Page 973 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

flowers, bare shoulders and arms and long gloves, there
was discreet but lively conversation that echoed strangely
in the high cupola. Every time there was heard the creak
of the opened door the conversation in the crowd died

away, and everybody looked round expecting to see the
bride and bridegroom come in. But the door had opened
more than ten times, and each time it was either a belated
guest or guests, who joined the circle of the invited on the
right, or a spectator, who had eluded or softened the
police officer, and went to join the crowd of outsiders on
the left. Both the guests and the outside public had by
now passed through all the phases of anticipation.
At first they imagined that the bride and bridegroom
would arrive immediately, and attached no importance at
all to their being late. Then they began to look more and
more often towards the door, and to talk of whether
anything could have happened. Then the long delay began
to be positively discomforting, and relations and guests
tried to look as if they were not thinking of the
bridegroom but were engrossed in conversation.
The head deacon, as though to remind them of the
value of his time, coughed impatiently, making the
window-panes quiver in their frames. In the choir the
bored choristers could be heard trying their voices and

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