‘Yes, that brings me to the point of what I’m saying,’ he said, making an effort to calm down. ‘Anna can do something, it depends on her ... A divorce is necessary even in order to petition the emperor for adoption. And that depends on Anna. Her husband agreed to a divorce - at that time your husband had it all but arranged. And even now, I know, he would not refuse. It would only take writing to him. His answer then was that if she expressed the wish, he would not refuse. Of course,’ he said gloomily, ‘this is one of those pharisaic cruelties that only such heartless men are capable of. He knows what torment any remembrance of him costs her, and, knowing her, he demands a letter from her. I understand that it torments her. But the reasons are so important that she must
‘Yes, of course,’ Darya Alexandrovna said pensively, vividly remembering her last meeting with Alexei Alexandrovich. ‘Yes, of course,’ she repeated resolutely, remembering Anna.
‘Use your influence on her, make her write to him. I don’t want to talk with her about it and almost cannot.’
‘Very well, I’ll talk with her. But how is it she doesn’t think of it herself?’ said Darya Alexandrovna, at the same time suddenly recalling for some reason Anna’s strange new habit of narrowing her eyes. And she remembered that Anna had narrowed her eyes precisely when it was a matter of the most intimate sides of life. ‘As if she narrows her eyes at her life in order not to see it all,’ thought Dolly. ‘I’ll be sure to talk with her, for my own sake and for hers,’ Darya Alexandrovna replied to his look of gratitude.
They got up and went towards the house.
XXII
Finding Dolly already at home, Anna looked attentively into her eyes, as if asking about the conversation she had had with Vronsky, but she did not ask in words.
‘I think it’s time for dinner,’ she said. ‘We haven’t seen each other at all yet. I’m counting on the evening. Now I must go and dress. You, too, I think. We all got dirty at the construction site.’
Dolly went to her room and felt like laughing. She had nothing to change into because she had already put on her best dress; but to mark her preparations for dinner in some way, she asked the maid to brush her dress, changed the cuffs and the bow, and put lace on her head.
‘This is all I could do,’ she said, smiling, to Anna, who came out to her in a third, again extremely simple, dress.
‘Yes, we’re very formal here,’ she said, as if apologizing for being dressed up. ‘Alexei is rarely so pleased with anything as he is with your visit. He’s decidedly in love with you,’ she added. ‘But aren’t you tired?’
There was no time to talk about anything before dinner. Coming into the drawing room, they found Princess Varvara and the men in their black frock coats already there. The architect was wearing a tailcoat. Vronsky introduced the doctor and the steward to his guest. She had already met the architect at the hospital.
The fat butler, his round, clean-shaven face and the starched bow of his white tie gleaming, announced that the meal was ready, and the ladies rose. Vronsky asked Sviyazhsky to give Anna Arkadyevna his arm, and went over to Dolly himself. Veslovsky got ahead of Tushkevich in offering his arm to Princess Varvara, so that Tushkevich, the steward and the doctor went in by themselves.
