At four o'clock he heard steps in the passage and peeped out at the door.

It was the gambler Myaskin, whom he knew, coming from the club.

He walked gloomily, frowning and coughing.

" Poor, unlucky fellow!" thought Levin, and tears came into his eyes from love and pity for this man.

He would have talked with him, and tried to comfort him, but remembering that he had nothing but his shirt on, he changed his mind and sat down again at the open pane to bathe in the cold air and gaze at the exquisite lines of the cross, silent, but full of meaning for him, and the mounting lurid yellow star.