74 75
“but one thing, my love; you promised me you would have no secrets
from me. You won’t?”
“Never, mamma, none,” answered Kitty, flushing a little, and look-
ing her mother straight in the face, “but there’s no use in my telling you
anything, 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
that what was taking place just now in her soul seemed to the poor
child so immense and so important.
Chapter 13.
After dinner, and till the beginning of the evening, Kitty was feel-
ing a sensation akin to the sensation of a young man before a battle.
Her heat throbbed violently, and her thoughts would not rest on any-
thing.
She felt that this evening, when they would both meet for the first
time, would be a turning point in her life. And she was continually
picturing them to herself, at one moment each separately, and then
both together. When she mused on the past, she dwelt with pleasure,
with tenderness, on the memories of her relations with Levin. The
memories of childhood and of Levin’s friendship with her dead brother
gave a special poetic charm to her relations with him. His love for her,
of which she felt certain, was flattering and delightful to her; and it was
pleasant for her to think of Levin. In her memories of Vronsky there
always entered a certain element of awkwardness, though he was in
the highest degree well-bred and at ease, as though there were some
false note—not in Vronsky, he was very simple and nice, but in herself,
while with Levin she felt perfectly simple and clear. But, on the other
hand, directly she thought of the future with Vronsky, there arose be-
fore her a perspective of brilliant happiness; with Levin the future
seemed misty.
When she went upstairs to dress, and looked into the looking-