Part Six: Chapter 22

by Leo Tolstoy

　　When Anna found Dolly at home before her, she looked intently inher eyes, as though questioning her about the talk she had hadwith Vronsky, but she made no inquiry in words.

　　"I believe it's dinner time," she said. "We've not seen eachother at all yet. I am reckoning on the evening. Now I want togo and dress. I expect you do too; we all got splashed at thebuildings."

　　Dolly went to her room and she felt amused. To change her dresswas impossible, for she had already put on her best dress. Butin order to signify in some way her preparation for dinner, sheasked the maid to brush her dress, changed her cuffs and tie, andput some lace on her head.

　　"This is all I can do," she said with a smile to Anna, who camein to her in a third dress, again of extreme simplicity.

　　"Yes, we are too formal here," she said, as it were apologizingfor her magnificence. "Alexey is delighted at your visit, as herarely is at anything. He has completely lost his heart to you,"she added. "You're not tired?"

　　There was no time for talking about anything before dinner.Going into the drawing room they found Princess Varvara alreadythere, and the gentlemen of the party in black frock-coats. Thearchitect wore a swallow-tail coat. Vronsky presented thedoctor and the steward to his guest. The architect he hadalready introduced to her at the hospital.

　　A stout butler, resplendent with a smoothly shaven round chin anda starched white cravat, announced that dinner was ready, and theladies got up. Vronsky asked Sviazhsky to take in AnnaArkadyevna, and himself offered his arm to Dolly. Veslovsky wasbefore Tushkevitch in offering his arm to Princess Varvara, sothat Tushkevitch with the steward and the doctor walked in alone.

　　The dinner, the dining room, the service, the waiting at table,the wine, and the food, were not simply in keeping with thegeneral tone of modern luxury throughout all the house, butseemed even more sumptuous and modern. Darya Alexandrovnawatched this luxury which was novel to her, and as a goodhousekeeper used to managing a household--although she neverdreamed of adapting anything she saw to her own household, as itwas all in a style of luxury far above her own manner ofliving--she could not help scrutinizing every detail, andwondering how and by whom it was all done. Vassenka Veslovsky,her husband, and even Sviazhsky, and many other people she knew,would never have considered this question, and would have readilybelieved what every well-bred host tries to make his guests feel,that is, that all that is well-ordered in his house has cost him,the host, no trouble whatever, but comes of itself. DaryaAlexandrovna was well aware that even porridge for the children'sbreakfast does not come of itself, and that therefore, where socomplicated and magnificent a style of luxury was maintained,someone must give earnest attention to its organization. Andfrom the glance with which Alexey Kirillovitch scanned the table,from the way he nodded to the butler, and offered DaryaAlexandrovna her choice between cold soup and hot soup, she sawthat it was all organized and maintained by the care of themaster of the house himself. It was evident that it all restedno more upon Anna than upon Veslovsky. She, Sviazhsky, theprincess, and Veslovsky, were equally guests, with light heartsenjoying what had been arranged for them.

　　Anna was the hostess only in conducting the conversation. Theconversation was a difficult one for the lady of the house at asmall table with persons present, like the steward and thearchitect, belonging to a completely different world, strugglingnot to be overawed by an elegance to which they wereunaccustomed, and unable to sustain a large share in the generalconversation. But this difficult conversation Anna directed withher usual tact and naturalness, and indeed she did so with actualenjoyment, as Darya Alexandrovna observed. The conversationbegan about the row Tushkevitch and Veslovsky had taken alonetogether in the boat, and Tushkevitch began describing the lastboat races in Petersburg at the Yacht Club. But Anna, seizingthe first pause, at once turned to the architect to draw him outof his silence.

　　"Nikolay Ivanitch was struck," she said, meaning Sviazhsky, "atthe progress the new building had made since he was here last;but I am there every day, and every day I wonder at the rate atwhich it grows."

　　"It's first-rate working with his excellency," said the architectwith a smile (he was respectful and composed, though with a senseof his own dignity). "It's a very different matter to have to dowith the district authorities. Where one would have to write outsheaves of papers, here I call upon the count, and in three wordswe settle the business."

　　"The American way of doing business," said Sviazhsky, with asmile.

　　"Yes, there they build in a rational fashion..."

　　The conversation passed to the misuse of political power in theUnited States, but Anna quickly brought it round to anothertopic, so as to draw the steward into talk.

　　"Have you ever seen a reaping machine?" she said, addressingDarya Alexandrovna. "We had just ridden over to look at one whenwe met. It's the first time I ever saw one."

　　"How do they work?" asked Dolly.

　　"Exactly like little scissors. A plank and a lot of littlescissors. Like this."

　　Anna took a knife and fork in her beautiful white hands coveredwith rings, and began showing how the machine worked. It wasclear that she saw nothing would be understood from herexplanation; but aware that her talk was pleasant and her handsbeautiful she went on explaining.

　　"More like little penknives," Veslovsky said playfully, nevertaking his eyes off her.

　　Anna gave a just perceptible smile, but made no answer. "Isn'tit true, Karl Fedoritch, that it's just like little scissors?"she said to the steward.

　　"Oh, ja," answered the German. "Es it ein ganz einfaches Ding,"and he began to explain the construction of the machine.

　　"It's a pity it doesn't bind too. I saw one at the Viennaexhibition, which binds with a wire," said Sviazhsky. "Theywould be more profitable in use."

　　"Es kommt drauf an.... Der Preis vom Draht muss ausgerechnetwerden." And the German, roused from his taciturnity, turned toVronsky. "Das laesst sich ausrechnen, Erlaucht." The German wasjust feeling in the pocket where were his pencil and thenotebook he always wrote in, but recollecting that he was at adinner, and observing Vronsky's chilly glance, he checkedhimself. "Zu compliziert, macht zu viel Klopot," he concluded.

　　"Wuenscht man Dochots, so hat man auch Klopots," said VassenkaVeslovsky, mimicking the German. "J'adore l'allemand," headdressed Anna again with the same smile.

　　"Cessez," she said with playful severity.

　　"We expected to find you in the fields, Vassily Semyonitch," shesaid to the doctor, a sickly-looking man; "have you been there?"

　　"I went there, but I had taken flight," the doctor answeredwith gloomy jocoseness.

　　"Then you've taken a good constitutional?"

　　"Splendid!"

　　"Well, and how was the old woman? I hope it's not typhus?"

　　"Typhus it is not, but it's taking a bad turn."

　　"What a pity!" said Anna, and having thus paid the dues ofcivility to her domestic circle, she turned to her own friends.

　　"It would be a hard task, though, to construct a machine fromyour description, Anna Arkadyevna," Sviazhsky said jestingly.

　　"Oh, no, why so?" said Anna with a smile that betrayed that sheknew there was something charming in her disquisitions upon themachine that had been noticed by Sviazhsky. This new trait ofgirlish coquettishness made an unpleasant impression on Dolly.

　　"But Anna Arkadyevna's knowledge of architecture is marvelous,"said Tushkevitch.

　　"To be sure, I heard Anna Arkadyevna talking yesterday aboutplinths and damp-courses," said Veslovsky. "Have I got itright?"

　　"There's nothing marvelous about it, when one sees and hears somuch of it," said Anna. "But, I dare say, you don't even knowwhat houses are made of?"

　　Darya Alexandrovna saw that Anna disliked the tone of raillerythat existed between her and Veslovsky, but fell in with itagainst her will.

　　Vronsky acted in this matter quite differently from Levin. Heobviously attached no significance to Veslovsky's chattering; onthe contrary, he encouraged his jests.

　　"Come now, tell us, Veslovsky, how are the stones held together?"

　　"By cement, of course."

　　"Bravo! And what is cement?"

　　"Oh, some sort of paste ...no, putty," said Veslovsky, raisinga general laugh.

　　The company at dinner, with the exception of the doctor, thearchitect, and the steward, who remained plunged in gloomysilence, kept up a conversation that never paused, glancing offone subject, fastening on another, and at times stinging one orthe other to the quick. Once Darya Alexandrovna felt wounded tothe quick, and got so hot that she positively flushed andwondered afterwards whether she had said anything extreme orunpleasant. Sviazhsky began talking of Levin, describing hisstrange view that machinery is simply pernicious in its effectson Russian agriculture.

　　"I have not the pleasure of knowing this M. Levin," Vronsky said,smiling, "but most likely he has never seen the machines hecondemns; or if he has seen and tried any, it must have beenafter a queer fashion, some Russian imitation, not a machine fromabroad. What sort of views can anyone have on such a subject?"

　　"Turkish views, in general," Veslovsky said, turning to Anna witha smile.

　　"I can't defend his opinions," Darya Alexandrovna said, firingup; "but I can say that he's a highly cultivated man, and if hewere here he would know very well how to answer you, though I amnot capable of doing so."

　　"I like him extremely, and we are great friends," Sviazhsky said,smiling good-naturedly. "Mais pardon, il est un petit peu toque;he maintains, for instance, that district councils andarbitration boards are all of no use, and he is unwilling to takepart in anything."

　　"It's our Russian apathy," said Vronsky, pouring water from aniced decanter into a delicate glass on a high stem; "we've nosense of the duties our privileges impose upon us, and so werefuse to recognize these duties."

　　"I know no man more strict in the performance of his duties,"said Darya Alexandrovna, irritated by Vronsky's tone ofsuperiority.

　　"For my part," pursued Vronsky, who was evidently for some reasonor other keenly affected by this conversation, "such as I am, Iam, on the contrary, extremely grateful for the honor they havedone me, thanks to Nikolay Ivanitch" (he indicated Sviazhsky),"in electing me a justice of the peace. I consider that for methe duty of being present at the session, of judging somepeasants' quarrel about a horse, is as important as anything Ican do. And I shall regard it as an honor if they elect me forthe district council. It's only in that way I can pay for theadvantages I enjoy as a landowner. Unluckily they don'tunderstand the weight that the big landowners ought to have inthe state."

　　It was strange to Darya Alexandrovna to hear how serenelyconfident he was of being right at his own table. She thoughthow Levin, who believed the opposite, was just as positive in hisopinions at his own table. But she loved Levin, and so she wason his side.

　　"So we can reckon upon you, count, for the coming elections?"said Sviazhsky. "But you must come a little beforehand, so as tobe on the spot by the eighth. If you would do me the honor tostop with me."

　　"I rather agree with your beau-frere," said Anna, "though notquite on the same ground as he," she added with a smile. "I'mafraid that we have too many of these public duties in theselatter days. Just as in old days there were so many governmentfunctionaries that one had to call in a functionary for everysingle thing, so now everyone's doing some sort of public duty.Alexey has been here now six months, and he's a member, I dobelieve, of five or six different public bodies. Du train quecela va, the whole time will be wasted on it. And I'm afraidthat with such a multiplicity of these bodies, they'll end inbeing a mere form. How many are you a member of, NikolayIvanitch?" she turned to Sviazhsky--"over twenty, I fancy."

　　Anna spoke lightly, but irritation could be discerned in hertone. Darya Alexandrovna, watching Anna and Vronsky attentively,detected it instantly. She noticed, too, that as she spokeVronsky's face had immediately taken a serious and obstinateexpression. Noticing this, and that Princess Varvara at oncemade haste to change the conversation by talking of Petersburgacquaintances, and remembering what Vronsky had without apparentconnection said in the garden of his work in the country, Dollysurmised that this question of public activity was connected withsome deep private disagreement between Anna and Vronsky.

　　The dinner, the wine, the decoration of the table were all verygood; but it was all like what Darya Alexandrovna had seen atformal dinners and balls which of late years had become quiteunfamiliar to her; it all had the same impersonal and constrainedcharacter, and so on an ordinary day and in a little circle offriends it made a disagreeable impression on her.

　　After dinner they sat on the terrace, then they proceeded to playlawn tennis. The players, divided into two parties, stood onopposite sides of a tightly drawn net with gilt poles on thecarefully leveled and rolled croquet-ground. Darya Alexandrovnamade an attempt to play, but it was a long time before she couldunderstand the game, and by the time she did understand it, shewas so tired that she sat down with Princess Varvara and simplylooked on at the players. Her partner, Tushkevitch, gave upplaying too, but the others kept the game up for a long time.Sviazhsky and Vronsky both played very well and seriously. Theykept a sharp lookout on the balls served to them, and withouthaste or getting in each other's way, they ran adroitly up tothem, waited for the rebound, and neatly and accurately returnedthem over the net. Veslovsky played worse than the others. Hewas too eager, but he kept the players lively with his highspirits. His laughter and outcries never paused. Like the othermen of the party, with the ladies' permission, he took off hiscoat, and his solid, comely figure in his white shirt-sleeves,with his red perspiring face and his impulsive movements, made apicture that imprinted itself vividly on the memory.

　　When Darya Alexandrovna lay in bed that night, as soon as sheclosed her eyes, she saw Vassenka Veslovsky flying about thecroquet ground.

　　During the game Darya Alexandrovna was not enjoying herself. Shedid not like the light tone of raillery that was kept up all thetime between Vassenka Veslovsky and Anna, and the unnaturalnessaltogether of grown-up people, all alone without children,playing at a child's game. But to avoid breaking up the partyand to get through the time somehow, after a rest she joined thegame again, and pretended to be enjoying it. All that day itseemed to her as though she were acting in a theater with actorscleverer than she, and that her bad acting was spoiling the wholeperformance. She had come with the intention of staying twodays, if all went well. But in the evening, during the game, shemade up her mind that she would go home next day. The maternalcares and worries, which she had so hated on the way, now, aftera day spent without them, struck her in quite another light, andtempted her back to them.

　　When, after evening tea and a row by night in the boat, DaryaAlexandrovna went alone to her room, took off her dress, andbegan arranging her thin hair for the night, she had a greatsense of relief.

　　It was positively disagreeable to her to think that Anna wascoming to see her immediately. She longed to be alone with herown thoughts.