Page 138 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

mother was waiting for him, he went back again into the
carriage.
‘She’s very sweet, isn’t she?’ said the countess of
Madame Karenina. ‘Her husband put her with me, and I

was delighted to have her. We’ve been talking all the way.
And so you, I hear...vous filez le parfait amour. Tant
mieux, mon cher, tant mieux.’
‘I don’t know what you are referring to, maman,’ he
answered coldly. ‘Come, maman, let us go.’
Madame Karenina entered the carriage again to say
good-bye to the countess.
‘Well, countess, you have met your son, and I my
brother,’ she said. ‘And all my gossip is exhausted. I should
have nothing more to tell you.’
‘Oh, no,’ said the countess, taking her hand. ‘I could
go all around the world with you and never be dull. You
are one of those delightful women in whose company it’s
sweet to be silent as well as to talk. Now please don’t fret
over your son; you can’t expect never to be parted.’
Madame Karenina stood quite still, holding herself very
erect, and her eyes were smiling.
‘Anna Arkadyevna,’ the countess said in explanation to
her son, ‘has a little son eight years old, I believe, and she

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