Left alone, Alexei Alexandrovich bowed his head, collecting his thoughts, then looked around absentmindedly and went to the door, where he hoped to meet Countess Lydia Ivanovna.
‘And how strong and physically fit they are,’ Alexei Alexandrovich thought, looking at the powerful gentleman of the bed-chamber with his brushed-up, scented side-whiskers and at the red neck of the prince in his tight-fitting uniform, whom he had to pass by. ‘It is rightly said that all is evil in the world,’ he thought again, casting another sidelong glance at the calves of the gentleman of the bed-chamber.
Moving his feet unhurriedly, Alexei Alexandrovich, with his usual look of weariness and dignity, bowed to these gentlemen who had been talking about him and, looking through the doorway, sought Countess Lydia Ivanovna with his eyes.
‘Ah! Alexei Alexandrovich!’ said the little old man, his eyes glinting maliciously, as Karenin came abreast of them and nodded his head with a cold gesture. ‘I haven’t congratulated you yet,’ he said, pointing to his newly received sash.
‘Thank you,’ Alexei Alexandrovich replied. ‘What a
That they laughed at him he knew, but he did not expect anything except hostility from them; he was already used to it.
Catching sight of the yellow shoulders rising from the corset of Countess Lydia Ivanovna, who was coming through the door, and of her beautiful, pensive eyes summoning him, Alexei Alexandrovich smiled, revealing his unfading white teeth, and went up to her.
Lydia Ivanovna’s toilette had cost her much trouble, as had all her toilettes of late. The purpose of it was now quite the opposite of the one she had pursued thirty years ago. Then she had wanted to adorn herself with something, and the more the better. Now, on the contrary, the way she felt obliged to adorn herself was so unsuited to her years and figure that her only concern was that the contrast of the adornments with her appearance should not be too terrible. And as far as Alexei Alexandrovich was concerned, she achieved it and looked attractive to him. For him she was the one island not only of kindly disposition but of love amidst the sea of hostility and mockery that surrounded him.
Passing between the rows of mocking eyes, he was naturally drawn to her amorous eyes, as a plant is to the light.
‘Congratulations,’ she said to him, indicating the sash with her eyes.
Suppressing a smile of satisfaction, he shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes, as if to say it was no cause for rejoicing. Countess Lydia Ivanovna knew very well that it was one of his chief joys, though he would never admit it.
‘How is our angel?’ asked Countess Lydia Ivanovna, meaning Seryozha.
‘I can’t say I’m entirely pleased with him,’ Alexei Alexandrovich said, raising his eyebrows and opening his eyes. ‘And Sitnikov is not pleased with him either.’ (Sitnikov was the teacher entrusted with Seryozha’s secular education.) ‘As I told you, there is some coldness in him towards those very chief questions which ought to touch the soul of every person and every child.’ Alexei Alexandrovich began to explain his thoughts about the only question that interested him apart from the service - his son’s education.
When Alexei Alexandrovich, with the help of Lydia Ivanovna, returned anew to life and action, he felt it his duty to occupy himself with the education of the son left on his hands. Never having concerned himself with questions of education before, Alexei Alexandrovich devoted some time to the theoretical study of the subject. And, after reading several books on anthropology, pedagogy and didactics, he made himself a plan of education and, inviting the best pedagogue in Petersburg for guidance, got down to business. And this business occupied him constantly.
‘Yes, but his heart? I see his father’s heart in him, and with such a heart a child cannot be bad,’ Countess Lydia Ivanovna said rapturously.
‘Yes, perhaps ... As for me, I am fulfilling my duty. That is all I can do.’
‘You shall come to my house,’ Countess Lydia Ivanovna said after a pause, ‘we must talk about a matter that is sad for you. I’d have given anything to deliver you from certain memories, but other people do not think that way. I have received a letter from
Alexei Alexandrovich gave a start at the mention of his wife, but his face at once settled into that dead immobility which expressed his utter helplessness in the matter.
‘I was expecting that,’ he said.
Countess Lydia Ivanovna looked at him rapturously, and tears of admiration at the grandeur of his soul came to her eyes.
XXV
When Alexei Alexandrovich entered Countess Lydia Ivanovna’s small, cosy boudoir, filled with antique porcelain and hung with portraits, the hostess herself was not there. She was changing.
