Page 889 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘And I!’ she said. ‘Even when....’ She stopped and went
on again, looking at him resolutely with her truthful eyes,
‘Even when I thrust from me my happiness. I always loved
you alone, but I was carried away. I ought to tell you....

Can you forgive that?’
‘Perhaps it was for the best. You will have to forgive
me so much. I ought to tell you..’
This was one of the things he had meant to speak
about. He had resolved from the first to tell her two
things—that he was not chaste as she was, and that he was
not a believer. It was agonizing, but he considered he
ought to tell her both these facts.
‘No, not now, later!’ he said.
‘Very well, later, but you must certainly tell me. I’m
not afraid of anything. I want to know everything. Now it
is settled.’
He added: ‘Settled that you’ll take me whatever I may
be—you won’t give me up? Yes?’
‘Yes, yes.’
Their conversation was interrupted by Mademoiselle
Linon, who with an affected but tender smile came to
congratulate her favorite pupil. Before she had gone, the
servants came in with their congratulations. Then relations
arrived, and there began that state of blissful absurdity

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