Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FOUR CHAPTER 9
Shtcherbatsky to Karenin. In a moment he had so kneaded together the social dough
that the drawing room became very lively, and there was a merry buzz of voices.
Konstantin Levin was the only person who had not arrived. But this was so much
the better, as going into the dining room, Stepan Arkadyevitch found to his horror
that the port and sherry had been procured from Deprè, and not from Levy, and,
directing that the coachman should be sent off as speedily as possible to Levy’s, he
was going back to the drawing room.
In the dining room he was met by Konstantin Levin.
“I’m not late?”
“You can never help being late!” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, taking his arm.
“Have you a lot of people? Who’s here?” asked Levin, unable to help blushing, as
he knocked the snow off his cap with his glove.
“All our own set. Kitty’s here. Come along, I’ll introduce you to Karenin.”
Stepan Arkadyevitch, for all his liberal views, was well aware that to meet Karenin
was sure to be felt a flattering distinction, and so treated his best friends to this honor.
But at that instant Konstantin Levin was not in a condition to feel all the gratification
of making such an acquaintance. He had not seen Kitty since that memorable
evening when he met Vronsky, not counting, that is, the moment when he had had
a glimpse of her on the highroad. He had known at the bottom of his heart that he
would see her here today. But to keep his thoughts free, he had tried to persuade
himself that he did not know it. Now when he heard that she was here, he was suddenly
conscious of such delight, and at the same time of such dread, that his breath
failed him and he could not utter what he wanted to say.
“What is she like, what is she like? Like what she used to be, or like what she was
in the carriage? What if Darya Alexandrovna told the truth? Why shouldn’t it be the
truth?” he thought.
“Oh, please, introduce me to Karenin,” he brought out with an effort, and with a
desperately determined step he walked into the drawing room and beheld her.
She was not the same as she used to be, nor was she as she had been in the carriage;
she was quite different.
She was scared, shy, shame-faced, and still more charming from it. She saw him
the very instant he walked into the room. She had been expecting him. She was
delighted, and so confused at her own delight that there was a moment, the moment
when he went up to her sister and glanced again at her, when she, and he, and
Dolly, who saw it all, thought she would break down and would begin to cry. She
crimsoned, turned white, crimsoned again, and grew faint, waiting with quivering
lips for him to come to her. He went up to her, bowed, and held out his hand without
speaking. Except for the slight quiver of her lips and the moisture in her eyes that
made them brighter, her smile was almost calm as she said:
“How long it is since we’ve seen each other!” and with desperate determination
she pressed his hand with her cold hand.
“You’ve not seen me, but I’ve seen you,” said Levin, with a radiant smile of happiness.
“I saw you when you were driving from the railway station to Ergushovo.”
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