Page 1650 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

A second bell sounded, and was followed by moving of
luggage, noise, shouting and laughter. It was so clear to
Anna that there was nothing for anyone to be glad of, that
this laughter irritated her agonizingly, and she would have

liked to stop up her ears not to hear it. At last the third
bell rang, there was a whistle and a hiss of steam, and a
clank of chains, and the man in her carriage crossed
himself. ‘It would be interesting to ask him what meaning
he attaches to that,’ thought Anna, looking angrily at him.
She looked past the lady out of the window at the people
who seemed whirling by as they ran beside the train or
stood on the platform. The train, jerking at regular
intervals at the junctions of the rails, rolled by the
platform, past a stone wall, a signal-box, past other trains;
the wheels, moving more smoothly and evenly, resounded
with a slight clang on the rails. The window was lighted
up by the bright evening sun, and a slight breeze fluttered
the curtain. Anna forgot her fellow passengers, and to the
light swaying of the train she fell to thinking again, as she
breathed the fresh air.
‘Yes, what did I stop at? That I couldn’t conceive a
position in which life would not be a misery, that we are
all created to be miserable, and that we all know it, and all

1649 of 1759