Page 1581 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

what they were talking about, he wanted to confine
himself to generalities.
‘The change is not in his external position,’ Countess
Lidia Ivanovna said sternly, following with eyes of love the

figure of Alexey Alexandrovitch as he got up and crossed
over to Landau; ‘his heart is changed, a new heart has been
vouchsafed him, and I fear you don’t fully apprehend the
change that has taken place in him.’
‘Oh, well, in general outlines I can conceive the
change. We have always been friendly, and now...’ said
Stepan Arkadyevitch, responding with a sympathetic
glance to the expression of the countess, and mentally
balancing the question with which of the two ministers
she was most intimate, so as to know about which to ask
her to speak for him.
‘The change that has taken place in him cannot lessen
his love for his neighbors; on the contrary, that change can
only intensify love in his heart. But I am afraid you do not
understand me. Won’t you have some tea?’ she said, with
her eyes indicating the footman, who was handing round
tea on a tray.
‘Not quite, countess. Of course, his misfortune..’
‘Yes, a misfortune which has proved the highest
happiness, when his heart was made new, was filled full of

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