Mitya knows his own people

All day Levin takes part in the talk only with the external side of his mind, aware of the fullness of his heart. Too wet to walk, the company stays in, and after dinner there are no disputes: Katavasov reports on the differences between male and female house-flies, and Koznyshev expounds the Eastern question. Kitty is called away to bath Mitya, and Levin is sent for. Alone, he returns to the morning's feeling, now stronger than his thoughts can follow. On the verandah he recalls what he had hidden from himself: if the proof of a Deity is His revelation of goodness, why is it confined to the Christian Church, and what of the Buddhists and Mahomedans who also do good? He reaches the nursery before he can answer, and finds Kitty squeezing a sponge over the floating baby. The cook bends over Mitya and he frowns; Kitty bends over him and he lights up — he has begun to recognise his own people. Levin admits he felt repulsion and pity rather than joy, until the storm showed him how much he loves the child.

Tolstoy sets the objection that could undo the whole revelation — why only the Christian Church — and then interrupts it with a baby in a bath, holding the answer over for the last chapter. Levin's confession that fatherhood brought repulsion and pity rather than the surprise he expected is the pattern the closing pages will apply to faith itself.