588 589
him vigorously and urgently, and insisted on his stopping. He had one
arm on the window of a carriage that was stopping at the corner, and
out of the window were thrust the heads of a lady in a velvet hat, and
two children. Stepan Arkadyevitch was smiling and beckoning to his
brother-in-law. The lady smiled a kindly smile too, and she too waved
her hand to Alexey Alexandrovitch. It was Dolly with her children.
Alexey Alexandrovitch did not want to see anyone in Moscow,
and least of all his wife’s brother. He raised his hat and would have
driven on, but Stepan Arkadyevitch told his coachman to stop, and ran
across the snow to him.
“Well, what a shame not to have let us know! Been here long? I
was at Dussot’s yesterday and saw ‘Karenin’ on the visitors’ list, but it
never entered my head that it was you,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
sticking his head in at the window of the carriage, “or I should have
looked you up. I am glad to see you!” he said, knocking one foot against
the other to shake the snow off. “What a shame of you not to let us
know!” he repeated.
“I had no time; I am very busy,” Alexey Alexandrovitch responded
dryly.
“Come to my wife, she does so want to see you.”
Alexey Alexandrovitch unfolded the rug in which his frozen feet
were wrapped, and getting out of his carriage made his way over the
snow to Darya Alexandrovna.
“Why, Alexey Alexandrovitch, what are you cutting us like this
for?” said Dolly, smiling.
“I was very busy. Delighted to see you!” he said in a tone clearly
indicating that he was annoyed by it. “How are you?”
“Tell me, how is my darling Anna?”
Alexey Alexandrovitch mumbled something and would have gone
on. But Stepan Arkadyevitch stopped him.
“I tell you what we’ll do tomorrow. Dolly, ask him to dinner. We’ll
ask Koznishev and Pestsov, so as to entertain him with our Moscow
celebrities.”
“Yes, please, do come,” said Dolly; “we will expect you at five, or six
o’clock, if you like. How is my darling Anna? How long...”
“She is quite well,” Alexey Alexandrovitch mumbled, frowning.
“Delighted!” and he moved away towards his carriage.
“You will come?” Dolly called after him.
Alexey Alexandrovitch said something which Dolly could not catch
in the noise of the moving carriages.
“I shall come round tomorrow!” Stepan Arkadyevitch shouted to
him.
Alexey Alexandrovitch got into his carriage, and buried himself in
it so as neither to see nor be seen.
“Queer fish!” said Stepan Arkadyevitch to his wife, and glancing at
his watch, he made a motion of his hand before his face, indicating a
caress to his wife and children, and walked jauntily along the pave-
ment.
“Stiva! Stiva!” Dolly called, reddening.
He turned round.
“I must get coats, you know, for Grisha and Tanya. Give me the
money.”
“Never mind; you tell them I’ll pay the bill!” and he vanished,
nodding genially to an acquaintance who drove by.