She smiled disdainfully, and again took up her book; but now she really could not any longer comprehend what she was reading. She rubbed her paper-cutter over the pane, and then pressed its cool, smooth surface to her cheek, and then she almost laughed out loud with the joy that unreasonably took possession of her. She felt her nerves grow more and more tense like the strings on some musical instrument screwed up to the last degree; she felt her eyes open wider and wider, her fingers and her toes twitched nervously, something seemed to choke her, and all objects and sounds in the wavering semi-darkness surprised her by their exaggerated proportions. She kept having moments of doubt as to whether they were going backwards or forwards, or if the train had come to a stop. Was it Annushka there, sitting next her, or was it a stranger?
"What is that on the hook?—my fur shuba or an animal? And what am I doing here? Am I myself, or some one else?"
It was terrible to her to yield to these hallucinations; but something kept attracting her to them and she could by her own will either yield to them or withdraw from them. In order to regain possession of herself, Anna arose, took off her plaid and laid aside her pelerine of thick cloth. For a moment she thought that she had conquered herself, for when a tall, thin muzhik, dressed in a long nankeen overcoat, which lacked a button, came in, she recognized in him the stove-tender. She saw him look at the thermometer, and noticed how the wind and the snow came blowing in as he opened the door; and then everything became confused again.
The tall peasant began to draw fantastic figures on the wall; the old lady seemed to stretch out her legs, and fill the whole carriage as with a black cloud; then she thought she heard a terrible thumping and rapping, a noise like something tearing; then a red and blinding fire flashed in her eyes, and then all vanished in darkness. Anna felt as if she was falling. But this was not at all alarming, but rather pleasant.
The voice of a man all wrapped up, and covered with
