Page 1599 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 24

‘Well, was it nice?’ she asked, coming out to meet him
with a penitent and meek expression.
‘Just as usual,’ he answered, seeing at a glance that she
was in One of her good moods. He was used by now to
these transitions, and he was particularly glad to see it
today, as he was in a specially good humor himself.
‘What do I see? Come, that’s good!’ he said, pointing
to the boxes in the passage.
‘Yes, we must go. I went out for a drive, and it was so
fine I longed to be in the country. There’s nothing to
keep you, is there?’
‘It’s the one thing I desire. I’ll be back directly, and
we’ll talk it over; I only want to change my coat. Order
some tea.’
And he went into his room.
There was something mortifying in the way he had said
‘Come, that’s good,’ as one says to a child when it leaves
off being naughty, and still more mortifying was the
contrast between her penitent and his self-confident tone;
and for one instant she felt the lust of strife rising up in her

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