Page 484 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Kitty looked with pride at her friend. She was
enchanted by her talent, and her voice and her face, but
most of all by her manner, by the way Varenka obviously
thought nothing of her singing and was quite unmoved by

their praises. She seemed only to be asking: ‘Am I to sing
again, or is that enough?’
‘If it had been I,’ thought Kitty, ‘how proud I should
have been! How delighted I should have been to see that
crowd under the windows! But she’s utterly unmoved by
it. Her only motive is to avoid refusing and to please
mamma. What is there in her? What is it gives her the
power to look down on everything, to be calm
independently of everything? How I should like to know
it and to learn it of her!’ thought Kitty, gazing into her
serene face. The princess asked Varenka to sing again, and
Varenka sang another song, also smoothly, distinctly, and
well, standing erect at the piano and beating time on it
with her thin, dark-skinned hand.
The next song in the book was an Italian one. Kitty
played the opening bars, and looked round at Varenka.
‘Let’s skip that,’ said Varenka, flushing a little. Kitty let
her eyes rest on Varenka’s face, with a look of dismay and
inquiry.

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