Page 634 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

and stopped, hesitating whether to go to greet his mother
and put down the flowers, or to finish making the wreath
and go with the flowers.
The governess, after saying good-morning, began a

long and detailed account of Seryozha’s naughtiness, but
Anna did not hear her; she was considering whether she
would take her with her or not. ‘No, I won’t take her,’
she decided. ‘I’ll go alone with my child.’
‘Yes, it’s very wrong,’ said Anna, and taking her son by
the shoulder she looked at him, not severely, but with a
timid glance that bewildered and delighted the boy, and
she kissed him. ‘Leave him to me,’ she said to the
astonished governess, and not letting go of her son, she sat
down at the table, where coffee was set ready for her.
‘Mamma! I...I...didn’t...’ he said, trying to make out
from her expression what was in store for him in regard to
the peaches.
‘Seryozha,’ she said, as soon as the governess had left
the room, ‘that was wrong, but you’ll never do it again,
will you?... You love me?’
She felt that the tears were coming into her eyes. ‘Can
I help loving him?’ she said to herself, looking deeply into
his scared and at the same time delighted eyes. ‘And can
he ever join his father in punishing me? Is it possible he

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