Page 1611 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

certain that the greater part of your irritability comes from
the indefiniteness of the position.’
‘Yes, now he has laid aside all pretense, and all his cold
hatred for me is apparent,’ she thought, not hearing his

words, but watching with terror the cold, cruel judge who
looked mocking her out of his eyes.
‘The cause is not that,’ she said, ‘and, indeed, I don’t
see how the cause of my irritability, as you call it, can be
that I am completely in your power. What indefiniteness is
there in the position? on the contrary..’
‘I am very sorry that you don’t care to understand,’ he
interrupted, obstinately anxious to give utterance to his
thought. ‘The indefiniteness consists in your imagining
that I am free.’
‘On that score you can set your mind quite at rest,’ she
said, and turning away from him, she began drinking her
coffee.
She lifted her cup, with her little finger held apart, and
put it to her lips. After drinking a few sips she glanced at
him, and by his expression, she saw clearly that he was
repelled by her hand, and her gesture, and the sound made
by her lips.

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