Page 170 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

looking at her neck in the looking glass, Kitty had felt that
that velvet was speaking. About all the rest there might be
a doubt, but the velvet was delicious. Kitty smiled here
too, at the ball, when she glanced at it in the glass. Her

bare shoulders and arms gave Kitty a sense of chill marble,
a feeling she particularly liked. Her eyes sparkled, and her
rosy lips could not keep from smiling from the
consciousness of her own attractiveness. She had scarcely
entered the ballroom and reached the throng of ladies, all
tulle, ribbons, lace, and flowers, waiting to be asked to
dance—Kitty was never one of that throng—when she
was asked for a waltz, and asked by the best partner, the
first star in the hierarchy of the ballroom, a renowned
director of dances, a married man, handsome and well-
built, Yegorushka Korsunsky. He had only just left the
Countess Bonina, with whom he had danced the first half
of the waltz, and, scanning his kingdom—that is to say, a
few couples who had started dancing—he caught sight of
Kitty, entering, and flew up to her with that peculiar, easy
amble which is confined to directors of balls. Without
even asking her if she cared to dance, he put out his arm
to encircle her slender waist. She looked round for
someone to give her fan to, and their hostess, smiling to
her, took it.

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