Page 64 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

on the ice. There were crack skaters there, showing off
their skill, and learners clinging to chairs with timid,
awkward movements, boys, and elderly people skating
with hygienic motives. They seemed to Levin an elect

band of blissful beings because they were here, near her.
All the skaters, it seemed, with perfect self-possession,
skated towards her, skated by her, even spoke to her, and
were happy, quite apart from her, enjoying the capital ice
and the fine weather.
Nikolay Shtcherbatsky, Kitty’s cousin, in a short jacket
and tight trousers, was sitting on a garden seat with his
skates on. Seeing Levin, he shouted to him:
‘Ah, the first skater in Russia! Been here long? First-
rate ice—do put your skates on.’
‘I haven’t got my skates,’ Levin answered, marveling at
this boldness and ease in her presence, and not for one
second losing sight of her, though he did not look at her.
He felt as though the sun were coming near him. She was
in a corner, and turning out her slender feet in their high
boots with obvious timidity, she skated towards him. A
boy in Russian dress, desperately waving his arms and
bowed down to the ground, overtook her. She skated a
little uncertainly; taking her hands out of the little muff
that hung on a cord, she held them ready for emergency,

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