Page 493 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

found a chance for practicing her new principles in
imitation of Varenka.
At first the princess noticed nothing but that Kitty was
much under the influence of her engouement, as she

called it, for Madame Stahl, and still more for Varenka.
She saw that Kitty did not merely imitate Varenka in her
conduct, but unconsciously imitated her in her manner of
walking, of talking, of blinking her eyes. But later on the
princess noticed that, apart from this adoration, some kind
of serious spiritual change was taking place in her
daughter.
The princess saw that in the evenings Kitty read a
French testament that Madame Stahl had given her—a
thing she had never done before; that she avoided society
acquaintances and associated with the sick people who
were under Varenka’s protection, and especially one poor
family, that of a sick painter, Petrov. Kitty was
unmistakably proud of playing the part of a sister of mercy
in that family. All this was well enough, and the princess
had nothing to say against it, especially as Petrov’s wife
was a perfectly nice sort of woman, and that the German
princess, noticing Kitty’s devotion, praised her, calling her
an angel of consolation. All this would have been very
well, if there had been no exaggeration. But the princess

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