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against Dolly and kissing her, and at the next holding her off and
examining her with a smile.
“Here’s a delightful surprise, Alexey!” she said, looking round at
Vronsky, who had dismounted, and was walking towards them.
Vronsky, taking off his tall gray hat, went up to Dolly.
“You wouldn’t believe how glad we are to see you,” he said, giving
peculiar significance to the words, and showing his strong white teeth
in a smile.
Vassenka Veslovsky, without getting off his horse, took off his cap
and greeted the visitor by gleefully waving the ribbons over his head.
“That’s Princess Varvara,” Anna said in reply to a glance of inquiry
from Dolly as the char-a-banc drove up.
“Ah!” said Darya Alexandrovna, and unconsciously her face be-
trayed her dissatisfaction.
Princess Varvara was her husband’s aunt, and she had long known
her, and did not respect her. She knew that Princess Varvara had
passed her whole life toadying on her rich relations, but that she should
now be sponging on Vronsky, a man who was nothing to her, mortified
Dolly on account of her kinship with her husband. Anna noticed Dolly’s
expression, and was disconcerted by it. She blushed, dropped her
riding habit, and stumbled over it.
Darya Alexandrovna went up to the char-a-banc and coldly
greeted Princess Varvara. Sviazhsky too she knew. He inquired how
his queer friend with the young wife was, and running his eyes over
the ill-matched horses and the carriage with its patched mud-guards,
proposed to the ladies that they should get into the char-a-banc.
“And I’ll get into this vehicle,” he said. “The horse is quiet, and the
princess drives capitally.”
“No, stay as you were,” said Anna, coming up, “and we’ll go in the
carriage,” and taking Dolly’s arm, she drew her away.
Darya Alexandrovna’s eyes were fairly dazzled by the elegant car-
riage of a pattern she had never seen before, the splendid horses, and
the elegant and gorgeous people surrounding her. But what struck her
most of all was the change that had taken place in Anna, whom she
knew so well and loved. Any other woman, a less close observer, not
knowing Anna before, or not having thought as Darya Alexandrovna
had been thinking on the road, would not have noticed anything spe-
cial in Anna. But now Dolly was struck by that temporary beauty,
which is only found in women during the moments of love, and which
she saw now in Anna’s face. Everything in her face, the clearly marked
dimples in her cheeks and chin, the line of her lips, the smile which, as
it were, fluttered about her face, the brilliance of her eyes, the grace and
rapidity of her move meets, the fulness of the notes of her voice, even
the manner in which, with a sort of angry friendliness, she answered
Veslovsky when he asked permission to get on her cob, so as to teach it
to gallop with the right leg foremost—it was all peculiarly fascinating,
and it seemed as if she were herself aware of it, and rejoicing in it.
When both the women were seated in the carriage, a sudden em-
barrassment came over both of them. Anna was disconcerted by the
intent look of inquiry Dolly fixed upon her. Dolly was embarrassed
because after Sviazhsky’s phrase about “this vehicle,” she could not
help feeling ashamed of the dirty old carriage in which Anna was
sitting with her. The coachman Philip and the counting house clerk
were experiencing the same sensation. The counting house clerk, to
conceal his confusion, busied himself settling the ladies, but Philip the
coachman became sullen, and was bracing himself not to be overawed
in future by this external superiority. He smiled ironically, looking at
the raven horse, and was already deciding in his own mind that this