Page 270 - ANNA KARENINA
P. 270

Anna Karenina


                                     ‘Alexander, Alexander,’ she whispered, moving to him
                                  and beginning to weep.
                                     As soon as she began to cry the prince too calmed
                                  down. He went up to her.

                                     ‘There, that’s enough, that’s enough! You’re wretched
                                  too, I know. It can’t be helped. There’s no great harm
                                  done. God is merciful...thanks...’ he said, not knowing
                                  what he was saying, as he responded to the tearful kiss of
                                  the princess that he felt on his hand. And the prince went
                                  out of the room.
                                     Before this, as soon as Kitty went out of the room in
                                  tears, Dolly, with her motherly, family instincts, had
                                  promptly perceived that here a woman’s work lay before
                                  her, and she prepared to do it. She took of her hat, and,
                                  morally speaking, tucked up her sleeves and prepared for
                                  action. While her mother was attacking her father, she
                                  tried to restrain her mother, so far as filial reverence would
                                  allow. During the prince’s outburst she was silent; she felt
                                  ashamed for her mother, and tender towards her father for
                                  so quickly being kind again. But when her father left them
                                  she made ready for what was the chief thing needful—to
                                  go to Kitty and console her.
                                     ‘I’d been meaning to tell you something for a long
                                  while, mamma: did you know that Levin meant to make



                                                         269 of 1759
   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275