第93章

`Mademoiselle Varenka?' Kitty asked joyously.

`Yes, yes. She came to the rescue before anyone else; she took the man by the arm and led him away.'

`There, mamma,' said Kitty, `yet you wonder why I'm enthusiastic about her.'

The next day, as she watched her unknown friend, Kitty noticed that Mademoiselle Varenka was already on the same terms with Levin and his companion as with her other proteges. She went up to them, entered into conversation with them, and served as interpreter for the woman, who could not speak any foreign language.

Kitty began to entreat her mother still more urgently to let her make acquaintance with Varenka. And, disagreeable as it was to the Princess to seem to take the first step in wishing to make the acquaintance of Madame Stahl, who thought fit to give herself airs, she made inquiries about Varenka, and, having ascertained particulars about her tending to prove that there could he no harm, even if little good in the acquaintance, she herself approached Varenka and made acquaintance with her.

Choosing a time when her daughter had gone to the spring, while Varenka had stopped outside the baker's, the Princess approached her.

`Allow me to make your acquaintance,' she said, with her dignified smile. `My daughter has lost her heart to you,' she said. `Possibly you do not know me. I am...'

`That feeling is more than reciprocal, Princess,' Varenka answered hurriedly.

`What a good deed you did yesterday to our poor compatriot!' said the Princess.

Varenka flushed a little.

`I don't remember. I don't think I did anything,' she said.

`Why, you saved that Levin from disagreeable consequences.'

`Yes, sa compagne called me, and I tried to pacify him; he's very ill, and was dissatisfied with the doctor. I'm used to looking after such invalids.'

`Yes, I've heard you live at Mentone with your aunt - I think - Madame Stahl: I used to know her belle-soeur.'

`No, she's not my aunt. I call her maman, but I am not related to her; I was brought up by her,' answered Varenka, flushing a little again.

This was so simply said, and so sweet was the truthful and candid expression of her face, that the Princess saw why Kitty had taken such a fancy to Varenka.

`Well, and what's this Levin going to do?' asked the Princess.

`He's going away,' answered Varenka.

At that instant Kitty came up from the spring beaming with delight because her mother had become acquainted with her unknown friend.

`See, Kitty, your intense desire to make friends with Mademoiselle...'

`Varenka,' Varenka put in smiling, `that's what everyone calls me.'

Kitty blushed with pleasure, and slowly, without speaking, squeezed her new friend's hand, which did not respond to her pressure, but lay motionless in her hand. The hand did not respond to her pressure, but the face of Mademoiselle Varenka glowed with a soft, glad, though rather mournful, smile, that showed large but handsome teeth.

`I have long wished for this too,' she said.

`But `But you are so busy...'

`Oh, no I'm not at all busy,' answered Varenka, but at that moment she had to leave her new friends because two little Russian girls, children of an invalid, ran up to her.

`Varenka, mamma's calling!' they cried.

And Varenka went after them.

[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 2, Chapter 32[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 32 The particulars which the Princess had learned in regard to Varenka's past and her relations with Madame Stahl were as follows:

Madame Stahl, of whom some people said that she had worried her husband out of his life, while others said it was he who had made her wretched by his immoral behavior, had always been a woman of weak health and enthusiastic temperament. When, after her separation from her husband, she gave birth to her only child, the child had died almost immediately, and the family of Madame Stahl, knowing her sensibility and fearing the news would kill her, had substituted another child, a baby born the same night and in the same house in Peterburg, the daughter of the chief cook of the Imperial Household. This was Varenka. Madame Stahl learned later on that Varenka was not her own child, but she went on bringing her up, especially as very soon afterward Varenka had not a relation of her own living.

Madame Stahl had now been living without a break, more than ten years abroad, in the south, never leaving her couch. And some people said that Madame Stahl had made her social position as a philanthropic, highly religious woman; other people said she really was at heart the highly ethical being, living for nothing but the good of her fellow creatures, which she represented herself to be. No one knew what her faith was - Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox. But one fact was indubitable - she was in amicable relations with the highest dignitaries of all the churches and sects.

Varenka lived with her all the while abroad, and everyone who knew Madame Stahl knew and liked Mademoiselle Varenka, as everyone called her.

Having learned all these facts, the Princess found nothing to object to in her daughter's intimacy with Varenka, more especially as Varenka's breeding and education were of the best - she spoke French and English extremely well - and, what was of the most weight, brought a message from Madame Stahl expressing her regret that she had been prevented by her ill-health from making the acquaintance of the Princess.

After getting to know Varenka, Kitty became more and more fascinated by her friend, and every day she discovered new virtues in her.

The Princess, hearing that Varenka had a good voice, asked her to come and sing to them in the evening.