第261章

Princess Varvara was her husband's aunt, and she had long known her, and did not respect her. She knew that Princess Varvara had passed her whole life toadying to her rich relations, but that she should now be sponging on Vronsky, a man who was nothing to her, mortified Dolly on account of her kinship with her husband. Anna noticed Dolly's expression, and was disconcerted by it. She blushed, dropped her riding habit, and stumbled over it.

Darya Alexandrovna went up to the charabanc and coldly greeted Princess Varvara. Sviiazhsky, too, she knew. He inquired how his queer friend with the young wife was, and running his eyes over the ill-matched horses and the carriage with its patched mudguards, proposed to the ladies that they should get into the charabanc.

`And I'll get in this vehicle,' he said. `The horse is quiet, and the Princess drives capitally.'

`No, stay as you were,' said Anna, coming up, `and we'll go in the carriage,' and, taking Dolly's arm, she drew her away.

Darya Alexandrovna's eyes were fairly dazzled by the elegant carriage of a pattern she had never seen before, the splendid horses, and the elegant and gorgeous people surrounding her. But what struck her most of all was the change that had taken place in Anna, whom she knew so well and loved.

Any other woman, a less close observer, not knowing Anna before, and particularly not having thought as Darya Alexandrovna had been thinking on the road, would not have noticed anything special in Anna. But now Dolly was struck by that temporary beauty, which is only found in women during the moments of love, and which she saw now in Anna's face. Everything in her face, the clearly marked dimples in her cheeks and chin, the line of her lips, the smile which, as it were, fluttered about her face, the brilliance of her eyes, the grace and rapidity of her movements, the fullness of the notes of her voice, even the manner in which, with a sort of angry friendliness, she answered Veslovsky when he asked permission to get on her cob, so as to teach it to gallop with the right leg foremost - it was all peculiarly fascinating, and it seemed as if Anna herself were aware of it, and rejoicing in it.

When both the women were seated in the carriage, a sudden embarrassment came over both of them. Anna was disconcerted by the intent look of inquiry Dolly fixed upon her. Dolly was embarrassed because after Sviiazhsky's phrase about `this vehicle,' she could not help feeling ashamed of the dirty old carriage in which Anna was sitting with her. The coachman Philip and the countinghouse clerk were experiencing the same sensation. The countinghouse clerk, to conceal his confusion, busied himself settling the ladies, but Philip the coachman became sullen, and was bracing himself not to be overawed in future by this external superiority. He smiled ironically, looking at the raven horse, and was already deciding in his own mind that this smart trotter in the charabanc was only good for promenade, and wouldn't do forty verstas straight off in the heat.

The peasants had all got up from the telega and were inquisitively and mirthfully staring at the meeting of the friends, making their comments on it.

`They're pleased, too; haven't seen each other for a long while,'

said the curly-headed old man with the bast round his hair.

`I say, Uncle Gherasim, if we could take that raven horse now, to cart the corn, that 'ud be quick work!'

`Look-ee! Is that a woman in breeches?' said one of them, pointing to Vassenka Veslovsky sitting in a sidesaddle.

`Nay, a man! See how smartly he's going it!'

`Eh, lads! Seems we're not going to sleep, then?'

`What chance of sleep today!' said the old man, with a sidelong look at the sun. `Midday's past, look-ee! Get your hooks, and come along!'

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TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 18[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 18 Anna looked at Dolly's thin, careworn face, with its wrinkles filled with dust from the road, and she was on the point of saying what she was thinking - that is, that Dolly had grown thinner. But, conscious that she herself had grown handsomer, and that Dolly's eyes were telling her so, she sighed and began to speak about herself.

`You are looking at me,' she said, `and wondering how I can be happy in my position? Well! It's shameful to confess, but I... I'm inexcusably happy. Something magical has happened to me, like a dream, when you're frightened, panic-stricken, and all of a sudden you wake up and all the horrors are no more. I have waked up. I have lived through the misery, the dread, and now for a long while past, especially since we've been here, I've been so happy!...' she said, with a timid smile of inquiry looking at Dolly.

`How glad I am!' said Dolly smiling, involuntarily speaking more coldly than she wanted to. `I'm very glad for you. Why haven't you written to me?'

`Why?... Because I hadn't the courage.... You forget my position....'

`To me? Hadn't the courage? If you knew how I... I look at...'

Darya Alexandrovna wanted to express her thoughts of the morning, but for some reason it seemed to her now out of place to do so.

`But of that we'll talk later. What's this - what are all these buildings?' she asked, wanting to change the conversation and pointing to the red and green roofs that came into view behind the green hedges of acacia and lilac. `Quite a little town.'

But Anna did not answer.

`No, no! How do you look at my position, what do you think of it?' she asked.

`I consider...' Darya Alexandrovna was beginning, but at that instant Vassenka Veslovsky, having brought the cob to gallop with the right leg foremost, galloped past them, bumping heavily up and down in his short jacket on the chamois leather of the sidesaddle. `He's doing it, Anna Arkadyevna!'

he shouted. Anna did not even glance at him; but again it seemed to Darya Alexandrovna out of place to enter upon such a long conversation in the carriage, and so she cut short her thought.