‘Have you known him long?’ asked Kitty.
‘Who doesn’t know him!’
‘And I see you think he’s a bad man.’
‘Not bad, but worthless.’
‘That’s not true! And you must immediately stop thinking so!’ said Kitty. ‘I had a very low opinion of him, too, but he - he is the dearest man, and remarkably kind. He has a heart of gold.’
‘How could you know about his heart?’
‘He and I are great friends. I know him very well. Last winter, soon after you ... visited us,’ she said with a guilty and at the same time trustful smile, ‘Dolly’s children all got scarlet fever, and he came to see her once. And can you imagine,’ she said in a whisper, ‘he felt so sorry for her that he stayed and began to help her look after the children. Yes, and he lived in their house for three weeks and looked after the children like a nurse.
‘I’m telling Konstantin Dmitrich about Turovtsyn during the scarlet fever,’ she said, leaning over to her sister.
‘Yes, remarkable, charming!’ said Dolly, glancing at Turovtsyn, who sensed that he was being talked about, and smiling meekly at him. Levin glanced at him once more and was surprised that he had not understood all the charm of this man before.
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, and I’ll never think badly of people again!’ he said gaily, sincerely expressing what he then felt.
XII
In the conversation begun about the rights of women there were questions about the inequality of rights in marriage that it was ticklish to discuss in front of ladies. During dinner Pestsov had taken a fling at these questions several times, but Sergei Ivanovich and Stepan Arkadyich had carefully deflected him.
However, when they got up from the table and the ladies left, Pestsov did not follow them, but turned to Alexei Alexandrovich and began to explain the main cause of the inequality. The inequality of spouses, in his opinion, consisted in the fact that the unfaithfulness of a wife and the unfaithfulness of a husband were punished unequally by the law and public opinion.
Stepan Arkadyich hastened to Alexei Alexandrovich and offered him a cigar.
‘No, I don’t smoke,’ Alexei Alexandrovich replied calmly and, as if deliberately wishing to show that he was not afraid of the conversation, turned to Pestsov with a cold smile.
‘I suppose the grounds for such a view are in the very essence of things,’ he said and was about to go to the drawing room; but here Turovtsyn suddenly spoke unexpectedly, addressing Alexei Alexandrovich.
‘And have you heard about Pryachnikov?’ Turovtsyn said, animated by the champagne he had drunk and having long waited for a chance to break the silence that oppressed him. ‘Vasya Pryachnikov,’ he said with a kindly smile of his moist and ruddy lips, mainly addressing the chief guest, Alexei Alexandrovich. ‘I’ve just been told he fought a duel with Kvytsky in Tver and killed him.’
As one always seems to bump, as if on purpose, precisely on a sore spot, so now Stepan Arkadyich felt that, unluckily, the evening’s conversation kept hitting Alexei Alexandrovich on his sore spot. He again wanted to shield his brother-in-law, but Alexei Alexandrovich himself asked with curiosity:
‘What did Pryachnikov fight the duel over?’
‘His wife. Acted like a real man! Challenged him and killed him!’
‘Ah!’ Alexei Alexandrovich said indifferently and, raising his eyebrows, proceeded to the drawing room.
‘I’m so glad you came,’ Dolly said to him with a frightened smile, meeting him in the anteroom. ‘I must talk with you. Let’s sit down here.’
With the same indifferent expression, produced by his raised eyebrows, Alexei Alexandrovich sat down beside Darya Alexandrovna and smiled falsely.
‘The more so,’ he said, ‘as I, too, wanted to beg your pardon and bow out at once. I must leave tomorrow.’
Darya Alexandrovna was firmly convinced of Anna’s innocence, and she felt herself growing pale and her lips trembling with wrath at this cold, unfeeling man who so calmly intended to ruin her innocent friend.
‘Alexei Alexandrovich,’ she said, looking into his eyes with desperate determination. ‘I asked you about Anna and you didn’t answer me. How is she?’
‘It seems she’s well, Darya Alexandrovna,’ Alexei Alexandrovich replied without looking at her.
‘Forgive me, Alexei Alexandrovich, I have no right... but I love and respect Anna like a sister; I beg you, I entreat you to tell me what’s wrong between you? What do you accuse her of?’
Alexei Alexandrovich winced and, almost closing his eyes, bowed his head.
‘I suppose your husband has told you the reasons why I consider it necessary to change my former relations with Anna Arkadyevna,’ he said, not looking in her eyes and glancing with displeasure at Shcherbatsky who was passing through the drawing room.
‘I don’t believe it, I don’t, I can’t believe it!’ said Dolly, clasping her bony hands before her with an energetic gesture. She got up quickly and placed her hand on Alexei Alexandrovich’s sleeve. ‘We’ll be disturbed here. Please, let’s go in there.’
