‘At last!’ she greeted him joyfully. ‘And Anna? I’m so glad! Where are you staying? I can imagine how awful our Petersburg must seem to you after your lovely trip; I can imagine your honeymoon in Rome. What about the divorce? Has that all been done?’
Vronsky noticed that Betsy’s delight diminished when she learned that there had been no divorce as yet.
‘They’ll throw stones at me, I know,’ she said, ‘but I’ll go to see Anna. Yes, I’ll certainly go. Will you be here long?’
And, indeed, she went to see Anna that same day; but her tone was now quite unlike what it used to be. She was obviously proud of her courage and wished Anna to appreciate the faithfulness of her friendship. She stayed less than ten minutes, talking about society news, and as she was leaving said:
‘You haven’t told me when the divorce will be. Granted I’ve thrown my bonnet over the mills, but other starched collars will blow cold on you until you get married. And it’s so simple now.
From Betsy’s tone Vronsky could understand what he was to expect from society; but he made another attempt with his family. He had no hopes for his mother. He knew that she, who had so admired Anna when they first became acquainted, was now implacable towards her for having brought about the ruin of her son’s career. But he placed great hopes in Varya, his brother’s wife. He thought that she would not throw stones and would simply and resolutely go to see Anna and receive her.
The day after his arrival Vronsky went to her and, finding her alone, voiced his wish directly.
‘You know, Alexei,’ she said, after hearing him out, ‘how much I love you and how ready I am to do anything for you. But I have kept silent because I know I cannot be useful to you and Anna Arkadyevna,’ she said, articulating ‘Anna Arkadyevna’ with special care. ‘Please don’t think that I condemn her. Never. It may be that in her place I would have done the same thing. I do not and cannot go into the details,’ she said, glancing timidly at his sullen face. ‘But one must call things by their names. You want me to see her, to receive her, and in that way to rehabilitate her in society, but you must understand that I
‘I don’t consider that she has fallen any more than hundreds of other women whom you do receive!’ Vronsky interrupted her still more sullenly, and silently got up, realizing that his sister-in-law’s decision was not going to change.
‘Alexei! Don’t be angry with me. Please understand that it’s not my fault,’ said Varya, looking at him with a timid smile.
‘I’m not angry with you,’ he said just as sullenly, ‘but it doubles my pain. What also pains me is that it breaks up our friendship. Or let’s say it doesn’t break it up, but weakens it. You realize that for me, too, it cannot be otherwise.’
And with that he left her.
Vronsky understood that further attempts were futile and that they would have to spend those few days in Petersburg as in a foreign city, avoiding all contacts with their former society so as not to be subjected to insults and unpleasantnesses, which were so painful for him. One of the most unpleasant things about the situation in Petersburg was that Alexei Alexandrovich and his name seemed to be everywhere. It was impossible to begin talking about anything without the conversation turning to Alexei Alexandrovich; it was impossible to go anywhere without meeting him. At least it seemed so to Vronsky, as it seems to a man with a sore finger that he keeps knocking into everything, as if on purpose, with that finger.
The stay in Petersburg seemed the more difficult to Vronsky because all that time he saw some new, incomprehensible mood in Anna. At one moment she appeared to be in love with him, at another she became cold, irritable and impenetrable. She was suffering over something and concealing something from him, and seemed not to notice those insults that poisoned his life and that for her, with her subtle perceptiveness, ought to have been still more painful.
XXIX
For Anna one of the objects of the trip to Russia was to see her son. Since the day she left Italy, the thought of seeing him had not ceased to excite her. And the closer she came to Petersburg, the greater became the joy and significance of this meeting for her. She never asked herself the question of how to arrange it. To her it seemed natural and simple to see her son when she was in the same town with him; but on arriving in Petersburg, she suddenly saw her present position in society clearly and realized that it would be difficult to arrange the meeting.
