Page 148 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

arms and kissed her. ‘Delightful child, delightful! Show me
them all.’
She mentioned them, not only remembering the
names, but the years, months, characters, illnesses of all the

children, and Dolly could not but appreciate that.
‘Very well, we will go to them,’ she said. ‘It’s a pity
Vassya’s asleep.’
After seeing the children, They sat down, alone now,
in the drawing room, to coffee. Anna took the tray, and
then pushed it away from her.
‘Dolly,’ she said, ‘he has told me.’
Dolly looked coldly at Anna; she was waiting now for
phrases of conventional sympathy, but Anna said nothing
of the sort.
‘Dolly, dear,’ she said, ‘I don’t want to speak for him to
you, nor to try to comfort you; that’s impossible. But,
darling, I’m simply sorry, sorry from my heart for you!’
Under the thick lashes of her shining eyes tears
suddenly glittered. She moved nearer to her sister-in-law
and took her hand in her vigorous little hand. Dolly did
not shrink away, but her face did not lose its frigid
expression. She said:
‘To comfort me’s impossible. Everything’s lost after
what has happened, everything’s over!’

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