Kiss your wife

A verger spreads pink silk before the lectern, and neither Levin nor Kitty can think about who steps on it first, nor hear the dispute behind them about which of them did. The prayers ask that they live in chastity for the fruits of the womb, that a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two be one flesh, that they be blessed as Isaac and Rebecca were and see their children's children. Kitty tries to follow the words and cannot, being too full of triumph and joy, and thinks only that it is all beautiful and could not be otherwise. Shcherbatsky's gloved hand trembles holding the crown above her head until she whispers to him to put it on. The joy in her spreads through the church: Chirikov and Shcherbatsky get tangled in her train and smile without knowing why, and Levin fancies the priest and deacon want to smile too. 'Kiss your wife; and you, kiss your husband.' They leave for the country after supper.

The sacrament works on people who are not following it: Kitty cannot attend to a word and is transformed, and her joy infects everyone within reach including the clergy. Tolstoy's case for the ceremony is made by contagion rather than doctrine. Six chapters go to the wedding and one line to what follows it — 'After supper that same night the young couple left for the country'.