Page 114 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘I don’t know; I have never tried for long. I experience
a queer feeling once,’ he went on. ‘I never longed so for
the country, Russian country, with bast shoes and
peasants, as when I was spending a winter with my mother

in Nice. Nice itself is dull enough, you know. And
indeed, Naples and Sorrento are only pleasant for a short
time. And it’s just there that Russia comes back to me
most vividly, and especially the country. It’s as though..’
He talked on, addressing both Kitty and Levin, turning
his serene, friendly eyes from one to the other, and saying
obviously just what came into his head.
Noticing that Countess Nordston wanted to say
something, he stopped short without finishing what he
had begun, and listened attentively to her.
The conversation did not flag for an instant, so that the
princess, who always kept in reserve, in case a subject
should be lacking, two heavy guns—the relative
advantages of classical and of modern education, and
universal military service—had not to move out either of
them, while Countess Nordston had not a chance of
chaffing Levin.
Levin wanted to, and could not, take part in the
general conversation; saying to himself every instant,

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