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It was all horribly disgusting, yet to Levin it appeared not at

all in the same disgusting light as it inevitably would to those

who did not know Nikolay, did not know all his story, did not

know his heart.

Levin remembered that when Nikolay had been in the devout stage,

the period of fasts and monks and church services, when he was

seeking in religion a support and a curb for his passionate

temperament, everyone, far from encouraging him, had jeered at

him, and he, too, with the others. They had teased him, called

him Noah, and monk; and, when he had broken out, no one had

helped him, but everyone had turned away from him with horror and

disgust.