Page 659 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘That’s the best way,’ Stremov put it. Stremov was a
man of fifty, partly gray, but still vigorous-looking, very
ugly, but with a characteristic and intelligent face. Liza
Merkalova was his wife’s niece, and he spent all his leisure

hours with her. On meeting Anna Karenina, as he was
Alexey Alexandrovitch’s enemy in the government, he
tried, like a shrewd man and a man of the world, to be
particularly cordial with her, the wife of his enemy.
‘‘Nothing,’’ he put in with a subtle smile, ‘that’s the
very best way. I told you long ago,’ he said, turning to
Liza Merkalova, ‘that if you don’t want to be bored, you
mustn’t think you’re going to be bored. It’s just as you
mustn’t be afraid of not being able to fall asleep, if you’re
afraid of sleeplessness. That’s just what Anna Arkadyevna
has just said.’
‘I should be very glad if I had said it, for it’s not only
clever but true,’ said Anna, smiling.
‘No, do tell me why it is one can’t go to sleep, and one
can’t help being bored?’
‘To sleep well one ought to work, and to enjoy oneself
one ought to work too.’
‘What am I to work for when my work is no use to
anybody? And I can’t and won’t knowingly make a
pretense about it.’

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