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had come where she was, that all the happiness of his life, the only
meaning in life for him, now lay in seeing and hearing her. And when
he got out of the carriage at Bologova to get some seltzer water, and
caught sight of Anna, involuntarily his first word had told her just what
he thought. And he was glad he had told her it, that she knew it now
and was thinking of it. He did not sleep all night. When he was back
in the carriage, he kept unceasingly going over every position in which
he had seen her, every word she had uttered, and before his fancy,
making his heart faint with emotion, floated pictures of a possible
future.
When he got out of the train at Petersburg, he felt after his sleep-
less night as keen and fresh as after a cold bath. He paused near his
compartment, waiting for her to get out. “Once more,” he said to
himself, smiling unconsciously, “once more I shall see her walk, her
face; she will say something, turn her head, glance, smile, maybe.” But
before he caught sight of her, he saw her husband, whom the station-
master was deferentially escorting through the crowd. “Ah, yes! The
husband.” Only now for the first time did Vronsky realize clearly the
fact that there was a person attached to her, a husband. He knew that
she had a husband, but had hardly believed in his existence, and only
now fully believed in him, with his head and shoulders, and his legs
clad in black trousers; especially when he saw this husband calmly
take her arm with a sense of property.
Seeing Alexey Alexandrovitch with his Petersburg face and se-
verely self-confident figure, in his round hat, with his rather prominent
spine, he believed in him, and was aware of a disagreeable sensation,
such as a man might feel tortured by thirst, who, on reaching a spring,
should find a dog, a sheep, or a pig, who has drunk of it and muddied
the water. Alexey Alexandrovitch’s manner of walking, with a swing of
the hips and flat feet, particularly annoyed Vronsky. He could recog-
nize in no one but himself an indubitable right to love her. But she was
still the same, and the sight of her affected him the same way, physi-
cally reviving him, stirring him, and filling his soul with rapture. He told
his German valet, who ran up to him from the second class, to take his
things and go on, and he himself went up to her. He saw the first
meeting between the husband and wife, and noted with a lover’s in-
sight the signs of slight reserve with which she spoke to her husband.
“No, she does not love him and cannot love him,” he decided to him-
self.
At the moment when he was approaching Anna Arkadyevna he
noticed too with joy that she was conscious of his being near, and
looked round, and seeing him, turned again to her husband.
“Have you passed a good night?” he asked, bowing to her and her
husband together, and leaving it up to Alexey Alexandrovitch to ac-
cept the bow on his own account, and to recognize it or not, as he might
see fit.
“Thank you, very good,” she answered.
Her face looked weary, and there was not that play of eagerness in
it, peeping out in her smile and her eyes; but for a single instant, as she
glanced at him, there was a flash of something in her eyes, and al-
though the flash died away at once, he was happy for that moment.
She glanced at her husband to find out whether he knew Vronsky.
Alexey Alexandrovitch looked at Vronsky with displeasure, vaguely
recalling who this was. Vronsky’s composure and self-confidence have
struck, like a scythe against a stone, upon the cold self-confidence of
Alexey Alexandrovitch.
“Count Vronsky,” said Anna.
“Ah! We are acquainted, I believe,” said Alexey Alexandrovitch