第88章

Seriozha had been shy of his father before, and now, ever since Alexei Alexandrovich had taken to calling him `young man,' and since that insolvable question had occurred to him as to whether Vronsky were friend or foe, he avoided his father. He looked round toward his mother, as though seeking refuge. It was only with his mother that he was at ease. Meanwhile, Alexei Alexandrovich was holding his son by the shoulder, while he was speaking to the governess, and Seriozha was so miserably uncomfortable that Anna saw he was on the point of tears.

Anna, who had flushed a little the instant her son had come in, noticing that Seriozha was uncomfortable, got up hurriedly, took Alexei Alexandrovich's hand from her son's shoulder, and, kissing the boy, led him out onto the terrace, and quickly came back.

`It's time to start, though,' said she, glancing at her watch.

`How is it Betsy doesn't come?...'

`Yes,' said Alexei Alexandrovich, and, getting up, he folded his hands and cracked his fingers. `I've come to bring you some money, too - for nightingales, we know, can't live on fairy tales,' he said. `You want it, I expect?'

`No, I don't... Yes, I do,' she said, without looking at him, and crimsoning to the roots of her hair. `But you'll come back here after the races, I suppose?'

`Oh, yes!' answered Alexei Alexandrovich. `And here's the glory of Peterhof - Princess Tverskaia,' he added, looking out of the window at the English harnessed carriage, with the tiny seats placed extremely high. `What elegance! Charming! Well, let us be starting too, then.'

Princess Tverskaia did not get out of her carriage, but her liveryman, in spatterdashes, a cape and black high hat, jumped off at the entrance.

`I'm going; good-by!' said Anna, and, kissing her son, she went up to Alexei Alexandrovich and held out her hand to him. `It was ever so lovely of you to come.'

Alexei Alexandrovich kissed her hand.

`Well, au revoir, then! You'll come back for some tea - that'll be delightful!' she said, and went out, radiant and gay. But as soon as he was out of sight, she became aware of the spot on her hand that his lips had touched, and she shuddered with repulsion.

[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 2, Chapter 28[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 28 When Alexei Alexandrovich reached the racecourse Anna was already sitting in the pavilion beside Betsy, in that pavilion where the highest society had gathered. She caught sight of her husband in the distance. Two men, her husband and her lover, were the two centers of her existence, and, unaided by her external senses, she was aware of their proximity. She was aware of her husband approaching a long way off, and she could not help following him in the surging crowd in the midst of which he was moving.

She watched his progress toward the pavilion, saw him now responding condescendingly to an ingratiating bow, now exchanging friendly, nonchalant greetings with his equals, now assiduously trying to catch the eye of some great one of this world, and taking off his big round hat that pressed down the tips of his ears. All these ways of his she knew, and all were hateful to her.

`Nothing but ambition, nothing but desire to get on - that's all there is in his soul,' she thought; `as for his lofty ideals, love of culture, religion, they are only so many tools for getting on.'

From his glances toward the ladies' pavilion (he was staring straight at her, but did not distinguish his wife in the sea of muslin, ribbons, feathers, parasols and flowers) she saw that he was looking for her, but she purposely avoided noticing him.

`Alexei Alexandrovich!' Princess Betsy called to him; `I'm sure you don't see your wife: here she is.'

He smiled his chilly smile.

`There's so much splendor here that one's eyes are dazzled,' he said, and he went into the pavilion. He smiled to his wife as a man should smile on meeting his wife after only just parting from her, and greeted the princess and other acquaintances, giving to each what was due - that is to say, jesting with the ladies and dealing out friendly greetings among the men. Below, near the pavilion, was standing an adjutant general of whom Alexei Alexandrovich had a high opinion, noted for his intelligence and culture. Alexei Alexandrovich entered into conversation with him.

There was an interval between the races, and so nothing hindered conversation. The adjutant general expressed his disapproval of races.

Alexei Alexandrovich replied defending them. Anna heard his high, measured tones, without losing one word, and every word struck her as false, and stabbed her ears with pain.

When the four-versta steeplechase was beginning, she bent forward and gazed with fixed eyes at Vronsky as he went up to his horse and mounted, and at the same time she heard that loathsome, never-ceasing voice of her husband. She was in an agony of terror for Vronsky, but a still greater agony was the never-ceasing, as it seemed to her, stream of her husband's shrill voice with its familiar intonations.

`I'm a wicked woman, a lost woman,' she thought; `but I don't like lying, I can't endure falsehood, while as for him [her husband], falsehood is the breath of life to him. He knows all about it, he sees it all; what does he care if he can talk so calmly? If he were to kill me, if he were to kill Vronsky, I might respect him. No, all he wants is falsehood and propriety,' Anna said to herself, not considering exactly what it was she wanted of her husband, and how she would have liked to see him behave.