730 731
and congratulated the young people. Levin looked at Kitty, and he had
never before seen her look as she did. She was charming with the new
radiance of happiness in her face. Levin longed to say something to
her, but he did not know whether it was all over. The priest got him out
of his difficulty. He smiled his kindly smile and said gently, “Kiss your
wife, and you kiss your husband,” and took the candles out of their
hands.
Levin kissed her smiling lips with timid care, gave her his arm, and
with a new strange sense of closeness, walked out of the church. He
did not believe, he could not believe, that it was true. It was only when
their wondering and timid eyes met that he believed in it, because he
felt that they were one.
After supper, the same night, the young people left for the country.
Chapter 7.
Vronsky and Anna had been traveling for three months together in
Europe. They had visited Venice, Rome, and Naples, and had just
arrived at a small Italian town where they meant to stay some time. A
handsome head waiter, with thick pomaded hair parted from the neck
upwards, an evening coat, a broad white cambric shirt front, and a
bunch of trinkets hanging above his rounded stomach, stood with his
hands in the full curve of his pockets, looking contemptuously from
under his eyelids while he gave some frigid reply to a gentleman who
had stopped him. Catching the sound of footsteps coming from the
other side of the entry towards the staircase, the head waiter turned
round, and seeing the Russian count, who had taken their best rooms,
he took his hands out of his pockets deferentially, and with a bow
informed him that a courier had been, and that the business about the
palazzo had been arranged. The steward was prepared to sign the
agreement.
“Ah! I’m glad to hear it,” said Vronsky. “Is madame at home or
not?”
“Madame has been out for a walk but has returned now,” an-
swered the waiter.
Vronsky took off his soft, wide-brimmed hat and passed his hand-
kerchief over his heated brow and hair, which had grown half over his