motionless for two minutes, with the revolver in his hand, his head bowed in the attitude of intense thought. "Of course," he said to himself, as if a logical sequence of clear and exact ideas led him to this unquestionable decision; but in reality this to him conclusive Of Course was only the consequence of a continued circle of recollections and impressions which he had gone over for the tenth time in the last hour. There were the same recollections of a happiness lost forever, the conception of the meaninglessness of all that was now before him in life, the same consciousness of his shame. There was the same repetition of these impressions and thoughts.
"Of course," he repeated, when for the third time his mind directed itself to the same enchanted circle of thoughts and recollections; and holding the revolver to the left side of his breast, with an unflinching grip he pulled the trigger. He did not hear the sound of the report, but the violent blow that he received in the chest knocked him over. He tried to save himself by catching hold of the table; he dropped his revolver, staggered, and fell on the floor, looking about him with astonishment. He could not recognize his room; the twisted legs of the table, the waste-paper basket, the tiger-skin on the floor,—all seemed strange to him.
The quick steps of his servant running to the drawing-room obliged him to get control of himself; he collected his thoughts with an effort, and seeing that he was on the floor, and that blood was on his hands and on the tiger-skin, he realized what he had done.
"What stupidity! I missed my aim," he muttered, feeling round for his pistol. It was quite near him, but he could not find it. As he continued to grope for it, he lost his balance, and fell again, bathed in his own blood.
His valet, an elegant person with side-whiskers, who complained freely to his friends about his delicate nerves, was so frightened at the sight of his master lying on the floor that he let him lie bleeding, and ran for help.
In an hour Varia, Vronsky's sister-in-law, arrived, and
