Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [400]
‘I’m laughing,’ she said, ‘as one laughs seeing a very faithful portrait. What you’ve said perfectly characterizes French art now, painting and even literature: Zola, Daudet.18 But perhaps it always happens that people first build their conceptions out of invented, conventionalized figures, but then - once all the combinaisons are finished - the invented figures become boring, and they begin to devise more natural and correct figures.’
‘That’s quite right!’ said Vorkuev.
‘So you were at the club?’ She turned to her brother.
‘Yes, yes, what a woman!’ thought Levin, forgetting himself and gazing fixedly at her beautiful, mobile face, which now suddenly changed completely. Levin did not hear what she said as she leaned towards her brother, but he was struck by the change in her expression. So beautiful before in its calmness, her face suddenly showed a strange curiosity, wrath and pride. But that lasted only a moment. She narrowed her eyes as if remembering something.
‘Ah, yes, however, it’s not interesting for anyone,’ she said, and turned to the English girl:
‘Please order tea in the drawing room.’
The girl got up and went out.
‘Well, did she pass her examination?’ asked Stepan Arkadyich.
‘Splendidly. She’s a very capable girl and with a sweet nature.’
‘You’ll end by loving her more than your own.’
‘That’s a man talking. There is no more or less love. I love my daughter with one love and her with another.’
‘I was just telling Anna Arkadyevna,’ said Vorkuev, ‘that if she spent at least a hundredth of the energy she puts into this English girl on the common cause of the education of Russian children, Anna Arkadyevna would be doing a great and useful thing.’
‘Say what you like, I can’t do it. Count Alexei Kirillych strongly encouraged me’ (in pronouncing the words ’Count Alexei Kirillych‘, she gave Levin a pleadingly timid look, and he involuntarily responded with a respectful and confirming look) ‘- encouraged me to occupy myself with the village school. I went several times. They’re very nice, but I couldn’t get caught up in it. Energy, you say. Energy is based on love. And love can’t be drawn from just anywhere, it can’t be ordered. I love this English girl, I myself don’t know why.’
And again she glanced at Levin. Her eyes, her smile, everything told him that she was addressing what she said to him, valuing his opinion and at the same time knowing beforehand that they understood each other.
‘I understand that perfectly,’ Levin replied. ‘One cannot put one’s heart into a school or generally into institutions of that sort, and that is precisely why I think these philanthropic institutions always produce such meagre results.’
She kept silent and then smiled.
‘Yes, yes,’ she agreed. ‘I never could. Je n’ai pas le coeur assez largedb 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.