Page 298 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Well, what of it? There’s a fable of Grimm’s about a
man without a shadow, a man who’s lost his shadow. And
that’s his punishment for something. I never could
understand how it was a punishment. But a woman must

dislike being without a shadow.’
‘Yes, but women with a shadow usually come to a bad
end,’ said Anna’s friend.
‘Bad luck to your tongue!’ said Princess Myakaya
suddenly. ‘Madame Karenina’s a splendid woman. I don’t
like her husband, but I like her very much.’
‘Why don’t you like her husband? He’s such a
remarkable man,’ said the ambassador’s wife. ‘My husband
says there are few statesmen like him in Europe.’
‘And my husband tells me just the same, but I don’t
believe it,’ said Princess Myakaya. ‘If our husbands didn’t
talk to us, we should see the facts as they are. Alexey
Alexandrovitch, to my thinking, is simply a fool. I say it in
a whisper...but doesn’t it really make everything clear?
Before, when I was told to consider him clever, I kept
looking for his ability, and thought myself a fool for not
seeing it; but directly I said, he a fool, though only in a
whisper, everything’s explained, isn’t it?’
‘How spiteful you are today!’

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