Page 197 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

vodka, he poured out a glassful and drank it greedily. ‘Like
a drink?’ he turned to his brother, and at once became
better humored.
‘Well, enough of Sergey Ivanovitch. I’m glad to see

you, anyway. After all’s said and done, we’re not strangers.
Come, have a drink. Tell me what you’re doing,’ he went
on, greedily munching a piece of bread, and pouring out
another glassful. ‘How are you living?’
‘I live alone in the country, as I used to. I’m busy
looking after the land,’ answered Konstantin, watching
with horror the greediness with which his brother ate and
drank, and trying to conceal that he noticed it.
‘Why don’t you get married?’
‘It hasn’t happened so,’ Konstantin answered,
reddening a little.
‘Why not? For me now...everything’s at an end! I’ve
made a mess of my life. But this I’ve said, and I say still,
that if my share had been given me when I needed it, my
whole life would have been different.’
Konstantin made haste to change the conversation.
‘Do you know your little Vanya’s with me, a clerk in
the countinghouse at Pokrovskoe.’
Nikolay jerked his neck, and sank into thought.

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