Page 698 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

come out there; but he did not come, though she heard
him go to the door of his study as he parted from the chief
secretary. She knew that he usually went out quickly to
his office, and she wanted to see him before that, so that

their attitude to one another might be defined.
She walked across the drawing room and went
resolutely to him. When she went into his study he was in
official uniform, obviously ready to go out, sitting at a
little table on which he rested his elbows, looking
dejectedly before him. She saw him before he saw her,
and she saw that he was thinking of her.
On seeing her, he would have risen, but changed his
mind, then his face flushed hotly—a thing Anna had never
seen before, and he got up quickly and went to meet her,
looking not at her eyes, but above them at her forehead
and hair. He went up to her, took her by the hand, and
asked her to sit down.
‘I am very glad you have come,’ he said, sitting down
beside her, and obviously wishing to say something, he
stuttered. Several times he tried to begin to speak, but
stopped. In spite of the fact that, preparing herself for
meeting him, she had schooled herself to despise and
reproach him, she did not know what to say to him, and
she felt sorry for him. And so the silence lasted for some

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