Anna Karenina (Dole)/Part Two/Chapter 31
CHAPTER XXXI
It was a stormy day; the rain fell all the morning, and the invalids with umbrellas thronged the gallery.
Kitty and her mother, accompanied by the Muscovite colonel playing the elegant in his European overcoat, bought ready-made in Frankfort, were walking on one side of the gallery, in order to avoid Nikolaï Levin, who was on the other. Varenka, in her dark dress and a black hat with the brim turned down, was walking up and down the whole length of the gallery with a little blind French woman; each time that she and Kitty met, they exchanged friendly glances.
"Mamma, may I speak with her?" asked Kitty, as she happened to be following her unknown friend and noticed that she was approaching the spring, where they might meet.
"Yes, if you wish it so much. I will inquire about her, and make her acquaintance first," said her mother. "But what do you find especially interesting in her? She is only a lady's companion. If you like, I can speak to Madame Stahl. I knew her belle-sœur," added the princess, proudly raising her head.
Kitty knew that her mother was vexed because Madame Stahl seemed to avoid making her acquaintance, and she did not press the point.
"How wonderfully charming she is!" said she, as she saw Varenka give the blind French lady a glass. "See how lovely and gentle everything is that she does."
"You amuse me with your engouements," replied the princess. "No, we had better go back," she added, as she saw Levin approaching with Marya and a German doctor, with whom he was speaking in a loud and angry tone.
As they turned to go back, suddenly they heard, not loud voices, but a cry. Levin had stopped, and was shrieking. The doctor was also angry. A crowd was gathering around them. The princess and Kitty hurried away, but the colonel joined the throng to find out what the trouble was. After a few moments the colonel came back to them.
"What was it?" asked the princess.
"It is a shame and a disgrace," replied the colonel. "There's only one thing you need to fear, and that is to meet with Russians abroad. This tall gentleman was quarreling with his doctor, heaped indignities upon him for not attending to him as he wished, and finally he threatened him with his cane. It is simply disgraceful."
"Akh! how unpleasant!" said the princess. "Well, how did it end?"
"Fortunately that .... that girl with a hat like a toadstool interfered. A Russian, it seems," said the colonel.
"Mademoiselle Varenka?" joyously exclaimed Kitty.
"Yes, yes! She went quicker than any one else, and took the gentleman by the arm, and led him off."
"There, mamma!" said Kitty, "and you wonder at my enthusiasm for Varenka!"
The next morning Kitty, watching her unknown friend, noticed that Mademoiselle Varenka had the same relations with Levin and Marya as with her other protégés: she joined them and talked with them, and acted as interpreter to the woman, who did not know any language besides her own.
Kitty again begged her mother even more urgently to let her become acquainted with Varenka; and though it was unpleasant to the princess to seem to be making advances to the haughty and exclusive Madame Stahl, she made some inquiries about Varenka, and learning enough to satisfy herself that there was no possible harm, though very little that was advantageous, in the proposed acquaintance, she went first to Varenka and introduced herself.
Choosing a time when Kitty was at the spring, and Varenka was opposite the baker's, the princess went up to her.
"Allow me to introduce myself," said she, with her dignified smile. " My daughter has taken a great fancy to you. But perhaps you do not know me. I...."
"It is more than reciprocal, princess," replied Varenka, quickly,
"What a good thing you did yesterday toward our wretched fellow-countryman," said the princess.
Varenka blushed.
"I do not remember," she replied. " I don't think I did anything."
"Yes, indeed! you saved this Levin from an unpleasant affair."
"Ah, yes! sa compagne called me, and I tried to calm him; he is very sick, and dissatisfied with his doctor. I am quite used to this kind of invalids."
"Oh, yes. I have heard that you live at Mentone with your aunt, Madame Stahl. I used to know her belle-soeur."
"No, Madame Stahl is not my aunt. I call her maman, but I am no relation to her. I was brought up by her," replied Varenka, again blushing.
All this was said with perfect simplicity; and the expression of her pleasing face was so frank and sincere, that the princess began to understand why Kitty was so charmed by this Varenka.
"Well, what is this Levin going to do?" she asked.
"He is going away."
At this moment, Kitty, radiant with pleasure because her mother had made the acquaintance of her unknown friend, came in from the spring.
"See here! Kitty, your ardent desire to know Mademoiselle...."
"Varenka," said the girl, smiling. "Every one calls me so."
Kitty was flushed with delight, and without speaking long pressed her new friend's hand, which gave no answering pressure, but lay passive in hers. Her hand gave no answering pressure, but Mademoiselle Varenka's face shone with a quiet, joyous, though melancholy smile, which showed her large but handsome teeth.
"I have been longing to know you," she said.
"But you are so busy...."
"Oh! on the contrary, I have n't anything to do," replied Varenka; but at the same instant she had to leave her new acquaintances because two little Russian girls, the daughters of an invalid, ran to her.
"Varenka, mamma is calling," they cried.
And Varenka followed them.