Page 452 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

since that insoluble question had occurred to him whether
Vronsky were a friend or a foe, he avoided his father. He
looked round towards his mother as though seeking
shelter. It was only with his mother that he was at ease.

Meanwhile, Alexey Alexandrovitch was holding his son by
the shoulder while he was speaking to the governess, and
Seryozha was so miserably uncomfortable that Anna saw
he was on the point of tears.
Anna, who had flushed a little the instant her son came
in, noticing that Seryozha was uncomfortable, got up
hurriedly, took Alexey Alexandrovitch’s hand from her
son’s shoulder, and kissing the boy, led him out onto the
terrace, and quickly came back.
‘It’s time to start, though,’ said she, glancing at her
watch. ‘How is it Betsy doesn’t come?..’
‘Yes,’ said Alexey Alexandrovitch, and getting up, he
folded his hands and cracked his fingers. ‘I’ve come to
bring you some money, too, for nightingales, we know,
can’t live on fairy tales,’ he said. ‘You want it, I expect?’
‘No, I don’t...yes, I do,’ she said, not looking at him,
and crimsoning to the roots of her hair. ‘But you’ll come
back here after the races, I suppose?’
‘Oh, yes!’ answered Alexey Alexandrovitch. ‘And
here’s the glory of Peterhof, Princess Tverskaya,’ he

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