Page 189 - ANNA KARENINA
P. 189
Anna Karenina
mustaches hid his lips, the same eyes gazed strangely and
naively at his visitor.
‘Ah, Kostya!’ he exclaimed suddenly, recognizing his
brother, and his eyes lit up with joy. But the same second
he looked round at the young man, and gave the nervous
jerk of his head and neck that Konstantin knew so well, as
if his neckband hurt him; and a quite different expression,
wild, suffering, and cruel, rested on his emaciated fact.
‘I wrote to you and Sergey Ivanovitch both that I don’t
know you and don’t want to know you. What is it you
want?’
He was not at all the same as Konstantin had been
fancying him. The worst and most tiresome part of his
character, what made all relations with him so difficult,
had been forgotten by Konstantin Levin when he thought
of him, and now, when he saw his face, and especially that
nervous twitching of his head, he remembered it all.
‘I didn’t want to see you for anything,’ he answered
timidly. ‘I’ve simply come to see you.’
His brother’s timidity obviously softened Nikolay. His
lips twitched.
‘Oh, so that’s it?’ he said. ‘Well, come in; sit down.
Like some supper? Masha, bring supper for three. No, stop
a minute. Do you know who this is?’ he said, addressing
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