Page 307 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

She strained every effort of her mind to say what ought
to be said. But instead of that she let her eyes rest on him,
full of love, and made no answer.
‘It’s come!’ he thought in ecstasy. ‘When I was

beginning to despair, and it seemed there would be no
end—it’s come! she loves me! She owns it!’
‘Then do this for me: never say such things to me, and
let us be friends,’ she said in words; but her eyes spoke
quite differently.
‘Friends we shall never be, you know that yourself.
Whether we shall be the happiest or the wretchedest of
people—that’s in your hands.’
She would have said something, but he interrupted her.
‘I ask one thing only: I ask for the right to hope, to
suffer as I do. But if even that cannot be, command me to
disappear, and I disappear. You shall not see me if my
presence is distasteful to you.’
‘I don’t want to drive you away.’
‘Only don’t change anything, leave everything as it is,’
he said in a shaky voice. ‘Here’s your husband.’
At that instant Alexey Alexandrovitch did in fact walk
into the room with his calm, awkward gait.
Glancing at his wife and Vronsky, he went up to the
lady of the house, and sitting down for a cup of tea, began

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