Page 649 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

of croquet. Anna knew that Betsy knew everything, but,
hearing how she spoke of Vronsky before her, she almost
felt persuaded for a minute that she knew nothing.
‘Ah!’ said Anna indifferently, as though not greatly

interested in the matter, and she went on smiling: ‘How
can you or your friends compromise anyone?’
This playing with words, this hiding of a secret, had a
great fascination for Anna, as, indeed, it has for all women.
And it was not the necessity of concealment, not the aim
with which the concealment was contrived, but the
process of concealment itself which attracted her.
‘I can’t be more Catholic than the Pope,’ she said.
‘Stremov and Liza Merkalova, why, they’re the cream of
the cream of society. Besides, they’re received
everywhere, and I’—she laid special stress on the I—‘have
never been strict and intolerant. It’s simply that I haven’t
the time.’
‘No; you don’t care, perhaps, to meet Stremov? Let
him and Alexey Alexandrovitch tilt at each other in the
committee— that’s no affair of ours. But in the world, he’s
the most amiable man I know, and a devoted croquet
player. You shall see. And, in spite of his absurd position
as Liza’s lovesick swain at his age, you ought to see how
he carries off the absurd position. He’s very nice. Sappho

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