Anna Karenina (Louise Maude's Translation). Leo Tolstoy

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      Chapter 33

      KARENIN returned from the Ministry at four o’clock, but, as often happened, he had no time to go up and see his wife. He went straight to his study to receive some petitioners and sign a few documents brought by his private secretary. At the Karenins’ dinners there were usually about three visitors. This time there came an old lady, a cousin of Karenin’s; the Director of a Department; the Director’s wife; and a young man who had been recommended to Karenin for a post under him. Anna went into the drawing-room to entertain them. Exactly at five — the bronze clock (style of Peter I) had not finished striking — Karenin entered in evening dress with a white tie and two stars on his coat, as he had to attend an official meeting directly after dinner. Every moment of his life was filled up and apportioned, and in order to find time to perform all the tasks allotted to each day he observed the strictest regularity. ‘Without haste and without rest,’ was his motto. He entered the room, greeted everybody, and quickly sat down, smiling at his wife.

      ‘So my solitude has come to an end. You wouldn’t believe how uncomfortable’ — he put special emphasis on the word uncomfortable — ‘it is to dine alone!’

      At dinner he spoke a little about Moscow affairs with his wife, asking with an ironical smile after Stephen Oblonsky; but for the most part the conversation was general and dealt with Petersburg service and social affairs. After dinner he spent half an hour with his guests, and then, having again with a smile pressed his wife’s hand, went away to the Council. That evening Anna went neither to see the Princess Betsy Tverskaya, who having heard of Anna’s return had invited her, nor to the theatre, where she had a box for that evening. Her chief reason for not going was that a dress on which she had counted was not ready. Altogether, when, after her visitors had left, Anna busied herself with her toilet, she was much vexed. Before going to Moscow, she — being an adept at dressing on comparatively little money — left three dresses to be altered. She wanted them made up so that they should be unrecognizable, and they were to have been sent home three days ago; but she now found that two were not ready at all, while the third had not been done in the way she wished. The dressmaker came to explain that it was better as she had done it, and Anna lost her temper to such a degree that she afterwards felt ashamed. Completely to regain her composure, she went to the nursery and spent the evening with her son. She put him to bed herself, made the sign of the cross over him, and tucked him up. She was glad she had not gone out that evening but had spent it so pleasantly at home. She felt light-hearted and tranquil, and saw clearly that what in the train had appeared so important had merely been an ordinary and trivial incident of Society life, and that there was no reason for her to feel ashamed, or for anyone to blame her. She sat down by the fire with an English novel and awaited her husband. Exactly at half-past nine there was a ring at the front door, and he entered the room.

      ‘Here you are at last!’ she said, holding out her hand to him.

      He kissed it, and seated himself beside her.

      ‘In general, I see that your journey has been a success,’ said he.

      ‘Yes, quite,’ she replied, and related everything that had happened from the beginning: her journey with the Countess Vronskaya, her arrival, the accident at the railway station. Then she spoke of her pity, first for her brother and then for Dolly.

      ‘I don’t think that one can excuse such a man, even though he is your brother,’ remarked Karenin, severely.

      Anna smiled. She knew he had said that in order to show that no consideration of kinship could hinder the expression of his sincere opinion. She knew that trait in her husband’s character, knew and liked it.

      ‘I am glad it has all ended satisfactorily and that you are back again,’ he continued. ‘But what are they saying there about the new Statute I carried in the Council?’

      Anna had heard nothing about the Statute, and felt ashamed that she had so lightly forgotten what was of such importance to him.

      ‘Here, on the contrary, it has made quite a stir,’ he said with a self-satisfied smile.

      Anna saw that he wanted to tell her something pleasant to himself about that affair, and by questioning she led him on to tell her all about it. With the same self-satisfied smile he told her about the ovations he had received on account of the enactment of that Statute.

      ‘I was very, very pleased. It shows that at last a clear and reasonable view of the matter is beginning to be firmly held among us.’

      Having finished his second cup of tea and cream and his bread and butter, he rose and went into his study.

      ‘And have you not been out anywhere? You must have been dull,’ he said.

      ‘Oh no!’ she answered, rising and following him through the room to his study. ‘And what are you reading now?’ she asked.

      ‘I am now reading the Duc de Lille’s Poésie des enfers [Poetry of the underworld],’ he replied. ‘A very remarkable book.’

      Anna СКАЧАТЬ