Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART ONE CHAPTER 12
undertaking without consulting her. “And just now, I am impatiently awaiting my
mother’s arrival from Petersburg, as peculiarly fortunate,” he told her.
Kitty had repeated this without attaching any significance to the words. But her
mother saw them in a different light. She knew that the old lady was expected from
day to day, that she would be pleased at her son’s choice, and she felt it strange that
he should not make his offer through fear of vexing his mother. However, she was
so anxious for the marriage itself, and still more for relief from her fears, that she believed
it was so. Bitter as it was for the princess to see the unhappiness of her eldest
daughter, Dolly, on the point of leaving her husband, her anxiety over the decision
of her youngest daughter’s fate engrossed all her feelings. Today, with Levin’s reappearance,
a fresh source of anxiety arose. She was afraid that her daughter, who had
at one time, as she fancied, a feeling for Levin, might, from extreme sense of honor,
refuse Vronsky, and that Levin’s arrival might generally complicate and delay the
affair so near being concluded.
“Why, has he been here long?” the princess asked about Levin, as they returned
home.
“He came today, mamma.”
“There’s one thing I want to say...” began the princess, and from her serious and
alert face, Kitty guessed what it would be.
“Mamma,” she said, flushing hotly and turning quickly to her, “please, please
don’t say anything about that. I know, I know all about it.”
She wished for what her mother wished for, but the motives of her mother’s
wishes wounded her.
“I only want to say that to raise hopes...”
“Mamma, darling, for goodness’ sake, don’t talk about it. It’s so horrible to talk
about it.”
“I won’t,” said her mother, seeing the tears in her daughter’s eyes; “but one thing,
my love; you promised me you would have no secrets from me. You won’t?”
“Never, mamma, none,” answered Kitty, flushing a little, and looking her mother
straight in the face, “but there’s no use in my telling you anything, and I...I...if I
wanted to, I don’t know what to say or how...I don’t know...”
“No, she could not tell an untruth with those eyes,” thought the mother, smiling
at her agitation and happiness. The princess smiled that what was taking place just
now in her soul seemed to the poor child so immense and so important.
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