Page 507 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘She doesn’t stand up because her legs are too short.
She’s a very bad figure.’
‘Papa, it’s not possible!’ cried Kitty.
‘That’s what wicked tongues say, my darling. And your

Varenka catches it too,’ he added. ‘Oh, these invalid
ladies!’
‘Oh, no, papa!’ Kitty objected warmly. ‘Varenka
worships her. And then she does so much good! Ask
anyone! Everyone knows her and Aline Stahl.’
‘Perhaps so,’ said the prince, squeezing her hand with
his elbow; ‘but it’s better when one does good so that you
may ask everyone and no one knows.’
Kitty did not answer, not because she had nothing to
say, but because she did not care to reveal her secret
thoughts even to her father. But, strange to say, although
she had so made up her mind not to be influenced by her
father’s views, not to let him into her inmost sanctuary,
she felt that the heavenly image of Madame Stahl, which
she had carried for a whole month in her heart, had
vanished, never to return, just as the fantastic figure made
up of some clothes thrown down at random vanishes
when one sees that it is only some garment lying there. All
that was left was a woman with short legs, who lay down
because she had a bad figure, and worried patient Varenka

506 of 1759