Page 658 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘There, how do you manage never to be bored by
things? It’s delightful to look at you. You’re alive, but I’m
bored.’
‘How can you be bored? Why, you live in the liveliest

set in Petersburg,’ said Anna.
‘Possibly the people who are not of our set are even
more bored; but we—I certainly—are not happy, but
awfully, awfully bored.’
Sappho smoking a cigarette went off into the garden
with the two young men. Betsy and Stremov remained at
the tea-table.
‘What, bored!’ said Betsy. ‘Sappho says they did enjoy
themselves tremendously at your house last night.’
‘Ah, how dreary it all was!’ said Liza Merkalova. ‘We
all drove back to my place after the races. And always the
same people, always the same. Always the same thing. We
lounged about on sofas all the evening. What is there to
enjoy in that? No; do tell me how you manage never to
be bored?’ she said, addressing Anna again. ‘One has but
to look at you and one sees, here’s a woman who may be
happy or unhappy, but isn’t bored. Tell me how you do
it?’
‘I do nothing,’ answered Anna, blushing at these
searching questions.

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