Page 867 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

grasping what it was his opponent liked and at once liking
it too, and immediately he found himself agreeing, and
then all arguments fell away as useless. Sometimes, too, he
had experienced the opposite, expressing at last what he

liked himself, which he was devising arguments to defend,
and, chancing to express it well and genuinely, he had
found his opponent at once agreeing and ceasing to
dispute his position. He tried to say this.
she knitted her brow, trying to understand. But directly
he began to illustrate his meaning, she understood at once.
‘I know: one must find out what he is arguing for,
what is precious to him, then one can..’
She had completely guessed and expressed his badly
expressed idea. Levin smiled joyfully; he was struck by this
transition from the confused, verbose discussion with
Pestsov and his brother to this laconic, clear, almost
wordless communication of the most complex ideas.
Shtcherbatsky moved away from them, and Kitty,
going up to a card table, sat down, and, taking up the
chalk, began drawing diverging circles over the new green
cloth.
They began again on the subject that had been started
at dinner— the liberty and occupations of women. Levin
was of the opinion of Darya Alexandrovna that a girl who

866 of 1759