Page 572 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

besides, hard though it was for the mother to bear the
dread of illness, the illnesses themselves, and the grief of
seeing signs of evil propensities in her children—the
children themselves were even now repaying her in small

joys for her sufferings. Those joys were so small that they
passed unnoticed, like gold in sand, and at bad moments
she could see nothing but the pain, nothing but sand; but
there were good moments too when she saw nothing but
the joy, nothing but gold.
Now in the solitude of the country, she began to be
more and more frequently aware of those joys. Often,
looking at them, she would make every possible effort to
persuade herself that she was mistaken, that she as a
mother was partial to her children. All the same, she could
not help saying to herself that she had charming children,
all six of them in different ways, but a set of children such
as is not often to be met with, and she was happy in them,
and proud of them.

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