Page 795 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘They’re not here,’ she said, shutting the drawer; but
from that action he saw he had guessed right, and roughly
pushing away her hand, he quickly snatched a portfolio in
which he knew she used to put her most important papers.

She tried to pull the portfolio away, but he pushed her
back.
‘Sit down! I have to speak to you,’ he said, putting the
portfolio under his arm, and squeezing it so tightly with
his elbow that his shoulder stood up. Amazed and
intimidated, she gazed at him in silence.
‘I told you that I would not allow you to receive your
lover in this house.’
‘I had to see him to..’
She stopped, not finding a reason.
‘I do not enter into the details of why a woman wants
to see her lover.’
‘I meant, I only...’ she said, flushing hotly. This
coarseness of his angered her, and gave her courage.
‘Surely you must feel how easy it is for you to insult me?’
she said.
‘An honest man and an honest woman may be insulted,
but to tell a thief he’s a thief is simply la constatation d’un
fait.’
‘This cruelty is something new I did not know in you.’

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