Page 164 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘God knows whether they are fully reconciled,’
thought Anna, hearing her tone, cold and composed.
‘Oh, nonsense, Dolly, always making difficulties,’
answered her husband. ‘Come, I’ll do it all, if you like..’

‘Yes, They must be reconciled,’ thought Anna.
‘I know how you do everything,’ answered Dolly.
‘You tell Matvey to do what can’t be done, and go away
yourself, leaving him to make a muddle of everything,’
and her habitual, mocking smile curved the corners of
Dolly’s lips as she spoke.
‘Full, full reconciliation, full,’ thought Anna; ‘thank
God!’ and rejoicing that she was the cause of it, she went
up to Dolly and kissed her.
‘Not at all. Why do you always look down on me and
Matvey?’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, smiling hardly
perceptibly, and addressing his wife.
The whole evening Dolly was, as always, a little
mocking in her tone to her husband, while Stepan
Arkadyevitch was happy and cheerful, but not so as to
seem as though, having been forgiven, he had forgotten
his offense.
At half-past nine o’clock a particularly joyful and
pleasant family conversation over the tea-table at the
Oblonskys’ was broken up by an apparently simple

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