Anna Karenina (Dole)/Part Six/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
While the children took their supper, the older people sat on the balcony and talked as if nothing had happened; but all, and especially Sergyeï Ivanovitch and Varenka, knew very well that an important event had occurred, although it was a negative one. The two experienced a feeling such as a boy has when, having failed in the examination, he is either kept in the same class or is excluded forever from an institution. All present, feeling likewise that something had taken place, talked with a forced animation.
Levin and Kitty felt especially happy and in love with each other that evening. And that they were happy in their love seemed to make it impolite to comment on the unskilfulness of those who did not know how to be happy, and this made them feel guilty.
"Take my word for it, Alexandre will not come," said the princess.
That evening they were expecting Stepan Arkadyevitch from the train, and the old prince had written that perhaps he, also, would come. "And if he doesn't, I know why," continued the princess; "he says that young people ought to be left alone during the first part of their married lives."
"Yes, papa is abandoning us for that very reason. He has not been to see us at all. But how are we young folks? I am sure we are quite old."
"Only, if he does not come, and I have to take my leave of you children!" said the princess, with a melancholy sigh.
"What is the matter with you, mamma?" cried both daughters at once.
"You can think how it is with him. Here, now ...."
And suddenly and unexpectedly the old princess's voice broke. The daughters exchanged glances in silence.
"Maman is always finding some melancholy topic!" said their eyes. They did not know that, however pleasant it was for the princess to visit her daughters, and however necessary she felt that she was, nevertheless both she and her husband had been very sad ever since they had given up their last beloved daughter and the family nest had become empty.
"What is it, Agafya Mikhaïlovna?" suddenly asked Kitty of the old housekeeper, whom she saw standing near with a mysterious and significant look in her eyes.
"It is about supper."
"Now, that is excellent," said Dolly. "You go and make your arrangements, and I will hear Grisha recite his lesson. He has not done anything all day."
"The lesson is my part! No, Dolly, I will go," cried Levin, springing up.
Grisha, who had already entered the gymnasium, was obliged to keep up his lessons during the summer. Darya Aleksandrovna, who had already begun, in Moscow, to study Latin with her son, now that she had come to the Levins', had made it a rule to go over with him, at least once a day, his most difficult lessons in Latin and arithmetic. Levin had taken it on himself to substitute for her. But the mother, having once listened while Levin was hearing the recitation, and noticing that he did not teach as the instructor in Moscow did, with an awkward attempt not to hurt his feelings, told Levin decidedly that he must go according to the book, as his tutor did, and that she had better take charge of the lessons again.
Levin was annoyed with Stepan Arkadyevitch, owing to whose carelessness the mother had charge of the children's education, though she understood nothing about it at all; and he was annoyed with the teachers, because they had such bad methods of teaching. But he promised his sister-in-law that he would conduct the recitations as she wished. And so he continued to take charge of Grisha's studies, no longer, however, in his own method, but according to the book, and therefore perfunctorily, and frequently forgetting the lesson-hour. And that is what had happened that day.
"No, I will go, Dolly, and you keep your seat," said he. "We are going along in due order by the book. Only, now that Stiva is coming, we shall be going hunting, so we shall have to neglect them."
And Levin went to find Grisha.
Varenka was saying almost the same thing to Kitty. Varenka had found the way of being useful even in the Levins' happy, well-ordered household.
"I will go and see about supper, and you keep your seat," said she, and she joined Agafya Mikhaïlovna.
"Yes, yes! but you won't find the chickens. Then ...." said Kitty.
"Agafya Mikhaïlovna and I will settle the difficulty," said Varenka, and disappeared with her.
"What a pretty girl!" exclaimed the princess.
"Not pretty, maman, but the charmingest girl in the world."
"And so you are expecting Stepan Arkadyevitch, are you?" said Sergyeï Ivanovitch, evidently not liking to have the conversation about Varenka prolonged. "It would be hard to find two brothers-in-law less alike," said he, with a sly smile. "One versatile, living only in society, like a fish in the water; the other, our Kostia. full of life and activity, quick at everything, but as soon as he gets into society he either gives up the ghost or flops about aimlessly, like a fish on dry land!"
"Yes, he is very heedless," said the princess, addressing Sergyeï Ivanovitch. "I wanted especially to ask you to persuade him that it is impossible for her"—she was referring to Kitty—"to stay here; she certainly ought to be taken to Moscow. He says write for a doctor...."
"Maman, he is doing everything; he agrees to all you want," said Kitty, vexed with her mother for drawing Sergyeï Ivanovitch into this matter as a judge.
While they were talking, the whinnying of a horse on the driveway was heard, and the sound of wheels on the stones.
Before Dolly could jump up to go and meet her husband. Levin jumped out of the window of the room downstairs where he was teaching Grisha, and put Grisha out
"It's Stiva," cried Levin, from below the balcony. "We had finished, Dolly; don't you worry!" he added, as the boy darted off to meet the carriage.
"Is, ea, id, ejus, ejus, ejus," cried Grisha, as he ran down the avenue.
"And there's some one with him! It must be papa!" cried Levin, standing at the entrance of the driveway. "Kitty, don't come down by the steep stairs. Come round!"
But Levin was mistaken in thinking that the other man in the carriage was the old prince. When he came close he saw, sitting next Stepan Arkadyevitch, not the prince, but a handsome, portly young man, in a Scotch cap with long floating ribbons. This was Vasenka Veslovsky, a third cousin of the Shcherbatskys, a brilliant young member of Moscow and Petersburg society—"one of the best fellows that ever lived, and a devotee of hunting," as Stepan Arkadyevitch expressed it in introducing him.
Veslovsky was not in the least disconcerted by the surprise which his appearance, in place of the old prince, caused. He gayly greeted Levin, reminding him of their former acquaintance, and took Grisha into the carriage, lifting him up over the pointer which Stepan Arkadyevitch had brought with him.
Levin did not get into the carriage, but followed on foot. He was somewhat put out by the non-arrival of the old prince, whom he liked better and better the more he saw him; he was still more put out at the appearance of this Vasenka Veslovsky, a man who was utterly unknown and superfluous. He seemed to him still more unknown and superfluous when, as Levin approached the front door, about which had collected a lively throng of old and young, he kissed Kitty's hand with a remarkably flattering and gallant look.
"Your wife and I are cousins, and old friends," said Vasenka Veslovsky, heartily pressing Levin's hand a second time.
"Well, how is it, any game?" asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, addressing Levin almost before he had greeted the others. "Vasenka and I have the most ferocious intentions How are you, maman, since we saw each other in Moscow? .... Well, Tania, how goes it? Get the things from the back of the calash, please," said he, addressing every one at once. "How well you look, Dollenka," said he to his wife, again kissing her hand, holding it in his, and smoothing it.
Levin, who a few moments before had been in the happiest frame of mind, now looked at them all with indignant eyes, and everything disgusted him.
"Whom did he kiss yesterday with those same lips?" he queried, as he saw how affectionate Stepan Arkadyevitch was to his wife. He looked at Dolly, and even she was displeasing to him. "Of course she cannot believe in his love for her. How, then, can she seem so glad? Repulsive!" said Levin to himself.
He looked at the princess, who had seemed to him so charming a moment before, and her manner of receiving this Veslovsky and his ribbons, as if she were at home there, displeased him.
Even Sergyeï Ivanovitch, who had come out on the porch with the rest, seemed to him disagreeable by reason of the hypocritical friendliness with which he met Stepan Arkadyevitch; for Levin knew that his brother neither liked nor respected Oblonsky.
And Varenka disgusted him, because she, with her sainte nitouche look, nevertheless met this stranger as if she thought only what sort of a husband would he make for her.
And most displeasing of all was Kitty, as she fell into conformity with the tone of gayety with which that gentleman regarded his visit, as if it were a festival for himself and all the rest; especially disagreeable was the peculiar smile with which she responded to his smile.
Noisily talking, they all went into the house, but as soon as they had sat down, Levin turned on his heel and started off.
Kitty saw that something was amiss with her husband. She wanted to take advantage of a favorable moment and have a little talk with him alone, but he hastened from her, declaring that he had business to attend to at the office. Not for a long time had his affairs seemed to him so important as they did at that day.
"It may be a holiday for them," he said to himself, "but here are affairs of importance to be attended to, and they can't be delayed, and without them life could not be carried on."