Chapter 17

Next day at eleven o’clock in the morning Vronsky drove to the station of the Petersburg railway to meet his mother, and the first person he came across on the great flight of steps was Oblonsky, who was expecting his sister by the same train.

‘Ah! your excellency!’ cried Oblonsky, ‘whom are you meeting?’

‘My mother,’ Vronsky responded, smiling, as everyone did who met Oblonsky. He shook hands with him, and together they ascended the steps. ‘She is to be here from Petersburg today.’

‘I was looking out for you till two o’clock last night. Where did you go after the Shtcherbatskys’?’

‘Home,’ answered Vronsky. ‘I must own I felt so well content yesterday after the Shtcherbatskys’ that I didn’t care to go anywhere.’

“I know a gallant steed by tokens sure,
And by his eyes I know a youth in love,’

declaimed Stepan Arkadyevitch, just as he had done before to Levin.

Vronsky smiled with a look that seemed to say that he did not deny it, but he promptly changed the subject.

‘And whom are you meeting?’ he asked.

‘I? I’ve come to meet a pretty woman,’ said Oblonsky.

‘You don’t say so!’

‘Honi soit qui mal y pense! My sister Anna.’

‘Ah! that’s Madame Karenina,’ said Vronsky.

‘You know her, no doubt?’

‘I think I do. Or perhaps not…I really am not sure,’ Vronsky answered heedlessly, with a vague recollection of something stiff and tedious evoked by the name Karenina.

‘But Alexey Alexandrovitch, my celebrated brother-in-law, you surely must know. All the world knows him.’

‘I know him by reputation and by sight. I know that he’s clever, learned, religious somewhat…. But you know that’s not…not in my line,’ said Vronsky in English.

‘Yes, he’s a very remarkable man; rather a conservative, but a splendid man,’ observed Stepan Arkadyevitch, ‘a splendid man.’

‘Oh, well, so much the better for him,’ said Vronsky smiling. ‘Oh, you’ve come,’ he said, addressing a tall old footman of his mother’s, standing at the door; ‘come here.’

Besides the charm Oblonsky had in general for everyone, Vronsky had felt of late specially drawn to him by the fact that in his imagination he was associated with Kitty.

‘Well, what do you say? Shall we give a supper on Sunday for the diva?’ he said to him with a smile, taking his arm.

‘Of course. I’m collecting subscriptions. Oh, did you make the acquaintance of my friend Levin?’ asked Stepan Arkadyevitch.

‘Yes; but he left rather early.’

‘He’s a capital fellow,’ pursued Oblonsky. ‘Isn’t he?’

‘I don’t know why it is,’ responded Vronsky, ‘in all Moscow people—present company of course excepted,’ he put in jestingly, ‘there’s something uncompromising. They are all on the defensive, lose their tempers, as though they all want to make one feel something…’

‘Yes, that’s true, it is so,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laughing good-humoredly.

‘Will the train soon be in?’ Vronsky asked a railway official.

‘The train’s signaled,’ answered the man.

The approach of the train was more and more evident by the preparatory bustle in the station, the rush of porters, the movement of policemen and attendants, and people meeting the train. Through the frosty vapor could be seen workmen in short sheepskins and soft felt boots crossing the rails of the curving line. The hiss of the boiler could be heard on the distant rails, and the rumble of something heavy.

‘No,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, who felt a great inclination to tell Vronsky of Levin’s intentions in regard to Kitty. ‘No, you’ve not got a true impression of Levin. He’s a very nervous man, and is sometimes out of humor, it’s true, but then he is often very nice. He’s such a true, honest nature, and a heart of gold. But yesterday there were special reasons,’ pursued Stepan Arkadyevitch, with a meaning smile, totally oblivious of the genuine sympathy he had felt the day before for his friend, and feeling the same sympathy now, only for Vronsky. ‘Yes, there were reasons why he could not help being either particularly happy or particularly unhappy.’

Vronsky stood still and asked directly: ‘How so? Do you mean he made your belle-soeur an offer yesterday?’

‘Maybe,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch. ‘I fancied something of the sort yesterday. Yes, if he went away early, and was out of humor too, it must mean it…. He’s been so long in love, and I’m very sorry for him.’

‘So that’s it! I should imagine, though, she might reckon on a better match,’ said Vronsky, drawing himself up and walking about again, ‘though I don’t know him, of course,’ he added. ‘Yes, that is a hateful position! That’s why most fellows prefer to have to do with Klaras. If you don’t succeed with them it only proves that you’ve not enough cash, but in this case one’s dignity’s at stake. But here’s the train.’

The engine had already whistled in the distance. A few instants later the platform was quivering, and with puffs of steam hanging low in the air from the frost, the engine rolled up, with the lever of the middle wheel rhythmically moving up and down, and the stooping figure of the engine-driver covered with frost. Behind the tender, setting the platform more and more slowly swaying, came the luggage van with a dog whining in it. At last the passenger carriages rolled in, oscillating before coming to a standstill.

A smart guard jumped out, giving a whistle, and after him one by one the impatient passengers began to get down: an officer of the guards, holding himself erect, and looking severely about him; a nimble little merchant with a satchel, smiling gaily; a peasant with a sack over his shoulder.

Vronsky, standing beside Oblonsky, watched the carriages and the passengers, totally oblivious of his mother. What he had just heard about Kitty excited and delighted him. Unconsciously he arched his chest, and his eyes flashed. He felt himself a conqueror.

‘Countess Vronskaya is in that compartment,’ said the smart guard, going up to Vronsky.

The guard’s words roused him, and forced him to think of his mother and his approaching meeting with her. He did not in his heart respect his mother, and without acknowledging it to himself, he did not love her, though in accordance with the ideas of the set in which he lived, and with his own education, he could not have conceived of any behavior to his mother not in the highest degree respectful and obedient, and the more externally obedient and respectful his behavior, the less in his heart he respected and loved her.

Chapter 18

Vronsky followed the guard to the carriage, and at the door of the compartment he stopped short to make room for a lady who was getting out.

With the insight of a man of the world, from one glance at this lady’s appearance Vronsky classified her as belonging to the best society. He begged pardon, and was getting into the carriage, but felt he must glance at her once more; not that she was very beautiful, not on account of the elegance and modest grace which were apparent in her whole figure, but because in the expression of her charming face, as she passed close by him, there was something peculiarly caressing and soft. As he looked round, she too turned her head. Her shining gray eyes, that looked dark from the thick lashes, rested with friendly attention on his face, as though she were recognizing him, and then promptly turned away to the passing crowd, as though seeking someone. In that brief look Vronsky had time to notice the suppressed eagerness which played over her face, and flitted between the brilliant eyes and the faint smile that curved her red lips. It was as though her nature were so brimming over with something that against her will it showed itself now in the flash of her eyes, and now in her smile. Deliberately she shrouded the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will in the faintly perceptible smile.

Vronsky stepped into the carriage. His mother, a dried-up old lady with black eyes and ringlets, screwed up her eyes, scanning her son, and smiled slightly with her thin lips. Getting up from the seat and handing her maid a bag, she gave her little wrinkled hand to her son to kiss, and lifting his head from her hand, kissed him on the cheek.

‘You got my telegram? Quite well? Thank God.’

‘You had a good journey?’ said her son, sitting down beside her, and involuntarily listening to a woman’s voice outside the door. He knew it was the voice of the lady he had met at the door.

‘All the same I don’t agree with you,’ said the lady’s voice.

‘It’s the Petersburg view, madame.’

‘Not Petersburg, but simply feminine,’ she responded.

‘Well, well, allow me to kiss your hand.’

‘Good-bye, Ivan Petrovitch. And could you see if my brother is here, and send him to me?’ said the lady in the doorway, and stepped back again into the compartment.

‘Well, have you found your brother?’ said Countess Vronskaya, addressing the lady.

Vronsky understood now that this was Madame Karenina.

‘Your brother is here,’ he said, standing up. ‘Excuse me, I did not know you, and, indeed, our acquaintance was so slight,’ said Vronsky, bowing, ‘that no doubt you do not remember me.’

‘Oh, no,’ said she, ‘I should have known you because your mother and I have been talking, I think, of nothing but you all the way.’ As she spoke she let the eagerness that would insist on coming out show itself in her smile. ‘And still no sign of my brother.’

‘Do call him, Alexey,’ said the old countess. Vronsky stepped out onto the platform and shouted:

‘Oblonsky! Here!’

Madame Karenina, however, did not wait for her brother, but catching sight of him she stepped out with her light, resolute step. And as soon as her brother had reached her, with a gesture that struck Vronsky by its decision and its grace, she flung her left arm around his neck, drew him rapidly to her, and kissed him warmly. Vronsky gazed, never taking his eyes from her, and smiled, he could not have said why. But recollecting that his mother was waiting for him, he went back again into the carriage.

‘She’s very sweet, isn’t she?’ said the countess of Madame Karenina. ‘Her husband put her with me, and I was delighted to have her. We’ve been talking all the way. And so you, I hear…vous filez le parfait amour. Tant mieux, mon cher, tant mieux.’

‘I don’t know what you are referring to, maman,’ he answered coldly. ‘Come, maman, let us go.’

Madame Karenina entered the carriage again to say good-bye to the countess.

‘Well, countess, you have met your son, and I my brother,’ she said. ‘And all my gossip is exhausted. I should have nothing more to tell you.’

‘Oh, no,’ said the countess, taking her hand. ‘I could go all around the world with you and never be dull. You are one of those delightful women in whose company it’s sweet to be silent as well as to talk. Now please don’t fret over your son; you can’t expect never to be parted.’

Madame Karenina stood quite still, holding herself very erect, and her eyes were smiling.

‘Anna Arkadyevna,’ the countess said in explanation to her son, ‘has a little son eight years old, I believe, and she has never been parted from him before, and she keeps fretting over leaving him.’

‘Yes, the countess and I have been talking all the time, I of my son and she of hers,’ said Madame Karenina, and again a smile lighted up her face, a caressing smile intended for him.

‘I am afraid that you must have been dreadfully bored,’ he said, promptly catching the ball of coquetry she had flung him. But apparently she did not care to pursue the conversation in that strain, and she turned to the old countess.

‘Thank you so much. The time has passed so quickly. Good-bye, countess.’

‘Good-bye, my love,’ answered the countess. ‘Let me have a kiss of your pretty face. I speak plainly, at my age, and I tell you simply that I’ve lost my heart to you.’

Stereotyped as the phrase was, Madame Karenina obviously believed it and was delighted by it. She flushed, bent down slightly, and put her cheek to the countess’s lips, drew herself up again, and with the same smile fluttering between her lips and her eyes, she gave her hand to Vronsky. He pressed the little hand she gave him, and was delighted, as though at something special, by the energetic squeeze with which she freely and vigorously shook his hand. She went out with the rapid step which bore her rather fully-developed figure with such strange lightness.

‘Very charming,’ said the countess.

That was just what her son was thinking. His eyes followed her till her graceful figure was out of sight, and then the smile remained on his face. He saw out of the window how she went up to her brother, put her arm in his, and began telling him something eagerly, obviously something that had nothing to do with him, Vronsky, and at that he felt annoyed.

‘Well, maman, are you perfectly well?’ he repeated, turning to his mother.

‘Everything has been delightful. Alexander has been very good, and Marie has grown very pretty. She’s very interesting.’

And she began telling him again of what interested her most—the christening of her grandson, for which she had been staying in Petersburg, and the special favor shown her elder son by the Tsar.

‘Here’s Lavrenty,’ said Vronsky, looking out of the window; ‘now we can go, if you like.’

The old butler who had traveled with the countess, came to the carriage to announce that everything was ready, and the countess got up to go.

‘Come; there’s not such a crowd now,’ said Vronsky.

The maid took a handbag and the lap dog, the butler and a porter the other baggage. Vronsky gave his mother his arm; but just as they were getting out of the carriage several men ran suddenly by with panic-stricken faces. The station-master, too, ran by in his extraordinary colored cap. Obviously something unusual had happened. The crowd who had left the train were running back again.

‘What?… What?… Where?… Flung himself!… Crushed!…’ was heard among the crowd. Stepan Arkadyevitch, with his sister on his arm, turned back. They too looked scared, and stopped at the carriage door to avoid the crowd.

The ladies got in, while Vronsky and Stepan Arkadyevitch followed the crowd to find out details of the disaster.

A guard, either drunk or too much muffled up in the bitter frost, had not heard the train moving back, and had been crushed.

Before Vronsky and Oblonsky came back the ladies heard the facts from the butler.

Oblonsky and Vronsky had both seen the mutilated corpse. Oblonsky was evidently upset. He frowned and seemed ready to cry.

‘Ah, how awful! Ah, Anna, if you had seen it! Ah, how awful!’ he said.

Vronsky did not speak; his handsome face was serious, but perfectly composed.

‘Oh, if you had seen it, countess,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch. ‘And his wife was there…. It was awful to see her!…. She flung herself on the body. They say he was the only support of an immense family. How awful!’

‘Couldn’t one do anything for her?’ said Madame Karenina in an agitated whisper.

Vronsky glanced at her, and immediately got out of the carriage.

‘I’ll be back directly, maman,’ he remarked, turning round in the doorway.

When he came back a few minutes later, Stepan Arkadyevitch was already in conversation with the countess about the new singer, while the countess was impatiently looking towards the door, waiting for her son.

‘Now let us be off,’ said Vronsky, coming in. They went out together. Vronsky was in front with his mother. Behind walked Madame Karenina with her brother. Just as they were going out of the station the station-master overtook Vronsky.

‘You gave my assistant two hundred roubles. Would you kindly explain for whose benefit you intend them?’

‘For the widow,’ said Vronsky, shrugging his shoulders. ‘I should have thought there was no need to ask.’

‘You gave that?’ cried Oblonsky, behind, and, pressing his sister’s hand, he added: ‘Very nice, very nice! Isn’t he a splendid fellow? Good-bye, countess.’

And he and his sister stood still, looking for her maid.

When they went out the Vronsky’s carriage had already driven away. People coming in were still talking of what happened.

‘What a horrible death!’ said a gentleman, passing by. ‘They say he was cut in two pieces.’

‘On the contrary, I think it’s the easiest—instantaneous,’ observed another.

‘How is it they don’t take proper precautions?’ said a third.

Madame Karenina seated herself in the carriage, and Stepan Arkadyevitch saw with surprise that her lips were quivering, and she was with difficulty restraining her tears.

‘What is it, Anna?’ he asked, when they had driven a few hundred yards.

‘It’s an omen of evil,’ she said.

‘What nonsense!’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch. ‘You’ve come, that’s the chief thing. You can’t conceive how I’m resting my hopes on you.’

‘Have you known Vronsky long?’ she asked.

‘Yes. You know we’re hoping he will marry Kitty.’

‘Yes?’ said Anna softly. ‘Come now, let us talk of you,’ she added, tossing her head, as though she would physically shake off something superfluous oppressing her. ‘Let us talk of your affairs. I got your letter, and here I am.’

‘Yes, all my hopes are in you,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch.

‘Well, tell me all about it.’

And Stepan Arkadyevitch began to tell his story.

On reaching home Oblonsky helped his sister out, sighed, pressed her hand, and set off to his office.