Page 1309 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

In spite of all this, towards the end of that day,
everyone except the princess, who could not pardon
Levin’s action, became extraordinarily lively and good
humored, like children after a punishment or grown-up

people after a dreary, ceremonious reception, so that by
the evening Vassenka’s dismissal was spoken of, in the
absence of the princess, as though it were some remote
event. And Dolly, who had inherited her father’s gift of
humorous storytelling, made Varenka helpless with
laughter as she related for the third and fourth time, always
with fresh humorous additions, how she had only just put
on her new shoes for the benefit of the visitor, and on
going into the drawing room, heard suddenly the rumble
of the trap. And who should be in the trap but Vassenka
himself, with his Scotch cap, and his songs and his gaiters,
and all, sitting in the hay.
‘If only you’d ordered out the carriage! But no! and
then I hear: ‘Stop!’ Oh, I thought they’ve relented. I look
out, and behold a fat German being sat down by him and
driving away.... And my new shoes all for nothing!..’

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