Page 139 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

has never been parted from him before, and she keeps
fretting over leaving him.’
‘Yes, the countess and I have been talking all the time,
I of my son and she of hers,’ said Madame Karenina, and

again a smile lighted up her face, a caressing smile
intended for him.
‘I am afraid that you must have been dreadfully bored,’
he said, promptly catching the ball of coquetry she had
flung him. But apparently she did not care to pursue the
conversation in that strain, and she turned to the old
countess.
‘Thank you so much. The time has passed so quickly.
Good-bye, countess.’
‘Good-bye, my love,’ answered the countess. ‘Let me
have a kiss of your pretty face. I speak plainly, at my age,
and I tell you simply that I’ve lost my heart to you.’
Stereotyped as the phrase was, Madame Karenina
obviously believed it and was delighted by it. She flushed,
bent down slightly, and put her cheek to the countess’s
lips, drew herself up again, and with the same smile
fluttering between her lips and her eyes, she gave her hand
to Vronsky. He pressed the little hand she gave him, and
was delighted, as though at something special, by the
energetic squeeze with which she freely and vigorously

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