Page 110 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘It’s very flattering for me, countess, that you remember
my words so well,’ responded Levin, who had succeeded
in recovering his composure, and at once from habit
dropped into his tone of joking hostility to the Countess

Nordston. ‘They must certainly make a great impression
on you.’
‘Oh, I should think so! I always note them all down.
Well, Kitty, have you been skating again?...
And she began talking to Kitty. Awkward as it was for
Levin to withdraw now, it would still have been easier for
him to perpetrate this awkwardness than to remain all the
evening and see Kitty, who glanced at him now and then
and avoided his eyes. He was on the point of getting up,
when the princess, noticing that he was silent, addressed
him.
‘Shall you be long in Moscow? You’re busy with the
district council, though, aren’t you, and can’t be away for
long?’
‘No, princess, I’m no longer a member of the council,’
he said. ‘I have come up for a few days.’
‘There’s something the matter with him,’ thought
Countess Nordston, glancing at his stern, serious face. ‘He
isn’t in his old argumentative mood. But I’ll draw him

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