E-Text: The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Lev Tolstoj)

Travellers left and entered our car at every stopping of the train. Three persons, however, remained, bound, like myself, for the farthest station: a lady neither young nor pretty, smoking cigarettes, with a thin face, a cap on her head, and wearing a semimasculine outer garment; then her companion, a very loquacious gentleman of about forty years, with baggage entirely new and arranged in an orderly manner; then a gentleman who held himself entirely aloof, short in stature, very nervous, of uncertain age, with bright eyes, not pronounced in color, but extremely attractive, — eyes that darted with rapidity from one object to another.
This gentleman, during almost all the journey
thus far, had entered into conversation with no
fellow-traveller, as if he carefully avoided all
acquaintance.

When spoken to, he answered
curtly and decisively, and began to look out of
the car window obstinately. Yet it seemed to me that the solitude weighed
upon him. He seemed to perceive that I under-
stood this, and when our eyes met, as happened
frequently, since we were sitting almost opposite
each other, he turned away his head, and avoid-
ed conversation with me as much as with the
others.

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