Anna Karenina полностью

‘Yes, yes,’ she agreed. ‘I never could. Je n’ai pas le coeur assez large^db to love a whole orphanage of nasty little girls. Cela ne m‘a jamais réussi.^dc There are so many women who have made themselves a position sociale that way. And the less so now,’ she said with a sad, trustful expression, ostensibly addressing her brother but obviously speaking only to Levin, ‘now, when I so need some occupation, I cannot do it.’ And, frowning suddenly (Levin understood that she was frowning at herself for talking about herself), she changed the subject. ‘What I know about you,’ she said to Levin, ‘is that you’re a bad citizen, and I’ve defended you the best I could.’

‘How have you defended me?’

‘Depending on the attack. But wouldn’t you like some tea?’ She rose and picked up a morocco-bound book.

‘Give it to me, Anna Arkadyevna,’ said Vorkuev, pointing to the book. ‘It’s well worth it.’

‘Oh, no, it’s all so unfinished.’

‘I told him,’ Stepan Arkadyich said to his sister, pointing to Levin.

‘You shouldn’t have. My writing is like those little carved baskets made in prisons that Liza Mertsalov used to sell me. She was in charge of prisons in that society,’ she turned to Levin. ‘And those unfortunates produced miracles of patience.’

And Levin saw another new feature in this woman whom he found so extraordinarily to his liking. Besides intelligence, grace, beauty, there was truthfulness in her. She did not want to conceal from him all the difficulty of her situation. Having said this, she sighed, and it was as if her face, acquiring a stern expression, suddenly turned to stone. With this expression she was still more beautiful than before; but this was a new look; it was outside the realm of the expressions, radiant with happiness and giving happiness, which the artist had caught in the portrait. Levin glanced once more at the portrait and then at her figure as she took her brother’s arm and walked with him through the high doorway, and felt a tenderness and pity for her that surprised him.

She asked Levin and Vorkuev to go to the drawing room and stayed behind to talk about something with her brother. ‘About the divorce, about Vronsky, about what he’s doing at the club, about me?’ thought Levin. And he was so excited by the question of what she was talking about with Stepan Arkadyich that he hardly listened to what Vorkuev was telling him about the merits of the children’s novel Anna Arkadyevna had written.

Over tea the same pleasant, meaningful conversation continued. Not only was there not a single moment when it was necessary to search for a subject of conversation but, on the contrary, there was a feeling of having no time to say what one wanted and of willingly restraining oneself in order to hear what the other was saying. And whatever was said, not only by her but by Vorkuev, by Stepan Arkadyich, acquired a special significance, as it seemed to Levin, owing to her attention and observations.

As he followed the interesting conversation, Levin admired her all the while - her beauty, her intelligence, her education, and with that her simplicity and deep feeling. He listened, talked, and all the while thought about her, about her inner life, trying to guess her feelings. And he who had formerly judged her so severely, now, by some strange train of thought, justified her and at the same time pitied her, and feared that Vronsky did not fully understand her. After ten, when Stepan Arkadyich got up to leave (Vorkuev had left earlier), it seemed to Levin as if he had just come. He, too, regretfully got up to leave.

‘Good-bye,’ she said, holding his hand and looking into his eyes with an appealing gaze. ‘I’m very glad que la glace est rompue.’^dd

She let go of his hand and narrowed her eyes.

‘Tell your wife that I love her as before, and if she cannot forgive me my situation, I wish her never to forgive me. In order to forgive, one must have lived through what I have lived through, and may God spare her that.’

‘Certainly, yes, I’ll tell her ...’ said Levin, blushing.

XI

‘What an amazing, dear and pitiful woman,’ he thought, going out with Stepan Arkadyich into the frosty air.

‘Well, so? I told you,’ Stepan Arkadyich said to him, seeing that Levin was completely won over.

‘Yes,’ Levin replied pensively, ‘an extraordinary woman! Not just her intelligence, but her heart. I’m terribly sorry for her!’

‘God grant it will all be settled soon now. Well, so don’t go judging beforehand,’ said Stepan Arkadyich, opening the carriage doors. ‘Good bye. We’re not going the same way.’

Never ceasing to think about Anna, about all those most simple conversations he had had with her, and at the same time remembering all the details of her facial expression, entering more and more into her situation and pitying her, Levin arrived at home.