Anna Karenina полностью

‘Well, there, there! It’s hard for you, too, I know. What can we do? It’s no great calamity. God is merciful ... give thanks ...’ he said, no longer knowing what he was saying, in response to the princess’s wet kiss, which he felt on his hand, and he left the room.

When Kitty left the room in tears, Dolly, with her motherly, family habit of mind, saw at once that there was woman’s work to be done, and she prepared to do it. She took off her hat and, morally rolling up her sleeves, prepared for action. During her mother’s attack on her father, she tried to restrain her mother as far as daughterly respect permitted. During the prince’s outburst, she kept silent; she felt shame for her mother and tenderness towards her father for the instant return of his kindness; but when her father went out, she got ready to do the main thing necessary - to go to Kitty and comfort her.

‘I’ve long been meaning to tell you, maman: do you know that Levin was going to propose to Kitty when he was here the last time? He told Stiva so.’

‘Well, what of it? I don’t understand ...’

‘Maybe Kitty refused him? ... She didn’t tell you?’

‘No, she told me nothing either about the one or about the other. She’s too proud. But I know it’s all because of that ...’

‘Yes, just imagine if she refused Levin - and she wouldn’t have refused him if it hadn’t been for the other one, I know ... And then that one deceived her so terribly.’

It was too awful for the princess to think of how guilty she was before her daughter, and she became angry.

‘Ah, I understand nothing any more! Nowadays they all want to live by their own reason, they tell their mothers nothing, and then look ...’

‘I’ll go to her, maman.’

‘Go. Am I forbidding you?’ said the mother.

III

Entering Kitty’s small boudoir, a pretty little pink room, with vieux saxe^g dolls as young, pink and gay as Kitty had been just two months earlier, Dolly remembered with what gaiety and love they had decorated this little room together last year. Her heart went cold when she saw Kitty sitting on the low chair nearest the door, staring fixedly at a corner of the rug. Kitty glanced at her sister, and her cold, somewhat severe expression did not change.

‘I’ll leave now and stay put at home, and you won’t be allowed to visit me,’ said Darya Alexandrovna, sitting down next to her. ‘I’d like to talk with you.’

‘About what?’ Kitty asked quickly, raising her eyes in fear.

‘What else if not your grief ?’

‘I have no grief.’

‘Come now, Kitty. Can you really think I don’t know? I know everything. And believe me, it’s nothing ... We’ve all gone through it.’

Kitty was silent, and her face had a stern expression.

‘He’s not worth your suffering over him,’ Darya Alexandrovna went on, going straight to the point.

‘Yes, because he scorned me,’ Kitty said in a quavering voice. ‘Don’t talk about it! Please don’t!’

‘Why, who told you that? No one said that. I’m sure he was in love with you, and is still in love, but ...’

‘Ah, these condolences are the most terrible thing of all for me!’ Kitty cried out, suddenly getting angry. She turned on her chair, blushed, and quickly moved her fingers, clutching the belt buckle she was holding now with one hand, now with the other. Dolly knew this way her sister had of grasping something with her hands when she was in a temper; she knew that Kitty was capable of forgetting herself in such a moment and saying a lot of unnecessary and unpleasant things, and Dolly wanted to calm her down. But it was already too late.

‘What, what is it you want to make me feel, what?’ Kitty was talking quickly. ‘That I was in love with a man who cared nothing for me, and that I’m dying of love for him? And I’m told this by my sister, who thinks that ... that ... that she’s commiserating! ... I don’t want these pityings and pretences!’

‘Kitty, you’re unfair.’

‘Why do you torment me?’

‘On the contrary, I ... I see that you’re upset ...’

But, in her temper, Kitty did not hear her.

‘I have nothing to be distressed or comforted about. I’m proud enough never to allow myself to love a man who does not love me.’

‘But I’m not saying ... One thing - tell me the truth,’ Darya Alexandrovna said, taking her hand, ‘tell me, did Levin speak to you? ...’

The mention of Levin seemed to take away the last of Kitty’s self-possession; she jumped up from the chair, flinging the buckle to the floor and, with quick gestures of her hands, began to speak:

‘Why bring Levin into it, too? I don’t understand, why do you need to torment me? I said and I repeat that I’m proud and would never, never do what you’re doing - go back to a man who has betrayed you, who has fallen in love with another woman. I don’t understand, I don’t understand that! You may, but I can’t!’

And, having said these words, she glanced at her sister and, seeing that Dolly kept silent, her head bowed sadly, Kitty, instead of leaving the room as she had intended, sat down by the door and, covering her face with a handkerchief, bowed her head.