Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/143

 "Every one has a skeleton in his closet, as the English say."

"What skeleton have you, pray? In you everything is so serene."

"I have mine!" cried Anna, suddenly; and an unexpected, crafty, mocking smile hovered over her lips in spite of her tears.

"Well! in your case the skeleton must be a droll one, and not grievous," replied Dolly, with a smile.

"No; it is grievous! Do you know why I go to-day, and not to-morrow? This is a confession which weighs me down, but I wish to make it," said Anna, decidedly, sitting down in an arm-chair, and looking Dolly straight in the eyes.

And to her astonishment she saw that Anna was blushing, even to her ears, even to the dark curls that played about the back of her neck.

"Yes!" Anna proceeded. "Do you know why Kitty did not come to dinner? She is jealous of me. I spoiled .... it was through me that the ball last night was a torment and not a joy to her. But truly, truly, I was not to blame,—or not much to blame," said she, with a special accent on the word nemnozhko—not much.

"Oh, how exactly you said that like Stiva!" remarked Dolly, laughing.

Anna was vexed.

"Oh, no! Oh, no! I am not like Stiva," said she, frowning. "I have told you this simply because I do not allow myself, for an instant, to doubt myself."

But the very moment that she said these words, she perceived how untrue they were; she not only doubted herself, but she felt such emotion at the thought of Vronsky that she took her departure sooner than she otherwise would, so that she might not meet him again.

"Yes, Stiva told me that you danced the mazurka with him, and that he .... "

"You cannot imagine how ridiculously it turned out. I thought only to help along the match, and suddenly it went exactly opposite. Perhaps against my will, I .... "

She blushed, and did not finish her sentence.