Pagina 293 de 2288

At Petersburg, as soon as the train stopped and she got out, the

first person that attracted her attention was her husband. "Oh,

mercy! why do his ears look like that?" she thought, looking at

his frigid and imposing figure, and especially the ears that

struck her at the moment as propping up the brim of his round

hat. Catching sight of her, he came to meet her, his lips falling

into their habitual sarcastic smile, and his big, tired eyes

looking straight at her. An unpleasant sensation gripped at her

heart when she met his obstinate and weary glance, as though she

had expected to see him different. She was especially struck by

the feeling of dissatisfaction with herself that she experienced

on meeting him. That feeling was an intimate, familiar feeling,

like a consciousness of hypocrisy, which she experienced in her

relations with her husband. But hitherto she had not taken note

of the feeling, now she was clearly and painfully aware of it.