A footman stood opening the carriage door. The hall porter stood holding open the great door of the house. Anna Arkadyevna, with her quick little hand, was unfastening the lace of her sleeve, caught in the hook of her fur cloak, and with bent head listening to the words Vronsky murmured as he escorted her down.
“You’ve said nothing, of course, and I ask nothing,” he was saying; “but you know that friendship’s not what I want: that there’s only one happiness in life for me, that word that you dislike so … yes, love!…”
“Love,” she repeated slowly, in an inner voice, and suddenly, at the very instant she unhooked the lace, she added, “Why I don’t like the word is that it means too much to me, far more than you can understand,” and she glanced into his face. “Au revoir!”
She gave him her hand, and with her rapid, springy step she passed by the porter and vanished into the carriage.
Her glance, the touch of her hand, set him aflame. He kissed the palm of his hand where she had touched it, and went home, happy in the sense that he had got nearer to the to the attainment of his aims that evening than during the last two months.
Page 139
Asha Seth 
My favorite book AnnaKarenina.Superb.
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A poignant excerpt!
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Indeed. And a true masterpiece of a book.
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Amazing! It’s more like a time travel machine to a recent past
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How do you mean ‘recent past’?
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Good to go back to a book I read over half a century ago… in happier days
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That’s a real long time, Mr Rao. I read it in college days but even that feels like a lifetime ago. Just how much one has changed, only books can tell.
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