第222章

Lidia Ivanovna's dress had cost her great pains, as indeed all her dresses had done of late. Her aim in dress was now quite the reverse of what she had pursued thirty years before. Then her desire had been to adorn herself with something, and the more adorned the better. Now, on the contrary, she was perforce decked out in a way so inconsistent with her age and her figure, that her one anxiety was to contrive that the contrast between these adornments and her own exterior should not be too appalling.

And as far as Alexei Alexandrovich was concerned she succeeded, and was in his eyes attractive. For him she was the one island not only of good will to him, but of love in the midst of the sea of hostility and jeering that surrounded him.

Passing through rows of ironical eyes, he was drawn as naturally to her loving glance as a plant to the sun.

`I congratulate you,' she said to him, her eyes on his ribbon.

Suppressing a smile of pleasure, he shrugged his shoulders, closing his eyes, as though to say that that could not be a source of joy to him.

Countess Lidia Ivanovna was very well aware that it was one of his chief sources of satisfaction, though he never admitted it.

`How is our angel?' said Countess Lidia Ivanovna, meaning Seriozha.

`I can't say I was quite pleased with him,' said Alexei Alexandrovich, raising his eyebrows and opening his eyes. `And Sitnikov is not satisfied with him.' (Sitnikov was the tutor to whom Seriozha's secular education had been intrusted.) `As I have mentioned to you, there's a sort of coldness in him toward the most important questions which ought to touch the heart of every man and every child....' Alexei Alexandrovich began expounding his views on the sole question that interested him outside the service - the education of his son.

When Alexei Alexandrovich, with Lidia Ivanovna's help, had been brought back anew to life and activity, he felt it his duty to undertake the education of the son left on his hands. Having never before taken any interest in educational questions, Alexei Alexandrovich devoted some time to the theoretical study of the subject. After reading several books on anthropology, education, and didactics, Alexei Alexandrovich drew up a plan of education, and, engaging the best tutor in Peterburg to superintend it, he set to work, and the subject continually absorbed him.

`Yes - but the heart! I see in him his father's heart, and with such a heart a child cannot go far wrong,' said Lidia Ivanovna with enthusiasm.

`Yes, perhaps.... As for me, I do my duty. It's all I can do.'

`You're coming to me,' said Countess Lidia Ivanovna, after a pause;`we have to speak of a subject painful for you. I would give anything to have spared you certain memories, but others are not of the same mind.

I have received a letter from her. She is here in Peterburg.'

Alexei Alexandrovich shuddered at the allusion to his wife, but immediately his face assumed the deathlike rigidity which expressed utter helplessness in the matter.

`I was expecting it,' he said.

Countess Lidia Ivanovna looked at him ecstatically, and tears of rapture at the greatness of his soul came into her eyes.

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TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 5, Chapter 25[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 25 When Alexei Alexandrovich came into the Countess Lidia Ivanovna's snug little boudoir, decorated with old china and hung with portraits, the lady herself had not yet made her appearance.

She was changing her dress.

A cloth was laid on a round table, and on it stood a china tea service and a silver teakettle and spirit lamp. Alexei Alexandrovich looked idly about at the endless familiar portraits which adorned the room, and, sitting down to the table, he opened a New Testament lying upon it. The rustle of the Countess's silk skirt drew his attention off.

`Well, now, we can sit quietly,' said Countess Lidia Ivanovna, slipping hurriedly with an agitated smile between the table and the sofa, `and talk over our tea.'

After some words of preparation, Countess Lidia Ivanovna, breathing hard and flushing crimson, gave into Alexei Alexandrovich's hands the letter she had received.

After reading the letter, he sat a long while in silence.

`I don't think I have the right to refuse her,' he said, timidly lifting his eyes.

`Dear friend, you never see evil in anyone!'

`On the contrary, I see that all is evil. But whether it is just...'

His face showed irresolution, and a seeking for counsel, support, and guidance, in a matter he did not understand.

`No,' Countess Lidia Ivanovna interrupted him; `there are limits to everything. I can understand immorality,' she said, not quite truthfully, since she never could understand that which leads women to immorality;`but I don't understand cruelty - to whom? To you! How can she stay in the town where you are? No, the longer one lives the more one learns. And I'm learning to understand your loftiness and her baseness.'

`Who is to cast a stone?' said Alexei Alexandrovich, unmistakably pleased with the part he had to play. `I have forgiven all, and so I cannot deprive her of what is exacted by love in her - by her love for her son....'

`But is that love, my friend? Is it sincere? Admitting that you have forgiven - that you forgive... have we the right to work on the soul of that angel? He looks on her as dead. He prays for her, and beseeches God to have mercy on her sins. And it is better so. But now what will he think?'

`I had not thought of that,' said Alexei Alexandrovich, evidently agreeing.

Countess Lidia Ivanovna hid her face in her hands and was silent.

She was praying.