Anna Karenina

today, to turn a girl's
head, and how lightly men generally regard such a crime. The week
before, Kitty had told her mother of a conversation she had with
Vronsky during a mazurka. This conversation had partly reassured the
Princess; yet her assurance could not be perfect. Vronsky had told
Kitty that both he and his brother were so used to obeying their
mother that they never made up their minds to any important
undertaking without consulting her. "And, just now, I am impatiently
awaiting my mother's coming from Peterburg, as a peculiar piece of
luck," he had told her.
Kitty had repeated this without attaching any significance to the
words. But her mother saw them in a different light. She knew that the
old lady was expected from day to day, that she would be pleased at
her son's choice, and she felt it strange that he should not make
his proposal through fear of vexing his mother. However, she was so
anxious for the marriage itself, and still more for relief from her
fears, that she believed it was so. Bitter as it was for the
Princess to see the unhappiness of her eldest daughter, Dolly, on
the point of leaving her husband, her anxiety over the decision of her
youngest daughter's fate engrossed all her feelings. Today, with
Levin's reappearance, a fresh source of anxiety arose. She was
afraid that her daughter, who had at one time, as she fancied, a
feeling for Levin, might, from an extreme sense of honesty, refuse
Vronsky, and that Levin's arrival might generally complicate and delay
the affair, now so near conclusion.
"Why, has he been here long?" the Princess asked about Levin, as
they returned home.
"He came today, maman."
{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_XII ^paragraph 10}
"There's one thing I want to say..." began the Princess, and from
her serious and alert face, Kitty guessed what it would be.
"Mamma," she said, flushing hotly and turning quickly to her,
"please, please don't say anything about that. I know, I know all
about it."
She wished what her mother wished for, but the motives of her
mother's wishes hurt her.
"I only want to say that to raise hopes..."
"Mamma, darling, for goodness' sake, don't talk about it. It's so
horrible to talk about it."
{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_XII ^paragraph 15}
"I won't," said her mother, seeing the tears in her daughter's eyes;
"but one thing, my love; you promised me you would have no secrets
from me. You won't?"
"Never, mamma- none," answered Kitty, flushing and looking her
mother straight in the face; "but I have nothing to tell you now,
and I... I... If I wanted to, I don't know what to say or how... I
don't know..."
"No, she could not tell an untruth with those eyes," thought the
mother, smiling at her agitation and happiness. The Princess smiled:
so immense and so important seemed to the poor child everything that
was taking place just now in her soul.

{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_XIII
XIII.
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After