Book 3 Chapter 20 The Journey Resumed

The carters had left the inn long before Nekhludoff awoke. The
landlady had had her tea, and came in wiping her fat, perspiring
neck with her handkerchief, and said that a soldier had brought a
note from the halting station. The note was from Mary Pavlovna.
She wrote that Kryltzoff's attack was more serious than they had
imagined. "We wished him to be left behind and to remain with
him, but this has not been allowed, so that we shall take him on;
but we fear the worst. Please arrange so that if he should be
left in the next town, one of us might remain with him. If in
order to get the permission to stay I should be obliged to get
married to him, I am of course ready to do so."

Nekhludoff sent the young labourer to the post station to order
horses and began packing up hurriedly. Before he had drunk his
second tumbler of tea the three-horsed postcart drove up to the
porch with ringing bells, the wheels rattling on the frozen mud
as on stones. Nekhludoff paid the fat-necked landlady, hurried
out and got into the cart, and gave orders to the driver to go on
as fast as possible, so as to overtake the gang. Just past the
gates of the commune pasture ground they did overtake the carts,
loaded with sacks and the sick prisoners, as they rattled over
the frozen mud, that was just beginning to be rolled smooth by
the wheels (the officer was not there, he had gone in advance).
The soldiers, who had evidently been drinking, followed by the
side of the road, chatting merrily. There were a great many
carts. In each of the first carts sat six invalid criminal
convicts, close packed. On each of the last two were three
political prisoners. Novodvoroff, Grabetz and Kondratieff sat on
one, Rintzeva, Nabatoff and the woman to whom Mary Pavlovna had
given up her own place on the other, and on one of the carts lay
Kryltzoff on a heap of hay, with a pillow under his head, and
Mary Pavlovna sat by him on the edge of the cart. Nekhludoff
ordered his driver to stop, got out and went up to Kryltzoff. One
of the tipsy soldiers waved his hand towards Nekhludoff, but he
paid no attention and started walking by Kryltzoff's side,
holding on to the side of the cart with his hand. Dressed in a
sheepskin coat, with a fur cap on his head and his mouth bound up
with a handkerchief, he seemed paler and thinner than ever. His
beautiful eyes looked very large and brilliant. Shaken from side
to side by the jottings of the cart, he lay with his eyes fixed
on Nekhludoff; but when asked about his health, he only closed
his eyes and angrily shook his head. All his energy seemed to be
needed in order to bear the jolting of the cart. Mary Pavlovna
was on the other side. She exchanged a significant glance with
Nekhludoff, which expressed all her anxiety about Kryltzoff's
state, and then began to talk at once in a cheerful manner.