Page 1110 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

peace, consolation, salvation, and love,’ she said, and
turning her eyes heavenwards, she began praying, as
Alexey Alexandrovitch gathered from her silence.
Alexey Alexandrovitch listened to her now, and those

expressions which had seemed to him, if not distasteful, at
least exaggerated, now seemed to him natural and
consolatory. Alexey Alexandrovitch had disliked this new
enthusiastic fervor. He was a believer, who was interested
in religion primarily in its political aspect, and the new
doctrine which ventured upon several new interpretations,
just because it paved the way to discussion and analysis,
was in principle disagreeable to him. He had hitherto
taken up a cold and even antagonistic attitude to this new
doctrine, and with Countess Lidia Ivanovna, who had
been carried away by it, he had never argued, but by
silence had assiduously parried her attempts to provoke
him into argument. Now for the first time he heard her
words with pleasure, and did not inwardly oppose them.
‘I am very, very grateful to you, both for your deeds
and for your words,’ he said, when she had finished
praying.
Countess Lidia Ivanovna once more pressed both her
friend’s hands.

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