“He knew she was
there by the rapture and the terror that seized on his
heart.
She was standing talking to a lady at the opposite end of the
ground.
There was apparently nothing striking either in her dress or
her attitude.
But for Levin she was as easy to find in that crowd as a rose
among nettles.
Everything was made bright by her. She was the smile that shed
light on all round her.
"Is it possible I can go over there on the ice, go up to
her?" he thought.
The place where she stood seemed to him a holy shrine,
unapproachable, and there was one moment when he was almost
retreating, so overwhelmed was he with terror. He had to make
an effort to master himself,
and to remind himself that people of all sorts were moving
about her, and that he too might come there to skate. He walked
down, for a long while avoiding looking at her as at the sun,
but seeing her, as one does the sun, without
looking.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina