Page 305 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

she glanced towards the sofa beside her, and he
instantly sat down.
‘Yes, I have been wanting to tell you,’ she said, not
looking at him. ‘You behaved wrongly, very wrongly.’

‘Do you suppose I don’t know that I’ve acted wrongly?
But who was the cause of my doing so?’
‘What do you say that to me for?’ she said, glancing
severely at him.
‘You know what for,’ he answered boldly and joyfully,
meeting her glance and not dropping his eyes.
Not he, but she, was confused.
‘That only shows you have no heart,’ she said. But her
eyes said that she knew he had a heat, and that was why
she was afraid of him.
‘What you spoke of just now was a mistake, and not
love.’
‘Remember that I have forbidden you to utter that
word, that hateful word,’ said Anna, with a shudder. But
at once she felt that by that very word ‘forbidden’ she had
shown that she acknowledged certain rights over him, and
by that very fact was encouraging him to speak of love. ‘I
have long meant to tell you this,’ she went on, looking
resolutely into his eyes, and hot all over from the burning
flush on her cheeks. ‘I’ve come on purpose this evening,

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