Page 623 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

glanced at it. The unfathomable eyes gazed ironically and
insolently at him. Insufferably insolent and challenging was
the effect in Alexey Alexandrovitch’s eyes of the black lace
about the head, admirably touched in by the painter, the

black hair and handsome white hand with one finger
lifted, covered with rings. After looking at the portrait for
a minute, Alexey Alexandrovitch shuddered so that his lips
quivered and he uttered the sound ‘brrr,’ and turned away.
He made haste to sit down in his easy chair and opened
the book. He tried to read, but he could not revive the
very vivid interest he had felt before in Egyptian
hieroglyphics. He looked at the book and thought of
something else. He thought not of his wife, but of a
complication that had arisen in his official life, which at
the time constituted the chief interest of it. He felt that he
had penetrated more deeply than ever before into this
intricate affair, and that he had originated a leading idea—
he could say it without self-flattery—calculated to clear up
the whole business, to strengthen him in his official career,
to discomfit his enemies, and thereby to be of the greatest
benefit to the government. Directly the servant had set the
tea and left the room, Alexey Alexandrovitch got up and
went to the writing-table. Moving into the middle of the
table a portfolio of papers, with a scarcely perceptible smile

622 of 1759