第48章

Having disrobed, she went into the bedroom; but her face had none of the animation which, during her stay at Moscow, had fairly spurted from her eyes and her smile; on the contrary, now the fire seemed extinct in her, or hidden somewhere far away.

[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 1, Chapter 34[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 34 Upon his departure from Peterburg Vronsky had left his large apartments on Morskaia to his friend and favorite comrade Petritsky.

Petritsky was a young lieutenant, not particularly well-connected, and not merely not wealthy, but in debt all around. Toward evening he was always drunk, and he had often found himself in the guardhouse because of sorts of ludicrous and disgraceful scrapes, but he was a favorite both of his comrades and his superior officers. At twelve o'clock, as Vronsky was driving up from the station to his quarters, he saw, near the entrance of the house, a hired carriage familiar to him. Even as he rang he heard, beyond the door, masculine laughter, the twitter of a feminine voice, and Petritsky's shout: `If that's one of the villains, don't let him in!' Vronsky told the servant not to announce him, and slipped noiselessly into the first room. Baroness Shilton, a friend of Petritsky's, with a rosy little face and flaxen-fair, resplendent in a lilac satin gown, and filling the whole room, like a canary, with her Parisian accents, sat at a round table, brewing coffee. Petritsky, in his overcoat, and the cavalry captain Kamerovsky, in full uniform, probably just come from duty, were sitting near her.

`Bravo! Vronsky!' shouted Petritsky, jumping up, scraping his chair. `Our host himself! Baroness, some coffee for him out of the new coffeepot. There, we didn't expect you! I Hope you're satisfied with the adornment of your study,' he said, indicating the Baroness. `You know each other, of course?'

`I should say so!' said Vronsky, with a bright smile, squeezing the Barones'ss little hand. `Why, we're old friends.'

`You've just returned after traveling,' said the Baroness, `so I'll run along. Oh, I'll be off this minute, if I'm in the way!'

`You're home, wherever you are, Baroness,' said Vronsky. `How do you do, Kamerovsky?' he added, coldly shaking hands with Kamerovsky.

`There, you can never say such charming things,' said the Baroness, turning to Petritsky.

`No - why not? After dinner even I can say things quite as good.'

`After dinner there's no merit in them! Well, then, I'll give you some coffee; go wash and tidy up,' said the Baroness, sitting down again, and anxiously turning a gadget in the new coffee urn. `Pierre, give me the coffee,' she said, addressing Petritsky, whom she called Pierre, playing on his surname, making no secret of her relations with him. `Iwant to put some more in.'

`You'll spoil it!'

`No, I won't spoil it! Well, and how is your wife?' said the Baroness suddenly, interrupting Vronsky's conversation with his comrade. `We've been marrying you off here. Have you brought your wife along?'

`No, Baroness. I was born a gypsy, and a gypsy I'll die.'

`So much the better - so much the better. Shake hands on it.'

And the Baroness, detaining Vronsky, began telling him, interspersing her story with many jokes, about her latest plans of life, and seeking his counsel.

`He persists in refusing to give me a divorce! Well, what am Ito do?' (He was her husband.) `Now I want to begin a suit against him.

What would you advise? Kamerovsky, look after the coffee - it's boiled out; you can see I'm taken up with business! I want a lawsuit, because I must have my property. You can understand the stupidity of his saying that I am unfaithful to him,' she said contemptuously, `yet through it he wants to get the benefit of my fortune.'

Vronsky heard with pleasure this lighthearted prattle of a pretty woman, said yes to everything, gave her half-joking counsel, and altogether dropped at once into the tone habitual to him in talking to such women.

In his Peterburg world all people were divided into two utterly opposed kinds. One, the lower, consisted of vulgar, stupid and, above all, ridiculous people, who believe that one husband ought to live with the one wife whom he has lawfully wedded; that a girl should be innocent, a woman modest, and a man manly, self-controlled, and strong; that one ought to bring up one's children, earn one's bread and pay one's debts; and various similar absurdities. Those people were of an old-fashioned and ridiculous kind.