Anna Karenina - Part 2 - Page 106/124

"Well, see, Kitty, your intense desire to make friends with

Mademoiselle. . ."

"Varenka," Varenka put in smiling, "that's what everyone calls

me."

Kitty blushed with pleasure, and slowly, without speaking,

pressed her new friend's hand, which did not respond to her

pressure, but lay motionless in her hand. The hand did not

respond to her pressure, but the face of Mademoiselle Varenka

glowed with a soft, glad, though rather mournful smile, that

showed large but handsome teeth.

"I have long wished for this too," she said.

"But you are so busy."

"Oh, no, I'm not at all busy," answered Varenka, but at that

moment she had to leave her new friends because two little

Russian girls, children of an invalid, ran up to her.

"Varenka, mamma's calling!" they cried.

And Varenka went after them.