984 985
conduct. As is indeed not unfrequent with women of unimpeachable
virtue, weary of the monotony of respectable existence, at a distance
she not only excused illicit love, she positively envied it. Besides, she
loved Anna with all her heart. But seeing Anna in actual life among
these strangers, with this fashionable tone that was so new to Darya
Alexandrovna, she felt ill at ease. What she disliked particularly was
seeing Princess Varvara ready to overlook everything for the sake of
the comforts she enjoyed.
As a general principle, abstractly, Dolly approved of Anna’s action;
but to see the man for whose sake her action had been taken was
disagreeable to her. Moreover, she had never liked Vronsky. She thought
him very proud, and saw nothing in him of which he could be proud
except his wealth. But against her own will, here in his own house, he
overawed her more than ever, and she could not be at ease with him.
She felt with him the same feeling she had had with the maid about
her dressing jacket. Just as with the maid she had felt not exactly
ashamed, but embarrassed at her darns, so she felt with him not ex-
actly ashamed, but embarrassed at herself.
Dolly was ill at ease, and tried to find a subject of conversation.
Even though she supposed that, through his pride, praise of his house
and garden would be sure to be disagreeable to him, she did all the
same tell him how much she liked his house.
“Yes, it’s a very fine building, and in the good old-fashioned style,”
he said.
“I like so much the court in front of the steps. Was that always so?”
“Oh, no!” he said, and his face beamed with pleasure. “If you could
only have seen that court last spring!”
And he began, at first rather diffidently, but more and more carried
away by the subject as he went on, to draw her attention to the various
details of the decoration of his house and garden. It was evident that,
having devoted a great deal of trouble to improve and beautify his
home, Vronsky felt a need to show off the improvements to a new
person, and was genuinely delighted at Darya Alexandrovna’s praise.
“If you would care to look at the hospital, and are not tired, indeed,
it’s not far. Shall we go?” he said, glancing into her face to convince
himself that she was not bored. “Are you coming, Anna?” he turned to
her.
“We will come, won’t we?” she said, addressing Sviazhsky. “Mais il
ne faut pas laisser le pauvre Veslovsky et Tushkevitch se morfondre la
dans le bateau. We must send and tell them.”
“Yes, this is a monument he is setting up here,” said Anna, turning
to Dolly with that sly smile of comprehension with which she had
previously talked about the hospital.
“Oh, it’s a work of real importance!” said Sviazhsky. But to show he
was not trying to ingratiate himself with Vronsky, he promptly added
some slightly critical remarks.
“I wonder, though, count,” he said, “that while you do so much for
the health of the peasants, you take so little interest in the schools.”
“C’est devenu tellement commun les ecoles,” said Vronsky. “You
understand it’s not on that account, but it just happens so, my interest
has been diverted elsewhere. This way then to the hospital,” he said to
Darya Alexandrovna, pointing to a turning out of the avenue.
The ladies put up their parasols and turned into the side path.
After going down several turnings, and going through a little gate,
Darya Alexandrovna saw standing on rising ground before her a large
pretentious-looking red building, almost finished. The iron roof, which
was not yet painted, shone with dazzling brightness in the sunshine.
Beside the finished building another had been begun, surrounded by