Page 175 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Well, since it’s impossible tonight, let us start,’ she said,
not noticing Vronsky’s bow, and she hastily put her hand
on Korsunsky’s shoulder.
‘What is she vexed with him about?’ thought Kitty,

discerning that Anna had intentionally not responded to
Vronsky’s bow. Vronsky went up to Kitty reminding her
of the first quadrille, and expressing his regret that he had
not seen her all this time. Kitty gazed in admiration at
Anna waltzing, and listened to him. She expected him to
ask her for a waltz, but he did not, and she glanced
wonderingly at him. He flushed slightly, and hurriedly
asked her to waltz, but he had only just put his arm round
her waist and taken the first step when the music suddenly
stopped. Kitty looked into his face, which was so close to
her own, and long afterwards—for several years after—that
look, full of love, to which he made no response, cut her
to the heart with an agony of shame.
‘Pardon! pardon! Waltz! waltz!’ shouted Korsunsky
from the other side of the room, and seizing the first
young lady he came across he began dancing himself.

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