ANNA KARENINA 
 
 VOL. I
 
 VRONSKY PLEADING WITH ANNA. 
 
 Original Drawing by E. Boyd Sftiith.
 
 Anna Karenina 
 
 BY 
 
 LYOF N. TOLSTOI 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN 
 . BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE . 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1899, 
 BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 A LEXANDER PUSHKIN, Russia's greatest poet 
 /~V and the inspirer of the two best works of Gogol, 
 the father of Russian realism, may perhaps be regarded 
 as the direct cause of Count Tolstoi's greatest novel. 
 A relative happened to be visiting at Yasnaya Polyana, 
 and had been reading a volume of Pushkin. Count 
 Tolstoi picked up the work and opened it casually. 
 Some one entered as he was glancing over the pages, 
 and he exclaimed, " Here is something charming ! This 
 is the way to write ! Pushkin goes to the heart of the 
 matter." 
 
 Count Tolstoi' was so impressed by Pushkin's direct- 
 ness that he immediately felt like emulating him. He 
 asked to be kept free from interruptions, shut himself 
 into his library, and began "Anna Karenina." 
 
 The publication of it began in the Russky Viestnik 
 or Russian Messenger in 1875; but it was frequently 
 interrupted. Months and even years elapsed before it 
 was concluded ; yet it kept public attention. Not even 
 the break of several months between two of the parts 
 was sufficient to cool the interest of its reader. After 
 the appearance of the first part he wrote a friend : - 
 
 " You praise ' Anna Karenina,' and that is very pleas- 
 ant to me ; the more so as I hear much in its favor ; 
 but I am sure that there never was an author more 
 indifferent to his success than I am in this case." 
 
 A year later he wrote : 
 
 " For two whole months I have forborne to stain my 
 hands with ink or to burden my heart with thoughts. 
 Now, however, I turn once more to that dull common- 
 place ' Anna Karenina,' moved solely to rid my desk of 
 it to make room for other tasks."
 
 vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 Even then he did not finish it. The next year he 
 wrote : " The end of winter and the opening of spring 
 are my busiest months for work. I must finish the 
 novel of which I have grown so tired." But when he 
 once took hold of it the spirit of it quickly seized him 
 again, and much of it was written, as any one can see, 
 with almost breathless haste. 
 
 Polevoi', in his illustrated " History of Russian Litera- 
 ture," says of this story : " Count Tolsto'f dwells with 
 especial fondness on the sharp contrast between the 
 frivolity, the tinsel brightness, the tumult and vanity, of 
 the worldly life, and the sweet, holy calm enjoyed by 
 those who, possessing the soil, live amid the beauties of 
 Nature and the pleasures of the family." 
 
 This contrast will strike the attention of every reader. 
 It is the outgrowth of Count Tolstoi's own life ; his dual 
 nature is portrayed in the contrasting careers of Levin 
 and Vronsky. The interweaving of two stories is done 
 with a masterly hand. One may take them separately 
 or together ; each strand of the twisted rope follows its 
 own course, and yet each without the other would be 
 evidently incomplete. 
 
 As one reads, one forgets that it is fiction. It seems 
 like a transcript of real life, and one is constantly im- 
 pressed by the vast accumulation of pictures, each illus- 
 trating and explaining the vital elements of the Jpopfo. 
 At times one is startled by the vivifying flashes of 
 genius. The death of Anna is dimly suggested by the 
 tragic occurrence of the brakeman's death in the Mos- 
 cow railway station. A still more suggestive intimation 
 of the approaching tragedy is found in the death of 
 Vronsky's horse during the officers' handicap race at 
 Peterhof. If one may so speak, the atmosphere of the 
 story is electrified with fate. In this respect it is like 
 a Greek drama. There is never a false touch. 
 
 Count Tolstoi's brother-in-law says there is no doubt 
 that Levin is the portrait of the novelist himself, but 
 represented as being "extremely simple in order to bring 
 him into still greater contrast with the representatives 
 of high life in Moscow and St. Petersburg." He also
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 says that the description of the way that Levin and 
 Kitty make use of the initial letters of the words in 
 which they wish to express to each other their mutual 
 love is faithful in its minutest details to the history of 
 Count Tolstoi's own wooing. And undoubtedly many 
 of the experiences of Levin on his estate are also tran- 
 scripts of Count Tolstoi's own experiences. 
 
 Tolstoi', like Levin, sought to reform and to better 
 everything about him, and took part in the Liberal 
 movements of the time ; but his schemes came to naught, 
 one after the other, and his nihilism, for he declares 
 in his confession that he was a Nihilist in the actual 
 meaning of the word, his nihilism triumphs in bitter- 
 ness on their ruins. The struggle in Levin's mind and 
 the horror of his despair tempting him also to suicide 
 are marvelously depicted. At length, as in Tolstoi's 
 real life, the muzhik comes to his aid, light illumines 
 his soul, and the work ends in a burst of mystic happi- 
 ness, a hymn of joy, which he sings to his inmost soul, 
 not sharing it with his beloved wife, though he knows 
 that she knows the secret of his happiness. 
 
 Interesting and instructive as this idyllic romance is, 
 the chief power of the novelist is expended in portray- 
 ing the illicit love of Vronsky and Anna. Its moral 
 is the opposition of duty to passion. It has been said 
 that the love that unites the two protagonists is sincere, 
 deep, almost holy despite its illegality. They were born 
 for each other ; it was love at first sight, a love which 
 overleapt all bonds and bounds. But its gratification at 
 the expense of honor brings the inevitable torment, espe- 
 cially to the woman who had sacrificed so much. The 
 agony of remorse, intensified by the mortifications and 
 humiliations caused by her position, unites itself with 
 an almost insane jealousy, product also of the unstable 
 relation in which she is placed. At last the union 
 becomes so irksome, so painful, so hateful, that the only 
 escape from it is in suicide. 
 
 Count Tolstoi' manages with consummate skill to retain 
 his own respect for the guilty woman. Consequently 
 the reader's love and sympathy for the unhappy woman
 
 viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 never flag. He lays bare each throb of her tortured 
 heart. He is the Parrhasius of novelists. 
 
 Mr. Howells says: "The warmth and light of Tol- 
 stoi's good heart and right mind are seen in 'Anna 
 Karenina,' that saddest story of guilty love in which 
 nothing can save the sinful woman from herself, not 
 her husband's forgiveness, her friend's compassion, her 
 lover's constancy, or the long intervals of quiet in which 
 she seems safe and happy in her sin. It is she who 
 destroys herself persistently, step by step, in spite of all 
 help and forbearance ; and yet we are never allowed to 
 forget how good and generous she was when we first 
 met her ; how good and generous she is fitfully, and 
 more and more rarely to the end. Her lover works out 
 a sort of redemption through his patience and devotion ; 
 he grows gentler, wiser, worthier through it ; but even 
 his good destroys her." 
 
 Mr. Howells also comments on the extraordinary 
 vitality of the work. 
 
 " A multitude of figures pass before us," he says, 
 "recognizably real, never caricatured nor grotesqued, 
 nop*in any way unduly accented, but simple and actual 
 in tfceir evil or their good. There is lovely family life, 
 the tenderness of father and daughter, the rapture of 
 young wife and husband, the innocence of girlhood, the 
 beauty of fidelity ; there is the unrest and folly of fashion, 
 the misery of wealth, and the wretchedness of wasted 
 and mistaken life, the hollowness of ambition, the cheer- 
 ful emptiness of some hearts, the dull emptiness of 
 others. It is a world, and you live in it while you read 
 and long afterward, but at no step have you been be- 
 trayed, not because your guide has warned or exalted 
 you, but because he has been true, and has shown you 
 all things as they are." 
 
 It is hardly worth while to particularize the immortal 
 scenes with which the panoramic canvas is crowded, 
 though the Vicomte de Vogue" characterizes the death- 
 bed scene of Nikola'f Levin as " one of the most finished 
 masterpieces of which literature has reason to be proud," 
 and the description of the races at Tsarskoye-Selo, apart
 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 from its tragic moment, is amazing for its vividness and 
 beauty. Indeed, there are dozens of wonderful pictures 
 of life and death in the story. And no translation, 
 however faithful, can do justice to the quiet humor 
 packed away often in a single word of the staccato mu- 
 zhik dialect, which no one ever handled more success- 
 fully than Count Tolstoi'. 
 
 The translation has been thoroughly revised and 
 largely rewritten. All passages formerly omitted have 
 been restored, and the occasional temptation to em- 
 broider by paraphrase on what the author left purposely 
 simple, plain, and direct, has been resisted. 
 
 The Russian words and interjections (which, with the 
 idea of giving local color, were employed in the first 
 edition) have been for the most part eliminated, and the 
 glossary is therefore superfluous. The translator's whole 
 purpose has been to give a faithful presentation of this 
 immortal work.
 
 CHIEF PERSONS OF THE STORY 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch Karenin. 
 
 Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (Madame Karenin). 
 
 Count Aleksei (Alosha) Kirillovitch Vronsky. 
 
 His mother, the Countess Vronsky or Vronskaya. 
 
 His brother, Aleksandr Kirillovitch Vronsky. 
 
 Prince (Kniaz) Stephan (Stiva) Arkadyevitch Oblonsky. 
 
 Princess (Kniaginya) Darya (Dolly, Dolinka, Dashenka) Aleksandrovna 
 
 Oblonsky or Oblonskaya. 
 Konstantin (Kostia) Dmitriyevitch (Dmitritch) Levin, proprietor of Po- 
 
 krovsky. 
 
 His brother, Nikola! Dmitriyevitch Levin. 
 His mistress, Marya Nikolayevna. 
 
 His Wf-brother, Sergyel Ivanovitch (Ivanuitch, Ivanitch) Koznuishef. 
 Prince Aleksandr Shcherbatsky. 
 Princess Shcherbatsky or Shcherbatskaya. 
 Their daughter, the Princess (Kniaskna) Yekaterina (Kitty, Katyonka, 
 
 Katerina, Katya) Aleksandrovna Shcherbatsky or Shcherbatskaya 
 
 (afterwards Levin or Levina). 
 Their nephew, Prince Nikolai Shcherbatsky.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 PART FIRST 
 
 u Vengeance is mine, I will repay " 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ALL happy families resemble one another; every 
 unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. 
 
 All was confusion in the house of the Oblonskys. 
 The wife had discovered that her husband was having 
 an intrigue with a French governess who had been in 
 their employ, and she declared that she could not live 
 in the same house with him. This condition of things 
 had lasted now three days, and was causing deep dis- 
 comfort, not only to the husband and wife, but also to all 
 the members of the family and the domestics. All the 
 members of the family and the domestics felt that there 
 was no sense in their living together, and that in any 
 hotel people meeting casually had more mutual inter- 
 ests than they, the members of the family and the 
 domestics of the house of Oblonsky. The wife did not 
 come out of her own rooms ; the husband had not been 
 at home for two days. The children were running over 
 the whole house as if they were crazy ; the English 
 maid was angry with the housekeeper and wrote to a 
 friend begging her to find her a new place. The head 
 cook had departed the evening before just at dinner- 
 time ; the kitchen-maid and the coachman demanded 
 their wages. 
 
 On the third day after the quarrel, Prince Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch Oblonsky Stiva, as he was called in 
 society awoke at the usual hour, that is to say about 
 VOL. i. i i
 
 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 eight o'clock in the morning, not in his wife's chamber, 
 but in his library, on a leather-covered divan. He 
 turned his portly pampered body on the springs of the 
 divan, as if intending to go to sleep again, and as he 
 did so threw his arm round the cushion and pressed his 
 cheek to it. But suddenly he sat up and opened his eyes. 
 
 "Well, well! how was it?" he mused, recalling a 
 dream. " Yes, how was it ? Yes ! Alabin was giving a 
 dinner at Darmstadt ; no, not at Darmstadt, but it was 
 something American. Yes, but that Darmstadt was in 
 America. Yes, Alabin was giving a dinner on glass 
 tables, yes, and the tables sang '// mio tesoro ' ; no, not 
 '// mio tesoro,' but something better; and some little 
 water-bottles, they were women ! " said he, continuing 
 his recollections. 
 
 Prince Stepan's eyes flashed gayly and he smiled as 
 he said to himself : 
 
 " Yes, it was very good, very good. There was some- 
 thing extremely elegant about it, but you can't tell it in 
 words, and when you are awake you can't express the 
 reality even in thought." 
 
 Then, as he noticed a ray of sunlight which came in at 
 the side of one of the heavy window-curtains, he gayly 
 set his feet down from the divan, found his gilt morocco 
 slippers they had been embroidered for him by his wife 
 the year before as a birthday present and, according 
 to an old custom which he had kept up for nine years, 
 he, without rising, stretched out his hand to the place 
 where in his chamber hung his dressing-gown. And then 
 he suddenly remembered how and why he had been 
 sleeping, not in his wife's chamber, but in the library; 
 the smile vanished from his face and he frowned. 
 
 "Akh! akh ! akh! akh ! " he groaned, as he recol- 
 lected everything that had occurred. And before his 
 mind arose once more all the details of the quarrel with 
 his wife, all the hopelessness of his situation, and most 
 lamentable of all, his own fault. 
 
 " No ! she will not and she cannot forgive me. And 
 what is the worst of it, 't was my own fault my own 
 fault, and yet I am not to blame. In that lies all the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 3 
 
 tragedy of it," he said to himself. " Akh ! akh ! akh ! " 
 he kept murmuring in his despair, as he thought over 
 the exceedingly unpleasant consequences that would 
 result to him from this quarrel. 
 
 The most disagreeable moment was at the very first, 
 when, as he came home from the theater, happy and 
 self-satisfied, bringing a monstrous pear for his wife, he 
 did not find her in the sitting-room, nor, to his surprise, 
 was she in the library, and at last he saw her in her cham- 
 ber holding the fatal, all-revealing letter in her hand. 
 
 She Dolly, that forever busy and fussy and foolish 
 creature as he always considered her was sitting mo- 
 tionless with the note in her hand, and looked at him 
 with an expression of terror, despair, and wrath. 
 
 "What is this? This?" she demanded, pointing to 
 the note. 
 
 And as often happens, Stepan's torment at this recollec- 
 tion was caused less by the fact itself than by the answer 
 which he gave to those words of his wife. His experi- 
 ence at that moment was the same as other people have 
 had when unexpectedly detected in some shameful deed. 
 He was unable to prepare his face for the situation caused 
 by his wife's discovery of his sin. Instead of getting 
 offended, denying it, justifying himself, asking forgive- 
 ness, or even showing indifference anything would 
 have been better than what he really did in spite of 
 himself (by a reflex action of the brain as Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch explained it, for he loved Physiology) abso- 
 lutely in spite of himself he suddenly smiled with his 
 ordinary good-humored and therefore stupid smile. 
 
 He could not forgive himself for that stupid smile. 
 When Dolly saw that smile, she trembled as with phys- 
 ical pain, poured forth a torrent of bitter words, quite 
 in accordance with her natural temper, and fled from 
 the room. Since that time she had not been willing to 
 see her husband. 
 
 " That stupid smile caused the whole trouble," 
 thought Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " But what is to be done about it, what is to be done ? " 
 he asked himself in despair, and found no answer.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 STEFAN ARKADYEVITCH was a sincere man as far as 
 he himself was concerned. He could not practise self- 
 deception and persuade himself that he repented of his 
 behavior. He could not, as yet, feel sorry that he, a 
 handsome, susceptible man of four and thirty, was not 
 now in love with his wife, the mother of his five living 
 and two buried children, though she was only a year 
 his junior. He regretted only that he had not suc- 
 ceeded in hiding it better from her. But he felt the 
 whole weight of his situation and pitied his wife, his 
 children, and himself. Possibly he would have had bet- 
 ter success in hiding his peccadilloes from his wife had 
 he realized that this knowledge would have had such an 
 effect upon her. He had never before thought clearly of 
 this question, but he had a dim idea that his wife had 
 long been aware that he was not faithful to her, and 
 looked at it through her fingers. As she had lost her 
 freshness, was beginning to look old, was no longer 
 pretty and far from distinguished and entirely common- 
 place, though she was an excellent mother of a family, 
 he had thought that she would allow her innate sense 
 of justice to plead for him. But it had proved to be 
 quite the contrary. 
 
 " Akh, how wretched ! aY ! ai' ! ai' ! how wretched ! " 
 said Prince Stepan to himself over and over and could 
 not find any way out of the difficulty. " And how well 
 everything was going until this happened ! How de- 
 lightfully we lived ! She was content, happy with the 
 children ; I never interfered with her in any way, I 
 allowed her to do as she pleased with the children and 
 the household ! To be sure it was bad that she 
 had been the governess in our own house ; that 
 was bad. There is something trivial and common in 
 playing the gallant to one's own governess ! But what 
 a governess ! " 
 
 He vividly recalled Mile. Roland's black roguish eyes 
 and her smile.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 5 
 
 " But then, while she was here in the house with us, I 
 did not permit myself any liberties. And the worst of 
 all is that she is already.... All this must needs happen 
 just to spite me. At! a'i! ai'l But what, what is to be 
 done?" 
 
 There was no answer except that common answer 
 which life gives to all the most complicated and unsolva- 
 ble questions, this answer : You must live according 
 to circumstances, in other words, forget yourself. But 
 as you cannot forget yourself in sleep at least till 
 night, as you cannot return to that music which the 
 water-bottle woman sang, therefore you must forget 
 yourself in the dream of life ! 
 
 "We shall see by and by," said Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 to himself, and rising he put on his gray dressing-gown 
 with blue silk lining, tied the tassels into a knot, and 
 took a full breath into his ample lungs. Then with his 
 usual firm step, his legs spread somewhat apart and 
 easily bearing the solid weight of his body, he went 
 over to the window, lifted the curtain, and loudly rang 
 the bell. It was instantly answered by his old friend 
 and valet Matve, who came in bringing his clothes, 
 boots, and a telegram. Behind Matve came the barber 
 with the shaving utensils. 
 
 " Are there any papers from the court-house ? " asked 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, taking the telegram and taking 
 his seat in front of the mirror. 
 
 .... " On the breakfast-table," replied Matve, looking 
 inquiringly and with sympathy at his master, and after 
 an instant's pause, added with a sly smile, " They have 
 come from the boss of the livery-stable." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch made no reply and only looked 
 at Matve in the mirror. By the look which they inter- 
 changed it could be seen how they understood each 
 other. The look of Stepan Arkadyevitch seemed to 
 ask, " Why did you say that ? Don't you know?" 
 
 Matve thrust his hands in his jacket pockets, kicked 
 out his leg, and silently, good-naturedly, almost smiling, 
 looked back to his master : 
 
 " I ordered him to come on Sunday, and till then that
 
 6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 you and I should not be annoyed without reason," said 
 he, with a phrase evidently ready on his tongue. 
 
 Stepan Arkady evitch perceived that Matve wanted to 
 make some jesting reply and attract attention to him- 
 self. Tearing open the telegram, he read it, using his 
 wits to make out the words, that were as usual blindly 
 written, and his face brightened. 
 
 .... " Matve, sister Anna Arkadyevna will be here 
 to-morrow," said he, staying for a moment the plump 
 gleaming hand of his barber, who was making a pink 
 path through his long, curly whiskers. 
 
 "Thank God," cried Matve, showing by this excla- 
 mation that he understood as well as his master the 
 significance of this arrival, that it meant that Anna 
 Arkadyevna, Prince Stepan's loving sister, might effect 
 a reconciliation between husband and wife. 
 
 " Alone, or with her husband ? " asked Matve. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch could not speak, as the barber 
 was engaged on his upper lip, but he lifted one finger. 
 Matve nodded his head toward the mirror. 
 
 " Alone. Get her room ready?" 
 
 " Report to Darya Aleksandrovna, and let her decide." 
 
 "To Darya Aleksandrovna? "repeated Matve, rather 
 skeptically. 
 
 "Yes! report to her. And here, take the telegram, 
 give it to her, and do as she says." 
 
 " You want to try an experiment," was the thought 
 in Matve's mind ; but he only said, " I will obey! " 
 
 By this time Stepan Arkadyevitch had finished his 
 bath and his toilet, and was just putting on his clothes, 
 when Matve, stepping slowly with squeaking boots, and 
 with the telegram in his hand, returned to the room. 
 The barber was no longer there. 
 
 " Darya Aleksandrovna bade me tell you she is going 
 away... .do just as he as you please about it," 
 said Matve, with a smile lurking in his eyes. Thrust- 
 ing his hands into his pockets, and bending his head to 
 one side, he looked at his master. Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 was silent. Then a good-humored and rather pitiful 
 smile lighted up his handsome face.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 7 
 
 " Well, Matve? " he said, shaking his head. 
 
 "It's nothing, sir; she will come to her senses," 
 answered Matve. 
 
 " Will come to her senses ?" 
 
 " Sure she will ! " 
 
 "Do you think so? Who is there?" asked Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, hearing the rustle of a woman's dress 
 behind the door. 
 
 " It 's me" said a powerful and pleasant female voice, 
 and in the doorway appeared the severe and pimply 
 face of Matriona Filimonovna, the nurse. 
 
 "Well, what is it, Matriosha?" asked Stepan Ar- 
 kadyevitch, going to meet her at the door. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 was entirely in the wrong as regarded his wife, and he 
 himself acknowledged it, still almost every one in the 
 house, even the old nurse, Darya Aleksandrovna's chief 
 friend, was on his side. 
 
 " Well, what ? " he asked gloomily. 
 
 " You go down, sir, ask her forgiveness, just once. 
 Perhaps the Lord will bring it out right. She is tor- 
 menting herself grievously, and it is pitiful to see her; 
 and everything in the house is going criss-cross. The 
 children, sir, you must have pity on them. Ask her 
 forgiveness, sir ! What is to be done ? No gains with- 
 out pains." .... 
 
 "But you see she won't accept an apology." .... 
 
 " But you do your part. God is merciful, sir ; pray to 
 God. God is merciful." 
 
 "Very well, then, come on," said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, suddenly turning red in the face. "Very well, let 
 me have my clothes," said he, turning to Matve, and 
 resolutely throwing off his dressing-gown. 
 
 Matve had everything all ready for him, and stood 
 blowing off something invisible from the shirt stiff as a 
 horse-collar, and with evident satisfaction he put it over 
 his master's well-groomed body.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 HAVING dressed, Stepan Arkadyevitch sprinkled 
 himself with perfume, straightened the sleeves of his 
 shirt, according to his usual routine put into his various 
 pockets cigarettes, his letter-case, matches, his watch 
 with its double chain and locket, and, shaking out his 
 handkerchief, feeling clean, well-perfumed, healthy, and 
 physically happy in spite of his unhappiness, went out 
 somewhat unsteadily to the dining-room, where his cof- 
 fee was already waiting for him, and next the coffee his 
 letters and the papers from the court-house. 
 
 He read his letters. One was very disagreeable, 
 from a merchant who was negotiating for the purchase 
 of a forest on his wife's estate. It was necessary to sell 
 this forest, but now nothing could be done about it until 
 a reconciliation was effected with his wife. Most un- 
 pleasant it was to think that his pecuniary interests in 
 this approaching transaction were complicated with his 
 reconciliation to his wife. And the thought that he 
 might be influenced by this interest, that his desire for 
 a reconciliation with his wife was on account of the sale 
 of the forest, this thought mortified him. 
 
 Having finished his letters Stepan Arkadyevitch took 
 up the papers from the court-house, rapidly turned over 
 the leaves of two deeds, made several notes with a big 
 pencil, and then pushing them away, took his coffee. 
 While he was drinking it he opened a morning journal 
 still damp, and began to read. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch subscribed to a liberal paper, and 
 read it. It was not extreme in its views, but advocated 
 those principles which the majority held. And though 
 he was not really interested in science or art or politics, 
 he strongly adhered to such views on all these subjects 
 as the majority, including his paper, advocated, and he 
 changed them only when the majority changed them ; 
 or more correctly, he did not change them, but they 
 themselves imperceptibly changed in him. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch never chose principles or opin-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 9 
 
 ions, but these principles and opinions came to him, just 
 as he never chose the shape of a hat or coat, but took 
 those that others wore. And, living as he did in fash- 
 ionable society, through the necessity of some mental 
 activity, developing generally in a man's best years, it 
 was as indispensable for him to have views as to have 
 a hat. If there was any reason why he preferred 
 liberal views rather than the conservative direction which 
 many of his circle followed, it was not because he found 
 a liberal tendency more rational, but because he found it 
 better suited to his mode of life. 
 
 The liberal party declared that everything in Russia 
 was wretched ; and the fact was that Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch had a good many debts and was decidedly short of 
 money. The liberal party said that marriage was a de- 
 funct institution and that it needed to be remodeled, and 
 in fact domestic life afforded Stepan Arkadyevitch very 
 little pleasure, and compelled him to lie, and to pretend 
 what was contrary to his nature. The liberal party said, 
 or rather took it for granted, that religion is only a curb 
 on the barbarous portion of the community, and in fact 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch could not bear the shortest prayer 
 without pain in his knees, and he could not comprehend 
 the necessity of all these awful and high-sounding words 
 about the other world when it is so very pleasant to live 
 in this. Moreover, Stepan Arkadyevitch, who liked a 
 merry jest, was sometimes fond of scandalizing a quiet 
 man by saying that any one who was proud of his origin 
 ought not to stop at Rurik and deny his earliest ancestor 
 the monkey. 
 
 Thus the liberal tendency had become a habit with 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, and he liked his paper, just as he 
 liked his cigar after dinner, because of the slight hazi- 
 ness which it caused in his brain. He was now reading 
 the leading editorial, which proved that in our day a cry is 
 raised, without reason, over the danger that radicalism 
 may swallow up all the conservative elements, and that 
 government ought to take measures to crush the hydra 
 of revolution, and that, on the contrary, " according to 
 our opinion, the danger lies not in this imaginary hydra
 
 io ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of revolution, but in the inertia of traditions which block 
 progress," and so on. He read through another article 
 on finance which made mention of Bentham and Mill, 
 and dropped some sharp hints for the ministry. With 
 his peculiar quickness of comprehension he appreciated 
 each point, from whom and against whom and on 
 what occasion it was directed ; and this as usual afforded 
 him some amusement. But his satisfaction was poisoned 
 by the remembrance of Matriona's advice and of the un- 
 fortunate state of his domestic affairs. He read also 
 that Count von Beust was reported to have gone to 
 Wiesbaden, that there was to be no more gray hair ; he 
 read about the sale of a light carriage and a young 
 woman's advertisement for a place. But these items 
 did not afford him quiet, ironical satisfaction as usual. 
 
 Having finished his paper, his second cup of coffee, 
 and a buttered roll, he stood up, shook the crumbs of the 
 roll from his waistcoat, and, filling his broad chest, 
 smiled joyfully, not because there was anything extraor- 
 dinarily pleasant in his mind, but the joyful smile was 
 caused by good digestion. 
 
 But this joyful smile immediately brought back the 
 memory of everything, and he sank into thought. 
 
 The voices of two children Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 knew they were Grisha, his youngest boy, and Tania, 
 his eldest daughter were now heard behind the door. 
 They were dragging something and upset it. 
 
 "I told you not to put passengers on top," cried the 
 little girl in English. " Now pick them up." 
 
 " Everything is in confusion," said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch to himself. " Now here the children are, running 
 wild!" And going to the door, he called to them. They 
 dropped the little box which served them for a railway- 
 train, and ran to their father. 
 
 The little girl, her father's favorite, ran in boldly, 
 threw her arms around his neck and laughingly hugged 
 him, enjoying as usual the odor which exhaled from his 
 whiskers. Then kissing his face, reddened by his bend- 
 ing position and beaming with tenderness, the little girl 
 unclasped her hands and wanted to runaway again, but 
 her father held her back.
 
 ANNA KARENINA n 
 
 " What is mamma doing ? " he asked, caressing his 
 daughter's smooth, soft neck. "How are you?" he 
 added, smiling at the boy, who stood saluting him. He 
 acknowledged he had less love for the little boy, yet he 
 tried to be impartial. But the boy felt the difference, 
 and did not smile back in reply to his father's chilling 
 smile. 
 
 " Mamma ? She 's up," answered the little girl. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch sighed. " Of course she has 
 spent another sleepless night," he said to himself. 
 
 " Well, is she cheerful ? " 
 
 The little girl knew that there was trouble between 
 her father and her mother, and that her mother could 
 not be cheerful, and that her father ought to know it, 
 and that he was dissembling when he questioned her so 
 lightly. And she blushed for her father. He instantly 
 perceived it and also turned red. 
 
 " I don't know," she said ; " she told me that we were 
 not to have lessons this morning but were to go with 
 Miss Hull over to grandmother's." 
 
 " Well, then, run along, Tanchurotchka moya. Oh, 
 yes, wait," said he, still detaining her and smoothing her 
 delicate little hand. 
 
 He took down from the mantelpiece a box of candy 
 which he had placed there the day before, and gave 
 her two pieces, selecting her favorite chocolate and 
 vanilla. 
 
 " For Grisha ? " she asked, pointing to the chocolate. 
 
 " Yes, yes ; " and still smoothing her soft shoulder he 
 kissed her on the neck and hair, and let her go. 
 
 "The carriage is at the door," said Matve, and he 
 added, "A woman is here a petitioner." 
 
 " Has she been here long ? " demanded Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " Half an hour." 
 
 " How many times have you been told to announce 
 visitors instantly ? " 
 
 " I had to get your coffee ready," replied Matve in 
 his kind, rough voice, at which it was impossible to take 
 offense.
 
 12 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Well, show her in quick!" said Oblonsky, frowning 
 with annoyance. 
 
 The petitioner, the wife of Captain Kalanin, asked 
 some impossible and nonsensical favor; but Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, according to his custom, gave her a com- 
 fortable seat, listened to her story without interrupting, 
 and then gave her careful advice to whom and how to 
 make her application, and in lively and eloquent style 
 wrote, in his big, scrawling, but handsome and legible 
 hand, a note to the person who might aid her. Having 
 dismissed the captain's wife, Stepan Arkadyevitch took 
 his hat and stood for a moment trying to remember 
 whether he had forgotten anything. He seemed to 
 have forgotten nothing except what he wanted to forget 
 his wife. 
 
 "Ah, yes!" 
 
 He dropped his head, and a gloomy expression came 
 over his handsome face. 
 
 "To go or not to go," he said to himself; and an 
 inner voice told him that it was not advisable to go, that 
 there was no way out of it except through deception, 
 that to straighten, to smooth out, their relations was 
 impossible, because it was impossible to make her 
 attractive and lovable again, or to make him an old man 
 insensible to passion. Nothing but deception and lying 
 could come of it, and deception and lying were opposed 
 to his nature. 
 
 " But it must be done sometime ; it can't remain 
 so always," he said, striving to gain courage. He 
 straightened himself, took out a cigarette, lighted it, 
 puffed at it two or three times, threw it into a mother- 
 of-pearl-lined ash-tray, went with quick steps through 
 the sitting-room, and opened the door into his wife's 
 sleeping-room.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 13 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 DARYA ALEKSANDROVNA, surrounded by all sorts of 
 things thrown in confusion about the room, was stand- 
 ing before an open chiffonnier from which she was 
 removing the contents. She had on a dressing-sack, and 
 the thin braids of her once luxuriant and beautiful hair 
 were pinned back. Her face was thin and sunken, and 
 her big eyes, protruding from her pale, worn face, had 
 an expression of terror. When she heard her husband's 
 steps she stopped in her work and, gazing at the door, 
 vainly tried to give her face a stern and forbidding 
 expression. She was conscious that she feared him and 
 that she dreaded the coming interview. She was in the 
 act of doing what she had attempted to do a dozen times 
 during those three days : gathering up her own effects 
 and those of her children to carry to her mother's 
 house ; and again she could not bring herself to do it, yet 
 now, as before, she said to herself that things could not 
 remain as they were, that she must take some measures to 
 punish him, to put him to shame, to have some revenge 
 on him, if only for a small part of the anguish that he 
 had caused her. She ctill kept saying that she should 
 leave him, but she felt that it was impossible ; it was 
 impossible because she could not cease to consider him 
 her husband and to love him. Moreover, she confessed 
 that if here in her own home she had barely succeeded 
 in looking after her five children, it would be far worse 
 where she was going with them. In the course of these 
 three days the youngest child had been made ill by eat- 
 ing some poor soup, and the rest had been obliged 
 to go almost dinnerless the night before. She felt that 
 it was impossible to leave, yet for the sake of deceiving 
 herself she was collecting her things and pretending 
 that she was going. 
 
 When she saw her husband, she thrust her hands into 
 a drawer of the chiffonnier, as if trying to find some- 
 thing, and looked at him only when he came close up 
 to her. But her face, to which she had intended to give
 
 i 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 a stern and resolute expression, showed her confusion 
 and anguish of mind. 
 
 " Dolly," said he, in a gentle, subdued voice. He 
 hung his head and tried to assume a humble and sub- 
 missive mien, but nevertheless he was radiant with fresh 
 life and health. She gave him a quick glance which 
 took in his whole figure from head to foot, radiant with 
 life and health. 
 
 " Yes, he is happy and contented," she said to her- 
 self, .... " but I ? .... And this good nature which makes 
 everybody like him so well and praise him is revolting 
 to me ! I hate this good nature of his." 
 
 Her mouth grew firm, the muscles of her right cheek 
 contracted, she looked pale and nervous. 
 
 "What do you*want?" she demanded, in a quick, 
 unnatural tone. 
 
 " Dolly," he repeated, with a quaver in his voice, 
 "Anna is coming to-day." 
 
 " Well, what is that to me ? I cannot receive her," 
 she cried. 
 
 " Still, it must be done, Dolly." .... 
 
 "Go away! go away! go away!" she cried, without 
 looking at him, and as if her words were torn from her 
 by physical agony. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch might be calm enough as his 
 thoughts turned to his wife, he might have some hope 
 that it would all straighten itself out according to Matve's 
 prediction, and he might be able tranquilly to read his 
 morning paper and drink his coffee ; but when he saw 
 her tortured, suffering face, when he heard that resigned 
 and hopeless tone of her voice, he breathed hard, some- 
 thing rose in his throat, and his eyes filled with tears. 
 
 " My God ! What have I done ? for God's sake ! .... 
 See.... " 
 
 He could not say another word for the sobs that 
 choked him. 
 
 She shut the drawer violently, and looked at him. 
 
 " Dolly, what can I say ? .... Only one thing : forgive 
 me. Just think ! Cannot nine years of my life pay for 
 a single moment, a moment .... "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 15 
 
 She let her eyes fall, and listened to what he was 
 going to say, as if beseeching him in some way to per- 
 suade her of his innocence. 
 
 " A single moment of temptation," he ended, and was 
 going to continue ; but at that word, Dolly's lips again 
 closed tight as if from physical pain, and again the mus- 
 cles of her right cheek contracted. 
 
 " Go away, go away from here," she cried still more 
 impetuously, " and don't speak to me of your tempta 
 tions and your wretched conduct." 
 
 She attempted to leave the room, but she almost fen, 
 and was obliged to lean upon a chair for support. 
 Oblonsky's face grew melancholy, his lips trembled, 
 and his eyes filled with tears. 
 
 " Dolly," said he, almost sobbing, " for God's sake 
 think of the children. They are not to blame ; I am 
 the one to blame. Punish me ! Tell me how I can 
 
 atone for my fault I am ready to do anything. I 
 
 am guilty ! No words can tell how guilty I am. But, 
 Dolly, forgive me !" 
 
 She sat down. He heard her quick, hard breathing, 
 and his soul was filled with pity for her. She tried 
 several times to speak, but could not utter a word. He 
 waited. 
 
 " You think of the children, because you like to play 
 with them ; but I think of them, too, and I know what 
 they have lost," said she, repeating one of the phrases 
 that during the last three days she had many times 
 repeated to herself. 
 
 She had used the familiar tui (thou), and he looked 
 at her with gratitude, and made a movement as if to 
 take her hand, but she turned from him with abhor- 
 rence. 
 
 " I have consideration for my children, and therefore 
 I would do all in the world to save them ; but I do not 
 myself know how I can best save them : by taking them 
 from their father, or by leaving them with a father who 
 is a libertine, yes, a libertine ! .... Now tell me after 
 this, this that has happened, can we live together ? 
 Is it possible? Tell me, is it possible?" she demanded,
 
 16 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 raising her voice. " When my husband, the father of 
 my children, has a love-affair with their governess .... " 
 
 " .... But what is to be done about it ? what is to be 
 done ? " said he, interrupting with broken voice, not 
 knowing what he said, and letting his head sink lower 
 and lower. 
 
 "You are revolting to me, you are insulting," she 
 cried, with increasing anger. " Your tears are water ! 
 You never loved me ; you have no heart, no honor. 
 You are abominable, revolting, and henceforth you are 
 a stranger to me, yes, a perfect stranger," and she 
 repeated with spiteful anger this word " stranger" which 
 was so terrible to her own ears. 
 
 He looked at her, and the anger expressed in her face 
 alarmed and surprised him. He had no realizing sense 
 that his pity exasperated his wife. She saw that he felt 
 sympathy for her, but not love. " No, she hates me, she 
 will not forgive me," he said to himself. 
 
 " This is terrible, terrible ! " he cried. 
 
 At this moment one of the children in the next room, 
 having apparently had a fall, began to cry. Darya 
 Aleksandrovna listened and her face suddenly softened. 
 She seemed to collect her thoughts for a few seconds, 
 as if she did not know where she was and what was 
 happening to her, then, quickly rising, she hastened to 
 the door. 
 
 "At any rate she loves my child," thought Oblonsky, 
 who had noticed the change in her face as she heard 
 the little one's cry. " My child ; how then can she hate 
 me?" 
 
 " Dolly ! just one word more," he said, following her. 
 
 " If you follow me, I will call the domestics, the 
 children ! Let them all know that you are infamous ! 
 I leave this very day, and you may live here with your 
 paramour." 
 
 And she went out and slammed the door. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch sighed, wiped his face, and 
 softly left the room. 
 
 " Matve says this can be settled ; but how ? I don't 
 see the possibility. Akh ! akh ! how terrible ! and
 
 ANNA KARENINA 17 
 
 how foolishly she shrieked," said he to himself, as he 
 recalled her cry and the words "infamous" and " para- 
 mour" ! 
 
 " Perhaps the chambermaids heard her ! horribly 
 foolish, horribly ! " 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch stood by himself a few seconds, 
 rubbed his eyes, sighed, and then, throwing out his 
 chest, left the room. 
 
 It was Friday, and in the dining-room the German 
 clock-maker was winding the clock. Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch remembered a joke that he had made about 
 this punctilious German clock-maker, to the effect that 
 " he must have been wound up himself for a lifetime for 
 the purpose of winding clocks," and he smiled. Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch loved a good joke. "Perhaps it will 
 straighten itself out. That 's a good little phrase ! 
 straighten itself out," he thought ; " I must tell that." 
 
 "Matve!" he shouted; and when the old servant 
 appeared, he said, " Have Marya put the best room in 
 order for Anna Arkadyevna." 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch took his fur coat, and started 
 down the steps. 
 
 "Shall you dine at home?" asked Matve, as he 
 escorted him down. 
 
 " That depends. Here, take this if you need to spend 
 anything," said he, taking out a bill of ten rubles from 
 his pocket-book. "That will be enough." 
 
 " Whether it is enough or not, it will have to do," 
 said Matve, as he shut the carriage-door and went up 
 the steps. 
 
 Meantime, Darya Aleksandrovna, having pacified the 
 child, and knowing by the sound of the carriage that he 
 was gone, came back to her room. This was her sole 
 refuge from the domestic troubles that besieged her as 
 soon as she went out. Even during the short time that 
 she had been in the nursery, the English maid and 
 Matriona Filimonovna asked her all sorts of questions 
 demanding immediate attention, questions which she 
 alone could answer, what clothes should they put on 
 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 i8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the children for their walk ? should they give them 
 milk ? should they send for another cook ? 
 
 " Akh ! leave me alone, leave me alone ! " she cried, 
 and, hastening back to the chamber, she sat down in 
 the place where she had been talking with her husband. 
 Then, clasping her thin hands, on whose fingers the rings 
 would scarcely stay, she reviewed the whole conversation. 
 
 "He has gone! But has he broken with her?" she 
 asked herself. " Does he still continue to see her ? 
 Why did n't I ask him ? No, no, we cannot live together. 
 Even if we continue to live in the same house, we are 
 only strangers, strangers forever ! " she repeated, with 
 a strong emphasis on the word that hurt her so cruelly. 
 "How I loved him! my God, how I loved him!..,. 
 How I loved him ! and even now do I not love him ? 
 Do I not love him even more than before ? that is the 
 most terrible thing," she was beginning to say, but she 
 did not finish out her thought, because Matriona Fili- 
 monovna put her head in at the door. " Give orders to 
 send for my brother," said she ; " he will get dinner. If 
 you don't, it will be like yesterday, when the children 
 did not have anything to eat for six hours." 
 
 " Very good, I will come and give the order. Have 
 you sent for some fresh milk ? " 
 
 And Darya Aleksandrovna entered into her daily 
 tasks, and in them forgot her sorrow for the time being. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 STEFAN ARKADYEVITCH had done well at school, by 
 reason of his excellent natural gifts, but he was lazy and 
 mischievous, and consequently had been at the foot of his 
 class ; but, in spite of his irregular habits, his low rank in 
 the Service, and his youth, he, nevertheless, held an im- 
 portant salaried position as nachalnik, or president of 
 one of the courts in Moscow. This place he had secured 
 through the good offices of his sister Anna's husband, 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch Karenin, who occupied one of 
 the most influential positions in the ministry of which he
 
 ANNA KARENINA 19 
 
 was a member. But even if Karenin had not been able 
 to get this place for his brother-in-law, a hundred other 
 people brothers, sisters, cousins, second cousins, uncles, 
 aunts would have got it for Stiva Oblonsky, or some 
 place as good, together with the six thousand rubles' 
 salary which he needed for his establishment, his affairs 
 being somewhat out of order in spite of his wife's con- 
 siderable fortune. 
 
 Half the people of Moscow and St. Petersburg were 
 relatives or friends of Stepan Arkadyevitch ; he was 
 born into the society of the rich and powerful of this 
 world. A third of the older officials attached to the 
 court and in government employ had been friends of his 
 father, and had known him from the time when he wore 
 petticoats ; a second third addressed him familiarly in 
 the second person singular ; the others were " hail fel- 
 lows well met." He had, therefore, as his friends, all 
 those whose function it is to dispense earthly blessings 
 in the shape of places, leases, concessions, and the like, 
 and who could not neglect their own. And so Oblonsky 
 had no special difficulty in obtaining an excellent place. 
 All he had to do was not to shirk, not to be jealous, not 
 to be quarrelsome, not to be thin-skinned, and he never 
 gave way to these faults, because of his natural good 
 temper. It would have seemed ridiculous to him if he 
 had been told that he could not have any salaried place 
 that he wanted, because it did not seem to him that he 
 demanded anything extraordinary. He asked only for 
 what his companions were obtaining, and he felt that he 
 was as capable as any of them of performing the duties 
 of such a position. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch was liked by every one for his 
 good and amiable character and his unimpeachable 
 honesty. There was moreover something in his brilliant 
 and attractive personality, in his bright, sparkling eyes, 
 his black brows, his hair, his vivid coloring, which exer- 
 cised a strong physical influence as of friendliness and 
 gayety on those who came in touch with him. 
 
 " Aha, Stiva ! Oblonsky ! Here he is ! " people 
 would generally say, with a smile of pleasure. Even if
 
 20 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 it happened that the results of meeting him were not 
 particularly gratifying, nevertheless people were just as 
 glad to meet him the second day and the third. 
 
 After filling for three years the office of nachalnik of 
 one of the chief judiciary positions in Moscow, Stepan Ar- 
 kadyevitch had gained, not only the friendship, but also 
 the respect of his colleagues, both those above and those 
 below him in station, as well as of all who had had dealings 
 with him. The principal qualities that had gained him 
 this universal esteem were, first, his extreme indulgence 
 for people, and this was founded on his knowledge of his 
 own weaknesses ; secondly, his absolute liberality, which 
 was not the liberalism which he read about in the news- 
 papers, but that which was in his blood, and caused him 
 to be agreeable to every one, in whatever station in life ; 
 and thirdly and principally, his perfect indifference to 
 the business which he transacted, so that he never lost 
 his temper, and therefore never made mistakes. 
 
 As soon as he reached his tribunal, Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, escorted by the solemn Swiss who bore his port- 
 folio, went to his little private office, put on his uniform, 
 and proceeded to the court-room. The clerks and other 
 employees all stood up, bowing eagerly and respectfully. 
 Stepan Arkady evitch, as usual, hastened to his place, 
 shook hands with his colleagues, and took his seat. He 
 got off some pleasantry and made some remark suitable 
 to the occasion, and then opened the session. No one 
 better than he understood how far to go within the limits 
 of freedom, frankness, and that official dignity which is 
 so useful in the expedition of official ' business. A 
 clerk came with papers, and, with the free and yet re- 
 spectful air common to all who surrounded Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, spoke in the familiarly liberal tone which 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch had introduced : 
 
 " We have at last succeeded in obtaining reports from the 
 Government of Penza. Here they are, if you care to ...." 
 
 " So we have them at last," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 touching the document with his finger. " Now, then, 
 gentlemen ...." 
 
 And the proceedings began.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 21 
 
 " If they knew," he said to himself, as he bent his head 
 with an air of importance while the report was read, " how 
 much their president, only half an hour since, looked like 
 a naughty school-boy!" and a gleam of amusement came 
 into his eyes as he listened to the report. 
 
 The session generally lasted till two o'clock without 
 interruption, and was followed by recess and luncheon. 
 The clock had not yet struck two, when the great glass 
 doors of the court-room were suddenly thrown open, 
 and some one entered. All the members, glad of any 
 diversion, looked round from where they sat under the 
 Emperor's portrait and behind the zertsdlo, or procla- 
 mation-table ; but the doorkeeper instantly ejected the 
 intruder, and shut the door on him. 
 
 After the business was read through, Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch arose, stretched himself, and in a spirit of sacri- 
 fice to the liberalism of the time took out his cigarette, 
 while still in the court-room, and then passed into his 
 private office. Two of his colleagues, the aged veteran 
 Nikitin, and the chamberlain Grinevitch, followed him. 
 
 " There '11 be time enough to finish after luncheon," 
 saicl Oblonsky. 
 
 "How we are rushing through with it!" replied 
 Nikitin. 
 
 " This Famin must be a precious rascal," said Grine- 
 vitch, alluding to one of the characters in the affair 
 which they had been investigating. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch knitted his brows at Grinevitch's 
 words, as if to signify that it was not the right thing to 
 form snap judgments, and he made no reply. 
 
 " Who was it came into the court-room ?" he asked of 
 the doorkeeper. 
 
 " Some one who entered without permission, your 
 excellency, while my back was turned. He asked to 
 see you : I said, ' When the court adjourns, then .... ' ' 
 
 " Where is he ? " 
 
 " Probably in the vestibule ; he .was there just now. 
 Ah ! there he is," said the doorkeeper, pointing to a 
 solidly built, broad-shouldered man with curly beard, 
 who, without taking off his sheepskin cap, was lightly
 
 22 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 and quickly running up the well-worn steps of the stone 
 staircase. A lean chinovnik, on his way down, with a 
 portfolio under his arm, stopped to look, with some indig- 
 nation, at the newcomer's feet, and turned to Oblonsky 
 with a glance of inquiry. Stepan Arkadyevitch stood 
 at the top of the staircase, and his bright, good-natured 
 face, set off by the embroidered collar of his uniform, 
 was still more radiant when he recognized the visitor. 
 
 " Here he is ! Levin, at last," he cried, with a friendly, 
 ironical smile, as he looked at his approaching friend. 
 " What ! you got tired of waiting for me, and have 
 come to find me in this den ? " he went on to say, not 
 satisfied with pressing his hand, but kissing him affec- 
 tionately. " Have you been in town long ? " 
 
 " I just got here, and was in a hurry to see you," said 
 Levin, looking about him timidly, and at the same time 
 with a fierce and anxious expression. 
 
 "Well, come into my office," said Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, who was aware of his visitor's egotistic sensi- 
 tiveness, and, taking him by the hand, he led him along 
 as if he were conducting him through manifold dangers. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch addressed almost all his acquain- 
 tances with the familiar "thou,"- old men of three- 
 score, young men of twenty, actors and ministers, 
 merchants and generals, so that there were very many 
 of these familiarly addressed acquaintances from both 
 extremes of the social scale, and they would have been 
 astonished to know that through Oblonsky they had 
 something in common. He thus addressed all with 
 whom he had drunk champagne, and he had drunk 
 champagne with every one, and so when in the presence 
 of his subordinates he met any of his shame/til intimates, 
 as he jestingly called some of his acquaintances, his 
 characteristic tact was sufficient to diminish the dis- 
 agreeable impressions that they might have. 
 
 Levin was not one of his shameful intimates, but 
 Oblonsky instinctively felt that Levin might think he 
 would not like to make a display of their intimacy be- 
 fore his subordinates, and so he hastened to take him 
 into his private office.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 23 
 
 Levin was about the same age as Oblonsky, and their 
 intimacy was not based on champagne alone. Levin 
 was a friend and companion from early boyhood. In 
 spite of the difference in their characters and their 
 tastes, they were fond of each other as friends are who 
 have grown up together. And yet, as often happens among 
 men who have chosen different spheres of activity, each, 
 while approving the work of the other, really despised it. 
 Each believed his own mode of life to be the only rational 
 way of living, while that led by his friend was only illusion. 
 
 At the sight of Levin, Oblonsky could not repress a 
 slight ironical smile. How many times had he seen him in 
 Moscow just in from the country, where he had been doing 
 something, though Oblonsky did not know exactly what 
 and scarcely took any interest in it. Levin always came 
 to Moscow anxious, hurried, a trifle annoyed, and vexed 
 because he was annoyed, and generally bringing with 
 him entirely new and unexpected views of things. 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch laughed at this and yet liked it. 
 
 In somewhat the same way Levin despised the city 
 mode of his friend's life, and his official employment, 
 which he considered trifling, and made sport of it. But 
 the difference between them lay in this : that Oblonsky, 
 doing what every one else was doing, laughed self-con- 
 fidently and good-naturedly, while Levin, because he was 
 not assured in his own mind, sometimes lost his temper. 
 
 " We have been expecting you for some time," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, as he entered his office, and let 
 go his friend's hand to show that the danger was past. 
 " I am very, very glad to see you," he continued. " How 
 goes it ? how are you ? When did you come ? " 
 
 Levin was silent, and looked at the unknown faces of 
 Oblonsky's two colleagues, and especially at the elegant 
 Grinevitch's hand, with its long, white fingers and their 
 long, yellow, and pointed nails, and his cuffs, with their 
 huge, gleaming cuff-buttons. It was evident that his 
 hands absorbed all of his attention and allowed him to 
 think of nothing else. Oblonsky instantly noticed this, 
 and smiled. 
 
 " Ah, yes," said he, " allow me to make you acquainted
 
 24 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 with my colleagues, Filipp Ivanuitch Nikitin, Mikhail 
 Stanislavitch Grinevitch ; " then turning to Levin, "A 
 landed proprietor, a rising man, a member of the 
 zemstsvo, and a gymnast who can lift two hundred 
 pounds with one hand, a raiser of cattle, and huntsman, 
 and my friend, Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin, the 
 brother of Sergye'f Ivanuitch Koznuishef." 
 
 " Very happy," said the little old man. " I have the 
 honor of knowing your brother, Sergye'f Ivanuitch," 
 said Grinevitch, extending his delicate hand with its long 
 nails. 
 
 Levin frowned ; he coldly shook hands, and turned 
 to Oblonsky. Although he had much respect for his 
 half-brother, a writer universally known in Russia, it 
 was none the less unpleasant for him to be addressed, 
 not as Konstantin Levin, but as the brother of the famous 
 Koznuishef. 
 
 " No, I am no longer a worker in the zemstsvo. I 
 have quarreled with everybody, and I don't go to the 
 assemblies," said he to Oblonsky. 
 
 " This is a sudden change," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 with a smile. " But how ? why ? " 
 
 " It is a long story, and I will tell it some other time," 
 replied Levin ; but he nevertheless went on to say, " To 
 make a long story short, I was convinced that no action 
 amounts to anything, or can amount to anything, in 
 our provincial assemblies." He spoke as if some one had 
 insulted him. " On the one hand, they try to play Parlia- 
 ment, and I am not young enough and not old enough 
 to amuse myself with toys ; and, on the other hand," - 
 he hesitated, " this serves the district ring to make a 
 little money. There used to be guardianships, judg- 
 ments ; but now we have the zemstsvo, not in the way 
 of bribes, but in the way of unearned salaries." 
 
 He spoke hotly, as if some one present had attacked 
 his views. 
 
 " Aha ! here you are, I see, in a new phase, on the 
 conservative side," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Well, 
 we '11 speak about this by and by." 
 
 "Yes, by and by. But I want to see you particu-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 25 
 
 larly," said Levin, looking with disgust at Grinevitch's 
 hand. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled imperceptibly. " Did n't 
 you say that you would never again put on European 
 clothes ? " he asked, examining his friend's new suit, 
 evidently made by a French tailor. " Indeed, I see ; 
 'tis a new phase." 
 
 Levin suddenly grew red, not as grown men grow 
 red, without perceiving it, but as boys blush, conscious 
 that they are ridiculous by reason of their bashfulness, 
 and therefore ashamed and made to turn still redder till 
 the tears almost come. It gave his intelligent, manly 
 face such a strange appearance that Oblonsky turned 
 away and refrained from looking at him. 
 
 "But where can we meet? You see it is very, 
 very necessary for me to have a talk with you," said 
 Levin. 
 
 Oblonsky seemed to reflect. 
 
 " How is this ? We will go and have luncheon at 
 Gurin's, and we can talk there. At three o'clock I 
 shall be free." 
 
 " No," answered Levin after a moment's thought; 
 " I 've got to take a drive." 
 
 "Well, then, let us dine together." 
 
 " Dine ? But I have nothing very particular to say, 
 only two words, to ask a question ; afterward we can 
 gossip." 
 
 "In that case, speak your two words now; we will 
 chat while we are at dinner." 
 
 " These two words are .... however, it 's nothing very 
 important." 
 
 His face suddenly assumed a hard expression, due 
 to his efforts in conquering his timidity. " What are 
 the Shcherbatskys doing ? just as they used to ?" 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had long known that 
 Levin was in love with his sister-in-law Kitty, almost 
 perceptibly smiled, and his eyes flashed gayly. " You 
 said 'two words'; but I cannot answer in two words, 
 because .... excuse me a moment." 
 
 The secretary came in at this juncture with his
 
 26 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 familiar but respectful bearing, and with that modest 
 assumption characteristic of all secretaries that he knew 
 more about business than his superior. He brought 
 some papers to Oblonsky ; and, under the form of a 
 question, he attempted to explain some difficulty. With- 
 out waiting to hear the end of the explanation, Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch laid his hand affectionately on the secre- 
 tary's arm. 
 
 " No, do as I asked you to," said he, tempering his 
 remark with a smile ; and, having briefly given his own 
 explanation of the matter, he pushed away the papers, 
 and said, "Do it so, I beg of you, Zakhar Nikititch." 
 
 The secretary went off confused. Levin during this 
 scene with the secretary had entirely recovered from 
 his embarrassment, and was standing with both arms 
 resting on a chair ; on his face was an ironical expres- 
 sion. 
 
 " I don't understand, I don't understand," said he. 
 
 "What don't you understand?" asked Oblonsky, 
 smiling, and taking out a cigarette. He was expecting 
 some sort of strange outbreak from Levin. 
 
 " I don't understand what you are up to," said Levin, 
 shrugging his shoulders. " How can you do this sort 
 of thing seriously ? " 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " Why, because it is doing nothing." 
 
 " You think so ? We are overwhelmed with work." 
 
 " On paper ! Well, yes, you have a special gift for 
 such things," added Levin. 
 
 "You mean that I .... there is something that I lack?" 
 
 " Perhaps so, yes. However, I cannot help admiring 
 your high and mighty ways, and rejoicing that I have 
 for a friend a man of such importance. But, you 
 did not answer my question," he added, making a des- 
 perate effort to look Oblonsky full in the face. 
 
 " Now that 's very good, very good ! Go ahead, and 
 you will succeed. 'T is well that you have eight thou- 
 sand acres of land in the district of Karazinsk, such 
 muscles, and the complexion of a little girl of twelve; 
 but you will catch up with us all the same Yes, as to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 27 
 
 what you asked me. There is no change, but I am 
 sorry that it has been so long since you were in town." 
 
 " Why ? " asked Levin in alarm. 
 
 " Well, it 's nothing," replied Oblonsky ; " we will talk 
 things over. What has brought you now especially? " 
 
 " Akh ! we will speak also of that by and by," said 
 Levin, again reddening to his very ears. 
 
 "Very good. I understand you," said Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch. "You see, I should have taken you home 
 with me to dinner, but my wife is not well to-day. If 
 you want to see them, you will find them at the Zoologi- 
 cal Gardens from four to five. Kitty is skating. You 
 go there; I will join you later, and we will get dinner 
 together somewhere." 
 
 " Excellent. Da svidanya ! " 
 
 " Look here you see I know you you will forget 
 all about it, or will suddenly be starting back to your 
 home in the country," cried Stepan Arkadyevitch, with 
 a laugh. 
 
 " No, truly I won't." 
 
 Levin left the room, and only when he had passed 
 the door realized that he had forgotten to salute Oblon- 
 sky's colleagues. 
 
 " That must be a gentleman of great energy," said 
 Grinevitch, after Levin had taken his departure. 
 
 "Yes, batyushka," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, throw- 
 ing his head back. " He is a likely fellow. Eight 
 thousand acres in the Karazinsky district ! He has 
 a future before him, and how vigorous he is! He is 
 not like the rest of us." 
 
 " What have you to complain about, Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch ? " % 
 
 " Well, things are bad, bad," replied Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, sighing heavily.
 
 28 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WHEN Oblonsky asked Levin for what special rea- 
 son he had come, Levin grew red in the face, and he 
 was angry with himself because he grew red ; but how 
 could he have replied, " I have come to ask the hand of 
 your sister-in-law " ? Yet he had come for that single 
 purpose. 
 
 The Levin and the Shcherbatsky families, belonging 
 to the old nobility of Moscow, had always been on inti- 
 mate and friendly terms. During Levin's student life 
 the bond had grown stronger. He and the young 
 Prince Shcherbatsky, the brother of Dolly and Kitty, 
 had taken their preparatory studies, and gone through 
 the university together. At that time Levin was a fre- 
 quent visitor at the Shcherbatskys, and was in love with 
 the house. Strange as it may seem, he was in love with 
 the house itself, with the family, especially with the femi- 
 nine portion. Konstantin Levin could not remember his 
 mother, and his only sister was much older than he 
 was, so that for the first time he found in the house 
 of the Shcherbatskys that charming cultivated life so 
 peculiar to the old nobility, and of which the death of 
 his parents had deprived him. All the members of 
 this family, but especially the ladies, seemed to him 
 to be surrounded with a mysterious and poetic halo. 
 
 Not only did he fail to discover any faults in them, but 
 underneath this poetic and mysterious halo surrounding 
 them, he saw the loftiest sentiments and the most ideal 
 perfections. Why these three young ladies were obliged 
 to speak French and English every day ; why they had 
 to take turns in playing for hours at a time on the piano, 
 the sounds of which floated up to their brother's room, 
 where the young students were at work ; why professors 
 of French literature, of music, of drawing, of dancing, 
 came to give them lessons ; why the three young 
 ladies, at a certain hour, accompanied by Mile. Linon, 
 drove out in their carriage to the Tverskoi' Boulevard, 
 wearing satin shubkas, Dolly's very long, Natalie's
 
 ANNA KARENINA 29 
 
 of half length, and Kitty's very short, showing her 
 shapely ankles and close-fitting red stockings ; and why 
 when they went to the Tverskoi Boulevard they had to 
 be accompanied by a lackey with a gilt cockade on his 
 hat, all these things and many others were absolutely 
 incomprehensible to him. But he felt that all that 
 took place in this mysterious sphere was beautiful, and 
 he was in love especially with this mystery of accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 While he was a student he almost fell in love with 
 Dolly, the eldest; but she soon married Oblonsky ; then 
 he began to be in love with the second. It was as if he 
 felt it to be a necessity to love one of the three, only he 
 could not decide which one he liked the best. But Na- 
 talie entered society, and soon married the diplomat, 
 Lvof. Kitty was only a child when Levin left the uni- 
 versity. Young Shcherbatsky joined the fleet, and was 
 drowned in the Baltic ; and Levin's relations with the 
 family became more distant, in spite of his friendship 
 with Oblonsky. At the beginning of the winter, how- 
 ever, after a year's absence in the country, he had met 
 the Shcherbatskys again, and learned for the first time 
 which of the three he was destined really to love. 
 
 It would seem as if there could be nothing simpler for 
 a young man of thirty-two, of good family, possessed of 
 a fair fortune, and likely to be regarded as an eligible 
 suitor, than to ask the young Princess Shcherbatskaya 
 in marriage, and probably Levin would have been ac- 
 cepted as an excellent match. But he was in love, and 
 consequently it seemed to him Kitty was a creature so 
 accomplished, her superiority was so above everything 
 earthly, and he himself was such an earthly insignificant 
 being, that he was unwilling to admit, even in thought, 
 that others or Kitty herself would regard him as worthy 
 of her. 
 
 Having spent two months in Moscow, as in a dream, 
 meeting Kitty almost every day in society, which he al- 
 lowed himself to frequent on account of her, he suddenly 
 concluded that this alliance was impossible, and took his 
 departure for the country. Levin's conclusion that it
 
 30 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 was impossible was reached by reasoning that in her 
 parents' eyes he was not a suitor sufficiently advanta- 
 geous or suitable for the beautiful Kitty, and that Kitty 
 herself could not love him. In her parents' eyes, he 
 was engaged in no definite line of activity, and at his 
 age had no position in the world, while his comrades 
 were colonels or staff-officers, distinguished professors, 
 bank directors, railway officials, presidents of tribunals 
 like Oblonsky ; but he and he knew very well how he 
 was regarded by his friends was only a pomyeshchik, 
 or country proprietor, busy with breeding of cows, 
 hunting woodcock, and building farmhouses : in other 
 words, he was an incapable youth who had accomplished 
 nothing, and who, in the eyes of society, was doing just 
 what men do who have made a failure. 
 
 Surely, the mysterious, charming Kitty could not love 
 a man so ill-favored, dull, and good-for-nothing as he 
 felt that he was. Moreover, his former relations with 
 her, consequent upon his friendship with her brother, 
 were those of a grown man with a child, and seemed to 
 him only an additional obstacle to love. 
 
 It was possible, he thought, for a girl to have a friend- 
 ship for a good, homely man, such as he considered 
 himself to be ; but if he is to be loved with a love such 
 as he felt for Kitty, he must be good-looking, and above 
 all, a man of distinction. 
 
 He had heard that women often fall in love with ill- 
 favored, stupid men, but he did not believe that such 
 would be his own experience, just as he felt that it would 
 be impossible for him to love a woman who was not 
 beautiful, brilliant, and poetic. 
 
 But, having spent two months in the solitude of the 
 country, he became convinced that this was not one of 
 his youthful passions, that the state of his feelings al- 
 lowed him not a moment of rest, and that he could not 
 live without settling this mighty question whether she 
 would, or would not, be his wife ; that his despair arose 
 wholly from his imagination, and that he had no absolute 
 certainty that she would refuse him. 
 
 He had now returned to Moscow with the firm inten-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 31 
 
 tion of offering himself and of marrying her if she would 
 accept him. If not .... he could not think what would 
 become of him. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 COMING to Moscow by the morning train, Levin had 
 stopped at the house of his half-brother, Koznuishef. 
 After making his toilet, he went to the library with the 
 intention of telling him why he had come, and asking 
 his advice ; but his brother was not alone. He was 
 talking with a famous professor of philosophy who had 
 come up from Kharkof expressly to settle a vexed 
 question which had arisen between them on some very 
 important philosophical subject. The professor was 
 waging a bitter war on materialists, and Sergei' Koznui- 
 shef followed his argument with interest ; and, having 
 read the professor's latest article, he had written him a 
 letter expressing some objections. He blamed the pro- 
 fessor for having made too large concessions to the 
 materialists, and the professor had come on purpose to 
 explain what he meant. The conversation turned on 
 the question then fashionable : Is there a dividing line 
 between the psychical and the physiological phenomena 
 of man's action ? and where is it to be found ? 
 
 Sergei Ivanovitch welcomed his brother with the 
 same coldly benevolent smile which he bestowed on 
 all, and, after introducing him to the professor, con- 
 tinued the discussion. 
 
 The professor, a small man with spectacles, and 
 narrow forehead, stopped long enough to return Levin's 
 bow, and then continued without noticing him further. 
 Levin sat down to wait till the professor should go, but 
 soon began to feel interested in the discussion. 
 
 He had read in the reviews articles on this subject, but 
 he had read them with only that general interest which 
 a man who has studied the natural sciences at the uni- 
 versity is likely to take in their development ; but he 
 had never appreciated the connection that exists between 
 these learned questions of the origin of man, of reflex
 
 32 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 action, of biology, of sociology, and those touching the 
 significance of life and of death for himself, which had 
 of late been more and more engaging his attention. 
 
 As he listened to the discussion between his brother 
 and the professor, he noticed that they agreed to a cer- 
 tain kinship between scientific and psychological ques- 
 tions, that several times they almost took up this subject ; 
 but each time that they came near what seemed to him 
 the most important question of all, they instantly took 
 pains to avoid it, and sought refuge in the domain of 
 subtile distinctions, explanations, citations, references to 
 authorities, and he found it hard to understand what 
 they were talking about. 
 
 " I cannot accept the theory of Keis," said SergeY 
 Ivanovitch in his characteristically elegant and correct 
 diction and expression, " and I cannot at all admit that 
 my whole conception of the exterior world is derived 
 from my sensations. The most fundamental concept of 
 being does not arise from the senses, nor is there any 
 special organ by which this conception is produced." 
 
 " Yes; but Wurst and Knaust and Pripasof will reply 
 that your consciousness of existence is derived from an 
 accumulation of all sensations, that it is only the result 
 of sensations. Wurst himself says explicitly that where 
 sensation does not exist, there is no consciousness of 
 existence." 
 
 " I will say, on the other hand .... " began Sergei Ivan- 
 ovitch 
 
 But here Levin noticed that, just as they were about 
 to touch the root of the whole matter, they again steered 
 clear of it, and he determined to put the following ques- 
 tion to the professor. 
 
 " Suppose my sensations ceased, if my body were 
 dead, would further existence be possible ? " 
 
 The professor, with some vexation, and, as it were, 
 intellectual anger at this interruption, looked at the 
 strange questioner as if he took him for a clown 
 rather than a philosopher, and turned his eyes to 
 Serge! Ivanovitch as if to ask, "What does this man 
 
 mean t
 
 ANNA KARENINA 33 
 
 But Sergef Ivanovitch, who was not nearly so one- 
 sided and zealous a partisan as the professor, and who 
 had sufficient health of mind both to answer the pro- 
 fessor and to see the simple and natural point of view 
 from which the question was asked, smiled and said : 
 
 "We have not yet gained the right to answer that 
 question.".... 
 
 "Our capacities are not sufficient," continued the pro- 
 fessor, taking up the thread of his argument. " No, I 
 insist upon this, that if, as Pripasof says plainly, sensa- 
 tions are based upon impressions, we cannot too closely 
 distinguish between the two notions." 
 
 Levin did not listen any longer, and waited until the 
 professor took his departure. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHEN the professor was gone, Sergei Ivanovitch 
 turned to his brother. 
 
 " I am very glad to see you. Shall you stay long ? 
 How are things on the estate ? " 
 
 Levin knew that his elder brother took little interest 
 in the affairs of the estate, and only asked out of cour- 
 tesy ; and so in reply he merely spoke of the sale of 
 wheat, and the money he had received. 
 
 It had been his intention to speak with his brother 
 about his marriage project, and to ask his advice ; but, 
 after the conversation with the professor, and in conse- 
 quence of the involuntarily patronizing tone in which his 
 brother had asked about their affairs, for their real estate 
 had never been divided and Levin managed it as a whole, 
 he felt that he could not begin to talk about his proj- 
 ect of marriage. He had an instinctive feeling that his 
 brother would not look upon it as he should wish him to. 
 
 " How is it with the zemstvo ? " asked Sergei' Ivan- 
 ovitch, who took a lively interest in these provincial 
 assemblies, to which he attributed great importance. 
 
 " Fact is, I don't know.... " 
 
 " What ! aren't you a member of the assembly ? " 
 
 VOL. I. 3
 
 34 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "No, I am no longer a member: I have not been 
 going and don't intend to go any more," said Levin. 
 
 "It's too bad," murmured Sergei' Ivanovitch, frown- 
 ing. 
 
 Levin, in justification, described what had taken place 
 at the meetings of his district assembly. 
 
 " But it is forever thus," exclaimed Serge'f Ivanovitch, 
 interrupting. " We Russians are always like this. Pos- 
 sibly it is one of our good traits that we are willing to 
 see our faults, but we exaggerate them ; we take delight 
 in irony, which comes natural to our language. If such 
 rights as we have, if our provincial institutions, were 
 given to any other people in Europe, Germans or 
 English, I tell you, they would derive liberty from 
 them; but we only turn them into sport." 
 
 "But what is to be done?" asked Levin, penitently. 
 " It was my last attempt. I tried with all my heart ; I 
 cannot do it. I am helpless." 
 
 "Not helpless!" said Serge'f Ivanovitch; "you did 
 not look at the matter in the right light." 
 
 "Perhaps not," replied Levin, in a melancholy tone. 
 
 " Do you know, brother Nikolai has been in town 
 again ? " 
 
 Nikolai' was Konstantin Levin's own brother, and 
 SergeY Ivanovitch's half-brother, standing between them 
 in age. He was a ruined man, who had wasted the 
 larger part of his fortune, had mingled with the strangest 
 and most disgraceful society, and had quarreled with 
 his brothers. 
 
 "What did you say?" cried Levin, startled. "How 
 did you know ? " 
 
 " Prokofi saw him in the street." 
 
 " Here in Moscow ? Where is he ? " and Levin stood 
 up, as if with the intention of instantly going to find 
 him. 
 
 " I am sorry that I told you this," said Serge'f Ivan- 
 ovitch, shaking his head when he saw his younger 
 brother's emotion. " I sent out to find where he was 
 staying ; and I sent him his letter of credit on Trubin, 
 the amount of which I paid. This is what he wrote me
 
 ANNA KARENINA 35 
 
 in reply," and Sergei Ivanovitch handed his brother a 
 note which he took from a letter-press. 
 
 Levin read the letter, which was written in the 
 strange hand which he knew so well : 
 
 I humbly beg to be left in peace. It is all that I ask from 
 my dear brothers. NIKOLAI LEVIN. 
 
 Konstantin, without lifting his head, stood motionless 
 before his brother with the letter in his hand. 
 
 The desire arose in his heart now to forget his un- 
 fortunate brother, and the consciousness that it would 
 be wrong. 
 
 " He evidently wants to insult me," continued Sergei 
 Ivanovitch ; " but that is impossible. I wish with all 
 my soul that I might help him, and yet I know that 
 I shall not succeed." 
 
 " Yes, yes," replied Levin. " I understand, and I 
 appreciate your treatment of him ; but I am going to 
 him." 
 
 " Go, by all means, if it will give you any pleasure," 
 said Sergei Ivanovitch ; " but I would not advise it. 
 Not on my account, because I fear that he might 
 make a quarrel between us, but, on your own account, 
 I advise you not to go. He can't be helped. How- 
 ever, do as you think best." 
 
 " Perhaps he can't be helped, but I feel especially 
 
 at this moment .... this is quite another reason I 
 
 feel that I could not be contented...." 
 
 "Well, I don't understand you," said Sergei Ivano- 
 vitch; "but one thing I do understand," he added: 
 "this is a lesson in humility. Since brother Nikolai 
 has become the man he is, I look with greater indul- 
 gence on what people call ' abjectness.' .... Do you 
 know what he has done ?".... 
 
 " Akh ! it is terrible, terrible," replied Levin. 
 
 Having obtained from his brother's servant Nikolai's 
 address, Levin set out to find him, but on second thought 
 changed his mind, and postponed his visit till evening. 
 Before all, he must decide the question that had brought
 
 3 6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 him to Moscow, in order that his mind might be free. 
 He had therefore gone directly to Oblonsky; and, 
 having learned where he could find the Shcherbatskys, 
 he went where he was told that he would meet Kitty. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 ABOUT four o'clock Levin dismissed his izvoshchik 
 at the entrance of the Zoological Garden, and with 
 beating heart followed the path that led to the ice- 
 mountains and the skating-pond, for he knew that he 
 should find Kitty there, having seen the Shcherbatskys' 
 carriage at the gate. 
 
 It was a clear frosty day. At the entrance of the 
 garden were drawn up rows of carriages and sleighs ; 
 hired drivers and policemen stood on the watch. Hosts 
 of fashionable people, with their hats gayly glancing 
 in the bright sunlight, were gathered around the doors 
 and on the paths cleared of snow, among the pretty 
 Russian cottages with their carved balconies. The an- 
 cient birch trees of the garden, their thick branches 
 all laden with snow, seemed clothed in new and solemn 
 chasubles. 
 
 Levin followed the foot-path, saying to himself : 
 
 " Be calm ! there is no reason for being agitated ! 
 What do you desire ? what ails you ? Be quiet, you fool ! " 
 
 Thus Levin addressed his heart. And the more he 
 endeavored to calm his agitation, the more he was over- 
 come by it, till at last he could hardly breathe. An 
 acquaintance spoke to him as he passed, but Levin did 
 not even notice who it was. He drew near the ice- 
 mountains, on which creaked the ropes that let down 
 the sledges and drew them up again. The sleds flew 
 with a rush down the slopes, and there was a tumult 
 of happy voices. 
 
 He went a few steps farther, and before him spread 
 the skating-ground ; and among the skaters he soon 
 discovered Iier. He knew that he was near her from 
 the joy and terror that seized his heart. She was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 37 
 
 standing at the opposite end of the pond engaged in 
 conversation with a lady ; and nothing either in her 
 toilet or in her position was remarkable, but for Levin 
 she stood out from the rest like a rose-bush among 
 nettles. Everything was made radiant by her. She 
 was the smile that lightened the whole place. 
 
 " Do I dare to go and meet her on the ice ? " he 
 asked himself. The place where she was seemed like 
 an unapproachable sanctuary, and for a moment he 
 almost turned to go away again, so full of awe it was. 
 He had to master himself by a supreme effort to think 
 that, as she was surrounded by people of every sort, 
 he had as much right as the rest to go on there and 
 skate. So he went down on the ice, not letting him- 
 self look long at her, as if she were the sun ; but he 
 saw her, as he saw the sun, even though he did not 
 look at her. 
 
 On this day and at this hour, the ice formed a com- 
 mon meeting-ground for people of one clique, all of 
 whom were well acquainted. There were also masters 
 in the art of skating, who came to show off their 
 skill ; others were learning to skate by holding on 
 chairs, and making awkward and distressing gestures ; 
 there were young lads and old men, who skated as a 
 gymnastic exercise : all seemed to Levin to be the 
 happy children of fortune because they were near 
 Kitty. 
 
 And all these skaters, with apparently perfect un- 
 concern, glided around her, came close to her, even 
 spoke to her, and with absolute indifference to her 
 enjoyed themselves, making the most of the good 
 skating and splendid weather. 
 
 Nikolai Shcherbatsky, Kitty's cousin, in short jacket 
 and knickerbockers, was seated on a bench with his 
 skates on, and seeing Levin, he cried : 
 
 " Ah ! the best skater in Russia ! Have you been 
 here long ? The ice is first-rate ! Put on your skates 
 quick ! "' 
 
 " I have not my skates with me," replied Levin, sur- 
 prised at this freedom and audacity in her presence, and
 
 3 8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 not losing her out of his sight a single instant, although 
 he did not look at her. He felt that the sun was shin- 
 ing nearer to him. She was at one corner and came 
 gliding toward him, putting together her slender feet 
 in high boots, and evidently feeling a little timid. A 
 boy in Russian costume was clumsily trying to get 
 ahead of her, desperately waving his arms and bending 
 far forward. Kitty herself did not skate with much 
 confidence. She had taken her hands out of her little 
 muff, suspended by a ribbon, and held them ready to 
 grasp the first object that came in her way. Looking 
 at Levin, whom she had recognized, she smiled at him 
 and at her own timidity. As soon as this evolution 
 was finished, she struck out with her elastic little foot, 
 and skated up to Shcherbatsky, seized him by the arm, 
 and gave Levin a friendly welcome. She was more 
 charming even than he had imagined her to be. 
 
 Whenever he thought of her, he could easily recall 
 her whole appearance, but especially the charm of her 
 small blond head, set so gracefully on her pretty shoul- 
 ders, and her expression of childlike frankness and 
 goodness. The combination of childlike grace and deli- 
 cate beauty of form was her special charm, and Levin 
 thoroughly appreciated it. But what struck him like 
 something always new and unexpected was the look 
 in her sweet eyes, her calm and sincere face, and her 
 smile, which transported him to a world of enchantment, 
 where he felt at peace and at rest, as he remembered 
 occasionally feeling in the days of his early childhood. 
 
 " Have you been here long ? " she asked, giving him 
 her hand. 
 
 "Thank you," she added, as he picked up her hand- 
 kerchief, which had dropped out of her muff. 
 
 "I? No, not long; I came yesterday .... that is, to- 
 day," answered Levin, so agitated that at first he did 
 not get the drift of her question. " I wanted to call 
 upon you," said he ; and when he remembered what 
 his errand was, he grew red, and was more distressed 
 than ever. "I did not know that you skated, and so 
 well."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 39 
 
 She looked at him closely, as if trying to divine the 
 reason of his embarrassment. 
 
 " Your praise is precious. A tradition that you are 
 the best of skaters is still floating about," said she, 
 brushing off with her little hand, in its black glove, the 
 pine needles that had fallen on her muff. 
 
 " Yes, I used to be passionately fond of skating. I 
 had the ambition to reach perfection." 
 
 " It seems to me that you do all things passionately," 
 said she, with a smile. " I should like to see you skate. 
 Put on your skates, and we will skate together." 
 
 " Skate together ? " he thought, as he looked at her. 
 " Is it possible?" 
 
 " I will go and put them right on," he said ; and he 
 hastened to find a pair of skates. 
 
 " It is a long time, sir, since you have been with us," 
 said the katalshchik, as he lifted his foot to fit the heel 
 to it. " Since your day, we have not had any one who 
 deserved to be called a master in the art. Are they 
 going to suit you ? " he asked, as he tightened the strap. 
 
 "Excellent, excellent; only please make haste," said 
 Levin, unable to hide the smile of joy which, in spite 
 of him, irradiated his face. "Yes," said he to himself, 
 "this is life, this is happiness. ' We will skate together,' 
 she said. Shall I speak to her now? But I am afraid 
 to speak, because I am happy, happy only in the 
 hope .... Yet when ? .... But it must be, it must, it must. 
 Down with weakness ! " 
 
 Levin stood up, took off his cloak, and, after making 
 his way across the rough ice around the little house, he 
 skated out on the glare surface without effort, hasten- 
 ing, shortening, and directing his pace as if by the 
 mere effort of his will. He felt timid about coming up 
 to her, but again her smile assured him. 
 
 She gave him her hand, and they skated side by side, 
 gradually increasing speed ; and the faster they went, 
 the closer she held his hand. 
 
 "I should learn very quickly with you," she said. 
 "I somehow feel confidence in you." 
 
 " I air> confident in myself when you cling to my
 
 40 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 hand," he answered, and immediately he was startled at 
 what he had said, and grew red in the face. In fact, 
 he had scarcely uttered the words, when, just as the sun 
 goes under a cloud, her face lost all its kindliness, and 
 Levin became aware of the well-remembered play of 
 her face indicating the force of her thoughts ; a slight 
 frown wrinkled her smooth brow ! 
 
 " Has anything disagreeable happened to you ? but I 
 have no right to ask," he added quickly. 
 
 " Why so ? No, nothing disagreeable has happened 
 to me," she said coolly, and immediately continued, 
 " Have you seen Mile. Linon yet ? " 
 
 " Not yet." 
 
 " Go to see her ; she is so fond of you." 
 
 " What does this mean ? I have offended her ! Lord ! 
 have pity upon me ! " thought Levin, and skated swiftly 
 toward the old French governess, with little gray curls, 
 who was watching them from a bench. She received 
 him like an old friend, smiling, and showing her false 
 teeth. 
 
 "Yes, but how we have grown up," she said, indicat- 
 ing Kitty with her eyes ; " and how demure we are ! 
 Tiny bear has grown large," continued the old gover- 
 ness, still smiling ; and she recalled his jest about the 
 three young ladies whom he had named after the three 
 
 bears in the English story " Do you remember that 
 
 you used to call them so ? " 
 
 He had entirely forgotten it, but she had laughed at 
 this pleasantry for ten years, and still enjoyed it. 
 
 " Now go, go and skate. Does n't our Kitty take to it 
 beautifully ? " 
 
 When Levin rejoined Kitty, her face was no longer 
 severe ; her eyes had regained their frank and kindly 
 expression ; but it seemed to him that her very kindli- 
 ness had a peculiar premeditated tone of serenity, and 
 he felt troubled. After speaking of the old governess 
 and her eccentricities, she asked him about his own life. 
 " Is n't it a bore living in the country in the winter ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " No, it is not a bore; I am very busy," he replied,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 41 
 
 conscious that she was bringing him into the atmosphere 
 of serene friendliness from which he could not escape 
 now, any more than he could at the beginning of the 
 winter. 
 
 " Shall you stay long ? " asked Kitty. 
 
 " I do not know," he answered, without regard to 
 what he was saying. The thought that, if he fell back 
 into that tone of calm friendship, he might return home 
 without reaching any decision, occurred to him, and he 
 resolved to rebel against it. 
 
 " Why don't you know ? " 
 
 " I don't know why. It depends on you," he said, 
 and instantly he was horrified at his own words. 
 
 She either did not understand his words, or did not 
 want to understand them, for, seeming to stumble once 
 or twice, catching her foot, she hurriedly skated away 
 from him; and, having spoken to Mile. Linon, she went 
 to the little house, where her skates were removed by 
 the waiting-women. 
 
 " My God ! what have I done ? O Lord God ! have 
 pity upon me, and come to my aid ! " was Levin's secret 
 prayer ; and, feeling the need of taking some violent 
 exercise, he began to describe outer and inner curves on 
 the ice. 
 
 At this instant a young man, the best among the re- 
 cent skaters, came out of the caft with his skates on, 
 and a cigarette in his mouth ; with one spring he slid 
 down, slipping and leaping from step to step, and, with- 
 out even changing the easy position of his arms, skated 
 down and out upon the ice. 
 
 " Ah, that is a new trick," said Levin to himself, and 
 he climbed up to the top of the bank to try the new trick. 
 
 " Don't you kill yourself ! it needs practice," shouted 
 Nikolai Shcherbatsky. 
 
 Levin went up to the platform, got as good a start as 
 he could, and then flew down the steps preserving his 
 balance with his arms ; but at the last step he stumbled, 
 made a violent effort to recover himself, regained his 
 equilibrium, and with a laugh glided out upon the ice. 
 
 "Charming, glorious fellow," thought Kitty, at this
 
 42 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 moment coming out of the little house with Mile. Linon, 
 and looking at him with a gentle, affectionate smile, as if 
 he were a beloved brother. "Is it my fault ? Have I 
 done anything very bad? People say, 'Coquetry.' I 
 know that I don't love him, but it is pleasant to be with 
 him, and he is such a splendid fellow. But what made 
 him say that?".... 
 
 Seeing Kitty departing with her mother, who had 
 come for her, Levin, flushed with his violent exercise, 
 stopped and pondered. Then he took off his skates, 
 and joined the mother and daughter at the gate. 
 
 ''.Very glad to see you," said the princess; "we re- 
 ceive on Thursdays, as usual." 
 
 "To-day, then?" 
 
 "We shall be very glad to see you," she answered 
 coolly. 
 
 This coolness troubled Kitty, and she could not re- 
 strain her desire to temper her mother's chilling man- 
 ner. She turned her head, and said, with a smile, " We 
 shall see you, I hope." 1 
 
 At this moment Stepan Arkadyevitch, with hat on 
 one side, with animated face and bright eyes, entered 
 the garden. But as he came up to his wire's mother, 
 he assumed a melancholy and humiliated expression, 
 and replied to the questions which she asked about 
 Dolly's health. When he had finished speaking in a 
 low and broken voice with his mother-in-law, he straight- 
 ened himself up, and took Levin's arm. 
 
 " Now, then, shall we go ? I have been thinking of 
 you all the time, and I am very glad that you came," 
 he said, with a significant look into his eyes. 
 
 "Come on, come on," replied the happy Levin, who 
 did not cease to hear the sound of a voice saying, " We 
 shall see you, I hope," or to recall the smile that accom- 
 panied the words. 
 
 "At the Anglia, or at the Hermitage ? " 
 
 " It 's all the same to me." 
 
 "At the Anglia, then," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 making this choice because he owed more there than at 
 
 1 Simply da sviJanya, equivalent to ait revoir.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 43 
 
 the Hermitage, and it seemed unworthy of him, so to 
 speak, to avoid this restaurant. "You have an izvosh- 
 chik ? So much the better, for I sent off my car- 
 riage." 
 
 While they were on the way, the friends did not 
 exchange a word. Levin was pondering on the mean- 
 ing of the change in the expression of Kitty's face, and 
 at one moment persuaded himself that there was hope, 
 and at the next plunged into despair, and he saw clearly 
 that his hope was unreasonable. Nevertheless, he felt 
 that he was another man since he had heard those 
 words, "We shall see you, I hope," and seen her smile. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch was meantime making out the 
 mcnn for their dinner. 
 
 " You like turbot, don't you ? " were his first words 
 on entering the restaurant. 
 
 "What?" exclaimed Levin "Turbot? Yes, I 
 
 am excessively fond of turbot." 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 LEVIN could not help noticing, as they entered the 
 restaurant, how Stepan Arkadyevitch's face and whole 
 person seemed to shine with restrained happiness. Ob- 
 lonsky took off his overcoat, and, with hat over one ear, 
 marched toward the dining-room, giving, as he went, his 
 orders to the Tatars who in swallow-tails and with nap- 
 kins came hurrying to meet him. Bowing right and left 
 to his acquaintances, who here as everywhere seemed 
 delighted to see him, he went directly to the bar and 
 took some vodka and a little fish, and said something 
 comical to the barmaid, a pretty, curly-haired French 
 girl, painted, and covered with ribbons and lace, so that 
 she burst into a peal of laughter. But Levin would not 
 drink any vodka simply because the sight of this French 
 creature, all made up, apparently, of false hair, rice- 
 powder, and vinaigre de toilette was revolting to him. 
 He turned away from her quickly, with disgust, as from 
 some horrid place. His whole soul was filled with
 
 44 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 memories of Kitty, and his eyes shone with triumph and 
 happiness. 
 
 " This way, your excellency ; come this way, and 
 your excellency will not be disturbed," said a specially 
 obsequious old Tatar, whose monstrous hips made the 
 tails of his coat stick out behind. " Will you come this 
 way, your excellency?" said he to Levin, as a sign of 
 respect for Stepan Arkadyevitch, whose guest he was. 
 In a twinkling he had spread a fresh cloth on the round 
 table, which, already covered, stood under the bronze 
 chandelier ; then, bringing two velvet chairs, he stood 
 waiting for Stepan Arkadyevitch's orders, holding in 
 one hand his napkin, and his order-card in the other. 
 
 " If your excellency would like to have a private 
 
 room, one will be at your service in a few moments 
 
 Prince Galitsuin and a lady. We have just received 
 fresh oysters." 
 
 "Ah, oysters!" 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch reflected. " Supposing we 
 change our plan, Levin," said he, with his finger on 
 the bill of fare. His face showed serious hesitation. 
 
 " But are the oysters good ? Pay attention ! " 
 
 " They are from Flensburg, your excellency ; there 
 are none from Ostend." 
 
 " Flensburg oysters are well enough, but are they 
 fresh?" 
 
 " They came yesterday." 
 
 "Very good! What do you say? to begin with 
 oysters, and then to make a complete change in our 
 menu f What say you ? " 
 
 " It 's all the same to me. I 'd like best of all some 
 shc/ii 1 and kaslia^ but you can't get them here." 
 
 " Kasha d la rnsse, if you would like to order it," said 
 the Tatar, bending over toward Levin as a nurse bends 
 toward a child. 
 
 " No. Jesting aside, whatever you wish is good. I 
 have been skating and should like something to eat. 
 Don't imagine," he added, as he saw an expression of 
 disappointment on Oblonsky's face, " that I do not 
 
 1 Cabbage soup. 2 Wheat gruel.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 45 
 
 appreciate your selection. I can eat a good dinner with 
 pleasure." 
 
 " It should be more than that ! You should say that 
 it is one of the pleasures of life," said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch. " In this case, little brother mine, give us two, 
 or... .no, that 's not enough, three dozen oysters, vegetable 
 soup .... " 
 
 " Printanitre" suggested the Tatar. 
 
 But Stepan Arkadyevitch did not allow him the 
 pleasure of enumerating the dishes in French, and con- 
 tinued : 
 
 " Vegetable soup, you understand ; then turbot, with 
 thick sauce ; then roast beef, but see to it that it 's all 
 right. Yes, some capon, and lastly, some preserve." 
 
 The Tatar, remembering Stepan Arkadyevitch's ca- 
 price of not calling the dishes by their French names, 
 instead of repeating them after him, waited till he had 
 finished; then he gave himself the pleasure of repeating 
 the order according to the bill of fare : 
 
 " Potage printanitre, turbot, sauce Beaumarchais, 
 poularde a I'estragon, mace'doine de fruits." 
 
 Then instantly, as if moved by a spring, he substi- 
 tuted for the bill of fare the wine-list, which he presented 
 to Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 "What shall we drink?" 
 
 "Whatever you please, only not much.... champagne," 
 suggested Levin. 
 
 " What ! at the very beginning ? But you may be 
 right ; why not ? Do you like the white seal ? 
 
 " Cachet blanc," repeated the Tatar. 
 
 " Well, then, give us that brand with the oysters. 
 Then we '11 see." 
 
 " It shall be done, sir. And what table wine shall I 
 bring you ? " 
 
 "Some Nuits ; no, hold on give us some classic 
 ChaMis." 
 
 " It shall be done, sir ; and will you order some of 
 your cheese ? " 
 
 " Yes, some parmesan. Or do you prefer some other 
 kind?"
 
 46 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " No, it 's all the same to me," replied Levin, who 
 could not keep from smiling. 
 
 The Tatar disappeared on the trot, with his coat 
 tails flying out behind him. Five minutes later he came 
 with a platter of oysters opened and on the shell, and 
 with a bottle in his hand. Stepan Arkadyevitch crum- 
 pled up his well-starched napkin, tucked it into his 
 waistcoat, calmly stretched out his hands, and began 
 to attack the oysters. 
 
 " Not bad at all," he said, as he lifted the succulent 
 oysters from their shells with a silver fork, and swal- 
 lowed them one by one. " Not at all bad," he repeated, 
 looking from Levin to the Tatar, his eyes gleaming 
 with satisfaction. 
 
 Levin also ate his oysters, although he would have 
 preferred white bread and cheese ; but he could not 
 help admiring Oblonsky. Even the Tatar, after un- 
 corking the bottle and pouring the sparkling wine into 
 wide, delicate glass cups, looked at Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 with a noticeable smile of satisfaction while he adjusted 
 his white necktie. 
 
 " You are not very fond of oysters, are you ? " asked 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, draining his glass. " Or you are 
 preoccupied ? Hey ? " 
 
 He wanted Levin to be in good spirits, but Levin was 
 anxious, if he was not downcast. His heart being so 
 full, he found himself out of his element in this restau- 
 rant, amid the confusion of guests coming and going, 
 surrounded by the private rooms where men and women 
 were dining together ; everything was repugnant to his 
 feelings, the whole outfit of bronzes and mirrors, the 
 gas and the Tatars. He feared that the sentiment 
 that occupied his soul would be defiled. 
 
 " I ? Yes, I am a little absent-minded ; but besides, 
 everything here confuses me. You can't imagine," he 
 said, " how strange all these surroundings seem to a 
 countryman like myself. It 's like the finger-nails of 
 that gentleman whom I met at your office." .... 
 
 " Yes, I noticed that poor Grinevitch's finger-nails inter- 
 ested you greatly," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laughing.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 47 
 
 " It is of no use," replied Levin. " Suppose you come 
 to me and try the standpoint of a man accustomed to 
 living in the country. We in the country try to have 
 hands suitable to work with; therefore we cut off our 
 finger-nails, and oftentimes we even turn back our 
 sleeves. But here men let their nails grow as long as 
 possible, and so as to be sure of not being able to do 
 any work with their hands, they fasten their sleeves with 
 plates for buttons." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled gayly : 
 
 "That is a sign that he has no need of manual labor; 
 it is brain-work .... " 
 
 " Perhaps so. Yet it seems strange to me, no less 
 than this that we are doing here. In the country we 
 make haste to get through our meals so as to be at work 
 again ; but here you and I are doing our best to eat as 
 long as possible without getting satisfied, and so we are 
 eating oysters. " .... 
 
 " Well, there 's something in that," replied Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch ; " but the aim of civilization is to trans- 
 late everything into enjoyment." 
 
 " If that is its aim, I should prefer to be untamed." 
 
 " And you are untamed ! All you Levins are un- 
 tamed." 
 
 Levin sighed. He thought of his brother NikolaK, 
 and felt mortified and saddened, and his face grew 
 dark ; but Oblonsky introduced a topic which had the 
 immediate effect of diverting him. 
 
 " Very well, come this evening to our house. I mean 
 to the Shcherbatskys'," said he, pushing away the 
 empty oyster-shells, drawing the cheese toward him, 
 and flashing his eyes significantly. 
 
 "Yes, I will surely come," replied Levin; "though 
 it did not seem that the princess was very cordial in her 
 invitation." 
 
 "What rubbish ! It was only her manner Come, 
 
 friend, bring us the soup It was only her grande dame 
 
 manner," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch. " I shall come 
 there immediately after a rehearsal at .the Countess 
 Bonina's How can we help calling you untamed ?
 
 48 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 How can you explain your flight from Moscow ? The 
 Shcherbatskys have kept asking me about you, as if I 
 were likely to know ! I only know one thing, that you 
 are always likely to do things that no one else did." 
 
 " Yes," replied Levin, slowly, and with emotion ; " you 
 are right, I am untamed ; yet it was not that I went, 
 but that I have come back proves me so ! I have come 
 now ...." 
 
 " Oh, what a lucky fellow you are ! " interrupted 
 Oblonsky, looking into Levin's eyes. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " I know fiery horses by their brand, and I know 
 young people who are in love by their eyes," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, dramatically ; " everything is be- 
 fore you ! " 
 
 " And yourself, is everything behind you ? " 
 
 " No, not altogether, but you have the future ; and I 
 have the present, and this present is between the devil 
 and the deep sea ! " 
 
 " What is the matter ? " 
 
 " Nothing good. But I don't want to talk about my- 
 self, especially as I cannot explain the circumstances," 
 replied Stepan Arkadyevitch. " What did you come to 
 Moscow for ?.... Here! clear off the things!" he cried 
 to the Tatar. 
 
 " Can't you imagine ? " answered Levin, not taking 
 his glowing eyes from Oblonsky's face. 
 
 " I can imagine, but it is not for me to be the first to 
 speak about it. By this you can tell whether I am 
 right in my conjecture," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 looking at Levin with a sly smile. 
 
 " Well, what have you to tell me ? " asked Levin, 
 with a trembling voice, and feeling all the muscles of 
 his face quiver. " How do you look at this ? " 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch slowly drank his glass of Chablis 
 while he looked steadily at Levin. 
 
 " I ? " said Stepan Arkadyevitch. "There is nothing 
 that I should like so much - nothing. It is the best 
 thing that could possibly be ! " 
 
 " But are n't you mistaken ? Do you know what we
 
 ANNA KARENINA 49 
 
 are talking about ? " murmured Levin, with his eyes fixed 
 on his companion. "Do you believe that this is possible ? " 
 
 " I think it is possible. Why should n't it be ? " 
 
 " No, do you really think that it is possible ? No ! 
 tell me what you really think. If.... if she should refuse 
 me.... and I am almost certain that.... " 
 
 "Why should you be ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 smiling at this emotion. 
 
 " It is my intuition. It would be terrible for me and 
 for her." 
 
 " Oh ! in any case, I can't see that it would be very 
 terrible for her ; a young girl is always flattered to be 
 asked in marriage." 
 
 " Young girls in general, perhaps, not she." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled ; he perfectly under- 
 stood Levin's feeling, knew that for him all the young 
 girls in the universe were divided into two categories : 
 in the one, all the young girls in existence except her 
 and these girls had all the faults common to humanity, 
 in other words, ordinary girls ; in the other, she alone, 
 without any faults, and placed above the rest of 
 humanity. 
 
 " Hold on ! take some gravy," said he, stopping 
 Levin's hand, who was pushing away the gravy. 
 
 Levin took the gravy in all humility, but he did not 
 give Oblonsky a chance to eat. 
 
 " No, just wait, wait," said he ; " you understand 
 this is for me a question of life and death. I have 
 never spoken to any one else about it, and I cannot 
 speak to any one else but you. I know we are very 
 different from each other, have different tastes, views, 
 everything ; but I know also that you love me, and 
 that you understand me, and that 's the reason I am so 
 fond of you. Now, for God's sake, be perfectly sincere 
 with me." 
 
 " I will tell you what I think," said Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, smiling. " But I will tell you more : my wife 
 a most extraordinary woman " and Stepan Ar- 
 kadyevitch sighed, as he remembered his relations with 
 his wife then after a moment's silence he proceeded 
 VOL. i. 4
 
 50 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " she has a gift of second sight, and sees through 
 people, but that is nothing ! she knows what is going to 
 happen, especially when there is a question of marriage. 
 Thus, she predicted that Brenteln would marry Sha- 
 khovskaya ; no one would believe it, and yet it came to 
 pass. Well, my wife is on your side." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean that she likes you ; she says that Kitty will 
 be your wife." 
 
 As he heard these words, Levin's face suddenly 
 lighted up with a smile which was near to tears of 
 emotion. 
 
 " She said that ! " he cried. " I always said that your 
 wife was charming. But enough, enough of this sort of 
 talk," he added, and rose from the table. 
 
 " Good ! but sit a little while longer." 
 
 But Levin could not sit down. He strode two or 
 three times up and down the little square room, wink- 
 ing his eyes to hide the tears, and then he sat down 
 again at the table. 
 
 " Understand me," he said ; " this is not love. I have 
 been in love, but this is not the same thing. This is 
 more than a sentiment ; it is an inward power that con- 
 trols me. You see, I went away because I had made 
 up my mind that such happiness could not exist, that 
 such good fortune could not be on earth. But after a 
 struggle with myself, I find that I cannot live without 
 this. This question must be decided...." 
 
 " But why did you go away ? " 
 
 " Akh ! wait ! Akh ! so many things to think about ! 
 so much to ask ! Listen, you cannot imagine what your 
 words have done for me ! I am so happy that I have 
 already grown detestable ! I am forgetting everything ; 
 and yet this very day I heard that my brother Nikolai' 
 you know he is here, and I had entirely forgotten him. 
 It seems to me that he, too, ought to be happy. But this 
 is like a fit of madness. But one thing seems terrible to 
 
 me You are married ; you ought to know this feeling. 
 
 It is terrible that we who are already getting old .... with a 
 past behind us....notof love but of wickedness.... suddenly
 
 ANNA KARENINA 51 
 
 come into close relations with a pure and innocent 
 being. This is disgusting, and so I cannot help feeling 
 that I am unworthy." 
 
 " Well ! you have not much wickedness to answer 
 for ! " 
 
 " Akh ! " said Levin; "and yet, 'as I look ivith dis- 
 gust ou my life, I tremble and curse and mourn bitterly,' 
 .... yes ! " 
 
 " But what can you do ? the world is thus constituted," 
 said Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " There is only one consolation, and that is in the 
 prayer that I have always loved : 'Pardon me not accord- 
 ing to my deserts, but according to Thy loving-kindness.' 
 Thus only can she forgive me." 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 LEVIN drained his glass, and they were silent. 
 
 " I ought to tell you one thing, though. Do you know 
 Vronsky ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " No, I don't know him ; why do you ask ? " 
 
 "Bring us another bottle," said Oblonsky to the 
 Tatar, who was refilling their glasses and was hover- 
 ing about them, especially when he was not needed. 
 " You must know that Vronsky is one of your rivals." 
 
 " Who is this Vronsky ?" asked Levin, and his face, 
 a moment since beaming with the youthful enthusiasm 
 which Oblonsky so much admired, suddenly took on a 
 disagreeable expression of anger. 
 
 " Vronsky he is one of Count Kirill Ivanovitch 
 Vronsky's sons, and one of the finest examples of the 
 gilded youth of Petersburg. I used to know him at 
 Tver when I was on duty there ; he came there for re- 
 cruiting service. He is immensely rich, handsome, with 
 excellent connections, one of the emperor's aides, and, 
 moreover, a capital good fellow. From what I have 
 seen of him, he is more than a ' good fellow ' ; he is 
 well educated and bright, he is a rising man." 
 
 Levin scowled, and said nothing.
 
 52 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Well, then ! he put in an appearance soon after you 
 left ; and, as I understand, he fell over ears in love with 
 Kitty. You understand that her mother.... " 
 
 " Excuse me, but I don't understand at all," inter- 
 rupted Levin, scowling still more fiercely. And sud- 
 denly he remembered his brother Nikolai', and how ugly 
 it was in him to forget him. 
 
 "Just wait, wait," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laying 
 his hand on Levin's arm with a smile. " I have told 
 you all that I know ; but I repeat, that, in my humble 
 opinion, the chances in this delicate affair are on your 
 side." 
 
 Levin leaned back in his chair ; his face was pale. 
 
 " But I advise you to settle the matter as quickly as 
 possible," suggested Oblonsky, filling up his glass. 
 
 " No, thank you : I cannot drink any more," said 
 
 Levin, pushing away the glass. " I shall be tipsy 
 
 Well, how are you feeling?" he added, desiring to 
 change the conversation. 
 
 " One word more : in any case I advise you to settle 
 the question quickly. I advise you to speak immedi- 
 ately," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Go to-morrow 
 morning, make your proposal in classic style, and God 
 bless you." .... 
 
 " Why have n't you ever come to hunt with me as 
 you promised to do ? Come this spring," said Levin. 
 
 He now repented with all his heart that he had en- 
 tered upon this conversation with Stepan Arkadyevitch : 
 his deepest feelings were wounded by what he had just 
 learned of the pretensions of his rival, the young officer 
 from Petersburg, as well as by the advice and insinua- 
 tions of Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled. He perceived what 
 was taking place in Levin's heart. 
 
 "I will come some day," he said. "Yes, brother, 
 woman's the spring that moves everything. My own 
 trouble is bad, very bad. And all on account of women. 
 Give me your advice," said he, taking a cigar, and still 
 holding his glass in his hand. " Tell me frankly what 
 you think."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 53 
 
 "But what about?" 
 
 " Listen : suppose you were married, that you loved 
 your wife, but had been drawn away by another 
 woman .... " 
 
 " Excuse me. I really can't imagine any such thing. 
 As it looks to me, it would be as if in coming out from 
 dinner, I should steal a loaf of bread from a bakery." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch's eyes sparkled more than usual. 
 " Why not ? Bread sometimes smells so good, that one 
 cannot resist the temptation : 
 
 " Himmlisch isPs, wenn ich bezwungen 
 
 Meine irdische Begier : 
 Aber dock wenns's nicht gelungen, 
 
 Hat? ich auch recht hilbsch Plaisir." 1 
 
 As he repeated these lines, Oblonsky smiled. 
 
 Levin could not refrain from smiling also. 
 
 " But a truce to pleasantries," continued Oblonsky. 
 "Imagine a woman, a charming, modest, loving crea- 
 ture, poor, and alone in the world, who had sacrificed 
 everything for you. Now, imagine, after the thing is 
 done, is it necessary to give her up ? We '11 allow that 
 it is necessary to break with her, so as not to disturb 
 the peace of the family ; but ought we not to pity her, 
 to make provision for her, to soften the blow ? " 
 
 " Pardon me ; but you know that for me all women are 
 divided into two classes, .... no, that is, .... there are women, 
 and there are .... But I never yet have seen or expect 
 to see beautiful fallen women, beautiful repentant Mag- 
 dalens ; and such women as that painted French creature 
 at the bar, with her false curls, fill me with disgust, and 
 all fallen women are the same ! " 
 
 " But the woman in the New Testament ? " 
 
 " Akh ! hold your peace. Never would Christ have 
 said those words if he had known to what bad use they 
 would be put. Out of the whole Gospel, only those 
 
 1 It was heavenly when I gained 
 
 What my heart desired on earth : 
 Yet if not all were attained, 
 Still I had my share of mirth,
 
 54 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 words are taken. However, I don't say what I think, 
 but what I feel. You feel a disgust for spiders and 
 I for these reptiles. You see you did not have to study 
 spiders, and you know nothing about their natures. 
 So it is with me." 
 
 " It is well for you to say so ; it is a very convenient 
 way to do as the character in Dickens did, and throw 
 all embarrassing questions over his right shoulder with 
 his left hand. But to deny a fact is not to answer it. 
 Now, what is to be done ? tell me ! what is to be done ? 
 Your wife grows old and you are full of life. Before 
 you are aware of it you realize that you do not love your 
 wife, however much you may respect her. And then 
 suddenly you fall in love with some one and you fall, 
 you fall! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a melancholy 
 despair. 
 
 Levin laughed. 
 
 " Yes, you fall ! " repeated Oblonsky. " Then what 
 is to be done ? " 
 
 " Don't steal fresh bread." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch burst out laughing. 
 
 " O moralist ! but please appreciate the situation. 
 Here are two women : one insists only on her rights, 
 and her rights mean your love which you cannot give ; 
 the other has sacrificed everything for you and demands 
 nothing. What can one do ? How can one proceed ? 
 Here is a terrible tragedy! " 
 
 "If you wish my judgment concerning this tragedy, 
 I will tell you that I don't believe in this tragedy, and 
 this is why. In my opinion, Love the two Loves 
 which Plato describes in his ' Symposium,' you remem- 
 ber, serve as the touchstone for men. Some people 
 understand only one of them ; others understand the 
 other. Those who comprehend only the Platonic love 
 have no right to speak of this tragedy now. In this 
 sort of love there can be no tragedy. / tJiank you 
 humbly for tlic pleasure ; and therein consists the whole 
 drama. But for Platonic love there can be no tragedy 
 because it is bright and pure, and because.... " 
 
 At this moment Levin remembered his own short-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 55 
 
 comings and the inward struggles which he had under- 
 gone, and he unexpectedly added, " However, you may 
 be right. It is quite possible.... I know nothing abso- 
 lutely nothing about it." 
 
 "Do you see," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, "you are 
 a very perfect man ? Your great virtue is your only 
 fault. You are a very perfect character and you desire 
 that all the factors of life should also be perfect ; but this 
 cannot be. Here you scorn the service of the state, 
 because, according to your idea, every action should 
 correspond to an exact end ; but this cannot be. You 
 require also that the activity of every man should always 
 have an object, that conjugal life and love be one and 
 the same ; but this cannot be. All the variety, all the 
 charm, all the beauty, of life consists in lights and shades." 
 
 Levin sighed, and did not answer ; he was absorbed 
 in his own thoughts and did not even listen. 
 
 And suddenly both of them felt that, though they were 
 good friends, though they had been dining together and 
 drinking wine, yet each was thinking only of his own 
 affairs and cared nothing for the affairs of the other. 
 Oblonsky had more than once had this experience after 
 dining with a friend, and he knew what had to be done 
 when, instead of coming into closer sympathy, the dis- 
 tance between seemed widened. 
 
 " The account," he cried, and went into the next room, 
 where he met an aide whom he knew, and with whom 
 he began to talk about an actress and her lover. This 
 conversation amused and rested Oblonsky after his con- 
 versation with Levin, who always kept his mind on too 
 great an intellectual and moral strain. 
 
 When the Tatar brought the account, amounting to 
 twenty-six rubles and odd kopeks, and something more 
 for his fee, Levin, who at any other time, as a country- 
 man, would have been shocked at the size of the bill, 
 paid the fourteen rubles of his share without noticing, 
 and went to his lodgings to dress for the reception at 
 the Shcherbatskys', where his fate would be decided.
 
 56 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE Princess Kitty Shcherbatskaya was eighteen years 
 old. She was making her first appearance in society 
 this winter, and her triumphs had been more brilliant 
 than her elder sisters, more than even her mother, had 
 expected. Not only were almost all the young men 
 who danced at balls in Moscow in love with Kitty, 
 but, moreover, there were two who, during this first 
 winter, were serious aspirants to her hand, Levin, 
 and, soon after his departure, Count Vronsky. 
 
 Levin's appearance at the beginning of the winter, 
 his frequent calls and his unconcealed love for Kitty, 
 were the first subjects that gave cause for serious con- 
 versation between her father and mother in regard to 
 her future and for disputes between the prince and 
 princess. The prince was on Levin's side, and declared 
 that he could not desire a better match for Kitty. But 
 the princess, with the skill which women have for avoid- 
 ing a question, insisted that Kitty was too young, that 
 Levin did not seem to be serious in his attentions, and 
 that she did not show great partiality for him; but 
 she did not express what was in the bottom of her 
 heart, that she was ambitious for a more brilliant 
 marriage, that Levin did not appeal to her sympathies, 
 and that she did not understand him. And when Levin 
 took a sudden leave she was glad and said ; with an air 
 of triumph, to her husband : 
 
 " You see, I was right." 
 
 When Vronsky appeared on the scene, she was still 
 more glad, being confirmed in her opinion that Kitty 
 ought to make, not merely a good, but a brilliant match. 
 
 For the princess there was no comparison between 
 Vronsky and Levin as suitors. The mother disliked 
 Levin and his strange and harsh judgments, his awk- 
 wardness in society, which she attributed to his pride and 
 what she called his savage life in the country, occupied 
 with his cattle and peasants. Nor did she like it at all 
 that Levin, though he was in love with her daughter, and
 
 ANNA KAREN1NA . 57 
 
 had been a frequent visitor at their house for six weeks, 
 had appeared like a man who was hesitating, watching, 
 and questioning whether, if he should offer himself, the 
 honor which he conferred on them would not be too 
 great, and that he did not seem to understand that when 
 a man comes assiduously to a house where there is a 
 marriageable daughter, it is proper for him to declare 
 his intentions. And then he suddenly departed with- 
 out any explanation ! 
 
 "It is fortunate," the mother thought, "that he is so 
 unattractive, and that Kitty has not fallen in love with 
 him." 
 
 Vronsky satisfied all her requirements : he was very 
 rich, intelligent, of good birth, with a brilliant career 
 at court or in the army before him, and, moreover, he 
 was charming. Nothing better could be desired. Vron- 
 sky was devoted to Kitty at the balls, danced with her, 
 and called upon her parents ; there could be no doubt 
 that his intentions were serious. But, notwithstanding 
 this, the mother had passed this whole winter full of 
 doubts and perplexities. 
 
 The princess herself had been married thirty years 
 before, through the match-making of an aunt. Her 
 suitor, who was well known by reputation, came, saw 
 the young lady, and was seen by the family ; the aunt 
 who served as intermediary gave and received the re- 
 port of the impression produced on both sides ; the 
 impression was favorable. Then on a designated day 
 the expected proposal was made on the parents, and 
 granted. Everything had passed off very easily and 
 simply. At least, so it seemed to the princess. But in 
 the case of her own daughters, she learned by experi- 
 ence how difficult and complicated this apparently 
 simple matter of getting girls married really was. How 
 many fears she had to go through ! How many things 
 had to be thought over, how much money had to be 
 lavished, how many collisions with her husband, when 
 the time came for Darya and Natali to be married ! 
 And now that the youngest was in the matrimonial 
 market, she was obliged to suffer from the same anxi-
 
 58 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 eties, the same doubts, and even more bitter quarrels 
 with her husband. 
 
 The old prince, like all fathers, was excessively punc- 
 tilious about everything concerning the honor and 
 purity of his daughters, he was distressingly jealous re- 
 garding them, especially Kitty, who was his favorite, 
 and at every step he accused his wife of compromising 
 his daughter. The princess had become accustomed to 
 these scenes from the days of her elder daughters, but 
 now she felt that her husband's strictness had more 
 justification. She saw that in these later days many of 
 the practices of society had undergone a change, so 
 that the duties of mothers were becoming more and 
 more difficult. She saw how Kitty's young girl friends 
 formed a sort of clique, went to races, freely mingled 
 with men, went out driving alone ; that many of them 
 no longer made courtesies ; and, what was more serious, 
 all of them were firmly convinced that the choice of 
 husbands was their affair and not their parents'. 
 
 " Marriages aren't made as they used to be," thought 
 and said all these young ladies, and even some of the 
 older people. 
 
 " But how are marriages made nowadays? " This ques- 
 tion the princess could not get any one to answer. 
 
 The French custom, where the parents decide the 
 fate of their children, was not accepted, was even bitterly 
 criticized. The English custom, which allows the girls 
 absolute liberty, was also not accepted, and was not pos- 
 sible in Russian society. The Russian custom of em- 
 ploying a match-maker was regarded as bad form ; 
 every one ridiculed it, even the princess herself. But 
 no one seemed to know what course to take in regard to 
 courtship. Every one with whom the princess talked 
 said the same thing. 
 
 " For goodness' sake, it is time for us to renounce 
 those exploded notions ; it is the young folks, and not 
 their parents, who get married, and, therefore, it is for 
 young folks to make their arrangements in accordance 
 with their own ideas." 
 
 It was well enough for those without daughters to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 59 
 
 say this ; but the princess knew well that in this familiar 
 intercourse her daughter might fall in love, and fall in 
 love with some one who would not dream of marrying 
 her, or would not make her a good husband. However 
 earnestly they suggested to the princess that in our 
 time young people ought to settle their own destinies, 
 she found it impossible to agree with them any more 
 than she could believe in the advisability of allowing the 
 four-year-old children of our time to have loaded pistols 
 as their favorite toys. And so the princess felt much 
 more solicitude about Kitty than she had felt about 
 either of her other daughters. 
 
 She feared now that Vronsky would content himself 
 with playing the gallant. She saw that Kitty was 
 already in love with him, but she consoled herself with 
 the thought that he was a man of honor and would not 
 do so ; but, at the same time, she knew how easy it was, 
 with the new freedom allowed in society, to turn a young 
 girl's head, and how lightly men as a general thing 
 regarded this. 
 
 The week before Kitty had told her mother of a con- 
 versation which she had held with Vronsky during a 
 mazurka. This conversation had partially relieved the 
 princess's mind, though it did not absolutely satisfy her. 
 Vronsky told Kitty that he and his brother were both so 
 used to letting their mother decide things for them, that 
 they never undertook anything of importance without 
 consulting her. 
 
 " And now I am looking for my mother's arrival from 
 Petersburg as a great piece of good fortune," he had said. 
 
 Kitty reported these words without attaching any im- 
 portance to them, but her mother understood them very 
 differently. She knew that the old countess was ex- 
 pected from day to day ; she knew that the old countess 
 would be satisfied with her son's choice ; and it was 
 strange to her that he had not offered himself, as if he 
 feared to offend his mother. However, she herself was 
 so anxious for this match, and above all for relief from 
 her anxieties, that she gave a favorable interpretation to 
 these words. Bitterly as she felt the unhappiness of her
 
 60 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 oldest daughter, Dolly, who was thinking of leaving her 
 husband, agitation regarding the decision of her young- 
 est daughter's fate completely absorbed her thoughts. 
 
 Levin's arrival to-day gave her a new anxiety. She 
 feared lest her daughter, who, as she thought, had at one 
 time felt drawn toward Levin, might, out of excessive 
 delicacy, refuse Vronsky, and she feared more than 
 anything else that his arrival would complicate every- 
 thing and postpone a long-desired consummation. 
 
 " Has he been here long?" asked the princess of her 
 daughter, when they reached home after their meeting 
 with Levin. 
 
 "Since yesterday, Diaman." 
 
 " I have one thing that I want to say to you ...." the 
 princess began, and, at the sight of her serious and agi- 
 tated face, Kitty knew what was coming. 
 
 " Mamma," said she, blushing, and turning quickly to 
 her, " please, please don't speak about this. I know, I 
 know all ! " 
 
 She wished the same thing that her mother wished, 
 but the motives of her mother's desires were repugnant 
 to her. 
 
 " I only wish to say that as you have given hope to 
 one.... " 
 
 " Mamma, galnbchik, 1 don't speak. It 's so terrible 
 to speak about this." 
 
 " I will not," replied her mother, seeing the tears in 
 her daughter's eyes; "only one word, moya dusha^ : 
 you have promised to have no secrets from me. Have 
 you any ? " 
 
 " Never, mamma, not one ! " replied Kitty, looking 
 her mother full in the face and blushing; "but I have 
 nothing to tell now. I .... I .... even if I wanted to, I 
 don't know what to say and how .... I don't know ...." 
 
 " No, with those eyes she cannot speak a falsehood," 
 said the mother to herself, smiling at her emotion and 
 happiness. The princess smiled to think how momen- 
 tous appeared to the poor girl what was passing in her 
 heart. 
 
 1 Little dove. 2 My soul.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 61 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 AFTER dinner, and during the first part of the even- 
 ing, Kitty felt as a young man feels before a battle. 
 Her heart beat violently, and she could not concentrate 
 her thoughts. 
 
 She felt that this evening, when they two should meet 
 for the first time, would decide her fate. She kept see- 
 ing them in her imagination, sometimes together, some- 
 times separately. When she thought of the past, 
 pleasure, almost tenderness, filled her heart at the 
 remembrance of her relations with Levin. The recol- 
 lections of her childhood and of his friendship with 
 her departed brother imparted a certain poetic charm 
 to her relations with him. His love for her, of which 
 she was certain, was flattering and agreeable to her, 
 and she found it easy to think about Levin. In her 
 thoughts about Vronsky there was something that 
 made her uneasy, though he was a man to the highest 
 degree polished and self-possessed ; there seemed to be 
 something false, not in him, for he was very simple 
 and good, but in herself, while all was clear and 
 simple in her relations with Levin. But while Vronsky 
 seemed to offer her dazzling promises and a brilliant 
 future, the future with Levin seemed enveloped in 
 mist. 
 
 When she went up-stairs to dress for the evening and 
 looked into the mirror, she noticed with delight that she was 
 looking her loveliest, and that she was in full possession 
 of all her powers, and what was most important on this 
 occasion, that she felt at ease and entirely self-possessed. 
 
 At half-past seven, as she was going into the drawing- 
 room, the lackey announced, " Konstantin Dmitritch 
 Levin." The princess was still in her room ; the prince 
 had not yet come down. " It has come at last," thought 
 Kitty, and all the blood rushed to her heart. As she 
 glanced into a mirror, she was startled to see how pale 
 she looked. 
 
 She knew now, for a certainty, that he had come early,
 
 62 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 so as to find her alone and offer himself. And instantly 
 the situation appeared to her for the first time in a new, 
 strange light. Then only she realized that the question 
 did not concern herself alone, nor who would make her 
 happy, nor whom she loved, but that she should have to 
 wound a man whom she liked, and to wound him cruelly 
 .... why, why was it that such a charming man loved 
 her ? Why had he fallen in love with her ? But it was 
 too late to mend matters ; it was fated to be so. 
 
 " Merciful Heaven ! is it possible that I myself must 
 tell him," she thought, "I must tell him that I don't 
 love him ? That is not true ! But what can I say ? 
 That I love another? No, that is impossible. I will 
 run away, I will run away ! " 
 
 She had already reached the door, when she heard his 
 step. " No, it is not honorable. What have I to fear ? 
 I have done nothing wrong. Let come what will, I will 
 tell the truth ! I shall not be ill at ease with him. Ah, 
 here he is ! " she said to herself, as she saw his strong 
 but timid countenance, with his brilliant eyes fixed upon 
 her. She looked him full in the face, with an air which 
 seemed to implore his protection, and extended her 
 hand. 
 
 " I am rather early, too early, I am afraid," said he, 
 casting a glance about the empty room ; and when he 
 saw that his hope was fulfilled, and that nothing would 
 prevent him from speaking, his face grew solemn. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " said Kitty, sitting down near a table. 
 
 " But it is exactly what I wanted, so that I might find 
 you alone," he began, without sitting, and without look- 
 ing at her, lest he should lose his courage. 
 
 " Mamma will be here in a moment. She was very 
 tired to-day. To-day .... " 
 
 She spoke without knowing what her lips said, and 
 did not take her imploring and gentle gaze from his 
 face. 
 
 Levin gazed at her ; she blushed, and stopped speak- 
 ing. 
 
 " I told you to-day that I did not know how long I 
 should stay .... that it depended on you .... "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 63 
 
 Kitty drooped her head lower and lower, not know- 
 ing how she should reply to the words that he was going 
 to speak. 
 
 "That it depended upon you," he repeated. "I 
 meant .... I meant .... I came for this, that .... be my wife," 
 he murmured, not knowing what he had said ; but, feel- 
 ing that he had got through the worst of the difficulty, 
 he stopped and looked at her. 
 
 She felt almost suffocated ; she did not raise her head. 
 She felt a sort of ecstasy. Her heart was full of happi- 
 ness. Never could she have believed that the declara- 
 tion of his love would make such a deep impression 
 upon her. But this impression lasted only a moment. 
 She remembered Vronsky. She raised her sincere and 
 liquid eyes to Levin, and, seeing his agitated face, said 
 hastily : 
 
 " This cannot be ! .... Forgive me ! " 
 
 How near to him, a moment since, she had been, and 
 how necessary to his life ! and now how far away and 
 strange she suddenly seemed to be ! 
 
 " It could not have been otherwise," he said, without 
 looking at her. 
 
 He bowed and was about to leave the room. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 AT this instant the princess entered. Apprehension 
 was pictured on. her face when she saw their agitated 
 faces and that they had been alone. Levin bowed low, 
 and did not speak. Kitty was silent, and did not raise 
 her eyes. " Thank God, she has refused him ! " thought 
 the mother ; and her face lighted up with the smile with 
 which she always received her Thursday guests. She 
 sat down, and began to ask Levin questions about his 
 life in the country. He also sat down, hoping to escape 
 unobserved when the guests began to arrive. 
 
 Five minutes later, one of Kitty's friends, who had 
 been married the winter before, was announced, the
 
 64 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Countess Nordstone. She was a dried-up, sallow, ner- 
 vous, sickly woman, with brilliant black eyes. She was 
 fond of Kitty, and her affection, like that of every mar- 
 ried woman for a young girl, was expressed by a keen 
 desire to have her married in accordance with her own 
 ideal of conjugal happiness. She wanted to marry her 
 to Vronsky. Levin, whom she had often met at the 
 Shcherbatskys' the first of the winter, was always dis- 
 tasteful to her, and her favorite occupation, after she 
 had met him in society, was to make sport of him. 
 
 "I am enchanted," she said, "when he looks down 
 on me from his loftiness ; either he fails to honor me 
 with his learned conversation because I am too silly 
 for him, or else he treats me condescendingly. I like 
 this ; condescending to me ! I am very glad that he 
 cannot endure me." 
 
 She was right, because the fact was that Levin could 
 not endure her, and he despised her for being proud of 
 what she regarded as a merit, her nervous tempera- 
 ment, her indifference and delicate scorn for all that 
 seemed to her gross and material. 
 
 The relationship between Levin and the Countess 
 Nordstone was such as is often met with in society 
 where two persons, friends in outward appearance, 
 despise each other to such a degree that they cannot 
 hold a serious conversation, or even clash with each 
 other. 
 
 The Countess Nordstone instantly addressed herself 
 to Levin : 
 
 " Ah, Konstantin Dmitrievitch ! are you back again 
 in our abominable Babylon ? " said she, giving him her 
 little yellow hand, and recalling his owit words at the 
 beginning of the winter when he said Moscow was a 
 Babylon. " Is Babylon converted, or have you been 
 corrupted ? " she added, with a mocking smile in Kitty's 
 direction. 
 
 " I am greatly nattered, countess, that you remember 
 my words so well," replied Levin, who, having had time 
 to collect his thoughts, instantly entered into the face- 
 tiously hostile tone peculiar to his relations with the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 65 
 
 Countess Nordstone. " It seems that they have made 
 a very deep impression on you." 
 
 " Akh ! how so ? But I always make notes. Well ! 
 how is it, Kitty, have you been skating to-day?".... 
 
 And she began to talk with her young friend. 
 
 Awkward as it was in him to take his departure now, 
 Levin preferred to commit this breach of etiquette 
 rather than remain through the evening, and to see 
 Kitty, who occasionally looked at him, though she 
 avoided his eyes. He attempted to get up; but the 
 princess, noticing that he had nothing to say, addressed 
 him directly : 
 
 " Do you intend to remain long in Moscow ? You 
 are justice of the peace in your district, are you not? 
 and I suppose that will prevent you from making a 
 long stay." 
 
 "No, princess, I have resigned that office," he % said. 
 " I have come to stay several days." 
 
 " Something has happened to him," thought the 
 Countess Nordstone, as she saw Levin's stern and seri- 
 ous face, " because he does not launch out into his usual 
 tirades ; but I '11 soon draw him out. Nothing amuses 
 me more than to make him ridiculous before Kitty, and 
 I '11 do it." 
 
 " Konstantin Dmitritch," she said to him, " explain 
 to me, please, what this means, for you know all about 
 it : at our estate in Kaluga all the muzhiks and their 
 wives have drunk up everything they had, and don't 
 pay what they owe us. You are always praising the 
 muzhiks ; what does this mean ? " 
 
 At this moment another lady came in, and Levin arose. 
 
 " Excuse me, countess, I know nothing at all about 
 it, and I cannot answer your question," said he, look- 
 ing at an officer who entered at the same time with the 
 lady. 
 
 " That must be Vronsky," he thought, and to confirm 
 his surmise he glanced at Kitty. She had already had 
 time to perceive Vronsky, and she was looking at Levin. 
 When he saw the young girl's involuntarily brightening 
 eyes, Levin saw that she loved that man, he saw it as 
 
 VOL. I. 5
 
 66 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 clearly as if she herself had confessed it to him. But 
 what sort of a man was he ? 
 
 Now whether it was wise or foolish Levin could 
 not help remaining ; he must find out for himself what 
 sort of a man it was that she loved. 
 
 There are men who, on meeting a fortunate rival, are 
 immediately disposed to deny that there is any good in 
 him and see only evil in him ; others, on the contrary, 
 endeavor to discover nothing but the merits that have 
 won him his success, and with sore hearts to attribute 
 to him nothing but good. Levin belonged to the latter 
 class. It was not hard for him to discover what amiable 
 and attractive qualities Vronsky possessed. They were 
 apparent at a glance. He was dark, of medium stature, 
 and well proportioned ; his face was handsome, calm, 
 and friendly ; everything about his person, from his 
 black, short-cut hair, and his freshly shaven chin, to his 
 new, well-fitting uniform, was simple and perfectly ele- 
 gant. Vronsky allowed the lady to pass before him, 
 then he approached the princess, and finally came to 
 Kitty. As he drew near her, his beautiful eyes shone 
 with deeper tenderness, and with a smile expressive of 
 joy mingled with triumph, so it seemed to Levin, 
 he bowed respectfully and with dignity and offered her 
 his small, wide hand. After greeting them all and speak- 
 ing a few words, he sat down without having seen Levin, 
 who never once took his eyes from him. 
 
 " Allow me to make you acquainted," said the prin- 
 cess, turning to Levin : " Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin, 
 Count Alekse? Kirillovitch Vronsky." 
 
 Vronsky arose, and, with a friendly look into Levin's 
 eyes, shook hands with him. 
 
 "It seems," said he, with his frank and pleasant 
 smile, " that I was to have had the honor of dining with 
 you this winter ; but you went off unexpectedly to the 
 country." 
 
 " Konstantin Dmitritch despises and shuns the city, 
 and us, its denizens," said the Countess Nordstone. 
 
 " It must be that my words impress you deeply, since 
 you remember them so well," said Levin; and, perceiv-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 67 
 
 ing that he had already made this remark, he grew red 
 in the face. 
 
 Vronsky looked at Levin and the countess, and smiled. 
 
 " So, then, you always live in the country ? " he asked. 
 " I should think it would be tiresome in winter." 
 
 " Not if one has enough to do ; besides, one does not 
 get tired of himself," said Levin, sharply. 
 
 " I like the country," said Vronsky, noticing Levin's 
 tone and appearing not to notice it. 
 
 " But, count, I hope you would not consent to live 
 always in the country," said the Countess Nordstone. 
 
 " I don't know ; I never made a long stay, but I once 
 felt a strange sensation," he added. " Never have I so 
 eagerly longed for the country, the real Russian country 
 with its bast shoes and its muzhiks, as during the winter 
 that I spent at Nice with my mother. Nice, you know, 
 is melancholy anyway ; and Naples, Sorrento, are pleas- 
 ant only for a short time. There it is that one remembers 
 Russia most tenderly, and especially the country. They 
 are almost as .... " 
 
 He spoke, now addressing Kitty, now Levin, turning 
 his calm and friendly eyes from one to the other, and he 
 evidently said whatever came into his head. 
 
 Noticing that the Countess Nordstone wanted to say 
 something, he stopped, without finishing his phrase, and 
 began to listen to her attentively. 
 
 The conversation did not languish a single instant, so 
 that the old princess, who always had in reserve two 
 heavy guns, in case there needed to be a change in the 
 conversation, namely, classic and scientific education, 
 and the general compulsory conscription, had no need 
 to bring them out, and the Countess Nordstone did not 
 even have a chance to rally Levin. 
 
 Levin wanted to join in the general conversation, but 
 was unable. He kept saying to himself, " Now, I '11 
 go ; " and still he waited as if he expected something. 
 
 The conversation turned on table-tipping and spirits ; 
 and the Countess Nordstone, who was a believer in 
 spiritism, began to relate the marvels that she had 
 seen.
 
 68 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Akh, countess! in the name of Heaven, take me to 
 see them. I never yet saw anything extraordinary, 
 anxious as I have always been," said Vronsky, smiling. 
 
 " Good ; next Saturday," replied the countess. " But 
 you, Konstantin Dmitritch, do you believe in it ? " she 
 asked of Levin. 
 
 " Why do you ask me ? You know perfectly well what 
 I shall say." 
 
 " Because I wanted to hear your opinion." 
 
 "My opinion is simply this," replied Levin: "that 
 table-tipping proves that so-called cultivated society is 
 scarcely more advanced than the muzhiks ; they believe 
 in the evil eye, in casting lots, in sorceries, while we .... " 
 
 " That means that you don't believe in it ? " 
 
 " I cannot believe in it, countess." 
 
 " But if I myself have seen these things ? " 
 
 " The peasant women also say that they have seen the 
 Domovoi'. 1 
 
 "Then, you think that I do not tell the truth? " 
 
 And she broke into an unpleasant laugh. 
 
 " But no, Masha. Konstantin Dmitritch simply says 
 that he cannot believe in spiritism," said Kitty, blushing 
 for Levin ; and Levin understood her, and, growing still 
 more irritated, was about to reply ; but Vronsky instantly 
 came to the rescue, and with a gentle smile brought 
 back the conversation, which threatened to go beyond 
 the bounds of politeness. 
 
 " Do not you admit at all the possibility of its being 
 true?" he asked. "Why not? We willingly admit the 
 existence of electricity, which we do not understand. 
 Why should there not exist a new force, as yet unknown, 
 which...." 
 
 "When electricity was discovered," interrupted Levin, 
 eagerly, " only its phenomena had been seen, and it was 
 not known what produced them, or whence they arose; 
 and centuries passed before people dreamed of making 
 application of it. Spiritualists, on the other hand, have 
 
 1 The Domovoi is the house-spirit, like the latin lar, who lives behind 
 the stove, and when propitiated by cream and colored eggs is beneficent, 
 but if offended may play disagreeable tricks. TR.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 69 
 
 begun by making tables write, and by summoning spirits 
 to them, and it is only afterward they began to say it is 
 an unknown force." 
 
 Vronsky listened attentively, as he always listened, and 
 was evidently interested in Levin's words. 
 
 " Yes; but the spiritualists say, ' We do not yet know 
 what this force is, but it is a force, and acts under certain 
 conditions.' Let the scientists find out what it is. I 
 don't see why it may not be a new force if it .... " 
 
 " Because," interrupted Levin again, " every time you 
 rub resin with wool, you produce a certain and invariable 
 electrical phenomenon ; while spiritism brings no such 
 invariable result, and so it cannot be a natural phe- 
 nomenon." 
 
 Vronsky, evidently perceiving that the conversation 
 was growing too serious for a reception, made no reply ; 
 and, in order to make a diversion, smiled gayly, and ad- 
 dressing the ladies said : 
 
 " Countess, let us make the experiment now ? " 
 
 But Levin wanted to finish saying what was in his 
 mind : 
 
 "I think," he continued, "that the attempts made by 
 spiritual mediums to explain their miracles by a new 
 force is most abortive. They claim that it is a super- 
 natural force, and yet they want to submit it to a material 
 test." 
 
 All were waiting for him to come to an end, and he 
 felt it. 
 
 " And I think that you would be a capital medium," 
 said the Countess Nordstone. " There is something so 
 enthusiastic about you ! " 
 
 Levin opened his mouth to speak, but he said nothing, 
 and turned red. 
 
 " Come, let us give the tables a trial," said Vronsky ; 
 " with your permission, princess." And Vronsky rose, 
 and looked for a small table. 
 
 Kitty was standing by a table, and her eyes met 
 Levin's. Her whole soul pitied him, because she felt 
 that she was the cause of his pain. Her look said, 
 " Forgive me, if you can, I am so happy."
 
 7 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 And his look replied, " I hate the whole world, you 
 and myself." And he took up his hat. 
 
 But it was not his fate to go. The guests were just 
 taking their places around the table, and he was on the 
 point of starting, when the old prince entered, and, after 
 greeting the ladies, went straight to Levin. 
 
 " Ah! " he cried joyfully. " What a stranger ! I did 
 not know that you were here. Very glad to see you ! " 
 
 In speaking to Levin the prince sometimes used the 
 familiar tui, thou, and sometimes the formal vui, you. 
 He took him by the arm, and, while conversing with him, 
 gave no notice to Vronsky, who stood waiting patiently 
 for the prince to speak to him. 
 
 Kitty felt that her father's friendliness must be hard 
 for Levin after what had happened. She also noticed 
 how coldly her father at last acknowledged Vronsky's 
 bow, and how Vronsky looked at her father, with good- 
 humored perplexity striving in vain to make out what 
 this icy reception meant, and she blushed. 
 
 " Prince, let us have Konstantin Dmitritch," said the 
 Countess Nordstone. " We want to try an experiment." 
 
 "What sort of an experiment? table-tipping? Well! 
 excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but, in my opinion, 
 grace-hoops 1 would be a better game," said the prince, 
 looking at Vronsky, whom he took to be the originator 
 of this sport. " At least there's some sense in grace- 
 hoops." 
 
 Vronsky, astonished, turned his steady eyes upon the 
 old prince, and, slightly smiling, began to talk with the 
 Countess Nordstone about the arrangements for a great 
 ball to be given the following week. 
 
 " I hope that you will be there," said he, turning to 
 Kitty. 
 
 As soon as the old prince turned from him Levin 
 made his escape; and the last impression which he bore 
 away from this reception was Kitty's happy, smiling 
 face, answering Vronsky's question in regard to the 
 ball. 
 
 1 Kaletchki.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 71 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 AFTER the guests had gone, Kitty told her mother of 
 her conversation with Levin; and, in spite of all the 
 pain that she had caused him, the thought that he had 
 asked her to marry him flattered her. She had no 
 doubt that she had acted properly, but it was long be- 
 fore she could go to sleep. One memory constantly 
 arose in her mind: it was Levin's face as, with con- 
 tracted brow, he stood listening to her father, looking 
 at her and Vronsky with his gloomy, melancholy, kind 
 eyes. She felt so sorry for him that she could not keep 
 back the tears. But, as she thought of him who had 
 replaced Levin in her regards, she saw vividly his 
 handsome, strong, and manly face, his aristocratic self- 
 possession, his universal kindness to every one; she re- 
 called his love for her, and how she loved him, and joy 
 came back to her heart. She laid her head on the pil- 
 low, and smiled with happiness. 
 
 " It is too bad, too bad; but what can I do? It is not 
 my fault," she said to herself, although an inward voice 
 whispered the contrary. She did not know whether she 
 ought to reproach herself for having been attracted to 
 Levin, or for having refused him; but her happiness 
 was not alloyed with doubts. " Lord, have mercy upon 
 me! Lord, have mercy upon me! Lord, have mercy 
 upon me! " she repeated until she went to sleep. 
 
 Meantime, down-stairs, in the prince's little library, 
 there was going on one of those scenes which fre- 
 quently occurred between the parents in regard to their 
 favorite daughter. 
 
 "What? This is w"hat!" cried the prince, waving his 
 arms and immediately wrapping around him his squirrel- 
 skin khalat. "You have neither pride nor dignity; you 
 are ruining your daughter with this low and ridiculous 
 manner of husband-hunting." 
 
 " But in the name of Heaven, prince, what have I 
 done? " said the princess, almost ready to cry.
 
 72 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 She had come as usual to say good-night to her hus- 
 band, feeling very happy and satisfied over her con- 
 versation with her daughter ; and, though she had not 
 ventured to breathe a word of Levin's proposal and 
 Kitty's rejection of him, she allowed herself to hint to 
 her husband that she thought the affair with Vronsky 
 was settled, that it would be decided as soon as the 
 countess should arrive. At these words the prince had 
 fallen into a passion, and had addressed her with un- 
 pleasant reproaches: 
 
 "What have you done? This is what: In the first 
 place you have decoyed a husband for her; and all 
 Moscow will say so, and with justice. If you want to 
 give receptions, give them, by all means, but invite 
 every one, and not suitors of your own choice. Invite 
 all these mashers," thus the prince called the young 
 men of Moscow, "have somebody to play and let 'em 
 dance; but not like to-night, inviting only suitors! It 
 seems to me shameful, shameful, the way you've pushed ! 
 You have turned the girl's head. Levin is a thousand 
 times the better man. And as to this Petersburg dandy, 
 he 's one of those turned out by machinery, they are all 
 on one pattern, and all trash! My daughter has no 
 need of going out of her way, even for a prince of the 
 blood." 
 
 " But what have I done ? " 
 
 " Why, this .... " cried the prince, angrily. 
 
 " I know well enough that, if I listen to you," inter- 
 rupted the princess, "we shall never see our daughter 
 married; and, in that case, we might just as well go 
 into the country." 
 
 "We'd better go!" 
 
 " Now wait ! Have I made any advances ? No, I 
 have not. But a young man, and a very handsome 
 young man, is in love with her; and she, it seems...." 
 
 " Yes, so it seems to you. But suppose she should 
 be in love with him, and he have as much intention 
 of getting married as I myself ? Okh ! Have n't I 
 eyes to see ? ' Akh, spiritism ! akh, Nice ! akh, the 
 ball! '".... Here the prince, attempting to imitate his
 
 ANNA KARENINA 73 
 
 wife, made a courtesy at every word. " We shall be 
 very proud when we have made our Kationka unhappy, 
 and when she really takes it into her head...." 
 
 " But what makes you think so ? " 
 
 " I don't think so, I know so ; and that 's why we 
 have eyes, and you mothers have n't. I see a man 
 who has serious intentions, Levin ; and I see a fine 
 bird, like this good-for-nothing, who is merely amusing 
 himself." 
 
 " Well ! now you have taken it into your head .... " 
 
 " You will remember what I have said, but too late, 
 as you did with Dashenka." 
 
 " Very well, very well, we will not say anything more 
 about it," said the princess, who was cut short by the 
 remembrance of Dolly's unhappiness. 
 
 " So much the better, and good-night." 
 
 The husband and wife, as they separated, kissed 
 each other good-night, making the sign of the cross, 
 but with the consciousness that each remained un- 
 changed in opinion. 
 
 The princess had at first been firmly convinced that 
 Kitty's fate was decided by the events of the evening, 
 and that there could be no doubt of Vronsky's designs ; 
 but her husband's words troubled her. On her return 
 to her room, as she thought in terror of the unknown 
 future, she did just as Kitty had done, and prayed from 
 the bottom of her heart, " Lord, have mercy ! Lord, 
 have mercy ! Lord, have mercy ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 VRONSKY had never known anything of family life. 
 His mother, in her youth, had been a very brilliant 
 society woman, who, in her husband's lifetime and 
 after his death, had engaged in many love-affairs that 
 had made talk. Vronsky scarcely remembered his father, 
 and he had been educated in the School of Pages. 
 
 Graduating very young and with brilliancy as an 
 officer, he immediately began to follow the course of
 
 74 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 wealthy military men of Petersburg. Though he oc- 
 casionally went into general society, all his love-affairs 
 were with a different class. 
 
 At Moscow, after the luxurious, dissipated life of 
 Petersburg, he for the first time felt the charm of 
 familiar intercourse with a lovely, innocent society 
 girl, who was evidently in love with him. It never 
 occurred to him that there might be anything wrong 
 in his relations with Kitty. At balls he preferred to 
 dance with her, he called on her, talked with her as 
 people generally talk in society : all sorts of trifles, 
 but trifles to which he involuntarily attributed a differ- 
 ent meaning when spoken to her. Although he never 
 said anything to her which he would not have said in 
 the hearing of others, he was conscious that she kept 
 growing more and more dependent on him ; and, the 
 more he felt this consciousness, the pleasanter it was 
 to him, and his feeling toward her grew warmer and 
 warmer. He did not know that his behavior toward 
 Kitty had a definite name, that this way of leading 
 on young girls without any intention of marriage is 
 one of the most dishonorable tricks practised among 
 the members of the brilliant circles of society in which 
 he moved. He simply imagined that he had discovered 
 a new pleasure, and he enjoyed his discovery. 
 
 Could he have heard the conversation between Kitty's 
 parents that evening, could he have taken the family 
 point of view and realized that Kitty would be made 
 unhappy if he did not propose to her, he would have 
 been amazed and would not have believed it. He 
 would not have believed that what gave him and her 
 such a great delight could be wrong, still less that it 
 brought any obligation to marry. 
 
 He had never considered the possibility of his getting 
 married. Not only was family life distasteful to him, 
 but, from his view as a bachelor, the family, and espe- 
 cially the husband, belonged to a strange, hostile, and, 
 worst of all, ridiculous world. But though Vronsky had 
 not the slightest suspicion of the conversation of which 
 he had been the subject, he left the Shcherbatskys' with
 
 ANNA KARENINA 75 
 
 the feeling that the mysterious bond that attached him 
 to Kitty was closer than ever, so close, indeed, that he 
 felt that he must do something. But what he ought 
 to do or could do he could not imagine. 
 
 " How charming ! " he thought, as he went to his 
 rooms, feeling, as he always felt when he left the 
 Shcherbatskys", a deep impression of purity and fresh- 
 ness, arising partly from the fact that he had not 
 smoked all the evening, and a new sensation of ten- 
 derness caused by her love for him. " How charming 
 that, without either of us saying anything, we under- 
 stand each other so perfectly through this mute lan- 
 guage of glances and tones, so that to-day more than 
 ever before she told me that she loves me ! And how 
 lovely, natural, and, above all, confidential, she was ! 
 I feel that I myself am better, purer. I feel that I 
 have a heart, and that there is something good in me. 
 Those gentle, lovely eyes ! When she said.... Well! 
 what did she say ?.... Nothing much, but it was pleas- 
 ant for me, and pleasant for her." 
 
 And he reflected how he could best finish up the 
 evening. He passed in review the places where he 
 might go : " The ' club,' a hand of bezique and some 
 champagne with Ignatof ? No, not there. The Chateau 
 des Fleurs, to find Oblonsky, songs, and the cancan f 
 No, it 's a bore. And this is just why I like the Shcher- 
 batskys, because I feel better for having been there. 
 I '11 go home ! " 
 
 He went to his room at Dusseaux's, ordered supper, 
 and then, having undressed, he had scarcely touched his 
 head to the pillow before he was sound asleep. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE next morning, about eleven o'clock, Vronsky went 
 to the station to meet his mother on the Petersburg train ; 
 and the first person he saw on the grand staircase was 
 Oblonsky, who was expecting his sister on the same 
 train
 
 7 6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Ah ! your excellency," cried Oblonsky, " are you 
 expecting some one ? " 
 
 " My matushka," replied Vronsky, with the smile with 
 which people always met Oblonsky. And, after shak- 
 ing hands, they mounted the staircase side by side. 
 "She was to come from Petersburg to-day." 
 
 " I waited for you till two o'clock this morning. 
 Where did you go after leaving the Shcherbatskys' ? " 
 
 "Home," replied Vronsky. "To tell the truth, after 
 such a pleasant evening at the Shcherbatskys', I did not 
 feel like going anywhere." 
 
 " I know fiery horses by their brand, and young people 
 who are in love by their eyes," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 in the same dramatic tone in which he had spoken to 
 Levin the afternoon before. 
 
 Vronsky smiled, as much as to say that he did not 
 deny it ; but he hastened to change the conversation. 
 
 " And whom have you to meet ? " he asked. 
 
 " I ? a very pretty woman," said Oblonsky. 
 
 "Ah! indeed!" 
 
 " Honi soit qni mal y pense ! My sister Anna ! " 
 
 " Akh ! Madame Karenina ! " exclaimed Vronsky. 
 
 " Do you know her, then ? " 
 
 "It seems to me that I do. Or, no ....the truth is, I 
 don't think I do," replied Vronsky, somewhat confused. 
 The name Karenin dimly brought to his mind a tiresome 
 and conceited person. 
 
 " But Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, my celebrated brother- 
 in-law, you must know him ! Every one knows him." 
 
 " That is, I know him by reputation, and by sight. I 
 know that he is talented, learned, and rather adorable 
 ....but you know that he is not....^/ in my line" said 
 Vronsky in English. 
 
 " Yes ; he is a very remarkable man, somewhat con- 
 servative, but a splendid man," replied Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch. " A splendid man." 
 
 "Well! so much the better for him," said Vronsky, 
 smiling. "Ah! here you are," he cried, seeing his 
 mother's old lackey standing at the door. " Come this 
 way," he added.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 77 
 
 Vronsky, besides experiencing the pleasure that every- 
 body felt in seeing Stepan Arkadyevitch, had felt espe- 
 cially drawn to him, because, in a certain way, it brought 
 him closer to Kitty. 
 
 "Well, now, what do you say to giving the diva a 
 supper Sunday ? " said he, with a smile, taking him by 
 the arm. 
 
 " Certainly ; I will pay my share. Oh, tell me, did 
 you meet my friend Levin last evening ? " asked Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch. 
 
 "Yes, but he went away very early." 
 
 " He is a glorious young fellow," said Oblonsky, " is n't 
 he ? " 
 
 "I don't know why it is," replied Vronsky, "but all 
 the Muscovites, present company excepted," he added 
 jestingly, " have something sharp about them. They 
 all seem to be high-strung, fiery tempered, as if they all 
 wanted to make you understand .... " 
 
 "That is true enough; there is...." replied Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, smiling pleasantly. 
 
 "Is the train on time ? " asked Vronsky of an em- 
 ployee. 
 
 " It will be here directly," replied the employee. 
 
 The increasing bustle in the station, the coming and 
 going of porters, the appearance of policemen and offi- 
 cials, the arrival of expectant friends, all indicated the 
 approach of the train. Through the frosty steam, work- 
 men could be seen passing in their soft blouses and felt 
 boots amid the network of rails. The whistle of the 
 coming engine was heard, and the approach of some- 
 thing heavy. 
 
 " No," continued Stepan Arkadyevitch, who was anx- 
 ious to inform Vronsky of Levin's intentions in regard 
 to Kitty. " No, you are really unjust to my friend Levin. 
 He is a very nervous man, and sometimes he can be dis- 
 agreeable ; but, on the other hand, he can be very charm- 
 ing. He is such an upright, genuine nature, true gold ! 
 Last evening there were special reasons," continued 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a significant smile, and en- 
 tirely forgetting his genuine sympathy, which the even-
 
 78 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ing before he had felt for his old friend, and now 
 experiencing the same sympathy for Vronsky. " Yes, 
 there was a reason why he should have been either 
 very happy or very unhappy." 
 
 Vronsky stopped short, and asked point-blank : 
 
 " What was it ? Do you mean that he proposed yes- 
 terday evening to your sister-in-law ? " 
 
 " Possibly," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Something 
 like that seemed probable last evening. Yes, if he 
 went off so early, and was in such bad spirits, then it 
 
 is so He has been in love with her for so long, and 
 
 I am very sorry for him." 
 
 "Ah, indeed!.... I thought that she might, however, 
 have aspirations for a better match," said Vronsky, and, 
 filling out his chest, he began to walk up and down again. 
 Then he added : " However, I don't know him ; yes, 
 this promises to be a painful situation. That is why the 
 majority of men prefer to consort with their Claras. 
 There, lack of success shows that you have n't money 
 enough ; but here you stand on your own merits. But 
 here is the train." 
 
 In fact, the engine was now whistling some distance 
 away. But in a few minutes the platform shook, and 
 the locomotive, puffing out the steam condensed by the 
 cold air, came rolling into the station, with the lever 
 of the central wheel slowly and rhythmically rising and 
 falling, and the engineer well muffled and covered with 
 frost. Next the tender came the baggage-car, still more 
 violently shaking the platform ; a dog in its cage was 
 yelping piteously ; finally appeared the passenger-cars, 
 which jolted together as the train came to a stop. 
 
 The vigorous-looking conductor sprang down from the 
 car and whistled ; and behind him came the more impa- 
 tient of the travelers, an officer of the Guard, straight 
 and imperious, a nimble little merchant, gayly smiling, 
 with his gripsack, and a muzhik, with his bundle over 
 his shoulder. 
 
 Vronsky, standing near Oblonsky, watched the cars 
 and the passengers, and completely forgot his mother. 
 What he had just heard about Kitty caused him emotion
 
 ANNA KARENINA 79 
 
 and joy; he involuntarily straightened himself; his eyes 
 glistened ; he felt that he had won a victory. 
 
 " The Countess Vronskaya is in that compartment," 
 said the vigorous conductor, approaching him. These 
 words awoke him from his reverie, and brought his 
 thoughts back to his mother and their approaching 
 meeting. In his soul he did not respect his mother, and, 
 without ever having confessed as much to 'himself, he 
 did not love her. But his education and the usages of 
 the society in which he lived did not allow him to admit 
 that there could be in his relations with her the 
 slightest want of consideration. But the more he ex- 
 aggerated the bare outside forms, the less he felt in his 
 heart that he respected or loved her. 
 
 VRONSKY followed the conductor, and, as he was 
 about to enter the railway-carriage, he stood aside to 
 allow a lady to pass him. 
 
 With the instant intuition of a man of the world, he 
 saw, by a single glance at this lady's exterior, that she 
 belonged to the very best society. Begging her pardon, 
 he was about to enter the door, but involuntarily he 
 turned to give another look at the lady, not because she 
 was very beautiful, not because of that elegance and that 
 unassuming grace which were expressed in her whole 
 person, but because the expression of her lovely face, as 
 she passed, seemed to him so gentle and sweet. 
 
 Just as he looked back at her, she also turned her 
 head. Her brilliant gray eyes, looking almost black 
 under the long lashes, rested on his face with a friendly, 
 attentive look, as if she recognized him ; and instantly 
 she turned to seek some one in the throng. 
 
 Quick as this glance was, Vronsky had time to per- 
 ceive the dignified vivacity which played in her face/i 
 and fluttered between her shining eyes, and the scarcely <?' 
 perceptible smile parting her rosy lips. There seemed 
 to be in her whole person such a superfluity of life
 
 80 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 that, in spite of her will, it expressed itself now in the 
 lightning of her eyes, now in her smile. She demurely 
 veiled the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will 
 in her scarcely perceptible smile. 
 
 Vronsky went into the carriage. His mother, a dried- 
 up old lady with black eyes and little curls, screwed up her 
 face as she looked at him with a slight smile on her thin 
 lips. Getting up from her chair, and handing her bag 
 to her maid, she extended her little thin hand to her son, 
 and, pushing his head from her, kissed him on the brow. 
 
 " You received my telegram ? You are well? Thank 
 the Lord ! " 
 
 " Did you have a comfortable journey ? " said the son, 
 sitting down near her, and yet involuntarily listening to 
 a woman's voice just outside the door. He knew that 
 it was the voice of the lady whom he had met. 
 
 " However, I don't agree with you," said the lady's 
 voice. 
 
 " It is the Petersburg way of looking at it, madam." 
 
 " Not at all, but simply a woman's," was her reply. 
 
 "Well ! allow me to kiss your hand." 
 
 " Good-by, Ivan Petrovitch. Now look and see if my 
 brother is here, and send him to me," said the lady, at 
 the very door, and reentering the compartment. 
 
 " Have you found your brother ? " asked the Countess 
 Vronskaya, addressing the lady. 
 
 Vronsky now knew that it was Karenin's wife. 
 
 "Your brother is here," he said, rising. "Excuse 
 me ; I did not recognize you ; but our acquaintance was 
 so short," he added with a bow, " that you naturally did 
 not remember me either." 
 
 "Oh, yes, I did! " she said. " I should have known 
 you because your matushka and I have been talking 
 about you all the way." And at last she permitted the 
 animation which had been striving to break forth to 
 express itself in a smile. " But my brother has not 
 come yet." 
 
 " Go and call him, Alyosha," said the old countess. 
 
 Vronsky went out on the platform and called : 
 
 "Oblonsky! here!"
 
 ANNA KAREN1NA 81 
 
 But Karenin's wife did not wait for her brother ; as 
 soon as she saw him she ran lightly out of the carriage, 
 went straight to him, and, with a gesture which struck 
 Vronsky by its grace and energy, threw her left arm 
 around his neck and kissed him affectionately. 
 
 Vronsky could not keep his eyes from her face, and 
 smiled, without knowing why. But, remembering that 
 his mother was waiting for him, he went back into the 
 carriage. 
 
 " Very charming, is n't she ? " said the countess, re- 
 ferring to Madame Karenina. " Her husband put her 
 in my charge, and I was very glad. She and I talked 
 together all the way. Well ! and you ? They say 
 you are desperately in love. So much the better, my 
 dear, so much the better." 
 
 " I don't know what you allude to, maman ," replied 
 the son, coldly. "Come, maman, let us go." 
 
 At this moment Madame Karenina came back to take 
 leave of the countess. 
 
 " Well, countess ! you have found your son, and I my 
 brother," she said gayly; "and I have exhausted my 
 whole fund of stories. I should n't have had anything 
 more to talk about." 
 
 "Ah! not so," said the countess, taking her hand. 
 " I should not object to travel round the world with 
 you. You are one of those agreeable women with whom 
 either speech or silence is pleasant. As to your son, 
 I beg of you, don't think about him : we must have 
 separations in this world." 
 
 . Madame Karenina stood motionless, holding herself 
 very erect, and her eyes smiled. 
 
 "Anna Arkadyevna has a little boy about eight years 
 old," said the countess, in explanation to her son; "she 
 has never been separated from him before, and it troubles 
 her to leave him." 
 
 " Yes, we have talked about our children all the time, 
 the countess of her son, I of mine," said Madame 
 Karenina, turning to Vronsky ; and again the smile 
 lighted up her face, the caressing smile which beamed 
 upon him. 
 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 82 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " That must have been very tiresome to you," said he, 
 instantly catching on the rebound the ball of coquetry 
 which she had tossed to him. But she evidently did 
 not care to continue her conversation in the same tone, 
 but turned to the old countess : 
 
 " Thank you very much. I don't see where the time 
 has gone. Good-by, countess." 
 
 " Farewell, my dear," replied the countess. " Let 
 me kiss your pretty little face. I tell you frankly, as it 
 is permitted an old lady, that I am in love with you." 
 
 Hackneyed as this expression was, Madame Karenina 
 evidently believed thoroughly in its sincerity, and was 
 pleased with it. She blushed, bowed slightly, and bent 
 her face down to the old countess's lips. Then, straight- 
 ening herself up, she gave her hand to Vronsky with 
 the smile that seemed to belong as much to her eyes as 
 to her lips. He pressed her little hand, and, as if it 
 were something unusual, was delighted with the energetic 
 firmness with which she frankly and fearlessly shook his 
 hand. 
 
 Madame Karenina went out with light and rapid 
 step, carrying her rather plump person with remarkable 
 elasticity. 
 
 " Very charming," said the old lady again. 
 
 Her son was of the same opinion; and again his eyes 
 followed her graceful figure till she was out of sight, and 
 a smile rested on his face. Through the window he saw 
 her join her brother, take his arm, and engage him in 
 lively conversation, evidently about some subject with 
 which Vronsky had no connection, and this seemed to 
 him annoying. 
 
 " Well ! are you enjoying perfectly good health, 
 maman f " he asked, turning to his mother. 
 
 "Very well, indeed, splendid. Alexandre has been 
 charming, and Marie has been very good. She is very 
 interesting." 
 
 And again she began to speak of what was especially 
 interesting to her heart, the baptism of her grandson, 
 for which she had come to Moscow, and the special 
 favor shown her eldest son by the emperor.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 83 
 
 "And here is Lavronty," said Vronsky, looking out of 
 the window. " Now let us go, if you are ready." 
 
 The old steward who had come with the countess 
 now appeared at the door to report that everything was 
 ready, and she arose to go. 
 
 "Come, there are only a few people about now," said 
 Vronsky. 
 
 The maid took the bag and the little dog ; the stew- 
 ard and a porter carried the other luggage ; Vronsky 
 offered his mother his arm, but, just as they stepped 
 down from the carriage, a number of men with fright- 
 ened faces ran hastily by them. The station-master 
 followed in his curiously colored furazhka or uniform-cap. 
 Evidently something unusual had happened. The peo- 
 ple who had left the train were coming back again. 
 
 "What is it?".... "What is it ?".... "Where ?".... 
 " He was thrown down ! " ...." He was crushed to death ! " 
 were the 'exclamations heard among those hurrying by. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch with his sister on his arm had 
 returned with the others, and were standing with fright- 
 ened faces near the train to avoid the crush. 
 
 The ladies went back into the carriage, and Vronsky 
 with Stepan Arkadyevitch went with the crowd to learn 
 the particulars of the accident. 
 
 A train-hand, either from drunkenness, or because he 
 was too closely muffled against the intense cold, had not 
 heard the noise of a train that was backing out, and had 
 been crushed. 
 
 The ladies had already learned about the accident 
 from the steward before Vronsky and Oblonsky came 
 back. Both of them had seen the disfigured body. 
 Oblonsky was deeply moved ; he frowned, and seemed 
 ready to shed tears. 
 
 " Akh, how horrible ! Akh, Anna, if you had only 
 seen it ! Akh, how horrible ! " he repeated. 
 
 Vronsky said nothing ; his handsome face was serious, 
 but perfectly calm. 
 
 " Akh, if you had only seen it, countess ! " continued 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, "and his wife is there It 
 
 was terrible to see her .... she threw herself on his body.
 
 84 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 They say that he was the only support of a large 
 family. How terrible ! " 
 
 " Could anything be done for her ? " said Madame 
 Karenina, in an agitated whisper. 
 
 Vronsky looked at her, and immediately left the car- 
 riage. 
 
 " I will be right back, maman" said he, turning round 
 at the door. 
 
 When he came back, at the end of a few minutes, 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch was talking with the countess 
 about a new singer, and she was impatiently watching 
 the door for her son. 
 
 " Now let us go," said Vronsky. 
 
 They all went out together, Vronsky walking ahead 
 with his mother, Madame Karenina and her brother 
 side by side. At the door the station-master overtook 
 them, and said to Vronsky : 
 
 " You have given my assistant two hundred rubles. 
 Will you kindly indicate the disposition that we shall 
 make of them ? " 
 
 " For his widow," said Vronsky, shrugging his shoul- 
 ders. " I don't see why you should have asked me." 
 
 " Did you give that? " asked Oblonsky ; and, pressing 
 his sister's arm, he said, " Very kind, very kind. Glo- 
 rious fellow, is n't he ? My best wishes, countess." 
 
 He and his sister delayed, looking for her maid. 
 When they left the station, the Vronskys' carriage had 
 already gone. People on all sides were talking about 
 what had happened. 
 
 " What a horrible way of dying ! " said a gentleman, 
 passing near them. " They say he was cut in two." 
 
 " It seems to me, on the contrary," replied another, 
 " that it was a very easy way ; death was instan- 
 taneous," 
 
 " Why were n't there any precautions taken ? " asked 
 a third. 
 
 Madame Karenina sat down in the carriage ; and 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch noticed, with astonishment, that 
 her lips trembled, and that she could hardly keep back 
 the tears.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 85 
 
 "What is the matter, Anna ? " he asked, when they 
 had gone a little distance. 
 
 " It is an evil omen," she answered. 
 
 " What nonsense ! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch. "You 
 have come .... that is the main thing. You cannot imag- 
 ine how much I hope from your visit." 
 
 " Have you known Vronsky long ? " she asked. 
 
 "Yes. You know we hope that he will marry 
 Kitty." 
 
 "Really," said Anna, gentiy. "Well! now let us 
 talk about yourself," she added, shaking her head as if 
 she wanted to drive away something that troubled and 
 pained her physically. " Let us speak about your 
 affairs. I received your letter, and here I am." 
 
 " Yes, all my hope is in you," said Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch. 
 
 " Well, then ! tell me all." 
 
 And Stepan Arkadyevitch began his story. 
 
 When they reached the house he helped his sister 
 from the carriage, sighed, shook hands with her, and 
 went to the court-house. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 WHEN Anna entered, Dolly was sitting in her little 
 reception-room, with a plump light-haired lad, the image 
 of his father, who was learning a lesson from a French 
 reading-book. The boy was reading aloud, and at the 
 same time twisting and trying to pull from his jacket 
 a button which was hanging loose. His mother had 
 many times reproved him, but the plump little hand 
 kept returning to the button. At last she had to take 
 the button off, and put it in her pocket. 
 
 " Keep your hands still, Grisha," said she, and again 
 took up the bed-quilt on which she had been long at 
 work, and which always came handy at trying moments. 
 She worked nervously, jerking her fingers and counting 
 the stitches. Though she had sent word to her hus- 
 band, the day before, that his sister's arrival made no
 
 86 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 difference to her, nevertheless, she was ready to receive 
 her, and was waiting for her impatiently. 
 
 Dolly was absorbed by her woes, absolutely swal- 
 lowed up by them. But she did not forget that her 
 sister-in-law, Anna, was the wife of one of the impor- 
 tant personages of Petersburg, a Petersburg grande 
 dame. And, owing to this fact, she did not carry out 
 what she had said to her husband ; in other words, she 
 did not forget that her sister was coming. 
 
 " After all, Anna is not to blame," she said to her- 
 self. " I know nothing about her that is not good, and 
 our relations have always been good and friendly." 
 
 To be sure, as far as she could recall the impressions 
 made on her by the Karenins, at Petersburg, their home 
 did not seem to her entirely pleasant ; there was some- 
 thing false in the whole manner of their family life. 
 
 " But why should I not receive her ? Provided, only, 
 that she does not take it into her head to console me," 
 thought Dolly. " I know what these Christian exhor- 
 tations, consolations, and justifications mean; I have 
 gone over them all a thousand times, and they amount to 
 nothing." 
 
 Dolly had spent these last days alone with her chil- 
 dren. She did not care to speak to any one about her 
 sorrow, and under the load of it she could not talk 
 about indifferent matters. She knew that some way or 
 other she should have to open her heart to Anna, and 
 at one moment the thought that she could open her 
 heart delighted her ; and then again she was angry 
 because she must speak of her humiliations before his 
 sister, and listen to her ready-made phrases of exhorta- 
 tion and consolation. 
 
 She had been expecting every moment to see her 
 sister-in-law appear, and had been watching the clock ; 
 but, as often happens in such cases, she became so ab- 
 sorbed in her thoughts that she did not hear the door 
 bell. Hearing light steps and the rustling of a gown, 
 she looked up, and involuntarily her jaded face expressed, 
 not pleasure, but surprise. She arose, and threw her 
 arms round her sister-in-law.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 87 
 
 " Why ! have you come already ? " she cried, kissing her. 
 
 " Dolly, how glad I am to see you ! " 
 
 " And I am glad to see you," replied Dolly, with a 
 faint smile, and trying to read, by the expression of 
 Anna's face, how much she knew. " She knows all," 
 was her thought, as she saw the look of compassion on 
 her features. " Well ! let us go up-stairs ; I will show 
 you to your room," she went on to say, trying to post- 
 pone, as long as possible, the time for explanations. 
 
 " Is this Grisha ? Heavens ! how he has grown ! " 
 said Anna, kissing him. Then, not taking her eyes 
 from Dolly, she added, with a blush, " No, please let us 
 not go yet." 
 
 She took off her handkerchief and her hat, and when 
 it caught in the locks of her dark curly hair she shook 
 her head and released it. 
 
 " How brilliantly happy and healthy you look," said 
 Dolly, almost enviously. 
 
 " I ?".... exclaimed Anna. " Ah ! .... Heavens ! Tania! 
 is that you, the playmate of my little Serozha ? " said 
 she, speaking to a little girl who came running in. 
 She took her by the hand, and kissed her. " What a 
 charming little girl ! Charming ! But you must show 
 them all to me." 
 
 She recalled not only the name, the year, and the 
 month of each, but their characteristics and their little 
 ailments, and Dolly could not help feeling touched. 
 
 "Come! let us go and see them," said she; "but 
 Vasya is having her nap now ; it 's too bad." 
 
 After they had seen the children, they came back to 
 the sitting-room alone for coffee. Anna drew the tray 
 toward her, and then she pushed it away. 
 
 " Dolly," said she, "he has told me."' 
 
 Dolly looked at Anna coldly. She now expected 
 some expression of hypocritical sympathy, but Anna 
 said nothing of the kind. 
 
 "Dolly, my dear," she said, "I do not intend to 
 speak to you in defense of him, nor to console you ; it 
 is impossible. But, dushenka, dear heart, I am sorry, 
 sorry for you with all my soul ! "
 
 88 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Under her long lashes her brilliant eyes suddenly filled 
 with tears. She drew closer, and with her energetic 
 little hand seized the hand of her sister-in-law. Dolly 
 did not repulse her, but her face still preserved its 
 forlorn expression. 
 
 " It is impossible to console me. After what has 
 happened, all is over for me, all is lost." 
 
 And she had hardly said these words ere her face 
 suddenly softened a little. Anna lifted to her lips the 
 thin, dry hand that she held, and kissed it. 
 
 " But, Dolly, what is to be done ? what is to be done ? 
 What is the best way to act in this frightful condition 
 of things? We must think about it." 
 
 " All is over! Nothing can be done ! " Dolly replied. 
 " And, what is worse than all, you must understand it, 
 is that I cannot leave him ! the children ! I am chained 
 to him ! and I cannot live with him ! It is torture to see 
 him ! " 
 
 " Dolly, galubchik, he has told me ; but I should like 
 to hear your side of the story. Tell me all." 
 
 Dolly looked at her with a questioning expression. 
 Sympathy and the sincerest affection were depicted in 
 Anna's face. 
 
 " I should like to," she suddenly said. " But I shall 
 tell you everything from the very beginning. You know 
 how I was married. With the education that maman 
 gave me, I was not only innocent, I was stupid. I did 
 not know anything. I know they said husbands told 
 their wives all about their past lives ; but Stiva" 
 she corrected herself, " Stepan Arkadyevitch never 
 told me anything. You would not believe it, but, up to 
 the present time, I supposed that I was the only woman 
 with whom he was acquainted. Thus I lived eight years. 
 You see, I not only never suspected him of being un- 
 faithful to me, but I believed such a thing to be impossi- 
 ble. And with such ideas, imagine how I suffered when 
 I suddenly learned all this horror all this dastardliness. 
 .... Understand me. To believe absolutely in his honor" .... 
 continued Dolly, struggling to keep back her sobs, 
 "and suddenly to find a letter.... a letter from him to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 89 
 
 his mistress, to the governess of ttly children. No ; this 
 is too cruel ! " She hastily took out her handkerchief, and 
 hid her face in it. " I might have been able to admit a 
 moment of temptation," she continued, after a moment's 
 pause ; " but this hypocrisy, this continual attempt to de- 
 ceive me .... and for whom ? .... To continue to be my hus- 
 band, and yet have her".... It is frightful; you cannot 
 comprehend...." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! I comprehend ; I comprehend, my dear 
 Dolly," said Anna, squeezing her hand. 
 
 "And do you imagine that he appreciates all the 
 horror of my situation ? " continued Dolly. " Certainly 
 not ; he is happy and contented." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " interrupted Anna, warmly. " He is thor- 
 oughly repentant; he is overwhelmed with remorse.... " 
 
 " Is he capable of remorse?" demanded Dolly, scru- 
 tinizing her sister-in-law's face. 
 
 " Yes ; I know him. I could not look at him without 
 feeling sorry for him. We both of us know him. He 
 is kind ; but he is proud, and now he is so humiliated ! 
 What touched me most" Anna knew well enough that 
 this would touch Dolly also "are the two things that 
 pained him : In the first place, he was ashamed for the 
 children; and secondly, because, loving you .... yes, yes, 
 loving you more than any one else in the world," she 
 added vehemently, to prevent Dolly from interrupting 
 her, " he has wounded you grievously, has almost 
 killed you. ' No, no, she will never forgive me ! ' he 
 keeps saying all the time." 
 
 Dolly looked straight beyond her sister as she lis- 
 tened. 
 
 " Yes, I understand that his position is terrible. The 
 guilty suffers more than the innocent, if he knows 
 that he is the cause of all the unhappiness. But how 
 can I forgive him ? How can I be his wife again after 
 she has.... For me to live with him henceforth would 
 be torment all the more because I still love what I used 
 to love in him .... " 
 
 And the sobs prevented her from speaking. 
 
 But as if on purpose, each time, after she had become
 
 9 o 
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 a little calmer, she began again to speak of what hurt 
 her most cruelly. 
 
 " She is young, you see, she is pretty," she went on 
 to say. " Do you realize, Anna, for whom I have sacri- 
 ficed my youth, my beauty ? For him and his children ! 
 I have worn myself out in his service, I have given him 
 the best that I had; and now, of course, some one 
 younger and fresher than I am is more pleasing to him. 
 They have, certainly, discussed me between them, 
 or, worse, have insulted me with their silence, do you 
 understand ? " 
 
 And again her jealousy flamed up in her eyes. 
 
 "And after this he will tell me.... What! could I 
 believe it ? No, never ! it is all over, all that gave me 
 
 recompense for my sufferings, for my sorrows 
 
 Would you believe it ? just now I was teaching Grisha. 
 It used to be a pleasure to me ; now it is a torment. 
 Why should I take the trouble ? Why have I children ? 
 It is terrible, because my whole soul is in revolt ; instead 
 of love, tenderness, I am filled with nothing but hate, 
 yes, hate ! I could kill him and .... " 
 
 " Dushenka ! Dolly ! I understand you ; but don't 
 torment yourself so ! You are too excited, too angry, to 
 see things in their right light." 
 
 Dolly grew calmer, and for a few moments neither 
 spoke. 
 
 " What is to be done, Anna ? Consider and help me. 
 I have thought of everything, but I cannot see any way 
 out of it." 
 
 Anna herself did not see any, but her heart responded 
 to every word, to every expression in her sister-in-law's 
 face. 
 
 "I will tell you one thing," said she at last. "I am 
 his sister ; I know his character, his peculiarity of for- 
 getting everything," she touched her forehead, "this 
 peculiarity of his which is so conducive to sudden temp- 
 tation, but also to repentance. At the present moment, 
 he does not understand how it was possible for him to 
 have done what he did." 
 
 "Not so! He does understand and he did under-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 91 
 
 stand," interrupted Dolly. " But I .... you forget me ; 
 .... does that make the pain less for me ? " 
 
 " Wait ! when he made his confession to me, I ac- 
 knowledge that I did not appreciate the whole horror 
 of your position. I saw only him and the fact that the 
 family was broken up. I was sorry for him ; but now 
 that I have been talking with you, I, as a woman, look 
 on it in a different light. I see your suffering, and I 
 cannot tell you how sorry I am. But, Dolly, dushenka, 
 while I fully appreciate your misfortune, there is one 
 thing which I do not know: I do not know.... I do not 
 know to what degree you still love him. You alone can 
 tell whether you love him enough to forgive him. If 
 you do, then forgive him." 
 
 " No," began Dolly ; but Anna interrupted her, kiss- 
 ing her hand again. 
 
 " I know the world better than you do," she said. 
 " I know how such men as Stiva look on these things. 
 You say that they have discussed you between them. 
 Don't you believe it. These men can be unfaithful to 
 their marriage vows, but their homes and their wives 
 remain no less sacred in their eyes. Between these 
 women and their families, they draw a line of demar- 
 cation which is never crossed. I cannot understand how 
 it can be, but so it is." 
 
 " Yes, but he has kissed her.... " 
 
 " Wait, Dolly, dushenka ! I saw Stiva when he was 
 in love with you. I remember the time when he used 
 to come to me and talk about you with tears in his eyes. 
 I know to what a poetic height he raised you, and I 
 know that the longer he lived with you the more he 
 admired you. We always have smiled at his habit of 
 saying at every opportunity, 'Dolly is an extraordinary 
 woman' You have been, and you always will be, an 
 object of adoration in his eyes, and this passion is not 
 a defection of his heart .... " 
 
 " But supposing this defection should be repeated ? " 
 
 " It is impossible, as I think .... " 
 
 " Yes, but would you have forgiven him ? " 
 
 " I don't know ; I can't say Yes, I could," said
 
 92 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Anna, after a moment's thought, apprehending the 
 gravity of the situation and weighing it in her mental 
 scales. " I could, I could, I could ! Yes, I could for- 
 give him, but I should not be the same ; but I should 
 forgive him, and I should forgive him in such a way 
 as to show that the past was forgotten, absolutely for- 
 gotten." .... 
 
 " Well ! of course," interrupted Dolly, impetuously, as 
 if she was saying what she had said many times to her- 
 self " otherwise it would not be forgiveness. If you 
 forgive, it must be absolutely, absolutely. Well ! let 
 me show you to your room," said she, rising, and throw- 
 ing her arm around her sister-in-law. 
 
 " My dear, how glad I am that you came. My heart 
 is already lighter, much lighter." 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 ANNA spent the whole day at home, that is to say, 
 at the Oblonskys', and refused to see any callers, al- 
 though some of her friends, having learned of her 
 arrival, came to see her. The whole morning was 
 given to Dolly and the children. She sent a note to 
 her brother that he must dine at home. 
 
 " Come, God is merciful," she wrote. 
 
 Oblonsky accordingly dined at home. The conver- 
 sation was general, and his wife, when she spoke to 
 him, called him tni (thou), which had not been the case 
 before. The relations between husband and wife re- 
 mained cool, but nothing more was said about a separa- 
 tion, and Stepan Arkadyevitch saw the possibility of a 
 reconciliation. 
 
 Kitty came in soon after dinner. Her acquaintance 
 with Anna Arkadyevna was very slight, and she was 
 not without solicitude as to the welcome which she 
 would receive from this great Petersburg lady, whose 
 praise was in everybody's mouth. But she made a 
 pleasing impression on Anna Arkadyevna ; this she 
 immediately realized. Anna evidently admired her
 
 ANNA KARENINA 93 
 
 youth and beauty, and Kitty was not slow in realizing 
 a sense of being, not only under her influence, but of 
 being in love with her, and immediately fell in love 
 with her, as young girls often fall in love with married 
 women older than themselves. Anna was not like a 
 society woman, or the mother of an eight-year-old son ; 
 but, by her vivacity of movement, by the freshness and 
 animation of her face, expressed in her smile and in her 
 eyes, she would have been taken rather for a young 
 girl of twenty, had it not been for a serious and some- 
 times almost melancholy look, which struck and at- 
 tracted Kitty. 
 
 Kitty felt that she was perfectly natural and sincere, 
 but that there was something about her that suggested 
 a whole world of complicated and poetic interests far 
 beyond her comprehension. 
 
 After dinner, when Dolly had gone to her room, 
 Anna went eagerly to her brother, who was smoking 
 a cigar. 
 
 " Stiva," said she, giving him a joyous wink, making 
 the sign of the cross, and glancing toward the door, 
 "go, and God help you." 
 
 He understood her, and, throwing away his cigar, 
 disappeared behind the door. 
 
 As soon as he had gone, Anna sat down upon a divan, 
 surrounded by the children. 
 
 Either because they saw that their mamma loved this 
 aunt, or because they themselves felt a special attraction 
 toward her, the two eldest, and therefore the younger, 
 as often happens with children, had taken possession 
 of her even before dinner, and could not leave her 
 alone. And now they were having something like a 
 game, in which each tried to get next to her, to hold 
 her little hand, to kiss her, to play with her rings, or 
 even to cling to the flounces of her gown. 
 
 " There ! there ! let us sit as we were before," said 
 Anna, sitting down in her place. 
 
 And Grisna, proud and delighted, thrust his head 
 under his aunt's arm, and nestled up close to her. 
 
 "And when is the ball ? " she asked of Kitty.
 
 94 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Next week ! it will be a lovely ball one of those 
 balls where one always has a good time." 
 
 " Then there are places where one always has a good 
 time ? " asked Anna, in a tone of gentle irony. 
 
 " Strange, but it is so. We always enjoy ourselves 
 at the Bobrishchefs' and at the Nikitins', but at the Mezh- 
 kofs' it is always dull. Have n't you ever noticed that ? " 
 
 " No, dusJia moya, no ball could be amusing to me," 
 said Anna; and again Kitty saw in her eyes that un- 
 known world, which had not yet been revealed to her. 
 " For me they are all more or less tiresome." 
 
 " How could you find a ball tiresome ? " 
 
 " And why should / not find a ball tiresome ? " 
 
 Kitty perceived that Anna foresaw what her answer 
 would be : 
 
 " Because you are always the loveliest of all ! " 
 
 Anna blushed easily ; she blushed now, and said : 
 
 " In the first place, that is not true ; and in the second, 
 if it were, it would not make any difference." 
 
 " Won't you go to this ball ? " asked Kitty. 
 
 " I think that I would rather not go. Here ! take it," 
 said she to Tanya, who was drawing off a loose ring 
 from her delicate white finger. 
 
 "I should be delighted if you would go; I should so 
 like to see you at a ball." 
 
 " Well, if I have to go, I shall console myself with 
 
 the thought that I am making you happy Grisha, 
 
 don't pull my hair down ! it is disorderly enough now," 
 said she, putting back the rebellious lock with which the 
 lad was playing. 
 
 " I can imagine you at a ball dressed in violet." 
 
 " Why in violet ? " asked Anna, smiling. " Now, chil- 
 dren, run away, run away. Don't you hear ? Miss 
 Hull is calling you to tea," said she, freeing herself 
 from the children, and sending them out to. the dining- 
 room. 
 
 " I know why you want me to go to the ball. You 
 expect something wonderful to happen at this ball, and 
 you are anxious for us all to be there so as to share in 
 your happiness."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 95 
 
 " How did you know ? You are right ! " 
 
 " Oh, what a lovely age is yours! " continued Anna. 
 " I remember well, and know this purple haze like that 
 which you see hanging over the mountains in Switzer- 
 land. This haze covers everything in that delicious time 
 when childhood ends, and from out this immense circle, 
 so joyous, so gay, grows a footpath ever narrower and 
 narrower, and leads gayly and painfully into that laby- 
 rinth, and yet it seems so bright and so beautiful 
 
 Who has not passed through it ? " 
 
 Kitty listened and smiled. " How did she pass through 
 it? How I should like to know the whole romance of 
 her life ! " thought Kitty, remembering the unpoetic 
 appearance of her husband, Alekse'i Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 " I know a thing or two," continued Anna. " Stiva 
 told me, and I congratulate you ; he pleased me very 
 much. I met Vronsky at the station." 
 
 " Akh! was he there? " asked Kitty, blushing. "What 
 did Stiva tell you ? " 
 
 " Stiva told me the whole story ; and I should be de- 
 lighted ! I came from Petersburg with Vronsky's 
 mother," she continued ; " and his mother never ceased 
 to speak of him. He is her favorite. I know how 
 partial mothers are, but.... " 
 
 " What did his mother tell you ? " 
 
 "Akh ! many things ; and I know that he is her favor- 
 ite. But still it is evident he has a chivalrous nature. 
 - Well, for example, she told me how he wanted to give 
 up his whole fortune to his brother ; how he did some- 
 thing still more wonderful when he was a boy saved 
 a woman from drowning. In a word, he is a hero!" 
 said Anna, smiling, and remembering the two hundred 
 rubles which he had given at the station. 
 
 But she did not tell about the two hundred rubles. 
 Somehow it was not pleasant for her to remember that. 
 She felt that there was something in it that concerned 
 herself too closely, and ought not to have been. 
 
 " The countess urged me to come ta see her," con- 
 tinued Anna, " and I should be very happy to meet 
 her again, and I will go to-morrow. Thank the Lord,
 
 96 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Stiva remains a long time with Dolly in the library," she 
 added, changing the subject, and, as Kitty perceived, 
 looking a little annoyed. 
 
 " I '11 be the first.... " " No, I," cried the children, who 
 had just finished their supper, and came running to their 
 Aunt Anna. 
 
 " All together," she said, laughing, and running to 
 meet them. She seized them and piled them in a heap, 
 struggling and screaming with delight. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 AT tea-time Dolly came out of her room. Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch was not with her ; he had left his wife's 
 chamber by the rear door. 
 
 " I am afraid you will be cold up-stairs," remarked 
 Dolly, addressing Anna. " I should like to have you 
 come down and be near me." 
 
 " Akh ! please don't worry about me," replied Anna, 
 trying to divine by Dolly's face if there had been a 
 reconciliation. 
 
 " Perhaps it would be too light for you here," said her 
 sister-in-law. 
 
 " I assure you, I sleep anywhere and everywhere as 
 sound as a woodchuck." 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, coming in 
 from his library, and addressing his wife. 
 
 By the tone of his voice, both Kitty and Anna knew 
 that the reconciliation had taken place. 
 
 " I wanted to install Anna down-stairs, but we should 
 have to put up some curtains. No one knows how to do 
 it, and so I must," said Dolly, in reply to her husband's 
 question. 
 
 " God knows if they have wholly made it up," thought 
 Anna, as she noticed Dolly's cold and even tone. 
 
 " Akh ! don't, Dolly, don't make difficulties ! Well ! if 
 you like, I will fix everything." .... 
 
 " Yes," thought Anna, " they must have had a recon- 
 ciliation."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 97 
 
 "I know how you do everything," said Dolly; "you 
 give Matve an order which it is impossible to carry out, 
 and then you go away, and . he gets everything into a 
 tangle." 
 
 And her customary mocking smile wrinkled the cor- 
 ners of Dolly's lips as she said that. 
 
 "Complete, complete reconciliation, complete," thought 
 Anna. " Thank God ! " and, rejoicing that she had been 
 the cause of it, she went to Dolly and kissed her. 
 
 " Not by any means. Why have you such scorn for 
 Matve and me ? " said Stepan Arkadyevitch to his wife, 
 with an almost imperceptible smile. 
 
 Throughout the evening Dolly, as usual, was lightly 
 ironical toward her husband, and Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 was happy and ,gay, but within bounds, and as if he 
 wanted to make it evident that though he had obtained 
 pardon he had not forgotten his offense. 
 
 About half-past nine a particularly animated and 
 pleasant confidential conversation, which was going on 
 at the tea-table, was interrupted by an incident appar- 
 ently of the slightest importance, but this simple inci- 
 dent seemed to each member of the family to be very 
 strange. 
 
 They were talking about one of their Petersburg 
 acquaintances when Anna suddenly arose: 
 
 " I have her picture in my album," she said ; " and at 
 the same time I will show you my little Serozha," she 
 added, with a smile of maternal pride. 
 
 It was usually about ten o'clock when she bade her 
 son good-night. Often she herself put him to bed 
 before she went out to parties, and now she felt a sen- 
 sation of sadness to be so far from him. No matter 
 what people were speaking about, her thoughts reverted 
 always to her little curly-haired Serozha, and the desire 
 seized her to go and look at his picture, and to talk 
 about him. Using this first pretext, she, with her light, 
 decided step, started to fetch her album. The stairs to 
 her room started from the landing-place in the large 
 staircase, which led from the heated hall. Just as she 
 was leaving the drawing-room the front door-bell rang. 
 VOL. i. 7
 
 98 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Who can that be?" said Dolly. 
 
 " It is too early to come after me, and too late for a 
 call," remarked Kitty. 
 
 " Doubtless somebody with papers for me," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 As Anna was passing the staircase she saw the ser- 
 vant going up to announce a caller, but the caller stood 
 in the light of the hall lamp, and was waiting. Anna 
 glancing down saw that it was Vronsky, and a strange 
 sensation of joy, mixed with terror, suddenly seized her 
 heart. He was standing with his coat on, and was tak- 
 ing something out of his pocket. At the moment Anna 
 reached the center of the staircase, he lifted his eyes, 
 and saw her, and his face assumed an expression of 
 humility and confusion. She bowed her head slightly in 
 salutation ; and as she went on her way she heard Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch's loud voice calling him to come in, and then 
 Vronsky's low, soft, and tranquil voice excusing himself. 
 
 When Anna reached the room with the album, he had 
 gone, and Stepan Arkadyevitch was telling how he came 
 to see about a dinner which they were going to give the 
 next day in honor of some celebrity who was in town. 
 
 " And nothing would induce him to come in. What 
 a queer fellow !" said Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 Kitty blushed. She thought that she alone understood 
 what he had come for, and why he would not come in. 
 " He must have been at our house," she thought, " and, 
 not finding me, have supposed that I was here; but he 
 did not come in because it was late and Anna here." 
 
 They all exchanged glances, but nothing was said, 
 and they began to examine Anna's album. 
 
 There was nothing extraordinary or strange in a man 
 calling at half-past nine o'clock in the evening to inquire 
 of a friend about the details of a proposed dinner and 
 not coming in ; yet to everybody it seemed strange, and 
 it seemed more strange and unpleasant to Anna than to 
 any one else.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 99 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE ball was just beginning when Kitty and her 
 mother mounted the grand staircase, brilliantly lighted 
 and adorned with flowers and with powdered lackeys in 
 red kaftans. In the ball-rooms there was an incessant 
 bustle of movement, which sounded like the humming of 
 a beehive, and, as they stopped to give the last touches 
 to their hair and gowns, before a mirror hung on the 
 tree-decorated landing, they heard the scraping of violins 
 as the orchestra was tuning up for the first waltz. 
 
 A little old man, a civilian, who was smoothing his 
 white locks at another mirror, and who exhaled a pene- 
 trating odor of perfumes, brushed against them on the 
 stairway and stood aside, evidently impressed by Kitty's 
 youth and beauty. A beardless young man, such as the 
 old Prince Shcherbatsky would have reckoned among the 
 " mashers," wearing a very low-cut waistcoat and a white 
 necktie which he adjusted as he walked, bowed to them, 
 and after he had passed them turned back to ask Kitty 
 for a quadrille. The first quadrille was already promised 
 to Vronsky, and so she was obliged to content the young 
 man with the second. An officer buttoning his gloves 
 was standing near the door of the ball-room ; he cast a 
 glance of admiration at the blooming Kitty, and caressed 
 his mustache. 
 
 Although Kitty had taken great pains and spent much 
 labor on her toilet, her gown, and all the preparations 
 for this ball, yet now she entered the ball-room, in 
 her complicated robe of tulle with its rose-colored over- 
 dress, as easily and naturally as if all these rosettes and 
 laces, all the requirements of her toilet, had not caused 
 her or her people a moment's attention, as if she had 
 been born in this lace-trimmed ball-dress, and with a 
 rose and two ribbons placed on the top of her grace- 
 ful head. When the old princess, her mother, just be- 
 fore they entered the ball-room, was about to readjust 
 her broad sash-ribbon, Kitty gently declined. She felt 
 that everything about her must surely be right and
 
 ioo ANNA KARENINA 
 
 graceful, and that to readjust anything about her was 
 unnecessary. 
 
 Kitty was looking her prettiest. Her gown was not 
 too tight anywhere ; her lace fichu did not slip down, 
 her rosettes did not crush, and did not pull off; her 
 rose-colored slippers with their high heels did not pinch 
 her, but were agreeable to her feet. The thick braids 
 of her fair hair kept perfectly in place on her graceful 
 little head. All the three buttons on her long gloves, 
 which enveloped, without changing, the pretty shape of 
 her hands, fastened easily, and did not tear. The black 
 velvet ribbon, attached to a medallion, was thrown 
 daintily about her neck. This ribbon was charming; 
 and at home, as she saw it in her mirror, adorning her 
 neck, Kitty felt that this ribbon spoke. Everything 
 else might be dubious, but this ribbon was charming. 
 Kitty smiled, even there at the ball, as she saw it in the 
 mirror. In her bare shoulders and arms Kitty felt a 
 sensation of marble coolness, a sensation which she 
 especially enjoyed. Her eyes shone and her rosy lips 
 could not refrain from smiling with the consciousness 
 of how fascinating she was. 
 
 She had scarcely entered the ball-room and joined a 
 group of tulle-, ribbon-, lace-, and flower-decorated ladies, 
 who were waiting for partners, Kitty never remained 
 long in that category, when she was invited to waltz 
 with the best dancer, the principal cavalier in the whole 
 hierarchy of the ball-room, the celebrated leader of the 
 mazurka, the master of ceremonies, the handsome, ele- 
 gant Yegorushka Korsunsky, a married man and a 
 civilian. He had just left the Countess Bonina, with 
 whom he had been taking the first turns of the waltz, 
 and, while looking round over his domain, in other 
 words, over the few couples who were venturing out on 
 the floor, he perceived Kitty, made his way to her in 
 that easy manner peculiar to leaders of the mazurka, 
 bowed, and without even asking her permission put his 
 arm around the young girl's slender waist. She looked 
 for some one to whom to confide her fan ; and the mis- 
 tress of the mansion, smiling on her, took charge of it.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 101 
 
 " How good of you to come early," said Korsunsky, 
 as he put his arm around her waist. " I don't like the 
 fashion of being late." 
 
 Kitty placed her left hand on her partner's shoulder, 
 and her little feet, shod in rose-colored bashmaks, glided 
 swiftly, lightly, and rhythmically over the polished floor. 
 
 "It is restful to dance with you," said he, as he fell 
 into the slow measures of the waltz: "charming! such 
 lightness ! such precision ! " 
 
 That was what he said to almost all his dancing 
 acquaintances. 
 
 She smiled at his flattery, and continued to study the 
 ball-room across her partner's shoulder. She was not 
 such a novice in society as to find all faces blending in 
 one magic sensation ; she had not been so assiduous in 
 her attendance at balls as to know every one present, 
 and be tired of seeing them. But she was in that happy 
 condition between these two extremes, she was exhilarated 
 and at the same time she was sufficiently self-possessed 
 to be able to look around and observe. 
 
 She noticed a group that had gathered in the left-hand 
 corner of the ball-room, composed of the very flower of 
 society. Korsunsky's wife, Lidi, a beauty in an ex- 
 tremely low-cut corsage, was there ; the mistress of the 
 mansion was there ; there shone Krivin's bald head, 
 always to be seen where the flower of society was 
 gathered. Young men were looking at this group, and 
 not venturing to join it. Then her eyes fell on Stiva, 
 who was also there, and then she saw Anna's elegant 
 figure dressed in black velvet. And he was there. 
 Kitty had not seen him since the evening when she 
 refused Levin. Kitty's keen eyes instantly recognized 
 him across the room, and saw that he was looking at 
 her. 
 
 "Shall we have one more turn ? You are not fatigued ? " 
 asked Korsunsky, slightly out of breath. 
 
 " No, thank you." 
 
 " Where shall I leave you ? " 
 
 " I think Madame Karenina is here ; .... take me to 
 her."
 
 102 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Anywhere that you please." 
 
 And Korsunsky, still waltzing with Kitty but with a 
 slower step, made his way toward the group on the left, 
 saying as he went, " Pardon, mesdames ; pardon, pardon, 
 mesdames;" and steering skilfully through the sea of 
 laces, tulle, and ribbons, without catching a feather, placed 
 her in a chair after a final turn, which gave a glimpse of 
 her slender ankles in dainty blue stockings, while her 
 train spread out like a fan and covered Krivin's knees. 
 
 Korsunsky bowed, then straightened himself up, and 
 offered Kitty his arm to conduct hepto Anna Arkady evna. 
 Kitty, blushing a, little, ftee^ Krivhi. from the folds of 
 her train, and, just a trifle^ dizzy, looked around in search 
 of AnnaT" Anna was nt dressed in violet, as Kitty had 
 hoped, but in a low-cut black velvet gown, which showed 
 her plump shoulders and bosom smooth as ivory, her 
 beautiful round arms, and her delicate slender wrists. 
 Her robe was adorned with Venetian guipure ; on her 
 head, gracefully set on her dark locks, was a little gar- 
 land of heartsease l ; and a similar Tbouquet was fastened 
 in her black ribbon-belt in the midst of white lace. Her 
 hair, which was all her own, was dressed very simply ; 
 there was nothing remarkable about it except the abun- 
 dance of little natural curls, which strayed in fascinating 
 disorder about her neck and temples. She wore a string 
 of pearls about her firm round throat. 
 
 Kitty had seen Anna every day, and had fallen in 
 love with her; but now that she saw her dressed in 
 black, instead of the violet which she had expected, she 
 was conscious that she had never before appreciated 
 her full beauty. She saw her in a new and unexpected 
 light. Now she realized that violet would not have been 
 becoming to her, and that her charm consisted entirely 
 in her independence of toilet ; that her toilet was only 
 an accessory, and her black gown with the magnificent 
 laces was only an accessory, was only a frame for her, 
 and nothing else was to be thought of but herself in all 
 her simplicity, naturalness, elegance, and at the same 
 time her gayety and animation. 
 
 1 Viola tricolor, called in Russian anyutini gldzki, or Anna's eyes.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 103 
 
 When Kitty joined her she was standing in her usual 
 erect attitude, talking with the master of the house, her 
 head slightly bent toward him. 
 
 " No, I would not cast the first stone, though I don't 
 understand about it," she was saying to him, slightly 
 shrugging her shoulders ; and then, perceiving Kitty, 
 she turned to her with an affectionate and reassuring 
 smile. With a woman's quick intuition she saw all the 
 beauty of the young girl's toilet, and gave her an appre- 
 ciative nod, which Kitty understood. 
 
 "You even dance into the ball-room," she said. 
 
 " She is the most faithful of my aids," said Korsunsky, 
 addressing Anna Arkadyevna, whom he had not as yet 
 seen. " The princess helps to make any ball-room gay 
 and delightful. Anna Arkadyevna, will you take a 
 turn ? " he asked, with a bow. 
 
 " Ah ! you are acquainted ? " said the host. 
 
 " Who is it we don't know ? My wife and I are like 
 white wolves, everybody knows us," replied Korsun- 
 sky. " A little waltz, Anna Arkadyevna?" 
 
 "I don't dance when I can help it," she replied. 
 
 "But you can't help it to-night," said Korsunsky. At 
 this moment Vronsky joined them. 
 
 "Well! if I can't help dancing, let us dance," said 
 she, placing her hand on Korsunsky's shoulder, and not 
 replying to Vronsky's salutation. 
 
 "Why is she vexed with him ?" thought Kitty, notic- 
 ing that Anna purposely paid no attention to Vronsky's 
 bow. Vronsky joined Kitty, reminded her that she was 
 engaged to him for the first quadrille, and expressed 
 regret that he had not seen her for so long. Kitty, 
 while she was looking with admiration at Anna as she 
 waltzed, listened to Vronsky. She expected that he 
 woald invite her; but he did nothing of the sort, and 
 she looked at him with astonishment. A flush came 
 into his face, and he hastily suggested that they should 
 waltz ; but he had scarcely put his arm around her 
 slender waist and taken the first step, when suddenly 
 the music stopped. Kitty looked into his face, which 
 was close to her own, and for many a long day, even
 
 after years had passed, the loving look which she gave 
 him and which he did' not return tore her heart with 
 cruel shame. 
 
 " Pardon ! pardon ! A waltz ! a waltz ! " cried Kor- 
 sunsky at the other end of the ball-room, and, seizing 
 the first young lady at hand, he began once more to 
 dance. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 VRONSKY took a few turns with Kitty, then she joined 
 her mother ; but she had time for only a few words with 
 the Countess Nordstone, ere Vronsky came back to get 
 her for the first quadrille. During the quadrille nothing 
 of importance was said : their conversation was first on 
 Korsunsky and his wife, whom Vronsky described very 
 amusingly as amiable children of forty years, then on 
 some private theatricals ; and only once did his words 
 give her a keen pang, when he asked if Levin were 
 there, and added that he liked him very much. 
 
 But Kitty counted little on the quadrille : she waited 
 for the mazurka with a violent beating of the heart. 
 She had a feeling that during the mazurka all would 
 surely be settled. The fact that Vronsky did not ask 
 her during the quadrille did not disturb her. She felt 
 sure that she should be selected as his partner for the 
 mazurka as in all preceding balls, and she refused five 
 invitations, saying that she was engaged. 
 
 This whole ball, even to the last quadrille, seemed to 
 Kitty like a magical dream, full of flowers, of joyous 
 sounds, of movement ; she did not cease to dance until 
 her strength began to fail, and then she begged to rest 
 a moment. But in dancing the last quadrille with one 
 of those tiresome men whom she found it impossible to 
 refuse, she found herself in the same set with Vronsky 
 and Anna. Kitty had not fallen in with Anna since the 
 beginning of the ball, and now again she suddenly saw 
 her in another new and unexpected light. She seemed 
 laboring under an excitement such as Kitty herself had 
 experienced that of success. She saw that Anna
 
 ANNA KARENINA 105 
 
 was excited and intoxicated with the wine of admiration. 
 Kitty knew the sensation, knew the symptoms and 
 recognized them in Anna she saw the feverish brill- 
 iancy of her, and the smile of happiness and excitement 
 involuntarily parting her lips, and the harmony, precis- 
 ion, and grace of her movements. 
 
 " Who has caused it ? " she asked herself. " All, or 
 one ? " 
 
 She would not help her tormented partner in the 
 conversation, the thread of which he had dropped and 
 could not pick up again ; and though she submitted 
 with apparent good grace to the loud orders of Kor- 
 sunsky, shouting "Ladies' chain" and "All hands 
 around," she watched her closely, and her heart op- 
 pressed her more and more. 
 
 " No, it is not the approval of the crowd that has so 
 intoxicated her, but the admiration of the one. And 
 that one? Can it be kef ' 
 
 Every time Vronsky spoke to Anna, her eyes spar- 
 kled with pleasure, and a smile of happiness parted her 
 rosy lips. She seemed to make an effort not to exhibit 
 any signs of this joy, but nevertheless happiness was 
 painted on her face. 
 
 " Can it be he ? " thought Kitty. 
 
 She looked at him, and was horror-struck. The senti- 
 ments that were reflected on Anna's face as in a mirror 
 were also visible on his. Where were his coolness, his 
 calm dignity, the repose which always marked his face ? 
 Now, as he addressed his partner, his head bent as 
 if he were ready to worship her, and his look ex- 
 pressed at once humility and passion, as if it said, ' 1 
 tvould not offend yon. I would save myself, and how 
 can If 
 
 Such was the expression of his face, and she had 
 never before seen it in him. 
 
 They talked about their mutual acquaintances, their 
 conversation was made up of trifles, and yet Kitty felt 
 that every word they spoke decided her fate. Strange 
 as it might seem, although they really remarked how 
 ridiculous Ivan Ivanuitch was in his efforts to speak
 
 io6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 French, and how Miss Fletskaya might have found a 
 better match, nevertheless these words had for them a 
 peculiar meaning, and they understood it just as well as 
 Kitty did. 
 
 In Kitty's mind, the whole ball, the whole evening, 
 everything, seemed enveloped in mist. Only the stern 
 school of her education, serving her well, sustained her, 
 and enabled her to do what was required of her, that is 
 to say, to dance, to answer questions, to talk, even to 
 smile. 
 
 But even before the mazurka began, while they were 
 arranging the chairs and a few couples were already 
 starting to go from the smaller rooms into the great 
 ball-room, a sudden attack of despair and terror seized 
 her. She had refused five invitations, and. now she had 
 no partner ; and now there was no hope at all that she 
 would be invited again, for the very reason that her 
 social success would make it unlikely to occur to any 
 one that she would be without a partner. She would 
 have to tell her mother that she was not feeling well, 
 and go home, but even this seemed impossible. She 
 felt overwhelmed. 
 
 She went into the farthest end of a small parlor, and 
 threw herself into an arm-chair. The airy skirts of her 
 robe enveloped her delicate figure as in a cloud. One 
 bare arm, as yet a little thin, but pretty, fell without 
 energy, and lay in the folds of her rose-colored skirt ; 
 with the other she held her fan, and with quick, sharp 
 motions tried to cool her heated face. But while she 
 looked like a lovely butterfly caught amid grasses, and 
 ready to spread its rainbow-tinted wings, a horrible 
 despair oppressed her heart. 
 
 " But perhaps I am mistaken : perhaps it is not so." 
 
 And again she recalled what she had seen. 
 
 "Kitty, what does this mean?" said the Countess 
 Nordstone, coming to her with noiseless steps. 
 
 Kitty's lower lip quivered ; she hastily arose. 
 
 " Kitty, are n't you dancing the mazurka ? " 
 
 " No .... no," she replied, with trembling voice, almost 
 in tears.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 107 
 
 "I heard him invite her for the mazurka," said the 
 countess, knowing that Kitty would know whom she 
 meant. "She said, ' What! are ri t you going to dance 
 witli the Princess Shcherbatskaya?" 
 
 " Akh ! it 's all one to me," said Kitty. 
 
 No one besides herself realized her position. No one 
 knew that she had refused a man whom perhaps she 
 loved, refused him because she preferred some one 
 else. 
 
 The Countess Nordstone went in search of Korsun- 
 sky, who was her partner for the mazurka, and sent him 
 to invite Kitty. 
 
 Kitty danced in the first figure, and fortunately was. 
 not required to talk, because Korsunsky was obliged to 
 be ubiquitous, making his arrangements in his little king- 
 dom. Vronsky and Anna were sitting nearly opposite 
 to her: she saw them sometimes near, sometimes at a 
 distance, as their turn brought them into the figures ; 
 and as she watched them, she felt more and more cer- 
 tain that her unhappiness was complete. She saw that 
 they felt themselves alone even in the midst of the 
 crowded ball-room ; and on Vronsky's face, usually so 
 impassive and calm, she remarked that mingled expres- 
 sion of humility and fear, which strikes one in an intel- 
 ligent dog, conscious of having done wrong. 
 
 If Anna smiled, his smile replied ; if she became 
 thoughtful, he looked serious. An almost supernatural 
 power seemed to attract Kitty's gaze to Anna's face. 
 She was charming in her simple black velvet ; charming 
 were her round arms, clasped by bracelets ; charming 
 her firm neck, encircled with pearls ; charming her dark, 
 curly locks breaking from restraint ; charming the slow 
 and graceful movements of her small feet and hands ; 
 charming her lovely face, full of animation ; but in all 
 this charm there was something terrible and cruel. 
 
 Kitty admired her more than ever, and ever more and 
 more her pain increased. She felt crushed, and her face 
 told the story. When Vronsky passed her, in some fig- 
 ure of the mazurka, he hardly knew her, so much had 
 she changed.
 
 io8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Lovely ball," he said, so as to say something. 
 
 "Yes," was her reply. 
 
 Toward the middle of the mazurka, in going through 
 a complicated figure recently -invented by Korsunsky, 
 Anna went to the center of the circle, and called out 
 two gentlemen and two ladies ; Kitty was one. As she 
 approached Anna, she looked at her in dismay. Anna, 
 half shutting her eyes, looked at her with a smile, and 
 pressed her hand ; then noticing that Kitty's face, reply- 
 ing to her smile, wore an expression of despair and 
 amazement, she turned from her and began to talk to 
 the other lady in animated tones. 
 
 . "Yes, there is some terrible, almost infernal attrac- 
 tion about her," said Kitty to herself. 
 
 Anna did not wish to remain to supper, but the host 
 insisted. 
 
 "Do stay, Anna Arkadyevna," said Korsunsky, as 
 she stood with her bare arm resting on the sleeve of his 
 coat. " Such a cotillion I have in mind ! Un bijou ! '' 
 
 And the master of the house, looking on with a smile, 
 encouraged his efforts to detain her. 
 
 " No, I cannot stay," said Anna, also smiling ; but in 
 spite of her smile the two men understood by the deter- 
 mination in her voice that she would not stay. 
 
 " No, for I have danced here in Moscow at this single 
 ball more than all winter in Petersburg," said she. 
 looking at Vronsky, who was standing near her; "one 
 must rest before a journey." 
 
 "And so you are really going back to-morrow ?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "Yes; I think so," replied Anna, as if surprised at 
 the boldness of his question. But as she said this to 
 him, the brilliancy of her eyes and of her smile set his 
 heart on fire. 
 
 Anna Arkadyevna did not stay for supper, but took 
 her departure.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 109 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 "YES, there must be something repellent, even re- 
 pulsive, about me," thought Levin, as he left the Shcher- 
 batskys', and went on foot in search of his brother. " I 
 am not popular with men. They say it is pride. No, 
 I am not proud ; if I had been proud, I should not have 
 put myself in my present situation." 
 
 And he imagined himself Vronsky, happy, popular, 
 calm, witty, who had apparently never put himself in 
 such a terrible position as he was in on that evening. 
 
 " Yes, she naturally chose him, and I have no right 
 to complain about any one or any thing. I myself am 
 to blame. What right had I to think that she would 
 ever unite her life with mine ? Who am I ? and what 
 am I ? A man useful to no one a good-for-nothing." 
 
 Then the memory of his brother Nikolai' came back 
 to him. 
 
 " Was he not right in saying that everything in the 
 world was miserable and wretched ? Have we been, 
 and are we, just in our judgment of brother Nikolai? 
 Of course, from the point of view of Prokofi, who saw 
 him drunk and in ragged clothes, he is a miserable crea- 
 ture ; but I judge him differently. I know his heart, 
 and I know that we are alike. And I, instead of going 
 to find him, have been out dining, and to this reception ! " 
 
 Levin went to a street-lamp and read his brother's 
 address, which was written on a slip of paper, and called 
 an izvoshchik. All the long way he vividly recalled one 
 by one the well-known incidents of his brother Nikolai's 
 life. He remembered how at the university, and for a 
 year after his graduation, he had lived like a monk not- 
 withstanding the ridicule of his comrades, strictly de- 
 voted to all forms of religion, services, fasts, turning 
 his back on all pleasures, and especially women ; and 
 then how he had suddenly turned around, and fallen 
 into the company of people of the lowest lives, and 
 entered upon a course of dissipation and debauchery. 
 He remembered his conduct toward a lad whom he
 
 no ANNA KARENINA 
 
 had taken from the country to bring up, and whom he 
 whipped so severely in a fit of anger that he narrowly 
 escaped being transported for mayhem. He remem- 
 bered his conduct toward a swindler to whom he owed 
 a gambling debt and in payment of it had given him his 
 note, and whom he had caused to be arrested on the 
 charge of cheating him ; this was, in fact, money that 
 Sergei' Ivanuitch had just paid. Then he remembered 
 the night spent by Nikolai at the station-house on 
 account of a spree. He remembered the scandalous 
 lawsuit against his brother Sergei Ivanuitch, because 
 Sergei had refused to pay his share of their mother's 
 estate ; and finally he recalled his last adventure, when, 
 after he had gone to take a position at the Western fron- 
 tier, he was dismissed for assaulting a superior 
 
 All this was detestable, but it did not seem nearly so 
 odious to Levin as it would have been to those who did 
 not know Nikolai, did not know his history, did not 
 know his heart. 
 
 Levin remembered how at the time when Nikolai was 
 occupied with his devotions, his fastings, his priests, his 
 ecclesiastical observances, when he was seeking to curb 
 his passionate nature by religion, no one had aided him, 
 but, on the contrary, every one, even himself, had made 
 sport of him ; they had mocked him, nicknamed him 
 Noah, the monk ! Then, when he had fallen, no one 
 had helped him, but all had turned from him with hor- 
 ror and disgust. Levin felt that his brother Nikolai at 
 the bottom of his heart, in spite of all the deformity of 
 his life, was not so very much worse than those who 
 despised him. He was not to blame for having been 
 born with his unrestrainable character and his peculi- 
 arities of intellect. He had always had good impulses. 
 
 " I will tell him everything, and I will make him tell 
 me everything, and show him that I love him and there- 
 fore understand him," said Levin to himself, and about 
 eleven o'clock in the evening he bade the driver take 
 him to the hotel indicated on the address. 
 
 "Upstairs, No. 12 and 13, "-said the Swiss, in reply to 
 Levin's question.
 
 ANNA KARENINA in 
 
 "Is he at home?" 
 
 "Probably." 
 
 The door of No. 12 was half open, and from the room 
 came the dense fumes of cheap, poor tobacco, and a 
 voice unknown to Levin was heard speaking ; but Levin 
 instantly knew his brother was there ; he recognized 
 his cough. 
 
 When he reached the door, the unknown voice was 
 saying : 
 
 " All depends on whether the affair is conducted in a 
 proper and rational manner." 
 
 Konstantin Levin glanced through the doorway, and 
 saw that the speaker was a young man, in a peasant's 
 sleeveless coat, and with an enormous mop of hair on 
 his head. On the divan was sitting a young woman, 
 with pock-marked face, and dressed in a woolen gown 
 without collar or cuffs. His brother was not to be seen. 
 A pain shot through Konstantin's heart to think of the 
 strange people with whom his brother associated. No 
 one heard him ; and, while he was removing his galoshes, 
 he listened to what the man in the sleeveless coat was 
 saying. He was speaking of some enterprise. 
 
 "Well! the Devil take the privileged classes !" said 
 his brother's voice, after a fit of coughing. " Masha, 
 see if you can't get us something to eat, and bring some 
 wine if there 's any left ; if not, go for some." 
 
 The woman arose, and as she came out from behind 
 the screen she saw Konstantin. 
 
 " A gentleman here, Nikolai' Dmitritch," she cried. 
 
 "What is wanted?" said the voice of Nikolai Levin, 
 angrily. 
 
 "It's I," replied Konstantin, appearing at the door. 
 
 "Who's I?" repeated Nikolai's voice, still more 
 angrily. 
 
 Then he was heard quickly rising and stumbling 
 against something, and Konstantin saw before him at 
 the door his brother's well-known figure, still remark- 
 able by reason of his shyness and ill health infirm, 
 tall, thin, and bent, with great startled eyes. 
 
 He was still thinner than when Konstantin had last
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 seen him, three years before. He wore a short over- 
 coat. His hands and his bony frame seemed to him 
 more colossal than ever. His hair had grown thinner, 
 but the same stiff mustaches hid his lips, the same eyes 
 glared at his visitor uncannily and naively. 
 
 " Ah, Kostia ! " he suddenly cried, recognizing his 
 brother, and his eyes shone with joy. But the same 
 instant he fixed his eyes on the younger man, and made 
 a quick, convulsive motion of his head and neck, as if 
 his cravat choked him, a gesture well known to Kon- 
 stantin ; and an entirely different expression, wild, and 
 bitter, and expressive of martyrdom, came into his 
 sunken face. 
 
 " I wrote both to you and to Sergei' Ivanuitch that I 
 do not know you, nor wish to know you. What do you 
 want ; what does either of you want ? " 
 
 He was not at all as Konstantin had imagined him. 
 The hardest and vilest elements of his character, which 
 had made any relations with him difficult, had faded 
 from Konstantin Levin's memory whenever he thought 
 about him ; and now, when he saw his face and the 
 characteristic convulsive motions of his head, he remem- 
 bered it all. 
 
 "But I wanted nothing of you except to see you," he 
 replied timidly. " I only came to see you." 
 
 His brother's diffidence apparently disarmed Nikolai. 
 His lips relaxed. 
 
 " Ah ! did you ? " said he. " Well ! come in, sit down. 
 Do you want some supper ? Masha, bring enough for 
 three. No, hold on! Do you know who this is?" he 
 asked his brother, pointing to the young man in the 
 peasant's coat. "This gentleman is Mr. Kritsky, a 
 friend of mine from Kief, a very remarkable man. It 
 seems the police are after him, because he is not a 
 coward." 
 
 And he looked, as his habit was, at all who were in 
 the room. Then, seeing that the woman, who stood at 
 the door, was about to leave, he shouted : 
 
 "Wait, I tell you." 
 
 Then, in his extravagant, incoherent manner of
 
 ANNA KARENINA 113 
 
 speech, which Konstantin knew so well, he began to 
 tell his brother the whole story of Kritsky's life ; how 
 he had been driven from the university, because he had 
 tried to found an aid society and Sunday-schools among 
 the students ; how afterwards he had been appointed 
 teacher in one of the public schools, only to be dis- 
 missed ; and how finally he had been tried for something 
 or other. 
 
 " Were you at the University of Kief ? " asked Kon- 
 stantin of Kritsky, in order to break the awkward silence 
 that followed. 
 
 " Yes, I was at Kief," replied Kritsky, curtly, with a 
 frown. 
 
 " And this woman," cried Nikolai Levin, pointing to 
 the girl, "is the companion of my life, Marya Niko- 
 layevna. I took her from a house," he said, stretch- 
 ing out his neck, " but I love her, and I esteem her ; 
 and all who want to know me," he added, raising his 
 voice and scowling, " must love her and esteem her. 
 She is just the same as my wife, just the same. So 
 now you know with whom you have to do. And if you 
 think that you lower yourself, there 's the door ! " l And 
 again his eyes looked at them all questioningly. 
 
 " I do not understand how I should lower myself." 
 
 " All right, Masha, bring us up enough for three, 
 
 some vodka and wine No, wait ; .... no matter, though ; 
 
 ....go!" 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 "As you see," continued Nikolai' Levin, frowning, and 
 speaking with effort. It was evidently hard for him to 
 make up his mind what to do or say. "But do you 
 see? ".....and he pointed to the corner of the room, 
 where lay some iron bars attached to straps. " Do you 
 see that ? That is the beginning of a new work which 
 
 1 He quotes the riming phrase : Tak vot Bog a vot porog (or, vot tebyt 
 Bog, a vot tebye porog) which expanded may mean, "Stay if you like and 
 God be with you, but yonder is the threshold ! " 
 VOL. I. 8
 
 n 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 we are undertaking. This work belongs to a productive 
 labor association." .... 
 
 Konstantin scarcely listened : he was looking at his 
 brother's sick, consumptive face, and he grew more and 
 more sorry for him, and he could not compel himself to 
 listen to what his brother was saying about the labor 
 association. He saw that the labor association was only 
 an anchor of safety to keep him from absolute self- 
 abasement. Nikolai' went on to say : 
 
 " You know that capital is crushing the laborer : with 
 us the laboring classes, the muzhiks, bear the whole 
 weight of toil ; and no matter how they exert them- 
 selves, they can never get above their cattle-like condi- 
 tion. All the profits created by their productive labor, 
 by which they could better their lot and procure for them- 
 selves leisure, and therefore instruction, all their super- 
 fluous profits are swallowed up by the capitalists. And 
 society is so constituted that, the harder they work, the 
 more the proprietors and the merchants fatten at their 
 expense, while they remain beasts of burden still. And 
 this order of things must be changed," said he, in con- 
 clusion, and looked questioningly at his brother. 
 
 " Yes, of course," replied Konstantin, looking at the 
 pink spots which burned in his brother's hollow cheeks. 
 
 "And now we are organizing an artel of locksmiths 
 where all will be in common, work, profits, and even 
 the tools." 
 
 " Where will this artel be situated ? " asked Kon- 
 stantin. 
 
 "In the village of Vozdremo, government of Kazan." 
 
 " Yes ; but why in a village ? In the villages, it seems 
 to me, there is plenty of work : why associated lock- 
 smiths in a village ? " 
 
 "Because the muzhiks are serfs, just as much as they 
 ever were, and you and Sergei Ivanuitch don't like it 
 because we want to free them from this slavery," replied 
 Nikolai, vexed by his brother's question. 
 
 While he spoke, Konstantin was looking about the 
 melancholy, dirty room ; he sighed, and his sigh seemed 
 to make Nikolai' still more angry.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 115 
 
 " I know the aristocratic prejudices of such men as 
 you and SergeT Ivanuitch. I know that he is spending 
 all the strength of his mind in defense of the evils that 
 crush us." 
 
 " No ! but why do you speak of Sergei Ivanuitch ? " 
 asked Levin, smiling. 
 
 " Sergei Ivanuitch ? This is why ! " cried Nikolai, at 
 the mention of Sergei Ivanuitch "this is why!.... 
 yet what is the good ? tell me this what did you come 
 here for ? You despise all this ; very good ! Go away, 
 for God's sake," he cried, rising from his chair, " go 
 away ! go away ! " 
 
 " I don't despise anything," said Konstantin, gently ; 
 " I only refrain from discussing." 
 
 At this moment Marya Nikolayevna came in. Niko- 
 laY looked at her angrily, but she quickly stepped up to 
 him and whispered a few words in his ear. 
 
 "I am not well, I easily become irritable," he ex- 
 plained, growing calmer, and breathing with difficulty, 
 "and you just spoke to me about Sergei Ivanuitch and 
 his article. It is so rubbishy, so idle, so full of error. 
 How can a man, who knows nothing about justice, 
 write about it ? Have you read his article ? " said he, 
 turning to Kritsky, and then, going to the table, he 
 brushed off the half-rolled cigarettes so as to clear away 
 a little space. 
 
 " I have not read it," replied Kritsky, gloomily, evi- 
 dently not wishing to take part in the conversation. 
 
 "Why?" cried Nikolai, irritably, still addressing 
 Kritsky. 
 
 " Because I don't consider it necessary to waste my 
 time on it." 
 
 " That is, excuse me how do you know that it would 
 be a waste of time ? For many people this article is 
 inaccessible, because it is above them. But I find i. 
 different ; I see the thoughts through and through, and 
 know wherein it is weak." 
 
 No one replied. Kritsky slowly arose, and took his hat 
 
 "Won't you take some lunch? Well, good-by ! 
 Come to-morrow with the locksmith."
 
 n6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Kritsky had hardly left the room, when Nikolai smiled 
 and winked. 
 
 " He is to be pitied ; but I see ...." 
 
 Just at that instant Kritsky, calling at the door, inter- 
 rupted him. 
 
 "What do you want?" he asked, joining him in the 
 corridor. 
 
 Left alone with Marya Nikolayevna, Levin said to 
 her : 
 
 "Have you been long with my brother?" 
 
 "This is the second year. His health has become 
 very feeble ; he drinks a great deal," she said. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " He drinks vodka, and it is bad for him." 
 
 " Does he drink too much ? " 
 
 "Yes," said she, looking timidly toward the door 
 where Nikolai Levin was just entering. 
 
 " What were you talking about ?" he demanded, with 
 a scowl, and looking from one to the other with angry 
 eyes. "Tell me." 
 
 "Oh! nothing," replied Konstantin, in confusion. 
 
 " You don't want to answer ? all right ! don't. But 
 you have no business to be talking with her ; she is a 
 girl, you a gentleman," he shouted, craning out his neck. 
 "I see that you have understood everything, and judged 
 everything, and that you look with grief on the errors 
 of my ways." 
 
 He went on speaking, raising his voice. 
 
 " Nikolai Dmitritch ! Nikolai' Dmitritch ! " whispered 
 Marya Nikolayevna, coming close to him. 
 
 "Well! very good, very good Supper, then? ah! 
 
 here it is," he said, seeing a servant entering with a 
 platter. 
 
 " Here ! put it here ! " he said crossly ; then, taking 
 the vodka, he poured out a glass, and drank it eagerly. 
 
 "Will you have a drink?" he asked his brother, im- 
 mediately growing lively. 
 
 " Well ! no more about Sergei' Ivanuitch ! I am very 
 glad to see you. No matter what people say, we are no 
 longer strangers. Come now ! drink ! Tell me what
 
 ANNA KARENINA 117 
 
 you are doing," he said, greedily munching a piece of 
 bread, and pouring out a second glass. " How are you 
 living ? " 
 
 " I live alone in the country, as I always have, and 
 busy myself with farming," replied Konstantin, looking 
 with terror at the eagerness with which his brother ate 
 and drank, and trying to hide his impressions. 
 
 " Why don't you get married ? " 
 
 " I have not come to that yet," replied Konstantin, 
 turning red. 
 
 " Why so ? For me it 's all over ! I have wasted 
 my life ! This I have said, and always shall say, that, 
 if they had given me my share of the estate when I 
 needed it, my whole life would have been different." 
 
 Konstantin hastened to change the conversation. 
 
 " Did you know that your Vanynshka 1 is with me at 
 Pokrovskoye as book-keeper? " he said. 
 
 Nikolai craned out his neck and wondered. 
 
 " Yes, tell me what is doing at Pokrovskoye. Is the 
 house just the same ? and the birch trees and our study- 
 room ? Is Filipp, the gardener, still alive ? How I re- 
 member the summer-house and the divan! .... Just look 
 here ! don't let anything in the house be changed, but 
 hurry up and get married and begin to live as you used 
 to. Then I will come to visit you if your wife will be 
 kind." 
 
 "Then come back with me now," said Konstantin. 
 " How well we should get on together ! " 
 
 " I would come if I knew I should not meet Sergei 
 Ivanuitch." 
 
 " You would not meet him ; I live absolutely indepen- 
 dent of him." 
 
 " Yes ; but, whatever you say, you must choose be- 
 tween him and me," said Nikolai, looking timorously in 
 his brother's eyes. 
 
 This timidity touched Konstantin. 
 
 " If you want to hear my whole confession as to this 
 matter, I will tell you that I take sides neither with you 
 nor with him in your quarrel. You are both in the 
 1 Vanyushka is the diminutive of Ivan, as Jack is of John,
 
 Ti8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 wrong ; but in your case the wrong is external, while in 
 his the wrong is inward." 
 
 " Ha, ha ! Do you understand it ? do you understand 
 it ? " cried Nikolai', with an expression of joy. 
 
 "But if you would like to know, personally I value 
 your friendship higher because...." 
 
 "Why? why?" 
 
 Konstantin could not say that it was because Nikolai 
 was wretched, and needed his friendship; but Nikolai 
 understood that that was the very thing he meant, and, 
 frowning darkly, he betook himself to the vodka. 
 
 " Enough, Nikolai Dmitritch ! " cried Marya Nikola- 
 yevna, laying her great pudgy hand on the decanter. 
 
 " Let me alone ! don't bother me, or I '11 strike you," 
 he cried. 
 
 Marya Nikolayevna smiled with her gentle and good- 
 natured smile, which pacified Nikolai', and she took the 
 vodka. 
 
 "There ! Do you think that she does not understand 
 things ? " said Nikolai'. " She understands this thing 
 better than all of you. Is n't there something about her 
 good and gentle ? " 
 
 "Haven't you ever been in Moscow before?" said 
 Konstantin, in order to say something to her. 
 
 "There now, don't say vui [you] to her. It frightens 
 her. No one said vui to her except the justice of the 
 peace, when they had her up because she wanted to 
 escape from the house of ill-fame where she was. My 
 God ! how senseless everything is in this world ! " he 
 suddenly exclaimed. " These new institutions, these 
 justices of the peace, the zemstro, what abominations!" 
 
 And he began to relate his experiences with the new 
 institutions. 
 
 Konstantin listened to him ; and the criticisms on the 
 absurdity of the new institutions, which he had himself 
 often expressed, now that he heard them from his 
 brother's lips, seemed disagreeable to him. 
 
 "We shall^understand it all in the next world," he 
 said jestingly. 
 
 " In the next world ? Och ! I don't like your next
 
 ANNA KARENINA 119 
 
 world ; I don't like it," he repeated, fixing his timid, 
 haggard eyes on his brother's face. " And yet it would 
 seem good to go from these abominations, these entan- 
 glements, from this unnatural state of things, from my- 
 self ; but I am afraid of death, horribly afraid of death ! " 
 He shuddered. " There ! drink something ! Would you 
 like some champagne ? or would you rather go out some- 
 where ? Let 's go and see the gipsies. You know I am 
 very fond of gipsies and Russian songs." 
 
 His speech had begun to grow thick, and he hurried 
 from one subject to another. Konstantin, with Masha's 
 aid, persuaded him to stay at home ; and they put him 
 on his bed completely drunk. 
 
 Masha promised to write Konstantin in case of need, 
 and to persuade Nikolai' Levin to come and live with his 
 brother. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE next forenoon Levin left Moscow, and toward 
 evening was at home. On the journey he talked with 
 those near him in the train about politics, about the new 
 railroads ; and, just as in Moscow, he was overcome by 
 the chaos of conflicting opinions, self-dissatisfaction, and 
 a sense of shame. But when he got out at his station, 
 and perceived his one-eyed coachman, Ignat, with his 
 kaftan collar turned up; when he saw, in the dim light 
 that fell through the station windows, his covered sledge 
 and his horses with their tied-up tails, and their harness 
 with its rings and fringes ; when Ignat, as he was tuck- 
 ing in the robes, told him all the news of the village, 
 about the coming of the contractor, and how Pava the 
 cow had calved, then it seemed to him that the chaos 
 resolved itself a little, and his shame and dissatisfaction 
 passed away. This he felt at the very sight of Ignat 
 and his horses ; but, as soon as he had put on his sheep- 
 skin tulup, which he found in the sleigh, and took his 
 seat in the sleigh comfortably wrapped up, and drove 
 off thinking what arrangement he should have to make
 
 120 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 in the village, and at the same time examining the off 
 horse, Donskaya, which used to be his saddle-horse, a 
 jaded but mettlesome steed, he began to view his expe- 
 riences in an absolutely different light. 
 
 He felt himself again, and no longer wished to be a 
 different person. He only wished to be better than he 
 had ever been before. In the first place, he resolved 
 from that day forth that he would never expect extraor- 
 dinary joys, such as marriage had promised to bring to 
 him, and therefore he would never again despise the 
 present ; and, in the second place, he would never allow 
 himself to be led away by low passion, the remem- 
 brances of which so tortured him while he was deciding 
 to make his proposal. And lastly, as he thought of his 
 brother Nikola'f, he resolved that he would never again 
 forget him, but that he would keep track of him and not 
 let him out of sight, so that he might be in readiness to 
 aid him whenever the evil moment arrived, and that 
 seemed likely to be very soon. 
 
 Then the conversation about communism, which he 
 had so lightly treated with his brother, came back to 
 him, and made him reflect. A reform of economic con- 
 ditions seemed to him nonsense, but he always felt the 
 unfair difference between his own superfluity and the 
 poverty of the people, and in order that he might feel 
 perfectly right, he now vowed that though hitherto he 
 had worked hard, and lived economically, he would in 
 the future work still harder, and permit himself even less 
 luxury than ever. And all this seemed to him so easy 
 to accomplish that, throughout the drive from the sta- 
 tion, he was the subject of the pleasantest illusions. 
 With a hearty feeling of hope for a new and better life, 
 he reached home just as the clock was striking ten. 
 
 From the windows of the room occupied by his old 
 nurse, Agafya Mikhalflovna, who fulfilled the functions 
 of housekeeper, the light fell on the snow-covered walk 
 before his house. She was not yet asleep. Kuzma, 
 wakened by her, hurried down, barefooted and sleepy, 
 to open the door. Laska, the setter, almost knocking 
 Kuzma down in her desire to get ahead of him, ran to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 121 
 
 meet her master, and jumped upon him, trying to place 
 her fore paws on his breast. 
 
 "You are back very soon, batyushka," said Agafya 
 Mikha'flovna. 
 
 " I was bored, Agafya Mikhallovna ; 't is good to go 
 visiting, but it 's better at home," said he. And he 
 went into his library. 
 
 The library slowly grew light as the candle that was 
 brought burnt up. The familiar details little by little 
 came into sight the great antlers, the shelves lined 
 with books, the mirror, the stove with a hole which ought 
 long ago to have been repaired, the ancestral divan, 
 the great table, and on the table an open book, a broken 
 ash-tray, a note-book filled with his writing. 
 
 As he saw all these things, for a moment the doubt 
 arose in his mind if it would be possible to bring about 
 this new life which he had dreamed of during his journey. 
 All these signs of his past seemed to say to him, 'No, 
 thou shalt not leave us ! thou shalt not become another; 
 but thou shalt still be as thou hast always been, with 
 thy doubts, thy everlasting self-dissatisfaction, thy idle 
 efforts at reform, thy failures, and thy perpetual striv- 
 ing for a happiness which will never be thine.' 
 
 But while these external objects spoke to him thus, 
 a different voice whispered to his soul, bidding him cease 
 to be a slave to his past, and declaring that a man has 
 every possibility within him. And, listening to this 
 voice, he went to one side of the room, where he found 
 two forty-pound dumb-bells. And he began to practise 
 his gymnastic exercises with them, endeavoring to bring 
 himself into a condition of vigor. At the door there was 
 a noise of steps. He hastily put down the dumb-bells. 
 
 The intendant l came in and said that, thanks to 
 God, everything was all right, but he confessed that 
 the buckwheat in the new drying-room had got burnt. 
 This provoked Levin. This new drying-room he had 
 himself built, and partially invented. But the inten- 
 dant had been entirely opposed to it, and now he an- 
 nounced with ill-concealed triumph that the buckwheat 
 
 1 Prikashchik.
 
 122 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 was burnt. Levin was sure that it was because he had 
 neglected the precautions a hundred times suggested. 
 He grew angry, and reprimanded the intendant. 
 
 But there was one fortunate and important event : 
 Pava, his best, his most beautiful cow, which he had 
 bought at the cattle-show, had calved. 
 
 " Kuzma, give me my tulup. And you," said he to 
 the intendant, "get a lantern. I will go and see her." 
 
 The stable for the cattle was immediately behind the 
 house. Crossing the courtyard, where the snow was 
 headed under the lilac bushes, he stepped up to the 
 stable. As he opened the frosty door, he was met by 
 the warm fumes of manure, and the cows, astonished at 
 the unwonted light of the lantern, stirred on their fresh 
 straw. The light fell on the broad black back of his 
 piebald Holland cow. Berkut, the bull, with a ring in 
 his nose, tried to get to his feet, but changed his mind, 
 and only snorted as they passed by. 
 
 The beautiful Pava, huge as a hippopotamus, was ly- 
 ing near her calf, snuffing at it, and protecting it against 
 those who would come too close. 
 
 Levin entered the stall, examined Pava, and lifted the 
 calf, spotted with red and white, on its long, awkward 
 legs. Pava began to low with anxiety, but was re- 
 assured when the calf was restored to her, and began 
 to lick it with her rough tongue. The calf hid its nose 
 under its mother's side, and frisked its tail. 
 
 " Bring the light this way, Feodor, this way," said 
 Levin, examining the calf. " Like its mother, but its 
 color is like the sire's, very pretty ! long hair and 
 prettily spotted. Vasili Feodorovitch, is n't it a beauty ? " 
 he said, turning to his intendant, forgetting, in his joy 
 over the new-born calf, the grief caused by the burning 
 of his wheat. 
 
 " Why should it be homely ? But Semyon the con- 
 tractor was here the day after you left. It will be 
 necessary to come to terms with him, Konstantin 
 Dmitritch," replied the intendant. " I have already 
 spoken to you about the machine." 
 
 This single phrase brought Levin back to all the de-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 123 
 
 tails of his enterprise, which was great and complicated ; 
 and from the stable he went directly to the office, and 
 after a long conversation with the intendant and Semyon 
 the contractor, he went back to the house, and marched 
 straight up into the drawing-room. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 LEVIN'S house was old and large, but, though he lived 
 there alone, he occupied and warmed the whole of it. 
 He knew that this was ridiculous ; he knew that it was 
 bad, and contrary to his new plans ; but this house was 
 a world in itself to him. It was a world where his father 
 and mother had lived and died. They had lived a life 
 which, for Levin, seemed the ideal of all perfection, and 
 which he dreamed of renewing with his own wife, with 
 his own family. 
 
 Levin scarcely remembered his mother. But this 
 remembrance was sacred ; and his future wife, as he 
 imagined her, was to be the counterpart of the ideally 
 charming and adorable woman, his mother. For him, 
 love for a woman could not exist outside of marriage ; 
 but he imagined the family relationship first, and only 
 afterwards the woman who would be the center of the 
 family. His ideas about marriage were therefore es- 
 sentially different from those held by the majority of 
 his friends, for whom it was only one of innumerable 
 social affairs ; for Levin it was the most important act 
 of his life, whereon all his happiness depended, and now 
 he must renounce it ! 
 
 When he entered the little parlor where he always 
 took tea, and threw himself into his arm-chair with a 
 book, while Agafya Mikhai'lovna brought him his cup, 
 and sat down near the window, saying as usual, "Well, 
 I'll sit down, batyushka," then he felt, strangely 
 enough, that he had not renounced his day-dreams, and 
 that he could not live without them. Were it Kitty or 
 another, still it would be. He read his book, had his 
 mind on what he was reading, pausing occasionally to
 
 i2 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 listen to Agafya Mikha'flovna's unceasing prattle, but 
 his imagination was all the time filled with those varied 
 pictures of family happiness which hovered before him. 
 He felt that in the depths of his soul some change, some 
 modification, some crystallization, was taking place. 
 
 He listened while Agafya Mikhai'lovna told how Pro- 
 khor had forgotten God, and, instead of buying a horse 
 with the money which Levin had given him, had taken 
 it and gone on a spree, and beaten his wife almost to 
 death ; and while he listened he read his book, and again 
 caught the thread of his thoughts, awakened by his 
 reading. It was a book by Tyndall, on heat. He re- 
 membered his criticisms on Tyndall's self-satisfaction in 
 the cleverness of his management of his experiments 
 and on his lack of philosophical views, and suddenly a 
 happy thought crossed his mind : 
 
 " In two years I shall have two Holland cows ; per- 
 haps Pava herself will still be alive, and possibly a dozen 
 of Berkut's daughters will have been added to the herd, 
 just from these three ! Splendid ! " 
 
 And again he picked up his book. 
 
 " Well ! very good : electricity and heat are one and 
 the same thing ; but could one quantity take the place 
 of the other in the equations used to settle this problem ? 
 No. What then ? The bond between all the forces of na- 
 ture is felt, like instinct When Pava's daughter grows 
 
 into a cow with red and white spots, what a herd I shall 
 have with those three ! Admirable ! And my wife and I 
 will go out with our guests to see the herd come in ; .... 
 and my wife will say, ' Kostia and I have brought this 
 calf up just like a child.' ' How can this interest you 
 so?' the guests will say. 'All that interests him 
 interests me also.'.... But who will she be?" and he 
 began to think of what had happened in Moscow. 
 "Well! What is to be done about it?.... I am not to 
 blame. But now everything will be different. It is 
 foolishness to let one's past life dominate the present. 
 One must struggle to live better much better.".... 
 
 He raised his head, and sank into thought. Old 
 Laska, who had not yet got over her delight at her
 
 ANNA KARENINA 125 
 
 master's return, had been barking up and down the 
 courtyard. She came into the room, wagging her tail, 
 and bringing the freshness of the open air, and thrust 
 her head under his hand, and begged for a caress, whin- 
 ing plaintively. 
 
 " She almost talks," said Agafya Mikhai'lovna; "she 
 is only a dog, but she knows just as well that her master 
 has come home, and is sad." 
 
 "Why sad?" 
 
 "Da! don't I see it, batyushka? It's time I knew 
 how to read my masters. Grew up with my masters 
 since they were children! No matter, batyushka; your 
 health is good and your conscience pure." 
 
 Levin looked at her earnestly, in astonishment that 
 she so divined his thoughts. 
 
 "And shall I give you some more tea?" said she; 
 and taking the cup, she went out. 
 
 Laska continued to nestle her head in her master's 
 hand. He caressed her, and then she curled herself up 
 around his feet, like a ring, laying her head on one of 
 her hind paws ; and, as a proof that all was arranged to 
 suit her, she opened her mouth a little, let her tongue 
 slip out between her aged teeth, and, with a gentle puff- 
 ing of her lips, gave herself up to beatific repose. Levin 
 followed all of her movements. 
 
 " So will I ! " he said to himself; "so will I! no mat- 
 ter! all will be well!" 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 EARLY on the morning after the ball, Anna Arka- 
 dyevna sent her husband a telegram, announcing that 
 she was going to leave Moscow that day. 
 
 "No, I must, I must go," she said to her sister-in-law, 
 in explanation of her change of plan, and her tone signi- 
 fied that she had just remembered something that de- 
 manded her instant attention. " No, it would be much 
 better if I could go this morning." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch did not dine at home, but he
 
 ia6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 agreed to be back at seven o'clock to escort his sister to 
 the train. 
 
 Kitty did not put in an appearance, but sent word 
 that she had a headache. Dolly and Anna dined alone 
 with the children and the English governess. Either 
 the children were fickle or they were very sensitive and 
 felt that Anna was not at all as she had been on the 
 day when they had taken so kindly to her, that she no 
 longer cared for them, for they suddenly ceased playing 
 with their aunt, seemed to lose their affection for her, 
 and cared very little that she was going away. 
 
 Anna spent the whole morning in making the prep- 
 arations for her departure. She wrote a few notes to 
 her Moscow acquaintances, settled her accounts, and 
 packed. To Dolly especially it seemed that she was not 
 in a happy frame of mind, but in that state of mental agi- 
 tation which Dolly knew from experience arose, not with- 
 out excellent reason, from dissatisfaction with herself. 
 
 After dinner Anna went to her room to dress, and 
 Dolly followed her. 
 
 " How strange you are to-day ! " said Dolly. 
 
 " I ? Do you think so ? I am not strange, but I am 
 cross. This is common with me. I should like to have 
 a good cry. It is very silly, but it will pass away," said 
 Anna, speaking quickly, and hiding her blushing face in 
 a little bag where she was packing her toilet articles and 
 her handkerchiefs. Her eyes shone with tears which she 
 could hardly keep back. " I was so loath to come away 
 from Petersburg, and now I don't want to go back! " 
 
 "You came here and you did a lovely thing," said 
 Dolly, attentively observing her. 
 
 Anna looked at her with eyes wet with tears. 
 
 " Don't say that, Dolly. I have done nothing, and 
 could do nothing. I often ask myself why people say 
 things to spoil me. What have I done ? What could I 
 do ? You found that your heart had enough love left to 
 forgive." .... 
 
 " Without you, .God knows what would have been ! 
 How fortunate you are, Anna!" said Dolly. "All is 
 serene and pure in your soul."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 127 
 
 " Every one has a skeleton in his closet, as the English 
 say." 
 
 " What skeleton have you, pray ? In you everything 
 is so serene." 
 
 " I have mine ! " cried Anna, suddenly ; and an unex- 
 pected, crafty, mocking smile hovered over her lips in 
 spite of her tears. 
 
 " Well ! in your case the skeleton must be a droll one, 
 and not grievous," replied Dolly, with a smile. 
 
 " No ; it is grievous ! Do you know why I go to-day, 
 and not to-morrow ? This is a confession which weighs 
 me down, but I wish to make it," said Anna, decidedly, 
 sitting down in an arm-chair, and looking Dolly straight 
 in the eyes. 
 
 And to her astonishment she saw that Anna was 
 blushing, even to her ears, even to the dark curls that 
 played about the back of her neck. 
 
 " Yes ! " Anna proceeded. " Do you know why Kitty 
 did not come to dinner ? She is jealous of me. I spoiled 
 .... it was through me that the ball last night was a tor- 
 ment and not a joy to her. But truly, truly, I was not 
 to blame, or not much to blame," said she, with a 
 special accent on the word ncmnozhko not much. 
 
 " Oh, how exactly you said that like Stiva ! " remarked 
 Dolly, laughing. 
 
 Anna was vexed. 
 
 " Oh, no ! Oh, no ! I am not like Stiva," said she, 
 frowning. " I have told you this simply because I do 
 not allow myself, for an instant, to doubt myself." 
 
 But the very moment that she said these words, she 
 perceived how untrue they were ; she not only doubted 
 herself, but she felt such emotion at the thought of 
 Vronsky that she took her departure sooner than she 
 otherwise would, so that she might not meet him again. 
 
 " Yes, Stiva told me that you danced the mazurka 
 with him, and that he...." 
 
 " You cannot imagine how ridiculously it turned out. 
 I thought only to help along the match, and suddenly it 
 went exactly opposite. Perhaps against my will, I ...." 
 
 She blushed, and did not finish her sentence.
 
 128 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Oh ! these things are felt instantly," said Dolly. 
 
 " I should be in despair if I felt that there was any- 
 thing serious on his part," interrupted Anna; "but I 
 am convinced that all this will be quickly forgotten, 
 and that Kitty will not long be angry with me." 
 
 " In the first place, Anna, to tell the truth, I should 
 not be very sorry if this marriage fell through. It would 
 be vastly better for it to stop right here if Vronsky can 
 fall in love with you in a single day." 
 
 " Oh heavens! that would be so idiotic ! " said Anna, 
 and again an intense blush of satisfaction overspread 
 her face at hearing the thought that occupied her ex- 
 pressed in words. "And that is why I go away, after 
 making an enemy of Kitty, whom I loved so dearly. 
 Akh ! how sweet she is ! But you will arrange that, 
 Dolly ? Won't you ? " 
 
 Dolly could hardly refrain from smiling. She loved 
 Anna, but it was pleasant to her to discover that she 
 also had her weaknesses. 
 
 " An enemy ? That cannot be ! " 
 
 " And I should have been so glad to have you all love 
 me as I love you ; but now I love you all more than 
 ever," said Anna, with tears in her eyes. "Akh! how 
 absurd I am to-day ! " 
 
 She passed her handkerchief over her eyes, and began 
 to get ready. 
 
 At the very moment of her departure came Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch with rosy, happy face, and an odor of wine 
 and cigars. 
 
 Anna's tender-heartedness had communicated itself 
 to Dolly, and, when she kissed her for the last time, she 
 whispered : - 
 
 " Think, Anna ! what you have done for me ! I shall 
 never forget. And remember that I love you, and al- 
 ways shall love you as my best friend ! " 
 
 " I don't understand why," replied Anna, kissing her, 
 and struggling with her tears. 
 
 " You have understood me, and you do understand 
 me. Farewell, my dearest ! " 1 
 
 1 Proshchai, moya prelest I
 
 ANNA KARENINA 129 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 " WELL ! all is over, and thank the Lord ! " was Anna's 
 first thought after she had said good-by to her brother, 
 who had blocked up the entrance to the railway-carriage, 
 even after the third bell had rung. She sat down on 
 the divanchik next Annushka, her maid, and began to 
 examine the feebly lighted compartment. "Thank the 
 Lord ! to-morrow I shall see Serozha and Alekse'f Alek- 
 sanclrovitch, and my good and commonplace life will 
 begin again as of old." 
 
 With the same mental preoccupation that had pos- 
 sessed her all that day, Anna found a satisfaction in 
 attending minutely to the arrangements for the journey. 
 With her skilful little hands she opened her red bag, 
 and took out a cushion, placed it on her knees, wrapped 
 her feet warmly, and composed herself comfortably. 
 
 A lady, who seemed to be an invalid, had already 
 gone to sleep. Two other ladies entered into conversa, 
 tion with Anna; and a fat, elderly dame, well wrapped 
 up, expressed her opinion on the temperature. Anna 
 exchanged a few words with the ladies, but, not taking 
 any interest in their conversation, asked Annushka for 
 her traveling-lamp, placed it on the back of her seat, 
 and took from her bag a paper-cutter and an English 
 novel. At first she could not read ; the going and com- 
 ing and the general bustle disturbed her ; when once 
 the train had started, she could not help listening to 
 the noises : the snow striking against the window, and 
 sticking to the glass ; the conductor, as he passed with 
 the snowflakes melting on his coat ; the remarks about 
 the terrible storm, all distracted her attention. 
 
 Afterwards it became more monotonous : always the 
 same jolting and jarring, the same snow on the window, 
 the same sudden changes from warmth to cold, and back 
 to warmth again, the same faces in the dim light, and 
 the same voices. And Anna began to read, and to fol- 
 low what she was reading. 
 
 Annushka was already asleep, holding the little red 
 
 VOL. I. 9
 
 ijo ANNA KARENINA 
 
 bag on her knees with great, clumsy hands, clad in 
 gloves, one of which was torn. 
 
 Anna read, and understood what she read ; but it 
 was not pleasant to her to read, in other words to enter 
 into the lives of other people. She had too keen a 
 desire to live herself. If she read how the heroine of 
 her story took care of the sick, she would have liked 
 to go with noiseless steps into the sick-room. If she 
 read how a member of Parliament made a speech, she 
 would have liked to make that speech. If she read how 
 Lady Mary rode after the hounds, and made sport of 
 her sister-in-law, and astonished every one by her au- 
 dacity, she would have liked to do the same. But she 
 could do nothing ; and with her little hands she clutched 
 the paper-cutter, and forced herself to read calmly. 
 
 The hero of her novel had reached the summit of his 
 English ambition, a baronetcy and an estate; and 
 Anna felt a desire to go with him to this estate, when 
 suddenly it seemed to her that he ought to feel a sense 
 of shame, and that she ought to share it. But why should 
 he feel ashamed ? " Why should I feel ashamed ? " she 
 asked herself with astonishment and discontent. She 
 closed the book, and, leaning back against the chair, 
 held the paper-cutter tightly in both hands. 
 
 There was nothing to be ashamed of : she reviewed 
 all her memories of her visit to Moscow ; they were all 
 pleasant and good. She remembered the ball, she 
 remembered Vronsky and his humble and passionate 
 face, she recalled all her relations with him ; there was 
 nothing to be ashamed of. But at the same time in 
 these reminiscences the sense of shame kept growing 
 stronger and stronger ; and it seemed to her that in- 
 ward voice, whenever she thought of Vronsky, seemed 
 to say, "Warmly, very warmly, passionately.".... 
 
 "Well! what is this?" she asked herself resolutely, 
 as she changed her position in the seat. " What does 
 this mean ? Am I afraid to face these memories ? Well ! 
 what is it? Is there, can there be, any relationship 
 between that boy-officer and me beyond what exists 
 between all acquaintances ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 131 
 
 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 exag- 
 gerated 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 con- 
 quered 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 dark- 
 ness. 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
 
 132 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 snow, shouted something in her ear. She started up, 
 recovered her wits, and perceived that they were ap. 
 proaching a station, and the man was the conductor. 
 She bade Annushka give her the pelerine which she had 
 laid aside and her handkerchief, and, having put them 
 on, she went to the door. 
 , " Do you wish to go out ? " asked Annushka. 
 
 " Yes ; I want to get a breath of fresh air. It is very 
 hot here." 
 
 And she opened the door. The snow-storm and the 
 wind rushed in to meet her and disputed the door with 
 her. And this seemed to her very jolly. The storm 
 seemed to be waiting for her, it gayly whistled and was 
 eager to carry her away ; but she clung to the cold rail- 
 ing with one hand, and, holding her dress, she stepped 
 out on the platform, and left the car. The wind was 
 fierce on the steps, but on the platform, under the shel- 
 ter of the station, it was calmer, and she found a genuine 
 pleasure in filling her lungs with the frosty air. Stand' 
 ing near the car she watched the platform and the sta- 
 tion gleaming with lights. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 A FURIOUS snow-storm was raging, and whistling 
 among the wheels of the carriages, around the columns, 
 and into the corners of the station. The carriages, the 
 pillars, the people, everything visible, were covered on 
 one side with snow, and it was increasing momently. 
 Once in a while there would be a lull, but then again it 
 blew with such gusts that it seemed impossible to make 
 way against it. Meantime a few people were running 
 hither and thither, talking gayly, opening and shutting 
 the great doors of the station, and making the platform 
 planks creak under their feet. The flitting shadow of a 
 man passed rapidly by her feet, and she heard the blows 
 of a hammer falling on the iron. 
 
 " Send off the telegram," cried an angry voice on the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 133 
 
 other side of the track in the midst of the drifting 
 storm. 
 
 "This way, please, No. 28," cried other voices, and 
 several people covered with snow hurried by. Two 
 gentlemen, with lighted cigarettes in their mouths, 
 passed near Anna. She was just about to reenter the 
 carriage, after getting one more breath of fresh air, and 
 had already taken her hand from her muff, to lay hold 
 of the railing, when the flickering light from the reflector 
 was cut off by a man in a military coat, who came close 
 to her. She looked up, and that instant recognized 
 Vronsky's face. 
 
 Raising his hand to his vizor he bowed low, and asked 
 if she needed anything, if he might not be of service to 
 her. 
 
 She looked at him for a considerable time without 
 replying, and although he was in the shadow, she saw, 
 or thought she saw, the expression of his face and even 
 of his eyes. It was a repetition of that respectful ad- 
 miration which had so impressed her on the evening 
 of the ball. More than once that day she had said to 
 herself that Vronsky, for her, was only one of the 
 hundred young men whom one meets in society, that 
 she would never permit herself to give him a second 
 thought ! but now, on the first instant of seeing him 
 again, a sensation of pride and joy seized her. She 
 had no need to ask why he was there. She knew, as 
 truly as if he had told her, that he was there so as to be 
 where she was. 
 
 " I did not know that you were going to Petersburg. 
 Why are you going ? " said she, letting her hand fall 
 from the railing. A joy which she could not restrain 
 shone in her face. 
 
 "Why am I going?" he repeated, looking straight 
 into her eyes. "You know that I came simply for this, 
 to be where you are," he said. "I could not do 
 otherwise." 
 
 And at this instant the wind, as if it had conquered 
 every obstacle, blew the snow from the roofs of the 
 carriages, and whirled away a piece of sheet-iron
 
 134 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 which it had torn off, and at the same time the deep 
 whistle of the locomotive gave a melancholy, mournful 
 cry. Never had the horror of a tempest appeared to 
 her more beautiful than now. He had said what her 
 heart longed to hear but what her better judgment con- 
 demned. She made no reply, but he perceived by her 
 face how she fought against herself. 
 
 " Forgive me if what I said displeases you," he mur- 
 mured humbly. 
 
 He spoke respectfully, courteously, but in such a reso- 
 lute, decided tone, that for some time she was unable to 
 reply. 
 
 " What you said was wrong ; and I beg of you, if you 
 are a gentleman, to forget it, as I shall forget it," said 
 she at last. 
 
 " I shall never forget, and I shall never be able to 
 forget any of your words, any of your gestures .... " 
 
 " Enough, enough ! " she cried, vainly endeavoring to 
 give an expression of severity to her face, at which 
 Vronsky was passionately gazing. And grasping the 
 cold railing she mounted the steps, and quickly entered 
 the vestibule of the carriage. But she stopped in the 
 little vestibule, and tried to recall to her imagination 
 what had taken place. But though she found it impos- 
 sible to remember either her own words or his, she in- 
 stinctively felt that this brief conversation had brought 
 them frightfully close together, and she was at once 
 alarmed and delighted. After she had stood there a 
 few seconds, she went back into the carriage and sat 
 down in her place. 
 
 The nervous strain which had been tormenting her not 
 only returned, but became more intense, until she began 
 to fear every moment that something would snap her 
 brain. She did not sleep all night ; but in this nervous 
 tension, and in the fantasies which filled her imagina- 
 tion, there was nothing disagreeable or painful ; on the 
 contrary, it was joyous, burning excitement. 
 
 Toward morning, Anna dozed as she sat in her arm- 
 chair ; and when she awoke it was broad daylight, and 
 the train was approaching Petersburg. Instantly the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 135 
 
 thought of her home, her husband, her son, and all the 
 labors of the day and the coming days, filled her mind. 
 
 The train had hardly reached the station at Peters- 
 burg, when Anna stepped out on the platform ; and the 
 first person that she saw was her husband waiting for 
 her. 
 
 " Oh, good heavens ! Why do his ears stand out so ! " 
 she thought, as she looked at his reserved and portly 
 figure and especially at his stiff cartilaginous ears, which, 
 as they propped up the rim of his round hat, struck her 
 for the first time. When he saw her, he came to meet 
 her at the carriage, compressing his lips into his habitual 
 smile of irony, looking straight at her with his great, 
 weary eyes. A disagreeable thought made her heart 
 sink when she saw his stubborn, weary look ; she felt 
 that she had expected to find him different. Especially 
 was she astounded by the feeling of self-dissatisfaction 
 which she experienced on meeting him. This feeling 
 was associated with her home, akin to the state of hypoc- 
 risy which she recognized in her relations with her hus- 
 band. This feeling was not novel ; she had felt it before 
 without heeding it, but now she realized it clearly and 
 painfully. 
 
 "There! you see, I'm a tender husband, tender as 
 the first year of our marriage ; I was burning with desire 
 to see you," said he, in his slow, deliberate voice, and 
 with the light tone of raillery that he generally used in 
 speaking to her, a tone of ridicule of any one who 
 should really say such things. 
 
 " Is Serozha well ? " she asked. 
 
 "And is this all the reward," he said, "for my ardor? 
 He is well, very well." .... 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 VRONSKY also had not even attempted to sleep all that 
 night. He sat in his arm-chair, now gazing straight for- 
 ward, now looking at those who came in and went out, 
 and if before he had impressed strangers and irritated
 
 ij6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 them by his imperturbable dignity, now he would have 
 seemed to them far more haughty and self-contained. 
 He looked at men as if they were things. A nervous 
 young man, employed in the district court, was sitting 
 opposite him in the carriage, and came to hate him on 
 account of this aspect. The young man asked for a 
 light, and spoke to him, and even touched him, in order 
 to make him perceive that he was not a thing but a 
 man ; yet Vronsky looked at him exactly as he looked 
 at the carriage-lamp. And the young man made a 
 grimace, feeling that he should lose command of him- 
 self to be so scorned by a man. 
 
 Vronsky saw nothing, saw no one. He felt as if he 
 were a tsar, not because he believed that he had made 
 an impression upon Anna, he did not fully realize 
 that, as yet, but because the impression which she 
 had made on him filled him with happiness and pride. 
 
 What would be the outcome of all this he did not 
 know, and did not even consider ; but he felt that all 
 his hitherto dissipated and scattered powers were now 
 concentrating and converging with frightful rapidity 
 toward one beatific focus. And he was happy in 
 this thought. He knew only that he had told her the 
 truth when he said he was going where she was, that 
 all the happiness of life, the sole significance of life, he 
 found now in seeing and hearing her. And when he left 
 his compartment at Bologovo to get a glass of seltzer, 
 and he saw Anna, involuntarily his first word told her 
 what he thought. And he was glad that he had spoken 
 as he did ; glad that she knew all now, and was thinking 
 about it. He did not sleep all night. Returning to his 
 carriage he did not cease recalling all his memories of 
 her, the words that she had spoken, and in his imagina- 
 tion glowed the pictures of a possible future which over- 
 whelmed his heart. 
 
 When, on reaching Petersburg, he left the carriage, 
 after his sleepless night he felt as fresh and vigorous as 
 if he had just had a cold bath. He stood near his car- 
 riage, waiting to see her pass. " Once more I shall see 
 her," he said to himself, with a smile. " I shall see her
 
 ANNA KARENINA 137 
 
 graceful bearing, her face ; she will speak a word to me, 
 will turn her head, will look at me, perhaps she will 
 smile on me." 
 
 But it was her husband whom first he saw, politely 
 escorted through the crowd by the station-master. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! the husband ! " 
 
 And then Vronsky for the first time clearly realized 
 that the husband was an important factor in Anna's life. 
 He knew that she had a husband, but he had not realized 
 his existence, and he now fully realized it only as he saw 
 his head and shoulders, and his legs clothed in black 
 trowsers, and especially when he saw this husband un- 
 concernedly take her hand with an air of proprietorship. 
 
 When he saw Aleksel' Aleksandrovitch with his 
 Petersburgish-fresh face, and his solid, self-confident 
 figure, his round hat, and his slightly stooping shoul- 
 ders, he began to believe in his existence, and he expe- 
 rienced an unpleasant sensation such as a man tormented 
 by thirst might experience, who should discover a foun- 
 tain, but find that a dog, a sheep, or a pig has been 
 drinking and fouling the water. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch's stiff and heavy gait was 
 exceedingly distasteful to Vronsky. He would not ac- 
 knowledge that any one besides himself had the right 
 to love Anna. But she was still the same and the sight 
 of her had still the same effect on him, physically kind- 
 ling him, stirring him, and filling his heart with joy. 
 He ordered his German body-servant, who came hurry- 
 ing up to him from the second-class carriage, to see to 
 the baggage and to go home ; and he himself went to 
 her. Thus he witnessed the first meeting between 
 husband and wife, and with a lover's intuition, perceived 
 the shade of constraint with which Anna spoke to her 
 husband. 
 
 "No, she does not love him, and she cannot love 
 him," was his mental judgment. 
 
 Even as he came up to Anna Arkadyevna from behind, 
 he noticed with joy that she felt him near her and 
 looked round, and having recognized him, she went on 
 talking with her husband.
 
 138 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Did you pass a good night?" he inquired, bowing 
 to her and her husband and allowing AlekseT Aleksan- 
 drovitch the opportunity to accept the honor of the salu- 
 tation and recognize him or not recognize him as it might 
 seem good to him. 
 
 " Thank you, very good," she replied. 
 
 Her face expressed weariness, lacked that spark of 
 animation which was generally hovering now in her 
 eyes, now in her smile ; but, for a single instant, at the 
 sight of Vronsky, something flashed into her eyes, and, 
 notwithstanding the fact that the fire instantly died 
 away, he was overjoyed even at this. She raised her 
 eyes to her husband, to see whether he knew Vronsky. 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch looked at him with displeasure, 
 vaguely remembering who he was. Vronsky's calm 
 self-assurance struck upon Aleksei Aleksandrovitch's 
 cool superciliousness as a scythe strikes a rock. 
 
 "Count Vronsky," said Anna. 
 
 " Ah ! We have met before, it seems to me," said 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch with indifference, extending 
 his hand. " Went with the mother, and came home 
 with the son," said he, speaking with precision, as if 
 his words were worth a ruble apiece. " I presume you 
 are returning from a furlough ? " And without waiting 
 for an answer, he turned to his wife, in his ironical tone, 
 " Did they shed many tears in Moscow on your leaving 
 them ? " 
 
 By thus addressing his wife he intended to give 
 Vronsky to understand that he desired to be left alone, 
 and again bowing to him he touched his hat ; but Vron- 
 sky had one more word to say to Anna. 
 
 " I hope to have the honor of calling on you," said 
 he. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, with weary eyes, looked at 
 Vronsky. 
 
 "Very happy," he said coldly; "we receive on Mon- 
 days." 
 
 Then, leaving Vronsky entirely, he said to his wife, 
 still in a jesting tone : 
 
 " And how fortunate that I happened to have a spare
 
 ANNA KARENINA 139 
 
 half-hour to come to meet you, and show you my affec- 
 tion." 
 
 "You emphasize your affection too much for me to 
 appreciate it," she replied, in the same spirit of raillery, 
 involuntarily listening to Vronsky's steps behind them. 
 " But what is that to me ? " she asked herself in thought. 
 Then she began to ask her husband how Serozha had 
 got along during her absence. 
 
 " Oh ! excellently. Mariette says that he has been 
 very good, and ....I am sorry to mortify you .... he did 
 not seem to miss you not so much as your husband 
 did. But again, merci, my dear, that you came a day 
 earlier. . Our dear Samovar will be delighted." 
 
 He called the celebrated Countess Liclya Ivanovna 
 by the nickname of the Samovar, because, like a tea- 
 urn, she was always and everywhere bubbling and boil- 
 ing. " She has kept asking after you ; and do you 
 know, if I make bold to advise you, you would do well 
 to go to see her to-day. You see, her heart is always 
 sore about something. At present, besides her usual 
 cares, she is greatly concerned about the reconciliation 
 of the Oblonskys." 
 
 The Countess Lidya Ivanovna was a friend of Anna's 
 husband, and the center of a certain clique in Peters- 
 burg society, to which Anna on her husband's account, 
 rather than for any other reason, belonged. 
 
 " Yes ! But did n't I write her ? " 
 
 " She must have all the details. Go to her, my love, 
 if you are not too tired. Well ! Kondratu will call 
 your carriage, and I am going to a committee-meeting. 
 I shall not have to dine alone to-day," continued Aleksei 
 Aleksandrovitch, not in jest this time. "You cannot 
 imagine how used I am to.... " 
 
 And with a peculiar smile, giving her a long pressure 
 of the hand, he conducted her to the carriage.
 
 i 4 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 THE first person to meet Anna when she reached 
 home was her son. He darted down-stairs, in spite of 
 his governess's reproof, and with wild delight cried, 
 " Mamma ! mamma ! " Rushing up to her he threw 
 his arms round her neck. 
 
 " I told you it was mamma ! " he shouted to the gov- 
 erness. " I knew it was ! " 
 
 But the son, no less than the husband, awakened in 
 Anna a feeling like disillusion. She imagined him bet- 
 ter than he was in reality. She was obliged to descend 
 to the reality in order to look on him as he was. But in 
 fact, he was lovely, with his fair curls, his blue eyes, and 
 his pretty plump legs in their neatly fitting stockings. 
 She felt an almost physical satisfaction in feeling him 
 near her, and in his caresses, and a moral calm in looking 
 into his tender, confiding, loving eyes, and in hearing 
 his innocent questions. She unpacked the gifts sent 
 him by Dolly's children, and told him how there was 
 a little girl in Moscow, named Tanya, and how this 
 Tanya knew how to read, and was teaching the other 
 children to read. 
 
 " Am I not as good as she ? " asked Serozha. 
 
 " For me, you are worth all the rest of the world." 
 
 " I know it," said Serozha, smiling. 
 
 Anna had not finished drinking her coffee, when the 
 Countess Lidya Ivanovna was announced. The Coun- 
 tess Lidya Ivanovna was a tall, stout woman, with an 
 unhealthy, sallow complexion, and handsome, dreamy 
 black eyes. Anna liked her, but to-day, as if for the 
 first time, she saw her with all her faults. 
 
 " Well ! my dear, did you carry the olive-branch ? " 
 demanded the Countess Lidya Ivanovna, as she entered 
 the room. 
 
 "Yes, it is all made up," replied Anna; "but it was 
 not so bad as we thought. As a general thing, my 
 sister-in-law is too peremptory." 
 
 But the Countess Lidya, who was interested in every-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 141 
 
 thing that did not specially concern herself, had the habit 
 of sometimes not needing what did interest her. She 
 interrupted Anna : 
 
 " Well ! This world is full of woes and tribulations, 
 and I am all worn out to-day." 
 
 "What is it?" asked Anna, striving to repress a 
 smile. 
 
 " I am beginning to weary of the ineffectual attempts 
 to get at the truth, and sometimes I am utterly discour- 
 aged. The work of the Little Sisters " this was a phil- 
 anthropic and religiously patriotic institution "used 
 to get along splendidly, but there is nothing to be done 
 with these men," added the Countess Lidya Ivanovna, 
 with an air of ironical resignation to fate. " They got 
 hold of the idea, they mutilated it, and then they judge 
 it so meanly, so wretchedly. Two or three men, your 
 husband among them, understand all the significance of 
 this work ; but the others only discredit it. Yesterday 
 I had a letter from Pravdin .... " 
 
 Pravdin was a famous Panslavist, who lived abroad, 
 and the Countess Lidya Ivanovna related what he had 
 said in his letter. 
 
 Then she went on to describe the troubles and snares 
 that blocked the work of uniting the churches, and 
 finally departed in haste, because it was the day for her 
 to be present at the meeting of some society or other, 
 and at the sitting of the Slavonic Committee. 
 
 "All this is just as it has been, but why did I never 
 notice it before ? " said Anna to herself. " Was she very 
 irritable to-day ? But at any rate, it is ridiculous : her 
 aims are charitable, she is a Christian, and yet she is 
 angry with every one, and every one is her enemy ; and 
 yet all her enemies are working for Christianity and 
 charity." 
 
 After the departure of the Countess Lidya Ivanovna, 
 came a friend, the wife of a director, who told her all 
 the news of the city. At three o'clock she went out, 
 promising to be back in time for dinner. Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch was at the meeting of the ministry. The 
 hour before dinner, which Anna spent alone, she em-
 
 142 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ployed sitting with her son, who had his dinner by 
 himself, in arranging her things, and in reading and 
 answering the letters and notes heaped up on her writ- 
 ing-table. 
 
 The sensation of causeless shame, and the agitation 
 from which she had suffered so strangely during her 
 journey, now completely disappeared. Under the con- 
 ditions of her ordinary every-day life, she felt calm, and 
 free from reproach, and she was filled with wonder as 
 she recalled her condition of the night before. 
 
 " What was it ? Nothing. Vronsky said a foolish 
 thing ; it is easy to put an end to such nonsense, and I 
 answered him exactly right. To speak of it to my hus- 
 band is unnecessary and impossible. To speak about 
 it would seem to attach importance to what has none." 
 
 And she recalled how, when a young subordinate of 
 her husband's in Petersburg had almost made her a 
 declaration and she had told him about it, Aleksei' Alek- 
 sandrovitch answered that as she went into society, she, 
 like all society women, might expect such experiences, 
 but that he had perfect confidence in her tact, and never 
 would permit himself to humiliate her or him by jealousy. 
 " Why tell, then ? Besides, thank God, there is nothing 
 to tell." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 ALEKSEI ALEKSANDROVITCH returned from the min- 
 istry about four o'clock ; but, as often happened, he 
 found no time to speak to Anna. He went directly to 
 his private room to give audience to some petitioners 
 who were waiting for him, and to sign some papers 
 brought him by his chief secretary. 
 
 The Karenins always had at least three visitors to 
 dine with them ; and that day there came an old lady, 
 a cousin of Alekseif Aleksandrovitch's, a department di- 
 rector with his wife, and a young man recommended to 
 Alekseif Aleksandrovitch for employment. Anna came 
 to the drawing-room to receive them at five o'clock pre-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 143 
 
 cisely. The great bronze clock, of the time of Peter the 
 Great, had not yet finished its fifth stroke, when Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, in white cravat, and with two decora- 
 tions on his dress-coat, left his dressing-room ; he had 
 an engagement immediately after dinner. Every mo- 
 ment of Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch's life was counted and 
 occupied ; and in order to accomplish what he had to do 
 every day, he was forced to use the strictest punctuality. 
 "Without haste, and without rest," was his motto. He 
 entered the dining-room, bowed to his guests, and, giv- 
 ing his wife a smile, hastily sat down. 
 
 "Yes, my solitude is over! You can't believe how 
 irksome," - he laid a special stress on the word nelovko, 
 irksome, " it is to dine alone ! " 
 
 During the dinner he talked with his wife about mat- 
 ters in Moscow, and, with his mocking smile, inquired 
 especially about Stepan Arkadyevitch ; but the conver- 
 sation dwelt for the most part on common subjects, 
 about official and social matters in Petersburg. After 
 dinner he spent a half-hour with his guests, and then, 
 giving his wife another smile, and pressing her hand, he 
 left the room and went to the council. 
 
 Anna did not go out that evening either to the Prin- 
 cess Betsy Tverskaya's, who, having heard of her arri- 
 val, had sent her an invitation ; or to the theater, where 
 she just now had a box. She did not go out principally 
 because the gown on which she had counted was not 
 finished. After the departure of her guests, Anna took 
 a general survey of her wardrobe, and was very angry. 
 She was extremely clever in dressing at small expense, 
 and just before she went to Moscow she had given 
 three gowns to her dressmaker to make over. These 
 gowns required to be made over in such a way that no 
 one would recognize them, and they should have been 
 ready three days before. Two of the gowns proved 
 to be absolutely unfinished, and one was not made over 
 in a way which Anna liked. The dressmaker sought 
 to explain what she had done, declaring that her way 
 was best ; and Anna reprimanded her so severely that 
 afterwards she felt ashamed of herself. To calm her
 
 144 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 agitation, she went to the nursery, and spent the whole 
 evening with her son, put him to bed herself, made the 
 sign of the cross over him, and tucked the quilt about 
 him. She was glad that she had not gone out, and 
 that she had spent such a happy evening. It was so 
 quiet and restful, and now she saw clearly that all that 
 had seemed so important during her railway journey 
 was only one of the ordinary insignificant events of 
 social life, that she had nothing of which to be 
 ashamed, either in her own eyes, or in the eyes of 
 others. She sat down in front of the fireplace with her 
 English novel, and waited for her husband. At half- 
 past ten exactly his ring was heard at the door, and he 
 .came into the room. 
 
 " Here you are, at last," she said, giving him her 
 hand. He kissed her hand, and sat down near her. 
 
 " Your journey, I see, was on the whole very success- 
 ful," said he. 
 
 "Yes, very," she replied; and she began to relate all 
 the details from the beginning her journey with the 
 Countess Vronskaya, her arrival, the accident at the 
 station, the pity which she had felt, first for her brother, 
 and afterwards for Dolly. 
 
 " I do not see how it is possible to pardon such a 
 man, even though he is your brother," said Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch, severely. 
 
 Anna smiled. She appreciated that he said this to 
 show that not even kinship could bend him from the 
 strictness of his honest judgment. She knew this trait 
 in her husband's character, and liked it. 
 
 " I am glad that all ended so satisfactorily, and that 
 you have come home again," he continued. " Well ! 
 what do they say there about the new measures that 
 I introduced in the council ? " 
 
 Anna had heard nothing said about this new measure, 
 and she was confused because she had so easily forgotten 
 something which to him was so important. 
 
 " Here, on the contrary, it has made a great sensa- 
 tion," said he, with a self-satisfied smile. 
 
 She saw that Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch wanted to tell
 
 ANNA KARENINA 145 
 
 her something very flattering to himself about this 
 affair, and, by means of questions, she led him up to 
 the story. And he, with the same self-satisfied smile, 
 began to tell her of the congratulations which he had 
 received on account of this measure, which had been 
 passed. 
 
 " I was very, very glad. This proves that at last 
 reasonable and serious views about this question are 
 beginning to be formed among us." 
 
 After he had taken his second glass of tea, with cream 
 and bread, Aleksei Aleksandrovitch arose to go to his 
 library. 
 
 " But you did not go out ; was it very tiresome for 
 you ? " he said. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " she replied, rising with her husband, and 
 going with him through the hall to the library. 
 
 " What are you reading now ? " she asked. 
 
 "Just now I am reading the Due de Lille Poesie 
 dcs enfers" he replied, "a very remarkable book." 
 
 Anna smiled, as one smiles at the weaknesses of those 
 we love, and, passing her arm through her husband's, 
 accompanied him to the library door. She knew that 
 his habit of reading in the evening had become inex- 
 orable, and that, notwithstanding his absorbing duties, 
 which took so much of his time at the council, he felt 
 it his duty to follow all that seemed remarkable in the 
 sphere of literature. She also knew that while he felt 
 a special interest in works on political economy, philoso- 
 phy, and religion, art was quite foreign to his nature ; 
 and notwithstanding this, or better, for that very reason, 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch allowed nothing that was at- 
 tracting attention in that field to escape his notice, but 
 considered it his duty to read everything. She knew 
 that in the province of political economy, philosophy, 
 religion, Aleksei Aleksandrovitch had doubts, and tried 
 to solve them ; but in questions of art or poetry, par- 
 ticularly in music, the comprehension of which was 
 utterly beyond him, he had the most precise and defi- 
 nite opinions. He loved to talk of Shakespeare, Raphael, 
 and Beethoven ; of the importance of the new school 
 
 VOL. I. IO
 
 146 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of music and poetry, all of whom were classed by 
 him according to the most rigorous logic. 
 
 "Well! God be with you," she said, as they reached 
 the door of the library. Near her husband's arm-chair 
 were standing, as usual, the shade-lamp already lighted, 
 and a carafe with water. " And I am going to write to 
 Moscow." 
 
 Again he pressed her hand, and kissed it. 
 
 " Taken all in all, he is a good man ; upright, excel- 
 lent, remarkable in his sphere," said Anna to herself, 
 on her way to her room, as if she was defending him 
 from some one who accused him of not being lov- 
 able. 
 
 " But why do his ears stick out so ? Or does he cut 
 his hair too short ? " 
 
 It was just midnight, and Anna was still sitting at 
 her writing-table finishing a letter to Dolly, when meas- 
 ured steps in slippers were heard ; and AlekseT Alek- 
 sandrovitch, who had washed his face and brushed his 
 hair, came in with his book under his arm. 
 
 " Late, late," said he, with his usual smile, and passed 
 on to his sleeping-room. 
 
 " And what right had he to look at him so ? " thought 
 Anna, recalling Vronsky's expression when he saw Alek- 
 se'f Aleksandrovitch. Having undressed, she went to 
 her room ; but in her face there was none of that ani- 
 mation that shone in her eyes and in her smile at Mos- 
 cow. On the contrary, the fire had either died away, 
 or was somewhere far away and out of sight. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 ON leaving Petersburg, Vronsky had installed his 
 beloved friend and comrade, Petritsky, in his ample 
 quarters on the Morskaya. 
 
 Petritsky was a young lieutenant, not particularly dis- 
 tinguished, and not only not rich, but over ears in debt. 
 Every evening he came home tipsy, and he spent much 
 of his time at the police courts, in search of strange
 
 ANNA KARENINA 147 
 
 or amusing or scandalous stories ; but in spite of all 
 he was a favorite with his comrades and his chiefs. 
 
 About eleven o'clock in the morning, when Vronsky 
 reached his rooms after his journey, he saw at the en- 
 trance an izvoshchik's carriage, which he knew very 
 well. From the door, when he rang, he heard men's 
 laughter and the lisping of a woman's voice, and Petrit- 
 sky shouting : 
 
 " If it 's any of those villains, don't let 'em in." 
 
 Vronsky, not allowing his denshcbik to announce his 
 presence, quietly entered the anteroom. The Baroness 
 Shilton, a friend of Petritsky's, shining in a lilac satin 
 robe, and with her little pink face, was making coffee 
 before a round table, and, like a canary-bird, was filling 
 the room with her Parisian slang. Petritsky in his 
 overcoat, and Captain Kamerovsky in full uniform, ap- 
 parently just from duty, were sitting near her. 
 
 " Bravo, Vronsky ! " cried Petritsky, leaping up and 
 overturning the chair. "The master himself. Baron- 
 ess, coffee for him from the new coffee-pot ! We did 
 not expect you. I hope that you are pleased with the 
 new ornament in your library," he said, pointing to the 
 baroness. " You are acquainted, are n't you ? " 
 
 " I should think so ! " said Vronsky, smiling gayly, 
 and squeezing the baroness's dainty little hand. " We 're 
 old friends." 
 
 " Are you back from a journey ? " asked the baroness. 
 " Then I 'm off. Akh ! I am going this minute if I am 
 in the way." 
 
 "You are at home wherever you are, baroness," said 
 Vronsky. " How are you, Kamerovsky?" coolly shak- 
 ing hands with the captain. 
 
 " There now ! you would never think of saying such 
 lovely things as that," said the baroness to Petritsky. 
 
 " No ? Why not ? After dinner I could say better 
 things ! " 
 
 " Yes, after dinner there 's no more merit in them. 
 Well ! I will make your coffee while you go and wash 
 your hands and brush off the dust," said the baroness, 
 again sitting down, and industriously turning the screw
 
 148 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of the new coffee-pot. " Pierre, bring some more coffee," 
 said she to Petritsky, whom she called Pierre, after his 
 family name, making no concealment of her intimacy 
 with him. " I will add it." 
 
 "You will spoil it." 
 
 " No ! I won't spoil it. Well ! and your wife ? " said 
 the baroness, suddenly interrupting Vronsky's remarks 
 to his companions. " We have been marrying you off. 
 Did you bring your wife ? " 
 
 " No, baroness. I was born a Bohemian, and I shall 
 die a Bohemian." 
 
 " So much the better, so much the better ; give us 
 your hand ! " 
 
 And the baroness, without letting him go, began to 
 talk with him, developing her various plans of life, and 
 asking his advice with many jests. 
 
 " He will never be willing to let me have a divorce. 
 Well! what am I to do ? [He was her husband.] I now 
 mean to institute a lawsuit. What should you think of 
 it ? .... Kamerovsky, just watch the coffee ! It 's boiling 
 
 over You see how well I understand business ! I 
 
 mean to begin a lawsuit to get control of my fortune. 
 Do you understand this nonsense ? Under the pretext 
 that I have been unfaithful," said she, in a scornful tone, 
 " he means to get possession of my estate." 
 
 Vronsky listened with amusement to this gay prattle 
 of the pretty woman, approved of what she said, gave 
 her half-jesting advice, and assumed the tone he usually 
 affected with women of her character. In his Peters- 
 burg world, humanity was divided into two absolutely 
 distinct categories, the one of a low order, trivial, 
 stupid, and above all ridiculous people, who declared 
 that one husband ought to live with one wedded wife, 
 that girls should be virtuous, women chaste, men brave, 
 temperate, and upright, occupied in bringing up their 
 children decently, in earning their bread, and paying 
 their debts, and other such absurdities. People of this 
 kind were old-fashioned and ridiculous. 
 
 But there was another and vastly superior class, to 
 which he and his friends belonged, and in this the chief
 
 ANNA KARENINA 149 
 
 requirement was that its members should be elegant, 
 generous, bold, gay, unblushingly given over to every 
 passion, and scornful of all the rest. 
 
 Only for the first moment was Vronsky bewildered 
 under the impressions which he had brought back from 
 Moscow, of an entirely different world. But soon, and 
 as naturally as one puts on old slippers, he got into the 
 spirit of his former gay and jovial life. 
 
 The coffee was never served; it boiled over, spattered 
 them all, and wet a costly table-cloth and the baroness's 
 dress ; but it served the end that was desired, for it 
 gave rise to many jests and merry peals of laughter. 
 
 " Well, now, good-by, for you will never get dressed, 
 and I shall have on my conscience the worst crime that 
 a decent man can commit, that of not taking a bath. 
 .... So you advise me to put the knife to his throat ? " 
 
 " By all means, and in such a way that your little 
 hand will come near his lips. He will kiss your little 
 hand, and all will end to everybody's satisfaction," said 
 Vronsky. 
 
 "This evening at the Theatre Fran$ais" and she took 
 her departure with her rustling train. 
 
 Kamerovsky likewise arose, but Vronsky, without 
 waiting for him to go, shook hands with him, and went 
 to his dressing-room. While he was taking his bath, 
 Petritsky sketched for him in a few lines his situation, 
 and how it had changed during Vronsky's absence, 
 no money at all ; his father declaring that he would not 
 give him any more, or pay a single debt. One tailor 
 determined to have him arrested, and a second no less 
 determined. His colonel insisted that, if these scandals 
 continued, he should leave the regiment. The baroness 
 was as annoying to him as a bitter radish, principally 
 because she was always wanting to squander money ; 
 " but she is a daisy, a charmer," he assured Vronsky, 
 " in the strict Oriental style, your servant Rebecca 
 kind, you know." He had been having a quarrel with 
 Berkoshef, and he wanted to send him his seconds, but 
 he imagined nothing would come of it. As for the rest, 
 everything was getting along particularly jolly.
 
 150 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 And then, without leaving Vronsky time to realize 
 the minutiae of his situation, Petritsky began to retail 
 the news of the day. As he listened to Petritsky's well- 
 known gossip, in the familiar environment of his quar- 
 ters where he had lived for three years, Vronsky ex- 
 perienced the pleasant sensation of his return to his 
 gay and idle Petersburg life. 
 
 " It cannot be ! " he cried, as he turned the faucet of 
 his wash-stand and let the water stream over his red, 
 healthy neck; "it cannot be!" he cried, referring to 
 the report that Laura had taken up with Mileef and 
 thrown Fertinghof over. "And is he as stupid and 
 as conceited as ever ?.... Well, and how about Buzulu- 
 kof?" 
 
 "Akh! Buzulukof! here 's a good story, fascinating !" 
 said Petritsky. "You know his passion, balls; and 
 he never misses one at court. At the last one he went 
 in a new helmet. Have you seen the new helmets ? 
 Very handsome, .... light. Well, he was standing.... 
 No ; but listen." 
 
 " Yes, I am listening," replied Vronsky, rubbing his 
 face with a towel. 
 
 "The grand duchess was just going by on the arm 
 of some foreign ambassador or other, and unfortunately 
 for him their conversation turned on the new helmets. 
 The grand duchess wanted to point out one of the new 
 helmets, and, seeing our galubchik standing there," 
 here Petritsky showed how he stood in his helmet, 
 " she begged him to show her his helmet. He did not 
 budge. What does it mean ? The fellows wink at him, 
 make signs, scowl at him. ' Give it to her.' .... He does 
 not stir. He is like a dead man. You can imagine the 
 scene!.... Now... .as he ....then they attempt to take it 
 
 off He won't let it go ! .... At last he himself takes it 
 
 off, and hands it to the grand duchess. 
 
 " ' Here, this is the new kind,' said the grand duch- 
 ess. But, as she turned it over, you can imagine it 
 out came, bukh ! pears, bonbons, .... two pounds of 
 bonbons ! .... He had been to market, galubchik ! " 
 
 Vronsky burst out laughing ; and long afterwards,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 151 
 
 even when speaking of other things, the memory of 
 the unfortunate helmet caused him to break out into 
 a good-natured laugh which showed his handsome, regu- 
 lar teeth. 
 
 Having learned all the news, Vronsky donned his uni- 
 form with the aid of his valet, and went out to report 
 himself. After he had reported, he determined to go 
 to his brother's, to Betsy's, and to make a few calls, so 
 as to secure an entry into the society where he should 
 be likely to see Madame Karenina ; and in accordance 
 with the usual custom at Petersburg, he left his rooms, 
 expecting to return only when it was very late at night.
 
 PART SECOND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 the end of the winter the Shcherbatskys 
 X held a consultation of physicians in order to find out 
 what was the state of Kitty's health, and what measures 
 were to be taken to restore her strength ; she was ill, 
 and the approach of spring only increased her ailment. 
 The family doctor had ordered cod-liver oil, then iron, 
 and last of all, nitrate of silver ; but as none of these 
 remedies did any good, and as he advised them to take 
 her abroad, it was then resolved to consult a celebrated 
 specialist. 
 
 This celebrated doctor, still a young man, and very 
 neat in his appearance, insisted on a careful investiga- 
 tion of the trouble. He with especial satisfaction, as it 
 seemed, insisted that maidenly modesty is only a relic 
 of barbarism, and that nothing is more natural than that 
 a young man should make examination of a girl in un- 
 dress. He found this natural because he did it every 
 day, and he was conscious of no impropriety in it, as 
 far as he could see ; and, therefore, any sense of shame 
 on the part of the girl he considered not only a relic of 
 barbarism, but also an insult to himself. 
 
 It was necessary to submit, since, notwithstanding the 
 fact that all the other doctors were taught in the same 
 school and studied the same books, and notwithstanding 
 the fact that certain persons declared that this celebrated 
 doctor was a bad doctor, yet in the princess's house and 
 in her circle of friends it was admitted somehow that 
 this celebrated doctor was the only one known who had 
 the special knowledge, and was the only one who could 
 save Kitty's life. After a careful examination and a 
 prolonged thumping on the lungs of the poor sick girl, 
 
 152
 
 ANNA KARENINA 153 
 
 trembling with mortification, the celebrated physician 
 carefully washed his hands, and returned to the draw- 
 ing-room, and gave his report to the prince. 
 
 The prince, with a little cough, listened to what he 
 had to say, and frowned. He was a man of experience 
 and brains, was in good health, and he had no faith in 
 medicine. He was all the more angry at this comedy, 
 because possibly he alone understood what ailed his 
 daughter. 
 
 " A regular humbug," J thought the old prince, as he 
 listened to the doctor's loquacity concerning the symp- 
 toms of his daughter's illness, mentally applying to the 
 celebrated doctor a term from the vocabulary of hunting. 
 
 The doctor, on his part, with difficulty disguised his 
 disdain, with difficulty stooped to the low level of his 
 intelligence, for this old gentleman. It seemed to him 
 scarcely necessary to speak to the old man, since, in his 
 eyes, the head of the house was the princess. He was 
 ready to pour out before her all the floods of his elo- 
 quence. At this moment she came in with the family 
 doctor. The prince left the room, so as not to show 
 too clearly how ridiculous this whole comedy seemed 
 to him. The princess was troubled, and did not know 
 what course to take. She felt a little guilty in regard 
 to Kitty. 
 
 " Well ! Doctor, decide on our fate," said the prin- 
 cess ; "tell me all." 
 
 She wanted to say, " Is there any hope ? " but her 
 lips trembled, and she could not put this question to 
 him. " Well, doctor?" 
 
 " In a moment, princess, I shall be at your service, 
 after I have conferred with my colleague. I shall then 
 have the honor of giving you my opinion." 
 
 " Do you wish to be alone ? " 
 
 "Just as you please." 
 
 The princess sighed, and left the room. 
 
 When the doctors were left alone, the family physi- 
 cian began timidly to express his opinion about her 
 
 1 Pustobrekh, empty barker, signifying one who has had no luck, but 
 comes home with large stories. TR.
 
 154 
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 condition, and gave his reasons for thinking that it was 
 the beginning of tubercular disease, but .... 
 
 The celebrated physician listened, and in the midst of 
 his diagnosis took out his great gold watch. 
 
 "Yes," said he, "but...." 
 
 The family physician stopped respectfully. 
 
 "You know that we can hardly decide when tubercu- 
 lar disease first begins. In the present case, apparently 
 there is as yet no decided lesion. We can only surmise. 
 And the symptoms are : indigestion, nervousness, and 
 others. The question, therefore, stands thus : What is 
 to be done, granting that a tubercular development is to 
 be feared, in order to superinduce improved alimenta- 
 tion ? " 
 
 " But you know well, in such cases there are always 
 some moral or spiritual causes," said the family doctor, 
 with a cunning smile. 
 
 "Of course," replied the celebrated doctor, looking 
 at his watch again. " Excuse me, but do you know 
 whether the bridge over the Ya'usa is finished yet, 
 or whether one has to go around? Oh, it is finished, 
 is it ? Well ! Then I have twenty minutes left. 
 We were just saying that the question remains thus : 
 to improve the digestion, and strengthen the nerves ; 
 the one is connected with the other, and it is necessary 
 to act on both halves of the circle." 
 
 " But the journey abroad ? " 
 
 " I am opposed to these journeys abroad. I beg you 
 to follow my reasoning. If tubercular development has 
 already set in, which we are not yet in a condition to 
 prove, then a journey abroad would do no good. The 
 main thing is to discover a means of promoting good 
 digestion." 
 
 And the celebrated doctor began to develop his plan 
 for a cure by means of Soden water, the principal merits 
 of which were, in his eyes, their absolutely inoffensive 
 character. 
 
 The family doctor listened with attention and re- 
 spect. 
 
 " But I should urge in favor of a journey abroad the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 155 
 
 change of her habits and dissociation from the con 
 ditions that serve to recall unhappy thoughts. And 
 finally, her mother wants her to go." 
 
 "Ah, well, in that case let them go, provided always 
 that those German charlatans do not aggravate her 
 disease They must follow.... Yes! let them travel." 
 
 And again he looked at his watch. 
 
 " It is time for me to go ; " and he started for the 
 door. 
 
 The celebrated doctor explained to the princess that 
 he wished to see the invalid once more a sense of 
 propriety dictated this. 
 
 "What! have another examination ?" cried the prin- 
 cess, with horror. 
 
 " Oh, no ! only a few minor points, princess." 
 
 "Then come in, I beg of you." 
 
 And the mother ushered the doctor into the drawing- 
 room where Kitty was. Emaciated and flushed, with a 
 peculiar gleam in her eyes, the result of the mortifica- 
 tion she had borne, Kitty was standing in the middle of 
 the room. When the doctor came in her eyes filled 
 with tears, and she turned crimson. Her whole illness 
 and the medical treatment seemed to her such stupid, 
 even ridiculous nonsense. The medical treatment of her 
 case seemed to her as absurd as to gather up the frag- 
 ments of a broken vase. Her heart was broken, and 
 could it be healed by pills and powders ? But it was 
 impossible to wound her mother's feelings, the more be- 
 cause her mother felt that she had been to blame. 
 
 " Will you sit down, princess ? " said the celebrated 
 doctor. 
 
 With a smile he sat down in front of her, felt her 
 pulse, and with a smile began a series of wearisome 
 questions. At first she replied to them, then suddenly 
 arose impatiently. 
 
 " Excuse me, doctor ; but, indeed, this all leads to 
 nothing. This is the third time that you have asked 
 me the same question." 
 
 The celebrated doctor took no offense. 
 
 "It is her nervous irritability," he remarked to the
 
 156 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 princess when Kitty had gone from the room. " How- 
 ever, I had finished." .... 
 
 And the celebrated doctor explained the young prin- 
 cess's condition to her mother, treating her as a woman 
 of remarkable intelligence, and concluded with direc- 
 tions how to drink those waters which were valueless. 
 
 On the question, " Is it best to take her abroad ? " the 
 doctor pondered deeply, as if he were deciding a diffi- 
 cult problem. The decision was at last expressed : ' Go, 
 but put no faith in charlatans, and consult him in every- 
 thing.' 
 
 After the doctor's departure, everybody felt as if 
 something jolly had happened. The mother, in much 
 better spirits, rejoined her daughter, and Kitty declared 
 that she was better already. Often, almost all the time, 
 of late, she felt obliged to pretend. 
 
 " Truly, I am well, maman, but if you desire it, let us 
 go," said she ; and in her endeavor to show that she 
 was interested in the journey, she began to speak of 
 their preparations. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SHORTLY after the doctor went, Dolly came. She 
 knew that the consultation was to take place that day ; 
 and though she was as yet scarcely able to go out, hav- 
 ing had a little daughter toward the end of the winter, 
 and although she had many trials and cares of her own, 
 she left her nursing baby and one of the little girls who 
 was ailing, and came to learn what Kitty's fate should be. 
 
 " Well ! how is it ? " she said, as she came into the 
 drawing-room with her hat on. " You are all happy ! 
 Then all is well?" 
 
 They endeavored to tell her what the doctor had 
 said ; but it seemed that, although the doctor had 
 spoken very fluently and lengthily, no one was able to 
 tell what he had said. The only interesting point was 
 the decision in regard to the journey abroad. 
 
 Dolly sighed involuntarily. Her sister, -her best
 
 ANNA KARENINA 157 
 
 friend, was going away ; and life for her was not joy- 
 ous. Her relations with Stepan Arkadyevitch since 
 the reconciliation had become humiliating ; the union 
 brought about by Anna had not been of long duration, 
 and the family concord had broken down in the same 
 place. There was nothing definite, but Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch was scarcely ever at home, there was scarcely 
 ever any money in the house, and suspicions of his 
 unfaithfulness constantly tormented Dolly, but she kept 
 driving them away in terror of the unhappiness which 
 jealousy caused her. The first explosion of jealousy, 
 having been lived down, could not indeed be experi- 
 enced again ; and even the discovery of his unfaithful- 
 ness could not have such an effect on her as it had the 
 first time. Such a discovery now would only break up the 
 family, and she preferred to shut her eyes to his decep- 
 tion, despising him, and above all herself, because of this 
 weakness. Moreover, the cares of a numerous family 
 constantly annoyed her ; first the nursing of her baby 
 was unsatisfactory, then the nurse went off, and now one 
 of the children was ill. 
 
 "And how are the children ? " asked the princess. 
 
 "Akh , maman ! we have so many tribulations. Lili 
 is ill in bed, and I am afraid it is the scarlatina. I 
 came out now to see how you were, for there'll be no 
 getting out for me after this, if it is scarlatina which 
 God forbid ! " 
 
 The old prince also, after the doctor's departure, came 
 out from his library, presented his cheek to Dolly, ex- 
 changed a few words with her, and then turned to his 
 wife : 
 
 " What decision have you come to ? Shall you go ? 
 Well ! and what are you going to do with me ? " 
 
 " I think, Aleksandr, that you had better stay at 
 home." 
 
 " Just as you please." 
 
 " Maman, why does n't papa come with us ? " said 
 Kitty. " It would be gayer for him and for us." 
 
 The old prince got up and smoothed Kitty's hair with 
 his hand ; she raised her head, and with an effort smiled
 
 158 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 as she looked at him ; it always seemed to her that he 
 understood her better than any one else in the family, 
 though he did not say much. She was the youngest, 
 and therefore her father's favorite daughter, and it 
 seemed to her that his love made him clairvoyant. 
 When she saw his kind blue eyes steadily fixed on her, 
 it seemed to her that he read her very soul, and saw all 
 the evil that was working there. She blushed, and bent 
 toward him, expecting a kiss ; but he only pulled her 
 hair, saying: 
 
 " These stupid chignons ! one never gets down to 
 the real daughter, but you caress the hair of departed 
 females. Well ! Dolinka," turning to his eldest daugh- 
 ter, " what is that trump of yours doing ? " 
 
 " Nothing, papa," said Dolly, perceiving that her 
 father referred to her husband ; " he is always away 
 from home, and I scarcely ever see him," she could not 
 refrain from adding, with an ironical smile. 
 
 " Has he not gone yet to the country to sell his 
 wood ? " 
 
 " No ; he is always putting it off." 
 
 " Truly," said the old prince, " is he taking after me ? 
 I hear you," he said in reply to his wife, and sitting 
 down. "And as for you, Katya," he said, addressing his 
 youngest daughter, "do you know what you ought to 
 do ? Sometime, some fine morning, wake up and say, 
 ' There ! I am perfectly well and happy, papa, and we 
 must go for our early morning walk in the cold,' ha ? " 
 
 What her father said seemed very simple, but at his 
 words Kitty felt confused and disconcerted like a con- 
 victed criminal. "Yes, he knows all, he understands 
 all, and these words mean that I ought to overcome my 
 humiliation, however great it has been." 
 
 She could not summon up the courage to reply. She 
 began to say something, but suddenly burst into tears, 
 and ran from the room. 
 
 "Just like 'your tricks!" said the princess to her 
 husband, angrily. " You always .... " and she began one 
 of her tirades. 
 
 The prince listened for some time to her reproaches,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 159 
 
 and made no reply, but his face kept growing darker 
 and darker. 
 
 "She is so sensitive, poor little thing, so sensitive! 
 and you don't understand how she suffers at the slight- 
 est allusion to the cause of her suffering. Akh ! how 
 mistaken we are in people ! " said the princess. 
 
 And by the change in the inflection of her voice, 
 Dolly and the prince perceived that she had reference 
 to Vronsky. 
 
 " I don't understand why there are not any laws to 
 punish such vile, such ignoble men." 
 
 " Akh ! do hear her," said the prince with a frown, 
 getting up from his chair and evidently anxious to make 
 his escape, but halting on the threshold : 
 
 " There are laws, matushka ; and if you force me to 
 this, I will tell you who is to blame in all this trouble. 
 You, you alone ! There are laws against such young 
 fops, and there always will be ; and if things had not 
 been as they ought never to have been, old man that I 
 am, I should have put that dandy on the fence. Yes, 
 and now to cure her, you bring in these quacks." 
 
 The prince would have had still more to say, but as 
 soon as the princess heard his tone she immediately 
 became humble and repentant, as always happened when 
 important questions came up. 
 
 " Alexandre ! Alexandre ! " she murmured, going up 
 to him, and weeping. 
 
 The prince held his peace when he saw her tears. 
 He went to meet her : 
 
 "Well, let it go, let it go. I know that it is hard for 
 you also. What is to be done ? There is no great 
 
 harm. God is merciful Thank you!" said he, not 
 
 knowing what he said, and replying to the princess's 
 damp kiss which he felt on his hand. Then the prince 
 left the room. 
 
 As soon as Kitty, weeping, had left the room, Dolly, 
 with her maternal domestic instinct, perceived that this 
 was an affair which required a woman's management, 
 and she was preparing to follow her. She took her hat 
 and morally tucking up her sleeves, prepared to act
 
 160 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 But when her mother began to attack her father, she 
 tried to restrain her, as far as her filial respect allowed. 
 When the prince's outburst occurred, she said nothing ; 
 she was ashamed for her mother and she felt a deep 
 affection because of the instant return of his good- 
 nature ; but when he went out, she determined to do 
 the chief thing that was necessary to go to Kitty 
 and calm her. 
 
 " I have long wanted to tell you, maman; did you 
 know that when Levin was here the last time, he in- 
 tended to offer himself to Kitty? He told Stiva." 
 "What is that ? I do not understand .... " 
 " Then perhaps Kitty refused him ? .... Did n't she tell 
 
 you 
 
 " No, she did not say anything to me about either of 
 them ; she is too proud. But I know that all this comes 
 from .... " 
 
 " Yes ; but think, if she refused Levin. I know 
 that she would not have done so if it had not been for 
 the other one.... and then he deceived her so abom- 
 inably." 
 
 It was terrible to the princess to think how blame- 
 worthy she had been toward her daughter, and she grew 
 angry. 
 
 "Akh! I don't know anything about it. Nowadays 
 every girl wants to live as she pleases, and not to say 
 anything to her mother, and so it comes that .... " 
 
 " Maman, I am going to see her." 
 
 " Go ! I will not prevent you," said her mother. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 As she entered Kitty's pretty little rosy boudoir, with 
 figurines in vieux saxe, a room as youthful, as rosy, as 
 gay as Kitty herself had been two months before, 
 Dolly remembered with what pleasure and interest the 
 two had decorated it the year before ; how happy and 
 gay they were then! She felt a chill at her heart as 
 she saw her sister sitting on a low chair near the door,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 161 
 
 her motionless eyes fixed on a corner of the carpet. 
 Kitty glanced up at her sister, but the cold and rather 
 stern expression of her face underwent no change. 
 
 " I am going now, and I may be confined at home, 
 and it will be impossible for you to see me," said Darya 
 Aleksandrovna, sitting down near her sister; "I wanted 
 to have a little talk with you." 
 
 " What about ? " asked Kitty, quickly raising her head 
 in alarm. 
 
 " What else than about your sorrow ? " 
 
 " I have no sorrow." 
 
 "That'll do, Kitty. "Do you really imagine that I 
 don't know ? I know everything ; and believe me, this 
 is such a trifle .... All of us have been through this." 
 
 Kitty said nothing, and her face resumed its severe 
 expression. 
 
 " He is not worth the trouble that you have given 
 yourself because of him," continued Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna, coming right to the point. 
 
 "Yes ! because he jilted me! " murmured Kitty, with 
 trembling voice. "Don't speak of it, please don't 
 speak of it ! " 
 
 "But who said that to you? No one said such a 
 thing ! I am sure that he was in love with you, that 
 he is still in love with you ; but .... " 
 
 "Ah! nothing exasperates me so as compassion," 
 cried Kitty, in a sudden rage. She turned around in 
 her chair, flushed scarlet, and moved her belt-buckle 
 back and forth from one hand to the other, clutching 
 it in her fingers. 
 
 Dolly well knew this habit of her sister when she was 
 provoked. She knew that she was capable of forgetting 
 herself, and saying harsh and cruel things in moments 
 of- petulance, and she tried to calm her ; but it was too 
 late. 
 
 " What, what do you wish me to understand ? what is 
 it ? " cried Kitty, talking fast : "that I was in love with 
 a man who did not care for me, and that I am dying 
 of love for him ? And it is my sister who says this to 
 me! my sister who thinks that .... that .... that .... she 
 
 VOL. I. II
 
 162 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 is showing me her sympathy! .... I hate such sympathy 
 and such hypocrisy ! " 
 
 "Kitty, you are unjust." 
 
 " Why do you torment me ? " 
 
 "Why, on the contrary .... I saw that you were sad ...." 
 
 Kitty in her anger did not heed her. 
 
 " I have nothing to break my heart over, and need no 
 consolation. I am too proud ever to love a man who 
 does not love me." 
 
 " Well ! I do not say .... I say only one thing .... Tell 
 me the truth," added Darya Aleksandrovna, taking her 
 hand. "Tell me, did Levin speak to you ? ".... 
 
 At the name of Levin, Kitty lost all control of her- 
 self ; she sprang up from her chair, threw the buckle on 
 the floor, and with quick, indignant gestures cried : 
 
 " Why do you speak to me of Levin ? I don't see 
 why you need to torment me. I have already said, and 
 I repeat it, that I am proud, and never, never would I do 
 what you have done, go back to a man who had been 
 false to me, who had made love to another woman. I 
 do not understand this ; you can, but I cannot ! " 
 
 As she said these words, she looked at her sister, and 
 seeing that Dolly bent her head sadly without answering, 
 she sat down near the door again, and hid her face in 
 her handkerchief instead of leaving the room as she had 
 intended to do. 
 
 The silence lasted several minutes. Dolly was think- 
 ing of herself. Her humiliation, of which she was always 
 conscious, appeared to her more cruel than ever, thus 
 recalled by her sister. She did not expect such bitter- 
 ness from her sister, and it made her angry. But sud- 
 denly she heard the rustling of a dress, a broken sob, 
 and some one's arms were thrown around her neck. 
 Kitty was on her knees before her. 
 
 " Dolinka, I am so unhappy ! " she murmured in ex- 
 culpation ; and her pretty face, wet with tears, was hid 
 in Dolly's skirt. 
 
 Those tears were evidently the indispensable lubricant 
 without which the machinery of mutual communion 
 between the two sisters could not work. At all events,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 163 
 
 after a good cry, they spoke no more on the subject 
 which interested them both, but even while they were 
 talking about irrelevant topics they understood each 
 other. Kitty knew that the cruel words that she had 
 uttered in her anger, about the husband's unfaithfulness 
 the unfaithfulness of Dolly's husband and her hu- 
 miliation, struck deep into her poor sister's heart, but 
 that she forgave her. Dolly, on her side, knew all that 
 she wanted to know, she was convinced that her suspi- 
 cions were correct, that the pain Kitty felt, the irremedia- 
 ble pain, lay in the fact that Levin had offered himself to 
 her, and that she had refused him, and that Vronsky had 
 played her false, and that she was ready to love Levin 
 and to hate Vronsky. Kitty said not a word about this; 
 she spoke only of the general state of her soul. 
 
 " I have no sorrow," she said, regaining her calmness 
 a little ; " but you cannot imagine how wretched, disgust- 
 ing, and vulgar everything seems to me above all my- 
 self. You cannot imagine what evil thoughts come 
 into my mind." 
 
 "Yes, but what evil thoughts can you have?" asked 
 Dolly, with a smile. 
 
 "The most abominable, the most repulsive. I can- 
 not describe them to you. It is not melancholy, and it 
 is not ennui. It is much worse. It is as if all the good 
 that was in me had disappeared, and only the evil was 
 left. Now how can that be, I tell you ? " she asked, 
 looking in perplexity into her sister's eyes. " Papa 
 
 began to say something to me a few minutes ago It 
 
 seems to me he thinks that all I need is a husband. 
 Mamma takes me to the ball. It seems to me that she 
 takes me there for the sole purpose of getting rid of me, 
 of getting me married as soon as possible. I know that 
 it is not true, and yet I cannot drive away these ideas. 
 So-called marriageable young men are unendurable to 
 me. It always seems to me that they are taking my 
 measure. A short time ago, to go anywhere in a ball 
 gown was a simple delight to me ; I admired myself, I 
 enjoyed it ; now it is a bore to me, and I feel ill at ease. 
 Now, what do you think ? .... The doctor .... well .... "
 
 164 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Kitty stopped ; she wanted to say further that, since 
 she had felt this great change in herself, Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch had become unendurably distasteful to her, 
 that she could not see him without the most repulsive 
 and unbecoming conjectures arising in her mind. 
 
 " Indeed, everything takes the most repulsive, dis- 
 gusting aspect in my sight," she continued. " It is a 
 disease, perhaps it will pass away." 
 
 " But don't for a moment think...." 
 
 " I cannot help it. I do not feel at ease except with 
 you and the children." 
 
 "What a pity that you can't come home with me 
 now!" 
 
 " Well, I will go. I have had scarlatina. I will per- 
 suade maman." 
 
 Kitty insisted so eagerly, that she was allowed to go 
 to her sister's, and throughout the course of the disease, 
 which proved to be the scarlatina, she looked after 
 the children. The two sisters successfully nursed all 
 the six children ; but Kitty's health did not improve, 
 and at Lent the Shcherbatskys went abroad. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE highest Petersburg society is remarkably united. 
 Every one knows every one else, and every one exchanges 
 visits. But in this great circle there are subdivisions. 
 Anna Arkadyevna Karenina had friends and close re- 
 lations with three different circles. One was the official 
 circle, to which her husband belonged, composed of his 
 colleagues and subordinates, bound together, or even 
 further subdivided, by the most varied, and often the 
 most capricious, social relations. It was now difficult 
 for Anna to call back the sentiment of almost religious 
 respect which at first she felt for all these personages. 
 Now she knew them all, as one knows people in a pro- 
 vincial city. She knew what habits and weaknesses 
 were characteristic of each, and what feet the shoe 
 pinched. She knew what were their relations among
 
 ANNA KARENINA 165 
 
 themselves, and to the official center. She knew how 
 this one agreed with that and on what grounds, and how 
 another disagreed with still another, and wherefore. 
 But this administrative clique, to which her husband 
 belonged, could never interest her, in spite of the Coun- 
 tess Lidya Ivanovna's suggestions, and she avoided it. 
 
 The second circle in which Anna moved was that 
 which had helped AlekseY Aleksandrovitch in his career. 
 The center of this circle was the Countess Lidya Iva- 
 novna ; it was composed of aged, ugly, charitable, and 
 devout women, and intelligent, learned, and ambitious 
 men. One of the clever men who belonged to this cir- 
 cle had called it the "conscience of Petersburg society." 
 Karenin was very much devoted to this circle ; and 
 Anna, who had the faculty of getting along with all peo- 
 ple, had, during the early days of her life in Petersburg, 
 made friends in its number. After her return from 
 Moscow, this set of people seemed to her insupportable ; 
 it seemed as if she herself, as well as all the rest of 
 them, were hypocritical, and she felt depressed and ill 
 at ease in this society. She saw the Countess Lidya as 
 infrequently as she possibly could. 
 
 Finally, the third circle in which Anna had connec- 
 tions was Society, properly speaking, the fashionable 
 society of balls, dinner-parties, brilliant toilets the 
 society which with one hand lays fast hold of 'the court 
 lest it descend to the level of the demi-monde, which the 
 members of this circle affect to despise, and yet whose 
 tastes are not only similar, but the same. The bond 
 that united her to this society was the Princess Betsy 
 Tverskaya, the wife of one of her cousins, who enjoyed 
 an income of a hundred and twenty thousand rubles, 
 and who had taken a great fancy to Anna as soon as 
 she came to Petersburg, flattered her, introduced her 
 among her friends, and made ridicule of the Countess 
 Lidya's friends. 
 
 "When I am old and ugly, I will do the same," said 
 Betsy ; " but a young and pretty woman like yourself 
 has as yet no place in such an asylum." 
 
 Anna at first had avoided as far as possible the society
 
 i66 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 to which the Princess Betsy Tverskaya belonged, as it 
 called for expenses beyond her means, and in her heart 
 she preferred the first-mentioned coterie ; but after her 
 visit to Moscow all this was changed. She neglected her 
 worthy old friends, and cared to go only into grand soci- 
 ety. There she met Vronsky, and experienced tumultu- 
 ous pleasure in these meetings. They met with especial 
 frequency at the house of Betsy, who was a Vronskaya 
 before her marriage, and was an own cousin of the count. 
 Vronsky went everywhere that he was likely to meet 
 Anna, and, if possible, spoke to her of his love. She 
 gave him no encouragement ; but every time she met 
 him, there flamed up in her soul the same sense of ani- 
 mation which had seized her the moment that they met, 
 for the first time, on the train at Moscow ; she herself 
 was conscious that at the sight of him this joy shone in 
 her eyes, in her smile, but she had not the power to 
 hide it. 
 
 Anna at first sincerely believed that she was angry 
 because he persisted in following her ; but one evening, 
 not long after her return from Moscow, when she was 
 present at a house where she expected to meet him, 
 and he failed to come, she perceived clearly, by the 
 pang that went through her heart, that she was deceiv- 
 ing herself, that this insistence of his not only was not 
 disagreeable to her but that it formed the ruling passion 
 of her life. 
 
 A famous diva was singing for the second time, and 
 all the high society of Petersburg was at the theater. 
 Vronsky, from his seat in the first row saw his cousin 
 there, and without waiting for the entr'acte, left to visit 
 her box. 
 
 " Why did n't you come to dinner ? " she asked ; and 
 then with a smile she added, so as to be heard only by 
 him, " I admire this clairvoyance of lovers ; she was not 
 there. But come to my house after the opera." 
 
 Vronsky looked at her questioningly. She nodded. 
 He thanked her with a smile and sat down by her side. 
 
 "But how I miss your pleasantries; what have be-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 167 
 
 come of them ? " continued the Princess Betsy, who fol- 
 lowed with keen pleasure the progress of this passion, 
 " You are in the toils, my dear ! " 
 
 " That is all that I ask for," he replied, with his calm, 
 good-natured smile, " to be in the toils. If I complain, 
 it is not because I am too little in the toils if the truth 
 must be told. I am beginning to lose hope." 
 
 " What hope could you have ? " asked Betsy, taking 
 the part of her friend. " Let us have a clear under- 
 standing." But the fire in her eyes told with sufficient 
 clearness that she understood as well as he did what his 
 hope meant. 
 
 " None," replied Vronsky, laughing, and showing his 
 regular white teeth. " Excuse me," he added, taking 
 the opera-glasses from his cousin's hand, in order to 
 direct it across her bare shoulder at one of the opposite 
 boxes. " I fear I am becoming ridiculous." 
 
 He knew very well that in Betsy's eyes, and in those 
 of her world, he ran no risk of being ridiculous ; he 
 knew very well that in the eyes of such people the role 
 of an unsuccessful lover of a young girl or an unmarried 
 woman might be ridiculous ; but not so the role of a 
 man who pursues a married woman and at any price 
 makes it his aim to lead her into committing adultery. 
 This role is something beautiful and majestic and can 
 never be ridiculous, and therefore Vronsky, as he handed 
 back the opera-glasses, looked at his cousin with a smile 
 of pride and joy lurking under his mustache. 
 
 " And why did n't you come to dinner ? " she asked 
 again, unable to refrain from admiration of him. 
 
 " I must tell you ; I was busy .... and what about ? I 
 will give you one guess out of a hundred out of a thou- 
 sand .... you would never hit it. I have been reconciling 
 a husband with his wife's persecutor. Yes, fact ! " 
 
 " What ! and you reconciled them ? " 
 
 " Pretty nearly." 
 
 " You must tell me all about it," said Betsy, rising. 
 "Come during the next entr'acte" 
 
 " Impossible ; I am going to the French Theater." 
 
 " From Nilsson ? " said Betsy, with horror, though
 
 168 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 she could not have distinguished Nilsson from the poor- 
 est chorus-singer. 
 
 " But what can I do ? I have made an appointment 
 in order to finish my act of peacemaking." 
 
 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be 
 saved," said Betsy, remembering that she had heard 
 somewhere some such quotation. "Well, then, sit down 
 and tell me all about it." 
 
 And she resumed her seat. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 " IT 's a little improper, but so amusing, that I wanted 
 awfully to tell you about it," said Vronsky, looking at 
 her with sparkling eyes. " However, I will not mention 
 any names." 
 
 " But I can guess ? so much the better ! " 
 "Listen, then. Two gay young men were dining...." 
 "Officers of your regiment, of course ...." 
 " I did not say that they were officers, but simply 
 young men, who had dined well ...." 
 "Translated, tipsy ! " 
 
 " Possibly. They went to dine with a comrade, in 
 most excellent spirits. They saw a pretty young woman 
 passing them in a hired carriage ; she turns around, and, 
 as it seems to them, nods to them and laughs. Of course 
 they follow her. They gallop like mad. To their 
 amazement their beauty stops at the entrance of the 
 very house where they are going ; she mounts to the 
 upper floor, and they see nothing but a pair of rosy lips 
 under a short veil, and a pair of pretty little feet." 
 
 "You describe the scene with so much feeling that 
 you make me believe that you were in the party." 
 
 "Why do you accuse me so soon? Well! the two 
 young men climb up to their comrade's room, where 
 there is to be a farewell dinner, and there they drink, 
 perhaps, more than is good for them, as is usually the 
 case at farewell dinners. And at dinner they ask who 
 lives on the top story of that house. No one knows any-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 169 
 
 thing about it ; only their friend's valet, to their ques- 
 tions, ' Do any mamselles live on the top floor ? ' replies 
 that there are a good many. After dinner the two 
 young men go into their friend's library and write a 
 letter to the unknown. They write a passionate letter, 
 a declaration ; they themselves carry up the letter, in 
 order to explain whatever in the letter might not be 
 perfectly understood." 
 
 " But why do you tell me such horrible things ? 
 Well ? " 
 
 " They ring. A girl comes to the door ; they give 
 her the letter, telling her they are so desperately in love 
 that they are ready to die, there at the door. The girl 
 is in doubt and parleys with them. Suddenly a gentle- 
 man appears, red as a lobster and with side-whiskers like 
 sausages, declares that there is no one there except his 
 wife, and unceremoniously puts them out of the door." 
 
 " How did you know that his side-whiskers were like 
 sausages ? " 
 
 " But now listen. I have just made peace between 
 them." 
 
 " Well ! what came of it ? " 
 
 " This is the most interesting part of the affair. The 
 happy couple prove to be a titular counselor and his 
 wife. The titular counselor brings a complaint, and I 
 am obliged to serve as peacemaker. What a peace- 
 maker ! .... I assure you Talleyrand compared to me 
 was nobody." 
 
 " What were your difficulties ? " 
 
 " Here now ! Listen ! .... We make excuses as in duty 
 bound, as : ' We are desperately sorry," we said ; ' we beg 
 you to pardon us for this unfortunate misunderstanding.' 
 The titular counselor with the sausage-whiskers seemed 
 to be thawing ; but he felt it necessary to express his 
 feelings, and as soon as he began to express his feelings 
 he began to get wrathy, and to say harsh things, and 
 again I was obliged to bring all my diplomatic talents 
 into requisition : ' I agree that their conduct was repre- 
 hensible, but please take into consideration that there 
 was a misunderstanding ; they were young, and had just
 
 i 7 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 come from a good dinner. You understand ! Now they 
 are sorry from the bottom of their hearts, and beg you 
 to forgive them their fault.' The titular counselor soft- 
 ened still more : ' I agree with you, count, and I am 
 ready to pardon them ; but you perceive that my wife, 
 my wife, a virtuous woman, has been exposed to insult, 
 to persecution, to the impudence of good-for-nothing 
 young scound.... ' And the impudent, good-for-noth- 
 ing young fellows being present, I had to exert myself 
 to calm them down ; again I put my diplomacy to work, 
 and every time I seem on the point of success my titular 
 counselor gets wrathy again, and his face gets red, and 
 his sausages begin to wag up and down, and I find my- 
 self drowned in the waves of diplomatic subtleties." 
 
 " Akh ! we must tell you all about this," said Betsy to 
 a lady who at this moment came into her box. " It has 
 amused me much ! " 
 
 " Well, good luck go with you," she added, giving 
 Vronsky one of her fingers, as she held her fan ; and 
 then, shrugging her shoulders so as to keep the waist 
 of her gown from coming up, so that she might be as 
 naked as possible when she should go to the front of 
 the box, and sit down in the full blaze of gas and in the 
 eyes of all. 
 
 Vronsky went to the French Theater, where he really 
 had to meet his regimental commander, who never failed 
 to be present at a single representation. He wished to 
 speak with him in regard to his business as peacemaker 
 which had occupied and amused him for three days. 
 Petritsky, whom he liked, was involved in this affair, and 
 the other one was a charming, a glorious fellow, young 
 Prince Kerdrof, who had lately joined their regiment. 
 But the principal point was that the affair concerned 
 the interests of his regiment. 
 
 Both the young men belonged to Vronsky's company. 
 Venden, the titular counselor, had come to the regi- 
 mental commander with a complaint that the officers 
 had insulted his wife. His young wife Venden said he 
 had been married only half a year had been to church 
 with her mother, and, feeling indisposed, owing to her
 
 ANNA KARENINA 171 
 
 delicate condition, so that she could not stand any longer, 
 had engaged the first decent izvoshchik at hand. The 
 officers had chased her; she was frightened and, feeling 
 still more ill, had run up the stairs. Venden himself, 
 who had just returned from his office, heard the 
 sound of a bell and voices. He came out, and, seeing 
 drunken officers with a letter, he had put them out. He 
 demanded that they should be severely punished. 
 
 " No, it 's all very well to talk," said the regimental 
 commander to Vronsky, whom he had asked to join 
 him, " but Petritsky is becoming unbearable. Not a 
 week passes by without some scandal. This chinovnik 
 will not stop here, he will go farther." 
 
 Vronsky saw all the unpleasantness of this affair, and 
 he felt that a duel should be avoided, and that every- 
 thing should be done to make the titular counselor re- 
 lent and smooth over the scandal. The regimental 
 commander had summoned him because he knew he 
 was a shrewd and gentlemanly man, and zealous for the 
 interests of the regiment. They had talked the matter 
 over and decided that Vronsky, accompanied by Petrit- 
 sky and Kerdrof, should go to make their excuses to 
 the titular counselor. The regimental commander and 
 Vronsky both realized that Vronsky's name and his 
 flugel-adjutant's monogram ought to have a great effect 
 in soothing the titular counselor. In reality these two 
 influences proved partially efficacious, but the results 
 of the reconciliation remained in doubt, as Vronsky 
 said. 
 
 When he reached the French Theater, Vronsky took 
 the regimental commander into the lobby, and told him 
 of his success, or rather lack of success. After reflec- 
 tion the regimental commander decided to leave the 
 matter in abeyance ; but afterward he began to ques- 
 tion Vronsky regarding the details of the interview, and 
 he could not help laughing as he heard Vronsky tell how 
 the titular counselor kept suddenly flaming out in wrath 
 as he recalled the particulars of the affair, and how 
 Vronsky, veering round at the last mention of reconcili- 
 ation, had withdrawn, pushing Petritsky before him, and
 
 i 7 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 his repeated attempts to bring him into a suitable frame 
 of mind. 
 
 " It is a wretched piece of business, but comical 
 enough. Kerdrof cannot fight with this gentleman. 
 Was he so horribly angry ? " he asked, laughing. " And 
 how do you like Claire this evening? charming!" 
 said he, referring to a new French actress. " One can't 
 see her too often ; she is always new. Only the French 
 can do that ! " 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE Princess Betsy left the theater without waiting 
 for the end of the last act. She had scarcely had more 
 than time enough, after reaching home, to go into her 
 dressing-room, and scatter a little rice-powder over her 
 long, pale face, rearrange her toilet, and order tea to be 
 served in the large drawing-room, when the carriages 
 began one after another to arrive at her enormous house 
 on the Bolshaya Morskaya. The guests came up to the 
 wide entrance, and a portly Swiss who during the morn- 
 ing read the newspaper for the edification of passers-by, 
 as he sat behind the glass door, now kept noiselessly 
 opening this great door and admitting the visitors. 
 They came in by one door almost at the same instant 
 that by another came the mistress of the mansion, with 
 renewed color, and hair rearranged. The walls of the 
 great drawing-room were hung with somber draperies, 
 and on the floor were thick rugs. On the table, which 
 was covered with a cloth of dazzling whiteness, shining in 
 the light of numberless candles, stood a silver samovar 
 and a tea-service of transparent porcelain. 
 
 The princess took her place behind the samovar and 
 drew off her gloves. With the help of attentive servants, 
 the guests brought up chairs and took their places, 
 dividing into two camps, the one around the princess, 
 the other at the opposite end of the drawing-room 
 around the wife of a foreign ambassador, a handsome 
 lady, dressed in black velvet, and with black, well
 
 ANNA KARENINA 173 
 
 defined eyebrows. The conversation, as usual at the 
 beginning of a reception, was desultory, being inter- 
 rupted by the arrival of newcomers, offers of tea, and 
 the exchange of salutations, and seemed to be endeavor- 
 ing to find a common subject of interest. 
 
 " She is remarkably handsome for an actress ; you 
 can see that she has studied Kaulbach," said a diploma- 
 tist in the group around the ambassador's wife. " Did 
 you notice how she fell ? " .... 
 
 "Akh ! please let us not speak of Nilsson. Nothing 
 new can be said about her," said a great fat lady, with 
 light complexion, without either eyebrows or chignon, 
 and dressed in an old silk gown. This was the Princess 
 Miagkaya, famous for her simplicity and frightful man- 
 ners, and surnamed the Enfant terrible. Princess Miag- 
 kaya was seated between the two groups, listening to 
 what was said on both sides of her, and taking impartial 
 interest in both. "This very day, three people have 
 made that same remark about Kaulbach. It must be 
 fashionable. I don't see why that phrase should be so 
 successful." 
 
 The conversation was cut short by this remark, and 
 a new theme had to be started. 
 
 "Tell us something amusing, but don't let it be 
 naughty," said the ambassador's wife, who was a mis- 
 tress of the art of conversation called, by the English, 
 small talk. She was addressing the diplomatist, who 
 was at a loss what topic to start. 
 
 " They say this is very hard, that only naughty things 
 are amusing," replied the diplomatist, with a smile. 
 " However, I will do my best. Give me a theme. 
 Everything depends upon the theme. When you get 
 that for a background, you can easily fill it in with em- 
 broidery. I often think that the celebrated talkers of 
 the past would be exceedingly embarrassed if they were 
 alive now ; everything intellectual is considered so 
 dull.".... 
 
 "That was said long ago," remarked the ambassa- 
 dor's wife, interrupting him with a smile. 
 
 The conversation began amiably, and for the very
 
 i 7 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 reason that it was too amiable, it languished again. It 
 was necessary to have recourse to an unfailing, never 
 changing subject gossip. 
 
 "Don't you think that there is something Louis XV. 
 about Tushkievitch ? " asked he, indicating a handsome, 
 light-haired young man, who was standing near the 
 table. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! he 's quite in the style of the drawing- 
 room, and that is why he is here so often." 
 
 This subject sustained the conversation, since it 
 consisted wholly of hints regarding something which 
 could not be treated openly in that drawing-room, in 
 other words, Tushkievitch's relations with the Princess 
 Betsy. 
 
 Around the samovar, the conversation hesitated for 
 some time upon three inevitable subjects, the news 
 of the day, the theater, and a lawsuit which was to be 
 tried the next clay. At last the same subject arose that 
 was occupying the other group gossip. 
 
 "Have you heard that Maltishcheva that is, the 
 mother, not the daughter has had a costume in dia- 
 blerose?" 
 
 " Is it possible ? No ! That is delicious." 
 
 " I am astonished that with her sense, for she is 
 certainly not stupid, she does not perceive how ridic- 
 ulous she is." 
 
 Every one found something in which to criticize and 
 tear to pieces the unfortunate Madame Maltishcheva ; 
 and the conversation grew lively, brilliant, and gay, 
 like a flaming pyre. 
 
 The Princess Betsy's husband, a tall, good-natured 
 man, a passionate collector of engravings, hearing that 
 his wife had guests, came into the drawing-room before 
 going to his club, and desired to show himself in her 
 circle. Noiselessly, on the thick carpet, he approached 
 the Princess Miagkaya. 
 
 " How did you like Nilsson ? " he asked. 
 
 " Akh ! Do you steal in upon a body that way ? 
 How you startled me ! " she cried. " Don't speak to 
 me about the opera, I beg of you ; you don't know any-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 175 
 
 thing about music. I prefer to descend to your level 
 and talk with you about your engravings and majolicas. 
 Well ! What treasures have you discovered lately ? " 
 
 " If you would like, I will show them to you ; but you 
 are no judge of them." 
 
 " Show them to me all the same. I am getting my 
 education among these bankers, as you call them. 
 They have lovely engravings. They like to show 
 them." 
 
 " Have you been at the Schiitzburgs' ? " asked the 
 mistress of the house, from her place by the samovar. 
 
 " Certainly, ma chtre. They invited my husband and 
 me to dinner, and they told me that the sauce at this 
 dinner cost a thousand rubles," replied the Princess 
 Miagkaya, in a loud voice, conscious that all were lis- 
 tening to her ; " and it was a very poor sauce, too, 
 something green. I had to return the compliment, 
 and I got them up a sauce that cost eighty-five kopeks, 1 
 and all were satisfied. I can't make thousand-ruble 
 sauces ! " 
 
 "She is unique," said the hostess. 
 
 " Astonishing," said another. 
 
 The Princess Miagkaya never failed of making her 
 speeches effective, and the secret of their effectiveness 
 lay in the fact that, although she did not always select 
 suitable occasions, as was the case at the present time, 
 yet she spoke simply and sensibly. In the society 
 where she moved, what she said gave the effect of the 
 most subtle wit. She could not comprehend why it 
 had such an effect, but she recognized the fact, and 
 took advantage of it. 
 
 While the Princess Miagkaya was speaking, all lis- 
 tened to her, and the conversation around the ambas- 
 sador's wife stopped ; so the hostess, wishing to make 
 the conversation more united, turned to the ambassa- 
 dor's wife and said : 
 
 " Are you sure that you will not have some tea ? 
 Then please join us." 
 
 " No ; we are very well where we are, in this corner,' 
 
 1 One ruble, or one hundred kopeks, is worth eighty cents.
 
 i 7 6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 replied the ambassador's wife, with a smile, resuming the 
 thread of a conversation which interested her very deeply. 
 
 They were criticizing Karenin and his wife. 
 
 " Anna is very much changed since her return from 
 Moscow. There is something strange about her," said 
 one of her friends. 
 
 "The change is due to the fact that she brought 
 back in her train the shadow of Aleksel Vronsky," said 
 the ambassador's wife. 
 
 " What is that ? There 's a story in Grimm a man 
 without a shadow a man deprived of his shadow. It 
 was a punishment for something or other. I cannot see 
 where the punishment lies, but it must be disagreeable 
 for a woman to be without her shadow." 
 
 " Yes, but the women who have shadows generally 
 come to some bad end," said Anna's friend. 
 
 " Hold your tongues ! " 1 cried the Princess Miagkaya, 
 as she heard these words. "Madame Karenina is a 
 charming woman ; I don't like her husband, but I like her." 
 
 "Why don't you like her husband?" asked the am- 
 bassador's wife. " He is such a remarkable man. My 
 husband says there are few statesmen in Europe equal 
 to him." 
 
 " My husband says the same thing, but I don't be- 
 lieve it," replied the Princess Miagkaya. "If our hus- 
 bands had not had this idea, we should have seen Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch as he really is ; and, in my opinion, he 
 
 is a blockhead. I only say this in a whisper Is it 
 
 not true how everything comes out clearly? Formerly 
 when I was told that he was clever I used to try to dis- 
 cover it, and I came to the conclusion that I was stupid 
 because I could not see wherein he was clever ; but as 
 soon as I said to myself, under my breath, he is 
 stupid, all was explained. Is n't that so ? " 
 
 " How severe you are to-night ! " 
 
 " Not at all, I have no other alternative. One of us 
 two is stupid. Now you know that one can never say 
 such a thing of oneself." 
 
 1 Tipun vam na yazuik ! A slang expression, meaning literally, 
 " May your tongue have the pip 1 "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 177 
 
 " No one is satisfied with his circumstances, and every 
 one is satisfied with his brain," said a diplomat, quoting 
 a French couplet. 
 
 " There, that is the very thing," exclaimed the Prin- 
 cess Miagkaya turning to him, "but I make an exception 
 of Anna. She is so lovely and good. Is it her fault 
 if all men fall in love with her and follow her like 
 shadows ? " 
 
 "Well! I do not allow myself to judge her," said 
 Anna's friend, justifying herself. 
 
 "Because no one follows us like a shadow, it does 
 not prove that we have the right to judge." 
 
 Having thus appropriately disposed of Anna's friend, 
 the Princess Miagkaya arose, and with the ambassador's 
 wife drew up to the table, and joined in the general 
 conversation about some trifle. 1 
 
 "Whom have you been gossiping about?" asked 
 Betsy. 
 
 " About the Karenins. The princess has been pictur- 
 ing AlekseT Aleksandrovitch," replied the ambassador's 
 wife, sitting down near the table, with a smile. 
 
 "Shame that we could not have heard it," said Betsy, 
 looking toward the door. " Ah ! here you are at last," 
 said she, turning to Vronsky, who at that moment 
 came in. 
 
 Vronsky knew, and met every day, all the people 
 whom he found collected in his cousin's drawing-room ; 
 therefore he came in with the calmness of a man who 
 rejoins friends from whom he has only just parted. 
 
 " Where have I come from ? " said he, in reply to a 
 question from the ambassador's wife. " What can I do ? 
 I must confess, from Les Banff es. 'Tis for the hun- 
 dredth time, and always with a new pleasure. It is 
 charming. It is humiliating, I know, but I get sleepy at 
 the opera ; but at Les Bouffes I sit it out up to the very 
 last minute and enjoy it. To-night .... " 
 
 He mentioned a French actress, and was going to tell 
 some story about her, but the ambassador's wife stopped 
 him with an expression of mock terror. 
 
 1 Literally, " about the king of Prussia." 
 VOL. I. 12
 
 178 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Please don't speak to us of that fright ! " 
 
 "Well ! I will not, and the more willingly because you 
 
 all know these frights." 
 
 " And you would all go there if it were as fashionable 
 
 as the opera," added the Princess Miagkaya. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 STEPS were heard near the door, and the Princess 
 Betsy, knowing that it was Madame Karenina, looked 
 at Vronsky. He was looking toward the door, and his face 
 had a strange, new expression. Joyfully, expectantly, 
 and almost timidly he gazed at Anna as she entered, 
 and he rose slowly. Anna came into the drawing-room, 
 as always holding herself very erect and looking neither 
 to right nor to left. She crossed the short distance be- 
 tween her and the hostess, with that rapid, light, but 
 decided step which distinguished her from all the other 
 women of this circle. She went directly up to Betsy, 
 and shook hands with a smile, and with the same smile 
 she looked at Vronsky. He bowed low and offered her 
 a chair. 
 
 She responded only by bending her head a little, and 
 blushed, and frowned. But instantly she was nodding 
 to her acquaintances and shaking hands ; then she 
 turned to Betsy : 
 
 " I have been at the Countess Lidya's ; I wanted to 
 get away earlier, but I was detained. Sir John was 
 there. He is very interesting." 
 
 " Oh, that missionary ? " 
 
 "Yes; he related many very curious things about 
 life in India." 
 
 The conversation, which Anna's entrance had inter- 
 rupted, again wavered, like the flame of a lamp in a 
 draught. 
 
 " Sir John ! yes, Sir John ! I have seen him. He 
 speaks well. The Vlasieva is actually in love with 
 him ! "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 179 
 
 -' Is it true that the youngest Vlasieva is going to 
 marry Topof ? " 
 
 "Yes ; people say that it is fully decided." 
 
 " I am astonished at her parents. They say that it is 
 a love-match." 
 
 " A love-match ? What antediluvian ideas you have ! 
 Who speaks of love in our days ? " said the ambassador's 
 wife. 
 
 "What is to be done about it ? That foolish old cus- 
 tom has not entirely gone out of date," said Vronsky. 
 
 " So much the worse for those who adhere to it ; the 
 only happy marriages that I know about are those of 
 reason." 
 
 ''Yes ; but how often it happens that these marriages 
 of reason break like ropes of sand, precisely because of 
 this love which you affect to scorn ! " said Vronsky. 
 
 "But what we call a marriage of reason is where both 
 parties take an equal risk. It is like scarlatina, through 
 which we all must pass." 
 
 " In that case it would be wise to find an artificial 
 means of inoculation for love, as for small-pox." 
 
 " When I was young I fell in love with a sacristan ; I 
 should like to know what good that did me ! " said the 
 Princess Miagkaya. 
 
 " No ; but, jesting aside, I believe that to know what 
 love really is, one must have been deceived once, and 
 then been set right," said the Princess Betsy. 
 
 " Even after marriage ? " asked the ambassador's wife, 
 laughing. 
 
 " It is never too late to mend," said the diplomatist, 
 quoting the English proverb. 
 
 "But really," interrupted Betsy, "you must be de- 
 ceived, so as afterwards to get into the right path. 
 What do you think about this ? " said she, addressing 
 Anna, who was listening silently to the conversation 
 with a scarcely perceptible smile on her firm lips. 
 
 " I think," said Anna, playing with her glove, which 
 she had removed, "I think... .if there are as many 
 opinions as there are heads, then there are as many 
 ways of loving as there are hearts."
 
 i8o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Vronsky looked at her, and with a violent beating of 
 the heart waited for her answer ; after she had spoken 
 those words he drew a deep breath, as if he had escaped 
 some danger. 
 
 She turned suddenly to Vronsky. 
 
 " I have just had a letter from Moscow. They write 
 me that Kitty Shcherbatskaya is very ill." 
 
 " Really," said Vronsky, with a frown. 
 
 Anna looked at him with a severe expression. 
 
 " Does n't that interest you ? " 
 
 " It certainly does. I am very sorry. Exactly what 
 did they write you, if I may be permitted to inquire ? " 
 
 Anna arose and went to Betsy. 
 
 "Will you give me a cup of tea?" she said, standing 
 behind her chair. While Betsy was pouring the tea, 
 Vronsky went to Anna. 
 
 " What did they write you ? " 
 
 " I often think that men do not know what nobility 
 means, though they are all the time talking about it," 
 said Anna, not answering his question. 
 
 " I have been wanting to tell you for a long time," 
 she added, and taking a few steps she sat down at a 
 corner table laden with albums. 
 
 " I don't quite know what your words mean," he said, 
 offering her a cup of tea. 
 
 She glanced at the divan near her, and he instantly 
 sat down on it. 
 
 "Yes, I have been wanting to tell you," she con- 
 tinued, without looking at him. "You have acted 
 badly, very badly." 
 
 " Don't I know that I have ? But whose fault was 
 it?" 
 
 " Why do you say that to me ? " said she, with a 
 severe look. 
 
 "You know why," he replied boldly and joyously, 
 meeting her gaze, and without dropping his eyes. 
 
 She, not he, felt confused. 
 
 "This simply proves that you have no heart," said 
 she. But her eyes told the story, that she knew that 
 he had a heart, and that therefore she feared him.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 181 
 
 "What you were talking about just now was error, 
 not love." 
 
 " Remember that I have forbidden you to speak that 
 word, that hateful word," said Anna, trembling; and 
 instantly she felt that by the use of that one word 
 "forbidden," she recognized a certain jurisdiction over 
 him, and thus encouraged him to speak of love. " For 
 a long time I have been wanting to say this to you," 
 she continued, looking steadily into his eyes, and all 
 aflame with the color that burned in her face. " I have 
 come to-night on purpose, knowing that I should find 
 you here ; I have come to tell you this must come to an 
 end. I have never had to blush before any one before, 
 and you somehow cause me to feel guilty in my own 
 eyes." 
 
 He looked at her, and was struck with the new spiri- 
 tual beauty of her face. 
 
 " What do you want me to do ? " said he, simply and 
 gravely. 
 
 " I want you to go to Moscow, and beg Kitty's 
 pardon." 
 
 " You do not want that," said he. 
 
 He saw that she was compelling herself to say one 
 thing, while she really desired something else. 
 
 " If you love me, as you say you do," she murmured, 
 "then do what will give me peace ! " 
 
 Vronsky's face lighted up. 
 
 " Don't you know that you are my life ? But I don't 
 know what peace means, and I can't give it to you. 
 Myself, my love, I can give ^yes, I cannot think of you 
 and of myself separately. For me, you and I are one. 
 I see no hope of peace for you or for me in the future. 
 I see the possibility of despair, of misfortune, unless I 
 see the possibility of happiness, and what happiness ! .... 
 Is it really impossible ? " he murmured, with his lips only, 
 but she heard him. 
 
 She directed all the forces of her mind to say what 
 she ought ; but, instead of that, she looked at him with 
 love in her eyes, and said nothing. 
 
 " Ah ! " he thought, with rapture, "at the very moment
 
 182 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 when I was in despair, when it seemed I should never 
 succeed, it has come ! She loves me ! She confesses it." 
 
 " Then do this for me, and never speak to me in this 
 way again ; let us be good friends," said her words : her 
 eyes told a totally different story. 
 
 "We can never be mere friends; you yourself know 
 it. Shall we be the most miserable, or the happiest, of 
 human beings ? It is for you to decide." 
 
 She began to speak, but he interrupted her. 
 
 "You see I ask only one thing, the right of hoping 
 and suffering, as I do now ; if it is impossible, order me 
 to disappear, and I will disappear ; you shall not see me 
 if my presence is painful to you." 
 
 " I do not wish to drive you away." 
 
 "Then change nothing; let things go as they are," 
 said he, with trembling voice. " Here is your husband ! " 
 
 Indeed, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch at that instant was 
 entering the drawing-room, with his calm face and awk- 
 ward gait. 
 
 Glancing at his wife and Vronsky, he went first to the 
 hostess, and then he sat down with a cup of tea, and in 
 his slow and well-modulated voice, in his habitual tone 
 of persiflage, which seemed always to deride some one 
 or something, he said, as he glanced around at the 
 assembly : 
 
 "Your Rambouillet is complete, the Graces and 
 the Muses ! " 
 
 But the Princess Betsy could not endure this " sneer- 
 ing" tone of his, as she called it, and, like a clever 
 hostess, quickly brought him round to a serious discus- 
 sion of the forced conscription. Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch immediately entered into it, and began gravely to 
 defend the new ukase against Betsy's attacks. 
 
 Vronsky and Anna still sat near their little table. 
 
 "That is getting rather pronounced," said a lady, in a 
 whisper, indicating with her eyes Karenin, Anna, and 
 Vronsky. 
 
 " What did I tell you ? " said Anna's friend. 
 
 Not only these ladies, but nearly all who were in the 
 drawing-room, even the Princess Miagkaya and Betsy
 
 ANNA KARENINA 183 
 
 herself, glanced more than once at them sitting apart 
 from the general company, as if it disturbed them. 
 Only Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch never once looked in 
 their direction, and was not diverted from the interest- 
 ing conversation on which he had started. 
 
 Betsy, perceiving the disagreeable impression that all 
 felt, substituted some one else in her place to listen to 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, and crossed over to Anna. 
 
 " I always admire your husband's clear and explicit lan- 
 guage," she said. "The most transcendental thoughts 
 seem within my reach when he speaks." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " said Anna, with a radiant smile of joy, 
 and not understanding a word that Betsy had said. 
 Then she went over to the large table, and joined in 
 the general conversation. 
 
 After he had stayed half an hour Aleksei' Aleksandro- 
 vitch spoke to his wife and proposed to her that they 
 should go home together ; but she answered, without 
 booking at him, that she wished to remain to supper. 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch took leave of the company and 
 departed. 
 
 Madame Karenina's coachman, a portly old Tatar, 
 in his lacquered leather coat, was having some difficulty 
 in restraining his left-hand gray, which was excited with 
 the cold. A lackey stood holding open the carriage 
 door. The Swiss was standing ready to open the outer 
 door ; Anna, Arkadyevna was listening with ecstasy to 
 what Vronsky whispered, while she was freeing, with 
 nervous fingers, the lace of her sleeve, which had caught 
 on the hook of her fur cloak. 
 
 " You have said nothing, let us admit, and I make no 
 claim," Vronsky was saying, as he accompanied her 
 down, " but you know that it is not friendship that I 
 ask fbr ; for me, the only possible happiness of my life 
 is contained in that word that you do not like .... 
 love." 
 
 " Love ...." she repeated slowly, as if she had spoken 
 to herself; then suddenly, as she disentangled her lace, 
 she said, " I do not like this word, because it means too
 
 184 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 much, far more than you can imagine," and she looked 
 him full in the face. " Da svidanya i " 1 
 
 She reached him her hand, and, with a quick elastic 
 step, passed the Swiss, and disappeared in her carriage. 
 
 Her look, her pressure of his hand, filled Vronsky 
 with passion. He kissed the palm on the place which 
 she had touched, and went home with the happy convic- 
 tion that that evening had brought him nearer to the 
 goal of which he dreamed, than all the two months past. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ALEKSE'I ALEKSANDROVITCH found nothing unusual 
 or improper in the fact that his wife and Vronsky had 
 been sitting by themselves and having a rather lively 
 talk together ; he noticed that to others in the drawing- 
 room it seemed unusual and improper, and therefore it 
 seemed to him also improper. He decided that he 
 ought to speak about it to his wife. 
 
 When he reached home, Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch, ac- 
 cording to his usual custom, went to his library, threw 
 himself into his arm-chair, and opened his book at the 
 place marked by a paper-cutter, in an article on Papistry, 
 and read till the clock struck one, as he usually did. 
 From time to time he passed his hand across his high 
 forehead, and shook his head, as if to drive away an im- 
 portunate thought. At his usual hour he arose and he 
 prepared to go to bed. Anna Arkadyevna had not yet 
 returned. With his book under his arm, he went up- 
 stairs ; but that evening, instead of pursuing his usual 
 train of reflections and thinking over his governmental 
 duties, his mind was occupied with his wife and the dis- 
 agreeable impression which her behavior had caused him. 
 Contrary to his habit, instead of going to bed he walked 
 up and down the rooms with his arms behind his Back. 
 He could not go to bed because he felt that first it was 
 incumbent on him to ponder anew over the exigency 
 that had arisen. 
 
 1 Da svidanya, like au revoir or aufitriederschen, has no equivalent in 
 English.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 185 
 
 When Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch made up his mind 
 that he must have a talk with his wife, it seemed 
 to him very simple and natural ; but now, as he re- 
 flected, it occurred to him that the matter was com- 
 plicated and perplexing. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch was not jealous. Jealousy 
 in his opinion was insulting to a wife, and a husband 
 should trust in her. But he did not ask himself why 
 one should trust her, that is to say, why a man should 
 expect a young wife always to love him. 
 
 But he had not felt any lack of confidence simply 
 because he trusted her, and said to himself that it was 
 the proper thing to do. But now, although it was his 
 conviction that jealousy is a disgusting state of mind, 
 and that it was his duty to trust his wife and that his 
 faith was still intact, yet he felt that he was placed in 
 an illogical and ridiculous position, and he knew not 
 what he ought to do. 
 
 AlekseY Aleksandrovitch was now standing face to 
 face with life, with the possibility that his wife was in 
 love with some one else besides him, and this seemed 
 to him very senseless and incomprehensible, because 
 it was life itself. All his life he had lived and labored 
 in a round of official duties concerned with the reflec- 
 tions of life. And whenever he came in contact with 
 life itself he was revolted by it. Now he experienced 
 a sensation such as a man feels, who, passing calmly 
 over a bridge above a precipice, suddenly discovers that 
 the arch is broken, and that the abyss yawns beneath his 
 feet. 
 
 This abyss was actual life ; the bridge the artifi- 
 cial life which he had been living. The idea that his 
 wife could love another man occurred to him for the 
 first time, and filled him with terror. 
 
 Without undressing, he kept walking back and forth 
 with regular steps : over the echoing parquetry floor of the 
 dining-room lighted with a single burner ; over the carpet 
 of the dark drawing-room, where the light fell on his 
 recently painted full-length portrait, over the divan ; and 
 then through his wife's boudoir, where two candles were
 
 i86 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 burning, lighting up the portraits of parents and friends, 
 and the pretty trinkets upon her writing-table, so long 
 familiar to him. When he reached the door of her bed- 
 room he turned and went back. 
 
 At the end of each turn in his pacing back and forth, 
 and especially on the hard-wood floor of his brightly 
 lighted dining-room, he would stop and say to himself: 
 
 " Yes, this must certainly be cut short ; it must be 
 decided ; I must tell her my way of looking at it ! " 
 
 And then he would turn back again. 
 
 " But what can I say ? what decision can I make ? " 
 he would ask himself by the time he reached the draw- 
 ing-room, and find no answer. 
 
 " But, after all," he would say, as he turned in the 
 vibrary, "what has been done? Nothing. She had a 
 long talk with him. What of that ? But whom does 
 not a society woman talk with? To be jealous is de- 
 grading both her and me," he would say to himself as 
 he reached her boudoir. But this reasoning, which had 
 hitherto had such weight, had now lost its cogency. 
 
 From the door of her sleeping-room he returned again 
 to the hall, but, as he crossed fhe dark drawing-room, 
 he thought he heard a voice saying to him, " It is not 
 so ! the fact that the others noticed this signifies that 
 there must be something in it." And by the time he 
 reached the dining-room again he was saying, " Yes, the 
 thing must be decided, and broken short off." And 
 once more in the drawing-room, just before he turned 
 about, he would ask himself : 
 
 " How can I decide ? How can I tell her ? " 
 
 And then he would ask himself, "What had hap- 
 pened?" and reply, "Nothing," and remember that 
 jealousy is a feeling degrading to a woman ; but again 
 in the drawing-room he would feel persuaded that some- 
 thing had happened. 
 
 His thoughts, like his steps, followed the same circle, 
 and he struck no new idea. He recognized this, rubbed 
 his forehead, and sat down in her boudoir. 
 
 There, as he looked at her table, with its malachite 
 writing-tablet, and a letter unfinished, his thoughts took
 
 ANNA KARENINA 187 
 
 another direction ; he began to think of her, and how 
 she would feel. His imagination vividly showed him 
 her personal life, her thoughts, and her desires ; and the 
 idea that she might, that she must, have her individual 
 life apart from his, seemed to him so terrible, that he 
 hastened to put it out of his mind. 
 
 This was the abyss which it was so dreadful for him 
 to gaze into. To penetrate by thought and feeling into 
 the soul of another was a psychical effort strange to 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch. He considered it a pernicious 
 and dangerous mental habit. 
 
 "And what is most terrible," he said to himself, "is 
 that this senseless uncertainty comes on me just as I 
 am about to bring my work to completion," he re- 
 ferred to a scheme which he was at that time managing, 
 " and when I need perfect freedom from agitation 
 and all my mental powers. What is to be done ? I am 
 not one of those men who can endure agitation and 
 annoyance and have the strength of mind to face them." 
 
 " I must reflect ; I must take some stand and get rid 
 of this annoyance," he added aloud. " I do not admit 
 that I have any right to probe into her feelings, or to 
 scrutinize what is going on in her heart ; that belongs 
 to her conscience, and comes into the domain of relig- 
 ion," he said to himself, feeling some consolation that 
 he had found a domain of law applicable to the circum- 
 stances that had arisen. 
 
 " So," he continued, " the questions relating to her 
 feelings and the like are questions of conscience, in 
 which I have no concern. My duty lies clearly before 
 me. As head of my family, I am bound to guide her, 
 and therefore, to a certain degree, I am responsible. I 
 must point out the danger which I see ; I must watch 
 over her, and even use my powers. I must speak to her." 
 
 And AlekseT Aleksandrovitch formulated in his mind 
 everything that he should say to his wife. While he 
 was thinking it over he regretted the necessity of wast- 
 ing his time and his intellectual powers in family matters. 
 But, in spite of him, his plan assumed, in his thought, 
 the clear, precise, and logical form of a report :
 
 188 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " I must make her understand as follows : First, The 
 meaning and importance of public opinion and deco- 
 rum ; Secondly, The religious significance of marriage ; 
 Thirdly, if necessary, The unhappiness which it might 
 cause her son ; Fourthly, The unhappiness which might 
 befall herself." 
 
 And Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch twisted his fingers to- 
 gether, palms down, and made the joints crack. 
 
 This gesture, of joining his hands and stretching his 
 finger-joints, a bad habit, calmed him, and conduced 
 to the precision of which he now stood in such need. 
 
 A carriage was heard driving up to the house. Alek- 
 se'f Aleksandrovitch stopped in the middle of the hall. 
 He heard his wife's step on the stairway. Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch had his sermon all ready ; but still he 
 stood there, squeezing his crossed fingers and trying to 
 make the joints crack. One joint cracked. 
 
 Even as he heard her light steps on the stairs he was 
 conscious of her presence, and, though he was satisfied 
 with his sermon, he dreaded the explanation that was 
 imminent. . 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 ANNA entered with bent head, playing with the tas- 
 sels of her bashluik or Turkish hood. Her face shone 
 with a bright glow, but this bright glow did not betoken 
 joy ; it reminded one of the terrible glow of a confla- 
 gration against a midnight sky. When she saw her 
 husband, she raised her head and smiled, as if she had 
 awakened from a dream. 
 
 " You are not abed yet ? what a miracle ! " she said, 
 taking off her bashluik ; and, without pausing, she went 
 into her dressing-room, crying, " It is late, Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch," as she got to the door. 
 
 " Anna, I must have a talk with you." 
 
 "With me?" she said, in astonishment, coming out 
 into the hall, and looking at him. "What is it ? What 
 about ? " she asked, and sat down. " Well, let us talk,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 189 
 
 then, if it is so necessary ; but I would much rather go 
 to sleep." 
 
 Anna said what came to her tongue, and was aston- 
 ished to hear herself, astonished at her own facility at 
 telling a lie. How perfectly natural her words sounded, 
 and how probable that she wanted to go to sleep ; she 
 felt herself clad in an impenetrable armor of falsehood. 
 She felt that some invisible power assisted her and sus- 
 tained her. 
 
 "Anna, I must give you a warning." 
 
 " A warning ? " she exclaimed ; " why ? " 
 
 She looked at him so innocently, so'gayly, that any 
 one who did not know her as her husband did would 
 have noticed nothing unnatural either in the tone of her 
 voice or in the meaning of what she said. But for him, 
 who knew her, who knew that when he was five minutes 
 later than usual she always remarked on it, and asked 
 the reason, for him who knew that her first impulse was 
 always to tell him of her pleasures and her sorrows, for 
 him now to see the fact that Anna took special pains 
 not to observe his agitation, that she took special pains 
 not to say a word about herself, all this was very sig- 
 nificant. He saw that the depths of her soul, hitherto 
 always opened to his gaze, were now shut away from him. 
 Moreover, by her tone he perceived that she was not 
 confused by this ; but as it were she said openly and with- 
 out dissimulation, " Yes, I am a sealed book, and so it 
 must be, and will be from henceforth." 
 
 He felt as a man would who should come home and 
 find his house barricaded against him. 
 
 "Perhaps the key will yet be found," thought Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 " I want to warn you," said he, in a gentle voice, 
 " lest by your imprudence and your thoughtlessness 
 you give people cause to talk about you. Your rather 
 too lively conversation this evening with Count Vronsky " 
 he pronounced this name slowly and distinctly 
 "attracted attention." 
 
 He finished speaking, and looked at Anna's laughing 
 eyes, now terrible to him because they were so impene-
 
 i 9 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 trable, and he saw all the idleness and uselessness of 
 his words. 
 
 " You are always like this," she said, as if she had 
 not understood him, and intentionally had understood 
 only the last part of what he said. " Sometimes you 
 don't like it because I am bored, and sometimes you 
 don't like it because I have a good time. I was not 
 bored this evening; does that disturb you?" 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch trembled ; again he stretched 
 his fingers till the knuckles cracked. 
 
 "Akh! I beg of you, don't crack your fingers, I 
 detest it so," said she. 
 
 "Anna, is this you?" said Alekseif Aleksandrovitch, 
 trying to control himself, and stopping the movement 
 of his hands. 
 
 " Yes ! but what is it ? " she asked, with a sincere 
 and almost comic astonishment. " What do you want 
 of me ? " 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch was silent, and passed his 
 hand across his brow and over his eyes. He felt that, 
 instead of having done as he intended, that is, instead 
 of having warned his wife of her errors in the sight 
 of the world, he was agitated at what concerned her 
 conscience, and was perhaps striking some imaginary 
 wall. 
 
 " This is what I wanted to say," he continued, 
 coldly and calmly, " and I beg you to listen to me until 
 I have done. As you know, I regard jealousy as an 
 insulting and degrading sentiment, and I never allow 
 myself to be led away by it ; but there are certain laws 
 of propriety which one cannot cross with impunity. 
 This evening, judging by the impression which you 
 made, I am not the only one that noticed it, all did, 
 you did not conduct yourself at all in a proper 
 manner." 
 
 " Decidedly I do not understand at all," said Anna, 
 shrugging her shoulders. " He does not really care," 
 she thought; "all that he fears is the opinion of the 
 world." " You are not well, Alekseif Aleksandrovitch," 
 she added, rising, and starting to go to her room.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 191 
 
 But he stepped in front of her as if to prevent her from 
 going. Never had Anna seen his face so displeased 
 and ugly ; she remained standing, tipping her head to 
 one side, while with quick fingers she began to pull out 
 the hair-pins. 
 
 " Well ! I will hear what you have to say," she said, 
 in a calm, bantering tone ; " I shall even listen with 
 interest, because I should like to know what it is all 
 about." 
 
 She herself was astonished at the assurance and calm 
 naturalness with which she spoke, as well as at her 
 choice of words. 
 
 " I have no right to examine your feelings. I think 
 it is useless and even dangerous," Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch began. " If we probe too deeply into our hearts, 
 we run the risk of touching on what we ought not to 
 perceive. Your feelings concern your conscience. But 
 in presence of yourself, of me, and of God, I am in 
 duty bound to remind you of your obligations. Our lives 
 are united, not by men, but by God. Only by crime 
 can this bond be broken, and such a crime brings its 
 own punishment." 
 
 " I don't understand at all. Oh, heavens, how sleepy 
 I am !" said Anna, swiftly running her hand over her 
 hair, and taking out the last pin. 
 
 " Anna ! in the name of Heaven, don't speak so," 
 said he, gently. " Maybe I am mistaken ; but believe 
 me, what I say to you is as much for your advantage as 
 for mine ; I am your husband, and I love you." 
 
 Anna's face for an instant: grew troubled, and the 
 mocking fire disappeared from her eyes ; but the word 
 " love " irritated her. " Love ! " she thought ; " does he 
 know what it means ? If he had never heard that there 
 was such a thing as love, he would never have used that 
 word." 
 
 " Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, truly, I don't know what 
 you mean," she said. "They say you find...." 
 
 "Allow me to finish. I love you, but I am not speak- 
 ing for myself ; those who are chiefly interested are our 
 son and yourself. It is quite possible, I repeat, that my
 
 192 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 words may seem idle and ill-judged ; possibly they are 
 the result of mistake on my part. In that case, I beg 
 you to forgive me ; but if you yourself feel that there 
 is the least foundation for my remarks, then I earnestly 
 urge you to reflect, and, if your heart inclines you, tO| 
 confide in me.".... 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, without noticing the fact, 
 had spoken a very different discourse from the one that 
 he had prepared. 
 
 " I have nothing to say." And she added in a 
 sprightly tone, scarcely hiding a smile, " Truly, it is time 
 to go to bed." 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch sighed, and, without speak- 
 ing further, went to their chamber. 
 
 When she reached the room, he was already in bed. 
 His lips were sternly set, and he did not look at her. 
 Anna got into bed, every moment expecting that he 
 would speak to her again ; she both feared it and desired 
 it, but he said nothing. 
 
 She waited long without moving, and then forgot all 
 about him. She was -thinking of some one else ; she saw 
 him and was conscious of her heart throbbing with emo- 
 tion and with guilty joy. Suddenly she heard a slow 
 and regular sound of snoring. Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch 
 at first seemed to be startled himself, and stopped ; but 
 at the end of a second the snoring began again with 
 monotonous regularity. 
 
 "Too late! too late!" she whispered, with a smile. 
 She lay for a long time thus, motionless, with open 
 eyes, the shining of which it seemed to her she herself 
 could see in the darkness. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 FROM this time began a new life for Aleksel Aleksan- 
 drovitch and his wife. Nothing unusual happened. 
 Anna continued to go into society, and was especially 
 often at the Princess Betsy's ; and everywhere she met 
 Vronsky. Aleksef Aleksandrovitch saw it, but was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 193 
 
 powerless to prevent it. Whenever he tried to bring 
 about an explanation, she raised up against him an 
 impenetrable wall of humorous perplexity. 
 
 Outwardly, everything was the same, but their rela- 
 tions had completely changed. Aleksei' Aleksandro- 
 vitch, a remarkably strong man in matters requiring 
 statesmanship, here found himself powerless. Like an 
 ox, submissively lowering its head, he waited the blow 
 of the ax which he felt was lifted against him. When- 
 ever he began to think about it, he felt that once more 
 he must try by gentleness, tenderness, reason, to save 
 Anna, and bring her back to him. Every day he made 
 up his mind to speak ; but as soon as he made the 
 attempt, that evil spirit of falsehood which possessed 
 her seemed to lay hold of him also, and he spoke not at 
 all in the tone in which he meant to speak. Involun- 
 tarily, what he, said was spoken in his tone of raillery, 
 which seemed to cast ridicule on those who would speak 
 as he did. And this tone was not at all suitable for the 
 expression of the thoughts that he wished to express. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 WHAT had been for nearly a whole year the sole de- 
 sire of Vronsky's life, changing all his former desires 
 what Anna had looked upon as an impossible, a terrible, 
 and, therefore, the more a fascinating, dream of bliss, was 
 at last realized. Pale, with quivering lower jaw, he 
 stood over her, begging her to be calm, himself not 
 knowing how or why. 
 
 "Anna! Anna!" he said, with trembling voice. 
 "Anna! for God's sake!".... 
 
 But the more intensely he spoke the lower she hung 
 her once proud, joyous, but now humiliated head, and 
 she crouched all down, and dropped from the divan, 
 where she had been sitting, to the floor at his feet. 
 She would have fallen on the carpet had he not held her. 
 
 "My God! forgive me!" she sobbed, pressing his 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 i 9 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 hands to her breast. She felt that she was such a sinnef 
 and criminal that nothing remained for her except to 
 crouch down and beg for forgiveness ; now there was 
 nothing else for her in life but him, so that to him alone 
 she turned her prayer for forgiveness. As she looked 
 at him she felt her humiliation physically, and she could 
 say no more. 
 
 But he felt exactly as a murderer must feel when he 
 sees the lifeless body of his victim. This lifeless body 
 was their love the first epoch of their love. There 
 was something horrible and repulsive in the recollection 
 of the terrible price that they had paid for this shame. 
 The shame in the presence of their spiritual nakedness 
 oppressed her and took hold of him. But in spite of all 
 the horror felt by the murderer in presence of the body 
 of his victim, he must cut it in pieces, must bury it, must 
 take advantage of his crime. 
 
 And, as with fury and passion the murderer throws 
 himself on the dead body and drags it and cuts it, so he 
 covered her face and shoulders with kisses. She held 
 his hand and did not stir. 
 
 " Yes, these kisses were what had been bought with 
 this shame ! Yes, and this hand, which will always be 
 mine, is the hand of my accomplice." 
 
 She raised his hand and kissed it. He fell on his 
 knees, and tried to look into her face ; but she hid it 
 and said nothing. At last, as if trying to control her- 
 self, she made an effort to rise, and pushed him away. 
 Her face was still as beautiful as ever ; even so much 
 the more was it pitiful. 
 
 "All is ended," said she; "I have nothing but thee, 
 remember that." 
 
 " I cannot help remembering it, since it is my life. A 
 moment before this happiness .... " 
 
 "What happiness?" she cried, with contempt and 
 horror. And horror involuntarily seized him also. 
 " For God's sake, not a word, not a word more." 
 
 She quickly got up and moved away from him, and 
 with a strange expression of hopeless despair, such as he 
 had never seen before, on her face, she stood aloof from
 
 ANNA KARENINA 195 
 
 him. She felt that at that moment she could not ex- 
 press in words the sense of shame, rapture, and horror 
 at this entrance into a new life, and she did not wish to 
 speak about it or vulgarize the feeling with definite words. 
 
 But even afterward, on the next day, on the third 
 day, not only did she fail to find words in which to 
 express the complication of these feelings, but she 
 could not even find thoughts by which to formulate to 
 herself all that was in her soul. 
 
 She said to herself: 
 
 " No, I cannot now think about this ; by and by, when 
 I am calmer." 
 
 But this calmness never came. Every time when the 
 questions arose: "What had she done? and what would 
 become of her? and what ought she to do?" she was 
 filled with horror, and she compelled herself not to think 
 about them. 
 
 "By and by, by and by," she repeated, "when I am 
 calmer." 
 
 On the other hand, during sleep, when she had no 
 control of her thoughts, her situation appeared in its 
 ugly nakedness. One dream almost every night haunted 
 her. She dreamed that she was the wife both of Vron- 
 sky and of Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, and that both lav- 
 ished their caresses on her, Aleksef Aleksandrovitch 
 kissed her hands, and said, weeping, " How happy we are 
 now ! " Aleksei' Vronsky, also, was there, and he was 
 her husband. She was amazed that she had ever be- 
 lieved such a thing impossible ; and she laughed as she 
 explained to them that this was far simpler, that both 
 would henceforth be satisfied and happy. But this 
 dream weighed on her like a nightmare, and she always 
 awoke in fright. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 EVEN in the first weeks after Levin returned from 
 Moscow, every time that with flushed cheeks and a 
 trembling in his limbs he remembered the shame of hi;? 
 rejection, he would say to himself:
 
 196 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " I blushed and trembled like this, and I felt that alJ 
 was lost, when I got one in physics, and had to go into 
 the second class ; and I thought myself irretrievably 
 ruined when I bungled in my sister's affairs, which were 
 confided to me. And now ? Now the years have gone 
 by, and I look back and wonder how it could disturb 
 my mind. It will be just the same with my disap- 
 pointment this time. Time will pass, and I shall grow 
 callous." 
 
 But three months passed away and the callousness 
 did not come, and it was as painful for him to remember 
 it as on the first day. He could not reconcile himself 
 to the fact that, after dreaming so long of family life, 
 after being, as he thought, so well prepared for it, not 
 only was he not married, but found himself farther than 
 ever from marriage. He felt painfully, as all those 
 around him felt, that it is not good for a man of his age 
 to live alone. He remembered that before his departure 
 for Moscow he had once said to his cowherd, Nikolai', a 
 simple-hearted muzhik with whom he liked to talk : 
 
 " Do you know, Nikolai', I am thinking of getting 
 married ? " whereupon Nikolai had instantly replied, as 
 if there could not be the slightest doubt about it : 
 
 "This ought to have been long ago, Konstantin 
 Dmitritch." 
 
 And now marriage was farther off than ever. The 
 place was taken ; and when, exercising his imagination, 
 he put into that place some young girl of his acquain- 
 tance, he felt that it was perfectly impossible. Moreover, 
 the recollection of how Kitty refused him and of the 
 part which he played still tormented him with morti- 
 fication. It was idle to say that he was not to blame in 
 this ; this recollection, taken together with other mortify- 
 ing experiences of the same sort, made him quiver and 
 grow red in the face. He had on his conscience, as 
 every man has, the remembrance of evil deeds for which 
 he should have repented ; but the remembrance of these 
 evil deeds did not trouble him nearly so much as the 
 feeling of his humiliation, slight as it really was. It was 
 a wound that refused to heal. He could not keep out
 
 ANNA KARENINA 197 
 
 of his mind his rejection, and the miserable position in 
 which he must have been placed in the eyes of others. 
 
 Time and labor, however, brought their balm ; the 
 painful impressions little by little began to fade in pres- 
 ence of the events of the country life, important in 
 reality, in spite of their apparent insignificance. Each 
 week his thoughts turned to Kitty v/ith less frequency. 
 He even began to await with impatience the news that 
 she was married, or was going to be married, hoping that 
 this event would bring healing in the same way as the 
 pulling of a tooth may. 
 
 Meantime spring came, beautiful, friendly, without 
 treachery or false promises, a spring such as fills 
 plants and animals, no less than men, with joy. This 
 splendid season gave Levin new zeal, and confirmed his 
 resolution to tear himself from the past so as to reorgan- 
 ize his solitary life on conditions of permanence and 
 independence. Although many of the plans that he 
 had formed on his return to the country had not been 
 put into effect, yet the most essential one that his life 
 should be kept pure -7- had been realized. He expe- 
 rienced none of that sense of shame which ordinarily 
 tormented him after a fall ; and he could look fearlessly 
 into men's eyes. 
 
 In February he had received a letter from Marya 
 Nikolayevna, who informed him that his brother's health 
 was failing, and that he would not use any remedies. 
 In consequence of this letter he had immediately gone 
 to- Moscow, where he persuaded Nikolai to consult a 
 physician, and then to go abroad for the baths. He 
 succeeded so well in persuading his brother and in lend- 
 ing him money for the journey, without exasperating 
 him, that he felt quite satisfied with himself. 
 
 Besides his farm-labors, which especially occupied his 
 attention that spring, and his ordinary reading, Levin 
 was deeply engaged in writing a work on rural economy, 
 which he had begun during the winter. His theory was 
 that in fanning the laborer's temperament is a factor as 
 important as climate or the soil, and that consequently 
 ail the deductions of agronomic science arc drawn, not
 
 198 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 from the premises of soil and climate alone, but from 
 the soil, the climate, and the certain unchangeable 
 character of the laborer. 
 
 Thus, notwithstanding his loneliness or in conse- 
 quence of his loneliness, his life, therefore, was very busy 
 and full ; only occasionally he felt the need of some one 
 besides Agafya Mikhai'lovna with whom to communi- 
 cate the ideas that came into his head. However, he 
 brought himself to discuss with her about physics, the 
 theories of rural economy, and, above all, philosophy. 
 Philosophy was Agafya Mikha'flovna's favorite subject. 
 
 The spring opened late. During the last weeks of 
 Lent the weather was clear but cold. During the day 
 the snow melted in the sun, but at night the mercury 
 went down to seven degrees ; the crust on the snow was 
 so thick that carts could go anywhere across the fields. 
 
 It snowed on Easter Sunday. Then suddenly, on the 
 following day, a warm wind blew, the clouds drifted 
 over, and for three days and three nights a warm and 
 heavy rain fell ceaselessly. On Thursday the wind went 
 down, and then over the earth was spread a thick gray 
 fog, as if to conceal the mysteries that were accomplish- 
 ing in nature ; under this fog, the fields were covered 
 with water, the ice was melting and disappearing, the 
 brooks ran more swiftly, foaming and muddy. Toward 
 evening the Krasnaya Gorka, or Red Hill, began to show 
 through the fog, the clouds scattered like snipe, and 
 spring in reality was there in all her brilliancy. 
 
 The next morning the sun rose bright and quickly 
 melted away the thin sheet of ice that still covered 
 the ponds, and the warm atmosphere grew moist with 
 the vapors rising from the earth ; the old grass and the 
 young blades peeping from the sod, with its tiny needles, 
 the buds on the snow-ball trees, the currant bushes, and 
 the sticky sappy birch trees, grew green, swelled, and 
 on their branches, powdered with golden bloom, swarms 
 of honey-bees buzzed in the sun. Invisible larks trilled 
 their songs over the velvet of the green and the prairies 
 freed from snow ; the lapwings lamented for their hol- 
 lows and marshes, submerged by the stormy waters;
 
 ANNA KARENINA 199 
 
 the wild swans and geese flew high in the air, with their 
 calls of spring. The cattle, with rough hair and spots 
 worn bare, lowed as they went out to pasture ; the 
 bandy-legged lambs gamboled around the bleating' ewes^ 
 soon to lose their wool ; swift-footed children ran bare- 
 foot over the wet paths, where their footprints were left 
 like fossils ; the peasant-women gossiped gayly around 
 the edge of the pond, where they were bleaching their 
 linen ; and in the yards resounded the axes of the mu- 
 zhiks, repairing their plows and their wagons. 
 Spring had really come. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LEVIN put on his heavy boots, and, for the first time, 
 his sleeveless cloth coat instead of his fur shuba, and 
 went out to look over his estate, tramping through the 
 brooklets which dazzled his eyes as they glanced in the sun, 
 and stepping, now on a cake of ice, and now in sticky mud. 
 
 Spring is the epoch of plans and projects. Levin, as 
 he went out into his court, no more definitely knew what 
 he would first take in hand in his beloved farming than 
 the tree in early spring knows how and why his young 
 sprouts and branches grow out from their enveloping 
 buds ; but he felt that he was going to originate the 
 most charming projects and the most sensible plans. 
 
 He went first to see his cattle. The cows had been 
 let out into the yard, and with their smooth new coats 
 of hair glistening as they warmed themselves in the 
 sun, they were lowing as if to beg permission to go out 
 to pasture. Levin knew them all, even to the minutest 
 particulars. He contemplated them with satisfaction, 
 and gave orders to take them to pasture, and to let the 
 calves out into the yard. The cow-boy gayly started to 
 drive them out into the field. The milkmaids, gather- 
 ing up their petticoats, and splashing through the mud 
 with bare feet, white as yet, and free from tan, chased 
 the bellowing calves, silly with the rapture of spring, and 
 with switches kept them from escaping from the yard.
 
 200 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Admiring the young cattle which the year had 
 brought, for they were uncommonly beautiful, the 
 oldest already as large as a peasants' cow, and Pava's 
 daughter, three months old, as big as a yearling, 
 Levin ordered the trough to be brought out for them, 
 and their hay to be given them behind gratings. 1 He 
 found, however, that these gratings, which had been 
 made in the autumn, but were not used during the 
 winter, were out of repair. He sent for the carpenter, 
 who was supposed to be busy repairing the threshing- 
 machine ; but it seemed that the carpenter was not 
 there. He was repairing the harrows, which should 
 have been repaired during Lent. This made Levin 
 very indignant. He was indignant at this everlasting 
 repetition of such slovenliness, against which he had so 
 many years struggled with all his might. The gratings, 
 as he soon learned, not having been in use during the 
 winter, had been carried to the stable, where, as they 
 were of light construction, and meant only for calves, 
 they had been broken. 
 
 Moreover, it appeared that nothing had been done to 
 the harrows and other agricultural implements, which 
 should have been inspected and put in order during the 
 winter months, and for this purpose especially he had 
 hired three carpenters. The harrows were needed im- 
 mediately for work in the fields. Levin summoned the 
 overseer, 2 then he himself went in search of him. 
 The overseer, as radiant as everything else was that 
 day, came from the threshing-floor dressed in a lined 
 lambskin coat. 3 He was twisting a straw between his 
 fingers. 
 
 " Why is n't the carpenter at work on the threshing- 
 machine ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ; that is what I meant to tell you last even- 
 ing : the harrows had to be repaired ! We 've got to 
 plow." 
 
 " Yes ; but what have you been doing this winter ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but why do you hire such a carpenter ? " 
 
 1 Reshotki, a sort of portable palisade. 
 
 2 Prikasluhik. 3 Tulupchik.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 201 
 
 " Where are the gratings for the calves ? " 
 
 " I ordered them to be put in place. You can't do 
 anything with such people," replied the overseer, wav- 
 ing his hands. 
 
 " Not such people, but such an overseer ! " said Levin, 
 getting still more angry. " Well, what do I keep you 
 for ? " he shouted ; but, recollecting that shouts did not 
 do any good, he stopped in the middle of his remark 
 and only sighed. " Well, can you get the seed in yet ? " 
 he asked, after a silence. 
 
 "Back of Turkino we might to-morrow, or the day 
 after." 
 
 " And the clover ? " 
 
 " I sent Vasili and Mishka to sow it, but I don't know 
 whether they succeeded ; it 's muddy." 
 
 " On how many acres ? " 
 
 " Sixteen acres." J 
 
 " Why not the whole ? " cried Levin. 
 
 He was still more indignant because they had sowed 
 only sixteen acres instead of fifty-four : he knew by his 
 own experience, as well as by theory, the need of sowing 
 the clover-seed as early as possible, almost in the snow, 
 and Levin never could get this done. 
 
 "Not enough people. What can you do with these 
 men ? The three hired men did not come ; and then 
 Semyon .... " 
 
 "Well, you would better have taken them away from 
 the straw." 
 
 " Yes ; I did that very thing." 
 
 " Where are all the people ?" 
 
 " There are five at the compote [he meant to say com- 
 post} ; four are moving the oats, so that they should not 
 spoil, Konstantin Dmitritch." 
 
 Levin knew very well that these words, " So that tlicv 
 should not spoil," meant that his English oats saved for 
 seed were already ruined. Again they had not done 
 what he had ordered. 
 
 " Yes ! But did I not tell you during Lent to put in 
 the ventilating-chimneys ? " he cried. 
 
 1 Six desyatins ; a desyatina is 2.7 acres.
 
 202 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Don't you be troubled ; we will do all in good 
 time." 
 
 Levin angrily waved his hand, and went to examine 
 his oats in the granary; then he went to the stables. 
 The grain was not yet spoiled, but the workmen were 
 stirring it up with shovels when they might have let it 
 down from one story to the other. After he had 
 straightened this matter and sent two hands to sow 
 the clover, Levin calmed down in regard to his over- 
 seer. It was such a lovely day that one could not keep 
 angry. 
 
 " Ignat," he cried to his coachman, who, with upturned 
 sleeves, was washing the carriage near the pump, " sad- 
 dle me a horse." 
 
 "Which one?" 
 
 " Well, Kolpik." 
 
 "I will do so." 
 
 While he was saddling the horse, Levin again called 
 the overseer, who was busying himself in his vicinity, 
 hoping to be restored to favor, and began to speak with 
 him about the work that he wanted done during the 
 spring, and about his plans for carrying on the estate. 
 
 He wanted the compost spread as soon as possible, 
 so as to have this work done before the first mowing ; 
 then he wanted the farthest field plowed, so that it 
 might be left fallow. All the fields not half of them 
 should be attended to with the laborers. 
 
 The overseer listened attentively, doing his best evi- 
 dently to approve of his master's plans. But never- 
 theless his face wore that vexatiously hopeless and 
 melancholy expression which Levin knew so well. 
 This expression seemed to say, "This is all very well 
 and good, but as God shall give." 
 
 Nothing exasperated Levin so much as this tone, but 
 it was common to all the overseers that had ever been 
 in his service. They all received his projects with the 
 same dejected air ; and so he now refrained from getting 
 angry, but he was exasperated and felt himself still more 
 stimulated for the struggle against this, as it were ele- 
 mental, force which he could not help calling "As God
 
 ANNA KARENINA 203 
 
 shall give," and which constantly opposed him every- 
 where. 
 
 " If we have time, Konstantin Dmitritch," said the 
 overseer. 
 
 " Why shall we not have time ? " 
 
 " We absolutely ought to hire fifteen more workmen, 
 but they can't be had. Some came to-day who asked 
 seventy rubles for the summer." 
 
 Levin did not speak. Again the opposing force ! 
 He knew that, however he might exert himself, he never 
 could hire more than forty, thirty-seven, or thirty-eight, 
 laborers at a reasonable price ; he had succeeded in get- 
 ting forty, never more; but nevertheless he could not 
 give up vanquished. 
 
 " Send to Suri, to Chefirovka ; if they don't come, we 
 must go for them." 
 
 " I 'm going to go," said Vasili Feodorovitch, gloomily. 
 "But then the horses are very feeble." 
 
 "Buy some more; but then I know," he added, with 
 a laugh, " that you will do as little and as badly as you 
 can. However, I warn you that I will not let you do as 
 you please this year. I shall take the reins in my own 
 hands." 
 
 " Yes ! but even as it is you get too little sleep, it 
 seems to me. We are very happy to be under our mas- 
 ter's eyes.... " 
 
 " Now, have the clover put in on the Berezof Bottom, 
 and I shall come myself to inspect it," said he, 
 mounting his little horse, Kolpik, which the coachman 
 brought up. 
 
 " Don't go across the brooks, Konstantin Dmitritch," 
 cried the coachman. 
 
 " Well, then, by the woods." 
 
 And on his little, lively, easy-going ambler, which 
 whinnied as it came to the pools, and which pulled on 
 the bridle, having been too long in the stable, Levin rode 
 out of the muddy courtyard, and across the open fields. 
 
 Happy as Levin had felt in his cow-yard and cattle- 
 pen, he felt still happier out in the field. Rhythmically 
 swaying on his easy-going, gentle pony, drinking in the
 
 20 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 warm air, freshened by the snow as he rode through the 
 forest where the snow still lay here and there rapidly 
 melting in the tracks, he took keen delight in every 
 one of his trees, with greening moss and swelling buds. 
 As he came out from the forest, before him lay a vast 
 stretch of fields ; they seemed like an immense carpet of 
 velvet where there was not a bare spot or a marsh, only 
 here and there in the hollows marked with patches of 
 melting snow. The sight of a peasant's mare and colt 
 treacling down his fields did not anger him, but he 
 ordered a passing muzhik to drive them out. With the 
 same gentleness he received the sarcastic and impudent 
 answer of the muzhik Ipat, whom he met and asked, 
 " Ipat, shall we put in the seed before very long ? " 
 And Ipat replied, "We must plow first, Konstantin 
 Dmitritch." 
 
 The farther he went, the more his good-humor in- 
 creased, and each of his plans for improving his estate 
 seemed to surpass the other : to protect the fields on 
 the south by lines of trees so as to prevent the snow 
 from staying too long ; to divide his arable fields into 
 nine parts, six of which should be well dressed, and the 
 other three sown down to grass ; to build a cow-yard in 
 the farthest corner of one field, and have a pond dug ; 
 to have portable inclosures for the cattle, so as to util- 
 ize the manure ; and thus to cultivate three hundred 
 desyatins of wheat, a hundred desyatins of potatoes, and 
 one hundred and fifty of clover, without exhausting the 
 soil. 
 
 Full of these reflections, he picked his way carefully 
 along so as not to tread down his fields, till at last he 
 reached the place where the laborers were sowing the 
 clover. The cart, loaded with seed, instead of being left 
 on the edge of the field, had been driven into the 
 plowed land, and his winter wheat was crushed by 
 the wheels and trampled down by the horse. The two 
 laborers were sitting by the edge of the field, evidently 
 smoking a mutual pipe. The earth in the cart, mixed 
 together with the seed, had not been worked over, but 
 was full of hard or frozen lumps.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 205 
 
 When he saw the master, the laborer Vasili started 
 toward the cart, and Mishka began to sow. This was 
 all wrong, but Levin rarely got angry with his laborers. 
 When Vasili came up to him, Levin ordered him to lead 
 the horse to the side of the field. 
 
 " It won't do any harm, sir ; it will spring up 
 again." 
 
 " Please not discuss it," replied Levin, " but do what 
 I say." 
 
 " I will obey," said Vasili, taking the horse by the 
 head. "What splendid seed, Konstantin Dmitritch," 
 he added, to regain favor. " Best kind ! But it is 
 frightful going! You drag a. pud on. each, foot." 
 
 " But why was n't the earth sifted ? " asked Levin. 
 
 " Oh ! it '11 come out all right," replied Vasili, taking 
 up some seed, and crushing the lump in his palm. 
 
 It was not Vasili's fault that they were scattering the 
 unsifted soil ; but it was vexatious, nevertheless. Hav- 
 ing more than once to his advantage made use of a 
 well-known means of wreaking his vexation, which 
 always seemed to him foolish, Levin now determined to 
 try it and see if he could recover his good temper. He 
 noticed how Mishka strode along dragging huge clods 
 of clay which stuck to each of his feet ; so, dismounting, 
 he took the seed-cod from Vasili and began to scatter 
 the seed. 
 
 " Where did you stop ? " 
 
 Vasili touched the spot with his foot, and Levin went 
 on as best he could, scattering the earth with the seed. 
 But it was as hard as wading through a marsh, and after 
 he had gone a row he stopped all in a sweat, and returned 
 the seed-cod. 
 
 "Well, barin, if that row doesn't come out well next 
 summer, don't blame me for it ! " said Vasili. 
 
 "Indeed I won't," replied Levin, gayly, already feel- 
 ing the efficacy of the means he had employed. 
 
 " But just look at the summer we 're going to have ! 
 'T will be magnificent ! If you '11 notice, that 's where I 
 sowed last spring. How well I planted it ! Why, Kon- 
 stantin Dmitritch, I work as if I were working for my
 
 206 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 own father ! Well, I don't like to do slack work. What 
 is good for the master is good for us. And look yon- 
 der at that field," continued Vasili, pointing to the field, 
 "it delights my heart." 
 
 " It is a fine spring, Vasili." 
 
 " Yes ! it is such a. spring as our old men can't re- 
 member. I was at home, and our elder has already 
 sowed an acre 1 of wheat ; as he says he can hardly tell 
 it from rye." 
 
 " But how long have you been sowing wheat ? " 
 
 " Why, you yourself taught us how to sow it year be- 
 fore last. You spared me two measures. It gave eight 
 bushels and w,e sowed an acre with it." 
 
 " Well ! look here, see that you break up the earth 
 well!" said Levin, as he started for his ambler, "look 
 after Mishka ; and if the seed comes up well, you shall 
 have fifty kopeks a desyatin." 
 
 " We thank you humbly : we should be content even 
 without that." 
 
 Levin mounted his horse, and rode off to visit his 
 last year's clover-field, and then to the field which was 
 already plowed ready for the summer wheat. 
 
 The crop of clover in the stubble-field was miraculous. 
 It had all survived, and was covering with a mantle of 
 green all the ground where the preceding fall the roots 
 of the wheat had been left. 
 
 The horse sank up to the fetlock, and each foot made 
 a sucking noise as he pulled it out of the half-thawed 
 soil. It was entirely impossible to cross the plowed 
 land. Only where there was ice would it hold, but in 
 the thawed furrows the horse's leg sank above the fet- 
 lock. The plowed field was excellent. In two days 
 the harrowing and sowing could be done. Everything 
 was beautiful, everything was gay ! 
 
 Levin rode back by way of the brooks, hoping to find 
 the water lower; in fact, he found that he could get 
 
 1 Tri osminnika ; in the government of Tula an osminnik is an eighth of 
 a desyatin. 
 or an acre, 
 acres. 
 
 J/'-r-r*t/v* , IK 111V. V*,VK*IU?U V 1 1 Ula all W3111111111IV 13 all CJCUtlJ *J1 
 
 , One chetvert (about eight bushels) plants three of these eighths, 
 e. Levin promises an equivalent of about forty cents for 2,7
 
 ANNA KARENINA 207 
 
 across ; and, as he waded through, he scared up a couple 
 of wild ducks. 
 
 "There ought to be snipe, also," he thought; and a 
 forest guard whom he met on his way to the house 
 confirmed his supposition. 
 
 He immediately spurred up his horse, so as to get 
 back in time for dinner, and to prepare his gun for 
 the evening. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 JUST as Levin reached home, in the best humor in 
 the world, he heard the jingling of bells at the side 
 entrance. 
 
 "There, now! some one from the railroad station," 
 was his first thought ; " it 's time for the Moscow train. 
 Who can have come? brother Nikolai'? Did he not 
 say that instead of going abroad he might perhaps 
 come to see me ? " 
 
 For a moment it occurred to him disagreeably that 
 his brother Nikolai's presence might spoil his pleasant 
 plans for the spring ; but, disgusted at the selfishness 
 of this thought, his mind, so to speak, instantly received 
 his brother with open arms, and he began to hope, with 
 affectionate joy, that it was really he. 
 
 He hurried his horse, and as he came out from behind 
 the acacia, he saw a hired troika from the railway station 
 and a traveler dressed in a shuba. 
 
 It was not his brother. 
 
 " Akh ! if only it is some agreeable man to talk with," 
 he thought. 
 
 " Ah ! " he cried, lifting up both arms as he recog- 
 nized Stepan Arkadyevitch, " here is the most delecta- 
 ble of guests ! Akh ! how glad I am to see you ! 
 I shall certainly learn from him if she is married or 
 when she 's going to be," he added to himself. 
 
 This splendid spring morning he felt that the memory 
 of Kitty was not at all painful. 
 
 " You scarcely expected me, I suppose," said Stepan
 
 2o8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Arkadyevitch, leaping out of the sledge, with spots ot 
 mud on the bridge of his nose, on his cheeks, and on 
 his forehead, but radiant with health and pleasure. " I 
 am come, first, to see you," he cried, throwing his arms 
 around Levin and kissing him ; " secondly, to shoot a few 
 birds ; and thirdly, to sell the forest at Yergushovo." 
 
 " Perfect, is n't it ? What do you think of this spring? 
 But how could you have got here in a sledge?" 
 
 " Traveling is far worse with a telyega, Konstantin 
 Dmitritch," replied the postilion, who was an acquain- 
 tance. 
 
 " Well ! Indeed, I am delighted to see you again," 
 said Levin, with a genuine smile of boyish joy. 
 
 He conducted his guest to the room kept in readi- 
 ness for visitors, and had Stepan Arkadyevitch's things 
 brought up, a gripsack, a gun in its case, and a box 
 of cigars, and then, leaving him to wash and dress him- 
 self, he went down to his office to speak about the clover 
 and the plowing. 
 
 Agafya Mikhai'lovna, who had very much at heart the 
 honor of the mansion, met him in the vestibule with 
 questions about dinner. 
 
 "Do just as you please," replied Levin, as he went 
 out; "only make haste about it," said he, and went to 
 the overseer. 
 
 When he returned, Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had 
 washed, and combed his hair, was just coming out of 
 his room with a radiant smile, and together they went 
 up-stairs. 
 
 " Well, I am very happy to have got out to your 
 house at last. I shall now learn the mystery of your 
 existence here. Truly, I envy you. What a house ! 
 How convenient everything is ! how bright and delight- 
 ful !" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, forgetting that bright 
 days and the springtime were not always there. "And 
 your old nurse, what a charming old soul ! All that 's 
 lacking is a pretty little chambermaid with an apron on, 
 but that does not suit your severe and monastic style ; 
 but this is very good." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch had much interesting news to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 209 
 
 tell : especially interesting to Levin was the tidings that 
 his brother Sergyei Ivanovitch expected to come into 
 the country this summer ; but not one word did Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch say about Kitty or any of the Shcherbat- 
 skys, he simply transmitted his wife's greeting. Levin 
 was grateful to him for this delicacy. As usual, he 
 had stored up during his hours of solitude a throng of 
 ideas and impressions which he could not share with 
 any of his domestics, and now he poured into Oblon- 
 sky's ears his poetical spring joys, his failures and plans 
 and farming projects, his thoughts and his observations 
 on the books which he had read, and above all the idea 
 of his treatise, the scheme of which consisted though 
 he himself had not noticed it of a critique on all for- 
 mer works on farming. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, amiable, and always ready to 
 grasp a point, showed unusual cordiality ; and Levin 
 even thought that he noticed a certain flattering con- 
 sideration and an undertone of tenderness in his treat- 
 ment of him. 
 
 The efforts of Agafya Mikha'ilovna and the cook to 
 get up an especially good dinner resulted in the two 
 friends, who were half starved, betaking themselves to 
 the zakuska, or lunch-table, and devouring bread and 
 butter, cold chicken and salted mushrooms, and finally 
 in Levin calling for the soup without the little pasties 
 which the cook had made ;n the hope of surprising the 
 guest. 
 
 But Stepan Arkadyevitch, though he was used to dif- 
 ferent kinds of dinners, found everything excellent, the 
 travnik, or herb-beer, the bread, the butter, and especially 
 the cold chicken, the mushrooms, the s/ic/ii, or cabbage- 
 soup, the fowl with white sauce, and the white Krimean 
 wine, everything was admirable, wonderful ! 
 
 "Perfect ! perfect ! " he cried, as he Jit a big cigarette 
 after the roast. " I feel as if I had escaped the shocks 
 and noise of a ship, and had landed on a peaceful shore. 
 And so you say that the element represented by the 
 working-man ought to be studied above all others, and 
 be taken as a guide in the choice of economy expe- 
 
 VOL. I. 14
 
 2io ANNA KARENINA 
 
 dients. You see I am a profanus in these questions, 
 but it seems to me that this theory and its applications 
 would have an influence on the working-man...." 
 
 " Yes ; but hold on. I am not speaking of political 
 economy, but of rural economy considered as a science. 
 You must study the premises, the phenomena, just the 
 same as in the natural sciences ; and the working-man, 
 from the economical and ethnographical point of view ...." 
 
 But here Agafya Mikha'ilovna entered with the des- 
 sert of preserves. 
 
 "Well, now! accept my compliments, Agafya Mi- 
 khaflovna," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, kissing the ends 
 of his hairy fingers. " What nice baked chicken ! 
 What delicious beer ! Well, Kostia, is n't it time to 
 go?" he added. 
 
 Levin looked out of the window toward the sun, 
 which was sinking behind the tree-tops, still bare and 
 leafless. 
 
 " It is time. Kuzma, have the horses hitched up," 
 he cried, as he went down-stairs. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch followed him, and carefully re- 
 moved the canvas covering from the lacquered case, and, 
 having opened it, proceeded to take out his costly gun, 
 which was of the newest pattern. 
 
 Kuzma, already scenting a generous fee, gave him 
 assiduous attention, and helped him put on his stock- 
 ings and his hunting-boots ; and Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 accepted his aid complacently. 
 
 " If the merchant Rabinin comes while we are gone, 
 Kostia, I told him to be here to-day, do me the favor 
 to have him kept till we get back." .... 
 
 " Are you going to sell your wood to Rabinin ? " 
 
 "Yes. Why, do you know him ? " 
 
 "Oh! certainly I know him. I have done business 
 with him, 'positively and finally.' " 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch burst into a laugh. " Posi- 
 tively and finally " were the favorite words of the mer- 
 chant. 
 
 "Yes; he is very droll in his speech! She knows 
 where her master is going," he added, patting Laska,
 
 211 
 
 who was jumping and barking around Levin, licking 
 now his hand, now his boots and gun. 
 
 A dolgusha, or hunting-wagon, was waiting at the 
 steps as they came out. 
 
 " I had the horses put in, although we have but a 
 little distance to go," said Levin ; " but would you rather 
 walk ? " 
 
 "No, I prefer to ride," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 as he mounted the wagon. He sat down, tucking round 
 his legs a striped plaid, and lighted a cigar. "How 
 can you get along without smoking, Kostia ? A cigar 
 ....it is not only a pleasure, it is the very crown and 
 sign of delight. This is life indeed. How delightful ! 
 I should like to live like this ! " 
 
 " What 's to prevent ? " asked Levin, with a smile. 
 
 "Yes; but you are a fortunate man, for you have 
 everything that you like. You like horses, you have 
 them ; dogs, you have them ; hunting, here it is ; an 
 estate, here it is ! " 
 
 "Perhaps it is because I enjoy what I have, and 
 don't covet what I have not," replied Levin, with Kitty 
 in his mind. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch understood, and looked at him 
 without speaking. 
 
 Levin was grateful to Oblonsky because he avoided 
 speaking about the Shcherbatskys, with his usual tact 
 perceiving that Levin dreaded to speak about them ; 
 but now he felt anxious to find out how matters stood, 
 but he did not dare to inquire. 
 
 " Well, how go your affairs ? " asked Levin, realizing 
 how selfish it was in him to think only of himself. 
 
 Oblonsky's eyes glistened with gayety. 
 
 "You will not admit that one can want hot rolls when 
 he has his monthly rations ; in your eyes it is a crime : 
 but for me, I cannot admit the possibility of living with- 
 out love," he replied, construing Levin's question in his 
 own fashion. " What 's to be done about it ? I am so 
 constituted. And it is a fact, it does so little. harm to 
 any one else, and gives one so much pleasure...." 
 
 "What ! there is a new one, is there?" asked Levin.
 
 212 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " There is, brother ! You know the type of the 
 women in Ossian ?.... these women that you see in 
 dreams ? .... But they really exist, and are terrible. 
 Woman, you see, is an inexhaustible theme ; you can 
 never cease studying her, she always presents some 
 new phase." 
 
 "So much the better not to study her, then." 
 
 " Not at all. Some mathematician has said that hap- 
 piness consisted in searching for truth and never rind- 
 ing it." 
 
 Levin listened, and said no more ; and, notwithstanding 
 all the efforts which he made, he could not in the least 
 enter into his friend's soul, and understand his feelings 
 and the charm of studying such women. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE place where the birds collected was not far 
 away, by a small stream, flowing through an aspen 
 grove. Levin got out and took Oblonsky to a nook in 
 a mossy, somewhat marshy meadow, where the snow 
 had already melted. He himself went to the opposite 
 side, near a double birch, rested his gun on the fork of 
 a dead branch, took off his kaftan, clasped a belt about 
 his waist, and insured the free motion of his arms. 
 
 Old gray Laska, following him step by step, sat down 
 cautiously in front of him, and pricked up her ears. 
 The sun was setting behind the great forest, and against 
 the bright sky the young birches and aspens stood out 
 distinctly, with their bending branches and their swell- 
 ing buds. 
 
 In the forest, where the snow still lay, the low rip- 
 pling sound of waters could be heard running in their 
 narrow channels ; little birds were chirping, and flying 
 from tree to tree. In the intervals of perfect silence 
 one could hear the rustling of the last year's leaves, 
 moved by the thawing earth or the pushing herbs. 
 
 " Why, one really can hear and see the grass grow ! " 
 said Levin to himself, as he saw a moist and slate-col-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 213 
 
 ored aspen leaf raised by the blade of a young herb start- 
 ing from the sod. 
 
 He stood, listening and looking, now at the damp 
 moss-covered ground, now at the watchful Laska, now 
 at the bare tree-tops of the forest, which swept like a sea to 
 the foot of the hill, and now at the darkening sky, where 
 floated little white bits of cloud. A hawk flew aloft, 
 slowly flapping his broad wings above the distant forest ; 
 another took the same direction and disappeared. In 
 the thicket the birds were chirping louder and more 
 gayly than ever. Not far away, an owl lifted his voice, 
 and Laska pricked up her ears again, took two or three 
 cautious steps, and bent her head to listen. On the 
 other side of the stream a cuckoo sang. Twice it uttered 
 its customary cry, and then its voice grew hoarse, it 
 flew away, and was heard no more. 
 
 " Why, the cuckoo has come ! " said Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, coming out from behind his thicket. 
 
 " Yes, I hear," said Levin, disgusted that the silence 
 of the forest was broken, by the sound even of his own 
 voice. "You won't have to wait long now." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch returned to his place behind his 
 thicket, and Levin saw only the flash of a match and 
 the red glow of his cigarette and a light bluish smoke. 
 
 Tchik ! tcliik ! Stepan Arkadyevitch cocked his gun. 
 
 " What was that making that noise ? " he asked of 
 his companion, attracting his attention to a protracted 
 humming as if a colt was neighing with a very slender 
 voice. 
 
 " Don't you know what that is ? That is the buck 
 rabbit. Don't speak any more. Listen, there is a 
 bird ! " cried Levin, cocking his gun. 
 
 A slender distant whistle was heard, with that rhyth- 
 mic regularity which the huntsman knows so well ; then 
 a moment or two later it was repeated nearer, and sud- 
 denly changed into a hoarse little cry. 
 
 Levin turned his eyes to the right, to the left, and 
 finally saw, just above his head, against the fading blue 
 of the sky, above the gently waving aspens, a bird fly- 
 ing. It flew straight toward him ; its cry, like the noise
 
 2i 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 made by tearing stiff cloth, rang in his ears ; then he 
 distinguished the long bill and the long neck of the 
 bird, but hardly had he caught sight of it when a red 
 flash shone out from behind Oblonsky's bush. The 
 bird darted off like an arrow and rose into the air again ; 
 but again the light flashed and a report was heard, and 
 the bird, vainly striving to rise, flapped its wings for a 
 second, and fell heavily to the wet earth. 
 
 " Did I miss ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, who 
 could see nothing through the smoke. 
 
 " Here she is," cried Levin, pointing to Laska, who, 
 with one ear erect, and waving the tip end of her hairy 
 tail, slowly, as if to lengthen out the pleasure, came back 
 with the bird in her mouth, seeming almost to smile as 
 she laid the game down at her master's feet. 
 
 " Well now, I am glad you succeeded," said Levin, 
 though he felt a slight sensation of envy, because he 
 himself had not killed this snipe. 
 
 "The right barrel missed, curse it !" replied Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, reloading his gun. "^/....Here's an- 
 other...." 
 
 In fact, the whistles came thicker and thicker, rapid 
 and sharp. Two snipe flew over the hunters, playing, 
 chasing each other, and only whistling, not clucking. 
 Four shots rang out ; and the snipe, making a sudden 
 turn like swallows, disappeared from sight. 
 
 The sport was excellent. Stepan Arkadyevitch killed 
 two others, and Levin also two, one of which was lost. 
 It grew darker and darker. Venus, with silvery light, 
 shone out low in the west from behind the birches ; 
 and high in the east, Arcturus gleamed, with his somber, 
 reddish fire. Above his head, Levin found and lost the 
 stars of the Great Bear. The snipe had now ceased to 
 fly, but Levin resolved to wait until Venus, which was 
 visible above the birch trees, should stand clear above 
 the lower branches, and till all the stars of the Great 
 Bear should be entirely visible. The star had passed 
 beyond the birch trees, and the wain of the Bear with
 
 ANNA KARENINA 215 
 
 its pole was shining out clear in the dark blue sky, and 
 he was still waiting. 
 
 " Is n't it getting late ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 All was calm in the forest ; not a bird moved. 
 
 " Let us wait a little longer," replied Levin. 
 
 "Just as you please." 
 
 At this moment they were not fifteen paces apart. 
 
 "Stiva," cried Levin, suddenly, "you have not told 
 me whether your sister-in-law is married yet, or whether 
 she is to be married soon." 
 
 He felt so calm, his mind was so thoroughly made 
 up, that nothing, he thought, could move him. But 
 what Stepan Arkadyevitch answered was wholly un- 
 expected. 
 
 " She is not married, and she is not thinking of 
 marriage. She is very ill, and the doctors have sent 
 her abroad. They even fear for her life." 
 
 "What did you say?" cried Levin. "Very ill? 
 What is the matter ? How did she .... " 
 
 While they were talking thus, Laska, with ears erect, 
 was gazing at the sky above her head, and looking at 
 them reproachfully. 
 
 " This is not the time to talk," thought Laska. "Ah ! 
 Here comes one there he goes; they will miss him." 
 
 At the same instant a sharp whistle pierced the ears 
 of the two huntsmen, and both, leveling their guns, 
 shot at once ; the two reports, the two flashes, were 
 simultaneous. The snipe, flying high, folded his wings, 
 drew up his delicate legs, and fell into the thicket. 
 
 "Excellent! both together!" cried Levin, running 
 with Laska in search of the game. " Oh, yes ! What 
 was it that hurt me so just now? Ah, yes! Kitty is 
 ill," he remembered. "What is to be done about it? 
 It is too bad. Ah! she has found it ! Good dog," said 
 he, taking the bird, still warm, from Laska's mouth, and 
 putting it into his overflowing game-bag. 
 
 " Come on, Stiva ! " he cried.
 
 2i6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 ON their way home, Levin questioned his friend about 
 Kitty's illness and the plans of the Shcherbatskys. 
 Though it caused some conscientious scruples, what he 
 heard was pleasant news to him. It was pleasant because 
 it left him with some grounds for hope, and it was still 
 more pleasant to think that she who had caused him so 
 much suffering, was suffering herself. But when Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch began to speak of the reason of Kitty's 
 illness, and pronounced the name of Vronsky, he inter- 
 rupted him. 
 
 " I have no right to know these family matters, since 
 I am not concerned." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled imperceptibly as he 
 noticed the sudden and characteristic change in Levin, 
 who, in an instant, had passed from gayety to sadness. 
 
 " Have you succeeded in your transaction with Rabinin 
 about the wood ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, I have made the bargain. He gives me an 
 excellent price, thirty-eight thousand rubles, eight in 
 advance, and the rest in six years. I had been long 
 about it ; no one offered me any more." 
 
 "That means you are selling your wood for a song," 
 said Levin, frowning. 
 
 "Why so?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a good- 
 humored smile, knowing that now Levin would totally 
 disapprove of everything. 
 
 " Because your wood is worth at least five hundred 
 rubles a desyatin." 
 
 "Oh ! You rural economists ! " replied Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, banteringly. "What a tone of scorn to us, 
 your city brother ! .... And yet, when it comes to busi- 
 ness matters, we come out of it better than you do. 
 Believe me, I have made a careful calculation. The 
 wood is sold under very favorable conditions ; and I 
 fear only one thing, and that is lest the merchant will 
 back out of it ! You see, it is wretched wood," he went 
 on, accenting the word wretched, so as to convince
 
 ANNA KARENINA 217 
 
 Levin of the unfairness of his criticism, "and nothing 
 but fire-wood. There will not be much more than thirty 
 cords to the acre, 1 and he pays me at the rate of two 
 hundred rubles." 
 
 Levin smiled scornfully. 
 
 " I know these city people," he thought, " who, com- 
 ing twice in ten years into the country, and learning 
 two or three country words, which they use appropri- 
 ately or inappropriately, are firmly persuaded that they 
 know it all. ' Wretched ! only thirty cords /' he speaks 
 words without knowing what he is talking about." 
 
 " I do not pretend to teach you what you write in 
 your office," said he, "and, if I needed, I would even 
 ask your advice. But you are so sure that you under- 
 stand this whole document about the wood. It is hard. 
 Have you counted the trees ? " 
 
 " What ? Count my trees ? " asked Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, with a laugh, and still trying to get his friend out 
 of his ill-humor. " Count the sands, the rays of the 
 planets though a lofty genius might .... " 
 
 "Well, now! I tell you the lofty genius of Rabinin 
 may ! Never does a merchant purchase without count- 
 ing, unless, indeed, the wood is given away for noth- 
 ing as you have done. I know your forest, I go hunting 
 there every year ; and your forest is worth five hundred 
 rubles a desyatin cash down ; and he has given you only 
 two hundred, and on a long term. That means you make 
 him a present of thirty thousand." 
 
 " Well, enough of imaginary receipts," said Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, plaintively. " Why did n't some one offer 
 me this price ? " 
 
 " Because the merchants connive together. I have 
 had to do with all of them ; I know them. They are 
 not merchants, but speculators. None of them is satis- 
 fied with a profit less than ten or fifteen percent. They 
 wait till they can buy for twenty kopeks what is worth a 
 ruble." 
 
 "Well, enough ; you are out of sorts." 
 
 1 Thirty sazhens to the desyatin. A desyatin is 2.7 acre. A cubic 
 sazhen is 2.68 cords.
 
 218 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Not at all," said Levin, sadly, as they were approach 
 ing the house. 
 
 A small cart, tightly bound with iron and leather, drawn 
 by a fat horse, tightly harnessed with wide straps, was 
 standing at the entrance ; in the cart sat a red-faced 
 overseer tightly belted, who served Rabinin as a coach- 
 man. Rabinin himself was already in the house, and 
 met the two friends in the vestibule. Rabinin was a 
 man of middle age, tall and thin, wearing a mustache, 
 but his prominent chin was well shaven. His eyes were 
 protuberant and muddy. He was clad in a dark blue 
 coat with buttons set low behind, and he wore high 
 boots, wrinkled around the ankles and smooth over the 
 calves, and over his boots huge galoshes. Wiping his 
 face with his handkerchief, and wrapping his over- 
 coat closely around him, though without that it fitted 
 him well enough, he came out with a smile, to meet 
 the gentlemen as they entered. He gave one hand 
 to Stepan Arkadyevitch as if he wanted to grasp some- 
 thing. 
 
 "Ah! Here you are," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 shaking hands. "Very good." 
 
 " I should not have ventured to disobey your excel- 
 lency's orders, though the roads are very bad. Posi- 
 tively, I came all the way on foot, but I got here on time. 
 A greeting to you, Konstantin Dmitritch," said he, 
 turning to Levin, intending to seize his hand also; 
 but Levin, frowning, affected not to notice the motion, 
 and began to take out the snipe. 
 
 "You have been enjoying a hunt? What kind of a 
 bird is that ? " asked Rabinin, looking at the snipe dis- 
 dainfully. "I suppose it has a peculiar flavor." And 
 he shook his head disapprovingly, as if he felt doubtful 
 whether the game were worth the candle. 
 
 "Would you like to go into the library?" said Levin, 
 darkly scowling, addressing Stepan Arkadyevitch in 
 French. " Go to the library, and discuss your business 
 there." 
 
 "Just as you please," replied the merchant, in a tone 
 of disdainful superiority, apparently wishing it to be
 
 ANNA KARENINA 219 
 
 understood that others might find difficulties in trans- 
 acting business, but that he never could. 
 
 As he entered the library, Rabinin glanced about as 
 if his eyes were in search of the holy image ; but when 
 he caught sight of it, he did not cross himself. He 
 glanced at the bookcases and the shelves lined with 
 books, and with the same air of doubt that the snipe had 
 caused, he smiled scornfully and shook his head disap- 
 provingly, as if this kind of game also were not worth 
 the candle. 
 
 " Well, did you bring the money ? " asked Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch. " Sit down." 
 
 " The money will come all in good time, but I came 
 to see you and have a talk." 
 
 " What have we to talk about ? However, sit 
 down." 
 
 " May as well sit down," said Rabinin, taking a chair, 
 and leaning back in it in the most uncomfortable atti- 
 tude. " You must give in a trifle, prince ; it would be 
 sinful not to do it. As to the money, it is all ready, 
 absolutely and finally even to the last kopek ; as far as 
 the money goes, there will be no delay." 
 
 Levin, who had been putting his gun away in the 
 armory, and was just leaving the room, stopped as he 
 heard the last words. 
 
 " You bought the wood for a song," said he. " He 
 came to visit me too late ; I would have got a good price 
 for it." 
 
 Rabinin arose and smilingly contemplated Levin from 
 head to foot, but said nothing. 
 
 " Konstantin Levin is very sharp," said he, at length, 
 turning to Stepan Arkadyevitch. " One never succeeds 
 in arranging a bargain finally with him. I have bought 
 wheat, and paid good prices." 
 
 " Why should I give you my property for a song ? I 
 did not find it in the ground, nor did I steal it." 
 
 " Excuse me ; at the present day it is absolutely im- 
 possible to be a thief, everything is done, in the present 
 day, honestly and openly. Who could steal, then ? We 
 have spoken honestly and honorably. The wood is too
 
 220 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 dear ; I shall not make the two ends meet. I beg him 
 to yield a little." 
 
 " But is your bargain made, or is it not ? If it is 
 made, there is no need of haggling; if it is not," said 
 Levin, " I am going to buy the wood." 
 
 The smile suddenly disappeared from Rabinin's lips. 
 A rapacious and cruel expression, like that of a bird of 
 prey, came in its place. With his bony fingers he tore 
 open his overcoat, bringing into sight his shirt, his waist- 
 coat with its copper buttons, and his watch-chain ; and 
 from his breast-pocket he pulled out a huge, well-worn 
 wallet. 
 
 " Excuse me, the wood is mine," he exclaimed, making a 
 rapid sign of the cross, and he extended his hand. " Take 
 your money, the wood is mine. This is how Rabinin 
 ends his transactions. He does not reckon his kopeks," 
 said he, knitting his brows and waving his wallet eagerly. 
 
 " If I were in your place, I should not be in haste," 
 said Levin. 
 
 " Mercy on me ! " said Oblonsky, astonished, " I have 
 given my word." 
 
 Levin dashed out of the room, slamming the door. 
 Rabinin glanced at the door and shook his head. 
 
 " Merely the effect of youth ; definitely, pure child- 
 ishness. Believe me, I buy this, so to speak, for the 
 sake of glory, so that they may say, ' It 's Rabinin, and 
 not some one else, who has bought Oblonsky's forest.' 
 And God knows how I shall come out of it ! Have faith 
 in God ! Please sign." .... 
 
 An hour later the merchant, carefully wrapping his 
 khalat around him and buttoning up his overcoat, took 
 his seat in his cart and drove home, with the agreement 
 in his pocket. 
 
 " Oh ! these gentlemen ! " he said to his overseer, 
 "always the same story." 
 
 " So it is," replied the prikashchik, giving up the reins, 
 so as to arrange the leather boot. " And your little pur- 
 chase, Mikhail Ignatyitch ? " 
 
 "Well! well!"
 
 ANNA KARENINA 221 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 STEFAN ARKADYEVITCH went up-stairs, his pockets 
 bulging out with " promises to pay," due in three months, 
 which the merchant had given him. The sale of the 
 forest was concluded ; he had money in his pocket ; 
 sport had been good ; and Stepan Arkadyevitch was in 
 the happiest frame of mind, and therefore was especially 
 eager to dispel the sadness which had taken possession 
 of Levin. He wanted a good ending for the day that 
 since dinner had shown such promise. 
 
 In point of fact, Levin was not in good spirits, and 
 in spite of his desire to seem amiable and thoughtful 
 toward his beloved guest, he could not control himself. 
 The intoxication which he felt in learning that Kitty 
 was not married had begun little by little to affect him. 
 
 Kitty not married, and ill ill from love for a man 
 who had jilted her. It was almost like a personal in- 
 sult. Vronsky had slighted her, and she had slighted 
 him. Levin, consequently, had gained the right to de- 
 spise him. He was therefore his enemy. Levin did 
 not reason this all out. He had a vague sense that 
 there was something in this humiliating to him, and he 
 was angry now because it had upset his plans, and so 
 everything which came up annoyed him. The stupid 
 sale of the forest, which had taken place under his roof, 
 and the way Oblonsky had been cheated, exasperated him. 
 
 " Well, is it finished ? " he asked, as he met Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch up-stairs. " Would you like some sup- 
 
 per 
 
 "Yes, I won't refuse. What an appetite I feel in 
 the country ! It 's wonderful ! Why did n't you offer a 
 bite to Rabinin ? " 
 
 "Ah ! the devil take him ! " 
 
 " Why ! how you treated him ! " exclaimed Oblonsky. 
 "You did n't even offer him your hand! Why did n't 
 you offer him your hand ? " 
 
 " Because I don't shake hands with my lackey, and 
 my lackey is worth a hundred of him."
 
 222 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " What a retrograde you are ! And how about the 
 fusion of classes ? " said Oblonsky. 
 
 " Let those who like it, enjoy it ! It is disgusting 
 to me." 
 
 " You, I see, are a retrograde." 
 
 " To tell the truth, I never asked myself what I am. 
 I am Konstantin Levin nothing more." 
 
 " And Konstantin Levin in a very bad humor," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, smiling. 
 
 " Yes, I am in bad humor, and do you know why ? 
 Because.... excuse me.... because of your stupid barg.... " 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch frowned good-naturedly, like a 
 man who is unreasonably scolded and blamed. 
 
 "There! that'll do!" he said. "After any one has 
 sold anything, they come saying, 'You might have sold 
 this at a higher price ; ' but no one thinks of offering 
 
 this fine price before the sale No; I see you have 
 
 a grudge against this unfortunate Rabinin." 
 
 " Maybe I have. And do you know why ? You will 
 call me retrograde or some worse name, but it is so 
 vexatious and disgusting to me to see what is going 
 on everywhere the nobility which I belong to, and 
 in spite of your fusion of classes, am very glad to be- 
 long- to, always getting poorer and poorer And this 
 
 growing poverty is not in consequence of luxurious 
 living. That would be nothing. To live like lords is 
 proper for the nobles ; the nobles only can do this. 
 Now the muzhiks are buying up our lands ; that does not 
 trouble me ; the proprietor does nothing, the muzhik 
 is industrious, and supplants the lazy man. So it ought 
 to be. And I am very glad for the muzhik. But what 
 vexes me, and stirs my soul, is to see the proprietor 
 robbed by.... I don't know how to express it ....by his 
 own innocence. Here is a Polish leaseholder, who has 
 bought, at half price, a superb estate of a lady who 
 lives at Nice. Yonder is a merchant who has hired a 
 farm for a ruble an acre, and it is worth ten rubles an 
 acre. And this very day, without the slightest reason, 
 you have given this rascal a present of thirty thousand." 
 
 " But what can I do ? Count my trees one by one ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 223 
 
 " Certainly ; if you have not counted them, Rabinin 
 did, and his children will have the means whereby to 
 live and get an education, whereas yours, perhaps, will 
 not." 
 
 " Well, forgive me, but there is something pitiful in 
 such minute calculations. We have our ways of doing 
 things, and they have theirs ; and let them get the 
 profits. There now ! Moreover, it is done, and that 's 
 the end of it And here is my favorite omelette com- 
 ing in ; and then Agafya Mikhai'lovna will certainly give 
 us a glass of her marvelous herb-beer." .... 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch sat down at the table and be- 
 gan to joke with Agafya Mikhai'lovna, assuring her that 
 he had not eaten such a dinner and such a supper for 
 an age. 
 
 " You can give fine speeches, at least," said Agafya 
 Mikhai'lovna. " But Konstantin Dmitritch, whatever 
 was set before him, if only a crust of bread, would eat 
 it and go away." 
 
 Levin, in spite of his efforts to control himself, was 
 melancholy and gloomy. He wanted to ask Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch one question, but he could not make up 
 his mind, nor could he find either the opportunity in 
 which to ask it, or a suitable form in which to couch it. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch had gone down to his room, 
 and, after another bath, had put on a ruffled night-shirt 
 and gone to bed. Levin still dallied in his room, talking 
 about various trifles, but not having the courage to ask 
 what he had at heart. 
 
 " How wonderfully well this is made ! " said he, tak- 
 ing from its wrapper a piece of perfumed soap, which 
 Agafya Mikhai'lovna had prepared for the guest, but 
 which Oblonsky had not used. "Just look; isn't it 
 truly a work of art ?" 
 
 " Yes ; all sorts of improvements nowadays," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a beatific yawn. "The 
 theaters, for example, and a a a " - yawning again 
 "these amusing a-a-a .... and electric lights every- 
 where a-a-a-a-a.... " 
 
 " Yes, the electric lights," repeated Levin. " And
 
 224 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 that Vronsky, where is he now ? " he suddenly asked, 
 putting down the soap. 
 
 " Vronsky ? " said Stepan Arkadyevitch, ceasing to 
 yawn. " He is at Petersburg. He went away shortly 
 after you did, and has not been in Moscow since. And 
 do you know, Kostia," he continued, leaning his elbow 
 on a little table placed near the head of the bed, and 
 resting his handsome ruddy face on his hand, while two 
 oily, good-natured, and sleepy eyes shone out like twin 
 stars, " I am going to tell you the truth. You yourself 
 were to blame. You were afraid of a rival. And I will 
 remind you of what I said : I don't know which of you 
 had the best chances. Why didn't you go ahead? I 
 told you then that...." 
 
 He yawned again, with his jaws only, trying not to 
 open his mouth. 
 
 "Does he, or does n't he, know that I offered myself ? " 
 thought Levin, looking at him. " Yes ! there is some- 
 thing subtle, something diplomatic, in his face ; " and, 
 feeling that he was flushing, he said nothing, but looked 
 straight into Oblonsky's eyes. 
 
 " If on her part there was any feeling for him, it was 
 merely a slight drawing," continued Oblonsky. "You 
 know, that absolutely high breeding of his and the 
 chances of position in the world had an effect on her 
 mother, but not on her." 
 
 Levin frowned. The humiliation of his rejection, 
 with which he was suffering as from a recent wound, 
 smarted in his heart. Fortunately, he was at home ; 
 and the very walls of the home sustain one. 
 
 " Wait ! wait ! " he interrupted ; " you said, ' high 
 breeding ' ! l But let me ask you, what means this high 
 breeding of Vronsky, or any one else a high breeding 
 that could look down on me. You consider Vronsky an 
 aristocrat. I don't. A man whose father sprang from 
 nothing, by means of intrigue, whose mother has had 
 liaisons with God knows whom.... Oh, no, excuse me! 
 Aristocrats, in my opinion, are men like myself, who 
 can show in the past three or four generations of excel- 
 
 * Aristokratisw.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 225 
 
 lent families, belonging to the most cultivated classes, 
 talents and intellect are another matter, who never 
 abased themselves before anybody, and were never de- 
 pendent on others, like my father and grandfather. 
 And I know many such. It seems small business to 
 you that I count my trees, while you give thirty thou- 
 sand rubles to Rabinin : but you receive a salary, and 
 other things ; and I receive nothing of the sort, and 
 therefore I appreciate what my father left me, and what 
 
 my labor gives me We are the aristocrats, and not 
 
 those who live only by means of what the powers of 
 this world dole out to them, and who can be bought for 
 a copper." 
 
 "There! whom are you so angry with ? I agree with 
 you," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch, sincerely and gayly, 
 though he knew that when Levin hurled his sarcasms 
 at those who could be bought for a copper, he meant 
 him. But Levin's animation really pleased him. 
 "Whom are you angry with? Though much of what 
 you say about Vronsky is not true, still I won't speak 
 about that. I will tell you frankly that if I were in 
 your place, I would start for Moscow, and .... " 
 
 " No ! I don't know whether you know or not, 
 but it 's over for me. I will tell you. I proposed and 
 was rejected ; so that now the memory of Katerina 
 Aleksandrovna is painful and humiliating." 
 
 " Why so ? What nonsense ! " 
 
 " But let us not speak of it. Forgive me if I have 
 been rude to you," said Levin. Now that he had made 
 a clean breast of it, he began once more to feel as he 
 had felt in the morning. " You will not be angry with 
 me, Stiva ? I beg of you, don't be angry with me," 
 said he, and with a smile he took his hand. 
 
 " Of course not. I will not think anything more 
 about it. I am very glad, though, that we have spoken 
 frankly to each other. And, do you know, sport will 
 be capital to-morrow. We can try it again, can't we ? 
 In that case I would not even sleep, but go straight 
 from the grove to the station." 
 
 "Capital!" 
 
 VOL. I. I 5
 
 226 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 ALTHOUGH Vronsky's inner life was wholly absorbed 
 by his passion, his outward life unchangeably and inevi- 
 tably ran along on the former ordinary rails of his social 
 and regimental ties and interests. His regiment filled 
 an important part in his life, in the first place because 
 he loved his regiment, and, still more, because he was 
 extremely popular in it. In his regiment he was not 
 only admired, but he was also respected. They were 
 proud of him, proud that a man enormously rich, with 
 a fine education and with qualities, with a path open 
 before him to every kind of success and ambition and 
 glorification, scorned all that, and placed the interests of 
 his regiment and his comrades above all the interests of 
 life. Vronksy recognized the feeling which he inspired, 
 and, besides the fact that he loved that life, he felt called 
 on, in a certain degree, to sustain his character. 
 
 Of course he spoke to no one of his passion. Never 
 did an imprudent word escape him, even when he joined 
 his comrades in the liveliest of drinking-bouts, how- 
 ever, he was never so intoxicated as to lose control over 
 himself, and he kept his mouth shut in the presence 
 of those gossiping meddlers who made the least allusion 
 to the affairs of his heart. Nevertheless, his passion 
 was a matter of notoriety throughout the city ; all had 
 more or less well-founded suspicions of his relationship 
 to Madame Karenin, and most of the young men envied 
 him on account of the very thing that was the greatest 
 drawback to his love, Karenin's high station, which 
 made the matter more conspicuous. 
 
 The majority of young women, jealous of Anna, 
 whom they were weary of hearing always called the just, 
 were not sorry to have their predictions verified, and 
 were waiting only for the sanction of public opinion, to 
 overwhelm her with the whole weight of their scorn ; 
 they had already prepared for use the mud which should 
 be thrown at her when the time should come. Most 
 people of experience, and those of high rank, were dis-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 227 
 
 pleased at the prospect of a disgraceful scandal in 
 society. 
 
 Vronsky's mother, when she heard of the liaison, at 
 first was glad ; because, in her opinion, nothing gave 
 the last finish to a brilliant young man compared to an 
 intrigue in high life ; and because she was not sorry to 
 find that this Madame Karenin, who had pleased her so 
 much and who seemed so entirely devoted to her boy, 
 was, after all, only like any other handsome and elegant 
 woman. But later she learned that her son had refused 
 an important promotion, for no other reason than that 
 he might stay with his regiment and keep on visiting 
 Madame Karenin, and she learned that, on account of 
 this, persons very high in authority were dissatisfied 
 with him, and she changed her opinion in regard to it. 
 
 There was another reason why she did not now ap- 
 prove of it : from all she could learn of this liaison, it 
 was not the brilliant and fashionable flirtation, such as 
 she approved, but a desperate tragedy, after the style of 
 Werther, according to report, and she was afraid lest 
 her son should be drawn into some folly. Since his un- 
 expected departure from Moscow she had not seen him, 
 but she sent word to him, through his elder brother, that 
 she desired him to come to her. His elder brother was 
 even more dissatisfied, not because he felt anxious to 
 know whether this love-affair was to be deep or epheme- 
 ral, passionate or Platonic, innocent or guilty, he 
 himself, though a married man and the father of a 
 family, had a ballet dancer for a mistress, and therefore 
 had no right to be severe, but because he knew that 
 this love-affair was displeasing in quarters where it was 
 better to be on good terms ; and therefore he blamed 
 his brother's conduct. 
 
 Vronsky, besides his society relations and his military 
 duties, had yet another absorbing passion, horses. 
 The officers' handicap races were to take place this 
 summer. He became a subscriber, and bought a pure- 
 blood English trotter; and in spite of his love-affair, he 
 was passionately though discreetly interested in the 
 results of the races. ..
 
 228 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 These two passions did not interfere with each other. 
 On the contrary, he needed something independent of 
 his love-affair, some occupation and interest in which 
 he could find refreshment and recreation after the over- 
 violent emotions which stirred him. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 ON the day of the Krasno-Sielo races, Vronsky came 
 earlier than usual to eat a beefsteak in the officers' com- 
 mon dining-hall. He was not at all constrained to limit 
 himself, since his weight satisfied the 160 pounds J re- 
 quired ; but he did not want to get fat, and so he 
 refrained from sweet and farinaceous foods. He sat 
 down with his coat unbuttoned over his white waistcoat, 
 and with both elbows resting on the table; while he was 
 waiting for his beefsteak he kept his eyes on the pages 
 of a French novel which lay on the plate. He looked 
 at his book only so as not to talk with the officers as 
 they went and came, but he was thinking. 
 
 He was thinking how Anna had promised to meet 
 him after the races. But he had not seen her for three 
 days ; and he was wondering if she would be able to 
 keep her appointment, as her husband had just returned 
 to Petersburg from a journey abroad, and* he was won- 
 dering how he could find out. They had met for the 
 last time at his cousin Betsy's datcha, or country-house. 
 For he went to the Karenins' datcha as little as possi- 
 ble, and now he wanted to go there, and he was asking 
 himself, " How can it be managed ? " 
 
 " Of course, I will say that I am charged by Betsy to 
 find whether she expects to attend the races, yes, 
 certainly, I will go," he said, raising his head from his 
 book. And his face shone with the joy caused by his 
 imagination of the forthcoming interview. 
 
 " Send word that I wish my carriage and troika har- 
 nessed and brought round," said he to the waiter who 
 
 1 Four and a half pud : a pud is 36.1 1 pounds avoirdupois.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 229 
 
 was bringing his beefsteak on a hot silver platter. 
 Moving the platter toward him, he began his meal. 
 
 In the adjoining billiard-room the clicking of balls 
 was heard, and two voices talking and laughing. Two 
 officers appeared in the door : one of them was a young 
 man with delicate, refined features, who had just gradu- 
 ated from the Corps of Pages and joined the regiment ; 
 the other was old and fat, with little, moist eyes, and 
 wore a bracelet on his wrist. 
 
 Vronsky glanced at them and frowned, and went on 
 eating and reading at the same time, as if he had not 
 seen them. 
 
 " Getting ready for work, are you ? " asked the fat 
 officer, sitting down near him. 
 
 "You see I am," replied Vronsky, wiping his lips, 
 and frowning again, without looking up. 
 
 "But aren't you afraid of getting fat?" continued 
 the elderly officer, pulling up a chair for his junior. 
 
 " What ! " cried Vronsky, making a grimace to express 
 his disgust and aversion, and showing his splendid teeth. 
 
 " Are n't you afraid of getting fat ? " 
 
 "Waiter, sherry!" cried Vronsky, without replying, 
 and he changed his book to the other side of his plate, 
 and continued to read. 
 
 The fat officer took the wine-list, and passed it over 
 to the young officer. 
 
 " You select what we '11 have to drink," said he, giv- 
 ing him the list and looking at him. 
 
 " Rhine wine, if you please," replied the young officer, 
 looking timidly at Vronsky out of the corner of his eye 
 and trying to twist his imaginary mustache. 
 
 When he saw that Vronsky did not turn, the young 
 officer got up and said, " Let us go into the billiard- 
 room." 
 
 The fat officer humbly arose, and the two went out of 
 the door. 
 
 At the same time a tall, stately cavalry captain, named 
 Yashvin, came in. He condescendingly and disdain- 
 fully nodded to the two officers, and went toward 
 Vronsky.
 
 230 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Ah ! here he is," he cried, laying his heavy hand on 
 Vronsky's shoulder. Vronsky turned round angrily, 
 but in an instant a pleasant, friendly expression came 
 into his face. 
 
 " Well, Alyosha ! " said the cavalry captain, in his big 
 baritone. " Have something more to eat, and drink 
 one more glass with me." 
 
 " No ; I don't want anything more to eat." 
 
 "Those are inseparables," said Yashvin, looking 
 derisively at the two officers as they disappeared. 
 Then he sat down, doubling up under the chair, which 
 was too short for him, his long legs dressed in tight 
 uniform trousers. " Why were n't you at the Krasmen- 
 sky theater last evening ? Numerova was not bad at 
 all. Where were you ? " 
 
 "I stayed too late at the Tverskoifs'," said Vronsky. 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed Yashvin. 
 
 Yashvin, a gambler, a debauchee, was Vronsky's best 
 friend in the regiment. It could not be said of him 
 that he lacked principles. He had principles, but they 
 were immoral ones. Vronsky liked him, both for his 
 exceptional physical vigor, which allowed him to drink 
 like a hogshead and not feel it, and to do absolutely 
 without sleep if it were necessary, and also for his great 
 social ability, which he employed in his relations to his 
 superiors, and his comrades, attracting to himself their 
 love and respect ; and also in gambling, at which he 
 risked tens of thousands, and always, no matter how 
 much he had been drinking, played so cleverly and 
 daringly that he was regarded as the leading gambler 
 at the English Club. 
 
 Vronsky felt friendship and consideration for him, 
 because he felt that Yashvin liked him, not for his for- 
 tune or his social position, but chiefly on his own account. 
 Moreover, Yashvin was the only man to whom Vronsky 
 would have been willing to speak of his love. He felt 
 that, in spite of his affected scorn for all kinds of senti- 
 ment, he alone could appreciate the serious passion 
 which now absorbed his whole life. Besides, he was 
 persuaded that he found absolutely no pleasure in
 
 ANNA KARENINA 231 
 
 tittle-tattle and scandal, but considered this feeling as 
 essential, in other words, that he knew and believed 
 that love was no joke, no mere pastime, but something 
 serious and important. Thus, taken all in all, his pres- 
 ence was always agreeable to him. 
 
 Vronsky had not yet spoken to him about his love, 
 but he knew that Yashvin knew it looked on it in its 
 true light ; and it was a pleasure to read this in his eyes. 
 
 " Ah, yes ! " said the cavalry captain, when he heard 
 the name of the Tverskoi's ; and, flashing his brilliant 
 black eyes at him, he seized his left mustache and began 
 to cram it into his mouth, for this was a bad habit of 
 his. 
 
 " And what did you do last evening ? Did you gain ? " 
 asked Vronsky. 
 
 " Eight thousand rubles, but three thousand possibly 
 are no good I may not get them." 
 
 " Well ! Then you may lose on me," said Vronsky, 
 laughing ; Yashvin had laid a large wager on him. 
 
 "But I shall not lose. Makhotin is the only one to 
 be afraid of." 
 
 And the conversation went off in regard to the races, 
 which was the only subject of which Won sky could now 
 think. 
 
 " Come on, I have done," said Vronsky, getting up 
 and going to the door. Yashvin also arose, and stretched 
 his huge legs and long back. 
 
 " I can't dine so early, but I will take something to 
 drink. I will follow you immediately. Here, wine!" 
 he cried, in his heavy voice, which was the wonder of 
 the regiment ; it made the windows rattle." " No, no 
 matter! " he cried again ; "if you are going home, I '11 
 join you." 
 
 And he went off with Vronsky
 
 232 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 VRONSKY was lodging in a neat and spacious Finnish 
 izba, divided in two by a partition. Petritsky was his 
 chum, not only in Petersburg, but here also in camp. 
 He was asleep when Vronsky and Yashvin entered. 
 
 "Get up! you've slept long enough," said Yashvin, 
 going behind the partition, and shaking the sleeper's 
 shoulder, as he lay with his nose buried in the pillow. 
 
 Petritsky suddenly got up on his knees, and looked 
 all about him. 
 
 "Your brother has been here," said he to Vronsky. 
 " He woke me up, the devil take him ! and he said that 
 he would come again." 
 
 Then he threw himself back on the pillow again, and 
 pulled up the bedclothes. 
 
 "Stop! Yashvin," he cried angrily, as his comrade 
 twitched off his quilt. Then he turned over, opened his 
 eyes, and said, " You would do much better to tell me 
 what I ought to drink to take this bad taste out of my 
 mouth." 
 
 "Vodka is better than anything," said Yashvin. 
 " Tereshchenko ! Bring the barin some vodka and 
 cucumbers," he cried, delighting in the thunder of his 
 voice. 
 
 " You advise vodka ? ha ! " exclaimed Petritsky, scowl- 
 ing, and rubbing his eyes. " Will you take some, too ? 
 If you '11 join, all right ! Vronsky, will you have a 
 drink?" said Petritsky, getting up and wrapping a 
 striped quilt around him under his arms. He came to 
 the door of the partition, raised his arms in the air, and 
 began to sing in French, "'There was a king in Thu- 
 u-le.' Vronsky, will you have a drink?" 
 
 "Go away," replied the latter, who was putting on 
 an overcoat brought him by his valet. 
 
 " Where are you going ? " asked Yashvin, seeing a 
 carriage drawn by three horses. "Here's the troi'ka." 
 
 "To the stables, then to Briansky's to see about 
 some horses," replied Vronsky.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 233 
 
 Vronsky had, indeed, promised to bring some money 
 to Briansky, who lived about ten versts from Peterhof ; 
 and he was in a hurry to get there as soon as possible 
 so as to pay for the horses, but his friends immediately 
 understood that he was also going somewhere else. 
 
 Petritsky, who kept on singing, winked, and pursed 
 his lips as if he would say, " We know who this Brian- 
 sky means." 
 
 " See here, don't be late," said Yashvin ; and, chang- 
 ing the subject, "And my roan, does she suit you?" 
 he asked, looking out of the window, and referring to 
 the middle horse of the team which he had .sold. 
 
 Just as Vronsky left the room, Petritsky called out 
 to him, " Hold on ! your brother left a note and a letter. 
 Hold on ! where did I put them ? " 
 
 Vronsky waited impatiently. 
 
 " Well, where are they ? " 
 
 " Where are they indeed ? That 's the question," 
 declaimed Petritsky, solemnly, putting his forefinger 
 above his nose. 
 
 " Speak quick ! no nonsense ! " said Vronsky, smiling. 
 
 " I have not had any fire in the fireplace ; where can 
 I have put them ? " 
 
 "Come now, that's enough talk! where 's the letter?" 
 
 " I swear I have forgotten ; or did I dream about it ? 
 Wait, wait ! don't get angry. If you had drunk four 
 bottles, as I did yesterday, you would n't even know 
 where you went to bed. Hold on, I '11 think in a min- 
 ute." 
 
 Petritsky went behind his screen again, and got into 
 bed. 
 
 " Hold on ! I was lying here. He stood there. Da- 
 da-da-da !.... Here it is ! " 
 
 And he pulled the letter out from under the mattress, 
 where he had put it. 
 
 Vronsky took the letter and his brother's note. It 
 was exactly as he expected. His mother reproached 
 him because he had not been to see her, and his brother 
 said he had something to speak to him about. " What 
 concern is it of theirs ? " he muttered ; and, crumpling
 
 234 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 up the notes, he thrust them between his coat-buttons, 
 intending to read them more carefully on the way. 
 
 Just as he left the izba, he met two officers, one of 
 whom belonged to a different regiment. Vronsky's 
 quarters were always the headquarters of all the offi- 
 cers. 
 
 "Whither away?" 
 
 "Must to Peterhof." 
 
 " Has your horse come from Tsarskoye ? " 
 
 " Yes, but I have not seen her yet." 
 
 "They say Makhotin's 'Gladiator' is lame." 
 
 " Rubbislj ! But how can you trot in such mud ? " 
 said the other. 
 
 " Here are my saviors," cried Petritsky, as he saw 
 the newcomers. The denshchik was standing before 
 him with vodka and salted cucumbers on a platter. 
 "Yashvin, here, ordered me to drink, so as to clear my 
 head." 
 
 " Well, you were too much for us last night," said 
 one of the officers. "You did not let us sleep all night." 
 
 " I must tell you how we ended it," began Petritsky. 
 " Volkof climbed up on the roof, and told us that he 
 was blue. I sung out, 'Give us some music, a fu- 
 neral march.' And he went to sleep on the roof to the 
 music of the funeral march." 
 
 "Drink, drink your vodka by all means, and then 
 take seltzer and a lot of lemon," said Yashvin, encour- 
 aging Petritsky as a mother encourages her child to 
 swallow some medicine. " It is only a little bottle." 
 
 " Now, this is sense. Hold on, Vronsky, and have a 
 drink with us ! " 
 
 "No. Good-by, gentlemen. I am not drinking to- 
 day." 
 
 " Vronsky," cried some one, after he had gone into 
 the vestibule. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "You'd better cut off your hair; it's getting very 
 long, especially on the bald spot." 
 
 Vronsky, in fact, was beginning to get a little bald. 
 He laughed gayly, showing his splendid teeth, and, pull-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 235 
 
 ing his cap over the bald spot, he went out and got 
 into his carriage. 
 
 "To the stables," he said. 
 
 He started to take his letters for a second reading, 
 but on second thought deferred them so that he might 
 think of nothing else but his horse. 
 
 "I'll wait." 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A TEMPORARY stable, a balagan, or hut, made out 
 of planks, had been built near the race-course ; and here 
 Vronsky's horse should have been brought the evening 
 before. He had not as yet seen her. During the last 
 few days he himself had not been out to drive, but he had 
 intrusted her to the trainer; and Vronsky did not know 
 in what condition he should find her. He was just get- 
 ting out of his carriage when his konyukh, or groom, a 
 young fellow, saw him from a distance, and immediately 
 called the trainer. This was an Englishman with with- 
 ered face and tufted chin, and dressed in short jacket 
 and top-boots. He came out toward Vronsky in the 
 mincing step peculiar to jockeys, and with elbows stick- 
 ing out. 
 
 "Well, how is Frou Frou ?" said Vronsky, in English. 
 
 "All right, sir," said the Englishman, in a voice that 
 came out of the bottom of his throat. " Better not go 
 in, sir," he added, taking off his hat. "I have put a 
 muzzle on her, and that excites her. Better not go in, 
 it excites a horse." 
 
 " No, I am going in, I want to see her." 
 
 " Come on, then," replied the Englishman, testily ; 
 and, without ever opening his mouth, and with his dandi- 
 fied step, he led the way. 
 
 They went into a small yard in front of the stable. 
 An active and alert stable-boy in a clean jacket, with 
 whip in hand, met them as they entered, and followed 
 them. Five horses were in the stable, each in its own 
 stall. Vronsky knew that his most redoubtable rival,
 
 236 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Makhotin's Gladiator, a chestnut horse five vershoks 
 high, was there, and he was more curious to see Gladia- 
 tor than to see his own racer ; but he knew that, accord- 
 ing to the etiquette of the races, he could not have him 
 brought out, or even ask questions about him. As he 
 passed along the corridor the groom opened the door of 
 the second stall at the left, and Vronsky saw a powerful 
 chestnut with white feet. He knew it was Gladiator ; 
 but with the delicacy of a man who turns away from an 
 open letter which is not addressed to him, he instantly 
 turned away and walked toward Frou Frou's stall. 
 
 "That horse belongs to Ma .... k.... mak, .... I never 
 can pronounce his name," said the Englishman, over 
 his shoulder, and pointing to Gladiator's stall with a 
 huge finger, the nail of which was black with dirt. 
 
 " Makhotin's ? Yes ; he is my only dangerous rival." 
 
 " If you would mount him, I would bet on you," said 
 the Englishman. 
 
 " Frou Frou has more nerve, this one stronger," 
 said Vronsky, smiling at the jockey's praise. 
 
 " In hurdle-races, all depends on the mount, and on 
 pluck" 
 
 Pluck that is, audacity and coolness Vronsky 
 knew that he had in abundance ; and, what was far 
 more important, he was firmly convinced that no one 
 could have more of this pluck than he had. 
 
 " You are sure that a good sweating was not neces- 
 sary ? " 
 
 " Not at all," replied the Englishman. " Please not 
 speak so loud, the horse is restive," he added, jerking 
 his head toward the closed stall in front of which they 
 were standing. They could hear the horse stamping on 
 the straw. 
 
 He opened the door, and Vronsky entered a box-stall 
 feebly lighted by a little window. A dark bay horse, 
 muzzled, was nervously prancing up and down on the 
 fresh straw. As he gazed into the semi-obscurity of 
 the stall, Vronsky in spite of himself took in at one gen- 
 eral observation all the points of his favorite horse. 
 Frou Frou was a horse of medium size, and not faultless
 
 ANNA KARENINA 237 
 
 in form. Her bones were slender, although her brisket 
 showed powerfully ; her breast was narrow, the crupper 
 was rather tapering ; and the legs, particularly the hind 
 legs, considerably bowed. The muscles of the legs were 
 not big ; but, on the other hand, where the saddle rested 
 the horse was extraordinarily wide, and this was particu- 
 larly striking by reason of the firmness and the small- 
 ness of her belly. The bones of the legs below the 
 knee seemed not thicker than a finger, seen from the 
 front ; they were extraordinarily large when seen side- 
 wise. The whole steed, with the exception of the ribs, 
 seemed squeezed in and lengthened out. But she had 
 one merit that outweighed all her faults : she was a 
 thoroughbred, had good blood, which tells, as the 
 English say. Her muscles, standing out under a net- 
 work of veins, covered with a skin as smooth and soft 
 as satin, seemed as solid as bone ; her slender head, with 
 prominent eyes, bright and animated, widened out at 
 the septum into projecting nostrils with membrane 
 which seemed suffused with blood. In her whole form 
 and especially in her head there was an expression of 
 something energetic and decided, and at the same time 
 good-tempered. It was one of those creatures which 
 do not speak for the single reason that the mechanical 
 construction of their mouths does not permit of it. 
 
 Vronsky, at any rate, was convinced that she under- 
 stood all of his thoughts while he was looking at her. 
 As soon as he went to her she began to take long 
 breaths, and, turning her prominent eyes so that the 
 whites became suffused with blood, she gazed from the 
 opposite side at the visitors, trying to shake off her 
 muzzle, and dancing on her feet with elastic motion. 
 
 " You see how excited she is," said the English- 
 man. 
 
 " Whoa, my loveliest, whoa ! " said Vronsky, approach- 
 ing to soothe her ; but the nearer he came the more ner- 
 vous she grew, and only when he had caressed her head 
 did she become tranquil. He could feel her muscles 
 strain and tremble under her delicate, smooth skin. 
 Vronsky smoothed her powerful neck, and put into
 
 238 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 place a tuft of her mane that she had tossed on the 
 other side ; and then he put his face close to her nos- 
 trils, which swelled and dilated like the wings of a bat. 
 She drew in the air, and loudly expelled it from her 
 quivering nostrils, pricked up her sharp ears, and 
 stretched out her long black lips to seize his sleeve ; 
 but, when she found herself prevented by her muzzle, 
 she shook it, and began to caper again on her slender 
 legs. 
 
 " Quiet, my beauty, quiet," said Vronsky, calming 
 her ; and he left the stable with the reassuring convic- 
 tion that his horse was in perfect condition. 
 
 But the nervousness of the steed had taken posses- 
 sion of Vronsky ; he felt the blood rush to his heart, 
 and, like the horse, he wanted violent action ; he felt 
 like prancing and biting. It was a sensation at once 
 strange and joyful. 
 
 "Well, I count on you," said he to the Englishman. 
 " Be on the grounds at half-past six." 
 
 " All shall be ready. But where are you going, my 
 lord ? " asked the Englishman, using the title of " my 
 lord," which he almost never permitted himself to use. 
 
 Astonished at this, Vronsky raised his head, and 
 looked at him as he well understood how to do, not 
 into the Englishman's eyes, but at his forehead. He 
 instantly saw that the Englishman had spoken to him, 
 not as to his master, but as to a jockey ; and he replied : 
 
 " I have got to see Briansky, and I shall be at home 
 in an hour." 
 
 " How many times have I been asked that question 
 to-day ! " he said to himself ; and he grew red, which 
 was a rare occurrence with him. The Englishman 
 looked at him closely. And, as if he also knew where 
 Vronsky was going, he said : 
 
 " The main thing is to keep calm before the race. 
 Don't get out of sorts ; don't get bothered." 
 
 " All right" replied Vronsky, with a smile ; and, jump- 
 ing into his carriage, he ordered the coachman to drive 
 to Peterhof. 
 
 He had gone but a short distance before the clouds,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 239 
 
 which since morning had been threatening rain, grew 
 thicker, and a heavy shower fell. 
 
 "Too bad!" thought Vronsky, raising the hood of 
 his carriage. " It has been muddy ; now it will be a 
 swamp." 
 
 Now that he was sitting alone in his covered calash, 
 he took out his mother's letter and his brother's note, 
 and read them over. 
 
 Yes, it was always the old story ; both his mother 
 and his brother found it necessary to meddle with his 
 love-affairs. This interference aroused his anger, a 
 feeling which he rarely experienced. 
 
 " How does this concern them ? Why does every 
 one feel called on to meddle with me, and why do they 
 bother me ? Because they see that there is something 
 about this that they can't understand. If it were an 
 ordinary vulgar society intrigue, they would leave me 
 in peace ; but they imagine that it is something else, 
 that it is not mere trifling, that this woman is dearer 
 to me than life ; that is incredible and vexatious to 
 them. Whatever be our fate, we ourselves have made 
 it, and we shall not regret it," he said to himself, in- 
 cluding Anna in the word "we." "But no, they want 
 to teach us how to live. They have no idea of what 
 happiness is. They don't know that, were it not for 
 this love, there would be for us neither joy nor grief in 
 this world ; life itself would not exist." 
 
 In reality, what exasperated him most against every 
 one was the fact that his conscience told him that they 
 all of them were right. He felt that his love for 
 Anna was not a superficial impulse, destined, like so 
 many social attachments, to disappear, and leave no trace 
 beyond sweet or painful memories. He felt keenly all 
 the torture of her situation and his, and how difficult 
 it was in the prominent position which they held in the 
 eyes of society to hide their love, to lie, to deceive, 
 to dissemble, and constantly to think about others, when 
 the passion uniting them was so violent that they both 
 forgot about everything else except their love. 
 
 He vividly pictured to himself all the constantly re-
 
 2 4 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 curring circumstances when it was essential to employ 
 falsehood and deceit, which were so contrary to his 
 nature. He recalled with especial vividness the feel- 
 ing of shame which he had often surprised in Anna, 
 when she also was driven to tell a lie. 
 
 Since this affair with her, he sometimes experienced 
 a strange sensation. This was a feeling of disgust and 
 repulsion for some one, he could not tell for whom he 
 felt it for Aleksef Aleksandrovitch or himself, or for 
 all society. As far as possible he banished this strange 
 feeling. 
 
 " Yes, heretofore she has been unhappy, but proud 
 and calm ; now she cannot be proud and content any 
 longer, though she may not betray the fact. Yes, this 
 must end," he would conclude in his own mind. 
 
 And for the first time the thought of cutting short 
 this life of dissimulation appeared to him clear and tan- 
 gible ; the sooner, the better. 
 
 " She and I must leave everything, and together we 
 must go and hide ourselves somewhere with our love," 
 he said to himself. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE shower was of short duration ; and when Vronsky 
 reached Peterhof, his shaft-horse at full trot, and the 
 other two galloping along in the mud, the sun was 
 already out again, and the wet roofs of the villas and 
 the old lindens in the gardens on both sides of the prin- 
 cipal avenue were dazzlingly shining. The water was 
 running from the roofs, and the raindrops were drip- 
 ping from the tree-tops. He no longer thought of the 
 harm that the shower might do the race-course, but he 
 was full of joy as he remembered that, thanks to the 
 rain, she would be alone ; for he knew that Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, who had just got back from a visit to 
 the baths, would not have driven out from Petersburg. 
 
 Hoping to find her alone, Vronsky stopped his horses, 
 as he always did, at some little distance from the house,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 241 
 
 ji order to attract as little attention as possible, and, not 
 driving across the little bridge, got out and went to the 
 house on foot. He did not go to the front entrance, 
 but went through the court. 
 
 " Has the barin come?" he asked of a gardener. 
 
 "Not yet; but the baruinya is at home. Go to the 
 front door ; there are servants there ; if you ring, they 
 will open the door." 
 
 " No ; I will go in through the garden." 
 
 Having satisfied himself that she was alone, and wish- 
 ing to surprise her, as he had not promised that he was 
 coming that day, and on account of the races she would 
 not be looking for him, he walked cautiously along the 
 sandy paths, bordered with flowers, lifting up his saber 
 so that it should make no noise. In this way he reached 
 the terrace which led down to the garden. Vronsky had 
 by this time forgotten all the thoughts which had op- 
 pressed him on the way about the difficulties of his situ- 
 ation ; he thought only of the pleasure of shortly seeing 
 her, not in imagination only, but alive, in person, as she 
 was in reality. 
 
 He was mounting the steep steps as gently as possi- 
 ble, when he suddenly remembered what he was always 
 forgetting, and what constituted the most painful fea- 
 ture of his relations with her, her son, with his inquisi- 
 tive and, as it seemed to him, repulsive face. 
 
 This child was the principal obstacle in the way of 
 their interviews. When he was present neither Vron- 
 sky nor Anna allowed themselves to speak of anything 
 which the whole world might not hear, nor, what was 
 more, did they even hint at anything which the child 
 himself could not comprehend. There was no need of an 
 agreement on that score, it was instinctive with them. 
 Both of them considered it degrading to themselves to de- 
 ceive the little lad ; before him they talked as if they were 
 mere acquaintances. But in spite of this circumspection 
 Vronsky often noticed the lad's scrutinizing and rather 
 sus'picious eyes fixed on him, and a strange timidity and 
 variability in his behavior toward him. Sometimes he 
 seemed affectionate, and then again cold and shy. The 
 VOL. i. 1 6
 
 242 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 child seemed instinctively to feel that between this man 
 and his mother there was some strange bond of union, 
 which was beyond his comprehension. 
 
 In fact, the boy felt that he could not understand this 
 relationship, and he tried in vain to account to himself 
 for the feeling which he ought to have for this man. 
 He saw, with that quick intuition peculiar to childhood, 
 that his father, his governess, and his nurse all of 
 them not only did not like Vronsky, but looked with the 
 utmost disfavor on him, although they never spoke about 
 him, while his mother treated him as her best friend. 
 
 " What does this mean ? Who is he ? Must I love 
 him ? and is it my fault, and am I a naughty or stupid 
 child, if I don't understand it at all ? " thought the little 
 fellow. Hence came his timidity, his questioning and 
 distrustful manner, and this changeableness, which were 
 so unpleasant to Vronsky. The presence of this child 
 always caused in Vronsky that strange feeling of unrea- 
 sonable repulsion which for some time had pursued him. 
 
 The presence of the child aroused in Vronsky and 
 Anna a feeling like that experienced by a mariner who 
 sees by the compass that the course in which he is 
 swiftly moving is widely different from what it should 
 be, but that to stop this course is not in his power ; that 
 every instant carries him farther and farther in the wrong 
 direction, and the recognition of the movement that 
 carries him from the right course is the recognition of 
 the ruin that impends. 
 
 This child with his innocent views of life was the 
 compass which pointed out to them the degree of their 
 deviation from what they knew but wished not to know. 
 
 This day Serozha was not at home and Anna was en- 
 tirely alone, and sitting on the terrace waiting for the 
 return of her son, who had gone out to walk and got 
 caught in the rain. She had sent a man and a maid to 
 find him, and was sitting there till he should return. 
 Dressed in a white gown with wide embroidery, she 
 was sitting at one corner of the terrace, concealed "by 
 plants and flowers, and she did not hear Vronsky's step. 
 With her dark curly head bent, she was pressing her
 
 ANNA KARENINA 243 
 
 heated brow against a cool watering-pot, standing on 
 the balustrade, and with both her beautiful hands laden 
 with rings, which he knew so well, she was holding the 
 watering-pot. The beauty of her figure, her head, her 
 neck, her hands, always caused in Vronsky a new feeling 
 of surprise. He stopped and looked at her in ecstasy. 
 But as soon as he proceeded to take another step and 
 come nearer to her, she felt his approach, pushed away 
 the watering-pot, and turned to him her glowing face. 
 
 " What is the matter ? Are you ill ? " said he, in 
 French, as he approached her. He felt a desire to run 
 to her, but, remembering that there might be witnesses, 
 he looked toward the balcony door and turned red, as 
 he always turned red when he felt that he ought to be 
 ashamed of himself and dread to be seen. 
 
 "No; I am well," said Anna, rising, and warmly 
 pressing the hand that he offered her. " I did not ex- 
 pect .... you." 
 
 " Bozhe mo'f ! how cold your hands are ! " 
 
 " You startled me," said she. " I was alone, waiting 
 for Serozha. He went out for a walk ; they will come 
 back this way." 
 
 But though she tried to be calm, her lips trembled. 
 
 " Forgive me for coming, but I could not let the day 
 go by without seeing you," he continued, in French, as 
 he always spoke, thus avoiding the impossible vui, you, 
 and the dangerous tut, thou, of the Russian. 
 
 "What have I to forgive ? I am so glad ! " 
 
 " But you are ill, or sad ? " said he, bending over her 
 and still holding her hand. " What were you thinking 
 about ? " 
 
 " Always about one thing," she replied, with a smile. 
 
 She told the truth. If at any moment she had been 
 asked what she was thinking about, she could have 
 made the infallible reply, that she was thinking about 
 one thing : her happiness and her unhappiness. Just 
 as he had surprised her, she was thinking about this: 
 she was thinking how it was that for some, for Betsy, 
 for example, for she knew about her love-affair with 
 Tushkievitch, though it was a secret from society in
 
 244 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 general, all this was such a trifle, while for her it was 
 so painful. To-day this thought, for various reasons, 
 had been particularly tormenting her. 
 
 She asked him about the races. He answered her, 
 and, seeing that she was in a very excited state, in order 
 to divert her mind, told her, in the tone most natural, 
 about the preparation that had been made. 
 
 " Shall I, or shall I not, tell him ? " she thought, as 
 she looked at his calm, affectionate eyes. " He seems 
 so happy, he is so interested in these races, that he will 
 not comprehend, probably, the importance of what I 
 must tell him." 
 
 " But you have not told me of what you were think- 
 ing when I came," said he, suddenly, interrupting the 
 course of his narration. " Tell me, I beg of you ! " 
 
 She did not reply ; but she lifted her head a little, 
 and looked at him questioningly from her beautiful eyes, 
 shaded by her long lashes ; her fingers, playing with a 
 fallen leaf, trembled. 
 
 He saw this, and his face immediately showed the 
 expression of humble adoration, of absolute devotion, 
 which had so won her. 
 
 " I see that something has happened. Can I be easy 
 for an instant when I know that you feel a grief that I 
 do not share ? In the name of Heaven, speak ! " he in- 
 sisted, in a caressing tone. 
 
 "I shall never forgive him if he does not appreciate 
 the importance of what I have to tell him ; better be 
 silent than put him to the proof," she thought, continu- 
 ing to look at him in the same way, and conscious that 
 her hand, holding the leaf, trembled more and more 
 violently. 
 
 " In the name of Heaven ! " said he, taking her hand 
 again. 
 
 " Shall I tell you ? " 
 
 "Yes, yes, yes ...." 
 
 "Je sitis enceinte /" she said, in a low and deliberate 
 voice. 
 
 The leaf that she held in her fingers trembled still 
 more, but she did not take her eyes from his face, for
 
 ANNA KARENINA 245 
 
 she wished to see how he would receive what she 
 said. 
 
 He grew pale, tried to speak, then stopped short, 
 dropped her hand, and hung his head. 
 
 "Yes, he understands the significance of this," she 
 said to herself, and gratefully pressed his hand. 
 
 But she was mistaken in thinking that he appreciated 
 the significance of what she had told him, as she, a 
 woman, did. On learning this, he felt that he was 
 attacked with tenfold force by that strange feeling of 
 repulsion and horror which he had already experienced. 
 But at the same time, he realized that the crisis which 
 he had expected was now at hand, that it was impossible 
 longer to keep the secret from the husband ; and it was 
 important to extricate themselves as soon as possible 
 from the unnatural situation in which they were placed. 
 Moreover, her anguish communicated itself to him 
 physically. He looked at her with humbly submissive 
 eyes, kissed her hand, arose, and began to walk up and 
 down the terrace without speaking. 
 
 At last he approached her, and said in a tone of 
 decision : 
 
 "Well," said he, "neither you nor I have looked on 
 our relations as a pastime, and now our fate is decided ; 
 at last we must put an end to the false situation in 
 which we live," and he looked around him. 
 
 " Put an end ? How put an end, Aleksei'?" she asked 
 gently. 
 
 She was calm now, and her face beamed with a tender 
 smile. 
 
 " You must leave your husband and unite your life 
 with mine." 
 
 " But are n't they already united ? " she asked, in 
 an almost inaudible voice. 
 
 " Yes, but not completely, not absolutely ! " 
 
 "But how, Aleksei'? tell me how," said she, with 
 a melancholy irony at the hopelessness of her situation. 
 " How is there any escape from such a position ? Am 
 I not the wife of my husband ? " 
 
 " From any situation, however difficult, there is always
 
 246 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 some way of escape ; here we must simply decide. 
 Anything is better than the life you are leading. How 
 well I see how you are tormenting yourself about your 
 husband, your son, society, all ! " 
 
 "Akh ! only not my husband," said she, with a simple 
 smile. " I don't know him, I don't think about him ! 
 He is not." 
 
 "You speak insincerely! I know you ; you torment 
 yourself on his account also." 
 
 "Not even he knows ...." said she, and suddenly a 
 bright crimson spread over her face ; it colored her 
 cheeks, brow, her neck, and tears of shame came into 
 her eyes. 
 
 " Let us not speak more of him." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 VRONSKY had many times tried, though not so de- 
 cidedly as now, to bring clearly before her mind their 
 position; and always he had met the same superficial 
 and frivolous way of looking at it, as she now treated 
 his demand. Apparently, there was something in this 
 which she was unwilling or unable to fathom; appar- 
 ently, as soon as she began to speak about it, she, the 
 real Anna, disappeared, to give place to a strange and 
 incomprehensible woman, whom he did not love, but 
 feared, and who was repulsive to him. To-day he was 
 bound to have an absolute explanation. 
 
 "Whether he knows or not," he said, in a calm but 
 authoritative voice, " whether he knows or not, it does 
 not concern us. We cannot.... we cannot now continue 
 as we are." 
 
 "What, in your opinion, must we do about it?" she 
 demanded, in the same bantering tone of irony. Though 
 she had been so keenly apprehensive that he would not 
 receive her confidence with due appreciation, she was 
 now vexed that he deduced from it the absolute neces- 
 sity of energetic action. 
 
 "Tell him all, and leave him."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 247 
 
 " Very good ! let us suppose I do it," said she. " Do 
 you know what the result would be ? I will tell you ; " 
 and a wicked fire flashed from her eyes, which were 
 just now so gentle. "'Oh! you love another, and 
 your course with him has been criminal,' " said she, 
 imitating her husband, and accenting the word criminal 
 in exactly his manner. " ' I warned you of the con- 
 sequences which would follow from the point of view 
 of religion, of society, and of the family. You did not 
 listen to me ; now I cannot allow my name to be dis- 
 honored, and my ' ' she was going to say my son, but 
 stopped, for she could not jest about him " 'my name 
 dishonored/ and so on in the same style," she added. 
 " In a word, he will tell me with his official manner 
 and with precision and clearness that he cannot set me 
 free, but that he will take measures to avoid a scandal. 
 And he will do exactly as he says. That is what will 
 take place ; for he is not a man, he is a machine, and, 
 when he is stirred up, an ugly machine," said she, call- 
 ing to mind the most trifling details in her husband's 
 face and manner of speaking, and charging to him as a 
 crime all the ill that she could find in him, and not 
 pardoning him at all on account of the terrible sin of 
 which she had been guilty before him. 
 
 "But, Anna," said Vronsky, in a persuasive, tender 
 voice, trying to calm her, "you must tell him every- 
 thing, and act accordingly as he proceeds." 
 
 "What! elope?" 
 
 " Why not elope ? I see no possibility of living as 
 we are any longer ; it is not on my account, but I see 
 you will suffer." 
 
 " What ! elope, and become your mistress ? " said she, 
 bitterly. 
 
 "Anna ! " he cried, deeply wounded. 
 
 " Yes, your mistress, and lose everything ! " .... 
 
 Again she was going to say my son, but she could 
 not pronounce the word. 
 
 Vronsky could not understand how she, with her 
 strong, loyal nature, could accept the false position in 
 which she was placed, and not endeavor to escape from
 
 248 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 it. But he could not doubt that the principal cause 
 of this was represented by that word son, which she 
 could not pronounce. 
 
 When she thought of her son and his future relations 
 to a mother who had deserted his father, the horror of 
 what she had done appeared so great, that, like a real 
 woman, she was not able to reason, but only endeavored 
 to reassure herself by fallacious arguments, and persuade 
 herself that all would go on as before ; above all things, 
 she must shut her eyes, and forget this terrible ques- 
 tion, what would become of her son. 
 
 " I beg of you, I entreat you," she said suddenly, 
 speaking in a very different tone, a tone of tenderness 
 and sincerity, and seizing his hand, "don't ever speak 
 to me of that again." 
 
 "But, Anna.... " 
 
 "Never, never! Leave it to me. I know all the 
 depth, all the horror, of my situation, but it is not so 
 easy as you imagine to decide. Let me decide, and 
 listen to me. Never speak to me again of that. Will 
 you promise me ? .... never, never ? promise ! " .... 
 
 " I promise all ; but I cannot be calm, especially 
 after what you have told me. I cannot be calm when 
 you cannot be calm." .... 
 
 "I?" she repeated. "Yes, I suffer torments some- 
 times, but that will pass if you will not say anything 
 more about it. When you speak with me about this, 
 then, and then only, it tortures me." 
 
 " I don't understand .... " 
 
 " I know," she interrupted, " how your honest nature 
 abhors lying ; I am sorry for you ; and very often I 
 think that you have sacrificed your life for me ! " 
 
 "That is exactly what I say about you. I was just 
 this moment thinking how you could sacrifice yourself 
 for me ! I cannot forgive myself for having made you 
 unhappy." 
 
 "I unhappy?" said she, coming up close to him, 
 and looking at him with a smile of enthusiastic love. 
 " I ? I am like a man dying of hunger, to whom food 
 has been given. Maybe he is cold, and his raiment is
 
 ANNA KARENINA 249 
 
 rags, and he is ashamed, but he is not unhappy. I un- 
 happy ? No ; here comes my joy." .... 
 
 She had heard the voice of her little boy coming 
 near, and giving a hurried glance around her, swiftly 
 arose. Her face glowed with the fire which Vronsky 
 knew so well, and with a hasty motion putting out her 
 lovely hands, covered with rings, she took Vronsky's 
 face between them, looked at him a long moment, 
 reached her face up to his, with her smiling lips parted, 
 kissed his mouth and both eyes, and pushed him away. 
 She started to go, but he kept her back a moment. 
 
 " When ? " he whispered, looking at her with ecstasy. 
 
 " To-day at one o'clock," she replied in a low voice, 
 and with a deep sigh she ran, in her light, graceful 
 gait, to meet her son. 
 
 Serozha had been caught by the rain in the park, 
 and had taken refuge with his nurse in a pavilion. 
 
 "Well, good-by -da svidanya!" said she to Vron- 
 sky. " I must get ready for the races. Betsy has 
 promised to come and get me." 
 
 Vronsky looked at his watch, and hurried away. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 WHEN Vronsky looked at his watch on the Karenins' 
 terrace, he was so stirred and preoccupied, that, though 
 he saw the figures on the face, he did not know what 
 time it was. He hurried along the driveway, and, pick- 
 ing his way carefully through the mud, he reached his 
 carriage. He had been so absorbed by his conversation 
 with Anna that he did not notice the hour, or ask if he 
 still had time to go to Briansky's. As it often happens, 
 he had only the external faculty of memory, and it re- 
 called to him only that he had decided to do something. 
 He found his coachman dozing on his box under the 
 already slanting shade of the linden ; he noticed the 
 swarms of midgets buzzing around his sweaty horses ; 
 then, waking the coachman, he jumped into his carriage, 
 and ordered him to drive to Briansky's ; only after he
 
 250 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 had gone six or seven versts did he remember that he 
 had looked at his watch and realized that it was half- 
 past five, and that he was late. 
 
 On that day there were "to be several races : first the 
 draught-horses, then the officers' two-verst dash, then a 
 second of four, and last that in which he was to take 
 part. He could be in time for his race, but, if he went 
 to Briansky's, he ran the risk of getting to the grounds 
 after the court had arrived. That was not in good 
 form. But he had promised Briansky to be there, there- 
 fore he kept on, commanding the coachman not to spare 
 the troi'ka. He reached Briansky's, spent five minutes 
 with him, and was off again at full speed. The rapid 
 motion calmed him. All the difficulties that confronted 
 him in his relations with Anna, all the uncertainty that 
 remained after their conversation, vanished from his 
 mind ; he thought with delight and excitement of the 
 race, and how he might after all get there in time, and 
 then again he vividly imagined the brilliant society 
 which would gather to-day at the course. 
 
 And he got more and more into the atmosphere of 
 the races as he overtook people coming in their car- 
 riages from various villas, and even from Petersburg, on 
 their way to the hippodrome. 
 
 When he reached his quarters, no one was at home ; 
 all had gone to the races, except his valet, who was wait- 
 ing for him at the entrance. While he was changing 
 his clothes, his valet told him that the second race had 
 already begun,, that a number of gentlemen had been to 
 inquire for him. 
 
 Vronsky dressed without haste, for he never was 
 hurried and he never lost his self-command, and di- 
 rected the coachman to take him to the stables. From 
 there he saw a sea of carriages of all sorts, of pedes- 
 trians, soldiers, and of spectators, surrounding the hip- 
 podrome, and the seats boiling with people. 
 
 Evidently the second course had been run, for just 
 as he reached the stables he heard the sound of a bell. 
 As he reached the stable, he noticed Makhotin's white- 
 footed chestnut Gladiator, covered with a blue and
 
 ANNA KARENINA 251 
 
 orange caparison, and with huge ear-protectors trimmed 
 with blue. They were leading him out to the hippo- 
 drome. 
 
 " Where is Cord ? " he asked of the groom. 
 
 " In the stable ; he is putting on the saddle." 
 
 Frou Frou was all saddled in her open box-stall. They 
 started to lead her out. 
 
 " I am not late, am I ? " 
 
 " All right, all right," said the Englishman. "Don't 
 get excited." 
 
 Vronsky once more gave a quick glance at the excel- 
 lent, favorable shape of his horse, as she stood trem- 
 bling in every limb ; and, finding it hard to tear himself 
 away from such a beautiful sight, he left her at the 
 stable. He approached the benches at a most favorable 
 moment for doing this without attracting observation. 
 The two-verst dash was just at an end, and all eyes were 
 fixed on a cavalry-guardsman who was in the lead, and a 
 hussar just at his heels, whipping their horses furiously, 
 and approaching the goal. From the center and both 
 ends all crowded in toward the goal, and a group of 
 officers and guardsmen were hailing with shouts the 
 triumph of their fellow-officer and friend. 
 
 Vronsky, without being noticed, joined the throng 
 just as the bell announced the end of the race ; the 
 victor, a tall cavalry-guardsman, covered with mud, 
 dropped the reins, slipped off from the saddle, and stood 
 by his roan stallion, which was black with sweat, and 
 heavily breathing. 
 
 The stallion, with a violent effort thrusting out his 
 legs, had stopped the swift course of his big body ; and 
 the officer, like a man awakening from a deep sleep, was 
 looking about him, trying hard to smile. A throng of 
 friends and strangers pressed about him. 
 
 Vronsky, with intention, avoided the elegant people 
 who were circulating about, engaged in gay and ani- 
 mated conversation in front of the seats. He had al- 
 ready caught sight of Anna, Betsy, and his brother's 
 wife, but he did not join them, so that he might not be 
 disconcerted ; but he kept meeting acquaintances who
 
 252 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 stopped him, and told him various items about the last 
 race, or asked him why he was late. 
 
 While they were distributing the prizes at the pavilion, 
 and every one had gone in this direction, Vronsky was 
 joined by nis elder brother. Aleksandr Vronsky was a 
 colonel and wore epaulets, and, like Aleksei, was a 
 man of medium stature, and rather thick-set ; but he 
 was handsomer and ruddier. His nose was red, and 
 his frank, open face was flushed with wine. 
 
 " Did you get my note ? " he asked of his brother. 
 " You are never to be found." 
 
 Aleksandr Vronsky, in spite of his life of dissipation 
 and his love for drink, which was notorious, was a thor- 
 oughly courtly man. Knowing that many eyes might 
 be fixed on them, he preserved, while he talked on a 
 very painful subject, a smiling face, as if he were jesting 
 with his brother about some trifling matter. 
 
 "I got it," said he, "but I really don't understand 
 why you interfere." 
 
 " I interfere because I noticed you were not to be 
 found this morning, and because you were seen at 
 Peterhof Monday." 
 
 "There are matters which cannot be judged except 
 by those who are directly interested, and the matter in 
 which you concern yourself is such." .... 
 
 "Yes ; but when one is not in the service, he...." 
 
 " I beg you to mind your own business, and that is all." 
 
 Alekse'f Vronsky's frowning face grew pale, and his 
 rather prominent lower jaw shook. This happened 
 rarely with him. He was a man of kindly heart, and 
 rarely got angry ; but when he grew angry, and when 
 his chin trembled, he became dangerous. Aleksandr 
 Vronsky knew it, and with a gay laugh replied : 
 
 " I only wanted to give you matushka's letter. An- 
 swer it, and don't get angry before the race. Bonne 
 chance" he added, with a smile, and left him. 
 
 The next moment another friendly greeting surprised 
 Vronsky. 
 
 "Won't you recognize your friends? How are you, 
 man cher?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with his rosy
 
 ANNA KARENINA 253 
 
 face and carefully combed and pomaded whiskers ; in 
 the midst of the brilliant society of Petersburg, he was 
 no less brilliant than at Moscow. " I came down yes- 
 terday, and am very glad to be present at your triumph. 
 When can we meet ? " 
 
 " Come to the mess, after the race is over," said 
 Vronsky ; and with an apology for leaving him, he 
 squeezed the sleeve of his paletot, and went to the 
 middle of the hippodrome, where they were bringing the 
 horses for the handicap-race. 
 
 The grooms were leading back the sweaty horses, 
 wearied by the race which they had run ; and one by 
 one the fresh horses entered for the next course appeared 
 on the ground. They were, for the most part, English 
 horses, in hoods, and well caparisoned, and looked like 
 enormous strange birds. At the right-hand side they 
 were leading in the lean beauty, Frou Frou, which came 
 out, stepping high as if on springs, with her elastic and 
 slender pasterns. And not far from her they were 
 removing the trappings from the lop-eared Gladiator. 
 The stallion's solid, superb, and perfectly symmetrical 
 form, with his splendid crupper and his extraordinarily 
 short pasterns placed directly over the hoofs, attracted 
 Vronsky's admiration. He was just going up to Frou 
 Frou when another acquaintance stopped him again. 
 
 "Ah! there is Karenin," said the friend with whom 
 he was talking ; " he is hunting for his wife. She is in 
 the very center of the pavilion. Have you seen her ? " 
 
 " No, I have not," replied Vronsky ; and, without 
 turning his head in the direction where his acquain- 
 tance told him that Madame Karenin was, he went to 
 his horse. 
 
 He had scarcely time to make some adjustment of 
 the saddle, when those who were to compete in the 
 hurdle-race were called to receive their numbers and 
 directions. With serious, stern, and some with pale 
 faces, seventeen men in all approached the stand and 
 received their numbers. Vronsky's number was seven. 
 
 " Mount ! " was the cry. 
 
 Vronsky, feeling that he, with his companions, was
 
 254 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the focus toward which all eyes were turned, went up 
 to his horse with the slow and deliberate motions which 
 were usual to him when he was under the strain of 
 excitement. 
 
 Cord, in honor of the races, had put on his gala-day 
 costume : he wore a black coat, buttoned to the chin, 
 and a stiffly starched shirt-collar, which made a support 
 for his cheeks; he had on Hessian boots and a round 
 black cap. He was, as always, calm and full of impor- 
 tance, as he stood by the mare's head, holding both 
 reins in his hand. Frou Frou was still shivering as if 
 she had an attack of fever ; her fiery eyes gazed askance 
 at Vronsky as he approached. He passed his finger 
 under the girth of the saddle. The mare looked at him 
 still more askance, showed her teeth, and pricked up 
 her ears. The Englishman puckered up his lips with a 
 grin at the idea that there could be any doubt as to his 
 skill in putting on a saddle. " Mount, and you won't 
 be so nervous," said he. 
 
 Vronsky cast a final glance on his rivals ; he knew 
 that he should not see them again until the race was 
 over. Two of them had already gone to the starting- 
 point. Galtsin, a friend of his, and one of his dangerous 
 rivals, was turning around and around his bay stallion, 
 which was trying to keep him from mounting. A little 
 Leib-hussar in tight cavalry trousers was off on a gal- 
 lop, bent double over his horse, like a cat on the crupper, 
 in imitation of the English fashion. Prince Kuzovlef, 
 white as a sheet, was mounted on a thoroughbred mare 
 from the Grabovsky stud ; an Englishman held it by 
 the bridle. Vronsky and all his comrades knew Kuzo- 
 vlef's terrible self-conceit, and his peculiarity of "weak 
 nerves." They knew that he was timid at everything, 
 especially timid of riding horseback ; but now, notwith- 
 standing the fact that all this was horrible to him, 
 because he knew that people broke their necks, and 
 that at every hurdle stood a surgeon, an ambulance with 
 its cross and sister of charity, still he had made up his 
 mind to ride. 
 
 They exchanged glances, and Vronsky gave him an
 
 ANNA KARENINA 255 
 
 encouraging and approving nod. One only he now 
 failed to see : his most redoubtable rival, Makhotin, on 
 Gladiator, was not there. 
 
 "Don't be in haste," said Cord to Vronsky, "and 
 remember one thing : when you come to a hurdle, don't 
 pull back or spur on your horse ; let her take it her own 
 way." 
 
 "Very good," replied Vronsky, taking the reins. 
 
 " If possible, take the lead, but don't be discouraged 
 even to the last if you are behind." 
 
 The horse did not have time to stir before Vronsky, 
 with supple and powerful movement, put his foot on the 
 notched steel stirrup, and gracefully, firmly, took his 
 seat in the squeaking leather saddle. Having put his 
 right foot in the stirrup, with his customary care he then 
 arranged the double reins between his fingers, and 
 Cord let go the animal's head. Frou Frou, as if not 
 knowing which foot to put down first, stretched out her 
 neck, and pulled on the reins, and she started off as if 
 on springs, balancing her rider on her supple back. 
 Cord, quickening his pace, followed them. The mare, 
 excited, jumped to right and left, trying to take her 
 master off his guard, and pulled at the reins, and Vron- 
 sky vainly endeavored to calm her with his voice and 
 with his hand. 
 
 They were approaching the diked bank of the river, 
 where the starting-post was placed. Some of the riders 
 had gone on ahead, others were riding behind, when 
 Vronsky suddenly heard on the muddy track the gallop 
 of a horse ; and Makhotin dashed by on his white-footed, 
 lop-eared Gladiator. Makhotin smiled, showing his long 
 teeth, but Vronsky looked at him angrily. He did not 
 like Makhotin any too well, and now he regarded him 
 as his most dangerous rival ; and he was exasperated at 
 the way he galloped up behind him, exciting his mare. 
 
 Frou Frou kicked up her heels and started off at a 
 gallop, made two bounds, and then, angry at the re- 
 straint of the curb, changed her gait into a trot which 
 shook up her rider. Cord was also disgusted, and ran 
 almost as fast as Vronsky.
 
 256 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE number of the officers who were to take part 
 was seventeen. The race-course was a great ellipse of 
 four versts, extending before the judges' stand, and nine 
 obstacles were placed upon it : the "river" ; a great bar- 
 rier two arshins four feet, eight inches high, in front 
 of the pavilion ; a dry ditch ; a ditch filled with water ; 
 a steep ascent ; an Irish banketka, which is the most 
 difficult of all, composed of an embankment set with 
 dry branches, behind which is concealed a ditch, oblig- 
 ing the horseman to leap two obstacles at once, at the 
 risk of his life ; then three more ditches, two filled with 
 water and one dry ; and finally the goal opposite the 
 pavilion again. The track did not begin in the circle 
 itself, but about a hundred sashcns, or seven hundred 
 feet, to one side ; and in this space was the first obstacle, 
 the diked "river," about three arshins, or seven feet, 
 wide, which the racers were free to leap or to ford. 
 
 Three times the riders got into line, but each time 
 some horse or other started before the signal, and the 
 men had to be called back. Colonel Sestrin, the starter, 
 was beginning to get impatient ; but at last, for the 
 fourth time, the signal was given, " Pashol ! Go ! " and 
 the riders put spurs to their horses. 
 
 All eyes, all lorgnettes, were directed toward the 
 variegated group of racers as they started off. 
 
 " There they go ! " " There they come ! " was the 
 cry on all sides after the silence of expectation. 
 
 And in order to follow them, the spectators rushed, 
 singly or in groups, toward the places where they could 
 get a better view. At the first moment the collected 
 group of horsemen scattered a little, and it could be 
 seen how they, in twos and threes, and singly, one after 
 the other, approached the "river." To the spectators it 
 seemed as if they were all moving together, but to the 
 racers themselves there were seconds of separation 
 which had great value. 
 
 Frou Frou, excited and too nervous at first, lost the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 257 
 
 first moment, and several of the horses were ahead of 
 her ; but Vronsky, not having yet reached the "river," 
 and trying with all his might to calm her as she pulled 
 on the bridle, soon easily outstripped three, and now 
 had as competitors only Makhotin's chestnut Gladiator, 
 which was easily and smoothly running a whole length 
 ahead, and still more to the fore the pretty Diana, car- 
 rying Prince Kuzovlef, not knowing whether he was 
 dead or alive. 
 
 During these first few seconds Vronsky had control 
 neither of himself nor of his horse. Up to the first ob- 
 stacle, the "river," he could not control the movements 
 of his horse. 
 
 Gladiator and Diana reached it at almost one and the 
 same moment. Both at once rose above the reka, or 
 "river," and flew across to the other side. Frou Frou 
 lightly leaped behind them, as if she had wings. The 
 instant that Vronsky perceived that he was in the air, 
 he caught a glimpse of Kuzovlef almost under the feet 
 of his horse, wrestling with Diana on the other side 
 of the "river." Kuzovlef had loosened the reins after 
 Diana jumped, and the horse had stumbled, throwing 
 him over her head. These details Vronsky learned 
 afterwards, but at this time he only saw that Frou Frou 
 might land on Diana's head or legs. But Frou Frou, 
 like a falling cat, making a desperate effort with back 
 and legs as she leaped, landed beyond the fallen racer. 
 
 " O you dear ! " thought Vronsky. 
 
 After the reka he got full control of his horse, and 
 even held her back a little, meaning to leap the great 
 hurdle behind Makhotin, and to do his best to outstrip 
 him when they reached the long stretch of about two 
 hundred sashcns, or fourteen hundred feet, which was 
 free of obstacles. 
 
 This great hurdle was built exactly in front of the 
 imperial pavilion ; the emperor, the court, and an im- 
 mense throng were watching them, watching him and 
 Makhotin on the horse a length ahead of him, as they 
 approached the chart, or devil, as the barrier was called. 
 Vronsky felt all these eyes fixed on him from every side ; 
 VOL. i. 17
 
 258 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 but he saw only his horse's ears and neck, the ground 
 flying under him, and Gladiator's flanks, and white feet 
 beating the ground in cadence, and always maintaining 
 the same distance between them. Gladiator flew at the 
 hurdle, gave a whisk of his well-cropped tail, and, with- 
 out having touched the hurdle, vanished from Vronsky's 
 eyes. 
 
 " Bravo ! " cried a voice. 
 
 At the same instant the planks of the hurdle flashed 
 before his eyes. Without the least change in her motion, 
 the horse rose under him. The planks creaked and just 
 behind him there was the sound of a thump. Frou Frou, 
 excited by the sight of Gladiator, had leaped too soon, 
 and had struck the hurdle with one of her hind feet, but 
 her gait was unchanged ; and Vronsky, his face splashed 
 with mud, saw that he was still at the same distance 
 from Gladiator, he saw once more Gladiator's crupper, 
 his short tail, and his swiftly moving white feet. 
 
 At the very instant that Vronsky decided that he 
 ought now to get ahead of Makhotin, Frou Frou herself 
 comprehending his thought, and needing no stimulus, 
 sensibly increased her speed, and gained on Makhotin 
 by trying to take the inside track next the rope. But 
 Makhotin did not yield this advantage. Vronsky was 
 wondering if they could not pass on the outside, when 
 Frou Frou, as if divining his thought, changed of her 
 own accord and took this direction. Her shoulder, 
 darkened with sweat, came up even with Gladiator's 
 flank, and for several seconds they flew almost side by 
 side ; but Vronsky, before the obstacle to which they 
 were now coming, in order not to take the outside of 
 the great circle, began to ply his reins, and, just on the 
 declivity, he managed to get the lead. As he drew by 
 Makhotin he saw his mud-stained face ; it even seemed 
 to him that he smiled. Vronsky had passed Makhotin, 
 but he was conscious that he was just behind, he was 
 still there, within a step ; and Vronsky could hear the 
 regular rhythm of Gladiator's feet, and his hurried, but 
 far from winded, breathing. 
 
 The next two obstacles, the ditch and the hurdle, were
 
 ANNA KARENINA 259 
 
 easily passed, but Gladiator's gallop and puffing came 
 nearer, Vronsky gave Frou Frou the spur, and perceived 
 with a thrill of joy that she easily accelerated her speed ; 
 the sound of Gladiator's hoofs was heard once more in 
 the same relative distance behind. 
 
 He now had the lead, as he had desired, and as Cord 
 had recommended, and he felt sure of success. His 
 emotion, his joy, his affection for Frou Frou, were all 
 growing more pronounced. He wanted to look back, 
 but he did not dare to turn around, and he strove to calm 
 himself, and not to push his horse too far, so that she 
 might keep a reserve equal to that which he felt Gladi- 
 ator still maintained. 
 
 One obstacle, the most serious, now remained ; if he 
 cleared that before the others, then he would be first in. 
 He was now approaching the Irish banketka. He and 
 Frou Frou at the same instant caught sight of the ob- 
 stacle from afar, and both, horse and man felt a moment 
 of hesitation. Vronsky noticed the hesitation in his 
 horse's ears, and he was just lifting his whip ; but in- 
 stantly he was conscious that his fears were ungrounded, 
 the horse knew what she had to do. She got her start, 
 and, exactly as he had foreseen, spurning the ground, she 
 gave herself up to the force of inertia which carried her 
 far beyond the ditch ; then fell again into the measure 
 of her pace without effort and without change. 
 
 " Bravo, Vronsky ! " 
 
 He heard the acclamations of the throng. He knew 
 it was his friends and his regiment, who were standing 
 near this obstacle; and he could not fail to distinguish 
 Yashvin's voice, though he did not see him. 
 
 " O my beauty ! " said he to himself, thinking of Frou 
 Frou, and yet listening to what was going on behind 
 him. " He has cleared it," he said, as he heard Gladia- 
 tor's hoof-beats behind him. 
 
 The last ditch, full of water, five feet 1 wide, now was 
 left. Vronsky scarcely heeded it ; but, anxious to come 
 in far ahead of the others, he began to saw on the reins, 
 lifting her head and letting it fall again in time with the 
 
 1 Two arshins, four feet, eight inches. Three arshins make a sazhen.
 
 2 6o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 rhythm of her gait. He felt that the horse was begin- 
 ning to draw on her last reserves ; not only were her 
 neck and her sides wet, but the sweat stood in drops 
 on her throat, her head, and her ears ; her breath was 
 short and gasping. Still, he was sure that she had 
 force enough to cover the fourteen hundred feet that 
 lay between him and the goal. Only because he felt 
 himself nearer the ground, and by the extraordinary 
 smoothness of her motion, did Vronsky realize how 
 much she had increased her speed. The ditch was 
 cleared, how, he did not know. 
 
 She cleared the ditch scarcely heeding it ; she cleared 
 it like a bird. But at this moment Vronsky felt, to his 
 horror, that, instead of taking the swing of his horse, he 
 had made, through some inexplicable reason, a wretch- 
 edly and unpardonably wrong motion in falling back 
 into the saddle. His position suddenly changed, and 
 he felt that something horrible had happened. He 
 could not give himself any clear idea of it ; but there 
 flashed by him a chestnut steed with white feet, and 
 Makhotin by a swift leap passed him. 
 
 One of Vronsky's feet touched the ground, and his 
 horse stumbled. He had scarcely time to clear himself 
 when the horse fell on her side, panting painfully, and 
 making vain efforts with her delicate foam-covered neck 
 to rise again. But she lay on the ground, and strug- 
 gled like a wounded bird ; the awkward movement 
 that he had made in the saddle had broken her back. 
 But he did not learn this till afterwards. Now he 
 saw only one thing, that Makhotin was far ahead, and 
 that he was tottering there alone, standing on the 
 muddy immovable ground, and before him, heavily pant- 
 ing, lay Frou Frou, who stretched her head toward 
 him, and looked at him with her beautiful eyes. Still 
 not realizing what had happened, Vronsky pulled on the 
 reins. The poor animal struggled like a fish, splitting 
 the flaps of the saddle, and tried to get up on her fore 
 legs ; but, unable to move her hind quarters, she fell 
 back on the ground all of a tremble. Vronsky, his face 
 pale and distorted with passion, and with trembling
 
 ANNA KARENINA 261 
 
 lower jaw, kicked her in the belly and again pulled at 
 the reins. But she did not move, but gazed at her 
 master with one of her speaking looks, and buried her 
 nose in the sand. 
 
 " Aaah ! what have I done ? " cried Vronsky, taking 
 her head in his hands. " Aaah ! what have I done ? " 
 And the lost race ! and his humiliating, unpardonable 
 blunder! and the poor ruined horse! "Aaah! what 
 have I done ? " 
 
 The people's doctor and his assistant, the officers of 
 his regiment, ran to his aid ; but to his great mortifica- 
 tion he found that he was safe and sound. The horse's 
 back was broken and she had to be killed. 
 
 Vronsky could not answer the questions which were 
 put to him, could not speak a word to any one ; he turned 
 away and, without picking up his cap, left the hippo- 
 drome, not knowing whither he was going. He was in 
 despair. For the first time in his life he was the victim 
 of a misfortune for which there was no remedy, and for 
 which he felt that he himself was the only one to blame. 
 
 Yashvin, with his cap, overtook him and brought him 
 back to his quarters, and in half an hour Vronsky was calm 
 and self-possessed again ; but this race was for a long 
 time the most bitter and cruel remembrance of his life. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE external relations of Aleksel Aleksandrovitch 
 and his wife were the same as they had been. The 
 only difference was that he was more absorbed in his 
 work than he had been. Early in the spring he went 
 abroad, as was his custom each year, to recuperate at 
 the water-cure after the fatigues of the winter. He re- 
 turned in July, as he usually did, and resumed his duties 
 with new energy. His wife had taken up her summer 
 quarters as usual in a datcJia, or summer villa, not far 
 from Petersburg ; he remained in the city. 
 
 Since their conversation after the reception at the 
 Princess Tverskaya's, he had said nothing more about
 
 262 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 his jealousies or suspicions ; and the tone of raillery 
 habitual with Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch was to the high- 
 est degree useful to him in his present relations with 
 his wife. He was somewhat cooler in his treatment of 
 her, although he seemed to have felt only a slight ill- 
 will toward her after that night's conversation which 
 she had refused to listen to. In his relations to her 
 there was a shade of spite, but nothing more. He 
 seemed to say, " You have not been willing to have an 
 understanding with me ; so much the worse for you. 
 Now you must make the first advances, and I, in my 
 turn, will not listen to you." 
 
 " So much the worse for you," said he in his thought, 
 like a man who should try in vain to put out a fire and 
 should be angry at his vain efforts, and should say, " I 
 have done my best for you ; burn then ! " 
 
 This man, so keen and shrewd in matters of public 
 concern, could not see the absurdity of such behavior to 
 his wife. He did not understand it because it was too 
 terrible to understand his actual position. He preferred 
 to bury the affection which he felt for his wife and child 
 deep in his heart, as in a box locked and sealed. He, 
 a watchful father, had begun toward the end of that 
 winter to be singularly cold toward the child, speaking 
 to him in the same bantering tone that he used toward 
 his wife. When he addressed him he would say, "Ah, 
 young man ! " 
 
 Aleksef Aleksandrovitch thought and declared that 
 he had never had so many important affairs as this year ; 
 but he did not confess that he had himself under- 
 taken them in order to keep from opening his secret 
 coffer which contained his sentiments toward his wife 
 and his family, and his thoughts concerning them, 
 thoughts which grew more and more terrible to him 
 the longer he kept them out of sight. 
 
 If any one had assumed the right to ask him what he 
 thought about his wife's conduct, this calm and pacific 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch would have made no reply, but 
 would have been very indignant with the man who 
 should dare to ask him such a question. And so his
 
 ANNA KARENINA 263 
 
 face always looked stern and haughty whenever any one 
 asked how his wife was. Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch did 
 not wish to think about his wife's conduct and feelings, 
 and therefore he did not think about them. 
 
 The Karenins' summer datcha was at Peterhof ; and the 
 Countess Lidya Ivanovna generally spent her summers 
 in the same neighborhood, keeping up friendly relations 
 with Anna. This year the countess had not cared to go to 
 Peterhof, nor had she once called on Anna Arkadyevna ; 
 and as she was talking with Karenin one day, she made 
 some allusion to the impropriety of Anna's intimacy 
 with Betsy and Vronsky. Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch 
 stopped her harshly, and declared that for him his wife 
 was above suspicion, and from that day he avoided the 
 countess. He did not wish to see and he did not see 
 that many people in society were beginning to give 
 his wife the cold shoulder ; he did not wish to com- 
 prehend and he did not comprehend why his wife es- 
 pecially insisted on going to Tsarskoye, where Betsy 
 lived and from which it was not far to Vronsky's 
 camp. 
 
 He did not allow himself to think about this, and he 
 did not think ; but at the same time, without any proof 
 to support him, without actually acknowledging it to 
 himself, in the depths of his soul he felt that he was a 
 deceived husband ; he had no doubt about it, and he 
 suffered deeply. 
 
 How many times in the course of his eight years of 
 happy married life, as he had seen other men's wives 
 playing them false and other husbands deceived, had he 
 not asked himself, "How did it come to this? Why 
 don't they free themselves at any cost from such an 
 absurd situation ? " But now, when the evil had fallen 
 on his own head, he not only did not dream of extricat- 
 ing himself from his own trouble, but he would not 
 even admit it, would not admit it for the very reason 
 that it was too horrible and too unnatural. 
 
 Since his return from abroad, Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch 
 had gone twice to his wife's datcha, once to dine 
 with her, the other time to pass the evening with some
 
 264 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 guests, but not once had he spent the night, as had 
 been his custom in previous years. 
 
 The day of the races was extremely engrossing for 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch ; but when in the morning he 
 made out the program of the day, he decided to go to 
 his wife's datcha after an early dinner, and thence to 
 the hippodrome, where he expected to find the court, 
 and where it was proper that he should be seen. He 
 went to see his wife because he had resolved, for the 
 sake of propriety also, to visit his wife every week. 
 Moreover, it was the fifteenth of the month, and it was 
 his custom at this time to place in her hands the money 
 for the household expenses. 
 
 With his ordinary power over his thoughts he gave 
 this much consideration to his wife's affairs, but beyond 
 this point he would not permit them to pass. 
 
 His morning had been extremely full of business. 
 The evening before he had received a pamphlet, written 
 by a famous traveler, who had recently returned from 
 China and was now in Petersburg ; a note from the 
 Countess Lidya, accompanying it, begged him to receive 
 this traveler, who seemed likely to be, on many ac- 
 counts, a useful and interesting man. Aleksei' Alek- 
 sandrovitch had not been able to get through the 
 pamphlet in the evening, and he finished it after break- 
 fast. Then came petitions, reports, visits, nominations, 
 removals, the distribution of rewards, pensions, salaries, 
 correspondence, all that " workaday labor," as Aleksei 
 Aleksandrovitch called it, which consumes so much 
 time. 
 
 Then came his private business, a visit from his phy- 
 sician and a call from his steward. The steward did not 
 stay very long. He only brought the money which 
 AlekseK Aleksandrovitch needed, and a brief report on 
 the condition of his affairs, which this year were not 
 very satisfactory, since it happened that in consequence 
 of various outlays there had been a heavy drain upon 
 him and there was a deficit. 
 
 But the doctor, who was a famous physician of 
 Petersburg, and had come into very friendly relations
 
 ANNA KARENINA 265 
 
 with AlekseTf Aleksandrovitch, took considerable time. 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch had not expected him that day 
 and was astonished at his visit, and still more so at the 
 scrupulous care with which he plied him with questions, 
 and sounded his lungs and punched and thumped his 
 liver ; Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch was not aware that his 
 friend, the Countess Lidya, troubled by his abnormal 
 condition, had begged the doctor to visit him and give 
 him a thorough examination. 
 
 " Do it for my sake," said the Countess Lidya Iva- 
 novna. 
 
 " I will do it for the sake of Russia, countess," replied 
 the doctor. 
 
 "Admirable man !" cried the countess. 
 
 The doctor was very much disturbed at Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch's state. His liver was congested, his 
 digestion was bad ; the waters had done him no good. 
 He ordered more physical exercise, as little mental 
 strain as possible, and, above all, freedom from vexation 
 of spirit ; in other words, he ordered Aleksei' Aleksan- 
 drovitch to do what was as impossible for him as not to 
 breathe. 
 
 The doctor departed, leaving Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch 
 with the disagreeable impression that something was 
 very wrong with him, and that there was no help for it. 
 
 On the way out, the doctor met on Karenin's steps 
 his old acquaintance Sliudin, who was Aleksei' Alek- 
 sandrovitch's chief secretary. They had been in the 
 university together ; but, though they rarely met, they 
 were still excellent friends, and therefore to no one else 
 than Sliudin would the doctor have expressed his opinion 
 concerning the sick man so frankly. 
 
 " How glad I am that you have been to see him ! " 
 said Sliudin. " He is not well, and it seems to me... 
 Well, what is it ? " 
 
 " I will tell you," said the doctor, nodding to his 
 coachman to drive up to the door. "This is what I 
 say;" and, taking with his white hand the fingers of 
 his dogskin glove, he stretched it out ; " try to break 
 a tough cord which is not stretched and it 's hard work ;
 
 266 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 but keep it stretched out to its utmost tension, and 
 put the weight of your finger on it, it breaks. Now, 
 with his too sedentary life, and his too conscientious 
 labor, he is strained to the utmost limit ; and besides, 
 there is a violent pressure in another direction," con- 
 cluded the doctor, raising his eyebrows significantly. 
 " Shall you be at the races ? " he added, as he got into 
 his carriage. 
 
 " Yes, yes, certainly ; it takes a good deal of time," 
 he said in reply to something that Sliudin said, and 
 which he did not catch. 
 
 Immediately after the departure of the doctor, who 
 had taken so much time, the celebrated traveler ap- 
 peared ; and Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, aided by the 
 pamphlet which he had just read, and by some pre- 
 vious information which he had on the subject, aston- 
 ished his visitor by the extent of his knowledge and 
 the breadth of his views. 
 
 At the same time the marshal 1 of nobility of his 
 government was announced, who had come to Peters- 
 burg and wanted to talk with him. After his departure 
 he was obliged to settle the routine business with his 
 chief secretary, and finally to go out and make a serious 
 and necessary call on an important personage. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch had only time to get back 
 to his five o'clock dinner with Sliudin, whom he in- 
 vited to join him on his visit to the country and to the 
 races. 
 
 Without exactly accounting for it, AlekseY Aleksan- 
 drovitch always endeavored lately to have a third per- 
 son present when he had an interview with his wife. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 ANNA was in her room standing before a mirror and 
 fastening a final bow to her dress, with Annushka's aid, 
 when the noise of wheels on the gravel driveway was 
 heard. 
 
 1 Gubernsky PredvoJityel.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 267 
 
 " It is too early for Betsy," she thought ; and, looking 
 out of the window, she saw a carriage and in the car- 
 riage Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch's black hat and well- 
 known ears. 
 
 "How provoking! Can he have come for the night ?" 
 she thought ; and all the consequences of his visit 
 seemed to her so terrible, so horrible, that without 
 taking time for a moment of reflection, she went down- 
 stairs, radiant with gayety, to receive her husband; and, 
 feeling in her the presence of the spirit of falsehood and 
 deception which now ruled her, she gave herself up to it 
 and spoke with her husband, not knowing what she said. 
 
 " Ah ! how good of you ! " said she, extending her 
 hand to Karenin, while she smiled on Sliudin as a 
 household friend. 
 
 " You 've come for the night, I hope ? " were her first 
 words, inspired by the demon of untruth ; "and now we 
 will go to the races together. But how sorry I am that 
 I engaged to go with Betsy. She is coming for me." 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch frowned slightly at the name 
 of Betsy. 
 
 "Oh! I will not separate the inseparables," said he, 
 in his light jesting tone. "I will walk with Mikhail 
 Vasilyevitch. The doctor advised me to take exercise ; 
 I will join the pedestrians, and imagine I am still at 
 the Spa." 
 
 "There is no hurry," said Anna. "Will you have 
 some tea ? " 
 
 She rang. 
 
 " Serve the tea, and tell Serozha that Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch has come. Well ! how is your health ? 
 Mikhai'l Vasilyevitch, you have not been out to see us 
 before ; look ! how pleasant it is on the balcony ! " said 
 she, looking now at her husband, now at her guest. 
 
 She spoke very simply and naturally, but too fast and 
 too fluently. She herself felt that it was so, especially 
 when she caught Mikhail Vasilyevitch looking at her with 
 curiosity and perceived that he was studying her. 
 
 Mikhai'l Vasilyevitch got up and went out on the 
 terrace, and she sat down beside her husband.
 
 268 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "You do not look at all well," said she. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! The doctor came this morning, and wasted 
 an hour of my time. I am convinced that some one of 
 my friends sent him. . My health is so precious ...." 
 
 " No, what did he say ? " 
 
 And she questioned him about his health and his 
 labors, advising him to take rest, and to come out into 
 the country, where she was. 
 
 It was all said with gayety and animation, and with 
 brilliant light in her eyes, but Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch 
 attached no special importance to her manner ; he heard 
 only her words, and took them in their literal significa- 
 tion. And he replied simply, though jestingly. The 
 conversation had no special weight, yet Anna never after- 
 ward could remember the whole short scene without the 
 keen agony of shame. 
 
 Serozha came in, accompanied by his governess. If 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch had allowed himself to notice, 
 he would have been struck by the timid manner in 
 which the lad looked at his parents, at his father 
 first, and then at his mother. But he was unwilling to 
 see anything, and he saw nothing. 
 
 "Ah, young man! He has grown. Indeed; he is 
 getting to be a great fellow ! Good-morning, young 
 man ! " 
 
 And he stretched out his hand to the puzzled child. 
 Serozha had always been a little afraid of his father ; 
 but now, since AlekseT Aleksandrovitch had begun to 
 call him "young man," and since he had begun to rack 
 his brains to discover whether Vronsky were a friend or 
 an enemy, he was becoming more timid than ever. He 
 turned to his mother, as if for protection ; he felt at 
 ease only when with her. Meantime Alekse'f Aleksan- 
 drovitch laid his hand on the boy's shoulder, and asked 
 his governess about him ; but the child was so painfully 
 shy of him that Anna saw he was going to cry. 
 
 Anna, who had flushed at the moment her son came 
 in, now noticing that it was awkward for him, quickly 
 jumped up, raised Aleksei Aleksandrovitch's hand to 
 let the boy go, kissed the little fellow, and took him
 
 ANNA KARENINA 269 
 
 out on the terrace. Then she came back to her husband 
 again. 
 
 " It is getting late," she said, consulting her watch. 
 " Why does n't Betsy come ? " .... 
 
 "Oh, yes," said Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, and as he 
 got up he joined his fingers and made them crack. " I 
 came also to bring you some money, for nightingales 
 don't live on songs," said he. " You need it, I sup- 
 pose ? " 
 
 " No, I don't need it .... yes .... I do," said she, not look- 
 ing at him and blushing to the roots of her hair. " Well, 
 I suppose you will come back after the races ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " replied Aleksei Aleksandrovitch. " But 
 here is the glory of Peterhof, the Princess Tverskaya," 
 he added, looking out of the window at a magnificent 
 carriage with a short body set very high and with horses 
 harnessed in the English fashion, drawing up to the 
 entrance; "what elegance! splendid' well, let us go 
 too ! " 
 
 The Princess Tverskaya did not leave her carriage ; 
 her lackey, in top-boots and pelerinka, or short cloak, 
 and wearing a tall hat, leaped to the steps. 
 
 " I am going, good-by," said Anna, and after she had 
 kissed her son, she went to Aleksei Aleksandrovitch 
 and gave him her hand. " It was very kind of you to 
 come." 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch kissed her hand. 
 
 " Well then, da svidanya ! You will come back to 
 tea ? Excellent ! " she said, as she went down the steps, 
 seeming radiant and happy. 
 
 But hardly had she passed from his sight before she 
 felt on her hand the place where his lips had kissed it, 
 and she shivered with repugnance.
 
 270 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 WHEN Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch reached the race- 
 course, Anna was already in her place beside Betsy, in 
 the grand pavilion, where all the highest society was 
 gathered in a brilliant throng. She saw her husband 
 from a distance. Two men, her husband and her lover, 
 were for her the two centers of life, and without the help 
 of her external senses she felt their presence. Even 
 when her husband was at a distance she was conscious 
 of his presence, and she involuntarily followed him in 
 that billowing throng in the midst of which he was 
 coming along. She saw him approach the pavilion, now 
 replying with condescension to ingratiating salutations, 
 then cordially or carelessly exchanging greetings with his 
 equals ; then again assiduously watching to catch the 
 glances of the great ones of the earth, and taking off 
 his large, round hat, which came down to the top of his 
 ears. Anna knew all these mannerisms of salutation, 
 and they were all equally distasteful to her. 
 
 " Nothing but ambition ; craze for success ; it is all 
 that his heart contains," she thought ; " but his lofty 
 views, his love for civilization, his religion, they are 
 only means whereby to win success." 
 
 From the glances that Karenin cast on the pavilion, 
 he was looking straight at his wife, but could not see 
 her in the sea of muslin, ribbons, feathers, flowers, and 
 sunshades Anna knew he was looking for her, but 
 she pretended not to see him. 
 
 " Aleksel Aleksandrovitch," cried the Princess Betsy, 
 " don't you see your wife ? here she is ! " 
 
 He looked up with his icy smile. 
 
 "Everything is so brilliant here, that it blinds the 
 eyes," he replied, as he came up the pavilion. 
 
 He smiled at Anna, as it is a husband's duty to do 
 when he has only just left his wife, greeted Betsy and 
 his other acquaintances, conducting himself in due form, 
 in other words, jesting with the ladies, and exchanging 
 compliments with the men.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 271 
 
 A general-adjutant, well known for his wit and culture, 
 and highly esteemed by Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, was 
 standing below near the pavilion. Alekse'f Aleksan- 
 drovitch joined him, and engaged in conversation. It 
 was the interval between two of the races ; the general- 
 adjutant condemned racing. Aleksei Aleksandrovitch 
 replied and defended them. 
 
 Anna heard his shrill, monotonous voice, and lost not 
 a single word ; and every word that he spoke seemed to 
 her hypocritical and rang unpleasantly in her ear. 
 
 When the four-verst handicap-race began, she leaned 
 forward, not letting Vronsky out of her sight for an 
 instant. She saw him approach his horse, then mount 
 it ; and at the same time she heard her husband's odious, 
 incessant voice. She was tormented with fear for Vron- 
 sky ; but she was tormented still more by the sound of 
 her husband's sharp voice, every intonation of which 
 she knew ; it seemed to her that he would never cease 
 speaking. 
 
 " I am a wicked woman, a lost woman," she thought ; 
 "but I hate falsehood, I cannot endure lies; but to 
 him " meaning her husband " lies are his daily food ! 
 He knows all, he sees everything ; how much feeling 
 has he, if he can go on speaking with such calmness ? 
 I should have some respect for him if he killed me, if 
 he killed Vronsky. But no ! what he prefers above 
 everything is falsehood and conventionality," said Anna 
 to herself, not exactly knowing what she wanted of her 
 husband, whatever she might want him to see. She 
 did not understand that the very volubility of Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, which irritated her so, was only the 
 expression of his interior agitation and anxiety. 
 
 As a child, hurt when jumping, puts its muscles into 
 motion to assuage the pain, so Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch 
 absolutely required some intellectual movement, so as to 
 become oblivious to the thoughts about his wife that 
 arose in his mind at the sight of Anna and at the sight 
 of Vronsky, whose name he heard on all sides. And 
 as it is natural for a child to jump, so for him was it 
 natural to talk tersely and well.
 
 272 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Danger," he was saying, "is an indispensable con 
 dition in these military and cavalry races. If England 
 can show in her history the most glorious deeds of arms 
 performed by her cavalry, she owes it solely to the his- 
 toric development of vigor in her people and her horses. 
 Sport, in my opinion, has a deep significance ; and, as 
 usual, we take it only in its superficial aspect." 
 
 " Not superficial," said the Princess Tverskaya ; " they 
 say that one of the officers has broken two ribs." 
 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch smiled with his smile which 
 only uncovered his teeth and was perfectly expression- 
 less. 
 
 " Let us admit, princess," said he, "that in this case it 
 is not superficial, but serious. 1 But that is not the 
 point ; " and he turned again to the general, and resumed 
 his dignified discourse : 
 
 " You must not forget that those who take part are 
 military men who have chosen this career, and you must 
 agree that every vocation has its reverse side of the 
 medal. This belongs to the calling of war. Such 
 brutal sport as boxing-matches and Spanish bull-fights 
 are indications of barbarism, but specialized sport is a 
 sign of development." 
 
 " No, I won't come another time," the Princess 
 Betsy was saying ; " it is too exciting for me ; don't 
 you think so, Anna ? " 
 
 " It is exciting, but it is fascinating," said another 
 lady; "if I had been a Roman, I should never have 
 missed a single gladiatorial show." 
 
 Anna did not speak, but, with her opera-glass, was 
 gazing intently at a single spot. 
 
 At this moment a tall general came across the 
 pavilion. AlekseY Aleksandrovitch, breaking off his 
 discourse abruptly, arose with dignity, and made a 
 low bow. 
 
 " Are n't you racing ? " asked the general, jestingly. 
 
 " My race is a far more difficult one," replied Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch, respectfully ; and though this answer 
 was not remarkable for its sense, the military man 
 
 1 Vmttrenneye, internal.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 273 
 
 seemed to think that he had received a witty repartee 
 from a witty man, and appreciated la points de la 
 sauce. 
 
 "There are two sides to the question," AlekseT Alek- 
 sandrovitch said, resuming, "that of the participants, 
 and that of the spectators ; and I confess that a love 
 for such spectacles is a genuine sign of inferiority in 
 those that look on, but .... " 
 
 "Princess, a wager," cried the voice of Stepan Ar- 
 kadyevitch from below, addressing Betsy. "Which 
 side will you take ? " 
 
 " Anna and I bet on Prince Kuzovlef," replied Betsy. 
 
 " I am for Vronsky. A pair of gloves." 
 
 "Good!" 
 
 "How jolly! isn't it? " 
 
 AlekseY Aleksandrovitch stopped speaking while this 
 conversation was going on around him, and then he 
 began anew : 
 
 " I confess, unmanly games .... " 
 
 But at this instant the signal of departure was heard, 
 and all conversation ceased. Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch 
 also ceased speaking ; and every one stood up so as 
 to look at the "river." But Aleksel Aleksandrovitch 
 was not interested in the race, and so, instead of 
 watching the riders, looked around the assembly with 
 weary eyes. His gaze fell on his wife. 
 
 Her face was pale and stern. She evidently saw 
 nothing and no one except one person. Her hands 
 convulsively clutched her fan ; she held her breath. 
 Karenin looked at her, then hastily turned away, gaz- 
 ing at the faces of other women. 
 
 " There is another lady very much moved, and still 
 another just the same ; it is very natural," said Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch to himself. He did not wish to look 
 at her ; but his gaze was irresistibly drawn to her face. 
 He once more gazed into her face, trying not to read 
 in it what was so plainly pictured on it, and against 
 his will he read, with feelings of horror, all that he 
 had tried to ignore. 
 
 When Kuzovlef fell at the " river," the excitement 
 VOL. i. 1 8
 
 274 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 was general ; but Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch saw clearly 
 by Anna's pale, triumphant face that he that fell was 
 not the one on whom her gaze was riveted. 
 
 When, after Makhotin and Vronsky crossed the great 
 hurdle, another officer was thrown head first, and was 
 picked up for dead, a shudder of horror ran through 
 the assembly ; but Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch perceived 
 that Anna did not even notice it, and scarcely knew 
 what the people around her were talking about. 
 
 But he kept studying her face, with deeper and 
 deeper attention. Anna, all absorbed as she was in 
 the spectacle of Vronsky's course, was conscious that 
 her husband's cold eyes were on her. She turned 
 around for an instant and looked at him questioningly. 
 Then with a slight frown she turned away. 
 
 " Akh ! it is all the same to me," she seemed to say, 
 as she turned her glass to the race. She did not look 
 at him again. 
 
 The race was disastrous ; out of the seventeen riders, 
 more than half were thrown and hurt. Toward the end 
 the excitement became intense, the more because the 
 emperor was displeased. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 ALL were loudly expressing their dissatisfaction, and 
 the phrase was going the rounds, " Now only the lions 
 are left in the arena ; " and when Vronsky fell, horror 
 was felt by all, and Anna groaned in dismay. In this 
 there was nothing extraordinary. But, from thence on, 
 a change which was positively improper had come over 
 her face, and she entirely lost her presence of mind. 
 She tried to escape, like a bird caught in a snare. 
 Thus she struggled to arise, and to get away ; and 
 then she cried to Betsy: 
 
 " Come, let us go, let us go ! " 
 
 But Betsy did not hear her. She was leaning over, 
 engaged in lively conversation with a general who had 
 just entered the pavilion.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 275 
 
 Alekser Aleksandrovitch hastened to his wife, and 
 courteously offered her his arm. 
 
 " Come, if it is your wish to go," said he, in French ; 
 but Anna was listening eagerly to what the general 
 said, and paid no attention to her husband. 
 
 " He has broken his leg, they say ; but this is not 
 at all likely," said the general. 
 
 Anna did not look at her husband ; but, taking her 
 glass, she gazed at the place where Vronsky had 
 fallen. It was so distant, and the crowd was so dense, 
 that she could not make anything out of it. She 
 dropped her binocle, and started to go ; but at that 
 instant an officer came galloping up to make some 
 report to the emperor. Anna leaned forward, and 
 listened. 
 
 " Stiva ! Stiva ! " she cried to her brother. 
 
 He did not hear her. 
 
 She again made an effort to leave the pavilion. 
 
 " I again offer you my arm, if you wish to go," re- 
 peated Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, touching her hand. 
 
 Anna drew back from him with aversion, and replied 
 without looking at him : 
 
 " No, no ; leave me ; I am going to stay." 
 
 She now saw an officer riding at full speed across the 
 race-course from the place of the accident to the pavilion. 
 Betsy beckoned to him with her handkerchief ; the offi- 
 cer brought the news that the rider was uninjured but 
 the horse had broken her back. 
 
 When she heard this, Anna quickly sat down, and hid 
 her face behind her fan. Aleksel Aleksandrovitch 
 noticed, not only that she was weeping, but that she 
 could not keep back the tears or even control the sobs 
 that heaved her bosom. He stepped in front of her to 
 shield her from the public gaze and give her a chance 
 to regain her self-command. 
 
 " For the third time I offer you my arm," said he. 
 turning to her at the end of a few moments. 
 
 Anna looked at him, not knowing what to say. The 
 Princess Betsy came to her aid. 
 
 " No, Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch. I brought Anna, and
 
 276 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 I will be responsible for bringing her home," said Betsy, 
 interfering. 
 
 " Excuse me, princess," he replied, politely smiling, 
 and looking her full in the face ; " but I see that she is 
 not well, and I wish her to go with me." 
 
 Anna looked round in terror, and, rising hastily, took 
 her husband's arm. 
 
 "I will send to inquire for him, and let you know," 
 whispered Betsy. 
 
 As Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch left the pavilion with his 
 wife, he spoke in his ordinary manner to all whom he 
 met, and Anna was forced to listen and to reply as 
 usual ; but she was not herself, and as in a dream she 
 passed along on her husband's arm. 
 
 " Is he killed, or not ? Can it be true ? Will he 
 come ? Shall I see him to-day ? >; she asked herself. 
 
 In silence she got into Alekseif Aleksandrovitch's 
 carriage, and she sat in silence as they left the throng 
 of vehicles. In spite of all he had seen, Alekseif Alek- 
 sandrovitch did not allow himself to think of his wife's 
 present attitude. He saw only the external signs. He 
 saw that her deportment had been improper, and he felt 
 obliged to speak to her about it. But it was very diffi- 
 cult not to say more, to say only that. He opened 
 his mouth to tell her how improperly she had behaved ; 
 but, in spite of himself, he said something absolutely 
 different. 
 
 " How strange that we all like to see these cruel 
 spectacles! I notice...." 
 
 " What ? I did not understand you," said Anna, 
 scornfully. 
 
 He was wounded, and instantly began to say what 
 was on his mind. . 
 
 " I am obliged to tell you ...." he began. 
 
 "Now," thought Anna, "comes the explanation ;" and 
 a terrible feeling came over her. 
 
 " I am obliged to tell you that your conduct to-day 
 has been extremely improper," said he, in French, 
 
 "Wherein has my conduct been improper?" she 
 demanded angrily, raising her head quickly, and look-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 277 
 
 ing him straight in the eyes, no longer hiding her feel- 
 ings under a mask of gayety, but putting on a bold 
 front, under which, with difficulty, she hid her fears. 
 
 " Be careful," said he, pointing to the open window 
 behind the coachman's back. 
 
 He leaned forward and raised the pane. 
 
 "What impropriety did you remark?" she asked 
 again. 
 
 " The despair which you took no pains to conceal 
 when one of the riders was thrown." 
 
 He awaited her answer ; but she said nothing, and 
 looked straight ahead. 
 
 " I have already requested you so to behave when in 
 society that evil tongues cannot rind anything to say 
 against you. There was a time when I spoke of your 
 inner feelings ; I now say nothing about them. Now I 
 speak only of outward appearances. You have behaved 
 improperly, and I would ask you not to let this happen 
 again." 
 
 She did not hear half of his words ; she felt over- 
 whelmed with fear ; and she thought only of Vronsky, 
 and whether he was killed. Was it he who was meant 
 when they said the rider was safe but the horse had 
 broken her back ? 
 
 When Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch ceased speaking, she 
 looked at him with an ironical smile, and answered not 
 a word, because she had not noticed what he said. At 
 first he had spoken boldly ; but as he saw clearly what 
 he was speaking about, the terror which possessed her 
 seized him also. He noticed that smile of hers, and it 
 led him into a strange mistake. 
 
 " She is amused at my suspicions ! She is going to 
 tell me now what she once before said, that there is no 
 foundation for them, that this is absurd." 
 
 Now when the discovery of the whole thing hung 
 over him, he desired nothing so much as that she should 
 answer derisively as she had done before, that his sus- 
 picions were ridiculous and had no foundation. What 
 he now knew was so terrible to him that he was ready 
 to believe anything that she might say. But the ex
 
 278 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 pression of her gloomy and frightened face now allowed 
 him no further chance of falsehood. 
 
 "Possibly I am mistaken," said he; "in that case, I 
 beg you to forgive me." 
 
 "No, you are not mistaken," she replied, with meas 
 ured words, casting a look of despair on her husband's 
 icy face. " You are not mistaken ; I was in despair, 
 and I could not help being. I hear you, but I am think- 
 ing only of him. I love him, I am his mistress. I can- 
 not endure you, I fear you, I hate you!.... Do with me 
 what you please ! " 
 
 And, throwing herself into a corner of the carriage, 
 she covered her face with her hands, and burst into tears. 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch did not move, or change the 
 direction of his eyes ; but his whole face suddenly as- 
 sumed the solemn rigidity of a corpse, and this expres- 
 sion remained unchanged throughout the drive to the 
 datcha. As they reached the house, he turned his head 
 to her still with the same expression. 
 
 " So ! but I insist on the preservation of appearances 
 until" and here his voice trembled "I decide on 
 the measures which I shall take to save my honor and 
 communicate them to you." 
 
 He stepped out of the carriage, and assisted Anna 
 out. Then, in presence of the domestics, he shook 
 hands with her, reentered the carriage, and drove back 
 to Petersburg. 
 
 He had just gone, when a lackey from Betsy brought 
 a note to Anna : 
 
 " I sent to Alekse'f Vronsky to learn how he was. 
 He writes me that he is safe and sound, but in despair." 
 
 " Then he will come," she thought. " How well I 
 did to tell him all ! " 
 
 She looked at her watch ; scarcely three hours had 
 passed since she saw him, but the memory of their 
 interview made her heart hot within her. 
 
 "Bozhe moif! how light it is! It is terrible! but I 
 
 love to see his face, and I love this fantastic light 
 
 My husband ! oh ! yes ! ....well! thank God it is all over 
 with him ! "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 279 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 As in all places where human beings congregate, so 
 m the little German village where the Shcherbatskys 
 went to take the waters, there is formed a sort of social 
 crystallization which puts every one in his exact and un- 
 changeable place. Just as a drop of water exposed to 
 the cold always and invariably takes a certain crystalline 
 form, so each new individual coming to the Spa immedi- 
 ately finds himself fixed in the place peculiar to him. 
 
 " Fiirst Schtscherbatzsky sammt Gemahlin und Toch- 
 ter," Prince Shcherbatsky, wife, and daughter, both 
 by the apartments that they occupied, and by their name 
 and the acquaintances that they found, immediately 
 crystallized into the exact place that was predestined to 
 receive them. 
 
 This year a genuine German Fiirstin, or princess, was 
 at the Spa, and in consequence the crystallization of 
 society took place even more energetically than usual. 
 The Russian princess felt called on to present her 
 daughter to the German princess, and the ceremony 
 took place two days after their arrival. Kitty, dressed 
 in a very simple toilet, that is to say, a very elegant 
 summer costume imported from Paris, made a low and 
 graceful courtesy. The Furs tin said : 
 
 " I hope that the roses will soon bloom again in this 
 pretty little face." 
 
 And immediately the Shcherbatsky family found them- 
 selves in the fixed and definite walk in life from which 
 it was impossible to descend. They made the acquain- 
 tance of the family of an English Lady, of a German 
 Grafin, and her son who had been wounded in the late 
 war, of a scientific man from Sweden, and of a M. Canut 
 and his sister. 
 
 But, for the most part, the Shcherbatskys spontane- 
 ously formed social relations among the people from 
 Moscow, among them Marya Yevgenyevna Rtishchevaya 
 and her daughter, whom Kitty did not like because she 
 likewise was ill on account of a love-affair, and a Mos
 
 280 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 cow colonel whom she had seen in society since child- 
 hood, and known by his uniform and his epaulets, and 
 who now, with his little eyes, and his bare neck and 
 flowery cravats, seemed to Kitty supremely ridiculous, 
 and the more unendurable because she could not get rid 
 of him. When they were all established, it became very 
 tiresome to Kitty, the more as her father had gone to 
 Carlsbad, and she and her mother were left alone. She 
 could not interest herself in her old acquaintances, be- 
 cause she knew that she should not find anything novel 
 in them ; and so her principal amusement was in study- 
 ing the people whom she had never seen before. It was 
 in accordance with Kitty's nature to see the best side 
 of people, especially of strangers ; and now, in making 
 her surmises about the persons whom she saw, who 
 they were and what they were like and what relation- 
 ship they bore to one another, she amused herself in 
 imagining the most wonderful and beautiful characters, 
 and found justification for her observations. 
 
 Of all these people, there was one in whom she took 
 a most lively interest : this was a young Russian girl 
 who had come to the baths with a sick Russian lady 
 named Madame Stahl. Madame Stahl belonged to the 
 high nobility ; but she was so ill that she could not 
 walk, and only occasionally, on very fine days, appeared 
 at the baths in a wheeled-chair. But it was rather from 
 pride than illness, as the princess judged, that she 
 failed to make any acquaintances among the Russians. 
 The girl was her nurse ; and, as Kitty remarked, she 
 frequently went to those who were seriously ill, and 
 there were many at the baths, and with the most 
 natural, unaffected zeal, took care of them. 
 
 This young Russian girl, Kitty discovered to her sur- 
 prise, was no relation to Madame Stahl, nor even a hired 
 companion. Madame Stahl called her simply Varenka, 
 but her friends called her " Mademoiselle Varenka." 
 Kitty not only found it extremely interesting to study 
 the relations between this young girl and Madame 
 Stahl, and other persons whom she did not know, but, 
 as often happens, she also felt an unaccountable sym-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 281 
 
 pathy drawing her toward Mademoiselle Varenka ; and, 
 when their eyes met, she imagined that it pleased her also. 
 
 This Mademoiselle Varenka was not only no longer in 
 her first youth, but she seemed like a creature without 
 any youth ; her age might be guessed as either nineteen 
 or thirty. If one analyzed her features, she was rather 
 good-looking in spite of the sickly pallor of her face. 
 If her head had not been rather large, and her figure 
 too slight, she would have been considered handsome ; 
 but she was not one to please men ; she made one think 
 of a beautiful flower, which, though still preserving its 
 petals, was faded and without perfume. There was one 
 other reason why she could not be attractive to men, 
 and that was the fact that she lacked exactly what Kitty 
 had in excess the repressed fire of life and a con- 
 sciousness of her fascination. 
 
 Varenka seemed always absorbed in some important 
 work ; and therefore it seemed she could not take any 
 interest in anything irrelevant. It was this very con- 
 trast to herself that especially attracted Kitty to her. 
 Kitty felt that in her and in her mode of life she might 
 find what she was seeking with so much trouble, an 
 interest in life, the dignity of life outside of the social 
 relationships of young women to young men, which 
 now seemed to Kitty like an ignominious exposure of 
 merchandise waiting for a purchaser. The more she 
 studied her unknown friend, the more convinced she 
 became that this girl was the most perfect creature 
 which she could imagine and the more she longed to 
 become acquainted with her. 
 
 The two girls passed each other many times every 
 day ; and every time they met Kitty's eyes seemed 
 always to ask : " Who are you ? What are you ? Are 
 you not, in truth, the charming person that I imagine 
 you to be? But for Heaven's sake," the look seemed 
 to add, "don't think that I would permit myself to 
 demand your acquaintance ! I simply admire you, and 
 love you." 
 
 "I also love you, and you are very, very charming; 
 and I would love you still better, if I had time," replied
 
 282 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the unknown maiden's look ; and indeed Kitty saw that 
 she was always busy. Either she was taking the chil- 
 dren of a Russian family home from the baths, or carry- 
 ing a plaid for an invalid and wrapping her up in it, 
 or she was trying to divert some irritable sick man, or 
 selecting and buying confections for some other sick 
 persons. 
 
 One morning, soon after the arrival of the Shcher- 
 batskys, two new persons appeared who immediately 
 became the object of rather unfriendly criticism. The 
 one was a very tall, stooping man, with enormous hands, 
 black eyes, at once innocent and terrifying, and wearing 
 an old, ill-fitting, short coat. The other was a pock- 
 marked woman, with a kindly face, and dressed very 
 badly and inartistically. 
 
 Kitty instantly recognized that they were Russians ; 
 and in her imagination set to work constructing a 
 beautiful and touching romance about them. But the 
 princess, learning by the kurliste, or list of arrivals, 
 that this was Nikolai Levin and Marya Nikolayevna, 
 explained to her what a bad man this Levin was, and 
 all her illusions about these two persons vanished. 
 
 The fact that he was Konstantin Levin's brother, 
 even more than her mother's words, suddenly made 
 these two people particularly repulsive to Kitty. This 
 Levin, with his habit of twitching his head, aroused in 
 her an unsurmountable feeling of repulsion. It seemed 
 to her that in his great, wild eyes, as they persistently 
 followed her, was expressed a sentiment of hatred and 
 irony, and she tried to avoid meeting him 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 IT was a stormy day ; the rain fell all the morning, 
 and the invalids with umbrellas thronged the gallery. 
 
 Kitty and her mother, accompanied by the Muscovite 
 colonel playing the elegant in his European overcoat, 
 bought ready-made in Frankfort, were walking on one 
 side of the gallery, in order to avoid Nikolai Levin, who
 
 ANNA KARENINA 283 
 
 was on the other. Varenka, in her dark dress and a 
 black hat with the brim turned down, was walking up 
 and down the whole length of the gallery with a little 
 blind French woman ; each time that she and Kitty 
 met, they exchanged friendly glances. 
 
 " Mamma, may I speak with her ? " asked Kitty, as 
 she happened to be following her unknown friend and 
 noticed that she was approaching the spring, where they 
 might meet. 
 
 " Yes, if you wish it so much. I will inquire about 
 her, and make her acquaintance first," said her mother. 
 "But what do you find especially interesting in her? 
 She is only a lady's companion. If you like, I can 
 speak to Madame Stahl. I knew her belle-sceur" added 
 the princess, proudly raising her head. 
 
 Kitty knew that her mother was vexed because 
 Madame Stahl seemed to avoid making her acquain- 
 tance, and she did not press the point. 
 
 " How wonderfully charming she is! " said she, as she 
 saw Varenka give the blind French lady a glass. " See 
 how lovely and gentle everything is that she does." 
 
 " You amuse me with your engouements" replied the 
 princess. " No, we had better go back," she added, as 
 she saw Levin approaching with Marya and a German 
 doctor, with whom he was speaking in a loud and angry 
 tone. 
 
 As they turned to go back, suddenly they heard, not loud 
 voices, but a cry. Levin had stopped, and was shriek- 
 ing. The doctor was also angry. A crowd was gather- 
 ing around them. The princess and Kitty hurried away, 
 but the colonel joined the throng to find out what the 
 trouble was. After a few moments the colonel came 
 back to them. 
 
 " What was it ? " asked the princess. 
 
 " It is a shame and a disgrace," replied the colonel. 
 "There 's only one thing you need to fear, and that is to 
 meet with Russians abroad. This tall gentleman was 
 quarreling with his doctor, heaped indignities upon him 
 for not attending to him as he wished, and finally he 
 threatened him with his cane. It is simply disgraceful."
 
 284 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Akh ! how unpleasant ! " said the princess. " Well, 
 how did it end ? " 
 
 " Fortunately that .... that girl with a hat like a toad- 
 stool interfered. A Russian, it seems," said the colonel. 
 
 " Mademoiselle Varenka ? " joyously exclaimed Kitty. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! She went quicker than any one else, and 
 took the gentleman by the arm, and led him off." 
 
 "There, mamma!" said Kitty, "and you wonder at 
 my enthusiasm for Varenka ! " 
 
 The next morning Kitty, watching her unknown 
 friend, noticed that Mademoiselle Varenka had the 
 same relations with Levin and Marya as with her other 
 proteges: she joined them and talked with them, and 
 acted as interpreter to the woman, who did not know 
 any language besides her own. 
 
 Kitty again begged her mother even more urgently 
 to let her become acquainted with Varenka ; and though 
 it was unpleasant to the princess to seem to be making 
 advances to the haughty and exclusive Madame Stahl, 
 she made some inquiries about Varenka, and learning 
 enough to satisfy herself that there was no possible 
 harm, though very little that was advantageous, in the 
 proposed acquaintance, she went first to Varenka and 
 introduced herself. 
 
 Choosing a time when Kitty was at the spring, and 
 Varenka was opposite the baker's, the princess went up 
 to her. 
 
 "Allow me to introduce myself," said she, with her 
 dignified smile. " My daughter has taken a great fancy 
 to you. But perhaps you do not know me. I...." 
 
 " It is more than reciprocal, princess," replied Varenka, 
 quickly. 
 
 " What a good thing you did yesterday toward our 
 wretched fellow-countryman," said th'e princess. 
 
 Varenka blushed. 
 
 " I do not remember," she replied. " I don't think I 
 did anything." 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! you saved this Levin from an unpleasant 
 affair." 
 
 " Ah, yes ! sa compagne called me, and I tried to calm
 
 ANNA KARENINA 285 
 
 him ; he is very sick, and dissatisfied with his doctor. 
 I am quite used to this kind of invalids." 
 
 "Oh, yes. I have heard that you live at Mentone 
 with your aunt, Madame Stahl. I used to know her 
 belle-sazur." 
 
 " No, Madame Stahl is not my aunt. I call her 
 maman, but I am no relation to her. I was brought up 
 by her," replied Varenka, again blushing. 
 
 All this was said with perfect simplicity ; and the 
 expression of her pleasing face was so frank and sin- 
 cere, that the princess began to understand why Kitty 
 was so charmed by this Varenka. 
 
 " Well, what is this Levin going to do ? " she asked. 
 
 "He is going away." 
 
 At this moment, Kitty, radiant with pleasure because 
 her mother had made the acquaintance of her unknown 
 friend, came in from the spring. 
 
 " See here ! Kitty, your ardent desire to know Made- 
 moiselle...." 
 
 " Varenka," said the girl, smiling. " Every one calls 
 me so." 
 
 Kitty was flushed with delight, and without speaking 
 long pressed her new friend's hand, which gave no an- 
 swering pressure, but lay passive in hers. Her hand 
 gave no answering pressure, but Mademoiselle Varenka's 
 face shone with a quiet, joyous, though melancholy smile, 
 which showed her large but handsome teeth. 
 
 " I have been longing to know you," she said. 
 
 " But you are so busy ...." 
 
 " Oh ! on the contrary, I have n't anything to do," 
 replied Varenka; but at the same instant she had to 
 leave her new acquaintances because two little Russian 
 girls, the daughters of an invalid, ran to her. 
 
 "Varenka, mamma is calling," they cried. 
 
 And Varenka followed them.
 
 286 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 THE particulars which the princess learned about 
 Varenka's past life, and her relations with Madame 
 Stahl, and about Madame Stahl herself, were as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Madame Stahl had always been a sickly and excitable 
 woman, who was said by some to have tormented the 
 life out of her husband, and by others to have been tor- 
 mented by his unnatural behavior. After she was 
 divorced from her husband, she gave birth to her first 
 child, which did not live ; and Madame Stahl's parents, 
 knowing her sensitiveness, and fearing that the shock 
 would kill her, substituted for the dead child the 
 daughter of a court cook, born on the same night, and 
 in the same house at Petersburg. This was Varenka. 
 Madame Stahl afterwards learned that the child was 
 not her own, but continued to take charge of her, the 
 more willingly as the true parents shortly after died. 
 
 For more than ten years Madame Stahl lived abroad, 
 in the South, never leaving her bed. Some said that 
 she was a woman who had made a public show of her 
 piety and good works ; others said that she was at heart 
 the most highly moral of women, and that she lived only 
 for the good of her neighbor, that she was really what 
 she pretended to be. 
 
 No one knew whether she was Catholic, Protestant, 
 or orthodox ; one thing alone was certain, that she had 
 friendly relations with the high dignitaries of all the 
 churches and of all communions. 
 
 Varenka always lived with Madame Stahl abroad ; 
 and all who knew Madame Stahl knew Mademoiselle 
 Varenka also, and loved her. When she had learned 
 all the particulars, the princess found nothing objection- 
 able in her daughter's acquaintance with Varenka ; the 
 more because Varenka had the most cultivated manners 
 and a fine education ; she spoke French and English 
 admirably, and chief of all she brought from Ma- 
 dame Stahl her regrets that, owing to her illness, she
 
 ANNA KARENINA 287 
 
 was deprived of the pleasure of making the princess's 
 acquaintance. 
 
 After she had once made Varenka's acquaintance, 
 Kitty became more and more attached to her friend, 
 and each day discovered some new charm in her. The 
 princess, having discovered that Varenka sang well, in- 
 vited her to come and give them an evening of music. 
 
 " Kitty plays, and we have a piano ; not a very good in- 
 strument, to be sure, but you would give us a great pleas- 
 ure," said the princess, with her hypocritical smile which 
 was displeasing to Kitty, especially as she knew that 
 Varenka did not want to sing. But Varenka came, that 
 same evening, and brought her music. The princess 
 had invited Marya Yevgenyevna and her daughter, and 
 the colonel. 
 
 Varenka seemed perfectly indifferent to the presence 
 of these people, who were strangers to her, and she went 
 to the piano without being urged. She could not ac- 
 company herself, but in singing she read the notes per- 
 fectly. Kitty, who played very well, accompanied her. 
 
 "You have a remarkable talent," said the princess, 
 after the first song, which Varenka sang beautifully. 
 
 Marya Yevgenyevna and her daughter added their 
 compliments and their thanks. 
 
 " See," said the colonel, looking out of the window, 
 "what an audience you have attracted." 
 
 In fact, a large number of people had gathered in 
 front of the house. 
 
 " I am very glad to have given you pleasure," said 
 Varenka, without affectation. 
 
 Kitty looked at her friend proudly ; she admired her 
 art and her voice and her face, and, more than all, she 
 was enthusiastic over the way in which Varenka made 
 it evident that she took little account of her singing, 
 and was perfectly indifferent to compliments. She 
 simply seemed to say, " Shall I sing some more, or is 
 that enough ? " 
 
 " If I were in her place, how proud I should be ! How 
 happy I should be to see that crowd under the window ! 
 But she seems perfectly unconscious of it. All that
 
 288 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 she seemed to want was not to refuse, but to please 
 maman. What is there about her ? What is it that 
 gives her this power of indifference, this calmness and 
 independence ? How I should like to learn this of her.! " 
 thought Kitty, as she looked into her peaceful face. 
 
 The princess asked Varenka to sing again ; and she 
 sang this time as well as the first, with the same care 
 and the same perfection, standing erect near the piano, 
 and beating time with her thin brown hand. 
 
 The next piece in her music-roll was an Italian aria. 
 Kitty played the introduction, and looked at Varenka. 
 
 " Let us not do that one," said she, blushing. 
 
 Kitty, in alarm and wonder, fixed her eyes on Varenka's 
 face. 
 
 " Well ! another one," she said, hastily turning the 
 pages, and somehow feeling an intuition that the Italian 
 song brought back to her friend some painful association. 
 
 " No," replied Varenka, putting her hand on the notes 
 and smiling, "let us sing this." And she sang it as 
 calmly and coolly as the one before. 
 
 After the singing was over, they all thanked her 
 again, and went out into the dining-room to drink tea. 
 Kitty and Varenka went down into the little garden 
 next the house. 
 
 "You had some association with that song, did you 
 not ?" asked Kitty. "You need not tell me about it," 
 she hastened to add ; " simply say, ' Yes, I have.' ' 
 
 " Why should I not tell you about it ? Yes, there is 
 an association," said Varenka, calmly, and not waiting 
 for Kitty to say anything, " and it is a painful one. I 
 once loved a man, and used to sing that piece to him." 
 
 Kitty with wide-open eyes looked at Varenka meekly,, 
 but did not speak. 
 
 "I loved him, and he loved me also; but his mother 
 was unwilling, and he married some one else. He does 
 not live very far from us now, and I sometimes see him. 
 You did n't think that I also had my romance, did you?" 
 
 And her face lighted up with a rare beauty, and a 
 fire such as Kitty imagined might have been habitual 
 in other days.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 289 
 
 " Why should n't I have thought so ? If I were a 
 man I could never have loved any one else after know- 
 ing you," said Kitty. " What I cannot conceive is, that 
 he was able to forget you, and make you unhappy for 
 the sake of obeying his mother. He could n't have had 
 any heart." 
 
 " Oh, no, he was an excellent man ; and I am not un- 
 happy ; on the contrary, I am very happy Well, shall 
 
 we sing anymore this evening?" she added, starting 
 to go toward the house. 
 
 " How good you are ! how good you are ! " cried 
 Kitty, and stopping her, she kissed her. " If I could 
 only be a bit like you ! " 
 
 " Why should you resemble any one else besides your- 
 self ? You are a good girl as you are," said Varenka, 
 with her sweet and melancholy smile. 
 
 "No, I am not good at all. Now, tell me.... Stay, 
 stay ; let us sit down a little while," said Kitty, draw- 
 ing her down to a settee near by. " Tell me how it can 
 be other than a pain to think of a man who has scorned 
 your love, who has jilted you...." 
 
 " But no, he did not scorn it at all ; I am sure that he 
 loved me. But he was a dutiful son, and ...." 
 
 " Yes, but suppose it had not been for his mother's 
 sake, but simply of his own free will," said Kitty, feeling 
 that she was betraying her secret, and her face, glowing 
 red with mortification, convicted her. 
 
 "Then he would not have behaved honorably, and I 
 should not mourn for him," replied Varenka, perceiving 
 that the supposition concerned, not herself, but Kitty. 
 
 "But the insult !" cried Kitty. "One cannot forget 
 the insult. It is impossible," said she, remembering her 
 own look when the music stopped at the last ball. 
 
 " Whose insult ? You did n't act badly?" 
 
 " Worse than badly, shamefully ! " 
 
 Varenka shook her head, and laid her hand on Kitty's. 
 
 " Well, but why shamefully ? " she asked. " You 
 surely did not tell a man who showed indifference to 
 you that you loved him ? " 
 
 " Certainly not ; I never uttered a word. But he 
 
 VOL. I. 19
 
 290 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 knew it. There are looks, there are ways .... no, no! 
 not if I lived a hundred years should I ever forget it." 
 
 " Now, what is it ? I don't understand you. The 
 question is solely this : do you love him now or not ? " 
 said Varenka, who liked to call things by their right 
 names. 
 
 "I hate him. I cannot forgive myself." 
 
 "But what for?" 
 
 "The shame, the insult." 
 
 " Akh ! if every one were as sensitive as you ! There 
 is never a young girl who does not sometimes feel the 
 same way. It is all such a trifling thing ! " 
 
 "But what, then, is important?" asked Kitty, look- 
 ing at Varenka with astonishment and curiosity. 
 
 " Oh ! many things are important," replied Varenka, 
 with a smile. 
 
 " Yes ; but what ? " 
 
 " Oh ! there are many things more important," re- 
 plied Varenka, not knowing what to say ; but at that 
 moment the voice of the princess was heard from the 
 window : 
 
 " Kitty, it is getting cool ; put on your shawl, or 
 come in." 
 
 "It is time to go," said Varenka, getting up. "I 
 must go and see Madame Berthe ; she asked me to 
 come." 
 
 Kitty held her by the hand, and her eyes, full of 
 passionate, almost supplicating, curiosity, asked her : 
 
 " What is it that is so important that can give such 
 calm ? You know ; tell me." 
 
 But Varenka did not understand the meaning of 
 Kitty's look. She remembered only that she had still 
 to go to see Madame Berthe, and to get home at mid- 
 night for tea with maman. She went back to the 
 room, picked up her music, and, having said good-night 
 to all, started to go. 
 
 " Allow me ; I will escort you," said the colonel. 
 
 " Certainly," said the princess. " How could you go 
 home alone at night ? I was going to send Parasha 
 with you."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Kitty saw that Varenka could hardly keep from smil- 
 ing at the idea that she needed any one to go home 
 with her. 
 
 " No ; I always go home alone, and nothing ever 
 happens to me," said she, taking her hat, and after 
 kissing Kitty again, though she did not tell her " the 
 one important thing," she hurried away with firm steps, 
 her music-roll under her arm, and disappeared in the 
 semi-darkness of the summer night, carrying with her 
 her secret of "what is important" and what gave her 
 her enviable calmness and dignity. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 KITTY also made Madame Stahl's acquaintance, and 
 her relations with this lady and her friendship with 
 Varenka had rrot only a powerful influence on her, but 
 also soothed her grief. 
 
 She found this consolation in the fact that, through 
 this friendship, there opened before her an entirely new 
 world, which had nothing in common with her past, 
 a beautiful, supernal world, from the lofty heights of 
 which she could look down calmly on her past. She 
 discovered that this world, which was entirely apart 
 from the instinctive life which she had hitherto led, 
 was the spiritual life. This life was reached by re- 
 ligion, a religion which had nothing in common with 
 the religion to which Kitty had been accustomed since 
 infancy, a religion which consisted of going to morn- 
 ing and evening service, and to the House of Widows, 1 
 where she met her acquaintances, or of learning by 
 heart Slavonic texts with the parish priest. This was 
 a lofty, mystic religion, united with the purest thoughts 
 and feelings, and believed in not because one was com- 
 manded to do so, but through love. 
 
 Kitty learned all this, but not by words. Madame 
 Stahl talked to her as to a dear child whom she loved 
 as the type of her own youth, and only once did she 
 
 1 Vdovui Dom
 
 292 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 make any allusion to the consolation brought by faith 
 and love for human sorrows, and to the compassion 
 of Christ, who looked on no sorrows as insignificant ; 
 and she immediately changed the subject. 
 
 But in all this lady's motions, in her words, in her 
 heavenly looks, as Kitty called them, and, above all, 
 in the story of her life, which she knew through Va- 
 renka, Kitty discovered "the important thing" which 
 till now had been but a sealed book to her. 
 
 But, lofty as Madame Stahl's character was, touch- 
 ing as was her history, high-minded and affectionate 
 her discourse, Kitty could not help noticing certain 
 peculiarities, which troubled her. One day, for ex- 
 ample, when her relatives were mentioned, Madame 
 Stahl smiled disdainfully; it was contrary to Christian 
 chanty. Another time Kitty noticed, when she met 
 a Roman Catholic dignitary calling on her, that Madame 
 Stahl kept her face carefully shaded by the curtain, and 
 smiled peculiarly. Insignificant as these two incidents 
 were, they gave her some pain, and caused her to doubt 
 Madame Stahl's sincerity. 
 
 Varenka, on the other hand, alone in the world, with- 
 out family connections, without friends, hoping for 
 naught, harboring no ill-will after her bitter disap- 
 pointment, seemed to her absolute perfection. Through 
 Varenka she learned how to forget herself, and to love 
 her neighbor, if she wanted to be happy, calm, and 
 good. And Kitty did wish this. And, when once 
 she learned what was the important thing, Kitty was 
 no longer willing simply to admire, but gave herself 
 up with her whole heart to the new life which opened 
 before her. After the stories which Varenka told her 
 of Madame Stahl and others whom she named, Kitty 
 drew up a plan for her coming life. She decided that, 
 following the example of Aline, Madame Stahl's niece, 
 whom Varenka often told her about, she would visit 
 the unhappy, no matter where she might be living, 
 and that she would aid them to the best of her ability ; 
 that she would distribute the Gospel, read the New 
 Testament to the sick, to the dying, to criminals : the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 293 
 
 thought of reading the New Testament to criminals, 
 as this Aline 'had done, especially appealed to Kitty. 
 But she indulged in these dreams secretly, without 
 telling them to her mother or even to her friend. 
 
 However, while she was waiting to be able to carry 
 out her schemes on a wider scale, it was easy for Kitty 
 to put her new principles in practice at the waters, 
 even then and there at the Spa, where the sick and 
 unhappy are easily found, and she did as Varenka did. 
 
 The princess swiftly noticed that Kitty had fallen 
 under the powerful influence of her engouement with 
 Madame Stahl (as she called it), and particularly with 
 Varenka. She saw that Kitty imitated Varenka, not 
 only in her deeds of charity, but even in her gait, in her 
 speech, in her ways of shutting her eyes. Later she 
 discovered that her daughter was passing through a sort 
 of crisis of the soul quite independent of the influence 
 of her friends. 
 
 The princess saw that Kitty was reading the Gospels 
 evenings in a French Testament loaned her by Madame 
 Stahl, a thing which she had never done before. 
 She also noticed that she avoided her society friends, 
 and gave her time to the sick under Varenka's care, and 
 particularly to the poor family of a sick painter named 
 Petrof. 
 
 Kitty seemed proud to fill, in this household, the 
 functions of a sister of charity. All this was very 
 good; and the princess had no fault to find with it, and 
 opposed it all the less from the fact that Petrof's wife 
 was a woman of good family, and that one day the 
 Fiirstin, noticing Kitty's charitable activity, had praised 
 her, and called her the "ministering angel." All would 
 have been very good if it had not been carried to ex- 
 cess. But the princess saw that her daughter was going 
 to extremes, so she spoke to her about it. 
 
 "// ne faut rien oittrer One must never go to ex- 
 tremes," she said to her. 
 
 But her daughter made no reply ; she only questioned 
 from the bottom of her heart whether one could ever 
 talk about going to extremes in the matter of religion.
 
 294 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 How could there be any possibility of extremes in follow- 
 ing teachings which bid you offer your left cheek when 
 the right has been struck, and to give your shirt when 
 your cloak is taken from you ? But the princess was 
 displeased with this tendency to exaggeration, and she 
 was still more displeased to feel that Kitty was unwill- 
 ing to open her heart to her. In point of fact, Kitty 
 kept secret from her mother her new views and feelings. 
 She kept them secret, not because she lacked affection 
 or respect for her mother, but simply because she was 
 her mother. It would have been easier to confess them 
 to a stranger than to her mother. 
 
 " It is a long time since Anna Pavlovna has been to 
 see us," said the princess one day, speaking of Madame 
 Petrof. " I invited her to come, but she seems of- 
 fended." 
 
 "No, I don't think so, maman" replied Kitty, with a 
 guilty look. 
 
 " You have not been with her lately, have you ? " 
 
 " We planned a walk on the mountain for to-morrow," 
 said Kitty. 
 
 "I see no objection," replied the princess, noticing 
 her daughter's confusion, and trying to fathom the 
 reason. 
 
 That same day Varenka came to dinner and an- 
 nounced that Anna Pavlovna had given up the proposed 
 expedition. The princess noticed that Kitty again 
 blushed. 
 
 " Kitty, has there been anything unpleasant between 
 you and the Petrofs ? " she asked, as soon as they were 
 alone. " Why have they ceased to send their children, 
 or to come themselves ? " 
 
 Kitty replied that nothing had happened, and that she 
 really did not understand why Anna Pavlovna seemed 
 to be angry with her ; and she told the truth. She did 
 not know the reasons for the change in Madame Petrof, 
 but she suspected them, and thus also she suspected a 
 thing which she dared not to confess, even to herself, 
 still less to her mother. This was one of those things 
 which you know, but which are impossible to speak even
 
 ANNA KARENINA 295 
 
 to yourself, so humiliating and painful would it be if 
 you are mistaken. 
 
 Again and again she passed in review all the mem- 
 ories of her relations with this family. She remembered 
 the innocent joy which shone on Anna Pavlovna's 
 honest, round face when they first met ; she remembered 
 their secret discussions to find means to distract the 
 invalid, and keep him from the forbidden work, and to 
 get him out of doors ; the attachment of the youngest 
 child, who called her Moya Kiti, and would not go to 
 bed without her. How beautiful everything was at that 
 time ! Then she remembered Petrof's thin face, his 
 long neck, stretching out from his brown coat ; his thin, 
 curly hair ; his blue eyes, with their questioning look, 
 which she had feared at first ; his painful efforts to seem 
 lively and energetic when she was near ; she recalled 
 the effort that she had to make at first to overcome the 
 repugnance which he, as well as all consumptives, caused 
 her to feel ; and the trouble which she had in finding 
 something to talk with him about. 
 
 She remembered the sick man's humble and timid looks 
 when he saw her, and the strange feeling of compassion 
 and awkwardness which came over her at first, followed 
 by the pleasant consciousness of her charitable deeds. 
 How lovely it all had been ! but it lasted only for a 
 brief moment. Now and for several days there had 
 been a sudden change. Anna Pavlovna received Kitty 
 with pretended friendliness, and did not cease to watch 
 her and her husband. 
 
 Could it be that the invalid's pathetic joy at the sight 
 of her was the cause of Anna- Pavlovna's coolness ? 
 
 "Yes," she said to herself, "there was something 
 unnatural and quite different from her ordinary sweet 
 temper when she said to me, day before yesterday, 
 sharply, 'There! he will not do anything without you; 
 he would not even take his coffee, though he was awfully 
 faint.' 
 
 " Yes ! perhaps it was not agreeable to her when I 
 gave him his plaid. It was such a simple little thing to 
 do ; but he seemed so strange, and thanked me so warmly,
 
 296 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 that I felt ill at ease. And then that portrait of me 
 which he painted so well ; but, above all, his gentle and 
 melancholy look. Yes, yes, it must be so," Kitty re- 
 peated with horror. " No, it cannot be, it must not be ! 
 He is to be pitied so ! " she added, in her secret heart. 
 This suspicion poisoned the pleasure of her new life. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 JUST before their season at the Spa was over, Prince 
 Shcherbatsky rejoined them. He had been to Carlsbad, 
 to Baden, and to Kissingen, with Russian friends, " to 
 get a breath of Russian air," as he expressed it. 
 
 The prince and princess had conflicting ideas in re- 
 gard to living abroad. The princess thought that every- 
 thing was lovely ; and, notwithstanding her assured posi- 
 tion in Russian society, while she was abroad she put 
 on the airs of a European lady which she was not, for 
 she was in every way a genuine Russian baruinya. The 
 prince, on the other hand, considered everything abroad 
 detestable, and the European life unendurable ; and he 
 even exaggerated his Russian characteristics, and tried 
 to be less of a European than he really was. 
 
 He came back emaciated and with drooping sacks 
 under his eyes, but in the happiest spirits ; and his 
 happy frame of mind was still further enhanced when 
 he found that Kitty was on the road to health. 
 
 The accounts that he heard of Kitty's intimacy with 
 Madame Stahl and Varenka, and the princess's de- 
 scription of the moral transformation through which his 
 daughter was passing, rather vexed the prince, awaking 
 in him that feeling of jealousy which he always had in 
 regard to everything that might draw Kitty away from 
 under his influence. He was afraid that she might 
 ascend to regions unattainable to him. But these dis- 
 agreeable presentiments were swallowed up in the sea 
 of gayety and good humor which he always carried with 
 him, and which his sojourn at Carlsbad had increased. 
 
 The day after his arrival, the prince, in his long pale-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 297 
 
 tot, and with his Russian wrinkles and his puffy cheeks 
 standing out above his stiffly starched collar, went in 
 the very best of spirits with Kitty to the spring. 
 
 The morning was beautiful. The neat, gay houses, 
 with their little gardens, the sight of the German ser- 
 vants, with their red faces and red arms, happily work- 
 ing, the brilliant sun, everything filled the heart with 
 pleasure. But as they came nearer to the spring they 
 met more and more invalids, whose lamentable appear- 
 ance contrasted painfully with the trim and beneficent 
 German surroundings. 
 
 For Kitty the bright sunlight, the vivid green of the 
 trees, the sounds of the music, all formed a natural 
 framework for these well-known faces, whose changes 
 for better or worse she had been watching. But for 
 the prince there was something cruel in the contrast 
 between this bright June morning, the orchestra play- 
 ing the latest waltz, and especially the sight of these 
 healthy-looking servants, and the miserable invalids, 
 from all the corners of Europe, dragging themselves 
 painfully along. 
 
 In spite of the return of his youth which the prince 
 experienced, and the pride that he felt in having his 
 favorite daughter on his arm, he confessed to a sense 
 of shame and awkwardness in walking along with his 
 firm step and his vigorous limbs. 
 
 " Introduce me, introduce me to your new friends," 
 said he to his daughter, pressing her arm with his elbow. 
 " I am beginning to like your abominable Soden for the 
 good which it has done you. Only it is melancholy for 
 you. Who is this ? " 
 
 Kitty told the names of the acquaintances and 
 strangers that they met on their way. At the very 
 entrance of the garden they met Madame Berthe and 
 her companion, and the prince was pleased to see the 
 expression of joy on the old Frenchwoman's face at 
 the sound of Kitty's voice. With true French exagger- 
 ation she immediately overwhelmed the prince with 
 compliments, congratulating him on having such a 
 charming daughter, whose merits she praised to the
 
 298 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 skies, declaring to her face that she was a treasure, a 
 pearl, a ministering angel. 
 
 "Well! she must be angel number two," said the 
 prince, gallantly, "for she calls Mademoiselle Varenka 
 angel number one." 
 
 " Oh ! Mademoiselle Varenka is truly an angel, 
 Alles" said Madame Berthe, vivaciously. 
 
 They met Varenka herself in the gallery. She 
 hastened up to them, carrying an elegant red bag. 
 
 " Here is papa," said Kitty. 
 
 Varenka made the prince a simple and natural saluta- 
 tion, almost like a courtesy, and without any false 
 modesty immediately entered into conversation with 
 him as she conversed with every one, without restraint 
 or affectation. 
 
 "Of course I know you, know you very well al- 
 ready," said the prince, with a pleasant expression that 
 made Kitty see that her friend pleased her father. 
 " Where were you going so fast ? " 
 
 " Maman is here," she replied, turning to Kitty. 
 " She did not sleep all night, and the doctor advised her 
 to take the air. I have brought her work." 
 
 " So that is angel number one ? " said the prince, 
 when Varenka had gone. 
 
 Kitty saw that he had intended to rally her about her 
 friend, but had refrained because her friend had pleased 
 him. "Well, let us go and see them all," said he, 
 " all your friends, even Madame Stahl, if she will deign 
 to remember me." 
 
 "But did you ever know her, papa?" asked Kitty, 
 with fear, as she saw an ironical flash in her father's 
 eyes as he mentioned Madame Stahl. 
 
 " I knew her husband, and I knew her a little, before 
 she joined the Pietists." 
 
 "What are Pietists, papa?" asked Kitty, troubled 
 because such a nickname was given to what in Madame 
 Stahl she valued so highly. 
 
 " I myself do not know much about them. I only 
 know_ this, that she thanks God for everything, even 
 for her tribulations, and, above all, she thanks God
 
 ANNA KARENINA 299 
 
 because her husband is dead. Now, that is comical, 
 because they did not live happily together. But who is 
 that ? What a melancholy face ! " he added, seeing an 
 invalid sitting in a shop in cinnamon-colored paletot, 
 with white pantaloons making strange folds around his 
 emaciated legs. This gentleman had raised his straw 
 hat, and bared his sparse curly hair and high sickly 
 forehead, on which showed the red line made by the 
 brim. 
 
 "That is Petrof, a painter," replied Kitty, with a 
 blush ; " and there is his wife," she added, indicating 
 Anna Pavlovna, who, at their approach, had evidently 
 made the excuse of running after one of their children 
 playing in the street. 
 
 " Poor fellow ! and what a pleasant face he has ! " 
 said the prince. "But why did you not go to him? He 
 seemed anxious to speak to you." 
 
 " Well, let us go back to him," said Kitty, resolutely 
 turning about. " PJow do you feel to-day ? " she asked 
 of Petrof. 
 
 Petrof arose, leaning on his cane, and looked timidly 
 at the prince. 
 
 "This is my daughter," said the prince; "allow me 
 to make your acquaintance." 
 
 The painter bowed and smiled, showing teeth of 
 strangely dazzling whiteness. 
 
 "We expected you yesterday, princess," said he to 
 Kitty. 
 
 He staggered as he spoke ; and to conceal the fact 
 that it was involuntary, he repeated the motion. 
 
 " I expected to come, but Varenka told me that Anna 
 Pavlovna sent word that you were not going." 
 
 " That we were n't going ? " said Petrof, troubled, and 
 beginning to cough. Then, looking toward his wife, he 
 called hoarsely, " Annetta ! Annetta ! " while the great 
 veins on his thin white neck stood out like cords. 
 
 Anna Pavlovna drew near. 
 
 " How did you send word to the princess that we 
 were not going ? " he demanded angrily, in a whisper. 
 
 " Good-morning, princess," said Anna Pavlovna, with
 
 300 
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 a constrained smile, totally different from her former 
 effusiveness. "Very glad to make your acquaintance," 
 she added, addressing the prince. " You have been 
 long expected, prince." 
 
 " How could you have sent word to the princess that 
 we were not going ? " again demanded the painter, in his 
 hoarse whisper, and still more irritated because he could 
 not express himself as he wished. 
 
 " Oh, good heavens ! I thought that we were not 
 going," said his wife, testily. 
 
 " How?.... when ? " .... 
 
 He coughed, and made a gesture of despair with his 
 hand. 
 
 The prince raised his hat, and went away with his 
 daughter. 
 
 "Oh ! okh !" he said, with a deep sigh. "Oh, these 
 poor creatures ! " 
 
 "Yes, papa," said Kitty; "and you must know that 
 they have three children, and no servant, and almost no 
 means. He receives a pittance from the Academy," 
 she continued eagerly, so as to conceal the emotion 
 caused by the strange change in Anna Pavlovna, in 
 her behavior to her. "Ah, there is Madame Stahl ! " 
 said Kitty, directing his attention to a wheeled-chair, in 
 which was lying a human form, wrapped in gray and 
 blue, propped up by pillows, and shaded by an umbrella. 
 It was Madame Stahl. A solemn and sturdy German 
 laborer was pushing her chair. Beside her walked a light- 
 complexioned Swedish count, whom Kitty knew by sight. 
 Several people had stopped near the wheeled-chair, and 
 were gazing at this lady as if she were some curiosity. 
 
 The prince approached her, and Kitty instantly noticed 
 in her father's eyes that ironical gleam which had 
 troubled her before. He went up to Madame Stahl, 
 and addressed her in that excellent French which so 
 few Russians nowadays are able to speak, and was ex- 
 tremely polite and friendly. 
 
 " I do not know whether you still recollect me, but 
 it is my duty to bring myself to your remembrance, in 
 order that I may thank you for your kindness to my
 
 ANNA KARENINA 301 
 
 daughter," said he, taking off his hat, and holding it 
 in his hand. 
 
 "Prince Aleksandr Shcherbatsky ! " said Madame 
 Stahl, looking at him with her heavenly eyes, in which 
 Kitty detected a shade of dissatisfaction. " I am very 
 glad to see you ; I love your daughter so ! " 
 
 " Your health is not always good ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I am pretty well used to it now," replied 
 Madame Stahl ; and she presented the prince to the 
 Swedish count. 
 
 " You have changed very little," said the prince to 
 her, "during the ten or twelve years since I had the 
 honor of seeing you." 
 
 " Yes. God gives the cross, and gives also the power 
 to carry it. I often ask myself why my life is so pro- 
 longed Not like that," she said crossly, to Varenka, 
 
 who had not succeeded in putting her plaid over her 
 shoulders to her satisfaction. 
 
 " For doing good, without doubt," said the prince, 
 with laughing eyes. 
 
 "It is not for us to judge," replied Madame Stahl, 
 observing the gleam of irony in the prince's face. 
 
 " I pray you send me that book, dear count. I will 
 thank you a thousand times," said she, turning to the 
 young Swede. 
 
 "Ah!" cried the prince, who had just caught sight 
 of the Muscovite colonel standing near ; and, bowing to 
 Madame Stahl, he went away with his daughter and the 
 Muscovite colonel, who had joined him. 
 
 " This is our aristocracy, prince ! " said the colonel, 
 with sarcastic intent, for he also was piqued because 
 Madame Stahl refused to be friendly. 
 
 " Always the same," replied the prince. 
 
 " Did you know her before her illness, prince, that 
 is, before she became an invalid ? " 
 
 " Yes ; she became an invalid after I knew her." 
 
 "They say that she has not walked for ten years. " .... 
 
 " She does not walk because one leg is shorter than 
 the other. She is very baclly put together. " .... 
 
 " Papa, it is impossible," cried Kitty.
 
 302 
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Evil tongues say so, my dear ; and your friend 
 Varenka ought to see her as she is. Oh, these invalid 
 ladies ! " 
 
 " Oh, no, papa ! I assure you, Varenka adores her," 
 cried Kitty, eagerly; "and besides, she does so much 
 good ! Ask any one you please. Every one knows her 
 and Aline Stahl." 
 
 " Maybe," replied her father, pressing her arm gently ; 
 " but it would be better when people do such things 
 that no one should know about it." 
 
 Kitty was silent, not because she had nothing to say, 
 but she was unwilling to reveal her inmost thoughts 
 even to her father. 
 
 There was one strange thing, however : decided though 
 she was not to unbosom herself to her father, not to 
 let him penetrate into the sanctuary of her reflections, 
 she nevertheless was conscious that her ideal of holiness, 
 as seen in Madame Stahl, which she had for a whole 
 month carried in her soul, had irrevocably disappeared, 
 as a face seen in a garment thrown down by chance 
 disappears when one really sees how the garment is 
 lying. She retained only the image of a lame woman 
 who, because she was deformed, stayed in bed, and who 
 tormented the patient Varenka because she did not 
 arrange her plaid to suit her. And it became impossi- 
 ble for her imagination to bring back to her the remem- 
 brance of the former Madame Stahl. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 THE prince's gayety and good humor were contagious ; 
 his household and acquaintances, and even their Ger- 
 man landlord, felt it. 
 
 When he came in with Kitty, from the springs, the 
 prince invited the colonel, Marya Yevgenyevna and her 
 daughter, and Varenka, to luncheon, and had the table 
 and chairs brought out under the chestnut trees in the 
 garden, and there the guests were served. The landlord 
 and his domestics were filled with zeal under the influ-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 303 
 
 ence of his good spirits. They knew his generosity ; 
 and before half an hour was over a sick Hamburg doc- 
 tor, who had rooms on the upper floor, was looking down 
 with envy on the happy group of hearty Russians sitting 
 under the chestnut trees. 
 
 Under the flickering shade of the sun-flecked leaves sat 
 the princess, in a bonnet trimmed with lilac ribbons, pre- 
 siding over the table spread with a white cloth, whereon 
 were placed the coffee-service, the bread, butter, cheese, 
 and cold game ; she was distributing cups and tarts. 
 At the other end of the table sat the prince, eating 
 with good appetite, and talking with great animation. 
 He had spread out in front of him his purchases, 
 carved boxes, jackstraws, paper-cutters of all kinds, 
 which he had brought back from all the places where 
 he had been ; and he was distributing them around to 
 all, including Lieschen the maid, and the landlord, with 
 whom he joked in his comically bad German, assuring 
 him that it was not the waters that had cured Kitty, 
 but his excellent cuisine, and particularly his prune soup. 
 
 The princess laughed at her husband for his Russian 
 peculiarities ; but never, since she had been at the Spa, 
 had she been so gay and lively. The colonel, as always, 
 was amused at the prince's jests ; but he agreed with 
 the princess on the European question, which he im- 
 agined that he understood thoroughly. The good 
 Marya Yevgenyevna laughed at every good thing that 
 the prince said ; and even Varenka, to Kitty's great 
 astonishment, laughed till she was tired, with unde- 
 monstrative but infectious hilarity awakened by the 
 prince's jests. This was something Kitty had never 
 known to happen before. 
 
 All this delighted Kitty, but she could not free her- 
 self from mental agitation ; she could not resolve the 
 problem which her father had unintentionally given her 
 by his jesting, humorous attitude toward her friends 
 and the life which offered her so many attractions. 
 Moreover, she could not help puzzling herself with the 
 reasons for the change in her relations with the Pe- 
 trofs, which had struck her that day so plainly and dis-
 
 3 o 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 agreeably. All the rest were gay, but Kitty could not 
 be gay, and this still more annoyed her. She experi- 
 enced a feeling analogous to that which she had known 
 in her childhood, when, as a punishment for some offense, 
 she was shut up in her room and heard the gay merri- 
 ment of her sisters. 
 
 "Now, why did you purchase this heap of things?" 
 asked the princess, smiling and offering her husband a 
 cup of coffee. 
 
 "You go out for a walk, well! and you come to a 
 shop, and they address you, and say, ' Erlaucht, Excel- 
 lent, DurcJilaucJit!' Well, when they say Durcklancht, 1 
 I cannot resist any longer, and my ten thalers vanish." 
 
 " It was merely because you were bored," said the 
 princess. 
 
 " Certainly I was bored ! It was ennui which one 
 does not know how to escape from." 
 
 " But how can you be bored ? There are so many 
 interesting things to see in Germany now," said Marya 
 Yevgenyevna. 
 
 "Yes! I know all which is interesting just at the 
 present time : I know soup with prunes, I know pea- 
 pudding, I know everything." 
 
 " Just as you please, prince, but their institutions are 
 interesting," said the colonel. 
 
 " Yes ! but what is there interesting about them ? 
 They are as contented as copper kopeks. They have 
 whipped the world ! Now, why should I find anything 
 to content me here ? I never conquered anybody ; but 
 I have to take off my boots myself, and, what is worse, 
 put them out myself in the corridor. In the morning 
 I get up, and have to dress myself, and go down to the 
 dining-room and drink execrable tea. 'T is n't like that 
 at home. There you can get up when you please ; if 
 you are out of sorts, you can grumble ; you have all the 
 time you need for remembering things, and you can do 
 whatever you please without hurrying." 
 
 "But time is money; you forget that," said the 
 colonel. 
 
 1 Durchlaucht, highness.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 305 
 
 "That depends. There are whole months which you 
 would sell for fifty kopeks, and half-hours which you 
 would not take any amount of money for. Is n't that 
 so, Katenka ? But why are you so solemn ? " 
 
 " I am not, papa." 
 
 "Where are you going? Stay a little longer," said 
 the prince to Varenka. 
 
 "But I must go home," said Varenka, rising, and 
 laughing gayly again. After she had excused herself, 
 she took leave of her friends, and went into the house 
 to get her hat. 
 
 Kitty followed her. Even Varenka seemed to her 
 friend changed. She was not less good, but she was 
 different from what she had imagined her to be. 
 
 " Akh ! it is a long time since I have laughed so 
 much," said Varenka, as she was getting her parasol 
 and her satchel. "How charming your papa is!" 
 
 Kitty did not answer. 
 
 " When shall I see you again ? " asked Varenka. 
 
 " Maman wanted to go to the Petrofs'. Are you 
 going to be there ? " asked Kitty, trying to sound 
 Varenka. 
 
 " I am going to be there," she replied. " They are 
 expecting to leave, and I promised to help them pack." 
 
 "Well, then I will go with you." 
 
 " No ; why should you ? " 
 
 " Why not ? why not ? why not ? " asked Kitty, open- 
 ing her eyes very wide, and holding Varenka by her 
 sunshade. "Wait a moment, and tell me why not." 
 
 " ' Why not ? ' Because your papa has come, and 
 because they are vexed at you." 
 
 " No ; tell me honestly why you don't like to have 
 me go to the Petrofs'. You don't like it ; why is 
 it?" 
 
 " I did n't say so," replied Varenka, calmly. 
 
 " I beg you to tell me." 
 
 " Must I tell you all ? " 
 
 "All, all," replied Kitty. 
 
 " Well ! There is really nothing very serious ; only 
 Mikhail Alekseyevitch that was Petrofs name a 
 VOL. i. 20
 
 306 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 short time ago wanted to leave even before this, and now 
 he does not want to go at all," replied Varenka, smiling. 
 
 "Well, well!" cried Kitty, looking at Varenka with 
 a gloomy expression. 
 
 " Now for some reason Anna Pavlovna imagines that 
 he does not want to go because you are here. Of 
 course this was unfortunate ; but you have been the 
 unwitting cause of a family quarrel, and you know how 
 irritable these invalids are." 
 
 Kitty grew still more melancholy, and kept silent ; 
 and Varenka went on speaking, trying to smooth it 
 over, and put things in a better light, though she fore- 
 saw that the result would be either tears or reproaches, 
 she knew not which. 
 
 "So it is better for you not to go there ....and you 
 will not be angry.... " 
 
 " But it was my fault, it was my fault," said Kitty, 
 speaking rapidly, and snatching Varenka's parasol away 
 from her, and not looking at her. 
 
 Varenka was amused at her friend's childish anger, 
 but she was afraid of offending her. 
 
 " How is it your fault ? I don't understand ! " 
 
 " My fault because it was all pretense, it was all 
 hypocrisy, and because it did not come from the heart. 
 What business had I to meddle in the affairs of a stran- 
 ger? And so I have been the cause of a quarrel, and 
 I have been doing what no one asked me to do, simply 
 because it was all hypocrisy, hypocrisy," said she. 
 
 " But why do you call it hypocrisy? " asked Varenka, 
 gently. 
 
 " Akh ! How stupid, how wretched ! It was none of 
 
 my business Hypocrisy ! " mechanically opening and 
 
 shutting the sunshade. 
 
 " But it was your idea ? " 
 
 " So as to seem better to others, to myself, to God, 
 to deceive every one. No, I will not fall so low again. 
 I may be wicked, but at least I will not be a liar and 
 deceiver ! " 
 
 " But who is a liar ? " asked Varenka, in a reproachful 
 tone. " You speak as if .... "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 307 
 
 But Kitty was thoroughly angry, and did not let her 
 finish. 
 
 " I am not speaking of you, not of you at all. You 
 are perfection. Yes, yes ; I know that you are all per- 
 fection. How can I help it ? .... I am wicked ; this 
 would not have occurred, if I had not been wicked. So 
 let me be what I am, but I will not be deceitful. What 
 have I to do with Anna Pavlovna ? Let them live as 
 they want to, and I will do the same. I can't be some- 
 body else Besides, everything is different.... " 
 
 " What is ' different ' ? " asked Varenka, in perplexity, 
 
 " Everything ! I can only live by my heart, but you 
 live by your principles. I like you all ; but you have 
 had in view only to save me, to convert me." 
 
 "You are not fair," said Varenka. 
 
 " I am not speaking for other people. I only speak 
 for myself." 
 
 "Kitty!" cried her mother's voice, "come here and 
 show papa your corals." 
 
 Kitty, with a haughty face and not making it up with 
 her friend, took the box with the corals from the table 
 and carried it to her mother. 
 
 " What is the matter ? why are you so flushed ? " 
 asked her father and mother with one voice. 
 
 "Nothing; lam coming right back;" and she hur- 
 ried back to the house. 
 
 "She is still there," she thought; "what shall I tell 
 her ? Bozhe moi' ! what have I done ? what have I said? 
 Why did I hurt her feelings ? What have I done ? what 
 shall I say to her ? " she asked herself, as she hesitated 
 at the door. 
 
 Varenka, with her hat on and her parasol in her hand, 
 was sitting by the table, examining the spring, which 
 Kitty had broken. She raised her head. 
 
 "Varenka, forgive me," whispered Kitty, coming up 
 to her. " Forgive me, I don't know what I said. I .... " 
 
 " Truly, I did not mean to cause you pain," said 
 Varenka, smiling. 
 
 Peace was made. 
 
 But her father's coming had changed for Kitty the
 
 308 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 whole world in which she lived. She did not give up 
 what she had learned, but she confessed that she had 
 been under an illusion by believing that she was what 
 she had dreamed of being. She awoke as it were from 
 a dream. She felt all the difficulty of staying without 
 hypocrisy and boastfulness on the heights to which she 
 had tried to raise herself ; moreover, she felt still more 
 vividly all the weight of that world of misfortunes, of 
 illnesses, of those who surrounded her, and she was tor- 
 mented by the efforts which she had made to interest 
 herself in them ; and she began to long to breathe the 
 purer, healthier atmosphere of Russia at Yergushovo, 
 where Dolly and the children had gone, as she learned 
 from a letter that had just come. 
 
 But her love for Varenka had not diminished. When 
 she went away, she begged her to come and visit them 
 in Russia. 
 
 " I will come when you are married," said she. 
 
 "I shall never marry." 
 
 "Well, then I shall never come." 
 
 "Well, in that case, I shall get married only for 
 your sake. Don't forget your promise," said Kitty. 
 
 The doctor's prophecies were realized. Kitty came 
 home to Russia perfectly well ; possibly she was not 
 as gay and careless as before, but her calmness was 
 restored. The pains of the past were only a memory. 
 
 END OF VOL. L
 
 LEVIN AND KITTY. 
 
 Original Drawing by E. Boyd Smith.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 VOL. II
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 PART THIRD 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SERGYEI JVANOVITCH KOZNUISHEF wanted 
 a rest after his intellectual labors ; and, instead of 
 going abroad as usual, he came, toward the end of May, 
 to visit his brother in the country. In his opinion, coun- 
 try life was best of all, and he came now to his brother's 
 to enjoy it. Konstantin Levin was very glad to welcome 
 him, the more because this sumrner he did not expect 
 his brother Nikolai'. But in spite of his love and respect 
 for Sergyei' Ivanovitch, Konstantin was not at his ease 
 with him in the country. He was not at his ease, he 
 was even annoyed to see how his brother regarded the 
 country. For Konstantin Levin the country was the 
 place for life, for pleasures, sorrows, labor. For Ser- 
 gyei Ivanovitch the country, on the one side, offered 
 rest from labor, on the other, a profitable antidote against 
 corruption, and he took it gladly, convinced of its utility. 
 For Konstantin Levin the country was beautiful because 
 it offered field for works of incontestable utility. For 
 SergyeT Ivanovitch the country was especially delightful 
 because there was nothing he could do, or needed to do 
 there, at all. 
 
 Moreover, Sergyef Ivanovitch's behavior toward the 
 people somewhat piqued Konstantin. Sergyeif Ivano- 
 vitch said that he loved and knew the people ; and he 
 often chatted with the muzhiks as he was fully able to 
 do, without pretense and without affectation, and dis- 
 covered, in his interviews with them, traits of character 
 honorable to the people, so that he felt convinced that 
 VOL. n. i i
 
 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 he knew them thoroughly. Such relations with the 
 people displeased Konstantin Levin. For him the peas- 
 antry was only the chief factor in associated labor ; and 
 though he respected the muzhik, and, as he himself said, 
 drew in with the milk of the woman who nursed him a 
 genuine love for them, still he, as a factor associated 
 with them in the general labors, while sometimes ad- 
 miring their strength, their good nature, their sense of 
 justice, very often when in the general work of the 
 estate other qualities were needed, flew into a passion 
 with the peasantry for their carelessness, slovenliness, 
 drunkenness, untruthfulness. If he had been asked 
 whether he liked the people, he would really have not 
 known what reply to make. He liked and he did not 
 like the people as the majority of men did. Of course 
 as a good man he liked men more than he disliked 
 them ; and so it was with the peasantry. But to like or 
 not to like the peasantry, as something out of the com- 
 mon, was an impossibility to him, because he not only 
 lived with the peasantry, because not only were his in- 
 terests bound up with those of the peasantry, but also 
 he looked on himself as a part of the people, saw no 
 qualities or faults in the people that he did not himself 
 possess, and could not take his stand contrary to the 
 people. Moreover, although he had long lived in the 
 closest relationship with his muzhiks as their landlord, 
 their mediator, and, what was more, their adviser, for 
 the muzhiks had faith in him, and came to him from 
 forty versts around to ask his advice, he passed no 
 definite judgment on them ; and to the question, did 
 he know the people, he would have found it as hard 
 to find an answer as to the question, did he like the 
 people. 
 
 But to say that he knew the peasantry would have 
 meant in his opinion the same as to say that he knew 
 men. He was constantly admiring and studying all 
 kinds of men, and among them, men from among the 
 peasantry whom he considered to be fine and interest- 
 ing specimens of humanity, and he was all the time 
 discovering in them new characteristics, and chang-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 3 
 
 ing and revising his preconceived theories regarding 
 them. 
 
 Sergye! Ivanovitch was the opposite. Just exactly as 
 he liked and enjoyed the country life for its contrariety 
 to that which he did not like, so he liked the peasantry 
 for their contrariety to that class of men which he did 
 not like, and in exactly the same way he knew the 
 people as beings opposed to men in general. His 
 methodical mind clearly differentiated the definite forms 
 of life among the peasantry, deducing it partly from 
 the life of the peasantry itself, but principally from 
 its contrarieties. He never changed his opinions in 
 regard to the people and his sympathetic relationship 
 to them. 
 
 In the discussions which arose between the brothers 
 in consequence of their divergence of views, Sergyel 
 Ivanovitch always won the victory because he had defi- 
 nite opinions concerning the people, their character, 
 peculiarities, and tastes ; while Konstantin Levin, cease- 
 lessly modifying his, was easily convicted of contradict- 
 ing himself. 
 
 SergyeY Ivanovitch looked on his brother as a splen- 
 did fellow, whose heart was bicn plact, as he expressed 
 it in French, but whose mind, though quick and active, 
 was open to the impressions of the moment, and, there- 
 fore, full of contradictions. With the condescension of 
 an elder brother, he sometimes explained to him the real 
 meaning of things ; but he could not take genuine pleas- 
 ure in discussing with him, because his opponent was so 
 easy to vanquish. 
 
 Konstantin Levin looked on his brother as a man of 
 vast intelligence and learning, endowed with extraordi- 
 nary faculties, most advantageous to the community at 
 large ; but as he advanced in life, and learned to know 
 him better, he sometimes asked himself, in the secret 
 chambers of his heart, if this devotion to the general 
 interests, which he felt that he himself entirely lacked, 
 was really a good quality, or rather a lack of something 
 not a lack of good-natured, upright, benevolent wishes 
 and tastes, but the lack of the motive power of life,
 
 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 which is called "heart," of that impulse which con- 
 strains a man to choose one out of all multitudes of 
 paths which life offers to men, and to desire this alone. 
 The better he knew his brother, the more he remarked 
 that Sergyei' Ivanovitch and many other workers for the 
 common good were not drawn by their affections to this 
 work, but that they used their reason to justify them- 
 selves in the interest they took in it. 
 
 Levin was still further confirmed in this hypothesis 
 by the observation that his brother did not really take 
 much more to heart the questions concerning the com- 
 mon good and the immortality of the soul than those 
 connected with a game of chess or the ingenious con- 
 struction of a new machine. 
 
 Again Levin felt, also, constraint with his brother 
 from the fact that while he was in the country, and es- 
 pecially in the summer-time, he was all the time busy 
 with his work on the estate. The days seemed to him 
 too short for him to accomplish all that he wanted to 
 do, while his brother was taking his ease. But, though 
 Sergyel Ivanovitch was enjoying his vacation, in other 
 words, was riot working at his writing, he was so used to 
 intellectual activity, that he enjoyed expressing in beau- 
 tiful, concise form the thoughts that occurred to him, 
 and he liked to have some one listen to him. His most 
 habitual and most natural auditor was his brother, and 
 therefore, notwithstanding the friendly simplicity of 
 their relations, Konstantin felt awkward to be alone with 
 him. Sergyei Ivanovitch liked to lie on the grass, in the 
 sun, stretched out at full length, and to talk lazily. 
 
 " You would n't believe," he would say to his brother, 
 " how I enjoy this tufted idleness. I have not an idea 
 in my head ; it is empty as a shell." 
 
 But Konstantin Levin quickly wearied of sitting down 
 and hearing him talk especially because he knew that 
 in his absence they were spreading the manure on the 
 unplowed field, and would be up to God knows what 
 mischief, unless he should be on hand to superintend this 
 work ; he knew that they would not screw up the cutters 
 in his plows, but would be taking them off and then
 
 ANNA KARENINA $ 
 
 say that plows were foolish devices, and that Andreyef's 
 sokha l did the work, and the like. 
 
 " Don't you ever get weary going about so in this 
 heat?" asked Sergyei' Ivanovitch. 
 
 " No. Only I must run over to the office for a min- 
 ute," said Levin ; and he hurried across the field. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY in June, Agafya Mikhaflovna, the old nurse 
 and ckonomka, or housekeeper, in going down cellar with 
 a pot of salted mushrooms, slipped and fell, and dislo- 
 cated her wrist. 
 
 The district doctor, a loquacious young medical stu- 
 dent who had just taken his degree, came, and, after 
 examining the arm, declared that it was not out of joint. 
 During dinner, proud of finding himself in the society 
 of the distinguished Sergyei' Ivanovitch Koznuishef, he 
 began to relate all the petty gossip of the district in 
 order to display his enlightened views of things ; and he 
 expressed his regrets at the bad condition of provincial 
 affairs. 
 
 Sergyei Ivanovitch listened attentively, asking various 
 questions ; and animated by the presence of a new hearer, 
 he made keen and shrewd observations, which were re- 
 ceived by the young doctor with respectful appreciation, 
 and his spirits rose high, which, as his brother knew, 
 was liable to be the case with him after a lively and brill- 
 iant conversation. 
 
 After the doctor's departure he expressed his desire 
 to go to the river and fish. He was fond of fishing, 
 and seemed to take pride in showing that he could 
 amuse himself with such a stupid occupation. Kon- 
 stantin had to go to certain fields and meadows, and 
 offered to take his brother in his cabriolet as far as the 
 river. 
 
 1 The picture by Repin represents Count Tolstoi plowing with the primi- 
 tive sokha. Levin's peasantry call the plow (plug) vnidumka pustaya, 
 " empty invention."
 
 6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 It was the time of the year, the very top of the sum. 
 mer, when the prospects of harvest may be estimated, 
 when the labors of the next year's planting begin to be 
 thought of, and the mowing-time has come ; when the rye 
 is already eared and sea-green in color, but still not fully 
 formed ; when the ears of corn swing lightly in the breeze ; 
 when the green oats, with scattered clumps of yellow 
 grass, peep irregularly from the late-sown fields; when 
 the early buckwheat already is up and hides the soil; 
 when the fallow fields, beaten as hard as stone by the 
 cattle and with paths deserted, on which the sokha, or 
 primitive plow, has no effect, are half broken up ; when 
 the odor of the dry manure, heaped in little hillocks over 
 the fields, mingles at twilight with the perfume of the 
 "honey-grass," 1 and on the bottom lands, waiting for 
 the scythe, stand the protected meadows like a bound- 
 less sea with the darkening clumps of sorrel that has 
 done blooming. 
 
 It was the time when there is a brief breathing-spell 
 before the harvest, that great event which the muzhik 
 with eagerness expects each year. The crops promised 
 to be superb ; and there was a succession of bright, clear 
 summer days, followed by short, dewy nights. 
 
 The two brothers had to go through the woodland to 
 reach the fields. Sergyei' Ivanovitch was all the time 
 admiring the beauty of the forest with its dense canopy 
 of leaves, and he pointed out to his brother, as they rode 
 along, now an old linden almost in flower, dark on its 
 shady side and variegated with yellow stipules ; now at 
 the emerald-shining young shoots of that same year; 
 but Konstantin did not himself like to speak or to hear 
 about the beauties of nature. Words, he thought, spoiled 
 the beauty of the thing that he saw. He assented to 
 what his brother said, but allowed his mind to concern 
 itself with other things. After they left the wood, his 
 whole attention was absorbed by a fallow field on a 
 hillock, where in some places the grass was growing 
 yellow, where in others whole squares of it had been 
 cut, and in others raked up into haycocks, and where in 
 
 1 Holcus mollis, soft-grass.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 7 
 
 still other places the men were plowing. The carts 
 were thronging up toward the field. Levin counted 
 them, and was satisfied 'with the work which was going 
 on. 
 
 His thoughts were diverted, by the sight of. the 
 meadows, to the question of haymaking. He always 
 experienced something which went to his very heart at 
 the hay-harvesting. When they reached the meadow 
 Levin stopped his horse. The morning dew was still 
 damp on the thick grass, and Sergyei Ivanovitch begged 
 his brother, in order that he might not wet his feet, to 
 drive him in his cabriolet as far as a clump of laburnums 
 near which perch were to be caught. Though Levin 
 disliked to trample down his grass, he drove over through 
 the field. The tall grass clung round the wheels and 
 the horse's legs, and scattered its seed on the damp 
 spokes and naves. 
 
 Sergyei sat down under the laburnums, and cast his 
 line, but Levin drove the horse aside, fastened him, and 
 then went off through the vast green sea of the meadow 
 unstirred by a breath of wind. The silky grass with 
 its ripe seeds was almost waist-high in the places that 
 had been overflowed. 
 
 As Konstantin Levin crossed the meadow diagonally, 
 he met on the road an old man with one of his eyes 
 swollen, and carrying a swarming-basket full of bees. 
 
 " Well ? Have you caught them, Fomitch ? " he asked. 
 
 " Caught them indeed, Konstantin Mitritch ! If only 
 I could keep my own ! This is the second time this 
 swarm has gone off, .... but, thanks to the boys ! they 
 galloped after 'em ! .... They 're plowing your fields. 
 They unhitched the horse and dashed off after 'em!" .... 
 
 " Well, what do you say, Fomitch, should we begin 
 mowing or wait ? " 
 
 " Just as you say ! According to our notions we should 
 wait till St. Peter's Day. 1 But you always mow earlier. 
 Well, just as God will have it the grass is in fine con- 
 dition. There '11 be plenty of room for the cattle." 
 
 " And what do you think of the weather ? " 
 
 1 The feast of St. Peter and St. Paul is June 29 (O.S.), or July II.
 
 8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 44 Well, all is in- the hand of God. Maybe the weathei 
 will hold." 
 
 Levin returned to his brother. 
 
 Though he had caught nothing, SergyeY Ivanovitch 
 was .undisturbed, and seemed in the best of spirits. 
 Levin saw that he was stimulated by his talk with the 
 doctor, and that he was eager to go on talking. Levin, 
 on the contrary, was anxious to get back to the house 
 as soon as possible to give some orders about hiring 
 mowers for the next day, and to decide the question 
 about the haymaking which occupied all his thoughts. 
 " Well," said he, " shall we go ? " 
 
 " What is your hurry ? Do let us sit down. But how 
 drenched you are ! .... No, I have had no luck, but I have 
 enjoyed it all the same. All outdoor sports are beautiful 
 because you have to do with nature. Now just notice 
 how charming that steely water is ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " These meadow banks," he went on to say, "always 
 remind me of an enigma, do you know ? ' The grass 
 says to the river, " We have strayed far enough, we have 
 strayed far enough." ' 
 
 " I don't know that riddle," interrupted Konstantin, 
 in a melancholy tone. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 " Do you know, I was thinking about you," said 
 Sergyef Ivanovitch. " It is not well at all, what is 
 going on in your district, if that doctor tells the truth ; 
 he is not a stupid fellow. And I have told you all 
 along, and I say to-day, you are wrong in not going to 
 the assembly-meetings and in generally holding aloof 
 from the affairs of the commune. If men of standing 
 don-'t take an interest in affairs, God knows how things 
 will turn out. The taxes we pay will be spent in salaries, 
 and not for schools, or hospitals, or midwives, or pharma- 
 cies, or anything." 
 
 " But I have tried it," replied Levin, faintly and
 
 ANNA KARENINA 9 
 
 unwillingly. " I can't do anything. What is to be 
 done about it ? " 
 
 " Now, why can't you do anything ? I confess I don't 
 understand it. I cannot admit that it is indifference or 
 lack of intelligence ; is n't it simply laziness ? " 
 
 " It is not that, or the first or the second. I have 
 tried it, and I see that I cannot do anything," said 
 Levin. 
 
 He was not paying great heed to what his brother 
 said, but was looking intently across the fields on the 
 other side of the river. He saw something black, but 
 he could not make out whether it was only a horse, or 
 his overseer on horseback. 
 
 "Why can't you do anything? You have made an 
 experiment, and it does not turn out to your satisfaction, 
 and you give up. Why not have a little pride about 
 you?" 
 
 " Pride ? " said Levin, touched to the quick by his 
 brother's reproach. " I don't see what that has to do 
 with it. If at the university they had told me that 
 others understood the integral calculus, but I did not, 
 that would have touched my pride ; but here one must 
 be convinced in advance that one needs special apti- 
 tude for these things, and first of all that these things 
 are very important." 
 
 " What ! do you mean to say that they are not impor- 
 tant ? " asked Sergyei' Ivanovitch, in his turn touched to 
 the quick because his brother seemed to attach so little 
 importance to what so deeply interested him, and more 
 than all because he apparently gave him such poor 
 attention. 
 
 " What you wish does not seem to me important, and 
 I cannot feel interested in it," replied Levin, who now 
 saw that the black speck was the overseer, and that the 
 overseer was probably taking some muzhiks from their 
 work. They had canted over their plows. " Can they 
 have finished plowing ? " he asked himself. 
 
 " Now, listen ! nevertheless," said his brother, his 
 handsome intellectual face growing a shade darker. 
 " There are limits to everything. It is very fine to be an
 
 io ANNA KARENINA 
 
 original and outspoken man, and to hate falsehood, 
 all that I know ; but the fact is, what you say has no 
 sense at all, or has a very bad sense. How can you 
 think it unimportant that this people, which you love, 
 as you assert.... " 
 
 " I never asserted any such thing," said Konstantin 
 Levin to himself. 
 
 " That this people should perish without aid ? Coarse 
 peasant women act as midwives, and the people remain 
 in ignorance, and are at the mercy of every letter-writer. 
 But the means is given into your hands to remedy all 
 this ; and you don't assist them, because, in your eyes, 
 it is not important." 
 
 And Sergyei' Ivanovitch offered him the following di- 
 lemma : 
 
 " Either you are not developed sufficiently to see all 
 that you might do, or you do not care to give up your 
 own comfort, or your vanity, I don't know which, in 
 order to do this." 
 
 Konstantin Levin felt that he must make a defense, 
 or be convicted of indifference for the public weal, and 
 this was vexatious and offensive to him. 
 
 " Ah ! but there is still another thing," he said reso- 
 lutely. " I do not see how it is possible .... " 
 
 " What ! impossible to give medical aid if the funds 
 were watched more closely?" 
 
 " Impossible it seems to me In the four thousand 
 
 square versts of our district, with our floods, snow-storms, 
 and busy seasons, I don't see the possibility of giving pub- 
 lic medical aid. Besides, I don't much believe in medi- 
 cine, anyway." .... 
 
 " Well now, what nonsense ! you are unjust I could 
 
 name you a thousand cases .... well, but how about 
 schools ? " 
 
 " Why schools ? " 
 
 " What do you say ? Can you doubt the advantages 
 of education ? If it is good for you, then it is good for 
 every one ! " 
 
 Konstantin Levin felt that he was morally pushed to 
 the wall ; and so he grew irritated, and involuntarily
 
 ANNA KARENINA n 
 
 revealed the chief reason for his indifference to the 
 communal affairs. 
 
 " Maybe all this is a good thing," said he ; "but why 
 should I put myself out to have medical dispensaries 
 located which I shall never make use of, or schools 
 where I shall never send my children, and where the 
 peasants won't want to send their children, and where I 
 am not sure that it is wise to send them, anyway ? " 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch for a moment was disconcerted by 
 this unexpected way of looking at the matter ; but he 
 immediately developed a new plan of attack. He was 
 silent, pulled in one cvf his lines and wound it up ; then 
 with a smile he turned to his brother : 
 
 " Now, excuse me In the first place, the dispensary 
 
 has proved necessary. Here, we ourselves have just 
 sent for the communal doctor for Agafya Mikhai'lovna." 
 
 "Well, I still think her wrist was out of joint." 
 
 "That remains to be proved In the next place, the 
 
 muzhik who can read is a better workman, and more 
 useful to you." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " replied Konstantin Levin, resolutely. 
 " Ask any one you please, they will tell you that the 
 educated muzhik is far worse as a laborer. He will not 
 repair the roads ; and, when they build bridges, he will 
 only steal the planks." 
 
 " Now, that is not the point," said Sergye'f, frowning 
 because he did not like contradictions, and especially 
 those that leaped from one subject to another, and kept 
 bringing up new arguments without any apparent con- 
 nection, so that it was impossible to know what to say 
 in reply. " That is not the point. Excuse me. Do 
 you admit that education is a benefit to the peasantry?" 
 
 " I do," said Levin, at haphazard, and instantly he 
 saw that he had not said what he thought. He realized 
 that, by making this admission, it would be easy to 
 convict him of speaking nonsense. How it would be 
 brought up against him he did not know ; but he knew 
 that he would surely be shown his logical inconsequence, 
 and he awaited the demonstration. It came much sooner 
 than he expected.
 
 12 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "If you admit its value," said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, 
 " then, as an honest man, you cannot refuse to delight 
 in this work and sympathize with it, and give it your 
 cooperation." 
 
 " But I still do not admit that this activity is good," 
 said Konstantin Levin, his face flushing. 
 
 " What ? But you just said ...." 
 
 " That is, I don't say that it is bad, but that it is not 
 possible." 
 
 " But you can't know this, since you have not made 
 any effort to try it." 
 
 "Well, let us admit that the education of the people 
 is advantageous," said Levin, although he did not in 
 the least admit it. " Let us admit that it is so ; still I 
 don't see why I should bother myself with it." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " Well, if we are going to discuss the question, then 
 explain it to me from your philosophical point of view." 
 
 " I don't see what philosophy has to do here," retorted 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch, in a tone which seemed to cast some 
 doubt on his brother's right to discuss philosophy; and 
 this nettled Levin. 
 
 " This is why," said he, warmly. " I think that the 
 motive power in all our actions is forever personal hap- 
 piness. Now, I see nothing in our provincial institu- 
 tions that contributes to my well-being as a nobleman. 
 The roads are not better, and cannot be made so. My 
 horses carry me, even on bad roads. The doctor and 
 the dispensary are no use to me. The justice of the 
 peace does me no good ; I never went to him, and never 
 shall go to him. The schools seem to me not only use- 
 less, but, as I have said, are even harmful ; and these 
 communal institutions oblige me to pay eighteen kopeks 
 a desyatin, to go to town, to sleep with bugs, and to 
 hear all sorts of vulgar and obscene talk, but my 
 personal interests are not helped." 
 
 "Excuse me," said Sergyei Ivanovitch, with a smile. 
 " Our personal interests did not compel us to work for 
 the emancipation of the serfs, and yet we worked for it." 
 
 " No," replied Konstantin, with still more animation ;
 
 ANNA KARENINA 13 
 
 "the emancipation of the serfs was quite another affair. 
 It was for personal interest. We wanted to shake off 
 this yoke that hung on the necks of all of us decent 
 people. But to be a member of the council ; to discuss 
 how much the night workman should be paid, and how 
 to lay sewer-pipes in streets where one does not live ; to 
 be a juryman, and sit in judgment on a muzhik who has 
 stolen a ham ; to listen for six hours to all sorts of rub- 
 bish which the defendant and the prosecutor may utter, 
 and, as presiding officer, to ask my old friend, the half- 
 idiotic Aloshka, ' Do you plead guilty, Mr. Accused, of 
 having stolen this ham ?' " .... 
 
 And Konstantin, carried away by his subject, enacted 
 the scene between the president and the half-idiotic Al- 
 oshka. It seemed to him that this was in the line of 
 the argument. 
 
 But Sergyei Ivanovitch shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Nn ! what do you mean by this ? " 
 
 " I only mean that I will always defend with all my 
 powers those rights which touch me, my interests ; 
 that when the policemen came to search us students, and 
 read our letters, I was ready to defend these rights with 
 all my might, to defend my rights to instruction, to lib- 
 erty. I am interested in the military obligation which 
 concerns the fate of my children, of my brothers, and of 
 myself. I am willing to discuss this because it touches 
 me ; but to deliberate on the employment of forty thou- 
 sand rubles of communal money, or to judge the crack- 
 brained Aloshka, I won't do it, and I can't." 
 
 Konstantin Levin discoursed as if the fountains of his 
 speech were unloosed. Sergyei Ivanovitch smiled. 
 
 " Supposing to-morrow you. were arrested ; would you 
 prefer to be tried by the old ' criminal court ' ? " 1 
 
 " But I am not going to be arrested. I am not going 
 to cut any one's throat, and this is no use to me. Now, 
 see here ! " he continued, again jumping to a matter en- 
 tirely foreign to their subject, " our provincial institu- 
 tions, and all that, remind me of the little twigs which 
 on Trinity day we stick into the ground, to imitate a 
 
 1 Ugolovnaya Palata.
 
 i 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 forest. The forest has grown of itself in Europe ; but 
 I cannot on my soul have any faith in our birch sprouts, 
 or water them." 
 
 Sergyei Ivanovitch only shrugged his shoulders again, 
 as a sign of astonishment that birch twigs should be 
 mingled in their discussion, although he understood per- 
 fectly what his brother meant. 
 
 "Excuse me," said he. "That is no way to reason." 
 
 But Konstantin Levin was eager to explain his self- 
 confessed lack of interest in matters of public concern, 
 and he went on to say : 
 
 " I think that there can be no durable activity if it is 
 not founded in individual interest : this is a general, a 
 philosophical truth," said he, laying special emphasis on 
 the word " philosophical," as if he wished to show that he 
 also had the right, as well as any one else, to speak of 
 philosophy. 
 
 Again Sergyei Ivanovitch smiled. " He also," thought 
 he, " has his own special philosophy for the benefit of 
 his inclinations." 
 
 "Well, have done with philosophy," he said. "Its 
 chief problem has been in all times to grasp the indis- 
 pensable bond which exists between the individual inter- 
 est and the public interest. This is not to the point, 
 however. But I can make your comparison fit the case. 
 The little birch twigs have not been merely stuck in, 
 but have been sowed, planted, and it is necessary to 
 watch them carefully. The only nations which can 
 have a future, the only nations which deserve the name 
 of historic, are those which feel the importance and 
 the value of their institutions, and prize them." 
 
 And Sergyei Ivanovitch transferred the question over 
 into the domain of the historico-philosophical, which 
 Konstantin was by no means able to appreciate, and 
 showed him all the erroneousness of his views. 
 
 " As to your distaste for affairs, excuse me if I refer 
 it to our Russian indolence and gentility ; 1 and I trust 
 that this temporary error of yours will pass away." 
 
 Konstantin was silent. He felt himself routed on 
 
 1 Barstvo, Russian rank. The stem appears in the word barin, master.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 15 
 
 every side, but he felt also that his brother had not 
 understood what he wished to say. He did not know 
 exactly whether it was because he did not know how to 
 express himself clearly, or because his brother did not wish 
 to understand him, or whether he could not understand 
 him. He did not try to fathom this question ; but, with- 
 out replying to his brother, he became absorbed in en- 
 tirely different thoughts, connected with his own work. 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch reeled in his last line, he unhitched 
 the horse, and they drove away. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE thought that was absorbing Levin at the time of 
 his discussion with his brother was this : the year be- 
 fore, having come one day to the hay-field, Levin had 
 fallen into a passion with his overseer. He had em- 
 ployed his favorite means of calming himself had 
 taken the scythe from a muzhik and begun to mow. 
 
 He enjoyed the work so much that he had tried it 
 again and again. He had mowed the whole of the 
 lawn in front of his house, and this year early in the 
 spring he had formulated a plan of spending whole 
 days mowing with the muzhiks. 
 
 Since his brother's arrival he had been in doubt: 
 Should he mow or not ? He had scruples about leaving 
 his brother alone for whole days at a time, and he was 
 afraid that his brother would make sport of him on ac- 
 count of this. But as they crossed the meadow, and he 
 recalled the impression that the mowing had made on 
 him, he had almost made up his mind that he would 
 mow. Now after his vexatious discussion with his 
 brother, he again remembered his project. 
 
 " I must have some physical exercise, or my charac- 
 ter will absolutely spoil," he thought, and made up his 
 mind to mow, no matter what his brother or his servants 
 should say. 
 
 That very evening Konstantin Levin went to the office, 
 gave some directions about the work to be done, and
 
 16 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 sent to the village to hire some mowers for the morrow, 
 so as to attack his field at Kalinovo, which was the 
 largest and best. 
 
 " And here, please send my scythe over to Sef, and 
 have him put it in order and bring it back to-morrow ; 
 perhaps I will come and mow too," said he, trying to 
 hide his confusion. 
 
 The overseer smiled, and said : 
 
 " I will obey you slushayu-s." 
 
 Later, at the tea-table, Levin said to his brother : 
 
 " It seems like settled weather. To-morrow I am 
 going to begin mowing." 
 
 " I like this work very much," said Sergyei Ivanovitch. 
 
 " I like it extremely," said Levin. " Last year I 
 myself mowed with the muzhiks, and to-morrow I am 
 going to spend all day at it." 
 
 Sergyei Ivanovitch raised his head, and gazed with 
 astonishment at his brother. 
 
 " What did you say ? Like the muzhiks, all day 
 long ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; it is very enjoyable," said Levin. 
 
 " It is excellent as physical exercise, but can you stand 
 such work ? " asked Sergyei Ivanovitch, without mean- 
 ing to say anything ironical. 
 
 " I have tried it. At first it is hard work, but after- 
 wards you get used to it. I think I shall not leave 
 off.".... 
 
 " Really ! but tell me, how do the muzhiks look at it ? 
 Naturally they make sport because the barin is queer, 
 don't they ? " 
 
 " No, I don't think so ; but this is such pleasant and 
 at the same time hard work, that they don't think about 
 it." 
 
 " But how do you and they do about dinner ? You 
 could hardly have a bottle of Lafitte and a roast turkey 
 sent you out there." 
 
 " No ; I come home while the workmen have their 
 nooning." 
 
 The next morning Konstantin Levin got up earlier 
 than usual ; but his duties about the house detained
 
 ANNA KARENINA 17 
 
 him, and when he came to the mowing-field he found 
 the men had already mowed the first time across. 
 
 From the top of the slope the part of the meadow 
 still in the shade, and already mowed, spread out before 
 him, with its long windrows and the little black heaps 
 of kaftans thrown down by the men when they went by 
 the first time. 
 
 As he drew nearer he saw also the band of muzhiks, 
 some in their kaftans, some in their shirt-sleeves, mov- 
 ing in a long line, and swinging their scythes in unison. 
 He counted forty-two men of them. They were advanc- 
 ing slowly over the uneven bottom-land of the meadow, 
 where there was an old dike. Many of them Levin 
 knew. There was the old round-shouldered Yermil, in 
 a very clean white shirt, wielding the scythe ; there was 
 the young small Vaska, who used to be Levin's coach- 
 man ; there was Sef, also, a little, thin old peasant, 1 who 
 had taught him how to mow. He was cutting a wide 
 swath without stooping, and handling his scythe as if 
 he were playing with it. 
 
 Levin dismounted from his horse, tied her near the 
 road, and went across to Sef, who immediately got a 
 second scythe from a clump of bushes and handed it to 
 him. 
 
 " All ready, barin ; 't is like a razor, cuts of itself," 
 said Sef, with a smile, taking off his cap and handing 
 him the scythe. 
 
 Levin took it and began to try it. The mowers, hav- 
 ing finished their line, were returning one after the other 
 on their track, covered with sweat, but gay and lively. 
 They laughed timidly, and saluted the barin. All of 
 them looked at him, but no one ventured to speak until 
 at last a tall old man, with a wrinkled, beardless face, 
 and dressed in a sheepskin jacket, thus addressed 
 him : 
 
 " Look here, barin, if you put your hand to the rope, 
 you must not let go," said he ; and Levin heard the 
 sound of stifled laughter among the mowers. 
 
 1 Muzhichok, diminutive of muzhik, as muzhik is diminutive of muzh, a 
 man. 
 
 VOL. II. 2
 
 i8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " I will try not to be left behind," he said, as he took 
 his place behind Sef, and waited for the signal to 
 begin. 
 
 " 'Tention ! " cried the old man. 
 
 Sef opened the way, and Levin followed in his track. 
 The grass was short and tough ; and Levin, who had 
 not mowed in a long time, and was confused by the 
 watchful eyes of the men, at first made very bad work 
 of it, though he swung the scythe energetically. Voices 
 were heard behind him : 
 
 " He does not hold his scythe right : the sned is too 
 high. See how he stoops like," said one. 
 
 " Bears his hand on too much," said another. 
 
 " No matter, it goes pretty well," said the head 
 man. 
 
 " Look, he goes at a great rate ! Cuts a wide swath ! 
 .... He '11 get played out. The master is trying it for 
 himself as hard as he can, but look at his row! For 
 such work my brother was beaten once." 
 
 The grass became less tough ; and Levin, listening 
 and making no reply, trying to mow as well as he could, 
 followed Sef. Thus they went a hundred steps. Sef 
 kept on without any intermission, and without showing 
 the least fatigue ; but Levin began by this time to feel 
 terribly and feared that he could not keep it up, he was 
 so tired. 
 
 He was just thinking that he was using his last 
 strength and had determined to ask Sef to rest ; but 
 at this time the muzhik of his own accord halted, 
 bent over, and, taking a handful of grass, began to 
 wipe his scythe, and to whet it. Levin straightened 
 himself up, and with a sigh of relief looked about him. 
 Just behind was a peasant, and he also was evidently 
 tired, because instantly without catching up to Levin he 
 also stopped and began to whet his scythe. Sef whetted 
 his own scythe and Levin's, and they started again. 
 
 At the second attempt it was just the same. Sef ad- 
 vanced a step at every swing of the scythe, without 
 stopping and without sign of weariness. Levin followed 
 him, striving not to fall behind ; but each moment it
 
 ANNA KARENINA 19 
 
 came harder and harder. But, as before, just as he 
 believed himself at the end of his forces, Sef stopped 
 and whetted his scythe. 
 
 Thus they went over the first swath. And this long 
 stretch seemed especially hard for Levin. When the 
 swath was finished and Sef, throwing the scythe over 
 his shoulder, slowly walked back in the tracks made by 
 his heels as he had mowed, and Levin also retraced his 
 steps in the same way, although the sweat stood on his 
 face and dropped from his nose, and all his back was as 
 wet as if he had been plunged in water ; still he felt 
 very comfortable. He was especially glad that he knew 
 now that he could keep up with the rest. 
 
 His pleasure was marred only by the fact that his 
 swath was not good. 
 
 " I will work less with my arms and more with my 
 whole body," he said to himself, carefully comparing 
 Sef's smooth straight swath with his own rough and 
 irregular line. 
 
 The first time, as Levin observed, Sef went very 
 rapidly, apparently wishing to test his barin's endur- 
 ance, and the swath seemed endless. But the succeed- 
 ing swaths grew easier and easier. Still Levin had to 
 exert all his energies .not to fall behind the muzhiks. 
 He had no other thought, no other desire, than to reach 
 the other end of the meadow as soon as the others did, 
 and to do his work as perfectly as possible. He heard 
 nothing but the swish of the scythes, saw nothing but 
 Sef's straight back, plodding on in front of him, and the 
 semicircle described in the grass which fell over, slowly 
 carrying with it the delicate heads of flowers, and then 
 far in front of him the end of the row, where he would 
 be able to get breath. 
 
 Not at first realizing what it was or whence it came, 
 suddenly in the midst of his labors he felt a pleasant 
 sensation of coolness on his shoulders. He looked up 
 at the sky while Sef was plying the whetstone, and he 
 saw an inky black cloud. A heavy shower had come 
 up and the raindrops were falling fast. Some of the 
 muzhiks were putting on their kaftans ; others, like
 
 20 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Levin himself, were glad to feel the rain on their hot, 
 sweaty shoulders. 
 
 The work went on and on. Some of the swaths were 
 long, others were shorter ; here the grass was good, 
 there it was poor. Levin absolutely lost all idea of time 
 and knew not whether it was early or late. In his work 
 a change now began to be visible, and this afforded him 
 vast satisfaction. ' While he was engaged in this labor 
 there were moments during which he forgot what he 
 was doing and it seemed easy to him, and during these 
 moments his swath came out almost as even and per- 
 fect as that done by Sef. But as soon as he became 
 conscious of what he was doing and strove to do better, 
 he immediately began to feel all the difficulty of the 
 work and his swath became poor. 
 
 After they had gone over the field one more time, he 
 started to turn back again ; but Sef halted, and, going 
 to the old man, whispered something to him. Then the 
 two studied the sun. 
 
 " What are they talking about ? and why don't they 
 keep on ? " thought Levin, without considering that the 
 muzhiks had been mowing for more than four hours, and 
 it was time for them to have their morning meal. 
 
 " Breakfast, barin," said the old man. 
 
 "Time, is it? Well, breakfast, then." 
 
 Levin gave his scythe to Sef, and together with the 
 muzhiks, who were going to their kaftans for their bread, 
 he crossed the wide stretch of field, where the mown 
 grass lay lightly moistened by the shower, and went to 
 his horse. Then only he perceived that he had made a 
 false prediction about the weather, and that the rain had 
 wet his hay. 
 
 "The hay will be spoiled," he said. 
 
 " No harm done, barin ; mow in the rain, rake in the 
 sun," said the old man. 
 
 Levin unhitched his horse and went home to take 
 coffee. 
 
 SergyeY Ivanovitch had just got up ; before he was 
 dressed and down in the dining-room, Konstantin was 
 back to the field again.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 21 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 AFTER breakfast, Levin took his place in the line not 
 where he had been before, but between the quizzical old 
 man, who asked him to be his neighbor, and a young 
 muzhik who had been married only since autumn and 
 was now mowing for the first time. 
 
 The old man, standing very erect, mowed straight 
 on, with long, regular strides ; and the swinging of the 
 scythe seemed no more like labor than the swinging 
 of his arms when walking. His well-whetted scythe 
 cut, as it were, of its own energy through the succulent 
 grass. 
 
 Behind Levin came the young Mishka. His pleasant, 
 youthful face, under a wreath of green grass which bound 
 his hair, worked with the energy that employed the rest 
 of his body. But when any one looked at him, he would 
 smile. He would rather die than confess that he found 
 the labor hard. 
 
 Levin went between the two. 
 
 The labor seemed lighter to him during the heat of 
 the day. The sweat in which he was bathed refreshed 
 him ; and the sun, burning his back, his head, and his 
 arms bared to the elbow, gave him force and tenacity 
 for his work. More and more frequently the moments 
 of oblivion, of unconsciousness of what he was doing, 
 came back to him ; the scythe went of itself. Those 
 were happy moments. Then, still more gladsome were 
 the moments when, coming to the river where the wind- 
 rows ended, the old man, wiping his scythe with the 
 moist, thick grass, rinsed the steel in the river, then, 
 dipping up a ladleful of the cool water, gave it to 
 Levin. 
 
 " This is my kvas ! It "s good, is n't it ? " he exclaimed, 
 winking. 
 
 And, indeed, it seemed to Levin that he had never 
 tasted any liquor more refreshing than this lukewarm 
 water, in which grass floated, and tasting of the rusty 
 tin cup. Then came the glorious slow promenade,
 
 22 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 when, with scythe on the arm, there was time to wipe 
 the heated brow, fill the lungs full, and glance round at 
 the long line of haymakers, and the busy work that had 
 been accomplished in field and forest. 
 
 The longer Levin mowed, the more frequently he 
 felt the moments of oblivion, when his hands did not 
 wield the scythe, but the scythe seemed to have a self- 
 conscious body, full of life, and carrying on, as it were 
 by enchantment, a regular and systematic work. These 
 were indeed joyful moments. 
 
 It was hard only when he was obliged to interrupt 
 this unconscious activity to think about something, when 
 he had to remove a clod or a clump of wild sorrel. The 
 old man did this easily. When he came to a clod, he 
 changed his motion and now with his heel, now with 
 the end of the scythe, pushed it aside with repeated 
 taps. And while doing this he noticed everything and 
 examined everything that was to be seen. Now he 
 picked a strawberry, and ate it himself or gave it to 
 Levin ; now snipped off a twig with the end of the 
 scythe ; now he discovered a nest of quail from which 
 the mother was scurrying away, or impaled a snake as 
 if with a spear, and, having shown it to Levin, flung it 
 out of the way. 
 
 But for Levin and the young fellow behind him these 
 changes of motion were difficult. When once they got 
 into the swing of work, they could not easily change 
 their movements and at the same time observe what 
 was before them. 
 
 Levin did not realize how the time was flying. If he 
 had been asked how long he had been mowing, he 
 would have answered, " Half an hour ; " and here it 
 was almost dinner-time. 
 
 After they finished one row, the old man drew his 
 attention to some little girls and boys, half concealed 
 by the tall grass, who were coming from all sides, 
 through the tall grass and down the roads, bringing to 
 the haymakers their parcels of bread and rag-stoppered 
 jugs of kvas, which seemed too heavy for their little 
 arms.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 23 
 
 " See! here come the midgets," 1 said he, pointing to 
 them ; and, shading his eyes, he looked at the sun. 
 
 Twice more they went across the field, and then the 
 old man stopped. 
 
 "Well, barin, dinner," said he, in a decided tone. 
 
 Then the mowers, walking along the riverside, went 
 back through the windrows to their kaftans, where the 
 children were waiting with the dinners. The muzhiks 
 gathered together ; some clustered around the carts, 
 others sat in the shade of a laburnum bush, where the 
 mown grass was heaped up. 
 
 Levin sat down near them ; he had no wish to leave 
 them. 
 
 All constraint in the presence of the barin had disap- 
 peared. The muzhiks prepared to take their dinner. 
 Some washed themselves, the children went in swim- 
 ming in the river, others found places to nap in, or 
 undid their bags of bread and uncorked their jugs of 
 kvas. 
 
 The old man crumbed his bread into his cup, mashed 
 it with the shank of his spoon, poured water on from 
 his tin basin, and, cutting off still more bread, he salted 
 the whole plentifully ; and, turning to the east, he said 
 his prayer. 
 
 " Here now, barin, try my bread-crumbs ! " 2 said he, 
 kneeling down before his cup. 
 
 Levin found the soaked bread so palatable that he 
 decided not to go home to dinner. He dined with the 
 old man, and talked with him about his domestic affairs, 
 in which he took a lively interest, and in his turn told 
 the old man about such of his plans and projects as 
 would interest him. 
 
 He felt far nearer to him than to his brother, and he 
 could not help smiling at the affection which he felt for 
 this simple-hearted man. 
 
 When the old man got up from his dinner, offered 
 
 1 Kozyavki, ladybugs. 
 
 2 Tittr&a, diminutive of dura, a bread-crumb soaked in kvas, or beer. 
 The starik used water instead of kvas. Kvas is a drink made of fermented 
 rye meal or bread with malt.
 
 24 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 another prayer, and arranged a pillow of fresh-mown 
 grass; and composed himself for a nap, Levin did the 
 same ; and, in spite of the stubborn, sticky flies and 
 insects tickling his heated face and body, he immedi- 
 ately went off to sleep, and did not wake until the 
 sun came out on the other side of the laburnum bush 
 and began to shine in his face. The starik had been 
 long awake, and was sitting up cutting the children's 
 hair. 
 
 Levin looked around him, and did not know where he 
 was. Everything seemed so changed. The vast level 
 of the mown meadow with its windrows of already 
 fragrant hay was lighted and glorified in a new fashion 
 by the oblique rays of the afternoon sun. The trimmed 
 bushes down by the river, and the river itself, before in- 
 visible but now shining like steel with its windings ; 
 and the busy peasantry ; and the high wall of grass, 
 where the meadow was not yet mowed ; and the young 
 vultures flying high above the bare field, all this was 
 absolutely new to him. 
 
 Levin calculated how much had been mowed, and 
 how much could still be done that day. The work 
 accomplished by the forty-two men was considerable. 
 The whole great meadow, which in the time of serfdom 
 used to take thirty scythes two days, was now almost 
 mowed ; only a few corners with short rows were left. 
 But Levin wanted to do as much as possible that day, 
 and he was vexed at the sun which was sinking too 
 early. He felt no fatigue; he only wanted to do more 
 rapid work, and get as much done as was possible. 
 
 " Do you think we shall get Mashkin Verkh l mowed 
 to-day? " he asked of the old man. 
 
 " If God allows ; the sun is getting low. Will there 
 be little sips of vodka for the boys? " 
 
 At the time of the mid-afternoon luncheon, when the 
 men rested again, and the smokers were lighting their 
 pipes, the elder announced to the "boys " : 
 
 " Mow Mashkin Verkh extra vodka ! " 
 
 " All right ! Come on, Sef ! Let 's tackle it lively, 
 
 1 Mashka's Hillside.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 25 
 
 We '11 eat after dark. Come on ! " cried several voices ; 
 and, even while still munching their bread, they got to 
 work again. 
 
 " Well, boys, keep up good hearts ! " said Sef, setting 
 off almost on the run. 
 
 "Come, come!" cried the old man, hastening after 
 him and easily outstripping him. " I am first. Look 
 out!" 
 
 Old and young mowed as if they were racing ; and 
 yet, with all their haste, they did not spoil their work, 
 but the windrows lay in neat and regular swaths. 
 
 The triangle was finished in five minutes. The last 
 mowers had just finished their line, when the first, throw- 
 ing their kaftans over their shoulders, started down the 
 road to the Mashkin Verkh. 
 
 The sun was just hovering over the tree-tops, when, 
 with rattling cans, they came to the little wooded ravine 
 of Mashkin Verkh. 
 
 The grass here was as high as a man's waist, tender, 
 succulent, thick, and variegated with the flower called 
 Ivan-da- Mary a. 
 
 After a short parley, to decide whether to take it 
 across, or lengthwise, an experienced mower, Prokhor 
 Yermilin, a huge, black-bearded muzhik, went over it 
 first. He took it lengthwise, and came back in his 
 track; and then all followed him, going along the hill 
 above the hollow, and skirting the wood. The sun was 
 setting. The light was going behind the forest. The 
 dew was already falling. Only the mowers on the 
 ridge were in the sun ; but down in the hollow, where 
 the mist was beginning to rise, and behind the slope, 
 they went in fresh, dewy shade. 
 
 The work went on. The grass, cut off with a juicy 
 sound, and falling evenly, lay in high windrows. The 
 mowers came close together from all sides as the rows 
 converged, rattling their drinking-cups, sometimes hit- 
 ting their scythes together, working with joyful shouts, 
 rallying one another. 
 
 Levin still kept his place between the short young 
 man and the elder. The elder, with his sheepskin
 
 26 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 jacket loosened, was as gay, jocose, free in his move- 
 ments as ever. 
 
 They kept finding birch-mushrooms in the woods, 
 lurking in the juicy grass and cut off by the scythes. 
 But the elder bent down whenever he saw one, and ; 
 picking it, put it in his breast. 
 
 " Still another little present for my old woman," he 
 would say. 
 
 Easy as it was to mow the tender and soft grass, it 
 was hard to climb and descend the steep sides of the 
 ravine. But the elder did not let this appear. Always 
 lightly swinging his scythe, he climbed with short, firm 
 steps, and his feet shod in huge lapti, or bast shoes, 
 though he trembled with his whole body, and his drawers 
 were slipping down below his shirt, he let nothing escape 
 him, not an herb or a mushroom; and he never ceased 
 to joke with Levin and the muzhiks. 
 
 Levin went behind him, and more than once felt that 
 he would surely drop, trying to climb, scythe in hand, 
 this steep hillside, where even unencumbered it would 
 be hard to go. But he persevered all the same, and did 
 what was required. He felt as if some interior force 
 sustained him. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE men had mowed the Mashkin Verkh, they had 
 finished the last rows, and had taken their kaftans, and 
 were gayly going home. Levin mounted his horse and 
 regretfully took leave of his companions. On the hill- 
 top he turned round to take a 'last look ; but the even- 
 ing's mist, rising from the bottoms, hid them from 
 sight; but he could hear their loud, happy voices and 
 laughter and the sound of their clinging scythes. 
 
 Sergyel Ivanovitch had long finished dinner, and, 
 sitting in his room, was taking iced lemonade, and read- 
 ing the papers and reviews which had just come from 
 the post, when Levin, with his disordered hair matted 
 down on his brow with perspiration, and with his back
 
 ANNA KARENINA 27 
 
 and chest black and wet, came into the room and joined 
 him, full of lively talk. 
 
 "Well! we mowed the whole meadow. Akh ! How 
 good, how delightful ! And how has the day passed 
 with you ? " he asked, completely forgetting the un- 
 pleasant conversation of the evening before. 
 
 "Ye saints! How you look!" exclaimed Sergyei 
 Ivanovitch, staring at first not over-pleasantly at his 
 brother. "There, shut the door, shut the door!" he 
 cried. " You 've certainly let in more than a dozen ! " 
 
 Sergyel Ivanovitch could not endure flies ; and he 
 never opened his bedroom windows except at night, and 
 he made it a point to keep his doors always shut. 
 
 "Indeed, not a one! If I have, I '11 catch him!.... 
 If you knew what fun I 've had ! And how has it gone 
 with you ? " 
 
 " First-rate. But you don't mean to say that you 
 have been mowing all day ? You must be hungry as a 
 wolf. Kuzma has your dinner all ready for you." 
 
 " No ; I am not hungry. I ate yonder. But I 'm 
 going to polish myself up." 
 
 " All right, I '11 join you later," said Sergye'f Ivano- 
 vitch, shaking his head and gazing at his brother. "Be 
 quick about it," he added, with a smile, arranging his 
 papers and getting ready to follow ; he also suddenly 
 felt enlivened, and was unwilling to be away from his 
 brother. "Well, but where were you during the 
 shower ? " 
 
 " What shower ? Only a drop or two fell. I '11 soon 
 be back. And did the day go pleasantly with you ? 
 Well, that 's capital ! " 
 
 And Levin went to dress. 
 
 About five minutes afterwards the brothers met in the 
 dining-room. Although Levin imagined that he was not 
 hungry, and he sat down only so as not to hurt Kuzma's 
 feelings, yet when he once began eating, he found it ex- 
 cellent. Sergyei Ivanovitch looked at him with a smile. 
 
 " Oh, yes, there 's a letter for you," he said. " Kuzma, 
 go and get it. Be careful and see that you shut the 
 door."
 
 28 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 The letter was from Oblonsky. Levin read it aloud. 
 It was dated from Petersburg : 
 
 I have just heard from Dolly ; she is at Yergushovo ; every- 
 thing is going wrong with her. Please go and see her, and 
 give her your advice, you who know everything. She will be 
 so glad to see you ! She is all alone, wretched. The mother- 
 in-law is still abroad with the family. 
 
 " This is admirable ! Certainly I will go to see her," 
 said Levin. " Let us go together. She is a glorious 
 woman ; don't you think so ? " 
 
 " And they live near you ? " 
 
 " About thirty versts, possibly forty. But there 's a 
 good road. We can cover it quickly." 
 
 " I shall be delighted," said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, 
 smiling. The sight of his brother immediately filled 
 him with happiness. " Well there ! what an appetite you 
 have ! " he added, looking at his tanned, sunburned, 
 glowing face and neck, as he bent over his plate. 
 
 " Excellent ! You can't imagine how useful this 
 regime is against whims ! I am going to enrich medi- 
 cine with a new term, arbeitskur labor-cure." 
 
 " Well , you don't seem to need it much, it seems to 
 me." 
 
 "Yes; it is a sovereign specific against nervous 
 troubles." 
 
 " It must be looked into. I was coming to see you 
 mow, but the heat was so insupportable that I did not 
 go farther than the wood. I rested awhile, and then I 
 went to the village. I met your nurse there, and 
 sounded her as to what the muzhiks thought about you. 
 As I understand it, they don't approve of you. She 
 said, ' Not gentlemen's work.' I think that, as a gen- 
 eral thing, the peasantry 'form very definite ideas about 
 what is becoming for the gentry to do, and they don't 
 like to have them go outside of certain fixed limits." 
 
 "Maybe; but you see I have never enjoyed anything 
 more in all my life, and I do not do anybody any harm, 
 do I ? " asked Levin. " And suppose it does n't please 
 them, what is to be done ? Whose business is it ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 29 
 
 " Well, I see you are well satisfied with your day," 
 replied Sergyei' Ivanovitch. 
 
 " Very well satisfied. We mowed the whole meadow, 
 and I made such friends with an old man the elder. 
 You can't imagine how he pleased me." 
 
 " Well, you are satisfied with your day ! So am I 
 with mine. In the first place, I solved two chess prob- 
 lems, and one was a beauty it opened with a pawn. 
 I '11 show it to you. And then I thought of our last 
 evening's discussion." 
 
 " What ? Our last evening's discussion ? " said Levin, 
 half closing his eyes, and drawing a long breath with a 
 sensation of comfort after his dinner, and really unable 
 to recollect the subject of their discussion. 
 
 " I come to the conclusion that you are partly in the 
 right. The discrepancy in our views lies in the fact 
 that you assume personal interest as the motive power 
 of our actions, while I claim that every man who has 
 reached a certain stage of intellectual development must 
 have for his motive the public interest. But you are 
 probably right in saying that materially interested activity 
 would be more to be desired. Your nature is, as the 
 French say, primcsautiere. 1 You want strong, energetic 
 activity, or nothing." 
 
 Levin listened to his brother, but he did not under- 
 stand him at all, and did not try to understand. His 
 only fear was that his brother would ask him some 
 question, by which it would become evident that he was 
 not listening. 
 
 " How is this, my dear boy ? " asked Sergyei Ivano- 
 vitch, touching him on the shoulder. 
 
 " Yes, of course. But, then, I don't set much store 
 on my own opinions," replied Levin, smiling like a 
 guilty child. His thought was, " What was our discus- 
 sion about ? Of course ; I am right, and he is right, and 
 all is charming. But I must go the office and give my 
 orders." He arose, stretching himself and smiling. 
 
 SergyeY Ivanovitch also smiled. 
 
 " If you want to go out, let 's go together," he said, 
 
 1 Off-hand.
 
 not wanting to be away from his brother, from whom 
 emanated such a spirit of freshness and good cheer. 
 " If you must go the office, I '11 go with you." 
 
 " O ye saints ! " exclaimed Levin, so loud that Ser- 
 gey? Ivanovitch was startled. 
 
 " What 's the matter ? " 
 
 " Agafya Mikhai'lovna's hand," said Levin, striking 
 his forehead. " I had forgotten all about her." 
 
 " She is much better." 
 
 " Well, I must go to her, all the same. I '11 be back 
 before you get on your hat." 
 
 And he started down-stairs on the run, his heels 
 clattering on the steps. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 AT the time Stepan Arkadyevitch was off to Peters- 
 burg to fulfil the most natural of obligations, without 
 which the service could not exist, unquestioned by all 
 functionaries, however unimportant for non-function- 
 aries that of reporting to the ministry, and while 
 fulfilling this obligation, being well supplied with 
 money, was enjoying himself at the races and his 
 friends' datchas, Dolly, with the children, was on her 
 way to the country, in order to reduce the expenses as 
 much as possible. She was going to their country- 
 place at Yergushovo, an estate which had been a part 
 of her dowry. It was where the wood had been sold 
 in the spring, and was situated about fifty versts from 
 Levin's Pokrovsky. 
 
 The large old mansion at Yergushovo had long been 
 demolished, and the prince had contented himself with 
 enlarging and repairing one of the wings. Twenty 
 years before, when Dolly was a little girl, this wing 
 was spacious and comfortable, though, in the manner 
 of all wings, it stood sidewise as regarded the avenue 
 and the south. But now this wing was old and out of 
 repair. When Stepan Arkadyevitch went down in the 
 spring to sell the wood, Dolly asked him to look over
 
 ANNA KARENINA 31 
 
 the house and have done to it whatever was necessary 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, like all guilty husbands, being 
 deeply concerned for his wife's comfort, inspected the 
 house and made arrangements to have everything done 
 that, in his opinion, was necessary. In his opinion it 
 was necessary to have the furniture covered with cre- 
 tonne, to hang curtains, to clear up the garden, to plant 
 flowers, and to build a bridge across the pond ; but he 
 had overlooked many more essential matters, the lack 
 of which afterwards caused Darya Aleksandrovna great 
 annoyance. 
 
 Although Stepan strove to be a solicitous husband 
 and father, he never could realize that he had a wife 
 and children. His tastes remained those of a bachelor, 
 and to them he conformed. When he got back to Mos- 
 cow he proudly assured his wife that everything was 
 in prime order, that the house would be perfection, and 
 he advised her strongly to go there immediately. To 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch his wife's departure to the country 
 was delightful in many ways : it would be healthy for 
 the children, expenses would be lessened, and he would 
 be freer. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, on her part, felt that a sum- 
 mer in the country was indispensable for the children, 
 and especially for the youngest little girl, who gained 
 very slowly after the scarlatina. Moreover, she would 
 be freed from petty humiliations, from little duns of the 
 butcher, the fish-dealer, and the baker, which troubled 
 her. 
 
 And above all the departure was very pleasant to her 
 for the especial reason that the happy thought had oc- 
 curred to her to invite her sister Kitty, who was coming 
 home from abroad about the middle of the summer and 
 had been advised to take some cold baths. ' Kitty wrote 
 her from the Spa that nothing would delight her so 
 much as to spend the rest of the summer with her at 
 Yergushovo, that place that was so full of happy child- 
 hood memories for both of them. 
 
 The first part of the time country life was very hard 
 for Dolly. She had lived there when she was a child,
 
 32 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 and it had left the impression that it was a refuge from 
 all the trials of the city, and if it was not very elegant, 
 and Dolly was willing to put up with that, at least, 
 it would be comfortable and inexpensive, and the chil- 
 dren would be happy. But now, when she came there 
 as mistress of the house, she found that things were not 
 at all as she had expected. 
 
 * On the morning after their arrival, it began to rain 
 in torrents, and by night the water was leaking in the 
 corridor and the nursery, so that the little beds had to 
 be brought down into the parlor. It was impossible to 
 find a cook. Among the nine cows in the barn, accord- 
 ing to the dairywoman's report, some were going to 
 calve, some had their first calf, still others were too old, 
 and the rest had trouble with their udders, consequently 
 they could not have butter, or even milk for the chil- 
 dren. Not an egg was to be had. It was impossible 
 to find a hen. They had for roasting or broiling only 
 tough old purple roosters. No women were to be found 
 to do the washing all were at work on the potatoes. 
 
 They could not go driving, because one of the horses 
 was restive and pulled at the pole. There was no 
 chance for bathing, because the bank of the river had 
 been trodden into a quagmire by the cattle, and was 
 visible from the road. They could not even go out 
 walking, because the cattle had got into the garden, 
 through the tumble-down fences, and there was a terri- 
 ble bull which bellowed, and therefore, of course, tossed 
 people with his horns. In the house, there was no 
 clothes-press. The closet doors either would not shut, 
 or flew open when any one passed. In the kitchen, 
 there were no pots or kettles. In the laundry, there 
 were no tubs, or even any scrubbing-boards for the 
 domestics. 
 
 At first, therefore, finding herself plunged into what 
 seemed to her such terrible straits, instead of the rest 
 and peace which she expected, Darya Aleksandrovna 
 was in despair. Though she exerted all her energies, 
 she felt the helplessness of her situation, and could not 
 keep back her tears.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 33 
 
 The steward, who had been formerly a vakhmistr, or 
 quartermaster in the army, and on account of his good 
 looks and fine presence had been promoted by Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch from his place as Swiss, showed no sym- 
 pathy with Darya Aleksandrovna's tribulations, but sim- 
 ply said in his respectful way : 
 
 " Nothing can be done, such a beastly peasantry ! " 
 and would not raise his hand to help. 
 
 The situation seemed hopeless ; but in the Oblonsky 
 household, as in all well-regulated homes, there was one 
 humble but still important and useful member, Matriona 
 Filimonovna. She calmed the baruinya, telling her that 
 "all would come out right," that was her phrase, and 
 Matve'f had borrowed it from her, and she went to 
 work without fuss and without bother. 
 
 She had made the acquaintance of the overseer's 
 wife, and on the very day of their arrival went to take 
 tea with her and the overseer under the acacias, and 
 discussed with them the state of affairs. A club was 
 quickly organized by Matriona Filimonovna under the 
 acacia ; and then through this club, which was com- 
 posed of the overseer's wife, the starosta, or village elder, 
 and the bookkeeper, the difficulties, one by one, disap- 
 peared, and within a week everything, as Matriona said. 
 " came out all right." The roof was patched up ; a 
 cook was found in a friend of the starosta's ; chickens 
 were bought ; the cows began to give milk ; the garden- 
 fence was repaired; the carpenter made a mangle, and 
 drove in hooks, and put latches on the closets, so that 
 they would not keep flying open ; the ironing-board, cov- 
 ered with a piece of soldiers' cloth, was stretched from 
 the dresser across the back of a chair, and the smell of 
 the ironing came up from below. 
 
 " There now," exclaimed Matriona Filimonovna, point- 
 ing to the ironing-board, "there is no need of worrying." 
 
 They even built a board bath-house. Lili began to 
 bathe, and Darya Aleksandrovna's hope of a comfortable, 
 if not a peaceful, country life became almost realized. 
 Peaceful life was impossible to Darya Aleksandrovna 
 with six children. If one had an ill turn, another was 
 
 VOL. II. 3
 
 34 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 sure to follow suit, and something would happen to a 
 third, and the fourth would show signs of a bad dispo- 
 sition, and so it went on. Rarely, rarely came even 
 short periods of rest. But these very anxieties and 
 troubles were the only chances of happiness that Darya 
 Aleksandrovna had. If it had not been for this, she 
 would have been alone with her thoughts about a hus- 
 band who no longer loved her. But however cruel were 
 the anxieties caused by the fear of illness, by the ill- 
 nesses themselves, and by the grief a mother feels at 
 the sight of evil tendencies in her children, these same 
 children repaid her for her sorrows by their pleasures 
 and enjoyments. Her joys were so small that they 
 were almost invisible, like gold in sand ; and in trying 
 hours she saw only the sorrows, only the sand ; but 
 there were also happy moments, when she saw only the 
 joys, only the gold. 
 
 Now, in the quiet of the country, she became more 
 and more conscious of her joys. Often, as she looked 
 on them, she made unheard-of efforts to persuade her- 
 self that she was mistaken, that she had a mother's 
 partiality ; but she could not help saying to herself that 
 she had beautiful children, all six, all of them charming 
 in their own ways, such children as are rare to find. 
 And she rejoiced in them, and was proud of them. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 TOWARD the beginning of June, when everything 
 was more or less satisfactorily arranged, she received 
 her husband's reply to her complaints about her do- 
 mestic tribulations. He wrote, asking pardon because 
 he had not remembered everything, and promised to 
 come just as soon as he could. This had not yet 
 come to pass ; and at the end of June Darya Alek- 
 sandrovna was still living alone in the country. 
 
 It was midsummer, Sunday, -the feast of St. Peter, and 
 Darya Aleksandrovna took all her children to the holy 
 communion. In her intimate philosophical discussions
 
 ANNA KARENINA 35 
 
 with her sister, her mother, or her friends, she often sur- 
 prised them by the breadth of her views on religious 
 subjects. A strange religious metempsychosis had 
 taken place in her, and she had come out into a faith 
 which had very little in common with ecclesiastical 
 dogmas. But in her family, not merely for the sake 
 of example, but in answer to the requirements of her 
 own soul, she conformed strictly to all the obligations 
 of the church, and now she was blaming herself because 
 her children had not been to communion since the be- 
 ginning of the year ; and, with the full approbation and 
 sympathy of Matriona Filimonovna, she resolved to ac- 
 complish this duty. 
 
 For several days beforehand she had been occupied 
 in arranging what the children should wear : and now 
 their dresses were arranged, all clean and in order ; 
 fiutings and flounces were added, new buttons were put 
 on, and ribbons were gathered in knots. Only Tania's 
 frock, which had been intrusted to the English gover- 
 ness to alter, caused Dolly great vexation. The English 
 governess, in making the changes, put the seams in the 
 wrong place, cut the sleeves too short, and spoiled the 
 whole garment. It fitted so badly about the shoulders 
 that it was painful to look at her. But it occurred to 
 Matriona Filimonovna to piece out the waist and to 
 make a cape. The damage was repaired, but they 
 almost had a quarrel with the English governess. 
 
 By morning all was in readiness ; a'nd about ten 
 o'clock the hour they had asked the father to give 
 them for the communion the children, in their best 
 clothes and radiant with joy, were gathered on the steps 
 before the calash waiting for their mother. 
 
 Thanks to Matriona Filimonovna's watchful care, the 
 overseer's Buro'f had been harnessed to the calash in 
 place of the restive Voron, and Darya Aleksandrovna, 
 who had taken considerable pains with her toilet, ap- 
 peared in a white muslin gown, and took her seat in the 
 vehicle. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna had arranged her hair and 
 dressed herself with care and with emotion. In former
 
 36 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 times she had liked to dress well so as to render herself 
 handsome and attractive ; but as she became older, she 
 lost her taste for adornment ; she saw how her beauty 
 had faded. But now she once more found satisfaction 
 and a certain emotion in being attractively arrayed. 
 She did not now dress for her own sake, or to enhance 
 her beauty, but so that, as mother of these lovely chil- 
 dren, she might not spoil the general impression. And 
 as she cast a final glance at the mirror, she was satisfied 
 with herself. She was beautiful, not beautiful in the 
 same way as at one time she liked to be at a ball, but 
 beautiful for the purpose which she had now in mind. 
 
 There was no one at church except the muzhiks 
 and the household servants ; but Darya Aleksandrovna 
 noticed, or thought she noticed, the attention that she 
 and her children attracted as they went along. The 
 children were handsome in their nicely trimmed dresses, 
 and still more charming in their behavior. Alosha, to 
 be sure, was not absolutely satisfactory ; he kept turn- 
 ing round, and trying to look at the tails of his little 
 coat, but nevertheless he was wonderfully pretty. 
 Tania behaved like a grown-up lady, and looked after 
 the younger ones. But Lili, the smallest, was fascinat- 
 ing in her naive wonder at everything that she saw ; 
 and it was hard not to smile when, after she had re- 
 ceived the communion, she cried out in English, 
 " Please, some more ! " 
 
 After they got home, the children felt the conscious- 
 ness that something solemn had taken place, and were 
 very quiet. 
 
 All went well in the house, till at lunch Grisha began 
 to whistle, and, what was worse than all, refused to 
 obey the English governess ; and he was sent away 
 without any tart. Darya Aleksandrovna would not 
 have allowed any punishment on such a day if she had 
 been there ; but she was obliged to uphold the gover- 
 ness, and confirm her in depriving Grisha of the tart. 
 This was a cloud on the general happiness. 
 
 Grisha began to cry, saying that Nikolinka also had 
 whistled but they did not punish him, and that he was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 37 
 
 not crying about the tart, that was no account, but 
 because they had not been fair to him. This was very 
 disagreeable ; and Darya Aleksandrovna, after a con- 
 sultation with the English governess, decided to pardon 
 Grisha, and went to get him. But then, as she went 
 through the hall, she saw a scene which brought such 
 joy to her heart, that the tears came to her eyes, and 
 she herself forgave the culprit. 
 
 The little fellow was sitting in the drawing-room by 
 the bay-window ; near him stood Tania with a plate. 
 Under the pretext of wanting some dessert for her dolls, 
 she had asked the English governess to let her take her 
 portion of the pie to the nursery ; but, instead of this, 
 she had taken it to her brother. Grisha, still sobbing 
 over the unfairness of his punishment, was eating the 
 pie, and saying to his sister in the midst of his tears, 
 " Take some too .... we will eat to .... together." 
 
 Tania was full of sympathy for her brother, and had 
 the sentiment of having performed a generous action, 
 and the tears stood in her eyes, but she accepted the 
 portion and was eating it. 
 
 When they saw their mother, they were scared, but 
 they felt assured, by the expression of her face, that 
 they were doing right ; they both laughed, and, with 
 their mouths still full of pie, they began to wipe their 
 laughing lips with their hands, and their shining faces 
 were stained with tears and jam. 
 
 "Ye saints! my new white gown! Tania! Grisha!" 
 exclaimed the mother, endeavoring to save her gown, 
 but at the same time smiling at them with a happy, 
 beatific smile. 
 
 Afterwards the new frocks were taken off, and the 
 girls put on their old blouses and the boys their old 
 jackets; and the lineika, or two-seated drozhky, was 
 brought out, and again, to the overseer's annoyance, 
 Buroi' was at the pole, so that they might go out after 
 mushrooms, and to have a bath. It is needless to say 
 that enthusiastic shouts and squeals arose in the nurs- 
 ery, and did not cease until they actually got started for 
 their excursion.
 
 38 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 They soon filled a basket with mushrooms ; even Lili 
 found some of the birch agarics. Always before Miss 
 Hull had found them and pointed them out to her ; but 
 now she herself found a huge birch shliupik, and there 
 was a universal cry of enthusiasm : 
 
 " Lili has found a mushroom ! " 
 
 Afterwards they came to the river, left the horses 
 under the birch trees, and went to the bath-house. The 
 coachman, Terenti, leaving the animals to switch away 
 the flies with their tails, stretched himself out on the 
 grass in the shade of the birches, and smoked his pipe, 
 and listened to the shouts and laughter of the children 
 in the bath-house. 
 
 Though it was rather embarrassing to look after all 
 these children, and to keep them from mischief; though 
 it was hard to remember, and not mix up all these 
 stockings, shoes, and trousers for so many different 
 legs, and to untie, unbutton, and then fasten again, so 
 many tapes and buttons, still Darya Aleksandrovna 
 always took a lively interest in the bathing, looking on 
 it as advantageous for the children, and never feeling 
 happier than when engaged in this occupation. To fit 
 the stockings on those plump little legs ; to take the 
 younger ones by the hand, and dip their naked little 
 bodies into the water; to hear their cries, now joyful, 
 now terrified; to see these breathless faces of those 
 splashing cherubimchiks of hers, with their scared or 
 sparkling eyes wide open with excitement, all this 
 was a perfect delight to her. 
 
 When half of the children were dressed, some peas- 
 ant women, in Sunday attire, on their way to get herbs, 
 came along, and stopped timidly at the bath-house. 
 Matriona Filimonovna called to one of them, in order 
 to give her a sheet and a shirt to dry that had fallen 
 into the water ; and Darya Aleksandrovna talked with 
 the women. At first they laughed behind their hands, 
 not understanding her questions; but little by little 
 their courage returned and they began to chatter, and 
 they quite won Darya Aleksandrovna's heart by their 
 sincere admiration of the children.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 39 
 
 " Ish tui ! ain't she lovely, now ? White as sugar ! " 
 said one, pointing to Tania, and nodding her head. 
 "But thin...." 
 
 " Yes ; because she has been ill." 
 
 " Vish tui," said still another, pointing to the youngest 
 child. 
 
 " It seems you don't take him into the water, do 
 you ? " 
 
 " No," said Darya Aleksandrovna, proudly. " He is 
 only three months old." 
 
 " You don't say so ! " 1 
 
 "And have you any children? " 
 
 " I Ve had four ; two are alive, a boy and a girl. I 
 weaned the youngest before Lent." 
 
 " How old is she ? " 
 
 " Well, she is going into her second year." 
 
 " Why do you nurse her so long ? " 
 
 " It 's our way : three springs." .... 
 
 And then the woman asked Darya Aleksandrovna 
 about the birth of her baby : did she have a hard time ? 
 where was her husband ? would he come often ? 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna was reluctant to part with the 
 peasant women, so delightful did she find the conversa- 
 tion with them, so perfectly identical were their interests 
 and hers. And it was more pleasant to her than any- 
 thing else to see how evidently all these women were 
 filled with admiration because she had so many and such 
 lovely children. The women made Darya Aleksandrovna 
 laugh, and offended Miss Hull for the very reason that 
 she was the cause of their unaccountable laughter. One 
 of the young women gazed with all her eyes at the Eng- 
 lish governess, who was dressing last; and, when she 
 put on the third petticoat, she could not restrain her- 
 self any longer, but burst out laughing : 
 
 " Ish tui ! she put on one, and then she put on another, 
 and she has n't got them all on yet ! " and they all broke 
 
 into loud laughter. 
 
 hh tui!"
 
 40 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 DARYA ALEKSANDROVNA, with a kerchief on her head, 
 and surrounded by all her flock of bathers with wet hair, 
 was just drawing near the house when the coachman called 
 out, " Here comes some barin, Pokrovsky, it looks like." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna looked out, and, to her great 
 joy, saw that it was indeed Levin's well-known form in 
 gray hat and gray overcoat. She was always glad to 
 see him, but now she was particularly delighted, because 
 he sawher in all her glory. No one could appreciate 
 her splendor better than Levin. 
 
 When he caught sight of her, it seemed to him that he 
 saw one of his visions of family life. 
 
 "You are like a brooding hen, Darya Aleksandrovna." 
 
 " Oh, how glad I am ! " said she, offering him her hand. 
 
 "Glad ! But you did not let me know. My brother 
 is staying with me ; I had a little note from Stiva, tell- 
 ing me you were here." 
 
 " From Stiva ? " repeated Dolly, astonished. 
 
 "Yes. He wrote me that you had come into the 
 country, and thought that you would ajlow me to be of 
 some use to you," said Levin ; and, even while speaking, 
 he became confused, and breaking off suddenly, walked 
 in silence by the linei'ka, pulling off and biting linden 
 twigs as he went. It had occurred to him that Darya 
 Aleksandrovna would doubtless find it painful to have 
 a neighbor offer her the assistance which her husband 
 should have given. In fact, Darya Aleksandrovna was 
 displeased at the way in which Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 had thrust his domestic difficulties upon a stranger. She 
 immediately perceived that Levin felt this, and she felt 
 grateful to him for his tact and delicacy. 
 
 "Of course, I understood," said Levin, "that this 
 only meant that you would be glad to see me ; and I 
 was glad. Of course, I imagine that you, a city house- 
 keeper, find it uncivilized here ; and, if I can be of the 
 least use to you, I am wholly at your service." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " said Dolly. " At first it was rather hard,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 41 
 
 but now everything has been beautifully arranged. 1 
 owe it all to my old nurse," she added, indicating 
 Matriona Filimonovna, who, perceiving that they were 
 speaking of her, gave Levin a pleasant, friendly smile. 
 She knew him, and knew that he would make a splen- 
 did husband for the young lady, and she wished that it 
 might be so. 
 
 "Will you get in? We will squeeze up a little," said 
 she. 
 
 " No, I will walk. Children, which of you will run 
 with me to get ahead of the horses ? " 
 
 The children were very slightly acquainted with Levin, 
 and did not remember where they had seen him ; but 
 they had none of that strange feeling of timidity and 
 aversion which children are so often blamed for show- 
 ing toward grown-up persons who are not sincere. Pre- 
 tense in any person may deceive the shrewdest and most 
 experienced of men, but a child of very limited intelli- 
 gence detects it and is repelled by it, though it be most 
 carefully hidden. 
 
 W'hatever faults Levin had, he could not be accused 
 of lack of sincerity , and consequently the children 
 showed him the same good-will that they had seen on 
 their mother's face. The two eldest instantly accepted 
 his invitation, and ran with him as they would have 
 gone with their nurse, or Miss Hull, or their mother. 
 Lili also wanted to go with him, and her mother in- 
 trusted her to him ; so he set her on his shoulder and 
 began to run with her. 
 
 " Don't be frightened, don't be frightened, Darya 
 Aleksandrovna," he said, laughing gayly. " I won't 
 hurt her or let her fall." 
 
 And when she saw his strong, agile, and, at the same 
 time, prudent and careful movements, the mother felt 
 reassured, and smiled as she watched him, with pleasure 
 and approval. 
 
 There in the country, with the children and with 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, whom he liked, Levin entered 
 into that boylike, happy frame of mind which was not 
 unusual with him, and which Darya Aleksandrovna
 
 42 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 especially admired in him. He played with the children, 
 and taught them gymnastic exercises ; he jested with 
 Miss Hull in his broken English; and he told Darya 
 Aleksandrovna of his undertakings in the country. 
 
 After dinner, Darya Aleksandrovna, sitting alone with 
 him on the balcony, began to speak of Kitty. 
 
 " Did you know ? Kitty is coming here to spend the 
 summer with me ! " 
 
 "Indeed!" replied Levin, confused; and instantly, in 
 order to change the subject, he added : 
 
 " Then I shall send you two cows, shall I ? And if 
 you insist on paying, and have no scruples, then you 
 may give me five rubles a month." 
 
 " No, thank you. We shall get along." 
 
 " Well, then I am going to look at your cows ; and, 
 with your permission, I will give directions about feed- 
 ing them. Everything depends on that." 
 
 And Levin, in order to turn the conversation, ex- 
 plained to Darya Aleksandrovna the whole theory of 
 the proper management of cows, which was based on 
 the idea that a cow is only a machine for the conversion 
 of fodder into milk, and so on. 
 
 He talked on this subject, and yet he was passion- 
 ately anxious to hear the news about Kitty, but he was 
 also afraid to hear it. It was terrible to him to think that 
 his peace of mind, so painfully won, might be destroyed. 
 
 "Yes; but, in order to do all this, there must be some 
 one to superintend it ; and who is there ? " asked Darya 
 Aleksandrovna, not quite convinced. 
 
 Now that she carried on her domestic affairs so satis- 
 factorily, through Matriona Filimonovna, she had no 
 desire to make any changes ; moreover, she had no 
 faith in Levin's knowledge about rustic management. 
 His reasonings about a cow being merely a machine to 
 produce milk were suspicious. It seemed to her that 
 such theories would throw housekeeping into discord ; it 
 even seemed to her that it was all far simpler, that it 
 was sufficient, to do as Matriona Filimonovna did, to 
 give Pestrukha and Byelopakha 1 more fodder and drink, 
 
 1 Dapple and White-foot.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 43 
 
 and to prevent the cook from carrying dish-water from 
 the kitchen to the cow, that was clear. But the 
 theories about meal and grass for fodder were not clear, 
 but dubious ; but the principal point was, that she 
 wanted to talk about Kitty. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 " KITTY writes me that she is longing for solitude 
 and repose," began Dolly, after a moment's silence. 
 
 " Is her health better? " asked Levin, with emotion. 
 
 " Thank the Lord, she is entirely well ! I never be- 
 lieved that she had any lung trouble." 
 
 " Oh ! I am very glad," said Levin ; and Dolly 
 thought that, as he said it, and then looked at her in 
 silence, his face had a pathetic, helpless expression. 
 
 " Tell me, Konstantin Dmitritch," said Darya Alek- 
 sandrovna with a friendly, and at the same time a rather 
 mischievous, smile, "why are you angry with Kitty?" 
 
 " I ? I am not angry with her," said Levin. 
 
 " Yes, you are. Why did n't you come to see any of 
 us the last time you were in Moscow ? " 
 
 " Darya Aleksandrovna," he exclaimed, blushing to 
 the roots of his hair, " I am astonished that, with your 
 kindness of heart, you can think of such a thing ! How 
 can you not pity me when you know .... " 
 
 " What do I know ? " 
 
 " You know that I offered myself, and was rejected." 
 And as he said this, all the tenderness that he had felt 
 for Kitty a moment before changed in his heart into a 
 sense of anger at the memory of this injury. 
 
 " How could you suppose that I knew ? " 
 
 " Because everybody knows it." 
 
 "That is where you are mistaken. I suspected it, 
 but I knew nothing positive." 
 
 " Ah, well, and so you know now ! " 
 
 " All that I know is that there was something which 
 keenly tortured her, and that she has besought me 
 never to mention it. If she has not told me, then she
 
 44 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 has not told any one. Now, what have you against 
 her? Tell me ! " 
 
 " I have told you all that there was." 
 
 " When was it ? " 
 
 "When I was at your house the last time." 
 
 " But do you know ? I will tell you," said Darya 
 Aleksandrovna. " I am sorry for Kitty, awfully sorry. 
 You suffer only in your pride .... " 
 
 "Perhaps so," said Levin, "but...." 
 
 She interrupted him. 
 
 " But she, poor little girl, I am awfully sorry for her. 
 Now I understand all ! " 
 
 "Well, Darya Aleksandrovna, excuse me," said he, 
 rising. " PrashcJiaite good-by, Darya Aleksandrovna, 
 da svidanya ! " 
 
 " No ! wait ! " she cried, holding him by the sleeve ; 
 " wait ! sit down ! " 
 
 " I beg of you, I beg of you, let us not speak of this 
 any more," said Levin, sitting down again, while a ray 
 of that hope which he believed forever vanished flashed 
 into his heart. 
 
 " If I did not like you," said Dolly, and the tears 
 came into her eyes, "if I did not know you as I do .... " 
 
 The hope which he thought was dead awoke more 
 and more, filled Levin's heart, and took masterful pos- 
 session of it. 
 
 "Yes, I understand all now," said Dolly: "you can- 
 not understand this, you men, who are free in your 
 choice ; it is perfectly clear whom you love ; but a young 
 girl, with that feminine, maidenly reserve which is im- 
 posed on her, and seeing you men only at a distance, is 
 constrained to wait, and she is, and must be, so agitated 
 that she will not know what answer to give." 
 
 " Yes, if her heart does not speak.... " 
 
 " No ; her heart speaks, but think for a moment : 
 you men decide on some girl, you visit her home, 
 you watch, observe, and you make up your minds 
 whether you are in love or not, and then, when you 
 have come to the conclusion that you love her, you offer 
 yourselves.... "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 45 
 
 " Well, now ! we don't always do that." 
 
 " All the same, you don't propose until your love 
 is fully ripe, or when you have made up your mind 
 between two possible choices. But the young girl 
 cannot make a choice. They pretend that she can 
 choose, but she cannot ; she can only answer ' yes ' or 
 'no.'" 
 
 " Well ! the choice was between me and Vronsky," 
 thought Levin ; and the resuscitated dead love in his 
 soul seemed to die a second time, giving his heart an 
 additional pang. 
 
 "Darya Aleksandrovna," said he, "thus one chooses 
 a gown or any trifling merchandise, but not love. Be- 
 sides, the choice has been made, and so much the 
 better .... and it cannot be done again." 
 
 "Oh! pride, pride! " said Dolly, as if she would ex- 
 press her scorn for the degradation of his sentiments 
 compared with those which only women are able to 
 comprehend. " When you offered yourself to Kitty, 
 she was in just that situation where she could not give 
 an answer. She was in doubt ; the choice was you or 
 Vronsky. She saw him every day ; you she had not 
 seen for a long time. If she had been older, it would 
 have been different ; if I, for example, had been in her 
 place, I should not have hesitated. He was always 
 distasteful to me, and so that is the end of it." 
 
 Levin remembered Kitty's reply : " No, this cannot 
 be.... 1 ' 
 
 " Darya Aleksandrovna," said he, dryly, " I am touched 
 by your confidence in me, but I think you are mistaken. 
 But whether I am right or wrong, this pride which you 
 so despise makes it impossible for me ever to think about 
 Katerina Aleksandrovna ; you understand ? utterly im- 
 possible." 
 
 " I will say only one thing more. You must know 
 that I am speaking to you of my sister, whom I love 
 as my own children. I don't say that she loves you, 
 but I only wish to say that her reply at that moment 
 amounted to nothing at all." 
 
 " I don't know," said Levin, leaping suddenly to his
 
 46 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 feet. " If you only realized the pain that you cause me ! 
 It is just the same as if you had lost a child, and they 
 came to you and said, ' He would have been like this, 
 like this, and he might have lived, and you would 
 
 have had so much joy in him But he is dead, dead, 
 
 dead.' " .... 
 
 " How absurd you are ! " said Darya Aleksandrovna, 
 with a melancholy smile at the sight of Levin's emotion. 
 " Well ! I understand it all better and better," she con- 
 tinued pensively. "Then you won't come to see us 
 when Kitty is here ? " 
 
 " No, I will not. Of course I will not avoid Katerina 
 Aleksandrovna; but, when it is possible, I shall en- 
 deavor to spare her the affliction of my presence." 
 
 " You are very, very absurd," said Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna, looking at him affectionately. "Well, then, let 
 it be as if we had not said a word about it. What do 
 you want, Tania? " said she in French to her little girl, 
 who came running in. 
 
 " Where is my little shovel, mamma ? " 
 
 "I speak French, to you, and you must answer in 
 French." 
 
 The child tried to speak, but could not recall the 
 French word for lopatka, shovel. Her mother whis- 
 pered it to her, and then told her, still in French, where 
 she should go to find it. This made Levin feel un- 
 pleasant. 
 
 Everything now seemed changed in Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna's household; even the children were not nearly 
 so attractive as before. 
 
 " And why does she speak French with the children ? " 
 he thought. " How false and unnatural ! Even the 
 children feel it. Teach them French, and spoil their 
 sincerity," he said to himself, not knowing that Darya 
 Aleksandrovna had twenty times asked the same ques- 
 tion, and yet, in spite of the harm that it did their 
 simplicity, had come to the conclusion that this was the 
 right way to teach them. 
 
 "But why are you in a hurry ? Sit a little while 
 longer."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 47 
 
 Levin stayed to tea ; but all his gayety was gone, and 
 he felt uncomfortable. 
 
 After tea he went out into the anteroom to give 
 orders about harnessing the horses ; and when he came 
 in he found Darya Aleksandrovna in great disturbance, 
 with flushed face, and tears in her eyes. During his 
 short absence an occurrence had ruthlessly destroyed 
 all the pleasure and pride that she took in her children. 
 Grisha and Tania had quarreled about a ball. Darya 
 Aleksandrovna, hearing their cries, ran to them, and 
 found them in a frightful state. Tania was pulling her 
 brother's hair ; and he, with face distorted with rage, 
 was pounding his sister with all his might. When 
 Darya Aleksandrovna saw it, something seemed to 
 snap in her heart. A black cloud, as it were, came 
 down on her life. She saw that these children of hers, 
 of whom she was so proud, were not only ordinary and 
 ill-trained, but were even bad, and inclined to the most 
 evil and tempestuous passions. 
 
 This thought troubled her so that she could not speak 
 or think, or even explain her sorrow to Levin. 
 
 Levin saw that she was unhappy, and he did his best 
 to comfort her, saying that this was not so very terrible, 
 after all, and that all children quarreled ; but in his 
 heart he said, " No, I will not bother myself to speak 
 French with my children. I shall not have such chil- 
 dren. There is no need of spoiling them, and making 
 them unnatural ; and they will be charming. No ! my 
 children shall not be like these." 
 
 He took his leave, and rode away ; and she did not 
 try to keep him longer. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 TOWARD the end of July, Levin received a visit from 
 the starosta of his sister's estate, situated about twenty 
 versts from Pokrovskoye. Fie brought the report about 
 the progress of affairs, and about the haymaking.
 
 48 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 The chief income from his sister's estate came from 
 the meadows inundated in the spring. In former years 
 the muzhiks rented these hayfields at the rate of twenty 
 rubles a desyatin. 1 But when Levin undertook the 
 management of this estate, and examined the hay- 
 crops, he came to the conclusion that the rent was too 
 low, and he raised it to the rate of twenty-five rubles 
 a desyatin. The muzhiks refused to pay this, and, as 
 Levin suspected, drove away other lessees. Then Levin 
 himself went there, and arranged to have the meadows 
 mowed partly by day laborers, partly on shares. His 
 muzhiks were greatly discontented with this new plan, 
 and did their best to thwart it ; but it was attended with 
 success, and even the very first year the yield from the 
 meadows was nearly doubled. The opposition of the 
 peasantry continued through the second and third sum- 
 mers, and the haymaking was conducted on the same 
 conditions. 
 
 But this year they had mowed the meadows on thirds, 
 and now the starosta had come to announce that the 
 work was done, and that he, fearing it was going to 
 rain, had summoned the bookkeeper and made the divis- 
 ion in his presence, and turned over the eighteen hay- 
 ricks which were the proprietor's share. 
 
 By the unsatisfactory answer to his question, how 
 much hay had been secured from the largest meadow, 
 by the starosta's haste in making the division without 
 orders, by the man's whole manner, Levin was induced 
 to think there was something crooked in the division of 
 the hay, and he concluded that it would be wise to go 
 and look into it. 
 
 Levin reached the estate just at dinner-time; and, 
 leaving his horse at the house of his old friend, the 
 husband of his brother's former nurse, he went to find 
 the old man at the apiary, hoping to obtain from him 
 some light on the question of the hay-crop. 
 
 The loquacious, beautiful-looking old man, whose 
 name was Parmenuitch, was delighted to see Levin, 
 showed him all about his husbandry, and told him all 
 
 1 About six dollars an acre.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 49 
 
 the particulars about his bees, and how they swarmed 
 this year; but when Levin asked him about the hay, he 
 gave vague and unsatisfactory answers. This still more 
 confirmed Levin in his suspicions. 
 
 He went to the meadows, and, on examination of the 
 hayricks, found that they could not contain fifty loads 
 each, as the muzhiks said. So in order to give the peas- 
 ants a lesson he had one of the carts which they had 
 used as a measure to be brought, and ordered all the 
 hay from one of the ricks to be carried into the shed. 
 
 The hayrick was found to contain only thirty-two 
 loads. Notwithstanding the starosta's protestations 
 that the hay was measured right, and that it must 
 have got pressed down in the cart ; notwithstanding 
 the fact that he called God to witness that it was all 
 done in the most godly manner, Levin insisted on it 
 that, as the division had been made without his orders, 
 he would not accept the hayricks as equivalent to fifty 
 loads each. 
 
 After long parleys, it was decided that the muzhiks 
 should take eleven of these hayricks for their share, 
 but that the master's should be measured over again. 
 The colloquy and the division of the hayricks lasted 
 until the mid-afternoon luncheon hour. When the last 
 of the hay had been divided, Levin, confiding the care 
 of the work to the bookkeeper, sat down on one of the 
 hayricks which was marked by a laburnum stake, and 
 enjoyed the spectacle of the meadows alive with the 
 busy peasantry. 
 
 Before him, at the bend of the river beyond the marsh, 
 he saw the peasant women in a variegated line, and 
 heard their ringing voices as they gossiped together, 
 while raking into long brown ramparts the hay scattered 
 over the bright green aftermath. Behind the women 
 came the men with pitchforks turning the windrows 
 into wide, high-swelling hayricks. 
 
 Toward the left across the meadow, already cleared 
 of the hay, came the creaking tclyegas, or peasant carts, 
 and one by one, as the hayricks were lifted on the point 
 of monstrous forks, disappeared, and their places were 
 
 VOL. II. 4
 
 5 
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 taken by the horse-wagons filled to overflowing with 
 the fragrant hay which almost hid the rumps of the 
 horses. 
 
 " Splendid hay-weather ! It '11 soon be all in," said 
 Parmenuitch, as he sat down near Levin. "Tea, not 
 hay ! It scatters like seed for the ducks when they 
 pitch it up." Then, pointing to a hayrick which the 
 men were demolishing, the old man went on : " Since 
 dinner, pitched up a good half of it. Is that the last ? " 
 he shouted to a young fellow who, standing on the pole 
 of a cart, and shaking the ends of his hempen reins, was 
 driving by. 
 
 " The last, batyushka," shouted back the young fellow, 
 pulling in his horse. Then he looked down with a smile 
 on a happy-looking, rosy-faced woman who was sitting 
 on the hay in the telyega, and whipped up his steed 
 again. 
 
 " Who is that ? your son ? " asked Levin. 
 
 " My youngest," said the elder, with an expression 
 of pride. 
 
 " What a fine fellow ! " 
 
 " Not bad." 
 
 " Married yet ? !> 
 
 " Yes, three years come next Filippovok." 1 
 
 " So ? And are there children ? " 
 
 " How ? children ? For a whole year I have n't heard 
 anything about it ! and it's a shame," said the old man. 
 "Well, this is hay! Just tea!" he repeated, wishing to 
 change the subject. 
 
 Levin looked with interest at Vanka Parmenof and 
 his wife. They were loading on a hayrick near by. 
 Ivan Parmenof was standing on the wagon, arranging, 
 storing, and pressing down the fragrant hay which the 
 handsome goodwife handed up to him in great loads, 
 first in armfuls, then with the fork. The young woman 
 worked gayly, industriously, and skilfully. First she 
 arranged it with her fork ; then, with elastic and agile 
 motions, she exerted all her strength upon it ; and, stoop- 
 ing over, she lifted up the great armful, and standing 
 
 1 St. Philip's Day, November 14.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 51 
 
 straight, with full bosom under the white chemise 
 gathered with a red girdle, she piled it high upon the 
 load. 
 
 Ivan, working as rapidly as he could, so as to relieve 
 her of every moment of extra work, stretched out his 
 arms wide, and caught up the load which she extended, 
 and trampled it down into the wagon. Then, raking up 
 what was left, the woman shook off the hay that had got 
 into her neck, and, tying a red handkerchief around her 
 broad white brow, she crept under the cart to fasten 
 down the load. Vanka snowed her how the ropes 
 should be tied, and at some remark that she made burst 
 into a roar of laughter. In the expression on the faces 
 of both of them could be seen strong young love recently 
 awakened. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE load was complete, and Ivan, jumping down, 
 took his gentle fat horse by the bridle, and joined the 
 file of telyegas going to the village. The young woman 
 threw her rake on top of the load, and, swinging her 
 arms, joined the other women, who had collected in a 
 group to sing. These women, with rakes on their 
 shoulders and dressed in bright colors, suddenly burst 
 forth into song with loud happy voices as they followed 
 the carts. One wild untrained voice would sing a verse 
 of the Pyesna, or folk-song, and when she had reached 
 the refrain, fifty other young, fresh, and powerful voices 
 would take it up simultaneously and repeat it to the 
 end. 
 
 The peasant women, singing their folk-song, came 
 toward Levin ; and it seemed to him that a cloud, 
 freighted with the thunder of gayety, was moving down 
 upon him. The thunder-cloud drew nearer, it took 
 possession of him, and the haycock on which he 
 was reclining and the other haycocks and the carts 
 and the whole meadow and the far-off field moved 
 and swayed to the rhythm of this wild song, with its 
 accompaniment of whistles and shrill cries and clapping
 
 52 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of hands. This wholesome gayety filled him with envy; 
 he would have liked to take part in this expression of 
 joyous life; but nothing of the sort could he do, and he 
 was obliged to lie still and look and listen. When the 
 throng with their song had passed out of sight and 
 hearing, an oppressive feeling of melancholy came over 
 him at the thought of his loneliness, of his physical 
 indolence, of the hostility which existed between him 
 and this alien world. 
 
 Some of these very muzhiks, even those who had 
 quarreled with him about the hay, or those whom he 
 had injured, or those who had intended to cheat him, 
 saluted him gayly as they passed, and evidently did not 
 and could not bear him any malice, or feel any remorse, 
 or even remembrance that they had tried to defraud 
 him. All was swallowed up and forgotten in this sea 
 of joyous, universal labor. God gave the day, God gave 
 the strength ; and the day and the strength consecrated 
 the labor, and yielded their own reward. For whom 
 was the work? What would be the fruits of the work ? 
 These were secondary, unimportant considerations. 
 
 Levin had often looked with interest at this life, had 
 often experienced a feeling of envy of the people that 
 lived this life; but to-day, for the first time, especially 
 under the impression of what he had seen in the bear- 
 ing of Ivan Parmenof toward his young wife, he had 
 clearly realized that it depended on himself whether he 
 would exchange the burdensome, idle, artificial, selfish 
 existence which he led, for the laborious, simple, pure, 
 and delightful life of the peasantry. 
 
 The elder who had been sitting with him had already 
 gone home; the people were scattered; the neighbor- 
 ing villagers had already - reached their houses, but 
 those who lived at a distance were preparing to spend 
 the night in the meadow, and were getting ready for 
 supper. 
 
 Levin, without being noticed by the people, still re- 
 clined on the haycock, looking, listening, and thinking. 
 The peasantry gathered in the meadow scarcely slept 
 throughout the short summer night. At first gay gos-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 53 
 
 sip and laughter were heard while they were eating; 
 then followed songs and jests again. 
 
 No trace of all the long, laborious day was left upon 
 them, except of its happiness. Just before the dawn 
 there was silence everywhere. Nothing could be heard 
 but the nocturnal sounds of the frogs ceaselessly croak- 
 ing in the marsh, and the horses whinnying as they 
 waited in the mist that rose before the dawn. Coming 
 to himself, Levin got up from the haycock, and, looking 
 at the stars, saw that the night had gone. 
 
 "Well! what am I going to do? How am I going to 
 do this ? " he asked himself, trying to give a shape to 
 the thoughts and feelings that had occupied him during 
 this short night. All that he had thought and felt had 
 taken three separate directions. First, it seemed to him 
 that he must renounce his former mode of life, which 
 was useful neither to himself nor to any one else. This 
 renunciation seemed to him very attractive and was easy 
 and simple. 
 
 The second direction that his thoughts and feelings 
 took referred especially to the new life which he longed 
 to lead. He clearly realized the simplicity, purity, and 
 regularity of this new life, and he was convinced that 
 he should find in it that satisfaction, that calmness and 
 mental freedom, which he now felt the lack of so pain- 
 fully. The third line of thought brought him to the 
 question how he should effect the transition from the 
 old life to the new, and in this regard nothing clear 
 presented itself to his mind. 
 
 " I must have a wife. I must engage in work, and 
 have the absolute necessity of work. Shall I abandon Po- 
 krovskoye ? buy land ? join the commune ? marry a peas- 
 ant woman ? How can I do all this ? " he again asked 
 himself, and no answer came. " However," he went 
 on, in his self-communings, " I have not slept all night, 
 and my ideas are not very clear. I shall reduce them 
 to order by and by. One thing is certain; this night 
 has settled my fate. All my former dreams of family 
 existence were rubbish, but this all this is vastly 
 simpler and better." ....
 
 54 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " How lovely ! " he thought, as he gazed at the delicate 
 white curly clouds, colored like mother-of-pearl, which 
 floated in the sky above him. " How charming every, 
 thing has been this lovely night ! And when did that 
 shell have time to form ? I have been looking this long 
 time at the sky, and nothing was to be seen only two 
 white streaks. Yes ! thus, without my knowing it, my 
 views about life have been changed." 
 
 He left the meadow, and walked along the highway 
 that led to the village. A cool breeze began to blow, 
 and it became gray and melancholy. The somber mo- 
 ment was at hand which generally precedes the dawn, 
 the perfect triumph of light over the darkness. 
 
 Shivering with the chill, Levin walked fast, looking 
 at the ground. 
 
 "What is that? Who is coming ? " he asked himself, 
 hearing the sound of bells. He raised his head. About 
 forty paces from him he saw, coming toward him on 
 the highway, on the grassy edge where he himself was 
 walking, a traveling carriage, drawn by four horses. 
 The pole-horses, to avoid the ruts, pressed close against 
 the pole ; but the skilful postilion, seated on one side of 
 the box, kept the pole directly over the rut, so that the 
 wheels kept only on the smooth surface of the road. 
 
 Levin was so interested in this that, without thinking 
 who might be coming, he only glanced heedlessly at the 
 carriage. 
 
 In one corner of the carriage an elderly lady was 
 asleep ; and by the window sat a young girl, evidently 
 only just awake, holding with both hands the ribbons 
 of her white bonnet. Serene and thoughtful, filled with 
 a lofty, complex life which Levin could not understand, 
 she was gazing beyond him at the glow of the morning 
 sky. 
 
 At the very instant that this vision flashed by him he 
 caught a glimpse of her frank eyes. She recognized 
 him, and a gleam of joy, mingled with wonder, lighted 
 up her face. 
 
 He could not be mistaken. Only she in all the world 
 had such eyes. In all the world there was but one
 
 ANNA KARENINA 55 
 
 being who could concentrate for him all the light and 
 meaning of life. It was she ; it was Kitty. He judged 
 that she was on her way from the railway station to 
 Yergushovo. 
 
 And all the thoughts that had occupied Levin through 
 his sleepless night, all the resolutions that he had made, 
 vanished in a twinkling. Horror seized him as he re- 
 membered his dream of marrying a krestyanka a 
 peasant wife ! In that carriage which flashed by him 
 on the other side of the road, and disappeared, was the 
 only possible answer to his life's enigma which had 
 tormented and puzzled him so long. 
 
 She was now out of sight ; the rumble of the wheels 
 had ceased, and scarcely could he hear the bells. The 
 barking of the dogs told him that the carriage was 
 passing through the village. And now there remained 
 only the empty fields, the distant village, and himself, 
 an alien and a stranger to everything, walking solitary 
 on the deserted highway. 
 
 He looked at the sky, hoping to find there still the 
 sea-shell cloud which he had admired, and which per- 
 sonified for him the movement of his thoughts and 
 feelings during the night. But in the sky there was 
 nothing that resembled the shell. There, at immeasur- 
 able heights, that mysterious change had already taken 
 place. There was no trace of the shell, but in its place 
 there extended over a good half of the heavens a carpet 
 of cirrus clouds sweeping on and sweeping on. The 
 sky was growing blue and luminous, and with the same 
 tenderness and also with the same unsatisfactoriness it 
 answered his questioning look. 
 
 " No," he said to himself, " however good this simple 
 and laborious life may be, I cannot bring myself to it 
 I love her"
 
 56 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 No one except Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch's most in- 
 timate friends suspected that this apparently cold and 
 sober-minded man had one weakness absolutely con- 
 tradictory to the general consistency of his character. 
 He could not look with indifference at a child or a 
 woman who was weeping. The sight of tears caused 
 him to lose his self-control, and destroyed for him his 
 reasoning faculties. The manager of his chancelry and 
 his secretary understood this, and warned women who 
 came to present petitions not to allow their feelings 
 to overcome them unless they wanted to injure their 
 prospects. 
 
 " He will fly into a passion, and will not listen to 
 you," they said. And it was a fact that the trouble 
 which the sight of weeping caused Aleksei Aleksandro- 
 vitch was expressed by hasty irritation. " I cannot, I 
 cannot do anything for you. Please leave me," he 
 would exclaim, as a general thing, in such cases. 
 
 When, on their way back from the races, Anna con- 
 fessed her relations with Vronsky, and, immediately 
 afterwards covering her face with her hands, burst into 
 tears, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, in spite of his anger 
 against his wife, was conscious at the same time of that 
 deep, soul-felt emotion welling up which the sight of 
 tears always caused him. Knowing this, and knowing 
 that any expression of it would be incompatible with 
 the situation, he endeavored to restrain any sign of 
 agitation, and therefore he neither moved nor looked 
 at her; hence arose that strange appearance of death- 
 like rigidity in his face which so impressed Anna. 
 
 When they reached home, he helped her from the car- 
 riage ; and, having made a great effort, he left her with 
 ordinary politeness, saying only those words which would 
 not oblige him to follow any course. He simply said 
 that on the morrow he would let her know his decision. 
 
 His wife's words, confirming his worst suspicions, 
 caused a keen pain in his heart; and this pain was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 57 
 
 made still keener by the strange sensation of physical 
 pity for her, caused by the sight of her tears. Yet, as 
 he sat alone in his carriage, Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, to 
 his surprise and pleasure, was conscious of an absolute 
 freedom, not only from that sense of pity, but also from 
 the doubts and the pangs of jealousy which had of late 
 been tormenting him. 
 
 He experienced the feelings of a man who has been 
 suffering for a long time from the toothache. After 
 one terrible moment of agony, and the sensation of 
 something enormous greater than the head itself 
 which is wrenched out of the jaw, the patient, hardly 
 able to believe in his good fortune, suddenly discovers 
 that the pain that has been poisoning his life so long 
 has ceased, and that he can live and think and interest 
 himself in something besides his aching tooth. 
 
 This feeling Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch now experi- 
 enced. The pain had been strange and terrible. But 
 now it was over. He felt that he could live again, and 
 think of something besides his wife. 
 
 "Without honor, without heart, without religion, an 
 abandoned woman ! I have always known this and I 
 have always seen it, though out of pity for her I tried 
 to shut my eyes to it," he said to himself. 
 
 And it really seemed to him that he had always seen 
 this. He recalled many details of their past lives ; and 
 things which had once seemed innocent in his eyes, now 
 clearly came up as proofs that she had always been 
 corrupt. 
 
 " I made a mistake when I joined my life to hers ; but 
 my mistake was not my fault, and therefore I ought not 
 to be unhappy. I am not the guilty one," said he, 
 "but she is. But I have nothing more to do with her. 
 She does not exist for me.".... 
 
 All that would befall her as well as his son, toward 
 whom also his feelings underwent a similar change, now 
 ceased to occupy him. The only thing that did occupy 
 him now was the question how to make his escape from 
 this wretched crisis in a manner at once wise, correct, 
 and honorable for himself, and having cleared himself
 
 58 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 from the mud with which she had spattered him by her 
 fall, how he would henceforth pursue his own path of 
 honorable, active, and useful life. 
 
 " Must I make myself wretched because a wretched 
 woman has committed a crime ? All I want is to find 
 the best way out from this situation to which she has 
 brought me. And I will find it," he added, getting 
 more and more indignant. " I am not the first, nor the 
 last." 
 
 And not speaking of the historical examples, begin- 
 ning with La Belle Helene of Menelaus, which had 
 recently been brought to all their memories by Offen- 
 bach's opera, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch went over in his 
 mind a whole series of contemporary episodes, where 
 husbands of the highest position had been obliged to 
 mourn the faithlessness of their wives. 
 
 " Daryalof, Poltavsky, Prince Karibanof, Count Pa- 
 skudin, Dramm, .... yes, even Dramm, honorable, indus- 
 trious man as he is, .... Semenof, Chagin, Sigonin. 
 Admit that they cast unjust ridicule on these men ; as 
 for me, I never saw anything except their misfortune, 
 and I always pitied them," said Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch to himself, although this was not so, and he had 
 never sympathized with misfortune of this sort, and had 
 only plumed himself the more as he had heard of wives 
 deceiving their husbands. 
 
 " This is a misfortune which is likely to strike any 
 one, and now it has struck me. The only thing is to 
 know how to find the best way of settling the difficulty." 
 
 And he began to recall the different ways in which 
 these men, finding themselves in such a position as he 
 was, had behaved. 
 
 " Daryalof fought a duel .... " 
 
 Dueling had often been a subject of consideration 
 to Alekself Aleksandrovitch when he was a young man, 
 and for the reason that physically he was a timid man 
 and he knew it. He could not think without a shudder 
 of having a pistol leveled at him, and never in his life 
 had he practised with firearms. This instinctive horror 
 had in early life caused him often to think about duel-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 59 
 
 ing and to imagine himself obliged to expose his life to 
 this danger. 
 
 Afterward, when he had attained success and a high 
 social position, he had got out of the way of such 
 thoughts; but his habit of mind now reasserted itself, 
 and his timidity, owing to his cowardice, was so great 
 that Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch long deliberated about 
 the matter, turning it over on all sides, and questioning 
 the expediency of a duel, although he knew perfectly 
 well that in any case he would never fight. 
 
 " Undoubtedly the state of our society is still so sav- 
 age," he said, "though it is not so in England, 
 that very many.... " 
 
 And in these many, to whom such a solution was sat- 
 isfactory, there were some for whose opinions Aleksei' 
 Aleksandrovitch had the very highest regard. " Look- 
 ing at the duel from its good side, to what result does it 
 lead ? Let us suppose that I send a challenge ! " 
 
 And Aleksei Aleksandrovitch went on to draw a 
 vivid picture of the night that he would spend after the 
 challenge ; and he imagined the pistol aimed at him, 
 and shuddered, and realized that he could never do 
 such a thing. 
 
 " Let us suppose that I challenge him to a duel ; let us 
 suppose that I learn how to shoot," he forced himself 
 to think, " that I am standing, that I pull the trigger," 
 he said to himself, shutting his eyes, " and it happens 
 that I kill him ; " and he shook his head, to drive away 
 these absurd notions. 
 
 " What sense would there be in causing a man's death, 
 in order to settle my relations to a sinful woman and her 
 son ? Even then I should have to decide what I ought 
 to do with her. But suppose and this is vastly more 
 likely to happen that I am the one killed or wounded. 
 I, an innocent man, the victim, killed or wounded ? Still 
 more absurd ! But, moreover, would not the challenge 
 to a duel on my part be a dishonorable action, certain as 
 I am beforehand that my friends would never allow me 
 to fight a duel ? would never permit the life of a gov- 
 ernment official, who is so indispensable to Russia, to
 
 60 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 be exposed to danger ? What would happen ? This 
 would happen, that I, knowing in advance that the 
 matter would never result in any danger, should seem 
 to people to be anxious to win notoriety by a challenge. 
 It would be dishonorable, it would be false, it would be 
 an act of deception to others and to myself. A duel is 
 not to be thought of, and no one expects it of me. My 
 sole aim should be to preserve my reputation, and not 
 to suffer any unnecessary interruption of my activity." 
 
 The service of the State, always important in the eyes 
 of Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, now appeared to him of 
 extraordinary importance. 
 
 Having decided against the duel, Aleksei" Aleksandro- 
 vitch began to discuss the question of divorce a second 
 expedient which had been employed by several of the 
 men whom he had in mind. Calling to mind all the 
 well-known examples of divorce and there had been 
 many in the very highest circles of society, as he well 
 knew he could not name a single case where the aim 
 of the divorce had been such as he proposed. The 
 husband in each case had sold or given up the faithless 
 wife ; and the guilty party, who had no right to a second 
 marriage, had entered into relations, imagined to be 
 sanctioned, with a new husband. 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch saw that, in his case at least, 
 legal divorce, whereby the faithless wife would be re- 
 pudiated, was impossible. He saw that the complicated 
 conditions of his life precluded the possibility of those 
 coarse proofs which the law demanded for the establish- 
 ment of a wife's guilt; he saw that the distinguished 
 refinement of his life precluded the public use of such 
 proofs, even if they existed, and that the public use of 
 these proofs would cause him to fall lower in public 
 opinion than the guilty wife. 
 
 Divorce could only end in a scandalous lawsuit, which 
 would be a godsend to his enemies and to lovers of 
 gossip, and would degrade him from his high position 
 in society. His principal object, the determination of 
 his position with the least possible confusion, would not 
 be attained by a divorce.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 61 
 
 Divorce, moreover, broke off all intercourse between 
 wife and husband, and united her to her paramour. 
 Now in AlekseT Aleksandrovitch's heart, in spite of the 
 scornful indifference which he affected to feel toward 
 his wife, there still remained one very keen sentiment, 
 and that was his unwillingness for her, unhindered, to 
 unite her lot with Vronsky, so that her fault would turn 
 out to her advantage. 
 
 This possible contingency was so painful to Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch that, merely at the thought of it, he 
 bellowed with mental pain ; and he got up from his 
 seat, changed his place in the carriage, and for a long 
 time, darkly scowling, wrapped his woolly plaid around 
 his thin and chilly legs. 
 
 " Besides formal divorce," he said to himself, as, 
 growing a little calmer, he continued his deliberations, 
 " it would be possible to act as Karibanof, Paskudin, 
 and that gentle Dramm have done ; that is to say, I 
 could separate from my wife." But this measure had 
 almost the same disadvantages as the other : it was 
 practically to throw his wife into Vronsky's arms. 
 
 "No; it is impossible impossible," he said aloud, 
 again trying to wrap himself up in his plaid. " I cannot 
 be unhappy, but neither she nor he ought to be happy." 
 
 The feeling of jealousy which had tormented him 
 while he was still ignorant had passed away when by 
 his wife's words the aching tooth had been pulled ; but 
 this feeling was replaced by a different one, the desire 
 not only that she should not triumph, but that she should 
 receive the reward for her sin. He did not express it, 
 but in the depths of his soul he desired that she should 
 be punished for the way in which she had destroyed his 
 peace and honor. 
 
 After once more passing in review the conditions of 
 the duel, the divorce, and the separation, and once more 
 rejecting them, AlekseT Aleksandrovitch came to the 
 conclusion that there was only one way to escape from 
 his trouble, and that was to keep his wife under his pro- 
 tection, shielding his misfortune from the eyes of the 
 world, employing all possible means to break off the
 
 62 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 illicit relationship, and, above all though he did not 
 avow it to himself punishing his wife's fault. 
 
 " I must let her know that, in the cruel situation into 
 which she has brought our family, I have come to the 
 conclusion that the status quo is the only way that seems 
 advisable for both sides, and that I will agree to pre- 
 serve it under the strenuous condition that she on her 
 part fulfil my will, and break off all relations with her 
 paramour." 
 
 For the bolstering of this resolution when once he 
 had finally adopted it, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch brought 
 up one convincing argument : " Only by acting in this 
 manner do I conform absolutely with the law of reli- 
 gion," said he to himself ; " only by this reasoning do 
 I refuse to send away the adulterous woman ; and I 
 give her the chance of amending her ways, and likewise, 
 
 painful as it will be to me, I consecrate a part of 
 my powers to her regeneration and salvation." 
 
 Though Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch knew that he could 
 have no moral influence over his wife, and that the 
 attempts which he should make to reform his wife would 
 have no other outcome than falsehood ; although during 
 the trying moments that he had been living, he had not 
 for an instant thought of finding his guidance in religion, 
 
 yet now, when he felt that his determination was in 
 accordance with religion, this religious sanction of his 
 resolution gave him full comfort and a certain share of 
 satisfaction. He was consoled with the thought that in 
 such a trying period of his life no one would have the 
 right to say that he had not acted in conformity to the 
 religion whose banner he bore aloft in the midst of cool- 
 ness and indifference. 
 
 As he went over in his mind the remotest contingen- 
 cies, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch even saw no reason why 
 his relations with his wife should not remain pretty 
 much as they had always been. Of course, it would be 
 impossible for him to feel great confidence in her ; but 
 he saw no reason why he should ruin his whole life, and 
 suffer personally, because she was a bad and faithless 
 wife.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 63 
 
 "Yes, time will pass," he said to himself, "time which 
 solves all problems ; and our relations will be brought 
 into the old order, so that I shall not feel the disorder 
 that has broken up the current of my life. She must 
 be unhappy, but I am not to blame, and so I do not see 
 why I must be unhappy too." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ALEKSEI ALEKSANDROVITCH during his drive back to 
 Petersburg not only fully decided on the line of conduct 
 which he should adopt, but even composed in his head 
 a letter to be sent to his wife. When he reached his 
 Switzer's room, he glanced at the official papers and 
 letters which had been brought from the ministry, and 
 ordered them to be brought into the library. 
 
 " Shut the door, and let no one in," said he in reply to 
 a question of the Swiss, emphasizing the last words 
 nye prinimaf let no one in with some satisfaction, 
 which was an evident sign that he was in a better state 
 of mind. 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch walked up and down the 
 library once or twice, and then, coming to his huge 
 writing-table, on which his lackey, before going out, 
 had placed six lighted candles, he cracked his fingers 
 and sat down, and began to examine his writing-mate- 
 rials. Then, leaning his elbow on the table, he bent his 
 head to one side, and after a moment of reflection he 
 began to write without the slightest hesitancy. He 
 wrote in French without addressing her by name, em- 
 ploying the pronoun vons, which has less coldness than 
 the corresponding Russian word, vui, has. He wrote : 
 
 At our recent interview, I expressed the intention of com- 
 municating to you my resolution concerning the subject of our 
 conversation. Having carefully taken everything into considera- 
 tion, I am writing now with the view of fulfilling my promise. 
 This is my decision : whatever your conduct may have been, 
 I do not acknowledge that I have the right to break the bonds 
 which a Power Supreme has consecrated. The family cannot
 
 64 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 be broken up through a caprice, an arbitrary act, even through 
 the crime of one of the parties ; and our lives must remain 
 unchanged. This must be so for my sake, for your sake, for the 
 sake of our son. I am fully persuaded that you have been re- 
 pentant, that you still feel repentant for the deed that obliges 
 me to write you ; that you will cooperate with me in destroy- 
 ing root and branch the cause of our estrangement and in 
 forgetting the past. 
 
 In case this be not so, you yourself must understand what 
 awaits you and your son. In regard to all this I hope to have 
 a more specific conversation at a personal interview. As the 
 summer season is nearly over, I beg of you to come back to 
 Petersburg as soon as possible certainly not later than Tues- 
 day. All the necessary measures for your return hither will be 
 taken. I beg you to take notice that I attach a very particu- 
 lar importance to your attention to my request. 
 
 A. KARENIN. 
 
 P.S. I inclose in this letter money, which you may need 
 at this particular time. 
 
 He reread his letter, and was satisfied with it espe- 
 cially with the fact that he had thought of sending the 
 money. There was not an angry word, not a reproach, 
 neither was there any condescension in it. The essen- 
 tial thing was the golden bridge for their reconciliation. 
 He folded his letter, smoothed it with a huge paper- 
 cutter of massive ivory, inclosed it in an envelop to- 
 gether with the money, and rang the bell, feeling that 
 sense of satisfaction which the use of his well-ordered, 
 perfect epistolary arrangements always gave him. 
 
 " Give this letter to the courier for delivery to Anna 
 Arkadyevna at the datcha to-morrow," said he, and arose. 
 
 " I will obey your excellency. 1 Will you have tea 
 here in the library ? " 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch ordered tea brought to him 
 in the library ; and then, still playing with the paper- 
 cutter, he went toward his arm-chair, near which were a 
 shaded lamp and a French work on cuneiform inscrip- 
 tions which he had begun. 
 
 1 Vashe prevaskhodityektvo.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 65 
 
 Above the chair, in an oval gilt frame, hung a por- 
 trait of Anna, the excellent work of a distinguished 
 painter. Alekse'i Aleksandrovitch looked at it. The 
 eyes, as inscrutable as they had been on the evening of 
 their attempted explanation, looked down at him ironi- 
 cally and insolently. Everything about this remarkable 
 portrait seemed to Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch insupport- 
 ably insolent and provoking, from the black lace on her 
 head and her dark hair, to the white, beautiful hand 
 and the ring-finger covered with jeweled rings. 
 
 After gazing at this portrait for a moment, Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch shuddered, his lips trembled, and with 
 a " brr" he turned away. Hastily sitting down in his 
 arm-chair, he opened his book. He tried to read, but he 
 could not regain the keen interest which he had felt be- 
 fore in the cuneiform inscriptions. His eyes looked at 
 the book, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He was 
 thinking, not of his wife, but of a complication which 
 had recently arisen in important matters connected with 
 his official activity, and which at present formed the 
 chief interest of his service. He felt that he was more 
 deeply than ever plunged into this complicated affair, 
 and that he could without self-conceit claim that the 
 idea which had originated in his brain was bound to 
 disentangle the whole difficulty, to confirm him in his 
 official career, put down his enemies, and thus enable 
 him to do a signal service to the State. As soon as his 
 servant had brought his tea, and left the room, AlekseK 
 Aleksandrovitch got up and went to his writing-table. 
 Pushing to the center of it a portfolio which contained 
 papers relating to this affair, he seized a pencil from 
 the stand, and, with a faintly sarcastic smile of self-sat- 
 isfaction, buried himself in the perusal of the documents 
 relative to the complicated business under considera- 
 tion. 
 
 The complication was as follows : The distinguish- 
 ing trait of Alekse'i Aleksandrovitch as a government 
 official, the one characteristic trait peculiar to him 
 alone, though it must mark every progressive chinov- 
 nik, the trait which had contributed to his success 
 
 VOL. II. 5
 
 66 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 no less than his eager ambition, his moderation, his 
 uprightness, and his self-confidence, was his detesta- 
 tion of "red tape," and his sincere desire to avoid, 
 as far as he could, unnecessary writing, and to go 
 straight on in accomplishing needful business with all 
 expedition and economy. It happened that, in the 
 famous Commission of the I4th of June, a project was 
 mooted for the irrigation of the fields in the government 
 of Zara'i, which formed a part of Aleksei Aleksandro- 
 vitch's jurisdiction ; and this project offered a striking 
 example of the few results obtained by official corre- 
 spondence and expenditure. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch knew that it was a worthy 
 object. The matter of the irrigation of the fields in the 
 government of Zaral had come to him by inheritance 
 from his predecessor in the ministry, and, in fact, had al- 
 ready cost much money and brought no results. When 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch entered the ministry, he had 
 perceived this, and had wanted immediately to put his 
 hand to this work ; but at first he did not feel himself 
 strong enough and perceived that it touched too many 
 interests and was imprudent, and afterward, having 
 become involved in other matters, he entirely forgot 
 about it. 
 
 The fertilization of the Zara'f fields, like all things, 
 went in its own way by force of inertia. Many people 
 got their living through it, and one family in particu- 
 lar, a very agreeable and musical family all of the 
 daughters of which played on stringed instruments. 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch knew this family, and had 
 been nuptial godfather 1 when one of the elder daugh- 
 ters was married. 
 
 The opposition to this affair, raised by his enemies in 
 another branch of the ministry, was unjust, in the opin- 
 ion of AlekseY Aleksandrovitch, because in every min- 
 istry there are similar cases which by a well-known rule 
 of official etiquette no one ever bothers himself about. 
 But now, since they had thrown down the gauntlet, he 
 
 1 Posazhonnui otyets, a man who takes the father's place in the Rus- 
 sian wedding ceremony.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 67 
 
 had boldly accepted the challenge and asked for the 
 appointment of a special commission for examining and 
 verifying the labors of the commissioners on the fertili- 
 zation of the Zarai' fields ; and this did not prevent him 
 from also keeping these gentlemen busy in other ways. 
 He had also demanded a special commission for in- 
 vestigating the status and organization of the foreign 
 populations. 
 
 This last question had likewise been raised by the 
 Commission of June 14, and was energetically supported 
 by AlekseT Aleksandrovitch, on the ground that no de- 
 lay should be allowed in relieving the deplorable situa- 
 tion of these alien tribes. 
 
 In committee this matter gave rise to the most lively 
 discussions among the ministries. The ministry hostile 
 to Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch proved that the position of 
 the foreign populations was perfectly flourishing ; that 
 to meddle with them would be to injure their well-being; 
 and that, if any fault could be found in regard to the 
 matter, it was due to the neglect of Aleksei Aleksandro- 
 vitch and his ministry, in not carrying out the measures 
 prescribed by law. 
 
 Now Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch had made up his mind 
 to demand : first, the appointment of a new committee, 
 whose duty should be to study on the spot the condi- 
 tion of the foreign populations ; secondly, in case their 
 condition should be found such as the official data in 
 the hands of the committee represented, that a new 
 scientific commission should be sent to study into the 
 causes of this sad state of things, with the aim of set- 
 tling it from the (a) political, (6) administrative, (c) 
 economical, (</) ethnographical, (^) physical, and (/") 
 religious point of view ; thirdly, that the hostile min- 
 istry should be required to furnish the particulars in 
 regard to the measures taken during the last ten years 
 to relieve the wretched situation in which these tribes 
 were placed ; and fourthly and finally, that this minis- 
 try should explain the fact that they had acted in 
 absolute contradiction to the fundamental and organic 
 law, Volume T, page 18, with reference to Article 36,
 
 68 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 as was proved by an act of the committee under num- 
 bers 17,015 and 18,308 of the i/th of December, 1863, 
 and the iQth of June, 1864. 
 
 A flush of animation covered Aleksei Aleksandro- 
 vitch's face as he rapidly wrote down for his own use 
 a digest of these thoughts. After he had covered a 
 sheet of paper, he rang a bell, and sent a messenger 
 to the director of the chancelry, asking for a few data 
 which were missing. Then he got up, and began to 
 walk up and down the room, looking again at the 
 portrait with a frown and a scornful smile. Then he 
 resumed his book about the cuneiform inscriptions, and 
 found that his interest of the evening before had come 
 back to him. He went to bed about eleven o'clock ; 
 and as he lay, still awake, he passed in review the affair 
 with his wife, and it no longer appeared to him in the 
 same gloomy aspect. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THOUGH Anna had obstinately and angrily contra- 
 dicted Vronsky when he told her that her position was 
 impossible, yet in the bottom of her heart she felt that 
 it was false and dishonorable, and she longed with all 
 her soul to escape from it. When, in a moment of agi- 
 tation, she avowed all to her husband as they were re- 
 turning from the races, notwithstanding the pain which 
 it cost her, she felt glad. After Aleksei' Aleksandro- 
 vitch left her, she kept repeating to herself that she 
 was glad, that now all was explained, and that hence- 
 forth there would be at least no more need of falsehood 
 and deception. It seemed to her indubitable that now 
 her position would be henceforth determined. It might 
 be bad, but it would be definite, and there would be an 
 end to lying and equivocation. The pain which her 
 words had cost her husband and herself would have 
 its compensation, she thought, in the fact that now all 
 would be definite. 
 
 That very evening Vronsky came to see her, but she
 
 ANNA KARENINA 69 
 
 did not tell him what had taken place between her hus- 
 band and herself, although it was needful to tell him, in 
 order that the affair might be definitely settled. 
 
 The next morning, when she awoke, her first memory 
 was of the words that she had spoken to her husband ; 
 and they seemed to her so odious, that she could not im- 
 agine now how she could have brought herself to say 
 such strange brutal words, and she could not conceive 
 what the result of them would be. But the words were 
 irrevocable, and Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch had departed 
 without replying. 
 
 " I have seen Vronsky since, and I did not tell him. 
 Even at the moment he went away, I wanted to hold 
 him back and to tell him ; but I postponed it because I 
 felt how strange it was that I did not tell him at the 
 first moment. Why did I have the desire, and yet not 
 speak ? " 
 
 And, in reply to this question, the hot flush of shame 
 kindled in her face. She realized that it was shame that 
 kept her from speaking. Her position, which the even- 
 ing before had seemed to her so clear, suddenly pre- 
 sented itself as very far from clear, as inextricable. She 
 began to fear the dishonor about which she had not 
 thought before. When she considered what her hus- 
 band might do to her, the most terrible ideas came to 
 her mind. It occurred to her that at any instant the 
 steward 1 might appear to drive her out of house and 
 home, and that her shame might be proclaimed to all 
 the world. She asked herself where she could go if 
 they drove her from home, and she found no answer. 
 
 When she thought of Vronsky, she imagined that he 
 did not love her, and that he was already beginning to 
 tire of her, and that she could not impose herself on 
 him, and she felt angry with him. It seemed to her 
 that the words which she spoke to her husband, and 
 which she incessantly repeated to herself, were spoken 
 so that everybody could hear them, and had heard them. 
 She could not bring herself to look in the faces of those 
 with whom she lived. She could not bring herself to 
 
 1 Upravlyayushchy.
 
 7 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ring for her maid, and still less to go down and meet 
 her son and his governess. 
 
 The maid came, and stood long at the door, listening ; 
 finally she decided to go to her without a summons. Anna 
 looked at her questioningly, and in her terror she blushed. 
 The maid apologized for coming, saying that she thought 
 she heard the bell. She brought a gown and a note. 
 The note was from Betsy. Betsy reminded her that 
 Liza Merkalova and the Baroness Stolz with their 
 adorers, Kaluzhsky and the old man Stremof , were com- 
 ing to her house that morning for a game of croquet. 
 " Come and look on, please, as a study of manners. I 
 shall expect you," was the conclusion of the note. 
 
 Anna read the letter, and sighed profoundly. 
 
 " Nothing, nothing, I need nothing," said she to An- 
 nushka, who was arranging the brushes and toilet articles 
 on her dressing-table. " Go away. I will dress myself 
 immediately, and come down. I need nothing." 
 
 Annushka went out ; yet Anna did not begin to dress, 
 but sat in the same attitude, with bent head and folded 
 hands ; and occasionally she would shiver, and begin to 
 make some gesture, to say something, and then fall back 
 into listlessness again. She kept saying, " Bozhe mo'i ! 
 Bozhe moi'filout the words had no meaning in her 
 mind. The thought of seeking a refuge from her situa- 
 tion in religion, although she never doubted the faith in 
 which she had been trained, seemed to her as strange as 
 to go and ask help of Aleksel' Aleksandrovitch him- 
 self. She knew beforehand that the refuge offered by 
 religion was possible only by the absolute renunciation 
 of all that constituted for her the meaning of life. She 
 suffered, and was frightened besides, by a sensation that 
 was new to her experience hitherto, and which seemed 
 to her to take possession of her inmost soul. She seemed 
 to feel double, just as sometimes eyes, when weary, see 
 double. She knew not what she feared, what she de- 
 sired. She knew not whether she feared and desired 
 what had passed or what was to come, and what she 
 desired she did not know. 
 
 1 Literally, " My God."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 71 
 
 " Oh ! what am I doing ? " she cried, suddenly feel- 
 ing a pain in both temples ; and she discovered that 
 she had taken her hair in her two hands, and was pull- 
 ing it. She got up, and began to walk the floor. 
 
 " The coffee is served, and Mamzel and Serozha are 
 waiting," said Annushka, coming in again, and finding 
 her mistress in the same condition as before. 
 
 " Serozha ? what is Serozha doing," suddenly asked 
 Anna, remembering, for the first time that morning, the 
 existence of her son. 
 
 " He has been naughty, I think," said Annushka, 
 with a smile. 
 
 " How naughty ? " 
 
 "You had some peaches in the corner cupboard; he 
 took one, and ate it on the sly, it seems." 
 
 The thought of her son suddenly called Anna from 
 the impassive state in which she had been sunk. She 
 remembered the partly sincere, though somewhat ex- 
 aggerated, role of devoted mother, which she had taken 
 on herself for a number of years, and she felt with joy 
 that in this relationship she had a standpoint indepen- 
 dent of her relation to her husband and Vronsky. 
 This standpoint was her son. In whatever situation 
 she might be placed, she could not give him up. Her 
 husband might drive her from him, and put her to 
 shame ; Vronsky might turn his back on ' her, and 
 resume his former independent life, and here again 
 she thought of him with a feeling of anger and reproach, 
 but she could not leave her son. She had an aim 
 in life ; and she must act, act so as to safeguard this 
 relation toward her son, so that they could not take 
 him from her. She must act as speedily as possible 
 before they took him from her. She must take her 
 son and go off. That was the one thing which she 
 now had to do. She must calm herself, and get away 
 from this tormenting situation. The very thought of 
 an action having reference to her son, and of going 
 away with him anywhere, anywhere, already gave her 
 consolation. 
 
 She dressed in haste, went down-stairs, and with firm
 
 72 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 steps entered the drawing-room, where, as usual, she 
 found lunch ready, and Serozha and the governess wait- 
 ing for her. Serozha, all in white, was standing near 
 a table under the mirror, with the expression of con- 
 centrated attention which she knew so well, and in 
 which he resembled his father. Bending over, he was 
 busy with some flowers which he had brought in. 
 
 The governess had a very stern expression. Serozha, 
 as soon as he saw his mother, uttered a sharp cry, 
 which was a frequent custom of his, " Ah, mamma ! " 
 Then he stopped, undecided whether to throw down 
 the flowers and run to his mother, and let the flowers 
 go, or to finish his bouquet and take it to her. 
 
 The governess bowed, and began a long and circum- 
 stantial account of the naughtiness that Serozha had 
 committed ; but Anna did not hear her. She was 
 thinking whether she should take her with them. 
 
 "No, I will not," she decided; "I will go alone with 
 my son." 
 
 "Yes, that was very naughty," said Anna; and, tak- 
 ing the boy by the shoulder, she looked with a gentle, 
 not angry, face at the confused but happy boy, and 
 kissed him. " Leave him with me," said she to the 
 wondering governess ; and, not letting go his arm, she 
 sat down at the table where the coffee was waiting. 
 
 " Mamma .... I .... I .... did n't ...." stammered Serozha, 
 trying to judge by his mother's expression what fate was 
 in store for him for having pilfered the peach. 
 
 "Serozha," she said, as soon as the governess had 
 left the room, " that was naughty. You will not do it 
 again, will you?.... Do you love me ? " 
 
 She felt that the tears were standing in her eyes. 
 " Why can I not love him ? " she asked herself, study- 
 ing the boy's frightened and yet happy face. " And 
 can he join with his father to punish me ? Will he not 
 have pity on me ? " 
 
 The tears began to course down her face ; and, in 
 order to hide them, she rose up quickly, and hastened, 
 almost ran, to the terrace. 
 
 Clear, cool weather had succeeded the stormy rains
 
 ANNA KARENINA 73 
 
 of the last few days. In spite of the warm sun which 
 shone on the thick foliage of the trees, it was cool in 
 the shade. 
 
 She shivered both from the coolness and from the 
 sentiment of fear which in the cool air seized her with 
 new force. 
 
 " Go, go and find Mariette," said she to Serozha, who 
 had followed her ; and then she began to walk up and 
 down on the straw carpet which covered the terrace. 
 " Will they not forgive me ? " she asked herself. "Will 
 they not understand that all this could not possibly have 
 been otherwise? " 
 
 As she stopped and looked at the top of the aspens 
 waving in the wind, with their freshly washed leaves 
 glittering brightly in the cool sunbeams, it seemed to 
 her that they would not forgive her, that all, that every- 
 thing, would be as pitiless toward her as that sky and 
 that foliage. And again she felt that mysterious sense 
 in her inmost soul that she was in a dual state. 
 
 " I must not, must not think," she said to herself. 
 " I must have courage. Where shall .1 go ? When ? 
 Whom shall I take ? Yes ! to Moscow by the evening 
 train, with Annushka and Serozha and only the most 
 necessary things. But first I must write to them both." 
 
 She hurried back into the house to her boudoir, sat 
 down at the table, and wrote her husband : 
 
 After what has passed, I cannot longer remain in your house. 
 I am going away, and I shall take my son. I do not know the 
 laws, and so I do not know with which of his parents the child 
 should remain ; but I take him with me, because I cannot live 
 without him. Be magnanimous ; let me have him. 
 
 Up to this point she wrote rapidly and naturally ; 
 but this appeal to a magnanimity which she had never 
 seen in him, and the need of ending her letter with 
 something affecting, brought her to a halt. 
 
 " I cannot speak of my fault and my repentance, 
 because .... " Again she stopped, unable to find the 
 right words to express her thoughts. " No," she said, 
 " nothing more is necessary ; " and, tearing up this
 
 74 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 letter, she began another, from which she left out any 
 appeal to his generosity, and sealed it. 
 
 She had to write a second letter, to Vronsky. 
 
 " I have confessed to my husband," she began ; and 
 she sat long wrapped in thought, without being able to 
 write more. That was so coarse, so unfeminine ! " And 
 then, what can I write to him ? " she asked herself. 
 Again the crimson of shame mantled her face as she 
 remembered how calm he was, and she felt so vexed 
 with him that she tore the sheet of paper with its one 
 phrase into little bits. " I cannot write," she said to 
 herself ; and, closing her desk, she went up-stairs, told 
 the governess and the domestics that she was going to 
 Moscow that evening, and instantly began to make her 
 preparations. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 IN all the rooms of the villa, the men-servants, the 
 gardeners, the lackeys, were hurrying about laden with 
 various things. Cupboards and commodes were cleared 
 of their contents. Twice they had gone to the shop for 
 packing-cord ; on the floor lay piles of newspapers. 
 Two trunks, traveling-bags, and a bundle of plaids 
 had been carried into the anteroom. A carriage and 
 two cabs were waiting at the front door. Anna, who in 
 the haste of packing had somewhat forgotten her in- 
 ward anguish, was standing by her table in her boudoir 
 and packing her bag, when Annushka called her atten- 
 tion to the rumble of a carriage approaching the house. 
 
 Anna looked out of the window, and saw on the 
 steps Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch's messenger-boy ringing 
 the front-door bell. 
 
 " Go and see what it is," said she, and then sat down 
 in her chair and, folding her hands on her knees, 
 waited with calm resignation. A lackey brought her 
 a fat packet directed in Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch's 
 handwriting. 
 
 "The messenger was ordered to wait an answer," 
 said he.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 75 
 
 "Very well," she replied; and as soon as he left the 
 room she opened the packet with trembling fingers. A 
 roll of fresh, new bank-notes, in a wrapper, fell out first. 
 She unfolded the letter and began to read it at the end. 
 " All the necessary measures for your return hither 
 
 will be taken I attach a very particular importance 
 
 to your attention to my request," she read. 
 
 She ran it through hastily backwards, a second time, 
 read it all through, and then she read it again from 
 beginning to end. When she had finished it, she felt 
 chilled, and had the consciousness that some terrible 
 and unexpected misfortune was crushing her. 
 
 That very morning she had regretted her confession 
 to her husband, and desired nothing so much as that she 
 had not spoken those words. And this letter treated 
 her words as if they had not been spoken, gave her 
 what she desired. And yet it seemed to her more 
 cruel than anything that she could have imagined. 
 
 "Right, he is right!" she murmured. "Of course 
 he is always right ; he is a Christian, he is magnani- 
 mous ! Yes, the low, vile man ! No one understands, 
 no one knows him but me ; and I cannot explain it. 
 People say, ' He is a religious, moral, honorable, intel- 
 lectual man.' But they have not seen what I have 
 seen ; they do not know how for eight years he has 
 crushed my life, crushed everything that was vital in 
 me ; how he has never once thought of me as a living 
 woman who needed love. They don't know how at 
 every step he has insulted me, and yet remained self- 
 satisfied. Have I not striven, striven with all my 
 powers, to find a justification of my life ? Have I not 
 done my best to love him, to love his son when I could 
 not love my husband ? But the time came when I 
 found I could no longer deceive myself, that I am a 
 living being, that I am not to blame, that God has 
 made me so, that I must love and live. And now what ? 
 He might kill me, he might kill him, and I could endure 
 it, I could forgive it. But no, he.... 
 
 " Why should I not have foreseen what he would do ? 
 He does exactly in accordance with his despicable char-
 
 76 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 acter; he stands on his rights. But I, poor unfortunate, 
 am sunk lower and more irreclaimably than ever toward 
 ruin. ' You may surmise what awaits you and your son] " 
 she repeated to herself, remembering a sentence in his 
 letter. " It is a threat that he means to rob me of my 
 son, and doubtless their wretched laws allow it. But, 
 do I not see why he said that ? He has no belief in my 
 love for my son ; or else he is deriding, as he always 
 does, in his sarcastic manner, is deriding this feeling 
 of mine, for he knows that I will not abandon my son 
 I cannot abandon him; that without my son, life would 
 be unsupportable, even with him whom I love ; and that 
 to abandon my son, and leave him, I should fall like the 
 worst of women. This he knows, and knows that I 
 should never have the power to do so. 
 
 " ' Our lives must remain unchanged] " she continued, 
 remembering another sentence in the letter. "This 
 life was a torture before ; but of late it has grown worse 
 than ever. What will it be now ? And he knows all 
 this, knows that I cannot repent because I breathe, 
 because I love; he knows that nothing except falsehood 
 and deceit can result from this : but he must needs pro- 
 long my torture. I know him, and I know that he 
 swims in perjury like a fish in water. But no; I will 
 not give him this pleasure. I will break this network of 
 lies in which he wants to enwrap me. Come what may, 
 anything is better than lies and deception. 
 
 " But how ? Bozhe mol ! Bozhe mof ! Was there 
 ever woman so unhappy as I ? .... 
 
 " No, I will break it ! I will break it ! " she cried, 
 springing to her feet and striving to keep back the tears. 
 And she went to her writing-table to begin another 
 letter to him. But in the lowest depths of her soul she 
 felt that she had not the power to break the network of 
 circumstances, that she had not the power to escape 
 from the situation in which she was placed, false and 
 dishonorable though it was. 
 
 She sat down at the table ; but, instead of writing, 
 she folded her arms on the table, and bowed her head 
 on them, and began to weep like a child, with heaving
 
 ANNA KARENINA 77 
 
 breast and convulsive sobs. She wept because her 
 visions about an explanation, about a settlement of her 
 position, had vanished forever. She knew that now all 
 things would go on as before, and even worse than be- 
 fore. She felt that her position in society, which she 
 had slighted, and even that morning counted as dross, 
 was dear to her ; that she should never have the 
 strength to abandon it for the shameful position of a 
 woman who has deserted her husband and son and 
 joined her lover ; she felt that in spite of all her efforts 
 she should never be stronger than herself. She never 
 would know what freedom to love meant, but would be 
 always a guilty woman, constantly under the threat of 
 detection, deceiving her husband for the disgraceful so- 
 ciety of an independent stranger, with whose life she 
 could never join hers. She knew that this would be so, 
 and yet at the same time it was so terrible that she could 
 not acknowledge, even to herself, how it would end. 
 And she wept, unrestrainedly as a child who has been 
 punished sobs. 
 
 The steps of a lackey approaching brought her to 
 herself; and, hiding from him her face, she pretended 
 to be writing. 
 
 " The courier would like his answer," said the 
 lackey. 
 
 " His answer ? Oh, yes ! " said Anna. " Let him 
 wait. I will ring." 
 
 "What can I write?" she asked herself "How 
 decide by myself alone ? What do I know ? What do 
 I want ? Whom do I love ? " 
 
 Again it seemed to her that in her soul she felt the 
 dual nature. She was alarmed at this feeling, and 
 seized on the first pretext for activity that presented 
 itself so that she might be freed from thoughts about 
 herself. 
 
 " I must see Alekse'f " (thus in thought she called 
 Vronsky) ; " he alone can tell me what I must do. I 
 will go to Betsy's. Perhaps I shall find him there." 
 
 She completely forgot that on the evening before, 
 when she told him that she was not going to the Prin-
 
 y8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 cess Tverskaya's, he said that in that case he should 
 not go there either. 
 
 She went to the table again, and wrote her husband: 
 
 I have received your letter. 
 
 A. 
 
 She rang, and gave it to the lackey. 
 
 "We are not going," said she to Annushka, who was 
 just coming in. 
 
 " Not going at all ? " 
 
 "No; but don't unpack before to-morrow, and have 
 the carriage wait. I am going to the princess's." 
 
 " What gown shall you wear ? " 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE croquet party to which the Princess Tverskaya 
 invited Anna was to consist of two ladies and their 
 adorers. These two ladies were the leading represen- 
 tatives of a new and exclusive Petersburg clique, called, 
 in imitation of an imitation, les sept merveilles du monde, 
 the seven wonders of the world. Both of them be- 
 longed to the highest society, but to a circle absolutely 
 hostile to that in which Anna moved. Moreover, old 
 Stremof, one of the influential men of the city, and 
 Liza Merkalof's lover, was in the service of Alekse'f 
 Alcksandrovitch's enemies. From all these considera- 
 tions Anna did not care to go to Betsy's, and her refusal 
 called forth the hints in the Princess Tverskaya's note ; 
 but now she decided to go, hoping to find Vronsky 
 there. 
 
 She reached the Princess Tverskaya's before the other 
 guests. 
 
 Just as she arrived Vronsky's lackey, with his well- 
 combed side-whiskers, like a kannner-jnnker, was at 
 the door. Raising his cap, he stepped aside to let her 
 pass. Anna recognized him and only then remembered 
 that Vronsky had told her that he was not coming. 
 Undoubtedly he had sent him with his excuses.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 79 
 
 As she was taking off her wraps in the anteroom 
 she heard the lackey, who rolled his R's like a kammcr- 
 junker, say, " From the count to the princess," at the 
 same time he delivered his note. 
 
 She wanted to ask him where his barin was. She 
 wanted to go back and write him a note, asking him to 
 come to her, or to go and find him herself. But she 
 could not follow out any of these plans, for the bell 
 had already announced her presence, and one of the 
 princess's lackeys was waiting at the door to usher her 
 into the rooms beyond. 
 
 " The princess is in the garden. Word has been sent 
 to her. Would you not like to step out into the gar- 
 den ? " said a second lackey in the second room. 
 
 Her position of uncertainty, of darkness, was just the 
 same as at home. It was even worse, because she 
 could not make any decision, she could not see Vronsky, 
 and she was obliged to remain in the midst of a com- 
 pany of strangers diametrically opposed to her present 
 mood. But she wore a toilet which she knew was very 
 becoming. She was not alone, she was surrounded by that 
 solemn atmosphere of indolence so familiar; and on the 
 whole it was better to be there than at home. She was 
 not obliged to think what she would do. Things would 
 arrange themselves. 
 
 Betsy came to meet her in a white toilet absolutely 
 stunning in its elegance ; and Anna greeted her, as 
 usual, with a smile. The Princess Tverskaya was ac- 
 companied by Tushkievitch and a young relative who, 
 to the great delight of the provincial family to which 
 she belonged, was spending the summer with the famous 
 princess. 
 
 Apparently there was something unnatural in Anna's 
 appearance, for Betsy immediately remarked it. 
 
 " I did not sleep well," replied Anna, looking furtively 
 at the lackey, who was coming, as she supposed, to 
 bring Vronsky's note to the princess. 
 
 " How glad I am that you came ! " said Betsy. " I 
 am just up, and I should like to have a cup of tea before 
 the others come. And you," she said, addressing Tush-
 
 80 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 kievitch, " had better go with Maska and try the kroket* 
 gro-und, which has just been clipped. You and I will 
 have time to have a little confidential talk while taking our 
 tea. We '11 have a cozy chat, won't we ? " she added in 
 English, addressing Anna with a smile, and taking her 
 hand, in which she held a sunshade. 
 
 " All the more willingly because I cannot stay long. 
 I must call on old Vrede ; I have been promising for 
 a hundred years to come and see her," said Anna, to 
 whom the lie, though contrary to her nature, seemed 
 not only simple and easy, but even pleasurable. Why 
 she said a thing which she forgot the second after, she 
 herself could not have told ; she said it at haphazard, 
 so that, in case Vronsky were not coming, she might 
 have a way of escape, and try to find him elsewhere ; 
 and why she happened to select the name of old 
 Frei'lina Vrede rather than any other of her acquain- 
 tances was likewise inexplicable. But, as events proved, 
 out of all the possible schemes for meeting Vronsky, 
 she could not have chosen a better. 
 
 "No, I shall not let you go," replied Betsy, scruti- 
 nizing Anna's face. " Indeed, if I were not so fond of 
 you, I should be tempted to be vexed with you ; any- 
 body would think that you were afraid of my company 
 compromising you. Tea in the little parlor, if you 
 please," said she to the lackey, blinking her eyes as 
 was habitual with her ; and, taking the letter from 
 him, she began to read it. 
 
 "Alekse'i disappoints us," 1 said she in French. "He 
 writes that he cannot come," she added, in a tone as 
 simple and unaffected as if it had never entered her 
 mind that Vronsky was of any more interest to Anna 
 than as a possible partner in a game of croquet. Anna 
 knew that Betsy knew all ; but, as she heard Betsy 
 speak of Vronsky now, she almost brought herself to 
 believe for a moment that she knew nothing. 
 
 " Ah ! " she said indifferently, as if it was a detail 
 which did not interest her. " How," she continued, 
 still smiling, "could your society compromise any one?" 
 
 1 Alexis nous fait faux bond.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 81 
 
 This manner of playing with words, this hiding a 
 secret, had a great charm for Anna, as it has for all 
 women. And it was not the necessity of secrecy, or 
 the reason for secrecy, but the process itself, that gave 
 the pleasure. 
 
 "I cannot be more Catholic than the Pope," she said, 
 " Stremof and Liza Merkalof, they are the cream of the 
 cream of society. They are received everywhere. But 
 /" she laid special stress on the/ "/have never 
 been severe and intolerant. I simply have not had 
 time." 
 
 " No. But perhaps you prefer not to meet Stremof ? 
 Let him break lances with Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch in 
 committee-meetings ; that does not concern us. But in 
 society he is as lovely a man as I know, and a passion- 
 ate lover of croquet. But you shall see him. And you 
 must see how admirably he conducts himself in his 
 ridiculous position as Liza's aged lover. He is very 
 charming. Don't you know Safo Stoltz ? She is the 
 latest, absolutely the latest style." 
 
 While Betsy was saying all this, Anna perceived, by 
 her joyous, intelligent eyes, that she saw her embarrass- 
 ment and was trying to put her at her ease. They had 
 gone into the little boudoir. 
 
 " By the way, I must write a word to AlekseT." 
 
 And Betsy sat down at her writing-table, hastily 
 penned a few lines, and inclosed them in an envelop. 
 " I wrote him to come to dinner. One of the ladies 
 who is going to be here has no gentleman. See if I 
 am imperative enough. Excuse me if I leave you a 
 moment. Please seal it and direct it," said she at the 
 door, " I have some arrangements to make." 
 
 Without a moment's hesitation, Anna took Betsy's 
 seat at the table, and, without reading her note, added 
 these words : 
 
 I must see you without fail. Come to the Vrede's Garden. 
 I will be there at six o'clock. 
 
 She sealed the letter ; and Betsy, coming a moment 
 later, despatched it at once. 
 
 VOL. II. 6
 
 82 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 The two ladies took their tea at a little table in the 
 cool boudoir, and had indeed a cozy chat as the princess 
 had promised, until the arrival of her guests. They 
 expressed their judgments on them, beginning with 
 Liza Merkalof. 
 
 " She is very charming, and she has always been 
 congenial to me," said Anna. 
 
 " You ought to like her. She adores you. Yesterday 
 evening, after the races, she came to see me, and was 
 in despair not to find you. She says that you are a 
 genuine heroine of a romance, and that if she were 
 a man, she would commit a thousand follies for your 
 sake. Stremof told her she did that, even as she was." 
 
 " But please tell me one thing I never could under- 
 stand," said Anna, after a moment of silence, and in a 
 tone which clearly showed that she did not ask an idle 
 question but that what she wanted explained was more 
 important to her than would appear. " Please tell me, 
 what are the relations between her and Prince Kaluzh- 
 sky, the man they call Mishka ? I have rarely seen 
 them together. What are their relations ? " 
 
 A smile came into Betsy's eyes, and she looked keenly 
 at Anna. 
 
 " It 's a new kind," she replied. " All these ladies 
 have adopted it. They 've thrown their caps behind the 
 mill. But there are ways and ways of throwing them." 
 
 "Yes, but what are her relations with Kaluzhsky?" 
 
 Betsy, to Anna's surprise, broke into a gale of irresisti- 
 ble laughter, which was an unusual thing with her. 
 
 " But you are trespassing on the Princess Miagkaya's 
 province ; it is the question of an enfant terrible" said 
 Betsy, trying in vain to restrain her gayety, but again 
 breaking out into that contagious laughter which is the 
 peculiarity of people who rarely laugh. " But you must 
 ask them," she at length managed to say, with the tears 
 running down her cheeks. 
 
 " Well ! you laugh," said Anna, in spite of herself 
 joining in her friend's amusement; "but I never could 
 understand it at all, and I don't understand what part 
 the husband plays."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 83 
 
 " The husband ? Liza Merkalof s husband carries 
 her plaid for her, and is always at her beck and call. 
 But the real meaning of the affair no one cares to know. 
 You know that in good society people don't speak and 
 don't even think of certain details of the toilet; well, it 
 is the same here." 
 
 " Are you going to Rolandaki's fte ? " asked Anna, 
 to change the conversation. 
 
 " I don't think so," replied Betsy; and, not looking at 
 her companion, she carefully poured the fragrant tea 
 into little transparent cups. Then, having handed one 
 to Anna, she rolled a cigarette, and, putting it into a 
 silver holder, she began to smoke. 
 
 "You see, I am in a fortunate position," she began 
 seriously, holding her cup in her hand. "I understand 
 you, and I understand Liza. Liza is one of these nai've, 
 childlike natures, who cannot distinguish between ill and 
 good, at least, she was so when she was young, and 
 now she knows that this simplicity is becoming to her. 
 Now perhaps she purposely fails to understand the dis- 
 tinction," said Betsy, with a sly smile. " But all the 
 same, it becomes her. You see, it is quite possible to 
 look on things from a tragic standpoint, and to get tor- 
 ment out of them ; and it is possible to look on it sim- 
 ply, and even gayly. Possibly you are inclined, to look 
 on things too tragically." 
 
 " How I should like to know others as well as I know 
 myself! " said Anna, with a serious and pensive look. 
 "Am I worse than others, or better? Worse, I think." 
 
 "You are an enfant terrible, an enfant tenible" was 
 Betsy's comment. " But here they are ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 STEPS were heard, and a man's voice, then a woman's 
 voice and laughter, and immediately after the expected 
 guests came in : Safo Stoltz, and a young man called 
 Vaska, whose face shone with exuberant health. It was 
 evident that rich blood-making beef, burgundy, and truffles
 
 84 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 had accomplished their work. Vaska bowed to the two 
 ladies and glanced at them, but only for a second. He 
 followed Safo into the drawing-room, and he followed 
 her through the drawing-room, as if he had been tied to 
 her, and he kept his brilliant eyes fastened on her as if 
 he wished to devour her. Safo Stoltz was a blond with 
 black eyes. She wore shoes with enormously high heels, 
 and she came in with slow, vigorous steps, and shook 
 hands with the ladies energetically, like a man. 
 
 Anna had never before met with this new celebrity, 
 and was struck, not only by her beauty, but by the ex- 
 travagance of her toilet and the boldness of her man- 
 ners. On her head was a veritable scaffolding of false 
 and natural hair of a lovely golden hue, and of a height 
 corresponding to the mighty proportions of her protu- 
 berant and very visible bosom. Her dress was so tightly 
 pulled back, that at every movement it outlined the 
 shape of her knees and thighs ; and involuntarily the 
 question arose : Where, under this enormous, tottering 
 mountain, did her neat little body, so exposed above, 
 and so tightly laced below, really end ? 
 
 Betsy made haste to introduce her to Anna. 
 
 " Can you imagine it ? We almost ran over two 
 soldiers," she instantly began to relate, winking, smiling, 
 and kicking back her train, which she in turn threw too 
 far over to the other side. " I was coming with Vaska 
 .... oh, yes ! You are not acquainted." And she intro- 
 duced the young man by his family name, laughing 
 heartily at her mistake in calling him Vaska before 
 strangers. Vaska bowed a second time to Anna, but 
 said nothing to her. He turned to Safo. 
 
 "The wager is lost. We came first," said he, smiling. 
 "You must pay." 
 
 Safo laughed still more gayly. 
 
 " Not now, though," said she. 
 
 "All right ; I '11 take it by and by." 
 
 " Very well, very well ! Oh, by the way ! " she sud- 
 denly cried out to the hostess. " I .... forgot ....stupid 
 that I was ! I bring you a guest ; here he is." 
 
 The young guest whom Safo presented, after having
 
 ANNA KARENINA 85 
 
 forgotten him, was a guest of such importance that, not- 
 withstanding his youth, all the ladies rose to receive him. 
 
 This was Safo's new adorer; and, just as Vaska did, 
 he followed her every step. 
 
 Immediately after came Prince Kaluzhsky and Liza 
 Merkalof with Stremof. Liza was a rather thin brunette, 
 with an Oriental, indolent type of countenance, and with 
 ravishing, and as everybody said, inscrutable eyes. The 
 style of her dark dress was absolutely in keeping with 
 her beauty. Anna noticed it, and approved. Liza 
 was as quiet and unpretentious as Safo was loud and 
 obstreperous. 
 
 But Liza, for Anna's taste, was vastly more attractive. 
 Betsy, in speaking of her to Anna, had ridiculed her 
 affectation of the manner of an innocent child ; but 
 when Anna saw her, she ' felt that this was not fair. 
 Liza was really an innocent, gentle, and irresponsible 
 woman, a little spoiled. To be sure, her morals were 
 the same as Safo's. She also had in her train, as if 
 sewed to her, two adorers, one young, the other old, 
 who devoured her with their eyes. But there was some- 
 thing about her better than her surroundings ; she was 
 like a diamond of the purest water surrounded by glass. 
 The brilliancy shone out of her lovely, enigmatical eyes. 
 The wearied and yet passionate look of her eyes, sur- 
 rounded by dark circles, struck one by its absolute sin- 
 cerity. Any one looking into their depths would think 
 that he knew her completely ; and to know her was to 
 love her. At the sight of Anna, her whole face sud- 
 denly lighted up with a happy smile. 
 
 " Oh ! How glad I am to see you ! " she said, as she 
 went up to her. " Yesterday afternoon at the races I 
 wanted to get to you, but you had just gone. I was so 
 anxious to see you yesterday especially ! Too bad, 
 was n't it ? " said she, gazing at Anna with a look which 
 seemed to disclose her whole soul. 
 
 " Yes ! I never would have believed that anything 
 could be so exciting," replied Anna, with some color. 
 
 The company now began to get ready to go to the 
 lawn.
 
 86 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " I am not going," said Liza, sitting down near Anna. 
 " You are n't going, are you ? What pleasure can any 
 one find in croquet?" 
 
 " But I am very fond of it," said Anna. 
 
 " There ! how is it that you don't get ennuyte ? To 
 look at you is a joy. You live, but I vegetate." 
 
 " How vegetate ? Why ! they say you have the gay- 
 est society in Petersburg," said Anna. 
 
 " Perhaps those who are not of our circle are still 
 more ennnyte. But we, it seems to me, are not happy, 
 but are bored, terribly bored." 
 
 Safo lighted a cigarette, and went to the lawn with 
 the two young men. Betsy and Stremof stayed at 
 the tea-table. 
 
 " How bored ? " asked Betsy. " Safo says she had a 
 delightful evening with you yesterday." 
 
 " Oh ! how unendurable it was ! " said Liza. " They 
 all came to my house with me after the races, and it 
 was all so utterly monotonous. It is forever one and the 
 same thing. They sat on the divans the whole evening. 
 How could that be delightful? No; but what do you 
 do to keep from being bored?" she asked again of 
 Anna. " It is enough to look at you ! You are evi- 
 dently a woman who can be happy or unhappy, but 
 never ennuyte. Now explain what you do." 
 
 " I don't do anything," said Anna, confused by such 
 a stream of questions. 
 
 "That is the best way," said Stremof, joining the 
 conversation. 
 
 Stremof was a man fifty years old, rather gray, but 
 well preserved, very ugly, but with a face full of char- 
 acter and intelligence. Liza Merkalof was his wife's 
 niece, and he spent with her all his leisure time. Though 
 he was an employee in the service of Aleksei' Aleksandro- 
 vitch's political enemies, he endeavored, no.w that he met 
 Anna in society, to act the man of the world, and be 
 exceedingly amiable to his enemy's wife. 
 
 "The very best way is to do nothing," he continued, 
 with his wise smile. " I have been telling you this long 
 time," turning to Liza Merkalof, " that, if you don't want
 
 ANNA KARENINA 87 
 
 to be bored, you must not think that it is possible to be 
 bored ; just as one must not be afraid of not sleeping if 
 he is troubled with insomnia. This is just what Anna 
 Arkadyevna told you." 
 
 " I should be very glad if I had said so," said Anna, 
 "because it is not only clever, it is true." 
 
 " But will you tell me why it is not hard to go to 
 sleep, and not hard to be free from ennui?" 
 
 " To sleep, you must work ; and to be happy, you 
 must also work." 
 
 " But how can I work when my labor is useful to no 
 one ? But to make believe, I neither can nor will." 
 
 " You are incorrigible," sajd he, not looking at her, 
 but turning to Anna again. He rarely met her, and 
 could not well speak to her except in the way of small 
 talk ; but he understood how to say light things grace- 
 fully, and he asked her when she was going back to 
 Petersburg, and whether she liked the Countess Lidya 
 Ivanovna. And he asked these questions in a man- 
 ner which showed his desire to be her friend, and to 
 express his consideration and respect. 
 
 Tushkievitch came in just then and explained that 
 the whole company was waiting for the croquet players. 
 
 " No, don't go, I beg of you," said Liza, when she 
 found that Anna was not intending to stay. Stremof 
 added his persuasions. 
 
 "It is too great a contrast," said he, "between our 
 society and old Vrede's ; and then, you will be for her 
 only an object for slander, while here you will only 
 awaken very different sentiments, quite the opposite 
 of slander and ill-feeling." 
 
 Anna remained for a moment in uncertainty. This 
 witty man's flattering words, the childlike and naive 
 sympathy shown her by Liza Merkalof, and all this 
 agreeable social atmosphere, so opposed to what she 
 expected elsewhere, caused her a moment of hesitation. 
 Could she not postpone the terrible moment of expla- 
 nation? But remembering what she had to expect 
 alone at home if she should not come to some decision, 
 remembering the pain that she had felt when she
 
 88 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 pulled her hair with both hands, not knowing what 
 she did, so great was her mental anguish, she took 
 leave, and went. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 VRONSKY, in spite of his worldly life and his apparent 
 frivolity, was a man who detested confusion. Once, 
 when still a lad in the School of Pages, he found him- 
 self short of money, and met with a humiliating refusal 
 when he tried to borrow. He vowed that henceforth 
 he would not expose hims&lf to such a humiliation again, 
 and he kept his word. In order to keep his affairs in 
 order, he made, more or less often, according to circum- 
 stances, but at least five times a year, an examination of 
 his affairs. He called this "straightening his affairs," 
 or, in French, faire sa lessive. 
 
 The morning after the races Vronsky woke late, and 
 without stopping to shave, or take his bath, put on his 
 kitel, or soldier's linen frock, and, placing his money and 
 bills and paper on the table, proceeded to the work of 
 settling his accounts. Petritsky, knowing that his com- 
 rade was likely to be irritable when engaged in such 
 occupation, quietly got up, and slipped out without dis- 
 turbing him. 
 
 Every man acquainted, even to the minutest details, 
 with all the complications of his surroundings, involun- 
 tarily supposes that the complications and tribulations of 
 his life are a personal and private grievance peculiar to 
 himself, and never thinks that others are subjected to 
 the same complications of their personal troubles he him- 
 self is. Thus it seemed to Vronsky. And not without 
 inward pride, and not without reason, he felt that, until 
 the present time, he had done well in avoiding the 
 embarrassments to which every one else would have suc- 
 cumbed. But he felt that now it was necessary for him 
 to examine into his affairs, so as not to be embarrassed. 
 
 First, because it was the easiest to settle, Vronsky 
 investigated his pecuniary status. He wrote in his
 
 ANNA KARENINA 89 
 
 fluent, delicate hand a schedule of all his debts, and 
 adding them up found that the total amounted to seven- 
 teen thousand rubles, and some odd hundreds, which he 
 let go for the sake of clearness. Counting up his ready 
 money and his bank-book, he had only eighteen hun- 
 dred rubles, with no hope of more until the new year. 
 Looking over the schedule of his debts, Vronsky classi- 
 fied them, putting them into three categories: first, the 
 urgent debts, or, in other words, those that required ready 
 money, so that, in case of requisition, there might not be 
 a moment of delay. These amounted to four thousand 
 rubles, fifteen hundred for his horse, and twenty-five 
 hundred as a guaranty for his young comrade, Venevsky, 
 who had, in Vronsky's company, lost this amount in play- 
 ing with a sharper. Vronsky, at the time, had wanted 
 to hand over the money, since he had it with him ; 
 but Venevsky and Yashvin insisted on paying it, rather 
 than Vronsky, who had not been playing. This was all 
 very well ; but Vronsky knew that in this disgraceful 
 affair, in which his only participation was going as 
 Venevsky's guaranty, it was necessary to have these 
 twenty-five hundred rubles ready to throw at the rascal's 
 head, and not to have any words with him. Thus, he 
 had to reckon the category of urgent debts as four 
 thousand rubles. 
 
 In the second category were eight thousand rubles 
 of debts, and these were less imperative. These were 
 what he owed on his stable account, for oats and hay, 
 to his English trainer, and other incidentals. At a 
 pinch, two thousand would suffice to leave him perfectly 
 easy in mind. The remaining debts were to his tailor, 
 and other furnishers ; and they could wait. In conclu- 
 sion, he found that he needed, for immediate use, six 
 thousand rubles, and he had only eighteen hundred. 
 
 For a man with an income of a hundred thousand 
 rubles, as people supposed Vronsky to have, it would 
 seem as if such debts as these could not be very em- 
 barrassing ; but the fact was that he had not an income 
 of a hundred thousand rubles. The large paternal 
 estate, producing two hundred thousand rubles a year,
 
 9 
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 had been divided between the two brothers. But when 
 the elder brother, laden with debts, married the Princess 
 Varia Tchirkof, the daughter of a Dekabrist, 1 who 
 brought him no fortune, Aleksei' yielded him his share 
 of the inheritance, reserving only an income of twenty- 
 five thousand rubles. He told his brother that this 
 would be sufficient for him until he married, which he 
 thought would never happen. His brother, who was in 
 command of one of the most expensive regiments in the 
 service and only just married, could not refuse this gift. 
 
 His mother, who possessed an independent fortune, 
 kept twenty-five thousand rubles for herself and gave 
 her younger son a yearly allowance of twenty thousand 
 rubles ; and Alekse'f spent the whole of it. Recently 
 the countess, angry with him on account of his depar- 
 ture from Moscow and his disgraceful liaison, had ceased 
 to remit to him any money. So that Vronsky, who was 
 accustomed to living on a forty-five thousand ruble foot- 
 ing, and having this year only twenty-five thousand, 
 found himself in some extremity. He could not apply 
 to his mother to help him out of his difficulty, for her 
 letter which he had received the day before angered 
 him by the insinuations which it contained : she was 
 ready, it said, to help him along in society, or to advance 
 him in his career, but not in this present life which was 
 scandalizing all the best people. 
 
 His mother's attempt to bribe him wounded him in 
 the tenderest spot in his heart, and he felt more coldly 
 towards her than ever. 
 
 He could not retract his magnanimous promise given 
 to his brother ; although he felt now, in view of his 
 rather uncertain relationship with Madame Karenin, 
 that his magnanimous promise had been given too has- 
 tily, and that, even though he were not married, the 
 hundred thousand rubles might stand him in good stead. 
 But it was impossible to retract. The impossibility of 
 taking back what he had given was made clear to him, 
 especially when he remembered his brother's wife, when 
 
 a The Dekabrists were the revolutionists of December, 1825, who were 
 banished at the time of the accession of the Emperor Nicholas.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 91 
 
 he remembered how this gentle, excellent Varia had 
 always made him understand that she should not forget 
 his generosity, and never cease to appreciate it. It 
 would be as impossible as to strike a woman, to steal, 
 or to lie. 
 
 There was only one possible and practicable thing, 
 and Vronsky adopted it without a moment's hesitation : 
 to borrow ten thousand rubles of a usurer, there 
 was no difficulty about this, to reduce his expenses as 
 much as he could, and to sell his race-horses. Having 
 decided to do this, he immediately wrote a letter to Ro- 
 landaki, who had many times offered to buy his stud. 
 Then he sent for his English trainer and the usurer, and 
 devoted the money which he had on hand to various 
 accounts. Having finished this business, he wrote a 
 cold and sharp reply to his mother ; and then, taking 
 from his portfolio Anna's last three letters, he re-read 
 them, burned them, and, remembering his last conversa- 
 tion with her, fell into deep meditation. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 VRONSKY'S life had been especially happy, because he 
 had a special code of rules, which infallibly determined 
 all he ought to do and ought not to do. 
 
 This code embraced a very small circle of duties, but 
 the rules allowed no manner of question, and as Vronsky 
 never had occasion to go outside of this circle, he had 
 never been obliged to hesitate about what he had to do. 
 These rules prescribed unfailingly that it was necessary 
 to pay gambling debts, but not his tailor's bills; that it 
 was not permissible to tell lies, except to women ; that 
 it was not right to deceive any one except a husband ; 
 that insults could be committed, but never pardoned. 
 
 All these precepts might be wrong and illogical, but 
 they were indubitable ; and, in fulfilling them, Vronsky 
 felt that he was calm, and had the right to hold his head 
 high. Only very recently, however, and during the 
 progress of his intimacy with Anna, Vronsky began to
 
 92 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 perceive that his code did not fully determine all condi- 
 tions, and the future promised to present difficulties and 
 doubts through the labyrinth of which he could not find 
 the guiding thread. 
 
 Hitherto his relations with Anna and her husband 
 had been, on his part, simple and clear ; they were in 
 harmony with the code that guided him. 
 
 She was a perfect lady, and she had given him her 
 love ; he loved her, and therefore she had a right to his 
 respect, even more than if she had been his legal wife. 
 He would have cut off his hand sooner than permit him- 
 self a word or an allusion that might wound her, or that 
 would seem to fail in that respect on which, as a woman, 
 she ought to count. 
 
 His relations with society were also clear. All might 
 know or suspect his relations with her, but no one 
 should dare to speak of it. At the first hint, he was 
 prepared to cause the speaker to hold his peace, and to 
 respect the non-existent honor of the woman whom he 
 loved. 
 
 Still more clear were his relations to the husband : 
 from the first moment when Anna gave him her love 
 he considered his right and his only imprescriptible. 
 The husband was merely a superfluous and meddlesome 
 person. Without doubt, he was in a pitiable position ; 
 but what could be done about it ? The only right that 
 was left him was to demand satisfaction with arms in 
 their hands, and for this Vronsky was wholly willing. 
 
 In the last few days, however, new complications had 
 arisen in their relationship, and Vronsky was alarmed 
 at his uncertainty. Only the evening before, Anna had 
 confessed that she was pregnant ; and he felt that this 
 news and what she expected from him demanded some- 
 thing that was not defined by the code of rules by which 
 he ruled his life. Indeed, he was taken unawares, and 
 at the first moment, when she told him her situation, 
 his heart bade him take her from her husband. He, 
 said this, but now on reflection he saw clearly that it 
 would be better not to do so ; but at the same time he 
 was alarmed and perplexed.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 93 
 
 " If I urge her to leave her husband, it would mean 
 unite her life with mine. Am I ready for that ? How 
 can I elope with her when I have no money ? Let us 
 
 admit that I could manage that But how can I take 
 
 her away while I am connected with the service ? If I 
 should decide upon this, I should have to get money, 
 and throw up my commission." 
 
 And he fell into thought. The question of resigning, 
 or not, brought him face to face with another interest of 
 his life known only to himself, though it formed the 
 principal spur to his action. 
 
 Ambition had been the dream of his childhood and 
 youth, a dream which he did not confess even to himself, 
 but which was nevertheless a passion so strong that now 
 it fought with his love. His first advances in society, 
 and in his military career, had been brilliant, but two 
 years before he had made a serious blunder. Wishing 
 to show his independence, and to cause a sensation, he 
 refused a promotion offered him, with the hope that his 
 refusal would put a still higher value upon him. But it 
 seemed that he was too confident, and since then he had 
 been neglected. Finding himself reduced nolens volens 
 to the position of an independent man, he accepted it, 
 behaving with perfect propriety and wisdom, as if he 
 had nothing to complain of, and counted himself 
 slighted by no one, but asked only to be left in peace 
 to amuse himself as he pleased. 
 
 In reality, as the year went on, and even before he 
 went to Moscow, this pleasure had begun to pall on him. 
 He felt that this independent position of a man capable 
 of doing anything, but caring to do nothing, was begin- 
 ning to grow tame, that many people were beginning to 
 think that he was incapable of doing anything, instead 
 of being a good, honorable young fellow. 
 
 His relations with Madame Karenin, by making such 
 a sensation and attracting attention to him, for a 
 time calmed the gnawings of the worm of ambition; 
 but lately this worm had begun to gnaw with renewed 
 energy. Serpukhovskoi' the friend of his childhood, 
 belonging to his own circle, a chum of his in the School
 
 94 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of Pages, who had graduated with him, who had been 
 his rival in the class-room and in gymnasium, in his 
 pranks and in his dreams of ambition had just returned 
 from Central Asia, where he had been promoted two 
 tchins and won honors rarely given to such a young 
 general. 
 
 He had only just come to Petersburg, and people were 
 talking about him as a new rising star of the first magni- 
 tude. 
 
 Just Vronsky's age, and his intimate friend, he was a 
 general, and was expecting an appointment which would 
 give him great influence in the affairs of the country ; 
 while Vronsky, though he was independent and brilliant, 
 and loved by a lovely woman, was only a rotmistr, or 
 cavalry captain, whom they allowed to remain as inde- 
 pendent as he pleased. 
 
 "Of course," he said to himself, "I am not envious 
 of SerpukhovskoY and could not be ; but his promotion 
 proves that a man like me needs only to bide his time 
 in order to make a rapid rise in his profession. Three 
 years ago he was in the same position as I am now. If 
 I left the service, I should burn my ships. If I stay in 
 the service, I lose nothing ; she herself told me that she 
 did not want to change her position. And I, who am 
 sure of her love, cannot be envious of SerpukhovskoY." 
 
 And, slowly twisting his mustache, he arose from the 
 table, and began to walk up and down the room. His 
 eyes shone with extraordinary brilliancy ; and he was 
 conscious of that calm, even, and joyous state of mind 
 which he always felt after he had cleared up any situa- 
 tion. All was now clear and orderly as ever. He shaved, 
 took a cold-water bath, dressed, and prepared to go out. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 
 
 " I WAS coming for you," said Petritsky, entering the 
 room. " Your cleaning up took a long time to-day, 
 didn't it ? Are you through ? " 
 
 "All through," said Vronsky, smiling only with his
 
 ANNA KARENINA 95 
 
 eyes, and continuing to twist the ends of his mustache 
 deliberately, as if, after this work of regulation were 
 accomplished, any rash and quick motion might de- 
 stroy it. 
 
 " You always come out of this operation as from a 
 bath," said Petritsky. "I come from Gritska's," so 
 they called their regimental commander, "they are 
 waiting for you." 
 
 Vronsky looked at his comrade without replying; his 
 thoughts were elsewhere. 
 
 " Ah ! then that music is at his house ? " he remarked, 
 hearing the well-known sounds of waltzes and polkas, 
 played by a military band. " What is the celebration ? " 
 
 "Serpukhovskoi has come." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Vronsky, " I did not know it." 
 
 The smile in his eyes was brighter than ever. 
 
 Having once decided for himself that he was happy 
 in his love, he had elected to sacrifice his ambition to 
 his love. Having at least taken on himself to play this 
 part, he could feel neither envy at Serpukhovskoi, nor 
 vexation because he, returning to the regiment, had not 
 come first to see him. Serpukhovskoi was a good friend 
 of his, and Vronsky was glad for him. 
 
 " Ah ! I am very glad." 
 
 The regimental commander, Demin, lived in a large 
 seignorial mansion. All the company had assembled .on 
 the lower front balcony. What first struck Vronsky's 
 eyes as he reached the door were the singers of the 
 regiment, in summer uniform, grouped around a keg of 
 \rodka, and the healthy, jovial face of the regimental 
 commander as he stood surrounded by his officers. He 
 had come out on the front step of the balcony, and was 
 screaming louder than the band, which was playing one 
 of Offenbach's quadrilles. He was giving some orders 
 and gesticulating to a group of soldiers on one side. 
 A group of soldiers, the vakhmistr, or sergeant, and a 
 few non-commissioned officers, reached the balcony at 
 the same instant with Vronsky. The regimental com- 
 mander, who had been to the table, returned with a glass
 
 96 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of champagne to the front steps, and proposed the 
 toast, 
 
 " To the health of our old comrade, the brave general, 
 Prince Serpukhovskoi'. Hurrah ! " 
 
 Behind the regimental commander came Serpukhov- 
 skoT, smiling, with a glass in his hand. 
 
 "You are always young, Bondarenko," said he to the 
 sergeant, a ruddy-cheeked soldier, who stood directly in 
 front of him. 
 
 Vronsky had not seen Serpukhovskoi for three years. 
 He had grown older, and wore whiskers, but he was the 
 same well-built man, striking not so much for his good 
 looks as for the nobility and gentleness of his face and 
 his whole bearing. The only change that Vronsky 
 noted in him was the slight but constant radiance 
 which can generally be seen in the faces of people who 
 have succeeded and made everybody else believe in 
 their success. Vronsky had seen it in other people, 
 and now he detected it in Serpukhovsko'f. 
 
 As he descended the steps he caught sight of Vronsky, 
 and a smile of joy irradiated his face. He nodded to 
 him, lifting his wine-cup as a greeting, and at the same 
 time to signify that first he must drink with the sergeant, 
 who, standing perfectly straight, had puckered his lips 
 for the kiss. 
 
 " Well, here he is ! " cried the regimental commander ; 
 " but Yashvin was telling me that you were in one of 
 your bad humors." 
 
 SerpukhovskoY, having kissed the young sergeant's 
 moist, fresh lips, wiped his mouth with his handker- 
 chief, and came to Vronsky. 
 
 " Well, how glad I am ! " he said, shaking hands, and 
 drawing him on one side. 
 
 " Bring him along," cried the regimental commander 
 to Yashvin, pointing to Vronsky, and descending to join 
 the soldiers. 
 
 "Why weren't you at the races yesterday? I ex- 
 pected to see you," said Vronsky to Serpukhovskoi, 
 studying his face. 
 
 " I did come, but too late. Excuse me," he said ;
 
 ANNA KARENINA 97 
 
 and, turning to his aide, " Please have this distributed 
 with my thanks; only have it get to the men." 
 
 And he hurriedly took out of his pocket-book three 
 hundred-ruble notes, and the color came into his face. 
 
 " Vronsky, will you have something to eat or drink ? " 
 asked Yashvin. " Hey ! bring something to the count 
 here. There, now, drink this." 
 
 The feasting at the regimental commander's lasted a 
 long time. They drank a great deal. They toasted 
 Serpukhovskolf, and carried him on their shoulders. 
 They cheered also the regimental commander. Then 
 the regimental commander and Petritsky danced a Rus- 
 sian dance, while the regimental singers made the music ; 
 and when he was tired, he sat down on a bench in the 
 court, and tried to prove to Yashvin Russia's superiority 
 over Prussia, especially in cavalry charges ; and the gay- 
 ety calmed down for a moment. Serpukhovskoi' went 
 into the house to wash his hands, and found Vronsky in 
 the toilet-room. Vronsky was splashing the water. He 
 had taken off his kitel, and was sousing his head and 
 his handsome neck under the tap of the basin, and rub- 
 bing them with his hands. When he had finished his 
 ablutions, he sat down by Serpukhovsko'f. They sat 
 together on a divanchik, and a conversation very inter- 
 esting to both parties arose between them. 
 
 ''I have learned all about you through my wife," 
 said Serpukhovskoi'. " I am glad that you see her so 
 often." 
 
 '} She is a friend of Varia's, and they are the only 
 women in Petersburg that I care to see," said Vronsky, 
 with a smile. He smiled because he foresaw on what 
 subject the conversation would turn, and it was pleasing 
 to him. 
 
 " The only ones ? " repeated Serpukhovsko'f, also smil- 
 ing. 
 
 " Yes ; and I, too, know all about you, but not 
 through your wife only," said Vronsky, cutting the 
 allusion short by the suddenly stern expression of his 
 face ; " and I am very glad at your success, but not the 
 least surprised. I expected even more." 
 
 VOL. II. 7
 
 98 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 SerpukhovskoY smiled again. This flattering opinion 
 of him pleased him, and he saw no reason to hide it. 
 
 "I, on the contrary, I confess frankly, expected less. 
 But I am glad, very glad. I am ambitious ; it is my 
 weakness, and I confess it." 
 
 " Perhaps you would n't confess it if you were n't suc- 
 cessful," suggested Vronsky. 
 
 " I don't think so," replied SerpukhovskoY, smiling 
 again. " I will not say that life would not be worth 
 living without it, but it would be tiresome. Of course 
 I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that I have some 
 of the qualifications necessary to the sphere of activity 
 which I have chosen, and that in my hands power of 
 any sort soever would be better placed than in the 
 hands of many whom I know," said Serpukhovsko'f, 
 with the radiant expression of success ; " and there- 
 fore, the nearer I am to this, the more contented I 
 feel." 
 
 " Perhaps this is true for you, but not for everybody. 
 I used to think so, and yet I live, and no longer find 
 that ambition is the only aim of existence." 
 
 " Here we have it ! Here we have it ! " cried Serpu- 
 khovskoT, laughing. " I began by saying that I heard 
 about you, about your refusal .... of course I approved 
 of you. There is a way for everything ; and I think 
 that your action itself was well, but you did no': do it 
 in the right way." 
 
 "What is done, is done; and you know I never go 
 back on what I have done. Besides, I am verjF*^ell 
 fixed." 
 
 " Very well for a time. But you will not be con- 
 tented so forever. I do not refer to your brother. He 
 is a very good fellow just like this host of ours. 
 Hark! hear that?" he added, hearing the shouts and 
 hurrahs. "He may be happy, but this will not satisfy 
 you." 
 
 "I don't say that I am satisfied." 
 
 " Well, this is not the only thing. Such men as you 
 are necessary ! " 
 
 " To whom ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 99 
 
 " To whom ? to society ; to Russia. Russia needs 
 men, she needs a party ; otherwise all is going, and will 
 go, to the dogs." 
 
 "What do you mean ? Bertenef's party against the 
 Russian communists ? " 
 
 " No," said SerpukhovskoT, with a grimace of vexa- 
 tion that he should be accused of any such nonsense. 
 " Tout ca cst nne blague! All that is fudge ! This al- 
 ways has been, and always will be. There are n't any 
 communists. But intriguing people must needs invent 
 some malignant dangerous party. It 's an old joke. 
 No, a powerful party is needed, of independent men, 
 like you and me." 
 
 " But why," Vronsky named several influential men, 
 " but why are n't they among the independents ? " 
 
 " Simply because they had not, through birth, an in- 
 dependent position, or a name, and have not lived near 
 the sun, as we have. They can be bought by money 
 or flattery. And to maintain themselves, they must 
 fix on a certain course, and follow it, though they do 
 not attach any importance to it, and even though it 
 may be bad. They have only one object in view 
 the means of securing a home at the expense of the 
 crown and certain salaries. Cela ri est pas pins fin qne 
 $a} when you look at their cards. Maybe I am worse 
 or more foolish than they, though I don't see why I 
 should be. But I have, and you have, the one inesti- 
 mable advantage, that it is harder to buy us. And such 
 men are more than ever necessary now." 
 
 Vronsky listened attentively, not only because of the 
 meaning of his words, but because of their connection 
 with the case of SerpukhovskoT himself, who was about 
 to engage in the struggle with power, and was entering 
 into that official world, with its sympathies and antip- 
 athies, while he was occupied only with the interests 
 of his squadron. Vronsky perceived how strong Ser- 
 pukhovskoT might be, with his unfailing aptitude for 
 invention, his quickness of comprehension, his intellect, 
 and fluent speech, so rarely met with in the circle in 
 1 That is all that it amounts to.
 
 ioo ANNA KARENINA 
 
 which he lived. And, though his conscience reproached 
 him, he felt a twinge of envy. 
 
 " All that I need for this is the one essential thing," 
 said he, " the desire for power. I had it, but it is 
 gone." 
 
 " Excuse me ; I don't believe you," said Serpukhov- 
 skol, smiling. 
 
 "No, it is true, true now to be frank with you," 
 persisted Vronsky. 
 
 " Yes, true now, that is another affair ; this now 
 will not last forever." 
 
 " Maybe." 
 
 "You say maybe ; and I tell you certainly not," con- 
 tinued SerpukhovskoY, as if he divined his thought 
 " And this is why I wanted to see you. You acted as 
 you felt was necessary. I understand that; but it is 
 not necessary for you to stick to it. 1 All I ask of you 
 is carte blanche for the future. I am not your patron .... 
 and yet why should I not take you under my protection ? 
 Have you not often done as much for me ? I hope that 
 our friendship stands above that. There ! " said he, 
 smiling at him tenderly, like a woman. " Give me carte 
 blanche. Come out of your regiment, and I will help 
 you along so that it won't be known." 
 
 " But understand that I want nothing," said Vronsky, 
 "except that all should be as it has been." 
 
 Serpukhovskoi arose, and stood facing him. 
 
 " You say that all must be as it has been. I under- 
 stand what you mean ; but listen to me. We are of the 
 same age ; maybe you have known more women than 
 I." His smile and his gesture told Vronsky to have no 
 fear that he would not touch gently and delicately on 
 the tender spot. " But I am married ; and, believe me, 
 as some one or other wrote, he who knows only his wife, 
 and loves her, understands all women better than if he 
 had known a thousand." 
 
 "We 're coming directly," cried Vronsky to an officer 
 who looked into the room and said he was sent by the 
 regimental commander. 
 
 1 Perseverirovat,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 101 
 
 Vronsky now felt curious to hear and to know what 
 Serpukhovskoi' would say to him. 
 
 " And this is my idea : Women are the principal 
 stumbling-block in the way of a man's activity. It is 
 hard to love a woman, and to do anything else. There 
 is only one way to love with comfort, and without 
 hindrance ; and that is, to marry. And how can I ex- 
 plain to you what I mean," continued Serpukhovskoi', 
 who was fond of metaphors, "wait, wait ! .... yes ! 
 how can you carry a burden and do anything with your 
 hands until the burden is tied on your back ? And so 
 it is with marriage. And I found this out when I mar- 
 ried. My hands suddenly became free. But to carry 
 thisfanfeau without marriage, your hands will be so full 
 that you can't do anything. Look at Mazankof, Krupof. 
 They ruined their careers through women." 
 
 " But what women ! '"' said Vronsky, remembering the 
 Frenchwoman and the actress for whom these two men 
 had formed attachments. 
 
 "The higher the woman is in the social scale, the 
 greater the difficulty. It is just the same as not to 
 carry your fardeau in your hands, but to tear it from 
 some other man." 
 
 " You have never loved," murmured Vronsky, looking 
 straight ahead, and thinking of Anna. 
 
 " Perhaps ; but you think of what I have told you. 
 And one thing more : women are all more material than 
 men. We make something immense out of love, but 
 they are all tcrre-cl-terre of the earth, earthy." 
 
 " Will be there immediately ! " he said, addressing the 
 lackey who was coming into the room. But the lackey 
 was not a messenger for him, as he supposed. The 
 lackey brought Vronsky a note. 
 
 " A man brought this from the Princess Tverskaya." 
 
 Vronsky hastily read the note, and grew red in the face. 
 
 " I have a headache. I am going home," said he to 
 Serpukhovskoi'. 
 
 "Well, then, proshchai ! farewell; will you give me 
 carte blanche ? " 
 
 " We will talk about it by and by. I will call on you 
 in Petersburg."
 
 102 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 IT was already six o'clock ; and in order not to miss 
 his appointment, or to go with his own horses, which 
 everybody knew, Vronsky engaged Yashvin's hired car- 
 riage, and told the izvoshchik to drive with all speed. 
 It was a spacious old carriage, with room for four. He 
 sat in one corner, stretched his legs out on the empty 
 seat, and began to think. 
 
 The confused consciousness of the order in which he 
 had regulated his affairs; the confused recollection of 
 the friendship and flattery of Serpukhovsko'f, who 
 assured him that he was an indispensable man ; and 
 most of all, the expectation of the coming interview, 
 conspired to give him a keen sense of the joy of living. 
 This impression was so powerful that he could not keep 
 from smiling. He stretched his legs, threw one knee 
 over the other, felt for the contusion that his fall had 
 given him the evening before, and drew several long 
 breaths with full lungs. 
 
 " Good, very good," said he to himself. Oftentimes 
 before he had felt a pleasure in the possession of his 
 body, but never had he so loved it, or loved himself, as 
 now. It was even pleasurable to feel the slight sore- 
 ness in his leg, pleasurable was the mouse-like sensation 
 of motion on his breast when he breathed. 
 
 This same bright, fresh, August day, which so im- 
 pressed Anna with its hopelessness, stimulated, vitalized 
 him, and cooled his face and neck, which still burned 
 from the reaction after his bath. The odor of brillian- 
 tine from his mustaches seemed pleasant to him in this 
 fres*h atmosphere. Everything that he saw from the 
 carriage-window seemed to him in this cool, pure air, in 
 this pale light of the dying day, fresh, joyous, and health- 
 ful, like himself. And the housetops shining in the rays 
 of the setting sun, the outlines of the fences and the 
 edifices along the way, and the shapes of occasional 
 pedestrians and carriages hurrying hither and thither, 
 and the motionless green of the trees, and the lawns,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 103 
 
 and the fields with their straight-cut rows of potato- 
 hills, and the oblique shadows cast by the houses and 
 the trees, and even by the potato-hills, all was as 
 beautiful as an exquisite landscape just from the mas- 
 ter's hand, and freshly varnished. 
 
 " Make haste, make haste ! " he shouted, pushing up 
 through the window a three-ruble note to the driver, 
 who turned round and looked down at him. 
 
 The izvoshchik's hand arranged something about the 
 lantern, then the crack of the knout was heard, and the 
 carriage whirled rapidly over the even pavement. 
 
 " I need nothing, nothing, but this pleasure," he 
 thought, as his eyes rested on the knob of the bell, 
 fastened between the windows, and he imagined Anna 
 as she seemed when last he saw her. " The farther I 
 go, the more I love her. Ah ! here is the garden of 
 the Vrede datcha. Where shall I find her? How? 
 Why did she make this appointment ? and why did she 
 write on Betsy's note? " 
 
 This struck him for the first time, but he had no time 
 to think about it. He stopped the driver before they 
 reached the driveway, and, getting out of the carriage, 
 he went up the walk which led to the house. There was 
 no one on the avenue; but looking toward the right he 
 saw her, Her face was covered with a veil ; but with a 
 joyful glance, he recognized her immediately, by her 
 graceful motion as she walked, by the slope of her 
 shoulders, and the pose of her head, and he felt as if an 
 electric shock had passed through him. With new 
 strength he felt the joy of life and of action, even from 
 the movements of his limbs to the involuntary motion of 
 respiration, and something made his lips twitch. 
 
 When he came near her, she eagerly seized his hand. 
 
 "You are not angry because I asked you to come ? I 
 absolutely needed to see you," she said ; and the serious 
 and stern closing of the lips, which he saw under the 
 veil, quickly put an end to his jubilant spirits. 
 
 " I angry ? but how did you come ? when ? " 
 
 " No matter about that," said she, taking Vronsky's 
 arm. "Come ; I must have a talk with you."
 
 io 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 He perceived that something had happened, and that 
 their interview would not be joyful. While with her, he 
 could not control his will. Though he did not know 
 what her agitation portended, yet he felt that it had 
 taken possession of him also. 
 
 " What is it ? What is the matter ? " he asked, press- 
 ing her arm, and trying to read her thoughts by her 
 face. 
 
 She went a few steps in silence, so as to get her 
 breath ; then she suddenly halted. 
 
 " I did not tell you last evening," she began, breath- 
 ing fast and painfully, " that, on the way home with 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch, I confessed to him everything 
 ....I said that I could not be his wife .... that .... and I 
 told him all." 
 
 He listened, involuntarily leaning toward her, as if he 
 wished to lighten for her the difficulty of this confi- 
 dence ; but as soon as she finished speaking, he sud- 
 denly drew himself up, and his face assumed a haughty 
 and stern expression. 
 
 " Yes ! yes ! that was better, a thousand times better, 
 I understand how hard it must have been," he said. 
 
 But she did not heed his words, she read his thoughts 
 by the expression of his face. She could not know that 
 the expression of his face arose from the first thought 
 that came into his mind the thought that a duel could 
 not now be avoided. Never had a thought of a duel 
 entered her head, and therefore she interpreted the 
 momentary expression of sternness in a quite different 
 way. 
 
 Since the arrival of her husband's letter, she felt in 
 the bottom of her heart that all would remain as before ; 
 that she should not have the strength to sacrifice her 
 position in the world, to abandon her son and join her 
 lover. The morning spent with the Princess Tverskaya 
 confirmed her in this. But this interview with Vronsky 
 seemed to her to be of vital importance. She hoped that 
 it might change their relations and save her. If, on 
 hearing this news, he had said decidedly, passionately, 
 without a moment's hesitation, " Leave all, and come
 
 ANNA KARENINA 105 
 
 with me," she would even have abandoned her son, and 
 gone with him. But what she told him did not produce 
 on him at all the impression which she had expected ;, 
 he seemed, if anything, vexed and angry. 
 
 " It was not hard for me at all. It came of its own 
 accord," she said, with a touch of irritation ; " and here" 
 she drew her husband's letter from her glove. 
 
 " I understand, I understand," interrupted Vronsky, 
 taking the letter, but not reading it, and trying to calm 
 Anna. "The one thing I wanted, the one thing I 
 prayed for ....to put an end to this situation, so that I 
 could devote my whole life to your happiness." 
 
 "Why do you say that to me?" she asked. "Can I 
 doubt it ? If I doubted ...." 
 
 " Who are those coming ? " asked Vronsky, abruptly, 
 seeing two ladies coming in their direction. " Perhaps 
 they know us." And he hastily drew Anna with him 
 down a side alley. 
 
 " Akh ! it is all the same to me," she said. 
 
 Her lips trembled, and it seemed to Vronsky that her 
 eyes looked at him from under her veil with strange 
 hatred. 
 
 " As I said, in all this affair, I cannot doubt you. 
 But here is what he wrote me. Read it." 
 
 And again she halted. Again, as when he first 
 learned of Anna's rupture with her husband, Vronsky, 
 beginning to read this letter, involuntarily abandoned 
 himself to the impression awakened in him by the 
 thought of his relations to the deceived husband. 
 Now that he had the letter in his hand, he imagined 
 the challenge, which he would receive that day or the 
 next, and the duel itself, at the moment when, with the 
 same cool and haughty expression which now set his 
 face, he would stand in front of his adversary, and, 
 having discharged his weapon in the air, would wait 
 the outraged husband's shot. And at this very instant 
 Serpukhovskoi's words and what he himself had felt 
 that day flashed through his mind, " Better not tie 
 yourself down ; " and she knew that he could not ex- 
 press his thought before her.
 
 106 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 After he read the note, he raised his eyes to her, and 
 there was indecision in his look. She instantly per- 
 ceived that he had thought this matter over before. 
 She knew that whatever he said to her, he would not 
 say all that he thought. And she realized that her last 
 hope had vanished. This was not what she had desired. 
 
 "You see what sort of a man he is," said she, with 
 faltering voice. " He .... " 
 
 " Excuse me, but I am glad of this," said Vronsky, in- 
 terrupting. " For God's sake, let me speak," he quickly 
 added, beseeching her with his look to give him time to 
 explain his words. " I am glad, because this cannot, 
 and never could go on as he imagines." 
 
 "Why can't it?" demanded Anna, holding back her 
 tears, and evidently attaching no importance to what 
 he said. She felt that her fate was already settled. 
 
 Vronsky meant that after the duel, which he felt was 
 inevitable, this situation must be changed ; but he said 
 something quite different. 
 
 " It cannot go on so. I hope that now you will leave 
 him. I hope" he stumbled and grew red "that 
 you will allow me to take charge of our lives, and regu- 
 late them. To-morrow .... " he began to say. 
 
 She did not allow him to finish. 
 
 "And my son!" she cried. "Do you see what he 
 writes ? I must leave him ; but I cannot and I will 
 not do that." 
 
 " But, for God's sake, which is better, to leave your 
 son, or to continue this humiliating situation ? " 
 
 " For whom is it a humiliating situation ? " 
 
 " For all of us, and especially for you." 
 
 "You say humiliating! .... Don't say that. Forme 
 that word has no meaning," said she, with trembling 
 voice. She could not bear now to have" him tell her a 
 falsehood. Her love for him was trembling in the bal- 
 ance, and she wished to love him. "You must know 
 that for me, on that day when I first loved you, every- 
 thing was transformed. For me there was one thing, 
 and only one thing, your love. If it is mine, then I 
 feel myself so high, so firm, that nothing can be humili-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 107 
 
 ating to me. I am proud of my position, because .... 
 proud that .... proud .... " She did not say why she was 
 proud. Tears of shame and despair choked her utter- 
 ance. She stopped, and began to sob. 
 
 He also felt that something rose in his throat. For 
 the first time in his life he felt ready to cry. He could 
 not have said what affected him so. He was sorry for 
 her, and he felt that he could not help her ; and, more 
 than all, he knew that he was the cause of her unhap- 
 piness, that he had done something abominable. 
 
 " Then a divorce is impossible ? " he asked gently. 
 
 She shook her head without replying. " Then, could 
 you not take your son, and leave him ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but all this depends on him. Now I must go 
 to him," she said dryly. Her presentiment that all 
 would be as before was verified. 
 
 " I shall be in Petersburg Tuesday, and everything 
 will be decided." 
 
 " Yes," she repeated. " But we shall not speak any 
 more about that." 
 
 Anna's carriage, which she sent away with the order 
 to come back for her at the railing of the Vrede Garden, 
 was approaching. Anna took leave of Vronsky, and 
 went home. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE Commission of the 2d of June usually held its 
 sittings on Monday. 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch entered the committee-room, 
 bowed to the members and the president as usual, and 
 took his place, laying his hand on the papers made ready 
 for him. Among the number were the data which he 
 needed, and the outline of the proposition that he in- 
 tended to make. These notes, however, were not neces- 
 sary. His grasp of the subject was complete, and he 
 did not need to refresh his memory as to what he was 
 going to say. He knew that when the time came, and 
 he should see his adversary vainly endeavoring to put
 
 io8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 on an expression of indifference, his speech would come 
 of itself in better shape than he could now determine. 
 He felt that the meaning of his speech was so great that 
 every word would have its importance. Meantime, as 
 he listened to the reading of the report, he had a most 
 innocent and inoffensive expression. No one, seeing 
 his white hands, with their swollen veins, his delicate, 
 long fingers doubling up the two ends of the sheet of 
 white paper lying before him, and his expression of 
 weariness, as he sat with head on one side, would have 
 believed it possible that, in a few moments, from his 
 lips would proceed a speech which would raise a terrible 
 tempest, cause the members of the Commission to outdo 
 one another in screaming, and oblige the president to 
 call them to order. 
 
 When the report was finished, Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch, in his weak, shrill voice, said that he had a few 
 observations to make in regard to the situation of the 
 foreign tribes. Attention was concentrated on him. 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch cleared his throat, and, not 
 looking at his adversary, but, as he always did at the 
 beginning of his speeches, addressing the person who 
 sat nearest in front of him, who happened to be a little, 
 meek old man, without the slightest importance in the 
 Commission, began to deliver his views. 
 
 When he reached the matter of the fundamental and 
 organic law, his adversary leaped to his feet, and began 
 to reply. Stremof, who was also a member of the Com- 
 mission, and also touched to the quick, arose to defend 
 himself ; and the session proved to be excessively stormy. 
 But Aleksei Aleksandrovitch triumphed, and his propo- 
 sition was accepted. The three new commissions were 
 appointed, and the next day in a certain Petersburg cir- 
 cle this session formed the staple topic of conversation. 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch's success far outstripped his 
 anticipations. 
 
 The next morning, which was Tuesday, Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch, on awaking, recalled with pleasure his vic- 
 tory of the day before ; and he could not repress a smile, 
 although he wanted to appear indifferent, when the di-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 109 
 
 rector of the chancelry, wishing to flatter him, told him 
 of the rumors which had reached his ears in regard to 
 the proceedings of the Commission. 
 
 Occupied as he was with the director of the chancelry, 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch absolutely forgot that the day 
 was Tuesday, the day set by him for Anna Arkadyevna's 
 return ; and he was surprised and disagreeably impressed 
 when a domestic came to announce that she had 
 come. 
 
 Anna reached Petersburg early in the morning. A 
 carriage had been sent for her in response to her tele- 
 gram, and so AlekseT Aleksandrovitch might have known 
 of her coming. But when she came, he did not go to 
 receive her. She was told that he had not yet gone out, 
 but was busy with the director of the chancelry. She 
 bade the servant announce her arrival, and then went to 
 her boudoir, and began to unpack her things, expecting 
 that he would come to her. But an hour passed, and he 
 did not appear. She went to the dining-room, under 
 the pretext of giving some orders, and spoke unusually 
 loud, thinking that he would join her there. But still 
 he did not come, though she heard him come to the door 
 of his library, accompanying the director of the chan- 
 celry. She knew that it was his habit about this time 
 to go to his office ; and she wanted to see him before 
 that, so that their plan of action might be decided. 
 
 She passed through the " hall," and, finally making up 
 her mind, went to him. She stepped into the library. 
 Dressed in his uniform, apparently ready to take his 
 departure, he was sitting at a little table, leaning his 
 elbows on it, and wrapped in melancholy thought. She 
 saw him before he noticed her, and she knew that he 
 was thinking of her. 
 
 When he caught sight of her, he started to get up, 
 hesitated, and then, for the first time since Anna had 
 known him, he blushed. Then, quickly rising, he ad- 
 vanced toward her, not looking at her eyes, but at her 
 forehead and hair. He came to her, took her by the 
 hand, and invited her to sit down. 
 
 " I am very glad that you have come," he stammered,
 
 no ANNA KARENINA 
 
 sitting down near her, and evidently desiring to talk with 
 her. Several times he began to speak, but hesitated. 
 
 Although she was prepared for this interview, and had 
 made up her mind to defend herself, and accuse him, she 
 did not know what to say to him, and she felt sorry for 
 him. And so the silence lasted some little time. 
 
 " Is Serozha well ? " at length he asked ; and, without 
 waiting for an answer, he added, " I shall not dine at 
 home to-day; I have to leave immediately." 
 
 " I intended to start for Moscow," said Anna. 
 
 " No ; you did very, very well to come home," he 
 replied, and again was silent. 
 
 Seeing that it was beyond his strength to begin the 
 conversation, she herself began : 
 
 " Aleksel Aleksandrovitch," said she, looking at him, 
 and not dropping her eyes under his gaze, which was 
 still concentrated on her head-dress, " I am a guilty 
 woman ; I am a wicked woman ; but I am what I have 
 been, what I told you I was, and I have come to 
 tell you that I cannot change." 
 
 " I did not ask you about this," he replied instantly, 
 with sudden resolution, and, with an expression of hate, 
 looking straight into her eyes. " I presuppose that." 
 Under the influence of anger, he apparently regained 
 control of all his faculties. " But as I told you then, 
 and wrote you," he spoke in a sharp, shrill voice, 
 " I now repeat, that I am not obliged to know this. I 
 ignore it. Not all women are so good as you are, to 
 hasten to give their husbands such very pleasant news." 
 He laid a special stress on the word priyatnoye, " pleas- 
 ant." " I will ignore it for the present, as long as the 
 world does not know, as long as my name is not dis- 
 honored. I, therefore, only warn you that our relations 
 must remain as they always have been, and that only in 
 case of your compromising yourself, shall I be forced to 
 take measures to protect my honor." 
 
 " But our relations cannot remain as they have been," 
 she said with timid accents, looking at him in terror. 
 
 As she once more saw his undemonstrative gestures, 
 heard his mocking voice with its. sharp, childish tones,
 
 ANNA KARENINA in 
 
 all the pity that she had begun to feel for him was driven 
 away by the aversion that he inspired, and she had only 
 a feeling of fear, which arose from the fact that she did 
 not see any light in regard to their relations. 
 
 " I cannot be your wife, when I .... " she began. 
 
 He laughed with a cold and wicked la.ugh. 
 
 " It must needs be that the manner of life which you 
 have chosen is reflected in your ideas. I have too much 
 esteem or contempt.... or rather I esteem your past, and 
 despise your present.... too much for me to accept the 
 interpretation which you put on my words." 
 
 Anna sighed, and bowed her head. 
 
 " Besides, I do not understand how you, having so 
 much independence," he continued, growing excited, 
 "and telling your husband up and down of your in- 
 fidelity, and not finding anything blameworthy in it, as 
 it seems, how you can find anything blameworthy either 
 in the fulfilment of a wife's duties to her husband." 
 
 " Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch ! What do you require of 
 me ? " 
 
 " I require that I may never meet this man here, and 
 that you comport yourself so that neither the world nor 
 our servants can accuse you .... that you do not see him. 
 It seems to me that this is little. And in doing this, 
 you will enjoy the rights of an honorable wife, though 
 you do not fulfil the obligations. This is all that I have 
 to say to you. Now it is time for me to go. I shall not 
 dine at home." 
 
 He got up, and went to the door. Anna also arose. 
 He silently bowed, and allowed her to pass. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE night spent by Levin on the hayrick was not 
 without its lesson. His way of farming became repug- 
 nant to him, and entirely lost its interest. Notwith- 
 standing the excellent crops, never, or at least it seemed 
 to him that never, had there been such failure, and such 
 unfriendly relations between him and the muzhiks, as
 
 ii2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 this year ; and now the reasons for this failure, and this 
 animosity, were perfectly clear to him. The pleasure 
 which he found in work itself, the resulting acquaintance 
 with the muzhiks, the envy which seized him when he 
 saw them and their lives, the desire to lead such a life 
 himself, which on that night had been not visionary but 
 real, now that he had thought over all the details neces- 
 sary to carry out his desire, all this taken together had 
 so changed his views in regard to the management of his 
 estate, that he could not take the same interest in it as 
 before, and he could not help seeing how these un- 
 pleasant relations with the laborers met him at every 
 new undertaking. 
 
 The herd of improved cows, like Pava ; all the fertil- 
 ized lands plowed with European plows ; nine equal 
 fields set round with young trees ; the ninety desyatins, 
 covered with dressing well plowed in ; the deep drills 
 and other improvements, all was excellent as far as 
 it concerned only himself or himself and the people who 
 were in sympathy with him. 
 
 But now he clearly saw and his work, his treatise 
 on rural economy, in which the principal element was 
 found to be the laborer, helped him to this conclusion 
 that his present way of carrying on his estate was 
 only a cruel and wicked struggle between him and the 
 laborers, in which on one side, on his side, was a con- 
 stant effort to change everything to what he thought a 
 better model, while on the other side was the natural 
 order of things. 
 
 In this struggle, he saw that on his side there were 
 effort and lofty purpose, and on the other no effort or 
 purpose, and that the result was that the estate went 
 from bad to worse ; beautiful tools were destroyed, 
 beautiful cattle and lands ruined. The principal ob- 
 jection was the energy absolutely wasted in this mat- 
 ter ; but he could not help thinking now, when his 
 thought was laid bare, that the aim of his energies 
 was itself unworthy. In reality, where lay this quar- 
 rel ? He insisted on having every penny of his own, 
 and he could not help insisting on it, because he was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 113 
 
 obliged to use his energies to the utmost, otherwise he 
 would not have wherewithal to pay his laborers, and 
 they insisted on working lazily and comfortably, in other 
 words, as they had always done. 
 
 It was for his interests that every laborer should do 
 his very best ; above all, should strive not to break the 
 winnowing-machines, the horse-rakes, the threshing- 
 machines, so that he might accomplish what he was 
 doing. 
 
 But the laborer wanted to do his work as easily 
 as possible, with long breathing-spaces, with plenty 
 of time for resting, and what was more without 
 being bothered to think. 
 
 This year Levin had this experience at every step. 
 He sent men to mow the clover-fields, selecting the 
 poorer portions to be done first, where the intermix- 
 ture of grass and wormwood made the crop unfit for 
 seed ; and they mowed his best fields, those reserved 
 for seed, justifying themselves by saying that they 
 had done what the overseer ordered, and trying to con- 
 sole him with the assurance that it would make splen- 
 did fodder. But he knew that they did this because 
 these fields were the easiest ones to mow. 
 
 He sent out the hay-making machine, but the muzhiks 
 broke it on the first few rows because the driver, sitting 
 on the box-seat, disliked having the arms of the machine 
 waving over his head ; and they tried to console him 
 by saying : 
 
 " Oh, it 's all right ; the women will do the work 
 easy enough." 
 
 The new plows were condemned as good for nothing, 
 because the muzhik did not think to raise the blade 
 on turning a corner, but wrenched it round through 
 the soil, thus tearing up the land and straining the 
 horses. And here again they urged Levin to have 
 patience with them. 
 
 The horses strayed into the wheat, for the reason 
 that no one would act regularly as night watchman, 
 the muzhiks, in spite of strict orders to the contrary, 
 insisting on taking the duty in turns ; and Vanka, who 
 
 VOL. II. 8
 
 U4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 had been at work all day, fell asleep during his watch. 
 When accused, he acknowledged his fault and only 
 said : " Do what you please with me." 
 
 Three of the best calves were poisoned. They were 
 allowed to get into the clover aftermath without giving 
 them water ; the result was that they were blown out 
 and died. But the muzhiks would not believe that it 
 was the clover that did the harm ; and they tried to 
 console Levin by informing him that one of his neigh- 
 bors had lost one hundred and twelve head within three 
 days in the same way. 
 
 All these mishaps took place, not because any one 
 wished ill either to Levin or to his estate ; on the con- 
 trary, he knew that the muzhiks loved him, and called him 
 " a simple-minded gentleman," prosto'i barin, -which 
 was the highest praise. But these mishaps happened 
 simply because the muzhiks liked to work merrily and 
 carelessly ; and his interests were not only strange and 
 incomprehensible to them, but even fatally clashed with 
 what they thought their own true interests. 
 
 For a long time Levin had felt that there was some- 
 thing unsatisfactory in his methods. He saw that his 
 canoe was leaking, but he could not find the leaks ; 
 and he did not search for them, perhaps on purpose 
 to deceive himself. Nothing would be left him if he 
 should allow his illusions to perish. But now he could 
 no longer deceive himself. Not only had his system 
 of management become uninteresting, but had begun 
 actually to disgust him, and he felt he could no longer 
 continue it. 
 
 Besides all this, Kitty Shcherbatsky was within thirty 
 versts of him, and he wanted to see her, and could 
 not. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna Oblonskaya, when he called on 
 her, invited him to come: to come with the express 
 purpose of renewing his offer to her sister, who, as she 
 pretended to think, now cared for him. Levin himself, 
 after he caught the glimpse of Kitty Shcherbatsky, felt 
 that he had not ceased to love her ; but he could not 
 go to the Oblonskys', because he knew that she was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 there. The fact that he had offered himself, and she 
 had refused him, put an unsurmountable barrier between 
 them. 
 
 " I cannot ask her to be my wife simply because she 
 cannot be the wife of the man she wanted," he said to 
 himself. 
 
 The thought of this made him cold and hostile toward 
 her. 
 
 " I have not the strength to go and talk with her with- 
 out a sense of reproach, to look at her without angry 
 feelings ; and she would feel even more incensed against 
 me, and justly so. And besides, how can I go there 
 now, after what Darya Aleksandrovna told me ? How 
 can I help showing that I know what she told me ? 
 That I go with magnanimity, to pardon her, to be 
 reconciled to her ! I, in her presence, play the role of a 
 pardoning and honor-conferring lover to her! Why 
 did Darya Aleksandrovna tell me that ? If I had met 
 her accidentally, then perhaps everything might have 
 been arranged of itself ; but now it is impossible, impos- 
 sible !" 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna sent him a note, asking the 
 loan of a side-saddle for Kitty. "They tell me you 
 have a saddle," she wrote : " I hope that you will bring 
 it yourself." 
 
 This was too much for him. How could a sensible 
 woman of any delicacy so lower her sister ? He wrote 
 ten notes, and tore them all up, and then sent the saddle 
 without any reply. To write that he would come was 
 impossible, because he could not come : to write that he 
 could not come because he was busy, or was going away 
 somewhere, was still worse. So he sent the saddle with- 
 out any reply ; and, with the consciousness that he was 
 doing something disgraceful, on the next day, leaving 
 the now disagreeable charge of the estate to the overseer, 
 he set off to a distant district where there were magnificent 
 snipe-marshes to see his friend Sviazhsky, who had 
 lately invited him to fulfil an old project of making him 
 a visit. The snipe-marshes in the district of Surof had 
 long been an attraction to Levin, but on account of his
 
 ii6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 farm-work he had kept postponing his visit there. Now 
 he was glad to escape from the neighborhood of the 
 Shcherbatskys, and especially from his estate, and to go 
 on a hunting-expedition, which for all his tribulations was 
 a sovereign remedy. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 IN the district of Surof there were neither railways 
 nor post-roads ; and Levin took his own horses, and 
 went in a tarantas or traveling-carriage. 
 
 When he was halfway, he stopped to get a meal at 
 the house of a rich muzhik. The host, who was a bald, 
 robust old man, with a great red beard, growing gray on 
 the cheeks, opened the gate, crowding up against the 
 post to let the tro'fka enter. Pointing the coachman to 
 a place under the shed in his large, neat, and orderly 
 new courtyard, with charred sokJias or wooden-plows, 
 the old man invited Levin to enter the room. A neatly 
 clad young girl, with galoshes on her bare feet, stooping 
 down, was washing up the floor in the new entry. When 
 she saw Levin's dog, she was startled, and screamed, 
 but immediately laughed at her own terror when she 
 found that the dog would not bite. With her bare arm 
 she pointed Levin to the living-room, then stooping 
 down again, she hid her handsome face, and continued 
 her scrubbing. 
 
 " Will you have the samovar ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes, please." 
 
 The living-room was large, with a Dutch stove and 
 a partition. Under the sacred images stood a table 
 ornamented with colored designs, a bench, and two 
 chairs. Near the doorway was a cupboard with dishes. 
 The window-shutters were closed ; there were few flies ; 
 and it was so neat that Levin took care that Laska, who 
 had been flying over the road, and was covered with 
 splashes of mud, should not soil the floor, and bade her 
 lie down in the corner near the door. After glancing 
 into the living-room, Levin went to the back of the house,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 117 
 
 A good-looking, girl in galoshes, swinging her empty 
 pails on the yoke, ran to get him water from the 
 well. 
 
 " Lively there," gayly shouted the old man to her ; and 
 then he turned to Levin. " So, sir, you are going to see 
 Nikolai Ivanovitch Sviazhsky? He often stops with 
 us," he began to say in his garrulous style, as he leaned 
 on the balustrade of the steps. But just as he was in 
 the midst of telling about his acquaintance with Sviazh- 
 sky, again the gate creaked on its hinges, and the work- 
 men came in from the fields with their harrows and 
 wooden-plows. The horses attached to them were fat and 
 in good condition. The laborers evidently belonged to 
 the family : two were young fellows, and wore colored 
 cotton shirts, and caps. The other two were hired men, 
 and wore shabby shirts : one was an old man, the other 
 middle-aged. 
 
 The old peasant, starting down from the porch, went 
 to the horses and began to unharness them. 
 
 " Where have you been plowing ? " 
 
 " In the potato-fields. We 've finished with one 
 
 You, Fyodot, don't bring the gelding, but leave him 
 at the trough; we'll harness another." 
 
 " Say, batyushka, shall I tell 'em to take out the plow- 
 shares, or to bring 'em? " asked a big-framed, healthy- 
 looking lad, evidently the old peasant's son. 
 
 " Put 'em in the drags," replied the old man, coiling 
 up the reins and throwing them on the ground. " Put 
 things in order; then we'll have dinner." 
 
 The handsome girl in galoshes came back to the house 
 with her brimming pails swinging from her shoulders. 
 Other women appeared from different quarters, some 
 young and comely, others old and ugly, with children 
 and without children. 
 
 The samovar began to sing on the stove. The work- 
 men and the men of the household, having taken out 
 their horses, came in to dinner. Levin, sending for his 
 provisions from the tarantas, begged the old peasant 
 to take tea with him. 
 
 "Well, I have already drunk my tea," said the old
 
 n8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 peasant, evidently flattered by the invitation. " How- 
 ever, for company's sake...." 
 
 At tea Levin learned the whole history of the old 
 man's domestic economy. Ten years before, he had 
 rented of a lady one hundred and twenty desyatins, and 
 the year before had bought them ; and he had rented 
 three hundred more of a neighboring landowner. A 
 small portion of this land, and that the poorest, he 
 sublet ; but forty desyatins he himself worked, with the 
 help of his sons nd two hired men. The old peasant 
 complained that all was going bad ; but Levin saw that 
 he complained only for form's sake, and that his affairs 
 were flourishing. If they had been bad he would not 
 have bought land for five hundred rubles, or married 
 off his three sons and his nephew, or built twice after 
 his izba was burned, and each time better. Notwith- 
 standing the old peasant's complaints, it was evident 
 that he felt pride in his prosperity, pride in his sons, 
 in his nephew, his daughters, his horses, his cows, and 
 especially in the fact that he owned all this domain. 
 
 From his conversation with the old man, Levin learned 
 that he believed in modern improvements. He planted 
 many potatoes ; and his potatoes, which Levin saw in 
 the storehouse, he had already dug and brought in, 
 while on Levin's estate they had only begun to dig 
 them. He used the " ploog " on the potato-fields, as he 
 called the plow which he got from the proprietor. He 
 sowed wheat. The little detail that the old peasant 
 sowed rye, and fed his horses with it, especially struck 
 Levin. How many times Levin, seeing this beautiful 
 fodder going to waste on his own estate, had wished 
 to harvest it ; but he found it impossible to accomplish 
 it. The muzhik used it, and could not find sufficient 
 praise for it. 
 
 " How do the women do it ? " 
 
 " Oh ! they pile it up on one side, and then the cart 
 comes for it." 
 
 " But with us proprietors everything goes wrong with 
 the hired men," said Levin, filling his teacup and offer- 
 ing it to him.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 119 
 
 "Thank you," replied the old man, taking the cup, 
 but refusing the sugar, pointing to the lumps which 
 lay in front of him. 
 
 " How can you get along with hired men ? " said he. 
 " It is ruinous. Here 's Sviazhsky, for example. We 
 know what splendid land.... but they don't get decent 
 crops, all from lack of care." 
 
 " Yes ; but how do you do with your workmen ? " 
 
 " It 's all among ourselves. We watch everything. 
 Lazybones, off they go ! We work with our own 
 hands." 
 
 " Batyushka, Finogen wants you to give him the tar- 
 water," said the woman in galoshes, looking in through 
 the door. 
 
 " So it is, sir," said the old man, rising ; and, having 
 crossed himself many times before the ikons or sacred 
 pictures, he once more thanked Levin, and left the 
 room. 
 
 When Levin went into the dark izba to give orders 
 to his coachman, he found all the " men-folks " sitting 
 down to dinner. The peasant women were on their 
 feet helping. The healthy-looking young son, with his 
 mouth full of kas/ia-gr\\Q\, got off some joke, and all 
 broke into loud guffaws ; and more hilariously than 
 the others laughed the woman in galoshes, who was 
 pouring shclii, or cabbage soup, into a cup. 
 
 It well might be that the jolly face of the woman 
 in the galoshes cooperated powerfully with the whole 
 impression of orderliness which this peasant home pro- 
 duced on Levin ; but the impression was so strong that 
 Levin could never get rid of it ; and all the way from 
 the old man's to Sviazhsky's, again and again he 
 thought of what he had seen at the farm-house as 
 something deserving special attention.
 
 120 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 SVIAZHSKY was predvodityel or marshal of the nobility 
 in his district. He was five years older than Levin, and 
 had been married some time. His sister-in-law was an 
 inmate of his family, and to Levin she was a very attrac- 
 tive young lady ; and Levin knew that Sviazhsky and 
 his wife would be very glad for him to marry her. He 
 knew this infallibly, as marriageable young men usually 
 know such things, and he knew also that though he 
 dreamed of marriage, and was sure that this fascinat- 
 ing young lady would make a charming wife, he would 
 sooner have been able to fly to heaven than to marry 
 her, even if he had not been in love with Kitty Shcher- 
 batsky. And this knowledge poisoned his pleasure in 
 his prospective visit. 
 
 On receiving Sviazhsky's letter, with its invitation to 
 go hunting, Levin had immediately thought about this ; 
 but in spite of it, decided that such views in regard to 
 him on the part of Sviazhsky were entirely gratuitous, 
 and he decided to accept the invitation. Moreover he 
 had in the depths of his soul a strong curiosity to see 
 this girl once more, and experiment on the effect that 
 she would produce on him. 
 
 Sviazhsky's domestic life was in the highest degree 
 pleasant, and Sviazhsky himself was the very best type 
 of the proprietor devoted to the affairs of the province, 
 and this fact always interested Levin. 
 
 He was one of those men that always excited Levin's 
 amazement, whose opinions, very logical, although never 
 self -formed, take one direction, while their lives, perfectly 
 defined and confident in their course, take another, abso- 
 lutely independent of each other and almost always in op- 
 position. Sviazhsky was a thorough-going liberal. He 
 despised the nobility, charged the majority of the nobles 
 with secretly, and from motives of cowardice, opposing 
 emancipation ; and he regarded Russia as a rotten coun- 
 try like Turkey, and its government so wretched that he 
 did not permit himself seriously to criticize its acts ; and
 
 ANNA KARENINA 121 
 
 yet he had accepted public office, and attended faithfully 
 to his duties. He never even went out without donning 
 his official cap, with its red border and cockade. He 
 declared that human existence was endurable only 
 abroad, where he was going to live at the first oppor- 
 tunity ; but at the same time he carried on in Russia a 
 very complicated estate 1 in the most perfect style, and 
 was interested in all that was going on in Russia, and 
 was fully up with the times. The Russian muzhik, in 
 his eyes, stood between man and monkey ; but, when 
 the elections came, he gave his hand to the peasants by 
 preference, and listened to them with the utmost atten- 
 tion. He believed neither in God nor in the devil ; but 
 he showed great concern in the questions concerning 
 ameliorating the condition of the clergy, and the dimi- 
 nution of the revenues, and moreover he labored with 
 especial zeal to have his village church kept in repair. 
 
 In regard to the complete emancipation of woman and 
 especially her right to work, he sided with the most ex- 
 treme supporters of this doctrine, but he lived with his 
 wife in such perfect harmony that though they had no 
 children every one admired them, and he took entire 
 direction of the family affairs, so that his wife did noth- 
 ing, and could do nothing, except in cooperation with 
 him, in order to pass the time as agreeably as possible. 
 
 If Levin had not been naturally disposed to see the 
 best side of people the analysis of Sviazhsky's character 
 would have caused him no trouble or question; he would 
 have said to himself : " Fool or Good-for-nothing," and 
 that would have been the end of it. But he could not 
 say fool dnrak because Sviazhsky was undoubtedly 
 not only very clever, but also a very cultivated and an ex- 
 traordinarily simple-hearted man, entirely free from con- 
 ceit ; there was no subject which he did not know ; but 
 he displayed his knowledge only when it was needed. 
 Still less could he say that he was a good-for-nothing, be- 
 
 1 Khozyaistvo includes household economy, the outside interests, fann- 
 ing, mills, everything connected with an estate. The master of an 
 estate is called khozyaln, the mistress khozyaika, terms often used foi 
 host and hostess.
 
 122 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 cause Sviazhsky was unquestionably an honorable, excel- 
 lent, sensible man, who was always doing his work 
 cheerfully and alertly, and had apparently never inten- 
 tionally done anything wrong or could do anything 
 wrong. 
 
 Levin tried to comprehend and could not understand 
 him and always looked at him and his life as a living 
 enigma. 
 
 He and Levin had been friends and therefore Levin 
 allowed himself to study Sviazhsky, and tried to trace 
 his view of life to the very source. But this was always 
 an idle task. Every time Levin made the effort to pene- 
 trate a little farther into the hidden chambers of Svia- 
 zhsky's mind he discovered that the man was somewhat 
 confused ; a sort of terror showed itself in his eyes, as 
 if he feared that Levin was going to entrap him ; and he 
 would give him a good-natured and jolly rebuff. 
 
 Now, after his disenchantment on the subject of 
 farm management, Levin was especially glad to be at 
 Sviazhsky's. To say nothing of the fact that he was 
 always pleasantly impressed by the sight of these doves 
 so contented with themselves and all they possessed, 
 and their comfortable nest, he had a great longing, now 
 that he was so dissatisfied with his own life, to discover 
 the secret of his having such clear, decided, and cheer- 
 ful views of life. Moreover, Levin knew that he should 
 meet at Sviazhsky's the proprietors of the neighborhood, 
 and he was especially desirous to talk with them, to 
 hear about their experiences in farm management, about 
 their crops, their ways of hiring service, and the like, 
 which, as Levin knew well, it was the fashion to regard 
 as very trifling topics of conversation, but which seemed 
 to him more important than anything else. 
 
 " Perhaps these things were not important during the 
 days of serfdom or in England. In both those cases 
 conditions are definitely fixed ; but with us at the pres- 
 ent time when everything has been overturned and the 
 new order is only just begun, the question how to regu- 
 late these conditions is the only important one in Rus- 
 sia." Such was Levin's conviction.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 123 
 
 The hunting which Sviazhsky gave him was poorer 
 fhan Levin had expected : the marshes were dry, and the 
 woodcock scarce. Levin walked all day, and bagged 
 only three birds ; but in compensation he brought back 
 with him as always from hunting a ravenous appetite, 
 capital spirits, and that intellectual excitement which 
 violent physical exercise always gave him. Even while 
 he was out hunting, while, as it would seem, his thoughts 
 were not busy about anything, he kept remembering the 
 old man and his family, and the impression remained 
 with him that there was some peculiar tie between him- 
 self and that family. 
 
 In the evening, at the tea-table in the company of 
 two proprietors, who had come on some business with 
 the marshal, the interesting conversation that he had 
 looked forward to soon began. At the tea-table Levin 
 sat next the hostess and had to keep up a conversa- 
 tion with her and her sister who sat opposite him. His 
 hostess was a moon-faced lady of medium stature and 
 light complexion, all radiant with smiles and dimples. 
 Levin endeavored, through her, to unravel the enigma 
 which her husband's character offered him ; but he 
 could not get full control of his thoughts, because oppo- 
 site him sat the pretty sister-in-law in a gown worn, 
 as it seemed to him, for his especial benefit, with a 
 square corsage cut rather low in front, and giving a 
 glimpse of a very white bosom. This decollete gown, in 
 spite of the fact that the bosom was very white or per- 
 haps from the very reason that it was very white, stopped 
 the free flow of his thought. He could not help imagin- 
 ing, though of course erroneously, that this display was 
 made for his benefit, and yet he felt that he had no 
 right to look at it, and he tried not to look at it ; but he 
 was conscious of being to blame for her wearing such 
 a gown. It seemed to Levin that he was deceiving some 
 one, that he ought to make some kind of an explanation, 
 but that it was an utter impossibility to do it, and so he 
 kept blushing and felt ill at ease, and his constraint com- 
 municated itself to the pretty young hicly. But the hostess 
 seemed not to notice it, and kept up a lively conversation
 
 T2 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " You say that my husband does not take an interest 
 in Russian affairs ? " she asked. " On the contrary, he 
 was happy when he was abroad, but not so happy as he 
 is here. Here he feels that he is in his sphere. He 
 has so much to do, and he has the faculty of interesting 
 himself in everything. Oh ! you have not been to see 
 our school, have you ? " 
 
 " Yes, I have, that little house covered with ivy?" 
 
 " Yes ; that is Nastia's work," said she, glancing at 
 her sister. 
 
 " Do you yourself teach ? " asked Levin, trying to 
 look at Nastia's face, but feeling that, in spite of him- 
 self, he would see the low corsage. 
 
 " Yes, I teach, and intend to keep on teaching ; but we 
 have an excellent schoolmistress. And we have gym- 
 nastics." 
 
 " No, thank you, I will not take any more tea," said 
 Levin. He felt that he was committing a solecism; but 
 he could not keep up the conversation, and he rose in 
 confusion. "I am very much interested in what they 
 are saying," he added, and went to the other end of 
 the table, where the host was talking with the two 
 landed proprietors. Sviazhsky was sitting with his side 
 toward the table, twirling his cup around with one hand, 
 and with the other stroking his long beard, lifting it up 
 to his nose and dropping it again as if he were smell- 
 ing of it. His bright black eyes were fixed with keen 
 amusement on one of the proprietors, a man with a 
 white mustache, who was complaining bitterly about 
 the peasantry. Levin saw that Sviazhsky had an an- 
 swer ready for the worthy gentleman's comical com- 
 plaints, and could reduce his arguments to powder if 
 his official position did not compel him to respect the 
 proprietor's. 
 
 The proprietor with the white mustache was evidently 
 a narrow-minded country gentleman, an inveterate op- 
 ponent of the emancipation, and an old-style farmer. 
 Levin could see the signs of it in his old-fashioned, 
 shiny coat, in his keen, angry eyes, in his well-balanced 
 Russian speech, in his authoritative, slow, and studied
 
 ANNA KARENINA 125 
 
 manner, and his imperious gestures with his large, 
 handsome, sunburnt hands, on one of which for sole 
 ornament was an old-fashioned wedding-ring. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 " IF it only were n't a pity to abandon what has been 
 done, cost so much labor, it would be better to give 
 up, sell out, go abroad, and hear ' La Belle Helene,' like 
 Nikolai' Ivanovitch," the old proprietor was saying, while 
 his intelligent face lighted up with a pleasant smile. 
 
 " There now ! but still you don't sell out," said Niko- 
 lai' Ivanovitch Sviazhsky ; " so you must be well off, on 
 the whole." 
 
 " I am well off in one way, because I have a home of 
 my own, with board and lodging. Besides, one always 
 hopes that the peasantry will improve. But would you 
 believe it, this drunkenness, this laziness ! Everything 
 goes to destruction. No horses, no cows. They starve 
 to death. But try to help them, take them for farm- 
 hands : they manage to ruin you ; yes, even before a 
 justice of the peace ! " 1 
 
 " But you, too, can complain to the justice of the 
 peace," said Sviazhsky. 
 
 " What ! I complain ? Not for the world ! All such 
 talk shows that complaints are idle. Here, at the mill, 
 they took their handsel, and went off. What did the 
 justice of the peace do ? Acquitted them. Your only 
 chance is to go to the communal court, to the starshina. 
 The starshina will have the man thrashed for you. He 
 settles things in the old-fashioned way. If it were not 
 for him you had better sell out, fly to the ends of the 
 world ! " 
 
 1 In the Russian mir, or commune, the starshina, or elder, is the chief 
 elected every three years. Before the emancipation of the serfs, in 1861, 
 each commune had its volostnoi sud, or district court, the decisions of 
 which were often very ridiculous. Among the reforms instituted by the 
 Emperor Alexander II. was the so-called mirovo'isudya, justice or arbiter 
 of the peace, more properly, judge of the peace, an innovation which 
 at first caused much opposition among the peasantry. See Wallace's " Rus- 
 sia " and Leroy Beaulieu's " L'Empire des Tsars." ED.
 
 126 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 The proprietor was evidently trying to tease Sviazhsky; 
 but Sviazhsky not only did not lose his temper, but was 
 much amused. 
 
 " Well, we carry on our estates without these meas- 
 ures," said he, smiling. " I and Levin and he." 
 
 He pointed to the other proprietor. 
 
 " Yes ; but ask Mikhail Petrovitch how his affairs are 
 getting along. Is that a rational way ? " l demanded the 
 proprietor, especially accenting the word " rational." 
 
 " My way is very simple," said Mikhail Petrovitch, 
 " thank the Lord ! My whole business lies in seeing 
 that the money is ready for the autumn taxes. The 
 muzhiks come, and say, ' Batyushka, help us, father.' 
 Well, all these muzhiks are neighbors ; I pity 'em. 
 Well, I advance 'em the first third. Only I say, ' Re- 
 member, children, I help you ; and you must help me 
 when I need you, sowing the oats, getting in the hay, 
 harvesting.' Now, I get along with them as with my 
 own family. To be sure, there are some among them 
 who have n't any conscience." 
 
 Levin, who knew of old about these patriarchal tra- 
 ditions, exchanged glances with Sviazhsky ; and, inter- 
 rupting Mikhail Petrovitch, he said, " How would you 
 advise ? " addressing the old proprietor with the gray 
 mustache. " How do you think one's estate ought to be 
 managed ? " 
 
 " Well, manage it just as Mikha'fl Petrovitch does, 
 either give half the land to the muzhiks, or go shares 
 with them. That is possible ; but, all the same, the 
 wealth of the country is growing less and less. Places 
 on my lands which in the time of serfage, under good 
 management, produced ninefold, now produce only three- 
 fold. Emancipation has ruined Russia." 
 
 Sviazhsky looked at Levin with smiling eyes, and 
 even made a scarcely noticeable gesture to express his 
 disdain, but Levin did not find the old proprietor's words 
 ridiculous ; he understood them better than he under- 
 stood Sviazhsky. Much that the old man said in his 
 complaint, that Russia was ruined by the emancipation, 
 
 1 Ratsionalnoye khozyaistvo.
 
 seemed to him true ; for him it was novel and unanswer- 
 able. The proprietor evidently expressed his honest 
 thought, a thought which arose, not from any desire 
 to show an idle wit, but from the conditions of his life, 
 which had been spent in the country, where he could 
 see the question practically from every side. 
 
 " The fact is, please to acknowledge," continued the 
 old proprietor, who evidently wished to show that he 
 was not an enemy of civilization, " all progress is accom- 
 plished by force alone. Take the reforms of Peter, of 
 Catherine, of Alexander ; take European history itself ; 
 still more so for progress in agriculture. The potato, 
 for instance, to introduce potatoes into Russia required 
 force. We have not always plowed with iron plows ; 
 perhaps they have been introduced into our domains, 
 but it required force. Now, until recently, when we 
 had control over our serfs, we proprietors could conduct 
 our affairs with all sorts of improvements : drying-rooms 
 and winnowing-machines and dung-carts all sorts of 
 tools we could introduce, because we had the power ; 
 and the muzhiks at first would oppose, and then would 
 imitate us. But now, by the abrogation of serfage, they 
 have taken away our authority ; and so our estates, 1 
 now that everything is reduced to the same level, must 
 necessarily sink back to the condition of primitive bar- 
 barism. This is my view of it." 
 
 "Yes, but why? If that were rational, then you 
 could keep on with your improvements by aid of hired 
 labor," said Sviazhsky. 
 
 " We have no power. How could I ? allow me to 
 ask." 
 
 " This this is the working-force, the chief element 
 in the problem before us," thought Levin. 
 
 " With hired men." 
 
 " Hired men will not work well, or work with good 
 tools. Our laborers know how to do only one thing, 
 to drink like pigs, and, when they are drunk, to ruin 
 everything you intrust them with. They water your 
 horses to death, destroy your best harnesses, take the 
 
 1 Khozyaistvo.
 
 128 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 tires off your wheels and sell them to get drink, and 
 stick bolts into your winnowing-machines so as to render 
 them useless. Everything that is not done in their 
 way is nauseous to them. And thus the affairs of our 
 estates go from bad to worse. The lands are neglected, 
 and go to weeds, or else are abandoned to the muzhiks. 
 Instead of producing millions of tchetverts 1 of wheat, 
 you can raise only a few hundred thousand. The pub- 
 lic wealth is diminishing. If they were going to free 
 the serfs, they should have done it gradually." .... 
 
 And he developed his own scheme of emancipation 
 whereby all these difficulties would have been avoided. 
 
 This plan did not interest Levin, but when the gen- 
 tleman had finished he returned to his first proposition, 
 with the hope of inducing Sviazhsky to tell what he 
 seriously thought about it. He said, addressing Svia- 
 zhsky : 
 
 " It is very true that the level of our agriculture -is 
 growing lower and lower, and that in our present rela- 
 tions with the peasantry, it is impossible to carry on our 
 estates rationally," he said. 
 
 " I am not of that opinion," said Sviazhsky, seriously. 
 " I only see that we are not up to the point of manag- 
 ing our estates, and that on the contrary, since serfage 
 was abolished, agriculture has decayed ; I argue that 
 in those days it was very wretched, and very low. We 
 never had any machines, or good oxen or decent super- 
 vision. We did not even know how to make up our 
 accounts. Ask a proprietor : he could not tell you what 
 a thing cost, or what it would bring him." 
 
 " Italian book-keeping ! " said the old proprietor ironi- 
 cally. " Reckon all you please, and get things mixed as 
 much as you please, there will be no profit in it." 
 
 "Why get things mixed up? Your miserable flail, 
 your Russian topchachek, will break all to pieces ; my 
 steam-thresher will not break to pieces. Then your 
 wretched nags ; how are they ? A puny breed that 
 you can pull by the tails, comes to nothing ; but our Per- 
 cherons are vigorous horses, they are worth something. 
 
 1 A tchetvert is 5.775 English bushels.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 129 
 
 And so with everything. Our agriculture always 
 needed to be helped forward." 
 
 " Yes ! but it would need some power, Nikolai Iva- 
 nuitch. Very well for you ; but when one has one son at 
 the university, and several others at school, as I have, 
 he can't afford to buy Percherons." 
 
 " There are banks on purpose." 
 
 " To have my last goods and chattels sold under the 
 hammer. No, thank you ! " 
 
 "I don't agree that it is necessary or possible to lift 
 the level of agriculture much higher," said Levin. " I 
 am much interested in this question ; and I have the 
 means, but I cannot do anything. And as for banks, I 
 don't know whom they profit. Up to the present time, 
 whatever I have spent on my estate, has resulted only 
 in loss. Cattle loss; machines loss." 
 
 " That is true," said the old proprietor with the gray 
 mustache, laughing with hearty satisfaction. 
 
 " And I am not the only man," continued Levin. " I 
 call to mind all those who have made experiments in the 
 'rational manner.' All, with few exceptions, have come 
 out of it with losses. Will you admit that your farming 
 is profitable? " he asked, and at that instant he detected 
 in Sviazhsky's face that transient expression of embar- 
 rassment which he noticed when he wanted to penetrate 
 farther into the inner chambers of Sviazhsky's mind. 
 
 However, the question was not entirely fair play on 
 Levin's part. His hostess had told him at tea that they 
 had just had a German expert up from Moscow, who, 
 for five hundred rubles' fee, agreed to put the book- 
 keeping of the estate in order ; and he found that there 
 had been a net loss of more than three thousand rubles. 
 She could not remember exactly how much, but the 
 German accountant had calculated it to within forty 
 kopeks. 
 
 The old proprietor smiled when he heard Levin's 
 question about the profits of Sviazhsky's management. 
 It was evident that he knew about the state of his 
 neighbors' finances. 
 
 " Maybe it is unprofitable," replied Sviazhsky. " This 
 
 VOL. II. 9
 
 ijo ANNA KARENINA 
 
 only proves that either I am a poor manager, or I sink 
 my capital to increase the revenue." 
 
 " Oh ! revenue ! " cried Levin, with horror. " Maybe 
 there is such a thing as revenue in Europe, where the 
 land is better for the labor spent on it ; but with us, the 
 more labor spent on it, the worse it is that is because 
 it exhausts it so there is no revenue." 
 
 " How, no revenue ? It is a law." 
 
 " Then we are no exceptions to the law. The word 
 renta, revenue, has no clearness for us, and explains 
 nothing, but rather confuses. No ; tell me how the 
 doctrine of revenue can be .... 
 
 " Won't you have some curds ? Masha, send us some 
 curds or some raspberries," said Sviazhsky to his wife. 
 " Raspberries have lasted unusually late this year." 
 
 And, with his usual jovial disposition of soul, Svia- 
 zhsky got up and went out, evidently assuming that the 
 discussion was ended, while for Levin it seemed that it 
 had only just begun. 
 
 Levin was now left with the old proprietor, and con- 
 tinued to talk with him, endeavoring to prove to him 
 that all the trouble arose from the fact that we did not 
 try to understand our laborers' habits and peculiarities. 
 But -the old proprietor, like all people accustomed to 
 think alone and for himself, found it difficult to enter 
 into the thought of another, and clung firmly to his own 
 opinions. He declared that the Russian muzhik was a 
 pig, and loved swinishness, and that it needed force or 
 else a stick to drive him out of his swinishness ; but we 
 are such liberals that we have suddenly swapped off the 
 thousand-year-old stick for these lawyers and jails, where 
 the good-for-nothing, stinking muzhik gets fed on good 
 soup, and has his pure air by the cubic foot. 
 
 " Why," asked Levin, wishing to get back to the 
 question, " do you think that it is impossible to reach 
 an equilibrium which will utilize the forces of the laborer, 
 and render them productive ? " 
 
 " That will never come about with the Russian peo- 
 ple ; there is no force," replied the proprietor. 
 
 ft Why could not new conditions be found ? " asked
 
 ANNA KARENINA 131 
 
 Sviazhsky, who had been eating his curds, and smoking 
 a cigarette, and now approached the two disputants. 
 " All the needful forms are ready for use, and well 
 learned. That relic of barbarism, the primitive com- 
 mune where each member is responsible for all, is fall- 
 ing to pieces of its own weight ; the right of holding 
 serfs has been abolished ; now there remains only free 
 labor, and its forms are at hand, the day-laborer, the 
 journeyman, the ordinary farmer, and you can't get 
 rid of this." 
 
 " But Europe is discontented with these forms." 
 
 " Yes, and perhaps discontent will find new ones, and 
 will progress probably." 
 
 "This is all I say about that," said Levin. "Why 
 should we not seek for them on our side ? " 
 
 " Because it would be much the same as our pretend- 
 ing to invent new methods of constructing railways. 
 Our methods are all ready; all we have to do is to 
 apply them." 
 
 " But if they do not suit us ? if they are hurtful ? " 
 Levin insisted. 
 
 And again he saw the frightened look in Sviazhsky's 
 eyes. 
 
 "Well ! this : we throw up our caps, we follow -wher- 
 ever Europe leads ! All this I know ; but tell me, are 
 you acquainted with all that is going on in Europe 
 about the organization of labor ? " 
 
 " No ; I know very little." 
 
 " This question is now occupying the best minds in 
 Europe. Schulze-Delitzsch 1 and his school .... then all 
 this prodigious literature on the labor question .... the 
 tendencies of Lassalle, the most radical of all of them .... 
 the Miilhausen organization .... this all is a fact, you 
 surely must know." 
 
 1 Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, who founded the first People's Bank, and 
 in the German Parliament labored for constitutional reform, was born in 
 Prussian Saxony, August 29, 1808, died at Potsdam, April 29, 1883. At 
 the time of his death the United Bank Organization of which he was man- 
 ager had thirty-five hundred branches, with fifty million dollars' capital, 
 and about a hundred millions of deposits. He was an opponent of Las- 
 salle's socialism. ED.
 
 i 3 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " I have an idea of it, but it 's very vague." 
 
 " No, you only say so ; you know all this as well as I 
 do. I don't set up to be a professor of social science, 
 but these things interest me ; and I assure you, if they 
 interest you, you should go into them." 
 
 "But where do they lead you ? " .... 
 
 " Beg pardon." .... 
 
 The two proprietors got up ; and Sviazhsky, again 
 arresting Levin in his disagreeable habit of looking into 
 the inner chambers of his mind, went out to bid his 
 guests good-by. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 LEVIN spent the evening with the ladies, and found it 
 unendurably stupid. His mind was stirred, as never 
 before, at the thought that the dissatisfaction he felt in 
 the administration of his estate was not peculiar to him- 
 self, but was a general condition into which affairs in 
 Russia had evolved, and that an organization of labor, 
 whereby the work would be carried on in such a manner 
 as he saw at the muzhik's on the highway, was not an 
 illusion, but a problem to be solved. And it seemed to 
 him that he could settle this problem, and that he must 
 attempt to do it. 
 
 Levin bade the ladies good-night, promising to go 
 with them the following morning for a ride to visit some 
 interesting spots in the Crown woods. Before going to 
 bed he went to the library, to get some of the books on 
 the labor question which Sviazhsky had recommended. 
 
 Sviazhsky 's library was an enormous room, lined with 
 book-shelves, and having two tables, one a massive 
 writing-table, standing in the center of the room, and 
 the other a round one, laden with recent numbers of 
 journals and reviews, in different languages, arranged 
 about a lamp. Near the writing-table was a cabinet, 
 stoika, containing drawers inscribed with gilt lettering 
 for the reception of various documents.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 133 
 
 Sviazhsky got the volumes, and sat down in a rocking 
 chair. 
 
 "What is that you are looking at?" he asked of 
 Levin, who was standing by the round table, and turn- 
 ing the leaves of a review. 
 
 Levin held up the review. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! that is a very interesting article indeed. 
 It argues," he continued with gay animation, "that the 
 principal culprit in the partition of Poland was not 
 Frederic after all. It appears .... " and he gave with 
 the clearness characteristic of him a digest of these 
 new and important discoveries. Although Levin was 
 now more interested in the question of farm manage- 
 ment than in anything, he asked himself, as he listened 
 to his friend : 
 
 "What is he in reality? and why, why does the par- 
 tition of Poland interest him ? " 
 
 When Sviazhsky had. finished, Levin could not help 
 saying : 
 
 " Well, and what of it ? " 
 
 But he had nothing to say. It was interesting simply 
 from the fact that it "argued." 
 
 But Sviazhsky did not explain, and did not think it 
 necessary to explain, why it was interesting to him. 
 
 " Well, but the irascible old proprietor interested me 
 very much," said Levin, sighing. " He 's sensible, and 
 a good deal of what he says is true." 
 
 " Ah ! don't speak of it ! he is a confirmed slave' 
 holder at heart, like the rest of them." 
 
 " With you at their head " .... 
 
 " Yes, only I am trying to lead them in the other 
 direction," replied Sviazhsky, laughing. 
 
 " His argument struck me very forcibly," said Levin. 
 " He is right when he says that our affairs, that is, the 
 ' rational management,' l cannot succeed ; that the only 
 kind that can succeed is the money-lending system like 
 that of the other proprietor, or, in other words, the one 
 that is simplest Who is to blame for this ? " 
 
 " We ourselves, of course. But then it is not true 
 
 1 Ratsionalnoc khozyalstvo.
 
 i 3 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 that it does not succeed. It succeeds with Vasiltchi- 
 kof." 
 
 "The mill...." 
 
 " But still I don't know what surprises you about it. 
 The peasantry stand on such a low plane of develop- 
 ment, both materially and morally, that it is evident 
 they '11 oppose everything that is strange to them. In 
 Europe the ' rational management ' succeeds because 
 the people are civilized. In the first place, we must 
 civilize our peasantry, that's the point." 
 
 " But how will you civilize them ? " 
 
 " To civilize the people, three things are necessary, 
 schools, schools, and schools." 
 
 " But you yourself say that the peasantry stand on a 
 low plane of material development. What good will 
 schools do in that respect?" 
 
 " Do you know, you remind me of a story of the 
 advice given to a sick man : .' You had better try a 
 purgative.' He tried it ; he grew worse. ' Apply leeches.' 
 He applied them; he grew worse. 'Well, then, pray 
 to God.' He tried it; he grew worse. So it is with 
 you. I say political economy ; you say you 're worse 
 for it. I suggest socialism ; worse still. Education ; 
 still worse." 
 
 " Yes. But how can schools help ? " 
 
 " They will create other needs." 
 
 " But this is just the very thing I could never under- 
 stand," replied Levin, vehemently. " In what way will 
 schools help the peasantry to better their material con- 
 dition ? You say that schools education will create 
 new needs. So much the worse, because they will not 
 have the ability to satisfy them ; and I could never see 
 how a knowledge of addition and subtraction and the 
 catechism could help them to better themselves materi- 
 ally. Day before yesterday I met a peasant woman 
 with a baby at the breast, and I asked her where she 
 was going. She said she had been 'to the babka's; 1 
 the child had a crying fit, and I took him to be cured.' 
 
 1 Babka, a peasant grandmother, a popular name for the midwife. It 
 is the diminutive of baba, a peasant woman, especially a muzhik's wife.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 135 
 
 I asked, ' How did the babka cure the crying fit ? ' ' She 
 set him on the hen-roost, and muttered something.' ' 
 
 " Well there ! " cried Sviazhsky, laughing heartily. 
 "You yourself confess it. In order to teach them that 
 they can't cure children by setting them on hen-roosts, 
 you must .... " 
 
 " Ah no ! " interrupted Levin, with some vexation. 
 " Your remedy of schools for the people I only com- 
 pared to the babka's method of curing. The peasantry 
 are poor and uncivilized ; this we see as plainly as the 
 woman saw her child's distress because he was crying. 
 But that schools can raise them from their wretched- 
 ness is as inconceivable as the hen-roost cure for sick 
 children. You must first remedy the cause of the 
 poverty." 
 
 " Well ! In this at least you agree with Spencer, 
 whom you do not like. He says that civilization can 
 result from increased happiness and comfort in life, 
 from frequent ablutions, but not by learning to read 
 and cipher." .... 
 
 " There now ! I am very glad, or rather very sorry, 
 if I am in accord with Spencer. But this I have felt 
 for a long time : schools cannot help ; the only help can 
 come from some economical organization, whereby the 
 peasantry will be richer, will have more leisure. Then 
 schools also will come." 
 
 " Nevertheless, schools are obligatory now all over 
 Europe." 
 
 " But how would you harmonize this with Spencer's 
 ideas ? " asked Levin. 
 
 But into Sviazhsky's eyes again came the troubled ex- 
 pression ; and he said with a smile : 
 
 " No, this story of the crying fit was capital ! Is it 
 possible that you heard it yourself ? " 
 
 Levin saw that there was no connection between this 
 man's life and his thoughts. Evidently it was perfectly 
 indifferent to him where his conclusions led him. Only 
 the process of reasoning was what appealed to him ; 
 and it was disagreeable to him When this process of 
 reasoning led him into some stupid, blind alley. This
 
 136 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 was what he did not like, and he avoided it by leading 
 the conversation to some bright and agreeable topic. 
 
 All the impressions of this day, including those which 
 arose from his visit to the old muzhik, and which seemed 
 somehow to give a new basis to his thoughts, troubled 
 Levin profoundly. This genial Sviazhsky who kept his 
 thoughts for general use and evidently had entirely 
 different principles for the conduct of his life, keeping 
 them hidden from Levin, while at the same time he and 
 the majority of men the throng whose name is legion 
 seemed to be ruled by the general consensus of 
 opinions by means of ideas strange to him ; the testy 
 old proprietor, perfectly right in his judicious views of 
 life, but wrong in despising one entire class in Russia, 
 and that perhaps the best ; his own discontent with his 
 activity, and the confused hope of setting things right 
 at last, all this excited and disturbed him. 
 
 Levin retired to his room, and lay down on his 
 springy mattress, which unexpectedly exposed his arms 
 and legs every time he moved ; but it was long before he 
 could get to sleep. His conversation with Sviazhsky, 
 though many good things were said, did not interest 
 him ; but the old proprietor's arguments haunted him. 
 He involuntarily remembered every word that he said, 
 and his imagination supplied the answer. 
 
 " Yes, I ought to have replied to him, ' You say that 
 our management is not succeeding because the muzhik 
 despises all improvements, and that force must be ap- 
 plied to them. But if our estates were not retrograding, 
 even where these improvements are not found, you 
 would be right ; but advance is made only where the 
 laborer works in conformity with his own customs, as at 
 the old man's by the roadside. Our general dissatisfac- 
 tion with our management proves that either we or the 
 laborers are at fault. We have long been losing, both 
 by our own methods and by European methods, by 
 neglecting the qualities of the laboring force. Let us 
 be willing to acknowledge that the laboring force is not 
 ideal as a force, but is the Russian muzhik with his in- 
 stincts, and we shall then be able to manage our estates
 
 ANNA KARENINA 137 
 
 in conformity with this.' I should have said to him . 
 ' Imagine that you were carrying on an estate like that 
 of my old man by the roadside, that you had found a 
 way of interesting your laborers in the success of their 
 work, and had found that by means of improvements 
 such as they would acknowledge to be improvements, 
 you had succeeded in doubling or trebling your returns 
 without exhausting the soil ; then suppose you make a 
 division and give a half to your working force. The 
 residue which you would have would be larger, and that 
 which would come to the working force would be larger.' 
 But to do this, there must be a coming down from any- 
 thing like ideal management and the laborers must be 
 interested in the success of the management. How can 
 it be done ? This is a question of details, but there is 
 no doubt that it is possible." 
 
 This idea kept Levin in a state of agitation. Half 
 the night he did not sleep, thinking of the details con- 
 nected with carrying out his new plans and schemes. 
 He had not intended to leave so soon, but now he 
 decided to go home on the morrow. Moreover, the 
 memory of the young lady with the open dress came 
 over him with a strange sense of shame and disgust. 
 But the main thing that decided him was his desire to 
 lay before his muzhiks his new project before the autumn 
 harvests, so that they might reap under the new condi 
 tions. He decided to reform his whole method of ad 
 ministration. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE carrying out of Levin's plan offered many diffi- 
 culties ; but he persevered, and finally succeeded in 
 persuading himself without self-deception that the en- 
 terprise was worth the labor even though he should not 
 succeed in doing all that he wanted to do. One of the 
 principal obstacles which met him was the fact that his 
 estate was already in running order, and that it was im- 
 possible to come to a sudden stop and begin anew, but 
 that he had to remodel his machine while it was going.
 
 138 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 When he reached home in the evening, he summoned 
 his overseer, and explained to him his plans. The over- 
 seer received with undisguised satisfaction all the details 
 of this scheme as far as they showed that all that had 
 been done hitherto was absurd and unproductive. The 
 overseer declared that he had long ago told him so, but 
 that no one would listen to him. But when it came to 
 Levin's proposition to share the profits of the estate 
 with the laborers, on the basis of an association, the 
 overseer put on an expression of the deepest melan- 
 choly, and immediately began to speak of the necessity 
 of bringing in the last sheaves of wheat, and commenc- 
 ing the second plowing ; and Levin felt that now was 
 not a propitious time. 
 
 On conversing with the muzhiks about his project of 
 dividing with them the products of the earth, he found 
 that here his chief difficulty lay in the fact that they 
 were too much occupied with their daily tasks to com- 
 prehend the advantages and disadvantages of his enter- 
 prise. 
 
 A simple-minded muzhik, Ivan the herdsman, seemed 
 to comprehend and to approve Levin's proposal to share 
 with him in the profits of the cattle ; but whenever Levin 
 went on to speak of the advantages that would result, 
 Ivan's face grew troubled, and, without waiting to hear 
 Levin out, he would hurry off to attend to some work 
 that could not be postponed, either to pitch the hay 
 from the pens, or to draw water, or to clear away the 
 manure. 
 
 Another obstacle consisted in the inveterate distrust 
 of the peasants, who would not believe that a proprietor 
 could have any other aim than to get all he could out 
 of them. They were firmly convinced, in spite of all 
 he could say, that his real purpose was hidden. They, 
 on their side, in expressing their opinions had much 
 to say ; but they carefully guarded against telling what 
 their actual object was. 
 
 Levin came to the conclusion that the irate proprietor 
 was right in saying that the peasants demanded, as the 
 first and indispensable condition for any arrangement,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 139 
 
 that they should never be bound to any of the new agri- 
 cultural methods, or to use the improved tools. They 
 agreed that the new-fashioned plow worked better, that 
 the weed-extirpator was more successful ; but they in- 
 vented a thousand reasons why they should not use 
 them ; and, although he had made up his mind that 
 there must be a coming down from anything like ideal 
 management, he felt deep regret to give up improve- 
 ments the advantages of which were so evident. But 
 in spite of all these difficulties, he persevered ; and by 
 autumn the new arrangement was in working order, or 
 at least seemed to be. 
 
 At first Levin intended to give up his whole domain l 
 just as it was to the muzhiks the laborers and over- 
 seer on the new conditions of association. But very 
 soon he found that this was impracticable ; and he 
 made up his mind to divide the management of the 
 estate. The cattle, the garden, the kitchen-garden, 
 the hay-fields, and some lands fenced off into several 
 lots were to be reckoned as special and separate divis- 
 ions. 
 
 Ivan, the simple-minded herdsman, who seemed to 
 Levin better fitted than any one else, formed an artel, 
 or association, composed of members of his family, and 
 took charge of the cattle-yard. A distant field, which 
 for eight years had been lying fallow, was taken by the 
 shrewd carpenter Feodor Rezunof, who joined with him 
 seve"n families of muzhiks ; and the muzhik Shuraef en- 
 tered into the same arrangements for superintending the 
 gardens. All the rest was left as it had been ; but these 
 three divisions constituted the beginning of the new ar- 
 rangement, and they kept Levin very busy. 
 
 It was true that matters were not carried on in the 
 cattle-yard any better than before, and that Ivan was 
 obstinate in his opposition to giving the cows a warm 
 shelter, and to butter made of sweet cream, asserting 
 that cows kept in a cold place required less feed, and 
 that butter made of sour cream was made quicker ; and 
 he demanded his wages as before, and he was not at 
 
 1 Khozyaistvo.
 
 140 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 all interested in the fact that the money that he re- 
 ceived was not his wages but his share of the profits 
 of the association. 
 
 It was true that Rezunof and his associates did not 
 give the field a second plowing, as they had been ad- 
 vised to do, and excused themselves on the ground that 
 they had no time. It was true that the muzhiks of this 
 company, although they had agreed to take this work 
 under the new conditions, called this land, not common 
 land, but shared land, and the muzhiks and Rezunof 
 himself said to Levin : " If you would take money for 
 the land it would be less bother to you and that would 
 let us out." 
 
 Moreover, these muzhiks kept putting off under vari- 
 ous pretexts the building of the cattle-yard and barn, and 
 did not get it done till winter, though they had agreed 
 to build it immediately. 
 
 It was true that Shuraef tried to exchange for a trifle 
 with the muzhiks the products of the gardens which he 
 had undertaken to manage. He evidently had a wrong 
 notion and a purposely wrong notion of the conditions 
 under which he had taken the land. 
 
 It was true that often in talking with the muzhiks 
 and explaining to them all the advantages of the under- 
 taking, Levin was conscious that all they heard was the 
 sound of his voice, that they were firmly convinced that 
 they were too shrewd to let him deceive them. He 
 was especially conscious of this when talking with the 
 cleverest of the muzhiks, Rezunof. He noticed in the 
 man's eye a gleam which betrayed evident scorn for 
 Levin and a firm conviction that if any one was to be 
 cheated it was not he Rezunof. 
 
 But, in spite of all these drawbacks, Levin felt that 
 he was making progress, and that if he rigorously kept 
 his accounts and persevered he should be able to show 
 his associates at the end of the year that the new order 
 of things could bring excellent results. 
 
 All this -business, together with his work in connec- 
 tion with the rest of his estate, which still remained in 
 his own hands, and together with his work in the library
 
 ANNA KARENINA 141 
 
 on his new book, so filled his time during the summer 
 that he scarcely ever went out, even to hunt. 
 
 Toward the end of August he learned through the 
 man that brought back the saddle that the Oblonskys 
 had returned to Moscow. By not having replied to 
 Darya Aleksandrovna's letter, by his rudeness which he 
 could not remember without a flush of shame, he felt 
 that he had burnt his ships and he never again could 
 go to them. In exactly the same way he owed apolo- 
 gies to Sviazhsky for having left his house without bid- 
 ding him good-by. Neither would he again dare to 
 go to Sviazhsky's. But now all this was a matter of 
 indifference to him. He was more interested and ab- 
 sorbed in his new scheme of managing his estate than 
 in anything that he had ever attempted. 
 
 He finished the books which Sviazhsky had lent him, 
 and others on political economy and socialism, which 
 he had sent for. In the books on political economy, 
 in Mill, for example, which he studied first with eager- 
 ness, hoping every minute to find a solution of the ques- 
 tions which occupied him, he found laws deduced from 
 the position of European husbandry ; but he could not 
 see how these laws could be profitably applied to Rus- 
 sian conditions. He found a similar lack in the books 
 of the socialist writers. Either they were beautiful but 
 impracticable fancies, such as he dreamed when he was 
 a student, or modifications of that situation of things 
 applicable to Europe, but offering no solution for the 
 agrarian question in Russia. 
 
 Political economy said that the laws by which the 
 wealth of Europe was developed and would develop 
 were universal and fixed ; socialistic teachings said that 
 progress according to these laws would lead to destruc- 
 tion ; but neither school gave him any answer or as 
 much as a hint on the means of leading him and all the 
 Russian muzhiks and agriculturists, with their millions 
 of hands and of desyatins, to more successful methods 
 of reaching prosperity. 
 
 As he was already involved in this enterprise, he con- 
 scientiously read through everything that bore on the
 
 i 4 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 subject and decided in the autumn to go abroad and 
 study the matter on the spot, so that he might not 
 have with this question the experience that had so often 
 met him with various questions in the past. How 
 many times in a discussion he had just begun to under- 
 stand his opponent's thought and to expound his own, 
 when suddenly the question would be asked : " But 
 Kaufmann, Jones, Du Bois, Mitchell ? You have not 
 read them ? Read them, they have worked out this 
 question." 
 
 He saw clearly now that Kaufmann and Mitchell 
 could not tell him anything. He knew what he wanted. 
 He saw that Russia possessed an admirable soil and 
 admirable workmen, and that in certain cases, as with 
 the muzhik by the roadside, the land and the laborers 
 could produce abundantly, but that in the majority of 
 cases when capital was spent upon them in the Eu- 
 ropean manner, they produced little, and that this re- 
 sulted entirely from the fact that the laborers like to 
 work, and work well only in their own way, and that 
 this contrast was not the result of chance, but was per- 
 manent and based on the very nature of the people. 
 He thought that the Russian people, which was des- 
 tined to colonize and cultivate immense unoccupied 
 spaces, would consciously, until all these lands were 
 occupied, hold to these methods as necessary to them, 
 and that these methods were not so bad as they were 
 generally considered. And he wanted to demonstrate 
 this theoretically in his book, and practically on his 
 estate. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 TOWARD the end of September the lumber was 
 brought for the construction of a barn on the artel 
 land, and the butter was sold, and showed a profit. 
 The new administration, on the whole, worked admi- 
 rably in practice, or at least it seemed so to Levin. 
 
 But in order to explain the whole subject into a clear
 
 ANNA KARENINA 143 
 
 light theoretically, and to finish his treatise, which Levin 
 imagined was likely not only to revolutionize political 
 economy, but even to annihilate this science, and to 
 make the beginnings of a new one, treating of the 
 relations of the peasantry to the soil, he felt that it was 
 necessary to go abroad, and to learn, from observation 
 on the spot, all that was going on in that direction, and 
 to find conclusive proofs that all that was done there 
 was not the right thing. 
 
 He was only waiting for the delivery of the wheat to 
 get his money, and make the journey. But the autumn 
 rains set in, and portions of the wheat and potatoes 
 were not as yet garnered. All work was at a stand- 
 still, and it was impossible to deliver the wheat. The 
 roads were impracticable, two mills were washed away 
 by the freshet, and the weather kept growing worse and 
 worse. 
 
 But on the morning of October 12 the sun came out; 
 and Levin, hoping for a change in the weather, began 
 resolutely to prepare for his journey. He sent the 
 overseer to the merchant to negotiate for the sale of 
 the wheat, and he himself went out for a tour of inspec- 
 tion of the estate, in order to make the last remaining 
 arrangements for his journey. 
 
 Having accomplished all that he wished, he returned 
 at nightfall, wet from the rivulets that trickled from his 
 waterproof down his neck and inside his high boots, 
 but in a happy and animated frame of mind. Toward 
 evening the storm increased ; the hail pelted so vio- 
 lently the drenched horse, that she shook her ears and 
 her head, and went sidewise ; but Levin, protected by 
 his bashluik, felt comfortable enough, and he cheer- 
 fully gazed around him, now at the muddy streams 
 running down the wheel-tracks ; now at the raindrops 
 trickling down every bare twig ; now at the white spots 
 where the hail had not yet melted on the planks of the 
 bridge ; now at the dry but still pulpy leaf, clinging 
 with its stout stem to the denuded elm. In spite of 
 the gloomy aspect of nature, he felt in particularly 
 good spirits. His talks with the peasants in a distant
 
 i 4 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 village convinced him that they were beginning to get 
 used to his new arrangements ; and an old dvornik, 
 at whose house he stopped to dry himself, evidently 
 approved of his plan, and wanted to join the association 
 for the purchase of cattle. 
 
 " What is required is to go straight to my goal, and 
 I shall succeed," thought Levin; "but the labor and 
 the pains have an object. I am not working for my- 
 self alone, but the question concerns the good of all. 
 The whole way of managing our estates, the condition of 
 all the people, must be absolutely changed. Instead 
 of poverty, universal well-being, contentment; instead 
 of enmity, agreement and union of interests ; in a word, 
 a bloodless revolution, but a mighty revolution^ begin- 
 ning in the little circuit of our district, then reaching the 
 province, Russia, the whole world ! The conception is 
 so just that it cannot help being fruitful. Yes, indeed, 
 this goal is worth working for. And there is abso- 
 lutely no significance in the fact that I, Kostia Levin, 
 my own self, a man who went to a ball in a black neck- 
 tie, and was rejected by a Shcherbatsky, am a stupid 
 and a good-for-nothing ; that is neither here nor there. 
 I believe that Franklin felt that he was just such 
 a good-for-nothing, and had just as little faith in him- 
 self, when he took everything into account. And, prob- 
 ably, he had his Agafya Mikhai'lovna also, to whom he 
 confided his secrets." 
 
 With such thoughts, Levin reached home in the dark. 
 The overseer, who had been to the merchant, came and 
 handed him a part of the money from the wheat. The 
 agreement with the dvornik was drawn up ; and then 
 the overseer told how he had seen wheat still standing 
 in the field by the road, while his one hundred and sixty 
 stacks, not yet brought in, were nothing in comparison 
 to what others had. 
 
 After supper Levin sat down in his chair, as usual, 
 with a book ; and as he read he began to think of his 
 projected journey, especially in connection with his 
 book. That evening the whole significance of his un- 
 dertaking presented itself to him with remarkable clear-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 145 
 
 ness, and his ideas fell naturally into flowing periods, 
 which expressed the essence of his thought. 
 
 " I must write this down," he said to himself. " It 
 must go into a short introduction, though before I 
 thought that was unnecessary." 
 
 He got up to go to his writing-table ; and Laska, who 
 had been lying at his feet, also got up, and, stretching 
 herself, looked at him, as if asking where he was going. 
 But he had no time for writing ; for the various super- 
 intendents came for their orders, and he had to go to 
 meet them in the anteroom. 
 
 After giving them their orders, or rather, having 
 made arrangements for their morrow's work, and hav- 
 ing received all the muzhiks who came to consult with 
 him, Levin went back to his library, and sat down to 
 his work. Laska lay under the table ; Agafya Mikha'f- 
 lovna, with her knitting, took her usual place. 
 
 After writing some time, Levin suddenly arose, and 
 began to walk up and down the room. The memory 
 of Kitty and her refusal, and the recent glimpse of her, 
 came before his imagination with extraordinary vividness. 
 
 " Now, there 's no need of your getting blue," said 
 Agafya Mikhai'lovna. " Now why do you stay at home ? 
 You had better go to the warm springs if your mind is 
 made up." 
 
 " I am going day after to-morrow, Agafya MikhaY- 
 lovna ; but I had to finish up my business." 
 
 " Your business, indeed ! Have n't you given these 
 muzhiks enough already ? And they say, ' Our barin 
 is trying to buy some favor from the Tsar ; ' and strange 
 it is : why do you bother yourself so about the muzhiks ? " 
 
 " I am not bothering myself about them ; I am doing 
 it for my own good." 
 
 Agafya Mikhailovna knew all the details of Levin's 
 plans, for he had explained them to her, and he had 
 often had discussions with her and had not agreed with 
 her comments ; but now she entirely misapprehended 
 what he said to her. 
 
 " For your own soul it is certainly important ; to think 
 of that is above everything," said she, with a sigh. 
 
 VOL. II. IO
 
 146 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Here is Parfen Denisuitch : although he could not 
 read, yet may God give us all to die as he did ! " said 
 she, referring to a household servant who had recently 
 died. "They confessed him and gave him extreme 
 unction." 
 
 " I did not mean that," said he ; "I mean that I am 
 working for my own profit. It will be more profitable 
 to me if the muzhiks will work better." 
 
 " There ! you will only have your labor for your pains. 
 The lazy will be lazy and always do things over his left 
 shoulder. Where he has a conscience, he '11 work ; if 
 not, nothing will be done." 
 
 "Well, well! But don't you yourself say that Ivan 
 is beginning to look out for the cows better ? " 
 
 " I say this one thing," replied Agafya Mikhai'lovna, 
 evidently not at random but with a keen logical connec- 
 tion of thought : " You must get married, that 's what." 
 
 Agafya Mikhai'lovna' s observation about the very 
 matter that preoccupied him angered him and insulted 
 him. He frowned, and, without replying, sat down to 
 his work again, repeating to himself all that he had 
 thought about the importance of his work. Occasion- 
 ally amid the silence he noticed the clicking of Agafya 
 MikhaTlovna's needles; and, remembering what he did 
 not wish to remember, he would frown. 
 
 At nine o'clock the sound of bells was heard, and the 
 heavy rumbling of a carriage on the muddy road. 
 
 " There ! here 's some visitors coming to see you : 
 you won't be bored any more," said Agafya Mikhai'- 
 lovna, rising, and going to the door. But Levin stepped 
 ahead of her. His work did not progress now, and he 
 was glad to see any guest. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 BEFORE Levin got halfway down-stairs he heard in 
 the vestibule the sound of a familiar cough ; but the 
 sound was covered by the noise of his own footsteps, 
 and he hoped that he was mistaken. Then he saw the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 147 
 
 tall bony figure which he knew so well. But even now, 
 when there seemed to be no possibility of deception, he 
 still hoped that he was mistaken, and that this tall man 
 who was divesting himself of his shuba, and coughing, 
 was not his brother Nikolai. 
 
 Levin loved his brother, but it was always extremely 
 disagreeable to live with him. Now especially, when 
 Levin was under the influence of the thoughts and 
 suggestions awakened by Agafya MikhaYlovna, and 
 was in a dull and melancholy humor, the presence of 
 his brother was indeed an affliction. Instead of a gay, 
 healthy visitor, some stranger, who, he hoped, would 
 drive away his perplexities, he was obliged to receive 
 his brother, who knew him through and through, who 
 could read his most secret thoughts, and who would 
 oblige him to share them with him. And this he did 
 not like to do. 
 
 Angry with himself for his unworthy sentiments, 
 Levin ran down into the vestibule ; and, as soon as he 
 saw his brother close at hand, the feeling of personal 
 discomfort instantly disappeared, and was succeeded by 
 a feeling of pity. Terrible as his brother Nikolai' had 
 been when he saw him before by reason of his emacia- 
 tion and illness, he was now still more emaciated, still 
 more feeble. He was like a skeleton covered with skin. 
 
 He was standing in the vestibule stretching out his 
 long, thin neck and unwinding a scarf from it ; and he 
 smiled with a strange melancholy smile. When Levin 
 saw his brother's humble and pitiful smile, he felt a 
 choking sensation. 
 
 "Well! I have come to you," said Nikolai', in a thick 
 voice, and not for a second taking his eyes from his 
 brother's face, " I have been wanting to come for a long 
 time ; yes, I have, but I have been so ill. Now I am 
 very much better," he added, rubbing his beard with his 
 great bony hand. 
 
 "Yes, yes," replied Levin; and it was still more ter- 
 rible to him when, as he touched his brother's shriveled 
 cheeks with his lips, he felt his fever flush, and saw the 
 gleam of his great, strangely brilliant eyes.
 
 148 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Some time before this, Konstantin Levin had written 
 his brother that, having disposed of the small portion 
 of their common inheritance, consisting of personal 
 property, a sum of two thousand rubles was due as his 
 share. 
 
 NikolaY said that he had come to get this money, and 
 especially to see the old nest ; to put his foot on the 
 natal soil, so as to get renewed strength, like the heroes 
 of ancient times. Notwithstanding his tall stooping 
 form, notwithstanding his frightful emaciation, his move- 
 ments were, as they had always been, quick and impetu- 
 ous. Levin took him to his room. 
 
 Nikolai' changed his dress, and took great pains with 
 his toilet, which in former times he neglected. He 
 brushed his thin shaven hair, and went up-stairs smiling. 
 
 He was in the gayest and happiest humor, just as 
 Konstantin had seen him when he was a child. He 
 even spoke of Sergyei' Ivanovitch without bitterness. 
 When he saw Agafya Mikhai'lovna, he jested with her, 
 and questioned her about the old servants. The news 
 of the death of Parfen Denisuitch made a deep impres- 
 sion on him. A look of fear crossed his face, but he 
 instantly recovered himself. 
 
 " He was very old, was he not ? " he asked, and 
 quickly changed the conversation. " Yes, I am going 
 to stay a month or two with you, and then go back to 
 Moscow. You see, Miagkof has promised me a place, 
 and I shall enter the service. Now I have turned over 
 a new leaf entirely," he added. " You see, I have sent 
 away that woman." 
 
 " Marya Nikolayevna ? How? What for?" 
 
 " Ah ! she was a wretched woman ! She caused a 
 heap of tribulations." 
 
 But he did not tell what the tribulations were. He 
 could not confess that he had sent Marya Nikolayevna 
 away because she made his tea too weak, still less be- 
 cause she insisted on treating him as an invalid. 
 
 " Then, besides, I wanted to begin an entirely new 
 kind of life. Of course, I, like everybody else, have 
 committed follies ; but the present, I mean the last
 
 ANNA KARENINA 149 
 
 one, I don't regret it, provided only I get better ; and 
 better, thank the Lord ! I feel already." 
 
 Levin listened, and tried, but tried in vain, to find 
 something to say. Apparently Nikolai' had somewhat 
 the same feeling ; he began to ask him about his affairs ; 
 and Konstantin was glad to speak about himself because 
 he could speak without any pretense. He frankly re- 
 lated his plans and his experiments. 
 
 Nikolai listened, but did not show the least interest 
 
 These two men were so related to each other, and 
 there was such a bond between them, that the slightest 
 motion, the sound of their voices, spoke more clearly 
 than all the words that they could say to each other. 
 
 At this moment both were thinking the same thought, 
 - Nikolai's illness and approaching death dwarfing 
 everything else into insignificance. Neither of them 
 dared make the least allusion to it, and therefore all that 
 either of them said failed to express what really occu- 
 pied their minds and was therefore false. Never 
 before had Levin been so glad for an evening to end, 
 for bedtime to come. Never, even when obliged to pay 
 casual or official visits, had he felt so false and unnatu- 
 ral as that evening. And the consciousness of this un- 
 naturalness, and his regret, made him more unnatural 
 still. His heart was breaking to see his beloved dying 
 brother ; but he was obliged to dissemble, and to talk 
 about various things as if his brother was going to 
 live. 
 
 As at this time the house was damp and only his own 
 room was warm, Levin offered to share it, with a parti- 
 tion between them, with his brother. 
 
 Nikolai went to bed, and slept the uneasy sleep of an 
 invalid, turning restlessly from side to side, and con- 
 stantly coughing. Sometimes when he could not raise 
 the phlegm, he would cry out, " Akh ! Bozhe moi' ! " 
 Sometimes, when the dampness choked him, he would 
 grow angry, and cry out, " Ah, the devil ! " 
 
 Levin could not sleep as he listened to him. His 
 thoughts were varied, but they always returned to one 
 theme, death.
 
 1 50 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Death, the inevitable end of all, for the first time 
 appeared to him with irresistible force. And death was 
 here, with this beloved brother, who groaned in his 
 sleep, and called now upon God, now upon the devil. 
 It was with him also : this he felt. If not to-day, then 
 to-morrow ; if not to-morrow, then in thirty years ; was 
 it not all the same ? And what this inevitable death 
 was, not only did he not know, not only had he never 
 before thought about it, but he had not wished, had not 
 dared, to think about it. 
 
 " Here I am working, wanting to accomplish some- 
 thing, but I forgot that all must come to an end, 
 death." 
 
 He was lying in bed in the darkness, curled up, 
 holding his knees, scarcely able to breathe, so great was 
 the tension of his mind. The more he thought, the 
 more clearly he saw that from his conception of life he 
 had omitted nothing except this one little factor, death, 
 which would come and end all, and that there was no 
 help against it not the least. Yes, this is terrible, 
 but so it is ! 
 
 " Yes, but I am still alive. Now, what can be done 
 about it ? what can be done ? " he asked in despair. 
 He lighted a candle, and softly arose, and went to the 
 mirror, and began to look at his face and his hair. 
 Yes ! on the temples a few gray hairs were to be 
 seen. He opened his mouth. His back teeth showed 
 signs of decay. He doubled up his muscular arms. 
 " Yes, there 's much strength. But this poor Niko- 
 lenka, who is breathing so painfully with the little that 
 is left of his lungs, also had at one time a healthy body." 
 And suddenly he remembered how when they were 
 children, and were put to bed, they would wait until 
 Feodor Bogdanuitch got out of the door, and then begin 
 a pillow fight, and laugh, laugh so unrestrainedly, that 
 not even the fear of Feodor Bogdanuitch could quench 
 this exuberant and intoxicating sense of the gayety of 
 life. " But now there he lies in bed with his poor 
 hollow chest and I ignorant why, and what will 
 become of me." ...
 
 ANNA KARENINA 151 
 
 " Kah ! kah ! ah ! what the devil are you doing ? 
 Why don't you go to sleep ? " demanded his brother's 
 voice. 
 
 " I don't know ; insomnia, I guess." 
 
 " But I have been sleeping beautifully. I have not 
 had any sweat at all. Just feel no sweat." 
 
 Levin felt of him, then he got into bed again, put out 
 the candle, but it was long before he went to sleep. 
 Still in his mind arose this new question, how to live 
 so as to be ready for the inevitable death ? 
 
 " There ! he is dying ! Yes ! he will die in the 
 spring. How can I aid him ? What can I say to him ? 
 What do I know about it? I had even forgotten that 
 there was such a thing." 
 
 Levin had long before made the observation that 
 often people who surprise you by an abrupt transition 
 grow unendurable by reason of their gentleness and 
 excessive humility, unreasonableness, and peremptory 
 ways. He foresaw that this would be the case with 
 his brother; and, in fact, Nikolai's sweet temper was 
 not of long duration. On the very next morning he 
 awoke in an extremely irritable temper, and immediately 
 began to pick a quarrel with his brother by touching 
 him on the most tender points. 
 
 Levin felt himself to blame, but he could not be 
 frank. He felt that if they had not both dissimulated 
 their thoughts, but had spoken from their very hearts, 
 they would have looked into each other's eyes, and he 
 would have said only this : " You are going to die, you 
 are going to die ; " and Nikolai' would have answered 
 only this : " I know that I am dying, and I am afraid, 
 afraid, afraid." 
 
 And they would have said nothing more if they had 
 spoken honestly from their hearts. But as this sincerity 
 was not possible, Konstantin tried to do what all his 
 life long he had never succeeded in doing, though he 
 had observed that many persons could do it and that 
 without doing it life was almost impossible, he tried 
 to talk about something that was not in his mind, and 
 he felt that his brother divined his insincerity, and was
 
 152 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 therefore irritated and angry, and found fault with all 
 that he said. 
 
 On the third day Nikolai began to discuss the ques- 
 tion of his brother's reforms, and to criticize them, and 
 in a spirit of contrariety to confound his scheme with 
 communism. 
 
 " You have only taken your idea from some one else ; 
 and you distort it, and want to apply it to what is not 
 suited to receive it." 
 
 " Yes, but I tell you that the two have nothing in 
 common. I have no thought of copying communism, 
 which denies the right of property, of capital, of inheri- 
 tance ; but I do not disregard these stimuli." It went 
 against Levin's grain to use these terms, but since he 
 had begun his treatise he found himself, in spite of him, 
 compelled to use non-Russian words. " All I want is 
 to regulate labor." 
 
 " In other words, you borrow a foreign idea ; you 
 take away from it all that gives it force, and you pre- 
 tend to make it pass as new," said Nikolar, angrily 
 craning his neck in his cravat. 
 
 " Yes, but my idea has not the slightest resem- 
 blance-.... " 
 
 " This idea," interrupted Nikola'f, smiling ironically, 
 and with an angry light in his eyes, " communism, 
 has at least one attractive feature, and you might 
 call it a geometrical one it has clearness and logical 
 certainty. Maybe it is Utopia. But let us agree that 
 it can make a tabula rasa of the past, so that there 
 shall be no property of family, but only freedom of 
 labor. But you don't accept this .... " 
 
 " But why do you confound them ? I never was a 
 communist." 
 
 " But I have been ; and I believe that if communism 
 is premature, it is, at least, reasonable ; and it is as sure 
 to succeed as Christianity was in the early centuries." 
 
 " And I believe that labor must be regarded from the 
 scientific standpoint ; in other words, it must be studied. 
 Its constitution must be known and ...." 
 
 " Now, that is absolutely idle. This force goes of it-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 153 
 
 self, and takes different forms, according to the degrees 
 of its development. Everywhere this order has been 
 followed, slaves, then metayers, free labor, and, here 
 in Russia, we have the farm, the arend or leasehold, our 
 system of apprenticeship. What more do you want ? " 
 
 Levin took fire at these last words, the more because 
 he feared in his secret soul that his brother was right in 
 blaming him for wanting to discover a balance between 
 communism and the existing forms, a thing which was 
 scarcely possible. 
 
 " I am trying to find a form of labor which will be 
 profitable for all, for me and the laborer," he replied 
 warmly. 
 
 " That is not what you wish to do ; it is simply this : 
 you have, all your life long, sought to be original ; and 
 you want to prove that you are not exploiting the muzhik, 
 but are working for a principle." 
 
 "Well, since you think so let's end it," replied Kon- 
 stantin, feeling the muscles of his right cheek twitch in- 
 voluntarily. 
 
 " You never had, and you never will have, any convic- 
 tions, and you only wanted to flatter your conceit." 
 
 "That is very well to say .... but let's end the mat- 
 ter." 
 
 " Certainly I will. It was time long ago. You go to 
 the devil ! and I am very sorry that I came." 
 
 Levin tried in vain to calm him. Nikolai would not 
 listen to a word, and persisted in saying that they had 
 better separate ; and Konstantin saw that it was not pos- 
 sible to live with him. 
 
 Nikolai' had already made his preparations to depart, 
 when Konstantin came to him, and begged him, in a way 
 that was not entirely natural, for forgiveness, if he had 
 offended him. 
 
 "Ah, now! here's magnanimity," said Nikolai, smil- 
 ing. " If you are very anxious to be in the right, then 
 let us agree that this is sensible. You are right, but I 
 am going all the same." 
 
 At the last moment, however, as Nikolai kissed his 
 brother, a strange look of seriousness came on him.
 
 i 5 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Kostia," he said, " don't harbor any animosity against 
 me." And his voice trembled. 
 
 These were the only words which were spoken sin- 
 cerely. Levin understood that they meant : " You see 
 and know that I am miserable, and we may not meet 
 again." 
 
 Levin understood this, and the tears came into his 
 eyes. Once more he kissed his brother, but he could 
 not find anything to say. 
 
 On the third day after his brother's departure, Levin 
 went abroad. At the railway station he met Shcher- 
 batsky, Kitty's cousin, and astonished him greatly by 
 his melancholy. 
 
 "What is the matter?" asked Shcherbatsky. 
 
 "Well, nothing, except that there is little happiness 
 in this world." 
 
 " Little happiness ? Just come with me to Paris in- 
 stead of going to some place like Mulhouse. I '11 show 
 you how gay it is." 
 
 " No, I am done for. I am ready to die." 
 
 " What a joke ! " said Shcherbatsky, laughing. " I 
 am just learning how to begin." 
 
 " I felt the same a little while ago, but now I know 
 that my life will be short." 
 
 Levin said what he honestly felt at this time. All 
 that he saw before him was death or its approach. But 
 still he was just as much interested as ever in his proj- 
 ects of reform. It was necessary to keep his life occu-, 
 pied till death should come. Darkness seemed to cover 
 everything ; but by reason of this darkness he felt that 
 the only guiding thread through its labyrinth was to oc- 
 cupy himself with his labors of reform, and he clung 
 ;o them with all the force of his character.
 
 PART FOURTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TV^ARENIN and his wife continued to live in the 
 J^_ same house, and to meet every day, and yet they 
 remained entire strangers to each other. AlekseT Alek- 
 sandrovitch made a point every day to be seen with his 
 wife so that the servants might not have the right to 
 gossip, but he avoided dining at home. Vronsky was 
 never seen there ; Anna met him outside, and her hus- 
 band knew it. 
 
 All three suffered from a situation which would have 
 been intolerable for a single day had not each believed 
 it to be transitory. Aleksel Aleksandrovitch expected 
 to see this passion, like everything else in the world, 
 come to an end and thus his name would not be dis- 
 honored. Anna, the cause of all the trouble, and the 
 one on whom the consequences weighed the most cruelly, 
 accepted her position simply and solely because she ex- 
 pected nay, was firmly convinced that the matter 
 would soon be explained and settled. She had not the 
 least idea how it would come about, but she was certain 
 that it would now come about very speedily. 
 
 Vronsky in spite of himself, submitting to her views, 
 was also awaiting something to happen independent of 
 himself, which should resolve all their difficulty. 
 
 Toward the middle of the winter Vronsky had to 
 spend a very tiresome week. He was delegated to show 
 a foreign prince about Petersburg. Vronsky himself 
 was a representative Russian. Not only was he irre- 
 proachable in his bearing but he was accustomed to the 
 society of such exalted personages ; therefore he was 
 given the charge of the prince. But this responsibility 
 was very distasteful to him. The prince did not want to
 
 156 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 let anything pass concerning which he might be asked 
 on his return, "Did you see that in Russia?" And 
 moreover he wanted to enjoy as far as possible all the 
 pleasures peculiar to the country. Vronsky was obliged 
 to be his guide in the one and in the other. In the morn- 
 ing they went out to see the sights ; in the evening they 
 took part in the national amusements. 
 
 This prince enjoyed exceptionally good health, even 
 for a prince ; and, owing to his gymnastic exercises and 
 the scrupulous care he took of himself, notwithstanding 
 the excesses to which he let his love for pleasure carry 
 him, he remained as fresh as a great, green, shiny 
 Dutch cucumber. 
 
 He had been a great traveler, and had found that 
 one of the great advantages of easy modern communi- 
 cation consisted in the fact that it brought national 
 amusements into easy reach. In Spain he had given 
 serenades, and fallen in love with a Spanish girl who 
 played the mandolin ; in Switzerland he had killed a 
 chamois ; in England leaped ditches in a red shooting- 
 jacket, and shot two hundred pheasants on a wager; in 
 Turkey he had penetrated a harem ; in India he had 
 ridden the elephant ; and now he wanted to taste the 
 special pleasures that Russia afforded. 
 
 Vronsky, as master of ceremonies, arranged, with no 
 little difficulty, a program of amusements truly Russian 
 in character. There were races and blinui, or carnival 
 cakes, and bear-hunts and troika parties and gipsies, 
 and feasts set forth with Russian dishes, and the prince 
 with extraordinary aptitude entered into the spirit of 
 these Russian sports, broke his waiter of glasses with 
 the rest, took a gipsy girl on his knee, and apparently 
 asked himself if the whole Russian spirit consisted only 
 in this, without going further. 
 
 In reality, the prince took more delight in French 
 actresses, ballet-dancers, and white-seal champagne, than 
 in all the other pleasures which the Russians could offer 
 him. 
 
 Vronsky was accustomed to princes, but either be- 
 cause he had changed of late, or else because he had
 
 ANNA KARENINA 157 
 
 too close a view of this particular prince, this week 
 seemed terribly burdensome to him. During the whole 
 week, without cessation, he experienced a feeling like 
 that of a man placed in charge of a dangerous lunatic, 
 who dreaded his patient, and, at the same time, from 
 very force of proximity, feared for his own reason. 
 Vronsky was constantly under the necessity of keeping 
 up the strictest barriers of official reserve in order not to 
 feel insulted. The prince's behavior toward the very per- 
 sons who, to Vronsky's amazement, were ready to crawl 
 out of their skin to give him experiences of Russian 
 amusements, was scornful. His criticism on the Russian 
 women whom he wanted to study more than once made 
 Vronsky grow red with indignation. What irritated 
 Vronsky most violently about this prince was that he 
 could not help seeing himself in him. And what he 
 saw in this mirror was not flattering to his vanity. What 
 he saw there was a very stupid, and a very self-confi- 
 dent, and very healthy, and very fastidious man, and 
 that was all. He was a gentleman^ and Vronsky could 
 not deny the fact. He was smooth and frank with his 
 superiors, free and easy with his equals, coolly kind 
 toward his inferiors. Vronsky himself was exactly the 
 same, and was proud of it ; but in his relations to the 
 prince he was the inferior, and this scornfully good- 
 natured treatment of himself nettled him. 
 
 " Stupid ox ! Is it possible that I am like him ? " he 
 thought. 
 
 However this may have been, at the end of the week, 
 when he took leave of the prince, who was on his way 
 to Moscow, he was delighted to be delivered from this 
 inconvenient situation and this disagreeable mirror. 
 They went directly to the station from a bear-hunt, 
 which had occupied all the night with brilliant exhibi- 
 tions of Russian daring. 
 
 1 Bull dzhentrmen.
 
 158 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ON his return home, Vronsky found a note from 
 Anna. She wrote : 
 
 I am ill and unhappy ; I cannot go out, and I cannot live 
 longer without seeing you. Come this evening. Alekse'i Alek- 
 sandrovitch will be at the council from seven o'clock till ten. 
 
 This invitation, given in spite of her husband's formal 
 prohibition, seemed strange to him ; but he finally de- 
 cided to go to Anna's. 
 
 Since the beginning of the winter, Vronsky had been 
 promoted as colonel ; he had left the regiment and was 
 living alone. After having finished his breakfast, he 
 stretched himself out on the divan, and in five minutes 
 the recollection of the wild scenes of the preceding days 
 became curiously mingled in his mind with Anna and a 
 peasant whipper-in, who had performed an important 
 part in the bear-hunt; finally he fell asleep. He awoke; 
 night had come. Shivering with apprehension, he has- 
 tily lighted a candle. " What has happened to me ? 
 What terrible dream have I had ? " he asked himself. 
 " Yes, yes, the peasant, a dirty little man, with a dis- 
 heveled beard, bent something or other up double, and 
 pronounced some strange words in French. I did n't 
 dream anything else ; why am I so terrified ? " 
 
 But, in recalling the peasant and his incomprehensi- 
 ble French words, a sense of something horrible sent 
 a cold shiver down his back. 
 
 "What nonsense!" he thought as he looked at his 
 watch. It was already half-past eight ; he called his 
 man, dressed quickly, went out, and, entirely forgetting 
 his dream, thought only of being late. 
 
 As he approached the Karenins' house, he again 
 looked at his watch, and saw that it lacked ten minutes 
 of nine. A high, narrow carriage, drawn by two gray 
 horses, stood in front of the door ; he recognized Anna's 
 carriage. 
 
 "She was coming to my house," he said to himself;
 
 ANNA KARENINA 159 
 
 "and it would be better. It is disagreeable for me to go 
 into this house, but it makes no difference to me, I can- 
 not conceal myself;" and, with the manner of a man 
 accustomed from childhood to act above board, he left 
 his sleigh, and mounted the steps. The door opened, 
 and the Swiss, carrying a plaid, motioned to the carriage 
 to draw near. Vronsky, who was not accustomed to 
 observe details, was struck by the look of astonishment 
 which the Swiss gave him. At the door Vronsky came 
 near running into Aleksei Aleksandrovitch. A gaslight 
 placed at the entrance of the vestibule threw full light 
 on his pale, worn face. He wore a black hat, and a 
 white cravat showing under a fur collar. Karenin's 
 gloomy, dull eyes fixed themselves on Vronsky, who 
 bowed. Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, drawing his lips to- 
 gether, raised his hand to his hat, and passed. Vronsky 
 saw him get into his carriage without turning round, 
 take his plaid and opera-glass, which the Swiss servant 
 handed through the door, and disappear. 
 
 Vronsky went into the anteroom. His brows were 
 contracted, and his eyes flashed with anger and out- 
 raged pride. 
 
 " What a situation ! " thought Vronsky. " If he would 
 fight to defend his honor, I should know what to do to 
 express my sentiments ; but this weakness or cowar- 
 dice.... He places me in the position of a deceiver, 
 which I never was and never will be." 
 
 Since the explanation that he had had with Anna in 
 the Vrede garden, Vronsky's idea had greatly changed. 
 Involuntarily overcome by Anna's weakness, for she 
 had given herself to him without reserve and expected 
 from him only the decision as to her future fate, 
 Vronsky had long ceased to think that this liaison 
 might end as he had supposed it would. His ambitious 
 plans had again been relegated to the background, 
 and he, feeling that he had definitely left that circle 
 of activity where everything was determined, gave him- 
 self up entirely to his feeling, and this feeling drew 
 him more and more vigorously toward her. 
 
 Even in the reception-room, he heard her footsteps
 
 160 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 drawing near. He knew that she was waiting for him 
 and had just entered the drawing-room near by, to watch 
 for him. 
 
 " No," she cried, seeing him enter, " things cannot 
 go on in this way ! " And at the sound of her own 
 voice, her eyes filled with tears. " If this is going on this 
 way, it would be far better if it had ended long ago ! " 
 
 " What is the matter, my friend ? " 
 
 " The matter ! I have been waiting in torture for 
 
 two hours ; but no, I do not want to quarrel with you 
 
 Of course you could not come. No, I will not scold 
 you any more." 
 
 She put her two hands on his shoulders, and looked 
 at him long, with her eyes deep and tender, although 
 searching. She studied his face for all the time that 
 she had not seen him. As always happened every time 
 they met, she tried to compare her imaginary present- 
 ment of him it was incomparably better because it 
 was impossible in reality with him as he really was. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 " DID you meet him ? " she asked, when they were 
 seated under the lamp by the drawing-room table. 
 " That is your punishment for coming so late." 
 
 " Yes ; how did it happen ? Should he not have 
 been at the council ? " 
 
 "He went there, but he came back again, and now 
 he has gone off somewhere again. But that is no mat- 
 ter ; let us talk no more about it ; where have you 
 been ? All this time with the prince ? " 
 
 She knew the most minute details of his life. 
 
 He wanted to reply that as he had no rest the night 
 before, he allowed himself to oversleep ; but the sight 
 of her happy, excited face, made this acknowledgment 
 difficult, and he excused himself on the plea of hav- 
 ing been obliged to go and present his report about the 
 prince's departure. 
 
 " It is over now, is it ? Has he gone ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 161 
 
 " Yes, thank the Lord, it is all done with ! You have 
 no idea how intolerable this week has seemed to me." 
 
 " Why so ? Here you have not been leading the life 
 customary to young men," she said, frowning, and, with- 
 out looking at Vronsky, she took up some crocheting 
 that was lying on the table and pulled out the needle. 
 
 " I renounced that life long ago," he replied, wonder- 
 ing at the sudden change in her beautiful face, and try- 
 ing to discover what it portended. " I assure you," he 
 added, smiling, and showing his white teeth, " that it was 
 overpoweringly unpleasant to me to look at that old life 
 again, as it were, in a mirror." 
 
 She kept her crocheting in her hand, though she did 
 not work, but looked at him with strange, brilliant, not 
 quite friendly eyes. 
 
 "Liza came to see me this morning they are not 
 yet afraid to come to my house, in spite of the Coun- 
 tess Lidya Ivanovna " and here she stood up " and 
 told me about your Athenian nights. What an abomi- 
 nation ! " 
 
 " I only wanted to tell you that .... " 
 
 She interrupted him : 
 
 " That it was Therese whom you used to know ? " 
 
 " I was going to say .... " 
 
 " How odious you men are ! How can you suppose 
 that a woman forgets ? " said she, growing more and 
 more animated, and then disclosing the cause of her 
 irritation, " and above all a woman who can know 
 nothing of your life ? What do I know ? What can 
 I know ? " she kept repeating. " What can I know 
 except what you wish to tell me ? And how can I 
 know whether it is the truth ? " .... 
 
 " Anna, you insult me ! have you no longer any faith 
 in me ? Have I not told you that I have no thoughts 
 which I would conceal from you ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes," she said, trying to drive away her jealous 
 fears ; " but if you only knew how I suffer ! I believe 
 
 in you, I do believe in you But what did you want to 
 
 say to me ? " 
 
 But he could not instantly remember what he wanted 
 
 VOL. II. II
 
 162 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 to say. Anna's fits of jealousy were becoming more 
 and more frequent, and, however much he tried to con- 
 ceal it, these scenes made him grow cool toward her, 
 although he knew that the cause of the jealousy was 
 her very love for him. How many times had he not 
 said to himself that happiness existed for him only in 
 this love ; and now that she loved him as only a woman 
 can love for whom love outweighs all other treasures in 
 life, happiness seemed farther off than when he had fol- 
 lowed her from Moscow. Then he considered himself 
 unhappy, but happiness was in sight ; now he felt that 
 their highest happiness was in the past. She was en- 
 tirely different from what she had been when he first 
 saw her. Both morally and physically she had changed 
 for the worse. The beauty of her form was gone, and 
 when she spoke about the French actress a wicked ex- 
 pression came over her face which spoiled it. He 
 looked at her as a man looks at a flower which he has 
 plucked and which has faded, and he finds it hard to 
 recognize the beauty for the sake of which he has 
 plucked it and despoiled it. And yet he felt that at 
 the time when his passion was more violent, he might, 
 if he had earnestly desired it, have torn his love out of 
 his heart ; but now, at the very time when it seemed to 
 him that he felt no love for her, he knew that the tie 
 that bound him to her was indissoluble. 
 
 " Well, well, tell me what you have to say about the 
 prince," replied Anna. " I have driven away the demon, 
 I have driven him away," she added. Between them- 
 selves they called her jealousy the demon. "You began 
 to tell me something about the prince. Why was it so 
 disagreeable to you ? " 
 
 " Oh, it was unbearable," replied Vronsky, trying to 
 pick up the thread of his thought again. "The prince 
 does n't improve on close acquaintance. I can only 
 compare him to one of those highly fed animals which 
 take first prizes at exhibitions," he added, with an air of 
 vexation, which seemed to interest Anna. 
 
 " No, but how ? Is he not a cultivated man, who has 
 seen much of the world ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 163 
 
 " It is an entirely different kind of cultivation their 
 cultivation ! One would say that he was cultivated only 
 for the sake of scorning cultivation, as he scorns every- 
 thing else, except animal pleasures." 
 
 " But are you not also fond of all these animal pleas- 
 ures yourself?" said Anna, and once more he noticed 
 the gloomy look in her eyes which avoided his. 
 
 " Why do you defend him ? " he asked, smiling. 
 
 " I am not defending him ; it is all absolutely indiffer- 
 ent to me. But it seems to me if you did not like these 
 pleasures, you might dispense with them. But you 
 enjoyed going to see that Therese in the costume of 
 Eve.".... 
 
 " There is the demon again," said Vronsky, taking her 
 hand which lay on the table and kissing it. 
 
 " Yes ; but I can't help it. You can't imagine what 
 I suffered while I was waiting for you. I do not think 
 I am jealous ; I am not jealous : when you are here with 
 me I believe in you ; but when you are away, leading a 
 life so incomprehensible to me...." 
 
 She drew away from him, drew the crochet-needle out 
 of her work, and speedily, with the help of her index 
 finger, the stitches of white wool gleaming in the lamp- 
 light began one after the other to take form, and 
 swiftly, nervously, the delicate wrist- moved back and 
 forth in the embroidered cuff. 
 
 "Tell me, how was it? where did you meet Alekseif 
 Aleksandrovitch," she asked suddenly, in a voice still 
 sounding unnatural. 
 
 "We ran against each other at the door." 
 
 " And did he greet you like this ? " 
 
 She drew down her face and, half closing her eyes, 
 instantly changed her whole expression, and Vronsky 
 suddenly saw the same look in her pretty features which 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch had worn when he bowed to 
 him. He smiled, and Anna began to laugh, with that 
 fresh, ringing laugh which was one of her greatest 
 charms. 
 
 " I really do not understand him," said Vronsky. " I 
 should have supposed that after your explanation at the
 
 164 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 datcha, he would have broken off with you, and pro- 
 voked a duel with me ; but how can he endure such a 
 situation ? He suffers, that is evident." 
 
 " He ? " said she, with a sneer. " Oh ! he is perfectly 
 content." 
 
 "Why should we all torture ourselves in this way, 
 when everything might be so easily arranged ? " 
 
 " Only that does n't suit him. Oh, don't I know him, 
 and the falsity on which he subsists. How could he 
 live as he lives with me if he had any feelings? He has 
 no susceptibilities, no feelings ! Could a man of any 
 susceptibilities live in the same house with his guilty 
 wife? How can he talk with her? How can he address 
 her familiarly ? " l 
 
 And again she imitated the way her husband would 
 say, " Tui, ma chre, tui, Anna." 
 
 " He is not a man, I tell you ; he is a puppet. No 
 one knows it, but I know it. Oh, if I had been in his 
 place, I would long ago have killed, have torn in pieces, 
 a wife like myself, instead of saying, ' Tut, ma chtre 
 Anna,' to her; but he is not a man; he is a ministerial 
 machine. He does not understand that I am your wife, 
 
 that he is nothing to. me, that he is in the way No, no, 
 
 let us not talk about him." 
 
 " You are unjust, my dear," said Vronsky, trying 
 to calm her; "but all the same, let us not talk any 
 more about him. Tell me how you do. How are 
 you ? You wrote me you were ill ; what did the doc- 
 tor say ? " 
 
 She looked at him with gay raillery. Evidently she 
 still saw ridiculous and abominable traits in her hus- 
 band, and would willingly have continued to speak 
 about them. 
 
 But he added : 
 
 " I suspect you were not really ill, but that it comes 
 from your condition .... when will it be ? " 
 
 The sarcastic gleam disappeared from Anna's eyes, 
 
 1 Literally, " say tui, thou, to her." In Russian, as in French and 
 German, the second person singular is used in familiar intercourse among 
 relatives and friends. ED.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 165 
 
 but suddenly a different kind of smile the token of a 
 gentle melancholy, of some feeling he could not com- 
 prehend took its place. 
 
 " Soon, very soon. You said our position is painful, 
 and that it must be changed. If you knew how 
 hard it is for me, what I would give to be able to 
 love you freely and openly! I should not torment my- 
 self and I should not torment you with my jealousy 
 
 And this will be soon, but not in the way we think." 
 
 And at the thought of how this would take place she 
 felt such pity for herself that the tears filled her eyes 
 and she could not go on. She put her white hand, with 
 the rings sparkling in the lamplight, on Vronsky's arm. 
 
 " This will not be as we think. I did not intend to 
 speak to you about this, but you compel me to. Soon, 
 soon, every knot will be disentangled, and all of us, all, 
 will be at peace, and we shall not be tormented any more." 
 
 " I don't know what you mean," he said ; yet he 
 understood her. 
 
 " You ask, ' When will it be ? ' Soon. And I shall 
 not survive it Don't interrupt me ! " 
 
 And she went on speaking rapidly : 
 
 " I know it, I am perfectly certain I am going to die ; 
 and I am glad to die, and to free myself and you." 
 
 Her tears continued to fall. Vronsky bent over her 
 hand and began to kiss it, and tried to conceal his own 
 emotion, which he knew he had no ground for feeling, 
 but which he could not overcome. 
 
 " It is better that it should be so," she said, pressing 
 his hand fervently. " It is the only thing, the only thing 
 left for us." 
 
 " What a foolish idea ! " said Vronsky, lifting up his 
 head and regaining his self-possession. " What utter 
 nonsense you are talking ! " 
 
 " No; it is the truth." 
 
 " What do you mean by the truth ? " 
 
 " That I am going to die. I have seen it in a 
 dream." 
 
 " In a dream ? " repeated Vronsky, involuntarily re- 
 calling the muzhik of his nightmare.
 
 166 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Yes, in a dream," she continued. " I had this dream 
 a long time ago. I dreamed that I ran into my room to 
 get something or other. I was searching about, you know, 
 as one does in dreams," said she, opening her eyes wide 
 with horror, "and I noticed something standing in the 
 corner of my room." 
 
 "What nonsense ! How do you suppose .... " 
 
 But she would not let him interrupt her ; what she 
 was telling was too important to her. 
 
 " And this something turned around, and I saw a 
 little dirty muzhik, with an unkempt beard. I wanted to 
 run away, but he bent toward a bag, in which he moved 
 some object." 
 
 She made the motion of a person rummaging in a 
 bag ; terror was depicted on her face ; and Vronsky, 
 recalling his own dream, felt the same terror seize his 
 soul. 
 
 " And all the while he was searching, he talked fast, 
 very fast, in French, lisping, you know, ' II faiit le battre, 
 le fer, le broyer, le pttrir .... ' I tried to wake up, but I 
 only woke up in my dream, asking what it could mean. 
 And Karnei" said to me, ' You are going to die, you 
 are going to die in child-bed, matushka.' And at last I 
 woke up." .... 
 
 " What an absurd dream ! " said Vronsky, but he 
 himself felt that there was no conviction in his voice. 
 
 " But let us say no more about it. Ring ; I am going 
 to give you some tea, so stay a little longer. It is a 
 long time since I .... " 
 
 She suddenly ceased speaking. The expression of 
 her face instantly changed. Horror and emotion disap- 
 peared from her face, which assumed an expression of 
 gentle, serious, and affectionate solicitude. He could 
 not understand the significance of that change. 
 
 She had felt within her the motion of a new life.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 167 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 AFTER meeting Vronsky on the porch, Alekself Alek- 
 sandrovitch went, as he had planned, to the Italian 
 opera. He sat through two acts, and saw every one 
 whom he needed to see. Returning home, he looked 
 carefully at the hat-rack, and, having assured himself 
 that there was no uniform overcoat in the vestibule, 
 went straight to his chamber. 
 
 Contrary to his usual habit, instead of going to bed, 
 he walked up and down his room till three o'clock in 
 the morning. Anger kept him awake, for he could not 
 forgive his wife for not being willing to observe the pro- 
 prieties, and for not fulfilling the one condition that he 
 had imposed on her, that she should not receive her 
 lover in his house. She had not complied with his 
 requirement, and he felt bound to punish her, carry 
 out his threat, demand a divorce, and take away his son 
 from her. He knew all the difficulties that would attend 
 this action, but he had said that he should do it, and 
 now he was bound to carry out his threat. The Coun- 
 tess Lidia had often said that this was the easiest way 
 out of his position ; and recently the practice of divorce 
 had reached such a pitch of perfection that Aleksef 
 Aleksandrovitch saw in it a means of escaping . its 
 formal difficulties. 
 
 Moreover, misfortunes never come single ; and the 
 trouble arising from the organization of the foreign 
 population, and the irrigation of the fields in the gov- 
 ernment of Zaraif, had caused Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch 
 so much unpleasantness in his office that for some time 
 he had been in a perpetual state of irritation. 
 
 He passed the night without sleeping, and his anger 
 increasing all the while in a sort of colossal system of 
 progression, by morning was directed even to the most 
 trivial object. He dressed hastily, and went to Anna 
 as soon as he knew she was up. He was afraid of los- 
 ing the energy which he needed for his explanation with
 
 i68 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 his wife ; it was as if he carried a full cup of wrath 
 and was afraid of spilling it. 
 
 Anna believed that she thoroughly knew her hus- 
 band ; but she was amazed at his appearance as he came 
 in. His brows were contracted, and his eyes looked 
 gloomily straight ahead, avoiding hers. His lips were 
 firm and scornfully compressed. Never had his wife 
 seen so much decision as she saw now in his gait, in 
 every motion, in the sound of his voice. He entered 
 without wishing her good morning, and went directly 
 to her writing-desk, and, taking the key, opened the 
 drawer. 
 
 " What do you want ? " cried Anna. 
 
 " Your lover's letters." 
 
 " They are not there," she said, closing the drawer. 
 But he knew by her action that he had guessed aright, 
 and, roughly pushing away her hand, he quickly seized 
 the portfolio in which he knew Anna kept her important 
 papers. She attempted to regain it, but he held it at a 
 distance. 
 
 " Sit down ; I want to speak to you," he said, placing 
 the portfolio under his arm, and holding it so firmly 
 with his elbow that his shoulder was raised by it. 
 
 Anna looked at him, astonished and frightened, but 
 said nothing. 
 
 " I told you that I would not permit you to receive 
 your lover in this house." 
 
 " I needed to see him to .... " 
 
 She stopped, unable to find a plausible explanation. 
 
 " I will not enter into details, and have no desire to 
 know why a woman needs to see her lover." 
 
 " I wished, I only .... " she said, flashing up, and feel- 
 ing that her husband's rudeness made her bold " is it 
 possible that you are not aware how easy it is for you 
 to insult me? " 
 
 " One can insult only an honest man or an honest 
 woman ; but to tell a thief that he is a thief, is only la 
 constatation d tin fait the statement of a fact." 
 
 " That is a degree of cruelty that I never recognized 
 in you."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 169 
 
 " Ah ! you find a husband cruel because he gives his 
 wife perfect freedom, gives her the protection of an 
 honest, noble name on the sole condition that she re- 
 spect the laws of propriety ? You call that cruelty ? " 
 
 " It is worse than cruelty ; it is cowardice, if you 
 insist on knowing," cried Anna, with an outburst of 
 anger, and rising, she started to go. 
 
 " No," cried he, in his piping voice, which was now 
 a tone higher than usual ; and seizing her by the arm 
 with his great, bony fingers so roughly that one of 
 Anna's bracelets left a red print on her flesh, he forced 
 her back into her place. 
 
 " Cowardice, indeed ! If you wish to employ that 
 word, apply it to her who abandons her son and hus- 
 band for a lover, and nevertheless eats her husband's 
 bread." 
 
 Anna bowed her head ; she not only did not say what 
 she had said the evening before to her lover, that he 
 was her husband while her husband was in the way 
 she did not even think it. She appreciated all the 
 justice of his words, and she replied in a low voice : 
 
 "You cannot judge my position more severely than 
 I do myself ; but why do you say all this ? " 
 
 " Why do I say this ? " continued he as angrily as 
 ever ; " so that you may know that, since you have paid 
 no attention to my wishes, and have broken the rules 
 of propriety, I shall take measures to put an end to 
 this state of affairs." 
 
 " Soon, very soon, it will terminate itself," said Anna, 
 and again at the thought of that death which she felt 
 near at hand, and now so desirable, her eyes filled with 
 tears. 
 
 " Sooner even than you and your lover have dreamed 
 of ! You need to make atonement by keen suffer- 
 ing.,." 
 
 " Alekse! Aleksandrovitch ! I do not say that this 
 is not magnanimous ; but it is not gentlemanly to strike 
 one who is down." 
 
 " You only think of yourself : the suffering of one 
 who has been your husband is of little interest to you ;
 
 1 70 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 it is a matter of indifference to you that his life has been 
 overthrown, that he su....su... .suffers ...." 
 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch spoke so rapidly that he 
 stammered, and could not speak the word. 1 
 
 This seemed ridiculous to Anna, but she immediately 
 was ashamed of herself because anything could seem 
 to her ridiculous at such a moment. For the first 
 time, and for a moment, she felt for him, and entered 
 into his feelings and pitied him. But what could she 
 say or do ? She bowed her head and was silent. 
 He also was silent for a little, then began again in 
 a less piercing and colder voice, emphasizing words of 
 no special importance : 
 
 " I came to tell you .... " 
 
 She glanced at him. " No, that proves it to me," she 
 said to herself, as she remembered the expression of his 
 face as he stammered over the word suffered. " No, how 
 can a man, with his dull eyes, so full of calm self-satis- 
 faction, feel anything." 
 
 " I cannot change," she murmured. 
 
 " I have come to tell you that to-morrow I am going 
 to Moscow, and that I shall not enter this house again. 
 You will learn of my determination from the lawyer 
 who will have charge of the preliminaries of the divorce. 
 My son will go to my sister," he added, recalling with 
 difficulty what he wanted to say about the child. 
 
 " You want to take Serozha away so as to cause me 
 pain," she cried, glaring at him ; " you do not love him .... 
 leave Serozha ! " 
 
 " Yes, I have even lost my love for my son because 
 the repulsion you inspire in me includes him ; but I 
 shall keep him, nevertheless. Good morning." 
 
 He was about to go, but she detained him. 
 
 " Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, leave Serozha with me," 
 she whispered again ; "that is all I ask of you; leave 
 him with me till my.... I shall soon be confined. Leave 
 him with me ! " 
 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch flushed with indignation, 
 pushed away the arm that held him back, and left her 
 without replying. 
 
 1 Pele ....pele ....pelestradal.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE reception-room of the celebrated Petersburg 
 lawyer was full of people when Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch entered it. Three ladies, one old, another young, 
 and a merchant's wife ; three men, a German banker 
 with a ring on his hand, a merchant with a beard, and 
 a sullen-looking official in undress-uniform with a deco- 
 ration around his neck, had apparently been waiting a 
 long time. 
 
 Two clerks were writing with scratching pens. Their 
 writing utensils and Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch was a 
 connoisseur of such things were of unusual excellence. 
 Alekse'f could not fail to take note of that fact. One 
 of the clerks turned his head, with an air of annoyance, 
 toward the newcomer, and, without rising, asked him, 
 with half-closed eyes : 
 
 " What do you want ? " 
 
 " I have business with the lawyer." 
 
 " He is busy," replied the clerk severely, pointing with 
 his pen toward those who were already waiting ; and 
 he went back to his writing. 
 
 " Will he not find a moment to receive me ? " asked 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 " He is not at liberty a single moment ; he is always 
 busy : have the goodness to wait." 
 
 " Be so good as to give him my card," said Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, with dignity, seeing that it was im- 
 possible to preserve his incognito. 
 
 The secretary took his card, and, evidently not approv- 
 ing of it, left the room. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, on principle, approved of 
 public courts, but he did not fully sympathize with cer- 
 tain details of its application in Russia, because of his 
 acquaintance with its working in the best official rela- 
 tions, and he criticized them as far as he could criticize 
 anything that received the sanction of the supreme 
 power. His whole life was spent in administrative 
 activity, and consequently when he did not sympathize
 
 172 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 with anything, his lack of sympathy was modified by 
 his recognition of the fact that errors were unavoidable, 
 but that some things might be remedied. In the new 
 judicial arrangement he did not approve of the condi- 
 tions in which the lawyers were placed. Hitherto he 
 had not had occasion to deal with lawyers, and so he had 
 disapproved of the system only theoretically. But now 
 his disapprobation was greatly increased by the dis- 
 agreeable impression made on him in the lawyer's re- 
 ception-room. 
 
 "The lawyer will be out immediately," said the clerk; 
 and in reality in about two minutes the door opened, 
 and the lawyer appeared, together with a tall justice of 
 the peace. 
 
 The lawyer was a short, thick-set man, with a bald 
 head, a dark reddish beard, a prominent forehead, and 
 long, shiny eyebrows. His dress, from his necktie and 
 double watch-chain down to his polished boots, was that 
 of a dandy. His face was intelligent, but vulgar ; his 
 manner pretentious and in bad taste. 
 
 " Be so good as to walk in," said he, addressing 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch ; and gloomily ushering him 
 into the next room, he closed the door. 
 
 " Will you not sit ? " 
 
 He pointed to an arm-chair near his desk covered 
 with papers, and rubbing his short, hairy hands together, 
 he settled himself in front of the desk, and bent his head 
 to one side. But he was hardly seated when a moth- 
 miller flew on the table, and the little man, with unex- 
 pected liveliness, caught it on the wing ; then he quickly 
 resumed his former attitude. 
 
 " Before beginning to explain my business," said 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, following the movements of 
 the lawyer with astonishment, " I must inform you that 
 the subject which brings me here is to be kept secret." 
 
 An imperceptible smile slightly moved the lawyer's 
 projecting reddish mustache. 
 
 " If I were not capable of keeping the secrets in- 
 trusted to me, I should not be a lawyer," said he ; " but 
 if you wish to be assured ...."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 173 
 
 Alekser Aleksandrovitch glanced at him and noticed 
 that his gray eyes, full of intelligence, had apparently 
 read all that he had to tell. 
 
 " Do you know my name ? " asked Alekse'f Aleksan- 
 drovitch. 
 
 " I know you and how valuable " here again he caught 
 a miller "your services are, as every Russian does," 
 replied the lawyer, bowing. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch sighed ; with difficulty he 
 brought himself to speak ; but when he had once begun, 
 he continued unhesitatingly, in a clear, sharp voice, em- 
 phasizing certain words. 
 
 " I have the misfortune to be a deceived husband. I 
 wish to obtain legal separation from my wife, that is, 
 a divorce, and, above all, to separate my son from his 
 mother." 
 
 The lawyer's gray eyes did their best to remain seri- 
 ous, but they danced with unrestrained delight, and 
 Alekser Aleksandrovitch saw that they were full of an 
 amusement not caused solely by the prospect of a good 
 suit ; they shone with enthusiasm, with triumph, some- 
 thing like the brilliancy he had noticed in his wife's 
 eyes. 
 
 " You wish my assistance to obtain the divorce ? " 
 
 " Yes, exactly ; but I must warn you that I run the 
 risk of wasting your time, I have only come to ask pre- 
 liminary advice. I wish a divorce, but for me certain 
 forms are essential in which it is possible. Very possi- 
 bly I shall give up the idea of any legal attempt if 
 these forms do not coincide with my requirements." 
 
 " Oh, that is always the way," said the lawyer ; " you 
 will always remain perfectly free." 
 
 The little man, that he might not offend his client by 
 the delight which his face ill concealed, fixed his eyes 
 on Aleksei Aleksandrovitch's feet. He saw a moth fly- 
 ing in front of his nose and he put out his hand, but he 
 restrained himself, out of respect to Alekser Aleksandro- 
 vitch's situation. 
 
 " The general features of the laws of divorce are well 
 known to me," continued Aleksei Aleksandrovitch; "but
 
 i 7 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 I should like to have a general knowledge of the for- 
 malities which are employed in the practical settlement 
 of affairs of this kind." 
 
 " You wish," replied the lawyer, not raising his eyes 
 and entering with no little satisfaction into the spirit of 
 his client's words, "you wish me to expound for you the 
 way whereby your wishes may be fulfilled." 
 
 And, as Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch assented with an 
 inclination of his head, he continued, casting a furtive 
 glance now and then at his face, which was flushed with 
 red spots. 
 
 " Divorce, according to our laws," said he, with a slight 
 shade of disdain for our laws, " is possible, as you know, 
 in the following cases .... Let them wait ! " he cried, 
 seeing his clerk open the door. However, he rose, went 
 to say a few words to him, came back, and sat down 
 again : " .... in the following cases : physical defect of 
 one of the parties ; next, the unexplained absence of 
 one of them for five years," in making this enumera- 
 tion he bent down his short, hairy fingers, one after 
 another, "and finally, adultery." This word he pro- 
 nounced with evident satisfaction. " The categories are 
 as follows : " he kept on doubling over his fat fingers, 
 although the case before him and the categories, it 
 was plain enough, could not be classified together, 
 " physical incapacity of husband or wife, then adultery 
 of husband or wife." Then as all his fingers were closed 
 he raised them all again and proceeded : " This is the 
 theoretical view, but I think that, in doing me the honor 
 to consult me, you desire to know the practical side, do 
 you not ? And therefore, guiding myself by antecedents, 
 it is my duty to inform you that as this case is neither 
 one of physical defect, nor absence of one of the parties, 
 as I understand? " .... 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch bowed his head in confirma- 
 tion of this. 
 
 "The reason last named remains, adultery, and 
 the conviction of the guilty party by mutual consent, and 
 without mutual consent, compulsory conviction. I must 
 say that the last case is rarely met with in practice,"
 
 ANNA KARENINA 175 
 
 said the lawyer ; and he glanced at his client and waited 
 like a gunsmith who explains to a purchaser the use of 
 two pistols of different caliber, leaving him free to choose 
 between them. 
 
 But Aleksel Aleksandrovitch remaining silent, he 
 continued : 
 
 " The commonest, simplest, and most reasonable way, 
 in my opinion, is to recognize the guilt by mutual agree- 
 ment. I should not allow myself to say this if I were 
 talking to a man of less experience than yourself," said 
 the lawyer, " but I suppose that this is comprehensible 
 to you." 
 
 Aleksel" Aleksandrovitch, however, was so troubled 
 that he did not at the first moment realize the reason- 
 ableness of " adultery, by mutual agreement," and this 
 uncertainty was to be read in his eyes ; but the lawyer 
 came at once to his aid. 
 
 " Suppose that a man and wife can no longer live 
 together ; if both consent to a divorce, the details and 
 formalities amount to nothing. This is the simplest 
 and surest way." 
 
 Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch understood now, but he had 
 religious convictions which stood in the way of his em- 
 ploying this measure. 
 
 " In the present case this means is out of the ques- 
 tion," said he. "Here only one case is possible: com- 
 pulsory conviction, supported by letters which are in 
 my possession." 
 
 At the mention of letters, the lawyer, pressing his 
 lips together, uttered an exclamation both of pity and 
 disdain. 
 
 " Please take notice," he began, " affairs of this sort 
 are, as you well know, decided by the upper clergy," he 
 said. " Our Fathers the protopopes are great connois- 
 seurs in affairs of this kind and attend to the minutest 
 details," said he, with a smile which showed his sympa- 
 thy for the protopopes. " Letters undoubtedly might 
 serve as partial evidence. But proofs must be furnished 
 in the right way by witnesses. However, if you do 
 me the honor to grant me your confidence, you must
 
 176 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 give me the choice of measures to be pursued. Where 
 there is a will, there is a way." 
 
 "If that is so...." began Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, 
 suddenly growing very pale. But at that instant the 
 lawyer again ran to the door, to reply to a fresh interrup- 
 tion from his clerk. 
 
 " Tell her, then, that this is not a cheap shop," said 
 he and returned to Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. As he 
 returned to his place he caught another moth. 
 
 " My reps will be in a fine condition by summer ! " 
 he said to himself, scowling. 
 
 " You were kind enough to say .... " 
 
 " I will communicate to you my decision by letter," 
 replied Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, standing up and lean- 
 ing his hand on the table. After standing for a moment 
 in thought, he said : 
 
 " From your words I conclude that a divorce is possi- 
 ble. I shall be obliged to you if you will make your 
 conditions known to me." 
 
 " Everything is possible if you will give me entire 
 freedom of action," said the lawyer, eluding the last 
 question. " When may I expect a communication from 
 you ? " asked he, moving to the door with eyes as shiny 
 as his boots. 
 
 " Within a week. You will then have the goodness 
 to let me know whether you accept the case, and on 
 what terms ? " 
 
 " Very good." 
 
 The lawyer bowed respectfully, conducted his client 
 to the door, and when he was left alone, he gave vent 
 to his feelings of joy ; he felt so gay that, contrary to 
 his principles, he made a deduction to a lady skilled in 
 the art of making a bargain, and neglected to catch a 
 moth, resolving definitely that he would have his furni- 
 ture upholstered the next winter with velvet, as Sigonin 
 had.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 177 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ALEKSE'I' ALEKSANDROVITCH had won a brilliant vic- 
 tory at the session of the Commission of August 29, but 
 the consequences of his victory were injurious to him. 
 The new committee appointed to study the situation of 
 the foreign population had been constituted and had 
 gone to its field of action with a promptness and energy 
 surprising to Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch ; at the end of 
 three months it presented its report. 
 
 The condition of this population had been studied 
 from a political, administrative, economical, ethnographi- 
 cal, material, and religious point of view. Each ques- 
 tion was followed by an admirably concise reply, leaving 
 no room to doubt that these answers were the work, not 
 of a human mind, always liable to mistake, but of an 
 experienced bureaucracy. These answers were based 
 on official data, such as the reports of governors and 
 archbishops, based again on the reports of heads of 
 districts and ecclesiastical superintendents, in their turn 
 based on the reports from communal administrations 
 and country priests. And therefore their correctness 
 could not be doubted. Questions such as these, " Why 
 are the harvests poor ? " and, " Why do the inhabitants 
 of certain localities persist in their beliefs ? " and the like 
 questions which without the help of the official ma- 
 chine could never be solved, and to which ages would not 
 have found a reply were clearly solved, in conformity 
 with the opinions of Aleksei Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 But Stremof, feeling that he had been touched to 
 the quick at the last session, had employed for the recep- 
 tion of the committee's report a stratagem unexpected 
 by Aleksei Aleksandrovitch. Taking with him several 
 other members, he suddenly went over to Karenin's 
 side, and, not satisfied with warmly supporting the 
 measures proposed by Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, he pro- 
 posed others, of the same nature. These measures, 
 which were of such a radical nature as to be entirely 
 opposed to Aleksei Aleksandrovitch's intention, were 
 
 VOL. II. 12
 
 i 7 8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 adopted and then Stremof 's tactics were revealed. Car- 
 ried to extremes, these measures seemed so ridiculous 
 that the government officials, and public opinion, and 
 ladies of influence, and the daily papers, all attacked 
 them and expressed the greatest indignation both at 
 the measures themselves and at their avowed promoter, 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 Stremof slipped out of sight, pretending that he only 
 blindly followed Karenin's plan, and that he himself 
 was amazed and dumfounded at what had happened. 
 This greatly weakened Aleksei Aleksandrovitch. But 
 notwithstanding his enfeebled health, notwithstanding 
 his family annoyances, he did not give up. The com- 
 mittee was split into two factions : some of them, with 
 Stremof at their head, explained their mistake by the 
 fact that they had placed full confidence in the Revi- 
 sionary Committee which, under the lead of Alekseif 
 Aleksandrovitch, had brought in its report, and they 
 declared the report of this committee of inspection was 
 rubbish and so much wasted paper. Aleksei' Alek- 
 sandrovitch, with a party of men who saw the peril of 
 such a revolutionary reference to documents, continued 
 to support the data worked out by the Revisionary 
 Committee. 
 
 As a result of this, the highest circles and even so- 
 ciety was thrown into confusion, and although this 
 was a question of the greatest interest to every one, 
 no one could make out whether the foreign popula- 
 tions were in reality suffering and dying out or flourish- 
 ing. 
 
 Karenin's position in consequence of this and partly 
 in consequence of the contempt which people felt 
 for him by reason of his wife's unfaithfulness became 
 very precarious. In this state of affairs he made 
 an important resolution : to the great astonishment 
 of the commission, he announced that he demanded 
 the right to go and study these questions himself 
 on the spot ; and, permission having been granted him, 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch set out for the distant prov- 
 inces.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 179 
 
 His departure made a great sensation, especially from 
 the fact that, at his very departure, he officially refused 
 the traveling expenses required for twelve post-horses, 
 to take him to the places of inspection. 
 
 " I think that was very noble of him," said Betsy to 
 the Princess Miagkaya. "Why should they pay for 
 post-horses, when every one knows that you can go 
 everywhere nowadays by rail ? " 
 
 But the Princess Miagkaya did not agree with her, 
 and she was greatly wrought up by the Princess Tver- 
 skaya's remark. 
 
 " This is very well for you to say," she replied, " when 
 you have I don't know how many millions, but I like 
 it very much when my husband goes off on a tour of 
 inspection in the summer. It is very healthy and 
 agreeable for him to go driving about, but I have made 
 it a rule to keep that money for my own horse-hire and 
 izvoshchiks ! " 
 
 On his way to the distant provinces, AlekseY Alek- 
 sandrovitch stopped at Moscow three days. 
 
 The next day after his arrival, he was coming from a 
 call on the governor-general. At the crossing of the 
 Gazetno'f Street, where carriages of every description 
 are always thronging, he heard his name called in such 
 a gay, sonorous voice, that he could not help stopping. 
 There stood Stepan Arkadyevitch on the sidewalk, in a 
 short, stylish paletot, with a stylish hat set on one 
 side, with a radiant smile which showed his white teeth 
 between his red lips, gay, youthful-looking, brilliant. 
 He kept calling to him and beckoning to him to 
 stop. He was holding by one hand to the window of 
 a carriage which had drawn up to the sidewalk, and in 
 the carriage was a woman in a velvet hat, with two 
 little ones ; she also beckoned to him and smiled. 
 
 It was Dolly and her children. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch had not counted on seeing 
 in Moscow any one whom he knew, and least of all his 
 wife's brother. He took off his hat and would have 
 proceeded, but Stepan Arkadyevitch motioned to the
 
 180 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 coachman to stop, and ran through the snow to the 
 carriage. 
 
 " How long have you been here ? What a sin not to 
 let us know you were coming ! I was at Dusseaux's last 
 evening, and I saw the name of Karenin on the list of 
 arrivals, but it never occurred to me that it was you, 
 else I should have looked you up," said he, passing his 
 head through the door. " How glad I am to see you," 
 he went on to say, striking his feet together to shake 
 off the snow. " What a sin not to let us know." 
 
 "I hadn't time. I am very busy," replied Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, curtly. 
 
 " Come and speak to my wife ; she wants to see you 
 very much." 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch threw off the plaid which 
 covered his chilly limbs, and, leaving his carriage, made 
 a way through the snow to Darya Aleksandrovna. 
 
 " Why, what has happened, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, 
 that you avoid us in this way ? " said she, smiling. 
 
 " I was very busy. I am delighted to see you," re- 
 plied Karenin, in a tone which clearly proved that he 
 was annoyed. " How is your health ? " 
 
 " How is my dear Anna ? " 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch muttered a few words, and 
 was about to leave her, but Stepan Arkadyevitch de- 
 tained him. 
 
 " Do you know what we are going to do to-morrow ? 
 Dolly, invite him to dine. Have Koznuishef and Pestsof, 
 so as to regale him with the representative intellects of 
 Moscow." 
 
 "Oh, please come ! " said Dolly; "we will name any 
 hour that is convenient five or six, as you please. 
 But how is my dear Anna ? It is so long ...." 
 
 " She is well," muttered Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch 
 again, frowning. " Very happy to have met you." 
 
 And he went back to his carriage. 
 
 " Will you come ? " cried Dolly again. 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch said something in reply 
 which Dolly could not hear in the rumble of car- 
 riages.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 181 
 
 " I am coming to see you to-morrow ! " cried Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch shut himself up in his car- 
 riage, and crouched down in one corner so as not to see 
 and not to be seen. 
 
 "What a strange fellow ! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 to his wife ; and looking at his watch he made an affec- 
 tionate sign of farewell to his wife and children, and 
 started off down the sidewalk at a brisk pace. 
 
 " Stiva, Stiva ! " cried Dolly, blushing. He came 
 back. 
 
 " I must have some money for the children's cloaks. 
 Give me some." 
 
 " No matter about that. Tell them that I will settle 
 the bill." 
 
 And he disappeared, gayly nodding to some acquain- 
 tance as he went. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE next day was Sunday, and Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 went to the Bolshoi or Great Theater, to attend the 
 rehearsal of the ballet, and gave the coral necklace to 
 Masha Chibisovaya, the pretty dancing-girl who was 
 making her d^but under his protection, as he had prom- 
 ised the day before, and behind the scenes in the dim 
 twilight of the theater he seized his opportunity and 
 kissed her pretty little face glowing with pleasure at his 
 gift. Besides fulfilling his promise as to the coral neck- 
 lace, he wanted to arrange with her for an assignation 
 after the ballet. Having explained to her that he could 
 not possibly manage to be present at the beginning of 
 the ballet, he promised to come for the next act and 
 take her out for supper. 
 
 From the theater Stepan Arkadyevitch went to the 
 Okhotnui Ryad, himself selected a fish and asparagus 
 for the dinner ; and at noon he went to Dusseaux's, 
 where three travelers, friends of his, by happy chance 
 were stopping, Levin, just returned from his journey
 
 i82 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 abroad ; his new nachalnik or chief, who had just been 
 appointed, and had come to Moscow to look into affairs ; 
 and lastly, his brother-in-law, Karenin, whom he was 
 bound to invite to dinner. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch liked to go out to dinner, but 
 what he liked better still was to give a choice little 
 dinner-party with a few select friends. The program 
 that he made out for this day pleased him, fresh 
 perch, with asparagus, and a simple but superb roast of 
 beef, as piece de resistance, and the right kinds of wine. 
 Among the guests he expected Kitty and Levin, and, 
 to offset them, a cousin and the young Shcherbatsky ; 
 the pieces de resistance among the guests were to be 
 SergyeY Koznuishef, a Muscovite and philosopher, and 
 Karenin, a Petersburger and man of affairs. More- 
 over he would invite the well-known Pestsof, a comical 
 fellow, a youth of fifty years, an enthusiast, a musician, 
 a ready talker, a historian and a liberal, who would be 
 the sauce or garnish for Koznuishef and Aleksei Alek- 
 sandrovitch. He would put every one in good spirits 
 and stir them up. 
 
 The second instalment of money from the sale of the 
 wood had been recently received and was not all gone ; 
 Dolly for some time had been lovely and charming ; 
 and the thought of this dinner in every respect delighted 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch. He was in the happiest frame 
 of mind. There were two things which were rather dis- 
 agreeable. But these two circumstances were drowned 
 in the sea of joviality which rolled its billows in Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch's soul. These two circumstances were : 
 in the first place, when the evening before he had met 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch on the street, he had perceived 
 that he was stern and cold; and uniting the fact that 
 AlekseY Aleksandrovitch had not called or sent word of 
 his presence with certain rumors that had reached his 
 ears about his sister's relations with Vronsky, Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch suspected serious trouble between the 
 husband and wife. This was one unpleasant thing. 
 
 The second slight shadow was the fact that the new 
 nachalnik, like all new chiefs, had the reputation of be-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 183 
 
 ing a terribly exacting man, who got up at six o'clock, 
 worked like a horse, and demanded similar zeal from his 
 subordinates. Moreover, this new nachalnik had the 
 reputation of being a regular bear in his manners and 
 was, according to rumor, a man of the opposite party 
 from that to which his predecessor had belonged, and to 
 which Stepan Arkadyevitch himself had up to that time 
 also belonged. 
 
 The afternoon before, Stepan Arkadyevitch had ap- 
 peared at the office in full uniform and the new nachal- 
 nik had been very cordial and had talked with Oblonsky 
 as with an old friend. Consequently he thought it his 
 duty to pay him an unofficial visit. The thought that 
 the new nachalnik might not receive him cordially was 
 the second disturbing element. But Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch felt instinctively that all would be arranged to per- 
 fection. 
 
 " All people, all men, are transgressors as well as we. 
 Why get angry and quarrel ? " he said to himself as he 
 went to the hotel. 
 
 " How are you, Vasili ? " said he, as he went through 
 the corridor with his hat cocked on one side, and met a 
 lackey of his acquaintance ; " have you sacrificed your 
 whiskers ? Levin ? in number seven ? Please show me. 
 Thanks ! Do you know, is Count Anitchkin at home ? " 
 This was the new nachalnik. 
 
 "At your service," said Vasili, with a smile. "We 
 have not seen you for a long time." 
 
 " I was here yesterday, but came up another stair- 
 way. Is this number seven ? " 
 
 When Stepan Arkadyevitch entered, Levin was stand- 
 ing in the middle of his room with a muzhik from Tver, 
 measuring a bear-skin. 
 
 " Ah ! did you kill him ? " cried Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 " Splendid skin ! A bear ! How are you, Arkhip ?" 
 
 He held out his hand to the peasant, and then sat 
 down in his paletot and hat. 
 
 " Take off your coat, and stay awhile," said Levin, 
 taking his hat. 
 
 " I have n't time. I only came in for a little second,"
 
 1 84 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 replied Oblonsky. He unbuttoned his paletot, then 
 took it off, and stayed a whole hour to talk with Levin 
 about the hunt and other subjects. 
 
 " Well now ! Tell me, please, what you did while you 
 were abroad ; where have you been ? " he asked after 
 the peasant had gone. 
 
 " I went to Germany, to France, and England, but 
 only to the manufacturing centers, and not to the capi- 
 tals. I saw a great deal that was new. I am glad I 
 went." 
 
 "Yes, yes, I know your ideas about organized labor." 
 
 " Oh, no ! in Russia there can be no labor question. 
 The question of the workingman does n't concern us ; 
 the only important question for Russia is the relation of 
 the workman to the soil ; the question exists there, but 
 it is impossible to remedy it there, while here .... " 
 
 Oblonsky listened attentively. 
 
 " Yes, yes," said he, " it is possible that you are right, 
 but I am glad that you are in better spirits ; you hunt 
 the bear, you work, you are enthusiastic. Shcherbatsky 
 told me that he had found you blue and melancholy, 
 talking of nothing but death." .... 
 
 " What of that ? I am continually thinking of death," 
 replied Levin. " It 's true that there is a time to die, 
 and that all is vanity. But I will tell you honestly I 
 set great value on my thought and work ; but think of 
 this world just take notice! this world of ours, a 
 little mold making the smallest of the planets ! and 
 we imagine that our ideas, our works, are something 
 grand. It 's all grains of dust ! " .... 
 
 " All that is as old as the hills, brother ! " 
 
 " It is old ; but you see when this idea becomes clear 
 to us, how miserable life seems! When we know that 
 death will surely come, and that there will be nothing 
 left of us, the most important things seem as insignifi- 
 cant as the turning over of this bear-skin. And so in 
 order to keep away thoughts of death, we hunt and work 
 and try to divert ourselves." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled, and gave Levin one of 
 his affectionate looks.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 185 
 
 " Well, of course ! Here you come to me and you 
 pounce on me because I seek pleasure in life ! Be not 
 so severe, O moralist ! " 
 
 " All the same, there is some good in life," replied 
 Levin, becoming confused. " Well, I don't know. I 
 only know that we must soon die." 
 
 " Why soon ? " 
 
 " And you know there is less charm in life when we 
 think of death, but more restfulness." 
 
 " On the contrary, we must enjoy what there is of it, 
 
 anyway But," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, rising for 
 
 the tenth time, " I must go." 
 
 " Oh, no ! stay a little longer," said Levin, holding 
 him back ; " when shall we see each other again ? I 
 leave to-morrow." 
 
 " I am a queer fellow. This is what I came for ! .... 
 Don't fail to come and dine with us to-day. Your 
 brother will be with us ; my brother-in-law, Karenin, will 
 be there." 
 
 " Is he here ? " asked Levin, and he wanted to ask 
 about Kitty ; he had heard that she had been in Peters- 
 burg at the beginning of the winter, visiting her sister, 
 the wife of a diplomatist, and he did not know whether 
 she had returned or not, but he hesitated about asking. 
 
 "Whether she has come back or not, it's all the 
 same. I will accept," he thought. 
 
 " Will you come ? " 
 
 " Well ! Of course I will." 
 
 " At five o'clock, in ordinary dress." 
 
 And Stepan Arkadyevitch rose, and went down to 
 see the new nachalnik. Instinct had not deceived him : 
 this dreadful man proved to be a good fellow ; Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch lunched with him, and stayed so long to 
 talk that it was nearly four o'clock when he got to 
 AlekseJ Aleksandrovitch's room.
 
 1 86 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ALEKSEI ALEKSANDROVITCH, after he returned from 
 mass, spent the morning in his room. He had two 
 things to accomplish on this day : first, to receive a 
 deputation of the foreign population which was on its 
 way to Petersburg, and happened just at that time to 
 be at Moscow, and he wanted to instruct them as to 
 what they should say ; and then to write to his lawyer, 
 as he had promised. 
 
 The deputation, although it had been appointed at 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch's invitation, was likely to cause 
 great embarrassment and even to be a source of peril, 
 and Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch was very glad to meet it 
 in Moscow. The members of the deputation had not 
 the slightest comprehension of their duties and obliga- 
 tions. They were perfectly persuaded that their work 
 consisted in exposing their needs and explaining the ac- 
 tual state of affairs and asking governmental assistance ; 
 and they really could not comprehend that some of their 
 statements and demands gave color to the arguments of 
 the hostile party, and therefore spoiled the whole business. 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch had a long discussion with 
 them, made out a program, from which they were not 
 to deviate on any account in their dealings with the 
 government, and, when they left him, gave them letters 
 of introduction to various persons in Petersburg, so that 
 they might be properly treated. The Countess Lidya 
 Ivanovna would be his principal auxiliary in this mat- 
 ter; she had a specialty for deputations, and knew 
 better than anybody else how to manage them. 
 
 When he had finished this business, Alekse'f Aleksan- 
 drovitch wrote to his lawyer. Without the slightest mis- 
 giving, he gave him full power to do as he thought best, 
 and sent three notes from Vronsky to Anna, which he had 
 found in the portfolio. Since Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch 
 had left home with the intention of never returning to 
 his family, and since his interview with the lawyer, when 
 he had confided to one person at least his intentions,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 187 
 
 and especially since he had transferred this episode of 
 his life to a documentary basis, he had become more 
 and more settled in his convictions, and was now per- 
 fectly clear in his mind that what he wished could be 
 accomplished. 
 
 Just as he was sealing his letter, he heard Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch's loud voice asking the servant if his 
 brother-in-law was at home, and insisting on being 
 announced. 
 
 " It 's all the same," thought Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, 
 " or rather, so much the better. I will explain to him 
 my position in regard to his sister, and he will under- 
 stand that it is impossible for me to dine at his house." 
 
 " Come in," he cried, gathering up his papers and 
 pushing them into a writing-case. 
 
 " There now, you see you lied, and he is at home," 
 said Stepan Arkadyevitch to the servant, who would not 
 let him in ; then, taking off his overcoat as he walked 
 along, he came into Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch's room. 
 
 "I am delighted to find you...." he began gayly. 
 "I hope...." 
 
 " I cannot go," said Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, coldly, 
 receiving his brother-in-law standing, and not asking 
 him to sit down. Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch resolved to 
 adopt with his wife's brother the cool relations which 
 seemed proper since he had decided to get a divorce. 
 But he did not reckon on that sea of kind-heartedness 
 which was always overflowing its banks in Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch's heart. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch opened wide his bright, clear 
 eyes. 
 
 "Why can't you come? What do you mean?" he 
 asked in French with some hesitation. " But you prom- 
 ised to come, and we all are counting on you." 
 
 " I wish to tell you that I cannot come because our 
 family relations must be broken." 
 
 " How is that ? Why ? " said Oblonsky, with a smile. 
 
 " Because I have commenced an action for getting a 
 divorce from my wife, your sister. I must.... " 
 
 But Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch did not finish his sen-
 
 i88 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 tence for Stepan Arkadyevitch acted in a manner 
 quite contrary to his expectations. Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch sank into an arm-chair, with a deep sigh. 
 
 " Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, it can't be possible," he 
 cried, with pain expressed in his face. 
 
 " It is true." 
 
 " Pardon me. I cannot, I cannot believe it." 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch sat down ; he felt that his 
 words had not produced the effect that he had looked 
 for, and that whatever explanation he might make his 
 relations with Oblonsky would remain the same. 
 
 " Yes, it is a cruel necessity, but I am forced to de- 
 mand the divorce," he replied. 
 
 " I will say only one thing to you, Aleksei Aleksan- 
 drovitch. I know that you are a man of principle, and 
 I know Anna is one of the best of women, excuse me 
 if I cannot change my opinion of her, I cannot 
 believe it ; there must be some misunderstanding ! " 
 
 " Yes ; if it were only a misunderstanding ! " .... 
 
 " Excuse me ; I understand ; but I beg of you, I beg 
 of you, do not be in haste," interrupted Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch. 
 
 " I have done nothing hastily," said Aleksei' Aleksan- 
 drovitch, coldly; "but in such a case, one cannot ask 
 advice of anybody; I am decided." 
 
 "This is terrible," exclaimed Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 with a deep sigh. " I would do one thing, Aleksef 
 Aleksandrovitch. I beseech you to do this ! " said he. 
 " Proceedings, as I understand, have not yet begun. 
 Before you do anything talk with my wife. She loves 
 Anna like a sister, she loves you, and she is a woman 
 of good sense. For God's sake, talk with her. Do me 
 this favor, I beg of you." 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch deliberated, and Stepan Ar- 
 kadyevitch looked at him sympathetically, not breaking 
 in on his silence. 
 
 " Will you come to her ? " 
 
 "Well, I don't know. That is the reason I did not 
 call at your house. I suppose our relations ought to be 
 broken off."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 189 
 
 " Why should they be ? I don't see that. Allow me 
 to believe that apart from our family connection, you 
 have toward me, to a certain extent at least, the same 
 friendly sentiments which I have always felt toward 
 
 you And genuine regard.... "said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 
 pressing his hand. " Even if your worst surmises were 
 justified, I should never take it on myself to criticize 
 either side, and I see no reason why our relations should 
 be changed. But now do this, come and see my wife." 
 
 " Well, you and I look on this matter differently," said 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch, coldly. " However, we will 
 not discuss it." 
 
 " No, but why should you not come and dine with us } 
 at least to-day ? My wife expects you. Please come ! 
 and above all talk with her; she is, I assure you, a 
 superior woman. For God's sake come, I beg you on 
 my knees." 
 
 " If you wish it so much, I will go," said Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, sighing. And to change the conver- 
 sation, he asked Stepan Arkadyevitch about a matter 
 which interested them both : about the new nachalnik, a 
 man still young, who had suddenly received such an 
 important appointment. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch had never liked Count 
 Anitchkin, and had always differed with him about many 
 questions ; and now he could not help a feeling of envy 
 natural to an official who had suffered defeat in his work 
 and saw a younger man receiving advancement. 
 
 "Well, have you met him yet?" asked AlekseT Alek- 
 sandrovitch, with a venomous smile. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; he was with us yesterday at the session. 
 He seems like a man very well informed and very active." 
 
 " Active ? but how does he employ his activity ? " ex- 
 claimed AlekseT Aleksandrovitch. " Is it in doing his 
 work, or in destroying what others have done before 
 him ? The plague of our government is this scribbling 
 bureaucracy, of which Anitchkin is a worthy representa- 
 tive." 
 
 " Truly I don't know how this criticism applies to him. 
 I don't even know his tendencies ; at any rate, he is a
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 very good fellow," replied Stepan Arkadyevitch. " I 
 have just been with him ....a very good fellow; we 
 lunched together, and I taught him how to make a drink, 
 you know wine and oranges. He liked it very much. 
 No, he is a fine young man." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch looked at his watch. 
 
 " Akh batiushki ! it is after four o'clock ! and I have 
 still to see Dolgovushin. It is decided, then, that you 
 will dine with us, is n't it ? Both my wife and myself 
 will feel really hurt if you refuse to come." 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch took leave of his brother-in- 
 law very differently from the way in which he had 
 greeted him. 
 
 " I have promised, and I will come," he replied in a 
 melancholy tone. 
 
 " Believe me, I appreciate it ; and I hope you will not 
 regret it," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a smile. 
 
 And putting on his overcoat in the hall, he shook his 
 fist at the servant's head, laughed, and went out. 
 
 " At five o'clock, remember, and in ordinary dress," he 
 called back once more, returning to the door. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 IT was already six o'clock and several guests had 
 come when the master of the house entered, meeting 
 Sergyei Ivanovitch Koznuishef and Pestsof at the door. 
 
 These were the two chief representatives of Moscow in- 
 tellect, as Oblonsky had called them, and were men of 
 distinction both by wit and character. They valued each 
 other, but on almost every topic were absolutely and 
 hopelessly at odds, not because they belonged to oppos- 
 ing parties but precisely because they were of the same 
 camp, their enemies confounded them in one, but 
 in this camp they each had their shades of opinion. Now 
 there is nothing more conducive to disagreement than 
 dissent in small particulars, and so they not only never 
 agreed in their opinions, but never failed to laugh at each 
 other good-naturedly for their incorrigible mistakes.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 191 
 
 They reached the door, talking about the weather, just 
 as Stepan Arkadyevitch overtook them. 
 
 The old Prince Aleksandr Dmitrievitch Shcherbatsky, 
 young Shcherbatsky, Turovtsuin, Kitty, and Karenin 
 were already in the drawing-room. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch instantly perceived that matters 
 in the drawing-room were going badly without him. 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, in her best gray silk gown, es- 
 pecially preoccupied with the children, who should have 
 been eating their supper in the nursery by themselves, 
 and anxious because her husband was late, did not 
 succeed very well in entertaining her guests. All were 
 sitting "like a pope's daughters making a call," as the 
 old prince expressed it, evidently perplexed to know 
 why they had come and with difficulty finding a few 
 words so that the silence might not be absolute. The 
 good-natured Turovtsuin apparently felt out of his 
 sphere and the smile on his thick lips when he greeted 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch spoke louder than words: "Well, 
 my dear fellow, you have got me here with clever 
 people ! We are making merry here. It is a regular 
 chateau des flcurs ! .... I am doing my part." 
 
 The old prince was sitting in silence looking out of 
 the corner of his bright eyes at Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 and Stepan Arkadyevitch perceived that he was trying 
 to think up something worth saying to make an impres- 
 sion on this great statesman who was being served up 
 like a sterlet for the benefit of the guests. Kitty kept 
 glancing at the door, trying with all her might not to be 
 caught blushing when Konstantin Levin should appear. 
 Young Shcherbatsky, who had not been presented to 
 Karenin, was trying to show that this did not cause 
 him any constraint. 
 
 Karenin himself was in black coat and white necktie, 
 according to the Petersburg custom, and Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch perceived by his face that he had come only to 
 keep his promise and by mingling in this society was per- 
 forming a burdensome task. He more than any one else 
 was the cause of the chill which froze all the guests into 
 silence until Stepan Arkadyevitch made his appearance.
 
 192 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 As soon as Stepan Arkadyevitch entered the drawing- 
 room, he made his excuses and explained that he had 
 been detained by a certain prince who was always his 
 scapegoat for all his delays and absences. In a twin- 
 kling he presented his guests to one another, furnished 
 Koznuishef and Karenin a subject of conversation, 
 the Russification of Poland, which they instantly grap- 
 pled with, also enlisting Pestsof in the discussion. 
 Then, tapping Turovtsuin on the shoulder, he whispered 
 some jest into his ear and sat him down between his 
 wife and Prince Shcherbatsky. Then he complimented 
 Kitty on her beauty and introduced young Shcherbatsky 
 to Karenin. In a twinkling he had so worked on all 
 this mass of social dough that it began to seem like a 
 salon and the voices intermingled in gay confusion. 
 
 Konstantin Levin was the only guest not on hand. 
 
 But even this was a fortunate circumstance, because 
 when Stepan Arkadyevitch went into the dining-room 
 he discovered to his dismay that the port and sherry 
 had come from Des Pres and not from Levy, and he 
 seized the opportunity to send the coachman in all 
 haste to Levy's, and then he returned to the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 Levin met him at the door of the dining-room. 
 
 " I am not late, am I ? " 
 
 " How could you be ? " replied Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 taking him by the arm. 
 
 " Are there many people here ? Who are they ? " 
 asked Levin, blushing involuntarily, and with his glove 
 brushing away the snow from his hat. 
 
 " No one but relatives. Kitty is here. Come and let 
 me present you to Karenin." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, notwithstanding his liberal views, 
 knew that a presentation to Karenin could not fail to be 
 flattering, and therefore he regaled his best friends with 
 this pleasure. But at this moment Konstantin Levin 
 was not in a condition to appreciate all the satisfaction 
 which this acquaintance would afford. 
 
 He had not seen Kitty since that well-remembered 
 evening when he met Vronsky, except for that glimpse
 
 ANNA KARENINA 193 
 
 of her which he had as she sat in her carriage. In the 
 depth of his heart he knew that he was to see her this 
 evening. But in his attempt to preserve all the freedom 
 of his thoughts, he had tried to persuade himself that he 
 did not know it. And now as he learned that she was 
 there, he suddenly felt such timidity and at the same 
 time such terror that he could hardly breathe, and he 
 found it impossible to say what he wanted to say. 
 
 " How will she seem ? Just as she used to ? Suppose 
 Darya Aleksandrovna was right! Why wasn't she 
 right ? " he thought. 
 
 " Oh ! present me to Karenin, I beg of you," he suc- 
 ceeded in stammering, as he entered the drawing-room 
 with the courage of despair and saw her. 
 
 She was neither as she had been in old time nor as 
 she had been in the carriage : she was altogether differ- 
 ent ; she was nervous, timid, modest, and therefore even 
 more charming than ever. 
 
 She saw him the moment he entered the drawing- 
 room. She had been watching for him, and she felt so 
 glad and so confused by reason of her gladness that at 
 one moment especially when, after greeting Dolly, he 
 looked at her, she was afraid of bursting into tears. 
 Levin and Dolly both noticed it. She blushed and 
 turned pale and blushed again ; she was so agitated 
 that her lips trembled. 
 
 Levin approached her, and bowed and silently offered 
 his hand. Had it not been for the slight trembling of 
 her lips and the moisture that suffused her eyes and 
 increased their brilliancy, her smile would have been 
 almost serene as she said : 
 
 " How long it is since we have met ! " And at the 
 same time with a sort of desperate resolution put her 
 cold hand into his. 
 
 " You have not seen me ; but I saw you one day," 
 said Levin, with a smile of radiant happiness. " I saw 
 you when you were going from the railway station to 
 Yergushovo." 
 
 " When was it? " asked she, in surprise. 
 
 " You were on your way to Yergushovo," said Levin, 
 VOL. n. 13
 
 i 9 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 feeling that the joy which flooded his soul was suffocat- 
 ing him. "How," thought he, "could I have dared to 
 associate anything but innocence with this fascinating 
 creature? Yes, Darya Aleksandrovna was right." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch came to conduct him to Karenin. 
 
 " Allow me to make you acquainted," said he, calling 
 each by name. 
 
 " It is very pleasant to meet you again," said Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, coolly, as he took Levin's hand. 
 
 "What! do you already know each other?" asked 
 Oblonsky, with surprise. 
 
 " We traveled together for three hours," said Levin, 
 smiling, "but we parted as from a masked ball, very 
 much mystified ; at least, it was the case with me." 
 
 " Really ?.... Will you pass into the dining-room?" 
 said Stepan Arkadyevitch pointing toward the door. 
 
 The gentlemen walked into the dining-room, and went 
 to a table laden with the zakuska, which was composed of 
 six kinds of vodka, as many'varieties of cheese with silver 
 shovels and without, caviare, herring, preserves of differ- 
 ent kinds, and platefuls of French bread sliced thin. 
 
 The men stood around the table ; and, while waiting for 
 the dinner, the conversation between SergyeT Ivanovitch 
 Koznuishef, Karenin, and Pestsof, about the Russifica- 
 tion of Poland, began to languish. Sergyei' Ivanovitch, 
 who had a faculty peculiar to himself for ending even 
 the most absorbing and serious dispute, by an unex- 
 pected infusion of Attic salt and so putting the dis- 
 putants into a better frame of mind, did this now. 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch was trying to prove that the 
 Russification of Poland could be accomplished only by 
 means of the highest principles, and that these ought to 
 oe introduced by the Russian administration. Pestsof 
 maintained that one nation could only assimilate another 
 by surpassing it in density of population. 
 
 Koznuishef, with certain restrictions, shared the opin- 
 ions of both ; and to close this serious conversation with 
 a joke, he added as they left the drawing-room, smiling : 
 
 " The most logical way, then, for us to assimilate for- 
 eigners, it seems to me, is to have as many children as
 
 ANNA KARENINA 195 
 
 possible. It is there where my brother and I are in 
 fault ; while you married gentlemen and especially you, 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, are acting the part of good patri- 
 ots. How many have you?" he asked of the host, 
 handing him a very diminutive glass. 
 
 Everybody laughed, and Oblonsky most of all. "Yes, 
 that is certainly the best means !" said he, taking a bite 
 of cheese and pouring some special kind of vodka into 
 the glass that Koznuishef offered him. But the jest 
 really served to bring the discussion to a close. 
 
 " This cheese is not bad ; what do you say ? " remarked 
 the host. 
 
 "Do you still practise gymnastics?" said Oblonsky, 
 addressing Levin, and with his left hand feeling his 
 friend's muscles. 
 
 Levin smiled and doubled up his arm, and Stepan Ar- 
 kadyevitch felt how under his fingers the biceps swelled 
 up like a round cheese beneath the smooth cloth of his 
 coat. 
 
 "What biceps ! a Samson," said he. 
 
 " I suppose it is necessary to be endowed with re- 
 markable strength, to hunt bears, is n't it ? " said Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, smearing some cheese on a piece of 
 bread as thin as a cobweb. His ideas about hunting 
 were of the vaguest. 
 
 Levin smiled. 
 
 " No ; on the contrary, a child could kill a bear ; " 
 and he drew back, with a slight bow, to make room for 
 the ladies, who with the hostess were coming to the 
 zakuska table. 
 
 " I hear that you have just killed a bear," said Kitty, 
 vainly trying to put her fork into a recalcitrant mush- 
 room which kept flying about on the plate, and as she 
 threw back the lace in her sleeve there was a glimpse 
 of a white arm. " Are there really bears where you 
 live ? " she added, half turning her pretty face toward 
 him and smiling. What she said had no especial im- 
 portance, but what significance inexpressible in words 
 there was for him in the sound of her voice, in every 
 motion of her lips, of her eyes, hands, when she said it I
 
 196 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 It implied an entreaty for forgiveness and expression 
 of faith in him, a sweet and timid caress, and a promise, 
 and a hope, and love for him, and he could not help 
 believing in it and his heart was filled with happi- 
 ness. 
 
 " Oh, no ! we were hunting in the government of 
 Tver ; and on my way from there, I met your brother- 
 in-law Stiva's brother-in-law in the train," said he, 
 smiling. "The meeting was very funny." 
 
 And he gave a lively and amusing description of how, 
 after having been awake all night, he forced his way 
 into Karenin's car in his sheepskin jacket. 1 
 
 " The conductor, contrary to the proverb, judging by 
 first impressions wanted to put me out, and there I was 
 beginning to express myself in sublime style and .... 
 well, sir, you also " said he, addressing Karenin and 
 not recollecting his name, "you got your first impres- 
 sion from my polushubok and were for expelling me, but 
 afterward you took my part, for which I felt very 
 grateful to you." 
 
 "Travelers' rights to their choice of place are gen- 
 erally too little considered," said Aleksei" Aleksandro- 
 vitch, wiping the ends of his fingers with his napkin. 
 
 "Oh! I noticed that you were dubious about me," 
 replied Levin, smiling good-naturedly; "that was why 
 I hastened to open a serious subject of conversation, to 
 make you forget my sheepskin." 
 
 Koznuishef, who was talking with the mistress of the 
 house, and at the same time listening with one ear to 
 what his brother said, glanced at him. 
 
 "What is the matter with him to-night? What makes 
 him look so triumphant?" he asked himself. 
 
 He did not know Levin felt as if he had wings. 
 Levin knew that she was listening to him, she was tak- 
 ing pleasure in what he said ; and this was the only 
 thing that interested him. He was alone with her, not 
 only in this room, but in the whole world. He felt that 
 he was on a dizzy height, and there far below him were 
 
 1 Polushubok, half shuba; a short coat or cloak made of sheepskin or 
 lined with fur.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 197 
 
 all those excellent people, Oblonsky, Karenin, and the 
 rest of humanity. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch seemed entirely to forget Levin 
 and Kitty in placing his guests at table until all but two 
 of the seats were assigned ; then he put them side by 
 side. 
 
 " Well, you can sit there," said he to Levin. 
 
 The dinner was as elegant as the appointments ; 
 for Stepan Arkadyevitch was a great connoisseur in 
 such matters. The Marie-Louise soup was perfect, the 
 little pirogi or pasties which melted in the mouth were 
 irreproachable ; and Matve, with two waiters in white 
 cravats, skilfully and noiselessly served the roast and 
 the wine. 
 
 On the material side the dinner was a success ; it was 
 riot less so on the non-material side. The conversation 
 was sometimes general, sometimes special, but it never 
 lagged ; and toward the end of the dinner it had grown 
 so animated that when they left the table the men could 
 not drop their interesting topics, and even Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch was thawed out. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PESTSOF, who liked to discuss a question thoroughly, 
 was not satisfied with what Koznuishef had said ; he 
 felt that he had not been allowed to express his thought 
 sufficiently. 
 
 " In speaking of the density of the population," said 
 he, after the soup, addressing Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, 
 " I did n't intend to make it the principle of an assimila- 
 tion, but only a means." 
 
 " It seems to me that that amounts to the same thing," 
 replied Karenin, slowly and indolently. " In my judg- 
 ment, a people can have no influence over another people 
 unless it has the highest development which ...." 
 
 "That is precisely the question," interrupted Pestsof, 
 who always spoke with so much ardor that he seemed 
 to put his whole soul into defending his own opinions
 
 198 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " How is one to decide on what is the highest develop- 
 ment ? Which stands on the highest plane of civiliza- 
 tion, the English, the French, or the Germans ? Which 
 nation is to naturalize the others ? We have seen the 
 Rhine made French ; but are the Germans inferior ? 
 No ; there is some other law," he cried in his bass 
 voice. 
 
 " I believe that the balance will always turn in favor of 
 true civilization," said Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, slightly 
 raising his brows. 
 
 " But what are the signs of this true civilization ? " 
 demanded Pestsof. 
 
 " I suppose these signs are known," replied Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 " But are they really known ? " suggested SergyeY 
 Ivanovitch, with a subtle smile. " It is now admitted 
 that our present civilization can't be anything else than 
 classical, but we have furious debates on this point, 
 and it cannot be denied that each side brings forward 
 strong proofs in its favor." 
 
 " Are you in favor of the classics, Sergye'f Ivanovitch ? " 
 said Oblonsky " Shall I give you some claret ? " 
 
 " I am not expressing my personal opinions regarding 
 either form of civilization," replied Koznuishef, with a 
 smile of condescension such as he would have shown a 
 child, as he reached out his glass. " I only say that both 
 sides have strong arguments," continued he, addressing 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. " My education was classical ; 
 but in this controversy I personally cannot find any 
 room to stand. I do not see any clear proofs that the 
 classics must take precedence over the sciences." 
 
 " The natural sciences tend just as much to the 
 pedagogical development of the human mind," replied 
 Pestsof. " Take astronomy, take botany, and zoology, 
 each with its system of general laws ! " 
 
 " It seems to me impossible to deny that the very 
 process of learning the forms of languages has a 
 specially beneficial influence on mental development. 
 Moreover, it must be admitted that the influence of the 
 classic writers is eminently moral ; while, unfortunately
 
 ANNA KARENINA 199 
 
 for us, the study of the natural sciences has been com- 
 plicated with false and fatal doctrines, which are the 
 bane of our time." 
 
 Sergyei' Ivanovitch was going to reply, but Pestsof 
 interrupted him in his deep voice. He began heatedly 
 to demonstrate the incorrectness of this statement. Koz- 
 nuishef calmly waited his chance to speak, evidently 
 feeling that it would be a victorious rejoinder. 
 
 " But," said he, smiling shrewdly, and addressing 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch, "it cannot be denied that it is 
 a difficult matter completely to balance all the advan- 
 tages and disadvantages of the two systems of science, and 
 that the question which is preferable could not be decided 
 so quickly and definitely if there were not on the side 
 of the classical civilization that advantage which you 
 just called the moral disons le mot the anti-nihilistic 
 influence." 
 
 " Undoubtedly." 
 
 " If it were not for this advantage of the anti-nihilistic 
 influence wielded by classic education, we should rather 
 hesitate, we should weigh the arguments of both sides," 
 said Sergyei Ivanovitch, with his shrewd smile. "We 
 should give scope to both tendencies. But now we 
 know that in classical education lies the medical power 
 of anti-nihilism and we boldly administer it like a pill 
 
 to our patients But are we perfectly sure of the 
 
 healing properties of these pills ? " he said in conclusion, 
 pouring out his Attic salt. 
 
 Sergei' Ivanovitch's "pills" made every one laugh, 
 Turovtsuin more boisterously and heartily than the rest ; 
 for he had been on the lookout for something amusing 
 to laugh at ever since the conversation began. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch had made no mistake in count- 
 ing on Pestsof. Pestsof never allowed an intellectual con- 
 versation to flag for a moment. Koznuishef had hardly 
 finished with his jest when Pestsof began again : 
 
 " One cannot even agree with this idea," said he, 
 " that morality has this aim. Morality is evidently con- 
 trolled by general considerations and remains indiffer- 
 ent to the influences of the measures which may be
 
 200 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 taken. For example, the question of higher education 
 for women should be regarded as dangerous, yet the 
 government opens the public lectures and the univer- 
 sities to women." 
 
 And the conversation immediately leaped to the new 
 theme of the education of women. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch expressed the thought that 
 the education of women was too much confused with 
 the question of the emancipation of women, and could 
 be considered dangerous only from that point of view. 
 
 " I believe, on the contrary, that these two questions 
 are intimately connected," said Pestsof. " It is a vicious 
 circle ! Woman is deprived of rights because she is de- 
 prived of education, and her lack of education comes 
 from the absence of rights. Let us not forget that the 
 bondage of woman is so ancient, so interwoven with 
 our customs, that we are very often incapable of under- 
 standing the legal abyss that separates her from us." 
 
 "You speak of rights," said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, as 
 soon as he had a chance to put in a word ; " is it a 
 right to fulfil the functions of juror, of municipal coun- 
 selor, of president of the tribunal, of public function- 
 ary, of member of parliament ? " .... 
 
 "Without doubt." 
 
 " But if women can exceptionally fill these functions, 
 then it seems to me we make a mistake in using the 
 word rights. It would be fairer to say duties. Every 
 one agrees that in fulfilling the functions of a juror, of 
 town counselor, of telegraph employer, we are fulfilling 
 a duty. Let us say, then, that women are seeking for 
 duties, and legitimately enough ; in this case we may 
 sympathize with their desire to take part in man's work." 
 
 " That is perfectly fair," affirmed Alekse'f Aleksan- 
 drovitch ; " the question, I suspect, consists in deciding 
 whether they are capable of fulfilling these duties." 
 
 " They will be, certainly, as soon as they have been 
 generally educated," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. " We 
 see it .... " 
 
 " And the proverb ? " asked the old prince, whose lit- 
 tle, scornful eyes shone as he listened to this conver-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 201 
 
 sation. " I may repeat it before my daughters : ' Long 
 hair....'" 1 
 
 " That is the way we judged the negroes before their 
 emancipation ! " said Pestsof, with dissatisfaction. 
 
 "What astonishes me," said Sergye'f Ivanuitch, "is 
 that women are seeking new duties, when we see, un- 
 fortunately, that men generally shirk theirs." 
 
 " Duties are accompanied by rights ; honor, influence, 
 money, these are what women are after," said Pestsof. 
 
 " Exactly as if I solicited the right to become a wet 
 nurse, and found it hard to be refused, while women are 
 paid for it," said the old prince. 
 
 Turovtsuin burst out laughing, and Sergye'f Ivanovitch 
 regretted that he had not said that. Even Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch smiled. 
 
 " Yes, but a man can't be a wet nurse," said SergyeY 
 Ivanuitch. " But a woman .... " 
 
 " But what is a young girl without any family going 
 to do ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, who found reason 
 to sympathize with Pestsof, as he thought of his little 
 ballet girl, Chibisovaya. 
 
 " If you look closely into the lives of these young 
 girls," said Darya Aleksandrovna, unexpectedly taking 
 part in the conversation and showing some irritation, 
 for it was evident that she suspected what sort of women 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch meant, "you will doubtless find 
 that they have left a family or a sister, and that women's 
 work was within their reach." 
 
 " But we are defending a principle, an ideal," an- 
 swered Pestsof, in his ringing bass. " Woman claims 
 the right to be independent and educated ; she suffers 
 from hqr consciousness of being unable to accomplish 
 this." 
 
 " And I suffer from not being admitted as nurse to 
 the foundling asylum," repeated the old prince, to the 
 great amusement of Turovtsuin, letting the large end 
 of a piece of asparagus fall into his sauce. 
 
 1 Volos dolog, da um korotok : where the hair is long, the intellect is 
 short; said of women.
 
 202 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 ALL took part in the general conversation except 
 Kitty and Levin. 
 
 At first, when they were talking about the influence 
 of one people over another, Levin recalled what he 
 had to say on this subject; but his thoughts, which at 
 one time had seemed to him very important, simply 
 flashed through his mind like notions in a dream, and 
 now had not the least interest for him ; he even thought 
 it strange that people could trouble themselves about 
 such useless questions. 
 
 Kitty, for her part, ought to have been interested in 
 what was said about women's rights and education. 
 How many times had she pondered over these subjects 
 as she remembered her friend Varenka, whose depend- 
 ence was so hard to bear ! How many times had she 
 thought what she herself would do in case she should not 
 marry ! How often had she disputed with her sister on 
 the subject ! But now it did not interest her in the least. 
 
 She and Levin had their own talk, and yet it was not 
 a conversation so much as it was a mysterious affinity, 
 which brought them nearer and nearer to each other, 
 and filled them with a joyful timidity before the unknown 
 which they were about to enter. 
 
 At first Kitty asked how he happened to see her in 
 the summer, and Levin told her that he was returning 
 from the hay-fields by the highway after the mowing : 
 
 " It was very early in the morning. You had proba- 
 bly just waked. Your maman was asleep in her corner. 
 It was a marvelous morning. I was walking along, 
 saying to myself, 'A carriage with four horses ! Whose 
 can it be? ' They were four fine horses with bells. And 
 quick as a flash you passed by. I saw you through 
 the door ; you were sitting like this, holding the ribbons 
 of your bonnet in your hands, and you seemed awfully 
 deep in thought. How I wished I could know," he 
 added with a smile, " what you were thinking about J 
 Was it something very important ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 203 
 
 " Was n't my hair in disorder ? " thought Kitty, but 
 seeing the enthusiastic smile that lighted up Levin's 
 face, she felt that on the contrary the impression she 
 had produced was good, and she replied, blushing and 
 laughing merrily : 
 
 " Truly, I don't remember." 
 
 " How heartily Turovtsuin laughs ! " said Levin, 
 looking at his moist eyes and his sides shaking with 
 laughter. 
 
 " Have you known him long? " asked Kitty. 
 
 " Who does n't know him ? " 
 
 " And I see that you think that he is a bad man." 
 
 " Not bad ; but he does n't amount to much." 
 
 "That is unjust. I beg you not to think so any 
 more," said Kitty. " I, too, once had a very poor 
 opinion of him; but he is a sweet-tempered and wonder- 
 fully good man. His heart is gold." 
 
 " How can you know what kind of a heart he has ? " 
 
 " We are great friends. I know him very well. Last 
 winter, a short time after after you were at our 
 house," said she, rather guiltily, but with a confiding 
 smile, " Dolly's children had the scarlatina, and one day 
 Turovtsuin happened to call on my sister. Would you 
 believe it ? " she said, lowering her voice : " he was so 
 sorry for her that he stayed to take care of the little 
 invalids. For three weeks he played nurse to the chil- 
 dren I am telling Konstantin Dmitritch of Turovt- 
 
 suin's kindness at the time of the scarlatina," said she, 
 turning to her sister. 
 
 " Yes, it was remarkable ; it was lovely ! " replied 
 Dolly, looking with a grateful smile at Turovtsuin, who 
 was conscious that they were talking about him. Levin 
 also looked at him, and was surprised that he had never 
 understood him till then. 
 
 " I plead guilty, and I will never again think ill of 
 people," said he, gayly, speaking honestly, exactly as he 
 thought at the time.
 
 204 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE discussion about the emancipation of women led 
 to talk about the inequality of rights in marriage, and 
 this was a ticklish subject to speak about in the presence 
 of the ladies. Pestsof during the dinner several times 
 touched on this question, but Sergye'f Ivanovitch and 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch warily diverted him from it. But 
 as soon as dinner was over and the ladies had retired, 
 Pestsof addressed Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch and at- 
 tempted to explain the chief cause of this inequality. 
 The inequality of rights between husband and wife in 
 marriage depended, in his opinion, on the fact that the 
 infidelity of a wife and that of a husband was unequally 
 punished, both by law and by public opinion. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch hastened over to Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch and offered him a cigar. 
 
 " No, I do not smoke," replied Karenin, calmly; and as 
 if to prove that he was not afraid of this conversation, 
 he turned toward Pestsof with his icy smile : 
 
 " I imagine that such a view is based on the very 
 nature of things," said he, and he started to go to the 
 drawing-room ; but here Turovtsuin suddenly spoke up, 
 addressing Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 "Have you heard the story about Priatchnikof ? " he 
 asked. He was animated by the champagne, and had 
 been impatiently waiting for a chance to break a silence 
 which weighed heavily on him. "Vasia Priatchnikof?" 
 he repeated, with a good-natured smile on his thick lips, 
 red and moist, and he addressed Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch, as the most important guest. " I was told this 
 morning that he fought a duel at Tver, with Kvitsky, 
 and killed him." 
 
 As it always seems as if a sore spot were peculiarly 
 liable to be hit, so now Stepan Arkadyevitch thought 
 the conversation was fated every moment to touch Alek- 
 se'f Aleksandrovitch on the sore spot. He was on the 
 point of going to his brother-in-law's assistance ; but 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch asked, with curiosity :
 
 ANNA KARENINA -205 
 
 " Why did Priatchnikof fight a duel ? " 
 
 " On account of his wife ; he behaved bravely about 
 it, he challenged the other man, and killed him." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, with uncon- 
 cern ; and, raising his eyebrows, he went to the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 Dolly met him in a little parlor leading into the draw- 
 ing-room, and said, smiling timidly: 
 
 " How glad I am that you came ! I want to talk with 
 you. Let us sit down here." 
 
 Alekseif Aleksandrovitch, preserving the air of indif- 
 ference caused by his elevated eyebrows, sat down near 
 her, pretending to smile. 
 
 " All the more willingly," said he, " as I wish to ask 
 you to excuse me for leaving you as soon as possible. 
 I have to go away to-morrow morning." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna was firmly convinced of Anna's 
 innocence, and she was conscious of growing pale and 
 trembling with anger before this heartless, unfeel- 
 ing man, who coolly proposed to ruin her innocent 
 friend. 
 
 " AlekseT Aleksandrovitch," she said with desperate 
 firmness, looking him full in the face, " I asked you 
 about Anna, and you did not reply ; how is she ? " 
 
 " I think that she is well, Darya Aleksandrovna," 
 replied Karenin, without looking at her. 
 
 " Pardon me, if I have no right to insist on it .... but I 
 love Anna like a sister ; tell me, I beseech you, what 
 has happened between you and her, and what do you 
 accuse her of." 
 
 Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch frowned, and bent his head, 
 almost closing his eyes : 
 
 " Your husband must have told you, I think, the rea- 
 sons which oblige me to break my relations with Anna 
 Arkady evna," said he, avoiding her eyes but casting a 
 glance of annoyance at Shcherbatsky, who was passing 
 through the room. 
 
 " I do not believe it, I do not believe it ! and I can- 
 not believe it ! " murmured Dolly, pressing her thin hands 
 together energetically. She rose quickly, and, touching
 
 206 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch's arm, said, "We shall be dis- 
 turbed here; let us go in there, please." 
 
 Dolly's emotion communicated itself to Aleksei' Alek- 
 sandrovitch ; he arose, and submissively followed her 
 into the children's schoolroom. They seated themselves 
 at a table covered with an oil-cloth, hacked with pen- 
 knives. 
 
 " I don't believe it, I don't believe it ! " repeated 
 Dolly, trying to catch his eye, which avoided hers. 
 
 "One cannot deny/rf^.y, Darya Aleksandrovna," said 
 he, dwelling on the word facts. 
 
 " But what has she done ? " insisted Darya Aleksan- 
 irovna, " precisely what has she done ? " 
 
 " She has failed to do her duty, and been false to her 
 husband. That is what'she has done," said he. 
 
 " No, no ! it is impossible ! no, thank the Lord, you 
 are mistaken ! " cried Dolly, putting her hands to her 
 temples, and closing her eyes. 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch smiled coldly with his lips 
 only ; he wished to prove to Dolly, and to prove to him- 
 self, the firmness of his conviction. But this heated de- 
 fense of his wife, though it did not shake him, irritated 
 his wound. He spoke with more animation : 
 
 " It is difficult to make a mistake when a woman her- 
 self declares to her husband that eight years of married 
 life and a son count for nothing, and that she wishes to 
 begin life over again," he replied angrily, dilating his 
 nostrils. 
 
 " Anna and vice ! I cannot associate the two ideas ; I 
 cannot believe it." 
 
 " Darya Aleksandrovna ! " said he, angrily, now 
 looking straight at Dolly's distressed face, and feeling 
 his tongue involuntarily unloosed, " I would give a 
 great deal to be able stnl to have any doubts ! When I 
 was in doubt about it, it was hard for me, but easier 
 than it is now. When I doubted, there was still hope. 
 Now there is no hope, and I have doubted everything. 
 I am so full of doubt that I detest my son, and some- 
 times I do not believe that he is my son. I am very 
 unhappy ! "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 207 
 
 He had no need to say that. Darya Aleksandrovna 
 understood it as soon as she looked into his face. She 
 pitied him, and her faith in her friend's innocence was 
 shaken. 
 
 " Oh ! it is terrible, terrible ! but is it true that you are 
 really decided about the divorce ? " 
 
 " I have decided to take this last measure. There 
 was nothing else for me to do." 
 
 " Don't do it ! Don't do it ! " cried Dolly, with tears 
 in her eyes. " No, don't do it ! " 
 
 " The most dreadful thing about a misfortune of this 
 kind is that one cannot bear his cross as in any other, 
 a loss or a death, and here one must do something," 
 said he, apparently divining Dolly's thought. " One must 
 escape from the humiliating position in which one is 
 placed ; on ne pent vivre a trois ! " 
 
 " I understand, I understand perfectly," replied Dolly, 
 bowing her head. She was silent, thinking of herself, 
 of her own domestic troubles ; but suddenly with an en- 
 ergetic movement she raised her head, and with a suppli- 
 cating gesture she folded her hands. 
 
 "But wait," she said ; "you are a Christian, think of 
 her ! What will become of her if you abandon her ? " 
 
 " I have thought of it, Darya Aleksandrovna. I have 
 thought a great deal about it," said AlekseT Aleksan- 
 drovitch. His face was covered with red blotches and 
 his troubled eyes looked straight at her. Darya Alek- 
 sandrovna pitied him now from the bottom of her heart. 
 " I did this very thing after she herself had told me of 
 her disgrace. I put everything on the old footing. I 
 gave her the chance of reformation. I tried to save her. 
 What did she do then ? She paid no attention to the 
 easiest of demands, observance of propriety ! " he 
 added, choking. " One can save a man who does not 
 want to perish ; but if his whole nature is so corrupt, so 
 rotten, that ruin itself seems salvation, what can be 
 done ? " 
 
 " Everything, except divorce," replied Darya Alek- 
 sandrovna. 
 
 " What do you mean by everything ? "
 
 208 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " No, that is horrible ! She will no longer be any 
 one's wife. She will be lost ! " 
 
 " What can I do ? " replied Karenin, raising his shoul- 
 ders and his eyebrows ; and the memory of his wife's 
 last offense so angered him that he became as cool as 
 at the beginning of the conversation. " I am very grate- 
 ful to you for your sympathy, but I must go," he added, 
 rising. 
 
 " No, wait a moment ! you must not give her up : 
 listen to me ; I speak from experience. I, too, was 
 married, and my husband deceived me : in my jealousy 
 and indignation, I wished to abandon everything; but I 
 considered the matter, and who saved me? Anna! 
 Now I am living again. Now my children are growing 
 up, my husband has returned to his family, regrets his 
 wrong-doing, is growing better, nobler. I live, I have 
 forgiven him ; and you ought to forgive her ! " 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch listened ; but Dolly's words 
 had no effect on him. Again in his soul arose the anger 
 of that day when he decided on a divorce. He shook 
 himself and spoke in a loud, penetrating voice : 
 
 " I cannot, nor do I wish to forgive her. It would be 
 unjust. I have done what was next to impossible for 
 this woman, and she has trampled everything into the 
 mire, which seems to be her element. I am not a bad 
 man, and I have never hated anybody before ; but her I 
 hate with all the strength of my soul, and I cannot for- 
 give her, for I hate her too much for all the wrong she 
 has done me ! " and tears of anger trembled in his voice. 
 
 " Love them that hate you," murmured Dolly, almost 
 ashamed. 
 
 Aleksef Aleksandrovitch smiled scornfully. He was 
 familiar with these words, but they did not apply to his 
 case. 
 
 " We can love those who hate us, but to love those 
 whom we hate is impossible. I beg your pardon for 
 having troubled you : sufficient unto every man is his 
 own burden." And having recovered his self-possession, 
 AlekseY Aleksandrovitch calmly took leave of Dolly, 
 and went away.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 209 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 WHEN the company arose from dinner Levin wanted 
 'to follow Kitty into the drawing-room, but he was afraid, 
 not that it would be disagreeable to her, but that it would 
 be too obvious a wooing of her. So he remained with 
 the men, and took part in the general conversation. 
 And without looking at Kitty, he was conscious of her 
 motions, of her glances, and of the place where she was 
 in the drawing-room. Without the least effort he im- 
 mediately began to fulfil the promise that he had made 
 her to love all men, and to think nothing but good of 
 them. 
 
 The conversation turned on the commune in Russia, 
 which Pestsof considered as the beginning of what he 
 called a new order of things. Levin agreed as little 
 with him as he did with Sergye')' Ivanovitch, who it 
 seemed to him recognized, and at the same time denied, 
 the value of this institution ; but he talked with them, 
 trying only to reconcile them and tone down their ex- 
 citability. He was not in the least interested in what 
 he himself said and was still less interested in what 
 they said, but his one desire was, to see all of them 
 happy and contented. He now realized what one thing 
 was important. And that one was at first yonder in the 
 drawing-room and afterward moved about and was now 
 near the door. Without turning around he was con- 
 scious of a look and a smile fixed on him, and he could 
 not help looking. She was standing there with Shcher- 
 batsky, and looking at him. 
 
 " I thought you were going to the piano," said he, 
 approaching her. " Music is what I have to do without 
 in the country." 
 
 " No, we merely came to find you ; and I thank you 
 for coming to us," she replied, recompensing him with 
 a smile. " What pleasure can there be in discussing ? 
 Really, no one ever convinced another." 
 
 " Yes ; that is true ! " said Levin. " It generally hap- 
 pens that you get excited in a discussion simply from 
 
 VOL. II. 14
 
 210 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the fact that you can never tell exactly what your oppo- 
 nent is trying to show." 
 
 Levin had many times noticed that in discussions 
 among clever people, after an immense output of energy, 
 an immense array of logical terms and subtleties, the' 
 disputants came at last to an acknowledgment that 
 what they had been so interminably striving to prove 
 to each other, was a matter of common knowledge from 
 the very beginning, but that they liked something dif- 
 ferent and therefore were not willing to acknowledge 
 what they liked, so as not to be controverted. He had 
 often met with the experience that in the midst of a 
 dispute you find what your opponent likes, and sud- 
 denly you find that you yourself like the same thing, 
 and you immediately agree, and then all your argu- 
 ments fall to the ground as useless. But sometimes 
 he had had the opposite experience : you at last say 
 what you like and evolve your arguments and if per- 
 chance you speak well and sincerely, suddenly your 
 opponent assents and ceases to uphold the other side. 
 This is exactly what he meant. 
 
 She wrinkled her brows, trying to comprehend. But 
 as soon as he began to explain, her mind grasped his 
 meaning. " I understand : one must make sure why 
 he is disputing, what he likes .... if possible .... " 
 
 She had fully grasped and expressed his badly 
 phrased idea. 
 
 Levin smiled with rapture ; so striking was the tran- 
 sition from the complicated prolix discussion between 
 Pestsof and his brother to this clear, laconic, almost 
 wordless communication of the most abstruse thoughts ! 
 
 Shcherbatsky stepped away ; and Kitty, going to a 
 card-table, sat down, and taking a piece of chalk in 
 her hand began to draw circles on the green cloth. 
 
 They took up the topic which was under discussion at 
 dinner : as to the emancipation and occupation of women. 
 Levin was inclined to agree with Darya Aleksandrovna, 
 that a girl who was not going to marry would find femi- 
 nine occupations in some family. He urged that not a 
 single family can get along without some female help;
 
 ANNA KARENINA 211 
 
 that every family, however poor or rich, has and must 
 have some one to look after the children. 
 
 " No," said Kitty, blushing but looking at him frankly 
 with her honest eyes ; " a girl may be so situated that 
 she cannot without humiliation go into a family, but she 
 herself .... " 
 
 He understood what she hinted at. 
 
 " Oh, yes," he said ; " yes, yes, yes, you are right" 
 
 And he realized all that Pestsof was trying to prove 
 at dinner about the freedom of women merely by the 
 fact that he saw in Kitty's heart a maiden's dread of 
 humiliation, and, loving her, he experienced this dread 
 and this humiliation, and immediately renounced his 
 former arguments. 
 
 A silence ensued. She went on making designs with 
 the chalk on the table. Her eyes shone with a gentle 
 gleam. Submitting to her mood, he felt in his being 
 all the increasing tension of happiness. 
 
 " Akh ! I have covered the table with my scrawls," 
 said she, laying down the chalk, with a movement as if 
 she were going to rise. 
 
 " How can I stay alone without her?" thought Levin, 
 terrified, and picking up the chalk. 
 
 " Wait," said he, sitting down at the table. " I have 
 wanted for a long time to ask you something." 
 
 He looked straight into her affectionate but never- 
 theless startled eyes. 
 
 " Please, what is it ? " 
 
 "This is it," said he, taking the chalk, and writing 
 the letters w, y, s, i, t, i, w, i, i, t, o, a ? These letters 
 were the initials of the words, " When you said, ' It is 
 impossible,' was it impossible then, or alivays?" 
 
 It was not at all likely that Kitty would be able to 
 make out this complicated question. Levin looked at 
 her, nevertheless, as if his life depended on whether 
 she could guess these words or not. 
 
 She looked at him gravely, then rested her forehead 
 on her hand and tried to decipher it. Occasionally she 
 would look up at him, asking him with her eyes : " Is 
 what I think right ? "
 
 212 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " I know what it is," said she, blushing. 
 
 "What is this word?" he asked, pointing to the i oi 
 the word impossible. 
 
 " That letter stands for impossible. The word is not 
 right," she replied. 
 
 He quickly rubbed out what he had written, gave the 
 chalk to her, and stood up. 
 
 She wrote : /, /, c, n, a, d. 
 
 Dolly, seeing her sister with the chalk in her hand, a 
 timid and happy smile on her lips, raising her eyes to 
 Levin, who was leaning over the table, beaming now 
 at her, now at the cloth, felt consoled for the grief 
 caused by her conversation with AlekseY Aleksan- 
 drovitch. His face suddenly grew radiant; he had 
 understood the reply: "Then I could not answer differ- 
 ently.'" 
 
 He looked at Kitty timidly and inquiringly. 
 
 " Only then ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied the young girl's smile. 
 
 " B, n but now ? " he asked. 
 
 " Read this. I will tell you what I wish, what I wish 
 very much ; " and she quickly traced the initials, t, y, m, 
 f, a,f, iv, t,p. 
 
 This meant : " That you might forgive and forget 
 what took place." 
 
 He seized the chalk in turn, with his excited, trem- 
 bling fingers, and crushing it wrote down the initials of 
 these words: " I have nothing to forgive and forget. I 
 have never ceased to love you." 
 
 Kitty looked at him, and her smile died away. 
 
 "I understand," she murmured. 
 
 He sat down and wrote a long phrase. She compre- 
 hended it and without even asking is it thus and so, 
 took the chalk and instantly replied. 
 
 It was some time before he made out what she wrote 
 and had to keep looking into her eyes. His wits were 
 dulled by his happiness. He could not supply the 
 words which she intended ; but in her lovely eyes, radiant 
 with joy, he understood all that he needed to know. 
 And he wrote three letters. But he had not finished
 
 ANNA KARENINA 213 
 
 writing them ere she read them under his hand and her- 
 self finished the sentence and answered it! 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " You are playing secretaire, are you," said the old 
 prince, coming up to them. "Well, if you are going 
 to the theater it is time to start." 
 
 Levin rose and accompanied Kitty to the door. 
 
 This conversation decided everything ; Kitty had 
 acknowledged her love for him, and had given him per- 
 mission to come the next morning to speak to her 
 parents. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 AFTER Kitty had gone and Levin was left alone, he 
 felt such a restlessness and such an unendurable long- 
 ing for the morning to come when he might see her 
 again and settle his destiny forever, that he dreaded, as 
 he dreaded death, the fourteen hours which he should 
 have to endure without her. He felt it absolutely neces- 
 sary to be with and to talk with some one so as not to 
 remain alone, so as to cheat the time. Stepan Arka- 
 dy evitch, whom he would have liked to keep with him, 
 was going, so he said, to a reception, but in reality to 
 the ballet. Levin could only tell him that he was 
 happy, and should never, never forget what he owed 
 to him. Stepan Arkadyevitch's eyes and smile showed 
 Levin that he suitably appreciated his feelings. 
 
 " What ! Then you have nothing more to say about 
 dying ? " said Oblonsky, pressing his friend's hand affec- 
 tionately. 
 
 " N-n-n-no," replied the latter. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, too, almost congratulated him 
 when she bade him good night. She said, " How glad 
 I am that you have made up with Kitty ; we ought 
 to prize old friends ! " and her words displeased Levin. 
 She could not comprehend how lofty and inaccessible 
 to her all this was for him, and she should not have 
 dared to refer to it. Levin took his departure, but, to 
 avoid being alone, he joined his brother.
 
 2i 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Where are you going ? " 
 
 "To a meeting." 
 
 " Well ! I '11 go with you. May I ? " 
 
 " Why not ? " said Sergye'f I vanovitch, smiling. " What 
 has happened to you to-day ? " 
 
 "What has happened? Good fortune," said Levin, 
 letting down the carriage-window. " Have you any 
 objection ? I am suffocating. Good fortune has hap- 
 pened to me ! Why have you never been married ? " 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch smiled. 
 
 " I am delighted; she seems like a splendid gi...." he 
 began. 
 
 " No, don't say anything about it, don't say anything 
 about it ! " cried Levin, clutching the collar of his shuba 
 with both hands, and covering his face with the fur. A 
 splendid girl ; what commonplace words ! and how 
 feebly they corresponded to his feelings ! 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch laughed a gay laugh ; this was a 
 rare occurrence with him. 
 
 " I should think I might say that I am very glad of 
 this ! " 
 
 " To-morrow, to-morrow you may speak ; but not an- 
 other word now, not another word, not another word ! 
 Be silent," said Levin, and pulling his shuba still higher 
 round his face, he added : " I love you very much. 
 But tell me, may I go to your meeting?" 
 
 " Of course you may." 
 
 " What is your subject for discussion to-night?" asked 
 Levin, still smiling. 
 
 They reached their destination. Levin heard the 
 secretary stammer through the report, which evidently 
 he did not understand; but he could see, from this 
 secretary's face, that he was a good, amiable, sympa- 
 thetic fellow ; it was evident from the way that he hesi- 
 tated and became confused while reading. 
 
 Then came the debates. They discussed about the 
 disposal of certain sums of money, and the laying of 
 certain sewer-pipes. Sergyel Ivanovitch attacked two 
 members of the commission, and made a long, trium- 
 phant speech against them ; after which another mem-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 215 
 
 her, reading from a paper, after some timid hesitation, 
 replied briefly in a charming though bitter fashion ; and 
 then Sviazhsky, he too was there, in his turn, ex- 
 pressed his opinions nobly and eloquently. 
 
 Levin listened and clearly saw that neither the money 
 to be expended nor the sewer-pipes were of serious im- 
 portance ; and that they were not really quarreling but 
 were all such pleasant, congenial people, and conse- 
 quently all was serene among them. They interfered 
 with no one and all seemed happy. Levin noticed with 
 surprise that they all seemed to him to-day transparent, 
 that from some trifling incidents which once would 
 have entirely escaped his notice he could read their 
 souls, and see how good they all were. Especially did they 
 seem to like him, Levin. This was shown by the way 
 they talked with him, and even those who did not know 
 him looked at him pleasantly and in a friendly manner. 
 
 " Well, how do you like it? " asked Sergyei' Ivanovitch. 
 
 " Very much ; I never should have believed that it 
 would be so interesting. It is splendid." 
 
 Sviazhsky approached Levin and invited him to come 
 and take a cup of tea at his house. Levin could not 
 for the life of him comprehend or remember why he 
 had been prejudiced against Sviazhsky, or what he had 
 se'emed to him to lack. He was a clever and wonder- 
 fully good fellow. 
 
 " I should be delighted," replied Levin, and he imme- 
 diately inquired after Madame Sviazhsky and her sister. 
 By a strange association of ideas, as Sviazhsky's sister- 
 in-law suggested marriage, he concluded that nobody 
 would be more interested than she and her sister to hear 
 of his happiness. So he was very much pleased with 
 the idea of going to see them. 
 
 Sviazhsky questioned him about his affairs, always 
 refusing to admit that anything could be discovered 
 which had not already been discovered in Europe ; but 
 now his theory did not arouse Levin's opposition. On 
 the contrary, he felt that Sviazhsky was right, and 
 Levin admired the gentleness and delicacy with which 
 he avoided the expression of his arguments.
 
 2i6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 The ladies were especially charming. It seemed to 
 Levin that they knew all, and that they shared his joy, 
 but that they avoided speaking of it from discretion. 
 He remained for three hours, talking on various sub- 
 jects, and continually alluding to what filled his soul, 
 without noticing that he was mortally tiring his friends, 
 and that they were falling asleep. 
 
 At last, Sviazhsky, yawning, accompanied him to the 
 vestibule, very much surprised at the strange state of 
 mind in which his friend seemed to be. It was two 
 o'clock ! Levin reached his hotel and was aghast at 
 the thought of passing the next ten hours alone, a prey 
 to his impatience. The watchman who was on duty in 
 the corridor lighted his candles, and was about to with- 
 draw when Levin stopped him. This fellow, who was 
 called Yegor and whom Levin had never before noticed, 
 seemed like a good, intelligent man, and, above all, kind- 
 hearted. 
 
 " Tell me, Yegor, don't you find it hard to go without 
 your sleep ? " 
 
 " What can I do about it ? It is our calling. We 
 have an easier time in gentlemen's houses, but here we 
 get larger wages." 
 
 It seemed that Yegor was the father of a family of 
 four children, three boys, and a girl trained as a seam- 
 stress, whom he hoped to marry to a harness-maker's 
 clerk. 
 
 Levin seized this opportunity to communicate his ideas 
 about love in marriage to Yegor, remarking that people 
 are always happy where there is love, because their hap- 
 piness is in themselves. 
 
 Yegor listened attentively, and evidently understood 
 Levin's meaning ; but he confirmed it by an unexpected 
 reflection, that when he, Yegor, had served good mas- 
 ters, he had always been satisfied with them, and that he 
 was contented with his master now, although he was a 
 Frenchman. 
 
 " What a wonderfully good fellow ! " thought Levin. 
 " Well, and did you love your wife, Yegor, when you 
 married her ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 217 
 
 "Why shouldn't I have loved her?" replied Yegor. 
 
 And Levin noticed Yegor also grew very enthusiastic 
 and was eager to confide to him his inmost thoughts. 
 
 " My life, too, has been extraordinary," he began, his 
 eyes shining, overcome by Levin's enthusiasm as one 
 catches a yawning fit. " From my childhood .... " 
 
 But the bell rang; Yegor departed, and Levin was 
 left alone. 
 
 He had eaten scarcely anything at dinner. He had 
 refused to take any tea or supper at Sviazhsky's, yet even 
 now he could not think of eating. He had not slept the 
 preceding night, yet he did not think of sleeping now. His 
 room was cold, but it seemed so stifling that he could 
 not breathe. He opened both casements, and sat down 
 on a table in front of one. Above the roofs covered 
 with snow rose the carved cross of a church, and higher 
 still were the triangular constellation of the Charioteer 
 and the bright yellow Capella. He breathed in the 
 cold air which filled his room, and looked now at the 
 cross, now at the stars, rising as in a dream among 
 the figures and memories called up by his imagination. 
 
 Toward four o'clock in the morning he heard footsteps 
 in the corridor ; he opened his door, and saw a gambler 
 named Miaskin, whom he knew, returning from his club. 
 He walked along, coughing, gloomy, and scowling. 
 
 " Poor, unfortunate fellow ! " thought Levin, and his 
 eyes filled with tears of pity and love for that man. He 
 wanted to stop him, to speak to him, and console him ; 
 but, remembering that he was undressed, he thought 
 better of it, went back, and sat down to bathe himself in 
 the icy air, and to look at the silent, foreign-looking 
 cross, so full of meaning to him, and at the brilliant, 
 yellow star poised above it. 
 
 Toward seven o'clock the men polishing the floors 
 began to make a noise, the bells rang for early morning 
 service, and Levin began to feel that he was taking cold. 
 He closed the window, made his toilet, and went out.
 
 2i8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE streets were still deserted. Levin walked to the 
 Shcherbatskys' house. The principal entrance was still 
 closed, and every one was asleep. 
 
 He returned to the hotel, went to his room, and asked 
 for coffee. The day watchman, and not Yegor, brought 
 it to him. Levin wished to enter into conversation 
 with him ; but some one rang for him, and he went out. 
 
 Then Levin tried to take his coffee, and put a piece 
 of kalatch into his mouth, but his mouth did not know 
 what to do with the bread ! He eschewed it and put 
 on his overcoat, and went out to walk again. It was just 
 ten o'clock when he reached the Shcherbatskys' steps 
 for the second time. They were beginning to get up ; 
 the cook was going to market. He would have to wait 
 at least two hours longer. 
 
 Levin had passed the whole night and the morning 
 completely oblivious of the material conditions of exist- 
 ence: he had neither eaten nor slept; had been exposed, 
 with almost no clothing, to the cold for several hours ; 
 and he not only was fresh and hearty, but he was uncon- 
 scious of his body; he moved without using his muscles, 
 and felt capable of doing anything. He was persuaded 
 that he could fly through the air or jump over the top 
 of a house if it were necessary. He roamed about the 
 streets to pass away the time, consulting his watch every 
 moment or two, and looking about him. 
 
 What he saw that day he never saw again. He was 
 particularly struck by the children on their way to school ; 
 the dark blue pigeons flying from the roof to the side- 
 walk ; the saikas or little cakes powdered with flour 
 that an invisible hand was arranging in a window. 
 These cakes, these pigeons, and two little lads were 
 celestial objects. All this happened at once : one 
 of the little lads ran toward a pigeon, and looked at 
 Levin, smiling ; the pigeon flapped its wings, and flew 
 off glittering in the sunlight through a cloud of fine 
 snow; and the smell of hot bread came through the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 219 
 
 window where the sa'fkas were displayed. All these 
 things, taken as a whole, produced so lively an impres- 
 sion on Levin that he laughed aloud until the tears 
 came. After going around by the Gazetnaya and Kis- 
 lovka streets, he went back to the hotel, sat down, 
 placed his watch before him, and waited till the hands 
 pointed to the hour of noon. 
 
 In the next room some one was talking about ma- 
 chines and hoaxes, and some one coughed a morning 
 cough. The person did not know that the hour hand/ 
 was approaching twelve. 
 
 The hour pointed to twelve. Levin went to the steps 
 of the hotel. The izvoshchiks evidently knew all about 
 it With happy faces they surrounded him, with eager 
 emulation offering their services; striving not to offend 
 the others and promising to take them some other time, 
 he made his choice and ordered the man to drive to 
 the Shcherbatskys'. The izvoshchik was charming, 
 with his white shirt-collar above his kaftan surrounding 
 his strong, red neck. He had a comfortable sleigh, 
 more comfortable than ordinary sleighs, such a sleigh 
 as Levin had never seen before, and the horse was 
 good, and did his best to run, but did not stir from the 
 spot ! The izvoshchik knew the Shcherbatsky house ; 
 he stopped before the door flourishing his arms, and 
 turned respectfully toward Levin, saying " tprru " to 
 his horse. 
 
 The Shcherbatskys' Swiss knew all about it, surely ; 
 that was plain from the look in his eyes and the way he 
 said : 
 
 " Well ! it is a long time since you have been here, 
 Konstantin Dmitritch." 
 
 Not only did he know what had happened, but he 
 was full of delight, and tried to conceal his joy. Levin 
 felt a shade happier when he caught the old man's good- 
 natured eyes. 
 
 " Are they up ? " 
 
 " Please come in. Leave that here," added the Swiss 
 as Levin was turning back to get his cap. That surely 
 had some significance.
 
 220 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " To whom shall I announce you, sir ? " asked a 
 .ackey. 
 
 This lackey, though young, new in the house, and 
 with some pretension to elegance, was very obliging, 
 very attentive, and he, too, seemed to understand the 
 situation. 
 
 " To the princess .... I mean the prince .... no, the 
 young princess," x replied Levin. 
 
 The first person whom he met was Mademoiselle 
 Linon. She was passing through the " hall," radiant 
 in her little curls and her shining face. He had hardly 
 spoken to her when the rustling of a dress was heard 
 at the door. Mademoiselle Linon disappeared from 
 before his eyes, and a joyous trepidation at the thought 
 of the happiness so near took possession of him. Made- 
 moiselle Linon hastened away and vanished through 
 another door. She had hardly gone when swift light 
 steps were heard pattering on the inlaid floor, and 
 his happiness, his life, the better part of himself, that 
 which he had yearned for so long, drew near. She did 
 not walk ; some invisible power seemed to bring her 
 toward him. 
 
 He saw only her bright, truthful eyes, filled with the 
 same timid joy of love that filled his own heart. These 
 eyes, shining nearer and nearer to him, almost blinded 
 him with their light of Jove. 
 
 She stood before him, almost touching him ; then she 
 placed her two hands gently on his shoulders. 
 
 She did all that she could : she went to him ; she 
 gave herself to him, trembling and happy. He folded 
 her in his arms, and pressed his lips to hers, expectant 
 of his kiss. 
 
 She, too, had not slept at all that night, and she had 
 been waiting for him all the morning. 
 
 Her parents were perfectly agreed, and happy in her 
 happiness. She had been on the watch for his coming. 
 
 1 Knyaginya, knyaz 1 , knyazhna. Knyaginya is the Russian title of a 
 married princess ; it also means in popular usage a bride, as knyatf 
 means prince and bridegroom ; knyazhna is applied to an unmarried 
 princess.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 221 
 
 She wanted to be the first to tell him of their happiness. 
 She was prepared to meet him alone, and she was full 
 of joy at the thought, and yet she was shy and con- 
 fused, and hardly knew what she was going to do. She 
 had heard his steps and voice, and hid herself behind the 
 door to wait till Mademoiselle Linon had gone. Made- 
 moiselle Linon went. Then without any delay, without 
 questioning further, she came to him and did as she did. 
 
 " Now, let us find mamma," said she, taking his hand. 
 
 For a long time he could not utter a word, not so 
 much because he was afraid of lessening the intensity 
 of his joy by words, but because every time he tried to 
 say anything he felt that instead of words, tears of joy 
 burst forth ; his tears choked him. He took her hand, 
 and kissed it. 
 
 " Is it really true ? " he said at last in a husky voice. 
 " I cannot believe that you love me." 
 
 She smiled at the way he used the second person 
 singular, and at the timidity with which he looked at 
 her. 
 
 "Yes," she replied, slowly lingering on this word. 
 " I am so happy ! " 
 
 Without letting go his hand, she went with him into 
 the drawing-room. As soon as the princess saw them, 
 she began to breathe fast and then she burst into tears, 
 and then she laughed, and with an energetic movement 
 which Levin was not prepared for she ran to him, seized 
 his head, and kissed him, bedewing his face with her 
 tears. 
 
 " So all is settled ? I am delighted. Love her. I 
 am so glad .... for you .... Kitty ! " 
 
 " It did n't take you long to arrange matters," said the 
 old prince, trying to appear calm ; but Levin saw his 
 eyes were full with tears, as he looked at him. 
 
 " It is something I have long been anxious for," 
 said the prince, taking Levin's hand and drawing him 
 toward him. " And even when this little giddy-pate 
 thought .... " 
 
 " Papa ! " cried Kitty, putting her hand over his 
 mouth.
 
 222 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Well, I won't say anything," said he. " I am very 
 .... very .... hap .... Akh ! how stupid I am ! " 
 
 And he took Kitty in his arms, kissed her face, her 
 hands, and then her face again, blessing her with the 
 sign of the cross. 
 
 And Levin was filled by a new feeling of affection 
 for the old prince when he saw how tenderly and fer- 
 vently Kitty kissed his great, strong hand. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE princess was sitting in her easy-chair, silent and 
 beaming ; the prince was sitting beside her ; Kitty was 
 standing near her father, holding his hand. All of 
 them were silent. 
 
 The princess was the first to bring their thoughts and 
 feelings back to the affairs of real life ; and the transi- 
 tion gave each of them, for a moment, a strange and 
 painful impression. 
 
 " When shall the wedding be ? We must announce 
 the marriage, and have them betrothed. But when 
 shall the wedding be ? What do you think about it, 
 Aleksandr ? " 
 
 " There is the person most interested," said the prince, 
 pointing to Levin. 
 
 " When ? " replied the latter, reddening. " To-mor- 
 row ! If you wish my opinion ; to-day, the betrothal ; 
 to-morrow, the wedding." 
 
 "There, there, that'll do, mon cher ; no nonsense! " 
 
 " Well, in a week, then." 
 
 " One would really suppose that you had lost your 
 senses." 
 
 "But why not?" 
 
 " Mercy on us ! " said the mother, smiling gayly at his 
 impatience. "And the trousseau?" 
 
 "Is it possible that a trousseau and all the rest are in- 
 dispensable?" thought Levin, with alarm. "However, 
 neither the trousseau, nor the betrothal, nor anything 
 else, can spoil my happiness ! Nothing can do that ! "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 223 
 
 He looked at Kitty, and noticed that the idea of the 
 trousseau did not offend her at all. " It must be very 
 necessary," he said to himself. " I admit that I know 
 nothing about it. I have merely expressed my desire," 
 said he, excusing himself. 
 
 " We will consider the matter ; now we will have the 
 betrothal, and announce the marriage. That is what 
 we will do." 
 
 The princess stepped up to her husband, kissed him, 
 and was about to move away again ; but he held her, 
 and kissed her again and again, like a young lover. 
 The two old people seemed agitated, and ready to be- 
 lieve that it was not their daughter who was to be mar- 
 ried, but themselves. 
 
 When the prince and princess had gone out, Levin 
 approached his fiancte, and took her hand ; he had re- 
 gained his self-possession, and could speak ; he had 
 many other things on his mind to tell her, but he did 
 not say at all what he intended to say. 
 
 " I knew that it would be like this ; at the bottom of 
 my heart I was sure of it, without ever daring to hope. 
 I believe that it was predestined." 
 
 " And I," replied Kitty, " even when," she hesi- 
 tated, then continued, looking at him resolutely out of 
 her sincere eyes, "even when I rejected my happi- 
 ness. I never loved anybody but you ; I was led away. 
 I ought to tell you.... I must ask you, can you for- 
 get it ? " 
 
 " Perhaps it was best that it should be so, You, too, 
 will have to pardon me, for I must confess to you." .... 
 
 This was one of the things he had on his mind to tell 
 her. He had decided to confess everything to her, from 
 his earliest life, first, that he was not so pure as she, 
 and then that he was not a believer. This was cruel, 
 but he thought it his duty to make these confessions to 
 her. 
 
 " No, not now ; later," said he. 
 
 " Very well, later, but be sure to tell me. I am not 
 afraid of anything. I want to know all, everything, 
 now it is decided 1 "
 
 224 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Is it decided," he interrupted, " that you take me 
 just as I am ? you do not take back your word ! " 
 
 "No, oh, no!" 
 
 Their conversation was interrupted by Mademoiselle 
 Linon, who, trying to look properly serious, came to 
 congratulate her favorite pupil. She had not left the 
 drawing-room before the servants came to offer their 
 congratulations. Next came the relatives and friends ; 
 and this was the beginning of that absurdly happy 
 period, from which Levin did not emerge till the day 
 after his marriage. 
 
 Although he felt constrained and ill at ease all the 
 time, yet the force of his happiness kept increasing. 
 He felt all the time that much which he knew nothing 
 about would be required of him, and he did everything 
 that he was told to do, and all this served to increase 
 his joy. He imagined that his engagement would not 
 be in the least like others ; that the ordinary conditions 
 of an engagement would destroy his especial happiness. 
 But it came about that he did exactly as everybody 
 else did in such cases, and his happiness for this very 
 reason kept increasing and grew more and more peculiar 
 and did not change, and was in no respect like that of 
 other men. 
 
 " Now," said Mademoiselle Linon, " we shall have all 
 the candy we wish for ; " and Levin ran to buy candy. 
 
 "Well, very glad!" said Sviazhsky. "I advise you 
 to get your bouquets at Fomin's." 
 
 " Do you ? " said Levin ; and he went to Fomin's. 
 
 His brother told him he would have to borrow money, 
 because there would be many expenses for presents and 
 other things. 
 
 " For presents ? Really?" and he started off on the 
 run to buy jewelry at Fulda's. 
 
 At the confectioner's, at Fomin's, at Fulda's, he 
 found that every one expected him, and every one 
 seemed glad and rejoiced in his happiness, as did every 
 one with whom he had to do those days. It was an 
 extraordinary thing that not only did they all love him, 
 but, strange as it may seem, even those who before had
 
 ANNA KARENINA 225 
 
 seemed cold, unsympathetic, and indifferent approved 
 of him in every way, treated his feelings with delicacy 
 and gentleness, and shared his convictions that he was 
 the happiest man in the world, because his " bride " was 
 the pink of perfection. 
 
 Kitty also had the same feeling. 
 
 When the Countess Nordstone alluded to the more 
 brilliant hopes that she had conceived for her friend, 
 Kitty became angry, and declared so vehemently that 
 no one in the world could be better than Levin, that the 
 countess had to confess it, and when Kitty was present 
 she never met Levin without smiling enthusiastically. 
 
 The confession which he had promised was a very 
 trying incident of this period. He consulted the old 
 prince, and, acting on his advice, Levin gave Kitty his 
 journal in which were written out all the matters 
 that troubled him. He had written this diary pur- 
 posely to show to the one whom he should marry. 
 Two things tormented him : his sins against virtue and 
 his unbelief. 
 
 The confession of his unbelief passed almost un- 
 noticed. She was religious and had never doubted the 
 truths of her religion, but her lover's superficial skepti- 
 cism did not trouble her very much. She knew through 
 love his whole soul and in his soul she found all that 
 she wanted. It was of little importance to her that 
 he termed the state of his soul incredulity. But the 
 second acknowledgment caused her to shed bitter tears. 
 
 Levin had a great struggle with himself before he 
 decided to let her read his diary. He knew that be- 
 tween him and her there could be and should be no 
 secrets, and therefore he resolved that he must do it; 
 but he did not realize what an effect it would have on a 
 young girl. 
 
 Only when, as he entered Kitty's room one evening 
 before going to the theater, and saw her lovely face 
 bathed in tears and unhappy with the irreparable woe 
 that he had caused, did he perceive the abyss that sepa- 
 rated his shameful past from her dovelike purity, and 
 he was horror-stricken at what he had done. 
 VOL. ii. 15
 
 226 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Take back these terrible papers, take them back ! " 
 she said, pushing away the sheets lying on the table. 
 " Why did you give them to me ? However, perhaps 
 it was for the best," she added, seized with pity at the 
 sight of Levin's despairing face. " But it is terrible, 
 terrible!" 
 
 He hung his head, and had nothing to say. 
 
 " You will not forgive me ! " he murmured. 
 
 " Yes, I have forgiven you ; but it is terrible ! " 
 
 However, his happiness was so immense that this con- 
 fession did not diminish it, but only served to add a 
 shade more to it. She forgave him. From that time 
 he counted himself still more unworthy of her ; morally, 
 he bowed down still lower before her and treasured the 
 happiness that he had gained still higher. He under- 
 stood the worth of it still better after this pardon. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 WHEN he returned to his lonely room, AlekseT Alek- 
 sandrovitch involuntarily recalled, little by little, the con- 
 versations that had taken place at the dinner and in the 
 evening. Darya Aleksandrovna's words about pardon 
 merely aroused his vexation. Whether he should apply 
 the Christian rule to his case or not, was a question too 
 difficult to be lightly decided ; besides, he had already 
 considered this question, and decided it in the negative. 
 Of all that had been said that day, the remark of that 
 good stupid Turovtsuin had made the liveliest impression 
 on his mind : 
 
 He did bravely, for he challenged the other man and 
 killed him. 
 
 Evidently all approved this conduct ; although out of 
 politeness they had not said so openly. 
 
 " However, this matter is ended ; it is useless to think 
 about it," said Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch to himself ; and 
 giving no more thought to anything except the prepara- 
 tions for his departure and his tour of inspection, he 
 went to his room and asked of the Swiss who showed
 
 ANNA KARENINA 227 
 
 him the way if he had seen his valet. The Swiss said 
 his valet had only just gone out. Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch ordered tea to be brought, and sitting down at the 
 table opened a railway guide and began to study the 
 departure of trains for his journey. 
 
 " Two telegrams," said his valet, returning and coming 
 into the room. "Will your Excellency please excuse 
 me, I have only just stepped out?" 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch took the telegrams and 
 opened them; the first announced the nomination of 
 Stremof to the place for which he had been ambitious. 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch threw down the despatch, 
 and with a flushed face began to walk back and forth 
 through the room. 
 
 " Qnos vult pcrdcre elemental" said he, applying quos 
 to all those who had taken part in this nomination. He 
 was not disturbed by the fact that he himself had not 
 been nominated, that he had evidently been outwitted ; 
 but it was incomprehensible to him amazing that they 
 could not see that Stremof, that babbler, that speechifier, 
 was the least fitted of all men for the place. Could they 
 not understand that they were ruining themselves, that 
 they were destroying their prestige, by such a choice ? 
 
 " Some more news of the same sort," he thought with 
 bitterness as he opened the second telegram. It was 
 from his wife; her name, "Anna," in blue pencil, was 
 the first thing that struck his eyes. 
 
 I am dying. I beg you to come ; I shall die easier if I 
 have your forgiveness. 
 
 He read these words with scorn, and threw the paper 
 on the floor. 
 
 That there was some piece of trickery, some decep- 
 tion, in this, admitted of no doubt in his mind at first 
 thought. 
 
 " There is no deceitfulness of which she is not capable. 
 She must be on the eve of her confinement, and it is 
 her sickness. But what can be her object ? To legalize 
 the child ? to compromise me ? to prevent the divorce ? 
 But what does it mean, ' I am dying ' ? "
 
 228 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 He re-read the telegram, and suddenly realized its full 
 meaning. 
 
 " If it is true, if the suffering, the approach of death, 
 have caused her to repent sincerely, and if I should call 
 this pretense, and refuse to go to her, that would not 
 only be cruel, but foolish, and all would blame me." 
 
 " Piotr, order a carriage ; I am going to Petersburg ! ' 
 said he to the valet. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch decided to go to Petersburg 
 and to see his wife. If her illness was a pretense, he 
 would say nothing and go away again; on the other 
 hand, if she were really ill unto death, and wanted to 
 see him before she died, he would forgive her ; and, if 
 he reached her too late, he could at least pay his last 
 respects to her. 
 
 During the journey he gave no more thought of what 
 he should do. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, tired and dusty with his 
 night in the coach, reached Petersburg in the mist of 
 the early morning. He rode along the still deserted 
 Nevsky Prospekt,- looking straight before him, without 
 thinking of what was awaiting him at home. He could 
 not think about it, because as soon as he tried to imagine 
 what might be, he could not drive away the suggestion 
 that his wife's death would put a sudden end to all diffi- 
 culties of his situation. 
 
 The bakers, the closed shops, the night izvoshchiks, 
 the dvorniks sweeping the sidewalks, all passed like 
 a flash before his eyes ; he noticed everything, in his 
 endeavors to stifle the thought of what was before him 
 of what he dared not hope for and yet hoped for. 
 
 He reached his house ; an izvoshchik and a carriage 
 with a coachman asleep were standing before the door. 
 
 As he entered the vestibule Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, 
 
 as it were, snatched at a decision from the most hidden 
 
 recess of his brain, and succeeded in mastering it. It 
 
 was to this effect : " If she has deceived me, I will be 
 
 t . calm and go away again ; but if she has told the truth, 
 
 / I will do what is proper." 
 
 The Swiss opened the door even before Aleksei Alek-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 229 
 
 sandrovitch rang the bell ; the Swiss Petrof, known as 
 Kapitonuitch, presented a strange appearance, dressed 
 in an old coat and slippers without any cravat. 
 
 " How is the baruinya ? " 
 
 " In the night there was a change for the better." 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch stopped short and turned 
 very pale ; he now realized how deeply he had hoped 
 for her death. 
 
 " And how is she ? " 
 
 Karnei', the servant in morning dress, came quickly 
 down the stairs. 
 
 " Very low," he said. " There was a consultation 
 yesterday, and the doctor is here now." 
 
 "Take my things," said Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, a 
 little comforted to learn that there was still hope of 
 death ; and he went into the reception-room. 
 
 A uniform overcoat hung in the hall. Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch noticed it, and asked : 
 
 " Who is here ? " 
 
 "The doctor, the nurse, and Count Vronsky." 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch went through the inner 
 rooms. There was no one in the drawing-room ; but 
 the sound of his steps brought the nurse, in a cap with 
 lilac ribbons, out of the boudoir. 
 
 She came to Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, and, taking 
 him by the hand,, with the familiarity that the approach 
 of death permits, led him into the sleeping-room. 
 
 " Thank the Lord that you have come ! She talks of 
 nothing but you ; always of you," she said. 
 
 " Bring some ice quick ! " said the imperative voice 
 of the doctor from the chamber. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch went into her boudoir. On 
 a little low chair by her table, sat Vronsky weeping, his 
 face covered with his hands. He started at the sound 
 of the doctor's voice, uncovered his face, and saw Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch. The sight of the husband disturbed 
 him so much that he sat back in his chair, crouching 
 his head down between his shoulders as if he wanted to 
 disappear out of sight ; then, making a great effort, he 
 rose and said :
 
 230 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " She is dying ; the doctors say that there is no hope. 
 I am in your power. Only allow me to remain here. 
 .... I will conform to your wishes in every other re- 
 spect. I .... " 
 
 When he saw Vronsky in tears, Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch felt the involuntary tenderness that the sufferings 
 of others always caused him ; he turned away his head 
 without replying, and went to the door. 
 
 Anna's voice could be heard from the sleeping-room, 
 lively, gay, and with clear intonations. 
 
 AlekseY Aleksandrovitch went in and approached her 
 bed. She was lying with her face turned toward him. 
 Her cheeks were bright red, her eyes brilliant ; her lit- 
 tle white hands, coming out of the sleeves of her night- 
 dress, were playing with the corner of the coverlet. 
 Not only did she seem fresh and well, but in the hap- 
 piest frame of mind ; she talked fast and loud, accenting 
 her words with precision and nicety. 
 
 " Because Aleksei' I am speaking of Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch strange, is n't it, and cruel, that both should 
 be named Aleksei ? AlekseT would not have refused 
 me ; I should have forgotten ; he would have forgiven. 
 .... Yes ! why does he not come ? He is good ; he 
 
 himself does not know how good he is Akh ! Bozhe 
 
 mol ! what agony ! Give me some water, quick ! Akh ! 
 but that is not good for her, .... my little daughter. 
 Well ! then, very good ; give her to the nurse. I am 
 willing ; that will be even better. Now when he comes, 
 she will be hateful in his sight ; take her away." 
 
 " Anna Arkadyevna, he has come; here he is," said 
 the nurse, trying to draw her attention to Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch. 
 
 " Oh, what nonsense ! " continued Anna, without see- 
 ing her husband. " There ! give the little one to me, 
 give her to me! He hasn't come yet. You pretend 
 that he will not forgive me because you do not know 
 him. No one knows him, I alone.... His eyes, one 
 must know them. Serozha's are very like them ; that 
 is why I can no longer look at them. Has Serozha had 
 his dinner ? I know he will be forgotten. Oh, do not
 
 ANNA KARENINA 231 
 
 forget him ! Let Serozha be brought into the corner- 
 chamber, and let Mariette sleep near him." 
 
 Suddenly she shrank back and was silent ; and, with 
 a look of terror, raised her arms above her head as 
 if to ward off a blow. She had recognized her hus- 
 band. 
 
 " No, no," she said quickly, "I am not afraid of him ; 
 I am afraid of dying. Alekse'f, come here. I am in a 
 hurry, because there is no time to be lost. I have only 
 a few minutes to live ; the fever will be upon me again, 
 and I shall know nothing more. Now I am conscious ; 
 I understand everything and I see everything." 
 
 AlekseY Aleksandrovitch's wrinkled face expressed 
 acute suffering ; he took her hand, and he wanted to 
 speak, but his lower lip trembled so that he could not 
 utter a word, and his emotion hardly allowed him to 
 glance at the dying woman. Every time that he turned 
 his head toward her, he saw her eyes fixed on him with 
 a humility and enthusiastic affection which he had never 
 seen there before. 
 
 " Wait ! you do not know Wait, wait ! " .... She 
 
 stopped to collect her thoughts. " Yes," she began 
 again, "yes, yes, yes, this is what I want to say. Do 
 not be astonished. I am always the same ....but there 
 is another I within me, her I fear : it is she who loved 
 him, him, and hated you ; and I could not forget what 
 I had once been. That was not I ! Now I am myself, 
 entirely, really myself, and not another. I am dying, I 
 know that I am dying ; ask him if I am riot. I feel it 
 now ; there are those terrible weights on my hand and 
 
 my feet and on my fingers My fingers ! they are 
 
 enormous, but all that will soon be over One thing 
 
 only is indispensable to me : forgive me, forgive me 
 wholly ! I am a sinner ; but Serozha's nurse told me 
 that there was a holy martyr what was her name? 
 who was worse than I. I will go to Rome ; there is a 
 desert there. I shall not trouble anybody there. I will . 
 
 only take Serozha and my little daughter No, you 
 
 cannot forgive me; I know very well that it is impossi- 
 ble. Go away, go away ! you are too perfect! "
 
 232 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 She held him with one of her burning hands, and 
 pushed him away with the other. 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch's emotion l had been all the 
 time increasing, and now it reached such a degree that 
 he could no longer control himself. He suddenly felt 
 that what he had considered his spiritual discord was, 
 on the contrary, a blessed state of the soul which im- 
 parted to him what seemed like a new and hitherto 
 unknown happiness. He had not believed that the 
 Christian law, which he had taken for a guide in life, 
 ordered him to forgive and love his enemies ; but now 
 his soul was filled with joyous love and forgiveness to 
 his enemies. He knelt beside the bed, he laid his fore- 
 head on her arm, the fever of which burned through 
 the sleeve, and sobbed like a child. She bent toward 
 him, placed her arm around her husband's bald head, 
 and raised her eyes defiantly and proudly. 
 
 " There, I knew that it would be so. Now farewell, 
 farewell all!.... They are coming back again. Why 
 don't they go away ?.... There! take off all these furs 
 from me ! " 
 
 The doctor disengaged her arms, laid her back gently 
 on her pillows, and drew the covering over her. Anna 
 made no resistance, looking all the while straight before 
 her, with shining eyes. 
 
 " Remember that I have only asked your pardon ; I 
 
 ask nothing more Why doesn't he come?" she said, 
 
 suddenly looking toward the door, toward Vronsky. 
 "Come! come here, and give him your hand." 
 
 Vronsky came to the side of the bed, and, when he 
 saw Anna, he hid his face in his hands again. 
 
 " Uncover your face ; look at him, he is a saint," said 
 she. " Yes, uncover your face ! look at him ! " she re- 
 peated in an irritated manner. " Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch, uncover his face; I want to see him." 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch took Vronsky's hands and 
 uncovered his face, disfigured by the expression of suf- 
 fering and humiliation which it wore. 
 
 " Give him your hand ; forgive him." 
 
 1 Dushevnoye razstroyelstvo, spiritual derangement or discord.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 233 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch held out his hand to him, 
 without trying to keep back the tears. 
 
 "Thank the Lord! thank the Lord! " said she; "now 
 everything is right. I will stretch out my feet a little, 
 like that ; that is better. How ugly those flowers are ! 
 they do not look like violets," she said, pointing to the 
 hangings in her room. " Bozhe mo'f ! Bozhe mpi' ! when 
 will this be over? Give me some morphine, doctor; 
 some morphine. Bozhe moif ! Bozhe mol ! " 
 
 And she tossed about on the bed. 
 
 The doctors said that this was puerperal fever and 
 that there was not one chance in a hundred of her liv- 
 ing. All that day there was fever, with alleviations of 
 delirium and unconsciousness. Toward midnight she 
 lay unconscious and her heart had almost ceased to 
 beat. 
 
 The end was expected every moment. 
 
 Vronsky went home, but he came back the next 
 morning to learn how she was. Aleksei' Aleksandro- 
 vitch came to meet him in the reception-room, and said 
 to him, "Stay; perhaps she will ask for you." Then 
 he himself took him to his wife's boudoir. In the morn- 
 ing the restlessness, the rapidity of thought and speech, 
 returned ; but soon unconsciousness intervened again. 
 The third day was much the same, and the doctors be- 
 gan .to hope. On this day Aleksei Aleksandrovitch 
 went into the boudoir where Vronsky was, closed the 
 door, and sat down in front of him. 
 
 " Aleksei Aleksandrovitch," said Vronsky, feeling 
 that an explanation was at hand, " I cannot speak, I 
 cannot think. Have pity on me ! Hard as it may be 
 for you, believe me, it is still more terrible for me." 
 
 He was going to rise ; but AlekseY Aleksandrovitch 
 prevented him, and said : 
 
 " Pray listen to me ; it is unavoidable. I am forced 
 to explain to you the feelings that guide me, and will 
 continue to guide me, that you may avoid making any 
 mistake in regard to me. You know that I had decided 
 on a divorce, and that I had taken the preliminary steps
 
 234 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 to obtain one ? I will not deny that at first I was un- 
 decided, I was in torment. I confess that the desire to 
 avenge myself on you and on her pursued me. When 
 I received the telegram, and came home, I felt the 
 same desire. I will say more; I wished for her death. 
 But...." He was silent for a moment, considering 
 whether he would wholly reveal his thoughts "but I 
 have seen her and I have forgiven her. The happiness 
 I feel at being able to forgive clearly shows me my duty. 
 I have absolutely forgiven her. I desire to offer the 
 other cheek to the smiter ; I wish to give my cloak to 
 him who has robbed me of my coat. I only ask one 
 thing of God, that He will not take away from me 
 this joy of forgiving." 
 
 Tears filled his eyes. Vronsky was amazed at the 
 calm, luminous face. 
 
 " This is my position. You may drag me in the mire, 
 and make me the laughing-stock of creation ; but I will 
 not give up Anna for that, nor will I utter a word of 
 reproach to you," continued Aleksei Aleksandrovitch. 
 " My duty seems clear and plain to me : I must remain 
 with her ; I shall remain with her. If she wishes to 
 see you, I shall inform you of it; but now I think it 
 will be better for you to go away." 
 
 He rose ; sobs choked his voice. Vronsky rose too, 
 and, standing with bowed head and humble attitude, 
 looked up at Karenin, without a word to say. He. was 
 incapable of understanding AlekseY Aleksandrovitch's 
 feelings ; but he felt that this was something too high 
 for him, something even unapproachable for a person 
 who looked on the world as he did. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 AFTER this conversation with Aleksei Aleksandrovitch 
 Vronsky went out on the steps of the Karenin house 
 and stopped, hardly knowing where he was and what 
 he had to do. He felt humiliated, perplexed, and de- 
 prived of all means of washing away his shame ; he
 
 ANNA KARENINA 235 
 
 felt thrown out of the path where till now he had 
 walked proudly and easily. All the rules which had 
 been the guides of his life, and which he had believed 
 irreproachable, proved false and untrue. The deceived 
 husband, whom he had considered a melancholy char- 
 acter, an accidental obstacle, at times absurd, happily 
 for him had suddenly been raised by her to a height 
 inspiring respect ; and this husband on this height 
 appeared not ugly, not false, not ridiculous, but good, 
 grand, and generous. Vronsky could not understand 
 it ; their roles had suddenly been interchanged. He 
 felt Karenin's grandeur and straightforwardness, and 
 his own baseness and falsity. He felt that this husband 
 was magnanimous in his grief, while he himself seemed 
 little and miserable in his deception. But this con- 
 sciousness of inferiority, in comparison to a man whom 
 he had unjustly scorned, constituted only a small part 
 of his grief. 
 
 He felt profoundly unhappy from the fact that his 
 passion for Anna, which of late had as it seemed to him 
 grown cool, was more violent than ever now that he 
 knew he was to lose her. During her illness he had 
 seen her as she was, had learned to know her very soul, 
 and it seemed to him that he had never really loved her 
 till now. He must lose her just as he had come to 
 know her and love her truly, lose her, and be left 
 with the most humiliating recollections. More horrible 
 than anything else was his ridiculous and odious posi- 
 tion when Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch had uncovered his 
 face while he was hiding it in his hands. Standing 
 motionless on the steps of the Karenin house, he seemed 
 to be entirely unconscious of what he was doing. 
 
 " Shall I call an izvoshchik ? " asked the Swiss. 
 
 "Yes, an izvoshchik." 
 
 When he reached home, after three sleepless nights, 
 Vronsky, without undressing, threw himself down on a 
 divan, folded his arms, and laid his head on them. His 
 head was heavy. The strangest reminiscences, thoughts, 
 and impressions succeeded one another in his mind with 
 extraordinary rapidity and clearness. Now it was a
 
 236 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 drink which he poured out and gave the invalid from 
 a spoon ; now he saw the nurse's white hands, then 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch's singular attitude as he knelt 
 on the floor by the bed. 
 
 " Sleep, and forget," he said to himself, with the 
 calm resolution of a man in good health who knows 
 that when he feels tired he can sleep if he will. His 
 ideas became confused ; he felt himself falling into the 
 abyss of forgetfulness. The billows of the sea of uncon- 
 scious life were already beginning to swell over his 
 head, when suddenly something like a violent electric 
 shock passed through him. He started up so abruptly 
 that his body bounded upon the springs of the divan ; 
 and he found himself in his terror on his knees. His 
 eyes were as wide open as if he had not slept at all. 
 The heaviness of his head and the lassitude which he 
 felt in all his members but a moment before had sud- 
 denly vanished. 
 
 "You may drag me in the mire." 
 
 These words of Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch rang in his 
 ears. He saw him standing before him ; he saw, too, 
 Anna's feverish face, and her brilliant eyes looking 
 tenderly, not at him, but at Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch ; 
 he saw the stupid, ridiculous figure he must have pre- 
 sented when Aleksei Aleksandrovitch drew away his 
 hands from his face. Again he threw himself back on 
 the divan, and closed his eyes. 
 
 " Sleep, and forget," he repeated to himself. 
 
 But though his eyes were closed he saw clearer than 
 ever Anna's face, just as it looked on that memorable 
 evening of the races. 
 
 " It's impossible, and will not be ; how can she efface 
 this from her memory ? I cannot live without this ! 
 But how can we be reconciled ? how can we be recon- 
 ciled ? " 
 
 He unconsciously pronounced these words aloud, and 
 their mechanical repetition for some minutes prevented 
 the recollections and forms which besieged his brain 
 from returning. But the repetition of the words did 
 not long deceive his imagination. Again, one after the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 237 
 
 other with extraordinary swiftness, the sweet moments of 
 the past and his recent humiliation began to arise in his 
 mind. " Uncover his face," said Anna's voice. He 
 took away his hands, and realized how humiliated and 
 ridiculous he must have appeared. 
 
 He still lay there trying to sleep, though he felt that 
 there was not the slightest hope of it, and repeating in 
 a whisper some formula with the design of driving away 
 the new and distressing hallucinations that kept arising. 
 He listened to his own voice repeating, with a strange 
 persistence : " You did not know hoiv to appreciate Jier, 
 you did not know how to value her ; you did not know how 
 to appreciate Jier, you did not know how to value her,'" 
 
 " What is going to happen to me ? Am I going 
 mad?" he asked himself. "Perhaps so. Why do peo- 
 ple go mad ? and why do they commit suicide ? " 
 
 And, while he was answering himself, he opened his 
 eyes and was surprised to see at his head a cushion em- 
 broidered by Varia, his brother's wife. He lightly 
 touched the tassel of the cushion and tried to fix the 
 thought of Varia in his mind and how she looked the 
 last time he saw her ; but any idea foreign to what tor- 
 mented him was still more intolerable. 
 
 " No, I must sleep." He placed the cushion under 
 his head, but it required an effort to keep his eyes 
 closed. He leaped to his feet and sat down. "All is 
 over with me ; what else can I do ? " And his imagina- 
 tion vividly pictured what life without Anna would be. 
 
 " Ambition ? Serpukhovsko'f ? the world ? the court ? " 
 No more these had power to stop him. All this once 
 had some meaning, but now it had none. He rose from 
 the divan, took off his coat, loosened his necktie and 
 bared his shaggy chest that he might breathe more 
 freely, and began to stride up and down the room. 
 
 "This makes people insane," he repeated; "this 
 causes suicide, .... to avoid disgrace," he added slowly. 
 
 He went to the door and closed it ; then, with a look 
 of determination, and with his teeth set, he went to the 
 table, took his revolver, examined it, turned the loaded 
 chamber round, and stopped to consider. He stood
 
 238 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 motionless for two minutes, with the revolver in his 
 hand, his head bowed in the attitude of intense thought. 
 " Of course," he said to himself, as if a logical sequence 
 of clear and exact ideas led him to this unquestionable 
 decision ; but in reality this to him conclusive Of Course 
 was only the consequence of a continued circle of recol- 
 lections and impressions which he had gone over for the 
 tenth time in the last hour. There were the same recol- 
 lections of a happiness lost forever, the conception of 
 the meaninglessness of all that was now before him in 
 life, the same consciousness of his shame. There was 
 the same repetition of these impressions and thoughts. 
 
 " Of course," he repeated, when for the third time 
 his mind directed itself to the same enchanted circle 
 of thoughts and recollections ; and holding the revol- 
 ver to the left side of his breast, with an unflinching 
 grip he pulled the trigger. He did not hear the sound 
 of the report, but the violent blow that he received 
 in the chest knocked him over. He tried to save him- 
 self by catching hold of the table ; he dropped his revol- 
 ver, staggered, and fell on the floor, looking about him 
 with astonishment. He could not recognize his room ; 
 the twisted legs of the table, the waste-paper basket, 
 the tiger-skin on the floor, all seemed strange to 
 him. 
 
 The quick steps of his servant running to the draw- 
 ing-room obliged him to get control of himself ; he col- 
 lected his thoughts with an effort, and seeing that he 
 was on the floor, and that blood was on his hands and 
 on the tiger-skin, he realized what he had done. 
 
 " What stupidity ! I missed my aim," he muttered, 
 feeling round for his pistol. It was quite near him, but 
 he could not find it. As he continued to grope for it, 
 he lost his balance, and fell again, bathed in his own 
 blood. 
 
 His valet, an elegant person with side-whiskers, who 
 complained freely to his friends about his delicate nerves, 
 was so frightened at the sight of his master lying on the 
 floor that he let him lie bleeding, and ran for help. 
 
 In an hour Varia, Vronsky's sister-in-law, arrived, and
 
 ANNA KARENINA 239 
 
 with the assistance of the three doctors whom she sent 
 for in all directions, and who all came at once, she suc- 
 ceeded in putting the wounded man to bed, and estab- 
 lished herself as his nurse. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 ALEKSEI' ALEKSANDROVITCH, when he prepared to see 
 his wife again, had not foreseen the contingency of her 
 repentance being genuine, and then of her recovery after 
 she had obtained his pardon. This mistake appeared to 
 him in all its seriousness two months after his return 
 from Moscow ; but the mistake which he had made pro- 
 ceeded not only from the fact that he had not foreseen 
 this eventuality, but also from the fact that not until the 
 day when he looked on his dying wife had he understood 
 his own heart. Beside the bed of his dying wife, he had 
 given way, for the first time in his life, to that feeling of 
 sympathy for the griefs of others, against which he had 
 always fought as one fights against a dangerous weak- 
 ness. His pity for her and remorse at having wished 
 for her death, but above all the joy of forgiving, had 
 made him suddenly feel, not only a complete alleviation 
 of his sufferings, but also a spiritual calmness such as he 
 had never before experienced. He suddenly felt that 
 the very thing that had been a source of anguish was 
 now the source of his spiritual joy ; what had seemed 
 insoluble when he was filled with hatred and anger, 
 became clear and simple now that he loved and for- 
 gave. 
 
 He had pardoned his wife, and he pitied her because 
 of her suffering and repentance. He had forgiven Vron- 
 sky, and pitied him too, especially after he heard of his 
 desperate act. He also pitied his son more than before, 
 because he felt that he had neglected him. But what he 
 felt for the new-born child was more than pity, it was 
 almost tenderness. At first, solely from a feeling of pity, 
 he looked after this little new-born girl, who was not his 
 daughter, and who was so neglected during her mother's
 
 2 4 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 illness that she would have surely died if he had not 
 taken her in charge ; and, before he was aware of it, he 
 became attached to her. He would go several times a 
 day into the nursery, and sit there, so that the wet-nurse 
 and the bonne, though they were a little intimidated at 
 first, gradually became accustomed to his presence. He 
 stayed sometimes for half an hour, silently gazing at the 
 saffron-red, wrinkled, downy face of the sleeping child, 
 following her motions as she scowled, and puckered her 
 lips, watching her rub her eyes with the back of her little 
 hands, curling up her round fingers. And at these mo- 
 ments especially, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch felt calm and 
 at peace with himself, seeing nothing abnormal in his 
 situation, nothing that he felt the need of changing. 
 
 However, as time went on, he felt more and more that 
 he would not be permitted to remain in this situation, 
 however natural it seemed to him, and that nobody would 
 allow it. 
 
 He felt that, besides the holy and spiritual force 
 that guided his soul, there was another force, brutal, 
 equally if not more powerful, which directed his life, 
 and that this power would not give him the peace that 
 he desired. He felt that every one was looking at him, 
 and questioning his attitude, not understanding it, and 
 expecting him to do something. Especially he felt the 
 unnaturalness and constraint of his relations with his 
 wife. 
 
 When the tenderness which she felt at the expecta- 
 tion of death had passed away, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch 
 began to notice how Anna feared him, how she dreaded 
 his presence, and did not dare to look him in the face ; 
 she seemed to be always pursued by a thought she dared 
 not express, and as if she had a presentiment that 
 their present relations could not last ; she, too, expected 
 some move from her husband. 
 
 Toward the end of February, the little girl, who had 
 been named Anna for her mother, was taken ill. In the 
 morning Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch had seen her in the 
 nursery, and, after he had left orders about calling 
 the doctor he went to the ministry meeting. Having
 
 ANNA KARENINA 241 
 
 transacted his business he returned at four o'clock; as 
 he entered the anteroom, he noticed an Adonis of a 
 lackey, in livery and bearskin cloak, holding a white 
 rotonda, or mantle, lined with American fox. 
 
 " Who is here ? " he asked. 
 
 " The Princess Yelizavyeta Feodorovna Tverskaya," 
 replied the lackey, with a smile, as it seemed to AlekseT 
 Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 All through this painful period Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch noticed that his society friends, especially the 
 women, showed a very marked interest in him and in 
 his wife. He noticed in them all that veiled look of 
 amusement which he saw in the lawyer's eyes, and which 
 he now saw in the lackey's. They all seemed delighted, 
 as if they were going to a wedding. When people met 
 him, and inquired after his health, they did so with this 
 same half-concealed hilarity. 
 
 The presence of the Princess Tverskaya was not agree- 
 able to Aleksel' Aleksandrovitch, both because he had 
 never liked her, and because she called up unpleasant 
 memories, and so he went directly to the nursery. 
 
 In the first room, Serozha, leaning on a table, with 
 his feet in a chair, was drawing, and chattering merrily. 
 The English governess, who had replaced the French 
 woman soon after Anna's illness, was sitting near the 
 child, with her fancy work in her hand ; she rose, made 
 a courtesy, and put Serozha's feet down. 
 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch smoothed his son's hair, an- 
 swered the governess's questions about his wife's health, 
 and asked what the doctor said about baby. 
 
 "The doctor said that it was "nothing serious. He 
 ordered baths, sir." 
 
 " She is still in pain, nevertheless," said Aleksel Alek- 
 sandrovitch, hearing the child cry in the next room. 
 
 " I believe, sir, that the wet-nurse does not suit her," 
 replied the Englishwoman, decidedly. 
 
 " What makes you think so ? " he asked, as he paused 
 on his way. 
 
 " It was the same at the Countess Pahl's, sir. They 
 dosed the child with medicine, while it was merely suf- 
 VOL. n. 1 6
 
 242 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 fering from hunger, sir. The wet-nurse had not enough 
 milk for it." 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch considered for a few mo- 
 ments, and then went into the adjoining room. The 
 child was crying as she lay in her nurse's arms, with her 
 head thrown back, refusing the full breast that was of- 
 fered her, and screamed, without yielding to the blandish- 
 ments of the two women bending over her. 
 
 "Isn't she any better?" asked Aleksei' Aleksandro- 
 vitch. 
 
 " She is very worrisome," replied the old nurse, in a 
 whisper. 
 
 " Miss Edwards says that perhaps the nurse has n't 
 enough milk for her," said he. 
 
 " I think so too, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch." 
 
 " Why have n't you said so ? " 
 
 " Whom should I say it to ? Anna Arkadyevna is 
 still ill," replied the old nurse, discontentedly. 
 
 The old nurse had been in the family a long time, and 
 these simple words struck Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch as 
 an allusion to his position. 
 
 The child cried harder and harder, losing its breath, 
 and becoming hoarse. The old nurse threw up her hands 
 in despair, took the little one from the wet-nurse, and 
 rocked her as she walked back and forth. 
 
 M You must ask the doctor to examine the wet-nurse," 
 said Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 The wet-nurse, a healthy-looking woman of fine ap- 
 pearance, sprucely dressed, who was afraid of losing her 
 position, muttered to herself, as she fastened her dress 
 over her great bosom-, smiling scornfully at the doubt 
 of her not having enough nourishment. In her smile 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch also detected ridicule of his 
 position. 
 
 " Poor little thing ! " said the old nurse, trying to hush 
 the child and still walking back and forth. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch sat down in a chair, sad and 
 crestfallen, and followed the old nurse with his eyes as 
 she walked up and down with the child. When at last 
 she had pacified it and placed it in the cradle, and, hav-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 243 
 
 ing arranged the little pillow, had moved away, Aleksei" 
 Aleksandrovitch rose, and went up to it on tiptoe. For 
 a moment he was silent, and looked with melancholy face 
 at the little thing. But suddenly a smile which moved 
 his hair and the skin on his forehead spread over his face, 
 and he quietly left the room. 
 
 He went into the dining-room, rang the bell, and or- 
 dered the servant that answered it to send for the doc- 
 tor again. He was displeased because his wife seemed 
 to take so little interest in this charming baby, and in 
 this state of annoyance he wished neither to go to her 
 room, nor to meet the Princess Betsy ; but his wife might 
 wonder why he did not come as usual ; he crushed down 
 his feelings and went to her chamber. As he walked 
 along toward the door on a thick carpet, he unintention- 
 ally overheard a conversation which he would not have 
 cared to hear. 
 
 " If he were not going away, I should understand 
 your refusal, and his also. But your husband ought to 
 be above that," said Betsy. 
 
 " It is not for my husband's sake, but my own, that I 
 don't wish it. So say nothing more about it," replied 
 Anna's agitated voice. 
 
 " Yes, but you can't help wanting to say good-by to 
 the man who shot himself on your account." .... 
 
 " That is the very reason I do not wish to see him 
 again." 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, with an expression of fear 
 and guilt, stopped, and started to go away without being 
 heard ; but, considering that this would lack dignity, he 
 turned round again, and, coughing, went toward the 
 chamber. The voices were hushed, and he went into 
 the room. 
 
 Anna, in a gray khalat, with her thick dark hair cut 
 short on her round head, was sitting in a reclining-chair. 
 All her animation disappeared, as usual, at the sight of 
 her husband ; she bowed her head, and glanced uneasily 
 at Betsy. Betsy, dressed in the latest fashion, with a 
 little hat perched on the top of her head, like a cap over 
 a lamp, in a dove-colored gown, trimmed with bright-col-
 
 244 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ored bands on the waist on one side, and on the skirt 
 on the other, was sitting beside Anna. She sat up as 
 straight as possible, and welcomed Aleksei Aleksandro- 
 vitch with a nod and a sarcastic smile. 
 
 "Ah!" she began, affecting surprise, "I am delighted 
 to meet you at home. You never show yourself any- 
 where, and I haven't seen you since Anna was taken 
 ill. I learned of your anxiety from others. Indeed ! you 
 are a wonderful husband ! " said she, with a significant 
 and flattering look, as much as to say that she conferred 
 on him the "order" of magnanimity on account of his 
 behavior toward his wife. 
 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch bowed coldly, and, kissing 
 his wife's hand, inquired how she was. 
 
 " Better, I think," she replied, avoiding his look. 
 
 " However, your face has a feverish look," he said, 
 emphasizing the word " feverish." 
 
 "We have talked too much," said Betsy. "It was 
 selfish on my part, and I am going now." 
 
 She rose ; but Anna, suddenly flushing, seized her 
 quickly by the arm. 
 
 " No, stay, I beg of you. I must tell you, .... no,jw/," 
 she addressed Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, while the color 
 increased on her neck and brow. " I cannot, nor do I 
 wish to, hide anything from you," said she. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch cracked his knuckles and 
 bent his head. 
 
 " Betsy has told me that Count Vronsky wishes to 
 come to our house to say good-by before he goes to 
 Tashkend." 
 
 She did not look at her husband, and she evidently 
 was in haste to get through with it, however hard it 
 might be. " I have said that I could not receive 
 him." 
 
 " You said, my dear, that it would depend on AlekseT 
 Aleksandrovitch," corrected Betsy. 
 
 " Yes ! No, I cannot see him, and it would not do 
 any...." she stopped suddenly, and looked inquiringly 
 at her husband's face ; he was not looking at her. " In 
 short, I do not wish .... "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 245 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch approached, and wanted to 
 take her hand. 
 
 Anna's first impulse was to withdraw her hand from 
 her husband's clammy hand with its big, swollen veins ; 
 but she evidently controlled herself, and pressed it. 
 
 " I am very grateful to you for your confidence, but 
 .... " he began, then stopped, awkward and annoyed, 
 feeling that what he could easily and clearly decide 
 when by himself, he could not settle in the presence of 
 the Princess Tverskaya, who was the incarnation of that 
 brutal force which he had to take as the guide of his 
 life in the eyes of the world, and obliged him to re- 
 nounce his feelings of love and forgiveness. He stopped 
 as he looked at the Princess Tverskaya. 
 
 "Well, good-by, my treasure," said Betsy, rising. 
 She kissed Anna, and went out. Karenin accompanied 
 her. 
 
 " Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, I know that you are an 
 extraordinarily magnanimous man," said Betsy, stopping 
 in the middle of the boudoir to press his hand again with 
 unusual fervor; "I am a stranger, and I love her so 
 much, and esteem you so highly, that I take the liberty 
 of giving you a bit of advice. Let him come. Aleksei 
 Vronsky is the personification of honor, and he is going 
 to Tashkend." 
 
 " I thank you for your sympathy and your advice, 
 princess ; but the question whether my wife can or can- 
 not receive anybody is for her to decide." 
 
 He spoke these words with dignity, raising his eye- 
 brows as usual; but he felt at once that, whatever his 
 words had been, dignity was inconsistent with the situ- 
 ation. The sarcastic and wicked smile with which 
 Betsy greeted his remark proved it beyond a doubt. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 ALEKSEI ALEKSANDROVITCH took leave of Betsy in 
 the "hall" and returned to his wife; she was lying 
 down, but, hearing her husband's steps, she sat up
 
 246 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 quickly in her former position, and looked at him in a 
 frightened way. He saw that she had been crying. 
 
 " I am very grateful to you for your confidence in 
 me," said he, gently, repeating in Russian the remark 
 that he had just made in French before Betsy. 
 
 When he spoke to her in Russian, and used the 
 familiar second person singular tui, this tui irritated 
 Anna in spite of herself. " I am very grateful for your 
 decision ; for I agree with you that, since Count Vronsky 
 is going away, there is no necessity of his coming here ; 
 besides.... " 
 
 " Yes ! but as I have said that, why repeat it ? " in- 
 terrupted Anna, with an annoyance which she could not 
 control. "No necessity," she thought, "for a man to 
 say farewell to the woman he loves, for whom he has 
 wished to commit suicide, and who cannot live without 
 him ! " 
 
 She pressed her lips together, and fixed her flashing 
 eyes on her husband's hands with their swollen veins, 
 as he stood slowly rubbing them together. 
 
 " We will not say any more about that," she added, 
 more calmly. 
 
 " I have given you perfect freedom to decide this 
 question, and I am happy to see .... " Alekse'f Aleksan- 
 drovitch began again. 
 
 "That my desires are in conformity with yours," 
 finished Anna, quickly, exasperated to hear him speak 
 so slowly, when she knew beforehand what he was 
 going to say. 
 
 "Yes," he affirmed; "and the Princess Tverskaya 
 shows very poor taste to meddle in family affairs, she 
 of all others." .... 
 
 " I don't believe what they say about her," said Anna. 
 " I only know that she loves 'me sincerely." 
 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch sighed, and was silent. Anna 
 played nervously with the tassels of her khalat, and 
 looked at him now and then, with that feeling of physi- 
 cal repulsion which she reproached herself for, without 
 being able to overcome. All that she wished for at this 
 moment was to be rid of his distasteful presence.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 247 
 
 "Ah! I have just sent for the doctor," said Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 "What for? I am well." 
 
 " For the baby, the little one cries so much ; they think 
 that the nurse has n't enough nourishment for her." 
 
 " Why did n't you let me nurse her, when I urged it so ? 
 All the same " (Aleksei Aleksandrovitch understood 
 what she meant by all the same}, " she is a baby, and 
 they will kill her." She rang, and sent for the little one. 
 " I wanted to nurse her, and you would n't let me, and 
 now you blame me." 
 
 " I do not blame you for anything." .... 
 
 "Yes, you do blame me! Bozhe moi'! why didn't I 
 die ! " She began to sob. " Forgive me : I am nervous 
 and unjust," she said, trying to control herself. " But 
 go away." 
 
 " No, this state of things cannot go on," said Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch to himself, as he left his wife's room. 
 
 Never before had he been so convinced of the im- 
 possibility of prolonging such a situation before the 
 world: never had his wife's dislike of him, and the 
 strength of that mysterious brutal force which had taken 
 possession of his life, to rule it contrary to the needs of 
 his soul and to make him change his relations to his wife, 
 appeared to him with such clearness. 
 
 He saw clearly that the world and his wife exacted 
 something from him which he did not fully understand. 
 He felt that it aroused within him feelings of hatred, 
 which disturbed his peace, and destroyed the worth of 
 his victory over himself. Anna, in his opinion, ought 
 to have nothing more to do with Vronsky ; but if every- 
 body considered this impossible, he was ready to tolerate 
 their meeting, on condition that the children should not 
 be disgraced, or his own life disturbed. 
 
 Wretched as this was it was, nevertheless, better 
 than a rupture whereby she would be placed in a shame- 
 ful and hopeless position, and he himself would be de- 
 prived of all that he loved. But he felt his powerlessness 
 in this struggle, and knew beforehand that all were 
 against him and that he would be prevented from doing
 
 248 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 what seemed to him wise and good, and that he would 
 be obliged to do what was bad, but necessary to be 
 done. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 BETSY had not left the " hall " when Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch appeared on the threshold. He had come from 
 Eliseyef's, where they had just received fresh oysters. 
 
 " Ah, princess ! . you here ? What a fortunate meeting ! 
 I have just been at your house." 
 
 "The meeting is but for a moment; I am going," 
 replied Betsy, smiling, as she buttoned her gloves. 
 
 " Wait just a moment, princess ; allow me to kiss your 
 little hand before you put on your glove. Nothing 
 pleases me so much, in returning to ancient ways, as 
 the custom of kissing a lady's hand." 
 
 He kissed Betsy's hand. 
 
 " When shall we meet again ? " 
 
 " You don't deserve to see me," replied Betsy, laughing, 
 
 " Oh, yes, I do ! for I have become a very serious man. 
 I regulate not only my own family affairs, but also other 
 people's," said he, with a significant expression in his 
 face. 
 
 "Ah! I' am delighted to hear it," replied Betsy, 
 instantly knowing that he referred to Anna. 
 
 Going back into the " hall," they stood in a corner. 
 
 " He is killing her," she whispered, with conviction. 
 " It is impossible, impossible...." 
 
 " I am very glad that you think so," replied Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, shaking his head with sympathetic com- 
 miseration. "That is why I am in Petersburg." 
 
 " The whole town are talking about it," said she ; "this 
 situation is intolerable. She is fading away before our 
 very eyes. He does n't understand that she is one of 
 those women whose feelings cannot be treated lightly. 
 One of two things, either he ought to take her away, 
 and act decidedly, or else be divorced. But this is kill- 
 ing her." 
 
 "Yes, yes.... exactly ...." said Oblonsky, with a sigh.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 249 
 
 '* I have come for that ; that is to say, not entirely for 
 that .... I have just been made chamberlain, so I had to 
 show my gratitude ; but the main thing was to arrange 
 this matter." 
 
 " Well ! may the Lord help you ! " said Betsy. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch accompanied the Princess Betsy 
 to the door, once more kissed her wrist just above her 
 glove, where the pulse beats, and after paying her such an 
 impudent compliment that she did not know whether 
 to laugh or take offense, he left her to go to his sister. 
 He found her in tears. 
 
 In spite of the exuberance of his lively spirits, Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch fell instantly and with perfect genuineness 
 into the tone of sympathetic and poetical tenderness 
 which suited his sister's frame of mind. He asked how 
 she felt, and how she had passed the day. 
 
 " Wretchedly, very wretchedly ! Night and day, the 
 future and the past, all.... wretched," she replied. 
 
 " It seems to me, you have yielded to the blues. You 
 must have courage ; look life in the face. It is hard, I 
 know, but ...." 
 
 " I have heard that some women love men for their 
 very vices," began Anna, suddenly ; " but I hate him 
 for his virtue. I cannot live with him. Understand 
 me, the sight of him has a physical effect on me which 
 drives me out of my mind. I cannot, cannot live with 
 him ! What shall I do ? I have been unhappy before, 
 and I thought it impossible to be more so, but this horrible 
 state of things surpasses all that I could have imagined. 
 Can you believe that, though I know how good and per- 
 fect he is, and how unworthy of him I am, still I hate 
 him ! I hate him for his magnanimity. There is abso- 
 lutely nothing left for me but to ...." 
 
 She was going to add " die," but Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 did not let her finish. 
 
 " You are ill and nervous, believe me ; you exagger- 
 ate everything. There is really nothing so very ter- 
 rible." 
 
 And Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled. No one except 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, meeting such despair, would have
 
 250 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ventured to smile, for it would have seemed rude, but 
 his smile was so full of kindness, and an almost effemi- 
 nate sweetness, that, instead of irritating, it was calm- 
 ing and soothing ; his gentle soothing words and smile 
 acted like oil of sweet almonds. Anna at once felt the 
 effect. 
 
 "No, Stiva," said she, "I am lost, lost! worse than 
 lost. And yet, I am not yet lost : I cannot still say 
 that all is over ; on the contrary, I feel that all is not yet 
 over. I seem like a cord too tightly stretched, which 
 must break. But the end has not yet come, and it will 
 be terrible." 
 
 " No, no ; the cord can be carefully unstrung. There 
 is no difficulty without some way out of it." 
 
 " I have thought it over, and thought it over, and I 
 see only one...." 
 
 Again he saw by her look of dismay that the one way 
 that she meant was death, and again he did not allow 
 her to finish. 
 
 " No, listen to me ; you cannot judge of your position 
 so well as I. Let me tell you frankly my opinion." He 
 smiled again cautiously, with his almond-oily smile. " I 
 will begin at the beginning : you married a man twenty 
 years older than yourself, and you married without love, 
 or, at least, without knowing what love was. It was 
 a mistake -as well admit it." 
 
 " A terrible mistake ! " said Anna. 
 
 " But, I repeat it, it was an accomplished fact. You 
 then had, let us say, the misfortune to fall in love not 
 with your husband ; that was a misfortune, but that, too, 
 was an accomplished fact. Your husband knew it, and 
 forgave it." After each sentence he stopped, as if to 
 give her time to reply, but she said nothing. " Now, 
 the question is, can you continue to live with your hus- 
 band ? do you wish it ? does he wish it ? " 
 
 "I know nothing about it, nothing." 
 
 " But you yourself have just said that you could no 
 longer endure him." 
 
 " No, I did not say so. I deny it. I know nothing, 
 I understand nothing."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 251 
 
 " Yes ! but allow me ...." 
 
 " You cannot understand it. I feel that I am precipi- 
 tated, head first, into an abyss, and I may not save my. 
 self. I cannot." 
 
 " You will see that we can prevent you from falling, 
 and from being crushed. I understand you. I feel that 
 you are not able to express your feelings, your desires." 
 
 "I desire nothing, nothing only to end all this." 
 
 " He sees this, and knows it. Do you suppose that 
 he does n't feel the strain as much as you do ? You 
 suffer, he suffers ; and what way of escape is there 
 from all this torture ? Then, when a divorce would 
 settle everything...." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch with difficulty expressed his 
 principal idea, and looked to Anna to see what effect it 
 would have. 
 
 She said nothing and shook her head disapprovingly. 
 But by the expression of her face, which suddenly lighted 
 up with something of her former beauty, he saw that, if 
 she did not wish this; it was because the thought of its 
 being realized was too enticing. 
 
 " I am awfully sorry for you ! how happy I should be 
 if I could arrange it for you ! " said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch. " Don't say a word ! If God will only permit 
 me to express all that I feel ! I am going to find Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch." 
 
 Anna looked at him out of her brilliant, thoughtful 
 eyes, and did not reply. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 STEPAN ARKADYEVITCH went into his brother-in-law's 
 cabinet, with the solemn face which he tried to assume 
 when he sat in his official chair at a council-meeting. 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, with his arms behind his back, 
 was walking up and down the room, considering the 
 same thing that Stepan Arkadyevitch had been discuss- 
 ing with his wife. 
 
 " Shall I disturb you ? " asked Stepan Arkadyevitch.
 
 252 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 suddenly feeling an unwonted embarrassment. In order 
 to conceal his embarrassment, he took a new cigar-case 
 out of his pocket, smelt of the leather, and took out a 
 cigarette. 
 
 " No. Do you wish to see me ? " asked Alekse'i 
 Aleksandrovitch, reluctantly. 
 
 "Yes ....I would like ....I must.... yes, I must have a 
 talk with you," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, surprised at 
 his confusion. 
 
 This feeling was so strange and unexpected to him, 
 that he did not recognize in it the voice of conscience, 
 warning him that what he hoped to do was evil. He 
 recovered himself with an effort, and conquered the 
 weakness which took possession of him. 
 
 " I hope that you believe in my love for my sister, 
 and in my sincere sympathy and regard for you," said 
 he, and his face grew red. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch listened, and made no reply ; 
 but his face struck Stepan Arkadyevitch by its expres- 
 sion of humility and pain. 
 
 " I intended, I came on purpose, to speak with you 
 about my sister, and the situation in which you and she 
 are placed," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, still struggling 
 with his unusual embarrassment. 
 
 Alekse'i' Aleksandrovitch smiled sadly, looked at his 
 brother-in-law, and, without replying, went to the table, 
 took up a half-written letter, and handed it to him. 
 
 " I can think of nothing else. This is what I began 
 to write, thinking that I could express myself better in 
 a letter, for my presence irritates her," said he, giving 
 him the letter. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch took the paper, and looked with 
 perplexity and surprise at his brother-in-law's dull eyes, 
 which were fixed on him ; then he read : 
 
 I see that my presence is disagreeable to you ; painful as 
 it is for me to recognize it, I know that it is so, and it cannot 
 be otherwise. I do not blame you. God knows that, during 
 your illness, I resolved to forget the past, and to begin a new 
 life. I am not sorry, I never shall be sorry, for what I did then. 
 I desired only one thing, your salvation, the salvation of your
 
 ANNA KARENINA 253 
 
 soul, and now I see that I have not succeeded. Tell me 
 yourself, what will give you true peace and happiness, and I 
 will submit to whatever you may deem just and right. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch gave the letter back to his 
 brother-in-law ; and with the same perplexity, he simply 
 stared at his brother-in-law, not knowing what to say. 
 This silence was so uncomfortable to both that Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch's lips trembled convulsively, while he did 
 not take his eyes from Karenin's face. 
 
 " That is what I wanted to say to her," said Aleksel 
 Aleksandrovitch, turning away. 
 
 "Yes, yes," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, but he could 
 not go on, the tears so choked his utterance. " Yes, 
 yes, I understand you." 
 
 " I should like to know what she wishes," said he, at 
 last. 
 
 "I am afraid that she herself does not realize her 
 own situation. She is not a judge of the matter," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, trying to recover himself. " She 
 is crushed, literally crushed, by your magnanimity ; if 
 she should read your letter, she would be unable to say 
 a word, and could only bow her head still lower." 
 
 " Yes ! But what is to be done in such a case ? How 
 can it be settled ? How can I know what she wishes ? " 
 
 " If you will allow me to express my opinion, I think 
 it is for you to state clearly what measure you believe 
 necessary to put an end to this situation at once." 
 
 "Consequently, you think it ought to be ended at 
 once ? " interrupted Aleksef Aleksandrovitch. " But 
 how ? " he added, passing the back of his hand over his 
 eyes in an unusual way. " I see no possible way out 
 of it ! " 
 
 " There is a way out of every difficulty, however 
 serious it may be," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, rising, and 
 growing more animated. " There was a time when you 
 wished for a divorce .... if you are convinced now that 
 you can never be happy together again .... " 
 
 " Happiness may be understood in different ways. 
 Let us grant that I agree to everything, that I have no
 
 254 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 wishes in the matter, what escape is there from om 
 situation ? " 
 
 " If you wish for my advice," said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch-, with the same smooth, almond-oily, affectionate 
 smile with which he had spoken to his sister ; and this 
 smile was so persuasive that Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, 
 giving himself up to the weakness which overpowered 
 him, was involuntarily inclined to believe what his 
 brother-in-law said. " She will never say what her 
 wishes are. But there is one thing possible, one thing 
 that she may hope for," continued Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, " and that is to break the bonds which are only 
 the cause of cruel recollections. In my opinion, it is 
 indispensable to put your relations on an entirely new 
 footing, and that can only be done by both of you re- 
 suming your freedom." 
 
 " Divorce ! " interrupted Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, 
 with disgust. 
 
 " Yes, I suppose that divorce .... yes, divorce," repeated 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, blushing. " Taking everything 
 into consideration, that is the most sensible course when 
 two married people find themselves in such a situation 
 as yours. What is to be done, when husband and wife 
 find that living together is impossible ? This can always 
 be brought about." 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch drew a deep sigh, and cov- 
 ered his eyes. 
 
 "There is only one consideration, whether one of 
 the parties wishes to marry again. If not, it is very 
 simple," continued Stepan Arkadyevitch, recovering 
 more and more from his feeling of constraint. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, with his face distorted by 
 emotion, muttered something to himself, but made no 
 reply. What seemed so simple to Oblonsky, he had 
 turned over a thousand thousand times in his mind, and, 
 instead of finding it very easy, found it utterly impossible. 
 Now that the conditions for divorce were known to him, 
 it seemed to him impossible, because the sense of his 
 personal dignity, as well as his respect for religion, pre- 
 vented him from confessing to a fictitious accusation of
 
 ANNA KARENINA 255 
 
 adultery and still less permitting his wife, whom he had 
 once pardoned and still loved, to be disgraced and put 
 to shame. Divorce seemed impossible from still other 
 and even more important reasons. 
 
 What would become of their son ? To leave him 
 with his mother was impossible. The divorced mother 
 would have her own illegitimate family, in which the 
 child's position and training would be wretched. Should 
 he keep the child for himself ? But he knew that would 
 be an act of vengeance, and vengeance he did not want 
 
 But, above all, what made divorce impossible in his 
 eyes was the thought that, in consenting to it, he him- 
 self would contribute to Anna's destruction. The words 
 spoken by Darya Aleksandrovna, when he was in Mos- 
 cow, remained graven in his heart, that in getting a 
 divorce, he was thinking only of himself, and forgetting 
 that it would be her irretrievable ruin. These words, 
 now that he had forgiven her and had become attached to 
 the children, had a very significant meaning to him. 
 To consent to a divorce, to give Anna her liberty, was 
 to cut away the last tie that bound himself to life, to 
 her children whom he loved, and was to take away her 
 last help in the way of salvation, and to push her over 
 the precipice. 
 
 If she became a divorced woman, he knew very well 
 that she would be united to Vronsky, and such a bond 
 would be criminal and illegal ; because a woman, ac- 
 cording to the laws of the Church, cannot enter into a 
 second marriage during the lifetime of her husband. 
 
 " And who knows but, after a year or two, either he 
 might abandon her, or she might form a new liaison ? " 
 thought Aleksel Aleksandrovitch ; " and I, having 
 allowed an illegal divorce, should be responsible for her 
 fall." 
 
 He had gone over all this a hundred times, and was 
 convinced that divorce was not by any means so simple 
 as his brother-in-law would make it out ; that it was 
 wholly impossible. 
 
 He did not admit a word of what Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch said ; he had a thousand arguments to refute such
 
 256 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 reasoning ; and, notwithstanding this, he listened, feel- 
 ing that his words were the manifestation of that irre- 
 sistible force which ruled his life, and to which he would 
 finally submit. 
 
 " The only question is, how, on what conditions, you 
 will consent to a divorce ; for she will never dare to ask 
 anything of you, and will give herself up entirely to your 
 magnanimity." 
 
 " My God ! my God ! why has this come upon me ? " 
 thought Aleksei Aleksandrovitch ; and, as he remem- 
 bered the condition of divorce in which the husband 
 assumed the blame, from shame he buried his face in 
 his hands, as Vronsky had done. 
 
 " You are distressed ; I understand it ; but if you will 
 consider ...." 
 
 " ' Whosoever smiteth thee on the right cheek, turn 
 to him the other also ; and if any man would take away 
 thy coat, let him have thy cloak also/ " thought Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch. " Yes, yes ! " he cried, in his piping 
 voice. " I will take all the shame upon myself ; I will 
 
 even give up my son But will it not be better to leave 
 
 all that ? However, do as you please." .... 
 
 And turning away from his brother-in-law, that he 
 might not see his face, he sat down near the window. 
 He was grieved ; he was ashamed ; but with this grief 
 and shame he felt a sense of happiness and emotion in 
 the consciousness of his own humility. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch was touched. 
 
 "Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, be assured that she will 
 appreciate your generosity," said he, after a pause. " It 
 is, without doubt, the will of God," he added ; but he 
 felt,- as soon as the words were out of his mouth, what a 
 foolish remark it was, and he could hardly restrain a 
 smile at his own foolishness. 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch would have replied, but 
 tears prevented him. 
 
 "This trial comes by fate, and it must be accepted. 
 I accept it as an accomplished fact, and I will try to 
 help you and her," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 When Stepan Arkadyevitch left his brother-in-law's
 
 ANNA KARENINA 257 
 
 cabinet, he was touched, but this fact did not prevent 
 him from being delighted at having settled this matter ; 
 for he was certain that Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch would 
 not go back on his word. His satisfaction suggested a 
 conundrum which he could ask his wife and intimate 
 friends : 
 
 " What is .the difference between me and a field-mar- 
 shal ? The field-marshal makes divorces, and nobody is 
 the better for it ; while I make divorces, and three peo- 
 ple are better off Or, rather, what resemblance is 
 
 there between me and a field-marshal? Where ....but 
 by and by I '11 improve on it," he said to himself with a 
 smile. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 VRONSKY'S wound was dangerous, although it did not 
 reach the heart. He hung for several days between life 
 and death. When for the first time he was in a condi- 
 tion to talk, only Varia, his brother's wife, was in his 
 room. 
 
 "Varia!" said he, looking at her gravely, "I shot 
 myself accidentally. Now please never speak to me 
 about this, but tell every one so ; otherwise it will seem 
 too stupid ! " 
 
 Varia bent over him without replying, examining his 
 face with a happy smile. His eyes were bright, but no 
 longer feverish, but their expression was stern. 
 
 " Well ! Thank the Lord ! " she replied. " Are you 
 suffering ? " 
 
 " A little on this side," said he, pointing to his chest. 
 
 " Let me change the dressing, then." 
 
 Squinting, he silently watched her change it, and 
 when she had finished, he said : 
 
 " I am not delirious now. See to it, I beg of you, 
 that nobody says that I shot myself intentionally." 
 
 " Nobody says so. I hope, however, that after this 
 you will not shoot yourself accidentally again," she said 
 with a questioning smile. 
 VOL. n. 17
 
 158 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Probably I shall not ; but it would have been 
 better.... " 
 
 And he smiled gloomily. 
 
 In spite of these words and this smile which so 
 alarmed Varia, when the inflammation had subsided 
 and he began to recover, he felt that he was free from 
 a part of his misfortunes. By his action he had washed 
 away, as it were, his shame and humiliation, which had 
 weighed on him before. Henceforth he could think 
 calmly of Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. He recognized all 
 his magnanimity without being crushed by it. Besides, 
 he was able to be himself again, to look people in the 
 face, and could live, governing himself by his customary 
 habits. What he could not tear from his heart, in spite 
 of all his efforts, was the regret, bordering on despair, 
 at having lost Anna forever; since he was firmly re- 
 solved, now that he had redeemed his fault toward 
 Karenin, not to place himself between the repentant 
 wife and her husband. But he could not put out of his 
 heart the regret at the loss of her love ; he could not 
 blot out the memory of happy moments which he had 
 spent with her, and not half appreciated till now, and 
 which pursued him continually in all their fascina- 
 tion. 
 
 Serpukhovsko'f thought of sending him to Tashkend, 
 and Vronsky accepted the proposition without the least 
 hesitation. But the nearer the time for his leaving 
 came, the more cruel seemed the sacrifice to what he 
 considered his duty. 
 
 His wound was healed, and he had already gone out 
 and was engaged in making his preparations for his 
 journey to Tashkend. 
 
 " To see her once more, and then bury myself and 
 die," he thought ; and while paying his farewell visit 
 to Betsy, he expressed his wish to her. 
 
 The latter set out at once as an ambassador to Anna, 
 but brought back her refusal. 
 
 " So much the better," thought Vronsky, on receiving 
 her reply ; " this is a weakness which would have cost 
 me my last strength."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 259 
 
 The next morning Betsy herself went to Vronsky, 
 announcing that she had had, through Oblonsky, posi- 
 tive information that Aleksei Aleksandrovitch consented 
 to a divorce, and that consequently Vronsky might see 
 Anna. 
 
 Without even pausing to show Betsy from his room, 
 forgetting his resolutions, without finding out when he 
 could see her, or where her husband would be, Vronsky 
 immediately went to the Karenins'. He flew up the 
 steps, not seeing anything or any one, and with hasty 
 steps, almost running, entered Anna's room, and, with- 
 out even noticing whether there might not be some one 
 else in the room, he took her in his arms, and began 
 covering her hands, her face, and her neck with kisses. 
 
 Anna was prepared to see him again, and had made 
 up her mind what to say to him ; but she had no time 
 to speak. Vronsky's passion overpowered her. She 
 wanted to calm him, to calm herself, but it was already 
 too late. Her lips trembled so that for a long time she 
 was unable to speak a word. 
 
 " Yes, you have conquered me ; I am yours ! " she 
 succeeded in saying at last, pressing his hand to her 
 breast. 
 
 " So it had to be ! " said he, " and as long as we live, 
 it must be so ; I know it now." 
 
 " It is true," she replied, growing paler and paler as 
 she put her arms around Vronsky's neck. " However, 
 there is something terrible in this after what has hap- 
 pened." 
 
 " All that will be forgotten, forgotten ; we shall be so 
 happy ! If there were any need of our love increasing, 
 it would increase, because there is something terrible 
 about it," said he, raising his head, and displaying his 
 strong teeth as he smiled. 
 
 She could only reply with a smile, not with words, 
 with her eyes which expressed such love for him. 
 
 " I do know you with your short hair. You are lovely 
 so ! Just like a little boy ! But how pale you are ! " 
 
 "Yes; I am still very weak," she replied, smiling; 
 and her lips began to tremble again.
 
 260 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "We will go to Italy; you will grow strong there," 
 said he. 
 
 " Is it possible that we could be like husband and 
 wife, alone, by ourselves ? " said she, looking him in the 
 eye. 
 
 " I am only surprised at one thing, that it has not 
 always been so." 
 
 " Stiva says that lie will consent to everything, but I 
 will not accept his generosity," said she, looking thought- 
 fully above Vronsky's head. " I do not wish for a di- 
 vorce. It is all the same to me now. I only wonder 
 what he will decide with regard to Serozha." 
 
 Vronsky could not understand how, in these first 
 moments of their reunion, she could think of her son 
 and of divorce. How could it be all the same to her? 
 
 " Don't speak of that, don't think of it," said he, turn- 
 ing Anna's hand over and over in his, to draw her atten- 
 tion to him ; but she did not look at him. 
 
 " Oh ! why did I not die ? it would have been so 
 much better ! " said she ; and though she did not sob, 
 the tears rolled down her pale cheeks ; she tried, never- 
 theless, to smile, that she might not give him pain. 
 
 Once Vronsky would have thought it impossible and 
 disgraceful to give up the flattering and perilous mission 
 to Tashkend, but now he refused it without any hesita- 
 tion ; then, noticing that his refusal was misinterpreted 
 by the authorities, he gave in his resignation. 
 
 A month later, Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch was left alone 
 with his son, and Anna went abroad with Vronsky, with- 
 out a divorce, and resolutely refusing to accept one.
 
 PART FIFTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Princess Shcherbatskaya found it would not 
 be possible to have the wedding before Lent, 
 which would come in five weeks, because the trous- 
 seau would not be half done ; but she could not help 
 agreeing with Levin that after Lent it might be too late, 
 as an old aunt of the prince's was very ill and liable to 
 die, and then mourning would still further postpone it. 
 So having decided to divide the trousseau into two parts, 
 one large, the other small, the princess agreed to 
 have the wedding before Lent. She decided that she 
 would prepare the smaller part of the trousseau at once, 
 and send the larger part afterward, and she was very 
 indignant with Levin because he would not answer her 
 seriously whether this would suit him or not. This 
 arrangement was all the more convenient because the 
 young couple intended to set out for the country im- 
 mediately after the ceremony, and would not need the 
 larger part of the things. 
 
 Levin continued in the same condition of lunacy, in 
 which it seemed to him that he and his happiness con- 
 stituted the chief and only aim of creation, and that it 
 was wholly unnecessary for him to think or to bother 
 himself about anythirtg but that his friends would 
 arrange everything for him. He did not even make 
 any plans or arrangements for his coming life, but left 
 others to decide for him, knowing all would be admi- 
 rable. His brother, Sergye'f Ivanovitch, Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, and the princess ruled him absolutely ; he was 
 satisfied to accept whatever they proposed. 
 
 His brother borrowed the money that he needed ; the 
 princess advised him to leave Moscow after the wed- 
 
 261
 
 262 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ding ; Stepan Arkadyevitch advised him to go abroad. 
 He consented to everything. 
 
 " Make whatever plans you please," he thought, " I 
 am happy; and whatever you may decide on, my joy 
 will be neither greater nor less." 
 
 But when he told Kitty of Stepan Arkadyevitch's 
 suggestion about going abroad, he was surprised to see 
 that she did not approve of it, and that she had her 
 own very decided plans for the future. She knew that 
 Levin's heart was at home in his work, and although 
 she neither understood his affairs, nor tried to under- 
 stand them, still they seemed to her very important ; as 
 their home would be in the country, she did not wish to 
 go abroad where they were not going to live, but in- 
 sisted on settling down in the country where their home 
 was to be. This very firm determination surprised 
 Levin ; but as it seemed to him all right, he begged 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had excellent taste, to go to 
 Pokrovsky and take charge of the improvements in his 
 house. It seemed to him that that belonged to his 
 friend's province. 
 
 "By the way," said Stepan Arkadyevitch one day, 
 after his return from the country, where he had ar- 
 ranged everything for the young couple's reception, 
 " have you your certificate of confession ? " 
 
 " No ; why ? " 
 
 "You can't be married without it." 
 
 " AT, ai, ai ! " cried Levin ; " but it is nine years since 
 I have been to confession ! I had n't even thought 
 of it ! " 
 
 " That is good ! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laugh- 
 ing, " and you call me a nihilist ! But that can't be 
 allowed to go on ; you must prepare for the sacrament ! " 
 
 "When ? there are only four days more ! " 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch arranged this matter also, and 
 Levin prepared for his devotions. For Levin as for 
 any man who is an unbeliever, yet respects the faith of 
 others, it was very hard to attend and participate in all 
 religious ceremonies. Now in his tender and sentimental 
 frame of mind, the necessity of dissimulating was not
 
 ANNA KARENINA 263 
 
 only odious to him, it was well-nigh impossible. Now, 
 he would be obliged either to lie or to mock at sacred 
 things, at a time when his heart was bursting, when he 
 felt at the height of bliss. He felt that he could do 
 neither. But in spite of all his efforts to persuade 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch that there must be some other 
 way of obtaining a certificate without being forced to 
 confess, Stepan Arkadyevitch declared that it was im- 
 possible. 
 
 " Yes, but what harm will it do you ? only two days ! 
 and the priest is a capital, bright little old man. He 
 will pull this tooth for you without your knowing it." 
 
 During the first mass that he attended Levin did his 
 best to recall the strong religious impressions of his 
 youth, when he was between sixteen and seventeen 
 years old; but he found that this was perfectly impos- 
 sible. He then tried to look on religious forms as an 
 ancient custom, without any real meaning, something 
 like the habit of making calls ; this also he felt that he 
 could never do. Like most of his contemporaries, 
 Levin was completely undecided in regard to his reli- 
 gious views. He could not believe ; at the same time 
 he was not firmly convinced that all these things were 
 unreasonable. And therefore not being in a condition 
 to believe in the efficacy of what he was doing, or to 
 look on it with utter indifference as on an empty for- 
 mality, he experienced a sense of pain and annoyance 
 during the time allotted to his devotions ; his conscience 
 cried out that to do what he himself did not understand 
 was false and wicked. 
 
 During the time of the service, he listened to the 
 prayers, striving to attribute to them some significance 
 which should not be in too open contradiction with his 
 convictions ; but finding that he could not understand 
 them, but was compelled to criticize them, he tried not to 
 listen, but occupied himself with his thoughts with the 
 observations and recollections that arose in his mind with 
 extraordinary vividness during the solemn night-office 
 in the church. He stayed through mass, vespers, and 
 evening prayers and on the next morning he rose earlier
 
 264 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 than usual, and came at eight o'clock, without having 
 eaten anything, to morning prayers and confession. 
 
 There was no one in the church except a mendicant 
 soldier, two old women, and the officiating priests. A 
 young deacon with a long, thin back clearly denned in 
 two halves beneath his short cassock came to meet him, 
 and going to a little table near the wall, began to read 
 prayers. Levin, hearing him repeat in a hurried, mo- 
 notonous voice, clipping his words, the words, " Lord, 
 have mercy upon us," 1 felt that his thought was locked 
 up and sealed, and that to touch it and stir it now was 
 out of the question, since, if he did, confusion would 
 ensue ; and therefore he stood behind the deacon, not 
 listening and not trying to fathom what he said, but 
 thinking his own thoughts. 
 
 " What a wonderful amount of expression there is 
 about her hands," he thought, recalling the evening 
 before, which he had spent with Kitty at the table in 
 one corner of the drawing-room. There had not been 
 much to talk about, as was usually the case at this time ; 
 she had rested her hand on the table, opening and 
 shutting it, and laughing as she made this motion. He 
 remembered how he had kissed this hand and then ex- 
 amined the lines that crossed the pink palm. 
 
 "Have mere* on us again," thought Levin, making the 
 sign of the cross, and bowing, while he noticed the 
 deacon's supple movements, as he prostrated himself 
 in front of him. " Then she took my hand, and in turn 
 examined it. 'You have a famous hand,' she said to 
 me." He looked at his own hand, and then at the 
 deacon's, with its stubbed fingers. " Yes ! Now it will 
 soon be over. No ; he is beginning another prayer. 
 Yes ; he is bowing to the ground ; that always comes 
 just before the end." 
 
 The deacon took the three-ruble note, discreetly 
 slipped into his hand, under his rough shaggy cuff, and 
 promised to register Levin's name ; then quickly clack- 
 ing in his new boots across the flagstones of the empty 
 church, he went to the altar. In a moment he looked 
 
 1 Gospodi pomilui, shortened by his rapid speech into pomilos, pomilos.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 265 
 
 out and beckoned to Levin. The thought till that mo- 
 ment locked up in Levin's brain began to stir, but he 
 made haste to bring it to order. " It will be arranged 
 somehow," he said to himself and went toward the 
 ambo. He mounted several steps, turned to the right, 
 and saw the priest, a little old man, whose thin beard 
 was almost white, with kindly but rather weary eyes, 
 standing near the reading-desk, turning over the leaves 
 of a missal. After a slight bow to Levin, he began to 
 read the prayers ; having finished them, he kneeled and 
 faced Levin : 
 
 " Christ is here, invisible though, to hear your confes- 
 sion," said he, pointing to the crucifix. " Do you be- 
 lieve all that the Holy Apostolic Church teaches us?" 
 he continued, turning his eyes from Levin's face and 
 crossing his hand under his stole. 
 
 "I have doubted, I still doubt everything...." said 
 Levin, in a voice which sounded disagreeable to his 
 own ears, and he was silent. 
 
 The priest waited a few moments to see if he would 
 say anything more, then closing his eyes and speaking 
 rapidly with a Vladimirsky accent, he said : 
 
 " To doubt is characteristic of human weakness ; we 
 must pray the Lord Almighty to strengthen you. What 
 are your principal sins ? " 
 
 The priest spoke without the least interruption, and 
 as if he were afraid of losing time. 
 
 " My principal sin is doubt. I doubt everything, and 
 I am generally doubting." 
 
 " To doubt is characteristic of human weakness," 
 said the priest, using the same words ; " what do you 
 doubt principally ? " 
 
 " Everything. I sometimes even doubt the existence 
 of God," said Levin, in spite of himself, horrified at the 
 impropriety of what he was saying. But his words 
 seemed to make no impression on the priest. 
 
 " How can you doubt the existence of God ? " he 
 asked, with an almost imperceptible smile. 
 
 Levin was silent. 
 
 " What doubts can you have about the Creator when
 
 266 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 you contemplate His works ? " pursued the priest, in his 
 quick habitual utterance. "Who ornamented the celes- 
 tial vault with its stars? who decked the earth with all 
 its beauty ? How can these things exist without a Crea- 
 tor ? " And he cast a questioning glance at Levin. 
 
 Levin felt that it would be out of place to enter into 
 a philosophical discussion with the priest, and, therefore, 
 in his reply said only what referred directly to the 
 question : 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 " You do not know ? Then how can you doubt that 
 God has created everything ? " asked the priest, with a 
 light-hearted perplexity. 
 
 " I cannot understand it," replied Levin, blushing, 
 and feeling that his words were stupid, and that in such 
 a position they could not be other than stupid. 
 
 " Pray to God, have recourse to Him ; the Fathers of 
 the Church themselves doubted, and asked God to 
 strengthen their faith. The devil has mighty power, 
 and we should resist him. Pray to God, pray to God," 
 repeated the priest, rapidly. 
 
 Then he kept silent for a moment, as if he were buried 
 in thought. 
 
 " They tell me that you intend to marry the daughter 
 of my parishioner and spiritual son, the Prince Shcher- 
 batsky," he added with a smile. " She is a beautiful 
 girl." 
 
 " Yes," replied Levin, blushing for the priest. " Why 
 does he need to ask such questions at confession ? " he 
 said to himself. 
 
 And, as if replying to his thought, the priest con- 
 tinued : 
 
 " You are preparing for marriage, and perhaps God 
 may grant you offspring. Is n't that so ? Now, what 
 education will you give to your little children if you do 
 not conquer the temptations of the devil, who causes 
 you to doubt ? " he asked with gentle reproach. " If 
 you love your children as a good father, you will not 
 only wish for them riches, luxury, and honor, but still 
 more, their salvation and their spiritual enlightenment
 
 ANNA KARENINA 267 
 
 by the light of truth ; is this not so ? How will you 
 reply to the innocent child who asks you, ' Papasha, 
 who made all that delights me on the earth, the water, 
 the sunshine, the flowers, the plants ? ' Will you an- 
 swer, ' I know nothing about it ' ? Can you ignore 
 what the Lord God in His infinite goodness has revealed 
 to you ? And if the child asks you, ' What awaits me 
 beyond the tomb ? ' what will you say to him if you 
 know nothing ? How will you answer him ? Will you 
 give him up to the seductions of the world and the 
 devil ? That is not right ! " said he, stopping, and 
 turning his head on one side, looked at Levin out of 
 his kindly, gentle eyes. 
 
 Levin was silent, not because he was afraid this time 
 to enter into a discussion with the priest, but because 
 nobody had ever put such questions to him before, and 
 because he thought there was plenty of time to consider 
 them before his children should be in a state to ques- 
 tion him. 
 
 "You are about to enter upon a phase of life," con- 
 tinued the priest, " where one must choose his path 
 and keep to it. Pray God in His mercy to keep and 
 sustain you ; and in conclusion : May our Lord God, 
 Jesus Christ, pardon you, my son, in His goodness and 
 loving-kindness to all mankind." And the priest, end- 
 ing the formulas of absolution, took leave of him, after 
 giving him his blessing. 
 
 Levin, returning home that day, felt happy enough 
 at the thought of being free from a false situation with- 
 out having been obliged to lie. Besides, there remained 
 with him a vague idea that what that good and gentle 
 little old man said to him was not altogether so stupid 
 as he at first had thought it was going to be, and that 
 he really had something worth clearing up sometime. 
 
 " Not now, of course," he thought, " but later on." 
 
 Levin felt more than ever at this time that there 
 were troubled and obscure places in his soul, and that, 
 concerning his religion, he was in exactly the same 
 position which he so clearly saw others occupying, and 
 disliked, and which he blamed his friend Sviazhsky for.
 
 268 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Levin spent that evening with his betrothed at Dolly's, 
 and in trying to explain to Stepan Arkadyevitch the 
 excitable condition in which he found himself, was very 
 gay ; he said that he was like a dog being trained to 
 jump through a hoop, which, delighted at having learned 
 his lesson, wags his tail, and is eager to leap over the 
 table and through the window. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE princess and Darya Aleksandrovna insisted on 
 strictly observing the established customs ; so Levin was 
 not to see his " bride " on the day of the wedding, and he 
 dined at his hotel with three bachelors, who met in his 
 room by chance : they were Sergyei Ivanovitch ; Kata- 
 vasof, an old university friend, now professor of natural 
 sciences, whom Levin had met on the street and brought 
 home to dinner ; Chirikof, his shafer or best man, justice 
 of the peace at Moscow, and Levin's companion in bear- 
 hunting. 
 
 The dinner was very lively. Sergye'f Ivanovitch was 
 in the best of spirits, and greatly enjoyed Katavasof's 
 originality. Katavasof, feeling that his originality was 
 appreciated and understood, made a great display of it 
 and Chirikof added his share of gayety to the conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 " So, here is our friend Konstantin Dmitrievitch," 
 said Katavasof, with the slow speech of a professor 
 accustomed to talk ex cathedra ; " what a talented fellow 
 he was ! I speak of him in the past, for he no longer 
 exists. He loved science when he left the university ; 
 he took an interest in humanity ; now he employs half 
 his faculties in deceiving himself, and the other half in 
 apologizing for the deception." 
 
 " I never met a more confirmed enemy of marriage 
 than you," said Sergye'f Ivanovitch. 
 
 " No, I am not its enemy ; I am a friend of the dis- 
 tribution of labor. People who cannot do anything 
 ought to be the ones to propagate the race. All the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 269 
 
 rest should devote themselves to their intellectual devel- 
 opment and welfare. That is my opinion. I know a 
 great many people are inclined to confound these two, 
 but I am not of the number." 
 
 " How delighted I should be to hear that you were in 
 love ! " exclaimed Levin. " Pray invite me to your wed- 
 ding." 
 
 " But I am already in love." 
 
 " Yes, with some cuttlefish. You know," said Levin, 
 turning to his brother, " Mikhail Semyonuitch has writ- 
 ten a work on the nutrition, and .... " 
 
 " Now, I beg of you not to confuse matters ! It is 
 of no consequence what I have written ; but it is a fact 
 that I love a cuttlefish." 
 
 " That need not prevent your loving a wife." 
 
 " No ; but my wife would object to my loving the 
 cuttlefish." 
 
 " Why so ? " 
 
 " You will see how it will be. Now, you love your 
 farming, hunting Well ! just wait awhile ! " 
 
 " I met Arkhip to-day," said Chirikof ; " he says that 
 there are quantities of elk at Prudnoye, and two 
 bears." 
 
 " Well ! you may hunt them without me." 
 
 "You see how it is," said SergyeV Ivanovitch. "You 
 may as well say good-by to bear-hunting ; your wife 
 won't allow it." 
 
 Levin smiled. The idea that his wife would object 
 to his hunting seemed so delightful that he was ready 
 to renounce the pleasure of ever meeting a bear again. 
 
 " However, I am sorry to hunt those two bears with- 
 out you," said Chirikof. " Do you remember the last 
 time at Khapilovo ? The hunting was marvelous." 
 
 Levin did not care to spoil his friend's illusion that 
 life would be worth nothing without hunting, and so he 
 made no reply. 
 
 " The custom of saying good-by to one's bachelor 
 life is not without meaning," said Sergyel Ivanovitch. 
 " However happy one may be, a man regrets his 
 liberty."
 
 270 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Confess that, like Gogolevsky, when he was en- 
 gaged, you feel like jumping out of the window." 
 
 " Certainly ; but he won't confess it," said Katavasof, 
 with a loud laugh. 
 
 "The window is open Come now, let us go to 
 
 Tver ! We might find one bear in her lair. Indeed, 
 we have still time to catch the five o'clock train," said 
 Chirikof, smiling. " Hear them laugh ! " 
 
 " Well, upon my honor," replied Levin, smiling, too, 
 " I cannot discover the least trace of regret in my soul 
 for my lost liberty." 
 
 "Yes! your soul is in such a chaos now that you 
 cannot find anything in it," said Katavasof. "Wait till 
 it becomes calmer; then you will see." 
 
 " No, if I felt in the least degree that there was noth- 
 ing beyond my feeling of " he did not like to speak 
 of love before Katavasof " of happiness, I should 
 regret my lost freedom. But it is not so at all ; I am 
 even delighted at my loss of freedom." 
 
 "You are a hopeless case," exclaimed Katavasof. 
 " However, let us drink to his recovery, or let us at 
 least hope for him that one per cent of his illusions may 
 be accomplished. And even that would be such happi- 
 ness as was never known on this earth ! " 
 
 Shortly after dinner the guests separated, to dress for 
 the wedding. 
 
 When he was left alone, and had a chance to think 
 over the conversation of these bachelors, Levin again 
 asked himself whether he really regretted the liberty of 
 which his friends had just been talking, and he smiled 
 at the idea. 
 
 " Liberty ? why liberty ? Happiness for me consists in 
 loving, in thinking her thoughts, in wishing her wishes, 
 without any liberty. That is happiness ! " 
 
 " But can I know her thoughts, her wishes, her feel- 
 ings ? " whispered some voice. The smile disappeared 
 from his face and he fell into a deep study. And sud- 
 denly a strange feeling came over him : fear and doubt 
 came over him doubt about everything. 
 
 "Suppose she does not love me? What if she is
 
 ANNA KARENINA 271 
 
 marrying me merely for the sake of being married ? 
 What if she does not herself know what she is doing ? " 
 he asked himself. " Will she, perhaps, see her mistake, 
 and discover, after we are married, that she does not 
 love me, and that she never can love me ? " 
 
 And strange, even painful, thoughts about Kitty 
 came to his mind ; he began to be violently jealous of 
 Vronsky, just as he had been the year before ; there 
 came up before him, like the memory of yesterday, that 
 evening when he had seen them together, and he sus- 
 pected her of not having confessed everything to him. 
 
 He quickly sprang up. 
 
 " No," said he, in despair. " I cannot let this remain 
 so ! I will go and find her, I will talk with her, and 
 say to her again, for the last time : ' We are free ; is it 
 not better to stop just where we are ? Anything is 
 better than lifelong unhappiness, shame, distrust ! ' ' 
 
 And with despair in his heart, full of hatred toward 
 all mankind, toward himself and Kitty, he left the hotel 
 and hastened to her house. 
 
 He found her in one of the rear rooms sitting on a 
 large chest, busy with her maid, looking over dresses of 
 all colors, spread out over the backs of the chairs and 
 on the floor. 
 
 "Akh!" she exclaimed, beaming with joy at seeing 
 him. " What brings thee ? What brings you ? " Even 
 up to this last day she sometimes said tut, sometimes 
 vui. " I was not expecting you ! I am just disposing 
 of my maiden wardrobe." 
 
 "Ah! that is good!" he replied, frowning at the 
 maid. 
 
 "Run away, Duniasha; I will call you," said Kitty; 
 and as soon as she had gone she asked, using the sec- 
 ond person of the pronoun, " What is the matter with 
 thee ? " this time resolutely. She remarked her lover's 
 strange, excited, and gloomy face, and was seized with 
 fear. 
 
 " Kitty, I am in torture, and I cannot suffer alone ! " 
 he said to her with despair in his voice, stopping in 
 front of her and looking into her eyes in a beseeching
 
 272 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 way. He at once saw by her face, so sincere and lov- 
 ing, that nothing whatever would result from his deter- 
 mination ; yet he felt an urgent need of being reassured 
 from her own lips. 
 
 " I came to tell you that it is not yet too late ; that 
 everything can even now be taken back." 
 
 " What ? I do not understand. What is the matter 
 with thee? " 
 
 " I am as I have said and thought a thousand times 
 before I am not worthy of you. You once could not. 
 consent to marry me. Think of it ! Perhaps you are 
 mistaken now. Think of it well. You cannot love me 
 ....if.... it is better to acknowledge it," he continued, 
 without looking at her. " I shall be miserable, but no 
 matter ; let people say what they please ; anything is 
 better than unhappiness ! .... But anything is better now, 
 while there is yet time .... " 
 
 " I do not understand you," she replied, frightened. 
 " You mean you want to take back your word .... break 
 off our.... " 
 
 " Yes, if you do not love me." 
 
 "You must be insane ! " she exclaimed, red with vexa- 
 tion. But the sight of Levin's piteous face arrested 
 her anger ; and pushing the frocks from one of the 
 chairs, she sat down near him. 
 
 " What are you thinking of ? Tell me all." 
 
 " I think that you cannot love me. Why should you 
 love me ? " 
 
 " Bozhe mo'f ! what can I do ?".... said she ; and she 
 burst into tears. 
 
 " Akh ! what have I done ? " he cried instantly, and 
 throwing himself on his knees, he covered her hands 
 with kisses. 
 
 When the princess came into the room five minutes 
 later, she found them completely reconciled. Kitty had 
 not only convinced him of her love, but in answer to his 
 question she had explained to him why she loved him. 
 She said that she loved him because she understood him 
 perfectly ; because she knew that he could love, and that 
 all he loved was good and beautiful.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 273 
 
 Levin found the explanation perfectly satisfactory. 
 When the princess came in, they were sitting side by 
 side on the big chest, looking over the frocks, and dis- 
 cussing their fate. Kitty wanted to give Duniasha the 
 brown frock that she wore the day Levin proposed to 
 her ; and he insisted that it should not be given to any 
 one, and that Duniasha should have the blue frock. 
 
 " But don't you see that she is a brunette, and the 
 blue frock will not be becoming to her ? .... I have 
 thought it all over." .... 
 
 When she learned why Levin was there, the princess 
 was half vexed at him, and sent him home to make his 
 own toilet and leave Kitty in peace, as Charles was 
 going to dress Kitty's hair. 
 
 " She is quite excited enough," said she ; " she has 
 eaten nothing for days, and is losing all her beauty ; 
 and here you come to trouble her with your foolishness. 
 Come, go away now, my dear." 
 
 Levin went back to the hotel, guilty and ashamed, but 
 reassured. His brother, Darya Aleksandrovna, and 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, in full dress, were already wait- 
 ing with holy images to bless him. There was no time 
 to be lost. Darya Aleksandrovna had to go home again 
 to get her son perfumed and curled for the occasion ; 
 the child was to carry the sacred image before the 
 bride. Then one carriage must be sent for the shafer 
 or best man, while another was to come to the hotel for 
 
 Sergyei' Ivanovitch This day was full of complications. 
 
 One thing was certain, that no delay was permissible, 
 for it was already half-past six. 
 
 The ceremony of the benediction was anything but 
 solemn. Stepan Arkadyevitch assumed a comically 
 grave attitude beside his wife, raised the sacred image, 
 and obliged Levin to kneel before it, while he blessed 
 him with an affectionate and wicked smile ; at last he 
 kissed him three times ; and Darya Aleksandrovna did 
 the same very hastily, for she was in a great hurry to 
 get away, and in great perplexity about the carriage 
 arrangements. 
 
 " Well ! This is what we will do : you go for him in 
 
 VOL. II. 1 8
 
 274 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 our carriage, and perhaps Sergyeif Ivanovitch will be so 
 good as to come immediately, and to send back his." .... 
 
 " Certainly, with pleasure." 
 
 " We will come back together. Has the luggage been 
 sent ? " asked Stepan Arkady evitch. 
 
 "Yes," replied Levin; and he called Kuzma to help 
 him dress. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A THRONG of people, principally women, surrounded 
 the church, brilliantly lighted for the wedding ; those 
 who could not get inside were pushing up around the 
 windows and elbowing one another as they strove to 
 look through the gratings. 
 
 Already more than twenty carriages stood in a line 
 in the street, under the supervision of policemen. A 
 police officer stood at the entrance in brilliant uniform, 
 unmindful of the cold. Carriages kept driving up 
 and departing; now ladies in full dress, holding up 
 their trains ; now men taking off their hats, or ktpis. 
 In the church itself both chandeliers and all the can- 
 dles before the images were already burning. The 
 golden gleam on the red background of the ikonostas, 
 and the gilded chasing of the ikons, and the silver of the 
 candelabra and of the censers, and the flaggings of the 
 floor, and the tapestries and the banners suspended in 
 the choir and the steps of the pulpit, and the old dingy 
 missals, and the priestly robes, were all flooded with 
 light. 
 
 On the right-hand side of the warm church, amid the 
 brave array of dress-coats, uniforms, and white neck- 
 ties, and satin, silk, and velvet robes ; of coiffures, 
 flowers, and bare necks and arms, and long gloves, 
 there was a constant flow of restrained but lively con- 
 versation, which echoed strangely beneath the high, 
 vaulted roof. 
 
 Whenever the door opened with a plaintive creak the 
 murmur ceased, and every one turned around, hoping
 
 ANNA KARENINA 275 
 
 at last to see the bridal pair. But the door had already 
 opened more than ten times, and each time it proved 
 to be some belated guest, or guests, admitted among the 
 number of the friends on the right, or some spectator 
 who had been clever enough to deceive or elude the 
 police officer, and sat down among the strangers on the 
 left. 
 
 The friends and strangers had passed through every 
 phase of waiting ; at first they supposed that the bride 
 and bridegroom would be there any minute, and did not 
 attach any importance to the delay ; then they began 
 to look around at the door more and more frequently, 
 wondering what could have happened ; at last the delay 
 began to be awkward, and the relatives and invited 
 guests tried to assume an air of indifference, as if they 
 were absorbed in their conversation. 
 
 The archdeacon, as if to let people know that his 
 time was precious, every now and then gave an impa- 
 tient cough, which made the windows rattle ; in the 
 choir the singers, tired of waiting, could be heard, now 
 trying their voices, and now blowing their noses ; the 
 priest kept sending, now a sacristan, now a deacon, to 
 find out if the bridegroom was coming, and appeared 
 himself more and more frequently at the side doors in 
 his lilac cassock with its embroidered sash. 
 
 Finally a lady looked at her watch, and said to the 
 one sitting next her, " This is very strange ! " And im- 
 mediately all the invited guests began to express their 
 surprise and discontent aloud. One of the shafers, or 
 best men, went to see what had happened. 
 
 During all this time Kitty, in her white dress, long 
 veil, and wreath of orange blossoms, was standing in the 
 " hall " of the Shcherbatsky mansion with her sister, 
 Madame Lvova, and her nuptial godmother, 1 looking 
 out of the window, and had been waiting for half an 
 hour for the shafer to announce the bridegroom's arrival 
 at the church. 
 
 Levin, meanwhile, in black trousers, but without 
 either coat or waistcoat, was walking up and down his 
 
 1 Posazhonaya maf.
 
 276 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 room at the hotel, opening the door every minute to 
 look out into the corridor. But in the corridor nothing 
 like what he wanted was to be seen, and, wringing his 
 hands in despair, he would pour forth his complaints to 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, who was calmly smoking. 
 
 " Did you ever see a man in such a horribly absurd 
 situation ? " 
 
 " Yes, abominable ! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with 
 his tranquil smile. " But be calm ; they will have it 
 here very soon." 
 
 " No, hang it ! " said Levin, with restrained fury. 
 "And these idiotic open waistcoats. Absolutely use- 
 less!" he added, looking at his tumbled shirt-bosom. 
 "And what if my trunks have already gone to the 
 railway station ? " he exclaimed in despair. 
 
 " Then you can wear mine." 
 
 " I might have done that in the first place." 
 
 " Don't be ridiculous .... wait ; it is sure to come all right." 
 
 The fact was that when Levin began to dress, Kuzma, 
 his old servant, was supposed to have taken out his 
 dress-coat, his waistcoat, and all that was necessary. 
 
 " But the shirt ! " cried Levin. 
 
 " You have your shirt on," replied Kuzma, with an 
 innocent smile. 
 
 Kuzma had not thought to provide a clean shirt, and, 
 having received his orders to pack everything up and 
 take them to the Shcherbatskys' house, from which the 
 young couple was to start away that same evening, he 
 had done so, leaving out only his dress-suit. The one 
 that Levin had worn all day was tumbled, and unfit to 
 wear with his open waistcoat ; it would take too long 
 to send to the Shcherbatskys'. They sent out to buy 
 one ; the lackey returned empty-handed everything 
 was shut up : it was Sunday. A shirt was brought from 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch' s house it was ridiculously broad 
 and short ; at last, in despair, he had to send to the 
 Shcherbatskys' to have his trunks opened. So, while 
 the people were waiting in the church, the unfortunate 
 groom, like a wild beast in a cage, was ramping with 
 despair up and down his room, looking out into the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 277 
 
 corridor, and in his horror and despair imagining what 
 Kitty might be thinking all this time. 
 
 Finally the guilty Kuzma rushed into the room all out 
 of breath, with the shirt in his hand. 
 
 " I got there just in time, as they were carrying off 
 the trunks ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 In three minutes Levin rushed through the corridor, 
 without daring to look at his watch, for fear of increas- 
 ing his agony of mind. 
 
 " You can't change anything," said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, with a smile, following leisurely. " I told you it 
 would come out all right." 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 " HERE they come ! There he is ! Which one ? Is 
 it the youngest ? Just look at her! Poor little matushka, 
 more dead than alive ! " was murmured through the 
 crowd, as Levin, having met the bride at the entrance, 
 came into the church with her. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch told his wife the reason of the 
 delay, and a smile passed over the congregation as it 
 was whispered about. Levin neither saw any one nor 
 anything, but kept his eyes fixed on his bride. 
 
 Every one said that she had grown very homely dur- 
 ing these last days, and certainly she did not look so 
 pretty under her bridal wreath as usual ; but such was 
 not Levin's opinion. He looked at her high coiffure, 
 with the long white veil attached, and white flowers, at 
 her high plaited collar encircling her slender neck in a 
 peculiarly maidenly fashion, and just showing it a little 
 in front, her remarkably graceful figure ; and she 
 seemed more beautiful to him than ever. But it was 
 not because the flowers or her veil or her Paris gown 
 added anything to her beauty, but because of the expres- 
 sion of her lovely face, her eyes, her lips, with their in- 
 nocent sincerity, preserved in spite of all this adornment. 
 
 " I was beginning to think that you had made up your 
 mind to run away," she said to him with a smile.
 
 278 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "What happened to me was so absurd that I am 
 ashamed to tell you about it," he replied, reddening, and 
 he was compelled to turn to Sergye'f Ivanovitch, who 
 came up at that moment. 
 
 "The tale of the shirt is a good one," said Sergyei 
 Ivanovitch, throwing back his head with a laugh. 
 
 "Yes, yes," replied Levin, without understanding a 
 word which had been said. 
 
 " Well, Kostia, now is the time to make a serious de- 
 cision," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, pretending to look 
 greatly scared. " The question is a grave one, and you 
 must appreciate its full importance. I have been asked 
 whether the candles shall be new ones, or those that 
 have been partly burned; the difference is ten rubles," 
 he added, pursing his lips in a smile. " I have decided 
 about it, but I am afraid that you will not approve of it." 
 
 Levin knew that there was some joke about it, but 
 he could not smile. 
 
 " What will you decide on ? new ones, or old ones ? 
 that is the question." 
 
 "Yes, yes; new ones." 
 
 " Well, I am very glad. The question is settled," 
 said Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Of how little importance 
 a man is at such a time as this ! " he murmured to 
 Chirikof, while Levin drew near to his bride, after 
 looking at her in a bewildered way. 
 
 " Notice, Kitty, who first sets foot on the carpet ! " 
 said the Countess Nordstone, stepping up to her. 
 " You look your best," she added, addressing Levin. 
 
 " Are you frightened ? " asked Mary a Dmitrievna, an 
 old aunt. 
 
 " You are n't cold, are you ? You look pale. Bend 
 forward a moment," said Madame Lvova, raising her 
 beautiful round arms to repair some disarrangement of 
 her sister's flowers. 
 
 Dolly came up, and tried to say something ; but she 
 could not speak, and burst into tears and laughed un- 
 naturally. 
 
 Kitty looked at those around her as absent-mindedly 
 as Levin.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 279 
 
 During this time the officiating clergymen had put on 
 their sacerdotal robes, and the priest, accompanied by 
 the deacon, came to the lectern placed at the entrance 
 of the sacred doors. The priest addressed a few words 
 to Levin ; but Levin failed to understand what he said. 
 
 " Take the bride's hand and go forward," whispered 
 his best man to him. 
 
 For a long time he was unable to make out what was 
 expected of him. For a long time they tried to coach 
 him and were ready to give it up, because he did the 
 opposite of what he was told. Finally, he compre- 
 hended that he was to take Kitty's right hand with his 
 right hand, without changing his position. When at 
 last he took his bride by her hand in the proper way, the 
 priest advanced a few steps, and stopped in front of the 
 lectern. The relatives and invited guests followed the 
 young couple with a murmur of voices and a rustling of 
 trains. Some one stooped down to arrange the bride's 
 train ; in the church, a silence so profound reigned that 
 the drops of wax could be heard falling from the candles. 
 
 The old priest, in a calotte, his white hair shining like 
 silver, drawn back behind his ears, drew forth his little 
 wrinkled hands from beneath his heavy silver chasuble, 
 ornamented with a cross of gold, approached the lectern, 
 and turned over the leaves of the missal. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch came softly and spoke in his 
 ear, made a sign to Levin, and then stepped back. 
 
 The priest lighted two candles decorated with flowers, 
 and, holding them slanting in his left hand, so that the 
 wax slowly fell from them, turned toward the young 
 couple. It was the same old man who had heard Lev- 
 in's confession. He looked at the bride and bridegroom 
 out of his sad, weary eyes, and then, with a sigh, blessed 
 Levin with his right hand ; then, with especial tender- 
 ness, placed his fingers on Kitty's bended head, gave 
 them the candles, and taking the censer moved quietly 
 away. 
 
 " Is this all real ? " thought Levin, and he glanced at 
 his bride. He looked down somewhat from above on 
 her profile, and by the motion of her lips and her .eye-
 
 280 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 brows he knew that she felt his look. She did not raise 
 her head ; but the high-plaited collar which reached to 
 her little pink ear trembled a little. He saw that she 
 was stifling a sigh, and her hand, imprisoned in its long 
 glove, trembled as it held the candle. 
 
 The whole affair of the shirt, his late arrival, his con- 
 versation with his relatives and friends, their displeas- 
 ure, his ridiculous position, everything at once vanished 
 from his memory, and he was conscious of a mixed feel- 
 ing of terror and joy. 
 
 The archdeacon, a tall, handsome man, his hair curl- 
 ing all around his head and wearing a stikhar, or sur- 
 plice, of silver cloth, came briskly forward, and with the 
 customary gesture raised his stole with two fingers, and 
 stopped before the priest. 
 
 " Bless us, O Lord ! " 1 slowly, one after the other, 
 rocking the atmosphere into billows of sound, echoed 
 the solemn syllables. 
 
 " May the Lord bless you now and through all ages," 
 replied the old priest in a sweet and musical voice, still 
 turning over the leaves. 
 
 And the response, chanted by the invisible choir, filled 
 the church to the very roof of the vault with a deep, full 
 sound, which increased, then ceased for a moment, and 
 softly died away. 
 
 They prayed as usual for the eternal repose and wel- 
 fare of their souls, for the synod, and the emperor, and 
 then for the servants of God, Konstantin and Yekate- 
 rina, that day about to wed. 
 
 " Let us pray the Lord to send them His love, His 
 peace, and His aid," the whole church seemed to say in 
 the voice of the archdeacon. 
 
 Levin listened to these words, and was impressed by 
 them. 
 
 " How did they know that aid was exactly what I 
 need ? Yes, aid. What can I know, what can I do, 
 without aid ? " he thought, recalling his recent doubts 
 and fears. 
 
 When the deacon had ended the liturgy, the priest, 
 
 1 Bla-go-slo-vi vla-duika !
 
 ANNA KARENINA 281 
 
 with a book in his hand, turned toward the bridai 
 couple : 
 
 " O God Eternal, who unitest by an indissoluble 
 bond those who are separate," he read, in a strong 
 melodious voice, " Thou who didst bless Isaac and Re- 
 becca, and showest Thy mercy to their descendants, 
 bless also these Thy servants, Konstantin and Yeka- 
 terina, and pour forth Thy benefits upon them. Because 
 Thou art a merciful and beneficent God, we offer Thee 
 the glory ! To the Father, and to the Son, and to the 
 Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever 
 shall be.... " 
 
 " Amen," again chanted the invisible choir. 
 
 " ' Who unitest by an indissoluble bond those who are 
 separate ! ' How those profound words respond to what 
 one feels at such a time ! Does she understand it as I 
 do ? " thought Levin. 
 
 And looking down he gazed into her eyes. 
 
 From the expression of Kitty's face he concluded 
 that she did feel it as he did ; but he was mistaken : 
 she scarcely comprehended the words of the service, and 
 during the time of the espousal did not even hear them. 
 She could not hear them or comprehend them, so power- 
 ful was the single feeling which filled her heart and 
 kept increasing all the time. This feeling was one of 
 delight at the perfect fulfilment of what had been tak- 
 ing place in her heart during the past month and a half, 
 and during those six weeks had made her happy and 
 restless by turns. 
 
 From that day when, in her cinnamon-colored gown, 
 in the "hall" of their house on the Arbatsky, she had 
 silently approached Levin to give herself wholly to him, 
 from that day, from that moment, she felt a complete 
 rupture had been made with all her past life, and another 
 existence, new and unknown, without, however, changing 
 her outward life, had begun. These six weeks had been 
 at once a very happy and very trying time. Her 
 whole life, her hopes and desires, were all concentrated 
 on this man, whom she did not even yet fully under- 
 stand, to whom she was united by a sentiment which
 
 282 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 she understood still less, and which attracted her and 
 repelled her by turns, and at the same time she had 
 gone on living in the conditions of her former life. Liv- 
 ing this old life, she was horrified at herself, at her com- 
 plete and invincible indifference toward her whole past : 
 to things, to habits, even to her relatives, whom she 
 loved, and who loved her, her mother, who was pained 
 by her indifference, and her gentle father, whom she 
 had loved more than any one else in the world. At one 
 moment she was horrified at this indifference, at the 
 next she was filled with joy at that which had brought 
 her to such a feeling. She could not imagine or desire 
 anything except life with this man ; but this new life 
 had not yet begun, and she could form no definite idea 
 of it. It was only an expectation, a fear and joy of 
 something new and unknown. And now this expecta- 
 tion, as well as her remorse for not regretting the past, 
 were at an end, and the new life was beginning. This 
 new and unknown future could not fail to be alarming, 
 but whether it was alarming or not, it was only the ful- 
 filment of what had taken place in her soul six weeks 
 before, only the sanctification of what had been taking 
 place in her soul for a long time. 
 
 The priest, turning to the lectern again, with difficulty 
 took off Kitty's little ring, and passed it as far as the first 
 joint of Levin's finger. 
 
 " I unite thee, Konstantin, servant of God, to Yekate- 
 rina, servant of God ; " and he repeated the same formula 
 in placing a large ring on Kitty's delicate little rosy 
 finger, pathetic in its weakness. 
 
 The bridal pair tried to understand what was expected 
 of them, but each time made a mistake, and the priest 
 corrected them in a low voice. At last the priest, bless- 
 ing them with his fingers, again gave Kitty the large 
 ring, and Levin the small one, and again they got con- 
 fused, and twice passed the rings from hand to hand, 
 failing to interchange them as they should have done. 
 
 Dolly Chirikof and Stepan Arkadyevitch stepped out 
 to assist them in their difficulty. The people around 
 them smiled and whispered ; but the tenderly solemn
 
 ANNA KARENINA 283 
 
 expression on the faces of the young couple did not 
 change. On the contrary, even when they were blun- 
 dering with the rings, they looked more serious and 
 solemn than before ; and the smile on Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch's face died away, as he whispered to them that 
 they were to put on their own rings. It seemed to him 
 that a smile might be offensive to them. 
 
 " O Thou who, from the beginning of the world, hast 
 created man, male and female," continued the priest, 
 after the ceremony of the rings, " and hast given to man 
 the woman to be his aid and delight, therefore, O Thou, 
 our Lord God, who hast given Thy blessing to Thy chosen, 
 to Thy servants, our fathers, to Thine inheritance, do 
 Thou bless Thy servants Konstantin and Yekaterina, and 
 confirm their nuptials in faith and concord and truth 
 and love ! " 
 
 Levin's breast heaved ; disobedient tears filled his 
 eyes. He kept feeling more and more that all his 
 thoughts on marriage, his visions of how he should 
 dispose his life, had hitherto been infantile, and that 
 there was something that had never been comprehen- 
 sible to him ; and now he understood its meaning less 
 than ever, although he was now wholly in its power. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ALL Moscow, all the relatives and acquaintances, 
 were at the church. And during the time of the mar- 
 riage service, in the brilliant light that flooded the church, 
 in that throng of handsomely dressed women and girls, 
 and of men in white neckties, in swallow-tails, or in uni- 
 form, there was a decorously subdued conversation, es- 
 pecially among the men, for the women were absorbed in 
 observing all the details of a ceremony which is always 
 so full of interest for them. 
 
 A little group of friends surrounded the bride, and 
 among them were her two sisters, Dolly, and the beauti- 
 ful Madame Lvova just returned from abroad.
 
 284 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Why is Mary in lilac at a wedding ? It is almost 
 mourning," said Madame Korsunsky. 
 
 " With her complexion it 's her only salvation," re- 
 plied Madame Drubetsky. " But I wonder why they 
 had the ceremony in the evening ? That savors of the 
 merchant." 
 
 " It is pleasanter. I, too, was married in the evening," 
 said Madame Korsunsky, sighing, and recalling how 
 beautiful she had been on that day, and how ridiculously 
 in love with her her husband had been, and how it was 
 all so different now ! 
 
 " They say that those who have been best men more 
 than ten times never marry. I tried to make myself 
 proof against marriage, in this way, but the place was 
 taken," said Count Siniavin to the handsome young 
 Princess Charskaya, who had designs on him. 
 
 A smile was her only reply. She was looking at 
 Kitty, and thinking how and when she would stand 
 with Count Siniavin in Kitty's place ; and how she 
 would then remind him of the joke that he had 
 made. 
 
 Shcherbatsky confided to the old Fre'flina Nikolayeva 
 his intention to place the crown on Kitty's head-dress to 
 bring her good luck. 
 
 " There is no need of wearing a head-dress," replied 
 Frei'lina Nikolayeva, who had long ago decided that 
 if the old widower whom she was setting her cap for 
 should offer himself, she would be married very simply. 
 " I don't like this display." 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch was talking with Darya Dmi- 
 trievna, jestingly declaring that the fashion of wedding 
 tours was becoming widespread because young couples 
 were always rather bashful. 
 
 " Your brother may well be proud of his choice. She 
 is charming. You must envy him." 
 
 " The time has gone by for that, Darya Dmitrievna," 
 he replied, and an unexpected expression of sadness 
 overspread his face. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch was telling his sister-in-law his 
 pun on divorce.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 285 
 
 "Somebody ought to arrange her wreath," replied the 
 latter, without listening. 
 
 " What a pity that she has grown so ugly ! " said the 
 Countess Nordstone to Madame Lvova. " After all, he 
 is n't worth her little finger, is he ? " 
 
 " I don't agree with you ; I am very much pleased 
 with him, and not only because he is going to be my 
 beau-fibre" replied Madame Lvova. "How well he 
 appears ! It is so difficult to appear well at such a time 
 and not to be absurd. He is neither ridiculous nor stiff ; 
 one feels that he is touched." 
 
 " Did you expect this marriage ? " 
 
 " Almost. He has always been in love with her." 
 
 " Well, we shall see which will be the first to step on 
 the carpet. I have advised Kitty to look out for that." 
 
 " That makes no difference," replied Madame Lvova ; 
 " in our family we are all submissive wives." 
 
 " But I have taken pains to keep mine under the 
 thumb. How is it with you, Dolly ? " 
 
 Dolly was standing near them, and heard them, but 
 she did not reply. She was affected; tears filled her 
 eyes, and she could not have uttered a word without 
 crying. She was glad for Kitty and Levin ; she was 
 thinking of her own wedding ; and as she glanced at 
 the brilliant Stepan Arkadyevitch, she forgot the real 
 state of things, and only remembered his first, innocent 
 love. She was thinking, too, of other women, her 
 relatives and acquaintances, whom she remembered 
 at this important and solemn hour of their lives ; how 
 they, like Kitty, stood under the crown ; how they re- 
 nounced the past with joy, and began a mysterious 
 future, with hope and fear in their hearts. Among the 
 number she recalled her dear Anna, the details of whose 
 approaching divorce she had just heard ; she had seen 
 her enveloped in a white veil, as pure as Kitty, with her 
 wreath of orange-blossoms. And now ? " It is terribly 
 strange ! " she whispered. 
 
 The sisters and friends were not the only ones to 
 follow with interest the minutest details of the cere- 
 mony ; there were women among the strangers looking
 
 286 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 on, who held their breath, for fear of losing a single 
 movement of bride or bridegroom, and who replied 
 absent-mindedly to the jokes or idle remarks of the 
 men, often not even hearing them. 
 
 " Why is she so troubled ? Are they marrying her 
 against her will ? " 
 
 " Against her will ? to such a handsome man ? Is he 
 a prince ? " 
 
 " Is that her sister in white satin ? There ! Just 
 hear the deacon howl, ' Let her fear her husband ' ! " 
 
 " Are the singers from Chudof ? " l 
 
 " No ; from the synod." 
 
 "'I have asked the servant about it. He says that 
 her husband is going to take her away to his estate. 
 Awfully rich, they say. That is why she is marrying 
 him." 
 
 "They make a handsome pair." 
 
 "And you pretend to say, Marya Vasilievna, that 
 they don't wear crinolines 2 any longer. Just look at 
 that one in a puce-colored dress ! You would say she 
 was an ambassador's wife by the way she is dressed. 
 Do you see now ? " 
 
 " What a sweet little creature the bride is ! like a 
 lamb for the slaughter. You may say what you please, 
 I can't help pitying her." 
 
 Such were the remarks of the spectators who had 
 succeeded in getting past the door of the church. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 As the service of espousal was coming to an end, one 
 of the officiating priests spread a piece of rose-colored 
 silk in front of the lectern, in the center of the church, 
 the choir chanted an artistic and complicated psalm, in 
 which the tenor and bass sang responsively, and the 
 priest, turning to the young couple, attracted their atten- 
 tion to the piece of rose-colored fabric. 
 
 1 A monastery, famous for its singers. 
 
 8 The speaker calls it karnalin instead of krinolin.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 287 
 
 They were both familiar with the superstition that 
 whichever one of a, bridal couple first sets foot on the 
 carpet becomes the real head of the family, but neither 
 Kitty nor Levin remembered anything about it after 
 they had gone a few steps, And they did not hear the 
 remarks exchanged about them, or the discussions be- 
 tween those who thought that he was the first and those 
 who were sure that they touched it simultaneously. 
 
 After the customary questions as to their willingness 
 to enter into the bonds of matrimony, and would they 
 plight their mutual troth, and their answers, which 
 sounded strangely loud to their own ears, a new office 
 began. Kitty listened to the words of the prayers and 
 tried to understand them, but she could not. The far- 
 ther the ceremony proceeded, the more her heart over- 
 flowed with triumphant joy, which prevented her from 
 fixing her attention. 
 
 They prayed to God that " the pair might have the 
 gift of chastity, and might rejoice in the sight of many 
 sons and daughters ; " they recalled how God had made 
 "the first woman from Adam's side," that "the woman 
 must leave father and mother and cling to her husband, 
 and they twain shall be one flesh," and that this is a 
 great miracle ; they prayed God " to give them fecun- 
 dity and prosperity, as he had blessed Isaac and Re- 
 becca, Joseph, Moses, and Sephora, and to let them see 
 their children to the third and fourth generation." 
 
 " All this is lovely," thought Kitty, as she heard these 
 words ; " all this is just as it should be." And a smile 
 of happiness, which was reflected on the faces of all 
 who saw her, shone on her fair, lovely face. 
 
 " Put it entirely on," were the words heard in every 
 part of the church, as the priest brought forward the 
 crowns, and Shcherbatsky, in his three-button gloves, 
 tremblingly held the wreath high above Kitty's head. 
 
 " Put it on," whispered the latter, smiling. 
 
 Levin turned round, and was struck by the radiant 
 joy wriich filled her face, and the same feeling, in spite 
 of himself, took possession of him; he felt, like her, 
 happy and serene.
 
 288 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 They listened with joy in their hearts to the reading 
 of the Epistle, and the archdeacon's voice echoing the 
 jast verse, fully appreciated by the strangers, who were 
 impatiently waiting for it. Joyfully they drank the 
 warm red wine and water from the flat cup, and they 
 felt still more joyful when the priest, throwing back his 
 chasuble, led them around the lectern, holding both 
 their hands in his, while the bass sang, at the top of his 
 voice, Isa'iye liku'i. Shcherbatsky and Chirikof, carry- 
 ing the crowns, smiling and constantly treading on the 
 bride's train, now straggled behind, now bumped into 
 the crowned couple, as the priest paused in front of the 
 relics. The gleam of joy on Kitty's face seemed to be 
 communicated to all present. Levin was sure that the 
 deacon and the priest fell under its influence as well as 
 himself. 
 
 When the crowns had been taken from their heads, 
 the priest read the last prayers and congratulated the 
 young couple. Levin looked at Kitty and thought he 
 had never seen her so beautiful ; it was the beauty of 
 that new radiance of happiness which transformed her ; 
 he wanted to say something to her, but did not know 
 whether the ceremony was yet over or not. The priest 
 relieved him from his uncertainty, and said gently to 
 him, with a kindly smile : 
 
 " Kiss your wife, and you, kiss your husband," and 
 he took their candles. 
 
 Levin, with circumspection, kissed his wife's smiling 
 lips, gave her his arm, and went out of the church with 
 a new and strange feeling of being suddenly very near 
 to her. He had not believed, he could not believe, that 
 all this was reality. Nor until their astonished and timid 
 eyes met did he believe it, because he felt that they were 
 indeed one. 
 
 That same evening, after the supper, the young couple 
 started for the country.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 289 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 VRONSKY and Anna had been traveling together in 
 Europe for three months. They had visited Venice, 
 Rome, Naples ; and now they were just arrived at a 
 small Italian city, where they intended to make a con- 
 siderable stay. 
 
 At the hotel the head butler, a regular Adonis of a 
 man, who wore his thick pomaded hair parted behind 
 from the neck, and a dress-coat with a wide expanse of 
 white shirt-front and watch-charms over his rotund 
 belly, was standing with his hands thrust into his 
 pockets, scornfully blinking his eyes, and giving curt 
 answers to a gentleman who had entered the hotel. 
 Hearing steps on the other side of the entrance, the 
 head butler turned around, and, seeing the Russian 
 count, who rented his most expensive apartments, he 
 respectfully drew his hands out of his pockets, and, with 
 a low bow, informed the count that a messenger had 
 come to say that the palazzo was at his service. The 
 agent was ready to sign the agreement. 
 
 "Ah! I am very glad," said Vronsky. "Is madame 
 at home ? " 
 
 " She has been out, but she has returned," replied the 
 butler. 
 
 Vronsky took off his wide-brimmed soft hat, and 
 wiped his heated forehead with his handkerchief, and 
 smoothed his hair, which was so arranged as to hide his 
 bald spot. Then, casting a hasty glance at the stranger, 
 who had stopped, and was looking at him earnestly, he 
 started to go. 
 
 " This gentleman is a Russian, and was inquiring for 
 you," said the head butler. 
 
 With a mingled feeling of vexation because he never 
 could get away from acquaintances, and of pleasure at 
 the idea of any distraction from his monotonous exis- 
 tence, Vronsky once more looked at the gentleman, who 
 had started to go and then stopped, and at one and the 
 same time their eyes met. 
 VOL. ii. 19
 
 290 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Golenishchef ! " 
 
 " Vronsky ! " 
 
 It was indeed Golenishchef, one of Vronsky's school- 
 mates in the Corps of Pages. He had belonged to the 
 liberal party in the Corps, and, after his graduation, he 
 had taken a civil rank, and had not served. The com- 
 rades had entirely drifted apart since their graduation, and 
 had met only once. At that meeting Vronsky had per- 
 ceived that Golenishchef looked down from the lofty 
 heights of his chosen liberal profession on Vronsky's 
 profession and career. Consequently, Vronsky at that 
 meeting with Golenishchef had given him that cold 
 and haughty reception with which it was his fashion 
 to treat people, as much as to say : " You may like or 
 dislike my manner of life, but it is absolutely of no con- 
 sequence to me ; you must respect me if you want to 
 know me." Golenishchef had been scornfully indiffer- 
 ent to Vronsky's manner. That meeting, it would seem, 
 should have driven them still farther apart ; yet now, 
 at the sight of each other, they each uttered a cry of 
 delight. Vronsky had never realized how glad he would 
 be to see Golenishchef ; but the fact was that he did not 
 know how bored he was. He forgot the unpleasant 
 impression of their previous meeting, and with mani- 
 fest pleasure extended his hand to his old comrade. 
 And likewise a look of satisfaction succeeded the 
 troubled expression on Golenishchef's face. 
 
 " How glad I am to see you ! " said Vronsky, with a 
 friendly smile which showed his handsome white teeth. 
 
 " I heard the name Vronsky, but which .... I did not 
 know.... I am very, very glad." 
 
 " But come in. Well, what are you doing ? " 
 
 " Oh, I have been living here for more than a year, 
 working." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Vronsky, with interest. " But come in." 
 
 And, according to the habit of Russians, instead of 
 saying in Russian what he did not wish to be under- 
 stood by servants, he said in French : 
 
 "Do you know Madame Karenin? We have been 
 traveling together. I was just going to her room."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 291 
 
 And while he was speaking he studied Golenishchef 's 
 face. 
 
 "Ah ! I did not know," remarked Golenishchef, care- 
 lessly; but he did know, <( Have you been here long ? " 
 
 " I ? Oh, this is the fourth day," replied Vronsky, 
 continuing to study his companion. 
 
 " Yes ! He is a gentleman, and looks upon things in 
 the right light," he said to himself, giving a favorable 
 interpretation to Golenishchef's way of turning the con- 
 versation ; " he can be presented to Anna ; his views are 
 all right." 
 
 Vronsky, during this three months which he had been 
 spending with Anna abroad, had felt every time that he 
 met with new acquaintances a hesitation as to the man- 
 ner in which they would look on his relations with Anna, 
 and for the most part the men had looked on them " in 
 the right light." If he or they had been asked what 
 they meant by the expression " in the right light," they 
 would have found it hard to tell. In reality, those that 
 according to Vronsky looked on it " in the right light " 
 had never looked on it at all, but as a general thing con- 
 tented themselves with a wise discretion, not asking 
 questions or making allusions, and behaved altogether 
 as well-bred people behave when presented with delicate 
 and complex questions such as surround life on all sides. 
 They pretended that they fully appreciated the meaning 
 and significance of the situation, recognized and even 
 approved of it, but considered it ill-judged and super- 
 fluous to explain it. 
 
 Vronsky instantly saw that Golenishchef was one of 
 these discreet people, and was therefore glad to meet 
 him. 
 
 In fact Golenishchef behaved toward Madame Karenin 
 when he was introduced to her in exactly the manner 
 that Vronsky demanded ; it evidently cost him no effort 
 to avoid all words that would lead to any awkwardness. 
 
 He had never seen Anna before, and was delighted 
 with her beauty, and still more with the perfect sim- 
 plicity with which she accepted the situation. She 
 flushed when she saw Vronsky come in with Goleni-
 
 292 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 shchef , and this infantile color which spread over her 
 frank and lovely face pleased him immensely. But he 
 was delighted because from the very first, as if purposely, 
 even in the presence of a stranger, which might have 
 caused restraint, she called Vronsky Alekse'f, and told 
 how they had just rented a house which the people 
 called a palazzo, and how she was going to occupy it with 
 him. The simple and straightforward facing of their 
 situation was delightful to Golenishchef. Perceiving 
 Anna's happy and vivacious manner, knowing AlekseY 
 Aleksandrovitch and Vronsky, it seemed to him that he 
 thoroughly understood her. It seemed to him that he 
 understood what she herself did not understand : how 
 she could desert her unhappy husband and her son, and 
 lose her good repute, and still feel animated, gay, and 
 happy. 
 
 " It is in the guide-book," said Golenishchef, speak- 
 ing of the palazzo which Vronsky called by name. 
 " There is a superb Tintoretto there. In his latest 
 manner." 
 
 " Do you know that ? It is splendid weather ; let 's 
 go over and look at it again," said Vronsky, addressing 
 Anna. 
 
 " I should like to very much. I will go and put on 
 my hat. Did you say it was hot? " said she, pausing at 
 the door and looking back to Vronsky. And again the 
 bright color came into her face. 
 
 Vronsky saw by her look that she was uncertain how 
 he wished to treat Golenishchef, and that she was afraid 
 that her behavior might not be what he desired. 
 
 He looked at her long and tenderly. Then he re- 
 plied : 
 
 " No, not very." 
 
 And it seemed to her that she comprehended him 
 perfectly, and especially that he was satisfied with her, 
 and, replying with a smile, she went out with a quick 
 and graceful motion. 
 
 The friends looked at each other, and there came 
 into the faces of both an expression of embarrassment, 
 as if Golenishchef, admiring her, wished to make some
 
 ANNA KARENINA 293 
 
 complimentary remark, and had not the courage, while 
 Vronsky both wished and feared to hear it. 
 
 " Well, then," Vronsky began, so that some conversa- 
 tion might be started, " so you are settled here ? Are 
 you still interested in the same pursuits ? " he asked, 
 remembering that he had been told that Golenishchef 
 was writing something. 
 
 " Yes ; I have been writing the second part of the 
 'Two Origins,' " replied Golenishchef, kindling with de- 
 light at this question ; " that is, to be more exact, I am 
 not writing yet, but have been collecting and preparing 
 my materials. It will be far more extended, and will touch 
 on almost all questions. At home, in Russia, they can't 
 understand that we are successors of Byzantium," and 
 he began a long and vehement explanation. 
 
 Vronsky at first felt awkward because he did not 
 know about the first part of the "Two Origins," about 
 which the author spoke as if it were something well 
 known. But afterward, as Golenishchef began to de- 
 velop his thought, and Vronsky saw what he meant, then, 
 even though he did not know about the " Two Origins," 
 he listened not without interest, for Golenishchef spoke 
 well. 
 
 But Vronsky was surprised and annoyed at the irrita- 
 ble excitement under which Golenishchef labored while 
 talking about the object that absorbed him. The longer 
 he spoke, the brighter grew his eyes, the more animated 
 were his arguments in refutation of imaginary oppo- 
 nents, and the more angry and excited the expression of 
 his face. 
 
 Vronsky remembered Golenishchef at the School of 
 Pages, a lad of small stature, thin, nervous, agile, a 
 good-hearted and gentlemanly lad, always at the head 
 of his class, and he could not understand the reasons 
 for such irascibility and he did not approve of it. And it 
 especially displeased him that Golenishchef, a man of good 
 social standing, should put himself down on the level 
 of these common scribblers, and get angry with them 
 because they criticized him. Was it worth while ? It dis- 
 pleased him ; but, nevertheless, he felt that Golenishchef
 
 294 ANNA KAREN1NA 
 
 was making himself miserable and he was sorry foi 
 him. 
 
 This unhappiness, almost amounting to insanity, was 
 particularly noticeable on his mobile and rather hand- 
 some face, while he went on so hurriedly and heatedly 
 expressing his thoughts that he did not notice Anna's 
 return. 
 
 As Anna came in, wearing her hat and with a mantle 
 thrown over her shoulders, and stood near them, twirl- 
 ing her sunshade in her lovely, slender hand, Vronsky 
 felt a sense of relief in turning away from Golenishchef's 
 feverish eyes fixed keenly on him, and looked with an 
 ever new love at his charming companion, radiant with 
 life and gayety. 
 
 It was hard for Golenishchef to come to himself, and 
 at first he was surly and cross ; but Anna, who was flat- 
 teringly amiable toward every one, for such at this 
 time was her disposition, quickly brought him into 
 sympathy with her gay and natural manner. After es- 
 saying various topics of conversation, she brought him 
 round to painting, about which he spoke very well, and 
 she listened to him attentively. They walked over to 
 \\\o. palazzo and made a thorough inspection of it. 
 
 "I am very glad of one thing," said Anna to Goleni- 
 shchef; "AlekseY will have a nice atelier. Of course 
 you '11 take this room ? " she added, turning to Vronsky 
 and speaking to him in Russian, using the familiar tui 
 (thou) as if she already looked on Golenishchef as an inti- 
 mate, before whom it was not necessary to be reserved. 
 
 "Do you paint?" asked Golenishchef, turning viva- 
 ciously to Vronsky. 
 
 " Yes, I used to paint long ago, and now I am going 
 to take it up again," replied Vronsky, with color. 
 
 " He has great talent," cried Anna, with a radiant 
 smile. " Of course I am not a judge. But good judges 
 say so."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 295 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ANNA, during this first period of freedom and rapid 
 convalescence, felt herself inexcusably happy and full 
 of joyous life. The memory of her husband's unhappi- 
 ness did not poison her pleasure. This memory in one 
 way was too horrible to think of. In another, her hus- 
 band's unhappiness was the cause of a happiness for 
 her too great to allow regret. The memory of every- 
 thing that had followed since her sickness, the reconcili- 
 ation with her husband, the quarrel, Vronsky's wound, 
 his sudden appearance, the preparations for the divorce, 
 the flight from her husband's home, the separation from 
 her son, all this seemed like a delirious dream, from 
 which she awoke and found herself abroad alone with 
 Vronsky. The recollection of the injury which she had 
 done her husband aroused in her a feeling akin to dis- 
 gust, and like that which a drowning man might experi- 
 ence after having pushed away a person clinging to 
 him. The other person was drowned. Of course, what 
 had been done was evil, but it was the only possible 
 salvation, and it was better not to return to those horri- 
 ble memories. 
 
 One consoling argument in regard to her conduct 
 occurred to her at the first moment of the rupture, and 
 now, whenever she thought of all that had passed, she 
 went over this argument. 
 
 " I have done my husband an irrevocable injury," she 
 said to herself, " but at least I get no advantage from 
 his misfortune. I also suffer and shall suffer. I give 
 up all that was dearest to me ; I give up my good name 
 and my son. I have sinned, and therefore I do not 
 desire happiness, do not desire a divorce, and I accept 
 my shame and the separation from my son." 
 
 But, however sincere Anna was when she reasoned 
 thus, she had not suffered. She had felt no shame. 
 With that tact which both she and Vronsky possessed 
 to perfection, they had avoided, while abroad, any meet- 
 ing with Russian ladies, and they had never put them-
 
 296 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 selves into any false position, but had associated only 
 with those who pretended to understand their situation 
 much better than they themselves did. Nor even the 
 separation from her son, whom she loved, caused her 
 any pain at this time. Her baby, her daughter, was so 
 lovely and had so filled her heart since only the daughter 
 was left to her, that she rarely thought of the son. 
 
 The joy of living caused by her convalescence was so 
 keen, the conditions of her existence were so new and 
 delightful, that Anna felt inexcusably happy. The 
 more she came to know Vronsky, the more she loved 
 him. She loved him for his own sake and for his love 
 for her. The complete surrender to him was a delight. 
 His presence was always a joy to her. All the traits of 
 his character as she came to know them better and bet- 
 ter became to her inexpressibly dear. His appearance, 
 now that he dressed in civil attire instead of uniform, 
 was as entrancing to her as for a young girl desperately 
 in love. In all he said, thought, or did, she saw some- 
 thing noble and elevated. She herself often felt fright- 
 ened at this excessive worship of him. She tried in 
 vain to find any imperfection in him. She did not dare 
 to confess to him her own inferiority, lest he, knowing 
 it, should love her less. And now there was nothing 
 that she feared so much, although there was not the 
 slightest occasion for it, as to lose his love. But she 
 could not fail to be grateful to him for the way he 
 treated her or to show him how much she prized it. 
 
 Although in her opinion he had shown such a decided 
 vocation for statesmanship, in which he would certainly 
 have played an important part, and had sacrificed his am- 
 bition for her, still he had never expressed the slightest 
 regret. He was more than ever affectionately re- 
 spectful, and careful that she should never feel in the 
 slightest degree the compromising character of her 
 position. This man, so masculine, not only never 
 opposed her, but moreover it might be said that he had 
 no will besides hers, and his only aim seemed to be to 
 anticipate her desires. And she could not but appreci- 
 ate this, though this very assiduity in his attentions, this
 
 ANNA KARENINA 297 
 
 atmosphere of solicitude which he threw around her, 
 was sometimes oppressive to her. 
 
 Vronsky, meantime, notwithstanding the complete 
 realization of all that he had desired so long, was not 
 entirely happy. He soon began to feel that the accom- 
 plishment of his desires was only a small portion of the 
 mountain of pleasure which he had anticipated. This 
 realization now proved to him the eternal error made by 
 men who imagine their happiness lies in the accomplish- 
 ment of their desires. During the first of the time after 
 he had begun to live with her, and had put on his 
 citizen's clothes, he experienced all the charm of a free- 
 dom such as he had never known before and the free- 
 dom of love, and he was satisfied with that ; but not for 
 long. He soon began to feel rising in his soul the desire 
 of desires toska, melancholy, homesickness, ennui. 
 Involuntarily, he began to follow every light caprice as 
 if they were serious aspirations and ends. 
 
 It was necessary to fill sixteen hours each day with 
 some occupation, living, as they did, abroad, in perfect 
 freedom, away from the social and military duties that 
 took Vronsky 's time at Petersburg. He could not think 
 of indulging in the pleasures such as he had enjoyed as 
 a bachelor during his previous trips abroad, for one ex- 
 periment of that kind a scheme of a late supper with 
 some acquaintances reduced Anna to a most unex- 
 pected and uncomfortable state of dejection. The enjoy- 
 ment with foreign or Russian society was impossible on 
 account of the peculiarity of their relation. And to 
 amuse himself with the curiosities of the country was 
 not to be spoken of, not only because he had already 
 seen them, but because as a Russian and a man of sense, 
 he could not find in them that immense importance that 
 the English are pleased to attach to them. 
 
 And as a hungry animal throws itself on everything 
 that presents itself, hoping to find in it something to eat, 
 so Vronsky, with perfect spontaneity, attacked, now 
 politics, now new books, now painting. 
 
 As, when he was young, he had shown some inclination 
 toward art, and, not knowing what to do with his money,
 
 298 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 had begun to collect engravings, he had tried his hand 
 at painting. And now he took it up again, and employed 
 in it that unexpended superfluity of energy which de- 
 manded employment. He had the capacity for appre- 
 ciating art, and he thought that this was all that an artist 
 needed. After having for some time hung doubtful 
 which he would choose, the religious, the historical, 
 genre, or the realistic, he actually began to paint. He 
 understood all kinds, and could get inspiration from each ; 
 but he could not imagine that it was possible to be entirely 
 ignorant of the various styles of art and to draw inspira- 
 tion directly from what is in the soul itself, not caring 
 what may be the result or to what famous school it may 
 belong. As he did not know this, and drew his inspira- 
 tion, not directly from life, but from life as expressed 
 in art, so he became easily and speedily inspired, and 
 with equal ease and rapidity succeeded in making what 
 he undertook to paint a very good resemblance to that 
 style which he was trying to imitate. 
 
 More than all others, the graceful and effective 
 French school appealed to him, and in this style he 
 began a portrait of Anna in an Italian costume ; and 
 this portrait seemed to him and to all that saw it very 
 successful. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE old, dilapidated palazzo into which they move(* 
 supplied Vronsky with the agreeable illusion that he* 
 was not so much a Russian proprietor, a shtalme'fster in 
 retirement, as he was an enlightened amateur and pro- 
 tector of art, in his own modest way an artist, who had 
 sacrificed society, his ties, his ambition, for a woman's 
 love. This ancient palace, with its lofty stuccoed ceil- 
 ings, its frescoed walls, its mosaic floors, its yellow tapes- 
 tries, its thick, yellow curtains at the high windows, its 
 vases on mantelpiece and consoles, its carved doors, and 
 its melancholy halls hung with paintings, lent itself readily 
 to his illusion. 
 
 This new rdle which Vronsky had chosen, together 
 with their removal to the palazzo and acquaintance with
 
 ANNA KARENINA 299 
 
 several interesting persons, which came about through 
 Golenishchef, made the first part of this period very 
 enjoyable. Under the instruction of an Italian pro- 
 fessor of painting, he made some studies from nature, 
 and he took up the study of Italian life during the 
 Middle Ages. Medieval Italian life became so fasci- 
 nating to him that he began to wear his hat and throw 
 his plaid over his shoulders in the medieval style, which 
 was very becoming to him. 
 
 " Here we are alive, and yet we know nothing," said 
 Vronsky one morning to Golenishchef, who came in to 
 see him. "Have you seen Mikhai'lof's 1 painting?" he 
 asked, and at the same time handed him a Russian 
 paper just received, and indicated an article on this 
 artist, who was living in that very city, and had just 
 completed a picture about which many reports had long 
 been in circulation, and which had been sold on the 
 easel. The article severely criticized the government 
 and the academy that an artist of such genius was left 
 without any encouragement and aid. 
 
 " I have seen it," replied Golenishchef. " Of course 
 he is not without talent, but his tendencies are abso- 
 lutely false. He always shows the Ivanof-Strauss- 
 Renan conception of Christ and religious art." 
 
 " What is the subject of his painting ? " asked Anna. 
 
 " ' Christ before Pilate.' The Christ is a Jew with all 
 the realism of the new school." 
 
 And as this subject was a favorite one with him, he 
 began to develop his ideas. 
 
 " I cannot understand how they can fall into such a 
 gross mistake. The type of the Christ in art was clearly 
 represented by the old masters. Accordingly, if they 
 want to paint, not God, but a sage or a revolutionist, let 
 them take Franklin or Socrates, or Charlotte Corday, 
 but not Christ. They take the very person whom art 
 should not attempt to portray, and then ...." 
 
 "Is it true that this Mikhai'lof is in such poverty?" 
 asked Vronsky, who felt that in his quality of Russian 
 
 1 Count Tolstoi may possibly refer to the great artist Gay, one of whose 
 pictures was exhibited in this country a number of years ago. ED.
 
 300 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Maecenas he ought to find some way of aiding the artist, 
 whether his painting was good or not. 
 
 " It is doubtful. He is a famous portrait painter. 
 Have you not seen his portrait of Madame Vasilchikof ? 
 But it seems he does n't care to paint portraits any longer, 
 and perhaps that is the reason he is in need. I say 
 that...." 
 
 " Could n't we ask him to paint Anna Arkadyevna's 
 portrait ? " 
 
 " Why mine ? " she demanded. " After your portrait 
 of me, I want no other. It would be better to let him 
 paint Ani [so she called her daughter], or her," she 
 added, looking out of the window at the pretty Italian 
 nurse, who was just taking the baby into the garden. 
 And at the same time she gave Vronsky a furtive 
 glance. This pretty Italian woman, whose face Vronsky 
 had taken as a model for a picture, was the only secret 
 woe in Anna's life. Vronsky painted her picture, ad- 
 mired her beauty and her medieval quaintness, and 
 Anna did not dare to confess to herself that she feared 
 she was going to be jealous, and was accordingly all the 
 more kind to her and her little boy. 
 
 Vronsky also looked out of the window, and at Anna's 
 eyes, and, instantly turning to Golenishchef, said : 
 
 " And so you know this Mikhailof ? " 
 
 " I have met him. But he is an original a chudak 
 without any education, you know, one of these new- 
 fashioned savages such as you meet with nowadays 
 you know them these free-thinkers, who rush headlong 
 into atheism, materialism, universal negation. Once," 
 Golenishchef went on to say, either not noticing or not 
 wishing to notice that both Vronsky and Anna were 
 ready to speak, " once the free-thinker was a man edu- 
 cated in the conceptions of religion, law, and morality, 
 who did not ignore the laws by which society is regu- 
 lated, and who reached freedom of thought only after 
 long struggles. But now we have a new type of them, 
 free-thinkers who grow up without even knowing 
 that there are such things as laws in morality and 
 religion, who will not admit that sure authorities exist,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 301 
 
 and who possess only the sentiment of negation ; in a 
 word, savages. Mikhai'lof is one of these. He is the 
 son of a major-domo, or ober-lakei*-a.\. Moscow, and never 
 had any education. When he entered the academy, and 
 had made a reputation, he was willing to be taught, for 
 he is not a fool ; and, with this end in view, he turned to 
 that source of all learning, the magazines and reviews. 
 Now you know in the good old times, if a man let us 
 say a Frenchman wanted to get an education, he 
 would study the classics, the preachers, the tragic 
 poets, the historians, the philosophers ; and you can see 
 all the intellectual labor that involved. But nowadays 
 he turns to negative literature, and succeeds very speed- 
 ily in getting a smattering of such a science. And, 
 again, twenty years ago, he would have found in this 
 same literature traces of the struggle against the 
 authorities and secular traditions of the past ; he would 
 have understood from this dispute that there was some 
 thing else. But now he turns directly to a literature 
 where the old traditions are of no avail at all, but men 
 say up and down there is nothing natural selection, 
 Evolution, struggle for existence, negation, and all. In 
 my article .... " 
 
 " Do you know," said Anna, after exchanging several 
 glances with Vronsky, and noticing that he was not in- 
 terested in the artist's education, but was occupied only 
 with the thought of helping him and getting him to 
 paint the portrait. "What do you say ? " said she, reso- 
 lutely cutting short Golenishchef's verbiage, " let us go 
 and see him." 
 
 Golenishchef , after deliberating, readily consented ; 
 and, as the artist lived in a remote quarter, they had a 
 carriage called. An hour later, Anna, occupying the 
 same seat in the calash with Golenishchef and Vronsky, 
 drove up to an ugly new house in a distant part of the 
 city. When they learned from the concierge's wife, who 
 came to receive them, that Mikhai'lof permitted visitors 
 to his studio, but that he was now at his lodgings a few 
 steps distant, they sent her to him with their cards, and 
 begged to be admitted to see his paintings.
 
 302 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE painter Mikhai'lof was at work as usual, when 
 the cards of Count Vronsky and Golenishchef were 
 brought him. He had been painting all the morning 
 in his studio on his great picture, but, when he reached 
 his house, he became enraged with his wife because of 
 her failure to make terms with their landlady, who de- 
 manded money. 
 
 " I have told you twenty times not to go into explana- 
 tions with her. You are a fool anyway ; but when you 
 try to argue in Italian, you are three times as much of 
 a fool," said he, at the end of a long dispute. 
 
 " Why do you get behindhand so ? It is not my fault 
 If I had any money.... " 
 
 " For heaven's sake, give me some peace ! " cried 
 Mikhai'lof, his voice thick with tears ; and, putting his 
 hands over his ears, he hastily rushed to the workroom, 
 separated from the sitting-room by a partition, and 
 bolted the door. " She has n't any common sense," he 
 said to himself, as he sat down at his table, and, opening 
 a portfolio, addressed himself with feverish ardor to a 
 sketch which he had already begun. 
 
 He never worked with such zeal and success as when 
 his life went hard, and especially when he had been 
 quarreling with his wife. " Akh ! it must be some- 
 where ! " he said to himself, as he went on with his work. 
 He had begun a study of a man seized with a fit of 
 anger. He had made the sketch some time before ; 
 but he was dissatisfied with it. "No," said he, "that 
 one was better .... but where is it?".... He went back 
 to his wife with an air of vexation, and, without looking 
 at her, asked his eldest daughter for the piece of paper 
 which he had given her. The paper with the sketch on 
 it was found, but it was soiled and covered with drops 
 of tallow. Nevertheless, he took it as it was, laid it on 
 the table, examined it from a distance, squinting his 
 eyes ; then suddenly he smiled, with a satisfied gesture. 
 
 " So ! so ! " he cried, taking a pencil, and drawing
 
 ANNA KARENINA 303 
 
 some rapid lines. One of the tallow spots gave his 
 sketch a new aspect. 
 
 He sketched in this new pose,' and suddenly remem- 
 bered the prominent chin and energetic face of the man 
 of whom he bought his cigars, and instantly he gave 
 his design the same kind of a face and prominent chin. 
 He laughed with delight. The figure ceased to be 
 something vague and dead, but became animated, and 
 took a form which could not be bettered. This figure 
 was alive, and was clearly and indubitably delineated. 
 It was possible to correct the sketch in conformity with 
 the demands of this figure ; it was possible and even 
 requisite to set the legs in a different way, to make an 
 absolute change in the position of the left arm, to re- 
 arrange the hair ; but after he had finished these cor- 
 rections he made no changes in the figure but only 
 cleared away what concealed it. He, as it were, took 
 from it the veils behind which it was not wholly visible. 
 Each new stroke only the more exposed the entire fig- 
 ure in all its energetic power, just as it had suddenly 
 appeared to him in the spot made by the wax. He 
 laughed with delight. He was carefully finishing his 
 design when the two cards were brought him. 
 
 " I will come instantly," he replied. 
 
 He went to his wife. 
 
 " There, come, Sasha, don't be vexed," he said, with 
 a smile tender and timid. " You were wrong ; so was 
 I. I will settle matters." 
 
 And, having made his peace with her, he put on an 
 olive-green overcoat with velvet collar, took his hat, and 
 went to his studio. His successfully completed sketch 
 was already quite forgotten, now he was delighted and 
 surprised by the visit of these stylish Russians who had 
 come to see him in a carriage. 
 
 In the depth of his soul his opinion on the painting 
 which was on his easel at that time was as follows : 
 
 " No one has ever painted another like it." He did 
 not believe that his painting was better than all the 
 Raphaels ; but he knew that no one had ever put into 
 a picture what he had tried to put into this one. This
 
 304 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 he knew assuredly, and had known it ever since he had 
 begun to paint it. Nevertheless, the criticisms of others, 
 whatever they were, possessed for him an enormous 
 weight and stirred him to the depths of his soul. Any 
 remark, however insignificant, which showed that the 
 critic saw even the smallest part of what he himself saw 
 in this picture, stirred him to the depths of his soul. He 
 felt that his critics had a depth of insight superior even 
 to his own, and he expected to have them discover in 
 his picture new features that had escaped his own 
 observation. 
 
 And often in the judgments of visitors who came to 
 look at it, it seemed to him, he discovered this. He 
 hurried to the door of his studio, and, in spite of his 
 emotion, was struck by the soft radiance of Anna, who 
 was standing in the shadow of the portico and listening 
 to something which Golenishchef was saying to her, and 
 at the same time eagerly watching the artist's approach. 
 The artist, without definite consciousness of it, instantly 
 stowed away in the pigeonholes of his brain the impres- 
 sion she made on him, to make use of it some day, just 
 as he had used the tobacconist's chin. 
 
 The visitors, whose ideas of Mikhai'lof had been 
 greatly modified by Golenishchef's description of him, 
 were still more disenchanted when they saw him. Mi- 
 khai'lof was a thick-set man, of medium height, and with 
 a nimble gait, and in his cinnamon-colored hat, his olive- 
 green coat, and his trousers worn tight when the style 
 was to wear them loose, produced an unfavorable im- 
 pression, increased by the vulgarity of his broad face 
 and the mixture of timidity and pretentious dignity 
 which it expressed. 
 
 " Do me the honor to enter," he said, trying to as- 
 sume an air of indifference, and, going to the vestibule, 
 he took a key out of his pocket and opened the door.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 305 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 As they entered the studio, Mikhai'lof again glanced 
 at his guests, and stored away in his memory the expres- 
 sion of Vronsky's face, especially its cheek-bones. Not- 
 withstanding the fact that this man's artistic sense was 
 always at work storing up new materials, notwithstand- 
 ing the fact that his emotion grew greater and greater 
 as the crucial moment for their criticism of his work 
 approached, still he quickly and shrewdly gathered from 
 almost imperceptible indications his conclusions regard- 
 ing his three visitors. 
 
 "That one [meaning Golenishchef] must be a Rus- 
 sian resident in Italy." Mikhai'lof did not remember 
 either his name or the place where he had met him, 
 or whether he had ever spoken to him ; he remembered 
 only his face, as he remembered all the faces that he 
 had ever seen, but he also remembered that he had once 
 before classed him in the immense category of preten- 
 tiously important but really expressionless faces. An 
 abundance of hair and a very high forehead would make 
 the casual observer take him to be a man of importance, 
 but his face had an insignificant expression of puerile agi- 
 tation concentrated in the narrow space between his eyes. 
 
 Vronsky and Anna were, according to Mikha'ilof's 
 intuition, rich and distinguished Russians, ignorant of 
 art, like all rich Russians who play the amateur and the 
 connoisseur. 
 
 " They have undoubtedly seen all the old galleries," 
 he thought, " and now are visiting the studios of the Ger- 
 man charlatans and the imbecile English pre-Raphael- 
 ites, and have come to me in order to complete their 
 survey." 
 
 He knew very well the fashion in which the dilettanti 
 
 the more intellectual they were, the worse they were 
 
 visited the studios of modern painters, with the single 
 aim of having the right to say that art was declining, 
 and that, the more you study the moderns, the better 
 you see how inimitable the great masters of old were.
 
 306 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 He expected all this, he saw it in their faces, and he 
 read it in the indifference with which his visitors con- 
 versed together as they walked up and down the studio, 
 leisurely examining the manikins and busts, while wait- 
 ing for him to take the covering off his painting. 
 
 But, in spite of this, all the time that he was turning 
 over his studies, raising his window-blinds, and uncover- 
 ing his paintings, he experienced a powerful emotion, 
 and all the more so because, though he considered that 
 all distinguished and wealthy Russians must necessarily 
 be " cattle " and fools, yet Vronsky, and particularly 
 Anna, pleased him. 
 
 " Here," he said, stepping back from the easel and 
 pointing to the painting, "is the 'Christ before Pilate.' 
 Matthew, chapter xxvii." 
 
 He felt his lips tremble with emotion, and he took his 
 place behind his guests. During the few seconds, dur- 
 ing which the visitors looked silently at the painting, 
 Mikha'flof also looked at it and looked at it with the in- 
 difference of a stranger. In those few seconds he an- 
 ticipated a superior and infallible criticism from these 
 three persons, whom but a moment before he had des- 
 pised. He forgot all that he had thought about his 
 painting during the three years while he had been paint- 
 ing it ; he forgot all those merits which had been so 
 indubitable to him ; he looked at it now with the cold and 
 critical look of a stranger, and found nothing good in it. 
 He saw in the foreground the irate face of Pilate and the 
 Christ's serene countenance, and in the middle distance 
 the figures of Pilate's servants, and among them John, 
 looking on at the proceedings. Each face, with its at- 
 tempted expression, with its faults, with its rectifications, 
 each face which, with its own peculiar character, had, as 
 it were, been a growth from himself, and had cost him so 
 much travail and delight, and all these faces, which he 
 had changed so many times so as to unify them, all the 
 shades of color, all the nuances, obtained with such ex- 
 traordinary pains, all this, taken together and looked 
 at in such a way, now seemed to him commonplace, a 
 thousand fold commonplace ! The face which he had
 
 ANNA KARENINA 307 
 
 regarded with the most complacency the face of the 
 Christ in the very center of the picture, which had roused 
 his enthusiasm as he had developed it was wholly spoilt 
 for him when he looked at his painting with their eyes. 
 
 He saw a well-painted picture, nay, not even well- 
 painted, for now he clearly detected hosts of faults in 
 it a repetition of all those interminable Christs of 
 Titian, Raphael, Rubens and the same soldiers and 
 Pilate ! All about it was trivial, poor, and antiquated, 
 and even badly painted, spotty and feeble! They 
 would be justified in repeating politely hypocritical re- 
 marks in his presence, pitying him and ridiculing him 
 after they were gone ! 
 
 The silence, which in reality did not last more than a 
 minute, seemed to him intolerably long, and to abridge 
 it and show that he was not agitated, he made an effort, 
 and addressed Golenishchef : 
 
 " I think that I have had the honor of meeting you 
 before," said he, glancing anxiously first at Anna, then 
 at Vronsky, so that he might not lose for an instant the 
 changing expression of their faces. 
 
 " Certainly; we met at Rossi's the evening when that 
 Italian girl, the new Rachel, made a recitation ; don't 
 you remember ? " replied Golenishchef, turning away 
 his face from the picture without the least show of 
 regret, and addressing the artist. 
 
 Seeing, however, that Mikhal'lof was expecting him 
 to say something about the picture, he added : 
 
 " Your work has made great progress since the last 
 time I saw it; and I am now, just as I was then, greatly 
 impressed with your Pilate. You have represented a 
 good but feeble man, a chinovnik to the bottom of 
 his soul, who is absolutely blind to what he is doing. 
 But it seems to me .... " 
 
 Mikhal'lof's mobile face suddenly lighted up, his eyes 
 gleamed, he wanted to reply ; but his emotion prevented 
 him, and he pretended to have a fit of coughing. In 
 spite of his low estimation of Golenishchef's artistic in- 
 stinct, in spite of the insignificance of the remark, true 
 though it was, about the expression of Pilate's face
 
 308 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 represented as the face of a functionary, in spite of the 
 humiliation which such a remark spontaneously elicited 
 at the first sight of the painting implicitly subjected 
 him to, since the more important features of the paint- 
 ing were left unnoticed, Mikhailof was in raptures over 
 this criticism. Golenishchef had expressed his own 
 conception of Pilate ! The fact that this observation was 
 one out of a million possible observations, all of which, 
 as Mikha'flof knew perfectly well, would be true, did 
 not diminish for him the significance of Golenishchef s 
 remark. He suddenly conceived a liking for his guest, 
 and suddenly flew from dejection to enthusiasm. In- 
 stantly his whole painting became vital once more with 
 a life inexpressibly complex and profound. He again 
 tried to say that he himself had that conception of 
 Pilate, but his lips trembled so that he had no control 
 over them, and he could not say a word. 
 
 Vronsky and Anna were talking in that low tone of 
 voice peculiar to picture exhibitions, and caused by the 
 desire not to say anything that might give offense to 
 the artist, and, more than all, not to let any one hear 
 those absurd remarks which are so easily made in 
 regard to art. Mikhailof thought that his picture was 
 making an impression on them also, and he approached 
 them. 
 
 "What an admirable expression the Christ has," 
 said Anna. This expression pleased her more than 
 anything else in the painting, and she felt that the 
 Christ was the principal figure in it, and therefore that 
 this eulogy would be agreeable to the artist. She added, 
 " One can see that he pities Pilate." 
 
 This, again, was one of those million accurate but 
 idle observations which his picture, and especially the 
 figure of the Christ, might have elicited. She said that 
 Christ pitied Pilate. In the expression of the Christ 
 there was bound to be an expression of pity, because 
 there was in it the expression of love, a supernal color, 
 a readiness for death, and a realization of the idleness 
 of words. Of course, Pilate should stand for the func- 
 tionary, the chinovnik, and the Christ should show pity
 
 ANNA KARENINA 309 
 
 for him, since one is the incarnation of the fleshly life, 
 the other of the spiritual life. All this and much be- 
 sides flashed through Mikhai'lof's mind. And once 
 more his face was radiant with joy. 
 
 " Yes ! And how that figure is painted ! how much 
 atmosphere ! One could go round it," said Golenishchef, 
 evidently showing by this observation that he did not 
 approve of the design and scope 1 of the figure. 
 
 "Yes; it is a wonderful masterpiece," said Vronsky. 
 " How alive those figures in the background are ! There 
 is technique for you ! " he added, turning to Goleni- 
 shchef, and alluding to a discussion in which he had 
 avowed his discouragement in the technique of the art. 
 
 " Yes, yes ; very remarkable," said Golenishchef and 
 Anna, simultaneously. Notwithstanding the condition 
 of enthusiasm to which he had risen, the remark about 
 technique nettled Mikhai'lof ; he scowled and looked at 
 Vronsky with an angry expression. He had often heard 
 this word technique, and he really did not know what 
 was meant by it. He knew that this word signified the 
 mechanical ability to paint and sketch, and had nothing 
 to do with the thing painted. He had often noticed, as 
 in the present case, that technical skill was opposed to 
 the intrinsic merit of a work, as if it were possible to 
 paint a bad picture with talent. He knew that it re- 
 quired great attention and care in removing the cloth 
 not to injure the work, and in removing all the covers; 
 but the technique of painting was not in that. If in 
 the same way to a little child or to his cook were re- 
 vealed what he saw, then the cook or the child would 
 not hesitate to express what they saw. But the most 
 experienced and skilful of technicians could not paint 
 anything by mechanical ability only ; it requires that 
 the realm of inspiration 2 should be opened before him. 
 Moreover, he saw that the very fact of talking about 
 technique made it impossible to praise him for it. In 
 everything that he had painted and was painting he 
 
 1 Soderzhaniye i muisl, literally, " tenor and thought." 
 
 2 Granitsui soderzhaniya, literally " the limits or boundaries of the sub- 
 ject, contents, or tenor."
 
 3io ANNA KARENINA 
 
 saw the glaring faults resulting from the carelessness 
 with which he had removed the covers faults impos- 
 sible now to rectify without ruining the whole produc- 
 tion. And in almost all the figures and faces he saw the 
 remains of veils that had not been perfectly removed, 
 and spoiled the painting. 
 
 " The only criticism that I should dare to make, if 
 you will allow me...." said Golenishchef. 
 
 " Oh ! I should be very glad .... beg you to favor me," 
 replied Mikha'flof, pretending to smile. 
 
 " It is that you have painted a man made God, and 
 not God made man. However, I know that that was 
 your intention." 
 
 " I cannot paint any Christ that is not in my heart," 
 replied Mikhailof, gloomily. 
 
 " Yes, but in that case, excuse me, if you will allow 
 me to express my thought.... Your painting is so beau- 
 tiful, that this observation can do it no harm ; and, be- 
 sides, it is my own individual opinion. You look on 
 this in one way. Your very motive is peculiar. Take 
 Ivanof, for example, I imagine that if the Christ is 
 to be reduced to the proportions of an historical figure, 
 then it would be better for him to choose a new histori- 
 cal theme, one less hackneyed." 
 
 " But suppose this theme is the grandest of all for 
 art ? " 
 
 " By searching, others may be found just as grand. 
 But the fact is, art, in my estimation, cannot suffer dis- 
 cussion ; now this question is raised in the minds of 
 believers or non-believers by Ivanof's painting : Is 
 that God, or not God? and thus the unity of the im- 
 pression is destroyed." 
 
 "Why so? It seems to me that this question can no 
 longer exist for enlightened men," replied Mikhailof. 
 
 Golenishchef was not of this opinion ; and, dwelling 
 on his first thought about the unity of the impression 
 required by art, he made an onslaught on Mikha'flof. 
 
 Mikha'flof grew excited, but could not say anything 
 in defense of his ideas.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 311 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ANNA and Vronsky, wearying of their friend's learned 
 loquacity, exchanged glances. Finally Vronsky, with- 
 out saying anything to his host, went over to a small 
 painting. 
 
 "Oh! How charming! What a gem wonderful! 
 How fascinating ! " said both of them at once. 
 
 "What pleases them so?" thought Mikha'flof. He 
 had completely forgotten this picture, painted three 
 years before. He had forgotten all the anguish and 
 joy which that painting had caused him while he had 
 been working at it day and night for days at a time- 
 he had forgotten about it as he always forgot about his 
 pictures when once they were finished. He did not 
 even like to look at it, and he had brought it out only 
 because he was expecting an Englishman who had 
 thought of purchasing it. 
 
 "That is nothing," he said "only an old study." 
 
 " But it is capital," replied Golenishchef, very hon- 
 estly, falling under the charm of the painting. 
 
 Two children were fishing under the shade of a 
 laburnum. The elder, all absorbed in his work, was 
 cautiously disentangling his float from a bush. The 
 younger one was lying in the grass, leaning his blond, 
 frowzy head on his hand, and gazing at the water with 
 great, pensive blue eyes. What was he thinking about ? 
 
 The enthusiasm caused by this study brought back 
 somewhat of Mikhailof 's first emotion ; but he did not 
 love the vain memories of the past, and, therefore, 
 pleasant as such praise was to him, he preferred to 
 take his guests to a third painting. 
 
 But Vronsky asked him if the painting was for sale ; 
 but to Mikha'flof, who was excited by the presence of 
 visitors, the question of money was very distasteful. 
 
 "It was put up for sale," said he, darkly frowning. 
 
 After his visitors had gone, Mikhai'lof sat down 
 before his painting of Christ and Pilate, and mentally 
 reviewed all that had been said, and if not said had
 
 312 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 been understood by them. And how strange ! the 
 observations which seemed so weighty when they were 
 present, and when he put himself on their plane of 
 observation, now lost all significance. He began to 
 examine his work with his artist's eye, and soon re- 
 gained his full conviction of its perfection and signifi- 
 cance, so that he could shut out all other interests and 
 make the effort necessary for his best work. 
 
 The foreshortening in the leg of the Christ was not 
 quite correct. He seized his palette and set himself to 
 work, and, while he was correcting it, looked long at the 
 figure of John, which seemed to him to show the highest 
 degree of perfection and yet his visitors had not even 
 noticed it ! Having corrected the leg of the Christ, he 
 tried to give this also a few touches, but he felt too 
 excited to do it. However, he could not work when he 
 was cool any better than he could when he was too near 
 the melting point or when he was too clairvoyant. It 
 was only one step of transition from indifference to 
 inspiration, and only when he reached this was work 
 possible. But to-day he was too excited. He started 
 to cover the canvas. Then he stopped, and, lifting the 
 drapery with one hand, he smiled ecstatically, and 
 looked for a long time at his St. John. At last, tear- 
 ing himself from his contemplation, he let the curtain 
 fall, and went home, weary but happy. 
 
 Vronsky, Anna, and Golenishchef, returning to the 
 palazzo, were very lively and gay. They talked about 
 Mikhai'lof and his paintings. The word talent was 
 often heard as they talked ; they meant by it an innate 
 gift, almost physical, independent of intellect and heart, 
 and they tried to express by it all that had been experi- 
 enced by the artist. It seemed as if they needed to 
 have a term which should express something of which 
 they had not the slightest comprehension, but yet 
 wanted to talk about. 
 
 "There is no denying his talent," they said, "but his 
 talent is not sufficiently developed, because he lacks 
 intellectual culture, a fault common to all Russian 
 artists."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 313 
 
 But the painting of the two boys appealed to their 
 tastes, and again and again they recurred to it. " How 
 charming ! How natural and how simple ! And he 
 did not realize how good it was. Certainly, I must not 
 fail to buy it," said Vronsky. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MIKHAILOF sold Vronsky the little picture, and also 
 agreed to paint Anna's portrait. He came on the ap- 
 pointed day and began his work. 
 
 Even on the fifth sitting the portrait struck every one, 
 and especially Vronsky, by its resemblance, and by its 
 peculiar beauty. It was remarkable how Mikhallof was 
 able to hit upon her peculiar beauty. 
 
 " One must know her and love her as I love her to 
 get her gentle and spiritual expression," thought Vron- 
 sky ; and yet he found in Mikhai'lof's portrait exactly 
 that very expression. But this expression was so faith- 
 ful that it seemed to him and to others that they had 
 always known it. 
 
 " I have spent so much time, and never get ahead," 
 said Vronsky, referring to his own portrait of Anna, 
 " and he has only to look at her to paint her. That is 
 what I call technique." 
 
 "That will come," said Golenishchef, to console him; 
 for in his eyes Vronsky had talent, and, moreover, had 
 a training which ought to give him a lofty view of art. 
 But Golenishchef's belief in Vronsky's talent was sus- 
 tained by the fact that he needed Vronsky's praise and 
 sympathy with him in his own work, and he felt that 
 the praise and support ought to be reciprocal ; it was a 
 fair exchange. 
 
 In a stranger's house, and especially in Vronsky's 
 palazzo, Mikhailof was an entirely different man from 
 what he was in his own studio. He showed himself 
 almost venomously respectful, as if he were anxious 
 to avoid all intimacy with people whom at heart he did 
 not respect. He always called Vronsky "your excel-
 
 3 1 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 lency " ; l and, in spite of Vronsky's and Anna's repeated 
 invitations, he never would stay to dinner, or come except 
 at the hours for the sitting. Anna was even more gen- 
 ial to him than to the others, and grateful for her 
 portrait ; Vronsky was more than polite to him, and was 
 anxious for his criticism on his paintings ; Golenishchef 
 never lost an opportunity of inculcating sound theories 
 of art : still Mikhallof remained just as cool as ever to 
 them all. But Anna felt that he liked to look at her, 
 even though he avoided all conversation with her. 
 When Vronsky wanted to talk about his own work he 
 remained obstinately silent, and he was just as obsti- 
 nately silent when he was shown Vronsky's painting 
 and pictures, and he took no pains to conceal the weari- 
 ness which Golenishchef's sermons caused him. 
 
 On the whole Mikhallof, by his distant and disagree- 
 able, as it were hostile, behavior, was very unpopular 
 with them, even after they came to see him closer; and 
 they were glad when the sittings were over, and the 
 painter, having completed an admirable portrait, ceased 
 to come. Golenishchef was the first to express a thought 
 which all had been thinking : that Mikharlof was envious 
 of Vronsky. 
 
 " We will agree that he is not envious because he has 
 talent ; but he is vexed to see a wealthy man, of high 
 position, a count, and apparently they are all vexed 
 at that, reaching without especial trouble the skill 
 to paint as well, if not better, than he, though he has 
 devoted his life to painting ; but, above all, at your 
 mental culture, which he has not." 
 
 Vronsky took MikhaTflof's part, but he felt at heart 
 that his friend was right ; for it seemed to him ex- 
 tremely natural that a man in an inferior position should 
 envy him. 
 
 The two portraits of Anna, painted from the life by 
 him and Mikhailof, might have shown Vronsky the 
 difference between him and Mikhailof, but he did not 
 see it. Only after Mikhalflof had finished his portrait 
 he ceased to work at his, having decided that it was a 
 
 1 Vasht siyatehtvo.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 superfluity ; but he still devoted himself to his painting 
 of medieval life. He himself, and Golenishchef, and 
 Anna especially, felt that it was very good, because it 
 resembled the works of the old masters far more than 
 Mikhai'lof's painting did. 
 
 Mikhai'lof, meantime, in spite of the pleasure which 
 he took in doing Anna's portrait, was even more glad 
 than the others were when the sittings came to an end, 
 and he no longer had to hear Golenishchef's discourses 
 about art, and was allowed to forget Vronsky's paint- 
 ings. He knew that it was impossible to prevent 
 Vronsky from amusing himself with painting ; he knew 
 that he, and all other dilettanti, had the right to paint 
 as much as they pleased ; but it was disagreeable to him. 
 No one can prevent a man from making for himself a 
 big wax doll, and kissing it ; but if this man takes his 
 doll and sits in the presence of a lover, and begins to 
 caress his doll as the lover caresses the woman he loves, 
 then it becomes unpleasant to the lover. Vronsky's 
 painting produced on him a similar feeling ; it was ridic- 
 ulous and vexatious, pitiable and disgusting. 
 
 Vronsky's enthusiasm for painting and the Middle 
 Ages was, however, of short duration ; his art instinct 
 was strong enough to prevent him from finishing his 
 painting. His work came to a standstill. He had a 
 dim consciousness that his faults, at first apparently 
 trifling, would grow more and more grievous if he went 
 on. The same thing happened to him that happened 
 to Golenishchef, who was conscious that he had nothing 
 to say, and kept deceiving himself with the notion that 
 his thought was not yet ripe, that he was training it, and 
 collecting materials. But this made Golenishchef bitter 
 and irritable, while Vronsky could not deceive himself, 
 or torture himself, and, least of all, grow irritable. With 
 his habitual decision of character, without seeking to 
 justify himself or to offer explanations, he simply gave 
 up his painting. 
 
 But, without this occupation, his life in this little 
 Italian city quickly became intolerable ; the palaxso sud- 
 denly appeared old and filthy ; the spots on the curtains
 
 316 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 assumed a sordid aspect ; the cracks in the mosaics, the 
 broken stucco of the cornices, the eternal Golenishchef, 
 the Italian professor, and the German tourist, all became 
 so unspeakably wearisome that it was necessary to make 
 a change. Accordingly he and Anna, who was surprised 
 by this abrupt disenchantment, decided to return to 
 Russia to live in the country. Vronsky wanted to pass 
 through Petersburg to make business arrangements with 
 his brother, and Anna was anxious to see her son. They 
 decided to spend the summer on Vronsky's large patri- 
 monial estate. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 LEVIN had been married three months. He was 
 happy, but in a different way from what he had antici- 
 pated. At every step he had found that his former 
 expectations were illusory, and that his joy lay in what 
 he had not anticipated. He was happy, but as he went 
 on in his married existence he discovered at each step 
 that it was utterly different from what he had imagined 
 it would be. At each step he experienced what a man 
 would experience who had been charmed with the grace- 
 ful and joyful motion of a boat on the sea, and after- 
 wards should find himself in the boat. He saw that it 
 was not enough to sit still and not rock ; it was neces- 
 sary to be on the lookout, never for a moment forgetful 
 of the course, to think of the water under his feet, to 
 row, and rowing for unaccustomed arms is hard ; easy 
 enough it is to look on, but it is hard, very hard, to work, 
 even though it be very agreeable. 
 
 When still a bachelor, looking at the conjugal life of 
 others, at their little miseries, quarrels, jealousies, he had 
 often laughed scornfully in his heart of hearts. In his 
 future married life never should any such thing happen ; 
 even all the external forms of his private life should be 
 in every respect absolutely different from that of others. 
 And lo, and behold, instead of that, his life with his wife 
 not only refused to arrange itself peculiarly, but, on the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 317 
 
 contrary, was wholly made up of those very same insig- 
 nificant trifles which he had formerly so despised, but 
 which now, in spite of him, assumed an extraordinary 
 and irrefutable importance. And Levin saw that the 
 regulation of all these trifles was not nearly so easy as 
 he had supposed it would be. Notwithstanding the 
 fact that Levin supposed he had the most delicate com- 
 prehension of family life, he, like all men, had imagined 
 that it was only meant as the gratification of his love, and 
 that nothing should prevent it and that no petty details 
 ought to interfere with it. According to his idea, he was 
 to do his work, and rest from it in the delights of love. 
 His wife was to be his love, and that was all. 
 
 But, like all men, he forgot that she, too, had to work. 
 His surprise was great to find how this charming and 
 poetic Kitty, in the first weeks, even in the first days, of 
 their married life, could be thinking, planning, taking 
 charge of the table-cloths, the furniture, the mattresses, 
 the table service, the kitchen. Even during their en- 
 gagement he was dumfounded at the decided way in 
 which she refused to travel abroad and at her determi- 
 nation to go immediately to their country home, as if 
 she knew what was needful, and could think of other 
 things besides her love. It vexed him then, and now 
 many times he still felt vexed, to find that she took 
 upon herself these petty cares and labors. 
 
 But he saw that it was unavoidable ; and, as he loved 
 her, although he could not see why she did such things, 
 and although he laughed at her for doing them, he could 
 not help admiring. He laughed to see how she disposed 
 the new furniture which came from Moscow, how she 
 rearranged everything in her room and his, how she 
 hung the curtains, provided for the guest-rooms and the 
 rooms that Dolly would have, directed her new cham- 
 bermaid, how she ordered the old cook to provide for 
 dinner, how she discussed with Agafya Mikhai'lovna, 
 whom she removed from the charge of the provisions. 
 
 He saw how the old cook smiled gently as he received 
 fantastic orders, impossible to execute ; he saw how 
 Agafya Mikhallovna shook her head pensively at the
 
 3 i8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 new measures introduced by her young mistress into 
 the larder, he saw how wonderfully charming she was 
 when she came to him, half laughing, half crying, to 
 complain because her maid, Masha, insisted on treating 
 her like a child, and no one would heed her orders. It 
 all seemed to him charming, but strange, and he thought 
 it would be better if it were otherwise. 
 
 He could not comprehend the sense of metamorphosis 
 which she felt at rinding herself the mistress, permitted 
 to see to the preparation of cauliflower and kvas, or 
 confections, to spend all the money she wanted, and to 
 command whatever pastry she pleased, after having 
 always had her parents to restrain her fancies. 
 
 She was now making joyful preparations for the ar- 
 rival of Dolly and the children, and was thinking of the 
 pies which she would have made for them, and how she 
 would surprise Dolly with all her new arrangements. She 
 herself could not have given any reasons for it, but it was 
 a fact that the details of housekeeping had an irresistible 
 attraction for her. She foresaw evil days to come, in- 
 stinctively feeling the approach of spring ; and knowing 
 that unhappy days would also surely come, she prepared 
 her little nest as well as she could, and made haste both 
 to build it and to learn how to build it. 
 
 This zeal for trifles, so entirely opposed to Levin's 
 lofty ideal of happiness, seemed to him one thing that 
 disillusioned him ; while this same activity, the meaning 
 of which escaped him, but which he could not help lov- 
 ing, was one of the things that gave him new delight. 
 
 The quarrels were also a disenchantment and a charm ! 
 Never had it entered into Levin's head that between 
 him and his wife there could be any relations other than 
 those of gentleness, respect, tenderness ; and here, even 
 in their honeymoon, they were disputing, so that Kitty 
 declared that he did not love her, that he was selfish, 
 and burst into tears and wrung her hands. 
 
 The first of these little differences arose in conse- 
 quence of a ride which Levin took to see a new farm ; 
 he stayed half an hour longer than he had said, having 
 missed his way in trying to come home by a shorter
 
 ANNA KARENINA 319 
 
 road. He rode homeward, thinking only of her, of her 
 love, of her happiness ; and the nearer he came to the 
 house the more his heart glowed with affection for his 
 wife. He hurried to her room with the same feeling, 
 only much intensified, as he had experienced on the 
 day when he went to the Shcherbatskys' to offer himself. 
 An angry expression, such as he had never seen in her 
 face, received him. He was going to kiss her ; she 
 pushed him away. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " 
 
 "You've been enjoying...." she began, wishing to 
 show herself cold and bitter. 
 
 But hardly had she opened her mouth when the ridic- 
 ulous jealousy, which had been tormenting her for half 
 an hour while she had been waiting for him, sitting on 
 the window-seat, broke out in a torrent of angry words. 
 
 He then began for the first time to understand clearly 
 what before he had seen only confusedly, when after the 
 crowning they went out of the church. He saw that 
 she was not only near to him, but that he did not know 
 at all where his own personality began or her person- 
 ality ended. He felt this by the painful sensation of 
 internal division which he experienced at that instant. 
 At first he was offended, but at the same moment he 
 realized that he had no right to be offended, because she 
 and he were one and the same ! At that first instant he 
 experienced a feeling such as a man might have when, 
 having suddenly received a sharp blow from behind, turns 
 around with an angry desire to revenge himself on the 
 culprit, and discovers that he has accidentally inflicted 
 the blow on himself, that there is no one to be angry with, 
 and that he must bear the pain and appease it. 
 
 Never again did he experience this feeling with such 
 force, but this first time it was long before he could give 
 an account of it. A natural impulse impelled him to 
 exonerate himself, and show Kitty how wrong she was ; 
 but that would have irritated her still more and increased 
 the rupture which was the cause of all their unhappiness. 
 A natural impulse tempted him to disavow the blame 
 and cast it at her; but a second and stronger impulse
 
 320 ANIs^ KARENINA 
 
 came to close the breach as quickly as possible and not 
 let it grow wider. For him to remain under the shadow 
 of an injustice was cruel ; but, under the pretext of a 
 justification, to cause her pain was still worse. Like a 
 man half asleep, wearied with pain, he wished to free him- 
 self from it, to throw off the painful place ; but, on fully 
 waking, he found that the painful place was himself. 
 Patience only was necessary to give relief to the pain, 
 and he tried to apply this remedy*. 
 
 Reconciliation followed. Kitty felt herself in the 
 wrong, and, though she did not confess it, was more 
 than ever tender to him, and they felt a new and doubled 
 happiness of love. But this did not prevent these dif- 
 ferences from coming up, and coming up very frequently, 
 from the most unexpected and insignificant causes. 
 These collisions often arose from the fact that they were 
 still ignorant of what was indispensable for each, and 
 from the fact that during all this first period they both 
 were often in a bad frame of mind. When one was 
 happy and the other depressed, then peace was dis- 
 turbed, but when they both happened to be in low spirits, 
 then such childish things were sufficient to provoke mis- 
 understandings, that they could not even remember 
 afterward what they were quarreling about. It is true, 
 when they were both in good spirits, their joy of life was 
 doubled. But nevertheless this first period was a trying 
 time for them both. All those early days, they felt with 
 especial vividness the strain, just as if both of them 
 were pulling in contrary ways on the chain that bound 
 them. Especially the honeymoon, from which Levin ex- 
 pected so much, was far from honey-sweet, but remained 
 in the memories of them both the most trying and humili- 
 ating period of their lives. Both of them afterwards 
 tried to blot from their memories all the ugly, shameful 
 incidents of this unhealthy period, during which they so 
 rarely found themselves in a normal state of mind, were 
 so rarely themselves. 
 
 Life became better regulated only after their return 
 from Moscow, where they made a short visit in the 
 third month after the wedding.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 321 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THEY were just back from Moscow, and enjoying their 
 solitude. Levin was sitting at his library table, writing ; 
 Kitty, dressed in a dark violet dress, which she had worn 
 in the first days of their marriage, and which Levin had 
 always liked, was making broderie anglaise, as she sat 
 on the divan, on the great leather divan which ever 
 since the days of Levin's father and grandfather had 
 stood in the library. 
 
 Levin enjoyed her presence while he was writing and 
 thinking. He had not abandoned his occupations, 
 his farming, and the treatise in which the principles 
 of his new method of conducting his estate were to be 
 evolved. But, as before, these occupations and thoughts 
 seemed to him small and useless in comparison with the 
 gloom that overshadowed his life ; so now they seemed 
 just as petty and unimportant in comparison with the 
 life before him, irradiated as it was with the full light 
 of joy. He kept up his occupations, but felt now that 
 the center of gravity of his interests had shifted, and 
 that consequently he looked otherwise and more clearly 
 than formerly at the matter. 
 
 In former days this occupation seemed like the salva- 
 tion of his life ; in former days he felt that without it 
 life would be altogether gloomy ; now these occupations 
 were necessary in order that his life might not be too 
 monotonously bright. As he took up his manuscript 
 again, reading over what he had written, he felt with sat- 
 isfaction that the work was worth his attention. Many 
 of his former thoughts seemed to him exaggerated and 
 extravagant, but many of the gaps became clearly evi- 
 dent to him as he reviewed the whole subject. He was 
 now writing a new chapter, in which he treated of the 
 causes for the unfavorable condition of Russian agri- 
 culture. He argued that the poverty of the country was 
 caused not entirely by the unequal distribution of the land 
 property and false economical tendencies, but that this 
 cooperated with the abnormal introduction of a veneer 
 
 VOL. II. 21
 
 322 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of civilization, especially the means of communication, 
 the railways, which produced an exaggerated centraliza- 
 tion in the cities, the development of luxury, and conse- 
 quently the creation of new industries at the expense of 
 agriculture, an extraordinary extension of the credit sys- 
 tem and its concomitant stock speculation. It seemed 
 to him that with a normal development of riches in the 
 empire all these signs of exterior civilization would 
 appear only when the cultivation of the land should 
 have attained a proportional development, when it 
 should have at least been established on correct, deter- 
 mining conditions ; that the wealth of a country ought 
 to increase at a regular ratio, and in such a way that 
 agriculture should not be outstripped by other branches 
 of wealth ; that the means of intercommunication ought 
 to be developed in conformity with the natural develop- 
 ment of agriculture, and that in view of our improper 
 use of the land, the railways, constructed not by reason 
 of actual necessity, but from political motives, were pre- 
 mature, and instead of the cooperation which they were 
 expected to give to agriculture, they arrested it by encour- 
 aging the spread of manufacturing and the credit system ; 
 and that, therefore, just as a one-sided and premature 
 development of one organ in the body would prevent its 
 general development, so for the general development of 
 wealth in Russia, the credit system, the means of inter- 
 communication, the recrudescence of manufacturing in- 
 dustries, however indispensable they may have been in 
 Europe, where they are opportune, have in Russia done 
 nothing but harm by keeping from sight the most im- 
 portant question as to the organization of agriculture. 
 
 While Levin was writing, Kitty was thinking how her 
 husband, on the evening before they left Moscow, had 
 watched unnaturally the young Prince Charsky, who, 
 with remarkable lack of tact, had made love to her. 
 " He is jealous," she said to herself. " Bozhe mo'f ! how 
 good and stupid he is ! To be jealous of me ! If he 
 only knew that for me they are all like Piotr the cook ! " 
 And she glanced with a strange feeling of proprietorship 
 at the back of her husband's head and his sunburnt neck.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 323 
 
 " It is a shame to interrupt him, but he has plenty of 
 time. I must see his face ; will he feel how I am look- 
 ing at him ? I will will for him to turn round. There, 
 I will make him." 
 
 And she opened her eyes as wide as she could, as if 
 to concentrate more strength into her gaze. 
 
 " Yes, they attract all the best sap and give a false 
 appearance of wealth," murmured Levin, ceasing to 
 write, and conscious that she was looking at him and 
 smiling. He turned around. 
 
 " What is it? " he asked, smiling, and getting up. 
 
 " He did turn round," she thought. " Nothing ; I 
 only willed to make you turn around," and she looked 
 at him as if to fathom whether he was vexed or not 
 because she had disturbed him. 
 
 " Well, how good it is to be alone together ! For me, 
 at least," said he, radiant with joy, going to where she sat. 
 
 " I am so happy here ! I never, never, want to go 
 away again, especially not to Moscow." 
 
 " But what were you thinking about? " 
 
 "I? I was thinking. ...no, no; go on with your 
 writing ! don't let your mind be distracted," she replied, 
 pouting. " I must cut all these eyelet-holes now ; do you 
 see ? ' ' 
 
 And she took her scissors and began to snip. 
 
 " No ; tell me what you were thinking about ! " he 
 insisted, sitting down near her, and following all the 
 movements of her little scissors. 
 
 " Oh ! What was I thinking about ? About Moscow 
 and the nape of your neck ! " 
 
 " What have I done to deserve this great happiness ? 
 It is supernatural. It is too good," said he, kissing her 
 hand. 
 
 " To me, on the contrary, the happier I am the more 
 natural I find it ! " 
 
 " You have a little stray curl," he said, turning her 
 head around carefully. 
 
 " A stray curl ? let it be. We must think about seri- 
 ous things." 
 
 But their conference was interrupted ; and, when
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Kuzma came to announce tea, they separated as if they 
 were guilty. 
 
 " Are they returned from town ? " asked Levin of 
 Kuzma. 
 
 "They're just back, they're unpacking the things 
 now." 
 
 " Come as quickly as you can," said Kitty, going from 
 the library. 
 
 Levin, left alone, shut up his books and papers in a 
 new portfolio, bought by his wife, washed his hands in 
 a new wash-basin supplied with elegant new appurte- 
 nances, also bought by her, and, smiling at his thoughts, 
 nodded his head disapprovingly ; he was tormented by 
 a feeling which resembled remorse. His life had be- 
 come too indolent, too spoiled. It was a life of a Cap- 
 uan, and he felt ashamed of it. " To live so is not 
 good," he thought. " Here, for three months, I have 
 scarcely done a thing ! To-day, almost for the first 
 time, I have set about anything seriously, and what was 
 the result ? I have hardly begun before I give it up. 
 I even neglect my ordinary occupations. I don't watch 
 the men. I don't go anywhere. Sometimes I am sorry 
 to leave her ; sometimes I see that she is out of spirits ; 
 I who believed that existence before marriage counted 
 for nothing, and that life only began after marriage ! 
 And here, for three months, I have been spending my 
 time in absolute idleness. This must not go on. I 
 must do something. Of course, she is not to blame, and 
 one could not lay the least blame on her. But I ought 
 to have shown more firmness, and have preserved my 
 manly independence ; otherwise, I shall get into con- 
 firmed bad habits.... of course, she is not to blame .... " 
 
 A discontented man finds it hard not to blame some 
 one or other for his discontent, and generally the very 
 person who is nearest. And so Levin felt vaguely that 
 while the fault was not his wife's and he could not 
 lay it to her charge it was owing to her bringing up ; 
 it was too superficial and frivolous. "That fool of a 
 Charsky, for example, .... I know she wanted to get rid 
 of him ; but she did not know how."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 325 
 
 Then he went on again : 
 
 " Yes ! Besides the petty interests of housekeeping .... 
 she looks out for those and enjoys them ; besides her 
 toilet and her broderie anglaise, she has no serious inter- 
 ests, no sympathy in my labors, in my schemes, or for 
 the muzhiks, no taste for reading or music ; and yet she 
 is a good musician. She does absolutely nothing, and 
 yet she is perfectly content." 
 
 Levin in his heart judged her thus, and did not com- 
 prehend that his wife was making ready for the time of 
 activity which was ere long to come to her, when she 
 would be at once wife, mistress of the house, 1 mother, 
 nurse, teacher. He did not understand that she knew 
 this by intuition, and in preparing for this terrible task 
 could not blame herself for these indolent moments, 
 and the enjoyment of love, which made her so happy, 
 while she was cheerily building her nest for the future. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 WHEN Levin came up-stairs again his wife was sitting 
 in front of the new silver samovar, behind the new tea- 
 set, reading a letter from Dolly, with whom she kept up 
 a brisk correspondence. Old Agafya Mikhai'lovna, with 
 a cup of tea, was cozily sitting at a small table beside 
 her. 
 
 "You see your lady has asked me to sit here," said 
 the old woman, looking affectionately at Kitty. 
 
 These last words showed Levin that the domestic 
 drama which had been going on between Kitty and 
 Agafya Mikha'ilovna was at an end. He saw that, not- 
 withstanding the chagrin which Agafya Mikhai'lovna 
 felt at resigning the reins of government to the new 
 mistress, Kitty was victorious, and had just made peace 
 with her. 
 
 " Here I have been looking over your letters," said 
 Kitty, handing her husband an illiterate-looking en- 
 velop. " I think it is from that woman .... you know ... 
 
 1 Khozaika doma.
 
 326 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of your brother's I have not read it, but this is from 
 
 Dolly .... imagine it ; she has been to take Grisha and 
 Tania to a children's ball at the Sarmatskys'. Tania 
 was dressed like a little marchioness." 
 
 But Levin was not listening. With a flushed face he 
 took the letter from Marya Nikolayevna, his brother 
 Nikolai's discarded mistress, and began to read it. This 
 was already the second time that she had written him. 
 In her first letter she told him that Nikolai' had sent her 
 away without reason, and she added, with touching sim- 
 plicity, that she asked no assistance and wanted nothing, 
 though she was reduced to penury, but that the thought 
 of what Nikolai Dmitritch would do without her in his 
 feeble condition was killing her. She begged his brother 
 to look out for him. 
 
 Her second letter was in a different tone. She said 
 that she had found Nikolai Dmitrievitch and was living 
 with him again in Moscow, that she had gone with him 
 to a provincial city, where he had received an appoint- 
 ment. There he had quarreled with the chief, and 
 immediately started for Moscow ; but on the way he 
 had been taken so violently ill that he would probably 
 never leave his bed again. " He constantly calls for 
 you, and, besides, we have no money," she wrote. 
 
 " Read what Dolly writes about you," Kitty began ; 
 but, when she saw her husband's dejected face, she 
 suddenly stopped speaking. Then she said : 
 
 "What is it what has happened?" 
 
 " She writes me that Nikolai, my brother, is dying. 
 I must go to him." 
 
 Kitty's face suddenly changed. The thought of 
 Tania as a little marchioness, of Dolly, and all, van- 
 ished. 
 
 " When shall you go ? " 
 
 " To-morrow." 
 
 " May I go with you ? " she asked. 
 
 " Kitty ! what an idea ! " he replied, reproach- 
 fully. 
 
 " Why what an idea ? " she exclaimed, vexed to see 
 her proposal received with such bad grace. "Why,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 327 
 
 pray, should I not go with you ? I should not hinder 
 you in any way. I .... " 
 
 " I am going because my brother is dying," said 
 Levin. " Why should you go ? " 
 
 " For the same reason that you do." .... 
 
 "At a time so solemn for me, she thinks only of the 
 discomfort of being left alone," said Levin to himself, 
 and this excuse for taking part in such a solemn duty 
 angered him. 
 
 " It is impossible," he replied sternly. 
 
 Agafya Mikhai'lovna, seeing that a quarrel was immi- 
 nent, quietly put down her cup and went out. Kitty 
 did not even notice it. Her husband's tone wounded 
 her all the more deeply because he evidently did not 
 believe what she said. 
 
 " I tell you, if you go, I am going too. I shall certainly 
 go with you. I certainly am going," said she, with 
 angry determination. " Why is it impossible ? Why 
 did you say that ? " 
 
 " Because God knows when or in what place I shall 
 find him, or by what means I shall reach him. You 
 would only hinder me," said he, doing his best to retain 
 his self-control. 
 
 " Not at all. I don't need anything. Where you 
 can go, I can go too, and .... " 
 
 " Well ! If it were for nothing else, it would be be- 
 cause of that woman, with whom you cannot come in 
 contact." .... 
 
 " Why not ? I know nothing about all that, and 
 don't want to know. I know that my husband's brother 
 is dying ; that my husband is going to see him ; and I 
 am going too, because .... " 
 
 " Kitty ! don't be angry ! and remember that in such 
 a serious time it is painful for me to have you add to 
 my grief by showing such weakness, the fear of 
 being alone. There, now, if it would bore you to be 
 alone, go to Moscow." .... 
 
 " You always ascribe to me such miserable senti- 
 ments," she cried, choking with tears of vexation and 
 anger. " I am not so weak .... I know that it is my
 
 328 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 duty to be with my husband when he is in sorrow, and 
 you want to wound me on purpose. You don't want to 
 take me." .... 
 
 " No ! this is frightful ! to be such a slave ! " cried 
 Levin, rising from the table, no longer able to hide his 
 anger; at the same instant he perceived that he was 
 doing himself harm. 
 
 " Why, then, did you get married ? You might have 
 been free. Why if you repent already ? " and Kitty 
 fled into the drawing-room. 
 
 When he went to find her, she was sobbing. 
 
 He began to speak, striving to find words not to per- 
 suade her, but to calm her. She would not listen, and 
 did not allow one of his arguments. He bent over her, 
 took one of her recalcitrant hands, kissed it, kissed her 
 hair, and then her hands again ; but still she refused to 
 speak. But when, at length, he took her head between 
 his two hands and called her " Kitty," she softly wept, 
 and the reconciliation was complete. 
 
 It was decided that they should go together on the 
 next day. Levin told his wife he was satisfied that she 
 wished nothing but to be useful, and agreed that Marya 
 Nikolayevna's presence with his brother would not be 
 an impropriety ; but at the bottom of his heart he was 
 dissatisfied with himself and with her. He was dis- 
 satisfied with her because she would not let him go alone 
 when it was necessary. And how strange it was for him 
 to think that he who such a short time before had not 
 dared to believe in the possibility of such a joy as her 
 loving him, now felt unhappy because she loved him too 
 well. And he was dissatisfied with himself because he 
 had yielded in such a weak way. In the depths of his 
 heart he was even more dissatisfied to think of the in- 
 evitable acquaintance between his wife and his brother's 
 mistress. The thought of seeing his wife, his Kitty, in 
 the same room with this woman, filled him with horror 
 and repulsion.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 329 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE inn where Nikolai Levin was dying was one of 
 those establishments which are found in governmental 
 cities, built on a new and improved model, with the very 
 best regard for neatness, comfort, and even elegance, 
 but which the public frequenting them cause to degener- 
 ate with extraordinary rapidity into filthy grog-shops 
 with pretensions to modern improvements and by reason 
 of this very pretentiousness become far worse than old- 
 fashioned inns which are simply filthy. This inn had 
 already reached this condition. The soldier in dirty uni- 
 form, who served as Swiss, and was smoking a cigar- 
 ette in the vestibule ; the perforated cast-iron staircase, 
 gloomy and unpleasant ; the impertinent waiter in a dirty 
 black coat ; the common " hall " with its table decorated 
 with a dusty bouquet of wax flowers ; the dirt, dust, and 
 slovenliness everywhere and at the same time a certain 
 new restlessness and self-sufficiency characteristic of 
 these railway days everything about this inn produced 
 a feeling of deep depression in the Levins after their 
 recent happiness and especially from the fact that the 
 wretched condition of the inn was wholly irreconcilable 
 with what was waiting for them. 
 
 As usual, after they had been asked what priced rooms 
 they wanted, it proved that the best rooms were taken, 
 one by the supervisor of the railroad, another by a 
 lawyer from Moscow, the third by Princess Astavyeva 
 from the country. One disorderly bedroom was left 
 for them, with the promise that they should have the 
 one next to it, when evening came. Levin took his wife 
 to it, vexed to find his prognostications so speedily real- 
 ized, and impatient because when his heart was over- 
 whelmed with emotion at the thought of how he should 
 find his brother, he was obliged to get settled instead of 
 hurrying to his brother. 
 
 " Go, go ! " said Kitty, with a melancholy look of 
 contrition. 
 
 He left her without saying a word, and just outside
 
 330 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the door he ran against Marya Nikolayevna, who had 
 just heard of his arrival but had not ventured to knock 
 at his room. She had not changed since he last saw her 
 in Moscow. She wore the same woolen dress, without 
 collar or cuffs, and her pock-marked face expressed the 
 same unfailing good nature. 
 
 " Well ! How is he ? tell me ! " 
 
 "Very bad. He doesn't sit up, and he is all the 
 time asking for you. You.... she.... Is your wife with 
 you?" 
 
 I^evin at first did not see why she seemed confused ; 
 but she immediately explained herself. 
 
 "I am going to the kitchen," she went on to say; 
 " he will be glad ; he remembers seeing her abroad." 
 
 Levin perceived 1 that she meant his wife, and did not 
 know what to say. 
 
 " Come," said he, "let us go to him." 
 
 But they had not gone a step before the chamber 
 door opened and Kitty appeared. Levin grew red with 
 vexation and mortification to see his wife in such a pre- 
 dicament; but Marya Nikolayevna was still more con- 
 fused, and crouching back against the wall ready to cry, 
 she caught the ends of her apron and wound it around 
 her red hands, not knowing what to say or to do. 
 
 For an instant Levin saw an expression of lively 
 curiosity in the look with which Kitty regarded this 
 terrible creature, so incomprehensible to her; it lasted 
 but a moment. 
 
 " Tell me ! what is it ? how is he ? " she asked, turning 
 to her husband, and then to the woman. 
 
 "We cannot talk in the corridor," replied Levin, look- 
 ing with an expression of annoyance at a gentleman 
 who, with leisurely steps, as if on his own business bent, 
 was coming along the corridor just at this time. 
 
 "Well, come into the room, then," said Kitty, address- 
 ing the apologetic Marya Nikolayevna; then seeing the 
 look of alarm on her husband's face, she added, " Or 
 
 1 Marya Nikolayevna in speaking of Nikola'! Levin as well as of Kitty 
 uses the third person plural, a form of exaggerated obsequiousness common 
 with persons addressing their superiors.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 331 
 
 rather go go, and send for me," and she turned back 
 to the room. 
 
 Levin hastened to his brother. 
 
 He had never expected to see and experience what 
 now he saw and experienced. He expected to find him 
 in that state of illusion so common to consumptives, and 
 which had so struck him during his visit the preceding 
 autumn. He expected to find him with the physical indi- 
 cations of approaching death more distinct than before 
 greater feebleness, greater emaciation, but practically 
 about the same state of things. He expected that he 
 should have the same feeling of pity for this well-beloved 
 brother, and of horror at the presence of death, only 
 intensified. He was quite prepared for this. But what 
 he saw was absolutely different. 
 
 In a little, close, dirty, ill-smelling room, the paneled 
 walls of which were covered with red stains of expecto- 
 ration, separated by a thin partition from another room, 
 where conversation was going on, he saw lying on a 
 wretched bed moved out from the wall a body covered 
 with a counterpane. One hand huge as a rake, and hold- 
 ing in a strange way by the end a sort of long and slender 
 bobbin, was on the outside of the counterpane. The 
 head, resting on the pillow, showed the thin hair glued 
 to his temples, and a strained, almost transparent brow. 
 
 " Can it be that this horrible body is my brother 
 Nikolai' ? " thought Levin ; but as he came near, he saw 
 his face and the doubt ceased. In spite of the terrible 
 change that had taken place, it was enough to glance 
 at the lively eyes turned toward him as he entered, or 
 the motions of his mouth under the long mustache, 
 to recognize the frightful truth that this dead body was 
 indeed his living brother. 
 
 Nikolai's gleaming eyes gazed at his brother with a 
 stern and reproachful look. His look seemed to bring 
 living relations between living beings. Konstantin in- 
 stantly felt the reproach in the eyes fixed on him and 
 regret for his own happiness. 
 
 When Konstantin took his brother's hand, Nikolai 
 smiled ; but the smile was slight, almost imperceptible,
 
 332 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 and in spite of it the stern expression of his eyes did 
 not change. 
 
 "You did not expect to find me so," said he, with 
 effort. 
 
 "Yes.... no," replied Levin, with confusion. "Why 
 did n't you let me know sooner, before my marriage ? I 
 had inquiries made for you everywhere." 
 
 He wanted to keep on speaking, so as to avoid a pain- 
 ful silence ; but he did not know what to say, the more 
 as his brother looked at him without replying, and seemed 
 to be weighing each one of his words. Finally he told 
 him that his wife had come with him, and Nikolaf ap- 
 peared delighted, adding, however, that he was afraid 
 he should frighten her by his condition. A silence 
 followed ; suddenly Nikolai began to speak, and Levin 
 felt by the expression of his face that he had something 
 of importance to tell him, but he spoke only of his health. 
 He blamed his doctor, and regretted that he could not 
 have consulted a celebrity in Moscow, and Levin per- 
 ceived that he was still hopeful. 
 
 Taking advantage of the first moment of silence, Levin 
 got up, wishing to escape for a little while at least from 
 these cruel impressions, and said he would go and fetch 
 his wife. 
 
 " Good ! I will have things put in order here. It is 
 dirty here and smells bad, I imagine. Masha, you attend 
 to this," said the sick man, with effort. "Yes! and 
 when you have put things to rights, go away," he added, 
 looking at his brother questioningly. 
 
 Levin made no reply, but as soon as he had reached 
 the corridor he paused. He had promised to bring his 
 wife, but now as he recalled what he himself had suf- 
 fered, he made up his mind to persuade her that she 
 had best not make this visit. " Why torment her as I 
 am tormented ? " he asked himself. 
 
 " Well, how is it ? " asked Kitty, with frightened face. 
 
 " Oh, it is horrible, horrible ! Why did you come ? " 
 
 Kitty looked timidly, compassionately, at her husband 
 for a few seconds without speaking ; then going to him, 
 she put both hands on his arm.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 333 
 
 " Kostia, take me to him ; it will be easier for both 
 of us. Take me and leave me with him, please. Can't 
 you see that it is far harder for me to see you and not 
 to see him ? Perhaps I shall be useful to him, and to 
 you also. I beg of you, let me go." 
 
 She besought him as if the happiness of her life de- 
 pended on it. 
 
 Levin was obliged to let her go with him, but in his 
 haste he completely forgot all about Marya Nikolayevna. 
 
 Kitty, walking lightly and showing her husband a 
 courageous and sympathetic face, stepped quietly into 
 the sick man's room and shut the door noiselessly. She 
 went with light, quick steps up to the bed, and sat down 
 so that the sick man would not have to turn his head, 
 and with her cool, soft hand she took the dying man's 
 enorm6us bony hand, pressed it, and employing that 
 tact peculiar to women, of showing sympathy without 
 wounding, she began to speak to him with a gentle 
 cheerfulness. 
 
 " We saw each other at Soden without becoming 
 acquainted ; you did not think then that I should ever 
 become your sister." 
 
 " You would not have known me, would you ? " he 
 said ; his face was lighted up with a smile when he saw 
 her come in. 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed. How good it was of you to send for 
 us ! Not a day has passed without Kostia speaking of 
 you. He has been very anxious about you." 
 
 But the sick man's animation lasted only a short time. 
 
 Kitty had not finished speaking before his face again 
 assumed that expression of stern, reproachful envy which 
 the dying feel for the living. 
 
 " I am afraid that you are not very comfortable here," 
 said she, avoiding the look which he gave her, and ex- 
 amining the room. 
 
 "We must ask for another room, and be nearer to 
 him," she said to her husband.
 
 334 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 LEVIN could not bear to look at his brother, could not 
 even be himself and feel at ease in his presence. When 
 he came into the sick man's room, his eyes and his mo- 
 tions entirely absorbed him, and he did not see and did 
 not realize the details of his frightful situation. 
 
 He perceived the horrid odor, he saw the uncleanli- 
 ness and disorder, he heard the sick man's groans, and 
 it seemed to him that there was no way of helping it. 
 It did not occur to him to investigate how the body lay 
 under the coverlid ; how the lean long legs, the thighs, 
 the back, were doubled up and accommodated ; nor did he 
 ask whether he might not help him to lie more easily 
 and do something to improve his condition, at least to 
 make a bad situation less trying. 
 
 The mere thought of these details made a cold chill 
 run down his back ; he was undoubtedly persuaded in 
 his own mind that it was impossible to do anything 
 either to prolong his life or to lighten his sufferings, and 
 the sick man, feeling instinctively that his brother was 
 powerless to help him, was irritated. And this made it 
 all the harder for Levin. To be in the sick-room was 
 painful to him ; to be away from it was still worse. 
 And he kept leaving the room under various pretexts, 
 and coming back again, for he was unable to stay alone 
 by himself. 
 
 Kitty thought, felt, and acted in an entirely different 
 way : as soon as she saw the sick man, she was filled 
 with pity for him, and this pity in her womanly heart, 
 instead of arousing a sense of fear or repulsion as it did 
 in her husband's case, moved her to act, moved her to 
 find out all the details of his condition and to ameliorate 
 them. And as she had not the slightest doubt that it 
 was her duty to help him, neither did she doubt the 
 possibility of it, and she set herself to work without 
 delay. 
 
 The details the mere thought of which repelled her 
 husband were the very ones that attracted her attention.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 335 
 
 She sent for a doctor ; she sent to the drug-store ; she 
 set her own maid and Marya Nikolayevna to sweeping, 
 washing, and dusting, and she even helped them her- 
 self. She had all needless articles carried away, and 
 she had them replaced by things that were needed. 
 She went several times to her room, paying no heed to 
 those whom she met on the way, and she unpacked and 
 carried with her sheets, pillow-cases, towels, shirts. 
 
 The waiter who served the table d'liote dinner to the 
 engineers several times came with surly face when she 
 rang ; but she gave her orders with such gentle author- 
 ity that he never failed to execute them. Levin did 
 not approve of all this. He did not believe that any 
 advantage would result from it for the sick man. More 
 than all, he was afraid that it would worry his brother. 
 But Nikola'f, although he seemed to be indifferent, did 
 not lose his temper and only felt a little ashamed and 
 watched with a certain interest everything she did for 
 him. 
 
 When Levin came back from the doctor's, whither 
 Kitty had sent him, he saw, on opening the door, that, 
 under Kitty's directions, they were changing the sick 
 man's linen. His long white back and his stooping 
 shoulders, his prominent ribs and vertebrae, were all 
 uncovered, while Marya Nikolayevna and the lackey 
 were in great perplexity over the sleeves of Nikolai's 
 night-shirt, into which they were vainly striving to get 
 his long, thin arms. Kitty, quickly closing the door be- 
 hind Levin, did not look at him ; but the sick man 
 groaned and she hastened to him. 
 
 " Be quick," she said. 
 
 " There ! don't come near me," muttered the sick 
 man, angrily. " I myself .... " 
 
 "What do you say ? " asked Marya. 
 
 But Kitty had heard and understood that he was 
 ashamed of being stripped in her presence. 
 
 " I am not looking, I am not looking," said she, trying 
 to get his arm into the night-shirt. "Marya Nikolayevna, 
 you go to the other side of the bed and help us. Please 
 go and get a little flask out of my bag, and bring it to
 
 336 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 me," she said to her husband. " You know, in the side 
 pocket; please bring it, and in the meantime we will 
 finish arranging him." 
 
 When Levin came back with the flask, he found the 
 invalid lying down in bed, and everything about him 
 had assumed a different appearance. The oppressive 
 odor had been exchanged for that of aromatic vinegar 
 which Kitty, pursing up her lips and puffing out her 
 rosy cheeks, was scattering about from a glass tube. 
 The dust was all gone ; a rug was spread under the 
 bed ; on the table were arranged the medicine vials, a 
 carafe, the necessary linen, and Kitty's English embroid- 
 ery. On another table, near the bed, stood a candle, 
 his medicine, and powders. The sick man, bathed, 
 with smoothly brushed hair, was lying between clean 
 sheets, and propped up by several pillows, was dressed 
 in a clean night-shirt, the white collar of which came 
 around his unnaturally thin neck. A new expression 
 of hope shone in his eyes as he looked at Kitty. 
 
 The doctor whom Levin went for and found at the 
 club was not the one who had been treating Nikolai and 
 had aroused his indignation. The new doctor brought 
 his stethoscope and carefully sounded the sick man's 
 lungs, shook his head, wrote a prescription, and gave 
 explicit directions first about the application of his rem- 
 edies and then about the diet which he wished him to 
 observe. He ordered fresh eggs, raw, or at least scarcely 
 cooked, and Seltzer water with milk heated to a certain 
 temperature. After he was gone, the sick man said a 
 few words to his brother, but Levin heard only the last 
 words : " .... your Katya." But by the way he looked 
 at Kitty, Levin knew that he said something in her 
 praise. Then he called Katya, as he had named her : 
 
 " I feel much better already," he said to her. " With 
 you I should have got well long ago ! how good every- 
 thing is." 
 
 He took her hand and lifted it to his lips ; but as if 
 he feared that it might be unpleasant to her, he hesitated, 
 put it down again and only caressed it. Kitty pressed 
 his hand affectionately between her own.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 337 
 
 " Now turn me over on the left side, and all of you go 
 to bed." 
 
 No one heard what he said ; Kitty alone understood. 
 She understood because she was ceaselessly on the watch 
 for what he needed. 
 
 " Turn him on the other side," said she to her hus- 
 band. " He always sleeps on that side. It is not pleas- 
 ant to call the man. I cannot do it. Can you ? " she 
 asked of Marya Nikolayevna. 
 
 " I am afraid not," she replied. 
 
 Levin, terrible as it was to him to put his arms around 
 this frightful body, to feel what he did not wish to feel 
 under the coverlid, submitted to his wife's influence, and 
 assuming that resolute air which she knew so well, and 
 putting in his arms, took hold of him ; but in spite of all 
 his strength he was amazed at the strange weight of 
 these emaciated limbs. While he was, with difficulty, 
 changing his brother's position, Nikolai threw his arms 
 around his neck, and Kitty quickly turned the pillows so 
 as to rn^ke the bed more comfortable, and carefully 
 arranged his head and his thin hair, which was again 
 sticking to his temples. 
 
 Nikolai' kept one of his brother's hands in his. Levin 
 felt that the sick man was going to do something with 
 his hand and was drawing it toward him. His heart 
 sank within him ! Yes, Nikola'f put it to his lips and 
 kissed it ! Then, shaken with sobs, Levin hurried from 
 the room, without being able to utter a word. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 " HE has hidden it from the wise, and revealed it unto 
 children and fools ; " thus thought Levin about his wife 
 as he was talking with her a little while later. 
 
 He did not mean to compare himself to a wise man in 
 thus quoting the Gospel. He did not call himself wise ; 
 but he could not help feeling that he was more intellec- 
 tual than his wife and Agafya Mikhai'lovna, that he em- 
 ployed all the powers of his soul, when he thought about 
 
 VOL. II. 22
 
 338 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 death. He knew also that many great and manly minds 
 whose thoughts on this subject he had read had tried to 
 fathom this mystery, but they had not seemed to know 
 one hundredth part as much as his wife and his old 
 nurse. Agafya Mikha'flovna and Katya as his brother 
 called her, and he also now began to take pleasure in 
 doing had, in this respect, a perfect sympathy, though 
 otherwise they were entirely opposite. 
 
 Both unquestionably knew what life meant and what 
 death meant, and though they were of course incapa- 
 ble of answering or understanding the questions that 
 presented themselves to Levin's mind, they not only had 
 their own way of explaining these great facts of human 
 existence, but they also shared their belief in this regard 
 with millions of human beings. As a proof of their well- 
 grounded knowledge of what death was, they without a 
 second of doubt knew what to do for those who were 
 dying, and felt no fear of them. While Levin and others, 
 who could talk much about death, evidently knew noth- 
 ing about it because they were afraid of it and, actually 
 had no notion what to do when men were dying. If 
 Konstantin Levin had been alone now with his brother 
 Nikolai', he would have gazed with terror into his face, 
 and with growing terror awaited his end with fear, and 
 been able to think of nothing to do for him. 
 
 What was more, he did not know what to say, how to 
 look, how to walk. To speak of indifferent things 
 seemed unworthy, impossible; to speak of melancholy 
 things, of death, was likewise impossible; to be silent 
 was even worse. 
 
 " If I look at him, he will think that I am studying 
 him, I fear ; if I do not look at him, he will believe that 
 my thoughts are elsewhere. To walk on tiptoe irritates 
 him ; to walk as usual seems brutal." 
 
 Kitty apparently did not think about herself, and she 
 had not the time. Occupied only with the invalid, she 
 seemed to have a clear idea of what to do ; and she suc- 
 ceeded in her endeavor. 
 
 She related the circumstances of their marriage ; she 
 told about herself ; she smiled on him ; she caressed
 
 ANNA KARENINA 339 
 
 him ; she cited cases of extraordinary cures ; and it was 
 all delightful : she understood how to do it. The proof 
 that her activity and Agafya Mikhai'lovna's was not 
 instinctive, was animal, was above reason, lay in the 
 fact that neither of them was satisfied with offering phys- 
 ical solace or performing purely material acts ; both of 
 them demanded for the dying man something more im- 
 portant than physical care, and something above and 
 beyond merely physical conditions. 
 
 Agafya Mikha'dovna, speaking of the old servant who 
 had lately passed away, said, " Thank God, he had con- 
 fession and extreme unction ; God grant us all to die 
 likewise." 
 
 Katya, though she was busy with her care of the 
 linen, the medicines, and the bed-sores, even on the 
 first day succeeded in persuading her brother-in-law to 
 receive the sacrament. 
 
 When Levin at the end of the day returned from the 
 sick-room to their own two rooms, he sat down with 
 bowed head, confused, not knowing what to do, unable 
 to think of eating his supper, of arranging for the night, 
 of doing anything at all ; he could not even talk with his 
 wife : he felt ashamed of himself. 
 
 But Kitty showed extraordinary activity. She had 
 supper brought ; she herself unpacked the trunks, helped 
 arrange the beds, and even remembered to scatter Per- 
 sian powder upon them. She felt the same excitement 
 and quickness of thought which men of genius show on 
 the eve of battle, or at those serious and critical moments 
 in their lives, those moments when, if ever, a man 
 shows his value, and all the preceding days of his life 
 are only the preparation for these moments. 
 
 The whole work made such rapid progress that before 
 twelve o'clock all their things were neatly and carefully 
 arranged : their two hotel rooms presented a thor- 
 oughly homelike appearance ; the beds were remade ; 
 the brushes, the combs, the hand-mirrors, were taken 
 out ; the towels were in order. 
 
 Levin found it unpardonable in himself to eat, to 
 sleep, even to speak ; and he felt that every motion he
 
 340 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 made was inappropriate. But she took out her toilet 
 articles and did everything in such a way that there 
 was nothing in the least disturbing or unsuitable in it. 
 
 Neither of them could eat, however, and they sat long 
 before they could make up their minds to go to bed. 
 
 " I am very glad that I persuaded him to receive ex- 
 treme unction to-morrow," said Kitty, as she combed 
 her soft perfumed hair, before her mirror, sitting in her 
 dressing-sack. " I never saw it given ; but mamma told 
 me that they repeat prayers for restoration to health." 
 
 " Do you believe that he can get well ? " asked Levin, 
 as he watched the narrow parting at the back of her 
 little' round head disappear as she moved the comb for- 
 ward. 
 
 " I asked the doctor ; he says that he cannot live more 
 than three days. But what does he know about it ? I 
 am glad that I persuaded him," she said, looking at her 
 husband from behind her hair. " All things are possi- 
 ble," she added, with that peculiar, almost crafty, expres- 
 sion which came over her face when she spoke about 
 religion. 
 
 Never, since the conversation that they had while 
 they were engaged, had they spoken about religion ; 
 but Kitty still continued to go to church and to say her 
 prayers with the calm conviction that she was fulfilling 
 a duty. Notwithstanding the confession, which her 
 husband had felt impelled to make, she firmly believed 
 that he was a good Christian, perhaps better even than 
 herself, and that all he had said about it was only one 
 of his absurd masculine freaks such as he liked to in- 
 dulge in, just as he did when he jested about her 
 broderie anglaise as if good people mended holes, but 
 she purposely created them. 
 
 " There ! This woman, Marya Nikolayevna, would 
 never have been able to persuade him," said Levin ; 
 "and.... I must confess that I am very, very glad that 
 you came. You made everything look so neat and com- 
 fortable !".... 
 
 He took her hand, but did not kiss it ; it seemed to 
 him a profanation even to kiss her hand in the presence
 
 ANNA KARENINA 341 
 
 of death, but he pressed it, as he looked with contrition 
 into her shining eyes. 
 
 " You would have suffered too terribly all alone," she 
 said, as she raised her arms, which covered the glow of 
 satisfaction that made her cheeks red, and began to 
 coil up her hair and fasten it to the top of her head. 
 " No, she would not have known how .... but fortunately 
 I learned many things at Soden." 
 
 "Were there people there as ill as he is? " 
 
 "Yes, more so." 
 
 " It is terrible to me not to see him as he used to be 
 when he was young You can't imagine what a hand- 
 some fellow he was ; but I did not understand him 
 then." 
 
 " Indeed, indeed, I believe you. I feel that we should 
 have been friends," said she, and she turned toward 
 her husband, frightened at what she had said, and the 
 tears shone in her eyes. 
 
 " Yes, would have been" he said mournfully. " He 
 is one of those men of whom one can say with reason 
 that he was not meant for this world." 
 
 " Meanwhile, we must not forget that we have many 
 days ahead of us ; it is time to go to bed," said Kitty, 
 consulting her tiny watch. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 DEATH 
 
 ON the next morning communion was administered 
 to the sick man. Nikolai' prayed fervently during the 
 ceremony. There was such an expression of passionate 
 entreaty and prayer in his great eyes gazing at the 
 sacred image placed on a card-table covered with a 
 colored towel that it was terrible for Levin to look at 
 him so ; for he knew that this passionate entreaty and 
 hope made it all the harder for him to part from life, 
 to which he clung so desperately. He knew his brother 
 and the trend of his thoughts ; he knew that his skepti-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 cism did not arise from the fact that it was easier foi 
 him to live without a religion, but from the fact that 
 gradually his religious beliefs had been supplanted by 
 the theories of modern science ; and therefore he knew 
 that his return to faith was not logical or normal, but 
 was ephemeral and due simply to his unreasonable hope 
 for recovery. He knew likewise that Kitty had strength- 
 ened this hope by her stories of extraordinary cures. 
 
 Levin knew all this and was tormented by these 
 thoughts as he looked at his brother's beseeching, hope- 
 ful eyes, as he saw his difficulty in lifting his emaciated 
 hand to touch his yellow forehead to make the sign of 
 the cross, and saw his fleshless shoulders, and his hollow, 
 rattling chest, unable longer to contain the life which 
 he was begging to have restored. During the sacra- 
 ment Levin did what he had done a thousand times, 
 skeptic that he was : 
 
 " Heal this man if Thou dost exist," he said, address- 
 ing God, " and Thou wilt save me also." 
 
 The invalid felt suddenly much better after the anoint- 
 ing with the holy oil ; for more than an hour he did not 
 cough once. He assured Kitty, as he kissed her hand 
 with smiles and tears of thanksgiving, that he felt well, 
 that he was not suffering, and that he felt a return of 
 strength and appetite. When his broth was brought, 
 he got up by "himself and asked for a cutlet. Hopeless 
 as his case was, impossible as his recovery was, as any 
 one might see by a glance, Levin and Kitty spent this 
 hour in a kind of timid joy. 
 
 ' Is he not better ? " 
 
 'Much better." 
 
 ' It is astonishing." 
 
 ' Why should it be astonishing ? " 
 
 ' He is certainly better," they whispered, smiling at 
 each other. 
 
 The illusion did not last. The sick man went serenely 
 to sleep, but after half an hour his cough wakened him 
 and instantly those who were with him and the sick man 
 himself lost all hope. The actuality of suffering un- 
 questioned made them forget their late hopes. Nikola*,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 343 
 
 giving no thought to what he had believed a half-hour 
 previously, and apparently ashamed even to remember 
 it, asked for a bottle of iodin to inhale. 
 
 Levin gave him the bottle, which was covered with 
 a piece of perforated paper, and his brother looked at 
 him with the same imploring, passionate look which he 
 had given the image, as if asking him to confirm the 
 words of the doctor, who attributed miraculous virtues 
 to the inhaling of iodin. 
 
 " Kitty is n't here ? " he asked in his hoarse whisper, 
 when Levin had unwillingly repeated the doctor's words. 
 
 "No? then I may speak!.... I played the comedy 
 
 for her sake She is so sweet ! But you and I cannot 
 
 deceive ourselves ! This is what I put my faith in," 
 said he, pressing the bottle in his bony hands as he 
 smelt the iodin. 
 
 About eight o'clock in the evening Levin and his 
 wife were taking tea in their room, when Marya Niko- 
 layevna came running toward them all out of breath. 
 She was pale, and her lips trembled. 
 
 " He is dying ! " she whispered, " I am afraid that he 
 is dying ! " 
 
 Both of them hurried to NikolaT. He had lifted 
 himself, and was sitting up in bed leaning on his elbow, 
 his head bowed, his long back bent. 
 
 " How do you feel ? " asked Levin, tenderly, after a 
 moment of silence. 
 
 " I feel that I am going," whispered Nikola'f, strug- 
 gling painfully to speak, but as yet pronouncing the 
 words distinctly. He did not raise his head, but only 
 turned his eyes up, without seeing his brother's face. 
 
 " Katya, go away ! " he whispered once again. 
 
 Levin sprang up and in an imperative whisper bade 
 her leave the room. 
 
 " I am going," the dying man whispered once again. 
 
 " Why do you think so ? " asked Levin, for the sake 
 of saying something. 
 
 " Because I am going," he repeated, as if he had an 
 affection for the phrase. " It is the end." 
 
 Marya Nikolayevna came to him.
 
 344 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " If you would lie down, it would be easier for you," 
 said she. 
 
 " Soon I shall be lying down," he remarked softly, 
 "dead," he added, with angry irony. "Well, lay me 
 back, if you will." 
 
 Levin laid his brother down on his back, took a seat 
 near him, and, hardly able to breathe, gazed into his 
 face. The dying man lay with his eyes shut, but the 
 muscles of his forehead twitched from time to time as 
 if he were in deep thought. Levin involuntarily tried 
 to comprehend what was taking place in him, but in 
 spite of all the efforts of his mind to accompany his 
 brother's thoughts, he saw by the expression of his calm 
 stern face, and the play of the muscles above his eye- 
 brows, that his brother perceived mysteries hidden from 
 him. 
 
 " Yes .... yes.... so," the dying man murmured slowly, 
 with long pauses ; " lay me down ! " Then long silence 
 followed. " So ! " said he suddenly, with an expression 
 of content as if all had been explained for him. " O 
 Lord ! " he exclaimed, and he sighed heavily. 
 
 Marya Nikolayevna felt of his feet. " They are grow- 
 ing cold," she said in a low voice. 
 
 Long, very long, as it seemed to Levin, the sick man 
 remained motionless ; but he was still alive, and sighed 
 from time to time. 
 
 Weary from the mental strain, Levin felt that in 
 spite of all his efforts he could not understand what his 
 brother meant to express by the exclamation " So." 
 He seemed to be far away from the dying man ; he 
 could no longer think of the mystery of death ; the 
 most incongruous ideas came into his mind. He asked 
 himself what he was going to do ; to close his eyes, 
 dress him, order the coffin ? Strange ! he felt perfectly 
 cold and indifferent ; he did not experience any sense of 
 grief or loss, or even the least pity for his brother ; the 
 principal feeling that he had was one almost of envy 
 for the knowledge which the dying man would soon 
 have and which he himself could not have. 
 
 Long he waited by his bedside, expecting the end;
 
 ANNA KARENINA 345 
 
 it did not come. The door opened, and Kitty came in. 
 He got up to stop her, but instantly heard the dying 
 man move. 
 
 " Don't go away ! " said Nikola'f, stretching out his 
 hand. Levin took it, and angrily motioned his wife 
 away. 
 
 Still holding the dying man's hand, he waited a half- 
 hour an hour and still another hour. He ceased 
 to think of death ; he thought what Kitty was doing. 
 Who was occupying the next room ? Had the doctor 
 a house of his own ? Then he became hungry and 
 sleepy. He gently let go the dying man's hand and felt 
 of his feet. His feet and legs were cold ; but still 
 Nikola'f was breathing. Levin started to go away on 
 his tiptoes; but again the invalid stirred, and said, 
 " Don't go away ! " 
 
 It began to grow light ; the situation was unchanged. 
 Levin gently rose, and without looking at his brother 
 went to his room, and fell asleep. When he awoke, in- 
 stead of hearing of his brother's death as he expected, 
 he was told that he had come to his senses again. He 
 was sitting up in bed, was coughing, and wanted some- 
 thing to eat. He became talkative, but ceased to talk 
 about death, and once more began to express the hope 
 of getting well again, and was more irritable and restless 
 than before. No one, not even his brother or Kitty, 
 could calm him. He was angry with them all, and said 
 disagreeable things, and blamed every one for his suffer- 
 ings, demanding that the famous doctor from Moscow 
 should be sent for ; and whenever they asked him how 
 he was, he replied with expressions of anger and re- 
 proach, " I am suffering terrible, unendurable agony." 
 
 He suffered more and more, especially from his bed- 
 sores, which they were wholly unable to heal, and his 
 irritability kept increasing, and he reproached them all 
 bitterly, especially because they did not fetch the doctor 
 from Moscow. Kitty tried every means in her power 
 to help him, to calm him ; but it was all in vain, and
 
 346 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Levin saw that she was suffering physically as well as 
 morally, although she would not confess it. 
 
 The sentiment of death which had been aroused in 
 all by his farewell to life that night when he had sum- 
 moned his brother was mightily weakened. All knew 
 that he would inevitably and speedily reach the end, 
 that he was already half dead. They all felt that the 
 sooner he died the better it would be ; yet, concealing 
 this, they still gave him medicines from vials, sent for 
 new medicines and doctors, and they deceived him and 
 themselves and one another ; all this was falsehood, 
 vile, humiliating, blasphemous falsehood. And this 
 falsehood was more painful to Konstantin than to the 
 others, because he loved his brother more deeply, and 
 because nothing was more contrary to his nature than 
 lack of sincerity. 
 
 Levin, who had long felt the desire to reconcile his 
 two brothers before Nikolai' should die, wrote to Sergye? 
 Ivanovitch. He replied, and Konstantin read the letter 
 to the sick man : Sergyei Ivanovitch could not come 
 but he asked his brother's pardon in touching terms. 
 
 Nikolai' said nothing. 
 
 " What shall I write him ? " asked Konstantin. " I 
 hope you are not angry with him." 
 
 " No, not at all," replied Nikola?, in a tone of vexa- 
 tion. "Write him to send me the doctor." 
 
 Three cruel days passed in this manner, the invalid 
 remaining in the same condition. All those who saw 
 him the hotel waiter and the landlord and all the 
 lodgers and the doctor and Marya Nikolayevna and 
 Levin and Kitty now wished only one thing, and that 
 was his death. The invalid only did not express any 
 such wish, but, on the contrary, continually grumbled 
 because they did not send for the doctor ; and he took 
 his remedies and he spoke of life. Only at rare mo- 
 ments, when opium caused him for a little to be oblivious 
 of his incessant agony, he would in a sort of doze con- 
 fess what weighed on his mind even more heavily than 
 on the others' : " Akh 1 If this could only end ! " or 
 "When this is over."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 347 
 
 His sufferings, growing ever more and more severe, 
 did their work and prepared him to die. There was no 
 position in which he could find relief ; there was not a 
 moment in which he could forget himself; there was 
 not a place or a single member of his body that did not 
 cause him pain, agony. Even the memories, the impres- 
 sions, and the thoughts about his body now awakened 
 in him the same feeling of repulsion as his body itself ; 
 the sight of other people and their talk, their individual 
 recollections, were a torment to him. Those who sur- 
 rounded him felt it and instinctively refrained in his 
 presence from using any freedom of motion, from con- 
 versation or from expressing their wishes. All his life 
 was concentrated in one feeling, suffering, and in an 
 ardent desire to be freed from it. 
 
 Evidently there was accomplishing in him that revolu- 
 tion whereby he would be induced to look on death as 
 a consummation of his desires, even as a joy. Hitherto, 
 every individual desire called forth by suffering or 
 privation, as by hunger, weariness, thirst, was satisfied 
 by some bodily exercise producing pleasure ; but now 
 privation and suffering got no relief and any attempt 
 at relieving them caused new suffering. And so all his 
 desires were concentrated on one thing, the wish to 
 be delivered from all his woes and the very source of 
 his woes, from his body. But he had no words to ex- 
 press this thought, and he continued out of habit to ask 
 for what once gave him comfort, but could no longer 
 satisfy him. "Turn me on the other side," he would 
 say, and then immediately wish to return to his former 
 position. "Give me bouillon! Take it away! Speak, 
 and don't stay so still! " and as soon as any one began 
 to speak, he would shut his eyes and show fatigue, in- 
 difference, and disgust. 
 
 On the tenth day after their arrival Kitty was taken 
 ill ; she had a headache and nausea and all the morn- 
 ing felt unable to get up. 
 
 The doctor declared that it was caused by her emo- 
 tions and weariness. He advised quiet and rest. 
 
 Yet, after dinner, she got up and went as usual with
 
 34 8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 her work to Nikola'f's room. He looked at her sternly 
 and smiled scornfully when she told him that she had 
 been ill. All day long he never ceased to cough and to 
 groan piteously. 
 
 " How do you feel ? " she asked. 
 
 "Worse," he replied with difficulty. "I am in pain." 
 
 " Where do you feel the pain ? " 
 
 " All over." 
 
 " You will see the end will come to-day," said Marya 
 Nikolayevna, in an undertone. 
 
 Levin hushed her, thinking that his brother, whose 
 ear was very acute, might hear ; he turned and looked 
 at him. Nikolai had heard, but the words made no im- 
 pression ; his look remained as before, reproachful and 
 intense. 
 
 " What makes you think so ? " asked Levin, when 
 she followed him into the corridor. 
 
 " He has begun to pick with his fingers." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " This way," she said, plucking at the folds of her 
 woolen dress. Levin himself noticed that all that day 
 the invalid had been plucking at his bed-clothes as if to 
 pick off something. 
 
 Marya Nikolayevna's prediction came true. Toward 
 evening Nikolai' had not strength enough left to lift his 
 arms, and his motionless eyes assumed an expression of 
 concentrated attention. Even when his brother and 
 Kitty bent over him in order that he might see them, 
 this look remained unchanged. Kitty had the priest 
 summoned to say the prayers for the dying. 
 
 While the priest was reading the prayer, the dying man 
 gave no sign of life. His eyes were closed. Levin, 
 Kitty, and Marya Nikolayevna were standing by his bed- 
 side. Before the prayers were ended, Nikolai stretched 
 himself a little, sighed, and opened his eyes. The priest, 
 having finished the prayer, placed the crucifix on his 
 icy brow, then put it under his stole, and after he had 
 stood for a moment or two longer, silently he touched 
 the huge bloodless hand. 
 
 " It is all over," he said at last, and started to go away ;
 
 ANNA KARENINA 349 
 
 but suddenly Nikolai's lips trembled slightly, and from 
 the depths of his breast came these words, which sounded 
 distinctly in the silent room : 
 
 " Not yet.... soon." 
 
 A moment later his face brightened, a smile came to 
 his lips, and the women who had been summoned has- 
 tened to lay out the body. 
 
 The sight of his brother and the propinquity of death 
 awakened in Levin's mind that feeling of horror at the 
 inexplicability and the unavoidableness of death, just as 
 he had felt on that autumn night when his brother came 
 to see him. This feeling was now more intense than ever. 
 More than ever he felt his inability to fathom this mys- 
 tery, and even more terrible seemed to him its proximity. 
 But now, thanks to his wife's presence, this feeling did not 
 lead him to despair; for in spite of his terrors l.j felt 
 the need of living, and loving. He felt that love saved 
 him from despair, and that this love became all the 
 stronger and purer because it was threatened. 
 
 And scarcely had this mystery of death taken place 
 before his eyes ere he found himself face to face with 
 another miracle of love and of life equally unfathomable. 
 
 The doctor confirmed his surmise in regard to Kitty 
 Her discomfort was the beginning of pregnancy. 
 
 END OF VOL. H.
 
 THE SCENE IN THE FREIGHT-HOUSE. 
 
 Original Drawing by E. Boyd Smith.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 VOL. Ill
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 PART FIFTH Continued 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 AS soon as Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch had learned 
 from Betsy and Stepan Arkadyevitch that all that 
 was expected of him was that he should leave his wife in 
 peace and not trouble her with his presence, and that his 
 wife herself wished this, he had felt himself in too great 
 perplexity to be able to decide anything for himself, and 
 he did not know what he wanted ; but, having placed 
 his fate in the hands of others, who were willing enough 
 to occupy themselves with his affairs, he was ready to 
 accept whatever might be proposed to him. 
 
 Only when Anna had taken her departure and when 
 the English governess sent to inquire if she should dine 
 with him or by herself, did he for the first time clearly 
 realize his position and its full horror. 
 
 The hardest element in this state of affairs was that 
 he could not coordinate and reconcile his past with the 
 present. Nor was it the past when he lived happily 
 with his wife that disturbed him. The transition from 
 that past to the knowledge of his wife's infidelity he had 
 borne like a martyr ; that state of things was trying, but 
 it was comprehensible to him. If at the time when his 
 wife had confessed her wrong to him she had left him, 
 he would have been mortified and unhappy ; but he 
 would not have been in that inextricable, incomprehen- 
 sible position in which he now felt that he was. He 
 could never now reconcile his recent position, his recon- 
 ciliation, his love for his sick wife and the alien child, 
 
 VOL. III. I I
 
 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 with the present state of things ; in other words, with 
 the fact that as a reward for all his sacrifices he was now 
 deserted, disgraced, useful to no one, and a ridiculous 
 laughing-stock to all. 
 
 The first two days after his wife's departure Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch received petitioners and his chief sec- 
 retary, attended committee-meetings, and ate his meals 
 in the dining-room as usual. Without trying to explain 
 to himself why he did this, he directed all the powers of 
 his mind to one single aim to seem calm and indif- 
 ferent. As he answered the questions of the servants 
 in regard to what should be done about Anna's rooms 
 and her things, he made superhuman efforts to assume 
 the manner of a man for whom the event that had 
 occurred was not unexpected, and had nothing in it 
 outside the range of ordinary, every-day events, and he 
 accomplished his purpose ; no one would have detected 
 in him any signs of despair. But on the second day 
 after her departure Kernel' handed him a milliner's bill 
 which Anna had neglected to pay, and told him that the 
 manager of the business himself was waiting. Alekseif 
 Aleksandrovitch had the man shown in. 
 
 " Excuse me, your excellency," said the manager, 
 "for venturing to disturb you, but if you order us to 
 apply to her ladyship personally, will you kindly give 
 us her address ? " 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch seemed to the manager to be 
 cogitating ; then suddenly turning round, he sat down at 
 the table. Dropping his head into his hands, he sat 
 there a long time in that position ; he tried several times 
 to speak, but still hesitated. Korne'f, understanding his 
 barin's feelings, asked the manager to come another 
 time. 
 
 When he was left alone again, Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch realized that he no longer had the power to keep 
 up the role of firmness and serenity. He gave orders 
 to send away the carriage which was waiting for him, 
 and he declined to see callers and would accept no in- 
 vitations out to dine. He felt that he could not endure 
 the disdain and derision which he clearly read on the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 3 
 
 face of this manager and of Kornei', and of all without 
 exception whom he had met during those two days. He 
 felt that he could not defend himself from the detesta- 
 tion of people, because this detestation did not arise 
 from the fact that he had himself committed any wrong 
 action, for in that case he might have hoped to regain 
 the esteem of the world by improvement in conduct, but 
 from the fact that he was unhappy, and with an unhap- 
 piness that was odious and shameful. He knew that it 
 was precisely for the reason that his heart was torn that 
 they would be pitiless to him. It seemed to him that his 
 fellow-men persecuted him as dogs torture to death some 
 poor cur maimed and howling with pain. He knew that 
 the only safety from men was to conceal his wounds from 
 them, and he had instinctively tried for two days to do 
 so ; but now he felt that he had no longer the strength 
 to continue the unequal struggle. 
 
 His despair was made deeper by the knowledge that 
 he was absolutely alone with his suffering. In all 
 Petersburg there was not a man to whom he could 
 confide all his wretchedness, not one who would have 
 any pity for him now, not as a lofty functionary, or 
 even as a member of society, but simply as a human 
 being in despair : he had no such friend. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch had lost his mother when he 
 was ten years old ; he had no remembrance of his 
 father ; he and his one brother were left orphans with 
 a very small inheritance ; their uncle Karenin, a man 
 of influence, held in high esteem by the late emperor, 
 took charge of their bringing up. 
 
 After a successful course at the gymnasium and the 
 university, Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, through his uncle's 
 aid, made a brilliant start in official life, and, full of 
 ambition, devoted himself exclusively to his career. He 
 formed no ties of intimacy either in the gymnasium or in 
 the university, or afterward in society ; his brother alone 
 was dear to him, but he entered the department of foreign 
 affairs, went abroad to live, and died soon after Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch's marriage. 
 
 While Karenin was governor of one of the provinces,
 
 4 ANNA KARENTNA 
 
 Anna's aunt, a wealthy lady of the governmental capi 
 tal, introduced her niece to this governor, who was 
 young for such a position, if not in years, and she 
 forced him to the alternative of proposing marriage or 
 leaving the city. Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch long hesi- 
 tated. There seemed as many reasons in favor of this 
 step as there were opposed to it ; there was no definite 
 reason which should impel him to break his rule, "When 
 in doubt, don't ! " but Anna's aunt sent word to him 
 through a friend that he had compromised the young 
 lady, and that as a man of honor he must offer her his 
 hand. He offered himself, and gave her, first as his 
 betrothed and afterward as his wife, all the affection 
 which it was in his power to show. 
 
 This attachment prevented him from feeling the need 
 of any other intimacy. And now out of all the number 
 of his acquaintances he had not one confidential friend. 
 He had many so-called "friends," but no intimates. 
 There were many persons whom Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch could invite to dinner, or ask favors of, in the 
 interests of his public capacity or protection for some 
 petitioner ; with whom he could freely criticize the actions 
 of other people and of the highest officers of govern- 
 ment. But his relations to these people were exclu- 
 sively confined to this official domain, from which it 
 was impossible to escape. There was one university 
 comrade with whom he had kept up an intimacy in after 
 years, and to whom he would have confided his private 
 sorrows, but this friend was a trustee 1 of the classical 
 educational institutes in a distant province. Of all the 
 people in Petersburg, the nearest and most practicable 
 acquaintances were his Director of the Chancelry and 
 his doctor. 
 
 Mikhail Vasilyevitch Sliudin, "manager of affairs," 
 was a simple, good, intelligent, and well-bred man, and 
 he seemed full of sympathy for Karenin ; but five years' 
 association in official service put a barrier between them 
 which silenced confidences. 
 
 1 Popechitel' 1 uchebnava okruga ; an office attached to the department of 
 Public Instruction. ED.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 5 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, having signed the papers 
 which he brought, sat in silence for some time looking 
 at Sliudin, and kept trying, but found it impossible, to 
 open his heart to him. The question, " Have you heard 
 of my misfortune ? " was on his lips ; but it ended in his 
 saying as usual, when he dismissed him : 
 
 " You will have the goodness to prepare me this 
 work." 
 
 The doctor was another man who was well disposed 
 to him, but between them there had long been a tacit 
 understanding that they were both full of business and 
 in a hurry. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch did not think at all about 
 his women friends, or even of the chiefest among them, 
 the Countess Lidia Ivanovna. Women simply as women 
 were strange and repulsive to him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 ALEKSEI ALEKSANDROVITCH forgot the Countess 
 Lidia Ivanovna, but she did not forget him. She 
 reached his house at his darkest moment of solitary 
 despair, and made her way to his library without wait- 
 ing to be announced. She found him still sitting in the 
 same position with his head between his hands. 
 
 "J'ai forct la consigned she said, as she came in 
 with rapid steps, breathless with emotion and agitation. 
 " I know all, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, my friend ! " 
 and she pressed his hand between both of hers and 
 looked at him with her beautiful melancholy eyes. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, with a frown, arose, and, 
 having withdrawn his hand, offered her a chair. 
 
 " I beg you to sit down. I am not receiving be- 
 cause I am suffering, countess," he said, and his lips 
 quivered. 
 
 " My friend ! " repeated the countess, without taking 
 her eyes from him ; and suddenly she lifted her eye- 
 brows so that they formed a triangle on her forehead, and 
 this grimace made her ugly yellow face still uglier than
 
 6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 before. Aleksel Aleksandrovitch felt that she pitied 
 him and was on the point of crying. A wave of feel- 
 ing overwhelmed him. He seized her fat hand and 
 kissed it. 
 
 " My friend," she said again, in a voice breaking 
 with emotion, "you must not give yourself up to grief. 
 Your grief is great, but you must find consolation," 
 
 " I am wounded, I am killed, I am no longer a man," 
 said Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, letting go the countess's 
 hand, but still looking into her eyes swimming with tears. 
 " My situation is all the more unbearable because I can 
 find neither in myself nor outside of myself any help 
 toward endurance of it." 
 
 " You will find this help, not in me, though I beg you 
 to believe in my friendship," said she, with a sigh. 
 " Our help is love, the love which He has given for an 
 inheritance. His yoke is easy," she continued, with the 
 exalted look that AlekseY Aleksandrovitch knew so well. 
 " He will sustain you and will aid you." 
 
 Although these words were the expression of an 
 emotion aroused by their lofty feelings, as well as the 
 symbolical language characteristic of a new mystical 
 exaltation just introduced into Petersburg, and which 
 seemed extravagant to Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, never- 
 theless he found it pleasant at the present time to hear 
 them. 
 
 " I am weak, I am humiliated. I foresaw nothing of 
 this, and now I cannot understand it." 
 
 " My friend ! " repeated Lidia Ivanovna. 
 
 "I do not mourn so much my loss," said Aleksei' 
 Aleksandrovitch ; "but I cannot help a feeling of shame 
 for the situation in which I am placed before the world. 
 It is bad, and I cannot, I cannot bear it." 
 
 " It is not you who have performed this noble act of 
 forgiveness which has filled me and all with admira- 
 tion. It is He dwelling in your heart. So, too, you 
 have no cause for shame/' said the countess, ecstati- 
 cally raising her eyes. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch frowned, and, pressing his 
 hands together, he began to make his knuckles crack.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 7 
 
 "You must know all the details," he said, in his shrill 
 voice. " Man's powers are limited, countess ; and I have 
 reached the limit of mine. All this day I have wasted 
 in details, domestic details, arising- [he accented the 
 word] from my new, lonely situation. The servants, the 
 governess, the accounts, .... this is a slow fire devouring 
 me, and I have not strength to endure it. Yesterday 
 I scarcely was able to get through dinner .... I cannot en- 
 dure to have my son look at me ....he did not ask me 
 any questions, but I know he wanted to ask me, and I 
 could not endure his look. He was afraid to look at 
 me ....but that is a mere trifle ...." 
 
 Karenin wanted to speak of the bill that had been 
 brought him, but his voice trembled, and he stopped. 
 This bill on blue paper, for a hat and ribbons, was a 
 recollection that made him pity himself. 
 
 " I understand, my friend," said the Countess Lidia 
 Ivanovna, " I understand it all. Aid and consolation 
 you will not find in me, but I have come to help you if 
 I can. If I could free you from these petty annoying 
 tasks .... I think that a woman's word, a woman's hand, 
 are needed ; will you let me help you ? " 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch was silent, and pressed her 
 hand gratefully. 
 
 "We will look after Serozha together. I am not 
 strong in practical affairs, but I can get used to them, 
 and I will be your ekonomka. Do not thank me ; I do 
 not do it of myself." .... 
 
 " I cannot help being grateful." 
 
 " But, my friend, do not yield to the sentiment of 
 
 which you spoke a moment ago How can you be 
 
 ashamed of what is the highest degree of Christian per- 
 fection ? He who humbles himself shall be exalted. 
 And you cannot thank me. Thank Him, pray to Him 
 for help. In Him alone we can find peace, consolation, 
 salvation, and love." 
 
 She raised her eyes to heaven, and began to pray, as 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch could see by her silence. 
 
 AlekseY Aleksandrovitch listened to her, and this 
 phraseology, which before seemed, not unpleasant to him,
 
 8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 but extravagant, now seemed natural and soothing. He 
 did not approve of this new ecstatic mysticism. He was 
 a sincere believer, and religion interested him principally 
 in its relation to politics ; and the new doctrine which 
 arrogated to itself certain new terms, for the very rea- 
 son that it opened the door to controversy and analysis, 
 had aroused his antipathy from principle. Hitherto, he 
 had taken a cold, and even hostile, attitude to this new 
 doctrine, and had never discussed it with the countess, 
 who was carried away by it, but had resolutely met her 
 challenge with silence. But now, for the first time, he 
 let her speak without hindrance, and even found a 
 secret pleasure in her words. 
 
 " I am very, very grateful to you, both for your words 
 and for your sympathy," he said, when she had ended 
 her prayer. 
 
 Again the countess pressed her friend's hand with 
 both of hers. 
 
 " Now I am going to set to work," said she, with a 
 smile, wiping away the traces of tears on her face. " I 
 am going to Serozha, and I shall not trouble you except 
 in serious difficulties." And she got up and went out. 
 
 The Countess Lidia Ivanovna went to Serozha's room, 
 and, while she bathed the scared little fellow's cheeks 
 with her tears, she told him that his father was a saint 
 and his mother was dead. 
 
 The countess fulfilled her promise. She actually 
 took charge of the details of Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch's 
 house, but she exaggerated in no respect when she de- 
 clared that she was not strong in practical affairs. It 
 was necessary to modify all of her arrangements, since 
 it was impossible to carry them out, and they were modi- 
 fied by Korne'f, Alekse'i Aleksandrovitch's valet, who, 
 without any one noticing it, gradually took it on him- 
 self to manage the whole establishment, and calmly and 
 discreetly reported to his barin (while the latter was 
 dressing) such things as seemed best. 
 
 But, nevertheless, the countess's help was to the 
 highest degree useful to him. Her affection and es- 
 teem were a moral support to him, and, as it gave her
 
 ANNA KARENINA 9 
 
 great consolation to think, she almost succeeded in 
 converting him to "Christianity"; in other words, she 
 changed him from an indifferent and lukewarm be- 
 liever into a fervent and genuine partizan of that 
 new method of explaining the Christian doctrine which 
 shortly after came into vogue in Petersburg. It was 
 easy for AlekseY Aleksandrovitch to put his faith in 
 this exegesis. Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, as well as the 
 countess and all those who shared their views, was not 
 gifted with great imagination, or at least that faculty 
 of the mind by which the illusions of the imagination 
 have sufficient conformity with reality to cause their 
 acceptation. Thus he saw no impossibility or unlike- 
 lihood in death existing for unbelievers and not for him, 
 that because he held a complete and unquestioning faith, 
 judged in his own way, his soul was already free from 
 sin, and that even in this world he might look upon his 
 safety as assured. 
 
 It is true, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch dimly felt the 
 frivolity, the fallacy, of this presentation of his faith. 
 He knew that when, without a thought that his forgive- 
 ness of his wife was the act of a higher power, he gave 
 himself up to this immediate feeling, he experienced a 
 greater happiness than when, as now, he constantly 
 thought that Christ dwelt in his soul, and that by sign- 
 ing certain papers he was following His will. But it 
 was indispensable for Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch to think 
 so ; it was so indispensable to have, in his present hu- 
 miliation, this elevation, imaginary though it was, from 
 which he, whom every one despised, could look down 
 on others, that he clung to it as if his salvation de- 
 pended on it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE Countess Lidia Ivanovna had been married when 
 she was a very young and enthusiastic girl to a very 
 wealthy, aristocratic, good-natured, and dissolute young 
 fellow. Two months after the wedding her husband
 
 io ANNA KARENINA 
 
 deserted her. He had replied to her effusive expres- 
 sions of love with scorn and even hatred, which no 
 one who knew the count's kindliness, and were not 
 acquainted with the faults of Lidia's romantic nature, 
 could comprehend. Since then, without any formal 
 divorce, they had lived apart ; and when the husband 
 met his wife, he always treated her with a venomous 
 scorn, the reason for which it puzzled people to under- 
 stand. 
 
 The Countess Lidia Ivanovna long ago ceased to 
 worship her husband, but at no time had she ceased 
 to be in love with some one. Not seldom she was in 
 love with several at once men and women indiscrimi- 
 nately. She had been in love with almost every one 
 of any prominence. Thus she had lost her heart to 
 each of the new princes and princesses who married 
 into the imperial family. Then she had been in love 
 with a metropolitan, a vicar, and a priest. Then she 
 had been in love with a journalist, three Slavophiles, 
 and Komisarof ; then with a foreign minister, a doc- 
 tor, an English missionary, and finally Karenin. These 
 multifarious love-affairs and their different phases of 
 warmth or coldness in no wise hindered her from keep- 
 ing up the most complicated relations both with the 
 court and society. 
 
 But from the day when Karenin was touched by 
 misfortune and she took him under her special pro- 
 tection, from the time when she began to busy herself 
 with his domestic affairs and work for his well-being, 
 she felt that all her former passions were of no account, 
 but that she now loved Karenin alone with perfect sin- 
 cerity. The feeling which she now cherished toward 
 him seemed to her stronger than all the previous feel- 
 ings. As she analyzed her sentiment and compared 
 it with the former ones, she clearly saw that she would 
 never have been in love with Komisarof if he had not 
 saved the emperor's life, or with Ristitch-Kudzhitsky 
 had there been no Slav question. But Karenin she 
 loved for himself, for his great, unappreciated spirit, 
 for his character, for the delightful sound of his voice,
 
 ANNA KARENINA n 
 
 his deliberate intonations, his weary eyes, and his soft 
 white hands with their swollen veins. Not only did the 
 thought of seeing him fill her with joy, but it seemed 
 to her that she saw on her friend's face the signs of 
 the impression which she made on him. She did her 
 best to please him, no less by her person than by her 
 conversation. Never before had she spent so much 
 time and attention on her toilet. More than once she 
 found herself wondering what would happen if she 
 were not married and he were only free! When he 
 came into the room, she colored with emotion, and 
 she could not restrain a smile of ecstasy if he said 
 something pleasant to her. 
 
 For several days the countess had been in a state of 
 great excitement. She knew that Anna and Vronsky 
 were back in Petersburg. It was necessary to save 
 AlekseT Aleksandrovitch from seeing her ; it was neces- 
 sary to save him even from the tormenting knowledge 
 that this wretched woman was living in the same town 
 with him and he might meet her at any instant. 
 
 Lidia Ivanovna made inquiries through acquaintances 
 so as to discover the plans of these repulsive people, as 
 she called Anna and Vronsky ; and she tried to direct 
 all of Karenin's movements so that he might not meet 
 them. The young aide to the emperor, a friend of 
 Vronsky's, from whom she learned about them, and 
 who was hoping through the Countess Lidia Iva- 
 novna's influence to get a concession, told her that 
 they were completing their arrangements and expected 
 to depart on the following day. 
 
 Lidia Ivanovna was beginning to breathe freely once 
 more, when on the next morning she received a note, 
 the handwriting of which she recognized with terror. 
 It was Anna Karenina's handwriting. The envelop was 
 of paper thick as bark ; the oblong sheet of yellow paper 
 was adorned with an immense monogram. The note 
 exhaled a delicious perfume. 
 
 "Who brought it?" 
 
 " A messenger from the hotel." 
 
 The countess waited long before she had the cour-
 
 12 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 age to sit down and read it. Her emotion almost 
 brought on an attack of asthma, to which she was 
 subject. At last, when she felt calmer, she opened 
 the following note written in French : 
 
 Madame la Comtesse : The Christian sentiments filling 
 your heart prompt me, with unpardonable boldness, I fear, 
 to address you. I am unhappy at being separated from my 
 son, and I ask you to do me the favor of letting me see 
 him once more before I depart. If I do not make direct 
 application to Aleksei Aleksandrovitch, it is because I do not 
 wish to give this generous-hearted man the pain of thinking of 
 me. Knowing your friendship for him, I felt that you would 
 understand me ; will you have Serozha sent to me here ? or 
 do you prefer that I should come at an appointed hour? or 
 would you let me know how and at what place I could see 
 him? You cannot imagine my desire to see my child again, 
 and consequently you cannot comprehend the extent of my 
 gratefulness for the assistance that you can render me in these 
 circumstances. ANNA. 
 
 Everything about this note exasperated the Countess 
 Lidia Ivanovna, its tenor, the allusions to Karenin's 
 magnanimity, and the especially free and easy tone 
 which pervaded it. 
 
 " Say that there is no reply," said the Countess Lidia 
 Ivanovna, and, hurriedly opening her buvard, she wrote 
 to Aleksel Aleksandrovitch that she hoped to meet him 
 about one o'clock at the birthday reception at the 
 Palace. 
 
 " I must consult with you in regard to a sad and 
 serious affair ; we will decide at the Palace when I can 
 see you. The best plan would be at my house, where 
 I will have your tea ready. It is absolutely necessary. 
 He imposes the cross, but He gives also the strength," 
 she added, that she might somewhat prepare him. 
 
 The Countess Lidia Ivanovna wrote Aleksei' Aleksan- 
 drovitch two or three times a day ; she liked this way of 
 communication with him, as it had the elegance and 
 mystery which were lacking in ordinary personal inter- 
 course.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 13 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE congratulations were over. As the visitors who 
 had met at court went away, they talked about the 
 latest news of the day, the rewards that had been be- 
 stowed, and the changed positions of some high func- 
 tionaries. 
 
 " What should you say if the Countess Marya Bori- 
 sovna was made minister of war, and the Princess 
 Vatkovskaya, chief of staff?" asked a little, gray-haired 
 old man, in a gold-embroidered uniform, who was talking 
 with a tall, handsome maid of honor about the recent 
 changes. 
 
 " In that case, I should be made one of the emperor's 
 aides," replied the fre'ilina. 
 
 " Your place is already settled. You are to have 
 charge of the department of religions, and Karenin is 
 to be your assistant." 
 
 " How do you do, prince ? " said the little old man, 
 shaking hands with some one who came along. 
 
 " Were you speaking of Karenin ? " asked the 
 prince. 
 
 " Yes ; he and Putyatof have been decorated with the 
 order of Alexander Nevsky." 
 
 " I thought he had it already." 
 
 " No ; look at him," said the little old man, pointing 
 with his gold-laced hat toward Karenin, who was stand- 
 ing in the doorway, talking with one of the influential 
 members of the Imperial Council ; he wore the court 
 uniform, with his new red ribbon across his shoulder. 
 " Happy and contented as a copper kopek ! " he added, 
 pausing to press the hand of a handsome, athletic cham- 
 berlain passing by. 
 
 " No ; he has grown old," said the chamberlain. 
 
 "With cares. He spends all his time writing proj- 
 ects. He, the unfortunate man, will not let go until he 
 has explained everything point by point." 
 
 "What, grown old ? II fait des passions, I think the 
 Countess Lidia is jealous now of his wife."
 
 i 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " There ! I beg of you not to speak ill of the Countess 
 Lidia." 
 
 " Is there any harm in her being in love with Kare- 
 nin ? " 
 
 " Is it true that Madame Karenin is here ? " 
 
 " Not here at the Palace, but in Petersburg. I met 
 her yesterday with Aleksei Vronsky bras dessus, bras 
 dessotts, on the Morskaya." 
 
 " C'est un Jiomme qui ria pas" began the chamber- 
 lain ; but he broke short off to salute and make way for 
 a member of the imperial family who was passing. 
 
 Thus they were talking about Aleksei Aleksandro- 
 vitch, criticizing and ridiculing him, while he himself was 
 barring the way of the imperial counselor, and, without 
 pausing in his explanations lest he should lose him, was 
 giving a detailed exposition of a financial scheme. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, about the time his wife left 
 him, had reached a situation painful for an official, 
 the culmination of his upward career. This culmination 
 had been reached, and all clearly saw it, but Aleksei' 
 Aleksandrovitch himself was not yet aware that his 
 career was ended. Either his collision with Stremof, or 
 his trouble with his wife, or the simple fact that Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch had reached the limit that he had been 
 destined to attain, the fact remained that every one saw 
 clearly that his official race was run. He still held an 
 important place ; he was a member of many important 
 committees and commissions : but he was one of those 
 men of whom nothing more is expected ; his day was 
 over. Whatever he said, whatever he proposed, seemed 
 antiquated and useless. But Aleksei Aleksandrovitch 
 himself did not realize this ; on the contrary, now that he 
 had ceased to have an active participation in the busi- 
 ness of the administration, he saw more clearly than 
 before the faults and mistakes that others were making, 
 and considered it his duty to indicate certain reforms 
 which should be introduced. 
 
 Shortly after his separation from his wife, he began 
 to write his first pamphlet about the new tribunals, and 
 proposed to follow it up with an endless series of similar
 
 ANNA KARENINA 15 
 
 pamphlets, of no earthly use, on all the different branches 
 of the administration. 
 
 He not only did not realize his hopeless situation in 
 the official world, and therefore did not lose heart, but 
 more than ever he took delight in his activity. 
 
 " He that is unmarried is careful for the things of the 
 Lord, how he may please the Lord; but he that is married 
 is careful for the things of the world, how he may please 
 his wife," said the Apostle Paul. And Alekse'f Aleksan- 
 drovitch, who now directed his life in all respects 
 according to the Epistle, often quoted this text. It 
 seemed to him that, since he had been deprived of his 
 wife, he served the Lord more faithfully than ever by 
 devotion to these projects. 
 
 The imperial counselor's very manifest impatience 
 and desire to get away from him in no way abashed 
 Karenin, but he stopped a moment as a prince of the 
 imperial family was passing, and his victim seized his 
 opportunity to escape. 
 
 Left to himself, Aleksei Aleksandrovitch bowed his 
 head, tried to collect his thoughts, and, with an absent- 
 minded glance about him, stepped toward the door, 
 hoping to meet the countess there. 
 
 " How strong and healthy they look physically ! " he 
 said to himself, as he looked at the vigorous neck of the 
 prince, who wore a close-fitting uniform, and the hand- 
 some chamberlain with his well-combed and perfumed 
 side-whiskers. " It is only too true that all is evil in 
 this world," he thought, as he looked at the chamber- 
 lain's sturdy legs. Moving slowly along, Alekseif Alek- 
 sandrovitch, with his customary appearance of weariness 
 and dignity, came up to the gentlemen who had been 
 talking about him, and, glancing through the door, he 
 looked for the Countess Lidia Ivanovna. 
 
 " Ah ! Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch ! " cried the little old 
 man, with a wicked light glowing in his eyes, as Karenin 
 passed him with a cold bow. " I have not yet con- 
 gratulated you," and he pointed to the newly received 
 ribbon. 
 
 " I thank you. This is a fine day ! " replied Aleksei
 
 16 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Aleksandrovitch, accentuating the adjective prekrasny^ 
 as was his habit. 
 
 He knew that these gentlemen were making sport of 
 him ; but he expected nothing but hostile feelings, and 
 he was accustomed to it. 
 
 Catching sight of the countess's yellow shoulders ris- 
 ing from her corsage, as she appeared at the door, and 
 her beautiful pensive eyes, inviting him to join her, 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, with a smile which showed 
 his even white teeth, went to her. 
 
 Lidia Ivanovna's toilet had cost her much labor, like 
 all her recent efforts in this direction ; for the object of 
 her toilet was now entirely the reverse of that which she 
 had followed thirty years before. Formerly she had 
 thought only of adorning herself, and the more the 
 better ; now, on the contrary, she had to be adorned so 
 unsuitably for her figure and her years that she simply 
 endeavored to render the contrast between her person 
 and her toilet not too frightful, and in Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch's eyes she succeeded ; he thought her fas- 
 cinating. For him she, with her friendliness and even 
 love for him, was the only island amid the sea of ani- 
 mosity and ridicule that surrounded him. As he was the 
 gantlet of scornful glances, he was naturally drawn to 
 her loving eyes like a plant toward the light. 
 
 " I congratulate you," she said, looking at his decora- 
 tion. 
 
 Repressing a smile of satisfaction, Karenin shrugged 
 his shoulders and half closed his eyes, as if to say that 
 this was nothing to him. 
 
 The Countess Lidia Ivanovna knew well that these 
 distinctions, even though he would not confess it, caused 
 him the keenest pleasure. 
 
 " How is our angel ? " she asked, referring to Serozha. 
 
 " I cannot say that I very am well satisfied with him," 
 replied Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, lifting his eyebrows 
 and opening his eyes. "And Sitnikof " (a pedagogue 
 who had been intrusted with Serozha's childish educa- 
 tion) " does not please him. As I told you, I find in 
 him a certain apathy toward the chief questions which
 
 ANNA KARENINA 17 
 
 ought to move the soul of every man and of every 
 child." 
 
 And Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch began to discourse on a 
 subject which, next to the questions of administration, 
 gave him the most concern his son's education. 
 
 When AlekseT Aleksandrovitch, with Lidia Ivanovna's 
 aid, once more resumed his ordinary life and activity 
 again, he felt it his duty to occupy himself with the edu- 
 cation of the son who had been left on his hands. Hav- 
 ing never before taken any practical interest in the 
 question of education, Alekse'i Aleksandrovitch conse- 
 crated some time to the practical study of the subject. 
 After having read various works on anthropology, peda- 
 gogy, and didactics, he conceived a plan of education 
 which the best tutor in Petersburg was then intrusted 
 to put into practice. And this work constantly occupied 
 him. 
 
 " Yes ; but his heart ? I find in this child his father's 
 heart, and with such a heart he cannot be bad," said the 
 countess, with enthusiasm. 
 
 " Well, that may be. So far as in me lies, I perform 
 my duty ; it is all that I can do." 
 
 "Will you come to my house? " asked the Countess 
 Lidia Ivanovna, after a moment's silence. " I have a 
 very painful matter to talk with you about. I would 
 have given the world to spare you certain memories ; 
 others do not think the same. I have had a letter from 
 her. She is here in Petersburg." 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch quivered at the recollection 
 of his wife ; but his face instantly assumed that expres- 
 sion of corpselike immobility that showed how absolutely 
 unable he was to treat of such a subject. 
 
 " I expected it," he said. 
 
 The Countess Lidia Ivanovna looked at him with ex- 
 altation, and in the presence of a soul so great, tears of 
 transport sprang to her eyes. 
 
 VOL. III. 2
 
 i8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 WHEN Alekse'f entered the Countess Lidia Ivanovna's 
 cozy little boudoir, decorated with portraits and old por- 
 celains, he failed to find his friend. 
 
 She was changing her gown. 
 
 On a round table covered with a cloth stood a Chinese 
 tea-service and a silver teapot with an alcohol lamp. 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch glanced perfunctorily at the 
 numberless paintings that adorned the room ; then he 
 sat down near a table and took up a copy of the New 
 Testament which lay on it. The rustling of the coun- 
 tess's silk dress put his thoughts to flight. 
 
 " Well now ! We can be a little more free from dis- 
 turbance," said the countess, with a smile, gliding between 
 the table and the divan. " We can talk while drinking 
 our tea." 
 
 After several words, meant to prepare his mind, she 
 sighed deeply, and, with a tinge of color in her cheeks, 
 she put Anna's letter into his hands. 
 
 He read it, and sat long in silence. 
 
 " I do not feel that I have the right to refuse her," he 
 said timidly, raising his eyes. 
 
 " My friend, you never can see evil anywhere." 
 
 " On the contrary, I see everything is evil. But would 
 it be fair to...." 
 
 His face expressed indecision, desire for advice, for 
 support, for guidance, in a question so beyond his com- 
 prehension. 
 
 " No," interrupted the Countess Lidia Ivanovna, 
 " there are limits to all things. I understand immoral- 
 ity," she said, not with absolute sincerity, since she did 
 not know what could induce women to be immoral, 
 " but what I do not understand is cruelty toward any one ! 
 Toward you ! How can she remain in the same city 
 with you ? One is never too old to learn, and I learn 
 every day your grandeur and her baseness ! " 
 
 " Who shall cast the first stone ? " asked Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, evidently satisfied with the part he
 
 was playing. " I have forgiven her for everything, and 
 therefore I cannot deprive her of what is a need of her 
 heart, her love for her son." .... 
 
 "But is it love my friend ? Is it sincere? Let us 
 agree that you have forgiven her, and that you still 
 pardon her. But have we the right to vex the soul 
 of this little angel ? He believes that she is dead ; he 
 
 prays for her and asks God to pardon her sins It is 
 
 better so. What would he think now ? " 
 
 " I had not thought of that," said Aleksei' Aleksan- 
 drovitch, perceiving the justice of her words. 
 
 The countess covered her face with her hands and 
 was silent ; she was praying. 
 
 " If you ask my advice," she replied, after she had 
 uttered her prayer and taken her hands from her face, 
 " you will not do this. Do I not see how you suffer, 
 how this opens all your wounds ? But let us admit that 
 you, as always, forget yourself, but where will it lead 
 you ? new sufferings for yourself, to torture for the child ! 
 If she were still capable of human feelings, she herself 
 could not desire this. No ! I have no hesitation about 
 it, I advise you not to, and, if you give me your authority, 
 I will reply to her." 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch consented, and the countess 
 wrote, in French, this letter : ^~ 
 
 Chere Madame : Recalling your existence to your son 
 would be likely to raise questions which it would be impossi- 
 ble to answer without obliging the child to criticize that which 
 should remain sacred to him, and therefore I beg you to inter- 
 pret your husband's refusal in the spirit of Christian charity. 
 I pray the Omnipotent to be merciful to you. 
 
 COMTESSE LlDIA. 
 
 This letter accomplished the secret aim which the 
 countess would not confess even to herself ; it wounded 
 Anna to the bottom of her soul. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, on returning home from 
 Lidia Ivanovna's, found himself unable to take up his 
 ordinary occupations, or recover the spiritual calm of a 
 believer who feels that he is among the elect
 
 20 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 The thought of his wife who had been so guilty 
 toward him, and toward whom he had acted so like 
 a saint, as the Countess Lidia Ivanovna had so well 
 expressed it, ought not to have disturbed him, and yet 
 he was ill at ease. He could not understand a word of 
 the book he was reading, he could not drive away from 
 his mind the cruel recollections of his relations to her, 
 of the mistakes which, as it now seemed to him, he 
 himself had made in his treatment of her. He remem- 
 bered with a feeling like remorse the way he had 
 received Anna's confession that day as they were re- 
 turning from the races. Why had he demanded merely 
 an outward observance of the proprieties ? Why had 
 he not challenged Vronsky to a duel ? He was likewise 
 tormented by his recollection of the letter which he 
 wrote her at that time ; especially his forgiveness of her, 
 which had proved useless to any one, and the pains 
 which he had wasted on the baby that was not his, all 
 came back to his memory and seared his heart with 
 shame and regret. And exactly the same feeling of 
 shame and regret she experienced now in reviewing all 
 his past with her, and remembering the awkward way 
 in which, after long vacillating, he had offered himself 
 to her. 
 
 " But how am I at fault ? " he asked himself ; and 
 this question immediately gave rise to another: "Do 
 other men feel differently, fall in love differently, 
 and marry differently, these Vronskys, Oblonskys .... 
 these chamberlains with their handsome calves ? " 
 
 His imagination called up a whole line of these vigor- 
 ous men, self-confident and strong, who had always and 
 everywhere attracted his curiosity and his wonder. 
 
 He drove away these thoughts ; he strove to persuade 
 himself that the end and aim of his life was not this 
 world, but eternity, that peace and charity alone ought 
 to dwell in his soul. But the fact that in this temporal, 
 insignificant life he had, as it seemed to him, made 
 some humiliating blunders, tortured him as much as if 
 that eternal salvation in which he put his trust did not 
 exist.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 21 
 
 But this temptation was not long, and soon Aleksei 
 Aleksandrovitch regained that serenity and elevation of 
 mind by which he succeeded in putting away all that 
 he wished to forget. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 " WELL, Kapitonuitch ? " said Serozha, as he came 
 in, rosy and gay, after his walk, on the evening before 
 his birthday, while the old Swiss, smiling down from 
 his superior height, helped the young man off with his 
 coat, " did the bandaged chinovnik come to-day ? Did 
 papa see him ? " 
 
 " Yes ; the manager had only just got here when I 
 announced him," replied the Swiss, winking one eye 
 gayly. " Permit me, I will take it." 
 
 " Serozha ! Serozha ! " called the Slavophile tutor, 
 who was standing by the door that led to the inner 
 rooms, "take off your coat yourself." 
 
 But Serozha, though he heard his tutor's weak voice, 
 paid no heed to him ; standing by the Swiss, he held 
 him by the belt, and looked him straight in the face. 
 
 " And did papa do what he wanted ? " 
 
 The Swiss nodded. 
 
 This chinovnik, with his head in a bandage, who had 
 come seven times to ask some favor of Alekse'f Aleksan- 
 drovitch, interested Serozha and the Swiss. Serozha 
 had met him one day in the vestibule, and overheard 
 how he begged the Swiss to let him be admitted, saying 
 that nothing was left for him and his children but to die. 
 Since that time the lad had felt great concern for the 
 poor man. 
 
 " Say, did he seem very glad ? " asked Serozha. 
 
 " Glad as he could be ; he went off almost leap- 
 ing." 
 
 " Has anything come ? " asked Serozha, after a mo- 
 ment's silence. 
 
 "Well, sir," whispered the Swiss, shaking his head 
 "there is something from the countess."
 
 22 
 
 Serozha instantly understood that what the Swiss 
 meant was a birthday present from the Countess Lidia 
 Ivanovna. 
 
 " What did you say ? Where is it ? " 
 
 " Kornei took it to papa ; it must be some beautiful 
 toy ! " 
 
 " How big ? as big as this? " 
 
 " Smaller, but beautiful." 
 
 " A little book ? " 
 
 " No ; a toy. Run away, run away. Vasili Lukitch 
 is calling you," said the Swiss, hearing the tutor's steps 
 approach, and gently removing the little gloved hand 
 which held his belt. 
 
 " In a little bit of a moment, Vasili Lukitch," said 
 Serozha, with the amiable and gracious smile to whose 
 influence even the stern tutor submitted, 
 
 Serozha was in radiant spirits, and wanted to tell his 
 friend, the Swiss, about a piece of good fortune which 
 the Countess Lidia Ivanovna's niece had told him, while 
 they were walking in the summer garden, had befallen 
 the family. His happiness seemed greater still since he 
 heard about the chinovnik's success and his present. 
 It seemed to Serozha that every one ought to be happy 
 this beautiful day. 
 
 " Do you know papa has received the Alexander Nev- 
 sky order?" 
 
 " Why should n't I know ? He has been receiving 
 congratulations. ' ' 
 
 *'' Is he glad ? " 
 
 " How could he help being glad of the Tsar's favor? 
 Of course he deserves it! " said the old Swiss, gravely. 
 
 Serozha reflected as he looked into the Swiss's face, 
 which ^he knew even to the least detail, but especially 
 the chin, between his gray side-whiskers. No one had 
 seen his chin except Serozha, who looked up at it from 
 below. 
 
 " Well ! and your daughter ? Is n't it a long time since 
 she has been to see us ? " 
 
 The Swiss's daughter was a ballet-dancer. 
 
 "How could she find time to come on work-days ?''
 
 23 
 
 he exclaimed. " They have their lessons as well as you, 
 and you had better be off to yours, sir." 
 
 When Serozha reached his room, instead of attending 
 to his tasks, he poured out into the tutor's ears all his 
 surmises about the present which had been brought him. 
 " It must be a locomotive engine ; what do you think 
 about it ? " he asked ; but Vasili Lukitch was thinking of 
 nothing except the grammar lesson, which had to be 
 ready for the professor, who came at two o'clock. 
 
 " No, butyou must just tell me one thing, Vasili Lukitch," 
 asked the child, who was now sitting at his desk, with 
 his book in his hands : " what is there higher than the 
 Alexander Nevsky ? You know that papa has just re- 
 ceived the Alexander Nevsky." 
 
 Vasili Lukitch replied that the order of Vladimir was 
 higher. 
 
 ' And above that ? " 
 
 ' St. Andrew 1 above them all" 
 
 ' And above that ? " 
 
 ' I don't know." 
 
 ' Why don't you know ? " and Serozha, leaning his 
 head on his hand, began to think. 
 
 The child's thoughts were very varied and compli- 
 cated ; he imagined that his father perhaps was going to 
 have the orders of Vladimir and St. Andrew, and that 
 therefore he would be more indulgent for that day's 
 lessons ; and that he himself, when he grew up, would 
 do his best to deserve all the decorations, even those 
 that would be given higher than that of St. Andrew. A 
 new order would scarcely have time to be founded before 
 he would make himself worthy of it. 
 
 These thoughts made the time pass so quickly that, 
 when the professor came, his lesson about the circum- 
 stances of time, and place, and mode of action was not 
 prepared at all ; and the professor seemed not only dis- 
 satisfied, but distressed. His professor's distress touched 
 Serozha. He felt that he was to blame for not having 
 learned his lesson. In spite of all his efforts, he really 
 had been unable to do it. When the professor was 
 
 1 Andrei Pervozbar.ny, Andrew the First-called or ProtokletoS.
 
 24 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 talking to him, he imagined that he understood; but 
 when he was alone, he really could not remember or 
 comprehend that such a short and easy word as vdrug, 
 "suddenly," is a circtimstance of the mode of action ; but 
 still he was sorry that he had tried his teacher. 
 
 He seized on a moment when his teacher was silently 
 looking into a book, to ask him : 
 
 " Mikhai'1 Ivanovitch, when will your birthday be ? " 
 
 "You would do better to think about your work ; birth- 
 days have no importance for a reasonable being. It is 
 only a day just like any other, and must be spent in 
 work." 
 
 Serozha looked attentively at his teacher, studied his 
 sparse beard, his eye-glasses far down on his nose, and 
 got into such a deep brown study that he heard nothing 
 of what the teacher was explaining to him. He had a 
 dim comprehension that his teacher did not believe what 
 he said. By the tone in which he said it, he felt that it 
 was incredible. 
 
 " But why do they all try to say to me the most tire- 
 some things and the most useless things, and all in the 
 same way ? Why does this man keep me from him, and 
 not love me ? " he asked himself sadly, and he could not 
 discover any answer. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 AFTER the professor, came the lesson with his father. 
 Serozha, while waiting for him, sat at the table, playing 
 with his pen-knife, and he fell into new thoughts. 
 
 One of his favorite occupations was to look for his 
 mother while he was out walking. He did not believe in 
 death as a general thing ; and especially he did not be- 
 lieve that his mother was dead, in spite of what the 
 Countess Lidia Ivanovna told him, and though his father 
 confirmed it. And therefore, after they told him that she 
 was dead, he used to watch for her while he was out for 
 his walk. Every tall, graceful woman with dark hair he 
 imagined to be his mother ; at the sight of such a woman,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 25 
 
 his heart would swell with love, the tears would come 
 into his eyes, and he would wait until the lady drew near 
 him, and raised her veil ; then he would see her face ; 
 she would kiss him, smile upon him ; he would feel the 
 sweet caress of her hand, smell the well-known perfume, 
 and weep with joy, as he did one evening when he lay 
 at her feet, and she tickled him, and he laughed so heart- 
 ily, and gently bit her white hand, covered with rings. 
 
 Later, when he learned accidentally from the old nurse 
 that his mother was alive, and that his father and the 
 countess had told him that she was dead because she 
 was a wicked woman, this seemed still more impossible 
 to Serozha, because he loved her ; and he looked for 
 her, and longed for her. 
 
 That very day, in the summer garden, there had been 
 a lady in a lilac veil, and, with his heart beating violently, 
 expecting that it was she, he saw her take the same foot- 
 path where he was walking ; but this lady did not come 
 up where he was, and she disappeared from sight. 
 Serozha felt a stronger love than ever for his mother ; 
 and now, while waiting for his father, he was cutting 
 his desk with his penknife ; with shining eyes, he was 
 looking straight ahead, and thinking of her. 
 
 " Here comes your papa," said Vasili Lukitch. 
 
 Serozha jumped up from the chair, ran to kiss his 
 father's hand, and looked for some sign of pleasure 
 because he had received the order of Alexander 
 Nevsky. 
 
 " Did you have a good walk ? " asked AlekseT Alek- 
 sandrovitch, as he sat down in an armchair, taking up 
 the Old Testament and opening it. 
 
 Though he had often told Serozha that every Chris- 
 tian ought to know the sacred history by heart, he had 
 often to consult the Old Testament for his lessons ; and 
 Serozha noticed it. 
 
 "Yes, papa, I enjoyed it very much," said Serozha, 
 sitting across his chair, and tipping it, which was for- 
 bidden. " I saw Nadenka " (Nadenka was the countess's 
 niece, whom she adopted) " and she told me that they 've 
 given you a new star. Are you glad, papa ? "
 
 26 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " In the first place, please don't tip your chair so," 
 said Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, "and in the second place, 
 know that what ought to be dear to us is work for itself 
 and not the reward. I want you to understand that. If 
 you work and study simply for the sake of receiving the 
 recompense, the work will seem painful ; but if you love 
 work, your recompense will come of itself." 
 
 And AlekseT Aleksandrovitch remembered that on 
 this very day he had signed one hundred and eighteen 
 different papers with no other support in a most unwel- 
 come, task than the feeling of duty. 
 
 Serozha's eyes, shining with affection and merriment, 
 grew gloomy, and dropped as his father looked at him. 
 It was the same well-remembered way his father had 
 adopted in his treatment of him, and Serozha had already 
 schooled himself to be hypocritical toward it. 
 
 He felt that his father always spoke as if he were 
 addressing some imaginary boy, one of those children 
 found in books, and not in the least like Serozha. And 
 Serozha, when he was with his father, tried to make 
 believe that he was that bookish little boy. 
 
 "You understand this, I hope." 
 
 " Yes, papa," replied the lad, playing the part of this 
 imaginary little boy. 
 
 The lesson consisted of the recitation of several verses 
 of the Gospel and the review of the first part of the Old 
 Testament. The verses from the Gospel Serozha knew 
 fairly well. But, as he was in the midst of so repeating 
 them, Serozha was struck by the appearance of his 
 father's forehead, which made almost a right angle near 
 the temples, and he stumbled and transferred the end of 
 one verse to the next verse which began with the same 
 word. Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch concluded that he did 
 not understand the meaning of what he was reciting, 
 and he was vexed. 
 
 He frowned, and began to explain what Serozha had 
 heard so many times that he could not help remember- 
 ing because he understood it too well just as it was 
 with the concept of the word vdrug, suddenly, being " a 
 circumstance of the mode of action." The child, with
 
 ANNA KARENINA 27 
 
 scared eyes, looked at his father and thought about only 
 one thing : would his father oblige him to repeat the 
 explanation that he had given him, as he had done at 
 other times ? This fear kept him from understanding 
 anything. Fortunately his father passed on to the les- 
 son in Sacred History. Serozha narrated the facts them- 
 selves very well ; but when he was required to answer 
 the questions as to what the fact signified he did not 
 know it at all, though he had already been punished for 
 this same lesson. The place where he could not recite 
 and hesitated, and where he had whittled the table and 
 rocked the chair, was the critical moment when he had 
 to repeat the list of antediluvian patriarchs. Not one 
 could he remember, not even Enoch, who was snatched 
 up to heaven alive. On other occasions he could re- 
 member his name, but now he had entirely forgotten it, 
 for the very reason that Enoch was his favorite char- 
 acter in all Biblical history, and he connected with the 
 translation of this patriarch a long string of ideas which 
 completely absorbed him, while he was staring at his 
 father's watch-chain and a loose button on his waist- 
 coat. 
 
 Serozha absolutely disbelieved in death, though they 
 had told him about it many times. He could not be- 
 lieve that those whom he loved could die, and espe- 
 cially incredible was the thought of his own death. It 
 all seemed perfectly impossible and incomprehensible. 
 But he had been told that all must die ; he had asked 
 people in whom he had confidence, and they had assured 
 him that it was so. The nurse herself, though unwill- 
 ingly, said the same thing. But Enoch did not die, and 
 perhaps others might not have to die. 
 
 "Why should not others deserve justice before God, 
 and so be snatched up to heaven alive ? " thought Se- 
 rozha. "The wicked those whom he disliked might 
 have to die, but the good might be like Enoch." 
 
 " Well ! how about these patriarchs ? " 
 
 " Enoch .... Enos .... " 
 
 " You have already mentioned him. This is bad, Se- 
 rozha, very bad. If you do not endeavor to learn the
 
 28 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 things essential for every Christian to know, what will 
 become of you ? " asked his father, getting up. " I am 
 dissatisfied with you, and Piotr Ignatyevitch " he was 
 the professor "is dissatisfied with you .... so I am com- 
 pelled to punish you." 
 
 Father and pedagogue both found fault with him, 
 and Serozha was doubtless making bad work of it. 
 Yet it could not possibly be said that he was a stupid 
 boy ; on the contrary, he was far superior to those whom 
 his teacher held up to him as examples. From his 
 father's point of view, he did not want to learn what 
 was taught him. In reality, it was because he could 
 not learn it. He could not for the reason that his 
 mind had needs more essential to him than those that 
 his father and the pedagogue supposed. These needs 
 were wholly opposed to what they gave him, and he 
 revolted against his teachers. 
 
 He was only nine years old. He was only a child ; 
 but he knew his own soul. It was dear to him ; he 
 guarded it jealously, as the eyelid guards the eye ; and 
 no one should force a way in without the key of love. 
 His teachers blamed him for being unwilling to learn, 
 and yet he was all on fire with the yearning for knowl- 
 edge ; and he learned from Kapitonuitch, his old nurse, 
 Nadenka, and Vasili Lukitch, but not from his teachers. 
 The water which the father and the pedagogue poured 
 on the mill-wheel was wasted, but the work was done 
 in another place. 
 
 His father punished Serozha by not letting him go 
 to see Nadenka ; but his punishment turned out to be 
 an advantage. Vasili Lukitch was in good humor, and 
 taught him how to make wind-mills. The whole after- 
 noon was spent in working and thinking of the ways 
 and means to make the mill go. Should he fix wings 
 to it, or arrange it so he could turn it himself? He 
 forgot about his mother all the evening; but after he 
 had got into bed, he suddenly remembered her, and 
 he prayed in his own fashion that she might cease to 
 hide herself from him, and make him a visit the next 
 day, which was his birthday.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 29 
 
 "Vasili Lukitch, do you know what I prayed God 
 for?" 
 
 " To study better ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Toys ? " 
 
 " No. You must not guess. It is a secret ; when 
 it comes to pass, I will tell you. Can't you guess ? " 
 
 " No, I can't guess ; you must tell me ! " said Vasili 
 Lukitch, smiling, which was rare with him. "Well, 
 get into bed; I am going to put out the light." 
 
 <% I see that which I prayed for much better when 
 there is n't any light. There, I almost told my se- 
 cret ! " cried Serozha, laughing gayly. 
 
 Serozha believed that he heard his mother and felt 
 her presence when he was in the dark. She was stand- 
 ing near him, and looking at him tenderly with her lov- 
 ing eyes ; then he saw a mill, a knife ; then all melted 
 into darkness, and he was asleep. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 WHEN Vronsky and Anna reached Petersburg, they 
 stopped at one of the best hotels. Vronsky had a room 
 to himself on the ground floor ; Anna, up one flight of 
 stairs, with her baby, the nurse, and her maid, occupied 
 a suite of four rooms. 
 
 On the day of his return, Vronsky went to see his 
 brother; he there found his mother, who had come 
 down from Moscow on business. His mother and sis- 
 ter-in-law received him as usual, asked him about his 
 travels, spoke of common friends, but not by a word 
 did they make any allusion to Anna. His brother, 
 however, who returned his call the next morning, asked 
 him about her and Aleksei'. Vronsky declared in no 
 equivocal terms that he considered the bond which 
 united him to Madame Karenin the same as marriage, 
 that he hoped a divorce would be obtained, and then 
 he should marry her, but till that time, he should re-
 
 30 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 gard her the same as his wife ; and he asked him to 
 explain this to his mother and sister-in-law. 
 
 " The world may not approve of me ; that is all one 
 to me," he added; "but if my family wish to remain 
 on good terms with me, they must show proper respect 
 for my wife." 
 
 The elder brother, always very respectful of his 
 brother's opinions, was not very certain in his own 
 mind whether he was doing right or not, and resolved 
 to let society settle this question ; but, as far as he him- 
 self was concerned, he saw nothing objectionable in this, 
 and he went with Aleksei to call on Anna. 
 
 Vronsky spoke to Anna with the formal vni, you, 
 as he always did before strangers, and treated her as 
 a mere acquaintance ; but it was perfectly understood 
 that the brother knew of their relations, and they spoke 
 freely of Anna's visit to Vronsky's estate. 
 
 Notwithstanding his experience in society, Vronsky, 
 in consequence of this new state of things, fell into a 
 strange error. It would seem as if he ought to have 
 understood that society would shut its doors on him 
 and Anna ; but now he persuaded himself by a strange 
 freak of imagination that, however it might have been 
 in former days, now, owing to the rapid progress made 
 by society, and he had himself unconsciously become 
 a strong supporter of progress, prejudices would have 
 melted away, and the question whether they would be 
 received by society would not trouble them. 
 
 " Of course, she would not be received at court," he 
 thought ; " but our relatives, our friends, will understand 
 things as they are." 
 
 A man may sit for some time with his legs doubled 
 up in one position, provided he knows that he can 
 change it at pleasure ; but if he knows that he must sit 
 in such a constrained position, then he will feel cramped, 
 and his legs will twitch and stretch out toward the de- 
 sired freedom. Vronsky experienced this in regard to 
 society. Though he knew in the bottom of his soul that 
 society was closed to them, he made experiment whether 
 it had changed, and whether it would receive them
 
 But he quickly found that, even if it were open to him 
 personally, it was closed to Anna. As in the game of 
 " Cat-and-Mouse," 1 the hands raised for him immedi- 
 ately fell before Anna. 
 
 One of the first ladies of Petersburg society whom he 
 met was his cousin Betsy. 
 
 "At last?" she cried joyously, "and Anna? How 
 glad I am ! Where are you stopping ? I can easily 
 imagine the hideous effect our Petersburg must have on 
 you after such a charming journey ! I can imagine 
 your honeymoon in Rome ! And the divorce ? is it 
 arranged?" 
 
 Vronsky saw that Betsy's enthusiasm cooled when 
 she learned that there was no divorce as yet. 
 
 "I know well that I shall be stoned," said she; "but 
 I am coming to see Anna. Yes, I will certainly come. 
 You won't stay here long, I imagine ? " 
 
 In fact she called on Anna that very day ; but her 
 manner was entirely different from what it used to be. 
 She evidently prided herself on her courage, and wanted 
 Anna to appreciate the genuineness of her friendship. 
 After talking for about ten minutes on the news of the 
 day, she got up, and said as she went away : 
 
 " You have not told me yet when the divorce is to be 
 Though I may disregard the proprieties, 2 stiff-necked 
 people will give you the cold shoulder as long as you 
 are not married. And it is so easy nowadays. Ca se fait. 
 So you are going Friday ? I am sorry we shall not see 
 each other again." 
 
 From Betsy's manner Vronsky might have got an idea 
 of what he might expect from society. But he made 
 still another experiment in his own family. He had 
 no hope of any assistance from his mother. He knew 
 well that, enthusiastic though she had been in Anna's 
 praise at their first meeting, she would be relentless 
 toward her now that she had spoiled her son's career ; 
 but Vronsky founded great hopes on Varia, his brother's 
 wife. It seemed to him that she would not be one to 
 
 1 Koshka-muishka. 
 
 a Zabrosit chepets cherts mielnitsu, to throw one's cap over the mill.
 
 32 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 cast a stone at Anna, but would come simply and natu- 
 rally to see her. 
 
 On the next day he called on her, and, finding her 
 alone, he openly expressed his desire. 
 
 " You know, AlekseT, how fond I am of you," replied 
 Varia, after hearing what he had to say, "and how will- 
 ing I am to do anything for you ; but if I kept silent, it 
 is because I know that I cannot be of the least use to 
 you and Anna Arkadyevna." She took special pains 
 to use the two names. " Please don't think that I judge 
 her not at all; perhaps I should have done the same 
 thing in her place. I cannot enter into details," she 
 added, glancing timidly up at his clouded face ; " but 
 we must call things by their right name. You would 
 like me to go and see her, and then have her visit me, 
 in order to restore her to society. But you must know 
 / cannot do it. My daughters are growing up ; I am 
 obliged, on my husband's account, to go into society. 
 Now, I will go and call on Anna Arkadyevna ; but 
 she knows that I cannot invite her here lest she should 
 meet in my drawing-room people who do not think 
 as I do, and that would wound her. I cannot receive 
 her." .... 
 
 " But I do not admit that she has fallen lower than 
 hundreds of women whom you receive," interrupted 
 Vronsky, rising, and seeing that his sister-in-law's de- 
 cision was irrevocable. 
 
 " Alekse'f, don't be angry with me; please under- 
 stand, it is not my fault," said Varia, looking at him 
 with a timid smile. 
 
 " I am not angry with you, but I surfer doubly," said 
 he, growing more and more gloomy. " I suffer because 
 this breaks our friendship, or, at least, seriously impairs 
 it ; for you must know that for me this could not be 
 otherwise." 
 
 He left her with these words. 
 
 Vronsky understood that further experiments would 
 be idle, and that, during the few days he would still 
 have to spend in Petersburg, he must act as if he were 
 in a foreign city, avoiding all dealings with his former
 
 ANNA KARENINA 33 
 
 society friends so as not to be subjected to vexations 
 and affronts which were so painful to him. 
 
 One of the most unpleasant features of his position 
 in Petersburg was the fact that AlekseY Aleksandro- 
 vitch and his name seemed to be everywhere. It was 
 impossible for a conversation to begin on any subject 
 without turning on Alekseif Aleksandrovitch ; it was 
 impossible to go anywhere without meeting him. So, 
 at least, it seemed to Vronsky ; just as it seems to a 
 man with a sore finger, that he is always hitting it 
 against everything. 
 
 Their stay in Petersburg seemed to Vronsky still more 
 trying because all the time he saw that Anna was in a 
 strange, incomprehensible moral frame of mind such as 
 he had never seen before. At one time she was more 
 than usually affectionate ; then again she would seem 
 cold, irritable, and enigmatical. Something was tor- 
 menting her, and she was concealing something from 
 him ; and she seemed not to notice the indignities which 
 poisoned his life, and which, in her delicacy of percep- 
 tion, should have been even more painful for her. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 ANNA'S chief desire on her return to Russia was to 
 see her son. From the day she left Italy the thought 
 of seeing him again kept her in a constant state of ex- 
 citement ; and in proportion as she drew near Peters- 
 burg the prospective delight and importance of this 
 meeting kept growing greater and greater. She did not 
 trouble herself with the question how she should man- 
 age it. It would be a simple and natural thing, she 
 thought, to see her son once more, when she would be 
 in the same town with him ; but since her arrival she 
 suddenly realized her present relation toward society, 
 and found that the interview was not easy to obtain. 
 
 She had been two days now in Petersburg, and never 
 for an instant had the thought of her son left her, but 
 she had not seen him. 
 VOL. m. 3
 
 34 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 She felt that she had no right to go straight to hei 
 former home and risk coming face to face with Alek- 
 sel Aleksandrovitch. She might not be admitted ; she 
 might be insulted. To write to her husband and ask 
 permission of him seemed to her painful even to think 
 of. She could be calm only when she did not think 
 of her husband. To see her son when he was out tak- 
 ing his walk, even if she could find where and when he 
 went, was too little for her. She had counted so much 
 on seeing him again ! she had so much to say to him ; 
 she had such a desire to hug him, to kiss him. 
 
 Serozha's old nurse might have been an assistance to 
 her, and shown her how to manage ; but she was no 
 longer living in Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch's house. 
 
 On the third day, having learned of Aleksei Alek- 
 sandrovitch's intimate relations with the Countess Lidia 
 Ivanovna, Anna decided to write her a letter, and this cost 
 her the greatest pains to write. She told her frankly 
 that permission to see her son depended on Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch's magnanimity. She knew that if the 
 letter were shown to her husband, he, in his part of 
 magnanimous man, would not refuse her. 
 
 The messenger that carried the letter brought back 
 the most cruel and unexpected reply, that there was no 
 answer. She had never felt so wounded as at the mo- 
 ment when, summoning the messenger, she heard from 
 him the circumstantial story of how he had waited, and 
 how, after a time, he had been told that there would be 
 no answer. Anna felt humiliated, insulted, but she saw 
 that, from her point of view, the countess was right. 
 Her grief was all the keener because she had to bear 
 it alone. She could not and did not wish to confide it 
 to Vronsky. She knew that though he was the chief 
 cause of her unhappiness, he would regard her meeting 
 with her son as of little account ; she knew that he 
 would never be able to sound ail the depths of her an- 
 guish ; she knew that she should hate him for the un- 
 sympathetic tone in which he would speak of it. And 
 she feared this more than anything else in the world, 
 and so hid from him her action in regard to her son.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 35 
 
 She stayed at home all day long and racked her 
 brain to think of other ways of meeting her son, and 
 finally she decided to write directly to her husband. 
 She had already begun her letter, when Lidia Iva- 
 novna's reply was brought to her. The countess's pre- 
 vious silence had humbled and affronted her, but the 
 note and all that she read between the lines so exas- 
 perated her, this bitterness against her seemed so 
 shocking when contrasted with her passionate, legiti- 
 mate affection for her son, that she grew indignant 
 against the others, and ceased to blame herself. 
 
 "What cruelty ! What hypocrisy ! " she said to her- 
 self. " All they want is to insult me and torment the 
 child. I will not let them do so. She is worse than I 
 am ; at least, I do not lie." 
 
 She immediately decided to go on the morrow, which 
 was Serozha's birthday, directly to her husband's house; 
 she would bribe the servants, and would make any kind 
 of an excuse, if only she might once see her son and put 
 an end to the ugly network of lies with which they were 
 surrounding the innocent child. 
 
 She went to a toy shop and purchased some toys, and 
 thus she formed her plan of action : she would start 
 early in the morning, at eight o'clock, before Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch would probably be up ; she would have 
 the money in her hand all ready to bribe the Swiss and 
 the valet to let her go up-stairs without raising her veil, 
 under the pretext of laying on Serozha's bed some pres- 
 ents sent by his godfather. As to what she should say 
 to her son, she could not form the least idea ; she could 
 not make any preparation for that. 
 
 The next morning, at eight o'clock, Anna got out of 
 her hired carriage and rang the door-bell of her former 
 home. 
 
 " Go and see what is wanted ! It's some lady," said 
 Kapitonuitch, in loose coat and galoshes, as he looked 
 out of the window and saw a lady closely veiled stand- 
 ing on the porch. The Swiss's assistant, a young man 
 whom Anna did not know, had scarcely opened the 
 door before Anna pushed her way in, and, drawing a
 
 36 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 rhree-ruble note out of her muff, thrust it into his 
 hand. 
 
 " Serozha .... Sergye'f Aleksievitch," she stammered, 
 and started down the vestibule. 
 
 The Swiss's assistant examined the note, and stopped 
 the visitor at the inner glass door. 
 
 " Whom do you wish to see ? " he asked. 
 
 She did not hear his words, and made no reply. 
 
 Kapitonuitch, noticing the stranger's confusion, came 
 out, let her into the entry, and asked her what she 
 wanted. 
 
 " I come from Prince Skorodumof to see Sergye'f 
 Aleksievitch." 
 
 " He is not up yet," replied the Swiss, looking sharply 
 at her. 
 
 Anna had never dreamed that the absolutely un- 
 changed appearance of the anteroom of the house which 
 for nine years had been her home could have such a 
 powerful effect on her. 
 
 One after another, sweet and painful memories arose 
 in her mind, and for a moment she forgot why she was 
 there. 
 
 " Will you wait ? " asked the Swiss, helping her to 
 remove her shubka. When he saw her face, he recog- 
 nized her, and without a word bowed profoundly. 
 
 "Will your ladyship 1 be pleased to enter?" he said 
 to her. 
 
 She tried to speak, but her voice refused to utter a 
 sound. Giving the old servant an entreating look, with 
 light, swift steps she went to the staircase. She flew up 
 the stairs. Kapitonuitch tried to overtake her, and fol- 
 lowed after her, catching his galoshes at every step. 
 
 " His tutor is there ; perhaps he is not dressed yet ; I 
 will speak to him." 
 
 Anna kept on up the stairs which she knew so well, 
 not heeding what the old man said. 
 
 " This way. To the left, if you please. Excuse it if 
 all is in disorder. He sleeps in the front room now," 
 said the Swiss, out of breath. " Will your ladyship be 
 
 1 Vashe prevoskhodityehtvo, literally, your excellency.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 37 
 
 good enough to wait a moment ? I will go and see." 
 And, opening the high door, he disappeared. 
 
 Anna stopped and waited. 
 
 " He has just waked up," said the Swiss, coming 
 back through the same door. 
 
 And, as he spoke, Anna heard the sound of a child 
 yawning, and merely by the sound of the yawn she 
 recognized her son and seemed to see him alive before her. 
 
 " Let me go in.... let me ! " she cried, and hurriedly 
 pushed through the door. 
 
 At the right of the door stood the bed, and on the 
 bed a child was sitting up in his little open night- 
 gown ; his little body was leaning forward, and he was 
 just finishing a yawn and stretching himself. His lips 
 were just closing into a sleepy smile, and, with this 
 smile, he slowly and gently fell back on his pillow. 
 
 "Serozha!" she whispered, as she went noiselessly 
 toward him. 
 
 At the time of their separation and during that access 
 of love which she had been recently experiencing for 
 him, Anna had imagined him as still a boy of four, the 
 age when he had been most charming. Now he no 
 longer bore any resemblance to him whom she had left ; 
 he was still further removed from the four-year-old 
 ideal ; he had grown taller and thinner. How long his 
 face seemed ! How short his hair ! What long arms ! 
 How he had changed since she had seen him last ! But 
 it was still Serozha the shape of his head, his lips, 
 his little slender neck, and his broad little shoulders. 
 
 " Serozha ! " she whispered in the child's ear. 
 
 He raised himself on his elbow, turned his disheveled 
 head first to this side, then to that, as if searching for 
 something, and opened his eyes. For several seconds 
 he looked with an inquiring face at his mother, who 
 stood motionless before him. Then he suddenly smiled 
 with joy, and again closing his sleepy eyes he threw 
 himself, not back upon his pillow, but into his mother's 
 arms. 
 
 " Serozha, my dear little boy ! " l she cried, choking 
 
 1 Serozha ! mafchik mot milui.
 
 38 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 with tears, and throwing her arms around his plump 
 body. 
 
 " Mamma ! " he whispered, cuddling into his mother's 
 arms so as to feel their encircling pressure. 
 
 Smiling sleepily, still with his eyes closed, he took 
 his chubby little hands from the head of the bed and 
 put them on his mother's shoulder and climbed into her 
 lap, having that warm breath of sleep peculiar to chil- 
 dren, and pressed his face to his mother's neck and 
 shoulders. 
 
 " I knew," he said, opening his eyes ; " to-day is my 
 birthday ; I knew that you would come. I am going to 
 get up now." 
 
 And as he spoke he fell asleep again. 
 
 Anna devoured him with her eyes. She saw how he 
 had grown and changed during her absence. She knew 
 and yet she did not know his bare legs, so much longer 
 now, coming below his nightgown ; she recognized his 
 cheeks grown thin ; his short hair curled in the neck 
 where she had so often kissed it. She could not keep 
 her hands from him, and not a word was she able to say, 
 and the tears choked her. 
 
 " What are you crying for, mamma ? " he asked, now 
 entirely awake. " What makes you cry ? " he repeated, 
 ready to weep himself. 
 
 " I will not cry any more .... I am crying for joy. It 
 is so long since I have seen you. But I will not, I will 
 not cry any more," said she, drying her tears and turn- 
 ing around. " Now go and get dressed," she added, 
 after she had grown a little calmer, but still holding 
 Serozha's hand. She sat down near the bed on a chair 
 which held the child's clothing. " How do you dress 
 without me ? How .... " she wanted to speak simply 
 and gayly, but she could not, and again she turned her 
 head away. 
 
 " I don't wash in cold water any more, papa has for- 
 bidden it ; but you have not seen Vasili Lukitch ? Here 
 he comes. But you are sitting on my things." 
 
 And Serozha laughed heartily. She looked at him 
 and smiled.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 39 
 
 " Mamma ! dear heart, darling," :l he cried, again 
 throwing himself into her arms, as if now for the first 
 time, having seen her smile, he clearly understood what 
 had happened. 
 
 " You don't need it on," said he, taking off her hat. 
 And as if again recognizing her with her head bare, he 
 began to kiss her again. 
 
 " What did you think of me ? Did you believe that I 
 was dead ? " 
 
 " I never believed it." 
 
 " You believed me alive, my precious ? " 
 
 " I knew it ! I knew it ! " he replied, repeating his 
 favorite phrase; and, seizing her hand which was smooth- 
 ing his hair, he pressed the palm of it to his little mouth 
 and began to kiss it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 VASILI LUKITCH, meantime, not at first knowing who 
 this lady was, but learning from their conversation that 
 it was Serozha's mother, the woman who had deserted 
 her husband, and whom he did not know, as he had not 
 come into the house till after her departure, was in great 
 perplexity. Ought he to go to his pupil, or should he 
 tell Alekse'i Aleksandrovitch ? 
 
 On mature reflection he came to the conclusion that 
 his duty consisted in going to dress Serozha at the usual 
 hour, without paying any attention to a third person 
 his mother or any one else. So he dressed himself. 
 But as he reached the door and opened it, the sight of 
 the caresses between the mother and child, the sound of 
 their voices and their words, made him change his mind. 
 He shook his head, sighed, and quietly closed the door. 
 " I will wait ten minutes longer," he said to himself, 
 coughing slightly, and wiping his eyes. 
 
 There was great excitement among the servants ; they 
 all knew that the baruinya had come, and that Kapitonu- 
 
 1 Dushenka, galubushka.
 
 40 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 itch had let her in, and that she was in the child's room ; 
 they knew, too, that their master was in the habit of 
 going to Serozha every morning at nine o'clock : each 
 one felt that the husband and wife ought not to meet, 
 that it must be prevented. 
 
 Kernel, the valet, went down to the Swiss to ask why 
 Anna had been let in ; and, finding that Kapitonuitch 
 had taken her up-stairs, he reprimanded him severely. 
 The Swiss maintained an obstinate silence till the valet 
 declared that he deserved to lose his place, when the old 
 man jumped at him, and, shaking his fist in his face, 
 said : 
 
 " What is that ? you would not let her in ? You 've 
 served here ten years, and had nothing but kindness 
 from her, but you would have said, ' Now, go away from 
 here ! ' You know what policy is, you sly dog. What 
 you don't forget is to rob your master, and to carry off 
 his racoon-skin shubas ! " 
 
 " Soldier ! " replied Kornei, scornfully, and he turned 
 toward the nurse, who was coming in just at this mo- 
 ment. "What do you think, Marya Yefimovna? He 
 has let in Anna Arkadyevna, without saying anything 
 to anybody, and just when Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, as 
 soon as he is up, will be going to the nursery." 
 
 "What a scrape! what a scrape!" said the nurse. 
 " But, Kornei Vasilyevitch, find some way to keep 
 your master, while I run to warn her, and get her out 
 of the way. What a scrape ! " 
 
 When the nurse went into the child's room, Serozha 
 was telling his mother how Nadenka and he had fallen 
 when sliding down a hill of ice, and turned three somer- 
 saults. Anna was listening to the sound of her son's 
 voice, looking at his face, watching the play of his fea- 
 tures, feeling his little arms, but not hearing a word 
 that he said. She had to go away, she had to leave 
 him ; this alone she understood and felt. She had 
 heard Vasili Lukitch's steps, and his little discreet 
 cough, as he came to the door, and now she heard the 
 nurse coming in ; but, unable to move or to speak, she 
 remained as fixed as a statue.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 41 
 
 " Mistress, darling," l said the nurse, coming up to 
 Anna, and kissing her hands and her shoulders. " God 
 sent this joy for our birthday celebration ! You are not 
 changed at all." 
 
 " Akh ! nurse, my dear ; I did not know that you were 
 in the house," said Anna, coming to herself. 
 
 " I don't live here ; I live with my daughter. I came 
 to give my best wishes to Serozha, Anna Arkadyevna, 
 galubushka." 
 
 The nurse suddenly began to weep, and to kiss Anna's 
 hand. 
 
 Serozha, with bright, joyful eyes, and holding his 
 mother with one hand and his nurse with the other, was 
 dancing in his little bare feet on the carpet. His old 
 nurse's tenderness toward his mother was delightful to 
 him. 
 
 " Mamma, she often comes to see me ; and when she 
 comes ...."he began, but he stopped short when he per- 
 ceived that the nurse whispered something in his mother's 
 ear, and that his mother's face assumed an expression of 
 fear, and something like shame which did not go well 
 with -his mother. 
 
 Anna went to him. 
 
 " My precious ! " she said. 
 
 She could not say the word prashcha'i, " farewell " ; but 
 the expression of her face said it, and he understood. 
 
 " My precious, precious Kutik! " she said, calling him 
 by a pet name which she used when he was a baby. 
 " You will not forget me ; you ...." but she could not say 
 another word. 
 
 Only then she began to think of the words which she 
 wanted to say to him, but now it was impossible to say 
 them. But Serozha understood all that she would have 
 said ; he understood that she was unhappy, and that she 
 loved him. He even understood what the nurse whis- 
 pered in her ear ; he heard the words " always at nine 
 o'clock," and he knew that they referred to his father, 
 and that his mother must not meet him. He understood 
 this, but one thing he could not understand : why did her 
 
 1 Baruinya, galttbushka.
 
 42 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 face express fear and shame ? .... She was not to blame, 
 but she was afraid of him, and seemed ashamed of some- 
 thing. He wanted to ask a question which would have 
 explained this doubt, but he did not dare ; he saw that 
 she was in sorrow, and he pitied her. He silently clung 
 close to her, and then he whispered : 
 
 " Don't go yet ! He will not come for some time." 
 
 His mother pushed him away from her a little, in or- 
 der to see if he understood the meaning of what he 
 had said, and in the frightened expression of his face 
 she perceived that he not only spoke of his father, 
 but seemed to ask her how he ought to think about 
 him. 
 
 " Serozha, my dear," she said, " love him ; he is better 
 and more upright than I am, and I have been wicked 
 to him. When you have grown up, you will under- 
 stand." 
 
 " Not better than you ! " cried the child, with sobs of 
 despair ; and, clinging to his mother's shoulders, he 
 squeezed her with all his might till his arms trembled 
 with the exertion. 
 
 " My darling, my little one ! " 1 exclaimed Anna ; and, 
 bursting into tears, she sobbed like a child, even as he 
 sobbed. 
 
 At this moment the door opened, and Vasili Lukitch 
 came in. Steps were heard at the other door ; and, in a 
 frightened whisper, he exclaimed, " He is coming," and 
 gave Anna her hat. 
 
 Serozha threw himself on the bed, sobbing, and cov- 
 ered his face with his hands. Anna took them away 
 to kiss yet once again his tear-stained cheeks, and then 
 with quick steps hurried from the room. 
 
 Aleksei Aleksandrovitch met her at the door. When 
 he saw her, he stopped and bowed his head. 
 
 Though she had declared a moment before that he 
 was better and more upright than she, the swift glance 
 that she gave him, taking in his whole person, with all 
 its peculiarities, awoke in her only a feeling of hatred 
 and scorn for him, and jealousy on account of her son 
 
 1 Dushetchk'a, malenki mot.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 43 
 
 She hurriedly lowered her veil, and, quickening her 
 step, almost ran from the room. 
 
 She had entirely forgotten in her haste the play- 
 things which, on the evening before, she had bought 
 with so much love and sadness; and she took them 
 back with her to the hotel. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 EAGERLY as Anna had desired to see her son again, 
 long as she had thought about it, prepared herself be- 
 forehand, she had no idea of what an effect the sight 
 of him would have on her ; when she got back to her 
 solitary room at the hotel again, she could not for a 
 long time understand why she was there. 
 
 "Yes, all is over; I am alone again," she said to 
 herself ; and, without taking off her hat, she threw 
 herself into an easy-chair which stood near the fireplace. 
 And, fixing her eyes on a bronze clock standing on a 
 table between two windows, she became absorbed in 
 thought. 
 
 The French maid whom she had brought from abroad 
 with her came and offered to help her dress ; Anna 
 looked at her with surprise, and replied, " By and by." 
 A servant came to announce coffee ; " By and by," she 
 said. 
 
 The Italian nurse came in, bringing the little daugh- 
 ter whom she had just dressed ; the plump, well-nurtured 
 little one, as always, when she saw her mother, lifted up 
 her bare little arms with the palms down, and, smiling 
 with her toothless little mouth, began to beat the air 
 with her plump little hands like a fish waving its fins, 
 and to pull at the starched tucks of her embroidered 
 skirt. No one could help smiling back, or kissing the 
 little girl, or letting her catch hold of one of her fingers, 
 screaming with delight, and jumping ; no one could help 
 pressing her lips for a kiss to the little sweet mouth. 
 All this Anna did, and she took her into her arms, trotted 
 her on her knee, and she kissed her fresh cheek and
 
 44 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 bare elbows ; but the sight of this child made her feel 
 clearly that the affection which she felt for it was not 
 the same kind of love that she had for Serozha. Every- 
 thing about this little girl was lovely ; but somehow she 
 did not fill the wants of her heart. 
 
 In her first-born, although he was the child of a man 
 whom she did not love, was concentrated all the strength 
 of a love which had not been satisfied. Her daugh- 
 ter, born in the most trying circumstances, had never 
 received the one-hundredth part of the care which she 
 had spent on Serozha. Moreover, the little girl, as yet, 
 only represented hopes, while Serozha was almost a 
 man, and a lovely man ! He had already begun to 
 struggle with his thoughts and feelings ; he loved his 
 mother, understood her, judged her perhaps, she thought, 
 recalling her son's words and looks ; and now she was 
 separated from him forever, morally as well as mate- 
 rially ; and she saw no way of remedying the situation. 
 
 She gave the little one back to her nurse, and sent 
 them away, and opened a locket containing Serozha's 
 picture about the same age as his sister ; then, remov- 
 ing her hat, she took an album in which were photo- 
 graphs of her son at different periods ; she wanted 
 to compare them, and she began to take them out of 
 the album. She took them all out. One was left, the 
 last, the best photograph of him. It represented Se- 
 rozha astride a chair, in a white frock, a smile on his 
 lips and a shadow in his eyes ; it was his most character- 
 istic, his best expression. Holding the album in her lit- 
 tle deft hands, which to-day moved with extraordinary 
 nervousness, she tried with her slender white fingers to 
 take it from its place ; but the photograph stuck, and she 
 could not get at it. There was no paper-cutter on the 
 table, and she took up another photograph at random 
 to push out the card from its place. 
 
 It was a picture of Vronsky, taken in Rome, with 
 long hair and a round felt hat. 
 
 " Ah ! there he is," she said to herself, and as she 
 looked at him she suddenly remembered that he was 
 the cause of all her present suffering.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 45 
 
 Not once had she thought of him all the morning ; 
 but now suddenly the sight of this manly and noble 
 face, which she knew and loved so well, brought a flood 
 of affection to her heart. 
 
 " Yes ! Where is he ? Why does he leave me alone, 
 a prey to my grief ? " she asked with bitter reproach, 
 forgetting that she herself had carefully concealed from 
 him everything concerning her son. She sent a mes- 
 sage to him, asking him to come to her immediately, 
 and waited, with heavy heart, thinking over the words 
 with which she should tell him all, and the loving ex- 
 pressions with which he would try to console her. The 
 servant returned to say that Vronsky had a visitor, but 
 that he would come very soon ; and would like to know 
 if she could receive him with Prince Yashvin, who had 
 just arrived in Petersburg. 
 
 " He will not come alone, and he has not seen me 
 since yesterday at dinner," she thought ; " and he does 
 not come so that I can speak with him, but he comes 
 with Yashvin." 
 
 And suddenly a cruel thought crossed her mind : 
 what if he no longer loved her ? 
 
 And as she went over in her mind all the incidents of 
 the past few days, she found her terrible thought con- 
 firmed by them. The day before he had not dined with 
 her ; they did not have the same room, now that they 
 were in Petersburg ; and now he was bringing some one 
 with him as if to avoid being alone with her. 
 
 " But he must tell me this. I must know it. If it is 
 true, I know what I must do," she said to herself, wholly 
 unable to imagine what would happen if Vronsky's in- 
 difference should prove to be true. She began to feel 
 that he did not love her any more ; she imagined herself 
 reduced to despair, and in consequence her feelings 
 made her overexcited ; she rang for her maid, went into 
 her dressing-room, and took extreme pains with her 
 dress as if the sight of her toilet and becoming way of 
 dressing her hair would bring back Vronsky's love, if he 
 had grown indifferent 
 
 The bell rang before she was ready.
 
 46 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 When she returned to the drawing-room, not Vronsky, 
 but Yashvin, looked at her. Vronsky was looking at 
 Serozha's picture, which she had left lying on the table, 
 and he did not hurry to greet her. 
 
 " We are old acquaintances," she said to him, going 
 toward him and placing her small hand in Yashvin's 
 enormous hand. He was all confusion, and this seemed 
 odd, in a man of his gigantic form and decided fea- 
 tures. 
 
 " We met last year at the races. Give them to me," 
 she said, snatching her son's photographs from Vronsky, 
 who was looking at them, while her eyes blazed at him 
 significantly. " Were the races successful this year ? 
 We saw the races at Rome on the Corso. But I believe 
 you do not like life abroad," she added, with a fascinat- 
 ing smile. " I know you, and, although we seldom 
 meet, I know your tastes." 
 
 " I am very sorry for that, because my tastes are gen- 
 erally bad," said Yashvin, biting the left side of his 
 mustache. 
 
 After they had talked some little time, Yashvin, see- 
 ing Vronsky look at his watch, asked Anna if she ex- 
 pected to be in Petersburg long. Then, bending down 
 his huge back, he picked up his kepi. 
 
 " Probably not long," she replied, in some confusion, 
 and looked at Vronsky. 
 
 " Then we shall not meet again ? " said Yashvin, get- 
 ting up and addressing Vronsky. " Where are you go- 
 ing to dine ? " 
 
 " Come and dine with me," said Anna, with decision ; 
 and, vexed because she could not conceal her confusion 
 whenever her false situation became evident before a 
 stranger, she blushed. " The table here is not good, but 
 you will at least see each other. Of all Aleksei's mess- 
 mates, you are his favorite." 
 
 " I should be delighted," replied Yashvin, with a 
 smile which proved to Vronsky that he was very much 
 pleased with Anna. Yashvin took leave of them and 
 went away, while Vronsky lingered behind. 
 
 "Are you going, too ? " she asked him.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 47 
 
 " I am already late. Go ahead, I will overtake you," 
 he shouted to Yashvin. 
 
 She took his hand, and, without removing her eyes 
 from him, tried to find something to say to detain 
 him. 
 
 "Wait ; I want to ask you something," and she pressed 
 Vronsky's hand against her cheek. " Well ! did I do 
 wrong to invite him to dinner ? " 
 
 "You did quite right," he replied, with a calm smile 
 which showed his solid teeth, and he kissed her hand. 
 
 " AlekseT, do you feel changed toward me ? " she 
 asked, pressing his hand between her own. " Aleksel, 
 I am tired of staying here. When shall we go away ? " 
 
 "Soon, very soon. You can't imagine how life here 
 weighs upon me too," and he drew away his hand. 
 
 "Well! go, go away! " she said, in an injured tone, 
 and quickly left him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 WHEN Vronsky came back to the hotel, Anna was 
 not there. They told him that she had gone out with a 
 lady who came to call on her. The fact that she had 
 gone out without having left word where, a thing which 
 she had not done before, the fact that she had also 
 gone somewhere in the morning without telling him, 
 all this coupled with the strange expression of excitement 
 on her face that morning, the manner and the harsh 
 tone with which she had snatched away her son's pho- 
 tographs from him before Yashvin, made Vronsky won- 
 der. He made up his mind to ask for an explanation, 
 and waited in the drawing-room for her return. Anna 
 did not come back alone ; she brought with her an old 
 maiden aunt, the Princess Oblonskaya. She was the 
 lady who had come in the morning, and with whom she 
 had been shopping. 
 
 Anna pretended not to notice the expression of 
 Vronsky's face and his uneasy, questioning manner, and 
 began to talk gayly about the purchases she had made
 
 48 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 in the morning. He saw that something unusual was 
 the matter : in her shining eyes, as they flashed their 
 lightning on him, there was evidence of mental strain ; 
 and in her speech and movements there was that ner- 
 vous alertness and grace which in the first epoch of 
 their relationship had so captivated him, but now they 
 troubled and alarmed him. 
 
 The table was laid for four, and, just as they were 
 going to sit down in the little dining-room, Tuskievitch 
 came from the Princess Betsy with a message for Anna. 
 
 The Princess Betsy sent her excuses for not coming 
 in person to say good-by to her. She was not well, 
 and asked Anna to come to see her between half-past 
 seven and nine o'clock. 
 
 Vronsky looked at Anna as if he would draw her 
 attention to the fact that in naming a time she had taken 
 precautions against her meeting any one ; but Anna did 
 not seem to pay any attention to it. 
 
 " I am very sorry, but just between half-past seven 
 and nine I shall not be at liberty," she said, with a 
 slight smile. 
 
 "The princess will be very much disappointed." 
 
 " So shall I." 
 
 " I suppose you are going to hear Patti," said Tush- 
 kievitch. 
 
 " Patti ? You give me an idea. I would go certainly, 
 if I could get a loge." 
 
 " I can get you one," suggested Tushkievitch. 
 
 " I should be very much obliged to you," said Anna ; 
 " but won't you dine with us ? " 
 
 Vronsky shrugged his shoulders slightly ; he did not 
 know what to make of Anna. Why had she brought 
 home the old princess, why was she keeping Tushkie- 
 vitch to dinner, and, above all, why did she let him get 
 her a box ? Was it to be thought of for a moment that 
 she, in her position, could go to the opera on a Patti 
 subscription night, when she would meet all her ac- 
 quaintances there ? He looked at her seriously, but 
 she responded with a half-despairing, half-mocking 
 look, the meaning of which he could not understand.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 49 
 
 All through dinner Anna was aggressively lively, and 
 seemed to flirt both with Tushkievitch and with Yashvin. 
 When they rose from the table, Tushkievitch went to 
 secure a box, but Yashvin was going to smoke and 
 Vronsky took him down to his own room ; after some 
 time Vronsky came up-stairs again. Anna was already 
 dressed in a light silk gown bought in Paris. It was 
 trimmed with velvet and had an open front. On her 
 head she wore costly white lace, which set off to advan- 
 tage the striking beauty of her face. 
 
 "Are you really going to the theater?" he asked, 
 trying to avoid looking at her. 
 
 " Why do you ask me in such a terrified way ? " she 
 replied, again hurt because he did not look at her. 
 " Why should n't I go ? " 
 
 She did not seem to understand the meaning of his 
 words. 
 
 " Of course, there is no reason for it," said he, frowning. 
 
 " That is exactly what I say," she replied, not wish- 
 ing to see the sarcasm of his remark, and calmly putting 
 on a long, perfumed glove. 
 
 " Anna, for heaven's sake, what is the matter with 
 you ? " he said to her, trying to bring her to her senses, 
 as her husband had more than once done. 
 
 " I don't know what you mean." 
 
 " You know very well that you can't go there." 
 
 "Why not? I am not going alone; the Princess 
 Varvara has gone to dress; she is going with me." 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders with a look of perplexity 
 and despair. 
 
 " But don't you know? " .... he began. 
 
 " No, I don't want to know ! " she almost shrieked. 
 " I don't want to know. Am I sorry for anything I 
 have done? No, no, no, indeed; if it were to begin 
 over again, I would begin over again. There is only 
 one thing of any consequence to us to you and me, 
 and that is do we love each other ? Everything else 
 is of no account. Why do we live separate here, and 
 not see each other ? Why can't I go where I please ? 
 I love you, and everything is right, if your feelings have 
 
 VOL. III. 4
 
 50 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 not changed toward me," she said in Russian, looking 
 at him with a peculiar gleam in her eyes which he 
 could not understand ; " why don't you look at me ? " 
 
 He looked at her, he saw all her beauty, of her face, 
 of the toilet, which was so becoming to her; but now 
 this beauty and this elegance were precisely what irri- 
 tated him. 
 
 " You know very well that my feelings cannot change ; 
 but I beg you not to go out, I beseech you," he said 
 again in French, with a prayer in his voice, but with a 
 cold look in his eyes. 
 
 She did not hear his words, but noticed only the 
 coldness of his look, and replied with an injured air : 
 
 " And I for my part beg you to explain why I should 
 not go." 
 
 "Because it may cause you .... " 
 
 He grew confused. 
 
 " I don't understand at all : Yashvin nest pas com- 
 promettant, and the Princess Varvara is no worse than 
 anybody else. Ah ! here she is ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 FOR the first time in his life Vronsky felt toward 
 Anna a sensation of vexation bordering on anger, on 
 account of her intentional misunderstanding of her posi- 
 tion. This feeling was intensified by the fact that he 
 could not explain the reason of his vexation. If he had 
 frankly said what was in his mind, he would have 
 said : 
 
 " To appear at the opera in such a toilet, with a noto- 
 rious person like the princess, is equivalent to throwing 
 doAvn the gauntlet to public opinion ; to confessing your- 
 self a lost woman, and, consequently, renouncing all 
 hope of ever going into society again." 
 
 He could not say that to her. 
 
 " Why did she not understand it ? What has hap- 
 pened to her? " he asked himself. 
 
 He felt at one and the same time a lessened es-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 51 
 
 teem for Anna's character, and a greater sense of her 
 beauty. 
 
 With a dark frown he went back to his room, and sat 
 down with Yashvin, who, with his long legs stretched 
 out on a chair, was drinking cognac and seltzer water. 
 Vronsky ordered the same for himself. 
 
 " You spoke of Lanskof's Moguchi ? He is a fine 
 horse, and I advise you to buy him," began Yashvin, 
 glancing at his comrade's solemn face. " His crupper is 
 tapering, but what legs ! and what a head ! You could n't 
 do better." 
 
 " I think I shall take him," replied Vronsky. 
 
 The talk about horses occupied him, but not for a 
 moment was the thought of Anna absent from his mind, 
 and he involuntarily listened for the sound of steps in 
 the corridor, and kept looking at the clock on the mantel. 
 
 " Anna Arkadyevna left word that she has gone to 
 the theater," a servant announced. 
 
 Yashvin poured out another little glass of cognac and 
 seltzer, drank it, and rose, buttoning up his coat. 
 
 " Well, shall we go ? " said he, half smiling beneath 
 his long mustaches, and showing that he understood 
 the cause of Vronsky's vexation, but did not attach much 
 importance to it. 
 
 " I am not going," replied Vronsky, gloomily. 
 
 " I promised, so I must go; well da svidanya! If 
 you should change your mind, take Krasinsky's seat, 
 which will be unoccupied," he added, as he went out. 
 
 " No ; I have some work to do." 
 
 " A man has trials with a wife, but with a not-ivife it 
 is even worse," thought Yashvin as he left the hotel. 
 
 When Vronsky was alone, he rose, and began to walk 
 up and down the room. 
 
 "Yes! To-night? The fourth subscription night.... 
 My brother Yegor will be there with his wife, and with 
 my mother, probably ; in fact, all Petersburg will be 
 there ! Now she is going in, and is taking off her shuba, 
 and there she is in the light! Tushkievitch, Yashvin, 
 the Princess Varvara !" he pictured the scene to himself. 
 " What am 1 to do ? am I afraid ? or have I given Tush'
 
 52 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 kievitch the right to protect her? However you may 
 look at it, it is stupid, it is stupid ! .... Why should she 
 place me in this position ? " he said, with a gesture of 
 despair. 
 
 This movement jostled the stand on which stood the 
 seltzer water and the decanter with cognac, and nearly 
 knocked it over ; in trying to rescue it, he upset it 
 entirely ; he rang, and gave a kick to the table. 
 
 " If you want to remain in my service," said he to his 
 valet who appeared, " then tend to your business. Don't 
 let this happen again ; why did n't you take these things 
 away ? " 
 
 The valet, knowing his innocence, wished to justify 
 himself : but by one glance at his barin's face he realized 
 that it was best for him to be silent ; and, making a 
 hasty excuse, he got down on the floor to pick up the 
 broken glasses and water-bottles. 
 
 " That is not your business ; call a waiter, and get my 
 dress-coat." 
 
 Vronsky entered the theater at half-past nine. The 
 performance was in full swing. The Kapelldiener a 
 little old man took his fur-lined shuba, and, recogniz- 
 ing him, called him " your excellency," and assured 
 him that he needed not to take a number, but that all 
 he had to do was to call for Feodor. 
 
 There was no one in the lighted lobby except the Ka- 
 pelldiener and two valets with fur garments on their 
 arms, listening at the door. The sound of the orchestra 
 playing staccato could be heard, carefully accompanying 
 a woman's voice which was admirably rendering a musi- 
 cal phrase. The door opened and another Kapelldiener 
 came tiptoeing out, and the phrase, as it was ending, 
 came distinctly to Vronsky's ear. But instantly the 
 door closed again and he could not hear the ending of 
 the phrase or the cadenza ; but from the applause that 
 followed he knew that the aria was finished. 
 
 The plaudits still continued as he went into the audi- 
 torium, brilliantly lighted with chandeliers and bronze 
 gas-fixtures. On the stage, the prima donna, with
 
 ANNA KARENINA 53 
 
 bare shoulders and glittering with diamonds, was bow- 
 ing and smiling, and, with the assistance of the tenor, 
 who gave her his hand, was bending forward to receive 
 the bouquets that were thrust awkwardly at her over the 
 footlights, and then she went toward a gentleman whose 
 hair, shining with pomade, was parted in the middle, 
 and who reached out his long arms to hand her some 
 article. The whole audience those in the boxes and 
 those in the parquet was wildly excited and leaning 
 forward, shouting and clapping. The Kapellmeister, 
 on his elevated stand, helped pass it along, and straight- 
 ened his white necktie. 
 
 Vronsky went down to the middle of the parquet, and, 
 pausing, looked through the audience. He paid less 
 attention than ever to the familiar stage-setting, to the 
 stage, to the noise, to all that well-known, variegated, and 
 uninteresting throng of spectators that was packed and 
 crowded into the theater. 
 
 There were the same ladies in the boxes, with the 
 same officers behind them, the same gayly dressed 
 women, the same uniforms, and the same dress-coats ; 
 in the gallery the same disorderly crowd ; and in all this 
 closely packed house, in the boxes and in the front seats, 
 were some forty genuine men and women ! And Vron- 
 sky immediately turned his attention to this oasis, and 
 occupied himself with it exclusively. 
 
 The act was just over as Vronsky went toward the 
 first row of seats, and stopped near the railing beside 
 Serpukhovskol, who, bending his knee and rapping 
 against the rail with his heel, had seen him at a distance, 
 and beckoned to him with a smile. 
 
 Vronsky had not yet seen Anna, and purposely re- 
 frained from looking for her ; but from the direction in 
 which people were gazing, he knew where she was. 
 He glanced round furtively but did not search for her. 
 Expecting something even worse, he looked to see if 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch were there ; to his joy the 
 latter was not at the theater that evening. 
 
 "How unmartial you look," said Serpukhovsko'f; "one 
 would take you for a diplomat an artist."
 
 54 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Yes ; on my return home I put on citizen's dress," 
 replied Vronsky, slowly taking out his opera-glasses. 
 
 " In this respect, I confess I envy you. When I re- 
 turn from abroad and put these on," said he, touching 
 his epaulets, "I mourn for my liberty." 
 
 Serpukhovskoi had long since given up trying to push 
 Vronsky along in his military career, but he continued 
 to have a warm affection for him, and he now seemed 
 especially friendly toward him. 
 
 " It is too bad that you lost the first act." 
 
 Vronsky, while listening with one ear, examined the 
 boxes and the first tier of seats, with his opera-glass ; 
 suddenly Anna's head came into view, proud, and strik- 
 ingly beautiful, in its frame of laces, next a lady in a tur- 
 ban, and a bald-headed old man, who blinked as he gazed 
 through his opera-glass. Anna was in the fifth box, not 
 more than twenty steps from him ; she was seated in the 
 front of the box, turning slightly away, and was talking 
 with Yashvin. The pose of her head, her neck, her 
 beautiful, broad shoulders, the radiance of her eyes and 
 face, all reminded him of her as she had looked that 
 evening at the ball in Moscow. 
 
 But her beauty inspired him with entirely different 
 sentiment ; there was no longer anything mysterious in 
 his feeling for her. And so, although her beauty was 
 more extraordinary than ever, and fascinated him, at the 
 same time it was now offensive to him. She did not 
 look in his direction, but he felt that she had already 
 seen him. 
 
 When Vronsky again directed his opera-glass toward 
 the box, he saw the Princess Varvara, very red in the 
 face, was laughing unnaturally, and kept looking at the 
 next box ; Anna, striking her closed fan on the red vel- 
 vet, was looking away, evidently not seeing and not in- 
 tending to see what was going on in the next box. 
 Yashvin's face wore the same expression as when he lost 
 at cards ; he drew his left mustache more and more into 
 his mouth, frowned, and was looking out of the corner 
 of his eye into the same box. 
 
 In this box were the Kartasof s. Vronsky knew them,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 55 
 
 and he knew that Anna, too, had been on friendly terms 
 with them ; Madame Kartasof , a little, thin woman, was 
 standing with her back to Anna, and putting on an opera- 
 cloak, which her husband handed to her ; her face was 
 pale and angry ; and she was saying something with 
 great excitement. Kartasof, a stout, bald-headed man, 
 kept looking at Anna, and trying to calm his wife. 
 
 When Madame Kartasof left the box, her husband 
 lingered, trying to catch Anna's eye, and evidently de- 
 sirous of bowing to her; but apparently she purposely 
 avoided noticing him, and leaned back to speak to Yash- 
 vin, whose shaven head was bent toward her. Kartasof 
 went out without having bowed, and the box was left 
 empty. 
 
 Vronsky did not understand what had just passed be- 
 tween the Kartasofs and Anna, but he felt perfectly sure 
 that something mortifying had happened to Anna ; by 
 the expression of her face he saw that she was summon- 
 ing all her strength to keep up her part to the end, and 
 to appear perfectly calm. And this semblance of ex- 
 ternal calm was put on to perfection. Those who knew 
 nothing of her history and her circle, who had not heard 
 her old friends' expressions of indignation at her appear- 
 ing in this way, in all the splendor of her beauty and of 
 her toilet, would have admired her serenity and beauty, 
 and never have suspected that this woman was enduring 
 the same feelings of shame as a criminal experiences at 
 the pillory. 
 
 Knowing that something had taken place, but not 
 knowing exactly what, Vronsky felt a sense of deep 
 anxiety, and, hoping to learn something about the 
 matter, went to his brother's box, He intentionally 
 crossed the parquet, on the side opposite to Anna's box, 
 and, as he went, ran across his former regimental com- 
 mander, who was talking with two of his acquaintances. 
 Vronsky heard the Karenins' name spoken, and noticed 
 that the regimental commander hastened to call to him 
 aloud, while he gave his friends a significant look. 
 
 " Ah ! Vronsky. When shall we see you again in 
 the regiment ? We shan't let you off without a banquet.
 
 56 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 You are ours, every inch of you," said the regimental 
 commander. 
 
 " I shan't have the time now. I am awfully sorry, 
 another time," replied Vronsky, going rapidly up the 
 steps which led to his brother's box. 
 
 The old countess, his mother, with her little steel- 
 colored curls, was in the box. Varia and the young 
 Princess Sorokin were walking together in the lobby 
 of the belle-etage. As soon as she saw her brother-in- 
 law, Varia went back to her mother with her companion, 
 and then, taking Vronsky's arm, immediately began to 
 speak with him about the subject which concerned him. 
 She showed more excitement than he had ever seen in 
 her. 
 
 " I think it is dastardly and vile ; Madame Kartasof 
 had no right to do so. Madame Karenin .... " she began. 
 
 ' But what is the matter ? I don't know what you 
 mean." 
 
 " What ? you have n't heard anything about it ? " 
 
 " You can well understand that I should be the last 
 person to hear anything about it." 
 
 "Is there a more wicked creature in the world than 
 this Madame Kartasof ! " 
 
 " But what did she do ? " 
 
 " My husband told me about it .... she insulted Madame 
 Karenin. Her husband began to speak across from his 
 box to Madame Karenin, and Madame Kartasof made a 
 scene about it. They say she said something very offen- 
 sive in a loud voice, and went out." 
 
 " Count, your maman is calling you," said the young 
 Princess Sorokin, opening the door of the box. 
 
 " I have been waiting for you all this time," said his 
 mother to him, with a sarcastic smile ; " we never see 
 anything of you now." 
 
 The son saw that she could not conceal a smile of 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " Good evening, 'maman, I was coming to see you," 
 he replied coolly. 
 
 " What, I hope you are not going faire la cour a 
 Madame KarJnine" she added, when the young Prin-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 57 
 
 cess Sorokina was out of hearing ; " elle fait sensation. 
 On onblie la Patti pour elle." 
 
 " Maman, I have begged you not to speak to me 
 about her," he replied gloomily. 
 
 " I only say what everybody is saying." 
 
 Vronsky did not reply ; and, after exchanging a few 
 words with the young princess, he went out. He met 
 his brother at the door. 
 
 "Ah, Aleksel!" said his brother, "how abominable! 
 
 She is a fool, nothing more I was just wishing to go 
 
 to see Madame Karenin. Let us go together." 
 
 Vronsky did not heed him ; he ran hastily down the 
 steps, feeling that he ought to do something, but knew 
 not what. 
 
 He was stirred with anger, because Anna had placed 
 them both in such a false position, and at the same time 
 he felt deep pity for her suffering. 
 
 He went down into the parquet, and thence directly 
 to Anna's loge. Stremof was leaning on the box, talking 
 with her. 
 
 " There are no more tenors," he said ; " le mottle en est 
 brise" the mould is broken from which they came." 
 
 Vronsky bowed to her and stopped, exchanging greet- 
 ings with Stremof. 
 
 " You came late, it seems to me, and you lost the best 
 aria," said Anna to Vronsky, looking at him scornfully, 
 as it seemed to him. 
 
 " I am not a very good judge," he replied, looking at 
 her severely. 
 
 " Like Prince Yashvin," she said, smiling, "who thinks 
 Patti sings too loud. 
 
 " Thank you," she said, taking the program that Vron- 
 sky passed to her, in her little hand, incased in a long 
 glove ; and at the same moment her beautiful face 
 quivered ; she rose and went to the back of the box. 
 
 The last act had hardly begun, when Vronsky, seeing 
 Anna's box empty, left the parquet, though he was 
 hissed for disturbing the quiet of the theater while a 
 cavatina was going on, and went back to the hotel. 
 
 Anna was already in her room ; when Vronsky went to
 
 58 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 her she was sitting in the same toilet which she had worn 
 at the theater. She was sitting in the first chair she had 
 come to, near the wall, looking straight before her. 
 When she saw Vronsky enter, she glanced at him with- 
 out moving. 
 
 " Anna," he said. 
 
 " You, you are to blame for it all ! " she exclaimed, 
 rising, with tears of anger, and despair in her voice. 
 
 " I begged you, I implored you, not to go ; I knew 
 that it would be unpleasant to you." .... 
 
 " Unpleasant ! " she exclaimed ; " it was horrible ! I 
 shall not forget it as long as I live. She said that it 
 was a disgrace to sit near me." 
 
 "She was a stupid woman to say such a. thing; but 
 why did you run the risk of hearing it; why did you 
 expose yourself ?".... 
 
 " I hate your calm way. You should never have 
 driven me to this ; if you loved me .... " 
 
 " Anna ! what has my love to do with this ? " .... 
 
 " Yes, if you loved me as I love you, if you suffered 
 as I .... " she said, looking at him with an expression of 
 terror. 
 
 He felt sorry for her, and yet he was vexed with her. 
 He protested his love, because he saw that it was the 
 only way to calm her ; and he refrained from reproach- 
 ing her, but in his heart he reproached her. 
 
 And his expressions of love, which seemed to him so 
 banal that he was ashamed of himself for repeating them, 
 she drank in, and gradually became herself again. 
 
 Two days later they left for the country, completely 
 reconciled. 

 
 
 PART SIXTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DARYA ALEKSANDROVNA, with her children, 
 was spending the summer at Pokrovskoye, at the 
 house of her sister, Kitty Levin. The house on her own 
 estate, at Yergushovo, was all in ruins, and Levin and 
 his wife had urged her to come to them for the summer. 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch heartily approved of this arrange- 
 ment. He assured them that he very much regretted 
 that his duties would prevent him from spending the 
 summer with his family in the country, for that would 
 be the greatest possible delight for him, and if he stayed 
 in Moscow he could occasionally run down for a day or 
 two at a time. 
 
 Besides the Oblonskys and all their children, the 
 Levins had with them the old princess, who considered 
 her presence near her daughter at this particular time 
 indispensable; they had also Varenka, Kitty's Soden 
 friend, who was fulfilling her promise of making Kitty a 
 visit when she should have been married. All these 
 were Kitty's relatives and friends. Levin, though he 
 liked them all, still felt some regret for his own people 
 and his own ways, which were swallowed up as in a flood 
 by the " Shcherbatsky element," as he called it. Of his 
 own relatives that summer Sergye'f Ivanovitch was the 
 only representative, and he was not a Levin but a Koz- 
 nuishef. So that the Levin spirit was at a great dis- 
 count. There were so many persons in the long-deserted 
 house that almost all the rooms were occupied, and 
 almost every day the old princess, as she sat down at 
 table, would count the guests and send off to the special 
 table the grandson or granddaughter who made the num- 
 ber thirteen. And Kitty, diligently occupied with her 
 
 59
 
 60 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 housekeeping, found it no small burden to provide tur- 
 keys, chickens, and ducks for the satisfaction of the 
 various appetites of young and old, made keen by the 
 country air. 
 
 The whole family were at table. Dolly's children 
 were planning to go out and hunt for mushrooms with the 
 governess and Varenka, when, to the great astonishment 
 of all, Sergye'f Ivanovitch, who enjoyed among all the 
 guests a great reputation, amounting almost to rever- 
 ence, on account of his wit and learning, evinced a desire 
 to join the expedition. 
 
 "Allow me to go with you," said he, addressing 
 Varenka. " I am very fond of getting mushrooms ; I 
 think it is a very admirable occupation." 
 
 " Why, certainly, we shall be very glad .... " she 
 answered, blushing. 
 
 Kitty exchanged looks with Dolly. The proposition 
 of the learned and intellectual Sergye'f Ivanovitch to go 
 with Varenka after mushrooms confirmed an idea which 
 had been engaging Kitty for some time. 
 
 She hastened to say something to her mother so that 
 their looks might not be observed. 
 
 After dinner Sergye'f Ivanovitch was sitting at the 
 drawing-room window with his cup of coffee, still talk- 
 ing with his brother on some topic which they were dis- 
 cussing, but he kept his eyes on the door through which 
 the children would have to pass when they should start 
 after the mushrooms. Levin was sitting at the window 
 near his brother. Kitty was standing near her husband, 
 evidently expecting the end of a conversation which did 
 not interest her, so that she might say something to him. 
 
 " You have changed a good deal since you were 
 married, and for the better.... " said SergyeT Ivanovitch, 
 smiling at Kitty, and evidently not taking much interest 
 either in the conversation, but at the same time he re- 
 mained true to his passion for defending the most 
 paradoxical themes. 
 
 " Katya, it is not well for you to stand," said her 
 husband, moving up a chair for her and giving her a 
 significant look.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 61 
 
 "Well, we will finish this some other time," said 
 Sergyei' Ivanovitch, as he saw the children come run- 
 ning out. 
 
 In advance of the rest, galloping sidewise in her 
 tightly fitting stockings, came Tania, waving a basket 
 and Sergyei Ivanovitch's hat. 
 
 Boldly darting up to him, and with sparkling eyes, 
 they were just like her father's handsome eyes, she 
 gave Sergyei' Ivanovitch his hat, and made believe that 
 she was going to put it on him, tempering her audacity 
 with a timid and affectionate smile. 
 
 "Varenka is waiting," said Tania, carefully putting his 
 hat on his head, seeing by Sergyei Ivanovitch's smile 
 that she might do so. 
 
 Varenka was standing at the door. She had put on 
 a yellow muslin frock, and had tied a white hat over her 
 head. 
 
 " I am coming I am coming, Varvara Andreyevna! " 
 cried Sergye'f Ivanovitch, finishing his cup of coffee 
 and putting his handkerchief and cigarette-case into his 
 pocket. 
 
 " Is n't Varenka charming ? " asked Kitty of her hus- 
 band, as Sergyei' Ivanovitch got up. She said this so 
 that he might hear, for this was what she especially 
 wanted. " And how pretty she is, royally pretty. 
 Varenka," cried Kitty, "are you going to the woods by 
 the mill ? We will join you there." 
 
 " You really forget your condition, Kitty," said the 
 old princess, warningly, as she came hastily to the door. 
 "You ought not to shout so loud." 
 
 Varenka, on hearing Kitty's voice and the princess's 
 reproof, came up to them with quick, light steps. Her 
 quickness of motion, the bright color that flushed her 
 cheek, all proved that some metamorphosis was taking 
 place in her. Kitty knew that this was something un- 
 usual, and watched her attentively. She now called 
 Varenka only for the sake of bestowing on her a silent 
 benediction, in the interest of an important event which 
 she firmly believed would take place that day in the 
 woods.
 
 62 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Varenka, I shall be very glad if a certain thing 
 comes to pass," she said to her in a whisper, and giving 
 her a kiss. 
 
 " Are you coming with us ? " asked Varenka of Levin, 
 confused, and pretending that she had not heard what 
 had been said. 
 
 " Yes, but only as far as the barns ; I shall have to 
 stop there." 
 
 " What do you propose to do there ? " asked Kitty. 
 
 " I have some new carts to examine and test. And 
 where shall I find you ? " 
 
 " On the terrace." 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ALL the women were gathered on the terrace. They 
 generally liked to sit there after dinner, but to-day they 
 had a special matter of interest before them. Besides 
 the making of baby-shirts and the knitting of bands, in 
 which all of them were engaged at that time, they were 
 engaged in superintending the cooking of some pre- 
 serves after a recipe unknown to Agafya Mikhai'lovna. 
 Kitty had brought with her this new process, which had 
 been in use in her own home and required no water. 
 Agafya Mikhai'lovna, who had before been shown how 
 to do it in this way, considering that what had always 
 been done at the Levins' could not be improved on, 
 insisted on pouring water into the berries, declaring 
 it could not be made otherwise. She had been detected 
 doing this, and now the berries were cooking in the 
 presence of them all, and Agafya Mikha'flovna was to 
 be brought to a realizing sense of the fact that the 
 preserves could be made without the use of water. 
 
 Agafya Mikhaflovna, with flushed and heated face 
 and disheveled hair and with her sleeves rolled up to 
 the elbow, was moving a porringer round and round 
 over a portable stove and looking gloomily at it, wishing 
 with all her soul that the berries would thicken and not 
 boil.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 63 
 
 The old princess, conscious that Agafya Mikhailovna's 
 indignation must be directed against her as the chief 
 adviser in the concoction of the sweetmeat, pretended 
 that she was busy with something else, and was not 
 interested in it ; but though she talked of extraneous 
 affairs she occasionally glanced at the cooking out of 
 the corner of her eyes. 
 
 " I always buy my girls' dresses at a cheap shop," the 
 princess was saying in regard to something they had 
 
 been talking about " Had n't you better take off 
 
 the scum, my dear ? " 1 she added, addressing Agafya 
 Mikhai'lovna. " It is not at all necessary for you to do 
 it, and it is hot," said she, stopping Kitty. 
 
 " I will do it," said Kitty, who had got up and was 
 carefully stirring the boiling sugar with a spoon, oc- 
 casionally pouring out a little on a plate which was 
 already covered with a variegated, yellowish red and 
 sanguine scum, mixed with syrup. 
 
 "How they will like to lick it!" she said to herself, 
 thinking of her children and remembering how she 
 herself, when she was a little girl, had wondered that 
 grown-up people did not feed upon that best of all 
 things scum ! 
 
 "Stiva says that it is far better to give money," Dolly 
 was saying in regard to the question of making presents, 
 which they had been discussing. " But .... " 
 
 "How can one give money?" exclaimed the mother 
 and Kitty, simultaneously. "They despise it." 
 
 " Well, for example, last year I bought our Matriona 
 Semyonovna, not a poplin, but some of that kind .... " said 
 the princess. 
 
 " I remember she wore it on your name-day." 
 
 " A lovely figure ! So simple and ladylike. I should 
 have liked one of it myself, if she had not one. Like 
 the kind Varenka wears. So pretty and cheap." 
 
 " Now I think it is done," said Dolly, dropping the 
 syrup from the spoon. 
 
 " When it crystallizes it is done. Cook it a little 
 more, Agafya Mikha'flovna." 
 
 1 Galubushka, little dove.
 
 64 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " What an absurdity ! " exclaimed Agafya MikhaT- 
 lovna. " It would be the same anyway," she added. 
 
 " Oh ! what a beauty he is ! Don't scare him ! " sud- 
 denly exclaimed Kitty, looking at a sparrow which 
 perched on the rail, and, turning the heart of a berry 
 over, began to peck at it. 
 
 "Yes, but you ought to be farther away from the 
 charcoal," said her mother. 
 
 " A propos de Varenka" said Kitty in French, in which 
 language indeed they had been speaking all the time so 
 that Agafya Mikha'flovna might not understand them, 
 " do you know, maman, that I somehow expect some- 
 thing decided. You know what I mean. How nice it 
 would be." 
 
 "What a master-hand at matchmaking you are," ex- 
 claimed Dolly. " How adroitly she has brought them 
 together." 
 
 " No, but tell me, maman, what do you think of it ? " 
 
 " What do I think of it ? He can at any time have 
 his choice of all the best in Russia ; " by he she meant 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch. " He is not so young as he was, 
 but still I know many would set their caps for him. 
 She is very good, but he might...." 
 
 " No, indeed, you know perfectly well that nothing 
 better could be imagined for either of them. In the 
 first place, she is charming," said Kitty, bending down 
 one finger. 
 
 " She pleases him very much, that is true," said Dolly, 
 in confirmation. 
 
 " In the next place, he has such a position in the world 
 that it would make no difference to him what his wife's 
 property or social standing was. He needs only one 
 thing a sweet, pretty, even-tempered wife." 
 
 "Yes, he might be very happy with her," said Dolly, 
 in confirmation of this also. 
 
 " In the third place, she must love him, and so it is 
 now.... and so it would be perfectly lovely.... I expect 
 when they come in from the woods it will be all decided. 
 I shall read it instantly in their eyes. I should be so 
 glad What do you think about it, Dolly ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 65 
 
 " Do not get so excited. You really must not get so 
 excited," said her mother. 
 
 " But I am not excited, mamma. I think that he will 
 surely propose to her to-day." 
 
 "Oh, how strange it is how and when a man pro- 
 poses. Even if there is an obstacle, it is suddenly 
 swept away," said Dolly, smiling pensively and recall- 
 ing the old days with Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " Mamma, how did papa propose to you," asked Kitty, 
 suddenly. 
 
 "There was nothing extraordinary about it very 
 simply," replied the princess ; but her face grew all 
 radiant at the remembrance. 
 
 " No, but how was it ? Did you love him before you 
 allowed him to speak ? " 
 
 Kitty found a special charm in the fact that now she 
 could talk with her mother, as with an equal, on the 
 most important questions in the lives of women. 
 
 " Of course I loved him. He came to visit us in the 
 country." 
 
 " But how was it decided, mamma ? " 
 
 " Do you really think that you young people have in- 
 vented something new ? It is always one and the same 
 thing ; it is decided by looks and smiles." 
 
 " How well you describe it, mamma. That is just it, 
 'by looks and smiles,'" said Dolly, confirming what her 
 mother had said. 
 
 " But what words did he say ? " 
 
 " What words did Kostia say to you ? " 
 
 " He wrote in chalk How long it seems since then," 
 
 said Kitty. 
 
 And the three ladies sat occupied with the same thought. 
 
 Kitty was the first to break the silence. She had 
 been thinking about that long-past winter before her 
 marriage, and her infatuation for Vronsky. 
 
 "There is one thing Varenka's first love," said she, 
 remembering this by a natural connection of thought. 
 " I wanted to give Sergyel Ivanovitch a hint of that to 
 warn him. All men," she added, "are awfully jealous 
 of our past." 
 
 VOL. in. 5
 
 66 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Not all," said Dolly. " You judge by your husband. 
 I believe he is even now tormented by the remembrance 
 of Vronsky ; is n't that so ? " 
 
 " He is ! " replied Kitty, with a pensive smile in her eyes. 
 
 " Well, I don't know what there is in your past life to 
 disquiet him," exclaimed the princess, her mother, re- 
 senting the inference that her maternal vigilance was 
 called in question. " Is it because Vronsky paid you 
 some attention? That happens to every young girl." 
 
 " Yes, but we were not talking about that," said Kitty, 
 blushing. 
 
 " No, permit me to finish what I was saying," pursued 
 the princess ; " and besides, you yourself would not per- 
 mit me to have an explanation with Vronsky, do you 
 remember ? " 
 
 " Oh, mamma ! " exclaimed Kitty, with an exclamation 
 of pain. 
 
 " There is no need of your being vexed Your be- 
 havior toward him could never have been anything but 
 perfectly proper. I myself should have challenged him ! 
 However, my darling, don't allow yourself to get ex- 
 cited. Please remember this, and calm yourself." 
 
 " I am perfectly calm, maman." 
 
 " How fortunate it turned out for Kitty that Anna 
 appeared on the scene," said Dolly, "and how unfortu- 
 nate for her. How their positions are reversed," she 
 added, overwhelmed by her own thought. " Anna was 
 so happy then and Kitty thought herself so miserable. 
 I often think of her. What a complete change ! " 
 
 "What is the use of thinking about her? She is a 
 vile, disgusting, heartless woman," exclaimed the prin- 
 cess, who could not forget that Kitty had married Levin 
 instead of Vronsky. 
 
 " What is the good of speaking about her, anyway ! " 
 said Kitty, in disgust. " I do not think about her nor 
 
 do I wish to think of her at all I do not wish to think 
 
 about her," she repeated, hearing her husband's well- 
 known step on the steps leading to the terrace. 
 
 "Whom do you wish not to think about?" asked 
 Levin, appearing on the terrace.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 67 
 
 No one answered, and he did not repeat his question 
 
 " I am sorry that I am disturbing your feminine 
 realm," said he, looking angrily at them all, and perceiv- 
 ing that they were talking about something which they 
 would not talk about in his presence. For an instant he 
 felt that he shared Agafya Mikhallovna's sentiments 
 her dissatisfaction at the Shcherbatsky way of making 
 preserves without water, and especially the alien regime 
 of his wife's family ! Nevertheless, he smiled and went 
 up to Kitty. "Well, how is it?" he asked, looking at her 
 with the same expression every one used in addressing her. 
 
 "All right," said Kitty, with a smile; "and how is it 
 with you? " 
 
 " The three-horse team will take a larger load than we 
 can put on the telyega. Shall we go to meet the chil- 
 dren ? I have ordered the men to harness." 
 
 " What, are you going to take Kitty in the linyeifka l ?" 
 exclaimed the princess, reproachfully. 
 
 "We shall walk the horses, princess." 
 
 Levin never called the princess "m&man" as his 
 brothers-in-law did, and the princess resented it. But 
 Levin, though he loved and respected her, could not 
 call her so without doing violence to his feelings toward 
 the memory of his own mother. 
 
 "Come with us, martian" said Kitty. 
 
 " I do not wish to countenance such imprudence ! " 
 
 "Well, then, I will walk; that is good for me," said 
 Kitty, rising to take her husband's arm. 
 
 " Good for you ! But there 's reason in all things," 
 said the princess. 
 
 " Well, Agafya Mikhai'lovna, are your preserves done ? 
 Is the new method good ? " asked Levin, smiling at the 
 housekeeper in his desire to cheer her. 
 
 " Perhaps they 're good ; but, in my opinion, much 
 overdone." 
 
 " There 's one thing about them that 's better, Agafya 
 MikhaTlovna, they won't spoil," said Kitty, divining her 
 husband's intention, and with the same feeling address- 
 ing the old servant. " And you know the ice in the ice- 
 1 Linyetka is a wide drozhsky with several seats.
 
 68 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 house is all melted and we can't get any more. As for 
 your spiced meats, mamma assures me that she has never 
 eaten any better," she added, adjusting, with a smile, the 
 housekeeper's loosened neckerchief. 
 
 Agafya MikhaYlovna looked angrily at Kitty. " Do 
 not try to console me, baruinya. To see you with him is 
 enough to content me." 
 
 This familiar way of speaking of her master touched 
 Kitty. 
 
 " Come and show us the best places to find mush- 
 rooms." 
 
 The old woman raised her head, smiling, as if to .say, 
 " One would gladly guard you from all hatred, if it were 
 possible." 
 
 " Follow my advice, please, and put over each pot of 
 jelly a round piece of paper soaked in rum, and you will 
 not need ice in order to preserve them," said the 
 princess. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 KITTY was especially glad of the opportunity to be 
 alone with her husband, because she had noticed how a 
 shadow of dissatisfaction had crossed his telltale face 
 when he stepped on the terrace and asked what they 
 were talking about, and no one replied. 
 
 As they walked along in front of the others, and, los- 
 ing sight of the house, took to the well-trodden, dusty 
 road, bestrewn with rye and corn, she seized his hand 
 and pressed it against her side. He had already for- 
 gotten the momentary unpleasant impression, and now 
 that he was alone with her, and while the thought of 
 her approaching maternity did not for an instant escape 
 from his mind, he experienced a novel joy in the sense 
 of the presence of a beloved woman- a joy perfectly 
 free from anything sensual. There was nothing special 
 to talk about, but he liked to hear the sound of her 
 voice, which, like the expression of her eyes, had changed, 
 owing to her condition. In her voice, as well as in her
 
 ANNA KARENINA 69 
 
 eyes, there was a gentleness and gravity like that which 
 people show when their attention has been concentrated 
 on some one favorite task. 
 
 " You are not getting tired, are you ? Lean on me 
 more," said he. 
 
 " No, I am so glad to have a chance to be alone with 
 you, and I confess that I miss our winter evenings when 
 we two were alone together, much as I enjoy having 
 them here ! " 
 
 " That was good, but this is better. Both are better," 
 said he, pressing her hand. 
 
 " Do you know what we were talking about when 
 you came ? " 
 
 " About preserves ? " 
 
 " Yes, about preserves ; but afterward about the way 
 men propose." 
 
 "Ah!" said Levin, listening rather to the sound of 
 her voice than to the words which she spoke, and all 
 the time thinking of the road which they were following 
 down to the forest, and carefully avoiding the places 
 that might cause her to stumble. 
 
 " But how about SergyeT Ivanovitch and Varenka ? 
 Have you noticed it? .... I very much wish it might come 
 about," she went on to say. "What do you think about 
 it?" 
 
 And she glanced into his face. 
 
 "I don't know what to think," replied Levin, with a 
 smile. " SergyeT in this respect was always a mystery to 
 me. I think I told you about it." .... 
 
 " Yes, that he was in love with a young girl, but she 
 died.".... 
 
 " That was when I was a child ; I knew it by tradi- 
 tion. I remember him as he was then. He was won- 
 derfully charming. But since then I have watched him 
 with women. He is polite ; he likes some of them ; but 
 you can't help feeling that for him they are merely peo- 
 ple, not women." 
 
 "Yes, but now in the case of Varenka.... it seems to 
 me there is some .... " 
 
 " Maybe there is.... but one must know him He is
 
 70 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 a peculiar, a remarkable man. He lives only a spiritual 
 life. He is too pure and high-minded a man ...." 
 
 " What do you mean ? How could this bring him to 
 a lower level ? " 
 
 " I don't say it would, but he is so accustomed to live 
 a spiritual life only that he cannot reconcile himself to 
 what is matter of fact. And Varenka is quite matter of 
 fact." 
 
 Levin had by this time become accustomed to speak 
 his thoughts with all freedom, not taking pains to couch 
 it in explicit words ; he knew that his wife in such mo- 
 ments of intimate communion as now would understand 
 what he expressed by a hint, and she did understand 
 him. 
 
 " Yes, but she has none of that practicality such as I 
 have. I can understand that he would never fall in love 
 with me. She is all soul." 
 
 " That is not so, he is so fond of you. And I am 
 always so glad that my friends like you.".... 
 
 " Yes, he is kind to me ; but .... " 
 
 "But not as it was with our lamented Nikolenka.... 
 you loved each other," said Levin, in conclusion. " But 
 why not speak it out ? " he added. " I often reproach 
 myself that one so quickly forgets. Oh, what a terrible, 
 what a fascinating man he was ! .... But what were we 
 talking about ? " said Levin, after a silence. 
 
 " You mean that he is incapable of falling in love," 
 said she, expressing her husband's thought in her own 
 way. 
 
 " I do not say that, but he has none of that weakness 
 which is requisite .... and I always have envied him, and 
 envy him still, in spite of my happiness." 
 
 " You envy him because he is incapable of falling in 
 love ? " 
 
 " I envy him because he is better than I am," said 
 Levin, smiling. " He does not live for himself ; it is 
 duty which guides him, and so he has a right to be 
 serene and well satisfied." 
 
 "And you?" asked Kitty, with a mischievous smile. 
 
 He could never follow the course of her thoughts
 
 ANNA KARENINA 71 
 
 when they caused her to smile. But the last deduction 
 was that her husband, who had the greatest admiration 
 for his brother, and who humbled himself before him, 
 was insincere. Kitty knew that this insincerity of his 
 was caused by his love for him, from a sort of consci- 
 entious scruple at being too happy, and especially from 
 a never ceasing desire to be better and she loved this 
 in him, and that was why she smiled. 
 
 " But why should you be dissatisfied ? " she asked, 
 with the same smile. 
 
 Her disbelief in his self-dissatisfaction pleased him, 
 and he unconsciously provoked her to explain the 
 reasons for her disbelief. 
 
 " I am happy, but I am dissatisfied with myself .... " 
 said he. 
 
 " How can you be dissatisfied, if you are happy ? " 
 
 " How can I express it ? .... In my heart of hearts I 
 wish nothing else except that you should not stumble. 
 Oh ! you must not jump so," he exclaimed, interrupting 
 his argument with a reproach, because she had made a 
 too vivacious motion in jumping over a branch which 
 lay in the path. 
 
 " But when I criticize myself and compare myself 
 with others, especially with my brother, I am conscious 
 of all my inferiority." 
 
 " But why ? " persisted Kitty, with the same smile. 
 " Are n't you always doing for others ? And your farm- 
 ing, your book? ".... 
 
 "Yes, I feel this especially now; and you are to 
 blame," said he, pressing her hand. " I do this so, so 
 superficially. Ah, if I could love all this work as I love 
 you ! .... But of late I work on it as if it were a task im- 
 posed on me." 
 
 " But what do you say about papa ? " asked Kitty. 
 " Is he unworthy because he does nothing for the com- 
 monwealth ? " 
 
 "He?. ...oh, no! But one must have just such sim- 
 plicity, transparency, goodness, as he has ; but I have n't, 
 have I ? If I do not work, I am tormented. 'T is you who 
 have made it so. If it were not for you, and if it were
 
 72 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 not for what is coming," said he, with a significant 
 glance at her figure, " I should devote all my powers 
 to this work ; but now I can't, and my conscience pricks 
 me. I do it like a task, it is all pretense .... " 
 
 "Would you like to exchange with Sergyei Ivano- 
 vitch," asked Kitty ; " would you like to work for nothing 
 but your duty and the general welfare of mankind ? " 
 
 " Of course not. The fact is, I am so happy that I 
 
 can't reason clearly So you think the proposal will 
 
 take place to-day, do you ? " he asked, after a moment's 
 silence. 
 
 " I think so, and then I think not. But I wish with 
 all my heart it might. Here, wait ! " She stooped 
 down and plucked a daisy growing by the roadside. 
 " Now, count ; he 'II propose, he 'II not propose," she said, 
 giving him the flower. 
 
 " He '11 propose, he '11 not propose," repeated Levin, 
 picking off the narrow, white, trembling petals. 
 
 " No, no ! " cried Kitty, stopping him and seizing his 
 arm, as she excitedly watched his fingers. " You pulled 
 off two ! " 
 
 "Well, that little one doesn't count,' : said Levin, tear- 
 ing off a short undeveloped petal. " But here comes the 
 linyeifka to meet us." 
 
 " Kitty, you have n't fatigued yourself ? " cried the 
 princess. . 
 
 " Not the least in the world, mamma." 
 
 "Well, get in, if the horses are quiet and will walk." 
 
 But there was no need of riding; the place was so 
 near they continued walking. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 VARENKA, in her white kerchief setting off her dark 
 locks, and surrounded by children whom she was good- 
 naturedly and gayly entertaining, and evidently excited 
 by the possibility of a declaration from a man who was 
 agreeable to her, was very fascinating. Sergyel Ivano- 
 vitch walked by her side, and could not refrain from
 
 ANNA KARENINA 73 
 
 admiring her. As he looked at her he recalled all the 
 pleasant remarks he had heard her make, all the good- 
 ness that he had found in her, and he confessed to him- 
 self more and more that the feeling which she aroused 
 in him was something peculiar, like what he had ex- 
 perienced once, only long, long before, in his early youth. 
 
 The feeling of pleasure at being near her kept grow- 
 ing stronger, and at last when, as he put into her basket 
 a monstrous birch mushroom with thin stem and edges, 
 he looked into her eyes, and, noticing the blush of pleas- 
 ure and timid emotion which spread over her face, he 
 himself grew confused, and smiled with a mute smile 
 which said too much. 
 
 " If this is the way it is going, I must deliberate and 
 come to a decision, and not give way like a child to the 
 impulse of a moment." 
 
 " I am going now to hunt for mushrooms indepen- 
 dently of the rest of you, otherwise my acquisitions will 
 not be noticed," said he; and he went off by himself from 
 the edge of the woods, where they had been walking 
 along the velvety turf among the old birch trees, scattered 
 here and there in the forest together with the gray trunks 
 of aspens and dark clumps of hazelnuts. Going off forty 
 steps or so, and coming to a clump of the bush called 
 beresklet, which was in full flower with its rosy catkins, 
 Sergyel Ivanovitch sheltered himself behind it, knowing 
 that he would not be seen. 
 
 Around him it was perfectly still. Only up in the 
 tree-tops above his head, ceaseless, like a swarm of bees, 
 buzzed the flies, and occasionally he heard the voices of 
 the children. Suddenly, not far from the edge of the 
 woods, rang out Varenka's contralto voice, calling Grisha, 
 and a happy smile spread over Sergyei' Ivanovitch's face. 
 When he realized what he was doing, he shook his head 
 disapprovingly at his state of mind, and, taking out a 
 cigar, he began to smoke. 
 
 It was some time before he could light a match against 
 the bole of a birch tree. The juicy scales of the white 
 bark dampened the phosphorus, and the match refused 
 to burn. At last one of the matches took fire, and the
 
 74 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 fragrant cigar-smoke, like a wide wavering scarf, floated 
 up and away above the bush under the pendant twigs 
 of the birches. As he followed the whiff of smoke with 
 his eyes, Sergyei Ivanovitch slowly walked on, thinking 
 over the situation. 
 
 " And why should I not ? " he asked himself. " If 
 this was a caprice of passion, if I had experienced only 
 this attachment, this mutual attachment for I may 
 call it mutual and if I felt that it would run counter 
 to the whole scheme of my life if I felt that in giving 
 way to this impression I should change my calling and 
 duty then it would not do at all. The one thing that 
 I can bring against it is that when I lost Marie I vowed 
 that I would never marry, in remembrance of her. This 
 
 is the only thing that I can say against this feeling 
 
 This is serious," said SergyeY Ivanovitch to himself, but 
 at the same time he recognized that this consideration 
 had personally for him no great importance, but would 
 simply spoil in the eyes of others the poetic role which 
 he had been keeping up so long. 
 
 " But besides this, no matter how long I searched, I 
 should never find out what would be said against my 
 feeling. . If I used all my wits, I could never find any 
 one better." 
 
 Among all the women and girls whom he had ever 
 known he could not think of one who united to such a 
 high degree all, yes, verily, all the qualities which in a 
 cold calculation he should wish to see in his wife. She 
 had all the freshness and charm of youth, and yet she 
 was no longer a child and if she loved him she loved 
 him sensibly, as a woman ought to love : this was one 
 thing. Another was : she was not only far removed 
 from worldly-mindedness, but evidently found fashionable 
 society distasteful; but at the same time she knew society 
 well and had all those ways of a woman of good society, 
 lacking which married life for SergyeY Ivanovitch was 
 unthinkable. Thirdly, she was religious, but not like a 
 child, irresponsibly religious and good, as Kitty, for 
 example, was, but her life was founded on religious con- 
 victions. Even in trifles Sergyei' Ivanovitch found in
 
 ANNA KARENINA 75 
 
 her all that he desired in a wife. She was poor and 
 unencumbered, so that she would not bring a throng of 
 relatives and their influence into her husband's home, 
 as he saw was the case with Kitty ; but she would be 
 in everything pledged to her husband, which was one of 
 the conditions which he had demanded for himself 
 in case he ever had any family life. 
 
 And this young woman, having all these qualities, 
 loved him. He was modest, but he could not help see- 
 ing this. And he liked her. One obstacle stood in the 
 way his age. But his family were long-lived, he had 
 not as yet a single gray hair, no one took him to be 
 more than forty, and he remembered that Varenka had 
 said that only in Russia men of fifty considered them- 
 selves old men, while in France a man of fifty reckoned 
 himself dans la force de I' age and one of forty was nn 
 jeune Jiomme. But what signified his years when he 
 felt himself as young in spirit as he had been twenty 
 years before ? Was not youth the feeling which he 
 enjoyed when, coming out again from the forest into the 
 clearing, he saw in the clear sunlight Varenka's grace- 
 ful figure in her yellow frock and with her basket, mov- 
 ing along with light steps past the bole of an ancient 
 birch tree, and the impression produced by the sight 
 of Varenka blended with the surprising beauty of a 
 field of oats shining yellow under the oblique rays of 
 the sun, and beyond the field the old forest, variegated 
 with yellow and stretching away into the azure distance ? 
 His heart swelled with joy. A feeling of tenderness 
 seized him. He felt within him that his mind was made 
 up. Varenka, who had just stooped down to pick up a 
 mushroom, with an agile motion straightened herself up 
 again and glanced around. 
 
 Sergyel Ivanovitch, tossing away his cigar, went 
 toward her with resolute steps.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 "VAVARA ANDREYEVNA, when I was very young, I 
 formed for myself an ideal of the woman whom I should 
 love and whom I should be happy to call my wife. I 
 have lived a long life, and now for the first time I find 
 in you all that I was seeking. I love you and I offer 
 you my hand." 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch was saying these words to himself 
 when he was within ten steps of Varenka. She was 
 kneeling on the grass and defending with her hands a 
 mushroom from Grisha, and at the same time calling to 
 little Masha. 
 
 " Here, come here. Little ones .... lots of them," she 
 cried, in her deep, pleasant voice. 
 
 Though she saw Sergye'f Ivanovitch approaching she 
 did not rise nor did she change her position ; but every- 
 thing told him that she was aware of his presence and 
 was glad. 
 
 " Did you find any ? " she asked, turning her sweet 
 face toward him with a smile. 
 
 " Not one," replied Sergyei' Ivanovitch. " And you ? " 
 
 She made no reply, her attention being just then 
 absorbed by the children who surrounded her. 
 
 " Here 's one for you near the twig," and she pointed 
 out a little agaricus pushing its elastic red cap through 
 the dry grass, from which it was extricating itself. 
 
 Varenka got up, after Masha had plucked the mush- 
 room, breaking it into two white halves. "That 
 reminds me of my childhood," she remarked, as she 
 joined Sergyer Ivanovitch and walked with him away 
 from the children. 
 
 They proceeded a few steps in silence. Varenka saw 
 that he wanted to speak ; she suspected what he had in 
 mind, and felt stifled with the emotions of joy and terror. 
 They had now gone so far from the rest that no one 
 could have heard them, yet he had not opened his mouth 
 to speak. Varenka would have done better not to say 
 a word. After a silence it would have been easier to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 77 
 
 say what they wanted to say than after any casual 
 words. But against her own will, as it were unexpect- 
 edly, Varenka broke out : 
 
 " And so you did not find any. But there are never 
 so many mushrooms in the woods as along the edge." 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch sighed and made no answer. He 
 was annoyed because she spoke about mushrooms. He 
 wanted to bring her back to the first words which she 
 had spoken about her childhood ; but, as it were, con- 
 trary to his will, after a brief silence, he made an obser- 
 vation on what she had said last. 
 
 " I have heard that the white mushrooms are found pre- 
 eminently on the edge of the forest, but I can't tell them." 
 
 A few moments more passed ; they had gone still 
 farther away from the children, and were wholly alone. 
 
 Varenka's heart beat so violently that she heard its 
 throbs, and she was conscious that she was blushing, 
 turning pale, and then blushing again. 
 
 To be the wife of such a man as Koznuishef after her 
 position with Mme. Stahl seemed to her the height of 
 happiness. Moreover, she was almost convinced that 
 she was in love with him. And this was to be decided 
 immediately ! It was a terrible moment for her ; terrible, 
 both what he would say, and what he would not say. 
 
 Now, or never, it would have to be decided ; Sergyei 
 Ivanovitch also felt this. Everything in Varenka's 
 looks, in her heightened color, in the way she dropped 
 her eyes, betrayed the most painful expectation. 
 
 Sergyei Ivanovitch saw this and was sorry for her. 
 He even felt that he should wrong her if he kept silence. 
 He made an effort to recall his recent arguments in favor 
 of making the decision. He even repeated to himself 
 the words in which he was going to couch his declaration ; 
 but instead of these words, by some combination unex- 
 pected to himself, he asked : 
 
 " What is the difference between a white mushroom 
 and a birch mushroom ? " 
 
 Varenka's lips trembled as she answered : 
 
 " There is very little difference in the cap, but it lies 
 in the root."
 
 78 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 And as soon as these words were spoken both oi 
 them felt that this was the end of it, that what should 
 have been said would never be said, and the emotion 
 which up to this moment had reached its highest pitch 
 gradually died away. 
 
 " The birch mushroom, or its root, reminds one of a 
 black beard which has not been shaved for two days," 
 said Sergyei' Ivanovitch, calmly. 
 
 " Quite true," answered Varenka, smiling, and invol- 
 untarily the direction of their walk changed. They were 
 going back toward the children. Varenka was puzzled 
 and hurt, but at the same time she experienced a sense 
 of relief. Sergye'f Ivanovitch mentally reviewed his 
 arguments in favor of marriage, and found them mis- 
 taken. He could not be unfaithful to Marie's memory. 
 
 "Gently, children, gently," cried Levin, testily, as the 
 children sprang toward Kitty with shouts of glee. 
 
 Behind the children came Sergye'f Ivanovitch and 
 Varenka. Kitty needed not to question them. She 
 knew by their calm and slightly mortified manner that 
 the hope which she had been nursing would not be 
 realized. 
 
 " Well, how is it ? " her husband asked, when they 
 returned to the house. 
 
 " It will not happen," said Kitty, with a smile and 
 manner which reminded him of her father, as Levin had 
 often remarked to his delight. 
 
 " Why won't it happen ? " 
 
 "This is why," said she, taking his hand, raising it to 
 her mouth, and touching it with her closed lips. " As 
 people kiss a bishop's hand ! " 
 
 " Which one has failed of it ? " he asked, laughing. 
 
 " Both. It must be so when .... " 
 
 " Here come the muzhiks .... " 
 
 " No, not yet."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 79 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WHILE the children took their supper, the older peo- 
 ple sat on the balcony and talked as if nothing had 
 happened ; but all, and especially Sergyei Ivanovitch and 
 Varenka, knew very well that an important event had 
 occurred, although it was a negative one. The two ex- 
 perienced a feeling such as a boy has when, having failed 
 in the examination, he is either kept in the same class or 
 is excluded forever from an institution. All present, 
 feeling likewise that something had taken place, talked 
 with a forced animation. 
 
 Levin and Kitty felt especially happy and in love with 
 each other that evening. And that they were happy in 
 their love seemed to make it impolite to comment on the 
 unskilfulness of those who did not know how to be 
 happy, and this made them feel guilty. 
 
 "Take my word for it, Alexandre will not come," 
 said the princess. 
 
 That evening they were expecting Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch from the train, and the old prince had written that 
 perhaps he, also, would come. " And if he does n't, I 
 know why," continued the princess; "he says that young 
 people ought to be left alone during the first part of 
 their married lives." 
 
 "Yes, papa is abandoning us for that very reason. 
 He has not been to see us at all. But how are we 
 young folks ? I am sure we are quite old." 
 
 " Only, if he does not come, and I have to take my 
 leave of you children ! " said the princess, with a mel- 
 ancholy sigh. 
 
 " What is the matter with you, mamma ? " cried both 
 daughters at once. 
 
 "You can think how it is with him. Here, now.... " 
 
 And suddenly and unexpectedly the old princess's 
 voice broke. The daughters exchanged glances in 
 silence. 
 
 " Maman is always finding some melancholy topic ! '' 
 said their eyes. They did not know that, however
 
 80 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 pleasant it was for the princess to visit her daughters, 
 and however necessary she felt that she was, neverthe- 
 less both she and her husband had been very sad ever 
 since they had given up their last beloved daughter 
 and the family nest had become empty. 
 
 "What is it, Agafya Mikhai'lovna? " suddenly asked 
 Kitty of the old housekeeper, whom she saw standing 
 near with a mysterious and significant look in her eyes. 
 
 " It is about supper." 
 
 "Now, that is excellent," said Dolly. "You go and 
 make your arrangements, and I will hear Grisha recite 
 his lesson. He has not done anything all day." 
 
 " The lesson is my part ! No, Dolly, I will go," cried 
 Levin, springing up. 
 
 Grisha, who had already entered the gymnasium, was 
 obliged to keep up his lessons during the summer. 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, who had already begun, in Mos- 
 cow, to study Latin with her son, now that she had 
 come to the Levins', had made it a rule to go over with 
 him, at least once a day, his most difficult lessons in 
 Latin and arithmetic. Levin had taken it on himself 
 to substitute for her. But the mother, having once 
 listened while Levin was hearing the recitation, and 
 noticing that he did not teach as the instructor in Mos- 
 cow did, with an awkward attempt not to hurt his feel- 
 ings, told Levin decidedly that he must go according 
 to the book, as his tutor did, and that she had better 
 take charge of the lessons again. 
 
 Levin was annoyed with Stepan Arkadyevitch, owing 
 to whose carelessness the mother had charge of the 
 children's education, though she understood nothing 
 about it at all ; and he was annoyed with the teachers, 
 because they had such bad methods of teaching. But 
 he promised his sister-in-law that he would conduct the 
 recitations as she wished. And so he continued to take 
 charge of Grisha's studies, no longer, however, in his 
 own method, but according to the book, and therefore 
 perfunctorily, and frequently forgetting the lesson-hour. 
 And that is what had happened that day. 
 
 "No, I will go, Dolly, and you keep your seat," said
 
 ANNA KARENINA 81 
 
 fte. " We are going along in due order by the book. 
 Only, now that Stiva is coming, we shall be going hunt- 
 ing, so we shall have to neglect them." 
 
 And Levin went to find Grisha. 
 
 Varenka was saying almost the same thing to Kitty. 
 Varenka had found the way of being useful even in the 
 Levins' happy, well-ordered household. 
 
 " I will go and see about supper, and you keep your 
 seat," said she, and she joined Agafya Mikhai'lovna. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! but you won't find the chickens. Then .... >f 
 said Kitty. 
 
 " Agafya Mikhallovna and I will settle the difficulty," 
 said Varenka, and disappeared with her. 
 
 " What a pretty girl ! " exclaimed the princess. 
 
 " Not pretty, maman, but the charmingest girl in the 
 world." 
 
 "And so you are expecting Stepan Arkadyevitch, are 
 you ? " said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, evidently not liking to 
 have the conversation about Varenka prolonged. " It 
 would be hard to find two brothers-in-law less alike," 
 said he, with a sly smile. " One versatile, living only 
 in society, like a fish in the water ; the other, our Kostia. 
 full of life and activity, quick at everything, but as soon 
 as he gets into society he either gives up the ghost or 
 flops about aimlessly, like a fish on dry land ! " 
 
 "Yes, he is very heedless," said the princess, address- 
 ing Sergye'f Ivanovitch. " I wanted especially to ask 
 you to persuade him that it is impossible for her " 
 she was referring to Kitty "to stay here; she cer- 
 tainly ought to be taken to Moscow. He says write for 
 a doctor.... " 
 
 " Maman, he is doing everything ; he agrees to all 
 you want," said Kitty, vexed with her mother for draw- 
 ing Sergyei' Ivanovitch into this matter as a judge. 
 
 While they were talking, the whinnying of a horse 
 on the driveway was heard, and the sound of wheels on 
 the stones. 
 
 Before Dolly could jump up to go and meet her hus- 
 band, Levin jumped out of the window of the room down- 
 stairs where he was teaching Grisha, and put Grisha out
 
 82 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " It' s Stiva," cried Levin, from below the balcony. 
 " We had finished, Dolly ; don't you worry ! " he added, 
 as the boy darted off to meet the carriage. 
 
 "Is, ea, id, ejus, ejus, ejus," cried Grisha, as he ran 
 down the avenue. 
 
 " And there 's some one with him ! It must be papa! " 
 cried Levin, standing at the entrance of the driveway. 
 " Kitty, don't come down by the steep stairs. Come 
 round ! " 
 
 But Levin was mistaken in thinking that the other 
 man in the carriage was the old prince. When he 
 came close he saw, sitting next Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 not the prince, but a handsome, portly young man, in 
 a Scotch cap with long floating ribbons. This was 
 Vasenka Veslovsky, a third cousin of the Shcherbat- 
 skys, a brilliant young member of Moscow and Pe- 
 tersburg society "one of the best fellows that ever 
 lived, and a devotee of hunting," as Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch expressed it in introducing him. 
 
 Veslovsky was not in the least disconcerted by the 
 surprise which his appearance, in place of the old 
 prince, caused. He gayly greeted Levin, reminding 
 him of their former acquaintance, and took Grisha into 
 the carriage, lifting him up over the pointer which 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch had brought with him. 
 
 Levin did not get into the carriage, but followed on 
 foot. He was somewhat put out by the non-arrival of 
 the old prince, whom he liked better and better the 
 more he saw him ; he was still more put out at the 
 appearance of this Vasenka Veslovsky, a man who was 
 utterly unknown and superfluous. He seemed to him 
 still more unknown and superfluous when, as Levin 
 approached the front door, about which had collected 
 a lively throng of old and young, he kissed Kitty's hand 
 with a remarkably flattering and gallant look. 
 
 " Your wife and I are cousins, and old friends," said 
 Vasenka Veslovsky, heartily pressing Levin's hand a 
 second time. 
 
 "Well, how is it, any game?" asked Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, addressing Levin almost before he had greeted
 
 ANNA KARENINA 83 
 
 the others. "Vasenka and I have the most ferocious 
 
 intentions How are you, maman, since we saw each 
 
 other in Moscow ?.... Well, Tania, how goes it? Get 
 the things from the back of the calash, please," said he, 
 addressing every one at once. " How well you look, 
 Dollenka," said he to his wife, again kissing her hand, 
 holding it in his, and smoothing it. 
 
 Levin, who a few moments before had been in the 
 happiest frame of mind, now looked at them all with 
 indignant eyes, and everything disgusted him. 
 
 "Whom did he kiss yesterday with those same lips ? " 
 he queried, as he saw how affectionate Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch was to his wife. He looked at Dolly, and even 
 she was displeasing to him. "Of course she cannot 
 believe in his love for her. How, then, can she seem 
 so glad? Repulsive!" said Levin to himself. 
 
 He looked at the princess, who had seemed to him so 
 charming a moment before, and her manner of receiv- 
 ing this Veslovsky and his ribbons, as if she were at 
 home there, displeased him. 
 
 Even Sergye'f Ivanovitch, who had come out on the 
 porch with the rest, seemed to him disagreeable by rea- 
 son of the hypocritical friendliness with which he met 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch ; for Levin knew that his brother 
 neither liked nor respected Oblonsky. 
 
 And Varenka disgusted him, because she, with her 
 sainte nitouche look, nevertheless met this stranger as 
 if she thought only what sort of a husband would he 
 make for her. 
 
 And most displeasing of all was Kitty, as she fell into 
 conformity with the tone of gayety with which that 
 gentleman regarded his visit, as if it were a festival for 
 himself and all the rest ; especially disagreeable was 
 the peculiar smile with which she responded to his smile. 
 
 Noisily talking, they all went into the house, but as 
 soon as they had sat down, Levin turned on his heel 
 and started off. 
 
 Kitty saw that something was amiss with her husband. 
 She wanted to take advantage of a favorable moment 
 and have a little talk with him alone, but he hastened
 
 84 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 from her, declaring that he had business to attend to at 
 the office. Not for a long time had his affairs seemed 
 to him so important as they did at that day. 
 
 " It may be a holiday for them," he said to himself, 
 " but here are affairs of importance to be attended to, 
 and they can't be delayed, and without them life could 
 not be carried on." 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ONLY when they had sent to tell him supper was 
 ready did Levin go back to the house again. On the 
 stairway Kitty and Agafya Mikhailovna were standing 
 holding a consultation over the wines for supper. 
 
 " But why do you make such a fuss ? Give them what 
 you usually do." 
 
 " No, Stiva does n't drink Kostia, wait, what is 
 
 the matter with you ? " exclaimed Kitty, hastening after 
 him ; but he, without heeding her, went with long strides 
 into the dining-room, and immediately began to take part 
 in the lively conversation which Vasenka Veslovsky and 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch were enjoying. 
 
 " What do you say ? Shall we go hunting to-morrow ? " 
 asked Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 "Please let us go," said Veslovsky, changing his seat 
 to another chair, and doubling his fat leg under him. 
 
 " I shall be very glad ; yes, we will go. Have you 
 had any hunting this year yet ? " asked Levin,' looking 
 at Veslovsky's leg, but his cordiality was put on, as 
 Kitty could easily see, and it did not become him. " I 
 doubt if we find any woodcock, but snipe are abundant. 
 We shall have to start early. You will not be too tired ? 
 Are you tired, Stiva ? " 
 
 " I tired ? I don't know what it is to be tired. I 'm 
 ready to stay up all night. We '11 go and take a 
 walk." 
 
 " Certainly, let us stay up all night. Capital," said 
 Veslovsky. 
 
 " Oh, yes, we are agreed on that point, that you can
 
 ANNA KARENINA 85 
 
 stay up all night and also keep other people awake," 
 said Dolly, in that tone of playful irony which she 
 almost habitually employed in addressing her husband. 
 " In my opinion, I had better be going to bed. I won't 
 eat any supper. I '11 go now." 
 
 " No, Dollenka, sit down," said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, going to the other side of the great table and 
 taking a seat near his wife. " I Ve so many things to 
 tell you about." 
 
 " Probably mighty little ! " 
 
 " Do you know Veslovsky has been at Anna's ? 
 She lives only seventy versts J away from here ; he is 
 going there when he leaves us, and I intend to go too. 
 Veslovsky, come here." 
 
 Vasenka approached the ladies, and sat down next to 
 Kitty. 
 
 "Oh, please tell us about it. Have you really been 
 to Anna Arkadyevna's ? How is she ? " asked Darya 
 Aleksandrovna. 
 
 Levin had remained at the other end of the table, and 
 while he kept on talking with the princess and Varenka, 
 he observed that Stepan Arkadyevitch, Dolly, Kitty, and 
 Veslovsky were having an animated and mysterious con- 
 versation. Not only were they talking confidentially, 
 but it seemed to him that his wife's face expressed a 
 deep tenderness, as, without dropping her eyes, she 
 looked into Vasenka's handsome face, while he was 
 talking vivaciously. 
 
 " Their establishment is superb," Vasenka Veslovsky 
 was saying in reference to Vronsky and Anna ; " of 
 course, I don't take it on myself to pass judgment on 
 them, but when you are there in their house, you feel 
 yourself at home." 
 
 " What are their plans ? " 
 
 "They would like to pass the winter in Moscow, I 
 believe." 
 
 "How jolly it would be for us to go there together 
 When shall you be there ? " Oblonsky asked Vasenka. 
 
 " I am going to spend July with them." 
 
 1 46.41 miles.
 
 86 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "And are you going? " he asked his wife. 
 
 " I have long been wanting to go, and I certainly 
 shall," said Dolly. " I am sorry for her, and I know her. 
 She is a lovely woman. When you have gone away, I 
 shall go alone ; that will not disturb any one, and it 
 would be better for me to go without you." 
 
 "Just the thing," answered Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 "And you, Kitty?" 
 
 " I ? Why should I go to see her ? " said Kitty ; and, 
 blushing with vexation, she glanced at her husband. 
 
 " Do you know Anna Arkadyevna ? " asked Veslovsky ; 
 " she is a very fascinating woman." 
 
 "Yes," answered Kitty, blushing still more, and she 
 rose and joined her husband. " So you are going hunt- 
 ing to-morrow, are you?" she asked him. 
 
 Levin's jealousy during those few moments, and 
 especially at the blush which covered her cheeks while 
 she was talking with Veslovsky, had already reached an 
 acute stage. Now, hearing her question, he interpreted 
 it in his own way. Strange as it was afterward for him 
 to remember this, now it seemed clear to him that the 
 reason for her asking him if he was going hunting and 
 for her interest in it was to know if he would give Va- 
 senka Veslovsky that pleasure, and that proved that she 
 was already in love with him ! 
 
 "Yes, I am thinking of it," he answered, in a voice 
 so unnatural and constrained that he himself was horri- 
 fied at it. 
 
 " Well, you had better stay at home to-morrow ; Dolly 
 has hardly seen her husband yet. Go day after to- 
 morrow." 
 
 Levin now translated Kitty's words thus : 
 
 " Do not separate me from him. Yon may go ; it is 
 all the same to me ; but let me enjoy the society of this 
 attractive young man." 
 
 " Oh, if you desire it, we will stay at home to-morrow," 
 answered Levin, with especial pleasantness. 
 
 Meantime, Vasenka, not suspecting the effect his 
 presence had produced, rose from the table, and ap- 
 proached Kitty with an affectionate smile.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 87 
 
 Levin noticed that smile. He grew pale and for a 
 moment could not get his breath. 
 
 " How does he dare to look at my wife in that way ? " 
 He was boiling ! 
 
 " We are to go hunting to-morrow, are we not ? " 
 asked Vasenka, and he sat down in a chair and again 
 doubled one leg under him, as his habit was. 
 
 Levin's jealousy grew still more intense. Already he 
 saw himself a deceived husband, whom his wife and her 
 lover were plotting to get rid of that they might enjoy 
 each other in peace. 
 
 Nevertheless, he asked Veslovsky, with all friendliness 
 and hospitality, about his hunting-gear, his guns and 
 boots, and agreed to go the next day. 
 
 To Levin's happiness the old princess put an end to 
 his torture by advising Kitty to go to bed. But even 
 this was accompanied by new suffering for Levin. On 
 bidding his hostess " good night," Vasenka tried to kiss 
 her hand again. But Kitty, blushing and drawing away 
 her hand, said, with a naive rudeness for which her mother 
 afterward chided her : 
 
 " That is not the custom with us." 
 
 In Levin's eyes she was blameworthy for permitting 
 such liberties with her, and still more so for being so 
 awkward in showing her disapprobation. 
 
 " Why should you go to bed ? " said Oblonsky, who 
 had taken several glasses of wine at dinner, and was. in 
 his most genial and poetic mood. " Look, Kitty," said he, 
 pointing to the moon just rising above the lindens, 
 " how lovely ! Veslovsky, it is just the time for sere- 
 nading. You know he has a splendid voice ; he and I 
 tried some on the way down. He has brought two new 
 ballads with him. He and Varvara might sing to us." 
 
 After they had all left, Stepan Arkadyevitch and 
 Veslovsky still for a long time walked up and down in 
 the avenue, and their voices could be heard as they 
 practised singing over the new ballads. 
 
 Hearing these voices, Levin sat scowling in an easy- 
 chair in his wife's room, and obstinately refused to an-
 
 88 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 svver her questions as to what was the matter with him. 
 But at last Kitty, timidly smiling, asked him : "Is there 
 anything about Veslovsky that has displeased you?" 
 
 This question loosened his tongue, and he told her all. 
 What he said filled him with vexation, and so he grew 
 still more excited. 
 
 He stood up in front of his wife with his eyes flashing 
 terribly under his contracted brows and his hands pressed 
 against his chest as if exerting all his force to restrain 
 himself. His face would have been harsh and even 
 cruel, had it not expressed also such keen suffering. 
 His cheeks trembled and his voice shook. " Don't think 
 me jealous ; the word is disgusting. I could not be 
 jealous and at the same time believe that.... I cannot 
 tell you what I feel, but it is horrible to me .... I am not 
 jealous, but I am hurt, humiliated, that any one should 
 dare to look at you so.".... 
 
 " Why, look at me how ? " asked Kitty, honestly try- 
 ing to recall all the remarks and incidents of the evening 
 and all their possible significance. In the depth of her 
 heart she had thought that there was something pecul- 
 iar at the time when Veslovsky followed her to the 
 other end of the table, but she dared not acknowledge 
 it even to herself, and still more she did not wish to 
 say this to him and thus increase his suffering. 
 
 " But what could he find attractive in me in my con- 
 dition ? " .... 
 
 " Akh ! " he cried, clutching his head " You should 
 
 not have said that That means, if you had been 
 
 attractive...." 
 
 " Now stop, Kostia, and listen to me ! " said Kitty, 
 looking at him with a passionately compassionate ex- 
 pression. " What can you be thinking about ? You 
 
 know you are the only person in the world for me 
 
 But you would not wish me to shut myself up away 
 from everybody ? " 
 
 At first she had been wounded by this jealousy of his, 
 which spoiled even the slightest and most innocent 
 pleasures ; but she was ready now to renounce, not 
 merely the trifling things, but everything, for the sake
 
 ANNA KARENINA 89 
 
 of calming him so as to cure him of the suffering which 
 he was enduring. 
 
 " Try to understand all the horrible absurdity of my 
 position," he went on to say, in a whisper of despair. 
 " He is my guest, and if it were not for his silly gallantry, 
 and his habit of sitting on his leg, he has certainly done 
 nothing unbecoming ; he certainly thinks himself irre- 
 proachable, and so I am obliged to seem polite." 
 
 "But, Kostia, you exaggerate things," said Kitty, 
 glad at heart to see the force of his love for her, which 
 now was expressed in his jealousy. 
 
 " But more terrible to me than all this is that, when 
 you are an object of worship to me, and we are so happy, 
 so peculiarly happy, this trashy fellow, .... but why should 
 I call him names ? He has done nothing to me. But 
 why should our happiness.... " 
 
 " Listen, Kostia ; I believe I know what has offended 
 you." 
 
 " Why is it, why is it ? " 
 
 " I saw how you were looking when we were at 
 supper." 
 
 " Well, well ? " asked Levin, excitedly. 
 
 She told him what they were talking about. And as 
 she recounted it, she sighed with her emotion. Levin 
 was silent ; then, observing his wife's pale, excited face, 
 he clutched his head again. 
 
 " Katya," cried he, " I have tired you ! Galubchik, 
 forgive me ! This is sheer craziness. I am a burden 
 to you, Katya ! I am a fool ! How could I torture 
 myself over such a trifle ! " 
 
 "I am sorry for you." 
 
 " For me, for me ? that I am insane ! .... but still it is 
 horrible to think that any stranger might destroy our 
 happiness ! " 
 
 " Of course, this is outrageous .... " 
 
 " No, to disprove this, I will keep him with us all 
 summer, and I '11 spread myself in heaping favors on 
 him," said Levin, kissing his wife's hands. " You '11 see. 
 And to-morrow yes, certainly to-morrow, we will go ! '
 
 9 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE next morning the ladies were not yet up when 
 the hunting-traps 1 were waiting at the door, and Laska, 
 who since dawn had realized that hunting was in pros- 
 pect, and having frisked and barked till she was tired, 
 was sitting up on the katki next the coachman, looking 
 with excitement and disapprobation at the door at which 
 the huntsmen were so provokingly dilatory in making 
 their appearance. 
 
 The first to appear was Vasenka Veslovsky, in a 
 green blouse, with a cartridge-belt of fragrant Russia 
 leather, shod in high new boots, which reached half- 
 way up his thighs, his Scotch cap, with ribbons, on his 
 head, and having an English gun of rather recent style, 
 but without strap or bandoleer. 
 
 Laska sprang toward him and welcomed him, and asked 
 in her way if the others were coming ; but, receiving 
 no answer, she returned to her post, and waited with 
 bent head and one ear pricked up. At last the door 
 opened noisily, and let out Krak, the pointer, circling 
 round and leaping into the air, and after him came his 
 master, Stepan Arkadyevitch, with gun in hand and 
 cigar in mouth. 
 
 " Down, Krak, down ! " 2 exclaimed Oblonsky, caress- 
 ingly, to the dog, which leaped up to his breast and 
 caught his paws on his game-pouch. Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch wore pigskin sandals, leggings, torn trousers, and a 
 short overcoat. On his head was the ruin of what had 
 once been a hat ; but his gun was of the most modern 
 pattern, and his game-bag as well as his cartridge-box, 
 though worn, were of the finest quality. 
 
 Vasenka Veslovsky had never before realized the fact 
 that the height of elegance for a huntsman is to be in rags, 
 but to have the equipment of the very finest quality. 
 He understood this now, as he gazed at Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, whose elegant, well-nurtured, and aristocratic 
 
 1 Katki and telyegas. 
 
 8 Tubo is the Russian address to the dog.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 91 
 
 figure was so gayly brilliant, though in rags, and he 
 made up his mind to profit by this example the next 
 time he should go hunting. 
 
 "Well, where is our host?" asked he. 
 
 " He has a young wife," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 smiling. 
 
 " And how charming she is ! " 
 
 " He must have gone in to see her again, for I saw 
 him all ready to start." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch was right. Levin had gone 
 back to Kitty to make her say over again that she 
 forgave him for his absurd behavior of the evening 
 before, and to ask her for Christ's sake to be more 
 careful. The most important thing was for her to keep 
 the children at a distance, for they were always likely 
 to run into her. Then he needed once more to receive 
 assurance from her that she would not be angry with 
 him because he was going away for two days, and to 
 reiterate his desire that she should infallibly send him a 
 note the next morning by a mounted courier, if it were 
 only two words, so that he might know that she was 
 comfortable. 
 
 Kitty, as always, had regretted the two days' separa- 
 tion from her husband ; but as she saw him full of 
 animation, and seeming especially big and strong in his 
 hunting-boots and white blouse, and recognized that, to 
 her incomprehensible, enthusiasm for hunting, she forgot 
 her own regret in her delight in his happiness, and cheer- 
 fully bade him good-by. 
 
 " Pardon, gentlemen ! " cried Levin, hurrying down 
 to the porch. " Has the breakfast been put up ? Why 
 is the chestnut horse on the off side ? Well, then, it 
 makes no difference. Down, Laska ! charge ! 
 
 " Put him among the geldings," said he, addressing the 
 cowherd who was waiting for him on the door-steps with 
 a question about the young ram. " It is my blunder 
 that he 's become ugly." 
 
 Levin jumped down from the katki in which he had 
 already taken his seat, and met a hired carpenter who 
 was just approaching the porch.
 
 92 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Now, yesterday evening you did n't come to my 
 office and here you are delaying me : well, what is it ? " 
 
 " You bid me make a new stairway. Three steps will 
 have to be added. And we can get all the lumber at 
 once. It would be much more convenient." 
 
 " You should have listened to me," said Levin, in a 
 tone of annoyance. " I said, ' Fix the string-boards, and 
 then cut in the steps.' Now, don't try to mend them. 
 Do as I ordered, make a new one." 
 
 The matter in question was this : in the wing which 
 was building, the carpenter had spoiled a staircase by 
 framing it separately, and not taking the slope into 
 account, so that the steps were all at an angle when it 
 was put into its place. But now the carpenter wanted 
 to add three steps and keep the same framework. 
 
 " It would be much better...." 
 
 " But where would it go, even if you added three 
 steps ? " 
 
 " Excuse me," said the carpenter, with a disdainful 
 smile. " It would go up to the same landing. Of course 
 you 'd pull it out below," said he, with a persuasive ges- 
 ture. " It will fit, it will surely fit." 
 
 " But three steps add to the length of it how 
 would that improve it ? " 
 
 After an idle argument in which the carpenter kept 
 obstinately repeating the same words, Levin took his 
 ramrod and proceeded to outline the plan of the stair- 
 way in the dust. 
 
 " Now do you see ? " 
 
 " As you command," said the carpenter, with a sud- 
 den light flashing into his eyes, and evidently at last 
 comprehending what Levin was driving at. " I see, we 
 shall have to make a new one." 
 
 " Well, then, do as you were ordered," cried Levin, 
 taking his place in the katki again. " Let us start ! 
 Hold the dogs, Filipp ! " 
 
 Levin, now that he had left behind him all domestic 
 and business cares, felt such a powerful sense of the 
 joy of living and such expectation that he did not care 
 to talk. Moreover, he experienced that sense of con-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 93 
 
 centrated emotion which every huntsman feels as he 
 approaches the field of his activity. If anything occu- 
 pied him now, it was the question whether they should 
 find anything in the Kolpensky marshes, and how would 
 Laska come out in comparison with Krak, and what sort 
 of luck he would that day enjoy. Should he do himself 
 credit as a huntsman before this stranger ? How would 
 Oblonsky shoot ? Better than he ? 
 
 Oblonsky was occupied with similar thoughts and 
 was not talkative. Vasenka Veslovsky was the only 
 voluble one ; and now, as Levin listened to him, he re- 
 proached himself for his injustice of the previous eve- 
 ning. He was a capital fellow, simple, good-natured, 
 and very gay. If Levin had known him in his bachelor 
 days, he would have become intimate with him. But 
 Levin rather disliked his * holiday view of life and a 
 certain free and easy elegance. He seemed to arrogate 
 to himself a marked and indubitable superiority because 
 of his long finger-nails and his little cap and everything 
 else corresponding ; but this could be condoned in view 
 of his good nature and irreproachable manners. He 
 pleased Levin because he was well educated, and spoke 
 French and English admirably, in fact, was a man of 
 his own walk in life. 
 
 Vasenka was completely carried away by the Step- 
 nay a Donskaya horse on the left of the three-span. He 
 kept going into raptures over her. " How splendid it 
 would be to gallop over the steppe on a steed of the 
 steppe ! Is n't that so ? " he cried. He imagined that 
 galloping over the steppe on such a horse was some- 
 thing wild and poetic, with no possibility of disappoint- 
 ment ; but his innocence, especially in conjunction with 
 his good looks, his pleasant smile, and his graceful 
 motion, was very captivating. And because he was 
 naturally sympathetic to Levin, or else because Levin, 
 in consequence of his injustice to him the evening be- 
 fore, tried to find all his best qualities, they got on 
 famously. 
 
 They had gone scarcely three versts when Veslovsky 
 suddenly remembered his cigars and pocket-book, and
 
 94 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 could not tell whether he had lost them or left them on 
 his table. There were three hundred and seventy rubles 
 in the pocket-book, and he could not leave them so. 
 
 " Do you know, Levin, I could take your Cossack 
 horse and gallop back to the house. It would be 
 elegant! " 
 
 "Oh, no," replied Levin, who calculated that Va- 
 senka's weight must be not less than two hundred and 
 forty pounds ; " my coachman can easily do the errand." 
 
 The coachman was sent back on the Cossack horse, 
 and Levin drove on with the pair. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 "WELL, what's our line of march? Give us a good 
 idea of it," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " This is my plan : we will go first to Gvozdevo. 
 Just this side of Gvozdevo is a snipe marsh, but on the 
 other side of Gvozdevo extend splendid woodcock 
 marshes, and there '11 be game there. It 's hot now, 
 but toward the cool of the day it 's twenty versts from 
 here we will try the field. We will spend the night 
 there, and then to-morrow we will strike into the great 
 marshes." 
 
 " But is n't there anything on the way ? " 
 
 " Yes, but it would delay us, and it is too hot. There 
 are two splendid little places, but it is hardly worth 
 while." 
 
 It was Levin's intention to attack these places, but 
 as they were near home, he could go there at any 
 time, and as they were small he thought that three 
 hunters were too many. Therefore, he prevaricated 
 when he said that it was hardly worth while. 
 
 When they came up to the little marsh, Levin was 
 proposing to drive by ; but Stepan Arkadyevitch, with 
 the experienced eye of a huntsman, immediately saw the 
 water-soaked ground which was visible from the road. 
 
 " Shan't we try that ? " he asked, pointing to the 
 marsh.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 95 
 
 " Levin, please stop, how splendid ! " Vasenka Ves- 
 lovsky began to beg, and Levin could not well refuse. 
 
 Before they had fairly stopped, the dogs, in eager 
 emulation, darted into the marsh. 
 
 "Krak!.... Laska !".... 
 
 The dogs turned back. 
 
 " There won't be room enough for three. I will wait 
 here," said Levin, hoping that they would not find any- 
 thing except lapwings, which flew up from in front of 
 the dogs, and, as they skimmed away over the marshy 
 ground, uttered the most mournful cries. 
 
 "No; come on, Levin, let us all go together," called 
 Veslovsky. 
 
 " It 's a fact, there is n't room. Back, Laska, back. 
 You don't need more than one dog, do you ? " 
 
 Levin remained by the line'fka and with jealousy in 
 his heart watched the huntsmen, who were tramping 
 through the whole bog. There was nothing in it, how- 
 ever, except' moor-hens and lapwings, one of which Va- 
 senka killed. 
 
 " Now you see that I gave you good advice about the 
 marsh," said Levin. " It's only a waste of time." 
 
 " No, it 's good fun all the same ! Did you see ? " 
 exclaimed Vasenka, awkwardly climbing into the wagon 
 with his gun and his lapwing in his hands. " Did n't I 
 make a stunning good shot ? Well, will it take long to 
 get to the other one ? " 
 
 Suddenly the horses plunged. Levin gave himself a 
 violent bump on the head against some one's gun, and a 
 shot went off. The gun really went off before, but it 
 seemed to Levin the other way. It happened that 
 Vasenka in uncocking his gun fired one barrel. The 
 shot buried itself in the ground and no damage was done 
 to any one. Stepan Arkadyevitch shook his head and 
 laughed reproachfully at Veslovsky. But Levin had 
 not the heart to rebuke him. In the first place, any 
 reproach would seem to be called forth by a danger past 
 and by the bump on his forehead ; and in the second 
 place, Veslovsky was so innocently filled with remorse 
 and afterward laughed so good-naturedly and so con-
 
 96 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 tagiously over their common alarm that no one could 
 help joining in. 
 
 When they reached the second marsh, which was of 
 considerable size and sure to occupy much time, Levin 
 advised not getting out. But Veslovsky again put in his 
 entreaties. Again, since the marsh was not big enough 
 for three, Levin, like a hospitable host, remained by the 
 teams. As soon as they stopped, Laska darted off to 
 the tussocks. Vasenka Veslovsky was the first to follow 
 the dog. And before Stepan Arkadyevitch reached the 
 wet ground a snipe flew up. Veslovsky missed it, and 
 the bird flew over into an unmown meadow. But this 
 snipe was predestined to be Veslovsky's. Krak again 
 pointed it, and Veslovsky killed it and returned to the 
 teams. 
 
 " Now you go, and I will stay by the horses," said he. 
 
 The huntsman's fever had by this time taken posses- 
 sion of Levin. He turned the reins over to Veslovsky 
 and went into the swamp. Laska, who had been for 
 some time pitifully whining and complaining at the in- 
 equality of fate, darted toward the tussock-filled bog 
 which Levin knew so well, and to which Krak had not 
 yet found his way. 
 
 " Why don't you hold her back ? " cried Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " She won't scare them away," replied Levin, delight- 
 ing in his dog and following after her. 
 
 As Laska went forward, the nearer she came to the 
 tussocks the greater grew her gravity. A little marsh 
 bird only for a second distracted her attention. She 
 .nade one sweep around the tussocks, then began a 
 second, but suddenly trembled and stood stock still. 
 
 " Come, Stiva, come," cried Levin, feeling how his 
 .leart was beginning to throb, and how, suddenly as if 
 some bolt had slipped in his ears, all sounds, losing their 
 sense of proportion, disconnectedly but distinctly began 
 to come to him. He heard Stepan Arkady evitch's steps, 
 distinguishing them from the distant stamping of horses, 
 he heard the crunching sound of a corner of a tussock 
 torn away by the roots, and he could distinguish above
 
 ANNA KARENINA 97 
 
 it the whir of a woodcock's wings. He could also hear, 
 not far behind him, a strange splashing in the water, 
 but what it was he could not make out. Choosing a 
 place for his feet, he moved toward the dog. 
 
 "Goon." 
 
 Not a snipe, but a woodcock, flew up from under the 
 dog's nose. Levin raised his gun, but at the instant he 
 aimed the same noise of splashing in the water grew 
 louder and nearer, and together with it Veslovsky's 
 voice loudly shouting something. Levin saw that he was 
 aiming too far behind the woodcock, but still he fired. 
 
 Turning round to discover what made the noise, Levin 
 saw that the horses attached to the katki were no longer 
 in the road, but were in the swamp. 
 
 Veslovsky, desirous of watching the shooting, had 
 driven down to the swamp and had entangled the horses. 
 
 "The devil take him," said Levin to himself, turning 
 back to the entangled horses. 
 
 " Why did you drive in so far ? " he asked dryly ; and, 
 summoning the coachman, he began to disengage the 
 horses. 
 
 Levin was vexed because they had caused him to 
 miss his shot, but still more so because neither Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch nor Veslovsky would help him to unhar- 
 ness and get out the team ; but the reason for this was 
 that they had not the slightest comprehension of the art 
 of harnessing. 
 
 Not vouchsafing Vasenka a single word in answer to 
 his assurance that where he stood it was perfectly dry, 
 Levin silently worked with the coachman to unhitch the 
 horses. But afterward, warming up to the work, and 
 noticing how zealously and assiduously Veslovsky dragged 
 at the katki by its side and even broke a part of it off, 
 Levin blamed himself because, under the influence of the 
 feeling which he had had the evening before, he had 
 been too cool toward Veslovsky, and he tried by especial 
 friendliness to atone for his curtness. 
 
 When everything was brought to order again and the 
 teams were on the highway, Levin gave orders to get 
 the luncheon ready. 
 VOL. in. 7
 
 98 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Bon appetit, bonne conscience. Ce poulet va tombe? 
 jusqiiau fond de mes bottes" exclaimed Vasenka, grow- 
 ing lively again, and employing a quaint French proverb, 
 as he devoured his second chicken. " Now our misfor- 
 tunes are ended ; now everything will go on famously. 
 Only as a punishment for my sin I must certainly sit 
 on the driver's box. Isn't that so? hey? No, no, 
 I am a born Automedon. Just see how I will tool you 
 along," he insisted, not letting go the reins when Levin 
 asked him to give up to the coachman. " No, I must 
 atone for my sin, and I like it immensely on the box." 
 And he drove. 
 
 Levin was somewhat afraid that he would tire out the 
 horses, especially the chestnut on the left, which he 
 could not control ; but reluctantly he gave in to his 
 gayety, listened to the love-songs which Veslovsky, sit- 
 ting on the box, sang all the way, or to his stories and 
 personation of an Englishman driving a four-in-hand, 
 and after they had enjoyed their luncheon they reached 
 the marshes of Gvozdevo in the gayest possible spirits. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 VASENKA drove the horses so furiously that they 
 reached the marshes too early and it was still hot. On 
 reaching the important marsh, the real goal of their jour- 
 ney, Levin could not help wondering how he might rid 
 himself of Vasenka and so get along without impediment. 
 Stepan Arkady evitch had evidently the same desire, and 
 Levin could read in his face that expression of anxiety 
 which a genuine huntsman always betrays before he 
 goes out on the chase he also detected a certain good- 
 natured slyness characteristic of him. 
 
 " How shall we go in ? I can see the marsh is ex- 
 cellent, and there are the hawks," said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, pointing to two big birds circling over the tall 
 grass. '' Where hawks are there is sure to be game ! " 
 
 " Well, do you see, gentlemen ? " said Levin, with a 
 rather gloomy expression, pulling up his boots and con
 
 ANNA KARENINA 99 
 
 templating the caps on his fowling-piece. " Do you see 
 that tall grass ? " He pointed to an islet shading into a 
 black green in the midst of the wet meadow which, al- 
 ready half mown, extended along the right bank of the 
 river. " The marsh begins here directly in front of you 
 where it is so green. From there it extends to the 
 right where those horses are going ; there are the tus- 
 socks and you will find snipe there, and so on around 
 this high grass clear up to the alders and the mill itself. 
 That direction, you see where the ground is overflowed, 
 that is the best place. I Ve killed as many as seven- 
 teen woodcock there. We will separate with the two 
 dogs in different directions, and then we will meet at the 
 mill." 
 
 "Well, who will go to the right, who to the left?" 
 asked Stepan Arkadyevitch. " There is more room to 
 the right ; you two go that way and I will take the left," 
 said he, with pretended indifference. 
 
 " Capital, we will shoot more than he does. Come 
 on, come on, come on," cried Veslovsky. 
 
 Levin saw that he was in for it, so they started off 
 together. 
 
 As soon as they struck into the marsh the dogs began 
 to hunt round and darted off for the swamp. Levin 
 well knew what that careful and indeterminate manceuver 
 of Laska's meant; he also knew the place, and he was 
 on the lookout for a bevy of woodcock. 
 
 " Veslovsky, come in line, in line," he cried in a voice 
 of anguish to his companion, who insisted in falling be- 
 hind. Since the accidental discharge of the weapon at 
 the Kolpensky marsh, Levin could not help taking an 
 interest in the direction in which Veslovsky's gun-barrel 
 was pointing. 
 
 " Now, I won't bother you, don't worry about me ! " 
 
 But Levin could not help worrying, and he remem- 
 bered Kitty's words as she said good-by to him : " Look 
 out that you don't shoot one another." 
 
 Closer and closer ran the dogs, avoiding each other, 
 each following her own scent ; the expectation of start- 
 ing up a woodcock was so strong that the squeak of
 
 loo ANNA KARENINA 
 
 his heel as he lifted it out of the mud seemed to Levin 
 like the cry of the bird ; he clutched and squeezed the 
 butt of his gun. 
 
 Bang ! Bang ! A gun went off directly behind his 
 ear. 
 
 It was Vasenka shooting at a flock of ducks which 
 were splashing about in the swamp, and alighted far 
 away from the huntsmen in an irregular line. Before 
 Levin had a chance to glance round, a woodcock 
 drummed, another, a third, and half a dozen more 
 flew up one after the other. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch shot one at the very instant he 
 was about beginning his zigzags, and the woodcock fell 
 in a heap in the swamp. Oblonsky took his time in 
 aiming at another which was flying low toward the high 
 grass, and simultaneously with the flash the bird fell 
 and it could be seen skipping from the mown grass, 
 flapping its white uninjured wing. 
 
 Levin was not so fortunate ; he shot at too close 
 range for the first woodcock, and missed ; he was about 
 to follow after it, but just as it was rising again, another 
 flew up from almost under him and diverted his atten- 
 tion, causing him to miss again. 
 
 While they were reloading, still another woodcock 
 flew up, and Veslovsky, who had got his gun loaded 
 first, fired two charges of small shot into the water. 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch picked up his woodcock, and looked 
 at Levin with flashing eyes. 
 
 " And now let us separate," said he, and limping with 
 his left leg, and holding his gun ready cocked and whis- 
 tling to his dog, he started off by himself. Levin and 
 Veslovsky took the other direction. 
 
 It always happened with Levin that when his first 
 shots were unsuccessful, he grew excited, lost his temper, 
 and shot badly the rest of the day. So it was in the 
 present instance. The woodcock were abundant ; they 
 kept flying up from before the dogs, and from under 
 the huntsmen's feet, and Levin might have easily re- 
 trieved his fortunes ; but the longer he hunted, the more 
 he disgraced himself before Veslovsky, who kept mer-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 101 
 
 rily firing recklessly, never killing anything and never in 
 the slightest degree abashed at his ill luck. Levin 
 moved forward hotly, growing more and more excited, 
 and finally he came not to have much hope of bringing 
 down his game. Laska seemed to understand this state 
 of things. She began to follow the scent more lazily, 
 and looked at the huntsmen with almost an air of doubt 
 and reproach. Shot followed shot. The gunpowder- 
 smoke hung round the sportsmen, but in the great wide 
 meshes of the hunting-bag lay only three light little 
 woodcock. And of those one was killed by Veslovsky, 
 and one of them they both brought down. 
 
 Meantime on the other side of the swamp Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch's shots were heard, not very frequently, 
 but, as it seemed to Levin, very significantly, and at 
 almost each one he would hear him cry : 
 
 " Krak, Krak, apporte." 
 
 This still more excited Levin. The woodcock kept 
 flying up into the air over the high grass. The drum- 
 ming on the ground and the cries of the birds in the air 
 continued incessantly on all sides, and the woodcock, 
 which flew up before them and swept through the air, 
 kept settling down again in front of the huntsmen. Now 
 instead of two hawks there were dozens of them scream- 
 ing over the marsh. 
 
 After they had shot over the larger half of the swamp, 
 Levin and Veslovsky directed their steps to a place 
 where there were alternating strips of meadow-land, 
 which the peasants were accustomed to mow. Half o*f 
 these strips had already been mown. 
 
 Although there was less hope of finding game where 
 the grass was tall than where it had been cut, Levin 
 had agreed with Stepan Arkadyevitch to join him there, 
 and so he proceeded with his companion across the mown 
 and unmown strips. 
 
 " Hi ! sportsmen," cried a muzhik, who with several 
 others were sitting around an unharnessed cart. " Come 
 and have a bite with us. We '11 give you some wine." 
 
 Levin looked round. 
 
 " Come on, we 've plenty," shouted a jolly bearded
 
 io2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 muzhik with a red face, displaying his white teeth and 
 holding up a green bottle which glittered in the sun. 
 
 " Qu'est-ce gu'ils disentf " asked Veslovsky. 
 
 " They invite us to drink some vodka with them. 
 They have probably just finished their meadows. I 'd 
 go if I were you," said Levin, not without craftiness, for 
 he hoped that Veslovsky would be tempted by the 
 vodka and would go for it. 
 
 " Why should they treat us ? " 
 
 " Oh, they are probably having a jollification. Really, 
 you had better go. It will interest you." 
 
 " A I Ions, c'est curie ux." 
 
 " Go ahead, go, you will find the road to the mill," 
 cried Levin ; and, looking round, he saw to his delight 
 that Veslovsky, stooping over and dragging one leg 
 after the other, and carrying his musket on his out- 
 stretched arm, was making his way from the swamp 
 toward the peasants. 
 
 "You come too," cried the muzhik to Levin. " Don't 
 be afeared, 1 we '11 give you a tart." 
 
 Levin felt a strong inclination to drink a glass of 
 vodka and to eat a piece of bread. He was tired and 
 could hardly lift his feet out of the bog, and for a moment 
 he hesitated. But the dog was pointing, and imme- 
 diately all his weariness vanished, and he lightly made 
 his way over the marsh toward the dog. The woodcock 
 flew from under his feet; he fired and brought it down. 
 The dog pointed again pil ! From in front of the 
 dog another arose. Levin blazed away. But the day 
 was unfortunate ; he missed, and when he looked for 
 the one he had killed, it was nowhere to be found. He 
 searched all through the tall grass, but Laska had no 
 faith that her master had killed it, and when he sent 
 her to find it, she pretended to circle round but did not 
 really search. 
 
 Even without Vasenka, on whom Levin had laid the 
 blame for his bad luck, there was no improvement. 
 There also woodcock abounded, but Levin missed shot 
 after shot. 
 
 1 He says niabos 1 for ncbos 1 , nichavo for nichevo.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 103 
 
 The slanting rays of the sun were still hot ; his clothes, 
 wet through with perspiration, stuck to his body ; his 
 left boot, full of water, was heavy and made a sucking 
 noise ; over his face, begrimed with gunpowder, the per- 
 spiration ran in drops; there was a bitter taste in his 
 mouth ; his nose was filled with the odor of smoke and 
 of the bog ; in his ears rang the incessant cries of the 
 woodcock; his gun-barrels were so hot that he could 
 not touch them ; his heart beat with loud and rapid 
 strokes, his hands trembled with excitement, his weary 
 legs kept stumbling and catching in the roots and tus- 
 socks : but still he kept on shooting. At last, having 
 made a disgraceful failure, he threw down his gun and cap. 
 
 "No, I must get my wits back," he said to himself; 
 and, picking up his gun and cap, he called Laska to heel, 
 and quitted the swamp. As he came out on the dry 
 ground he sat down on a tussock, took off his boots and 
 stockings, poured out the water, then he went back to 
 the swamp, took a long drink of the boggy-smelling 
 water, soaked his hot gun-barrels, and washed his face 
 and hands. After he had cooled off, he again went 
 down to the place where he would find the woodcock, 
 and he made up his mind not to lose his self-control 
 again. He meant to be calm, but it was the same as 
 before. His finger would press the trigger before he 
 had taken fair aim at the bird. Indeed, it went from 
 bad to worse. 
 
 He had only five birds in his game-bag when he 
 quitted the marsh and went to the alder-wood where he 
 had agreed to meet Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 Before he caught sight of Stepan Arkadyevitch he 
 saw his dog Krak, all black with the marsh slime, and 
 with an air of triumph as he came leaping out from under 
 the up-turned root of an alder and began to snuff at 
 Laska. Then appeared Stepan Arkadyevitch's stately 
 figure in the shade of the alders. He came along, still 
 limping, but with flushed face, all covered with perspi- 
 ration and with his collar flung open. 
 
 " Well, how is it ? Have you killed many ? " he cried, 
 with a gay smile.
 
 io 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " How is it with you ? " asked Levin. But there was 
 no need of asking, because he could see his overflowing 
 game-bag. 
 
 " Oh, just a trifle." He had fourteen birds. " What 
 a splendid marsh. Veslovsky must have bothered you. 
 Two can't hunt well with the same dog," said Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, to soften the effect of his triumph. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 WHEN Levin and Stepan Arkadyevitch reached the 
 peasant's izba, where Levin always stopped when he 
 was out hunting, Veslovsky was already there. He was 
 laughing his merrily contagious laugh, sitting in the 
 middle of the hut and clinging with both hands to a 
 bench from which a soldier, the brother of their host, was 
 pulling him in his efforts to haul off his muddy boots. 
 
 " I have only just got here. Us ont tti charmants. 
 Imagine it they gave me plenty to eat and drink. 
 What bread, 't was marvelous. Delicieux. And such 
 vodka I never tasted ! And they utterly refused to take 
 any payment. They kept saying : ' Drink it down,' or 
 something like that." 
 
 " Why should they take money ? They regarded you 
 as a guest. Do you suppose they had vodka to sell ? " 
 asked the soldier, who at last succeeded in pulling off 
 the wet boot together with the mud-stained stocking. 
 
 Notwithstanding the dirtiness of the izba, which the 
 huntsmen and their dogs had tracked all over with mud, 
 notwithstanding the smell of bog and gunpowder with 
 which it was filled, and notwithstanding the absence of 
 knives and forks, the three men drank their tea and ate 
 their luncheon with appetites such as only hunting pro- 
 duces. After they had washed up and cleansed off the 
 mud, they went to a hay-loft where the coachman had 
 prepared them beds. 
 
 Although it was already dark, not one of the huntsmen 
 felt any inclination to go to sleep. After they had in- 
 dulged in various recollections and stories of shooting,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 105 
 
 of dogs, and of previous expeditions, the conversation 
 turned on a theme which interested them all. As it 
 happened, Vasenka kept going into raptures over the 
 fascination of this their camp and the fragrance of the 
 hay, and the charm of the broken telyega it seemed 
 to him to be broken because the front part was taken 
 off and about the hospitality of the muzhiks, who had 
 given him vodka to drink, and about the dogs, which 
 were lying each at his master's feet. 
 
 Then Oblonsky gave an account of a charming meet 
 which he had attended the summer before at the place of a 
 man named Malthus, who was a well-known railway mag- 
 nate. Stepan Arkadyevitch told what wonderful marshes 
 and game preserves Malthus rented in the govern- 
 ment of Tver, what equipages, dog-carts, and wagonettes 
 were provided for the sportsmen, and how a great break- 
 fast tent was carried to the marshes and pitched there. 
 
 " I can't comprehend you," exclaimed Levin, raising 
 himself on his hay. " I should think such people would 
 be repulsive to you. I can understand that a breakfast 
 with Lafitte might be very delightful ; but is n't such 
 luxury revolting to you ? All these people, like all 
 monopolists, acquire money in such a way that they gain 
 the contempt of people ; they scorn this contempt and 
 then use their ill-gotten gains to buy off this contempt ! " 
 
 " You 're perfectly right," assented Veslovsky. " Per- 
 fectly. Of course Oblonsky does this out of bonhomie, 
 but others say, ' Oblonsky goes there.' " .... 
 
 " Not in the least," Levin perceived that Oblonsky 
 smiled as he said this. " I simply consider that this 
 man is no more dishonorable than any other of our rich 
 merchants or nobles. They all have got their money 
 by hard work and by their brains." 
 
 " Yes, but what kind of hard work ? Is it hard work 
 to secure a concession and then farm it out ? " 
 
 " Of course it is hard work. Hard work in this sense, 
 that if it were not for such men, then we should have 
 no railways." 
 
 " But it is not hard work such as the muzhik or the 
 student has."
 
 io6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Agreed, but it is work in this sense, that it is a form 
 of activity which gives us results railways. But per- 
 haps you argue that railways are useless." 
 
 " No ; but that is another question. I am willing to 
 acknowledge that they are useful. But all gains that 
 are disproportionate to the amount of labor expended are 
 dishonorable." 
 
 " But who is to determine the suitability ? " 
 
 " Property acquired by any dishonest way, by craft," 
 said Levin, feeling that he could not very well make the 
 distinction between honorable and dishonorable. " For 
 example, the money made by stock-gambling," he went 
 on to say, " that is bad, and so are the gains made by 
 fortunes acquired without labor, as it used to be with 
 the speculators in monopolies ; only the form has been 
 changed. Le roi est mort, vive le roi! We had only just 
 done away with brandy-farming when the railways and 
 stock-gambling came in ; it is all money acquired with- 
 out work." 
 
 " Yes, that may be very wise and ingenious reasoning. 
 Lie down, Krak," cried Stepan Arkadyevitch, address- 
 ing the dog, which was licking his fur and tossing up 
 the hay. Oblonsky was evidently convinced of the cor- 
 rectness of his theory, and consequently argued calmly 
 and dispassionately. " But you do not make the dis- 
 tinctions clear between honest and dishonest work. Is 
 it dishonest when I receive a higher salary than my 
 head clerk, although he understands the business better 
 than I do ? " 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " Well, I will tell you one thing : what you receive 
 for your work on your estate is let us say five 
 thousand above your expenses ; but this muzhik, our host, 
 hard as he works, does not get more than fifty rubles, 
 and this disparity is just as dishonorable as that I re- 
 ceive more than my head clerk or that Malthus receives 
 more than a railway engineer. On the contrary, it seems 
 to me that the hostility shown by society to these men 
 arises from envy." .... 
 
 "No, that is unjust," said Veslovsky ; "it cannot be
 
 ANNA KARENINA 107 
 
 envy, and there is something unfair in this state of 
 things." 
 
 " Excuse me," persisted Levin. "You say it is unfair 
 for me to receive five thousand while the muzhik gets 
 only fifty ; you 're right. It is unfair. I feel it, 
 but...." 
 
 " The distinction holds throughout. Why do we eat, 
 drink, hunt, waste our time, while he is forever and ever 
 at work ? " said Vasenka Veslovsky, who was evidently 
 for the first time in his life thinking clearly on this ques- 
 tion, and therefore was willing to be frank. 
 
 "Yes, you feel so, but you don't give your estate up 
 to the muzhik," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, not sorry of 
 a chance to tease Levin. 
 
 Of late there had arisen between the two brothers-in- 
 law a secretly hostile relationship ; since they had mar- 
 ried sisters, a sort of rivalry existed between them as to 
 which of them had the best way of living, and now this 
 hostility expressed itself by the conversation taking a 
 personal turn. 
 
 " I do not give it because no one demands this of me, 
 and even if I wanted to, I could not," replied Levin. 
 
 " Give it to this muzhik ; he would not refuse it." 
 
 " But how could I give it to him ? Should I come 
 with him and sign the deed ? " 
 
 " I don't know ; but if you are convinced that you 
 have not the right.... " 
 
 " I am not altogether convinced. On the contrary I 
 feel that I have no right to give it away, that I have 
 certain obligations both to the land and to my family." 
 
 " No, excuse me ; if you consider that this inequality 
 is unjust, then why don't you do so ? " 
 
 " I do it, only in a negative way, in the sense that 
 I do not try to increase the discrepancy that exists be- 
 tween him and me." 
 
 " No, but that is a paradox, if you will allow me to 
 say so." 
 
 "Yes, that is a sort of sophistical statement," averred 
 Veslovsky. " Ho! friend," 1 he exclaimed, addressing 
 
 1 Khozain.
 
 io8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 their host, who had just then come into the loft, mak- 
 ing the door creak on its hinges, " are n't you asleep 
 yet?" 
 
 " No, how can one sleep ? But I supposed you 
 gentlemen were asleep still, I heard talking. I wanted 
 to get a hook. Will she bite?" he added, carefully 
 slipping along in his bare feet. 
 
 " But where do you sleep ?" 
 
 " We are on night duty." 
 
 " Oh, what a night," exclaimed Veslovsky, catching 
 a glimpse of the edge of the izba and the unharnessed 
 wagons in the faint light of the west through the now 
 widely opened door. " Just listen to those women's 
 voices singing ; it is not bad at all. Who is singing, 
 friend ? " said he, addressing the muzhik. 
 
 " Oh, those are the girls from the farm, singing to- 
 gether." 
 
 " Come, let 's go out and take a walk ! We shall 
 never go to sleep. Come on, Oblonsky." 
 
 " What 's the use ? " said Oblonsky, stretching, " it 's 
 more comfortable here." 
 
 "Well, then, I'll go alone," exclaimed Veslovsky, 
 jumping up eagerly and putting on his shoes and 
 stockings. " Good-by da svidanya gentlemen. If 
 there 's any fun, I will come and call you. You have 
 given me good hunting and I won't forget you." 
 
 " He 's a splendid young fellow," said Oblonsky, after 
 Veslovsky had gone out and the muzhik had shut the 
 door again. 
 
 " Yes, he is," replied Levin, still continuing to think 
 of what they had been talking about. It seemed to 
 him that he had clearly, to the best of his ability, uttered 
 his thoughts and feelings, and yet these men, who were 
 by no means stupid or insincere, agreed in declaring 
 that he indulged in sophistries. This confused him. 
 
 "This is the way of it, my friend," said Oblonsky. 
 " One of two things must be : either you must agree that 
 the present order of society is all right, and then stand up 
 for your rights, or confess that you enjoy unfair privileges, 
 as I do, and get all the good out of them that you can."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 109 
 
 " No ; if this was unfair, you could not get any enjoy- 
 ment out of these advantages .... at least I could not. 
 With me the main thing would be to feel that I was not 
 to blame." 
 
 " After all, why should we not go out," said Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, evidently growing tired of this discus- 
 sion. " You see we are not going to sleep. Come on, 
 let 's go out." 
 
 Levin made no reply. What he had said in their 
 conversation about his doing right only in a negative 
 sense occupied his mind. " Can one be right only in 
 a negative way ? " he asked himself. 
 
 " How strong the odor of the fresh hay is," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, as he got up. " It is impossible 
 to go to sleep. Vasenka is hatching some scheme out 
 there. Don't you hear them laughing, and his voice? 
 Won't you come ? Come on." 
 
 " No, I am not going," said Levin. 
 
 " Is this also from principle ?" asked Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, with a smile, as he groped round in the dark- 
 ness for his cap. 
 
 " No, not from principle, but why should I go ? " 
 
 " Do you know you are laying up misfortune for 
 yourself?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, having found his 
 cap, and getting up. 
 
 " Why so ? " 
 
 " Don't I see how you are giving in to your wife ? 
 I heard how much importance you attached to the ques- 
 tion whether she approved of your going off for a 
 couple of days' hunting. That is very well as an idyl, 
 but it does n't work for a whole lifetime. A man ought 
 to be independent ; he has his own masculine interests. 
 A man must be manly," said Oblonsky, opening the 
 door. 
 
 "What does that mean .... going and flirting with the 
 farm girls ? " asked Levin. 
 
 " Why not go, if there 's fun in it ? Ca ne tire pas a 
 consequence. My wife would not be any the worse off 
 for it, and it affords me amusement. The main thing 
 is the sanctity of the home. There should not be any
 
 no ANNA KARENINA 
 
 trouble at home. But there is no need of a man's tying 
 his hands." 
 
 " Perhaps not," said Levin, dryly, and he turned over 
 on his side. " To-morrow I must start early and I shan't 
 \vake any one, and I shall start at daybreak." 
 
 "Messieurs, venez vite" called Vasenka, returning. 
 " Charmante ! I have discovered her! Charmante ! A 
 perfect Gretchen, and she and I have already scraped 
 acquaintance. Truly she is mighty pretty," he cried, 
 with such an expression of satisfaction that any one 
 would think that she had been made for his especial 
 benefit, and that he was satisfied with the work of the 
 one who had prepared her for him. 
 
 Levin pretended to be asleep, but Oblonsky, putting 
 on his slippers and lighting a cigar, left the barn and 
 soon their voices died away. 
 
 It was long before Levin could go to sleep. He 
 heard his horses munching their hay, then the muzhik 
 setting out with his eldest son to watch the animals in 
 the pasture, then the soldier going to bed on the other 
 side of the loft with his nephew, the youngest son of 
 their host ; he heard the little boy in a low voice telling 
 his uncle his impressions regarding the dogs, which to 
 him seemed terrible and monstrous beasts ; then the boy 
 asking what these dogs caught, and the soldier in a 
 hoarse and sleepy voice telling him that the next day the 
 huntsmen would go to the swamp and would fire off their 
 guns; and then, the boy still continuing to ply him with 
 questions, the soldier hushed him up, saying, " Go to 
 sleep, Vaska, go to sleep, and you will see," and soon 
 the man began to snore and all became quiet. All that 
 was heard was the neighing of the horses and the cries 
 of the woodcock. 
 
 " Why is this simply revolting ? " he asked himself. 
 " Well, what 's to be done ? It is not my fault." And 
 he began to think of the morrow. 
 
 " To-morrow I will start early in the morning, and I 
 will take it on myself not to get excited. I will bring 
 down some woodcock. And there are plenty of snipe ! 
 And when I get back, there '11 be a letter from Kitty.
 
 ANNA KARENINA in 
 
 Yes, perhaps Stiva is right ; I am not manly toward 
 
 her; I am too much under my wife's thumb But 
 
 what is to be done about it ? This also is revolting." 
 
 Through his dream he heard Veslovsky and Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch gayly talking and laughing. For an 
 instant he opened his eyes. The moon had risen, and 
 through the open doors he saw them standing there in 
 the bright moonlight, and talking. Stepan ArkaHye- 
 vitch was saying something about the freshness of a 
 young girl, comparing her to a walnut just out of its 
 shell, and Veslovsky laughing his contagious laugh, 
 made some reply, evidently repeating the words spoken 
 by some muzhik, "You'd better be going home." 
 
 Levin spoke through his dream, " Gentlemen, to- 
 morrow morning at daybreak." 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 WAKING at earliest dawn, Levin tried to wake his 
 companions. Vasenka, lying on his stomach, with one 
 leg in a stocking, was sleeping so soundly that it was 
 impossible to get any reply from him. Oblonsky, only 
 half awake, refused to start out so early. And even 
 Laska, sleeping curled up in a round ball at the edge 
 of the hay, got up reluctantly, and lazily stretched out 
 and straightened her hind legs, one after the other. 
 Levin, putting on his boots, took his gun and cautiously 
 opening the creaking door of the shed, went outdoors. 
 The coachmen were sleeping near the wagons ; the 
 horses were dozing. Only one sheep was drowsily eat- 
 ing with his nose in the trough. It was still gray in 
 the yard. 
 
 " You are up early, are n't you, my dear," said the old 
 peasant woman, the mistress of the house, coming out 
 from the izba, and addressing him in a friendly way, like 
 an old acquaintance. 
 
 " Yes, I 'm going out shooting, auntie. Can I go this 
 way to the swamp ? " 
 
 " Directly behind the barns, follow the foot-path along
 
 ii2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 by the hemp-field." Stepping cautiously with her bare, 
 sunburnt feet, the old woman accompanied Levin as far 
 as the fence back of the barn. " Go straight on and 
 you '11 come to the swamp. Our boys went there last 
 evening." 
 
 Laska ran merrily ahead along the foot-path. Levin 
 followed her with swift, light steps, constantly watching 
 the 'sky. He had an idea that he would reach the 
 swamp before the sun would be up. But the sun did 
 not loiter. The moon, which had been shining brightly 
 when he first came out, was now growing pallid like a 
 lump of quicksilver. The morning star, which before 
 was most conspicuous, now almost defied detection ; 
 certain spots before almost indistinguishable on the 
 distant field, now were becoming plainly visible ; these 
 were heaps of rye. The dew, though it could not be 
 seen in the absence of the sunlight, was so dense on the 
 fragrant tall hemp from which the seed had already 
 been gathered, that it wet Levin's legs and blouse above 
 his belt. In the transparent stillness of the morning the 
 slightest sounds were audible. A bee, humming like a 
 bullet, whizzed by Levin's ear. He looked around and 
 discovered a second and yet a third. They were com- 
 ing from the hives and were flying over the hemp-field 
 and disappearing in the direction of the swamp. The 
 foot-path led directly into the marsh, which could be 
 detected by the mists rising over it, here denser, there 
 thinner, so that clumps of grass and cytisus bushes 
 looked like little islands emerging from them. Peasant 
 boys and men, who had been on night duty, were 
 scattered about on the edge of the swamp and along the 
 roadside, and all of them were sleeping wrapped up in 
 their kaftans. At a little distance from them three 
 horses were moving about unfastened. One of them 
 carried clinking chains. Laska ran along by her 
 master's side, eager to dash ahead, and with her eyes 
 on everything. After they had passed the sleeping 
 muzhiks and had reached the first swampy places, Levin 
 examined the priming of his gun and let the dog go. 
 
 One of the horses, a fat chestnut three-year-old, see-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 113 
 
 ing Laska, shied, and, lifting his tail, whinnied. The two 
 other horses were also startled, and dashed through the 
 water and galloped out of the swamp. As they pulled 
 their hoofs out of the soft, sticky mud, they made a 
 noise like smacking. Laska paused, looking with 
 amused eyes at the horses, and seemed to ask her 
 master what she should do. Levin caressed her and 
 gave a whistle as a signal that she might begin her 
 work. Laska, joyous and full of importance, darted on 
 over the soil of the marsh, which quaked under her 
 weight. 
 
 As soon as she got fairly into the bog, Laska in- 
 stantly distinguished amid all the well-known odors of 
 roots and swamp-grass and the mud and the droppings 
 of the horses, the scent of the bird perceptible through 
 the whole place the penetrating bird odor which 
 more than anything else excited her. Wherever there 
 was moss or sage bushes this odor was peculiarly strong, 
 but it was impossible to make out in which direction it 
 increased or diminished in strength. In order to get 
 her bearings, the dog had to bear to the lee of the wind. 
 Unconscious of any effort in moving her legs, Laska in 
 an eager gallop, yet so restrained that she was able to 
 stop at a bound, if anything of consequence presented it- 
 self, dashed toward the right away from the breeze which 
 was now beginning to blow freshly from the east. Snuff- 
 ing the air with her widespread nostrils, she suddenly 
 became conscious that she was no longer following a 
 trail, but was on the game itself not one bird alone, 
 but many. Laska slackened her speed. The birds 
 were there, but she could not as yet determine exactly 
 where. In order to find the exact spot, she began 
 another circle, when suddenly the voice of her master 
 called her back. 
 
 " Here, Laska," he cried, directing her toward the 
 other side. She paused as if to ask him if she had not 
 better keep on as she had begun. But he repeated his 
 command in a stern voice, sending her to a tussock- 
 covered place overflowed with water, where there could 
 not possibly be anything. 
 
 VOL. III. 8
 
 1 14 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 She heard him, and, pretending to obey him, so as to 
 satisfy him, ran hastily over the spot indicated, and then 
 returned to the place which had attracted her before, 
 and instantly perceived them again. Now that he no 
 longer bothered her she knew exactly what to do, and 
 without looking where she was going, stumbling over 
 tussocks to her great indignation and falling into the 
 water, but quickly extricating herself with her strong, 
 agile legs, she began to circle round, so as to get her 
 exact bearings. 
 
 The scent of the birds kept growing stronger and 
 stronger, more and more distinct, and suddenly it be- 
 came perfectly evident to her that one of them was there, 
 just behind a certain tussock not five steps in front of her, 
 and she stopped and trembled all over. Her legs were 
 so short that she could not see anything, but she knew 
 by the scent that the bird was sitting there not five steps 
 distant from her. She pointed, growing each instant 
 more certain of her game and full of joy in the anticipa- 
 tion. Her tail stuck straight out and only the end of it 
 quivered. Her mouth was open slightly. Her ears were 
 cocked up. Indeed, one ear had been all the time pricked 
 up as she ran, and she was panting heavily, but cautiously, 
 and looking round still more cautiously, rather with her 
 eyes than with her head, to see if her master was coming. 
 He was coming, leaping from tussock to tussock, and 
 more slowly than usual it seemed to her ; his face bore 
 the expression which she knew so well, and which was 
 so terrible to her. It seemed to her that he was coming 
 slowly, and yet he was running ! 
 
 Remarking Laska's peculiar method of search as she 
 crouched down close to the ground and took such long 
 strides that her hind legs seemed to rake the ground, 
 and noticing her slightly opened mouth, Levin knew 
 that she was on the track of snipe, and offering a 
 mental prayer to God that he might not miss especially 
 his first shot, he followed the dog. As he came up 
 close to her he looked from his superior height and saw 
 with his eyes what she perceived only with her nose. 
 In a nook between two tussocks not more than six feet
 
 ANNA KARENINA 115 
 
 away from him a snipe was sitting. With head raised 
 it was listening. Then, slightly spreading and closing 
 its wings and awkwardly wagging its tail, it hid behind 
 its nook. 
 
 " At him, at him ! " cried Levin, pushing Laska from 
 behind. 
 
 " But I can't move," thought Laska. " Where shall 
 I go ? From here I smell 'em, but if I stir I shan't 
 find anything, or know what they are or where they 
 are." 
 
 But Levin again pushed the dog with his knee, and 
 in an excited whisper he cried again, "At him, Lasotchka, 
 at him ! " 
 
 "Well, if he wants me to do it, I will, but I won't 
 answer for the consequences now," she said to herself, 
 and she darted forward with all her might between the 
 tussocks ! She no longer went by scent, but only by 
 her eyes and ears, and did not know what she was 
 doing. 
 
 Ten paces from the first place a second snipe arose 
 with a loud squawking and a characteristic drumming 
 of wings. Instantly the shot rang out and the bird fell 
 heavily with its white breast on the moist ground. Still 
 another immediately flew up, not even roused by the dog. 
 
 When Levin aimed at it it was already a long shot, 
 but he brought it down. After flying twenty feet or 
 more the second snipe rose high into the air, then, spin- 
 ning like a top, fell heavily to the ground on a dry 
 spot. 
 
 " That is the talk," thought Levin, thrusting the fat 
 snipe, still warm, into his hunting-bag. " Ha, Lasotchka, 
 there 's some sense in this, hey ? " 
 
 When Levin, having reloaded, went still farther into 
 the swamp, the sun was already up, though it was as 
 yet hidden behind masses of clouds. The moon, which 
 had now lost all its brilliancy, looked like a white cloud 
 against the sky; not a star was to be seen. The swampy 
 places, which before had been silvered with the dew, 
 were now yellow. The whole swamp was amber. The 
 blue of the grass changed into yellowish green. The
 
 n6 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 marsh birds bustled about among the bushes glittering 
 with dew and casting long shadows along by the brook. 
 A hawk awoke and perched on a hayrick, turning his 
 head from side to side, looking with displeasure at the 
 marsh. The jackdaws flew fieldward, and a barefooted 
 urchin was already starting to drive the horses up to an 
 old man who had been spending the night there, and was 
 now crawling out from under his kaftan. The gun- 
 powder smoke lay white as milk along the green grass. 
 One of the peasant children ran down to Levin. 
 
 "There were some ducks here last evening, uncle," 1 
 he cried, and followed him at a distance. 
 
 And Levin experienced a feeling of the keenest satis- 
 faction in killing three woodcock, one after the other, 
 while the boy was watching him and expressing his 
 approbation. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE superstition of hunters, that if the first shot 
 brings down bird or beast, the field will be good, was 
 justified. 
 
 Tired and hungry, but delighted, Levin returned 
 about ten o'clock, after a run of thirty versts, having 
 brought down nineteen snipe and woodcock and one 
 duck, which, for want of room in his game-bag, he hung 
 at his belt. His companions had been long up ; and 
 after waiting till they were famished, they had eaten 
 breakfast. 
 
 " Hold on, hold on ! I know there are nineteen," 
 cried Levin, counting for the second time his woodcock 
 and snipe, with their bloodstained plumage, and their 
 drooping heads all laid one over the other, so different 
 from what they were on the marsh. 
 
 The count was verified, and Stepan Arkadyevitch's 
 envy was delightful to Levin. 
 
 It was also delightful to him, on returning to his 
 
 1 Dyadenka, little uncle.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 117 
 
 lodging, to find there a messenger who had just come 
 from Kitty, bringing him a letter. 
 
 I am perfectly well and happy, and if you fear lest I shall 
 not be sufficiently cared for, you may be reassured. I have a 
 new body-guard in the person of Marya Vlasyevna. [She was 
 a midwife, a new and very important personage in Levin's fam- 
 ily.] She came over to see me. She thinks I am wonderfully 
 well, and we shall keep her till you get back. We are all well 
 and happy, and if you are enjoying yourself and the hunting is 
 good you may stay another day. 
 
 These two pleasures his successful hunt and the let- 
 ter from his wife were so great, that they effaced from 
 Levin's mind two less agreeable incidents. The first 
 was the fact that his fast horse, who had apparently been 
 overworked the evening before, refused to eat and was 
 out of sorts. The coachman said that she was used up. 
 
 " They abused her last evening, Konstantin Dmitritch," 
 said he. " The idea ! They drove her ten versts at full 
 speed ! " 
 
 The second unpleasantness, which for the first mo- 
 ment put an end to his happy frame of mind, but which 
 afterward caused him no end of amusement, arose from 
 the fact that not a thing was left for him from all the 
 abundant store of provisions which Kitty had put up 
 for them, and which it seemed ought to have lasted 
 them a whole week. As he returned from his long and 
 weary tramp, Levin had indulged his imagination in 
 certain tarts, so that when he entered the izba he 
 actually felt the taste of them in his mouth just as Laska 
 scented the game, and he immediately ordered Filipp 
 to serve them to him. It then transpired that not only 
 the tarts, but all the cold chicken, had disappeared. 
 
 " There ! talk of appetites," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 laughing and nodding at Vasenka Veslovsky ; " I can- 
 not complain of mine, but this is marvelous." 
 
 "Well! what shall I do?" cried Levin, glowering at 
 Veslovsky. " Filipp, give me some cold beef." 
 
 " Beef 's all gone and the dogs have got the bones ! " 
 replied Filipp.
 
 n8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Levin was so irritated that he could not help exclaim- 
 ing, "I should think you might have left something 
 for me ! " and he felt like crying. 
 
 "Then cook me a woodcock," he said, with trembling 
 voice, to Filipp, trying not to look at Vasenka, " and 
 bring me some milk." 
 
 But after he drank his milk he was mortified because 
 he had shown his disappointment so plainly and before 
 a stranger, and he began to laugh at himself for his 
 anger. 
 
 In the afternoon they went out into the fields again, 
 and even Veslovsky shot several birds, and at night they 
 went home. 
 
 They were as gay on their return as they had been 
 while going. Veslovsky now sang songs, and now told 
 of his adventures with the muzhiks who gave him his 
 vodka and bade him drink it down quick. Then he 
 related his nocturnal experiences with the nuts and the 
 farm girl, and the muzhik who asked him if he was 
 married or not, and who, when he found that he was 
 not married, said to him : " Well, you 'd better not be 
 running after other folks' women ; first of all go home 
 and get a wife for yourself." 
 
 This advice greatly amused Veslovsky. 
 
 " Well, on the whole, I am awfully glad we went, 
 are n't you, Levin ? " 
 
 "Very glad," replied Levin, sincerely, and he was 
 especially happy because he no longer felt that animosity 
 which he had felt at home toward Vasenka Veslovsky ; 
 but, on the other hand, had conceived a genuine friend- 
 ship for him. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ABOUT ten o'clock the next morning, after inspecting 
 the farm, Levin knocked at the door of the room in 
 which Vasenka had spent the night. 
 
 " Entrez" cried Veslovsky. "Excuse me, but I am 
 just finishing my ablutions," he added, with a smile, 
 standing before Levin in his bare skin.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 119 
 
 :< Do not let me disturb you," said Levin, and he sat 
 down by the window. " Did you sleep well ? " 
 
 " Like the dead. Is it a good day for hunting ? " 
 
 " What do you drink, tea or coffee ? " 
 
 " Neither ; I always go down to breakfast ; I am 
 mortified at being so late. The ladies, I suppose, are 
 already up ? Splendid time for a ride ! You must show 
 me your horses." 
 
 After walking around the garden, examining the stable, 
 and performing a few gymnastic exercises together on 
 the parallel bars, Levin and his guest returned to the 
 house and went into the drawing-room. 
 
 " We had splendid sport and got so many new im- 
 pressions," said Veslovsky, approaching Kitty, who was 
 sitting near the samovar. " What a pity that ladies are 
 deprived of this pleasure ! " 
 
 " Well, of course he must have something to say to 
 the lady of the house," thought Levin. Again he de- 
 tected something peculiar in the smile and in the tri- 
 umphant air with which his guest behaved toward Kitty. 
 
 The princess, who was sitting on the other side of the 
 table with Marya Vlasyevna and Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 called Levin to her and began to broach her idea that 
 they should go to Moscow for Kitty's confinement, and 
 explained to him how the rooms should be prepared for 
 her. 
 
 Just as all the preparations for his wedding had 
 seemed distasteful to Levin because they were so insig- 
 nificant in comparison with the majesty of the event 
 itself, so now even more humiliating were all the prepa- 
 rations for the approaching confinement, the time of 
 which they were reckoning up on their fingers. He 
 tried to shut his ears to all the talk about the various 
 kinds of swaddling-clothes for the unborn infant ; he 
 did his best to shut his eyes to all the mysterious and 
 numberless bands and triangular pieces of linen to which 
 Dolly seemed to attribute special importance and the 
 like. 
 
 The event of the birth of a son for he was firmly 
 persuaded that it would be a son seemed to him so
 
 120 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 extraordinary that he could not believe in its possibility , 
 and while on the one hand it promised him a happiness 
 too enormous and therefore incredible, on the other 
 hand it seemed to him too mysterious to admit of trying 
 to imagine what it meant, and consequently all this 
 preparation as if for something commonplace, for some- 
 thing in the hands of men, seemed to him revolting and 
 humiliating. The princess did not understand his feel- 
 ings, and she attributed his unwillingness to think and 
 talk about this to indifference and carelessness, and so 
 she gave him no peace. She had just been charging 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch to look up a suite of rooms, and 
 now she called Levin to her. 
 
 " Do as you think best, princess ; I understand nothing 
 about the matter," said he. 
 
 " But it must be decided just when you will go to 
 Moscow." 
 
 " Truly I don't know ; what I know is that millions of 
 children are born away from Moscow, and doctors ... 
 and all that ...." 
 
 " Yes, but in that case ...." 
 
 " Let Kitty do as she pleases about it." 
 
 " It is impossible to speak with Kitty about it. Do 
 you want me to frighten her ? Only this spring Natali 
 Golitsuin died in consequence of an unskilful accoiichenr." 
 
 " I shall do as you wish," repeated Levin, angrily. 
 
 The princess began to say something more to him, 
 but he was not listening. Though his conversation with 
 the princess upset him, he was not angered by what she 
 said, but by what he saw at the samovar. 
 
 " No ; that can't go on," thought he, as he from time 
 to time glanced over at Vasenka, who was bending 
 down to Kitty, with a flattering smile, and making some 
 remark to her ; and he also noticed his wife's disturbed 
 and blushing face. 
 
 There was something improper in Veslovsky's attitude, 
 his smile, his eyes. So, too, Kitty's action and appear- 
 ance seemed to him unbecoming, and again the light 
 flashed in his eyes. And again, as happened two days 
 before, he felt himself suddenly, without the least warn-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 121 
 
 ing, precipitated from the height of happiness, content- 
 ment, and dignity, into an abyss of despair, hatred, and 
 confusion. Again they seemed to him, each and all, his 
 enemies. 
 
 " Do just as you please, princess," said he again, 
 turning round. 
 
 " Heavy is the cap of Monomakh," said Stepan Ar- 
 kadyevitch in jest, referring evidently, not to Levin's 
 conversation with the princess, but to the cause of 
 Levin's agitated face, which he had noticed. " How 
 late you are, Dolly ! " 
 
 All rose to greet Darya Aleksandrovna. Vasenka 
 also arose, but only for a moment ; and with the lack of 
 politeness characteristic of up-to-date young men toward 
 ladies, scarcely bowing, he resumed his conversation with 
 some humorous remarks. 
 
 " Masha has been wearing me all out," said Dolly. 
 " She did not sleep well and she is terribly fretful to-day." 
 
 The conversation which Vasenka and Kitty were en- 
 gaged in once more turned, as it had the evening before, 
 on Anna and whether love could hold outside the con- 
 ventions of society This conversation was disagree- 
 able to Kitty, and it agitated her, not only by reason of 
 the topic and the tone in which it was carried on, but 
 still more because she was already conscious of the 
 effect it would have on her husband. But she was too 
 simple and innocent to understand how to put an end 
 to it, or even to hide the signs of agitation which this 
 young man's too pronounced attentions produced in her. 
 Whatever she did, she knew perfectly well would be re- 
 marked by her husband and would be absolutely misin- 
 terpreted. 
 
 And indeed, when she asked Dolly what was the 
 matter with Masha, and Vasenka, waiting till this new 
 subject of conversation, which was a bore to him, should 
 be finished, stared with an indifferent look at Dolly, 
 this question struck Levin as an unnatural and obnox- 
 ious kind of slyness. 
 
 " Well, are we going after mushrooms to-day ? " asked 
 Dolly.
 
 122 ANNA KAREN1NA 
 
 " Oh, yes, do let us go, I should like to get some,' 
 said Kitty, and she blushed. For mere politeness' sake 
 she wanted to ask Vasenka if he would go with them, 
 but she did not do so. 
 
 " Where are you going, Kostia ? " she asked, with a 
 guilty air, as her husband, with deliberate steps, went 
 by her on his way out of the room. 
 
 This guilty confusion confirmed all his suspicions. 
 
 " A machinist came while I was away. I have not 
 had a chance to see him yet," he answered, without 
 looking at her. 
 
 He had gone down-stairs, but had not yet left his 
 library, before he heard Kitty's well-known footsteps 
 imprudently hurrying after him. 
 
 " What is it? We are busy," said he, curtly. 
 
 " Excuse me," said Kitty, addressing the German ma- 
 chinist ; " I wish to say a few words to my husband." 
 
 The mechanic was about to leave, but Levin stopped 
 him : " Don't disturb yourself." 
 
 " I don't want to lose the three o'clock train," re- 
 marked the German. 
 
 Without answering him, Levin went out into the cor- 
 ridor with his wife. 
 
 " Well, what do you wish to say to me ? " he asked in 
 French. 
 
 He did not look at her face, and did not want to see 
 how it quivered and what a look of pathetic humiliation 
 was in her eyes. 
 
 " I .... I wanted to say that it is impossible to live so; 
 it is torture " .... murmured she. 
 
 " There is some one there at the cupboard," he re- 
 plied angrily. " Don't make a scene." 
 
 " Then let us go in here, then." 
 
 Kitty wanted to go into the next room, but there the 
 English governess was teaching Tania. 
 
 "Then let us go into the garden." 
 
 In the garden they ran across a muzhik who was 
 weeding a path. And now no longer thinking that the 
 muzhik would see her tearful or his agitated face, not 
 thinking that they were in sight of people, as if running
 
 ANNA KARENINA 123 
 
 from some unhappiness, they went with swift steps 
 straight on, feeling that they must have a mutual expla- 
 nation, and find some lonely spot where they could talk, 
 and free themselves from this misery that was oppress- 
 ing them both. 
 
 " It is impossible to live so. It is torture. I suffer. 
 You suffer. Why is it ? " she said, when at last they 
 reached a bench standing by itself in the corner of the 
 linden alley. 
 
 " But tell me one thing: was not his manner indecent, 
 improper, horribly insulting?" he asked, standing in 
 front of her in the same position, with his fists doubled 
 up on his chest, in which he had stood before her two 
 days before. 
 
 " It was," said she, in a trembling voice; "but, Kos- 
 tia, can't you see that I am not to blame ? All this 
 morning I have been trying to act so that.... but oh, 
 these men .... why did he come ? How happy we 
 were ! " she said, choking with the sobs that shook her 
 whole body. 
 
 The gardener saw with surprise that, though nothing 
 was chasing them, and there was nothing to run away 
 from, and there was nothing especially attractive about 
 the bench where they had been sitting, yet still they 
 went past him back to the house with peaceful, shining 
 faces. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 As soorl as he had taken his wife to her room, Levin 
 went to seek Dolly. Darya Aleksandrovna also was in 
 a state of great excitement. She was pacing up and 
 down her chamber, and scolding little Masha, who 
 stood in a corner, crying. 
 
 " You shall stay all day in the corner, and eat dinner 
 alone, and you shall not see one of your dolls, and you 
 shall have no new dress," she was saying, though she 
 did not know why she was punishing the child. " This 
 is a naughty little girl," she said to Levin; " where does 
 she get this abominable disposition ? "
 
 i2 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Why, what has she done ? " asked Levin, rather in- 
 differently, for he was annoyed to find that he had come 
 at the wrong time when he wished some advice regard- 
 ing his own affairs. 
 
 " She and Grisha went into the raspberry bush, and 
 there .... but I can't tell you what she did. I 'd a thou- 
 sand times rather have Miss Elliot. This governess 
 does n't look after anything .... she 's a machine. Figures 
 vous, que la petite ..." 
 
 And Darya Aleksandrovna related Masha's misdeeds. 
 
 "There's nothing very bad in that. That doesn't 
 signify a bad disposition. It is only a piece of childish 
 mischief," said Levin, soothingly. 
 
 " But what is the matter with you ? You look troubled. 
 What has happened down-stairs ? " asked Dolly, and by 
 the tone of her questions Levin perceived that it would 
 be easy for him to say what he had in his mind to say. 
 
 " I have n't been down-stairs. I have been alone in 
 the garden with Kitty. We have just had a quarrel .... 
 the second since.... Stiva came." 
 
 Dolly looked at him with her intelligent, penetrating 
 eyes. 
 
 " Now tell me, with your hand on your heart," he 
 said, " tell me, was the conduct, not of Kitty, but of 
 this young man, anything else than unpleasant, not 
 unpleasant, but intolerable, insulting even, to a hus- 
 band ? " 
 
 " What shall I say to you ? Stand, stand in the 
 corner!" said she to Masha, who, noticing the scarcely 
 perceptible smile on her mother's face, started to go 
 away. " Society would say that he is only behaving as 
 all young men behave. // fait la cour d une jeune et 
 jolie femme, and her husband, as himself a gentleman 
 of society, should be flattered by it." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said Levin, angrily; "but have you 
 noticed it ? " 
 
 " I noticed it, of course, and so did Stiva. Just after 
 tea he said to me, 'Je crois que Veslovsky fait un petit 
 brin de cour a Kitty.' " 1 
 
 1 1 believe Veslovsky is trying to flirt with Kitty.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 125 
 
 " Well, that settles it. Now I am calm. I am going 
 to send him away," said Levin. 
 
 "What! Are you out of your senses?" cried Dolly, 
 alarmed. "What are you thinking about, Kostia ? " 
 she went on with a laugh. " You may go now to 
 Fanny," she said to the child. " No ! If you like, I 
 will speak to Stiva. He will get him to leave. He can 
 say you are expecting company. However, it is not 
 our house." 
 
 " No, no ! I will do it myself." 
 
 " You will quarrel." .... 
 
 " Not at all, I shall find it amusing," said he, with a 
 happier light shining in his eyes. " There, now, Dolly, 
 forgive her ; she won't do it again," he said, pointing 
 to the little culprit, who had not gone to Fanny, but 
 was now standing irresolute beside her mother, and 
 looking askance at her with pleading eyes. 
 
 The mother looked at her. The little girl, sobbing, 
 hid her face in her mother's lap, and Dolly laid her thin 
 hand tenderly on her head. 
 
 " Is there anything in common between us and that 
 fellow ? " thought Levin, and he went to find Veslovsky. 
 
 As he passed through the hall he ordered the carriage 
 to be made ready to go to the station. 
 
 " The springs were broken yesterday," the servant 
 answered. 
 
 " Then bring the tarantas. Only be quick about it. 
 Where is the guest ? " 
 
 " He went to his room." 
 
 Levin found Vasenka in the act of trying on his 
 gaiters in preparation for a ride. He had just taken 
 his things out of his valise, and laid aside some new love- 
 songs. 
 
 Either there was something strange in Levin's ex- 
 pression, or Vasenka himself was conscious that ce petit 
 brin de cour which he was making was rather out of 
 place in this family ; but at all events, he felt as uncom- 
 fortable in Levin's presence as it is possible for an 
 elegant young man to feel. 
 
 " Do you ride in gaiters ? " asked Levin.
 
 126 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Yes ; it 's much neater," replied Vasenka, putting 
 up one fat leg on a chair, and struggling with the 
 bottom button, and smiling with genuine good humor. 
 
 He was really a very good-hearted young fellow, and 
 Levin felt sorry for him and conscience-stricken for 
 himself as his host when he saw the timidity in Vasenka's 
 eyes. 
 
 On the table lay a fragment of a stick which they 
 had broken off that morning while trying to prop up the 
 parallel bars for their gymnastic exercises. Levin took 
 this fragment in his hand and began to break off the 
 ragged ends, not knowing how to commence. 
 
 " I wanted .... " He stopped for a moment ; but sud- 
 denly remembering Kitty and all that had taken place, 
 he went on, looking him squarely in the eye. " I have 
 had the horses put in for you." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " began Vasenka, in surprise. 
 " Where are we going ? " 
 
 " You are going to the railway station," said Levin, 
 with a frown, breaking off the end of the stick. 
 
 " Are you going away ? Has anything happened ? " 
 
 "I happen to be expecting company," Levin went 
 on, breaking off pieces of his stick more and more ner- 
 vously with his strong fingers. " Or, no, I am not 
 expecting any one, and nothing has happened, but I 
 beg you to go away. You may explain my lack in 
 politeness as you please." 
 
 Vasenka drew himself up. 
 
 " I beg you to explain to me," said he, with dignity, 
 comprehending at last. 
 
 " I cannot explain to you, and you will be wise not to 
 question me," Levin said slowly, trying to remain calm, 
 and to check the tremulous motions of his face. 
 
 And as the chipped pieces of the stick were by this 
 time all broken, Levin took the stick in his fingers, split 
 it in two, and picked up the part that fell to the 
 floor. 
 
 Apparently the sight of those energetic hands, those 
 very muscles which he had seen tested that morning 
 while they were doing their gymnastics, those flashing
 
 ANNA KARENINA 127 
 
 eyes, and the quivering face and the subdued sound of 
 his voice impressed Vasenka more than the spoken 
 words. Shrugging his shoulders and smiling disdain- 
 fully, he submitted. 
 
 " May I not see Oblonsky ? " 
 
 The shrugging of the shoulders and the smile did not 
 annoy Levin. " What else could he do ? " he asked 
 himself. 
 
 " I will send him to you immediately." 
 
 "What sense is there in such conduct!" exclaimed 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, when he had learned from his 
 friend that he was to be driven from the house, and 
 finding Levin in the garden, where he was walking up 
 and down waiting for his guest's departure. " Mais 
 c'est ridicule ! To be stung by such a fly as that ! 
 Mais c est du dernier ridicule ! What difference does 
 it make to you if a young man .... " 
 
 But the spot where the fly had stung Levin was evi- 
 dently still sensitive, because he turned pale again and 
 cut short the explanations which Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 tried to give. 
 
 " Please don't take the trouble to defend the young 
 man ; I can't help it. I am sorry both for you and for 
 him. But I imagine it won't be a great trial for him to 
 go away, and my wife and I both found his presence 
 unpleasant." 
 
 " But it was insulting to him. Et puts Jest ridicule.'" 
 
 " Well, it was humiliating and extremely disagreeable 
 to me. I am not to blame toward him, and there is no 
 reason why I should suffer for it." 
 
 " Well, I did not expect this of you. On pent Itre 
 jaloux, mais a ce point c est du dernier ridicule." 
 
 Levin quickly turned away, and entered the thick 
 shrubbery by the driveway, and continued to walk up 
 and down the path. 
 
 Soon he heard the rumbling of the tarantas, and 
 through the trees he saw Vasenka riding up the road, 
 sitting on the straw (for unfortunately the tarantas had 
 no seat), the ribbons of his Scotch cap streaming behind 
 his head as he jolted along.
 
 128 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "What now?" thought Levin, as he saw a servant 
 run from the house and stop the cart. It was only to 
 find a place for the machinist, whom Levin had entirely 
 forgotten. The machinist, with a low bow, said some- 
 thing to Veslovsky, and clambered into the tarantas, and 
 they drove off together. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch and the old princess were in- 
 dignant at Levin's conduct. And he himself felt that 
 he had been not only ridiculous in the highest degree, 
 but even blameworthy and disgraceful ; but as he re- 
 membered all that he and his wife had suffered, he 
 asked himself how he should do another time in similar 
 circumstances, and his answer was that he should do 
 exactly the same thing again. 
 
 In spite of all this, toward the end of the day, all of 
 them, with the exception of the old princess, who could 
 not forgive Levin's behavior, became extraordinarily 
 gay and lively, just like children after a punishment or 
 like grown people after a solemn official reception, so 
 that in the evening, in the absence of the old princess, 
 they talked about the dismissal of Vasenka as about 
 something that had taken place long, long before. And 
 Dolly, who had inherited from her father the gift of 
 telling a funny story, made Varenka laugh till she cried, 
 by telling her three and four times, and each time with 
 new amusing details, how she had just put on, in honor 
 of their guest, some new ribbons, and was just going 
 into the drawing-room, when, at that very minute, the 
 rattle of an old tumble-down wagon drew her to the 
 window. Who was in this old tumble-down wagon ? 
 Vasenka himself ! and his Scotch cap, his love-songs, 
 his romantic airs, and his gaiters, seated on the straw ! 
 
 " If only a carriage had been given him ! But no ! 
 Then I hear a shout : ' Hold on ! ' ' Well,' I say to my- 
 self, ' they have taken pity on him ; ' not in the least ; 
 I look and see a fat German, and off they go ! and 
 noy ribbons were wasted."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 129 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 DARYA ALEKSANDROVNA carried out her plan of go- 
 ing to see Anna. She was sorry to offend her sister, 
 or to displease her sister's husband. She realized that 
 the Levins were right in not wishing to have anything 
 to do with Vronsky ; but she considered it her duty to 
 go to see Anna and prove to her that her feelings could 
 not change, in spite of the change in her position. 
 
 In order not to be dependent on the Levins, Darya 
 Aleksandrovna sent to the village to hire horses ; but 
 Levin, when he heard about it, went to her with his 
 complaint : 
 
 "Why do you think this journey would be disagree- 
 able to me ? And even if it were, it would be still more 
 unpleasant for me not to have you take my horses," 
 said he. " You never told me that you were really 
 going ; but to hire them from the village is disagreeable 
 to me in the first place, and chiefly because, though they 
 undertake to get you there, they would not succeed. I 
 have horses. And if you don't wish to offend me, you 
 will take mine." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna had to yield, and on the ap- 
 pointed day Levin had all ready for his sister-in-law a 
 team of four horses, and a relay, made up of working 
 and saddle-horses ; a very far from handsome turnout, 
 but capable of taking Darya Aleksandrovna to her 
 destination in one day. 
 
 Now that horses were needed to take the old princess 
 out for her daily drive, and for the midwife, it was a 
 rather heavy burden for Levin ; but, according to the law 
 of hospitality, he could not possibly think of allowing 
 Darya Aleksandrovna to hire horses outside, and, more- 
 over, he knew that the twenty rubles which was asked 
 for the hire of a team would be a serious matter for her, 
 for Darya Aleksandrovna's pecuniary affairs had got 
 into a very wretched condition, and caused the Levins 
 as much anxiety as if they had been their own. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, by Levin's advice, set out at 
 
 VOL. III. 9
 
 ijo ANNA KARENINA 
 
 early dawn. The weather was fine, the calash was 
 comfortable, the horses went merrily, and on the box, 
 next the coachman, in place of a footman, sat the book- 
 keeper, whom Levin had sent for the sake of greater 
 security. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna dropped off to sleep, and did 
 not wake up till they reached the place where they had 
 to change horses. It was at the same rich muzhik's 
 house where Levin had stopped on his way to Svia- 
 zhsky's. After she had taken tea, and talked awhile with 
 the women about their children and with the old man 
 about Count Vronsky, for whom he had great respect, 
 Darya Aleksandrovna proceeded on her way about ten 
 o'clock. 
 
 At home on account of her maternal cares she never 
 had much time to think. Consequently now, during this 
 four hours' journey, all the thoughts that had been so 
 long restrained suddenly began to throng through her 
 brain, and she passed her whole life in review as she 
 had never before done and from every side. These 
 thoughts were strange even to herself. 
 
 First she thought of, her children, and began to worry 
 over them, though her mother and her sister and 
 it was the latter on whom she chiefly relied had 
 promised to look after them. " If only Masha does n't 
 do some stupid thing, and if Grisha does n't get kicked 
 by the horse, and if Lili does n't have an attack of indi- 
 gestion," she said to herself. 
 
 Then questions of the present moment began to 
 mingle with questions of the immediate future. She 
 began to consider how she must make changes in her 
 rooms when she returned to Moscow, she must refurnish 
 her drawing-room ; her eldest daughter would need a 
 shuba for winter. Then came questions of a still more 
 distant future. How should she best continue the chil- 
 dren's education ? 
 
 " The girls can be easily managed," she said to herself, 
 " but the boys ? It is well that I am able to look after 
 Grisha, but it comes from the fact that I am free just 
 now, with no baby in prospect. Of course there 's no
 
 ANNA KARENINA 131 
 
 dependence to be placed on Stiva. I shall be able to 
 bring them up with the assistance of excellent people ; 
 but if I have any more babies ...." 
 
 And it occurred to her how unjust was the saying 
 that the curse laid on woman lay in the pangs of child-birth. 
 
 "Childbirth is nothing, but pregnancy is such misery," 
 she said to herself, recalling the last experience of the 
 sort, and the death of the child. And the thought 
 brought to mind her talk with the young wife at the 
 post-house. When asked if she had children, this 
 peasant woman had answered cheerfully : 
 
 " I had one daughter, but God relieved me of her ; she 
 was buried in Lent. 
 
 " And you are very sad about her ? " 
 
 " Why should I be ? father has plenty of grandchildren, 
 as it is, and she would have been only one care more ! 
 You can't work or do anything ; it hinders everything." 
 
 This reply had seemed revolting to Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna, in spite of the young peasant-woman's appear- 
 ance of good nature, but now she could not help recalling 
 what she had said. There was certainly a grain of truth 
 in those cynical words. 
 
 " Yes, and as a general thing," said Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna, as she looked back over the fifteen years of her 
 married life, " pregnancy, nausea, dullness of spirits, in- 
 difference to everything, and worst of all, ugliness. 
 Kitty, our little, young, pretty Kitty, how ugly even 
 she has grown, and I know well what a fright I become 
 when I am in that condition. The birth-pains, the aw- 
 ful sufferings, and that last moment.... then the nursing 
 of the children, the sleepless nights, the agonies...." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna shuddered at the mere recollec- 
 tion of the agony which with almost every one of her 
 children she had suffered from broken breast. 
 
 Then the illnesses of the children, that panic of fear , 
 then their education, their evil disposition ; she recalled 
 little Masha's disobedience in going to the raspberry 
 bush ; the lessons, Latin everything that is so incom- 
 prehensible and hard. And, above all, the death of these 
 children.
 
 132 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 And once more she went over the undying pangs that 
 weighed down her maternal heart in the cruel remem- 
 brance of the death of her youngest child, the nursling 
 who died of the croup, and his funeral, and the indiffer- 
 ence of other people as they looked at the little pink 
 coffin, and her own heartrending grief, which none 
 could share, as she looked for the last time on the pal- 
 lid brow with the clinging curls, and the surprised half- 
 open mouth visible for one instant ere they shut down 
 the cover with its silver-gilt cross. 
 
 " And what is all this for ? What will be the result of 
 it all ? That I never have a moment of rest, spending my 
 days now in bearing children, now in nursing them, for- 
 ever irritable, complaining, self-tormented, and torment-- 
 ing others, repulsive to my husband. I shall live on, and 
 my children will grow up wretched, ill-educated, and 
 poor. Even now, if I had not been able to spend the 
 summer with the Levins, I don't know how we should 
 have got along. Of course Kostia and Kitty are so 
 considerate that we can't feel under obligations to them ; 
 but this cannot go on so. They will be having children 
 of their own, and then they will not be able to help us 
 any more ; even now their expenses are very heavy. 
 What then ? Papa, who has kept almost nothing for him- 
 self, won't be able to help us, will he ? One thing is per- 
 fectly certain, I cannot educate my children unaided ; 
 and, if I have to have assistance, it will be humiliating. 
 Well, let us suppose that we have good luck, if no more 
 of the children die and I can manage to educate them. 
 Under the most favorable circumstances they will at 
 least turn out not to be bad. That is all that I can 
 hope for. And to bring about so much, how much 
 
 suffering, how much trouble, I must go through My 
 
 whole life is spoiled ! " 
 
 Again she recalled what the young peasant woman 
 had said, and again it was odious to her to remember it; 
 but she could not help agreeing that there was a grain 
 of coarse truth in her words. 
 
 "Is it much farther, Mikha'fla ? " asked Darya Alek-. 
 sandrovna of the bookkeeper, in order to check tHese 
 painful thoughts.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 133 
 
 "They say it is seven versts from this village." 
 
 The calash was rolling through the village street and 
 across a little bridge. On the bridge was passing a 
 whole troop of peasant women talking, with loud and 
 merry voices, and carrying their sheaves on their backs. 
 The women paused on the bridge and gazed inquisi- 
 tively at the calash. All the faces turned toward Darya 
 Aleksandrovna seemed to her healthy and cheerful, 
 mocking her with the very joy of life. 
 
 " All are full of life, all of them enjoy themselves," 
 said Darya Aleksandrovna, continuing to commune with 
 her own thoughts, as she passed by the peasant women 
 and was carried swiftly up the little hill, pleasantly 
 rocking on the easy springs of the old calash, "while I, 
 like one let loose from a prison, am free for a moment 
 from the life that is crushing me with its cares. All 
 other women know what it is to live, these peasant 
 women and my sister Natali and Varenka and Anna 
 whom I am going to visit every one but me. 
 
 "And they blame Anna. Why? Am I really any 
 better than she ? At least I have a husband whom I 
 love ; not, to be sure, as I wish I loved him, but I love 
 him in a way, and Anna did not love hers. In what 
 respect is she to blame ? She desired to live. And God 
 put that desire into our hearts. Very possibly I might 
 have done the same thing. And to this day I am not 
 certain whether I did well in taking her advice at that 
 horrible time when she came to visit me in Moscow. 
 Then I ought to have left my husband and begun my life 
 all over again. If I had I might have loved and been loved. 
 And now are things any better ? I cannot respect him, 
 but I need him," she said to herself, referring to her 
 husband, "and so I endure him. Is that any better? 
 At that time I still had the power of pleasing, I had 
 some beauty then," said Darya Aleksandrovna, still 
 pursuing her thoughts ; and the desire to look at her- 
 self in a mirror came over her. She had a small travel- 
 ing mirror in her bag, and she wanted to take it out ; 
 but, as she looked at the backs of the coachman and 
 the swaying bookkeeper, she felt that she should be
 
 ij4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ashamed of herself if either of them turned round and 
 saw her, and so she did not take out the mirror. But, 
 even though she did not look at the mirror, she felt that 
 even now it was not too late : for she remembered 
 SergyeT Ivanovitch, who was especially amiable to her, 
 and Stiva's friend, the good Turovtsuin, who had helped 
 her take care of the children during the time of the 
 scarlatina, and had been in love with her. And then 
 there was still another, a very young man, who, as her 
 husband used jestingly to remark, found her prettier 
 than all her sisters. And all sorts of passionate and im- 
 possible romances rose before her imagination. 
 
 " Anna has done perfectly right, and I shall never 
 think of reproaching her. She is happy, she makes 
 some one else happy, and she is not worn out as I am, but 
 keeps all her freshness and her mind open to all sorts of 
 interests," said Darya Aleksandrovna, and a roguish 
 smile played over her lips because, as she passed Anna's 
 romantic story in review, she imagined herself simul- 
 taneously having almost the same experiences with a 
 sort of collective representation of all the men who had 
 ever been in love with her. She, just like Anna, con- 
 fessed everything to her husband. And the amazement 
 and perplexity which she imagined Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch displayed at this confession caused her to smile. 
 
 With such day-dreams she reached the side road that 
 led from the highway to Vozdvizhenskoye. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE coachman reined in his four horses, and looked 
 off to the right toward a field of rye where some mu- 
 zhiks were sitting beside their cart. The bookkeeper at 
 first started to jump down, but afterward reconsidered, 
 and shouted, imperatively summoning a muzhik to the 
 carriage. The breeze which had blown while they were 
 in motion died down, when they stopped ; the horse-flies 
 persisted in sticking to the sweaty horses, which kept 
 angrily shaking them off. The metallic sound of whet-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 135 
 
 ting scythes, borne by the breeze across from the telyega, 
 ceased. One of the peasants got up and came over to 
 the calash. "Say, hurry up," cried the bookkeeper, 
 angrily, to the muzhik, who, in his bare feet, came 
 leisurely along the ruts of the dry and little-traveled 
 road, "come here." 
 
 The old man, whose curly hair was bound round with 
 a piece of bast, and whose bent back was black with 
 perspiration, quickened his step, and came up to the 
 calash, and took hold of the rim with his sunburnt hand. 
 
 " Vozdvizhenskoye ? the manor-house P 1 to the count's ? " 
 he repeated ; " why, all you have to do 's to drive on up 
 the hill. First turn to the left. Then straight along the 
 preshpekt and that '11 bring you there. Who do you 
 want ? The count himself ? " 
 
 " Do you know whether they are at home, galubchik? " 
 asked Darya Aleksandrovna, not mentioning names, for 
 she did not know how to ask for Anna even of a 
 muzhik. 
 
 " Must be at home," said the muzhik, shuffling along 
 in his bare feet and leaving in the dust the tracks of his 
 soles with their five toes. " They must be at home," he 
 repeated, evidently liking to talk. " This afternoon 
 some new guests came. Guests, such quantities of 
 them ! .... What do you want," he cried, addressing his 
 comrade, who shouted something from the cart. 
 "They've all been out on horseback. We saw them 
 go by. They must be back by this time. But whose 
 folks are you ? " 
 
 " We have come from a long way," said the coachman, 
 climbing upon the box. " So then, it is not far." 
 
 " I tell you, you are almost there. If you drive on .... " 
 said he, shifting his hand on the rim of the calash. 
 
 His young comrade, healthy-looking and thick-set, 
 also came up to the carriage. 
 
 " Do you need any help in getting in the harvest ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " I don't know, galubchik." 
 
 1 Barsky dvor, a dvor, or house and grounds, belonging to a barm oi 
 noble.
 
 136 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Well, you understand, you turn to the left and then 
 you '11 get there," said the muzhik, evidently reluctant to 
 part with the strangers and anxious to talk. 
 
 The coachman touched up his horses, but they had 
 hardly started ere the muzhik cried : 
 
 "Wait! he! hold on!" cried two voices together 
 The coachman reined in again. " There they come. 
 There they are," cried the muzhik. " See what a lot 
 of them," and he pointed to four persons on horseback 
 and two in a char a banes who were coming along the 
 road. 
 
 They were Vronsky and his jockey, Veslovsky and 
 Anna, on horseback, and the princess Varvara with 
 Sviazhsky in the char a banes. They had been out to 
 ride and to look at the operation of some newly imported 
 reaping-machines. 
 
 When the carriage stopped the riders were all walk 
 ing their horses. In front Anna rode with Veslovsky. 
 Anna rode at an easy gait on a little stout English cob 
 with a cropped mane and docked tail. Her pretty head, 
 with her dark ringlets escaping from under a tall hat, 
 her full shoulders, her slender waist in a tightly fitting 
 amazonka, and her whole easy, graceful horsemanship 
 surprised Dolly. At first it seemed to her unbecoming 
 for Anna to be riding horseback. Darya Aleksandrovna 
 connected the idea of horseback riding for ladies with 
 the idea of light, youthful coquetry, which seemed to 
 her did not accord well with Anna's position ; but as she 
 examined her more closely she immediately became 
 reconciled to her going on horseback. Notwithstanding 
 all her elegance, everything about her was so simple, 
 easy, and appropriate in her pose and in her habit and 
 in her motions, that nothing could have been more 
 natural. 
 
 Next to Anna, on a gray, fiery cavalry horse, rode 
 Vasenka Veslovsky, thrusting his fat legs forward, and 
 evidently very well satisfied with himself. He still 
 wore his Scotch cap with its floating ribbons, and 
 Darya Aleksandrovna could hardly restrain a smile of 
 amusement when she saw him.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 137 
 
 Behind them rode Vronsky on a dark chestnut horse 
 of purest blood, which was evidently spoiling for a gal- 
 lop. He was sawing on the reins to hold him back. 
 Behind them came a little man in a jockey's livery. 
 Sviazhsky and the princess in a new char a banes, drawn 
 by a plump raven-black trotter, brought up the rear. 
 
 Anna's face, as she recognized Dolly in the little per- 
 son curled up in a corner of the old carriage, suddenly 
 grew bright with a happy smile, and, uttering a cry of 
 joy, she put her cob to a gallop. Riding up to the 
 calash, she leaped off the horse without any one's aid, 
 and, gathering up her skirts, ran to meet her. 
 
 " I thought so, and did not dare to think so! What 
 pleasure! you can't imagine my joy," she said, pressing 
 her face to Dolly's, kissing her, and then holding her off 
 at arm's length and looking at her with an affectionate 
 smile. " What a pleasure, Aleksei','' she said, glancing 
 at Vronsky, who had also dismounted, and was com- 
 ing toward them, " what a piece of good fortune ! " 
 
 Vronsky came up, raising his tall gray hat. "You 
 can't imagine what delight your visit gives us," said he, 
 in a tone which conveyed a peculiar satisfaction, and with 
 a smile which displayed his strong white teeth. 
 
 Vasenka, without dismounting from his horse, took 
 off his beribboned cap, and waved it gayly round his 
 head, in honor of the guest. 
 
 "This is the Princess Varvara," began Anna, in reply 
 to a questioning look of Dolly as the char a banes came 
 up. 
 
 "Ah!" replied Darya Aleksandrovna, and her face 
 showed involuntary annoyance. 
 
 The ^Princess Varvara was her husband's aunt, and 
 she knew her of old, and did not esteem her. She 
 knew that she had lived all her life long in a humiliating 
 dependence on rich relatives; and the fact that she was 
 living at Vronsky's, at the house of a stranger to her, 
 insulted her through her husband's family. Anna 
 noticed the expression of Dolly's face, and was con- 
 fused ; she blushed, and, dropping the train of her 
 amazonka, she tripped over it.
 
 ij8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna went over to the char a banes. 
 when it had stopped and coolly greeted the Princess Var- 
 vara. Sviazhsky was also an acquaintance. He asked 
 after his friend Levin and his young wife; then, casting 
 a fleeting glance at the oddly matched horses and the 
 patched side of the old carriage, he proposed that the 
 ladies should get into the char a banes. 
 
 " I will take this vehicle to go home in ; the horse is 
 quiet and the princess is an excellent driver." 
 
 "Oh, no," interrupted Anna, coming up; "remain as 
 you are. I will go home with Dolly in the calash." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna's eyes were dazzled by the un- 
 exampled elegance of the carriage, and the beauty of 
 the horses, and the refined brilliancy of the company 
 around her, but more than all was she struck by the 
 change that had taken place in her old friend, her 
 dearly beloved Anna. 
 
 Any other woman, less observant, and unacquainted 
 with Anna in days gone by, and especially any one who 
 had not been under the sway of such thoughts as had 
 occupied Darya Aleksandrovna on the way, would not 
 have noticed anything peculiar about Anna. But now 
 Darya Aleksandrovna was struck by the transient beauty 
 characteristic of women when they are under the in- 
 fluence of love, and which she detected now in Anna's 
 face. Everything about her face was extraordinarily 
 fascinating: the well-defined dimples in her cheeks and 
 chin, the curve of her lips, the smile, which, as it were, 
 flitted over her features, the gleam in her eyes, the grace- 
 fulness and quickness of her movements, the richness 
 in the tones of her voice, even the manner with which 
 she, with a sort of sternly affectionate manner, replied 
 to Veslovsky, who had asked permission to ride her cob 
 so as to teach it to gallop by a pressure of the leg. It 
 seemed as if she herself was aware of this, and rejoiced 
 in it. 
 
 When the two ladies were seated together in the 
 calash, they both suddenly felt a sense of constraint. 
 Anna was confused at the scrutinizingly questioning look 
 which Dolly fixed on her, and Dolly because she could
 
 ANN4 KARENINA 139 
 
 not help feeling ashamed of the dirty old calash in which 
 Anna had taken her seat with her. 
 
 The coachman, Filipp, and the bookkeeper experienced 
 the same feeling. The bookkeeper, in order to hide his 
 confusion, fidgeted about in helping the ladies to be com- 
 fortably seated ; but Filipp, the coachman, frowned and 
 was loath to acknowledge any such superficial superiority. 
 He put on an ironical smile as he scrutinized the raven- 
 black trotter harnessed to the char a banes, and decided 
 in his own mind that the black trotter might do very well 
 for a prominazhe, but that he could not show forty versts 
 at a heat. 
 
 The muzhiks had left their telyega, and gayly and 
 curiously were watching the meeting of the friends, and 
 making their observations. 
 
 "They seem tolerably glad; hain't seen each other 
 for some time," remarked the curly-haired old man. 
 
 " There, Uncle Gerasim, that black gelding would haul 
 in the sheaves lively! " 
 
 " Glian'-ka, look ! Is that a woman in trousers ? " 
 asked another, pointing at Veslovsky, sitting on the side- 
 saddle. 
 
 " Nye, muzhik! see how easy he rides." 
 
 " Say, then, my children, we shan't get another nap, 
 shall we ? " 
 
 " No more sleep now," said the old man, squinting 
 his eyes and glancing at the sun ; " past noon ! Look ! 
 Now get your hooks and to work." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 ANNA looked at Dolly's tired, worn face, with the 
 wrinkles powdered with dust, and was on the point of 
 saying that she looked thin ; but, realizing that she her- 
 self had grown more beautiful than ever, and that Dolly's 
 eyes told her so, she sighed, and began to talk about 
 herself. 
 
 " You are studying me," she said. " You are won- 
 dering if I can be happy in my position ! Well, what
 
 i 4 o ANNA KARE^INA 
 
 can I say ? It is shameful to confess it ! but I .... I am 
 unpardonably happy. What has happened is like a 
 piece of enchantment ; like a dream where everything 
 was terrible, agonizing, and suddenly you wake up and 
 realize that it was only a nightmare. I had been asleep, 
 I had suffered awful agonies, and now that is all long, 
 long past. And how especially happy I am now that we 
 are together ! " and she looked at Dolly with a timid, 
 questioning smile. 
 
 " How glad I am ! " Darya Aleksandrovna answered, 
 more coldly than she wished. " I am glad for you ; .... 
 but why have you not written me ? " 
 
 " Why ? .... Because I did not dare to You knew my 
 
 position." 
 
 " Not dare ? to me ! If you knew how I ...." 
 
 Dolly was about to tell her about the reflections she 
 had had on the journey, but somehow it did not seem to 
 her to be the fitting place. " We will have our talk by 
 and by," she added. " What is that group of buildings, 
 or little village rather ? " she asked, wishing to change 
 the conversation, and pointing to some green and red 
 roofs which appeared through the acacias and lilac trees. 
 
 But Anna did not reply to her question. 
 
 " No, no ! how do you feel about my position ? What 
 do you think of it ? tell me ! " Anna went on. 
 
 "I think...." began Darya Aleksandrovna; but at 
 this instant Vasenka Veslovsky, in his short jacket, 
 spurring the cob into a trot with his right leg and creak- 
 ing terribly on the leather side-saddle, went dashing by 
 them. 
 
 " It goes, Anna Arkadyevna," he shouted. 
 
 Anna did not even look at him, but again it seemed 
 to Darya Aleksandrovna that it was impossible to begin 
 on this long conversation in the carriage, and so she said 
 less than she thought. 
 
 "I do not think about it at all," said she. "I love 
 you and always have loved you. And when we love 
 people so, we love them for what they are, not for what 
 we wish they were." 
 
 Anna turned her eyes away from her friend's face, half
 
 ANNA KARENINA 141 
 
 closing them in order better to take in the meaning of 
 the words. This was a new habit, which Dolly had 
 never seen in her before. Apparently she interpreted 
 her friend's answer as she wanted, and she looked at 
 Dolly. 
 
 " If you have any sins, they will all be blotted out by 
 this visit and by your kind words," she said, and Dolly 
 saw that her eyes were dimmed with tears. She silently 
 took her hand. 
 
 " What are those buildings ? What a lot of them ! " 
 said Dolly again, after a moment of silence. 
 
 " Those are the roofs of our buildings, our barns and 
 stables," replied Anna. " Here our park begins. It 
 was all neglected, but Aleksei' has made it new again. 
 He is very fond of this kind of occupation, and to my 
 great surprise he has developed a passion for farming. 1 
 Ah, his is a rich nature ! Whatever he undertakes he 
 excels in. He not only does not get bored, but he is 
 passionately interested in it. I do not know how, but 
 he is making a capital farmer, so economical, almost 
 stingy but only in farm ways. For things of other 
 sorts he will spend ten thousand rubles and never give 
 it a thought." 
 
 She said this with that joyously crafty characteristic 
 smile of women when they speak of the men they love, 
 and the secret peculiarities which they alone know about. 
 
 " Do you see that large building ? That is a new 
 hospital. I think it will cost him more than a hundred 
 thousand. It is his hobby just now. Do you know 
 what made him build it? The peasants asked him to 
 reduce the rent of some meadows, but he declined to do 
 so, and I told him he was stingy. Of course, it was n't 
 altogether that, but everything taken together, so he 
 began to build the hospital to prove my charge unjust; 
 c'est unepetitesse, perhaps, but I love him the better for 
 it. Now in a moment you '11 see the house. It was 
 built by his grandfather, and the outside hasn't been 
 changed at all." 
 
 "How beautiful ! " cried Dolly, with involuntary sur- 
 
 1 Khozyaistvo.
 
 I 4 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 prise at the sight of a stately house ornamented with 
 columns, and surrounded by a park filled with ancient 
 trees of various shades of green. 
 
 " Isn't it beautiful ? And the view from the second 
 story is magnificent." 
 
 They came into the dvor, or court, paved with small 
 stones and ornamented with flower-beds; two workmen 
 were at this moment surrounding a bed filled with loam 
 with roughly trimmed stones. They stopped under a 
 covered entrance. 
 
 " Oh, they have already arrived," said Anna, as she 
 saw the saddle-horses being led away. " Is n't that 
 horse a pretty creature ? that cob ; he 's my favorite. 
 Bring him here and give him some sugar ! Where is 
 the count ? " she asked of the two servants in livery 
 who came hurrying out to receive them. " Ah, here he 
 is ! " added she, perceiving Vronsky with Veslovsky 
 coming to meet them. 
 
 " Where shall we put the princess ? " asked Vronsky 
 of Anna, in French, and, without waiting for an answer, 
 once more greeted Darya Aleksandrovna, and this time 
 he kissed her hand, " in the large balcony chamber, I 
 suppose ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, that is too far off. Better put her in the 
 corner chamber. We shall see more of each other. 
 Come, come," said she, giving her favorite horse some 
 sugar which the lackey had brought. 
 
 " Et vous oublicz votre devoir" she added, turning to 
 Veslovsky, who was already in the porch. 
 
 "Pardon, j' en ai tout plein les poc/ies," he replied, 
 smiling, and thrusting his fingers into his waistcoat 
 pocket. 
 
 " Mais vous venez trap tard" she replied, wiping 
 her hand, which the horse had mouthed in taking the 
 sugar. 
 
 Anna turned to Dolly, 
 
 "You'll stay with us a long time," said she. " Only 
 one day ? That is impossible." 
 
 "That is what I promised, and the children," an- 
 swered the latter, ashamed at the wretched appearance
 
 ANNA KARENINA 143 
 
 of her poor little traveling-bag and at the dust with 
 which she felt herself covered. 
 
 " No, Dolly, dushenka However, we '11 talk of that 
 
 by and by. Come up to your room." And Anna con- 
 ducted Dolly up-stairs. 
 
 The room was not the chamber of honor which 
 Vronsky offered her, but one where she could be nearer 
 Anna ; but even this room, though they felt it needful 
 to apologize for it, was furnished with a luxury such as 
 she was not accustomed to, and which recalled the most 
 sumptuous hotels that she had seen abroad. 
 
 " Well, dushenka! how glad I am ! " said Anna, seat- 
 ing herself for a moment in her riding-habit. Tell me 
 about your family. I saw Stiva just an instant, but he 
 could not tell me anything about the children. How is 
 my darling Tania ? She must be a great girl ! " 
 
 "Yes, very large," answered Dolly, laconically, as- 
 tonished that she answered so coolly about her children. 
 " We are all living charmingly with the Levins," she 
 added. 
 
 " There ! If I had known," said Anna, " that you 
 wouldn't look down on me, .... you all would have come 
 here. Stiva is an old and good friend of Aleksefs," 
 said Anna, blushing. 
 
 " Yes ! but we are so well .... " began Dolly in con- 
 fusion. 
 
 "Well! I am so happy, I talk nonsense; only, 
 dushenka, I am so glad to see you," said Anna, kissing 
 her again. " But you would not tell me what you think 
 about me; I want to know all. But I am so glad that 
 you see me just as I am. My only idea, you see, is to 
 avoid making people think that I am making any dis- 
 play. I don't want to make any display ; I want simply 
 to live and not do any harm to any one but myself. 
 Am I not right about it ? However, we '11 talk of all 
 this at our leisure. Now I 'm going to change my dress; 
 I will send you a waiting-maid."
 
 144 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 DARYA ALEKSANDROVNA, when left alone, examined 
 her chamber with the eyes of a genuine housekeeper. 
 All that she saw as she went through the house, and all 
 that she saw in the room, impressed her by its richness 
 and elegance ; and this new European luxury, which she 
 had read about in English novels, she had never seen 
 before in Russia, certainly not in the country. All 
 was new, from the French tapestries to the carpet which 
 covered the whole room, the bed with its hair mattress, 
 the marble toilet-table, the bronzes on the mantel, the 
 rugs, the curtains, all was costly and new. 
 
 The smart waiting-maid who came to offer her ser- 
 vices was dressed with much more style than Dolly, and 
 was as costly and new as the whole room. Darya Alek- 
 sandrovna liked her good breeding, her dexterity, and 
 her helpfulness ; but she felt confused at taking out be- 
 fore her her poor toilet articles from her bag, especially 
 a mended night-dress, which she had happened to put in 
 by mistake from among her oldest ones. She was ashamed 
 of the very patches and mended places which gave her 
 a sense of pride at home. It was clear that for six 
 nightgowns, it would take twenty-four arshins of nain- 
 sook at sixty-five kopeks, amounting to more than fifteen 
 rubles, besides the cost of the trimmings ; and these fif- 
 teen rubles were saved ; but in the presence of this brill- 
 iant attendant she felt not so much ashamed as awkward. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna felt great relief when her old- 
 time acquaintance, Annushka, came into her room to take 
 the place of the dashing chambermaid, who was needed 
 by her mistress. 
 
 Annushka was evidently very glad at the arrival of 
 her mistress's friend, and talked incessantly. Dolly 
 noticed that she was eager to express her opinion about 
 her mistress's position, and about the love and devotion 
 which the count showed to Anna Arkadyevna ; but she 
 peremptorily stopped her as soon as she began to talk 
 on this topic.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 145 
 
 " I grew up with Anna Arkadyevna, and love her 
 more than the whole world. It 's not for us to judge 
 her, and she seems to love ...." 
 
 " Please have these washed, if it is possible," said 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, interrupting her. 
 
 " I will do so. We have two women especially for the 
 laundry, but the washing is done all by machinery. The 
 count looks out for everything. He is such a hus- 
 band...." 
 
 Dolly was glad when Anna came in and put an end 
 to the babbling Annushka's confidences. 
 
 Anna had put on a very simple batiste gown. Dolly 
 noticed particularly this simple gown. She knew what 
 this simplicity meant, and how much money it repre- 
 sented. 
 
 "An old acquaintance," said Anna to Annushka. 
 
 Anna now was no longer confused. She was per- 
 fectly calm and self-possessed. Dolly saw that now she 
 was entirely free from the impression which her coming 
 had at first produced, and had assumed that superficial 
 tone of indifference which, as it were, closed the door to 
 the expression of real thought and feelings. 
 
 " Well, and how is your little daughter ? " asked 
 Dolly. 
 
 "Ani?" for so she called her daughter Anna 
 " very well. Her health is much better. Should you 
 like to see her? Come, and I'll show her to you. We 
 have had great trouble with her," she went on to relate. 
 "We had an Italian for her nurse; good, but so stupid ; 
 we wanted to send her back, but the little thing is so 
 much attached to her, we still keep her." 
 
 " But how have you done about .... " began Dolly, 
 wishing to ask about the child's name; but, as she saw 
 Anna's countenance grow suddenly dark, she changed 
 the ending of the question. " Have you weaned her? " 
 
 Anna understood. 
 
 " That is not what you were going to ask. You were 
 thinking of the child's name, were n't you ? This tor- 
 ments Aleksei' ; she has no name; that is, she is a 
 Karenin," and she closed her eyes so that only the lashes 
 
 VOL. III. IO
 
 146 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 were visible " However," she added, her face sud- 
 denly lighting up again, " we will talk again about all 
 that ; come, and I'll show her to you. Elle est tres 
 gentille ; she is already beginning to creep." 
 
 In the nursery there was the same sumptuousness as 
 had struck Darya Aleksandrovna throughout the rest of 
 the house, only to an even higher degree. There were 
 baby-coaches imported from England, and instruments 
 for teaching children to walk, and a peculiarly arranged 
 divan like a billiard table for creeping, bath-tubs, swings. 
 All were new, beautiful, solid, of English make, and 
 evidently very costly. The room was large, very high- 
 studded, and light. 
 
 When they entered the little girl with only her shirt 
 on was seated in an arm-chair by the table, and was eat- 
 ing her broth and spilling it all over her bosom. A 
 Russian maid-servant who assisted in the nursery was 
 helping her, and at the same time was apparently her- 
 self eating. Neither the Italian nurse nor the nurse- 
 maid was present ; they were in the next room, and could 
 be heard talking together in a strange French jargon 
 which was the only means they had of communicating 
 their ideas to each other. 
 
 The English maid, a tall, sprucely dressed woman with 
 a disagreeable face and an untrustworthy expression, 
 came into the doorway shaking her light brown curls 
 as soon as she heard Anna's voice, and immediately 
 began to offer her excuses, although Anna had not 
 chidden her. At every word Anna spoke the English 
 maid would several times repeat the phrase, " Yes, my 
 lady." 
 
 The dark-browed, dark-haired, rosy little girl, with 
 her strong, pretty little form, very much pleased Darya 
 Aleksandrovna in spite of the unfriendly look with which 
 she gazed at the stranger ; her healthy appearance also 
 pleased her, and her way of creeping. Not one of her 
 own children had learned so early to creep. This little 
 girl, when she was put down on the carpet and her dress 
 was tucked up behind, was wonderfully beautiful. With 
 her brilliant black eyes she gazed up at her elders like
 
 ANNA KARENINA 147 
 
 a pretty little animal, evidently delighting in the fact that 
 they admired her, and she smiled ; and, putting out her 
 legs sidewise, she energetically crept about" now going 
 swiftly backward, and again darting forward, and clutch- 
 ing things with her little fingers. 
 
 But the whole atmosphere of the nursery, and especially 
 the English maid, struck Darya Aleksandrovna very un- 
 pleasantly. Only by the supposition that no respectable 
 person would consent to serve in a household as irregular 
 as Anna's, could she understand how Anna, with her 
 knowledge of people, could be willing to put up with 
 such an unsympathetic, vulgar maid. . 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, after a few words, observed 
 that Anna, the nurse, the maid, and the child were not 
 much wonted to each other, and that the mother was 
 almost a stranger in this part of the house. She wanted 
 to find a plaything for the little girl and did not know 
 where it was kept. Strangest of all, in answering the 
 question how many teeth the child had, she made a mis- 
 take, and did not know anything about the last two. 
 
 "It is always a grief to me that I am so useless here," 
 said Anna, as they went out, holding up the train of her 
 dress so that it should not catch on any of the toys by 
 the door. " It was not so with my oldest." 
 
 " I thought, on the contrary ...." began Dolly, timidly. 
 
 " Oh, no ! You know that I have seen Serozha again," 
 said she, half shutting her eyes and looking fixedly 
 before her, as if she sought for something far away. 
 " However, we '11 talk about that by and by. You can't 
 believe but I am like a person dying of starvation, 
 who finds a banquet before her, and does not know 
 what to begin with. You and the talk I am going to 
 have with you are this banquet for me. With whom 
 could I speak openly if not with you ? I don't know 
 what topic to take up first. Mais je ne vous ferai grace 
 de rien. 1 I must tell you all. 
 
 " Well, I want to give you a sketch now of the people 
 you will meet here," she began. " First, the Princess 
 Varvara. You know her, and I know your opinion and 
 
 1 I shall not spare you anything.
 
 i 4 8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Stiva's in regard to her. Stiva says her whole aim ot 
 life consists in proving her preeminence over Aunt 
 Katerina Pavlovna. That is all true of her ; but she 
 is good, I assure you, and I am so grateful to her. At 
 Petersburg there was a time when un chaperon was 
 indispensable. Then she came along just in time. It 
 is really true ; she is good. She made my position much 
 easier. I see you don't know how difficult my position 
 was ....there in Petersburg !" she added. "Here I am 
 very comfortable and happy. But about this afterward. 
 But I must tell you about our guests. Then there 's 
 Sviazhsky ; he is the marshal of the district, 1 and a very 
 clever man, and he needed Aleksei for something. You 
 see, with his fortune, now, as we live in the country, 
 Aleksei can wield a wide influence. Then Tushkievitch ; 
 you have met him ; he was at Betsy's ; but they sent 
 him off, and he came to visit us. As Aleksei says, he 
 is one of those very agreeable men, if one takes him 
 just as he wishes to appear, et puis il est comme il faut, 
 as the Princess Varvara says. And then Veslovsky .... 
 you know him. A very good young fellow," she said, 
 and a mischievous smile curled her lips. "How about 
 that absurd story he told of Levin ? Veslovsky told 
 Alekse'f, and we don't believe it. // est tres gentil 
 et naif" she added, with the same smile. " I have 
 to entertain all these people, because men need amuse- 
 ment, and Alekse'f needs society ; and we have to make 
 it lively and gay, so that Alekse'f won't want some- 
 thing new. We also have with us the superintendent. 
 He is a German, a very good man, who understands his 
 business ; Aleksei' has great esteem for him. Then 
 there 's the doctor, a young man who is not exactly a 
 Nihilist, but, you know, he eats with his knife, but a 
 very good doctor. Then the architect, une petit ecour" 
 
 1 Predvodityel, marshal of the nobility.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 149 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 "WELL, princess, here we have Dolly, whom you 
 wished so much to see," said Anna, as she and Darya 
 Aleksandrovna came out on the great stone terrace 
 where the Princess Varvara was sitting in the shade, 
 with her embroidery frame in front of her, making a 
 chair cover for Count AlekseT Kirillovitch. " She says 
 that she does not want anything before dinner, but 
 supposing you order luncheon brought in, while I go 
 and find the gentlemen." 
 
 The Princess Varvara gave Dolly a gracious and 
 somewhat condescending reception, and immediately 
 began to explain that she had come to live with Anna 
 because she loved her more than her sister, Katerina 
 Pavlovna, that was the aunt that had superintended 
 Anna's education, and because, now when all were 
 abandoning Anna, she considered it her duty to help 
 her at this trying period of transition. 
 
 " Her husband is going to grant her a divorce, and 
 then I shall go back to my solitude ; but, however pain- 
 ful it may be, I shall stay here for the present, and not 
 imitate the example of others. And how kind you are ; 
 how good of you to make this visit ! They live exactly 
 like the very best married people. Let God judge them ; 
 it is not for us. It was just so with Biriuzovsky and 
 Madame Avenyef, and then Vasiliyef and Madame 
 Mamonov, and Liza Neptunova. You see no one says 
 anything about them, and in the end they will be re- 
 ceived. And then c'est un intirieur si joli, si comme il 
 faut. Tout-d-fait d fanglaise. On se rhinit le matin 
 au breakfeast et puis on se sfyare)- Every one does just 
 as he pleases till dinner-time. They dine at seven. 
 Stiva did very wisely to send you ; he would better keep 
 on good terms with them. You know the count has 
 great influence through his mother and his brother. 
 
 1 They have a perfect establishment, and the inside of their house is so 
 charming, so stylish. It is altogether English. The family meets at break- 
 fast and then separates.
 
 150 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 And then they do so much good. Has he told you 
 about his hospital ? (^a sera admirable ! Everything 
 from Paris." 
 
 This conversation was interrupted by Anna, who re- 
 turned to the terrace, followed by the gentlemen, whom 
 she had found in the billiard-room. 
 
 Considerable time still remained before dinner, the 
 weather was beautiful, and so various propositions were 
 made for their amusement during the two hours before 
 them. 
 
 There was every facility for diversion there at Voz- 
 dvizhenskoye and many of them were very different 
 from what they had at Pokrovskoye. 
 
 " Une partie de lawn tennis" proposed Veslovsky, 
 with his gay, contagious smile. " I '11 take one side 
 with you again, Anna Arkadyevna." 
 
 " No, it is hot ; suppose we go into the park, and take 
 Darya Aleksandrovna out in the boat to show her the 
 landscape," said Vronsky. 
 
 " I am agreeable to anything," said Sviazhsky. 
 
 " I think Dolly would like to do that better than any- 
 thing else," said Anna. " So then the boat-ride it is." 
 
 That having been decided, Veslovsky and Tushkie- 
 vitch went to the landing, agreeing to get the boat 
 ready, and the two couples took the path to the park ; 
 Anna walked with Sviazhsky, and Dolly with Vronsky. 
 
 Dolly was somewhat confused and embarrassed by 
 this absolutely novel environment in which she found 
 herself. Abstractly, theoretically, she not only justified, 
 but even approved, of Anna's conduct. Like the major- 
 ity of irreproachably virtuous women, wearying often of 
 the monotony of a virtuous life, Dolly from a distance 
 excused illicit love, and even envied it a little. More- 
 over, she loved Anna with all her heart. 
 
 But in reality, finding her among these strangers, with 
 their fashionable ways, which were quite novel to her, 
 she was thoroughly ill at ease. Especially odious to her 
 was it to see the Princess Varvara forgiving everything, 
 because she could thereby share in her niece's luxury. 
 
 Abstractly and on general principles Dolly excused
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Anna's conduct, but the sight of the man for whom she 
 had taken this step was unpleasant to her. Moreover, 
 Vronsky was not congenial to her at any time ; she 
 thought him very haughty, and could see no reason 
 except his wealth to justify his haughtiness. But in 
 spite of all her will-power, there in his own establish- 
 ment he more than ever impressed her with a sense of 
 his importance and she could not feel at ease with him ; 
 she felt just as she had felt when the maid took the 
 nightgown from her valise. Just as before the maid she 
 had felt, not exactly ashamed, but awkward, on account 
 of the patches, so now with Vronsky she felt all the 
 time, not exactly ashamed, but uncomfortable. 
 
 Dolly felt confused and cast about in her mind for 
 something to talk about. 
 
 Although she felt sure that he with his pride might 
 be displeased if she praised his house and park, never- 
 theless, finding no other topic of conversation, she re- 
 marked that she liked his house very much. 
 
 " Yes, it is a very handsome building, and in good old 
 style," replied the count. 
 
 " I liked the court in front of the steps ; was it 
 always so?" 
 
 " Oh, no ! " said he, and his face shone with satisfac- 
 tion. " If you had only seen it in the spring ! " 
 
 And at first coldly, but warming as he went on, he 
 pointed out to Dolly the many improvements he had 
 made in the house and park. It was evident that Vron- 
 sky, having consecrated much labor to the improvement 
 and beautification of his establishment, really felt the 
 need of appreciation from some new person, and that he 
 was not a little gratified at Darya Aleksandrovna's praise. 
 
 " If you would like to look into the hospital and are 
 not tired, we might go that way. It is not far. Come, 
 let us go ! Shall we, Anna ? " 
 
 "Yes shall we not?" she said, turning to Svi- 
 azhsky ; " mais il nc faut pas laisser Ic pauvre Veslovsky 
 et Tnshkievitch se morfondre la dans le bateau ! * We 
 
 1 But we must not leave these gentlemen to wait in vain for us in the 
 boat.
 
 152 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 must send word to them. Yes. This is a monument 
 which he will leave here," said she to Dolly, with the 
 same shrewd knowing smile on her face as when she 
 first spoke of the hospital. 
 
 " Oh, capital work ! " said Sviazhsky ; and then, not to 
 seem assenting from mere politeness, he added : 
 
 " I am surprised, count, that you, who are doing so 
 much for the peasants' sanitary advantage, are so indif- 
 ferent to schools." 
 
 " C'esf devenu tellement commun, les /coles," replied 
 Vronsky. " You must know I do this to amuse myself. 
 This is the way to the hospital," said he, addressing 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, pointing to a side-path which 
 led from the avenue. The ladies put up their sun- 
 shades and walked along the side-path. 
 
 After making a few turns and passing through a 
 wicket-gate, Darya Aleksandrovna saw before her on 
 rising ground a large red building of complicated archi- 
 tecture not completely finished. The iron roof, not as 
 yet painted, glittered in the sun. Near the hospital 
 itself there was another building going up, in the midst 
 of the woods, and workmen in aprons stood on scaffold- 
 ings laying the bricks, taking mortar from buckets and 
 smoothing it with trowels. 
 
 " How rapidly the work is going on," remarked 
 Sviazhsky. "The last time I was here the roof was 
 not in position." 
 
 " It will be ready by autumn, for the inside is 
 already nearly finished," said Anna. 
 
 " And what is this other new building ? " 
 
 "A house for the doctor, and a pharmacy," replied 
 Vronsky ; and, seeing the architect, in a short overcoat, 
 approaching, he excused himself to the ladies, and went 
 to meet him. 
 
 Going round the mortar-pit, from which the workmen 
 were getting lime, he joined the architect and began to 
 talk angrily with him. 
 
 " The pediment will be much too low," he replied 
 to Anna, who asked him what the discussion was 
 about.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 153 
 
 " I said that the foundation ought to be raised," said 
 Anna. 
 
 " Yes ! Of course, it would have been better, Anna 
 Arkadyevna," said the architect; "yes, it was amis- 
 take." ' 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! I am very much interested in this," 
 said Anna, in reply to Sviazhsky, who expressed his 
 surprise that the architect spoke to her as he did. 
 " The new building must correspond with the hospital. 
 But this was thought of afterward, and begun without 
 any plan." 
 
 Having concluded his talk with the architect, Vronsky 
 joined the ladies and conducted them into the hospital. 
 Though on the outside they were already placing the 
 cornices and were painting the lower part of the build- 
 ing, on the upper floors almost everything was done. 
 They went up by a broad cast-iron staircase to the 
 second story, and entered the first great room. The 
 walls were stuccoed for marble, the great glass win- 
 dows were already in place ; only the parquetry floor 
 was as yet to be finished, and the carpenters, engaged 
 in planing the squares, left off their work, and, removing 
 the tapes which bound their hair, greeted the visitors. 
 
 " This is the reception-room," said Vronsky. " In 
 this there will be not much besides the desk, a table, 
 and a cupboard." 
 
 " Here, come this way. Don't go near the window," 
 said Anna, touching the paint to see if it was dry. 
 " Aleksei', the paint is beginning to dry." 
 
 From the reception-room they went into the corridor. 
 Here Vronsky explained the new system of ventilation ; 
 then he showed them the marble bath-rooms and the 
 beds with extra spring mattresses. Then he showed 
 them one after the other the wards, the laundry, then 
 the heating apparatus, then the noiseless barrows for 
 wheeling articles along the corridors, and many other 
 contrivances. Dolly was simply amazed at the sight of 
 so many novelties, and, wishing to understand it thor- 
 oughly, she asked a great many questions, which 
 Vronsky answered with the greatest alacrity.
 
 154 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Yes, I think this hospital will be the only one of the 
 kind in Russia," remarked Sviazhsky. 
 
 "Shall you not have a lying-in department?" asked 
 Dolly. " That is so necessary in this country. I have 
 often thought...." 
 
 In spite of his politeness, Vronsky interrupted her. 
 
 " This is not an obstetrical institution, but a hospital, 
 and is meant for all except infectious diseases," said he. 
 " And 'now look at this," and he showed Darya Alek- 
 sandrovna a newly imported chair designed for con- 
 valescents. "Will you look at it, please?" He sat 
 down in the chair and began to move it along. " He 
 can't walk .... or he is still weak, or he has a lame leg, 
 but still he must have the air, and so he goes out and 
 enjoys himself ! " 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna was interested in everything; 
 everything pleased her very much, but, more than all, 
 Vronsky himself pleased her with his natural nai've 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 "Yes, he is certainly a good, lovable man," she 
 thought, not listening to what he said, but looking at 
 him and trying to penetrate his expression, and then 
 momentarily looking at Anna. He pleased her so much 
 with his animation that she understood how it was that 
 Anna came to love him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 " No ; the princess must be tired, and the horses will 
 not interest her," said Vronsky to Anna, who had pro- 
 posed to show Dolly the stable, where there was a new 
 stallion that Sviazhsky wished to see. " You go there, 
 and* I will escort the princess back to the house. And, 
 if you please," added he to Dolly, " we will talk a little 
 on the way, if that will be agreeable." 
 
 " I know nothing about horses, so I shall very will- 
 ingly go with you," said Darya Aleksandrovna. 
 
 She saw by Vronsky's face that he wanted something 
 of her, nor was she mistaken. As soon as they had
 
 ANNA KARENINA 155 
 
 passed through the wicket-gate again into the park, he 
 looked in the direction where Anna was gone, and, hav- 
 ing convinced himself that they were out of her sight 
 and hearing, he began : 
 
 " You have guessed that I wanted to have a talk with 
 you," said he, looking at her with his smiling eyes. "I 
 am not mistaken in believing that you are Anna's friend, 
 am I ? " 
 
 He took off his hat, and, taking out his handkerchief 
 wiped his head, which was growing bald. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna made no reply, and only gazed 
 at him in alarm. Now that she was entirely alone with 
 him, she suddenly felt terror-stricken ; his smiling eyes 
 and the stern expression of his face frightened her. 
 
 The most diverse suppositions as to what he might be 
 wanting to talk with her about chased one another 
 through her mind. 
 
 " Can it be that he is going to ask me to come with 
 my children and make them a visit, and I shall be 
 obliged to decline ? or is it that he wants me to find 
 society for Anna when she comes to Moscow ?.... Or is 
 he going to speak of Vasenka Veslovsky and his rela- 
 tions to Anna? Or can it be about Kitty, and that he 
 wants to confess that he was to blame toward her? " 
 
 She thought over everything that might be disagree- 
 able, but never suspected what he really wanted to talk 
 with her about. 
 
 "You have such an influence over Anna, she is so 
 fond of you," said he, " help me." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna looked timidly and question- 
 ingly into Vronsky's energetic face, which, as they 
 passed under the linden trees, was now lighted up by 
 the flecking sunbeams and then again darkened by the 
 shadows, and she waited for him to proceed ; but he, 
 catching his cane in the paving-stones, walked in silence 
 by her side. 
 
 " Of all Anna's friends, you are the only one who has 
 come to see her I do not count the Princess Varvara 
 I know very well it is not because you approve of our 
 position ; it is because you love Anna, and, knowing
 
 156 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the cruelty of her position, want to help her. Am 1 
 right?" 
 
 "Yes," said Darya Aleksandrovna, shutting up her 
 sunshade, " but .... " 
 
 " No," he interrupted, and he involuntarily stopped 
 and obliged her to stop also, though he had no intention 
 of putting his companion into an awkward situation. 
 " No one feels more strongly and completely the cruelty 
 of Anna's position than I do. And you will realize this 
 if you will do me the honor to believe that I am not 
 heartless. I am the cause of her being in this position, 
 and therefore I feel it." 
 
 "I understand," said Darya Aleksandrovna, invol- 
 untarily admiring him for the honest and straight- 
 forward way in which he said this. " But for the very 
 reason that you feel yourself the cause I fear you are 
 inclined tp exaggerate," said she. " Her position in 
 society is difficult, I admit." 
 
 "In society it is hell!" said he, frowning gloomily; 
 " you can't conceive moral tortures worse than those 
 which Anna endured at Petersburg during the fortnight 
 we were there ; and I beg you to believe .... " 
 
 "Yes, but here?. ...And so far neither she nor you 
 feel the need of a society life." .... 
 
 " Society ! why should I need it ? " exclaimed Vronsky, 
 scornfully. 
 
 " Up to the present time, and perhaps it will be so 
 always, you are calm and happy. I see in Anna that 
 she is happy, perfectly happy, and she has already told 
 me that she is," said Darya Aleksandrovna, smiling. 
 
 And while she spoke the doubt arose in her mind : " Is 
 Anna really happy?" 
 
 But Vronsky, it seemed, had no doubt on that score: 
 
 " Yes, yes, I know that she has revived after all her 
 sufferings. She is happy .... she is happy now. But 
 I ? " said Vronskv. " I am afraid of what the future 
 has in store for us .... excuse me, do you want to go ? " 
 
 " No, it is immaterial." 
 
 " Well, then, let us sit down here." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna sat down on a garden bench
 
 ANNA KARENINA 157 
 
 in a nook of the walk. He was standing in front of 
 her. 
 
 " I see that she seems happy," he repeated ; and the 
 doubt whether Anna was happy again rose in Darya 
 Aleksandrovna's mind more strongly than ever. " But 
 will it last ? Whether we did right or wrong is a hard 
 question ; but the die is cast," he said, changing from 
 Russian to French, " and we are joined for life ; we are 
 joined by the ties of love. We have one child, and we 
 may have others. But the law and all the conditions of 
 our state are such that there are a thousand complica- 
 tions, which Anna, now that she is resting after her 
 afflictions and sufferings, does not see and will not see. 
 It is natural ; but I cannot help seeing. My daughter, 
 according to the law, is not my daughter, but Karenin's, 
 and I do not like this falsehood," said he, with an ener- 
 getic gesture of repulsion, and looking at Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna with a gloomy, questioning face. 
 
 She did not reply, but simply looked at him. He 
 continued : 
 
 " To-morrow a son may be born my son and by 
 law he would be a Karenin, and could, inherit neither 
 my name nor my property, and, however happy we were 
 here at home, and however many children we had, there 
 would be no legal connection between me and them. 
 They would be Karenins. You understand the cruelty, 
 the horror, of this state of things ? I try to explain this 
 to Anna. It irritates her she will not understand me, 
 and I cannot tell her all. Now look at the other side. 
 I am happy in her love, but I must have occupation. I 
 have taken up my present enterprise, and I am proud 
 of it, and consider it far more beneficial than the occupa- 
 tions of my former comrades at the court and in the 
 service. And certainly I would not change my occupa- 
 tion for theirs. I work here, on my own place, and I am 
 happy and contented, and we need nothing more for our 
 happiness. I love my activity, cela nest pas un pis aller; 
 far from it." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna noticed that at this point of his 
 explanation he became entangled, and she did not under
 
 158 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 stand very well his sudden pause, but she felt that, having 
 fairly begun to speak of his intimate affairs concerning 
 which he could not talk with Anna, he would now make 
 a full breast of it, and that the question of his activities 
 in the country belonged to the same category as his 
 relations to Anna. 
 
 "And so I keep on," said he, growing more cheerful 
 again. " The chief thing is that when one works one 
 must have the persuasion that what one has done will 
 not die with him, that he will have heirs .... but I have 
 
 none Conceive the feelings of a man who knows that 
 
 his children and those of the wife he worships do not 
 belong to him ; that they belong to a man who hates 
 them, and would never recognize them. Is n't it hor- 
 rible ? " 
 
 He was silent and deeply moved. 
 
 "Yes, of course," said Darya Aleksandrovna ; "I 
 understand this. But what can Anna do ? " 
 
 " Well, that brings me to the purpose of this talk," 
 said the count, controlling himself with effort. " Anna 
 
 can get a divorce. It depends on her If we are to 
 
 petition the emperor to legitimize the children, a divorce 
 is essential. But that depends on Anna. Her husband 
 consented to that, and your husband had it all arranged 
 some time ago, and I know that he now would not 
 refuse ; all it requires is for Anna to write to him. He 
 said up and down that he would consent, if Anna would 
 apply for it. Of course," he added, frowning, " this 
 condition is one of those Pharisaic cruelties of which 
 only heartless people are capable. He knows what 
 torture all remembrance of him has for her, and so he 
 exacts this letter from her. I understand that it is pain- 
 ful to her. But the reasons are so imperative that she 
 must passer pardcssus toutes ces finesses de sentiment. II 
 va du bonhenr et de I 1 existence d 'Anna et de ces en/ants. 1 
 I don't speak about myself, though it is painful, very 
 painful, to me," said he, with a wrathful expression 
 against whoever was responsible for this state of things. 
 
 1 She ought to be above these excessive sensibilities; her happiness is 
 involved, as well as her children's.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 159 
 
 "And this is why I make bold to apply to you, princess, 
 as to a very anchor of salvation. Help me to persuade 
 Anna of the need of getting a divorce." 
 
 " Why, of course I will," said Darya Aleksandrovna, 
 gravely, for she vividly recalled her last meeting with 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch. " Of course I will," she re- 
 peated resolutely, as she thought of Anna. 
 
 " Exert your influence on her and induce her to write 
 the letter. I do not wish, and indeed I find it almost 
 impossible, to talk with her about this." 
 
 "Very well, I will speak to her. But why does she 
 not think of it herself?" asked Darya Aleksandrovna, 
 suddenly remembering Anna's strange new trick of 
 half-closing her eyes. And then it occurred to her that 
 Anna did this especially when any reference was made 
 to the more intimate side of her life. 
 
 " She seems to try to shut her eyes to her whole life, 
 as if to put it out of her mind," said Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna to herself " Yes, I will speak to her, cer- 
 tainly ; both for your sake and for hers," repeated 
 Dolly, in response to Vronsky's grateful look. 
 
 And they got up and went to the house. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 FINDING Dolly already returned, Anna looked scruti- 
 nizingly into her eyes, as if she would read there a reply 
 to her wonder what she and Vronsky had been talking 
 about, but she asked no questions. 
 
 " Dinner is nearly ready, and we have hardly seen 
 each other. I count on this evening; but now I must 
 go and change my gown. I suppose you 'd like to do 
 the same. One gets so soiled after such a walk." 
 
 Dolly went to her room, and felt ridiculous. She had 
 no change to make, since she had worn her best gown ; 
 but, in order to make some change in her toilette, in 
 honor of dinner, she asked the maid to brush the dust 
 off, she changed her cuffs and put on a fresh ribbon, 
 and put some lace in her hair.
 
 160 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " It is all I could do," she said laughingly, to Anna, 
 who came to her, dressed in a third but very simple cos- 
 tume. 
 
 " Well ! we are very formal here," said Anna, in apol- 
 ogy for her elegant attire. " AlekseT is so glad that you 
 came. I believe he has fallen in love with you," she 
 added. " I hope you are not tired." 
 
 Before dinner there was no time for any talk. When 
 they entered the drawing-room, they found the Princess 
 Varvara and the gentlemen all in evening dress. The 
 architect was the only one that wore a frock-coat. 
 Vronsky presented the doctor and the superintendent 
 to his guest. She had already met the architect at 
 the hospital. 
 
 A portly butler, wearing a stiffly starched white 
 cravat, and with his smooth round face shining, came 
 and announced that dinner was served, and the ladies 
 stood up. Vronsky asked Sviazhsky to escort Anna 
 Arkadyevna into the dining-room, and he himself offered 
 his arm to Darya Aleksandrovna. Veslovsky was 
 quicker than Tushkievitch in handing in the Princess 
 Varvara, so that Tushkievitch went with the doctor and 
 the superintendent. 
 
 The dinner, the service, the plate, the wine, and the 
 dishes served, not only corresponded to the general tone 
 of new luxury appertaining to the household, but seemed 
 even more luxurious and elegant. Darya Aleksandrovna 
 took note of this splendor, which was quite new to her, 
 and, as the mistress of an establishment of her own, she 
 could not help making a mental inventory of the details, 
 and wondering how and by whom it was all done ; and 
 yet she had no dream of introducing anything like it 
 into her own home, which was conducted on a scale of 
 far greater simplicity. 
 
 Vasenka Veslovsky, her own husband, and even 
 Sviazhsky and many more men whom she knew, had 
 never carried out anything like this, and every one of 
 them believed in the dictum that the master of a well- 
 regulated household always desires to make his guests 
 imagine that the elegance and comfort surrounding
 
 ANNA KARENINA 161 
 
 them are not any trouble to him, but come about spon 
 taneously. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna knew that even such a simple 
 matter as providing kasha for her children's breakfast 
 does not go of itself, and that all the more in such 
 an elegant and complicated establishment there had to 
 be some one in full and complete charge. And by the 
 glances with which Aleksei' Kirillovitch took in the de- 
 tails of the table, and by the nods which he gave toward 
 the butler and by the way in which he offered Darya 
 Aleksandrovna the choice between botvinya and soup, 
 she understood that everything was done under the direct 
 superintendence of the master of the house. Anna had 
 nothing more to do with it than Veslovsky had. She 
 and Sviazhsky, the princess and Veslovsky, were only 
 guests, gayly and thoughtlessly taking advantage of 
 what was done for them. 
 
 Anna was khozyaika, or mistress of the household, 
 only in the management of the conversation ; and this 
 conversation was very difficult at a small table among 
 guests belonging to such different spheres of life as the 
 superintendent and the architect, who were trying not to 
 be dazzled by such unwonted splendor, and who were 
 unused to taking part in a general conversation ; but 
 Anna went through with her task with her usual tact 
 and simplicity, and even with pleasure, as Darya Alek- 
 sandrovna noticed. 
 
 The conversation turned first on the way in which 
 Tushkievitch and Veslovsky had gone down alone to the 
 boat, and Tushkievitch began to speak of the recent 
 yacht-race under the auspices of the Petersburg yacht- 
 club. But Anna, taking advantage of the first pause, 
 quickly turned to the architect, in order to bring him 
 out of his silence. 
 
 " Nikolai' Ivanuitch was surprised," said she, referring 
 to Sviazhsky, " to see how the new building had grown 
 since he was here last. But I myself am here every 
 day, and every day I am surprised myself to see how 
 fast it progresses. 
 
 " It is good to work with his excellency," said the 
 
 VOL. III. 1 1
 
 i6a ANNA KARENINA 
 
 architect, smiling He had a sense of the dignity of his 
 
 calling, and was a very worthy and self-possessed gentle- 
 man "You don't do such work under government 
 
 patronage. When they would write reams of paper, I 
 simply lay the plan before the count, we talk it over, and 
 three words decide it." 
 
 " American ways," suggested Sviazhsky, smiling. 
 
 " Yes ! buildings there are raised rationally." .... 
 
 The conversation then went off on the abuse of power 
 in the United States ; but Anna immediately started him 
 on a third theme, in order to bring out the superinten- 
 dent from his silence. 
 
 " Have you ever seen the steam reaping-machines ? " 
 she asked of Darya Aleksandrovna. " We had just 
 been to see ours when we met you. I never saw one 
 before." 
 
 " How do they work ? " asked Dolly. 
 
 " Just like scissors. A plank and a quantity of little 
 knives. Like this ! " 
 
 Anna took a knife and fork into her beautiful white 
 hands covered with rings, and tried to show her. She 
 apparently saw that she did not make herself very clear, 
 but, knowing that she spoke pleasantly and that her 
 hands were beautiful, she continued her explanations. 
 
 " Better say pen-knives ! " said Veslovsky, with an 
 attempt at a pun, 1 and not taking his eyes from her. 
 
 Anna smiled almost imperceptibly, but made no reply 
 to his remark. 
 
 "Am I not right, Karl, that they are like scissors?" 
 she said, appealing to the director. 
 
 " O/t, ja," replied the German. " Es ist ein ganz ein- 
 f aches Ding ; " 2 and he began to explain the construction 
 of the machine. 
 
 " It is too bad that it does not bind the sheaves. I 
 saw one at the Vienna Exposition ; it bound them with 
 wire," said Sviazhsky. "That kind would be much 
 more convenient." 
 
 " Es kommt drauf an Der Preis von Draht muss 
 
 1 Nozhnitsui, scissors ; nozhitchki, little knives. 
 
 2 It is a very simple thing.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 163 
 
 ausgerechnet vverden." And the German, aroused from 
 his silence, turned for confirmation to Vronsky " Das 
 lasst sick ausrechnen, Erlanclit" 
 
 The German put his hand into his pocket, where he 
 kept a pencil and notebook, in which he had an exact 
 statement, but, suddenly remembering that he was at the 
 dinner-table, and noticing Vronsky's cold eyes fastened 
 on him, he controlled himself. 
 
 " Zu complicirt, macht zu viel Klopots," 1 he said in 
 conclusion. 
 
 " Wiinscht man Dockets, so hat man anch Klopots" 2 
 said Vasenka Veslovsky, making sport of the German. 
 "J'adore rallemand" he said, with a peculiar smile, 
 turning to Anna. 
 
 " Cesses ! " said she, with affected sternness. 
 
 " We expected to find you on the field," said she to 
 the doctor, who was somewhat infirm. "Were you 
 there ? " 
 
 "I was there, but I evaporated," replied the doctor, 
 with a melancholy attempt at a jest. 
 
 " It must have been a beautiful motion." 
 
 " Magnificent." 
 
 " Well, and how did you find your old woman ? I 
 hope it is n't the typhus." 
 
 " Whether it is typhus or not I can't tell yet, but ...." 
 
 " How sorry I am," said Anna ; and, having thus 
 shown her politeness to the dependents, she turned 
 again to her friends. 
 
 " At any rate, it would be pretty hard to reconstruct 
 a machine by following your description, Anna Arka- 
 dy evna," said Sviazhsky. 
 
 "No, why so? " said Anna, with a smile which inti- 
 mated that she knew there was something charming in 
 her description of the construction of the reaping-ma- 
 chines, and that even Sviazhsky had noticed it. This 
 new trait of youthful coquetry struck Dolly unpleasantly. 
 
 " Still, in architecture Anna Arkadyevna's knowledge 
 is very remarkable," said Tushkievitch. 
 
 1 Too complicated, makes too much bother. 
 
 2 If one wants money, he must have bother.
 
 164 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Well, yesterday evening I heard Anna Arkadyevna 
 making some wise remark about plinths," said Veslovsky. 
 '' Would you find me doing that ? " 
 
 " There is nothing remarkable in that, when one 
 keeps one's eyes and ears open," said Anna. " But don't 
 you know what houses are built of ? " 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna perceived that Anna was not 
 pleased with this tone of badinage which she and Veslov- 
 sky kept up, but that she fell into it involuntarily. 
 
 In this respect Vronsky behaved exactly the opposite 
 to Levin. He evidently attributed not the least impor- 
 tance to Veslovsky's nonsense, but, on the contrary, 
 encouraged this jesting. 
 
 " Well, tell us, Veslovsky, what they use to fasten 
 stones together." 
 
 " Cement, of course." 
 
 " Bravo ! And what is cement made of ? " 
 
 "Well, it is something like gruel No, a sort of 
 
 mastic," said Veslovsky, amid general laughter. 
 
 The conversation among the guests, with the excep- 
 tion of the doctor, the superintendent, and the architect, 
 who generally kept silence, went on without cessation, 
 now growing light, now dragging a little, and now 
 touching to the quick. 
 
 Once Darya Aleksandrovna was touched to the quick, 
 and felt so provoked that she grew red in the face, and 
 afterward she wondered if she made any improper or 
 unpleasant remark. Sviazhsky spoke of Levin and told 
 of some of his strange opinions in regard to machines 
 being injurious to Russian agriculture. 
 
 " I have not the pleasure of knowing this Mr. Levin ; 
 probably he has never seen the machines he criticizes. 
 But if he has seen and tried, they must have been 
 Russian ones, and not the foreign make. What can be 
 his views ?" 
 
 " Turkish views," said Veslovsky, smiling at Anna. 
 
 " I cannot defend his opinions," said Dolly, reddening ; 
 "but Levin is a thoroughly intelligent man, and if he 
 were here he would know what answer to make you, 
 but I can't."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 165 
 
 " Oh, I am very fond of him, and we are excellent 
 friends," said Sviazhsky, smiling good-naturedly ; " mats 
 pardon, il est un petit pen toque". For example, he con- 
 siders thezemstvo and the justices of the peace every- 
 thing entirely useless will have nothing to do with 
 them." 
 
 " It 's our Russian indifference ! " exclaimed Vronsky, 
 filling his goblet with ice-water from a carafe. " Not to 
 feel the obligations which our privileges impose on us 
 and so ignore them." 
 
 " I don't know any one who is more strict in the ful- 
 filment of his duties," said Dolly, irritated by Vronsky's 
 superior tone. 
 
 " I, on the contrary," continued Vronsky, evidently 
 somewhat piqued by this conversation, " I, on the con- 
 trary, am very grateful, as you see, for the honor which 
 has been done me, thanks to Nikolai Ivanovitch " he 
 referred to Sviazhsky "in my appointment as honorary 
 justice of the peace. I consider that for me the duty 
 of going to the sessions of the court, of judging the 
 affairs of a muzhik, are as important as anything that I 
 could do. And I shall consider it an honor if you elect 
 me a member of the town-council. 1 This is the only 
 way that I can repay society for the privileges I enjoy 
 as a landed proprietor. Unfortunately the influence 
 which the large landed proprietors ought to wield is not 
 fully appreciated." 
 
 Vronsky's calm assurance that he was in the right 
 seemed very strange to Darya Aleksandrovna. She 
 knew that Levin, whose opinions were diametrically 
 opposite, was equally firm on his side ; but she loved 
 Levin, and so she was on his side. 
 
 " So we can depend on you at the next election, can 
 we ? " said Sviazhsky. " But we ought to leave earlier, 
 so as to get there by the 8th. Will you do me the honor 
 to go with me, count ? " 
 
 " I pretty much agree with your beau frere" said 
 Anna, "though for different reasons," she added, with 
 a smile. " I am afraid that nowadays we are getting 
 
 1 The Russian name for this official is glasnui.
 
 i66 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 to have too many of these public duties, just as in old 
 times there were so many chinovniks that there was a 
 chinovnik for everything ; so now every one is becoming 
 a public functionary. Aleksel has been here six months, 
 and is already a member of five or six different public 
 commissions wardenship, 1 judge, town councilman, 
 juryman I don't know what else. Du train qiie cela 
 va all his time will be spent on it. And I am afraid if 
 these things are multiplied so, that it will be only a 
 matter of form. You have ever so many offices, Nikolai 
 Ivanuitch, have you not? at least twenty, haven't you?" 
 she asked, turning toward Sviazhsky. 
 
 Anna spoke jestingly, but in her tone there was a 
 shade of irritation. Darya Aleksandrovna, who was 
 watching Anna and Vronsky attentively, immediately 
 noticed it. She saw also that the count's face assumed 
 a resolute and obstinate expression, and that the Princess 
 Varvara made haste to talk about some Petersburg ac- 
 quaintances, so as to change the subject; and, remember- 
 ing what Vronsky had told her in the garden about his 
 pleasure in activity, she felt certain that this conversa- 
 tion about public activities had something to do with a 
 secret quarrel between Vronsky and Anna. 
 
 The dinner, the wines, the service, were luxurious, but 
 everything seemed to Darya Aleksandrovna formal and 
 impersonal, like the state dinners and balls that she had 
 seen, and on an ordinary day and in a small circle it 
 made a disagreeable impression on her. 
 
 After dinner they sat down on the terrace. Then 
 they began to play lawn-tennis. The players, dividing 
 into two sides, took their places on the carefully rolled 
 and smoothly shaven croquet-ground, on which the net 
 was stretched between gilded posts. Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna was invited to play, but it took a long time 
 before she learned how, and when she got an idea of 
 the game she felt so tired that she went and sat down 
 by the Princess Varvara and only watched the players. 
 Her partner, Tushkievitch, also ceased playing, but the 
 others continued the game a long time. Sviazhsky and 
 
 1 Popechitelstvo.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 167 
 
 Vronsky both played very well and earnestly. They 
 followed the tennis-ball with quick eyes as it was sent 
 from one side to the other, not wasting their energies, 
 and not getting confused, skilfully running to meet it, 
 waiting till it should bound, and with good aim and 
 perfect accuracy catching it on the racket and sending 
 it over the net. 
 
 Veslovsky played worse than the others. He got too 
 much excited, but nevertheless by his gayety he kept up 
 the spirits of the other players. His jests and shouts 
 never ceased. Like the other men, by the advice of the 
 ladies he took off his coat and played, and his tall, 
 well-shaped figure in his shirt-sleeves, and his ruddy, 
 warm face, and his violent motions made a pleasant 
 picture to remember. 
 
 When Darya Aleksandrovna that night lay down in 
 her bed, as soon as she closed her eyes she saw Vasenka 
 Veslovsky dancing about on the croquet-ground. 
 
 But while they were playing, Darya Aleksandrovna 
 did not feel happy. She was displeased with the frivolity 
 which Vasenka Veslovsky and Anna still kept up while 
 they were playing ; nor did such a childish game played 
 by grown men and women by themselves, without chil- 
 dren, seem natural or sensible. But lest she should de- 
 stroy the pleasure of the others and so as to pass away 
 the time, she rested a little while and then took part in 
 another game and made believe that she was gay. All 
 that day it seemed to her as if she were acting in a 
 comedy with better actors than herself, and that her 
 bad acting spoiled the whole piece. She had come 
 intending to stay for two days if they urged her. But 
 in the evening, during the game of tennis, she made up 
 her mind to go home the next day. Those very same 
 maternal cares which she had so hated as she thought 
 them over during her journey, now, after two days' 
 absence, presented themselves in another light and 
 began to attract her. When, after tea and after a 
 moonlight row in the boat, she went alone to her room, 
 took off her gown, and began to put up her thin hair for 
 the night, she felt a great sense of relief.
 
 i68 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 It was even unpleasant to think that Anna would 
 soon be in to see her. She would have preferred to be 
 alone with her thoughts. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 DOLLY was just feeling ready to go to bed when 
 Anna came in, in her night costume. 
 
 All that day Anna had more than once been on the 
 point of speaking intimately, but each time, after saying 
 a few words, she had put it off, saying, " By and by ; 
 when we are alone, we will talk. I must tell you 
 everything." 
 
 Now they were alone and Anna did not know what 
 to talk about. She sat by the window looking at Dolly, 
 and casting over in her mind that inexhaustible store of 
 topics which she wished to talk about, and yet she 
 could not find one to begin with. It seemed to her 
 as if she had already told all that was in her heart to 
 tell. 
 
 " Well, what about Kitty ? " asked Anna, sighing 
 deeply, and looking guiltily at Dolly. "Tell me the 
 truth, Dolly ; is she angry with me ? " 
 
 "Angry ? No," answered Dolly, smiling. 
 
 " Does n't she hate .... does n't she despise me ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ; but you know this is one of the things 
 people don't forgive." 
 
 " Yes, yes," said Anna, turning away and looking out 
 of the open window. " But I was not to blame ! And 
 who is to blame ? and what is there blameworthy about 
 it ? Could it have been otherwise ? Now tell me ? 
 How do you think? Could you have helped being 
 Stiva's wife ? " 
 
 "Truly, I don't know ; but you must tell me .... " 
 
 " Yes, yes ! But finish telling me about Kitty. Is 
 she happy ? They say her husband is an excellent 
 man." 
 
 " That 's too little to say, that he 's excellent ; I don't 
 know a better man."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 169 
 
 " Oh, how glad I am ! I am very glad. ' Little to 
 say, that he 's an excellent man,' " she. repeated. 
 
 Dolly smiled. 
 
 " But now tell me about yourself," said Dolly. " I 
 want a long talk with you. I have talked with ...." 
 
 She did not know what to call Vronsky it was awk- 
 ward to call him either count or Alekse'f Kirillovitch. 
 
 "With Aleksel," said Anna. "Yes; I know that 
 you talked with him. But I wanted to ask you frankly 
 what you think of me.... of my life." 
 
 " How can I tell you at such short notice ? I don't 
 know what to say." 
 
 "No; you must tell me You see my life. But 
 
 you must not forget that you see us in summer with 
 people, and we are not alone ....but we came in the 
 early spring, we lived entirely alone, and we shall live 
 alone again. I ask for nothing better than living alone 
 with him. But when I imagine that I may live alone 
 without him, absolutely alone, and this would be .... I 
 don't see why this may not be frequently repeated, that 
 he may spend half of his time away from home," she 
 said, and, getting up, she sat down close by Dolly. 
 " Oh, of course," she said quickly, interrupting Dolly, 
 who was about to speak, " of course, I cannot keep 
 him by force....! don't keep him. To-day there's a 
 race ; his horses race ; he goes. I am very glad ! But 
 you think of me; imagine my situation .... what is to be 
 said about it ? " She smiled. " But what did he talk 
 with you about ? " 
 
 " He spoke about a matter which I myself wanted to 
 talk over with you ; and it is easy for me to be an advo- 
 cate of it, about this : whether it is not possible or 
 essential to" Darya Aleksandrovna hesitated "to 
 improve, make your position legal .... you know how I 
 look at .... but anyhow, if possible, a marriage must take 
 place." 
 
 " You mean divorce ? " said Anna. " Do you know, 
 the only woman who came to see me in Petersburg was 
 Betsy Tverskaya ! Perhaps you know her. Au fond 
 cest la femme la plus depmvcc qui existe. She had a
 
 170 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 liaison with this Tushkievitch, deceiving her husband 
 in the most outrageous way .... but she told me that she 
 did not wish to know me, because my position was 
 illegal ! Don't think that I compare .... I know you. 
 dear heart. 1 But I could not help remembering it. 
 Well, what did he say to you ? " 
 
 " He said that he suffered both for you and for him- 
 self ; maybe you will say that it is egoism, but what an 
 honorable and noble egoism ! He wishes to make his 
 daughter legitimate, and to be your husband and with a 
 husband's rights." 
 
 "What wife, what slave, could be more of a slave 
 than I, in my position ? " she interrupted angrily. 
 
 " The main reason that he wishes it is that you may 
 not suffer." 
 
 " This is impossible. Well ? " 
 
 "Well, to make your children legitimate, to give them 
 a name." 
 
 " What children ? " said Anna, not looking at Dolly, 
 but half-closing her eyes. 
 
 " Ani, and those that may come to you." 
 
 "Oh, he can be easy ; I shall not have any more.".... 
 
 " How can you say that you won't have any more?".... 
 
 " Because I will not have any more; " and, in spite of 
 her emotion, Anna smiled at the nal've expression of 
 astonishment, of curiosity, and horror depicted on Dolly's 
 face. " After my illness the doctor told me...." 
 
 " It is impossible," exclaimed Dolly, looking at Anna 
 with wide-opened eyes. For her this was one of those 
 discoveries, the consequences and deductions of which 
 are so monstrous that at the first instant it touches only 
 the feeling, that it is impossible to grasp it, but that it 
 rouses momentous trains of thought. 
 
 This discovery, which explained for her how hap- 
 pened all these hitherto inexplicable families of one 
 or at most two children, stirred up so many thoughts, 
 considerations, and contradictory feelings that she could 
 
 1 Duskenka moya.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 not say a word, and only gazed with wide-open eyes 
 of amazement at Anna. It was the very thing of 
 which she had dreamed, but now that she knew it 
 was possible she was horror-struck. She felt that it 
 was a quite too simple solution of a too complicated 
 question. 
 
 "N'est ce pas immoral?" she asked, after a mo- 
 ment's silence. 
 
 " Why ? Remember that I must choose between two 
 things : either being pregnant, that is to say, sick, or 
 being the friend, the companion, of my husband ; for so I 
 consider him. If that is a doubtful fact to you, it is not 
 so to me," said Anna, in an intentionally superficial and 
 frivolous tone. 
 
 "Yes, yes, but...." exclaimed Darya Aleksandrovna, 
 hearing the very same arguments which she had brought 
 up to herself, and no longer rinding in them their former 
 weight. 
 
 " For you, for other women," proceeded Anna, appar- 
 ently divining her thoughts, " there may be some doubt 
 
 about this; but for me Just think! I am not his 
 
 wife ; he will love me just as long as he loves me ; and 
 how, by what means, am I to keep his love? It is by 
 this." 
 
 And she put out her white arms in front of her beau- 
 tiful body. 
 
 With extraordinary rapidity, as always happens in 
 moments of emotion, all sorts of thoughts and ideas went 
 rushing through Darya Aleksandrovna's mind. 
 
 " I have not tried," she reasoned, " to attract Stiva to 
 myself ; he deserted me for some one else, and the first 
 woman for whom he sacrificed me did not retain him by 
 being always pretty and gay. He threw her over and 
 took another. And will Anna be able to fascinate and 
 retain Count Vronsky ? If that is what attracts him, 
 then he will be able to find women who dress even bet- 
 ter and are more fascinating and merry-hearted. And 
 however white, however beautiful, her bare arms, how- 
 ever beautiful her rounded form, and her animated face 
 framed in her black hair, he will be able to find still
 
 I 7 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 better, more attractive women, just as my abominable, 
 wretched, and beloved husband has done." 
 
 Dolly made no reply, and only sighed. Anna re- 
 marked this sigh, which signified dissent, and she pro- 
 ceeded. She had in reserve still more arguments, still 
 stronger, and impossible to answer. 
 
 " You say that this is immoral. But this requires to 
 be reasoned out," she went on saying. " You forget my 
 position. How can I desire children ? I don't say any- 
 thing about the suffering, I am not afraid of that. But 
 think what my children will be ! Unfortunate beings, 
 who will have to bear a name which is not theirs, by 
 their very birth compelled to blush for their father and 
 mother." 
 
 " Well, this is the very reason why a divorce is neces- 
 sary." 
 
 But Anna did not hear her. She wanted to produce 
 the same arguments by which she had so many times 
 persuaded herself. 
 
 " Why was the gift of reason bestowed on me, if I 
 cannot employ it in preventing the birth of more un- 
 happy beings ? " 
 
 She looked at Dolly, but without waiting for any an- 
 swer she went on : 
 
 " I should always feel my guilt toward these unhappy 
 children. If they do not exist, they will not know mis- 
 ery ; but if they exist and suffer, then I am to blame." 
 
 These were the same arguments as Darya Aleksan- 
 drovna had used to herself, but now she listened and 
 did not understand them. She said to herself : 
 
 " How can one be culpable with regard to non-ex- 
 istent existences ? " And suddenly the thought came, 
 " Could it have been possibly any better if my darling 
 Grisha had never existed ? " and it struck so unpleasantly, 
 so strangely, that she shook her head to chase away the 
 cloud of maddening thoughts that came into her mind. 
 
 "No, I do not know; I believe it wrong," she said, 
 with an expression of disgust. 
 
 " But you must not forget that you and I .... and more- 
 over," added Anna, notwithstanding the wealth of her
 
 ANNA KARENINA 173 
 
 own arguments and the poverty of poor Dolly's, seem- 
 ing somehow to recognize that this thing was immoral 
 after all, " you must not forget the main thing, that I 
 am not now in the same position as you are. For you 
 the question is, Do you wish to have more children ? but 
 for me, Do I desire them ? This is the principal differ- 
 ence. You must know that I cannot desire them in my 
 position." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna was silent. She suddenly be- 
 came aware that such an abyss separated her from Anna 
 that between them certain questions existed on which 
 they could never agree, and which had best not be 
 discussed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 "THAT shows all the more necessity for legalizing 
 your position, if possible." 
 
 "Yes, if possible," answered Anna, in an entirely dif- 
 ferent tone, calm and sweet. 
 
 " Is a divorce entirely impossible ? They tell me 
 your husband has consented." 
 
 " Dolly, I do not wish to talk about this." 
 
 "Well, we will not," Darya Aleksandrovna hastened 
 to say, noticing the expression of suffering on Anna's 
 face. " Only it seems to me that you look too much on 
 the dark 'side." 
 
 " I ? Not at all ; I am very happy and contented. 
 You saw, Je fats des passions with Veslovsky .... " 
 
 " Yes ! To tell the truth, Veslovsky's manner dis- 
 pleases me very much," said Darya Aleksandrovna, will- 
 ing enough to change the conversation. 
 
 " Oh ! there 's nothing ! It tickles Alekse'f, and that 's 
 all there is of it. But he is a mere boy and entirely in 
 my hands. You understand, I do as I please with him ; 
 just as you do with your Grisha Dolly! " she sud- 
 denly changed the subject "you say that I look on 
 the dark side. You can't understand. This is too terri- 
 ble ; I try not to look at all ! " 
 
 " You are wrong ; you ought to do what is necessary.'
 
 174 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " But what is necessary ? You say I must marry 
 Alekse'f, and that I don't think about that. 7 not think 
 about that ! " she exclaimed, and the color flew over her 
 face. She got up, straightened herself, and began walk- 
 ing up and down the room with 'her graceful gait, stop- 
 ping now and then. " Not think about that ! There is 
 not a day or an hour when I do not think of it, and 
 blame myself for thinking of it; because the thought 
 of it will make me mad will make me mad," she 
 repeated. "When I think of it, I cannot go to sleep 
 without morphine. But very good ! let us speak calmly. 
 You talk about divorce, but in the first place he would not 
 consent ; he is now under the Countess Lidya's influence." 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna, reclining in her easy-chair with 
 a sympathetic and sorrowful face, watched Anna as she 
 walked up and down. She shook her head. 
 
 " We must try," said she. 
 
 " Suppose I should try. What does it mean ? " she 
 asked, evidently expressing a thought which she had 
 gone over in her own mind a thousand times and had 
 learned by heart. " It means that I, who hate him, and 
 who have nevertheless confessed my guilt to him I 
 believe in his magnanimity that I humiliate myself to 
 write him Well! suppose I make the effort; sup- 
 pose I do it. I shall receive either an insulting answer 
 or his consent. Good, I get his consent .... " Anna at 
 this time was in the farthest end of the room and stopped 
 there to arrange a window-curtain. " I get his con- 
 sent .... but my s-son ? You see he will not give him 
 to me ! No, he will grow up despising me, living with 
 his father, whom I have left. Just think, I love these 
 two almost equally, both more than myself ; these two, 
 Serozha and Aleksei." 
 
 She advanced to the middle of the room and stood in 
 front of Dolly, pressing her hands to her breast. In her 
 white peignoir she seemed wonderfully tall and large. 
 She bent her head, and, looking out of her moist, shining 
 eyes on the little, homely, lean Dolly, sitting there in 
 her darned nightgown and nightcap, all a-tremble with 
 emotion, went on :
 
 ANNA KARENINA 175 
 
 "These two only I love, and the one excludes the 
 other. I cannot bring them together, and yet this is 
 the one thing I want. If this were not so, it would be all 
 the same, all, all the same. It will end in some way ; 
 but I cannot, I will not, talk about this. So do not 
 despise me, do not judge me. You in your purity 
 could never imagine what I suffer ! " 
 
 She sat down beside Dolly and, with a guilty expres- 
 sion in her eyes, took her hand. 
 
 "What do you think? What do you think of me? 
 Do not despise me ! I do not deserve that ; I am mis- 
 erably unhappy. If there is any one unhappy, it is I .... " 
 said she, and, turning away, she began to weep. 
 
 After Anna left her, Dolly said her prayers and went 
 to bed. She pitied Anna with all her soul while she 
 was talking with her; but now she could not bring her- 
 self to think of her. Memories of home and her children 
 arose in her imagination with new and wonderful joy. 
 So dear and precious seemed this little world to her that 
 she decided that nothing would tempt her to stay longer 
 away from them, and that she would leave the next day. 
 
 Anna, meantime, returning to her dressing-room, took 
 a glass, and poured into it several drops of a mixture 
 containing chiefly morphine, and, having swallowed it, 
 she sat a little while motionless, then went with a calm 
 and joyous heart to her bedroom. 
 
 When she went into her sleeping-room, Vronsky 
 looked scrutinizingly into her face. He was trying to 
 discover some trace of the talk which he knew by the 
 length of her stay in Dolly's room she must have had 
 with her. But in her expression, which betrayed a cer- 
 tain repressed excitement, as if she were trying to con- 
 ceal something, he found nothing except the beauty to 
 which he was so accustomed, and which always intoxi- 
 cated him, and the consciousness of it and the desire 
 that it might still have its usual effect on him. 
 
 He did not like to ask her what they had been talk- 
 ing about, but hoped that she herself would tell him. 
 But she only said : 
 
 " I am glad you like Dolly ; you do, don't you ? "
 
 176 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Yes ! I 've known her for a long time. She 's a 
 very good woman, mais excessivement terre a terre. But 
 still I am well pleased at her visit." 
 
 He gave Anna another questioning look, and took 
 her hand ; but she understood his look in another way, 
 and smiled. 
 
 The next morning, in spite of repeated urging from 
 her hosts, Darya Aleksandrovna prepared to go away. 
 Levin's coachman, in his old kaftan and a sort of postil- 
 ion's cap, put the unmatched horses into the old car- 
 riage with its shabby harness, and, looking stern and 
 resolute, drove up the sanded driveway to the covered 
 portico. 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna took a cold farewell of the 
 Princess Varvara and the gentlemen. The day that 
 they had passed together made them all see clearly that 
 they had no interests in common, and that they were 
 better apart. Anna only was sad. She knew that no 
 one would waken again in her the feelings which Dolly 
 had aroused in her soul. To have these feelings 
 aroused was painful to her, but still she knew that they 
 represented all the better side of her nature, and that 
 soon all vestige of such feelings would be stifled by the 
 life that she was leading. 
 
 As soon as she got fairly away from the house, Darya 
 Aleksandrovna experienced a pleasant feeling of relief, 
 and she was about to ask her men how they liked the 
 Vronskys, when suddenly the coachman, Filipp himself, 
 spoke out : 
 
 " They 're rich, rich enough, but they give only three 
 measures of oats. The horses cleaned it all up before 
 cockcrow. What are three measures ? Only a bite. 
 Nowadays oats cost only forty-five kopeks. With us, 
 we give our visitors' horses as much as they will eat." 
 
 " A stingy barin," said the bookkeeper. 
 
 " Well, but you liked their horses, did n't you? " asked 
 Dolly. 
 
 " The horses, yes, they were all right. And the food 
 was good. But still somehow I felt kind of homesick,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 177 
 
 Darya Aleksandrovna ; I don't know how it was with 
 you," said he, turning to her his good, handsome face. 
 
 " Yes, and so did I. But do you think we shall get 
 home this evening ? " 
 
 " We must get home." 
 
 On reaching home and finding every one perfectly 
 happy and glad to see her, Darya Aleksandrovna, with 
 great liveliness, told the story of her trip and how warmly 
 she had been received, about the luxury and good taste 
 of the Vronskys' establishment and about their amuse- 
 ments ; and she would not allow any one to say a word 
 against them. 
 
 " You must know Anna and Vronsky, and I know 
 him better than I did, to appreciate how kind and 
 affectionate they are," said she, with perfect sincerity, 
 forgetting the vague feeling of discomfort that she had 
 felt when she was there. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 VRONSKY and Anna passed the rest of the summer 
 and part of the autumn in the country under the same 
 conditions, and took no steps toward getting a divorce. 
 It was agreed between them that they should not make 
 any visits ; but they both felt that the longer they lived 
 alone, particularly in the autumn, and without guests, 
 the more unendurable became their life, and that they 
 must have some change. 
 
 Nothing which constitutes happiness was apparently 
 wanting to them. They were rich, young, well ; they 
 had one child, and they had pleasant occupations. 
 Though they had no guests, Anna continued to take 
 the greatest care of her person and her dress. She 
 read much, both in the way of novels and of serious 
 literature, and sent abroad for valuable books which 
 she saw praised in the foreign magazines and journals. 
 And she read carefully, as one can do only when in the 
 solitude of the country. Moreover, all subjects which 
 interested Vronsky, she studied up in books and scien- 
 
 VOL. III. 12
 
 i 7 8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 rific journals, so that often he went directly to her with 
 questions relating to agronomics and to architecture, 
 even with those on the breeding of horses, and the best 
 methods of hunting. He was amazed at her knowledge 
 and her memory ; and when he felt any doubt about the 
 beginning of an enterprise and wanted moral support, 
 he would consult her, and she would find in books what- 
 ever he asked about and then show it to him. 
 
 The arrangement of the hospital also occupied her. 
 She not only assisted in it, but, moreover, invented 
 many original ideas and carried them out. But, after 
 all, her chief preoccupation was herself .... herself and 
 how she might retain Vronsky's affections, how she 
 might supply for him all that he needed. 
 
 Vronsky appreciated this, and saw that the only aim 
 of her life was to please him and to obey his wishes in 
 every particular ; but at the same time he was op- 
 pressed by the chains of -tenderness which she tried 
 to forge around him. As time went on, he found 
 himself more and more embarrassed by these chains, 
 and more desirous of, if not exactly escaping from them, 
 at least of keeping them from interfering with his inde- 
 pendence. If it had not been for his ever increasing 
 desire for freedom, if it had not been for the fact that 
 every time he had to go to the city, to the races, there 
 was a scene with Anna, Vronsky would have been 
 perfectly contented with his existence. 
 
 The role of rich landed proprietor, which he had 
 chosen for himself as constituting the true work of the 
 Russian aristocracy, and which he had been engaged 
 in now for half a year, gave him ever increasing pleasure. 
 His work, which absorbed him more and more, was 
 prospering admirably. Notwithstanding his enormous 
 expenses for the building of the hospital, for machinery, 
 and cattle imported from Switzerland, and many other 
 things, he felt sure that he was not wasting, but increas- 
 ing, his property. As far as it concerned the matter of 
 income, the sale of wood, of wheat, of wool, the leasing 
 of land, Vronsky was as firm as a rock, and succeeded 
 in holding to his price. In matters concerning his whole
 
 ANNA KARENINA 179 
 
 management, both on this and on his other estates, he 
 kept to the simplest and least risky processes, and was 
 to the highest degree economical and prudent in all 
 details. Notwithstanding all the cleverness and shrewd- 
 ness of his German superintendent, who tried to involve 
 him in purchases and who so managed every calculation 
 that a large outlay was needed at first, but where, by 
 waiting a little, the same thing could be done much 
 cheaper and with greater profit, Vronsky used his own 
 judgment. He would listen to his superintendent, would 
 ask him all sorts of questions, and consent to his pro- 
 posed plans only when the thing to be imported or con- 
 structed was something perfectly new, unheard of as 
 yet in Russia, and calculated to cause surprise. More- 
 over, he would decide to embark in large enterprises 
 only when he had plenty of money on hand, and in 
 entering on any such outlay he attended to all the details, 
 and insisted that he should have the very best results. 
 Thus it was. evident that in carrying out his undertakings 
 he was not dissipating, but was increasing, his estate. 
 
 In the month of October the government of Kashin, 
 in which were situated the estates of Vronsky, Sviazhsky, 
 Koznuishef , and a part of Levin's, was to hold its nobiliary 
 elections. 1 These elections, for many reasons, and because 
 of the persons who took part in them, attracted general 
 attention. Much was said about them and great prepa- 
 rations were made for them. People from Moscow, 
 Petersburg, and even 'from abroad, who had never wit- 
 nessed an election, came to look on. 
 
 Vronsky had some time before promised Sviazhsky to 
 go with him. 
 
 Just before the elections, Sviazhsky, who had often 
 visited Vozdvizhenskoye, came after Vronsky. On 
 the evening before this event Vronsky and Anna almost 
 had a quarrel about his proposed trip. It was getting 
 autumnal in the country, a melancholy, gloomy time, 
 and therefore Vronsky, already ready for a contest, 
 announced with a cold, stern expression, such as he rarely 
 allowed himself toward Anna, that he was going away on 
 
 1 Dvorianskiye vuiborui.
 
 i8o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 this expedition. But to his surprise Anna received the 
 news with entire calmness, and only asked him when he 
 should be back. He looked at her scrutinizingly, not 
 understanding her calmness. She smiled as he looked 
 at her. He knew her power of retiring into herself, and 
 he knew that it was manifested only when she was plan- 
 ning something about herself and did not wish him to 
 know her plans. He was afraid of this now, but he was 
 so desirous of avoiding a scene that he almost forced 
 himself into believing that her manner was sincere. 
 
 " I hope you will not be lonely." 
 
 "I hope so too," said Anna. "I received a box of 
 books from Gautier yesterday ; no, I shall not be lonely." 
 
 " She is adopting a new tone, and so much the better," 
 thought he ; " but it is all the same thing." 
 
 And so, without entering into any frank explana- 
 tion with her, he started off for the elections. This was 
 the first time since the beginning of their liaison that he 
 had left her without full and complete explanation. In 
 one way this disquieted him ; in another, he felt that it 
 was better so. 
 
 " At first there will be something as there is now, not 
 altogether clear and above board, but after a while she 
 will get used to it. At all events," he thought, " I can 
 give up to her everything except my independence as a 
 man." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 IN September Levin returned to Moscow for Kitty's 
 confinement. 
 
 He had already been there a whole month without 
 anything to do, when Sergye'f Ivanovitch, who had an 
 estate in the government of Kashin, and who took a 
 great interest in the approaching elections, was getting 
 ready to make the journey. He took with him his 
 brother, who had a parcel of land in the Seleznevsky 
 district, and who, moreover, had some very important 
 business to transact in regard to a trusteeship and the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 181 
 
 receipt of certain money in Kashin in behalf of his sister, 
 who lived abroad. 
 
 Levin was even at the last moment in a state of un- 
 certainty, but Kitty, seeing that he was bored in Moscow, 
 not only urged him to go, but without his knowledge 
 bought him a noble's uniform at an expense of eighty 
 rubles. And these eighty rubles paid out for the uni- 
 form constituted the chief reason which induced Levin 
 to go. He therefore went to Kashin. 
 
 He had been at Kashin six days, present at every 
 session of the electors, and employing himself in his sis- 
 ter's affairs, which did not progress at all satisfactorily. 
 All the marshals of nobility were absorbed in the elec- 
 tions, and it was impossible to accomplish the very simple 
 business which depended on his guardianship. The 
 other matter the receipt of some money in the 
 same way caused him great delay. After long parley- 
 ings concerning the removal of an interdict, the money 
 was ready to be paid over ; but the notary, a most 
 obliging man, could not deliver the paper, because the 
 signature of the president was necessary, and the presi- 
 dent, neglecting his duties, was at the sessions of the 
 nobles. All these annoyances, this wandering from 
 place to place, these talks with very pleasant good men, 
 who thoroughly appreciated the disagreeable position of 
 the petitioner but could not help him, all this endeavor 
 which brought no result, produced on Levin's mind a 
 most painful impression, analogous to that tormenting 
 impotence which one sometimes experiences in a night- 
 mare when one wants to employ physical force and is 
 unable to do so. He frequently experienced this when 
 talking with that most obliging of men, the solicitor. 
 This solicitor, it seemed, was doing everything in his 
 power and was exerting all his mental energies to get 
 Levin out of his difficulties. 
 
 " Try this way or that way," he would say, " or go to 
 this place or to that place ; " and the solicitor would lay 
 out a whole plan for avoiding the fatal obstacle that 
 stood in the way. But immediately he would add, 
 "Still there's a delay; however, try it." And Levin
 
 1 82 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 would go flying off in this direction or that, and doing 
 whatever he was told to do. All were good and kind, 
 but it seemed as if the obstacles, even after he had 
 passed them, kept growing up again and cutting off his 
 path. 
 
 Especially annoying was it to him that he could 
 never know with whom he was really contending, for 
 whose profit it was that he could never bring his busi- 
 ness to a conclusion. And no one seemed to know this 
 either. Not even the solicitor knew this. If Levin 
 could have understood, as he understood why it was im- 
 possible to get at the office of a railway otherwise than 
 by standing in line, it would not have been humiliating 
 and vexatious, but, as regarded the obstacles that stood 
 in his way, not one could tell him why they existed 
 
 But Levin had greatly changed since his marriage. 
 He had learned patience, and if he could not compre- 
 hend why all this was arranged as it was, then he told him- 
 self, since he did not know all about it, he was not in a 
 position to judge, that apparently it was unavoidable; 
 and he strove not to lose his temper. 
 
 Now that he was present at the elections, he endeav- 
 ored not to be severe in his criticisms, nor to enter into 
 controversies, but as far as he could to understand the 
 matters which excellent and honorable men whom he 
 thoroughly respected found so serious and so absorbing. 
 Since his marriage Levin had opened his eyes to so 
 many new and serious sides of life which had hitherto 
 seemed to him, in his superficial view of them, of no 
 great importance, that now in the matter of the elections 
 he looked for a serious significance and found one. 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch explained to him the idea and sig- 
 nificance of the change which was proposed to the elec- 
 tors. The governmental predvodityel, or marshal of 
 nobility, had charge of very many matters of public im- 
 portance, as, for example, guardianships, such as the 
 one which Levin himself was now trying to bring into a 
 satisfactory shape, and large sums of money and the 
 direction of the gymnasia, or schools for women, and for 
 the peasantry and the military and the training of the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 183 
 
 people for their new duties, and finally of the zemstvo, or 
 popular assembly. Now the present marshal, Snetkof, 
 was a man of the old aristocratic stamp, who had squan- 
 dered an enormous property, was a very worthy and 
 honorable man in his way, but wholly incapable of com- 
 prehending the new needs of the present time. He 
 always on every occasion took the side of the nobles ; 
 he always cast the whole weight of his influence against 
 the extension of popular education and he gave the 
 zemstvo, which was coming to have such an enormous 
 significance, a partisan character. 
 
 It was considered necessary to put in his place a new 
 and active man, imbued with the most enlightened 
 modern ideas, and to manage the business so as to ex- 
 tract from all the rights given to the noblesse, 1 not as the 
 noblesse, but simply as a constituent part of the zemstvo, 
 such advantages of self-government as were possible. 
 
 In the rich government of Kashin, which always took 
 the lead in every advance, such forces were now con- 
 centrated that the business now before the assembled 
 nobles would be likely to set an example for all the 
 other departments, indeed for all Russia. And there- 
 fore the business had a great importance. 
 
 It was proposed to elect as marshal instead of Snet- 
 kof, either Sviazhsky, or, still better, Nevyedovsky, a 
 man of eminent understanding, formerly a professor, 
 who was an intimate friend of Sergyei' Ivanovitch's. 
 
 The sobranic, or provincial assembly, was opened by a 
 speech from the governor, who urged the nobility to elect 
 the necessary functionaries, not from partisan reasons, but 
 for merit and for the public weal ; and he hoped that 
 the nobility of the department of Kashin would do their 
 duty, as they had always done, and thus deserve their 
 monarch's confidence. 
 
 Having finished his speech, the governor left the hall, 
 and the noblemen, tumultuously and eagerly, and some 
 of them even enthusiastically, followed him, and sur- 
 rounded him while he was putting on his shuba, and talk- 
 ing in a friendly way with the government marshal. 
 
 1 Dvorianstvo,
 
 184 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Levin, anxious to see everybody and miss nothing, 
 was in the midst of the throng, and he heard the gov- 
 ernor say, " Please tell Marya Ivanovna that my wife is 
 very sorry, but she had to go to the asylum." 
 
 Then all the nobles gayly took their shubas, and went 
 in a body to the cathedral. 
 
 In the cathedral Levin, together with the rest, raised 
 his hand and repeated, after the protopope, the solemn 
 oaths by which they swore to fulfil their duties. The 
 church service always impressed Levin, and when he 
 joined with this throng of men, old and young, in re- 
 peating the words, " I kiss the cross," he felt stirred. 
 
 On the second and third day the assembly was occu- 
 pied with the moneys meant for the educational estab- 
 lishments for the nobility and for women, which Sergye'f 
 Ivanovitch declared had no especial importance, and 
 Levin, who had his own business to attend to, was not 
 present. 
 
 On the fourth day the verifying of the government 
 accounts came up, and here, for the first time, the new 
 party came into direct collision with the old. The com- 
 mission, whose duty it was to verify these accounts, 
 announced to the assembly that the money was all 
 accounted for. The government marshal arose, and 
 with tears in his eyes thanked the nobility for their con- 
 fidence in him. The nobles loudly congratulated him, 
 and shook hands with him. 
 
 But at this time one noble belonging to Sergye'f 
 Ivanovitch's party declared that he had heard that the 
 commission, for fear of affronting the government mar- 
 shal, had not properly performed the verification of the 
 accounts. One of the members of the commission un- 
 guardedly admitted this. Then a very small and very 
 young-looking, but very sarcastic, gentleman began to 
 say that it would probably be agreeable for the govern- 
 ment marshal to give an account of his expenditures, 
 and that the excessive delicacy of the members of the 
 commission had deprived him of that moral satisfaction. 
 Thereupon the members of the commission withdrew 
 their report, and Sergyei' Ivanovitch began logically to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 185 
 
 prove that it was necessary to acknowledge that the 
 expenditures had been verified or that they had not been 
 verified, and he went into a long exposition of the 
 dilemma. 
 
 A chatterer from the opposite party replied to 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch. Then Sviazhsky spoke, and was 
 followed by the sarcastic gentleman. The proceedings 
 were tedious, and no end was reached. Levin was sur- 
 prised that they discussed this so long, and all the more 
 because, when he asked Sergye'f Ivanovitch whether 
 Snetkof were suspected of peculation, he replied : 
 
 "Oh, he's an honest man. But we must shake this 
 old-fashioned patriarchal way of managing business." 
 
 On the fifth day occurred the election of the district 
 marshals. The session was a stormy one for many of 
 the districts. In the uyezd or district of Seleznevskoye, 
 Sviazhsky was unanimously elected by acclamation, and 
 he gave a grand dinner the same evening. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE principal election, that of marshal of the govern- 
 ment, did not take place until the sixth day. 
 
 The great halls and the little halls were crowded with 
 nobles in their various uniforms. Many came for this 
 day only. Acquaintances who had not met for years 
 were there, some from the Krimea, some from Peters- 
 burg, some from abroad. The debates were carried on 
 at the governor's table, under the emperor's portrait. 
 
 The nobles both in the larger and in the smaller hall 
 were grouped in opposing camps, and, judging by the 
 hostile and mistrustful looks exchanged, by the conversa- 
 tions which ceased at the approach of strangers, by the 
 fact that some walked up and down the distant corridor 
 whispering together, it was evident that each side had 
 secrets from the other. Even by a superficial glance it 
 could be seen that the nobles were divided into two 
 sharply contrasting types : the old and the new. The 
 old school wore for the most part either old court uni-
 
 186 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 forms, tightly buttoned up, with swords, and ancient 
 hats, or else their ordinary marine, cavalry, or infantry 
 uniforms of very ancient date. The uniforms of the 
 old nobles were made in the ancient style, with epau- 
 lets on the shoulders, and with short waists and tight 
 armholes, as if their possessors had grown out of them ; 
 but the younger men wore court uniforms with broad 
 shoulders, long waists, and white waistcoats unbuttoned, 
 or else uniforms with black collars and embroidered 
 laurel leaves the distinguishing badge of the ministry 
 of justice. Court uniforms were to be seen here and 
 there, also among the young men, adding to the brilliancy 
 of the throng. 
 
 But the division into "old" and "young" did not 
 coincide with the party lines. Some of the younger 
 men, to Levin's surprise, belonged to the old party, and, 
 on the contrary, some of the very oldest nobles were on 
 confidential terms with Sviazhsky and were evidently 
 warm partizans of the new school. 
 
 In the smaller hall, where men were smoking and 
 lunching, Levin was standing near a group of his friends 
 and listening to what was said, and vainly exerting all 
 his intellectual powers to comprehend what was said. 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch was the center around whom many 
 men had gathered. He was now listening to Sviazhsky 
 and Khliustof, the marshal of another district, who be- 
 longed to their party. Khliustof would not agree to go 
 with his district and beg Snetkof to stand as candidate ; 
 but Sviazhsky advised him to do this, and Sergyei Ivano- 
 vitch approved of this plan. Levin could not under- 
 stand why a party opposed to this marshal and wanting to 
 defeat him should nevertheless put him up as a candidate. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had just been lunching 
 and drinking, joined them in his chamberlain's uniform, 
 wiping his mouth with a perfumed and embroidered 
 cambric handkerchief. 
 
 " We hold the situation," said he, arranging both his 
 side-whiskers, "Sergyei Ivanovitch;" and after he heard 
 Sviazhsky's plan he agreed with him. 
 
 " One district is enough, but let Sviazhsky pretend to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 187 
 
 be in opposition ; " and all except Levin understood the 
 meaning of his words. 
 
 "Well, how is Kostia?" he said, turning to Levin and 
 taking him by the arm. " So you came, it seems, in style." 
 
 Levin would not have been sorry to be in style, but 
 he could not comprehend what was taking place, and, 
 going a few steps from the rest, he expressed to him his 
 astonishment at seeing the hostile districts asking the old 
 marshal to stand as candidate. 
 
 " O sancta simplicitas ! " replied Oblonsky ; and in a 
 few clear words he explained to Levin what the state of 
 the case was. 
 
 " If, as at the last elections, all the districts should 
 unite on the government marshal, he would be elected. 
 This is not what is wanted. Now eight of the districts 
 have agreed to ask him to stand. But if two should 
 refuse to accept him for their candidate, then Snetkof 
 might decline to stand. And then the old party might 
 take for their candidate some one else in their party, so 
 that the whole scheme would be defeated. But if Sviazh- 
 sky's district is the only one refusing to adopt him as 
 their candidate, Snetkof will accept the nomination. So 
 he is selected and proposed as a candidate so as to 
 throw dust in the eyes of the opposite party, and when 
 we set up our candidate they will go over to him." 
 
 Levin began to get some idea of the plan, but it was 
 not entirely clear to him, and he was about to ask a few 
 more questions, when suddenly there was heard in the 
 next room a great shouting and uproar and confusion : 
 
 " What is it ? What ? Who ? .... Confidence in whom ? 
 
 What ? .... It is disproved Lack of confidence They 
 
 won't admit Flerof .... prosecution They refuse to ad- 
 mit a man ? Shame ! .... The law." Such were the words 
 that Levin heard shouted from all sides, and he, together 
 with all the rest, hurrying from all directions and shout- 
 ing at the tops of their voices, rushed into the great 
 hall, and, pressing along with all the nobles, he made 
 his way up to the governor's table, about which the 
 government marshal, Sviazhsky, and other leaders were 
 hotly discussing.
 
 i88 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 LEVIN stood at quite a distance. A noble breathing 
 stertorously near him and another with thick squeaking 
 soles prevented him from hearing distinctly. All he 
 could distinguish was the marshal's gentle voice, then 
 the sharp voice of the sarcastic gentleman, and then the 
 voice of Sviazhsky. He could only distinguish that they 
 were disputing about the meaning of a clause of the law, 
 and the meaning of the words, " nakhodivshayosa pod 
 slyedstviem." 
 
 The crowd parted to let Sergyei' Ivanovitch get to the 
 table. Sergye'f Ivanovitch, after waiting till the sar- 
 castic gentleman was done speaking, said that it seemed 
 to him it would be a better way to consult the law 
 itself, and he asked the secretary to find for him the 
 text of the law. The law said that in case of divergence 
 of opinion a vote must be taken. 
 
 Sergyei Ivanovitch read the clause, and was just 
 beginning to explain its meaning when he was inter- 
 rupted by a tall, stout, round-shouldered proprietor, with 
 dyed whiskers, and wearing a tight uniform with a high 
 collar which seemed to prop up the back of his head. 
 This man came up to the table, and, striking it with his 
 fist,, shouted at the top of his voice : 
 
 "Put it to the ballot. Vote on it! No discussing! 
 The ballot ! " 
 
 Then suddenly a number of voices broke out at once, 
 and the tall noble, still pounding with his fist, grew 
 angrier and angrier, and shouted louder and louder. 
 But it was impossible to make out what he was talking 
 about. 
 
 He said the same thing as Sergye'f Ivanovitch had 
 proposed ; but evidently he hated Koznuishef and his 
 whole party, and this feeling of hatred communicated 
 itself to the whole party, and called forth the opposition 
 of similar, though more decorous, hatred from the other 
 side. 
 
 Voices were raised and for a moment everything was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 189 
 
 in confusion, so that the government marshal was obliged 
 to call for order : 
 
 " Put it to vote, put it to vote. That man knows 
 
 what he is talking about ! There '11 be bloodshed 
 
 The emperor's confidence Don't count the marshal, 
 
 he 's not our prikashchik That 's not the point ! .... 
 
 Please, put it to vote It 's odious ! " were the ex- 
 clamations heard on every side in angry, violent tones. 
 Eyes and faces became still angrier and more violent, 
 with words of irreconcilable hatred. Levin did not 
 understand at all what the trouble was, and was amazed 
 at the passion with which they discussed the question 
 whether they should vote or not vote on the opinion 
 concerning Flerof. He forgot, as SergyeT Ivanovitch 
 afterward explained to him, the syllogism that for the 
 common weal it was necessary to elect a new govern- 
 ment marshal ; to defeat the present marshal a majority 
 of the votes was needed ; to get a majority of the votes 
 it was necessary to give Flerof the right of voting ; to 
 pronounce Flerof qualified it was necessary to have it 
 decided how the clause of the law was to be understood. 
 
 " One voice may decide the whole matter, and we 
 must be serious and logical if we wish to act for the 
 public good," said Sergyei Ivanovitch, in conclusion. 
 
 But Levin forgot this, and it was trying for him to 
 see these excellent men, for whom he had such respect, in 
 such a disagreeable and angry frame of mind. In order 
 to avoid this feeling he, without waiting for the end of 
 the election, went into the smaller hall, where there was 
 no one except the servants connected with the buffet. 
 
 Seeing the servants busily engaged in polishing the 
 service and putting away the plates and glasses, seeing 
 their contented lively faces, Levin felt an unexpected 
 feeling of relief, just as if he had come out from an ill- 
 smelling room into pure air. He began to walk back 
 and forth, watching the servants. It pleased him greatly 
 to watch one of the servants, an old man with gray side- 
 whiskers, expressing his scorn for the younger ones, who 
 stood in awe of him, teaching them the best way of folding 
 napkins. Levin was just about to engage the old ser-
 
 j 9 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 vant in conversation, when the Secretary of the Assembly, 
 a little old man, who made a specialty of knowing all the 
 nobles of the province by their full names, came to call 
 him. 
 
 " Excuse me, Konstantin Dmitritch," said he ; " your 
 brother is asking for you. The opinion is to be voted on." 
 
 Levin went into the hall, took a little white ball, and, 
 following close behind Sergye'f Ivanovitch, he went to 
 the table where Sviazhsky was standing with an impor- 
 tant and ironical air, running his beard through his hand 
 and occasionally putting it to his nose. Sergyei' Ivano- 
 vitch put his ball into the ballot-box, and made room for 
 Levin ; but Levin, having entirely forgotten what the vot- 
 ing was for, was disconcerted, and asked his brother : 
 
 " Where shall I put it ? " 
 
 He spoke in a low tone, and as there was talking near 
 him, he hoped that his question would not be overheard ; 
 but the speakers stopped, and his unfortunate question 
 was heard. Sergyei' Ivanovitch frowned, and replied 
 sternly : 
 
 "This is a matter entirely of conviction." 
 
 A number of the bystanders smiled. Much embar- 
 rassed, Levin quickly cast his vote, and as he happened 
 to hold it in his right hand, he threw it into the right- 
 hand receptacle. Only after he had deposited it did he 
 remember that he ought to have put it in his left hand, 
 and he did so, but it was already too late ; and growing 
 still more confused, he hastily made his way to the very 
 rear rank. 
 
 " One hundred and twenty-six in the affirmative ; ninety- 
 eight in the negative," announced the secretary, who 
 could not pronounce the letter r. Then a laugh went 
 round ; a button and two nuts were found in the ballot- 
 box. The questionable noble was admitted and the new 
 party was victorious. 
 
 But the old party did not even yet acknowledge itself 
 defeated. Levin heard them request Snetkof to stand 
 as their candidate, and he saw a throng of nobles sur- 
 rounding the government marshal, who was making an 
 address. Levin went nearer. In reply to the nobles,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 191 
 
 Snetkof was speaking of the confidence which the 
 nobility had reposed in him, of their love for him which 
 he did not deserve, because all his service had consisted 
 in his devotion to the nobility, whom he had served for 
 twenty years. Several times he repeated the words, " I 
 have served to the best of my ability, I appreciate your 
 confidence and thank you for it," and then, suddenly 
 pausing because of the tears which choked him, he 
 hurried from the room. His tears arose either from 
 the injustice that had been done him, or from his love 
 for the nobles, or possibly from the unpleasant position 
 in which he was placed, finding himself surrounded by 
 enemies ; but his grief was contagious ; the majority of 
 the nobles were touched, and Levin felt sorry for him. 
 
 At the door the government marshal stumbled against 
 Levin. 
 
 " Excuse me, I beg your pardon," he said, as to a 
 stranger ; then, recognizing him, he smiled a melancholy 
 smile. It seemed to Levin that he wanted to say some- 
 thing but was prevented by his emotion. The expression 
 of his face and his whole figure in his uniform, with his 
 crosses, and white pantaloons ornamented with galloon, 
 as he hastened out, reminded Levin of some hunted ani- 
 mal which sees that it has little chance to escape. This 
 expression in the government marshal's face went to 
 Levin's heart, for only the day before he had been to see 
 him about the guardianship affair, and had seen in the 
 whole establishment the dignity of a good-hearted domes- 
 tic gentleman : the house large, with ancestral furniture ; 
 unstylish, dirty, but dignified, old servants who had evi- 
 dently been former serfs and had not changed their mas- 
 ter ; the wife, a tall, benevolent lady in her lace cap and 
 Turkish shawl, caressing her lovely granddaughter ; the 
 youngest son, a boy in the sixth class of the gymnasium, 
 who had come in to wish his father good morning and 
 to kiss his big hand ; the imposing but affectionate greet- 
 ings and gestures of the master of the house : all this 
 had awakened in Levin involuntary respect and sympa- 
 thy even then, and now he felt touched and sorry for the 
 old man, and wanted to say something pleasant to him.
 
 i 9 2 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Perhaps you will be our marshal again." 
 
 " I doubt it," said Snetkof, with his scared look. " I 
 am tired, getting old. There are younger and better 
 men than I. Must let them take my place." And he 
 disappeared by a side door. 
 
 Now the most solemn moment had arrived. It was 
 necessary to proceed immediately to the election itself. 
 The leaders of both parties were counting on their fin- 
 gers the white and black balls. The controversy re- 
 garding Flerof gave the new party not only one more 
 vote, but also gained time, so that they could send for 
 three nobles, whom the trickery of the old party was 
 going to deprive of the possibility of taking part in the 
 election. Two nobles who had a weakness for wine had 
 been made drunk by Snetkof's henchmen, and a third 
 had been seduced by the promise of a uniform. 
 
 Having learned about this, the new party had made 
 haste during the contest concerning Flerof to send an 
 izvoshchik for the noble and to provide him with a uni- 
 form, and to bring one of the two drunken nobles to the 
 hall. 
 
 " I brought one of them, I had to douse him with 
 water," said the proprietor who had gone in search of 
 him, addressing Sviazhsky. " He '11 do." 
 
 " He 's not very drunk, is he ; can't he stand ? " asked 
 Sviazhsky, shaking his head. " Yes, he 's a young man. 
 
 Only don't let them get him to drinking here I told 
 
 the caterer not to give him any wine under any consid- 
 eration." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE narrow hall where men smoked and had lun- 
 cheon was crowded with nobles. The excitement kept 
 increasing, and all faces showed signs of anxiety. Es- 
 pecially agitated were the leaders, who knew all the 
 details and had followed the voting very closely. These 
 men had charge of the approaching engagement. The 
 others, like the soldiers in the ranks before the battle, 
 although ready for the conflict, in the meantime sought
 
 ANNA KARENINA 193 
 
 diversion. Some ate luncheon, standing or sitting at 
 the buffet ; others walked up and down the long room 
 smoking cigarettes, and talked with friends whom they 
 had not seen for long. 
 
 Levin did not feel hungry, he did not smoke, and he 
 did not care to join his friends, that is, Sergyei Ivano- 
 vitch, Stepan Arkadyevitch, Sviazhsky, and the others, 
 for the reason that Vronsky in his equerry's uniform 
 stood in lively conversation with them. The evening 
 before he had seen Vronsky at the election, and had 
 carefully avoided him, not wishing to come into contact 
 with him. He went to a window and sat down, watch- 
 ing the groups and listening to what was said around 
 him. He felt depressed, especially because all the others, 
 as he could see, were animated, active, and occupied, and 
 he alone was inert and indifferent ; the only other excep- 
 tion was an old man in a naval uniform, who had no teeth 
 and who spoke in a mumbling voice. 
 
 "What a rogue. I told him it was not so ! He can't 
 make it up in three years," a round-shouldered, short 
 proprietor was saying energetically; this man, whose 
 long unpomaded hair was spread out over the embroi- 
 dered collar of his uniform coat, walked along, noisily 
 putting down the heels of his new boots which evidently 
 had been made for the elections ; but as he caught sight 
 of Levin he cast a hostile glance at him, and turned 
 about abruptly. 
 
 " Yes, it is a nasty thing to say so," repeated the 
 little proprietor, in a piping voice. 
 
 Immediately behind these two came a whole throng 
 of proprietors, crowding around a tall general, and 
 quickly approaching where Levin was. They were evi- 
 dently trying to find some place where they would not 
 be overheard. " How does he dare to say that I ordered 
 his trousers to be stolen. He drank them up, I reckon. 
 I don't care a straw if he is a prince. Don't let him 
 dare to say such a thing ; it 's swinish! " 
 
 " Hold on, excuse me. They insist on the letter of 
 the law," they were saying in another group; "his 
 wife must be inscribed among the nobility." 
 VOL. in. 13
 
 194 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " The devil take the letter of the law ! I insist on its 
 spirit. According to that they are genuine nobles, be- 
 lieve me." 
 
 " Your excellency, let us come, fine champagne ! " 
 
 Another group immediately pressed behind a noble 
 who was shouting something at the top of his voice ; 
 this was one of the three drunken nobles. 
 
 " I always advised Marya Semyonovna to let it on a 
 lease because she gets no profit out of it," a proprietor 
 was saying in a pleasant voice. This man had gray 
 whiskers and wore the uniform of a colonel on the old 
 general's staff. It was the same proprietor whom he had 
 once met at Sviazhsky's house. Levin immediately 
 recognized him. The proprietor also glanced at Levin, 
 and they greeted each other. 
 
 " This is very pleasant. How are you ? I remember 
 you very well. We met last year at Nikolai' Ivanovitch's, 
 at the marshal's." 
 
 " Well, how goes your farming ? " l asked Levin. 
 
 " Everything is going to rack and ruin," said the pro- 
 prietor, halting near Levin, and looking at him with a 
 submissive smile, but with an expression of calmness 
 and confidence that this was the natural order of things. 
 
 " But how does it happen that you are in our part of 
 the world? " he asked. " Did you come to take part in 
 our coup d'Jtat?" he went on, pronouncing the French 
 words with confidence, but with a bad accent. 
 
 " All Russia is assembled here, chamberlains, if not 
 ministers." 
 
 He pointed to Stepan Arkadyevitch's imposing figure, 
 as in white trousers and chamberlain's uniform he strode 
 along next the general. 
 
 " I must confess to you," said Levin, " I don't under- 
 stand the significance of these noblemen's elections." 
 
 The old gentleman looked at him. 
 
 " Well ! what is there to understand ? what signifi- 
 cance can they have ? It 's a decaying institution which 
 prolongs itself by the force of inertia. Look at all these 
 uniforms; they tell you this is an assemblage of justices 
 
 1 Khozyaistvo, everything connected with his estate.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 195 
 
 of the peace, perpetual councilors, and so on, but no 
 noblemen." 
 
 " Why, then, do you come ? " 
 
 " From habit, to keep up relations ; from a sort of 
 moral obligation. And then, if I must tell the truth, I 
 came on a question of personal interest. My son-in-law 
 wants to be elected as a perpetual councilor ; he "s not 
 rich ; I must try to help him. But why do such people 
 as that come ? " and he pointed out the orator whose 
 sharp voice had struck Levin during the debates at the 
 governor's table. 
 
 " It is a new generation of nobles." l 
 
 " Certainly new, but not nobles. They are landhold- 
 ers, but we are the proprietors. But they are trying to 
 get the power as if they were nobles." 
 
 " Yes, but you say it is a decaying institution ? " 
 
 " Decaying or not decaying, it must be treated more 
 respectfully. Even though Snetkof .... We may not be. 
 worth much, but, nevertheless, we have lasted a thousand 
 years. Suppose you lay out a new garden before your 
 house and there happens to be a century-old tree which 
 
 has grown up on your land Though the tree is old 
 
 and gnarled, you don't have it cut down, but you lay out 
 your walks and your flower-beds in such a way as to 
 preserve intact the old oak. You can't grow such a 
 tree in one year," said he, cautiously, and immediately 
 changed the conversation. " Well, how do matters go 
 with you ? " 
 
 " Not very brilliantly ; five per cent ! " 
 
 " Yes, but you don't reckon your own time and labor. 
 Now, I will tell you about myself. Up to the time 
 when I began to take care of my own estate, and while 
 I was still in the service, I used to receive three thou- 
 sand a year. Now I work harder than when I was 
 in the service, and I also get about five per cent, and 
 am lucky if I get that. And all my time and trouble 
 are thrown in." 
 
 " But why do you do so if the results are so unprofit- 
 able?" 
 
 1 Dvorianstvo, noblesse.
 
 196 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Yes, why do I? What shall I say? Habit, and 
 because I know it has got to be done. I will tell you 
 something besides," continued the proprietor, leaning 
 his elbow on the window-seat and falling into a tone of 
 monologue, " my son has no taste for farming. 1 He is 
 evidently going to be a scholar. So there '11 be no one 
 to carry it on after me. And yet one goes ahead. Here 
 I Ve just planted a garden." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said Levin. "You are quite right. 1 
 always am conscious that there 's no real economy in 
 
 my farming, but still I go on with it But one feels 
 
 that one owes a certain duty to the land." 
 
 " Now I will tell you another thing," continued the 
 proprietor. " A neighbor, a merchant, came to see me. 
 We went over the farm, and then the garden. ' Well, 
 Stepan Vasilyevitch, your place is in order,' said he, 
 'but your garden has too much shade.' But he found 
 it in order, mind you. ' My advice would be, cut down 
 those lindens. Just for the bark. Here are a thousand 
 lindens. Each one will make two excellent basts, and 
 basts sell well. If I were you, I should cut some of 
 that linden trash down and sell it.' ' 
 
 " Yes, and with the money he would buy cattle, or 
 perhaps a bit of ground cheap, and he would lease it to 
 the peasants," said Levin, with a smile, for evidently he 
 had more than once come in contact with similar cases. 
 " And so he makes a fortune. But you and I thank 
 God if we keep our land, and are able to leave it to our 
 children." 
 
 " You are married, I have heard ? " 
 
 "Yes," replied Levin, with proud satisfaction. "It 
 is wonderful ! We live without making any profit, 
 obliged, like ancient vestals, to watch some holy fire." 
 
 The old gentleman smiled under his white mustache. 
 
 " Some people, like our friend Sviazhsky and Count 
 Vronsky, pretend to make something by agriculture ; 
 but so far they have only succeeded in eating into their 
 capital." 
 
 " Why should n't we imitate the merchants, and cut 
 
 1 Khozyalstvo.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 197 
 
 down the trees in our parks and make money? " asked 
 Levin, reverting to the idea which had struck him. 
 
 "Just this! because we guard the sacred fire, as you 
 say. Besides, that is not the business of the nobles. 
 And our work as nobles does not lie here, at these elec- 
 tions, but at home, each in his own place. It is a caste 
 instinct that tells us what is necessary or not necessary. 
 The muzhiks have theirs; a good muzhik will persist 
 in hiring as much land as he can. No matter how bad 
 it is, he will work it just the same, even without 
 profit." 
 
 " We are all alike," said Levin. " I am very glad to 
 have met you ! " he added, seeing Sviazhsky approach- 
 ing. 
 
 " Here we have met for the first time since we were 
 together at your house," said the proprietor to Svi- 
 azhsky. "Yes, and we have been having a talk." 
 
 " And doubtless have been slandering the new order 
 of things ? " said Sviazhsky, smiling. 
 
 " Something of the sort." 
 
 " One must free one's mind." 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 SVIAZHSKY took Levin's arm, and together they ap- 
 proached their friends. 
 
 It was now impossible to avoid Vronsky. He was 
 standing with Stepan Arkadyevitch and Sergye'f Ivano- 
 vitch, and was looking straight at Levin as he came 
 along. 
 
 " I am delighted ! " said he, offering his hand to 
 Levin. " I think we met at the Princess Shcher- 
 batsky's." 
 
 " Yes, I remember our meeting perfectly," answered 
 Levin, growing purple ; and he immediately turned 
 away and entered into conversation with his brother. 
 
 Vronsky, smiling slightly, began conversing with Svi- 
 azhsky, apparently having no desire to continue his 
 talk with Levin. But Levin, while he was speaking
 
 198 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 with his brother, kept looking at Vronsky, trying ta 
 think of something that he might say to him so as to 
 atone for his rudeness. 
 
 "On whom does the business depend now?" he 
 asked, turning to Sviazhsky and Vronsky. 
 
 " On Snetkof. He must either decline or consent," 
 replied Sviazhsky. 
 
 " What will he do, consent or not ? " 
 
 " That is where the trouble lies neither one thing 
 nor the other," said Vronsky. 
 
 " But who will be nominated if he declines ? " asked 
 Levin, looking at Vronsky. 
 
 " Any one may," answered Sviazhsky. 
 
 "You, perhaps," suggested Levin. 
 
 " Certainly not," replied Sviazhsky, scowling, and 
 directing an agitated look at the sarcastic gentleman 
 who was standing near SergyeT Ivanovitch. 
 
 " Who then ? Nevyedovsky ? " continued Levin, feel- 
 ing that he was treading on dangerous ground. 
 
 But this was still worse ; Nevyedovsky and Sviazhsky 
 were two of the candidates. 
 
 " Not I in any case," replied the sarcastic gentleman. 
 
 It was Nevyedovsky himself. Sviazhsky introduced 
 him to Levin. 
 
 " This takes hold of you, does n't it ? " asked Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, winking at Vronsky. " It 's just like a 
 race. One might put up stakes." 
 
 " Yes, indeed it takes hold," said Vronsky. " And 
 having once begun with it, one must carry it through. 
 It 's a battle," said he, contracting his brows and com- 
 pressing his powerful jaws. 
 
 " What a worker Sviazhsky is ! He sees everything 
 so clearly and plans in advance ! " 
 
 "Oh, yes," said Vronsky, heedlessly. 
 
 A silence followed, during which Vronsky, since it 
 was necessary to look at something, looked at Levin, at 
 his legs, at his uniform, and then at his face ; and notic- 
 ing his downcast expression said, for the sake of say- 
 ing something : 
 
 " How is it that you who live in the country are not a
 
 ANNA KARENINA 199 
 
 justice of the peace ? Your uniform is not that of a jus- 
 tice, I see." 
 
 " Because I think that justices of the peace are an 
 absurd institution," answered Levin, gloomily, but all the 
 time hoping for an opportunity to atone for his former 
 rudeness. 
 
 " I do not think so; on the contrary ...." said Vronsky, 
 surprised. 
 
 " It is all child's play," interrupted Levin; "justices 
 of the peace are unnecessary for us. In eight years I 
 never have had any business with one. And the one 
 case I had was decided exactly contrary to the evidence. 
 There 's a justice of the peace forty versts from me. I 
 had a small matter amounting to two rubles ; I had to 
 send for a lawyer, and that cost fifteen ...." 
 
 And Levin went on to tell how a muzhik had stolen 
 some flour from a miller, and when the miller charged 
 him with it, the muzhik made a calumnious complaint. 
 
 All this was not to the point, and awkwardly put, and 
 Levin himself, while speaking, felt it. 
 
 " Oh, this is such an original!" said Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, with his oily smile. " Come on ; it seems 
 they are balloting." .... 
 
 And they separated. 
 
 " I don't understand," said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, who 
 had noticed his brother's awkward sally, " I don't under- 
 stand how it is possible to be so absolutely devoid of 
 political tact. It is just what we Russians lack. The gov- 
 ernment marshal is our opponent, and you are ami cochon, 
 you are on intimate terms with him. But why on earth 
 make an enemy of Count Vronsky ? .... not that I make a 
 friend of him, for I have just refused his invitation to 
 dinner ; but he is ours. Then you asked Nevyedovsky if 
 he was going to be a candidate. It is n't the right way 
 to act." 
 
 " Oh ! I don't understand anything about it ; it all 
 seems to me unimportant," said Levin, gloomily. 
 
 " You say that it is unimportant ; but when you mix 
 up in it, you spoil it." 
 
 Levin was silent, and they entered the large hall.
 
 200 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 The ofd marshal had decided to be a candidate, 
 although he felt that there was something up, some trick 
 in preparation ; and though he knew that not all the dis- 
 tricts had nominated him, still he decided to stand. 
 
 Silence reigned in the hall; the secretary in a loud 
 voice explained that votes would now be cast for Mikhai'l 
 Stepanovitch Snetkof, captain of the guard, 1 as govern- 
 ment marshal. 
 
 The district marshals went from their desks to the 
 government table with plates in which were the ballots, 
 and the election began. " Deposit it at the right," whis- 
 pered Stepan Arkadyevitch to Levin, as he and his 
 brother approached the table behind the district mar- 
 shal. But Levin now forgot the count which they had 
 explained to him, and was afraid that Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch had made a mistake in saying "At the right." Now 
 Snetkof was the opposition candidate. Going up to the 
 box, Levin held the ballot in his right hand, but thinking 
 that he was wrong, he transferred the ballot to his left 
 hand just in front of the box itself, and consequently de- 
 posited it in the wrong place. The tally-keeper who 
 stood by the box, knowing by the mere motion of the 
 elbow how each one voted, involuntarily frowned. 
 There was no reason for him to practise his cleverness. 
 
 Deep silence reigned and the click of the ballots was 
 heard. Then a single voice was heard announcing the 
 affirmative and negative votes. 
 
 The marshal was chosen by a decided majority. A 
 great tumult arose, and all rushed toward the door. 
 Snetkof came in, and the nobles surrounded him, offer- 
 ing him their congratulations. 
 
 " Well ! is it over ? " asked Levin of Sergye'f Ivanovitch. 
 
 " On the contrary, it is just begun," replied Sviazhsky, 
 taking the words out of his brother's mouth, and smiling. 
 "The opposition candidate may have more votes." 
 
 Levin had forgotten ail about this, and only now real- 
 ized that this was only finessing. But it was a bore to 
 him to recall what the plan had been. He felt a sort of 
 humiliation, and a desire to escape from the throng. As 
 
 1 Rotmistr gvardi.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 201 
 
 no one paid any heed to him, and he thought he was o. 
 no use to any one, he slipped out into the smaller hall, 
 where, as before, he found consolation in watching the 
 servants. The old servant asked him if he would have 
 something to eat, and Levin consented. After he had 
 eaten a cutlet with beans, and had talked with the ser- 
 vants about their former masters, Levin, not caring to 
 go back to the crowd which was so unpleasant to him, 
 walked about the galleries. 
 
 The galleries were full of well-dressed ladies, who 
 were leaning over the balustrades endeavoring not to 
 lose a word that was said in the hall below, and around 
 them was standing and sitting a throng of elegantly 
 dressed lawyers, professors of the gymnasia with spec- 
 tacles on, and officers. Everywhere they were talking 
 about the elections and the proposed change in the mar- 
 shal, and saying how interesting the voting was. As 
 Levin stood near one group, he heard a lady saying to a 
 lawyer : 
 
 "How glad I am that I heard Koznuishef. It pays 
 to go hungry for it. It was charming. How distinctly 
 I could hear all he said. There is not one who equals 
 him in the court, only Maidel, and even he is not nearly 
 so eloquent." 
 
 Finding a comfortable place near the railing, Levin 
 leaned over and tried to look and to listen. All the 
 nobles were sitting behind screens in the parts of the 
 hall devoted to their various districts. In the center of 
 the hall stood a gentleman in uniform, and in a light but 
 clear voice he was saying : 
 
 " You will now cast your votes for Staff-Captain 
 Yevgeni Ivanovitch Apukhtin as candidate for the posi- 
 tion of marshal of the nobility of the government." 
 
 A deathlike silence ensued, and again a weak, senile 
 voice was heard : 
 
 " He declined." 
 
 Again the same thing began, and again, " He de- 
 clined." So it went on for about an hour. 
 
 Levin, leaning on the balustrade, looked and listened. 
 At first he was filled with amazement, and was anxious
 
 202 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 to know what it all meant ; then, becoming persuaded that 
 it was beyond his power to comprehend it, it began to 
 bore him. Then, as he thought of the excitement and 
 the angry passions expressed in all faces, he felt mel- 
 ancholy ; he made up his mind to depart, and he started 
 down-stairs. As he was passing through the entry of 
 the gallery, he encountered a sad-looking gymnasium 
 scholar walking back and forth with streaming eyes. 
 On the staircase he met a couple, a lady swiftly hur- 
 rying along on her heels, and the gentle colleague of the 
 prokuror. 
 
 " I told you not to be late," the prokuror was saying, 
 just as Levin stood to one side to give the lady room to 
 pass. Levin was on the lowest stair, and was just get- 
 ting the cloak-check out of his waistcoat pocket, when 
 the secretary found him. 
 
 " Excuse me, Konstantin Dmitriyevitch, they are bal- 
 loting." 
 
 And the candidate who was now receiving votes was 
 this very Nevyedovsky whose refusal had seemed to him 
 so explicit ! 
 
 Levin started to go into the hall. The door was 
 locked ; the secretary knocked ; the door opened, and as 
 he entered he met two very red-faced proprietors. 
 
 " I cannot endure it," said one of the red-faced pro- 
 prietors. 
 
 Immediately behind the proprietor appeared the old 
 government marshal. His face was terrible in its expres- 
 sion of fright and weakness. 
 
 " I told you not to let any one go out ! " he shouted to 
 the guard. 
 
 " I let some one in, your excellency." J 
 
 " O Lord ! " and, sighing painfully, the old marshal, 
 slinking along in his white pantaloons, with bowed head, 
 went through the hall to the great table. 
 
 The vote was counted, and Nevyedovsky, as had 
 been planned, was government marshal. Many were 
 happy ; many were satisfied, gay ; many were enthusias- 
 tic ; many were dissatisfied and unhappy. The old gov- 
 
 1 Vash e p revoskk odilychtvo .
 
 ANNA KARENINA 203 
 
 ernment marshal was in despair, and could not disguise 
 it. When Nevyedovsky went out of the hall, the throng 
 surrounded him and expressed their enthusiasm toward 
 him as they had done toward the governor when he 
 opened the election, and as they had done toward Snet- 
 kof when he was elected. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 ON this day the newly elected marshal of the govern- 
 ment and many of the new party which triumphed with 
 him dined with Vronsky. 
 
 The count came to the elections because.it was tire- 
 some in the country and it was necessary for him to 
 assert his independence before Anna, and also because 
 he wished to render a service to Sviazhsky in return for 
 similar favors shown him at the zemstvo elections, and 
 last and principally because he intended strictly to fulfil 
 the duties which he imposed upon himself as a noble 
 and a landowner. 
 
 But he had never anticipated the intense interest 
 which he would take in the elections or the success 
 with which he would play his part. He was a perfectly 
 " new man " among the nobles, but he was evidently 
 successful, and he was not mistaken in supposing that 
 he already inspired confidence. This sudden influ- 
 ence was due to his wealth and distinction, to the fine 
 house which he occupied in town, a house which an 
 old friend of his, Shirkof, a financier and the director of 
 a flourishing bank at Kashin, had given up to him, 
 and partly to an excellent cook whom he brought with 
 him, and to his friendship with the governor, who was 
 his ally and a protecting ally; but above all to his simple 
 and impartial treatment of every one, so that the majority 
 of the nobles quickly changed their minds in regard to 
 the reputation he had acquired of being proud. He him- 
 self felt that, with the exception of this silly gentleman 
 who had married Kitty Shcherbatsky, and who a propos 
 de bottes had been disposed foolishly to quarrel with him
 
 204 ANNA KAREN1NA 
 
 and say all manner of foolish things, everybody whom 
 he met was disposed to side with him. He clearly saw, 
 and others recognized the fact, that he had very largely 
 contributed to Nevyedovsky's success. And now, as he 
 sat at the head of his own table celebrating Nevyedovsky's 
 election, ne experienced a pleasant feeling of triumphant 
 pride in his choice. He was so much interested in the 
 election that he determined that, if he should be married 
 at the end of the next three years, he would run as a 
 candidate, just as once when, after having won a prize 
 by means of his jockey, he had decided to run a race 
 himself. 
 
 Now he was celebrating the triumph of his jockey. 
 Vronsky sat at the head of the table, but he placed the 
 young governor at his right. Vronsky saw that all looked 
 upon him as the khozyai'n of the government, who had 
 triumphantly opened the elections, who had gained by 
 his speech great consideration and even worship ; but 
 for Vronsky he was nothing more than Katka Maslof, 
 such was his nickname at the Corps of Pages, who 
 used to be confused in his presence, and whom he tried 
 to put at his ease. 
 
 At his left he placed Nevyedovsky, a young man with 
 a sarcastic and impenetrable face. Toward him Vronsky 
 showed respectful consideration. 
 
 Sviazhsky accepted his own failure gayly ; indeed, as 
 he said, lifting his glass to Nevyedovsky, he could not 
 call it a failure ; it would be impossible to find a bettei 
 representative of the new tendencies which the nobility 
 was to follow. And therefore, as he said, everything 
 that was honorable stood on the side of the success just 
 won, and triumphed with it. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch also was gay, because he was 
 having such a good time and because every one else 
 was so happy. 
 
 During the admirable dinner they reviewed the various 
 episodes of the elections. Sviazhsky gave a comical 
 travesty of the former marshal's tearful discourse, and, 
 turning to Nevyedovsky, he advised his excellency to 
 choose a more complicated manner of verifying his ac-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 205 
 
 counts than by tears. Another noble with a turn for 
 humor related how lackeys in short clothes had been 
 ordered for the former marshal's ball, and how now 
 these lackeys would have to be discharged unless the 
 new marshal of the government should give balls with 
 lackeys in short clothes. 
 
 During all the time of the dinner, whenever they 
 addressed Nevyedovsky they called him " your excel- 
 lency," l and all spoke of him as " our government 
 marshal." 2 This was spoken with the same sort of satis- 
 faction as people feel when they address a newly married 
 woman as madame and add her husband's name. 
 
 Nevyedovsky pretended that he was not only indiffer- 
 ent, but even scorned this new title, but it was evident 
 that he was happy and was exercising self-control not to 
 betray his enthusiasm, since to do so would not be be- 
 coming to the new liberal environment in which they all 
 found themselves. 
 
 After dinner a number of telegrams were sent off to 
 people who were interested in the result of the elections. 
 And Stepan Arkadyevitch, who felt very gay, sent Darya 
 Aleksandrovna a despatch thus worded : 
 
 Nevyedovsky elected by twenty majority. I am well. 
 Regards to all. 
 
 He dictated it aloud, and added, " I want to make 
 them feel happy." But when Darya Aleksandrovna 
 received the despatch, she only sighed for the ruble 
 which it cost, and she knew well that it was sent during 
 a dinner. She knew that Stiva had a weakness at the 
 end of dinners faire jouerle tttegraphe. 
 
 The dinner was excellent, and the wines came from 
 no Russian dealer, but were directly imported from 
 abroad ; and everything was noble, simple, and joyous. 
 The guests, twenty in number, were selected by Sviazh- 
 sky from among the new liberal workers, and they were 
 united in sentiments, keen-witted, and thoroughly well- 
 bred. They drank many toasts, accompanied by witty 
 
 1 Vashe prevoskhodityehtvo. 
 
 2 Nash gubernsky predvoditycl.
 
 206 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 speeches, in honor of the new marshal, and of the gov- 
 ernor, and of the director of the bank, and of " our 
 beloved host." 
 
 Vronsky was contented. He had never expected to find 
 in the provinces such distinguished society. 
 
 Toward the end of dinner the gayety redoubled, and 
 the governor asked Vronsky to attend a concert arranged 
 for the benefit of our brothers by his wife, who wanted 
 to make his acquaintance. 
 
 " There will be a ball afterward, and you shall see our 
 beauty. In fact, she is remarkable." 
 
 "Not in my line" answered Vronsky in English; 
 he liked the phrase, but he smiled and promised to 
 
 go- 
 Just before they left the table, and while they were 
 lighting their cigars, Vronsky's valet approached him, 
 bringing a note on a tray. 
 
 " From Vozdvizhenskoye, by a special messenger," 
 said the man, with a significant expression. 
 
 " It is remarkable how much he looks like the colleague 
 of the prokuror Sventitsky," said one of the guests in 
 French, referring to the valet, while Vronsky, with a 
 frown on his brow, was reading the note. 
 
 The note was from Anna, and Vronsky knew, before 
 he read it through, what was in it. He had promised, 
 as the elections were to last fiVe days, to return on 
 Friday; but it was now Saturday, and he knew that the 
 letter would be full of reproaches because he had not 
 fulfilled his promise. The one he had sent off the after- 
 noon before had evidently not been received. 
 
 The tenor of the note was what he expected ; but its 
 form was a great surprise, and extremely unpleasant to 
 him. 
 
 Ani is very sick, and the doctor says it may be pneumonia. 
 
 I shall go wild, here all alone. The Princess Varvara is only 
 a hirulrance instead of a help. I expected you day before 
 yesterday, and now I send a messenger to know where you are 
 and what you are doing. I wanted to come myself, but hesi- 
 tated, knowing that it would be disagreeable to you. Send some 
 answer, that I may know what to do.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 207 
 
 The child was ill, and she had wished to come herself. 
 A sick daughter, and this hostile tone ! 
 
 Vronsky was impressed by the antithesis between the 
 jolly, careless company, and the moody, exacting love to 
 which he was obliged to return. But he was obliged to 
 go, and he left by the first train that would take him 
 home that night. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 BEFORE Vronsky's departure for the election, Anna, 
 coming to the conclusion that the scenes which had 
 always taken place every time he left her for a journey 
 might serve to cool his love rather than attach him 
 more firmly to her, resolved to control herself to the best 
 of her ability, so as to endure calmly the separation from 
 him. But the cold, stern look which he had given her 
 when he came to tell her about his journey had wounded 
 her, and he was hardly out of her sight before her reso- 
 lution was shaken. 
 
 In her solitude, as she began to think over his cold 
 look, which seemed to hint at a desire for liberty, she 
 came back, as she always did, to one thing to the 
 consciousness of her humiliation. 
 
 " He has the right to go when and where he pleases. 
 Not only to go, but to abandon me. He has all the 
 rights, and I have none ! But as he knows this, he 
 ought not to have done this. And yet what has he 
 done?.... He looked at me with a hard, stern look. Of 
 course, that is vague, intangible. Still, he did not for- 
 merly look at me so, and it signifies much," she thought ; 
 "that look proves that he is growing cold toward me." 
 
 And, although she was persuaded that he had begun 
 to grow cold toward her, still there was nothing she 
 could do, there was no change she could bring about in 
 her relations toward him. Just as before, she could 
 retain his affections only by her love, by her fascination. 
 And, just as before, the only way she could keep herself 
 from thinking what would happen if he should abandon
 
 208 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 her, she busied herself incessantly all day ; at night she 
 took morphine. 
 
 To be sure, there was one means left not to keep 
 him with her for this she wished nothing else but his 
 love but to bind him to her, to be in such a relation 
 to him that he would not abandon her. This means was 
 divorce and marriage ; and she began to desire it, and 
 resolved that she would agree to it the first time he or 
 Stiva spoke about it again. With such thoughts she 
 spent five days without him, the five days he expected 
 to be away. 
 
 Drives and walks, conversations with the Princess 
 Varvara, visits to the hospital, and, above all, reading, 
 the reading of one book after another, occupied her 
 time. But on the sixth day, when the coachman re- 
 turned without bringing Vronsky, she felt that she no 
 longer had strength enough left to smother the thought 
 about him and what he was doing at Kashin. Just at 
 this very time her little girl was taken ill. Anna attended 
 to her, but it did not divert her mind, the more as the 
 little one was not dangerously ill. Do the best she could, 
 she did not love this child, and she could not pretend to 
 feelings which had no existence. 
 
 On the evening of the sixth day, while she was entirely 
 alone, she felt such apprehension about him that she 
 almost made up her mind to start for the city herself, 
 but after a long deliberation, she wrote the prevaricating 
 note and sent it by a special messenger. 
 
 When, the next morning, she received his letter, she 
 regretted hers. With horror she anticipated the repetition 
 of that severe look which he would give her on his return 
 especially when he learned that his daughter had not 
 been dangerously ill. But still she was glad she had 
 written him. Now Anna acknowledged to herself that 
 he might be annoyed by her, that he might miss his liberty, 
 but yet she was glad that he was coming ; suppose he 
 was annoyed by her, still he would be there with her so 
 that she should see him, so that she should be aware of 
 his every motion. 
 
 She was sitting in the parlor, by the lamp, reading a
 
 ANNA KARENINA 209 
 
 new book of Taine's, listening to the sound of the wind 
 outside, and watching every moment for the arrival of 
 the carriage. Several times she thought that she heard 
 the rumble of wheels, but she was deceived. At last 
 she distinctly heard not only the wheels, but the coach- 
 man's voice, and the carriage rolling under the covered 
 porch. 
 
 The Princess Varvara, who was laying out a game of 
 patience, heard it too. Anna's face flushed ; she rose, 
 but, instead of going down, as she had twice done already, 
 she stopped. She was suddenly ashamed at her decep- 
 tion, and still more alarmed by the doubt as to how he 
 would receive her. All her irritation had vanished. 
 All she feared was Vronsky's displeasure. She remem- 
 bered that her daughter for two days now had been 
 perfectly well. She was annoyed that the child should 
 recover just as she sent off the letter. 
 
 And then she realized that he was there, himself, 
 with his eyes, his hands. She heard his voice, joy 
 filled her heart, and, forgetting everything, she ran to 
 meet him. 
 
 " How is Ani ? " he asked anxiously, from the bottom 
 of the stairs, as she ran swiftly down. 
 
 He was seated in a chair, and his lackey was pulling 
 off his furred boots. 
 
 "All right; much better." 
 
 " And you ? " he asked, shaking himself. 
 
 She seized his two hands, and drew him toward her, 
 looking into his eyes. 
 
 "Well, I am very glad," he said, coldly surveying her, 
 her head-dress, her whole toilet, which, as he knew, had 
 been put on expressly for him. 
 
 All this pleased him, but how many times had the 
 same thing pleased him ! and that stony, severe expres- 
 sion, which Anna so much dreaded, remained on his 
 face. 
 
 " Well ! I am very glad ; and how are you ? " he 
 asked, kissing her hand, after he had wiped his damp 
 mustache. 
 
 "It is all the same to me," thought Anna, "if only 
 VOL. m. 14
 
 210 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 he is here ; and when he is here he cannot help loving 
 me ; he does not dare not to love me." 
 
 The evening passed pleasantly and merrily in the 
 presence of the Princess Varvara, who complained to 
 him that when he was away Anna took morphine. 
 
 " What can I do ? I cannot sleep, my thoughts 
 are distracting ; when he is here, I never take it, almost 
 never." 
 
 Vronsky told about the elections, and Anna, by her 
 questions, cleverly led him to talk about what especially 
 pleased him, his own success. Then she told him all 
 the interesting things that had happened since he went 
 away, and took care to speak of nothing unpleasant. 
 
 But late in the evening, when they were alone, Anna, 
 seeing that she had him at her feet again, wished to 
 efface the unpleasant effect of her letter ; she said: 
 
 " Confess that you were displeased to receive my 
 letter, and that you did not believe me." 
 
 As soon as she spoke she saw that, though he was 
 affectionately disposed toward her, he did not forgive 
 this. 
 
 " Yes," answered he, " your letter was strange. Ani 
 was sick, and yet you yourself wanted to come." 
 
 " Both were true." 
 
 " Well, I do not doubt it." 
 
 "Yes, you do doubt. I see that you are angry." 
 
 " Not for one minute ; but what vexes me is that you 
 will not admit that there are duties ...." 
 
 " What duties ? Going to concerts ? " 
 
 " We won't talk about it." 
 
 " Why not talk about it ? " 
 
 " I only mean that imperious duties may meet us. 
 Now, for instance, I shall have to go to Moscow on 
 
 business Akh ! Anna, why are you so irritable ? Don't 
 
 you know that' I cannot live without you ? " 
 
 " If this is the way," said Anna, changing her tone 
 
 suddenly, " then you are tired of this kind of life Yes, 
 
 you come home one day and go away the next...." 
 
 " Anna, this is cruel ; I am ready to give up my whole 
 life...."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 211 
 
 But she would not listen to him. 
 
 " If you are going to Moscow, I shall go with you ; I 
 
 will not stay here alone We must either live together 
 
 or separate." 
 
 " But you know I ask nothing more than to live with 
 you, but for that.... " 
 
 " The divorce is necessary. I will write him. I see 
 
 that I cannot continue to live in this way But I am 
 
 going with you to Moscow." 
 
 " You really threaten me ; but all I ask in the world 
 is not to be separated from you," said Vronsky, smiling. 
 
 As the count spoke these affectionate words, the look 
 in his eyes was not only icy, but wrathful, like that of a 
 man persecuted and exasperated. 
 
 She saw his look and accurately read its meaning. 
 
 " If this is so, then it is misfortune ! " said this look. 
 The expression was only momentary, but she never for- 
 got it. 
 
 Anna wrote to her husband, begging him to grant the 
 divorce, and toward the end of November, after separat- 
 ing from the Princess Varvara, who had to go to Peters- 
 burg, she went to Moscow with Vronsky. Expecting 
 every day to get Alekself Aleksandrovitch's reply, and 
 immediately afterward to secure the divorce, they set 
 up their establishment as if they were married.
 
 PART SEVENTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE Levins had been in Moscow for two months, 
 and the time fixed by competent authorities for 
 Kitty's deliverance was already passed. 
 
 But she was still waiting, and there was no sign that 
 the time was any nearer than it had been two months 
 before. The doctor and the midwife and Dolly and her 
 mother, and especially Levin, who could not without ter- 
 ror think of the approaching event, now began to feel 
 impatient and anxious. Kitty alone kept perfectly calm 
 and happy. She now clearly recognized in her heart 
 the birth of a new feeling of love for the child which 
 already partly existed for her, and she entertained this 
 feeling with joy. The child was no longer only a part 
 of her; even now it already lived its own independent 
 life at times. This caused her suffering ; but at the 
 same time she felt like laughing, with a strange, un- 
 known joy. 
 
 All whom she loved were with her, and all were so 
 good to her, took such care of her, and tried so to make 
 everything pleasant for her, that, if she had not known 
 and felt that the end must soon come, this would have 
 been the happiest and best part of her life. Only one 
 thing clouded her perfect happiness, and this was that 
 her husband was different from the Levin she loved or 
 the Levin that lived in the country. 
 
 She had loved his calm, gentle, and hospitable ways 
 in the country. In the city he seemed all the time rest- 
 less and on his guard, as if he feared that some one was 
 going to insult him or her. There in the country he 
 was usefully occupied, and seemed to know that he was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 213 
 
 in his place. Here in the city he was constantly on the 
 go, as if he were afraid of forgetting something ; but he 
 had nothing really to do. And she felt sorry for him. 
 
 But she knew that to his friends he was not an object 
 of commiseration ; and when in society she looked at him 
 as one studies those who are beloved, endeavoring to look 
 on him as a stranger, and see what effect he produced on 
 others, she saw with anxiety the danger that she herself 
 might become jealous of him for the reason that he was 
 not at all pitiable, but was rather an exceedingly attrac- 
 tive man by reason of his dignified, rather old-fashioned, 
 shy politeness to ladies, his strong physique, and his very 
 expressive face. But she read his inner nature. She 
 saw that he was not himself, otherwise she could not 
 define his actions. But sometimes in her heart she re- 
 proached him because he could not adapt himself to city 
 life. Sometimes even she confessed that it was really 
 difficult for him to conduct his life so as to please her. 
 
 But, indeed, what could he find to do ? He was not 
 fond of cards. He did not go to the clubs. She now knew 
 what it meant to frequent the company of high livers, 
 
 like Oblonsky It meant to drink and to go to places 
 
 she could not think without horror of where these men 
 were in the habit of going. Should he go into society ? 
 She knew that to enjoy that it would be necessary to 
 find pleasure in the company of young ladies, and she 
 could not desire that. Then, should he sit at home with 
 her, with her mother, and her sister ? But however 
 pleasant these conversations might be to her, she knew 
 that they must be wearisome to him. What, then, re- 
 mained for him to do ? Was he to go on with his book ? 
 He intended to do this, and began to make researches 
 in the public library ; but, as he confessed to Kitty, the 
 more he had nothing to do, the less time he had. More- 
 over, he complained to her that too much was said about 
 his book, and that therefore his ideas were thrown into 
 confusion and that his interest in his work was flagging. 
 
 One result of their life in Moscow was that there 
 were no more quarrels between them, either because city 
 conditions were different, or because both were beginning
 
 2i 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 to be more guarded and prudent; the fact remained 
 that, since they left the country, the scenes of jealousy 
 which they feared might again arise were not repeated. 
 
 In these circumstances one very important affair for 
 them both took place : Kitty had a meeting with 
 Vronsky. 
 
 Kitty's godmother, the old Princess Marya Borisovna, 
 was always very fond of her, and wanted to see her. 
 Kitty, though owing to her condition she was not going 
 out now, went with her father to see the stately old 
 princess ; and there she met Vronsky. At this meeting 
 Kitty could reproach herself only for the fact that for 
 the moment when she first saw the features, once so 
 familiar, she felt her heart beat fast, and her face 
 redden ; but her emotion lasted only a few seconds. 
 The old prince hastened to begin an animated conver- 
 sation with Vronsky ; and by the time he had finished 
 Kitty was ready to look at Vronsky, or to talk with him 
 if need be, just as she was talking with the princess, 
 and, what was more, without a smile or an intonation 
 which would have been disagreeable to her husband, 
 whose invisible presence, as it were, she felt near her at 
 the moment. 
 
 She exchanged some words with Vronsky, smiled 
 serenely when he jestingly called the assembly at 
 Kashin "our parliament," she had to smile so as to 
 show that she understood the jest. Then she addressed 
 herself to the old princess, and did not turn her head 
 until Vronsky rose to take leave. Then she looked at 
 him, but evidently it was only because it is impolite not 
 to look at a man when he bows. 
 
 She was grateful to her father because he said noth- 
 ing about this meeting with Vronsky ; but Kitty under- 
 stood from his especial tenderness after their visit, during 
 their usual walk, that he was satisfied with her. She 
 felt satisfied with herself. She had never anticipated 
 that she should have the strength of mind to remember 
 all the details of her former feelings toward Vronsky, 
 and yet to seem and to feel perfectly indifferent and 
 calm in his presence.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 215 
 
 Levin turned far more crimson than she did, when 
 she told him about her meeting with Vronsky at the 
 house of the Princess Marya Borisovna. It was very 
 hard for her to tell him about it, and still harder to go 
 on relating the details of the meeting, for the reason 
 that he did not ask her a question, but only gazed at her 
 and frowned. 
 
 " It was such a pity that you were n't there," she said 
 to her husband, " not in the room, for before you I 
 should not have been so self-possessed. I 'm blushing 
 now ever and ever so much more than I did then," said 
 she, blushing till the tears came, "but if you could 
 have looked through the keyhole." 
 
 Her sincere eyes told Levin that she was satisfied 
 with her behavior, and, though she blushed, he immedi- 
 ately became calm ; he asked her some questions, just 
 as she wished him to do. When he had heard the 
 whole story ; even to the detail that she could not help 
 blushing for the first second, and afterward was per- 
 fectly at her ease as if she had never met him before, 
 Levin grew extraordinarily gay, and declared that he 
 was very glad of it, and that in future he should not 
 behave so foolishly as he had done at the elections, 
 but that when he met Vronsky again he should be as 
 friendly as possible. 
 
 " It is so painful to look on him almost as an enemy, 
 whom it is hard to meet. I am very, very glad." 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 " PLEASE don't forget to call at the Bohls'," said 
 Kitty, as her husband came to her room, about eleven 
 o'clock in the morning, before going out. " I know that 
 you are going to dine at the club, because papa wrote 
 you. But what are you going to do this morning ? " 
 
 " I 'm only going to Katavasof's." 
 
 " Why are you going so early ? " 
 
 " He promised to introduce me to Metrof. He 's a
 
 216 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 famous scholar from Petersburg. I want to talk over 
 my book with him." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; was n't it his article you were praising ? 
 Well, and after that ? " 
 
 " Possibly to the tribunal, about that affair of my 
 sister's." 
 
 "Are n't you going to the concert ? " she asked. 
 
 " No ; why should I go all alone ? " 
 
 " Do go. They 're going to give those new pieces.... 
 it will interest you. I should certainly go." 
 
 " Well, at all events, I shall come home before din- 
 ner," said he, looking at his watch. 
 
 " Put on your best coat, so as to go to the Countess 
 Bohl's." 
 
 " Why, is that really necessary ? " 
 
 " Akh ! certainly. The count himself came here. 
 Now, what does it cost you? You go, you sit down, 
 you talk five minutes about the weather, then you get 
 up and go." 
 
 " Well, you don't realize that I am so out of practice, 
 that I feel abashed. How absurd it is for a strange 
 man to come to a house, to sit down, to stay a little 
 while without any business, to find himself in the way, 
 feel awkward, and then go." 
 
 Kitty laughed. 
 
 " Yes ; but did n't you use to make calls before you 
 were married ? " 
 
 " Yes, but I was always bashful," said he ; " and now 
 I am so out of the way of it, that, by Heavens, 1 I would 
 rather not have any dinner for two days than make this 
 call. I am so bashful. It seems to me as if they must 
 take offense, and say, 'Why do you come without 
 business ? ' ' 
 
 " No, they don't take offense. I will answer that for 
 you," said Kitty, looking brightly into his face. She 
 took his hand. " Now, prashcha'f ! please go ! " 
 
 He kissed his wife's hand, and was about to go, when 
 she stopped him. 
 
 " Kostia, do you know I have only fifty rubles left ? " 
 
 1 Yet Bogu.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 217 
 
 "Well, I will go and get some from the bank. How 
 much do you want ? " said he, with his well-known ex- 
 pression of vexation. 
 
 " No, wait! " She detained him by the arm. " Let us 
 talk about this a moment ; this troubles me. I try not 
 to buy anything unnecessary ;' still, the money runs 
 away. We must retrench somehow or other." 
 
 " Not at all," said Levin, with a little cough, and 
 looking askance upon her. 
 
 She knew this cough. It was a sign of strong vexa- 
 tion, not with her, but with himself. He was actually 
 discontented, not because much money was spent, but 
 because he was reminded of what he wanted to forget. 
 
 " I have ordered Sokolof to sell the corn, and to get 
 the rent of the mill in advance. We shall have money 
 enough." 
 
 " No ; but I fear that, as a general thing .... " 
 
 "Not at all, not at all," he repeated. "Well, good- 
 by, darling." 1 
 
 "Sometimes I wish I hadn't listened to mamma. 
 How happy we were in the country ! I tire you all, 
 waiting for me ; and the money we spend .... " 
 
 " Not at all, not at all ! Not one single time since we 
 were married till now have I thought that things would 
 have been better than they are." 
 
 "Truly?" said she, looking into his face. 
 
 He said that, thinking only to comfort her. But when 
 he saw her gentle, honest eyes turned to him with an 
 inquiring look, he repeated what he had said with his 
 whole heart ; and he remembered what was coming to 
 them so soon. 
 
 " How do you feel this morning ? Do you think it 
 will be soon ? " he asked, taking both her hands in his. 
 
 " I sometimes think that I don't think and don't know 
 anything." 
 
 "And don't you feel afraid?" 
 
 She smiled disdainfully : 
 
 " Not the least bit. No, nothing will happen to-day ; 
 don't worry." 
 
 1 Nu prashchai, dushenka; literally, Now, farewell, adieu, little soul.
 
 2i 8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " If that is so, then I am going to Katavasof's." 
 " I am going with papa to take a little walk on the 
 boulevard. We are going to see Dolly. I shall expect 
 you back before dinner. Oh, there ! Do you know, 
 Dolly's position is getting to be entirely unendurable ? 
 She is in debt on every' side, and has n't any money at 
 all. We talked about it yesterday with mamma and 
 Arseny," this was her sister Natali Lvova's husband, 
 
 " and they decided that you should scold Stiva. It is 
 truly unendurable. It is impossible for papa to speak 
 about it ; but if you and he .... " 
 
 "Well, what can we do?" asked Levin. 
 
 " You had better go to Arseny's, and talk with him ; 
 he will tell you what we decided about it." 
 
 " All right ! I will follow Arseny's advice. Then, I 
 will go directly to his house. By the way, if he is at the 
 concert, then I will go with Natali. So good-by." 
 
 On the staircase, the old bachelor servant, Kuzma, 
 who acted in the city as steward, stopped his mas- 
 ter. 
 
 " Krasavtchika 1 has just been shod, and it lamed her," 
 
 this was Levin's left pole-horse, which he had brought 
 from the country ; " what shall I do ? " said he. 
 
 When Levin established himself in Moscow, he brought 
 his horses from the country. He wished to set up as 
 good a stable as possible, but not to have it cost too 
 much. It seemed to him now that hired horses would 
 have been less expensive ; and even as it was, he was 
 often obliged to hire of the izvoshchik. 
 
 " Take her to the veterinary ; perhaps she is going 
 to have a swimmer." 
 
 " Well, how shall you arrange for Katerina Aleksan- 
 drovna ? " asked Kuzma. 
 
 Levin was now no longer troubled as he had been at 
 first, when he first came to Moscow, that for the drive 
 from Vozdvizhenko to Svintsef Vrazhek it was necessary 
 to have a span of heavy horses harnessed into his heavy 
 carriage and drive in it four versts through mealy snow, 
 and keep them waiting four hours there, and have to pay 
 
 1 Little Beauty.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 219 
 
 five rubles for it. Now it seemed to him the natural 
 thing to do. 
 
 " Get a pair of horses from the izvoshchik, and put 
 them into our carriage." 
 
 " I will obey." 
 
 And having thus decided simply and quickly, thanks 
 to his training in city ways, a labor which in the coun- 
 try would have cost him much trouble and attention, 
 Levin went out on the porch, and, beckoning to an izvosh- 
 chik, took his seat in the cab, and rode off to the 
 Nikitskaya Street. 
 
 On the way the question of money did not occupy 
 him, but he thought over how he was about to make 
 the acquaintance of the sociological savant from Peters- 
 burg, and what he should say to him in regard to his 
 treatise. 
 
 It was only during the first part of his stay in Mos- 
 cow that Levin, who had been used to the productive 
 ways of the country, was amazed at the strange and 
 unavoidable expenses which met him on every side. 
 But now he was wonted to them. He had somewhat the 
 same experience as he had been told drunken men went 
 through : each successive glass made him more reckless. 1 
 
 When Levin took the first hundred-ruble note for the 
 purchase of liveries for the lackey and Swiss, he could 
 not avoid the consideration that these liveries were 
 wholly useless to any one ; and yet they seemed to be 
 unavoidable and indispensable, judging from the amaze- 
 ment of Kitty and her mother, when he made the re- 
 mark that they might go without them and he put it 
 to himself that these liveries represented the wages of 
 two laborers for a year, that is to say, about three 
 hundred working days from early in the morning till 
 late at night ; so that the first hundred-ruble note corre- 
 sponded to the first glass. 2 
 
 But the second bill of twenty-eight rubles, expended 
 for the purchase of provisions for a family dinner, cost 
 
 1 An untranslatable Russian proverb : Piervaya riumka kolom ; 
 vtoraya sokolom, a posle tretye mielkimi pta shetchkami. 
 a The kolom, or stake, of the proverb.
 
 220 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 him less trouble, though he still mentally computed that 
 this money represented nine chetverts, or more than 
 fifty bushels, of oats which these same workmen, at the 
 cost of many groans, had mowed, bound into sheaves, 
 threshed, winnowed, gathered up, and put into bags. 
 
 And now the money spent in this way had long ceased 
 to evoke any such considerations, but they flew around 
 him like little birds. He had long ceased to ask him- 
 self whether the pleasure purchased by his money was 
 anywhere near commensurate with the labor spent in 
 acquiring it. He also forgot the common principle of 
 economics, that there is a certain price below which it is 
 impossible to sell grain except at a loss. His rye, the 
 price of which he had kept up so long, had to be sold 
 at ten kopeks a bushel cheaper than he had sold it a 
 month earlier. Even the calculation that if he kept on 
 at his present rate of expenditure it would be impossible 
 to get through the year without getting into debt, did 
 not cause him any anxiety. 
 
 Only one thing troubled him : the keeping up his 
 bank account, without asking how, so that there might 
 be always enough for the daily needs of the household. 
 And up to the present time he had succeeded in doing 
 this. But now his deposit at the bank had run low, and 
 he did not know exactly how to restore it. And this 
 problem was causing him some anxiety just at the time 
 when Kitty asked him for some more money. But he 
 did not want to bother about that just now. So he 
 drove away, thinking of Katavasof and his approaching 
 acquaintance with Metrof. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 DURING his present stay in Moscow Levin had once 
 more come into intimate relationship with his old uni- 
 versity friend, Professor Katavasof, whom he had not 
 seen since the time of his marriage. Katavasof was 
 agreeable to him because of the clearness and simplicity 
 of his philosophy. Levin thought that the clearness of
 
 ANNA KARENINA 221 
 
 his philosophy arose from the poverty of his nature, 
 while Katavasof thought that the incoherence of Le- 
 vin's ideas arose from a lack of mental discipline. But 
 Katavasof 's lucidity was agreeable to Levin, and Levin's 
 fecundity of undisciplined ideas was agreeable to Kata- 
 vasof, and they both liked to meet and discuss together. 
 
 Levin had read several passages from his treatise to 
 Katavasof, who had liked them. The evening before 
 Katavasof, happening to meet Levin at a public lecture, 
 told him that the celebrated scholar, Professor Metrof, 
 whose article had pleased Levin, was in Moscow, and 
 was greatly interested in what he had heard of Levin's 
 work. He was to be at Katavasof's house the next day 
 at eleven o'clock, and would be delighted to make Le- 
 vin's acquaintance. 
 
 " Delighted to see you, batyushka," said Katavasof, 
 receiving Levin in his reception-room. " I heard the 
 
 bell, and wondered if it could be time And now what 
 
 do you think of the Montenegrins ? It looks to me like 
 war." 
 
 "What makes you think so ? " asked Levin. 
 
 Katavasof in a few words told him the latest news, and 
 then, taking him into his library, introduced him to a 
 short, thick-set, and very pleasant-looking man : it was 
 Metrof. The conversation for a short time turned on 
 politics, and on the views held by the high authorities 
 in Petersburg in regard to the recent elections. Metrof, 
 in regard to this, quoted some significant words spoken 
 by the emperor and one of the ministers, which he had 
 heard from a reliable source. Katavasof had heard from 
 an equally reliable source that the emperor had said some- 
 thing quite different. Levin tried to imagine to himself 
 the conditions in which the words in either case might 
 have been said, and the conversation on this theme came 
 to an end. 
 
 " Well ! here is the gentleman who is writing a book 
 on the natural condition of the laborer in relation to the 
 soil," said Katavasof. "I am not a specialist, but it 
 pleases me as a naturalist that he does not consider the 
 human race outside of zoological laws, but recognizes
 
 222 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 man's dependence on his environment, and seeks to find 
 in this dependence the laws of his development." 
 
 " That 's very interesting," said Metrof . 
 
 " I began simply to write a book on rural economy," l 
 said Levin, reddening ; " but in studying the principal 
 instrument, the laborer, I arrived at a decidedly unex- 
 pected conclusion, in spite of myself." 
 
 And Levin expatiated on his ideas, trying the ground 
 carefully as he did so, for he knew that Metrof had 
 written an article against the current views on political 
 economy ; and how far he could hope for sympathy in 
 his new views, he did not know, and could not tell from 
 the scholar's calm, intellectual face. 
 
 " How, in your opinion, does the Russian laborer 
 differ from that of other peoples ? " asked Metrof. " Is 
 it from the point of view which you call zoological ? or 
 from that of the material conditions in which he finds 
 himself ? " 
 
 This way of putting the question proved to Levin how 
 widely their opinions diverged ; nevertheless, he con- 
 tinued to set forth his theory, which was based on the 
 idea that the Russian people could not have the same 
 relation to the soil as the other European nations ; and 
 to prove this position, he hastened to add that, in his 
 opinion, the Russian people feels instinctively predes- 
 tined to populate the immense uncultivated tracts stretch- 
 ing toward the East. 
 
 " It is easy to be mistaken about the general destiny 
 of a people, by forming premature conclusions," said 
 Metrof, interrupting Levin ; " and the situation of the 
 laborer will always depend on his relation to land and 
 capital." 
 
 And, without giving Levin time to reply, he began 
 to explain the peculiarity of his own views. Levin did 
 not understand, because he did not try to understand, 
 in what consisted the peculiarity of his views ; he saw 
 that Metrof, like all the rest, notwithstanding his article, 
 in which he refuted the teachings of the economists, 
 looked on the condition of the Russian people from the 
 
 a Selskoye khozyaistvo.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 223 
 
 standpoint of capital, wages, and rent, though he was 
 obliged to confess that for the eastern and by far the 
 greater part of Russia, there was no such thing as rent ; 
 that for nine-tenths of Russia's eighty millions, wages 
 consisted in a bare subsistence, and the capital did not 
 yet exist, except as it was represented by the most primi- 
 tive tools. Although Metrof differed from other political 
 economists, in many ways he regarded the laborer from 
 this point of view, and he had a new theory as to wages, 
 which he demonstrated at length. 
 
 Levin listened with some disgust, and tried to reply. 
 He wanted to interrupt Metrof, in order to express his 
 own opinions, which he felt deserved to be heard at far 
 greater length. But, finally recognizing that they looked 
 on the subject from such a radically opposite standpoint 
 that they could never understand each other, he no 
 longer tried to refute him, he let Metrof talk, and only 
 listened. Though he was not at all interested in what 
 he said, nevertheless he experienced a certain pleasure in 
 listening to him. He was flattered that such a learned 
 man would condescend to give him the benefit of his 
 thoughts, sometimes by a hint pointing to a complete 
 phase of the subject, and showing him so much defer- 
 ence as to one thoroughly versed in the subject. He 
 ascribed this to his own merits ; he did not know that 
 Metrof, having talked this over with all his own intimates 
 on this subject, was glad to have a new auditor ; and, 
 moreover, that he liked to talk with any one on the sub- 
 jects that occupied him, so as to elucidate certain points 
 for his own benefit. 
 
 " We shall be late," remarked Katavasof, consulting 
 his watch as soon as Metrof had concluded his argu- 
 ment. " Yes ! there is a special session to-day of the 
 ' Society of Friends ' l in honor of the semi-centennial of 
 Svintitch," he added, in reply to Levin's question. 
 " We meet at the house of Piotr Ivanuitch ; I promised 
 to speak on his work in zoology. Come with us ; it will 
 be interesting." 
 
 " Yes, it is high time," said Metrof. " Come with us, 
 
 1 Obshchestvo Liubitelye,
 
 224 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 and then afterward, if you like, come home with me. 
 I should greatly like to hear your work." 
 
 " It is only a sketch, not worth much ; but I should 
 like to go with you to the session." 
 
 " What is that, batyushka ? Have you heard ? He 
 gave a special opinion," said Katavasof, who was putting 
 on his dress-coat in the next room. 
 
 And the talk turned on the university question. 
 
 The university question was a very important topic 
 this winter in Moscow. Three old professors in the 
 council would not accept the opinion of the younger 
 ones ; the younger ones expressed a special opinion. 
 This opinion, according to some, was dreadful, accord- 
 ing to others was the simplest and most righteous of 
 opinions, and the professors were divided into two 
 parties. 
 
 The one to which Katavasof belonged saw in the 
 opposition dastardly violation of faith, and deception ; 
 the other side charged their opponents with childishness 
 and lack of confidence in the authorities. 
 
 Levin, although he was not connected with the uni- 
 versity, had heard and talked much during his stay in 
 Moscow regarding this affair, and had his own opinion 
 regarding it. So he took part in the conversation, which 
 was continued even after they had got out into the 
 street, and until they had all three reached the buildings 
 of the old university. 
 
 The session had already begun. Six men were sitting 
 around a table covered with a cloth ; and one of them, 
 nearly doubled up over a manuscript, was reading some- 
 thing. Katavasof and Metrof took their places at the 
 table. Levin sat down in an unoccupied chair near a stu- 
 dent, and asked him in a low voice what they were read- 
 ing. The student, looking angrily at Levin, replied : 
 
 " The biography." 
 
 Levin did not care much for the savant's biography, 
 still he could not help listening, and he learned various 
 interesting particulars of the life of the celebrated man. 
 
 When the reader came to an end, the chairman con- 
 gratulated him, and then read some verses which had
 
 ANNA KARENINA 225 
 
 been sent to him in honor of the occasion by the poet 
 Mient, of whose work he spoke eulogistically. Then 
 Katavasof read in his loud, harsh voice a sketch of the 
 work of Svintitch. When Katavasof had finished, Levin 
 looked at his watch and found that it was already two 
 o'clock ; he realized that he should lose the concert if 
 he should read his treatise to Metrof, and, moreover, he 
 no longer cared to do it. 
 
 During the reading of the papers he had come to a 
 conclusion regarding the conversation he had just had. 
 It was clear to his own mind that, though Metrof's ideas 
 very likely had some value, yet his own ideas also had 
 value, and that ideas could be made clear and profitable 
 only when every person should work separately in his 
 chosen path, but that the communication of these ideas 
 was perfectly profitless. 
 
 And, having decided to decline Metrof's invitation, 
 Levin at the end of the session went up to him. Metrof 
 introduced Levin to the chairman, with whom he was 
 talking about the political news. Thereupon Metrof 
 told the chairman what he had already told Levin, and 
 Levin made the same remarks as he had made that morn- 
 ing, but for the sake of variety he also told his new theory 
 which had just come into his mind. After this the con- 
 versation again turned on the university question. As 
 Levin had already heard as much as he cared to about 
 this, he made haste to tell Metrof that he regretted that 
 he could not accept his invitation, bade him good-by, 
 and hastened to Lvof's. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LVOF, who had married Natalie, Kitty's sister, had 
 spent his life in the European capitals, where he had not 
 only received his education, but had also pursued his dip- 
 lomatic career. 
 
 The year before he had resigned his diplomatic ap- 
 pointment, not because it was distasteful to him, for 
 he never found anything distasteful to him, and had 
 VOL. in. 15
 
 226 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 accepted a position in the department of the palace in 
 Moscow, so that he might be able to give a better educa- 
 tion to his two sons. 
 
 In spite of very different opinions and habits, and the 
 fact that Lvof was considerably older than Levin, they 
 had seen much of each other this autumn, and had be- 
 come great friends. 
 
 Levin found his brother-in-law at home, and went in 
 without ceremony. 
 
 Lvof, in a house-coat with a belt, and in chamois-skin 
 slippers, was sitting in an arm-chair, and with blue glasses 
 was reading a book which rested on a stand, while he 
 held a half-burned cigar in his shapely hand. His hand- 
 some, delicate, and still youthful face, to which his shin- 
 ing, silvery hair gave an expression of aristocratic dignity, 
 lighted up with a smile as he saw Levin. 
 
 " Good ! I was just going to send to find out about 
 you all. How is Kitty ? " said he ; and, rising, he pushed 
 forward a rocking-chair. " Sit down here : you '11 find 
 this better. Have you read the last circular in the Jour- 
 nal de St. Pdtersbourg? I find it excellent," said he, with 
 a slight French accent. 
 
 Levin informed him of what he had heard as to the 
 reports in circulation at Petersburg; and, after having 
 spoken of politics, he told about his acquaintance with 
 Metrof and the session at the university. This greatly 
 interested Lvof. 
 
 " There ! I envy you your intimacy in that learned 
 society," said he, and he went on speaking, not in Rus- 
 sian, but in French, which was far more familiar to him. 
 " True, I could not meet them very well. My public 
 duties, and my occupation with the children, would pre- 
 vent it ; and then, I do not feel ashamed to say that my 
 own education is too faulty." 
 
 " I can't think that," said Levin, with a smile, and, as 
 always, touched by his modest opinion of himself, ex- 
 pressed not for the sake of bringing out a flattering con- 
 tradiction, but genuine and honest. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I now feel how little I know. Now that 
 I am educating my sons, I am obliged to refresh my
 
 ANNA KARENINA 227 
 
 memory. I learn my lessons over again. Just as in 
 your estate, you have to have workmen and overseers, 
 so here it needs some one to watch the teachers. But 
 see what I am reading," and he pointed to the gram- 
 mar of Buslayef lying on the stand, " Misha has to 
 learn it, and it is so hard Now explain this to me." 
 
 Levin wanted to explain to him that it was impossible 
 to understand it, that it simply had to be learned. But 
 Lvof did not agree with him. 
 
 " Yes, now you are making fun of it." 
 
 " On the contrary, you can't imagine how much I 
 learn, when I look at you, about the way to teach 
 children." 
 
 " Well ! You could not learn much from me." 
 
 " I only know that I never saw children so well 
 brought up as yours, and I should not want better chil- 
 dren than yours." 
 
 Lvof evidently wanted to restrain himself so as not 
 to betray his satisfaction, but his face lighted up with a 
 smile. 
 
 " Only let them be better than I. That is all that I 
 want. But you don't know the bother," he began, 
 " with lads who, like mine, have been allowed to run 
 wild abroad." 
 
 " You are regulating all that. They are such capable 
 children. The main thing is their moral training. 
 And this is what I learn in looking at your children." 
 
 " You speak of the moral training. You can't imag- 
 ine how hard it is. Just as soon as you have conquered 
 one crop of weeds, others spring up, and there is always 
 a fight. If you don't have a support in religion, be- 
 tween ourselves, no father on earth, relying on his own 
 strength and without this help, could ever succeed in 
 training them." 
 
 This conversation, which was extremely interesting to 
 Levin, was interrupted by the pretty Natalie Aleksan- 
 drovna, dressed for going out. 
 
 "I didn't know you were here," said she to Levin, 
 evidently not regretting, but even rejoicing, that she had 
 interrupted his conversation, which was too long for her
 
 228 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 pleasure. " Well ! and how is Kitty ? I am going to 
 dine with you to-day. See here, Arseny," she said, 
 turning to her husband, "you take the carriage." .... 
 
 And between husband and wife began a discussion of 
 the question how they should spend the day. As the 
 husband had to attend to his official business, and the 
 wife was going to the concert and to a public session of 
 the Committee of the Southeast, it was needful to dis- 
 cuss and think it all over. Levin, as a member of the 
 family, was obliged to take part in these plans. It was 
 decided that he should go with Natalie to the concert 
 and to the public meeting, and then send the carriage 
 to the office for Arseny, who would come and take her 
 to Kitty's, or if he was not yet ready Levin would serve 
 as her escort. 
 
 " This man is spoiling me," said Lvof to his wife ; 
 " he assures me that our children are lovely, when I 
 know that they are full of faults." 
 
 " Arseny goes to extremes. I always say so," said 
 his wife. " If you expect perfection, you will never be 
 satisfied. And papa is right in saying that when we 
 were children they went to one extreme : they kept us 
 on the entresol, while the parents lived in the bel-etagc ; 
 but now, on the contrary, the parents live in the lumber- 
 room, and the children in the bel-etage. The parents 
 are now of no account ; everything must be for the 
 children." 
 
 " Supposing this is more agreeable ? " suggested Lvof, 
 with his winning smile, as he offered her his arm. " Any 
 one not knowing you would think that you were not a 
 mother, but a step-mother." 
 
 "No, it is not good to go to extremes in anything," 
 said Natalie, gently, laying his paper-cutter in its 
 proper place on the table. 
 
 " Ah, here they are ! Come in, ye perfect children," 
 said Lvof to the handsome lads, who came in, and, after 
 bowing to Levin, went to their father, evidently wishing 
 to ask some favor of him. 
 
 Levin wanted to speak with them, and to hear what 
 they said to their father, but Natalie was talking with
 
 ANNA KARENINA 229 
 
 him ; and just then Lvof's colleague, Makhotin, in his 
 court-uniform, came into the room, and began a lively 
 conversation about Herzegovina, the Princess Korzin- 
 sky, and the premature death of Madame Apraksin. 
 
 Levin forgot all about Kitty's message. He remem- 
 bered it just as they reached the vestibule. 
 
 " Oh ! Kitty commissioned me to speak with you 
 about Oblonsky," said he, as Lvof went with them to 
 the head of the staircase. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! maman wants us, les beaux-frtres, to at- 
 tack him," said Lvof, turning red. " But how can I ? " 
 
 "Then I'll undertake it," said the smiling Madame 
 Lvof, who, wrapped in her white dogskin rotonda, was 
 waiting till they should finish talking. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Two very interesting pieces were to be given at the 
 matinee. One was a fantasia or symphonic poem called 
 " The King Lear of the Steppes," the other was a quar- 
 tette dedicated to the memory of Bach. Both pieces 
 were new and of the new school, and Levin desired to 
 form his own opinion in regard to them. So, after he 
 had conducted his sister-in-law to her place, he took his 
 stand near a column, and determined to listen as atten- 
 tively and conscientiously as possible. He tried not to 
 allow his attention to be distracted and his impressions 
 spoiled by letting his eyes follow the white-cravatted 
 kapellmeister's waving arms, which are always so dis- 
 turbing to the musical attention, or by looking at the 
 ladies in their hats, who for concerts take especial pains 
 to tie ribbons round their ears, or at all those faces 
 either occupied with nothing, or occupied with the most 
 heterogeneous interests, music being the last. He tried 
 to avoid meeting the connoisseurs and the chatterers, 
 but he stood alone by himself, looking down and listen- 
 ing. 
 
 But the more he listened to the "King Lear" fantasia, 
 the more he felt the impossibility of forming a clear and
 
 230 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 exact idea of it. The musical thought, at the moment 
 of its development, was constantly interrupted by the 
 introduction of new themes, or vanished, leaving only 
 the impression of a complicated and laborious attempt 
 at instrumentation. But these same new themes, beau- 
 tiful as some of them were, gave an unpleasant impres- 
 sion, because they were not expected or prepared for. 
 Gayety and sadness and despair and tenderness and 
 triumph followed one another like the incoherent 
 thoughts of a madman, to be themselves followed by 
 others as wild. 
 
 During the whole performance, Levin experienced a 
 feeling analogous to what a deaf man might have in 
 looking at dancers. He w r as in a state of utter dubiety 
 when the piece came to an end, and he felt a great weari- 
 ness from the strain of intellectual intensity which was 
 never rewarded. 
 
 On all sides were heard loud applause and clapping 
 of hands. All got up and moved about, talking. Wish- 
 ing to get some light on his doubts by the impressions 
 of others, Levin began to walk about, seeking for the 
 connoisseurs, and he was glad when at last he saw one 
 of the best-known musical critics talking with his friend 
 Pestsof. 
 
 "It's wonderful," said Pestsof, in his deep bass. 
 " How are you, Konstantin Dmitritch ? The passage 
 that is the richest in color, the most statuesque, so to 
 speak, is that where Cordelia appears, where woman, 
 das ewig Weibliche, comes into conflict with fate. 
 Don't you think so ? " 
 
 " Why Cordelia ? " asked Levin, with hesitation, for 
 he had wholly forgotten that the symphonic poem had 
 anything to do with King Lear. 
 
 "Cordelia appears here," said Pestsof, tapping with 
 his finger on the satin program which he held in his 
 hand. Then only did Levin notice the title of the sym- 
 phonic poem, and he made haste to read the text of 
 Shakespeare, translated into Russian and printed on the 
 back of the program. "You can't follow it without 
 that," said Pestsof, addressing Levin, now that his
 
 ANNA KARENINA 231 
 
 friend, the critic, had gone, and there was nothing more 
 to talk with him about. 
 
 Levin and Pestsof spent the intermission in discuss- 
 ing the merits and defects of the Wagnerian tendencies 
 in music. Levin maintained that the mistake of Wag- 
 ner and all his followers consisted in transferring music 
 to the domain of an alien art, that poetry made the mis- 
 take when it tried to depict the features of the human 
 face, which it was the province of painting to do, and as 
 a concrete example of this kind of a mistake he adduced 
 the sculptor who should try to express in marble the 
 shades of poetic imagery rising round the figure of the 
 poet on the pedestal. 
 
 " These shades are so far from being shades in the 
 case of the sculptor, that they even rest on the steps," 
 said Levin. This phrase pleased him, but he had a 
 lurking suspicion that he had once used this same 
 phrase before, and to Pestsof himself, and he felt 
 confused. 
 
 Pestsof argued that art is one, and that it can reach its 
 loftiest manifestations only by combining all its forms. 
 
 Levin could not listen to the second number on the 
 program. Pestsof, who was standing near him, kept 
 talking to him most of the time, criticizing it for its ex- 
 cessive, mawkish, affected simplicity, and comparing it 
 to the simplicity of the Pre-Raphaelites in painting. 
 
 On his way out, he met various acquaintances, with 
 whom he exchanged remarks on politics, music, and 
 other topics ; among others he saw Count Bohl, and the 
 call which he should have made on him came to mind. 
 
 "Well, go quickly," said Natalie, to whom he confided 
 this. " Perhaps the countess is not receiving. If so, 
 you will come and join me at the meeting. You will 
 have plenty of time."
 
 232 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " PERHAPS they are not receiving ? " asked Levin, as 
 he entered the vestibule of Count Bohl's house. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! permit me ! " answered the Swiss, resolutely 
 taking the visitor's shuba. 
 
 " What a nuisance ! " thought Levin, drawing off one 
 of his gloves with a sigh, and turning his hat in his 
 hands. " Now, why did I come ? Now, what am I 
 going to say to them ? " 
 
 Passing through the first drawing-room, he met the 
 Countess Bohl at the door, who, with a perplexed and 
 severe face, was giving orders to a servant. When she 
 saw Levin, she smiled, and invited him to walk into a 
 small parlor, where voices were heard. In this room 
 were sitting her two daughters and a Muscovite colonel 
 whom Levin knew. Levin joined them, passed the 
 usual compliments, and sat down near a divan, holding 
 his hat on his knee. 
 
 " How is your wife ? Have you been to the concert ? 
 We were not able to go. Mamma had to attend the 
 requiem," said one of the young ladies. 
 
 "Yes, I heard about it what a sudden death!" 
 said Levin. 
 
 The countess came in, sat down on the divan, and 
 asked also about his wife and the concert. 
 
 Levin replied, and asked some questions about the 
 sudden death of Madame Apraksin. 
 
 " But then, she was always in delicate health." 
 
 " Were you at the opera yesterday ? " 
 
 "Yes, I was." 
 
 " Lucca was very good." 
 
 " Yes, very good," he said ; and he began, seeing that 
 it was entirely immaterial to him what they thought 
 about him, to repeat what he had heard a hundred times 
 about the singer's extraordinary talent. The Countess 
 Bohl pretended that she was listening. Then, when he 
 had said all he had to say, and relapsed into silence, the 
 colonel, who had hitherto held his peace, began also to
 
 ANNA KARENINA 233 
 
 speak. The colonel also talked about the opera and 
 about an illumination. Then, saying something about a 
 supposititious folle jonrnte at Turin, the colonel, laugh- 
 ing, got up, and took his departure. Levin also got up, 
 but a look of surprise on the countess's face told him 
 that it was not yet time for him to go. Two minutes 
 more at least were necessary. He sat down. 
 
 But, as he thought what a foolish figure he was cut- 
 ting, he was more and more incapable of finding a sub- 
 ject of conversation. 
 
 " Are you going to the public meeting ? " asked the 
 countess. " They say it will be very interesting." 
 
 " No, but I promised my belle-sceiir that I would call 
 for her there," replied Levin. 
 
 Silence again ensued ; the mother exchanged a look 
 with her daughter. 
 
 " Now it must be time to go," thought Levin ; and 
 he rose. The ladies shook hands with him, and charged 
 him with mille c hoses for his wife. 
 
 The Swiss, as he put on his shuba for him, asked his 
 address, and wrote it gravely in a large, handsomely 
 bound book. 
 
 " Of course, it 's all the same to me ; but how useless 
 and ridiculous it all is ! " thought Levin, comforting him- 
 self with the thought that every one did the same thing, 
 and he went to the public meeting of the committee, 
 where he was to find his sister-in-law to bring her home 
 with him. 
 
 At the public meeting of the committee there was a 
 great throng of people, and society was well represented. 
 Levin reached the place just in time to hear a sketch 
 which all said was very interesting. When the reading 
 of the sketch was finished, society came together, and 
 Levin met Sviazhsky, who invited him to come that very 
 evening to a meeting of the Society of Rural Economy, 1 
 at which a very important report was to be read. He 
 also met Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had just returned 
 from the races, and many other acquaintances, and 
 Levin talked much and heard many opinions relating to 
 
 1 Obshchestvo sielskava khozydistva.
 
 234 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the meeting and the new piece and the lawsuit. But 
 apparently in consequence of his weariness and the 
 strain which he began to feel, he made a blunder in 
 speaking of a certain lawsuit, and this blunder he after- 
 ward remembered with annoyance. Speaking of the 
 recent punishment of a foreigner who had been tried in 
 Russia, and that it would have been irregular to punish 
 him by exile, Levin repeated what he had heard the 
 evening before in a conversation with a friend of his. 
 
 " I think that to send him abroad is just the same as to 
 punish a fish by throwing it into the water," said Levin. 
 
 Too late he remembered that this comparison which 
 he put forth to express his thought, though he had heard 
 his friend use it, was really taken from a fable by Krui- 
 lof, and that his friend had taken it from the feuilleton 
 of a newspaper. 
 
 Returning home with his sister-in-law, and finding 
 Kitty well and happy, Levin went to the club. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 LEVIN reached the club very punctually. A number 
 of the guests and members arrived there at the same 
 time as he did. Levin had not been at the club very 
 recently, indeed, not since the time when, having finished 
 his studies at the university, he passed a winter at Mos- 
 cow, and went into society. He remembered the club 
 in a general sort of way, but had entirely forgotten the 
 impressions which, in former days, it had made upon 
 him. But as soon as he entered the great semicircular 
 dvor, or court, sent away his izvoshchik, and mounted the 
 steps and saw the liveried Swiss noiselessly open the door 
 for him, and bow as he ushered him in ; as soon as he 
 saw in the cloak-room the galoshes and shubas of the 
 members, who felt that it was less work to take them off 
 down-stairs, and leave them with the Swiss, than to wear 
 them up-stairs ; as soon as he heard the well-known 
 mysterious sound of the bell, and as soon as he mounted 
 the easy flight of carpeted stairs and saw the statue on
 
 ANNA KARENINA 235 
 
 the landing, and on the upper floor recognized the third 
 Swiss in his club livery, who, having grown older, dis- 
 played neither dilatoriness nor haste in opening the door 
 for him, he once more felt the old-time impression of the 
 club the atmosphere of comfort, ease, and good- 
 breeding. 
 
 "Your hat, if you please," said the Swiss to Levin, 
 who had forgotten the rule of the club to leave hats at 
 the cloak-room. 
 
 "It's a long time since you were here," said the 
 Swiss. " The prince wrote to you yesterday. Prince 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch has not come yet." 
 
 The Swiss knew not only Levin, but all his connec- 
 tions and family, and took pleasure in reminding him 
 of his relationships. 
 
 Passing through the first connecting " hall " and the 
 conversation-room at the right where the fruit-dealer 
 sits, Levin, who walked faster than the old attendant, 
 entered the dining-room, which was filled with a noisy 
 throng. He made his way along by the tables, almost 
 all of which were occupied. As he looked about him 
 on all sides, he saw men of the most heterogeneous 
 types, old and young, most of them acquaintances and 
 many of them friends. It seemed as if all of them had 
 -left their cares and worries with their hats in the cloak- 
 room, and had collected together to make the most of 
 the material advantages of life. There were Sviazhsky 
 and Shcherbatsky and Nevyedovsky and the old prince 
 and Vronsky and Sergyei Ivanovitch. 
 
 " Ah, why are you late ? " said the prince, with a smile, 
 extending his hand to his son-in-law over his shoulder. 
 "How is Kitty?" added he, putting a corner of his 
 napkin into the button-hole of his waistcoat. 
 
 " She is well, and is dining with her sisters." 
 
 " Ah ! the old gossips ! Well, there 's no room with 
 us. Go to that table there and get a seat as quickly as 
 you can .... " said the prince, taking with care a plate of 
 iik/ia, or soup made of lotes. 
 
 "Here, Levin," cried a jovial voice from a table a 
 little farther away.
 
 236 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 It was Turovtsuin. He was sitting with a young 
 officer, and near him were two chairs tilted up. Levin, 
 with joy, went to join him. He always liked the good- 
 hearted, prodigal Turovtsuin ; his reconciliation with 
 Kitty was connected with him, and now, especially, 
 after all his wearisome intellectual conversations, the 
 sight of his jolly face was delightful. 
 
 " These places were for you and Oblonsky. He will 
 be here directly," said Turovtsuin; and then he intro- 
 duced Levin to the young officer, who held himself very 
 straight and had bright, laughing eyes, Gagin, from 
 Petersburg. 
 
 " Oblonsky is always late." 
 
 "Ah ! here he is." 
 
 " You have only just come, have n't you ? " asked 
 .Oblonsky of Levin, hurrying up to him. " Your health. 
 Will you take vodka? Come on, then." 
 
 Levin got up, and went with him to a large table, on 
 which all kinds of liquors and a most select zakuska 
 were set out. It would seem as if the two dozen differ- 
 ent kinds of drinks might have offered a choice, but 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch thought good to ask for a special 
 concoction, which a servant in livery hastened to get for 
 him. They drank it from small glasses, and then re- 
 turned to their places. 
 
 At the very first, even while they were eating their 
 ukha, Gagin had champagne served, and he ordered the 
 four glasses filled. Levin did not refuse the wine when 
 it was offered to him, and he in turn ordered a bottle. 
 
 He was hungry, and ate and drank with great satis- 
 faction ; and with still greater satisfaction took part in 
 the gay and lively conversation of his neighbors. Gagin, 
 lowering his voice, told a new Petersburg anecdote ; 
 and, though it was indecorous and ridiculous, it was so 
 funny that Levin laughed uproariously, till those around 
 him looked at him in surprise. 
 
 " That is in the same kind as ' Alas, I cannot endure 
 it,' " quoted Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Do you remember? 
 Akh ! it was lovely ! Bring us another bottle," said he 
 to the lackey, and he began to tell an anecdote.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 237 
 
 "Piotr Ilyitch Vinovsky sends these," interrupted a 
 little old lackey, addressing Stepan Arkadyevitch, and 
 bringing two diminutive glasses of bubbling champagne, 
 and offering them to Oblonsky and Levin. Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch took the glass, and, exchanging glances 
 with a bald, ruddy, mustachioed man, at the other end of 
 the table, nodded to him and smiled. 
 
 "Who is that? " asked Levin. 
 
 " You met him at my house once, don't you remem- 
 ber ? He 's a very good fellow." 
 
 Levin followed Oblonsky's example, and took his 
 glass. Stepan Arkadyevitch's anecdote was also very 
 diverting. Then Levin had his story to tell, and it 
 likewise raised a laugh. Then the conversation turned 
 on horses, and the races that had taken place that day, 
 and they told how brilliantly Vronsky's trotter, Atlasnui, 
 had won the first prize. 
 
 "Ah, here they are!" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 toward the end of the dinner, turning round in his chair 
 to extend his hand to Vronsky, who was walking with a 
 tall colonel of the Guards. Vronsky's face was also 
 radiant with the good-natured gayety that reigned in the 
 club. He leaned his elbow on Oblonsky's shoulder, and 
 whispered some words in his ear with an air of good- 
 humor, and extended his hand with a friendly smile to 
 Levin. 
 
 " I am very glad to meet you," said he. " I looked 
 for you after the elections, but they told me you had 
 gone." 
 
 "Yes! I went away the same day We have just 
 
 been speaking of your trotter. It was a very fast 
 race." 
 
 " Yes, it was. Have n't you race-horses, too ? " 
 
 " I ? No. My father had horses, and I know about 
 them." 
 
 "Where did you dine ?" asked Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 "At the second table, behind the columns." 
 
 " He has been loaded down with congratulations. It 's 
 very pretty .... a second imperial prize. I wish I could 
 only have the same luck at play as he does with horses
 
 238 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Now ! how they waste golden time ! I am going to the 
 Infernalnaya," said the tall colonel ; and he left them. 
 
 "That's Yashvin," said Vronsky to Turovtsuin ; and 
 sat down in a vacant place near them. Having drained 
 the glass of champagne which was filled for him, he also 
 ordered a bottle. Either from the effect of the wine 
 which he had drunk, or from the social atmosphere of 
 the club, Levin talked cordially with him about the best 
 breeds of cattle, and was happy to feel no more hatred 
 against his former rival. He even told him, among other 
 things, that he had heard from his wife of the meeting 
 which had taken place at the house of the Princess 
 Marya Borisovna. 
 
 " Akh ! the Princess Marya Borisovna ? She 's a 
 charmer ! " exclaimed Stepan Arkadyevitch ; and he 
 told an anecdote of the old lady which made every one 
 laugh. Especially Vronsky laughed so heartily that 
 Levin felt perfectly reconciled to him. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, have we finished?" said Oblonsky, 
 getting up and smiling. "Then let us go." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ON leaving the table Levin, in company with Gagin, 
 walked through the lofty rooms to the billiard-room, and 
 he felt that his walk was singularly straight, and that his 
 hands moved easily. In the large " hall " he met his 
 father-in-law. 
 
 " Well ! How do you like our Temple of Indolence ? " 
 asked the old prince, taking his son-in-law by the arm. 
 "Come, take a turn." 
 
 " I should like to look around. It is interesting." 
 
 " Yes, to you ; but my interest in it is different from 
 yours. When you see old men like that," said he, indi- 
 cating a member of the club who, with stooping shoul- 
 ders and falling lip, was slowly shuffling along in soft 
 boots across the hall, "you would think that they were 
 born shliupiks." 
 
 " Why do you call them ' little sloops ' ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 239 
 
 " Here you are, and don't know what that means ! 
 That is our club term. You know how eggs roll. Well, 
 when any one goes with a gait like that, he becomes a 
 shliupik. And so when any one of us goes stumbling 
 through the club, he becomes a shliupik. You laugh, 
 do you ? but one has to look out else he finds himself 
 one. Do you know Prince Chechensky?" he asked; 
 and Levin saw by his face that he was going to tell 
 some ridiculous yarn. 
 
 " No, I don't know him." 
 
 "Well, no matter. Prince Chechensky is famous. 
 Well, that is neither here nor there. He 's always play- 
 ing billiards. Three years ago he wasn't among the 
 shliupiks, but was a great galliard ! He himself called 
 other people shliupiks. Only he came one time .... but 
 our Swiss you know Vasili, our tall one? he is a 
 great bonmotist. Prince Chechensky asks him, ' Well, 
 Vasili, is any one here yet ? have any shliupiks come ? ' 
 And Vasili answers, ' You are the third.' Now, brother ! 
 how is that?" 
 
 The two men walked on, chatting, and greeting their 
 friends, and passed through all the rooms, the main 
 room, where men accustomed to one another as partners 
 were playing cards for small stakes ; the divan-room, 
 where others were having games of chess, and Sergye'f 
 Ivanovitch was talking with some one ; the billiard-room, 
 where, in the bay of the room, around a divan, a gay 
 party, among them Gagin, had gathered and were drink- 
 ing champagne. They glanced in also at the Infernal- 
 nay a, where, at the gambling-table, Yashvin, surrounded 
 by men betting, was already established. With hushed 
 voices, they entered the reading-room, where, under a 
 shaded lamp, a young man with a stern face was turn- 
 ing over the leaves of one journal after another, while 
 near by was a bald-headed general absorbed in reading. 
 They passed quietly into a room which the prince called 
 the Hall of the Wits, 1 and there they found three gen- 
 tlemen talking politics. 
 
 "Prince, we're all ready, if you please," said one 
 
 1 Umnaya Komnata, the intellectual room.
 
 2 4 o ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of his partners, finding him there. And the prince 
 joined them. 
 
 Levin sat down, and listened to the three gentlemen, 
 but, as he recalled all the conversations of the same kind 
 he had heard since morning, he felt excessively bored. 
 He got up, and went off to find Turovtsuin and 
 Oblonsky, who were sure to be gay. 
 
 Turovtsuin was with the champagne-drinkers on the 
 high divan in the billiard-room, and Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 and Vronsky were talking in a corner near the door. 
 
 " Not that she finds it tedious," Levin heard in pass- 
 ing ; " but it 's the uncertainty, the indefiniteness of her 
 position." 
 
 He was about to pass on discreetly, but Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch called him. 
 
 " Levin," said he ; and Levin saw that there were in 
 his eyes, not exactly tears, but moisture, as was always 
 the case, either after he had been drinking, or when 
 he was touched ; and just now it was both. " Levin, 
 don't go;" and he took him by the arm, and detained 
 him. "He is my sincere, if not my best, friend," said 
 he, addressing Vronsky. "You, too, are more like a 
 kinsman and a friend to me. I want to bring you 
 together, and see you friends. You ought to be good 
 friends, because you are both good men." 
 
 " There 's nothing left for us but to give the kiss of 
 friendship," said Vroqsky, gayly, offering his hand to 
 Levin, who pressed it cordially. 
 
 "I am very, very glad," said Levin. 
 
 "Waiter, a bottle of champagne!" cried Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " I am also very glad," said Vronsky. 
 
 But, in spite of Oblonsky's desires, and their mu- 
 tual satisfaction, they had nothing to say, and both 
 knew it. 
 
 "Do you know, he doesn't know Anna?" remarked 
 Oblonsky ; "and I want to introduce him to her. Come 
 on, Levin." 
 
 "Is it possible?" said Vronsky. "She will be very 
 much pleased. I should beg you to come at once, but 

 
 ANNA KARENINA 241 
 
 I am troubled about Yashvin, and I want to stay here 
 till he has finished playing." 
 " Is he going to lose? " 
 
 " All he has. I am the only one who has any influ- 
 ence over him," said Vronsky. 
 
 "What do you say, Levin, shall we have a game of 
 pool? First-rate," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. "Place 
 the pyramid," said he, addressing the marker. 
 
 " It is all ready," replied the marker, who had some 
 time before put the balls in the triangular frame, and 
 had placed the red ball in readiness to break the 
 pyramid. 
 
 " Well, then, go ahead." 
 
 After their game, Vronsky and Levin sat down at 
 Gagin's table, and Levin, at Stepan Arkadyevitch's 
 instance, began to bet on the aces. Vronsky sat down 
 for a time at the same table, where his acquaintances 
 kept coming up and joining him ; then, after a time, he 
 went to the Infernalnaya to find out how Yashvin was get- 
 ting along. Levin felt a pleasant sense of exhilaration 
 after the intellectual weariness of the morning. He was 
 pleased to have his unfriendly feelings toward Vronsky 
 ended, and the impression of restfulness, good-fellow- 
 ship, and comfort still remained by him. 
 
 When the game was ended, Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 took Levin's arm, saying : 
 
 " Well ! let us go to see Anna. We need n't wait for 
 Vronsky. What say you ? She is at home. I promised 
 her to bring you a long time ago. Where were you go- 
 ing this evening ? " 
 
 " Nowhere in particular. I only told Sviazhsky I 
 would go to the Society of Rural Economy. But I '11 
 go with you, if you wish." 
 
 " Excellent ! let us go, then. See if my carriage has 
 come," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, addressing a lackey. 
 
 Levin went to the desk, paid the forty rubles which 
 he had lost at cards, in some mysterious way gave his 
 fee to the old lackey who was standing by the door, and 
 went through the long rooms down to the entrance. 
 
 VOL. III. 1 6
 
 242 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 " OBLONSKY'S carriage ! " cried the Swiss, in a porten- 
 tous voice. 
 
 The carnage came up, and the two friends got in. 
 Only as long as the carriage was still in the courtyard 
 did Levin continue to experience the feeling of clubbish 
 comfort, of satisfaction, and of indubitable decorum, 
 which had surrounded him. But as soon as the car- 
 riage rolled out on the street, the jolting over the un- 
 even pavement, the cries of an angry izvoshchik whom 
 they met, and the sight of the red sign of a low public 
 house and some shops lighted up, caused this impression 
 to fade away, and he began to think over what follies he 
 had committed, and to ask himself if he were doing right 
 in going to see Anna. What would Kitty say ? Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, as if he had divined what was passing in 
 the mind of his companion, cut short his meditations. 
 
 "How glad I am," said he, "that you are going to 
 know her ! You know Dolly has been wishing it for a 
 long time. Lvof goes to her house, too. Though she 
 is my sister," continued Stepan Arkadyevitch, " I am 
 bold enough to say that she is a remarkable woman. 
 You will see it. Her position is very hard, especially 
 just now." 
 
 " Why do you say ' especially now ' ? " 
 
 " We are negotiating with her husband for a divorce, 
 and he is willing ; but there are difficulties on account 
 of the son ; and this matter, which ought to have been 
 settled long ago, is dragging on now these three months. 
 As soon as the divorce is granted, she will marry Vronsky. 
 How stupid it is, this old habit of dizziness, ' Isaiah re- 
 joice,' in which no one believes, and which destroys the 
 happiness of people," exclaimed Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 interrupting what he was saying. Then he went on, 
 " and then her position will become as regular as yours 
 or mine." 
 
 " Where does the difficulty lie ? " 
 
 " Akh ! it is a long and tiresome story ; everything is
 
 ANNA KARENINA 243 
 
 so undecided. But this is the point : she has been wait- 
 ing three months for that divorce here in Moscow, where 
 everybody knows her and him ; and she does n't see a 
 single woman but Dolly, because, don't you see, she 
 does n't wish that any one should come to see her from 
 pity. What do you think ? That fool of a Princess 
 Varvara left her because she considered it irregular. 
 Any other woman than Anna would not have found 
 resources in herself ; but you shall see how she lives, 
 how dignified and calm she is. To the left, at the cor- 
 ner opposite the church," cried Oblonsky to the coach- 
 man, leaning out of the window. " Fu, how hot it is ! " 
 he added, throwing open his shuba in spite of twelve 
 degrees of cold. 
 
 "Well, she has a daughter, hasn't she, to take up 
 her time and attention ? " 
 
 "You seem to imagine every woman to be only a 
 setting-hen, une couveuse" said Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 " Why, yes, of course, she gives her time and attention 
 to her daughter ; but she does n't make any fuss about it. 
 She is occupied mainly with her writing. I see you smile 
 ironically, but you are wrong. She has written a book 
 for young people. She has n't spoken of it to any one, 
 except to me ; and I showed the manuscript to Vorkuyef, 
 the publisher .... you know he is a writer himself, it seems. 
 He is up in such matters, and he says that it is a remark- 
 able thing. Do you think that she sets up for a blue- 
 stocking ? Not at all. Anna is, above all things, a 
 woman with a heart, as you will see. She has in her 
 house a little English girl and a whole family, and is 
 looking after them." 
 
 " What ? Some philanthropical scheme ? " 
 
 " Here you are immediately trying to turn it into 
 something absurd ! It is not for philanthropy's sake, 
 but because she loves to do it. They had that is, 
 Vronsky had an English trainer, a master in his call- 
 ing, but a drunkard. He did nothing but drink de- 
 lirium tremens and abandoned his family. Anna saw 
 them, helped them, got drawn in more and more, and 
 now has the whole family on her hands. I don't mean
 
 244 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 merely by giving them money. She herself teaches the 
 boys Russian, so as to fit them for the gymnasium ; and 
 she has taken the little girl home with her. Well, you 
 shall see her." 
 
 At this moment the carriage entered a courtyard. 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch rang at the door before which 
 they had stopped, and, without inquiring whether the 
 mistress of the house was at home, went into the vesti- 
 bule. Levin followed him, more and more uneasy as to 
 the propriety of the step he was taking. 
 
 He saw, as he looked at himself in the glass, that he 
 was very red in the face ; but he knew that he was not 
 tipsy. He went up the carpeted stairs after Oblonsky. 
 On the second floor a servant received them with a bow ; 
 and Stepan Arkadyevitch, as if he were a connection, 
 asked him, "Who is with Anna Arkady evna?" and 
 received the answer : 
 
 " Mr. Vorkuyef." 
 
 "Where are they?" 
 
 " In the library." 
 
 They passed through a small, wainscoted dining-room, 
 and walking along on the thick carpet they came to the 
 library, dimly lighted by a single lamp with a huge shade. 
 A reflector-lamp on the wall threw its rays on a full-length 
 portrait of a woman, which instantly attracted Levin's 
 attention. It was the portrait of Anna, painted by Mi- 
 khai'lof in Italy. While Stepan Arkadyevitch went on, 
 and the man's voice, which had been heard, ceased speak- 
 ing, Levin stood looking at the portrait which shone down 
 from its frame, and he could not tear himself away. He 
 forgot where he was ; and, not hearing what was said, 
 he kept his eyes fixed on the wonderful portrait. It was 
 not a painting, but a living, beautiful woman, with her 
 dark, curling hair, bare shoulders and arms, and a pen- 
 sive half-smile on her lovely lips, and gazing at him tri- 
 umphantly and yet tenderly from her entrancing eyes. 
 Only because it was not alive did it seem more beautiful 
 than life itself. 
 
 " Ya otchen rada I am very glad," said a voice, sud- 
 denly, behind him, evidently addressed to him, the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 245 
 
 voice of the same woman whom he admired in the 
 picture. 
 
 It was Anna, who had been concealed by a lattice- 
 work of climbing plants, and who rose to receive her 
 visitor. And in the dusk of the library Levin recog- 
 nized the original of the portrait, in a simple dark blue 
 gown, not in the same position, not with the same ex- 
 pression, but with the same lofty beauty which had been 
 represented by the artist in the painting. She was less 
 brilliant in the reality, but the living woman had a new 
 attraction which the portrait lacked. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 SHE advanced to meet him, and did not conceal the 
 pleasure which his visit caused her. With the ease and 
 simplicity which Levin recognized as characteristic of a 
 woman of the best society, she extended to him a small, 
 energetic hand, introduced him to Vorkuyef, and called 
 his attention to a light-complexioned and pretty little 
 girl her pupil, she said who was seated with her 
 work near the table. 
 
 " I am very, very glad," she repeated ; and in these 
 simple words, spoken by her, Levin found an extraordi- 
 nary significance. " I have known you and liked you 
 for ever so long, both because of your friendship with 
 
 Stiva and because of your wife I knew her a very 
 
 short time, but she gave me the impression of a flower, 
 a lovely flower. And to think ! she will soon be a 
 mother ! " 
 
 She talked freely and without haste, occasionally look- 
 ing from Levin to her brother, and Levin was conscious 
 that the impression which he produced was excellent, 
 and he immediately felt perfectly at his ease with her 
 and on the simplest and most friendly terms, as if he 
 had known her from childhood. 
 
 To Oblonsky, who asked if smoking was allowed, she 
 replied : 
 
 "That is why we have taken refuge in Alekse'f's study ; "
 
 246 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 and, looking at Levin, instead of asking " Do you 
 smoke ? " she held over a tortoise-shell cigar-case to him, 
 and took a cigarette herself. 
 
 " How are you to-day ? " asked her brother. 
 
 " Pretty well ; a little nervous, as usual." 
 
 " Isn't it extraordinarily good ? " said Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, noticing Levin's admiration of the portrait. 
 
 " I never saw a better portrait." 
 
 "An extraordinary likeness, is n't it? " added Vorkuyef. 
 
 Levin looked from the portrait to the original. Anna's 
 face lighted up with a peculiar glow as she felt conscious 
 of his eyes resting on her. He blushed, and, to conceal 
 his confusion, was just going to ask her when she had 
 seen Darya Aleksandrovna. But at that instant Anna 
 said : 
 
 " Ivan Petrovitch and I were talking just now of 
 Vashchenkof's pictures. Do you know them ? " 
 
 "Yes; I have seen them," answered Levin. 
 
 " But I beg your pardon .... you were just going to ask 
 me something ? " 
 
 Levin asked whether she had seen Dolly lately. 
 
 " She was here yesterday. She was indignant at what 
 happened to Grisha at the gymnasium. It seems his 
 Latin teacher was unfair to him." 
 
 " Yes ; I saw the pictures. They pleased me very 
 much," said Levin, returning to the topic which they 
 had begun to talk about. 
 
 What Levin now said was entirely free from the tech- 
 nical formality with which he had talked in the morning. 
 Every word of the conversation with her seemed to be 
 significant. And pleasant as it was to talk with her, it 
 was still pleasanter to listen to her. Anna talked not 
 only naturally and intelligently, but, though intelligently, 
 still without pretense, not arrogating any great importance 
 to her own thoughts but attributing great importance to 
 what her friends said. 
 
 The conversation turned on the new tendencies of art 
 and on some new illustrations to the Bible which a 
 French artist had recently made. 
 
 Vorkuyef severely criticized the realism which the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 247 
 
 artist carried to brutality ; Levin remarked that the 
 French had carried conventionality in art to greater 
 lengths than any other people, and that, therefore, they 
 found especial merit in the reaction toward realism. 
 They discovered poetry in the fact that they no longer 
 lied. 
 
 Never had Levin said a clever thing which gave him 
 anything like the pleasure that this did. Anna's face 
 grew suddenly bright, as the full force of his remark 
 dawned on her. She laughed. 
 
 "I am delighted," she said; "just as you are when 
 you see a very lifelike portrait. What you just said is 
 characteristic of all French art at the present time 
 painting and even literature : Zola, Daudet. But pos- 
 sibly this is always the way that men form their 
 conceptions from imaginary, conventional figures, but 
 afterward all the combinaisons made, the imaginary 
 figures weary, and people begin to invent more natural 
 and truthful figures." 
 
 " That is perfectly true," said Vorkuyef. 
 
 " Have you been to the club ? " asked Anna, turning 
 to her brother. 
 
 "Yes, yes, here is a genuine woman," said Levin to 
 himself, forgetting himself, and gazing steadily into her 
 handsome, mobile face, which now suddenly changed 
 its expression. Levin did not hear what she was talk- 
 ing about as she bent over toward her brother, but he 
 was struck by the change in her expression. Beautiful 
 as it had been before in repose, it now suddenly as- 
 sumed a mixed expression of curiosity, wrath, and pride. 
 But this lasted for only one minute. She half closed 
 her eyes, as if she were trying to remember something. 
 
 " However, this is interesting to no one," said she, 
 and she addressed the English girl in English. " Please 
 order tJie tea in the drawing-room'' 
 
 The girl rose and went out. 
 
 " Well, has she passed the examination ? " asked 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " Perfectly. She is a very capable girl, and a lovely 
 character."
 
 248 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "You will end by loving her better than your own 
 daughter." 
 
 " That's just like a man. In love, there is no such a 
 thing as more or less. I love my daughter in one way, 
 and this girl in another." 
 
 " I tell Anna Arkadyevna," said Vorkuyef, "that if she 
 would spend a hundredth part of the activity she devotes 
 to this little English girl for the benefit of Russian chil- 
 dren, what a service her energy would render. She 
 would accomplish prodigies." 
 
 " Now there ! What you want, I can't do ! Count 
 AlekseT Kirillovitch " she glanced with an air of timid 
 inquiry at Levin as she pronounced this name, and he 
 involuntarily responded by a look which was encourag- 
 ing, and full of admiration " used to encourage me, 
 when we were in the country, to visit the schools. I 
 went a few times. They were very pleasant, but I 
 could n't get interested in this occupation. You talk of 
 energy ; but the foundation of energy is love, and love 
 does not come at will. So I love this little English girl, 
 but I really don't know why." 
 
 She looked at Levin again ; and her smile and her 
 look all told him that she spoke only with the aim of 
 gaining his approval, though sure in advance that they 
 understood each other. 
 
 " I agree with you thoroughly," cried he. "You can't 
 put your heart into schools and such things, and I think 
 that from the same reason philanthropic institutions gen- 
 erally give such small results." 
 
 She was silent a moment, then she smiled. "Yes, 
 yes," she replied, " I never could. Je n'ai pas le cazur 
 asses large to love a whole asylum of wretched little 
 girls, cela ne m'ajamats rfaissi. Women only do it to win 
 for themselves position sociale. Even now, when I have 
 so much need of occupation," added she with a sad, con- 
 fiding expression, addressing Levin, though she was 
 speaking to her brother, "even now I cannot." Then, 
 suddenly frowning, and Levin saw that she frowned 
 because she had begun to speak of herself, she 
 changed the subject.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 249 
 
 " I know about you," said she, smiling at Levin; "you 
 have the reputation of being only an indifferent citizen, 
 but I have always defended you as well as I could." 
 
 " How have you defended me ? " 
 
 "That has depended on the attacks. But suppose 
 we have some tea," said she. She rose and took a 
 morocco-bound book which was lying on the table. 
 
 "' Give it to me, Anna Arkady evna," said Vorkuyef, 
 pointing to the book, " it is well worth while." 
 
 " No ; it 's all so unfinished ! " 
 
 " I have told him about it," remarked Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch, indicating Levin. 
 
 " You were wrong. My writings are like those little 
 baskets and carvings made by prisoners, which Liza 
 
 Myertsalova used to sell She managed the prisons 
 
 for our society," said she, turning to Levin. " Those 
 unfortunates used to do perfect miracles of patience." 
 
 Levin was struck by still a new feature in this remark- 
 able, fascinating woman. Besides wit, grace, beauty, 
 she had sincerity. She did not wish to conceal the 
 thorns of her situation. As she said that she sighed, and 
 her face suddenly assumed a stern expression, as if 
 it were changed to stone. With this expression on her 
 face, she was even more beautiful than before. But 
 that expression was new ; it was entirely alien to that 
 which a few moments before had seemed to irradiate 
 happiness, and which the artist had managed to repro- 
 duce in the portrait. Levin looked once more at the 
 portrait and at the original of it, while Anna took her 
 brother's arm, and a feeling of tenderness and pity came 
 over him, surprising even himself. She let the two 
 gentlemen pass into the parlor, and remained behind to 
 speak to Stiva. 
 
 " What is she talking with him about ? the divorce ? 
 Vronsky ? what he was doing at the club ? about me ? " 
 thought Levin ; and he was so stirred that he heard 
 nothing that Vorkuyef was saying to him about the 
 merits of the story for children which Anna Arkadyevna 
 had written. 
 
 During tea, a pleasant conversation full of ideas was
 
 250 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 carried on. There seemed to be no lack of subjects at 
 any moment ; but it was felt that there was time to say 
 all that any one wanted to say, and each was willing to 
 listen when the other talked. And all that was said, not 
 only by Anna herself, but by Vorkuyef and by Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, had a special significance, thanks to her 
 interested attention and her pertinent remarks; so at 
 least it seemed to Levin. 
 
 All the time they were talking Levin studied her, and 
 admired her beauty and the cultivation of her mind, and 
 not less her perfect simplicity and naturalness. He lis- 
 tened and talked, and all the time thought about her and 
 her inner life, and tried to penetrate her feelings ; and 
 he, who had formerly criticized her so severely, now by 
 some strange train of thought justified her and pitied 
 her, and confessed to himself the fear that Vronsky did 
 not wholly understand her. 
 
 It was more than eleven o'clock when Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch rose to go. Vorkuyef had already left some 
 time before. Levin rose, too, but with regret. He felt 
 as if he had only just come. 
 
 " Prashchaite farewell," said Anna to him, holding 
 his hand in hers, and looking into his eyes with a fas- 
 cinating look. " I am glad que la glace est rompue." 
 
 She let go his hand, and her eyes twinkled. 
 
 " Tell your wife that I love her as I have always done ; 
 and, if she cannot forgive me my position, tell her how 
 I hope she may never pardon me ; for to pardon, it is 
 necessary to understand what I have suffered ; and God 
 preserve her from that ! " 
 
 " Yes ! I will surely tell her," answered Levin, and 
 the color came into his face. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 " WHAT a wonderful, lovely, and pitiable woman ! " 
 thought Levin, as he went out with Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 into the cold night air. 
 
 " There ! what did I tell you ? " demanded Oblon-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 251 
 
 sky, as he saw that Levin was perfectly overcome. 
 "Wasn't I right?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Levin, thoughtfully, " an extraordi- 
 nary woman! Not only intellectual, but she has a won- 
 derfully warm heart. What a terrible pity it is about 
 her ! " 
 
 " Now, thank God, all will soon be arranged, I 
 hope. Well, after this, don't form hasty judgments," 
 said Stepan Arkadyevitch, opening his carriage-door. 
 " Proshchai farewell; we go different ways." 
 
 Levin went home, never ceasing to think about Anna, 
 recalling the smallest incidents of the evening, bringing 
 back all the charm of her face, and understanding her 
 situation better and better, and, at the same time, feel- 
 ing the deepest commiseration for her. 
 
 When he reached his house, Kuzma told Levin that 
 Katerina Aleksandrovna was well, and that her sisters 
 had but just left her. He handed him at the same time 
 two letters. Levin, as he stood in the vestibule, ran 
 through them at once so as not to be distracted after- 
 ward. One was from his superintendent, Sokolof. 
 Sokolof wrote that he had not found a purchaser who 
 would give more than five and a half rubles for the 
 wheat, and that he could not raise the money elsewhere. 
 The other letter was from his sister. She reproached 
 him because her affairs were not yet regulated. 
 
 " Well, we '11 sell for five rubles and a half if they 
 won't give more," thought he, settling with extraordinary 
 promptness the first question which had been troubling 
 him. 
 
 " It is wonderful how the time here is occupied," he 
 said to himself, thinking of the second letter. He felt 
 that he was to blame toward his sister, because he had 
 not yet accomplished what she had asked him to do for 
 her. " To-day I did not get to the court either, but I did 
 not have a moment's time." And, making up his mind 
 that he would surely go the next day, he went to his 
 wife's room. On his way, he cast a quick glance back 
 at his day. There had been nothing except conversa-
 
 252 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 tions, conversations in which he had listened, and in 
 which he had taken part. No one of the subjects 
 touched on would have occupied him when in the coun- 
 try, but here they were very interesting. And all the 
 conversations in which he had engaged were good : only 
 in two places they were not absolutely good, one was 
 his remark about the fish at the club, the other was 
 something intangibly wrong in his feeling of tender 
 pity for Anna. 
 
 Levin found his wife sad and absent-minded. The 
 dinner of the three sisters had been merry ; but after- 
 ward they had waited and waited for him, and the 
 evening had seemed long to them ; and now Kitty was 
 alone. 
 
 " Well, what have you been doing ? " she asked him, 
 looking at him, as she did so, with a suspicious light in 
 her eyes ; but she took good care to conceal her inten- 
 tions, so as not to prevent him from telling her the 
 whole story, and with an encouraging smile she listened 
 as he told her how he had spent the evening. 
 
 " Well, I met Vronsky at the club, and I am very glad 
 of it. I felt very much at my ease with him, and enjoyed 
 it. Of course, I shall try to avoid him, but still henceforth 
 I shan't feel that awkwardness in his society." As he 
 said these words, he remembered that in order not to 
 " avoid him," he had immediately gone to Anna's house, 
 and his face grew red. " Here we say the peasantry 
 drink; but I don't know which drink more, the peas- 
 antry, or men in society. The peasantry drink on fes- 
 tival days, but.... " 
 
 Kitty was not interested in the question how much the 
 peasantry drink. She saw her husband's face grow red, 
 and she wanted to know the reason. 
 
 " Well, where else did you go ? " 
 
 " Stiva insisted on my going with him to Anna Arka- 
 dyevna's," answered he, blushing more and more, and his 
 doubts as to the propriety of his visit to Anna were de- 
 cided for him. He now knew that he ought not to have 
 done so. 
 
 Kitty's eyes opened wide and flashed lightning at the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 253 
 
 mention of Anna ; but she restrained herself, and, con- 
 cealing her emotion, she misled him. 
 
 She merely said, "Ah!" 
 
 " You are not going to be vexed because I went ? 
 Stiva begged me to go ; and Dolly wanted me to." 
 
 "Oh, no!" said she; but in her eyes he saw a look 
 which boded little good. 
 
 " She is a very charming woman, who is very much 
 to be pitied, a good woman," continued Levin ; and he 
 described the life which Anna led, and gave her message 
 of remembrance to Kitty. 
 
 "Yes, of course she is to be pitied," said Kitty, when 
 he had finished. " Whom did you get a letter from ? " 
 
 He told her, and, misled by her apparent calmness, 
 went to undress. 
 
 When he came back, he found Kitty in the same arm- 
 chair. When he approached, she looked at him, and 
 burst into tears. 
 
 "What is it? What's the matter?" he asked, with 
 some annoyance ; for he understood the cause of her 
 tears. 
 
 " You are in love with that horrid woman. She has 
 bewitched you. I saw it in your eyes. Yes, yes ! What 
 will be the end of it ? You were at the club ; you drank 
 too much ; you gambled ; and then you went where ! 
 No ! this shall not go on. We must leave. I am going 
 home to-morrow ! " 
 
 It was long before Levin could pacify his wife ; and 
 when at last he succeeded, it was only by acknowledg- 
 ing that his feeling of pity for Anna, together with the 
 wine, had clouded his brain, and that he had fallen 
 under her seductive influence, and by promising that he 
 would avoid her. What he acknowledged with more 
 sincerity was the ill effect produced on him by this idle 
 life in Moscow, passed in eating, drinking, and gossip- 
 ing. They talked till three o'clock in the morning. 
 Only when it was three o'clock were they sufficiently 
 reconciled to go to sleep.
 
 254 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 AFTER having said good-by to her visitors, without 
 sitting down Anna began to walk up and down the full 
 length of her apartments. 
 
 Of late she had got into the habit of unconsciously 
 doing all she could to attract young men to her ; and 
 so this whole evening she had striven to awaken a feel- 
 ing of love in Levin. But though she knew that she 
 had succeeded in doing this as far as it was possible 
 with a chaste married man, and though he pleased her 
 very much, and in spite of the sharply defined dis- 
 similarity between Vronsky and Levin, she as a woman 
 was able to detect the subtile likeness between them 
 which had caused Kitty to be in love with them both, 
 yet as soon as he had left the room she ceased to think 
 about him. 
 
 One thought and one only in various guises followed 
 her: 
 
 " Why, since I have so evidently an attraction for 
 others, for this married man, who is in love with his 
 wife, why is he so cold to me?.... Yet not exactly cold; 
 he loves me, I know ; but lately something new has 
 come between us. Why has he spent the whole eve- 
 ning away? He told Stiva that he could not leave 
 Yashvin, but had to watch him while he played. Is 
 Yashvin a baby ? It must be true ; he never tells lies. 
 But there 's something else back of it. He is glad of 
 the chance to show me that he has other duties. I 
 know this. I don't object to it, but what need has he 
 to assert it so ? He wants to show that his love for me 
 must not interfere with his independence ! But the 
 proof is not necessary. I must have his love. He 
 ought to understand the wretchedness of the life I lead 
 here in Moscow. Why am I living ? I am not living, 
 only dragging out life, in hope of a turn in affairs, 
 which never, never comes. And Stiva says that he 
 can't go to Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. And I can't write 
 again. I cannot do anything, I can't begin anything,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 255 
 
 or make any changes, but only control myself, wait, 
 and invent amusements this English family, my read- 
 ing, my writing ; but it is all only to deceive myself, 
 like this morphine. He ought to be sorry for me," she 
 said, feeling how the tears of pity at her own lot filled 
 her eyes. 
 
 She heard the door-bell Vronsky rang violently ; and 
 instantly she wiped away her tears, not only wiped 
 away the tears, but sat down near the lamp with a book, 
 and pretended to be calm. She felt that she must show 
 her dissatisfaction because he had not returned as he 
 had promised, but not to let her grief be seen. She 
 might pity herself, but Vronsky must not be allowed to 
 pity her. She did not want a contest, she blamed him 
 because he wanted to quarrel, but she herself involun- 
 tarily took the attitude of an opponent. 
 
 "Well! you weren't lonely, were you?" said he, 
 briskly and cheerfully, as he came toward her. " What 
 a terrible passion gambling is." 
 
 " No, I was not lonely. I long ago learned not to 
 be lonely. Stiva and Levin have been here to see me." 
 
 " Yes, I knew that they intended to come. Well, and 
 how do you like Levin ? " he asked, as he sat down near 
 her. 
 
 "Very much. They have only just gone. How 
 about Yashvin ? " 
 
 " He had won seventeen thousand rubles. I got him 
 away, but he escaped from me, and went back again ; 
 and now he 's losing." 
 
 " But why did you abandon him ? " said Anna, sud- 
 denly raising her eyes to his. The expression of her 
 face was cold and unpleasant. " You told Stiva that 
 you were going to stay, to bring him away. Now you 
 abandon him ! " 
 
 " In the first place, I did not send any message to 
 you ; in the second place, I never tell lies ; and chiefly, 
 I wished to stay and I stayed," he answered angrily. 
 "Anna, why, why do you do so?" added he, after a 
 moment's silence, holding out his hand to her, in the 
 hope that she would place hers in it.
 
 256 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 She was glad of this appeal to her love, but some 
 strange spirit of evil prevented her front yielding. 
 
 " Of course you stayed because you wanted to ; you 
 always do as you please. But why tell me so ? What 
 is the good ? " answered she, growing more and more 
 heated. "Who. denies that you tell the truth? You 
 wish to justify yourself, do so then ! " 
 
 Vronsky drew back his hand, and his face became 
 more set than before. 
 
 " For you this is a matter of obstinacy," she cried, 
 looking at him fixedly, and suddenly finding the term by 
 which to call the expression of his face which exasper- 
 ated her "sheer obstinacy. For you the question is 
 to see whether you will win the victory over me. But 
 the question for me .... " and again the sense of her piti- 
 able lot came over her, and she almost sobbed. "If 
 you knew what it meant for me when I feel, as I do 
 now, that you hate me, ....yes, hate me! If you knew 
 what it meant for me ! If you knew how near I am to 
 horrible misfortune at these moments! how I fear.... 
 how I fear for myself," and she turned away to hide 
 her sobs. 
 
 "But what's all this for?" said Vronsky, alarmed at 
 this despair, and leaning toward Anna to take her hand 
 and kiss it. " Do I seek outside diversion ? Don't I 
 avoid the society of women ? " 
 
 " As if that were all ! " said she. 
 
 " Well ! Tell me what I must do to make you con- 
 tent. I am ready to do anything that you may be 
 happy," said he, moved to see her in such despair. 
 " What would I not do to spare you such grief, Anna ! '" 
 he said. 
 
 " It 's nothing, nothing," she replied. " I myself don't 
 
 know. It 's the loneliness : it 's my nerves There, let 's 
 
 not talk about it any more Tell me what happened 
 
 at the races. Why have n't you told me about it ? " she 
 asked, attempting to conceal the pride she felt at her 
 victory, for she knew it rested with her. 
 
 Vronsky asked for some supper, and as he was eat- 
 ing described to her the incidents of the races ; but
 
 ANNA KARENINA 257 
 
 from the sound of his voice, and from his glance, that 
 grew colder and colder, she saw that he would not for- 
 give her for the victory, that the sense of obstinacy 
 which she had struggled to overcome was as firm in 
 him as ever. He was colder toward her than before, 
 as if he regretted having yielded to her. And as she 
 remembered the words that won her the victory, espe- 
 cially the words, " How near I am to horrible misfor- 
 tune, and I fear for myself," she realized that it was a 
 dangerous weapon, and that she must never employ it 
 again. But she felt that along with the love which 
 united them, there stood between them an evil spirit of 
 conflict which she had not the power to drive from his 
 heart, and still less from her own. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THERE are no imaginable conditions to which a man 
 cannot accustom himself, especially if he sees that all 
 those who surround him are living in the same way. 
 
 Three months before Levin would not have believed 
 that he could have slept tranquilly under the conditions 
 in which he found himself at the present time, that 
 living an aimless, unprofitable life, spending more than 
 his income, getting tipsy, for he could not call his 
 experience at the club anything else, his absurd inti- 
 macy with a man with whom his wife had once been 
 in love, and his still more absurd visit to a woman whom 
 it was impossible to regard as respectable, and after the 
 fascination which she had exerted over him and the 
 mortification which he had caused his wife that under 
 all these conditions he could sleep serenely. But under 
 the influence of his weariness, the long hours without 
 a nap, and the wine which he had drunk, he slept soundly 
 and serenely. 
 
 At five o'clock the noise of an opening door wakened 
 him. He sat up and looked around; Kitty was not in 
 bed next him. But behind a screen there was a light 
 moving, and he heard her steps. 
 VOL. in. 17
 
 258 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " What 's the matter ? " he asked, still only half awake. 
 " Kitty, what is it ? " 
 
 " Nothing," answered she, coming from behind the 
 screen with a candle in her hand, and smiling at him 
 with a peculiarly sweet and significant smile ; " I don't 
 feel quite well." 
 
 " What ! Is this the beginning ? Must we send ? " 
 exclaimed he in alarm, and he began to dress as quickly 
 as possible. 
 
 " No, no," said she, smiling, and holding his hand ; 
 " it 's nothing ; I did not feel quite well ; it 's all right 
 now." 
 
 Going back to bed, she put out the light, and lay 
 down again, keeping perfectly still, although her very 
 stillness and the way she, as it were, held her breath, 
 were suspicious, and still more so the expression of pe- 
 culiar tenderness and alertness with which, as she came 
 out from behind the screen, she said to him, "it's noth- 
 ing " ; still, he was so overcome by drowsiness that he 
 immediately went to sleep again. 
 
 It was only afterward that he realized the calmness 
 of her spirit, and appreciated all that was passing in 
 her dear, gentle heart as she lay thus motionless near 
 him, awaiting the most solemn moment of a woman's life. 
 
 About seven o'clock he was awakened by her hand 
 touching his shoulder and her low whisper. She appar- 
 ently hesitated between the fear of waking him and the 
 wish to speak to him. 
 
 " Kostia, don't be afraid, it 's nothing ; but I think .... 
 Lizavyeta Petrovna had better be called." 
 
 The candle was again lighted. She was sitting on 
 the bed, holding the knitting on which she had been at 
 work during the last few days. 
 
 " Please don't be alarmed. I 'm not in the least 
 afraid," said she, seeing her husband's terrified face ; 
 and she pressed his hand to her breast, then to her lips. 
 
 Levin leaped from his bed, and, unconscious of him- 
 self, without taking his eyes off his wife for a moment, 
 hurried on his dressing-gown. It was necessary for 
 him to go, but he could not tear himself away. Dearly
 
 ANNA KARENINA 259 
 
 as he loved her face, well as he knew her expression, 
 her eyes, yet never before had he seen her look as she 
 did then. How ugly and horrible did he now seem as 
 he saw her now, and remembered the mortification which 
 he had caused her the evening before ! Her flushed 
 face, with the clustering soft curls escaping from under 
 her nightcap, was radiant with joy and resolution. 
 
 Natural and simple as Kitty's character in general 
 was, Levin was amazed by what unfolded itself before 
 him now, when suddenly all the curtains were withdrawn, 
 and the very essence of her soul shone in her eyes. 
 And in this simplicity and revelation, she, her very self, 
 whom he loved, was more apparent than ever. She 
 looked at him, and smiled. But suddenly her brows 
 contracted, she lifted her head, and, coming to him, took 
 his hand, and clung to him, sighing painfully. She 
 suffered, and yet she seemed to pity him for her suffer- 
 ings. At first, as he saw this silent suffering, it seemed 
 to him that he was to blame for it. But in her look 
 there was tenderness which told him that she not only 
 did not blame him, but that she loved him all the more 
 for her suffering. 
 
 " If not I, who, then, is to blame for this ? " he asked 
 himself. She suffered, and she seemed to take pride 
 in her pain, and to rejoice in it. He saw that in her 
 soul some beautiful transformation was takhtg place ; 
 but what ? he could not understand. It was above his 
 comprehension. 
 
 " I have sent for mamma. Now go quick, and get 
 Lizavyeta Petrovna.... Kostia .... it 's nothing.... it is all 
 over." 
 
 She went to the other side of the room, and rang the 
 bell. 
 
 " There, now, please go. Pasha is coming ; I want 
 nothing." And Levin, with astonishment, saw her take 
 up her work again. 
 
 As he went out of one door, he heard Pasha, the maid, 
 come in at the other. He paused on the threshold and 
 listened as Kitty gave directions for arranging the room, 
 and as she herself began to move the bed.
 
 260 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 He dressed, and when he had ordered his carriage, 
 since it was too early for izvoshchiks, he flew up to her 
 room again, not on tiptoes, but on wings, as it seemed 
 to him. Two maids were busily engaged in moving 
 something in the room. Kitty was walking up and 
 down, knitting swiftly, slipping the knots, and giving 
 directions. 
 
 " I 'm going for the doctor immediately. Lizavyeta 
 Petrovna has been sent for, but I will call there. There 's 
 nothing more, is there ? Oh, yes, Dolly." 
 
 She looked at him, evidently without hearing what he 
 said. "Yes, yes, go," said she, and motioned to him 
 with her hand. He was just passing through the draw- 
 ing-room, when he heard a groan, pitiful, but instantly 
 suppressed. He stood still, and could not make up his 
 mind. 
 
 " It is she," he said to himself ; and, putting his hands 
 to his head, he rushed out. 
 
 " Lord have mercy on us ! pardon us ! save us ! " he 
 exclaimed ; and these words, which suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly came to his lips, were not spoken merely by 
 his lips, unbeliever though he was. 
 
 Now at this instant, he knew perfectly well that all 
 his doubts and the impossibility which his reason found 
 in belief, had not the slightest influence to prevent him 
 from addressing himself to God. Everything of this 
 sort now vanished like dust from his soul. To whom 
 could he address himself if not to Him in whose hands 
 he felt were held himself, and his soul, and his love ? 
 
 The horse was not yet ready, but, feeling the special 
 strain of physical powers unemployed, and of the work 
 before him calling for his attention, he started on foot 
 so as not to lose a single instant, and ordered Kuzma 
 to follow him. At the corner of the street he met a 
 night izvoshchik hurrying along. In the little sledge 
 sat Lizavyeta Petrovna, in a velvet cloak, with her head 
 wrapped up in a kerchief. " Thank God ! " J he mur- 
 mured, as he saw with joy her pale little face, which had 
 a peculiarly serious, and even stern, expression. Not 
 
 1 Slava Bohu.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 261 
 
 ordering the driver to stop, he ran along with it back to 
 the house. 
 
 " Only two hours ? not more ? " asked Lizavyeta Pe- 
 trovna. " You may speak to Piotr Dmitritch, but don't 
 hurry him. Yes, please get some opium at the apothe- 
 cary's." 
 
 " Do you think all will go on well ? " asked he. " God 
 help us ! " he added, as he saw his horse starting from 
 the door ; he got into the sledge alongside of Kuzma, 
 and ordered him to hurry to the doctor's. 
 
 THE doctor was not yet up ; and a servant, who was 
 busy cleaning the lamps, announced that his master had 
 gone to bed late, and had given orders not to be waked, 
 but would be up before long. 
 
 The lackey was polishing lamp-chimneys and seemed 
 very much absorbed in this occupation. At first this ab- 
 sorption of the lackey in his lamp-chimneys, and his in- 
 difference to what was going on at home, made Levin 
 indignant ; but on reflection he realized that no one knew 
 anything about it or was obliged to share in his feelings, 
 and that consequently it was incumbent on him to be 
 calm, reasonable, and firm, so as to break down that 
 wall of indifference, and attain his end. 
 
 " I must not spoil matters by haste," said Levin to 
 himself, feeling all the time a growing intensity of 
 physical energy and concentration on what was before 
 him. 
 
 Now that he knew that the doctor was not up, and 
 had given orders not to be disturbed, Levin thought 
 over several plans which presented themselves to him, 
 and finally decided on the following : to send Kuzma 
 with a note to another doctor, to go himself to the apothe- 
 cary's for the laudanum, and, if on his return the doctor 
 was not up, then either by bribery or by main force, if 
 the man would not consent, to waken the doctor at any 
 cost.
 
 262 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 At the apothecary's, the lean clerk, with the same in- 
 difference as the lackey cleaning the lamp-chimneys had 
 shown, put a seal on the powders for the waiting coach- 
 man, and refused to deliver the opium. Striving not to 
 get impatient or angry, and mentioning the doctor and 
 midwife by name, and telling what it was needed for, 
 Levin pleaded with him. The clerk asked his employer 
 in German if it should be permitted, and, receiving a 
 favorable reply from behind the screen, he proceeded to 
 get out a bottle and a funnel, and slowly poured the 
 liquid from it into a smaller vial, pasted on a label, 
 sealed it, and in spite of Levin's urgency not to do so, 
 was even going to wrap it up. This Levin could not 
 endure ; he resolutely snatched the vial out of the clerk's 
 hands, and rushed through the great glass doors. 
 
 The doctor was still asleep ; and, this time, the ser- 
 vant was shaking the rugs. 
 
 Levin, leisurely getting from his pocket a ten-ruble 
 note, and dwelling on his words, but not wasting time, 
 gave him the money, and explained that Piotr Dmitri- 
 evitch how great and significant now seemed this 
 hitherto unimportant Piotr Dmitrievitch had prom- 
 ised him to be on hand at any time, so that he would 
 certainly not be angry, and that, therefore, he must 
 instantly awaken him. 
 
 The lackey consented, and went up-stairs and showed 
 Levin into the reception-room. 
 
 Levin could hear in the next room how the doctor 
 coughed, walked about, washed his face and hands, and 
 made some remark. 
 
 Three minutes passed ; it seemed to Levin that it 
 was more than an hour. He could no longer contain 
 himself. 
 
 " Piotr Dmitrievitch ! Piotr Dmitrievitch ! " he cried, 
 through the opened door, in a beseeching voice. " For 
 God's sake, forgive me. Let me come in just as you 
 are. It has been more than two hours now." 
 
 " I '11 be out immediately," replied a voice, and Levin 
 to his surprise knew by the sound of the doctor's voice 
 that he was smiling as he spoke.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 263 
 
 "Just for one little minute." 
 
 " I '11 be out immediately." 
 
 Two minutes more went by, while the doctor was 
 putting on his boots, and another two minutes while he 
 was brushing his hair and putting on his coat. 
 
 "Piotr Dmitrievitch," Levin was just saying once 
 more ; but at that instant the doctor came in, all ready 
 dressed and with his hair brushed. 
 
 " These people have no hearts," thought Levin. " He 
 can brush his hair, while we are dying." 
 
 " Good morning! " said the doctor, entering the recep- 
 tion-room serenely, and offering to shake hands. "Don't 
 feel anxious. Well, how is it ? " 
 
 Levin began at once a long and circumstantial ac- 
 count, filled with a crowd of useless details, and inter- 
 rupted himself at every moment to urge the doctor to 
 set out. 
 
 "Yes, but you must not be anxious. You see you 
 don't know. I really am not needed yet ; still I have 
 promised, and I assure you I '11 go. But there 's no 
 hurry. Please sit down ; won't you have some coffee?" 
 
 Levin looked at him, with a questioning look, asking 
 with his eyes if he were not laughing at him ; but the 
 doctor was in serious earnest. 
 
 "I know, I know," added the physician, smiling; "I 
 myself am a family man, and we husbands cut a sorry 
 figure in such cases. The husband of one of my pa- 
 tients always, on such occasions, goes off to the stable." 
 
 " But do you think, Piotr Dmitrievitch, do you 
 think she '11 get on well ? " 
 
 " All the indications point to a fortunate issue." 
 
 "Won't you come at once?" said Levin, looking 
 with angry eyes at the servant who was bringing the 
 coffee. 
 
 " Within an hour." 
 
 " For God's sake ! " 
 
 "Well, let me take my coffee." 
 
 The doctor proceeded to take his breakfast. Both 
 were silent. 
 
 " It seems the Turks are beating. Did you read the
 
 264 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 telegram last evening ? " asked the doctor, biting into 
 a roll. 
 
 " No ; but I 'm going," said Levin. " Will you come 
 in a quarter of an hour ? " 
 
 " Make it a half." 
 
 " On your honor ? " 
 
 When Levin got home, he found the princess at the 
 door, and they went to Kitty's room together. The 
 princess had tears in her eyes, and her hands trembled. 
 When she saw Levin, she threw her arms round him, 
 and kissed him. 
 
 " How is it, Lizavyeta Petrovna, dearie," * said she, 
 seizing the midwife's hand as she came to meet them 
 with a radiant but solicitous face. 
 
 " It is going well," said she. " It would be well for 
 her to lie down. Try to persuade her. She would find 
 it easier." 
 
 Ever since Levin, on waking, had understood the 
 situation, he had made up his mind, without indulging 
 in anxious thought, or forebodings, crushing down all 
 his anxieties and feelings, firmly, without worrying his 
 wife, but, on the contrary, calming her and sustaining 
 her courage, that he would endure what was before 
 him. Not allowing himself even to think of what was 
 coming or how it might end, judging by answers to 
 his questions, how long it generally lasted, Levin in his 
 imagination prepared to have patience and hold his 
 heart in his hands for five hours, and this seemed to 
 him within the limit of possibility. But when he re- 
 turned after his visit to the doctor's, and found Kitty 
 still suffering, again he cried more and more frequently, 
 " Lord, forgive us, and be merciful! " and he was afraid 
 that he could not endure it, so terrible was it to him ; 
 thus an hour went by. 
 
 And after this another hour passed, and a second, and 
 a third, and the five which he had set as the very ulti- 
 mate limit of his endurance ; and the situation was still 
 the same, and still he was enduring the suspense, because 
 there was nothing else to do except endure, thinking 
 
 1 Dushenka, little soul.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 265 
 
 every moment that he had reached the last limit, and 
 that his heart would burst with his agony. But the 
 minutes still went by, hours and hours, and his feelings 
 of agony and horror kept growing worse and more un- 
 endurable. All the ordinary conditions of life, without 
 which it is impossible to take cognizance of anything, 
 ceased to exist for Levin. He lost all consciousness of 
 time. Now the minutes when she called him to her and 
 he held her moist hand, which at one time would press 
 his with extraordinary force, and again push him away, 
 seemed hours ; then again the hours would seem to him 
 minutes. 
 
 He was surprised when Lizavyeta Petrovna asked 
 for a light, and he learned that it was five o'clock 
 in the evening. If they had told him that it was only 
 ten o'clock in the morning, he would have been just as 
 much surprised. Where the time had gone, what he 
 had done, where he had been, he could not have told. 
 Sometimes he saw Kitty's flushed face, now troubled 
 and piteous, then calm and almost smiling, as she tried 
 to reassure him. Then he saw the princess, flushed with 
 anxiety, her gray curls in disorder, swallowing down her 
 tears and biting her lips to keep from crying. He had 
 also seen Dolly, and the doctor smoking great cigar- 
 ettes, and Lizavyeta Petrovna, with a calm, serious, but 
 reassuring look, and the old prince, pacing the dining- 
 room with a frowning face. But how they came and 
 went, and where they had been, he could not tell. 
 
 The princess had been with the doctor in Kitty's room, 
 then in the library, where a well-set table had appeared ; 
 then she disappeared, and Dolly was in her place. 
 
 Then Levin remembered that they sent him somewhere ; 
 he moved a divan and a table zealously, thinking it was 
 for her sake ; and only when it was done did he learn 
 that they were preparing his own bed for the night. 
 
 He was sent to the library to ask the doctor some- 
 thing ; the doctor replied, and then began to speak of 
 the disorders of the dnma, or town-council. Then they 
 sent him to the princess's bedchamber to get a holy 
 image made of silver, with a golden trimming, from
 
 266 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 there ; and, with the aid of an old chambermaid of the 
 princess's, he climbed up to get it from the cabinet ; 
 and, in doing so, broke a little lamp, and the old woman 
 consoled him for this accident, and encouraged him about 
 his wife. And he had carried the image to Kitty, and 
 placed it at. her head, carefully arranging it behind her 
 pillow. But where, when, and why all this was done 
 was more than he could tell. 
 
 Neither did he comprehend why the old princess took 
 him by the hand, and, looking at him compassionately, 
 begged him to calm himself; or why Dolly tried to per- 
 suade him to eat something, and led him from the room ; 
 or why even the doctor looked at him gravely and sym- 
 pathetically, and offered him a pill. 
 
 He knew and felt conscious only that what was occur- 
 ring was like that which had occurred the year before at 
 the hotel of the government city, by the death-bed of 
 his brother Nikolai'. That was grief, this was happiness. 
 But that grief and this happiness were in the same way 
 outside of the ordinary conditions of life ; were in this 
 peculiar life, as it were, the loopholes through which 
 appeared something higher. And in exactly the same 
 way, while the hard, painful event was accomplishing 
 before him, in exactly the same way incomprehensible, 
 his soul, at the contemplation of this loftiness, raised 
 itself to a height which he had never before dreamed 
 possible, and whither his reason could not follow. 
 
 " Lord, have mercy and aid us," he kept repeating, in 
 spite of his long lack of practice, and yet feeling that he 
 was addressing God with the same simplicity, the same 
 confidence, as in his childhood and early youth. All 
 this time he seemed to be leading two separate exis- 
 tences ; one was away from Kitty, with the doctor smok- 
 ing one fat cigarette after another, and knocking the 
 ashes off against the rim of the unemptied ash-tray ; or 
 with Dolly and the old princess, who insisted on talking 
 about dinner, politics, or the illness of Marya Petrovna, 
 and with whom Levin suddenly, for an instant, would 
 forget entirely what was taking place, and feel wide 
 awake ; and the other was in her presence, by her bed-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 267 
 
 side, where his heart felt as if it would burst, and it 
 almost did break with compassion, and where he did not 
 cease to pray to God. 
 
 And every time when he would be aroused from 
 momentary oblivion by a cry coming from her chamber, 
 he would fall under the same strange delusion as had at 
 the first moment taken possession of him ; every time he 
 heard the cry he would spring to his feet, hasten to 
 her room, and on the way remember that he was not to 
 blame, and would long to protect and help. And as he 
 looked on her, he would see that there was no help to 
 be given her ; and again the pity would seize him, and 
 he would pray, " Lord, forgive and help us ! " 
 
 And in proportion as the time passed by, the stronger 
 became the two conditions of mind, he would be 
 calmer at one moment, perfectly oblivious of her, while 
 remaining out of her presence, and then again the more 
 painful would become his sympathetic torments and the 
 feeling of helplessness before them. He would spring 
 to his feet, feel the impulse to escape somewhere, and 
 hasten to her. 
 
 Sometimes when she would keep calling for him he 
 would reproach her ; but, seeing her submissive, smiling 
 face, and hearing her words, " I have tired you out," he 
 would reproach God ; but, remembering what God was, 
 he would beg for pardon and aid. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 HE did not know whether it was late or early. The 
 candles had already burned down. Dolly had just come 
 into the library, and was proposing to the doctor to lie 
 down. Levin had been sitting there listening to the doc- 
 tor's story of the charlatanry of magnetizers, and look- 
 ing at the ash at the end of his cigarette. It was one of 
 the moments of rest, and he was oblivious. He had en- 
 tirely forgotten what was taking place. He listened to 
 the doctor, and followed him understandingly. 
 
 Suddenly was heard a cry unlike anything he had
 
 268 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ever heard. This cry was so terrible that Levin did 
 not even stir, but, holding his breath, he looked at the 
 doctor with eyes full of questioning terror. 
 
 The doctor bent his head, as if to hear better, and 
 smiled with an air of approbation. Levin had reached 
 the point where nothing could surprise him ; and he 
 said inwardly, " Evidently that must be so ; but why 
 that cry ? " He went back to the sick-room on tiptoe, 
 passed round by Lizavyeta Petrovna and the princess, 
 and stood in his place by the bedside. The cry had 
 ceased, but evidently there was some change. What, 
 he did not know, and did not care to know. But he 
 saw it by the grave expression of Lizavyeta Petrovna's 
 pale face. Her face was stern and pale, and just as 
 resolute as ever, although her lower jaw trembled a 
 little. Her eyes were kept steadily fixed on Kitty. 
 Her flushed, tortured face, with the little tufts of hair 
 clinging to it, was turned toward him, and her eyes 
 sought his. She raised her hand and tried to take his. 
 When once she had got hold of it, she tried with her 
 moist hand to press it to her forehead. 
 
 " Don't go, don't go ! I am not afraid," said she, 
 quickly. " Mamma, take away my ear-rings ; they 
 
 annoy me You are n't afraid ? .... Lizavyeta Petrovna, 
 
 quick, quick ! " She spoke rapidly, and tried to smile ; 
 but suddenly her face grew convulsed, and she pushed 
 him away. " This is terrible ! I shall die, I shall die ! 
 go ! go ! " Then came the same unearthly cry. 
 
 Levin seized his head in his hands, and rushed from 
 the room. 
 
 " That is nothing ; all is going well," said Dolly, fol- 
 lowing after him'. 
 
 But, whatever they might say, he knew that now all 
 was lost ! Leaning his head against the lintel, he stood 
 in the adjoining room and listened to screams and 
 moaning such sounds as he had never heard before, 
 and he knew that what was making such animal : like 
 noise was she who had once been Kitty. He had long 
 ceased to care about the child. He now hated that 
 child. He even went so far as not to wish for Kitty
 
 ANNA KARENINA 269 
 
 to live, provided only her horrible agonies might be 
 ended. 
 
 " Doctor, what does that mean ? My God ! " he said, 
 seizing the doctor's arm as he went in. 
 
 "It is the end," replied the doctor; and his face was 
 so serious, as he said this, that Levin thought he meant 
 that Kitty was dead. 
 
 Not knowing what would become of him, he went 
 back to the bedroom. 
 
 What he first saw was Lizavyeta Petrovna's face ; it 
 was even more than before portentous and stern. It 
 was no longer Kitty's face that was there ; in the place 
 where it had been before, there was something terrible 
 both by reason of the agony which contracted it, and by 
 reason of the sound that came from it. He bowed his 
 head against the wooden frame of the bed, feeling that 
 his heart would burst. The awful shriek still continued, 
 it grew more piercing than ever, as if the last limit of 
 horror had been reached. Then suddenly the shriek 
 ceased. He could not believe it, but he could not 
 doubt; and he heard a gentle rustling and a quick 
 breathing, and his wife's living, loving, happy voice 
 whispered, " KanetcJina It is over ! " 
 
 He raised his head. As she lay there, beautiful with 
 a supernatural beauty, with her arms nervelessly resting 
 on the counterpane, she looked at him, and tried to 
 smile at him, but could not. 
 
 Coming suddenly out of that mysterious and terrible 
 world where he had been living for twenty-two hours, 
 Levin felt himself transported back into his ordinary 
 every-day world of luminous happiness, and he could 
 not bear it. The cords long tense snapped. He burst 
 into tears ; and the sobs of joy which he could not fore- 
 see shook his whole body so violently that he could not 
 speak. 
 
 He knelt beside Kitty, and pressed his lips on her 
 hand, and her gentle fingers answered his caress. And 
 meantime, at the foot of the bed, in the skilful hands of 
 Lizavyeta Petrovna, like the small, uncertain flame of a 
 lamp, flickered the life of a human being, which just
 
 270 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 before had not been, and" which with every right and 
 every responsibility would live, and propagate its kind. 
 
 " He lives, he lives ! Yes, it is a boy ! Don't be 
 worried," Levin heard Lizavy eta's voice saying, while 
 with a trembling hand she slapped the little one's back. 
 
 " Mamma, is it true ? " asked Kitty. 
 
 And the princess's sobs answered her. 
 
 And amid the silence, like an indubitable answer to 
 the young mother's questions, was heard a voice, abso- 
 lutely different from the subdued voices speaking in the 
 room. It was the bold, decided, imperious, almost im- 
 pertinent cry of the new human being, which had come 
 whence no one knew. 
 
 Just before, if Levin had been told that Kitty was 
 dead, that he himself had died with her, and that their 
 children were angels, and that they were all in the pres- 
 ence of God, he would not have been surprised. And 
 now that he had come back to reality, it took a prodig- 
 ious effort of thought to comprehend that his wife was 
 alive, that she was doing well, and that this desperately 
 screeching creature was his son. Kitty was saved, her 
 suffering was passed, and he was inexpressibly happy. 
 That he could understand, and it made him happy ; but 
 the child ! Whence? Why? What was it ?.... He could 
 not wont himself to the thought of it. It seemed to him 
 somehow too much, too overwhelming ; and it was long 
 before he became accustomed to it. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE old Prince Sergye'f Ivanovitch and Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch met at Levin's the next morning, about ten 
 o'clock, and after they talked about the little mother, 
 they began to converse about irrelevant topics. Levin 
 listened to them, and involuntarily remembering what 
 had taken place, what had been going on that morning, 
 he also remembered what he himself had been but a 
 few hours before. 
 
 It was as if a hundred years had passed since then.
 
 ANNA KAREN1NA 271 
 
 He felt that he was on some unattainable height from 
 which he endeavored to descend to their level, that he 
 might not offend those with whom he was talking. While 
 talking about indifferent things, he was thinking of his 
 wife, of the state of her health, and of his son, to the 
 idea of whose existence he was trying to accustom him- 
 self. The whole world of womanhood, which had taken 
 on a new and incomprehensible significance to him, even 
 after his marriage, occupied such a lofty place, that he 
 could not begin to realize it. He heard the men talking 
 about their dinner at the club ; but he was thinking, 
 " What is she doing now ? Is she asleep ? How is 
 she ? What is in her mind ? Is the son Dmitri cry- 
 ing ? " And, in the midst of the conversation, in the 
 midst of a sentence, he sprang up, and left the room. 
 
 " Send word down if I may see her," said the old prince. 
 
 "Very good .... I will at once," replied Levin, and 
 without pausing he went to her room. 
 
 She was not asleep, but was softly talking with her 
 mother, making plans about the christening. 
 
 With clean clothes and with her hair brushed, she 
 lay comfortably arranged in bed, with her hands rest- 
 ing on the counterpane, and a mob-cap with blue rib- 
 bons on her head, and as her eyes met his she drew 
 him to her by their look. Her face lighted up more and 
 more brightly as he approached her. There was in it 
 that change from the earthly to the superhuman calm 
 which one sees in death, but, instead of a farewell, she 
 welcomed him to a new life. Again an emotion, like 
 that which he had felt during her agony, seized his 
 heart. She took his hand, and asked him if he had 
 slept. 
 
 He could not answer, but turned his head away, yield- 
 ing to his weakness. 
 
 " I have had a nap, Kostia," she said; " and I feel so 
 well now." 
 
 She looked at him, and suddenly the expression of 
 her face changed. She heard her baby cry. 
 
 " Give him to me, Lizavyeta Petrovna, and let me 
 show him to his father," she said.
 
 272 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "There, now, let papa look," said Lizavyeta Petrovna, 
 taking up and exhibiting something red, strange, and 
 wobbling. "Wait, we must change it first," and Liza- 
 vyeta Petrovna deposited this red and wobbling some- 
 thing on the bed, and proceeded to unswathe it and 
 then swathe it again, lifting and turning it over with one 
 finger, and shaking some kind of powder over it. 
 
 Levin, as he looked at the poor little bit of humanity, 
 tried in vain to discover within his soul some paternal senti- 
 ments toward it. His only feeling was one of repulsion ; 
 but when they took off its things, and he saw its little tiny 
 delicate arms and legs, still saffron-colored, and its still 
 tinier fingers, and even a thumb differentiated from the 
 others, and when he saw Lizavyeta Petrovna handling 
 its little, waving arms, just as if they were delicate 
 springs, and putting them into linen garments, such pity 
 seized him, and such terror lest she should hurt it, that 
 he made a gesture to stop her. 
 
 Lizavyeta Petrovna laughed. 
 
 " Never fear, never fear," she said. 
 
 When the child was dressed, and metamorphosed into 
 a regular doll, Lizavyeta Petrovna tossed him up and 
 down, as if proud of her work, and held him off so that 
 Levin might see his son in all his beauty. 
 
 Kitty, not taking her eyes from him, was alarmed. 
 
 " Give him to me, give him to me," she cried ; and 
 she even lifted herself up. 
 
 " But, Katerina Aleksandrovna, you must know that 
 any such motions are forbidden. Be patient ; I will 
 give him to you. But we must let papasha see what a 
 fine young man we are." 
 
 And Lizavyeta Petrovna handed to Levin with one 
 hand the other supported the limp occiput this 
 strange, weak, red creature, whose head fell limply on 
 its swaddling-clothes. All that was to be seen of it was a 
 nose, a pair of eyes that looked in two directions, and 
 smacking lips. 
 
 " Prekrasnui rebyonok a splendid baby," said Liza- 
 vyeta Petrovna. 
 
 Levin drew a deep breath of mortification. This
 
 ANNA KARENINA 273 
 
 splendid baby inspired him only with a feeling of pity 
 and disgust. It was not at all the feeling that he 
 expected. 
 
 He turned away while the nurse placed it in Kitty's 
 arms. Suddenly a laugh caused him to raise his head. 
 It was Kitty who laughed ; the baby had taken the 
 breast. 
 
 "There! that's enough, that's enough," said Liza- 
 vyeta Petrovna ; but Kitty would not let go of her son, 
 who had gone to sleep on her arm. 
 
 " Look at him now," said she, turning the child so 
 that his father might see him. The little old face sud- 
 denly grew still more wrinkled, and the child sneezed. 
 
 Levin, smiling and hardly able to restrain his tears 
 of tenderness, kissed his wife, and left the room. 
 
 The feelings which this little being awakened in him 
 were entirely different from what he had expected ! 
 There was neither pride nor joy in the feeling, but 
 rather a new and painful fear. It was the consciousness 
 that he had become vulnerable in a new way. And this 
 consciousness at first was so acute, his fear lest this poor, 
 defenseless creature might suffer was so poignant, that 
 it drowned the strange feeling of thoughtless joy, and 
 even pride, that rose in his heart when the infant 
 sneezed. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE affairs of Stepan Arkadyevitch had reached a 
 critical stage. 
 
 The money brought by the sale of two-thirds of the 
 timber had long ago been spent, and he had obtained 
 from the merchant at a discount of ten per cent a large 
 part of the remaining third in advance. Now the mer- 
 chant would not advance anything more ; as Dolly, for 
 the first time in her life asserting her rights to her per- 
 sonal property, had refused her signature to the contract 
 when it was proposed to give a receipt for the sale of 
 the last third of the wood. All the salary was used up 
 
 VOL. III. 1 8
 
 274 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 for household expenses, arrd for the payment of unavoid- 
 able debts. There was absolutely no money to be had. 
 
 It was disagreeable and awkward, and Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch felt that it ought not to be continued. The reason of 
 it, in his opinion, lay in the fact that he got too small a 
 salary. The place which he held had been very good 
 five years before, but it was so no longer. Petrof, the 
 director of a bank, got twelve thousand ; Sventitsky, a 
 member of the Council, got seventeen thousand ; Mitin, 
 the head of a bank, got fifty thousand. 
 
 "Apparently I have been asleep, and they have for- 
 gotten me," said Stepan Arkadyevitch to himself; and 
 he began to keep his eyes and ears open ; and at the 
 end of the winter he discovered a very good place, and 
 matured his attack upon it, beginning at Moscow through 
 his uncles, his aunts, and his friends, and then, when 
 the time seemed ripe in the spring, he himself went 
 down to Petersburg. 
 
 It was one of those lucrative sinecure places which 
 nowadays are found, varying in importance, worth any- 
 where from 1000 to 50,000 rubles a year. This place 
 was in the Commission of the Consolidated Agency for 
 the Mutual Credit-Balance of the Southern Railway 
 and Banking Establishments. This place, like all such 
 places, required at once such varied talents and such 
 extraordinary activity, that it was hard to find them united 
 in one person ; but since it was hopeless to find any one 
 with all these qualities, it was certainly better that the man 
 put in should be an honest rather than a dishonest man. 
 
 Now Stepan Arkadyevitch was an honest man in 
 every sense of the term ; for in Moscow the word chest- 
 nut, meaning honest, has two significations, depending 
 on its accent. They speak of an honest agent, an honest 
 writer, an honest journal, an honest institution ; and it 
 means not only that men or institutions are not dishonest, 
 but that they know how to adapt themselves to circum- 
 stances. Stepan Arkadyevitch belonged in Moscow to 
 that class of people who used that convenient word ; 
 and, as he passed for honest, he therefore felt that he 
 had a better right than any one else to that place.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 275 
 
 This place was worth from 7000 to 10,000 rubles a 
 year ; and Oblonsky could accept this position, and not 
 resign his present duties. Everything depended on two 
 ministers, a lady, and two Jews ; and, although they 
 were ready to grant what he wished, he had to go to 
 Petersburg to solicit their aid. Moreover, he faithfully 
 promised Anna that he would obtain from Karenin a 
 decisive answer about the divorce, and, having extorted 
 fifty rubles from Dolly, he set'out for Petersburg. 
 
 Sitting in Karenin's library and listening to his ex- 
 position of a project for reforming the status of Russian 
 finance, Stepan Arkadyevitch waited as patiently as he 
 could till he might put in a word about his personal 
 affairs and about Anna. 
 
 "Yes! That is very true," said he, when Aleksei 
 Aleksandrovitch took off the pince-nez without which 
 he could not read now, and looked inquiringly at his 
 brother-in-law ; " that is very true in detail ; but never- 
 theless, the leading principle of our age is liberty." 
 
 "Yes, but I advocate another principle which embraces 
 freedom," replied Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, accenting 
 the word " embraces," and putting on his pince-nez to 
 read over the passage where he had said that very 
 thing. 
 
 And, turning over the pages of his elegantly written 
 manuscript, with its wide margins, he again read the 
 concluding paragraph : 
 
 " ' For if I sustain the protectionist system, it is not 
 for the advantage of private individuals, but for the 
 general good, for all classes alike, both low and high ; ' 
 and it is that which they will not understand," added 
 he, looking over his pince-nez at Oblonsky, " absorbed as 
 they are in their personal interests, and so easily satisfied 
 with phrases." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch knew that when Karenin began 
 to speak of what was said and done by those who were 
 opposed to his views, and who were the source of all 
 evil in Russia, he was nearing the end ; and so he will- 
 ingly renounced his "principle of liberty," and agreed 
 with him. Aleksei Aleksandrovitch came to a pause,
 
 276 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 and turned over the leaves of his manuscript with a 
 thoughtful air. 
 
 " Oh, by the way," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, " I wanted 
 to ask you, in case you should meet Pomorsky, to say a 
 little word to him for me ; that I should very much like 
 to be appointed a member of the Commission of the 
 Combined Agencies of the Mutual Credit-Balance of 
 the Railways of the South." To Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 the name l of this positibn which was so dear to his 
 heart was already very familiar, and he could rattle it 
 off with great rapidity and without making a mistake. 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch asked what the functions of 
 this new commission were to be, and then he reflected. 
 It seemed to him that the existence of this commission 
 was directly opposed to his projects of reform. But as 
 the operations of this commission were very complicated, 
 and his own projects of reform occupied a very vast 
 field, he felt that he could not settle this question at a 
 glance, and, taking off his pince-nez, he said : 
 
 " Without doubt I could speak to him ; but why are 
 you especially desirous to have this place ? " 
 
 " The salary is good, nine thousand rubles, and 
 my means.... " 
 
 " Nine thousand rubles ! " repeated AlekseY Aleksan- 
 drovitch, and he frowned. The high emolument of this 
 position reminded him that Stepan Arkadyevitch's sup- 
 posititious function was directly opposed to the principal 
 feature of his projects, which always inclined to economy. 
 
 " I believe, and I show in my pamphlet, that in our 
 day these enormous salaries are signs of the defective- 
 ness of the economic assiette of our administration." 
 
 " Yes ; but what would you have ? " said Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch. " Now let us see ! A bank director gets 
 ten thousand, he is worth it ; or an engineer gets twenty 
 thousand. These are not sinecures." 
 
 " I opine that salaries are payments for merchandise, 
 and ought to be subject to the law of supply and demand. 
 If salaries are not subject to this law, if, for example, 
 
 1 Chlen komissii ot soyedinennava agenstva kreditno-vzaimnava balansa 
 yuzhno-zheleznuikh dorog.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 277 
 
 I see two engineers of equal capacity, having pursued 
 the same studies at the institute, one receiving forty 
 thousand rubles, while the other contents himself with 
 two thousand ; or if I see a hussar, who has no special 
 knowledge, become director of a bank with a phenomenal 
 salary, I conclude that these salaries are fixed, not in 
 accordance with the law of supply and demand, but by 
 sheer partiality. And so, here is an abuse, great in itself 
 and disastrous in its influence on the imperial service. I 
 opine.... " 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch made haste to interrupt his 
 brother-in-law : 
 
 " Yes, but you agree that a new and undoubtedly 
 useful institution has been opened. It 's a live thing, 
 and it is certainly worth while to have it conducted 
 honestly," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, emphasizing the 
 adjective. 
 
 But the Muscovite signification of the adjective had 
 no force for Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 " Honesty is only negative merit," he replied. 
 
 " But you will do me a great favor, nevertheless," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, " if you will speak a little word 
 
 to Pomorsky When you happen to meet him, you 
 
 know." 
 
 " Yes, certainly ; but it seems to me that this depends 
 more on Bolgarinof," said AlekseT Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 "Bolgarinof on his part is well disposed," said Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, reddening. Stepan Arkadyevitch red- 
 dened at the remembrance of Bolgarinof, because that 
 very morning he had been at the Jew's house, and this 
 visit had remained as an unpleasant recollection. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch knew perfectly well that the 
 commission of which he wished to become a member 
 was a new, important, and honorable enterprise ; but 
 that morning, when Bolgarinof, evidently with malice 
 prepense, kept him with other petitioners waiting in his 
 reception-room for two hours, the whole affair became 
 awkward to him. 
 
 Whether it was awkward to him that he, a descendant 
 of Rurik, a Prince Oblonsky, had to wait two hours in
 
 278 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the Jew's reception-room, or because he, for the first 
 time in his life, was not following the example of his 
 ancestors in serving the government, but had got into a 
 new field, at all events it was awkward. 
 
 During these two hours of waiting at Bolgarinof's, 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, briskly walking up and down 
 through the reception-room, smoothing his side whiskers, 
 occasionally entering into conversation with the other 
 petitioners, and trying to work out a pun on his long 
 waiting at the Jew's, diligently concealed from the 
 others, and also from himself, the trying feeling. But 
 all that time he felt awkward and annoyed, he did not 
 know why ; it was either because he had not succeeded 
 very well with his pun on the word Jew how he had 
 to cheiv J on the cud of expectation or for some other 
 reason. 
 
 When at last Bolgarinof, with excessive humility, re- 
 ceived him, evidently triumphing in his humiliation, and 
 almost refused his request, Stepan Arkadyevitch made 
 haste to forget it all. But now, remembering it again, 
 he reddened with shame. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 " Now, I have yet one more thing to talk over with 
 you ; and you know what it is about, Anna," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, after a moment's silence, and 
 shaking off these disagreeable memories. 
 
 When Oblonsky spoke Anna's name, Karenin's face 
 entirely changed ; in place of its former vivacity it tock 
 on an expression of corpse-like rigidity and weariness. 
 
 "What more do you want of me?" said he, turning 
 about on his arm-chair, and shutting his pince-nez. 
 
 " A decision .... some sort of a decision, Aleksei' Alek- 
 sandrovitch. I address you, not as.... " he was going to 
 say " a deceived husband," but fearing it might hurt his 
 cause he stopped, and substituted with little appropriate- 
 ness, "not as a statesman, but simply as a man, and a good 
 man and a Christian. You ought to have pity on her." 
 
 1 "Builo dyelo do-Zhida \ ya dozhida-]s&."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 279 
 
 "In what way could I, properly?" asked Karenin, 
 quietly. 
 
 " Yes, have pity upon her. If you saw her as I do, 
 I have seen her all winter, you would pity her. Her 
 position is cruel." 
 
 " I thought," said Karenin, suddenly, in a piercing, 
 almost whining voice, " that Anna Arkadyevna had 
 obtained all that she wished." 
 
 "Oh! Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch, for God's sake, let us 
 not make recriminations. What is past is past ; and 
 you know what she is now waiting for and hoping for is 
 .... the divorce." 
 
 " But I understood, that in case I kept my son, Anna 
 Arkadyevna refused the divorce ; and so my silence was 
 equivalent to a reply, and I thought the question settled. 
 I consider it settled," said he, with more and more 
 warmth. 
 
 " For God's sake don't get angry," said Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, touching his brother-in-law's knee. " This 
 question is not settled. If you will allow me to recapit- 
 ulate, the affair stands thus : When you separated, you 
 were as great, as magnanimous, as was possible to be. 
 You granted her everything .... her freedom, even a 
 divorce if she wanted one. She appreciated it. No, 
 you don't think so ; but she appreciated it absolutely, 
 to such a degree that, at first, feeling her guilt toward 
 you, she* did not, she could not, reason about it at all. 
 She refused everything. But the reality and time have 
 shown her that her position is painful and intoler- 
 able." 
 
 " Anna Arkadyevna's Me cannot interest me," said 
 Karenin, raising his eyebrows. 
 
 " Permit me to disbelieve that," replied Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, gently. " Her position is painful to her, and 
 without any escape whatever. She deserves it, you say. 
 She acknowledges that, and does not complain. She 
 says up and down that she should never dare to ask 
 anything of you. But I, and all of her relatives, all who 
 love her, beg and implore you to have pity on her. 
 Why should she suffer? Whose advantage is it?"
 
 280 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Excuse me ; you seem to accuse me of being to 
 blame." .... 
 
 " Oh ! not at all, not at all, understand me," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, touching Karenin's arm, as if he 
 believed that personal contact would have a mollifying 
 effect on his brother-in-law. " I merely say this. Her 
 position is painful ; and you can relieve it, and it will 
 not cost you anything. I will so arrange the matter 
 that you shall have no trouble about it. Besides, you 
 have promised." 
 
 " My consent has been already given ; and I had 
 supposed that the question of our son had decided the 
 matter. Besides, I hoped that Anna Arkadyevna would 
 in her turn have the generosity to understand ...." his 
 trembling lips could hardly utter the words, and he 
 turned pale. 
 
 " She leaves all to your magnanimity. She asks, she 
 implores, for only one thing to be relieved from this 
 unendurable position in which she finds herself. She 
 asks for her son. Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, you are a 
 good man. Just enter for a moment into her feelings. 
 The question of the divorce is for her a matter of life or 
 death. If you had not given your promise, she would 
 have been resigned to her situation, and lived in the 
 country. But you did give your promise ; and she 
 wrote you, and came to Moscow. And there in Mos- 
 cow, where every familiar face was a knife in her heart, 
 she has been living for six months, every day expect- 
 ing an answer. Her situation is that of a condemned 
 criminal, who for months has had the rope around his 
 neck, and does not know whether he is to expect par- 
 don or execution. Pity her ; and, besides, I will take 
 care to arrange all.... vos scrupules" .... 
 
 " I am not speaking of that, not of that .... " said 
 Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, with some disgust ; " but per- 
 haps I promised more than I had the right to promise." 
 
 " Then, you refuse to do what you have promised ? " .... 
 
 " I never refused to do all that I could ; but I must 
 have time to consider how far what I promised is per- 
 missible."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 281 
 
 " No, Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch," said Oblonsky, leap- 
 ing to his feet, " I do not wish to believe this. She is 
 as unhappy as it is possible for a woman to be ; and 
 you cannot refuse such...." 
 
 " How far what I promised is permissible ? Vous 
 professes d'etre un fibre penseur; but I, as a believer, 
 cannot defy the law of Christianity in a matter so 
 important." 
 
 " But in Christian communities, and here in Russia, 
 divorce is permitted," said Stepan Arkadyevitch. " Di- 
 vorce is permitted by our Church, and we see ...." 
 
 " Permitted, but not in this sense." 
 
 "Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, I don't know you," said 
 Oblonsky, after a moment's silence. " You are not the 
 same man you were. Did you not forgive all ?.... and did 
 we not appreciate your magnanimity ? .... were you not 
 moved by genuine Christian feeling? Weren't you 
 ready to sacrifice everything ? You yourself said, ' If 
 any man will take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak 
 also.' And now...." 
 
 " I beg of you," said Karenin, rising suddenly, and 
 turning pale, and with a trembling jaw, " I beg of you," 
 he said, in a high-pitched voice, "to cut short, to cut 
 short this conversation ! " 
 
 " Oh, well, pardon me, pardon me, if I have offended 
 you ! " said Stepan Arkadyevitch, in confusion, holding 
 out his hand ; " but I had to fulfil the mission I was 
 charged with." 
 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch gave him his hand, and said, 
 after a moment's reflection : 
 
 " I must have time to think about it, and seek for 
 light. You shall have my final answer day after to- 
 morrow." 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 STEPAN ARKADYEVITCH was going out, when Korne'f 
 came in, and announced, " Sergye'i Alekseyevitch." 
 
 "Who is Sergyei Alekseyevitch?" Oblonsky began 
 to ask, but in an instant he remembered.
 
 282 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Oh, Serozha ! " he exclaimed ; " and here was I, 
 thinking it was some direktor of a department," he said 
 to himself. " Anna begged me to see him." 
 
 And he recalled the sad, timid expression with which, 
 as he left her, Anna had said to him, " You will see 
 him, and can find out what he is doing, and where he is, 
 and who is taking care of him. And, Stiva .... if possi- 
 ble ! Would it be possible ? " .... 
 
 He knew what she meant by the words, " if possible " ; 
 if it were possible to get the divorce, so as to have her 
 son. But now Stepan Arkadyevitch knew that this was 
 out of the question. He was none the less glad to see 
 his nephew again. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch reminded his brother-in-law 
 that he must not talk to him of his mother, and begged 
 him not even by a word to remind him of her. 
 
 " He was very ill after that interview with his mother, 
 which we were not prepared for," said Aleksei Aleksan- 
 drovitch, " and for a while we feared for his life. But 
 sensible medical treatment and sea-bathing in the sum- 
 mer restored him to health, and I have followed the 
 doctor's advice, and sent him to school. Activity, being 
 with companions of his own age, have had a happy influ- 
 ence on him ; his health is good, and he is studying 
 well." 
 
 " Why, he 's become quite a young man ! he is no longer 
 Serozha; he is full-grown Sergyel Alekseyevitch," said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a smile, as a handsome, tall, 
 robust boy, dressed in a kurtotckka, or jacket, and long 
 trousers, came in briskly and without constraint. The boy 
 had a look of sound health and good spirits. He bowed 
 to his uncle as to a stranger. Then, as he remembered 
 him, he reddened, and, as if offended and angry at some- 
 thing, turned away, and handed his school report to his 
 father. 
 
 " Well, that is excellent," said Karenin ; " now you 
 may go and play." 
 
 " He has grown tall and slender, and lost his childish 
 look and become a real boy ; I like it," remarked Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch, with a smile. *' Do you remember me ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 283 
 
 The boy quickly glanced at his father. 
 
 " I remember you, mononcle" answered the boy, look- 
 ing at Stepan Arkadyevitch, and then casting down his 
 eyes. 
 
 The uncle called the lad to him, and took his hand. 
 " Well, how are you ? " he asked, wanting to talk, but 
 not knowing what to say. 
 
 The boy, blushing, and not answering, hastily with- 
 drew his hand, and, as soon as his uncle had released it, 
 flew away like a bird set free. 
 
 A year had passed since Serozha had seen his mother 
 for the last time. During this time he had not even 
 heard anything about her. He had been sent to school, 
 and had become acquainted with boys of his own age, 
 and learned to like them. His dreams and recollections 
 about his mother, which after his interview with her had 
 made him ill, now no longer occupied his mind. When 
 they recurred to him he even tried to get rid of them, 
 regarding them as disgraceful for a boy and fit only 
 for girls ; he knew that his parents had quarreled and 
 parted, and that he must accustom himself to the idea of 
 remaining with his father. 
 
 The sight of his uncle, who looked like his mother, 
 was unpleasant to him, because it awakened memories 
 which caused him shame ; and it was still more unpleas- 
 ant, because, from certain words which he had caught 
 as he entered the door, and by the peculiar expression 
 of his father's and his uncle's faces, he knew that they 
 were talking about his mother. And so as not to blame 
 his father, with whom he lived and on whom he was 
 dependent, and especially so as not to give way to a sen- 
 timent which he felt was too degrading, he tried not to 
 look at his uncle, who had come to disturb his tranquil- 
 lity, and not to think of the past. 
 
 But when, shortly after, Stepan Arkadyevitch went 
 out, he found the boy on the stairs, and he called him to 
 him, and asked him how he spent his spare time, now 
 that he was at school. Serozha, out of his father's pres- 
 ence, talked freely. 
 
 "We have a railroad now," he said, in answer to his
 
 284 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 question. " Just see ! These two are sitting on the 
 seat ; they are passengers ; and there is one man trying 
 to stand on the seat; and they are all going, and by 
 means of our arms and our belts we go through the 
 whole length of the hall, and the doors open in front. 
 And I tell you it's very hard here for the conductor." 
 
 "Is that the one standing ? " asked Stepan Arkady e- 
 vitch, amused. 
 
 " Yes. He has to be bold and skilful, because the 
 train comes to a very sudden stop, and he might get 
 thrown over." 
 
 "Well, that is no joke," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 sadly, as he looked at the boy's bright eyes, which were 
 like his mother's, and which had already lost their child- 
 ish look of innocence. And, although he had promised 
 Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch not to speak of Anna, he could 
 not resist. 
 
 " Do you remember your mother ? " he asked suddenly. 
 
 " No, I do not," Serozha answered quickly, turning 
 red ; and his uncle could not make him talk any more. 
 
 When the Russian tutor found Serozha on the stairs, 
 half an hour after, he could not make out whether he 
 was crying or was sulky. 
 
 " Did you hurt yourself when you fell ? " he asked. 
 " I said this was a dangerous game, and I shall have to 
 tell your father? " 
 
 " If I had, no one should find it out," answered the boy. 
 
 " Well, what 's the matter, then ? " 
 
 "Let me alone ! .... What is it to him whether I 
 remember or not ? .... Why did he remind me ? .... Let me 
 be...." and the boy seemed to defy not only his tutor, 
 but the whole world. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 STEPAN ARKADYEVITCH, as usual, did not waste his 
 time at Petersburg. He had not only his business to 
 attend to : his sister's divorce and his new position to 
 look after ; but, moreover, as he said, to refresh himself 
 after musty Moscow.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 285 
 
 i 
 
 For Moscow, in spite of its cafes-chantants, and its 
 omnibuses, was still only a stagnant marsh. Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch always felt that this was so. Living in 
 Moscow, especially in proximity to his family, he was 
 conscious that his spirit flagged. When his life in 
 Moscow was long unbroken by a trip to Petersburg, 
 he even began to be annoyed by his wife's bad temper 
 and reproaches, and to worry over his health, the educa- 
 tion of his children, and the petty details of the house- 
 hold. He even went so far as to be disturbed about his 
 debts. 
 
 As soon as he set foot in Petersburg, and entered 
 that circle where life was really life, and not vegetat- 
 ing, as in Moscow, immediately all such thoughts dis- 
 appeared like wax in the fire. 
 
 His wife ? .... He had just been talking with Prince 
 Chetchensky. Prince Chetchensky had a wife and fam- 
 ily, grown-up boys, pages now ; and he had another 
 establishment, outside the law, and in this also there 
 were children. But, though the first family was well 
 enough in its way, Prince Chetchensky felt happier 
 with his second family ; and he had introduced his old- 
 est legitimate son into his other family ; he told Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch he considered it a good way to train him 
 and develop him. What would have been said about 
 that in Moscow ? 
 
 Children ? In Petersburg, fathers did n't trouble them- 
 selves with their children. Children were educated in 
 institutions, and there was no sign of that crazy notion 
 in vogue in Moscow Lvof shared in it that children 
 should have all the luxuries, and their parents nothing 
 but care and trouble. 
 
 The government service ? The service, too, was not 
 that tiresome, hopeless treadmill that it was in Mos- 
 cow. Here there was interest in the service. Meetings 
 with men in authority, mutual services, opportune words 
 spoken, the knowledge of how to take advantage of 
 chances and a man might suddenly find himself high 
 in his career, like Brianzef, whom Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 met that evening, and who was now a leading dignitary
 
 286 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Yes, there was something interesting in the service 
 here. 
 
 The Petersburg views about money especially ap- 
 pealed to Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 Bartnyansky, who now spent at least fifty thousand 
 rubles, judging by the rate at which he was living, made 
 a remark which deeply impressed him. Just before 
 dinner, as they were talking together, Stepan Arkadye- 
 vitch had said : 
 
 " You seem to have some connection with Mordvinsky. 
 You might do me a favor; please say a little word to 
 him in my behalf. It is a place which I should like to 
 have, member of the commission." .... 
 
 "Well, I won't forget Only what pleasure can you 
 
 have in attending to this railroad business with the 
 Jews?... .Of course, if you want it; but still it's a 
 wretched business." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch did not say to him that it was 
 "no sinecure." Bartnyansky would not have known 
 what he meant. 
 
 ' I need money ; I must have something to live on." 
 
 ' But don't you live, then ? " 
 
 'Yes, but in debt." 
 
 ' Much ? " asked Bartnyansky, sympathetically. 
 
 ' Yes ; twenty thousand rubles." 
 
 Bartnyansky broke out into a gay laugh. 
 
 " Oh, happy man ! I have a million and a half of 
 debts, and not a ruble ; and, as you see, I live all the same." 
 
 And Stepan Arkadyevitch saw that this was not mere 
 words, but was actually true. Zhivakhof was in debt 
 three hundred thousand, and had not a kopek. Petrov- 
 sky had spent five millions, and yet he went on living 
 just as before, and had charge of the finances, and had 
 only twenty thousand salary. 
 
 Petersburg had a delightful physical influence on 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch. It made him feel younger. In 
 Moscow he sometimes detected gray hairs, he would 
 fall asleep after dinner, it made him breathe hard to go 
 up-stairs, he was dull in the company of young women, 
 he no longer danced at balls.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 287 
 
 At Petersburg he experienced what the sixty-year-old 
 Prince Piotr Oblonsky, who had just returned from 
 abroad, told him one evening : 
 
 "We don't know how to live here," said Piotr Oblon- 
 sky. " For example, I spent the summer at Baden, 
 and now, honestly, I feel like a new man. I see a 
 young woman, and .... I enjoy my dinner, I can take my 
 wine ; I 'm well and vigorous. When I come back to 
 Russia, I have to see my wife, have even to go into the 
 country. You wouldn't believe it, but in a couple of 
 weeks I am in my dressing-gown. Good-by to the 
 young beauties. I am old, think only of the salvation 
 of my soul. To make me over, I go to Paris." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch felt the same difference as Piotr 
 Oblonsky did. In Moscow he reached such a low ebb 
 of vitality that he felt sure that, if he ever attained the 
 same age, he too should be driven to thinking about the 
 salvation of his soul ; in Petersburg he was conscious of 
 being a well-regulated man. 
 
 Between the Princess Betsy Tversky and Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch there had been for a long time a very strange 
 relationship. He always jested with her, and he always 
 said very improper things by way of jest, knowing that 
 they pleased her more than anything else. The day 
 after his interview with Karenin, Stepan Arkadyevitch 
 went to see her ; and, feeling particularly young, he con- 
 ducted himself with more than his usual levity ; and 
 went so far in his impropriety that he could not retrieve 
 his steps, and, unfortunately, he felt that she was not 
 only displeased, but was even opposed to him. Yet this 
 tone had been established because it generally amused 
 her. So he was glad to have the Princess Miagkaya 
 interrupt their tete-a-tete. 
 
 "Ah, here you are ! " said she, when she saw him. "Well ! 
 and how is your poor sister ? Do not look at me so. Since 
 women who are a thousand times worse than she throw 
 stones at her, I think she did quite right. I can't forgive 
 Vronsky for not letting me know that she was in Peters- 
 burg. I should have gone to see her, and gone with her 
 everywhere. Give her my love. Now tell me about her."
 
 288 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Well! her position is a very painful one; she...." 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch began, in the simplicity of his 
 heart, taking the princess's words as genuine money, 
 when she said, "Tell me about your sister." But the 
 princess, in her usual way, interrupted him, and began 
 to talk herself. "She did what everybody but myself 
 does and hides. But she was not willing to lie, and she 
 did right ; and she has at least bettered herself in having 
 forsaken that imbecile, I beg your pardon, your 
 brother-in-law. Everybody said he was a genius. A 
 genius ! I was the only one who said he was a goose ; 
 and people have come to be of my opinion, now that he 
 has taken up with the Countess Lidia and Landau. I 
 should like not to agree with everybody .... it 's stupid; 
 but this time I can't help it." 
 
 " Now please explain something to me," said Stepan 
 Arkadyevitch. " What does this mean ? Yesterday I 
 was at his house, talking of the divorce, and I asked 
 him for a definite answer ; my brother-in-law said to me 
 that he could not give me an answer without reflection ; 
 and this morning I received an invitation from Lidia 
 Ivanovna for this evening instead of an answer." 
 
 " Now ! That 's just it ! " cried the princess, delighted. 
 "They will consult Landau as to what to say." 
 
 " Why Landau ? who is Landau ? " 
 
 "What! you don't know Jules Landau.... Ic fameux 
 Jules Landau, le clairvoyant? He also in my opinion 
 is an imbecile, but on him depends your sister's fate. 
 That 's what comes of living in the provinces. Landau, 
 you must know, was commis of a mercantile house at 
 Paris, and went to see a doctor. He fell asleep in the 
 waiting-room, and, while he was asleep, gave advice to 
 all the sick .... most astonishing advice. Then Yuri 
 Melyedinsky's wife you know he was sick called 
 him to see her husband. He treated her husband. In 
 my opinion, he did n't do him any good, for Melyedinsky 
 is just as sick as he was before ; but his wife and he 
 believe in Landau. They took him into their house, 
 and they brought him to Russia. Naturally, people 
 here have thrown themselves at him. He treats every-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 289 
 
 body. He cured the Countess Bezzubof, and she fell so 
 in love with him that she has adopted him." 
 
 "How! adopted him?" 
 
 " Yes, adopted him. He is n't Landau any more, but 
 Count Bezzubof. But Lidia and I like her very much, 
 in spite of her crankiness must needs be smitten with 
 him ; and nothing that she and Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch 
 take up is decided without consulting him. Your sister's 
 fate is, therefore, 'in the hands of this Count Bezzubof, 
 alias Landau." 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 AFTER an excellent dinner with Bartnyansky, and 
 considerable cognac, Stepan Arkadyevitch went to the 
 Countess Lidia Ivanovna's a little later than the hour 
 designated. 
 
 "Who is with the countess?.... the Frenchman?" he 
 asked of the Swiss, as he noticed beside Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch's well-known overcoat a curious mantle with 
 clasps. 
 
 "Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch Karenin and the Count 
 Bezzubof," answered the servant, stolidly. 
 
 "Princess Miagkaya was right," thought Oblonsky, 
 as he went up-stairs. " Strange ! it would be a good 
 thing to cultivate the countess. She has great influ- 
 ence. If she would say a little word in my behalf to 
 Pomorsky, it would be just the thing." 
 
 It was still very light outdoors, but the blinds were 
 drawn in the Countess Lidia Ivanovna's little drawing- 
 room, and the lamps were lighted. 
 
 At a round table, on which was a lamp, the countess 
 and Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch were sitting, engaged in a 
 confidential talk. A short, lean, pale man, with knock- 
 kneed legs and a feminine figure, with long hair falling 
 over his coat-collar, and handsome, glowing eyes, was 
 examining the portraits on the wall at the other end of 
 the room. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, after having greeted the coun- 
 VOL. in. 19
 
 290 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 tess and AlekseT Aleksandrovitch, involuntarily turned 
 round to look once more at this singular personage. 
 
 "Monsieur Landau," said the countess, gently, and 
 with a precaution which struck Oblonsky. The intro- 
 duction was made. 
 
 Landau hastily glanced around, and coming up, placed 
 his moist, unresponsive hand in Oblonsky's, and im- 
 mediately went back to look at the portraits. Lidia 
 Ivanovna and Aleksef Aleksandrovitch exchanged sig- 
 nificant glances. 
 
 " I am very glad to see you to-day," said the countess 
 to Stepan Arkadyevitch, motioning him to a chair. 
 "You noticed," added she, in a low voice, glancing at 
 the Frenchman, " that I introduced him to you by the 
 name of Landau ; but his name is really Count Bezzubof, 
 as you probably know. Only he is not fond of the 
 title." 
 
 " Yes, I heard about it," said Stepan Arkadyevitch ; 
 "it is said he perfectly cured the Countess Bezzubof." 
 
 " She came to see me to-day," said the countess, ad- 
 dressing Aleksel Aleksandrovitch, "and it was sad to 
 see her. This separation is terrible for her. It is such 
 a blow to her." 
 
 " Then he is positively going ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he is going to Paris. Yesterday he heard a 
 voice," said Lidia Ivanovna, looking at Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch. 
 
 " Oh, a voice ? " repeated he, feeling that it was nec- 
 essary to use great prudence among these people, where 
 things occurred or might occur, without his being able 
 to explain them. 
 
 A moment's silence ensued, at the end of which the 
 Countess Lidia Ivanovna, as if accidentally stumbling 
 on the chief topic of their conversation, said, with a 
 sweet smile, addressing Oblonsky : 
 
 " I have known of you for a long time, and I am de- 
 lighted to make your acquaintance. Les amis de nos 
 amis sont nos amis. But to be truly friends, we must 
 know what is passing in the souls of those we love ; and 
 I fear you do not with regard to Aleksef Aleksandro-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 291 
 
 vitch. You understand what I mean," said she, rais- 
 ing her beautiful, dreamy eyes. 
 
 " I understand in part that AlekseT Aleksandrovitch's 
 position ...." answered Oblonsky, not understanding very 
 well what she was talking about, and preferring to con- 
 fine himself to generalities. 
 
 "The change is not in his external position," said the 
 countess, solemnly, and at the same time looking ten- 
 derly at Aleksei" Aleksandrovitch, who had risen to join 
 Landau; "it is his heart which has changed, a new 
 heart has been given to him, and I very much fear 
 that you do not realize sufficiently the great transforma- 
 tion which has taken place in him." 
 
 "That is ....in a general way, I can perceive the 
 change in him. We have always been friends, and 
 now...." said Oblonsky, answering the deep gaze of 
 the countess with a tender one, as he queried with 
 which of the two ministers she could do him the most 
 effective service. 
 
 " This transformation cannot diminish his love for his 
 neighbor ; on the contrary, the change which has taken 
 place must increase love. But I fear you don't under- 
 stand me Will you not have some tea ? " she asked, 
 
 looking toward a lackey who entered with a tea-tray. 
 
 " Not altogether, countess ; of course, his misfor- 
 tune...." 
 
 "Yes, he underwent a misfortune, but it became the 
 highest happiness, because his heart was renewed," said 
 she, raising her eyes lovingly to Stepan Arkadyevitch. 
 
 " I believe I shall have to get her to speak to them 
 both," thought Oblonsky. "Oh! assuredly, countess," 
 said he, "but I think that these changes are so per- 
 sonal 1 that no one likes to speak of them, even to his 
 most intimate friends." 
 
 " On the contrary, we ought to speak, and to help 
 one another." 
 
 " Yes, without doubt ; but there are such differences 
 of conviction; and, moreover...." and Oblonsky smiled 
 unctuously. 
 
 1 Intimui.
 
 292 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "There cannot be differences in regard to sacred 
 truth." 
 
 "Oh, yes, of course, but...." 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch grew confused, and stopped 
 speaking. He perceived that the countess was talking 
 about religion. 
 
 " It seems to me that he 's going to sleep," said Alek- 
 se'f Aleksandrovitch, approaching the countess, and 
 speaking in a significant whisper. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch turned round. Landau was 
 seated near the window, with his elbow leaning on the 
 arm and back of a chair, and his head bowed as he saw 
 the looks turned toward him. He raised his head and 
 smiled in a nai've and childlike manner. 
 
 " Don't pay any attention to him," said the countess, 
 pushing a chair toward Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. " I 
 have noticed...." she began, but was interrupted by a 
 lackey bringing her a letter. She read it through with 
 extraordinary rapidity, sent a reply, and resumed the 
 thread of her discourse. " I have noticed that Musco- 
 vites, the men especially, are very indifferent to religion." 
 
 " Oh, no, countess ! I think that Muscovites have the 
 reputation of being very pious," replied Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch. 
 
 " But as far as I have observed, you yourself," said 
 Aleksef Aleksandrovitch, with his weary smile, " I am 
 sorry to say, belong to the category of the indiffer- 
 ents." 
 
 " Is it possible to be indifferent ? " cried Lidia 
 Ivanovna. 
 
 " I am not indifferent, but rather in the attitude of 
 expectation," answered Oblonsky, with his most agree- 
 able smile. " I do not think that the time for me to 
 settle such questions has come yet." 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch and the countess exchanged 
 glances. 
 
 "We can never know whether the time for us has 
 come or not," said AlekseT Aleksandrovitch, sternly, "we 
 ought not even to think whether we are prepared or not. 
 The blessing does not follow human calculations^ does
 
 ANNA KARENINA 293 
 
 not always light upon the most deserving, but comes to 
 those who are unprepared ; witness Saul." 
 
 "It seems that it isn't to be now," murmured the 
 countess, following with her eyes the movements of the 
 Frenchman. Landau got up and joined them. 
 
 " May I listen ? " asked he. 
 
 "Oh, yes! I did not wish to disturb you," said the 
 countess, tenderly. " Sit down with us." 
 
 " The essential thing is not to close one's eyes to the 
 light," continued Aleksei' Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 " Akh ! if you knew what a blessing we experience 
 when we feel His constant presence in our souls," said 
 the Countess Lidia Ivanovna, with an ecstatic smile. 
 
 " But a man may feel himself incapable of rising to 
 such a height," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, convinced 
 that the heights of religion were not his forte, but fear- 
 ing to offend a person who, by one word to Pomorsky, 
 might get him the place that he wanted. 
 
 " You mean that sin may prevent him ? " asked Lidia 
 Ivanovna. " But that is a mistaken view. For him 
 who believes, there is no more sin. Sin is already re- 
 deemed. Pardon" she added, as the lackey brought 
 Tier another note. She read it, and answered verbally, 
 " Say to-morrow at the grand duchess's; " then she con- 
 tinued, " For the believer there is no sin." 
 
 " Yes ; but ' faith without works is dead,' " said 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, recalling this phrase of his cate- 
 chism, with a smile establishing his independence. 
 
 "That is the famous passage in the Epistle of St. 
 James," said Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, in a reproachful 
 tone, looking at the countess, as if to recall frequent dis- 
 cussions on the subject. " How much harm the false 
 interpretation of that passage has done ! It has driven 
 more persons from the faith than anything else ! ' I 
 have no works, therefore I cannot believe,' is the logi- 
 cal conclusion from it. It means exactly the opposite." 
 
 "It is our monks who claim to be saved by works, by 
 their fastings, their abstinences," said the countess, with 
 an air of fastidious scorn. " Our way is far better and 
 easier," she added, looking at Oblonsky with that scorch-
 
 294 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ing smile with which, at court, she was wont to wither 
 young maids of honor, disconcerted at the newness of 
 their position. 
 
 " We are saved by Christ who suffered for us ; we are 
 saved by faith," resumed Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch. 
 
 " Vous comprenez r anglais f " asked Lidia Ivanovna ; 
 and, receiving an affirmative answer, she rose, and took 
 a small book from a side-table. " I 'm going to read to 
 you, ' Safe and Happy ; or, Under the Wing,' " said she, 
 with a look of interrogation at Karenin. " It is very 
 short," added she, resuming her seat and opening the 
 book. " Here the way is described by which faith is 
 attained, and the joy which is higher than any that 
 earth can give, which fills the soul of the believer. Man 
 who believes cannot be unhappy, because he is no longer 
 alone. Yes, and here you see...." She was about to 
 go on reading, when again the lackey appeared. " From 
 
 Borozdin ? Say to-morrow, at two o'clock Yes," she 
 
 said, with a sigh, marking the place in the book with 
 her finger, and looking up with her pensive, loving 
 eyes. " This is the way true faith is acquired. Are 
 you acquainted with Marie Sanina ? You have heard 
 of her great affliction ? She lost her only son. She 
 was in despair. Well, how is it now ? She found this 
 friend. She thanks God for the death of her child. 
 Such is the happiness faith can give ! " 
 
 "Ah, yes; this is very...." murmured Stepan Arka- 
 dyevitch, glad to be able to keep silent during this read- 
 ing, and to think over his affairs a little. " I shall do 
 better not to ask anything to-day," thought he ; " only how 
 can I get out of this without compromising myself ? " 
 
 "This will be dull for you," said the countess to Lan- 
 dau. " You don't understand English ; but this is short." 
 
 "Oh ! I shall understand," said he, with a smile; and 
 he shut his eyes. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch and the countess significantly 
 looked at one another, and the reading began.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 STEFAN ARKADYEVITCH felt perfectly bewildered by 
 these strange and to him unwonted discourses to which 
 he had been listening. After the stagnation of Moscow, 
 the complication of life in Petersburg as a general thing 
 had an enlivening effect on him ; but he liked it and was 
 at home in it when he was among those whom he knew 
 well. In this unfamiliar environment, he was bewildered 
 and stupefied, and could not make anything out of it. 
 
 As he listened to the reading, and saw the brilliant 
 eyes of Laudau nai've or knavish, he could not tell 
 which fixed on him, he felt a peculiar heaviness in his 
 head. The most heterogeneous thoughts went whirling 
 through his brain. 
 
 " Marie Sanina is happy in having lost her son 
 
 It would be good if I could only smoke ! .... To be saved, 
 one needs only to believe The monks do not under- 
 stand about this, but the Countess Lidia Ivanovna 
 does. What makes my head feel so heavy ? Is it the 
 brandy, or the strangeness of all this ? I have done 
 nothing out of the way as yet ; but I shan't venture to 
 ask anything to-day. It is said they make you say your 
 prayers. Suppose they should make me say mine ! 
 That would be too nonsensical. What stuff that is she 
 is reading ! But she reads well. Landau Bezzubof .... 
 why is he Bezzubof ? " 
 
 Suddenly Stepan Arkadyevitch felt that his lower 
 jaw was irresistibly beginning to accomplish a yawn. 
 He smoothed his whiskers to conceal the yawn, and 
 shook himself ; but the next moment he felt sure that 
 he was asleep, and even beginning to snore. The voice 
 of the Countess Lidia Ivanovna waked him, saying : 
 
 " He 's asleep. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch waked with a start, feeling a 
 consciousness of guilt. But instantly he was relieved 
 to find that the words, " He 's asleep," had reference, 
 not to himself, but to Landau. The Frenchman was as 
 sound asleep as Stepan Arkadyevitch had been. But
 
 296 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch's nap would have offended them, 
 he did not think of this at the time, so strange did 
 everything seem, but Landau's rejoiced them exceed- 
 ingly, and especially the Countess Lidia Ivanovna. 
 
 " Man ami," said the Countess Lidia Ivanovna, cau- 
 tiously, so as not to disturb him ; and, picking up the 
 folds of her silk gown, in the enthusiasm of the moment, 
 calling Karenin, not AlekseY Aleksandrovitch, but, " Mon 
 ami, donnez lui la main ! vous voyez ? Sh-h ! " said she 
 to the lackey, who once more entered the parlor with 
 a message. " I can't receive it now." 
 
 The Frenchman slept, or pretended to sleep, leaning 
 his head on the back of his arm-chair, and resting his 
 hand on his knee, but making feeble gestures, as if he 
 were trying to catch something. 
 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch got up, and cautiously, 
 though he tripped over a table as he did so, stepped over 
 to the chair, and put his hand into the Frenchman's 
 hand. Stepan Arkadyevitch also got up, and opening 
 his eyes wide, and trying to decide whether he were 
 asleep or not, looked from one to the other, and felt his 
 ideas growing more and more confused. 
 
 " Que la personne qui est arriv/e la derniere, celle qui 
 demande, qii elle ....sorte. Qifelle sorte" 1 murmured the 
 Frenchman, without opening his eyes. 
 
 " Vous m excuserez, mais vous voyez revenez vers 
 dix heures, encore mieux demain." 2 
 
 " Qu elle sorte" repeated the Frenchman, impatiently. 
 
 "Ccst mot, riest ce pas?" asked Oblonsky, and at 
 an affirmative sign, forgetting what he was going to ask 
 Lidia Ivanovna, forgetting his sister's affairs, with one 
 single desire to escape as soon as possible, hastened out 
 on his tiptoes and rushed down into the street, as if he 
 were fleeing from a pest-house, and for a long time 
 talked and jested with his driver, so as to bring back 
 his spirits. 
 
 1 The person who came in last .... the one who is questioning .... let him 
 go away. 
 
 2 You will excuse me, but you understand .... come back at ten o'clock, 
 or, still better, to-morrow.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 297 
 
 At the French Theater, which he reached in time for 
 the last act, and afterward over his champagne at the 
 the Tartars', Stepan Arkadyevitch gradually began to 
 breathe more freely in the familiar atmosphere. Never- 
 theless, all that evening he was very far from being 
 himself. 
 
 When he returned to the house of Piotr Oblonsky, 
 where he made his home in Petersburg, he found a note 
 from Betsy. She wrote him that she was very desirous 
 of finishing their talk, and urged him to call the next 
 day. He had hardly finished reading this note and 
 making up a face at it, when heavy shuffling steps were 
 heard down-stairs as of men lifting some heavy object. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch went out to see what it was. It 
 was the rejuvenated Piotr Oblonsky, who was so tipsy that 
 he could not walk up-stairs ; but when he caught sight of 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, he ordered his attendants to put 
 him on his feet, and, clinging to Stepan Arkadyevitch's 
 arm, he managed to reach his room, where he began to 
 relate how he had spent the evening, till he fell asleep. 
 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch himself was in such a weak 
 state of mind, that, contrary to his custom, he did not 
 fall asleep quickly. What he had heard and seen dur- 
 ing the day was disgusting. But more disgusting than 
 anything else was the recollection of the evening at the 
 Countess Lidia Ivanovna's. 
 
 The next day he received from Aleksei' Aleksandro- 
 vitch a flat refusal in the matter of the divorce, and 
 knew that this decision was based on the words which 
 the Frenchman had uttered during his slumber, real or 
 feigned. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 IN order that anything may be accomplished in family 
 life, it is requisite that between the husband and wife 
 there should be either absolute discord or loving har- 
 mony. But when the relations between the two are 
 uncertain, and there is neither the one nor the other, 
 nothing can be accomplished.
 
 298 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Many families remain for years in places of which the 
 husband and wife both are tired and disgusted, simply 
 because there is neither full discord nor full concord. 
 
 Unendurable to Vronsky and Anna was their life in 
 Moscow, in the heat and dust, when the sun shone, not 
 now with its springtime beauty, but with summer fervor, 
 and all the trees along the boulevards had been long in 
 leaf, and the leaves were already thick with dust. Though 
 they had long before decided to remove to Vozdvizhen- 
 skoye, still they continued to live in Moscow, which was 
 detestable to them both, and the reason for this was that 
 of late there had been no harmony between them. 
 
 The exasperation which tended to keep them apart 
 had no tangible cause, and all attempts at an explanation, 
 instead of closing the chasm, only widened it. It was 
 an internal irritation which, as far as she was concerned, 
 had for its source the diminution of his love for her, and 
 on his part his annoyance because, thanks to her, he 
 found himself placed in an embarrassing position, which 
 she, instead of trying to relieve, made still more difficult. 
 Neither he nor she formulated any definite complaints, 
 but each considered the other in the wrong, and at every 
 opportunity tried to make this evident. 
 
 She considered that he, with ail his habits, ideas, 
 desires, with all his spiritual and physical tendencies, 
 had one distinguishing quality, the power of loving 
 women ; and this love, she felt, ought by good rights to 
 be wholly concentrated on her. This love had diminished ; 
 consequently, in her opinion, a part of this love must 
 necessarily be transferred to others or to some other 
 woman, and she was jealous. She was jealous, not of 
 any definite woman, but of his diminished love for her. 
 
 Having as yet no definite object for her jealousy to rest 
 on, she was on the watch for one. On the slightest pre- 
 text she would transfer her jealousy from one person to 
 another. Sometimes she suspected him of low amours, 
 which he might enter into as an unmarried man about 
 town ; sometimes she distrusted ladies whom he might 
 meet in society ; then again, with the imaginary young 
 lady whom he would be likely to marry in case he broke
 
 ANNA KARENINA 299 
 
 with her. This form of jealousy especially tormented 
 her, for the reason that he himself had carelessly, in a 
 moment of confidence one day, spoken of his mother's 
 lack of tact in having ventured to propose to him to 
 marry the young Princess Sorokin. 
 
 And being thus jealous, Anna felt indignant with him 
 and kept finding reasons for her indignation. For all 
 the painfulness of her position she blamed him. She 
 considered him responsible for her painful state of 
 expectancy which she was enduring in Moscow, as it 
 were suspended between heaven and earth, for the 
 uncertainty in which she lived, for Aleksei' Aleksandro- 
 vitch's delay and indecision, and for her loneliness. If 
 he loved her, he would understand the difficulty of her 
 position, and save her from it. He was to blame because 
 she was living in Moscow and not in the country. He 
 could not live in the country, as she wanted to do. He 
 wanted society, and so condemned her to this horrible 
 position, the trials of which he could not comprehend. 
 And, again, he was responsible for depriving her forever 
 of her son. Even those rare moments of tenderness 
 which they occasionally enjoyed did not appease her; 
 she now detected in his tenderness a shade of calmness, 
 of assurance, which he had never before shown, and 
 which exasperated her. 
 
 It was getting dark. Vronsky was at a gentlemen's 
 dinner ; and Anna, while waiting for him, had taken 
 refuge in his library, where the noise of the street was 
 less oppressive than in the rest of the house. She 
 walked up and down, going over in memory their last 
 altercation. 
 
 As she recalled in memory the insulting words that 
 had been spoken, and tried to think what had led to it, 
 she at last remembered how the quarrel had begun. For 
 some time she found it impossible to believe that any 
 dissension could have arisen from such an inoffensive 
 conversation, from a subject which was so unimportant 
 to any one. But such was the fact. It all began from 
 his having made sport of women's gymnasia, declaring 
 them unnecessary, and she had taken up the cudgels in
 
 300 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 their defense. He had disrespectfully attacked the 
 education of women in general, and had said that Han- 
 nah, Anna's English prottgte, had not the slightest need 
 of knowing anything about physics. 
 
 That had irritated Anna. She saw in it a derogatory 
 reference to her own occupations, and she conjured up 
 and uttered a phrase which was meant to repay him for 
 the pain he inflicted on her. 
 
 " I did not expect that you would comprehend me and 
 my feelings as a man who really loved would, but I ex- 
 pected at least some delicacy," said she. 
 
 And in reality he had reddened with vexation and 
 made some unpleasant remark. She did not remem- 
 ber what retort she then made, but, whatever it was, 
 he had said with the manifest intention of hurting her 
 feelings : 
 
 " I confess your devotion to that girl does not interest 
 me, because I can see in it nothing but an affecta- 
 tion." 
 
 This cruelty of his, with which he demolished the 
 fabric which she had with such labor erected so as to 
 endure the trials of her life, this injustice of his in accus- 
 ing her of pretense and affectation, drove her frantic. 
 
 " It is very unfortunate that only what is low and 
 material is comprehensible to you," she had retorted, 
 and she left the room. 
 
 When, in the evening, he came to see her, the discus- 
 sion was not resumed, but they both felt that it was not 
 forgotten. 
 
 All this day he had not been at home ; and she was 
 so lonely and wretched, as she thought of their quarrels, 
 that she resolved to forget everything, to ask his forgive- 
 ness, and to take the blame on herself, so as to bring 
 about a reconciliation at any cost. 
 
 " I am to blame ; I am irritable ; I am absurdly jeal- 
 ous. I will make it up with him, and we will leave for the 
 country, and there I shall be calmer," she thought. 
 
 " Affectation ! " nenaturalno. She suddenly remem- 
 bered the word which had so affronted her, above all in 
 his intention of causing her pain by it.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 301 
 
 " I know what he meant. He meant by affected that 
 I did not love my daughter, but loved another's child. 
 What does he know of the love a child can inspire ? 
 Has he the least idea what I sacrificed for him in giving 
 up Serozha ? But this desire to wound me ! No, he 
 loves another woman ; it must be so." 
 
 And seeing that, even while she wanted to calm her- 
 self she was once more going over the circle she had 
 so many times traversed, and was once more returning 
 to the same state of irritation, she was horror-struck. 
 
 " Is it wholly out of the question ? Can I not attach 
 him to myself ? " she queried, and then she began at the 
 beginning again. " He is true, he is honorable, he loves 
 me. I love him ; in a day or two dissension will be 
 ended. What is necessary ? Calmness, gentleness, and 
 I shall bring him back to me. Yes ; now, when he 
 comes, I will tell him that I was to blame .... although 
 I was not to blame ; .... and we will go off." 
 
 And, in order not to think any more, and not to give 
 way to her irritation, she gave orders to bring down her 
 trunks, to begin preparations for departure. 
 
 At ten o'clock Vronsky came in. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 "WELL, did you have a gay time ?" asked Anna, going 
 to meet him with an apologetic and affectionate look on 
 her face. 
 
 "As such things usually are," answered he, noticing 
 at once by her face that she was in one of her best 
 moods. He was already accustomed to such metamor- 
 phoses, and this time he was particularly glad, because 
 he himself was in his happiest frame of mind. " What 
 do I see? This is good," he added, pointing to the 
 trunks in the entry. 
 
 '' Yes, we must go. I went out to walk to-day, and it 
 was so good that I longed to get back to the country. 
 There 's nothing to keep you here, is there ? "
 
 302 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " I should like nothing better I will be back imme- 
 diately, and we will talk it over ; all I want is to change 
 my coat. Have the tea brought." 
 
 There was something irritating in the tone in which 
 he said, "This is good," as one speaks to a child which 
 has ceased to be capricious, and still more irritating was 
 the discrepancy between her apologetic and his self- 
 confident tone, and for a moment she felt rising within 
 her the desire to be pugnacious. But making an effort 
 to restrain herself, she relinquished it, and met Vronsky 
 as gayly as before. 
 
 When he came in, she told him calmly the incidents 
 of the day, and her plans for departure, using in part 
 the very words she had thought over. 
 
 "Do you know, it came over me like an inspiration," 
 said she, " why wait here for the divorce ? Will it not 
 be all the same when we are in the country ? I cannot 
 wait longer. I want to stop hoping about the divorce. 
 I don't want to hear anything more about it. I think 
 it won't have any more effect on my life. Don't you 
 agree with me ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " said he, looking with disquietude at 
 Anna's excited face. 
 
 " Come, tell me what you did ; who were there ? " 
 said she, after a moment's silence. 
 
 Vronsky named over the guests. 
 
 "The dinner was excellent. And we had a boat-race, 
 and it was all very jolly. But in Moscow nothing can 
 be done sans ridicule. Some woman, the swimming- 
 teacher of the queen of Sweden, gave us an exhibition 
 of her art." 
 
 " What ! Did she swim for you ? " demanded Anna, 
 frowning. 
 
 " Yes, in an ugly red costume de natation. She was 
 old and hideous What day do we go ? " 
 
 " What an inane idea ! Was there anything extraor- 
 dinary about her method of swimming?" asked Anna, 
 not replying to his question. 
 
 " Not at all. I tell you it was horribly stupid. When 
 have you decided to go ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 303 
 
 Anna tossed her head as if to get rid of a disagree- 
 able thought. 
 
 " When shall we go ? The sooner the better. To- 
 morrow we can't, but the day after." 
 
 " Yes .... no .... wait ! Day after to-morrow is Monday. 
 I shall have to go to maman" said Vronsky, somewhat 
 confused ; because, as he mentioned his mother's name, 
 he saw Anna's eyes fixed with a look of suspicion on 
 him, and his confusion increased her distrust. She for- 
 got the queen of Sweden's swimming-teacher in her 
 alarm about the Princess Sorokin, who was living at a 
 country seat in the suburbs of Moscow with the old 
 countess. 
 
 " Can't you go there to-morrow ? " 
 
 " Why, no ! That 's impossible. There is some busi- 
 ness that I must attend to, a power of attorney ; and 
 the money will not be ready to-morrow." 
 
 " If that is so, we won't go at all." 
 
 "But why not?" 
 
 " I won't go if it is put off later. Sunday or never ! " 
 
 "Why so?" cried Vronsky, in astonishment. "There's 
 no sense in that." 
 
 " It has no sense for you, because you never take me 
 into account at all. You can't understand my life. 
 The only thing that interests me here is Hannah. You 
 say that it is hypocrisy. You said last evening that 
 I did not love my daughter, but that I pretended to love 
 this English girl, that this was affectation. I should 
 like to know what can be natural in the life I lead 
 here ? " 
 
 For an instant she came to herself, and was fright- 
 ened because she had broken her vow. But, though 
 she knew that she was dashing to destruction, she could 
 not resist the temptation of proving to him that he was 
 in the wrong, she could not help heaping insults on him. 
 
 " I never said that : I said that I did not sympathize 
 with this sudden tenderness for her." 
 
 " Why do you, who boast of being straightf orwai d, 
 tell me a lie ? " 
 
 " I never boast, and I never tell lies," said he, re-
 
 304 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 pressing the anger which was rising within him ; " and 
 I am very sorry if you do not respect...." 
 
 " Respect ! That was invented to cover up the lack 
 of love. If you don't love me any more, it would be 
 better and more honorable to say so." 
 
 " No ! this is becoming intolerable," cried the count, 
 suddenly leaping from his chair ; and, standing in front 
 of her, speaking in measured tones : " Anna," he asked, 
 "why do you try my patience so?" and she could see 
 how he was holding back the bitter words that were 
 ready to escape him. " It has its limits." 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " she cried, looking 
 with terror at the unconcealed expression of hate on his 
 whole face, and especially in his fierce, cruel eyes. 
 
 "I mean...." he began. Then h.: slopped. "I have 
 a right to demand what you wish of m-j." 
 
 " What can I wish ? I can only wish that you do not 
 abandon me, as you are thinking of doing," she said, 
 comprehending all that he left unsaid. " Everything 
 else is secondary. I wish to be loved ; but love is gone. 
 All is over." 
 
 She turned toward the door. 
 
 " Stop ! sto-op ! " said Vronsky, still darkly frowning, 
 but holding her by the arm. " What is the trouble ? I 
 said that it is necessary to postpone our starting for 
 three days, and you answer by saying that I lie and am 
 dishonorable." 
 
 " Yes ; and I repeat it that a man who throws it into 
 my face that he has sacrificed everything for me," said 
 she, alluding to a former quarrel, " is worse than dis- 
 honorable : he is heartless." 
 
 " That settles it ; my patience is at an end," cried 
 Vronsky, quickly dropping her hand. 
 
 " He hates me; that is certain," she thought, as she 
 went from the room in silence with tottering steps. 
 " He loves some other woman ; that is more certain 
 still," she said to herself, as she reached her room. " I 
 wish to be loved, but love is gone. All is over." She 
 repeated the words that she had said, "I must put an 
 end to it."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 305 
 
 "But how?" she asked herself, sinking into a chair 
 before her mirror. 
 
 The most heterogeneous thoughts crowded upon her. 
 Where should she go ? To her aunt, who had brought 
 her up ? To Dolly ? or simply go abroad alone by her- 
 self ? What was he doing alone in his study ? Would 
 the rupture be final, or was there a possibility of recon- 
 ciliation ? How would AlekseT Aleksandrovitch look 
 upon it ? and what would her former acquaintances in 
 Petersburg say ? Many other ideas of what would hap- 
 pen came into her mind, but she could not take any 
 satisfactory account of them. A vague idea came into 
 her mind, and awakened some interest, but she could 
 not express it. Thinking once more of Alekse'f Alek- 
 sandrovitch, she recalled a phrase which she had used 
 after her illness, and the feeling that clung to her, 
 " Why did n't I die ? " and immediately the words awoke 
 the feeling which they had at that time expressed. Yes, 
 that was the idea which alone settled everything. 
 
 " Death, yes, that is the only way of escape. My 
 terrible shame, and the dishonor which I have brought 
 on AlekseT Aleksandrovitch and Serozha, all will be 
 wiped away by my death. If I die, he will repent for 
 me then ; he will be sorry, he will love me, he will suffer 
 for me." 
 
 A smile of pity for herself came over her face as she 
 kept mechanically taking off and putting on the rings 
 of her left hand, and with vivid imagination she pictured 
 how he would feel after she was dead. 
 
 Approaching steps his steps caught her ears. 
 She affected to be busily engaged in taking off her 
 rings, and did not turn her head. 
 
 He came to her, and, taking her hand, said tenderly : 
 " Anna, we will go day after to-morrow if you wish. I 
 am ready for anything Well ? " said he, waiting. 
 
 She did not speak. 
 
 " What do you say ? " he asked. 
 
 "You yourself know," said she; and then, unable 
 to control herself longer, she burst into tears. " Leave 
 me, leave me," she murmured through her sobs. " I 
 
 VOL. III. 20
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 am going away to-morrow I will do more. What am 
 
 I ? A lost woman, a millstone about your neck. I 
 don't want to torment you. I will set you free. You 
 do not love me; you love another." 
 
 Vronsky begged her to be calm. He swore there 
 was not the slightest ground for her jealousy, and that 
 he had never ceased and never should cease to love her ; 
 that he loved her more than ever. 
 
 " Anna, why torture yourself and me so ? " he asked, 
 as he kissed her hand. His face expressed the deepest 
 tenderness ; and it seemed to her that her ears caught 
 the sound of tears in his voice, and that she felt their 
 moisture on her hand. 
 
 Passing suddenly from jealousy to the most passionate 
 tenderness, she covered his head, his neck, his hands, 
 with kisses. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 FEELING that their reconciliation was complete, Anna 
 the next morning eagerly made her preparations for 
 departure. Although it was not yet definitely decided 
 whether they should start on Monday or Tuesday, since 
 Doth days had certain contingencies, Anna was busily 
 making her preparations for the journey, feeling now 
 perfectly indifferent whether they went a little sooner 
 or a little later. She was engaged in her room taking 
 various articles from an open trunk, when Vronsky, 
 already dressed, came to her earlier than usual. 
 
 " I am going now to maman. Perhaps she can get 
 me the money through Yegerof, and then I shall be 
 ready to go to-morrow," he said. 
 
 She was feeling particularly cheerful, but his reference 
 to his visit to his mother's datcha was like a stitch in the 
 side. 
 
 " No ; I shall not be ready myself ; " and immediately 
 she thought, "So then it was possible to arrange it so as 
 to do as I wished." " No ; do just as you intended to. 
 And now go to the dining-room, and I will join you as
 
 ANNA KARENINA 307 
 
 soon as I have taken out these unnecessary things," she 
 added, giving something more to Annushka, whose arms 
 were already laden with a heap of articles. 
 
 Vronsky was eating his beefsteak when she entered 
 the dining-room. 
 
 " You can't realize how odious these apartments have 
 become to me," she said, as she sat down by him. 
 " Nothing is more detestable than these chambres 
 garnies. There is no individuality in them, no soul. 
 The clock, the curtains, and especially the wall-papers 
 they are a canchemar. I think of Vozdvizhenskoye as of 
 the promised land. Shall you not send on the horses in 
 advance ? " 
 
 " No, they will follow us. But were you going any- 
 where?" 
 
 " I wanted to go to the Wilsons' ; I must get a gown. 
 So it is decided that we go to-morrow, is it ? " she added, 
 in a joyous tone. But suddenly her face changed. 
 Vronsky's valet came in, and asked him to sign a receipt 
 foradespatch from Petersburg. Still there was nothing re- 
 markable in Vronsky's receiving a telegram, but he acted 
 as if he wanted to conceal something from her ; and, saying 
 that he would sign it in his library, he turned to her : 
 
 " To-morrow without fail I shall have finished every- 
 thing." 
 
 "From whom is the despatch?" she asked, not hear- 
 ing him. 
 
 " From Stiva," answered the count, reluctantly. 
 
 " Why did n't you show it to me ? What secret can 
 there be between Stiva and me ? " 
 
 Vronsky called the valet back, and ordered him to 
 bring in the telegram. 
 
 " I did not care to show it because Stiva has a pas- 
 sion for telegraphing. Why need he send me a despatch 
 to tell me that nothing was decided ? " 
 
 "About the divorce?" 
 
 "Yes. He maintains that he cannot get a definite 
 answer. Here, see for yourself." 
 
 Anna took the despatch with a trembling hand. It 
 read as Vronsky had told her. At the end it said :
 
 308 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Little hope ; but I shall do everything possible and 
 impossible." 
 
 " I told you yesterday that it was absolutely immaterial 
 to me when I received the divorce, or whether I get it 
 at all," said she, flushing, "so it is perfectly useless to 
 hide anything from me. In the same way, he can hide 
 from me his correspondence with women," thought she. 
 
 "Yashvin wanted to come this morning with Vo'ftof," 
 said Vronsky. " It seems that he has been gambling 
 again, and has won from Pyebtsof all he has and more 
 than he can pay.... about sixty thousand rubles." 
 
 " No," said she, vexed because by this change in the 
 conversation he so evidently insinuated that she was 
 vexed. " Why do you think that this news interests me 
 so much that you must hide it from me ? I told you 
 that I did not want to think about it, and I should wish 
 that you had as little interest in it as I." 
 
 " It interests me because I like clearness." 
 
 " Clearness ! But in love, not in mere outside show," 
 she said, getting more and more angry, not at his words, 
 but at the tone of cool calmness in which he spoke. 
 " Why do you want a divorce ? " 
 
 " Bozhe mol! Always 'love,'" thought Vronsky, 
 frowning. " You know very well why ; it is for your 
 sake and for the children we may have." 
 
 " There will not be any more children." 
 
 " I am sorry for that." 
 
 " You feel the need of it, because of the children ; but 
 don't you have some thought of me ? " said she, forget- 
 ting that he had just said "for your sake and the 
 children's." 
 
 The question of the possibility of having children had 
 been long vexatious and trying to her. She took his 
 desire to have children as a proof of indifference toward 
 her beauty. 
 
 " Akh ! I said for your sake .... more than all for your 
 sake ; for I am convinced that your irritability comes 
 largely from the uncertainty of your position," he an- 
 swered, scowling with annoyance. 
 
 " Yes, now he has ceased to pretend, and all his cold
 
 ANNA KARENINA 309 
 
 hatred of me is plain to be seen," she said to herself, 
 not hearing his words, but gazing with horror at a cold 
 and cruel judge who looked out of his eyes, and mocked 
 her. 
 
 "That is not the cause," said she; "and I do not 
 understand how my irritability, as you call it, can be 
 caused by the fact that I have come absolutely into your 
 power. How is my position indefinite ? It seems to 
 me the contrary." 
 
 " I am sorry that you are not willing to understand," 
 he replied, obstinately determined to express his thought. 
 " Its uncertainty comes from this, that you think that 
 I am free." 
 
 " Oh ! as far as that goes, you can be perfectly easy," 
 she said, turning from him, and beginning to drink her 
 coffee. She took the cup, raising her little finger, and 
 put it to her lips ; and as she drank she looked at him, 
 and by the expression of his face saw clearly that her 
 motions and the sounds that she made in swallowing 
 were repulsive to him. 
 
 " It is absolutely indifferent to me what your mother 
 thinks, and how she intends to marry you off," said she, 
 putting down the cup with trembling hand. 
 
 "We will not talk of that." 
 
 " Yes, we will too ; and I assure you that a heartless 
 woman, whether young or old, your mother or any- 
 body else, does not interest me ; and I don't want to 
 know her." 
 
 " Anna, I beg you not to speak disrespectfully of my 
 mother." 
 
 " A woman who has no conception of what the honor 
 and happiness of her son consist in, has no heart." 
 
 " I repeat my request that you will not speak disre- 
 spectfully of my mother, whom I respect," reiterated the 
 count, raising his voice, and looking severely at Anna. 
 
 She did not reply, but looked attentively at his face 
 and his hands, and recalled with all its details, the scene 
 of the evening before, and his passionate caresses 
 " Just such caresses he has lavished, and will still con 
 tinue to lavish, on other women," she thought.
 
 3io ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "You don't love your mother. Those are simple 
 words, words, words ! " she said, looking at him with 
 eyes full of hatred. 
 
 " If that is the case, it is necessary ...." 
 
 " It is necessary to decide ; and I have decided," said 
 she, and was preparing to leave the room, when the 
 door opened, and Yashvin entered. 
 
 She stopped immediately, and bade him good-morning. 
 
 Why, when her soul was full of bitterness ; when she 
 felt that she was at the turning-point of her life, which 
 might take a terrible direction, why, at this moment, 
 she had to dissimulate before a stranger, who sooner or 
 later would know all, she could not tell ; but, calming 
 the inner tumult of her feelings, she sat down again, 
 and began to talk with the guest. 
 
 " Well, how are your affairs ? Have they paid you 
 your debt ? " she asked. 
 
 " No ; not yet. Probably I shall not get it all. And 
 I 've got to leave Wednesday," said Yashvin, awkwardly, 
 glancing at Vronsky, and evidently suspecting that a 
 quarrel was in progress. " When do you leave ? " 
 
 "Day after to-morrow, I think," said Vronsky. 
 
 " You have taken long to make up your minds." 
 
 " But now it is all decided," said Anna, looking straight 
 into Vronsky's eyes with a look that told him how im- 
 possible it was to think of reconciliation. 
 
 " Did n't you feel sorry for that unlucky Pyebtsof ? " 
 asked Anna, addressing Yashvin. 
 
 " I have never asked myself whether I pitied a mai 
 or not, Anna Arkadyevna. My whole fortune is here,' 
 said he, pointing to his pocket. " Now I am a rich 
 man, but I may come out of the club this evening a 
 beggar. Whoever plays with me would gladly leave 
 me without a shirt, and I him. Well ! We engage in 
 war, and that makes the fun." 
 
 " Well, but if you were married, how would it be foi 
 your wife ? " 
 
 Yashvin laughed. 
 
 " But I am not married, and I don't expect to marry. 
 
 " But how about Helsingfors ? " suggested Vronsky
 
 ANNA KARENINA 311 
 
 joining in the conversation, and looking at Anna's 
 smiling face. But as she met his glance her face 
 suddenly assumed a set and cold expression, as much 
 as to say to him : " I have not forgotten. It 's still the 
 same." 
 
 " And have n't you ever been in love ? " she asked of 
 Yashvin. 
 
 " Oh, Lord ! plenty of times. Only remember, one 
 may sit down to cards, but must be able to get up when 
 the time comes for a rendezvous ; but I interest myself 
 in love-affairs in such a way that I need not be late to 
 play my hand in the evening. And so I always arrange 
 matters." 
 
 " You misunderstand ; I did not ask about that, but 
 about actual ...." She wanted to say Helsingfors, but 
 she did not like to use a word which Vronsky had just 
 spoken. 
 
 Voi'tof came at this moment to see about a horse 
 which he had bought ; Anna got up and left the room. 
 
 Before he left the house, Vronsky went to her room. 
 She pretended to look for something on the table, but 
 then, being ashamed of this dissimulation, she looked 
 him straight in the face. She asked him coolly in 
 French, " What do you want ? " 
 
 "The certificate for Gambetta; I have sold him," an- 
 swered Vronsky, in a tone which said louder than words, 
 " I have not time for explanations, nor would they lead 
 to anything." 
 
 " I 'm not to blame," thought he ; " if she wants to 
 punish herself, tant pis pour elle." 
 
 However, as he left the room he thought she said 
 something to him, and his heart was suddenly touched 
 with compassion for her. 
 
 " What is it, Anna ? " he asked. 
 
 " I said nothing," she answered coldly and calmly. 
 
 "Nothing! tant pis" he said again to himself. On 
 his way out, as he passed a mirror, he caught sight in 
 it of her pale face and trembling lips. He was tempted 
 to go back and say some comforting words to her, but 
 he was already too far on his way. He passed the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 entire day outside the house ; and when he came home 
 the maid informed him that Anna Arkadyevna had a 
 headache, and begged him not to disturb her. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 NEVER before had they let a day end with a quarrel 
 unsettled. This was the first time. This was not a 
 mere quarrel ; it was evidently the avowal of permanent 
 coldness. How was it possible for him to look at her 
 as he had done when he came into her room after his 
 document? how could he look at her, and see that her 
 heart was full of despair, and then go out with a calm, in- 
 different face ? He had not only grown cold to her, but 
 he hated her, because he loved some other woman. 
 This was clear. And, as she recalled all the cruel 
 words which he had said to her, Anna began to imagine 
 also the words which she was certain he would like to 
 say to her and might say, and she grew more and more 
 irritated. 
 
 " I will not keep you," she imagined him saying. 
 "You may go wherever you please. As you don't care 
 to be divorced from your husband, you probably intend 
 to go back to him. If you want money, I will give it 
 to you. How many rubles do you want ? " 
 
 All these insulting words which the cruel man might 
 say were said merely in her imagination, but she could 
 not forgive him any more than if he had really said 
 them. 
 
 " But did he not swear to me only yesterday that he 
 loved me ? Is he not a sincere and honest man ? " she 
 said to herself a moment afterward. " Have I not been 
 in despair several times before, all for nothing ? " 
 
 She passed the entire day, except two hours during 
 which she made a visit to her prottgts, the Wilsons, in 
 alternate doubt and hope. Was all at an end? Was 
 there any chance of a reconciliation ? Should she leave 
 him then and there, or should she wait and see him once 
 again ? She waited for him all day ; and in the eve-
 
 ANNA KAREN1NA 313 
 
 ning she went to her room, telling Annushka to say that 
 she had a headache. 
 
 " If he comes in spite of that, it will show that he 
 loves me still ; if not, it is over, and I shall make up my 
 mind what there is for me to do.".... 
 
 Late in the evening she heard his carriage-wheels on 
 the pavement, his ring, and his steps, and his colloquy 
 with the maid ; he believed what he was told, he did not 
 care to make any further inquiries, and he went to his 
 room. Evidently all was at an end. And Death as the 
 only means of establishing a love for her in his heart, of 
 punishing him, and of winning the victory in the struggle 
 which the evil spirit that had possession of her soul was 
 waging with him, clearly, vividly, presented itself before 
 her. 
 
 Now everything was a matter of indifference 
 whether they went to the country or not, whether she 
 procured the divorce or not it was unnecessary ; the 
 one essential thing was to punish him. 
 
 When she poured out her usual dose of opium, and 
 it came over her that if she swallowed all that was in 
 the vial she would die, it seemed so easy and simple 
 that she felt a real joy in imagining how he would 
 mourn, repent, and love her when it was too late. She 
 lay on her bed with open eyes, and watched the dying 
 candle-light on the molded cornice of the ceiling mingle 
 with the shadow of the screen which divided the room ; 
 she vividly pictured to herself how he would think when 
 she was no more, when she was only a memory. " How 
 could I speak to her such cruel words?" he would say 
 to himself. " How could I leave her without saying 
 anything at all ? and now she is no more ; she has left 
 us forever ! She is there ...." 
 
 Suddenly the shadow of the screen seemed to waver 
 and cover the whole cornice, the whole ceiling; other 
 shadows from the other sides joined in with it ; for an 
 instant they seemed to be running, then with new rapid- 
 ity they trembled, melted together, and all became dark. 
 
 " Death ! " thought she ; and such a great terror seized 
 upon her, that for a long time she did not know where
 
 3i 4 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 she was ; and it was long before her trembling hands 
 could find the matches, in order to light another candle 
 in place of the one that had burned down and gone out. 
 
 " No, no ! anything .... only to live ! I love him, and 
 he loves me; these dreadful days will go by!" she said 
 to herself, feeling that tears of joy poured down her 
 cheeks at her return to life. And to escape her terror 
 she fled to Vronsky's library. 
 
 He was in his library, soundly sleeping. She went to 
 him, and, holding the candle above his face, looked at 
 him a long time. Now, as he slept, she felt such love 
 for him, that at the sight of him she could not refrain 
 from tears of tenderness; but she knew that, if he woke 
 he would look at her with a cold, self-justifying look, 
 and that before she spoke a word of her love she would 
 not be able to resist the temptation of proving to him 
 how wrong he was. 
 
 Without waking him she went back to her room ; and, 
 after a second dose of opium, she fell into' a heavy sleep 
 which lasted till morning, and all the time she was con- 
 scious of herself. 
 
 Toward morning she had the frightful nightmare 
 which she had experienced several times even before 
 her liaison with Vronsky. She saw a little old man, 
 with unkempt beard, doing something, bending over a 
 gourd, and muttering unintelligible French words ; and, 
 as always when she had this nightmare, and therein 
 lay the horror of the dream, she felt that the little old 
 man paid no heed to her, but did this horrible some- 
 thing in the gourd over her head. She awoke in a cold 
 perspiration. 
 
 When she got up, the events of the day before seemed 
 enveloped in mist. 
 
 "There was a quarrel. It has happened several 
 times before. I said I had a headache, and he didn't 
 come to see me. That is all. To-morrow we shall go 
 away. I must see him, and get ready for our depar- 
 ture," she said to herself ; and, knowing that he was in 
 his library, she started to go to him. 
 
 But, in crossing the drawing-room, her attention was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 315 
 
 arrested by the sound of a carriage stopping, and she 
 looked out of the window and saw a carriage, from the 
 window of which a young girl in a light hat was putting 
 out her head, and giving orders to the footman, who 
 was at the door-bell. After a colloquy in the vestibule, 
 some one came up-stairs, and Anna heard Vronsky's 
 steps in the room next the drawing-room. Then he ran 
 swiftly down-stairs. Anna looked out again, and saw 
 him go out to the door-steps bare-headed, and approach 
 the carriage. The young girl in the lilac-colored hat 
 handed him a package. Vronsky smiled as he spoke 
 to her. The carriage drove away, and Vronsky came 
 quickly up-stairs again. 
 
 The mist which enwrapped everything in Anna's soul 
 suddenly cleared away. The feelings of the day before 
 tore her anguished heart more cruelly than ever. She 
 now could not understand how she could have so far 
 debased herself as to stay a single day under his roof. 
 She went to his library, to acquaint him with the resolu- 
 tion that she had taken. 
 
 " The Princess Sorokin and her daughter have brought 
 me the money and papers from maman. I could not 
 get them yesterday. How is your headache ? better ? " 
 he said quietly, seeming not to notice the gloomy and 
 solemn expression of Anna's face. 
 
 She did not reply ; but, standing in the middle of the 
 room, she looked fixedly at him. He glanced at her 
 for an instant, his brows contracted, and he continued to 
 read his letter. Without speaking, Anna turned slowly 
 about, and left the room. He might yet detain her ; but 
 she had reached the door. He said not a word, the only 
 sound heard was the rustling of the sheet of paper. 
 
 " Oh ! by the way," he exclaimed, just as she was on 
 the threshold, " do we really go to-morrow ? " 
 
 " You, but not I," answered she, turning round on him. 
 
 "Anna, it is impossible to live in this way." 
 
 " You, not I," she repeated. 
 
 " It 's becoming intolerable ! " 
 
 " You .... you will be sorry for this," said she ; and she 
 went out.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 Frightened at the despairing tone with which she 
 spoke those last words, he sprang up and started to 
 follow her ; but, on reflection, he seated himself again, 
 and, firmly clenching his teeth, he frowned. That unbe- 
 coming threat, as he termed it, irritated him. " I have tried 
 every means," he said to himself : " the only thing left is 
 to pay no attention ; " and he made up his mind to go to 
 the city and to his mother's again, to have her sign a deed. 
 
 Anna heard the sound of his steps in his library and 
 the dining-room. He stopped at the drawing-room. 
 But he did not come to her : he only gave some direc- 
 tions about sending the stallion to Voi'tof. Then she 
 heard the calash drive to the entrance, a door opened 
 and Vronsky went out. Then he came back into the 
 vestibule again and some one ran up-stairs. It was his 
 valet, who was sent to get a pair of forgotten gloves. 
 She went to the window, and saw Vronsky take his 
 gloves, then touch the coachman's back, and say some 
 words to him ; and then, without glancing at the window, 
 he sat down as usual, in the carriage, crossing one leg 
 over the other. And, putting on the gloves, he turned 
 the corner, and disappeared from Anna's sight. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 " HE is gone. It 's all over," said Anna to herself, as 
 she stood at the window ; and the impression of black- 
 ness which she had felt in the night at the dying candle 
 and that of the nightmare blending in one, filled her 
 heart with chill horror. " No, I cannot endure this," she 
 cried, and, crossing the room, she rang the bell violently. 
 She was so afraid to stay alone, that, without waiting, 
 she went to meet the servant. 
 
 " Find out where the count has gone." 
 
 The man replied that he had gone to the stables. 
 " He left word that the carriage would return immedi- 
 ately if you wished to go out." 
 
 " Very well. Wait, I am going to write a note, send 
 Mikhail with it to the stables. Have him hurry."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 317 
 
 She sat down and wrote : 
 
 I am to blame. Come back. We must explain things. 
 For Heaven's sake, come ! I am frightened. 
 
 She sealed the note, and gave it to the servant ; and, 
 in her fear of being alone, she went to the nursery. 
 
 " Why, he is not the same as he was. Where are his 
 blue eyes, and his pretty, timid smile ? " was her first 
 thought when she saw the plump and rosy little girl, with 
 her dark curly hair, instead of Serozha, whom, in the 
 confusion of her thoughts, she had expected to see. 
 
 The little girl was seated at the table, noisily tapping 
 on it with a glass stopper. She looked unintelligently at 
 her mother with two dark, currant-colored eyes. Answer- 
 ing the English nurse that she was well, and expected to 
 go to the country the next day, Anna sat down beside 
 the little girl, and began to spin the stopper from the 
 carafe in front of her. The motion of the child's brows 
 and her hearty laugh recalled Vronsky so vividly that 
 Anna, choking down her sobs, rose suddenly, and hur- 
 ried from the room. 
 
 " Is it possible that all is over ? No, it cannot be," 
 thought she. " He will return. But how can he explain 
 that smile of his and his animation, after he spoke with 
 her? But even if he doesn't explain it, I shall believe 
 him ; if I do not believe, there is only one thing left, 
 and that I do not want." 
 
 She looked at her watch. Twelve minutes had gone by. 
 
 " Now he must have received my note, and must come 
 back in ten minutes. And what if he should n't come 
 back ? No, but that 's impossible. He must not find 
 me with red eyes ; I '11 go and bathe my face. There, 
 there! Have I brushed my hair yet?" She could not 
 remember. She put her hands to her head. " Yes, I 
 brushed my hair, but I really don't remember when it 
 was." She actually did not believe that her hands told 
 her truly, and she went to the pier-glass to see. Her 
 hair was properly arranged, but she could not remember 
 anything about it. 
 
 " Who is this ? " she asked herself, as she caught sight
 
 3i8 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of a glowing face and strangely brilliant eyes gazing at 
 her from the mirror. " Yes, it is I." And she suddenly 
 seemed to feel his kisses ; and she shivered, and shrugged 
 her shoulders. Then she put her hand to her lips, and 
 kissed it. " It must be that I am going out of my 
 mind ; " and she fled to her room, which Annushka was 
 putting in order. 
 
 " Annushka," she said, as she stood before the maid, 
 not knowing what to say. 
 
 " Will you go to Darya Aleksandrovna's ? " said the 
 maid, as if reading her thoughts. 
 
 " To Darya Aleksandrovna's ? Yes, I will go there. 
 Fifteen minutes to go, fifteen to come back. He ought 
 to be here." She looked at her watch. " Oh ! how 
 could he leave me in such a condition ? How can he 
 live, and not be at peace with me ? " She went to the 
 window, and looked out into the street ; perhaps she 
 had made a mistake in calculating, and she began over 
 again to count the minutes since he left. 
 
 Just as she was about going to consult the great clock, 
 so as to verify hers, a carriage stopped before the door. 
 It was the count's calash, but no one came up-stairs, and 
 she heard voices in the vestibule. It was the messenger, 
 who came back in the calash. She hurried down to him. 
 
 " They were too late for the count. He had gone to 
 the Nizhegorodsky railway station." 
 
 " What is the matter ? what is it ? " she asked, address- 
 ing the ruddy, jolly Mikhail, who handed her back the 
 note. Oh, yes ; he did not receive it, she remembered. 
 
 " Go with this note to the Countess Vronsky's in the 
 country, you understand ? and bring an answer back to 
 me immediately ! " 
 
 " But what shall I do ? " she thought. " Yes, I will 
 go to see Dolly, to be sure, or else I shall go out of my 
 mind. Ah! I might telegraph!" And she wrote the 
 following despatch : 
 
 I absolutely must speak to you. Come back immediately. 
 
 Having sent the telegram, she went and dressed ; and 
 then, with her hat on, she again looked at the stout,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 319 
 
 good-natured Annushka, whose little, gentle gray eyes 
 were full of sympathy. 
 
 " Annushka, my dear, what am I to do ? " murmured 
 she, dropping into an arm-chair with a sob. 
 
 "You mustn't excite yourself so, Anna Arkadyevna. 
 Go out for a drive ; that will divert you. These things 
 will happen," said the maid. 
 
 " Yes, I am going out," said Anna, collecting her 
 thoughts, and rising. " If a despatch comes while I am 
 gone, send it to Darya Aleksandrovna's. Or ....no, I 
 will come back I must keep from thinking. I must 
 do something, and go out, and, above all, get out of this 
 house," thought she, listening, with alarm, to the wild 
 beating of her heart. She hastened out and got into the 
 calash. 
 
 " Where do you wish to go ? " asked Piotr, just before 
 he took his seat on the box. 
 
 " To Znamenko, to the Oblonskys'." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THE weather was clear. A fine, thick rain had fallen 
 all the morning, but now it had just cleared off. The 
 roofs and flagstones and harnesses and the metal-work 
 of the carriages glittered in the May sunshine. It was 
 three o'clock, the liveliest time in the streets. 
 
 Sitting in the corner of the comfortable calash, which 
 swung easily on its elastic springs as it rolled swiftly 
 along, drawn by a pair of grays, Anna, soothed by the 
 monotonous rumble of the wheels and the hurrying im- 
 pressions that she received in the fresh, pure air, reviewed 
 the events of the past few days, and her situation seemed 
 entirely different from what it had been at home. Now, 
 the idea of death did not frighten her so much, and death 
 itself did not seem to her so inevitable. Now she blamed 
 herself for the humiliation to which she had stooped. 
 
 " I begged him to forgive me. I bent before him. I 
 accused myself, Why did I ? Can't I live without 
 him?"
 
 320 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 And, leaving this question unanswered, she began to 
 read the sign-boards mechanically. 
 
 " Kontor i sklad. Zubno'i Vratch. 1 Yes, I will tell 
 Dolly all about it. She does not love Vronsky. It will 
 be hard, shameful, .... but I will confess everything. She 
 loves me. I will follow her advice. I will not allow 
 him to treat me like a child. Philoppof KalatcJii ; 
 they say they send those loaves as far as Petersburg. 
 The water at Moscow is so good ; ah ! the wells of 
 Muitishchensky ! " 
 
 And she remembered how long, long ago, when she 
 was seventeen, she had gone with her aunt to the 
 monastery of Troi'tsa. 2 
 
 "They traveled with horses in those days. Was it 
 really I, with the red hands? How many things which 
 seemed then beautiful and unattainable are worthless to 
 me now ! What I was then, is passed forever beyond 
 recall ! And ages could not bring me back. Would I 
 have believed then that I could have fallen into such 
 debasement ? .... How proud and self-satisfied he will be 
 
 when he reads my note! But I will tell him How 
 
 disagreeable this paint smells ! Why are they always 
 painting and building ? Modui i uborui. FasJtionable 
 Dressmaker," she read. 
 
 A man bowed to her ; it was Annushka's husband. 
 
 " Our parasites, as Vronsky says. Ours ? Why ours f 
 Ah, if one could tear out the past by the roots ! But 
 that 's impossible ; one can only avoid thinking about it. 
 And I do that." 
 
 And yet, here she recalled her past with Alekse'f 
 Aleksandrovitch, and how she had driven him out of her 
 memory. 
 
 " Dolly will think that I am leaving the second hus- 
 band, and that I am, therefore, really bad. Do I want 
 to be good ? I cannot." .... And she felt the tears com- 
 
 1 Office and warehouse. Surgeon-Dentist. 
 
 2 The Troitskaia Lavra, or Trinity Laura, near Moscow, founded by 
 St. Sergius in the fourteenth century in the time of the Grand Prince 
 Simeon; the richest and most famous institution of its kind in Russia. At 
 one time it had 700 monks and 1 10,000 souls, or male serfs.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 321 
 
 ing. And, seeing two happy young girls going by, she 
 fell to wondering why they were smiling at each other. 
 " Probably about love. They don't know how sad 
 
 and wretched it is The boulevards and the -children ! 
 
 There are three little boys, playing horse. Serozha ! 
 my little Serozha. I shall lose all. I shall never have 
 
 him again Well, if he does not come back, all is 
 
 indeed lost. Perhaps he missed the train, and has 
 already reached home. Do I wish to humiliate myself 
 still more?" she said, reproaching herself for her weak- 
 ness. " No, I 'm going to Dolly's. I shall say to her, 
 ' I am unhappy, I am suffering ; I deserve it ; but I am 
 so unhappy, help me!' Oh, these horses, this calash! 
 how I hate to use them ! they are his. I will never see 
 them again ! " 
 
 While thinking over what she should say to Dolly, and 
 deliberately torturing her heart, she reached the house, 
 and went up the steps. 
 
 " Is there any one here ? " she asked, in the anteroom. 
 
 " Katerina Aleksandrovna Levina," answered the 
 servant. 
 
 " Kitty, the same Kitty with whom Vronsky was once 
 in love," thought Anna; "and he thinks of her with 
 love, and is sorry that he did not marry her; and he 
 thinks of me with hate, and is sorry that he ever met 
 me." 
 
 When Anna arrived, the two sisters were talking over 
 the subject of feeding babies. Dolly went alone to the 
 drawing-room to receive the guest that had come to 
 disturb their conversation. 
 
 " You have n't gone away yet ? I was just going to 
 your house," said Dolly. " I have a letter from Stiva 
 to-day." 
 
 "We had a despatch," answered Anna, glancing round 
 to see if Kitty was coming. 
 
 " He writes that he does not understand what AlekseK 
 Aleksandrovitch requires, but that he will not come away 
 till he has a definite answer." 
 
 " I thought you had company. May I read the 
 letter ? " 
 
 VOL. III. 21
 
 322 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 "Yes, .... Kitty," said Dolly, confused; "she is in the 
 nursery. You know she has been very ill." 
 
 " I heard so. May I read the letter ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; I '11 go and get it. Alekse'f Aleksandro- 
 vitch does not refuse ; on the contrary, Stiva is quite 
 hopeful," said Dolly, stopping at the door. 
 
 " I neither hope nor want anything," said Anna. 
 
 " Does Kitty think it humiliating to meet me ? " 
 thought Anna, when she was left alone. " Perhaps she 
 is right ; but she who once loved Vronsky has no right 
 to thrust it in my face, even if she is right. I know 
 that a virtuous woman cannot receive me in my present 
 position. I have given up everything for him, and this 
 is my reward ! Ah, how I hate him ! Why did I come 
 here ? I am more wretched here than at home." 
 
 She heard the voices of the two sisters in an adjoin- 
 ing room. 
 
 "And what am I to say to Dolly ? Delight Kitty with 
 the spectacle of my misery ? Submit to her condescen- 
 sion ? Never ! Even Dolly would n't understand. I 
 will not say anything to her. All I should want to see 
 Kitty for would be to show her that I am indifferent, 
 that I scorn every one and everything." 
 
 Dolly came in with the letter ; Anna silently looked 
 it through, and returned it. 
 
 "I knew all that," said she; "but it doesn't interest 
 me at all." 
 
 " Now, why not ? I have good hopes," said Dolly, look- 
 ing critically at Anna. She had never seen her in 
 such a strange state of irritation. "When do you go 
 away?" 
 
 Anna half closed her eyes, and looked before her with- 
 out answering. 
 
 " Is Kitty afraid of me?" she asked, after a moment, 
 glancing toward the door, with heightened color. 
 
 " Akh, what nonsense ! But she is nursing the baby 
 
 .... it does not go very well yet I have been giving 
 
 her some advice .... she will be delighted, and is coming 
 directly," answered Dolly, awkwardly, not knowing how 
 to tell a fib. " Oh, there she is now. "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 323 
 
 When Kitty heard that Anna was there, she had not 
 wished to appear ; but Dolly had persuaded her. Con- 
 trolling her repugnance, she went to the parlor, and, 
 blushing as she approached Anna, she held out her 
 hand. 
 
 " I am very glad," said she, in a trembling voice. 
 
 Kitty was confused by the struggle between her dis- 
 like of this wicked' woman and her desire to be polite 
 to her ; but, as soon as she saw Anna's beautiful, attrac- 
 tive face, all her unfriendliness vanished. 
 
 " I should not have been surprised if you had refused 
 to see me; I am used to everything," said Anna. "You 
 have been very ill; yes, you have changed." 
 
 Kitty felt that Anna looked at her with dislike, and 
 she attributed her unfriendliness to the awkward position 
 in which she stood in regard to herself, having once been 
 her especial favorite. Her heart was filled with com- 
 passion. 
 
 They talked of Kitty's illness, about her baby, and of 
 Stiva ; but evidently nothing interested Anna. 
 
 " I came to bid you good-by," she said to Dolly, as 
 she rose. 
 
 " When do you go ? " 
 
 But, without answering her, Anna turned to Kitty. 
 
 "Well, I am very glad to have seen you again," said 
 she, with a smile. " I 've heard so much about you from 
 every one, and especially from your husband. He came 
 to see me, and I liked him very much," she added, with 
 a wicked emphasis. " Where is he ? " 
 
 " He has gone to the country," answered Kitty, 
 blushing. 
 
 " Give my love to him ; now don't forget ! " 
 
 " I will do it, certainly," said Kitty, simply, with a com- 
 passionate look. 
 
 " So, prashcha'i, Dolly, good-by," said Anna, kissing 
 her ; and, shaking hands with Kitty, she hastened away. 
 
 " She is as fascinating as ever," remarked Kitty, to 
 her sister, when Dolly rejoined Kitty. " And how 
 beautiful she is ! But there is something very painful 
 about her.... terribly painful."
 
 1 
 
 324 I ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " She does n't seem to be in her usual state to-day. 1 
 thought she came near bursting into tears, when I accom- 
 panied her into the anteroom." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 ANNA took her seat in her carriage in an even unhap- 
 pier state of mind than she had been when she left her 
 house. In addition to her former sufferings, she now 
 felt the humiliation and sense of moral degeneracy which 
 her meeting with Kitty had clearly made evident. 
 
 " Where would you wish to go now ? Home ? " asked 
 Piotr. 
 
 "Yes, home," she replied, now not thinking at all 
 where she was going. 
 
 " They looked on me as some strange, incomprehen- 
 sible curiosity. What can that man be saying so 
 eagerly to the other? " thought she, seeing two passers- 
 by talking together. " Is it possible to say what one 
 really feels ? I wanted to confess to Dolly, and I am 
 glad that I kept still. How she would have rejoiced at 
 my unhappiness ! She would have tried to hide it, but 
 at heart she would have been glad ; she would have 
 thought it just that I should be punished for that happi- 
 ness which she begrudged me. And Kitty would have 
 been still more pleased. How I read her through and 
 through ! She knows her husband liked me uncommonly 
 well, and she is jealous, and hates me; and, what 's more, 
 she despises me. In her eyes, I am an immoral woman. 
 If I had been an immoral woman I might have made 
 him fall in love with me, if I had wanted to ! I confess 
 I thought of it. There goes a man who is delighted 
 with his own looks," she said to herself, as a tall, florid 
 man went by, and, mistaking her for an acquaintance, 
 lifted his shiny hat from his shiny bald head, and 
 instantly recognized his mistake. 
 
 " He thought he knew me ! He knows me quite as 
 well as any one in the world knows me. I don't know 
 myself ; I only know my appetites, as the French say.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 325 
 
 They covet some of that bad ice-cream," she said to 
 herself, as she watched two little street children stand- 
 ing in front of a vender, who had just set down from 
 his head his tub of ice-cream, and was wiping his face 
 with a corner of his coat. 
 
 "We all want our sweet delicacies; if not sugar- 
 plums, then bad ice-cream, just like Kitty, who, not 
 catching Vronsky, took Levin. She envies me, she 
 hates me ; and we all hate one another, I Kitty, and 
 Kitty me. That is a fact. Tint kin coiffeur Je mcfais 
 
 coiffer par Tiutkin I will tell him this nonsense 
 
 when he comes," thought she, and smiled, and then 
 instantly remembered that there was no one now to 
 whom she could tell amusing things. "There is noth- 
 ing amusing, nothing gay; it is all disgusting. The 
 vesper-bell is ringing, and that storekeeper is crossing 
 himself so quickly that one would think he was afraid 
 of losing the chance. 
 
 "Why these churches, these bells, these lies? Just 
 to hide the fact that we all hate one another, like those 
 izvoshchiks who are swearing at each other so angrily. 
 Yashvin was right when he said, ' He is after my shirt, 
 and I am after his.' That is a fact." 
 
 She was so engrossed by these thoughts that she for- 
 got her grief for a while, and was surprised when the 
 carriage stopped in front of her house. The sight of 
 the Swiss, coming to meet her, reminded her that she 
 had sent a letter and a telegram. 
 
 " Is there an answer yet ? " 
 
 "I will go and see," said the Swiss; and, looking on 
 the secretary, he came back in a moment with a tele- 
 gram in a thin, square envelop. Anna read : 
 
 I cannot be back before ten o 'clock. VRONSKY. 
 
 " And has the messenger come back? " 
 
 " Not yet," replied the Swiss. 
 
 " Ah ! if that is so, then I know what I must do ; " 
 and, feeling a vague sense of anger and a desire for 
 vengeance arising in her soul, she ran up-stairs. 
 
 " I myself will go and find him," thought she.
 
 326 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " Before I go away forever, I will tell him all. I never 
 hated any one as I hate this man ! " 
 
 And when she caught sight of Vronsky's hat hanging 
 on the peg, she shivered with aversion. She did not 
 reflect that the despatch was in answer to her telegram, 
 and that he could not as yet have received her note. 
 She imagined him now chatting gayly with his mother 
 and the Princess Sorokin, without a thought of her 
 suffering. 
 
 " Yes, I must go as quickly as possible," she said, not 
 knowing at all whither she should go. 
 
 She felt that she must fly from the thoughts that 
 oppressed her in this terrible house. The servants, the 
 walls, the furniture, everything about it, filled her with 
 disgust and pain, and crushed her with a terrible 
 weight. 
 
 " Yes, I must go to the railroad station, and if not 
 there, then somewhere else, to punish him." 
 
 She looked at the time-table in the newspaper. The 
 evening train went at two minutes past eight. 
 
 " Yes, I shall have plenty of time." 
 
 She ordered the two other horses to be harnessed, and 
 she had transferred from her trunk to her traveling-bag 
 things enough to last for several days. She knew that 
 she should never come back again. She revolved a 
 thousand plans in her head, and determined that when 
 she had done what she had in mind to do, either at the 
 countess's country seat, or at the station, she would go 
 to the first city on the Nizhni Novgorod Railway and 
 stay there. 
 
 Dinner was on the table. She went to it, smelt the 
 bread and cheese, and persuading herself that the odor 
 of the victuals was repugnant to her, she ordered 
 the carriage again, and went out. The house was 
 already casting a shadow across the wide street ; but 
 the sky was clear, and it was warm in the sun. An- 
 nushka, who brought her things, and Piotr, who carried 
 them to the carriage, and the coachman, who was evi- 
 dently angry, all were disagreeable to her, and vexed 
 her with their words and motions.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 327 
 
 " I do not need you, Piotr." 
 
 " Who will get your ticket ? " 
 
 " Well, go if you wish ; it makes no difference to me," 
 she said pettishly. 
 
 Piotr nimbly mounted the box, and, folding his arms, 
 ordered the coachman to drive to the station. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 " Now I am myself again. Now I remember it all," 
 said Anna to herself, as soon as the calash started, and, 
 rocking a little, rattled along over the cobble-stones of 
 the pavement ; and once more her impressions began to 
 go whirling through her mind. 
 
 " Yes, what was that good thing that I was thinking 
 about last? Tiutkin, the coiffeur? Oh, no; not that. 
 Oh, yes ; what Yashvin said about the struggle for 
 existence, and hatred, the only thing that unites men. 
 No ; we go at haphazard." 
 
 She saw in a carriage drawn by four horses a party 
 of merrymakers, who had evidently come to the city for 
 a pleasure-trip. 
 
 "And the dog which you take with you does not help 
 you at all. You can't get out of yourself." Glancing 
 in the direction where Piotr was turning, she saw a 
 working-man almost dead drunk, who, with a flopping 
 head, was being led by a policeman. She added : " That 
 man's way is quicker. Count Vronsky and I did not 
 reach this pleasure, though we expected much." 
 
 And now for the first time Anna turned this bright 
 light, all-revealing, upon her relations with the count ; 
 hitherto she had steadfastly refused to do so. 
 
 " What did he seek in me ? A satisfaction for his 
 vanity, rather than for his love ! " 
 
 She remembered Vronsky 's words, and the expression 
 of his face, which reminded her of a submissive dog, 
 when they first met and loved. Everything seemed a 
 confirmation of this thought. 
 
 " Yes ; he cared for the triumph of success above
 
 328 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 everything. Of course, he loved me, but chiefly from 
 vanity. Now that he is not proud of me any more, it is 
 over. He is ashamed of me. He has taken from me 
 all that he could take, and now I am of no use to him. 
 I weigh upon him, and he does not want to be in dis- 
 honorable relationship with me. He said, yesterday, he 
 wanted the divorce and to marry me so as to burn his 
 ships. Perhaps he loves me still, but how ? The 
 zest is gone," she said in English. "That man likes 
 to show off, and he is mighty proud of himself," she 
 added, as she looked at a ruddy-faced man riding by on 
 a hired horse. 
 
 " There is nothing about me any longer fo his taste. 
 If I leave him, he will rejoice in the bottom of his heart." 
 
 This was not mere hypothesis ; she saw this clearly, 
 in that penetrating light which now revealed to her the 
 meaning of life and of her false relations. 
 
 " My love has been growing more and more passion- 
 ate and selfish ; his has been growing fainter and fainter. 
 That is why we cannot get on together." She went on 
 thinking. " There can't be any help for it. He is all in 
 all to me. I struggle to draw him closer and closer to 
 me, and he wants to fly from me. Up to the time of 
 our union, we flew to meet each other ; but now we move 
 irresistibly apart. This cannot be altered. He accuses 
 me of being absurdly jealous, and I am ; I confess 
 that I am absurdly jealous, and yet I am not either. I am 
 not jealous, but my love is no longer satisfied. But .... " 
 she opened her mouth to speak, and, in the excitement 
 caused by the stress of her thoughts, she changed her 
 place in the carriage. 
 
 " If I could only be something else than a passionate 
 mistress, but I cannot, and I do not wish to be ; and by 
 this very wish I awake his dislike of me, while he stirs 
 up all my evil passions, and this cannot be otherwise. 
 
 " Don't I know that he would not deceive me, that he 
 is no longer in love with Kitty, that he has no intention 
 of marrying Sorokina ? I know it well, but it is none 
 the easier for me. If now that he no longer loves me, 
 he is kind, affectionate to me, merely from a sense of
 
 ANNA KARENINA 329 
 
 duty, but cannot be what I must have, that would be a 
 thousand times worse than to have him angry with me. 
 That would be hell ! And so it is. He has long 
 ceased to love me. When love ceases, hate begins. I 
 don't know these streets at all. What hosts of houses ! 
 in them, people, people, no end of them ! and they 
 all hate one another ! 
 
 " Well ! let me think what could happen to me now 
 that would give me happiness again ? Suppose that 
 Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch should consent to the divorce, 
 and would give me back Serozha, and that I should marry 
 Vronsky?" 
 
 And as she thought of Alekse'f Aleksandrovitch, Anna 
 could see him with extraordinary vividness before her, 
 as if alive, with his dull, lifeless, faded eyes, his white, 
 blue-veined hands, and his cracking joints, and the in- 
 tonations of his voice, and, as she recalled their relation 
 to each other, which had been called love, she shuddered 
 with aversion. 
 
 " Well ! Suppose I got the divorce, and were married 
 to Vronsky, would not Kitty still look at me as she 
 looked at me to-day ? She certainly would. Would 
 not Serozha ask and wonder why I had two husbands ? 
 But between me and Vronsky what new feeling could I 
 imagine ? Is it possible that our relations might be, if 
 not pleasanter, at least not so tormenting as they are 
 now ? No, and no ! " she replied, without the least hesi- 
 tation. " Impossible ! We are growing apart ; and I 
 make him unhappy ; he makes me unhappy, and I can- 
 not change him ; every means has been tried. The screw 
 has been turned for the last time 
 
 " Now, there 's a beggar with a child. She thinks 
 she inspires pity. Were we not thrown into the world 
 to hate one another, and to torment ourselves and every- 
 body else ? Here come the schoolboys out to play ! 
 Serozha ? " 
 
 It reminded her of her son. 
 
 " I used to think that I loved him, and I was touched 
 by his gentleness. I have lived without him, I have 
 given him up for my love, and was not sorry for the
 
 330 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 change, as long as I was contented with him whom I 
 loved." 
 
 And she remembered with disgust what she called 
 that love. And the clearness with which she now saw 
 her own life, as well as the lives of others, delighted 
 her. 
 
 "Thus am I, and Piotr and the coachman, Feodor, 
 and that merchant, and all people from here to the 
 Volga, wherever these remarks are applicable .... and 
 everywhere and always," she thought, as the carriage 
 stopped in front of the low-roofed station of the Nizhni 
 Novgorod Railway, and the porters came hurrying out 
 to meet her. 
 
 " Shall I book you for Obiralovka ? " asked Piotr. 
 
 She had entirely forgotten why she had come, and 
 only by a great effort could she understand what he 
 meant. 
 
 " Yes," she said, handing him her purse ; and, taking 
 her little red bag, she got out of the carriage. As she 
 entered the waiting-room for the first-class passengers 
 with the throng, she reviewed all the details of her situ- 
 ation and the plans between which she was halting. 
 And again hope and despair in alternation irritated the 
 wounds in her tortured, cruelly palpitating heart. As 
 she sat on the stelliform divan waiting for the train, she 
 looked with aversion on the people going and coming, 
 they were all her enemies, and thought now of how, 
 when she reached the station, she would write to him, 
 and what she would write, and then how at this very 
 moment he not thinking of her suffering was com- 
 plaining to his mother of his position, and how she 
 would go to his room, and what she would say to him. 
 
 The thought that she might yet live happily crossed 
 her brain ; and how hard it was to love and hate him at 
 the same time! And, above all, how frightfully her 
 heart was beating !
 
 ANNA KARENINA 331 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 A BELL sounded, and some impudent young men, ugly 
 and vulgar, and yet mindful of the impression they pro- 
 duced, hurried before her. Then Piotr, in his livery 
 and top-boots, with his dull, good-natured face, crossed 
 the waiting-room, and came up to escort her to the car- 
 riage. The noisy men about the door stopped talking 
 while she passed out on the platform ; then one of them 
 whispered to his neighbor some remark, which was ap- 
 parently impudent. Anna mounted the high steps, and 
 sat down alone in the compartment on the dirty sofa 
 which once had been white, and laid her bag beside her 
 on the springy seat. Piotr, at the window, raised his 
 gold-laced hat, with an inane smile, for a farewell, and 
 departed. The saucy conductor shut the door. A 
 woman, deformed, and ridiculously dressed up, followed 
 by a little girl laughing affectedly, passed below the car- 
 window. Anna looked at her with disgust. " Katerina 
 Andreyevna has everything, ma tante" screamed the little 
 girl. 
 
 " That child, even she is grotesque and makes gri- 
 maces," thought Anna ; and she seated herself at the 
 opposite window of the empty apartment, to avoid seeing 
 the people. 
 
 A dirty hunchback muzhik passed close to the win- 
 dow, and examined the car-wheels ; he wore a cap, 
 from beneath which could be seen tufts of disheveled 
 hair. 
 
 " There is something familiar about that humpbacked 
 muzhik," thought Anna ; and suddenly she remembered 
 her nightmare, and drew back, trembling with fright, 
 toward the carriage-door, which the conductor was just 
 opening to admit a lady and gentleman. 
 
 " Do you want to get out ? " 
 
 Anna did not answer ; under her veil the conductor and 
 the passengers did not see the horror in her face. She 
 returned to her corner and sat down again. The couple 
 took seats opposite her, and cast stealthy but curious
 
 332 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 glances at her gown. The husband and wife were ob 
 noxious to her. The husband asked her if she objected 
 to smoking, evidently not for the sake of smoking, 
 but as an excuse for entering into conversation with 
 her. Having obtained her permission, he remarked to 
 his wife in French that he felt even more inclined to 
 talk than to smoke. They exchanged stupid remarks, 
 with the hope of attracting Anna's attention. 
 
 Anna clearly saw how they bored each other, how 
 they hated each other. It was impossible not to hate 
 such painful monstrosities. 
 
 The second gong sounded, and was followed by the 
 rumble of baggage, noise, shouts, laughter. Anna saw 
 so clearly that there was nothing to rejoice at, that this 
 laughter roused her indignation, and she longed to stop 
 her ears so as not to hear it. 
 
 At last the third signal was given, the locomotive 
 whistled, there was a sound of escaping steam, the train 
 started, and the gentleman crossed himself. 
 
 " It would be interesting to ask him what he meant by 
 that," thought Anna, looking at him angrily. Then she 
 looked past the woman's head, out of the car-window, 
 at the people apparently moving backward even while 
 they were standing and walking on the platform. The 
 carriage in which Anna sat moved past the stone walls 
 of the station, the switches, the other carriages. The 
 wheels with a ringing sound moved more easily and 
 smoothly over the rails ; the rays of the setting sun 
 slanted into the car-window, and a light breeze played 
 through the slats of the blinds in the carriages, and 
 Anna forgot her neighbors, breathed in the fresh air, 
 and took up again the course of her thoughts. 
 
 " There ! What was I thinking about ? Oh, yes, I 
 was just deciding that I could not imagine any situa- 
 tion in which my life could be anything but one long 
 misery. We are all dedicated to unhappiness; we all 
 know it, and only seek for ways to deceive ourselves. 
 But when we see the truth, what is to be done ? " 
 
 ' Reason was given to man, that he might avoid what 
 annoys him," remarked the woman, in French, appar-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 333 
 
 ently delighted with her sentence, and putting out her 
 tongue. 
 
 The words fitted in with Anna's thought. 
 
 "To avoid what annoys him," she repeated, and a 
 glance at the red-faced man, and his thin companion, 
 showed her that the woman looked on herself as a mis- 
 understood creature, and that her stout husband did not 
 contradict this opinion, and took advantage of it to de- 
 ceive her. Anna, as it were, read their history, and 
 looked into the most secret depths of their hearts ; but 
 it was not interesting, and she went on with her 
 reflections. 
 
 " Yes, it annoys me very much, and reason was given 
 to avoid it ; therefore it must be done. Why not extin- 
 guish the light when it shines on things disgusting to 
 see ? But how ? Why does the conductor keep hurry- 
 ing through the car ? Why do the young people in this 
 carriage scream so loud ? Why do they speak ? What 
 are they laughing at ? It is all false, all a lie, all decep- 
 tion, all vanity and vexation." 
 
 When the train reached the station, Anna went out 
 with the other passengers, and, with the idea of avoiding 
 too rude a contact with the bustling crowd, she hesitated 
 on the platform, trying to recollect why she had come, 
 and what she meant to do. All that seemed to her pos- 
 sible before to do, now seemed to her difficult to exe- 
 cute, especially amid this noisy crowd, which would not 
 leave her in peace. Now the porters came to her, to 
 offer her their services ; now some young men, clattering 
 with their heels up and down the platform, and talking 
 loud, observed her curiously ; now hurrying passengers 
 pushed her aside. 
 
 Finally, remembering that she was proposing to go 
 farther if there was no answer from Vronsky, she 
 stopped an official, and asked him 'f a coachman had 
 not been there with a letter for Count Vronsky. 
 
 " Count Vronsky ? Just now some one was here. 
 Princess Sorokin and her daughter met him. What 
 kind of a looking man is this coachman ?" 
 
 Even while she was talking with the official, the coach-
 
 334 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 man Mikhail, rosy and gay in his elegant blue livery and 
 watch-chain, immensely proud that he had fulfilled his 
 commission so well, came to her and handed her a 
 note. 
 
 Anna broke the seal, and her heart stood still even 
 before she had read the carelessly written lines : 
 
 I am very sorry that your note did not find me in Moscow. 
 I shall return at ten o'clock. 
 
 "Yes, that is what I expected," she said to herself, 
 with an angry grimace. 
 
 " Very good, you may go home," she said to Mikhail. 
 
 She spoke the words slowly and gently, because the 
 tumultuous beating of her heart almost prevented her 
 from breathing. 
 
 " No, I will not let you make me suffer so," thought 
 she, addressing, with a threat, neither Vronsky nor her 
 own self, so much as the thought that was torturing her ; 
 and she moved along the platform, past the station. 
 Two chambermaids walking on the platform turned to 
 look at her, and made audible remarks about her toilet. 
 " She has genuine lace," they said. The young men 
 would not leave her in peace. They stared at her, and 
 passed her again and again, joking and talking with loud 
 voices. The station-master came to her, and asked if 
 she was going to take the train. A lad selling kvas did 
 not take his eyes from her. 
 
 " Bozhe mot! where shall I go?" she said to her- 
 self, as she walked farther and farther along the plat- 
 form. 
 
 When she reached the end of it, she stopped. Some 
 women and children, who had come to the station to 
 meet a man in spectacles, were talking and laughing. 
 They too stopped talking, and turned to see Anna pass 
 by. She hastened her steps, and reached the very limit 
 of the platform. A freight-train was coming. The plat- 
 form shook, and made her feel as if she were on a mov- 
 ing train. 
 
 Suddenly she remembered the man who was run over 
 on the day when she met Vronsky for the first time, and
 
 ANNA KARENINA 335 
 
 she knew then what was left for her to do. With light 
 and swift steps she descended the stairway which led 
 from the water-tank at the end of the platform down to 
 the rails, and stood very near the train, which was slowly 
 passing by. She looked under the cars, at the chains 
 and the brake, and at the high iron wheels of the first 
 car, and she tried to estimate with her eye the distance 
 between the fore and back wheels, and the moment when 
 the middle would be in front of her. 
 
 "There," she said, looking at the shadow of the car 
 thrown upon the black coal-dust which covered the 
 sleepers, " there, in the center ; he will be punished, 
 and I shall be delivered from it all .... and from my- 
 self." 
 
 She was going to throw herself under the first car as 
 its center came opposite where she stood. Her little red 
 traveling-bag caused her to lose the moment ; she could 
 not detach it from her arm. She awaited the second. 
 A feeling like that she had experienced once, just before 
 taking a dive in the river, came over her, and she made 
 the sign of the cross. This familiar gesture called back 
 to her soul a whole series of memories of her youth and 
 childhood ; and suddenly the darkness which hid every- 
 thing from her was torn asunder. Life, with its elusive 
 joys, glowed for an instant before her. But she did not 
 take her eyes from the car; and when the center, be- 
 tween the two wheels, appeared, she threw away her 
 red bag, drawing her head between her shoulders, and, 
 with outstretched hands, threw herself on her knees 
 under the car. For a second she was horror-struck at 
 what she was doing. 
 
 " Where am I ? What am I doing ? Why ? " 
 
 She tried to get up, to draw back ; but something 
 monstrous, inflexible, struck her head, and threw her on 
 her back. 
 
 " Lord, forgive me all ! " she murmured, feeling the 
 struggle to be in vain. 
 
 A little muzhik was working on the railroad, mumbling 
 in his beard. 
 
 And the candle by which she had read the book
 
 336 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 that was filled with fears, with deceptions, with anguish, 
 and with evil, flared up with greater brightness than she 
 had ever known, revealing to her all that before was 
 in darkness, then flickered, grew faint, and went out 
 forever.
 
 PART EIGHTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A LMOST two months had passed by, half the hot 
 /~\. summer was gone, but Sergyei Ivanovitch had only 
 just made up his mind to leave Moscow. An important 
 event for him had just occurred. The year before he 
 had finished his book, entitled, " An Essay on the Prin- 
 ciples and the Forms of Government in Europe and in 
 Russia," the fruit of six years of labor. The introduc- 
 tion, as well as some fragments from the book, had 
 already appeared in the reviews, and certain parts had 
 been read by the author to the people of his circle, so 
 that the ideas contained in this treatise could not be a 
 perfect novelty for the public; but nevertheless Sergyei' 
 Ivanovitch expected that the book on its appearance 
 would attract serious attention, and produce, if not a 
 revolution in science, at least a powerful sensation in 
 the learned world. 
 
 This book, after careful revision, had been published 
 the year before, and distributed among the booksellers. 
 
 Though Sergyei Ivanovitch answered reluctantly and 
 with pretended indifference the questions of his friends 
 who asked how the book was going, and though he 
 refrained from inquiring of the booksellers how it 
 was selling, nevertheless he followed eagerly and with 
 strained attention every sign of the impression which 
 his book was producing on society and literature. 
 
 But a week passed, a second, a third, and there was 
 not a sign of any impression. His friends, specialists 
 and savants, evidently out of politeness, spoke to him 
 about it ; but the rest of his acquaintances, not being 
 interested in a book of scientific purport, did not speak 
 about it at all. Society, also, which just at that time 
 VOL. m. 22 337
 
 338 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 was preoccupied with entirely different matters, showed 
 utter unconcern. In literary circles, also, during the 
 lapse of a month, there was not a word about his book. 
 Sergyei Ivanovitch carefully calculated the time neces- 
 sary for preparing critical reviews, but months passed 
 by and there also was absolute silence. 
 
 Only in the Northern Beetle, in a facetious fe nil let on 
 regarding the singer Drabanti, who had lost his voice, 
 a few scornful words were said in regard to Koznuishef's 
 book, showing that it had already been criticized by 
 all, and was given over to universal ridicule. At length, 
 after three months, a critical article appeared in a journal 
 of importance. Sergye'f Ivanovitch knew who the author 
 was. He had met him once at Golubtsof's. 
 
 He was a very young and feeble critic, very clever as 
 a writer, but perfectly uneducated, and cowardly in his 
 private relations. 
 
 Notwithstanding Sergyef Ivanovitch's contempt of 
 the author, he began to read the article with extraordi- 
 nary interest. It proved to be abominable. 
 
 Evidently, the critic understood the whole book just 
 exactly as he should not have understood it. But he 
 had so cleverly put together a selection of extracts, that 
 for those who had not read the book and apparently 
 almost no one had read it it was perfectly clear that 
 the entire book, in spite of its high pretensions, was 
 nothing but a tissue of pompous phrases, and these not 
 always intelligible, as the critic's frequent interrogation 
 points testified, and that the author of the work was a 
 perfect ignoramus ; and it was done in such a witty way 
 that Sergyelf Ivanovitch himself could not deny the wit 
 of it ; but, after all, it was abominable. 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch, in spite of the unusual conscien- 
 tiousness with which he examined into the justice of 
 these remarks, did not for a moment think of answer- 
 ing the ridiculous errors and blunders ; but he could not 
 help instantly remembering all the least details of his 
 meeting and conversation with the author of the article. 
 " Did I say anything to affront him ? " said Sergyei 
 Ivanovitch.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 339 
 
 And remembering how, when he met the young 
 author of the article, he had shown up his ignorance 
 in conversation, he, therefore, understood the animus of 
 the criticism. 
 
 The appearance of this article was followed by a 
 silence, unbroken by either voice or journal, and Ser- 
 gyei' Ivanovitch saw that his six years' labor, into which 
 he had put so much of his heart and soul, had been 
 wasted. 
 
 And his position was made all the more trying be- 
 cause, now that his book was off his hands, he had 
 nothing especial to occupy the larger part of his time. 
 
 He was bright, well educated, in perfect health, and 
 very active ; and he did not know how to employ his 
 industry. Conversations with callers, visits to the club, 
 and the meetings of committees, where there was a 
 chance for him to talk, took some of his time ; but he, 
 a man long wonted to life in the city, did not permit 
 himself to talk with every one, as his inexperienced 
 brother did when he was in Moscow ; so that he had 
 much leisure and a superfluity of intellectual energy. 
 
 To his joy, just at this time, which was so trying to 
 him because of the failure of his book, and after his 
 interest in dissenters, American subjects, the famine in 
 Samara, expositions, spiritualism, was exhausted, the 
 Slavic question began to engross public attention ; and 
 Sergye'i Ivanovitch, who had been one of its earliest 
 advocates, gave himself up to it with enthusiasm. 
 
 Among Sergyel Ivanovitch's friends nothing else was 
 thought about or talked about except the Serbian war. 
 All the things that lazy people are accustomed to do 
 was done for the help of these brother Slavs. Balls, 
 concerts, dinners, matches, ladies' finery, beer, drinking- 
 saloons, everything bore witness of sympathy for the 
 Slavs. 
 
 With much that was said and written on this subject, 
 Sergyei' Ivanovitch could not agree. He saw that the 
 Slav question was one of those fashionable movements 
 that always carry people to extremes. He saw that 
 many people with petty personal ends in view took
 
 340 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 part in it. He recognized that the newspapers made 
 many useless and exaggerated statements, in order to 
 attract attention to themselves, and belittle their rivals. 
 He saw that in this common impulse of society, upstarts 
 put themselves forward, and outdid one another in mak- 
 ing a noise, commanders-in-chief without an army, 
 ministers without a ministry, journalists without a jour- 
 nal, party-leaders without partizans. He saw much that 
 was childish and absurd ; but he also saw and admired 
 the enthusiasm which united all classes, and which it 
 was impossible not to share. 
 
 The massacre of the Serbians, who professed the same 
 faith, and spoke almost the same language, aroused sym- 
 pathy for their sufferings, and indignation against their 
 persecutors ; and the heroism of the Serbs and Mon- 
 tenegrins, who were fighting for a great cause, aroused 
 a universal desire to help their brethren, not only in 
 word, but in deed. 
 
 But there was another phenomenon which delighted 
 Sergyei' Ivanovitch especially. This was the manifesta- 
 tion of public opinion. Society actually spoke out its 
 desires. "The national soul received expression," as 
 Sergyef Ivanovitch expressed it; and the more he studied 
 this movement as a whole, the more evidently it seemed 
 to him that it was destined to grow to enormous propor- 
 tions and to constitute an epoch. 
 
 He devoted himself to the service of this great cause, 
 and forgot to think about his book. 
 
 All his time was now so occupied that he could 
 scarcely reply to the letters and demands made upon 
 him. 
 
 He had worked all the spring and a part of the sum- 
 mer, and only in the month of July could he tear himself 
 away to go to his brother in the country. 
 
 He went for a fortnight's vacation, and rejoiced to 
 find even in the depths of the country, in the very 
 holy of holies of the peasantry, the same awakening of 
 the national spirit in which he himself and all the 
 inhabitants of the capital and the large cities of the 
 empire firmly believed.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 341 
 
 Katavasof seized the opportunity to fulfil a promise 
 he had made to visit Levin, and the two friends left 
 town together. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SERGYEI IVANOVITCH and Katavasof had just reached 
 the station of the Kursk Railway, which was especially 
 crowded that day, and, leaving their carriage, they were 
 looking at a lackey who had followed them laden with 
 various articles, when four cabs filled with volunteers 
 also drove up. Ladies carrying bouquets met them, and 
 accompanied by a crowd they entered the station. 
 
 One of the ladies who had come to meet the volun- 
 teers came out of the waiting-room and addressed Sergyel 
 Ivanovitch. 
 
 " Did you also come to see them off ? " she asked, 
 speaking in French. 
 
 " No ; I am going myself, princess, to have a little 
 rest at my brother's. But are you still on escort duty ? " 
 he added, with a scarcely perceptible smile of amusement. 
 
 " I have to be," replied the princess. " But tell me, is 
 it true that we have sent off eight hundred already ? 
 Malvinsky told me so." 
 
 " More than eight hundred. We 've sent off more than 
 a thousand, if we count those not immediately from 
 Moscow," said SergyeT Ivanovitch. 
 
 "There, I said so ! " cried the lady, delighted. " And 
 is it true that the subscriptions amount to nearly a 
 million ? " 
 
 " More than that, princess." 
 
 " Have you read the news ? They have beaten the 
 Turks again." 
 
 " Yes, I read about it," replied Sergye'f Ivanovitch. 
 She referred to a recent despatch, which confirmed the 
 report that three days before the Turks had been beaten 
 at every point, and had fled, and that the next day a 
 decisive battle was expected. 
 
 "Oh, by the way, do you know a splendid young
 
 342 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 fellow is petitioning to go ? I don't see why they put 
 obstacles in his way. I wanted to ask you to put your 
 signature on his petition. I know him. He comes 
 from the Countess Lidia Ivanovna." 
 
 After asking some particulars in regard to the young 
 man, Sergyei' Ivanovitch went into the waiting-room, 
 affixed his signature to the document, and handed it 
 back to the princess. 
 
 " Do you know Count Vronsky, the famous, is going 
 on this train ? " said the princess, with a triumphant and 
 significant smile, as he rejoined her and handed her the 
 petition. 
 
 "I heard that he was going; but I did not know 
 when. On this train ? " 
 
 " I just saw him. He is here. His mother is the only 
 one with him. All things considered, I do not think he 
 could do anything better." 
 
 "Oh, yes! Of course." 
 
 During this conversation the crowd had rushed into 
 the restaurant of the station, where a man with a glass 
 in his hand was making an address to the volunteers : 
 
 " For the service of our faith and humanity and our 
 brethren," he said, raising his voice, " AlatnsJika Moskva 
 Mother Moscow gives you her blessing in this noble 
 cause. May it prosper ! " he concluded, with tears in his 
 eyes. The crowd responded with cheers, and a fresh 
 throng poured into the waiting-room, nearly overwhelm- 
 ing the princess. 
 
 " Ah, princess ! What do you say to this ? " cried 
 Stepan Arkadyevitch, who, with a radiant smile of joy, 
 suddenly appeared in the midst of the throng. " Did n't 
 he speak gloriously ? Bravo ! And here 's Sergye'f 
 Ivanovitch. You ought to speak just a few words, you 
 know, of encouragement, you do it so well," added Ob- 
 lonsky, touching Koznuishef's arm, with an expression 
 of suave, flattering deference. 
 
 " Oh, no ; I am leaving immediately." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " To the country to my brother's," replied Sergye! 
 Ivanovitch.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 343 
 
 " Then you '11 see my wife. I have written her, but 
 you '11 see her before she gets my letter. Please tell her 
 that you met me, and everything is all right, she will 
 understand ; and be so good as to tell her, too, that I got 
 my place as member of the Commission of.... Well, she 
 knows what that is, you know, les petites mist res de la 
 vie hnmaine" said he, turning to the princess, as if in 
 apology. " Miagkai'a, not Liza, but Bibiche, sends a 
 thousand guns and twelve hospital nurses. Did I tell 
 you ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I heard about it," answered Koznuishef, coldly. 
 
 " But what a pity you are going away," replied Ste- 
 pan Arkadyevitch. " We give a farewell dinner to-mor- 
 row to two volunteers, at Dimer's, Bartnyansky of 
 Petersburg, and our Veslovsky Grisha. Both are 
 going. Veslovsky is just married. He 's a fine lad- 
 Isn't it so,princess ? " he added, addressing the lady. 
 
 The princess did not reply, but looked at Koznuishef. 
 The fact that the princess and Sergyel Ivanovitch evi- 
 dently wanted to get rid of him did not in the least dis- 
 concert Stepan Arkadyevitch. Smiling, he glanced now 
 at the princess's hat plume, now off to one side or the 
 other as if searching for a new subject ; and, as he saw 
 a lady going by with a subscription-box, he beckoned 
 to her, and handed her a five-ruble note. 
 
 " I can't bear to see these subscription-boxes pass by 
 me, now that I have ready money," he said. "What 
 splendid news there is ! Hurrah for the Montenegrins ! " 
 
 " What 's that you say ? " he cried, when the princess 
 told him that Vronsky was going by the first train. For 
 an instant Stepan Arkadyevitch's face grew sad, but the 
 next moment, slightly limping with both feet, and stroking 
 his side-whiskers, he went off to the room where Vronsky 
 was. He had already entirely forgotten the tears he had 
 shed over his sister's grave, and saw in Vronsky only a 
 hero and an old friend. 
 
 " One must do him justice, in spite of his faults," said 
 the princess to Sergyeif Ivanovitch, when Oblonsky was 
 gone. " He has the true Russian, the Slavic, nature. 
 But I am afraid it will be disagreeable to the count
 
 344 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 to see him. Whatever people may say, I pity that 
 unhappy man. Try to talk a little with him on the 
 journey," said the princess. 
 
 "Certainly, if I have a chance." 
 
 " I never liked him, but what he is doing now makes 
 up for much. He is not only going himself, but he 's 
 taking out a squadron of cavalry at his own expense." 
 
 "Yes, so I have heard." 
 
 The bell rang, and the crowd pressed toward the doors. 
 
 " There he is," said the princess, pointing out Vronsky, 
 who was dressed in a long coat and a broad-brimmed 
 black hat. His mother was leaning on his arm. Ob- 
 lonsky followed them, talking vivaciously. 
 
 Vronsky was frowning, and looked straight ahead, as 
 if not listening to what Stepan Arkadyevitch said. 
 
 Apparently at Oblonsky's suggestion, he looked in 
 the direction where Sergye'f Ivanovitch and the princess 
 were standing, and raised his hat silently. 
 
 His face, which had grown old and worn, was like 
 stone. Going out on the platform, Vronsky, silently 
 quitting his mother's side, vanished from sight in his 
 compartment. 
 
 On the platform, men were singing the national 
 hymn. 1 Then hurrahs and vivas resounded. One of 
 the volunteers, a tall, very young man, with stooping 
 shoulders, ostentatiously responded to the public, wav- 
 ing above his head a felt hat and a bouquet ; while 
 behind him two officers, and an elderly man with a full 
 beard and a greasy cap, put out their heads, also bowing. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 AFTER Sergyef Ivanovitch had taken leave of the 
 princess, he and Katavasof, who had joined him, entered 
 their carriage, which was packed, and the train started. 
 
 When the train rolled into the station at Tsaritsuino 
 it was met by a chorus of young men singing the 
 " Slav'sa." Again the volunteers put out their heads 
 
 1 Bothe Tsar a Khrani, " God bless the Tsar."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 345 
 
 and bowed, but SergyeT Ivanovitch paid no attention to 
 them ; he had had so much to do with volunteers that 
 he already knew this general type, and it did not inter- 
 est him. But Katavasof, who on account of his peda- 
 gogical occupations had not enjoyed any opportunity to 
 observe the men who volunteered, was very much inter- 
 ested, and asked his friend about them. 
 
 SergyeT Ivanovitch advised him to look into their 
 carriage and talk with some of them. 
 
 At the next station, Katavasof followed this advice. 
 As soon as the train stopped, he went into the second- 
 class carriage, and made the acquaintance of the vol- 
 unteers. 
 
 Some of them were seated in a corner of the carriage, 
 talking noisily, aware that they were attracting the at- 
 tention of the other passengers and of Katavasof, whom 
 they saw come in. The tall, sunken-chested young man 
 was talking louder than the others. He was evidently 
 tipsy, and was telling the story of something which had 
 happened in their establishment. 
 
 Opposite him sat an old officer in the Austrian mili- 
 tary jacket of the Guard uniform. He was listening 
 with a smile to the narrator, and occasionally prompting 
 him. A third volunteer, in an artillery uniform, was 
 sitting on a box near them. A fourth was asleep. 
 
 Katavasof entered into conversation with the youth, 
 and learned that he had been a rich merchant in Mos- 
 cow, who, before he was twenty-two years old, had 
 succeeded in squandering a considerable fortune. Ka- 
 tavasof did not like him, because he was effeminate, 
 conceited, and sickly. He evidently felt, especially now 
 that he was drunk, that he was doing a heroic deed ; 
 and he boasted in the most disagreeable manner. 
 
 The second, a retired officer, also impressed Kata- 
 vasof unpleasantly ; he was a man who had apparently 
 tried his hand at everything ; he had worked on a rail- 
 way, and had been director of an estate, and had estab- 
 lished a factory ; and he talked of everything without 
 any necessity of doing so, and often used words which 
 showed his ignorance.
 
 346 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 The third, the artilleryman, on the contrary, pleased 
 Katavasof very much. He was a modest gentleman. 
 He was evidently disgusted by the affected knowledge 
 of the retired officer and the young merchant's boasted 
 heroism, and he would say nothing about himself. 
 When Katavasof asked him what induced him to go to 
 Serbia, he answered modestly : 
 
 " I am going because every one else is going. We 
 must help the Serbians. It is too bad." 
 
 "They have very few of our artillerymen, I believe." 
 
 " My service in the artillery was very short. I may 
 be assigned to the infantry or the cavalry." 
 
 "Why in the infantry, when they need artillerymen 
 more than all ? " asked Katavasof, gathering from the 
 artillerist's age that he must have already reached a 
 considerable rank. 
 
 " I did not serve very long in the artillery, but left 
 the service when I was only a yunker." 
 
 And he began to explain why he had not passed his 
 examination. 
 
 All this together produced on Katavasof a generally 
 unpleasant impression, and when the volunteers rushed 
 out into one of the stations to get something to drink, 
 Katavasof felt the desire to talk with some one so as to 
 confirm his unfavorable impression. 
 
 One of his fellow-travelers, a little old man in a mili- 
 tary paletot, had been listening all the time to Kata- 
 vasof's talk with the volunteers. As the two were left 
 alone together in the carriage, Katavasof addressed 
 him : 
 
 " What a diversity in the condition of all these men 
 that are going south," said Katavasof, vaguely, wishing 
 to express his opinions and at the same time draw out 
 the old man's views. 
 
 The old man was a soldier who had fought in two 
 campaigns, and he knew what it meant to go to war ; 
 and in the actions and words of these gentlemen, the 
 bravery with which they kept applying themselves to 
 the flask, he read their inferiority as soldiers. More- 
 over, his residence was in a district city, and he wanted
 
 ANNA KARENINA 347 
 
 to relate how from that place a good-for-nothing fellow, 
 a drunkard and thief whom no one would hire as a 
 workman, had gone as a soldier. But, knowing by ex- 
 perience that in the present state of excitement under 
 which society was laboring, it was dangerous to express 
 himself frankly against the general sentiment, and espe- 
 cially to criticize the volunteers, he merely looked at 
 Katavasof. 
 
 ' Well, men are needed there," said he, smiling with 
 his eyes. 
 
 And they began to talk over the latest war news, and 
 each of them concealed from the other his doubt whether 
 a battle was to be expected on the next day, since, ac- 
 cording to the latest report, the Turks had been defeated 
 at all points. And so they parted without either of 
 them having expressed what he really thought. 
 
 When Katavasof returned to his own carriage, he 
 told SergyeY Ivanovitch, with some twinges of con- 
 science, that he enjoyed talking with the volunteers, and 
 he declared that they were excellent lads. 
 
 In the great station where they next stopped, the 
 chorus, the cheers, the bouquets, and the beggars again 
 appeared, and again the ladies with bouquets conducted 
 the volunteers into the restaurant ; but there was much 
 less enthusiasm than there had been at Moscow. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 WHILE the train stopped at a certain government 
 capital, Sergye? Ivanovitch did not go to the restaurant, 
 but walked up and down the platform. 
 
 The first time he passed Vronsky's compartment, he 
 noticed that the window was shaded. But, when he 
 passed the second time, he saw the old countess at the 
 window. She called him to her. 
 
 " You see, I am going as far as Kursk with him." 
 
 "Yes, I heard he was going," answered Koznuishef, 
 stopping at the window, and looking in. "What a
 
 348 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 noble action on his part ! " he added, seeing that Vron- 
 sky was not in the carriage. 
 
 " Well ! What could he do after his misfortune ? " 
 
 "What a horrible thing it was ! " said Sergye'f Ivano- 
 vitch. 
 
 " Akh ! What have I not been through ! Yes, do 
 come in. Akh! What have I not been through!" 
 she repeated, as Sergyef Ivanovitch came in and sat 
 down on the seat beside her. " You could not imagine 
 it. For six weeks he never said a word to any one, and 
 he only ate when I begged him to do so. We dared not 
 leave him alone a single instant ; we took away every- 
 thing which he might kill himself with. We lived on 
 the first floor, but we had to be on the watch all the 
 same. You know he shot himself once before, for her 
 sake," said the old countess, her face clouding at this 
 remembrance; "yes, she died as was fit for such a 
 woman to die. Even the death she chose was low and 
 wretched." 
 
 " It is not for us to judge her, countess," replied 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch, with a sigh. " But I can imagine 
 what you have suffered." 
 
 " Akh ! Don't speak of it ! My son was with me at 
 my country place. A note was brought him. He an- 
 swered immediately. We did not know at all that she 
 was at the station. 7 hat evening I had just gone to my 
 room, and my Mary told me that a lady had thrown her- 
 self under the train. I felt something like a shock. I 
 understood instantly what had happened; I knew it was 
 she. My first words were, ' Let no one tell the count.' 
 But they had just told him. His coachman was at the 
 station when it happened, and saw it all. I ran to my 
 son's room. He was beside himself ; it was terrible to 
 see him. Without speaking one word, he left the 
 house ; and what he found, I do not know ; but they 
 brought him back like one dead. I should never have 
 known him. 'Prostration complete,' the doctor said. 
 
 Then he became almost insane Akh ! What can be 
 
 said ? " cried the countess, waving her hands. " It was 
 a terrible time. No; let people say what they will,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 349 
 
 she was a bad woman. Think ! What a desperate pas- 
 sion she was in ! She did it to make an extraordinary 
 sensation, and she succeeded ! She has done irrepara- 
 ble injury to the lives of two men of rare merit, her 
 husband and my son, and ruined herself." 
 
 "How about her husband ? " 
 
 "He has taken her little girl. At first Alyosha con- 
 sented to everything ; now he is awfully sorry, having 
 given up his daughter to a stranger, but he could not 
 take back his word. Karenin went to the funeral ; we 
 succeeded in preventing a meeting between him and 
 Alyosha. For him, that is, her husband, this death 
 is a deliverance ; but my poor son gave up everything 
 for her, sacrificed everything, me, his position, his 
 career, and she was not contented with that, but 
 wanted to ruin him besides. No ! whatever you may 
 say, her death is the death of a bad woman, a woman 
 without religion. May God forgive me ! but when I 
 think of the harm she has done my son, I cannot help 
 cursing her memory." 
 
 " How is he now ? " 
 
 " This Serbian war is our salvation. I am old, and 
 don't understand much about it ; but God sent it for 
 him. Of course, to me, as his mother, it is painful ; 
 and besides, they say ce riest pas trh bien vu a Piters- 
 burg, but what can be done about it ? This is the only 
 thing that could save him. Yashvin, his friend, gambled 
 away all he had, and enlisted. He came to Alyosha, 
 and persuaded him to go to Serbia with him. Now this 
 is occupying him. Do talk with him, I beg of you, he 
 is so sad. And then, besides his other troubles, he has 
 a toothache. But he will be glad to see you. Please 
 talk with him. He is walking up and down on the 
 other side of the track." 
 
 Sergyei' Ivanovitch said that he would be very glad to 
 talk with the count, and went over to the side where 
 Vronsky was.
 
 350 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 IN the oblique evening shadow cast by a heap of 
 baggage piled on the platform, Vronsky, in his long 
 paletot and slouch hat, with his hands in his pockets, 
 was walking, like a wild beast in a cage, up and down 
 a narrow space where he could not take more than a 
 score of steps. It seemed to Sergyel Ivanovitch, as he 
 drew near, that Vronsky saw him, but pretended not to 
 recognize him. But to Sergye'f Ivanovitch this was all 
 the same. He was above any petty susceptibility. 
 
 At this moment, Vronsky, in his eyes, was an im- 
 portant actor in a grand event, and deserved to be 
 sustained and encouraged. He approached the count. 
 
 Vronsky stopped, looked at him, recognized him, and, 
 taking a few steps to meet him, cordially held out his hand. 
 
 " Perhaps you would prefer not to see me," said 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch; "but can I be of any service to 
 you ? " 
 
 " No one could be less unpleasant for me to meet 
 than you," answered Vronsky. " Pardon me. There 
 is nothing pleasant for me in life." 
 
 " I understand, and I want to offer you my services," 
 said Koznuishef, struck by the deep suffering that was 
 apparent in the count's face. " Might not a letter to 
 Ristitch or Milan be of some use to you ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ! " answered Vronsky, making an effort to 
 understand. " If it is all the same to you, we will walk 
 a little. It is so stifling in the train ! A letter ? No, 
 thank you. One needs no letter of introduction to get 
 killed. In this case, one to the Turks, perhaps," added 
 he, with a smile at the corners of his mouth. His eyes 
 kept the same expression of bitter sadness. 
 
 " Well ! It would make it easier for you to come into 
 relations with men prepared for action. Still, as you 
 please ; but I was very glad to learn of your decision. 
 The very fact that a man of your standing has joined 
 the volunteers will raise them above all cavil in the 
 public estimation."
 
 ANNA KARENINA 351 
 
 " My sole merit," replied Vronsky, " is that life is of 
 no value to me. As to physical energy, I know it will 
 not be wanting for any purpose ; and I am glad enough 
 to give my life, which is not only useless to me, but 
 disgusting, to be useful to somebody;" and he made 
 an impatient motion with his jaw, caused by his un- 
 ceasing toothache, which prevented him from talking 
 with the expression he desired. 
 
 "You will be regenerated, is my prediction," said 
 Sergyei Ivanovitch, feeling touched. " The deliverance 
 of one's oppressed brethren is an aim for which one 
 might as well live as die. May God grant you full 
 success, and fill your soul with peace ! " he added, and 
 held out his hand. 
 
 Vronsky pressed his hand cordially. 
 
 "As a field-piece, I may be of use But as a man, 
 
 .... I am only a ruin," murmured the count, with intervals 
 between the phrases. The throbbing pain in his tooth, 
 which filled his mouth with saliva, made it an effort for 
 him to speak. He stopped, and fixed his eyes mechan- 
 ically on the engine-wheels, which advanced, revolving 
 slowly and smoothly on the rails. 
 
 And suddenly a sense of intense spiritual anguish 
 caused him for a moment to forget his toothache. At 
 the sight of the engine and the rails, through the in- 
 fluence of his talk with an acquaintance whom he had 
 not seen since his misfortune, she suddenly appeared to 
 him, or, at least, that which remained of her, as, when he 
 rushed like a madman into the barracks near the station, 
 where they had carried her, he saw, lying on a table, 
 shamelessly exposed to the sight of all, her bleeding 
 body, which had so lately been full of life. Her head, 
 uninjured, with its heavy braids, and its Jight^urls 
 clustering about the temples, was leaning back, wilri"TFie' 
 eyes half closed ; and in the lovely face hovered still 
 a strange, wild expression, while her rosy lips, slightly 
 opened, seemed prepared to utter once again that terri- 
 ble menace, and predict to him, as she had in their dis- 
 pute, that he "would repent." 
 
 And he tried to remember how she looked when he
 
 352 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 first met her, also at a railroad station, with that myste- 
 rious, poetic, charming beauty, overflowing with life and 
 gayety, demanding and bestowing happiness, and not 
 bitterly revengeful as he remembered her at their last 
 interview. He tried to remember the happy moments 
 he had spent with her, but these moments were forever 
 spoiled for him. He remembered only her face, haughtily 
 expressing her threat of unnecessary, but implacable, 
 vengeance. He ceased to be conscious of his toothache, 
 and sobs convulsed his face. 
 
 After walking up and down by the baggage once or 
 twice, the count controlled himself, and spoke calmly 
 with Sergyei' Ivanovitch. 
 
 " Have you seen the latest telegrams ? Yes ; they have 
 fought three times, and another battle is expected to- 
 morrow." 
 
 And, after a few words about King Milan's proclama- 
 tion, and the immense effect which it might have, the 
 two men separated at the ringing of the second bell and 
 went to their respective compartments. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 As Sergye'f Ivanovitch had not known just when it 
 would be possible for him to leave Moscow, he did not 
 telegraph his brother to send for him. Levin was not 
 at home when he and Katavasof, black as negroes with 
 smoke and dust, reached Pokrovskoye about noon, in a 
 tarantas which they hired at the station. 
 
 Kitty was sitting on the balcony with her father and 
 sister when she saw her brother-in-law approaching, and 
 she ran to meet him. 
 
 " Your conscience ought to prick you for not letting 
 us know," said she, shaking hands with Sergye'f Ivano- 
 vitch, and offering her brow to be kissed. 
 
 " We got along splendidly, and we did not have to 
 bother you. I am so dusty that I fear to touch you. 
 I was so busy that I did not know when I could leave. 
 And you look the same as ever," said he, smiling,
 
 ANNA KARENINA 353 
 
 " enjoying the gentle current of your softly flowing hap- 
 piness. And here is our friend, Feodor Vasilyevitch 
 who has come at last." 
 
 " But I am not a negro. When I have washed, I 
 shall look like a human being," said Katavasof, with 
 his usual pleasantry, offering his hand, and laughing, 
 so that his white teeth gleamed out from his dusty face. 
 
 " Kostia will be very glad. He is out on the farm, 
 but he ought to be back by this time." 
 
 "Always occupied with his estate," said Katavasof. 
 " The rest of us can think of nothing but the Serbian 
 war. How does my friend regard this subject? He is 
 sure not to think as other people do." 
 
 "Yes, he does, .... but .... perhaps not like everybody," 
 said Kitty, a little confused, looking at Sergyei' Ivano- 
 vitch. " I will send some one to find him. We have 
 papa with us just now; he has recently come back from 
 abroad." 
 
 And Kitty, while making her arrangements to send 
 for Levin, and to furnish her guests a chance to wash 
 off the dust the one in the library, the other in the 
 room assigned to Dolly and then to have luncheon 
 ready for them, enjoyed the full power of quick mo- 
 tion which before her baby was born she had been 
 so long deprived of. Then she went to the balcony 
 where her father was : 
 
 " It 's Sergyei' Ivanovitch and Professor Katavasof." 
 
 " Okh ! in this heat ! It will be a bore ! " 
 
 "Not at all, papa; he is very nice, and Kostia loves 
 him dearly," said Kitty, laughing at the expression of 
 consternation on her father's face. 
 
 " Go entertain them, dushenka," she said to her sister. 
 " They saw Stiva at the station ; he was well. And I 
 am going to the baby for a little while. I actually have 
 not nursed him since morning ; he will be crying if I 
 don't go," and she, feeling the pressure of milk, hastened 
 to the nursery. In reality it had not been guesswork 
 with her, the tie that bound her to the child was still 
 unbroken, she actually knew by the flow of milk that 
 he needed something to eat. Even before she reached 
 VOL. in. 23
 
 354 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 the nursery she knew that he would be crying. And, 
 indeed, he was. 
 
 She heard his voice, and quickened her steps. But 
 the more she hurried, the louder he cried. It was a fine, 
 healthy scream, a scream of hunger and impatience. 
 
 "Am I late, nurse, late?" asked Kitty, sitting down, 
 and getting ready to suckle the child. " There, give 
 him to me, give him to me, quick. Akh, nurse ! how 
 stupid ! Take off his cap afterward," said she, quite as 
 impatient as her baby. 
 
 The baby screamed as if it were famished. " Now, 
 now, it can't be helped, little mother ! " said Agafya 
 Mikha'dovna, who could not keep out of the nursery. 
 " You must do things in order. Agu, agu," she chuckled 
 to the infant, not heeding Kitty's impatience. 
 
 The nurse gave the child to his mother. Agafya 
 Mikhalflovna followed the child, her face all aglow with 
 tenderness. 
 
 " He knows me ! He knows me J God is my witness, 
 he knew me, Matushka Katerina Aleksandrovna," she 
 cried. 
 
 But Kitty did not hear what she said. Her impatience 
 was as great as the baby's. It hindered the very thing 
 that they both desired. The baby, in his haste to suckle, 
 could not manage to take hold, and was vexed. At last, 
 after one final shriek of despair, the arrangements were 
 perfected ; and mother and child, simultaneously breath- 
 ing a sigh of content, became calm. 
 
 " The poor little thing is all in a perspiration," whis- 
 pered Kitty. " Do you really think he knew you ? " she 
 added, looking down into the child's eyes, which seemed 
 to her to peep out roguishly from under his cap, as his 
 little cheeks sucked in and out, while his little hand, with 
 rosy palm, flourished around his head. " It cannot be. 
 For, if he knew you, he would surely know me," con- 
 tinued Kitty, with a smile, when Agafya Mikha'flovna 
 persisted in her belief that he knew her. 
 
 She smiled, because though she said that he could not 
 recognize her, yet she knew in her heart that he not 
 only recognized Agafya Mikhaflovna, but that he knew
 
 ANNA KARENINA 355 
 
 and understood all things, and knew and understood what 
 no one else understood, and things which she, his mother, 
 was now beginning to understand only through his 
 teaching. For Agafya Mikha'flovna, for the nurse, for 
 his grandfather, even for his father, Mitya was just a 
 little human being, who needed nothing but physical 
 care ; for his mother, he was a being endowed with 
 moral faculties, who already had a whole history of spirit- 
 ual relationships. 
 
 " You will see if he does n't when he wakes up. 
 When I do this way, his face will light up, the little 
 dove ! It will light up like a bright day," said Agafya 
 Mikhai'lovna. 
 
 " There ! very well, very well, we shall see," whispered 
 Kitty; "now go away; he is going to sleep." 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 AGAFYA MIKHAI'LOVNA went away on tiptoe ; the 
 nurse closed the blinds, chased away the flies which 
 were hidden under the muslin curtain of the cradle ; 
 then she sat down, and began to wave a little withered 
 branch over the mother and child. 
 
 " It 's hot, hot ! pray God, He may send a little 
 shower," she said. 
 
 " Da ! da ! sh-sh-sh," was the mother's reply, as she 
 rocked gently to and fro, and pressed Mitya to her 
 breast. His eyelids now opened, and now closed ; and 
 he languidly moved his chubby arm. This little arm 
 disturbed Kitty ; she felt a strong inclination to kiss 
 it, but she feared to do so lest it should wake him. At 
 last the arm began to droop, and the eyes closed more 
 and more. Only rarely now he would raise his long 
 lashes, and gaze at his mother with his dark, dewy eyes. 
 The nurse began to nod, and dropped off into a nap. 
 Overhead she could hear the old prince's voice, and 
 Katavasof's sonorous laugh. 
 
 " Evidently, they don't need me to help in the con- 
 versation," thought Kitty ; " but it is too bad that Kostia
 
 356 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 is not there ; he must have gone to his bees. Some- 
 times it disturbs me to have him spend so much time 
 over them ; but then, on the whole, I am glad ; it 
 diverts him, and he is certainly more cheerful than he 
 was in the spring. Then he was so gloomy, and so 
 unhappy ! What a strange man he is ! " 
 
 Kitty knew what caused her husband's disquiet. It 
 was his doubting spirit ; and although, if she had been 
 asked if she believed that, in the world to come, he 
 would fail of salvation owing to his want of faith, she 
 would have been compelled to say yes, yet his skepti- 
 cism did not make her unhappy ; and she, who believed 
 that there was no salvation for the unbelieving, and 
 loved more than all else in the world her husband's soul, 
 smiled as she thought of his skepticism, and called him 
 a strange man. 
 
 " Why does he spend all his time reading those philo- 
 sophical books ? If all this is written in those books, 
 then he can understand them. But if it is not true, why 
 does he read them ? He himself says that he longs for 
 faith. Why doesn't he believe? Probably he thinks 
 too much ; and he thinks too much because he is lonely. 
 He is always alone. He can't speak out all his thoughts 
 to us. I think he will be glad that these guests have 
 come, especially Katavasof. He likes to discuss with 
 him." 
 
 And immediately Kitty's thoughts were diverted by 
 the question where it would be best for Katavasof to 
 sleep. Ought he and Sergyei Ivanovitch to have a 
 room together or apart ? And here a sudden thought 
 made her start, so that she disturbed Mitya, who opened 
 his eyes and looked at her reproachfully. 
 
 " The washerwoman has n't brought back the linen. 
 I hope Agafya MikhaTlovna has n't given out all we 
 had ! " and the color rushed to Kitty's forehead. 
 
 "There, I must find out myself," thought she; and, 
 reverting to her former thoughts, she remembered that 
 she had not finished the important train of spiritual 
 thoughts which she had begun, and she once more 
 repeated :
 
 ANNA KARENINA 357 
 
 "Yes, Kostia is an unbeliever;" and, as she did so, 
 she smiled. 
 
 " Yes, he is an unbeliever, but I 'd far liefer he should 
 always be one than a person like Madame Stahl, or as I 
 wanted to be when I was abroad. At any rate, he will 
 never be hypocritical." And a recent example of his 
 goodness recurred vividly to her memory. 
 
 Several weeks before, Stepan Arkadyevitch had writ- 
 ten Dolly a letter of repentance. He begged her to save 
 his honor by selling her property to pay his debts. 
 
 Dolly was in despair. She hated her husband, despised 
 him ; and at first she made up her mind to refuse his 
 request, and apply for a divorce ; but afterward she de- 
 cided to sell a part of her estate. Kitty, with an involun- 
 tary smile of emotion, recalled her husband's confusion, 
 his various awkward attempts to find a way of helping 
 Dolly, and how, at last, he came to the conclusion that 
 the only way to accomplish it without wounding her was 
 to make over to Dolly their part of this estate. 
 
 " How can he be without faith, when he has such a 
 warm heart, and is afraid to grieve even a child? He 
 never thinks of himself always of others. Sergyel 
 Ivanovitch finds it perfectly natural to consider him his 
 business manager; so does his sister. Dolly and her 
 children have no one else but him to lean upon. He is 
 always sacrificing his time to the peasants, who come to 
 consult him every day. 
 
 "Yes ; you cannot do better than to try to be like your 
 father," she murmured, touching her lips to her son's 
 cheek, before laying him into the nurse's arms. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 EVER since that moment when, as he sat beside his 
 dying brother, Levin had examined the problem of life 
 and death in the light of the new convictions, as he 
 called them, which from the age of twenty to thirty-four 
 years had taken the place of his childhood's beliefs, he
 
 358 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 was terrified not only at death, but at life ; because it 
 seemed to him that he had not the slightest knowledge 
 of its origin, its purpose, its reason, its nature. Our 
 organism and its destruction, the indestructibility of mat- 
 ter, the laws of the conservation and development of 
 forces, were words which were substituted for the terms 
 of his early faith. These words, and the scientific theo- 
 ries connected with them, were doubtless interesting from 
 an intellectual point of view, but they stood for nothing 
 in the face of real life. 
 
 And Levin suddenly felt in the position of a man who 
 in cold weather had exchanged his warm shuba for a 
 muslin garment, and who for the first time should indu- 
 bitably, not with his reason, but with his whole being, 
 become persuaded that he was absolutely naked, and 
 inevitably destined to perish miserably. 
 
 From that time, without in the least changing his out- 
 ward life, and though he did not like to confess it, even 
 to himself, Levin never ceased to feel a terror of his 
 ignorance. 
 
 Moreover, he vaguely felt that what he called his 
 convictions not only came from his ignorance, but were 
 idle for helping him to a clearer knowledge of what he 
 needed. 
 
 At first his marriage, with its new joys and its new 
 duties, completely blotted out these thoughts ; but they 
 came back to him, with increasing persistence demand- 
 ing an answer, after his wife's confinement, when he 
 lived in Moscow without any serious occupation. 
 
 The question presented itself to him in this way : 
 
 " If I do not accept the explanations offered me by 
 Christianity on the problem of my existence, then what 
 answer shall I find ? " 
 
 And he scrutinized the whole arsenal of his scientific 
 convictions, and found no answer whatever to his ques- 
 tions, and nothing like an answer. 
 
 He was in the position of a man who seeks to find 
 food in a toy-store or a gun-shop. 
 
 Involuntarily and unconsciously he sought now in every 
 book, in every conversation, and in every person whom
 
 ANNA KARENINA 359 
 
 he met, some sympathy with these questions and their 
 solution. 
 
 More than by anything else, he was surprised and 
 puzzled by the fact that the men of his class, who for 
 the most part had, like himself, substituted science for 
 religion, seemed to experience not the least moral suffer- 
 ing, but to live entirely satisfied and content. Thus in 
 addition to the main question there were others which 
 tormented him : Were these men sincere ? Were they 
 not hypocrites. Or did they understand more clearly 
 than he did the answer science gave to these trouble- 
 some questions ? And he took to studying these men, 
 and books which might contain the solutions which he 
 so desired. 
 
 One thing which he had discovered, however, since 
 these questions had begun to occupy him, was that he 
 had made a gross error in taking up with the idea of 
 his early university friends, that religion had outlived 
 its day, and no longer existed. The best people whom 
 he knew were believers, the old prince, Lvof , of whom 
 he was so fond, SergyeT Ivanovitch, and all women had 
 faith ; and his wife believed just as he had believed when 
 he was a child, and nine-tenths of the Russian people 
 all people whose lives inspired the greatest respect 
 were believers. 
 
 Another strange thing was that, as he read many 
 books, he became convinced that the men whose opinions 
 he shared did not attach to them any importance ; and that 
 without explaining anything they simply ignored these 
 questions, without an answer to which life seemed to 
 him impossible, and took up others which were to him 
 utterly uninteresting, such, for example, as the devel- 
 opment of the organism, the mechanical explanation of 
 the soul, and others. 
 
 Moreover, at the time of his wife's illness, he had 
 what to him seemed a most extraordinary experience : 
 he, the unbeliever, had prayed, and prayed with sincere 
 faith. But as soon as the danger was over, he felt that 
 he could not give that temporary disposition any abiding- 
 place in his life.
 
 360 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 He could not avow that the truth appeared to him 
 then, but that he was mistaken now ; because, as he began 
 calmly to analyze his feelings, they eluded him. He 
 could not avow that he had been deceived then, because 
 he had experienced a temporary spiritual condition ; and 
 if he pretended that he had succumbed to a moment of 
 weakness, he would sully a sacred moment. He was in 
 a state of internal conflict, and he strove with all the 
 strength of his nature to free himself from it 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THESE thoughts tormented him with varying intensity, 
 but he could not free himself from them. He read and 
 meditated ; but the more he read and meditated, the end 
 desired seemed to grow more and more remote. 
 
 During the latter part of his stay in Moscow, and 
 after he reached the country, he became convinced of 
 the uselessness of seeking in materialism an answer to 
 his doubts ; and he read over the philosophers whose 
 explanations of life were opposed to materialism, 
 Plato and Spinoza, and Kant and Schelling, and Hegel 
 and Schopenhauer. 
 
 These thoughts seemed to him fruitful while he was 
 reading, or was contrasting their doctrines with those of 
 others, especially with those of a materialistic tendency ; 
 but just as soon as he attempted, independently, to apply 
 these guides to some doubtful point, he fell back into 
 the same perplexities as before. The terms "mind" 
 "will," "freedom," "essence," had a certain meaning to 
 his intellect as long as he followed the clew established 
 by the deductions of these philosophers, and allowed 
 himself to be caught in the snare of their subtle dis- 
 tinctions ; but when practical life asserted its point of 
 view, this artistic structure fell, like a house built of 
 cards ; and it became evident that the edifice was built 
 only of beautiful words, having no more connection than 
 logic with the serious side of life. 
 
 Once, as he was reading Schopenhauer, he substituted
 
 ANNA KARENINA 361 
 
 the term " love " for that which this philosopher calls 
 " will," and this new philosophy consoled him for a few 
 days while he clung to it. But it also proved unsatis- 
 factory when he regarded it from the standpoint of 
 practical life ; then it seemed to be the thin muslin with- 
 out warmth as a dress. 
 
 Sergye'f Ivanovitch advised him to read Khomyakof 's l 
 theological writings : and though he was at first repelled 
 by the excessive affectation of the author's style, and his 
 strong polemic tendency, he was struck by their teach- 
 ings regarding the Church ; he was struck also by the 
 development of the following thought : 
 
 " Man when alone cannot attain the knowledge of 
 theological truths. The true light is kept for a com- 
 munion of souls who are filled with the same love ; that 
 is, for the Church." 
 
 He was delighted with the thought : How much easier 
 it is to accept the Church, which united with it all believ- 
 ing people and was endowed with holiness and infallibil- 
 ity, since it had God for its head, to accept its teachings 
 as to Creation, the Fall, and Redemption, and through 
 it to reach God, than to begin with God, a far-off, 
 mysterious God, the Creation, and the rest of it. 
 
 But, as he read, after Khomyakof, a history of the 
 Church by a Catholic writer, and the history of the 
 Church by an Orthodox writer, and perceived that 
 the Orthodox Greek Church and the Roman Catholic 
 Church, both of them in their very essence infallible, 
 were antagonistic, he saw that he had been deluded by 
 Khomyakof 's church-teachings ; and this edifice also 
 fell into dust, like the constructions of philosophy. 
 
 During this whole spring he was not himself, and 
 passed hours of misery. 
 
 " I cannot live without knowing what I am, and why 
 
 1 Aleksel Stepanovitch Khomyakof was born in 1804 ; after serving in 
 the Guard and taking active part in the Turkish campaign, he retired to 
 private life. He wrote several romantic tragedies in verse, also a number 
 of poems of Panslavonic tendencies ; he is chiefly remembered as a theo- 
 logical writer, and some of his works have been translated into French and 
 even English. In 1858 he was president of the Moscow Society of the 
 Friends of Russian Literature. He died in 1860. ED.
 
 362 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 I exist. Since I cannot reach this knowledge, life is 
 impossible," said Levin to himself. 
 
 " In the infinitude of time, in the infinitude of matter, 
 in the infinitude of space, an organic cell is formed, 
 exists for a moment, and bursts. That cell is I." 
 
 This was a cruel lie ; but it was the sole, the supreme, 
 result of the labor of the human mind for centuries. 
 
 It was the final creed on which were founded the latest 
 researches of the scientific spirit ; it was the dominant 
 conviction; and Levin, without knowing exactly why, 
 simply because this theory seemed to him the clearest, 
 was involuntarily held by it. 
 
 But this conclusion was not merely a lie, it was the 
 cruel jest of some evil spirit, cruel, inimical, to which 
 it was impossible to submit. 
 
 To get away from it was a duty ; deliverance from it 
 was in the power of every one, and the one means of 
 deliverance was death. 
 
 And Levin, the happy father of a family, a man in 
 perfect health, was sometimes so tempted to commit 
 suicide, that he hid ropes from sight, lest he should 
 hang himself, and feared to go out with his gun, lest he 
 should shoot himself. 
 
 But Levin did not hang himself, or shoot himself, but 
 lived and struggled on. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WHEN Levin puzzled over what he was, and why he 
 was born, he found no answer, and fell into despair ; but 
 when he ceased to ask himself these questions, he seemed 
 to know what he was and why he was alive, for the very 
 reason that he resolutely and definitely lived and worked ; 
 even during the more recent months he had lived far more 
 strenuously and resolutely than ever before. 
 
 Toward the end of June he returned to the country and 
 resumed his ordinary work at Pokrovskoye. The super- 
 intendence of the estates of his brother and sister, his 
 relations with his neighbors and his muzhiks, his family
 
 ANNA KARENINA 363 
 
 cares, his new enterprise in bee-culture, which he had 
 taken up this year, occupied all his time. These inter- 
 ests occupied him, not because he carried them on with a 
 view to their universal application, as he had done before, 
 but, on the contrary, because being now on the one hand 
 disillusionized by the lack of success in his former 
 undertakings for the common good, on the other being 
 too much engrossed by his own thoughts and the very 
 multitude of affairs calling for his attention, he entirely 
 relinquished all his attempts of cooperative advantage 
 and he occupied himself with his affairs, simply because it 
 seemed to him that he was irresistibly impelled to do what 
 he did, and could not do otherwise. 
 
 Formerly almost from childhood till he reached 
 manhood when he began to do anything that would 
 be good for all, for humanity, for Russia, he saw that the 
 thought of it gave him, in advance, a pleasing sense of 
 joy ; but the action in itself never realized his hopes, 
 nor had he full conviction that the work was neces- 
 sary, and the activity itself which seemed at first so 
 important kept growing smaller and smaller, and came 
 to naught. 
 
 But now that since his marriage he had become more 
 and more restricted by life for its own sake, though 
 he had no pleasure at the thought of his activity, he felt 
 a conviction that his work was indispensable, and saw 
 that the results gained were far more satisfactory than 
 before. 
 
 Now, quite against his will, he cut deeper and 
 deeper into the soil, like a plow that cannot choose its 
 path, or turn from its furrow. 
 
 To live as his fathers and grandfathers had lived, to 
 carry out their work so as to hand it on in turn to his 
 children, seemed to him a plain duty. It was as neces- 
 sary as the duty of eating when hungry ; and he knew 
 that, to reach this end, he was under obligation so to 
 conduct the machinery of the estate 1 at Pokrovskoye 
 that there might be profit in it. As indubitably as a 
 debt required to be paid, so was it incumbent on him to 
 
 1 Khozhyalstvcnnaya masAitta.
 
 364 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 preserve his paternal estate in such a condition that his 
 son, receiving it in turn, might say, " Thank you, my 
 father," just as Levin himself was grateful to his ancestors 
 for what they had cleared and tilled. He felt that he 
 had no right to rent his land to the muzhiks, but that he 
 himself must keep everything under his own eye, 
 maintain his cattle, fertilize his fields, set out trees. 
 
 It was as impossible not to look out for the interests 
 of Sergyel Ivanovitch and his sister, and all the peasants 
 that came to consult him, as it was to abandon the child 
 that had been given into his hands. He felt obliged to 
 look after the interests of his sister-in-law, who with her 
 children was living at his house, and of his wife with 
 her child, and he had to spend with them at least a small 
 part of his time. And all this, together with his hunt- 
 ing and his new occupation of bee-culture, filled to over- 
 flowing his life, the meaning of which he could not 
 understand when he reflected on it. 
 
 Not only did Levin see clearly what it was his duty 
 to do, but he saw how he must fulfil it, and what had 
 paramount importance. 
 
 He knew that it was requisite to hire laborers as 
 cheaply as possible; but to get them into his power by 
 paying down money in advance, and getting them at less 
 than market price, he would not do, although this was 
 very advantageous. It was permissible to sell fodder 
 to the muzhiks in time of scarcity, even though he felt 
 sorry for those who were improvident ; but he felt it his 
 duty to do away with inns and drinking-places, even 
 though they brought in great profit. On principle he 
 punished as severely as he could thefts from his wood ; 
 but when he found cattle straying he was not inclined 
 to exact a fine, and though it annoyed the guards and 
 brought the punishment into contempt, he always insisted 
 on having the cattle driven out again. He advanced 
 money to Piotr, to save him from the claws of a money- 
 lender, who charged him ten per cent a month ; but he 
 made no allowance for arrears in the obrok or money 
 due him from negligent muzhiks. He found it impos- 
 sible to pardon an overseer because a small meadow was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 365 
 
 not mowed and the grass was wasted ; but he would not 
 let them mow a piece of land amounting to eighty 
 desyatins or two hundred and sixteen acres on which 
 a young forest had been planted. He would not excuse a 
 muzhik who went home in working hours because his 
 father had died, sorry as he was for him, and he had 
 to pay him lower wages for the costly months of idle- 
 ness ; but he was bound to give board and lodging to 
 old servants who were superannuated. 
 
 Levin felt that it was right, on returning home, to go 
 first to his wife, who was not well, though some muzhiks 
 had been waiting for three hours to see him ; and he 
 knew, in spite of all the pleasure that he should have in 
 seeing his bees hived, nevertheless he felt in duty bound 
 to deprive himself of this pleasure and let his old bee- 
 man transfer the swarm without him, and go and talk 
 with the muzhiks who had come to the apiary for him. 
 
 Whether he did well or ill, he knew not ; and he did 
 not try to settle it, but, moreover, he avoided all thoughts 
 and discussions on the subject. Reasoning led him to 
 doubt, and prevented him from seeing what was right 
 to do, or not to do. When he ceased to consider, but 
 simply lived, he never failed to find in his soul the 
 presence of an infallible judge, telling him which of two 
 possible courses was the best to take, and which was the 
 worst ; and when he failed to follow this inner voice, he 
 was instantly made aware of it. 
 
 Thus he lived, not knowing, and not seeing the pos- 
 sibility of knowing, what he was, or why he lived in the 
 world, and tortured by his ignorance to such a degree 
 that he feared committing suicide and yet resolutely pur- 
 suing the course of life traced out for him. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE day on which Sergye'f Ivanovitch reached Pokrov- 
 skoye had been unusually full of torment for Levin. 
 
 It was at that hurried, busy season of the year when 
 all the peasantry are engaged in putting forth an extraor
 
 j66 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 dinary effort, and showing an endurance, which are 
 quite unknown in the ordinary conditions of their lives, 
 and which would be prized very highly if it were not 
 repeated every year, and did not produce such very 
 simple results. Mowing and sowing rye and oats, reap- 
 ing, harvesting, threshing, these are labors which seem 
 simple and commonplace; but to accomplish them in the 
 short time accorded by nature, every one, old and young, 
 must set to work. For three or four weeks they must 
 be content with the simplest fare, black bread, garlic, 
 and kvas ; must sleep only a few hours, and must not 
 pause night or day. And every year this happens 
 throughout all Russia. 
 
 Having lived the larger part of his life in the coun- 
 try, and in the closest relations with the peasantry, Levin 
 always at harvest-time felt that this universal activity 
 among the people embraced his own life. 
 
 In the early morning he had gone to the field of early 
 rye, to the field where they were carrying off the oats in 
 ricks. Then he came back to breakfast with his wife 
 and sister-in-law, and had afterward gone off on foot to 
 the farm, where he was trying a new threshing-machine. 
 
 This whole day, Levin, as he talked with the overseer 
 and the muzhiks in the field, as he talked at the house 
 with his wife and Dolly and the children and his father- 
 in-law, thought of only one thing ; and constantly the 
 same questions pursued him : " What am I ? and where 
 am I ? and why am I here ? " 
 
 As he stood in the cool shadow of his newly thatched 
 barn, where the hazelwood timbers, still smelling of the 
 fragrant leaves, held down the straw to the freshly peeled 
 aspen timbers that made the roof, Levin gazed, now 
 through the open doors, where whirled and played the 
 dry and choking dust thrown off by the threshing- 
 machine ; now at the hot sunlight lying on the grass of 
 the threshing-floor, and at the fresh straw just brought 
 out of the barn ; now at the white-breasted swallows 
 with their spotted heads, as they flew about twittering, 
 and settled under the eaves, or, shaking their wings, 
 darted through the open doors ; and then again at the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 367 
 
 peasantry, bustling about in the dark and dusty barn, 
 and strange ideas came into his mind : 
 
 " Why is all this done ? " he asked himself. " Why 
 am I standing here ? Why am I compelling them to 
 work, and why are they working so hard ? Why are 
 they doing their best in my presence ? Why is my old 
 friend Matriona putting in so with all her might ? I 
 cured her when a beam fell on her at the fire," he said 
 to himself, as he looked at a hideous old baba, who was 
 walking with bare, sunburned feet across the hard, 
 uneven soil, and was plying the rake vigorously. " She 
 got well then. But if not to-day or to-morrow, then in 
 ten years, she must be borne to her grave, and there will 
 be nothing left of her, nor of that pretty girl in red, who 
 is husking corn with such graceful, swift motions. They 
 will bury her. And that dappled gelding will soon die," 
 he thought, as he looked at the horse, breathing painfully 
 with distended nostrils and heavily sagging belly, as it 
 struggled up the ever descending treadmill. "They will 
 carry him off. And Feodor, the machine-tender, with 
 his curling beard, full of chaff, and his white shoulder 
 showing through a tear in his shirt they will carry him 
 off too. But now he gathers up the sheaves, and gives his 
 commands, and shouts to the women, and, with quick 
 motions, arranges the belt on the machine. And it will be 
 the same with me. They will carry me awa.y, and nothing 
 of me will be left. Why ? " 
 
 And, in the midst of his meditations, he mechanically 
 took out his watch to calculate how much they threshed 
 in an hour. It was his duty to do this, so that he could 
 pay the men fairly for their day's work. 
 
 "So far, only three ricks," he said to himself; and 
 he went to the machine-tender, and, trying to make 
 his voice heard above the racket, told him to work 
 faster. 
 
 " You put in too much at once, Feodor ; you see it 
 stops it, so it wastes time. Do it more regularly." 
 
 Feodor, his face black with dust and sweat, shouted 
 back some unintelligible reply, but entirely failed to 
 carry out Levin's directions.
 
 368 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 He mounted the drum, took Feodor's place, and began 
 to do the feeding. 
 
 He worked thus till it was the muzhiks' dinner-hour, 
 not a very long time ; and then, in company with Feodor, 
 he left the barn, and talked with him, leaning against a 
 beautifully stacked pile of yellow rye saved for plant- 
 ing. 
 
 Feodor was from a distant village, the very one where 
 Levin had formerly let the association have some land. 
 Now it was rented to a dvornik. 
 
 Levin talked with Feodor about this land, and asked 
 him if it were not possible that Platon, a rich and trust- 
 worthy muzhik of his village, would take it for the next 
 year. 
 
 " Price too high ; won't catch Platon, Konstantin Dmi- 
 tritch," replied the muzhik, wiping the chaff from his 
 sweaty chest. 
 
 " Yes ; but how does Kirillof make money out of 
 it?" 
 
 " Mitiukh ! " by this contemptuous diminutive Feo- 
 dor called the dvornik, " what does n't he make money 
 out of ! He puts on the screws and gets the last drop ! 
 He has no pity on the peasants. But Uncle Fokanuitch," 
 so he called the old man Platon, " does he try to 
 fleece a man ? And he gives credit, when any one owes 
 him. He does not try to squeeze it out of them. He 's 
 that kind of a man ! " 
 
 " Yes ; but why does he give credit ? " 
 
 " Well, of course men differ. One lives for his belly, 
 like Mitiukh ; but Fokanuitch, he 's an honest man, 
 he lives for his soul. He remembers God." 
 
 " How does he remember God and live for his soul ? " 
 exclaimed Levin, eagerly. 
 
 " Why, that 's plain enough. It 's to live according to 
 God, .... according to truth. People differ. Take you, 
 Konstantin Dmitritch, for example ; you could n't wrong 
 a man." .... 
 
 "Yes, yes; prashcha'i good-by," exclaimed Levin, 
 deeply moved ; and, taking his cane, he turned toward 
 the house.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 369 
 
 As he recalled the muzhik's words, how " Fokanuitch 
 lived for his soul, according to God .... according to 
 truth," confused but weighty thoughts arose within him 
 from some hidden source, and filled his soul with their 
 brilliant light. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 LEVIN, with long steps, strode along the highway, 
 filled, not so much with his thoughts, he could not 
 as yet get rid of them, as with a spiritual impulse, 
 such as he had never known before. 
 
 The peasant's words had had in his soul the effect of 
 an electric spark, suddenly condensing the cloud of dim, 
 incoherent thoughts, which had not ceased to fill his 
 mind, even while he was talking about the letting of his 
 field. 
 
 He felt that some new impulse, inexplicable as yet, 
 filled his heart with joy. 
 
 " Not to live for one's self, but for God ! What God ? 
 Could he have said anything more meaningless than 
 what he said? Ho said that we must live, not for our- 
 selves, that is, for what interests and pleases us, but for 
 something incomprehensible, for God, whom no one 
 knows or can define. Still, call it nonsense, clid I under- 
 stand Feodor ? Did n't I also feel convinced of its truth ? 
 Did I find it either false or absurd ? 
 
 " Nay ; I understood it, and find in it the same mean- 
 ing as he finds, and understood it more completely and 
 clearly than anything else in life. And not alone I, 
 but all, all the world, perfectly understand this and have 
 no doubt of it, and are unanimous in its favor. 
 
 " And I was seeking for miracles, and regretting that 
 I could not see one which might fill me with amazement. 
 A material miracle would have seduced me. But the 
 real miracle, the only one possibly existing, surrounds 
 me on all sides and I have not remarked it. 
 
 " Feodor says Kirillof, the dvornik, lives for his belly. 
 I know what he means by that. No rational being, 
 VOL. in. 24
 
 370 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 none of us, can live in any other way. But Feodor says, 
 too, that it is wrong to live for the belly, but that we 
 should live for truth, for God ; and I know what that 
 means as well. I, and millions of men, muzhiks, and 
 sages who have thought and written on the subject, or 
 in their obscure language have talked about it, in the 
 past and in the present, we are in accord on one 
 point;- and that is, that we should live for 'the good.' 
 The only knowledge that I and all men possess that 
 is clear, indubitable, absolute, is here. We have not 
 reached it by reason. Reason excludes it, for it has 
 neither cause nor effect. 'The good,' if it had a cause, 
 would cease to be the good ; if it had an effect, a re- 
 ward, it would cease to be the good. The good must 
 be outside of the chain of cause and effect. And I 
 know this, and we all know it. Can there be greater 
 miracle than this ? 
 
 " Have I really found the solution of my doubts ? 
 Shall I cease to suffer ? " Levin asked himself as he 
 followed the dusty road, insensible to weariness and 
 heat, and feeling that his long travail was at an end. 
 The sensation was so delightful, that he could not be- 
 lieve that it was true. He choked with emotion ; his 
 strength failed him ; and he left the highroad, and went 
 into the woods, and sat down under the shadow of 
 an aspen on the unmown grass. He uncovered his 
 moist forehead, and stretched himself out on the succu- 
 lent wood-grass, and leaned his head on his hand. 
 
 " Yes, I must reflect and consider," he thought, look- 
 ing attentively at the untrodden grass in front of him, 
 and watching the movements of an earth-beetle crawl- 
 ing up the stalk of couch-grass, and stopped by a leaf. 
 " What discovery have I made ? " he said to himself, 
 removing the leaf from the beetle's way, and bending 
 down another stalk of couch-grass to help the beetle on. 
 " What makes me so happy ? What discovery have I 
 made ? 
 
 " I have made no discovery. I have only opened my 
 eyes to what I already know. I have learned to recog- 
 nize that power which formerly gave me life, and gives
 
 ANNA KARENINA 371 
 
 me life again to-day. I have freed myself from error. 
 I have come to know my master. 
 
 " I used to say that there was going on in my body, 
 in the body of this grass, in the body of this beetle," 
 the beetle did not want to go to the other stalk, but 
 spread its wings, and flew away, " incessant change 
 of matter, in conformity to certain physical, chemical, 
 and physiological laws ; and in all of us, together with 
 the aspens and the clouds, and the nebulae, there was 
 evolution. Evolution from what ? into what ? Endless 
 evolution and conflict. But was conflict with the Infi- 
 nite possible ? And I was surprised to find nothing 
 along this line, in spite of my best efforts, which could 
 reveal to me the meaning of my life, my motives, my 
 longings. But the consciousness that there is a mean- 
 ing is, nevertheless, so strong and clear, that it forms 
 the very foundation of my existence ; and I marveled 
 and rejoiced when the muzhik said, 'To live for God, 
 for the soul.' 
 
 " Now I can say that I know the meaning of life : it 
 is to live for God, for my own soul. And this meaning, 
 in spite of its clearness, is mysterious and miraculous. 
 And such is the meaning of all existence. Yes, there 
 is pride," said he to himself, turning over on his stomach 
 and beginning to tie into a knot the stalks of grass, 
 while trying not to break them. " Not only pride of 
 intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. Yes, it is the 
 wickedness of intellect," he repeated. 
 
 He succinctly went over in memory the course of his 
 thought for the last two years, from the day when the 
 idea of death struck him, on seeing his beloved brother 
 hopelessly sick. 
 
 Then he had clearly resolved that, since man had no 
 other prospect than suffering, death, and eternal oblivion, 
 he must either commit suicide, or find the explanation 
 of the problem of existence, and in such manner as to 
 see in it something more than the cruel irony of a malevo- 
 lent spirit. 
 
 But he had not done either, but continued to live, to 
 think, and to feel. He had married, and had experienced
 
 372 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 new joys, wh'ich made him happy when he did not pon- 
 der on the meaning of life. 
 
 What did this mean ? It meant that he was thinking 
 badly, and living well. Without knowing it, he had been 
 sustained by those spiritual verities which he had sucked 
 in with his mother's milk, and he indulged in thought, 
 not only now not recognizing those truths, but even stren- 
 uously avoiding them. Now it was clear to him that he 
 could live only through the blessed influence of the faith 
 in which he had been taught. 
 
 " What should I have been, how should I have lived, 
 if I had not absorbed these beliefs.... if I had not known 
 that I must live for God, and not for the satisfaction of 
 my desires ? I should have been a thief, a liar, a mur- 
 derer. Nothing of what seems the chief joy of my life 
 would have had any existence for me." 
 
 And, though he made the most strenuous efforts of his 
 imagination, he could not picture to himself what kind 
 of a wild creature he might have been, if he had not 
 really known the aim of his existence. 
 
 " I was in search of an answer to my question ; thought 
 could not give it, for the problem was too lofty. Life 
 itself, with the innate knowledge of good and evil, alone 
 could give me an answer. And this knowledge I did 
 not acquire. It was given to me, like all the rest ; given, 
 I could not know where to get it. Did I get it from 
 reason ? But would reason ever have proved to me that 
 I ought to love my neighbor, instead of choking him ? 
 I was taught it in my childhood ; but I believed it gladly, 
 because it was already existent in my soul. Reason dis- 
 covered the struggle for existence, that law which 
 demands the overthrow of every obstacle in the way of 
 our desires. That is the result of reason ; but reason 
 has nothing to do with loving our neighbor." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LEVIN remembered a recent scene between Dolly and 
 her children. The children had been left alone, and had 
 amused themselves by making raspberry jam over a can-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 373 
 
 die, and throwing milk into each other's faces. Their 
 mother, catching them in the act, scolded them in their 
 uncle's presence, and sought to make them understand 
 how much work was involved in what they were destroy- 
 ing, that the labor was performed for their benefit ; that, 
 if they broke the cups, they could n't have anything to 
 drink from ; and if they wasted their milk, they would n't 
 have any more, and would starve to death. 
 
 Levin was struck by the indifference and skepticism 
 with which the children heard their mother's words. 
 They were only sorry to have their interesting sport 
 interrupted, and they did not believe a word of what 
 she said. They did not believe, because they did not 
 know the value of what they were playing with, and did 
 not understand that they were destroying their own 
 means of subsistence. 
 
 "That is all very well," they thought; "but there is 
 nothing interesting or worth while in it, because it is 
 always the same, and always will be. And it is monoto- 
 nous. We don't have to think about it, it is done for 
 us ; but we do like to do something new and original ; 
 and here we were making jam in a cup over the candle, 
 and squirting the milk into each others' faces. It is fun. 
 It is new, and not half so stupid as to drink milk out of 
 a cup." 
 
 " Is it not thus that we act, is it not the way I have 
 acted, in trying to penetrate by reasoning the secrets of 
 nature and the problem of human life? Is it not the 
 same that all the philosophers have done with their 
 theories which lead, by a course of reasoning strange 
 and unnatural to man, to the knowledge of what he long 
 has known, and known so surely that without it he could 
 not live ? Do we not see clearly, in the development of 
 the theory of each, that the real meaning of human exis- 
 tence is as indubitably known as it is known to Feodor, 
 the muzhik ; and do they see any more clearly than he 
 does the principal meaning of life? Do they not all 
 come back to this, even though it be by a route which 
 is often equivocal ? If we were to leave the children to 
 get their own living, make their own utensils, do the
 
 374 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 milking, instead ot playing pranks, they would die of 
 hunger. 
 
 " There, now ! give us over to our own ideas and pas- 
 sions, with no knowledge of our Creator, without the 
 consciousness of moral good and evil, and what would 
 be the result? We reason because we are spiritually 
 satiated. We are children. Whence comes this joyous 
 knowledge, which I share with the muzhik, and which 
 alone gives me serenity of spirit ? Where did I get it ? 
 Here am I, a Christian, brought up in the faith, sur- 
 rounded by the blessings of Christianity, living upon 
 these spiritual blessings without being conscious of them ; 
 and like children I have been reasoning, or at least try- 
 ing to reason, out the meaning of life. 
 
 " But in the serious moments of life, in the hour of 
 suffering, just as when children are cold and hungry, I 
 turn to Him, and, like these same children whom their 
 mother reprimands for their childish faults, I feel that 
 my childish efforts to get out of the mad circle of rea- 
 soning have done me no good. 
 
 "Yes, reason has taught me nothing. What I know 
 has been given, revealed to me through the heart, and 
 especially through faith in the teachings of the Church. 
 
 "The Church, the Church ?" repeated Levin, turning 
 over again, and, as he rested his head on his hand, look- 
 ing at a herd of cattle down by the river at a distance. 
 " Can I really believe all that the Church teaches ? " said 
 he, to test himself, and to bring up everything that might 
 destroy his present feeling of security. He expressly 
 called to mind the Church teachings which more than 
 all had seemed strange to him, and disgusted him. 
 
 " Creation ? Yes ; but how did I myself explain ex- 
 istence ? existence ? the devil ? sin ? How did I explain 
 evil ? redemption ? 
 
 " But I know nothing and can know nothing except 
 what is told me and every one else." 
 
 And now it seemed to him that not one of these Church 
 dogmas was inimical to the great objects of life, faith 
 in God, in goodness. 
 
 On the contrary, all tended to produce that greatest
 
 ANNA KARENINA 375 
 
 of miracles, that which consists in enabling the whole 
 world, with its millions of human beings, young and old, 
 the muzhik and Lvof, and Kitty and peasants and tsars, 
 married and single, to comprehend the same great truths, 
 so as to live that life of the soul which alone is worth 
 living, and which is our only aim. 
 
 Lying on his back, he looked up into the high, cloud- 
 less sky. " Do I not know," thought he, " that that is 
 infinity of space, and not a vault of blue stretching above 
 me ? But, however I strain my sight, I can see only a 
 vaulted dome; and, in spite of my knowledge of infinite 
 space, I have more satisfaction in looking at it as a blue, 
 vaulted dome, than when I try to look beyond." 
 
 Levin stopped thinking. He listened to the myste- 
 rious voices which seemed to wake joyfully in him. 
 
 "Is it really faith?" he thought, fearing to believe in 
 his happiness. "My God, I thank Thee!" he cried; 
 and he swallowed down the sobs that arose, and brushed 
 away with both hands the tears that filled his eyes. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 LEVIN looked away, and saw the herd, and his one- 
 horse telyega and his coachman, who approached the 
 herd of cattle, and began to talk to the herdsman. Then 
 he heard the sound of wheels and the neighing of the 
 horse ; but he was so occupied with his thoughts that he 
 did not think why it was that his coachman was coming 
 for him. 
 
 He only realized it when the coachman, while still 
 some distance off, cried: 
 
 " The mistress sent for you. Your brother and an- 
 other barin have come." 
 
 Levin got in at once, and took the reins. 
 
 As if awakened from sleep, it was long before he 
 could collect his thoughts. He looked at the well-fed 
 horse, and at the spot on his neck where the harness 
 rubbed; and he looked at Ivan, the coachman, sitting 
 beside him ; and he thought of how he had been expect-
 
 376 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ing his brother, and that his wife was probably troubled 
 because he was gone so long, and he tried to guess who 
 the unknown guest who had come with his brother might 
 be. And his brother and his wife and the unknown guest 
 now seemed to him different from what they had been 
 before. He felt that henceforth all his relations with 
 these friends would be more pleasant than they had been. 
 
 " Now there shall be no more of that coldness, such 
 as there used to be, between my brother and me .... no 
 more disputes. Nor will Kitty and I quarrel any more ; 
 and whoever my guest is I shall be polite to him, and 
 kind to the servants and to Ivan .... all will be dif- 
 ferent." 
 
 And holding in his good horse, which was whinnying 
 with impatience and pleading for permission to show his 
 paces, Levin kept looking at Ivan, who was sitting next 
 him, not knowing what to do with his idle hands, and 
 constantly pulling down his shirt, which the wind tugged 
 at ; and in his attempt to find a pretext for beginning a 
 conversation with the man, he thought of saying that 
 the horse's girth was buckled up too tightly, but then 
 this seemed like censuring him, and he wanted to say 
 something pleasant. 
 
 "You had better turn to the right and avoid that 
 stump," said the coachman, taking hold of one of the 
 reins. 
 
 " Please not touch, or try to give me lessons," said 
 Levin, exasperated by his coachman's interference. 
 Just the same as always he was made angry by any 
 interference with his affairs, and he immediately became 
 conscious how mistaken he was in supposing for a 
 moment that his new spiritual condition could keep its 
 character unchanged on contact with the reality. 
 
 When they had arrived within a quarter of a verst of 
 the house, Levin saw Grisha and Tania running to meet 
 him. 
 
 " Uncle Kostia, mamma is coming, and grandpa and 
 Sergyet Ivanovitch and some one else," they cried, as 
 they ran up to the cart. 
 
 " Tell me, who is it ? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 377 
 
 " Oh, he 's an awful, horrid man, who does so with his 
 arms," said Tania, climbing up into the cart and mimick- 
 ing Katavasof. 
 
 " Tell me, is he young or old ? " asked Levin, laugh- 
 ing, reminded of some one by Tania's performance. 
 
 " Akh, I only hope he is not a bore," said Levin to 
 himself. 
 
 As soon as they reached a turn in the road and saw 
 the party approaching, Levin recognized Katavasof, who 
 was in a straw hat, and gesticulating exactly as Tania 
 had represented it. 
 
 Katavasof was very fond of talking philosophy, and 
 his conceptions were wholly drawn from the natural 
 sciences, which had always been his specialty ; and 
 in Moscow Levin had frequently had discussions with 
 him. 
 
 And one of these discussions, in which Katavasof had 
 evidently felt that he was victorious, occurred to Levin's 
 mind as soon as he saw him. 
 
 " Henceforth," he said to himself, " I will not enter 
 into discussions, or express myself so flippantly." 
 
 Leaping from the cart and joining Katavasof and his 
 brother, he asked where Kitty was. 
 
 " She has taken Mitya to Kolok," Kolok was a piece 
 of woodland near the house, " she wanted to get him 
 established there, it was so hot at the house," said 
 Dolly. 
 
 Levin always advised his wife against taking the baby 
 to the woods, because he felt it was dangerous ; so this 
 news was not pleasant to him. 
 
 " She carries that son of hers from one place to 
 another," said the old prince. " I told her she 'd better 
 try the ice-house." 
 
 " She wanted to go to the beehives. She thought 
 you were there," added Dolly. " That is where we were 
 going." 
 
 "Well, what have you been doing that's good?" 
 said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, dropping behind the others, 
 and walking with his brother. 
 
 " Oh, nothing particular ; as usual, busy with the farm-
 
 378 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 ing. 1 You '11 stay with us awhile, now ? We 've been 
 expecting you a long time." 
 
 " Only a fortnight. I have a great deal to do at 
 Moscow." 
 
 At these words the two brothers looked at one another, 
 and Levin, in spite of his usual and now especially 
 strong desire to have friendly, and above all simple, 
 relations with his brother, felt that it was awkward for 
 him to look at him. He dropped his eyes and was at 
 a loss what to say. 
 
 Trying to select some topic of conversation which 
 would be agreeable to Sergye'f Ivanovitch, and avoiding 
 the Serbian war and the Slavonic question, a hint at 
 which Sergye'f Ivanovitch's remark about his occupation 
 in Moscow gave, Levin began to talk about his brother's 
 book. 
 
 " Well," he asked, "have there been many reviews of 
 your book ? " 
 
 SergyeY Ivanovitch smiled at the intention of the 
 question. 
 
 " No one thinks anything about it, I, least of all," 
 he said. " You see, Darya Aleksandrovna, we 're going 
 to have a shower," he added, pointing with his umbrella 
 to the white clouds which were piling up above the 
 aspen-tops. 
 
 It was evident by these words that the relationship 
 between the brothers, which Levin wanted to overcome, 
 was just the same as of old, if not unfriendly, at least 
 cool. 
 
 Levin approached Katavasof. 
 
 " How good it was of you to come to us ! " said he. 
 
 " I have wanted to come for a long time. Now we 
 shall have time to talk. Have you read Spencer? " 
 
 " Not thoroughly, I don't get anything out of him." 
 
 " How so ? that is interesting. Why is that ? " 
 
 " I have definitely made up my mind that the answers 
 to certain questions which interest me are not to be 
 found in him or his followers. Now ...." 
 
 But he was suddenly struck by the pleasant and 
 
 1 Khozyaistvo.
 
 ANNA KARENINA 379 
 
 serene expression of Katavasoi's face, and he felt so 
 sorry at having evidently disturbed his mental equi- 
 librium by his remark, that, suddenly remembering his 
 resolution, he stopped short. " However, we will talk 
 about that by and by," he added. "If we are going to 
 the apiary let us go this way, by this path," he said, 
 turning to the others. 
 
 Passing through a narrow path along by an unmown 
 field, covered on one side with an abundance of those 
 bright flowers called Ivan-da-Marya, and in the midst of 
 which grew frequent patches of the tall, dark green 
 hellebore, Levin led his guests who were afraid of 
 being stung to the cool dense shade of some young 
 aspens, and established them on some benches and logs 
 especially prepared for the purpose of receiving the bee- 
 hives, and he himself went to the storehouse to fetch 
 for the children, and the grown people as well, some 
 bread, cucumbers, and fresh honey. 
 
 Trying to make as little disturbance as possible, and 
 listening to the bees, which came flying more and more 
 thickly around him, he strode along the path that led 
 to the izba. At the very door, a bee entangled in his 
 beard began to buzz, but he carefully freed himself from 
 it. Going into the cool entry, he took his wire mask 
 down from the peg where it hung, and put it on, and, 
 thrusting his hands into his pockets, he went into the 
 inclosure of the apiary, where, amid a smoothly shaven 
 lawn, stood in straight rows on linden stakes all the old 
 hives, each having for him its own special history, while 
 the newer ones which had been set up that year were 
 ranged along the wall. At the entrance of the hives 
 he could see the young bees and the drones clustering 
 together and tumbling over one another, while in their 
 midst the working bees were industriously darting off in 
 a straight line toward the forest, where the linden trees 
 were in bloom, and quickly returning laden with their 
 pollen. 
 
 His ears were filled with the incessant, monotonous 
 humming made by the workers as they flew in with 
 their burdens, by the drones enjoying their holiday, and
 
 380 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 by the guardian bees giving warning of the approach of 
 an enemy and ready to sting. 
 
 On one side of the inclosure the old bee-keeper was 
 smoothing a hoop, and did not see Levin ; and Levin, 
 without speaking to him, stood in the midst of his 
 apiary. 
 
 He was glad of the chance of being alone so as to 
 collect himself in face of the reality which had so sud- 
 denly come into vivid contrast with his recent state of 
 mind. 
 
 He remembered that he had already been angry with 
 Ivan, had shown coldness to his brother, and had spoken 
 foolishly with Katavasof. 
 
 " Can it be possible that my happiness was only a 
 transitory feeling, which will pass away, and leave no 
 trace behind ? " 
 
 But at the same moment as he analyzed his state of 
 mind, he felt with joy that his experience had left new 
 and important results. Practical life had only temporarily 
 disturbed the spiritual calm which he had found ; but in 
 his heart it was still intact. Just as the bees, buzzing 
 around him, threatened him, and robbed him of his 
 physical calm, and compelled him to defend himself, 
 so did the cares which surrounded him, as he sat in his 
 little cart, disturb his spiritual calm ; but this lasted only 
 while he was in their midst. Just as his physical strength 
 was intact while he was defending himself against the 
 bees, so his newly attained spiritual power was also 
 unimpaired. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 " Do you know, Kostia, whom SergyeT Ivanovitch 
 found on the train ? " said Dolly, after she had given 
 her children their cucumbers and honey. " Vronsky. 
 He 's going to Serbia." 
 
 " Yes ! and not alone either. He 's taking out a 
 squadron of cavalry at his own expense," said Katavasof. 
 
 "That's like him," answered Levin. "But are vol
 
 ANNA KARENINA 381 
 
 unteers still going off ? " added he, looking at Sergyei 
 Ivanovitch. 
 
 Sergyei' Ivanovitch was busy with a knife-blade rescu- 
 ing a live bee from the honey that had flowed out of the 
 white honeycomb at the bottom of his cup, and he did 
 not answer. 
 
 " Indeed ! I should say so ! " said Katavasof, biting 
 into a cucumber. " If you had only seen them at the 
 station this morning ! " 
 
 " Now, what an idea this is ! For Christ's sake, tell 
 me, Sergye'f Ivanovitch, where all these volunteers are 
 going, and whom they are going to fight with ? " asked 
 the old prince, evidently pursuing a conversation which 
 they had begun before Levin joined them. 
 
 "With the Turks," answered Sergye'f Ivanovitch, 
 smiling quietly, as he at last rescued the helpless honey- 
 smeared bee on the point of his knife, and set him on 
 an aspen leaf. 
 
 " But who has declared war on the Turks ? Is it Ivan 
 Ivanovitch Ragozof and the Countess Lidia Ivanovna 
 and Madame Stahl ? " 
 
 " No one has declared war ; but the people sympathize 
 with their oppressed brethren, and want to help them," 
 said Sergyei Ivanovitch. 
 
 " The prince was not speaking of help, but of war," 
 said Levin, coming to the assistance of his father-in-law. 
 " The prince means that private persons have no right 
 to take part in a war without being authorized by the 
 government." 
 
 " Kostia, look out ! there 's a bee ! Won't he sting ? " 
 cried Dolly, defending herself from a wasp. 
 
 " That 's not a bee ; that 's a wasp ! " said Levin. 
 
 " Come, now ! give us your theory," demanded Kata- 
 vasof, evidently provoking Levin to a discussion. " Why 
 shouldn't private persons have that right?" 
 
 "Well, my theory is this: war, on the one hand, is 
 such a terrible, such an atrocious, thing that no man, at 
 least no Christian man, has the right to assume the 
 responsibility of beginning it ; but it belongs to govern- 
 ment alone, when it becomes inevitable. On the other
 
 382 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 hand, both in law and in common sense, where there are 
 state questions, and above all in matters concerning war, 
 private citizens have no right to use their own wills." 
 
 Sergyei' Ivanovitch and Katavasof were both ready 
 at the same instant with answers. 
 
 "That's where you're mistaken, batyushka," said 
 Katavasof. "There may be cases when government 
 does not carry out the will of its citizens, and then 
 society declares its own will." 
 
 But Sergye'f Ivanovitch did not approve of this reply. 
 He frowned as Katavasof spoke, and put it another 
 way : 
 
 " You state the question all wrong. Here there is no 
 declaration of war, but simply an expression of human, 
 of Christian, sympathy. Our brethren, men of the same 
 blood, the same faith, are butchered. Now, we do not 
 merely regard them as brethren and as coreligionists, 
 but as women, children, old men. Our feelings are 
 stirred, and the whole Russian people fly to help check 
 these horrors. Suppose you were walking in the street, 
 and saw a drunken man beating a woman or a child. 
 I think you would not stop to ask whether war had been 
 declared or had not been declared on such a man before 
 you attacked him and protected the object of his fury." 
 
 " No ; but I should not kill him." 
 
 "Yes, you might even kill him." 
 
 " I don't know. If I saw such a sight, I might yield 
 to the immediate feeling. I cannot tell how it would 
 be. But in the oppression of the Slavs, there is not, 
 and cannot be, such a powerful motive." 
 
 " Perhaps not for you, but other people think differ- 
 ently," said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, angrily. "The people 
 still keep the tradition of sympathy with brethren of the 
 orthodox faith, who are groaning under the yoke of the 
 ' unspeakable Turk.' They have heard of their terrible 
 sufferings, and are aroused." 
 
 "That may be," answered Levin, in a conciliatory 
 tone, "only I don't see it. I myself am one of the 
 people, and I don't feel it." 
 
 " I can say the same," put in the old prince " I was
 
 ANNA KARENINA 383 
 
 living abroad ; I read the newspapers, and I learned 
 about the Bulgarian atrocities ; but I never could under- 
 stand why all Russia took such a sudden fancy for their 
 Slavic brethren. I am sure I never felt the slightest 
 love for them. I was greatly ashamed. I thought I 
 must be either a monster, or that Carlsbad had a bad 
 effect on me. But since I have come back, I don't feel 
 stirred at all ; and I find that I am not the only one 
 who is not so much interested in the Slav brethren as in 
 Russia. Here is Konstantin." 
 
 "Private opinions are of no consequence there is 
 no meaning in private opinions when all Russia, whe.n 
 the whole people, signified what they wished," said 
 Sergyel Ivanovitch. 
 
 "Yes. Excuse me. I don't see this. The people 
 don't know anything," said the prince. 
 
 " But, papa, how about that Sunday in church ? " said 
 Dolly, who had been listening to the conversation. 
 " Get me a towel, please," she said in an aside to the 
 old bee-keeper, who was looking at the children with a 
 friendly smile. " It can't be that all ...." 
 
 " Well ! What about that Sunday at church ? They 
 tell the priest to read a prayer. He reads it. Nobody 
 understands one word. They snore just as they do dur- 
 ing the whole sermon," continued the prince. " Then 
 they tell them that the salvation of their souls is in 
 question. Then they pull out their kopeks, and give 
 them, but why they have not the least idea." 
 
 " The people cannot know their destiny. They have 
 an instinctive feeling, and at times like these they show 
 it," said SergyeY Ivanovitch, looking at the old bee- 
 keeper. 
 
 The handsome, tall old man, with his black beard, 
 wherein a few gray hairs were beginning to show, and 
 with his thick, silvery hair, stood motionless, holding a 
 cup of honey in his hand, looking at the gentlemen 
 with a mild, placid air, evidently not understanding a 
 word of the conversation, nor caring to understand. 
 
 He nodded his head with deliberation as he heard 
 Sergyel Ivanovitch's words, and said :
 
 384 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 " That 's certainly so." 
 
 "Well, now! Ask him about it," said Levin. "He 
 does n't know. He does n't think. Have you heard 
 about the war, Mikha'fluitch ? " asked he of the old man. 
 " You know what was read on Sunday at church, don't 
 you ? What do you think ? Ought we to fight for the 
 Christians ? " 
 
 " Why should we think ? Our Emperor Aleksander 
 Nikolayevitch will think for us, as in everything else. 
 He knows what to do. Should you like some more 
 bread ? shall I give some to the little lad ? " asked he, 
 turning to Darya Aleksandrovna, and pointing to Grisha, 
 who was munching a crust. 
 
 "What's the use of asking him?" said Sergye'f Ivan- 
 ovitch. " We have seen, and still see, hundreds and 
 hundreds of men abandoning all they possess, giving 
 their last penny, enlisting and trooping from every 
 corner of Russia, all clearly and definitely expressing 
 their thought and purpose. What does that signify ? " 
 
 " It signifies, in my opinion," said Levin, beginning 
 to get excited, " that out of eighty millions of men, there 
 will always be found hundreds, and even thousands, 
 who have lost their social position, are restless, and are 
 ready to take up the first adventure that comes along, 
 whether it is to follow Pugatchof or to go to Khiva or 
 to fight in Serbia." 
 
 " I tell you they are not adventurers who devote them- 
 selves to this work, but they are the best representatives 
 of the nation," cried SergyeY Ivanuitch, excitedly, as 
 if he were defending his last position. " There are the 
 contributions ; is n't that a test of popular feeling ? " 
 
 " That word ' people ' is so vague," said Levin ; " long- 
 haired scribblers, professors, and perhaps one in a thou- 
 sand among the peasants understand what it is all about, 
 but the rest of the eighty millions do as MikhaYluitch 
 here does. They not only don't express their will, but 
 they have n't the slightest idea that they have any will 
 to express. What right, then, have we to say that this 
 is the will of the people? "
 
 ANNA KARENINA 385 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 SERGYEI IVANOVITCH was skilled in dialectics, and 
 without replying he took up another side of the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 " Yes, if you want to get at the mind of the nation by 
 an arithmetical process, of course it will be very hard 
 work. We have not the proper gifts, and cannot reckon 
 it that way. But there are other means of learning it 
 besides arithmetic. It is felt in the air, it is felt in the 
 heart, not to speak of those submarine currents which 
 flow through the stagnant ocean of the people and which 
 are evident to every unprejudiced person. Take society 
 in a narrower sense. Take the intelligent classes, and 
 see how on this point even the most hostile parties com- 
 bine. There is no longer a difference of opinions ; all 
 the organs of society express the same thing. They 
 have all become aware of an elemental force which fills 
 the nation with its own motive power." 
 
 " Yes ; the newspapers all say the same thing, that 
 is true," said the old prince, "but then, so do all the 
 frogs croak before a storm. That does n't signify much." 
 
 " Whether frogs or not, I don't edit newspapers, 
 and I don't set up to defend them. I am talking of 
 the unanimity of opinion among intelligent people," 
 said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, turning to his brother. 
 
 Levin was about to reply, but the old prince took the 
 words from his mouth : . 
 
 " Well, something else may be said in regard to that 
 unanimity. Here 's my son-in-law, Stepan Arkadyevitch, 
 you know. He has just been appointed member of some 
 committee, commission, or other, I don't know what, 
 with a salary of eight thousand a year, and nothing 
 to do. Now, Dolly, that's not a secret. Ask him if 
 his office is useful ; he will tell you that it is indispensa- 
 ble. And he is an upright man ; but you could not 
 make him cease to believe in his full eight thousand 
 salary." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! he told me to tell Darya Aleksandrovna 
 VOL. in. 25
 
 386 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 that he had got that place," said Sergye'f Ivanovitch, 
 angrily, considering that the prince's remark was not 
 a propos. 
 
 " Of course the newspapers are unanimous. That is 
 easily explained. War will double their circulation. 
 How can they help supporting the Slavic question and 
 the national instinct ? " 
 
 " I don't like many of the papers, but you are unjust," 
 said Sergyei Ivanovitch. 
 
 " I will only add one more suggestion," said the old 
 prince. "Alphonse Karr wrote a clever thing just 
 before the Franco-Prussian war, when he said, ' You 
 say this war is absolutely necessary ? very good ; go to 
 the front, then, and be under the first fire, and lead the 
 first onslaught.' ' 
 
 " Good editors would be glad to do that," said Katava- 
 sof, with a loud laugh, and trying to imagine certain 
 editorial friends of his in this chosen legion. 
 
 " Yes ; but when they ran away," said Dolly, " they 'd 
 bother the others." 
 
 "Just as soon as they begin to run put a mitrailleuse 
 behind them, or some Cossacks with whips," said the 
 prince. 
 
 " Well, that 's a joke, but not a very good joke ; excuse 
 me, prince," said Sergyei Ivanovitch. 
 
 " I don't think it was a joke," said Levin ; " it was .... " 
 
 But his brother interrupted him. 
 
 "Every member of society is called upon to do his 
 duty," said he, " and thoughtful men perform theirs by 
 giving expression to public opinion ; and the unanimous 
 and full expression of public opinion is creditable to the 
 press, and at the same time a good symptom. Twenty 
 years ago we should have kept quiet; to-day we hear 
 the voice of the Russian people, which is ready to rise 
 like one man, and ready to sacrifice itself for its op- 
 pressed brethren. It is a great step taken, a proof 
 of power." 
 
 "Yes, not only to avenge their brethren, but to kill 
 the Turks," said Levin, timidly. " The people will 
 sacrifice itself and be ready to sacrifice itself for the
 
 ANNA KARENINA 387 
 
 salvation of their souls, but not for murder," he added, 
 involuntarily connecting this conversation with the 
 thoughts of the morning. 
 
 " What do you mean by soul ? That, to a naturalist, 
 you must remember, is a very puzzling expression. 
 What is the soul?" demanded Katavasof, with a smile. 
 
 " Oh, you know." 
 
 "Ton my word, 1 I haven't the least idea," and the 
 professor broke into a burst of laughter. 
 
 " Christ said, ' I am come not to bring peace, but a 
 sword/ " remarked SergyeT Ivanovitch, quoting as simply 
 as if it were something comprehensible, a passage from 
 the Gospel which had always troubled Levin. 
 
 "That's just so," repeated the old bee-keeper, who 
 had been standing near them, in response to a chance 
 look directed to him. 
 
 " Come, batyushka, you 're beaten, you 're beaten, 
 wholly beaten ! " cried Katavasof, gayly. 
 
 Levin reddened with vexation, not because he was 
 beaten, but because he had been drawn into discussion 
 again. 
 
 " No ; it is impossible for me to dispute with them," 
 he thought; "their armor is impenetrable, and I am 
 defenseless." 
 
 He saw that he could not defeat his brother and Kata- 
 vasof, and it was equally impossible to agree with them. 
 Their arguments were the fruit of that same pride of the 
 intellect which had almost ruined him. He could not 
 admit that a handful of men, his brother among them, 
 had the right, on the ground of what was told them by 
 a few hundred eloquent volunteers who came to the 
 capital, to claim that they and the newspapers expressed 
 the will and sentiment of the people, especially when 
 this sentiment expressed itself in vengeance and 
 butchery. 
 
 He could not agree with this because he did not dis- 
 cover the expression of these thoughts among the peo- 
 ple in whose midst he lived, and he did not find them in 
 himself and he could not consider himself as anything 
 
 1 Vat yei ogu, literally, "Here by God."
 
 3 88 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 else than one of the men constituting the Russian na* 
 tion but principally because he did not, any more than 
 the rest of men, know nor could he know what con- 
 stituted the general good ; but he firmly believed that the 
 attainment of this general good was brought about only 
 by the strenuous fulfilment of that law of right which is 
 revealed to every one, and therefore he could not desire 
 war, or preach it as a means of attaining any general 
 end whatever. 
 
 He and Mikhai'lovitch, and the people in general, ex- 
 pressed themselves in somewhat the same language as 
 was used when the early Russians invited the Variags 
 to come from Scandinavia : 
 
 " Come and rule over us, we gladly promise absolute 
 submission. We are enduring all trials, all humilia- 
 tions, all sacrifices, but we do not judge and we do not 
 decide." 
 
 And now, according to SergyeY Ivanovitch, the peo- 
 ple were ready to turn their backs on a right which they 
 had purchased at such a price ! 
 
 He wanted to say in addition that if the general opin- 
 ion is an infallible judge, then why should not the Revo- 
 lution, the Commune, be as useful to the Slavs as law- 
 ful means ? 
 
 But all these were thoughts which could not decide 
 anything. The only thing that he could clearly see was 
 that at the present moment the discussion was exasper- 
 ating to SergyeY Ivanovitch, and therefore it was wrong 
 to discuss it. So Levin held his peace, and turned the 
 attention of his guests to the clouds that were rolling up, 
 and he advised them to hurry home if they did not want 
 to get wet. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE prince and SergyeY Ivanovitch seated themselves 
 in the cart and drove on ; the rest of the party, quick- 
 ening their steps, started back on foot. 
 
 But the thunder-storm, white on top, black under-
 
 ANNA KARENINA 389 
 
 neath, came up so rapidly that they had to hurry so as 
 to reach the house before the rain was on them. The 
 clouds coming on as the vanguard, hung low, were as black 
 as soot, and drove across the sky with extraordinary 
 rapidity. They had reached within two hundred feet of 
 the house, and already the wind had begun to rise, and 
 the downpour might be expected at any second. 
 
 The children ran on ahead laughing and screaming 
 with delight and terror. Darya Aleksandrovna, strug- 
 gling with her skirts, which the wind blew round her 
 legs, no longer walked, but ran, not letting the children 
 out of her sight. The gentlemen, holding on their hats 
 with difficulty, walked with long strides. They had just 
 reached the porch when the great drops began to strike 
 and splash against the edge of the iron gutter. The 
 children, and just behind them their elders, with gay 
 exclamations ran under the shelter of the porch. 
 
 " Where is Katerina Aleksandrovna ? " asked Levin 
 of Agafya Mikhai'lovna, who was coming out of the 
 door, loaded with shawls and plaids. 
 
 " We supposed she was with you." 
 
 " And Mitya ? " 
 
 " He must be in the Kolok woods with his nurse." 
 
 Levin seized the plaids, and started for Kolok. 
 
 In the few minutes that had elapsed, the storm had 
 reached beyond the sun, and it was as dark as if there 
 was an eclipse. The wind blew obstinately as if insist- 
 ing on its own way, tried to stop Levin, and, tearing 
 off the leaves and flowers from the lindens, and rudely 
 and strangely baring the white branches of the birches, 
 bent everything to one side, acacias, flowers, bur- 
 docks, the grass, and the tree-tops. The girls working 
 in the garden ran squealing under the shelter of the 
 servants' quarters. The white screen of the pouring 
 rain had already cut off the distant forest and half of 
 the adjacent field, and was rapidly advancing on Kolok. 
 The dampness of the shower was felt in the atmosphere 
 like fine drops. 
 
 Bending his head, and fighting vigorously against the 
 gale, which tugged at his shawls, Levin was already on
 
 390 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 his way to Kolok. He thought he already saw white 
 forms behind a well-known oak, when suddenly a glare 
 of light seemed to burst from the ground before him, 
 and the vault of the sky above him to fall with a crash. 
 When he opened his dazzled eyes, he looked through 
 the thick curtain formed by the rain, which cut him off 
 from the Kolok woods, and saw, to his horror, that the 
 green top of a well-known oak which stood in the forest 
 had strangely changed its position. Even before he 
 could ask, " Can the lightning have struck it ? " he saw 
 it bending over more and more rapidly, and then disap- 
 pearing behind the other trees, and he heard the crash 
 the great oak made as it fell, carrying with it the neigh- 
 boring trees. The glare of the lightning, the crash of 
 the thunder, and the sensation of chill running over his 
 whole body blended for Levin in one impression of 
 horror. 
 
 "My God! my God! keep them safe," he ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 And though he instantly felt the absurdity of the 
 prayer, since the oak had already fallen, he neverthe- 
 less said it over and over, for he knew that, absurd as 
 it was, he could not do anything else to help them. 
 
 He hastened toward the spot where they generally 
 went, but he did not find them. They were in another 
 part of the woods under an old linden, and they called 
 to him. Two figures dressed in dark clothes they 
 usually wore white were bending over something 
 under the trees. It was Kitty and the nurse. The 
 rain had stopped, and it was beginning to grow lighter 
 when Levin reached them. The bottom of the nurse's 
 dress was dry, but Kitty's gown was wet through and 
 clung to her. Though it was no longer raining, they 
 were standing just as they had been when the shower 
 began. Both were leaning over the baby-carriage, with 
 its green parasol. 
 
 " Alive ? safe ? God be praised ! " he cried, as, splash- 
 ing through the puddles, he ran to them with his shoes 
 full of water. 
 
 Kitty's glowing face, all wet, was turned to him, and
 
 ANNA KARENINA 391 
 
 she smiled timidly from under her hat, which had lost 
 its shape in the rain. 
 
 " There now, are n't you ashamed ? I can't understand 
 how you could do such a careless thing," he began, in 
 his vexation scolding his wife. 
 
 " Goodness, 1 it was not my fault. We were just start- 
 ing to go when he began to be restless. We had to 
 change him. We were just ...." Kitty said, trying to 
 defend herself. 
 
 Mitya was safe, dry, and still soundly sleeping. 
 
 " Well ! God be thanked ! I don't know what I 'm 
 saying." 
 
 They hastily picked up the wet diapers, the nurse took 
 the baby, and Levin, ashamed of his vexation, gave his 
 arm to his wife, and led her away, pressing her hand 
 gently. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 IN the course of all that day, during the most varied 
 conversations in which Levin took part, as it were, only 
 with the external side of his mind, and notwithstanding 
 his disillusion at finding that the moral regeneration had 
 not taken place in his nature after all, he did not cease 
 to be pleasantly conscious that his heart was full. 
 
 After the shower, it was too wet to go out for a walk, 
 and, moreover, other threatening clouds were piling up 
 on the horizon, and here and there reaching up high into 
 the sky, black, and laden with thunder. All the house- 
 hold spent the rest of the day within doors. 
 
 Discussions were avoided, and after dinner all were in 
 the gayest frame of mind. 
 
 Katavasof at first kept the ladies laughing by his 
 original turns of wit, which always pleased people when 
 they made his acquaintance ; then afterward being drawn 
 out by Sergyei' Ivanovitch, he related his very interesting 
 observations on the different characteristics and features 
 of male and female flies, and their habits. 
 
 1 Yet Bogn.
 
 392 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 SergyeY Ivanovitch also was very gay ; and at tea he 
 explained the future of the Eastern question so simply 
 and well that all could follow him. Kitty alone did not 
 hear him. She had been summoned to the nursery to 
 give Mitya his bath. 
 
 A few moments after Kitty had left the room, Levin 
 also was called to follow her. 
 
 Leaving his tea, and feeling regretful at having an 
 interesting conversation interrupted, and at the same 
 time troubled because they had called him to the nur- 
 sery, a thing which had hitherto happened only in cases 
 of emergency, Levin followed his wife. 
 
 In spite of the fact that he was greatly interested in 
 his brother's partly outlined scheme of making the- 
 newly enfranchised world of forty millions of Slavs join 
 with Russia in establishing a new epoch in history for 
 it was something entirely novel to him, in spite of his 
 curiosity and anxiety at having been summoned to the 
 nursery, as soon as he had left the drawing-room and 
 was once more alone, he immediately remembered his 
 thoughts of the morning. And all these theories as to 
 the significance of the Slav element in the universal his- 
 tory seemed to him so insignificant in comparison with 
 what was taking place in his own soul, that for a mo- 
 ment he forgot all about it, and returned to the moral 
 state that had so delighted him at the beginning of the 
 day. 
 
 This time he did not wholly retrace the course of 
 thought which had led him to this state of mind, nor 
 was it necessary. He was borne immediately back to 
 that feeling which had guided him, which had been con- 
 nected with those thoughts, and he now found the feel- 
 ing stronger and more definite in his soul than ever be- 
 fore. Now there was no longer what had always marked 
 his previous imaginary attempts at gaining spiritual 
 calmness, when he had been obliged to call a halt to the 
 whole course of his thoughts in order to find the feel- 
 ing ; now, on the contrary, the feeling of joy and calm- 
 ness was more vivid than before, but thought did not 
 overtake the feeling. He walked along the terrace, and
 
 ANNA KARENINA 393 
 
 saw two stars glowing in the already darkening sky, and 
 suddenly he remembered a course of reasoning : 
 
 "Yes," said he to himself, "as I looked at the heav- 
 ens I thought that the vault which I gaze at is not a lie. 
 But there was the something that remained half thought 
 out in my mind, something that I hid from myself. 
 Now, what was it ? There cannot be an answer. If 
 one could think it out, all things would be explained." 
 
 Just as he entered the child's chamber, he remem- 
 bered what it was that he hid from himself. It was 
 this : 
 
 " If the chief proof of the existence of God lies in 
 the revelation of good, why should this revelation be 
 limited to the Christian Church ? How about those 
 millions of Buddhists and Mohammedans, who are also 
 seeking for the truth and doing right ? " 
 
 It seemed to him that there must be an answer to 
 this question, but he could not find and express it before 
 entering the room. 
 
 Kitty, with her sleeves rolled up, was bending over 
 the bath-tub, in which she was washing the baby. As 
 she heard her husband's steps, she turned her face to 
 him, and with a smile called him to her. With one 
 hand she was supporting the head of the plump little 
 fellow, who was floating on his back in the water and 
 kicking with his legs ; with the other she was squeezing 
 the sponge on him. 
 
 " Come here ! look, look ! " said she, as her husband 
 came up to her. " Agafya Mikhai'lovna is right ; he 
 knows us." 
 
 The fact was that Mitya to-day for the first time gave 
 indubitable proof that he knew his friends. 
 
 As soon as Levin went to the bath-tub, the experi- 
 ment was tried, and it was wholly successful. A cook, 
 who was called for the purpose, bent over the tub. The 
 baby frowned and shook his head. Kitty bent over him, 
 and he smiled radiantly, and clung with his little hands 
 to the sponge and sucked with his lips, producing such 
 a strange and contented sound that not only the mother 
 and the nurse, but Levin himself, were enchanted
 
 394 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 They took the baby from the water, wiped him, and, 
 after he had expressed his disapprobation with a pierc- 
 ing scream, they gave him to his mother. 
 
 " Well, I am very glad to see that you begin to love 
 him," said Kitty, as she sat down in a comfortable seat, 
 with the child at her breast. " I am very glad. It 
 really troubled me when you said you had n't any feel- 
 ing for him." 
 
 " No ! did I say that I had no feeling for him ? I 
 only said that I was disappointed." 
 
 " How were you disappointed ? " 
 
 " I was n't disappointed in him, but in the feeling 
 that he would arouse. I expected more. I expected .as 
 a surprise some new and pleasant feeling ; and instead 
 of that, it was pity, disgust." 
 
 She listened to him as she put on her slender fingers 
 the rings which she had taken off while bathing the 
 baby. 
 
 "And more of fear and pity than of satisfaction. I 
 never knew until to-day, after the storm, how I loved 
 him." 
 
 Kitty smiled with radiant joy. 
 
 " Were you very much afraid ? " she asked. " And 
 so was I. But it seems more terrible to me now when 
 the danger is all past. I shall go and look at the 
 oak to-morrow. How nice Katavasof is ! Well, the 
 whole day has been so pleasant. You are so delightful 
 
 with your brother when you want to be Well, go to 
 
 them. It is always hot and stifling here after the 
 bath." 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 LEVIN, on leaving the nursery and finding himself 
 alone, began to follow out his line of thought, in which 
 there had been something obscure. 
 
 Instead of going back to the drawing-room, where he 
 heard the sound of voices, he remained on the terrace, 
 and, leaning over the balustrade of the terrace, he looked
 
 ANNA KARENINA 395 
 
 at the sky. It had grown very dark, and there was not 
 a cloud in the south where he was looking. The clouds 
 were all in the opposite quarter. From time to time it 
 would lighten, and the distant thunder would be heard. 
 Levin listened to the drops of rain falling rhythmically 
 from the lindens, and looked at the stars and then at the 
 Milky Way. Whenever the lightning flashed, then not 
 only the Milky Way but also the bright stars would dis- 
 appear from his vision ; but by the time the thunder 
 sounded they would reappear in their places as if a 
 careful hand had readjusted them in the firmament. 
 
 "Well, now what is it that troubles me?" Levin 
 asked himself, already beginning to feel that a resolu- 
 tion of his doubts, though it had not yet become a 
 matter of knowledge, was ready in his soul. 
 
 " Yes, there is one evident, indubitable manifestation 
 of the Divinity, and that is the laws of right which are 
 made known to the world through Revelation, and of 
 which I am conscious as existing in myself, and in the 
 recognition of them I am in spite of myself, willingly 
 or unwillingly, united with other men into one brother- 
 hood of believers, which is called the Church. 
 
 " Yes ; but are Hebrews, Confucians, Mohammedans, 
 Buddhists, in the same relation ? " he asked himself, re- 
 curring to the dilemma which had seemed so portentous 
 to him. "Can these hundreds of millions of men be 
 deprived of the greatest of blessings, of that which 
 alone gives a meaning to life ? " 
 
 He paused, but immediately recovered his train of 
 thought. 
 
 "What am I asking myself? 
 
 " I am questioning the relation of the various forms 
 of human belief to Divinity. I am questioning the rela- 
 tion of God to the whole universe, with all its nebulae. 
 But what am I doing ? And at the moment when 
 knowledge, sure, though inaccessible to reason, is re- 
 vealed to me, shall I still persist in dragging in 
 logic ? 
 
 " Do I not know that the stars do not move ? " said he, 
 noticing the change that had taken place in the position
 
 396 ANNA KARENINA 
 
 of the brilliant planet which he had seen rising over the 
 birches; "but, seeing the stars change place, and not 
 being able to imagine the revolution of the earth, then 
 I should be right in saying that they moved. Could 
 the astronomers have made any calculations, and gained 
 any knowledge, if they had taken into consideration the 
 varied and complicated motions of the earth ? Have 
 not their marvelous conclusions as to the distances, the 
 weight, the motions, and revolutions of the celestial 
 bodies all been based on the apparent movements of 
 the stars around a motionless earth, these, very move- 
 ments which I now witness, as millions of men for 
 centuries have witnessed them, and which can always 
 be verified ? And just as the conclusions of the astrono- 
 mers would have been inaccurate and false if they had 
 not been based on their observations of the heavens 
 such as they appeared relatively to a single meridian 
 and a single horizon, so all my conclusions as to the 
 knowledge of good and evil would be inaccurate and 
 false if they were not founded on that comprehension 
 of good and evil which for all men always has been and 
 always will be one and the same, and which Christianity 
 has revealed to me and which my soul can always verify. 
 The relations of human belief to God must, for me, re- 
 main unfathomable; to search them out belongs not 
 to me." 
 
 "Haven't you gone in yet?" said Kitty's voice, sud- 
 denly. She was on her way to the drawing-room by 
 the way of the terrace. " There 's nothing that troubles 
 you, is there ? " asked she, looking wistfully up into her 
 husband's face and trying to study its expression by the 
 starlight. By the light of a flash of lightning on the 
 horizon, she saw that he was calm and happy, and she 
 smiled. 
 
 "She understands me," thought he. "She knows 
 what I am thinking. Shall I tell her, or not ? Yes, I 
 will tell her." 
 
 But just as he was about to speak, Kitty broke in. 
 
 " Kostia," said she, " do be so kind and go to the cor- 
 ner room and see how they have arranged for SergyeY
 
 ANNA KARENINA 397 
 
 Ivanovitch. I don't like to. See if they put in the new 
 washstand properly." 
 
 " Certainly, I '11 go," answered Levin, rising, and kiss- 
 ing her. 
 
 " No ; better be silent," thought he, as she went past ; 
 " this secret has no importance save for me alone, and 
 words could not explain it. This new feeling has neither 
 changed me nor suddenly enlightened me nor made me 
 happy, as I imagined it would. It is just like my feel- 
 ing for my son. There is no element of surprise in it. 
 But it is faith .... no, not faith .... I know not what it is. 
 But the feeling stole into my soul through suffering, and 
 there it is firmly established. 
 
 " I shall continue to be vexed with Ivan the coach- 
 man, and get into useless discussions, and express 
 my thoughts blunderingly. I shall always be blaming 
 my wife for what annoys me, and repenting at once. I 
 shall always feel a certain barrier between the Holy of 
 Holies of my inmost soul, and the souls of others, even 
 my wife's. I shall continue to pray without being able 
 to explain to myself why. But my whole life, every 
 moment of my life, independently of whatever may 
 happen to me, will be, not meaningless as before, but 
 full of the deep meaning which I shall have the power 
 to impress upon it." 
 
 THE END

 
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