Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FIVE CHAPTER 26
blame for not having learned the lesson; however much he tried, he was utterly
unable to do that. As long as the teacher was explaining to him, he believed him and
seemed to comprehend, but as soon as he was left alone, he was positively unable to
recollect and to understand that the short and familiar word “suddenly” is an adverb
of manner of action. Still he was sorry that he had disappointed the teacher.
He chose a moment when the teacher was looking in silence at the book.
“Mihail Ivanitch, when is your birthday?” he asked all, of a sudden.
“You’d much better be thinking about your work. Birthdays are of no importance
to a rational being. It’s a day like any other on which one has to do one’s work.”
Seryozha looked intently at the teacher, at his scanty beard, at his spectacles, which
had slipped down below the ridge on his nose, and fell into so deep a reverie that he
heard nothing of what the teacher was explaining to him. He knew that the teacher
did not think what he said; he felt it from the tone in which it was said. “But why
have they all agreed to speak just in the same manner always the dreariest and most
useless stuff? Why does he keep me off; why doesn’t he love me?” he asked himself
mournfully, and could not think of an answer.
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