Page 1194 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Unpleasant!’ she cried—‘hideous! As long as I live I
shall never forget it. She said it was a disgrace to sit beside
me.’
‘A silly woman’s chatter,’ he said: ‘but why risk it, why

provoke?..’
‘I hate your calm. You ought not to have brought me
to this. If you had loved me..’
‘Anna! How does the question of my love come in?’
‘Oh, if you loved me, as I love, if you were tortured as
I am!...’ she said, looking at him with an expression of
terror.
He was sorry for her, and angry notwithstanding. He
assured her of his love because he saw that this was the
only means of soothing her, and he did not reproach her
in words, but in his heart he reproached her.
And the asseverations of his love, which seemed to him
so vulgar that he was ashamed to utter them, she drank in
eagerly, and gradually became calmer. The next day,
completely reconciled, they left for the country.

1193 of 1759