Page 233 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

the husband and wife, and noted with a lover’s insight the
signs of slight reserve with which she spoke to her
husband. ‘No, she does not love him and cannot love
him,’ he decided to himself.

At the moment when he was approaching Anna
Arkadyevna he noticed too with joy that she was
conscious of his being near, and looked round, and seeing
him, turned again to her husband.
‘Have you passed a good night?’ he asked, bowing to
her and her husband together, and leaving it up to Alexey
Alexandrovitch to accept the bow on his own account,
and to recognize it or not, as he might see fit.
‘Thank you, very good,’ she answered.
Her face looked weary, and there was not that play of
eagerness in it, peeping out in her smile and her eyes; but
for a single instant, as she glanced at him, there was a flash
of something in her eyes, and although the flash died away
at once, he was happy for that moment. She glanced at her
husband to find out whether he knew Vronsky. Alexey
Alexandrovitch looked at Vronsky with displeasure,
vaguely recalling who this was. Vronsky’s composure and
self-confidence have struck, like a scythe against a stone,
upon the cold self-confidence of Alexey Alexandrovitch.
‘Count Vronsky,’ said Anna.

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