Page 466 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Mind,’ he said, pointing to the open window opposite
the coachman.
He got up and pulled up the window.
‘What did you consider unbecoming?’ she repeated.

‘The despair you were unable to conceal at the accident
to one of the riders.’
He waited for her to answer, but she was silent,
looking straight before her.
‘I have already begged you so to conduct yourself in
society that even malicious tongues can find nothing to say
against you. There was a time when I spoke of your
inward attitude, but I am not speaking of that now. Now I
speak only of your external attitude. You have behaved
improperly, and I would wish it not to occur again.’
She did not hear half of what he was saying; she felt
panic-stricken before him, and was thinking whether it
was true that Vronsky was not killed. Was it of him they
were speaking when they said the rider was unhurt, but
the horse had broken its back? She merely smiled with a
pretense of irony when he finished, and made no reply,
because she had not heard what he said. Alexey
Alexandrovitch had begun to speak boldly, but as he
realized plainly what he was speaking of, the dismay she

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