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Chapter 23.
Vronsky and Kitty waltzed several times round the room. After the
first waltz Kitty went to her mother, and she had hardly time to say a
few words to Countess Nordston when Vronsky came up again for the
first quadrille. During the quadrille nothing of any significance was
said: there was disjointed talk between them of the Korsunskys, hus-
band and wife, whom he described very amusingly, as delightful chil-
dren at forty, and of the future town theater; and only once the conver-
sation touched her to the quick, when he asker her about Levin, whether
he was here, and added that he liked him so much. But Kitty did not
expect much from the quadrille. She looked forward with a thrill at her
heart to the mazurka. She fancied that in the mazurka everything
must be decided. The fact that he did not during the quadrille ask her
for the mazurka did not trouble her. She felt sure she would dance the
mazurka with him as she had done at former balls, and refused five
young men, saying she was engaged for the mazurka. The whole ball
up to the last quadrille was for Kitty an enchanted vision of delightful
colors, sounds, and motions. she only sat down when she felt too tired
and begged for a rest. But as she was dancing the last quadrille with
one of the tiresome young men whom she could not refuse, she chanced
to be vis-a-vis with Vronsky and Anna. She had not been near Anna
again since the beginning of the evening, and now again she saw her
suddenly quite new and surprising. She saw in her the signs of that
excitement of success she knew so well in herself; she saw that she was
intoxicated with the delighted admiration she was exciting. She knew
that feeling and knew its signs, and saw them in Anna; saw the quiv-
ering, flashing light in her eyes, and the smile of happiness and excite-
ment unconsciously playing on her lips, and the deliberate grace, pre-
cision, and lightness of her movements.
“Who?” she asked herself. “All or one?” And not assisting the
harassed young man she was dancing with in the conversation, the
thread of which he had lost and could not pick up again, she obeyed
with external liveliness the peremptory shouts of Korsunsky starting
them all into the grand round, and then into the chaine, and at the
same time she kept watch with a growing pang at her heart. “No, it’s
not the admiration of the crowd has intoxicated her, but the adoration
of one. And that one? can it be he?” Every time he spoke to Anna the
joyous light flashed into her eyes, and the smile of happiness curved
her red lips. she seemed to make an effort to control herself, to try not
to show these signs of delight, but they came out on her face of them-
selves. “But what of him?” Kitty looked at him and was filled with
terror. What was pictured so clearly to Kitty in the mirror of Anna’s
face she saw in him. What had become of his always self-possessed
resolute manner, and the carelessly serene expression of his face? Now
every time he turned to her, he bent his head, as though he would have
fallen at her feet, and in his eyes there was nothing but humble sub-
mission and dread. “I would not offend you,” his eyes seemed every
time to be saying, “but I want to save myself, and I don’t know how.”
On his face was a look such as Kitty have never seen before.
They were speaking of common acquaintances, keeping up the
most trivial conversation, but to Kitty it seemed that every word they