FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55  
56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   >>   >|  
eak--because I'm happy now, happy in hope, anyway.... And then?.... But I must! I must! I must! Away with weakness!" Levin rose to his feet, took off his overcoat, and scurrying over the rough ice round the hut, came out on the smooth ice and skated without effort, as it were, by simple exercise of will, increasing and slackening speed and turning his course. He approached with timidity, but again her smile reassured him. She gave him her hand, and they set off side by side, going faster and faster, and the more rapidly they moved the more tightly she grasped his hand. "With you I should soon learn; I somehow feel confidence in you," she said to him. "And I have confidence in myself when you are leaning on me," he said, but was at once panic-stricken at what he had said, and blushed. And indeed, no sooner had he uttered these words, when all at once, like the sun going behind a cloud, her face lost all its friendliness, and Levin detected the familiar change in her expression that denoted the working of thought; a crease showed on her smooth brow. "Is there anything troubling you?--though I've no right to ask such a question," he added hurriedly. "Oh, why so?.... No, I have nothing to trouble me," she responded coldly; and she added immediately: "You haven't seen Mlle. Linon, have you?" "Not yet." "Go and speak to her, she likes you so much." "What's wrong? I have offended her. Lord help me!" thought Levin, and he flew towards the old Frenchwoman with the gray ringlets, who was sitting on a bench. Smiling and showing her false teeth, she greeted him as an old friend. "Yes, you see we're growing up," she said to him, glancing towards Kitty, "and growing old. _Tiny bear_ has grown big now!" pursued the Frenchwoman, laughing, and she reminded him of his joke about the three young ladies whom he had compared to the three bears in the English nursery tale. "Do you remember that's what you used to call them?" He remembered absolutely nothing, but she had been laughing at the joke for ten years now, and was fond of it. "Now, go and skate, go and skate. Our Kitty has learned to skate nicely, hasn't she?" When Levin darted up to Kitty her face was no longer stern; her eyes looked at him with the same sincerity and friendliness, but Levin fancied that in her friendliness there was a certain note of deliberate composure. And he felt depressed. After talking a little of her old gover
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55  
56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
friendliness
 

laughing

 

faster

 

growing

 
confidence
 
Frenchwoman
 

smooth

 
thought
 

offended

 

glancing


greeted

 

showing

 
Smiling
 

sitting

 
ringlets
 
friend
 

darted

 

longer

 
nicely
 

learned


looked

 

composure

 

deliberate

 
depressed
 

sincerity

 
fancied
 

talking

 

compared

 

English

 

ladies


pursued

 

reminded

 
nursery
 

remembered

 

absolutely

 

remember

 
working
 
turning
 

approached

 

timidity


slackening

 

simple

 

exercise

 

increasing

 
tightly
 

grasped

 
rapidly
 

reassured

 
effort
 

weakness