Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/721

 "Mamma! dear heart, darling," he cried, again throwing himself into her arms, as if now for the first time, having seen her smile, he clearly understood what had happened.

"You don't need it on," said he, taking off her hat And as if again recognizing her with her head bare, he began to kiss her again.

"What did you think of me? Did you believe that I was dead?"

"I never believed it."

"You believed me alive, my precious?"

"I knew it! I knew it!" he replied, repeating his favorite phrase; and, seizing her hand which was smoothing his hair, he pressed the palm of it to his little mouth and began to kiss it.

CHAPTER XXX

, meantime, not at first knowing who this lady was, but learning from their conversation that it was Serozha's mother, the woman who had deserted her husband, and whom he did not know, as he had not come into the house till after her departure, was in great perplexity. Ought he to go to his pupil, or should he tell Alekseï Aleksandrovitch?

On mature reflection he came to the conclusion that his duty consisted in going to dress Serozha at the usual hour, without paying any attention to a third person—his mother or any one else. So he dressed himself. But as he reached the door and opened it, the sight of the caresses between the mother and child, the sound of their voices and their words, made him change his mind. He shook his head, sighed, and quietly closed the door. "I will wait ten minutes longer," he said to himself, coughing slightly, and wiping his eyes.

There was great excitement among the servants; they all knew that the baruinya had come, and that Kapitonu-