Page 67 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Oh, yes, yes; make haste, please,’ answered Levin, with
difficulty restraining the smile of rapture which would
overspread his face. ‘Yes,’ he thought, ‘this now is life, this
is happiness! Together, she said; let us skate together!

Speak to her now? But that’s just why I’m afraid to
speak—because I’m happy now, happy in hope, anyway....
And then?.... But I must! I must! I must! Away with
weakness!’
Levin rose to his feet, took off his overcoat, and
scurrying over the rough ice round the hut, came out on
the smooth ice and skated without effort, as it were, by
simple exercise of will, increasing and slackening speed
and turning his course. He approached with timidity, but
again her smile reassured him.
She gave him her hand, and they set off side by side,
going faster and faster, and the more rapidly they moved
the more tightly she grasped his hand.
‘With you I should soon learn; I somehow feel
confidence in you,’ she said to him.
‘And I have confidence in myself when you are leaning
on me,’ he said, but was at once panic-stricken at what he
had said, and blushed. And indeed, no sooner had he
uttered these words, when all at once, like the sun going
behind a cloud, her face lost all its friendliness, and Levin

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