Page 655 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

movements was such that at every step the lines of her
knees and the upper part of her legs were distinctly
marked under her dress, and the question involuntarily
rose to the mind where in the undulating, piled-up

mountain of material at the back the real body of the
woman, so small and slender, so naked in front, and so
hidden behind and below, really came to an end.
Betsy made haste to introduce her to Anna.
‘Only fancy, we all but ran over two soldiers,’ she
began telling them at once, using her eyes, smiling and
twitching away her tail, which she flung back at one
stroke all on one side. ‘I drove here with Vaska.... Ah, to
be sure, you don’t know each other.’ And mentioning his
surname she introduced the young man, and reddening a
little, broke into a ringing laugh at her mistake—that is at
her having called him Vaska to a stranger. Vaska bowed
once more to Anna, but he said nothing to her. He
addressed Sappho: ‘You’ve lost your bet. We got here
first. Pay up,’ said he, smiling.
Sappho laughed still more festively.
‘Not just now,’ said she.
‘Oh, all right, I’ll have it later.’
‘Very well, very well. Oh, yes.’ She turned suddenly to
Princess Betsy: ‘I am a nice person...I positively forgot it...

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