Page 1298 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘I’ve been worried about Masha. She did not sleep well,
and is dreadfully tiresome today,’ said Dolly.
The conversation Vassenka had started with Kitty was
running on the same lines as on the previous evening,

discussing Anna, and whether love is to be put higher than
worldly considerations. Kitty disliked the conversation,
and she was disturbed both by the subject and the tone in
which it was conducted, and also by the knowledge of the
effect it would have on her husband. But she was too
simple and innocent to know how to cut short this
conversation, or even to conceal the superficial pleasure
afforded her by the young man’s very obvious admiration.
She wanted to stop it, but she did not know what to do.
Whatever she did she knew would be observed by her
husband, and the worst interpretation put on it. And, in
fact, when she asked Dolly what was wrong with Masha,
and Vassenka, waiting till this uninteresting conversation
was over, began to gaze indifferently at Dolly, the
question struck Levin as an unnatural and disgusting piece
of hypocrisy.
‘What do you say, shall we go and look for mushrooms
today?’ said Dolly.
‘By all means, please, and I shall come too,’ said Kitty,
and she blushed. She wanted from politeness to ask

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