Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/324

 whole world in which she lived. She did not give up what she had learned, but she confessed that she had been under an illusion by believing that she was what she had dreamed of being. She awoke as it were from a dream. She felt all the difficulty of staying without hypocrisy and boastfulness on the heights to which she had tried to raise herself; moreover, she felt still more vividly all the weight of that world of misfortunes, of illnesses, of those who surrounded her, and she was tormented by the efforts which she had made to interest herself in them; and she began to long to breathe the purer, healthier atmosphere of Russia at Yergushovo, where Dolly and the children had gone, as she learned from a letter that had just come.

But her love for Varenka had not diminished. When she went away, she begged her to come and visit them in Russia.

"I will come when you are married," said she.

"I shall never marry."

"Well, then I shall never come."

"Well, in that case, I shall get married only for your sake. Don't forget your promise," said Kitty.

The doctor's prophecies were realized. Kitty came home to Russia perfectly well; possibly she was not as gay and careless as before, but her calmness was restored. The pains of the past were only a memory.