. She decided that, following the example of Aline, Madame Stahl's niece, whom Varenka often told her about, she would visit the unhappy, no matter where she might be living, and that she would aid them to the best of her ability; that she would distribute the Gospel, read the New Testament to the sick, to the dying, to criminals: the
