Page 1242 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Happily for Levin, the old princess cut short his agonies
by getting up herself and advising Kitty to go to bed. But
even at this point Levin could not escape another agony.
As he said good-night to his hostess, Vassenka would again

have kissed her hand, but Kitty, reddening, drew back her
hand and said with a naive bluntness, for which the old
princess scolded her afterwards:
‘We don’t like that fashion.’
In Levin’s eyes she was to blame for having allowed
such relations to arise, and still more to blame for showing
so awkwardly that she did not like them.
‘Why, how can one want to go to bed!’ said Stepan
Arkadyevitch, who, after drinking several glasses of wine
at supper, was now in his most charming and sentimental
humor. ‘Look, Kitty,’ he said, pointing to the moon,
which had just risen behind the lime trees"how exquisite!
Veslovsky, this is the time for a serenade. You know, he
has a splendid voice; we practiced songs together along the
road. He has brought some lovely songs with him, two
new ones. Varvara Andreevna and he must sing some
duets.’
When the party had broken up, Stepan Arkadyevitch
walked a long while about the avenue with Veslovsky;
their voices could be heard singing one of the new songs.

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