Page 577 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

The culprit was sitting at the window in the corner of
the drawing room; beside him was standing Tanya with a
plate. On the pretext of wanting to give some dinner to
her dolls, she had asked the governess’s permission to take

her share of tart to the nursery, and had taken it instead to
her brother. While still weeping over the injustice of his
punishment, he was eating the tart, and kept saying
through his sobs, ‘Eat yourself; let’s eat it
together...together.’
Tanya had at first been under the influence of her pity
for Grisha, then of a sense of her noble action, and tears
were standing in her eyes too; but she did not refuse, and
ate her share.
On catching sight of their mother they were dismayed,
but, looking into her face, they saw they were not doing
wrong. They burst out laughing, and, with their mouths
full of tart, they began wiping their smiling lips with their
hands, and smearing their radiant faces all over with tears
and jam.
‘Mercy! Your new white frock; Tanya! Grisha!’ said
their mother, trying to save the frock, but with tears in her
eyes, smiling a blissful, rapturous smile.
The new frocks were taken off, and orders were given
for the little girls to have their blouses put on, and the

576 of 1759