There even occurred an event that was very important for them both - namely, Kitty’s meeting with Vronsky.
The old princess Marya Borisovna, Kitty’s godmother, who had always loved her, wanted to see her without fail. Kitty, who in her condition never went anywhere, did go with her father to see the venerable old woman, and there met Vronsky.
The only thing Kitty could reproach herself with in that meeting was that, when she recognized that once so familiar figure in his civilian clothes, her breath was taken away, the blood rushed to her heart, and bright colour (she could feel it) came to her face. But that lasted only a few seconds. Before her father, who purposely addressed Vronsky in a loud voice, had finished what he was saying, she was fully prepared to look at him, to talk with him, if necessary, just as she talked with Princess Marya Borisovna, and, above all, so that everything to the very last intonation and smile could have been approved of by her husband, whose invisible presence she seemed to feel above her at that moment.
She said a few words to him, even smiled calmly at his joke about the elections, which he called ‘our parliaments’. (She had to smile to show that she understood the joke.) But she immediately turned away to Princess Marya Borisovna and never once glanced at him until he got up to leave; then she looked at him, but obviously only because it was impolite not to look at a man when he was bowing to you.
She was grateful to her father for not saying anything about meeting Vronsky; but by his special tenderness after the visit, during their usual walk, she saw that he was pleased with her. She was pleased with herself. She had never expected that she would have the strength to hold down somewhere deep in her heart all memories of her former feeling for Vronsky, and not only to seem but to be quite indifferent and calm towards him.
Levin flushed much more than she did when she told him she had met Vronsky at Princess Marya Borisovna’s. It was very hard for her to tell him about it, and still harder for her to go on talking about the details of the meeting, since he did not ask but only looked frowning at her.
‘It’s too bad you weren’t there,’ she said. ‘That is, not that you weren’t in the room ... I wouldn’t have been so natural with you there ... Now I’m blushing much more, much, much more,’ she said, blushing to tears. ‘But that you couldn’t have looked through a crack.’
Her truthful eyes told Levin that she was pleased with herself, and, despite her blushing, he calmed down at once and began asking questions, which was just what she wanted. When he had learned everything, even to the detail that she could not help flushing in the first second, but after that had felt as simple and easy as with anybody at all, Levin cheered up completely and said he was very glad of it and that now he would not behave as stupidly as he had at the elections, but would try at the very first meeting with Vronsky to be as friendly as possible.
‘It’s so tormenting to think that there’s a man who is almost an enemy, whom it’s painful to meet,’ said Levin. ‘I’m very, very glad.’
II
‘So please call on the Bohls,’ Kitty said to her husband, when he came to see her at eleven o‘clock, before going out. ‘I know you’re dining at the club, papa signed you up. And what are you doing in the morning?’
‘I’m just going to visit Katavasov,’ answered Levin.
‘Why so early?’
‘He promised to introduce me to Metrov. I’d like to discuss my work with him. He’s a well-known Petersburg scholar,’ said Levin.
‘Yes, wasn’t it his article that you praised so much? Well, and then?’ said Kitty.
‘I may also go to the court on my sister’s business.’
‘And to the concert?’ she asked.
‘As if I’d go alone!’
‘No, do go. They perform these new things ... You were so interested. I wouldn’t miss it.’
‘Well, in any case I’ll call in at home before dinner,’ he said, looking at his watch.
‘Put on your frock coat, so that you can call on Countess Bohl on the way.’
‘But is it absolutely necessary?’
‘Oh, absolutely! He called on us. Well, what will it cost you? You’ll go, talk about the weather for five minutes, get up and leave.’
‘Well, you won’t believe it, but I’m so unaccustomed to these things that it makes me ashamed. How is it? A stranger comes, sits down, stays for no reason, bothers them, upsets himself, and then leaves.’
Kitty laughed.
‘You paid calls when you were a bachelor, didn’t you?’ she said.
‘I did, but I was always ashamed, and now I’m so unaccustomed to it that, by God, I’d rather go two days without dinner than pay this call. Such shame! I keep thinking they’ll be offended and say: “Why come for no reason?”’
‘No, they won’t be offended. I can answer for that,’ said Kitty, looking into his face and laughing. She took his hand. ‘Well, good-bye ... Please go.’
He was just about to kiss her hand and leave when she stopped him.
‘Kostya, you know, I only have fifty roubles left.’
