He asked the surgeons many questions
upon the detailed possibilities of their science, and he was keenly
interested and excited by the things they told him. And as they talked
the sun touched the mountains, and became very swiftly a blazing and
indented hemisphere of liquid flame and sank.
Karenin looked blinking at the last quivering rim of incandescence, and
shaded his eyes and became silent.
Presently he gave a little start.
'What?' asked Rachel Borken.
'I had forgotten,' he said.
'What had you forgotten?'
'I had forgotten about the operation to-morrow. I have been so
interested as Man to-day that I have nearly forgotten Marcus Karenin.
Marcus Karenin must go under your knife to-morrow, Fowler, and very
probably Marcus Karenin will die.' He raised his slightly shrivelled
hand. 'It does not matter, Fowler. It scarcely matters even to me. For
indeed is it Karenin who has been sitting here and talking; is it not
rather a common mind, Fowler, that has played about between us? You and
I and all of us have added thought to thought, but the thread is neither
you nor me. What is true we all have; when the individual has altogether
brought himself to the test and winnowing of expression, then the
individual is done. I feel as though I had already been emptied out of
that little vessel, that Marcus Karenin, which in my youth held me so
tightly and completely.
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