by Leo Tolstoy
When the carriage stopped, the riders came on at a slow pace. At their head rode Anna beside Veslovsky. Anna rode calmly on a short, sturdy English cob with a cropped mane and short tail. Her beautiful head with black hair escaping from under the top hat, her full shoulders, her slender waist in the black riding habit, and her whole calm, graceful bearing struck Dolly.
In the first moment it seemed improper to her that Anna should be on horseback. To Darya Alexandrovna's mind, the notion of ladies on horseback was connected with the notion of light, youthful coquetry, which in her opinion did not suit Anna's situation; but when she saw her closer up, she at once became reconciled with her horseback riding. In spite of her elegance, everything in Anna's bearing and dress and movement was so simple, calm and dignified that nothing could have been more natural.
Beside Anna on a fiery grey cavalry horse rode Vasenka Veslovsky, in his Scotch cap with its flying ribbons, his fat legs stretched forward, obviously admiring himself, and Darya Alexandrovna, recognizing him, could not suppress a gay smile. Behind them rode Vronsky. Under him was a dark bay thoroughbred, obviously excited from galloping. He worked the reins, trying to hold it back.
After him rode a small man in a jockey's outfit. Sviyazhsky and the princess, in a new char a banc drawn by a big black trotter, were overtaking the riders.
Anna's face suddenly lit up with a joyful smile as she recognized the small figure huddled in the corner of the old carriage as Dolly. She gave a cry, sat up in the saddle and touched her horse into a gallop. Coming up to the carriage, she jumped down unassisted and, holding the skirts of her riding habit, ran to meet Dolly.
'I thought so but didn't dare think it. What a joy! You can't imagine what a joy it is for me!' she said, first pressing her face to Dolly's and kissing her, then drawing back and looking at her with a smile.
'What a joy, Alexei!' she said, turning to Vronsky, who had dismounted and was coming towards them.
Vronsky, having taken off his tall grey hat, approached Dolly.
'You won't believe how glad we are that you've come,' he said, giving the words he spoke a special significance and revealing his strong white teeth in a smile.
Vasenka Veslovsky, without dismounting, took his cap off and greeted the visitor, joyfully waving the ribbons over his head.
'That is Princess Varvara,' Anna responded to Dolly's questioning look, as the char a banc drove up.
'Ah!' said Darya Alexandrovna, and her face involuntarily showed displeasure.
Princess Varvara was her husband's aunt; she had known her for a long time and had no respect for her. She knew that Princess Varvara had spent her whole life as a sponger on wealthy relations, but the fact that she was now living off Vronsky, a man who was a stranger to her, offended her feelings for her husband's family. Anna noticed the look on Dolly's face, became embarrassed, blushed, lost hold of her skirt and tripped over it.
Darya Alexandrovna went over to the halted char a banc and greeted Princess Varvara coldly. Sviyazhsky was also an acquaintance. He asked how his eccentric friend and his young wife were doing and, after a fleeting glance at the ill-matched horses and the carriage with its patched splash-boards, invited the ladies to ride in the char a banc.
'And I'll go in that vehicle,' he said. 'The horse is quiet, and the princess is an excellent driver.'
'No, you stay as you were,' said Anna, coming over, 'and we'll go in the carriage.' And, taking Dolly by the arm, she led her away.
Darya Alexandrovna stared wide-eyed at that elegant equipage, the like of which she had never seen before, at those superb horses, at the elegant, shining faces that surrounded her. But she was struck most of all by the change that had taken place in her familiar and beloved Anna. Another less attentive woman, one who had not known Anna before, and above all one who had not been thinking what Darya Alexandrovna had been thinking on the way, would not have noticed anything special about Anna. But Dolly was struck by that temporary beauty which women have in moments of love and which she now found in Anna's face. Everything in her face - the distinctness of the dimples on her cheeks and chin, the set of her lips, the smile that seemed to flit about her face, her shining eyes, the gracefulness and quickness of her movements, the fullness of the sound of her voice, even the manner in which she replied with angry indulgence to Veslovsky, who asked permission to ride her cob in order to teach him to gallop on the right leg - everything was especially attractive, and it seemed that she herself knew it and rejoiced in it.
When the two women got into the carriage, both were suddenly overcome with embarrassment. Anna was embarrassed by the attentively inquisitive way Dolly looked at her; Dolly because, after Sviyazhsky's words about the 'vehicle', she felt involuntarily ashamed of the dirty old carriage that Anna got into with her. The coachman Filipp and the clerk felt the same way. To conceal his embarrassment, the clerk bustled about, helping the ladies in, but Filipp the coachman turned glum and prepared himself ahead of time not to submit to this external superiority. He smiled ironically, glancing at the black trotter, and had already made up his mind that this black one of the char a banc was good only for 'permenading', and would not even make twenty-five miles in hot weather, harnessed singly.
The muzhiks all got up from the cart and curiously and merrily watched the visitor's reception, making their own observations.
'They're glad, too, haven't seen each other in a long while,' said the curly-headed old man tied with bast.
'Say, Uncle Gerasim, with that black stallion to haul sheaves, we'd step lively!'
'Looky there. Is that one in britches a woman?' said one of them, pointing at Vasenka Veslovsky, who was mounting a side-saddle.
'Naw, it's a man. See how sprightly he hopped up!'
'Well, boys, does it look like we'll have our nap?' 'Forget it!' said the old man, with a sidelong glance at the sun. 'It's already past noon! Take the hooks and get started!'
XVIII
Anna looked at Dolly's thin, worn face with dust caught in its wrinkles and was about to say what she was thinking - namely, that Dolly had grown thinner; but remembering that she herself had become prettier and that Dolly's eyes told her so, she sighed and began talking about herself.
'You look at me,' she said, 'and think, can she be happy in her situation? Well, and what? It's embarrassing to admit it, but I ... I'm unforgivably happy. Something magical has happened to me, like a dream, when you feel frightened, creepy, and suddenly wake up and feel that all those fears are gone. I woke up. I lived through the torment and fear, and for a long time now, especially since we came here, I've been so happy! ...' she said, looking at Dolly with a timid, questioning smile.
'How glad I am!' Dolly said with a smile, involuntarily speaking more coldly than she meant to. 'I'm very glad for you. Why didn't you write to me?'
'Why?... Because I didn't dare ... you forget my situation ...'
'To me? You didn't dare? If you knew how I... I consider ...'
Darya Alexandrovna wanted to tell Anna about her thoughts from that morning, but for some reason the moment seemed inappropriate to her.
'Anyhow, of that later. What are all these buildings?' she asked, wishing to change the subject and pointing to the red and green roofs visible through the green quickset hedge of acacia and lilac. 'Just like a little town.'
But Anna did not reply.
'No, no! What's your opinion of my situation? What do you think?' she asked.
'I suppose...' Darya Alexandrovna began, but just then Vasenka Veslovsky, who had got the cob going on the right leg, galloped past them in his short jacket, bouncing heavily against the suede of the side-saddle.
'He's caught on, Anna Arkadyevna!' he shouted.
Anna did not even look at him; but again it seemed awkward to Darya Alexandrovna to start this long conversation in the carriage, and so she abridged her thought.
'I have no opinion,' she said, 'but I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, as they are, and not as
you'd like them to be.'
Anna turned her glance from her friend's face and, narrowing her eyes (this was a new habit that Dolly had not known in her), pondered, wishing to fully understand the meaning of those words. Then, evidently having understood them as she wanted, she looked at Dolly.
'If you have any sins,' she said, 'they should all be forgiven you for your coming and for those words.'
And Dolly saw tears come to Anna's eyes. She silently pressed her hand.
'So what are these buildings? There are so many of them!' She repeated her question after a moment's silence.
'Those are the employees' houses, the stud farm, the stables,' replied Anna. 'And here the park begins. It had all run to seed, but Alexei has renovated everything. He loves this estate very much and, something I never expected, he's passionately interested in managing it. But then, his is such a rich nature! Whatever he does, he does splendidly. He's not only not bored, but he takes it up passionately. Besides all I've known of him, he's become a shrewd and excellent manager. He's even stingy in his management, but only then. Where it's a matter of tens of thousands, he doesn't count,' she said with that joyfully sly smile with which women often speak of the secret qualities of a beloved man, revealed only to them. 'You see that big building? It's a new hospital. I think it will cost more than a hundred thousand. It's his dada* now. And do you know what it came from? It seems the muzhiks asked him to lower the rent for some meadows, but he refused, and I reproached him for stinginess. Of course, it wasn't just from that, but from everything together - he began on this hospital, you see, in order to show that he wasn't stingy. C'est une petitesse* if you like; but I love him the more for it. And now you'll see the house. It's an ancestral house, and nothing on the outside has been altered.'
'How fine!' said Dolly, gazing with involuntary astonishment at the
* Hobby-horse.
* It's a petty thing.
beautiful house with its columns emerging from amidst the varied greens of the old trees in the garden.
'Isn't it? And the view from the house, from upstairs, is wonderful.'
They drove into a courtyard covered with gravel and adorned with flowers, where two workmen were placing uncut porous stones around a freshly turned flower bed, and stopped under a covered portico.
'Ah, they're here already!' said Anna, looking at the saddle horses which were just being led away from the porch. 'Isn't that a fine horse? He's a cob. My favourite. Bring him here and get me some sugar. Where's the count?' she asked of the two liveried footmen who came running out. 'Ah, here he is!' she said, seeing Vronsky and Veslovsky coming to meet them.
'Where will you put the princess?' Vronsky said in French, addressing Anna, and without waiting for an answer he greeted Darya Alexandrovna again, this time kissing her hand. 'In the big bedroom with the balcony, I assume?'
'Oh, no, it's too far away! Better in the corner room, we'll see more of each other. Well, come along,' said Anna, giving her favourite horse the sugar that the footman had brought her.
'Et vous oubliez votre devoir,'* she said to Veslovsky, who also came out to the porch.
'Pardon, j'en ai tout plein les poches,'* he said, smiling and putting his fingers into his waistcoat pocket.
'Mais vous venez trop tard,'* she said, wiping with a handkerchief the hand that the horse had wetted as he took the sugar. Anna turned to Dolly: 'How long will you stay? One day? That's impossible!'
'That's what I promised, and the children...' said Dolly, feeling embarrassed both because she had to take her handbag from the carriage and because she knew that her face must be quite covered with dust.
'No, Dolly, darling... Well, we'll see. Come along, come along!' And Anna took Dolly to her room.
This room was not the fancy one Vronsky had suggested, but one for which Anna said that Dolly must excuse her. And this room for which excuses were offered was filled with such luxury as Dolly had never lived in and reminded her of the best hotels abroad.
'Well, darling, how happy I am!' said Anna, sitting down in her riding
And you're forgetting your duty, t Excuse me, I've got my pockets full. t But you've come too late. , habit for a moment beside Dolly. 'Tell me about your family. I saw Stiva in passing, but he can't talk about the children. How's my favourite, Tanya? A big girl, I suppose?'
'Yes, very big,' Darya Alexandrovna replied curtly, surprised at herself for answering so coldly about her children. 'We're having a wonderful stay with the Levins.'
'If only I'd known you don't despise me ...' said Anna. 'You could all come to stay with us. Stiva is an old and great friend of Alexei's,' she added and suddenly blushed.
'Yes, but we're so nicely ...' Dolly replied, embarrassed.
'Yes, anyhow I'm talking foolishly from joy. One thing, darling, is that I'm so glad you've come!' Anna said, kissing her again. 'You haven't told me yet how and what you think of me, and I want to know everything. But I'm glad you'll see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn't want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don't want to prove anything, I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right, haven't I? However, that's a long conversation, and we'll still have a good talk about it all. Now I'll go and dress, and I'll send you a maid.'
XIX
Left alone, Darya Alexandrovna looked round her room with a housewifely eye. Everything she had seen while approaching the house and passing through it, and now in her own room, gave her an impression of opulence and display and that new European luxury she had only read about in English novels but had never seen in Russia, let alone in the country. Everything was new, from the new French wallpaper to the carpet that covered the entire floor. The bed had springs and a mattress, a special headboard, and little pillows with raw-silk slips. The marble washstand, the dressing table, the couch, the tables, the bronze clock on the mantelpiece, the curtains on the windows and doors - it was all expensive and new.
The smart maid who came to offer her services, her dress and coiffure more fashionable than Dolly's, was as new and expensive as the rest of the room. Darya Alexandrovna liked her politeness, neatness and obliging manner, but she felt ill at ease with her; she was embarrassed before her for the patched chemise which, as ill luck would have it, she had packed by mistake. She was ashamed of those very patches and mendings which she had been so proud of at home. At home it was clear that for six chemises she needed seventeen yards of nainsook at ninety kopecks a yard, which would come to over fifteen roubles, besides the work and the trimmings, and these were fifteen roubles gained. But in front of the maid she felt not so much ashamed as ill at ease.
It was a great relief for Darya Alexandrovna when her old acquaintance, Annushka, came into the room. The smart maid was needed by her mistress, and Annushka stayed with Darya Alexandrovna.
Annushka was obviously very glad of the lady's arrival and talked incessantly. Dolly noticed that she wanted to give her opinion of her mistress's situation, especially of the count's love and devotion for Anna, but Dolly took care to interrupt her each time she began to speak of it.
T grew up with Anna Arkadyevna, she's dearest of all to me. So it's not for us to judge. And, you'd think, to love like that...'
'So, please send this to be washed, if possible,' Darya Alexandrovna interrupted her.
'Very well, ma'am. We have two women especially for small laundry, but the linen's all done by machine. The count sees to everything himself. What husband would ...'
Dolly was glad when Anna came in and by her arrival interrupted Annushka's chatter.
Anna had changed into a very simple cambric dress. Dolly looked attentively at this simple dress. She knew what such simplicity meant and what money was paid for it.
'An old acquaintance,' Anna said of Annushka.
Anna was no longer embarrassed. She was perfectly free and calm. Dolly saw that she had now fully recovered from the impression her arrival had made on her, and had assumed that tone of superficial indifference which indica
ted that the door to the compartment in which she kept her feelings and innermost thoughts was locked.
'Well, and how is your little girl, Anna?' asked Dolly.
'Annie?' (So she called her daughter Anna.) 'Quite well. She's gained a lot of weight. Would you like to see her? Come, I'll show her to you. There's been terrible trouble with the nannies,' she began to tell the story. 'We have an Italian wet nurse. Good, but so stupid! We wanted to send her away, but the child is so used to her that we still keep her.'
'But how did you arrange ... ?' Dolly began to ask about what name the girl would have; but, noticing Anna's sudden frown, she changed the sense of the question. 'How did you arrange about weaning her?'
But Anna understood.
'That's not what you wanted to ask. You wanted to ask about her name, didn't you? That torments Alexei. She has no name. That is, she's Karenina,' said Anna, narrowing her eyes so that only her joined eyelashes could be seen. 'However,' her face suddenly brightened, 'we'll talk about all that later. Come, I'll show her to you. Elle est tres gentille.* She crawls already.'
In the nursery the luxury that had struck Darya Alexandrovna everywhere in the house struck her still more. Here were carriages ordered from England, and contraptions for learning to walk, and a specially designed couch, like a billiard table, for crawling, and rocking chairs and special new baths. It was all of English make, sturdy, of good quality, and obviously very expensive. The room was big, very high-ceilinged and bright.
