Page 1211 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 3

Kitty was particularly glad of a chance of being alone
with her husband, for she had noticed the shade of
mortification that had passed over his face—always so
quick to reflect every feeling—at the moment when he
had come onto the terrace and asked what they were
talking of, and had got no answer.
When they had set off on foot ahead of the others, and
had come out of sight of the house onto the beaten dusty
road, marked with rusty wheels and sprinkled with grains
of corn, she clung faster to his arm and pressed it closer to
her. He had quite forgotten the momentary unpleasant
impression, and alone with her he felt, now that the
thought of her approaching motherhood was never for a
moment absent from his mind, a new and delicious bliss,
quite pure from all alloy of sense, in the being near to the
woman he loved. There was no need of speech, yet he
longed to hear the sound of her voice, which like her eyes
had changed since she had been with child. In her voice,
as in her eyes, there was that softness and gravity which is
found in people continually concentrated on some
cherished pursuit.

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