Chapter 161 — Anna Karenina

Varenka in white kerchief among the children looks excited at the possibility of a declaration from Sergey Ivanovitch. He admires her constantly, recalling her words and goodness, until placing an agaric in her basket he meets her flush of glad alarm and smiles a smile that said too much. He tells himself he ought to think it over and make up his mind, not give way like a boy to impulse.

He walks deeper into the wood alone, lights a cigar, and struggles to strike a match on birch bark until one burns. Deliberating in smoke, he asks why not. The only argument is fidelity to Marie's memory after his first love died. That's a great thing, he admits, yet it has no personal force now. He catalogs Varenka's perfections: conscious love, distaste for worldly society, religious foundation, poverty without intrusive relations.

Age troubles him briefly; he remembers Varenka saying Frenchmen of forty are young men. Seeing her in yellow gown by the birch in slanting sun, his heart throbs; he has made up his mind. Flinging away the cigar, Sergey Ivanovitch advances with resolute steps toward her as she rises from picking a mushroom.

Tolstoy ends on resolute steps, not yet spoken words: the proposal Kitty hopes for remains one breath away.