Part Five: Chapter 28

by Leo Tolstoy

　　On arriving in Petersburg, Vronsky and Anna stayed at one of thebest hotels; Vronsky apart in a lower story, Anna above withher child, its nurse, and her maid, in a large suite of fourrooms.

　　On the day of his arrival Vronsky went to his brother's. Therehe found his mother, who had come from Moscow on business. Hismother and sister-in-law greeted him as usual: they asked himabout his stay abroad, and talked of their common acquaintances,but did not let drop a single word in allusion to his connectionwith Anna. His brother came the next morning to see Vronsky, andof his own accord asked him about her, and Alexey Vronsky toldhim directly that he looked upon his connection with MadameKarenina as marriage; that he hoped to arrange a divorce, andthen to marry her, and until then he considered her as much awife as any other wife, and he begged him to tell their motherand his wife so.

　　"If the world disapproves, I don't care," said Vronsky; "but ifmy relations want to be on terms of relationship with me, theywill have to be on the same terms with my wife."

　　The elder brother, who had always a respect for his youngerbrother's judgment, could not well tell whether he was right ornot till the world had decided the question; for his part he hadnothing against it, and with Alexey he went up to see Anna.

　　Before his brother, as before everyone, Vronsky addressed Annawith a certain formality, treating her as he might a veryintimate friend, but it was understood that his brother knewtheir real relations, and they talked about Anna's going toVronsky's estate.

　　In spite of all his social experience Vronsky was, in consequenceof the new position in which he was placed, laboring under astrange misapprehension. One would have thought he must haveunderstood that society was closed for him and Anna; but now somevague ideas had sprung up in his brain that this was only thecase in old-fashioned days, and that now with the rapidity ofmodern progress (he had unconsciously become by now a partisan ofevery sort of progress) the views of society had changed, andthat the question whether they would be received in society wasnot a foregone conclusion. "Of course," he thought, "she wouldnot be received at court, but intimate friends can and must lookat it in the proper light." One may sit for several hours at astretch with one's legs crossed in the same position, if oneknows that there's nothing to prevent one's changing one'sposition; but if a man knows that he must remain sitting so withcrossed legs, then cramps come on, the legs begin to twitch andto strain towards the spot to which one would like to draw them.This was what Vronsky was experiencing in regard to the world.Though at the bottom of his heart he knew that the world was shuton them, he put it to the test whether the world had not changedby now and would not receive them. But he very quickly perceivedthat though the world was open for him personally, it was closedfor Anna. Just as in the game of cat and mouse, the hands raisedfor him were dropped to bar the way for Anna.

　　One of the first ladies of Petersburg society whom Vronsky sawwas his cousin Betsy.

　　"At last!" she greeted him joyfully. "And Anna? How glad I am!Where are you stopping? I can fancy after your delightfultravels you must find our poor Petersburg horrid. I can fancyyour honeymoon in Rome. How about the divorce? Is that allover?"

　　Vronsky noticed that Betsy's enthusiasm waned when she learnedthat no divorce had as yet taken place.

　　"People will throw stones at me, I know," she said, "but I shallcome and see Anna; yes, I shall certainly come. You won't behere long, I suppose?"

　　And she did certainly come to see Anna the same day, but her tonewas not at all the same as in former days. She unmistakablyprided herself on her courage, and wished Anna to appreciate thefidelity of her friendship. She only stayed ten minutes, talkingof society gossip, and on leaving she said:

　　"You've never told me when the divorce is to be? Supposing I'mready to fling my cap over the mill, other starchy people willgive you the cold shoulder until you're married. And that's sosimple nowadays. Ca se fait. So you're going on Friday? Sorrywe shan't see each other again."

　　From Betsy's tone Vronsky might have grasped what he had toexpect from the world; but he made another effort in his ownfamily. His mother he did not reckon upon. He knew that hismother, who had been so enthusiastic over Anna at their firstacquaintance, would have no mercy on her now for having ruinedher son's career. But he had more hope of Varya, his brother'swife. He fancied she would not throw stones, and would go simplyarid directly to see Anna, and would receive her in her ownhouse.

　　The day after his arrival Vronsky went to her, and finding heralone, expressed his wishes directly.

　　"You know, Alexey," she said after hearing him, "how fond I am ofyou, and how ready I am to do anything for you; but I have notspoken, because I knew I could be of no use to you and to AnnaArkadyevna," she said, articulating the name "Anna Arkadyevna"with particular care. "Don't suppose, please, that I judge her.Never; perhaps in her place I should have done the same. I don'tand can't enter into that," she said, glancing timidly at hisgloomy face. "But one must call things by their names. You wantme to go and see her, to ask her here, and to rehabilitate her insociety; but do understand that I cannot do so. I have daughtersgrowing up, and I must live in the world for my husband's sake.Well, I'm ready to come and see Anna Arkadyevna: she willunderstand that I can't ask her here, or I should have to do soin such a way that she would not meet people who look at thingsdifferently; that would offend her. I can't raise her..."

　　"Oh, I don't regard her as fallen more than hundreds of women youdo receive!" Vronsky interrupted her still more gloomily, and hegot up in silence, understanding that his sister-in-law'sdecision was not to be shaken.

　　"Alexey! don't be angry with me. Please understand that I'm notto blame," began Varya, looking at him with a timid smile.

　　"I'm not angry with you," he said still as gloomily; "but I'msorry in two ways. I'm sorry, too, that this means breaking upour friendship--if not breaking up, at least weakening it. Youwill understand that for me, too, it cannot be otherwise."

　　And with that he left her.

　　Vronsky knew that further efforts were useless, and that he hadto spend these few days in Petersburg as though in a strangetown, avoiding every sort of relation with his own old circle inorder not to be exposed to the annoyances and humiliations whichwere so intolerable to him. One of the most unpleasant featuresof his position in Petersburg was that Alexey Alexandrovitch andhis name seemed to meet him everywhere. He could not begin totalk of anything without the conversation turning on AlexeyAlexandrovitch; he could not go anywhere without risk of meetinghim. So at least it seemed to Vronsky, just as it seems to a manwith a sore finger that he is continually, as though on purpose,grazing his sore finger on everything.

　　Their stay in Petersburg was the more painful to Vronsky that heperceived all the time a sort of new mood that he could notunderstand in Anna. At one time she would seem in love with him,and then she would become cold, irritable, and impenetrable. Shewas worrying over something, and keeping something back from him,and did not seem to notice the humiliations which poisoned hisexistence, and for her, with her delicate intuition, must havebeen still more unbearable.