How does Leo Tolstoy use imagery in Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy?

Imagery:

"When the talk turned on life in the country, or on a ball, we were uneasy and shrank from looking at one another. Both of us knew where the gulf between us lay, and seemed afraid to approach it., We had long ceased to think each other the most perfect people in the world; each now judged the other in secret and measured the offender by the standard of other people"