She said a few words to him, even smiled serenely at his joke
about the elections, which he called "our parliament." (She had
to smile to show she saw the joke.) But she turned away
immediately to Princess Marya Borissovna, and did not once glance
at him till he got up to go; then she looked at him, but
evidently only because it would be uncivil not to look at a man
when he is saying good-bye.
She was grateful to her father for saying nothing to her about
their meeting Vronsky, but she saw by his special warmth to her
after the visit during their usual walk that he was pleased with
her. She was pleased with herself. She had not expected she
would have had the power, while keeping somewhere in the bottom
of her heart all the memories of her old feeling for Vronsky, not
only to seem but to be perfectly indifferent and composed with
him.
Levin flushed a great deal more than she when she told him she
had met Vronsky at Princess Marya Borissovna's. It was very hard
for her to tell him this, but still harder to go on speaking of
the details of the meeting, as he did not question her, but
simply gazed at her with a frown.
"I am very sorry you weren't there," she said. "Not that you
weren't in the room...I couldn't have been so natural in your
presence...I am blushing now much more, much, much more," she
said, blushing till the tears came into her eyes. "But that you
couldn't see through a crack."
The truthful eyes told Levin that she was satisfied with herself,
and in spite of her blushing he was quickly reassured and began
questioning her, which was all she wanted. When he had heard
everything, even to the detail that for the first second she
could not help flushing, but that afterwards she was just as
direct and as much at her ease as with any chance acquaintance,
Levin was quite happy again and said he was glad of it, and would
not now behave as stupidly as he had done at the election, but
would try the first time he met Vronsky to be as friendly as
possible.
"It's so wretched to feel that there's a man almost an enemy whom
it's painful to meet," said Levin. "I'm very, very glad."