Page 1207 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

your past that could worry him? That Vronsky paid you
attentions—that happens to every girl.’
‘Oh, yes, but we didn’t mean that,’ Kitty said, flushing
a little.

‘No, let me speak,’ her mother went on, ‘why, you
yourself would not let me have a talk to Vronsky. Don’t
you remember?’
‘Oh, mamma!’ said Kitty, with an expression of
suffering.
‘There’s no keeping you young people in check
nowadays.... Your friendship could not have gone beyond
what was suitable. I should myself have called upon him to
explain himself. But, my darling, it’s not right for you to
be agitated. Please remember that, and calm yourself.’
‘I’m perfectly calm, maman.’
‘How happy it was for Kitty that Anna came then,’ said
Dolly, ‘and how unhappy for her. It turned out quite the
opposite,’ she said, struck by her own ideas. ‘Then Anna
was so happy, and Kitty thought herself unhappy. Now it
is just the opposite. I often think of her.’
‘A nice person to think about! Horrid, repulsive
woman—no heart,’ said her mother, who could not forget
that Kitty had married not Vronsky, but Levin.

1206 of 1759