Vronsky and Kitty waltzed several times round the room. After

the first waltz Kitty went to her mother, and she had hardly time

to say a few words to Countess Nordston when Vronsky came up

again for the first quadrille. During the quadrille nothing of

any significance was said: there was disjointed talk between

them of the Korsunskys, husband and wife, whom he described very

amusingly, as delightful children at forty, and of the future

town theater; and only once the conversation touched her to the

quick, when he asked her about Levin, whether he was here, and

added that he liked him so much. But Kitty did not expect much

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from the quadrille. She looked forward with a thrill at her

heart to the mazurka. She fancied that in the mazurka everything

must be decided. The fact that he did not during the quadrille

ask her for the mazurka did not trouble her. She felt sure she

would dance the mazurka with him as she had done at former balls,

and refused five young men, saying she was engaged for the

mazurka. The whole ball up to the last quadrille was for Kitty

an enchanted vision of delightful colors, sounds, and motions.

She only sat down when she felt too tired and begged for a rest.

But as she was dancing the last quadrille with one of the

tiresome young men whom she could not refuse, she chanced to be

vis-a-vis with Vronsky and Anna. She had not been near Anna

again since the beginning of the evening, and now again she saw

her suddenly quite new and surprising. She saw in her the signs

of that excitement of success she knew so well in herself; she

saw that she was intoxicated with the delighted admiration she

was exciting. She knew that feeling and knew its signs, and saw

them in Anna; saw the quivering, flashing light in her eyes, and

the smile of happiness and excitement unconsciously playing on

her lips, and the deliberate grace, precision, and lightness of

her movements.

"Who?" she asked herself. "All or one?" And not assisting the

harassed young man she was dancing with in the conversation, the

thread of which he had lost and could not pick up again, she

obeyed with external liveliness the peremptory shouts of

Korsunsky starting them all into the _grand rond_, and then into

the _châine_, and at the same time she kept watch with a growing

pang at her heart. "No, it's not the admiration of the crowd has

intoxicated her, but the adoration of one. And that one? can it

be he?" Every time he spoke to Anna the joyous light flashed

into her eyes, and the smile of happiness curved her red lips.

she seemed to make an effort to control herself, to try not to

show these signs of delight, but they came out on her face

of themselves. "But what of him?" Kitty looked at him and was

filled with terror. What was pictured so clearly to Kitty in the

mirror of Anna's face she saw in him. What had become of his

always self-possessed resolute manner, and the carelessly serene

expression of his face? Now every time he turned to her, he bent

his head, as though he would have fallen at her feet, and in his

eyes there was nothing but humble submission and dread. "I would

not offend you," his eyes seemed every time to be saying, "but I

want to save myself, and I don't know how." On his face was a

look such as Kitty had never seen before.




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