Page 136 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

something that against her will it showed itself now in the
flash of her eyes, and now in her smile. Deliberately she
shrouded the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will
in the faintly perceptible smile.

Vronsky stepped into the carriage. His mother, a dried-
up old lady with black eyes and ringlets, screwed up her
eyes, scanning her son, and smiled slightly with her thin
lips. Getting up from the seat and handing her maid a bag,
she gave her little wrinkled hand to her son to kiss, and
lifting his head from her hand, kissed him on the cheek.
‘You got my telegram? Quite well? Thank God.’
‘You had a good journey?’ said her son, sitting down
beside her, and involuntarily listening to a woman’s voice
outside the door. He knew it was the voice of the lady he
had met at the door.
‘All the same I don’t agree with you,’ said the lady’s
voice.
‘It’s the Petersburg view, madame.’
‘Not Petersburg, but simply feminine,’ she responded.
‘Well, well, allow me to kiss your hand.’
‘Good-bye, Ivan Petrovitch. And could you see if my
brother is here, and send him to me?’ said the lady in the
doorway, and stepped back again into the compartment.

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