Page 651 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

did come off between the two women. They criticized
the people they were expecting, and the conversation fell
upon Liza Merkalova.
‘She’s very sweet, and I always liked her,’ said Anna.

‘You ought to like her. She raves about you. Yesterday
she came up to me after the races and was in despair at not
finding you. She says you’re a real heroine of romance,
and that if she were a man she would do all sorts of mad
things for your sake. Stremov says she does that as it is.’
‘But do tell me, please, I never could make it out,’ said
Anna, after being silent for some time, speaking in a tone
that showed she was not asking an idle question, but that
what she was asking was of more importance to her than it
should have been; ‘do tell me, please, what are her
relations with Prince Kaluzhsky, Mishka, as he’s called?
I’ve met them so little. What does it mean?’
Betsy smiled with her eyes, and looked intently at
Anna.
‘It’s a new manner,’ she said. ‘They’ve all adopted that
manner. They’ve flung their caps over the windmills. But
there are ways and ways of flinging them.’
‘Yes, but what are her relations precisely with
Kaluzhsky?’

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