Page 228 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

the carriage. But in the little corridor she paused, going
over in her imagination what had happened. Though she
could not recall her own words or his, she realized
instinctively that the momentary conversation had brought

them fearfully closer; and she was panic-stricken and
blissful at it. After standing still a few seconds, she went
into the carriage and sat down in her place. The
overstrained condition which had tormented her before
did not only come back, but was intensified, and reached
such a pitch that she was afraid every minute that
something would snap within her from the excessive
tension. She did not sleep all night. But in that nervous
tension, and in the visions that filled her imagination,
there was nothing disagreeable or gloomy: on the contrary
there was something blissful, glowing, and exhilarating.
Towards morning Anna sank into a doze, sitting in her
place, and when she waked it was daylight and the train
was near Petersburg. At once thoughts of home, of
husband and of son, and the details of that day and the
following came upon her.
At Petersburg, as soon as the train stopped and she got
out, the first person that attracted her attention was her
husband. ‘Oh, mercy! why do his ears look like that?’ she
thought, looking at his frigid and imposing figure, and

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