Part Five: Chapter 7

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Vronsky and Anna had been traveling for three months together inEurope. They had visited Venice, Rome, and Naples, and had justarrived at a small Italian town where they meant to stay sometime. A handsome head waiter, with thick pomaded hair partedfrom the neck upwards, an evening coat, a broad white cambricshirt front, and a bunch of trinkets hanging above his roundedstomach, stood with his hands in the full curve of his pockets,looking contemptuously from under his eyelids while he gave somefrigid reply to a gentleman who had stopped him. Catching thesound of footsteps coming from the other side of the entrytowards the staircase, the head waiter turned round, and seeingthe Russian count, who had taken their best rooms, he took hishands out of his pockets deferentially, and with a bow informedhim that a courier had been, and that the business about thepalazzo had been arranged. The steward was prepared to sign theagreement.

　　"Ah! I'm glad to hear it," said Vronsky. "Is madame at home ornot?"

　　"Madame has been out for a walk but has returned now," answeredthe waiter.

　　Vronsky took off his soft, wide-brimmed hat and passed hishandkerchief over his heated brow and hair, which had grown halfover his ears, and was brushed back covering the bald patch onhis head. And glancing casually at the gentleman, who stillstood there gazing intently at him, he would have gone on.

　　"This gentleman is a Russian, and was inquiring after you," saidthe head waiter.

　　With mingled feelings of annoyance at never being able to getaway from acquaintances anywhere, and longing to find some sortof diversion from the monotony of his life, Vronsky looked oncemore at the gentleman, who had retreated and stood still again,and at the same moment a light came into the eyes of both.

　　"Golenishtchev!"

　　"Vronsky!"

　　It really was Golenishtchev, a comrade of Vronsky's in the Corpsof Pages. In the corps Golenishtchev had belonged to the liberalparty; he left the corps without entering the army, and had nevertaken office under the government. Vronsky and he had gonecompletely different ways on leaving the corps, and had only metonce since.

　　At that meeting Vronsky perceived that Golenishtchev had taken upa sort of lofty, intellectually liberal line, and wasconsequently disposed to look down upon Vronsky's interests andcalling in life. Hence Vronsky had met him with the chilling andhaughty manner he so well knew how to assume, the meaning ofwhich was: "You may like or dislike my way of life, that's amatter of the most perfect indifference to me; you will have totreat me with respect if you want to know me." Golenishtchev hadbeen contemptuously indifferent to the tone taken by Vronsky.This second meeting might have been expected, one would havesupposed, to estrange them still more. But now they beamed andexclaimed with delight on recognizing one another. Vronsky wouldnever have expected to be so pleased to see Golenishtchev, butprobably he was not himself aware how bored he was. He forgotthe disagreeable impression of their last meeting, and with aface of frank delight held out his hand to his old comrade. Thesame expression of delight replaced the look of uneasiness onGolenishtchev's face.

　　"How glad I am to meet you!" said Vronsky, showing his strongwhite teeth in a friendly smile.

　　"I heard the name Vronsky, but I didn't know which one. I'mvery, very glad!"

　　"Let's go in. Come, tell me what you're doing."

　　"I've been living here for two years. I'm working."

　　"Ah!" said Vronsky, with sympathy; "let's go in." And with thehabit common with Russians, instead of saying in Russian what hewanted to keep from the servants, he began to speak in French.

　　"Do you know Madame Karenina? We are traveling together. I amgoing to see her now," he said in French, carefully scrutinizingGolenishtchev's face.

　　"Ah! I did not know" (though he did know), Golenishtchev answeredcarelessly. "Have you been here long?" he added.

　　"Four days," Vronsky answered, once more scrutinizing hisfriend's face intently.

　　"Yes, he's a decent fellow, and will look at the thing properly,"Vronsky said to himself, catching the significance ofGolenishtchev's face and the change of subject. "I can introducehim to Anna, he looks at it properly."

　　During those three months that Vronsky had spent abroad withAnna, he had always on meeting new people asked himself how thenew person would look at his relations with Anna, and for themost part, in men, he had met with the "proper" way of looking atit. But if he had been asked, and those who looked at it"properly" had been asked, exactly how they did look at it, bothhe and they would have been greatly puzzled to answer.

　　In reality, those who in Vronsky's opinion had the "proper" viewhad no sort of view at all, but behaved in general as well-bredpersons do behave in regard to all the complex and insolubleproblems with which life is encompassed on all sides; theybehaved with propriety, avoiding allusions and unpleasantquestions. They assumed an air of fully comprehending the importand force of the situation, of accepting and even approving ofit, but of considering it superfluous and uncalled for to put allthis into words.

　　Vronsky at once divined that Golenishtchev was of this class, andtherefore was doubly pleased to see him. And in fact,Golenishtchev's manner to Madame Karenina, when he was taken tocall on her, was all that Vronsky could have desired. Obviouslywithout the slightest effort he steered clear of all subjectswhich might lead to embarrassment.

　　He had never met Anna before, and was struck by her beauty, andstill more by the frankness with which she accepted her position.She blushed when Vronsky brought in Golenishtchev, and he wasextremely charmed by this childish blush overspreading her candidand handsome face. But what he liked particularly was the way inwhich at once, as though on purpose that there might be nomisunderstanding with an outsider, she called Vronsky simplyAlexey, and said they were moving into a house they had justtaken, what was here called a palazzo. Golenishtchev liked thisdirect and simple attitude to her own position. Looking atAnna's manner of simple-hearted, spirited gaiety, and knowingAlexey Alexandrovitch and Vronsky, Golenishtchev fancied that heunderstood her perfectly. He fancied that he understood what shewas utterly unable to understand: how it was that, having madeher husband wretched, having abandoned him and her son and losther good name, she yet felt full of spirits, gaiety, andhappiness.

　　"It's in the guide-book," said Golenishtchev, referring to thepalazzo Vronsky had taken. "There's a first-rate Tintorettothere. One of his latest period."

　　"I tell you what: it's a lovely day, let's go and have anotherlook at it," said Vronsky, addressing Anna.

　　"I shall be very glad to; I'll go and put on my hat. Would yousay it's hot?" she said, stopping short in the doorway andlooking inquiringly at Vronsky. And again a vivid flushoverspread her face.

　　Vronsky saw from her eyes that she did not know on what terms hecared to be with Golenishtchev, and so was afraid of not behavingas he would wish.

　　He looked a long, tender look at her.

　　"No, not very," he said.

　　And it seemed to her that she understood everything, most of all,that he was pleased with her; and smiling to him, she walked withher rapid step out at the door.

　　The friends glanced at one another, and a look of hesitation cameinto both faces, as though Golenishtchev, unmistakably admiringher, would have liked to say something about her, and could notfind the right thing to say, while Vronsky desired and dreadedhis doing so.

　　"Well then," Vronsky began to start a conversation of some sort;"so you're settled here? You're still at the same work, then?"he went on, recalling that he had been told Golenishtchev waswriting something.

　　"Yes, I'm writing the second part of the Two Elements," saidGolenishtchev, coloring with pleasure at the question--"that is,to be exact, I am not writing it yet; I am preparing, collectingmaterials. It will be of far wider scope, and will touch onalmost all questions. We in Russia refuse to see that we are theheirs of Byzantium," and he launched into a long and heatedexplanation of his views.

　　Vronsky at the first moment felt embarrassed at not even knowingof the first part of the Two Elements, of which the author spokeas something well known. But as Golenishtchev began to lay downhis opinions and Vronsky was able to follow them even withoutknowing the Two Elements, he listened to him with some interest,for Golenishtchev spoke well. But Vronsky was startled andannoyed by the nervous irascibility with which Golenishtchevtalked of the subject that engrossed him. As he went on talking,his eyes glittered more and more angrily; he was more and morehurried in his replies to imaginary opponents, and his face grewmore and more excited and worried. Remembering Golenishtchev, athin, lively, good-natured and well-bred boy, always at the headof the class, Vronsky could not make out the reason of hisirritability, and he did not like it. What he particularlydisliked was that Golenishtchev, a man belonging to a good set,should put himself on a level with some scribbling fellows, withwhom he was irritated and angry. Was it worth it? Vronskydisliked it, yet he felt that Golenishtchev was unhappy, and wassorry for him. Unhappiness, almost mental derangement, wasvisible on his mobile, rather handsome face, while without evennoticing Anna's coming in, he went on hurriedly and hotlyexpressing his views.

　　When Anna came in in her hat and cape, and her lovely handrapidly swinging her parasol, and stood beside him, it was with afeeling of relief that Vronsky broke away from the plaintive eyesof Golenishtchev which fastened persistently upon him, and with afresh rush of love looked at his charming companion, full of lifeand happiness. Golenishtchev recovered himself with an effort,and at first was dejected and gloomy, but Anna, disposed to feelfriendly with everyone as she was at that time, soon revived hisspirits by her direct and lively manner. After trying varioussubjects of conversation, she got him upon painting, of which hetalked very well, and she listened to him attentively. Theywalked to the house they had taken, and looked over it.

　　"I am very glad of one thing," said Anna to Golenishtchev whenthey were on their way back: "Alexey will have a capital atelier.You must certainly take that room," she said to Vronsky inRussian, using the affectionately familiar form as though she sawthat Golenishtchev would become intimate with them in theirisolation, and that there was no need of reserve before him.

　　"Do you paint?" said Golenishtchev, turning round quickly toVronsky.

　　"Yes, I used to study long ago, and now I have begun to do alittle," said Vronsky, reddening.

　　"He has great talent," said Anna with a delighted smile. "I'm nojudge, of course. But good judges have said the same."