Anna Karenina - Part 5

He chose a moment when the teacher was looking in silence at the

book.

"Mihail Ivanitch, when is your birthday?" he asked all, of a

sudden.

"You'd much better be thinking about your work. Birthdays are of

no importance to a rational being. It's a day like any other on

which one has to do one's work."

Seryozha looked intently at the teacher, at his scanty beard, at

his spectacles, which had slipped down below the ridge on his

nose, and fell into so deep a reverie that he heard nothing of

what the teacher was explaining to him. He knew that the teacher

did not think what he said; he felt it from the tone in which it

was said. "But why have they all agreed to speak just in the

same manner always the dreariest and most useless stuff? Why

does he keep me off; why doesn't he love me?" he asked himself

mournfully, and could not think of an answer.