Anna Karenina - Part 1 - Page 64/119

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.