Page 310 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

head listening to the words Vronsky murmured as he
escorted her down.
‘You’ve said nothing, of course, and I ask nothing,’ he
was saying; ‘but you know that friendship’s not what I

want: that there’s only one happiness in life for me, that
word that you dislike so...yes, love!..’
‘Love,’ she repeated slowly, in an inner voice, and
suddenly, at the very instant she unhooked the lace, she
added, ‘Why I don’t like the word is that it means too
much to me, far more than you can understand,’ and she
glanced into his face. ‘Au revoir!’
She gave him her hand, and with her rapid, springy
step she passed by the porter and vanished into the
carriage.
Her glance, the touch of her hand, set him aflame. He
kissed the palm of his hand where she had touched it, and
went home, happy in the sense that he had got nearer to
the attainment of his aims that evening than during the last
two months.

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